Midterm review

macrosociology

relies on historical and comparative analysis and/or statistics to look at social dynamics across whole societies or large part of them

stratification

systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationship

ontological equality

everyone is created equal under God

equality of opportunity

inequality is acceptable as long as the rules of the games are fair

equality of outcome

each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the game

equality of condition

everyone should have an equal starting point

what does stratification describe?

Stratification describes structured social inequality or systematic inequalities among groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social process and relationships

sociology

The systematic study of patterned human interaction in groups, across institutional contexts, across space, across time.

estate system

politically based, characterized by limited social
mobility.

Feudal Europe (e.g., land title = nobility)
 U.S. South before Civil War (e.g., land ownership = voting rig

Caste system

based on hereditary notions of religious and theological purity, generally offers no prospects for social mobility

Class system

economically based on roles in the production process
rather than individual characteristics with somewhat loose
social mobility

Status hierarchy system

based on social prestige.

Weber’s notion of “status groups”: “communities united by either
a positive or negative social estimation of their honor” (

Elite-mass dichotomy system

based on power held in the hands of the few: the
governing elite.

 “Inner core” vs. “outer fringes”:
 Inner core: Those “individuals who interchange commanding roles at the top of one dominant institutional order with those in another”
 The outer fringes: “change[s] more readily than the core...[They] are individuals who count in the decisions that affect all of us but who don’t actually make those decisions”

social mobility

the movement between different
positions within a system of social stratification in any given
society,” which can take place at the individual or group.

Horizontal: group or individual transitioning from one social
status to another situated more or less on the same rung of the
latter

vertical: the rise or fall of an individual (or group) from one
social stratum to another

Structural mobility

mobility that is inevitable [or at least
highly likely] from changes in the economy”

Class system, define it

economically based on roles in the production process rather
than individual characteristics with somewhat loose social mobility

Karl Marx notion of CLASS

by one’s membership in groups
with varying degrees of ownership over the means of production (i.e., inputs into the
production of goods, services

two opposing classes in conflict

Bourgeoisie: Those (e.g., “the capitalist class”) who own the means of production and
“extract surplus value from the proletariat

Proletariat: “sells its labor to the bourgeoisie in order to receive wages and thereby
survive” (e.g., “the working class)

contradictory class locations

“The idea that people can
occupy locations in the class structure which fall between the two.

Managers: “They are part of the working class insofar as they sell their labor to
capitalists in order to live..., yet they are in the capitalist class insofar as they control (or dominate) workers within the production process

max weber’s notion of class

a group that has as its basis common life chances or opportunities available to it
in the marketplace

Elite mass dichotomy system.
C. Wright Mills’s The Power Elite: 3 major institutions where we see the concentration
of money, power, and prestige

Economic institutions, esp. large, for profit corporations.
 Political order, esp. in the federal government.
 Military order – the largest and most expensive featu

under the caste system there is SOCIAL CLOSURE, what is it

enforcement of various formal and informal mechanisms to ensure “no individual mobility within the caste ranks

under the caste system there is SANSKRITIZATION, what is it

when “an entire caste can leapfrog over another and obtain a
higher position in the hierachy

race

: a social construct that changes over time, but always uses physical and sometimes behavioral characteristics to classify
people into separate social groups.

Racialization

refers to the ways in which people [places, and things] are sorted
into racial categories, resources are distributed along racial lines,
and state policy shapes and is shaped by the racial contours of
society

racism

the ideology that races are populations of people whose physical
differences are linked to significant [measurable and normative]
cultural and social differences...”
 “...and the micro- and macrolevel practices that subordinate those
races believed to be inferior”

the veil defined by Du Bois

Perceived and objective social distancing mechanism based on racial categorization, prejudice, and discrimination.
 It is the color line  the segregated black/white world(s) of Du Bois’s time.
 The color line paid “dividends” through colonization and exploitation of Africa and Africans in 15th century. BEING SHUT OUT FROM THEIR WORLD. Metaphor for process in which skin
color becomes both an objective and a subjective
social distancing mechanism” (

double consciousness defined by Du Bois

his sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. A split or separation of
the self from being both ‘black’ and ‘American

to maintains white racial purity and avoid Negro blood staining their own blood, Virginia’s legislature
made it unlawful for a white person to marry outside of them
race, this law also racialized all non-whites as colored expect for one exception

Known as the ‘Pocahontas Exception,’ the Act ensured
that those members of Virginia’s elite families who
claimed descent from Mataoka, better known as
Pocahontas, were irrefutably and legally white

one drop rule

used to define someone as ‘Negro,’
or anyone with known or purported African
ancestry

blood quantum

tests used to measure and reinforce the “belief that ‘Indianness’
can be measured by the amount of ‘Indian blood’ that one possessed...”
 “...gave new meaning to indigenous understandings of ‘descent,’ ‘lineage’ and ancestry...” &
tribal belonging and citizenship

Hegemonic Masculinity

dominant and privileged, if invisible,
category of men

Standpoint theory

emphasizes what one knows is affected by one’s social
location.
 All knowledge is partial and situated.
 Our standpoints may be similar, but not exactly the same

Normative point

We should not take our standpoint for granted

The dominant position

the male upper-class standpoint pervades and
dominates other worldviews

Mesosociology

a theory that attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend
to function and their impact on social relations. Multiple qualitative
and quantitative methods used

Microsociology

looks at symbolic ordering of social relations manifest in local
interactional contexts; examines face-to-face encounters; data
gathered through participant observations and in-depth interview