WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY

- systematic study of individuals, groups and social structures

- offers objective approach to indentifying & understanding the causes of social problems

- problems and solutions exist not nly on individual level

- (C Wright Mills) links personal to the public/ individual to society. When numerous people in society experience the same problem, that problem exists at the social level; solution must come at social level

acknowledging that a social problem does exist; can be confirmed with data collection

how a problem becomes defined as a problem; social construction

IDENTIFYING SOCIAL PROBLEMS

FOUR STAGE SUBJECTIVE PROCESS:

STAGE 1

STAGE 2

1.) transformation - taking a private toruble and transforming it into a public issue > influential groups, activist, advocates call attention to and define an issue as a social problem

2.) Legitimization - creating and implementing a formal response (i.e. creating a new organization/changing state/fed agency to handle problem)

IDENTIFYING SOCIAL PROBLEMS

FOUR STAGE SUBJECTIVE PROCESS:

STAGE 3

STAGE 4

3.) Conflict - if stage 2 is unable to address problem, activists and victims demand readjustment of the formal response system (ex. protests, public demonstrations, media attention etc.)

4.) Overhaul - groups believe they can no longer work within the established system

FOUR PERSPECTIVES

FUCTIONALIST

• Emile Durkheim
• manifest and latent fuctions
• macro level
• society is like human body (ex. body organs have specific fuctions but work together)
• rapid change in institutions such as family, politics, religion threaten social order because it disrupts the balance of society
• this state of normlessness/anomie society is particularly prone to social problems

FOUR PERSPECTIVES

CONFLICT

• Karl Marx
• marcro level; focus is on conflict in economic system
• society held together by power of coercion for the benefit of those in power
• social problems emerge from conflict between groups where the more powerful group usually wins
• biggest social problem from this perspective is the system itself and the inequality it creates
• solution must be societal rather individual

FOUR PERSPECTIVES

FEMINIST

• defines gender (and race and social class) as a source of social inequality, group conflict, and social problems
• patriarchal society (one in which men dominate women and justify it through devaluation) is the basis of social problems
• may adopt other three perspectives but focus is on how men and women (and those of different races and social classes) are situated in society differently and unequally

FOUR PERSPECTIVES

INTERACTIONIST

• George Herbert Mead
• society is teh organized and patterned interactions among individuals
• the self is a mental and social process, the reflective ability to see others in relation to oneself (vice versa)

SOCIAL CLASS

INCOME

• money earned from work
• usually measured as a median household income
• 2007 median household income (PPP): $50,233
• income distribution: top 20% holds 50% of all US income, bottom 20% holds 3%

SOCIAL CLASS

WEALTH

• usually defined as the value of assets owned by household
• measured as: gross assets > net worth = assets - debt
• wealth is more stable within families and across generations than are income, occupation, or education
• can be used to secure and produce wealth

more unequally distributed and concentrated than income

wealth gap between whites/ non-whites about 80,000 due to home ownership

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE POOR?

ABSOLUTE POVERTY

RELATIVE POVERTY

absolute poverty - a lack of basic necessities (food, clothing, shelter, income)

relative poverty - a situation whre people are falling behind the average income/ lifestyle enjoyed by the rest of society

# of poeple per 100 that live below poverty thresshold (how much a family needs to live above poverty line)

(2006) 12.3% (36.5 million)

FOUR PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CLASS

FUNCTIONALIST

functionalist - not everyone can/should be equal; inequality is necessary for social order; based on value of one's work/talent; social institutions (educational) sort everything into proper place

FOUR PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CLASS

CONFLICT

conflict -inevitable inequality; inequality a system of power domination systematically maintained by those trying to keep their advantage; based on things like class/race/ethnicity age

- Karl Marx saw one's class as solely determined by economic stance in society  > either worker or owner of the means of production

- Webber: social class a combination of wealth, power and prestige

FOUR PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CLASS

FEMINIST

welfare state is arena of political struggle with system of power and domination

- US welfare system policy shaped by drive to maintain male dominance and patriarchal family form

- Abromovitz (1996) - media/politicians create image of welfare system abusing moms > deserving poor (widows with children) and undeserving poor (single and divorced mothers)

FOUR PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL CLASS

INTERACTIONIST

- class differences are communicated through symbols > meaning of symbols is constructed/constrained by social forces > reproduce social inequality

- Culture of Poverty - a set of norms, values, and beliefs that encourage and perpetuate poverty; poor are socialized differently and pas these values on to their children

-Cycle of Pover: poor parents ahve poor children, who turn into poor adults, etc.

-Criticisms: no evidence to support notion that poor have different set of values and beliefs

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

economic shift from agriculture to industry that occurred in the late 18th to early 19th century; family production replaced with market production where capitalist owners paid workers wages to produce goods

in late 1960s US economy shifted from a manufacturing to service economy, dominated by service and information occupations

a widespread systematic disinvestment in manufacturing/production capacities; often replaced with instable low paying jobs/ no job  > significant loss of revenue, cut of public services

KNOWLEDGE AS PROPERTY

2 Types of knowledge:

Socialized

&

Scarce (non-socialized)

socialized knowledge - known by most adults; not private property; little power or influence

scarce knowledge - known by special groups can be privatized (license, degrees, legal barriers etc.); confers large amount of power and influence

KNOWLEDGE AS PROPERTY

Knowledge classes

when a group organizes to monopolize the general fund of marketable skills

examples: electricians; scientific professional

CAPITAL, LABOR & KNOWLEDGE DISTRIBUTION

TYPE 1

capital, labor, knowledge

all productive resources held by one group

"robinson crusoe economy"

all workers have own tools (capital), create own work (knowledge) and execute physical task (labor)

* cannot be a class society

CAPITAL, LABOR & KNOWLEDGE DISTRIBUTION

TYPE 2

capital    knowledge

labor

example: scientist entrepeneurs

Knowledge class knows and creates, but pays others to do menial tasks

labor is doubly disenfranchised

CAPITAL, LABOR & KNOWLEDGE DISTRIBUTION

TYPE 3

capital

knowledge    labor     

example: 19th cent capitalist workshops\

-skilled craftsworkers conceived and execute tasks

-employers (owners, patrons) supply capital

CAPITAL, LABOR & KNOWLEDGE DISTRIBUTION

TYPE 4

capital     labor

knowledge

-Cooperative

-laborers own business (capital) but managers and engineers/scientists monopolize knowledge

-conflict of power: laborers legally control workplace, but professionals wield strong influence over how business is run

CAPITAL, LABOR & KNOWLEDGE DISTRIBUTION

TYPE 5

Capital

Knowledge

labor

- 3 district classes, each monopolize their own productive resources

-triangular class exploitation:

owners of capital can exploit both knowledge (skilled workers) and labor (unskilled workers)

-knowledge class can exploit labor class

RACE

FUNCTIONALIST

Milton Gordon: Seven Stages of assimilation: cultural, structural, marital, identify (nationalism), behavioral (absence of discrimination), civic (absence of value/power conflicts)

RACE

CONFLICT

-Focuses on how the dynamics of racial and ethnic relations divide groups while maintaining a dominant group.

-Dominant group may be defined according to racial or ethnic categories, but can also be defined according to social class.
-Instead of relationships based on consensus (or assimilation), relationships are based on power, force, and coercion.
-Ethnocentrism and racism maintain the status quo by dividing individuals along racial and ethnic lines
-Edna Bonacich’s theory of ethnic antagonism
Ethnic antagonism emerges from a labor market, split along ethnic and class lines

RACE

FEMINIST

-Critical Race Theory (CRT)

-Examines multiple and simultaneous systems of oppression including categories of race, class, sexual orientation, nation of origin, language, culture, and ethnicity.
-Traditional feminist scholarship concentrated on experiences of the dominant group (white middle class women)
-Black feminist scholars encouraged the expansion of feminist theory to encompass a broader and more accurate depiction of how inequality is experienced at the crossroads of multiple categories of identity

RACE

INTERACTIONIST

-Race is a social construct.
-We learn about racial and ethnic categories through our social interaction.
-Our perceptions and beliefs perpetuate racial categories and racial inequalities.
--Reinforced by broader system of rewards and punishments

DE JURE SEGREGATION

vs.

DE FACTO SEGREGATION

sex - fixed bio/physiological difference

vs.

society determination (boys/girls/man/woman)

intersex

vs.

transgender

two-spirit

poeple who naturally develop primary/secondary sex characteristics that do not fit into traditional medical male/female 1/1000 births

vs

poepl who perceive themselves as members of sex/gender other than one assigned @ birth > law vary from state to state

two spirits- native american gay/lesbian convention > tradition of berdache in many native american cultures > viewed as sacred

women continue  to dominate tranditionally female occupations despite educational and occupational gains

separation of women and men into non-manuel and manual labor sectors or separation in the workplace

* reinforced socially through school

veritcal segregation

Feminists' Movements

Three waves

1

Mid 19th Century, within abolitionist movement

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott

addresss to Great Britian Abolitionist convention 1920

19th Amendment

Feminists' Movements

Three waves

2

Feminists' Movements

Three waves

3

1990s, multiple sources of oppression

-gender inequality in a global context

women of third/fourth world countries

-efforts to address gender inequality beyond male/female construction