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Thinking Sociologically > Module 3 > Flashcards

Module 3 Flashcards

(59 cards)

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1
Q

What’s the difference between behaviour and action?

A

behaviour is natural, instinctual

action occurs in response to another person

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2
Q

How is Weber’s concern with subjective meaning different from Durkheim’s focus on social facts?

A

Weber - A person acts according to the subjective meaning of their own and other’s behaviour

Durkheim - a social fact is a widespread idea within society of how people should act and people act according to social facts

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3
Q

How did Weber and Durkheim view collectivity differently?

A

Durkheim - the collective influenced individuals

Weber - Individuals influence the collective and have more choice than in Durkheim’s theory. Their actions are based on their interactions with others at an individual level, moreso than the collective

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4
Q

How are subjective meanings different from objective meanings?

A

subjective: Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.

Objective: (of a person or their judgement) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

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5
Q

Why are objective meanings more available for scientific study than subjective meanings?

A
  • rationalism and devoid of emotion
  • statistical
  • can be labelled as fact
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6
Q

Superstructure

A

Secondary social phenomena
Ex- the state and culture
Economically based
Economy determines the superstructure

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7
Q

Base (Marx)

A

-the economy determines the nature of everything else in society

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8
Q

Culture industry

A

Movies, radio, etc

Makes culture more important than economy

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9
Q

Mass culture

A

Culture made for and available to the masses

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10
Q

One-dimensional society

A

Marcuse
Result of breakdown of relationship between people and larger structures they created and are controlled by
People lose capacity to be creative and think critically and negatively about the structures that oppress them

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11
Q

Technocratic thinking

A

Concern with being efficient and finding a means to an end

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12
Q

Knowledge industry

A

Research institutes, universities, etc
Become autonomous and serve their own interests instead of those of society
Intent on expanding their influence over society

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13
Q

Reason

A

The assessment of means to an end in terms of ultimate human values (Justice, freedom, happiness)

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14
Q

Irrationality if rationality

A

Rational systems inevitably spawn a series of irrationalities

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15
Q

Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991)

A

Theorized the nature of space and it’s relationship to social life

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16
Q

Absolute spaces

A

Built in natural locations that embody religious and political principals
Spaces that serve interests of political and religious elites

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17
Q

Historical space

A

Produced when separate nations vie with one another for power and accumulation of wealth

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18
Q

Abstract space

A

Space produced within modern capitalist society
Space treated as a problem that needs to be solved
Space dominates nature and all unique human forms

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19
Q

Differential space

A

Hoped for space that would accentuate difference and freedom from control and restore the natural unity that is broken by abstract space

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20
Q

David Harvey

A

Critiqued the communist manifesto in relation to space

Wants us to pay attention to the way the world, and capitalism, are organized geographically

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21
Q

World-system

A

Broad economic entity with a division of labour that is not circumscribed by political or cultural boundaries.
Social system comprised of a variety of social structures and member groups
Largely self contain
Set of boundaries
Definable lifespan

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22
Q

Core

A

The geographic area that dominates the capitalist world economy and exploits the rest of the system

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23
Q

Periphery

A

Areas of the capitalist word economy that provide raw materials to the core and are heavily exploited by it

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24
Q

Semiperiphery

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A

Residual category in the capitalist world economy that encompasses a set of regions somewhere between the exploiting and the exploited

25
Civilizing process
Long term changes in West related to manners Everyday habits become less acceptable publicly Activities that were acceptable are now embarrassing
26
Norbert Elias
Described historical changes in mundane behaviour | Macro level of the state - king and court central to Elias’s argument
27
Dependency chains
Chains of relationships involving people on whom a person is dependent as well as those people’s dependency on the person
28
Figurations
Social processes involving the interweaving of people who are seen as open and independent. Power is central to social figurations Emerge and develop in unseen and unplanned ways
29
Jurgen Habermas
Grand theory of increasing colonization of the lifeworld
30
Lifeworld
Schutz | The common sense works of everyday life
31
System
To Habermas - structures that have their source within the lifeworld but come to develop their own distinct existence and grow increasingly distant and separated from the lifeworld
32
Colonization of the lifeworld
As the system and structures grow increasingly differentiated, complex and self-sufficient, their power grows as well as ability to control what transpired in the lifeworld
33
Ideal speech situation
Free of distorting influences, especially power Better argument wins, rather than one backed by a powerful group Consensus arises and truth is arrived at through this consensus
34
Juggernaut
Gidden’s metaphor for the modern world as a massive force that moves forward inexorably Ppl steer the juggernaut but it may easily fall out of their control
35
Distanciation
Tendencies of the modern juggernaut to grow distant in space and time from those trying to control it
36
Anthony Giddens
Theorized the juggernaut
37
Boomerang effect
Risks strike back on the upper classes and rich nations most responsible for their production
38
Why is the juggernaut always threatening to careen out of control?
- design flaws - those who run the juggernaut make mistakes - consequences of modifying the juggernaut are not always foreseeable - people are constantly reflecting on and creating new knowledge about the juggernaut and changing its pace or moving it in a different direction
39
What do Berger and Luckman mean when they say “self-production is always, and if necessity, a social enterprise?
The mental processes related to self production are always considering our position in the social sphere
40
How do human beings create social order if it is not purely instinctual or biological? What is the role of language in this process?
Through relationships | Language allows us to communicate and create social order through our knowledge and experience of the world
41
What role do habitual actions play in creating social order?
Habitual actions create social order in that everyone has a place and a role to play in society
42
How is habitualization related to institutionalizations?
Behaviour that is not habitualized may be seen as deviant. Institutionalizations forces people to habitualize their behaviours, creating normalcy and order
43
How can institutionalizing beliefs or behaviours be considered systems of social control?
They create an order that people must follow. Those who deviate from the social order are punished by society and so people act in a way that is socially acceptable within the institution and are controlled by it
44
Could education, family, or religion be systems of control?
Yes. | Certain behaviour are deemed acceptable and unacceptable in these institutions
45
Ethnomethodology
Study of ordinary members of society and their daily lives/understanding how they navigate the day to day
46
Accounts
The ways in which actors describe certain situations
47
Accounting
People offer their accounts of the world in order to make sense of it
48
Accounting practices
The way one person presents an account and others accept or reject it
49
Harold Garfinkel
Ethnomethodologist
50
Breaching experiments
Researchers violate social reality in order to shed light on the methods by which people construct reality
51
Reification
-products of human activity that become social facts that seem to have always existed
52
Phenemology
Study of society as it appears within the consciousness of its members -social reality is described as it is constructed in the minds of those who experience it
53
Social constructionism
- rejects that social phenomena (ex suicide) have an independent objective existence - reality is socially constructed by members of society
54
Ethnomethodology
- the world is subject to to interpretation and not a solid fact for every member of society - social world is fluid “flimsy” - rules exist because people believe they exists therefore can be contested and changed
55
Intersubjectivity
- ordinary people as well as sociologists assume that if another stood in their shoes they would see the same things - subjective experience is available and understandable by others as well
56
Typifications
Ideal types and what is “normal”
57
Normative paradigm
Approach to research which presupposes “a stable system of symbols and meanings shared by members of a society.” Individual’s behaviour is understood in relation to existing norms, values and role-expectations
58
Interpretive paradigm
- role to role expectation is not pre-existing. Is up for negotiation & must be figured out - made sense of by both actor and the other (wife, lover, client, student, sociologist)
59
Master status
Status that overrides all others in perceived importance Prison judges primarily on this one attribute (criminal for example)

Thinking Sociologically (5 decks)

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