Agnieszka Rybak
SSS100-1902
Q: What factors explain why sociology developed when and where it did?
The sociology is a field that has been developed in 18th and 19th centuries. A
French philosopher, Auguste Comte has been called the founder of sociology and
positivist because he was the one who invented the world sociology. Sociology is the
scientific discipline which studies human, society behavior that is influenced and shaped
by social factors and personal characteristics like race, color of skin, culture, age, sex and
wealth. The three major social forces from 18th and 19th centuries that caused the
development of sociology were; industrial technology, the growth of cities and political
changes.
The industrial technology is firs social factor that made sociology to develop.
During Middle Ages in Western Europe most people had farms located near their homes.
However, owners of mills and factories had found new vigorous sources of energy like
power of moving water or steam, which were able to put in movement any large
machines. This improvement caused that less people were working next to their homes
and made people to go and look for work in large factories. As a result of that turn in
industrial technology many families were separated and by tradition were less important.
The industrial development made the cities growth and this is another social fact,
which caused sociology to develop. During 18th and 19th centuries more people were
living their farms in chase of work in the factories, which they needed. In the past cities
started to become a large one what provoked social problems like pollution, crime, and
homelessness.
The abovementioned social factors mentioned before made irreversible political
changes and this is a last social factor, which made sociology to develop. In the Western
Europe, while Middle Ages People began to thin in new ways about life. They were more
into finding out self-interest than tradition, God or politics. This sort of actions made a
change from “the old political and social traditions…into nothing short of the
regeneration of whole human race” (Society, chapter 1, p. 9).
To summarize I can say that all those social forces (industrial technology, the
growth cities, and political changes), had changed the world.