UGC NET Sociology June 2026 | Mega Marathon | Foundation to Sociology | Antara maam

Main ideas / lessons conveyed

Class purpose & exam strategy (UGC NET Sociology)

• The instructor frames the session as part of a “Foundation to Sociology” series aimed at UGC NET Sociology (June 2026).
• Power cut issues are acknowledged, but the class continues.
• Students are asked to:
  • Avoid distractions (e.g., no questions/spam in the middle).
  • Note down important extra information provided verbally beyond the slides.
• Key emphasis for NET:
  • Marathon classes help, but students should also use PYQ solutions available on YouTube.
  • NET requires conceptual understanding, not rote learning—especially for:
    • Assertion–reasoning
    • code-based / conceptual questions
    • and some chronology-based items.

Course design / scheduling

• The Feminism topic is removed from this Foundation series and scheduled later:
  • Tomorrow: feminism (waves, schools, and more feminist thinkers)
  • Day after tomorrow: mega marathon on 26 thinkers
• Today’s unit focuses on:
  • History of Sociology
  • Europe’s emergence as a distinct story from India’s later development
  • Early sociology “pillars” and timelines

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Foundational historical timeline (Europe) and “context” before major revolutions

What must be understood together

• The instructor stresses that three major European events/pillars must be understood with what came before them:
  • Enlightenment
  • French Revolution
  • Industrial Revolution
• The prior context chain emphasized:
  • Dark Ages → Renaissance → Scientific Revolution → Enlightenment → French Revolution → Industrial Revolution

Approximate chronology ranges mentioned

• Dark Ages: ~1500–1900 (explained as church dominance and limited rational/scientific inquiry)
• Renaissance: ~1300–1600
• Scientific Revolution: ~1543–1700
• Enlightenment: 1680–1800
• French Revolution: 1789
• Industrial Revolution: ~1760–1840 (not fixed; roughly this range)
• August Comte coins “sociology”: 1838

Important distinctions to remember

• Don’t confuse:
  • Scientific Revolution vs Industrial Revolution
• Industrial Revolution:
  • begins in Britain
  • first strongly shows up in the textile/clothing industry
• Urbanization:
  • starts first through population movement (cities existed earlier)
  • emphasis is on migration and scale changes

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Why sociology emerges (conceptual logic)

• Society shifts toward science, rationality, evidence, and secular thinking, creating conditions for a scientific study of society.
• The instructor repeatedly connects:
  • development of scientific method (logic, observation, rationality)
  • philosophers/political thinkers (e.g., Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire)
  • revolutions producing political and social transformation
  • industrial change producing new social classes and problems

Industrial Revolution consequences (exam-relevant)

• Factory system + urban migration
• Urbanization and expansion of capitalism
• New/expanded social problems, such as:
  • poverty
  • crime/slums
  • unemployment and exploitation risks
• NET emphasis: questions may test how these problems arise after large-scale industrial/urban transformation.

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Classical “founders” and their roles

August Comte (positivism and the term “sociology”)

• Coins “sociology” in 1838
• Influenced by positivism and the scientific approach
• Mentions Comte’s earlier term “social physics”, while avoiding plagiarism from the “social physics” associated with Adolphe Quételet (as presented in subtitles).
• Comte’s major scheme discussed:
  • Positivism
  • Law of Three Stages
  • Hierarchy of Sciences
  • Social statics vs social dynamics
  • Mentions key Comte works and approximate volume counts

Next pillars: Durkheim, Marx, Weber

• Durkheim: establishes sociology as an academic discipline (teaching/disciplinary consolidation)
• Marx: class conflict, stratification, exploitation (as described)
• Weber: authority, social action, rationalization and bureaucracy

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Capitalism explained (exam-relevant micro module)

• Core taught components:
  • Private property
  • Profit motive
  • Reinvestment
• Class divide:
  • Bourgeois: own the means of production
  • Proletariat: work but lack ownership
• Linked social outcomes:
  • poverty rises
  • slums form
  • exploitation/unemployment risks increase

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Importance of “method” thinking in sociology

• The instructor connects history with later methodology:
  • Why research methodology is emphasized in foundation classes
• Mentions research methods:
  • Surveys
  • Observation (including participant observation)
  • Comparative methods

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Core books and “repeated PYQ” concepts

Two must-remember basics

• Alexander Inkeles: What is Sociology?
• C. Wright Mills: The Sociological Imagination (1959)

Inkeles: three spheres/aspects of sociology (high-frequency)

• Historical (historical strand)
• Empirical (empirical strand)
• Analytical (analytical strand)

Mills: central link

• Personal troubles ↔ public issues
• Use sociological imagination to connect individual experience to social forces
• Often taught as three parts:
  • Biography of the person
  • Social structure / history of society
  • Social location (e.g., class/caste/gender/background)

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Sociological perspectives: what they are + micro/macro logic

What “perspectives” mean

• Perspectives are ways of looking at society (not only theories).
• Micro: small-scale; part-by-part; focuses on individuals and differences
• Macro: big picture; holistic; averages/structures
• A mezzo bridging level is mentioned, but it is not treated as a strict “perspective.”

Approximate timeline of perspectives (exam-oriented)

• Positivism (~1830) → Conflict theory (~1840) → Evolutionism (~1850) → Functionalism (~1890)
• Interpretive/Weber (~1900)
• Symbolic interactionism (~1920) → Phenomenology (~1930) → Critical theory (~1930)
• Structural functionalism (~1950–60) → New Marxism strands → Feminism (~1960)
• Postmodernism (~1970)

Key definitions (major perspectives)

• Functionalism / Structural functionalism
  • society as interconnected parts aiming stability/equilibrium
  • Spencer → Durkheim → Malinowski → Radcliffe-Brown distinctions
• Conflict theory
  • society marked by inequality and competition
  • conflict can be destructive but may also increase unity within groups
• Symbolic interactionism
  • micro; everyday interactions; meanings through symbols/language/gestures
• Exchange theory
  • cost-benefit logic plus daily-life reciprocity beyond money
• Phenomenology
  • micro; direct experience/consciousness study
• Ethnomethodology
  • everyday methods people use to create/maintain social reality
• Structuralism / Post-structuralism / Postmodernism
  • Structuralism (macro; language/hidden patterns)
  • Post-structuralism (critiques fixed meanings; instability of language)
  • Postmodernism (critiques universal truth/grand narratives; multiple truths; fragmented reality)
• Critical theory / New Marxism
  • domination/exploitation via culture/ideology
  • Frankfurt School emphasis

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Social theory examples connected to India

• Examples used to apply sociological imagination/perspectives:
  • unemployment as both personal experience and broader economic crisis
  • domestic violence/unemployment as public issues
  • FIR/caste dynamics as examples of marginalization and subaltern invisibility

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Subaltern / postcolonial / decolonial / public sociology as distinct frameworks

Subaltern perspective

• Focuses on marginalized groups treated as “voiceless” and excluded from mainstream history
• Emphasizes history is not only “history of winners”
• Links to oral history to recover silenced narratives

Postcolonial vs decolonial

• Postcolonial: examines continuing cultural/political/economic effects of colonialism; critiques Eurocentric knowledge
• Decolonial: goes further—argues for delinking from Western epistemologies/knowledge categories, not just rewriting history

Indological and civilizational approaches

• Indological: study Indian society through classical texts/scriptures/epics
• Civilizational: long-term civilizational traditions shaping societies
• Multiple modernities mentioned as rebuttal to one universal European modernity

Public sociology

• Sociology should be intelligible to the wider public, not only academics
• Credits Herbert Gans for coining “public sociology”
• Presents Michael Burawoy as advocating it (per subtitles)

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History of Sociology in India (contrasted with Europe)

Europe vs India (key contrast)

• Europe: sociology emerges through Enlightenment/revolutions/industrial change; formal academic development
• India: different timeline because India was colonized by the British

Elements highlighted

• Ancient textual roots exist (Vedas, Upanishads, Arthashastra, Manusmriti/Dharmashastra, etc.)
• British conducted surveys and censuses to understand tribes/castes/villages (administrative function → sociological knowledge)
• 1919: sociology emerges institutionally at Bombay University
• Later expansion via village studies (Srinivas and Dubey mentioned)
• Expansion into specialized fields:
  • gender studies, dalit studies, tribal studies
  • globalization, urban society, digital society

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Harriet Martineau as “mother of sociology”

• Identified as “mother of sociology,” inspired by Comte’s positivism, with associated works translated into English
• Contributions emphasized:
  • methodology
  • moral inquiry and ethics
  • manners
  • gendered dimension: women’s education and social progress (linked to later feminism discussion)
• Exam-relevant claim:
  • Society in America (1837) highlighted as a PYQ
  • She also translated Comte’s Course of Positive Philosophy (as presented)

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Methodology / lists / instruction-style content (detailed bullets)

How the instructor wants students to participate

• During class
  • Avoid spamming or unrelated questions.
  • Save doubts/queries for the end of class.
  • Note important extra information given verbally (beyond slides).
• For preparation
  • Use the provided Telegram/schedule for class updates.
  • Use already-solved PYQs on YouTube/other platforms.
  • Focus on conceptual clarity because NET:
    • includes chronology-based questions
    • but emphasizes understanding more than memorization

Required exam-relevant “high-frequency” frameworks

• Inkeles: What is Sociology? — 3 aspects/spheres
  • Historical
  • Empirical
  • Analytical
• C. Wright Mills: The Sociological Imagination (1959)
  • connect personal troubles with public issues
  • applied through:
    • biography
    • social structure/history
    • social location
• Comte: positivism-related core scheme
  • Positivism = knowledge from what can be observed/verified scientifically
  • Law of Three Stages:
    • theological
    • metaphysical
    • positive
  • Hierarchy of Sciences (increasing complexity; sociology placed at the top)
  • Social statics vs social dynamics
• Micro/macro perspectives
  • Micro = individuals/meaning in everyday life
  • Macro = whole society/holistic patterns

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Speakers / sources featured (as named in subtitles)

Primary speaker (on-screen / instructor)

• Antara Chakraborty (Sociology educator; speaker throughout)

Named theorists / authors / scholars referenced

Note: some names appear misspelled/garbled in subtitles; only those clearly present are listed.

• Auguste Comte
• Emile Durkheim
• Max Weber
• Karl Marx
• Herbert Spencer
• Charles Darwin
• Galileo Galilei (as “Galileo”)
• Copernicus
• Francis Bacon (only implied; not reliably named)
• John Locke
• Montesquieu
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Voltaire
• Talcott Parsons
• Robert K. Merton
• George Herbert Mead
• Herbert Blumer
• Alfred Schutz
• Max Horkheimer
• Theodor W. Adorno
• Antonio Gramsci
• Louis Althusser
• Ralph Dahrendorf
• Jurgen Habermas
• Walter Benjamin
• Michel Foucault
• Jacques Derrida
• Anthony Giddens
• George Simmel
• Harold Garfinkel
• Edmund Husserl
• Claude Lévi-Strauss
• Michael Burawoy
• Herbert Gans
• Alex Inkeles
• C. Wright Mills
• Carole Hanisch (The Personal Is Political)
• Stuart Hall
• Pierre Bourdieu
• Adam Smith
• Frederick Engels
• John Stuart Mill
• Eisenstadt (subtitles unclear)
• G. S. Ghurye (subtitles unclear)
• Louis Dumont
• Iravati Karve
• Yogendra Singh
• Surjeet Sinha
• B. R. Ambedkar
• Ranajit Guha
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
• Partha Chatterjee
• Shahid Amin
• Edward Said
• Homi K. Bhabha
• Frantz Fanon
• Robert Ezra Park
• Charles Booth
• Paul Lazarsfeld
• James Coleman
• Gary Becker
• George Homans
• Peter Blau
• Nirmal Kumar Bose
• D. P. Mukherjee
• Manusmriti
• Vedas / Upanishads / Arthashastra / Ramayana / Mahabharata
• Kautilya / Chanakya (implied)
• Harriet Martineau
• Patrick Geddes (subtitles unclear)

Institutions / schools / movements

• Chicago School
• Frankfurt School
• Birmingham School
• Vienna Circle / logical positivism
• Columbia School
• British anthropological functionalism
• Subaltern Studies
• Postcolonial theory
• Decolonial theory
• Public sociology