Early Sociologists

C Wright Mills (1959) descirbed socialogical imagination as an awareness of the relationship betweenan individual and the wider society. A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability to view one's own society as an outsider would, rather than from the limited perspective of personal experiences and cultural biases.

Emile Durkhiem (1947) will be remembered for his insitance that behaviour cannot be fully understood in individualistic terms, that it must be understood within a larger social context.

Max Weber pointed out that much of out social behaviour cannot be analysed by the kinds of objective criteria we use to measure weight or temperature. To fully comprehend behaviour, we must learn the subjective meanings people attach to their actions - how they themselves view and explain their behavior. Weber (1947) developed a classification of system regarding authority that has become one of the most useful and frequently cited contributions of sociology. He identified three ideal types of authority; traditional, legal-rational, and charismatic. Weber did not insist that only one type is accepted in a given society or organization. Rather, all can be present, but their relative importance will vary. Sociologists have found Web's typology valuable in understanding different manifestations of legitimate power within a society.


Karl Marx shared with Durkheim and Weber a dual interest in abstract philosophical issues and in the concrete reality of everyday life. Marx focused on conflict between social classes, as represented by industrial workers and the owners of factories and businesses. Under Marx's analysis, society was fundamentally divided between classes who clash in pursuit of their own class interests. He argued that history could be understood in diatectical terms as a record of the inevitable conflicts between economic groups. This view forms the bass for the contemporary sociological perspective of conflict theory.