Sociology

Sociology is a social science on the study of the social lives of people, groups, and societies, sometimes defined as the study of social interactions. It is a relatively new academic discipline that evolved in the early 19th century. It concerns itself with the social rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups, and institutions. Sociology is interested in our behavior as social beings; thus the sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. In a broad sense, sociology is the scientific study of social groups, the entities through which humans move throughout their lives. There is a current trend in sociology to make it a more applied discipline for people who want to work in an applied setting like non-profits.

Subfields of sociology

• Collective behavior
• Computational sociology
• Environmental sociology
• Interactionism also known as the social action theory and symbolic-interactionism
• Economic development
• Economic sociology
• Feminist sociology
• Functionalism
• Human ecology (sometimes included into sociology proper)
• Industrial sociology also known as sociology of industrial relations or sociology of work
• Media Sociology
• Medical sociology
• Political sociology also known as sociology of politics or sociology of the state
• Program evaluation
• Public sociology
• Pure sociology
• Rural sociology
• Social change also known as sociology of change
• Social demography
• Social inequality
• Social movements
• Sociology of culture
• Sociology of conflict also known as Conflict theory
• Sociology of deviance also known as criminology
• Sociology of disaster
• Sociology of gender
• Sociology of the family
• Sociology of markets also known as behavioral finance
• Sociology of religion
• Sociology of science and technology
• Sociology of sport
• Sociography
• Urban sociology
• Visual sociology