KSLU Solved Question Papers
Recent Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 3
2021 Mar Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 3 Recent Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology 2021 Mar Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2021 Mar examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2021 Mar examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
(a)Explain the theoretical perspective in sociology.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what a theoretical perspective is and why sociology needs one; the three main perspectives, functionalist, conflict and symbolic interactionist, each with its assumptions, thinkers and key ideas; the newer perspectives in brief; a table of the questions each asks; one social change seen through each lens; why several perspectives exist side by side; limits; a conclusion.
What a theoretical perspective is
A theoretical perspective is a basic way of looking at society. It is a set of assumptions about what society is, what holds it together and why it changes. A perspective works like a lens. It brings some features of social life into sharp focus and leaves others blurred.
A perspective is wider than a single theory. Many theories can grow inside one perspective. George Ritzer called such broad images of the subject paradigms. Students often meet them under the names of the three classic perspectives.
Why sociology needs one
Facts do not speak for themselves. A rise in divorce can be read as a breakdown of the family, as women escaping control or as a change in what marriage means. Which reading a sociologist offers depends on the perspective used. C. Wright Mills, in The Sociological Imagination (1959), asked sociologists to link private troubles to public issues. A perspective supplies the link.
The functionalist perspective
Assumptions. Society is a system of connected parts, like a living body. Each part, such as family, religion or law, performs a function that keeps the whole going. Society rests on shared values and tends towards balance.
Thinkers. Emile Durkheim laid the base. Talcott Parsons built the theory of the social system. Robert K. Merton refined it with manifest and latent functions and with dysfunctions.
Key ideas. Function, structure, consensus, integration and equilibrium.
The conflict perspective
Assumptions. Society is an arena of groups with unequal power and opposed interests. Order is kept by those who dominate, not by agreement. Conflict is normal and drives change.
Thinkers. Karl Marx traced conflict to class and property. Ralf Dahrendorf traced it to authority. Lewis Coser and Georg Simmel showed that conflict can also bind groups together.
Key ideas. Power, class, exploitation, interests, ideology and change.
The symbolic interactionist perspective
Assumptions. Society is made and remade in everyday interaction. People act on the meanings that things have for them. Those meanings come from interaction and change as people interpret them.
Thinkers. George Herbert Mead (1863 to 1931) studied how the self arises through taking the role of others. Herbert Blumer named the approach "symbolic interactionism" and stated its three premises. Erving Goffman, in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), compared social life to a stage.
Key ideas. Meaning, symbol, self, role-taking and definition of the situation.
Newer perspectives in brief
- Social exchange (George Homans, 1961; Peter Blau, 1964) sees interaction as a trade of rewards and costs.
- Feminist perspectives place gender and patriarchy at the centre of social analysis.
- Postmodern perspectives (Lyotard, Foucault, Derrida) doubt all grand theories and study discourse and power.
The questions each perspective asks
| Question | Functionalist | Conflict | Interactionist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level of study | Macro: the whole society | Macro: groups and classes | Micro: face-to-face life |
| What holds society together? | Shared values | Power and coercion | Shared meanings |
| What is social change? | Slow adjustment | Struggle between groups | New definitions of situations |
| Question | Functionalist | Conflict | Interactionist |
|---|---|---|---|
| What does it ask of an institution? | What function does it serve? | Whom does it benefit? | What does it mean to the people in it? |
| Its picture of the person | Socialised into roles | Shaped by class position | An active maker of meaning |
One change through three lenses
Take the spread of smartphones in a Karnataka village.
- A functionalist asks what the phone does for the system. It links farmers to market prices, migrants to families and citizens to welfare payments. The village adapts and stays integrated with the nation.
- A conflict theorist asks who gains. Telecom firms earn profits, richer households get faster access, and a digital divide grows between castes, classes and men and women.
- An interactionist asks what the phone means. For a young woman it may mean a private space and new friendships. For her parents it may mean a risk to family honour. Rules about who may use it are worked out in daily talk.
Each lens shows something true. None shows everything.
Why several perspectives exist
Society has order and conflict, structure and choice, large institutions and small encounters. No single lens can capture all of these. Ritzer therefore called sociology a multiple paradigm science. Many sociologists today, such as Anthony Giddens with his theory of structuration, try to join the macro and the micro.
Limits
- Functionalism neglects conflict and change and can seem to justify the existing order.
- Conflict theory overstates division and neglects the real consensus in social life.
- Interactionism neglects power and the large structures that limit choice.
- Choosing one perspective can make a researcher blind to what it hides.
Conclusion. A theoretical perspective is the lens through which sociologists view society. Functionalism sees a system held together by shared values, conflict theory sees groups divided by power, and interactionism sees meanings made in daily life. Each answers different questions, so a full sociological understanding uses them together rather than treating any one as complete.
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