Sociology Exam 2

Premodern Thought

A belief in supernatural sources of truth and a commitment to traditional practices

Nation-States

Large territories governed by centralized powers that grant or deny citizenship

Agriculture

The practice of cultivating crops and rearing animals

Modern thinks replaced ? with ?

Replaced faith and tradition with science and progress

Modern Thought

A belief in science as the sole source of truth and the idea that humans can rationally organize societies and improve human life

Max Weber

from Germany; experienced modernization through industrial revolution

Rationalization

The process of embracing reason and using it to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of human activities

Modernity didn’t end religion, but gave us ?

organized religion

Comparative Sociology

A research method that involves collecting and analyzing data about two or more cases to be compared and contrasted

Case

An instance of a thing of interest; it can be a person, group, or event

What is comparative sociology used for

Asking whether social forces reliably produce predicted outcomes

Social Organizations

Formal entities that coordinate collections of people in achieving a stated purpose

Divisions of Labor

Complicated tasks broken down into smaller parts and distributed to individuals who specialize in narrow roles

Bureaucracies

Organizations with formal policies, strict hierarchies, and impersonal relations

Weber argued authority is…

rational legal, derived from logical principles

Mcdonaldization is coined by? Believed?

George Ritzer; that rationalization was continuing to escalate

Mcdonaldization def? maximization of what 3 features?

1. 1. Efficiency

2. 2. Predictability

3. 3. Calculability

Process by which more and more parts of life are made to be ^^ and controllable by nonhuman technologies

Mcdonaldization Examples

• 1. School

• 2. Hospitals

• 3. Churches

Postmodern Thought

A rejection of absolute truth (whether supernatural or scientific) in favor of countless partial truths, and a denunciation of the narrative of progress; doubt truth

Postmodern thought on truth

only thing resembling truth is individual experience, thus there as many truths as individuals. AKA no ones POV is more valid than someone else

Premodern Thought: Source of truth, authority, and Nature of identity?

1. 1. Source of Truth: Supernatural

2. 2. Authority: Traditional

3. 3. Nature of Identity: Pregiven

Modern Thought: Source of truth, authority, and Nature of identity?

1. 1. Scientific

2. 2. Rational Legal

3. 3. discoverable

Postmodern Thought: Source of truth, authority, and Nature of identity?

1. 1. Personal experience

2. 2. No ultimate authority

3. 3. Always in flux

Gig work

A segment of labor market in which companies contract with individuals to complete one short-term job at a time

Social Insitutions

Widespread and enduring patterns of interaction with which we respond to categories of human need

Social Institutions are really just? (2)

1. 1. An idea (human need)

2. 2. A related set of formal and informal practices (Patterns of interaction)

ex. Religion, economy, education, family, law

Contemporary areas are? and?

Institutionalized, meaning they are a social institution

Family

An institution we’re born into that provides interpersonal intimacy, childrearing, and elder care

Education

An institution we’re entered into as kids that socialize and train us to be next generation of workers

Economy

An institution that we participate in throughout our lives that regulates the production and consumption of goods and services

Law

An institution were subject to that sets formal rules, settles disputes, and administers criminal punishment

State

The nature of the societies we live in is determined by these institutionalized patterns of interaction that involve governing

Health

A state of physical, mental, and social well being, and not just absence of disease

Sick role

Societal expectations about the attitudes and behavior of a person viewed as being ill

Conflict Theory: Medicine is social control

Medicine serves as an agent of social control by retaining absolute jurisdiction over healthcare

Social Determinants of health? Ex.?

non-medical factors that affect health, well-being, and quality of life. Includes race, status, gender, sexuality

Critiques of sick role

that one can have a constant mental illness that will always affect them, and they wont “go back to healthy”. Lack of societal support for other illnesses that don’t aid.

Ideologies

Shared ideas about how human life should be organized; both prescriptive and proscriptive

Social Structure

The entire set of interlocking social institutions in which we live; institutions create this structure and framework

Structural Functionalists argue?

Social institutions and social structure make society work

Conflict Theorists argue?

That social structure isn’t equally helpful to everyone; believes the structure gives opportunities and constraints

Structural Positiion

The features of our lives that determine our mix of opportunities and constraints

Structural Position Durkheim

Observed ppl with certain social identities are more likely to commit suicide that others

Durkheim 4 types of suicide attributed to structural factors

1. 1. Egoistic Suicide: kms by low integration

2. 2. Altruistic Suicide: kms by high integration

3. 3. Fatalistic Suicide: Kms by high regulation

4. 4. Anomic Suicide: Kms by low regulation

Egoistic Suicide

Social Institutions fail to ensure social cohesion and ppl are left isolated from their group

Altruistic Suicide

People are socialized to identify with the group instead of the self and may choose to sacrifice themselves for it

Fatalistic Suicide

A person’s opportunities are blocked by rigid and oppressive institutions, leading them to think death is the only way out

Anomic Suicide

Institutions fail, resulting is a normlessness that makes a person feel that life is meaningless

Institutional Discrimination

Widespread and enduring practices that persistently disadvantage some kinds of people while advantaging others

Consequence of widespread institutional discrimination is?

Social Stratification

Social Stratification

A persistent sorting of social groups into enduring hierarchies

Loose coupling

The institutional myths and the organizational practices are loosely connected

Tight Coupling

The institutional myths and the organization practices are tightly connected

Recoupling

When institutional myths and org. practices go from loose to tight coupling

Epistemic Distress

A displacement of meaning, certainty, and expectation; a collapse of meaning

The myth incarnate

because of no child left behind (NCLB), Costen elementary went through recoupling where institutional myths (NCLB) and organizational practices (what was happening in classrooms) went from loose to tightly coupled. Caused epistemic distress and reconstructing of meaning

Religion is

an organized and integrated set of beliefs, behaviors, and norms centered on basic social needs and values; social institution

Weber thoughts on religion

precipitator to social change; noticed that protestant values of working hard to be successful shifted into capitalism

Conflict theory: religion as social control? which sociologist?

Marx believed religion impeded social change and encouraged oppressed people to focus on worldly concerns rather than their own poverty or exploitation; described it as opiate for the masses

Family

social institution is all cultures; most basic social unit

Nuclear Family

Married couple and their unmarried children all living together

Conflict theorists: Family contributes to social injustice

oppress women’s sexual expression and mate selection and other opportunities extended to men

Functionalists 6 major functions of family

1. 1. Reproduction

2. 2. protection

3. 3. socialization

4. 4. regulation of sexual behavior

5. 5. affection and companionship

6. 6. provision of social status

Capital

The resources we use to get things we want and need

Economic Capital

Financial resources that are or can be converted into money

Measure economic capital with? (2)

1. 1. Income: steady source of money

2. 2. Wealth: money sitting in bank or assets

Economic Elite

the minority of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth

Caste systems in social stratification

People stayed in the stratified layer of society they were born in

Feudal systems in social stratification

rich and powerful ppl born into nobility reigned over peasant class

Enslavement systems in social stratification

an economic elite was allowed to legally own a class of humans and exploit them for their labor

Social Mobility

opportunity to move up or down in the economic hierarchy

When did class system emerge

with industrialization

Wage

cash payments given to workers in exchange for labor

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership of the resourced used to create wealth and the right of individuals to personally profit

Proletariat

A class of people who are employed by others and work for a wage

Bourgeoise

A class of people who employ the workers

Who termed proletariat and bourgeoise

Marx

Means of production

Resources that can be used to create wealth

Labor

the work people can do with their bodies and minds

Alienation

The feeling of dissatisfaction and disconnection from the fruits of ones labor

Crisis of capitalism

A coming catastrophic implosion from which capitalism would never recover

Proletariat vs Bourgeoisie

B wants to pay less and have more control, proletariat wants more flexibility and higher wages; P became increasingly poor and unable to purchase goods

Class Consciousness

An understanding that members of a social class share economic interests

Socialism

An economic system based on shared ownership of resources used to create wealth to distribute by governments for benefit to all

Free market capitalism

A capitalist system in gilded age with little or no government regulation; built monopolies

Labor Unions

Associations that organize workers so they can negotiate with their employers as a group; proletariat response

The New Deal

Laws passed to protect proletariat and rein in bourgeoise

Social safety net

a patchwork of programs intended to ensure that the most economically vulnerable do not go without basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter

Living wage

An income that allows full-time workers to afford their basic needs

Welfare capitalism

A capitalist economic system with some socialist policy aimed at distributing profits of capitalism more evenly; made mostly white middle class

Contradictory class locations

positions in the economy are similar to proletariat and bourgeoise

Service and information economy

an economy centered on jobs in which workers provide services or work with information; in the new gilded age

Precariat

A new class of workers who live economically precarious lives

Marx: Economic Inequality

Unregulated capitalism worsens economic inequality

Economic inequality is needed because?

it motivates people to work for the common good; if no econ. inequality, there would be free riders

? americans will spend a year below poverty line

2/3

Working Poor

People in the labor force who earn poverty-level wages

Protestant Work Ethic

The idea that ones character can and should be measured by ones dedication to paid work; gives Americans a religious faith is working hard.

Stereotypes of poor people

portray them as lazy, untrustworthy, and greedy cheats with too many children

Welfare Queen stereotype

stereotype and myth based off of one black con artist; she cheated social services of 1 million dollars, and this story was used by ronald reagan to dissolve welfare