THE PROMISE: MILLS
sociological imagination
one can know his own chances in life only by
becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances.
By the fact of his living he contributes, however minutely,
to the shaping of this society and to the course of its history, even as he is made b
three sorts of questions social analysts ask
What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?
Where does this society stand in human history?
What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?
Troubles and Issues
Milieu and Social Structure
Social Construction
believed to be natural, but is a socially-produced belief, idea, way of organizing the world
products of human effort and social interaction
EX LOVE- socially produced. not natural, necessary, or timeless
what are the two ways to deconstruct social construction
1) look at history change
2) look cross-culturally
Sociology
The study of social life, social change, and the causes and consequences of human behaviorsociety.
Who said Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.
The tradition of all the dea
Karl Marx said this
Social Institution
Social units in societies that direct organized social activities.
Provide rules, roles, & relationships set up to meet human needs and direct human behavior.
HAVE DURABILITY
EXAMPLES- Education, healthcare, BU
Social Structure
Enduring patterns in human behavior.
The social contexts of our lives are not random assortments of events.
They are structured, or patterned, in enduring ways
Sociological Imagination
quality of mind
enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.
Connects 'personal troubles' of individuals and 'public issues of social structure.
the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an i
What does Mills say the social imagination helps you do?
understand fate by locating self in society
people feel discomfort, uneasy, and think it's a private problem. Mills says we meed to connect to society to understand what's going on in our own lives.
Why is social imagination terrible and magnificent
terrible because you're not one of a kind, fate is not your own
magnificent because you're not alone
Who are the theoretical founders
Max Weber
Karl Marx
Emile Durkeim
Who is August Comte (1789-1857)
Theoretical founder of young discipline of sociology
studied why and how societies change
reasoned that you can apply natural science studying to that of society
Created Positivism
Positivism
idea that there are hard and fast principles of how society works
humans aren't acting randomly, particular kinds of social laws that govern human behavior
predicted by certain knowable relationships
generalizability
the extent to which research findings tell us more than statements about the groups studied
the ability to derive general conclusions from particulars
Deductive research
From theory to data
usually positivism (known and predictable relationships), numerical data, World has facts and parts can be measured
examples: Fiji case study- Anne Ducke, satellite TVs put in Fiji, eating disorders increased
Inductive Research
From data to theory. Going in and expecting to be challenged
Usually interpretivist, qualitative
Researchers are more interested in process
EXAMPLE: Privilege, kauhns going in expecting things to be the same
Interpretivist
holds that the social world is full of meanings, interpretations of experiences and it can't be studied like the natural world.
qualitative methods
attempt to collets info about the social world that can't be readily converted to numeric form
describes social process in such detail as to rule out competing possibilities
quantitative methods
seeks to obtain info about the social world that this is already in or can be converted to numer form
hopes to state with some certainty that one condition causes another
Causality
the notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another
reverse causality
a situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B, in fact, is causing A
independent variable
a measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable
dependent variable
outcome you are trying to explain
correlation
association, simultaneous variation in 2 variables
� Malcolm Gladwell, 2005. "Getting In" The New Yorker.
Selection effect vs. treatment effect
� Selection - the people going to elite schools are elite to begin with
� Treatment - the elite schools make the people going there elite
selection effect- modeling agency
treatment effect -The Marine Corps
Sociology
o Study of human society ? people to people interactions
o Interactions between individual action and social structures
o Cultural norms
o Big 3: Gender, Race, Class
� 3 levels of analysis
o Microanalysis - immediate social interaction - small scale
o Mesoanalysis - middle level analysis
o Macroanalysis - large scale
o Spurious relationship
underlying variable causing both variables to grow at the same time
o Sampling
� Take a sample of a population, see a trend, make generalizations to larger population
� Film, Obedience by Stanley Milgram (1965)
o Milgrim Experiment asks how people could commit crimes, are germans unique, submitting to authority
o Do benefits compensate for risks?
o Ethical problem: Deception
measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructe
Socialization
process people learn norms and beliefs of a society.
learn to conform to society
how can we be individual/unique
rely on help of others
through social interaction we fully develop
Rene spitz (1945)
orphanages and mortality rates
nursery: infants were mixed with attendants and visitors; cribs had bars; biggest problem was spreading of the common cold
orphanage: babies were separated from staff; only human contact when staff fed or changed them; cribs
What do we take away from rene spitz?
importance of stimulation and human interaction
Haney, Craig. 2003. "Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and 'Supermax' Confinement.
� with no human contact, prisoners get depressed, paranoid, have hallucinations, panic attacks etc
long time effects
Symbolic interactionism
shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations to people's actions
everytime we do somethinh we have a motivation, but it's shared with others
social norms not natural - through interaction we learn what's normal continually rei
Social construction of reality
something is meaningful, valuable, and real when society tells us it is
George Herbert Mead
Social psychologist
we all have social self and it happens through developments
part of developing personality is to see yourself as others see you
Social self
I= infant, all about them,cannot see beyond rudimentary stage of individual self
me= 2-3, child has social interaction. object that someone else can recognize.self can exist as an object that other people see
infant starts to imagine that other people can
generalized other
can anticipate that there are certain roles and people in the world that might hold you accountable for your own behavior
looking glass self
who you are emerges from how others perceive you
Status
social position an individual occupies
Type of status
Ascribed- born into, didn't choose them, society has assigned it to you (race, gender, age)
no regard with talents, traits, merits
� if we change our ascribed status, it tends to not go over well, not socially acceptable
achieved- did yourself,one that yo
� micro-sociology
how individuals relate to one another, interactions between subtle actions and relations that occur within people
Role theory
Robert Merton
� tacit knowledge
knowledge that is not explicit
� total institution
refers to an institution that controls all the basics of every day life; boarding schools, colleges, army
every single facet of day to day life is regimented/controlled, requires socialization
Dramaturgy
Erving Goffman 1922 - 82
� we are all actors performing on a stage "trying to get the audience to believe us"
� we put our best face forward
Face
esteem that other people hold you in, how people see you
� impression management
- constantly trying to manage how other people perceive us
careful about which parts of ourselves we show to which audiences
ex: waitress being nice to customers but bad talking them when they go back to the kitchen
role
duties of someone who holds particular status
� gender role theory
came about in 1950s, dictates how each gender should act
Male: breadwinner, strong...
Female: nurturing, caregiver, home maker...
Role Strain
somebody in a single status has conflicts among their roles (two roles they must fulfill) Example college athlete must be athlete scholar and celeb
Role conflict
two conflicting statuses (role of friend/roommate, Bill Clinton as womanizer/president)
� tactful blindness
trying to help someone who has "lost face
defensive corrective practice
make a comment, make it known you are aware of it
protective corrective practice
protective corrective practice: your employing tact, helping peer save face (look the other way)
examples: someone having spinach in their teeth when you're on a date
Ethnomethodology - Harold Garfinkle
study of people's methods
access how people get on board with one another
1) context matters
2) people are flexible
context matters
that's sick" can have two meanings (cool, gross); "I'll kill you" can be literal, can involve lover
people construct meanings by drawing on social context
People are flexible
people do not have definite responses to the questions we ask
Amelia Bedilia - takes things very literally (put the lights out - she puts them outside)
� conversation analysis -
records people as they speak/interact with one another
goes back and analyzes it audibly and visually
when do people say what and how, what are the inflections in their voice
not just what you say, how you say it
turn-taking - how do you know when to stop
concerted cultivation
they structure children's leisure time with formal activities
disadvantaged children spend 40 percent more time in unstructured activities than their middle class counter partners
Dunier Talking to women
o Man yelling to women on the street (Entanglements)
� On a successful sidewalk, if something happens to you, others will come to your aid
� Conversation Analysis
� Shows that compliments and questions normally get responses
� The women make clear to the
� The Presentation of Self - Erving Goffman
o Information about an individual helps to define a situation, enabling other sot know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him
� If unacquainted with the individual, observers can get clues form their conduct and appearance
� Anybody's Son Will Do (Gwynne Dyer)
o Young man are not natural soldiers any more than they're natural carpenters or accountants, but it's a trade that almost anybody can learn. Soldiering takes up a much bigger part of your life than most jobs, but it doesn't take a special kind of person.
o Basic training
� Involves a brief but intense period of indoctrination
� It works by applying enormous physical and mental pressure to men who have been isolated from their normal civilian environment and placed in one where the only right way to think and behave is the
Culture
A set of beliefs, traditions, practices
� sum of total categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors and practices
� not the natural environment around us
� passes from one generation to the next
� gives us predictability and normal
Ethnocentrism
The use of one's own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways other individuals or societies generally leading to negative evaluation
� thinking your society does it "the right way"
� example: 15th century exploration - Europeans traveling to other cou
Mitchell Dunier
Sidewalk
Talking to women
� conversation analysis - tape recorder in pocket then broke down length of pauses, voice inflections
� interactional vandalism: people subvert the tacit conversations of everyday talk
� women were left feeling bad and unsettled
� social structure
enduring patterns of human behavior
social contexts are not a random assortment of events, they are structured or patterned
race, class, gender are interlocking positions
� structuration (Anthony Giddens, 1984
two way process by which we shape our social world through individual action and by which we are reshaped by society
Our activities structure (give shape to) the social world around us and at the same time are structured by that social world
Resocialization
the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately through an intense social process that may take place in a total institution
Master status
- one status within a set that stands out or overrides all others
Webber
The protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism
1905
most important social theory book
how powerful shared meaning can become. ex religion
� how is the modern world so different from traditional society
� modern world - follow elected leaders; tradition
Feudalism and capitalism
f= agricultural system, every unit largely self sufficient
C- more rational model for economic life
Why is capitalism better according to webber
1)technology and modern science helps world trade, but math didn't originate in Europe therefore is can't be used to explain something that's strictly european
2) a legal system- not enough explanation because law didn't create capitalism, laws were are a
Protestants
follow Gods word
increase glory of God is ultimate goal
says wasting time is the worst possible thing you could do
whatever your job is that is your calling
more money --> more you're following God
What is today's world like in relation to Protestantism beliefs
don't do it for God anymore
"Iron Cage"= no longer have sight beyond immediate goals
Social deviance
any transgression of socially established norms
always subject to change - social norms and rules are fluid
- Deviance always constant in society, but it evolves depending on context - culture and historical period
Types of deviance
- Informal deviance: minor violations
o Ex: picking your nose - no large punishment, you just sense that something is wrong
- Formal deviance: violation of laws enacted by society ? subject to punishment
o Ex: crime
Lucifer effect
the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action.
o Individuals under high stress and uncertainty
o Deviance is made normal
o Ex: Abu Ghraibe
embeddedness (Mark Granovetter)
Economic relations between individuals or firms are embedded in social networks.
Social Capital
Resources available from your social connections
Functionalist Approach to Deviance and Social Control
Emile Durkheim
- A functionalist approach explains the existence of social phenomena by the functions they perform
o Each part of society has a part in establishing the state - organization
shifts personal issue of suicide to a public one
suicide connect
social networks
a structure of social relationship help together by ties between people
weak ties
between you and someone you're loosely connected to
may not know
not as similar to you
women use less weak ties
strong ties
direct
tend to be very similar to you
bridge social world
value of weak ties
can help you get successful jobs
don't have to see them all the time when things go wrong
give you a new adice on a new opening (you already know what your strong ties know)
-yield in new info
Social Entrepreneur
bridging gap in social network
command flow of info to which others have access
6 degrees of separation
Stanley milgrim
sent package to different parts of the world to see if people could get it to one person
Dunkin Watts
6 degrees experiment with email
Dunbar's number
the number of people you can actually be friends with
100-200
deviance is always what?
constant in society, but it evolves depending on context - culture and historical period
a product of social interactions
functionalist approach
explains the existence of social phenomena by the functions they perform
Emile Durkheim
- Social cohesion
the way people form social bonds, relate to each other, and get along on a day-to-day basis
o Mechanical solidarity
social cohesion based on sameness
� Pre-modern society
� Cohesion stems from reliable similarity of parts
� Low division of labor
� Punishment: collective punishment for deviance
Organic Solidarity
o Organic solidarity: social cohesion based on difference and interdependence of the parts
� Modern society
� Each part is different, but helps the whole
� High division of labor: labor specialization ? increase in cohesion
� Punishment: focus on individu
o Collective conscience:
set of social norms
� Refers to the shared beliefs and values (ways of thinking and knowing), the social force that feels like it's outside every individual
� Acts on and shapes our behavior
� Produced by all of us together (collectively)
� Social force t
- Crime has a function in society
contributes to collective conscience of society
o Committing a crime offends the collective conscience
- Street Crime
: crime committed in public; typically in an urban setting
o Associated with gangs, minority groups, and poverty
o Differential Opportunity Theory (Cloward, Ohlin):
legitimate economic structure and illegitimate opportunity structure exist in every class
Quiet Rage
24 college students, assigned half prisoners, half prison guards, paid them $15 an hour
simulate arrest of prison inmates - police put them in handcuffs, brought them to basement of Stanford psychology department that looked like a prison, gave them unifo
- White-Collar Crime:
offense performed by a professional against a corporation, agency, or other professional entity
- Corporate crime:
offenses committed by officers of a corporation
o Type of white-collar crime
o Ex: Enron, Bernie Madoff
Foucault on Punishment
o 18th century punishment: type of (bodily) punishment is determined by the type of crime that you commit
� "Eye for an eye" mentality
o Modern punishment: target of punishment is the soul
� Soul = the sum of our unique qualities
� Try to reform the soul
o Panopticon
prison structure - circular building with 2 rings
� Teaches prisoners a sense obedience
� Inner ring: guards - can always see the inmates
� Outer ring: inmates - do not know when they are being watched
o Study of marijuana use (1963)
� Is there something distinctly different between marijuana smokers and non-marijuana smokers?
� Enormous public concern that something was really wrong with smokers ? drug use made them deviant
� Process of social learning - people have to learn how to e
Being Sane in Insane Places, D.L. Rosenhan
- What is viewed as normal in one culture may be different than what is viewed as normal in another culture
- Claims that diagnoses are observations
- 1st Experiment with pseudopatients in real mental hospitals
o Pseudopatients: all tell the truth about t
The Mark of a Criminal Record, Devah Pager
- Focuses on consequences of incarceration for employment for both blacks and whites
- The effect of a criminal record on employment opportunities
o Consider stigma associated with imprisonment - how do employers react to imprisonment?
o What is the "cred
recdivism
being a repeat offender
Social stratification
When individuals or groups occupy unequal positions in society based on socioeconomic factors it is called
Stratification Paradox
We are more democratic, yet we have sky rocketed in income inequality
America's stratification
6% of the population controls half of the wealth
� America is the most stratified nation in the industrial world
Aristocracy
� Ruled by the elite
Meritocracy
� Ruled by the merit
� We believe in this
We as Americans don't like the idea of Durable Inequalities which are transferred from generation to generation
Durable inequalities
A caste system
Social equality
� A condition whereby no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on non-natural conventions exist
social class
Large group that occupies a similar economic position in a wider society
Class systems differ from caste in three main ways:
Class systems are fluid�boundaries between classes are not clear cut
Class positions are in some part achieved�social mobility is more common in this system
Class is economically based
o Bourgeoisie v Proletariat
Karl Marx o
Fundamental split between the owners of capital and the workers who don't own capital.
� Believed that the maturing of industrial capitalism would widen the gap between the have and have nots
� Thought wages could never be substantial
� Le pet
Webber Theories of Stratification
o Stratification isn't solely income based or about who controls labor and who doesnt
o There are other differences besides property like sills and credentials
o Weber said that status mattered
� Status refers to the esteem, or "social honor" given to ind
social mobility
refers to the movement of individuals between different class partitions as a result of changes in occupation, wealth, or income.
o Growing belief that you can make it
� American Dream
� Horatio Alger
Bourdieu (1930-2002)
Culture - Class Nexus
some students in french classroom better understood and called on more. Appreciated museums etc
ELITES CULTIVATE CULTURE CAPITAL
Lauren rivera
Employers are not just looking for a degree they're looking for prestigious one
look for elites
Social closure
Anyway a group tries to maintain exclusive control over resources, limiting access to them
� Culture Capital
Ease and familiarity you have with "high brow" culture.
� Habitus:
Set of dispositions inscribed on the body? you character your instincts
� Taste
: Hidden form of symbolic power that maintains and legitimizes hierarchy and oppression in everyday practice
o Wielding a powerful tool that speaks volumes
o High brow v Low brow culture
Privilege
� How is privilege made
� The elite's no longer see this as born, they think they've earned it
� How is class reproduced through culture
o Upper class want their children to have a range of talents
� Concerned cultivation
o Working class? Unstructured fre
Broken windows
Theory of Deviance: explains how social context and social cues impact the way people act
o The way you see your social surroundings affects your behaviors
o Deviance depends on social surroundings and the conditions of your social circumstance
� Power of
privilege conclusion
if adolescents elit and then become elite at a investment bank etc they will experience social closure because they think everyone gets what they deserve and over look working class and poor
Capitalism and Marx
� Exchange are driven by competition
� Replaces feudalism and begins with European industrialization
� Hallmarks
o Urbanization
o Division of labor between owners and workers
o Efficiency, Innovation,
� Workers will demand revolution and band together ove
� Superstructure
o Social and ideological structures
o Religion
� The opiate of the masses
Make factory workers believe although life is hard they will find happiness in after life
� Capitalist Base
economic relations of production
you have to continue working to pay off education
massmedia makes you want to work because you want to buy what they're advertising
� All the things in your life connect back to a capitalist system
False consciousness
hard work leads to success
makes you want to work harder
consumer goods perpetuate inequality
alienation
4 processes
labor
other people
self
products
system of work controls the worker
all individuals become commodities
no power to change own world
gentrafication
middle class going back to city
urban renewall
but by revitalizing buildings and bringing their groceries and such they create competition and boot out working class. working class can't compete
egoistic suicide
too little integration into society
not well integrated into a social group
anomic suicide
aimlessness
not enough regulation in life
Altruistic suicide
too much integration in society
without that group feel meaningless
fatalistic
life too predictable
too many rules guiding you
primary deviance
first act of rule breaking that may incur label of deviant and influence how people think about and act toward you
Stigma
negative social label that not only changes others' behaviors toward a person but also alters that person's self-concept and social identity
labeling theory
individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels over time form the basis of their self-identity
equality of opportunity
idea that inequality of condition is acceptable as long as the rules of the game remain fair
equality of condition
idea that everyone should have an equal starting point
equality of outcome
each player should end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the game
secondary deviance
occurs after primary deviance and as a result of your new identity
absolute poverty
the point at which a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members
relative poverty
measurement of poverty based on the percentage of the median income in a given location
breaching experiment
seeks to examine people's reactions to violations of commonly accepted social rules or norms.
ethnographic methods
Shamus khan
participant observation and key informant interviewing.
qualitative research design aimed at exploring cultural phenomena.
capture the "social meanings and ordinary activities" [8] of people (informants) in "naturally occurring settings