Sociology emerged in the nineteenth century as a response to the massive social changes associated with the rise of modern society in England, Germany, and France. Understanding the causes and consequences of modern, industrial life has thus been the peculiar focus of the discipline. But while the experiences of modern, Western societies gave rise to formal sociological inquiry, the insights to be gained from the discipline are not limited to this realm. For example, sociology has particular relevance for understanding global change, as much of the world engages in its own process of modernization. Moreover, sociologists maintain that their perspective, as well as many of their insights, are generalizable beyond the specific historical context in which they were first conceived.
Sociology is characterized as a discipline by several distinct modes of inquiry.
First and foremost, sociology emphasizes human sociality as central to inquiry. In this view, human action is to be understood within a web of social relationships and broader structures. In this way, sociology distinguishes itself from psychology and some forms of political philosophy that consider the autonomous individual to be a meaningful unit of analysis. Sociology sees humans as fundamentally social. Sociological inquiry is holistic in maintaining that human action can be understood only by linking it organically to the whole of social life.