Knowledge and Society: Situating Sociology and Social Anthropology, , T.K. Oommen, Oxford University Press, 0195687752

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Knowledge and Society: Situating Sociology and Social Anthropology

T.K. Oommen (Author)

Synopsis This collection of essays by T.K. Oommen emphasizes the importance of contextualization in the production and dissemination of knowledge, and discusses the controversy regarding data collection techniques among sociologists and social anthropologists. It argues that there is an organic relationship between the nature of the themes studied and the methods invoked; the nature and characteristics of the universe studied and the methods employed; and that no method is inherently superior or inferior but they are contextually relevant or irrelevant. When the two cognate disciplines of sociology and social anthropology emerged to meet the needs and aspirations of Europe, the former investigated European societies and the later studied those societies Europe colonized. What changes occurred to these western transplants outside Europe, particularly in India, is a principal concern of this volume. Divided into two parts, the first looks into problems faced in adapting western concepts, theories, methods, and techniques of research to the Indian situation. Abandoning both universalization and indigenization, the book opts for contextualization to meet the specific challenges in apprehending social reality in India. The second part deals the different avatars of sociology and social anthropology during colonialism, Cold War, and the current global age. The implications of 'internationalization of sociology' and 'sociology for one world' are also examined. The shifting frontiers of the two disciplines between the Old Worlds of Europe, Asia, and Africa and the New World--Americas and Australia--are identified and their implications analysed. This study will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, social anthropology, politics and history.

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About the author

T.K. Oommen

Prof. T.K. Oommen is an eminent Social Scientist and so far the only scholar from Asia and Africa to have been elected to the position of President (1990-94), International Sociological Association (ISA), a fifty-year old UNESCO-sponsored world body of Sociologists. He was the Secretary-General of the XI World Congress of Sociology, the quadrennial Congress of the ISA, held in New Delhi in 1986. Pro. Oommen was also the President of the Indian Sociological Society during 1998-1999. Prof. Oommen authored/edited 18 books and over 100 research papers in top professional journals, both Indian and international. His recent books include: Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1997; Equality, Identity and Pluralism, Oxford University Press, 2002; and Nation, Civil Society and Social Movements, Sage Publication, 2004. He has been given three prestigious awards-the V.K.R.V. Rao prize in Sociology (1981); the G.S. Ghurye award in Sociology and Social Anthropology (1985) and the Swami Pranavananda Award for Sociology (1997) in recognition of his professional contributions. An internationally reputed scholar, Prof. Oommen was invited to be a visiting Professor/Fellow at: Department of Sociology, University of California Berkeley (U.S.A.), Fall 1990; Maison des Sciences de L'homme, Paris (France), June-July 1992; Wissenshaftszentrum Berlin, May-July 1993 and June 1994; Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, December 1993; institute of Advanced Studies, Bdapest, Hungary, October 1994-July 1995; Institute of Advanced Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, January-June 1998. Professor Oommen started his academic career in 1964 as a faculty member of Delhi University, joined Jawaharlal Nehru University as Associate Professor in 1971. He became a full Professor in 1976 and retired from JNU in October 2002. At present Professor Oommen is Chair, Non-traditional Security, Delhi Policy group; Chair, Schumacher Centre, Delhi; Chair, Programme Advisory Group, Gujarat Harmony Project, CARE India, New Delhi and President, Forum for India and European Union.

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