Elite Power - Chapter 10

Vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts of elite power, capital, and ideology as presented in Lisa Wade's Terrible Magnificent Sociology.

Social reproduction

The process by which society maintains an enduring character from generation to generation.

Power elite

A relatively small group of interconnected people who occupy top positions in important social institutions, characterized by C. Wright Mills as "the high and mighty."

Pluralist theory of power

The idea that U.S. politics is characterized by competing groups that work together through democratic processes to achieve their goals, where no one group has outsized influence.

Elite theory of power

The idea that a small group of networked individuals controls the most powerful positions in our social institutions.

Social capital

The number of people we know and the resources they can offer us.

Command posts

The name C. Wright Mills gave to positions of power within social institutions.

Interlocks

Formal connections between social institutions, such as when a business leader holds a position in another organization.

Social closure

A process by which advantaged groups preserve opportunities for themselves while restricting them for others.

Economic capital

Funds and money used to provide opportunities, such as an elite education.

Cultural capital

Symbolic resources that communicate one’s social status and tell a story about the kind of person one is.

Institutional cultural capital

The symbolic significance of endorsements from recognized organizations, such as an accredited college degree.

Objectified cultural capital

The symbolic significance of things or objects we own, such as modern art or books.

Embodied cultural capital

The symbolic significance of our bodies, including how we look, what we know, and our specific skills or capacities.

Fit

A term used by Pierre Bourdieu to describe the feeling that our particular mix of cultural capital matches our social context.

Ethnography

A research method that involves careful observation of naturally occurring social interaction, often as a participant.

Field

The place or places where ethnographers conduct participant observation.

Field notes

Descriptive accounts of what occurred in the field, alongside tentative sociological observations.

Ideology

A cultural force that convinces people to buy into both who is at the top of a hierarchy and the hierarchy itself.

Coercion

A strategy identified by Antonio Gramsci where political leaders act in overtly oppressive ways to make populations accept their rule.

Persuasion

A strategy identified by Antonio Gramsci where people are coaxed into accepting a state of affairs, even one that does them harm.

Manufacturing consent

Antonio Gramsci's term for the work needed to convince people to agree to conditions they might otherwise oppose.

Cultural hegemony

A state of power maintained primarily by persuasion.

Hegemonic ideologies

Shared ideas about how human life should be that are used to manufacture consent to existing social conditions and support the interests of the ruling class.

Organic solidarity

Emile Durkheim's term for social cohesion created by a shared effort and interdependence inherent in a division of labor.

Mechanical solidarity

Social cohesion that comes from familiarity and similarity, typical of foraging ancestors where people fit into the group rather than standing out.

Individualism

The idea, strong in the United States, that people are independent actors responsible primarily for themselves.

Collectivism

The idea that people are interdependent actors with responsibilities primarily to the group.

Xenophobia

Prejudice against people defined as foreign.