SOCY Second Half

What did Simmel say about dyads and triads? What changes when a third person joins a group of two?

• Dyads are inherently unstable because they dissolve if one person leaves.

• Triads are more stable; the third person can mediate conflict or form coalitions.

• The third person introduces complexity and power dynamics.

• New roles like mediator or tertius gaudens (the "rejoicing third") emerge.

What are some of the common interaction patterns + roles in a triad that are not possible in a dyad?

• Mediator: resolves conflict between the other two.

• Tertius gaudens: benefits from the other two's conflict.

• Divide et impera: one person intentionally divides the other two.

• Triads allow for coalition formation and exclusion.

Distinguish a small group, party, and large group according to Simmel’s discussion of these

• Small group: face-to-face interaction, strong cohesion, shared norms.

• Party: more people than a small group; less intimacy but still interactive.

• Large group: formal structure, impersonal relationships, status hierarchies.

• Larger groups need leadership and bureaucracy to function.

Distinguish primary and secondary groups according to Cooley

• Primary group: intimate, emotionally close (e.g., family, close friends).

• Secondary group: impersonal, goal-oriented (e.g., coworkers).

• Primary groups shape identity and norms.

• Secondary groups are instrumental in achieving tasks.

What is a reference group? How might this change for migrants moving overseas to a new country?

• A group we compare ourselves to when forming values or behaviors.

• Migrants may shift reference groups from local peers to host society norms.

• Reference groups shape self-perception and aspirations.

• Migrants may experience dissonance between home and host group norms.

Write three sentences connecting ideas of “reference group” and “sexual script”

• Reference groups provide cultural standards that shape sexual scripts.

• Migrants may adopt new sexual norms by observing host reference groups.

• These new scripts can create tension with prior cultural expectations.

What are two ways that the terms in-group and out-group have been used in sociology

• Descriptive: who is inside vs. outside a social group.

• Normative: perceived superiority of the in-group and inferiority of the out-group.

• In-group favoritism and out-group discrimination often arise.

• Can be based on race, religion, nationality, etc.

What are some of the social outcomes or macro-processes we study that can be impacted by in-group and out-group dynamics

• Genocide (e.g., Holocaust), segregation (e.g., Jim Crow laws).

• Ethnic conflict (e.g., Rwandan genocide).

• Political polarization and nationalism.

• Workplace discrimination and school bullying.

What are some of the kinds of things that move around a network that can be studied by sociology?

• Information, gossip, diseases.

• Job opportunities, norms, social support.

• Influence, capital, and trust.

• Behaviors like smoking or voting.

What is the network sociologist’s favorite word for things that move around a network beginning with the letter D?

Diffusion

What is network embeddedness? What are its consequences?

• The idea that economic or social behavior is shaped by relationships.

• Consequences: trust, reciprocity, or obligation within a network.

• Example: business deals among friends rely more on trust than contracts.

• Embeddedness can limit or enable opportunities.

What are the differences between centralized and decentralized networks. How might these impact war against a dictatorship and the design of terrorist and criminal organizations

• Centralized: one central node; vulnerable if the center is destroyed.

• Decentralized: power is distributed; harder to disrupt.

• In war: centralized dictatorships fall if the leader is eliminated; decentralized insurgencies persist.

• Terrorist/criminal networks often decentralize to avoid detection.

What is a structural hole? Who do we find in these places? What has this got to do with the strength of weak ties?

• A gap between two otherwise unconnected groups in a network.

• People who bridge these gaps have access to diverse info and power.

• These brokers benefit from the “strength of weak ties.”

• Weak ties give access to non-redundant resources.

Why are strong ties often not as useful as weak ties?

• Strong ties are redundant—same info, same people.

• Weak ties connect you to new social circles.

• Useful for job hunting, innovation, and spreading ideas.

• They act as bridges across social distance.

Where does the term “six degrees of separation” come from? What did a well-known experiment by Milgram do in so as to test the idea?

• The idea that any two people are connected by six or fewer social links.

• Milgram’s experiment mailed letters across the U.S. using friend-of-friend chains.

• Many letters reached the target with ~6 intermediaries.

• Demonstrated small-world network dynamics.

What is postmodernity according to Manuel Castells? Why might science-minded networks scholars find this unsatisfactory? Or “With the work of Manuel Castells we have come full circle from the original manifestos of George Homans on exchange theory”. Explain this statement.

• Castells: society now organized through global, digital networks.

• Networks replace hierarchical structures; identities are fragmented.

• Critics say it's too vague or celebratory.

• Doesn’t offer predictive models like earlier social theories.

What is ‘collective action’? Provide some different examples, including one that is not about politics or protest.

• Action taken by a group in pursuit of shared interests.

• Examples: protest march, crowdfunding, flash mobs.

• Includes strikes or community clean-ups.

• Doesn’t require formal organization.

What is a social movement? Can you suggest some core features for a fuzzy definition?

• Collective, organized effort to change society or resist change.

• Shared identity, purpose, and grievances.

• Sustained over time.

• Varies in goals, size, and formality.

What is the difference between a social movement and a crowd or riot that is angry about

something? (We did not discuss this in class but you should be able to think it through given the

lecture content).

• Social movement: sustained, organized, with long-term goals.

• Crowd/riot: spontaneous, short-lived, often reactive.

• Movements may use crowds, but are more strategic.

• Movements have ideology; riots are often emotional.

What are “new social movements”? Give some examples, including one from the Right of politics. What are they supposed to be about? What are some common talking points used to critique the idea of ‘new social movements’? (Hint: there are two ways you can do this, one relates to ‘time’ and the other to the kinds of things they protest about and how different they might actually be from ‘old’ social movement issues).

• Focus on identity (e.g., feminism, LGBTQ+, environmentalism).

• Less about class, more about culture and rights.

• Right-wing example: anti-vaccine or alt-right groups.

• Critiques: 1) not really new; 2) ignore material/class issues.

What is the ‘problem of collective action’ as defined by rational choice theory with regard to

social movements? Why do social movement scholars often talk about this? How do the

themes relevant to the ‘problem of collective action’ often differ between democratic and

authoritarian contexts when it comes to obstacles to mobilization?

• People benefit without participating (free rider problem).

• Hard to mobilize unless incentives overcome costs.

• In democracies: apathy, individualism.

• In authoritarian regimes: fear, surveillance.

Resource mobilization theory covers a range of ‘resources’ that a social movement might

need to be successful. What are these?

• Money, people, media attention.

• Leadership, organization, legal support.

• Alliances and legitimacy.

• Access to infrastructure.

What predicts social movement success in addition to mobilizing resources?

• Political opportunity structures (e.g., regime openness).

• Framing: making the issue resonate.

• Cultural alignment and media portrayal.

• Timing and leadership.

Talk us through three steps in the evolution of an enduring social movement?

• Emergence: people begin to see a problem.

• Coalescence: organization, strategy, and visibility.

• Institutionalization: formal structures, possible decline.

What is a social movement organization? What kinds of problems emerge for the social movement as one comes into existence?

• A formal group that helps organize a movement.

• Can lead to hierarchy, bureaucracy.

• Risk of co-optation or mission drift.

• May alienate grassroots supporters.

Write half a page on the relationship of crime and deviance to the wider universe of social

order, sanctions and social control.

• Deviance challenges norms and reveals social boundaries.

• Crime is legally defined deviance, punished by the state.

• Sanctions (formal/informal) enforce conformity.

• These mechanisms maintain order and regulate behavior.

Crime and deviance are socially constructed. Give some cross-cultural, historical and ‘matter of perspective’ examples of this.

• Cross-cultural: polygamy legal in some, illegal in others.

• Historical: alcohol prohibition in 1920s U.S.

• Perspective: protest = deviance to some, heroism to others.

• Definitions shift with power and norms.

Which demographic is responsible for most crime, delinquency and deviance today? What

evidence/data source is common used to make this claim? Why should we be a bit cautious before pointing the finger?

• Young males (15–25), often lower SES.

• Data from official arrest stats and victim surveys.

• Caution: underreporting, bias, and surveillance.

• White-collar crime often hidden.

Differential association theory

Crime is learned through interaction with deviant peer

Strain theory

When legitimate means are blocked, people innovate (e.g. crime) to achieve success

Relative deprivation theory

Perceived inequality breeds resentment and deviance

Control theory

Weak bonds to society = more deviance

Subcultural theory

Deviant groups have their own norms (e.g., gangs)

Labelling theory

Being labeled deviant reinforces deviant identity

Lifecourse criminology

Focus on crime over time, turning points (e.g. marriage, jail)

• Many people delinquent but something happens when you turn 25 > you get a serious relationship (good woman keeps delinquents in the house at night instead of going out with your guys)

  • You also get a job with prospects

Rational choice theory

• people make choices that maximize their personal benefit or utility, based on a cost-benefit analysis (you only make deviant decisions when you think you can get away with it)

Moral emotions theory

Shame, guilt, and pride influence behavior

Situational and opportunity theory

Crime happens when chances are easy, low risk

Routine activities theory

Crime needs a motivated offender, suitable target, and absence of guardians

What kinds of things do a) environmental b) psychological and c) biological theories of crime talk about as causal variables?

• Environmental: crime linked to urban decay or poverty.

• Psychological: mental illness, trauma.

• Biological: genetic predispositions, brain structure.

• Often criticized for ignoring social context.

Why should we treat official statistics on crime with skepticism? Or put another way, in what

ways might official statistics not reflect real crime rates or the demographics of crime

perpetration?

• Underreporting and police discretion skew numbers.

• Crimes like domestic abuse or white-collar offenses go unreported.

• Marginalized groups are over-surveilled.

• Stats reflect enforcement, not actual crime.

Why do people often not report crime to the police? (5-6)

• Fear of retaliation.

• Distrust in police.

• Embarrassment or shame.

• Believe it’s not serious enough.

• Personal ties

• Too much trouble

What is the usual method of a crime victimization survey? What do they typically find? Whatare some typical problems they face when it comes to giving us an accurate picture of crime?

(list two or three problems).

• Ask people about crimes they’ve experienced (not just police reports).

• Reveal higher crime rates than official stats.

• Problems: memory bias, underreporting sensitive issues.

“Crime isn’t all bad news: Durkheim’s lateral thinking triumphs yet again”. Why might this be a headline for a New York Times book review from 1895?

• Crime clarifies norms and boundaries.

• Encourages social change (e.g., civil disobedience).

• Reinforces solidarity by uniting people against deviance.

• Deviance is a normal, inevitable part of society.

“Sport is just about fun. It is a joke that you are “studying” this at Yale. It is supposed to be a top university”. Push back on this statement

• Sport reflects broader society—race, class, gender, and nationalism.

• It involves institutions, rituals, and identities.

• It shapes bodies, labor, and politics.

• Studying it reveals power structures and social inequality.

How did Allen Guttmann describe historical transformations in sport. What is “Weberian”

about any of this?

• Sports have become secular, specialized, rationalized, bureaucratized, and quantified.

• Reflects Weber’s idea of increasing rationalization in modernity.

• From ritual to organized competition.

• Rule-bound, record-oriented, and measured.

What do followers of Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault tend to write about when they are doing sport sociology?

• Elias: civilizing process, control of aggression over time.

• Foucault: discipline, surveillance, the body as site of power.

• Focus on regulation, normalization, and social control.

• Key words: habitus, discipline, embodiment, control.

How is sport connected to modernity

• Sports reflect rationalization (rules, records, statistics).

• They mirror bureaucratic and capitalist organization.

• Sports instill discipline, time-management, and meritocratic values.

• They shape national identity, reflect globalization, and channel aggression in “civilized” ways.

You are giving a lecture on “sport and the gender order”. What are the

orthodox/standard/expected talking points and themes you have to cover here? What

examples might you used to interrogate whether or not things are changing?

• Male dominance, gender segregation, unequal pay.

• Media coverage favors men; women sexualized or sidelined.

• Title IX and LGBTQ+ inclusion challenge norms.

• Trans athletes and gender verification spark debate.

Why is Bourdieu suspicious about sport? How is it connected to class and social reproduction?

• Sports choices reflect class-based habitus.

• Elite sports (e.g., rowing, polo) signal distinction.

• Access depends on economic, cultural capital.

• Reproduces class hierarchy through “taste.”

How is the societal racial order reflected in the realm of sport? What might be some familiar talking points for this?

• Black athletes overrepresented in physical sports, underrepresented in leadership roles.

• Racial stereotypes: “natural talent” vs. “intelligence.”

• Media frames black/white athletes differently.

• Institutional racism in hiring, coaching, and management.

What does education ‘do’ (other than teach people stuff so they can get jobs) that sociologists might find of interest?

• Transmits culture, norms, values.

• Sorts people into social roles (social stratification).

• Reproduces inequality.

• Serves social control and national integration.

How does the evolution of education reflect the wider societal transformation to modernity?

• From religious to secular, informal to formal.

• Reflects rationalization, bureaucratization.

• Expansion tied to meritocracy and industrial needs.

• Increased specialization and credentialing.

What did Durkheim see as the key purpose of education?

• Instill collective conscience and social solidarity.

• Teach shared values, norms.

• Social integration and moral regulation.

• Makes individuals feel part of the whole.

What is the ‘hidden curriculum’? According to Bowles and Gintis what is its purpose?

• Unspoken lessons (obedience, punctuality, competition).

• Prepares students for hierarchical work roles.

• Reproduces capitalist values and class structure.

• Reinforces inequality.

How does the argument of Paul Willis challenge the ideas of Bowles and Gintis?

• Willis: working-class boys resist school, form counterculture.

• Shows student agency, not passive reproduction.

• Their resistance still leads to working-class jobs—“lads” trap.

• Culture matters, not just economics.

What did Weber say about occupational closure and education?

• Education is a credentialing mechanism.

• Used by professional groups to monopolize access to jobs.

• Creates status groups through certification.

• Limits access and maintains privilege.

What is credential inflation? What is the mechanism by which it works? Why is it bad for both society and individuals?

• More education needed for same jobs.

• Employers raise requirements as degrees become common.

• Wastes time/resources, pressures students.

• Undermines promise of meritocracy.

How is the purpose of education linked to ideas about meritocracy?

• Meritocracy is the idea that people should end up with what they deserve in life and that being born into privilege or poverty should not count for where you end up

  • It is a key belief or value in modernity

• Education is seen as a pathway through which meritocracy works in our

  society. It is believed that hard work at school gets you ahead and that everyone has a fair chance

  • People who try harder get what they deserve

  • Education sorts, tests and ranks people fairly and lets merit shine through as there are things like exams– unlike other areas of social life where prejudice and privilege make a difference

  • shows that home background and wealth are strong predictors of educational outcomes.

What did James Coleman discover about school quality?

• Family background matters more than school resources.

• Peer effects, school climate also key.

• Integration improves minority outcomes.

• Challenged assumption that funding = success.

How are middle class kids advantaged by habitus? Write a sentence or two featuring the words disposition, teacher, gatekeeper, hobbies, home, parents, homophily.

• Dispositions match teacher expectations (cultural fit).

• Parents as gatekeepers, know the system.

• Hobbies and talk at home mirror school values.

• Homophily between students and teachers leads to favoritism.

How do we measure the ‘summer slide’? Why does summer see some kids slide more than others?

• Kids lose skills over summer break, esp. low-income students.

• Measured through pre- and post-summer testing.

• Wealthy kids maintain or improve; poor kids fall behind.

• Shows schools help, but inequality returns when closed.

What is ‘tracking’ and why does it lead to cumulative disadvantage?

The more ‘talented’ and ‘gifted’ students are put into advanced classes. These have high

expectations and better teachers. The weaker students are left behind. Their classrooms are

poorly disciplined as they concentrate the students from disorganized households and the students might internalize an identity as not bright or perform to low benchmarks. There are

aspects of self-fulfilling prophesy. Tracks based on small or imagined (e.g. teacher preferences) differences amplify over time.

What is the major reason for school segregation given that it is formally ‘illegal’ and that

many white parents say they value diversity? Why do bussing, vouchers, choice and lotteries

not help as much as some might like?

• White parents want the “right kind of diversity” with minority kids who are children of managers and professionals. These kids are well behaved and good at school. But often there are not enough of them about as class stratification in the USA keys onto race/ethnicity

  • Also, white middle class parents want about 10% diversity, which is a low threshold in many places

• In these situations they have money to move house (school district) or pay fees to get what they want for their kids if they don’t get into the school of their choice. For choice within the system (eg. lottery, vouchers, applications) they are more skilled that low SES parents at gaming the system, collecting information on ‘what works’, and being pushy to get their kids into the ‘better schools’

Why are the media important? What do they ‘do’ in society?

• Shape public opinion and norms.

• Define what’s newsworthy or true.

• Reflect and reinforce power structures.

• Connect individuals to national/global culture.

What are the positive and negative views of mass media impacts on society that a sociologist can pitch?

• Positive: inform public, spread ideas, democratize access.

• Negative: manipulate, create stereotypes, distract.

• Can be empowering or a tool of elite control.

• Depends on ownership, content, and access.

“The mass media are a tool of power that emerged with modernity”. Explain.

• Mass media rose with industrialization, nation-states.

• Centralized production and dissemination of information.

• Used to shape ideology, nationalism, and public sentiment.

• Supports bureaucratic control and capitalist consumption.

How are the media linked to nationalism? Name some theorists and concepts.

• Benedict Anderson: “imagined communities” via print capitalism.

• Michael Billig: banal nationalism (flags, maps, media cues).

• Media ties people to national identity.

• Newspapers, TV create shared experience.

What kind of things does a sociologist look at in the ‘production of culture’ perspective?

• Focus on how media/cultural goods are made.

• Institutions, routines, gatekeepers.

• Economic and organizational influences.

• E.g., how a newsroom or music label shapes output.

What did Gans discover about the neutrality of the news? How did the professional codes of the journalists restrict their vision or the questions they asked?

• Journalists follow professional codes (objectivity, balance).

• But these limit perspectives and reinforce status quo.

• Routines favor elite sources.

• Bias comes from what’s omitted or assumed.

Identify different models of ‘media effects’?

• Hypodermic needle: direct, powerful influence.

• Two-step flow: opinion leaders mediate info.

• Cultivation theory: long-term exposure shapes beliefs.

• Framing: how issues are presented influences opinion.

What are ‘audience ethnographies’? What do they investigate? How do you do them? What do they often show? Give examples.

• Study how real people interpret media.

• Often use interviews, observation.

• Show diverse, active interpretations.

• E.g., how soap opera fans understand gender roles.

How did Stuart Hall ‘mash up’ production of culture theory, reception of culture theory, and

an ideological critique of the media in his theory of ‘encoding/decoding’?

• Producers encode meaning; audiences decode.

• Three decoding positions: dominant, negotiated, oppositional.

• Media isn’t passively received.

• Bridges production, reception, and ideology.

What is different about new media and social media? What might be the utopian promise in all this?

• Decentralized, participatory, real-time.

• Users are also producers.

• Enables micro-communities and direct engagement.

• Utopian hope: democratization of voice and info.

What is the digital divide? What kinds of things were discovered and talked about in the 1990s and early-2000s for developed economies? What do people talk about today when looking at the North-South digital divide?

• 1990s: access to hardware/internet in developed nations.

• Now: speed, literacy, quality of use.

• Global South lags behind.

• Also within-country divides (rural, poor, elderly).

Bryan Turner argues that the body is central to the problem of social order. How so? What

are the dimensions/problems that have to be solved?

• The body must be disciplined to fit social norms.

• Issues include control, regulation, and expression.

• Bodies are sites of identity and power.

• Social order relies on managing physical behavior.

  • Somatic society (bodies must coordinate with other bodies to engage in joint tasks)

  • Organized efforts

What social trends might explain why the body become more central to sociological theory and research in recent years?

• Rise of consumer culture and body modification.

• Media focus on appearance and health.

• Decline of traditional institutions shifts focus to the self.

• Feminist and post-structuralist critiques of embodiment.

Foucault and the Body

Sees the body as regulated by sovereign power, disciplinary power (prisons, schools), and biopower (population-level management via medicine, census, sexology)

Elias and the Body

Civilizing process; over time, societies demanded greater self-control over bodily functions (e.g., sex, defecation), linking bodily discipline with social advancement.

Durkheim and the Body

The body distracts from cultural life (homo duplex), but rituals transform bodily impulses into collective moral order.

Mauss and the Body

“Techniques of the body” are learned, cultural ways of using one’s body (e.g., walking, swimming).

Bourdieu and the Body

Habitus is embodied; our class positions shape how we carry ourselves physically (e.g., posture, gestures).

Young and the Body

Gender norms shape bodily experience (e.g., girls taught to move delicately), reinforcing inequality.

Haraway

Cyborg theory sees bodies as posthuman, hybridizing technology and biology—our boundaries are fluid

What is tacit knowledge? How is embodied knowledge related to this? What adjectives do sociologists of the body often use when deploying these terms? Give an example.

Tacit knowledge refers to know-how that we possess without conscious articulation (e.g., riding a bike). Embodied knowledge is a form of tacit knowledge acquired through physical experience. It is often described as intuitive, habitual, or second-nature. For example, dancers develop timing and movement patterns that they feel rather than think about.

What might be some of the individual social advantages of being more conventionally

physically attractive? Why did sociologists generally not study these?

Attractive people often earn higher wages, have better marriage prospects, and enjoy greater social capital. Sociologists historically ignored this because it seemed trivial, individualistic, or “natural” rather than socially constructed. Beauty rewards reinforce social inequality and cultural norms. It intersects with gender, race, and class dynamics.

Sociologists see beauty ideals as problematic. Why is this? Give more than one reason.

Beauty standards are exclusionary and linked to race, gender, and class hierarchies. They cause body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and even suicide, especially among youth. Mass media reinforce narrow, unrealistic ideals. Beauty becomes a site of control and commodification

Body projects and Atkinson’s typology. Offer examples for the typology that are about a) seeking conventional beauty and b) seeking alternative subcultural body or c) pratical and useful kind of body

• Body projects refer to intentional efforts to shape the body in line with social or personal goals. Atkinson identifies several types:

  1. Camouflaging: Modifying appearance to conform (e.g., makeup, concealing disfigurements).

  2. Extending: Enhancing capabilities (e.g., glasses, prosthetics).

  3. Adapting: Shaping body to fit function (e.g., fitness training, dieting).

  4. Redesigning: Transforming appearance (e.g., plastic surgery, bodybuilding).

• These projects are studied in ethnographic sociology to understand identity, power, and normalization. For instance, women who wear makeup daily may navigate stigma and professionalism simultaneously.

What did Marx have to say about religion? What was its ‘function’ for capitalism?

Marx saw religion as the “opium of the people”—a sedative that prevents workers from rebelling. It justified suffering by promising salvation, redirecting focus from material conditions. Religion was part of the superstructure that maintained capitalist power. It legitimized inequality and obscured exploitation.

What was the major argument of Weber’s comparative sociology of world religions?

Weber argued that different religions produced different types of social action. Protestantism, especially Calvinism, encouraged a rational, work-centered ethic that helped develop capitalism. Eastern religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, encouraged retreat from the world rather than transforming it. Religions shape attitudes toward suffering, authority, and progress.

What was Weber’s famous “Protestant ethic” thesis? How does it relate to the ‘iron cage’ of

modernity?

The Protestant ethic emphasized hard work, frugality, and worldly success as signs of divine favor. This mindset led to relentless economic activity and wealth accumulation. Over time, the religious motivation faded but the rationalized system remained. This became the “iron cage” of modernity—a bureaucratic, disenchanted world lacking spiritual meaning.

What is the secularization hypothesis and how does this relate to Weber’s vision of history?

What are some elements/indicators of secularization at individual and institutional levels?

As modernity advances, religion declines in influence. Indicators include reduced church attendance, fewer religious marriages, and more secular education and law. Institutions become more rational and less tied to religious authority. Individuals adopt pluralistic or agnostic views.

What are the usual talking points that people use to push back against the argument that

modernity has led to secularization?

Religion has transformed, not disappeared. Rise of fundamentalism, evangelical movements, and “spiritual but not religious” identities challenge the thesis. Religious pluralism can coexist with modernity. American exceptionalism and global religious revivals also resist the narrative.

Describe ‘sect’ and ‘church’ as ideal types. How might they be linked sequentially via a kind

of never-ending evolutionary cycle? In what ways does this remind you of social movement

organizations?

• Sect: Voluntary, high-commitment, egalitarian, often charismatic (e.g., early Methodism).

• Church: Institutionalized, hierarchical, routine-based, lower personal involvement.

• Sects may evolve into churches as they grow and bureaucratize. This mirrors how social movement organizations institutionalize over time.

Set out Durkheim’s argument in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. (What did he study?

What were his key concepts? What did he argue was the origin of religious feeling? What are

the consequences of these sentiments?)

Durkheim studied Aboriginal religion and found that sacred symbols represent society itself. Religion arises from collective rituals that generate emotional energy (collective effervescence). These rituals reinforce social cohesion and moral boundaries. The sacred/profane divide reflects and sustains social order.

“A distinctive feature of Durkheim and the Durkheimian tradition is that you can have a religious sociology of modernity without ‘Religion’. Explain this initially confusing statement with reference to Durkheim, Lloyd Warner, Shils and Young, and Bellah.

Durkheim and followers like Warner and Bellah argue that secular rituals (e.g., national holidays, public mourning) perform religious functions. Warner studied Memorial Day; Shils and Young analyzed the Queen's coronation. Bellahcoined “civil religion” to describe how patriotism and democracy function like faith. Ritual, emotion, and sacredness persist even without traditional religion.

What are the causes of health disparities related to socio-economic inequality?

Poorer people face more exposure to toxins, chronic stress, food insecurity, and dangerous work. They have less access to care, health literacy, and time for healthy behaviors. Social determinants include housing, education, race, and class. These upstream factors drive downstream health outcomes.

Would free universal health care get rid of health disparities by class?

No, it would reduce financial barriers but not eliminate inequality. Class shapes lifestyle, environment, and stress—all key health factors. Richer people still benefit from more resources and information. Health equity needs more than access; it needs systemic change.

How important is the health care sector in the USA in terms of jobs and GDP? Would you

define it as a market or a universal health care system?

Health care makes up about 18% of GDP and employs millions. The U.S. has a hybrid system—market-driven but with public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. It’s inefficient due to fragmentation and competing interests. Unlike universal systems, it leaves many uninsured or underinsured.

What are the features of personalistic, holistic and biomedical belief/care

systems/cultures?

• Personalistic: Illness caused by spirits or curses; healing is moral/spiritual.

• Holistic: Health is balance (e.g., yin/yang); treatment focuses on harmony.

• Biomedical: Focus on physical causes, scientific diagnosis, and standardized treatments.