sociology

      The study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society.

• the study of social problems.

  Sociology is the study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organisation, networks, and institutions. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder, and change. Many sociologists aim to conduct research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining the theoretical understanding of social processes. Subject matter ranges from the micro-sociology level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and the social structure.

  The traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality anddeviance. As all spheres of human activity are affected by the interplay between social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such as health, medical, military and penal institutions, the Internet, education,social capital and the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.

  The range of social scientific methods has also expanded. Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitativetechniques. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, andphilosophic approaches towards the analysis of society. Conversely, the end of the 1990's and the beginning of 2000's have seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically and computationally rigorous techniques, such as agent-based modelling and social network analysis.

  Social research informs politicians and policy makers, educators, planners, legislators, administrators, developers, business magnates, managers, social workers, non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations, and people interested in resolvingsocial issues in general. There is often a great deal of crossover between social research, market research, and other statistical fields.
• 
  
•