KRLS304 Midterm Flashcards
(106 cards)
1
Q
Epistemology
A
Theory of how we know things; test it, hypothesize, religious, etc.
2
Q
Ontological
A
What is reality that we know stuff about, making claim about the nature of knowledge, objective reality & subjective reality
3
Q
Objectivity
A
Uncovering truths without influence from personal feelings and prejudices
4
Q
Psychological thinking
A
Individualistic
5
Q
Social psychological thinking
A
Smaller groups
6
Q
Sociologic thinking
A
Larger groups
7
Q
Sociological Imagination
A
Relationships between personal biography, history, and social forces beyond the control of the individual
8
Q
Common sense approach (neoliberal view)
A
Look at all these overweight people
How can we explain this?
Because they are lazy, weak willed, and a failure, which is why we have an epidemic in today’s society.
9
Q
Sociological imagination approach
A
Look at all these fast food joints, loopholes in food labeling, wealth gap, etc.
What effect could these be having?
Producing obesity
10
Q
TBL contains 4 themes that reinforce an individualized view
A
Only the strong survive
Pulling big numbers
Deserving and needing
Making the right choices
11
Q
Neoliberalism political beliefs
A
Free market is natural, perfect.
Supports private property rights and individualism.
Wants to keep the government intervention small and out of the markets.
Reduction of the social safety net.
Belief in trickle down economics.
12
Q
Neoliberalism set of practices
A
Deregulation
Privatization
Trade barrier reduction
Roll-back and roll-out
13
Q
Globally today one of the most common forms of government
A
Neoliberalism
14
Q
Corporations
A
A type of company. Legal entities that are separate from their owners (the shareholders)
15
Q
Advantages of a corporation
A
Corporations can own things for longer than a human lifespan.
Protects the individuals because lawsuits are directed at the corporation not the shareholders.
Safer than partnerships because if one partner dies, so does the partnership.
16
Q
Ableism
A
Beliefs, processes and practices that produce a an ideal body standard
17
Q
3 categories of classification
A
Physical, visual, and intellectual
18
Q
What is the benefit to having less categories for classification?
A
Cost goes down, revenue goes up
19
Q
Sustainable development
A
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
20
Q
Fictitious commodities ex.
A
Selling land and carbon credits as a commodity
21
Q
P3s definition
A
A process in which the government facilitates the delivery of services rather than delivering them directly (3rd party)
22
Q
P3s
(Public Private Partnerships)
A
Can be longer than any government term.
Require binding contracts (often drafted based on corporate expertise).
Designed to protect the company from losses, not to deliver the best product to the public
23
Q
Capitalism
A
An economic system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state
24
Q
According to Chen capitalism has the following key elements
A
Private ownership of the means of production
Goods and services exchanged as commodities in markets
Producing profits for capitalist enterprises
25
Means of production refer to
The way in which commodities are produced
26
Commodities are
Sellable items. They are fungible (can be exchanged in the market for currency)
27
Crisis of overproduction
There are too many commodities unsold in the market. The capitalist now cannot earn as much profit and in fact generates additional costs by having to store all the unsold goods
28
Capital-Labour Contradiction
If the capitalist suppresses wages, then profit increases in the short term.
However, if all capitalists succeed in doing this, then workers across society will be paid less and have less money to spend buy other commodities.
29
Capitalism contradiction:
Spatial fixes
Create a new market for your commodities. This can forestall the crisis of overproduction.
Ex. opening up a geographically new market or creating a new niche inside an existing market
30
Capitalism contradiction temporal fixes:
These generally speed things up. If I produce 2 in a day today but 3 tomorrow with the same costs, I have increased profit. These fixes are often efficiency types of speed ups where more is done with the same inputs or less. Loans fall into this category as well. Getting money now that you pay back in the future is much faster than waiting for the future to arrive
31
Spatio-temporal fixes
A combination of the two. A loan is a temporal fix already, but when it is used to open a new market, it becomes spatial as well.
A temporary fix.
32
2 classes of people in capitalism
Alienated (proletariat or worker) and those in control (capitalist or bourgeoisie)
33
Accumulation through dispossession
Massive amounts of wealth and power have accrued to a small group of people over the centuries as whole geographic areas were appropriated.
ex. taking land from indigenous
slaves
34
The two significant ‘offshoring’ processes to the South
The relocation of manufacturing work by the transnational sportswear corporations
The conferring of rights / cost to host mega sport events by the transnational sport governing elites
35
Commodity
Material from the land, mixed with a person’s labour, and sold for money
36
Commodification
Turning something historically unsellable into something you can sell. Selling this thing is a new idea
37
Three fundamental non-commodities
Land, labour, and money
38
Why can't you commodify land
By mixing your labour with raw ingredients (like a tree), you make commodities you sell (like a chair). The raw ingredient is not sold. It is not the commodity
39
Why can't you commodify labour
Owning this means owning a person. It is slavery to own someone’s labour
40
Why can't you commodify money
This is what commodities are exchanged for. Taking what it is exchanged for back into the market as a commodity to exchange it for more of itself is a paradox
41
Fictitious commodity
Commodifying land, labour, and money. Conservation example: People will pay to visit places where nature is protected. Protected nature is a fictitious commodity
42
2nd inherent contradiction in capitalism: environmental
Infinite growth on a finite planet is a contradiction in terms.
We will run out of fossil fuels, no matter how slowly and carefully we use them
Diminishing supply of an essential resource for a growing population base causes prices to skyrocket
43
Externalities
A required cost that does not get accounted for
44
Environmental externalities
It costs more to prevent pollution than hide it, companies are financially incentivized to dump waste into rivers and financially punished if they don’t
45
Disaster Capitalism
In times of disaster and crisis, some see business opportunities.
This is a post-Fordist strategy: companies need to be mobile enough to respond to wherever the disaster happens.
A state of shock exists in the affected area and people can be convinced to give up things they otherwise would not
46
What kind of changes often come out of disaster capitalism?
Neoliberal policy changes
ex. privatizing energy grid after a hurricane
47
Celebration capitalism has 6 features:
1. A state of celebration where normal rules can be set aside.
2. The IOC and mass media promote the Games.
3. Festive commoditization
4. Favours P3s that are slanted toward business
5. Sustainability is often touted, although follow through is almost nonexistent.
6. Promotes the police and security industry as responsible for terrorism, dissent, and safety.
48
What 2 things undermine democracy
Disaster and celebration capitalism
49
Celebration capitalism leads to 5 distinct problems
Overspending
White elephant venues
Militarization of the public sphere
Eviction and gentrification
Greenwashing
50
What is overspending
Olympic budgets have dramatically increased, often bankrupting the host country/city. Not a single Games came in under budget. On average 156% cost overruns
51
What is white-elephant venues
Often huge stadiums are built, used a few times, and abandoned. These then sit empty for decades and become an ongoing drain for society. Many are border up and unsafe
52
What is militarization of the public sphere
Local security and police forces… leverage the Games-induced state of exception to secure all the weapons, equipment, and special laws they would struggle to obtain during normal political times.
Ex. 85,000 security personnel in Rio
53
What is eviction and gentrification
Beijing evicted 1.5 million people. Rio 77,000. In Vancouver, homeless people were evicted from downtown
54
What is greenwashing
London was billed as a sustainable Games. They created a new category for corporate sponsors: sustainability partners, which had 0 requirements
55
Using the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as an example, explain celebratory capitalism
1. Overspending: Budget ballooned to 4x it’s initial size.
2. White-elephants: local building height codes (15 meters) were removed and replaced with new ones (80 meters) to allow Olympic stadiums to be built.
3. Militarization: Japan has long been involved in P3s with companies developing facial recognition software. Roberts were deployed during the Games to sniff out anyone looking suspicious. New laws were put in place, making protesting illegal.
4. Eviction and gentrification: residents are removed from nearby apartments to make way for Olympic residence buildings, which are high-end, high-rise buildings.
5. Greenwashing: used unsustainably logged wood (tropical plywood from Indonesia) for many venues. Tokyo was particularly bad for this, as it greenwashed radiation levels from Fukushima power plant
56
Complicit
Association with a wrongful act
Ex: someone yells something racist at a soccer player and you see them do it.
Ex: You buy gas from your local Esso or Shell, etc. You are complicit in their climate change disinformation and directly contribute to climate change itself
57
What did wealth inequality rise from?
Capitalism
58
Commodity fetishism
Unhealthy relationship with commodities that produce alienation. Money becomes the measure of a person.
Ex. Retail therapy, status purchases, mid-life crisis sports car, door-crasher sales, queues that last days for the new iPhone, buying these things makes you think you're more successful
59
3P's stands for
Public Private Partnership
60
Disaster Capitalism refers to
The affluent and powerful within society exploiting a disaster to consolidate and amplify their own power and resources, usually at the expense of the most disaster-affected people
61
Accumulation by dispossession can be
Disaster capitalism
62
What are 2 main types of land grabs, how are they accumulated?
Predatory land grab
Strategic land grab
Accumulated through dispossession
63
Predatory land grab
Private businesses buy the land immediately after a disaster (or falsely claim to have bought it), and then evict everyone.
64
Strategic land grab
The local government does the evicting, often under the guise of rehabilitation. They then partner with businesses (P3s) to develop the tourism resources while denying local residents access back
65
Explain the self-perpetuating cycle of land grabs
* The people get evicted and moved to another location.
* Reconstruction is shoddy and relief aid unequal and thus unreliable.
* This creates a zone that is ill-prepared for a disaster.
* When the next disaster occurs (which is increasing in frequency every year), this area needs to be re-located.
* And so it continues
66
Explain a tourism example of disaster capitalism
+ 2017 Hurricane Irma destroyed 90% of Barbuda.
+ 2 days later, their PM (PM Browne) orders the evacuation of everyone.
+ Then PM Browne changed the law that said the land couldn’t be sold.
+ Robert De Niro’s company proposed to help rebuild.
+ They offered to build a $200 million resort, which is being sold as a ‘wonderful offer to help the Barbudans get back on their feet’.
+ This is the same proposal the Barbudans refused permission prior to the disaster
67
3 ripple effects of disaster capitalism
increased dependency on tourism for livelihoods, profits leaving the local area, and placing tourists and tourism workers in harm's way
68
What can be done about disaster capitalism?
Be aware of previous disaster lessons
Work with companies with clear policies with commitment to ethical tourism
69
Runstedtler’s 3 Questions
1. What does the use of unpaid, physical, and dangerous Black labour tell us about the role of the AIC in maintaining and strengthening racism and classism?
2. If we consider how the AIC uses child labour, what might that tell us about the creation and expansion of new markets today?
3. How does neoliberalism and capitalism make it harder to see any other factor, aside from the love of the game, as driving Black ‘sports fixation’?
70
Black sports fixation
Thinking that someone black will be better at sports
71
When did fordism begin?
1860s
72
Fordism began at the same time as
Modern western imperialism and colonialism
73
Imperialism
country policy to take over lands using diplomacy or force
74
Colonialism
The physical act of setting up colonies or territories in another country
75
What were black boxers called?
Battle Royals
76
What happened with black boxing in 1908?
Black slaves were often used for entertainment and income
77
Sociological context of US sport
Black athletes are being targeted for recruitment. Blacks are caught in a society that either commodifies them or criminalizes them. College coaches get paid for their labour but the athletes do not.
78
Sociological context overseas
Overseas sweatshops with
manufacturers of sporting goods working in poor conditions and not getting proper wages.
79
Triple tragedy of blackness
Individual failure, cultural inadequacies, and talent drain. Suggests the problem is making poor choices.
80
Athletic Industrial Complex
Nearly all aspects of sport today are profit focused
(e.g., equipment making and selling, ticket sales and promotion, training camps, tournaments, broadcast rights, movies, merch, etc.)
81
The common problem Runstedtler points to
That the AIC is commercialized neoliberal sport
82
The source of the AIC's profits
Production of failure (bringing 200,000 black kids into camps when you know only 100 will make it into the NBA. It's child labour by them participating in the camps.
83
What did Runstedtler find regarding class?
Many sports have a large % of black players, very few black people are the owners / managers / CEO's. The athlete's are treated like commodities.
84
Timeline of the race to commodify younger kids
1980s Nike looked at the college level
1990s Nike went to high school level after there were funding cuts from gov't
Mid 90s adidas goes down to Jr. high
2003 Reebok scouting goes to Elementary
85
Black youth basketball camps are seen as
Exploitative labour
86
Sweatshops (seen as a bad thing) are comparable to
Black youth basketball camps (seen as a good thing) both exploiting labourers.
87
3 examples of truth being an effect of power
1. a lie you believed to be true
2. a mistake you took as fact
3. taking one way of seeing something as the only way
88
What is a P3 designed to do?
Protect the company from losses
89
What does social psychology study?
How people influence and relate to one another (groups)
90
What is sociology?
The study of development, structure and functioning of human society
91
What is a carbon credit
When a company that owns forest land is payed to not do anything to that land, companies over the pollution limit can buy these carbon credits from that company (ex. parks canada)
92
A corporation
A type of company governed by a board, consists of shareholders that are separate from their legal entities
93
3 things that neoliberalism incites
1. Individual accountability
2. Reduced state support
3. The ability to be capable and self sufficient
94
What did neoliberalism eliminate?
Many barriers and structural problems were erased, as well as reduced social welfare state and reduced individual taxation rates
95
2 concerns with financialization
1. Conservation becomes less sustainable
2. Society becomes more economically unstable
96
What happened in 1907 in the US with corporations
A law was passed that stated that corporations could not participate in government elections by funding candidates
97
2 questions around externality
1. who will have to pay
2. how much will the cost have risen by then
98
3 things that can be done to reduce obesity
1. reconfigure and depathologize fatness away from medicalized status
2. unhinge fatness from any necessary connections with ill health
3. problematize our moral imperative for health
99
What happened in 2010 with corporations
A law that corporations can fund presidential campaigns
100
Roll-out
The government offers incentives and more services
101
Roll-back
The government offer less services, takes services away
102
Deregulation
Governments don't determine the price (ex. alcohol prices in AB)
103
Reregulation
Government has more control over prices of products
104
Trickle down economics
Corporations make as much money as they want. They will spend it back into society. (doesn't usually work)
105
8 key terms of Neoliberalism
- roll out / roll back
- deregulation / reregulation
- trickle down economics
- public / private partnerships (P3s)
- support for private property
- belief in free markets
- primacy of the individual / individualism
- reduction of the social safety net
106
9 key terms of capitalism
- regimes of accumulation (post-fordism, financialization)
- fictitious commodities
- wages / profits
- inherent contradictions and their fixes
- commodification
- commodity fetishism
- externalities
crisis of overproduction
- alienation
