Social science

Social science
Social science refers to the academic disciplines concerned with society and human behavior.[1] "Social science" is
commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to anthropology, archaeology, criminology, economics, education,
history, linguistics, communication studies, political science, international relations, sociology, human geography,
and psychology, and includes elements of other fields as well, such as law, cultural studies, environmental studies,
and social work.
The term may however be used in the specific context of referring to the original science of society established in
19th century sociology (Latin: socius, "companion"; -ology, "the study of", and Greek , lgos, "word",
"knowledge"). mile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber are typically cited as the principal architects of modern
social science by this definition.[2] Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the natural sciences as
tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter modern sense. Interpretivist social scientists, by
contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories,
and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often eclectic, using multiple
methodologies (for instance, by combining the quantitative and qualitative techniques). The term social research has
also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share in its aims and methods.

History
The history of the social sciences begins in the Age of Enlightenment after 1650, which saw a revolution within
natural philosophy, changing the basic framework by which individuals understood what was "scientific". Social
sciences came forth from the moral philosophy of the time and was influenced by the Age of Revolutions, such as
the Industrial revolution and the French revolution.[3] The social sciences developed from the sciences (experimental
and applied), or the systematic knowledge-bases or prescriptive practices, relating to the social improvement of a
.[4][5]
The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in various grand encyclopedia of Diderot, with
articles from Rousseau and other pioneers. The growth of the social sciences is also reflected in other specialized
encyclopedias. The modern period saw "social science" first used as a distinct conceptual field.[6] Social science was
influenced by positivism,[3] focusing on knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and avoiding the
negative; metaphysical speculation was avoided. Auguste Comte used the term "science social" to describe the field,
taken from the ideas of Charles Fourier; Comte also referred to the field as social physics.[3][7]
Following this period, there were five paths of development that sprang forth in the Social Sciences, influenced by
Comte on other fields.[3] One route that was taken was the rise of social research. Large statistical surveys were
undertaken in various parts of the United States and Europe. Another route undertaken was initiated by mile
Durkheim, studying "social facts", and Vilfredo Pareto, opening metatheoretical ideas and individual theories. A
third means developed, arising from the methodological dichotomy present, in which the social phenomena was
identified with and understood; this was championed by figures such as Max Weber. The fourth route taken, based in
economics, was developed and furthered economic knowledge as a hard science. The last path was the correlation of
knowledge and social values; the antipositivism and verstehen sociology of Max Weber firmly demanded on this
distinction. In this route, theory (description) and prescription were non-overlapping formal discussions of a subject.
Around the start of the 20th century, Enlightenment philosophy was challenged in various quarters. After the use of
classical theories since the end of the scientific revolution, various fields substituted mathematics studies for
experimental studies and examining equations to build a theoretical structure. The development of social science
subfields became very quantitative in methodology. The interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of scientific
inquiry into human behavior, social and environmental factors affecting it, made many of the natural sciences
interested in some aspects of social science methodology.[8] Examples of boundary blurring include emerging

Social science

disciplines like social research of medicine, sociobiology, neuropsychology, bioeconomics and the history and
sociology of science. Increasingly, quantitative research and qualitative methods are being integrated in the study of
human action and its implications and consequences. In the first half of the 20th century, statistics became a
free-standing discipline of applied mathematics. Statistical methods were used confidently.
In the contemporary period, Karl Popper and Talcott Parsons influenced the furtherance of the social sciences.[3]
Researchers continue to search for a unified consensus on what methodology might have the power and refinement
to connect a proposed "grand theory" with the various midrange theories which, with considerable success, continue
to provide usable frameworks for massive, growing data banks; for more, see consilience. At present though, the
various realms of social science progress in a myriad of ways, increasing the overall knowledge of society. The
social sciences will for the foreseeable future be composed of different zones in the research of, and sometime
distinct in approach toward, the field.[3]
The term "social science" may refer either to the specific sciences of society established by thinkers such as Comte,
Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, or more generally to all disciplines outside of "noble science" and arts. By the late 19th
century, the academic social sciences were constituted of five fields: jurisprudence and amendment of the law,
education, health, economy and trade, and art.[4]
Around the start of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as
economic imperialism.[9]

Branches of social science

Social Science areas
[3]

The following are problem areas and discipline branches within the social sciences.

Anthropology
Area studies
Business studies
Communication studies
Criminology
Demography
Development studies
Economics
Education
Geography
History
Industrial relations
Information science
Law
Library science
Linguistics
Media studies
Political science
Psychology
Public administration
Sociology

The Social Science disciplines are branches of knowledge which are taught and researched at the college or
university level. Social Science disciplines are defined and recognized by the academic journals in which research is
published, and the learned Social Science societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners
belong. Social Science fields of study usually have several sub-disciplines or branches, and the distinguishing lines
between these are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.

Social science

Anthropology
Anthropology is the holistic "science of man," a science of the totality of human existence. The discipline deals
with the integration of different aspects of the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Human Biology. In the twentieth
century, academic disciplines have often been institutionally divided into three broad domains. The natural sciences
seek to derive general laws through reproducible and verifiable experiments. The humanities generally study local
traditions, through their history, literature, music, and arts, with an emphasis on understanding particular individuals,
events, or eras. The social sciences have generally attempted to develop scientific methods to understand social
phenomena in a generalizable way, though usually with methods distinct from those of the natural sciences.
The anthropological social sciences often develop nuanced descriptions rather than the general laws derived in
physics or chemistry, or they may explain individual cases through more general principles, as in many fields of
psychology. Anthropology (like some fields of history) does not easily fit into one of these categories, and different
branches of anthropology draw on one or more of these domains.[10] Within the United States, Anthropology is
divided into four sub-fields:Archaeology, Physical or Biological Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, and
Cultural Anthropology. It is an area that is offered at most undergraduate institutions. The word anthropos
() is from the Greek for "human being" or "person." Eric Wolf described sociocultural anthropology as
"the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the sciences."
The goal of anthropology is to provide a holistic account of humans and human nature. This means that, though
anthropologists generally specialize in only one sub-field, they always keep in mind the biological, linguistic,
historic and cultural aspects of any problem. Since anthropology arose as a science in Western societies that were
complex and industrial, a major trend within anthropology has been a methodological drive to study peoples in
societies with more simple social organization, sometimes called "primitive" in anthropological literature, but
without any connotation of "inferior."[11] Today, anthropologists use terms such as "less complex" societies or refer
to specific modes of subsistence or production, such as "pastoralist" or "forager" or "horticulturalist" to refer to
humans living in non-industrial, non-Western cultures, such people or folk (ethnos) remaining of great interest
within anthropology.
The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study a people in detail, using biogenetic, archaeological, and
linguistic data alongside direct observation of contemporary customs.[12] In the 1990s and 2000s, calls for
clarification of what constitutes a culture, of how an observer knows where his or her own culture ends and another
begins, and other crucial topics in writing anthropology were heard. It is possible to view all human cultures as part
of one large, evolving global culture. These dynamic relationships, between what can be observed on the ground, as
opposed to what can be observed by compiling many local observations remain fundamental in any kind of
anthropology, whether cultural, biological, linguistic or archaeological.[13]

Communication studies
Communication studies deals with processes of human communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols
to create meaning. The discipline encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation to mass media
outlets such as television broadcasting. Communication studies also examines how messages are interpreted through
the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of their contexts. Communication is institutionalized under
many different names at different universities, including "communication", "communication studies", "speech
communication", "rhetorical studies", "communications science", "media studies", "communication arts", "mass
communication", "media ecology," and "communication and media science."
Communication studies integrates aspects of both social sciences and the humanities. As a social science, the
discipline often overlaps with sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, political science, economics, and public
policy, among others. From a humanities perspective, communication is concerned with rhetoric and persuasion
(traditional graduate programs in communication studies trace their history to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece).
The field applies to outside disciplines as well, including engineering, architecture, mathematics, and information

Social science
science.

Economics
Economics is a social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of
wealth.[14] The word "economics" is from the Greek [oikos], "family, household, estate," and [nomos],
"custom, law," and hence means "household management" or "management of the state." An economist is a person
using economic concepts and data in the course of employment, or someone who has earned a university degree in
the subject. The classic brief definition of economics, set out by Lionel Robbins in 1932, is "the science which
studies human behavior as a relation between scarce means having alternative uses." Without scarcity and alternative
uses, there is no economic problem. Briefer yet is "the study of how people seek to satisfy needs and wants" and "the
study of the financial aspects of human behavior."
Economics has two broad branches: microeconomics, where
the unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household
or firm, and macroeconomics, where the unit of analysis is an
economy as a whole. Another division of the subject
distinguishes positive economics, which seeks to predict and
explain economic phenomena, from normative economics,
which orders choices and actions by some criterion; such
orderings necessarily involve subjective value judgments.
Since the early part of the 20th century, economics has focused
Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their
largely on measurable quantities, employing both theoretical
best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala.
models and empirical analysis. Quantitative models, however,
can be traced as far back as the physiocratic school. Economic reasoning has been increasingly applied in recent
decades to other social situations such as politics, law, psychology, history, religion, marriage and family life, and
other social interactions. This paradigm crucially assumes (1) that resources are scarce because they are not
sufficient to satisfy all wants, and (2) that "economic value" is willingness to pay as revealed for instance by market
(arms' length) transactions. Rival heterodox schools of thought, such as institutional economics, green economics,
Marxist economics, and economic sociology, make other grounding assumptions. For example, Marxist economics
assumes that economics primarily deals with the exchange of value, and that labor (human effort) is the source of all
value.
The expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism.[9][15]

Social science

Education
Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills,
and also something less tangible but more profound: the
imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and
well-developed wisdom. Education has as one of its
fundamental aspects the imparting of culture from generation
to generation (see socialization). To educate means 'to draw
out', from the Latin educare, or to facilitate the realization of
an individual's potential and talents. It is an application of
pedagogy, a body of theoretical and applied research relating to
teaching and learning and draws on many disciplines such as
psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics,
neuroscience, sociology and anthropology.[16]

A depiction of Europe's oldest university, the University of

Bologna, Italy

The education of an individual human begins at birth and

continues throughout life. (Some believe that education begins even before birth, as evidenced by some parents'
playing music or reading to the baby in the womb in the hope it will influence the child's development.) For some,
the struggles and triumphs of daily life provide far more instruction than does formal schooling (thus Mark Twain's
admonition to "never let school interfere with your education"). Family members may have a profound educational
effect often more profound than they realize though family teaching may function very informally.

Human geography
Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main
sub fields: human geography and physical geography. The
former focuses largely on the built environment and how space
is created, viewed and managed by humans as well as the
influence humans have on the space they occupy. The latter
examines the natural environment and how the climate,
vegetation & life, soil, water and landforms are produced and
interact.[17] As a result of the two subfields using different
approaches a third field has emerged, which is environmental
geography. Environmental geography combines physical and human geography and looks at the interactions
between the environment and humans.[18]
Geographers attempt to understand the earth in terms of physical and spatial relationships. The first geographers
focused on the science of mapmaking and finding ways to precisely project the surface of the earth. In this sense,
geography bridges some gaps between the natural sciences and social sciences. Historical geography is often taught
in a college in a unified Department of Geography.
Modern geography is an all-encompassing discipline, closely related to GISc, that seeks to understand humanity and
its natural environment. The fields of Urban Planning, Regional Science, and Planetology are closely related to
geography. Practitioners of geography use many technologies and methods to collect data such as GIS, remote
sensing, aerial photography, statistics, and global positioning systems (GPS).
The field of geography is generally split into two distinct branches: physical and human. Physical geography
examines phenomena related to climate, oceans, soils, and the measurement of earth. Human geography focuses on
fields as diverse as Cultural geography, transportation, health, military operations, and cities. Other branches of
geography include Social geography, regional geography, geomatics, and environmental geography.

Social science

History
History is the continuous, systematic narrative and research into past human events as interpreted through
historiographical paradigms or theories, such as the Turner Thesis about the American frontier.
History has a base in both the social sciences and the humanities. In the United States the National Endowment for
the Humanities includes history in its definition of a Humanities (as it does for applied Linguistics).[19] However, the
National Research Council classifies History as a Social science.[20] The historical method comprises the techniques
and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history. The
Social Science History Association, formed in 1976, brings together scholars from numerous disciplines interested in
social history.[21]

Law
Law in common parlance, means a rule which (unlike a rule of
ethics) is capable of enforcement through institutions.[22]
However, many laws are based on norms accepted by a
community and thus have an ethical foundation. The study of
law crosses the boundaries between the social sciences and
humanities, depending on one's view of research into its
objectives and effects. Law is not always enforceable,
especially in the international relations context. It has been
defined as a "system of rules",[23] as an "interpretive
concept"[24] to achieve justice, as an "authority"[25] to mediate
people's interests, and even as "the command of a sovereign,
A trial at a criminal court, the Old Bailey in London
backed by the threat of a sanction".[26] However one likes to
think of law, it is a completely central social institution. Legal policy incorporates the practical manifestation of
thinking from almost every social sciences and humanity. Laws are politics, because politicians create them. Law is
philosophy, because moral and ethical persuasions shape their ideas. Law tells many of history's stories, because
statutes, case law and codifications build up over time. And law is economics, because any rule about contract, tort,
property law, labour law, company law and many more can have long lasting effects on the distribution of wealth.
The noun law derives from the late Old English lagu, meaning something laid down or fixed[27] and the adjective
legal comes from the Latin word lex.[28]

Social science

Linguistics
Linguistics investigates the cognitive and social aspects of
human language. The field is divided into areas that focus on
aspects of the linguistic signal, such as syntax (the study of the
rules that govern the structure of sentences), semantics (the
study of meaning), morphology (the study of the structure of
words), phonetics (the study of speech sounds) and phonology
(the study of the abstract sound system of a particular
language); however, work in areas like evolutionary linguistics
(the study of the origins and evolution of language) and
psycholinguistics (the study of psychological factors in human
language) cut across these divisions.
The overwhelming majority of modern research in linguistics
takes a predominantly synchronic perspective (focusing on
language at a particular point in time), and a great deal of
itpartly owing to the influence of Noam Chomskyaims at
formulating theories of the cognitive processing of language.
Ferdinand de Saussure, recognized as the father of modern
However, language does not exist in a vacuum, or only in the
linguistics
brain, and approaches like contact linguistics, creole studies,
discourse analysis, social interactional linguistics, and
sociolinguistics explore language in its social context. Sociolinguistics often makes use of traditional quantitative
analysis and statistics in investigating the frequency of features, while some disciplines, like contact linguistics,
focus on qualitative analysis. While certain areas of linguistics can thus be understood as clearly falling within the
social sciences, other areas, like acoustic phonetics and neurolinguistics, draw on the natural sciences. Linguistics
draws only secondarily on the humanities, which played a rather greater role in linguistic inquiry in the 19th and
early 20th centuries. Ferdinand Saussure is considered the father of modern linguistics.

Social science

Political science
Political science is an academic and research discipline that
deals with the theory and practice of politics and the
description and analysis of political systems and political
behavior. Fields and subfields of political science include
political economy, political theory and philosophy, civics and
comparative politics, theory of direct democracy, apolitical
governance, participatory direct democracy, national systems,
cross-national political analysis, political development,
international relations, foreign policy, international law,
politics, public administration, administrative behavior, public
law, judicial behavior, and public policy. Political science also
studies power in international relations and the theory of Great
powers and Superpowers.
Political science is methodologically diverse, although recent
years have witnessed an upsurge in the use of the scientific
method [29]. That is the proliferation of formal-deductive
model building and quantitative hypothesis testing. Approaches
to the discipline include rational choice, classical political
Aristotle asserted that man is a political animal in his
Politics
philosophy, interpretivism, structuralism, and behavioralism,
realism, pluralism, and institutionalism. Political science, as
one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources
such as historical documents, interviews, and official records, as well as secondary sources such as scholarly journal
articles are used in building and testing theories. Empirical methods include survey research, statistical
analysis/econometrics, case studies, experiments, and model building. Herbert Baxter Adams is credited with coining
the phrase "political science" while teaching history at Johns Hopkins University.
Public administration
One of the main branches of political science, public administration can be broadly described as the development,
implementation and study of branches of government policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil
society and social justice is the ultimate goal of the field. Though public administration has historically referred to as
government management, it increasingly encompasses non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that also operate
with a similar, primary dedication to the betterment of humanity. Its the government protocol to solve a public
problem. According to Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram, policies constitute the discourses, text, regulations and
laws. Also the making of public policies include the enforcement of such and the tools given to the institutions to do
so.[30]
Differentiating public administration from business administration, a closely related field, has become a popular
method for defining the discipline by contrasting the two. First, the goals of public administration are more closely
related to those often cited as goals of the American founders and democratic people in general. That is, public
employees work to improve equality, justice, security, efficiency, effectiveness, and, at times, the profit. These
values help to both differentiate the field from business administration, primarily concerned with profit, and define
the discipline. Second, public administration is a relatively new, multidisciplinary field. Woodrow Wilson's The
Study of Administration is frequently cited as the seminal work. Wilson advocated a more professional operation of
public officials' daily activities. Further, the future president identified the necessity in the United States of a
separation between party politics and good bureaucracy, which has also been a lasting theme.

Social science
The multidisciplinary nature of public administration is related to a third defining feature: administrative duties.
Public administrators work in public agencies, at all levels of government, and perform a wide range of tasks. Public
administrators collect and analyze data (statistics), monitor fiscal operations (budgets, accounts, and cash flow),
organize large events and meetings, draft legislation, develop policy, and frequently execute legally mandated,
government activities. Regarding this final facet, public administrators find themselves serving as parole officers,
secretaries, note takers, paperwork processors, record keepers, notaries of the public, cashiers, and managers. Indeed,
the discipline couples well with many vocational fields such as information technology, finance, law, and
engineering. When it comes to the delivery and evaluation of public services, a public administrator is undoubtedly
involved.

Psychology
Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the
study of behavior and mental processes. Psychology also refers
to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of
human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives
and the treatment of mental illness. The word psychology
comes from the ancient Greek , psyche ("soul", "mind")
and logy, study).
Psychology differs from anthropology, economics, political
science, and sociology in seeking to capture explanatory
generalizations about the mental function and overt behavior of
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was the founder of
individuals, while the other disciplines focus on creating
experimental psychology
descriptive generalizations about the functioning of social
groups or situation-specific human behavior. In practice,
however, there is quite a lot of cross-fertilization that takes place among the various fields. Psychology differs from
biology and neuroscience in that it is primarily concerned with the interaction of mental processes and behavior, and
of the overall processes of a system, and not simply the biological or neural processes themselves, though the
subfield of neuropsychology combines the study of the actual neural processes with the study of the mental effects
they have subjectively produced. Many people associate Psychology with Clinical Psychology which focuses on
assessment and treatment of problems in living and psychopathology. In reality, Psychology has myriad specialties
including: Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Industrial-Organizational
Psychology, Mathematical psychology, Neuropsychology, and Quantitative Analysis of Behavior to name only a
few.
Psychology is a very broad science that is rarely tackled as a whole, major block. Although some subfields
encompass a natural science base and a social science application, others can be clearly distinguished as having little
to do with the social sciences or having a lot to do with the social sciences. For example, biological psychology is
considered a natural science with a social scientific application (as is clinical medicine), social and occupational
psychology are, generally speaking, purely social sciences, whereas neuropsychology is a natural science that lacks
application out of the scientific tradition entirely. In British universities, emphasis on what tenet of psychology a
student has studied and/or concentrated is communicated through the degree conferred: B.Psy. indicates a balance
between natural and social sciences, B.Sc. indicates a strong (or entire) scientific concentration, whereas a B.A.
underlines a majority of social science credits. This is not always necessarily the case however, and in many UK
institutions students studying the B.Psy, B.Sc, and B.A. follow the same curriculum as outlined by The British
Psychological Society and have the same options of specialism open to them regardless of whether they choose a
balance, a heavy science basis, or heavy social science basis to their degree. If they applied to read the B.A. for
example, but specialised in heavily science based modules, then they will still generally be awarded the B.A.

Social science

Sociology
Sociology is the systematic study of society and human social
action. The meaning of the word comes from the suffix
"-ology" which means "study of," derived from Greek, and the
stem "soci-" which is from the Latin word socius, meaning
"companion", or society in general.
Sociology was originally established by Auguste Comte
(17981857) in 1838.[31] Comte endeavoured to unify history,
psychology and economics through the descriptive
understanding of the social realm. He proposed that social ills
could be remedied through sociological positivism, an
epistemological approach outlined in The Course in Positive
Philosophy [18301842] and A General View of Positivism
(1844). Though Comte is generally regarded as the "Father of
Sociology", the discipline was formally established by another
French thinker, mile Durkheim (18581917), who developed
positivism as a foundation to practical social research.
Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at
the University of Bordeaux in 1895, publishing his Rules of the
Sociological Method. In 1896, he established the journal
mile Durkheim is considered one of the founding fathers
L'Anne Sociologique. Durkheim's seminal monograph, Suicide
of sociology.
(1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst Catholic and
Protestant populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy.[32]
Karl Marx rejected Comtean positivism but nevertheless aimed to establish a science of society based on historical
materialism, becoming recognised as a founding figure of sociology posthumously as the term gained broader
meaning. Around the start of the 20th century, the first wave of German sociologists, including Max Weber and
Georg Simmel, developed sociological antipositivism. The field may be broadly recognised as an amalgam of three
modes of social thought in particular: Durkheimian positivism and structural functionalism; Marxist historical
materialism and conflict theory; Weberian antipositivism and verstehen analysis. American sociology broadly arose
on a separate trajectory, with little Marxist influence, an emphasis on rigorous experimental methodology, and a
closer association with pragmatism and social psychology. In the 1920s, the Chicago school developed symbolic
interactionism. Meanwhile in the 1930s, the Frankfurt School pioneered the idea of critical theory, an
interdisciplinary form of Marxist sociology drawing upon thinkers as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Friedrich
Nietzsche. Critical theory would take on something of a life of its own after World War II, influencing literary
criticism and the Birmingham School establishment of cultural studies.
Sociology evolved as an academic response to the challenges of modernity, such as industrialization, urbanization,
secularization, and a perceived process of enveloping rationalization.[33] Because sociology is such a broad
discipline, it can be difficult to define, even for professional sociologists. The field generally concerns the social
rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups,
communities and institutions, and includes the examination of the organization and development of human social
life. The sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on
the street to the study of global social processes. In the terms of sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann,
social scientists seek an understanding of the Social Construction of Reality. Most sociologists work in one or more
subfields. One useful way to describe the discipline is as a cluster of sub-fields that examine different dimensions of
society. For example, social stratification studies inequality and class structure; demography studies changes in a

10

Social science
population size or type; criminology examines criminal behavior and deviance; and political sociology studies the
interaction between society and state.
Since its inception, sociological epistemologies, methods, and frames of enquiry, have significantly expanded and
diverged.[34] Sociologists use a diversity of research methods, drawing upon either empirical techniques or critical
theory. Common modern methods include case studies, historical research, interviewing, participant observation,
social network analysis, survey research, statistical analysis, and model building, among other approaches. Since the
late 1970s, many sociologists have tried to make the discipline useful for non-academic purposes. The results of
sociological research aid educators, lawmakers, administrators, developers, and others interested in resolving social
problems and formulating public policy, through subdisciplinary areas such as evaluation research, methodological
assessment, and public sociology.
New sociological sub-fields continue to appear such as community studies, computational sociology,
environmental sociology, network analysis, actor-network theory and a growing list, many of which are
cross-disciplinary in nature.

Additional fields of study

Additional Social Science disciplines and fields of study include:
Archaeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and
interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and
landscapes.
Area studies are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical,
national/federal, or cultural regions.
Behavioral science is a term that encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and interactions
among organisms in the natural world.
Demography is the statistical study of all populations.
Development studies a multidisciplinary branch of social science which addresses issues of concern to developing
countries.
Environmental social science is the broad, transdisciplinary study of interrelations between humans and the
natural environment.
Environmental studies integrate social, humanistic, and natural science perspectives on the relation between
humans and the natural environment.
Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the collection, classification,
manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information.
International studies covers both International relations (the study of foreign affairs and global issues among
states within the international system) and International education (the comprehensive approach that intentionally
prepares people to be active and engaged participants in an interconnected world).
Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media.
Legal management is a social sciences discipline that is designed for students interested in the study of State and
Legal elements.
Library science is an interdisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management,
information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation and
dissemination of information resources; and the political economy of information.
Management in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to
accomplish desired goals and objectives.
Marketing the identification of human needs and wants, defines and measures their magnitude for demand and
understanding the process of consumer buying behavior to formulate products and services, pricing, promotion
and distribution to satisfy these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long term relationships.

11

Social science
Political economy is the study of production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and
government.

Methodology
Social research
The origin of the survey can be traced back at least early as the Domesday Book in 1086,[35][36] whilst some scholars
pinpoint the origin of demography to 1663 with the publication of John Graunt's Natural and Political Observations
upon the Bills of Mortality.[37] Social research began most intentionally, however, with the positivist philosophy of
science in the 19th century.
In contemporary usage, "social research" is a relatively autonomous term, encompassing the work of practitioners
from various disciplines which share in its aims and methods. Social scientists employ a range of methods in order to
analyse a vast breadth of social phenomena; from census survey data derived from millions of individuals, to the
in-depth analysis of a single agent's social experiences; from monitoring what is happening on contemporary streets,
to the investigation of ancient historical documents. The methods originally rooted in classical sociology and
statistical mathematics have formed the basis for research in other disciplines, such as political science, media
studies, and marketing and market research.
Social research methods may be divided into two broad schools:
Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable evidence, and often rely on statistical
analysis of many cases (or across intentionally designed treatments in an experiment) to create valid and reliable
general claims.
Qualitative designs emphasize understanding of social phenomena through direct observation, communication
with participants, or analysis of texts, and may stress contextual and subjective accuracy over generality
Social scientists will commonly combine quantitative and qualitative approaches as part of a multi-strategy design.
Questionnaires, field-based data collection, archival database information and laboratory-based data collections are
some of the measurement techniques used. It is noted the importance of measurement and analysis, focusing on the
(difficult to achieve) goal of objective research or statistical hypothesis testing. A mathematical model uses
mathematical language to describe a system. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed
'mathematical modelling' (also modeling). Eykhoff (1974) defined a mathematical model as 'a representation of the
essential aspects of an existing system (or a system to be constructed) which presents knowledge of that system in
usable form'.[38] Mathematical models can take many forms, including but not limited to dynamical systems,
statistical models, differential equations, or game theoretic models.
These and other types of models can overlap, with a given model involving a variety of abstract structures. The
system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole. The concept of
an integrated whole can also be stated in terms of a system embodying a set of relationships which are differentiated
from relationships of the set to other elements, and from relationships between an element of the set and elements
not a part of the relational regime. Dynamical system modeled as a mathematical formalization has fixed "rule"
which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space. Small changes in the state of the
system correspond to small changes in the numbers. The evolution rule of the dynamical system is a fixed rule that
describes what future states follow from the current state. The rule is deterministic: for a given time interval only one
future state follows from the current state.

12

Social science

Theory
Other social scientists emphasize the subjective nature of research. These writers share social theory perspectives
that include various types of the following:
Critical theory is the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across social
sciences and humanities disciplines.
Dialectical materialism is the philosophy of Karl Marx, which he formulated by taking the dialectic of Hegel and
joining it to the Materialism of Feuerbach.
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, or philosophical discourse, it aims to understand the
nature of gender inequality.
Marxist theories, such as revolutionary theory and class theory, cover work in philosophy which is strongly
influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists.
Phronetic social science is a theory and methodology for doing social science focusing on ethics and political
power, based on a contemporary interpretation of Aristotelian phronesis.
Post-colonial theory is a reaction to the cultural legacy of colonialism.
Postmodernism refer to a point of departure for works of literature, drama, architecture, cinema, and design, as
well as in marketing and business and in the interpretation of history, law, culture and religion in the late 20th
century.
Rational choice theory is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic
behavior.
Social constructionism is a knowledge that considers how social phenomena develop in social contexts.
Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze a specific field (for instance,
mythology) as a complex system of interrelated parts.
Structural functionalism is a sociological paradigm which addresses what social functions various elements of the
social system perform in regard to the entire system.
Other fringe social scientists delve in alternative nature of research. These writers share social theory perspectives
that include various types of the following:
Intellectual critical-ism describes a sentiment of critique towards, or evaluation of, intellectuals and intellectual
pursuits.
Scientific criticalism is a position critical of science and the scientific method.

Education and degrees

Most universities offer degrees in social science fields.[39] The Bachelor of Social Science is a degree targeted at the
social sciences in particular. It is often more flexible and in-depth than other degrees which include social science
subjects.[40]
In the United States, a university may offer a student who studies a social sciences field a Bachelor of Arts degree,
particularly if the field is within one of the traditional liberal arts such as history, or a BSc: Bachelor of Science
degree such as those given by the London School of Economics, as the social sciences constitute one of the two main
branches of science (the other being the natural sciences). In addition, some institutions have degrees for a particular
social science, such as the Bachelor of Economics degree, though such specialized degrees are relatively rare in the
United States.

13

Social science

References
Footnotes
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]

Malcolm Williams. 1999. Science and Social Science: An Introduction. Psychology Press
Max Weber - Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (http:/ / plato. stanford. edu/ entries/ weber/ )
Kuper, A., & Kuper, J. (1985).
Social sciences, Columbian cyclopedia. (1897). Buffalo: Garretson, Cox & Company. Page 227.
Peck, H. T., Peabody, S. H., & Richardson, C. F. (1897). The International cyclopedia, A compendium of human knowledge. Rev. with large
additions. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
[6] An Inquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness; applied to the Newly Proposed System of
Voluntary Equality of Wealth (1824) by William Thompson (17751833)
[7] According to Comte, the social physics field was similar to that of natural sciences.
[8] Vessuri, Hebe. (2000). "Ethical Challenges for the Social Sciences on the Threshold of the 21st Century." Current Sociology 50, no. 1
(January): 135-150. (http:/ / www. web-miner. com/ socsciethics. htm), Social Science Ethics: A Bibliography, Sharon Stoerger MLS, MBA
[9] Lazear, Edward P. (2000). "Economic Imperialism," Quarterly Journal Economics, 115(1)|, p p. 99 (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ pss/
2586936)-146. Cached copy. (http:/ / 66. 102. 1. 104/ scholar?hl=en& lr=& q=cache:fD0VzttXRUMJ:flash. lakeheadu. ca/ ~kyu/ E5111/
Lazear2000. pdf+ ) Pre-publication copy (http:/ / 66. 102. 1. 104/ scholar?hl=en& lr=& q=cache:lK_6EHxTuCoJ:faculty-gsb. stanford. edu/
lazear/ personal/ PDFs/ economic%20imperialism. pdf+ )(larger print.)
[10] Wallerstein, Immanuel. (2003) "Anthropology, sociology, and other dubious disciplines." Current Anthropology 44:453-466.
[11] Lowie, Robert. Primitive Religion. Routledge and Sons. 1924; Tylor,Edward. 1920 [1871]. Primitive Culture. New York: J.P. Putnams
Sons.
[12] Nanda, Serena and Richard Warms. Culture Counts. Wadsworth. 2008. Chapter One
[13] Rosaldo, Renato. Culture and Truth: The remaking of social analysis. Beacon Press. 1993; Inda, John Xavier and Renato Rosaldo. The
Anthropology of Globalization. Wiley-Blackwell. 2007'
[14] economics - Britannica Online Encyclopedia (http:/ / www. britannica. com/ eb/ article-9109547?query=Economics& ct=)
[15] Becker, Gary S. (1976). The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. Links (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iwEOFKSKbMgC&
dq="The+ Economic+ Approach+ to+ Human+ Behavior"+ Introduction& lr=& source=gbs_summary_s& cad=0) to arrow-page viewable
chapter. University of Chicago Press.
[16] An overview of education (http:/ / www. teachersmind. com/ education. htm)
[17] "What is geography?" (http:/ / www. aag. org/ Careers/ What_is_geog. html). AAG Career Guide: Jobs in Geography and related
Geographical Sciences. Association of American Geographers. . Retrieved October 9, 2006.
[18] Hayes-Bohanan, James. "What is Environmental Geography, Anyway?" (http:/ / webhost. bridgew. edu/ jhayesboh/
environmentalgeography. htm). . Retrieved October 9, 2006.
[19] Overview (http:/ / www. neh. gov/ whoweare/ overview. html)
[20] Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change (http:/ / books. nap. edu/ readingroom/ books/ researchdoc/
summary. html)
[21] See the SSHA website (http:/ / www. ssha. org/ )
[22] Robertson, Geoffrey (2006). Crimes Against Humanity. Penguin. p.90. ISBN978-0-14-102463-9.
[23] Hart, H.L.A. (1961). The Concept of Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-876122-8.
[24] Dworkin, Ronald (1986). Law's Empire. Harvard University Press. ISBN0-674-51836-5.
[25] Raz, Joseph (1979). The Authority of Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-956268-7.
[26] Austin, John (1831). The Providence of Jurisprudence Determined.
[27] see Etymonline Dictionary (http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index. php?search=law& searchmode=none)
[28] see Mirriam-Webster's Dictionary (http:/ / www. m-w. com/ dictionary/ legal)
[29] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ dp/ 1403934223
[30] http:/ / books. google. com. ar/ books?hl=es& lr=& id=giw8dRLqX74C& oi=fnd& pg=PR3& dq=public+ administration+ concepts+ and+
theories& ots=BXDluXI34G& sig=UO-z2WmeYgpFDncYsGY0YBxkgiM#v=onepage&
q=public%20administration%20concepts%20and%20theories& f=false
[31] A Dictionary of Sociology, Article: Comte, Auguste
[32] Gianfranco Poggi (2000). Durkheim. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 1.
[33] Habermas, Jurgen, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Modernity's Consciousness of Time, Polity Press (1990), paperback, ISBN
0-7456-0830-2, p. 2.
[34] Giddens, Anthony, Duneier, Mitchell, Applebaum, Richard. 2007. Introduction to Sociology. Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and
Company. Chapter 1.
[35] A. H. Halsey(2004),A history of sociology in Britain: science, literature, and society,p.34
[36] Geoffrey Duncan Mitchell(1970),A new dictionary of sociology,p.201
[37] Willcox, Walter (1938) The Founder of Statistics. (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 1400906)
[38] Eykhoff, Pieter System Identification: Parameter and State Estimation, Wiley & Sons, (1974). ISBN 0-471-24980-7

14

Social science
[39] Peterson's (Firm : 2006- ). (2007). Peterson's graduate programs in the humanities, arts, & social sciences, 2007. Lawrenceville, NJ:
Peterson's.
[40] The Bachelor of Social Science can be studied at the University of Adelaide, University of Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand), University of
Sydney (Sydney, Australia), University of New South Wales (Sydney), University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, China), University of
Manchester (Manchester, England), Lincoln University (Christchurch, New Zealand), National University of Malaysia (Bangi, Malaysia), and
University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia).

20th and 21st century sources

Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again.
Oxford, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (2001). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences,
Amsterdam: Elsevier. (ed., available in limited preview (http://books.google.com/books?id=yVBXPf50EV0C)
at Google books.)
Byrne, D. S. (1998). Complexity theory and the social sciences: an introduction (http://books.google.com/
books?id=NaVSZXVdc-0C). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16296-3
Kuper, A., & Kuper, J. (1985). The Social science encyclopedia. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (ed., a
limited preview of the 1996 version (http://books.google.com/books?id=S3zZ18tt3gkC) is available.,.,)
Lave, C. A., & March, J. G. (1993). An introduction to models in the social sciences (http://books.google.com/
books?id=dcL3JqFkUvQC). Lanham, Md: University Press of America.
Perry, John and Erna Perry. Contemporary Society: An Introduction to Social Science (12th Edition, 2008),
college textbook
Potter, D. (1988). Society and the social sciences An introduction (http://books.google.com/
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David L. Sills and Robert K. Merton (1968). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
Seligman, Edwin R. A. and Alvin Johnson (1934). Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
Ward, L. F. (1924). Dynamic sociology ; or, Applied social science: As based upon statical sociology and the less
complex sciences (http://books.google.com/books?id=qvUtAAAAIAAJ). New York: D. Appleton.
Leavitt, F. M., & Brown, E. (1920). Elementary social science (http://books.google.com/
books?id=pz5FAAAAIAAJ). New York: Macmillan.
Bogardus, E. S. (1913). Introduction to the social sciences; A textbook outline (http://books.google.com/
books?id=nohDAAAAIAAJ). Los Angeles: Ralston Press.
Small, A. W. (1910). The meaning of social science (http://books.google.com/
books?id=UEYWAAAAYAAJ). Chicago, Ill: The University of Chicago press.

19th century sources

Andrews, S. P., & Andrews, S. P. (1888). The science of society (http://books.google.com/
books?id=0_8dAAAAIAAJ). Boston, Mass: Sarah E. Holmes.
Denslow, V. B. (1882). Modern thinkers principally upon social science (http://books.google.com/
books?id=Vg82AAAAMAAJ): What they think, and why. Chicago: Belford, Clarke &.
Harris, William Torrey (1879). Method of Study in Social Science (http://books.google.com/
books?id=MUUWAAAAYAAJ): A Lecture Delivered Before the St. Louis Social Science Association, March 4,
1879. St. Louis: G.I. Jones and Co, 1879.
Hamilton, R. S. (1873). Present status of social science. A review, historical and critical, of the progress of
thought in social philosophy (http://books.google.com/books?id=dkBAAAAAYAAJ). New York: H.L.
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Carey, H. C. (1867). Principles of social science. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. [etc.]. Volume I (http://
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Social science
Calvert, G. H. (1856). Introduction to social science (http://books.google.com/books?id=ibIqAAAAMAAJ): A
discourse in three parts. New York: Redfield.

Further reading
General sources
Roger E. Backhouse and Philippe Fontaine, eds. (2010) The History of the Social Sciences Since 1945
(Cambridge University Press) 256 pages; covers the conceptual, institutional, and wider histories of economics,
political science, sociology, social anthropology, psychology, and human geography.
Hargittai, E. (2009). Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never
Have (http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=268873). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Hunt, E. F., & Colander, D. C. (2008). Social science: An introduction to the study of society (http://books.
google.com/books?id=fWofAAAACAAJ). Boston: Peason/Allyn and Bacon.
Gorton, W. A. (2006). Karl Popper and the social sciences. SUNY series in the philosophy of the social sciences.
Albany: State University of New York Press.
Galavotti, M. C. (2003). Observation and experiment in the natural and social sciences (http://books.google.
com/books?id=VpForyYAYy0C). Boston studies in the philosophy of science, v. 232. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic.
Trigg, R. (2001). Understanding social science: A philosophical introduction to the social sciences. Malden,
Mass: Blackwell Publishers.
Shionoya, Y. (1997). Schumpeter and the idea of social science: A metatheoretical study (http://books.google.
com/books?id=fakFiE79qTAC). Historical perspectives on modern economics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Delanty, G. (1997). Social science: Beyond constructivism and realism. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
Singleton, Royce, A. (http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/rsinglet/), Straits, Bruce C. (1988).
"Approaches to Social Research" (http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Sociology/
TheoryMethods/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5NTE0Nzk0MA==), Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-514794-4
Rule, J. B. (1997). Theory and progress in social science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thomas, D. (1979). Naturalism and social science: a post-empiricist philosophy of social science (http://books.
google.com/books?id=-mY4AAAAIAAJ). CUP Archive. ISBN 0-521-29660-9, ISBN 978-0-521-29660-1.
Carey, H. C., & McKean, K. (1883). Manual of social science; Being a condensation of the "Principles of social
science" of H.C. Carey (http://books.google.com/books?id=ckEVAAAAYAAJ). Philadelphia: Baird.
Harris, F. R. (1973). Social science and national policy (http://books.google.com/books?id=mqQ9vf0JS_YC).
New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books; distributed by Dutton.
Krimerman, L. I. (1969). The nature and scope of social science; A critical anthology. New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Weber, M (1904). The Relations Of The Rural Community To Other Branches Of Social Science (http://books.
google.com/books?id=N14BAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA725). Congress of arts and science: Universal exposition, St.
Louis, 1904. Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1906

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Social science

Academic resources
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, ISSN: 1552-3349 (http://ann.sagepub.
com/) (electronic) ISSN: 0002-7162 (paper), SAGE Publications
Efferson, C. & Richerson, P.J. (In press). A prolegomenon to nonlinear empiricism in the human behavioral
sciences. Philosophy and Biology. Full text (http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/richerson/Prolegomena 4 0.
pdf)

Opponents and critics

Phil Hutchinson, Rupert Read and Wes Sharrock (2008). There's No Such Thing as a Social Science (http://
books.google.com/books?id=IF01zvRg9ekC). ISBN 978-0-7546-4776-8
Sabia, D. R., & Wallulis, J. (1983). Changing social science (http://books.google.com/
books?id=IgDtHi4Sq-wC): Critical theory and other critical perspectives. Albany: State University of New York
Press.

External links
Centre for Social Work Research (http://www.uel.ac.uk/cswr/index.htm)

Family Therapy and Systemic Research Centre (http://www.uel-ftsrc.org/)

International Conference on Social Sciences (http://www.sobiad.org/icss-conference/icss-main.htm)
International Social Science Council (http://www.unesco.org/ngo/issc)
Introduction to Hutchinson et al., There's No Such Thing as a Social Science (http://www.ashgate.com/pdf/
SamplePages/There_is_No_Such_Thing_as_a_Social_Science_Intro.pdf)
Intute: Social Sciences (UK) (http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/)
Social Science Research Society (http://www.sobiad.org/english.html)
Social Science Virtual Library (http://www.vl-site.org/index.html)
Social Science Virtual Library: Canaktanweb (Turkish) (http://www.canaktan.org/)
Social Sciences And Humanities (http://social-sciences-and-humanities.com/)
UC Berkeley Experimental Social Science Laboratory (http://xlab.berkeley.edu)
The Dialectic of Social Science (http://monthlyreview.org/100501baran.php) by Paul A. Baran

17

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

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Arnoutf, Asbestos, AsthreeID, Astuishin, Awickert, BRG, Barfoos, Baronnet, Barticus88, Bearcat, Beland, BignBad, Bilbaosr, Binarypower, BlondGirll, Bobo192, Bomac, Bookofjude, Boxplot,
BrenDJ, Brendansa, CALR, CQ, CSWarren, Carnoy, Cast, Catgut, Catrope, Chamal N, Charles Matthews, CharlieRCD, Chen969, ClamDip, Clicketyclack, [email protected], Conversion
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DarwinPeacock, Davidiad, Davies69, Dekimasu, Discospinster, Doktor Mephisto, Doktore, Douglas R. White, Dpark, Drjmh, Dv82matt, Dycedarg, EPM, EagerToddler39, Earth, EastCoast1111,
Ed Poor, Efierros, El C, Elm, Elmindreda, Erebus555, Erianna, Esteffect, Everyking, Eyu100, Fabartus, FalconL, Faryalnasir22, Favonian, Feedmymind, Filemon, Fioravante Patrone en, Fleetfist,
Flockmeal, Floydman66, Flyer22, Foregone conclusion, Fplay, France3470, Fratrep, FreplySpang, Frdrick Lacasse, Fsotrain09, Funandtrvl, Gaff, Gakmo, Galoubet, Gamewizard71, Garik,
Gary King, Gbalaji82, George Sagi, Gerrish, Gidonb, Gilliam, Go for it!, GoShow, Gogo Dodo, GorillaWarfare, Gorillasapiens, Graham87, Grenavitar, Ground Zero, Grouse, Gsaup, Gsociology,
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Mamawrites, Mannschaftskapitn, Marcok, Marysunshine, Masterpiece2000, Materialscientist, Mattgizzy14, Mattisse, Maunus, Maurreen, MaxPont, Mayumashu, Mcphee, Mdd, Mean as
custard, Megaman en m, Megan1967, Mentifisto, MercWithMouth, Michtan12, Midiom, Miguel in Portugal, Mike Rosoft, Mikehoffman, Mild Bill Hiccup, Milindkrishna1, Miranda, Miss loves,
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Infrogmation, Peregrine981, Ronaldino, Wst
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