Definitions Flashcards
Age patriarchy
How older people exercise power over the young - eg legislation
Alienation
How workers experience their work as separate from them, work does not satisfy them or their inherent creativity
Assimilation
Theory that minority ethnic groups would take in the culture of the dominant group
Attrition
Usually linked to longitudinal studies, the loss of sampling units from the sample group as a result of moving away, death or loss of interest
Boundary problem
The question of who should and who should not be included in the middle class, where to draw the line
Canalization
The process of channelling children’s interests to gender specific toys
Cohort study
Research on people who share a certain characteristic - often age
Concrete ceiling
Relates to the experiences of black and Asian women who are not told what they could aspire too - cannot see through a ‘glass ceiling’
Conflict view
A theory stating that society is made up of groups who have fundamentally different interests
Contradictory class position
Associated with Wright, neo-Marxist who argues that managers find themselves caught between the bourgeoisie who exploit them and the proletariat whom they control
Dual labour market
Two labour markets - the primary labour market where jobs are secure and the secondary labour market in which jobs are less secure and often part time or casual
Elite self recruitment
The ways in which those at the top of society work to ensure that new recruits come from within their own class
Embourgeoisement
A process of taking on the characteristics of the bourgeoisie or middle class in terms of culture, values or beliefs; the embourgeoisement theory was tested by Goldthorpe and Lockwood on the car workers in Luton in the 1960s
Ethnic penalty
The disadvantages coming from being a member of a particular ethnic group
Ethnography
The study of people in their natural environment using qualitative methods, esp observation
Expressive roles
Parsons argues women are in these caring and nurturing roles
Fragmentation
Breaking up into small pieces; may refer to social classes break up identities
Fuel poverty
Household having to spend more than 10% of its income on energy
Gatekeeper
The person or persons who are able to give a researcher access to people they want to study
Go native
When researcher becomes so involved with the group being studied that they lose sight of their role as a researcher (associated with ethnographic researcher)
Grey power
Influence of the elderly often linked to financial power but also in relation to their social and political influence
Hybridity
The development of cultures based on the combination of aspects of a range of cultures including music food and clothes
Insider status
Belonging to a group, having access to the groups secrets or knowledge
Interviewer effect
How social characteristics of an interviewer affect responses of the interviewee
Leaky pipeline
Refers to gradual loss of women in higher levels of an occupational area
Lumpenproletariat
A Marxist term used to describe those below the proletariat
Mask of aging
Postmodern view of aging - at any age people can appear similar to those of other age groups
Methodological pluralism
An approach usually in two stages - methods used being on equal status; a strategy often used by realists who want to study different aspects of the research question
Operationalise
To measure abstract concepts by defining them in research
Proletarianisation
de-skilling of white collar jobs
Racialised
The view that in any class minority ethnic groups wi be of a lower status within the class compared to the dominant white group
Reflexivity
The willingness of the researcher to consider the implications the researcher might be having on those being researched - a strategy used by feminists
Respondent validation
Most commonly used by interpretivits who ask those they are researching to look at their findings and give feedbacks
Semiology
The study of signs and symbols in order to decode and understand the messages contained in the text
Sift and sort
A concept used by Davis and Moore to describe the ways in which people are allocated roles in society via examinations or other competitive means
Social cohesion
Idea that everyone is valued there are common values and beliefs that bind people together
Social construction
View that the social world is made by social processes (eg interpretivists argue that questionnaires are socially constructed by the researchers designed them and argue that crime statistics are a result of the decisions made by the police)
Structural constraints
Individuals are prevented from making free choices eg by household income
Unified working class
Traditional Marxist view that there is one united working class
Access
Ability to contact the group to be studied - can be difficult when the group is closed or ‘deviant’
Actuarialism
The idea that social control is more about the identification and management of unruly groups, not catching criminals
Cultural transmission
Values passed from one generation to the next
Edgework
Lyng’s idea that crime provides thrills, explaining ‘non-utilitarian’/trivial crimes
Recidivism
Repeat offending
Target hardening
Making it more difficult to commit crime, eg more home security
Value judgements
Judgements based on principles and beliefs
