Soc 1025 Notes_ Final PDF

Soc Notes 1025: Final Week 2: What is sociology: ➔ The systematic study of human behavior in social context ◆ Systematic: scientific research ◆ Human behavior: agency Agency: the capacity of individuals to exercise their own free will ◆ Social context= social structures Social structures: relatively...

Soc Notes 1025: Final Week 2: What is sociology: ➔ The systematic study of human behavior in social context ◆ Systematic: scientific research ◆ Human behavior: agency Agency: the capacity of individuals to exercise their own free will ◆ Social context= social structures Social structures: relatively stable patterns of social relations - Sociology (redefined): scientific research focused on the relationship between agency and social structures 3 Types of Social Structures: ➔ 1. Microstructures: Patterns of relatively intimate social relations formed during face-to-face interaction ➔ 2. Macrostructures: Overarching patterns of social relations that lie outside and above a person’s circle of intimates and acquaintances ➔ 3. Global Structures: Patterns of social relations that lie outside and above the national level Structure and Agency ➔ Social Structures constrain individuals’ free will (agency) ➔ Individuals use their agency to form and change social structures ➔ The ability to exercise one’s free will (agency) varies across individuals ◆ Based on the socio-demographic categories that individuals occupy Sociological Imagination ➔ Sociological Imagination: The quality of the mind that enables a person to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures 3 Key Revolutions: ➔ 1. Scientific Revolution: Encouraged evidence-based conclusions about society, as opposed to those based on speculation (circa 1550) ➔ 2. Democratic Revolution: Suggested that people are responsible for creating, recreating, and changing society (circa 1750) ➔ 3. Industrial Revolution: Created a bunch of new social problems (circa 1780) Sociological Theory ➔ Theory: A tentative explanation of some aspect of social life that states how and why certain facts are related ➔ Theories are tested using Research: The process of systematically observing reality to assess the validity of a theory 4 popular sociological theories in Euro-Canadian sociology: ➔ Functionalism ➔ Conflict Theory ➔ Symbolic Interactionism ➔ Feminist Theory Functionalism ➔ Focus: How society remains stable ➔ People fulfill roles within society, which enable it to function ➔ Roles are based mainly on shared values or preferences, which bond people together and create meaning ➔ The best way to solve most social problems is re-establishing equilibrium ➔ Healthcare from a functionalist perspective: ◆ Premature death is bad ◆ Prevents individuals from carrying out their roles ◆ Society does not recoup resources spent birthing, caring for,and socializing the dying individual ◆ Thus, good health and effective healthcare are essential for a society’s ability to function ◆ Healthcare requires a physician and a patient ◆ They are in an unequal, hierarchical relationship ◆ They each have roles ◆ Physician’s role is to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness ◆ Patient’s role is to follow physician’s orders ◆ Beyond the intended function of healthcare, it is also indirectly functional for society because it provides employment opportunities, stimulates the economy, etc. ➔ Key Implication: Inequalities do exist, and are often necessary ➔ Key critique: Assumes a high degree of consensus regarding values and preferences ➔ Focus: Social divisions that impede greater harmony ➔ Different social groups have different interests ➔ Different social groups also have different amounts of Power: The ability of individuals in social relationships to impose their will on others regardless of resistance Conflict Theory ➔ Focus: Social divisions that impede greater harmony ➔ Social groups with greater power pursuing their interests, often comes at the expense of social groups with less power ➔ Intentionally or unintentionally ➔ Key Implication: When social values and preferences are not shared, the resulting struggle may lead to: ◆ Groups with more power continuing their domination ◆ Social change ◆ Key critique: Assumes a high degree of consensus among those with greater power Symbolic Interactionism ➔ Focus: How individuals shape one another’s lives ➔ We act toward things based on the meanings we assign to them ➔ Those meanings are formed by social interactions ➔ There is a process of interpretation (and sometimes modification) ➔ Key Implication: Social reality is something we construct together on an ongoing basis Feminist Theory ➔ Focus: The gendered dimensions of social life and inequality ➔ Gender inequalities emerge from interactions ➔ Gender inequalities also emerge from the Patriarchy: The traditional system of economic and political inequality between women and men in most societies ➔ Key Implication: Systems of male-domination (social structure) pattern our “choices” of behavior (agency) Week 3: Unscientific Thinking ➔ Humans rely on 3 basic ways of knowing: ◆ 1. Casual observation Casual observation is associated with several common errors, including: ○ Overgeneralization: when we focus on exceptions and treat them as the rule ○ Selective Observation: when we unconsciously ignore evidence that challenges our firmly held beliefs and pay attention to evidence that confirms them ○ Illogical reasoning: when we draw conclusions from a false premise ◆ 2. Tradition ◆ 3. Authority Scientific Thinking ➔ Sociologists systematically study human behavior in social context using two complementary approaches: ◆ Positivism ◆ Interpretivism Scientific Method for Quantitative Research ➔ Identify a theoretical idea of interest ➔ Translate the abstract idea into a testable hypothesis ➔ Collect and analyze data ➔ Accept or reject the hypothesis based on the data analysis Identify a theoretical idea of interest ➔ Reviewing the literature on housing market intermediaries and eviction leads a researcher to ask: Are corporate landlords more likely to file evictions than “mom-and-pop” landlords? Translate the abstract idea into a testable hypothesis ➔ H1: Yes, corporate landlords are more likely to file evictions than “mom-and-pop” landlords ➔ H2: No, corporate landlords file evictions at similar rates to “mom-and-pop” landlords ➔ H3: No, corporate landlords are le ss likely to file evictions than “mom-and-pop” landlords Collect and analyze data ➔ Eviction filing data and property ownership data ➔ Statistical analysis techniques Accept or reject the hypothesis based on the data analysis ➔ H1: Yes, corporate landlords are more likely to file evictions than “mom-and-pop” landlords ACCEPT ➔ H2: No, corporate landlords file evictions at similar rates to “mom-and-pop” landlords REJECT ➔ H3: No, corporate landlords are less likely to file evictions than “mom-and-pop” landlords REJECT Scientific Method for Qualitative Research 1. Identify a research interest based on concrete experience(s) 2. Collect evidence from one or more cases of the same types 3. Analyze the cases to identify common patterns and themes 4. Provide an interpretation of the patterns and themes that stresses the context in which the concrete experiences took place Identify a research interest based on concrete experience(s) ➔ A researcher’s parent, who is over the age of 60, loses their job during an economic downturn, leading the researcher to ask: How do older adults make sense of job loss? Collect evidence from one or more cases of the same type ➔ Locate additional unemployed older adults ➔ Ask them about losing their job Analyze the cases to identify common patterns and themes ➔ Engage in qualitative analysis Provide an interpretation of the patterns and themes that stresses the context in which the concrete experiences took place ➔ Older adults who lose their jobs during economic downturns blame themselves and blame society, at least in the Canadian context Quantitative Methods ➔ Experiment: A carefully controlled artificial situation that allows researchers to isolate hypothesized causes and precisely measure their effects ➔ Rarely used in sociology ➔ Experimental methods are the basis of some fundamental principles in quantitative thinking that sociologists apply to other data Quantitative Methods: Experiments ➔ Begin with a hypothesis about how one variable affects another ➔ Independent variable: The presumed cause in a cause- and-effect relationship ➔ Dependent variable: The presumed effect in a cause- and-effect relationship ➔ In order to identify the independent variable’s effect on the dependent variable, experimenters create two groups of subjects: ◆ Experimental group: The group that is exposed to the independent variable ◆ Control group: The group that is not exposed to the independent variable ➔ In order to ensure that the two groups are alike in all respects, other than exposure to the independent variable, experimenters use randomization ➔ Randomization: Assigning individuals to groups by chance processes ➔ Randomized groups were formed ➔ The experimental group and the control group were given different sets of instructions ➔ Success varied based on group membership Quantitative Methods ➔ Survey: Researchers ask people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, or behavior ➔ The most widely used method in sociology ➔ Survey questions are asked so that researchers can test how one or more independent variables affect a dependent variable Quantitative Methods: Surveys ➔ The goal is to study part of a group (the sample) to learn about the whole group of interest (the population) ➔ In order for findings to be valid, the sample must be an identical representation of the population ➔ A researcher might ask: How does gender (independent variable) influence Canadians’ views on anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred and prejudice (dependent variable)? Qualitative Methods ➔ Participant Observation: Researchers take part in the social group being studied and systematically observe what occurs and why ➔ Also known as ethnography Qualitative Methods: Participant Observation ➔ The goal is to experience and understand what it is like to be a member of a specific community ➔ In order for findings to be valid, the sample must represent the specific community ➔ When working in isolation, workers made up their own games ➔ During daily breaks, workers had developed games they played together ➔ Like “banana time” Qualitative Methods ➔ Unstructured Interviews and Semi-structured Interviews: Researchers use loose, open-ended questions, allowing respondents to answer questions in their own words ➔ Questions have a theme and cover pre-defined topics, but questions vary in form to suit the flow of the interview Research Ethics ➔ Formal standards for ethical research involving “human subjects” have only emerged within the last 50 years ➔ In part, due to concerns raised by historical studies that seemed problematic in various ways ➔ Three ethical principles informed the development of formal standards ◆ Respect for persons ◆ Beneficence (“do no harm”) ◆ Justice ➔ Formal Standards include: ◆ Voluntary participation } ◆ Harm minimization (“right to safety”) Informed Consent ➔ Informed Consent: Participants’ acknowledgement that they are aware of the risks of participation in research and are participating voluntarily ➔ Formal Standards include: ◆ Right to Privacy ➔ Anonymity: Occurs when a researcher cannot identify research subjects based on evidence ➔ Confidentiality: Occurs when a researcher can identify subjects by examining evidence but agrees not to do so ➔ Formal Standards include: ◆ Authenticity If deception occurs, researchers must use Debriefing: Interviewing participants after a study to clarify what occurred and deal with any fallout related to deception Whether deception is permitted goes back to the three ethical principles that informed the development of formal standards (respect for persons, beneficence, and justice). Week 4: What is Culture? ➔ Culture: Shared symbols and their definitions that people create to solve real-life problems ➔ Symbols: Concrete objects or abstract terms that represent something else ➔ Concrete: Existing in a material or physical form ➔ Culture varies between societies ◆ This can lead to culture shock: A feeling of disorientation that occurs when an individual encounters an unfamiliar culture or way of life Based on location Based on the socio- demographic groups that individuals belong to Based on struggles over power and control How is Culture Created? ➔ 3 human abilities contribute to the creation of culture: ◆ 1. Abstraction ◆ 2. Cooperation ◆ 3. Production ➔ Each ability gives rise to different elements of culture Abstraction: ➔ The ability to create general concepts that meaningfully organize sensory experience ➔ The concepts that emerge from abstraction are the most pervasive symbols in human cultures ➔ How is Culture Created?: Abstraction ➔ Abstract: Existing in thought or as an idea ➔ Abstract thinking: The ability to think about objects, principles, and ideas that are not physically present ➔ When the concepts that arise from abstraction are shared, it creates beliefs ➔ Beliefs: Cultural statements that define what community members consider real ➔ Time is an abstract thought ➔ Abstraction allows humans to create concepts like “day,” “week,” and “year” to describe time ➔ A community agreeing that the concept “week” equates to seven consecutive 24-hour periods constitutes a belief Cooperation: ➔ The capacity to create a complex social life by establishing generally accepted ways of doing things (i.e., norms) and ideas about what is right and wrong (i.e., values) ➔ Cooperation leads communities to establish norms ◆ Norms: Generally accepted ways of doing things ◆ People are usually punished when they violate norms ◆ There are 4 sub-types of Norms (listed from least important to most important) Folkways: Norms that specify social preferences Mores: Norms that specify social requirements Laws: Norms that are codified and enforced by the state Taboos: Norms that specify social prohibitions ➔ Cooperation also leads communities to establish values ➔ Values: Ideas about what is right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable, beautiful and ugly ➔ What’s the difference between a norm and a value? ◆ Norms prescribe ◆ Values act as a criterion for evaluations Production: ➔ The human capacity to make or manufacture ➔ Humans produce 2 forms of culture: ◆ Non-material culture: Symbols, norms, and other intangible elements ◆ Material culture: Tools, technology, and techniques that improve human’s ability to take what we want from nature ➔ Production leads to social organization ➔ Social Organization: The orderly arrangement of social interaction ➔ Theoretical Perspectives on Culture ➔ How sociologists understand and analyze culture depends on what perspective they take Functionalist Perspective on Culture ➔ Elements of culture contribute to social order by helping to build social bonds and a sense of community and by guiding people to support collective goals Conflict Perspective on Culture ➔ Culture is a site of ongoing struggle between groups, with more powerful groups holding the upper hand ➔ Less powerful groups may engage in a Rights Revolution: The process by which socially excluded groups struggle to win equal rights under the law and in practice ➔ During Canada’s colonial era, Christians were one of the most powerful social groups ➔ As such, “Canadian culture” was heavily influenced by Christianity ➔ Christianity views gender as binary and condemns sex acts that are “non-procreative” ➔ As a result, members of the LGBTQ+ community were not accepted as “normal,” and being LGBTQ+ could even be considered illegal ➔ Sodomy Laws: Laws that define certain sex acts as crimes ➔ What constitutes “sodomy” was not always well- defined, but generally encompassed any sex acts that were non-procreative ➔ The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-1969 (Bill C- 150): Decriminalized sex between men over 21 in private spaces in Canada ➔ Prior to Bill C-150: LGBTQ+ Canadians had to socialize clandestinely and, reflecting the anti-sodomy laws of the time, law enforcement sought to regulate and punish this behavior ➔ After Bill C-150: LGBTQ+ Canadians became more visible in urban space, but police harassment continued despite the decriminalization of homosexuality ➔ Eventually, LGBTQ+ Canadians began a rights revolution Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on Culture ➔ People are the agents of culture, creatively shaping and interpreting it and, to some degree, choosing how culture influences them Feminist Perspective on Culture ➔ Gender inequalities emerge from culture systems and oppression structures Culture’s Two Faces ➔ Culture provides us with increasing opportunities to exercise our freedom ➔ Constrains us by putting limits on what we can think and do Culture as Freedom ➔ Culture provides us with increasing opportunities to exercise our freedom in numerous ways, including: ◆ Cultural Diversity & Multiculturalism: Canada is increasingly diverse Canadians are exposed to a wide range of cultural options Multiculturalism: A federal government policy that promotes and funds the maintenance of culturally diverse communities Multiculturalism contrasts with Assimilation: The process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into a society by taking on the traits of the dominant culture ◆ Rights Revolution: The process by which socially excluded groups struggle to win equal rights under the law and in practice Has allowed all categories of people to participate more fully than ever before in the life of their societies ◆ Globalization: The process by which formerly separate economies, states, and cultures become tied together and people become increasingly aware of their growing interdependence Canadians are exposed to a wide range of cultural options ◆ Postmodernism: A historical period characterized by an eclectic mix of cultural elements, the erosion of authority, and the decline of consensus around core values Postmodernism contrasts in key aspects from the previous historical period: Modernism Helps to strengthen the trend toward cultural diversification Culture’s Two Faces ➔ Culture:Provides us with increasing opportunities to exercise our freedom ➔ Constrains us by putting limits on what we can think and do ➔ Culture as Constraint ◆ Culture constrains us by putting limits on what we can think and do in numerous ways, including: Rationalization: The application of the most efficient means to achieve given goals and the unintended, negative consequences of doing so ○ Can apply to a variety of aspects of modern culture ○ Frequently applied to employment settings Consumerism: The tendency to define ourselves in terms of the goods we purchase ○ The normal human desire to “fit in” can encourage us to absorb dominant values, norms, and practices Cultural Capital: The beliefs, tastes, norms, and values that people draw on in their everyday life ○ Variation in cultural capital matters because privileged groups and organizations use their distinctive cultural capital to keep outsiders out ○ Those who want to be “let in” often feel the need to constrain their own cultural capital and mimic that of the groups and organizations they want to belong to Formation of the Self ➔ Nature: The part of human behavior that is biologically determined and instinctive ➔ Nurture: Behavior based on the people and environment you are raised in ➔ No scientific consensus regarding how much of who we are is based on nature versus how much is based on nurture ➔ Would be highly unethical to experiment ➔ Most conclusions based on natural experiments: Observational studies in which an event or a situation allows for the random assignment of study subjects to different groups ➔ Most scholars today would agree that humans are born with biological predispositions, but whether and how those predispositions manifest in real life is influenced by socialization ➔ Socialization: The process by which people learn to function in social life ➔ Through socialization, individuals develop a sense of Self: Your ideas and attitudes about who you are as an independent being ➔ Specifically, sense of self develops through social interaction ➔ 3 key scholars theorized about how “the self” develops: ◆ Sigmund Freud: First to provide a social- scientific explanation of how the self develops (i.e., the self emerges only as a result of social interaction) ◆ Charles Horton Cooley; Developed concept of “looking-glass self” to describe how our sense of self develops, in part, based on how we perceive that others are perceiving us ◆ George Herbert Mead: The self emerges out of social interaction with significant others, The self emerges through several stages of role- taking ◆ In sum: Developing our sense of self is a key outcome of socialization that emerges from social interactions How Socialization Works ➔ Socialization: The process by which people learn to function in social life ➔ Socialization is a continual, evolutionary process that occurs in three steps: ◆ 1. In any social environment, a person acts on the basis of their existing personal characteristics and interests Social Environment: Composed of others to whom individuals must adapt to satisfy their own needs and interests ◆ 2. The social environment responds to the person’s actions more or less cooperatively ◆ 3. The response from the social environment shapes the individual’s conduct by either reinforcing existing patterns (cooperation) or encouraging adaptation (resistance) Adaptation: The process of changing our actions to maximize the degree to which an environment satisfies our needs and interests Theories and Agents of Socialization ➔ How sociologists understand and analyze culture depends on what perspective they take ➔ Individuals are a part of multiple social environments ➔ Interactions that occur in social environments that are significant to individuals, contribute to an individuals’ socialization ➔ These social environments are known as “agents of socialization” ➔ Key agents of socialization include: ◆ Families: Families are usually the main agent of Primary Socialization: The process of acquiring the basic skills needed to function in society during childhood Nonetheless, the role of families in primary socialization has declined over time Secondary Socialization: Socialization that takes place outside the family after early childhood ◆ ◆ Schools: Schools instruct students in academic and vocational subjects Schools also instruct students in a hidden curriculum: Obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms Example: The hidden curriculum & socialization ◆ ◆ Peer Groups: People who are about the same age and of similar status Status: A recognized social position an individual can occupy The importance of peer groups to secondary socialization: ○ Has grown over time ○ Is particularly significant from middle childhood through adolescence ◆ Mass Media: Mass media represents the main means of mass communication, including broadcasting, publishing, and the internet The importance of mass media to secondary socialization has grown over time Particularly since the emergence of the Internet Although people are able to select socialization influences from the mass media, they tend to select influences that are more prevalent, fit current cultural standards, and are made especially appealing by those who control the mass media Theories and Agents of Socialization ➔ Today, people’s identities change faster, more often, and more completely than ever before due to factors like: ◆ Globalization ◆ Body modification ◆ Internet Week 5: Building blocks of interaction: ➔ Interaction starts with an individual ➔ Every individual has multiple statuses ➔ Status: A culturally defined position or social location ➔ Carmy’s statuses include: ◆ American (ascribed) ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ◆ Brother (ascribed) ◆ Restaurant owner (achieved) ◆ Head chef (achieved) There are two subtypes of statuses: Ascribed: A social position imposed on a person at birth, which is extremely difficult or impossible to change ◆ Achieved: A social position that a person acquired through his or her efforts and choices Interaction starts with an individual Every individual has multiple statuses ◆ “Head chef” is an abstract symbol used to describe someone who: Designs a menu Hires and fires cooks Delegates cooking tasks Orders ingredients and other supplies …among other things Role-playing: Conforming to existing performance expectations ◆ e.g., Carmy hires Sydney Sometimes individuals want to engage in role-playing, but face challenges in doing so: ◆ Role Strain: When a person holds a single status with incompatible role demands Sometimes individuals want to engage in role-playing, but face challenges in doing so: ◆ Role Conflict: When a person holds two or more statuses with different role demands ◆ If individuals cannot resolve role strain or role conflict, or if they do not want to engage in role-playing at all, they engage in: ◆ Role-making: Creative process by which individuals generate role expectations and performances Interaction starts with an individual Every individual has multiple statuses Status: A culturally defined position or social location Every status has associated roles Social Interaction: The process by which individuals act in relation to others Social interaction: ➔ Social Interaction: The process by which individuals act in relation to others ➔ Through social interaction: ◆ We learn (i.e., are socialized into) norms associated with different roles and statuses ◆ We reinforce or challenge the norms associated with different roles and statuses Presentation of self ➔ Social interaction also allows us to present our “sense of self” to others. ➔ Dramaturgical model of social interaction: Likens ordinary social interaction to a theatrical performance ◆ Actor: the individual ◆ Audience: the observers ◆ Actors use two modes of communication in person-to-person interactions: 1.The expression we give: The concretely intended and conscious form of expression, as showed by verbal communications using language 2.The expression we give off: The non-verbal, presumably unintentional, form of communication that is not concretely expressed in speech ○ May or may not align with the expression we give ○ These two modes of communication combine to create an actor’s performance Performance ➔ Performance: All the activity of an individual (the actor) in front of a particular set of observers (the audience) ➔ Performances may be sincere, cynical, or somewhere in between ➔ Performances occur on one of three stages: ◆ 1.Front Stage: The persona an individual shows to the world Typically adheres to status and role expectations Performance may be sincere, but may not be When not sincere, individual is engaging in Impression management: the process of managing one’s communication to create a particular image ◆ 2.Back Stage: The persona an individual shows whenever they are not performing Individuals feel comfortable and relaxed As a result, performance is sincere May or may not adhere to status and role expectations ◆ 3.Off-Stage: No audience Individuals can practice impression management Summary ➔ ​Social Interaction starts with an individual ➔ Every individual has multiple statuses ➔ Every status has associated roles ➔ Social Interaction: ◆ Socializes individuals into the norms associated with different roles and statuses ◆ Allows individuals to reinforce or challenge the norms associated with different roles and statuses ◆ Allows individuals to present their “sense of self” to others ◆ Thus, social interaction focuses on the interrelationship between agency and macrostructures, that unfolds at the scale of microstructures Social networks ➔ Social Network: A bounded set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material or emotional resources ➔ Formal or informal ➔ Face-to-face or virtual ➔ Social networks are comprised of “nodes” ◆ “Nodes” are any unit of analysis that you are interested in understanding the connections between ◆ Examples: individuals, groups, organization, countries ◆ Example: The node is corporations ◆ Corporations may be connected by having Interlocking Directorates: Individuals who sit on two or more corporate boards ➔ The simplest social network is a Dyad: A social relationship between two nodes ➔ The next simplest social network is a Triad: A social relationship between three nodes ➔ Most people interact repeatedly with a small circle of family members, friends, and co-workers ➔ Our world is small because we are interconnected through overlapping sets of social networks Social groups ➔ Social Group: One or more networks of people who identify with one another and adhere to defined norms, roles, and statuses ➔ Social groups are not Social Categories: People who share a similar status but do not identify with one another ➔ Social groups are separated by boundaries, which create in-group members and out-group members ➔ In-group members: people who belong to a group ➔ Out-group members: people who are excluded from an in-group ➔ Boundaries are typically created by in-group members to serve various purposes, including: ◆ Providing group members an advantage in competitions for scare resources ◆ To protect group members’ self-esteem ◆ To further the group’s goals ➔ Social groups can be put into two broad categories: ◆ 1.Primary groups ◆ 2.Secondary groups ➔ Social groups encourage conformity: behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards ➔ Conformity is both good and bad ◆ Bad: Can lead to groupthink: Group pressure to conform despite individual misgivings ◆ Bad: Can lead to bystander apathy: when people observe someone in an emergency but offer no help Bureaucracies ➔ Formal organizations: Secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives ➔ The most common and influential formal organizations are bureaucracies ➔ Bureaucracy: A large, impersonal organization comprising many clearly defined positions arranged in a hierarchy ➔ Bureaucracies have: ◆ A permanent, salaried staff of qualified experts ◆ Written goals, rules, and procedures ◆ The sociological study of bureaucracies began with Max Weber, who identified three types of authority ➔ Authority: A type of power granted by society and exercised over people ➔ Power: (recall) The ability of individuals in social relationships to impose their will on others regardless of resistance ➔ Bureaucracies are a type of rational-legal authority ➔ Bureaucracies are the most efficient type of secondary group ➔ Efficient: Achieving the bureaucracy’s goal at the least cost ➔ Nonetheless, bureaucracies become more inefficient as their size increases and social structure becomes more complex ➔ Common critiques of bureaucracies include: ◆ Dehumanization: When clients are treated as standard cases and personnel are treated as cogs in a giant machine ➔ Common critiques of bureaucracies include: ◆ Bureaucratic ritualism: Becoming so preoccupied with rules and regulations that it becomes difficult for the organization to fulfill its goals ◆ Bureaucratic Inertia: The tendency to continue policies even when clients’ needs change Societies: ➔ Networks, Groups, and Bureaucracies are all forms of social organization that are embedded within societies ➔ Societies: Collectives of interacting people who share a culture and, usually, a territory ➔ Societies: ◆ Shape human action ◆ Influence the kind of work we do ◆ Mold patterns of inequality ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ◆ Affect the way social institutions operate ◆ Affect the way we govern ◆ Affect the way we think of ourselves How societies are structured (and, therefore, how people’s choices are constrained) is defined by the relationship between humans and nature Over time, technological advances enable humans to more effectively dominate nature, leading to changes in societal structures In the early 1900s, scientists developed a “humanized” infant formula Reduced women’s comparative advantage in infant care Enabled more women to enter the labor force Reduced the gender wage gap Summary ➔ Networks, Groups, Bureaucracies, and Societies shape human action by, for example: ◆ Encouraging conformity ◆ Compelling people to act against their better judgment ◆ Dominating people in a vice of organizational rigidities ◆ Affecting the level of social inequality in society ◆ At the same time, humans still exercise their agency ◆ In doing so, people make and remake Networks, Groups, Bureaucracies, and Societies ◆ This relationship between agency and macrostructures plays out at the microstructural scale Week 8: The Body ➔ DNA alone cannot explain the wide range of variation in human bodies ➔ Social factors influence our bodily features The body: ➔ Our bodily features also have social consequences ➔ These consequences vary across cultures and historical periods ➔ Social factors influence our bodily features ➔ Body project: an enterprise that involves people shaping their body to express their identity and meet cultural or subcultural expectations of beauty and health The body: weight ➔ A majority of Canadians today are overweight ◆ Men 69.4% ◆ Women: 56.7 % ➔ Some social factors that affect Canadians’ weight include: ◆ Abundant food ◆ Inexpensive food ◆ Highly processed food ◆ Food that does not require much energy to secure ➔ In Canada, a slender body is perceived to be the ideal body shape ➔ Consequently, Canadians consistently rate overweight individuals as; ◆ Less attractive ◆ Less hard-working ◆ Less disciplined ◆ And more… ➔ A slender body is being perceived as the ideal body shape was not always true historically ➔ Even today, a slender body being perceived as the ideal type is not uniform across cultures The body: body projects ➔ Body projects involve four types of activities 1. Camouflaging: involves temporary and non-invasive attempts to hide or mask aspects of the body seen as undesirable 2. Extending: involves overcoming a natural limitation of the body through a technological device 3. Adapting: the effort to maintain the physical appearance of the body by reducing or eliminating parts of the body that elicit unfavorable responses from other 4. Redesigning: Permanently reconstructing the body, usually for purposes of self-expression and aesthetics The Body: Summary ➔ Social factors influence our bodily features ➔ Our bodily features also have social consequences ➔ These consequences vary across cultures and historical periods ➔ In an effort to manage the social consequences associated with bodily features, individuals may undertake body projects Health ➔ Health: A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being ➔ Related to the functioning of the body ➔ Mental health: a state of “well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” ➔ Related to individuals’ social connections ➔ Epidemiology: the study of the distribution and determinants of health and illness ➔ Social epidemiology: a branch of epidemiology that focuses on the effects that the social determinants of health have on health and health disparities Health Disparities: ➔ Health Disparities: the differences in health status across groups ➔ Social determinants of health: the larger social factors that shapes the kind of lives we lead and the health of those lives Health Disparities: Class ➔ Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: The existence of a positive correlation between socio-economic position and health Health Disparities: Education ➔ Higher educational attainment is associated with better health for three reasons: 1. Education is related social class and income 2. Education improves our ability to understand health information 3. Education increases feelings of self-efficacy Health disparities: Gender ➔ Gender health disparities do exist and are well-documented ➔ Considering a gender binary there is no “healthier” gender ➔ Transgender Canadians generally experience worse health outcomes than cisgender canadians Health and Health Disparities: Summary ➔ Health encompasses more than the absence of physical illness ➔ Sociologists are interested in how health disparities emerge from differential exposures to the social determinants of health ➔ Health varies across socio-demographic groups Disability ➔ Medical Model: A framework for presenting and interpreting disability that is determined and directed by medical practitioners ➔ Disability: A physical or mental characteristic that keeps some people from performing within the range of normal human activity ➔ Social constructionist model: a framework used by sociologist to distinguish between natural impairment disability ◆ Disability: barriers set up by society in dealing with a natural impairment, which restrict the opportunity of some people to participate in social life on a level equal with other ◆ The Social Constructionist Model also acknowledges that what is considered a “disability” is socially constructed ◆ This makes disability a status. ◆ Since disability is a socially constructed status, what is considered a “disability” varies across cultures and across historical periods Disability: Medical Model ➔ Louisa was in a car accident that caused paralysis in her legs. ➔ Paralysis is a disability. ➔ Louisa is undergoing physical therapy and may get surgery. ➔ In the meantime, her wheelchair helps her integrate into society Disability and health disparities: ➔ Despite being perceived as having a health condition that require medical intervention, people with disabilities face four key when accessing health care: 1. Physical barriers: difficulty in physically accessing hospitals and doctors’ offices 2. Attitudinal barriers: prejudicial attitudes that many health care providers have toward those with disabilities 3. Expertise barriers: many health care providers are not trained to deal with the specific challenges faced by patients with disabilities 4. Systemic barriers: related to how the healthcare system defines disability and allocates resources to help people with disabilities ➔ Sociologists are interested in the inequalities that people with disabilities face under the medical model of disability ➔ Sociologists also offer their own model of disability Disability: Social Constructionist model ➔ Cultures differ in three main ways regarding how they view disability: 1. Causality 2. Valued and devalued attributes 3. Anticipated adult status Disability: Summary ➔ Regarding disability, some topics that sociologists study include: ➔ Unequal access to the health care system among people with natural impairments ➔ Social barriers faced by people with natural impairments ➔ The social construction of disability Medicine ➔ Biomedicine: The application of Western scientific principles in the diagnosis and treatment of illness ➔ Uses physical tests to find physical entities ➔ Uses physical medicines and therapies to counteract physical entities ➔ Biomedicine is the norm in Canada ➔ Recently, various criticisms of biomedicine have emerged in Canada ➔ Criticism #1: Biomedicine is reductionist. ➔ Reductionist: An unrealistic statement or theory that attempts to explain a set of phenomena by referring to a single cause ➔ Criticism #2: Biomedicine is absolutist. Absolutist: Holding the view that certain things are always right, good, moral, modern, or beautiful. ➔ More specifically, biomedicine does not recognize that different cultures have different ways of practicing medicine ➔ Criticism #3: Biomedicine is partially to blame for medicalization.* ➔ Medicalization: The process by which certain behaviors or conditions are defined as medical problems and medical intervention becomes the focus of remedy and social control ◆ Also blamed on Big Pharma ➔ Select critiques of medicalization: ➔ It situates medical problems within individual human bodies without acknowledging socio cultural or political factors ➔ Select critiques of medicalization: ◆ It turns natural processes into medically supervised procedures ◆ It identifies normal conditions as diseases that can be treated with drugs or procedures ◆ At its extreme, it can lead to iatrogenesis: health problems that are caused by health professionals. ◆ Types of iatrogenesis include: Clinical iatrogenesis: When diagnosis and cure cause problems that are as bad or worse than the health problems they are meant to resolve Social iatrogenesis: When political conditions that “render society unhealthy” are hidden or obscured Cultural iatrogenesis: When the knowledge and abilities of health professionals have become so mythologized that individuals lose the capacity to heal themselves ➔ These critiques of biomedicine have fostered an increasing openness to alternative medicine ➔ Alternative medicine: Approaches to treatment that fall outside of conventional biomedical practices Biomedicine is the norm in Canada ➔ But it is not without critique ➔ And these critiques have led to a growing openness to alternative medicine Health Care System ➔ Health care systems: The organizations of people, resources, and institutions that provide and deliver health care to a population ➔ Health care systems differ in the extent to which they are funded and controlled by governments Canadian Health Care System: History ➔ Until the 1950s Canadians were responsible for paying for their own health care ➔ Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act of 1957 ➔ Medically necessary care and services in hospital settings funded by federal and provincial governments ➔ Medical Care Act of 1966 ◆ Medical services provided by a doctor outside of hospitals covered by the government at 50% ➔ Canada Health Act of 1984 ◆ Replaced and consolidated the prior acts Canadian Health Care System: Today ➔ The Canadian health care system is a socialized insurance, single-payer system ➔ Doctors are private practitioners ➔ The government pays doctors and hospitals for the services they provide on a fee-per-service basis ➔ The government alone pays for healthcare Canadian Health Care System: Critiques ➔ Critique #1: Universal, but not comprehensive Does not cover: ➔ Prescription drugs ➔ Eye care ➔ Dental care ➔ Ambulance transport Canadian Health Care System: Critiques ➔ Critique #1: Universal, but not comprehensive ◆ For medical needs not covered, Canadians must either: ◆ Pay entirely out of pocket (40% of Canadians) OR ◆ Obtain private insurance, often at a cost, which typically covers only a percentage of costs (60% of Canadians) ➔ Critique #2: Long wait times ◆ Canadians have relatively good access to care for urgent problems and emergent problems ◆ Canadians experience long (and increasingly long) wait times for less urgent problems, including: ◆ Mild to moderate illness, chronic illness Health Care Policy ➔ Beyond paying for health care, the government plays a role in setting health policies ➔ Health policies: Decisions and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals Recent Shifts in Health Policy ➔ Medical marijuana became legal in 1999 ➔ Laws and regulations regarding medical marijuana have continued to develop ➔ 2015: Supreme Court ruled that parts of the Criminal Code that prohibited medical assistance in dying were invalid ➔ 2016: Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-14, which allows eligible Canadians to request medical assistance in dying Health Policy Needs? ➔ The opioid crisis ➔ 40,642 deaths (2016-2023) In 2023: 22 deaths/day ➔ Leading cause of death among Canadians aged 30-39 ➔ Worsened by pandemic Health Care System: Summary ➔ Since 1984, Canada has had a socialized insurance, single payer health care system ➔ Like every health care system, Canada’s system has areas for improvement ➔ However, there is a lack of agreement regarding proposed solutions ➔ In addition to paying for health care, the Canadian government plays a role in setting health policies Week 10: Demography The Life Course ➔ The life course perspective: ◆ Is an interdisciplinary theory ◆ Seeks to understand the multiple factors that shape people’s lives from birth to death ◆ Places individual and family development in cultural and historical contexts ◆ The life course: a sequence of socially defined statuses and roles that the individual enacts over time ◆ (Recall) Status: A culturally defined position or social location ◆ (Recall) Roles: Clusters of expectations about thoughts, feelings, and actions appropriate for occupants of a particular status ➔ The life course is based on five key principles: 1. Life-span development: Humans develop in biologically, socially, and psychologically meaningful ways, and this development extends beyond childhood 2. Timing: The developmental impact of a succession of life transitions or events is contingent on when they occur in a person’s life 3. Time and Place: The life course of individuals is embedded in and shaped by the historical times and places they experience over their lifetime a. Cohort: Group of persons who were born during the same time period and who experience particular social changes within a given culture in the same sequence and at the same age 4. Linked lives: Lives are lived interdependently, and social and historical influences are expressed through this network of shared relationships 5. Human agency: Individuals construct their own life course through the choices and actions they take within the opportunities and constraints of history and social circumstances ➔ Within these principles are three key concepts 1. Trajectory: Long-term pattern of stability and change, which usually involves multiple transitions 2. Transitions: Change in roles and statuses that represents a distinct departure from prior roles and statuses 3. Turning points: Abrupt and substantial change from one state to another Demography: ➔ Demography: The statistical study of changes in the size, structure, and movements of human populations over space and time ➔ The size and structure of human populations depends primarily on births (fertility), deaths (mortality), and migration Fertility ➔ Crude birth rate: The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people Mortality ➔ Crude Death Rate: The total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people Demographic Transition ➔ Demographic transition: A multi-stage process of change in a society’s population over time ➔ Natural Increase Rate: The percentage by which a population grows in a year ➔ Calculated as the (Crude Birth Rate / Crude Death Rate)*100 Demographic Transition ➔ Consequences of Population Decline: Changes to the population structure ◆ Consequences of Population Decline: ◆ Growth in the dependency ratio: The number of people who are too young or too old to work, compared to the number of people in their productive years ◆ More economic pressure on the workforce Difficulty funding social welfare programs ◆ Consequence of Population Decline: Crisis in end-of-life care Decline in military strength Decline in innovation Deflation / Possible recession Strain on mental health ➔ Strategies for reversing population decline: ◆ Increase fertility ◆ Increase immigration ◆ Total fertility rate: The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years In order to maintain its population, a country requires a minimum fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman, known as replacement fertility Sample strategies intended to increase fertility: Spain: Parents of each newborn or adopted child get a bonus of 2,500 Euros Estonia: Parent compensated for income lost by staying at home with children Japan: Introduction of parental leave and childcare services Migration: ➔ Immigration: Migration to a location ➔ Emigration: Migration from a location ➔ Net Migration: Immigration minus Emigration Types of Migration: International Immigration ➔ The three largest flows of immigrants are: ➔ Latin America→North America ➔ Asia → Europe ➔ Asia→North America Internal Migration in Canada: Interregional ➔ General trends post-colonization: ➔ Coastal regions to interior regions ➔ Southern regions to northern regions Internal Migration in Canada: Interregional ➔ Prior to COVID: ◆ Atlantic and Prairie* regions losing population (*minus Alberta) ◆ Central and Pacific regions gaining population ➔ Post-COVID: ◆ Atlantic and Pacific regions gaining population Migration Causes ➔ Push Factor: Features of a place that induce people to move out ➔ Pull Factor: Features of a place that induce people to move in Why do people migrate? ➔ Economic reasons (most common) ➔ Political reasons ➔ Environmental reasons Urbanization: ➔ Urbanization: The formation and growth of cities The First Urban Revolution ➔ Urban population size limited to what agriculture can support ➔ Over time, more farms and more efficient farms emerge ➔ Increased efficiency a function of growing division of labor… ➔ Leads to growing food surplus... ➔ Leads to more advanced division of labor... ◆ These early cities declined due to factors like: Population decline (disease, war) Population divisions Natural disaster The Second Urban Revolution ➔ Cities began to reemerge globally at different times, for different reasons ➔ Next, we’ll explore the second urban revolution in Canada Urbanization in Canada Pre-Industrial Era (~1500 – 1850s) ➔ Urbanization driven primarily by colonization ➔ Colonization: The role played by powerful nation-states in settling among and establishing control over the indigenous peoples of an area ➔ Colonization was driven primarily by demand for staple products in colonizing countries ➔ Staples: Resource-based products that are either important for living or necessary for industry ➔ Demand for staple products in colonizing countries had two key sources: ◆ Newly urbanized populations in colonizing countries. ◆ Mercantilism: Belief that there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world and, therefore, a nation’s wealth is dependent upon exporting more than it imports ➔ Efficiently extracting wealth (i.e., staple products) from colonies required the development of permanent settlements capable of managing the entire process Urbanization in Canada Pre-Industrial Era: Mercantile Period ➔ Cities are Administrative Centers ➔ Founded, structured, and settled by representatives from the colonizing government, its financial institutions, and its merchants, for one/both: ➔ To serve as economic intermediary centers between the colonizing country and the colony ➔ As strategic military locations to protect economic interests and investments of colonizing country Urbanization in Canada Pre-Industrial Era: Commercial Period ➔ Cities are Regional Centres of Commerce and Administration ➔ Key Transition: Focus on overseas interests→Focus on internal markets Urbanization in Canada Industrial Era (~1850s – 1970s) ➔ Urbanization driven primarily by industrialization ➔ Industrialization: The process of transforming the economy of a nation or region from a focus on agriculture to a reliance on manufacturing ➔ If urbanization during this era was caused by industrialization, it was accelerated by population growth due to: ◆ Demographic transition ◆ Rural to urban migration ◆ International immigration ➔ If urbanization during this era was caused by industrialization, it was accelerated by population growth due to: ◆ Demographic transition ◆ Rural to urban migration ◆ International immigration Key Pull Factor: Employment opportunities in cities ➔ Population growth was (a) massive and (b) rapid ➔ Shock Cities: Cities that embodied the surprising, impressive, and disturbing changes in social, economic, and cultural life ◆ Toronto: 1834 – 9,254 people 1861 – ~40,000 people 1891 – ~180,000 people ◆ Cities are Production Centres ◆ Key Transition: Agriculture and handcrafts→mass production in factories ◆ First, for local and regional markets; later, for national and international markets Urbanization in Canada Post-Industrial Era (~1970s – Present) ➔ Urban restructuring driven primarily by globalization which, in Canada, is associated with deindustrialization ➔ Urban Restructuring: Long-term, major changes in the underlying economy of city-regions ➔ Driven primarily by Globalization: A term denoting the decline of regional and national economic networks in the context of worldwide patterns of trade in goods and services ➔ Globalization embodies a shift from horizontal integration to vertical disintegration ➔ Horizontal Integration: Most aspects of manufacturing production occur in the same general location and adjacent to the primary market for that product ➔ Vertical Disintegration: When different aspects of manufacturing production occur in diverse locations and often at considerable distance from the primary markets for production ➔ Cities once characterized by industrial production have undergone deindustrialization ◆ Deindustrialization: The shift in cities that formerly had a strong economic base in mechanized production to an economy based more on service industries ◆ Simultaneously, formerly agrarian countries have begun to urbanize due to industrialization Cities are Service Centres Key transition: industrial production→service industries Week 11: Institutions DAY 1 Families: ➔ Families are comprised of a constellation of statuses and roles ➔ (Recall) Status: A culturally defined position or social location ➔ (Recall) Roles: Clusters of expectations about thoughts, feelings, and actions appropriate for occupants of a particular status ➔ Nuclear family: Two married, opposite-sex parents and their biological children who share the same residence ◆ Husband works outside the home for money ◆ Wife works without pay in the home ◆ There is no single, agreed upon definition of “family” ➔ How “family” is defined varies across: ◆ Time ◆ Culture ➔ Families are comprised of a constellation of statuses and roles Changing Canadian Families ➔ When Canada was a foraging society: ➔ Families composed of two or three nuclear families Authority evenly distributed between men and women ➔ When Canada was a horticultural society and a pastoral society: ◆ Families composed of two or three nuclear families Men have greater authority than women ◆ Patriarchal families: Fathers are the major authority figure in the family ◆ When Canada was an industrial society: Affluent families composed of two or three nuclear families Less affluent families composed of nuclear families with many children Increasingly patriarchal ➔ From ~1929 through ~1945: ◆ A decline in nuclear family formation ➔ From ~1950 through ~1965: ◆ A peak in nuclear family formation ◆ Increasingly patriarchal Increased diversity in family formation ➔ Most Canadians will marry at least once in their lifetime ➔ Similarities between marriage and cohabitation: ◆ Common residence ◆ Regular sexual relations ➔ Differences between marriage and cohabitation: ➔ Marriage is a contract realized through ritual and legal authority ➔ Marriages have more clearly defined roles and expectations ➔ Penalties for ending a marriage are greater than those for ending cohabiting relationships ➔ Should a relationship end, rights to property are more clearly specified in a marriage ➔ Increased acceptance and rate of same-sex partnerships ➔ Rates of divorce increased, then decreased ➔ Increase in lone-parent and step-parent families ➔ Increase in zero-child families ➔ In nuclear families, persistence of gender inequality ➔ The gender gap in domestic chores is smaller in nuclear families: ◆ Where the gap between the husband’s and the wife’s earnings is relatively small ◆ Where the husband and wife hold egalitarian attitudes Changing Canadian Families ➔ Do sociologists view these changes to Canadian families as good or bad? ➔ It depends on which theoretical lens is being used ➔ Functionalist: Family Decline Perspective ➔ Nuclear families perform important functions that allow society to survive ➔ The decline in nuclear families has led to the emergence of a multitude of social problems ➔ Conflict & Feminist: Family Pluralism Perspective ➔ Nuclear families are characterized by male economic and sexual domination stemming from capitalism and patriarchal culture ➔ The decline in nuclear families can increase egalitarianism Religion Around the World ➔ There are over 4,000 religions, faith groups, and denominations that exist around the world ➔ A majority of religious adherents follow one of the five major religions: ◆ Buddhism ➔ Christianity ➔ Hinduism ➔ Islam ➔ Judaism Religion in Canada ➔ Christianity ◆ European colonizers overwhelmingly Christian ◆ England: Protestant ◆ France: Roman Catholic ◆ Christians a majority of immigrants until the 1970s ➔ Judaism ◆ Jews first settled in Canada in the 1700s ◆ Granted full religious freedom and political emancipation in 1831 ➔ Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists ◆ Began arriving in Canada in significant numbers during the 1900s ◆ A majority of Canadian immigrants today Social Cohesion, Social Conflict, & Social Change ➔ Functionalism: Religion creates and maintains social cohesion ➔ Conflict and Feminist Theory: Religion causes social conflict and inequality ➔ Symbolic Interactionism: Religion contributes to social change ➔ Collective conscience: the shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society ➔ Collective conscience enables us to distinguish the sacred from the profane ➔ Sacred: the religious, transcendent world Profane: the secular, everyday world ➔ Totems: objects that symbolize the sacred ➔ Rituals: public practices designed to connect people to the sacred ➔ When religion does increase social cohesion, it often reinforces social inequality ➔ Major world religions have traditionally reinforced patriarchy by placing women in subordinate positions ➔ When religion does increase social cohesion, it often reinforces social inequality ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ Major world religions have traditionally supported class inequality Religion often provokes social conflict Religion contributes to social change Functionalism: Religion creates and maintains social cohesion Conflict and Feminist Theory: Religion causes social conflict and inequality Symbolic Interactionism: Religion contributes to social change The Decline of Religion ➔ Secularization thesis: religious institutions, actions, and consciousness are on the decline worldwide and will one day likely disappear altogether ➔ By the 1990s, became clear that this too strong of a statement ➔ Revised secularization thesis: the importance of religion is diminishing in some parts of the world while remaining stable or declining in other parts ➔ The Market Theory is one proposed explanation for why secularization did not take the predicted course ➔ Religious organizations are suppliers of services ➔ Services are demanded by people who desire religious activities ➔ To meet this demand, religious organizations compete with each other ➔ The Market Theory operating results in religious pluralism ◆ Religious pluralism: the diverse array of religions and religious beliefs in a given area Week 12 Institutions (day 2) EDUCATION Mass Schooling For most of history, families were primarily responsible for education Mass schooling emerged in Canada around 1900 Four factors contributed to the emergence of mass schooling in the West: 1. The printing press 2. Protestantism 3. Democracy 4. Industrialization Canada is on of the most highly educated countries in the world 93% High School Diploma 63% Postsecondary Degree or Diploma Indigenous Canadians and Education: - Residential boarding schools were established to “take the indian out of the child” - Residential boarding schools have multi-generation consequences Schools have two main functions: 1. Homogenize students into a common cultural system (functionalism) 2. Sort students into different social classes (conflict theory, feminist theory, symbolic interactionism) The Functions of Schools: Cultural Homogenization Manifest functions: obvious and intended effects of social structures Latent functions: nonobvious and unintended effects of social structures The Function of Schools: Differentiation Access to education is unequally distributed The rewards to education are unequally distributed Result: the reproduction of the existing stratification system Three social mechanisms to reproduce inequality: 1. Testing and tracking 2. Hidden curriculum: in school, teaches obedience and conformity to cultural norms 3. Self-fulfilling prophecies: expectations that help bring about what they predict Mass and Social Media Mass Communications: - For most part of history, communication was slow and expensive Mass communications emerged recently Mass media (circa 1800s): print, radio, television, and other communication technologies Social media (circa 1990s): apps and websites that allow people to interact and create and share content via cellphone networks and the internet - Mass communications evolved and continue to evolve quickly Four factors contributed to the emergence of mass communications: 1. The printing press 2. Protestantism 3. Democracy 4. Industrialization Functionalist TheoryThe media performs four functions that contribute to social stability: 1. Coordination 2. Socialization 3. Social control 4. Entertainment Conflict Theory The media fosters social inequality in two main ways: 1. Ownership of the media is highly concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies and is highly profitable for them ◦Media concentration has increased over time ◦Media concentration has shifted from horizontal integration to vertical integration 2. By broadcasting beliefs, values, and ideas that create widespread acceptance of the basic structure of society, including its injustices and inequalities Symbolic Interactionism The media is not just produced, it is also consumed Media producers develop intended meanings Received meanings may or may not align with intended meanings Feminist TheoryThe media fosters gender inequality by: Portraying women in subordinate roles Excluding issues of importance for women The media has the capacity to challenge gender inequality Poststructuralism Poststructuralism is a school of thought within the conflict theory perspective Social structures and cultures are increasingly fluid and multiplicative -The media, and especially social media, plays a major role in creating multiple realities Theories of Media Effects Functionalism: The media performs functions that contribute to social stability Conflict Theory: The media fosters social inequality Symbolic Interactionism: The media is not just produced, it is also consumed Feminist Theory: The media fosters gender inequality, but it also has the capacity to challenge it Poststructuralism: The media creates multiple realities Week 13: Social Change Collective Action Collective action: when people act in unison to bring about or resist social, political, and economic change There are two types of collective action: 1. Routine collective action: collective action that follows a well-established pattern of behavior and is nonviolent 2. Non-routine collective action: collective action that ignores convention and may be violent Routine & Non-routine Collective Action Sometimes routine collective action turns into nonroutine collective action Example: G20 Summit in Toronto (2010) Sometimes routine collective action becomes a social movement Social movement: institutionalized or bureaucratized forms of collective action aimed at changing or resisting change to the social, political, and/or economic order Until the 1970s, Functionalism was the dominant theoretical approach to collective action - Functionalism: how society remains stable Breakdown theory: collective action emerges when traditional norms and patterns of social organization are disrupted by at least one of the following conditions: 1. Social marginality 2. Strain due to cultural differences and/or relative deprivation 3. Crowd behavior due to anonymity, contagion, and suggestibility Collective Action: - Breakdown theory is a small part of the answer behind collective action Collective action is partly a reaction to the violation of norms that threatened to disorganized traditional social life Collective action is also a response to the organization of social life II. Social Movements - Solidarity theory: collective action emerges as a result of: 1. Resource mobilization (Increases subordinate group power) 2. Political opportunities ( Shifting power dynamics) 3. Social control (Exercise of power by dominant group) “The research does not show that there is any unitary strategy that makes movements work” Nonetheless, some high-level thoughts regarding how to be successful: Effectively react to pushback Be simultaneously bold and pragmatic Make participation of ordinary people: Possible, Probable, and Powerful (3 Ps) Be organized Develop a quick reaction time Build interconnected relationships with people in your base