Culture, Social Inequality

Culture and Society

 Culture is way of life shared by group of individuals – the beliefs and values that bind a society together. Very

diverse, can include artwork, language, and literature.

 Society is the way people organize themselves – bunch of people who live together in a specific geographic area,

and interact more with each other than outsiders. Share a common culture over time.

 Culture = rules that guide way people live, and society = structure that provides organization for people.

 Society includes institutions, ex. family, education, politics, which all meet basic human needs. The hardware on

a phone.

 Culture provides guidelines for living, ex. software or apps on a phone, constantly being updated. What makes

society run.

Culture talks about rules and instructions within a society that teach them how to live.

 Refers to ideas and things passed from generation to the next – language, customs, etc. Varies as we travel

around the globe.

 Ex. Chinese and Spanish spoken all around the world; Many like meat and vegetables, while others eat tofu

and grasshoppers; Ways of greeting differ

Culture and Society

4 main points:

 1. All people share culture with others in their society, provides rules and expectations for carrying out daily

rituals and interactions.

 2. Culture is adaptive – it evolves over time.

 3. Culture builds on itself – creation of culture is ongoing and cumulative, and societies build on existing cultures

to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.

 4. Culture is transmitted – from one generation to the next. We teach a way of life to the next generation.

Humans are only mammals with culture to adapt to environment.

Subculture vs. Counterculture

A subculture is culture of a meso-level sub-community that distinguishes itself from the larger dominant culture of

society.

 Smaller than a nation but unlike a microculture, it is large enough to support people throughout their entire

lifespan.

 Meso-level = before micro and macro level. Medium sized groups.

 Subcommunity = smaller community in larger one.

 It’s different in some way, but still share some things with larger society.

A microculture can’t support people throughout their lifespan, refers to groups/organizations only affecting limited

period of one’s life.

 Ex. Girl scouts, college sororities, boarding school.

Subcultures include ethnic groups like Mexicans or orthodox Jews, or groups like the elite upper class. Can cause

tension with dominant group.

When laws of dominant society are violated, a counterculture results. Values differ greatly from larger society.

 Ex. Mormons believe in polygamy. Polygamy = more than one spouse, polygyny = more than one wife

 Ex. Amish reject mainstream ideas and have their own ideas, reject technology and consumerism

Jim Goes to College Subculture

Within a nation many smaller groups – ethnic, regional, tribal subcultures made of people who identify closely with

each other. So subculture is smaller community that distinguishes itself from larger society.

 Different cities states in US may have their own unique subcultures.

 Ex. Jim, grew up in Florida his whole life, but got into university in Washington DC. Notices a lot of

differences between the two. Ex. Has to parallel park, and has to pay for parking. Driving in DC not same as

in Florida, much more traffic.

Culture Lag and Culture Shock

Culture lag is the fact culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, resulting in social problems.

 Common in societies because material culture changes rapidly, while non-material culture resists change.

 Material culture refers to physical and technological aspects of our daily lives, like food and houses

 Non-material culture doesn’t include physical objects, like ideas/beliefs/values, which resist change.

 Examples: when cars first invented no laws to govern driving (no speed limits, lanes, etc). Very dangerous

but laws soon written to fix problem. Or invention of computers and emails.

Culture Shock – feelings of disorientation, uncertainty, and even fear when they encounter unfamiliar culture

practices. Ex. Moving countries or travels to another type of life (urban to rural).

 In foreign places, business conducted differently, and food completely different.

 As a result of culture shock may feel homesick, lonely, etc.

 Sometimes see things frowned upon in own culture

Diffusion

Diffusion is the spread of an invention or discovery from one place to another. Even technology and software have

made a difference in how people connect with others across the globe. Can occur in many ways.

 Ex. Capitalism, democracy and religious beliefs

 Exploration, military conquest, missionary work, mass media, tourism, internet.

 Ex. Food in America seen all around the world – McDonalds in Asia. Spanish is one of fastest growing

languages. Or the ALS ice bucket challenge.

Mass media = dissemination of information, and how it’s transmitted within a culture. Includes print media and

digital media. How it’s consumed changes across cultures in each group. Can look at role it plays through society

through different sociological perspectives.

 According to the functionalist perspective, its main role is to provide entertainment. Also says it can act as an

agent of socialization (ex. Collective experience of watching Olympics on TV, and community building – entire

internet communities) and act as an enforcer of social norms.

 Also tells us what society expects of us through rewards and punishment, ex. Seeing criminals. But can also

glorify behaviours that are wrong in society, like intense physical violence.

 Also functions as a promoter of consumer culture. At the turn of century average US child saw 20000

commercials a year on TV. Only increased from there, and not clear what impact this may have on next

generation.

 The conflict perspective focuses on how the media portrays and reflects and exacerbate divisions that exist in

society, ex. Race/social class.

 Uses term gatekeeping to describe the process by which a small number of people and corporations control

what information is presented on the media, and how they move through a series of gates before they reach

the public. In some countries this is decided by the government, in others decided by large media

corporations.

 Gatekeeping has more effect on some media than others, ex. Lots of control on big movies, but little

overhead control on what’s posted online.

 Also describes how mass media reflects the dominant ideology. Often limits other views. People who make

the choice – the gatekeepers are predominantly white, male, and wealthy.

 Portrayal of minorities can be stereotyped. And attempts to fix this can wrongly result in tokenism.

 Tokenism -

Feminist Theories is similar to conflict theory, in that mass media misrepresents society towards the dominant

ideology. Specifically, message about men and women are represented in the media. Depictions of men and women

often stereotyped, emphasizing traditional sex roles.

Interactionist perspective looks at mass media on micro-level to see how it shapes day to day behavior.

 How mass media blurs line between solidary and group activities

 Ex. watching a movie.

 And how we connect with others using media changes over time (email instead of phone, or online dating).

Evolution and Human Culture

Culture is the customs, knowledge, and behaviours learned and socially transmitted. Includes values and objects

meaningful to a group of people. Culture also has a biological component.

 Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution – both physical traits and behaviours can be selected for if they

contribute to success of the species.

 Ex. For behaviours, all cultures of ways of dealing with illness/medicine/healing. Or wedding/funeral

ceremonies. Language. Indicates they were selected for as human species evolved.

Evolution can shape culture, but can also think of how culture can shape human evolution.

 Ex. Hunter-gatherer society vs. farming society, people moved less, and populations grew. Because of this

people were more exposed to outbreaks of disease. Since only those that survived weren’t killed off, these

societies have shaped our immune systems.

 Or lactose intolerance, first year of life most humans get nutrition from milk, but switched after children are

weaned. But Northern Europeans which reared cattle, don’t have this effect – their lactase gene doesn’t turn

off. So those able to digest milk more likely to survive.

Overview of Social Inequality

The resources in a society are unevenly distributed.

 Ex. Wealth in US, top 20% have 72% of the wealth of the country and bottom 20% only control 3%

 Upper, middle, and lower class. Based on incomes.

 As you go up the social ladder, have better access to education, healthcare, and housing.

Groups of population disproportionality affected – ethnic/racial minorities have greater degrees of inequality as

manifested by lower incomes, lower education, and reduced access to healthcare.

 Those in poverty also face considerable barriers to obtaining the same healthcare, education, and other

resources as others.

 Gender does too. Females experience differences in pay (gender-pay gap), and the glass ceiling effect (poorly

represented in higher position in companies)

People may feel increasingly socially excluded, live in segregated neighbourhoods, and feel politically

disempowered.

 Can lead to civil unrest, and tempt people into criminal activities.

Ways to help: government schemes (ex. Food stamps), improve access to education/healthcare, and figure out

social interventions that allow integration to society.

Upward and Downward Mobility,

We have a number of ways to break down society into social layers, ex. Classes

 Lower class – manual work, labour, low-pay jobs.

 Middle class – professionals, better paying jobs

 Upper class – very wealthy businessmen and family wealth

 Correlates to amount of income.

When we think of social positions, can there be movement? Yes. Various ways.

 Individual can move horizontally – move within the same class.

 Ex. Accountant switches job to different accounting company.

 Vertical movement – move up or down the social hierarchy.

 Ex. Manager at restaurant becomes CEO of fast food restaurant. But if he gets demoted to serving food, fall

downwards.

Various types of social constructs that allow for social mobility.

 Caste system – very little social mobility, because your role is determined entirely by background you’re born to

and who you’re married to. A lot of social stability.

 Ex. The Hindu caste system.

 Class system – allows for degree of social mobility, combination of background and movement, often by

education. Less stability.

 Meritocracy – concept that people achieve social position solely based on ability and achievements. Highly

idealized. Birth/parental background doesn’t matter. Extreme social mobility. Equal opportunity.

Intergenerational and Intragenerational mobility, Social Mobility

 If change in social class happens in a person’s own lifetime – intragenerational mobility.

 Intergenerational mobility – change in social class between generations

 Ex. Parent is working class and son is working class.

Absolute and Relative Poverty

2 different ways of thinking about poverty – does it threaten survival of person, or does it exclude them from

society?

 Absolute poverty – An absolute level at which if you go below, survival is threatened. Minimum level of

resources a human being needs to survive. This level no matter where you are.

 Approx. $1-2 a day, talking about developing countries.

 However, someone in Arctic needs a lot more than somewhere else. There’s variability absolute poverty

does not consider.

 The median level of income in a society can gradually rise as country gets richer. When it does, we find less

people live in absolute poverty – decrease in poverty.

 Relative Poverty – in developed countries, use a different marker – a % level below the median income of the

country. Ex. In Us, instead of $1-2 a day, median income is above $80/day.

 <60% of the median income.

 If a country’s income rises up, absolute poverty line won’t change, median income level would.

 Relative poverty is not about survival, its people whose incomes are so low in their own society they’re

being excluded from society.

Social Reproduction

Huge amount of social inequality between rich families and poor families. Large social inequality seems to replicate

itself cross generations. Perpetuation of inequality through social institutions (such as education/economy), social

mobility counters this.

 Social reproduction – transmission of social inequality from one generation to the next

 Ex. People with rich parents end up wealthy themselves; poor families give birth to kids in poor

neighborhoods, with less access to education and opportunities, and they grow up to be poor also

 They have financial capital, and can invest it to obtain social capital – building up reliable, useful social

networks. (Connections)

 Can also expose you to cultural capital – knowledge, education, and skills transmitted across generations

 Ex. If parents exposing you to trips abroad and learning foreign languages. Or cultural items of social

inequalities from one generation to the next

Doesn’t educational system allow poor people to gain capital too?

 Our educational system doesn’t value cultures of low classes. It doesn’t value the culture and social networks of

the poor population.

 Education system can reinforce this social stratification.

Social Exclusion

Being an integral member of society has lots of advantages – access to good social networks, housing, educational

resources, and resources in community.

 But certain individuals can be excluded to the peripheries of society, and are prevented from participating in

society.

 Reduced right and access to resources/opportunities

Some can drag people into the periphery of society

 The poverty magnet can drag people away from the core part of society, and experience a greater degree of

social exclusion.

 The ill-heath magnet can also drag people away, can’t participate in society.

 Certain groups may face discrimination, based on their race/gender/sexual orientation/etc – the discrimination

magnet.

 Education, housing, employment all important factors. With lack of any of these they can be relegated to

fringes.

People in periphery often have many of these magnets combined, have tremendous forces pushing them away.

 They may also have greater consequences like ill health and criminal activities.

Segregation is a way of separating out groups of people and giving them access to a separate set of resources within

the same society

 Idea “separate but equal”, which is rarely true in practice.

 Segregated people often have worse resources.

 Segregation is maintained by law/public institutions, or more informal processes like “hidden discrimination”.

 Social isolation – when community voluntarily isolates itself from mainstream, based on their own

religious/cultural/other beliefs.

Environmental Justice

Where we live plays a huge role in environmental benefits and risks we’re exposed to.

 Areas with high poverty and lots of racial minorities, often have few environmental benefits (green spaces,

parks, recreation).

 They also get a lot of environmental burden compared to wealthier parts. Includes waste facilities,

manufacturing/factories, energy production, airports.

 At risk because they often have few alternatives, little awareness of risks they face, and other pressing

issues.

 More health problems like asthma, obesity, etc.

Wealthier population society has much higher benefits.

 More politically and economically powerful, and able to demand beneficial facilities are placed close to them

and burdening facilities far way.

 Also better represented in environmental/lobbying groups.

Big concept is environmental justice – looks at the fair distribution of the environmental benefits and burdens

within society across all groups.

Residential Segregation

Residential segregation – groups of people separate into different neighbourhoods.

 Can mean race or income.

 Where we live affects our life chances, because it affects our politics, healthcare, availability to education, etc.

Other forms of segregation:

1) Concentration – there’s clustering of different groups

2) Centralization – segregation + clustering in a central area.

 Index of dissimilarity – 0 is total segregation, and 100 perfect distribution.

Why is residential segregation important?

 Political isolation - Communities segregated are politically weak because their political interests don’t overlap

with other communities – become political vulnerable, don’t have the political influence to keep their own

needs addressed.

 Linguistic isolation - Communities who are isolated may develop own language, even in same city. May limit

jobs.

 Lower access to quality education/heath

 Spatial mismatch – opportunities for low-income people in segregated communities may be present but farther

away, and harder to access. Gap between where people live and where opportunities are.

Global Inequality

The world is extremely unequal.

 Life expectancy is Congo is 51 vs. France/Japan is 84. Tremendous range.

 Access to clean water – in Africa, very difficult. In US/Europe very easy.

Champagne glass can help explain inequalities in wealth we see. It represents the distribution of wealth.

 Top 1/5th have 82.7% of the global income.

 Poorest 1/5th have 1.4% of global income.

 Richest 85 people in world have more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world.

Inequalities in individual countries as well, ex. very poor countries can have a few extremely rich people.

 Maternal mortality rate is a marker for healthcare systems.

 In NA and Europe 10-20 people per 100 000 die of childbirth.

 In SA 75/100 000

 SE Asia, 170/100 000.

 Central Africa 700+/100 000.

Heath and Healthcare Disparities in the US

A lot of disparities we see in US are result of poor economic and environmental conditions.

 Social-economic status is a pyramid.

 As we go up social pyramid, access and quality of healthcare improves.

 Opposite is true for those at bottom of pyramid – more disease, less high quality healthcare, substandard

housing, poor diet, dangerous jobs, can’t afford expensive treatments

 Race can play a role – Hispanics and African-Americans have higher morbidity and mortality rates, worse access

to healthcare and lower quality healthcare.

 Even though some can be attributed to SES reasons, doesn’t explain everything. Minorities less likely to

receive everyday healthcare and treatments for life-threatening conditions.

 Gender differences – men typically use fewer preventative services like vaccines/check-ups.

 Women require reproductive services, and access is reduced due to local laws.

 Studies for treatments for diabetes/heart disease don’t always include women, and can suffer from lack of

research.

 LGBT community – might face discrimination, which can limit clinics they feel comfortable seeking help from.

 Transgender especially face discrimination, and have a hard time finding someone who has experience

working with transgender individuals. Leads them to be reluctant to seek services when they really need

them.

Intersectionality – discrimination based on multiple factors

Many types of discrimination, like sex/gender/culture/race, but what if someone experiences multiple forms at

same time?

 Ex. Female who is African American and practices Buddhist teachings, causing her to be discriminated against in

3 different areas.

 Social Stratification – groups of people are given better preferences than others (group based) (intersectionality

is at the individual/person level)

Why is it important to consider intersection?

 Because multiple different categories of potential discrimination/oppression that compounds in one individual,

and put her at disadvantage in society.

Theory of intersectionality asks us to consider all the different levels of discrimination.

 Originally coined in 1989 by Crenshaw as a feminist theory, but has since expanded out and use it to explain

oppression in all parts of society.

Class Consciousness and False Consciousness

Means of production – way we produce goods, ex. Factories and farms. Owned by fairly wealthy individuals, which

hire a large amount of workers which offer their labour, without owning any of the means of production.

 There’s a class divide, a hierarchy of upper/lower class.

Theory by Karl Marx – workers in working class don’t realize they’re being exploited and oppressed by this

capitalistic model of working.

 Workers can develop class consciousness, and realize they have solidarity with one another and struggle to

overcome this oppression and exploitation.

 Involves seizing and obtaining means and redistributing the means of production among the workers.

 False consciousness – unlike class consciousness, instead of seeing they have solidarity with one another,

they’re unable to see their oppression.

 And owners can promote this false consciousness by controlling classes, making it more difficult for workers

to see their oppression.

Statistics

Regression – all variables examined are continuous

 Linear regression – degree of dependence between one variable and another. Data is on scatter plot, one-way

influence of one variable on another.

Correlation - all variables examined are continuous. Unlike regression makes no assumptions about which variable is

influencing the other.

 If correlation coefficient is 1, perfect. If -1, opposite. 0, random.

Chi-square – when all variables are categorical, looks at if 2 distributions of categorical data differ from each other.

 Null hypothesis vs. alternative hypothesis.

T-test – compares mean values of a continuous variable (dependent) between 2 categories/groups, ex. comparing

mean of a group to a specific value. Can also compare means of 2 groups.

 Two-tailed = possibility of relationship in both directions, one-tailed = one direction.

ANOVA – similar to t-test, compare distributions of continuous variable between groups of categorical variable, but

can be used for 3+ groups.

If value doubles, 100% increase

Study Types

Cross-sectional study – look at a group of different people at one moment in time

Cohort study – following a subset of population over a lifetime. A cohort is a group of people who share a common

characteristic (ex. people born and exposed to same pollutant/drug/etc.) in period of time.

Longitudinal study – data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time, can take years or

decades.

Case-control study – observational study where 2 groups differing in outcome are identified and compared to find a

causal factor. Ex. comparing people with the disease with those who don’t but are otherwise similar.

Clinical trial - highly controlled interventional studies

Randomized Controlled Trial – people studied randomly given one of treatments under study, used to test

efficacy/side effects of medical interventions like drugs. Gold standard for a clinical trial.

Validity

Internal Validity – extent to which a causal conclusion based on a study is warranted. Confounding factors often

impact the internal validity of an experiment.

External validity – Whether results of the study can be generalized to other situations and other people. To protect

external validity, sample must be completely random, and all situational variables must be tightly controlled.

Construct validity – whether a tool is measuring what it is intended to measure.

Regression to the mean – if first measurement is extreme, second measurement will be closer to the mean

Confounding variables – changes in dependent variable may be due to existence of or variations in a third variable

Temporal confounds – time related confounding variables

Types of Control

Vehicular control – what experimental group does without the directly desired impact

Positive control – treatment with known response

Negative control – group with no response expected