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Essential Concepts in Sociology
Third Edition
ANTHONY GIDDENS & PHILIP W. SUTTON
polity
Copyright © Anthony Giddens & Philip W. Sutton 2021
The right of Anthony Giddens & Philip W. Sutton to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First edition published in 2014 by Polity Press
This third edition first published in 2021 by Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 13: 978-1-5095-4809-5
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Giddens, Anthony, author. | Sutton, Philip W., author.
Title: Essential concepts in sociology / Anthony Giddens & Philip W. Sutton.
Description: Third Edition. | Medford : Polity Press, 2021. | Revised edition of the author’s Essential concepts in sociology, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Succinct guide to the core ideas that shape our understanding of the social world”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021000856 (print) | LCCN 2021000857 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509548088 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509548095 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509548101 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Sociology.
Classification: LCC HM585 .G51973 2021(print) | LCC HM585(ebook) | DDC 301--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000856 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000857
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Introduction
Sociology has its origin in the nineteenth century, but it is a discipline that must move and change with the times or risk becoming irrelevant. This is because our object of study, the social life we all live and make together, is itself in a continuous process of change. Conflicts and wars, new patterns of migration, multiculturalism, increasingly fluid gender relations, a digital revolution in communications, financial crises, global health pandemics and terrorism are just some of the phenomena that sociologists investigate and seek to understand. Given this diverse range of subjects, it is not surprising that sociology is theoretically diverse and uses a broad array of research methods to help us make sense of the human world. This is the inevitable outcome of attempts to understand and explain our globalizing world, but it also follows that our familiar and comfortable concepts always need to be reassessed and new ones created where necessary. This book includes what we think is a productive mixture of both long-established and more recent concepts.
Concept Development in Sociology
Some sociological concepts are part of the very tissue of the discipline, having weathered the shifting terrain of society pretty well. Social class, status, capitalism, gender, poverty, family and power remain fundamental to anyone interested in ‘doing’ sociology. Yet others are more recently developed and are still debated and argued over. Globalization, postmodernity, reflexivity, postcolonialism, environment, and the social model of disability are part of the conceptual lexicon, representing some of the major social changes of recent decades. The book provides a map of sociology’s conceptual development and current condition by introducing the essential concepts, many of which are effective signposts for particular theoretical developments since the late nineteenth century. Familiarizing themselves with these concepts, their origins and contemporary usage will help readers to see how the subject matter of sociology has developed over time.
Concept development in sociology is usually linked to theories and empirical studies, both of which often demand new concepts to make sense of their findings. Some concepts, such as status, class and risk, are already in circulation in society, but when lifted out of that context into sociology they are debated and refined, becoming more precise and useful in the process. Others, including alienation, moral panic and globalization, have been created by sociologists to orientate and help them to study social phenomena, after which they can ‘slip’ into everyday life, where they may influence or change people’s perceptions of the world in which they live. This is quite unlike the situation in the natural sciences. Regardless of how many concepts from the natural sciences are created, those concepts do not have the potential to change the behaviour of animals and plants. As Giddens has argued, this is an example of a ‘one-way’ process. In sociology, concepts, research findings and theories do make their way back into society and people may alter their ideas and behaviour as a result. This means that sociological research is part of a continuous ‘two-way’ process between sociologists and the subjects they study.
This two-way process means that our concepts are inherently unstable and open to modification and change, not just within professional sociological discourse but in the social world itself. It also means that some concepts – perhaps
