| Abstrakt: |
Focuses on the sociology of the 21st century. The traditional purpose of sociology has been mainly to develop theories on social change, to study social institutions and to measure social facts. Sociology originated and evolved into a discipline during the transition from a rural society to an industrial one. The shaping of the analysis of social reality into a scientific discipline in itself cannot be isolated from the onset of industrial society, a new and far more complex kind of society. Sociological knowledge as a particular branch of social sciences arose as a way to identify, understand and interpret the components, interactions and processes of industrial society. However, in contrast to the social reality that 19th and early 20th century sociologists lived in, the global society of the end of the 20th century poses some problems for which their is no knowledge. This fact, together with other outstanding problems, such as the lack of a theory that may be used for empirical research or the lack of a tendency towards a growing individualism makes present sociology appear as an endangered species, according to some authors. |
