Sociology's Quest for 'Society': An Enquiry into the Current Pursuits and Needed Concerns in the Discipline

The author offers thoughts on the vision of sociology & the mission of sociologists in the 21st century, especially in this era of information technology & the knowledge revolution in which humans have been reduced to objects of sociological research & marketable commodities of multinational corporations. A short description of the current status of sociology is followed by a discussion of the state of the social world, with its changes in social structure & social relationships resulting from technological advances & culminating in the knowledge society. In such an environment, it is wondered, can sociology achieve its goals of the betterment of society, or is it losing sight of the human element of society? It is argued that sociology should focus on the concerns of humankind, but to do so will require a reconsideration of the epistemological, conceptual, categorical, methodological, & paradigmatical apparatus of the discipline. To quote T. S. Elliot, "Where is the human we have lost in society? Where is the society we have lost in sociology?". References. J. Stanton