Introduction to Part III

Abstract

So far in our discussion we have developed a general framework of sociological concepts with which to analyse society and social behaviour. We have also discussed the particular macroscopic factors, historical and demographic, which make a particular society unique. In this section of the text we shall apply the above to a sociological analysis of South African society. We shall first discuss the historical background to the development of that society in the next chapter, outlining the links between that background and the nature of South Africa today; In Chapter 8 we shall examine the plural nature of that society on both a theoretical and empirical level, outlining its main demographic and economic characteristics. Finally, we shall use these factors in the direct application of the conceptual framework to an analysis of South African society in the next chapter. Working on both microscopic and macroscopic levels we shall apply the framework in the same order in which it was developed, concluding with an over-all framework for the analysis of the society as a whole.