Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: Ritzer & Stepnisky Chapters 5-8

superstructure

To Marx, secondary social phenomena, like the state and culture, that are erected on an economic base that serves to define them. Most extremely, the economy determines this.

base

this conditions, if not determines, the nature of everything else in society; To Marx, this would be the economy. To critical theorists, it is cultural/social

culture industry

to the critical theorists, industries such as movies and radio that were serving to make culture a more important factor in society than the economy.

mass culture

The culture made available to, and popular among, the masses

one-dimensional society

To Marcuse, the result of the breakdown in the dialectical relationship between people and the larger structures they created so that people are largely controlled by such structures. They lose the ability to create and to be actively involved in those structures, and individual freedom and creativity dwindle, leaving people without the capacity to think critically and negatively about the structures that control and oppress them.

technocratic thinking

Concern with being efficient, with simply finding the best means to an end without reflecting on either the means or the end; increasing rationality tends to lead to this (critical theory)

knowledge industry

To the critical theorists, those entities in society concerned with knowledge production and dissemination, especially research institutes and universities. Like the culture industry, these settings have achieved a large measure of autonomy within society, which has allowed them to redefine themselves. Instead of serving the interests of society as a whole, they have come to focus on their own interests; this means that they are intent on expanding their influence over society.

reason

The assessment of means to ends in terms of ultimate human values such as justice, freedom, and happiness (critical theory)

irrationality of rationality

The idea that rational systems inevitably spawn a series of irrationalities (Weber)

absolute space

Spaces built in natural locations that embody religious and political principles. Ultimately these spaces serve the interests of political and religious elites (Lefebvre)

historical space

The kind of space produced when separate nations vie with one another for power and the accumulation of wealth; the connection between absolute and _______ space (Lefebvre).

abstract space

The kind of space produced within modern capitalist society, where space is treated as a problem to be solved and calculated. Such space dominates nature and all unique human forms (Lefebvre)

differential space

A hoped-for space that would accentuate difference and freedom from control and would restore the natural unity that is broken by abstract space (Lefebvre)

world-system

A broad economic entity with a division of labor that is not circumscribed by political or cultural boundaries. It is a social system, comprising internally a variety of social structures and member groups that is largely self-contained, has a set of boundaries, and has a definable life span (Wallerstein)

core

The geographic area that dominates the capitalist world-economy and exploits the rest of the system (Wallerstein)

periphery

Those areas of the capitalist world-economy that provide raw materials to the core and are heavily exploited by it (Wallerstein)

semiperiphery

A residual category in the capitalist world-economy that encompasses a set of regions somewhere between the exploiting and the exploited (Wallerstein)

civilizing process

The long-term change in the West in manners as they relate to daily behavior. Everyday behaviors once acceptable have, over time, become increasingly unacceptable. Compared with our forebears, we are more likely to observe the everyday behaviors of others, to be sensitive to them, to understand them better, and perhaps most important, to find an increasing number of them embarrassing. What we once found acceptable now embarrasses us enormously. As a result, many things that were once public are now hidden from view (Elias)

dependency chains

The chains of relationships involving the people on whom a person is dependent as well as those people’s dependency on the person (Elias)

figurations

Social processes involving the interweaving of people, who are seen as open and interdependent. Power is central to social _______; they are constantly in flux. ______ emerge and develop but in largely unseen and unplanned ways (Elias)

lifeworld

To Schutz, the commonsense world, the world of everyday life, the mundane world, that world in which intersubjectivity takes place. Habermas is more concerned with interpersonal communication in this world

system

To Habermas, the structures (such as the family, the legal system, the state, and the economy) that have their source within the lifeworld but that come to develop their own distinctive existence and grow increasingly distant and separated from the lifeworld

colonization of the lifeworld

The concept that as the system and its structures grow increasingly differentiated, complex, and self-sufficient, their power grows and with it their ability to direct and control (and intrude upon) what transpires in the lifeworld (Habermas)

ideal speech situation

A speech situation that is free of all distorting influences, especially power; one in which the better argument wins out rather than the one that is backed by the most powerful individual or group. A consensus arises out of this contest of ideas as to what is the truth; truth arises from consensus and not because it is a copy of reality (Habermas)

juggernaut

Giddens’s metaphor for the modern world as a massive force that moves forward inexorably, riding roughshod over everything in its path. People steer it, but it always has the possibility of careening out of control

distanciation

The tendency for components of the modern juggernaut to grow distant in space and time from those attempting to control the juggernaut (Giddens).

boomerang effect

The phenomenon in which risks strike back on the upper classes and rich nations most responsible for their production (Beck)

symbolic interactionism

The distinctive human ability to relate to one another not only through gestures but also through significant symbols; school of thought inspired by Mead

looking-glass self

The idea that we form our sense of ourselves by using others, and their reactions to us, as a mirror to assess who we are and how we are doing (Cooley).

primary group

An intimate face-to-face group that plays a crucial role in linking the individual to the larger society. Of special importance are the groups of the young, mainly the family and friendship groups (Cooley)

sympathetic introspection

The methodology of putting oneself in the places and the minds of those one is studying, doing so in a way that is sympathetic to who they are and what they are thinking and trying to understand the meanings and the motives that lie at the base of their behavior

fieldwork

A methodology used by symbolic interactionists and other sociologists that involves venturing into the field (the day-to-day social world) to observe and collect relevant data

observation

A methodology closely related to fieldwork, in which symbolic interactionists (and other sociologists) study the social world by observing what is transpiring in it. In the case of symbolic interactionism, this enables researchers to engage in sympathetic introspection and put themselves in the place of actors to understand meanings and motives and to observe the actions that people take

dramaturgy

A view of social life as a series of dramatic performances akin to those that take place in the theater (Goffman)

self

To Goffman, a sense of who one is that is a dramatic effect emerging from the immediate dramaturgical scene being presented

impression management

The techniques actors use to maintain certain impressions in the face of problems they are likely to encounter and the methods they use to cope with these problems Goffman)

front stage

That part of a dramaturgical performance that generally functions in rather fixed and general ways to define the situation for those who observe the performance (Goffman)

setting

The physical scene that ordinarily must be there if the actors are to engage in a dramaturgical performance (Goffman)

personal front

Those items of expressive equipment that the audience identifies with the performers and expects them to carry with them into the setting (Goffman)

appearance

the way the actor looks to the audience, especially those items that indicate the performer’s social status (Goffman)

manner

The way actors conduct themselves, which tells the audience what sort of role the actors expect to play in the situation (Goffman)

role distance

The degree to which individuals separate themselves from the roles they are in (Goffman)

mystification

An effort by actors to confound their audience by restricting the contact between themselves and the audience, concealing the mundane things that go into their performance (Goffman)

team

Any set of individuals who cooperate in staging a single performance. Goffman was particularly focused on this unit of analysis rather than the individual

back stage

Where facts suppressed in the front stage or kinds of informal actions may appear. It is usually adjacent to the front stage, but it is also cut off from it. Performers can reliably expect no members of their front audience to appear here (Goffman)

outside

Neither front nor back; not in the realm of the performance (Goffman)

stigma

A gap between what a person ought to be (virtual social identity) and what a person actually is (actual social identity) (Goffman)

virtual social identity

What a person ought to be (Goffman)

actual social identity

What a person actually is (Goffman)

discredited stigma

A stigma that the actor assumes is known by the audience members or is evident to them; actors manage the tension produced by the fact that people know of the problem (Goffman).

discreditable stigma

A stigma that is neither known by audience members nor discernible by them; actors manage information so that the stigma remains unknown to the audience (Goffman)

emotion management

The techniques that people use to express, and control, emotion in a social performance (Hochschild)

surface acting

A performance in which a person manipulates appearances such as facial expression and tone of voice to convey an emotional expression to others (Hochschild)

deep acting

A performance in which a person recalls personal emotional experiences to create an authentic emotional performance in the present (Hochschild)

emotion memory

A memory of an autobiographical episode that carries within it strong feelings (Hochschild).

feelings rules

Culturally determined standards for emotion management; for example, different cultures have different rules for the expression of grief at the death of a loved one (Hochschild)

commercialization of feelings

The management of emotion to produce economic value in service industries. A large component of service work involves emotional labor. Where manual labor exerts a toll on the body, service work exerts a toll on the emotional system. (Hochschild)

surface action

The commercialization of feelings and its emotional labor can be viewed as _______ ______

ethnomethodology

The study of ordinary members of society in the everyday situations in which they find themselves and the ways in which they use commonsense knowledge, procedures, and considerations to gain an understanding of, navigate in, and act on those situations.

accounts

The ways in which actors explain (describe, criticize, and idealize) specific situations (ethnomethodology)

accounting

The process by which people offer accounts to make sense of the world (ethnomethodology)

accounting practices

The ways in which one person offers an account and another person accepts or rejects that account (ethnomethodology)

breaching experiments

Experiments in which researchers violate social reality to shed light on the methods by which people construct social reality (ethnomethodology)

operant conditioning

The learning process by which the consequences of behavior serve to modify that behavior (exchange theory)

generalization

the tendency to extend behavior to similar circumstance (exchange theory)

discrimination

The tendency to manifest behavior only under the specific circumstances that proved successful in the past (exchange theory)

rewards

Actions with positive values; an increase in such actions is more likely to elicit the desired behavior (exchange theory)

punishments

Actions with negative values; an increase in such actions means that the actor is less likely to manifest undesired behaviors (exchange theory)

cost

Rewards lost in adopting a specific action and, as a result, in forgoing alternative lines of action (exchange theory)

profit

The greater number of rewards gained over costs incurred in social exchange (exchange theory)

utilities

An actor’s preferences, or values

opportunity costs

The costs of forgoing the next most attractive action when an actor chooses an action aimed at achieving a given end (rational choice theory)

exchange network

A web of social relationships involving a number of either individual or collective actors in which the actors have a variety of valued resources as well as exchange opportunities and exchange relations with one another. A number of these exchange relations exist and interrelate with one another to form a single network structure (Emerson)

power

To Emerson, the potential cost that one actor can induce another to accept; It can be derived from both the ability to reward and the ability to punish others

dependence

To Emerson, the potential cost that an actor will be willing to tolerate within a relationship.

power-dependence theory

in an exchange relationship, the power of one actor over another is a function of that actor’s dependence on the other actor. Unequal power and dependence lead to imbalances in relationships, but over time relationships move toward greater power-dependence balance

recursive

Capable of being repeated indefinitely. Giddens says that society acquires structure through recursive social practices

duality

The concept that all social action involves structure and all structure involves social action. Agency and structure are inextricably interwoven in ongoing human activity or practice (Giddens)

double hermeneutic

The concept that social scientists’ understanding of the social world may have an impact on the understandings of the actors being studied, with the result that social researchers can alter the world they are studying, which can lead to distorted findings and conclusions (Giddens)

rationalization

To Giddens, the development of routines that not only give actors a sense of security but also enable them to deal efficiently with their social lives.

discursive consciousness

Consciousness that entails actors’ ability to describe their actions in words (Giddens)

practical consciousness

Consciousness that involves actions that the actors take for granted without being able to express in words what they are doing (Giddens)

agency

Actions that are perpetrated by actors; what occurs would not have occurred in that way were it not for the fact that the actor intervened and took the action in question

agents

Actors who have the ability to make a difference in the social world; agents have power

structure

To Giddens, the structuring properties (specifically, rules and resources) that give similar social practices a systemic form. Giddens avoids the impression that it is outside or external to human action

social systems

To Giddens, reproduced social practices, or relations between actors or collectivities that are reproduced, becoming regular social practices

structuration

The concept that agents and structures are interrelated to such an extent that at the moment they produce action, people produce and reproduce the structures in which they exist; the dialectical relationship between structure and agency. Structure and agency are a duality; neither can exist without the other (Giddens)

dualism

The view of structure (and culture) and agency as distinct for analytic purposes, although they are intertwined in social life (Archer)

practice

To Bourdieu, actions that are the outcome of the dialectical relationship between structure and agency. Practices are not objectively determined, nor are they the product of free will.

genetic structuralism

Bourdieu’s approach, which involves the study of objective structures that cannot be separated from mental structures that, themselves, involve the internalization of objective structures

structuralism perspective

The view that there are hidden or underlying structures that determine what transpires in the social world.

constructivist perspective

The view that schemes of perception, thought, and action create structures (Bourdieu)

poststructuralist

A theorist, like Bourdieu, who has been influenced by a structuralist perspective but has moved beyond it to synthesize it with other theoretical ideas and perspectives

habitus

The mental or cognitive structures through which people deal with the social world (Bourdieu)

habitus

The existence of a multitude of _______ means that the social world and its structures do not impose themselves uniformly on all actors

hysteresis

The condition that results from having a habitus that is not appropriate for the situation in which one lives (Bourdieu)

reflexive sociology

The use by sociologists of their own theoretical and empirical tools to better understand their discipline (Bourdieu)

field

A network of relations among the objective positions within it (Bourdieu).

economic capital

The economic resources possessed by an actor (Bourdieu)

cultural capital

The kinds of legitimate knowledge possessed by an actor (Bourdieu)