IAS Examination Syllabus : Sociology

  1. Basic Concepts

    • Society, community, association, institution. Culture-culture change, diffusion, Cultural-tag, Cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, acculturation.
    • Social Groups-primary, secondary and reference groups.
    • Social structure, social system, social action.
    • Status and role, role conflict, role set.
    • Norms and values-conformity and deviance.
    • Law and customs.
    • Socio-cultural processes: socialisation, assimilation, integration, cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation, Social distance, relative deprivation.
  2. Marriage, Family and Kinship

    • Marriage : types and norms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.
    • Family : types, functions and changes.
    • Kinships : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.
  3. Social Stratification

    Forms and functions; Caste and Class. Jajmani system, purity and pollution, dominant caste, sanskritisation.

  4. Types of Society

    Tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial.

  5. Economy and Society

    Man, nature and social production, economic systems of simple and complex societies, non-economic determinants of economic behaviour, market (free) economy and controlled (planned) economy.

  6. Industrial and Urban Society

    Rural-Urban Continuum, urban growth and urbanisation-town, city and metropolis; basic features of industrial society; impact of automation on society; industrialisation and environment.

  7. Social Demography

    Population size, growth, composition, and distribution in India; components of population growth-births, deaths and migration; causes and consequences of population growth; population and social development; population policy.

  8. Political Processes

    Power, authority and legitimacy; political socialisation; political modernisation, pressure groups; caste and politics.

  9. Weaker Sections-and Minorities

    Social justice-equal opportunity and special opportunity; protective discrimination; constitutional safeguards.

  10. Social Change

    Theories of change; factors of change; science, technology and change. Social movements-Peasant Movement, Women's Movement, Backward Caste Movement, Dalit Movement.