Sociology

Sociology is a relatively new science born at the beginning of the 19th century. Together with philosophy, psychology, political science, and anthropology, sociology belongs to the humanities and explores “society” in its broad sense. It is the science of social phenomena, structures, relations, social problems, and their causes. The actions of individuals and groups; the social meaning that these actions obtain; the social interactions caused by [Page 1628]coexistence in organized, rule-based societies; the ways with which social cohesion is achieved and social conflict is resolved; as well as the regulatory power mechanisms in societies are some of the main questions of modern sociology's research agenda. Processes of institutionalization, socialization, and social stratification are of paramount interest for the several subfields of sociology.

Sociology is neither a ...