Editing Social science (section)

===Sociology===
{{Main|Sociology|Outline of sociology}}{{More citations needed section|date=December 2023}}[[File:Emile Durkheim.jpg|thumb|right|[[Émile Durkheim]] is considered one of the founding fathers of sociology.]]
Sociology is the systematic study of society, individuals' relationship to their societies, the consequences of difference, and other aspects of human [[social action]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=SOC 218|last=Witt|first=Jon|publisher=McGraw-Hill|year=2018|isbn=978-1-259-70272-3|page=2}}</ref> The meaning of the word comes from the suffix ''-logy'', which means "study of", derived from Ancient Greek, and the stem ''soci-'', which is from the Latin word {{lang|la|socius}}, meaning "companion", or society in general.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford English dictionary. 15: Ser - soosy |date=1991 |publisher=Clarendon Pr |isbn=978-0-19-861227-8 |edition=2. ed., reprint. (with corr.) |location=Oxford |pages=914–916}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford English dictionary. 8: Interval - looie |date=1991 |publisher=Clarendon Pr |isbn=978-0-19-861220-9 |edition=2. ed., reprint. (with corr.) |location=Oxford |pages=1114}}</ref>

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) coined the term ''sociology'' to describe a way to apply natural science principles and techniques to the social world in 1838.<ref>''A Dictionary of Sociology'', Article: Comte, Auguste</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=SOC 2018|last=Witt|first=Jon|publisher=McGraw-Hill|year=2018|isbn=978-1-259-70272-3}}</ref> Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through the descriptive understanding of the social realm. He proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, an epistemological approach outlined in ''The Course in Positive Philosophy'' [1830–1842] and ''[[A General View of Positivism]]'' (1844). Though Comte is generally regarded as the "Father of Sociology", the discipline was formally established by another French thinker, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who developed positivism as a foundation to practical social research. Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the [[University of Bordeaux]] in 1895, publishing his ''[[Rules of the Sociological Method]]''. In 1896, he established the journal {{lang|fr|[[L'Année sociologique]]}}. Durkheim's seminal monograph, ''[[Suicide (Durkheim book)|Suicide]]'' (1897), a case study of suicide rates among [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and [[Protestant]] populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy.<ref>Gianfranco Poggi (2000). ''Durkheim.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 1.</ref>

[[Karl Marx]] rejected Comte's positivism but nevertheless aimed to establish a ''science of society'' based on [[historical materialism]], becoming recognized as a founding figure of sociology posthumously as the term gained broader meaning. Around the start of the 20th century, the first wave of German sociologists, including Max Weber and [[Georg Simmel]], developed sociological antipositivism. The field may be broadly recognized as an amalgam of three modes of social thought in particular: Durkheimian positivism and [[structural functionalism]]; Marxist historical materialism and [[conflict theory]]; and Weberian antipositivism and verstehen analysis. American sociology broadly arose on a separate trajectory, with little Marxist influence, an emphasis on rigorous experimental methodology, and a closer association with [[pragmatism]] and [[social psychology]]. In the 1920s, the [[Chicago school (sociology)|Chicago school]] developed [[symbolic interactionism]]. Meanwhile, in the 1930s, the [[Frankfurt School]] pioneered the idea of [[critical theory]], an interdisciplinary form of [[Marxist sociology]] drawing upon thinkers as diverse as [[Sigmund Freud]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]. Critical theory would take on something of a life of its own after World War II, influencing [[literary criticism]] and the [[Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies|Birmingham School]] establishment of [[cultural studies]].{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

Sociology evolved as an academic response to the challenges of [[modernity]], such as [[industrialization]], [[urbanization]], [[secularization]], and a perceived process of enveloping [[Rationalization (sociology)|rationalization]].<ref>Habermas, Jürgen, ''[[The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity]]: Modernity's Consciousness of Time'', Polity Press (1990), paperback, {{ISBN|978-0-7456-0830-3}}, p. 2.</ref> The field generally concerns the [[social rule]]s and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of [[Voluntary association|associations]], [[Group (sociology)|groups]], [[Community|communities]] and [[social institution|institutions]], and includes the examination of the organization and development of human social life. The sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short [[Social relation|contacts]] between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of [[globalization|global social processes]]. In the terms of sociologists [[Peter L. Berger]] and [[Thomas Luckmann]], social scientists seek an understanding of the ''[[Social Construction of Reality]]''. Most sociologists work in one or more [[Subfields of sociology|subfields]]. One useful way to describe the discipline is as a cluster of sub-fields that examine different dimensions of society. For example, [[social stratification]] studies inequality and class structure; demography studies changes in population size or type; criminology examines criminal behaviour and deviance; and [[political sociology]] studies the interaction between society and state.<ref>{{Citation |last=Sakamoto |first=Arthur |title=Demography of Social Stratification |date=2005 |work=Handbook of Population |pages=383–416 |editor-last=Poston |editor-first=Dudley L. |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/0-387-23106-4_14 |access-date=2025-04-09 |place=Boston, MA |publisher=Springer US |language=en |doi=10.1007/0-387-23106-4_14? |isbn=978-0-387-23106-8 |last2=Powers |first2=Daniel A. |editor2-last=Micklin |editor2-first=Michael}}</ref>

Since its inception, sociological epistemologies, methods, and frames of enquiry, have significantly expanded and diverged.<ref name="Giddens Intro"/> Sociologists use a diversity of research methods, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, draw upon empirical techniques, and engage critical theory.<ref name=":0" /> Common modern methods include case studies, [[historiography|historical research]], interviewing, [[participant observation]], [[social network analysis]], survey research, statistical analysis, and model building, among other approaches. Since the late 1970s, many sociologists have tried to make the discipline useful for purposes beyond the academy. The results of sociological research aid educators, lawmakers, administrators, developers, and others interested in resolving social problems and formulating public policy, through subdisciplinary areas such as [[evaluation research]], methodological assessment, and [[public sociology]].{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

In the early 1970s, women sociologists began to question sociological paradigms and the invisibility of women in sociological studies, analysis, and courses.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Paradoxes of Gender|last=Lorber|first=Judith|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-300-06497-1|location=New Haven, CT}}</ref> In 1969, feminist sociologists challenged the discipline's [[androcentrism]] at the American Sociological Association's annual conference.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://socwomen.org/sws-activism/|title=The Founding of SWS|last1=Laube|first1=Heather|last2=Hess|first2=Bess B.|date=2001|website=Sociologists for Women in Society|access-date=February 5, 2018}}</ref> This led to the founding of the organization Sociologists for Women in Society, and, eventually, a new sociology journal, [[Gender & Society]]. Today, the [[sociology of gender]] is considered to be one of the most prominent sub-fields in the discipline.<ref>{{Cite web |title=All About the Sociology of Gender |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/sociology-of-gender-3026282 |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref>

New sociological sub-fields continue to appear&nbsp;— such as [[community studies]], [[computational sociology]], [[environmental sociology]], network analysis, [[actor-network theory]], gender studies, and a growing list, many of which are [[List of academic disciplines|cross-disciplinary]] in nature.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j0K5DwAAQBAJ|title=The Vietnamese Social Sciences at a Fork in the Road|last=Vuong|first=Quan-Hoang|date=2019|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-068608-1|language=en}}</ref>