4. The modern world

Although we can view sociology as a disinterested intellectual discipline that stands aside from the world it observes, sociology is itself a symptom of the very things it describes. ‘The modern world’ summarizes what sociology sees as distinctive about the social formations that concern it, considering modernity, social order, social mobility, and postmodernity. The key sociological proposition that much of our world is inadvertent and unintended is important, not just for understanding why things do not go as planned, but also for understanding why things are as they are. This has serious policy implications, because if we misunderstand the causes of what concerns us, we misdirect our efforts to change it.

1. The status of sociology

‘The status of sociology’ asks whether sociology can be scientific. Some forms of sociological research follow the models of the physical sciences, but there are some fundamental limits to such imitation. We need to appreciate the differences between the subject matter of the natural and the human sciences. People think and feel. They act as they do, not because they are bound to follow unvarying rules but because they have beliefs, values, interests, and intentions. 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.

5. What sociology is not

‘What sociology is not’ considers how sociology should differ from related and apparently similar enterprises. Although sociology owes much to reformers and many sociologists derive their research interests from their moral and political engagement with the world, sociology must be distinguished from social reform. The problems of partisanship and relativism are discussed along with how social theory and sects within sociology can threaten the discipline. Sociology must be empirical, and in asserting that it must be a social science we must bear in mind the advantages and disadvantages that come from the discipline’s odd subject matter: ourselves. Common sense provides the best warrant for the possibility of social science.

2. Social constructions

Sociology could be described as the study of social structures and social institutions, and sociological work is often divided into topics such as class structure, the family, crime and deviance, and religion. But how is sociology distinctive? ‘Social constructions’ examines what constitutes sociology. Biology provides a useful starting point because if we can understand the extent to which the biology of most animals determines their lives, and then appreciate the extent to which it fails to do so for humans, we can see the importance of culture. It concludes that reality is socially constructed, our behaviour has hidden social causes, and much of social life is profoundly ironic.

3. Causes and consequences

One of the ways that sociology differs from common sense is in challenging the image of ourselves as authors of our own thoughts and actions. If there is to be any explanation of human behaviour, there must be regular patterns to life and those regularities will be partly caused by forces outside our control and cognition. ‘Causes and consequences’ explains that if we wish to understand what people are doing and why, we must be interested in their motives and intentions, in how they see the world. But if we wish to understand why the world is as it is, we need to be concerned with unintended and unanticipated consequences.