Chapter 8 - Politics 6th Edition

Gemeinschaft

(German) Community; social ties typically found in traditional societies and characterized by natural affection and mutual respect.

Gesellschaft

(German) Association; the loose, artificial and contractual bonds typically found in urban and industrial societies.

Class consciousness

A Marxist term denoting a subjective awareness of a class's objective situation and interests; the opposite of 'false consciousness'.

Social Class

A group of people who share a similar social and economic position.

Postindustrial society

A society based on service industries, rather than on manufacturing industries, and accompanied by a significant growth in the white-collar workforce.

Atomism

The tendency for society to be made up of a collection of self-interested and largely self-sufficient individuals, operating as separate atoms.

Underclass

A poorly defined and politically controversial term that refers, broadly, to people who suffer from multiple deprivation (unemployment or low pay, poor housing, inadequate education, and so on)

Knowledge economy

An economy in which knowledge is the key source of competitiveness and productivity, especially through the application of information and communications technology.

Network

A means of coordinating social life through loose and informal relationships between people or organizations, usually for the purpose of knowledge dissemination or exchange.

Information society

A society in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information are core economic and cultural activities, underpinned, in particular, by the wider use of computerized processes and the internet.

Individualism

The belief in the supreme importance of the individual over any social group or collective body. Each individual has a separate, unique identity. All individuals share the same moral status as 'persons', irrespective of other factors.

Economic individualism

The belief that individuals are entitled to autonomy in matters of economic decision-making; economic individualism is loosely linked to property rights.

Anomie

A weakening of values and normative rules, associated with feelings of isolation, loneliness, and meaninglessness.

Social reflexivity

The tendency of individuals and other social actors to reflect, more or less continuously, on the conditions of their own actions, implying higher levels of self-awareness, self-knowledge, and contemplation.

Identity politics

A style of politics that seeks to counter group marginalization by embracing a positive and assertive sense of collective identity.

Eurocentrism

A culturally biased approach to understanding that treats European, and generally Western, ideas, values, and assumptions as 'natural'.

Consciousness raising

Strategies to remodel social identity and challenge cultural inferiority by an emphasis on pride, self-worth, and self-assertion.

Postcolonialism

A trend towards exposing and overturning the cultural and psychological dimensions of colonial rule. Recognizes that inner subjugation can persist among formerly colonized peoples even long after the structures of colonialism have been removed.

Multiculturalism

The cultural diversity arising from the existence within a society of two or more groups whose beliefs and practices generate a distinctive sense of collective identity.

Value pluralism

The theory that there is no single, overriding conception of the 'good life' but, rather, a number of competing and equally legitimate conceptions.

Interculturalism

An approach to diversity which strongly emphasizes the benefits of dialogue and interaction between cultures.

Equality feminism

A form of feminism that aspires to the goal of gender equality, whether this is defined in terms of formal rights, control of resources, or personal power.

Gender

Refers to social and cultural distinctions between males and females (as opposed to 'sex'). A social construct, usually based on stereotypes of 'feminine' and 'masculine' behaviour.

Difference feminism

A form of feminism that holds that there are deep and possibly ineradicable differences between women and men, whether these are rooted in biology, culture or material experience.

Hybridity

A condition of social and cultural mixing; the term derives from cross-breeding between genetically dissimilar plants or animals.

Intersectionality

A framework for the analysis of injustice and social equality that emphasizes the multidimensional or multifaceted nature of personal identity and of related systems of domination.

Transgender

A term denoting or relating to people who do not conform to prevailing expectations about gender, usually by crossing over or moving between gender identities.

Secularism

The belief that religion should not intrude into secular (worldly) affairs, usually reflected in the desire to separate the state from institutionalized religion.

Secularization thesis

The theory that modernization is invariably accompanied by the victory of reason over religion and the displacement of spiritual values by secular ones.

Islamism

(also called 'political Islam' or 'radical Islam') is a politico-religious ideology, not just belief in Islam. (1) Society should be reconstructed with the ideals of Islam. (2) The modern secular state should be replaced with an 'Islamic state'. (3) The West and Western values are corrupt and corrupting.