SOCIOLOGY FOR UPSC / IAS

CHAPTER -1
TOPIC 1.A
b. Scope Of The Subject And Comparison With Other Social Sciences

TOPICS OF CHAPTER -1

1. Sociology - the discipline:

a. Modernity and social changes in europe and

emergence of sociology.
b. Scope of the subject and comparison with other
social sciences.
c. Sociology and common sense.

WHAT IS MODERNITY

Modernity
(Ritzer) –

Thinking new or thinking different.

Opposing the tradition.
A comparative process.
 Renaissance gave Secular ideology
French revolution gave Equalitarian ideology
Industrial revolution gave Utilitarian ideology

Certain developments to be noted

1) Age of enlightenment
Belief that people could comprehend and control the universe by means of reason and
empirical research
Belief of universal social laws

Society can be made better

2) New inventions
Discoveries

3) Revolutions
Political

Economic

Social

Commercial

Intellectual

Ushering an era
known as
Modernity
 As a result of Modernity

Following Social Changes Occurred

Transition from Feudal to Industrial Society

Rise of Liberal Democracy
Middle Class emerged

But there were problems associated with Modernity

Industrialisation brought
Poor Working Conditions for Workers
Nuclear Families - Domestic Violence, Frequent
Separations, Faith in Religion Decreased, Absolute
Poverty Survey in early 19th Century Europe showed
that poverty is socially created

But there were problems associated with Modernity

Rise of Liberal Democracies brought

Abrupt changes
Chaos in France
People did not understand how it will work and will they
be better off
A number of groups emerged advocating going back to
middle ages feudal system
But there were problems associated with Modernity

Rise of Middle Class

Created a class of aspirations
Structural divide
They were more demanding
And could not be contained in present system

All these developments could not be explained by

present Body Of Knowledge
So there was need of another discipline
Which could
Explain these changes
Find solutions to these
Even Predict these changes

Therefore
Emergence of Sociology
 Emergence of Sociology
Can be understood at two Levels
General Context
Immediate Contest

SOCIAL FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT

OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Political Revolution
(French Revolution - positive and negative- Comte, Dukheim – social order)

Industrial Revolution and Rise of Capitalism

Karl Marx, Weber, George Simmel, Durkheim (dol)

Rise of Socialism
(Weber and Durkheim against, Marx- favour)

Feminism
(liberationist movement(Europe), progressive era of us (for rights)),

Urbanization
(Chicago school to defend democracy and capitalism)

Religious changes
(many initial sociologists came from religious background)

Development of Sociology in Various Parts

Development of French sociology

(Saint simon, Comte, Durkheim)

German sociology
(Hegel, Marx, Weber, Simmel)

British sociology
(Adam smith - laissez faire brought the idea of
independence of agencies
Herbert Spencer - Evolution of societies, social
Darwinism)
 Development of Sociology in Various Parts

TB Bottomore
(on early Sociology)
Encyclopaedic
Evolutionary
Positive
Science of new industrial society
Radical + Conservatism

Intellectual Antecedents of Sociology??

TB Bottomore

Intellectual Antecedents –

1) Origin in Political Philosophy

(Hobbes, Locke, Descartes, etc.)

2) Philosophy of History

(Giam Battista, Saint Pierre, Hegel, Saint Simon – first to say that society is more than political society)

3) Biological theory of evolution (Spencer)

4) Movements of sociological and political reform

5) Social survey

In writings of Sir John Sinclair and FM Eden

Poverty social problem,

Methods of natural sciences can be applied to social sciences

 SOCIOLOGY FOR UPSC / IAS
CHAPTER -1
TOPIC 1.A
b. Scope Of The Subject And Comparison With Other Social Sciences

TOPICS OF CHAPTER -1
1. Sociology - the discipline:

a. Modernity and social changes in europe and

emergence of sociology.
b. Scope of the subject and comparison with other
social sciences.
c. Sociology and common sense.

SCOPE (SUBJECT MATTER)

OF SOCIOLOGY
Emerged as distinct discipline in response to
problems/social change

Guided initial scope

Gradually widened with time

Can be understood in different phases-

 INITIAL PHASE
1838 TO~1880
Initial phase 1838-1880s

Macro Units
Understanding society in terms of Macro Units
August comte – Social Statics, Social Dynamics
Saint Simon- Social Physics

Inductive Approach
Understanding social reality in terms of Empiricism
August Comte - Social Positivism
Herbert Spencer – Organismic Analogy

Humanistic Perspective
Understanding and finding solutions to social problem

2ND PHASE
(1880S-1940S)
Widening of scope

Max weber – Micro realities

(start of Interpretative Sociology)

Whereas Durkheim continued - Macro Units

(Social Facts)

Sociology started to be taught in large no of universities-

Therefore, Sociology now had Two Schools of thoughts -

Formal

Synthetic

FORMAL SCHOOL

Emphasis on micro phenomenon like social action/social processes

Sociology makes abstract generalisations about concrete reality

(Kantian influence)
(SUOR - Subjective Understanding of Objective Reality)

Studies objective reality as subjective interpretation

 FORMAL SCHOOL
Mostly German

Weber
Start of Interpretative School

George Simmel
Forms of interaction (formal & informal)
Types of interactants (whether known or strangers. Behaviour varies)

Alfred Vierkandt
Sociology is sum total of social and psychic behaviour of man which can be explained
by abstract conceptual design

Leopold Vanwiese
All human behaviour can be divided into associative and dissociative

Ferdinand Tonnies
Difference of social groups- Gameinschaft(community/small society) and
Geselllschalft(society/industrial society)

SYNTHETIC SCHOOL
Macro, bringing all social sciences together, sociology can study everything
(Socio-Centrism)

Durkheim
Grand Theories

Pitirim Sorokin
General sociology- same institutions in the world (family, religion found everywhere)
Specific sociology – caste in India, race in America

Karl Mannheim
Discusses structure and broader ideas
(book - ideology and utopia)

3rd phase
(1940s to 1990s)
Blending of Formal and Synthetic

Parsons
The SOSA (Structure of social action)
The SS (social system)

Merton
Latent and Manifest - Combined Micro and Macro

CW Mills
Sociological imagination – Sociology of coffee - Discuss the chain

Anthony Giddens
Theory of Structuration – Double Hermeneutics
Observe and then understand
Why sindoor, why mangalsutra
Also emphasized blending

Extension of existing schools

Formal School –
Ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel),
Phenomenology (Alfred Schutz).
 Present Phase
1980s onwards
Wider varieties of interest
(health, IT, biotech, networking, defence, environment)

Emergence of Post Modernist thought

Deal with metanarratives
No way to differentiate between true and untrue stories

Jacques Derrida
Deconstruction
Language can never truly represent an internal, objective reality

Micheal Foucoult
Discourse Analysis
That discourses have power

Alan Bryman
Multidisciplinary Approach
Purposive research has removed limitation on scope

Scope expanded throughout History

conflict view (marxian/feminism) scope can also be understood in comparing sociology with other social
sciences

Scope expanded throughout History

Conflict view (Marxian/Feminism)

Scope can also be understood in

comparing sociology with other social
sciences
 SOCIOLOGY FOR UPSC / IAS
CHAPTER -1
TOPIC 1.B
b. Scope Of The Subject And Comparison With Other Social Sciences

TOPICS OF CHAPTER -1
1. Sociology - the discipline:

a. Modernity and social changes in europe and

emergence of sociology.
b. Scope of the subject and comparison with other
social sciences.
c. Sociology and common sense.

SOCIOLOGY AND HISTORY

Sociology History

Similarities in different events Differences in similar events

Focusses on personalities, events

Focusses on pattern of events
(Trevor – Roper)

Analytical Descriptive

Generalising Particularising

Nomothetic Idiographic ( by Radcliffe Brown)

 SOCIOLOGY AND HISTORY
Concepts used by

Marx

(historical materialism)

Durkheim

(empirical evidence, evolution of societies – mechanical, organic solidarity)

Weber

(pesc)

Indology

(gsg, louis dumont)

SOCIOLOGY AND HISTORY

Socio without history is rootless, history without socio is fruitless

EH Carr – the more sociological the history becomes and the

more historical the sociology becomes, the better it is

Lucien Febvre and Mark Bloch formed Annales school to study

long-term social history

History is past sociology, sociology is present history

Historical concepts such as ethnicity, caste, used to mobilise

people socially

SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMY

Concepts used by

Marx – economic determinism

Weber – PESC

Alfred Marshall – father of welfare economics

Thomas Piketty – In 21st century capitalism is causing extreme inequality.

Advertisements – to study consumer behaviour, values, norms, culture

Pierre Bourdieu – economists shall look into all costs of economy including crime and suicides.

Neil Smelser – put forward the idea of industrial sociology for better understanding of modern society.

Adam Smith – put forward the idea of possibility of independence of institutions (laissez faire)

Goldthorpe, Veblen - technology available to a society, determines the character of its culture

A. Lowe – book “economics and sociology” – examines interplay of laws of market and mobility of factors of
production.

Francois Simiand – principles of economy need to be verified sociologically

SOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Birth of socio related to political upheaval of French Revolution

Concepts used by

Marx – use of sociology to bring about political change (communism)

Weber – bureaucracy, concept of power

Pareto, Mosca, Robert Michels (oligarchy), CW Mills – elite theories, democracy

Parsons – in AGIL. Politics gives goals to society

Dependency theories (Wallerstein)– convergence of international politics and global level sociology.

Colemans – politics of developing areas

David Easton – a system analysis of political life

Social concepts such as ethnicity, caste, gender, social class, religion used to mobilise people politically and formation of
political parties

Sociology helps in determining political behaviour (including voting pattern, psephology)

Reservation

Neil Smelser - protests, social movements and right movements

Pressure groups

Nation – Political organisation of a society

Secularism – Withdrawal of religion, a social phenomenon, from political life

Citizenship

SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthro Studies

Human evolution

Physical, cultural, social Anthro (evolution, genetics, fossils)

Archaeology

Concerned with pre-literate societies

SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Primarily uses Structural-Functionalist ways

Both influence by Darwins evolution theory

Spencer – social darwinism

Sumner – studied folkways (society + tradition)

Malinowsky – religion theory using anthro methods

Durkheim – ethnography of Arunta Tribes, DOL theory

MNS, AB, SC Dubey, etc – field study (borrowed from Anthro) to study Indian villages

Social Anthro

Studies small society

Origin in colonialism

Takes western societies as benchmark (ethnocentric viewpoint)

Malinowsky - another name of social anthro is comparative sociology

SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Ideas borrowed

Survey method

Quantitative data

Field work

Ethnographic research

SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY

Psycho : science of behaviour. Focus on individual

Social psychology – behaviour in a group

Weber – importance to meanings attached by the actor

Cooley – looking glass self

Mead – symbolic interactionism

Parsons – effective role of mother

Durkheim – suicide not a psycho phenomenon. Social currents causing deviance

Ginsberg, Nadel – sociological studies can be enriched by psychological interpretations

Gerth and Mills – “role” as the meeting point between social structure and individual character

George Simmel - forms of interaction (formal & informal) and types of interactants (whether known or
strangers. Behaviour varies)

Alfred Vierkandt - sociology is sum total of social and psychic behaviour of man which can be explained
by abstract conceptual design

Leopold Vanwiese - all human behaviour can be divided into associative and dissociative

Radcliffe Brown – contrasts the two fields. One studies social system and other the mental system

SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

Socio emerged largely as a Philosophical ambition

As a separate BoK

Sociology raises a lot of philosophical questions and tries to answer them

Giam Battista - philosophy of history – separating society from political society

Karl Manheim – ideas of sociology of knowledge had direct contribution to

epistemological questions and thus to philosophy

Marxist sociology has, with time, become marxist philosophy or marxism

Alfred Vierkandt – sociology is productive only when it has a philosophical

base. Philosophical orientation gives meaning to otherwise what are just facts
and figures

Gunnar Myrdal – chaos cannot organise itself into cosmos, we need viewpoints
SOICOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE
Topic 1.c
Paper – 1

Sociology and Common Sense

Need to ponder
If sociology is study of obvious or application of
common sense?

But common sense lacks validity and presents

itself as a mere assertion

Common Sense
Weber
Routine knowledge we have of our everyday
world and activities

Alfred Schutz
Organised, typified stocks of taken-for-granted
knowledge
And generally not questioned
 Point of Similarities
Sometimes folk wisdom is close to socio
For ex give a person a bad name and it will be
blamed for many things more

Howard Beckers
Labelling theory of deviance

Common sense is often related to social

relationships, social setting or institutions
which fall under purview of sociology

Common sense gives raw material for sociology

Common sense can even be supportive of

sociological theories

Point of Differences
Common sense is status quoist but sociology professes active change
It even debates structure and agency intellectually
(man-society dualism- man creates society or vice versa)

Sociology is sceptic while common sense is enforced through tradition

Peter Berger: “debunking” attitude towards world taken for granted.
Irreverent attitude towards religion (Durkheim, Weber and Marx)

Common sense explains many things irrationally

For ex poverty is due to wish of god

Sociology is verified, self-correcting and academic discipline

Common sense is assumptive which sometimes is discontinuous/ paradoxical

(for example opposite attracts as well as fight)
Also, common sense not coherent across countries and eras.
 Common sense has specific roles and duties
assigned for genders, poor, tribal
(stereotypes)
Margaret mead study of tribals in papua new
guinea region found certain gender role
reversal contrary to common sense

Common sense is highly value laden

Sociology attempts to be objective and scientific

Common sense lacks validity and reliability

Post modernist claim that sociology is not superior to

common sense as there is nothing as eternal truth

Anthony Giddens has said that sociological

investigation often becomes common sense
For ex sociological investigation of marital breakups
have made people believe that marriage is a risky
business

Phenomenonlogists
attempting to study “what” people do and not “why”
people do certain things

Poverty

Common Sense
problem families, low intelligence

Sociology
Structure of inequality in society, chronic
irregularity of wages
 Gramsci – Creation of Common Sense

Role of “common sense”, i.e. dominant ideas about society and about our
place in it, in producing cultural hegemony

For example, the idea that one can succeed monetarily if one just tries hard
enough, is a form of common sense that has flourished under capitalism,
and that serves to justify the system

For, if one believes that all it takes to succeed is hard work and dedication,
then it follows that the system of capitalism and the social structure that is
organized around it is just and valid

It also follows that those who have succeeded economically have earned their
wealth in a just and fair manner, and that those who struggle economically
in turn have earned their disenfranchised state

This form of common sense fosters the belief that success and social mobility
are strictly the responsibility of the individual, and thus obscures the real
class, racial, and gender inequalities that are built into the capitalist system