Introduction
The word “sociology” is derived from the Latin word socius (companion) and the Greek word logos (speech or reason), which together mean “reasoned speech about companionship”.
The sociologist Dorothy Smith (1926 – ) defines the social as the “ongoing concerting and coordinating of individuals’ activities”
Smith (1999 ) says Sociology is the systematic study of all those aspects of life designated by the adjective “social.” These aspects of social life never simply occur; they are organized processes. They can be the briefest of everyday interactions—moving to the right to let someone pass on a busy sidewalk, for example—or the largest and most enduring interactions—such as the billions of daily exchanges that constitute the circuits of global capitalism.
Think about the T-shirts in your drawer at home. What are the sequences of linkages and social relationships that link the T-shirts in your chest of drawers to the dangerous and hyper-exploitive garment factories in rural China or Bangladesh? These are the type of questions that point to the unique domain and puzzles of the social that sociology seeks to explore and understand.
The sociological imagination
The Sociological Imagination is a book written by sociologist C. Wright Mills and published in 1959. His goal in writing this book was to try to reconcile two different and abstract concepts of social reality – the “individual” and “society.” In doing so, Mills challenged the dominant ideas within sociology and critiqued some of the most basic terms and definitions.
The sociological imagination is the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each other. To have a sociological imagination, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view.
SOCIOLOGY AND COMMON SENSE KNOWLEDGE
Sociological knowledge is different from theological and philosophical observations. Likewise sociology is different from common sense observations. The common sense explanations are generally based on what may be called
‘naturalistic’ and/or individualistic explanation. A naturalistic explanation
for behaviour rests on the assumption that one can really identify ‘natural’
reasons for behaviour. Sociology has a body of concepts, methods and data, no matter how loosely coordinated. This cannot be substituted by common sense
SOCIOLOGY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES
Sociology is one of a group of social sciences, which also includes anthropology, economics, political science, and history. The divisions among the various social sciences are not clearcut, and all share a certain range of common interests, concepts and methods. It is therefore very important to understand that the distinctions of the disciplines are to some extent arbitrary and should not be seen in a straitjacket fashion.
Sociology in India
A standard western textbook definition of sociology समाज शास्त्र is “the study of human groups and societies, giving particular emphasis to the analysis of the
industrialised world” (Giddens 2001).
A standard western definition of social anthropology सामाजिक मानविकी would be the study of simple societies of non-western and therefore “other” cultures
M. N Srinivas (1966 ) map the trajectory:
In a country such as India, with its size and diversity, regional, linguistic, religious, sectarian, ethnic (including caste), and between rural an urban areas there are a myriad ‘others’ In a culture and society such as a india’s ‘the other’ can be encountered literally next door…
No rigid divide exists between sociology and social anthropology in India, a characteristic feature of the two subjects in many western countries. Perhaps the very diversity of the modern and traditional, of the village and the metropolitan in India accounts for this.
Urban Sociology in India
In 1920 first department of sociology was established at university of Bombay by Professor Patrick Geddes. Sociology studies in urban context starts after 1971 census which recorded high rate of growth of urban population. (109 million ). The Study of Urban sociology got importance with rising problems of rural-urban migration , urban development and other related areas such as demography, slums, stratification, education, ethnic conflict and movements, kinship, religion, politics, economy, social problems and impact of urbanization on rural areas. In 1986 the national commission on urbanization established under the chairmanship of Charles Correa. After the UNCHS habitat 1996 Conference Government of India encourage city studies and network of Local Urban Observatories (LUOs) and National Urban Observatory (NUO) programme are start in India.
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