Sociology chapter 1&2

Veblen

conspicuous consumption of luxury goods to signal elite stats

Veblen Goods

when demands increases, the price increases for a specific good

Subsistence Economy

people make necessities they use from available resources without surplus production

Exclusivity —> high demands

When something is “exclusive” people tend to value it more and are often willing to pay a higher price for it

capitalism

an economic & political system where trade & industry are controlled by private owners for a profit

Globalization

social, political, economic, and cultural processes that increasingly interconnects people, places, and economics throughout the world.

Marx

critical of inequalities between workers (proletariat) and owners (bourgeoisie) and of the exploitation of workers. (the word “bougie” comes from this person)

Weber

Bureaucracy makes industrialized societies efficient, but also dehumanizes experiences of their members. Class was economically determined, but status is not.

Durkheim

studied how societies stay together and keep order, and he explained that different parts of society (like family, religion, education) work to support stability

DuBois

racism prevents class consciousness; we need to look explicit at race & racism in sociology; double consciousness.

Martineau

campaigned for women’s rights and advocated inclusion of the perspectives of marginalized groups in research.

Microeconomic

social interaction face-to-face & in small groups, meaning making in these interactions (little picture)

Macroeconomic

social processes in large collectivities as the institutional, national, & global level. (big picture)

Commodity Fetishism

people often see products (like clothes) as if they have value and power on their own, instead of realizing that their value really comes from the work and relationships of the people who made them.

Totem

a scared symbol, often plant or animal, representing a group or society and serves as a place for collective worship.

Culture

systems and patterns of meaning, shared by members of a group

Norms

often informal, but widely known and accepted ways of doing things within a culture

Deviance

Violation of a social norm, not necessarily and bad or criminal. It’s understanding varies across cultures and over time, bc norms vary across time and cultures.

Social control

process of regulating individual behavior to ensure it conforms to group norms

3 mechanism of social control

1) socialization

2) surveillance

3) sanctions

Sanctions

actions that express approval of conformity to a norm or disapproval of it’s violation

Positive sanction

rewards, compliments, awards given for conforming to norms

Negative sanction

funny looks, stifled laughter, fines, jail time

Values

individual or group beliefs about what is right and wrong, important or unimportant, desirable, and undesirable.

Cultural relativism

attempt to understand and individual’s beliefs, behavior, feelings and worldview in relation to their culture

Ethnocentrism

using one’s own culture to understand and evaluate others

Empirical research

documents the social words as it is, not as it should be.

Normative approach

concerned not only with facts of the social words as it is, but with the way it should be

Qualitative interviews

open-ended questions asked of a small group of respondents

Normative

concerned not only with facts of the social world as it is, but with the way it should be