**Description**

This entry outlines key sociological concepts that illuminate how individuals and groups interact within society. It addresses structures, norms, and cultural narratives that shape identity and behavior from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective.

**Content**

Sociological inquiry not only reveals systemic inequalities and normative constraints but also opens pathways for resistance, agency, and transformation. Drawing on lived experiences and personal narratives, this entry employs autoethnographic analysis to interrogate how identity is performed, resisted, and reimagined across sociocultural contexts.

Through a reflexive and narrative inquiry approach, it highlights the interplay between identity, social norms, and power relations, illustrating how lived experience can serve as both evidence and critique within academic research. The discussion draws on intersectional perspectives and invites reconsideration of how meaning is constructed and contested across contexts.

Sociological theories—ranging from symbolic interactionism to critical theory—are employed to explore how individuals negotiate social roles, institutional structures, and cultural expectations. The entry also considers ethical representation and methodological transparency, emphasizing the value of intellectual honesty and depth in qualitative research.

By bridging personal insight with collective patterns, the analysis advocates for socially engaged scholarship that confronts hegemonic narratives while fostering epistemic diversity. Ultimately, this sociological lens seeks to enrich humanistic understanding and contribute to interdisciplinary discourses on transformation, belonging, and lived complexity.

**Keywords**

identity; social structure; cultural meaning; reflexivity; autoethnography; narrative inquiry; critical perspective; norms; power relations; lived experience