Final Flashcards
What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
- both are systems for classifying human beings into groups based on shared ancestry
- different kinds of characteristics sthat are used to assign people to ethnic or racial groups
essentialism
- members of a group share a fundamental, inherited, innate, and fixed quality or characteristic
- this outlook presumes that races are natural groupings whose boundaries are determined by deep-seated and unchangeable traits that are found within each individual
- major diff lies in the basis on which group boundaries are drawn
W.E.B. DuBois and essentialism
challenged the view that distinctive traits had a biological component common to all A.As and that those traits could be determined by examining how black in America live and work
-argued that the racism in Am. society made it impossible for blacks to find jobs/achieve success in the way that whites could
one-drop rule
-method of racial classification defined any individual with any African ancestry as black
ethnicity
system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent, based on perceived cultural similarities
race
system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent, based on perceived innate physical similarities
social construct
social phenomenon that is shaped by the social forces present in the time and place of its creation
constructivist
view that social categories such as race or gender are social creations, not biological facts
racism
- prejudice and/or discrimination against individuals who are members or particular racial or ethnic groups, often drawing on negative stereotypes about the group
- institutional racism refers to rules and regulations that organizations adopt that significantly harm members of a racial or ethnic groups
prejudice
negative beliefs or attitudes held about entire groups based on subjective, selective, or inaccurate info
-lead to prejudgment of the individuals associated with stigmatized groups
stereotype
simplified generalization about a group that is often false or exaggerated
discrimination
any behavior, practice or policy that harms, excludes, or disadvantages individuals on the basis of their group membership
-discrimination is often used by dominant groups to control opportunities and reduce the challenges from subordinate groups`
lynching
killing of someone by a group without a trial or due process, for some specified behavior
genocide
deliberate and systematic killing of a category of people
individual discrimination
action carried out by an individual or small group that harms, excludes, or disadvantages members of a certain group
implicit prejudice
prejudice based on stereotypes that can be activated without an individual’s being consciously aware of holding them
-85% of whites taking the implicit prejudice test are estimatd to have some degree of unconscious racial prejudice
institutional (or structural discrimination)
occurs when the actions or policies of organizations or social institutions exclude, disadvantage, or harm members of particular groups
- jim crow
- 1790 naturalization law
- apartheid
when did the concept of race develop in the Western world?
15th century
Why do people in different parts of the world think about race differently?
racial thinking spread around the world due to imperialism, but it changed in each location after combining with local beliefs and prejudices
income gap between whites and nonwhites
began to narrow after the civil rights movement but then in the 70’s it leveled off
Which groups has the highest rate of educational attainment in the US
Asian Americans
the beige minority
color line in US is not disappearing, but is shifting
-hypothetical group of nonblacks
social stratification
examines inequalities among individuals & groups
-systematic study of inequality
inequality
the unequal distribution of valued goods & opportunities in society
feudalism
social order in which those who own land are entitled to receive the products of the laborers (serfs) who are legally obligated to work for the landowner
income
receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period
-wages from a job, benefits from a pension or government program, or income from investments
wealth
net value of all assets owned by an individual or family, including the value of their home
net financial assets
total value of savings, investments and other convertible assets a person has, minus any debts and excluding one’s primary home (if it is owned)
consumption
act of purchasing and using goods and services
middle class
group of people who occupy the middle positions in terms of income and status in an economic system
class
group of people who share a similar social and economic position in society
life chances
an individuals long term possibilities and potential including future income and opportunities, given his current attributes such as level of education, social networks, and possession of marketable skills/assets
class analysis
study of society focused on class or changes in the system of class inequality -emphasis is placed on examining how, when and where people's actions and beliefs are influenced by their economic position
Marx
concept of class built on the idea that as a result of its economic system, any society has a single, critical division between 2 classes
bourgeoisie
business owners
proletariat
workers who do jobs for pay
socioeconomic status
broad definition of a person’s social class based on components such as education, income, and occupation
Erikson-Goldthorpe Class Scheme
makes distinctions between
- those individuals who own their own businesses and those who work for someone else
- those who have jobs that either entail supervising others or require employer trust (salariat)
- involving manual work or not
- among manual workers, those that require special skills and training versus those that do not
many scholars believer that one of the best measures of income is to calculate the
median income
egalitarian
society, organization, or group characterized by having little or very low levels of inequality
college wage premium
related to when people with less than a college degree have seen their earnings decline or have increasing trouble finding good jobs
deindustrialization
steady decline in industrial or manufacturing jobs
reasons for rising inequality
1) growth and development of technology
2) deindustrialization
3) failure to raise minimum wage to keep up with inflation
Why have manufacturing jobs disappeared so rapidly?
globalization
globalization
growing permeability of national borders and increase in flows of goods, services, and even people across national borders
-increasing trade between countries–> cheaper imported goods from these countries and often allows companies to relocate jobs
sweatshop conditions
workplace that may be characterized by unsafe conditions, very low wages, and harsh working conditions
outsourcing
contracting of parts of the production process to another party, often abroad, such as when the customer service rep is from India
economic restructuring
changes in the way the economy, firms, and employment relations are organized
progressive tax system
one in which the tax rates are higher on richr people thn poorer people
- able to shield much of tehir earnings from some or even all taxation
- loopholes in tax codes
minimum wage
lowest hourly wage a worker can be paid
How has income been determined since 1917
tax returns
college wage premium will increase when technology advances
faster than education
inequality of opportunity
ways in which inequality shapes the opportunities for children and young adults to maximize their potential
social mobility (pattern of intergenerational inheritance)
measure of the extent to which parents and their children have similar or different social and economic positions in adulthood
caste society
society in which a person’s social position is determined by the family he or she is born into
association
existence of a relationship between two variables where a change in one variable is related to a change in another variable
- .41 in US
immobility
individuals are unable to move from one economic or social class into another -people remain in the same social and economic situation that they are born into
labor market
process through which employers identify and hire individuals to work under specified terms of employment
poverty line
minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities
absolute poverty
measure of the min, requirements needed for people to have basic standards of food, clothing, health and shelter
relative poverty
term used to define people as poor not by assessing whether their resources are sufficient to obtain basic social necessities but rather by comparing their incomes relative to other people in the society
working poor
- people who cannot make enough income to be free from poverty even if they work full-time
- low- paying jobs are often unstable and many people working in these jobs work on a temporary or part time basis
how is the official measurement of poverty in US problematic
does not adjust for changes in living standards
How can poverty affect the neurobiology of children
stressors associated with living in poverty can hinder development
How was inequality most present in primitive hunting and gathering societies?
only a small number of people had more power or goods than everyone else
Which job is most likley to be complemented by technological progress
executive level job
How does the educational system affect the social mobility of a person from a poor family
preserves privileged access for some, making success more difficult for those without economic privilege
feminization of poverty
single-parented families, usually headed by a woman are more likely to be poor
people at what age are more likely to live in poverty in the us
under the age of 18
How many homeless?
between 1.5 and 2 million people
sex
whether a person is classified as a male or female based on anatomical or chromosomal criteria
social construction of gender
social processes that create and sustain gender and race differences and inequality
patriarchy
extent that men have more power than women in politics, the economy, and the family
transgender
individuals who were assigned a sex category at birth based on anatomical criteria but who come to identify with the other gender category and take action to be in that other category
the results of random-assignment experiments show that when people have reason to think they are being watched they are more likely to
conform to gendered stereotypes
How do stereotypes relate to actual behavior
being told that something confirming to a stereotype is true of one’s gender can lead one to stereotypical behavior that was not there before
feminist movement
social movement whose members advocate equality between men and women in rights and opportunities
Why do women still earn less than men?
1) some employers still pay women less than men in he same job
- simply offer women less
- women negotiate less
2) employers pay people more when they have more years of experience, and women are more likely than men to have dropped out for a time to take care of children
3) women are concentrated in lower-paying jobs
- some employers discriminate against women when hiring in higher-paying jobs
4) employers often set lower pay rates in jobs filled mostly by women than in different jobs requiring the same amount of education but filled mostly by men
occupational sex segregation
- discrimination in hiring
- job aspirations formed by gender socialization
though women earn more college degrees
they still have lower average earnings than men
double standard of sexuality
judging women more harshly than men for having sex outside of marriage or outside of relationships
heteronormativity
type of prejudice that claims that being heterosexual is the only normal option for an individuals’ sexual orientation
How might biology affect sexuality
pregnancy takes nine months, frequent sex with multiple sex partners does less to ensure reproduction for women than it does for men
probability sample
equal chance for every person to be included
Why are American parents concerned about teens fucking
afraid sex will be driven by hormones rather than rational thought and do not envision a caring relationship
while lower income couples have higher rates of non-marital births
all groups in American society have increased their rates of nonmarital childbearing
Emile Durkeim & traditional societies
- totemism: considered their totem plants/animals to be sacred and so killing and consuming them was generally taboo
- only once plants/animals became a symbol that they were elevated to the status of sacred (bc it stood for the clan-like Am. flag)
- lifestyles intimately connected to nature
- tribes were organized into clans based on spiritual rather than blood kinship
totemism
belief system in which clans adopt a plant or animal as their group emblem and declare it as sacred
Marx and Engels
“the whole internal structure” of a society including the “nature of individuals” was dependent on the extent to which its members could harness technology to transform natural resources into social goods
-modern capitalism founded on the “subjection of nature’s forces to man”
Why did some societies develop more quickly than others?
- global inequalities emerged in prehistoric times and are rooted in differences in people’s environments
- geographic differences in people’s environments
anthropocentrism
belief that humans are separate and superior to the natural world.
determinists
- Marx, Engels, and Diamond
- one who believes that a society’s environment, or the technology it has developed to exploit its environment determines everything else– from its social structure to individuals’ thoughts
ecology
branch of science that studies the relationship between organisms and their environment
social construction of the environment
the process by which the natural world is interpreted made meaningful
For Marx and Engels, what ultimately determined the structure of society?
technology and the ability to harness natural resources
Holocene
the end of the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago ushered in an era of natural global warming known as
Antropocene
humans have sped up the process of global warming so much, and altered the Earth’s topography and chemistry so dramatically, that we seem to have pushed the Earth into a new geologic era
fossil fuels
energy sources such as coal, oil and natural gas that are made of fossil fuels that decomposed over millions of years under high pressure
greenhouse effect
result of high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere allowing the sun’s heat to pass through to the Earth’s surface while stopping it from spreading back into space
climate change
- variety of changes in weather patterns that warming temperatures are producing
- scientists prefer to use this term over global warming because it better captures the diverse ways in which the natural environment is changing in response to human behavior
global warming
the rising of Earth’s average temperature
What is the most environmentally harmful form of resource depletion?
- deforestation
- for farming
- global demand for beef continues to grow firms and individual ranchers are eager to burn down stands of trees and replace them with pastures where cattle can graze
- led to soil erosion and the extinction of many species of edible plants and animals
planned obsolescence
strategy adopted by some manufacturers in which consumer products are produced with the intention of making them quickly obsolete
-ie; by using nondurable materials, making design changes, stopping the supply of spare parts of older models or requiring software updates that are incompatible with older models
acid rain
rain containing acid that is formed when the gaseous air pollutants nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide react with water molecules in the atmosphere
Deepwater Horizon explosion draws our attention most directly to which reality?
natural resource depletion
preservationists
one who believes that the environment has intrinsic value and should be maintained in as pristine a state as possible
environmental racism
a concept that describes how poor people of color disproportionately bear the burden of environmental hazards
environmental justice
achievement of equal protection from environmental hazards for all people, regardless of race, class, or geography; environmental justice also means giving community members a voice in shaping decisions that affect their environment and their health
antitoxics movement
-based primarily in white working-class communities and drew its inspiration from the local response to the Love Canal catastrophe
In 1984, toxic gas from a Union Carbide pesticide plant killed nearly 10,000 people in
India
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson led to
the ban of DDT
structurally determined catastrophe
-an earthquake that disproportionately kills poorer people
sustainability
system of development and consumption that satisfies a society’s current needs without imperiling the ability of future generations to do the same
renewable energy
sources of energy that are capable of being replaced by natural ecological cycles such as wind, sunlight and water
cap-and-trade program
system in which a limit is placed on the total amount of carbon emissions that are allowable (the cap) and in which businesses buy and sell permits that entitle them to a designated amount of emissions (the trade)
Garrett Hardin argues that self-regulation needs to be replaced with
political regulation
to avoid the “treadmill of production” we need to move away from
a materials-intensive growth model
-company that introduces a new Iphone every year whether or not it is an improvement over the prior model
Why do people who live in urban areas tend to have surprisingly green lifestyles
people who live in urban areas tend to walk and use public transportation more
according to tragedy of the commons, individuals acting in self-interest will
bring ruin to everyone
the field of anthropology first focused on the study of
preindustrial societies
What did Chicago sociologists in the early 1900’s refer to as the “the natural habitat of civilized man
the city
Clean Water Act
openly flouted by many corporations, which are not fined for their actions
How have environmental policies of the developed world impacted the developing world
many western countries place their toxic factories in developing countries
the end goal of conservationists is to have land available for
commercial use by future generations
What is a common water pollution problem in the US?
agricultural runoff
criminal justice system
the entire body of laws and institutions that regulate and punish criminal activity
-this includes written laws, courts and other organizations where guilt or innocence is determined as well as the places where those who have been convicted are supervised
crimes
any activities that violate the penal codes
penal codes
the written laws that identify and prohibit various acts and may suggest punishments to be associated for those who commit them
what are the 3 primary layers of criminal justice
- federal government (10% of all crimes)
- state governments
- local governments (county and city)
jurisdiction
defined geographical area in which laws are applied
felonies
a crime that may be punished by at least a year in prison
misdemeanors
a criminal act that is illegal, but for which the maximum punishment is less than a year in prison
prison
place of detention where people convicted of felonies (serious crimes requiring at least one year of detention) are held
jail
place of detention where individuals are held either before trial or serve relatively minor sentences
parole
early release from prison, typically based on good behavior
probation
- a criminal conviction that does not require a prison or jail sentence
white-collar crime
illegal activities undertaken by businesses or by individuals working for corporations
street crime
short-hand description for crimes committed in the community such as theft, assault, drug crimes, and others
Which kind of court would handle a criminal case in which the accused is charged with illegally acquiring guns in Mexico and selling them to someone in California
federal courts
the punishment for Mary’s repeated failure to pay her parking tickets would be handled by
local courts
John is charged with committing a felony. if convicted to the maximum penalty for his crime
serve one or more years in prison
the uniform crime reports of the FBI are sometimes considered potentially biased because
they rely on reports from police departments and any changes in individual police departments’ reporting of crime can influence these results
criminology
field of study devoted to crime and criminals
Robert Merton
- rather than looking to traits of individuals to explain crime, sociologists should examine how social structure is in fact crucial in creating criminality
- society has a collective set of shared values, but different people within a given social structure had differing levels of ability to access those shared values
- strain theory
strain theory
argues that social pressures produce many kinds of deviant and criminal behavior
Michel Foucault
form punishment has taken has changed considerably in the last 3 centuries and that these changes correspond to and reveal shifts in society
-shift corresponded to a change in the target of punishment from the body to the soul, so that offenders could be corrected/trained
labeling theory
theory of deviance that stresses that many kinds of behaviors are deviant solely because they are labeled as such
life-course
transitions individuals make as they age through their lives
-key transitions, or turning points, in individual lives and the larger social patterns they represent
desistance
process through which criminal offenders stop committing crimes
what are the 4 basic reasons for which societies punish criminals
1) to exact retribution
2) deterrence
3) incapacitation
4) rehabilitate
recidivism
following the completion of a criminal sentence, the commission of further crimes by an individual offenders
Cesaire Beccaria
punishment should be designed and calibrated to discourage people from committing further crimes
Cesare Lobroso
some people were born with hereditary defects tat make them criminals
in states where the republican party has won more elections than democrats, the incarceration rate
tends to go up faster than in states where the Dems tend to win
collateral consequences
penalties that criminal offenders receive that are not related to their sentences
-restrictions on access to employment, government benefits, parental rights, and political rights (right to vote)
what conclusions can be drawn about the consequences of incarceration
the consequences affect many more people than just the prisoner; they also impact the prisoner’s family, friends, and society as a whole
“million dollar block”
city blocks with enough residents locked up in prisons and jails to cost at least $1 million
prisoner re-entry
process in which former prison inmates return to their communities and attempt to restart their lives
heavy police presence in particular communities
is multifaceted in its impact as it both harms communities by resulting in large numbers of arrests for minor crimes but can have a positive role in reducing the incidence of violent crime
riots
spontaneous, unplanned collective protest, loosely organized at best, involving attacks on property and (sometimes) persons
social movement
conscious, concerted and sustained effort by ordinary people to change (or preserve) some aspect of their society by using extra “institutional means” refers to collective actions undertaken outside existing institutions, like courts and legislatures, although movements may also work through such institutions, at least part of the time
fads
any kind of behavior that spreads (often rapidly) among a specific population and is repeated enthusiastically for some period of time before disappearing ( often rapidly)
political process model
- social movements arise when more conventional forms of political activity are blocked
- a theoretical perspective that emphasizes that movements are concerned with politics and a normal response under certain circumstances, to routine institutional political processes
- movements emerge and may be successful if those political processes create political opportunities for certain kinds of collective protest
extra-institutional means
collective actions undertaken outside existing institutions, like courts, legislatures and elections
moral sensibilities
efforts to express ideas + values of society
resource rehabilitation approach
emphasizes the importance of resources (money) for generating and sustaining social movements
social movement organization
formal organizations that support and sometimes initiate social movements
social networks
webs that link individuals and organizations to one another –> communication + collective action
biographical availability
people with few obligations were particularly available to devote time
-persons connections can predict if they would choose to and what movements they join
free spaces
free to air grievances, free from surveillance
-churches, schools, meeting halls
repertoires
tactics used in the past + known by movement activists + leaders (toolkits)
Why do movements emerge?
- political factors
- economic conditions/crisis
- organizational conditions
- cultural factors
framing
specific ways ideas + beliefs are phrased/presented
1) diagnostic
2) prognostic
3) motivational
Who are target audiences of SM’s
opponent
supporters
prospective supporters
pre-empted
wins advantage but not acceptance
co-opted
wins acceptance by not advantages
revolutions
seek to overthrow government or fundamentally change a society’s economic institutions + class structures
cultural theories of movements emphasize which of the following aspects of movements
the perceptions, emotions and values of movement participants
