Sociology final

Inequality

The unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities in society

Income

The receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period

Wealth

The net value of all assets owned minus debts

Middle class

A group in the middle positions of income and status

Class

A group sharing a similar social and economic position

Socioeconomic status (SES)

A person’s class based on education, income, and occupation

Deindustrialization

The decline in manufacturing jobs

Globalization

The increasing flow of goods, ideas, and people across borders

Minimum wage

The lowest hourly wage set by law

Inequality of opportunity

How inequality affects chances to succeed

Social mobility

Movement between social classes

Caste society

A system where status is determined at birth

Immobility

Inability to move between social classes

Meritocracy

A system where success is based on ability

Poverty line

Minimum income needed for basic necessities

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Machines that mimic human intelligence

Division of labor

Specialization of tasks in society

Labor market

The process through which employers identify and hire individuals to work under specified terms of employment.

Occupations

Jobs with required training or skills

Industrial Revolution

Period of factory growth and mass production

Specialization

Skills in a narrow field

White-collar jobs

Office-based, non-physical work

Blue-collar jobs

Physical labor jobs

Post-industrial society

Post industrial society in which education becomes a primary source or opportunity and inequality.

Gig economy

Income is received from doing jobs on a short-term basis, with no commitment from either employer or worker beyond a single transaction

Freelancing

Individuals do not have a single employer, but rather take jobs as they arise

Labor process

Organization of work: the way specific work tasks are structured and performed, and the technologies and organizational environments in which the work is performed.

Scientific management

Efficiency through manager control

Deskilling

The process of breaking down the tasks involved in the production of goods or services into parts that can be done by someone without specialized training.

Automation

Machines replacing human labor

Autonomy

Power to decide what and how one performs one’s daily tasks, free of close supervision.

Status

Social recognition or prestige

Informal work

Jobs that do not have a formal employment contract.

Precarious work

Employment that is temporary and/or subject to end without notice, often has no set work schedule, and no opportunity for promotion or the acquisition of new skills.

Professions

Jobs with required credentials and legal standards

Credentials

Formal degree or certificate that identifies the holder as having completed some course of study.

Alienation

Humans feel disconnected or estranged from some part of their nature or from society

Essentialism

The view that members of a group share a fundamental, inherited, innate, and fixed quality or characteristic.

One-drop rule

Classifying anyone with African ancestry as Black

Ethnicity

A system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent, based on perceived cultural similarities.

Race

A system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent, based on perceived innate physical similarities.

Social construct

Invented social phenomenon that is shaped by the social forces present in the time and place of its creation.

Constructivist

The view that social categories such as race, ethnicity, or gender are social creations, not biological facts.

Assimilation

Adopting a new culture

Socialization

Learning norms and roles

DNA

Genetic material in organisms

Racism

Discrimination based on race

Prejudice

Negative beliefs or attitudes held about entire groups based on subjective, selective, inaccurate information.

Stereotypes

Overgeneralized beliefs about a group

Discrimination

Actions that disadvantage groups

Implicit prejudice

Prejudice (unconscious) based on stereotypes that can be activated without an individual’s being consciously aware of holding them.

Institutional discrimination

Actions or policies of organizations or social institutions exclude, disadvantage, or harm members of particular group

Systemic racism

Interconnected systems of racial inequality

Intersectionality

Overlapping forms of inequality

White privilege

Advantages of being White

Affirmative action

Policies increasing minority representation

White supremacism

Belief that White people are superior

Gender

Social differences between men and women

Sex

Biological classification as male or female

Intersex individual

Born with both male and female traits

Social construction of gender

The social process that create and sustain perceptions of gender differences, and reinforce inequality between groups.

Patriarchy

System where men hold more power

Transgender

Identifying with a different gender than assigned at birth

Nonbinary

Not identifying strictly as male or female

Feminist movement

Movement for gender equality

Occupational sex segregation

Gender division across jobs

Sexual orientation

Sexual attractions are to members of the same sex, the other gender, or both.

Double standard of sexuality

Harsher judgment of women’s sexuality

Cisgender

Identifying with assigned gender

Heteronormativity

Belief heterosexuality is normal

Heterosexism

Bias against non-heterosexual people

Homophobia

Fear or discrimination against gay people

Urban

High population density area

Population density

Number of people living in a defined geographic space

Metropolitan region

Continuously populated region with several jurisdictions, typically a large central city surrounded by several smaller towns, that are all physically and economically connected to one another.

Suburban

Residential area near a city

Rural

Low-density area away from cities

Urbanization

Growth of cities

Megacity

City with over 10 million people

Megaregion

Urban area containing at least two very large cities and surrounding towns and suburbs between them, which are connected through economic and transportation infrastructures

White flight

Migration of White families out of racially mixed cities and urban neighborhoods to racially homogeneous suburban areas.

Redlining

Determination by governments and banks that neighborhoods with high percentages of racial minorities were ineligible for mortgage loans.

Racial covenants

Agreements restricting home sales by race

Suburban sprawl

Expansion of low-density residential areas.

Gentrification

Neighborhood undergo a process of change where new investment, new people, and new establishments move into and change the character of the neighborhood.

Social isolation

Lack of social connections

Community

Group with shared identity

Social ties

Connections individuals make with other people

Social networks

Ties or connections between people, groups, and organizations.

Social capital

Resources gained through connections

Homemaker–breadwinner family

One works, one handles home duties

Single-parent

One parent raising children

Same-sex marriage

Marriage between same gender partners

Kinship system

System defining family relationships

Social links and boundaries, defined by biology and social custom, that establish who is related to whom

Kin

People that individuals have important social relationships with