Curated category
Sociological terminology
- Social classSocial class shapes the schools a person attends, the jobs open to them, when they retire, whom they may marry, and how police and the courts treat them.
- IdeologyIdeology began as a word coined by a French aristocrat sitting in prison. Antoine Destutt de Tracy was held from November 1793 to October 1794, awaiting…
- Power (social and political)Power, in political science, is the ability to influence or direct the actions, beliefs, or conduct of other actors, usually through law.
- Structure and agencyStructure and agency sits at the heart of the social sciences, and the question it poses is deceptively simple: when a person makes a choice, how much of…
- Trust (social science)Trust sits at the center of almost every human interaction, yet most people never stop to examine it. It is the belief that another person will do what is…
- Identity (social science)Identity is the set of qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and expressions that characterize a person or a group.
- Work (human activity)Work is one of the few activities that has existed in every human society, paid or unpaid, from people gathering natural resources by hand in hunter-gatherer…
- Western cultureWestern culture has no fixed borders on any map. The term has shifted meaning across centuries, swallowed and expelled whole civilizations, and remains…
- Social networkSocial networks are invisible architectures that shape nearly everything about how human beings find work, share ideas, and change one another's minds.
- Sphere of influenceA sphere of influence is one of international relations' most consequential and contested ideas. When powerful states draw invisible lines around weaker…
- Pre-industrial societyPre-industrial society shaped how nearly every human being on earth lived, worked, and understood the world for centuries before 1750.