JNU | RTI | Directory | Contact Us | Emergency Services | List of Holidays
-A A +A

CSSS organises a Colloquium by Prof. V. Sujatha

CSSS organises a Colloquium by Prof. V. Sujatha

Event From Date
Event End Date
Event Title
CSSS organises a Colloquium by Prof. V. Sujatha
Event Details

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

 

cordially invites you to the

 

THURSDAY COLLOQUIUM

 

on

21th September 2023 at SSS II,
Room No. 013,  3:00pm - 5:00pm

 

What does social reality look like?
A beginner’s introduction to Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism

 

Abstract: The social sciences today, especially sociology, has to compete with social discourses, images and arguments put forth in the public domain by various interest groups. Furthermore, there is a theoretical lull caused by the many schools of thought in the social sciences where each of them defined social reality as exclusively subjective, objective or situational, without a metatheory to draw them together. The confusion has also led to the postmodern denial of any such thing as reality. Constructionist thinking explains scientific facts as socially  manufactured. Can we even talk about social reality in this context? Yes, says, Roy Bhaskar, the English philosopher of Indian origin, who argues that there is a concept-independent social reality. What are the grounds for his assertion and what does he mean by social reality? Roy Bhaskar suggests that social reality is not what you immediately experience through your senses. Society/social reality is unmanifest and not visible because it consists of generative mechanisms and their relations which can be discerned only in terms of their effects. Marx did not understand the mechanism of capitalism by observing a factory. How then do we go about studying society? This talk aims to provide an introduction to critical realism, and an exposition of its significance for both the scientific and social scientific understanding of reality. The implications of critical realism for social research and analysis as well as its limitations will be discussed.

 

V.Sujatha is professor of sociology at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her fields of interest are sociology of knowledge, sociology of health and medicine. Her publications include the books: ‘Health by the people’ (2003), ‘Medical pluralism in contemporary India’ (Co-editor Leena Abraham; 2012), ‘Sociology of health and medicine. New Perspectives’ (2014) and ‘Global capital and social difference’ (ed. 2020), apart from research articles in refereed international journals and writings in Tamil. She received the UGC-DAAD fellowship for fieldwork in Germany, the ICSSR-NIHSS fellowship for research at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her reports on ICSSR projects on neoliberalism and nutritional status in South Africa and India (2018) and on social inequality and access to medicine in rural Madhya Pradesh (2021) sought to link conceptual studies in health with policy initiatives. Her ongoing work examines the relation between experience, knowledge and expertise in medicine with specific reference to clinical practice.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.