"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." -- Emerson

The Social Sciences Department at CCC consists of the following disciplines:

• Social Sciences
• History

What are The Social Sciences?

There are a number of different disciplines that fall within the social sciences. Some are general and address broad questions about human social life. Others target only certain dimensions of the human experience.

Anthropology studies the wide variety of values, beliefs, kinship relationships, religions, and governance structures in cultures as they have evolved over time, helping us to understand similarities and differences in the human experience.

Economics is the study of how human societies allocate resources within perceptions of scarcity, at the micro-and-macro levels.

Geography examines the human cultures that evolve and diffuse as populations migrate and grow. It considers the influence of ways-of-life (economics), political cultures, formal cultural elements such as language, religion, and ethnicity. Its primary question is what makes social and cultural structures evolve, and how they may or may not be sustainable.

Government or Political Science encompasses the study of nations, inter-national alliances, sovereign communities such as the nation-state, kingdoms or empires, and supra-national systems (ex. NAFTA or the EC),and the structures that contribute to their existence in a social and historical paradigm. It considers and contrasts value and belief systems that contribute to their sustainability or lead to their demise.

History examines cultural interactions, value and belief systems, ways-of-life and significant events that generate community and conflict in human systems. History may be studied within a culture (ex. American/Western), or across-cultures, emphasizing diversity, as through themes (the concept of Historiography: how historians study history).

Psychology looks at the causes of individual human behavior, helping us to understand why we behave as we do by studying the brain, learning, memory, thinking, and change through the lifespan.

Sociology looks at human behavior, focusing on how people are influenced by other people and by the social systems that we create.

Criminal Justice studies the roles of law enforcement, corrections, and other agencies in our criminal justice system as well as the social forces that influence crime and justice.

Human Services examines the social welfare system and effective interventions to help individuals and families.