Final Exam Flashcards
consciousness
(weber)
Doesn’t exist in any space and isn’t an object we can see - we experience what is it to be conscious.
Transcendental argument
(weber)
Argument that goes beyond reality
- identifies fundemental conditions that must be in place for an experience or knowledge to be possible.
Difference between behaviour and action (weber)
Behaviour is doing something without meaning - weber recognized the blur
Intentional acts of meaning (weber)
Deliberate actions we take in relation to or directed towards others - forced actions don’t count
4 types of meaningful social action (weber)
- Traditional action - behaviour guided by habits or cultural norms
- Affectional action - based on controlled emotion
- Value rational action -based on personal belief or ultimate value - the rationality of the action in fulfillment of the value
- Instrumental rational action - achieving a specific purpose
2 ways to understand meaningful social action (weber)
- Observational understanding - noticing when a social action was done
- Explanatory understanding - providing an explanation for why that social action was done
Verstehen (weber)
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
The Ideal Type
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)
Types of authority
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
Radical formation process (o+w)
The social construction of race
Racial objectivism and O+Ws critiques
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
Race as and Ideological construct and O+Ws critique
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
3 conditions of how we examine racial formation (O+W)
- in contemporary politics
- in global contexts
- across history
Constructionism
Our accounts of the world are outcomes of negotiated agreements, assumptions, and traditions of interpretation - not pictures of the world as it is
Essentialism
For any entity, theres a set of attributes or properties necessary to its identity and functioning
Flaws of essentialism (from constructionists)
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
Flaws of constructionism (from essentialists)
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
Situated essentialism
Resolution for the essentialism and constructionism debate
Understanding identity as both socially constructed and context-specific
Black nationalism (Du Bois)
Encouraged blacks to work together to create their own culture, art, and literature
Create their own economy of producers and consumers
Double consciousness (Du Bois)
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.
‘Car window sociology’ (Du Bois)
Early soc was based on casual observations
Not scientific - based on hunches, rumours, travelogues, and opinions
Racist
‘The colour line’ (Du Bois)
Durable global structure of white supremacy undergirded by similar economic, political, and ideological forces worldwide