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The article focuses on socio-cultural change and social conditions of girl students in India. It also examines whether educationally backward sections of society have been benefited by the establishment of higher education facilities or not. The analysis of the socio-economic origin of the respondents has identified the main recipients of higher education, and the role played by the different variables of the social inequality such as caste, social class, family income and education in influencing the individual's access to the higher education. Now-a-days girls are not studying only to improve their marital prospects. But they want to achieve a majority of jobs after completing their studies. The students with the economically sound background have better access to the higher education than those from the financially weak families. Even middle class has not been able to achieve expensive studies in the country. Values are changing. The small-family norm has become firmly entrenched. Rise in the cost of education will adversely affect the goal of the family welfare program. In the meantime, the traditional social structures are getting transformed in a number of ways. Class bas become more important than caste. It has been found that the present system of education is perpetuating the old bases of social inequality.

The data presented in this paper are based en a survey (n=165) conducted somewhere in north-western India. The results show that the institution of marriage is undergoing change in a number of ways. There is slow alteration in the range, the criteria and the procedure of selection. In accordance with changes in the conditions of existence, familism is waning and individualism is waxing. The wishes of the individuals concerned are struggling for dominance over the intentions of their families and kinsmen. Inspite of tensions and conflicts sometimes, by and large our interviewees are permanently and happily married. Facts and fiction coexist in the minds of our interviewees. The ideas are changing faster than the reality. Wide gaps between consciousness and reality are a source of stress. There is no single reason for what is going on. A multiplicity of facts is transforming the total socio-cultural phenomenon. Individualism, consumerism, rationalisation, are key explanatory categories. The direction of change is from traditionalism to rationalisation of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper in hand aims at identifying the factors that have tended to promote academic productivity and those hindering the same. The data presented herein have been collected with a questionnaire. It was circulated among teachers in universities and colleges in northwestern India during the year 1994. On the whole, after analyzing the results of academic productivity, one can say that those who have put in more years of service are more productive. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction with various aspects of job like colleagues, students, pay and allowances, rotation of headship, accommodation, own performance, accountability, country, individual productivity, status , library, examinations, teacher's associations, perks, administration, equipment, promotion and work-culture has been presented in a table. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the respondents was cross tabulated with their productivity and unproductivity. The division of labor in the institutes of higher education under study has become abnormal. Lack of adequate organization is the main impediment to academic productivity. Prolonged intense interpersonal interaction with one's professional colleagues is a key explanatory variable.

The size of India's population started going up especially after the country attained freedom from the British rule in 1947. At first the rising demand for food was met through subsidised imports from the United States. In the mid-1960s, the state took several measures to raise food production. Knowledge of the improved agricultural innovations was extended. Irrigation facilities reduced the dependence on rainfall. High-yielding varieties of seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides, were made available. With the adoption of agricultural innovations, the price incentive was effectively utilised for raising food production in some regions like Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Andhra. Multiple cropping raised the demand for agricultural labour. The social costs of industrialisation are heavy. Industrialisation of agriculture shifts the prevailing loyalities and privileges hem and there. The existing social and geographical boundaries become contested. Income, status and power of the various segments of society are readjusted.

The article discusses about the Frankfurt school of social thought. The Frankfurt school of social thought is not very well known in India. The Frankfurt scholars are known as critical theorists. Their ideas exercised considerable influence in western Germany for a quarter of a century after the second World War. They criticized Hitlerism and capitalism, revised Marxism and Freudism, and highlighted the negative effects of the technological advancement. Critical theorists came to sociology via philosophy. Their epistemology shows that empiricism does not study phenomena. For empiricists, knowledge is based on observation and experience. The Frankfurt scholars closely studied Marxism as well as Freudism. They tried to bring both of them together on a single platform. Neither Marxists nor Freudians appreciated what was being done to them. They presented interesting concoctions of Marxism and psychoanalysis. The Frankfurt scholars have tried to understand and explain them in their own way.

This article concentrates on German sociologist Max Weber and his sociology of organization. The author points out that in order to understand sociology in general and the sociology of organization in particular, it is necessary to get acquainted with the work of Weber. His method of thinking brings together the methods of the natural and cultural sciences of his time. Construction of ideal types of the salient features of the object under analysis, and keeping own values apart from the values of the people under study, help someone to understand the matter himself or herself and to explain it to others. These ideas play important roles in Weber's method in research. Weberian sociology combines understanding of meanings in the minds of the acting individuals together with objective understanding of their causes and effects. His typology of various forms of authority builds upon his classification of social action. His detailed analysis of bureaucratization shows that it goes hand in hand with rationalization of social life. He was a protagonist of rationalism, capitalism, and democracy. Weber was of the firm view that religious ethics can promote or hinder the growth of rational-legal organizations.

Social networks in India, are pragmatic constructions, with horizontal and vertical linkages beyond small groups. People build up networks to get things done for themselves, not to safeguard higher principles. Without surplus resources to grab and throw around, such networks promote the politics of scarcity and muddling through. Beyond a limit, they encourage the politics of violence and structural breakdown. In India, elite positions are scarce. The academic proletariat produced by rapid expansion of higher education is marked by high need for achievement which has not been properly channellised. Few of them are employable by a cost-conscious work organisation. The goals they dream of cannot be realistically achieved in the absence of supporting material where with all available in the country. Adoption of higher aspirations for consumer goods without commensurate production of wealth is an open invitation to disaster. Frustrated young men, perpetually dependent upon their parents, suffer from stress and strain. Such tensions are the stuff that demagogues make use of in order to mobilise followings for achieving their goals.

This article examines the needs of postgraduate students of sociology in Indian universities and colleges. Participant observation is the G.T. Road of social anthropological research. It is useful for identifying the variables involved in the social setting under study. A researcher must exercise proper care while entering the field of his research. Establishment of proper rapport with the subjects is the key to success in fieldwork. Data-collection and interpretation go hand-in-hand in participant observation, rather than being discrete separate stages of research work. Reports writing involves discussing all the stages of the work. Unethical conduct sows thorns for oneself as well as for future researchers.

This paper discusses the nature of social structure and social conflict among the Sikhs. The Sikhs constitute only two percent of the population of India. As far as their social structure is concerned, several types of cleavages cross cut each other and exist side by side. The Sikhs are under strain from a number of directions. Feudal robber romanticism is widespread. Socio-cultural, psychological, economic and political conditions are creating tensions and cracks in the traditional social structures. The paper brings together the configuration of variables responsible for the Sikh problem. The remedy for such conflicts lies in the rationalization of social life and construction of an achievement-oriented society. The Sikhs themselves can creatively respond to the crisis facing them by becoming entrepreneurs.

The article discusses the findings of a survey on the effectiveness of consultative/participative bodies in industrial organizations. The data were collected from a large-scale industrial organizations in a Bangalore, South India during 1976. The respondents are employed in public sector and private sector organizations. The results show that participative bodies exist in organizations. Moreover, the respondents are aware about workers' participation in management. On the other hand, the results reveal the ineffectiveness of workers' directors and board of directors. The findings also suggest the importance of participation in management. It improves inter-personal communication and promotes equality in the workplace.

Increasing division of labour in society has made it more important for decision-makers to study the content of communication. Content analysis is a research tool for making conclusions by objectively and systematically counting elements of manifest content of communication. It can be used for making inferences about the intentions of the sources, wishes of recipients, style of communication, etc. It proceeds by selecting a proper text, counting words therein, and bringing them under common names. Thereby it reduces a lot of data to manageable limits. It is useful where e.g. survey data cannot be made available. Computerisation has facilitated the content analysis of written texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use of computers in social science research is becoming widespread. are superefficient machines for performing numerical and logical operations. Use of mainframe-computers is becoming less popular these days. Micro-computers are becoming popular. Social scientists make use of computers for a variety of statistical and logical operations. Computing facilities are underdeveloped in the Third World. This article warns against indiscriminate computerisation. One should not buy a computer unless it is very necessary to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various aspects of interviewing. Increasing rationalization of social life makes it necessary for those in authority to assess public opinion before making decisions. This can be done with the help of social surveys, based on interviews with representative samples of population. In preparing an interview schedule, one has to ensure standardization of question wording as well as the procedure for asking questions. Questions should be precise, unequivocal, single barrelled, unbiased and simple. They should be set within a frame of reference. While statistical techniques for analyzing data have been developed rapidly during the last few decades, wording of the interview schedules remain a formidable source of bias in social surveys. The article sums up with the help of published reports and personal experience, procedures for formulating interview schedules, properly sequencing the items therein and conducting interviews.

The article analyzes the social background and aspirations of girl students to draw inferences about prospects of social change. The paper is based on a survey in an educational institution in an educationally backward area of India in 1977. The data were collected through personal interviews with half of the 90 girls residing in the hostel of the educational institution. Participant observation by the junior author facilitated interpretation of the survey data. The findings focused on a number of issues related to girl students and social change. It highlights that the education is expensive and is more accessible to high and upper income high caste. Backward caste girls rarely get an opportunity to get higher education. Consequently, the benefit of setting up and running the educational institution has reached only the well-to-do inhabitants of urban and rural areas. Another observation was that education has postponed the girl's marriage. They are getting education so that they can get married well. The girls intend to take up jobs with a view to sharing parents' expenses on their marriage and to become economically independent at least till they get married. Education has raised the level of their aspirations.

With the development of social sciences, intuitive judgement is no longer a reliable means of measurement. Objectivity is one of the essential characteristics of the scientific method. Objective methods of measurement have therefore become necessary. The natural sciences make greater use of the scientific method. Social science data are often qualitative in nature. Convertion of qualitative data into quantitative data involves abstraction of a particular aspect of a phenomenon, neglecting the remaining aspects. Measurement involves mathematics. In order to know the nature of measurement, one ought to grasp the nature and application of numbers. This paper is oriented to the needs of beginners in social research. It brings out in detail various procedures for constructing unidimensional scales, which are indispensable for understanding the recent advancements in procedures like the unfolding technique and multidimensional scaling.

According to the author, the critical Frankfurt School of Sociology in Germany, has exercised a lot of influence on the intellectual scene in the West during the last three decades. Scholars of this school have received mixed reactions from observers. In order to comprehend the recent developments in sociological theory, an understanding of Frankfurt School and its critical theory becomes indispensable. But due to a number of reasons this theory remains unknown to the people in India. The German language stood in the way between this theory and the English knowing world. The Frankfurt school consists of a group of German intellectuals who worked towards the critical theory. The critical theory makes use of a method of identifying contradictions with a view to promoting enlightenment. The critical theory is not based on merely observable facts, but on their dialectical explanation. Positivism, which has been a dominant perspective in sociology, lays emphasis on observation and the use of scientific method. It advocates value, neutrality and objectivity.

There is rapid urbanization in under-developed countries. Apart from the sporadic growth of slums, many new cities have come up during the last few decades. New colonies of old cities are spreading. A striking feature of planned urbanization is the construction of neighbourhood units. Traditional type of interaction among the people is decreasing and many problems have cropped up as a result of urban growth. City planners are worried about the future of city life. Different colonies are being established so that the people of equal socio-economic status can live together. It is hoped that it would be helpful for developing friendly relations among them, thus avoiding loneliness and isolation of the urban man. Construction of residential areas by government departments, semi-government organizations and by big companies has become quite common. Mutual interaction among the people is an important problem of these residential areas. Neighbours had an important position in traditional societies. It is a significant matter even in contemporary societies.

This paper announces that a general body meeting of the newly formed Punjab Sociological Society was held at Patiala on February 22, 1988. Jaspal Singh, Gurnam Saran Bhainagan, J.S. Gandhi, Parkash Singh Jammu were elected to lead the committee. The committee later coopted D.R. Arora as its twelfth member. The Executive Committee has passed several resolutions. It passed a provision for teaching sociology for undergraduate level which will be made in all colleges in Punjab. Elementary sociology may be introduced in all degree and diploma courses in engineering, technology, medicine in Punjab.