BY SHALINI SINGH
AIR 564 IN UPSC CSE 2023
SOCIOLOGY SCORE -265(136+129); GS1- 98; ESSAY -111
SOURCES OF EACH TOPIC IN
SOCIOLOGY
1. Sociology - The Discipline:
• 1. Sociology - The Discipline:
• a) Modernity and social changes in Europe and emergence of Sociology---UNIT 1
EMERGENCE OF SOCIOLOGY IN EUROPE( IGNOU MATERIAL ENOUGH)– WHY IGNOU
MATERIAL FOR THIS—EXPLAINED IN CHRONOLOGY, COVERS THE THEMES ASKED IN
THE PYQ.
• (b) Scope of the subject and comparison with other social sciences : remember there are
schools—FORMALISTIC AND SYNTHETIC—their arguments in the scope of sociology;
wrt to comparison in other sciences think in the various dimensions—methodology,
definition, convergence in the new fields, new branches that are emergings, THINKERS
INVOLVEMENT IS IMPORTANT HERE. SOURCE: LOTUS ARISE NOTES ON THIS IS
LUCID WITH GOOD THINKERS INVOLVEMENT.
• SOCIOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE: NITIN SANGWAN SIR BOOK ON ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY IS IMPORTANT; TRY TO ESTABLISH ITS INTERRELATION WITH
PHENOMENOLOGY, ETHNODOMETHODOLOGY, INTERPRETATIVE SOCIOLOGY –
UNIT 2
Sociology as Science
• . Sociology as Science:
• a) Science, scientific method and critique.: LOTUS ARISE NOTES ARE GOOD AND
COMPREHENSIVE
• (b) Major theoretical strands of research methodology. : IT INCLUDES
FUNCTIONALISM, MARXISM,SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM,FEMINISTIC THEORY: I
followed SOCIOLOGY THEORY (HARALAMBOS ORANGE BOOK—CHAPTER 13) OR
LOTUS ARISE NOTES ARE ALSO GOOD IN THIS CASE.
• (c) Positivism and its critique. : ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN SIR OR
METHODOLOGY CHAPTER 12 OF ORANGE HARALOMBUS
• (d) Fact value and objectivity.: ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN SIR
• ( e) Non-positivist methodologies.: COVER PHENOMENOLOGY ,
ETNOMETHODOLOGY, FEMINIST, CRITICAL SCHOOL etc from METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER OF BLUE HARALAMBOS
UNIT 3: . Research Methods and Analysis:
• (a) Qualitative and quantitative methods.: REMEMBER THE DEFINITION AND
FEATURES OF BOTH OF THESE METHODS; MANDATORY REFER TO
COMBINING METHODS AND TRIANGULATION SECTION OF CHAPTER 14 –
METHODOLOGY OF BLUE HARALAMBOS
• (b) Techniques of data collection. : ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN
SIR IS THE BEST
• (c ) Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity. : NITIN SANGWAN SIR
BOOK
• APPENDIX TO BE DONE FOR THIS UNIT: COMPULSORY READING OF
CHAPTER 14 ( METHODOLOGY) OF BLUE HARALAMBOS AND SOLVING PYQ
AS PYQs REPEAT FOR THIS UNIT.
UNIT 4: THINKERS
• (a) Karl Marx - Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class
struggle.
• ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN SIR, BLOCK KARL MARX ( IGNOU NOTES),
CHAPTER KARL MARX IN GEORGE RITZER—READ ALL THESE MULTIPLE TIMES AND SOLVE
PYQ TO HAVE IDEA OF HOW TO MAKE NOTES ON THE SAME.
• (b) Emile Durkhteim - Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society.
• ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN SIR, BLOCK EMILE DURKHEIM ( IGNOU
NOTES), CHAPTER EMILE DURKHEIM IN GEORGE RITZER—READ ALL THESE MULTIPLE
TIMES AND SOLVE PYQ TO HAVE IDEA OF HOW TO MAKE NOTES ON THE SAME.
• c) Max Weber - Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, protestant ethic and
the spirit of capitalism.
• ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN SIR
• (d) Talcolt Parsons - Social system, pattern variables.
• CHAPTER SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF BLUE HARALAMBOS---SECTION TALCOTT PARSONS;
REFER ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY
UNIT 4 CONTD..
• (e) Robert K. Merton - Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance,
reference groups.:
• FOR REFERENCE GROUPS: IGNOU MATERIAL ON REFERENCE GROUP+ ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY
• LATENT AND MANIFEST FUNCTIONS: IGNOU MATERIAL+ ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY
• CONFORMITY AND DEVIANCE: ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY
• (f) Mead - Self and identity.
• ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY
• SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM OF G.H MEAD IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY CHAPTER OF
HARALAMBOS
UNIT 5: STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY
• a) Concepts - equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty and deprivation.
• (b) Theories of social stratification - Structural func tionalist theory, Marxist theory,
Weberian theory.
• (c) Dimensions - Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and
race.
• (d) Social mobility - open and closed systems, types of mobility, sources and
causes of mobility.
• FOR ALL THE ABOVE ITEMS I FOLLOWED LOTUS ARISE NOTES+ ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY
6. Works and Economic Life
• (a) Social organization of work in different types of society - slave society, feudal
society, industrial capitalist society.
• (b) Formal and informal organization of work.
• (c) Labour and society.
• FOR ALL THE ABOVE I FOLLOWED LOTUS ARISE NOTES
7. Politics and Society
• (a) Sociological theories of power.: POWER AND POLITICS CHAPTER OF ORANGE
HARALAMBOS
• (b) Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups and political parties.: ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN+ PRESSURE GROUPS AND POLITICAL
PARTIES FROM IGNOU MATERIAL TOO. REMEMBER DIFFERENT EXAMPLES OF
PRESSURE GROUPS FOR DIFFERENT SECTORS
• (c) Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology.: ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN ( BUT THIS SOURCE ALONE NOT ENOUGH)
• (d) Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.: IGNOU
NOTES ON SOCIAL MOVEMENT (COMPULSARY), ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY
8. Religion and Society :
• (a) Sociological theories of religion.
• (b) Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults.
• (c) Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious
revivalism, fundamentalism.
• FOR ALL THE ABOVE NITIN SANGWAN ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY IS ENOUGH+
PYQ + CONTEMPORARAY TRENDS
9. Systems of Kinship
• (a) Family, household, marriage.: THE FAMILY CHAPTER OF ORANGE
HARALAMBOS
• (b) Types and forms of family.: IGNOU MATERIAL: FAMILY AND ITS TYPES
• (c) Lineage and descent.: ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY
• (d) Patriarchy and sexual division of labour.: THIS TOPIC IS INTERDISCIPLINARY,
GENDER DISCRIMINATION OF STRATIFICATION CAN ALSO BE INCLUDED
HERE, WOMEN AND SOCIETY CHAPTER OF ORANGE HARALAMBOS TO BE
STUDIED. USE OF REPORTS, FACTS AND NFHS5 etc VERY HELPFUL.
• e) Contemporary trends.: REPORTS, NEWS, BASIC MATERIAL: ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY
10. Social Change in Modern Society
• (a) Sociological theories of social change.
• (b) Development and dependency.
• (c) Agents of social change.
• FOR ALL THE ABOVE ESSENTIAL SOCIOLOGY BY NITIN SANGWAN
• (d) Education and social change.: CHAPTER EDUCATION OF ORANGE HARALAMBOS ;
ASER REPORT; INCLUDE DIMENSIONS LIKE COVID –ONLINE EDUCATION etc.
• (e) Science, technology and social change.: FOR BASIC KNOWLEDGE ESSENTIAL
SOCIOLOGY IS GOOD. BE VIGILANT OF TRENDS LIKE AI, SOCIAL MEDIA, BIOTECH etc
and its impact on the society.
THANK YOU;
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