Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
and replaced with a $100-a-month direct payment to parents for each child. Sociologists might be
interested in studying whether the benefits of the Swedish system—in terms of children’s well-
being, lower family poverty, and gender equality—outweigh the drawbacks of higher Swedish tax
rates.
1.3. Theoretical Perspectives
Sociologists study social events, interactions, and patterns. They then develop
theories to explain why these occur and what can result from them. In sociology, a
theory is a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and create testable
propositions about society (Allan 2006). For example, Durkheim’s proposition that
differences in suicide rate can be explained by differences in the degree of social
integration in different communities is a theory.
As this brief survey of the history of sociology suggests, however, there is
considerable diversity in the theoretical approaches’ sociology takes to studying
society. Sociology is a multi-perspectival science: a number of distinct perspectives
or paradigms offer competing explanations of social
phenomena. Paradigms are philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a
discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the research performed in
support of them. They refer to the underlying organizing principles that tie different
constellations of concepts, theories, and ways of formulating problems together
(Drengson 1983). Talcott Parsons’ reformulation of Durkheim’s and others work as
structural functionalism in the 1950s is an example of a paradigm because it
provided a general model of analysis suited to an unlimited number of research
topics. Parsons proposed that any identifiable structure (e.g., roles, families,
religions, or states) could be explained by the particular function it performed in
maintaining the operation of society as a whole. Critical sociology and symbolic
interactionism would formulate the explanatory framework and research problem
differently.
The multi-perspectival approach of sociology can be confusing to the newcomer,
especially given most people’s familiarity with the more “unified perspective” of the
natural sciences where divisions in perspective are less visible. The natural sciences
are largely able to dispense with issues of multiple perspective and build cumulative
explanations based on the “facts” because the objects they study are indifferent to
their observation. The chemical composition and behaviour of a protein can be
assumed to be the same wherever it is observed and by whomever it is observed.
The same cannot be said of social phenomena, which are mediated by meanings and
interpretations, divided by politics and value orientations, subject to historical
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