Test 3 - Sociol*1Z03 PDF

TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 1 Chapter 10: Race and Racialization 10.1 What Is a Minority? → Minority: definable category of people who are socially disadvantaged - Two components:...

TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 1 Chapter 10: Race and Racialization 10.1 What Is a Minority? → Minority: definable category of people who are socially disadvantaged - Two components: - Lacks social power - Distinct from the majority - Experience both prejudice and discrimination because of their lack of power → Majority: definable category of people who are socially advantaged - The defining feature of the majority is that it uses its dominance to control the social system—for Canada the dominant group is generally white heterosexual males - Group with the most power, greatest privilege and highest social status - Lack of power makes a minority, for example, the South African system of apartheid (“apartness”) - Smaller white population dominated a larger black population, legally lasted from 1948 to the early 1990s → Stigma: an attribute that assigns negative characteristics that do not exist to a person or group; in other words, stigmatization is based on perceived attributes - To be stigmatized is to be socially excluded and diminished because of one’s minority status—for this reason minorities develop a strong sense of ingroup solidarity - Minorities in the New World 1. Experience unequal treatment 2. Share physical or cultural characteristics that are distinct from the dominant group 3. Not voluntary, people are born into it 4. Strong sense of group solidarity and cohesion 5. Tend to marry within the group 10. 2 Race: The Social Construction of Difference → Race: a group of people who were physically and genetically distinguished from other groups, for example, differences attributed to skin colour, hair texture, and facial features - A social construction: historical legacy of colonialism and ethnocentrism - “Myth of race”: historically, race was a group of people with genetic differences that determined significant behavioural or substantive biological differences - Residential schools are an example of research looking for racial differences - W. E. B. Du Bois: one of the first to systematically review natural and social scientific research and conclude that the concept of race was not scientific - Race is real as a social category, affecting the lives of all people - Minority groups are perceived as different and treated differently from the majority group, causing them to feel different or adhere to the attributes others credit them with—a self fulfilling prophecy - Seeing minorities as failures: the view that they are naturally inferior to the dominant group. This has led to profound social and economic implications for minorities such as TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 2 their labour being easily exploited, because the marginalized groups are viewed as inferior → Eurocentrism: views europeans as being better, smarter, and naturally superior to everyone else in the world → Racialization: describes the process of attributing complex characteristics (e.g. athletic abilities, intelligence) to racial categories - For example, racialization occurs when people infer that black athletes are better than white ones, and that white coaches are better than black ones → Internalized racism: when members of a racial group internalize attributes associated with that racial classification as a part of their identities - This can result in identity confusion, where individuals want to belong but also want to embrace their differences from the majority → Ethnicity: a multidimensional concept that includes one’s minority or majority status, ancestry, language, and often religious affiliation → Ethnic group: a collection of people who identify with each other and share a common culture, art forms, language, music, traditions, and beliefs - The Social Construction of Difference: - While race is biologically meaningless, this does not mean it is unimportant. Race remains a crucial area of study for sociologists because it is real as a society category and affects the lives of all people, whether through the invisible privileges that whiteness carries or the blatant or subtle discrimination that minorities face regularly, → How does race differ from ethnicity? 10.3 Prejudice, Racism, and Discrimination → Prejudice: a prejudgment—a negative assessment about what a person or group is like, before you actually meet them → Ecological fallacy: attributing generalized characteristics to individuals/an entire group (e.g, suggesting all Chinese students are good at math) → Exception fallacy: drawing conclusions about an entire group based on observations from individuals → Stereotypes: stable and sweeping generalizations about a category of people - Some may be accurate to a few members of the group, but it is inaccurate to assume all members of the group adhere to that generalization → Racism: an ideology that maintains that one race is inherently superior to another - Sensoy and DiAngelo observe: racism is not only racial prejudice, but is racial prejudice backed by institutional power. There is no such thing as reverse racism. White power and privilege remain deeply rooted and intact. → Democratic racism: a system that advocates equality but in fact keeps minority differentiation and oppression alive - This system minimizes peoples experiences of racism and avoids engaging in self-reflection and understanding oppression; without real change, dominant groups will simply continue to maintain their positions of privilege TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 3 → Discrimination: occurs when a person or group either denies or grants advantages to members of a particular group → Individual discrimination: individuals advantage or disadvantage other people because of their group membership → Direct institutional discrimination: occurs when an institution employs policies or practices that are discriminatory against a person, to which they deny that person or group a right or a freedom (like residential schools in Canada) → Indirect institutional discrimination: occurs when an action results in individuals being treated differently based on unlawful criteria (physical disability, cultural origin, age, gender, religion) - Explaining prejudice and discrimination - Psychological theories - Scapegoat theory: asserts that prejudice and discrimination grow out of the frustrations of people who want to blame someone else for their problems - Originated with the work of John Dollard—suggested that people displace their frustrations about virtually anything onto other identifiable people whom they can target as being responsible for their problems - Authoritarian personality theory: asserts that extreme prejudice is a personality trait linked to people who believe strongly in following cultural norms, traditions, and values - Frankfurt School: a group of German social philosophers used critical social theory to explore the role of culture and mass communication in the social reproduction of domination and oppression—a clear attempt at understanding the Nazi atrocities against Jews during World War II - Sociocultural Theories - Culture theory: suggests that some prejudice is found in people all over the world; it is a part of culture - Social distance: created by Emory Bogardus, a concept of the relative distance people feel between themselves and other racial/ethnic groups - Culture of prejudice: describes a societal condition where stereotypes, discrimination, and biases against certain races or ethnicities are normalized and perpetuated through various social institutions and cultural norms - Functionalist theory: how might prejudice and discrimination benefit society? - Racist ideologies and the prejudice and discrimination that they create often promote social stability. Racist ideologies allow the dominant groups to benefit from a system that they control while the minority groups face restricted opportunities - Contemporary functionalists recognize that discrimination prevents a society from maximizing the benefits of diversity and the abilities of all its citizens TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 4 - Conflict theory: assumes that social classes compete for limited resources and that prejudice and discrimination are logical outcomes of that competition - Dual labour market theory: argues that modern societies have two distinct types of labour markets - Primary labour market: includes secure positions that pay people a healthy salary, offer attractive fringe benefits, and have the potential for upward mobility within an organization - Secondary labour market: includes jobs that offer none of these advantages; they are often insecure and temporary, pay workers hourly ages, provide only legally required benefits, and rarely offer any training to advance a worker’s position - Marxist exploitation theory: views the powerful economic elite, rather than the entire dominant group, as benefiting the most from discrimination - Maintains the idea that the ruling class deliberately promotes prejudice and discrimination in order to divide workers so that they cannot present the rich with a united front of opposition - So then, minority groups are taught to view each other as the enemy which results in workers unlikely to join together to demain fair treatment - Critical race theory: investigates the intersections of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality to explain prejudice and discrimination - Symbolic interactionist theory: belief that a person's attitudes and perceptions about minority groups are not natural, but rather, are learned as a required component of culture or an expression of class conflict - Selective perception: a process where people see things that reinforce their preconceived perceptions - This theory stresses the effects of living as a minority, and how minorities develop strategies to protect their self-image - Contact hypothesis: the more contact a person has with someone, the less likely they are to be prejudiced against them - There are three conditions to be met for this to occur 1. Must be of equal status 2. Must have sustained and regular contact 3. Social norms favoring equality must be agreed by both parties - Multiracial feminist theory: incorporates multiple understandings of what it means to be a woman or a man in today’s society. Examining the historical, cultural, racial, and economic differences among racial groups and offers a new perspective of women of colour who may feel alienated from traditional white feminism - Post-colonial theory: examines the ways in which the colonial past has shaped the social, political, and economic experiences of a colonized country. TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 5 - Analyzes both past and present to help understand effects of the historical legacy of the colonial experience, as well as its impact on social institutions and structures—and the formation of people’s identities - The long-term effects of imperialism and dependence on the colonial empire often translate into feelings of exclusion and at times result in people rejecting the ideas and attitudes of the dominant culture—for example, challenging perceptions of race and ethnicity and promoting a desire for autonomy and independence 10.4 The Five Categories of Minority Relations - Defining how dominant groups interact with minority groups, from most exclusionary to the most inclusive: 1. Genocide: intentional extermination of all members of a minority group (most likely to occur because the dominant group is much larger than the minority, the minority is of little to no economic value to the dominant group, and the dominant group needs a scapegoat to blame for economic or military setbacks) 2. Expulsion or Population Transfer: dominant forces a minority to leave the country or confines them to particular location 3. Segregation and Separatism: → Segregation: the formal physical or social separation of dominant and minority groups, often allows the dominant group to benefit from the exploited labour of minority groups while maintaining its superior social position → Separatism: also called ethnic nationalism, occurs when minority groups believe that the dominant group will never allow them to assimilate or to exist within a truly pluralistic society, so they seek to separate themselves from the dominant group 4. Assimilation: a one-way process that occurs when a minority group sheds its differences and assumes the traits of the dominant group (they have fully adhered to the dominant groups values, morals, culture, social norms, etc.) A+B+C=A - Amalgamation: blending or merging of different groups or cultures to form a unified whole, but unlike assimilation, this process suggests a more equal mixing where elements from different cultures combine to create something new. A+B=C (where C is a distinct group) 5. Cultural Pluralism or Multiculturalism: when minority groups retain their cultural identities and the larger society promotes cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity - In 1985, Canada’s Multiculturalism Act confirmed the federal government's intention of preserving and enhancing the spectrum of human diversity in Canada—by doing so Canada affirmed the value and dignity of all canadian citizens regardless of their racial or ethnic origins, language, and religious affiliation - Emerged from the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in 1962 - A+B+C = A+B+C TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 6 10.5 The Changing Demographic Picture of Immigration - Many minority groups gain their inferior social status due to migrating to other countries, others such as Indigenous Peoples became minorities when more dominant outsiders came to their land and settled. - Immigration levels are the result of many forces - Displacement of people caused by war and political upheaval - Economic growth or collapse - Changes in immigration policies and procedures - And changes in global communication and transport networks - Immigration levels rose during the mid-1980s to 1990s and have seen a generally rising trend from the late 1990s - Since immigration promotes diversity and population growth, federal policy encourages immigration to canada as it is in the best long-term interests of the country - Immigrants tend to settle in the most populous provinces like Ontario, Quebec, and BC. 63% of immigrants choose to live in Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver. - Permanent residents tend to be attracted to urban centres that offer better employment potential, however, statistics canada suggests when immigrants stay in more rural areas they tend to achieve economic integration faster than those who do the opposite. - Dominant changes to the immigration policy in canada: - 1962: abolition of the “white canada” immigration policy, ending race-based selection - 1967: introduction to the points system, assessing immigrants based on criteria such as education, occupational skills, and proficiency in official languages, making a shift towards skills-based selection - 1986: addition of the investor category, allowing entry to those investing significant capital, reflecting an emphasis on economic contributions - Shift in source countries of immigrants to canada: - 1920s - 1940s: predominantly from the british isles and northwestern europe, comprising 72% of immigrants - 1945 - 1966: shift towards southeastern europe, with about 30% of immigrants from this region - Mid - 1960s to present: significant increase in immigration from asian countries, reflecting broader diversification in canada's immigrant origins - Top 10 biggest sources of new permanent residents to canada in 2021: india, china, philippines, nigeria - Wage gap for second-generation canadians (children of immigrants) - Second-generation canadians have higher education but still earn less than established white canadians - Wage gaps persist across most groups, except for chinese and south asian cohorts TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 7 - Labour market changes: - Increasing division between high-skilled and low-skilled jobs - Factors influencing success: - Competitiveness: job market is very competitive - Socioeconomic background: family background affects job opportunities - Networks: connections and networks play a big role in career success 10.6 Minority Groups in Canada - Special status groups - Aboriginal peoples - Aboriginal population has grown much faster than the non-aboriginal population, being classified as a “population explosion” - Despite their many successes, they still remain at higher risk for illness and die younger than the canadian population as a whole - Inadequate housing and crowded living conditions are factors in the higher rates of respiratory problems and other infectious diseases among indigenous children - As well as unequal access to health care and colonialism - Quebecois → Charter groups: the french and english in Canada; John Porter recognized the important roles these groups played in Canadian history and contemporary social and political development - PM Stephen Harper suggested “the quebecois form a nation within a united Canada” - Quiet revolution: a movement in quebec during the 1960s, where the province moved into a more modern phase of its development, challenging religious traditions, advocating for greater economic, political, and cultural equality with the rest of Canada - Other Minority Groups - South Asian Canadians - Early migration began with Sikh soldiers in 1902, leading to more Punjabi workers in British Columbia. - The Komagata Maru incident (1914) highlighted racial discrimination: 376 Indians were barred from entry due to the Continuous Passage Act and forced to return after being denied landing. - South Asians gained the right to vote in 1947, and immigration policies in the 1960s-70s allowed more skilled immigrants. - In 2001, South Asian Heritage Month was established in Ontario, and in 2016, PM Justin Trudeau issued an apology for the Komagata Maru incident. TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 8 - Chinese Canadians - Early migrants were laborers, primarily for the Canadian Pacific Railway; they were paid less than White workers and faced exclusionary policies like the Head Tax. - The Chinese Exclusion Act (1923) halted Chinese immigration until 1947, leading to family separations and economic hardships. - The government issued a formal apology in 2006, and funds were allocated to recognize the historical wrongs. - Chinese Canadians are praised for resilience despite these challenges. - Black Canadians - Black migration began through the Underground Railroad for freedom from U.S. slavery. - Though slavery wasn’t widespread in Canada, it was formally abolished in 1834. - Early Black Canadians faced segregation, and communities like Africville in Nova Scotia were destroyed in the 1960s under urban renewal. - Today, Black Canadians primarily come from the Caribbean and Africa, and they face high unemployment despite similar educational attainment. 10.7 The Charter and Minority Rights → one component of the Canadian Constitution, a series of laws containing the basic rules about how our country should operate - The charter, which came into law in 1982, sets out rights and freedoms that canadians believe are required in an open and democratic society including: - Freedom of expression - Right to a democratic government - Freedom to live and to seek employment anywhere in canada - Legal rights for people accused of crimes - The right to equality, including the equality of men and women - The right of french and english linguistic minorities to an education in their own language - The rights of Canada's aboriginal peoples - The protection of Canada's multicultural heritage - The charter has had a major impact on the promotion and protection of human rights in Canada - From 1994-2006, the court challenges program of canada provided financial assistance for people who could not afford to proceed with court cases that would advance language and equality rights TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 9 Chapter 11: Families 11.1 Developing a Definition of Family - One of the most widely cited and influential definitions of family: “a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation, and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults” - Another prominent definition holds that family is “A social arrangement based on marriage and the marriage contract, including recognition of the rights and duties of parenthood, common residence for husband, wife and children, and reciprocal economic obligations between husband and wife” → Nuclear family: includes an adult male, adult female, and their offspring → Extended family: includes multiple generations of adults living with their spouses and children → Family of orientation: the family into which someone is born → Family of procreation: the family they create by having children or adopting - All of these definitions have economic relationship, heterosexuality, children, and a common residence in common - None include same-sex couples or common-law couples, single parents or couples without children - The changing face of families - In the 2006 census, statistics canada began using two definitions of family - Census family: a married couple, a couple living common-law (both with or without children), or a lone parent of any marital status, with at least one child – a couple may be of opposite or same sex - Economic family: a group of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling and are related to each other by blood, marriage, common-law, or adoption. A couple may be of opposite or same-sex. Foster children are also included - Encompasses a wider range of people then the census family definition does - These census definitions represent two significant changes from the 2001 census being that in 2006 census represented the first time that same-sex married couples were counted, reflecting the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada with the passing of Bill C-38 (the civil marriage act) in 2005 - Prior to the 2001 census, children living with their parents had to be “never married” to be considered members of the census family - The expanding boundaries of family - Marigt Eichler (1988) - A monolithic bias: what we consider one ideal type of family to be normal - Suggests we expand our understanding of what family is to overcome the narrowness of holding up the nuclear family as the ideal all should aspire - Important aspects of families: socialization, emotional relationships, residence, economics, sexuality, and reproduction TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 10 - Defining family, both socially and legally, has important consequences not only for our individual lives but also for how we are situated in relation to social institutions - For example, legalization of same-sex marriages has made certain rights and benefits available to these couples that were once only allowed to married heterosexual couples 11.2 Marriage and Divorce Trends in Canada - Marriage - One of the most significant shifts was the civil marriage act in 2006, legalizing same-sex marriage - The legalization of same-sex marriage brings both social legitimacy and legal rights and benefits to these partners, it also demonstrates the fluidity of our social categories - Previously, common-law unions tended to be associated with the working class; today these unions are more common among all social classes - Women's increased labour force participation and education levels are two factors associated with the rise in common-law relationships - The line between legal marriage and cohabitation is no longer clear - Waite, Linda (1995) Does Marriage Matter? - As a category spouses: - Had greater wealth and assets - Earned higher wages - Had more frequent and better sex - Had overall better health - Were less likely to engage in dangerous risk taking - Had lower rates of substance abuse - Were more likely to engage in healthy behaviours - Divorce - Most significant changes around divorce in canada came in 1968 and 1985 - Prior to the 1968 divorce act, divorces were granted only on the basis of adultery, desertion, or imprisonment, or when the spouses had lived separately for three years - This led to an increase in Canadian divorce rates, which continued to climb until levelling off in the early 2000s - In 1985, “no fault” divorce laws took effect, reducing the waiting time prior to being able to file for divorce to one year, and uncontested divorces were granted after a separation of three years - 1997, amendments to the divorce act - Child support calculated based of the non-custodial parent’s income 11.3 Sociological Approaches to Families - Sociologists are interested in understanding how families are organized and what their relations are to the wider society and social policies, as well as how families work, what challenges they face, and what meanings people hold about them → Functionalism: concerned with order, consensus, equilibrium, and harmony TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 11 - Family is understood to be a major societal institution - Societal institutions are understood to be interdependent and to exist in harmony with one another. When change occurs in one institution, change will inevitably take place in other institutions as well - Certain social functions are accomplished within families - Individuals are provided with love, emotional and economic support, and sexual expression - Children in families are socialized to learn the values and norms of the larger society, families are also responsible for disciplining children - Parsons argued that with industrialization, families no longer functioned as economic units of production; they no longer produced only the food and goods needed - As a result, functions associated with families became more specialized, with specific roles developed - Instrumental roles: involved men leaving their families to engage in paid labour and deal with the world - Expressive role: being responsible for the emotional well-being of family members and the socialization of children - Criticized for their conservative approach to gender and expecting roles in families - Also criticized for not adequately dealing with social conflict and social change → Conflict theory: argue that how people are situated in relation to the means of production, wealth, and power fundamentally shapes the way in which they both experience and see the world - Perceive that the inequalities inherent in the larger society are perpetuated inside families - Assert that the family is organized to meet the needs of capitalism and, more specifically, to serve ruling class interests - Conflix is what drives social change - Social conflict can be minimized or even resolved altogether - Industrialization and the Family - With the rise of industrialism, workplaces shifted from homes to factories, making men forced to earn a wage for their labour - Families shifted from being sites of production to sites of consumption - Rather than making their own consumption, they purchased goods and services in the marketplace - Engels argued that material conditions determine family life - Pointed out that as societies industrialize, those who were able to provide the necessities of life (the men) gained social power - Also pointed out that with the development of class-based societies, women's social positions declined - Friedrich Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State [excerpt on following slide] - Families shifted from being organized around production to consumption - Material conditions determine family life - Women and children dependent upon male wage earners TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 12 - Featuring the family as how wives and children constitute the first economy for men - Social Reproduction and the Family → Social reproduction: the day-to-day activities that ensure the reproduction (and survival) of the population, essential to maintain the workforce for capitalism; families provide the rest and care workers need to return to work each day - Families also produce the next gen of workers → Domestic labour: includes housework, managing finances, and caregiving - Historically, women's roles were centred around domestic labour, despite participation in waged labour → Symbolic interactionism: focuses on minor-level analysis of family life - Examines how family members’ behaviours are shaped by their personal definitions and interpretations of situations - Symbolic meanings vary widely among families and even among members within the same family - Explores families as cooperative groups with shared interests - Example: lesbian mothers–how they create family identities using symbols and rituals - The symbolic use of a child's last name, including hyphenated surnames, helped affirm family legitimacy - This naming practice also provides practical benefits, like ease of access in emergency situations - Same-sex parenting support groups help mothers build a sense of family and provide children with connections to other two-mother families - Family dynamics and decision-making: - Families reported more costs than benefits to off-shifting, often driven by financial needs and child care concerns - The study suggests the need for public policies to support dual-earner families in areas like childcare and employment regulation. - Roles in Families - Concept of roles: - Influenced by Erving Goffman’s work on how people “perform” roles in daily life - Symbolic interactionists study how individuals take on multiple roles (e.g.. Student, employee, family member) that vary depending on context - Roles are shaped by social expectations and interactions in specific situations → Role strain: the stress that results when someone does not have sufficient resources to play a role or roles (Goffman) - For instance, working mothers face strain in balancing employment and childcare responsibilities - Fathers also experience role strain when balancing work and family duties - Sandwich generation: - Refers to individuals caring for both their children and elderly family members - Increased prevalence in Canada due to the high employment rate of working-age women, which limits time for caregiving TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 13 → Feminist theory: holds that families remain primary sites for the continued subordination of women - No one family form is inherently natural or functional - They argue that family forms are specific to both time and place and that even processes of conception and childbirth are socially mediated - Familial ideology that proposes one family model privileges men and subordinates, women–Eichler, 1988; Finch, 1989 - Challenge the ideology that the family is a ‘private’ sphere - Reject assertions that men’s and women’s roles within the families are a natural outcome of biological difference - Marxist feminists have argued that the exploitation of women in families fundamentally serves capitalist interests - For example, workplaces assume employees have no obligations conflicting with their work lives → Post-structuralist theory: seeks to dismantle prevailing discourses about families - Categories such as ‘good mother’ or ‘good father’ saturated in power relations - Examine relations of power–Park, 2006; Baez & Talburt, 2008; Wall, 2013 - Benjamin Baez and Susan Talburt conducted research on the regulation of family life through a series of pamphlets, directed at parents - These pamphlets are filled with normalizing discourses aiming to teach parents how to make their children better students, citizens, and overall well rounded adults - Family is targeted as a site for state intervention, being socially managed and governed - Home and family is meant to be the “moral training” grown for children - Glenda Wall: examined issues of Today’s Parent magazine for discourses of motherhood and childhood in relation to mothers’ employment and childcare - Examined the mid to late 1980s and mid to late 2000s - Documents an increased emphasis on “children's vulnerability, innocence, dependence, and cognitive development” - Motherhood portrayed as the primary source of women's life satisfaction, employment is considered as time away from children; motherhood should come before career → Queer theory: often influenced by post-structuralist theory, interested in questioning normative categories, especially heteronormativity (heterosexuality as the norm) - Questions the structure of families—the assumption that all families are formed through heterosexual unions - Marxist Feminist theorists - Meg Luxton and June Corman (2005) - Call attention to social reproduction; all that goes into the daily and generational reproduction of the population - “According to the materialist conception, the determining factor in history is, in the final instance, the production and reproduction of the immediate essentials of life. This, again, is of a twofold (two parts) character. On the one side, the production of the means of existence, of articles of food and clothing, dwellings, and of the tools necessary for that production; on the other side, the reproduction of human beings themselves, the TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 14 propagation of the species. The social organization under which the people of a particular historical epoc (moment in time) and a particular country live is determined by both kinds of production: by the stage of development of labor on the one hand and of the family on the other” (Engels, 1942: 5) - The family as an economic unit is determined by/ shaped by material change - The central factor in the nuclear family was the rise in private property - There's nothing natural about how family structures work – it's the economy 11.4 Competing Demands: Income Generation and Household Management - Families are units that cooperate economically, depending on two kinds of labour: 1. Income generating work 2. Unpaid domestic labour - The demands of domestic labour and income-generating work are organized to be in conflict with one another, the state negotiates the conflict between these two only partially, through schools and healthcare - Two big changes affecting how families negotiate the competing demands of income generation and managing households: - First, he amount of hours of income-generating work required to support a household has changed since the 1970s, where you would only require 44 hours, whereas by the 1990s, 65 to 80 hours per week were required - The need for more paid labour hours to maintain the average standard of living has led a larger need for women to be working in the paid labour force, and families with two income earners are the statistical norm in Canada - 69% of two-parent families with children under 12 years old have both parents in the paid labour force - 50% of the families, both parents are working full-time - In 2008, the economic downturn limited the number of hours people were able to work, causing a drop in the numbers of hours worked by dual-earner Canadian families - Second, the major cutbacks in government support to schools, health care, and social service agencies over the past 20 years has affected Canadian families - Strategies to negotiating the competing demands: - Increase their hours of paid labour to purchase more services - For example: working more than one paid job to afford cleaning services - Decreasing the hours engaged in paid labour to have more time for domestic labour, including childcare - “Off-shifting” requires one partner to work nonstandard work hours - Domestic labour - Marilyn Waring argues that unpaid domestic labour should be calculated and valued, having women compensated and recognized for their work - Statistics Canada has seen unpaid domestic labour at $297 billion a year → Second shift: refers to the domestic labour performed by employed women at home after finishing their paid workdays (Arlie Hocschild) 11.5 Family Violence: A Social Issue - Women are at greater risk to violence in or near their homes than in the public arena TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 15 - Women are more than twice as likely to be assaulted by someone they know rather than by a stranger - Women and girls account for 67% of victims of police-reported incidences of family violence - 79% of women are victims of intimate partner violence - Studies have shown women are more of a risk during certain social conditions - Studies also affirmed violence against women increasing after a natural disaster - When we take into account the amount of money going towards social services, the criminal justice system, absence from work, and healthcare costs, we can see family violence is a social issue, not a private trouble - Quantity of violence does not explain as much as the quality of violence does experienced by men and women - Feminist analyses foreground patriarchal social arrangements and men’s social power over women → Intimate Femicide: killing of women by their intimate male partners - Accounts for a majority of female homicide victims, with 63-76% of women killed in ontario from 1974-1994 by intimate partners - 79% intimate partner homicides in Canada from 2007-2017 were female victims - A significant risk factor is separation or estrangement from the male partner - Victims from all social classes, age groups, and cultural and ethnic origins, average age at death being 40, most having children and born in Canada - Intimate femicide is viewed as an extreme form of control by men, a continuation of possessive attitudes towards women - It is often understood as a way for men to exercise control over women they feel have “violated” their possessive rights - Feminists argue that we can understand this violence as an extension of men’s proprietary attitudes toward the intimate women in their lives - Reflective of larger social relations of masculinity and femininity; Male dominance in social hierarchy Extra notes: - Bronislaw Malinoski: - Challenged traditional nineteenth century proponents of social evolution - There are three features which stem from the primary universal function of the family which is the nurturing of children - Three features: 1. Families had to have clear boundaries 2. Families had to have a place where family members could be together and share the task of childrearing 3. Family members tend to feel affection for one another - Rounded the traditional functions of family → children is the primary function - Challenged the idea of a family always including a father - George P. Murdock: - Conducted a study of 250 mainly preliterate societies in the 1940s TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 16 - The nuclear family was based on marriage as a socially approved, long term, sexual and economic union between a man and a woman - Distinguish between different types of family - One fact stands out: everywhere the husband, wife, and children constitute a union that stands out from the outside - Five functions of the family: 1. Sexual regulation: makes social order possible, if sex happens within marriage 2. Economic cooperation: argues womens activities are limited, activities closer to the home, men possess superior strength, tough, physical strength activities 3. Reproduction: children added economic value to your family 4. Socialization: primary function of family, socialization of children 5. Emotional support - Talcott Parsons - Industrialization led to functions associated with families becoming more specialized - Expressive role: responsible for emotional well-being of the family members and the socialization of children - Instrumental role: responsible for paid labor outside of the home - the father - Misogyny Chapter 12: Education 12.1 Education in Canada - Institution responsible for the transmission of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes deemed desirable - Formal education regulated and organized by the state - Informal education stresses societal norms and values, working to socialize the next generation - History of Public Education - Residential Schools - Earliest forms of formal education in Canada established by missionaries and religious orders (Wotherspoon, 2004) - Re-socialize Indigenous people to become “civilized” - Prior to residence schools, indigenous peoples would not have formal teachers; instead community members would ensure each child in their community learned key knowledge, skills, traditions, values → education played a major role in maintaining cultural survival - Replacement of Indigenous lifestyles and knowledge with European concepts of morality and consciousness (Wotherspoon, 2004, cited in Ravelli and Webber, 2022: 320-322). - Operated between 1870 and the 1990s (the last closed in 1996) - Read Aloud from Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese (2012) - Current curriculum that ignores this history (Haig-Brown, 2007) – her research focuses on the Kamloops Indian Residential School - Missionaries did not separate Western Christianity and Western civilization - Educated for a lifestyle of dependency TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 17 - Mass education - Since WWII substantial changes in the patterns of paid employment (shift toward white collar service occupations) Livingstone, 2010 - Industrialization and immigration - Education viewed as essential to economic development and building a strong democracy - Ontario first to offer free, compulsory education - Girls and boys educated differently, males given vocational training in preparation for the labour market while girls were prepared to be housewives or to work in ‘nurturing’ occupations - Goal of nation building through education (the Canadian ‘spirit’) - Rising postsecondary participation rates - There's been a significant rise in postsecondary educational attainment - Numbers jumping to 21.9% of those educated constituted a massification → Massification: a higher increase of postsecondary enrolment - Massifiacatin resulted in a high school diploma no longer allowing the same kind of paid jobs that it could a few decades ago - A key indicator of a country’s development is the education levels within it - Education leads to jobs, greater income, improved health status, and other indicators of good standard of living → Credential inflation: the ever-increasing cache of educational credentials required for a particular job, occurs in the same way as monetary inflation - Two sides: 1. The underemployed are job incumbents who have substantially more schooling than their employers require for job entry. 2. The underqualified are job incumbents who have substantially less schooling than their employers now require for such jobs. 12.2 Sociological Approaches to Education - Functionalism: Allocation and Socialization - Parsons (1959) - Because schools function as social systems, schools need to both serve and reflect the values and interests of the society in which they operate - Schools help children to make the transition from being immersed in their homes to being future citizens able to function as workers in competitive spaces and participants in public life - Schools help maintain equilibrium of social system - Remember Davis and Moore (1945)? Role of social placement - Act as a sorting mechanism for future roles in society (through allocation of grades) - Teaches students how to function in the larger society (socialization) - Respecting punctuality, how to respond to authority - Hidden curriculum refers to the informed aspects of schooling that influence and shape students to be obedient, to value competitiveness, etc. TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 18 - Criticism: clings to idea of society as a meritocracy, ignoring one’s social location - This perspective lies a failure to understand how one’s social location and other sociopolitical relations and conditions affect one’s achievements - Conflict theory: understand schooling as serving the capitalist aims of profit and compliant workers - Schools are perceived as instrumental in preparing future conformers, and relinquishing their revolutionary possibilities for human development and progress - Bowles and Gintis: schooling in capitalist america (1976), marxist study - Criticize liberal education reforms, arguing they were unsuccessful because they were based on the liberal assumption that one’s success if tied to innate ability - Inequality is embedded in the very design of our capitalist society → Correspondence principle: the structures of workplaces are reflected in the structures of schools - Using similar methods–grades and wages–to motivate behaviour through external rewards - Demonstrated that students from privileged class backgrounds are more likely to continue higher levels of schooling than students of lower social class backgrounds - They argue that schools in a capitalist society are structured in a way that prevent social class mobility - Symbolic Interactionism: views social arrangements as fluid, continuously negotiated, with meanings constructed through social interactions - Studies on symbolic interactionism in education explore how roles and labels in the school setting shapes perceptions and behaviours of students, teachers, and administrators - Examine meanings attached to school practices - Howard Becker (1952) - Teacher-imposed labels can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy - Through interactive process one comes to embody a label - Ray Rist (1970) expectations of students in Kindergarten classroom (referenced in text) - Observed that kindergarten teachers categorized students by perceived ability within 8 days, based on social class rather than assessments - “Fast learners” (mostly middle class) sat near the teacher and received more attention, while “slow learners” (mostly lower class) were marginalized. Overtime students internalized these roles, impacting their self-perception and academic performance - Contemporary studies show that self-fulfilling prophecy remains a concern especially in relation to gender, race, and class - Positive student-teacher relationships can counteract negative effects, enhancing student engagement and progression to higher education levels - A study on first year university students found that the expectation to learn independently fostered personal responsibility and identity development TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 19 - ​Feminist Theory - Early feminist studies - Focused on the sexism embedded in both school texts and classroom practices - Women represented as passive objects or altogether absent - Teachers engage more with boys than with girls - Contemporary feminist studies - Continue to focus on gendered patterns of interaction - Boys continue to have more classroom interaction with teachers - Behaviour that is accepted from boys is corrected in girls - Sexism not as prevalent in course texts - Hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity - Anti-Racist Approaches - Race and racism are central to how we claim, occupy and defend spaces (Dei & Calliste, 2000) - Shift from multicultural to anti-racist approach - Majority of teachers in Canadian schools are white thus imperative need to reflect on the ways in which colonialist, imperialist and capitalist histories are reproduced in classrooms (Bedard, 2000) - Commitment to create classroom spaces that enable students to think through and question their assumptions about the world - Frances Henry and Carol Tator (both from York U) - Cultural Theory - Bourdieu (1991) - How is inequality reproduced? How is privilege transferred? - Cultural capital refers to a set of usable resources (skills, habits, manners) that can translate into economic and social success - Schools reproduce existing power relations; they are not value neutral - Children from higher classes come to school with greater cultural capital - Post-Structuralist Theory - Power/Knowledge Nexus: - Michel Foucault’s theory suggests that knowledge and power are interconnected and context-dependent. In education, the way information is presented (discourse) shapes how we understand and act on particular topics. - Racism in History Textbooks: - Studies on Ontario history textbooks show how Canada’s portrayal of racism has shifted. Older textbooks downplayed systemic racism, while newer ones acknowledge it but still frame it as isolated incidents or individual biases rather than structural issues (Montgomery, 2005). - This reflects a narrative of Canada as a “just nation,” downplaying its historical and ongoing systemic racism (Montgomery, 2005). TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 20 - Intersectionality and Sexism in Schools: - Post-structuralist studies examine how power affects the self-image of girls who identify as smart. These girls often encounter sexism but are encouraged to see their challenges as personal rather than systemic issues, reflecting a neoliberal, individualistic view of success (Pomerantz & Raby, 2017). - Contemporary Racism in Canada: - Modern textbooks discuss racism as a human rights issue while emphasizing individual wrongdoing rather than systemic problems. Examples include biased cases in the Canadian legal system, such as wrongful convictions, which reveal underlying structural racism (Montgomery, 2005). - Women’s Literacy in a Global Context: - Women, particularly in developing regions, face barriers to education. This is exacerbated in conflict zones and by cultural biases that prioritize boys’ education. Illiteracy among women correlates with poorer health outcomes and higher birth rates, while educated women tend to have better opportunities and lower poverty rates (UNESCO, 2016). - Parental perceptions also influence girls' education, with some families avoiding educational investment in daughters due to expectations around marriage roles and limited economic returns. - National Narratives and Structural Racism: - Textbooks often promote a selective narrative that portrays Canada as a tolerant and inclusive nation, reinforcing a "myth of white settler benevolence" while ignoring systemic racism. Similar practices are observed in the U.S., where publishers have been pressured to revise textbooks that contain racist or biased narratives (Montgomery, 2005; Zielinski, 2016). - Implications of Educational Analysis: - Analyzing educational materials using a post-structuralist lens helps reveal the underlying power relations in knowledge production, showing how curriculum can perpetuate social hierarchies and national myths (Montgomery, 2005). 12.3 Tuition Rates and Class Inequality - Tuition rates have skyrocketed over the past decades, between 1991 and 2019 the costs have increased 300% - The most expensive undergraduate programs in Canada in 2017 were dentistry, law, and medicine programs - Impact of social class: - Canadian medical school students often come from wealthy families with high-status occupations or parental education - Lack of lower-class students may affect patient care, as fewer doctors understand diverse social realities (Beagan, 2005) - Additional costs beyond tuition - Students face expenses for books, rent, food, clothing, etc., and often work to support themselves TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 21 - 49.1% if full time students and 83.2% of part time students engage in paid work while studying - Scholarship accessibility - Few students receive full scholarships, meaning that high tuition largely falls on students and families - Rising education costs create structural barriers, limiting access for students from lower social classes 12.2 Gendered Postsecondary Enrolment Trends - Gender and post-secondary Women now account for almost 60% of undergraduates - 1960s women’s movement: arguing that education facilitates the achievement of life goals by acting as an equalizing agent between men and women - In response, colleges and universities established programs to promote gender equity and to encourage admission applications from women - Females remain concentrated in education, humanities and social sciences, while male undergraduates dominate in math and engineering - Gendered workplaces - Women constitute 84% of elementary teachers and 59% of high school teachers; - 40% of all university professorial positions filled by women - Chilly climate, lack of warmth or encouragement as a result of sexism 12.5 Racism, Curriculum, Perception, and Pedagogy - Racialized treatment of students - Studies highlight a racial hierarchy in classroom attention, while white boys receive the most attention, followed by boys of colour, white girls, and finally girls of colour - Black and indigenous students experience either neglect or over-scrutiny. In nova scotia, black students are 1.5x and indigenous students 1.4x more likely to be placed on individual performance plans (IPPs) than white students, which may reflect racial biases - Stereotypes and expectations - Teachers often expect black girls to conform to “docile femininity,” perceiving them as loud or challenging to authority when they deviate from these norms - This stereotyping leads to a lack of academic focus on black girls, who are instead disciplined for perceived behavior issues - Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Indigenous Representation: - Indigenous Peoples are often portrayed in curriculum materials as either "romanticized" or "savage," failing to accurately represent their contributions and cultures (Archibald, 1995; Neegan, 2005). - The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) called for educational reforms to incorporate Indigenous perspectives and correct funding disparities. TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 22 - White-Centric Curriculum: - Many Black Canadian students report that their history and culture are excluded from the curriculum, which mainly reflects a Eurocentric perspective (Codjoe, 2001). - This "culture of Whiteness" in Canadian education can be found in curriculum materials and institutional structures, reinforcing dominance and marginalizing non-White narratives (Henry & Tator, 2009). - Creating Inclusive Classrooms: - Educators should understand the impact of these racial biases and work toward developing inclusive classrooms that encourage critical thinking and embrace diverse perspectives. - This involves changes in curriculum, teaching practices, and classroom activities that challenge dominant worldviews and create equitable spaces for all students. 12.6 Higher Education: Contemporary Issues - Government funding has declined dramatically in postsecondary institutions - Resulting in a greater reliance on private dollars, mainly in raising student tuition fees - Also relying on private research monies - Research funding - Canadian universities have become more involved with industry and the private sector as a means of generating revenue - Quality and accountability - Quality Education: There's a debate on what defines quality in education. It could be based on students' experiences or their success post-graduation. This reflects differing views on whether education should create well-rounded citizens or focus on job-market skills. - Neoliberal Influence: Universities are increasingly driven by business practices, aiming for efficiency and measurable outcomes. Critics worry this shift turns universities into "certification factories," prioritizing marketable skills over broader educational values. - Quantitative Measures: Accountability is being enforced through quantitative measures like publication counts, citation rates, and research grants, which may undervalue non-measurable academic contributions. - Government Standards and Funding: In Ontario, for example, universities are evaluated on metrics like graduation rates, employment rates, and student loan defaults. Government funding is tied to these metrics, which some argue does not fairly assess institutional quality, as these outcomes involve broader social factors. - Strategic Mandate Agreements: Ontario has introduced performance-based funding agreements that penalize universities for not meeting targets. This approach can limit universities' ability to plan long-term and may lead to unequal funding distribution, with some institutions struggling more than others. TEST 3 - SOCIOL*1Z03 23 - University of McDonalds? - McDonaldization: the notion that institutions are expected to function in more efficient ways, with a high degree of predictability and standardization - Ritzer argues that the problem is excessive Mcdonaldization and things that don't need to be Mcdonalized - Neal curtis worries that setting up professor-student relationships as salesperson-customer relationships will produce students that lack capacity for independent thought, hesitant to take risks, and will not pursue self-directed learning - Academic integrity - Cheating - 53% of undergraduates admit to cheating (Gillis, 2007) - 46% of teachers and 38% of teaching assistants ignored cases of suspected academic misconduct (McCabe, 2006) - This might be a reflection of the McDonaldization of education.