Thursday

What is sociology?
For example, we dont study sneezing
However, we do study how people interpret or react to sneezing
Why do we say,"bless you" after a sneeze?
Anything that pertains to socially meaningful human behavior
What do we study?
But we attribute meaning to it
Saying "bless you" is really saying "I acknowledge your worth as a fellow being"
E.g. "you're a creepy sneezing guys on the bus, and I dont want to say bless you ,
because you might want to talk to me"
It is a taken for granted a ritual that we perform and not performing it says something
Sneezing is an involuntary and inherently meaningless behavior - its something that mammals do
The sociology of sneezing says a lot about social boundaries - who is an "insider" vs. an "outsider"
and who we consider worthy of respect, etc.
Sociology is a way of seeing the world that leads to systematic and purposeful data collection and
analysis
It stems from the premise: "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences
(WI Thomas, 1928)
Together we "socially construct" much of our reality (Berger and Luckmann 1966)
Things we take for granted and seem natural may be arbitrary and done very differently
elsewhere or at other times in own history
Families, race, gender, leisure
Sociology makes the familiar seem strange, and sometimes the strange seem familiar
Cultural anthropology more often takes the goal of making the strange seem more familiar
(ethnographies of less developed societies); while sociology focuses more on modern developed
societies and studies what seems natural but isnt
We connect our own personal biographies with history
We see that how we live is part of a huge variation in human societies and only one way
that social life is accomplished
This is part of the "sociological imagination" (C. Wright Mills)
There are many "others" and "outsiders" within our own society whose behaviors may be thought
of as exotic, strange, and perhaps just wrong
Thats why sociology is not one topic or theory, but a way of seeing and doing research
"The sociology of.."
Culture, education, religion, sports, knowledge, medicine, the family, organizations, the
economy, etc
There are many overlapping topics and theories in sociology
Sometimes to interpret how people think and make sense of their worlds
Sometimes to build and test hypotheses connected with theories about how the social
world works
No single theory can explain everything-so we shoot for "middle range" theories that
generalize to certain social phenomenon
We collect and analyze data in a systematic way
These researchers would engages in systematic and purposeful observations and
Some sociologists would be very interested in what it means to go to college- that is, why this is a
meaningful activity for people
So what does this say?
Week 1
Thursday, April 03, 2014
9:35 AM
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These researchers would engages in systematic and purposeful observations and
interviewing in order to explore the meaning of college, perhaps how this has changed over
time, or varies from one group to another
Others would be more interested in how college fits within a causal model- that is, a theory about
how college fits within a larger social system.
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Tuesday
Theory and Method
The family
The legal system
The university
A social institution is a group of social positions connected by social relations that performs a
social role
Each of theses has a set of different position ( e.g. father, uncle, brother) that are constituted by
social ties, and together performs a social role ( e.g. social support )
Institutions rely on other institutions in order to exist and to have meaning
Sociologists study and institutions
It is a set of positions ( teachers, researchers, students (
With social relations oriented to the role of creating knowledge
It comes about a speific time and place - 19th century France and Germany. Why
Sociologiy itself is an institution
Individual thinkers and "wise men" ( e.g. Confucius)
Historians (chroniclers of war, etc )
Not much sociology in agrarian empires
Social thought needs a community to carry it down, to preserve it and build upon
Other institutions needed to be in place
No longer sacred roles that couldnt be questions
Matter of facet attitude about the social world
Create their own community in search of knowledge
The development of sociology is really about the development of a community of
thought - with internal structures and with relations with broader social world
Rise of intellectual specialists
Societies needed to become "disenchanted" (weber - more later on that )
Galileo, darwin - controversies are relatively rare in the progress of sciences
Social orthodoxy - the 'naturalness" of the social order
Sociology would have gotten you killed
Harder to develop than the rise of natural sciences
Institutions in the realms of politics, education, ad religion had to align to allow the social...
Rise of social science
What does it mean to be a member of a society? Does it give us our freedom or does
it take our freedom away?
Grand theories about the origins of society human nature m and were societies are
headed in the future
Early sociologist were broad thinkers - heirs of enlightenment philosopers- and much of
whay they did was highly theoretical
The importance of theory
Thomas Hobbes
Human nature is to dominate one another (by force if necessary)
A social contract in which we exchange our freedom for security
Society is
Coined the term sociology, but initially wanted to call it "social physics"
Auguste Comte
An attempt to create a science of society
The founding of sociology
A brief sociology of sociology
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Monday, April 07, 2014
5:02 PM
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Coined the term sociology, but initially wanted to call it "social physics"
A materialistic theory - everything has a chain of causation
The aim should to find the most generalizable laws possible to explain the most
phenomena possible
Saw everything social ( individuals, instructions, society) moving through three
phases: theological, metaphysical, and scientific (positivists)
Not much read today...
Late 19th o early 20th century
Comte's lineage to be a scientific as possible
Carried the forward and is still widely read
Famously, showed that committing suicide was not only about individuas
psychological state
We individuals are like cells in a body, ad when we arebt told what to do,
we are more likely to go off the deep end
This can happen for a number of reasons, including a rapid shift in our
position in society
But from a lack of social integration into a larger social body
Modern societties are divided into jobs ( a difioin of labor) within
instituoins that have functions just like organs in a body
When properly integreated, they contribute to the whole: the economy is
like the blood that brings nourishment to the parts of the body, the
government is like the brain, and the sociologists are like part of the
pbrain that can dianose problems
Durkheims theory stresses society as a type of goranism where different
instutions each have a porpose
Emile Durkheim (FIRST IMPORTANT ONE)
Loss of freedom through private property
Human nature as malleable
Society is
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Not sociologists ( more of an economists)
But generates a conflict base theory for society
Social classes (the haves and have nots ) are whats important
Karl Marx
Advances Marx's conflict based approach
Other social division - such as status groups, and political parts - also
matter for understanding society and social instituions
History as a messy multi sided conflict with many fronts
Broadens conflict byong economic groups
Also takes issue with the idea that sociology should try to be like the hard
sciences
Introduces the idea that sociology is more interpretive - we seek to understand
how people attribute meaning to their actions
Our goal as sociologists should be to understand (verstehen) at a deeper
humanistic level of social institutions
Max Weber
Comparing societies with one another
Looking over long historical periods
Most contemporary macro-sociology is scaled-back somewhat
Take webers concern with understanding meaningful action to
interpersonal behaviors
Micro-sociology studies face to face interactions
Early sociology tended to be macro-sociology
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interpersonal behaviors
Conflict vs. cooperation
Key dynamics of society
Approach to reasrch questons
Casual vs interpretive
PICTURE
Key dimensions still imoprtand today
A deductive approcach to research
PICTURE
Inductie
PICTURE
Approcahes to reasearch
Thursday
The Sociology of Culture
Comte, durkheim functionalism - society like an organism
Karl. marx, conflict - society is groups competing for important resources
Weber - sociology needed to approach the interpretive aspects of people rather th
Comte - rule of three stages
Durkheim - society like organism
Marx - conflict based on social classes
Weber - multi dimensional conflict and interpretive approach verstehen
Monty python "we dont have a king"
Qualitative & Quantitative Trade off
Research methods are standard rules that social scientists follow when trying to establish as relationship
between social elements
Quantitative methods
Seek to obtain information about the social world
Starts with empirical observation 1.
Then works to form theory 2.
Determines a correlation exists by noticing if a change is observed 3.
Inductive approach to research
Approaches to Research
Giving Voice
Inductive approach that seeks to understand the world from the standpoint of poorly understood,
mis-characterized or exoticized groups
Often focuses on stigmatized and "outsider" groups- the poor, mentally ill, spring breakers or isla
vista rioters
Message of this research is often that these people are no so different (make strange familiar)
Differs most from the scientific model
Starts with theory
Develops a hypothesis
A deductive approach to research
Approaches to Research
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Develops a hypothesis
Makes empirical observation
Analyses that data collected though observation to convert, register, or modify the original
theory
These to be quantitative and explanatory (causal)
Generalizability seeks to infer from a sample to population 0- that is a sample is representative
Samples are often people, but could be larger groups (cities) or events (riots)
Generalizability and Validity
Validity is concerned with accurately explaining and representing a given part of the social world
Tradeoff between number of cases and the detail gathered on each case
Quali - research sacrifices being able to generalize its findings to a wider population in order to
have more valid insights about the cases it studies
Qaun - research sacrifices a deep understanding of each case in order to make broad (general
casual) claims about population
Sociologists often conduct research to try to establish causation
To establish causation, correlation and time order are established and alternative explanation are
ruled out
Alternative explanations are easily ruled out with experimental conditions
Causality vs Correlation
Spuriousness is unlikely in experiments with random assignment
Theories of higher education
The individual-centered ability theory - Theory most strong suggest that the link between higher
education and higher earnings is spurious
Have attended college<-+- Individual ability, preparation, talent -+-> current earnings
------>
Essentially we compare two individuals of the same preparation and ability - one when to college
and one who did not, if on average they dont different in earnings, than that would show a
spurious relationship
Tends to pursue goals of interpretation
Inductive
Sacrifices generalizability for great validity
Main challenge is that lack of objected measures
Qual Rese
Tends to pursue the causality
Deductive
Sacrifices depth for breadth of explanation
Main difficulty is accounting for alternative explanations
Quan Res
Sociology has a more diverse set of goals than the natural sciences
Methods summary
Substantive areas of study
The structure of sociological subfields
Culture can be loosely defined as a set of beliefs, traditions, and knowledge
The sociology of culture
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da
Section
TA: Liliana Rodriguez
TA office hours: Tuesdays 1-3 SSMS 3011
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Tuesday
Socialization
Socialization is the process by which individuals internalize the values beliefs and norms of a given
society and learn to function as a member of that society
What is socialization?
Socialization cannot explain everything about a persons development and personality
Biology is also a very important component
It is a combination of biology and social interactions that makes us who we are
We are not "blank slates" (tabula rasa)
Limits of socialization ( nature vs nurture)
Families, schools, peers, and the media are most important socializing agents
Military, monasteries, mental hospitals
A total institution is a n institution in which one is totally immersed that controls all basics of day
to day life
For most people, the primary unit of socialization
Class-based differences may be especially consequential
Differences in socialization practices across social groups
Cultural capital
Stresses abstract self reflection
Budgeting time
"concerted cultivation" by parents
Children with greater privilege learn elaborated codes of communication
Less says more - e.g. spanking
More concrete do's and don'ts
Less supervised time - "achievement of natural growth"
Children from less privilege backgrounds learn restricted codes
Families
Good teachers can make a difference! But what makes a good teacher remains mysterious
Disadvantages working class kings
Rewards the orientations already instilled by privileged backgrounds
Teachers - although well-meaning - may have a "hidden curriculum"
The schooling system heavily favors elaborated codes (cultural capital)
e.g. Le Rosey, Chateau de Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland
74,000 annual base fee
Elite private schools
Socialize elite into demonstrating the ease of privilege
Schools
Friends can help reinforce messages taught by family or school
Peer groups often develop their own sets of rules and expose one another to distinct
pressures
Kids "disqualify" themselves
Opposition cultures from less advantaged groups
Peers
Books, posters, web pages, clay tablets, and radio
Media are any formats or vehicles that carry, preset, or communicate information
Mass media refers to any form of media that reaches the mass of people
Hegemony refers to the impact of media on cultures and how people and societies shape,
Media
Agents of Socialization
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5:11 PM
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Hegemony refers to the impact of media on cultures and how people and societies shape,
and are shaped by, the dominant culture
Sees one own culture as inherently better than other cultures
Ethnocentrismis a real lack of sociological imagination
Not the same as moral relativism
Cultural relativismsays we should suspend our judgment and not assign value to
cultural differences
Media and Culture
The media, especially advertisements, play a large role in the maintenance of consumerism:
the belief that happiness and fulfillment can be achieve through acquisition of material
possession.
To understand socialization better, we need to understand every face ti face behavior
Socialization doesnt just stop - it happens everyday through social activity
Social Interaction
Robert Mertons role theory provides a way to describe social interaction
Ascribed statuses we are both born with
Achieve statuses we earn through individual effort or have imposed by others
A status is a position in society
Roles are behaviors expected from a particular status
We are socialized into them
Statues and roles vary widely across societies and over time
People give meaning or value to ideas or objects through social interactions
An ongoing process that is embedded in our every day interactions
Back to the social construction of reality
Statuses and Roles
Becoming a doctor or marijuana smoking
Is a micro level theory based on the idea that people act in accordance with shared
meanings, orientations, and assumptions
Symbolic interactionism
Dating
Views social life as theatrical performance in which we are all actors stages with roles,
scripts, costumes and sets,
Erving Goffmans dramaturgical theory
Transgendered persons
Are rigorous micro level approaches to how reality is a fragile propositions that needs
constant (unconscious) up keep
Ethnomethodology and conversation analysts
The social construction of reality
Wednesday
Even when well meaning theses agents often dull or actively suppress our sociological
imaginations
Family, peers, school, media
Agents of socialization
Functionalism is not a theory of micro-interaction
The "looking-glass self"
The individual emerges from ones ability to assume the point of view of others and imagine
Charles Horton Cooley
Symbolic Interactionism
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The individual emerges from ones ability to assume the point of view of others and imagine
how those others see us
A theory about how the social self develops over the course of childhood
Infants know only the "I" but through social interaction they learn about "me" and the
"other"
Kids develop a concept of the "generalized other" which allows them to apply norms and
behaviors learned in specific situations to new situations
Mead stressed the importance of imitation , play, and games on helping children recognize
one another, distinguish between self and other, and grasp the idea that other people can
have multiple roles
George Herbert Mead
"All the worlds a stage"
We all have our parts (roles), and we play them on different stages ( social contexts ).
In modern societies, the self becomes an important totem ( we worship it though various
acts of dereference - face work)
Behavioral norms associated primarily with males or females
Gender roles can be more powerful and influential than other roles that people fill
Gender roles
Vary pitch
Avoid talking about work
Talk about yourself more than usual
Actor speech
Men
Laugh
Actor speech
Make appreciation
Take short turns
Talk about yourself and drinking
Women
Goffman's Dramaturgical Theory
Because our reality is socially constructed, an unexpected change in that reality can be upsetting,
frustrating, or just plain incomprehensible
We all have a stake in maintaining consensus on shared meaning so that our society can continue
to function smoothly
Harold Garfinkel developed a method for studying social interactions, called breaching
experiments, which involved having collaborators exhibit "abnormal" or "atypical" behaviors in
social interactions in order to see how people would react
"Doing gender"
Forms the background for action
A taken for granted expectancy
We assume gender
If our assumptions are not met or are broken, it is disturbing - it elicits ontological insecurity
We are accountable for gender - it is omnirelevant in that is the background to each and
every performance
Gender is inescapable social category
Ethnomethodology/conversation analysis
Social groups form the building blocks for society and for most social interactions
Micro-macro connections - interactions create social structures, by social structures shape
interactions
Groups interact with one another through individuals
A social network is a set of relations - a set of dyads - held together by ties between individuals
A node is a social actor ( usually an individual person) while a tie is a set of stories that explains
From interactions to social groups
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A node is a social actor ( usually an individual person) while a tie is a set of stories that explains
our relationship to the other members of our network
The sociologist georg simmel argued that the key element in determining the form of social
relations in a group is the size of the groups
"birds of a feather flock together"
People like people who are like them, and people like people who they spend time with, and
people who spend time with one another tend to like each other more
Homophily
From dyads to triads
Mediator - the conflict resolver
Tertius gaudens - the person who profits from disagreement from the others
Divide et impera - "divide and conquer" the individual who purposefully beak up the other
two
When a third person joins a dyad, that person can fill the role of
Reciprocity
Closure
Balance theory
Social Networks
Section
Agency - A person or thing which power is exerted or an end is achieved
Structure - The way that a group of people are organized
Agency and Structure influence each other
A set of relationship between people
Social Institution - a family is a social institution.
Weber - interpretive sociology. Concerned about the interactions between things
Compared to a living orgnanism. Everything need to function
Problem (That marx opposes ) -
Durk - functionalism, functional theory. Little parts work all together.
The have and have nots of money
Everything centers around the economy
Marx - conflict based theory, conflict amongst social classes
Three main founders of Sociology
Connect own social experiences with (historical) structures
Difference of own life experiences in relation to society
Look beyond and see why you are were you are at
Personal problem vs public problem
Sociological Imagination
People cant see things the way they are
Mystification of reality
Middle class blaming the poor for person problem
Blaming outcast groups for personal problems
Acting against own interest
False conscientiousness
Media, parents
Social construction of reality
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We create our own false consciousness because we see media. We construct own reality.
Reflection - constructiong
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Tuesday
Deviance and Social Control
Minor transgressions of these norms can be described as informal deviance
Formal deviance or crime involves the violation of laws
Social deviance is any transgression of socially established norms
Some likely exceptions (incest taboo, within-group homicide)
What is considered deviant has very little clear basis in biology
Behaviors we find acceptable are highly deviant in other societies and times, and vice versa,
It is socially constructed
What is Social Deviance?
Normative compliance is the act of abiding by society's norms or simply following the rules of
group life
Social control is the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals
Are unspoken rules and expectations about peoples behavior
Help maintain a base level of order and cohesion in society and form a foundation for formal
social control
W are all simultaneously agents and objects of social order
Informal social sanctions:
Why isnt there more deviance?
Density and interconnectedness of social networks
Social cohesion refers to the way people form social bonds, relate to each other, and get along on
a day to day basis
Paradoxically, some deviance helps produce group cohesion
Some level of deviance helps maintain cohesive bonds - "we" becomes cleared in opposition to a
"them"
Mechanical solidarity- based on the sameness of society's parts or members or
Organic solidarity - based on the interdependence of specialized parts or members
Durkheim theorized that social cohesion is established either through:
Linked with mechanical solidarity
Punitive justice is focused on making the violator suffer and thus defining the boundaries of
acceptable behavior
Linked to organic solidarity
Rationalization of legal system
Rehabilitative justice examines the specific circumstances of an individual transgressor and
attempts to find ways to rehabilitate him or her
A functionalist Theory
Literally anti-social
The quintessentially deviant act
Recall that Durkheim saw society like an organism
Conflict and unrest are a sign of underlying social-structural problems
Individual unhappiness and societal conflict are symptoms of an under lying lack of social
organization
The degree to which individuals are interwoven with one another into a group
Can arise from a lack of social integration
The rules that guide daily life and lead to expectations
Or lack of social regulation
A quantitative deductive approach
Social Theory of Suicide
Week 4
Monday, April 21, 2014
4:59 PM
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A quantitative deductive approach
People are driven by their passions
And it doesnt necessarily make them happy to fulfill these
We need society to give us reasonable limits to our desires
Why aren't rock stars the happiest people eon earth?
Without societal limits, we are miserable
Robert Merton's strain theory argues that deviance occurs when a society does not give all its
members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals
Conformity
Retreatism
Innovation
Ritualism
Rebellion
Lack of Integration
Symbolic interactionism takes a micro view of society, examining the beliefs and assumptions
people bring to their everyday interactions to find the causes or explanations for deviance
People see how they are labeled and accept the label as being "true"
People behave the way that they think someone with their labeled should behave
Labeling theory
Symbolic Interactionist Theory of
Thursday
Social Stratification
In this room , those law - abiding citizens are deviants
Deviance is largely socially constructed
Punishment and social cohesion
Durks ehory of suicde
Mertons theory of role strain
Functionalists Theories of deviance and social control
Microlevel perspective
Focus on learning and socialization
Symbolic interactionistApproaches
Recap
Explains how social context and social cues impact the way individuals act
People who wouldnt exhibit a certain behavior in one social context might do so in another
context where the behavior seems more permissible
Broken Windows Theory of deviance (zimbardo)
Informal social control of neighborhood and community
"Eyes on the street" (jane jacobs)
Negative social label that changes your behavior toward a person;
Also changes that person's self-concept and social identity
Has serious consequences in terms of the opportunities made available- or rather, not mad
available, - to people in a stigmatized group
Stigma
Symbolic interactionist theories of deviance
Inequality that has become institutionalized
Social Stratification refers to systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise intended
or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships
Social Stratification
Inequality as Natural and Inevitable
Hobbes saw society as unequal, but thought thats what gives us our freedom ( from being killed)
View of inequality
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Hobbes saw society as unequal, but thought thats what gives us our freedom ( from being killed)
Inequality as Unnatural
In the 18th century Jean-Jacques Rouseau argued that private property creates social inequality
and that this inequality ultimately leads to social conflict
Popular and "common sense" views see inequality as natural, inevitable and perhaps even good
for society.
More than 60 years of cumulative social stratification research shows that inequality is largely
socially constructed though laws, policies, and institutions (especially schooling) that favors those
with greater power and privilege
Is social inequality an extension of natural instincts for dominance and survival?
Cooperation, sharing, and helping behaviors are common among many animals
Unequal rewards elicit negative emotional responses in many species
When people say something is "natural" they generally dont understand nature.
Legitimating inequality
Some positions in society are more important, require special talents, and sacrifice though
training - and these positions must therefore be incentivized with greater rewards
Inequality a Functional
Ontological equality is the notion that everyone is created equal in the eyes of god
Inequality is acceptable so long as everyone has the same opportunities for advancement
and is judged by the same standards
Almost all modern capitalist societies claim this is the most important determinant of
success
Equality of opportunity
Everyone in society should end up with the same "rewards" regardless of starting point,
opportunities, or contributions
Equality of outcome
Idea that everyone should have an equal starting point from which to pursue his or her goals
Equality of condition
Standards of Equality
Inequality is recent in human history ( less than 1 percent of our time here on earth)
Inequality increased and has only recently decreased
Increasing technology, prosperity, population growth
Suggests that Rousseau was more correct- if life was so bad before society, how did we ever
prosper enough to settle down
Paradoxically, more surplus create more inequality
Archeological evidence shows inequality really only becomes prominent with the rise of
agriculture
Varieties of Human Stratification Systems
Estate system is a politically based system of stratification characteristics by limited social mobility
Caste System is a system of stratification on hereditary notions of religious and theological purity
and generally offers no prospects for social mobility
Class System is an economically based system of stratification with somewhere loose social
mobility based on roles in the production process rather than individual characteristics
REST OF SLIDES IN BOOK
Socio-economic status (SES) refers to an individuals position in a stratified social order
Social mobility - the movement between different positions within as system of social
stratification in any given society can be either horizontal or vertical and can take place on the
individual or group level in ones lifetime or inter-generationally
Structural mobility is mobility that is inevitable from change sin the economy, such as the
Social mobility
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Structural mobility is mobility that is inevitable from change sin the economy, such as the
expansion of high0tech jobs in the past 20 years
Exchange mobility occurs when people essentially trade positions - the number of overall jobs
stays the same, with some people moving up into better jobs and others moving down into worse
ones
Section
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Tuesday
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
Remember that something that is a "social construct" is a real because it is real in tits
consequences
Biology plays a role, but it is highly malleable as evidenced in temporal and cross cultural
variation
Theory
Qualitative inductive approaches examine social construction in moment to moment
interaction
Qualitative deductive approaches refine and test how theses constructions impact people at
a general level
Method
Social Construction
Men and women are inherently different because of biology
A form of biological reductionism
This would be using gender essentialismto explain complex social behaviors
So you might think
Sex refers to the natural or biological differences that distinguish males and females
Sexuality refers to the desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and behavior
Gender consists of a set of social arrangements and role expectations that are built around sex.
All are at least partly socially constructed realities
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
However, the two-sex model is a recent scientific "discovery"
Many notions of sexuality are already inflected with gender ( "masculine" sperm &
"feminine" egg
Many believe that there are inherently only two sexes - male and female- and that all people fall
into one group or the other
Sex is more of a continuum(both in genotype and phenotype)
Doctors and parents socially construct a two sex split by correcting "mistakes" ( if they
anticipate you wont pee standing up or penetrate sexually..)
Evidence suggests that we need to embrace a more expansive definition of sex that goes beyond
two rigid and distinct categories
Sex: A process in the Making
Much like gender differences, sexual practices vary across time and place, supporting the notion
that sexuality is much a social construct as gender
Sexuality -sociology in the bedroom
Gender roles are sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany ones status as a male or female
Evidence shows that gender roles have more to do with a social status than biology
Not associated with physicality or business acumen
Theses were rude and boorish traits
Instead he would be kind intellectual with a taste for poetry
The ideal man of the 1700s
When a person's sex is the bases of prejudicial beliefs and behaviors
Sexism and sex stereotypes
Agents of Socialization
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014
9:21 AM
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When a person's sex is the bases of prejudicial beliefs and behaviors
Studies show that gender inequality is rampant in schools
Boys and girls are treated differently by teachers, and there are different expectations for their
behavior and performance
The textbooks and other materials used in school often reinforce gender stereotypes
Feminism is an intellectual, consciousness raising movement based on the idea that women and
men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect
Feminism seeks to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life
Gender structures social relations on unequal ground, and power is fundamentally at play when
we talk about gender differences
Feminism
Women still face many challenges in the working world today, including unequal pay, sexual
harassment, sexism, tracking to certain kinds of jobs, the "feminization" of jobs, the glass ceiling
and many more
Women in the Workplace
Gender essentialism and occupation
Job Queues
Example: why women often play the bass guitar in bands
e.g. women have better "front-office" personalities
Employers use gender as a shorthand for other qualities
Job advertisement
Promotion ladders
Organization that have these (e.g. the army) tend to be more integrated
Lack of formal personnel practices
Statistical discrimination
Gender in the workplace
Thursday
Race and Identity
Race can be defined as a group of people who share a set of characteristics - usually physical
ones - and are said to share a common bloodline
You might think race is a biological reality
There is more biological variation within racial groups between them
However, race is clearly a socially constructed - racial divisions change over time and across social
contexts
Race is imposed (usually based on physical differences) - often in ways that are hierarchical,
exclusive, and unequal
The myth of Race
Ethnicity is a voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchical, fluid, cultural, and not so closely linked with
power differences
Groups that were once considered races can become ethnicities over time and they are
assimilated
Race and ethnicity acan and often do overlap - but they are distinct concepts
Race versus ethnicity
Racismis the belief that members of separate race possess different and unequal human traits
The uses of race
Explotation
You might think that racism led o slavery, but that would be too simplistic!
Slavery (and the plantation economy) in the U.S. was a strong basis for the social construction of
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First African-Americans were not slaves, but indentured servants
Slavery emerges to promote and justify free labor
Grows out of global commodity chain ( guns, slaves, and tobacco)
Slavery (and the plantation economy) in the U.S. was a strong basis for the social construction of
racial division
Ethnocentrism (the judgment of other groups by one's own standards and values) and bias against
darker skin predates our understanding of race
Rise of scientific categorization and the dominance of European man
Race as we know it developed in the 1700s
The (incorrect) application of evolution theory to the social world
The notion that some groups of races evolved more than others and were better fit to
survive and even rule other races
Becomes more fully developed as Social Darwinism
Backers of eugenics (the pseudo-science of genetic lines and the inheritable traits they pass on
from generation to generation_ claimed that traits could be traced though bloodlines and bred
into population for positive traits out of them or negative
Origins of the Myth of Race
Prejudice refers to negative thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group
Pure discrimination 1.
Statistical discrimination 2.
Institutionalized discrimination 3.
Discrimination: unfair actions resulting from prejudice due to the categorizing of people by a
characteristic such as race/ethnicity, gender or class
Maintaining the Myth of Race
Oppression - pure discrimination
Ambiguity of racial divisions leads to forced identification (Jews in Nazi Germany) or extreme
measures in "outing" a person (e.g. Burakumin in Japan)
A deductive casual approach to stigma
What difference does incarceration make in shaping stratification outcomes?
The problem of SPURIOUSNESS in causality!
Statistical Discrimination
Social conflict may generate inequality, but what keeps it going
Suggests that institutions (economy, schools, laws )
Institutional Oppression
The one-drop rule evolved from US laws forbidding miscegenation, was the belief that "one
drop" of black blood makes a person black.
Application of this rule kept the white population "pure" and limped anyone with black
blood into one category
Theories of Institutional racism
Zero tolerance policies in schools
Sentencing of criminals(crack vs. power cocaine)
Stop and frisks
"Objective" laws and rules are often used in very subjective that target minorities
Maintaining the myth of race
An ethnic identity becomes racialized when it is subsumed under a forced label, racial
marker, or "otherness"
Racialization is the formation of new racial identity in which new ideological boundaries of
difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people
Racial realities
Segregation is the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or
Minority-Majority group relation
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Segregation was official policy in the US, particularly in the South, until the 1960s
Despite being illegal for over 40 years, there is still ample evidence of segregation in
American society today, particularly in schools, housing, and prisons
Segregation is the result of policies - and not simply a "natural" result of people soring
themselves
Segregation is the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or
ethnicity
REDLINING
Highly "poverty traps"
Massey and Denton propose is the main reason for poverty among African- Americans
Whites bid up the price of rental predominantly of white neighborhoods
Decease the tax base, especially hitting education
Wealth, commercial resources, and jobs leave the areas
Racial and Ethnic neighborhood segregation
Achievement and bias
Stereotypes can affect student performance
Small differences can be magnified over time
Cumulative disadvantage
Schooling
While overt racism is, for the most part, considered unacceptable in American today, a new kind
of racism is on the rise in American and Elsewhere that focuses on the cultural and national
differences, rather than racial ones
Prejudice, discrimination, and the new racism
Section
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