Sociology of youth is a branch of the science of sociology. She studies youth as a separate community, the features of upbringing and socialization, how youth adopts experience and knowledge from older generations, the lifestyle of young people, the formation of value orientations and life plans. The main problems in science are the sociology of youth: analysis of the portrait of youth groups, the study of the place and role of youth in the development of society, the study of needs, requests, interests, social expectations, value orientations in all spheres of life; moral and psychological readiness for unemployment and labor, youth involvement in self-government and social management at various levels. The sociology of youth is closely connected with the branches of sociology, it is military sociology, sociology of the collective, education, city, culture, mass communications, art, personality, literature, morality, medicine, education, politics, law, religion.
The sociology of youth as a science is divided into three interrelated levels:
1. Empirical, analyzes specific facts based on sociological research in all areas of life;
2. Special theoretical, reveals the structure of youth as a socio-demographic group, the specifics, the features of its behavior and consciousness, value orientations, the socio-psychological and age-specific characteristics of lifestyle;
3. General methodological, based on the knowledge of youth, as a phenomenon of society.
The sociology of sport is a branch of the science of sociology. She focuses on the relations between society and sports in terms of social institutions (education, family, economics, politics), social relations, social organizations, depending on sports (professional or amateur, mass or elite, racial or gender relations in sports), social processes that occur in conjunction with sports.
The value of sociology is the study of social phenomena in society. Sociology provides knowledge about society in the interaction of subjective and objective factors of functioning and historical development, and, therefore, allows parties, people, power structures, scientists to act consciously, predicting scientifically what the consequences of their activities may be.
Three main functions of sociology :
Sociology in society began to perform three basic social functions:
a) scientific. Science examines the influence of socio-political and socio-economic phenomena in society, the spiritual, physical, social development of man in society;
b) scientific, which pursues commercial goals;
c) the apologetics of perestroika, and then the reform course adopted by the authorities.
But now, unfortunately, I have to admit that the apologetics function is approved and supported by the power structure, criticism of the reform course, justified by science, is not accepted.
In Russia, sociology, like society, is going through a difficult time. Most sociologists have lost interest in methodological, theoretical, and historical-sociological research and problems. By and large, representative sociological studies are not conducted in Russia. People without a sociological education, violating moral and legal norms, calling themselves sociologists, conduct polls in public places.
Sociologists have created scientific works that are of great social and scientific importance: in studying the dynamics of citizens' moods, studying the consequences of ongoing reforms in society. During perestroika, and then during the course of reforms, sociological research monitors the impact of reforms on a person, his mental and physical condition, social status , etc.