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Key Themes - Chapter 1

This chapter introduces some key themes prominent in sociology today, which inform the rationale and substance of the rest of the book and which are explored more fully in subsequent chapters:

• The reader is introduced to the origins of Sociology by looking at some key starting points in Sociological analysis and some milestones in the history of Sociology when some of its ‘grand traditions’ were forged. The authors highlight that the discipline has origins in Enlightenment and positivist Thought, but that it also has an interpretive element at its core.
• The chapter also considers the changing role of Sociology in society by looking at the developing inter-relationships between scientific enquiry, knowledge production and ‘human nature’. Specifically, sociologists’ engagement with the public is considered drawing on Burawoy’s four types of Sociological practice: Professional Sociology, Critical Sociology, Public Sociology and Policy Sociology.
• The chapter also introduces the core theme of the book: the beginnings of Global Sociology. It starts by looking at the reversion to national Sociology and then considers the political and social reasons behind the rise of a global perspective. The authors advocate using key starting points established earlier as the basis for developing global sociology as a particular type of sociological analysis which shows how global social change impacts on and is influenced by changes at local, national or regional levels.