The 20th century became a time of particularly intensive development of sociological science. Modern Western sociology just formed in this period of time. It was during this period that many theories and trends appeared, national sociological societies and the International Sociological Association were created, applied methods of empirical research are being developed, which are carried out as part of research centers.
Modern Western sociology originated in Europe, but already from the 20s of the XX century. leading positions in sociology have passed to the USA. In this country, sociological science developed as an applied science, which was guided by the positivistic idea of the accuracy and objectivity of scientific data. Thanks to American researchers, sociology has transformed from a theoretical science into a practical one.
In parallel with these tendencies, modern Western sociology has developed in other countries in the form of fundamental academic sociology. This led to a conditional division of sociology into applied and theoretical.
Modern Western Sociology how discipline is divided into a fairly large number of diverse scientific fields and schools. It is rather difficult to classify them, since they differ in their theoretical orientation, and the time of occurrence, and research methodology.
One of the most logical and common classifications is as follows. Sociological trends are divided into two voluminous groups. The first includes “macro-sociological” theories, the essence of which is to postulate the primacy of society in relation to a single individual. The logic of the study of this group involves a movement to the quotient from the general, that is, to the concept of “personality” from the concepts of “society” and “social system”.
The beginning of these theories goes back to the teachings of O. Comte, E. Durkheim, G. Spencer. The same group includes structural-functional analysis (headed by T. Parsons), conflict theories (headed by L. Coser and R. Darendorf), structuralism (C. Levy-Strauss, M. Foucault), technological determinism (U Rostow, R. Dron, D. Bell, J. Galbraith), neo-evolutionism (J. Stuart, L. White, J. Murdoch) and others.
The second group includes “microsociological” theories, which are put forward in the center of attention in the first place - personality, individual, person. They strive to explain general sociological patterns, analyze the inner world of a person, especially the interaction of this person with other people participating in society. The methodology of this group of scientists requires a movement from the particular to the general, from the individual to the social system.
The beginning of the formation of these theories relates to the views of M. Weber, some representatives of psychosociology (G. Tarde, L. Ward, V. Pareto). Western sociology of this trend is now represented by symbolic interactionism (A. Stressa, C. Cooley, G. Blumer, A. Rose, J. Mead, G. Stone), phenomenological sociology (A. Schütz, T. Luckmann), the theory of exchange (J. Homans, P. Blau), ethnomethodology (G. Garfinkel, A. Sikurel), etc.
Theories that relate to a particular methodological group may well differ quite significantly in the sphere of interests and in the interpretation of the phenomena under consideration.
The dictionary of modern Western sociology provides an impressive list of schools and trends that are currently developing in Europe and America. Empirical and theoretical directions are developing intensively. Psychological sociology, which studies mass phenomena and processes, is very popular now. The French school is characterized by a high interest in the study of the psychology of the crowd. In addition, the technological direction of sociology is also developing. Theories of an industrial, post-industrial and information society are being developed. The military sociological direction is developing.