What’s sociology? A sociologist explains why Florida’s faculty college students ought to get the possibility to find out how social forces have an effect on everybody’s lives

In January 2024, Florida officially voted to reduce the variety of college students enrolled in sociology programs.

Which may sound baffling should you haven’t tuned into this cultural skirmish. However for me – I’m the American Sociological Association’s current president and a professor of sociology and public policy on the College of Massachusetts Amherst – it’s each disturbing and a chance to assist the general public higher perceive my educational self-discipline.

Sociology is the examine of social life, social change and the social causes and consequences of human behavior.

Sociologists analyze how society is structured and the way individuals work together with each other in teams, organizations and society.

A central idea to sociology is the “sociological imagination.” As outlined by the scholar C. Wright Mills, it’s the flexibility to hyperlink somebody’s experiences to societal forces or historic tendencies; for instance, connecting shedding a job to waves of unemployment as a consequence of a recession.

Why does sociology matter?

As a result of my self-discipline helps establish how social buildings work, it offers perception into tips on how to repair processes that malfunction. Sociological analysis has helped handle questions like why 700 people died during a Chicago heat wave in 1995, or why the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, figuring out methods to keep away from such catastrophes sooner or later.

The analysis that sociologists conduct can establish higher approaches for supporting people with breast cancer. It could clarify how social media platforms like X, previously Twitter, profit from hostility between users.

Sociologists do research that present that jobs with unpredictable schedules are dangerous on your well being and that homicide rates typically increase as inequality grows.

Sociologists additionally examine inequalities, resembling gender or racial inequalities in workplaces. These research can present how workplaces can create more inclusive cultures that profit Black employees in addition to different workers.

Studying about sociology will help college students hone their critical thinking skills by coaching them to guage proof, analyze knowledge and clearly talk its which means – all abilities wanted in most well-paid jobs.

Sociology additionally provides students with soft skills, giving them a greater understanding of tips on how to work successfully with others, together with these with completely different backgrounds and experiences.

The Medical Faculty Admission Take a look at, or MCAT, an examination required for anybody wishing to attend medical college, emphasizes sociological concepts as a result of they offer future medical doctors instruments for tips on how to interact with their sufferers most successfully.

In 2020, greater than 25,000 college students earned a bachelor’s diploma in sociology, and roughly 1,300 earned a grasp’s diploma, with one other 600 earning a Ph.D.

Many individuals who majored in sociology work as social workers, lecturers, college counselors, market analysis analysts, human useful resource coordinators, tech employees, paralegals, public relations professionals, city planners and neighborhood well being employees.

Curbing sociology in Florida

The boards that oversee the schooling of a whole bunch of hundreds of scholars enrolled in Florida’s public schools and universities voted to reduce the number of students who study sociology on these campuses.

They formally eliminated ideas of sociology from the lists of lessons that depend as core courses that satisfy requirements for undergraduate levels.

This alteration, made in January 2024, was in response to a legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in 2023. That measure bans general education college credits for instruction “primarily based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent within the establishments of america and had been created to take care of social, political, and financial inequities.”

Introductory sociology lessons, such because the principles of sociology course taught in Florida’s public schools and universities, train college students how quite a lot of social establishments work, resembling households, schooling, faith, well being care, the economic system, politics, the prison justice system and the media.

College students additionally study matters resembling globalization and inequality – whether or not it’s tied to wealth, earnings, race, gender, age or whether or not individuals stay in city or rural areas.

Sociology is a significant that almost all college students first turn into acquainted with in faculty, usually by way of programs that fulfill basic schooling necessities. On account of this coverage change, it’s seemingly that enrollment in sociology lessons will drastically drop in Florida, and fewer college students will main in sociology.

Sociology programs, by contemplating inequalities by wealth, earnings, race, gender, sexuality and age, might seem overly “woke” to conservatives. However sociological findings are primarily based on scientific evaluation of information from goal sources, such because the U.S. Census Bureau.

World historical past of censorship

U.S. conservatives are usually not the one ones who’ve tried to ban the unfold of sociological data.

Sociology has been censored for lengthy intervals in lots of international locations, together with Russia, Hungary and China.

In April 2019, then-president Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil also lashed out at sociology. Since January 2023, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is once more serving as Brazil’s president. As a result of he married sociologist Rosângela Lula da Silva in 2022, sociology is protected in the intervening time in Brazil.