SOC 316 Final Exam

Sociological Imagination (C. Wright Mills)

"the individual can understand her own experience and gauge her own fate only by locating herself within her period . . . she can know her own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in her circumstances."

Troubles

Individual, private

Issues

Social, public

Racialized Modernity (Du Bois)

Explains the connection of colonialism and racial exclusion/division in contemporary life. Think about the covid vaccine being sent to first-world countries first despite third world countries suffering the most.

Color Line (DuBois)

Global racial divisions that organize social life in the early 20th century and beyond

Colonialism

Creation of modern ideas of race, Invention of whiteness

Racialized Subjectivity(Du Bois)

Because of the color line, subjectivity is shaped by race. Subjectivity is the a sense of yourself & world, learned via interaction & communication, Family, community, Examples: "boys don't cry," girls in kindergarten

The Veil

What White people see their projections onto, stopping them from seeing the full humanity of Black people

Sense of Twoness

Black people internalize how they are seen by people on both sides of the veil. Causing psychological distress.

Second site or Second sight

Black people have a possibility to understand both sides of the veil

White Subjectivity

Power to define the world, But not fully see it,

Whiteness = assumed superiority,

purposeful ignorance, Denial of participation in domination/oppression, Failure to internalize part of the world

Law & Chance(Du Bois)

Goal of sociology: determine how they matter for what people do.

Double consciousness

Viewing yourself as two and through the eyes of other people and considering how other people will perceive you.

Racecraft

Refers to all of the things' people do to make it seem like nature created racial groups and that those groups explain social outcomes.

Racecraft is the fingerprint evidence that racism has been on the scene.

They labeled it Racecraft so that we would think of it like witchcraft since race was conjured up.

Tacit

Everyday understandings about social behavior

Midlevel

Most sociological research; specialized frameworks for understanding part of social life

Grand

Core principles of Theories of humanity and social life. Big theories like Color line from Du Bois

Racism(Fields & FIelds)

"the theory and the practice of applying a social, civic, or legal double standard based on ancestry, and to the ideology surrounding such a double standard.

Social Facts

Social facts are compelling, cohesive, external

External: They exist beyond the individual

Coercive: There are consequences for ignoring or rejecting them

Compelling: They can FEEL like it is coming from your desire

Social Currents

Waves of social influence. A type of social fact.

Ex: Cheering crowd, slow clap, fans doing "the wave"

Crystalized Forms of Social Facts

Symbols (flags, language) think of Dubs

Stories (myths, fairy tales, urban legends)

Rituals (pledge of allegiance, ceremonies)

Social Facts

Collective beliefs, tendencies, and practices of the group

Totemism

A religion in which a group worships a sacred object.

Organized around a sacred symbol (the Totem pole).

Totem represents the group.

Totem is a system of classification.(!)

Sacred

Special.

Set apart and protected.

Profane

Common.

Cannot touch sacred without impunity(negative consequences).

Think: cell phone in church

Religion

-Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things. That unites adherents in a single moral community called a church

-People look to religion to make sense of the world

-Religion establishes community

Collective effervescence

Shared feeling within a large group of people.

Think: Basketball game, Concert

Gender

A social construct(Gender relies on society's definition of what it means to be a specific gender.

Mean as the populations definition changes so does the gender. It is not constant)

Gender is learned(!)

Patriarchy

A social system that gives men the most power and authority in society

3 types of Masculinity

Hegemonic masculinity: "The pattern of practice that allowed men's dominance over women to continue the currently most honored way of being a man

Complicit masculinity: Men who received the benefits of patriarchy without enacting a strong version of masculine dominance

Subordinated masculinity: Men for whom hegemonic masculinity is also oppressive

Marginalized masculinity: men whose class and race identities prevent them from receiving the full benefits of successfully enacted hegemonic masculine practice.

Matrix of Domination(Collins)

A theory of how the social structure is made up of multiple, interlocking systems of domination that shape how groups interact, how people understand themselves, and how power and privileges are divided up.

4 Main Themes

Power Structures

The study of how identities support and develop within specific social systems.

Knowledge structures

"Standpoint epistemology" - How we come to understand the world is based on our social position within it

Relationality

-Power structures and identities are connected and related to each other there are different experiences of systems of power can lead to totally different identities.

History

-Systems of power and social identities develop over time

-They are not natural and inevitable, but social and changing.

Intersectionality(Crenshaw)

How race, class, gender intersect and create different experiences for us as individuals. race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics "intersect" with one another and overlap".

Controlling Images(Collin's)

The idea of this, are powerful stereotypes that flatten all empirical status differences among a group of people to reduce them to the most docile, incompetent subjects in a social structure. Reproduce structural inequalities in our everyday lives.

Objectification

The process whereby humans invest their life force into the creation of objects.

Alienation

The negative side of people's ability to realize their labor in objects. People can be separated from

The product

The process

Other people

Their humanity

Private property

-Private property is a social and legal system that can be used to enforce exploitation

-It is the laws that protect ownership of objects, lands, profits

-The main form of private property is CAPITAL

-ITS SOCIAL

-It's not FIXED state of the world

-It is enforced by governments

-It determines who gets the surplus value

Subsistence

What you need to survive and reproduce

Exploitation

Expropriation (A state or authority taking property from the owner for public use or benefit) of the surplus from the workers who made it.

Can be visible or hidden!

Proletariat(Workers)

- Don't own means of production

-Sell capacity to work for wages

-Generate profits

Bourgeoisie(Capitalists)

-Own the means of production

-Pay wages

-Compete for profits

Nature of Work in Capitalism

It is hard to see exploitation

Commodity fetish

When we look at an object we think of its use and price, not the work that went into making it and the conditions that enabled for its creation.(Exploitation, and Child Labor)

Primitive accumulation

Initial sources of capital

Ex: "conquest, enslavement, robbery, murder" (from Capital),backed by the government..

-At home: Laws to force poor people to work.

-Abroad: extractive colonies• Settler colonies.

Ideology

A set of beliefs, values and principles that serve as a foundation for organizing a society or culture.

Legitimate Authority(Weber)

Weber explained, that it is power whose use is considered just and appropriate by those over whom the power is exercised.

Can be:

Traditional (Queen Elizabeth)

Charismatic (Nelson Mandela or Obama)

Legal Rational (The declaration of independence)

Bureaucracy

Explains the most efficient and rational way in which human activity can be organized and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies are necessary to maintain order, and maximize efficiency,

Disenchantment

-Rationalization is so effective that it takes over

-it takes the wonder out of life

it can't tell us what matters most

-it can lead for the search for extreme experiences(drugs) and charismatic leaders (cult leaders)

Rationalization

The process of increasing human control over nature, our social environment, and ourselves.

Power

The ability to realize your will even in the face of opposition

Domination

This is the concept of "the probability that certain specific commands will be obeyed".

-Increases when authority is seen as legitimate

Class

Refers to position in the economic order

-Access to property, credit, jobs

-Similar life chances based on position in markets

-Forms the basis for communal action (people joining forces for a shared goal)

Status

-Social order

-Based on honor & prestige

-Associated with consumption and lifestyle

Party

-"The distribution of power in a community"

-Interests are complex, vary by social context, and may result in "amorphous" action.

Racialized bureaucracy

The rules of bureaucracy are not applied uniformly, but are applied to people differently based on racial categories.

Class Consciousness

The awareness among members of a social class, particularly the working class, of their shared class interests and opposition to other classes, leading to efforts to transform social structures towards a classless society.

Fields

Social space is made up of fields, or arenas where people relate to one another

Examples of fields: Academia, specific sports, government/ politics, Hollywood, art communities, activist communities, religious communities, industries

Capital

Refers to any sort of resource a person can use to maintain or advance their position in a field or social space.

There are three main types.

Economic: income, wealth

Social: connections to other people

Cultural: acquisition of the culture of elites. (Language, Manners and mannerisms, Cultural references, Clothes and style)

Social Space

Made up of fields, or arenas where people relate to one another.

Habitus

Refers to the norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors of a particular social group (or social class). Also describes the set of skills and social resources that govern how people engage with the world.