Sociology 2

Stratification

structured social inequality or, more specifically, systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships

Social Equality

a condition whereby no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist

Dialectic

two-directional relationship, one that goes both ways

Ontological equality

the notion that everyone is created equal at birth

Equality of Opportunity

the idea that everyone has equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone

Bourgeois Society

a society of commerce (modern capitalist society, for example) in which the maximization of profit is primary business incentive

Equality of Condition

the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point

Equality of Outcome

a position that argues each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the "game"

Free Rider Problem

the notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight

Estate System

politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility

Caste System

religion-based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility

Class System

an economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, opposition groups and somewhat loose social mobility

Proletariat

the working class

Bourgeoisie

the capitalist class

Contradictory Class Locations

the idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two "pure" classes

Status Hierarchy System

a system of stratification based on social prestige

Elite-Mass Dichotomy System

system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society

Meritocracy

a society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

an individual's position in a stratified social order

Income

money received by a person for work, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or government assistance) or form return on investments

Wealth

a family's or individual's net worth (that is, total assets minus total debts)

Upper Class

a term for the economic elite

Middle Class

common used to describe those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line - though this is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the United States, where broad swathes of the population consider themselves middle class

Social Mobility

the movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society

Exchanged Mobility

if we hold fixed the changing distribution of jobs, individuals trade jobs not one-to-one but in a way that ultimately balances out

Status-Attainment Model

approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeking to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more desirable occupations

Meritocracy

a system in which promotion is based on individual ability or achievement

Relative Poverty

the lack of resources of some people in relation to those who have more

absolute poverty

the point at which a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members

Marxist Class Theory

asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by his or her role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position.

Proletariat

working class

capitalist class (bourgeoisie)

Karl Marx's term for those who own and control the means of production

Patriarchy

a form of social organization in which a male is the family head and title is traced through the male line

collective resistance

an organized effort to change a power hierarchy on the part of a less-powerful group in a society

The Matrix of Domination

A system of social positions in which any individual may concurrently occupy a status (for example, gender, race, class, or sexual orientation) as a member of a dominated group and a status as a member of a dominating group.

Intersectionalism

the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Patricia Hill Collins

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment; Matrix of Domination

Georg Hegel

Master-slave dialectic; equality would eventually result for everyone

Thomas Malthus

1798 said human population can outgrow food supply; result will be war, famine, disease. Let the fittest survive.

Race

a group of people who share a set of characteristics - typically, but not always, physical ones - and are said to share a common bloodline

The Myth of Race

race is a social construction, a set of stories that we tell ourselves to organize reality and make sense of the world, RATHER THAN a fixed biological or natural reality

Racism

the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits

3 Key Beliefs of Racist Thinking

1. That humans are divided into distinct bloodlines and/or physical types

2. That these bloodlines or physical traits are linked to distinct cultures, behaviors, personalities, and intellectual abilities

3. That certain groups are superior to others

Scientific Racism

19th centur theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race

Ethnocentrism

the belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own or the judgment of other groups by one's own standards and values

Ontological Equality

the notion that everyone is created equal in the eyes of God

Social Darwinism

the application of Darwinian ideas to society, namely, the evolutionary "survival of the fittest"

Eugenics

literally meaning "well born" the theory of controlling the fertility of populations to influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation

Nativism

movement to protect and preserve indigenous land or culture from the so-called dangerous and polluting effects of new immigrants

One-Drop Rule

the belief that 'one drop' of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from US laws forbidding miscegenation

Miscegenation

the technical term for multiracial marriage; literally meaning 'a mixing of kinds;' it is politically and historically charged - sociologists generally prefer exogamy or outmarriage

Racialization

the formation of a new racial identity, in which new ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people

Example of Racialization

all arabs are muslim after 9/11

Black Population

marked by high rates of poverty, crime, unemployment, incarceration, and health problems

Latino Population

diverse, though one common trait is that most Latino immigrants have come to the US voluntarily in search of economic opportunity

Asian immigrants

1st wave- unskilled laborers

2nd- well-educated and highly skilled

Ethnicity

one's ethnic quality or affiliation. It is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchal, fluid and multiple, and based on cultural differences not physical ones.

Difference between Race vs Ethnicity?

Race:

externally imposed - someone else defines you as black, white, or other

involuntary - it's not up to you to decidew hich category you belong, someone else puts you there

usually based on physical difference - skin tone, hair, facial features, etc

hierarchal - races are stratified or ordered (in the US white is at the top of the hierarchy)

exclusive - you are only one race

unequal - there's a power dimension

Ethnicity:

voluntary - you decide what you identify with

self-defined - embraced by group members

nonhierarchal - no order

fluid and multiple - you can have multiple ethnicities

cultural - based on differences in practices such as language, food, music, etc (not biological or physical differences)

planar - not about unequal power

Symbolic Inequality

a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but identifying with a past or future nationality.

White Privilege

unseen benefits of being white such as not having to think about race

4 Forms of Minority-Majority Group Relations

1. Assimilation- the blending or fusing of minority groups into the dominant society

2. Pluralism -coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society

3. Segregation -the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity

4. Conflict - when antagonistic groups wtihin a society live integrated int he same neighborhoods, hold the same jobs, and go to the same schools; typically results in diastrous results

Straight-Line Assimilation

Robert Park's 1920 universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate: first they arrive, then settle in, and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenous country

Primordialism

Clifford Geertz's term to explain the persistence of ethnic ties because they are fixed in deeply felt or primordial ties to one's homeland culture

Pluralism

the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society

Segregation

the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity

Plessy vs Ferguson case

-1896 Supreme Court ruling upheld the 'separate but equal' doctrine

Brown vs Board of Education case

-1954 Supreme Court ruling that rules segregated schools were 'inherently unequal'

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Genocide

the mass killing of a group of people

Withdrawl

an oppressed group may leave

Passing

oppressed group members may 'pass' or blend in with the dominant group by making physical changes to their appearance or changing their names to names similar to the dominant group

Acceptance

3. oppressed group feigns compliance and hides true feelings of resentment

Collective Resistance

an organized effort to change a power hierarchy on the part of a less-powerful group in a society

Prejudice

thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group

Discrimination

harmful or negative acts (not merely thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit

Difference between Prejudice and Discrimination?

prejudice refers to THOUGHTS/FEELINGS towards an ethnic or racial group whereas discrimination refers to ACTS against an ethnic or racial group

culture of poverty

the argument that poor people adopt certain practices that differ from those of middle-class, "mainstream" society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances

underclass

the notion, building on the culture of poverty argument, that the poor not only are different from mainstream society in their inability to take advantage of what society has to offer, but also are increasingly deviant and even dangerous to the rest of us

perverse incentives

reward structures that lead to suboptimal outcomes by stimulating counterproductive behavior; welfare argued to have these

absolute poverty

the point at which a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members

relative poverty

a measurement of poverty based on a percentage of the median income in a given location