---
title: "Outline of social science"
chunk: 3/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_social_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:57:28.365284+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Cultural studies – academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. Development studies – a multidisciplinary branch of social science that addresses issues of concern to developing countries. Education –  in the general sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to another. Environmental studies – the interdisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. Gender and sexuality studies – field of interdisciplinary study and academic field devoted to gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. Geography – the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Physical geography – a branch of the science that studies physical features on the Earth's surface, water, the atmosphere and biodiversity on the Earth (is also listed in Earth Science). Geomorphology – branch of physical geography that studies the Earth and its landforms. Hydrology – study of water on the Earth's surface and in its atmosphere. Glaciology – study of ice sheets and glaciers on the Earth's surface. Biogeography – study of the distribution of living organisms on the Earth. Climatology – the study of climate. Meteorology – the study of weather. Soil geography – the study of soil. Oceanography – the study of oceans. Coastal geography – study of coasts. Landscape ecology – the study of effects of the ecological process on the Earth. Palaeogeography – studies distribution of continents and oceans over time. Environmental geography – studies the interaction between humans and the physical environment. Cartography – study and practice of making maps or globes. Human geography – the branch of the social sciences that studies the world, its people, communities, and cultures with an emphasis on relations of and across space and place. Critical geography – takes a critical theory (Frankfurt School) approach to the study and analysis of geography. Cultural geography – the study of cultural products and norms and their variations across and relations to spaces and places. Feminist geography – approach in human geography which applies the theories, methods and critiques of feminism to the study of the human environment, society and geographical space. Economic geography – study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the world. Development geography – branch of geography concerning the standard of living and quality of life of its human inhabitants. Historical geography – study of the human, physical, fictional, theoretical, and "real" geographies of the past. Time geography –
Political geography & geopolitics – field of human geography that is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and how political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. Marxist geography – strand of critical geography that uses the theories and philosophy of Marxism to examine the spatial relations of human geography. Military geography – sub-field of geography that is used by, not only the military but also academics and politicians to understand the geopolitical sphere through the militaristic lens. Strategic geography – concerned with the control of, or access to, spatial areas that affect the security and prosperity of nations. Population geography – the study of how spatial variations in the distribution, composition, migration, and growth of populations are related to the nature of places. Social geography – branch of human geography that is most closely related to social theory in general and sociology in particular, dealing with the relation of social phenomena and its spatial components. Behavioral geography – approach to human geography that examines human behaviour using a disaggregated approach. Children's geographies – area of study within human geography and Childhood Studies which involves researching the places and spaces of children's lives. Health geography – application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. Tourism geography – a study of travel and tourism, as an industry and as a social and cultural activity. Urban geography – the study of areas that have a high concentration of buildings and infrastructure. Environmental geography – a branch of geography that describes the spatial aspects of interactions between humans and the natural world. Regional geography – the study of world regions. History – discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period after writing was invented. This category includes many sub-domains of history such as art history, diplomatic history, history of science, economic history, environmental history, military history, political history, urban history, women's history and many others. Industrial relations – the multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship. Information science –  interdisciplinary field primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. International studies – the study of the major political, economic, social, cultural and sacral issues that dominate the international agenda
Law – set of rules and principles (laws) by which a society is governed, through enforcement by governmental authorities. Legal management – social sciences discipline that is designed for students interested in the study of State and its elements, Law, Law Practice, Legal Research and Jurisprudence, legal Philosophy, Criminal Justice, Governance, Government structure, Political history and theories, Business Organization and Management, Entrepreneurship, Public Administration and Human Resource Development. Paralegal studies – social sciences discipline that is designed for students interested in the study of State and its elements, Law, Law Practice, Legal Research and Jurisprudence, legal Philosophy, Criminal Justice, Governance, Government structure, Political history and theories, Business Organization and Management, Entrepreneurship, Public Administration and Human Resource Development. Library science – the study of issues related to libraries and the information fields. Linguistics – the scientific study of natural language. Anthropological linguistics – the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology, cognition and language. Applied linguistics – an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Biolinguistics – study of the biology and evolution of language. Clinical linguistics and speech and language pathology – a sub-discipline of linguistics that involves the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. Cognitive linguistics – a branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlies its forms. Comparative linguistics – the branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Computational linguistics – interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical or rule-based modelling of natural language from a computational perspective. Developmental linguistics – the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood. language acquisition –  the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words to communicate. Dialectology  – the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. dialectometry – the study of high levels of structure in geographical dialect networks. Discourse analysis – a general term for several approaches to analyzing the use of written, oral or sign language or any significant semiotic event.