SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY [SHORT NOTES/KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER]

Sociology UPSC Mains Syllabus

Paper 1 – Chapter 1 – Sociology – The Discipline

Topic – Scope of the subject and comparison with other social sciences.

SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY

• It is the systematic study of society.
• It studies human society as an interconnected whole.
• It looks into how individuals and society interact with each other.
• Sociology seeks to explore how societies emerge, persist and then change. Its scope includes study of social groups, social institutions and social processes.
• Scope of Sociology is more in the direction of an analysis of social problems and not in normative suggestion of solutions for these social problems.

• Early sociologists had two prime concerns . a) A scientific analysis of society. b)To lay the principles of social evolution.
• Radcliffe Brown observed that the subject-matter lies in the structures or patterns of social interactions which can be studied by field work.
• Marx opined that scope of Sociology is to study the dynamic of forces and relations of production.
• Weber on the other hand defines scope of sociology in terms of study of social action whereas  Parsons define scope of sociology as a study of action systems.
• Merton combined psychological and structural aspects of society. 

• Formal school considered scope as limited.
• It emphasizes more on understanding rather than predicting.
• It and only attending the protective understanding of the society.

• It aimed at studying society in totality.
• The synthetic school of thought holds the view that sociology is a synthesis of all social sciences.
• Sociology is the science of science.
• It embraces all social sciences within its scope.

• Added to the scope by bringing in conflict perspective.
• Influenced by the thought of Karl Marx, Marxist sociology emerged around the turn of the 20th century.
• Later neo-marxist developed the Critical School.

• It emerged in the 1960s.
• It was a radical alternative and offered distinctive gender-based explanations.
• It emphasized centrality of gender in social change. 

• Main proponents were Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault.
• Foucault analysed the emergence of modern institutions like prisons, hospitals and schools as a sign of increasing surveillance and discipline in society. 
• Post-modernists have further enhanced the scope of Sociology and new issues like health, ageing, demographic issues, cybernetics and informational technology are also coming under sociology.