THE SOCIOLOGICAL MOVEMENT, THE SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE GENESIS OF ACADEMIC SOCIOLOGY IN BRITAIN.

The article focuses on the sociological movement at the turn of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, founding and early history of "The Sociological Society" and with the beginnings of sociology as an academic subject. Certainly the sociological movement had something very close to a common working doctrine. Put in its simplest form, this doctrine held sociological investigation to require a prior or parallel examination of man's biological evolution. Emphases were differently placed, but very few sociologists could avoid a concern with the historical evolution of human nature, with man's adaptation to the conditions of existence and with the role of natural laws and biological mechanisms in social activities. The Sociological Society, at least for some of its founding members, was an institution to emancipate sociological science from the over-sight of academic economists and British anthropologists. In the language of the day, both eugenics and civics had become conflicting and dispersive specialisms. It had simply not been possible to create a unified sociology to be taught at University. Most courses in sociology founded at this time were intended to train people for social work.