Content:
STUDYING SOCIETY: Academic judgement and common sense;
Sociology and anthropology: Their relationship in one person<U+2019>s career;
Sociology and common sense ;
Religion as a subject for sociology METHODS AND CONCEPTS: Operationalizing the field --
Some observations on the comparative method --
Ideas and interests --
Tribe and peasantry ;
Race, caste, and gender SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN INDIA: The dynamics of class, status, and political mobilization ;
Caste in contemporary India;
Caste, class, and power;
The future of the backward classes: The competing demands of status and power;
Class and status EQUALITY AND INDIVIDUALISM: The tension between fact and value;
The idea of natural inequality;
The two sources of inequality
The reproduction of inequality;
Individualism and equality CIVIL SOCIETY AND INSTITUTIONAL WELL-BEING: The conflict of norms and values;
Equality as a right and a policy;
Distributive justice and institutional well-being;
Civil society and the good society APPENDICES;
My two grandmothers;
Interview with André Béteille.