SOC-100 Exam 3 (Terms, Concepts, Slides, Videos, Readings)

Family

a group of persons defined by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption

Why has marriage changed in the USA?

• economic and labor market changes

• increased educational attainment

• changing gender roles

• cultural shifts

Family as Household

• Residential unit within which resources are shared

• Approximately 1/3 of households "nonfamily"

• Families may cross households

• Transnational families

Family Roles

social roles of husband and wife, mother and fatter, son and daughter, brother and sister

Family as Interaction

• Creating and maintaining a common culture sharing meals, celebrating holidays, taking vacations

• Families created through interaction - "doing family"

• Family as pattern of shared activities rather than role

Structural Definitions of Family

Focus on marriage, blood, and legally adoptive relationships

Household-based Definitions of Family

Consider family members living in a single household

Role-based Definitions of Family

Focus on family roles and their associated scripts

Interactionist Definitions of Family

Highlight the ways that families are actively created through interaction and relationship

nuclear family

familial form consisting of a father, a mother, and their children

extended family

kin networks that extend outside or beyond the nuclear family

endogamy

marriage to someone within one's social group

exogamy

marriage to someone outside one's social group

Loving v. Virginia

Supreme Court decision which struck down America's anti-miscegenation laws in 1967

polyandry

the practice of having multiple husbands simultaneously

polygyny

the practice of having multiple wives simultaneously

Functionalist Theory of Family

• Views society as a set of social institutions that performs specific functions to ensure continuity and consensus

• families perform important tasks to maintain social order

• primary socialization

• personality stabilization

Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Family

• Emphasizes the contextual, subjective and ephemeral nature of family interactions, power relations, and interpersonal communication

• Family members continually negotiate, define, and redefine their roles

• Socialization bidirectional

Feminist Approaches to Family

• Families provide support, comfort, love, and companionship but can also be sites of exploitation, loneliness, and inequality

• division of household labor

• unequal power relationships / physical abuse

• carework / second shift

what is the impact of having same-sex parents?

• 16% of same-sex couple households include children

• research has not found any evidence to suggest that children of lesbian or gay parents are disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents

• sexual orientation has no bearing on one's ability to be a loving parent

are single people less happy than married people?

• 27.6% of households one-person households in 2020

• marrying later, living longer, not remarrying, less stigma

• living alone can promote freedom, personal control and self-realization

• people who live alone no better or worse off than partnered peers

hypothesis of persistent inequalities

refers to the idea that educational systems tend to reproduce existing social inequalities over time, rather than eliminate them—even as access to education expands (Breen’s study disproved this idea)

Coleman Report

a landmark sociological study that found family background and socioeconomic status had a greater impact on student achievement than differences in school resources

How does environment matter?

• In the home:

  • poor children are exposed to greater levels of housing instability, family disruption, and violence

  • different quantity, quality, and responsiveness of parental speech

  • less cognitive stimulation and enrichment

  • smaller brains

• Neighborhoods:

  • healthy and safe environment

  • access to non-school resources

  • social capital and role models

• Peer groups:

  • academic norms and expectations

  • behavioral influence

  • motivation and engagement

Challenges to the Coleman Report

• class size

• tracking

• discipline / zero tolerance / school-to-prison pipeline

Function of Schools

• learning / knowledge

• socialization / assimilation

• credentialism

• hidden curriculum

credentialism

an overemphasis on credentials (e.g., college degrees for signaling social status or qualications for a job)

credentialism (education)

A social function of schooling that reinforces the role of educational institutions as gatekeepers to employment and social mobility, regardless of whether the credentials reflect actual skills or knowledge

hidden curriculum

the nonacademic and less overt socialization functions of schooling

college wage premium

gap that exists between the incomes of college graduates and high school graduates

college wealth premium

The amount of net wealth a typical college graduate accumulates over their life span compared with that of a typical high school graduate

Capitalism

an economic system in which

• property and goods are primarily privately owned

• private decisions determine investments

• competition in an unfettered marketplace determines prices, production, and the distribution of goods

Workers in a capitalist society

• lack ownership of the products they make

• are dehumanized by tedious and demeaning labor processes

• find themselves in competition over scarce jobs

• Marx argued this was counter to human nature, which involved creativity, control over one's activities, and cooperation with others

alienation

• A condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation that then confront them as alien powers

• According to Marx: the basic state of being in a capitalist society

Fordism

the system of production pioneered by Henry Ford, in which the assembly line was introduced

Family Capitalism

capitalistic enterprises owned and administered by entrepreneurial families

Managerial Capitalism

capitalistic enterprises administered by managerial executives rather than by owners

Welfare Capitalism

Practice by which large corporations protect their employees from the fluctuations in the economy

Institutional Capitalism

consolidated networks of business leadership in which corporations hold stock shares in one another, resulting in increased concentration of corporate power (like Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard)

Global Capitalism

Current transnational phase of capitalism, characterized by

• global markets, production, finances

• a transnational capitalist class whose business concerns are global rather than national

• transnational systems of governance that promote global business interests

Corporation

a legal entity unto itself that has legal personhood distinct from that of its members—namely its owners and shareholders

National Corporation

activities, policies, or entities connected within a single country's borders and pertaining to that specific nation

International Corporation

interactions, agreements, or relationships between two or more countries, crossing national borders

Transnational Corporation (TNC)

activities, entities, or processes that extend across multiple countries, operating beyond the limitations of national boundaries

Market Capitalization

total value of shares outstanding in a publicly-traded company

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

measures the value of all goods and services produced by a country in an entire year

Why do corporations expand and extend their operations outside their home countries?

• market seeking

• asset seeking

Market Seeking

• locate inside market to serve it

• domestic market saturated

• overcome tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade

• provide rapid after-sales service

• respond to customer demands, tastes, and preferences

Asset Seeking

key resources are unevenly distributed

• knowledge and skills

• labor productivity

• labor controllability

• wage costs

Offshoring

company moves or expands some or all of its operations and jobs to overseas locations

Outsourcing

company buys goods or services once performed in-house from a supplier outside of the firm

Offshore Outsourcing

outsourcing of goods and services offshore

Informal Economy

economic activities that are not regulated by the state and often occur outside formal labor protections and taxation systems

Dualist Perspective

the view that the informal economy exists separately from the formal economy and provides income for those excluded from formal employment

• marginal activities

• excluded from formal employment opportunities

• few links to formal economy income for the poor

• governments should create more jobs

Legalist Perspective

the belief that the informal economy arises when entrepreneurs avoid burdensome government regulations and bureaucratic red tape

• daring micro-entrepreneurs

• more than mere survival

• hostile legal system leads self-employed to informality

• governments should simplify legal procedures

Voluntarist Perspective

the idea that workers and businesses choose to participate in the informal economy to maximize profits and flexibility, rather than being forced by exclusion

• entrepreneurs choose to avoid regulations and taxation

• not because of cumbersome registration procedures

• weigh the costs of (in)formality

• create unfair competition for formal enterprises

Structuralist Perspective

the argument that the informal economy is deeply linked to the formal economy and reflects how capitalism exploits informal labor to reduce costs and increase competitiveness

• subordinated economic units that reduce labor costs

• capitalism drives informality

• formal/informal closely linked

• government should do more to regulate employment

Linkages (of Perspectives of Formal and Informal Economy)

• formal and informal economies linked

• sub-contracting and direct transactions

• day labor, contract workers, moonlighting

• myriad services that keep cities running

territoriality

humankind is organized principally into discrete territorial, political communities which are called nation-states

nation

people with a common identity that ideally includes a shared culture, language, and feelings of belonging

state

a political apparatus (government institutions plus civil service officials) ruling over a given territorial order, whose authority is backed by law and the ability to use force

sovereignty

within these blocks of territory, states or national governments claim supreme and exclusive authority over, and allegiance from, their peoples

Max Weber

Argued that power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests

Power

the ability to carry out one's own will despite resistance

• operates in visible and invisible ways

Indicators of Power

• WHO WINS? when there are arguments over issues

• WHO HAS A REPUTATION FOR POWER? who is identified by community surveys?

• WHO BENEFITS? who has the things valued in society?

• WHO GOVERNS? who sits in the seats considered to be powerful?

One-Dimensional Power

the ability to get people to do something that you want through open conflict

• power relations involve a successful attempt by A to get B to do something that they would not otherwise do

• observable conflict among competing interests

• focus on actual rather than potential power

Two-Dimensional Power

the ability to get what you want through suppression of conflict and limiting the scope of debate

• involves processes that limit or shape the operation of decision-making

• connect decision-making to safe issues

• suppress challenges to the values or interests of the decision maker

Three-Dimensional Power

the ability to get what you want by influencing the preferences of others

• A may exercise power over B by getting them to do what they do not want to do, but they also exercise power over them by influencing, shaping or determining their very wants

• invisible influence and domination that is built into patterns of thought, relationships, institutional structure, and cultural patterns

Authority

the justifiable right to exercise power

Charismatic Authority

authority that rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader

Traditional Authority

authority that rests on appeals to the past or traditions

Legal-Rational Authority

authority based on legal, impersonal rules: the rules rule

Bureaucracy

a legal-rational organization or mode of administration that governs with reference to formal rules and roles and emphasizes merit-based advancement

Characterized by

• specialized roles and division of labor

• hierarchy of authority

• formal rules and regulations

• technical competence and merit-based hiring

• impersonality

• formal written communication

What are some disadvantages of bureaucracy?

• red tape and inflexibility

• alienation

• goal displacement

• limited innovation

• dehumanization

Street Level Bureaucrats

public service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their jobs and have substantial discretion in the execution of their work

• deliver policy through everyday interactions

• function both as providers of services and as agents of social control

• their discretion and judgments have major implications

• expansion of the welfare state has increased their numbers and influence

Charles Tilly

Argued that war wove the European network of national states, and preparation for war created the internal structures within it

Religion

a system of beliefs, traditions, and practices around sacred things: a set of shared stories that guides belief and action

Sacred

that which inspires attitudes of awe and reverence among believers in a given set of religious ideas

• texts: the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran

• behaviors: the communion ritual and the salat

• places: Mecca, Jerusalem, and Vatican City

• people: the Dalai Lama, the Pope

Profane

that which belongs to the mundane, everyday world

Ethicalism

the adherence to certain principles to lead a moral life, as in Buddhism and Taoism

Animism

the belief that spirits are part of the natural world, as in totemism

Churches

large bodies of people belonging to an established religious organization; the term is also used to refer to the place in which religious ceremonies are carried out

Denomination

a religious sect that has lost its revivalist dynamism and become an institutionalized body, commanding the adherence of significant numbers of people

Cults

fragmentary religious groupings to which individuals are loosely affiliated but that lack any permanent structure

Marx: Religion as Ideology

• “opium of the people” – it dulls the pain of oppression

• serves ruling class interests by legitimizing social inequality

• encourages acceptance of suffering with promises of a better afterlife

• false consciousness – masks real material conditions

• believed religion would wither away under communism

Weber: Religion and Social Change

• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

• Protestantism a necessary condition for the emergence of capitalism

• fulfill duty to God through disciplined, rational labor

• importance of "predestination"

• critique that Protestantism is not the most important force driving capitalism

Durkheim: Religion and Social Cohesion

• A source of social solidarity and collective conscience – shared beliefs and ideas or ways of thinking and knowing

• reinforces group identity through rituals and shared beliefs

• Function of religion is that it binds people together, affirms moral community

Secularism / Secularization

a general movement / process away from religiosity and spiritual belief toward a rational, scientific orientation; a trend adopted by industrialized nations in the form of separation of church and state

Belief, Belonging, and Behavior:

• some people believe in god but don't belong to a formal religion

• some belong to a church but don't believe

• others belong but don't attend, so they don't really behave like church members

Civil Religion

a set of religious beliefs through which a society interprets its own history in light of some conception of ultimate reality

American Examples:

• Presidential inaugurations

• Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust"

• Memorial Day

• National cemeteries

• Manifest Destiny

Disestablishment

a period during which political influence of established religions is successfully challenged

Examples of Periods in US:

• 1791 ratification of the Bill of Rights

• migration of Catholics 1890s to 1920s

• 1960s and 70s and the conservative reaction

Human Exceptionalism Paradigm

a sociological view that sees humans as superior to other species, exempt from ecological limits due to culture and technology, with nature existing primarily to serve human needs

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Revealed the harmful effects of pesticides on ecosystems, sparking public awareness and launching the modern environmental movement

“The Limits to Growth”

warned that unchecked economic and population growth would lead to environmental and societal collapse if not aligned with the planet’s finite resources

New Ecological Paradigm

a sociological perspective that sees humans as part of, not separate from, the natural world and emphasizes that social systems are constrained by ecological limits

Environmental Sociology

examines the relationships between society and the natural environment, including how social factors contribute to environmental problems and how environmental issues affect society

Treadmill of Production

a theory that explains environmental degradation as a result of continuous economic growth driven by capitalist systems

• economic success depends on constant production and consumption

• prioritize profit and growth over sustainability

• leads to increased resource extraction, pollution, and ecological harm

• environmental problems are systemic, not individual

“Shopping Our Way to Safety” Main Points

• anxiety about water, food, air, sun

• consumeristic response to threat

• inverted quarantine

• political anesthesia

Ecological Modernization

a theory suggesting that environmental protection can be achieved through technological innovation and institutional reform within capitalist systems

• economic development and environmental sustainability can be aligned

• green technologies and policies can reduce ecological harm

• markets, states, and science drive change

• optimistic about solving environmental problems without radical system change

Environmental Justice

a framework that seeks fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people— regardless of race, class, or income—in environmental decision-making and protection from environmental harms

• addresses disproportionate environmental burdens faced by marginalized communities

• environmental issues linked to inequality

• emerged from grassroots activism

• advocates for equal protection and equitable participation in environmental policies

Drivers of Change

• habitat loss / degradation

• overexploitation

• climate change

• pollution

• invasive species

• disease