Sociology

Examination Syllabus - Sociology

1. Basic Concepts

* Society, community, association, institution. Culture-culture change, diffusion, Cultural-tag, Cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, acculturation.
* Social Groups-primary, secondary and reference groups.
* Social structure, social system, social action.
* Status and role, role conflict, role set.
* Norms and values-conformity and deviance.
* Law and customs.
* Socio-cultural processes: socialisation, assimilation, integration, cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation, Social distance, relative deprivation.

2. Marriage, Family and Kinship

* Marriage : types and norms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.
* Family : types, functions and changes.
* Kinships : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.

3. Social Stratification

Forms and functions; Caste and Class. Jajmani system, purity and pollution, dominant caste, sanskritisation.

4. Types of Society

Tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial.

5. Economy and Society

Man, nature and social production, economic systems of simple and complex societies, non-economic determinants of economic behaviour, market (free) economy and controlled (planned) economy.

6. Industrial and Urban Society

Rural-Urban Continuum, urban growth and urbanisation-town, city and metropolis; basic features of industrial society; impact of automation on society; industrialisation and environment.

7. Social Demography

Population size, growth, composition, and distribution in India; components of population growth-births, deaths and migration; causes and consequences of population growth; population and social development; population policy.

8. Political Processes

Power, authority and legitimacy; political socialisation; political modernisation, pressure groups; caste and politics.

9. Weaker Sections-and Minorities

Social justice-equal opportunity and special opportunity; protective discrimination; constitutional safeguards.

10. Social Change

Theories of change; factors of change; science, technology and change. Social movements-Peasant Movement, Women's Movement, Backward Caste Movement, Dalit Movement.




Main Examination Syllabus - Sociology

Paper-I

General Sociology/Foundations of Sociology/Fundamentals of Sociology

* Sociology-The Discipline

Sociology as a science and as an interpretative discipline; impact of industrial and French Revolution on the emergence of sociology; sociology and its relationship with history, economics, political science, psychology and anthropology.

* Scientific Study of Social Phenomena

Problem of objectivity and value neutrality; issue of measurement in social science; elements of scientific method-concepts, theory and fact, hypothesis; research designs-descriptive, exploratory and experimental

* Techniques of data collection and analysis

Participant and quasi-participant observation; interview, questionnaire and schedule case study, sampling-size, reliability and validity, scaling techniques-social distance and Likert scale.

* Pioneering contributions to Sociology

o Karl Marx : Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation and class struggle.

o Emile Durkheim : Division of labour, social fact, religion and society.

o Max Weber : Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.

o Talcott Parsons : Social system, pattern variables.

o Robert K. Merton : Latent and manifest functions, anomie, conformity and deviance, reference groups.


* Marriage and Family

Types and forms of marriage; family-structure and function; personality and socialization; Social control; family, lineage, descent and property; changing structure of family marriage and sex roles in modern society; divorce and its implications; gender issues; role conflicts.

* Social Stratification

Concepts-hierarchy, inequality and stratification; theories of stratification-Marx, Davis and Moore and Melvin Tumin’s critique; forms and functions; class-different conceptions of class; class-in-itself and class-for-itself; caste and class; caste as a class.

* Social Mobility

Types of mobility-open and closed models; intra-and inter-generational mobility; vertical and horizontal mobility; social mobility and social change.

* Economic System

Sociological dimensions of economic life; the impact of economic processes on the larger society; social aspects of division of labour and types of exchange; features of pre-industrial and industrial economic system; industrialisation and social change; social determinants of economic development.

* Political System

The nature of power-personal power, community power, power of the elite, class power, organisational power, power of the un-organised masses; authority and legitimacy; pressure groups and political parties; voting behaviour; modes of political participation-democratic and authoritarian forms.

* Educational System

Education and Culture; equality of educational opportunity; social aspects of mass education; problems of universalisation of primary education; role of community and state intervention in education; education as an instrument of social control and social change; education and modernisation.

* Religion

Origins of religious beliefs in pre-modern socieites; the sacred and the profane; social functions and dysfunctions of religion; monistic and pluralistic religion; organised and unorganised religions; semitism and antisemitism; religion, sect and cults; magic, religion and science.

* Science & Technology

Ethos of science; social responsibility of science; social control of science; social consequences of science and technology; technology and social change.

* Social Movements

Concepts of social movements; genesis of social movements; ideology and social movement; social movement and social change; types of social movements.

* Social change and Development

Continuity and change as fact and as value; theories of social change-Marx, Parsons and Sorokin; direted social change; social policy and social development.

Paper-II

Study of Indian Society

* Historical Moorings of the Indian Society

Traditional Hindu social organisation; socio-cultural dynymics through the ages; impact of Buddhism, Islam, and the West, factors in continuity and change.

* Caste System

Origin of the caste system; cultural and structural views about caste; mobility in caste; caste among Muslims and Christians; change and persistence of caste in modern India; issues of equality and social justice; views of Gandhi and Ambedkar on caste; caste on and Indian polity; Backward Classes Movement; Mandal Commission Report and issues of social backwardness and social justice; emergence of Dalit consciousness.

* Class Structure

Class structure in India, agrarian and industrial class structure; emergence ofmiddle class; emergence of classes among tribes; elite formation in India.

* Marriage, Family and Kinship

Marriage among different ethnic groups, its changing trends and its future; family-its structural and functional aspects-its changing forms; regional variations in kinship systems and its socio-cultural correlates; impact of legislation and socio-economic change on marriage and family; generation gap.

* Agrarian Social Structure

Peasant society and agrarian systems; land tenure systems-historical perspectives, social consequences of land reforms and green revolution; feudalism-semi-feudalism debates; emerging agrarian class structure; agrarian unrest.

* Industry and Society

Path of industrialisation, occupational diversification, trade unions and human relations; market economy and its social consequences; economic reforms liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.

* Political Processes

Working of the democratic political system in a traditional society; political parties and their social base; social structural origins of political elites and their orientations; regionalism, pluralism and national unity; decentralisation of power; panchayati raj and nagarpalikas and 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments.

* Education

Directive Principles of State Policy and primary education; education; educational inequality and change; education and social mobility; the role of community and state intervention in education; universalisation of primary education; Total Literacy Campaigns; educational problems of disadvantages groups.

* Religion and Society

Size, growth and regional distribution of different religious groups; educational levels of different groups; problems of religious minorities; communal tensions; secularism; conversions; religious fundamentalism.

* Tribal Societies

Distinctive features of tribal communities and their geographical spread; problems of tribal communities-land alienation, poverty, indebetedness, health and nutrition, education; tribal development efforts after independence; tribal policy-isolation, assimilation and integration; issues of tribal identity.

* Population Dynamics

Population size, growth, composition and distribution; components of population growth; birth rate, death rate and migration; determinants and consequences of population growth; issues of age at marriage, sex ratio, infant mortality rate; population policy and family welfare programmes.

* Dimensions of Development

Strategy and ideology of planning; poverty, indebtedness and bonded labour; strategies of rural development-poverty alleviation programmes; environment, housing, slums, and unemployment; programmes for urban development.

* Social Change

Endogenous and exogenous sources of change and resistance toc hange; processes of change-sanskritisation and modernisation; agents of change-mass media, education and communication; problems of change and modernisation; structural contradictions and breakdowns.

* Social Movements

o Reform Movements : Arya Samaj, Satya Sadhak Samaj, Sri Narayanguru Dharma Paripalana Sabha, and Ram Krishna Mission.
o Peasant movements-Kisan Sabha, Telengana, Naxalbari.
o Backward Castes Movement : Self-respect Movement, backward castes mobilisation in North India.

* Women and society

Demographic profile of women; special problems-dowry, atrocities, discrimination; existing programmes for women and their impact. Situational analysis of children; child welfare programmes.

* Social Problems

Prostitution, AIDS, alcoholism, drug addiction, corruption.