Chapter 1 Flashcards
Violence
The use of physical force to cause pain, injury, death, or damage to property, destructiveness aimed at some targeted other
Social Problem
A social condition or pattern of behaviour that people believe warrants public concern and collective action to bring about change, because they systematically harm or disadvantage a significant number of people
Sociology
The academic and scholarly discipline that engages in systematic study of human society and social interactions
Society
A large number of individuals that share the same geographical territory and are subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations, the groups and organizations within
Discrimination
Actions or practices of dominant group members that have harmful impact on members of subordinate groups
Dominant group
The group whose members are disproportionately at the top of the hierarchy, with max access to the society’s power resources, ex. political office, ownership of the means of production
Subordinate groups aka minority groups
Those whose members do not occupy such positions of power as the dominant group
Hate crime
Discrimination acted out in the form of violence, violence motivated by prejudice against people on the basis of racialized identity, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation
Verstehen
Understanding or insight, enables individuals to see the world as others see it and empathize with them, Weber
Sociological imagination
The ability to see the relationship between an individual’s experiences and larger society in which they are contextualized, connecting the private troubles of individuals to public issues of a society, Mills
Public issues
Matters beyond a person’s control that originate at the regional or national level, can be resolved only by collective action
Micro-level analysis
Small group relations and social interactions among individuals
Macro-level analysis
Social processes occurring at the societal level, large scale organizations, major societal institutions, ex. government, politics, the economy
Theory
A set of logically related statements that attempt to describe, explain, and occasionally predict social events, explaining relationships between social concepts/phenomena, ex. ethnicity & unemployment, a framework for organizing our observations
Perspective
An overall approach or viewpoint towards a subject
Social change
The alteration, modification or transformation of public policy, culture, or social institutions over time, has a short/medium/long term temporal dimension aka lasting effect
Micro-level solutions
Focus on how individuals operate within small groups to try to remedy a problem that affects them, their family/friends
Primary groups
Small less specialized groups in which members engage face-to-face, emotion based interactions over an extended period of time, groups with which one routinely shares more personal experiences in life
Mid-range solutions to problems
Focus on how secondary groups and formal organizations can assist individuals in overcoming issues, social problems best reduced by reaching one person at a time
Grassroots groups
Prganizations started by ordinary people who work in concert to deal with a perceived problem in their neighbourhood, city, province, territory or nation
Social movement
An organized group that acts collectively to promote or resist change through collective action
Macro-level solutions to problems
Focus on how large scale social institutions may be persuaded to become involved in remedying social problems
Special-interest group
A political coalition composed of individuals or groups sharing a specific interest they wish to protect or advance with the help of the political system, aka pressure groups/lobbies
Collective behaviour
Voluntary, spontaneous, activity of a large number of people thats typically violates dominant group norms and values, ex. riots
Civil disobedience
Non-violent action that seeks to change a policy or law by refusing to comply with it, ex. boycotts, strikes
National social movements
Divided into reform, revolutionary, religious, alternative and resistance movements
