Sociology

Sociology is the scientific study of human society, concerned with human social behaviour, patterns of social relationships, social interaction and the aspects of culture bound up with everyday life. The term was coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes in an unpublished manuscript and was defined independently by Auguste Comte in 1838. As a social science it uses empirical investigation and critical analysis to build knowledge about social order and social change, from micro-level studies of individual interaction to macro-level studies of social systems and structure. Its traditional concerns include social stratification, class, mobility, religion, law, sexuality, gender, race, social norms and deviance, and its methods range from qualitative and quantitative techniques to interpretative approaches and, more recently, agent-based modelling and social network analysis.