SOCI 201 – Introduction To Sociology PDF

SOCI 201 – INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY - Dr. Gbenga Adejare - Recap Previously, we discussed… Culture and its elements Socialization, its processes and agencies Focus Today, our focus is on… Social positions and interactions An emergence of cultural orientation and socialization processes. Introductio...

SOCI 201 – INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY - Dr. Gbenga Adejare - Recap Previously, we discussed… Culture and its elements Socialization, its processes and agencies Focus Today, our focus is on… Social positions and interactions An emergence of cultural orientation and socialization processes. Introduction: Status Sociologists are keen on unpacking how the locations/positions of individuals impact on their interactions. Status: a recognized social position that an individual occupies It contributes to a person’s social identity It imposes responsibilities and expectations that defines that person’s relationships to others. Status set: is a collection of statuses people have over a lifetime (e.g., daughter, mother, wife) Statuses and our status set change as we age Ascribed and Achieved Status Achieved status is a status you entered at some stage of your life; you weren’t born into it. E.g., academic standings, professional positions Ascribed status: a status one is born into or enters involuntarily E.g., daughter, son, teenager, cancer survivor Some statuses are both ascribed and achieved E.g., citizenship Social Mobility Social mobility determines the degree to which your status is achieved or ascribed (e.g., castes system in South Asia). It is the extent to which people’s social and economic statuses can change. Sexual Orientation and Status: A Problem Area Master Status Everett C. Hughes (1897-1983): concept of master status (1945): Dominates all an individual’s statuses in most social contexts Plays the greatest role in the formation of the individual’s social identity E.g., “race,” ethnicity, gender, occupation Status Hierarchy Statuses can be ranked from high to low based on prestige and power. For social categories such as gender, “race,” ethnicity, age, class, sexual orientation, and physical ability, one status tends to be valued above others. E.g., male over female, white over black, heterosexual over LGBTQ2 Status Inconsistency Status consistency: is the condition a person experiences when all of their statuses fall in the same range in the social hierarchy E.g., male, white, of British heritage, rich, heterosexual, and ablebodied Status inconsistency is the result of marginalization Process by which groups are assigned into categories that set them at or beyond the margins of dominant society. occurs when a person holds social statuses that are ranked differently and do not align E.g., Indigenous cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, Olivia Chow Social Roles Role: is a set of behaviours and attitudes associated with a particular status. Roles attached to a status may differ across cultures A status may be associated with more than one role Role set, according to Robert Merton (1968), refers to all the roles that are attached to a particular status E.g., professors play the role of teachers, colleagues, employees, etc… Role Strain and Role Conflict Role strain develops when there is a conflict between roles within the role set of a particular status E.g., a student catching a classmate cheating Role conflict occurs when a person is forced to reconcile incompatible expectations generated from two or more statuses they hold E.g., conflicting demands of being a mother and a student Role Exit Role exit is the process of disengaging from a role that has been central to one’s identity and attempting to establish a new role It involves shifting one’s master status (Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh, 1988) E.g., divorce, death Role exit is something we all experience throughout our lives. Small Group and Social Relations Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe (1920) introduced the pecking order. In small-group settings, statuses can be a valuable way to establish the pecking order, or who is in charge. E.g., criminal gangs have a hierarchy of statuses, ranging from president to associate, soldier, and wannabe. Small Group and Social Relations cont’d George Simmel (1858–1918) Microsociologist and symbolic interactionist One of the first sociologists to study daily, one-on-one interactions of individuals Charles Cooley (1864–1929) Identity formation through the looking-glass self Frederic M. Thrasher (1892–1962) Studied gangs as small clusters of intense interaction separated from the larger world Small Group and Social Relations cont’d William I. Thomas (1963-1947) Symbolic interactionism Coined the concept definition of the situation Individuals define situations based on their subjective experiences and respond accordingly We must study these definitions to understand individual action Interpretations and definitions produce reality, a process also known as Thomas theorem “Situations we define as real become real in their consequences” Interaction Process Analysis Robert F. Bales (1916–2004) Developed a system of coding interactions in small groups called interaction process analysis (IPA) Identifies patterns of behaviour such as dominant/submissive, friendly/unfriendly, etc. Studying Social Interaction in Large Groups Social organization: social and cultural principles around which people and things are structured, ordered, and categorized E.g., cultures, institutions, or corporations are all socially organized around principles such as egalitarianism or hierarchy Organizational Structure Organizational structure is comprised of the principles that are upheld by shared cultural beliefs and maintained through a network of social relations Organizations are based on understandings and knowledge of the world, which are shaped by their cosmology An account of the origin and ruling principles of the universe The Study of Organizations Started with Max Weber’s work on bureaucracy 1980s: shift from the examination of social institutions to that of business corporations in search of effective and efficient management practices This brought about a surge in studies in the fields of organizational theory and organizational behaviour Since 1990s, interdisciplinary focus on organizational culture, such as organizational rituals symbolic acts,” is an aspect of organizational dynamics The Study of Organizations, cont’d Organizational ritual is a form of social action were a group’s values and identity are publicly demonstrated (Islam & Zyphur, 2009) E.g. the comic strip Dilbert Critiques of traditional theories of management have led to the rise of critical management studies Challenge the dominant assumptions of organizations E.g., issues of race, ethnicity, class, or gender Organizational Structure and Gender Female organizational structure are different from traditional male organizational structures Central tenets in feminist coalitions include issues such as the internal distribution of power and responsibility Organizational Structure and Gender, cont’d Carol Mueller (1995) identified three models of feminist organizations 1. Formal social movement organizations: professionalized, bureaucratic, inclusive with few demands made on members (e.g., women’s rights groups) 2. Small groups or collectives: organized informally, require time, loyalty and material resources from its members (e.g., women’s publishing houses) 3. Service-provider organizations: combine elements of both formal and small-group organizations (e.g., domestic violence shelters) Bureaucracy Arose out of the formation of states and writing systems 5,000 years ago As empires emerged, administrative bureaucracies expanded alongside imperial expansion The term bureaucracy originated in 18th century France, meaning “writing desk” Bureaucracy and Formal Rationalization According to Max Weber (1864-1920), bureaucracy is marked by formal rationalization and its four elements: 1. 2. 3. 4. Efficiency Quantification Predictability Control Substantive rationalization focuses on values and ethics Formal rationalization leads to disenchantment and alienation The Evolution of Formal Rationalization The development of formal rationality began during the Industrial Revolution (late 18th and early 19th centuries) Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915) developed practice of scientific management Based on “time-and-motion” studies designed to discover one best way of doing any given job But, efficiency standards limit work processes to single set of repetitive actions, undermining skill development The McDonaldization of the World George Ritzer (2004) coined the concept of McDonaldization “The process by which the [rationalizing] principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” The McDonaldization of the World, cont’d Ritzer (2004) applied the four fundamental elements of Weber’s formal rationalization 1. Efficiency: the streamlined movement in time and effort of people and things through small, repeated tasks 2. Quantification: success is measured by completion of large number of quantifiable tasks 3. Predictability: the “uniformity of rules” and clear expectations 4. Control: hierarchal division of labour and supervision Formal Rationalization in the Digital Age The internet allows for an enormous degree of formal rationalization. Weber’s warnings about the “iron cage of rationality,” yet we welcome it into our lives. E.g., shop online, raise funds for the needy, etc… Social Order through Social Organization The foundational principles and forms of organizations have a profound effect on society and individuals so they must be critically examined and questioned Organizational structure promotes social order (social cohesion and how the organizations and systems are held together) However, bureaucratized organizations dictate values and interactions and lost sight of greater good