1Sociological Theory

  • Classical Sociological Traditions
  • Emile Durkheim
  • Max Weber
  • Karl Marx, Structure- Functionalism and Structuralism
  • Bronislaw Malinowski
  • A.R. Radcliffe- Brown
  • Talcott Parsons
  • Robert K. Merton
  • Claude Levi Strauss, Hermeneutic and Interpretative Traditions
  • G.H. Mead
  • Karl Manheim
  • Alfred Schutz
  • Harold Garfinkel
  • Erving Goffman
  • Clifford Geertz, Post Modernism, Post Structuralism and Post Colonialism
  • Edward Said
  • Pierre Bourdieu
  • Michel Foucault
  • Jurgen Habermas
  • Anthony Giddens
  • Manuel Castells, Indian Thinkers
  • M.K. Gandhi
  • B.R. Ambedkar
  • Radha Kamal Mukherjee
  • G. S. Ghurye
  • M.N. Srinivas
  • Irawati Karve

2Research Methodology and Methods

  • Conceptualizing Social Reality
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Scientific Method and Epistemology in Social Science
  • Hermeneutic Traditions
  • Objectivity and Reflexivity in Social Science
  • Ethics and Politics, Formulating Research Design
  • Reading Social Science Research, Data and Documents
  • Induction and Deduction
  • Fact, Concept and Theory
  • Hypotheses, Research Questions, Objectives, Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
  • Ethnography
  • Survey Method
  • Historical Method
  • Comparative Method, Techniques
  • Sampling
  • Questionnaire and Schedule
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Observation, Interview and Case study
  • Interpretation, Data Analysis and Report Writing

3Basic Concepts and Institutions

  • Sociological Concepts
  • Social Structure
  • Culture
  • Network
  • Status and Role
  • Identity
  • Community
  • Diaspora
  • Values, Norms and Rules
  • Personhood, Habitus and Agency
  • Bureaucracy, Power and Authority, Social Institutions
  • Marriage, Family and Kinship
  • Economy
  • Polity
  • Religion
  • Education
  • Law and Customs, Social Stratification
  • Social Difference, Hierarchy, Inequality and Marginalization
  • Caste and Class
  • Gender, Sexuality and Disability
  • Race, Tribe and Ethnicity, Social Change and Processes
  • Evolution and Diffusion
  • Modernization and Development
  • Social Transformations and Globalization
  • Social Mobility

4Rural and Urban Transformations

  • Rural and Peasant Society
  • Caste-Tribe Settlements
  • Agrarian Social Structure and Emergent Class Relations
  • Land Ownership and Agrarian Relations
  • Decline of Agrarian Economy, De-Peasantization and Migration
  • Agrarian Unrest and Peasant Movements
  • Changing Inter-Community Relations and Violence, Urban Society
  • Urbanism, Urbanity and Urbanization
  • Towns, Cities and Mega-Cities
  • Industry, Service and Business
  • Neighbourhood, Slums and Ethnic Enclaves
  • Middle Class and Gated Communities
  • Urban Movements and Violence

5State, Politics and Development

  • Political Processes in India
  • Tribe, Nation State and Border
  • Bureaucracy
  • Governance and Development
  • Public Policy: Health, Education and Livelihoods
  • Political Culture
  • Grass-root Democracy
  • Law and Society
  • Gender and Development
  • Corruption
  • Role of International Development Organizations, Social Movements and Protests
  • Political Factions, Pressure Groups
  • Movements based on Caste, Ethnicity, Ideology, Gender, Disability, Religion and Region
  • Civil Society and Citizenship
  • NGOs, Activism and Leadership
  • Reservations and Politics

6Economy and Society

  • Exchange, Gift , Capital, Labour and Market
  • Mode of Production Debates
  • Property and Property Relations
  • State and Market: Welfarism and Neoliberalism
  • Models of Economic Development
  • Poverty and Exclusion
  • Factory and Industry Systems
  • Changing Nature of Labour Relations
  • Gender and Labour Process
  • Business and Family
  • Digital Economy, E-Commerce
  • Global Business and Corporates
  • Tourism
  • Consumption

7Environment and Society

  • Social and Cultural Ecology: Diverse Forms
  • Technological Change, Agriculture and Biodiversity
  • Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Ethno-Medicine
  • Gender and Environment
  • Forest Policies, Adivasis and Exclusion
  • Ecological Degradation and Migration
  • Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation
  • Water and Social Exclusion
  • Disasters and Community Responses
  • Environmental Pollution, Public Health and Disability
  • Climate Change and International Policies
  • Environmental Movements

8Family, Marriage and Kinship

  • Theoretical Approaches: Structure-Functionalist, Alliance and Cultural
  • Gender Relations and Power Dynamics
  • Inheritance, Succession and Authority
  • Gender, Sexuality and Reproduction
  • Children, Youth and Elderly
  • Emotions and Family
  • Emergent Forms of Family
  • Changing Marriage Practices
  • Changing Care and Support Systems
  • Family Laws
  • Domestic Violence and Crime against Women
  • Honour Killing

9Science, Technology and Society

  • History of Technological Development
  • Changing notions of Time and Space
  • Flows and Boundaries
  • Virtual Community
  • Media: Print and Electronic, Visual and Social Media
  • E-Governance and Surveillance Society
  • Technology and Emerging Political Processes
  • State Policy, Digital Divide and Inclusion
  • Technology and Changing Family Relations
  • Technology and Changing Health Systems
  • Food and Technology
  • Cyber Crime

10Culture and Symbolic Transformations

  • Signs and Symbols
  • Rituals, Beliefs and Practices
  • Changing Material Culture
  • Moral Economy
  • Education: Formal and Informal
  • Religious Organizations, Piety and Spirituality
  • Commodification of Rituals
  • Communalism and Secularism
  • Cultural Identity and Mobilization
  • Culture and Politics
  • Gender, Body and Culture
  • Art and Aesthetics
  • Ethics and Morality
  • Sports and Culture
  • Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism
  • Religion and Economy
  • Culture and Environment
  • New Religious Movements ***

Paper-I — common to every subject

1Teaching Aptitude

  • Teaching: Concept, Objectives, Levels of teaching (Memory, Understanding and Reflective), Characteristics and basic requirements.
  • Learner’s characteristics: Characteristics of adolescent and adult learners (Academic, Social, Emotional and Cognitive), Individual differences.
  • Factors affecting teaching related to: Teacher, Learner, Support material, Instructional facilities, Learning environment and Institution.
  • Methods of teaching in Institutions of higher learning: Teacher centred vs. Learner centred methods; Off-line vs. On-line methods (Swayam, Swayamprabha, MOOCs etc.).
  • Teaching Support System: Traditional, Modern and ICT based.
  • Evaluation Systems: Elements and Types of evaluation, Evaluation in Choice Based Credit System in Higher education, Computer based testing, Innovations in evaluation systems.

2Research Aptitude

  • Research: Meaning, Types, and Characteristics, Positivism and Post-positivistic approach to research.
  • Methods of Research: Experimental, Descriptive, Historical, Qualitative and Quantitative methods.
  • Steps of Research.
  • Thesis and Article writing: Format and styles of referencing.
  • Application of ICT in research.
  • Research ethics.

3Comprehension

  • A passage of text be given. Questions be asked from the passage to be answered.

4Communication

  • Communication: Meaning, types and characteristics of communication.
  • Effective communication: Verbal and Non-verbal, Inter-Cultural and group communications, Classroom communication.
  • Barriers to effective communication.
  • Mass-Media and Society.

5Mathematical Reasoning and Aptitude

  • Types of reasoning.
  • Number series, Letter series, Codes and Relationships.
  • Mathematical Aptitude (Fraction, Time & Distance, Ratio, Proportion and Percentage, Profit and Loss, Interest and Discounting, Averages etc.).

6Logical Reasoning

  • Understanding the structure of arguments: argument forms, structure of categorical propositions, Mood and Figure, Formal and Informal fallacies, Uses of language, Connotations and denotations of terms, Classical square of opposition.
  • Evaluating and distinguishing deductive and inductive reasoning.
  • Analogies.
  • Venn diagram: Simple and multiple use for establishing validity of arguments.
  • Indian Logic: Means of knowledge.
  • Pramanas: Pratyaksha (Perception), Anumana (Inference), Upamana (Comparison), Shabda (Verbal testimony), Arthapatti (Implication) and Anupalabddhi (Non-apprehension).
  • Structure and kinds of Anumana (inference), Vyapti (invariable relation), Hetvabhasas (fallacies of inference).

7Data Interpretation

  • Sources, acquisition and classification of Data.
  • Quantitative and Qualitative Data.
  • Graphical representation (Bar-chart, Histograms, Pie-chart, Table-chart and Line-chart) and mapping of Data.
  • Data Interpretation.
  • Data and Governance.

8Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

  • ICT: General abbreviations and terminology.
  • Basics of Internet, Intranet, E-mail, Audio and Video-conferencing.
  • Digital initiatives in higher education.
  • ICT and Governance.

9People, Development and Environment

  • Development and environment: Millennium development and Sustainable development goals.
  • Human and environment interaction: Anthropogenic activities and their impacts on environment.
  • Environmental issues: Local, Regional and Global; Air pollution, Water pollution, Soil pollution, Noise pollution, Waste (solid, liquid, biomedical, hazardous, electronic), Climate change and its Socio-Economic and Political dimensions.
  • Impacts of pollutants on human health.
  • Natural and energy resources: Solar, Wind, Soil, Hydro, Geothermal, Biomass, Nuclear and Forests.
  • Natural hazards and disasters: Mitigation strategies.
  • Environmental Protection Act (1986), National Action Plan on Climate Change, International agreements/efforts -Montreal Protocol, Rio Summit, Convention on Biodiversity, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, International Solar Alliance.

10Higher Education System

  • Institutions of higher learning and education in ancient India.
  • Evolution of higher learning and research in Post Independence India.
  • Oriental, Conventional and Non-conventional learning programmes in India.
  • Professional, Technical and Skill Based education.
  • Value education and environmental education.
  • Policies, Governance, and Administration.

Official UGC-NET syllabus (ugcnet.nta.ac.in), Paper-II subject units, verbatim.

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