Course Description

Students of law and social sciences will engage with social structures, relations and institutions in myriad forms. This makes an understanding of what society is and how it is structured indispensable. This common core course introduces students to 1) core aspects of society and 2) important frameworks and approaches through which scholars have understood and examined social life, institutions, and social relations. It begins with a discussion on how to approach the study of society and on the dangers of commonsensical understandings of society, individuals, social groups, and institutions. The course then takes up some of the key aspects to the study of society in the Indian and the global context. Students are then trained in critically examining society through foundational lenses such as labour and class; privilege; family, marriage, and kinship; caste; gender and sexuality; indigeneity; and religion. The course concludes by returning to the value of understanding society through discussions on social institutions, structures, groups, and relations.

The themes covered in this course will also provide necessary background information for law courses (such as on family, marriage, and human rights) and the major in sociology.