Why sociology needs concepts

Every subject has its own vocabulary. Sociology's problem is that it studies things we already know too well: family, marriage, school, religion, friendship. As Peter Berger pointed out, being familiar with something can make us blind to it: we confuse our everyday common sense with real knowledge.

• Some sociological terms are ordinary words with a sharper meaning. In everyday speech a fan's 'function' is anything it does; in sociology a function is a contribution that helps keep a group or society going, and a harmful effect is a dysfunction.
• Others are new words made for new ideas, such as 'status set' or 'reference group'.
• Sociology studies how the individual and society shape each other, and individuals live inside groups: family, caste, tribe, class, religion, nation. So we need terms to name these groups and the ties between them.

Where the concepts came from. Many sociological concepts were made to map the huge shift from pre-modern to modern, industrial society. Different thinkers chose different key ideas:

• For Karl Marx, the key concepts were class and conflict.
• For Emile Durkheim, they were social solidarity and the collective conscience (the shared beliefs and feelings that bind a society).
• After the Second World War, structural functionalists saw society as basically harmonious, comparing it to an organism in which each part (family, school, economy) has a function in keeping the whole alive.
• Conflict theorists, influenced by Marxism, saw society as basically conflict-ridden, with groups competing for power and resources; they ask whose interests an institution serves.
• Example (new): asked about examinations, a functionalist might stress how they sort people into jobs that suit their abilities; a conflict theorist might ask whether children from richer homes, with tuition and quiet rooms, are better placed to win.

Two starting points:

• Micro: begin with the individual and face-to-face interaction, using concepts like status and role.
• Macro: begin with large structures such as class, caste, market, state or community.

Concepts are like keys: they open a door to a part of social reality we could not otherwise see. But they are not final answers. When a concept no longer fits a changing society, sociology questions it and changes it.