Sociology

• relationship btwn individual and society
• intersection of biography and history
• scales of analysis:
  • micro --> meso --> macro
  • agency (individual choice, power) and structure (govt., glass - large scale organization)

Brief History of Sociology

• late 1800's-1920's
  • birth of mdoern university
  • specialization of knowledge & of other kinds of work
  • industrialization, urbanization, immigration/domestic migration
    • crucial to making of sociology (most important factors)
    • lead to social experimentation and rapid social change
    • ie. gender roles, racial mixing, sexual experimentation, change in identity as workers
• Univ. of Chicago - "Chicago School"
  • epicenter of sociology
  • native born white men studying immigrants and whether they would assimilate
  • strong idea of objectivity, based in science, political detachment

Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills

• heightened awareness of one's place in greater scheme
• understand how society is changing around us
• "Quality of Mind"
• "personal troubles"   vs.  "public issues"
  • personal: only affect individual or close affiliates, awareness
  • public: affect large # of people, often unaware of the greater social forces that are a cause/solution
• learn to read personal troubles and see if it reads as a public issue
• "to be aware of the idea of social structure and to use it with sensibility is to be capable of tracing such linkages among a great variety of milieux.  To be able to do that is to possess the sociological imagination"

Social Analysis

• micro - individual and immediate surroundings
• meso - cultural groups, smaller institutions
• macro - society as a wide; large scale institutions

Edin & Kefalas - Poor Women & Motherhood

• child became method of claiming positive identity and to prove oneself
  • sense of control
  • companion (stability)
• deliberately choosing against marriage
  • financial reasons
  • maintaining personal automity
• men seen as unreliable (concentration of poverty and lack of opportunity)
  
  • often (disproportionate) imprisoned
  • lacked jobs --> poor education
    
    • poor availability of good jobs

Romero - Latina Domestic Workers

• poor treatment
  • ethnic differences (latina workers w/ white family)
  • gender
  • economic power
    • transnational border (global economy/migration)
  • stigma attached to domestic work
    • not valued in society
  • social class
    • domestic work is not considered skilled work or does not require much education
• macro affecting micro
• biography intersecting with history, personal interviews with overarching societal themes

Sociological Research

Scientific Communities

• fields of knowledge
• conversation and publication w/in field
  • correct bias, get close to truth/accuracy (thru research)
  • fill-in gaps
  • overturning errors

Sociological Research

Pure vs. Applied Research

• pure:
  • done for sake of knowledge
  • no direct actions
• applied:
  • research carried out for specific purpose
  • assessment
  • to be used
  • ex: market research (marketing)

Sociological Research

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

• primary:
  • primary contact w/ sources of knowledge (people for sociologists)
  • direct
• secondary:
  • works w/ primary research
  • read studies done by primary researcher
  • conducted by other people
• tertiary:
  • collections of primary or secondary
  • ex. encyclopedia, "mapping the social landscape"
  • increasing the removal from source of knowledge

Sociological Research

Research Process

1. selecting a topic
2. research question
   • review of literature (secondary)
   • create question
     • often comes form personal experience
     • reflect central desire (central to field of sociology) to understand individ's relation to society
3. design the study/research plan
   • developing methodology
4. collection of data
5. analyze the data
   • patterns & trends
   • things that emerge consistantly across the research
6. interpret the data
   • puts your own data "in conversation" w/ existing knowledge
   • significance
7. sharing data

Sociological Research

Qualitative

• words, pictures, meaning
• descriptive
• ex. warm vs. cold
• construction of meaning and interpretation in human subjects
  • how/why people feel the way they do

Sociological Research

Qualitative - Interviewing

• smaller # of people
• cannot be generalized
• more labor intensive
• possibility to discover new/unexpected infor
• insight into little known processes
• how/why happening

Sociological Research

Qualitative - Focus Group

• small group of people to talk about specific topic
• not one-on-one
• sparks more ideas
• shows group dynamics

Sociological Research

Qualitative -Participant Observation (Field Work)

• researcher immerses themself in culture/participant in group
• ethnography

Sociological Research

Quantitative

• numerical expression of data
• empirical
• ex. degrees C vs. F
• expressing patterns/data

Sociological Research

Quantitative - Survey

• sample (representative)
• large #s
• instrument (questionnaire)
• structured questions (yes/no; preconstructed options)
• repricable (regardless of who conducted it)
• "reliable, objective"

Sociological Research

Quantitative - Experiment

• manipulation of circumstances and variables
• independent & dependent variables

Fieldwork

• researcher immerses in the everyday, "natural" dynamics of the group studied
  • naturalistic observation
  • entering the field
• principles:
  1. value of direct observation and participation in lives
  2. belief in social constructionism
     • value in how people interpret/socially construct their own lives
     • understand how they construct reality
  3. privileged viewpoint of those being studied

Participant-Observation & Ethnography

• participant-observation:
  • technique
  • can be an hour or years
• ethnography:
  • art and method of long term engagement
  • uses participant-obersvation
  • reflection on researcher's positionality in a sustained way

IRB: Institutional Review Board

• makes sure no harm (emotionally, psychologically, physically) will come to participants in studies

Gatekeepers

• people/institutions that control access to materials or people being studied
• often need a PhD to access those documents
• can be positive or negative
  • open up for you or restrict access

Positionality

• characteristics of researcher that influence all aspects of research
• ex. gender - huge positionality
  • can deny you access to many aspects of a culture/society
  • can also gain you access

Insider-Outsider Dynamics

• we are all insider/outsider in some way
• not always obvious, but always at play
• affects you & your research

CULTURE

• anthro:  shared values, traditions and behaviors of a society
• socio: totality of objects and ideas in a society
  • emphasis on mundain
• "culture shock"
• how we know who we are in relation to others
  • identity is formed by relationships w/ others
• develops out of teh material conditions of a group
  • economic and environmental
  • people's culture develops in response to the environment & economics present

Shared Culture

• must be learned & transmitted constantly thru social institutions
• media, education, etc.
• "culture of fear"
• transmitted to babies, immigrants, tourists, members of culture

Material Culture vs. Non-Material Culture

• material:
  • objects, tangible
• non-material:
  • symbolics, ideas, non-tangible
• relationship btwn the 2 reflects existing social system and reproduces it
  • can change those relationships

Natualized & Normalized Culture

• culture becomes naturalized and normalized for its members
• culture relatively stable over time
• can make change very difficult
  • ex. systems of oppression

Othering

• culture defines who we are not
• process of othering
• constructing differences through the social institutions that defined who we are
  • ex. tracking in high school (honors & AP)
• stereotypes - limiting the person's/group's characteristics
  • confine the group
  • shows about the definers not just those defined

Diffusion

• process thru which culture spreads
• can be matieral objects (thru trade)
• non-material culture - ideas, values
• people = key components of diffusion

Cultural Universal

• practice/belief that is found in every human society (embraced by the majority)
• manner in which it is expressed may differ/vary from culture to culture & over time
• ex:
  • spiritual system - higher power
  • family (kinship)
  • code of ethics
  • food production
  • marriage
  • coming of age
  • work
  • celebrations
  • funerals
  • athletics (physical fitness, status, etc.)

Language

Sapir - Whorf Hypothesis

• foundation of culture
• more than words, texts - symbols, gestures, logos ...
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:
  • language precedes thought
  • language shapes our thought
  • cannot think of what we don't have a word for
  • labeling shapes our conceptions of that object/person, etc.

Culture

Values

• conceptions of good/bad
• structured into society @ all levels
• very integrated into society
• think

Culture

Norms:

Formal, Informal, Mores, Folkways

• guidelines/expectations for behavior
• formal:
  • recorded, written down (laws, syllabus)
  • serious
• informal:
  • not recorded but widely accepted/known
  • ex. men do not wear skirts (b/c not normal)
• mores:
  • serious norms in society (more likely to be formal)
• folkways:
  • trivial (manners)

Culture

Sanctions

• penalties & rewards that society uses for social conduct that conforms to or violates a norm
• positive & negative
• used to discourage/encourage certain behaviors (norms)

Subculture

• smaller group w/in a culture
• shared objectives, characteristics, or behaviors
• distinctive identity

Counterculture

• smaller group defined by explicit opposition to the values and norms of larger society

Socialization

• processes thru which we are taught how to be members of a society
  • what to value, how to act, policing each other
• lifelong process
• content changes based on context, age, role
• we socialize each other

Symbolic Interaction Theory

• Herbert Blumer
• all socialization occurs thru interactions
• steps: existing knowledge --> interaction (feedback) --> reflection on the experience (emotions)
• cyclical

Symbolic Interaction Theory

Impression Management

• constantly managing how we present ourselves based on how we think others expect us to act
  • not always true
  • not just physical, also behavioral

Symbolic Interaction Theory

Generalized Other vs. Significant Other

• generalized other:
  • society as a whole
  • unknown
  • "people"
  • fear of ... from greater society
• significant other:
  • specific individual w/ whom you have an (established) relationship
  • values and opinions are important & most likely known

Anticipatory Socialization

• takes place before a new role is assumed
• prep for that new role
• ex. baby shower

Resocialization

• socializing someone to accept a new role while leaving one behind
• total institution:  all aspects of resocialization are controlled, external info/contact is minimized
  • marine corps bootcamp

The Constitution of Society - Giddens

• developed in 1984
• Giddens frustrated w/ limitations of social theory
  • specifically about relationship btwn individual & society
  • existing theories:
    1. structural fuctionalism - whatever exists in society serves a purpose (needs of a society), ie. inequality
    2. political economy - (marxism) structure of economy drives/shapes everything, ie. economic determinism

Giddens

"Theory of Structuration"

• purpose is to give more agency to individuals
• complicate relationship btwn agency (ability to act/control) & structure
• "duality of structure"
  1. the structure enables/constrains actions of individuals
  2. the actions of individ. reproduce the structure
  3. change occurs when individ. change their actions (disobey)
  • social structure is product of individ. actions
• structure:
  • sum of all parts
  • "virtual order of transformative relations"
  • doesn't exist (not concrete/real)
  • gives form & shape to social life but is not the form & shape of social life
  • only time one sees structure is thru instantiated in social practices (actions) and in memories

Giddens - Structuration

Knowledgeability

• awareness of social rules (conventions), expressed first and foremost in pratical consciousness
• characteristic of human agents
• know how to react to the entire gambit of social interactions

Giddens - Structuration

reflexivity

• how we manage ourselves (conscious)
• constantly reflecting on what we do and adjusting behavior

Giddens - Structuration

rationalization

• individual determining reasons for what they do in context of society

Giddens - Structuration

motivation

• wants that prompt actions
• underlying desires/needs that push us to act

Giddens - Structuration

Practical Consciousness

• unaware of... helps you to satisfy your motivation
• grey area, preconsciousness

Giddens - Structuration

Agency

• compacity/capability of people to act
• all people have agency

Giddens - Structuration

Dialectic of Control

• inferior people are dependent on superiors but superiors are also dependent on inferiors
• even the lowest of people have some agency/control over their superiors

Giddens - Structuration

Power

• individ. have the ability to do something and society has the power to influence how it is done
• capacity to transform (what currently exists)
• to have agency is to have power

Giddens - Structuration

Resource

• how people learn social structure, power, norms, and laws, purpose
• medium thru which power is exercised
• stuff you have that makes power possible

Giddens - Structuration

Rules

• techniques/guidelines used in the enactment of social interactions
• norms
• expectations for behavior become internalized and transformed into techniques

Status

• socially defined position a person occupies in relationship to others
• affects how we relate to others
• ex. occupations, family relationships, gender, athlete

Ascribed vs. Achieved Status

• ascribed status:
  • assigned to us
  • little choice
  • ex. family relations, gender
• achieved status:
  • earned
  • ex. being a college student

Role

• status specific norms (norms for a status)

Role Conflict

• when the roles for multiple statuses come in conflict w/ each other
• causes stress for individ. trying to manage various roles
• ex. working-class student @ affluent law school (working class vs. future elite)
• most severe when ascribed status in conflict w/ achieved status

Groups

• 2 or more peopel who associate w/ each other b.c of a shared identity (status) or purpose (goal)
• socializing mediums/arenas
• what it means to have that identity

Primary Groups

• intimate relationships
• frequent, face-to-face
• interdependence
• ex. family, roommates

Secondary Groups

• formal, impersonal interactions
• less frequent, less face-to-face
• larger
• ex. classrooms, jobs

Bureaucratic/Organization

• formally organized group
• uses formal norms
• hierarchy --> efficiency
• ex. workplaces, churches, schools

Networks

• series of connections
• connecting you to people, who you don't know thru people you do
• can enable/constrain us
• job-rich networks vs. job-poor networks
• value in who you know

Institutions

• highly patterned, predictable, complexes of relationships
• more complex than groups/networks
• express values of society
• achieve the most fundamental needs
• ex. religion, marriage, health care, media, work/economy, politics

Deviance

• violation of a norm:
  • socially constructed, constantly changing
  • punishment based on level of norms (mores, etc.)
• reasons to be deviant:
  • convience
  • philosophical/political objection
    • civil rights activities
  • fulfilling a deeper need (personal gain, etc.)
  • think that they won't get caught
  • lack the means/resources to acquire their needs/wants
  • conflicting/exceptional norms
    • murder - generally illegal/frowned up except in war, self-defense, capital punishment
• hyper-fulfillment of a norm:
  • anorexia/bulimia article
  • frat culture - rape (male dominiation, brotherhood)
  • rape --> male aggression, female passivity
• continuum
  • violation --------> hyper-fulfillment

Labeling Theory

• label becomes an ascribed status assigned to us by society
• labelled person then reorganizes life in order to embrace label to fulfill role (role engulfment)
• becomes achieved status

Schwalbe - "Finding out how the Social World Works"

• most of what we know comes straight from other people, personal experience, observation
• must be aware of limitations of each source
• use standard means of finding things out eliminates personal biases
• research is to look beyond what is obvious
• following set research methods allows others to check our research, correct it
• questions shape answers - empirical, moral, aesthetic questions have different answers
• "sociological mindfulness must be about more than studying how the social world works.  It must also do more than inspire curiousity, care, and hope... sociological mindfulness must help us change ourselves and our ways of doing things together ... it is a way to see where we are and what needs to be done."

Banks & Zimbardo - "Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison"

• experiment where half students were treated as prisonners and other half as guards
• studied social dynamics btwn the two
• "ease with which sadistic behavior could be elicited from individuals who were not 'sadistic types' and the frequency with which acute emotional breakdowns could occur in persons selected precisely for their emotional stability."
• eliminated many variables to show the pure pyschological trauma of being a prisonner
• shows how severe the environment of prisons are

Duneier - "Sidewalk"

• conveys the complexity of urban life - street vendors
• recorded conversations - some people even recorded when was not there
• still separation between him & subjects, everyone knew he was a college professor
• trust but at same time often shallow trust (not real) - reminds researcher, you are never fully a member of that group

Glassner - "The Culture of Fear"

• "the short answer to why Americans harbor so many misbegotten fears is that immense power and money await those who tap into our moral insecurities and supply us with symbolic substitutes."
• fear sells
• economy and people profit off of societal fears

Velliquette & Murray - "The New Tattoo Subculture"

• sense of identity with tattoos
• sterilization of the shop itself
• role of artist
• bond btwn artist and person receiving tattoo - artist expressing the inner desires or identity of that person
  • tattoos express personal history
• frontstage and backstage setting within the tattoo shop

Espiritu - "The Racial Construction of Asian American Women and Men"

• shows that stereotypes reflect those stereotyping more than those being stereotyped
• asian women - either dragon lady (fierce) or dainty (China Doll), submissive in sexual manner, innocent, helpless
• asian men - intense assassins or agression but desexualized or wise men that serve the white man, again desexualized - hypersexual or asexual
• all in order to portray white men as sexually apt and in control

Trask - "Lovely Hula Hands"

• cultural exploitation
• tourism is not seen as part of their colonization - seen as providing jobs - colonized to the extent that they do not aware they're oppressed
• the culture/traditions has been exploited and the meaning behind such practices has changed and has been marketed differently

Lorber - "Night to his Day: Social Construction of Gender"

• process of socialization - creates sense of self & identity
• "gender is constantly created and recreated out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and oder of that social life"
• "constantly doing gender"
• "a sex category becomes a gender status thru naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers"
• "one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman" Simone de Beauvoir

Granfield - "Making it by Faking It"

• societal values, identities, and social roles are learned, not instinctual
• "working class students experience a sense of differentness and marginality within the law school's elite environment"
• then they manage information about their background which leads to identity ambivelance
• changing the reasons for becoming a lawyer - not helping their background but instead working for money
• stigma attached to class

Lewis - "Learning to Strip"

• anticipatory socialization - strippers watching other strippers before actually working (dancing, drama, entertainment jobs didnt actually help)
• "exotic dancing is viewed as a deviant occupation in our society, if novice dancers are to retain a valued sense of self, they must learn way to justify their involvement in the strip club subculture"
  • deny injury or harm
  • condemned the condemners
  • appeal to higher loyalties

Dyer - "Anybody's Son Will Do"

• resocialization - to create a new identity, an old one is unlearned or cleared away
• many techniques of isolation and lack of down time to consider actions
• shaving head, frantic speed (no time to think of alternatives), insults breaks down former self to make way for new identity