What is the totality of relationships that links us to other people and groups and through them to still other people and groups?

The groups within which we spend our lives—in our families, schools, communities, workplaces, and societies—help to define us in the eyes of others, while defining us to ourselves as well.

Sociologists possess a quality of mind that helps them to use scientific knowledge and logical reasoning in order to develop understandings of what is going on in the world.

Sociology is a discipline that makes it possible to see how individual experiences—how we act, think, feel, and remember—are connected to the wider society.

To understand human experience better, we must understand all that we can about groups and social relationships.

Sociologists examine the shared meanings that humans attach to their interactions with one another, and they study human experience as it unfolds within societies over time. They study social patterns that are stable and also those that are changing.

Our Mission

The sociology program provides students with critical thinking skills and a knowledge of society, groups, and social relationships to prepare them to be better informed individuals and to take advantage of employment opportunities where analytic knowledge of the social world is valued. The Sociology Program’s course of study gives students insight into sociology as a scientific discipline and as a quality of mind, aiding in their intellectual growth, and providing opportunities for civic engagement and for making contributions to community wellbeing. Because sociologists must be able to recognize social trends and patterns, while being skillful writers, speakers, and researchers, members of the sociology faculty are strongly committed to teaching students how to do sociology and how to think sociologically about the world. Sociology majors are given the opportunity and encouragement to develop their own ideas about society and to express them verbally and in writing.

Abstract

The leitmotiv of sociological theory and research is "individual, group, and their mutual dependence." Since functional sociology includes not merely the emotional and the biological aspects of mental processes but also man's biological relity, the bodily needs, the environmental influences, and the cultural reactions to them must be studied side by side. Not only does the individual depend upon the group in whatever he achieves, but the group in all its individual members depends upon the development of a material outfit which, in its essence, is an addition to the human anatomy and which entails corresponding modifications of human physiology. The relation is not of the individual to society or the group but to a plurality of groups. Analisis of a society into aspects and into institutions must be carried out simultaneously if a complete understanding of that society is desired. The analysis of such aspects as economics, education or social control, and political organization defines the type and level of the characteristic activities in a culture, discloses the totality of motives, interests, and values of the individual, and gives insight into the whole process by which the individual is conditioned or culturally formed, and of the group mechanism of this process. The analysis into institutions gives the concrete picture of the social organization within the culture. The twofold approach through the study of the individual with his innate tendencies and their cultural transformation and the study of the group as the relation and coordination of individuals with reference to space, environment, and material equipment is necessary. Symbolism, which is in essence that modification of the human organism which allows it to transform the physiological drive into a cultural value, must make its appearance with the earliest appearance of human culture. Symbols are necessary for communication, for the incorporation of an effective element into a culture, for its transmission, and for the recognition of its value.

Journal Information

Current issues are now on the Chicago Journals website. Read the latest issue.Established in 1895 as the first US scholarly journal in its field, the American Journal of Sociology (AJS) presents pathbreaking work from all areas of sociology, with an emphasis on theory building and innovative methods. AJS strives to speak to the general sociology reader and is open to contributions from across the social sciences—political science, economics, history, anthropology, and statistics in addition to sociology—that seriously engage the sociological literature to forge new ways of understanding the social. AJS offers a substantial book review section that identifies the most salient work of both emerging and enduring scholars of social science. Commissioned review essays appear occasionally, offering the readers a comparative, in-depth examination of prominent titles.

Publisher Information

Since its origins in 1890 as one of the three main divisions of the University of Chicago, The University of Chicago Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Today, the Journals Division publishes more than 70 journals and hardcover serials, in a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, education, the biological and medical sciences, and the physical sciences.

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