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What careers will a Sociology degree lead to?

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What careers will a Sociology degree lead to?

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Whilst the economic outlook remains uncertain, the jobs market looks set to become increasingly competitive. Specific sectors such as retail, hospitality and tourism, have taken a severe downturn in the wake of the pandemic, and many vocational career paths have been disrupted. As employers are adjusting to the rapidly changing environment, their need for skilled and adaptable employees with transferable skill sets has become more important than ever.

A degree in sociology will equip you with the transferable and analytical skills required to move between sectors and adapt with ease to the changing employment landscape. For example, business and marketing are increasingly good fits for sociology graduates, as many businesses are becoming more reliant on market research to understand the changing needs of their customers. The ability to understand and interpret the dynamics of class, age, gender and ethnicity is second nature to a sociology graduate, and crucial for any business looking to understand rapidly changing customer behaviour.

Sociology provides a skill set that ensures you will be eminently suitable for many jobs in a variety of sectors. Interpretation and evaluation of evidence, communication, and working in groups are the kinds of skills employers look for. Innovative employers value people with a critical mind who can think laterally, use analysis, summarise and interpret complex ideas, utilise qualitative and quantitative research methods and retain an open and enquiring mind. A degree from the Department of Sociology will give you the chance to develop these skills and give you the competitive edge.

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Which careers will a Sociology degree lead to? | University of Essex

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Whilst the economic outlook remains uncertain, the jobs market looks set to become increasingly competitive. Specific sectors such as retail, hospitality and tourism, have taken a severe downturn in the wake of the pandemic, and many vocational career paths have been disrupted.

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Anthropology is the study of people throughout the world, their evolutionary history, how they behave, adapt to different environments, communicate and socialise with one another. The study of anthropology is concerned both with the biological features that make us human (such as physiology, genetic makeup, nutritional history and evolution) and with social aspects (such as language, culture, politics, family and religion). Whether studying a religious community in London, or human evolutionary fossils in the UAE, anthropologists are concerned with many aspects of people’s lives: the everyday practices as well as the more dramatic rituals, ceremonies and processes which define us as human beings. A few common questions posed by anthropology are: how are societies different and how are they the same? how has evolution shaped how we think? what is culture? are there human universals? By taking the time to study peoples’ lives in detail, anthropologists explore what makes us uniquely human. In doing so, anthropologists aim to increase our understanding of ourselves and of each other.

What do anthropologists do?

While a few anthropology postgraduates go on to work as lecturers or researchers within academia, a significant number are increasingly finding employment in a variety of sectors, ranging from education, charity and international development, to medicine and health-related professions, film and business. Often anthropologists do not follow linear career trajectories, but become involved in various projects in frequently overlapping career sectors. Take a look at our career paths section for case studies, websites and information on careers in anthropology.

Studying anthropology

Both at undergraduate and at postgraduate level, studying anthropology imparts a unique set of skills for working with people. Gaining a deep understanding of cultural and ethnic differences and learning how people’s perspectives, beliefs and practices fit into a wider social, political and economic context is crucial in today’s globalised world. Take a look at our study & experience section for information on a wide range of programmes ranging from pre-university to distance learning and short evening courses.

Common misconceptions about anthropology

Anthropology as subject is not well known amongst the general population in Britain. As anthropology has not until now been taught at secondary school level (except as an option within the International Baccalaureate), the British general public’s exposure to anthropology tends to be limited to museums, occasional newspaper articles, or TV programmes whose primary aim is entertainment. The result is that many misconceptions about anthropology persist. A common one is that anthropology is mainly about ‘bones and fossils’. These are indeed the special concern of biological and evolutionary anthropologists, who use the evidence of human remains and living sites to reconstruct the bodies, diets and environments of our prehuman ancestors. Social and cultural anthropology, however, is concerned with social relations in the ‘here and now’. A second misconception is that social anthropologists exclusively study ‘tribal’ peoples in ‘remote’ areas, whose cultural practices are perceived as ‘exotic’. While it is true that some anthropologists carry out their research in places far from metropolitan centres, there are many others who undertake research in their home towns, in urban settings or in the industrial workplace. A third misconception is that anthropology and archaeology are one and the same. In North America archaeology is considered a branch of anthropology, whereas in Britain, archaeology is considered as a separate sister discipline to anthropology. Generally speaking, archaeology is about people and cultures in the near or distant past, and social anthropology is about present-day peoples and cultures.

Quotes about anthropology

"Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and  listen, record in astonishment and wonder at that which one would not have been able to guess"

Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences”

Anthropologist Ruth Benedict (1887-1948)

“Anthropology is the most humanistic of sciences and the most scientific of  the humanities”

Anthropologist Alfred L.Kroeber (1876-1960)

Recommended Resources

Films

Watch our ‘Inside Anthropology’ video for a brief introduction to the discipline. The film was produced by Ed Owles and Cinzia Rocchi for London Anthropology Day in 2006. For more of the RAI's Educational films visit our YouTube Channel.

The following trailer is for Duka's Dilemma an excellent ethnographic film that is distributed by the Royal Anthropological Institute.

DUK A'S DILEMMA

Director Jean Lydall, Kaira Strecker
Release 2001
Length 87 mins
Location Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Hamar
Language Hamar & English
Prizes/Commendations Winner of the 2003 RAI Film Prize

Filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Lydall has been making films with the Hamar community of southern Ethiopia since the 1970s. In 2001 she returned with her daughter and grandson to follow the continuing life story of Duka. Candid interviews reveal the complex family dynamics when Duka’s husband, Sago, takes a second wife, Boro. This film provides an intimate and personal family portrait that captures Duka’s ambivalence at sharing her home and husband. The quiet suspense is only heightened when Duka’s mother-in-law starts stirring up trouble. The high points of the film include the birth of the new wife’s child, and heated dispute between the mother-in-law and her son, which leads to the building of a new house.

The RAI has one of Europe's most extensive collection of anthropological films which are available for sale or hire.

Books

Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology 9th Edition
Peoples, J. And Bailey, G. (Wadsworth, 2011)

What is Anthropology?
Eriksen, T. H. (Pluto Press, 2004)

Introducing Anthropology 3rd Edition
Davies, W. M. (Totem Books, 2006)

General

The American Anthropological Association's definition of Anthropology.

Sapiens - a digital magazine about the human world with a range of accesible articles

A series of tutorials on biological and cultural anthropology created by Dr. Dennis O'Neil.

anthropology.net - a blog which promotes and facilitates discussions, reviews research, extends stewardship of resources, and disseminates knowledge of anthropology.

anthrodendum (previously called Savage Minds) a group blog devoted to ‘doing anthropology in public’ — providing well-written relevant discussion of sociocultural anthropology that everyone will find accessible.

Professional Organisations, Associations, and Societies

The American Anthropological Association – the world’s largest association of individuals interested in the advancement of anthropology as the science that studies humankind in all its aspects, through archeological, biological, ethnological, and linguistic research

The Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth - The ASA aims to promote the study and teaching of social anthropology, to present the interests of social anthropology and to maintain its professional status.

The European Anthropological Association – a scientific organisation which aims to promote research and teaching in anthropology in the different European countries and to promote exchanges of information, workshops, scientific congresses, and schools at postgraduate level

The European Association of Social Anthropologists – a professional association open to all social anthropologists either qualified in, or working in, Europe.

The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) - a world organization of scientists and institutions working in the fields of anthropology and ethnology, but also of interest to archaeologists and linguists, among others. I

The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) - is the world's longest-established scholarly association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology (the study of humankind) in its broadest and most inclusive sense.

World Council of Anthropological Associations (WCAA) - network of national and international associations that aims to promote worldwide communication and cooperation in anthropology

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The Discover Anthropology website is operated by the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Education Outreach Programme. The website aims to encourage a wider appreciation and understanding of anthropology by functioning as a hub for communication, gathering information, and accessing events, activities…

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Image A: Image of the starting area for the 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Image B: Zoom on the area framed by A, showing the movement sequence of the race organizers (yellow vests) as they guide runners toward the starting area, thereby inducing speed and density disruptions that spread at a constant speed through the crowd. Image C: Speed and density waves in the same crowd, spreading in the opposite direction as the crowd's movement. Credit: Nicolas Bain/Science

Precise simulations of the movement and behavior of crowds can be vital to the production of digital sequences or the creation of large structures for crowd management. However, the ability to quantitatively predict the collective dynamic of a group responding to external stimulation remains a largely open issue, based primarily on models in which each individual's actions are simulated according to empirical behavioral rules. Until now, there was no experimentally tested physical model that describes the hydrodynamics of a crowd without assuming behavioral rules.

Researchers from a laboratory affiliated with the CNRS, l'ENS de Lyon, and l'Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 have provided a first equation of this type, deduced from a measurement campaign conducted on crowds numbering tens of thousands of individuals. The physicists focused on cohorts of runners at the beginning of a marathon, as they are guided to the starting line by a row of organizers in successive sequences of walking and halting. This protocol creates a periodic and controlled disturbance similar to the stimulations that are typically used to probe the mechanical response of fluids.

Remarkably, group behavior varies very little from one assembly of runners to another, one race to another, and one country to another, with speed information propagating constantly at a little over one meter per second. The researchers established a generic description that can precisely predict crowd flows, as flows observed in a road-race in Chicago in 2016 helped predict those of thousands of runners at the start of the Paris marathon in 2017.

Start of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Bank of America Chicago Marathons, sped up eight times. Credit: Nicolas Bain and Denis Bartolo

By using technical standards from fluid mechanics to analyze images from the starting corrals of five races, researchers successfully measured crowd speed at each instant, subsequently describing it as a liquid flow. Their results show that information regarding the speed to adopt spreads to the back of the group in the form of waves measuring hundreds of meters, with no loss of intensity. In contrast, any change to the crowd's movement trajectory dissipates quickly, spreading just a few meters through the crowd. In short, speed information spreads easily through this fluid, while orientational information does not.

The physicists now want to study the response of groups to extreme disturbances in order to test the limits of their hydrodynamic description of crowds.

Start of the 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Left panel: images after correction from perspective distortion effects. Right panel: Walking speed of the crowd, measured from a PIV analysis. Credit: Nicolas Bain and Denis Bartolo

More information: Nicolas Bain et al. Dynamic response and hydrodynamics of polarized crowds, Science (2019). DOI: 10.1126/science.aat9891

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A model for describing the hydrodynamics of crowds

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Precise simulations of the movement and behavior of crowds can be vital to the production of digital sequences or the creation of large structures for crowd management. However, the ability to quantitatively predict the collective dynamic of a group responding to external stimulation remains a largely open issue, based primarily on models in which each individual's actions are simulated according to empirical behavioral rules.

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ReviseSociology - A level sociology revision - education, families, research methods, crime and deviance and more!

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Last Updated on November 14, 2023 by Karl Thompson

A Level Sociology Crime Revision | A Level Sociology Deviance Revision

This page provides links to blog posts on the main topics of the AQA's Crime and Deviance module. It includes links to posts on sociological perspectives on crime (Functionalism, strain theory etc); crime control and punishment, including surveillance; the relationship between class, gender, ethnicity and crime; and globalisation, state and green crime (everyone's favourite!).

Introductory Material

Sociological Perspectives on the London Riots - The London Riots remain the biggest act of mass criminality of the 2000s, I like to use them to introduce sociological perspectives on crime and deviance. You can also use this as an example of how media narratives on the causes of the riots differ so much from the London School of Economics research findings on the actual 'causes' of the riots.

Perspectives on Crime and Deviance - A Very Brief Overview - A summary grid of 21 theorists, their 'key points', their 'perspective' and an evaluation. If you like you can cut and paste, cut it up and use it as a sentence sort!
Key Concepts for A Level Sociology Crime and Deviance- definitions of most of the key concepts relevant to crime and deviance within A-level sociology.
Hints on how to answer the AQA's Sociology Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods exam paper - in case you need to know how you're assessed (only covers the crime and deviance material).

The social construction of crime - a timeline of some relatively recent events that have been criminalised due to changes in the law - once they weren't criminal, now they are! (U.K. focus).

Consensus Theories of Crime and Deviance

The Functionalist Perspective on Crime and Deviance - class notes covering Durkhiem's 'society of saints' (the inevitability of crime), and his views on the positive functions of crime - social integration, social regulation and allowing for social change.

Hirschi's Social Control Theory of Crime - class notes covering Hirschi's four bonds of attachment - attachment, commitment, involvement and belief.

Robert Merton's Strain Theory - class notes: the easy summary of Merton's strain theory is that people who try to succeed by normal means (getting a job for example) and fail turn to crime in oder to achieve what they couldn't through normal means.

Functionalism and Strain Theories of Crime - summary revision notes - a briefer version of the three posts above.

Subcultural Theories of Deviance - class notes on mainly Albert Cohen's consensus theory of status frustration, but also with details of other subcultural theories (e.g. Willis).

Subcultural Theories of Crime - summary revision version of the above.

The Underclass Theory of Crime - brief class notes covering Charle's Murray's theory of the underclass. Murray argues the long term unemployed get cut off over the generations and socialise their kids into a culture of worklesseness and criminality.

Marxist Theories of Crime and Deviance

The Marxist Perspective on Crime - very detailed class notes covering concepts such as crimogenic capitalism, the costs of corporate crime and the ideological functions of selective law enforcement.

The Marxist Perspective on Crime - summary revision notes of the above.

Evaluating the Marxist Perspective on Crime - evaluative posts, mostly links to research which supports the Marxist perspective on crime.

Assess the Contribution of Marxism to our Understanding of Crime and Deviance - an outline 30 mark essay plan.

Interactionist Theories of Crime and Deviance

The Labelling Theory of Crime - very detailed class notes covering concepts such as labelling as applied to education and crime, the self fulfilling prophecy, Howard Becker's Master Status, and Cicourel's Negotiation of Justice.

The Labelling Theory of Crime - brief summary notes of the above.

Realist Theories of Crime and Deviance

Right Realist Criminology - Includes an introduction to Realism and detailed class notes on Right Realism covering rational choice theory, broken windows theory, Charles Murray's views on the underclass, situational crime prevention and environmental crime prevention (mainly zero tolerance policing)

Evaluating Broken Windows Theory - evaluative post. Wilson and Kelling's Broken Windows Theory has been referred to as 'the most influential theory of crime control' of recent decades, this post offers some evaluations of this theory. (Spoiler Alert - it doesn't hold up to scrutiny very well!)

Environmental Crime Prevention - Definition and Examples - supplementary notes to Right Realism covering zero tolerance policing and ASBOs

Public Space Protection Orders and Criminal Behaviour Orders - supplementary notes to Right Realist policies of crime control

Left Realist Criminology - class notes covering relative deprivation, marginalisation, subcultures, early intervention, community based solutions to crime and community policing

Post and Late Modern Theories of Crime and Deviance

Post/ Late Modern Criminology - brief summary notes covering how crime has changed with shift to post modernity, which as resulted in society being more consumerist, more fragment and more globalized, as well as summaries of Jock Young and Cultural Criminology (covered in more detail below)

Jock Young - Late Modernity, Exclusion and Crime - Jock Young argues that more people suffer from the 'Vertigo of Late Modernity' in late modern society. This is essentially a state of extreme anomie, and this is kind of an updated version of Strain Theory.

Cultural Criminology - Crime as Edgework - argues that a lot of crime is done for thrill for of it today.

Foucault - Surveillance and Crime Control - A very simplified explanation of Foucault, who argued that surveillance by agents of the state becomes more important for social control in modernity than the threat of physical punishment.

Synoptic Surveillance and Crime Control - synoptic surveillance is surveillance from below rather than surveillance from above. In simple terms it means all of us watching each other rather than just the state watching citizens.

Actuarial Justice and Risk Management - this is statistical surveillance, a form of surveillance long used by insurance companies, but increasingly used by state agencies. It is where people who have a statistically higher risk of truanting/ offending/ failing will be under a higher level of surveillance than the norm.

Controlling and Reducing Crime - the Role of the Community, the Police and Different Forms of Punishment

Crime Prevention and Control Strategies - very brief summary revision notes on situational crime prevention, environmental crime prevention and community crime control strategies

The Role of the Community in Controlling and Reducing Crime - a summary of consensus, right realist, left realist and postmodern perspectives on the community in controlling crime

The Role of the Police in Controlling and Reducing Crime - right and left realists both tend to be on the side of the police, but right realists believe the police should be more 'militaristic', while left realists emphasise that they should work with communities and avoid being antagonistic. Marxists and interactionists tend to see the police as being 'the problem' and are more likely to side with the criminals.

Sociological Perspectives on Punishment - summary notes covering the Consensus, Marxist, interactionist, Realist and Postmodern views on punishment.

Does Prison Work? - an evaluative post looking at some of the evidence on whether prison works to prevent crime. Spoiler alert: it generally doesn't!

Social Class and Crime

Social Class and Crime - detailed class notes covering the consensus view which tends to see most crime being committed by the working classes and the underclass, hence these classes are seen as part of the problem of crime; this is contrasted with mainly the Marxist view which sees all classes as committing crime, with agents of social control largely ignoring elite crime.
See also the perspective links above, especially Marxism!
Outline and Analyse Two Ways in Which Patterns of Crime Vary by Social Class - 10 mark exam style question

Ethnicity and Crime

Official Statistics on Ethnicity and Crime - Official statistics suggest that black people are around 6 times more likely to go to jail than white people, while Asians are 2-3 times more likely to go to jail. Of course there are limitations to these statistics!

Ethnicity and Crime - The Role of Cultural Factors - structural theorists focus on some of the background differences between ethnic groups. Pointing out, for example, that the high rates of absent fathers among British-Caribbean households may explain the higher rates of recorded offending by 'black' boys especially.

Left Realist Explanations for Ethnic Differences in Crime - left realists explain the higher rates of offending among certain ethnic groups as being due to higher rates of relative deprivation and marginalisation.

Neo-Marxist Approaches to Ethnicity and Crime - Applying the fully social theory of deviance to explaining the higher rates of black offending.

Paul Gilroy's Anti-Racist Theory - summary notes on this classic text, taken from Haralambos.

Criminal Justice, Ethnicity and Racism - Selected Key Statistics - evaluative post

Racism in the Criminal Justice System - Selected Evidence - there is A LOT of evidence that suggests the police are racist - the stop and search stats alone point to this, with black people being almost 30 times as likely to be stopped compared to white people in some circumstances. There is also more qualitative evidence based on Participant Observation which suggests this.

Ethnicity and Crime - Two examples of possible short answer 4 and 6 mark 'outline' questions.

Outline and Analyse Question on Police Racism - 10 mark exam question and answer - 'Analyse two criticisms of the theory that police racism is the main factor which explains the higher imprisonment rates of ethnic minorities'

Gender and Crime

Sex-Role Theory - suggests that women commit less crime than men because of their different roles in society, such as the motherhood role, which results in them being more constrained and more caring and responsible.

The Liberationist Perspective on the (Long Term) Increase in the Female Crime Rate - This classic Liberal Feminist perspective argues that the female crime rate has increased in line with female liberation.

Globalisation, state and green crime

Globalisation, global criminal networks and crime - covering Misha Glenny's work on the McMafia. He argues that the growth of the Mafia in ex-communist countries such as Bulgaria have been central to the growth of global crime - because they are perfectly located to ship illegal products such as drugs and sex-slaves from the global south to meet demand in the wealth global north.

Capitalism, Globalisation and Crime - A Marxist perspective on global crime covering global finance and tax havens and TNCs and law evasion.

What is State Crime? - A simple explanation is that state crimes are crimes committed by governments, which are in breach of human rights. Historically the Nazi Genocide is the most obvious example.

Sociological perspectives on state crime - covering the different types of state crime and a slightly unusual take applying material from global development to analyse state crime.

Green crime and green criminology - revision notes covering primary and secondary green crime, Ulrich Beck's Risk Society theory and Marxist views of Green Crime.

Victimology

Victimology - covering trends in victimisation, and positivist and critical victimology.

The Economic and Social Costs of Crime - a summary of a recent (2021) government report looking at the social and economic harms crime does in England and Wales.

What are the impacts of crime on victims? - a post examining how crime affects individuals and their families, including a look at secondary victimisation.

The Media and Crime

How the Media Simplifies Crime - a brief post summarising how the media tends to take the side of the police and victims, focus on crimes with easy to understand individual 'harm' stories and provide a narrow analysis of crime control options.

Sensationalisation of Crime in the Media - There are a lot of fictional programmes about crime in the UK, many of them tend to present criminal characters as likeable and make the hideous crimes they commit (in fiction) seem 'cool'.

Moral Panics and The Media - brief class notes covering the definition of a moral panic, Stan Cohen's work on the Mods and Rockers and some criticisms.

The Exaggeration of Violent and Sexual Crimes in the Media - The mainstream media exaggerates the extent of violent crime 10 times, tending to focus a lot more on very serious horrific crimes rather than less serious crimes which are much more common according to official statistics.

What is CyberCrime? - A long form post examining crimes such as identify theft, online fraud, ransomware attacks and phishing scams.

Posts on Specific Types of Crime

How do we explain the recent surge in Knife Crime? - exploring this is a useful way to evaluate Right Realist theories of deviance especially.

Sociological Perspectives on Hate Crime - a very 'postmodern' type of crime, but some of the other sociological perspectives can also help us understand this crime.

How is Coronavirus affecting crime and deviance? - all of a sudden certain acts that used to be 'normal' are now criminal, this is perfect analytical feeding ground for any A-level sociology student!

Fraud and Computer Misuse - this seems to be one of the more common types of crime. Roughly one in five adults was a victim to the twelve months ending December 2020.
It contains

12 exam practice questions including short answer, 10 mark and essay question exemplars.

32 pages of revision notes covering the entire A-level sociology crime and deviance specification

Seven colour mind maps covering sociological perspective on crime and deviance

Written specifically for the AQA sociology A-level specification.
Crime and Deviance Revision Bundle for Sale

A-level sociology revision mega bundle...

For better value I've bundled all of the above topics into six revision bundles, containing revision notes, mind maps, and exam question and answers, available for between £4.99 and £5.99 on Sellfy.

1. over 200 pages of revision notes

2. 60 mind maps in pdf and png formats

3. 50 short answer exam practice questions and exemplar answers

4. Covers the entire A-level sociology syllabus, AQA focus.

Best value is my A level sociology revision mega bundle - which contains the following:

Crime and Deviance in Contemporary Society

Below are some selected, recent posts outlining how you might use contemporary examples to illustrate key concepts within crime and deviance. Examiners like this sort of contemporary focus!

How Coronavirus is changing crime - all of a sudden sitting on a park bench was illegal!

The deportation of foreign nationals - an example of a state crime? Outlines when the UK government tried to deport 42 criminals (in some cases 'criminals') back to Jamaica on their release from prison, despite the fact that some of them had been in the UK since they were children!

Contemporary examples of crime and deviance in the news - further examples from 2019 and 2018 which are relevant to A-level sociology.

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A Level Sociology Crime Revision | A Level Sociology Deviance Revision This page provides links to blog posts on the main topics of the AQA's Crime and Deviance module.

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Sociology Group: Welcome to Social Sciences Blog

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The Sociology of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the application of machine intelligence techniques to social phenomena (Bainbridge et al, 1994). It includes methods of analysing social data that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further its work. With the advent of AI and consequent development, sociologists have engaged in the implementation of the same to understand social phenomena. Several researchers have adopted the issues of customary significance in Sociology, such as the combination of computational simulations through intellectual adaptive devices, the functions of organisations in influencing their managers and so on. Many scholars have also pointed out that artificial intelligence couldn't be realised in its entirety without the help of social scientists. The first conference on Sociology and Artificial Intelligence was held in 1985 by Gilbert and Heath.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Coppin defines artificial intelligence or AI as "the study -of systems that act in a way that to any observer would appear to be intelligent" (Coppin, 2004). It is used to solve both simple and complex issues within a shorter period. It effectively helps the computer system to improve with data and experience. The most fascinating aspect of AI is that it enables the electronic vehicle to learn from its mistakes and work on rectification of the same through the correct implication of efficient methods.

Society and Artificial Intelligence

The computational devices serve as agents in facilitating the solution to the problems in governmental and social change. AI has also strongly impacted the political scenario of the world. It has helped in the smooth restoration of the party-political science information and dissemination of the same. Theoretical assessments like text analysis, network examination, professional schemes and discovery of supplementary information have been possible through the use of AI. Its multi-agent calculation model makes it possible to bring together mental science and social accomplishment theory. Few examples of such models are the genomic systems, blocks, neural networks, and so on.

AI focuses on both macro as well as microstructures of the society. It effectively represents each component or individual of the society and works towards strengthening and improving their position by integrating them into the larger world and thereby impacting the overall organisational structures or social institutions. Therefore, artificial intelligence "intelligently intellectualises" the society into "synthetic vehicles" (Zhang, 2018). The non-human intelligent actors are increasingly integrated into our society with smart home systems, chatbots, and autonomous vehicles, and so on.

Moreover, AI-based social media platforms help in keeping social relations intact. It has been found that most of young people prefer to stay connected over social media rather than through face-to-face conversations. Bonds formed over the internet, supposedly, continue in real-life too. Hence, it keeps the individual socially connected and treats them as social beings. Apps driven by AI are also used by the crime bureau and investigation committees to monitor the activities of the masses and help in the prevention of cybercrime and so on. Hence, it effectively contributes to social control.

Emotional Impact

Traditional artificial intelligence which focused on isolated agents majorly contributed to introducing current mental psychology (Zhang, 2018). Initially, it was considered that AI would work just like a human but without any hint of emotions. Whereas jobs like that of engineers, builders, and so on would be replaced by it (which majorly has been), psychological work and social work that are embedded in human emotions would still be retained by humans. Is it so? Medical researchers claim that AI has efficiently acted as a catalyst in the field of healthcare and with proper research, it can revolutionize the world of psychotherapy.

Well-being applications like Replika and Wysa which offer cognitive behavioural therapy (driven by AI) for various mental illnesses have become increasingly popular in the past few years. People often resort to these apps to vent out their frustrations and anxieties, share their secrets and stories and open up without the fear of being judged. In other words, such apps act as perfect listeners. AI has also helped in the diagnosis of mental health disorders and made psychotherapy accessible and less challenging to both the seekers of therapy as well as the therapists. Due to several stigmas and taboos attached to mental health, people often refrain from visiting a therapist. Hence, such apps become their only solution and escape. The first AI for mental health care was invented in the 1960s, named as Eliza, to make people feel like they were speaking to another human therapist who would further respond with open-ended questions. It had also been observed that some AI apps can also spot suicide tendencies among their users and help prevent suicide.
Read: Mental Health and Disorders: Overview
Social Theories Inspired by AI

Fararo and Skvoretz (1984) claimed that AI concept of the production system can form the basis of a general theory about action structures and social institutions. Since production comprises a set of conditions demanding a particular action, social norms can be referred to as productions, and institutions and roles can be treated as production systems. The interrelationships of these played roles can be referred to as "rolegram".

Carley (1989, 1991) built a constructuralist theory of social behaviour inspired by the symbolic processing's mechanical cognitive model. This theory can make specific predictions about human behaviour and can be simulated on a computer. For instance, the development of AI-based apps for psychotherapy which has been discussed earlier in this article. Kontopoulos (1993) says that neural networks serve as perfect metaphors for understanding social structure.

Drawbacks

Research on AI is scarce compared to computational studies. Sociology has also placed less emphasis on cognition and focused on fields where the use of AI remains undeveloped (structural components). Similarly, computer scientists working on AI have blatantly ignored the social roots of human intelligence. Collins (1992) claimed that artificial intelligence cannot be achieved without help from sociologists.

Cultural aspects greatly impact and mimic human behaviour, but literature on AI doesn't systematically represent culture. AI also fails to provide much attention to social simulation (Chai, 2004). Although AI emphasises on both macro as well as micro-level components, social theories on microstructures are largely underrepresented.

As machines become workhorses of humankind, more and more people become vulnerable to losing their livelihoods. Hence, although AI might help in economically advancing a country to a great level, it will widen the gaps between social classes and result in downward social mobility. This particular characteristic marks the era of capitalism where products (human-made technology) overshadow producers (humans) who produce them. Moreover, even with emotional integration, it still poses a question against the necessity of physicality or touches, because, at the end of the day, we are not just social but also biological beings.
References

1. Bansraj, R. (2018). The Sociology of A.I. Sociology, Researchgate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328570876_The_Sociology_of_AI

2. Carley, K. 1989. The value of cognitive foundations for dynamic social theory. Journal of Mathematical Sociology 14:171-208.

3. Carley, K. 1991. A theory of group stability. Am. Sociol. Rev. 56:331-354.

4. Chai, S. (2004). Artificial Intelligence and Social Theory: A One-Way Street? Perspectives, University of Hawaii, volume 27(4).

5. Collins, R. 1992. Can sociology create an artificial intelligence? In Sociological Insight, pp. 155-184. New York: Oxford University Press.

6. Coppin, B. (2004). Artificial Intelligence Illuminated. Mississauga. Canada: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

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The Sociology of Artificial Intelligence: Explained

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The Sociology of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the application of machine intelligence techniques to social phenomena (Bainbridge et al, 1994). It includes methods of analysing social data that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further its work. With the advent of AI and consequent development, sociologists have engaged in the implementation of the same to understand social phenomena.