CBSE Class 11 Sociology
Chapters: 7
1. Sociology, Society and its Relationship with other Social Sciences
Introducing society and sociology
- Introducing Society and Sociology – Society is the web of groups and relations we live in. Every person is an individual, yet always part of groups like family, class and village. There is not one society but many, and inside each one people have unequal shares of money, power and respect. Sociology, the scientific study of society, was born in 19th-century Europe when reason, revolution and factories changed life fast. It studies almost every part of social life and works closely with economics, political science, history, psychology and anthropology.
2. Terms, Concepts and their Use in Sociology
Basic sociological concepts
- Basic Concepts in Sociology: Groups, Stratification, Status, Control – Sociology uses a few key words again and again. A social group is people who interact often, share goals and feel "we"; a crowd at a bus stop is only a quasi-group. Groups can be primary (small, close) or secondary (big, formal), in-groups ("we") or out-groups ("they"), and reference groups we copy. Stratification is the arranging of society into unequal layers by caste, class or gender. Status is a position a person holds; role is the behaviour expected from it. Social control is how society makes people follow its norms, formally (law, police) and informally (family, gossip, praise).
3. Understanding Social Institutions
Social institutions
- Understanding Social Institutions – A social institution is a lasting set of rules and roles that meets a basic need of society. Family, marriage and kinship organise birth, care and relatives. Work and economic institutions organise how goods are made and shared, now with division of labour, factories and informal jobs. Political institutions decide who holds power and make it legitimate through authority, the state and laws. Religion gives shared beliefs and rituals about the sacred. Education passes knowledge and values to the next generation, and can both open doors and keep inequality going.
4. Culture and Socialisation
Culture and socialisation
- Culture and Socialisation: How We Learn to Live Together – Culture is the whole way of life that a group learns and shares: its ideas, rules and things. It is learned, not born with us. Culture has three sides: cognitive (what we know and believe), normative (rules for how to behave) and material (tools and objects). Socialisation is the lifelong process by which a baby becomes a member of society by learning this culture. It happens through agencies: family, peer group, school, mass media, and others like work, religion and community.
5. Social Change and Social Order in Rural and Urban Society
Social change and order
- Social Change and Social Order in Villages and Cities – Social change means a big, lasting change in how society is organised. It can be slow (evolutionary) or sudden (revolutionary), and it can change structures, ideas or values. It is caused by the environment, technology and the economy, politics and culture. Social order is the other side: the way society keeps itself steady through shared values, domination, authority and law. Order is always challenged by contest, crime and violence. Villages, towns and cities differ in size, density and work, and each changes in its own way.
6. Introducing Western Sociologists
Western sociologists
- Introducing Western Sociologists: Marx, Durkheim and Weber – Sociology was born in Europe out of three big changes: the Enlightenment (trust in reason), the French Revolution (ideas of freedom and equality) and the Industrial Revolution (factories, cities, wage work). Karl Marx said society is shaped by how people produce goods, and history moves through conflict between classes, such as capitalists and workers. Emile Durkheim said society is held together by solidarity: mechanical in simple societies where people are alike, and organic in modern societies where people do different jobs and depend on one another. Max Weber said sociology must understand the meaning people give to their actions (interpretive sociology), used ideal types as measuring tools, and described bureaucracy as the rule-bound modern way of organising.
7. Indian Sociologists
Indian sociologists
- Indian Sociologists: Ghurye, Mukerji, Desai and Srinivas – Four Indian thinkers shaped how we study Indian society. G.S. Ghurye listed six features of caste and questioned the British idea that caste came from race. D.P. Mukerji said Indian change must grow out of tradition; its three sources are shruti, smriti and anubhava (experience), and experience is the strongest. A.R. Desai, a Marxist, checked the welfare state and found it did not remove poverty or inequality. M.N. Srinivas lived in a village, showed that the village is a real social unit that keeps changing, and gave ideas like the dominant caste.