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English: This is a PDF version of the Introduction to Sociology Wikibook This file was created with MediaWiki to LaTeX . The LaTeX source code is attached to the PDF file (see imprint).
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the discipline of sociology: . Sociology – the study of society [1] using various methods of empirical investigation [2] and critical analysis [3] to understand human social activity, from the micro level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and social structure.
In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. [1] It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. [1]
Social research is based on logic and empirical observations. Charles C. Ragin writes in his Constructing Social Research book that "Social research involved the interaction between ideas and evidence. Ideas help social researchers make sense of evidence, and researchers use evidence to extend, revise and test ideas."
Durkheim distinguishes sociology from other sciences and justifies his rationale. [1] Sociology is the science of social facts. Durkheim suggests two central theses, without which sociology would not be a science: It must have a specific object of study. Unlike philosophy or psychology, sociology's proper object of study are social facts.
A sociological theory is a supposition that intends to consider, analyze, and/or explain objects of social reality from a sociological perspective, [1]: 14 drawing connections between individual concepts in order to organize and substantiate sociological knowledge.
Macrosociology is a large-scale approach to sociology, emphasizing the analysis of social systems and populations at the structural level, often at a necessarily high level of theoretical abstraction.