Exam 1

Question 1

Verstehen

Answer 1

POV/understanding the thought processes of actors requires asking them, empathetic imagination, and creative interpretation of cultural signaling/signage

Question 2

Provincialize

Answer 2

exposes limits of universal categories by showing how non `universal they are

Question 3

Hegel’s Dialectic

Answer 3

Highly influential systems have the “seeds of (their) destruction within them” –> internal contradiction

thesis-antithesis-synthesis

Question 4

Subjective

Answer 4

Weber

Question 5

“The Commons”

Answer 5

Marx
using the common land, water to feed/ graze your cows, shoot game, forage for berries
–allowed for people to get their basic needs met in terms of food water shelter (dependence on free access)

old feudal relationships are 2 parted
not just the lords right, but peasants also have a right to land
transition to capitalism–> excludes the poor side of that historical relationship not just nobles, lords, aristocracy

duchess of sussex: example of someone who pushes peasants off of land theyve lived forever and put them on coastal land then when coastal land became trendy, they’re pushed further

Question 6

Value Neutral/value free

Answer 6

we need to translate things for people without subjectivity

should not bring their subjectiveness into their study of social reality

correct/best case method

Question 7

Modernity

Answer 7

transition from feudalism to capitalism

Question 8

mechanical solidarity

Answer 8

• usually come from + reflect religious ideas (what is sacred and what is profane)
• they can be rigid

Question 9

organic solidarity

Answer 9

• harder to identify than mechanical
• may not be strong nor come from traditional religion
• more flexible + adaptable

Question 10

Gesellschaft & Gemeinschaft

Answer 10

community v. society/association

Question 11

class

Answer 11

?

Question 12

class (Marx)

Answer 12

?

Question 13

bourgeoisie

Answer 13

business owners

Question 14

proletariat

Answer 14

those who “own” only their labor power

Question 15

forces of production

Answer 15

organization and control over production

Question 16

Provincialize

Answer 16

Europe/ space and time-boundedness

Question 17

relations of production

Answer 17

associated class realities

Question 18

Pluralize

Answer 18

opening up what subjects are to be theorized and whose theoretical ideas will be examined, while not jettisoning the canonical thinkers and opening up what counts as acceptable/useful discursive styles

Question 19

Westphalia

Answer 19

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

• 17th century peace agreement among European nations to respect national sovereignty
• seen by some to have inaugurated the “International System of Sovereign and to have reached its “peak” in late 19th century

Question 20

historical materialism

Answer 20

historical development of material/economic system

Question 21

class consciousness

Answer 21

if workers could recognize their collective suffering and accurately identify its source, they could disrupt capitalism and keep its strengths, while eliminating its alienating and exploitative components (abolishing private property)

Question 22

Alienation (4 types)

Answer 22

1. alienated from Nature 2x (from nature itself (means of life) and from species being nature (means of living)
2. alienated from product
3. alienated from process of production
4. alienated from fellow workers

Question 23

Alienation (4 types)

Answer 23

1. alienated from Nature 2x (from nature itself (means of life) and from species being nature (means of living/creatively transforming nature)
2. alienated from product (worker valued less than product)
3. alienated from process of production (deskilling)
4. alienated from fellow workers

Question 24

Methodological Individualism

Answer 24

studying the understandings and motivations of people, in particular the way that rationality comes to permeate the modern actor’s consciousness and guides their every action
-eschew judgment to see non-obvious dimensions of behavior like how human motivation/collective ethos guides behavior

Question 25

Dialectic

Answer 25

internal contradiction–the tension is in a system that is both highly dynamic/flexible and facilitative of growth potential of the few but at the cost of human growth potential of the many

Question 26

Iron cage

Answer 26

endless calculations of value

of others: placing people in terms of class/status/politics –> social desirability

of oneself: obsession with how we appear to others on all the things upon which we judge others

of choices: judged by the quality of our choices –experts at making fine-tuned decisions

Question 27

antithesis

Answer 27

class-based society (dynamic with real basis for growth of human potential, but necessarily alienating and exploitative

Question 28

synthesis

Answer 28

new, complex, but classless society (dynamic and freeing for very high growth of human potential)

Question 29

ideal type

Answer 29

exemplary constructs to compare “what is” to “what was idealized”

exaggerations of the rationality of a particular phenomena

Question 30

class (Weber)

Answer 30

as reflective of the “market situation” and life chances

-similar reactions may not lead to communal actions/shared “consciousness”

Question 31

status

Answer 31

reflective of the shared lifestyles/morals & manners–monopolization of valued cultural capital and fashions of the day

Question 32

party

Answer 32

as reflective of fashion, specific or general aims, affiliation benefits and “spoils” of office

Question 33

value rational action

Answer 33

actions specifically connected to an actor’s values

Question 34

means-end action

Answer 34

those connected to an actor’s assessment of self-interest/prefe

Question 35

Camera obscura

Answer 35

social reality as a lens that pictures the modern world as if it were good (free market/capitalism allows everyone the opportunity to get rich, reach human potential etc.), but in reality was the opposite (exploitative and alienating)

Question 36

bureaucracy

Answer 36

• Organisational structure characterised by many rules, standardised processes, procedures and requirements, division of labour and responsibility, clear hierarchies and almost impersonal interactions between employees

Question 37

Bureacracy (8 characteristics)

Answer 37

1. a series of official functions become offices in which behavior of those occupying office are circumscribed by rules
2. each office has a specified sphere of competence
3. each office has obligations to perform specific functions, the authority to carry them out and the means of compulsion to get the job done
4. offices organized into a hierarchical system
5. people need technical training in order to meet the qualifications for the positions in each office
6. those who occupy these positions are given the things they need to do the job, but don’t own these things
7. the position is part of the organization and cannot be appropriated by an incumbent
8. much of what goes on is in writing

Question 38

value rational action

Answer 38

actions oriented by and to values

Question 39

means-end action

Answer 39

self-interested and contextually-informed based choics

Question 40

key observations related to the rise of capitalism

Answer 40

• division of labor and proletarianization
• loss of commons and development of private property
• narrative of changing forces and relations of production
• loss of small proprietors and growth of manufacturing
• growing importance of the state and money

Question 41

class (Marx)

Answer 41

Classes come into existence only when the surplus of privately appropriated wealth becomes sufficient for an internally self-recruiting grouping to be clearly set off from the mass of producers
Class is determined based on one’s relationship with the means of productions
All other groups are in a transition period; they will eventually become one of the two