Bhavika ChopraAIR 25 · CSE 2025 · 206 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening
As sociology emerged, it sought to carve out for itself a niche in the world of social science, but now shares a synergetic relationship between the subject and other social sciences.
Body · points
Changing equations of sociology with other social sciences:
- Changing nature with Political science
- Earlier studied state as part of political theory, power relations etc.
- now shares inter-disciplinary understanding eg: voter behaviour, psephology; demographics and political institutions etc. — Political Sociology
- Changing nature with Anthropology
- Anthropology studied primitive societies and used field work, sociology studied institutions in modern societies
- now - social anthropology studies tribes, prismatic societies. Eg: participant observation and ethnography - Whyte's street corner society; Wiser's study of Jajmani
- Sociology and History
- Earlier considered separate disciplines; history as ideographic and sociology as nomothetic (facts v/s pattern oriented study)
- now, share synergy in historical sociology. Eg: Annales school by Febvre, study of "collective thinking" etc.
- Sociology and Economics
- Earlier considered separate - with one being theoretical and the other mathematical.
- now share synergy for developmental studies. Eg: Sinclair survey of poverty in 18th century to Duflo and Bannerjee's study in recent times
Close · a summary
Thus, as issues grow more complex, the equations among disciplines evolve.