| The study (some say "science") of man and his social relations, as opposed to the studies of man as an individual. The field covers politics, economics, history, ethnology, anthropology, institutions, and folkways.
There had been considerable sociological discussion stirred up in the pre-NewDeal period by such proposals as Technocracy, which were put before scientifictionists in stories like "The Revolt of the Scientists"; and the books of H. G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon, et al, have always bristled with sociological questions; but discussions did not appear in fandom to any extent until the Michelist speech at the Third Convention in 1937.
Sociological issues in fan feuds and other fan disputes have included: The merits and demerits of capitalism, fascism, Technocracy, socialism, and Marxism; Negro equality; the right of labor unions to exist; escapism; the World State; the respective merits of Roosevelt and Dewey; patriotism; American intervention in the Second World War; and so on, shading off into such quasi-sociological subjects as the superman and atheism.
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