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Recent Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 3
2023 Mar Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 3 Recent Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology 2023 Mar Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2023 Mar examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2023 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 2023 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
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all questions from five Units. (2) One essay type question and short note compulsory from each Unit. (3) Figures to the right indicates marks. (4) Answer should be written either in English or Kannada compulsorily.
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
Unit I
(a)Elucidate concepts, theories and paradigms.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: why the three terms belong together; what a concept is, its features, uses and kinds, with Blumer and Weber; what a theory is, with Merton's definition, Turner's elements and Goode and Hatt's uses; what a paradigm is, with Kuhn and Ritzer's three paradigms; a table comparing the three; one study traced through all three levels; limits; a conclusion.
Three steps of one ladder
Sociology tries to make sense of social life in an orderly way. It does this with three tools of growing breadth. A concept names one part of social reality. A theory links concepts to explain something. A paradigm is the wide picture of society inside which theories are built. Each rests on the one below it.
Concepts
Meaning. A concept is a word or term that stands for a class of things, events or relations. It is an idea drawn out of many separate observations. "Caste", "role", "norm", "anomie" and "class" are sociological concepts. No one can see "caste" directly. We see marriages, meals and occupations, and the concept gathers them under one name.
Features. A good concept has four features.
- It is abstract: it leaves out the details that differ from case to case.
- It is clearly defined, so that two researchers mean the same thing by it.
- It refers to something that can be observed in some way.
- It is shared by the community of scholars who use it.
Uses. Concepts sort a confusing world into classes. They let scholars talk to one another without long descriptions. They also guide research, because they tell the researcher what to look for.
Kinds. Herbert Blumer, in "What Is Wrong with Social Theory?" (1954), set out two kinds.
- A definitive concept states exactly what belongs to a class, by fixed attributes or measures.
- A sensitising concept only gives a general sense of direction. It tells the researcher where to look, and its meaning grows during the study.
Max Weber's ideal type is a third kind. It is a pure model built by stressing certain features of reality, such as his ideal type of bureaucracy. No real office matches it fully, but it helps us measure real cases.
An Indian example is Sanskritisation. M. N. Srinivas used it in Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India (1952). It names the process by which a lower caste adopts the customs of higher castes to claim a higher rank.
Theories
Meaning. A theory is a set of connected statements that explains why something happens. Robert K. Merton defined sociological theory as "logically interconnected sets of propositions from which empirical uniformities can be derived". A theory does not just describe. It explains and predicts.
Elements. Jonathan H. Turner lists four building blocks.
- Concepts, the terms the theory uses.
- Variables, concepts that can take different values, such as income or rate of crime.
- Statements, which link concepts and variables to each other.
- Formats, the way the statements are arranged into a whole.
Uses. W. J. Goode and P. K. Hatt, in Methods in Social Research (1952), showed how theory serves research. Theory narrows the range of facts to be studied. It supplies concepts and summarises what is known. It predicts new facts and points to gaps in knowledge.
Levels. Some theories try to explain all of society. C. Wright Mills called these grand theory in The Sociological Imagination (1959). Merton preferred middle range theories, which explain a limited field, such as reference groups or deviance.
Paradigms
Meaning. The word comes from Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Kuhn called paradigms "universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners".
How paradigms change. Under a paradigm, scientists do normal science: they solve puzzles the paradigm sets. Over time, anomalies appear that it cannot explain. When they pile up, a crisis follows and a new paradigm replaces the old. This is a paradigm shift, like the move from an earth-centred to a sun-centred universe.
Paradigms in sociology. George Ritzer, in Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science (1975), defined a paradigm as "a fundamental image of the subject matter within a science". He found three paradigms in sociology.
| Paradigm | Its exemplar | What it studies | Theories inside it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social facts | Durkheim | Structures and institutions | Structural functionalism, conflict theory |
| Social definition | Weber | How people define and interpret action | Action theory, symbolic interactionism, phenomenology |
| Social behaviour | B. F. Skinner | Behaviour shaped by reward and punishment | Behavioural sociology, exchange theory |
Sociology has several paradigms at once, not one. Ritzer therefore called it a multiple paradigm science. Robert Friedrichs, in A Sociology of Sociology (1970), also applied Kuhn's idea to the discipline.
The three compared
| Point | Concept | Theory | Paradigm |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A term for a class of things | Linked statements that explain | A broad image of the subject |
| Scope | One idea | One field or problem | A whole school of work |
| Example | Anomie | Merton's strain theory of deviance | The social facts paradigm |
| Tested directly? | No, it is defined | Yes, by research | No, it is accepted or abandoned |
| Changes by | Redefinition | Testing and revision | A paradigm shift |
One study through all three levels
Emile Durkheim's Suicide (1897) shows the ladder at work. He used the concepts of integration and regulation. His theory linked them: suicide rates fall as social integration rises, up to a point. He tested it with official figures, such as lower rates among Catholics than Protestants. Behind it all stood his paradigm: social facts must be explained by other social facts, not by individual motives.
Limits
- Sociological concepts are often loose. "Class" means different things to Marx and to Weber.
- Many sociological theories are hard to test, because society cannot be placed in a laboratory.
- Kuhn wrote about the natural sciences. Critics say sociology never had one ruling paradigm, so "shift" fits it poorly.
Conclusion. Concepts name the parts of social life, theories link concepts to explain it, and paradigms supply the wider image inside which theories are built. A student who can place any idea on this ladder, as Durkheim's work shows, can read sociological theory with confidence. Each level needs the others: concepts without theory are empty labels, and theory without a paradigm has no direction.
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