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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 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.

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 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.

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.