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 Page 1


Suggestions for Project Work
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Suggestions for Project Work
117
Chapter 7.indd   117 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
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Indian Society
118
This chapter suggests some small practical research projects that you can 
try out. There is a big difference between reading about research and actually 
doing it. Practical experience of trying to answer a question and collecting 
evidence systematically is a very valuable experience. This experience will 
hopefully introduce you to the excitement and also some of the difficulties of 
sociological research. Before you read this chapter, please refer once again 
to Chapter 5 (“Doing Sociology: Research Methods”) in the Class XI textbook, 
Introducing Sociology.
The projects suggested here have tried to anticipate the potential problems 
of organising this kind of activity for large number of students in different 
kinds of schools located in different kinds of contexts. These are intended just 
to give you a feel for research. A “real” research project would obviously be 
more elaborate and involve much more time and effort than is possible in your 
setting. These are meant as suggestions; feel free to think up ideas of your own 
in consultation with your teachers. 
Every research question needs an appropriate or suitable research method.  
A given question may be answered with more than one method, but a given 
research method is not necessarily appropriate for all questions. In other 
words, for most research questions one has a choice of possible methods but 
this choice is usually limited. One of the first tasks of the researcher – after 
carefully specifying the research question – is to select a suitable method. This 
selection must be done not only according to technical criteria (i.e., the degree of 
compatibility between question and method), but also practical considerations.  
These latter might include the amount of time available to do the research; the 
resources available in terms of both people and materials; the circumstances 
or situations in which it has to be done, and so on.  
For example, let us suppose you are interested in comparing co-educational 
schools with ‘boys only’ or ‘girls only’ schools.  This, of course, is a broad topic.  
You must first formulate a specific question that you want to answer. Examples 
could be: Do students in co-educational schools do better in studies than 
students in boys/girls only schools?  Are boys only schools always better than 
co-educational schools in sports? Are children in single sex schools happier 
than children in co-educational schools, or some other such question.  Having 
decided on a specific question, the next step is to choose the appropriate method. 
For the last question, ‘Are school children in single sex schools happier?’, for 
example, you could choose to interview students of different kinds of schools. 
In the interview you could ask them directly how they felt about their school. 
You could then analyse the answers you collect to see if there is any difference 
between those who attend different kinds of schools. As an alternative, you 
could try to use a different method – say that of direct observation – to answer 
the research question. This means that you would have to spend time in  
co-educational and boys/girls schools, observing how students behave. You 
would have to decide on some criteria by which you could say if students are 
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Suggestions for Project Work
117
Chapter 7.indd   117 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
2024-25
Indian Society
118
This chapter suggests some small practical research projects that you can 
try out. There is a big difference between reading about research and actually 
doing it. Practical experience of trying to answer a question and collecting 
evidence systematically is a very valuable experience. This experience will 
hopefully introduce you to the excitement and also some of the difficulties of 
sociological research. Before you read this chapter, please refer once again 
to Chapter 5 (“Doing Sociology: Research Methods”) in the Class XI textbook, 
Introducing Sociology.
The projects suggested here have tried to anticipate the potential problems 
of organising this kind of activity for large number of students in different 
kinds of schools located in different kinds of contexts. These are intended just 
to give you a feel for research. A “real” research project would obviously be 
more elaborate and involve much more time and effort than is possible in your 
setting. These are meant as suggestions; feel free to think up ideas of your own 
in consultation with your teachers. 
Every research question needs an appropriate or suitable research method.  
A given question may be answered with more than one method, but a given 
research method is not necessarily appropriate for all questions. In other 
words, for most research questions one has a choice of possible methods but 
this choice is usually limited. One of the first tasks of the researcher – after 
carefully specifying the research question – is to select a suitable method. This 
selection must be done not only according to technical criteria (i.e., the degree of 
compatibility between question and method), but also practical considerations.  
These latter might include the amount of time available to do the research; the 
resources available in terms of both people and materials; the circumstances 
or situations in which it has to be done, and so on.  
For example, let us suppose you are interested in comparing co-educational 
schools with ‘boys only’ or ‘girls only’ schools.  This, of course, is a broad topic.  
You must first formulate a specific question that you want to answer. Examples 
could be: Do students in co-educational schools do better in studies than 
students in boys/girls only schools?  Are boys only schools always better than 
co-educational schools in sports? Are children in single sex schools happier 
than children in co-educational schools, or some other such question.  Having 
decided on a specific question, the next step is to choose the appropriate method. 
For the last question, ‘Are school children in single sex schools happier?’, for 
example, you could choose to interview students of different kinds of schools. 
In the interview you could ask them directly how they felt about their school. 
You could then analyse the answers you collect to see if there is any difference 
between those who attend different kinds of schools. As an alternative, you 
could try to use a different method – say that of direct observation – to answer 
the research question. This means that you would have to spend time in  
co-educational and boys/girls schools, observing how students behave. You 
would have to decide on some criteria by which you could say if students are 
Chapter 7.indd   118 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
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Suggestions for Project Work
119
more or less happy with their school. So, after observing different kinds of 
schools for sufficient time, you could hope to answer your question. A third 
method you could use is the survey method. This would involve preparing a 
questionnaire designed to get information on how students felt about their 
schools. You would then distribute the questionnaire to an equal number 
of students in each kind of school. You would then collect the filled-in 
questionnaires and analyse the results.
Here are some examples of some practical difficulties that you might face when 
doing research of this kind. Suppose you decide to do a survey. You must first 
make enough copies of the questionnaire. This involves time, effort and money. 
Next, you may need permission from teachers to distribute the questionnaire to 
students in their classrooms.  You may not get permission the first time, or you 
may be asked to come back later….. After you have distributed the questionnaire 
you may find that many people have not bothered to return it to you or have 
not answered all questions, or other such problems. You then have to decide 
how to deal with this – go back to your respondents and ask them to complete 
the questionnaires; or ignore the incomplete questionnaires and consider only 
the complete ones; consider only the completed answers, and so on. You must 
be prepared to deal with such problems during research work.
7.1 Variety of Methods  
You may remember the discussion of research methods in Chapter 5 of the 
Class XI textbook, Introducing Sociology. This may be a good time to revisit this 
chapter and refresh your memory.
Survey Method A survey usually involves asking a relatively large number of people (such as 
30, 100, 2000, and so on; what is considered ‘large’ depends on the context 
and the kind of topic) the same fixed set of questions. The questions may be 
asked by an investigator in person where they are read out to the respondent, 
and his/her answers are noted down by the investigator. Or the questionnaire 
may be handed over to the respondents who then fill it up themselves and 
give it back. The main advantage of the survey is that it can cover a lot of 
people, so that the results are truly representative of the relevant group or 
population. The disadvantage is that the questions to be asked are already fixed. 
No on-the-spot adjustments are possible. So, if a question is misunderstood 
by the respondents, then wrong or misleading results can be produced. If a 
respondent says something interesting then this cannot be followed up with 
further questions on the subject because you have to stick to the questionnaire 
format. Moreover, questionnaires are like a snapshot taken at one particular 
moment. The situation may change later or may have been different before, 
but the survey wouldn’t capture this.
Chapter 7.indd   119 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
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Page 4


Suggestions for Project Work
117
Chapter 7.indd   117 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
2024-25
Indian Society
118
This chapter suggests some small practical research projects that you can 
try out. There is a big difference between reading about research and actually 
doing it. Practical experience of trying to answer a question and collecting 
evidence systematically is a very valuable experience. This experience will 
hopefully introduce you to the excitement and also some of the difficulties of 
sociological research. Before you read this chapter, please refer once again 
to Chapter 5 (“Doing Sociology: Research Methods”) in the Class XI textbook, 
Introducing Sociology.
The projects suggested here have tried to anticipate the potential problems 
of organising this kind of activity for large number of students in different 
kinds of schools located in different kinds of contexts. These are intended just 
to give you a feel for research. A “real” research project would obviously be 
more elaborate and involve much more time and effort than is possible in your 
setting. These are meant as suggestions; feel free to think up ideas of your own 
in consultation with your teachers. 
Every research question needs an appropriate or suitable research method.  
A given question may be answered with more than one method, but a given 
research method is not necessarily appropriate for all questions. In other 
words, for most research questions one has a choice of possible methods but 
this choice is usually limited. One of the first tasks of the researcher – after 
carefully specifying the research question – is to select a suitable method. This 
selection must be done not only according to technical criteria (i.e., the degree of 
compatibility between question and method), but also practical considerations.  
These latter might include the amount of time available to do the research; the 
resources available in terms of both people and materials; the circumstances 
or situations in which it has to be done, and so on.  
For example, let us suppose you are interested in comparing co-educational 
schools with ‘boys only’ or ‘girls only’ schools.  This, of course, is a broad topic.  
You must first formulate a specific question that you want to answer. Examples 
could be: Do students in co-educational schools do better in studies than 
students in boys/girls only schools?  Are boys only schools always better than 
co-educational schools in sports? Are children in single sex schools happier 
than children in co-educational schools, or some other such question.  Having 
decided on a specific question, the next step is to choose the appropriate method. 
For the last question, ‘Are school children in single sex schools happier?’, for 
example, you could choose to interview students of different kinds of schools. 
In the interview you could ask them directly how they felt about their school. 
You could then analyse the answers you collect to see if there is any difference 
between those who attend different kinds of schools. As an alternative, you 
could try to use a different method – say that of direct observation – to answer 
the research question. This means that you would have to spend time in  
co-educational and boys/girls schools, observing how students behave. You 
would have to decide on some criteria by which you could say if students are 
Chapter 7.indd   118 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
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119
more or less happy with their school. So, after observing different kinds of 
schools for sufficient time, you could hope to answer your question. A third 
method you could use is the survey method. This would involve preparing a 
questionnaire designed to get information on how students felt about their 
schools. You would then distribute the questionnaire to an equal number 
of students in each kind of school. You would then collect the filled-in 
questionnaires and analyse the results.
Here are some examples of some practical difficulties that you might face when 
doing research of this kind. Suppose you decide to do a survey. You must first 
make enough copies of the questionnaire. This involves time, effort and money. 
Next, you may need permission from teachers to distribute the questionnaire to 
students in their classrooms.  You may not get permission the first time, or you 
may be asked to come back later….. After you have distributed the questionnaire 
you may find that many people have not bothered to return it to you or have 
not answered all questions, or other such problems. You then have to decide 
how to deal with this – go back to your respondents and ask them to complete 
the questionnaires; or ignore the incomplete questionnaires and consider only 
the complete ones; consider only the completed answers, and so on. You must 
be prepared to deal with such problems during research work.
7.1 Variety of Methods  
You may remember the discussion of research methods in Chapter 5 of the 
Class XI textbook, Introducing Sociology. This may be a good time to revisit this 
chapter and refresh your memory.
Survey Method A survey usually involves asking a relatively large number of people (such as 
30, 100, 2000, and so on; what is considered ‘large’ depends on the context 
and the kind of topic) the same fixed set of questions. The questions may be 
asked by an investigator in person where they are read out to the respondent, 
and his/her answers are noted down by the investigator. Or the questionnaire 
may be handed over to the respondents who then fill it up themselves and 
give it back. The main advantage of the survey is that it can cover a lot of 
people, so that the results are truly representative of the relevant group or 
population. The disadvantage is that the questions to be asked are already fixed. 
No on-the-spot adjustments are possible. So, if a question is misunderstood 
by the respondents, then wrong or misleading results can be produced. If a 
respondent says something interesting then this cannot be followed up with 
further questions on the subject because you have to stick to the questionnaire 
format. Moreover, questionnaires are like a snapshot taken at one particular 
moment. The situation may change later or may have been different before, 
but the survey wouldn’t capture this.
Chapter 7.indd   119 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
2024-25
Indian Society
120
Interv Iew S
An interview is different from a survey in that it is always conducted in person and 
usually involves much fewer persons (as few as 5, 20, or 40, usually not much 
more than that). Interviews may be structured, that is, follow a pre-determined 
pattern of questions or unstructured, where only a set of topics is pre-decided, 
and the actual questions emerge as part of a conversation.  Interviews may be 
more or less intensive, in the sense that one may interview a person for a long 
time (2–3 hours) or in repeated visits to get a really detailed version of their story. 
Interviews have the advantage of being flexible in that promising topics may 
be pursued in greater detail, questions may be refined or modified along the way, 
and clarifications may be sought. The disadvantage of the interview method is 
that it cannot cover a large number of people and is limited to presenting the 
views of a select group of individuals.
o b Servat Ion Observation is a method where the researcher must systematically watch 
and record what is happening in whatever context or situation that has been 
chosen for the research. This sounds simple but may not always be easy to 
do in practice. Careful attention has to be paid to what is happening without 
pre-judging what is relevant to the study and what is not. Sometimes, what 
is not happening is as important or interesting as what does actually happen. 
For example, if your research question is about how different classes of people 
use specific open spaces, then it is significant that a given class or group of 
people (say poor people, or middle class people for example) never enter the 
space, or are never seen in it.
Co Mb Inat Ion S of More t han o ne Method You can also try to combine methods to approach the same research question 
from different angles. In fact, this is often highly recommended. For example, if 
you are researching the changing place of mass media sources like newspapers 
and television in social life, you could combine a survey with archival methods.  
The survey will tell you about what is happening today, while the archival 
methods might tell you about what magazines, newspapers or television 
programmes were like in the past.
7.2 Possible the Mes and subjects for s Mall 
 research Projects Here are some suggestions about possible research topics; you can always 
choose other topics in consultation with your teachers.  Remember that these 
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Suggestions for Project Work
117
Chapter 7.indd   117 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
2024-25
Indian Society
118
This chapter suggests some small practical research projects that you can 
try out. There is a big difference between reading about research and actually 
doing it. Practical experience of trying to answer a question and collecting 
evidence systematically is a very valuable experience. This experience will 
hopefully introduce you to the excitement and also some of the difficulties of 
sociological research. Before you read this chapter, please refer once again 
to Chapter 5 (“Doing Sociology: Research Methods”) in the Class XI textbook, 
Introducing Sociology.
The projects suggested here have tried to anticipate the potential problems 
of organising this kind of activity for large number of students in different 
kinds of schools located in different kinds of contexts. These are intended just 
to give you a feel for research. A “real” research project would obviously be 
more elaborate and involve much more time and effort than is possible in your 
setting. These are meant as suggestions; feel free to think up ideas of your own 
in consultation with your teachers. 
Every research question needs an appropriate or suitable research method.  
A given question may be answered with more than one method, but a given 
research method is not necessarily appropriate for all questions. In other 
words, for most research questions one has a choice of possible methods but 
this choice is usually limited. One of the first tasks of the researcher – after 
carefully specifying the research question – is to select a suitable method. This 
selection must be done not only according to technical criteria (i.e., the degree of 
compatibility between question and method), but also practical considerations.  
These latter might include the amount of time available to do the research; the 
resources available in terms of both people and materials; the circumstances 
or situations in which it has to be done, and so on.  
For example, let us suppose you are interested in comparing co-educational 
schools with ‘boys only’ or ‘girls only’ schools.  This, of course, is a broad topic.  
You must first formulate a specific question that you want to answer. Examples 
could be: Do students in co-educational schools do better in studies than 
students in boys/girls only schools?  Are boys only schools always better than 
co-educational schools in sports? Are children in single sex schools happier 
than children in co-educational schools, or some other such question.  Having 
decided on a specific question, the next step is to choose the appropriate method. 
For the last question, ‘Are school children in single sex schools happier?’, for 
example, you could choose to interview students of different kinds of schools. 
In the interview you could ask them directly how they felt about their school. 
You could then analyse the answers you collect to see if there is any difference 
between those who attend different kinds of schools. As an alternative, you 
could try to use a different method – say that of direct observation – to answer 
the research question. This means that you would have to spend time in  
co-educational and boys/girls schools, observing how students behave. You 
would have to decide on some criteria by which you could say if students are 
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119
more or less happy with their school. So, after observing different kinds of 
schools for sufficient time, you could hope to answer your question. A third 
method you could use is the survey method. This would involve preparing a 
questionnaire designed to get information on how students felt about their 
schools. You would then distribute the questionnaire to an equal number 
of students in each kind of school. You would then collect the filled-in 
questionnaires and analyse the results.
Here are some examples of some practical difficulties that you might face when 
doing research of this kind. Suppose you decide to do a survey. You must first 
make enough copies of the questionnaire. This involves time, effort and money. 
Next, you may need permission from teachers to distribute the questionnaire to 
students in their classrooms.  You may not get permission the first time, or you 
may be asked to come back later….. After you have distributed the questionnaire 
you may find that many people have not bothered to return it to you or have 
not answered all questions, or other such problems. You then have to decide 
how to deal with this – go back to your respondents and ask them to complete 
the questionnaires; or ignore the incomplete questionnaires and consider only 
the complete ones; consider only the completed answers, and so on. You must 
be prepared to deal with such problems during research work.
7.1 Variety of Methods  
You may remember the discussion of research methods in Chapter 5 of the 
Class XI textbook, Introducing Sociology. This may be a good time to revisit this 
chapter and refresh your memory.
Survey Method A survey usually involves asking a relatively large number of people (such as 
30, 100, 2000, and so on; what is considered ‘large’ depends on the context 
and the kind of topic) the same fixed set of questions. The questions may be 
asked by an investigator in person where they are read out to the respondent, 
and his/her answers are noted down by the investigator. Or the questionnaire 
may be handed over to the respondents who then fill it up themselves and 
give it back. The main advantage of the survey is that it can cover a lot of 
people, so that the results are truly representative of the relevant group or 
population. The disadvantage is that the questions to be asked are already fixed. 
No on-the-spot adjustments are possible. So, if a question is misunderstood 
by the respondents, then wrong or misleading results can be produced. If a 
respondent says something interesting then this cannot be followed up with 
further questions on the subject because you have to stick to the questionnaire 
format. Moreover, questionnaires are like a snapshot taken at one particular 
moment. The situation may change later or may have been different before, 
but the survey wouldn’t capture this.
Chapter 7.indd   119 9/2/2022   2:39:23 PM
2024-25
Indian Society
120
Interv Iew S
An interview is different from a survey in that it is always conducted in person and 
usually involves much fewer persons (as few as 5, 20, or 40, usually not much 
more than that). Interviews may be structured, that is, follow a pre-determined 
pattern of questions or unstructured, where only a set of topics is pre-decided, 
and the actual questions emerge as part of a conversation.  Interviews may be 
more or less intensive, in the sense that one may interview a person for a long 
time (2–3 hours) or in repeated visits to get a really detailed version of their story. 
Interviews have the advantage of being flexible in that promising topics may 
be pursued in greater detail, questions may be refined or modified along the way, 
and clarifications may be sought. The disadvantage of the interview method is 
that it cannot cover a large number of people and is limited to presenting the 
views of a select group of individuals.
o b Servat Ion Observation is a method where the researcher must systematically watch 
and record what is happening in whatever context or situation that has been 
chosen for the research. This sounds simple but may not always be easy to 
do in practice. Careful attention has to be paid to what is happening without 
pre-judging what is relevant to the study and what is not. Sometimes, what 
is not happening is as important or interesting as what does actually happen. 
For example, if your research question is about how different classes of people 
use specific open spaces, then it is significant that a given class or group of 
people (say poor people, or middle class people for example) never enter the 
space, or are never seen in it.
Co Mb Inat Ion S of More t han o ne Method You can also try to combine methods to approach the same research question 
from different angles. In fact, this is often highly recommended. For example, if 
you are researching the changing place of mass media sources like newspapers 
and television in social life, you could combine a survey with archival methods.  
The survey will tell you about what is happening today, while the archival 
methods might tell you about what magazines, newspapers or television 
programmes were like in the past.
7.2 Possible the Mes and subjects for s Mall 
 research Projects Here are some suggestions about possible research topics; you can always 
choose other topics in consultation with your teachers.  Remember that these 
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121
are only topics – you need to select specific questions based on these topics.  
Remember also that most methods can be used with most of these topics, but 
that the specific question chosen must be suitable for the method chosen. You 
can also use combinations of methods. The topics are in no particular order.  
Topics that are not obviously or directly derived from your textbooks have been 
emphasised because it will be easier for you and your teachers to think of your 
own project related to the texts.
1. Publ IC t ran SPort 
What part does it play in people’s lives?  Who needs it?  Why do they need it?  
To what degree are different types of people dependent on public transport?  
What sorts of problems and issues are associated with public transport?  How 
have forms of public transport been changing over time? Does differential 
access to public transport cause social problems? Are there groups who do not 
need public transport? What is their attitude towards it? You could also take 
up the case of a particular form of transport – say the tonga, or the rickshaw, 
or the train – and write about its history in relation to your town or city. What 
are the changes this mode of transport has gone through? Who have been its 
main rivals? Is the competition with rivals being lost or won? For what reasons?  
What is the likely future of this mode of transport? Will anyone miss it?
If you live in Delhi, try to find out more about the Delhi Metro. Could you 
write a science-fiction like account of what the Metro would be like fifty years 
from now, in, say 2050 or 2060? (Remember, it is not easy to write good science 
fiction!  You must give reasons for the things you imagine; these future things 
must be related in some coherent fashion to things/relations/situations that 
exist in the present. So you would have to imagine how public transport will 
evolve given present conditions, and what the role of the Metro would be in 
future compared to what it is now.)
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