Basic concepts

Before you can read a judgment about a ‘group’ discriminated against, or a statute that protects a ‘community’, you need to know that sociology uses these words with precise, technical meanings that do not always match everyday usage. This topic is the toolbox: society, group, norm, value, status, role, socialisation and culture — the working vocabulary the rest of the module, and much of the paper, assumes you already have.

In two minutes

This topic is the umbrella for sociology's basic vocabulary — society, social groups, norms, values, status, role, socialisation and culture — each of which the syllabus then examines in its own dedicated sub-topic.

The rest of this chapter

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