Chapter 1 - Key Words - The Sociological Perspective Flashcards
Sociology
-systematic study of human society and social interaction
Society
- large social grouping
- shares same geographical territory
- subject to same political authority and dominant cultural expectations
Global Interdependence
- relationship in which lives of all people are closely intertwined
- any one nation’s problems are part of larger global problem
Commonsense Knowledge
-form off knowing that guides ordinary conduct in everyday life
Sociological imagination
-C. Wright Mill’s term for the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and larger society
High-income countries
- nations with highly industrialized economies
- technologically advanced administrative, and service occupations
- relatively high levels of National and personal income
middle-income countries
- Nations with industrializing economies in urban areas
- moderate levels of national and personal income
low-income countries
- primarily agrarian
- little industrialization
- low levels of national and personal income
industrialization
-societies move from dependence on agriculture/handmade products to manufacturing and related industries
urbanization
increasing proportion of population lives in cities rather than rural areas
positivism
belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry
Social Darwinism
- species best adapted to their environment survive and prosper
- those that adapt poorly die out
social facts
- Durkheim’s term
- patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual
anomie
- Durkheim’s term
- social control becomes ineffective as result of loss of shared values and sense of purpose in society
class conflict
- Marx’s term
- struggle between capitalist and working class
bourgeoisie
- Marx’s term
- class comprised of those who control the means of production
means of production
- Marx’s term
- tools
- land
- factories
- money for investment
- forms economic basis for society
proletariat
- Marx’s term
- people who must sell labour because they have no other means of livelihood
alienation
-feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and oneself
theory
- set of logically interrelated statements
- attempts to describe, explain, and predict social events.
perspective
-An overall approach to or viewpoint on some subject
functionalist perspective
-views society as stable, orderly system
societal consensus
-majority of members share common set of values, beliefs and behavioural expectations
manifest functions
open, stated and intended goals or consequences of activities within an organization or institution
latent functions
unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants
dysfunctions
- undesirable consequences of any element in society
conflict perspectives
-views groups in society as engaged in continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources
feminist perspectives
-significance of gender in understanding and explaining inequalities that exist between men and women
macrolevel analysis
-focusses on whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems
symbol
-anything that meaningfully represents something else
postmodern perspectives
-attempts to explain social life in contemporary societies that are characterized by post-industrialization, consumerism, and global communications
