Umich McGinn Soc 100 Unit 2 Exam

Factors that led to emergence of Sociology

Economic, Social, and Political

Economic Factors the led to the emergence of Sociology

Expansion of Commerce/Markets (Colonialism) and Industrialization

Social Factors that led to the emergence of Sociology

Urbanization and Decline of local communities

Political Factors that led to the emergence of Sociology

Rise of bureaucratic nation-states, Decline in power of the Church, and Feminism

History progresses forward specifically in the mode of production and relationships of people (Economic/Material Conflict)

Historical Materialism

The people who own the means of production and dominate the working class, according to Marx.

Bourgeoisie

The working class of people that will eventually rise up and seize control of the means of production, according to Marx.

Proletariat

"Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack this is required of him" - Karl Marx (Explicit)

(Marx) Alienation of Labor and Commodification of Labor

The process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, embodied or realized.

(Social) Action in the World

(Marx) Praxis

The real, material activity of labor by individual workers transformed into abstract labor as just another cost of process of production. Labor is only measured in terms of hours, an abstracted unit of time.

(Marx) Commodification of Labor

The subordination of both private and public realms to the logic of capitalism. Friendship, knowledge, women, etc. are understood only in terms of their monetary value or as commodities.

(Marx) Commodification

The tendency to attribute to commodities (or money) a power that inheres the labor expended to create commodities.

We used to have interpersonal relationships between the laborors, now commodities have interpersonal relationships with the market .

(Marx) Commodity Fetishism

"The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns... it has agglomerated populations, centralized means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands" - Karl Marx

Marx's View of Urbanization

"The bourgeoisie...has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation" - Karl Marx

The purpose of the family becomes to make money by serving as cogs in the Capitalist machine.

Marx's View of Family

"Modern industry has established the world-market, for which the discovery of America paved the way... the bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country" - Karl Marx

Economic globalization: the movement of Capitalism throughout the world

Marx's View of Globalization

Social Institutions (Religion, Education, Government) built on top of the foundation of the economic base. (Serves the Bourgeoisie)

(Marx) Social Super Structure

Marx: Economic Base

The Foundation of Super Structure

Education, religion, anything else but the economic, emerge from the economic base to serve the economic base and those who control it

(Marx) Super Structure

Marx: Economic Structure Timeline

Tribal, Communal, Feudal, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism

1. Jewish and Born in Germany

2. Went from Middle Class → Lower Class

3. Beginning of Modern Sociology, but wouldn't call himself a Sociologist

4. Frustrated Academic Career and expelled from multiple cities, eventually settling in London

5. Later has success in the international labor movement and as an author

Marx's Key Biographical Facts

Marx: Similarities with Hegel

Conflict is the basis of social change

Marx: Differences with Hegel

Marx believes in conflict of materials, Hegel believes in conflict of ideas

Marx: His Co-Author for the Communist Manifesto

Friedrich Engels

(Upper-Class and worked for his father's factory to support Marx's Family)

1. Theological (The world is run by supernatural powers).

2. Metaphysical (There are supernatural powers outside of society like Luck or Karma).

3. Scientific (True way the world acts through science).

(Comte) Evolution of World-views

Martineau: Key Ideas

Translated Comte and was the first to talk about the methods and principles of social science.

1. Upper-Class

2. Internalized the conflict between his parents and was unhappy at home as a young adult (Constant Depression)

3. Differed from Marx in terms of Class and Family Life

Weber's Key Biographical Facts

Weber: Who is Ritzer?

An American sociologist who wrote about the McDonaldization of society inspired by Weber's theories

Ritzer: Rationalization

What's driving society forward is the drive to be more efficient, scientific, mathematical.

Ritzer: McDonaldization

The process of rationalization when everything becomes uniform.

(McDonald's serves the exact same burger all over the country/world)

The Protestants made a lot of money, but didn't believe they should spend it on pleasurable things, so their wealth went back into the business and they became the owners. (Disproved Marx's Material Conflict Theory)

Doing things on earth but with a focus on heaven. (Worldly Asceticism)

(Weber) Protestant Work Ethic

Weber: 3 Types of Conflict

Class, Status, and Party

Weber: 4 Class Types

Capitalists, property owners, those who hold patents/copyrights, and laborers

Category of those with the same possession of goods or opportunity to make money.

Will only take action under certain cultural conditions and IF the members recognize their economic situation and its consequence.

There is no guarantee that the proletariat will gain "class consciousness" and rise up in revolt.

(Weber) Class Conflict

Category whose members share a characteristic of lifestyle that is honored or dishonored in society.

It may or may not be linked to class, and, if economic circumstances are stable, this will drive social realities.

(Weber) Status Conflict

This category is a self-selected group that seeks to influence a particular social issue or action.

They will have a specific program aimed at causing a particular action. Their issue may or may not be related to a specific class or status group.

(Weber) Party Conflict

Weber: What Drives Society Forward?

Rationality/Rationalization

Weber believes that when Marx talks about the evils of class domination, he should remember that some forms of power are legitimate authority. (Traditional, Legal, and Charismatic)

(Weber) Domination

Weber: Traditional Domination

Always had the power.

(Queen of England or the Pope)

Weber: Legal Domination

Gaining power through a legitimizing mechanism.

Weber: Charismatic Domination

Gaining power based on personality.

(Adolf Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr. - both had their office by legal means)

Robs our world of the beautiful, the imaginative, the supernatural, and anything that doesn't contribute to absolute efficiency (Disenchantment).

In economics, it gives us the spirit of capitalism: the drive to be efficient in making money.

In organizations, it produced bureaucracy: everything well defined, orderly, efficient and lifeless.

(Weber) Rationality

"We can't examine society as if people were chemicals; we need 'subjectivity' to understand how the people we are studying experience their situation." - Weber

Weber's way to conduct Social Science

Weber: Religion

One of the forces of ideas in Society that helps drive Society forward. (Protestant Ethic)

The school of social thought that was dominant from 1900s-1960s (Based on Durkheim's Thinking).

Society is more than the sum of its parts; each part of society has a purpose and contributes to the stability of the whole society.

(Durkheim) Functionalism

1. Society has a tendency toward equilibrium.

2. For a society to survive, certain functions must occur.

3. Social institutions and practices exist because they provide those functions for the larger society.

(Durkheim) Functionalism Principles

Social activities/functions that may support other functions/society.

Example: People going village to village to celebrate their festivities.

- Activity: Mating outside their own village

- Social Function: To meet potential spouses

(Durkheim) Latent Functions (Latency)

Because it explains things "as they are", it isn't competent in dealing with historical issues or conflict.

For the same reason, it is uncritical (too accepting) of the status quo.

(Durkheim) Limitations of Functionalism

Durkheim: Function of Crime

Crime offers society the opportunity to reinforce its norms by punishing the deviant, or change its norms and not punish the deviant.

Durkheim: What holds society together in the modern era?

Values

In traditional homogenous societies, integration or cohesion was known as this:

Example: A small town where everyone is the same and does the same thing.

(Durkheim) Mechanical Solidarity

In modern heterogenous societies, integration or cohesion is known as this:

We can contribute to society by playing a specialized role; our values have to be negotiated.

(Durkheim) Organic Solidarity

Factors external to the individual that exert an influence on the individual.

Example: Religious beliefs, currency, and factors such as "the practices followed in my profession"

(Durkheim) Social Facts

Durkheim used statistics to show that a profoundly personal act—Suicide—is not caused by psychological, biological, or "cosmic" factors.

It is actually influenced by "social facts" such as religious belief, nationalism, and family structure.

(Durkheim) Suicide

I place myself and my needs above the group.

(Example: I have this awful life and I want out; I don't care who I hurt or what happens when I go, I just want to go)

(Durkheim) Egoistic Suicide

I place the group above the self.

(Example: Suicide Bomber)

(Durkheim) Altruistic Suicide

Committing suicide because there are not enough norms or guidelines in your life.

(Examples: Leaving jail, getting a divorce, high school to college, return from military)

(Durkheim) Anomic Suicide

Too many guidelines and control that you see no way out.

(Example: Slavery or Prisoner of War who sees no way out of captivity)

(Durkheim) Fatalistic Suicide

Durkheim: What happened to Functionalism?

Durkheim: Why did sociologists in France want to understand social order? (Pampel)

They looked to understand function, and used that to help France move out of dysfunction.

Durkheim: In what field did Durkheim teach while developing his sociological ideas? (Pampel)

Durkheim: What was Durkheim's basic claim in "Elementary Forms of Religious Life"? (Pampel)

- We learn about ourselves through others.

- I imagine how you think about and react to me, and I have an emotional reaction to that.

- Idea of other' perception and judgment.

- Self feeling.

(Cooley) The Looking Glass Self

- Where the looking glass self happens.

- Family, playground, neighborhood.

- Where children are socialized.

- Cooley hoped that all of society would eventually be a big version of this. (Parallel between him and Marx)

(Cooley) Primary Groups

Cooley: Connection to University of Michigan

Grew up, graduated from, and taught at the University of Michigan.

- Religious background

- Influenced by both Cooley and Dewey

- Taught at U/M, then Chicago

- Writers block: published only articles

(Mead) Key Biographical Facts

Some philosophical conflicts in sociology frankly have no practical implications.

To resolve this, we should look for what the practical implication is, rather than the theoretical conflict.

(Attempt to make the intellectual pursuit more accessible to individual people)

(Mead) Pragmatism

(Pragmatic = Practical)

- The Social Development of Self

- The Self as Object

- The "I" and the "Me"

- Even Thinking is Social

- I think before I act (beyond Behaviorism and Structuralism)

(Mead) Key Theoretical Ideas

Self arises in the child's social experience, using:

- Language and Symbols

- Imitation

- Role play

- Games

- The "Generalized Other"

(Mead) The Social Development of Self

The self is reflexive:

- I can look at myself as though I am an object.

- What I see when I view myself is adopted from the way others see me.

- Cooley's "Looking Glass Self".

(Mead) The Self as Object

"I" is the creative, impulsive part of Self that changes the world around.

"Me" is the judgmental, controlling part of self hat has been imprinted by the world around.

"I" acts, "Me" constrains.

(Related to Freud's Id and Super-ego)

(Mead) The "I" and the "Me"

We think using symbols, words, language.

We learn the meaning of symbols, words, and language from others, therefore thinking is a socially trained skill.

(Example: The Inuit have many more words for snow than the English language, so they think about snow differently because of their social context.)

(Mead) Even Thinking is Social

Behaviorism (Psychology): Individuals react to stimuli.

Mead: Before acting, individuals consider the socially defined meaning of both the stimulus and their potential responses.

"Gestures" → An action calling forth a response from another (much the same as a stimulus).

"Significant Symbols" → Gestures that have a shared meaning for sender and receiver (speaker and listener).

(Mead) I Think Before I Act

- Individuals have a "Self" and are intentional.

- Social behaviors are based on individuals' interpretation of the situation.

- Social action is lodged in the individual.

- Societal organizations/units provide a frame work for action, and a fixed set of symbols.

- Sociology is studying the process of interpretation by which people determine their actions.

(Blumer) Symbolic Interaction

- Individuals are the media through which outside forces/ institutions operate.

- Social behaviors are not constructed, they are reactions.

- Social action is lodged in society or some unit of society.

- Societal organizations/units determine individual action.

- Sociology is the study of structures and their impact on actions. (Example: Functionalism and Organicism)

(Blumer) Traditional Sociology

- Born in Great Barrington, MA

- Sheltered from racism present in most of US

- Education: Fisk University, University of Berlin, Harvard (Harvard's 1st African-American PhD)

- First encountered harsh racism in college

- Discipline: African-American History and Economics, Sociology

- First taught at Wilberforce, then Penn

(Du Bois) Key Biographical Facts/Eras

Du Bois: Key Ideas from "Souls of Black Folk"

(Poetic) Color Line, Veil, and Double Consciousness

Socially constructed black/white division that is collective/individual, historical/existential, conscious/ irrational.

(Black people on one side, white people on the other)

(Du Bois) Color Line

A sense or being shut out from other race's experience.

Al Young: Whites can't see black experience, and not the other way around.

There is a screen that we see each other through which causes us to not perfectly be able to perceive the experience of the other race.

(Du Bois) The Veil

A sense of being perceived as an outsider by others that prevents formation of a unified self.

Example: Because I am black, I have my own reactions, then have to stop and think what the white reaction is going to be, and then reconcile those.

(Du Bois) Double Consciousness

1st African-American sociological work

Strong empirical work to demonstrate the problem of blacks did not stem from their own actions or inabilities, but from the difficulties they faced as former slaves in a world of white supremacy

If black people were given the same social benefit as white people they would do just as well and has proof of this assertion.

(Du Bois) "Philadelphia Negro"

The Failure of Reconstruction

- Early federal attempts to enforce racial equality in the South are abandoned.

- "Jim Crow" laws emerge through the region.

- The North is better, but still steeped in white supremacy.

The Eugenics Movement: Madison Grant (1865-1937)

- "The Passing of the Great Race", 1916

- Later used by Nazi officials to justify their racial policies.

- Wanted to purify America through selective breeding.

- Lobbied for strong immigration restriction and anti-miscegenation policies.

- Anti-miscegenation policies → interracial marriage

The Situation for African Americans in 1900

- Being black is not better than white, and white is not better than black (Refuting Racism).

- What's wrong with society at the moment and changing society (Social critique and Direct action).

- Generally theoretical rather than empirical.

- Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

- Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

First Wave of Race Theorists (1900-1925)

- Black nationalist

- Founder of United Negro Improvement Association and African American Communities League.

- "Back-To-Africa" Movement

- Wanted those of African ancestry to redeem Africa and for European colonial powers to leave it.

Marcus Garvey (First Wave of Race Theorists)

- A popular African American spokesperson

- Labeled an "accommodator" for cooperating with white people.

- Helped raise funds for black educational institutions.

- Much more accepting of white status quo and how African Americans can be successful in a white dominated society.

- His first autobiography: "Up From Slavery", 1901

Booker T. Washington (First Wave of Race Theorists)

- Saw black American culture as an American phenomenon (not African).

- Moral and cultural advance essential for racial uplift.

- More attention to impact of social conditions on the black psyche.

- How do these social situations (urban mostly) affect the identity thinking moral of African Americans.

- More use of standard sociological technique and empiricism and detached observation.

Second Wave of Race Theorists (1925-1945)

Robert Park: Melting Pot

Prior patterns of black culture will gradually be abandoned in favor of white culture.

- An individual who exemplified the Second Wave of Race Theorists.

- "The Negro Family in the United States" (1939)

- The social organization patterns of African American life and the stake they had in the urban arena.

E. Franklin Frazier (Second Wave of Race Theorists)

We need to understand the black experience in the context of African societies and people from Africa.

(Understanding colonialism as international racism)

(Asante) Afrocentrism

Sarah Susanah Willie: 3 Race Theories

Stratification Theory, Economic Theory (Conflict), and Social Construction Theory

Groups and individuals are arranged in a social hierarchy according to ascribed and acquired characteristics.

(Race is seen as advantaging or disadvantaging individuals)

(Sarah Susanah Willie) Stratification Theory

Race is an invention of capitalism that justifies some people becoming commodities while others become "owners".

(Sarah Susanah Willie) Economic (Conflict) Theory

Race changes depending upon social context.

Example: A black college student can study opera without feeling "unblack," even though it's typically seen as a Euro pursuit. That same black college student should be okay to listen to rap at home without feeling hypocritical.

(Sarah Susanah Willie) Social Construction Theory

Martineau: Feminism

The way women are expected to dress victimizes them.

(Corsets, Shoes, etc., done all for men)

Martineau: Historical Importance

Developed principles and methods of empirical social research and translated Comte.

"Society in America"

- A critique of America's failure to fulfill its promise

- A chapter on the "non-existence of women"

"How to Observe Morals and Manners"

- The principles and methods of empirical social research

- Examined class, religion, suicide, national character, domestic relations, women's status, criminology, and interaction of institutions and individuals

"Dress and Its Victims"

- The way women are expected to dress victimizes them

Martineau's Key Ideas from Reading

"Witness oppression by appealing to public conscious."

"A Voice from the South"

- People who are excluded are able to see things that people who are included cannot.

"The Colored Woman's Office"

- The (redemptive) power of the African American woman

- Clearly anticipates Standpoint Theory .

- Looks at intersection of race and gender, what it means to be an african american woman.

Anna Cooper's Key Ideas

Intersects concerns of feminism and mental health.

"The Yellow Paper"

- literally what she's looking at while she's trapped in a room in a depressed state on advice of her husband.

- Her conclusion: Her health was actually benefited by engaging in the OUTER world (not by locking herself up at home).

- Don't trust men to run your life

Charlotte Gilman's Key Ideas

After her divorce, she allowed her husband to take custody of her child.

- It was called unnatural → woman should be completely focused on her role as mother.

She got breast cancer and committed suicide at the end stages of the cancer (Euthanasia).

- Another way in which she failed in the eyes of society at the time.

Charlotte Gilman's Key Biographical Facts

Chicago Women's School of Sociology

- Looking at how the larger society responds to/blames poor people.

- Need to focus less on blaming the individual and look more at the social justice issues

- What are we doing that sets people up to have trouble and perhaps then to commit crimes?

"Democracy and Social Ethics"

- America must raise moral concerns from the personal to the social.

Jane Addams' Key Ideas

- She worked at a Hull House: A settlement house (community center) that she established in order to serve poor people, immigrants, and women/children.

- Everyday she was seeing how poverty in childhood could set many people up with an entire life of difficulty and in poverty.

- Described as the most famous women in America in her days.

Jane Addams' Key Biographical Facts