For instance, the text by Conrad & Gabe (1999) focuses the whole of its discussion on the relationship between social systems and our ever-growing body of knowledge on systems specific to the physical makeup of the human being. Indeed, the authors provide an extremely compelling impetus for the continually expanding and splintering discourse under the sociology umbrella, demonstrating that with fundamental changes in our knowledge of human anatomy, genetics and evolutionary processes must come changes in the way we interpret social systems related to these dimensions of the species. Conrad & Gabe point out that "sociologists have researched other areas of genetics, including the social construction of genetic knowledge, the emergence and implications of genetic testing, the social control potential of genetic information and the commercialization of genetic biotechnology." (p. 5) Such instances demonstrate that perspectives on the relationship between genetic patterns and social forces shift, and sometimes diverge in profoundly new directions, based on a continually growing understanding of internal, familial and hereditary human systems. This is similarly the case as external human systems shift, transform or evolve. Indeed, sociology has long concerned itself with the implications of 'modernity' to the human experience as well as to the way that human beings organize, conflict and differentiate. To this end, van Krieken (1997) argues that human beings are not to be understood as this static and definable entity but are instead only understood in light of the sociological forces that have molded them over time. Van Krieken contends "that such a conception of human identity enables us to improve our understanding of a range of theoretical issues, including the relation between social structure and action and the rationality of human action, as well as revealing the historical roots of a number of long-term trends which are usually treated as changes typical of the second half of the 20th century." (p. 445)

Van Krieken instead makes the argument that these changes are part of a long reciprocating relationship between human...

Indeed, Macionis & Plummer (2008) reinforce this argument in their discussion on the phenomena of globalization through a sociological lens. They make the case that different patterns in cultural diversity, economic interdependence and war/diplomacy are all a function of social systems that have long been in play but which are in a state of perpetual flux.
Quite to the point, this seems to reinforce the assumption at the start of this account, which is that the infinitude of perspectives driving the discipline of sociology is inherent and necessary. Only a scholastic framework with this type of pragmatic applicability could be considered valuable as a way of understanding or interpreting human systems. Indeed, it may even be argued that anything less in terms of flexibility would be dangerous and promontory of dogmatic certainty as to how human beings inherently 'are,' attended by all the vagaries of governmental oppression, ethnic bias, classicism and resource depletion that might therefore be rationalized. Therefore, the constant splintering of the sociological discipline seems very much to be the reason for the field's existence, such that we may attempt to better understand humankind in all of its enormity, minutiae, universality and diversity.

Works Cited:

Bolender Initiatives (BI). (2008). Sociology Overview. Bolender Initiatives, LLC.

Conrad, P. & Gabe, J. (1999). Sociological Perspectives on the New Genetics. Wiley-Blackwell.

Durkheim, E. & Lukes, S. (1982). The Rules of Sociological Method. Simon and Schuster.

Giddings, F.H. (1984). The Theory of Sociology. American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Macionis, J.J. & Plummer, K. (2008). Sociology: A Global Introduction. Pearson Prentice Hall.

McClelland, K. (2000). Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology. Grinnell College.

Smith, J. (2001). Karl Marx. 6 Sociologists.

Van Krieken, R. (1997). Sociology and the Reproductive Self: Demographic Transitions and Modernity. Sociology, 31(3), 445-471.