Sociology ch 1 terms

Globalization

The development of social and economic relationships stretching worldwide. In current times we are influenced by organizations and social networks located thousands of miles away. A key part of the study of globalization is the emergence of a world system-for some purposes, we need to regard the world as forming a single social order.

Sociological imagination

The implication that imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. People who use the sociological imagination “think themselves away” from the familiar routines of daily life.

Social Structure

The underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave in their relationships with one another.

Social construction

An idea or practice that a group of people agree exists. It is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted.

Socialization

The social processes through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self. Although socialization processes are particularly significant in infancy and childhood, they continue to some degree throughout life.

Social factors

According to Emily Durkheim, the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals. Durkheim believed that social facts could be studied scientifically.

Organic solidarity

According to Emily Durkheim, the social cohesion that results from the various parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole.

Social Constraint

The conditioning influence on our behavior of the groups and societies of which we are members. Social constraint was regarded by Emile Durkheim as one of the distinctive properties of social facts.

Division of labor

The specialization of work tasks by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. All societies have at least some rudimentary form of division of labor, especially between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women. With the development of industrialism, the division of labor became vastly more complex than in any prior type of production system. In the modern world, the division of labor is international in scope.

Anomie

A feeling of aimlessness or despair provoked by modern social life. A concept first brought upon by Durkheim to refer to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.

Materialistic conception of history

The view developed by Karl Marx according to which material, or economic factors have a prime role in determining historical change.

Capitalism

An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit. In capitalism, individuals or corporations own capital goods and operate them for profit in competitive markets.

Bureaucracy

A type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by full-time, salaried officials.

Rationalization

A concept used by Max Weber to refer to the process by which modes of precise calculation and organization (involving abstract rules and procedures) increasingly come to dominate the social world.

Symbolic interactionism

A theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead that emphasizes the role of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction.

Symbol

One item used to stand for or represent another, as in the case of a flag symbolizing a nation.

Functionalism

A theoretical perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform - that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society.

Manifest functions

The functions of a type of social activity that are known to and intended by the individuals involved in the activity.

Latent functions

Functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by the members of the social system in which they occur.

Conflict theory

A sociological perspective that emphasizes the role of political and economic power and oppression as contributing to the existing social order.

Marxism

A body of thought deriving its main elements from the ideas of Karl Marx.

Power

The ability of individuals or the members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. Many conflicts in society are struggles over this term.

Ideologies

Shared ideas or beliefs that serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. Ideologies are found in all societies in which there are systematic and ingrained inequalities among groups. The concept of ideology connects closely with that of power, since ideological systems serve to legitimize the power that groups hold.

Feminist theory

A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequality in society and to work to overcome it.

Feminism

Advocacy of the rights of women to be equal with men in all spheres of life. Feminism dates from the late eighteenth century in Europe, and feminist movements exist in most countries today.

Rational choice approach

More broadly, the theory that an individual’s behavior is purposive. Within the field of criminology, rational choice analysis argues that deviant behavior is a rational response to a specific social situation.

Postmodernism

The belief that society is no longer governed by history or progress. Postmodern society is highly pluralistic and diverse, with no “grand narrative” guiding its development.

Microsociology

The study of human behavior in the context of face to face interaction.

Macrosociology

The study of large-scale groups, organizations, or social systems.