Sociology is the fascinating pursuit of trying to understand the world we live in.  Many students like you wonder where exactly they fit into the scheme of things or even if they count at all.  Sociology addresses this concern by giving you a vivid awareness of the close link between your personal experiences and your society.  As you study sociology, you will become a "stranger" in the familiar landscape of your own society by questioning the world others take for granted.  This will be facilitated by analyzing human behavior using the scientific method.  We will ask questions like the following:  "What is going on here?" "Who is involved and who is left out of the action?"  "What does this really mean?"  We all know the "pie" is cut unevenly, but why is this true?  Is it because our society is based on greed, lies, and deception, or simply a lack of caring for others, or what?

To find some answers, sociology studies the bonds which unite individuals together.  The sociological approach assumes that any of us - whether politician or citizen, student or teacher, employer or employee, wife or husband, child or parent, police officer or citizen, corporation president or window cleaner - needs other people.  As we live out our lives, we make arrangements with one another which have an order to them.  It is this order that sociology tries to explain - the order of work, study, play, worship, politics, relatives, and friends.  You are invited to this new way of seeing and understanding.  Your world will not stay the same.