M.A

The M.A. Program in Sociology is spread over two years during the course of which students must successfully complete ten compulsory courses and six optional courses. The compulsory and optional courses are of four credits each. Students are permitted to take up to three of the six optional courses from other departments, subject to the permission of the Head of the Department.

COMPULSORY COURSES

A list of Compulsory Courses offered as part of the M.A. curriculum is as follows:

Classical Sociological Theory: This introductory course attempts to offer an overview of different approaches to the study of society and various perspectives of the founders of sociological theory.
Modern Sociological Theory: This course traces the development of modern sociological theory broadly from Parsons to Bourdieu. The historical conjuncture marking the course is 1945, and essentially reviews the development of sociological theories in that context and thereafter. The emphasis is on coming to terms with the major theorists in various schools.
Research Methods I – Survey Research and Basic Statistics: This course attempts to introduce basic elements of quantitative methods employed in social research. It begins with a discussion on the epistemological basis of understanding social phenomenon and proceeds with an examination of the applications of statistics in social research. As part of this course, various issues of measurement, collection, organization and understanding of quantitative data are discussed. Students are also expected to work out a small exercise in data collection, analysis and interpretation.
Research Methods II - Qualitative Research Methods: This course deals with qualitative research methods, such as participant observation, interviewing, case study, oral and life histories, and continue with the discussion on epistemological issues.
Sociology of India: Understanding Indian society is a challenging task, given its complex institutional and social practices embodied in its structure and function across the subcontinent. This course aims to unravel the key themes and perspectives in understanding Indian society. The first part of the course analyses the debates on development of sociology and social anthropology in India and its diverse intellectual schools of thoughts. In the second part of the course students would be introduced to a wide range of approaches such as civilizational, Indological, Structuralist, Functionalist, Marxist, Subaltern and Feminist theoretical traditions from a critical perspective. The third part of the course introduces new approaches to the study of contemporary Indian studies such as Dalit and Dalit Feminist Studies, Adivasi Studies and Minority Studies. The course ends with the contemporary contemplation on the status of sociology in contemporary south Asia.
Social Stratification: This course examines the concept of social stratification, its theoretical and empirical foundations in sociology. Social stratification is a well conceived notion in contemporary society and thus, questions would be raised about the relevance of applying certain theories and methods for studying social stratification in India.
Sociology of Development: The course offers a broad overview of the way development is conceptualized and contested in social sciences literature. The emergence and influence of different perspectives on development are located in the respective historical-political conditions. A review of the debates on development allows for a better understanding of contemporary issues in the field.
Political Sociology: Political Sociology is about social power, its (re)production and distribution in society, including between the state and society. The determinants (and determined) of power include Class, Race, Gender, Patriarchy, Nation, Status, Party, Ideology, etc. Students are encouraged to ‘apply’ the theories and concepts in this course to their own experiences and give expression through written assignments and oral presentations.
Knowing the Social World: Epistemologies for the Social Sciences: This course is meant to introduce students to some of the main issues impinging on the philosophy of the social sciences. However, it refrains from drawing a specialized attention on the subject, striving instead to strategically negotiate the domain of social scientific knowledge and reasoning as a practice (rather than as a disembodied application of theories and concepts and methodological rules). In forwarding the claim that attempts to know the social world are worthwhile – and that the social world is knowable – the course is directed at structuring a conversation between the philosophy of social sciences, sociological theories and research methods. Following as it does in the wake of the courses on theories and methods offered in the department as part of its M.A. core curriculum, the course ‘Knowing the Social World: Epistemologies for the Social Sciences’ (KSW) can also be construed as an effort to examine specifically how issues of philosophy and ‘theory’ might inform methodological insights into the social sciences and vice versa.
Society in India: Contemporary Issues: This course intends to provide a critical and nuanced understanding of various contemporary debates on socio-political, economic and cultural issues concerning Indian society. It intends to equip students to contest and question multiple hegemonic formulations about Indian society and initiate them into appreciating the complexities involved in analyzing and investigating social institutions and processes in India in the changing times. The course intends to imaginatively initiate the participants into the contemporary convoluted entanglements in Indian society.

OPTIONAL COURSES

The following is a list of Optional Courses that have been offered as part of the M.A. curriculum over the years. Before the beginning of every semester, an announcement will be made regarding the specific courses that will be offered for the semester.

Corporate Business and Society: This is an inter-disciplinary course that can be considered as belonging to the sub-discipline of Economic Sociology. It attempts to provide an adequate introduction to the world of corporate business locating it in the historical context of society. The overall framework encompasses political economy, sociology and law. An inter-disciplinary approach is adopted which is in keeping with the reality of the subject-matter. Since developments in the corporate world are extremely transient, students are advised to also follow the business press apart from studying the prescribed readings.

Decentralized Governance and Development: This course aims to provide a detailed analysis of the concept of democratic decentralization, while linking it with the broader process of development. Decentralization, in the recent decades, has emerged as one of the dominant paradigms of governance in most of the third world countries, and seeks to address the inadequacies of centralized and bureaucratic forms of governance on the one hand, and to act as a means to achieve the wider goals of participatory, people centric and inclusive development. Viewed in this sense, decentralization is both a goal and means in itself. The course seeks to highlight the rationale for decentralization in the changed political scenario and unveils the potentials of the process of decentralization for promotion of good governance. In the process, the course focuses upon the history of decentralization in India, emphasizing the recent Constitutional Reforms to institutionalize decentralization in the soil of Indian democracy. The course tries to provide students with a sound conceptual, theoretical and empirical background to the issues of decentralization and development, and, in turn, acquaint and equip them for further research in these areas.

Environmental Sociology: Human societies throughout history have shared an intrinsic relation with nature. Environmental factors always shape social phenomena, and human societies inevitably alter natural environment. In the last three to four decades, a growing number of sociologists have recognized this important linkage between the natural and social worlds, and ‘Environmental Sociology’ has emerged as a discipline within Sociology to integrate these connections systematically into social science research. In this broader context, this course aims to explore the relationship between human society and the larger natural environment, of which it is a part of. It is now acknowledged that environmental issues are inevitably social issues, and these can be understood by an examination of their social roots. This course therefore attempts to understand the social roots of ecological problems, which modern societies of the world face today. It unveils the social responses to the environmental problems that emerged in the west as well as the third world societies. Besides, it examines the emergence of the concept of sustainable development, environmental conflicts and movements, and various approaches to resource use as varied responses to environmental risks. The course gives due importance to environmental issues, concerns and debates that have emerged in India in recent years, and discusses the environmental history and the rise of environmentalism in India.

Environment and Sustainable Development: This course seeks to understand the inherent inadequacies of the dominant development paradigm on the one hand, and the emergence of sustainable development as well as community based sustainable natural resource management on the other. In the process, the course unveils the environmental history of India, and looks into the aspects of environmentalism and environmental movements from a theoretical and conceptual perspective. It highlights ‘community control’ of natural resources as an alternative to state control and privatization through an analysis of property rights and resource management regimes. The course aims to provide the students with a sound conceptual, theoretical and empirical background to the issues of environment, sustainable development and natural resource management; and prepare them for further research in these areas.

Industrial Relations and Contemporary Capitalism: This is an intermediate course in the sociology and politics of industrial relations. It attempts to provide an understanding of the complexities that mark the relation between capital and labour in industrial societies, a relation that is governed by both consent and conflict. The course traces the causes for conflict and its resolution through the industrial relations system. Students are exposed to texts on the subject as well as through case studies, presentations etc. The course would attempt to provide knowledge as well as perspectives of the systems and practices of IR that are in vogue in contemporary capitalism.

Law, State and Society: Although meant as a formal critical introduction to themes in the sociology of law, the course also seeks to orchestrate a position on law and legal phenomena away from a singular focus on the state-defined legal sphere. Drawing on perspectives from classical sociology, jurisprudential theory, anthropology, and critical theory, an attempt will be made to elaborate a framework for the analysis of the law-state-society relation.

Marxism and Capitalism: This course provides a theoretical review of the Marxist theorizing of capitalism historically. The central thread of the enquiry would be to understanding and demonstrate how Marxist theories of capitalism evolved and have attempted to explain the capitalism in their time. The course is interdisciplinary. It is an aid to students of sociology seriously interested in the political-economic nature and dynamics of capitalism but who are daunted by the thick economic shell in which the discourses is couched. It is also true however that, the economic critique(s) constitute the spinal cord of the Marxist understanding of capitalism. The point therefore is to make the ‘economic’ more accessible to other students of social sciences.

Modernity and Modernization: The course is, at once, an attempt to come to terms with a central object of sociology - indeed, arguably, of the entirety of social science – namely, modernity, even as it strives to put in place the integuments of a reflexive sociology of modernity and modernization. The themes that comprise the course will take on both a conceptual and a substantive register.

People, Nation and State: Sociological discourse generally has been premised upon ‘society’ as its object of study. This course is a systematic attempt to displace that focus; as well as being meant to engage with what this displacement could entail for the vocabulary of sociology. Again, to the extent that issues of group and national identity have emerged as central to the political sociology of the contemporary world (including India), the course will strive to conceptually orchestrate a perspective on such topics as the dynamics of group identity, the relationship between nationhood and nationalism; while also surveying, historically and comparatively, the problems and opportunities thrown up by different kind of nationalisms.
Project work: Project work can be exercised in lieu of an optional course in the fourth semester. The final project report should have at least three chapters, and consist minimally of about 50-60 pages (A4 size paper, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font). References and bibliography must conform to accepted styles. The topic of the project report should be arrived at in consultation with teachers of the department, and may either be fieldwork based or based exclusively on library consultation. Students are encouraged to think seriously about exercising the project option. Particularly for those who may not intend to go in immediately for a research degree, the project work can be an additional certification as well as serving as an effective index of competence. The exercise of doing an independent project involves considerable individual initiative and thinking among students at Master’s level. Students may meet up with individual teachers of the department in fortifying their plans and finalizing their options.

Religion, Law and State: This course looks at religion and religious belief, especially under conditions of modernity, while going on to consider the current turmoil over religion, law and state in India. While an effort is made to cover the space of religious diversity in India, it is the dynamics of the Hindu-Muslim situation that will be the object of scrutiny. Specifically, the course attempts to forward some considerations on law and the secular state in India, while taking on questions of religious reform and secularization of religious communities.

Rural Society and Agrarian Change: This is an interdisciplinary course that introduces the students to the rural India today which is vastly complex and rapidly changing reality. Central focus of the course is to understand the changing agrarian social structure and agrarian relations given the nature of modern capitalist development. This course tries to revisit the debates on agrarian question in the context of globalization and assess what new ideas are discernable with the new processes of `Rurban’ where urban is embedded in rural and rural in the urban. The lectures are complemented by classroom discussions and student presentations on specific themes of the course.

Science, Culture and Society: The objective of this course is to enable students to understand science as a socio-cultural product in a specific historical context. This course exposes the students to philosophical, historical and sociological perspectives to look at science as a practice deeply embedded in culture and society. It emphasizes the dynamic nature of the relations between wider cultural practices on one hand and scientific practices on the other. The attempt is to equip students with a theoretical understanding indispensable for an in-depth study of science-society dynamics.

Social Movements: This course intends to study social movements and revolutions of contemporary era and tries to contextualize their historical and sociological significance. It elaborates on the social bases of different movements and discusses the conceptual, historical and empirical distinction among several social movements.

Social Theories of Modernities & Politics of Geography: This course introduces the debate of how space and politics of geography has organized the discourses of modernity(ies) and social theory(ies) since the nineteenth century. It starts with the discussion on the way European theorists have theorized the ‘second moment’ of modernity in context of globalization and asks whether reflexivity and reflexive modernization has allowed them to reorganize their world views and assumptions regarding the ‘other’ formulated in the nineteenth century. Do contemporary European theories continue with colonial and imperial episteme? It then discusses how Asian, African and Latin American scholars have examined the epistemic origins of European modernities from the standpoint of the ‘other’ and asks what the methodological solution for creating universal non-dominant theories is.

Sociology of Backward Classes: This paper seeks to understand the genesis and history, socio-economic and political life and problems, social movements, and development of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes of India.

Sociology of Culture: This course aims to provide students with a grounding in cultural sociology and prepare them for doing their own cultural research. To facilitate the objective, it surveys selected themes and issues in cultural sociology. The sociological approach to culture answers the following questions: What is culture and what does it do? How is culture defined or conceptualized? How is culture to be studied? What are the units of cultural analysis? What is the domain of culture? Four key themes constitute the focus of this course: 1) Culture, Personality and Identity 2) Culture and Ecology, 3) Culture, Power and Agency and 4) Food and Fashion (Clothing): Reading across Cultures.

Sociology of Education: This course introduces the student to the field of education from a sociological perspective. The course broadly discusses the major theoretical approaches that reflect the ideas of eminent social scientists in general and sociologists in particular. Themes such as education in relation to stratification, culture, curriculum, state and education reform are covered. Finally, at the end of the semester, students are expected to submit a project report based on an empirical study.

Sociology of Gender: This course critiques androcentric social theory and introduce students to feminist theory and methodology. In the early part of the course, we focus attention on theoretical debates. In the second half, we explore gender inequalities in various institutional contexts, and gain an understanding of the women’s movement in India and the issues that have been central to it. Contemporary gender issues that get reflected in the media will be discussed in class on a regular basis. Students are encouraged to maintain a journal tracking media coverage of gender issues.

Sociology of Health, Sickness and Healing: This course aims at providing various perspectives in understanding the relation between medicine, health, and society. It critically examines some of the basic premises of knowledge production and its location within the socio-political and economic structure of a society. The course will be dealt in two sections. The first section gives an introduction to some of the main assumptions and theoretical perspectives in the sociological study of health while the second section deals with the substantive health research themes relevant to the Indian context.

Sociology of Muslim Communities: This course introduces social science students to a variety of important issues in the study of Muslim communities, with special reference to India, though encouraging a comparative perspective. The course will follow a historical/contextual approach in understanding various institutions and movements, with an emphasis on diversity and embeddedness.

Sociology of Organizations: Organizations are manifestations of individuals’ collective efforts. Formal organizations constitute one of the most important elements which make up the social web of modern societies. Organizations in modern societies permeate all aspects of human life. Individuals are members of one or more organization(s). This course deals with formal organizations in modern societies. It discusses the theoretical frameworks to understand the social aspects of formal organizations. Core organizational issues such as bureaucracy, technology, culture, behavior and groups are discussed in this course drawing up on readings from sociology and organizational studies.

Sociology of Communication

Society & Sexuality

Technology, Culture and Society: The objective of this course is to introduce the students to the perspectives on the relations between science and technology on the one hand and the science technology and society on the other. The course focuses on dialectics of social (historical) conditions that shape technology and technological conditions the shape social formations and cultures in a comparative analytical framework.

Urban Sociology: This is an interdisciplinary course that introduces the student to the urban historical experience globally with a particular focus on India. The course discusses economic and social relations, political institutions, physical landscapes, and cultural frameworks that constitute the urban experience in India. It presents contemporary global and Indian debates in these themes in order to comprehend how those who experience the urban relate to the habitat that structures their access to livelihoods, social and physical infrastructure, governance and space to constitute themselves as ‘modern’ individuals.