One of the first problems sociology students encounter is that sociology appears to be about almost everything.

Families? Sociology.

Education? Sociology.

Crime? Sociology.

Social media, poverty, gender, ethnicity, religion, politics, work, youth culture, inequality and relationships?

All sociology.

So what actually makes sociology a separate academic discipline?

The answer lies less in what sociologists study and more in how they look at the world.

Sociology asks us to look beyond individual behaviour and investigate the social forces, institutions, cultures, inequalities and relationships that shape people’s lives.

It asks us to question things that might otherwise appear natural or obvious.

Why do some groups have more opportunities than others?

Why do patterns of inequality persist?

Why do people behave differently in different social situations?

Why do institutions such as the family, education system, economy and media have such an influence over our lives?

And perhaps most importantly:

How can we find reliable evidence about the way society actually works?

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Sociology begins with a simple question: why?

Imagine two students receive completely different A-level results.

We could explain this through individual factors.

Perhaps:

• one worked harder;
• one was more motivated;
• one had greater academic ability;
• one revised more effectively.

These explanations might be correct.

But the sociologist asks some additional questions.

Did they attend similar schools?

Did their families have similar incomes?

Did they have equal access to books, laptops, tutoring and study space?

Were teachers’ expectations of them the same?

Did they grow up in neighbourhoods offering similar opportunities?

Did social class, gender or ethnicity affect their experiences of education?

Sociology does not claim that individuals have no choices.

Instead, sociologists are interested in the relationship between individual choices and the social circumstances in which those choices are made.

That distinction is at the heart of sociology.

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Where did sociology come from?

People have thought about society for thousands of years.

However, sociology developed as a distinctive academic discipline during the enormous social changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Europe was being transformed.

The Industrial Revolution created factories and new forms of employment.

Cities expanded rapidly.

Capitalism developed.

Traditional communities were disrupted.

New social classes emerged.

Political revolutions challenged established authorities.

Scientific discoveries encouraged people to question traditional explanations of the world.

Thinkers increasingly began to ask whether society itself could be studied systematically.

This is the environment in which sociology began to develop.

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Saint-Simon: could there be a science of society?

An important early figure was Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825).

Saint-Simon was fascinated by the new industrial society developing around him.

He believed that society was changing so dramatically that traditional explanations were no longer enough.

Instead, society needed to be studied systematically.

For Saint-Simon, knowledge about society could potentially help people understand social organisation and improve the way society operated.

This was an important step towards sociology.

Rather than simply asking philosophical questions about how society ought to work, thinkers increasingly began asking how society actually worked.

One of the people strongly influenced by Saint-Simon was his former secretary and collaborator:

Auguste Comte.

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Auguste Comte: creating a science of society

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) is usually associated with establishing the term sociology.

Comte believed that society could be investigated scientifically in much the same way that scientists investigated the natural world.

This approach became known as positivism.

Instead of relying upon tradition, speculation or religious explanations, sociologists should:

• collect evidence;
• identify patterns;
• compare groups;
• search for causes;
• develop explanations.

Comte was effectively asking:

If science can discover patterns in the natural world, why couldn’t we discover patterns in society?

This remains one of sociology’s most important debates.

Can sociology become an objective science of society?

Or are human beings too complicated to be studied in the same way as chemicals, planets or cells?

Later sociologists would disagree strongly about the answer.

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Karl Marx: inequality, capitalism and power

Another thinker responding to the transformations created by industrial society was Karl Marx (1818–1883).

Marx did not describe himself as a sociologist in the modern sense, but his work had an enormous influence on the development of sociology.

Like Comte, Marx wanted to understand the new society being created by industrialisation.

But his focus was very different.

Marx was particularly interested in:

inequality, social class, capitalism, conflict and power.

For Marx, understanding society meant examining the way economic resources were organised.

Under capitalism, he argued that society increasingly contained two major classes.

The bourgeoisie

The bourgeoisie owned businesses, factories and other productive resources.

The proletariat

The proletariat did not own these resources and therefore had to sell their labour in return for wages.

For Marx, this meant inequality was not simply the result of some individuals working harder or earning more than others.

Inequality was connected to the structure of capitalism itself.

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Marx asks: who benefits?

Marx introduced a question that remains central to sociology:

Who benefits from the way society is organised?

Imagine a company earns hundreds of millions of pounds in profit while many of its employees remain on relatively low wages.

An individual explanation might ask why particular workers earn so little.

Marx would encourage us to ask different questions.

Who owns the company?

Who controls its resources?

Who receives the profits?

Who makes decisions?

Who has the greatest economic power?

These questions move us away from simply studying individuals and towards examining social structures and unequal relationships.

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Conflict rather than agreement

Marx also argued that different groups within society may have conflicting interests.

Workers might want:

• higher wages;
• shorter working hours;
• greater job security;
• improved working conditions.

Business owners might want:

• lower costs;
• increased productivity;
• greater profits.

These interests do not always fit neatly together.

Marx therefore helped establish what sociologists now call a conflict approach.

Instead of simply asking:

What holds society together?

Marx asks:

Where is power located?

Which groups benefit most?

Why do inequalities persist?

These remain fundamental sociological questions.

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Émile Durkheim: proving that society matters

While Marx concentrated heavily on conflict and inequality, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) focused more strongly on the forces holding societies together.

Durkheim played a particularly important role in establishing sociology as a recognised academic discipline.

He argued that societies contain what he called social facts.

These are patterns, norms, institutions and ways of behaving that exist beyond any particular individual.

Think about something as ordinary as going to school.

You did not personally invent:

• examinations;
• qualifications;
• school uniforms;
• timetables;
• the distinction between teachers and students;
• expectations about classroom behaviour.

These social arrangements existed before you arrived.

And they influence your behaviour.

Durkheim argued that these social structures therefore have a reality of their own and should be studied sociologically.

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Durkheim and Suicide

Durkheim’s famous study Suicide (1897) demonstrated this approach particularly clearly.

Suicide might initially appear to be one of the most individual and personal acts imaginable.

Yet Durkheim examined statistical patterns and asked whether suicide rates varied between different social groups.

His wider argument was extremely important.

Even apparently individual behaviour can have social causes.

For Durkheim, sociology could uncover these patterns.

His work therefore strengthened the argument that sociology had its own distinctive subject matter:

society itself.

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Four early visions of sociology

Already we can see that sociology did not develop around one agreed purpose.

Its early thinkers were asking rather different questions.

Saint-Simon:
Can we systematically understand industrial society?

Comte:
Can we create a science of society?

Marx:
Can we expose inequality, conflict and power?

Durkheim:
Can we identify the social forces that influence behaviour and hold societies together?

These questions still shape sociology today.

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So what is sociology actually for?

There isn’t one answer.

Different sociologists have very different ideas about what sociology should achieve.

Some see sociology primarily as a science.

Some want to understand the meanings people attach to their behaviour.

Some use sociology to uncover inequality and power.

Some want sociology to challenge injustice.

Others believe sociology should help us understand society without necessarily trying to change it.

This disagreement is not a weakness.

It is one of the most interesting features of the discipline.

Sociology is an ongoing debate about how society works and how we can know.

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C. Wright Mills: connecting your life to society

One of the clearest explanations of sociological thinking comes from the American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916–1962).

In The Sociological Imagination (1959), Mills argued that sociology should help us understand the relationship between:

biography and history.

In other words:

our personal experiences need to be understood within the wider society in which we live.

Mills distinguished between personal troubles and public issues.

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Personal troubles

These are difficulties experienced within an individual’s immediate life.

Suppose one person cannot find employment.

We might ask:

Do they have the right qualifications?

Have they applied for enough jobs?

Do they have relevant experience?

These are questions about the individual.

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Public issues

Now imagine millions of people suddenly become unemployed during an economic recession.

It would make little sense to explain every person’s unemployment as an individual failure.

Something larger is happening.

We need to investigate:

• the economy;
• government policy;
• technological change;
• globalisation;
• the labour market;
• regional inequalities.

The problem has moved beyond the individual.

It has become a public issue.

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The sociological imagination

Mills called this ability to connect personal experiences with wider social structures the:

sociological imagination.

It is one of the most useful ideas for anyone beginning sociology.

Consider:

Educational failure

Is it simply caused by a lack of effort?

Or might social class, school funding, teacher expectations and family resources matter?

Obesity

Is it simply about individual food choices?

Or might poverty, advertising, working hours and access to healthy food matter?

Crime

Is criminal behaviour simply produced by bad individuals?

Or should we consider deprivation, policing, inequality, neighbourhoods and opportunities?

The sociological imagination encourages us to look beyond the obvious explanation.

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Pierre Bourdieu: making invisible inequality visible

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) developed another powerful way of thinking sociologically.

Bourdieu was interested in an important puzzle.

Modern societies often claim to offer equality of opportunity.

So why do advantages and disadvantages continue to be passed from one generation to another?

Part of Bourdieu’s answer involved different forms of capital.

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Cultural capital

Money matters.

But Bourdieu argued that people possess other resources too.

One particularly important example is cultural capital.

Cultural capital can include:

• knowledge;
• language;
• qualifications;
• cultural experiences;
• ways of speaking;
• familiarity with institutions.

Imagine two equally intelligent students arrive at university.

One has parents who attended university.

They understand how lectures, seminars and office hours work.

They feel comfortable speaking to academics.

They know what postgraduate study involves.

The other student has never encountered university life before.

Formally, both students may have the same opportunity.

But they do not necessarily possess the same resources.

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Habitus

Bourdieu also developed the concept of habitus.

Habitus describes the deeply learned ways in which people understand the world and their place within it.

Our experiences can influence what feels:

• normal;
• realistic;
• achievable;
• appropriate;
• “for people like us”.

This helps sociologists investigate why inequalities can reproduce themselves even when nobody appears to be deliberately creating them.

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Sociology makes the familiar strange

Another important purpose of sociology is to question things that appear completely normal.

Sociologists sometimes describe this as:

making the familiar strange.

Consider some everyday questions.

Why does childhood exist as a distinct stage of life?

Why do societies define some substances as illegal drugs while allowing others?

Why are particular occupations dominated by men or women?

Why do people from different social classes experience different levels of health?

Why have definitions of family changed?

Why do people behave differently in a classroom, football stadium and nightclub?

Most people experience these things without thinking very much about them.

The sociologist asks:

Why?

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And who benefits?

Marx and later conflict sociologists add another question:

Who benefits from the way things are organised?

Why are some forms of knowledge considered more valuable than others?

Who decides which behaviour counts as criminal?

Whose accents are regarded as authoritative?

Who owns the media?

Who controls workplaces?

Who has access to wealth?

Whose interests are represented by powerful institutions?

Questions about power run throughout sociology.

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How is sociology different from other social sciences?

Sociology overlaps considerably with other social sciences.

The boundaries are not absolute.

But the disciplines tend to emphasise different questions.

Psychology

Psychology often concentrates more heavily on the individual.

Psychologists might examine:

• personality;
• cognition;
• memory;
• development;
• individual behaviour.

Sociologists are more likely to ask how behaviour is connected to groups, institutions and social structures.

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Economics

Economics focuses particularly on:

• markets;
• production;
• consumption;
• resources;
• employment;
• economic decision-making.

Sociologists may investigate these same areas but are particularly interested in their connections with social class, culture, inequality and power.

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Politics

Politics focuses especially on:

• governments;
• elections;
• political parties;
• states;
• political institutions;
• political ideologies.

Sociologists may study these too, but might ask how political behaviour varies according to class, gender, ethnicity, age or other social divisions.

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Anthropology

Anthropology has traditionally placed particular emphasis on:

• culture;
• communities;
• ethnographic research;
• comparison between different societies.

There is considerable overlap between anthropology and sociology, particularly in qualitative research.

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Sociology focuses on relationships

What makes sociology distinctive is its particular interest in the relationship between:

individuals and society.

Sociologists study:

• social relationships;
• institutions;
• cultures;
• social structures;
• identities;
• inequalities;
• social change;
• power.

Most importantly, they search for patterns.

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Sociology isn’t just opinion

This is probably one of the most important things to understand when beginning sociology.

Sociology is not simply:

having opinions about society.

Everyone has opinions.

A sociologist needs evidence.

Imagine somebody says:

“Young people don’t want to work anymore.”

A sociologist should not simply reply:

“I disagree.”

Instead, we need questions.

What evidence supports the claim?

What are youth employment rates?

Have they changed?

What kinds of jobs are available?

What are wages like?

How expensive is housing?

Are young people spending longer in education?

Does the pattern vary according to gender, class or region?

Sociology turns opinions into research questions.

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How do sociologists research society?

Sociologists use many different research methods.

Different methods allow researchers to answer different kinds of questions.

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Questionnaires and surveys

Questionnaires can collect information from large numbers of people.

They are particularly useful for identifying patterns and trends.

A national survey might investigate whether attitudes towards marriage differ according to:

• age;
• gender;
• religion;
• social class.

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Interviews

Interviews allow sociologists to explore people’s experiences in greater detail.

Researchers might interview unemployed workers to understand:

• how unemployment affects identity;
• financial pressures;
• family relationships;
• attitudes towards work.

Interviews can reveal meanings that statistics alone cannot provide.

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Participant observation

Sometimes sociologists spend time observing or participating within the groups they are studying.

This is known as participant observation.

It can be particularly useful for understanding:

• youth cultures;
• workplaces;
• schools;
• religious groups;
• communities.

Researchers can see how people actually behave in everyday situations.

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Official statistics

Governments and other organisations produce large quantities of statistical data.

Sociologists use statistics about:

• crime;
• education;
• employment;
• health;
• births;
• deaths;
• poverty.

These can reveal large-scale patterns within society.

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Documents and media

Sociologists can also investigate:

• newspapers;
• television programmes;
• social media;
• advertisements;
• diaries;
• political speeches;
• historical documents.

These sources can reveal how groups and social issues are represented.

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Experiments

Some sociologists use experiments or field experiments.

For example, researchers investigating discrimination might send similar job applications using different names to see whether applicants receive different responses.

This allows researchers to investigate possible causal relationships.

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Longitudinal research

Longitudinal studies follow people over long periods.

This can help sociologists understand how people’s:

• education;
• employment;
• health;
• families;
• social mobility

change throughout their lives.

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Different methods reveal different things

There is no single perfect sociological method.

Imagine sociologists want to investigate educational inequality.

A large survey might show:

where the pattern exists.

Interviews might help explain:

how students experience it.

Observation might show:

how inequalities operate inside classrooms.

Official statistics might reveal:

whether the pattern changes over time.

Different methods therefore provide different kinds of sociological evidence.

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Can sociology ever be completely objective?

This brings us back to Comte.

Comte believed sociology could develop into an objective science.

Later positivist sociologists continued this tradition.

They often emphasised:

• measurement;
• statistics;
• patterns;
• reliability;
• objectivity.

But other sociologists questioned whether studying humans could ever be exactly like studying the natural world.

People have:

• meanings;
• emotions;
• interpretations;
• identities;
• intentions.

Researchers themselves also make decisions.

Which questions should they investigate?

Which concepts should they use?

How should poverty be defined?

What counts as a family?

What counts as crime?

Sociological research therefore raises important questions about:

validity, reliability, representativeness, objectivity, values and ethics.

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Sociology can challenge power

There is also a long tradition arguing that sociology should do more than simply describe society.

Marx is an obvious starting point.

His sociology directs attention towards:

• ownership;
• economic power;
• social class;
• exploitation;
• inequality.

But later sociologists widened these questions.

Feminist sociologists examined patriarchy and gender inequality.

W.E.B. Du Bois investigated racism and the experience of African Americans.

Pierre Bourdieu examined the ways culture and resources can reproduce inequality.

Other sociologists have investigated:

• colonialism;
• disability;
• sexuality;
• age;
• ethnicity;
• poverty.

Sociology can therefore make inequalities visible that might otherwise appear normal.

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Does sociology simply tell us what is wrong with society?

No.

Sociologists do not all agree that society is fundamentally unequal or oppressive.

Different perspectives produce very different explanations.

Functionalists might emphasise social order and shared values.

Marxists emphasise class inequality and capitalism.

Feminists investigate gender and patriarchy.

Weberians examine class, status and power.

Interactionists concentrate on everyday interactions and meanings.

Postmodernists question whether one theory can explain increasingly diverse societies.

New Right theorists often place greater emphasis on individual responsibility, families and limited state intervention.

These perspectives may look at exactly the same evidence and interpret it differently.

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Sociology is an argument with evidence

This is perhaps the best way to think about sociology.

Sociology is not a collection of facts that previous sociologists have already discovered.

It is an ongoing argument about how society works.

The important part is the second half:

with evidence.

A sociological argument needs more than a strong opinion.

It needs:

• concepts;
• theories;
• research;
• evidence;
• comparison;
• evaluation.

Good sociology asks us to consider competing explanations.

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From Comte to Bourdieu: different purposes of sociology

We can now see some very different answers to the question:

What is sociology for?

Saint-Simon

Understand the new industrial society.

Society can be studied systematically.

Auguste Comte

Develop a science of society.

Find patterns through systematic evidence.

Karl Marx

Expose inequality and power.

Investigate capitalism, class and conflict.

Émile Durkheim

Discover social forces.

Examine how social facts shape individual behaviour and maintain society.

C. Wright Mills

Connect individual lives to wider society.

Use the sociological imagination to connect personal troubles with public issues.

Pierre Bourdieu

Reveal hidden inequalities.

Investigate how capital, culture and habitus reproduce advantages and disadvantages.

None provides the final answer.

Together, however, they demonstrate what makes sociology such a powerful discipline.

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Think like a sociologist

As you begin studying sociology, try developing one simple habit.

Whenever something appears obvious, ask:

Why?

Why are educational outcomes related to social class?

Why are some occupations dominated by particular groups?

Why do definitions of crime change?

Why do some people have more economic and political power?

Why do inequalities continue even when societies claim to support equality?

Why do people conform to social expectations?

Then ask another question:

What evidence would I need to find out?

And perhaps add a third:

Who benefits?

Those three questions capture much of what sociology is about.

Why?

Look beneath the obvious explanation.

What evidence?

Test explanations rather than relying on opinion.

Who benefits?

Consider inequality, interests and power.

Do that consistently and you have already begun to develop one of sociology’s most important skills:

learning to see society sociologically.

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Check Your Knowledge Activity

Activity structure

Students complete three stages:

1. Who said what? — match sociologists to their key ideas.
2. Think sociologically — apply Mills, Durkheim, Bourdieu, Marx and Comte to short scenarios.
3. Research society — select an appropriate research method for different sociological questions.

At the end, students receive a score and a short performance message.

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