Sociology : A Study of the Social Sphere (Paperback)

Any growing discipline continuously adds to the corpus of factual knowledge about the phenomena being studied and enriches its conceptual apparatus. Over time, some themes are dropped, and new concerns incorporated. This makes older and classical texts less relevant, and necessitates a process of selection and reprioritization of themes to meet changing times. Hence the need for new textbooks, especially one as detailed and concise as Sociology: A Study of the Social Sphere.

Key Features
* The book serves as an invitation to sociology.
* It helps the reader to learn the language that sociologists employ, and the way commonly used words (such as family, marriage, caste) are given distinct definitions.
* It follows the logic of scientific research that governs sociological analysis.
* Atal takes care in this book to guard against ideological and theoretical biases.
* The various topics covered in the book are illustrated with examples taken from everyday life, and from studies conducted in India.

Table of Contents
List of Images
Preface
Acknowledgments
I. Invitation to Sociology
1. What is Sociology?
2. Sociology in India

II. Conceptual Framework
3. Defining Society
4. Contours of Culture
5. Social Groups: Conceptual Framework
6. Community, Associations, and Formal Organizations
7. Social Interactions and Social Structure: Status and Role
8. Structural-Functional Analysis

III. Recruitment Dimension
9. Family, Marriage and Kinship
10. Prelude to Family: Marriage
11. Marriage, Family and Kinship in India

IV. Growing up in a Society
12. Socialization and Enculturation
13. From Socialization to Schooling: The Broader Canvas of Education

V. Internal Ranks and Divisions
14. Social Stratification : Theories and related concepts
15. Race, Tribe, Caste, and Class
16. Poverty and the Poor

VI. Change in Society
17. Social Change : sociological perspective
18. Reconstructing the Past
19. The Present as a processual product
20. Anticipating and Fashioning the Future

Bibliography
About the Author
Index