Social science is the science concerned with the study of human society and the relationship of the individual in the societies. It is an academic discipline that has been rising immensely over the years. It includes the study of economics, politics, cultures and traditions, psychology, linguistics, and every other aspect concerning individuals and society. Under social science, these studies are grouped into two branches, i.e., economics and sociology.
Economics is defined as the branch of knowledge that deals with all the economic aspects of human lives how goods and services are produced and manufactured, distributed and consumed. Sociology on the other hand basically deals with the social lives of human beings cultural, legal, and political aspects of human lives and the social interaction and relationship involved within it.
The major differences between sociology and economics are:
Economics only deals with and covers economic relations between people, and it is only one aspect of man’s social life. It is concerned with studying man in accordance with wealth, how he acquires and disposes of it. It studies relations and factors that are purely economic. The basic knowledge of economics includes factors such as price, supply, demand, and elasticity of goods and services, as well as how these factors contribute to the fluctuation of goods and services in the market.
In economics, man is the main subject of interest. Economics studies humans as economic beings and therefore is very concrete. It does not have much scope in comparison to sociology because the economics just covers the economic relations between men.
Sociology, on the other hand, deals with the social aspect of man, the diverse patterns of interactions and relationships people around the globe employ. Society is the target of learning and experimenting. It is the component of sociology just as individually is to economics.
Sociology studies human as a social being. Within sociology, it covers all the concepts and principles that concern human beings and the societies. It studies all the rules and regulation that connects and divide people all over, geography, health care, economic activities, belief systems of every communities, cultures, and tradition, crime and law, politics and all other aspects that is to be dealt with man.All the human activities fall under this branch, therefore, sociology has been drastically growing and expanding for learning and creating infinite knowledge. Thus it has a wider scope whereas economics is solely confined to the study of economic structure and relations.
Economists just study the activities which are solely and purely economic. When we say activities it includes the methods and techniques employed for the production, dissemination and consumption and studies involved are done through individual’s economic activities and other economic means. In contrasts, the sociologist is concerned with dealing with economical methods and techniques which are seen through the social aspect and perspective. Sociology is concerned to study society as a whole.
Sociology is considered the newest of all social sciences. Despite the fact that economics is considered much older, it is included in the study of sociology which is considered a newer branch of social science.
Both Economics and Sociology employs different and diverse methods and ways of studying the concerned field. Since economists have to carry out methods and techniques for the production, distribution, and consumption of the materials factors, the ways employed in fulfilling it is different than the ways and strategies employed by economists to find out data about the social animals.
The only thing that is common between the two is that both use scientific methods to study their respective areas of interest. Economists have to take up different methods mainly based on observation and deduction which is becoming a more specialized branch of knowledge. The methods employed are the observing, describing and measuring the exchanges, creating a hypothesis, gathering data, predicting the outcomes.
In sociology it is done through quantitative and qualitative means and the methods employed are gathering the data is different.
Despite the above-mentioned differences sociology and economics are dependent on each other. Economics which is mainly concerned with the economic aspect of man is directly correlated to social activities of societies. In order to understand the economic lives of human beings, knowledge about societies i.e., the behaviors, actions, and activities is a prerequisite. This is because in the process of doing these actions, activities, economy plays a major role. It directly affects the actions of the societies. Simultaneously sociology concerning the study of social beings is highly impacted by the economic factors.
While studying these social associations and behavior of social animals studying how man acquire wealth, consume it and dispose of is an integral part without which one cannot completely understand the factors and relationships that constitute the societies as sociologists. Hence economics as a branch of social science and a discipline is considered to be the branch of sociology.
Since both the disciplines are directly proportional economic welfare is also a part of social welfare. It is not worth considering the economic welfare in the absence of sufficient and appropriate knowledge of the social aspect of social animals and vice versa.
For instance, economists utilize the knowledge of the concepts of sociology to learn the economic crisis, poverty, slavery, unemployment in pursuit of solving it. If the economists are successful in eradicating these economic problems it directly helps in the welfare of the society. Economists wanting to study and investigate the economic condition of people at that point in time has to rely on the data and information collected by the sociologists.
Man’s everyday life is greatly affected by economic relations at a great deal. The economic factors play a crucial role in the day to day lives of man, after all, it the economy that keeps man sustain his/her life. Keeping this in mind sociologist is greatly concerned with the study of economic conditions. It is mandatory for sociologists to study the social aspect of economic lives of social animals.
Sociologists too study social or could be called economic problems as cited above like slavery, poverty, unemployment and much more by taking into consideration the economic factors in pursuit of finding and solving the causes and reasons of the these stated problems. Therefore, we could say that sociology and economics are interdependent.
Economics is concerned with the economic life of human beings, whereas sociology is concerned with society as a whole, including the economic life of man as a part of this broad branch of new social science such as a society’s belief system, cultures and traditions, political and legal issues, and many other knowledges dealing with the social aspect. Despite these differences, both sociology and economics, as branches of social science, is interdependent on each other. In fact, it is due to these differences that they are both interdependent, helping society develop and prosper. The relationship between the two disciplines is such that one is considered a branch of the other. This is because economic society is greatly affected by the social aspect of society, and society too is greatly impacted by economic factors.
