Editorial

Sociology and Social Work: Mapping Differences and Similarities

Abstract

Artha–the journal exclusively dedicated to Social Sciences and Humanities from Christ University, Bengaluru–has entered into its 15^th year of life in 2016. It is indeed a long period considering the delicacy of the publishing industry in social science academia. This intervening period has also been quite turbulent and volatile, to say the least, for the paradigmatic changes it has seen in the domains of global politics and social thinking. There has been a rupture in the social existence of human beings as new technologies and ideas invade and occupy our surroundings on rampant scales. While economic reforms and neoliberal policies of states have a central role in generating these changes their impacts on the social, cultural, and political surroundings have been massive and clearly outside the immediate domains of economics. Mapping these social changes and structural realities then become a major task where other social science disciplines like Sociology, Anthropology, and Cultural Studies have a major stake.

This is the larger background against which the current edition of AJSS is launched. As such it involves writings from the ‘twin disciplines’ of Sociology and Social Work and covers a wide range of issues. Having articles from these disciplinary platforms in the same space has its own merits and risks. Interestingly, when one of the editors of this volume had a discussion with a renowned professor, who, also happens to be the editor’s teacher, regarding the issue, the professor did not conceal his unhappiness over universities and higher educational bodies still treating these disciplines as two sides of the same coin. “Their differences are not sufficiently respected” was what he had to say. The statement is indeed problematic in an era of interdisciplinarity.