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Critical criminology and the social sciences
Critical criminology and the social sciences

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1.3 Sociology

In the following video, Dr Peter Redman introduces the discipline of sociology.

Activity 3

Spend some time watching the video, and then try to summarise the defining characteristic(s) of sociology as an academic discipline in the text box below.

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Video 3
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Discussion

Sociology can be defined as the study of society or the social world. In practice, this can mean studying what happens when people do things together. For this reason, sociologists are often characterised as being interested in collective, rather than the individual, phenomena. Finally, sociology often involves a focus on enduring aspects of society – what are commonly referred to as ‘social structures’.