WEST BENGAL STATE UNIVERSITY

SOCIOLOGY HONOURS (Total Marks 800) PART I (TOTAL MARKS 400)

PAPER I : INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY PAPER II : SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS PAPER III : SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT : COMTE MARX PAPER IV : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

PART II (TOTAL MARKS 400)

PAPER V : SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT : WEBER TO PARETO AND INDIAN THINKERS PAPER VI : SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY PAPER VII : INDIAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND PROCESS PAPER VIII : INDIAN SOCIAL ISSUES

PART I
PAPER I INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

Group A : 1. Identity of Sociology: Sociology as a distinct perspective, Sociology and common sense, Sociology and other social sciences, Sociology as a science, Sociology practical significance. 2. Culture, society and the individuals: meaning and characteristics of culture, culture diversity and cultural identity and ethnocentricism, Society as a concept, socialization: agencies, theories of child development. The life course: socialization and individual freedom. 3. Types of society: characteristics of pre- modern and modern society, the earliest society, hunters and gatherers, pastoral and agrarian societies, nonindustrial civilizations or traditional states, the modern world: Industrial societies, advanced Industrial societies and developing societies. 4. Social interaction and everyday life, the study of everyday life, non-verbal communication, social roles and talk, face, body and speech in interaction, interaction in time and space, micro-sociology and macro-sociology. 5. Social change: definition: factors of social change; theories of social change, change in the modern period. Group B : 6. Gender and Sexuality : Sex, gender and Biology, Gender Socialization; Gender Identity and sexuality, Two theories, gender, sexuality and inequality.

7. Family, Marriage and personal Life : Key concepts, family in history, changes in family pattern worldwide, divorce and separation, remarriage and stepparenting, dark side of the family, the debate on family values. 8. Deviance and crime: The study of deviant behaviour, theories of crime and deviance, prisons and punishment, gender and crime, victims of crime, crimes of the affluent and powerful, organized crime, crime, deviance and social order. 9. Ethnicity and race: Ethnicity, prejudice and discrimination, ethnic

antagonism, likely future development in ethnic relations. 10. Stratification and class structure: System of social stratification: theories of stratification in modern societies, classes in western societies today; Gender and stratification, social mobility, poverty and inequality, class, inequality and economic competiveness. PAPER II SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS Group A: 1. Modern Organizations: Organizations and modern life, Theories of organization, beyond bureaucracy: The influence of the large corporations, the reordering of technology and modern organizations. 2. Work and Economic Life : Paid and unpaid work, the division of labour and economic dependence, trends in the occupational system, unions and industrial conflict, women and work, unemployment, the future of work. 3. Government, Political Power and War: Power and Authority, The concept of the state, the political participation of women, global forces, war and the military. 4. Mass Media and Popular Culture: Early Mass media, the newspapers, the impact of television, theories of media, the globalizing of media, the issue of media regulation, multimedia, the Internet.

Group B:

5. Education: The development of literacy and schooling, gender and the education system, education and ethnicity, theories of schooling, education and cultural reproduction, education and inequality. 6. Religion: Defining religion, varieties of religion, theories of religion, religion, secularization and social change. 7. Cities and the development of modern urbanism: the traditional city, features of modern urbanism, theories of urbanism, third world urbanization. 8. Revolutions and Social movements: Defining Revolution, theories of revolution, social movements, new social movements, conflict and culture. 9. Trans-national Corporation Globalization and its critique. PAPER III SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT: COMTE MARX Group A: 1. Transition from social philosophical thought to sociological thought: Impact of Industrial revolution and French Revolution, Role of European Enlightenment and the University Revolution, contributions of Montesquieu and Saint Simon. 2. Auguste Comte: Positivism, Law of Three Stages of Social Development, Social Statics and Social Dynamics, Hierarchy of the Sciences. 3. Herbert Spencer : Theory of Evolution, Organic Approach : Typology of Societies. Group B:

4. Emile Durkheim: Division of Labour, Suicide, Religion, Rules of Sociological Method. 5. Marxist approach to the study of Society: Dialectical Method, Historical Materialism, Stages of Social Development, Base and Superstructure, Capitalism: Origin and Dynamics, Alienation, Class, Class Struggle and Revolution, State and Bureaucracy.

PAPER IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Group A: Research Methods 1. Theory and Research : Inductive Theory The Creation of Social Theory; Deductive and Concepts; Variables; Propositions and

Construction;

Hypotheses; Components of Axiomatic Theory; Different Strategies for Hypothesis formulation and Verification; Bivariate between theory and Research. 2. The Research Process: Social Science as Science, Stages of Social Research, Types of Research, Uses and Abuses of Social Research, Value Free Sociology, Methodology versus Method, The Unit of Analysis. 3. Research Design : Purposes of Research, Problem Formation and Research Design, Major Steps in Research Design, Factors affecting Research Design. 4. Conceptualization and Operationalization: Concepts: Operationalizing relationships; links

Definitions, Operationalization and Measurement, Validity meaning and types, Reliability meaning and types, Types of Errors in different Stages of Research. 5. Survey Research : The Art and science of Survey, general components of Survey research, types of survey, design of questionnaires, face -to-face

interviews and telephone survey, deciding if a survey is appropriate for your topic. 6. Field Research and Observational Studies: The Art and Science of Field Research, General Components of a Field Study, The design of field study, strategies for analysis, validity and reliability of field studies, deciding if a field study is appropriate for your topic. 7. Humanist Method: Variety of Life Documents, Substantive and Research Contributions of Life documents, Qualitative Approach. 8. Methods of Analyzing Data: The Art and science of Analyzing Available data, secondary analysis, components of secondary analysis examples, Components of a content analysis.

Group B: Social Statistics 1. The definition of statistical Analysis: What is Statistics? Definitions and terms commonly used in Statistics, Descriptive and Inferential Statistics, The goal of research, the place of statistics in the research process. 2. Theory, Measurement and Mathematics: Theory and Mathematics, Theory and Hypothesis, Operational Definition, levels of measurement, nominal ordinal, interval and ratio, measurement and statistics. 3. Basic Fundamental Concepts: Summation Rules, Continuous and Discrete Variables, rounding, ratio, proportion, Percentages. 4. Sampling : The Merits of Good Sampling, How probability sampling works, sampling terminology, methods of selecting probability samples, nonprobability sampling, designing a sample to meet your research needs. 5. Frequency Distributions and Graphic Techniques : Grouping of Data, cumulative Frequency and cumulative percentage, distribution, graphing techniques, misuse of graphing techniques, forms of frequency curves, other

graphic representations, levels of measurement and different Graphic Presentation. 6. Measures of Central tendency: The Arithmetic Mean, The median, the mode, comparison of mean, median and mode, criteria for the choice of an average, the mean, median, mode and Skewness. 7. Measures of Dispersion: The Range, the Interquartile Range, the Mean Deviation, the Variance and Standard Deviation, Interpretation of the Standard Deviation. Field Work 30 marks

Dissertation may be written by using any method as prescribed in the syllabus [Size of the dissertation should be around 5000(five thousand) words]. Dissertation paper will be examined jointly by one Internal and one external examiner to be appointed by the University. Marks will be given jointly by the Internal and External Examination on the basis of the written dissertation and Viva Voice.

PART II
PAPER V SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT: WEBER TO PARETO & INDIAN THINKERS Group A:

1. Max Weber: Webers concept of Action, Webers Methodology, Protestant Ethic and capitalism, Types of Authority with special reference to Bureaucracy. 2. George Simmel: Formal sociology, Individual and society concept of sociation. 3. Vilfredo Pareto: Logical and Non Logical action, Residues and Derivations and Circulation of Elites.

Group B: 1. Binoy Kumar Sarkar: Personality, Progress: Interpretation of Indian Tradition. 2. Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji: Personality, methodology, interpretation of Tradition and Social Change in India. 3. G.S. Ghurye : Approach to Sociology, Caste and Tribe, Dynamics of Culture and Society. 4. Bhupendranath Datta: Caste, Feudalism, Marxist Approach to the study of Indian society. 5. B.R. Ambedkar: Analysis of Hindu Society, Dalit Movement. 6. Approaches to the study of Indian Society: Ideological Approach, Dialectical approach, Historical Evolutionary Approach. PAPER VI SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY Group A: 1. Nature and Task of Sociological Theory. 2. Functional Theory: General Arguments, Contributions of Malinowski, Radcliffe Brown, Parsons and Merton, Critical Overview. 3. Conflict Theory: General Arguments, Contributions of

Dahrendorf and Coser, Critical Overview. 4. Exchange Theory: General Arguments, Contributions of Homans and Blau, Critical Overview. Group B:

5. Symbolic Interaction: General Arguments, Contributions of Mead and Blumer. 6. Critical Sociology: General Arguments, Frankfurt School. 7. Feminist Sociology: Stages of Development of feminism, General Arguments, Focii of Feminist Sociology, Varieties of Feminist Sociology. 8. Post modern Sociology: Basic Features, General Arguments.

PAPER VII INDIAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND PROCESS Group A : 1. Nature of Indian society : Diversity and Unity, source of Diversity : bases of Unity 2. Family: Continuity and Change: Forms of Family, functions of family, social significance of family. 3. Caste: Persistence and Change, Varna and Jati, Jajmani system, pollution and purity, Dominant Caste, Sanskritization. 4. Tribe: Characteristics, Major social institutions: Marriage, family and Kinship, economic organization, political organization, religion, tribal movements in India colonial and post-independence periods. 5. Class: Urban Class Structure, rural Class Structure and Social Mobility. Group B: 6. Village : Village Solidarity, Internal Regulation.

7. Power Structure: Power Elite In rural India, Panchayat, Municipality, Local Bodies and social Change, Relationship between Civil society and State in India. 8. Social in India. 9. Social Movements in India: Post independence Peasant and Working Class Movements, Womens Movements, Dalit Movements. Change in India: Westernization / Modernization,

Industrialization, Role of Legislation in Social Change, Globalization

PAPER VIII INDIAN SOCIAL ISSUES Group A: 1. Population: Culture and Fertility, Migration: causes and

consequences, population trends in India, Population Policy of the government of India A critical appraisal. 2. Urbanization: Urbanization Process, Urbanization and Social Transformation. 3. Communalism and Secularism: Problems of Communalism, Problems of Secularism. 4. Social Values: Traditional and Modern Values, Cultural

Modernization as a process, Congruence and Conflict. 5. Environment: Globalization and Ecological Crises in India, Nature and Causes of Ecological Problem, Ecological Development Environmental Movements in India. Group B:

6. Child Abuse: Types, Incidence, Causes, Areas of Child Labour. 7. Youth Alienation, Students Movement. 8. Women: Violence against Women, Dowry, Divorce. 9. Old Age: Problems, Policies and Programmes. 10.Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) : Areas of Activity, Relationship with the state. 11.Poverty: Concept, Measurement, Social Indicators, Poverty in India. 12.Illiteracy: Mass Literacy Programme in India.

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WEST BENGAL STATE UNIVERSITY

SOCIOLOGY GENERAL (Total Marks 400)

PART I (TOTAL MARKS 300) PAPER I : INTRODUCTORY SOCIOLOGY

PAPER II : SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT PAPER III : SOCIETY IN INDIA

PART II (TOTAL MARKS 100) PAPER IV: SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN INDIA, RESEARCH METHODS & FIELD WORK

PART I
PAPER I: INTRODUCTORY SOCIOLOGY
1. Nature and scope of Sociology, Sociology as a Science, Place of Sociology among other social sciences. 2. Some basic concepts : (a) Society (b) Community (c) Association (d) Organization (e) Culture and Civilization (f) Folkways and Mores (g) Customs (h) Norms and Values

(i) Role and Status 3. Culture and Personality, Socialization: meaning, agencies and importance in society. 4. Some fundamental social processes : (a) Cooperation (b) Competition (c) Conflict (d) Accommodation (e) Assimilation

5. Definition and types of Social groups : (a) Primary and Secondary Groups (b) Formal and Informal Groups (c) In-group and Out-group (d) Reference Group 6. Social stratification: meaning and characteristics: Forms of Stratification: Estate, Caste and Class, Social Mobility: horizontal and vertical. 7. Institution: definition and interrelationship among Institutions. 8. Family: structure and functions, Forms of family with special reference to nuclear and extended families, the modern family: the Indian situation. 9. Social Control: meaning, nature and purposes, Agencies of Social control: Religion, Education and Mass Media.

10.Social Change, Social Evolution and Social Progress: meaning and nature, Relative importance of technological and cultural factors of social change, The concept of Cultural lag, the Marxist theory of social change.

PAPER II: SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT

1. Transition from social philosophical thought to sociological thought, emergence of Sociology as a new discipline. 2. Auguste Comte : Law of Three Stages, Positivism. 3. Herbert Spencer : Theory of Social Evolution, Organic Analogy 4. Emile Durkheim : Division of Labour, Suicide, Religion. 5. Karl Marx : Dialectical Method, Historical Materialism, Class and Class Struggle. 6. Max Weber : Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Bureaucracy. 7. An overview of the contribution of (a) Benoy Kumar Sarkar (b) G.S. Ghurye, and (c) Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji to the development of Sociology in India.

PAPER III : SOCIETY IN INDIA

1. Society in pre-British India : Landownership pattern, Self-sufficient village economy, and the Jajmani system. 2. Impact of British Rule on Indian Society : Commercialization of Agriculture, growth of rural povery and indebtedness, rise of new social classes (broad overview).

3. Society in Modern India : (a) Unity in Diversity in India problems of national unity. (b) Post Independence social legislations related to marriage and family in India nature of changes introduced. (c) Caste system, social mobility in the caste system : role of Sanskritization, changing aspects of caste, caste and class. (d) Critical assessment of Land reform programmes in India with special reference to West Bengal. (e) Changing status of women in India. (f) Rural development in India Role of Panchayat in rural development with special reference to West Bengal. (g) Urbanization in India its social effect.

PART II

PAPER IV : SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN INDIA, RESEARCH METHODS AND FIELD WORK (FULL MARKS 100)

HALF I (MARKS 70)

Group A : Social Problems in India (Marks 50)

Definition and nature of social problem Some Indian Social Problems : (a) Povery in rural and urban areas (b) Child Labour (c) Problems of Youth (d) Old Age Problem (e) Population Problem (f) Problem of Mass Illiteracy. (3 questions to be answered out of 5)

Group B : Research Methods : A Brief General Introduction (Marks 30)

What is Social Research? Steps in social research Definition and Types of Sampling Techniques and Tools of Research : Observation, Interview, Questionnaire and Schedules Methods of Data Analysis : Tabulation, Graphical representation Report Writing. (2 questions to be answered out of 4)

HALF II (MARKS 20)

Field Work and Dissertation (Any Social problem of local or regional importance may be studied either on the basis of Field Work or on the basis of secondary source material. Size of the dissertation should be around 4000 (four thousand) words, to be examined Internally