Chapter 1 - The Sociological Imagination Flashcards
______ ________ belibed that sociology could bring together all the sciences and improve society
Auguste Compte
what inspired auguste compte to bring together all the sciences and improve society with the feild of sociology
the rapid social change in the period he lived in
Industry replacing agricultural ways of living
Democracies emerging from dictatorships
People moving from countryside to cities
define society
the large-scale human group that shares a common geographic territory and common institutions
Societies are different than ______ (eg. canada is thought to have 2 societies - quebec and everything else)
states
Requires social _______ among members which occur in ________ ways
interactions
patterned way
________ is a system of behaviour, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values and materials which shape how we act and the physical elements of our society
culture
define dominant culture, counter culture, and subculture
Dominant culture - is able to impose its values, beliefs and behaviours on a given society because of its political and economic power
Counterculture - a group that rejects certain elements of the dominant culture
Subcultures - differ from dom cult but not opposing it
Eg. students daily lives might differ significantly from a lawyers
differentiate between high and popular culture
High culture - the culture of a society’s elite (opera listening mofos)
Popular (or low) culture - the culture of the majority (rap listening mofos)
define the sociological imagination
Relationship between persons behav and experiences and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions
who coined the sociological imagination
C. Wright Mills
Mills said that once we make the connection between our ______ lives and the ______ culture we are apart of, only then we can see the relationship between our personal _______ and larger ______ ______
Mills said that once we make the connection between our individual lives and the dier culture we are apart of, only then we can see the relationship between our personal troubles and larger public issues
the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged in society is reffered to as
social inequality
what is this quote defining
“The differences between people that are consequential for the lives they lead, most particularly for the rights and opportunities they exercise and the rewards or privileges they enjoy”
social inequality
The type and amount of social inequality differs across _______ and over ______
socities
time
_______ ________ is person other than aboriginals peoples who are non-caucasian in race or non-white in colour
visible minority
The norms, values and rules of conduct that structure human interactions are known as ________ _______
social institutions
names the 5 core institutions in modern canadian society
Family
Education
Religion
Economy
Government
Eg. school bells structuring routines
important because they generally help society to run smoothly (socialise us, teach us rules of society)
Aso serve a negative function - maintaining and reinforcing inequality, one of the main reading inequality persists
Schools are an example of an _______
institutions
__________ is the process of religion losing its authority over individuals and social life in general
secularizations
Marx, Weber and Durkheim all argue that the modernization of society would inevitable coincide with a decline in ________
religiosity
how did marx feel about the predicted decline i religiouslity
Marx was happy about this because he thought religion tat an “opiate” of the masses - something that dulled our pain and sense so that we would not resist the great social inequality that we experience in our lives
how did Durkheim feel about the predicted decline i religiousity
Durkheim as more likely to mourn the the decline of religion - thought that religion was an important part of the glue that holds individuals together in society
Weber looked at how new rational systems such as science and bureaucracies would make religious answers to our questions less _______
relevant
Canadians and canadian institutions are becoming less ________ over time
religious
what is religiosity
Religiosity - a measure of how religious a person is
what are the three core aims of sociology
Try to identify themes in everyday life
Seek to assess critically what seems familiar and common sense
Examine how individuals both shape experiences in society and are shaped by society
who argued sociology was diff from philosophy as is focused on empirical research
and diff from psych as it prioritised the social over the individual
EMile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim saw sociology different as if focused on social facts, what are those?
Social fact - the external social structures, norms and values that shape individuals’ actions
why did DUrkheim say that society was more than just a groups of individuals
(hint: “ dominated by……”
Believed that society is more than just a group of individuals but that the individual in society is “dominated by a moral reality greater than himself”
“if suicide is strictly an individual psychological decision, why are suicide rates different from men and women, between religions, and between countries?”
who asked this and studied it
Emile Durkheim
what was emile durkheims explanation of the differences in suicide rates among different groups of people
social facts - elements beyond the individual’s control
_______ suicide - low levels of integration into soc
egoistic
______ suicide - high levels of integration into soc
alturistic
_______ suicide - low regulation
anomic
_______ suicide - high regulation
fatalistic
define the independent and dependent variable, as well as their relationship
Independent variable - the ones that affect other variables
Dependent variable - the ones affected and measured
______ is a qualitative method in which a researcher asks each participant the same set of questions and records their responses
interviewing
__________ __________ - qualitative method in which researcher actively engages with a group of people and works to understand their lives and experiences through intensive involvement with them over extended periods of time
Participant observations/Ethnography
___________ research giving questionnaires to a large number of people to learn about their characteristics, attitudes or behaviours
survey
Individuals can only understand their own circumstances by also understanding what?
(acc to supplimentary reading)
others facing similar ones
He argues this would allow people to see the diff bet “personal troubles of milieu” and “the public issues of social structure”(the individual and social problems
______ suggests we use the sociological imagination to make this differentiation
mills
what is the meaning of capitulation
suck it up and accept the inevitable
is the meaning of cynicism
play it dirty since everyone already is
what is the meaning of meritocracy
what you acheive is based on your own merit
individual chouce determines social outcomes
Hockey players in the NHL are usually born in the earlier months of the year
Its because those born earlier in the year are bigger and faster than their peers and, as a result, tend to get more game time, are selected for further development
this is NOT an example of what?
meritocacy
how do selection, streaming and differentiated experiences affect outcome
Selection - family situation and env have significant influences on life chances (money, networks, safety, etc)
Streaming - early family advantages affect things like schooling (type of school, school streams)
Differentiated experiences (university admission, jobs, etc)
“A condition and a process in which preferential access to the good things in life is not randomly distributed, but patterned around those human differences that are defined as socially significant [gender, race, sexuality]”
what is this describing
social inequality
why is social inequality considered to be “patterned”
SI reveals a pattern between the categories we in society use to differentiate certain things about others (eg. age, sexuality, gender, race)
saying that men and women are different due to their genetics is an example of what?
biological determinism
define biological determinism
postulates genetic and evolutionary differences between groups
what SI explanation tells us about Implicit biases and the emotional bases of discrimination against marginalised people
psychological
“inequality is based on the lifestyle or the norms and values people are socialised to have” what SI explanation whould say this
cultural
in terms of social inequality we can draw a distinction between _______ vs _______ _________ explanations
individual vs social structural
“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding ______”
both
MIlls draws a distinction between personal troubles and public issues, define thme
Personal troubles - problems we face as individuals
Public issues - social problems that arise in society
MIlls says we must take into account the _______ not ________
public issues
not
personal troubles
in getting a new job these two things my be experienced, which is a personal trouble, which is a public issue
Interview skills, resume, training, experience
Economic inflation, urbanisation, labour, exploitation
first - personal
second public
the resources taken from indigenous peoples are directly responsible for the ______ ______ of ________ experienced by most canadians
high standard of living
what are the 6 desires in that indigenous textboox
- want indigenous communities to be healthy, strong and thriving, this means being able to practice their language and sulture whilst living, learning, and playing
- want all development of lands and resources to be respectful, environmentally friendly
- safe and secure homes for communities, including staying where we are for as long as we want
- want stolen lands retunred
- want to be able to buy fresh fruits and veggies out of season, and vehicles, inexpensive fual, want ability to take flights, want the comfrot of being able to buy things we dont need,
- want strong canadian economy to maintin high standard of living so we can afford desire 5, and/or all canadians to be able to experience this desire if they choose
