The Handbook of Sociology is a comprehensive reference work that offers an in-depth overview of the major theories, concepts, and research areas within the discipline of sociology. Edited by prominent scholars, it serves as a foundational text for students, researchers, and academics seeking a broad yet detailed understanding of sociological inquiry.
The handbook covers core areas such as social theory, culture, social stratification, institutions, family, gender, race and ethnicity, education, and deviance, among others. It explores both classical perspectives-from thinkers like Durkheim, Weber, and Marx and contemporary approaches including symbolic interactionism, postmodernism, and critical theory.
A distinguishing feature of the handbook is its interdisciplinary orientation, drawing connections between sociology and related fields like anthropology, political science, economics, and psychology. It includes discussions on quantitative and qualitative research methods, emphasizing the importance of empirical studies in shaping sociological knowledge.
Additionally, the handbook addresses emerging sociological issues such as globalization, technology, environmental change, and social movements, reflecting the evolving nature of the field. By synthesizing decades of scholarship, the Handbook of Sociology remains an essential resource for understanding how human societies function, change, and are shaped by complex social forces and interactions.
This book is based on two articles contributed to encyclopaedias and on the text of a lecture. I have asked Dr. Leopold von Wiese, Professor of Political Economy and Sociology at the University of Cologne, to authorize the translation of these articles and their publication in book form for three reasons: first, the need to stimulate anew the discussion regarding the true subject matter of sociology and to prove the possibility of an autonomous system for this science; second, the need for a succinct and lucid presentation of this system for graduate readings in the history of sociological theories; third, the desire to show the possibility of a text which through scrupulous adherence to the sociological viewpoint can be covered in one semester.
The historical and systematic Introduction at the beginning of this booklet is taken from the German Encyclopaedia of Political Economy.¹ The presentation of the ""Theory of Social Relations"" or ""sociology of relationships"" (Bezie-hungslehre) itself is taken from the German Encyclopaedia of Sociology. The Appendix in which the conception of ""the social"" is again ex-plained in detail and distinguished from the concept of ""the spiritual"" and the concept of ""the cultural"" is identical for the greater part with the text of a lecture which v. Wiese gave in London in March 1937. The lecture appeared in April of the same year in the London Sociological Reviewa under the somewhat misleading title, ""The Social, Spiritual, and Cultural Elements of the Inter-human Life,"" a German version of which was published with the title Sozial, geistig und kulturell (Leipzig, 1936). Although the problems with which the latter essay deals, especially the category of ""the spiritual"" in its specific German interpretation, may be somewhat strange in part to the Anglo-Saxon mind, it seemed advisable to add it to this textbook because of the light it throws upon the distinctive character of the socio-logical approach.
A. SOCIOLOGY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE SCHOOL OF COMTE AND SPENCER
In a retrospective article in the third edition of the Wörterbuch der Volkswirtschaft (""Encyclopaedia of Political Economy""), Lexis treated the subject of ""Sociology."" Twenty years ago he had to enter into a study of that concept of society, a concept now antiquated though still accepted by some German jurists, which in the middle of the last century Mohl, Treitschke, Stein and others used in contradistinction to the concept of the state. They had principally in mind that ""civil society"" which arose from economic activity and which ""could only be thought of as existing with-in the state."" The other concept of society, which is far more extensive and includes within itself the state, and which, in contrast to the more juridical and historical idea of society, is really the true sociological concept, was even at that time the principal subject of Lexis' article.
Lexis discovered this concept in the writings of the two great western European sociologists of the nineteenth century with whom in that period it was always necessary to reckon, Comte and Spencer. He rightly saw in them the true originators of a natural science of sociology. Anyone who follows their example (as Lexis clearly shows) looks for sociological ""laws"" corresponding as much as possible to physical and biological laws; and wherever feasible tries to establish analogies with the animal organism. Lexis, however, pointed out that in this way hardly any essentially new insights into the interconnections in human society were obtainable. Lexis also took cognizance of the at-tempts of Tarde to make use of psychological phenomena in explaining social life; but he neglected the studies of F. Tönnies, G. Simmel and E. Durkheim. He himself proposed a number of problems as the immediate task of sociology, in which, how-ever, he went beyond the limits of sociology into the fields of biology, ethnology and statistics.
In general, Lexis gave a correct picture of the status of sociology in the year 1900. Since then research has made considerable progress. The organic viewpoint persists only as a remnant (especially in some works of the Slavic languages, but even in these countries it is considered outmoded).
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Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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