Sociology 1B (SOCI5122/w) - Key Concepts and Vocabulary

A comprehensive vocabulary set covering the glossary terms, core examination concepts, and instructional parameters for Sociology 1B (SOCI5122/w).

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, wage-labour and commodity production for sale, exchange, and profit.

Status

The relative position of an individual within a group, or of a group within a society; though it can refer to high or low standing, it is often used to imply a position of prestige.

Education

A key social institution analyzed sociologically in terms of its theoretical frameworks, historical background (during and post-Apartheid), and role in broader societal development.

Meritocracy

A social system in which individuals advance, achieve social status, or receive rewards based on their ability, talent, and effort rather than inherited wealth or social background.

Sick role

A sociological concept defining the set of institutionalised social expectations, rights, and obligations associated with being medically ill in society.

Tracking

The educational practice of sorting or separating students into specific curricular pathways or instructional groups based on perceived ability or academic achievement.

Labelling

A sociological process where evaluative tags or categories applied by authorities (such as teachers) shape an individual's self-concept, behavior, and social perception.

Marxist Approach to Health

A theoretical perspective asserting that medical institutions and the distribution of healthcare in a capitalist society reflect the exploitative characteristics and economic priorities of capitalism.

Weber's Theory of Social Inequality

A multidimensional sociological perspective explaining social stratification through three distinct but interconnected components: class (economic position), status (social prestige), and party (political power).

Bureaucracy

An impersonal system of administration, management, or governance characterised by hierarchical structuring, rigidity, top-down organisation, written rules defining tasks and duties, and the employment of impartial officials to achieve efficiency.

Caste

An internally complex hierarchical system of social stratification characterised by hereditary membership and endogamy (marriage within a social group or class) which orders the lives of Indian Hindus.

Class

A system of ordering society whereby people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status, sharing similar experiences, orientations, and habits.

Cohabitation

Generally refers to people who, regardless of gender, live together without being validly married to each other.

Colonialism

The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Deviance

The fact or state of diverging from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behaviour.

Dysfunctional

Deviating from the normal and expected function; adversely affecting the operation of a system.

Economic Growth

A positive change or rate of improvement in the level of productive or service-providing activity.

Emancipation

The fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation.

Exploitation

For Karl Marx, the technical term describing the expropriation of economic value from the expenditure of workers’ labour power.

First World

The advanced capitalist industrialised economies of the capitalist world system.

Fordism

The system of mass production pioneered by the Ford Motor Company in the early 20th century, as well as the typical postwar mode of economic growth and associated political and social order in advanced capitalism.

Fundamentalism

A religious movement or point of view that strictly holds to non-negotiable principles and is hostile to alternative views.

Globalisation

The multiplicity of linkages, interconnections, and interdependencies that transcend nation-states comprising the modern world system and affect most of the world’s inhabitants.

Global Economy

The total under capitalism of all productive, trade, and financial activity in the world.

Hegemony

A concept initially used by Antonio Gramsci describing how a ruling class maintains power not only by economic authority, but also by exercising intellectual, moral, and ideological influence in civil society to persuade people of its legitimacy.

Idealism

Sociological approaches that focus on the meaning, ideas, values, and beliefs behind social interaction; a philosophy stressing the priority of ideas in social explanation.

Identity

A disputed term in sociology generally referring to one’s sense of self: who you are, where you come from, and the various factors impacting self-understanding and self-definition.

Industrial Revolution

A period of major industrialisation during the late 1700s and early 1800s that saw the mechanisation of agriculture and textile manufacturing and a revolution in power, including steamships and railroads.

Marxism

Theoretical and political perspectives arising from the thought of Karl Marx.

Perception

The capacity and action of the senses and the mind in apprehending and appropriating some phenomenon; a condition for any form of knowledge.

Pluralism

The claim that liberal democratic capitalist society is marked by actual democracy in which power is diffused, buttressed, and safeguarded by institutional mechanisms.

Radical Elitism

The belief or attitude that individuals forming an elite (via ancestry, intrinsic quality, intellect, wealth, or special skills) are more constructive to society and deserve greater authority than others.

Social Cohesion

The condition, varying in degree, of being linked and bound together into a group of individuals; interchangeably used with solidarity.

Social Differentiation

Distinctions and identifiable differences between social groups.

Socialism

A future transitional form of society based on freedom, equality, and cooperation, and the absence of exploitation, domination, and oppression.

Sociological Imagination

The ability to place and link personal life processes within and relate them to the broader social and historical context.

Totalitarianism

A highly centralised political and social system in which the state maintains complete control and exercises absolute authority over its citizens.

Urban Growth

The growth in the urban population expressed either in absolute numbers or as a percentage growth rate.

Working Class

The social class performing physical and practical cognitive work in capitalist societies, who do not own or control economic resources.

Arc

The digital learning management space used by The Independent Institute of Education (IIE) to guide, pace, host materials for, and evaluate students in modules such as SOCI5122/w.

Integrated Curriculum Engagement (ICE)

A continuous assessment requirement in SOCI5122 involving a minimum of 4 activities that constitutes a 10% weighting towards the final module mark.

Social Inequality

The structured patterns of unequal distribution of economic goods, power, and opportunities across society, which the course distinguishes analytically from poverty.

Value of the Sociology of Education

The discipline's capacity to reveal how schooling functions as a social institution, transmitting norms and values while systematically reproducing or contesting broader societal inequalities.

Relationship Between Social Class and Health

The structural pattern wherein socioeconomic standing dictates exposure to environmental risks, life expectancy, morbidity rates, and access to quality medical services.

Biomedical Model of Health

A framework conceptualising illness strictly as biological pathology or physical malfunction, largely isolating disease from broader economic and social environments.

Marx's Theory of Class

A materialist perspective defining social division primarily by ownership of the means of production, establishing an antagonistic relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Four Types of Social Stratification Systems

Historical models of social ranking: slavery (ownership of people), caste (closed hereditary hierarchy), estate (feudal land-based strata), and class (economically based open hierarchy).

Structural Functionalist Perspective on Social Inequality

The theoretical view asserting that social ranking is universal and necessary, functioning to incentivize the most talented individuals to undergo training and fulfill the most demanding, vital roles.

Marxist Perspective on Social Inequality

The theoretical approach arguing that stratification is neither natural nor beneficial to all, but rather reflects the economic exploitation and subjugation of workers by capital owners.

Corrective Interventions for Social Inequality in South Africa

Targeted state policies aimed at dismantling systemic post-apartheid disparities, such as broad-based social grants, progressive taxation, Employment Equity, and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE).