CHYS 1F90 Key Terms

Agency – The ability to make choices and take action.

Reproductive justice – The right to have or not have children and raise them in safe environments.

Social actors – Individuals or groups who play a role in society.

Social norms – Unwritten rules about how people should behave.

Childhood – A social and developmental stage with different meanings across cultures.

Settler colonialism – A system where settlers take land and dominate Indigenous people.

Cultural imaginary – Shared ideas and images that shape how a society sees the world.

Nation-building – Creating a shared identity for a country.

Body politic – Society seen as a collective "body" shaped by politics.

Biopolitics – How governments control people’s bodies and health.

Ableism – Discrimination against disabled people.

Bodymind – The idea that body and mind are interconnected.

Bodymind difference – The diversity of how bodies and minds function.

Inspiration porn – Using disabled people’s struggles as feel-good stories for non-disabled audiences.

Models of disability:

Social model – Disability is caused by societal barriers.

Medical model – Disability is a problem to be fixed.

Human rights model – Disability is about rights and inclusion.

Eugenics – Controlling who reproduces to create a "better" population.

Tropes:

Supercrip – Disabled people seen as "inspirational" for doing everyday things.

Asexual – Assuming disabled people lack sexuality.

Eternal child – Treating disabled people as forever childlike.

Code switching – Changing how you speak or act depending on the social setting.

Capital – Valuable resources, like money, knowledge, or social connections.

Intersectionality – How different identities (race, gender, disability) interact.

Power – The ability to influence or control others.

Brown v. Board of Education – 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case ending racial school segregation.

Pedagogies of social class – How teaching styles reflect class differences.

Concerted cultivation – Parents actively shaping children's development, common in middle-class families.

Racial achievement gap – Differences in academic performance based on race.

Systemic racism – Racism built into society’s structures.

Scientific racism – False "scientific" claims used to justify racism.

LGBTQ+ – Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and others.

Gender – Social and cultural meanings attached to being male, female, or beyond.

Gender binary – The idea that only two genders exist.

Moral panic – Widespread fear that something is threatening society’s values.

Childhood innocence – The belief that children are pure and need protection.

Children as innocent – Seeing kids as naturally good and vulnerable.

Cultural politics of childhood – How childhood is shaped by cultural and political debates.

Worlding – Imagining and shaping global connections and futures.

Youth – A social stage between childhood and adulthood.

Global North – Wealthier, industrialized countries.

Belonging – Feeling accepted in a community.

Codes – Social rules that guide behavior.

Hegemony – When a dominant group’s ideas become the norm.

Subculture – A group with distinct values and practices within a larger culture.

Deviance – Behavior that goes against social norms.

Formal social control – Laws and rules enforced by authorities.

Informal social control – Social pressures to conform (e.g., peer pressure).

Counterculture – A group that actively rejects mainstream values.

Sociocultural – How society and culture shape individuals and groups.

Dominant discourse – The mainstream way of thinking or talking about a topic.

Normative – What is considered "normal" or expected in society.

Structural – How systems and institutions shape society.

Critical disability studies – Examining disability as a social and political issue, not just a medical one.

Neurodiversity – The idea that brain differences (e.g., autism, ADHD) are natural and valuable.

Futurism – Imagining possible futures, often focusing on progress or innovation.