The Relevance of Sociology

“The Relevance of Sociology” or “Why study Sociology?” could be one of the key questions/ thoughts that many of us may encounter or dwell upon before making an academic discipline a career choice.

How does sociologist contribute to key institutions or society at large? How do we define the scope of the discipline?

Do we have avenues outside academics to flourish being a sociology graduate? And the most fundamental one - how sociology would help me make a living as I step into the professional world?

To gain perspective to these questions it’s important to briefly trace the discipline’s historical roots & understand the “origin” of sociology as a discipline; and its sustenance in today’s world & stay relevant as an academic field of study in the eye of renowned scholars, academicians, historians etc.

“History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions, the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology” – W.H. Auden

Let’s appreciate and understand the relationship between society & ideas; in the most layman terms sociology can be defined as “study of society”.

Though the roots of sociological writings go back to the Greek and Roman philosophy; it emerged as a distinct science in 19th century Europe as a response to the social & intellectual climate prevailing in the European society during that time. It is a relatively newer discipline when compared to history, political science & others.

Auguste Comte, a French philosopher, coined the term “sociology”. In his famous took “Positive Philosophy “, Comte writes the need for the creation of a distinct science of society which he first called “Social Physics” and later “Sociology” that should concern itself with an analysis and explanation of social phenomena.

French and Industrial revolution marked distinct period in European history. The Enlightenment period embodies the spirit of new awakening in the French philosophers of the eighteenth century.

Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber and Herbert Spencer made significant contribution to the development of sociology as an academic discipline.

Hence, the spirit of questioning the existing institutions or new way of thinking or looking at reality differently became the central theme of the discipline given its origin in the age of Enlightenment.

India being one of the British colonies, sociology developed in India in the colonial interest & intellectual curiosity of western scholars, and the reaction of the Indian scholars on the other.?British officials needed the knowledge of Indian society for better administration.?

The Early Indian thinkers’ phase was essentially a phase of multi-level fusion. In pre- independence period Sociology taught along with Economics in Bombay and Lucknow, in Calcutta taught along with Anthropology and in Mysore Sociology was part of Social Philosophy. Strong scientific empirical traditions had not emerged before independence. Sociology was considered a mixed bag without a proper identity of its own (Rao, 1982).

Sociology established its identity as a discipline by separating itself from psychology, anthropology and social philosophy in post-independence period.

During this period, notable scholars who contributed to the promotion of sociological studies & research G.S Ghurye, D.N.Majmudar, Iravati Karve, M.N.Srinivas, A.R Desai & others.

Given India’s diverse & complex set of institutions of kinship & family, tribal communities, caste & gender hierarchies, urban and rural structures; what we study here in Indian universities today is a mix of Social Anthropology and Sociology.

?“Social anthropologist” or “Ethno-sociologist” combine documentary and literary data with oral traditions and field data.

So, the discipline had a multi-faceted journey since the age of Enlightenment from a Western society to our very own Indian context in varied phases due to the numerous socio-economic changes; already existing social construct in a given time period.

The ability of the discipline to move with the time & age of a particular society happen to be its greatest strength & the very reason that would make it relevant in every time period.

21st century can very well be marked as the outburst of technological innovation with smart phones, social media, artificial intelligence (times of chat GPT, Siri, Alexa.), cryptocurrency the world still grappling with age old issues of gender inequality, same sex marriages, in Indian context caste structures, linguistic biases and discrimination based on one’s religion is still the reality of many.

Social Sciences and in particular sociology as a discipline not only gives a holistic perspective to a social phenomenon which is much needed requirement in today’s day & time given the ever-lasting dichotomy of technological expansion and the very desire to stay true to the archaic social institutions.

From government agencies, social organizations, educational institutions to corporate bodies benchmarking certain social – behavioral competencies as the most essential element of their framework for every employee.

A competency framework is developed by government / private sector organization basically a means by which organization communicates which behaviors are required, valued, recognized and rewarded with respect to a specific occupational role.

Effective communication, problem solving, planning, organizing, taking responsibility, building trust, situation analysis, teamwork, collaboration is very much part of the social behavioral competency fabric.

We may definitely find many sociology graduates pursing the academic path in India or renowned institutions overseas to nurture themselves as academicians or else absorbed in government bodies in key sectors.

However, we do have a good number of social science graduates working with corporate institutions as CSR representative, involved in human resource management, banking sector in social welfare departments or part of non-governmental organization (NGO’s) helping them a further a social cause or adding value through research skills, evaluating the effectiveness of program or helping them program management or some work as cultural ethnographers associated with research agencies.?

To conclude, the scope of sociology as a discipline have become widespread in today’s times given its attribute to make an individual “think” and potential to build in the relevant skills that we need as a society to cope with our current challenges that our fundamental institutions at large throw upon us.

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References:

1.?????Unacademy ; Unit 01- Emergency of Sociology in Europe

2.?????International Conference on research in Social Science and Humanities; Rise & Development of Sociology in India

3.?????Introduction of Sociology?