Monasteries were Christian institutions of the medieval Europe where devotee Christians lead a life of isolation dedicated to the worship of God. These monasteries were located far from the areas of human habitation. The two famous monasteries were St. Benedict in Italy and Cluny in Burgundy. The functions performed by these monasteries are as follows:

(a) Preaching: Monks and nuns moved from one place to another to spread the words of Christianity among the people.

(b) Charity: Monasteries served the sick and arranged food for the poor people. The monasteries served as inns for the travellers. They could rest in these monasteries and then continue their journey.

(c) Learning centres: Monasteries provided education to the community children and those who wanted to become monks.

(d) Cultural Enrichment:

(i) Most monks and nuns were educated and learned, so they spent their time copying books and masterpieces like the works of Cicero and Virgil. 

(ii) Monks also wrote chronicles; they noted down all important events of their times.

(iii) Monasteries encouraged development of art and architecture. Monks and nuns served God as his creative artists.

One brilliant example is Abbess Hildegard who developed the practice of community singing in churches. Among living beings, it is humans alone that have a language. Humans may have possessed a small number of speech sounds in the initial stage.

Sustainable development is a way for people to use resources without the resources running out. ... The term used by the Brundtland Commission defined it as development with sustainability that "meets the needs of the present and also compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainable development is the idea that human societies must live and meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. ... Specifically, sustainable development is a way of organizing society so that it can exist in the long term.

Sociology deals with modern society. It is a new science which came into existence in recent times. Latest concepts are included in sociology which keeps the subject up to date.
Sociology is the science that deals with social groups, their mode of organisation, the processes that tend to maintain or change these forms of organisation, and the relations between groups. Therefore, it is a progressive science.

• A society is a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a territorial area and are bound to each other by a common history.
• Societies may be simple, may be complex. It is natural to human beings. We all are social beings. We cannot survive without society. We human beings cannot attain our goals alone, we want society. The society provides us security, relationship, identity and sense of belonging ness.

Relationship between Sociology and Political Science.

(i) Areas of Studies : (a) Political Science studies political institutions such as state, government, political parties, executive, legislative and judicial institutions. Political Science also studies the behaviour of the people in power. In this way, we can say that the concept of power is very significant.

(b) Political Science can be defined as a study of Power. Power is the ability of a person or group to control and influence the behaviour of others despte their resistance.

(c) 'Authority' refers to power vested in given persons through institutions such as office, rank, elections, etc.

(d) Sociology also studies power in terms of its social contexts. In other words, the process which enable a man or a group to wield power and exercise dominance in society represent or constitute power - are the focal point of study in sociology.

(e) In a way we can say that the stratification of society in terms of power by different groups, castes, classes and tribal groups becomes the basis of sociological analysis.

(ii) The interface of Political Science and Sociology can be termed as political sociology. Political sociology, in fact, acts as a bridge between political science and sociology.

(iii) Sociology is devoted to the study of social aspects of society, whereas political science restricts itself mainly to the study of power as embodied in formal organisations.

(iv) Sociology emphasizes upon the inter relations between institutions such as state, government, political parties, whereas political science focuses its attention of the governmental processes.

(v) Nevertheless, political sociology has for long shared with political science, many of the common interests and a very similar style.

(vi) If we look at the relationship between political science and sociology in India, Caste has been studied as a resource/infrastructure to have access to power at the time of elections. How caste becomes an interest group and an instrument of mobilization ? This has brought sociology close to Political Science in particular.

1. Sociology studies the different parts of society as a whole whereas Economics studies only the economic part of society.
2. The view point of sociology is extensive while economics is a special science related to economic aspect of human being.
3. The approach of sociology to study relationships is collectivistic whereas the perspective of economics is individualistic.
4. Sociology uses quantitative and numeral methods whereas economics derives facts using inductive and deductive methods.
5. Economic phenomena is constantly determined by all sort of social needs and activities and they are constantly redetermining, creating, shaping and transforming social need and activity of every kind.

Sociology tries to understand the social life of particular times only on the basis of historical influences whereas History is a compilation of the events of the past.

• History focuses on the study of the past, whereas Sociology shows interest in contemporary scene or recent past.
• History emphasises on the differences in the similar events but Sociology deals with the similarities in different events.
• Sociology takes help of history to understand modem society because sociologists can get social facts of ancient society from history.

• Society is the web of social relationship.
• Sociology is a system of usage and procedures of authority and mutual aid of many groupings and division of control of human behaviour and of liberties. (Maciver and Page).
• This definition of sociology emphasies that main features of society are usage, procedure, authority, mutual aid, group and division and liberties.
• Usage means accepted ways (norms) of the society.
• Procedure refers to social institutions like family or marriage which is important for social network.
• Authority means a system which controls the units of society (Individual) or maintains social web.
• Groups and division mean groups and subgroups in which the individual interacts and learn social norms.
• Control of human behaviour refers to social control and freedom to the individuals in the form of written or unwritten norms which are important for smooth functioning of social network.
• Above mentioned elements are different aspects of society and web of social relationship, according to Maciver and Page.

According to Maciver and Page, ‘Society is a web of social relationships’.
It is the union itself, the organisation, the sum of formal relations in which associating individuals are bound together.
Society is not simply a group of people, it is a system of relationship that exists between the individual of the group.

According to Harry M. Johnson, society has following characteristics:

• Definite territory: Society is a territorial group.
• Progeny: The members of a society came by means of human reproduction within the group of people.
• Culture: Society is always culturally sufficient.
• Independence: Society is permanent, self contained and an integrated group. The members of the group are interdependent.

The history of origin and development of Sociology in India is more than 4000 years old. The fundamental source of social ideology was religion. During Indian Vedic era, a systematic development of different social institutions of society was prevalent. Sociology in India has been influenced by various internal processes particularly the colonial regime which tried to prove their cultural superiority in comparison of Indian culture.

First of all, Sociology courses were taught at Calcutta University in the Department of Economics, Political Science, Human Geography and Anthropology. This was pioneered by philosopher Brajendra Nath Seal, Benoy Sarkar, anthropologist K.P. Chattopadhyay and human geographer Nirmal Bose.

• In 1914, the Department of Sociology was started for PG students of economics.
  As Sociology is defined today have been first of all introduced in India in Bombay University under the guidance of Prof. Patriels in 1919.
• In 1923, Mysore University introduced Sociology in BA course as a separate subject. Presently Sociology is being taught in most of the Indian universities as a BA pass or BA honours course and PG courses.
• Presently the premier institutes of India like JNU, Delhi School of Economics, Tata Institute of Social Science have special professional courses in Sociology.
• Indian sociologists who contributed significantly to make their subject flourish are Dr. Radha Kamal Mukherjee, Prof. P.N. Prabhu, Prof. Wadia, Prof. Shrinivas, Dr. R.N. Saxena, Prof. R.R. Shastri, Prof. Kapadia, Prof. N. Prasad, Prof. T.K. Oomen, Prof. S.C. Dubey, Prof Andrea.

• Sociology is a comprehensive study of whole society.
• Sociology is a descriptive and analytical discipline concerned with the structural aspects of human society.
• Sociology is the science of human relations.

1. This world can’t be studied in isolation. The mechanical view of the world gives a distorted picture. We need to develop a holistic view of the world. It is a comprehensive view of the world with all its natural resources and species. Human beings are just a part of it. Like a human body this earth is a living organism. It has its own metabolism. We should not destroy this natural growth and functioning of the world.