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one
Theory and
Methods

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Why study sociology? 6 Is sociology a science? 14

Understanding our world 6 What is a science? 14
Understanding our place in the world 6 Is sociology a natural science? 15
Understanding ourselves 7 Is sociology a science at all? 16
Freeing ourselves 7 Summary points 16
Applying sociology 8
Key concepts 17
Careers in sociology 9
Further reading 17
What is society? 10
Web links 17
A complex of institutions 10
Levels of society 11
Inequality and domination 12
Structure and culture 13

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What is sociology?
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4 1: What is sociology?
We introduce you to sociology in this chapter. We begin by explaining why we think that
you should study sociology, and by telling you what you can get out of it and what you can
use it for. We go on to tackle two fundamental questions. Sociologists study society but
what do we mean by this term? How do sociologists study society—is sociology a science?
Four sociologists reflect on their subject
Zygmunt Bauman
One could say that the main service the art of thinking
sociologically may render to each and every one of us is
to make us more sensitive; it may sharpen up our senses,
open our eyes wider so that we can explore human con-
ditions which thus far had remained all but invisible.
Once we understand better how the apparently natural,
inevitable, immutable, eternal aspects of our lives have
been brought into being through the exercise of human
power and human resources, we will find it hard to ac-
cept once more that they are immune and impenetrable
to human action—our own action included. Sociological
thinking is, one might say, a power in its own right,
an anti-fixating power. It renders flexible again the
world hitherto oppressive in its apparent fixity; it shows
it as a world which could be different from what it
is now. It can be argued that the art of sociological
thinking tends to widen the scope, the daring and the
practical effectiveness of your and my freedom. Once
the art has been learned and mastered, the individual
may well become just a bit less manipulable, more
resilient to oppression and regulation from outside,
more likely to resist being fixed by forces that claim to
be irresistible.
Source: Bauman, Z. (1990) Thinking Sociologically (Oxford: Basil
Blackwell), p. 16.
Zygmunt Bauman (19XX–) has been Professor of
Sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw.
Among his many reflections on sociological theory and
contemporary society are Modernity and the Holocaust
(Cambridge: Polity), 1989; Globalization: The Human
Consequences (Cambridge: Polity), 1998; Liquid
Modernity (Cambridge: Polity), 2000. A second edition
of Thinking Sociologically (written with Tim May) was
published in 2001.
Steve Bruce
To summarize, whatever reservations we may have
about how closely actual scientists conform to the high
standards set in their programmatic statements about
what they and why it works, we need not doubt that the
natural sciences offer the best available template for
acquiring knowledge about the material world. Critical
reasoning, honest and diligent accumulation of evid-
ence, subjecting ideas to test for internal consistency
and for fit with the best available evidence, seeking evid-
ence that refutes rather than supports an argument,
engaging in open exchanges of ideas and data uncon-
strained by ideological commitments: all of those can
be profitably adopted by the social sciences. However,
we need to appreciate the differences between the
subject matter of the natural and the human sciences.
People think. They act as they do, not because they are
bound to follow unvarying rules but because they have
beliefs, values, interests, and intentions. That simple
fact means that, while some forms of sociological re-
search look rather like the work of chemists or physicists,
for the sociologist there is always a further step to take.
Our notion of explanation does not stop at identifying
regular patterns in social action. It requires that we
understand.
Source: Bruce, S. (1999), Sociology: A Very Short Introduction
(Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp . 18–19.
Steve Bruce (19XX–) has been Professor of Sociology
at the University of Aberdeen since 1991. He is the
author of The Edge of the Union: The Ulster Loyalist
Political Vision (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1994;
Religion in Modern Britain (Oxford: Oxford University
Press), 1995; Choice and Religion: a Critique of Rational
Choice Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press); and
many other publications in the sociology of religion.
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What is sociology? 5

Four sociologists reflect on their subject

C. Wright Mills
The sociological imagination enables its possessor to
understand the larger historical scene in terms of its
meaning for the inner life and the external career of a
variety of individuals. . . . The sociological imagination
enables us to grasp history and biography and the
relations between the two within society. That is its task
and its promise. . . . those who have been imaginatively
aware of the promise of their work have consistently
asked three sorts of questions:
1 What is the structure of this particular society as a
whole? What are its essential components, and how
are they related to one another? How does it differ
from other varieties of social order? Within it, what is
the meaning of any particular feature for its continu-
ance and for its change?
2 Where does this society stand in human history? What
are the mechanics by which it is changing? What is its
place within and its meaning for the development of
humanity as a whole? How does any particular fea-
ture we are examining affect, and how is it affected
by, the historical period in which it moves? . . .
3 What varieties of men and women now prevail in this
society and in this period? And what varieties are
coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and
formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and
blunted?
Source: Mills, C. W. (1959), The Sociological Imagination (New
York: Oxford University Press), pp. 5–7.
Peter Berger
A more adequate representation of social reality now
would be the puppet theatre, with the curtain rising on
the little puppets jumping about on the ends of their
invisible strings, cheerfully acting out the little parts that
have been assigned to them in the tragi-comedy to be
enacted. . . . We see the puppets dancing on their minia-
ture stage, moving up and down as the strings pull them
around, following the prescribed course of their various
little parts. We learn to understand the logic of this
theatre and we find ourselves in its motions. We locate
ourselves in society and thus recognize our own position
as we hang from its subtle strings. For a moment we see
ourselves as puppets indeed. But then we grasp a decis-
ive difference between the puppet theatre and our own
drama. Unlike the puppets, we have the possibility of
stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving
the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act
lies the first step towards freedom.
Source: Berger, P. (1963), Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic
Perspective (Harmondsworth: Penguin), pp. 140, 199.
Peter Berger (1929–) is an American sociologist, who
(with Thomas Luckmann) wrote The Social Construction
of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
(Harmondsworth: Penguin), 1971. Two other well-
known books by him are: The Sacred Canopy: Ele-
ments of a Sociological Theory of Religion (New York:
Doubleday); The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions
about Prosperity, Equality, and Liberty (Aldershot:
Wildwood House), 1987.

C. Wright Mills (1916–62) was an American sociologist

well-known for his criticism of abstract approaches in
sociology, and his belief that sociology should relate
the ‘personal troubles’ of the individual to the ‘public
issues’ of social structure. Apart from The Sociological
Imagination, he is most well-known for White Collar: The
American Middle Classes (New York: Oxford University
Press), 1951; and The Power Elite (New York: Oxford
University Press), 1956.

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6 1: What is sociology?

Why study sociology?

Sociology enables us to understand the world we live takes it away, that provides some with enormous
in but also to understand ourselves, for we are the choice but others with very little, that makes us think
products of that world. This understanding can help that we have choice when we often have hardly any?
us to gain more control over our lives but it can also It is above all sociology that has tackled these issues
be put to more practical uses as well. and you will find that they come up again and again
in this book, when we examine the way that beliefs,
values, and identities are shaped and created; or
analyse inequalities of class, gender, and ethnicity; or
Understanding our world discuss the influence of the mass media on the way
We live in a world of extraordinary choice. Our choice that we think and behave; or consider the conflicting
of food to eat, holiday destinations to visit, and tele- pressures of work demands and household obligations.
vision channels to watch seems almost limitless. We
can in many ways choose our own identity, by con-
structing a lifestyle that suits us or creating a new
persona in a virtual community. We can choose the
Understanding our place
body shape that we want and through a combina- in the world
tion of diet, exercise, and cosmetic surgery at least
Sociology enables us not only to understand the world
try to change our body accordingly. The provision of
around us but also our place within it. This is not just
choice, whether in education or health-care, has also
a matter of where we live, important as this is, but of
become one of the main priorities of government
where we are located within social structures and the
policy.
changes taking place in these structures.
Although we have a strong sense of choice, we are,
Sociologists use the term social structure to refer to
none the less, subject to social pressures that in many
any relatively stable pattern of relationships between
ways seem to make these choices for us. Our values
people. In our panel of four sociologists, C. Wright
and our opportunities are shaped by the society in
Mills refers to the structure of ‘society as a whole’
which we grow up and our position in this society.
but any social group, however big or small, from
We are under pressure to conform to other people’s
a family to a political party, has a social structure.
ideas of how we should look and how we should live.
So does any organization, such as a university, a
While we may think that we choose certain products
work-place, or a hospital. There are also the wider
or decide to hold certain views, we are subject to
structures of class, gender, and ethnicity that stretch
extensive manipulation by advertisers, media moguls,
across a whole society and, indeed, beyond it. Some
and spin doctors. Many people anyway feel that work
organizations, such as transnational corporations,
pressures and shortage of time leave them with very
cross national boundaries, and national societies
little opportunity to do anything but get up in the
themselves exist within a global structure of inter-
morning, work all day, and do the housework or look
national relationships.
after the children when they get home at night.
By describing such structures, sociology provides
We also live in a world where the ability to choose
us with a map of society within which we can place
varies enormously between people. In our own soci-
ourselves, so that we can begin to understand the
ety the poor, the unemployed, the single parent, the
social forces that act upon us. These structures are,
refugee, all have less choice than others. In most
however, constantly changing and one of the main
African, Asian, or Latin American countries, where
tasks of sociology is to understand and explain social
there is far more poverty and far fewer opportunities
change and the impact that it has on people. We
to escape it, many people struggle to just survive from
examine social structures in Part Three of this book
day to day. Choice is, therefore, unequally distrib-
and you will find that each of the chapters is cent-
uted and has become steadily more so, as inequality
rally concerned with processes of social change.
has increased—not only within our own society but
Some recent changes that have in one way or
also in the world as a whole, for the gap between rich
another impacted on all of us are:
and poor countries has been widening as well.
How are we to understand and explain this strange • Advances in communications that have made it
world we live in, a world that gives us choice but also possible to transfer huge quantities of information

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SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 7
and money instantly across the world, and enabled
the emergence of an electronic world of cyber-
culture, virtual communities, and anonymous
identities.
• The decentralization of cities, as superstores, hos-
pitals, hotels, and leisure complexes have moved
from the centre to the edge of the city, and the
transformation of city centres by a rapidly expand-
ing night-time world of pubs and clubs where
bouncers rule.
• Changes in family life, as more people have
decided to live on their own, more couples have
cohabited without marriage, women have increas-
ingly found employment in paid work, divorce
rates have risen, and the number of single-parent
families has increased.
• The transformation of work, with the decline of
old industries and the expansion of service occupa-
tions requiring emotional labour, while more
flexible and less secure forms of part-time and
temporary work have spread, and more employees
have teleworked from home.
• increasing inequality, as more people have experi-
enced poverty and exclusion, and the gap has
widened not only between the rich and the poor
within societies but also between rich and poor
countries.
You will find that we discuss all these changes
and many others in this book. Each may seem to be
quite distinctive in character, but they have many
processes in common and are interconnected in
various ways. Globalization, for example, is centrally
involved in almost all of them and connects one
process of change with another. It is sociology that
has the concepts that enable us to comprehend these
processes of change and grasp the connections be-
tween them.
Understanding ourselves
Perhaps most fundamentally of all, sociology enables
us to understand ourselves. The way that we think,
behave, and feel, indeed our very sense of identity, is
socially produced. It is only through a knowledge
and understanding of the social processes that turn
us into the people we are that we can truly under-
stand ourselves.
Socialization is the general term that sociologists
use for this process. We use this term, because this is
a process that makes us into social beings, that turns
an individual into a member of society. It begins with
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Why study sociology? 7
a child’s upbringing in the family and continues
through education but does not stop there, for it con-
tinues throughout our life. Every time that we join a
new group, perhaps of first-years at university or col-
leagues at work, a process of socialization goes on.
Each time that we enter a new stage in life, we learn
to play certain roles, the role of a parent, the role of a
grandparent, and so on. Socialization is so funda-
mental to the understanding of the workings of a
society that we discuss it at some length in Chapter 4.
Part Two of this book is primarily concerned with
identities. Our sense of personal identity seems so
strong and so individual that we think it is produced
by some process going on mysteriously inside us
that makes us who we really are. Sociologists argue,
however, that identities are socially constructed.
Even such basic features of our identity as sex, race,
or age are socially not biologically constructed. The
categories that we place ourselves in, such as ‘men’
or ‘women’, ‘blacks’ or ‘whites’, ‘young’ or ‘old’,
‘healthy’ or ‘sick’, refer to our physical characteristics
but they are, none the less, social categories that
reflect certain ways of thinking about people that
vary between societies. We learn these categories
through socialization and then see ourselves as hav-
ing the characteristics that these categories specify.
Freeing ourselves
A knowledge of the social structures that constrain
us, and the social processes that give us identities,
does not, however, condemn us to passivity. Indeed,
the reverse is the case, for by making us aware of the
forces acting upon us, sociology also enables us to see
them for what they are, resist them if we wish to, and,
to some extent, free ourselves from them.
This point is made well by two of the sociologists in
our panel of four (see p. XXX). Berger uses the meta-
phor of the puppet theatre to represent ‘social reality’.
He suggests that, as in a puppet theatre, people
act out certain parts that are prescribed for them,
and are pulled this way and that by the ‘invisible
strings’ of society. Through sociology, they can,
however, see the strings that pull them and the social
machinery that operates the strings. Once they do
this they are no longer puppets and have taken ‘the
first step towards freedom’.
Bauman similarly points out that through sociology
we can become aware of, and can then explore, the
previously invisible social context of our lives. This
means that we discover that much that appeared to
be beyond human control, that seemed natural or
inevitable, is actually the result of human actions. To
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8 1: What is sociology?
Challenging gender stereotypes.
return to Berger’s metaphor, we find out that it is
in fact other people who are pulling the puppets’
strings. Once we realize this, we understand that
things do not have to be the way they are. If human
actions make the world the way it is, then the world
can be changed. If the way we live is not the result of
human nature, then we can live differently.
People have, for example, often thought that pat-
terns of behaviour are biologically determined when
they are not. It has been widely believed that the
different roles performed by men and women are
biologically prescribed. This can lead to the false idea
that for biological reasons men cannot be, say, nurses
and women cannot be, say, pilots. In Britain, beliefs
of this sort became established in the nineteenth cen-
tury as men sought to exclude women from many
occupations and confine them to domestic and caring
roles. Knowledge of the way this idea became estab-
lished and the socializing processes that maintain
help us to understand that gender role differences are
socially constructed (we discuss this in Chapter 5).
This awareness makes it possible to challenge them
and change them, as people have done, for there are
now many male nurses and female pilots.
Applying sociology
You may reasonably say that this is all very well but
what is sociology useful for? Sociology may provide
plenty of knowledge and understanding but what
else can it do?
Sociological knowledge has important applications
in many areas of work. It has made major contribu-
tions to the study of social problems and the work
of those who seek to deal with them. Thus, sociolog-
ists have carried out research into drug use, crime,
violence, industrial disputes, family problems, and
mental illness, to name some of the more well-
known problems of society. Indeed, no investiga-
tion of the causes and consequences of these social
problems would be complete without an input form
sociology.
Sociologists have not just been concerned with
explaining why some people behave in ways that
are considered problematic. They are also interested
in the sources of such behaviour in, say, the patterns
of family relationships, the structure of organiza-
tions, or the social distribution of resources. They are
concerned, too, with the processes that lead to the
treatment of certain actions as deviant or criminal
behaviour. Why, for example, are poor people prose-
cuted for a failure to pay the community charge,
when the rich are allowed to avoid paying taxes by
shifting their money into tax havens?
Sociology has also made a central contribution
to the study of the management of people and the
training of managers. One aspect of this is the devel-
opment of structures that enable organizations to
function productively and ebciently. This might
seem a relatively straightforward matter but, as we
show in Chapter 18, sociologists have demonstrated
that rationally designed organizations are commonly
disrupted by internal conflicts and the unintended
consequences of their rules and regulations. Those
sociologists working in this area have not, however,
just focused on issues of organizational ebciency.
They are also concerned with the perspectives of
those who find themselves under growing pressure
from their employer and seek to find ways both of
continuing to carry out their work in a professional
way and protecting themselves against exploitation.
One of the current frontiers here, which we discuss in
Chapters 15 and 18, is the struggle between managers
and employees in call centres and, more generally, in
the ‘emotional labour’ of customer service work.
In the application of sociology, there is, indeed, a
constant tension between those who seek to use it to
solve social problems by making social control more
effective and those who try to use it to change the
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SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 9
structures that have generated these problems and
bring about social reform.
Careers in sociology
What can you do with sociology? How can sociology
help you in finding a career?
One possible career is to become a professional
sociologist, carrying out sociological research and
communicating its results. This might be in an
educational institution but not necessarily, as there
are many other organizations, such as specialized
research institutes and think tanks, that employ pro-
fessional sociologists. Sociology is an exceptionally
rewarding area in which to do research. It is an
enormously diverse and dynamic field, with frontiers
opening up in all directions, as our Frontiers Boxes
and the Studies at the end of each of the Part Two and
Part Three chapters will show. The range of methods
involved, which stretch from large-scale quantitative
surveys to intensive observational studies of the
social life of small groups, provides scope for many
different skills and inclinations. Research is, further-
more, not just a matter of acquiring knowledge, but
also of developing the ideas, concepts, and methods
of sociology itself.
As a subject to teach, it has much to offer, as it deals
all the time with topics and issues that are central to
the lives of those being taught. As you teach sociology
you can draw on the experiences of those you are
teaching, using their daily lives to illustrate sociolo-
gical theories and concepts, while using sociology to
provide them with a greater understanding of their
situation in the world, the forces acting upon them,
and the sources of their own beliefs and identities.
Those who teach in schools and colleges can also play
their part in developing the subject by contributing
articles to such publications as the Sociology Review or
writing pieces for sociology web sites.
Most sociology graduates will probably not, how-
ever, go into teaching or research careers. What other
things can sociologists do? Sociology is not a voca-
tional subject, in the sense of providing a training
for a specific occupation. It is, however, relevant to a
very wide range of occupations, a wider range than
you probably realize, as the box on careers shows.
Indeed, this broad range of occupational destinations
makes sociology a good choice for those who have
not decided what career they wish to pursue or
simply want to keep their options open. You can be
sure that a subject that gives you a greater understand-
ing of social situations, social interaction, and human
behaviour in general, will provide you with insights
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Why study sociology? 9
that will come in useful whoever employs you and
whatever you do.
The skills and knowledge of the sociologist also
become increasingly relevant as information about
people becomes more and more central to the func-
tioning of the society we live in. Most expanding
occupations, in such areas as marketing, public
relations, opinion formation, the media, human re-
source management, education, research, and social
policy, depend on the collection, analysis, and com-
munication of information about people, and this is,
after all, what sociology is about.
BRIEFING
Careers for sociologists
The traditional occupation for Sociology graduates has
been social work or some other form of public sector welfare
work, such as the probation service. However, in practice
sociology graduates go into a much wider range of jobs.
In industry, for instance, human resource management
(or personnel as it used to be called) is one application
close to welfare but, additionally, aspects of marketing
draw upon sociological skills. Virtually all sociology
courses include methods of social research and these
can have an enlightening effect upon market research.
Some of the large retail firms, from Laura Ashley through
Marks and Spencer to Tesco, recognize that their chief
concern is with people and consequently have taken
sociology graduates into their management training
schemes. In fact the range has tended to broaden in both
the public and private sectors. For example, in recent
returns graduate entry into the police force is a noticeable
addition to the former and journalism to the latter.
Many sociology graduates go into teaching. This
embraces school teaching, further education, and the
option to stay in higher education. Prospective school
teachers and teachers in further education go on after
graduation to take a postgraduate certificate in
education (PGCE) . . . If you plan to study for a PGCE, you
will need to ensure that the subjects you study as part of
your degree will allow you entry to a PGCE course, as
there are some restrictions. Talk to the Admissions Tutor
of the course for more advice.
Students who achieve the best results during their
undergraduate courses may get the chance to go on to
postgraduate research for a higher degree with the aim
of making a career in higher education. . . . However,
resources for this are scarce and therefore competition
is fierce.
Source: British Sociological Association (2002), see Web Links.
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10 1: What is sociology?

What is society?

We can all agree that sociologists study society but
what do we mean by this term? It is used in many dif-
ferent ways in sociology but most commonly to refer
to a national unit, though some would argue that we
now live not in distinct national societies but a global
society. It is not really possible to give a short definition
of something as complex as a society and the easiest
way to get a sense of what it means is to examine its
main aspects in turn. These are also the main lines of
enquiry along which sociology has developed.
A complex of institutions
Institutions are the established practices that regu-
late the various activities that make up social life.
Examples of institutions are marriages, markets, educa-
tional curricula, religious rituals, and governments,
which in their different ways all give order to differ-
ent aspects of the way that we live. In contemporary
societies, these institutions, and also the organiza-
tions associated with them, are highly specialized.
Thus, the educational, economic, political, military,
and religious activities of society each have specialized
institutions and organizations.
We speak of a complex of institutions because
these specialized institutions are closely interrelated
with each other. Consider, for example, educational
institutions and their organizations. In Britain,
public-sector schools, colleges, and universities are
dependent on political institutions for their funding.
It is ultimately the government that decides how much
money to distribute to them. Governments are them-
selves dependent on the economy. The amount of
money that the government has to spend on educa-
tion depends on how much it can raise in taxes.
While this is partly a political question, it also depends
on the state of the economy. This itself depends,
however, on education, for it is education that sup-
plies the economy with skilled labour. This has been
an important issue in Britain since the 1970s, for it
has been argued that education has not been giving
people the skills that the economy needs, an issue
that we take up in Chapter 9, pp. XXX–XXX.
These interrelationships mean that institutions
should not be studied in isolation from each other.
Sociologists cannot, of course, study everything simul-
taneously and they tend to specialize in the study of
particular areas, such as the family or religion or the
media. Part Three of this book is divided into chap-
ters that specialize in distinct areas of this sort. To
achieve a complete understanding of what is going
on in any one of these areas, you must always, how-
ever, bear in mind its links with others. In this book
we have indicated what we see as the more important
links through cross-references and hint boxes.
It is one of the distinctive features of sociology that
it is concerned with whole societies. As C. Wright
Mills put it, sociologists should ask: ‘What is the
structure of this particular society as a whole?’
Sociology is, indeed, the only subject that sees
societies as ‘wholes’ in this way. This distinctive
perspective means that it overlaps with many other
fields of specialized enquiry. Economics and politics,

Figure 1.1
Institutional interdependence

Funds
Education Government

Sk
ills es
Tax
Economy

Education and politics.

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SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 11
for example, are subjects in their own right, which
explore in detail the workings of the areas concerned
and the issues specific to them. Economic and polit-
ical institutions are, however, crucial to the function-
ing of any society and there is also, therefore, a
sociology of economic life and a sociology of politics.
These particularly address the relationships between
these areas and the wider society.
Sociology’s concern with whole societies and all
activities that occur within them means that any as-
pect of social life can become a field within sociology.
Indeed, one of the exciting and dynamic things about
sociology is the way that new specialities are con-
stantly opening up within it as sociologists begin to
explore new areas of activity that have not been studied
before or have newly emerged through social change.
Examples of new fields are the sociology of sport, the
sociology of tourism, and the sociology of the body.
Levels of society
In discussing society as a complex of institutions
we have been operating at one particular level, the
national level, of society. People do commonly see
themselves as members of national societies. If some-
one asks you which society you belong to, you will
probably reply that you live in, say, British or American
or Indian society. If you live in Britain, you might of
course prefer to say that you live in Scottish or Welsh
society, for nationality is a contentious matter, which
we discuss in Chapter 14, pp. XXX–XX. The point that
Can family be a society.
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What is society? 11
we are making, here, however, is that the national
level is one level of society but only one level.
Most people live in family or household units con-
sisting of a small number of closely related people.
They have a sense of obligation to each other which
is greater than that to those outside the group, and
they see themselves as members of a family. They
often speak of themselves as living ‘in a family’. In
thinly populated rural areas where people practise a
self-subcient form of agriculture one family may
have very little contact with another and a person’s
society may consist almost entirely of other members
of the immediate family group. This is a rare situ-
ation, however, particularly nowadays, and the vast
majority of people are involved on a daily basis with
much larger social units.
One such unit is the community. Two centuries
or so ago most people lived in small, relatively self-
subcient and self-contained communities based on
the rural village or the small town, where everyone
knew everyone else. Industrialization and urbaniza-
tion disrupted communities of this sort and brought
large numbers of people who did not know each other
together. As we show in Chapter 13, pp. XXX–XX, new
kinds of community have, however, established them-
selves within cities. Many people still see themselves
as members of communities of one kind or another.
Whether or not people feel that they are members
of a community, they are inevitably members of a
larger social unit, the nation state, which during
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries became
steadily more important in people’s lives. With the
SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 12
12 1: What is sociology?
Figure 1.2
Levels of society
International and global organizations
Nation state Nation state
Community Community
Family Family
development of the nation state, national institutions
emerged. At its centre is the state apparatus itself, but
there are also national educational systems, national
economic institutions, national health services, na-
tional armies, and national churches, to name some
of the more obvious examples. As members of a
nation state, people have the rights and responsibil-
ities of citizens of that state, and a sense of national
identity. We examine the development of nations
and nation states in Chapter 14, pp. XXX–XX.
Nation states are not, however, self-subcient, for
they are interlinked with each other and dependent
on each other in complex ways. These links developed
particularly strongly with industrialization, which
made national economies highly dependent on one
another through an international division of labour.
The industrial societies specialized in producing
manufactured goods for the world as a whole, while
other parts of the world specialized in producing
food for the workers, and raw materials for the factor-
ies, of the industrial societies.
National societies have become ever more integ-
rated with each other through a process known as
globalization, which we discuss at length in Chap-
ter 14. The world—the globe—has become a ‘smaller’
place. Improvements in communication mean that
one can travel to most places in the world within a
day or so, while information can be transmitted in-
stantly to any part of it. Nowadays many companies
are global corporations operating in large numbers of
countries on every continent. There are also global
political organizations, such as the United Nations,
and global movements such as Greenpeace. As well as
being members of national societies, people are also
members of a global society. Indeed, the term ‘the
global village’ is sometimes used to express the idea
that people have become closely linked with each
other across the globe.
As society has developed, social units have become
steadily larger in their scale. Communities became part
of national societies and national societies have be-
come part of a global society. At one time or another it
has been argued that the family, the community, and
the nation went into decline as social units grew in
size. Smaller-scale units have, however, not so much
disappeared as changed, as society has become multi-
level in character. There are many important issues
here for sociologists as they examine the relationships
between the overlapping units that make up society.
Inequality and domination
In our discussion of society as a complex of insti-
tutions, we emphasized the way in which each
organized a particular activity for society as a whole.
Societies are also, however, divided by inequality.
Some groups benefit more from these activities than
others and seek to maintain or increase their advant-
ages. Structures of inequality and domination may
stretch right across a society, indeed across the world
as a whole, as a dominant group tries to gain control
of all areas of activity and secure benefits in all as-
pects of life. We particularly address the issues raised
by inequality in Chapters 16 and 17, but you will find
them cropping up throughout the book.
There are various dimensions of inequality within
national societies. There are class inequalities between,
say, aristocracies and commoners or employers and
workers. There are ethnic inequalities between, say,
whites, Asians, and African-Caribbeans. There are gen-
der inequalities between men and women. In some
societies, religion or nationality have become major
lines of division. There are also inequalities between
national societies, for increasing global integration
has not resulted in greater international equality, as
we show in Chapter 14.
The study of inequality and its consequences
brings up a number of important issues that have
been much discussed in sociology. These can be
grouped under three headings:
Figure 1.3
Social stratification by class
Upper class
Social
Middle class
mobility
Lower class
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SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 13
• social stratification;
• social control;
• social conflict.
Social stratification. Social stratification is con-
cerned with the way in which a structure of layers,
or strata, emerge within society. Typically there is a
top layer of the rich and powerful, a bottom layer of
the poor and powerless, and various other layers in
between. Important questions that are raised are the
number of layers that exist in a society, where the
boundaries between them should be drawn, the ease
with which people can move between them (social
mobility), and the way in which the layers persist and
change from one generation to the next.
Social control. This raises the question of how
inequality is maintained. How do the upper layers
control those below them and maintain their various
advantages? One way is through control of the use
of force—that is, control of the military and police
forces of a society. Sociologists generally emphasize,
however, that there are more subtle means of control
that operate by influencing beliefs and attitudes.
Thus, it has been variously argued that people are
controlled through education, religion, the mass
media, or social policy, and we discuss these argu-
ments in the chapters on these areas.
Social conflict. Here the issue is whether and under
what conditions inequality generates conflict. Do the
mechanisms of social control break down? Do those
in the lower layers organize themselves to improve
their situation and challenge the domination of
society by those with wealth and power? Under
what conditions, for example, can workers organize
themselves collectively to demand higher wages and
challenge the power of the employer? Under what
conditions do women organize themselves through
feminist movements to challenge male domination?
The study of inequality is linked to the study of
institutions and their interrelationships, for the
rich and powerful largely maintain their wealth and
power by controlling the institutions of society.
Similarly, those who challenge their position have to
contest their control of these institutions. Thus, the
study of this aspect of society is closely related to the
issues we raised in our discussion of institutions.
Structure and culture
Sociologists distinguish between the social structure
of a society and its culture. As we explained earlier
(see p. XXX), by social structure they generally mean
a relatively stable pattern of relationships between
social groups or organizations. By culture sociologists
··
What is society? 13
mean the beliefs of the society and their symbolic
representation through its creative activities. A sym-
bol is simply a representation, such as a word or a
gesture or an image, which communicates an idea or
feeling. Culture can best be discussed by distinguish-
ing between beliefs, which are the content of the
culture, and creative activities, which express this
content in actions or objects.
Beliefs are concerned with both ideas about the
way things are and ideas about how they ought to be.
Ideas about how things are include beliefs about the
nature of things—the physical world, human nature,
and the character of society. Ideas about how things
ought to be are embodied in values and norms:
• Values specify what people ought to do. Thus, the
belief that people should accumulate wealth or
the belief that they should live in harmony with
the natural environment are both values, though
rather different ones.
• Norms are rules of behaviour that regulate how
people behave. A typical norm, for example, is the
rule that people should not accumulate wealth by
stealing from each other. Such norms are often
embodied in laws.
Beliefs about the way that the world is and the
way that it ought to be are commonly linked together
by religion and politics. Thus, Christianity contains
ideas about God’s creation of the world and the belief
that human beings are naturally sinful. Christianity
also emphasizes certain values, such as love and char-
ity, and provides a set of norms, such as the prohibi-
tion of sexual behaviour outside marriage. Political
beliefs, such as socialism or liberalism, similarly link
together ideas about the nature of society and dis-
tinctive visions of what a society should be like.
Culture also takes the form of creative activities that
express ideas and feelings. The term culture is often
used to refer to the high culture of a society, its collec-
tions of paintings, its opera houses, and great works of
literature. But there is also its popular culture, and this
has become an area of growing interest in sociology,
which we discuss in Chapter 10. Cinema, popular
music, magazines, and soap operas are part of our cul-
ture in this sense. Activities as various as gardening,
craftwork, dressing, cooking, and talking are all creat-
ive activities that can be considered part of culture.
Indeed, the term culture is often used in a very
broad way to refer to the general customs and way of
life of a society or a group within it, as in references to
working-class culture or Asian culture. Culture in this
sense includes the way that people meet and greet
each other, the way they behave towards each other
at work and at leisure, their sporting and religious
activities, and so on. All social activity has a cultural
SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 14
14 1: What is sociology?
aspect, for all social actions express people’s ideas and
feelings, and therefore communicate their culture.
The question then arises of the relationship between
structure and culture, an issue that has been much dis-
cussed in sociology. One example of this is the rela-
tionship between structures of inequality and culture.
As we pointed out above, one way in which those at
the top of society dominate those at the bottom is
Is sociology a science?
In the previous section we discussed what sociolo-
gists mean by society. Here we take up issues raised
by the way in which they study it. The question of
whether sociology should be considered a science
has been hotly debated both inside and outside the
subject. It is an interesting and important question
that enables us to explore the nature of the subject,
its distinctiveness, and its relationships with other
subjects. Before discussing it, we must, however, first
consider what is meant by science.
What is a science?
It is first very important to clear away certain miscon-
ceptions about science. It is popularly associated with
two things, the use of the experimental method and
the collection of facts. Many scientists certainly do
carry out experiments and collect facts but science in-
volves considerably more than this.
The experiment is an important and powerful
method but not the only one used by science. It is a
powerful method because it enables the isolation and
measurement of the effect of one variable. Thus, for
example, the effect of an antibiotic can be established
by preparing two identical dishes of bacteria, adding
the antibiotic to one only, and then comparing the
results after a suitable period of time. There are, how-
ever, various fields of investigation, commonly regarded
as sciences, that cannot make much use of the experi-
mental method. Astronomy, geology, and meteorology
are obvious examples. They have to rely largely on
other kinds of observational method for the collec-
tion of data. Important as the laboratory experiment
undoubtedly is to the natural sciences, the use of this
method is not a defining characteristic of science.
If experimental methods are not the only method
used by scientists, surely, you might say, there can be
no doubt that sciences are concerned with the collec-
through their control of education, religion, and the
mass media. This enables them to influence people’s
beliefs and shape the way that they think and behave.
Culture can, therefore, reinforce the existing struc-
ture of society, though subordinate groups can also
challenge this structure by developing alternative
ideas and beliefs, as shown, for example, by the growth
of oppositional socialist and feminist cultures.
tion of facts by one means or another. The first prob-
lem this raises is that facts are not simply collected.
Scientists do not just look around to see what facts
they can discover, for scientific enquiry is directed by
the theoretical concerns of scientists. Scientific ideas
lie behind the design of experiments or the search for
data of a particular kind. The ‘dark matter’ of the uni-
verse was not exactly visible, by its very nature, and
astronomers discovered it not because they came
across it but because the currently dominant theory
of the origins of the universe suggested that there had
to be far more matter in the universe than could be
accounted for by its visible material.
Secondly, the conventional idea of a fact is of
something existing ‘out there’ waiting to be dis-
covered. What actually happens is that scientists make
observations, which then have to be interpreted and
made sense of before they can become facts. Inter-
pretation always involves explanatory ideas and this
returns us again to the importance of theories. The
existence of ‘black holes’ is now an accepted fact in
astronomy. This fact is certainly based on observa-
tions of the behaviour of stars but it depends also
upon a theory of what happens when matter be-
comes so highly concentrated that nothing can
escape its gravitational pull. Without this theory, we
could not conceive of black holes.
Science is both an empirical and a theoretical enter-
prise. In saying that it is empirical we mean that it is
based on observations. The word empirical is derived
from the Greek word for experience and is commonly
used to refer to observational work that provides us
with experience of the world. In saying that science is
theoretical we mean that it also involves systematic
thought about the world. A theory is a logically con-
nected set of ideas. Theories guide empirical work
and are used to interpret and explain its observations,
which may or may not fit the existing theory. If they
do not fit it, the theory needs at least to be revised
··
SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 15
and may have to be abandoned. Science advances
through the constant interplay of theoretical and
empirical work.
While it is important to be clear about the logic of
scientific activity, it is also important to bear in mind
the scientific spirit. By this we mean the set of ideals
which motivate and guide scientific work. Science is
both rational and critical. It is rational in that it rejects
explanations of the world that are based on religious
beliefs or mysterious forces, rather than reasoned
thought. It is critical, as it questions received ideas
and accepted beliefs. It is concerned with establish-
ing the truth about how the world is and how things
actually work, rather than how they ought to be or
how they are supposed to be.
This does not mean that scientists lack values and
beliefs. Like anyone else, they hold values and be-
liefs, which may well influence what they do. For
example, scientists concerned about the state of the
natural environment might well carry out research
into global warming. Values and beliefs should not,
however, influence the scientist’s investigation or
interpretation of observations. Thus, however con-
cerned such a scientist might be about pollution, if
the observations did not support the theory of global
warming, the scientist would be expected to say so.
We have in some ways presented an idealized picture
of science. Most scientific enquiry is driven by the
requirements of industry or government rather than
the pursuit of knowledge. Scientists sometimes sup-
press results that do not fit their theories or that might
damage their careers, because they conflict with their
employer’s interest in a particular policy or product.
Research results are faked by some researchers who
are more concerned to achieve publications and ad-
vance their careers than advance knowledge. At the
heart of science there is, none the less, an ideal of dis-
interested enquiry into the nature of things and it is
against this ideal that the work of scientists is judged.
Is sociology a natural science?
The first sciences to develop were the natural sciences
and they therefore became the model for scientific
activity. Some sociologists adopted this model and
tried to develop a natural science of human beha-
viour. Most contemporary sociologists would, how-
ever, argue that society cannot be studied in the way
that the natural world is studied. Social behaviour
is in important respects quite different from natural
behaviour.
Human behaviour is meaningful behaviour, for
whatever human beings do means something to
··
Is sociology a science? 15
them. It is a characteristic of human beings that they
act in the context of beliefs and purposes that give
their actions meaning and shape the way that they
behave. If sociologists are to understand and explain
human behaviour, they have to take account of the
meanings that people give to their actions.
Thus, no universal statements can be made about
human behaviour, for the same behaviour means
different things in different societies. Let us take eat-
ing practices as a simple example. The eating of roast
beef has been traditional in England and regarded as
one of the distinctive features of English life. In India,
however, cows are considered sacred and may not be
killed, let alone eaten. On the other hand, while the
eating of dogs in the Far East is commonplace, it is
quite abhorrent to most British people. Behaviour
considered quite normal in one society is quite unac-
ceptable in another. This means that no general state-
ments can be made about human eating behaviour in
the way that they can about the eating behaviour of
animals.
Human behaviour is also different because people
think about what they are doing. They are at least
partly aware of the forces acting upon them and
can resist these forces and act differently. Thus, while
the eating of snails and frogs’ legs is not a normal
feature of the British diet and is generally viewed in
Britain with some disgust, some British people may
consider that there is no good reason for rejecting
these foods. They may decide that it must be possible
to enjoy them, if the French eat them with such
relish, and may then try them out. Similarly veget-
arians may reject traditional British beef-eating prac-
tices. Behaviour is not entirely culture bound because
individuals can break out from their culture and,
indeed, change their culture.
None the less, it clearly remains the case that there
are broad differences of culture between, say, British
people and French people that result in different eat-
ing habits. Furthermore, those who do break away
from established patterns will themselves be distinct-
ive in certain ways. They may, for example, be edu-
cated to a higher level. Thus, we are not arguing that
what people do is a matter simply of choice but rather
that there is a cultural patterning of social behaviour
that makes it more complex than natural behaviour.
Weber particularly emphasized the importance to
sociological explanation of understanding the meaning of
human action. See Chapter 2, pp. XXX–XX.
The cultural content of social behaviour means that
it cannot just be observed, it has to be understood.
SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 16
16 1: What is sociology?
This special requirement of sociology comes out
clearly in the reflections of the sociologists in our
panel (see p. XXX). Thus, after arguing that many of
the features of natural science should be adopted by
the sociologist, Steve Bruce insists that the sociologist
must go further. As he puts it: ‘Our notion of explana-
tion does not stop at identifying regular patterns in
social action. It requires that we understand’.
C. Wright Mills insisted that the mechanical ap-
plication of the rules of scientific method was insub-
cient, that the understanding of social structures
required a special quality of mind, what he calls the
‘sociological imagination’. To Zygmunt Bauman it is
the ‘art of thinking sociologically’ that can make us
free. This does not mean that sociology can learn
nothing from science—it can learn much, as Steve
Bruce indicates—but science alone is not enough.
Is sociology a science at all?
Some have gone further and questioned whether
there can be a science of society. If sociology is
centrally concerned with understanding what people
do, is there any real difference between sociology
and common sense?
The answer to this question is a resounding yes.
In their everyday lives people are too involved
in what is going on around them to have any
detachment from it. They are immersed in their
own situations, their own families, their own work
relationships, and their own friendship and leisure
patterns. These colour their view of the world. Their
knowledge of the world is limited to the situations
that they have experienced. They generally interpret
their own and other people’s behaviour in terms of
preconceived ideas and beliefs. In doing so they make
little distinction between the way the world is and
the way they think it ought to be. Their experience is
fitted into these ideas and beliefs, which are import-
ant to their sense of identity, and they are therefore
usually very reluctant to alter them.
The sociologist’s knowledge of the world is very
different. Sociology builds up a knowledge of society
that is not based upon the experience of one indi-
vidual but accumulated from the research of large
numbers of sociologists. This is knowledge of many
different aspects of many different societies at many
different times. It is a cumulative knowledge that
is constantly being added to by further research.
This bank of knowledge means that the experience
of large numbers of people in many very different situ-
ations and from very different cultures is available to
the sociologist.
Sociologists are trained to develop their ideas in a
logical, disciplined, and explicit way by constructing
theories, which are quite unlike the everyday beliefs
of common sense. They are explicit, because their as-
sumptions have been brought into the open, thought
about, and justified. Logical connections are made
between the various ideas that make up a theory so
that its train of thought can be followed. Theories are
also subject to the scrutiny of other sociologists, who
will critically examine their assumptions and check
the logic of their arguments.
Sociologists then test out their theories in an object-
ive and systematic way. They do not assume that
they know the answers or that their theory is right.
They demonstrate the truth or falsity of their ideas
by collecting appropriate information, using a wide
variety of methods to do this. These range from large-
scale surveys to the small-scale, in-depth, participant
observation of particular situations. Sociologists draw
on many different sources of material, from docu-
ments to census data or interview responses. As we
show in Chapter 3, pp. XXX–XXX, different methods
are appropriate to different issues and different situ-
ations but can also be used to complement and
check upon each other. As with their theories, their
methods and the way that they interpret their data
are open to the scrutiny of other sociologists.
Sociology is then a science. It has explicit theor-
ies and ways of collecting data in an objective and
systematic way, in order to check those theories and
revise them if they are found wanting. It is not a nat-
ural science because there are important differences
between the social and natural worlds as objects of
study, differences that actually require sociologists,
as we showed above, to go beyond the methods of
the natural sciences. It is a social science, not a natu-
ral science, but a science none the less.
Summary points
In this chapter we have discussed a number of gen-
eral issues raised by the subject of sociology. We
began by exploring why one should study sociology:
• We argued that sociology enables us to understand
the world that we live in and our place within that
world.
• In doing so, sociology enables us to understand
ourselves, and self-understanding can help us to
free ourselves.
• Sociology also has many practical applications
to social problems, though sociologists are also
interested in the sources of these problems in
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SocC01 10/9/02 4:24 PM Page 17

Web links 17

the structure of society, and in what leads to
certain kinds of behaviour being defined as ‘a
problem’.
• We also suggested that sociology can open the way
to a wide range of careers.
We then moved on to consider what sociologists
mean by society, by examining the main features of
societies:
• Societies consist of a complex of interdependent
institutions.
• Societies are, however, organized at a number of
different levels, from the family, through the com-
munity and the nation state, to the global level.
• Societies also consist of structures of inequality and
domination.
• There is a cultural dimension to society, consisting
of people’s beliefs and their symbolic representa-
tion in actions and objects.
Lastly, we discussed whether sociology should be
considered a science:
• Science involves systematic observation and
the development of theories to explain
observations.
• Sociology is not a natural science because social
behaviour is different from natural behaviour.
• The explanation of social behaviour requires the
understanding of the meaning of actions.
• Sociology is, none the less, a social science that is
based on systematic observational methods and
the construction of explicit theories.

Key concepts
• community • institutions • social stratification
• culture • nation state • social structure
• family • norms • socialization
• globalization • personal identity • society
• household • science • values

Further reading
The following, which we have quoted in our panel on p. XXX, all provide interesting and
perceptive discussions of the nature of sociology:
Bauman, Z., and May, T. (2001), Thinking Sociologically, (2nd edn.), (Oxford: Basil Blackwell).
Berger, P. (1963), Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
Bruce, S. (1999), Sociology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Mills, C. W. (1959), The Sociological Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press).

Web links W

Visit our own web site, with lots of interesting additional material and links for each chapter, at
http://www.oup.co.uk/best.textbooks/sociology/fulcher/
The web site of the British Sociological Association, where you can find general information about
the subject, including another answer to the question ‘What is sociology?’, and advice about career
opportunities for sociologists, is at
http://www.britsoc.org.uk/about/oppsociol.htm
For a comprehensive but carefully selected list of sociology web links, with very helpful descriptions
of what can be found at each one, visit
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/sociology

··