SOC 100 (1/3)

Social Facts

• Social customs, values, institutions, etc. that exist independently of any individual —> affect how individuals behave, seem “real” to them

• ex. money, religion, beleif

Sociological imagination

• ability to see one’s situation in context of society as a whole; interpret individual experience in a broader social context

Quantative Evidence

• statistics about social groups as a whole

• Obtained: broad-level surveys/measurements

• ex. population, unemployment rates

Qualitative Evidence

• cultural beliefs or practices seen in documents, words, actions, rites, etc.

• obtained: direct observation

Critical Theory

(And people)

• types/subdivisions

• forms of inequality on society; society contains unjust inequalities between groups in constant struggle (power and control)

• —> are they “natural”, how maintained? who benefits?

• Karl Marx, C. Wright Mills, Max Weber

• 1. Conflict Theory 2. Elite Theory

Symbolic Interactionism

(And people)

• types/subdivisions

• How do we explain individual actions; microsociological interactions between individuals (symbolic meaning we attach to objects and our actions)

• —> cultural motives? shared beliefs and values? shape what we do?

• Max Weber, Georg Herbert Mead, C. H. Cooley

• 1. Social constructionism,

Structural functionism

• look at society as whole —> what does that mean?

• —> what’s not visible at an individual level? effects of too much individualism?

• Emilie Durkheim, Talcott Parsons

Empirical discipline

• based on induction, observation or measurement of the world

• —> relying on evidence

Theoretical discipline

• focused on abstraction, identifying general principles, and deduction from principles

Positivism

(And person)

• philosophical/theoretical assumption: only observable, measurable, and empirically-verifiable facts count as knowledge

• —> rejection of metaphysical or ethical speculation

• Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

• argues for a positivistic study of society

• 1st to coin the work sociology

Social Theory

• def

• 3 types

• explanation of empirical evidence; identify connection between phenomena (cause? What might happen?); methodological approach

• 1. Critical theory 2. Symbolic Interactionsim 3. Structural functionalism

What are the 3 kinds of Equality

• Legal _____

• Political _____

• Social _____

Legal equality

• same laws apply to everyone regardless of class, race, gender.

Political equality

• all citizens are equal —> same right to vote; no hereditary power

Social equality

• similar levels of wealth, influence, prestige, and opportunity for all

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• “Legal and political equality masked massive social inequality”

• a critiquer of Critical theory; attacked it on normative/moral grounds

Normative/perscriptive (Critical Theory)

• what’s morally good; how things ought to be

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

• founder of Critical Theory

• Goal: explain inequality/exploitation within a social system

Conflict Theory

• interprets society —> conflicts between groups struggling for position

• Type of critical Theory

• Counts as a group? Why conflicts occur? (2 ways of thinking)

—> Karl Marx: Class

—> Max Weber: Power

Elite Theory

• argues society is an oligarchy (ruled by minority)

• Network of personal connections between decisions makers (relatively home

• Type of critical theory focuses of levels of power

Status

• types/subdivisions

• the rank or prestige of your role relative to others in society

• 1. Achieved _____ 2. Ascribed _______

Achieved status

(and people)

• status/social rank that you have ‘earned’ by your actions; anyone could gain or lose this position

• Marx and Weber Analyze: potentially change

Ascribed status

• status/social rank based on unchangeable characteristics that society used to characterize you; within a hierarchy

Feminist Theory

• society wide advantages males have

• Statistical evidence —> wage groups; Qualitative evidence —> media portrayal

Critical race Theory

• systemic structural advantages of a race/ethnic group

• statistical evidence —> incarceration and poverty rates; Qualitative evidence —> media portrayal

Social Action

• ‘Action’ is conscious, motivated, non-instinctual behavior

• ____: action orientated towards shared meanings and actions of others

Max Weber (1864-1921)

• sociologist; “sociology looks at rationality of people’s actions (reason, motive)

• sociologist role —> Sympathetic understanding (Verstehen; german); make sense of actions but Verstehen doesn’t explain origins of meanings of actions

Methodological Individualism

(and people)

• term assos.

• method of explaining broad features of society —> first understanding what individuals do, and how many such actions produce social consequences

• Weber: protestants w/ professional/wealthier jobs than Catholics (b.c of motives in protestantism)

• “Iron cage”

“iron cage”

• def

• person

• acting along w/ capitalism based off survival (no longer religious reasoning)

• Max Weber introduced this term

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

(Other associated person)

• develops pragmatist (prioritizing practicality/real world effectiveness) explanation for motivations:

• Children —> learn from response of others: what is “good”/ “bad”

• —> become fixed beliefs and value within us

—> Hubert Blumer (1900-1987) called this Symbolic interactionism

Hubert Blumer (1900-1987)

• And assosciated person

• named George Herbert Mead’s pragmatist view on how children learn “good”/“bad” —> Symbolic interactionism

Dramaturgical Method

• types/subdivisions

• Erving Goffman’s method of understanding individuals as “actor’s” portraying specific “roles” in interactions

• 1. Staging 2. impression Management

Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

• associated term

• Presentation of self in everyday life —> expected to behave certain ways/meet expectations

• named/created the Dramaturgical method

Social Constructionism

(Also people)

• interprets society as numerous regularized interactions of individuals (ie constructed by them)

• (Looks at ways people interact to create a shared reality)

• Type of symbolic interactionism

• Peter Burger, Thomas Luckmann

Peter Burger & Thomas Luckmann

• writing(s)

• And assosciated term

• Social construction of Reality (1966): how repeated actions/interactions over time create stable image, beliefs, and roles

• (2) social constructionists

Situation

• other assosciated term

• well-defined interaction between people with unspoken expectations/rules about how each behaves

• Social constructionism

structuration

(And people)

• production and reproduction of social structures by individual acts: how does certain acting become structure (and limit people in future)

• Anthony Giddens (his term)

Anthony Giddens (b. 1938)

• sociologist

• developed the idea of structuration (society is structured by our own actions)

• —> social structures: are not fixed/unchanging, limit individuals

Collective consciousness

(and people)

• the shared ‘taken-for-granted’ moral beliefs or values that almost all members of a society agree on (without questioning them)

• —> offences against the consciousness —> horror

• Emilie Durkheim —> ‘any society has core set of values assigned to be obvious’

Emilie Durkheim (1858-1917)

• associated term

• ~structural functionalist

• linked with the term collective unconsciousness

• “totality of beliefs/sentiments —> form their own system: can be coined collective unconsciousness”

Solidarity

(and People)

• types/subdivision

• Emilie Durkheim’s term

• a social force —> holds members of a society together; distinguishes from other societies

• types: 1. mechanical _____ 2. organic ______

Mechanical Solidarity

• solidarity by similarities

Organic similarities

• solidarities by differences (united by reliance)

Anomie

(assos. people)

• sense of lacking social regulation/structure —> adrift in a world without meaning

• (Emilie Durkheim)

Function (Durkheim’s)

• types/subdivision (and their person)

• role any social relation/institution has for maintaining society as a whole

• 1. Manifest Function 2. Latent Function (Robert Merton)

Manifest Function

(of a function)

• “obvious” purpose

• what it’s explicitly for

Latent Function

(of a function)

• “hidden” purpose

• useful side effect

Robert Merton (1910-2003)

• sociologist who extended on Durkheim’s claims

• —> Institution may serve multiple functions

Horace Miner (1912 - 193)

• anthropologist

• “Body ritual among the Nacirema” —> rituals/practices and the beliefs/values behind them

• (Think ritualistic behavior that may appear ‘odd’ to an outsider)

4 ways of describing Culture

• folkways

• mores

• taboos

• rituals/practices

Folkways

• informal customs —> everyday “rule” of behavior

Mores

• stronger moral rules —> there will be punishment

Taboos

• things that are forbidden to talk about

Rituals/practices

• following a specific pattern

Material Culture

• ways a society interacts with the material world

Non-Material Culture

• arts, beliefs, etc. of a society; representations of descriptions of the world

Cultural Universals

• practices, rituals, institutions, etc. with symbolic value (are in every human culture)

George Murdock

• other term

• (and people)

• structural functionalist

• found a number of practices in every society —> describe these cultural universals functionally

• (Donal Brown: a more expansive list)

Social integration

• other related term

• (and people)

• process of individuals/group being fully incorporated into society by adopting cultural norms of the major cultural group

• Talcott Parson’s: AGIL System

Talcott Parsons

• sociologist

• created the AGIL System (every society need process to preform the function of integration)

Semiotics

• types/subdivision

• the study of meaning within culture

• 1. Signs 2. Symbols

Sign

• (Under semiotics)

• object/image that represents something other than itself

Symbol

• (Under semiotics)

• additional meaning/value associated with the things represented on the/a object/image

Values

• the things a culture/person holds the most important; sociologically useful if the can explain how people act

• —> seen in symbolic ____ assigned to specific images

Protestant ethic

(and People)

• Weber’s term

• set of values/ways of acting he thought was typical of Protestant Christians (Europe 16th Cen. onward); value of hard work; frugality of own sake

• —> elective affinity with capitalism

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

(and people)

• Edward Sapir & Benjamin Whorf

• theory: our thoughts are limited by the words our language provides for them

• —> we are only able to use idea our society/language has words for (shared language = Shared thoughts)

Edward Sapir & Benjamin Whorf

(2 assos. terms)

• developed linguistic determination

• (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)

Ideal Culture

• the values and ideals of a group of people that they claim to adhere to; mental image of their society (is different from reality)

Multiculturalism

• recognition( and government support of) multiple cultures within one society

• (Canada: 1971; Pierre Trudeau introduced the official policy of multiculturalism)

Ethnocentrism

• judging other culture by the standard of your own; assuming your is the ‘normal’/’natural’

Androcentric Language

• using male words to refer to any person (eg. “rights of Man”, Policeman, etc.)

• —> uses words that denote male to describe the society as a whole

Deviance/deviant

(and people)

• behavior that goes against the commonly-held values of a society. _____ are punished/forced to conform

• Emilie Durheim —> ‘everyone similar = generate solidarity”

• Howard Becker (1923-2023) —> “______ = people trying to assert power”

conformity

• adhere to main rules/norms; conventions

counter-culture

• (culture) formed from those who feel excluded and create their own ____

• —> goes against the mainstream

Power

• subdivision/type

• any ability to get your way

• doesn’t have/require willing consent from those who obey

• (1. Domination/Authority)

Domination/Authority

(and people)

• a type of power

• people accept command as ‘valid’ and willingly go along with

• —> obeyers recognize as ‘right’ thing to do

• Max Weber: ‘social ineqality root? look at ______’

3 types of authority

(and people/ who made it )

• rational (legal) ____

• Traditional ____

• Charismatic _____

• —> identified by Max Weber

Rational (legal) authority

• authority from a legal/rational process (ie. voting)

Traditional authority

• authority from tradition; can also designate officials (ie. monarchy)

Charismatic authority

• authority from a “gift of grace”; personal magnetism —> inspires people to obey

symbolic universe

(and people)

• the total, internally-consistent set of beliefs, myths, values, philosophies… held a given society

• —> explain/justifies social order; how people understand why society is the way it is

• Peter Burger & Thomas Luckman (Social constructionists) referred to this —> societies need to maintain _____ and make institutions

Dominant Ideology

• system of values, beliefs practices —> justify/support existing social system; defend the authority of the powerful people in it

Ideological Hegemony

(and people)

• intellectual/ideological control of society by the dominant class —> everyone adopts their worldview

• Antonio Gramsci’s term: ‘ruling class maintains dominance through control of intellectuals’

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)

• defined term: Ideological Hegemony

• —> ‘ruling class maintains dominance through intellectuals (lower class doesn’t have those)’

Subaltern class

• ‘lower’ class

Encoding

(and people)

• Hiding messages about normal model of society in cultural items

• Stuart Hall (1932-2014)

Decoding

(and people)

• how we understands messages

• Stuart Hall (1932-2014)

Dominant culture

• values/norms/beliefs/ways of behaving of the ruling group in society —> others expected to conform to this ‘default’

The eternal feminine

(and people)

• the supposed mysterious ‘essence’ of women; characteristic that allegedly entrances men

• Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986)

Simone De Beauvoir (1908-86)

• term assosciated

• “The eternal Feminine”

• ‘the cultural representation of femininity —> woman are secondary”

Orientalism

(and people)

• Edward Said ‘ term

• the way white Europeans saw the rest of the world as “mysterious/primative’ (Europeans were privileged as '“normal”

Edward Said (1935-2003)

• defined orientalism

• —> Theorists: westerners ‘non-westerners deviate from the norm of progress’

Alterity

(and people)

• how one dominant groups depicts another as ‘different from the norm’ or less human

• Emmanueal Levinas —> ____ = central to how the dominant culture defines itself

Emmanueal Levinas (1905 -1965)

• linked with what term

• alterity —> central in dominant culture defining them selves

• —> Dichotomy: ‘oneself’ and ‘other’

Culture (sociology)

• universe of symbols, values, beliefs, and practices shared by a society

Culture (general-sense)

• arts, entertainment, literature, etc.

High (‘elite’) culture

• arts enjoyed by high-status; implies “sophistication”

Pop (‘mass’) culture

• less exclusive entertainment; often enjoyed by low-status; ‘simplistic’; without artistic merit

Conspicuous consumption

(and people)

• practice of buying expensive/showing products —> show status and power to others

• Thorstein Velben: described this term in ‘Theory of the Leisure Class’