1. The Sociological Imagination: Lying at the intersection of Biography and History, Individual versus social constraint, Private troubles versus public issues.
2. The foundations: Marx/Weber/Durkheim: Theoretical perspectives: a) Marx: Historical materialism, Capitalism. b) Max Weber: Protestant Ethic, Meaningful social action – but it is an ideal type or an average meaning c) Durkheim: The social fact recognized by its generality and coercion
3. Understanding India a) How colonial scholars defined Indian society and its structures; what did caste/class/tribe/community look like in the past b) In the present – what has changed? The new lives of caste and tribes; the persistence of inequalities. c) What is the kind of society we want? How can sociology inform our understanding of how to bring about social transformation?
4. And what about gender? a. How can we understand inequalities of gender? b. What does the social world look like from the perspective of women: feminist studies in India and elsewhere c. Judith Butler and the gendering of the self
5. Beyond the textual: Doing Visual / Aural ethnography; sociology in cyberspace.