Sociology: A Study of the Social Sphere

Book excerpt: 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. The book serves as an invitation to sociology and 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. The various topics covered in the book are illustrated with examples taken from everyday life, and from studies conducted in India.