quiz 2 soc200
Economy & Politics
Economy
Economics in society: Sports, climate change, gambling, entertainment industry, education, drugs, labor force
Economy: a social institution that manages resources
Production, consumption, and trade of resources
3 economic sectors
primary- raw materials
secondary- manufacturing
tertiary- service
Ex. primary: potato farmer | secondary: making into fries, chips, etc. at a factory | tertiary: McDonald’s/fast food, grocery stores, staff
McDonaldization becomes manifested when a society adopts the characteristics of a fast food restaurant
Characteristics: efficiency, calculability (quantify the outcome), predictability (similarity), control (employees/technology)
Ex. college: efficient grading, predicting a teacher, calculability for what is produced in classroom/grades, control in rules and what is taught regularly/homework
Other examples: Amazon, Kaiser, chain restaurants, airports, self-checkouts, streaming services
Theories on Economy
Structural functionalist: we need people to govern and make rules, need service people, need to reward people that are higher trained, how are we distributing goods to maintain a “healthy” society. We need economic predictability and stability everyday
Conflict theorist: the economy is not always a source for stability, they reflect equality through wealth and status, greed in the system
Symbolic interactionist: what are the symbols that we attach to wealth, poverty, hard work, etc.. What types of jobs are we aware of and what do we choose, satisfaction of different jobs
Politics
Power relations between people or government
Rights
Civil rights: rights of individuals established by law (ex. freedom of speech, religion)
Political rights: rights of political participation (ex. Right to vote in elections, run for office)
Social rights: rights of social and welfare provisions by state and federal government (ex. Social security, parental leave)
Gerrymandering: manipulate the boundaries to favor one side
Power
Traditional: monarchy
Rational-legal: democracy
Charismatic: movements, religions, cults (from MLK to Hitler)
Forms of Government
Monarchy: one person who holds power (thru hereditary)
Absolute: legit only 1 person, constitutional: King of England has a team and has less power, more of a calming effect
Oligarchy: power held by a small elite group (thru right or economic power)
Democracy: goal is to give each citizen a voice (U.S.)
Dictatorship: one person or a group (power is gotten by taking away people’s rights)
Anarchy: no organized government
Recap
List the 3 types of power/authority
Family
Harder to track in sociology because everyone needs to agree what is considered a family
Family: a construct of meaning and relationships both emotional and economic
Marriage: legally recognized contract between 2 or more people who are in an emotional and/or sexual relationship
Cohabitation: emotional/romantic couple sharing a residence but don’t have a legal contract (marriage)
Nuclear family: 2 parents and children living in the same household
Family of orientation: family you’re born into and orients you to the world
Family of procreation: family that you create with your spouse
Fictive kin: choosing who is your family, but they aren’t blood related to you (ex. Best friend)
Myth of the nuclear family: Decrease of married couples with children, increase of people living with roommates or alone
Patrilineal/patrilocal: fathers pass on their inheritance | living close to the father’s side
Matrilineal/matrilocal: mothers pass on their inheritance | living close to the mother’s side
Ambilineal/neolocal: both parents pass on their inheritance | moving to a new location not involving family
Endogamy: marrying within a group
Exogamy: marrying outside a group
Expressive roles: roles people play within a relationship, tied more into emotion and nurturing, historically taken on by women
Instrumental roles: roles that aren’t necessarily “emotive” (ex. Grocery shopping, dishes, chores), historically taken on by men
Family Formation Process
Dating/courtship - romantic or arranged
Marriage or cohabitation
Birth of children (before or after #2)
Nest leaving
Marriage Patterns
Monogamy: marrying 1 person, serial monogamy is just going from 1 person to 1 person
Polygamy: married to at least 2 people
Bigamy: married to 2 other people
Polyandry: married to 2+ other men
Polygyny: married to 2+ other women
A lot of it is based on tradition, many economic benefits, have to go outside the village to find a partner because everyone in the village is related
Theories on Family
Structural functionalist: need these family units to help society flourish. Family socializes children, status, economic and social capital, essential needs, keeps society growing, etc.
Conflict theorist: Example of inequality would be why are women doing more housework than their husbands, domestic violence, marital rate, looking at the overarching structure of the family (ex. if you're born into a lower class family how hard is it to get out of it)
Symbolic interactionist: how do we define family, what are the rules and what do they mean, privileges, gender, how do we interpret expectations
Problems in Family: intimate partner violence, child abuse , elder abuse
Divorce was rare until the 1970s
Rising divorce rates are attributed to:
No-fault divorce laws
Economic independence of women (working outside of home)
Transition from extended to nuclear families
Increasing geographic and occupational mobility
Stigma has decreased
Recap
What is the key difference between families of orientation and families of procreation
Explain what fictive kin is. Provide an example
Education
Formal education: the facts and knowledge that we need to progress through school through certain curriculum, manifest
Informal education: values, norms, behaviors, cultural transmission that is done through education, not presented as a manifest function but it is
Parents choose different types of school (public, private, home schooled) based on their values
Higher education also includes private and public schools. Public universities are completely free to students, private schools may receive funding as well but not as much. More education = make more money
Inequality in education: resources, teachers, etc. in certain high schools within the nation. The opportunity for college is unequal in most states/areas
Hidden curriculum: not academic knowledge. The difference of norms/cultural knowledge between a first gen or a POC
School to prison pipeline: structure of codes and punishments that starts as early as preschool. School resource officers are the bad guys, black students are 4x more likely to get suspended for nonsense. After getting kicked out of school, they touch the juvenile system which makes them more likely to end up in jail, big cycle. Conflict theory
Cultural capital: cultural knowledge and experiences
Labeling theory and education: expectations, teacher and peer labels, gender differences
Recap
What are manifest functions of education? (both formal and informal education can be manifest functions)
What is the difference between cultural capital and social capital
Work
Work: a task(s) that require mental and/or physical labor, effort, and an objective of that is either a good or a service
Occupation: paid employment that an employee engages in regularly, longevity
Job: something you do that may turn into something longer = occupation
Division of labor: specialization of tasks and together accomplishing something (person A does something, person B, C, etc.)
Scientific management: work smarter, not harder. How do we use science to maximize output, studied work processes
Wanted to break away from the common sense “rules of thumb” that he saw as unproven
Overarching goals were to achieve: efficiency, standardization, specialization, simplification (similar to McDonaldization)
Alienation of workers: many people don’t feel a connection to their job, eventually feel hostility to their jobs and the capitalist system, no creativity or control, from Marx
Post-Fordism
Globalization: goods, products, info, communication, forms of culture that move across national boundaries, competition, pushing for innovation
Outsourcing: obtaining goods from a foreign supplier or even outside your own company, not necessarily national
Restructured hierarchy: not much of a top-down feel, decreases alienation, lead to job insecurity
Service work: Jobs that are around service of people. Moving past manufacturing/producing goods to producing service.
Knowledge work: production of knowledge, not tangible, where our economy is today, providing knowledge to people (ex. Teachers, software engineers, etc.)
Unemployment: periods where you're not employed. In sociology, look at working age people who are trying to be employed. Linked with high levels of alienation, anxiety, depression, and overall poor health
Underemployment: you are qualified for a higher paying job than you’re actually engaging in, could be less hours, pay, skill level. Seen among young adults and racial/ethnic minorities
Contingent: seasonal, replacing someone, temporary
All basis for the economy
Minimum Wage
Federal minimum wage in 2023 is $7.25
California minimum wage: $15.50 for all companies
LA county minimum wage: $16.90 for all companies
The living wage movement: living wages are meant to be enough to support workers and their families
3 roommates or 4 jobs needed to afford a 2 bedroom rental on minimum wage
Exploitative labor: sweatshops, below standard wages, long hours, poor working conditions/hazardous, intimidated with threats of violence, violates labor laws
Theories on Work
Structural Functionalist: Work serves specific functions in society and provides us with some predictability about our life experience. Work can also produce a set of dysfunctions which can lead to social problems
Conflict Theory: power is determined by one’s relationship to the means of production
Symbolic Interactionist: social constructs create order, but can also create social problems