Structure and Transformation
by Susan Visvanathan

Structure and Transformation attempts to understand some of the key theoretical and empirical debates in the fields of urbanization, industrialization and stratification in India. The essays in this volume engage with the problem of typologies--tribal, peasant and industrial--in order to rethink the issues of modernity and tradition. The contributors to this volume do not propose a single solution to any of the problems but attempt to engage with the discursive and volatile aspects of the discipline of sociology, enlivening and reinvigorating old debates. It is hoped that through this exercise the student will come to read sociology in a new and refreshing way.The contributors to this volume are teachers of sociology in different universities of India. Structure and Transformation is thus alive to the questions posed in classroom situations and will enrich the teaching of sociology in India. It is essential reading for students and teachers of sociology and anthropology, bureaucrats, administrators, social workers, journalists and the interested lay reader.

About the Author:

SUSAN VISVANATHAN is Associate Professor at the Centre for Studies in Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.