Soc 100 Exam 3 (UMICH)

Babbie

Social science research is important and it helps to move us past assumptions that we work with

Best

Deals with the issue of statistics, how they look true but need to be cautious of them

Positivism

Days of early sociology, applying natural science to study sociology (Marx=positivist)

Verstehen

Interested in the depth of understanding, subjective (Weber)

Quantitative

Statistics, surveys and experiments: be smart when we use statistics, correlation does not mean causation, intervening third variable

Qualitative

Participant observer, life/oral history, case study: get to quality knowledge/understanding

Elaine Bell

Wrote Not Our Kind of Girl: role of participant observer research helps us to dig deeper, find truths that lie on the surface

Activism

An intentional effort to create change (Marx called this praxis)

Theory, research and action

Theory can lead to research, Theory and research provide blueprint or guide action, Activism/action stimulates people to do theory and research

Categories of activism

Consciousness raising, community building, lobbying, media activism, propaganda, economic activism (boycott, divestment), protest, strike action, non-violent confrontation, violent confrontation, revolution

Original schools

Conflict, functionalism, symbolic interaction

Conflict

Marx, C. Wright Mills

Functionalism

Durkheim, Parsons, Merton

Symbolic Interaction

Mead, Blumer

Three schools failed to include

Feminism

Social Movement

An organized social group that acts with continuity and coordination to promote or resist change in society or other units; longer, more sustained

Social movement collective behavior

Crowds, panic, riots, fads, fashion, hysterical contagion, scapegoating

Types of social movements

Alternative, redemptive, reform, revolutionary

Alternative

Change one behavior; AA

Redemptive

Personal transformation movements; hippie, new age, religious

Reform

Social change movements; environmental and animal rights

Revolutionary

Reactionary movements; Aryan Nation

Addams and Alinsky time frame and location

Addams early 20th century, Alinsky later 20th century, both in Chicago

Addams Key Themes

-The sociologist analyzes the situation at hand in order to create positive social change

-The individual agent is the unit of analysis

-America configures key social elements in ways that must be changed to attain true democracy

Alinsky Key Themes

-Create mass organizations to seize power

-Take hot, impulsive passions to turn them to calculated, purposeful, effective actions

-The core truth of the activist: people have the power to act and will ultimately reach the right decisions

Addams difference

-Morality of helping poor

-She was kind, served them and hands on

-Thought too much individual, she said to change social structure, she developed social theories

Alinsky difference

-Wasn't polite, no morals

-Good to help poor, wanted to help, not hands on

-Was about seizing power and doing what you needed to

-"father of community organizing"

Martin Luther King Jr

Somewhere between Addams and Alinsky: non-violent confrontation

Stiglitz's Thesis

-Politics have shaped our market failures, advantaging those at the top and disadvantaging everyone else

-To make the economy work better for the majority, we need to re-balance markets and the government

-Part of the government's role will be redistribution of income when income is too disparate

Adam Smith's approach to markets

The Invisible Hand; do not intervene, it'll turn out okay

Does Stiglitz agree or disagree with Smith

Disagree

What is the key trend in US economy over the past 30 years that Stiglitz identifies and discusses?

Economic inequality increasing

What is the "Trickle Down" economic theory?

If you give a lot of money to the rich, they'll create jobs and the wealth will trickle down to the rest of the classes

Does Stiglitz agree or disagree with "Trickle Down" theory?

Disagrees, it won't work

What is the role of education in opportunity for Americans?

Give people a clear way to move up in economic America; education does help provide opportunity but the rich get a better education

Gini Coefficient

Measures the degree of economic inequality

US Gini Coefficient

Currently in the 0.4's

Good/bad Gini Coefficient

0 = all wealthy

0.3 = okay level

0.5 = highly dangerous level

1 = one person has all the money

Why does Stiglitz blame US economic inequality on the government?

Government should get involved and help when the economy gets bad, but it makes the economy worse

Types of capital by Bourdieu

Economic, Social, Cultural, Symbolic

Economic Capital

Money

Social Capital

Who you know, network

Cultural Capital

Knowledge you have that helps you get along with the rich and powerful (ex: golf, wine, art, etc)

Symbolic Capital

Prestige (ex: being mayor)

What are the social categories that Andersen and Collins identify that intersect with class and further "stratify" Americans?

Gender, race and sexuality (each are socially constructed, binary and are social structures)

In analyzing group income differences, what are the 3 key explanatory variables?

Education and workforce experience, Ability to get into the workforce and Everything else including discrimination

How does average income of other groups compare to the average income of white men?

White men earn above all expect Asian men

For which groups has the average income improved significantly since 1980?

Mostly white women, but all women have improved (men have not)

Qualification

Stuff on resume, past experience (Police Chief)

Competence

How good a person will do at the job

Qualification and Competence

Often in hiring, we think that qualification means competence but this isn't always true

Davis & Moore Article

-Smart people at top, dumb people at bottom economically

-Doesn't hold true

-Defends inequality

Gans Article

-Reason economic inequality won't go away is because it serves functions for the rich and poor

-Explains why inequality won't go away

Gay & Bisexual Women

Pay less than straight women

Gay men

Pay less than straight men

Transgender women

Pay worse when transitioned

Transgender men

Pay gets better when transitioned

What are three market factors that have worsened economic inequality?

-Loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs

-Globalization

-Not a match between economic inequality getting better and companies doing better

The categories of action Stiglitz would take to reduce US economic inequality?

-Tax Reform (curb excesses at the top)

-Help the rest (99%) and New Social Compact

-Political Reform

What are the two scenarios that Stiglitz describes as the alternative futures of the US

-Reform: gets better

-Current trend worsens: gets worse

What are the frequently used measures of health?

-Deaths that did not have to happen (Amenable Mortality)

-Longevity/life expectancy at birth

How is the US doing on the measures of health?

-Highest number of avoidable deaths

-Low longevity (37th)

What are the two key problems in US health and healthcare?

Distribution and Cost

African American key health problems

Chronic disease, pre-term babies, heart disease, homicide

Native American key health problems

Mortality, chronic disease, mental health

Women key health problems

Violence against women, higher mortality rates, historic lack of attention to women's health concerns

LGBT key health problems

"invisibility", second-class status, special concerns for bisexual and transgender persons

"structural inequities"

The systematic disadvantage of one social group over another

"social determinants of health"

Conditions in social environments that affect health risks, health outcomes and quality of life outcomes

How are structural inequalities and social determinants of health connected?

Social determinants determine the level of health and which structural inequalities a person has

What are current examples of government provided (socialized) health care in US?

Pension, social security, medicare/medicaid

Two key issues that contribute to high cost of US healthcare?

Hospital cost and doctor cost

What are 8 practices that would help reduce US healthcare cost?

-Emphasize primary care

-Stick to what works (standard of care)

-Emphasize prevention

-IM efficiencies through IT

-Manage chronic disease

-Import/negotiate for cheaper drugs

-Pay providers less

-Consumer directed health care

What were the key provisions of the Massachusetts Plan?

-Private market-based

-All must have coverage

-Employers must help

-Government will match people to plans

-Government will subsidize the poor purchasing health care

Did the Massachusetts Plan succeed in providing healthcare insurance for more people?

Yes

What did Obamacare try to do for the whole US beyond what the Massachusetts Plan provided in its state?

Tried to deal with distribution of doctors, healthcare providers

How is healthcare paid for in Canada?

Single payer healthcare, Paid for by the government

Johnson Question

-Paths of least resistance (set up women in different ways to enter a certain career)

-Will a person face discrimination in career/job?

-Anytime when we blamed the individual when it's a system problem? (race and higher education, poor not working hard)

-When are the cultural factors, beliefs at play?

-What is the structure?

Marx

-What's going on in terms of class?

-Interested in economic impacts, who gets richer?

-What factors allow race/gender to dominate another?

-Economic question

Weber

-Interested in experience of people involved

-How/the way culture and religion contribute to inequality?

Durkheim

-Functionalism

-What purpose does something serve?

-How is this serving society?

Mead

-Meanings

-How it's passed on or changed?

-How the role of the doctor has changed in society

Du Bois

-How have we structured race and ethnicity?

-Race theory

-How structure affects black people differently

Feminism

-Where are the women?

-Why is it the way it is?

-What can we do to make it more fair?

Resource Mobilization Theory

Mayer Zald: Explores how movements "gain momentum by successfully garnering resources, competing with other movements and mobilizing their resources available"