SOC 100 (Exam 3)

Family as structure

approach to family; group of persons defined by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption

• focuses on legal relationships

• used by US Census Bureau

• benefits those who qualify

• privileges marriage

Family as household

approach to family; constituting a single household

• residential unit where resources are shared

• ~1/3 of households are non-family

• families may cross households

• transnational families

Family as roles

approach to family; social roles of husband/wife, mother/father, son/daughter, brother/sister

• gender differentiation and heterosexuality

• scripts associated with roles

Family as interaction

approach to family; creating and maintaining a common culture

• families created through interaction

• family as pattern of shared activities (sharing meals, celebrating holidays, taking vacations) rather than roles

Reasons for declining marriage rates

• economic and labor market changes

• pursuit of higher education

• changing gender roles (e.g. more women in workforce)

• cultural shifts (e.g. cohabitation)

Nuclear family

family of father, mother, and 2.5 kids

• a product of its time (Cold War), but unusual in history

Extended family

kin networks extending outside or beyond the nuclear family

Endogamy

marriage to someone inside your social group

Exogamy

marriage to someone outside your social group

Monogamy

having one sexual partner/spouse at a time

Polygamy

having more than one sexual partner/spouse at a time

• polyandry: multiple husbands

• polygyny: multiple wives

Anti-miscenegation laws

laws prohibiting interracial marriage

• struck down in the U.S. with Loving v. Virginia (1967)

Functionalist view of family

families perform important tasks to maintain social order

• primary socialization

• personality stabilization

Symbolic interactionist view of family

family members continually negotiate, define, and redefine roles

• socialization is bidirectional (parents → children, children → parents)

Feminist view of family

family can be site of exploitation, loneliness, and inequality

• division of household labor

• unequal power dynamics

• carework/second shift

Cohabitation

living together in a committed relationship without being married

• less stable than marriage

• resulting marriage if higher education, absence of children, and higher family income

OED Triangle

relationship between origin, education, and destination and subsequent social mobility

Origin

OED triangle; social background (parents’ education, occupation, SES, etc)

Education

OED triangle; an individual’s educational attainment

Destination

OED triangle; social outcomes (occupation, income, social status, etc)

Hypothesis of persistent inequalities

idea that educational systems tend to reproduce—not eliminate—existing social inequalities, even as educational access expands

Coleman report

study that found family background and socioeconomic status had a greater impact on student achievement than education quality

• limitations of report: class size, tracking, and discipline (zero tolerance, school-to-prison pipeline, etc)

Homes and educational inequality

• poor children live in more unstable homes with more family disruption and violence

  • they have less cognitive stimulation and enrichment

  • they develop smaller brains (less gray matter)

Neighborhoods and education

• healthy and safe environments

• access to non-school resources

• social capital and role models

Peer groups and education

• academic norms and expectations

• behavioral influence

• motivation and engagement

Functions of schooling

• learning/knowledge

• socialization/assimilation

• credentialism

• hidden curriculum

Credentialism

overemphasis on credentials (e.g. college degrees) that signal social status/qualifications for a job, regardless of actual skills/knowledge

• reinforces educational institutions as gatekeepers to employment and social mobility

Hidden curriculum

nonacademic and covert socialization functions of schooling

ex: networking, advocating for yourself, punctuality

College wage premium

income gap between college graduates and high school graduates

College wealth premium

gap of accumulated net wealth between a college graduate and high school graduate

Importance of work

• money

• purpose

• structure

• relationships

• personal identity

Capitalism

economic system where:

• property + goods are privately owned

• private decisions determine investments

• competition in a free marketplace determines prices, production, and distribution of goods

Fordism

system of production pioneered by Henry Ford, which introduced the assembly line

Alienation (Marx)

condition where people are disconnected from and lack ownership of the products they make

• basic state of being in capitalist society

• individuals feel isolated, unworthy, and insignificant

• counter to human nature aka creativity, control over one’s activities, cooperation with others

Workers in a capitalist society

• lack ownership of the products they make

• are dehumanized by tedious + demeaning labor processes

• find themselves in competition over scarce jobs

Family capitalism

type of capitalism; enterprises owned + administered by entrepreneurial families

ex: Walmart (Walton family)

Managerial capitalism

type of capitalism; enterprises administered by managerial executives (e.g. CEOs) rather than owners

Welfare capitalism

type of capitalism; large corporations protect their employees from economic fluctuations

ex: employee benefit packages with health insurance, retirement plans, etc

Institutional capitalism

type of capitalism; consolidated networks of business leadership where corporations hold stock shares in one another, resulting in increased concentration of corporate power

Global capitalism

type of capitalism; transnational phase characterized by…

• global markets, productions, finances

• transnational class whose business concerns are global rather than national

• transnational systems of governance that promote global business interests

Corporation

legal entity that has legal personhood separate from its owners and shareholders

Transnational corporation

firm with power to coordinate + control operations in more than one country, even if it doesn’t own them

National

activities, policies, entities confined within a single country’s borders + pertaining to that specific nation

International

interactions, agreements, relationships between two or more countries, crossing national borders

Transnational

activities, entities, processes extending across multiple countries and operating beyond the limits of national boundaries

Market capitalization

total value of shares outstanding in a publicly-traded company

Gross domestic product (GDP)

value of all goods + services produced by a country in a year

UNCDTAD Transnationality Index (TNI)

• foreign sales as % of total sales

• foreign assets as & of total assets

• foreign employment as % of total employment

Market seeking

Why do corporations expand/extend operations outside their home countries?

• locate inside market to serve it

• domestic market saturated

• overcome tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade

• provide rapid after-sales service

• respond to customer demands, tastes, preferences

Asset seeking

Why do corporations expand/extend operations outside their home countries?

key resources are unevenly distributed

• knowledge

• labor productivity

• labor controllability

• wage costs

Offshoring

company moves/expands operations and jobs to overseas locations

Outsourcing

company buys goods or services previously done in-house from a supplier outside the firm

Offshore outsourcing

outsourcing goods and services offshore

Informal economy

economic activities not regulated by government; often occurs outside formal labor protections and taxation systems

Dualist perspective of informal economy

informal economy exists separately from formal economy and provides income for those excluded from formal employment

• marginal activities

• few links to formal economy income for the poor

• governments should create more jobs

Legalist perspective of informal economy

informal economy arises when entrepreneurs avoid burdensome government regulations and bureaucratic red tape

• daring micro-entrepeneurs

• more than mere survival

• hostile legal system leads self-employed to informality

• government should simplify legal procedures

Voluntarist perspective of informal economy

workers and businesses choose to participate in the informal economy to maximize profits and flexibility + avoid regulations and taxation

• not because of cumbersome registration procedures

• weigh costs of (in)formality

• create unfair competition for formal enterprises

Structuralist perspective of informal economy

informal economy is deeply linked to formal economy and reflects how capitalism exploits informal labor to reduce costs and increase competition

• subordinated economic units that reduce labor costs

• capitalism drives informality

• government should do more to regulate employment

Linkage of informal and formal economies

• sub-contracting and direct transactions

• day labor, contract workers, moonlighting

• myriad services that keep cities running

Territoriality

humankind is organized into discrete territorial, political communities called nation-states

Nation

people with a common identity that ideally includes a shared culture, language, and feeling of belonging

State

political apparatus (government institutions + civil service officials) ruling over a given territorial order, whose authority is backed by law and the ability to use force

Sovereignty

within territory, states/national governments claim supreme and exclusive authority over, and allegiance from, their people

Power

ability to carry out one’s own will despite resistance

• one, two, three-dimensional

One-dimensional power

ability to get people to do something through open conflict

• observable conflict among competing interests

• actual rather than potential power

ex: war

Two-dimensional power

ability to get what you want through suppressing conflict and limited the scope of debate

• confine decision-making to safe issues

• suppress challenges to values + interests of the decision maker

ex: employer threatens to fire an employee if they don’t do as they say

Three-dimensional power

ability to get what you want by influencing the preferences of others

• invisible influence + domination built into patterns of thought, relationships, institutional structure, cultural patterns

• A shapes and determines the very wants of B

ex: government uses propaganda to brainwash the people into believing a certain narrative

Indicators of power

• Who wins?

  • when there are arguments over issues

• Who has reputation for power?

  • who is identified by community surveys?

• Who benefits?

  • who has things valued in society?

• Who governs?

  • who sits in the seats considered powerful?

Authority

justifiable right to exercise power

• charismatic

• traditional

• legal-rational

Charismatic

type of legitimate authority; derived from the personal appeal of a leader

ex: Jesus Christ, Donald Trump, Jim Jones

Traditional

type of legitimate authority; authority derived from appeals to the past/traditions

ex: monarchs

Legal-rational

type of legitimate authority; authority based on legal, impersonal rules

ex: elected leaders

Bureaucracy

legal-rational organization/mode of administration that governs according to formal rules and roles + emphasizes merit-based advancement

• specialized roles + division of labor

• hierarchy of authority

• impersonality

• formal written communication

ex: Social Security, IRS, DMV

Disadvantages of bureaucracy

• red tape and inflexibility (paperwork, forms, etc)

• alienation

• goal displacement

• limited innovation

• dehumanization

Street-level bureaucrats

public service workers who interact directly with citizens through their jobs and have substantial choice in the execution of their work

• deliver policy through everyday interactions

• both providers of service and agents of social control

• discretion/judgements have major impacts

• numbers and influence increased through expansion of welfare state

Religion

system of beliefs, traditions, practices around sacred things; a set of shared stories that guides belief and action

Sacred

what inspires attitudes of awe and reverence among believers in a given set of religious ideas

• sacred texts: Bible, Torah, Quran

• sacred behaviors: Communion, Ramadan

• sacred places: Mecca, Jerusalem, Vatican City

• sacred people: Pope, Dalai Lama

Profane

what belongs to the mundane, everyday world

Theism

worship of a god/gods

ex: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism

Ethicalism

adherence to certain principles to lead a moral life

ex: Buddhism, Taoism

Animism

belief that spirits are part of the natural world

ex: totemism

Churches

large bodies of people belonging to an established religious organization

place where religious ceremonies take place

Sect

religious movements that break away from orthodoxy

Denomination

religious sect that becomes an institutionalized body with many followers

Cults

fragmentary religious groups where individuals are loosely affiliated and lack any permanent structure

ex: Jonestown

Religion as ideology (Marx)

Sociological theory of religion

• serves the ruling class interests by legitimizing social inequality

• dulls the pain of oppression (opium of the people)

• encourages acceptance of suffering by promising a better afterlife

• false consciousness—masks real material conditions

• would wither away under communism

Religion and social change (Weber)

Sociological theory of religion

• Protestantism is necessary for the emergence of capitalism

• motivates people to fulfill duty to God through disciplined, rational labor

• importance of predestination (heaven and hell)

Religion and social cohesion (Durkheim)

Sociological view of religion

• source of social solidarity and collective conscience—shared beliefs and ideas, ways of thinking and knowing

• reinforces group identity

• affirms moral community

Secularism

movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief toward a rational, scientific orientation

adopted by industrialized nations through separation of church and state

Belief, belonging, and behavior

• some people believe in god but don’t belong to a formal religion

• some belong to a church but don’t believe

• others belong but don’t attend, so don’t behave like church members

Civil religion

set of religious beliefs that society interprets as sacred

ex in US: presidential inaugurations, Pledge of Allegiance, Memorial Day, national cemeteries

Disestablishment

period during which political influence of established religions is successfully challenged

• 1791 ratification of Bill of Rights

• Migration of Catholics from 1890s-1920s

• 1960s-1970s and conservative reaction

Classical view of human impact on environment

• impacts less apparent due to fewer people

• takes for granted human domination of nature

Human exceptionalism paradigm

humans are superior to other species, exempt from ecological limits due to culture and tech; nature exists to serve human needs

Rise of environmental movement

• 1962: Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

• 1968: photo of Earth from the Moon

• 1970: first Earth Day and creation of EPA

• 1972: The Limits to Growth published and United Nations conference

New ecological paradigm

humans are part of, not separate from, the natural world; social systems are constrained by ecological limits

Environmental sociology

studies relationships between society and natural environment

• how social factors contribute to environmental problems

• how environmental issues affect society

Treadmill of Production

Marx theory; environmental degradation results from continuous economic growth driven by capitalist systems

• economic success depends on constant production and consumption

• prioritizes profit and growth over sustainability

• increased resource extraction, pollution, and ecological harm

• systemic, not individual

Inverted quarantine

anxiety about water, food, air, sun —> respond to threat with consumerism (buying sunscreen, organic foods, bottled water) and isolating from environment

Ecological modernization

environmental protection can be achieved through tech innovation and institutional reform within capitalist systems

• economic development and environmental sustainability can align

• green tech and policies can reduce ecological harm

• markets, states, and science drive change

• optimistic about solving environmental problems without radical system change