Chapter 1- Textbook Flashcards
What did CW Mills suggest?
that people who do not recognize the social origins and character of they problems may be unable to respond to them effectively.
Who termed personal and social troubles?
C.W. Mills
What is quality of mind?
Mill’s term for the ability to view personal circumstances within a social context.
What is the sociological imagination? Who came up with the idea?
- CW Mills
- Mill’s term for the ability to perceive how dynamic social forces influence individual lives
What is a cheerful robot? Who came up with the term?
-Mill’s term for people who are unable to see the social world as it truly exists.
What two terms did Peter Perger come up with?
Seeing the general in the particular, and seeing the strange in the familiar.
What is seeing the general in the particular? Example?
Seeing the general in the particular is the ability to look at seemingly unique events or circumstances and recognize the larger (or general) feature.
-When you see a street person asking for spare change it is a specific and particular incident. But the see the general you recognize that while you saw one street person, there are may more you do not see.
What is seeing the strange in the familiar? Example?
To see the strange in the familiar is to look at something that seems normal and familiar and to see it as peculiar and strange.
-As you read this text everything seems as it should be, however while this all seems normal, it truly is strange.
What is agency?
the assumption that individuals have the ability to alter their socially constructed lives.
What is structure?
the network of relatively stable opportunities and constraints influencing individual behaviours
What are the 5 social factors that define you?
Minority status- face various forms of discrimination.
Gender- Canada is a patriarchy –> system whiner men control the political and economic resources of society.
Family structure- influences a child’s development. Loving families with adequate incomes raise productive children.
Urban-rural differences- where you grow up influences you and your worldview.
How did Confucius and the ancient Greeks influence sociology?
elaborate discussions and writings about society and the role of the individual
Who were the Sophists?
first paid teachers (ancient greece) travelled to teach the rich to live well and be happy; focused on the human being.
How did Socrates and Plato influence sociology?
deep reflection of the social condition
How did roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, Muslim philosopher Al Farabi, Italian St. Thomas Aquinas, William Shakespeare, and John Locke influence sociology?
explored the individual
When did Auguste Comte coin the term sociology?
1838
Auguste Comte ___Revolution
Scientific
What did Auguste Comte believe?
techniques used in the hard sciences would be applied to the social world.
What is Auguste Comte know for?
The Law of Three Stages
What are the three parts to the Law of Three Stages?
The Theological stage (earliest human ancestors-middle ages, 1300)- religious outlook.
The Metaphysical stage- science, not religion, was used to explain the world. Questioning of the church.
Positive stage- believed the world would be interpreted through a scientific sense. Observation, experimentation, and logic.
Why are Comte’s ideas not granted much credit?
1) 3 stages assumes human thinking is as good as it will get.
2) The idea that the third stage was emerging during Comte’s lifetime is self-serving.
What is positivism?
A theoretical approach that considered all understandings to be based on science.
A positivist approaches the world through 3 primary assumptions:
1) There exists an objective and knowable reality- assert that the physical and social worlds can be understood through observation,experimentation, and logic.
2) Since all science explores the same, singular reality, overtime all science will become more alike- since there is only one correct explanation for the physical world, scientific boundaries will fall away as we progress.
3) There is no room in science for value judgements- there is no good or bad science because all science is explaining the same reality.
What is an anti-positivism?
A theoretical approach that considers knowledge and understanding to be the result of human subjectivity.
An anti-positivist approaches the world through 3 primary assumptions:
1) While hard science may be useful for exploring the physical world, the social world cannot be understood solely through numbers and formulas- assert that formulas positivists use only have meaning when we collectedly assign social value to them–that is numbers only have relative importance.
2) All sciences will not merge over time and no single methodological approach (i.e. science) can reach a complete understanding of our world- anti-positivists suggest that to truly understand the human condition we need to appreciate and validate emotions, values, and human subjectivity.
3) Science cannot be separated from our values- positivists argue that all sciences are equal and should not be tainted by value judgements whereas anti-positivists suggest that what we choose to study is also a social expression.
What are values?
cultural assessments that identify something as right, desirable, and moral
What is quantitative sociology?
the study of behaviours that can be measure (ex. income levels).
What is qualitative sociology?
the study of non measurable subjective behaviours (ex. the effects of divorce).
What inspired the political revolution?
the renaissance and the enlightenment
Renaissance thinkers ___, ___, ___ challenged social convention and inspired a new way of understanding the social world.
Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes
Machiavelli’s work, The Prince, suggests what?
that human behaviour is motivated by self-interest and the desire for material gain was contentious because the nobility believed that it was their birth right.
What idea is Descartes famous for?
his idea that we are all thinking beings, “I think, therefore I am”. Masters of our own destiny –> revolutionary.
What two passions did Hobbes believe people were driven by? What did he think was the true nature of humankind?
Driven by two passions: fear of death and the desire for power. The true nature of humankind is self-preservation and long-term stability can only be achieved when citizens go together and forgo individual power.
Who were the Enlightenment thinkers?
Locke, Rousseau
What did Locke assert?
Asserted that all knowledge is the result of experience. People are born as blank slates –> one of the defining features of the sociological perspective.
What did Rousseau suggest?
Suggested that prior to organized society, human beings existed in a natural state where their desire was solitary and self-centred. As society developed, they began to see the benefits of working together.
Who came up with the notion of the social contract? What is the social contract?
- Rousseau
- The acknowledgement that we achieve more by working together than apart and while we lose some of our independence, the benefits we assume far outweigh the costs.
What really inspired the Industrial Revolution?
profound social changes occurring at that time.
What was the move from local consumption and production to regional and national distribution networks the result of?
mechanization and industrialization
What problems emerged when farmers moved into cities?
social problems such as child labour factories, poverty, malnourishment, and increase in crime rates.
What emerged as the result of the Industrial Revolution which marked a relatively recent change in how human beings live their lives?
cities
What is macrosociology?
the study of society as a whole (early European sociology).
What is microsociology?
the study of individual or small-group dynamics within a larger society (early American sociology).
Who were the early European macrotheorists?
Marx, Durkheim, Weber
What do you need to understand to understand Marx?
Insight into human relationships (power imbalance –> capitalist economies). To understand Marx is to understand how poor permeates the way people interact as not only individuals, but as an entire class.
What did Durkheim believe?
Believed people wanted to work together for collective benefit–which was challenged by industrial society. Low levels of social integration and regulation led to decline which could be lessened by religion and education.
What did Weber analyze?
Analysis of how the social world is becoming increasing rationalized over time (people are becoming more focused on selecting the most efficient means to accomplish any particular end).
Who were the early European microtheorists?
Mead, Cooley, Blumer
Who came up with the idea of symbolic interactionism?
Mead
What is symbolic interactionism?
A perspective asserting that people and societies are defined and created through the interactions of individuals. In effect, we become ourselves through social interaction.
How did Mead view the individual mind and self?
As rising out of the social processes of communication.
What did Cooley believe?
That people defined themselves by how others viewed them.
What did Blumer analyze? What did this lead him to realize?
Analysis of meaning, language, thought. These core principles led him to conclude how people create their sense of self within a large social world.
What are the four defining features of Canadian sociology?
1) Geography and regionalism
2) Focus on political economy
3) Canadianization movement
4) Radical nature
Who came up with the idea of geography and regionalism?
Brim and Sait-Pierre
What is geography and regionalism?
-ability to survive over time
-role of regionalism (west vs. east) –> role of Quebec (unique linguistic and cultural influences).
The Quiet Revolution- less catholic church, more sociologist focus on issues of social class and policy.
Who believed a defining feature in Canadian sociology is interest in the political economy?
Clement
Wha tis the political economy?
the interaction of politics, government and governing, and the social and cultural constitution of markets, institutions, and actors.
What did Harold A. Innis suggest about the political economy and Canadian sociology? What is the staple thesis?
That being in a subordinate economic position to the American and British governments, Canadian society defined by the realization that Canada is not one of the world’s major economic or social forces (Canada’s development based on exploitation of raw materials sent to European countries) which is referred to as the staple thesis.
What is the Canadianization movement?
- influenced by American sociology
- many Canadian sociologists trained at the University of Chicago, which focused on collective reform and collective social responsibility
- by the 1950s and 1960s, Canadian sociologists felt a pressing need to hire and train more Canadian sociologists from a Canadian perspective
Why is Canadian sociology more radical than American sociology?
because of its greater focus on macrosociology as well as support for feminist ideas and social change.
Canadian sociology influence by the ___and___rights movements, ___peoples government, and ___who investigate how gender acts as a site of oppression and domination.
- anti-war
- civil
- Aboriginal
- feminists
What did the emergence of the Canadianization and women’s movement lead to?
A politics of knowledge that proved helpful to both.
Why did The Royal Commission on the Status of Women cause a movement?
It allowed women to reflect on their social surroundings and question social conventions.
What is globalization?
A worldwide process involving the production, distribution, and consumption of technological, political, economic, and sociocultural goods and services.
Who coined the term “global village”? What does it describe?
- Marshall McLuhan
- describes how media collapses time and space and enables people everywhere to interact and experience life on a global scale.
What is a defining feature of the global economy?
Capitalism
The world is out of balance - __out of the__billion people in our world live in developing countries. The___billion who don’t control___percent of the resources.
- five
- six
- one
- eighty
