NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CLASS – 11 | SOCIOLOGY | UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY | CHAPTER- 1 | SOCIAL STRUCTURE, STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL PRESSURE IN SOCIETY | EDUGROWN |

In This Post we are  providing  CHAPTER 1 SOCIAL STRUCTURE, STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL PRESSURE IN SOCIETYNCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION for Class 11 SOCIOLOGY which will be beneficial for students. These solutions are updated according to 2021-22 syllabus. These   can be really helpful in the preparation of Board exams and will provide you with a brief knowledge of the chapter.

NCERT MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION ON SOCIAL STRUCTURE, STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL PRESSURE IN SOCIETY

Question 1.
Explain the concept of status.
Answer:
The term ‘status’ has two meanings in sociology:

1. It refers to the position a person occupies in the social structure, such as a teacher or doctor. This status (position) may be ascribed or achieved.
2. Status refers to a form of social stratification in which social positions are ranked and organised by legal, political and cultural criteria into status groups.

Question 2.
What are Norms? Explain its importance.
Answer:
Norms are shared expectations of behaviour. It connotes what is considered culturally desirable and appropriate.
Norms are similar to rules or regulations in prescriptive, although they lack the formal status of rules.
The sociological concept of norm is closely related to that of ‘role’, which is commonly defined as a set of norms attached to social position.

Question 3.
Distinguish between mechanical and organic solidarity.
Answer:

• According to Durkheim, traditional cultures with a low division of labour are characterised by mechanical solidarity.
• Most of the members of the society are involved in similar occupations. They are bound together by common experience and shared beliefs.
• According to Durkheim, societies characterised and held together by people’s economic interdependence and a recognition of the importance of others contributions are called organic solidarity.
• Its division of labour becomes more complex, people become more and more dependent on each other.
• Relationships of economic reciprocity and mutual dependency come to replace shared beliefs in creating social consensus.

Question 4.
How voluntary cooperation is different from enforced cooperation?
Answer:
Cooperation may be voluntary, may be enforced. It depends on the situation.
In agricultural operations different members of the group perform different activities. They grow different crops. Some focus on fishing or growing vegetables and some perform supportive activities. For example, preparing tools and equipment. They all cooperate each other to get good harvest. This is voluntary cooperation, which is intrinsic in nature.

But the factory workers do cooperate with the owners in performing their tasks because total production depends on their mutual relations but it is actually system requirement. This cooperation is a prerequisite for job sustenance. Behind the cooperation there are many norms. So this is enforced cooperation which is extrinsic. The feeling of fulfilment and creativity of a weaver or potter or ironsmith is voluntary cooperation.
In contrast, a worker involved in a factory whose sole task may be to pull lever or press a button throughout the day. Cooperation in such a situation would be enforced.

Question 5.
How Durkheim and Marx differ on the issue of cooperation?
Answer:
For Durkheim, solidarity, the moral force of society is fundamental for understanding of cooperation and thereby functioning of society.

The role of division of labour which implies cooperation is precisely to fulfil certain needs of society. It is simply system requirement. For Marx, cooperation is not voluntary in a society where class exists. He argues, “The social power i.e. multiplied productive force (surplus) arises through the cooperation of different individuals as it is caused by the division of labour. Cooperation is not voluntary but naturally. In this enforced cooperation, workers lose control over how to organise their own work and they lose control over the fruits of their labour.”

Question 6.
What is competition? How is it different from cooperation?
Answer:
Cooperation is a dissociative social process in which it sets up its own values in opposition to the mainstream.
Competition is a social process in which many people struggle to achieve something which has hunted availability.
Competition is for getting scarce resources, may be money, jobs, prestige, position, power or love.
Competition is a universal social process but it varies from culture to culture.
Concept of competition involves attainment of goal without using force or terror. Cooperation represents all relations among persons or groups which work together towards a shared common goal.
Cooperation is an associative social process. It may be conscious or unconscious. It involves an element of sympathy, sacrifice and feeling of togetherness.

Question 7.
What is Laissezfaire liberalism?
Answer:
A political and economic approach based on the general principle of non-interference in the economy by government and freedom for markets and property owners, is called Laissez faire liberalism.
Laissez faire liberalism is an approach to economics that asserts the importance of the free, competitive market of the individual suppliers and individual purchasers to the efficient production, distribution and allocation of goods and services and emphasises on the need to keep state regulation to a maximum.

Question 8.
What do you mean by division of labour?
Answer:
The specialisation of work tasks by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. With the development of industrialisation the division of labour becomes more complex than any prior type of production system. In the modem world, the division of labour is international in scope. On the basis of division of labour, the concept of organic solidarity functions with the form of social cohesion. The interdependence of members of society is the result of such kind of solidarity.

Question 9.
What is dominant ideology?
Answer:
Dominant ideology refers to shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. Such ideologies are found in the societies in which are systematic. The concept of ideology connects closely with that of power, since ideological system serves to legitimise the differential power which groups hold.

Question 10.
What is alienation in terms of Marx?
Answer:
Marx used the term alienation to refer to the loss of control on the part of workers over the products of their labour.
In general term, it describes the estrangement of individuals from one another or from a specific situation or process.