Section 1

 Qualitative and quantitative research

These are the most common types of research. Qualitative research is subjective,
whereas quantitative research is objective because it deals with data and facts.

Qualitative research, in its broadest sense, entails gathering and dissecting non-
mathematical information (e.g., text, video, or sound) in order to generate ideas,
conclusions, or encounters. It could be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem
or to generate ground-breaking ideas for research. In contrast, quantitative research is a
research method that focuses on evaluating the variety and a reading of data. It is
drawn from a deductive methodology where priority is set on the testing of hypothesis.

Quantitative research can aid in understanding the social world by providing vital
information about a society or community that no individual could obtain through
observation, such as surveys, examinations, records, or censuses. We know about
every societal data, such as the literacy rate, poverty level, unemployment rate, GDP,
and everything else, thanks to quantitative research conducted by researchers.
Similarly, if we need to understand how individuals think, feel, or behave in specific
situations or in relationships with others that develop over time, we use a qualitative
research approach. Qualitative research investigates life in various families, cultures,
and communities, providing us with a clear lens into our social world, whereas
quantitative research provides us with the same information but with conclusive
evidence in the form of factual data and information. There are lots of factors and
subjects from where we can’t always derive numbers and data and therefore qualitative
research is gaining so much of popularity these days.
  Alienation

Alienation can be utilized as an idea in sociology. Alienation is a hypothetical idea

created by Karl Marx that portrays the separating, dehumanizing, and disappointing
impacts of working inside a capitalist system of production. Social alienation is a more
wide thought used by sociologists to depict the experience of individuals or get-
togethers that vibe withdrew from the characteristics, guidelines, practices, and social
relations of their local society for a combination of social basic reasons, consolidating
and despite the economy. Those experiencing social alienation don't share the typical,
standard assessments of society, are not all around joined into society, its get-togethers
and associations, and are socially kept from the norm. Right when individuals are
socially distanced they acknowledge that what happens in their lives is outside of their
control and that what they do finally doesn't have any effect. They acknowledge they are
delicate to shape their life course. At the point when an individual feels that they are not
conclusively connected with their society shared characteristics, feelings, and practices,
or conceivably when they don't have critical social relationship with others. At the point
when an individual experiences social offense they may deny their own personal
benefits and needs to satisfy demands put by others just as by accepted practices.
Social distance moreover results from the experience of living at the lower rungs of
social hierarchies of race and class. Various minorities experience social alienation as a
result of central bias. Needy individuals which are particularly the individuals who live in
neediness, experience social disconnection since they are monetarily unfit to partake in
the public arena in a way that is viewed as typical.

 Social Movements

The articulation social movement insinuates total activities proposed to accomplish or

go against fundamental changes in a current society or get-together. Any spot they
occur, social movements can fundamentally shape the heading of society. Right when
individuals and get-togethers of people—social uniformity activists and various
visionaries, for instance—transcend standard cutoff points, they may accomplish critical
developments in cordial technique and plans. Regardless, when they show from the
outside, social movements do impact famous evaluation. Social scientists interest
themselves in why social improvements emerge. Do impressions of discontent, needs
for a "distinction in pace," or even longings for "change for change" cause these
movements or developments? Sociologists use two speculations to explain why people
enact for change: relative hardship and resource mobilization.

- Relative hardship: When people are dissatisfied or perplexed with their social,
economic, and political circumstances, they yearn for change. Social scientists have
long recognized that while people's actual living conditions may not be to blame,
their perception of their circumstances is. Relative hardship refers to the negative
perception that there are distinctions between needs and wants.

- Resource mobilization: It oversees how well friendly developments actuate

resources: political draw, expansive interchanges, staff, cash, and so forth A
particular improvement's ampleness and accomplishment by and large depends
upon how well it uses its resources. People from a social development consistently
follow a beguiling pioneer, who plans people which is as it should be. For a social
development to succeed, pioneers should inspire their supporters' regard for
mistreatment. To energize their social improvement during the 1960s and 1970s,
ladies' activists convinced women that they were being mistreated in various fields,
including work, school, and home.

 Sustainability

Recognizing and monitoring business impacts on individuals, both positive and

negative, is central to social sustainability. The fundamental nature of an organization's
connections and commitment are to its partners. Organizations have a direct or indirect
impact on what happens to representatives, value chain workers, clients, and local
networks, and it is critical to monitor impacts proactively. Activities to achieve social
sustainability may open new business sectors, assist in retaining and attracting
business partners, or serve as a hotspot for the advancement of new products or
services. Employee participation may increase, while productivity, risk management,
and company-community conflict may improve. The neglected component of
sustainability is social sustainability. During the last few decades, our world has been
focused on, economic sustainability. It's why understanding the social world through the
lens of social sustainability has been difficult. Growing freedoms for all individuals today
and tomorrow is also part of social sustainability. It is critical for neediness reduction
and shared thriving, in addition to financial and ecological sustainability. Economic and
ecological supportability works in tandem with social sustainability. Earlier, the
emphasis was on economic sustainability, then on ecological sustainability, with
growing concerns about environmental change and biodiversity loss. Regardless, with a
growing awareness of the difficulties of delicacy, constant imbalance, and racial
separation, social sustainability has been viewed as critical to development and poverty
reduction. Thus, it is all about recognizing and monitoring business impacts on
individuals, both positive and negative through which we draw the conclusion about the
parts of this massive phenomena that we know as social sustainability.
 Section 2

1. Evaluate the work of Two of the following thinkers in helping us to understand

contemporary societies:

Karl Marx

Marxism laid the groundwork for many communist societies. By the turn of the twentieth
century, it was clear that his ideas had influenced the organization and governance of
more than half of the world. He contributed to our understanding of modern society via
his philosophies. Marx argued that people's relationships with the economy shape
everything else: their thoughts, connections, belief systems, and culture. Marx asserted
that, since the beginning, society has progressed from feudal society to capitalist
society, which is based on two social groups: the decision class, which owns the means
of production (for example, manufacturing plants), and the average citizen who are
abused (exploited) for their compensation work. This means that the ruling class uses
ordinary employees to create products and businesses while keeping the profits for
themselves. Capitalism is based on the notion of private property ownership, which
supports the individual's quest for benefit. Communists argue that this system creates
enormous social disparities between the two groups. Marx was a harsh critic of private
enterprise, arguing that the ruling class would become increasingly wealthy and
amazing while the middle class would remain impoverished. Marx contended that the
average person in capital society feels estranged (eliminated from their work) and
mistreated. Marx ensured that establishments such as religion and the family provide
some assistance from the sense of misuse and estrangement. As a result, rationalizing
disparity and causing people to recognize their mistreated position. He refers to this as
bogus class consciousness, or the possibility that people are unaware of the true extent
of their abuse. Many of the things Marx said at the time are still extremely relevant
today, such as Marxism being the most genuine regulating social-hypothetical test to
liberal types of opportunity that doesn't simultaneously dismiss the modern world.
Marx's communism is the most widely supported effort to think the present truly and to
reflexively grasp idea itself within its social and economic setting. Communism is an
undeniably verifiable hypothesis that societally challenges radicalism in a way that no
other contemporary hypothesis does. As a result, even in today's context, his theories
are held in higher regard. His ideas about identity, culture, and socialization are still
relevant and popular today. Marxism is still relevant if we can avoid the dogmatism and
rigidity that were previously associated with the custom. Force, mistreatment, class,
constructions of creation and circulation, property relations, work environment chain of
command - these highlights will undoubtedly continue to be a stumbling block. We must
regard Marx's corpus as a multifaceted source of hypotheses and interpretations about
how capitalism works. Furthermore, we must recognize that no hypothetical structure
can encompass the entirety of history or society. Communism is by no means a
comprehensive theory of social association and change. Even then, it provides a
valuable collection of hypotheses about how some of the key social instruments function
in a class-divided society. It's why Marx and Marxism are still regarded as excellent
theories for understanding communities and various socioeconomic variables.

Max Weber

Max Weber (1864-1920) was a founding father of sociology. Weber saw both implicit
and interaction approaches as critical to developing a comprehensive understanding of
society and social change. He was, without a doubt, the most influential person in the
area of human science. Like some other social intellectuals studied here, he was
concerned about both the substantial changes happening in Western culture as a result
of industrialization, and he believed that through research and studies, we could gain a
better understanding of modern society. Weber, like Marx, believed that class was
determined by economic factors. He acknowledged that society was divided into owners
and workers. Status, on the other hand, was determined by noneconomic factors such
as education, family relationships, and religion. A person's force, or impact over
thoughts, was determined by both status and class. Weber's broad contributions aided
in the development of new academic disciplines such as sociology, as well as significant
reconfiguration in law, economics, political science, and religious studies. He
contributed in developing what we call a concept of rationalization of society.  It contains
the factors by which modern society has tilted more over the years.
- Efficiency: achieving the best results with the least amount of effort
- Predictability: a desire to predict what will happen in the future
- Calculability: a concern with numerical data, such as statistics and scoring
- Dehumanization: using technology to control human behaviour

Weber was unlike his successors in that he was more interested in how people
experienced cultural divisions than in the actual divisions. The symbolic interactions
theory, the third of the three most widely accepted sociological theories, is based on
Weber's initial ideas, which emphasize the individual's viewpoint and how that
person describes with social structure For Weber, the pinnacle of industrialization,
rationalization, and other such processes results in what he refers to as the iron
cage, in which the individual is entrapped by establishments and administration. This
causes a sense of "upsetting of the world," an expression Weber used to describe
humanity's current state. In today's rationalized and modern society, Instead of
family-owned stores, we have supermarkets. Instead of neighbourhood diners, we
have chain cafés. Supermarkets that sell a wide range of products have largely
replaced non-profit organizations that specialize in a single product category, such
as equipment, food supplies, auto repair, or clothing. Shopping centres offer retail
locations, eateries, fitness centres even townhouses. Shopping malls have stores,
restaurants, fitness centres, and even townhouses. This change may be rational, but
is it universally appealing? This is a serious question today. One of his most
important works was 'Economy and Society,' published in the 1920s, in which he
stated, "Sociology is a science concerned with the interpretive understanding of
social action and, thus, with the understanding of social action itself” and it is still
relevant.

Thus, we have attempted to analyse the theories and ideologies presented by these
two pillars of social science Marx and Weber and through the lens of their theories,
we get a bit of idea about the contemporary societies we live in.