Q.When asked which ‘society’ they belong to, a person could answer in several different ways – their neighbourhood, community, caste, profession, or nation. What are some of these possible answers, and why does this variety matter for how a sociologist studies society?
When someone is asked which "society" they belong to, the chapter shows that there is no single correct answer, because a person genuinely belongs to several different, overlapping social memberships at once, each at a different scale.
Among the possible answers are: their neighbourhood — the immediate local area of daily interaction; their community — a broader, often culturally or socially bound group; their caste (or, elsewhere, tribe) — an inherited form of membership that continues to shape opportunity, status, and identity within Indian society in particular; their profession — the occupational circle that structures their working life, contacts, and often their social standing; and the nation — the largest and most abstract of these, defined by shared citizenship.
This variety matters for how a sociologist studies society for a very direct reason: the choice of which membership to treat as "the" relevant society is not neutral, and it fundamentally shapes what any given study will find. Research that takes "the nation" as its unit of study will describe broad, general patterns; research that instead focuses on a specific caste group, a particular profession, or a single neighbourhood will surface much more particular, often quite different patterns — even though every one of these is, in a real sense, a legitimate part of the very same person's social world. If a sociologist assumes, without reflection, that there is just one obvious "society" to study, their findings risk being either too general to be precise, or unintentionally describing only one group's experience while claiming to represent everyone.
This is why the chapter treats the question of "which society" as a genuine starting discipline for sociological work, not a throwaway detail: before a sociologist can meaningfully study "society," they must first be explicit about which scale and which kind of membership — neighbourhood, community, caste, profession, or nation — is actually the relevant one for the particular question being investigated.
A person could answer "neighbourhood," "community," "caste/tribe," "profession," or "nation" — each a genuine but different-scale membership. This variety matters because the choice of which membership to study is not neutral: it determines what patterns a study will find, so a sociologist must be explicit about which "society," at which scale, is relevant to the question being asked, rather than assuming one single obvious meaning.
Unlock everything free for 14 days
- Full step-by-step solutions
- Concept-first explanations
- Methods, shortcuts & mistakes
- PYQ mapping + timed mock tests
Full access for 14 days. No credit card required.