The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the discipline of sociology:

Sociology studies society^[1] using various methods of empirical investigation^[2] and critical analysis^[3] to understand human social activity, from the micro level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and social structure.^[4]

Nature of sociology[link]

Sociology can be described as all of the following:

• The study of society.
• Academic discipline – body of knowledge given to - or received by - a disciple (student); a branch or sphere of knowledge, or field of study, that an individual has chosen to specialise in.
• Field of science – widely-recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer reviewed research is published. There are many sociology-related scientific journals.
  • Social science – field of academic scholarship that explores aspects of human society.

Essence of sociology[link]

• Positivism
• Antipositivism
• Structural functionalism
• Conflict theory
• Public sociology
• Social research
• Social theory
• Feminism

Branches[link]

• Analytical sociology
• Applied sociology
• Architectural sociology
• Behavioral sociology
• Chinese sociology
• Collective behavior
• Comparative sociology
• Computational sociology
• Critical sociology
• Cultural sociology
• Dramaturgical sociology
• Economic sociology
• Educational sociology
• Empirical sociology
• Environmental sociology
• Evolutionary sociology
• Feminist sociology
• Figurational sociology
• Historical sociology
• Humanistic sociology
• Industrial sociology
• Internet sociology
• Interpretive sociology
• Jealousy sociology
• Macrosociology
• Marxist sociology
• Mathematical sociology
• Medical sociology
• Mesosociology
• Microsociology
• Military sociology
• Phenomenological sociology
• Policy sociology
• Polish sociology
• Political sociology
• Professional sociology
• Psychoanalytic sociology
• Public sociology
• Pure sociology
• Rural sociology
• Social psychology (sociology)
• Sociology of aging
• Sociology of agriculture
• Sociology of architecture
• Sociology of art
• Sociology of autism
• Sociology of childhood
• Sociology of conflict
• Sociology of culture
• Sociology of cyberspace
• Sociology of deviance
• Sociology of development
• Sociology of disaster
• Sociology of education
• Sociology of emotions
• Sociology of family
• Sociology of fatherhood
• Sociology of film
• Sociology of finance
• Sociology of food
• Sociology of gender
• Sociology of generations
• Sociology of globalization
• Sociology of government
• Sociology of health and illness
• Sociology of human consciousness
• Sociology of immigration
• Sociology of knowledge
• Sociology of language
• Sociology of law
• Sociology of leisure
• Sociology of literature
• Sociology of markets
• Sociology of marriage
• Sociology of motherhood
• Sociology of music
• Sociology of natural resources
• Sociology of organizations
• Sociology of peace, war, and social conflict
• Sociology of punishment
• Sociology of race and ethnic relations
• Sociology of religion
• Sociology of risk
• Sociology of scientific knowledge
• Sociology of space
• Sociology of sport
• Sociology of terrorism
• Sociology of the body
• Sociology of the family
• Sociology of the history of science
• Sociology of the Internet
• Sociology of work
• Sociography
• Structural sociology
• Theoretical sociology
• Urban sociology
• Visual sociology

Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary fields involving sociology[link]

• Agnotology
• Agrarian studies
• Anthrozoology
• Behavioral economics
• Cass Identity Model
• Community informatics
• Demography
• Disability studies
• Environmental communication
• Food studies
• Gender studies
• Geodemography
• Gerontology
• Human ecology
• Political ecology
• Science studies
• Science, technology and society
• Social architecture
• Social epistemology
• Social geography
• Social informatics
• Social philosophy
• Social studies of finance
• Social theory
• Sociobiology
• Sociomapping
• Sociometry
• Sociomusicology
• Systems theory
• Victimology
• World-systems theory

Related fields[link]

• Criminology
• Cultural studies
• Human geography
• Social Anthropology/Cultural Anthropology
• Sociolinguistics
• Social research
• Law
• Politics

History of sociology[link]

• History of sociology
  • Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) – in his Muqaddimah (later translated as Prolegomena in Latin), the introduction to a seven volume analysis of universal history, was the first to advance social philosophy and social science in formulating theories of social cohesion and social conflict. He is thus considered by some to be the forerunner of sociology.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}
• History of sociology in Poland
• Timeline of sociology
• Timeline of sociology (1810s)
• Timeline of sociology (1820s)
• Timeline of sociology (1830s)
• Timeline of sociology (1840s)
• Timeline of sociology (1850s)
• Timeline of sociology (1860s)
• Timeline of sociology (1870s)
• Timeline of sociology (1880s)
• Timeline of sociology (1890s)
• Timeline of sociology (1900s)
• Timeline of sociology (1910s)
• Timeline of sociology (1920s)
• Timeline of sociology (1930s)
• Timeline of sociology (1940s)
• Timeline of sociology (1950s)
• Timeline of sociology (1960s)
• Timeline of sociology (1970s)
• Timeline of sociology (1980s)
• Timeline of sociology (1990s)
• Timeline of sociology (2000s)

Theoretical perspectives in sociology[link]

• Conflict theory
• Critical realism
• Critical theory
• Cultural theory
• Ethnomethodology
• Exchange theory
• Feminist theory
• Human ecology
• Marxist sociology
• Postcolonialism & Subaltern theory
• Postmodernism
• Poststructuralism
• Psychoanalytic sociology
• Queer theory
• Rational choice theory
• Social constructionism
• Social phenomenology
• Structural functionalism
• Structuralism
• Symbolic interactionism
• Systems theory
• World-systems theory

General sociology concepts[link]

• Attitude
• Alienation
• Beliefs
• Bureaucracy
• Civil inattention
• Civil rights
• Crime
• Commodity fetishism
• Community   (outline)
• Consumerism
• Cultural capital
• Culture   (outline)
• Discrimination
• Division of labour
• Equality
• Exploitation
• Family
• Freedom
• Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Globalization
• Group
• Ideal type
• Identity
• Ideology
• Industrialization
• Inequality
• Institution
• Interpersonal relationship   (outline)
• Justice
• Mass media
• Modernity
• Nature versus nurture
• Organization
• Paradigm shift
• Political economy
• Popular culture
• Postmodernity
• Poverty
• Power
• Power-knowledge
• Racism
• Rationalisation
• Reflexivity
• Secularisation
• Sexism
• Social action
• Social capital
• Social change
• Social class
• Social construction
• Social cohesion
• Social control
• Social environment
• Social evolutionism
• Social justice
• Social mobility
• Social movement
• Social network
• Social order
• Social organisation
• Social solidarity
• Social status
• Social stratification
• Social structure
• Socialization
• Society   (outline)
• Structure and agency
• Sustainable development
• Values

Sociologists[link]

Sociological publications[link]

• List of sociology journals
• Magazines
  • Contexts
  • MANAS Journal
  • Polemic
  • Salmagundi
  • Youth Studies Australia
• Sociology books

Academies[link]

• College of sociology

See also[link]

• Outline of science
• Bibliography of sociology
• Index of sociology articles
• Index of sociology of food articles
• Index of urban sociology articles

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Sociology on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Electronic Journal of Sociology
• SocioLog, a directory of sociology resources
• SocioSite, a directory of sociology resources
• Sections of American Sociological Association
• Research Committees and Themes of International Sociological Association, AIS
• (French) Comités de Recherche de l'Association internationale des sociologues de langue française, AISLF
• (French) Liste des réseaux thématiques de l'Association Française de Sociologie, AFS

Professional associations

• International Sociological Association (ISA)
• African Sociological Association (AfSA)
• American Sociological Association (ASA)
• Australian Sociological Association (TASA)
• British Sociological Association (BSA)
• Brazilian Sociological Society (SBS)
• Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS)
• European Sociological Association (ESA)
• Indian Sociological Society
• Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI)

Ulrich Beck (2007)

Ulrich Beck (born May 15, 1944) is a German sociologist who holds a professorship at Munich University and at the London School of Economics.

Life[link]

Beck was born in the Pomeranian town of Stolp, Germany (now Słupsk in Poland) in 1944. From 1966 onwards he studied sociology, philosophy, psychology, and political science at Munich University. In 1972 he left as a Doctor of Philosophy and worked as a sociologist at Munich University. In 1979 he qualified as a university lecturer. He was professor at the universities of Münster (1979–1981) and Bamberg (1981–1992). Since 1992 Beck has been professor for sociology and director of the Institute for Sociology of Munich University. He is also the British Journal of Sociology Professor at the London School of Economics. He has received many international prizes and honors.

From 1995-1997 Beck was a member of the Kommission für Zukunftsfragen der Freistaaten Bayern und Sachsen (Commission for Future Questions of the Free States of Bavaria and Saxony). Since 1999 he has been the speaker of the DFG research programme on Reflexive Modernity.

He is married to the German social scientist Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim.

Interests[link]

Beck currently studies modernization, ecological problems, individualization, and globalization. Recently he has also embarked on exploring the changing conditions of work in a world of increasing global capitalism, declining influence of unions, and flexibilisation of the labor process, a new theory rooted in the concept of cosmopolitanism. Beck has also contributed a number of new words in German sociology, including "risk society", "second modernity", reflexive modernization and brazilianization (Brasilianisierung).

The Spinelli Group[link]

On 15 September 2010 Beck supported the new initiative Spinelli Group in the European Parliament, which was founded to reinvigorate the effort to federalise the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are: Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Andrew Duff, Elmar Brok.

Works[link]

Beck is the editor of the sociological journal Soziale Welt (since 1980), the author of some 150 articles, and the author or editor of many books, for example:

• Risikogesellschaft - Auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne (1986) de:Risikogesellschaft (Risk Society)
• Beck, Ulrich (1988) Gegengifte : die organisierte Unverantwortlichkeit. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
• Beck, Ulrich (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage
• Riskante Freiheiten - Gesellschaftliche Individualisierungsprozesse in der Moderne (1994, editor together with Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim)
• Beck, Ulrich & Giddens, Anthony & Lash Scott (1994) Reflexive Modernization.Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Eigenes Leben - Ausflüge in die unbekannte Gesellschaft, in der wir leben (1995, together with W. Vossenkuhl and U. E. Ziegler, photographs by T. Rautert)
• Beck-Gernsheim, Elisabeth & Beck, Ulrich (1995) The Normal Chaos of Love. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (1995) Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (1996) The Reinvention of Politics.Rethinking Modernity in the Global Social Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Was ist Globalisierung? (1997)
• Beck, Ulrich (1998) Democracy without Enemies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (1998) World Risk Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (1999) What Is Globalization?. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (2000) The Brave New World of Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Adam, Barbara & Beck, Ulrich & Van Loon, Joost (2000) The Risk Society and Beyond: Critical Issues for Social Theory. London: Sage.
• Beck, Ulrich & Beck-Gernsheim, Elisabeth (2002) Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage.
• Beck, Ulrich & Willms, Johannes (2003) Conversations with Ulrich Beck. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (2005) Power in the Global Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich (2006) Cosmopolitan Vision. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, U., & Edgar, G. (2007). Cosmopolitan Europe. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich. (2008). World at Risk. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Beck, Ulrich & Grande, Edgar (2010) "Varieties of second modernity: extra-European and European experiences and perspectives" British Journal of Sociology, Vol 61, Issue 3, Pages 406-638.

See also[link]

• Global governance

External links[link]

• Professor Ulrich Beck - his staff page at the LSE
• Homepage of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Beck (German)
• Unofficial Ulrich Beck trading card at theorycards.org
• Ideas radio show, discusses Ulrich's concepts of risk in science and society
• New media artwork inspired by Ulrich Beck's work, created by eco-art collaborative EcoArtTech
• Interview with Ulrich Beck:“Nationalism does not leave much room for the recognition of others”, Barcelona Metropolis, 2009.

3-2-1 Contact is an American science educational television show that aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988, and an adjoining children's magazine. The show, a production of the Children's Television Workshop, teaches scientific principles and their applications. Dr. Edward G. Atkins, who was responsible for much of the scientific content of the show, felt that the TV program wouldn't replace a classroom but would open the viewers to ask questions about the scientific purpose of things.^[1]

History[link]

3-2-1 Contact was the brainchild of Samuel Y. Gibbon, Jr., who had been the executive producer of The Electric Company for CTW from 1971 to 1977. (Gibbon actually left CTW before Contact's production began, though he was still credited as "Senior Consultant.")

The first season of 65 programs began airing January 14, 1980 on select PBS member stations; it featured a cast of three college students who discussed science in an on-campus room known as the Workshop. The first season came to an end on April 11, 1980, but funds for more episodes were not sufficient until 1982.

When production resumed for the second season, which premiered on October 17, 1983, the show presented a more realistic appearance, as the new cast convened in a suburban basement (these segments were shot at Reeves Teletape, which also housed Sesame Street at the time). This cast continued until October 18, 1985. Ozzie Alfonso was Contact's new director and Al Hyslop its executive producer.

When the fifth season began on September 22, 1986, a third cast was introduced. However, unlike the previous casts, they did not meet in any specific setting; instead, they appeared in various taped and filmed segments. Episodes continued to be produced through November 1988.

For a time in the mid-1980s, the program was co-produced with the French television network FR3 and featured several new French cast members in addition to the American cast. From 1982 to 1983 the program was aired in Spain with dubbed-over versions of the American original broadcasts, and some local add-ons with four Spanish cast members: Sonia Martínez, Luis Bollain, Fernando Rueda and Marifé Rodríguez.^[2] Another Spanish version of the broadcast was aired from 1990 to 1992.

From September 1, 1991 until May 1, 1992, an edited version of the series titled 3-2-1 Classroom Contact was produced, specifically for in-school viewing.

It was reported in 1984 that 3-2-1 Contact had an audience of over 7 million viewers and was broadcast in 26 countries including West Germany, France, Italy and Spain making their own dubbed-over versions.^[1]

Broadcasters wanted the children to record the episodes without being afraid of infringement of copyright violations.^[1]

Hosts[link]

The Bloodhound Gang[link]

A frequent segment of the show was The Bloodhound Gang, a series about a group of young detectives who used science to solve crimes. Episodes of the series needed to be run in regular sequence for understandable viewing, as many Bloodhound Gang mysteries were cut among two or three Contact episodes.

The magazine[link]

Three months before the show premiered, a print magazine of the same name that also focused on science was released. In 1985, the magazine absorbed some of the content of sibling publication Enter (which went out of print that same year), including reader submissions of computer programs written in the BASIC computer language as well as reviews of popular computer programs. A new feature called "The Slipped Disk Show" appeared in mid-1985, starring a fictional disc jockey who answered computer-related questions submitted by readers.

Beginning in 1987, the magazine also featured content from another CTW production, Square One Television. Such content frequently took the form of a two-page comic strip, often parodying a popular show or movie of the time, with a math-related question at the end.

The Bloodhound Gang mysteries also made the leap to the magazine, but they were subsequently replaced with a series entitled The Time Team in September 1990. These stories found teenage characters Sean Nolan and Jenny Lopez traveling to different time periods in the past and future. Their surroundings and personal encounters were described with great detail, educating readers as to the customs of various cultures throughout history, and – on trips to the future – often pushing present day hot-button issues. For example, a 1993 story saw the duo traveling to what appeared to be a prehistoric forest, but near the end, they found a Brazil flag, a newspaper clipping from 1995, and a bulldozer at work: this was in fact a Brazilian rainforest being levelled.

In 1996, The Time Team was replaced by a comic serial, Cosmic Crew, which focused on the adventures of a group of teenagers and their robot butler in space. Their first story arc (which ran for more than a year) had them trying to figure out a series of riddles relating to places in the solar system in order to claim a treasure (which turned out to be a scholarship fund). Another story arc had a delinquent (who had been a villain in the first arc) join them in order to chase down a gang of other delinquents. Despite being effectively replaced, a few Time Team stories were run whenever there were gaps between installments of Cosmic Crew.

Many of the magazine's cover stories involved current events, such as 1990s oil fires in the Middle East. In addition, the magazine offered a games section in which most of the games were related to the stories in the issue.

In 1996, CTW presumably concluded that faithful readers from the late 1980s and early 1990s had long since moved on, and the magazine began to reprint non-time-sensitive stories from years past. For example, a 1991 article on the geography of the Galápagos Islands – a relatively unchanging subject – could very well re-appear in an identical format a half a decade later.

Under Sesame Workshop the magazine later became Contact Kids, removing the original reference to the television show. Production of the magazine was suspended indefinitely in 2001.

After production[link]

Though the show went off the air in 1988, it appeared in reruns from 1999 to 2003 on the cable television network Noggin, then a joint venture of CTW and Nickelodeon. Occasionally, shows were also rerun on Nickelodeon's Cable in the Classroom time period. For all these Nickelodeon and Noggin airings, the series was rated TV-Y7 (possibly due to the target audience). It also still aired on some PBS stations as reruns from 1989 to 1998 before it was switched to Noggin in 1999. As of 2003, Noggin no longer airs any shows produced by Sesame Workshop. The shows were modified for the shorter running time on these networks to allow for their interstitials.

Sources of funding[link]

Funding for 3-2-1 Contact was provided by the following:^[3]

• National Science Foundation (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• United States Department of Education (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• IBM Corporation (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• Carnegie Corporation of New York (October 31, 1983-November 18, 1988)

Five sponsors funded the show for its entire run. They were originally supposed to fund for 20 new episodes until 1989.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• 3-2-1 Contact at the Internet Movie Database
• 3-2-1 Contact at TV.com