MA IN SOCIOLOGY

MA IN SOCIOLOGY

Sociological Theories

1. The Development of Sociology in the 19th Century
2. Karl Marx:
a) Transition from Pre-Capitalist to Capitalist Social formations
b) Capitalism and Commodity Production
c) Class and Class Conflict
3. Max Weber:
a) Social Action: Basic Concepts and Terms
b) Methodologies of the Social Sciences
c) Religion and Social Change
4. Emile Durkheim:
a) Sociology as Science
b) The Division of Labour and Forms of Solidarity
c) Systems of Classification

Sociological Theory: Some Conceptual Issues

1. Self, Interaction, Event:
a) Self and Other in the Social Act
b) The 'Doing' of Social Life
2. System, Structure, Rationality:
a) Relationships, Institutions, Models
b) System and Life-World
3. Discourse, Genealogy, Practice:
a) The Emergence of the Subject and Disciplinary Power
b) Habitus and Embodiment

Sociology of Kinship

1. The discourse of kinship:
a) What is Kinship
b) The Formation of Kinship as an Object of Study
c) The Incest Taboo
d) Honour, Shame and Violence
2. Cultural Configurations of Kinship:
a) Descent, Residence and Inheritance
b) Social and Cultural Constructions
c) Transformations of African Kinship and Marriage
d) The Culture of Anglo-American Kinship
3. Marriage Patterns:
a) Marriage as an Expression of Exchange and Alliance
b) Bride-wealth and Dowry
c) Strategies of Social Reproduction
d) Monogamy and Plural Marriages
4. Transformations of kinship (any two in one semester):
a) Kinship and Modes of Production and Reproduction
b) Questioning Patriarchy
c) Reproductive Technologies and Reconfigured Kinship
d) Gay Perspectives

Religion and Society

1. Sociological Approaches to the Study of Religion: History, Social Structure, and Theory
of Social Action
2. Religion, Culture and Systems of Collective Representation
3. Religious Organisation: Nature, Types, Functions, Religious Pluralism
4. Religion, Social Movements and Secularism
5. Critiques of Religion

Political Sociology
1. Nature and Scope of Political Sociology:
a) Approaches to the Study of Politics
b) Political Systems and Other Social Systems
2. Some Basic Concepts:
a) Power and Authority
b) Consensus and Conflict
c) Elites and Masses
d) State and Stateless Societies
3. Local Structures of Power:
a) Varieties of Local Power Structure
b) Local Power Structures and the Wider Political System
4. State and Society under Capitalism:
a) State and the Class Structure
b) Citizenship and the Welfare State
5. State and Society under Socialism:
a) State Control and Institutional Autonomy
b) Ideology and Consensus
6. State and Society in India

Economic Sociology
1. Introduction: Economy in Society
2. Production and Reproduction:
a) Concepts of Value, Labour, Property, Money and Rationality
b) The Production Process: The Structure and Experience of Work.
3. Consumption and Exchange:
a) Gift Exchange
b) Markets
c) The Commodity Form
d) Consumption
4. Economy and the State:
a) Planned Economies
b) Welfare Systems
c) The State and Global Markets