How would we distinguish the various disciplines within social sciences? What qualifies someone as an Anthropologist and the other as a Sociologist, though they pursue the same academic training in the same department? Do the old disciplinary boundaries still determine the division between disciplines? The difference between disciplines, as I feel, do not exist any more in social sciences. The whole of social sciences could be regarded as one single discipline taking into account the inter-disciplinary approach that have dominated the social science research today. There existed differences in the way we looked at social phenomena. The approach and methodology of the various social scientists were different and that created compartmentalization among disciplines. However, I am not arguing that this difference in approach in social sciences do not exist anymore. It certainly does. But the research in social sciences has become more inter-disciplinary. It freely borrows from other disciplines where the individual disciplines lose their separate identity and create a shared social science discipline. Earlier, Anthropology was considered as the study of culture and primitive (village/tribal) communities/ societies. It followed a very unique tradition of fieldwork and ethnography (qualitative description) and asked micro level questions. In contrast, Sociology was the study of social structures, human interactions, and order & change in society (Auguste Comte). It asked broad and macro level questions and followed a more quantitative approach. Sociology was distinguished from Anthropology in terms of its focus and specialization on modern and industrialized society. As is the case in India, if Anthropology was introduced by the British to civilize the tribes, Sociology, not only in India but also world over, was introduced to understand the problems of modern industrial society.
Similar, is the case with other disciplines. The primacy of ‘space’ is emphasized in Geography. The primacy of economy is emphasized in Economics. Psychology studied the behavioral and attitudinal aspect of human beings. Political Science dealt with the study of power and politics in society. It specialized in the study of state, political parties, elections and political behavior of the people in society. But today, Sociologists also study the state, civil society, electoral politics and forms of government and state-building which used to be considered as the purview of Political Scientists. Similarly, political scientists also study the social structures and their implications for the state and power structures in society. The sociologists also have developed sub-disciplines like ‘political sociology’, ‘economic sociology’, ‘urban sociology’, ‘cultural studies’, ‘political economy’, etc. The study of ‘Space’ is no longer the specialization of Geography. Similarly, ‘social structure’ is no longer the arena of enquiry of Sociology, or ‘power’ and ‘politics’ of Political Science, and ‘culture’ of Anthropology. Anthropologists now without restraint use the political economy approach to study the micro social phenomena in the community level. What now brings the Sociologist and Geographers together is the idea of ‘social space’ – a physical territory that determines human interaction. In this sense, there is nothing today which is the sole domain of a particular discipline within social sciences. Same issue is being approached differently by different disciplines. The water tight divisions/ compartmentalization between different disciplines, though there exist many (subtle) differences, do not exist anymore within social sciences. It would be wise, as I feel, to call the whole social science as one single shared discipline.
No comments:
Post a Comment