UGC NET Sociology Economy and Society Syllabus

What is Amartya Sen's 'capability approach' to development?

The view that development should be measured not by income or GDP alone but by the expansion of people's real freedoms and 'capabilities'—what they are actually able to do and be (functionings).

What three dimensions does the Human Development Index (HDI) combine?

A long and healthy life (life expectancy), knowledge (education—mean and expected years of schooling), and a decent standard of living (GNI per capita).

Distinguish absolute poverty from relative poverty.

Absolute poverty is the inability to meet basic minimum subsistence needs (food, shelter, clothing) measured against a fixed line; relative poverty is deprivation measured against the prevailing living standards of one's society.

What is the concept of 'social exclusion'?

A multidimensional process in which individuals or groups are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities, and resources (employment, education, services, political participation) normally available to members of society, often along lines of caste, gender, religion, or ethnicity.

What did Amartya Sen argue about famines in 'Poverty and Famines'?

That famines are caused not merely by food shortage but by a collapse in people's 'entitlements'—their command over food via production, trade, labour, or transfers—so people starve amid available food.

What is the 'poverty line' and how is it typically defined in India?

A threshold of consumption expenditure below which a person is deemed poor, historically based on a calorie-norm (around 2400 kcal rural, 2100 kcal urban); committees like Lakdawala, Tendulkar, and Rangarajan revised its estimation.

What is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?

A measure (UNDP/OPHI) that identifies poverty through overlapping deprivations across three dimensions—health, education, and standard of living—rather than income alone.

What is the 'factory system' of production?

A method of manufacturing, emerging in the Industrial Revolution, in which workers are concentrated in a single workplace using powered machinery under centralized supervision and a detailed division of labour, replacing dispersed domestic/cottage production.

What is the 'putting-out' (domestic) system that preceded the factory system?

A pre-industrial mode in which merchants supplied raw materials to workers who produced goods in their own homes using their own tools, with the merchant collecting and selling the finished product.

What is 'Fordism'?

A system of mass production pioneered by Henry Ford, based on the moving assembly line, standardized products, semi-skilled labour doing repetitive tasks, and high wages to enable mass consumption.

What is 'Taylorism' (scientific management)?

F.W. Taylor's approach to maximizing efficiency by scientifically studying work tasks (time-and-motion studies), breaking jobs into simple repetitive operations, and separating mental planning (managers) from manual execution (workers).

What is 'post-Fordism' (flexible specialization)?

A production regime characterized by flexible, customized small-batch output, multi-skilled workers, just-in-time inventory, automation, and adaptable response to niche markets, contrasting with rigid Fordist mass production.

What does Harry Braverman mean by the 'deskilling' of labour?

In 'Labor and Monopoly Capital,' the thesis that capitalist management progressively fragments and degrades work, stripping workers of skill and control by separating conception from execution, thereby cheapening and controlling labour.

What is meant by the 'informalization' of labour?

The growth of work that lies outside formal regulation—lacking job security, written contracts, social protection, and legal benefits—often through casualization, subcontracting, and self-employment; the bulk of India's workforce is in this informal sector.

What is the difference between the 'organized' and 'unorganized' sectors of the Indian workforce?

The organized (formal) sector has regulated employment, job security, and statutory benefits and is a small share; the unorganized (informal) sector—over 90% of Indian workers—lacks regulation, security, and benefits.

What is 'casualization' of labour?

The replacement of regular, permanent jobs with temporary, contract, daily-wage, or seasonal work that offers no security or benefits, increasing employer flexibility while transferring risk to workers.

What is the 'feminization of labour'?

The increasing entry of women into paid work, especially in low-paid, flexible, insecure jobs (e.g., export manufacturing, services, care work), often linked to the casualization and devaluation of labour.

What is the 'sexual/gender division of labour'?

The socially constructed allocation of tasks by gender—typically assigning men to paid 'productive' work in the public sphere and women to unpaid 'reproductive'/domestic and care work in the private sphere.

What is the 'double burden' (double day) faced by working women?

The situation in which women in paid employment also remain responsible for the bulk of unpaid domestic labour and care work, effectively performing two shifts of work.

What is meant by 'reproductive labour' in feminist economics?

The unpaid work of maintaining and reproducing the workforce—childbearing, childcare, cooking, cleaning, and caregiving—largely performed by women and typically excluded from GDP, yet essential to the economy.

What is 'emotional labour' (Arlie Hochschild)?

The management and display of one's feelings to fulfil the emotional requirements of a job—e.g., flight attendants or care workers projecting warmth—commercializing emotion as part of paid service work, often feminized.

What is a 'family business' and why is it significant in many economies?

An enterprise owned and controlled by members of a family across generations, blending kinship and economic logic; family firms (e.g., Indian business communities and 'business houses') dominate much private enterprise and rely on trust, marriage alliances, and caste/community networks.

How do kinship and community networks shape business in India?

Trust, credit, recruitment, and partnerships often flow through caste, religious, and kin ties (e.g., Marwari, Gujarati, Chettiar communities), embedding economic activity in social relationships and reducing transaction risk.

What is the 'digital economy'?

Economic activity based on digital computing and internet technologies—online platforms, data, e-commerce, digital services, and networked transactions—where information and connectivity are central factors of production.

What is the 'gig economy' / platform labour?

A labour market based on short-term, on-demand tasks mediated by digital platforms (e.g., ride-hailing, food delivery), where workers are typically classified as independent contractors lacking employment benefits and security.

Define 'e-commerce' and its main models.

The buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. Main models: B2B (business-to-business), B2C (business-to-consumer), C2C (consumer-to-consumer, e.g., marketplaces), and C2B (consumer-to-business).

What is a 'multinational corporation' (MNC/TNC)?

A firm that owns or controls production, assets, or services in more than one country, coordinating a global division of labour; transnational corporations can wield economic power rivalling that of nation-states.

What is a 'global commodity chain' (global value chain)?

The full sequence of linked activities—design, sourcing, production, distribution, marketing—spread across multiple countries to bring a product to market, revealing how value and labour are distributed globally.

What does George Ritzer mean by the 'McDonaldization of society'?

The process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant—efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (through technology/standardization)—come to dominate more sectors of society and the world.

In the sociology of tourism, what is Dean MacCannell's concept of 'staged authenticity'?

The idea that tourist settings present a contrived 'front-stage' version of local culture deliberately arranged to look authentic, while the genuine 'back-stage' life of hosts remains hidden from tourists.

What is John Urry's concept of the 'tourist gaze'?

The socially organized and systematized way tourists look at and consume places—shaped by expectations, media, and signs—seeking experiences distinct from everyday life, which in turn reshapes the destinations being gazed upon.

What is 'conspicuous consumption' (Thorstein Veblen)?

The lavish public spending on goods and services primarily to display wealth and social status rather than to meet needs, as analysed in 'The Theory of the Leisure Class.'

What is Pierre Bourdieu's argument about consumption and 'taste' in 'Distinction'?

That consumption patterns and aesthetic 'tastes' are markers of class that reproduce social hierarchy; through cultural capital and habitus, taste classifies people and naturalizes class distinctions.

What is Jean Baudrillard's view of consumption in consumer society?

That in consumer society people consume signs and symbols (status, identity, meaning) rather than the use-value of objects; consumption operates as a system of signs ('sign value') distinguishing individuals socially.

What is 'commodity fetishism' in Marx's analysis?

The illusion whereby the social relations of labour between people appear as relations between things (commodities); the market value of goods masks and mystifies the human labour and exploitation that produced them.