Midterm Flashcards
(32 cards)
Sociological imagination
The ability to see the relationship between personal experiences and the larger society
C. Wright Mills
Functionalist Perspective
Society operates as a system made up of interrelated parts each of one serves an important social function or meets a vital social need
Parts/subsystems: social institutions; economy, family, education, religion, government, medicine, science, etc.
Conflict Perspective
Social class, race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. are linked to the unequal distribution of money, power, education, and social prestige; the social system typically benefits some people while depriving others
False Obviousness
Explanations that seem so obvious, and compelling that research for evidence is not needed
Symbolic-Interactionist Perspective
Social interactions in specific situations (face to face, reciprocal exchanges
Envisions society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals
Feminist Perspective
Focuses on the significance of gender in understanding and explaining inequalities between men and women in all areas of social life
Emile Durkheim
Created the first rules of methods in sociology
Karl Marx
Economic determinism, and the key to human history: class conflict
Stressed the importance of social conflict, and the need for further change and revolution
Sociological Imagination: Coffee
purely a private matter?
Implies a cultural setting
Socially significant
Socially acceptable
Socially available
Impies an extensive social division of labour & social organization
Implies the world history, economics, and politics of coffee
Common Sense
Something widley beleived to be true among a population
Stereotype example
aborignals:
lazy
unemployed
alcoholics
men with long hair:
unhygenic
not professional
hippy
Stereotype
overgeneralizations about the appearance, behaviour, mindset, or other characteristics of members of particular grou
Prejudice
pre-judgement
Perspectives viewing family
Feminist: would want mom to have equal power and authority
Conflict: how one family can have private school and another one can’t
Functionalist: see how mom&dad and kids fit into their roles
Symbolic interactionist: would view certain interactions as parents caring and supporting their children
Critiques of Feminist Perspective
Woman-centered
Explicit ideological
Makes no claim of objectivity
Genders give you a different world view
Key player in Feminist perspective
Dorothy Smith
Key player in Functionalist
Talcott Parsons & Robert Merton
Critiques in Conflict
How can we assume that society has a “natural” order when social patterns differ from place to place and change over time?
By emphasizing social integration, tends to gloss over inequality based on social class, race, ethnicity, and gender – divisions that may generate considerable tension and conflict
Critiques in Symbolic-Interactionist
By focusing on day-to-day and face to face interactions, ignores the larger social institutions in which behaviour takes place
Downplays the global and historical aspects of culture, and the effects of socially imposed definitions of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and age on people’s lives
What are the four C’s to Conflcit?
conflict, class, contestation, and change
Key players in Conflict
Karl Marx & Max Weber
Critques on Conflict
By highlighting inequality and division, glosses over how shared values or interdependence generates unity among members of a society
By pursuing political goals, relinquishes any claim to scientific objectivity
Social Facts
Patterned ways of acting, thinking, feeling that exist outside any one individual but that exert social control over each person
Stimulating curiosity
Cultivating oneself
Traveling
Social marginality
