Final Exam Flashcards

1
Q

consciousness
(weber)

A

Doesn’t exist in any space and isn’t an object we can see - we experience what is it to be conscious.

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2
Q

Transcendental argument
(weber)

A

Argument that goes beyond reality
- identifies fundemental conditions that must be in place for an experience or knowledge to be possible.

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3
Q

Difference between behaviour and action (weber)

A

Behaviour is doing something without meaning - weber recognized the blur

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4
Q

Intentional acts of meaning (weber)

A

Deliberate actions we take in relation to or directed towards others - forced actions don’t count

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5
Q

4 types of meaningful social action (weber)

A
  1. Traditional action - behaviour guided by habits or cultural norms
  2. Affectional action - based on controlled emotion
  3. Value rational action -based on personal belief or ultimate value - the rationality of the action in fulfillment of the value
  4. Instrumental rational action - achieving a specific purpose
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6
Q

2 ways to understand meaningful social action (weber)

A
  1. Observational understanding - noticing when a social action was done
  2. Explanatory understanding - providing an explanation for why that social action was done
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7
Q

Verstehen (weber)

A

Translates to interpretive understanding

Observational and theoretical interpretation of the subjective ‘state of mind’ when people act

How we use symbols and meanings to constitute our social existence

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8
Q

The Ideal Type

A

Tool using interpretive understanding to understand social events and processes

Identify common patterns and divergent elements and investigates causes and consequences

Helps us to understand what to look for in empirical data (doesn’t describe it)

Indirectly helps social scientists construct a research question and hypothesis (doesn’t provide direct hypothesis)

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9
Q

Types of authority

A

Charismatic - devotion of exceptional character of an individual and their values

Traditional - rests on established belief, customs, and traditions

Legal rational - belief in legality, rights, of those in authority

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10
Q

Radical formation process (o+w)

A

The social construction of race

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11
Q

Racial objectivism and O+Ws critiques

A

Racial categories reflect an objective essential aspect of human groups (one simply is ones race)

Critique:
No one belongs in boxes or (black, white, brown)
- it ignores racial identity
- denies historical and social comprehensiveness of race
- cannot account for how people navigate conflictual racial meaning and identities

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12
Q

Race as and Ideological construct and O+Ws critique

A

Racial categories are false consciousness (colourblindness)

Critique:
- Social construct of race has become the fundamental principle of social organization because its been enforce for so long - race is a deep part of many peoples identity

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13
Q

3 conditions of how we examine racial formation (O+W)

A
  1. in contemporary politics
  2. in global contexts
  3. across history
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14
Q

Constructionism

A

Our accounts of the world are outcomes of negotiated agreements, assumptions, and traditions of interpretation - not pictures of the world as it is

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15
Q

Essentialism

A

For any entity, theres a set of attributes or properties necessary to its identity and functioning

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16
Q

Flaws of essentialism (from constructionists)

A

Political conservatism and social oppression - placing people into binaries is insensitive and harmful to people who don’t fit in said binaries

Constraints on the growth of knowledge - presuming the world is fixed within these categories constrains the growth of knowledge and limits what can be studied and how it can be characterized

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17
Q

Flaws of constructionism (from essentialists)

A

Inability to account for scientific progress - what is the value of scientific research if all science is a social construction

The incoherence of skepticism - constructionism represents a form of skepticism

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18
Q

Situated essentialism

A

Resolution for the essentialism and constructionism debate

Understanding identity as both socially constructed and context-specific

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19
Q

Black nationalism (Du Bois)

A

Encouraged blacks to work together to create their own culture, art, and literature

Create their own economy of producers and consumers

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20
Q

Double consciousness (Du Bois)

A

The experience of ones identity being fragmented into several, contradictory facets - being black + being American

The perceptions of themselves and how others see them is based on cultural images, scripts, and expectations.

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21
Q

‘Car window sociology’ (Du Bois)

A

Early soc was based on casual observations

Not scientific - based on hunches, rumours, travelogues, and opinions

Racist

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22
Q

‘The colour line’ (Du Bois)

A

Durable global structure of white supremacy undergirded by similar economic, political, and ideological forces worldwide

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23
Q

The Thomas Theorem

A

If people define a situation as real, than they’re real in their consequences

24
Q

3 issues in the double consciousness

A
  1. practical effects of black peoples exclusion from main stream media
  2. the power of white stereotypes in black life and thought
  3. Internal conflict in the African American individual between what was African and what was American
25
Q

3 key issues of social change (Du Bios)

A
  1. disenfranchisement (lack of vote) - if black people can’t vote, they don’t have the means to secure property
  2. civic equality for African Americans
  3. higher education, according to ability - black communities need college educated teachers
26
Q

Intersecting identities (crenshaw)

A

Identities impacted by a multitude of social justice and human rights issues

27
Q

Epistemology

A

The study of the features, conditions, and limits of knowledge

28
Q

Black feminist thought (collins)

A

Reflects the experiences of black women and can be viewed as subjugated knowledge

Black women used alternative ways to create a space for black feminist ideologies

29
Q

Positivists approaches

A

Aim to create scientific descriptions of reality by producing objective generalizations (distancing themselves from values, interests, and emotions

30
Q

Requirements for positivist methodological approaches

A

Subjectivity - objectifying the subject of study

Absence of emotions from the research process

Ethics and values are inappropriate in the research process

Adversarial debates become the preferred method of ascertaining the truth

(These requirements ask black women to objectify themselves)

31
Q

Single-axis approach

A

Treats each category of discrimination separately (whereas intersectionality views them all together)

32
Q

Agency

A

The potentiality for producing or modifying structures

32
Q

5 Types of Structures

A

International - concrete encounters between individuals, solidified by patterns of interaction (families, teams, competition)

Axio-normative - system of value and rules, defining what people should and shouldn’t do towards each other and what to expect in return

Ideal - shared beliefs and ideas

Opportunity - defines the statuses and roles people take in society and their relationships

Material - containers of social relations providing channels into encounters and interactions (layout of streets, office arrangement)

33
Q

Duality of structure (Giddens)

A

Views agency and structure as different aspects of all social practice

34
Q

Reflexivity (Giddens)

A

All humans are knowledgeable, skillful agents

We maintain basic order of social life by enhancing this knowledge

This same knowledge can be used to alter the system

Modern society is characterized by relentless application of new knowledge into institutional and interactional practices

35
Q

Habitus (Bourdieu)

A

Interpretive schemas that tell us how the world works, how to evaluate things and provide guidelines of action

Product of social structural conditions but also structures social practices

Leads us to develop tastes that effectively distinguish classes of people

36
Q

Producers of social power and domination

A

Economic capital - material resources that one controls or possesses

Social capital - network of contacts or acquaintances that can be used to secure or advance ones position

Cultural capital - variety of resources: verbal facility, cultural awareness, aesthetic preferences, education credentials

37
Q

Bifurcated consciousness (Smith)

A

The dialectical tension between the subjectove experience of women and a dominant perspective of the world

38
Q

2 Modes of knowing, experiencing, and doing

A
  1. Located in the body - acts, moves, occupies space
  2. Extends beyond the body - operates abstractly
39
Q

Reproduction of male domination in abstract ways of knowing are enabled by (Smith):

A

The socialized association of male consciousness with rationality

Domestic labour traditionally preformed by women - the subordinate status of that labour

The conditions (privileges) that allow men not to focus on their bodily existence in the same way of women

40
Q

Cultural capital

A

Embodied state - form of knowledge that resides within us

Objectified state - material objects we used to indicate social class

Institutional state - the way society measures social capital

41
Q

False consciousness

A

The cognitive part of our alienation - the ideas we create disguise reality from us - a system of beliefs that obscure the truth

42
Q

Alienation

A

People create things, forget they created those things, and allow those things to oppress them

43
Q

Structure of human society

A

Superstructure - everything not to do with the production in society (education, family, religion) - maintains and legitimates the base

Base - all things needed to produce (machines, factories, land, materials) - peoples relation to production - shapes the superstructure

44
Q

The gap between scientific opinion and popular opinion (Hornsey + Fielding)

A

People often engage in bias and selective search for info - to reinforce existing attitudes

Seek out evidence that fits our beliefs

More info is not the solution

45
Q

Surface attitudes (Hornsey + Fielding)

A

Dispute over facts, preferences, judgement, etc. - the level we often hear in most controversies

46
Q

Attitude root (Hornsey + Fielding)

A

The dispositions that motivate people to prefer the certain kinds of beliefs, groups, and political parties - dispositions that underly the surface attitudes

47
Q

Jiu Jitsu persuasion (Hornsey + Fielding)

A

Adjusting your message to correspond with the motivations of the other person

48
Q

Simpsons epistemology

A

Emphasis on cooperation

Commingling of emotional and intellectual knowledge

Accountable relationships with other beings

Diversity of Indigenous bodies of all ages, genders, races, and abilities

49
Q

Nishnaabeg brilliance (Simpson)

A

Their world - cognitive, spiritual, land based space

Didn’t recognize or accommodate whiteness - didn’t accept capitalism

50
Q

Biiskabiyang (Simpson

A

The process of returning ourselves and reengagement with things we have left behind

An individual and collective process of decolonization and resurgence

51
Q

Reflexive sociology (Gouldner)

A

Concerned with what sociologists want to do and what they actually do in the world

52
Q

Gouldners program for Reflexive sociology

A

Transformation of the person of the sociologists

Development of the sociologist own self-awareness, deepening the validity and reliability of sociological knowledge

Therefore not only skills and training, but a value-commitment to sociological and self awareness

53
Q

Enlightenment

A

Through rationality and reason we get emancipation from: Power, ignorance, and nature

53
Q

Valid and Sound argument

A

Valid - does each premises make sense

Sound = valid + true premises