Untitled Flashcards Set

THE SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH

• What is viewed as healthy and normal has always been a social and cultural construct

• What a healthy or ideal body type is different in cultures and has changed over time

• However, much has changed with the establishment and dominance of western medicine

• The Biomedical Model of Health

  • A set of principles underpinning western medical systems and practices that define diseases objectively and hold that the healthy body can be restored through scientifically-based treatment 

• Medicalization

  • The process by which variations in human traits, behaviors, and conditions become defined as “medical conditions” that require treatment 

• Sick Care System

  • A primary focus on treating illness

  • Little focus on preventative care

  • A fee-for-service model

  • Basic access to care is dependent on insurance coverage/financial resources

• The Sick Rule (Talcott Parsons)

  • Illness is seen as a disruption of the normal state of health

  • Because of this disruption, those surrounding the sick person are also disrupted

  • People learn the “sick role” through socialization 

  • Accordingly, there are generally agreed-upon expectations for how people should behave when sick

    • The sick person is not held responsible for their poor health

    • The sick person is released from their normal responsibilities

    • The sick person is expected to take steps to regain their health

• Symbolic interactionists are primarily interested in understanding how illness shapes us and our daily lives

  • How people who have chronic conditions develop strategies to maintain their condition

  • Illness Work - refers to actually managing the condition

  • Everyday Work - refers to the management of daily life

  • Biographical Work - fitting the illness into your identity

• Research on how people with disabilities incorporate their disability into their identity

  • Like race or gender, a disability is not a deficiency or disorder, but rather, a personal/cultural difference

  • People with disabilities may choose to live their lives with other similar differences

• The Stigmatization of Health (Goffman)

  • Stigmatized conditions often lead to prejudice and discrimination among those affected 

  • Visible health conditions can be stigmatized as indicative of a character flaw

  • Examples include mental illness, epilepsy, obesity, or even acne

• The Social Class Gradient in Health

  • People from lower social classes usually experience higher disability rates, higher mortality rates, and have a lower life expectancy 

• Sexuality

  • Western attitudes toward sexuality were primarily shaped by Christianity, whose dominant view was that all sexual activity outside of the need for reproduction was suspect

  • Heteronormativity - the cultural belief that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural expression of human sexuality

DEMOGRAPHY

• In 1800, the global population reached one billion

• Thomas Malthus argued that while the population in Europe was growing exponentially, the food supply was growing arithmetically

  • The natural outcome would be famine and starvation

• Criticisms of Malthusian Theory

  • The assumption that population growth is exponential is flawed

  • Assumes that food production is limited

  • Resource depletion is not inevitable

  • Does not account for the impact of globalization

• More recently, in 1968, Paul Erlich argued that the earth's resources, especially food, are nearly at their limits and that human population growth cannot be sustained on a planet with a finite carrying capacity

• There was a lack of understanding that populations do not grow exponentially forever. As a population industrializes, a demographic transition occurs, and population growth slows and stabilizes

• They failed to predict technological advances in agriculture and food production

• Demography: the scientific study of the size, distribution, and composition of populations 

  • Driven by 3 core factors

    • Births 

    • Deaths

    • Migrations

• Crude Birth Rate: the number of live births in a given year per 1,000 population

• Crude Death Rate: the number of deaths per 1,000 population

• Infant Mortality Rate: the number of infants who die in the first year of life, per 1,000 live births

• Natural Population Growth Rate: is a measure of population change calculated by subtracting the number of deaths per 1,000 from the number of births per 1,000

• The Actual Population Growth Rate: the natural growth rate adjusted for migration in or out of the country

• Stage 1 (Pre-industrial): birth and death rates are high, resulting in a stable population

• Stage 2 (Transitional): death rates fall, but birth rates remain high, leading to rapid population growth

• Stage 3 (Industrial): birth rates start to fall, but population growth continues due to low death rates

• Stage 4 (Post-industrial): birth and death rates are both low, resulting in a stable population

• Stage 5: where death rates exceed birth rates and population declines

• Fertility: the average number of live-born children that a woman is likely to have during her childbearing years

  • In 2024, fertility was 2.20 globally

• Countries primarily in the global south are experiencing a surge in population

• With the number of younger children continuing to grow, along with the growth in the elderly population due to declines in the death rate, the dependency ratio increases

• Dependency Ratio: dependent people/people of working age

URBANIZATION

• The percentage of the population that resides in an urbanized area

• Urbanized area: 2,500 people or more

• Megalopolis

  • Southern New Hampshire into Virginia

  • 50 million people

• The Chicago School

  • Used the city of Chicago as their lab, examining the growth and composition changes of the city and its residents. The approach to this study is what was termed urban ecology

  • Urban ecology suggests that urban areas grow in concentric rings, stretching out from the city center

• Louis Wirth

  • In contrast to life in towns and villages, in cities, large numbers of people live side-by-side in virtual anonymity.

• Urban Renewal

  • The process of redeveloping deteriorated neighborhoods using public funds

POLITICS

• pPolitics encompasses all of the activities associated with the governance of a country, state, municipality, or geographical area

• A state exists where there is a political apparatus whose authority is backed by a legal system

• a state has the capacity to use force to implement its policies

• a nation-state is a type of state whose government has sovereign power over its territory and whose population is compromised of citizens

• Characteristics of a modern nation state

  • sovereignty

    • the agreement that the legitimate govt possesses undisputed authority over the geographic territtory

  • military force

    • the capacity to enforce its claim of sovereignity over its territory with force

  • citizenship

    • those who are living within the borders of the nation-state that have common rights and duties associated with that membership

  • nationalism

    • a set of symbols, values, and beliefs expressing identification with the nation state

• The rights of citizenship

  • civil liberties: these are the rights entitled to all citizens established by the law. Civil liberties can change over the years     

  • Political rights: these are the rights entitled to all citizens to participate in the political process. This includes the right to vote and the right to run for office

  • Social rights: these are the rights that provide a minimum standard of economic benefit entitled to all citizens. Social rights are often the last rights to develop and change with some degree of regularity

• Democracy: a political system that allows its citizens to participate in elections of its govt representative and/or the decision making of political decisions

• Participatory Democracy: where all members of a community collectively makes major decisions. Examples include the ancient greek senate or initiatives and referandums such as the recent votes in Florida on legalizing weed or abortion rights

• Representative Democracy: systems where citizens elect officials to carry out the political decision making on their behalf

• Liberal Democracies: nations that allow voters to choose candidates from two or more political parties. These include both “winner takes all” systems as well as “proportional representation” systems

• Winner Take All vs. Proportional Representation

  • Political parties are fundamental to liberal democracies. In systems such as in the U.S. where elections are “winner take all, two major parties dominate, and the majority party controls the legislative process.

  • However, in many liberal democracies where proportional
    representation is practiced, each of the political parties receive seats in their national legislature based upon the proportion of the votes they receive.

  • Where no party receives a clear majority of votes, the parties must negotiate a coalition government, which then allows them to control the legislative process

• Pluralistic Theories of Democracy

• these theories suggest that a democratic political order is one in which there is a balance among competing interests

  • Democratic elitism is a theory that suggests a small, influential group of individuals, often leaders or experts, holds the most significant power within a democratic system, even though the formal structure might appear democratic.

• Mills describes the power elite as a small group of individuals who make all the decisions that really matter. They are concentrated in corporations, the military, and the government. These three have come to eclipse and control all other spheres of power.

ECONOMICS

Three major economic revolutions

• the agrarian revolution

• the industrial revolution

• the post-industrial information revolution

Major Sectord of an Economy

• primary

  • involves extracting and producing raw materials directly from the Earth, including activities like agriculture, mining, fishing, and forestry. It forms the foundation for other sectors by providing the basic materials needed for manufacturing and consumptio

• secondary

  • encompasses all industries that take raw materials and transform them into finished products through manufacturing, processing, and construction. This sector plays a crucial role in economic development by converting raw materials into valuable goods that can be sold to businesses or consumers

• tertiary

  • encompasses businesses that provide services rather than tangible products. These services can be provided to other businesses or directly to consumers

• quaternary

  • encompasses activities focused on intellectual pursuits and knowledge-based industries, including technology, research and development, and information management. It's often considered the "knowledge economy" and involves services like financial planning, education, and healthcare

• WORK

  • any activity by which people produce goods and/or services

  • all employment is work, but not all is employment, as work can be paid or unpaid

  • people work to eat and survive in traditional cultures

  • in modern cultures, many forms or work do not involve direct payment

  • at the individual level, work can provide a means of individual identity and self esteem

  • at the community level, work provides us regular opportunity to engage in social interactions with coworkers and feelings of contributing to shared goals

  • at the societal levels, work helps define our social and class status

• Current trends regarding work and labor

  • Automation and AI

    • whether in farming, textiles, or manufacturing, routine and competitive tasks are increasingly being automated

    • AI has the potential to accelerate this trend

  • Global Production

    • over the last 50 years, manufacturing has become a transnational industry

    • with few exceptions, giant retailers source their goods from across the globe

    • many companies no longer employ tens or thousands of workers in American factories

• SOCIAL CHANGE AND GLOBALIZATION

  • Social Change: defined as the transformation in the institutions and culture of a society. While societies are constantly experiencing social change, many have argued that globalization has led to an acceleration in the pace of social change

  • Social Movements: are collective attempts amongst a large group of people to accomplish, or block, a process of social change. Examples include the civil rights movement, pro-choice and pro-life, and LGBTQ

• Theories of Social Movements

  • Economic Deprivation: originates from Marx where he argued that in stable societies there is a balance among the economic structure, social relationships, and the political system. But as the forces of production change, the contradictions become apparent and it leads to open clashes between classes

  • Structural Strain Theory: emphasizes the importance of key conditions to be present to gain the necessary traction for a social movement to succeed. It is often the harsh reaction or overreaction by governmental authorities that leads to full blown social movement

  • Resource Mobilization Theory: emphasizes the abilities of a group to build relationships with other groups and mobilize the necessary resources to make meaningful change

• Globalization: the development of social, cultural, and political and economic relationships stretching worldwide

  • Global Communication Flow: global communication infrastructure allowed the internet, as well as most of the social media platforms to interact worldwide. Social trends, fashion, and social movements thousands of miles away are as close as our smart phones

  • Political Changes: the rise of multi-national political, military, and economic organizations across the globe (NATO, EU, UN, WTO) all lead to increasing interdependence and globalization

  • Global Trade Sourcing: global economic trade is a reality, as are global supply chains. Transnational corporations produce goods and services worldwide, and mega-retailers source their goods from almost every continent.

• Global Inequality

  • Modernization Theory

    • politically, the economies of low-income are over-regulated and ineffective due to corrupt leaders and corrupt government

    • governments should not be dictating to businesses what products to produce and what prices to change

    • BLAMES LOW INCOME NATIONS FOR THEIR OWN POVERTY

  • Dependency Theory

    • based on Marxist ideology, it suggests that global capitalism makes poorer counties more dependent on wealthier nations by exploiting their resources and making them even poorer

    • wealthier countries are CORE to the global economy

    • Countries remain wealthy by keeping poor countries poor and dependent

  • World Systems Theory

    • emphasizes the interconnectedness of a global economy based upon a network of global supply chains. In this network, high income countries design a wide variety of goods and then outsource the manufacturing to lower-income countries in search of the lowest labor costs and fewest environmental regulations

    • Global Capitalism Theory suggests that national borders are becoming far less important in a world that is dominated by transnational corporations, who
      increasingly control much of the global economy. The theory argues that a transnational capitalist class is increasingly becoming the major player in the
      global economy, decreasing the impact of major countries.

    • Global Capitalism Theory argues that the importance of national borders are less
      important to the global economy than organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank. And that
      these transnational corporations are more likely to shape policies than national governmentallows them
      governance of a country,
      state, municipality, or
      other geographic are