SY242 Lecture 2: The Rise of Modern Economies
Document Summary
What early sociology had discovered was that societies were made up of a social framework that existed outside the individual. This framework appeared in the form of structured social institutions that patterned the activity of populations. We can see this in the patterning of economic activity as all societies engage in productive work. Each society has its own economy, its own class system and its own religious and family institutions. Sociology studies the relationship between the structure of society and the pattern of social activity of the population, and it leaves to psychology the individual basis of human behavior. The discovery of the social framework meant that society was to be treated as a subject matter in its own right separate from the individual. This is our point of departure from psychology, which studies the individual. In order to examine the social framework we look at four distinct types of societies: tribal, ancient, feudal, and industrial.
