With essays published over the last fifty years, the twin-volume Social Movements is the most comprehensive anthology of social movement studies in independent India. The volumes cover religious, caste, linguistic, tribal, peasant, labour, women, youth, and environmental movements in diverse regions, and with varying academic orientations. While the general introduction provides a broad understanding of social movements in social science, the short sectional introductions enable readers to situate the chapters in their proper contexts.
In the ongoing process of social transformation, new identities are often constructed. While existing identities may mutate or transform, some might even be rendered obsolete. The essays in Issues of Identity discuss movements with respect to the construction and perception of identities. This reader specifically addresses the abbreviation and even abrogation of identities along with their elaboration. It further explores the tensions between group identity and individual equality; and analyses the role of identity as the basis of exclusion of marginalized groups and communities from polity and economy.
With contributions from leading sociologists, social anthropologists, political scientists, historians, economists, and ecologists, Social Movements will be invaluable to students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, social history, and Indian politics. It will be particularly useful to those interested in the dynamics of Indian society.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR T.K. Oommen
Prof. T.K. Oommen is an eminent Social Scientist and so far the only scholar from Asia and Africa to have been elected to the position of President (1990-94), International Sociological Association (ISA), a fifty-year old UNESCO-sponsored world body of Sociologists. He was the Secretary-General of the XI World Congress of Sociology, the quadrennial Congress of the ISA, held in New Delhi in 1986. Pro. Oommen was also the President of the Indian Sociological Society during 1998-1999. Prof. Oommen authored/edited 18 books and over 100 research papers in top professional journals, both Indian and international. His recent books include: Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1997; Equality, Identity and Pluralism, Oxford University Press, 2002; and Nation, Civil Society and Social Movements, Sage Publication, 2004. He has been given three prestigious awards-the V.K.R.V. Rao prize in Sociology (1981); the G.S. Ghurye award in Sociology and Social Anthropology (1985) and the Swami Pranavananda Award for Sociology (1997) in recognition of his professional contributions. An internationally reputed scholar, Prof. Oommen was invited to be a visiting Professor/Fellow at: Department of Sociology, University of California Berkeley (U.S.A.), Fall 1990; Maison des Sciences de L'homme, Paris (France), June-July 1992; Wissenshaftszentrum Berlin, May-July 1993 and June 1994; Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, December 1993; institute of Advanced Studies, Bdapest, Hungary, October 1994-July 1995; Institute of Advanced Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, January-June 1998. Professor Oommen started his academic career in 1964 as a faculty member of Delhi University, joined Jawaharlal Nehru University as Associate Professor in 1971. He became a full Professor in 1976 and retired from JNU in October 2002. At present Professor Oommen is Chair, Non-traditional Security, Delhi Policy group; Chair, Schumacher Centre, Delhi; Chair, Programme Advisory Group, Gujarat Harmony Project, CARE India, New Delhi and President, Forum for India and European Union.
There are no reviews yet.