Sociology, Development,
and Democracy

Sociology, development and democracy are historically and conceptually linked. It was in a fast changing world where industrial capitalism transformed everyday lives that the sociological perspective emerged. As the nature of work and homes changed, the sacred questioned, established authorities and divinely ordained knowledge interrogated that the social sciences and sociology arose as new forms of disciplinary inquiry. New methods of investigation of the social arose that sought evidence-based knowledge that relied on explicitly stated theories, critical methodologies, and robust techniques of empirical observation. This knowledge was used to understand structural issues such as inequalities, and experiences such as alienation and estrangement. As we reach the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, societies face a whole new set of challenges, which yet again affect our homes and work while questioning the very efficacy and legitimacy of sociological knowledge.

The first crisis relates to the devastation caused by unprecedented events such as global warming, wars, pandemics and violence. The second to a breakdown in societies of a broad consensus from the middle of the 20th century that peace, development, democracy and social justice are desirable goals; and that social sciences such as sociology play an important role in this agenda of transformation. The third relates to an idea that knowledge is decided by diktat rather than methodological rules. Even if we do not enter debates about Post Truth times, as students, teachers and researchers we are confronted with a mediatized social, a pervasive presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a digital social that compels us to rethink core sociological categories such as selfhoods and communities, constraint and choice.

There is today therefore an imperative need to revisit the relationship between Sociology, development and democracy. This becomes even more urgent as we witness the rise of a general view that sociology is not relevant as evidenced in increasing instances of closing down of sociology departments.

The foundational pillars of Indian sociology were once anchored in rural and agrarian research. Economic globalization and liberalization led to a separation of agriculture from its earlier entwinement with rural existence. The growing complexity within rural society and agrarian structures, has reshaped traditional linkages along the axes of caste, communities, class and gender. Village society is not what it used to be. Likewise, the urban has seen dramatic transformation. Events around us have alerted us to the consequences of a rapacious model of development such as global warming and growing social inequalities. These, in turn, have impacted the nature of democracy.

One has also witnessed that democracy has been questioned by the rise of neoliberalism and authoritarianism. One line of argument that has accompanied the rise of neoliberalism is that of economic efficiency wherein democracy is perceived as time-consuming and an obstacle to economic growth. The other is a celebration of individual entrepreneurship and success wherein the poor are seen as having failed because of their individual inadequacies. The idea of an unfettered individual violates the fundamental premise of Sociology where the individual is always located in a social context. Sociology as a discipline is a productive site to debunk taken for granted knowledge and ask questions such as “why state welfare to the poor is seen as waste while wasteful consumption is seen as productive”. Unfortunately, too often social sciences have operated with dominant ideas in circulation blurring distinctions between common sense and sociological knowledge. The sociologist ideally should be driven time and again, by the very logic of their discipline, to debunk the social systems one is studying. The roots of the debunking motif in sociology are however not psychological but methodological.

This conference hopes to initiate important conversations and scholarship in this direction. We look forward to both core theoretical papers as well as rich empirical ones. We encourage papers on the themes listed below (but are not limited to these): Some of the themes that we wish to explore include: