This introductory text has been created from a combination of original content and materials compiled and adapted from a number of open text publications.

One part of a two-part introduction to the discipline of sociology, the study of society. It examines how we come to understand and experience ourselves and the world around us and how we create culture. Students will be introduced to the study of culture, socialization, social interaction, identity formation and self-fashioning, the social construction of class, gender and race, age, deviance, and other social phenomena.

The different chapters are clustered into sections which include the societal context of the Philippine government and politics, principal government institutions (the presidency, legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy, military, and local governments) and policy, as well as non-government organizations that have taken the cudgels to articulate the interests of the voiceless and invisible sectors - the rural and urban poor, many of whom are children, the elderly, indigenous peoples, and women.