Christmas Exam 2021 Flashcards
Utilitarianism
Maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain - Jeremy Bentham
Adam Smith’s assumptions
People have relatively stable wants and needs
People are “self-regarding”
People try to maximize benefits and minimize costs
People may make mistakes but these will be random and they are not systematically bad
The Fundamental Error of Attribution
- We overestimate the role of dispositional factors on behaviour
- We underestimate the influence of situational factors
Pluralistic Ignorance
Occurs when people believe that their private attitudes and beliefs are different from the majority, even though their public behaviour is identical
Private Goods vs Public Goods
Private: products or purchases whose consumption by one individual prevents others from using it e.g. doughnut
Public: contributions that members of a group make which individuals cannot be excluded from and which is non-rivalrous
Who coined the term “sociology” and when?
Auguste Compte, around 1830
Social Facts
Ways of acting, thinking, feeling which are general throughout a particular society and that are able to exercise an external constraint over its members
Social Facts vs Individual Facts (according to Durkheim)
They are not the same because:
- Social facts are general and practiced by a number of people
- Social facts exist independently of the actions of a particular individual
- It constrains the individual/limits freedom of choice
Durkheim’s Social Structures and their Modern Names
- Collective representations (institutional and normative - beliefs, values and norms)
- Collective relationships (relational - social ties which lead to interdependence of behaviour - social networks)
Collective Conscience
The set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society
Durkheims Two Roles of Norms, Beliefs and Values
- Constraining and coercive - sanctions for not conforming, narrowing perception and priming
- Structuring and facilitating - providing certainty and coordinating
Emergence
The existence or formation of collective behaviours - what parts of a system do together that they would not do alone
By changing the arrangement of units, you can change the overall system attributes (e.g. carbon –> diamond or graphite)
Durkeim’s Typology of Suicide
Two axes:
- Integration - weak ties (egoistic) to strong ties (altruistic)
- Norm - no rules (anomic) to many rules (fatalistic)
Ultra-Sociality
The ability of humans to cooperate in large group of genetically unrelated individuals
Collective Effervescence
Euphoric feeling you get from acting in a collective (synchronous movements)
The Sacred vs The Profane
The Sacred - imbues certain objects with special “divine” meaning, desecrating the sacred provokes disgust and repugnance
The Profane - the day to day world of everyday objects and human need, can be altered, traded or destroyed, utilitarian
The Different Bases of Morality
- Care/Harm - based on empathy, makes us sensitive to signs of suffering
- Fairness/Cheating - sensitivity to signs of cheating or exploitation in coop. or collab. situations
- Loyalty/Betrayal - sensitivity to signals that others don’t have the interests of our group in mind
- Authority/Subversion - sensitivity to signs of rank and status and if people are behaving properly
- Sanctity/Degradation - based on disgust
3 Forms of Affiliation
- Ascribed - defined at birth i.e. race, gender, ethnicity
- Status - defined by perceived attributions of superiority, inferiority and equality i.e. class, education, caste, income
- Common Interests - members by choice i.e. church, hobbies, union
What does social interaction do?
Builds trust and a sense of obligation
Shapes the flow of resources and ideas
Contributes to social norms and beliefs
Influences sense of identity
Allports Contact Hypothesis
Intergroup contact only reduces prejudice and supports social integration if:
- The participants have the same status level
- They have at least some common goals
- These goals can only be reached by cooperation
- Integration is supported by respected authorities
Bonding vs Bridging Ties
Bonding - within groups
Bridging - between groups
Group Segregation Index
No. Group Bonding Ties / No Group Bonding + Group Bridging
Endogamy vs Exogamy
End. - marriage within groups
Exog. - marriage outside of group
Homophily
The preference to mix with those of like characteristics (can be more rewarding due to similar interests, values etc., requires less effort, less chance of conflict etc.)
Transitivity
The extent to which the relations that relate two nodes that are connected by an edge are transitive
If A and B are friends, and B and C are friends, then A and C are likely to be friends (inverse also true)
Minimal Group Paradigm
Henri Tajfel
Proposes that the minimal condition for group biases is simply being a member of a group
Social Identity Theory
Henri Tajfel
Argues that people’s self esteem derives not only from our own status and accomplishments but also from the groups to which we belong - by boosting group status we boost our own status
Ethnic Diversity
EDj = 1 - E(from i=1 to N) Pij^2
0 - 0.1: low, e.g. Japan, South Korea, Portugal
0.9-1: high, e.g. Uganda, Liberia
Three Types of Integration
Economic - education, employment, income
Cultural - language, religion, values, behaviours (e.g. diet)
Social - inter-marriage, friendship, similar organisations
Determinants of Integration
Ethnic Group Effects:
1.Ethnic Origin Conditions - gender role attitudes, religious practices, migration motives, language
2. Ethnic Community Conditions - interactions with host society
Destination Effects:
1. Integration or “multicultural” policies in the host country
2. Institutional conditions
Marx vs Hegel
Marx:
Rejected the notion that ideas determine social life - instead believed that ideas are the products of social and economic structures
Hegel:
Argued purpose of human existence was a search for truthful understanding of human consciousness
Two Components of the Material Basis of Life or Mode of Production (according to Marx)
- Forces of Production - use resources such as energy, raw materials, tools and machines
- Relations of Production - people engage in economic relationships and cooperate to produce the goods
Marx’s Base-Superstructure Model
Base: economy, forces of production, relations of production
Superstructure: politics, social order, science, religion, family, culture, education , state etc.
The two have a dialetical relationship
Modernisation Theory
Holds that as countries become more wealthy and educated they also become more individualistic and analytical
The Rice Theory
Rice cultivation and production requires more functional interdependence than other forms of production - explanation for why “modern” societies such as Japan and Korea are still collectivistic
Weber’s Explanatory Strategy
Existing social facts –> individual meaning and social interactios –> new social fact
Verstehen
Weber
“To understand”
Empathetic understanding of human behaviour
Social Protest: Marx vs Weber
Marxist Approach: What social class? What are their characteristics (age, sex, ethnicity etc.)? How poor? What interests do protesters share?
Weberian Approach:
Does the person/their friends reagrd themselves as “deprived”?
Do they believe protest can change their situation?
Does the person feel part of a group who share an aim?
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Capitalism was the application of enlightenment “rationalism” to economic life
The ethical and doctrinal principles of Protestantism were conducive to capitalism
A “spirit of capitalism” - “rationalism” was also necessary
Two Dimensions of Social Values
Traditional (religion, no abortion, national pride, respect for authority etc.) to secular rational (opposite of traditional)
Survival (no homosexuality, prioritisation of economic and physical security, low trust) to self expression (opposite of survival)
W.E.I.R.D. People
Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
W.E.I.R.D. Kinship Traits
- Bilateral descent
- Little or no cousin marriage (or other relatives)
- Monogamous marriage
- Nuclear families
- Neolocal residence
Cultural Evolution or Social Learning
Allows humans to develop complex cultural solutions to environmental problems over time and transmit these intergenerationally (these solutions include social institutions which improve cohesion and success in competition with other human groups)
3 Forms of Legitimacy in Authority
Gerontology - rule of elders, personally
Patriarchialism - head of household has authority transmitted generation to generation by inheritance
Patrimonialism - patriarchialism with an administrative staff bound by bonds of personal allegiance
Charismatic Authority
Not necessary that they have powers, attribution is enough
Legitimacy based on belief in leader’s mission
E.g. Hitler
Rational-Legal Authority
Requires a legal code and a consistent system of abstract rules, roles (offices) are defined with rights and duties, admin staff (bureaucracy) charged with looking after the corporate body
Rationalisation
A far reaching process where traditional modes of thinking are replaced by an ends/means analysis concerned with efficiency and formalised social control
Also produces homogenisation, sameness and control
Bureaucracy
A large formal organisation characterized by a hierarchial authority structure, well established division of labour, written rules and regulations, impersonality and a concern for technical competence
3 Related Causes of Bureaucracy
- Competition among capitalist firms in the market place
- Competition among states increasing governments/rulers need to control staff and citizenry
- The demands of the emerging middle class for equal protection before the law
The Practices of Rules Violations Index (PRV)
Political Fraud - quality of country’s democratic practices
Tax Evasion - size of a country’s shadow economy
Corruption - control of corruption index
McDonaldization
George Ritzer
The process by which the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world
Ritzer’s 4 Dimensions of McDonaldization
- Efficiency
- Calculability
- Predictability
- Control
Social Norms
Customary rules which are usually accepted in groups
Provides expectations of the behaviours of others
Two Kinds of Social Norm
Convention (descriptive) -conditional upon observing or believing how others act
Moral (injunctive) - unconditional on the observed or expected behaviours of others - 2 types: proscriptive (discourage) and prescriptive (encourage)
Conjoint vs Disjoint Norms
Conjoint norms apply to all
Disjoint norms apply to one group
The Consequentialist Theory
Social norms emerge to reduce harm and increase well-being in social groups:
Positive or negative externalities from others behaviours
Maintaining common and public goods e.g. clearing snow from outside your house, talking loudly on a phone on the train
The Durkheimian Theory
Social norms help manage internal group tension and external group competition and threat:
Group membership norms (dress, diet etc.)
Status groups and exclusionary norms (etiquette)
Two Models of Moral Norms
Internal -internalization of values:
Socialisation, personally accepted “value”, social roles, contravention (shame, embarrassment, guilt), enforcement (anger, contempt, perception of fairness)
External - rational choice given the external costs and benefits
Rational choice model, follow norm because of cost-benefit analysis of it, leaving social equilibria may have costs, relies on expectations of others (pluralistic ignorance)
Cultural Dispersion (Lecture 12)
- Differential group survival without conflict
- War and raiding
- Differential migration
- Differential reproduction
- Prestige-biased group transmission
Big Gods for Big Societies?
Societal size increases with gods who:
- Care about cooperation and harmony
- Could and would reward and punish
- Have the power to monitor 24/7 and read minds
The 2 Fundamental Types of Social Structure
Social beliefs, norms and institutions - group identity, norms and rules create structure and cohesion
Social networks - patterns of ties and connections create structure and cohesion
Random Network
One where each person has the same chance of meeting and associating with every other
Low amounts of clustering
Average number of ties is around the standard poisson distribution
High levels of duplication in connections
High density
Robust to shocks leading to broken links
Social Dynamics and Clustering
Degree of clustering and connections determines:
- Spread of beliefs and ideas
- Flow of resources
- “Social closure” and creation of collective action and group identity
Geimenschaft vs Gesellschaft
Geimenschaft: community - characterised pre-industrial society, small scale societies, social ascription of roles and status, local attachment and values
Gesellschaft: association - characterised industrial, market societies, urban, impersonal, loss of community
Inclusiveness and Density
Inclusiveness - no. of connected nodes as a proportion of the total no. of nodes
Density - no. of edges in a network as a proportion of the total possible
The Code of Honour and the Blood Feud (lecture 14)
Aggression to one is aggression to all
Retaliation will be on all members of aggressors gorup
Have a code of honour which pre-commits tribe members to feud
3 Uses of the Term Social Capital
- Access to resources via networks - resources (money. info, influence) not randomly distributed, network ties to individual with more access to resources have more social capital, allows influence through high status or politically connected individuals
- Network density - density of social ties mean that news of bad behaviour could damage reputation and other relationships
- Social cohesion via social norms, values and civic ties - “bonding” social capital promotes values of trust, support, solidarity and belonging, bridging connects groups and gives access to resources
4 Basic Components of Social Capital (possibly as social cohesion?)
- Networks
- Norms, values and expectations (trust)
- Sanctions
- Institutions
2 Types of Social Capital
Bonding - inward looking and tends to reinforce exclusive identities
Bridging - outward looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages
Levels of Bridging and Bonding in a Society
From bottom left clockwise …
Low bonding, low bridging - amoral individualism
Low bonding, high bridging - anomie
High bonding, high bridging - social opportunity
High bonding, low bridging - amoral familism
Dimensions of Regional Government Performance
Cabinet stability Budget promptness Statistical information services Reform legislation Legislative innovation Promptness of policy implementation Industrial policy instruments Spending capacity Bureaucratic responsiveness
2 Explanations for Regional Government Performance
- The cultural explanation - high levels of civic community in terms of membership of sports clubs, cultural and recreational groups promotes better norms of altruism and civic mindedness
- The political explanation - high levels of civic community promote involvement in local politics including electoral turnout leading to better councillors being elected and elected officials being held to account
Social Stratification
A society’s categorisation of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, gender etc.
A structural process concerned with structural positions, not individual characteristics
Sexual Dimorphism
The condition where the sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics
Driven by mate competition based on male aggression
Leads to high rates of polygamy
Marx and Social Class
Social classes emerge from the structure of economic exploitation Class members share economic interests Members have some perception of collective interests and become a class when they realise these economic interests Bourgeoisie vs Proletariats
Marx’s Predictions
- Periodic crises of over-production
- Development of monopoly capitalism
- Immiseration of the working class
- Growing polarisation
- The rise of the proletariat
Weber’s Central Dimensions
Class - economic order
Party - political order
Status - social order
Weber’s Social Class
Class is defined by access to resources and capital:
Property ownership - land, buildings, machinery
Market situation - education and credentials, occupational skills, “soft” skills
Erikson, Goldthorpe and Portacarero (EGP) Social Class & Capital Scheme
“Ownership” links employers and employees
“Monitoring costs and skill specificity” links service and labour contracts
Employment aggregate approach
Focuses on the labour market - forgets about unemployed, disabled, carers (particularly women)
Forms of Social Capital according to Bordieu
- Economic capital - income, wealth, property - resources which are fungible and can be exchanged or directly converted into money
- Social capital - social network and contacts - resources derived from networks of people and groups, social networking as an investment strategy
- Cultural capital - forms of knowledge and skill - education etc - 3 states
3 States of Bordieu’s Cultural Capital
- Embodied - the internalisation of certain dispositions of the mind and body - what an individual knows and utilises from within (normative behaviours such as accent, dress etc), socialised over time into habitus, not fungible
- Objectified - refers to cultural objects such as books, paintings etc. May be consumed through money and/or embodied through the appreciation of a fine painting - can be consumed materially which presupposes econ. capital, own consummation of these objects presupposes embodied cultural capital
- Institutionalised - the objectification of cultural capital in a form which is institutionally backed - academic qualifications etc
Symbolic Violence
A non-physical violence manifested in the power differential between social groups
Positives of the CARS Approach
Can include all groups even where excluded from the labour market
Brings in categories of symbolic life that are ignored in the class approach
Provides a multi-dimensional space where groups can be defined
Suggests cumulative advantage and disadvantage
Industrialisation and Modernity
- Shift from agricultural production to industry
- The concentration of economic production in cities
- The harnessing of inanimate sources of energy to replace human and animal power
- Pervasive technological innovations
- Opening of free, competitive labour market
- The concentration of labour in factories and enterprises
- Social and cultural changes e.g. individualism, rationalism, secularisation
The Ideology of Liberalism
Equality Civil rights Democracy Secularisation Freedom of expression
Parsons’ “Pattern Variables”
TRADITIONAL to MODERN
Articulation of social structure:
low division of labour to high division
Bases of status:
ascription to achievement
Criteria of recruitment: particularism to universalism
Focus of appraisal: collectivism to individualism
Role of emotions: affectivity to neutrality
Industrialism and the Industrial Man according to Clark Kerr
Driven by technical development High level of skills and meritocratic 3rd level education Scientific management and admin Development of normative consensus Increasingly middle class
Characteristics of a Post-Industrial Society (according to Daniel Bell)
The large service economy Rise of professions and technical Primacy of theoretical knowledge Central planning and coordination Rise of new intellectual technology
The Liberal Theory of Industrialisation
Structural change - technical and economic rationality drives social division of labour - more technical and managerial
Processual factors - change in criterion of selection (hiring, promotion…) from ascription to achievement - “meritocracy”
Composition effects - interaction of above -growing sectors more meritocratic whereas family, small business and farming declining
Convergence
Industrialisation forces all societies to develop the same way, competition between nation states drives technical and social change
Relative Social Mobility
Absolute mobility - proportion of people who are mobile (usually upward) between generations Relative mobility - the proportion of one group who are mobile into a specific class relative to another
Social Fluidity
Refers to changing relative chances of mobility between class groups Refers to the chance of lower class groups getting higher class positions relative to higher class groups
