SOCI Stop and Reflect Test 2

Patricia Hill Collins Time and Era

1948-present

Raised in Philadelphia in 1950s and 60s in the midst of racial tensions (desegregation, 1964 Race Riot)

Race Riot

August 28-30, 1964

Clash between police and black residents over allegations of police brutality

Rioting, looting, arson — 341 injuries, 774 arrests

Patricia Hill Collins Personal Life

Born in 1948 in Philly to working class parents

• Father factory worker and veteran

• Mother secretary

Attended schools that catered primarily to middle class white families, but then went to Girls’ High during desegregation in 1960s

• Philadelphia High School for Girls - Nation’s first public high school for women only

Married Roger L. Collins (Prof. of Education); had a daughter named Valerie

Patricia Hill Collins Professional Life

Undergrad in Sociology at Brandeis University (1969), an MAT (Masters Degree of Arts and Teaching) at Harvard (1970), and a PhD in Sociology at Brandeis (1984)

Worked at Uni. of Cincinnati until accepting a position as a Distinguished Professor at the Uni. of Maryland

100th President of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in 2009

• First African woman elected to position

Patricia Hill Collins Key Texts

Fighting Words

Black Sxual Politics

From Black Power to Hip Hop

Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory

Black Feminist Thought

Patricia Hill Collins Lesson 1

Knowledge is a product of where one is located in society; knowledge is positional

Being a Black woman creates a unique intersection of knowledge because of the outsider within position

Outsider Within

developed through Black women working in White families; they were “part of” the “in-ness” but were still outsiders because they were somewhat ignored and such, so although they were there they were still outsiders

“In spite of the obstacles that can confront outsiders within, such individuals can benefit from thai status”

Confront power hierarchies of disenfranchised groups, such as how they see themselves and how they are seen by the mainstream

Points to Simmel’s essay on the sociological significance of the stranger as a starting point

Hallmarks of the Outsider Within

Special Perspective of nearness and remoteness from power hierarchies, neutrality, objectivity (close in proximity but not actually part of the group)

Peculiar Ability to see oneself through the lens of the dominant group

Desire to Bring Greater Equality to the viewpoint of the outsiders so they are more visible to the gaze of insiders

Political or Social Justice Imperative to raise the consciousness of insiders to appreciate the undervalued experiences of outsiders

Georg Simmel

German Sociologist in late 1800s-early 1900s

‘The Stranger’ - part of work on sociology of space

Stranger = unique sociological category

The stranger is a member of the group in which he lives and participates and yet remains distant from other members of the group

• Distance is emphasized more than nearness

Perceived as being in the group but not of the group

• Eg. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Differentiates the stranger from the “outsider” who has no specific relation to a group and the “wanderer” who comes today and leaves tomorrow; stranger comes today and stays tomorrow

Confront power hierarchies of disenfranchised groups, such as how they see themselves and how they are seen by the mainstream

Have a more conscious awareness of themselves and of insiders, ,who are perceived to have power over the outsiders

Benefits of the Outsider Within

Simmel’s definition of objectivity: “a peculiar composition of nearness and remoteness, concern and indifference”

The tendency for people to confide in a “stranger” in ways they never would with each other

• Black workers in White households; White people would tell them things that they wouldn’t necessarily tell the other White people

The ability of the stranger to see patterns that may be more difficult for those immersed in the situation to see

Patricia Hill Collins Lesson 2

Black feminist thought consists of ideas that are produced by Black women and that clarify a standpoint of and for Black women

There is NO ONE unified or correct form of Black feminist thought

There’s a rich history of knowledge transmission, often through an oral tradition of Black women in the roles of mothers, teachers, musicians, and preachers

This perspective involves challenging political knowledge validation processes that result in externally-defined stereotypical images of what it means to be a Black woman

Black Woman Stereotypes - Mammy, Jezebel, and Sapphire

Mammy - maid, heavy, taking care of family, no life of own, asexual, there to support, put aside own needs for White

Jezebel - oversexualized, power in body, influence over men

Sapphire - manipulative, sharp tongued, angry black women who doesn’t take anything from anybody (like the mom from Everybody Hates Chris)

Patricia Hill Collins Lesson 3

Race, gender, and class based oppression have long been recognized as linked forms of oppression in Black feminist thought

Rather than seeing race as being layered on top of other forms of oppression, Black feminist thought challenges us to rethink how systems of oppression interact dynamically

“The oppression experienced by most Black women is shaped by their subordinate status in an array of either/or dualities”

Why does Black Feminist Thought challenge us to see intersections of oppression?

Each gains its (limited) meaning relationally to the other/opposite part

Difference is not complementary; the halves do not enhance one another

These relationships are intrinsically unstable

Patricia Hill Collins Lesson 4

Black feminist approaches place emphasis on the role of historically-specific political economies in explaining the endurance of cultural themes

There is no monolithic Black women’s culture, but rather socially constructed cultureS (plural)

Black women’s culture provides an ideological framework of symbols and values (like self-definition and self-valuation) that assist Black women in seeing how race, class, and gender shape oppression

Why is Black women’s culture significant?

Data suggests that the relationship between oppressed people’s consciousness of oppression and the actions they take in dealing with oppressive structures may be far more complex than that suggested by existing social theory

It points to the problematic nature of existing conceptualizations of the term ‘activism’ as traditional acts like voting and participating in collective action

An analytical model exploring the relationship between oppression, consciousness, and activism is implicit in the way Black feminists have studied Black women’s culture

What does Black Feminist knowledge add to society?

Standpoints that are distinct and potentially opposed to white male insiders

A challenge to take for granted assumptions and concepts (dismantling the canon)

Research and knowledge about the lives and experiences of Black women that are authentic

Michel Foucault Time and Era

1926-1984

Born in France shortly after WWI

He lived there through the Great Depression and WWII

Lived in Sweden, Poland, and West Germany from 1955 until 1960. Nations were rebuilding and seeing economic growth

Moved to the United States in 1960 to work in California, New York, and Vermont - politically charged time in the US

Michel Foucault Personal Life

Born to upper-middle class family

Medical family

Contentious relationship with his father, largely related to his sexuality (GAY)

Attempted suicide in 1948 and was hospitalized in a psychiatric facility — shaped academic interests

Long-time partner, Daniel Defert, from 1963 to Foucault's death in 1984

• Died of AIDs complications

Michel Foucault Professional Life

Attended Ecole Normale Superior (ENS), elite French secondary school (Durkheim also went there) and completed advanced studies in the Philosophy of Psychology

Well-versed in a range of disciplines and theorists, including Durkheim, Freud, and Marx (whom he rejected!)

• Disagreed with class focus because of his own experiences with homophobia and antisemitism

Held professorships and lectureships around the world — highly regarded speaker

Michel Foucault Books

Discipline and Punish

The History of Sxuality (most well known)

Madness and Civilization

Power/Knowledge

Penality

the particular system of investigation and punishment that a society uses. Penality includes all aspects of the examination and treatment of those who break the law

Michel Foucault Lesson 1

Historically, punishment was enacted in public and against the body

Begins with a description of torture as a form of punishment

Begins by detailing the public execution of Damiens in 1757 and comparing it to prison rules from 1837

• Reasoning: Highlights the different ways society has approached the act of punishment and to highlight the role of the body

Traces the shifts beginning with punishment that is public and against the body (emphasis on pain)

Punishment then became a dual system:

• Administrative — courts lay out and determine punishment

• Reform the Soul — relegated to prisons, punishments carried out in private

No longer about punishment against the body, but supervision of the individual and an effort to reform the soul

Dual System of Punishment

Administrative — courts lay out and determine punishment

Reform the Soul — relegated to prisons, punishments carried out in private

Michel Foucault Lesson 2

Punishment turns from a public spectacle into an administrative process that uses judges and courtrooms

In the court system there “operates a theoretical disavowal”

• Judges can claim they do not pass sentences to punish but rather to correct, cure, and improve the person who committed the crime

Administering punishment became shameful, so the courts entrusted it to others “under the seal of secrecy”

“Punishment, then, will tend to become the most hidden part of the penal process”

Consequences of the shift to an administrative process with judges and courtrooms

Leaves the domain of everyday perception and enters that of abstract consciousness

Effectiveness is seen as resulting from its inevitability, not from its visible intensity

The certainty of being punished and not the horrifying spectacle of public punishment that must discourage crime

The exemplary mechanics of punishment changes its mechanisms

Juvenile Delinquents Act

1908

JDA assumed social environments were responsible for young peoples’ delinquent behaviour

The state took a parenting/teaching role rather than a punitive one — WELFARE MODEL!!!

As young as 7

Criticisms

• Informal system; no lawyers or jury

• Not uniform; indeterminate sentence lengths

• Interpreted by provinces; not consistent across Canada

Young Offenders Act

1984

Following 1982 Charter, JDA was replaced with YOA (1984)

Moved away from welfare model towards a more standardized law and order approach

12-17 years

Two primary changes; portrayal of young people as dangerous to society, and the ability to hold young people accountable for their criminal behaviour

Biggest critics were police officers and victim’s rights groups

• Police — too soft on crime

• Victim’s rights — too hard on crime

“Hot topics” in YOA

• Parents no longer held accountable

• Minimum age raised from 7 to 12

  • Those under 12 couldn’t be held responsible for their actions in a criminal sense

• Sentences set at no more than 10 years

• Ban on publication of offender names

• Youth provided lawyers in the process

Youth Criminal Justice Act

2003

Instituted based on the idea of proportionality — sentences should reflect the severity of the crime committed

• In response to high youth incarceration rate from YOA

Introduction of diversion — Extrajudicial Measures!!!

• Attempt to keep youth out of the system

• Do community service instead of jail time

Criticised for being bifurcated and resembling the adult system

• Bifurcated = dual system — some get the leniency, others don’t

Michel Foucault Lesson 3

Modern punishment occurs in a double system with bureaucratic concealment of the penalty

The court determines the punishment, but the prison actually carries it out

Justice no longer takes public responsibility for the violence that it enacts on the criminal offender

Alcatraz

Between 1932 and 1963, approx. 1570 men served time there

• Average at any time was between 270-280 people

Most were in B and C block (general population)

• Average 250 at a time

• B and C block had 60 cells each in 3 tiers for a total of 360 cells

D block

• Isolation for most violent or dangerous offenders

• Only let out for a little bit of exercise and to shower

Guards always oversee prisoners

• Experienced guards were transferred in

• 3:1 inmates to guards

• Entry level salary $1860 a year (like $35,000 today)

1940s metal detectors virtually unknown — Alcatraz had them

• Most members of the public were not even aware of their existence

Cells 5x9 feet, had steel strap bunk fixed to wall, mattress, 2 blankets, 1 pillow, small folding table and seat, sink/toilet, no privacy

Inmates with maximum privilege still spent an average of 15-16 hours a day in their cell

Had an inmate orchestra, regular movie screenings, a library, and sports

Michel Foucault Lesson 4

In the modern day, punishment is not about causing pain to the body

The body is what is imprisoned, but the intent is to remove the prisoner’s sense of freedom and liberty

Modern punishment is enacted on the person’s soul

Foucault says we could argue that imprisonment punishes the body, but not in the same way torture used to

Manipulation of the body comes at a distance through laws and strict rules within the prison, not actual infliction of pain

Penitentiary

A prison that does more than merely deprive people of their freedom. The combination of workshop, hospital, and prison is the defining feature of the modern prison system for Foucault

Marx and Engels Time and Era

Lived in various locations across Europe in the 1800s

Born in period immediately following French Revolution, lived during the Industrial Revolution

Society was characterized by massive social, political, and economic change

Karl Marx Personal Life

1818-1883

Born in Prussia (now Germany) to a family of Jewish Rabbis (converted to something else to avoid antisemitism before his birth)

Home-schooled by his father until entering university in 1935 at 17

Married baroness Jenny von Westphalen in 1843; had 7 children (4 Jenny’s, Edgar, Henry, and 1 unnamed); only 3 lived to adulthood (because of poor health conditions of the time)

Moved frequently for political reasons and eventually became a stateless person until his death

Buried, has grave site, regularly visited, defaced, and damaged

Friedrich Engels Personal Life

1820-1895

Born to a wealthy family who owned large cotton-textile mills in Prussia. Rejected but later joined the company and became a partner (so that he could support himself and Marx and their writing financially)

Long time partner Mary Burns, died in 1863. Become close with her sister, Lixxie, and married her hours before her death in 1878

• Pro monogamy, against marriage

Died of throat cancer in 1895 at 74

Cremated, ashes scattered

Left his wealth to Marx’s 3 surviving daughters after he died

Marx & Engels Professional Life

Friends and collaborators who met in August 1844

Engels approached Marx and showed him his work; was able to convince him that the working class would be the agent and instrument of the final revolution in history

A year later Engels moved to Brussels to join Marx and they both went to England to visit leaders in the local socialist movement

Both wrote extensively; after Marx’s death, Engels continued to edit and publish their work

Marx & Engels Books

The Communist Manifesto

The German Ideology

Das Kapital (Marx)

• Volumes 2/3 by Engels after Marx’s death

The Condition of the Working Class in England (Engels)

Marx & Engels Lesson 1

Society has undergone changes throughout history, based on the means of production

Can understand society at any given time by looking at how money and resources are distributed

Marx & Engels Two Questions

Who works?

Who benefits?

Marx & Engels Three Aspects of Social Organization

Material Forces of Production — actual methods by which people produce their livings

Relations of Production arise out of material forces or production and include properly relations and rights

Legal and Political Superstructures and the ideas of forms of social consciousness that correspond to the first two

What is the fundamental determinant of social structure according to Marx and Engels

Economic factors

Hunter-Gatherers

Small groups of extended families who roamed while hunting for meat and gathering fruits and vegetables; resources were distributed according to need

Would only settle in one place if resources were abundant. This settlement contributed to early starts of the Agricultural Revolution

Agricultural Revolution

18th and early 19th centuries people became more stationary and began domesticating animals and growing crops

Farming began with simple tools, like sticks, and expanded to a trade economy over time

Industrial Revolution

Manufacturing changed from manual to machine production

People moved into factory jobs, where efficiency allowed for mass production of goods

Post-Industrial Information Age

In our modern world, those with the means to produce, store, and disseminate information hold power

The rapid increase in computers and virtual communication allows for global markets to develop

Historical Materialism

the approach to understanding society that explains social change and human ideas in terms of underlying changes in the mode of production or economy

Marx and Engels believed that societies grew and changed because different social classes struggled over control of the means of production

Marx and Engels Lesson 2

throughout history, societies have been characterized by a complicated arrangement of people into various orders. They called this a manifold gradation of social rank

Class Conflict in Modern Society

The modern society that replaced feudalism did not abolish class antagonisms — rather it established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones

Marx and Engels Class Definition

A class is made up of people who are alike in their relationship to property — they have none, or they have the same type

Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat

Bourgeoisie: the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour

Proletariat: the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live

Who creates changes?

Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie Conundrum

The wealthy (bourgeoisie) get more money the more they produce/sell

But the more a product is produces, the less value it has (logic of supply and demand)

What do the bourgeoisie do?

• They find new products and/or new markets

Increased infrastructure allowed for further travel and interaction with new societies (colonization of America)

Commerce (buying and selling) is forced on new nations — “it compels all nations, on pain of extinction”

Marx and Engels Lesson 3

By collapsing the feudal classes into only two, the few bourgeoisie have set themselves up to be overthrown by the many proletariat

“What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable”

Prediction or call to action???

Proletariat as the Working Class

Live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital

“Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of proletarians has lost all individual character”

• The worker becomes an appendage of the machine

• He is only needed for simple, monotonous tasks

• Lose the "charm of the workman”

Members of the working class are considered a commodity; they must sell themselves (their time, body, energy) in exchange for money

• They only get a small fee in exchange for the wealth of profit they create — Employer makes the profit

• Exploitation!

Exploitation

in Marxist theory is defined in terms of the labour theory of value, to denote the extraction of surplus value, or the difference between the value of what a worker receives in wages and that which is produced and appropriated by the capitalist

Davis-Moore Thesis

Argued (1945) that greater social roles should be rewarded more because some jobs are more valuable than others (and/or require more training)

Believed that rewarding more important work with higher levels of income, prestige, and power encouraged people to work harder and longer

Marx and Engels Prediction

The working class would take down the wealthy class

“The workers begin to form combination (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeoisie; they club together in order to keep up the rates of wages”

• “Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time”

Marx and Engels concluded that while all previous historical movement swerve in favour of the minority, the overthrowing of the bourgeoisie would be in the interest of the immense majority

• In the end, they believed the bourgeoisie will be taken down largely by infighting and tensions among themselves

Marx and Engels Lesson 4

Did not write much about age, sex, gender, or ethnicity because they thought machines rendered bodies irrelevant

Jo Freeman Time and Era

Born in Georgia in 1945 and raised in Los Angeles. Still alive today

Influenced by social movements and political events around her

• Arrested during the Bay Area Civil Rights Movement

• Had a University President fired during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement

• Worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Arrested twice; charged and acquitted once, charged and convicted once

Jo Freeman Personal Life

After being involved in Civil Rights and Student Rights movement, Freeman began to question the expectations placed on women in the 1960s

In 1967 she met a group of women, who formed the Westside group (named for Freeman’s apartment (where they met to have discussions and such)

Dedicated her life to activism and social change

Jo Freeman Professional Life

Politically active during her undergraduate degree in Political Science and wrote a thesis on civil disobedience

Began a graduate degree in Political Science at the University of Chicago and earned a PhD in 1973

Attended NYU School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1983; still resides in New York

Jo Freeman Books

We will be Heard

At Berkley in the Sixties

Women: a Feminist Perspective

The Politics of Women’s Liberation

Social Movement

an organized group that acts consciously to promote or resist change through collective action; long lasting, organized, and with a specific goal/purpose in mind

More likely to develop in industrialized societies than in pre-industrial ones, where acceptance of the traditional beliefs and practices make such movements unlikely

People who participate in social movements typically lack power and other resources to bring about social change without engaging in collective action

Social movements are most likely to spring up when people come to see their personal troubles as public issues that cannot be solved without a collective response

David Aberle

Types of social movements

Alternative Social Movements

Limited change to specific individuals (eg. self improvement)

Reformative Social Movements

Limited change ine veryone (eg. MADD)

Redemptive Social Movements

Widespread change specific individuals (eg. scientology, conversion therapy)

Revolutionary Social Movements

Widespread change in everyone

Jo Freeman Lesson 1

while some social movements may persist over long periods of time, we may not have a keen understanding of their origins

Jo Freeman Lesson 2

for a social movement to take root — have long term stability — it must have a group of people who are already in communication with one another

Network

a web of social relationships that links one person with other people and through them, to additional people

Frequently networks connect people who share common interests but who otherwise might not identify and interact with one another

When is a Network Cooptable

Members share experiences and are receptive to the message

The network is not faced with structural or ideological barriers

Who is at the core of social movements and networks

Young people

Jo Freeman Lesson 3

if a cooptable communication network is not well-formed, then active efforts must be made to organize one by the people involved in creating the movement

What if no network exists?

If no network exists, Freeman says there must be (at minimum) emerging spontaneous groups that are acutely attuned to the issue

Need leaders and organizers

Leaders and Organizers in Social Movements

Leaders and organizers are not necessarily the same person. There tends to be a focus on the leader (face of the movement), but the organizer is more important because they operate behind the scenes

Jo Freeman Lesson 4

Lesson 4: if a cooptable network does already exist, all that is needed to create a social movement is a crisis

A crisis does not need to be a major one; it only needs to embody collective discontent

In logic terms: necessary, not sufficient

Civil Rights Movement

Communications Network: the church and black college

Crisis: Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on the bus

Organizing Body: Dr. King was the public leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott; E.D. Nixon and the Women’s Political Council organized it

Student Movement

Communications Network: National Student Association (NSA) on campus and conferences

Crisis: series of protest issues in 1960s (bans on speech, Vietnam War)

Organizing Body: NSA was the primary contact across campuses

Welfare Rights Movement

Communications Network: The National Welfare Rights Organization was co-founded by George Wiley

Crisis: no crisis, ongoing poverty

Organizing Body: Wiley linked together local recipient groups - national organizers found among former civil rights activists

Women’s Liberation Movement

Communications Network: “Older branch” more traditional, “younger branch” more radical

Crisis: Refusal of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the sex provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Organizing Body: Many leaders but no organizers in the early days

Stonewall Riots Case Study

North America in the early 1900s saw recurring medical and legal discourses of homosexuality; gay men and lesbian women were seen as being diseased, mentally ill, and/or criminal

During WWII, Nazis destroyed gay and lesbian literature, art, and culture including over 12,000 books and 35,000 pictures

There was especially harsh treatment and high death rates among gay and lesbian concentration camp prisoners

Post WWII cold war era equated being gay or lesbian with a communist

The Stonewall Inn: a bar frequented by gay and lesbian people. Frequently raided by police, but on this particularly hot summer night, a police raid led to a weekend-long riot (1969)

Freeman on Stonewall and LGBTQ Movement

Pre-Existing Cooptable Network?

Gay people

Organizer?

Not really needed; just word of mouth and phone through the network

Crisis?

Yes - the riot