Cultural sociology in India

Manish Thakur

pp. 129-142

in: Stephan Moebius, Frithjof Nungesser, Katharina Scherke (eds), Handbuch Kultursoziologie 1, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

This chapter delineates the growth and development of cultural sociology in India. While offering an historical outline of the place of culture and cultural analysis in Indian sociology, it presents changes in the disciplinary practices in Indian sociology after the cultural turn. It takes into account the increasing employment of sociological frameworks, perspectives, concepts, and methods to further and enhance our understanding of the cultural phenomenon. In substantive terms, it considers themes such as advertising, media, fashion, the shopping malls, credit cards, and consumption and the making of the middle classes. It also looks at some of the implications of the growing centrality of cultural sociology for the contemporary understanding of cultural production, identities and lifestyle. It concludes with the argument that culture is no longer being read off social structure as has been the case till very recently.