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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Examine ethnomethodological and phenomenological perspectives as critique of positivism

  • UPSC 2017
  • Sociology as a Science

Alfred Schutz and Harold Garfinkel built the two most radical non-positivist perspectives in sociology — phenomenology and ethnomethodology respectively — and both aimed their fire at the same positivist assumption: that social reality exists externally, ready-made, waiting to be measured.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • The Shared Critique — Order as Constituted, Not Given
  • Phenomenology — Schutz's Philosophically Grounded Critique
  • Ethnomethodology — Garfinkel's Empirically Grounded Critique
  • Where They Diverge
  • Conclusion

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