UPESSC Assistant Professor Sociology syllabus

1Basic Sociological Concepts and Institutions

• Sociology- Definition, Nature and Scope
• Sociological Concepts, Sociological Perspective
• Basic Concepts-Community, Institution, Association, Culture, Custom, Norms and Values
• Social Structure: Meaning of Social Structure; Status and role
• Social Group: Primary & Secondary, Formal - Informal, Ingroup – Outgroup, Reference group
• Social Institutions : Marriage, Family, Kinship, Economy Polity, Religion, Education
• Social Stratification : Social differentiation, Hierarchy and Inequality, Exclusion
• Forms of stratification : Caste, Class, Gender and Ethnicity
• Theories of social stratification
• Social mobility : Meaning and types
• Socialization-Meaning, agencies and theories
• Social change and its types
• Evolution, Diffusion, Progress, Revolution, Transformation
• Theories of Social change
• Social reform and Social movement

2Sociological Theories and Perspectives

• Structural functional : Radcliffe Brown; Levi – Strauss; S.F. Nadel.; Malinowski, Durkheim, Parsons, Merton; J. Alexander
• Interactionist : Social action : Max Weber, Pareto
• Symbolic Interactionism : G. H. Mead, Blumer
• Conflict - Karl Marx, Dahrendorf, Coser, Collins, Althusser.
• Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology : Alfred Shultz, Peter Berger and Luckmann; Garfinkel and Goffman
• Structuration, Post – Modernism; Post Structuralism & Post-Colonialism; Bourdieu, Haberamas, Giddens, Derrida, Foucault

3Research Methodology, Methods and techniques

• Meaning and Nature of Social Research
• The scientific method
• Objectivity and subjectivity, Theory, fact and value
• Critique of positivism
• Ethical values in research
• Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
• Historical method, Comparative method, Hermenautic method, Survey, Research Design, Hypothesis
• Sampling and its types
• Techniques of data collection : Observation, Questionnaire, Schedule, Interview
• Qualitative Methods : Observation; Case study; Content analysis
• Statistics in Social Research - Mean, Median and Mode

4Sociology of Development

• Theories of Development : Human development, Social development
• Sustainable development : Ecological and Social
• Modernization
• Science, Technology and Society
• Globalization
• Issues related to Development
• Regional disparity
• Displacement
• Ecological degradation and environmental pollution
• ICT, Network Society and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

5Urban and Industrial Society

• Urban- Industrial Society in the Classical Sociological Tradition
• Urbanization & urban problems
• Division of labour
• Bureaucracy
• Alienation
• Industrialization and Social Change in India
• Impact of industrialization on society
• Class and class conflict in industrial society
• Limitations of industrialization and urbanization

6Tribal and Rural Society

• Meaning of Tribe, Tribe and Development, Tribal Studies
• Approaches to the study of Rural Society
• Rural – Urban differences
• Peasant and village studies
• Agrarian Institutions
• Caste and Jajmani system
• Agrarian class structure
• Land ownership and its types
• Panchayati Raj System
• Agrarian unrest, Peasant movements and farmer's movement

7Crime, Population and Gender Issues

• Meaning and Theories of Crime and Punishment
• Crime and delinquency
• Deviance and its forms
• White collar crime, Corruption, Nepotism, Terrorism, Cyber crime, and digital arrest
• Probation, Parole and Justice
• Concepts of Fertility, Mortality, Morbidity and Migration
• Theories of Population Growth
• Gender as a Social Construct, Patriarchy and Matriarchy, Theories of Gender; Gender and Development; Women and Development

8Environment and Society

• Social Ecology, Indigenous knowledge, gender and environment, development induced displacement & rehabilitation; ecological degradation and environmental pollution
• Environmental movements

9Indian Sociological Perspectives

• Conceptualizing Indian Society
• Cultural diversity : Regional, linguistic, religious and tribal
• Indological / Textual Perspective : G. S. Ghurye, N.K. Bose.
• Structural – Functional Perspective : M.N. Srinivas, S. C. Dube
• Marxian Perspective : D. P. Mukheriee, A. R. Desai
• Subaltern : B.R. Ambedkar; D. Hardiman
• Sociology in India and Sociology for India and Indigenization of Sociology

10Contemporary debates in Sociology

• Debates on Tradition and Modernity in India
• Issues of Nation Building : Fundamentalism, Secularism/Secularization
• Pluralism and Nation building; Democracy, Citizenship and Civil Society
• Ethnicity and Identity
• Challenges of LPG
• Contemporary movements in India

General Knowledge — common to every subject

1Current Affairs

• A. Major events & Current Affairs : National/International
• B. Personalities in News
• C. Sports News
• D. Current Research in the field of Science.

2Teaching and Research Aptitude

• A. Teaching : Nature, Objectives, Need, Methods Evaluation and Factor Affecting Teaching
• B. Research : Meaning and Methods
• C. Data : Source, Collection and Analysis
• D. Role of UGC in Qualitative Development in Higher Education.

3Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

• A. ICT : Meaning, Advantages and Disadvantages
• B. Basics of Internet & E-mailing
• C. General Abbreviation and Terminology.

4People and Environment

• A. People & Environment Interaction
• B. Environmental Depredation : cause & Solution
• C. National and International affairs for better Environment
• D. Environmental Control.

5Indian History and Geography

• A. Salient Features of Indian Culture
• B. Indian National Movement (1857-1950)
• C. Origin of Universe and Solar System
• D. Indian Geography (General).

6Indian Constitution and Economy

• A. Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles
• B. Indian political system : Legislative Executive and Judiciary
• C. Election Commission and Public Service Commission
• D. Population, Poverty, Unemployment; Planning and Development; Income Tax
• E. Agriculture, Industry, Trade; Money, Currency, Banking and Capital Market.

UPESSC Assistant Professor syllabus, Sociology (Subject Code-41), Syllabus/upessc_2026/Sociology_en.pdf (English pages 1-3; the rest is the Hindi version) — transcribed from the scanned pages, wording as printed.