Page 1 of 5

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 07

August 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 32

Introduction to Sociology

Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode, India

Email: editor@developmentdiscourse.com

Introduction

Sociology is the study of the society and the

interaction of the individual to individual,

community to community, individual to the

community and vice versa. The interplay of

this social interaction takes place in the

playground of the human settlements. Albert

J. Reiss has defined, “sociology is the study

of social aggregates and groups in their

institutional organization, of institutions and

their organization, and of the causes and

consequences of changes in institutions and

social organization.” Another sociologist,

Parson defined sociology, “Sociology is

concerned "...With the phenomena of the

institutionalization of patterns of value- orientation in the social system, with the

conditions of that institutionalization, and of

changes in the patterns, with conditions of

conformity with and deviance from such

patterns, and with motivational processes

insofar as these- are involved in all of these.”

So, we find that social systems and social

institutions play an important role in the

society which acts as a cohesive tool to

sustain the social structure and society.

Human settlement is the complex entity of

the physical habitable space wherein the

social interaction in the term of economics

and social relationship. But we can simply

define, human settlement is an organized

grouping of human habitation with basic

facilities for sustenance of life.

An individual is a part of the family and the

family is the part of a community which in

term is a part of the locality which might be a

part of rural or urban centre. Further, Albert

J. Reiss stated, “A society is an empirical

social system that is territorially organized,

whose members are recruited by sexual

reproduction within it, and persists beyond

the lifespan of any individual member by

socializing new members to its institutions.

India is a land of diversity and this diversity

can be seen in the social structures too. Our

society has religious groups and each

religious groups are further sub-divided into

caste. Caste is an Indian social phenomenon

which might not be in existence in other

countries.

Before moving further, it's necessary to

understand the difference between caste and

class. Caste is an inherent social structure

prevalent in our society which has been

further strengthened through the provision of

caste based reservation in our society through

the government. Whereas class is an acquired

differential status of an individual and a

larger community who has acquired

particular qualification or proficiency in a

particular field or acquired economic status

in society through individual or collective

endeavour. For example, the association of

lawyers, association of architects,

organization of planners, Institution of

engineers etc.

Page 2 of 5

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 07

August 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 33

The broad based class in terms of the

economic status is the low income group,

middle income group and high income group.

Community is the collective sense of the

group of the families which share some

common religious, social and economic

status. In some society the community can be

based on class or caste. For example,

community of Brahamins, community of

Muslims, community of Christians, etc.

Society and Architecture

Architecture in the mirror of the social

system and effect of the climate on the form

and pattern of the human settlements. The

social image gets reflected in the form of the

architecture of the society and location. The

effect of the Mughal architecture can be seen

in the buildings of the Delhi and mostly the

houses of the Muslims and Mosques. The

effect of the climate on the architecture can

be seen in the form of the sloping roofs in the

hilly region, the use of the indigenous

construction material also leads to the

variation in the form of the architecture of a

region. The wood is easily available and the

unstable social of the hilly region forbid from

use of the heavy construction material and

construction of multi-storey buildings in hilly

regions. We will find that most of the houses

are single or double storeyed in hilly areas.

Due to the prevalence of the modern

construction techniques which highly rely on

the use of mortar and steel in the construction

is replacing the bamboo architecture and

wooden houses in the hilly regions too.

Again, there is mounting voice for adoption

of sustainable building construction practices

which encourages the use of the traditional

construction material through the modern

techniques which will be more sustainable in

the turn of the ecological footprint of the

construction in the hilly regions.

The architecture of the human settlement is

also the reflection of the economic status of

the community. The traditional houses of

Kerala are now giving way to the bungalow

type of houses as the individual is now

moving from the traditional localities to the

sub-urban areas and the influx of the earnings

of the non-residents Indian of Kerala has

expedited the process of such changes.

The case of the gated colonies of Delhi is also

the reflection of how the different class of the

society tries to segregate in the name of the

social safety and security. Most of such

colonies or housing society has better

facilities and infrastructure which they don’t

want to be used by communities living

nearby.

Evolution of Human Settlements

Man is a social being and it is well known.

The social cohesion of the individual to the

individual which resulted in the formation of

communities helped human in doing more

sophisticated work. The advent of the

agriculture is the first stage of the organized

community living of the human. The

organized community living also evolved

from the time when groups of people started

hunting together. The community living

provided human the basic need of shelter and

safety. The agriculture leads to the

production of the surplus food grains, which

in turn led to the other development as all

people need not be engaged in hunting or

agricultural activities. The agricultural

practices gave more time to human for leisure

and learning. This release of the surplus

labour force now started doing other work

Page 3 of 5

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 07

August 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 34

which served the community or

supplemented the agricultural practices.

The first human settlements started near

some rivers or lakes as water is one of the

essential requirements for the existence of the

human being. The form and the pattern of the

human settlement started taking place.

Human learned the geometric shape of the

square and circle on doing farming. The use

of the bullock carts made it essential to have

a rectilinear form of the settlement pattern

which will enable smooth movement of the

carts. The location and functions of human

habitation on the earth's surface are the

outcome of human behaviour in a particular

geographical environment in relation to

housing and highways (Mandal, 2001).

This is evident from the study of the urban

planning of the Indus Valley civilization. The

rectilinear form of the settlements well fitted

with drainage and road has been discovered

in the towns of the Harappa and Mohenjo

Daro.

Types of Settlements

Geographers have suggested various

schemes of classification. If we group

settlements found all over the country, these

can broadly be grouped under four

categories:

1. Compact/clustered/nucleated settlement

2. Semi-compact/Semi-clustered/fragmented

settlement

3. Hemleted settlement

4. Dispersed settlement.

The circular form of the settlement has been

seen in those areas wherein the human

decided to settle near some lake, temple, or

fort. This form of the settlement is well suited

for minimization of the distance of the houses

from the central location.

The linear form of settlement originated near

the bank of the rivers of some main road

leading to some commercial or

administrative centres.

Radial Pattern wherein a number of streets

converge on one node of the urban

settlement.

Hamleted Settlements are essentially

fragmented into several small units. Usually

main settlement does not have much

influence on the other units and most likely

this segregation is often influenced by social

and ethnic factors.

Dispersed Settlements which are also known

as isolated settlements which may consist of

a single house to a small group of houses. It

varies from two to seven houses. Such human

settlements are scattered over a vast area and

does not have any specific pattern.

In contrast to this is the compact settlements

wherein the number of houses or human

settlement is higher per unit area of land i.e.,

per square kilometre. The high density of the

settlements ensures the intense use of land

resources. In modern times, most of the town

planning projects ensure the compact

development to minimize the ecological

footprint of the urban development.

The space utilization is the human settlement

also play an important role in the pattern of

the settlement. The provision for community

space, schools, hospitals etc. Also play an

important role in shaping the pattern of the

settlement.