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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

How, according to Merton, are deviant subcultures generated?

  • UPSC 2019
  • Sociological Thinkers

For Robert K. Merton, deviant subcultures are not the work of abnormal individuals. They grow out of structural strain, a society's uneven supply of legitimate means for goals everyone is taught to pursue. "Social Structure and Anomie" (1938) described individual adaptations. Merton's later restatements in Social Theory and Social Structure (1957), and the scholars who…

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

What the full answer covers

  • Step 1: a shared structural problem
  • Step 2: deviant adaptations
  • Step 3: from individual adaptation to subculture
  • Extensions within the strain tradition
  • Indian illustrations
  • Critical assessment
  • …and 1 more sections, with a conclusion

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