Sociology

Sociology is a branch of social science that studies society, human social behaviour, patterns of social interactions and elements of culture that are linked with day-to-day living. Sociologists study all of these topics and more. It develops a corpus of knowledge on social order and social change via the use of a variety of empirical research and critical analysis methods: While some sociologists perform research that might be immediately applied to social policy and welfare, others sociologists concentrate largely on expanding the theoretical knowledge of social processes and phenomenological approach. Micro-level assessments of society (that is, analyses of human interaction and agency) may go all the way up to macro-level analyses of society (i.e. of social systems and social structure).

Sociology has traditionally focused its attention on such topics as social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularisation, the legal system, sexuality, gender, and deviance. As a result of the fact that all aspects of human life are influenced by the interaction between social structure and individual agency, the field of sociology has gradually broadened its scope to include a variety of other topics and institutions. Some of these include the sociology of education, the Internet, the military, the punishment and control systems, the Internet, and the role that social activity has played in the development of scientific knowledge.

A wider variety of qualitative and quantitative approaches are being used by social researchers, which has resulted in an expansion of the methodology used in social science. The linguistic and cultural shifts that occurred throughout the middle of the 20th century, in particular, gave rise to an increase in the number of interpretive, hermeneutic, and philosophical approaches to the study of society. On the other hand, the turn of the 21st century has witnessed the birth of new methodologies that are analytically, mathematically, and computationally rigorous. Some examples of these techniques are agent-based modelling and social network analysis.

The findings of social research are influential in a wide range of professions and areas of life, including those of politicians, policy makers, legislators, educators, planners, administrators, developers, business magnates and managers, social workers, non-governmental organisations, and non-profit organisations, as well as individuals who are interested in finding solutions to social problems in general. As a consequence of this, there is often a significant amount of overlap between the domains of social research, market research, and other areas of statistics.