Comparative Sociology (1º Midterm) Quiz PDF

COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY (1º MIDTERM) 1. QUIZ WEEK THREE (PETTIGREW + WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY+ MAIN STREAMS + RESEARCH & METHODS) From Pettigrew: A reference group is the group one compares himself when evaluating his status. From Pettigrew: A self-fulling prophecy might happen when in...

COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY (1º MIDTERM) 1. QUIZ WEEK THREE (PETTIGREW + WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY+ MAIN STREAMS + RESEARCH & METHODS) From Pettigrew: A reference group is the group one compares himself when evaluating his status. From Pettigrew: A self-fulling prophecy might happen when individuals react according to that prophecy, making it actually happens. When Pettigrew talks about the multilevel aspect in social science research, he is indicating that when doing research in social sciences we always have to keep in mind that there are multiple levels of analysis that can help to obtain a better understanding of the phenomenon we are studying. Herbert Spencer thought that societies can advance when individuals are free to maximize their potential. Anomie in Durkheim refers to the situation when individuals to do not observe or trust social norms. Manifest functions are the functions of a type of social activity that are known to and intended by the individuals involved in the activity. If I am studying the interests or goals of a person and analyze how that person behaves to maximize his chances to satisfy those interests and goals, I am basically doing rational. In statistics, the mode is the most frequent measure. Social structure in sociology refers to political institutions, world views, social institutions, and so on, which shape the decision of individuals. In Durkheim´s study of suicide, a key explanatory factor is being integrated or having supporting social ties with other people (anomies). For Durkheim, organic solidarity is particularly relevant in complex societies, with high division of labor. Conflict theory focuses on the economic, political and social conflict that arise in any society. Symbolic interactionism maintains that some of the meaning we give to social phenomena are socially constructed, i.e.: created by us. Given the basic tenets of rational choice theory, in a prisoner’s dilemma, rationality dictates to confess.  If the research question is to know whether the religious beliefs of individuals prevent them from committing crimes, or not. The independent variable is religiosity. Reliability does NOT refer to measuring what you intend to measure. Instead, reliability refers to the consistency or stability of a measurement over time If a researcher finds a correlation showing that the number of crimes decreases the more religious people are, she can NOT claim the religiosity is a good deterrent for crime, NOT claim that crime makes people more religious. -> *Because if something has correlation with another, you cannot affirm that one of them is the cause/consequence of the other. 1.1. NOTES ON PETTIGREW (How to Think Like a Social Scientist) Most people claim to be social scientists because they deal with several aspects that social sciences study: psychology, politics, economics… But there are 3 differences between social scientists and the rest of us: 1. Specialized training: they have specific methods and knowledge to test their discoveries. 2. Focus on a narrow area: they become narrow specialists because they do not usually have knowledge in the wide field of social sciences. 3. Their understanding of social life: their social scientific thinking differs from popular thought. For these social scientist it is difficult to analyse and understand social life principally because of these 5 reasons: 1. Multiple causation: everything happens for many reasons, not one simple reason. 2. Multilevel: when analysing society, we must include every level on it, from individuals to large groups or systems. 3. Relational: every part of a society depends within each other. 4. Reactivity: social sciences are continuously changing due to the ability of reaction of the human beings (mostly based on expectations). 5. Measurement error: people are not machines; you cannot be sure that two alike people will have the same reaction against the same situation. So, the measurement errors are very large and frequent. There is some stuff we should know regarding social scientists and science:  Social science findings may appear obvious, but they’re not. Social science includes controversial topics which are in everybody’s interest (money, politics, gender, culture…) The use of neologisms is criticised because people don’t understand specific vocabulary. Social science involves values. However, they “have to be objective” although complete objectivity is almost impossible. DEFINITIONS: REFERENCE GROUP: A reference group is a concept referring to a group to which an individual or another group is compared. Reference groups provide the benchmarks (punto de referencia) and contrast needed for comparison and evaluation of group and personal characteristics. SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: is the sociopsychological phenomenon of someone "predicting" or expecting something, and this "prediction" or expectation coming true simply because the person believes it will 1.2. NOTES ON WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY DEFINITION OF SOCIOLOGY: Scientific study of society. Apply “logos” (reason, racionalized…) to the study of society. Not our wishful-thinking, but the scientific method which is not how we would like society to be, but how societies actually work. Definition given by Auguste Comte. Sociology involves the study of: Inequality we can prevent it by studying it. It affects ethnic groups, men-women… Education some people have less opportunities to fulfil their dreams. Crime behaviour drugs abuse, alcoholism… Families the “cell of society”, families are the smallest units/groups inside society. Where we learn our values and society grows with children. Society is based on the study of social structure. Social structures are the combination of world views and social institutions that make people make certain decisions because it is what they are expected to do. We are free but there are barriers that make us do certain things.  Example: marriage partner selection (same race 92%, same level of education 78%, similar age 77%) it is their choice but there are social forces that push people to marry similar people. Example: childbearing (how many children do we have) the social/political/financial situation affects our decision. Social structures can be open or closed depending on the importance they give to ascriptive or acquired characteristics of people. Close societies: “borned-with” characteristics (gender, race, ethnicity, class…) Open societies: acquired characteristics (education, career, job…) On the one hand, social structure (good): Gives us order and stability. We need it. To exercise our freedom, we need to know in advance what are the consequences of our actions, and take responsibility for our decisions On the other hand: It is a sort of prison. 1.3. NOTES ON MAIN STREAMS In the process of studying society, sociologists look to one or more 🡪 THEORETICAL APPROACHES: a basic way of viewing society that guides thinking and research. There are four main theoretical perspectives: 1. The Structural-Functional Approach 2. The Social-Conflict Approach a. Feminism and the Gender-conflict Approach b. The Race-Conflict Approach 3. The Symbolic- Interaction Approach 4. Game theory / Rational choice theory 5. Postmodern theory STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL APPROACH / FUNCTIONALISM (ÉMILE DURKHEIM) Structural-functional approach: a framework (infrastructure) for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. (Like a living organism) This theory counts society as a whole. It emphasizes on the importance of MORAL CONSENSUS in maintaining order and stability in society 🡪 when most people share the same values and it is based on the notion that social events can be best explained in terms on the functions they perform. Social structure shapes our lives —in families, the workplace, the classroom, and the community 🡪 it makes social life somehow predictable as there is a science of society. The institutions, norms, customs, sets of values exist because they play a positive function in society and if they perform well their function we can achieve SOCIAL EQUILIBRIUM. We can distinguish two functions from this theoretical approach (Merton): Manifest function: consequences that people observe or expect when they perform a social activity. The participants in the corresponding action explicitly declare and understand it. Latent function: those consequences that are not recognized or intended by the people involved. Therefore, they are identified by observers. EXAMPLE 🡪 the rain dance. o Manifest function 🡪 to make it rain. The people participating in the ritual intention and desire of rain, so that is what they tell you when you ask them why they are dancing. o Latent function 🡪 it promotes the cohesion of the society. It reinforces group cohesion by providing opportunities for group members to come together and participate in a common activity. SOCIAL SCIENTIST OF FUNCTIONALISM:  Émile Durkheim: the father of functionalism. He wondered how can we tell that a group of individuals form a society? 🡪 SOCIAL SOLIDARITY emphasizes the interdependence between individuals in a society, which allows individuals to feel that they can enhance the lives of others. TWO TYPES OF SOCIAL SOLIDARITY: Mechanic solidarity: ❖ Everyone has to be committed with society. There are rituals and religions. ❖ Simple societies (hunter-gatherers) ❖ Simple technology 🡪 (almost) everybody knows how to do everything ❖ What is the glue of society? 🡪 A common view of the world. 🡪 same norms and values. ❖ Strong collective identity. Strong feelings of membership. Organic solidarity: ❖ Every individual specializes in one action. ❖ People are free and we do not have religions. ❖ People know they are different. ❖ These societies survive because each one contributes to the economic growth. ❖ Complex societies – DIVISION OF LABOR: people become more dependent on one another 🡪 each person needs goods and services that those in other occupations supply. ❖ Interdependence 🡪 individual conscience.  ❖ Different views of the world: norms, religions, expectations ❖ What is the glue of society? 🡪 Interdependence. ❖ Weak collective identity 🡪 individuals are not, in fact, loyal to society, they are not committed with society. ❖ Society as a set of independent parts which could be studied separately 🡪 like a biological organism. ❖ There are specialized institutions that work in harmony with one another to make society function as an integrated whole. Durkheim’s most famous study was about suicide: DEFINITION OF SUICIDE: outcome of a decision that has been taken and that result in the death of that person. Social integration avoids suicides. Although suicide seems to be a personal act, the outcome of extreme personal unhappiness, can be showed with social factors such as anomie. ANOMIE: a feeling of aimlessness or despair provoked by modern social life that influences suicidal behaviour. Suicide rates show regular patterns which must be explained sociologically. He thought society should study SOCIAL FACTS, which are aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals because we are always influenced by those and therefore, even if we don’t know about them, we have a series of social limits. (SOCIAL CONSTRAINT) Auguste Comte: The scientific method can be applied to the study of human behaviour and society. Believes that society and the social order are constructed by individuals.  We should use science to control and predict human behaviour in other to contribute to humankind’s welfare. Herbert Spencer: Development 🡪 is a natural outcome of individual achievement. Society can change and improve the quality of life for all people 🡪 only when everyone changes their behaviour to maximize their individual potential. Talcott Parsons Robert Merton CONFLICT THEORY / PERSPECTIVE (KARL MARX) Social-conflict approach: a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change. Society is not a living organism. Conflict perspective assumes that social behaviour is best understood in terms of conflict or tension among competing groups there is NOT SOCIAL EQUILIBRIUM, BUT SOCIAL CONFLICT. It views societies as being composed of diverse groups with conflicting values and interests. Society is made of conflict: Ethnic groups Natives / immigrants Men / women Rich / poor This approach is focused on inequality. Two main concerns for conflict theorists 🡪 economic wealth and power. It views societies as being composed of diverse groups with conflicting values and interests.  THREE MAIN APPROACHES: Feminism and the Gender-conflict Approach: Many feminist sociologists 🡪 advocates for political and social action to eliminate the inequalities between women and men in both the public and the private spheres. Gender patterns and inequalities are not natural but socially constrained. Race-Conflict Approach: Focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories. Marxism: Views capitalism as a class system in which conflict is inevitable because it is in the interests of the ruling class to exploit the working class and in the interests of the workers to seek to overcome that exploitation. Emphasis on conflict, class division, power and ideology. SOCIAL SCIENTISTS OF CONFLICT APPROACH Marx: Material or economic factors have a prime role in determining historical change (MATERIALIST COCEPT OF HISTORY) Social change is promoted primarily by economic influences. Jane Addams Harriet Martineau John Bellamy Foster DEFINITIONS:  POWER: ability of individuals or groups to make their own interests count, even when others resist and which sometimes involves the direct use of force. IDEOLOGY: shared ideas or beliefs that serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM / DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH (GEORGE HERBERT MEAD) Symbolic interactionism: a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions among individuals. The meaning that we assign to an action or a statement 🡪 the result of the interaction among people. By interacting, people make common understandings 🡪 this makes up a society. We build relations based on how we interpret the meanings of our interactions with other people. Social interaction depends on understanding the intention of another, which requires taking the role of the other. If we think something, we behave according to it 🡪 we behave in the way that we think the world works. EXAMPLE: Witches exist: and we based our behaviour on the knowledge that witches exist. We inhabit worlds that we have created. SOCIAL SCIENTISTS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM Erving Goffman: He did a research in a hospital 🡪 how people behaved, talked, interacted... GAME THEORY / RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY Rational Choice theory: a thinking of society as a collective of individuals (group) who each of them has their own preferences and interests and use their resources to get want they want and satisfy their interests 🡪 HOMO ECONOMICUS Theory based on economics (microeconomics). We know what we want 🡪 I know my interests and what is better for me (self-interest). GAME THEORY was originally an economic and mathematical theory that predicted that human interaction had the characteristics of a game, including strategies, winners and losers, rewards and punishment, and profits and cost. One of the principal aims of game theory was to determine the optimum strategy for dealing with a given situation or confrontation. This can involve such goals as maximizing one's gains, maximizing the probability that a specific goal can be reached, minimizing one's risks or losses, or inflicting the greatest possible damage on adversaries. It is used to evaluate the trust and its impact in economic, political (…) developments. It tells us which institutions are the best ones to obtain the best results. EXAMPLE: Prisoner’s dilemma: People choose what is in their best interest if we don’t know what other people can do to put you at risk. The problem is trust. Societies are prepared to overcome prisoner’s dilemma because, if you betray people, you are going to feel bad 🡪 religious, ethical values… This explains why we have institutions / values that help us overcome the paradox of rationality.  Problem of the commons: everybody who is rational will not take care of the common because everybody is taking advantage of the common, therefore, they don’t cooperate. The cost of producing a public good does not depend on the amount of people who use it. If the person has not contributed to its production, you cannot deny this person to use that public good (air). POSTMODERN THEORY Alongside all these theoretical approaches, we can also distinguish the postmodern theory, which believes that society is no longer governed by history or progress. We can see a highly pluralistic and diverse society in a media-dominated age and with a much more individualism. HOW ARE THE FIVE PARADIGMS INTERRELATED? No single paradigm fits in every situation To get a complete picture, many sociologists use all paradigms. In this way, the five paradigms are interrelated and work together to help us figure out why society is the way it is. 1.4. RESEARCH & METHODS Research Methods Sociology as we know it, is a science and therefore we need to search for information and data. SOME REQUERIMENTS FOR SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION ARE: 1. Look at the world with sociological perspective 2. Be curious and critical by asking sociological questions Types of issues/questions we have to research for: Theoretical/Epistemological questions: WHAT kind of truth we are trying to produce. Technical questions: HOW to use tools and procedures. Ethical, political and policy questions: WHY, what is the point of doing the research, and what consequences it may have. A way of researching data is by POSITIVIST SOCIOLOGY: Positivist sociology: Positivism is a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observations. Knowledge relies on EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE: information we can verify with our senses. We want to build theories the goal is to explain a social phenomenon ideally, we have an explanation when we discover what Independent Variable causes what Dependent Variable. We can understand this logical system by some KEY CONCEPTS: CAUSE AND EFFECT: relationship in which change in one variable causes change in another. Our goal with positivist sociology is to prove empirically a cause-and-effect relationship, in which one variable causes a change in another. o INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: causes the change o DEPENDENT VARIABLE: the one that changes (value depends on the independent variable). Conditions for cause and effect to be considered: o Existence of a CORRELATION ❖ Mathematical formula that tells you that both things vary at the same time. ❖ It is not causation, you cannot say that one variable has caused the other one. ❖ We will never have ultimate definite explanations, instead we find correlations, movements, patterns, between variables. ❖ The independent (causal) variable precedes the dependent variable in time. ❖ Third variable is not necessarily responsible for a correlation between two original variables. ❖ In sociology, you can never be sure 100% that there is a cause-effect relationship, we would have to prove it very well. ❖ SPURIOUS CORRELATION: an apparent, though false, association between two (or more) variables caused by some other variable.  ❖ To unmask these correlations, we use a technique called CONTROL: holding all relevant variables except one in order to see its effects clearly. MEASUREMENT: procedure determining the value of a variable in a specific case. For a measurement to be useful, it must be reliable and valid we should be careful with those data we are using. o RELIABILITY: quality of consistency in measurement (in results), we should obtain around the same results every time we operate in the same unit using the same measure. o VALIDITY: quality of measuring precisely what you intend to measure obtain a correct measurement. ❖ Internal validity: it has to do with indicators, how close you are to the real phenomena. ❖ External validity: when you want to do an extrapolation in your results, and it holds true in other cases. Statistical measures: o Mode: value that occurs most often in a series of numbers. o Mean: arithmetic average of a series of numbers (media) o Median: value that occurs midway in a series of numbers arranged in order of magnitude. VALUES 🡪 THE IDEAL OF OBJECTIVITY It is difficult to make empirical tests in social sciences because we have values they might push us to find what we are looking for, but the research is influenced by them. Weber said that even though sociologists must choose value-relevant topics, they should follow value-free (detached) research. To avoid bias (tendencia):  Put values aside when doing research. Make honest statistical research. REPLICATION: publish the research Repetition of research by other investigators if others, following the same procedure, obtain the same results, it means that the research was probably carried away objectively. Good things about the difficulty of social scientist researchers because of the existence of values: Weber thought the fact that sociologists had different values or points of view was positive, as this resulted in a variety of perspectives (points of view) of reality. Some values can be able to shed light (aclarar) on different social realities. MORE PROBLEMS / CHALLENGES FOR SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH Sociologists don’t work in labs they can’t control everything because there are many variables (more than two). We cannot say “in normal conditions…”, there are no “normal sociological conditions” there isn’t a way to control society or to establish a “normal society” this explains why sociology is comparative. People talk and react to social conditions if people know that they are under observation, they change their behavior and act unnaturally, HAWTHORNE EFFECT. Sociologists have value, they can translate their value system to their research, so they can be biased. It is often difficult to measure a social phenomenon there is no universal agreement on indicators to control nor manipulate the tools to do research / measure social phenomena. E.g. religiosity and vote. Social patterns change constantly (what is true now may not be true tomorrow), behaviour is too variable to establish immutable sociological laws. IN ORDER TO OVERCOME ALL THESE PROBLEMS, WE NEED DATA, and we can distinguish two types: 1. Quantitative: Numbers statistical analysis (ex. 30% of Spanish women think…) Useful to see correlations Good for making comparisons 2. Qualitative:  Information expressed in actions, words, images, pictures, diaries… Not easy to translate into quantitative, but we can be able to see correlations if we transform qualitative into quantitative. When to use Quantitative and when Qualitative? Depends on the research question (and the skills of the researcher): o Statistical quantitative o Why politicians make decisions (example) qualitative TO GET THIS DATA, WE HAVE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODS: Quantitative methods SURVEY Survey: research method in which subjects respond to a series of items in a questionnaire or an interview. Good for studying attitudes that investigators cannot observe directly. Most often they yield descriptive findings, as researchers seek to paint a picture of subjects’ views on some issue. There should be a representative sample of the population REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE: probability is the same for everyone in the population—random sample. The amount of people depends on the subject and how the survey is designed. Most important quantitative method. ADVANTAGES: Make possible the efficient collection of data on large number of individuals, allow for precise comparison to be made among the respondents and uses the scientific method DISADVANTAGES: Accuracy may be dubious, nonresponse levels are high, material gathered may be insufficient and responses may be what people want to believe. QUESTIONNAIRE Questionnaire: a series of written questions a researcher supplies to subjects requesting their responses. Time limit (about 20 mins) but usually the shorter the questionnaire, the better. Questions have to be logically and strategically ordered. You should not jump from a question of a topic to a question of a different one. Questions might be repeated/reworded (in order words) for double check. Questions have to be understood PRE-TEST / PILOT-STUDY to make sure that people understand the question.  Kind of questions: Close-ended: fixed responses Open-ended: we ask people to share their opinion in their open words, not following a certain test or options. People express themselves and have the choice of elaborating answers. However, those surveys are risky, because they may take a long time, because answers may be too long… Discrete variables: (options a,b, c) Continuous variables: they have continuous (several) values. 1.1, 1.5… It´s not just black or white. Scales: Strongly agree/Agree/Disagree/Strongly Disagree. Sociologists want people to take a position, to get out of their comfort zone. Some tricks: for example, you don´t put the option of “no sabe, no contesta”. Other example is the case on the income question. People usually don’t like to answer it. Instead of asking it straightforwardly, you may give a range (500$-1000$) or giving a card with options. Most difficult questions are usually the last ones. Never take responses at face value 🡪 do not interpret opinions as behaviours because there are some effects that should be taken into account. Bandwagon effect: people take a survey like an exam. Spiral of silence: people might silence their preferences they refuse to give an answer to the questions. Strategic lying: lying on purpose. Opinions do not necessarily translate into not behaviour There are always irrational patterns or inconsistencies, but that is something that is a part of sociological research. CONTROL EXPERIMENTS Control experiment: research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled conditions. Rarely used by sociologists. Researchers turn to an experiment to test a specific hypothesis, an unverified statement of a relationship between variables. The experimental group is the one that receives an special attention and the control group the one that does not receive this attention. ADVANTAGES: influence of specific variables can be controlled by the investigator and it is easier for subsequent researchers to repeat.  DISADVANTAGES: many aspects of social life cannot be brought into the lab and responses of those studied can be affected by the experimental situation. EXAMPLES: Famous experiments (social psychology): Asch (1951) o He wanted to measure out conformity. o He conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. o He put a naïve participant in a room with seven confederates. o The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task. The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven participants were also real participants like themselves. o Asch was interested to see if the real participant would conform to the majority view. Asch's experiment also had a control condition where there were no confederates, only a "real participant." o This experiment received critics though. Conformity is not the only factor that may lead people to follow the crowd. Milgram (1963) o One of the most famous studies of obedience in psychology. o He conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. o He was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person. o Stanley Milgram was interested in how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities, for example, Germans in WWII. Zimbardo: Stanford prison experiment (1973) o Zimbardo and his colleagues were interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or had more to do with the prison environment. o LUCIFER EFFECT: people can go from good to evil. Qualitative methods INTERVIEW  Interview: a series of questions a researcher addresses personally to respondents. You have to know what type of questions to ask, which register… Types: Closed-ended: researchers would read a question or statement and then ask the subject to select a response from several alternatives. Open-ended: subjects can respond in whatever way they choose, and researchers can probe with follow-up questions. Structured: you know exactly what questions you are going to ask. Unstructured: you are trying to make the interview about the topic of the research. FOCUS GROUPS You gather 5-7 people in a room they don’t know each other, BUT that have something in common, such as social position. It identifies people that have the same problem. The goal is to encourage them to talk they will reveal stuff that would not be revealed in a usual interview. They talk to each other people go more deeply into the subject of research. Problems: OPINION-LEADERS should be neutralised by the conductor. Everybody should participate in the discussion. It is time consuming and expensive RADICALIZATION EFFECT it happens when people share about the same opinion and radicalize on that opinion. PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION / ETHNOGRAPHY Participant observation A method by which researchers systematically observe people while joining in their routine activities. You participate in the scenario that you are researching in. You need an informant that shows you around, however on the long-term you should get rid of him and establish contact with as many people as possible. You are both observer and participant. Cultural anthropologists commonly employ participant observation to study communities in other societies. They term their descriptions of unfamiliar cultures ethnographies; sociologists  prefer to describe their accounts of people in particular settings as CASE STUDIES. At the outset (comienzo) of a field study, social scientists typically have just a vague idea of what they will encounter. Thus (asi), most field research is exploratory and descriptive researchers might have hypotheses in mind, but it’s just as likely that they may not yet realise what the important questions will turn out to be. Disadvantages: long-term, subjective, and not possible to do repetition. Non-participant observation You are not part of the community, and people know you are a researcher. Disadvantages: long-term, subjective, and not possible to do repetition. ADVANTAGES: generates richer and more in-depth information on the behaviour of people in groups and broader understanding of social processes. DISADVANTAGES: can be used to study only relatively small groups or communities, gaining the confidence of the individuals involved, findings might apply only to groups studied and not easy to generalize on the basis of a single fieldwork study. CONTENT ANALYSIS Content analysis: research tool used to determine the presence or significance of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (a text for example). Using content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyse the presence, meanings and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts. COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL RESEARCH Research that compares one set of finding on one society with the same type of findings in other societies. It enables to document whether social behaviour varies across time and place by one’s social group membership. 2. QUIZ WEEK FOUR (chapter 7= Deviance &Crime)  Deviance refers to behavior that does not comply with the social expectations that tell us what is appropriate or not in a given situation. Deviance and crime do NOT always overlap (se sobreponen). Sanctions are NOT always written down in official documents. In Merton's typology those who both reject cultural goals and the institutionalized means (values), but are not trying to create a new society are retreatists. According to Cloward and Ohlin, deviant subculture emerges when underprivileged individuals whose chances of achievement are low create their own culture that establish new norms that make it acceptable for some kinds of behaviors that are illegitimate in the broader society. Secondary deprivation occurs when individuals accept the label that defines them as deviant. Labeling theory focuses on how labels are attached to individuals by authorities and other people in general. Basically speaking, control theory suggests that were there no sanctions, we would indulge in deviant or criminal behavior more often. In the US, white, young people are NOT more likely to be victims of violent crime than young, poor black people. Regarding criminal offenses, there ARE differences associated with gender. 2.1. NOTES ON DEVIANCE AND CRIME DEFINITION AND FEATURES DEVIANCE: behaviour that violates informal social norms (expected from everybody) and the nonconformity to a set of norms that a significant number of people in a community or society accept. (desviación, anormalidad) Deviance can vary dramatically across cultures. Cultural norms are relative, which makes deviant behaviour relative as well. DEVIANT SUBCULTURE: a subculture whose members hold values that differ substantially from those of the majority. CRIME: behaviour that violates formal written laws. Criminal behaviour is also relative because not every country has the same penal code. AGENCIES OF SOCIAL CONTROL  All of us are subject to social control, aiming at regulating people´s thoughts and behaviours. They control everybody’s social behaviour. INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL: ways in which people get others to conform to norms 🡪 comments, sarcasm and disapproving looks as sanctions, and words of praise as rewards. Common people 🡪 supervising people so that they behave “correctly”. FORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL: enforced by the government or its agencies. Police: responsible for investigating criminal acts and catching offenders. Courts: they hear charges brought against people, decide on their guilt or innocence, and impose punishments. Penal system: prisons and other institutions are responsible for overseeing the punishment that has been imposed by the law courts. EXPLANATIONS OF DEVIANCE AND CRIME BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS Cesare Lombroso socialist doctor from 19th century said that criminal and deviant behaviour can be explained with biology, by physical conditions, facial characteristics, and genetics. With these characteristics Cesare knows who committed a crime (in theory). SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS 1. Functionalist theory (Durkheim): There is nothing abnormal about deviance; there is no society of saints. Remember ANOMIE 🡪 Insecurity about what norms are valid/helpful might lead to deviant behaviour. Deviance is a necessary part of social organization. It has a positive function 🡪 reasons: Reminds us of what is licit (good) and illicit (bad), tells us where our moral boundaries are and reinforces the norms and values that people share. Helps societies change 🡪 deviant behavior forces us to look ourselves in a sort of mirror. When we find and punish the criminal, we are relieved 🡪 a catharsis (purificación interior) that restores the moral equilibrium of a society, because we are a strong society that has been able to capture a criminal.  Problem 🡪 fails to explain why some turn to deviant behavior while others in identical circumstances do not. On the other hand, Merton: Modified the concept of anomie which now is the strain (presión) put on individuals’ behaviour when accepted norms conflict with social reality. MERTON'S STRAIN THEORY: Merton used the concept of anomie to theorize about the idea that crime occurs when individuals and group´s aspirations do not meet the available opportunities. Deviance is a by-product of economic inequalities while DURKHEIM´S THEORY says that: Crime allows the evening of new ideas and challenges that make society evaluable. 5 types of people based on the tensions between generally accepted norms and social reality: 1. Conformists: they accept generally held values, regardless of whether they meet with success. Most of the population falls into this category. 2. Innovators: they accept socially approved values but use illegitimate or illegal means to follow them. 3. Ritualists: they conform to socially accepted standards, though they have lost sight of their underlying values (valores mas profundos). They follow rules for their own sake. A ritualist might dedicate herself to a boring job, even though it has no career prospects and provides few rewards. 4. Retreatists: they have abandoned the competitive outlook, rejecting the dominant values. An example would be members of a self-supporting commune. 5. Rebels: they reject both the existing values and the means of achieving them but work to substitute new ones and reconstruct the social system. DEFINITIONS: Relative deprivation: The deprivation that a person feels when comparing themselves to a group. 2. Interactionist theory: Deviance is seen as a socially constructed phenomenon.  Instead of concentrating on factors in society which are determinants of behavior, they concentrate on the interaction between “non-deviants” and the potential “deviants” 🡪 who eventually accept (as a result of a self-fulfilling prophecy) that they are “deviants”. Interaction between social agents such as the education system, the judicial system, the criminal system, and the individuals such as delinquents and criminals. This theory puts emphasis on the meanings defined by those who are involved in the interaction. Learned deviance: differential association: DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY: it argues that we learn deviant behaviour from our contacts with primary groups (peers, family members, and co-workers). We become deviant when exposed to a higher level of deviant people and influences. LABELLING THEORY: Deviance is seen as a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants, it is not the act of marijuana smoking that makes one a deviant, but the way others react to it. No act is intrinsically criminal. Once a child is labelled a delinquent, he is seen as a deviant 🡪 untrustworthy by teachers and prospective employers 🡪 the child then relapses into further criminal behaviour. This initial act of transgression 🡪 PRIMARY DEVIATION while the SECONDARY DEVIATION 🡪 when the individual accepts the label and sees himself as deviant. The process of “learning to be deviant” tends to be reinforced by the very organizations set up to correct deviant behaviour: prisons and social agencies. Ex: This girl has a problem with alcohol, and as no one knows yet has not affected her social environment. This norm violations—say, skipping school or underage drinking—provoke a slight reaction from others and have little effect on a person’s self-concept. This is primary deviation. What happens if people take notice of someone’s deviance and really make something of it? After an audience has defined some action as primary deviance, the individual may begin to change, taking on a deviant identity by talking, acting, or dressing in a different way, rejecting the people who are critical, and repeatedly breaking the rules. HER response may be to become bitter toward them, start drinking even more, and seek the company of others who approve of HER drinking. These actions mark the beginning of secondary deviation. When does she defines herself as a drunk? PROBLEMS: it doesn’t take into account differences in socialization, attitude and opportunities and doesn’t say whether labelling has the effect of increasing crime. 3. Conflict theory (Marx): The social-conflict approach links deviance to social inequality. What is labeled deviant depends on which categories of people hold power in a society. People with little power are at high risk of being labelled deviant. The norms and values of the society, as well as penal code and law enforcement agents help the rich and powerful to maintain their privileged position in society. This does not mean that only the poor commit crimes. The powerful also break the law 🡪 (WHITE-COLLAR CRIME: criminal activities carried out by those in white-collar (middle class), or professional, jobs) 🡪 but it is fellow powerful people who punish them, not to make justice but to maintain the basic structure of society that helps them maintain their privileged position. Conflict theory studies correlations between incarceration rates, poverty, health, education. 4. Control theory: Control theory: it says that crime results from an imbalance between impulses toward criminal activity and the social or physical controls that deter it. Control theory assumes that people act rationally and that, given the opportunity, everyone would engage in deviant acts. Humans are fundamentally selfish beings who make calculated decisions about whether to engage in criminal activity by weighing the benefits and risks. 4 types of bonds that link people to conventional behaviour (ACIB) which maintains social control and conformity: 1. Attachment: it refers to emotional and social ties to people who accept conventional norms 🡪 EXAMPLE: a peer group of students who value good grades and hard work. 2. Commitment: it refers to the rewards obtained by participating in conventional activities and pursuits.  3. Involvement: it refers to one’s participation in conventional activities, such as paid employment, school, or community activities 🡪 the time spent in conventional activities means time not spent in deviant activities. 4. Beliefs: they involve holding morals and values that are consistent with conventional tenets (principios) of society. Some control theorists see the growth of crime as an outcome of the increasing number of opportunities and targets for crime in modern society. Target-hardening techniques and zero-tolerance policing have been successful at curtailing crime in some contexts. As popular crime targets are “hardened,” patterns of crime may simply shift from one domain to another. Target-hardening and zero-tolerance approaches may simply displace criminal offenses from better-protected areas to more vulnerable ones. Neighbourhoods that are poor or lacking in social cohesion may well experience a growth in crime and delinquency as target hardening in affluent regions increases. THEORY OF BROKEN WINDOWS: any sign of social disorder in a community, even the appearance of a broken window, encourages more serious crime. RESEARCH ON DEVIANCE AND CRIME TODAY Race and the criminal justice system Much contemporary research on crime and deviance has focused on the relationship between race and the American criminal justice system. Today, many sociologists are interested in the ways we try to control, police, and punish deviant behaviour—and how our legal system disproportionately punishes individuals of colour—in particular, African American men. Mass incarceration African Americans make up around 35 % of the current prison population. Understanding mass incarceration means understanding not only the criminal justice system, but also the entire structure of policies and practices 🡪 they marginalize those who are considered criminals. These policies and practices affect individuals even after they have been released from prison.  Former inmates face difficulties when attempting to find jobs after their release 🡪 whites are much preferred over blacks, and non-offenders were much preferred over ex-offenders. Victims and perpetrators of crime Some individuals or groups are more likely to commit crimes or to become the victims of crime 🡪 men are more likely than women, for example, to commit crimes; the young are more often involved in crime than are older people. The likelihood of someone becoming a victim of crime is linked to the area where he or she lives. Inner-city residents run a much greater risk of becoming victims than do residents of affluent suburban areas. The fact that ethnic minorities are concentrated in inner-city regions appears to be a significant factor in their higher rates of victimization. Male and Female Crime Rates: Women’s offenses rarely involve violence and are almost all small-scale. Petty thefts such as shoplifting and public order offenses such as prostitution and public drunkenness are typical female crimes. There are suggestions that the criminal justice system treats women more leniently (permisivamente) than men 🡪 “CHIVALRY THESIS”: Police and other officials may indeed regard female offenders as less dangerous than men and excuse activities for which they would arrest males. In sentencing for criminal offenses, women get sent to prison much less often than men. Crimes against Women: Men are overwhelmingly the aggressors and women the victims. Feminist criminology has raised awareness of crimes against women and integrated such offenses into mainstream debates on crime. A woman might not report sexual violence for many reasons: o Most rape victims either wish to put the incident out of their minds or are unwilling to participate in the humiliating process of medical examination, police interrogation, and courtroom cross-examination. o The legal process takes a long time and can be intimidating. o Courtroom procedure is public, and the victim must face the accused. o A woman may feel that she is the one on trial. o Rape should not be seen as a sexual offense but as a violent crime 🡪 not just a physical attack but an assault on an individual’s integrity and dignity. o In a sense, all women are victims of rape:  ▪ Afraid to go out alone at night ▪ Alone in a house or apartment ▪ Keeps all women in fear ▪ Need to be more cautious in everyday aspects of life than men have to be Crimes against gays and lesbians: Victimization studies reveal that gays and lesbians experience a high incidence of violent crime and harassment. Subcultural explanations Later researchers examined subcultural groups that adopt norms that encourage or reward criminal behaviour. Most delinquent youths emerge from the lower working class. There are connections between conformity and deviance 🡪 individuals follow rules when they have the opportunity to do so and break rules when they do not 🡪 they follow deviant values in response to a lack of legitimate opportunities. Security and terrorism Terrorists who know that wearing specific clothing, or being of a particular race or ethnicity, will make them more likely to be selected for additional security screening 🡪 they can send members of their organization who do not have these characteristics to avoid scrutiny. 3. QUIZ ON GENDER (chapter 10= Gender) According to Pinker, feminism has NOT definitely been the most important factor that explains the improvement in women's status in the last decades. Equity (or liberal) feminism does not make empirical claims about psychological or biological differences between men and women. It is only a moral stance for equal treatment and the end of discrimination. According to Pinker, there ARE biological differences between the minds of men and women, and all differences we can observe are NOT cultural. According to Pinker, the gender gap in incomes and occupations MIGHT BE partially explained by the demands in the labor market and the difference in cognitive strengths and the abilities of men and women.  Pinker DOES think that men and women have different preferences regarding the rearing and welfare of their children. The idea that rape-is-not-about-sex mostly means that men ARE socialized to commit violence against women as a means to subdue. According to Pinker, those who think that rape is not about sex ARE preventing women from being realistic and putting them in danger in the real world. A 50/50 distribution of well-paid jobs WOULD BE, according to Pinker, a worthy goal, since it would not involve any cost. Handbook. Gender socialization affects both men and women. According to Talcott Parsons, men perform instrumental roles in the family, while women perform expressive roles, such as providing care and security for children to ensure the stability of the family and the well-being of the children. The concept of the “glass ceiling” refers to the difficulties women find when they try to get a promotion in male-dominated professions. Human capital theory explains that women have low paid jobs because they choose occupations that allow them to move in and out of the labor market, which, in the long term, negatively affects their professional careers. According to the Gender Inequality Index, Spain DOES NOT rank better than Denmark and Sweden. The idea that gender identity can be chosen, instead of being always enforced by society, runs against the political agenda of the Partido Feminista. 3.1. NOTES ON CHAPTER 10 BASIC CONCEPTS Distinction between sex and gender is fundamental many of the most important differences between males and females are not biological. While sex is something we are born with, gender is something that we both learn and do. Sex and gender historically have been viewed as a binary, where the two categories of male and female, or masculine and feminine, were viewed as non overlapping and even opposite categories.  SEX: the biological and anatomical differences distinguishing females and males. Sexuality should not be thought in binary classifications not all men and women are heterosexual. GENDER: Psychological, social, economic, and cultural differences between men and women social expectations about behaviour regarded as appropriate for the members of each sex. Gender refers not to the physical attributes distinguishing men and women but to socially formed traits of masculinity and femininity. Gender should not be seen as a binary classification either not everybody is CISGENDER: when sex matches gender. Non-Cis if the gender identity does not align with the sex of the person. o Transgender: people who moves between genders, who lives as a person of the opposite gender or who use medical assistance to transform him/herself to the other sex. o Intersex: individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones or genitals that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies”. o Bigender: happy with both genders. o Agender: doesn’t identify with any gender. o Third gender: neither man nor woman. GENDER STEREOTYPES: generalised view or preconception about attributes, or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by women and men or the roles that are or should be performed by men and women. STUDIES OF GENDER There are two main approaches/types of research: 1. Focus on social and normative expectations about goals and social roles of men and women. GENDER ROLE SOCIALIZATION: the process through which we learn about male- and female- typed roles and practices from socializing agents such as the family, peers, schools, and the media. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER: the learning of gender roles through socialization and interaction with others.  2. Focus on unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women GII GENDER SOCIAL NORMS INDEX (GSNI): it measures how social beliefs obstruct gender equality in areas like politics, work, and education, and contains data from 75 countries, covering over 80 percent of the world’s population. GENDER INEQUALITY INDEX (GII): it is an inequality index. It measures gender inequalities in three important aspects of human development. 1. Reproductive health measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates 2. Empowerment measured by proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by females and proportion of adult females and males aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education 3. Economic status expressed as labour market participation and measured by labour force participation rate of female and male populations aged 15 years and older. It measures the human development costs of gender inequality. Thus, the higher the GII value the more disparities (desigualdades) between females and males and the more loss to human development. As we have seen, sex and gender are two separate things and, therefore, differences between them vary, let’s see them: SEX DIFFERNECES Natural behavioural differences between the sexes appear in all cultures. BIOLOGICAL ESSENTIALISM: differences between men and women are natural and inevitable consequences of the intrinsic (que no depende de las circunstancias) biological natures of men and women social influences are neglected (abandonado) or minimized. GENDER DIFFERENCES Gender role socialization distinguishes between biological sex and social gender— an infant is born with a sex and develops a gender children are guided in this process by positive and negative sanctions. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF GENDER INEQUALITIES 1. Functionalist approaches: Gender differences, and, specifically, men’s and women’s specialization in different tasks contribute to social stability and integration. Criticized for neglecting social tensions at the expense of consensus and for perpetuating a conservative view of the social world. Women and men perform those tasks for which they are biologically best suited women should concentrate on domestic and family responsibilities while men worked outside the home. Sexual division of labour is present in all cultures most logical and efficient basis for the organization of society. Family operated most efficiently with a clear- cut sexual division of labour women carry out expressive roles, providing care and security to children and offering them emotional support, and men perform an instrumental role (being the breadwinner: sostén de la familia). Because of the stressful nature of men’s role, women’s expressive and nurturing tendencies should also be used to comfort and care for men. This complementary division of labour, springing from a biological distinction between the sexes ensure the solidarity and stability of the family. ATTACHMENT THEORY: the mother is crucial to the primary socialization of children. If the mother is absent or if a child is separated from the mother at a young age, the child may be inadequately socialized. This can lead to serious social and psychological difficulties later in life. 2. Feminist theories: attempts to explain gender inequalities and set forth agendas for overcoming those inequalities Liberal (equity) feminism: It sees gender inequalities as rooted largely in social and cultural attitudes. They focus on establishing and protecting equal opportunities for women through legislation and other democratic means. They are more moderate in their aims and methods than radical feminists, who call for an overthrow of the existing system. Liberal feminists have contributed greatly to the advancement of women over the past century.  Critics say that they have been unsuccessful in dealing with the root cause of gender inequality and do not acknowledge the systemic nature of women’s oppression in society. Radical (gender) feminism: The belief that men are responsible for, and benefit from, the exploitation of women. PATRIARCHY (the systematic domination of females by males) viewed as a universal phenomenon that has existed across time and cultures. The family is one of the primary sources of women’s oppression. They argue that men both exploit women by relying on their unpaid domestic labour in the home and, as a group, deny women access to positions of power and influence in society. Patriarchy involves some form of appropriation of women’s bodies and sexuality. Because men control women’s roles in reproduction and childbearing, women become dependent materially on men for protection and livelihood. Radical feminists do not believe that women can be liberated from sexual oppression through legislative reforms or gradual attitudinal change. Socialist feminism: Like Marxist theory capitalist society is oppressive toward ethnic minorities, the working class, and the poor. Like radical feminism it also recognizes the fundamental oppression of women in patriarchal societies. Bringing these two themes together, socialist feminism focuses on the ways that gender and social class intersect. Disagree on liberal feminists socialist feminists reject the notion that true equality is possible in a society whose social and economic structures are fundamentally flawed. Disagree on radical feminists socialist feminists believe that women should work with men to fight class oppression. Black feminism and transnational feminism: Black feminism: a strand of feminist theory that highlights the multiple disadvantages of gender, class, and race that shape the experiences of non-white women. Black feminists reject the idea of a single, unified gender oppression that is experienced evenly by all  women and argue that early feminist analysis reflected the specific concerns of white, middle- class women. Transnational feminism: a branch of feminist theory that highlights the way that global processes— including colonialism, racism, and imperialism— shape gender relations and hierarchies. Postmodern feminism: the feminist perspective that challenges the idea of a unitary basis of identity and experience shared by all women. Postmodern feminists reject the claim that a grand theory can explain the position of women in society, or that there is any single, universal essence or category of “woman.” Instead, postmodern feminism encourages the acceptance of many different standpoints as equally valid. GENDER INEQUALITY Gender inequality: the inequality between men and women in terms of wealth, income, and status. In education In the workplace … Why do so few women hold leadership positions in business? GENDER TYPING: women holding occupations of lower status and pay, such as secretarial and retail positions, and men holding jobs of higher status and pay, such as managerial and professional positions. Discrimination often takes place in subtle and hard- to- prove ways. Climbing to the top- tier positions for “really macho kinds of behaviour” aggressiveness, ruthlessness “it is behaviour that’s admired in men but despised in women”. Stereotypical and incorrect beliefs about what women are capable of doing when women start having children unfit for competitive and time- consuming work. Gender is a way for society to divide people into two categories: “men” and “women.” men and women have different identities and social roles. Men and women are expected to think and act in different ways across most life domains. At the same time, the cultural expectation that men must be strong, silent breadwinners creates tremendous pressure, with some researchers going so far as to argue that these pressures can be physically and emotionally dangerous to men.  Differences in women’s and men’s lives on the basis of race, social class, age, religion, nation of origin, and even one’s marital or parental status INTERSECTIONALITY: our multiple group memberships affect our lives in ways that are distinct from single group memberships. TOPICS TO HAVE IN MIND: PARADOX: most women do not consider themselves as feminists because they associate it with gender feminism, however, they are feminists. MAIN DISCUSSION OF THE ARTICLE: Do men and women have interchangeable minds? There is a fear in accepting it because this means assuming inequality. They are not identical. We must difference preferences: what men and women value more when making choices. RAPE: Feminism has allowed the discussion of issues such as consent and coercion. Brownmiller considers rape as an opposite tactic: A desire for sexual intervenes and a willingness to engage in opportunistic violence. THE BLANK SLATE: the dominant theory of human nature in modern intellectual life stating that humans are shaped entirely by their experiences and not by any preexisting biological mechanisms. NOVLE SABAGE THEORY: the modern myth of the noble savage is most commonly attributed to the 18th-century Enlightenment philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau. He believed the original “man” was free from sin, appetite or the concept of right and wrong, and that those deemed “savages” were not brutal but noble. 4. QUIZ ON GLOBAL INEQUALITY NO more than 50 percent of the world population are living in high-income countries. The caste system of social stratification is closed Vertical social mobility can NOT only be measured by comparing the status of a person with that of her parents. In closed systems of stratification we do NOT observe high rates of vertical mobility. It is estimated that around 40 million people in the world are slaves. Merit or effort characterizes social positions in OPEN systems of stratification. Inequality is NOT unique to low-income countries Most of the slave population are women. In the class system of stratification, NOT only wealth is considered to classify people in one or another echelon of society.  (At least ideally) acquired status explains social positions in open systems of stratification. Under relative poverty we do NOT measure the resources a person has to subsist. In a given nation, relative poverty is NOT measured as a given percentage of the national average income. IT SHOULD BE MEDIAN If we find that the Gini index of Country A is 0,2, whereas that of Country B is 0,3, we can say that Country B is more unequal than Country A. Broadly speaking, dependence theory focuses on the past of a nation (e.g.: whether or not that nation was colonized in the past.) Dependency theory can NOT explain why Ethiopia is a poor country Research suggests that unemployment and rising inequality in high-income countries such as US is mainly due to technological advancements The Global Commodity Change theory focuses on the activities of networks and companies, that operate on a global scale. In Spain, poverty particularly affects children. Around 5 percent of the European population live in absolute poverty. 4.2 NOTES ON GLOBAL INEQUALITY SOCIAL STRATIFICATION Inequality has many dimensions some people have more wealth, power, rights, opportunities, reputation, or prestige than others. This has resulted in a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy - what sociologists call social stratification. Social stratification is the process of dividing societies into different layers (categories, ranks, or classes) based on certain characteristics many decisions of people depend on the social status made by social stratification. It has different characteristics: 1. Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences people born in a wealthy family have a better chance of doing well in life, not because they are better individuals but because they have more opportunities 2. Social stratification persists over generations most people stay in the same social class (strata) as their parents this will explain the social strata you belong to. 3. Social stratification is universal but variable social stratification is found everywhere in the world but the inequality depends on the place. 4. Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well it does not involve only the differences, but also the why these differences emerge.  SYSTEMS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION / STRATIFICATION SYSTEMS 1. Closed system: Social status is ascribed from birth you cannot change it. No social mobility not possible for a person in a low rank to move up have a better position in society. SLAVERY: Slave: a person who is forced to work against her/his will; is owned or controlled by an exploiter or “employer”; has limited freedom of movement; or is dehumanized, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as property. Estimate: around 40 million people in the world 1 out of 200 people is a slave. An example of closed system is The CASTE SYSTEM: Resources and social rewards are distributed, based on ascribed statuses your status is determined by the status of your parents. Prohibits exogamy marriage outside of caste. Promotes endogamy marriage within caste. Caste rules in India are unconstitutional, but still play a major role. 2. Open system: Social status is achieved through merit or effort meritocracy. Social mobility is more likely. An example of open system is the CLASS SYSTEM: Resources and rewards are distributed according to acquired statuses not determined by birth. Social class and social stratification result from the unequal distribution of: o Wealth: it equals assets (value of everything the person owns) and income (money earned through salaries, investment returns, or other capital gains). o Power: the ability to control the behavior of others, with or without their consent (can be based on force, a special skill or type of knowledge, particular social status, personal characteristics, or custom and tradition). o Prestige: the respect, honor, or recognition an individual receives (occupation, education, family background).  SOCIAL MOBILITY Social mobility is the movement between or within social classes. Horizontal mobility: movement within a social class you change job or location, but you stay in the same social status. Vertical mobility: movement (up and down) between social classes o Intragenerational mobility: within a person’s lifetime. o Intergenerational mobility: indicates opportunity for children to move beyond their social origins and obtain a status not dictated by that of their parents. GLOBAL STRATIFICATION Basic concepts: Globalization: development of social and economic relationships stretching worldwide it has produced opportunities for unthinkable wealth but also widespread poverty and suffering GLOBAL INEQUALITY. Global inequality: systematic differences in wealth and power among countries. One way to classify countries in terms of global inequality is to compare the wealth produced by each country for its average citizen GDP: a measure of a country’s yearly output of goods and services per person. According to this, we have different types of countries: 1. High-income countries: Those that industrialized first England, Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. 16 percent of the world’s population (1.2 billion people) 64 percent of the world’s total income They often have large numbers of poor people, but they offer decent housing, adequate food, drinkable water… 2. Middle-income countries: East and Southeast Asia, also include the oil-rich countries of the Middle East and North Africa, Mexico, some Central American countries, most countries in South America, and the once-Communist republics that formerly made up the Soviet Union and its East European allies having begun to industrialize relatively late in the 20th century. 75 percent of the world’s population (5.6 billion people) 35 percent of the output produced that year.  3. Low-income countries: Eastern, western, and sub-Saharan Africa; North Korea; Nepal; and Haiti. Mostly agricultural economies and are just beginning to industrialize. 9 percent of the world’s population (roughly 660 million people) 0.5 percent of the world’s GDP Moreover, this inequality is increasing, as a result of higher fertility an inverse relationship between income level and population growth the poorer the country, the faster the growth in population. MEASURING POVERTY In order to measure poverty we have two indicators: 1. Absolute poverty: You are poor in absolute terms if you are unable to subsist being unable to eat, drink, have shelter and clothing. A common monetary measure of absolute poverty is less than $1.25 a day at PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) measured by the World Bank. 2. Relative poverty: Relative poverty: the inability to reach a minimum accepted standard of living in a particular society. It can be argued that poverty is best understood in a relative way it is not the same to be poor in London and poor in Bamako (Africa). Where we place the poverty line is an arbitrary decision by society. Typical relative poverty definitions: The poor = those below 50% of the national median income MEDIAN: MEDIANA The very poor= those below 40% of the national median income CONSEQUENCES OF POVERTY Poverty is self-perpetuating. The children of the poor start at such a disadvantage relative to other that it’s very hard for them to achieve a better life. THEORIES OF GLOBAL INEQUALITY 1. Market-oriented theory:  It assumes that the best economic consequences will result if individuals are free to make their own economic decisions. Unrestricted capitalism the avenue to economic growth. “Any country can make it if it does it ‘our way’” like high-income countries. These theories inspired foreign-aid programs that provided money, expert advisers, and technology to low-income countries. An example of this theory was made by Rostow, Modernization theory: It argues that low income societies can develop economically only if they adopt modern economic institutions, technologies, and cultural values that emphasize savings and productive investment. Barriers to modernization: traditional cultural values and institutions. Why are there rich countries Answer: rich countries have adopted modern technologies, economic and political institutions (capitalism and democracy). Rostow viewed economic growth as going through several stages likened to the journey of an airplane: 1. Traditional stage low rates of savings, the supposed lack of a work ethic, and a fatalistic value system. 2. Take-off to economic growth economic take-off occurs when poor countries begin to get rid of their traditional values and institutions and start to save and invest money for the future. Wealthy countries can facilitate this growth by financing birth-control programs or providing low-cost loans for electrification, road and airport construction, and new industries. 3. Drive to technological maturity with the help of money and advice from high-income countries, the country would then approach technological maturity and climb to cruising altitude, improving its technology, reinvesting its recently acquired wealth in new industries. 4. High mass consumption now people can enjoy the fruits of their labour by achieving a high standard of living. 2. Dependency theory: Dependency theory: Marxist theories of economic development that argue that the poverty of low-income countries stems directly from their exploitation by wealthy countries.  Global capitalism has locked low-income countries into a downward spiral of exploitation and poverty. Exploitation became a major force with colonialism: powerful nations colonized other countries to extract raw materials for their factories and therefore control markets for the manufactured products. Those countries experiment with dependent development: the theory that poor countries can still develop economically, but only in ways shaped by their reliance on the wealthier countries. 3. World-systems theory: World-systems theory argues that the world capitalist economic system must be understood as a single unit. According to this theory, the world system comprises four overlapping elements: 1. A world market for goods and labor. 2. The division of the population into different economic classes, particularly capitalists and workers. 3. An international system of formal and informal political relations among the most powerful countries, whose competition helps shape the world economy. 4. The division of the world into three unequal economic zones, with the wealthier zones exploiting the poorer ones. Core: most advanced industrial countries. Periphery: low-income, largely agricultural countries that are often manipulated by core countries. Semi-periphery: semi-industrialized, middle-income countries that extract profits from the more peripheral countries and in turn yield profits to the core countries. 4. Global Commodity-Chains Theory (a version of World Systems Theory). Global Commodity-Chains are worldwide networks of labour" and production processes yielding a finished product they form a “chain” extending from the raw materials to the final consumer. The “rise of the rest” fuelled by export-oriented industrialization in which a growing number of countries now manufacture goods for world consumption. These networks of companies benefit from forced labor, and the cooperation of corrupt governments. E.g. the Coltan Wars. 5. QUIZ ON FAMILY AND RELATIONSHIPS The family is particularly important in primary socialization. The post-modern family is NOT, characteristically, a family composed of two parents (father and mother) and their children. Among the global family changes, we can observe that birth rates are NOT increasing. In the Western world couples are getting married at an older age. The proportion of births outside marriage in Spain is close to 50 per cent. The more wealthy/developed a society is, the LESS important is the role of kin for the welfare of the family. One main reason that explains the increase of births outside marriage is NOT the increased numbers of same sex unions/marriages. Nowadays, the fertility rate in Spain is NOT higher than the average in the European Union. Most of the single parent families are headed by a woman. The “natural growth” and the “concerned cultivation” parenting style do NOT correspond to racial lines.