Introduction to Sociology Notes PDF

Table of Contents L1 Introduction to sociology..................................................................3 What is sociology?.................................................................................3 Sociological imagination............................................................

Table of Contents L1 Introduction to sociology..................................................................3 What is sociology?.................................................................................3 Sociological imagination...........................................................................3 Sociological debunking....................................................................3 L2: Sociological perspective and investigation...............................................4 Major Sociological perspectives...................................................................4 Three key theoretical approaches in sociology..................................4 Three Social Research Methods...................................................................5 Research methods in Sociology....................................................................6 L3: Social interaction in everyday life.........................................7 How are our behaviours and interactions with others guided by culture and social structure ?...........................................................7 How can we analyse social interaction at a micro-level?....................8 L4 Deviance and crime...............................................................9 Basic concepts................................................................................9 Explaining Deviance – 5 approaches...............................................10 L5 Gender and sexuality...........................................................13 Sex and sexuality..........................................................................13 Sociological theories on sexuality...................................................13 Gender stratification......................................................................14 theories on gender........................................................................15 L6 Social Stratification.............................................................16 Theories of social inequality...........................................................18 L7 Families.............................................................................. 20 Basic concepts..............................................................................20 Family life.....................................................................................21 Theories of the family....................................................................23 Future of families..........................................................................24 L8 Education........................................................................... 24 Overview of education...................................................................24 Theories on education...................................................................25  Higher education...........................................................................26 L9 The media...........................................................................27 Introduction..................................................................................27 Theorizing the media.....................................................................28 Audiences and media representations............................................30 L10 Globalization.....................................................................30 L1 Introduction to sociology What is sociology?  Sociology: derived from the Latin word socius (companion) and the Greek word logos (reasoned discourse) o “the systematic study of human society” (Macionis, p. 31) o Society: “people who live in a defined territory and share a way of life” (ibid)  Sociology is about seeing the general in the particular o Examining the general patterns in the behaviours of particular people  “The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. This is its task and its promise.” —C Wright Mills Sociological imagination  Understanding our world by attending to the intersection of our personal stories (biography) with the larger social context (history)  E.g. Unemployment o A personal trouble simply due to individual laziness or bad luck? o A public issue of structural unemployment o “Insofar as an economy is so arranged that slumps occur, the problem of unemployment becomes incapable of personal solution.” (Mills, p. 5) Sociological debunking  Sociological wisdom: “things are not what they seem” (Berger, p. 6) o ‘See through’ the facades of social lives  E.g. Understanding a city o Official information like government statistics can help us understand the profile of the city o However, the underneath aspects of social lives are masked o “The sociologist will be driven time and again, by the very logic of his discipline, to debunk the social systems he is studying.” (Berger, p. 9) L2: Sociological perspective and investigation Major Sociological perspectives  Background: The emergence of sociology o Sociology emerged in the 1800s as a new science for a changing world o New context: A massive technological, social and economic transformation (e.g. Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanization ) o Intellectual front: The legacy of Enlightenment  Rejection of earlier traditions  Belief in the potentials of human reasoning and social progress o Auguste Comte: first social thinker coined the term sociologie; applied positivism to study society Three key theoretical approaches in sociology 1. Structural-functional approach  See society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability  Highlights the functions of social structure  usually refer to a relatively durable and stable pattern of social relationships and behaviours; Both limiting and enabling individuals to make choices  Representative figures: Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton (manifested functions, laten functions and social dysfunctions) 2. Social-conflict approach  See society as an arena of inequality and power struggle  Focus on inequality and power struggle  Variations: - Feminism and gender-conflict theory; - Race-conflict theory  Karl Marx: suggest the history of human society is the history of class struggles  in capitalism, ongoing class conflict btw capitalists and working class 3. Symbolic-interaction approach  Sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals  Micro-level analysis to understand society as a shared reality that people construct for themselves as they interact with one another using symbols  Max Weber: Paid more attention to individuals and the meanings they make of their own behaviors ; Emphasized how cultural values shape our behaviors Three Social Research Methods  Three ways of doing research in sociology 1. Positivist sociology o Based on systematic observation of social behavior o Important assumption: society in sui generis (reality of its own kind) o Task for positivist sociologists to discover the reality o Terminologies:  Concept = mental construct that represents some part of the world in a simplified form  Variable = a concept whose value changes from case to case  Measurement = a procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case o Important to operationalize variables and ensure measurement is both reliable and valid  Reliability: if you conduct the study again, will the results be the same  Validity: does the study measure what it is intending to measure o Look for the causal relationships among variables (dependent and independent variables)  Correlation = a relationship in which two (or more variables) change together  BUT correlation does not necessarily imply causation  see spurious correlation  Spurious correlation = an apparent but false relationship between two (or more) variables that is caused by some other variable  To establish cause and effect, three requirements must be met: (1) a demonstrated correlation, (2) an independent (causal) variable that occurs before the dependent variable, and (3) no evidence that a third variable could be causing a spurious correlation between the two. 2. Interpretative sociology o the study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world o Reality is constructed by people’s everyday interactions and the interpretive approach observe both what and why people do o Not only observe, but also understand why people do certain things 3. Critical sociology o Focus on need for social change  o All research is political or biased – either calls for change or does not  sociologists need to take side to a position Summary of the three Research methods in Sociology  Issues affecting sociological research o Gender: androcentricity and gender blindness o Research ethics: not to harm research subjects, fair-minded and disclose all findings  Research methods in sociology o Experiment  a research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled conditions  involves testing hypotheses  Needs to control factors that might affect the outcome of the experiment  Typical strategy: Divide subjects into an experimental group and a control group  The issue of Hawthorne effect: “a change in a subject’s behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied” o Survey research  Subjects respond to a series of statements or questions on a questionnaire or in an interview  Involves identifying the population (i.e. research targets) and selection of sample population (e.g. random sampling) o Participant observation  Investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities o Analysing existing statistics   Durkheim’s classical study on suicide: comparing suicide rates of different types of people  concluded social integration and regulation as two key factors o Content analysis  Textual research on recorded human communications like newspapers and movies  Involves coding: process of transforming raw data into standardized form - Coding manifest content (e.g. counting numbers of recurring keywords) and latent content (interpreting the meaning of the text) - Example: manifest content  counting words like “kiss” in a novel; latent content  assess the erotic content of the novel L3: Social interaction in everyday life How are our behaviours and interactions with others guided by culture and social structure ?  Culture  Definition: the ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together form a people’s way of life”  the way of life shared by members of society  The elements of culture 1) Symbols: anything carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture 2) Language: allow people to communicate with one another  Sapir-Whorf thesis: people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language 3) Values: culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good and beautiful, serve as broad guidelines for social living 4) Beliefs: specific thoughts that people hold to be true 5) Norms: rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members  Social control for regulating people’s thoughts and behaviors  Culture and cultivate share the same word root o Socialization: social process we learn and internalize values, beliefs and norms of a society o Socializing agents (e.g. family, schooling and media)  Status – who are we in the society  Status = “a social position that a person holds”  Status set = All the statuses a person holds at a given time   Ascribed status  by birth or involuntarily take on  affect the likelihood of achieving some statuses  achieved status  by ability and effort)  Master status = a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life  Role – what do we do  Role = “behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status”  Role set = a number of roles attached to a single status  Role conflict = conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses  Role strain = tension among the roles connected to a single status  Role exit = disengage from important social roles How can we analyse social interaction at a micro-level?  The social construction of reality  “the process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction”  The Thomas Theorem: “Situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences”  Subjective interpretation of a situation causes the actions  Ethnomethodology  “the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings” o Examine how people use social interaction to construct, maintain and make sense of social reality and order in a situation o Uncover the implicit norm of a social setting  One way to do ethnomethodology is to break the rules  See how people respond and how they try to restore the social order  Erving Goffman and social dramaturgy  Famous for his studies on face-to-face communications and social interaction  One of his classic works: The presentation of self in everyday life (1956) o How individuals present themselves in different contexts like actors in a play  o The presentation of self = “a person’s efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others” = impression management o Three dimensions of our performance Costume: how we dress Props: objects we carry Demeanour: verbal and non-verbal expressions (body language) o Stages for performance  Front stage: where real performance is made in front of other people  Back stage: where people are relatively free to express their real self and prepare for upcoming front-stage performance o In case where performance goes wrong  Embarrassment = slip-ups or spoiled performance  create discomfort for performer and audience  Tact = held the spoiled performer to save face  Three elements to apply micro-sociological approaches to understand everyday life  Emotions  biological and cultural side of emotions o E.g. emtions at work  flight attendants as emotional labor  Language  not just communication  Humor  producing humor through playing with realities o To understand the humor, audience need to understand both the conventional and unconventional reality  create and contrast the two realities L4 Deviance and crime Basic concepts  Deviance  “the recognized violation of cultural norms”  Not fitting in or not conforming to the ‘normal’  Deviants include not only rule-breakers but also extraordinary people  Deviance may not be determined by what people do or choose  Crime  A category of deviance  “the violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law”  Social control  “attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behavior” o Informal social control o Formal social control through the criminal justice system Explaining Deviance – 5 approaches 1) Biological/physiological approach  Casare Lombroso: physical characteristics of criminals – “with low foreheads, prominent jaws and cheekbones, hairiness, and unusually long arms”  Downsides of biological approach: o Most crimes understood by society are made by people who are biologically quite normal o This approach does not help us understand how a deviant act is defined in the first place 2) Psychological approach  Focuses on the abnormalities in the individual personality  Deviance is a result of unsuccessful socialization  Some serious criminals are psychopaths  Downside of psychological approach o many crimes are committed by people who are quite normal in their psychological profiles social construction of deviance:  Both biological and psychological approaches overlook the social foundations of deviance  Cultural variation of deviance  People become deviants as others define them that way  Social power and status affect how norms are set and defined t and defined 3) Structural-functional approach  Emile Durkheim’s perspective o Deviance affirms cultural norms o Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries o Responding to deviance brings people together o Deviance encourages social change  Crime is a normal and even necessary part of the rituals in a society o Rituals = “a standardized, ceremonial behaviour, carried out by a group of people. It involves a common emotion, and it creates a symbolic belief that binds people closer to the group. Carrying out rituals over and over again is what serves to keep the group tied together.”  Criminal punishment serves as a social ritual o The significance is not so much on the criminals but more on the society o Criminal trials reaffirm people’s belief in the laws and creates the emotional bonds for the people  “If social life creates crime, then crime also tends to create its own antithesis. Crime tends to drive out crime.” o When an organized crime syndicate grows, it becomes a little society of its own; increasingly it resorts less to explicit violence and operates like ordinary business o Crime is a competitive market which drives out uncompetitive criminals  Robert Merton’s strain theory: “the extent and type of deviance people engage in depend on whether a society provides the means to achieve cultural goals.”  Four forms of non-conformity (deviance) o Innovation o Ritualism o Retreatism o Rebellion   Deviant subcultures o Richard Cloward & Lloyd Ohlin: “deviance or conformity arises from the relative opportunity structure that frames a person’s life” o Access to legitimate opportunity?  Yes = conformity  No = Access to illegitimate opportunity? - Yes=criminal subculture - No = conflict subculture or retreatist subculture 4) Symbolic-interaction approach  Labelling theory: “deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions” o Focus on how people define a situation o The deviant internalizes the label and adjusts their behaviors accordingly  Edwin Lemert distinguishes between two types of deviance o Primary deviance: norm violations which provoke slight reaction from others and have minimal effect on a person’s self concept o Secondary deviance: following the identification of primary deviance, an individual begins to change, taking on a deviant identity by acting in a different way and repeatedly breaking rules  Goffman’s idea of deviant career: when people develop a stronger commitment to deviant behavior, they acquire a stigma o “a powerful negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept and social identity” o Stigma operates as a master status, overpowering other aspects of social identity so that a person is discredited and isolated o People often try to conceal deviance in order to avoid stigma 5) Social-conflict approach  Basic premise: Deviance is connected to power and social inequality o Norms and especially laws reflect the interests of the rich and the powerful o When the behaviors are called into question, the powerful have the resources to resist deviant labels  Steven Spitzer: deviant labels are applied to those who threaten the operation of capitalism o E.g. people who threaten the private property of others, people who don’t work o “both the social welfare and criminal justice systems blames individuals, not the system, for social problems”  Race-conflict theory: how racial and ethnic hostility motivates hate crimes  Feminist theory: how females are more vulnerable to being labeled as deviant and being unfairly treated in deviant behaviors L5 Gender and sexuality Sex and sexuality  Sex and gender  Sex: “the biological distinction between females and males”  Gender: “an element of culture and refers to the personal traits and patterns of behavior that a culture attaches to being female or male”  Sex as biological categories (not a clear-cut)  Intersexual people: “people whose bodies (including genitals) have both female and male characteristics”  Transexual people: “people who feel they are one sex even though biologically they are the other”  Sex as sexuality  Sexual orientation: “a person’s romantic and emotional attraction to another person” o Heterosexuality (hetero = the other of two) and homosexuality (homo = the same) o Bisexuality o Asexuality: “a lack of sexual attraction to people of either sex”  The social dimension of sex and sexuality o Social norms for ‘proper’ sex and sexuality o Cultural variation on ideas and practices related to sexuality  E.g. incest taboo: a norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain kins relatives (culturally defined) Sociological theories on sexuality 1) Structural-functional approach  Regulation of sexuality is functional to the maintenance of the family and kinship system  Latent functions of prostitution (Kinsley Davis) 2) Symbolic-interaction approach  Social construction of sexuality (e.g. changing understanding and importance of virginity)   Social construction of S-E-X o “sex, rather than being natural and instinctual is, in fact, principally a learned behavior that is produced within specific cultural contexts.” o Traditional views:  e.g. Sex is holy and spiritual (religious view) e.g. Men are naturally more sexually aggressive than women (biological view) o The meaning of S-E-X in the contemporary American society – Essential elements:  Penetration and male agency  Heterosexuality  Orifice specification  Orgasm  Consent on the part of sexual recipient is not emphasized 3) Social conflict and feminist approach  Sexuality reflects and creates social inequality o Queer theory: “a body of research findings that challenges the heterosexual bias”  Our society is characterized by heterosexism, a view that labels anyone who is not heterosexual as ‘queer’ – e.g. gays, lesbians, bisexuals as queer Gender stratification  Basic terms:  Gender  “the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male”  Gender stratification  “the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women”  Gender hierarchy  Patriarchy (males dominates females)  Common in most societies; justified by sexism: “the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other”  Matriarchy (females dominates males)  E.g. Musuo in China  Gender socialization  The learning of gender roles (aka sex roles): “attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex”  Agents of socialization: e.g. Family, peer groups, schooling, mass media  The power of gender socialization  E.g. females are more likely to suffer from rating disorders; E.g. gender norm of ideal body shape  Gender inequality  Exist across different domains: education, politics etc.  Gender-based occupational segregation : - Male-dominated occupations: e.g. architects, engineers - Female-dominated occupations: e.g. administrative support work and service work (‘pink-collar jobs’) - Gender pay gap: Women in general earn less than men  Potential reasons: - Social expectation on women’s family roles - Women’s second shift: double burden of works and housework - Discrimination against women theories on gender 1) Structural-functional approach:  Sex-based division of labor is functional (e.g. Talcott Parsons: gender helps integrate the society) 2) Symbolic-interaction approach:  Gender affects everyday interaction (e.g. women typically engage in more eye contact than men) 3) Social-conflict approach:  Gender and inequality  Intersection theory:  “analysis of the interplay of race, class, and gender, which often results in multiple dimensions of disadvantage”  E.g. African American women earned less than non-Hispanic white women  Feminism:  “support of social equality for women and men, in opposition to patriarchy” (ibid, p. 366)  Basic principles of feminism  o Take action to increase equality o Expand human choice (beyond the two opposing and limiting spheres of the female world and the male world) o Eliminate gender stratification throughout society o End sexual violence o Promote sexual freedom  Types of Feminism: o Liberal Feminism:  Accept the basic organization of our society but seek to increase the rights and opportunities of women; stressing the individual efforts for changes o Socialist Feminism: End social classes and family gender roles which encourage domestic slavery through socialist revolution o Radical Feminism: Fight for ending the gender institution completely, even more than a socialist revolution o Multicultural and Global Feminism:  Beyond seeing women as a single category and acknowledge the social and cultural differences of women L6 Social Stratification  Social stratification  “a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy” (  Factors affecting one’s social ranking o Gender (discussed last week) o Economic condition (e.g. income level and wealth) o Race o Education o Age  Basic principles of social stratification 1) Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual 2) Social stratification carries over from generation to generation   Possibility of social mobility: “a change in position within the social hierarchy” 3) Social stratification is universal but variable 4) Social stratification involves not just inequality but also beliefs (ideology)  Caste system  “social stratification based on ascription, or birth”  The caste system in India o Brahman(priests) o Kshatriya(warriors) o Vaishya (farmers and merchants) o Sudra (artisans and workers and servants) o A fifth caste known as Harijans (polluted laborers, the outcastes)  Features of caste system o Position determined at birth o Endogamous marriage within the same social ranking o People associate with others of the same social ranking and avoid pollution from the lower rank o Cultural and religious beliefs of social rank order and morality  Class system  “social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement”  The element of meritocracy: “social stratification based on personal merit” o No pure meritocracy in our world o The caste system also defines merit, but one’s social standing is not directly based on one’s personal talent  Status consistency  “the degree of uniformity in a person’s social standing across various dimensions of social inequality” o Caste system: high status consistency  o Class system: low status consistency (E.g. professors: high reputation but moderate income)  Ideology  “cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, including patterns of inequality” o E.g. “Someone is poor because he or she is lazy.”  Dominant ideology at different historical periods o Agrarian societies: ideology of moral obligation o Industrial capitalism: ideology of meritocracy  E.g. Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism: the survival of the fittest in society Theories of social inequality 1) Structural-functional theories A. Davis-Moore Thesis (named after sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore)  “social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of society”  The greater the functional importance of a position, the more rewards our society attaches to it  If equal rewards are given to everyone, it will offer little incentive for people to try their best B. Herbert Gans: The functions of poverty  A slight twist of the social-functional approach: “instead of identifying functions for an entire social system, I shall identify them for the interest groups, socioeconomic classes, and other population aggregates with shared values that “inhabit” a social system”  Key argument of the paper: “poverty persists not only because it fulfils a number of positive functions but also because many of the functional alternatives to poverty would be quite dysfunctional for the affluent members of society.”  13 functions of poverty are identified by Gans 1. The society’s ‘dirty work’ will be filled by the poor 2. The poor working at low wages subsidize a variety of economic activities that benefit the affluent 3. Poverty creates jobs for a number of occupations and professions that serve or service the poor  4. The poor buy goods others do not want and thus prolong the economic usefulness of such goods 5. The poor can be identified and punished as real deviants, which helps sustain the conventional norm 6. The poor offer vicarious participation to the rest of the population in deviant behaviors 7. The poor serve a direct cultural function when culture created by and for them is adopted by the more affluent 8. Poverty helps to guarantee the status of those who are not poor 9. The poor aid the upward mobility of group just above them 10. The aristocracy needs to have the poor to demonstrate its superiority over the other elites 11. The poor can absorb the costs of change and growth of the society 12. The poor facilitate and stabilize the political process 13. The role of the poor in legitimating conventional norm and status quos 2) Social-conflict theories A. Karl Marx’s perspective on class conflict  Two major classes under capitalism: o Capitalists who own the productive property (means of production) o Workers who labor for the capitalists  Social stratification benefits the capitalists at the expense of the workers  The capitalist society reproduces the class structure in each new generation  Marx predicted that the ongoing tensions between the two classes would drive the working mass to overthrow capitalism o The reason for absence such revolution: (By Ralf Dahrendorf)  Fragmentation and expansion of the capitalist class  A higher standard of living  More worker organizations  Greater legal protections o But Marx’s insight still relevant today:  Wealth disparity is very significant   White-collar jobs offer no more income and security than factory work in the past  Threats of job loss  Many benefits enjoyed by contemporary workers came about through  the class conflict  Disadvantages still exist despite legal protections B. Max Weber’s perspective on social stratification  Three dimensions : o Class (economic wealth), status (social prestige) and power (political power)  Low status consistency in modern society  A related sociological term: socioeconomic status (SES) o “a composite ranking based on various dimensions of social inequality”  Weber believed that socialist revolution could increase inequality by expanding government and concentrating the power to the hands of political elites 3) Symbolic-interaction theories  Stratification in everyday life: We often interact with others of the similar social standings o E.g. People of middle or higher level of social standings tend to bypass the homeless  Conspicuous consumption: “buying and using products because of the ‘statement’ they make about social position” o Consumer goods function as markers of social status  Social stratification and technology – Gerhard Lenski’s model of socio-cultural evolution  Different types of societies defined by their level of technology (from low to high) o Hunting and gathering societies o Horticultural and pastoral societies o Agrarian societies o Industrial societies o Post-industrial societies  Kuznets curve o “in human history, technological advances first increase but then moderate the extent of social stratification”   greater technological sophistication generally accompanied by more pronounced social stratification o Social inequality across the globe generally supports this curve o Remarks and criticisms  Income inequality reflects not just technological change but also the political and economic situation of a country  This model does not let us predict the future of any societies L7 Families Basic concepts  Family and kinship are basic organizational structures of all societies  Family: “a social institution found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including any children.”  Kinship: (family ties): “a social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption.”  Marriage: “a legal relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, sexual activity, and childbearing.” o Endogamy: marrying within a specific social group  cultural or social continuity. o Exogamy: marrying outside one's social group  promoting genetic diversity and social alliances. o Monogamy: one spouse at a time (most common) o Polygamy: multiple spouses simultaneously.  Polygyny: One man having multiple wives.  Polyandry: One woman having multiple husbands.  Different types of families  Extended family: “a family consisting of parents and children as well as other kin” o A common mode of family in preindustrial societies  Nuclear family: “a family composed of one or two parents and their children” = conjugal family o A common mode of family in industrial societies  Residential patterns   Patrilocality: “a residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the husband’s family”  Matrilocality: “a residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the wife’s family”  Neolocality: “a residential pattern in which a married couple lives apart from both sets of parents”  Patterns of descent  Descent: system by which members of a society trace kinship over generations. o Patrilineal Descent: Kinship is traced through the male line. o Matrilineal Descent: Kinship is traced through the female line. o Bilateral Descent: Kinship is traced through both the male and female lines  more common in industrial societies with greater gender equality Family life 1. Experiencing family over the life course A) Courtship  Arranged marriage VS romantic love  Romantic love is partly social  The idea of homogamy: Marriage between people with the same social characteristics B) Childrearing  Big families were ‘functional’ in pre-industrial societies in which children provided needed labours  Industrialization transforms children from an asset to a liability o Changing value of children from economic to emotional o Changing social and legal policies on children: e.g. child labor laws, free and compulsory education o Children are increasingly seen as ‘priceless’ who require heavy investment from the parents (e.g. extra-curricular activities) C) The family in the later life  Empty nest  The provision of grandchild care by grandparents  The care for the aging parents  Final transition in marriage life: The death of a spouse  2. Transitions and problems in family life A) Divorce  High divorce rate in US due to: o Individualism is on the rise o Romantic love fades o Women are less dependent on men o Many of today’s marriages are stressful o Divorce has become socially acceptable o Legally a divorce is easier to get B) Remarriage  Often creates blended families, which compose of children and some combination of biological parents and stepparents C) Family violence  Especially violence against women and against children 3. The diversity of family life (Alternative family forms)  Single-parent families  Cohabitation  Gay and lesbian couples  Singlehood  Extended family households o Boomerang kids: young people not finding a job return home to live with parents  New reproductive technologies and families  test-tube babies Theories of the family 1） Structural-function theory  The family is the backbone of society which performs functions like the following: i. Family as a chief agent of socialization ii. Regulation of sexual activity iii. Social placement iv. Material and emotional security 2） Social-conflict and feminist theories  Inequalities are embedded in and perpetuated by the family. Some dimensions include: I. Property and inheritance contribute to the reproduction of the class structure  II. Patriarchy: Women become the sexual and economic property of men III. On race and ethnicity: Endogamous marriage supports and persists racial and ethnic inequality over generations 3) Micro-level theories I. Symbolic-interaction theory  On intimacy: Interactions among family members in everyday life II. Social-exchange theory  understanding social interactions in terms of maximizing rewards and minimizing costs  Courtship and marriage as forms of negotiation  Husband with more authority in a marriage  Religion: In Christianity, women are assumed to be created for men  Law: British common law in the past which flatly said “The husband and wife are as one and that one is the husband”  The dominant belief of sexism  Bernard’s conclusion: o “There are two marriages, then, in every marital union, his and hers. And his... is better than hers” o Married women tend to have poorer mental health and less happiness than single women  Social class shaping childrearing  "social class does indeed create distinctive parenting styles” whereas “the role of race in children’s daily lives was less powerful than I had expected.”  Two kinds of parenting styles: o Concerted cultivation (common among middle-class families) VS Accomplishment of natural growth (typically adopted by working- class and poor families)  Invisible inequality having long-term effect in school and work Future of families  Future trends identified by Macionis 1. The divorce rate is likely to remain high 2. Families in the 21st century will be more diverse  3. Men continue to play a limited role in child rearing 4. Families will continue to feel the effects of economic changes 5. The importance of new reproductive technologies will increase L8 Education Overview of education  Definition : the social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values.  Different sources of education:  Family and communities o In preindustrial societies, they were the key sources of (informal) education  Media  Schooling: “formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers.” o Different in schooling practices and patterns  affected by cultural values and social class Theories on education 1) Structural-functional theory: How does formal education support operation and stability of society  Social functions of schooling: o Socialization o Cultural innovation o Social integration o Social placement o Latent functions of schooling 2) Symbolic-interaction theory: how people create and understand reality in everyday interaction at school  Self-fulfilling prophecy: people’s expectations about future events influence individual behaviours, causing those expectations to become a reality  Explicit and hidden curriculum at school o Explicit curriculum: A school’s official curriculum  o Hidden curriculum: The lessons students learn about society (e.g. how a society operates, the power and authority) 3) Social-conflict theory: how schooling both cause and perpetuate social inequality i. Schooling as a form of social control: o Producing obedient citizens and workers ii. The impact of standardized testing and tracking o Standardized testing: how questions are set might contain bias based on class, race or ethnicity, which put students from minority backgrounds in a disadvantaged position o Tracking: “assigning students to different types of education programs” o Students from privileged backgrounds tend to do well on standardized tests and get into higher tracks more easily iii. Inequality among schools o Public vs private schools, differences in terms of financial and resources  Forms of capital: pattern of differences between social classes and academic success (Pierre Boudieu: impact of the universalization of education)  Economic capital: “immediately and directly convertible into money”  Cultural capital: Exists in three states o Embodied state: Internalized cultural knowledge, skills, and dispositions o Objectified state: Material objects (e.g. books and artwork) that store and reflect cultural capital o Institutionalized state: Formal recognition (e.g. graduation certificate) of one’s possession of cultural capital  Social capital: “the aggregate of the actual potential resources which are linked...... to membership in a group”  Implication: Reproduction of social class o The accumulation and transmission of different forms of capital as a key mechanism  o The upper-class and middle-class families tend to possess more capital in different forms and pass it on to the next generation, helping them get good results within the education system Higher education  Massification of higher education  Mok’s argument: “The declining benefit of degrees...... is unlikely to significantly reduce the demand for higher education. Even if the cost- benefits decline for graduates, young people still have better prospects in the labour market with a degree than without. The effect, rather, is likely to be increasing positional competition amongst undergraduates for the best courses at the best universities.”  Internship and class differences  Using Bourdieu’s three forms of capital, this study examines how respondents’ class-based resources and their complex interplay affect their understanding and engagement towards internship. o Middle class students use internship strategically for enhancing their skillset  understand competitive logic of the credential competition and the rules of white-collar workplaces  They use family connections to access internship opportunities and receive personalized advice  improve their employability by converting their cultural and social capital into new cultural capital in embodied o Working class students  Their cultural dispositions do not align with the rules in the higher education and employment fields  tend to conform to the prevailing expectations and see internships merely as ‘rituals’ of higher education  overlook the potential benefits that internships can offer  limited exposure to social networks favorable for internship engagement   The degree (academic performance) alone is not enough  Our higher education system and the contemporary labor market increasingly value non-academic soft skills (e.g. teamwork, communicative skills, adaptability) L9 The media Introduction  Media diversity  Communication: “the transfer of information from one individual or group to another, whether in speech or through the media.”  Different channels for communication: o Speech and face-to-face communication o Written communication o Modern era: The rise of mass media : “including radio, television, newspapers and magazines, film and the Internet. There are referred to as ‘mass’ media because they communicate with very large numbers of people.”  Media forms  Significance of media forms: o Marshall McLuhan: The medium is the message  “society is influenced much more by the type of media than by the content or messages which that media conveys”  Internet: o Created during cold war o digital divides  internet access marked by inequalities  Film: issue of cultural imperialism  Television: rise of TV correlates with decline of social capital in US (Robert Putnam)  Music: Musical forms reflect the society within they exist (Theodor Adorno) o Features of popular music under capitalism Tends to follow standardized and predictable structures  Encourage passive listening from audiences  Newspaper :  o During 19th century: a time of political and social unrest o Mass diffusion led to quick spread of news and information Theorizing the media 1) Structural-functional theory  Denis McQuail’s arguments: social functions of the media 1. Information 2. Correlation 3. Continuity 4. Entertainment 5. Mobilization 2) Social-conflict theory a) Political economy approach  “view the media as an industry and examine the way in which the major means of communication have come to be owned by private interests” (  Consequences of the concentration of media ownership o Excludes less powerful voices o Ideology: reproduces class domination b) Culture industry approach  Critical theory from the Frankfurt School o Frankfurt School: “established during the 1920s and 1930s and consisted of a loose group of theorists inspired by Marx” o Focuses on culture in capitalist societies, which was overlooked by Marx o Common concern: “the spread of the culture industry, with its undemanding and standardized products, undermined the capacity of individuals for critical and independent thought”  E.g. Theodor Adorno’s analysis on popular music  E.g. Jurgen Habermas: The emergence and development of the mass media causes the public sphere to shrink o Public opinion is increasingly not formed through open discussion but through manipulation and control by media enterprises and the state  o Citizen participation in public affairs becomes weakened 3) Symbolic-interaction theory a) Moral panic theory  Stan Cohen’s study of the clashes between Mods and Rockers (two conflicting British youth subcultures) in UK  Media representations contribute to the recurring moral panics b) John Thompson: how does media transform social interactions  Three types of interaction o Face-to-face interaction o Mediated interaction o Mediated quasi-interaction  “Such interaction is stretched across time and space but does not link individuals directly”  “Thompson’s point is that all three types of interaction intermingle in our lives today and that the media change the balance between the public and the private.” 4) Postmodern theory  Sees social realities and social structures as fragmented and fluid  Jean Baudrillard: examine how the coming of mass media transforms the nature of our lives  The idea of hyperreality: “Hyperreality is a world in which the ultimate guarantor of authenticity and reality is precisely that we have seen it on TV or other media, which makes it ‘more real than the real”  Online dating case study:  Circumvention: “the specific strategies employed by individuals to exploit the capacities and minimize the constraints associated with their use of ICTs.”  Online presentation of the self with tactics o E.g. selective self-disclosure, photo curation, and aligning profiles with perceived audience expectations o The importance of small cues (e.g. the choices of profile photos; mis- spelling of words)  Tension between presenting the real and truthful self and projecting a version of self that looks attractive and desirable  o The strategy of presenting an ideal self (describing a potential future version of self) Audiences and media representations  Audience studies a) Hypodermic model  Compare media messages to drugs injected by syringe: “the media is seen as ‘drugging’ the audience, destroying its ability to think critically about the wider world”  Assumption: The passivity of audience in receiving and accepting the media message uncritically b) Gratification model  How do different audiences use the media to meet their own needs?  e.g. Checking weather information online; Watching a movie to connect with friends c) Reception theories  Focuses on the way class and cultural background of the members of an audience affect their interpretation of different media ‘texts’ o e.g. a worker involved in strike action or members of minority ethnic groups often make an oppositional reading of a news story on industrial or race relations rather than accepting the dominant view  Audiences filter information through their own experience and perspective, and might use one type of media to engage with another d) Participatory cultures  new opportunities are open to individuals to be both producers and audiences (prosumers)  A two-way model  Media representations  Media representations often serve to reinforce stereotypes  E.g. Advertisements on cleaning products and gender stereotype L10 Globalization Globalization  Lack of agreement for a ‘correct’ definition  George Ritzer: “a set of processes which involve the increasing multidirectional flows of things, people and information across the planet”  A process in which “individuals, companies, groups and nations becoming ever more interdependent as part of a single global community”  Charles Tilly: “globalization means an increase in the geographic range of locally consequential social interactions”  Elements of globalization 1) Information technology  The internet-related technologies facilitate the compression of time and space  Global impact: o People increasingly perceive that their responsibility does not stop at national borders o Undermines people’s sense of national (or nation- state) identity 2) Interweaving of culture and economics  The relationship between culture and economics in the global world o A neo-Marxist approach: Global trends (including culture) are underpinned by capitalist economic globalization o A culturalist approach: The continuous integration of the world economy is achieved in various cultural ways  Transnational (Multinational) corporations: “Companies that produce goods or market services across several countries” o They have a national base (mostly in the high-income nations) oriented towards global markets and profit- making o They control much of the world’s investment capital, technology, and access to international markets  o The world’s leading transnational corporations are larger than many of the world’s countries (in terms of GDP)  Global commodity chain: “worldwide networks of labour and production processes yielding a finished products.” o Links between corporations and people whereby commodities are gathered, transformed into goods and services, and distributed to consumers across the world o Most profitable activities in the commodity chain remain mainly in high-income countries 3) Political globalization  The development of international and regional mechanisms of governance  Moving towards forms of global governance o International Governmental organizations (IGOs): bodies established by participating governments and deal with issues that are transnational in scope o International non-governmental organizations (INGOs): private bodies independent of government  Debating globalization : David Held: three broad positions 1) Hyperglobalizers  Globalization as a real and ongoing process with wide- ranging consequences  Produces a new global order and global consciousness  Declining sovereign power (the supreme power of a nation state) 2) Sceptics  The ‘reality’ of globalization is overstated o More accurate to talk about internationalization instead of globalization o Nation-states remain the central political actors 3) Transformationalists  In between the former two, seeing how globalization breaks down established boundaries between the borders o National governments are not losing sovereignty but just restructuring it in response to new forms of transnational economic and social organization  o Globalization is not inevitable  it is a dynamic and open process subjected to influence and change  The consequences of globalization  Uniform culture worldwide? Global culture dominated by Europe and north America? Westernization and Americanisation?  McDonaldization  Built upon Max Weber’s discussion of rationalization as the key feature of modern society  Ritzer: McDonald’s as a contemporary exemplar for the developments in rationalization  The principles of McDonaldization (global spread of such principles  homogenized global culture) o Efficiency o Predictability o Calculability o Replace human technology with nonhuman technology o Control o Irrationality of rationality (as by-products of rationalization)  McDonaldization of society o “Rationalization, with McDonald’s as the paradigm case, is occurring throughout America, and, increasingly, other societies. In virtually every sector of society more and more emphasis is placed on efficiency, predictability, calculability, replacement of human by nonhuman technology, and control over uncertainty.”  Glocalization  Roland Robertson’s idea of glocalization: “a mixture of globalization and localization” o Local communities are often active rather than passive in resisting, modifying and shaping global processes o Transnational companies tailor their products and services to take account of local conditions ‘on the ground’ Global Stratification  Social stratification  global stratificartion   Social stratification: “a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy”  Global stratification: “patterns of social inequality in the world as a whole”  Particularly in terms of economic differences  Theories of global stratification 1) Modernization theory (structural functional approach)  “a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences between nations.”  focuses on explaining affluence (wealth)  Walt Rostow’s theory: four stages of modernization (economic growth) i. Traditional stage: People built their lives around families and local communities with little economic surplus ii. Take-off stage: Traditions are weakened; A market emerges as people produce not just for self-sufficiency but for trading iii. Drive to technological maturity: Economic growth and higher living standards are goals; A diversified economy drives a population eager to enjoy the benefits of industrial technology iv. High mass consumption: Advanced technology fuels mass production and mass consumption  Role of rich nation in global economic development i. Controlling population growth ii. Increasing food production iii. Introducing industrial technology to the poor countries iv. Providing foreign aid  Criticisms of modernization theory o The living standards of some poor nations are little changed o Rich nations benefit from status quo and block the path to development for poor countries o The theory ignores the unequal interactions between rich and poor countries o An ethnocentric bias: using the standard of the developed countries to judge the developmental trajectory of other nations o The theory places blame on the poor nations for their poverty in the global context 2) Dependency theory (social-conflict approach)  “a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones.”  Basic perspective: rich nations and poor nations are interconnected, and their development needs to be understood in relation to each another o Formal colonialism in history o Neocolonialism under modern capitalism: economic exploitation of poor nations by multinational corporations  Immanuel Wallerstein’s theory – The world systems theory o Under a capitalist world economy, there are three tiers of nations 1. Core: High-income nations, which are home to multinational corporations 2. Periphery: Low-income nations, which provide cheap labor and market for industrial products (supporting the core) 3. Semi-periphery: Middle-income nations which have close ties to the core o The world-systems favors the rich nations at the expense of the rest. Three key factors:  Narrow, exported-oriented economies  Lack of industrial capacity  Foreign debt  Criticisms of dependency theory o The theory overlooks how individual nations achieve wealth through their own efforts o The poorest countries had little interactions with rich nations o The role of culture in shaping people’s willingness to embrace or resist change is ignored o Global trade may not benefit the rich nations o The proposed solution – ending contacts with rich nations – is too extreme and radical L11 Population, urbanization and environment Population  Demography  Demography (Greek = description of people) =“the study of human population”  Demographic concepts o Fertility o the incidence of childbearing in a country’s population o Crude birth rate: the number of live births in a given year for every 1000 people in a population o Mortality o the incidence of death in a country’s population o Crude death rate: the number of deaths in a given year for every 1000 people in a given year o Infant mortality rate: the number of deaths among infants under one year of age for each 1,000 live births in a given year o Low infant mortality raises life expectancy o Migration o the movement of people into and out of a specified territory o Immigration: measured as an in-migration rate o Emigration: measured as an out-migration rate o Net migration rate: The difference between in- migration rate and out- migration rate  Population growth o Natural growth rate: crude birth rate minus crude death rate o A rule of thumb for estimating a nation or region’s growth: divide 70 by the population growth rate  Population composition o Sex ratio as one variable: the number of males for every 100 females in a nation’s population  the ratio is usually below 100  o Age-sex pyramid: a graphic representation of the age and sex of a population  Theories of population growth 1) Malthusian theory o The concern on the growth of world population which would soon be out of control  Food production cannot catch up with the human growth, which can potentially result in widespread starvation and conflicts o Flawed prediction by Malthusian:  Birth rate in Europe started to drop by 1850 because children were increasingly seen as an economic liability  Food production greatly advanced and increased over time  He missed the role of social inequality 2) Demographic transition theory o a thesis that links population patterns to a society’s level of technological development o Population growth in four stages  Pre-industrial (very slow)  early industrial (rapid)  mature industrial (slowing)  post-industrial (very slow) o This theory is associated with modernization theory  Global population today  Low-growth north o Zero population growth = the rate of reproduction that maintains population at a steady level o Achieved when the total fertility rate is around the replacement level  High-growth south o Demographic divide: rich countries with low birth rates and ageing populations Urbanization  Urbanization: “the concentration of population into cities”  The first urban revolution (began 10,000 years ago) o The first city we know of was Jericho in Palestine o Preindustrial European cities like the Greeks and the later the Romans cities  o Personal social ties between people were strong  The second urban revolution (began about 1750 o Stimulated by Industrial Revolution o The emphasis on business o Urban life became more impersonal  The third urban revolution (ongoing currently) o More cities are now found in low-income countries  Four sociologists on urbanization  Ferdinand Tonnie o Gemeinschaft (community): “a type of social organization in which people are closely tied by kinship and tradition” o Gesellschaft (association): “a type of social organization in which people come together only on the basis of individual self-interest.” o urbanization  weakened a close and tight social relations in favor of impersonal ties  Emile Durkheim o Traditional rural life was based on mechanical solidarity  built on likeness  social bonds based on common sentiments and shared moral values o Organic solidarity as a new type of bonding in modern urban cities  built on differences  social bonds based on the specialization and interdependence  Georg Simmel o Individual urbanites get overwhelmed by a huge volume of people and objects and events in cities, developing a blasé attitude (not easily impressed)  Being indifferent towards distinction between things  Detach from one another and keep a distance so as to focus their time and energy on things really matter to them  Chicago School : A school of urban sociology developed in the early 1900s led by scholars from the University of Chicago o Robert Park: City as a living organism  As an organized mosaic of distinctive ethnic communities, commercial centers and industrial districts, etc  o Louis Wirth: City life is impersonal  Urban people know each other not in terms of who they are but what they do  The nature of urban relationships is self-interested and impersonal  Urban ecology  Urban ecology: “the study of the link between physical and social dimensions of cities” o Why are cities located at where they are? o The physical design of cities o Social area analysis – what people in particular neighborhood have in common  Urban political economy: An ecological approach to a social-conflict understanding of city life o Analyze the conflicts in cities which are structured by the larger socio-economic forces Environment  Ecology: A sistering discipline of sociology  the study of the interaction of living organisms and the natural environment  Eco in Greek means ‘house’  Technology and environment  Measuring the environmental impact: o I = PAT formula (Impact = Population × Affluence × Technology)  The more complex a society’s technology, the greater its capacity to affect the environment o Such capacity has dramatically increased with the Industrial Revolution (the use of fossil fuels and machines)  Environmental deficit: “profound long-term harm to the natural environment caused by humanity’s focus on short-term material affluence”  Two thesis on growth  The logic of growth: an optimistic view of the world, holding that technology n o Keep on using technology to alter environment for economic development and progress   The limits to growth: “humanity must put in place policies to control the growth of population, production and use of resources in order to avoid environmental collapse” o Growth must have limits  Environmental racism (conflict theory)  “patterns of development that expose poor people, especially minorities, to environmental hazards” o e.g. poor people live in undesirable neighborhoods o E.g. low-income people who work outdoors are exposed to a greater adverse impact of global warming than the middle- class people working at office  Creating an ecologically sustainable culture  a way of life that meets the needs of the present generation without threatening the environmental legacy of future generations  three strategies: o Need to bring global population growth under control o Conserve finite resources o Reduce waste  From an egocentric mindset to an ecocentric mindset which requires everyone to work together  10 inescapable realities about population crisis 1. Unprecedented numerical expansion of world population over time 2. Powerful population momentum of expansion even if the program of zero population growth is effectively implemented 3. Declining mortality rates further drive the increase in world population 4. No empty spaces left on Earth to accommodate the expanding population 5. Limited timespan for taking action 6. The Earth’s long-term carrying capacity (in terms of resources) is finite 7. The notion of “sustainable growth” is a myth rather than a reality 8. Global inequality: More than 90% of future population expansion is projected to occur in less-developed regions 9. The human species’ total impact on the Earth’s already stressed ecosystem (the formula of I=PAT) will be further increased 10. Considerations on safety factor and biodiversity should be taken into account when responding to the population crisis    Case study Chicago heat wave in 1995  Commonsensical perspective: natural disaster  this sociological account of the heat wave shows how the climate, the living conditions of the city's most precarious residents, and the local government, the organization most responsible for protecting the welfare of citizens, interact to determine the level of danger and damage that a disaster such as the heat wave inflicts  Social autopsy  Investigating the social dimensions and causes that contributed to the impacts of the disaster o Attention to social ecology (i.e. relationships between people and their environment) o Most victims were poor, but poverty alone does not fully account for the casualties  E.g. African-American neighborhoods had higher rates of heat-related illness and death than Latino neighborhoods (both were low-income areas)  The former experienced a high level of social isolation and had limited access to social resources o Institutional defects in emergency response and the shortcomings of public services and infrastructure