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Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors.

Basics

Sociology focuses on social facts (such as delinquency, social exclusion and poverty, voter apathy, the organization of work, homosexuality or family structures). These topics are often the objects of newspaper articles and commentaries in the media or casual conversations. They all sound so familiar. Why do we need a specific science to study them?

At the same time, people tend not to be clear on what sociology is exactly, compared to psychology or economics. People might be able to cite the name of a psychologist or economist, but almost never that of a sociologist.

The goal of this website is to remedy this lack of knowledge of the discipline by making accessible the concepts, theories and methods of sociology as well as its contributions to our understanding of the issues such as those listed above. The goal is to clarify what sociological analysis is.

Social reality is complex, more complex than it often seems. We often get the wrong ideas about social phenomena because of a lack of knowledge especially since certain aspects of social reality are hidden. Think of an iceberg: what we see is not the totality of it. There is always a big chunk that is invisible and yet influences the visible part. Doing sociological analysis is to explore and make visible the submerged part.

There are at least three very general reasons why sociology is important:

To improve one's knowledge of the world. We all have a tendency to make hasty judgments and repeat commonsense assumptions we hear from the media, our peer groups or our relatives. Commonsense is actually inaccurate more often than we think.

Also, to be part of a society does not mean we know it because we tend to take a lot for granted, because "that;s just the way it is". A lot of assumptions, commonsense knowledge, we never question.

To conduct sociological analysis is a way of getting more correct ideas, ideas that are more conform to reality of social phenomena surrounding us. We learn to beware of appearances that are often deceiving. We take a close look at the submerged part of the iceberg and develop a critical view of society.

To know oneself better. Sociological analyses are about us, our experiences. Through its tools, we become better able to understand our beliefs, behaviors, choices and opportunities, and the reasons for our successes and failures.

To contribute to public policy. Sociological analysis should help decision-makers in asking the right questions and finding solutions to social problems. Since its beginnings, sociology has always been focused on getting things right so we can put in place the right policies to solve problems.

General Pages

• The Sociological Perspective: where we lay out the specific approach sociology uses to study human behavior.
• Sociological Articles: where we link to reviews and summaries of professional sociological articles on interesting topics.
  
• Book reviews
• Sociology in the News: when the media uses sociological analysis on a variety of topics or when something significant happens in the field of sociology.
• Sociological Topics: pages dedicated to exploring sociological concepts, theories and topics.
  • Group Behavior
  • Identity and Globalization
    
  • Social Privilege
    
  • Social Stratification
  • Terrorism
    
• Sociologists: pages dedicated to exploring the theories of major sociologists in an accessible fashion.
  • Emile Durkheim
    
  • Howard S. Becker
  • Ulrich Beck
    
  • Pierre Bourdieu
  • Erving Goffman
    
  • Michael Kimmel
  • Saskia Sassen
  • Max Weber
• Sociological Schools of Thought: pages dedicated to the major sociological theories.
  

Contributing Sociologists

Christine Monnier, Ph.D

You can find Professor Christine Monnier's page here. Christine Monnier is the coordinator of the Sociology program at College of DuPage and administrator of this site. See also her pages on

• Sociological blogs
• Sociological films
• Globalization links
• Sociology links

Mary Jean Cravens

You can find Professor Mary Jean Cravens's page here. Mary Jean Cravens is Assistant Professor of Sociology at College of DuPage. See also her page on

• Recommended films

Beth Dougherty

You can find Professor Beth Dougherty's page here.

What is Sociology? Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts. Since human behavior is shaped by social factors, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob; from organized crime to religious cults; from the divisions of race, gender and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; and from the sociology of work to the sociology of sports. In fact, few fields have such broad scope and relevance for research, theory, and application of knowledge. Sociology provides many distinctive perspectives on the world, generating new ideas and critiquing the old. The field also offers a range of research techniques that can be applied to virtually any aspect of social life: street crime and delinquency, corporate downsizing, how people express emotions, welfare or education reform, how families differ and flourish, or problems of peace and war. Because sociology addresses the most challenging issues of our time, it is a rapidly expanding field whose potential is increasingly tapped by those who craft policies and create programs. Sociologists understand social inequality, patterns of behavior, forces for social change and resistance, and how social systems work. American Sociological Association