SOC 1001 Final Exam

Changes in Modernity

Industrialization (separation of work and private life), Secularization, Urbanization, Temporalization, Idea of Progress (Enlightenment), Rise of Sciences and Rationalization, Bureaucracy, Archivization

Goals of Changes in Modernity

predictability, efficiency, calculability, control over uncertainty, substitution of humans

Foreground/Background in Traditional Society

background (unacknowledged aspects of society) is larger than foreground (aspects of social life which are given attention)

Foreground/Background in Modernity

background (unacknowledged aspects of society) is reduced and foreground (aspects of social life which are given attention) is expanded

private sphere (ex family, religion) is deinstitutionalized and public sphere (ex work, government) is hyper institutionalized

Cultural Pluralism

different societies with different cultures interacting and/or mixing together during modernity

Structural Pluralism

division of public and private spheres of society occurring during modernity

Community (Gemeinschaft): Tönnies

low differentiation, lifeworld over system

Society (Gesellschaft): Tönnies

high differentiation, system over lifeworld

Modernity and Identity: Berger

influence of modernity on human consciousness, life-worlds, home-world, life plans, technology and bureaucracy, modern identity as peculiarly differentiated, reflective and individuated

Before Modernity: Coleman

all social organization was made up of people (natural persons, family), religion was a sacred canopy which encompassed everything

After Modernity: Coleman

corporate structure where corporations act as a legal person (no longer made up of people), people are irrelevant and easily replaceable, power imbalance between corporate actor and the person, secularization and rationalization of consciousness, multiple sacred canopies

Before Modernity: Berger

unified and integrated societies, home-world (meaningful center of life in society), comprehensible and consistent world, feeling at home

After Modernity: Berger

multiple life-worlds (pluralization and segmentation), individuals interact with different worlds, growing up in multiple life-worlds (not at home), private VS public worlds, uniquely differentiated, reflective and individuated identity, permanent identity crisis (identity is unstable and unreliable)

Identity Before Modernity

identity was based institutionally/environmentally with no choice of reflection

rooted in…

• families: work and vocation, homogenous life, prestige and stability

• space: few people travelled from home

• religion

• social world: born into social reality (family and community)

Identity After Modernity

identity is flexible and no longer deeply institutionalized

• no longer rooted in families

• more social mobility

• geographic mobility

• religion weakens and move to private realm

Childhood vs Adulthood: Hunter

Childhood and Adolescence become distinct periods of life only after modernity

causes: decline of infant mortality, separation of work/domesticity, industrialization and surplus economy

Adulthood becomes deinstitutionalized and postponed (employment, marriage and homeownership delayed)

maturity equated to social status/prestige

Theories of Religion (The Classical View): Marx

Religion and Inequality

alienation (sense that our own abilities as humans are taken over by other entities), “opium of the people”

Secularization

process of decline in the influence of religion (constitutional separation of Church and State)

Religion in Modernity

• privatization: moving religion into private sphere

• pluralization: varieties in faiths

• deinstitutionalization: religion don’t disappear but change forms and move into private sphere

Religious Nationalism

linking of strongly held religious convictions with beliefs about a people’s social and political destiny

fundamentalism is modern phenomena in confrontation with modernity

Systems of Stratification

Slavery: form of social stratification in which some people are owned by others as property

Caste System: social system in which social status is held for life

Class system: system of social hierarchy that allows individuals to move among classes

4 main bases of class: ownership of wealth, occupation, income, and education.

Class and Differences from Other Systems

socioeconomic variation among groups of individuals that create variations in their material prosperity and power

4 main differences between class and slavery/caste: class systems are fluid and movement is possible, positions are partly achieved, classes are economically based, class systems are large scale and impersonal

Life Chances: Weber

a person’s opportunities for achieving economic prosperity in their life

Theory of Stratification: Weber

social order: distribution of honor (status)

economic order: distribution of economic resources (class)

legal order: distribution of power (party)

• status: social honor or prestige a particular group is accorded by other members of society

• pariah groups: groups who suffer from negative status discrimination

Forms of Capital: Bourdieu

Economic Capital: economic resources

Social Capital: social connections (could be institutionalized into titles), membership in a group, family, political party

Cultural Capital: embodied, institutionalized and objectified

“classes are stratified according to their relations to the production and acquisition of goods; whereas status groups are stratified according to the principles of their consumption of goods as represented by special styles of life”

Social Reproduction: Bourdieu

noneconomic cultural resources or knowledge parents pass down to children, linguistic and cultural competences, (familiarity with culture), education and acquired Habitus (way that people perceive and respond to social world given their background and disposition)

Concerted Cultivation: Lareau

Key Elements: parent actively fosters and assesses child’s opinions, skills and talents

• Daily Life Organization: multiple activities set up for children by adults

• Language Use: reasoning/directives, child contesting adult statements, extended negotiation between parent and child

• Social Connections: weak ties to extended family, child in homogenous age groupings

• Intervention in Institutions: criticism and intervention on behalf of child, child taught to intervene on their own behalf

• Consequences: emerging sense of entitlement from child

Accomplishment of Natural Growth: Lareau

Key Elements: parent cares for child and allows them to grow

• Daily Life Organization: child interacts particularly with kin

• Language Use: directives, child rarely questions/challenges adults, child generally accepts directives

• Social Connections: strong ties to extended family, child in heterogenous age groupings

• Intervention in Institutions: dependance on institutions, sense of powerlessness and frustration, conflict between child rearing practices at home and at school

• Consequences: emerging sense of constraint from child

Poverty: Ehrenreich

struggle of working class poor and cycle of poverty

Social Stratification

existence of structured inequalities between groups in society in terms of access to material and symbolic rewards

Structured Inequalities

social inequalities resulting from patterns in social structure

Race

socially constructed category rooted in belief that there are fundamental differences among humans associated with phenotype and ancestry

Ethnicity

cultural values and norms that distinguish members of a given group from others

Racism

attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics

Discrimination (vs Predjudice)

behavior that denies resources or rewards to members of a particular group that can be obtained by others

(prejudice is about ideas whereas discrimination is about actions)

Natal Alienation: Patterson

slave as non-person, loss of ties in both previous and following generations, master as only mediator between slave and social life

“alienated from all ‘rights’ or claims of birth [slaves] ceased to belong in [their] own right to any legitimate social order”

The Philadelphia Negro: W.E.B. Du Bois

first comprehensive sociological study of race in the world, wrote as a study of residential segregation in the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia

Double Consciousness: W.E.B. Du Bois

“sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others”

The Veil: W.E.B. Du Bois

barrier in mindset preventing true understanding and equality between races

Race and Wealth: W.E.B. Du Bois

relation between slavery and growth of capitalism, value of status, receiving psychological wages for holding a position above others in a status hierarchy (ex. the psychological wages of Whiteness)

Racism Today: McIntosh

Invisible Knapsack: invisible benefits that whites carry in their everyday lives

earned strength (can be empowering for POC) vs unearned power (can make white privilege visible)

Institutional Racism

idea that racism occurs through respected and established institutions of society rather than through hateful actions of some bad people

Analogy of the Cage: Alexander

system of mass incarceration has various laws, institutions and practices which trap African Americans in a conceptual and literal cage

War on Drugs (3 Stages): Alexander

Stage 1: round up of huge number of people to be put into criminal justice system on drug related charges

Stage 2: period of formal control in prison

Stage 3: period of invisible punishment after release with legal sanctions promoting cycle of incarceration

Gone Home, Race and Appalachia (Capitalism and Coal Industry): Brown

creation of model towns and docile bodies, unionization threat and surveillance, racial contract and social engineering

Gone Home, Race and Appalachia (The Great Migration or Escape?): Brown

considers circumstances under which they migrated from South (conditions of both exit and travel), inability to pass on origin stories, attempt to break with the history of slavery

Gone Home, Race and Appalachia (Formation Story): Brown

historical formation of social concepts and practices

racial self as a social construct (Mead, Du Bois, Brown)

Gone Home, Race and Appalachia (Step Migration): Brown

gradual movement to a final destination over the course of life or generations

Gender

social expectations about behavior regarded as appropriate for members of each sex, refers not to the physical attributes distinguishing men and women but to socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity

Sex

based on biological and anatomical differences distinguishing females and males

Gender Role Socialization

learning of gender roles through social factors such as school, media, and family

Social Construction of Gender

learning of gender roles through socialization and interaction with others

Hegemonic Masculinity

social norms dictating that men should be strong, self-reliant and unemotional

Gender Theory: Butler, Lorber

believe in the social construction of gender and reject all biological bases for gender differences

• precisely how we “do” gender varies widely by race, social class, and social context

• we selectively choose to enact different aspects of gender expectations based on what we think will work best in a particular setting

Biological Essentialism

view that differences between men and women are natural and inevitable consequences of the intrinsic biological natures of men and women

• social scientists agree that theories based solely on an innate predisposition neglect the vital role of social interaction in shaping human behavior

Gender Inequality in Family: Coontz

only men’s goals are accepted and approved as individualistic, American individualism relies on subordination of women’s individuality

Division of Household Labor (Change and Factors): Hochschild

mothers began to enter workforce due to…

• depression of male dollar (deindustrialization, decline in unions, increasing cost of living)

• cultural understanding of gender was not keeping up with changes in workforce (the stalled revolution)

Practicing Gender in Preschool: Martin

5 practices which teach gender: dressing up, permitting relaxed behavior or requiring formal behavior, controlling voices, verbal and physical instructions regarding children's bodies by teachers, physical interactions among children

Gender Ideology (Shallow vs Deep): Hochschild

ideology that does not match deeper feelings vs ideology that matches deeper feelings

Gender Strategy: Hochschild

plan of action for problem solving given cultural notions of gender

• includes Traditional, Transitional, Egalitarian

• created in early childhood

• usually anchored to deep emotions

The Family Myth: created when reality contradicts a family’s gender ideology

Gender Strategy (Traditional): Hochschild

• women wants to identify with home (has less power)

  • women wants man to identify with work

• man wants to identify with work (has more power)

  • man wants woman to identify with home

Gender Strategy (Transitional): Hochschild

any blending of traditional and egalitarian views on gender dynamics in work and home

Gender Strategy (Egalitarian): Hochschild

both genders what to identify with the same sphere as their partner (have equal power)

Deinstitutionalization of Marriage: Cherlin

1st Transition: from institutional to companionate marriage

2nd Transition: from companionate to individualized marriage

symbolic significance: enforceable trust, marriage as culminating achievement

Integration: Waters

twofold process that depends on participation of immigrants and their descendants in major social institutions such as schools and the labor market as well as their social acceptance by other Americans

an intergenerational process, symbolic ethnic identity, imposed racial identity

Theory of Nation: Renant

national identities are not natural or unquestionable, a nation is remembering and forgetting, national identification is an ongoing process, nation as a daily vote on public questions, there is a will to belong and share the past/future

Theory of Nation (Origins): Anderson

Cultural Roots: decline of religious community and dynastic realm, apprehension of time, change in conception of time (moving to empty time)

Origins: intersection of capitalism, printing technology, and diversity of languages

• national identities were socially constructed but their supporters do not see them this way

Theory of Nation (Imagined Communities): Anderson

nation is an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign

1. Nations are imagined

2. Nations are imagined as limited

3. Nations are imagined as sovereign

4. Nations are imagined as community

Theory of Nation (Tradition): Hobsbawm

tradition vs customs

invented traditions: set of practices normally governed by tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual/symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behavior by repetition, which automatically implies continuity with the past

Theory of Nation (Function of Tradition): Hobsbawm

social order and legitimization for kings or ruling elites, substitute for social cohesion in the age of secularization and emerging rights, helped produce important institution (primary education, public ceremonies and public monuments)

Collective Memory: Halbwachs

reconstruction of the past is never complete and is always influenced by the present

collective memory as organic memory of the individual which operates within framework of a sociocultural environment and creation of shared versions of the past

results from interaction, communication, media and institutions within small social groups as well as large cultural communities

memory is situated in Language, Spatially and Temporally

Approaches to Microsociology

Symbolic Interactionism (Tavoy): people understand the social world by attaching meaning to unspoken communication and symbols

Phenomenology: human awareness and interpretations of interactions play a central role in production of the social world

Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel): people use certain methods of social interaction in the context of their role in society to make sense of and function in the social world

Dramaturgy (Goffman): people engage in the social world as performances

Social Interaction: Goffman

social interaction: process by which we act and react to those around us

agency: ability to think, act and make choices independently

Civil Inattention: Goffman

individuals in same physical setting glance at each other and quickly look away to indicate awareness of each other but not intrusiveness

Interactional Vandalism

deliberate subversion of the tacit rules of conversation

Theories of Religion (The Classical View): Durkheim

Religion and Functionalism

the Profane vs the Sacred, rituals are essential

Theories of Religion (The Classical View): Weber

World Religion and Social Change

ex. Protestantism in the early United States supported development of capitalism

The Second Shift: Hochschild

“leisure gap” between men expected to do a shift at work then come home and relax vs women expected to do a shift at work then a shift at home caring for the household

Theory of Stratification: Marx

Means of Production: means whereby the production of material goods is carried on in a society including not just technology but also the social relations between producers

Bourgeoisie: people who own companies, land or stocks and use these to generate economic returns

Proletariat: people who sell their labor for wages

Surplus Value: value of a worker’s labor power left over when an employer has repaid the cost of hiring the worker

Communism: social system based on everyone owning the means of production and sharing in the wealth it produces.

American Right: Hochschild

The Great Paradox: Why is hatred of government most intense among people who need government services most?

The Deep Story: “emotions of loss and pain that lie behind blaming government regulations for the lack of economic growth and environmental or social problems”

• dislike of federal government: faith, taxes, loss of honor

• appreciated qualities: endurance, not claiming victimhood, honoring hard work, American dream, loyalty

those in the American Right have been “waiting in line” for success and those on government welfare are “line cutters”

• causes resentment, feeling betrayed, downward mobility

Scientific Racism

use of scientific research or data to justify or support beliefs about the superiority of inferiority of particular racial groups

Racial Colorblindness

“idea that ignoring or overlooking racial and ethnic differences promotes racial harmony”

actually allows for those with racial privilege to ignore the different racial experiences of others

Difference vs Inequality

variation between categorical allocation and resource allocations

Difference: who is what is independent of who gets what resources

Inequality: who is what affects who gets what resources

Division of Household Labor (Change and Products): Hochschild

The Second Shift, marital trouble as a social phenomenon and not an individual problem

The Hidden Curriculum: Martin

“the hidden school curriculum of disciplining the body is gendered and contributes to the embodiment of gender in childhood, making gendered bodies appear and feel natural”

Gender Inequality

inequality between men and women in terms of wealth, income, and status

includes occupational segregation, gender typing, the “Glass Ceiling”

Feminist Theories

sociological perspective that emphasizes centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women

includes liberal, radical, socialist, black, transnational, and postmodern feminism

• all varieties share the desire to explain gender inequalities in society and to work to overcome them

Mate Selection Before Modernity

In Antiquity: survival, procreation, endogamy, pragmatic and economic reasons

After Christianity: self-denial, “courtly love” in middle ages

After Reformation: adultery is rebuked, combination of “courtly love” from middle ages and marriage exclusivity to create monogamous marriages implying love

Mate Selection After Modernity

mate selection and private sphere gets deinstitutionalized, family moves to in the “foreground”, adapted to capitalism and capitalist market, marriage becomes an option ("just one life-style among others"), distinction between extended vs nuclear families, pure relationship, marriage is trying to combine friendship, love, economics, procreation, emotions, etc

affective individualism: belief in romantic attachment as basis for contracting marriage ties

Family Today

the contradictory pair: marriage and individual freedom existing together

high marriage rates, but recent delays in age at first marriage due to…

• increases in cohabitation among younger people

• increases in postsecondary school enrollment, especially among women

• modernization and secular change in attitudes promoting individualism and downplaying importance of marriage

Is cohabitation a substitute for marriage?

Social Class and American Families: service class and middle class

Nuclear Family

family group consisting of two adults living together in a household with their children

Extended Family

family consisting of more than two generations of relatives living either within the same household or very close to one another

Theories on Families

Functionalism: primary socialization and personality stabilization (role the family plays in assisting its adult members emotionally)

Feminist approaches

Global Changes in Family

worldwide changes over the last half-century…

• clans and kin have less influence

• general trend toward free choice of spouse

• women’s rights in marriage and family are growing

• decline in kin marriages

• greater sexual freedom

• birth rates are declining

• children’s rights are growing

Western Changes in Family

Western industrial societies changes over last three decades…

• increase in births outside of marriage

• liberalization of laws and norms regarding divorce

• increase in nonmarital cohabitation

• increasing age at first marriage and first birth

• growing number of and acceptance for same-sex couples

Immigration vs Emigration

Immigration: movement of people into one country from another for the purpose of settlement

Emigration: movement of people out of one country in order to settle in another

4 Modes of Migration

classical model, colonial model, guest workers model, illegal models

Classic Mode of Migration

a country encourages immigration and promises citizenship to newcomers (restrictions and quotas apply)

ex. Canada, United States, Australia

Colonial Mode of Migration

a country grants preferences to immigrants from former colonies

ex. Britain, France

Guest Workers Mode of Migration

immigrants are admitted on a temporary basis but they do not receive citizenship rights even after long periods of settlement

ex. Belgium, Switzerland, Germany