What is Sociology and why it is important
- Part 1 -

Rajendra Kshetri *

Sociology Department : GP Women's College, Imphal :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

(The following is the full text of the Key-Note Address delivered at the Inaugural Function of Manipur Sociological society held on 17th July, 2013 at G.P. Women's College, Imphal, jointly organized by Department of Sociology, G.P. Women's College and Manipur Sociological Society)

My dear fellow Sociologists,

Good morning everybody. It is both a pleasure and privilege for me to be here this morning at the very important occasion of gathering of sociologists of the state. A pleasure because it is not every day that I have the opportunity of interacting with students of sociology studying in Manipur and other parts of the country. A privilege because I have been asked to deliver the key-note address for and on such a momentous gathering. For giving me this dual sense of pleasure and privilege, I must thank the organizers of this meet, and here I would like to pick up for particular mention Ibungo Rojesh of Delhi School of Economics, New Delhi.

Well, my fellow sociologists, I shall not speak here on any of the specialized area/field of sociology as such, which I think and am sure will be picked up for deliberation by resource persons who are in our midst today. What I shall do is provide, in a nutshell, a general introduction to the discipline, its subject matter, its emergence and development as an academic discipline, significance and its importance in the conflict-ridden contemporary Manipuri society.

May I now, have the liberty of requesting you to bear with me while I turn my pages.

Students of Society:

We are all students of society. Whether we are from the physical sciences, arts and humanities and/or social sciences, the fact remains that we are students of society. We all study society in one way or the other. Newton's discovery of Laws of Gravitation, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Hawking's Theory of Everything, to name a few, are for the improvement and advancement of human learning, knowledge and development. Without them, humankind would not have been able to launch rocket/satellite and land on the surface of the moon.

Likewise, Marx's theory of Dialectical Materialism, Durkheim's theory of Mechanical and Organic Solidarity, Weber's theory of 'Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism', Plato's and Aristotle's theories of State and Republic; Hobbes's and Locke's theories of 'Social Contract' and Voltaire's revolutionary ideas of 'liberty, equality and fraternity'; Rostow's theory of Three Stages of Economic Growth/Development; Amartya Sen's notion of 'Welfare Economics', are all meant for better understanding and further improvement of socio-economic and political conditions of humankind.

John Keats's 'A Thing of Beauty is a Joy for Ever', Wordsworth's 'Daffodils' and 'Lucy'; Shakespeare's dramas/plays (Julius Caesar; "Et Tu Brute"; Hamlet; "Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark"; Tagore's 'Gitanjali' ("Where the mind is without fear"), enrich our understanding of Nature and human society (behavior).

Having said this, I must hasten to add however that there is a difference in the method of studying society between natural/physical sciences and social sciences. In the case of the former, all methods, experiments, observations are mostly carried out within the four walls of laboratories. And mostly, they deal with non-living things/particles, chemicals etc. Even if living being (as in the case of zoology and botany) they are of sub-lower species. Broadly speaking, natural sciences use the same scientific method.

This is not the case with social sciences, particularly sociology. Social scientists study in the open filed, collect data/information from the people. Social scientists deal with human being – the highest and most advanced form of living being – who has emotions, feelings, sentiments which keep on changing/fluctuating. This is not only the unique feature but a challenge to and for social sciences, especially sociology.

As I mentioned earlier, we are all students of society. Society was, had been studied by different disciplines, Political Science, History, Economics, Philosophy etc. even before the emergence of Sociology as a distinct science in the 19th century Europe. The study of society can, however, be traced back to Plato and Aristotle in Greek philosophy, Ibn-Khaldun in Islamic jurisprudence and to the European and Scottish Enlightenment.

But these early studies have failed to provide a composite/holistic perspective of society as they dealt with only the component/constituent parts and not the nucleus of the society. The study of society, per se, was lacking. The proper study of society can be done only through a proper understanding or study of man/woman, his actions, feelings, sentiments, emotions and behavior. This is what sociology has provided because the subject matter of sociology is the proper study of man. So we can say that the proper study of society began only in the 19th century with the emergence of Sociology.

The French Revolution of 1789 had played a major role in the emergence of sociology. The French social thinkers particularly Saint Simon and Auguste Comte believed that a new science is needed to offer a scientific interpretation of society. Auguste Comte did not discover sociology. He just invented a good name of the discipline. And sociology, no doubt, is such a good name (earlier he was using the term 'Social Physics' but abandon later after he learnt that this is a term already coined by Adolphe Quetelet, a statistician, who believed that a social science could be established in the line of physical sciences). 'Sociology', the term that Comte coined became very popular and more publicly used through his publication of Positive Philosophy in 1838. What, then, is sociology and what is its subject matter?

Sociology and its subject matter:

I shall not bore you nor shall I tax your time by giving here those hosts of standard definitions (ranging from 'the study of society' to 'the study of institutions', 'the study of social relationships', 'the study of social action' and 'the science of institutions'). What I shall do is share with you my perception and conception of what sociology is drawing on my experiences of being a practicing sociologist for the last 25 years and 16 years of teaching sociology at the university. For centuries men and women have lived in societies and interacted with one another in one way or the other. The process of interaction among the members of society is what constitutes the subject matter of sociology.

Having been a student of sociology for the last three decades coupled with 16 years of teaching sociology, I am more than convinced that sociology is all about interaction. This interaction may be at the individual, group and institutional level. We study society basically because we want to understand the meaning of interactions. It is on the basis of meanings of these interactions that we are able to locate, diagnose the societal issues/problems and come up with what we may call remedies, solutions, conjectures, challenges. The very fact that I am standing here right in front of you does not and should not merely mean that I am speaking to you. It goes much beyond that. I am – in the language of sociology – interacting with my fellow sociologists. And this interactive session will – if I may say – determine the growth, development, prospects, problems and challenges of sociology in Manipur.

I have said earlier that the study of interaction among the members of society is the subject matter of sociology. But, the subject matter of sociology, we now understand, is so encompassing that there is hardly anything in the society that does not fall under its domain. That is why I would even go to the extent of saying that there is a bit of sociology in everything that exists on earth. This all-embracing feature does not present sociology's biggest drawbacks as many have believed and suggested. It, rather, is the unique feature of the subject matter of sociology. It is its challenge and therefore its strength.

Having said what has been said so far, have I really and satisfactorily answered the basic and the all important question: What is Sociology? The same question that Alex Inkeles asked in 1964 in his masterly but somewhat aridly written book of the same name. Not yet! For the simple reason that the subject matter of sociology is, as mentioned earlier, too vast and encompassing to come up with what we may term as 'The Definition'.

This is not to mean that the subject matter of sociology have not been perceived and conceived by the founding fathers of the discipline. It had been and that too very comprehensively. Thanks to the pioneering works of the professional sociologists and social scientists, we know, or can claim to know what sociology stands for. And yet, somewhere at the back of our mind we still have this nagging feeling that sociology goes beyond what has been perceived and conceived so far. Therefore, and it is my submission to all fellow sociologists, the search for 'the definition' of sociology, elusive as it is, may continue, but, may in the long run, prove futile. 'Sociology', as a non-professional observes, 'is everything and everything is sociology'. I couldn't agree with it more.

Sociology as an academic discipline:

The history of the development of sociology as a full-fledged academic discipline has been the history of the writings of Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Of the four founding fathers of sociology, only Marx, Durkheim and Weber are considered as the most important classical theorists whose writings have been most influential in shaping the subject matter of sociology.

It was the University of Paris which laid the first foundation for the development of sociology as full-fledged academic discipline when Emile Durkheim was appointed as the first professor of sociology. Durkheim thus had the distinction of becoming the first professor of sociology in Europe, or for that matter, anywhere else in the world. It was however the establishment of department of sociology in 1892 at the University of Chicago, the first in America, that is instrumental for making sociology a fully developed academic discipline.

The Chicago School of thought, chiefly associated with urban studies, the works of Albion Small, Louis Wirth, Robert Park, Ernest Burgess began to spread and influence all sociologists in the world (including India). Apart from its thrust areas on urban studies, the Chicago School is also equally noted for contributing several new theoretical approaches in sociology such as 'Symbolic Interactionism' (Herbert Blumer); 'Looking glass Self' (C.H. Cooley); theory of 'Social Self' (G.H. Mead) and 'Dramaturgy' (Erving Goffman).

To be conitnued...