Purposes of formal education
•Incorporating new members into society
•Sorting people into various occupations
•Increasing economic development
Hidden curriculum
the unstated standards of behavior or teachers’ expectations
Human Capital
the stock of knowledge, skill and habits which they can use to do productive labor later in life
credentialism
“refers to the requirement of certain specific degrees or certificates before you can be considered for a particular job.”
Soft skills
also enhance job prospects: knowing how to dress, act and present oneself at work, and being able to work well with other people
human capital theory
argues that education provides knowledge and skills that employers reward because it makes workers more productive; soft skills may also play a role
allocation theory
sees education as channeling people into positions and institutions that offer different opportunities; the role of the school system is to sort people out so that employers can assess who is likely to be successful
educational homogamy
individuals are more likely to marry others with similar education levels
Effects of social class on education
-affects where we go to school and what happens to us once there
-Lower class students encounter less-prepared teachers, are exposed to less-valuable curricula, are taught less, and are expected to do less work in classroom and home
-Social class is related to the neighborhoods where people live, and neighborhoods are related to the funding available to schools, and funding is related to school quality
-Children from higher SES parents are better equipped to perform better in school
gender and racial differences in education
-“Racial differences in educational achievement can be explained by historical and current systems of racial inequality, including neighborhoods, families, schools, and peers which become important for older children.”
-In spite of desegregation efforts more than 40 percent of blacks and Latinos in 2010 were attending hyper-segregated schools where minority students comprised more than 90 percent of the student body. And more than half of these hyper-segregated schools have poverty rates above 90 percent.
-Affluent and middle class white families have often chosen to move away from urban school districts to suburban districts that are perceived as having better schools
-“In poorer nations, especially those with large portions of the population working in rural agriculture, or countries with large Muslim populations, girls are considerably less likely than boys to obtain even an elementary school education.”
demography/demographer
-social scientists who study populations and population trends
-research helps us understand why population growth is not as much of a problem as Malthus anticipated; it also helps us understand other challenges faced by societies today, such as the aging of the U.S. population
Census
a count of everyone (or everything) residing in a particular location; a national census attempts to count all persons living in a country at a particular time; they are very costly
Reasons to study population
analysis helps estimate future social trends helpful for planning (e.g., how many schools, etc.)
2)important for determining political boundaries (e.g, each district in House of Representatives has approximately 600,000 people)
trends can have a huge effect on national and regional economies (e.g., labor demand, consumption, healthcare costs)
population trends
Racial and ethnic composition
Marriage and the family (marriage and divorce rates, single-parent families, etc.)
Employment issues (changes in working-age population may affect employment and wages)
Life expectancy
Fertility
the birthrate is typically measured by the number of live births per woman of childbearing years
mortality
the death rate
migration
the movement into and out of a region or country
demographic transitions (1st, 2nd)
1st: the transition in a country or region from a period of high fertility and high mortality to a period of low fertility and low mortality
total fertility rate
defined by the number of children an average woman has in her lifetime
Replacement fertility
(the number of children per woman necessary to replace the population; about 2.1 children per woman)
age pyramids
plot the size of the population in each age group for men and women; lower age groups are at the bottom
population momentum
Occurs because the cohort of women of childbearing age may still be large or growing even though the fertility rate declined.
Influences on fertility
1) Declines in infant mortality can cause fertility decline (couples need to have fewer children if more of them survive) [but then why do countries with low mortality still differ in their levels of fertility, like the U.S. and Japan?]
2)Economic development causes the fertility decline (see Figure 21.5). But why? The education of women is particularly important. Development may also lead parents to have higher aspirations for children.
epidemiology
the study of health-related events in populations, their characteristics, their causes, and their consequences.”
Epidemiological transition
refers to the transition of a population from health conditions primarily involving infectious disease… to health conditions primarily involving chronic disease…”
“Baby boom”
refers to the period following World War II from 1946 to 1964, during which the U.S. experienced a temporary spike in fertility
cohort
refers to persons born during the same time period
life expectancy
is defined as the average number of years a population at some age can expect to live”
Markets
places where buyers and sellers exchange goods and services
social factors that affect markets
-establish the trust necessary to carry out economic exchanges.
-important for spreading information related to markets
-person’s chances of getting a job are influenced by who they know; interestingly someone’s first-degree connections are less important than second-degree connections (friends of friends) for securing a job
-Hiring does not simply involve an employer choosing from among the best candidates; referrals and recommendations are key
social network/social ties
composed of ties between people: family/kinship ties, friends, colleagues, classmates, etc. Need these to establish the trust necessary to carry out economic exchanges.
power as it relates to markets
-people’s biases affect their behavior in the market
-Employers look at characteristics such as the age, gender, race and ethnicity of a job candidate not just merit
-ex. firms can often get better deals on the same product
-Governments set many of the rules for markets, and they are essential for their proper functioning.
organizations
“a group engaged in a specific activity that has an identifiable purpose or goal and that has an enduring form of association that is independent of the people involved in it at any one moment”
bureaucracy
where rules are written down and defined roles are clear
Can provide strength and stability, but it can also create new problems
organizational isomorphism
refers to the process whereby organizations in the same field tend to become increasingly similar to each other over time (DiMaggio and Powell 1983).”
deskilling of the labor process
in which jobs are made simpler and workers become interchangeable. This way workers don’t have the upper hand
features of good jobs
•Autonomy: How much does this job allow me to control my activities versus being constantly told what to do?
•Status: Do people admire and respect me because I do this job?
•Trust: How much does my employer trust me?
•Level of skill and importance of credentials needed: Am I using my skill set?
•Job security: How likely will I be able to stay employed?
government job regulation
Some of the things that unions do can be done by government regulations (work hours, overtime pay, when workers can be fired, etc.)
The U.S. has comparatively weak government regulations regarding workers’ rights (there are minimum wage laws, rules about overtime pay, rules about fair treatment of workers in hiring and firing) \n
Inequality
the unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities
social stratification
examines inequalities among individuals and groups (how they are separated into “strata”). It is the systematic study of inequality
income
refers to the receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period (a year, month, week, day); it includes income from wages, investments, transfers from government (e.g., Social Security), transfers from relatives, etc.
Wealth
is the net value of the assets (minus debts) owned by the individual or family; the most common wealth asset is real estate. Wealth differences are usually much larger than income differences (figure 10.2)
Consumption
how much individuals or families actually consume in a given time period, can also be used to measure inequality
features of a social class
Have conflicting economic interests with other classes
2)Share similar life chances
3)Have similar attitudes
4)Have the potential to engage in collective action
Four reasons for increase in income inequality
technology,
the decline of manufacturing,
globalization,
government policies
Social mobility
refers to the socioeconomic movement across generations: to what extent do parents and their children have similar social and economic positions?
factors that affect social mobility
•Labor markets: when good jobs are expanding there will be more mobility
•Government policies, especially with regards to education and labor market regulation, can create opportunities for mobility: Governments decide whether disadvantaged children should receive compensatory assistance (e.g., Head Start), and whether schools in poor areas are as good as ones in wealthy areas
Poverty
Established by the government, it is the minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities. Anyone below this threshold is considered to be in poverty.
Economic restructuring
Changes in the way the economy, firms, and employment relations are organized.
Population growth
The annual average rate of change of population size, for a given country, territory, or geographic area, during a specified period.
megacity
A city with a population over 10 million
megaregion
A geographically continuous urban area containing at least two very large cities and their surrounding towns, which are connected through economic and transportation infrastructure
Suburb
Traditionally, a residential enclave within commuting distance of a city
redlining
The determination by governments and banks that neighborhoods with high percentages of racial minorities were ineligible for mortgage loans. Has been illegal since the 1970s
Suburban sprawl
The continuing geographic spread of sparse residential areas
edge cities
A concentrated area of business, shopping, and entertainment just outside of the historical urban centers of commerce. They differ from classic suburbs in having a considerable amount of land devoted to economic activities, not just residences.
model of urban ecology
An approach to the study of cities, social change, and urban life introduced into sociology by the Chicago School to explain how different social groups within cities compete over scarce resources. This competition was thought to promote efficiency and social equilibrium, as distinct sectors of the population adapted to their local environments.
Ernest Burgess
concentric zone” model of urban community structure. He saw cities as a series of rings spreading out from the center of the city, which he identified as the central business district (CBD), or “The Loop” in their map of Chicago.
City as a “growth machine”
A coalition of business interests and city boosters who work together with local governments to attract residents and economic investment to a particular area.
Gentrification
The process that occurs when neighborhoods undergo a process of change where new investment, new people, and new establishments move into and alter the character of the neighborhood.
Community
A group of individuals who interact with and often support each other on the basis of a shared aspect of personal identity. Communities of people often live in close proximity, but the term can apply to communities linked in other ways.
social ties
The various types of connections individuals make with other people.
Social capital
The resources available to a particular individual through his or her connections to others.
urban renewal
The attempt to improve impoverished areas by tearing down existing structures and even whole neighborhoods. In the mid-twentieth century, at the height of the movement, many working-class neighborhoods across America were destroyed, in many cases benefiting real estate developers and business interests who moved in and redeveloped the areas.
Great migration
The move of African Americans from the rural south to the industrial north in the first half of the twentieth century
1968 fair housing act
prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status.
segmented assimilation
The various pathways by which immigrant groups become part of the larger social fabric; instead of the pattern where the children of immigrants are economically upwardly mobile and their ethnic difference dissipates with future generations, new forms of assimilation include economic instability and continuing traditional ethnic practices.
ethnic enclaves
A place where people of a particular ethnicity live in high concentration.
Global city
A city that contains a disproportionate amount of global business activity, particularly when connected by international finance, trade, culture, and communication to other cities around the world. Because it acts as a node at the center of global economic activity, they are places in which trade and investment are facilitated.
Coercive isomorphism
Organizations are pressured to comply with certain legal requirements
Normative isomorphism
organizations respond to pressures exerted over its legitimacy