Chapter 3- Lecture Flashcards
Should contemporary theories be thought of as completely separate from classical theories?
no
What theme runs through all modern social theories?
power
What are the contemporary social theories?
- western marxism
- feminist theories
- post-strcturalism
- queer theory
- post-colonial theory
- anti-racist theories
Who is the leading theories in western marxism?
antonio gramsci
What did antonio gramsci suggest the world is organized around?
domination and hegemony
How di Gramsci diverge from Marx?
In his analysis of how the ruling class ruled
What is domination?
physical and violent coercion exerted by the police and the military
What is hegemony? What does it involve?
ideological control and manipulation where society’s dominant ideas reflect the interests of the ruling class
-involves consent
Hegemony: a process that is constantly___and ___. Involves ___via allegiance of the masses.
- negotiated
- renegotiated
- consent
What does hegemony explain in society about particular features of social organizations?
How they come to be taken for granted and treated as common sense.
What is an example of hegemony?
You feel entitled to fancy holidays, years ago this wasn’t the case.
What are some examples of things that are commons sense in society?
- notion that all women want to have babies
- notion that women re bad drivers
- notion that all Asians are good with computers
- notion that all women should wear makeup to be beautiful
What did Gramsci divide the superstructure into?
divided into the sate and civil society
-Prevailing consciousness internalized by population and becomes common sense.
In marxist philosophy, the term cultural hegemony what used to describe what?
The domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society–the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and morals–so that they ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted.
How does cultural hegemony function?
by achieving the consent of the masses to abide by social norms and rules of law by framing the worldview of the ruling class, and the social and economic structures that go with it, as just, legitimate, and designed for the benefit of all
What are some real world examples of cultural hegemony?
- Middle class should not stop spending in times of economic hardship–integral to survival of country and upper class. But the upper class won’t go bankrupt, the middle class will.
- Propagating myth of purity that goes with the white wedding dress. Married in church because it is what is expected.
- Notion of beauty: now, we must have white teeth. In the past it wasn’t a big deal but now it’s the expectation.
What do feminists differ in their expectations of?
women’s oppression and the nature of gender and in their ideas about women’s emancipation.
What is the core concern of a feminist? What does this include?
- core concern for gender oppression
- includes oppressed males and vulnerable groups
Is there one single feminist theory? What do they share, regardless?
no single feminist theory, but they all have the same core
___is a key part of feminist theory. Explain.
patriarchy
-men have social power and thus an interest in maintaining their social privilege over women.
Who is Dorothy Smith?
A second-wave feminist
Who is bell hooks?
a third-wave feminist.
What is the pink tax?
extra money that women have to pay for things (ex. razors, shampoos) over what men have to pay for the same product
What is Androcentrism?
- male centered
- placing male point of view at the centre of the world
What did early feminist adopt to discuss inequality? What type of women were the first to push the feminist theory?
- scientific view
- middle class women
Why is the feminist theory pushed back today? What type of idea is this?
- because it is perceived that we no longer need it
- cultural hegemonic idea
What is post-structuralism?
concerned with how knowledge is socially produced
Who is the leading theorist behind post-structuralism? What are his three main focuses?
Foucault
-power, knowledge, discourse
What is power acc. to Foucault?
Created within social relationships, multidimensional, found everywhere, and always at work.
What is an example of Foucaults definition of power (where is created)?
Ex. instructor has the power to give us her personal thoughts. Power to teach how she wants. How we can use knowledge and how it’s put out there is power.
-right from the time you need a life partner there are ground rules that are established about power from cultural hegemony
What is knowledge acc. to Foucault (what can it never be separated from?
- Can never be separated from relations of power
- comes from a particular advantaged point of view
What is an example of Foucault’s definition of knowledge?
- Ex. Sociology–perpetuates European thought
- Ex. in this course, it comes from a textbook. I few were sitting somewhere else, the class would look very different and what would be taught would be different.
What do discourses guide? What do they tell us about the world?
How we think, act, and speak.
- ways of understanding a particular subject and social phenomenon.
- a way that you’re supposed to act
- Tell us how the world is and how it ought to be.
What are some examples of discourse?
- giving us ideas about how we should act (ex. whitening our teeth)
- discourse of transfer of knowledge at university (production to get workers)
- discourse of heath (you have to fall within a certain weight, heart rate, etc.)
What is discipline acc. to Foucault?
how we come to be motivated to produce particular realities.
Ex. getting a speeding ticket.
How does power operate discipline?
By producing some behaviours while discouraging the next.
-Who has the pier to control how you behave.
Discipline is a form of___.
power
Discipline (form of power) work through what?
Surveillance
What is surveillance?
acts of observing, recording, and training
What is normalization?
a social process by which some practices and ways of living are deemed normal and others abnormal.
-supposed to fit into normal based on the values and beliefs of the dominant society.
What are some examples of how we’re disciplined?
- by our parents
- public shaming
- Ashley Madison leak
Power of those to___you to do something.
discipline
What are some examples of surveillance?
- photo radar cameras on roads
- some people won’t go to a gym for fear for being judged
- reactions to posts on social media (powerful people might be watching; filtering what you put out there for fear of being judged).
- as women, you get letters from minister of health to get procedures (you gave no one the authority to look into health records, level of surveillance–say they are doing it for your own good so you won’t be burden, who gave them the authority?).
What is an example of discipline, power, and surveillance all at once?
Ripping niqab off of someone’s head.
What are some examples of normalization?
- Not getting a flu shot (abnormal)
- If you wear a bikini to the beach if you are obese you will be hated up. Perception of being superior if you are slim
- Normalized at school to be a certain type of citizen–always doing the very best we can
- Only boys playing on the football team
- Asian women having folds removed from their eyes as if the white standard of beauty is the norm
What does Queer Theory problematize?
the standard of equality based on sameness.
-suggest that we are all the same under the law
What are the three areas of queer theory?
desire, language, and identity
What does desire aim to disrupt?
categories of normal and acceptable sexuality.
What is desire?
Out wants and what they are–including sexuality
What does queer theory suggest about desire?
No regulation on desire.
What are some contentions issues of desire?
- incest
- child pornography
What do queer theories believe language is unable to capture?
the whole truth of reality.
What does language operate with a logic of?
binaries (ex. normal vs. abnormal)
We are___and___by the language we have.
- constrained
- shape
Language is related to___.
power
Language is___laden.
value
What is an example of language being value laden?
- The word deviance
- It means different
- But in our world it now means bad –> used to describe people who are abnormal.
We are all subject to the___of language.
inadequacies
What is identity and what is it constructed through?
- social production
- constructed through social relations and discourse
Is queer theory positive or negative? What does it aim to disrupt?
- positive
- disrupt the norm
What are ebonics?
version of English created and used by black people
What is the summary of the article “To Raise Successful Black Kids You Have to Teach them Black English”?
- article is a dichotomous idea
- about disruption
- ideology of a white dominated society (hegemonic idea)
- code switching
- do all white people speak the same type of english (no).
- we construct our sense of self in a social reality
- we produce ourselves through social relations and discourse.
What does post-colonial theory focus on?
The political and cultural effects of colonialism
What does post-colonial theory suggest and why?
- that this part of our world (colonialism) is over
- too expensive to maintain colonial holdings (Britain, France, etc.)
What did colonizing countries leave behind when they decolonized?
- they left behind a horrible mess
- financial distress
- countries never recovered from being colonized
What is imperialism?
“what happens at home”
What is colonialism?
“what happens away from home”
What does the “post” in post-colonial theory suggest?
A focus on events that happened after formal colonialism ended in the 1960s.
What is post-colonial theory a theory about?
About how things have gone since we entered the 1960s.
What are some examples of Canada with colonialism?
Aboriginals: treaties and reserve system–should it be abolished?
The Queen
Has post-colonialism been realized in Canada?
- assisted suicide
- Quebec sovereignty
What is Edward Said’s Orientalism?
A western style of thought that creates a false opposition between the Orient (East) and the Occident (West).
With Orientalism, the___is naturalized as inferior to the___.
inferior
Orientalism is a concept of discourse in what way?
pf power among superior west and orient
What are some examples of discourse of power with orientalism in the?
West has positions itself as superior in all things.
Think of 911: surveillance in the airport, “no fly” lists mainly contain Arabics.
What is an example of discourse of power with orientalism in Canada with Aboriginals?
Canada–whites have put themselves above First Nations.
What are the three ways we position ourselves as superior with Orientalism?
1) Academic Orientalism
2) Imaginative Orientalism
3) Institutional Orientalism
What is academic orientalist?
- knowledge produced by academics, government expert
- anyone writing and producing information on the Orient
- Academic production of knowledge that outs on above the other.
What is imaginative orientalism?
representations including art, novels, poems, images that make a distinction between the orient and the occident
- Halloween–types of costumes
- Is it okay to dress up as Native American?
what is institutional orientalism?
institutions created by Europeans such that hey could gain authority over, alter, and rule the Orient
- Ex. Chinese head tax
- Ex. The Starlight tours
Critical Race theorists believe that:
- Racism is__to American life
- Acts of racism are not___,___,___acts.
- Insist on___/___analysis of the law.
- Value in drawing on___.
- ____
- ____
- endemic
- individual, isolated, random
- contextual/historical
- experience
- interdisciplinary
- intersectional
Who created critical race theory?
Created by students at Harvard who protested lack of black instructor; they set up specific programs with black instructors.
Racism is__and__.
institutionalized and systematic
What is an example of a lens of historical racism?
The case of New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina
- poor part son New Orleans affected by natural disaster too
- more effort to help white folks over black folks
What is theorizing whiteness?
whiteness as a racial identity
What did Richard Dryer state in his 1997 work, Whiteness? What is this?
- Whites thought of as simply persons while nonwhites thought of as distinct races.
- This is a binary construction
What did Anthony Giddens believe about Globalization?
Transformation of time and space in our lives.
What is the time-space distanciation?
The separation of time and space witch allows social relations to shift from a local to a global context.
What is disembedding mechanisms?
Mechanism that aids in shifting social relations from local to global contexts.
What are symbiotic tokens?
Medium of exchange (ex. money).
What are expert systems?
Systems of knowledge on which we rely but with which we may never be directly in contact.
