Read the passage and answer the following question.
The scope of sociological study is extremely wide. It can focus its analysis of interactions between individuals such as that of a shopkeeper with a customer, between teachers and students, between two friends or family members. It can likewise focus on national issues such as unemployment or caste conflict or the effect of state polices on forest rights of the tribal population or rural indebtedness. Or examine global social processes such as: the impact of new flexible labour regulations on the working class; or that of the electronic media on the young; or the entry of foreign universities on the education system of the country. What defines the discipline of sociology is therefore not just what it studies (i.e. family or trade unions or villages) but how it studies a chosen field.
How does sociology study society?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → It uses the sociological imagination to bring into focus the connections between Individuals and society at local and global level
Option (3) It uses the sociological imagination to bring into focus the connections between Individuals and society at local and global level — Correct. What sociology does is use the sociological imagination to make sense of the connections between the individual and society, the micro and the macro, the local and the global. It asks, for example, how a peasant in a remote village is connected to global changes.
Note: The line that sociology does not only study the social or cultural consequences of globalisation, written under the paragraph on the scope of sociological study, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. It has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there.
NCERT (2025-26): “…What Sociology does is use the sociological imagination to make sense of the connections between the individual and society, the micro and the macro, the local and the global. How is the peasant affected in a remote village? How is s/he connected to global changes?…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “You read the above paragraph carefully. You will realise that since sociology is not defined by what it studies but how it studies, it would be not quite right to state that sociology only studies the social or cultural consequences of globalisation.…” |