(Syllabus) Part - A Preliminary Examination - Syllabus (Sociology)

( UPSC Syllabus )
Part A - Preliminary Examination - Optional Subjects
Examination Syllabus - Subject : Sociology

1. Basic Concepts

    

   • Society, community, association, institution. Culture-culture change, diffusion, Cultural-tag, Cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, acculturation.

   • Social Groups-primary, secondary and reference groups.

   • Social structure, social system, social action.

   • Status and role, role conflict, role set.

   • Norms and values-conformity and deviance.

   • Law and customs.

   • Socio-cultural processes: socialisation, assimilation, integration, cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation, Social distance, relative deprivation.

2. Marriage, Family and Kinship

    

   • Marriage : types and norms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.

   • Family : types, functions and changes.

   • Kinships : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.
     

3. Social Stratification

   Forms and functions; Caste and Class. Jajmani system, purity and pollution, dominant caste, sanskritisation.

    

4. Types of Society

   Tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial.

    

5. Economy and Society

   Man, nature and social production, economic systems of simple and complex societies, non-economic determinants of economic behaviour, market (free) economy and controlled (planned) economy.
   

6. Industrial and Urban Society

   Rural-Urban Continuum, urban growth and urbanisation-town, city and metropolis; basic features of industrial society; impact of automation on society; industrialisation and environment.
   

7. Social Demography

   Population size, growth, composition, and distribution in India; components of population growth-births, deaths and migration; causes and consequences of population growth; population and social development; population policy.
   

8. Political Processes

   Power, authority and legitimacy; political socialisation; political modernisation, pressure groups; caste and politics.
   

9. Weaker Sections-and Minorities

   Social justice-equal opportunity and special opportunity; protective discrimination; constitutional safeguards.
   

10. Social Change

    Theories of change; factors of change; science, technology and change. Social movements-Peasant Movement, Women's Movement, Backward Caste Movement, Dalit Movement.

    Courtesy : UPSC