Soc 1001 : Exam 2

Social Equality

A situation where no differences in wealth, power, and prestige, or status exist.

3 main concepts of social equality

Equal Oppurtunity, Equaltiy of Condition, Equality of Outcome

Equal Oppurtunity

Everyone should have an equal chance to achieve wealth, status, and power because the rules are the same for everyone.

Equality of condition

Everyone should have an equal starting point

Equality of outcome

Everyone should end up with the same amount

Social Mobility

The movement between different positions within a stratified system

Horizontal social mobility

Moving within a social class laterally. ex: the movement of a person from one job, role, or location to another without a change in their social class, income level, or standing in society

Vertical social mobility

Moving between social classes. ex: Moving from upper to middle class

Estate system

Political based systems of stratification characterized by limited social mobility.

Caste system

Religion based system of stratification characterized by no/little social mobility.

Class system

An economically base hierarchical system characterized by cohesive oppositional groups and somewhat loose mobility.

Socio-Economic Status

An individual’s position in a stratified social order based on wealth, property, power and prestige. Be based on 4 measures: Income, Wealth, Education, Occupation

Social Class

Marx: Society divided into classes

Elite-Mass Dichotomy System

a form of social stratification where a small, governing group of leaders holds the vast majority of power, control, and resources, while the passive majority (the masses) holds very little

Status Hiearchy System

System of stratification based on social prestige

Upper class

SES group consisting of the economic, often distinguished by source of income - investments rather than wages. Roughly 1% of the pop

Social inequality

The unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige.

Absolute Poverty

The point when a household’s income falls below the necessary income 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. Typically used to compare global poverty rates.

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.

Middle/Working Class

Historically individuals who work manually, composed of white collar workers

Ethnicity

One’s ethnic affiliations is by contrast. Voluntary, Self defined, cultural, nonhiearchal, fluid and multiple, cultural, and planar.

1790 Naturalization Law

limiting the rights of citizenship to “free White persons.”

Scientific Rascim

19th century theories of race that characerize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one’s own culture/group is superior to others

Institutional Racism

institutions and social dynamics that may seem race-neutral but actually end up disadvantaging minority groups.

Social dwarwinism

Darwinian— “survival of the fittest.” Ex: the idea that some people, defined by their race, are better fit for survival than others and therefore intended by nature to dominate inferior races

Structural Racism

racial disadvantage reinforced across whole systems of institutions over time.

Gender

a social position; behaviors and a set of attributes that are associated with sex identities.

Sex

the perceived biological differences that society typically uses to distinguish males from females.

Essentialist View of Gender

what you do in the social world directly results from who you are in the natural world. If you are born with male parts, essentialists believe, you are essentially and absolutely a man, and as preordained by nature, you will be sexually attracted to women only.

Hegemonic Masculinity

the condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege are invisible.

Socialization

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society

Intersectionality

To understand the interplay between social identities. Such as: race, class, ability, status, helps us understand how these inequalities intersect rather than simply stack up

Gender as a social institution

Gender is not just an individual identity or a set of biological traits, but a fundamental, organized structure of society that shapes how daily life, power, labor, and resources are distributed

Structural Functionalist/Parson’s sex role theory

a theory in which —institutions, norms, traditions mesh to produce a stable, working whole that evolves over time; by Talcott Parsons.

ex: men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and homemakers, respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers.

Stratification

a society-wide system that ranks people into a hierarchical ladder based on unequal access to wealth, income, power, education, and prestige

Social Constructionism/Social Construct

theory - reality, knowledge, and meaning are created through human interaction and cultural agreement rather than existing as natural or objective truths

Micro-Interactionist Perspective (symbolic interactionist)

the small and subtle particulars of a social context, as well as the beliefs and assumptions people carry into their everyday interactions.

Emotional Labor

the process of managing emotions and their outward expression to meet the expectations of a job, especially in service sector work and female-dominated occupations.

Dyad

the smallest and most basic social group, consisting of exactly two people

Triad

a social group composed of three people

Simmel (small groups, parties, large groups)

thinks about how group size influence social dynamic. argues we can predict behaviour based on group size.

Cooley (Primary Groups, Secondary Groups)

how the human "self" is shaped through social interaction.

Social Support

the material, informational, and emotional assistance provided by a person's social network

Social Networks

a social structure made up of a set of social actors—such as individuals, families, or organizations—connected by a web of relationships and interactions

The strength of weak ties

idea that relatively weak ties often turn out to be quite valuable because they yield new information

Deviance

a violation of established norms

Crime

a socially constructed concept that goes beyond a simple legal violation to encompass actions breaking public or social norms which are subject to official sanctions

Social Cohesion

social bonds; how well people relate to each other and get along on a day-to-day basis.

Organic Solidarity

social cohesion based on difference and interdependence of the parts.

Mechanical Solidarity

social cohesion based on sameness.

Collective Conscience

a moral framework for social interaction formed by a set of communal beliefs, norms, and values.

Social Control

mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals.

Formal Sanctains

mechanisms of social control by which rules or laws prohibit deviant criminal behaviour

Informal Sactions

the usually unexpressed but widely known rules of group membership; the unspoken rules of social life.

Social Integration

the extent to which you are integrated into your social group or community.

Social Regulation

the number of rules guiding your daily life and, more specifically, what you can reasonably expect from the world on a day-to-day basis.