Editorial Note

Thank you to our generous sponsors, Sociologists for Women in Society, Center for Equity Education, American Sociological Association’s Section on Sociological Practice & Public Sociology, Hartman Castle Preservation Corporation, Island Acres Resort Motel, Alpha Kappa Delta, Pacific Sociological Association, and the Association for Applied & Clinical Sociology for helping us make Applied Worldwide’s 2024 “Why is Sociology Important?” student essay competition a success!

This essay on the importance of sociology has been published on behalf of Applied Worldwide’s 2024 Global Student Essay Competition. For the 2024 competition, we awarded 16 student essayists across six countries and will be sharing each winning essay in our “Why is Sociology Important?” essay collection.

This sociology essay was written by Juliana, a Sociology student at Universitas Nasional in Indonesia and earned a 3rd place prize in the competition.

The Importance of Sociology in National and State Life, Juliana

Education is an activity that must be undertaken throughout life in forming character and exploring one’s potential in thinking, acting and interacting with family, nation and state, where education is obtained from educational institutions such as universities, non-formal educational institutions, associations and communities. One of the interesting studies to study is sociology. Sociology is a very important science and a guide for humans to act wisely in social, political, economic, and cultural aspects and educate the nation’s future children to increase the sense of nationalism and solidarity by helping maintain the characteristics, and aspects of human resources as active agents of development, defend, innovate, elaborate and repair deficiencies or damage that occurs in a country’s territory. 

Indonesia has a high level of diversity in tribes, religions, ethnicities, races, cultures and languages, arts, traditions, and physical and non-physical communities caused by geographical location, livelihoods and population movements. This will continue to happen or be inherited from the nation’s successors, thus this pluralism does not prevent society from accepting differences and making these differences a unique and natural part.. 

Humans will carry out various activities to survive and sometimes experience conflict, where this conflict is natural for humans, each of whom has thoughts or points of view, ideals, and goals and is obsessed with the goals he wants to achieve. The existence of conflict does not always have a negative impact as long as there is good conflict management and makes it potential to build integration in differences, conflict also starts when there are needs that cannot be met, such as: 

1. Basic needs 
2. Mental needs 
3. The need for worship 
4. Social needs 

Based on the phenomena that occur, what is the role of sociology in creating prosperity behind the conflict, the need for negotiation in seeking to reduce each other’s egos or obsessions which are not in harmony, and contribute to building and forming social policies to organize social problems? The government develops these policies to uphold social justice and state welfare as a result of the formation of public policy because public policy is comprehensive or comprehensive based on the needs of the state and the aspirations of society in achieving success. These policies are made by government agencies and the general public for the sake of respective interests and create discipline among the general public and officials, so as not to damage resources (G. Wirata, 2022). 

The main goal is to carry out transformation through the role of government officials and responses as well as the role of individual behaviour in society by creating programs and projects to produce social policies for the benefit of the whole. For example, there are changes, additions and deletions to laws and regulations stipulated by government officials. However, by looking at the general public’s response to the positive and negative impacts of this regulation. 

The statement above leads the reader to an interpretation of social phenomena which includes individual and group interactions, social trends and structures that occur as well as family institutions as the main role in socializing values and norms to generations as a form of response to conflicts that occur between individuals and between groups. have different interests related to resources and power. As in looking at the phenomenon of industrialization and the transformation of digital society, where changes in traditional to modern productivity have the potential to increase urbanization and population buildup in cities, however, digitalization including the presence of the internet also has a good impact, and grocery stalls make it easy to buy and sell and online transactions and as a strategic area in developing business or entrepreneurship in areas where there is industrial development. 

In this case, can sociology provide solutions to these various conflicts? How important is sociology as an effort to build national and state life in harmony with shared ideals?. 

Sosiologi Menjawab Tantangan Zaman 

The quite dynamic dynamics of change in society prompted social scientists such as Auguste Comte to think that there was a need for more systematic thinking in studying social phenomena. Therefore, Auguste Comte popularized positive understanding (positivism) as a new paradigm for viewing social phenomena systematically, in addition to seeing empirical truth with scientific and non-speculative evidence which can encourage prosperity in living the daily life of the nation and state. 

The main figure of the French philosopher was Isidore Auguste Marie Francois Xavier Comte or known as Auguste Comte, born in France on 19 January 1798 and died on 5 September 1857 in France due to stomach cancer. Comte also popularized the term positivism where every human being has the same position as other living creatures and needs a solution in facing a lack of resources, based on Saint Simon pioneering the term positivism as a response to the emergence of capitalism (M. Chabibi, 2019). 

Comte also pioneered the law of three stages, namely, the positive and scientific stages, where humans have thought using common sense or rational scientific thinking and scientific methodology to reveal the secrets of nature, where humans have begun to carry out social analysis to formulate uniform laws that can be published in general, and provides an understanding that every time there will be changes, there is a need for knowledge that will bring prosperity to the country. 

Indonesia is one of the countries that has the ideology of Pancasila as a philosophy, where all the values of Pancasila are intended for the welfare of the Indonesian people which have been created or developed since independence for nations at that time and in the future. Covers the role of the government in making this happen and the role of society by implementing the values of Pancasila and carrying out their respective rights and obligations in the state. 

Pancasila as an open ideology has become a guideline for strict supervision of the state, which once had an absolute monarchy, and abuse of power. Ideology is an idea or idea that has been explored in depth and systematically and requires a lot of time and struggle for philosophical figures, activists, academics and the general public by considering events or policy regulations in the past and what happened at that time, which will then be intended for the future. For the sake of creating state prosperity. then Pancasila was created which was initiated by the main figure, namely Ir. Soekarno, Mohammad Yamin, and Dr. Soetomo were figures who played an important role in developing and promoting Pancasila as the basis of the Indonesian state. By involving various figures and the general public after Indonesian independence. 

As a form of effort to maintain the ideological values and ideals of the Indonesian nation, studying sociology has a quite important role, because sociology studies human actions which have the potential to lead to the formation of policies such as laws and government regulations. Apart from that, sociology also contributes to efforts to manage social conflict and as a bulwark for human defense in times of wider change or globalization, as well as the increasingly advanced industrial revolution, making sociology very important, where currently the industrial revolution 4.0 is heading towards the industrial revolution 5.0, which is forcing each individual to be active and creative and innovate so that they can adapt to all forms of change. In this case, it can be concluded that sociology has an important role, namely: 

1. Sociology can help respond to change indirectly, which means that conventional changes occur slowly and gradually towards modernity. For example, the presence of mobile phones changed people’s lifestyles in communicating and interacting as well as life patterns, which then led to the creation of the internet network to make these communication tools more efficient. 
2. Sociology can help respond to change directly, which means that conventional changes are transforming, such as the presence of machine technology in meeting the need for Indonesia’s natural resources and human resources. 
3. Sociology can respond to changes and provide responses in forming policies in the modernization era, such as policies in using social media, which are very important to maintain privacy to avoid cases of cyberbullying, forgery of documents for online loan transactions, and policies for the use and creation of machine technology so that it does not cause damage.

However, this modernization has hurt local communities, such as a large number of cases of corruption resulting in local communities experiencing an economic crisis and even starvation caused by quite heavy work but low wages and a lack of machine technology and internet digital technology, where this technology is used as a tool. productivity to prevent accidents and the use of human labour, and even be able to maintain product quality and quantity. 

This also drives the demographic bonus crisis where people of productive age or Generation Z born in 1990-2010 become unemployed due to increasing industrial development but also increasing criteria for accepting workers and an education system that is inadequate or not yet by the standards for accepting industrial workers at the school level; high school and vocational high school which require taking lectures, especially as tuition fees are increasing. 

By welcoming this phenomenon, sociology is also able to illustrate the solution that every individual has rights and obligations to fulfil their basic needs, which requires work that will encourage mutual interaction communication and cooperation in achieving their respective goals and not always relying on each other. in government provision, every individual can innovate and be creative. As follows: 

1. Building an independent business or being self-employed. 
2. Using the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) program to build an independent business. 
3. Creating entrepreneurship training during school to provide students with creativity. 
4. As a student, you can develop creativity while studying and can always correct, study and implement sociology to avoid errors in innovation or violations of the values, norms and laws that exist in Indonesia. 

References 

• Chabibi, M. (2019). Hukum Tiga Tahap Auguste Comte dan Kontribusinya terhadap Kajian Sosiologi Dakwah. NALAR: Jurnal Peradaban Dan Pemikiran Islam, 3(1), 14-26. 
• Ishak, K., Isa, M., Nurmahadi, N., Hamdi, M., Mustafa, H., Haikal, F., & Putra, D. M.S. (2024). Pelatihan Kewirausahaan Dalam Meningkatkan Peluang Bisnis Generasi Z Di Era 5.0 Pada Siswa MA Kecamatan Bengkalis. KHIDMAH: Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat, 1(1), 1-6. 
• Wirata, G. (2022). Kebijakan Sosial (Kebijakan Pemerintah untuk Peningkatan Kesejahteraan Masyarakat dan Pengentasan Kemiskinan). Banyumas: CV. Pena Persada. 

Meet our 2024 Global Student Essay Competition Sponsors!

Sociologists for Women in Society is a nonprofit professional feminist organization dedicated to: 

1. Transforming the academy and professional organizations, including our own, by actively supporting feminist leadership and advancing career development of feminist scholars.
2. Recognizing that structural inequalities impact those marginalized by their identities and that this requires proactively promoting the creation of inclusive institutional spaces in an ongoing manner and by practicing critical reflexivity.
3. Advocating and encouraging the development of sociological feminist theory rooted in intersectionality and cutting-edge research for publication and dissemination. 
4. Promoting social justice research within local, national, and international activist spaces by supporting scholar-activist communities seeking to dismantle intersecting systems of oppression.

The Center for Equity Education (CFEE), established in 2020 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, addresses a gap in expert-led education for organizations, especially those with limited resources. At CFEE, our mission revolves around empowering organizations with comprehensive knowledge on federal and state civil rights, specializing in harassment and discrimination, including sexual harassment.

Hartman Castle Preservation Corporation, a 501c3 non-profit, is a A community grassroots movement formed to purchase and preserve the Hartman Castle in Gunnison, CO

The purpose of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology is to advance sociologically-informed research and practice, to further public discussion of sociological issues, and to promote the use of sociology to inform public policy.

Island Acres Resort Motel is a restored authentic 1950s lodging property in the style of the tourist court motel. Embracing the appeal of a bygone era, where history blends with hospitality.

Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Sociology Honor Society, seeks to acknowledge and promote excellence in the scholarship in the study of social problems, sociology, and intellectual activities that lead to the improvement in the human condition.

The Pacific Sociological Association is committed to serving sociologists, faculty, applied professionals, and students. We strive to create a professional community that reflects the diversity of our region and enhances the diversity of our discipline. We are committed to inclusivity and equity in our organization, to promoting social justice by examining and challenging the structural and institutional barriers in our discipline, and to building pathways for the next generation of sociologists.

The Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology (AACS) promotes applying social scientific knowledge and methods to develop constructive solutions. We provide educational, programmatic, mentoring, networking, and policy resources in a supportive professional community.