Sociology
Tuesday,15 Dec 2020
I am writing this post in this page. At the outset, I must lessen your burden by stating that this optional subject is relatively easy. As day to day observations and as a result of our reading of general studies, most of us are familiar (if not expert) with the topics of the syllabus (except the thinkers part). So, comfort level is often high even for a beginner.
However, due to this very fact, some aspirants become complacent and take many topics for granted. So, you should try to read thoroughly and should never overlook the core concepts (for example, while studying caste - you should not overlook the very basic definition and perspectives on caste. You should ask yourself - What is caste? How it has changed historically? What is the theoretical framework lying beneath it? Is that framework accepted as it is by various social thinkers? If not, how and why?)
I am writing this post considering two way of preparing for sociology - one approach is that you are using our book "Essential Sociology" as the basic reference and the other approach is the one in which you are not using Essential Sociology as a source.
The First Approach
1.In the first approach, many of you have asked what else you should read apart from our book Essential Sociology. To answer to that -- we have covered in our book more than what is required from the syllabus point of view. So far, there has not been a Sociology Mains paper which was not adequately covered by our book Essential Sociology. An analysis of 2017 and 2018 papers is done here and here respectively in this blog which you can go through. Given the efforts that we have put in, we are pretty sure that the book can deal with all possible questions in the exam. But to reassure yourself, if you want to read more, you can refer to a couple of other sources which we are mentioning below:
1.New NCERTs of class 11th/12th (If you are an absolute beginner):They are very lucid and very basic material and are suitable for absolute beginners. They also carry examples from day to day life (many of which are very recent ones also), hence, they give you a good start. According to me, new NCERTs are much well designed than the older ones. I advice not to read older NCERTs. New NCERTs have less factual errors and have a better flow. Try to read them again and again during various phases of your optional preparation. (Old NCERTs were more suitable for the older syllabus and hence may not be as useful).
2.A good Sociology Dictionary by Penguin or Sage publication (some pirated soft copies available online which aspirant may search/download at their own risk as I personally don't recommend this route for copyright related issues). Read any one of these suggested dictionaries of Sociology cover to cover i.e. by every single word and page. Dictionaries are helpful because, they provide the fundamental definitions of the topics of syllabus. They also carry reference to the works of important social thinkers which can be used as examples in exam. Both of these dictionaries are relatively simple in language than another dictionary from Oxford publications. There is a dictionary by Ranjana Sabharwal also, but that is very poor in content and should be avoided. One should read the dictionary thoroughly from first to last page and note down those terms and topics which are either part of syllabus (directly or indirectly) or have appeared in previous years' exams. Some references to case studies may also be found there in these dictionaries.
3.Sociology: Themes and Perspectives (Haralambos an Holborn) (Blue Cover, unless it has an updated edition with different color cover page) - This is a very useful and comprehensive book for paper 1 if you have an appetite to read more, else you will not miss anything in the book Essential Sociology. This book is a bit lengthy one with more than 1000 pages. It is very updated one and covers almost all aspects of syllabus of Paper-1 of the Sociology Optional. Following topics: Basic Theoretical Perspectives, Aging, Research Methods, Stratification and Inequality, Gender, Poverty and Exclusion, Religion, Family, Power and Politics, Education etc are covered very well. If you have patience to read, it is an extremely useful book.
4.Newspapers and other GS source and selective noting down of events related to Sociology. For example, latest data on Census, gender issues, statistics on poverty or inequality, caste discrimination incidents which are widely reported in media, news related to tribal development, displacement related case studies, nationalism, religious issues, budgetary provisions, government schemes etc should be noted down whenever you feel that they can help you in giving a contemporary taste to your answers in exam.
The Second Approach
In the second approach (i.e. if you are not referring to the Essential Sociology book), I would suggest following material -
1.New NCERTs on sociology - Read this section in the First Approach above.
2.Sociology : (Haralambos and Heald) (the one with Red Cover and not so thick) - For the beginners it is a good book as it is helpful in making one familiar with the core concepts and some landmark studies in the field of sociology. This book is a bit outdated in terms of the data and studies it uses as it has not been revised since long. But at the same time, the case studies it uses are classical ones and are still referred by the social scientists and students alike. Try to match the topics of syllabus and read selectively. Its writing style is extremely lucid and most of the concepts are explained very well.
3.Sociology (Anthony Giddens) - While Haralambos (red/orange cover) gives you a conceptual framework, Giddens Sociology is more about the contemporary perspectives in sociology. It gives a fresh and novel perspectives through recent examples and illustrations. It helps you in developing a unique sociological perspective. If you are reading Haralambos and Heald (source 2 above) and Giddens, then in that case you need not refer the next source at number 4 that I am mentioning next.
4.Sociology: Themes and Perspectives (Haralambos and Holborn) (Blue Cover, unless it has an updated edition with different color cover page) - This is a very useful and comprehensive book for Paper 1 of Sociology Optional. But as suggested, it is a bit heavier book with more than 1000 pages - the sheer volume of which sometimes perturbs the aspirants. To this, I would say that one should read very selectively as per syllabus. It is a very updated book and covers almost all aspects of syllabus of Paper 1. Following topics: Basic Theoretical Perspectives i.e. thinkers part, Aging, Research Methods, Stratification and Inequality, Gender, Poverty and Exclusion, Religion, Family, Power and Politics, Education etc are covered very well. If you have patience to read, it is an extremely useful book.
5.Sociology Dictionary (Penguin/Sage Publication) - Regarding utility of this source, please refer to the concerned section in the First Approach above.
6.IGNOU Notes (only graduation level, not post graduation level) - They carry more or less the whole syllabus, even of the Paper-2. They are especially useful for the Paper-2 as one generally doesn't find the topics anywhere else and that too compiled in one source.
7.Other supplementary sources - Apart from these, for specific topics, you may refer to some other books as well. For example, for Mead (you may refer the Sociology book by Ritzer), for Indian thinkers, you may refer a book by B K Nagala (though this book doesn't explain thinkers in a very coherent way and hence, this book has its own issues) and so on. Some topics like Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Modernization of Indian Tradition etc may have to be researched separately.
8.Newspapers and other GS source and selective noting down of events related to Sociology. Regarding utility of this source, please refer to the concerned section in the First Approach above.
From the day one, you should keep in mind that since the subject is about society and its relationship with individuals, you should be very keen observer of such events and incidents which expose such relations. Whether there is some news article (say on marital trends, caste, family, demography, tribes, polity, socio-economic indicators of development and so on), some development in your neighborhood or even a personal observation, you should try to think over these and note down a thing or two. Such illustrations about society and its working will come handy in form of examples while attempting the questions in the Sociology Mains Exam and will definitely fetch you some extra marks.
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Best of luck
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