About the Book

The book highlights the core themes and issues relating to the conceptualization of social stratification and mobility. The basic concepts, such as equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty and deprivation, have been discussed with conceptual clarity and empirical substantiation. Though the book is concise, however, it incorporates the major theories, approaches and profiles of the systems of stratification and mobility.

The systems of stratification, as reflected through caste, class, status groups, power, gender, ethnicity and race, have been explained to provide a composite view of social stratification. Two chapters, namely, ‘Caste System’ and ‘Emerging Patterns of Stratification’, highlight the recent trends relating to social stratification in Indian society.

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Contents

•     Introduction

•     Defining Social Stratification

•     Basic Concepts Relating to Stratification

•     Theories of Social Stratification

•     Dimensions of Social Stratification

•     Social Mobility

•     Open and Closed Systems of Social Stratification

•     The Caste System: Continuity and Change

•     Emerging Patterns of Social Stratification in India 

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About the Author / Editor

K.L. Sharma is Vice-Chancellor of Jaipur National University, Jaipur. Formerly, he was Professor of Sociology and Rector (Pro-Vice-Chancellor) at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was also Vice-Chancellor of Rajasthan University from 2003 to 2005 and Visiting Professor at College de France, Paris, for five times, between 1991 and 2006. Author of more than 20 books and 70 research papers, he is widely read by students and teachers of Sociology and other Social Sciences.

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