According to Wikipedia,
Sociology is a branch of social sciences that uses systematic methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Its subject matter ranges from the micro level of face-to-face interaction to the macro level of societies at large.
Rather more briefly, sociology is the systematic study of social processes and institutions, often with a particular emphasis on the relationship between society and individual experience and behaviour. It is generally considered that it would be of significant benefit in these rapidly changing times for individuals and groups to have a source of reliable knowledge about how societies work and the social processes that form the context of their experiences and problems and have, often pretty invisible, impacts upon their lives. It is a commonplace in sociology that the unintended consequences of intended actions often have a far greater impact on the desired outcomes for individuals, groups and organisations than those intended and hoped for. These unintended consequences are often due to the way individual and group actions and behaviours connect with, reverberate through and rebound from much broader social contexts and processes.
C. Wright Mills claimed that sociology is the study of the ways individual lives are linked to the historical development of social structures. To quote from his book The Sociological Imagination (1959):
It is the political task of the social scientist — as of any liberal educator — continually to translate personal troubles into public issues, and public issues into the terms of their human meaning for a variety of individuals. It is his (sic) task to display in his work — and, as an educator, in his life as well — this kind of sociological imagination.
Something if this is hinted at in H G Well’s commentary on Mr Polly’s predicament (and many of the poor ‘respectable’ middle-class of the time):
I come back to Mr. Polly sitting upon his gate and swearing in the east wind, and I have a sense of floating across unbridged abysses between the General and the Particular. There, on the one hand, is the man of understanding, seeing clearly the big process that dooms millions of lives to thwarting and discomfort and unhappy circumstance […] and, on the other hand, Mr. Polly sitting on his gate, untrained, unwarned, confused, distressed, angry, seeing nothing except that he is, as it were, nettled in greyness and discomfort [..]. (H G Wells. The History of Mr Polly 1910 Chapter 7 Part III).
The man of understanding, who can provide the ‘General’ context to Mr Polly’s ’Particular’ circumstances in Well’s story is a social scientist of some sort.
All this seems to imply somewhat grandiose pretensions for this web site. However, we more modestly hope that readers that are interested enough to visit from time to time will at least find some useful and interesting information that assists in understanding some of the key issues and problems of our time, or at least open up opportunities for reflection and discussion.
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