Definition of Typology in Sociology

A typology is a set of categories used for classification. A typology generally has non-overlapping categories that exhaust all possibilities so that there is one category available for each observation and each observation only fits one category.

Example

A society can be categorized using a typology of the types of economy. For example, industrial, hunter-gatherer, horticultural, pastoral, agrarian, fishing, and herding are all types of economy.