Sociology

More often than not, whenever I tell people I'm studying sociology, they make some sort of comment alluding to either the field of social work or psychology. "Oh that's great you want to help people!" or "What do you plan on doing with that? Do you want to be some sort of counselor?" While I can understand the confusion, it happens much more often than it really should.

For those of you wondering what exactly it is that I am studying, simply put Sociology is the scientific study of society and social life. Yes, this means that it is a VERY broad discipline encompassing all subjects you can think of within society ranging from religion to crime/deviance to education, the media, race, gender, and even work and the division of labor just to name a few. You name it, it has has probably been studied by some sociologists a various points in time. My particular interests are in community/urban sociology as well as in the sociology of tourism.

A graph regarding the the social construction of social problems, for example

 Many classical philosophers are even considered to be great sociologists (Nietzsche, Tocqueville, Marx, and even Machiavelli). Anything that can be studied regarding social life is sociology. We study what the world means, how it works, and why certain meanings exist in various contexts. And Yes, this means this is primarily an academic, research oriented field, meaning I study lots of ways to collect and analyze data (statistics, ethnographies, etc). In this sense, sociology is much, much farther from social work and a little farther from psychology than most people might think.

I love this quote by sociologist Armand L. Mauss, an LDS scholar, which I believe sums up the foundation of our discipline quite nicely for others to understand (and if you get a chance to read it, his story of how he got into academia and balances his academic and religious life is quite amazing as well).

A fundamental philosophical premise of sociology (and other social sciences) is that truth and knowledge are, by definition, socially constructed. That is, every society, community, and even every family constructs its own understanding of what is true and real through an ongoing process of negotiation across generations and between reference groups. As individuals, the only truth and reality we learn in growing up is what has been constructed in our families, communities, and nations before we were born. To a social scientist, this process of social construction is the only operative source of truth and knowledge available to us. There might be, in the mind of God, or in the ultimate design of the universe, a final, ontological, absolute reality, but such is not available to mere mortals, and thus much depends ultimately upon faith. The only reality we have by which to live our lives is socially constructed. During our lifetimes, it will be subject to change, so it is relative not only to culture but also to time and place.

I  hope I have been able to shed some light on the field of sociology here today, and if anyone has questions or comments, please do not hesitate to make them known.