Meteorological events, within parenthesis, tropical storm, extratropical storm, convective storm, local storm.
Typhoon Hato in China.
Typhoon Temblin in Philippines.
Cyclone Debbie in Australia.
Hurricane Maria in Caribbean.
Hurricane Irma in Caribbean, North America.
Hurricane Harvey in USA.
Other minor events are densely widespread throughout Asia, Europe, and North America.
Hydrological events, within parenthesis, Flood, mass movement:
Flood, Landslide, China.
Flood, South Asia.
Landslide, Sierra Leone.
Flood, Landslide, Peru.
Other minor events are densely widespread throughout Asia, Europe, and a few African countries, and lightly spread throughout North and South America, and Australia.
Climatological events, within parenthesis, extreme temperature, drought, forest fire.
Winter damage, frost in Europe.
Drought, Western and Southern Europe.
Wildfire, within parenthesis, Knysna fire, South Africa.
Wildfire, within parenthesis, LNU complex fires, USA.
Wildfire, within parenthesis, Thomas fire, USA.
Other minor events occurred densely in Europe, USA. A few events also occurred in Africa, China, and Russia.
Chapter 2 Examining the Social World How Do We Know What We Know?
▲ Science is about knowing—through careful systematic investigation. Of course there are other ways of seeking knowledge, such as finding a good library on a beach!
© Lisa Maree Williams/Stringer/Getty Images
What Will You Learn in This Chapter?
This chapter will help you to do the following:
2.1 Outline the development of sociology
2.2 Describe key theoretical perspectives
2.3 Explain the scientific approach
2.4 Outline the basic steps of the scientific research process
Let us travel to the Southern Hemisphere to meet a teenage boy, Hector. He is a 16-year-old, living in a favela (slum) on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil. He is a polite, bright boy, but his chances of getting an education and a steady job in his world are limited. Like millions of other children around the world, he comes from a poor rural family that migrated to an urban area in search of a better life. However, his family ended up in a crowded slum with only a shared spigot for water and one string of electric lights along the dirt road going up the hill on which they live. The sanitary conditions in his community are appalling—open sewers and no garbage collection—and make the people susceptible to various diseases. His family is relatively fortunate, for they have cement walls and wood flooring but no bathroom, running water, or electricity. Many adjacent dwellings are little more than cardboard walls with corrugated metal roofs and dirt floors.
Hector wanted to stay in school but was forced to drop out to help support his family. Since leaving school, he has picked up odd jobs—deliveries, trash pickup, janitorial work, and gardening—to help pay for the family’s dwelling and to buy food to support his parents and six siblings. Even when he was in school, Hector’s experience was discouraging. He was not a bad student, and some teachers encouraged him to continue, but other students from the city teased the favela kids and made them feel unwelcome. Most of his friends dropped out before he did. Hector often missed school because of other obligations: looking for part-time work, helping a sick relative, or taking care of a younger sibling. The immediate need to put food on the table outweighed the long-term value of staying in school. What is the bottom line for Hector and millions like him? Because of his limited education and work skills, obligations to his family, and limited opportunities, he most likely will continue to live in poverty along with millions of others in this situation.
▲ Slum dwellers of São Paulo, Brazil. Hector lives in a neighborhood with shelters made of available materials such as boxes, with no electricity or running water and poor sanitation.
© Getty/Christopher Pillitz/Contributor
Sociologists are interested in factors that influence the social world of children like Hector: family, friends, school, community, and the place of one’s nation in the global political and economic structural systems. Sociologists use social theories and scientific methods to examine and understand poverty and many other social issues. In this chapter, you will learn about some of the different data collection methods sociologists use to collect information and the theories they use to make sense of their data.
Sociological research helps us to understand how and why society operates and how we might change it. It can also help you make sense of why people in your family, neighborhood, college campus, and workplace act the way they do. You will, no doubt, find yourself in a situation where conducting a research study will help your organization or community.
This chapter introduces you to the basic tools used to plan studies and gather dependable information on topics of interest. It will also help you understand how sociology approaches research questions. To this end, we begin this chapter by discussing the development of sociology as a discipline and the core principles of sociology’s major theoretical perspectives. We then explore sociology as a science—core ideas that underlie any science: how to collect data, ethical issues involving research, and practical applications and uses of sociological knowledge. We start with the beginnings and emergence of sociology as a field of study.
Development of Sociology
Throughout recorded history, humans have been curious about how and why society operates as it does. Long before the development of science, religion and philosophy influenced the way individuals thought about the world. Both approaches to understanding society had a strong moral tone. For example, Plato’s Republic, written around 400 BCE, outlines plans for an ideal state—complete with government, family, economic systems, class structure, and education—designed to achieve social justice. These philosophers’ opinions were derived from abstract reflection about how the social world should work, but they were not tested scientifically.
The first person on record to suggest a systematic approach to explain the social world was North African Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406). Khaldun was particularly interested in understanding the feelings of solidarity that held tribal groups together during his day, a time of great conflict and wars (Alagha 2017; Alatas 2006). With this beginning came the rise of modern sociology.
Rise of Modern Sociology