Merton the founder of the sociology of science Even his enemies admit that Merton is the founder of the sociology of science. When he published his classic Science, Technology, and Society in Seventeenth-Centiiry England in 1938. the sociology of science was not a recognized field. Fifty years later, an abundance of programs of instruction and centers of research in social studies of science an...

Sociology primarily concerns itself with social relationships. A network of social relationships is called the society. The society is the sole concern of sociology. Though, there are other aspects of the social science that focuses on some other aspects of the society, the central concern of sociology is the social relationships of mankind. Sociology also uses scientific method in its study. S...

Social change and large-scale transformations are as important to everyday life sociology as to macro sociology approaches. South Africa has been a 'hotspot' of change with a number of such transitions occurring in a condensed time-period, in particular regarding 'race' matters. A large South African family collection, concerning the Forbes family, is used to explore how the processes of change...

This article addresses the relationship between technology and institutions and asks whether technology itself is an institution. The argument is that social theorists need to attend better to materiality: the world of things and objects of which technical things form an important class. It criticizes the new institutionalism in sociology for its failure to sufficiently open up the black box of...