Final (Until April 28th) Flashcards
Define sex
A biological identity that is based on physical or biological differences and that can be divided into the main categories of male and female.
*based on perceived physical differences
Define gender
A social concept that includes all social patterns associated with being male or female and that ranges from masculine to feminine.
**based on differences that are social and cultural, not biological.
What is meant by “Two-Spirited” people, according to Indigenous people?
people who have both a masculine and feminine spirit.
What does the term: transgender (or trans) umbrella mean?
A term used to encompass the variety of different sexual expressions in modern society.
What are “middle-sex categories”?
The existence of middle-sex categories challenges the male/female binary.
Ex. - “Two-Spirited” people in some Indigenous groups who have both a masculine and feminine spirit.
- Some other societies also have three genders—men, women, and a third group that is variously named.
What are gender roles?
The behaviours and mannerisms that people learn as being appropriate to their respective genders and that are reinforced by cultural norms.
Define the term performativity. Who coined it?
Judith Butler coined it.
A term to describe the repeated rituals that create and sustain gender through performance.
Butler is essentially arguing that we create gender through our ACTIONS and INTERACTIONS.
What are some general claims from Judith Butler?
- that labelling a person as male or female is overly restrictive
- that the accepted and “natural” binary composition of two sexes (the only options being male or female) encourages us to see other dichotomies in categorizing people.
What does the term “costs of masculinity” mean? Who came up with it?
Michael Messner coined this.
The concept that there are rules to masculinity and what men can be and do.
For example:
- masculinity is defined by external success
- men must avoid everything feminine
- expected to be aggressive and show little emotion.
What major institution do we learn to perform gender?
In the education system
Education is highly gendered. For example, we see this:
- through the curriculum
- in the ways that male and female students are differentially streamed and rewarded
- the employment and income results of our degrees.
What does Jessica Streeter argue about gender?
That what we drink reinforces gender norms and practices.
She also claims that women are offered light styles of beer compared to men being offered more “complex” beer.
Takeaways from Michela Musto’s reading on how education influences gender
MAIN TAKEAWAY = that educators’ differential enforcement of school rules by course level contributed to gender-based differences in students’ perceptions of intelligence.
- School processes associate wealthy White boys with exceptionalism, thereby reproducing social inequalities in early adolescence.
^^ brings race and class into question - Teachers are often quicker to discipline girls than boys for running, talking loudly, interrupting, and violating dress codes –> therefore encourages students to dress, speak, and move in differently gendered ways.
- As boys’ behaviour at play is usually unaddressed, playing has an important role in confirming beliefs that boys are inherently stronger, louder, and more authoritative than girls.
In Musto’s study, what did she notice between high-level and lower-level courses in terms of the perceptions of who is smarter in those courses?
- In higher-level courses: students came to perceive boys as exceptionally intelligent
- In lower-level courses: students came to perceive girls as smarter than boys, but not as exceptional. (perceptions were also RACIALIZED with perceiving white students as smarter)
Define feminism in general
The various movements and ideologies that seek to define, confirm, and protect equal political, economic, and social rights for women.
Feminism is sometimes understood as occurring over three waves of activism.
What does feminist theory focus on?
how gender inequality comes about in society and how men and women’s gender roles are created and recreated in society.
What are the 3 waves of feminism?
1st WAVE:
- began in the 19th century mostly countries such as Canada, the US, and the UK
- Was focused on “de jure inequalities” = inequalities that are part of the legal and political system
- EX. for women’s rights to vote & hold property
2nd WAVE:
- began in the US in the early 1960s and spread throughout Europe and Canada.
- this wave broadened the movement beyond legal rights and sought change on a wide range of issues (equality in the workplace and reproductive rights)
- women expanded into new professions like media, sports and military.
- Concerned with violence against women (sexual violence and spousal abuse)
- Successful at making these issues mainstream, getting marital rape laws passed, and establishing rape crisis centres and shelters for women who had been victims of abuse.
3rd WAVE:
- began in the early 1990s and continues to the present day
- Arose as a critique to the previous wave, and this time included a more diverse group of women.
- Many felt that the 2nd wave was controlled by a small group of white middle-class women and that it did not represent the diverse experiences of women from different racial, ethnic, religious, class, and sexual groups
- Moved away from political rights, instead focuses in cultural arenas (ex. challenging gender depictions in the media, sexist language, etc.)
What is liberal feminism?
These feminists argued that discriminatory beliefs limited women’s ability to work outside of the home or to acquire education.
They challenged these types of beliefs specifically in politics and the law –> right to vote, laws to prevent sexual harassment in workplace.
LIBERAL FEMINISTS WORK TO CHANGE THE EXISTING INSTITUTIONAL SYSTEMS TO PROMOTE EQUALITY FOR THE SEXES
What are radical feminists?
They viewed current social institutions as so flawed that they COULD NOT BE REFORMED and, instead, should be ELIMINATED.
They specifically targeted the institutions of the family and church and ideologies that support traditional understandings of sexuality and reproduction.
^^ Ex. they want to decouple sex from marriage (specifically between a man and a woman) and challenge restrictive norms around sexual behaviour.
What are Marxist-socialist feminists?
they question BOTH liberal and radical feminism.
They believe that women cannot experience true liberation in existing institutions (liberal feminism) or through changes in cultural understandings of sex and sexuality alone (radical feminism).
According to Marxist-socialist feminism, the main obstacle for woman’s rights is a CLASS-BASED SOCIETY where the powerful few absorb the wealth created by the many.
CLAIM THAT IT IS CAPITALISM THAT PREVENTS WOMAN’S LIBERATION AND OVERTHROWING CAPITALISM IS THE ONLY SOLUTION.
Liberal, radical and Marxist-socialist feminism have all been critiqued for portraying an image of ____________________.
UNIVERSAL WOMANHOOD
Because not all woman are the same!
Intersectional feminism comes into play that recognizes the different experiences of woman and their rights (characterises the 3rd wave movement)
Who coined the term intersectionality? Describe it.
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw coined the term in 1989
the study of how various dimensions of inequality can combine.
Along with most other classical theorists, ____________ has been criticized for being “gender blind”
Karl Marx.
From Marx’s perspective, working-class men and women are both EQUALLY victimized by capitalists and the capitalist system that exploits their labour
^^when of course woman would have very different experiences.
Women (as mothers and wives) keep all family earners (men) and earners-to-be (children) healthy and cared for. They do so at no cost to the capitalist, who later benefits from the surplus value the workers produce.
WOMAN ARE EXPLOITED AT WORK AND AT HOME BY CAPITALISM.
In what ways are sports highly gendered?
- language used in sports is gendered (ex. defencemen or “he throws like a girl.”)
- There are very little top earning athletes in the world (only 2 women on the top 100 sports earner list 2020)
- vast gender inequality even within the same sport in terms of pay
- sports media are still dominated by coverage of male sports
In what ways is the workplace highly gendered?
- gender wage gap (the biggest reason for this is because women tend to work in the 5 C’s, aka lower paying “motherly” jobs)
^^ Ex. construction jobs (more often performed by men) pay better than sales jobs (more often performed by women).
What is feminization?
- A particular job, profession, or industry being dominated by or predominantly associated with women (ex. nurses, secretaries, teachers, and family doctors).
- Feminized jobs tend to lose prestige, wages, required skill levels, and opportunities for promotion.
**Such feminized jobs are referred to as “PINK COLLAR”
Wage differences between women and men are no longer shrinking. If we continue to progress at this slower rate, the gender gap in Canadian society will take between ______ and ______ years to eliminate!
30 and 180 years.
What is the double shift?
Hochschild’s concept that women in heterosexual dual-income households often spend way more time on household tasks and caring work than their partners do in addition to their work in the paid workforce.
*also known as second shift
What is the consistent trend of men with childcare over a lot of research?
men tend to overestimate time spent on child care
Research has shown that in both print and broadcast media, women’s sports receive only ____% of the news coverage
4%
What is sexuality?
Feelings of sexual attraction and behaviours related to them.
What is sexual orientation?
A person’s sexual identity, expressed in terms of whom a person desires, wants to have sex with, and feels a sense of connectedness with.
Who conducted the first systematic study of sex and sexuality?
Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s
His initial study was interviewing 18,000 adults about their sexual behaviours, interests, and thoughts.
What are the Kinsey Reports?
The name given to Kinsey’s two books on human sexuality:
1. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual 2. Behavior in the Human Female (1953).
What is Kinsey’s Heterosexual–Homosexual Rating Scale?
A seven-point scale of sexual inclinations.
Instead of thinking of people as either gay or straight, Kinsey argued that they simply have life histories that express different desires.
He claimed that ppl can have more or less homosexual or heterosexual desires and more or less homosexual or heterosexual experiences, but these things are not always related.
**essentially argued that ppl are not just “gay or “straight”, it’s a spectrum
What are some social contexts that shaped sexual desire and behaviours in Kinsey’s studies?
- that men’s sexual behaviours differed by their social class—men of higher social class tended to be more experimental than those of lower social class.
- Women’s behaviour differed by their age and their view of gender equality. Those who were older and who had a more liberal view of women’s role in society were much more likely to experiment sexually and have more partners.
** What people do sexually is, at least in part, shaped by their characteristics, such as social class and age.
What does it mean that we live in a heteronormative society?
social institutions, practices, and norms that support the assumption that people are or should be heterosexual.
What type of study did Martin conduct with heteronormativity? What did she find?
Conducted a study of how mothers help to perpetuate heteronormative ideals.
When asking mothers to consider the possibility that their child might be gay, she found that 2/3 would “wait to see” what happened or prepare for the possibility while 1/3 actively tried to “prevent” their child from developing or expressing a gay identity.
What does Jonathan Ned Katz outline in “The Invention of Heterosexuality”?
Outlines how our modern ideas about heterosexuality and homosexuality are socially constructed and how they have changed:
- We think that heterosexuality is unchanging and universal; however, we create the categories of sexuality and then forget that we made them and see them as unchanging.
- Norms about sexuality are tied to larger social, historical, economic, and political processes.
**Heterosexuality is a modern invention and simply one way of perceiving and categorizing the social relations between the sexes.
In Canada, describe the shift that has occurred over the last few decades in terms of what classes people identify with?
In the early 2000s, a majority of Canadians (70%) identified as middle class. But now, this number has dropped to 47% as more Canadians begin to consider themselves as part of the poor or working class
Karl Marx is the founder of what sociological theory?
CONFLICT THEORY: that society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of competition for limited resources. Conflict theory holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than by consensus and conformity.
Marx argued that the core struggle in all societies is ______________.
CLASS STRUGGLE
The conflict between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and those who own only their labour power (workers).
Define the bourgeoisie
One of the two primary classes in Marx’s theory; the owners of the means of production.
Marx predicted that capitalism would eventually be replaced by ____________.
SOCIALISM: an alternative economic system featuring collective ownership of the means of production.
^^Power is held by the working class.
Marx also theorized that socialism would be eventually replaced by ____________, a completely classless society
COMMUNISM
What social system did Marx call the “dictatorship of the proletariat” or a “workers’ democracy.”?
The social structure of SOCIALISM
What is the definition of classes according to Marx?
Groups of people who play different roles in the productive system
Define property using Marxist theory
In Marxist theory, property is owned by the capitalist.
Property is any resource that can be used to produce things of value and to generate wealth.
Describe surplus value in Marxist theory
The new value created by workers that is in excess of their own labour-cost and is available to be appropriated by the capitalist.
AKA. the amount of money that the capitalist keeps after paying the workers’ wages.
What do capitalists do to maximize their surplus value?
- keeping wages low
- having workers work quickly
- setting long work hours
What sociologist said:
“the rate of surplus value is … an exact expression of the degree of exploitation of labour power by capital, or of the labourer by the capitalist.”
MARX
What significant changes occurred with the rise of the bourgeoisie class?
- established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
- Society as a whole split into only 2 great classes: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.
- Subjected the country to the rule of the towns -created enormous cities
- Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government.
- has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together
What was the final stage proposed by Marx and Engels?
communist society without classes
What is one of the main reasons, outlined by Marx, for the lack of revolution for fighting capitalism/classism?
One of the main reasons that workers do not join together is the role of IDEOLOGY.
Examples of an ideology:
- meritocracy
- individualism
What are ideologies?
A system of conscious and unconscious ideas that shape a person’s or group’s objectives, expectations, and actions.
**Marx argues that a society’s dominant ideologies come from the dominant class and serve to perpetuate the capitalist system
Canadian society has a strong belief in ____________________.
MERITOCRACY: The idea that people will achieve based on their own merit.
Through a Marxist lens, who benefits from the ideology of meritocracy?
Benefits the bourgeoisie - because they have money, we think of the hard work and intelligence it must have took to get there.
^^ now the proletariat buys into the system of capitalism because it promotes the belief that we too can become rich and successful if we work hard enough.
Obvi, this ideology ignores the many other factors that determine one’s social position.
What did Marx claim that workers in capitalism develop?
FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS: willingness among the working class to support ideologies that are advantageous to the ruling class but disadvantageous to working-class interests.
Marx argues that is this partly why the working class does not unite and overthrow the capitalist system
What is the main criticism of Marx’s arguments?
Many people argue that there are no longer simply two classes, and they criticize him for seeing the economic world as such a sharp distinction between capitalists and workers.
What are petite bourgeoisies?
Small-scale capitalists, such as shopkeepers and managers.
EX:
- a petite bourgeoisie who owns a small coffee shop might, like her employees, make coffee. However, the owner of Starbucks, a large bourgeoisie, would not.
What did Marx predict about the petite bourgesoisies?
Marx said that the petite bourgeoisie would disappear over time, mostly because they would eventually fall into the proletariat class.
What’s the lumpenproletariat?
The lowest layer of the working class, according to Marx, including criminals and the chronically unemployed.
***Marx largely dismissed this group bc he felt that its members were highly unlikely to join a workers’ revolution.
Marx wrote in an era of industrial capitalism, when most individuals working in the formal labour market were employed in manufacturing. In Canada today, are most individuals employed in manufacturing jobs still?
No, not as much.
Today, most people work in other industries. In 2020, 79 per cent of Canadians had service jobs (ex. retail, health, and education), with only 19 per cent working in the manufacturing sector.
What is “The Secret”?
A best-selling self-help book by Rhonda Byrne based on “the law of attraction.”
Claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results, such as increased wealth, health, and happiness.
Ex. Speak, act, and think from the mindset of being wealthy now. Eliminate thoughts and words of lack such as “I can’t afford it,” “It is too expensive.”
**this advice can be extremely problematic
What did Marx argue is the core struggle in all societies?
Overall CLASS STRUGGLE.
Marx understood society as being based on the conflict between social classes—class struggle, particularly the clash between individuals who own the means of production (capitalists) and those who do not (workers).
Marx predicted that capitalism would eventually be replaced by an alternative economic system featuring collective ownership of the means of production called __________.
SOCIALISM - an alternative economic system featuring collective ownership of the means of production where power is held by the working class.
Marx referred to this system as the “dictatorship of the proletariat” or a “workers’ democracy.”
What is class conciousness?
is a term used in Marxist theory:
An awareness of what is in the best interests of one’s class - basically people’s beliefs regarding their social class
Marx argued that this awareness is an important precondition for organizing into a “class for itself ” and advocating for class interests.
Class consciousness has been important in many capitalist societies, such as Canada, in leading to the rise of ________________.
UNIONS
Organizations of employees who work together to negotiate a variety of common matters, including pay, benefits, hiring and firing practices, and working conditions.
Define Trade Union Density
the percentage of wage earners in a population who are part of a union.
Ex. 26% of Canadian workers are part of a union (in 2018)
Is union density increasing or decreasing (on avg.)?
In general, union density is on the decline.
How can we explain the drastic unionization rates between the United States and Canada?
- Canadian labour laws and public policies are generally more supportive of unions than American laws and policies
- 28 US states have “right to work” laws, which restrict a union’s ability to require individual members to pay union dues. (makes it difficult for unions to fund their work)
- The process of creating a union is much quicker in Canada (about 10 days in Canada, months or years in US)
People who work in place of unionized workers on strike are sometimes known as _______
SCAB WORKERS
Temporary or permanent strike replacements
(people who work in place of striking employees are sometimes called scab workers)
How does Weber define power?
According to Weber, power is the chance that a person or group can realize its own will in a communal action, even against the resistance of others participating in the same action.
The idea is based on a person’s or group’s economic class, social status, and party.
In what ways did Weber agree and disagree with Marx’s ideas?
He agreed with Marx that economic power is very important
He disagreed with Marx that non-economic factors were insignificant. Weber argued that non-economic factors are significant parts of who has power in society and who does not (politics, religion, etc.)
What are the three primary bases of power in society, according to Weber?
- economic class (income, wealth)
- social status (prestige, honour)
- party (political power)
According to Weber, a class is……
a group of people sharing a common situation in this market and, therefore, having common interests.
The main division for Weber was between the classes with property and those without
The ways both Weber and Marx define class is very similar, what makes them different?
Weber said that class can be differentiated into the KINDS of property and services that an individual can offer in a market.
Whereas Marx described two main groups, Weber claimed that there were four main classes: large capitalists, small capitalists, specialists, and the working class.
What are Status groups?
Weber’s term for a group that is based on social honour or prestige and that has a “style of life.”
**Honour refers to any distinction, respect, or esteem that is accorded to an individual by others.
Ex.
- The title “doctor” or “lawyer” denotes a particular type of education and occupation and cannot simply be given to anyone.
- However, status can also be informal, such as when we respect older people even if they have no specific title or position of authority.
**Social honour can be positive or negative in that an individual may be given a high level of social esteem or be disrespected if seen to fall into an undesirable social category.
Define parties
In Weber’s theory, organizations that attempt to influence social action and focus on achieving some political goal.
Not simply political parties. Parties also include groups aimed at improving specific social problems (ex. a parent–teacher group), environmental groups (ex. World Wildlife Fund), or even sporting and recreation organizations.
What is socio-economic status?
A measure of a person’s/family’s…
- income
- educational attainment
- occupational prestige
…that is used to determine one’s social and economic position in relation to others
*SES is typically divided into three categories—high, middle, and low.
Define social mobility
The upward or downward movement in a stratification system, such as the class system.
achievement-based stratification system
VS
ascription-based stratification system
Achievement-based = A system that ranks individuals based on their accomplishments.
Ascription-based = A system that ranks individuals based on a person’s ascribed features (e.g., race or sex).
The extent to which a society is achievement- or ascriptive-based depends on its level of _____________
SOCIAL MOBILITY
What are the 2 types of social mobility?
- Intergenerational (occur between generations)
- Intragenerational (occur within a single generation - ex. your parents were working class but became middle class in their lifetime).
What is intergenerational income elasticity?
The statistical relationship between a parent’s and child’s economic standings
–> the higher the elasticity, the less social mobility a society offers.
*In this situation, childhood upbringing plays a larger role than individual talents and capabilities in predicting later income.
What are some countries that have low intergenerational income elasticities? What about high?
low = UK, US
high = Norway, Denmark
*Canada has relatively high intergenerational social mobility, about twice the rate of the UK.
Canadian ____________ account for Canadians being as much as 3x more economically mobile than Americans.
public policy and tax systems!!
What can be concluded about the data about the characteristics of US occupational groups more/less likely to be able to work from home during the COVID?
- There is a class divide between those who can easily transition to working from home and those who can’t (the ppl who are lucky enough to work from home make TWICE as much as those who have essential jobs and cant work at home)
- Gender-based differences between those who can and cannot easily work from home. (women in sales/offices are more likely to be able to work from home than jobs that involve natural resources, which is usually dominated by men)
- Racial and ethnic differences (Latinx workers are heavily over-represented in telecommute-unfriendly professions)
In terms of COVID risk from jobs, did men or women have a higher chance of exposure to the virus?
Healthcare, childcare, consumer service workers are mostly female, and are jobs that put workers AT ESPECIALLY HIGH RISK FOR INFECTION
“blue collar” essential work like construction, auto repair, etc. are male dominated and have FEWER RISKS OF INFECTION.
Differentiate between relative and absolute poverty
Relative-poverty = The deprivation of one individual in comparison to another (live in a state of precarious housing and employment that is not necessarily life-threatening but still poverty)
Absolute-poverty = The life-threatening deprivation of an individual.
What are low-income cut-offs (LICOs)
Income thresholds below which a family will likely spend more than the average amount of its income on basic necessities (i.e., food, shelter, clothing).
What do critics say about basic income?
They argue that they are too expensive and may not alleviate poverty because they are not targeted to the very poor and, instead, are spread across all individuals below the poverty line.
The ________________________ was, in some ways, a guaranteed income for those who were impacted by COVID
Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)
^^It provided benefits to a variety of people (lost their jobs, left their jobs to care for children/family, etc.)
What’s the stat for how many ppl live in poverty in Canada
1/6 people live in poverty in Canada
What did Canada introduce to help with poverty amongst the elderly?
Canada Pension Plan (CPP): A universal social program available to all Canadians over the age of 59, regardless of financial means.
CPP is very successful!!
What is the cycle of poverty? Name some factors that continue this cycle
The causes and elements of poverty that trap people in this situation and require outside intervention.
This cycle is continued by factors like:
- low (or no) income
- little education
- lack of sufficient housing/material resources
- insufficient social connections
- poor health
What is globalization
The increasing interconnectedness of PEOPLE, PRODUCTS, IDEAS, PLACES that results from advances in transport, communication, and information technologies.
It causes political, economic, and cultural convergence or integration of different people and places around the world.
What are the 3 dimensions of globalization?
Globalization has three major dimensions:
1. PHYSICAL: The movement of goods, people, and money across national borders (ex. credit cards working all over the world)
- SPATIO-TEMPORAL: making the world feel smaller and everything seems closer (Zoom, plane and be halfway across the world, events that happen far away impact us more and are more relevant)
- COGNITIVE: involves the dissemination (dispersing) of ideas and culture throughout the world. Basically cultural models can become increasingly similar across countries (ex. McDonalds in foreign place, Taylor on the radio in Mexico, etc.)
Spatio-temporal convergence is the basis for what term? Who coined this term?
GLOBAL VILLAGE = The increasing interconnectedness and unified global community that comes from the growth of international communication.
Coined by Marshall McLuhan - he basically believed that this increase of shared interaction (w/ media/internet) creates a greater global responsibility for social betterment because everyone is more aware.
What’s a spatio-temporal element of globalization that effects our daily life?
Ex. the impact that distant wars and conflicts can have on our daily lives - effects can range from stricter airport security to higher gas prices.
**shows the globalized nature of world economies because an overseas conflict affects our daily activity of buying gas.
What is one positive example of the dissemination of cultural ideals?
The spread of the concept of HUMAN RIGHTS
Weight concerns/anorexia became more common GLOBALLY as _______________
exposure to Western media increased
As globalization is so complicated and threatening to some countries, what are the 3 theories that of globalization and global inequality in sociology?
- modernization theory
- world systems theory
- world society theory
What is modernization theory?
Believes that countries are poor because they cling to traditional and inefficient systems of attitudes, technologies, and institutions.
This theory predicts that, given enough time and with the “correct” behaviours, all societies can become modernized and develop like Western societies.
What does Rostow argue in his famous book: The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto?
He argues that all societies start as traditional societies, which emphasize the importance of history and tradition.
He describes these traditional societies are static and rigid (very little economic mobility, prioritize stability). They are based on subsistence agriculture (growing of crops to feed the farmer’s own livestock and family) or hunting and gathering. These societies, focus on spiritual richness but lack material abundance.
What are cash crops?
Crops that are sold FOR PROFIT.
This type of agriculture contrasts with subsistence farming in which farmers grow crops for their own consumption
According to modernization theory all countries, at one point, were poor. How have some countries been able to move out of poverty according to this theory?
- During the Middle Ages, a growth of exploration and trade brought wealth to a growing share of people in western Europe.
- Capitalism growth and the rise of the Industrial Revolution also created more wealth.
Modernization theory believes ______________ is the greatest barrier to development.
TRADITION
Traditional family values, gender roles, and cultural models can hinder the adoption of new technologies and procedures!
Ex. if a society believes that women should not work outside the home, there are fewer workers to produce goods.
What is monocropping?
The agricultural practice of producing high yields by growing a single crop on the same land each year.
*3 common monocrops are corn, soybeans, and wheat
In theory, the process would lead to more economic productivity and to Rostow’s period of economic takeoff.
What are some critiques of monocropping?
- Relying on cash crops can be volatile and unsustainable.
- Prices for major cash crops are set on a global scale; therefore, nations, regions, or individual producers of these crops are at the market’s mercy.
- controversial because it has long-term environmental disadvantages (damage soil, growth of parasites, etc.)
What are 2 critiques of modernization theory in general?
- fails to recognize that rich nations industrialized from a position of global strength, COLONIZING other countries and taking their resources.
- being ETHNOCENTRIC (judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture)
What is World Systems Theory?
A main theory of globalization that views the world as a transnational division of labour, which classifies countries as core, semi-periphery, or periphery.
What are core countries according to World Systems Theory?
The most powerful nations in the world.
Their power is based on their:
- economic diversification
- high level of industrialization
- high-skill labour
- focus on the manufacturing of goods instead of simply extracting raw resources for export
What are periphery countries according to World Systems Theory?
The least powerful of the three types of countries.
They are not economically diversified and are only minimally industrialized.
***These countries focus on extracting raw materials for export to core countries.
What are semi-periphery countries according to World Systems Theory?
Combinations of characteristics of the core and periphery.
They are often countries moving toward industrialization and economic diversification.
Canada used to be semi-periphery when its economy was focused on resource extraction and it had very low levels of industrialization
World systems theory is based on _____________ theory
Marxist CONFLICT THEORY
Think of the core countries as the capitalists - they benefit from the labour of the proletariat countries (the periphery) in many ways.
What are commodity chains?
A process used by companies to gather resources, transform them into goods or commodities, and distribute them to consumers.
Essentially the connected path from which a good travels from producers –> consumers.
World systems theory argues that _________ flow from the periphery to the core and __________ flow in the opposite direction.
RESOURCES, IDEAS
This essentially means that the core countries take resources from the periphery, and they take over the ideas/news/coverage all over the world, with very little ideas from he periphery being spread
What are the critiques of world systems theory?
- Some argue that foreign trade has actually assisted some countries
- the ability of countries to move into the core counters the claim that globalization will lead to increased poverty in the periphery.
Define ecological footprint
A measure of a person’s or community’s impact on the earth’s ecosystems; the amount of land and sea area required to sustain the use of natural resources and to process the associated waste.
What is world society theory?
Emphasizes the significance of institutions and culture in forming the structure and behaviour nations, organizations, and individuals worldwide.
It seeks to explain global change as a result of the post–World War II emergence of global institutions and international organizations, as well as an increasingly shared world culture.
World society theory argues that countries are becoming ______________.
increasingly SIMILAR
World society theory is _________________ conducted in the 1970s.
Rooted in comparative education research
Researchers discovered that education systems were based on cultural models that spread across countries and provided blueprints for what a good education system should be
What globalization theory is proposed to be used to understand the changing regulations of sex and sexuality laws?
Frank and colleagues (2010) suggest that we can understand these changes using world society theory.
This is because the rising regulation of rape and child sexual abuse indicates a widespread international change in norms about individualism, which has been a somewhat recent cultural norm.
What was the main points in Daina Stukuls Eglitis’s article on the uses of global poverty?
Argues that people in rich countries, actually benefit from global poverty in a number of ways.
**Was not arguing that poverty is good, instead suggesting that understanding poverty’s existence and persistence means recognizing that the poor have positive social and economic functions for the nonpoor.
What are the 11 “uses” of global poverty in Eglitis’s article? (try to have the gist of them all)
- The existence of global poverty helps ensure the wealth of affordable goods for Western consumers. (ex. “made in china” labels)
- The existence of global poverty benefits Western companies and shareholders in the form of increased profit margins.
- The existence of global poverty fosters access to resources in poor states that are needed in or desired by the West
- The existence of global poverty helps support Western medical advances.
- Global poverty contributes to the advancement of Western economies and societies with the human capital of poor states.
- The existence of global poverty may contribute to the suppressing of the Western proletariat
- Global poverty benefits the West because poor countries make optimal dumping grounds for goods that are dangerous, expired, or illegal.
- The existence of global poverty provides jobs for specialists employed to assist, advise, and study the world’s poor and to protect the “better-off” from them. (ex. journalists writing about poor, organizations to study the poor, etc.)
- Global poverty benefits inhabitants of wealthy countries, who can feel good about helping the global poor through charitable work and charitable giving.
- The poverty of less developed states makes possible the massive flow of resources westward.
- The poorer countries are useful scapegoats for real and potential global environmental threats.
When we compare across countries, we can see that global inequality is ______________ over time
INCREASING
What is the Gini Index?
A measure used to compare INCOME INEQUALITY across countries.
The index ranges from zero (perfect equality) to one (total inequality).
What is Canada’s gini index?
Canada has a Gini of 33.3, so is a relatively equal society when compared with other liberal democracies
What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?
A number that combines a variety of measures regarding the health and quality of life in a country.
It combines average achievement in the following three areas of human development:
- life expectancy at birth
- education
- standard of living
- the amount that each country spends on health care and their levels of inequality (as measured by the Gini index).
Violent crime tends to be much more prevalent in countries, regions, and cities with high levels of ____________________
INEQUALITY
In general, Ccime rates are closely tied to inequality
According to Wilkinson and Pickett, the structures of unequal societies lead to higher levels of ______________ problems for both the rich and the poor.
MENTAL HEALTH
**these problems that cannot be solved through individual mental health solutions because they are linked to the unequal nature of these societies as a whole.
What are the 3 main strategies to address global inequality?
- Development Assistance = financial aid given by mostly governments to support a country’s economic, social, and political development. Primary goal is to reduce global poverty.
- Debt Relief = richer countries to forgive the debt of less wealthy nations
- Micro-financing = offering financial services to individuals who are not served by the traditional financial system. They provide small amounts of start-up capital to assist people with their entrepreneurial projects and thus help to ppl out of poverty.
What is fair trade certification?
An official certification that tells consumers that a product is produced in a way that is consistent with principles of ethical fair trade.
**mean to be a newer innovative way of dealing with global inequality
What are the 3 reasons for the change in the Fair Trade Organization policy, according to Paul Rice, the founder and CEO of Fair Trade USA
- claims that Fair Trade for All will reduce inconsistencies in the certification process
- wants to greatly increase consumer awareness about fair trade initiatives, further increasing the market for fair trade products
- greater sales of fair trade products will help educate consumers about the plight of producers around the world
What are some issues with Fair Trade for All?
- supply for fair trade coffee currently outpaces demand
- the campaign mistakenly assumes that plantations will provide the same health, safety, and economic benefits for farmers as do cooperatives.
What was the largest protests in US history for?
the murder of George Floyd
Members of social movements engage in _____________ and _____________.
PROTESTING, BOYCOTTING
What are the 5 elements of social movements?
(IMPORTANT - KNOW THIS WELL)
- SUSTAINED CHALLENGE: involves repeated collective claims to power holders, which demonstrate to the public that the movement is committed to the issue at hand
- ENGAGE POWER HOLDERS: people with less power challenging those with more power
- ACT ON BEHALF OF WRONGED POPULATION: movements are composed of the wronged population and conscience constituencies
- PARTICIPATE IN UNAUTHORIZED ACTION: protest, boycott, or do other unconventional activities to gain media and public attention by disrupting daily routines.
- DEMONSTRATE WORTHINESS, UNITY, NUMBERS, and COMMITMENT (WUNC):
What is a conscience constituencies?
A sympathetic ally who is outside the “wronged population” represented by the social movement.
Break down each of the components in WUNC
Worthiness = showing that your group or interests are worth listening to and important enough to deserve the attention of the public and those in power.
Unity = exhibit unity by sharing similar values, interests, and goals (even wearing same shirts, same signs shows that the group belongs together)
Numbers = need large numbers to be taken seriously - large protests in streets or petitions
Commitment = willing to persist in costly or risky behaviour shows lots of commitment
Tilly says that the strength of a social movement is the result of the formula ___________.
W × U × N × C
If any of these numbers is zero, the movement will have no strength, even if it has a lot of the other three components. However, you can make up for more with another with riskier behaviour for example.
What did Alison Dahl Crossley discover in her Facebook and feminist study?
Among these respondents who were involved in the feminist movement, Facebook and blogs were used to create online feminist communities, nourish offline networks, expand recruitment bases, and provide opportunities for online interaction with adversaries.
Facebook was shown to be an amazing tool among college feminsts!
What is the collective action problem (or the free-rider problem)?
The idea, created by OLSON, that people tend to avoid participating in collective action (ex. social movements) because they will benefit from whatever is gained whether or not they contribute to the cause.
Define public goods?
Things that are:
1. non-excludable (a person cannot reasonably prevent another from consuming the good) and
2. non-rivalrous (a person’s consumption of the good does not affect another’s).
*Clean air is an example of a public good.
What are the 2 main dimensions of engaging with social movements
- RISK associated with that activity (most activism in Canada is not necessarily risky, but in non-democratic countries, any forms of social movement can be very dangerous)
- COST of engaging (if you have to travel or take time away from work, etc)
**risk and cost are usually related
When it comes to protesting, signing a petition, and boycotting a product, are countries that are relatively high in one mode of engagement high in the others?
YES
In general, countries that are relatively high in one mode of social movement engagement are high in the others.
What is the most common form of social movement participation in Canada?
signing a petition (73%)
What are the 5 elements that determine participation in a movement?
IDEOLOGY: Individuals need to be committed to the goals of a movement in order to participate and feel as though their impact will yield results (religious ideologies are also important predictors)
RESOURCES: ex. socio-economic status (SES), educational/political knowledge
BIOGRAPHICAL AVAILABILITY: Individuals with fewer responsibilities and constraints, such as young people, students, single people, older people and those without children, are more likely to have the time, energy, and inclination to engage in contentious political activity.
SOCIAL TIES & IDENTITY: they can help to create identities that facilitate and encourage social movement engagement
POLITICAL CONTEXT: **free spaces
What is efficacy?
The belief that one is capable of the specific behaviours required to produce a desired outcome in a given situation.
Efficacy is an important predictor of social movement engagement!
Define Identities
The names that people give to themselves and others in the course of social interaction.
**Identity is central to social movement participation as both a cause and outcome of engagement
What are “free spaces”
The small-scale settings of a community or movement that are outside dominant groups’ direct control, are voluntary, and create the cultural challenge preceding or accompanying political mobilization.
Social movements need free spaces so that activists can have some protection from authorities!
Ex. Universities acted as safe places that allowed students to meet and organize.
Does participating in a social movement permanently change a person’s life?
Participating in a social movement or protest activities CAN HAVE LONG-TERM EFFECTS FOR INDIVIDUALS.
A group of studies that interviewed people who were active in social movements of the 1960s found that participating in protest had important consequences for the later lives of individuals.
According to a group of studies, do former activists of the 1960s tend to maintain the same ideology and remain politically active?
Yes - activists tended to maintain the same ideology over the course of their lives and to remain politically active.
Former activists are….
- concentrated in teaching and other helping professions
- have lower incomes
- more likely to have experienced an episodic or non-traditional work history than non-activist
Activists use ___________ to inspire and legitimate social movement activity
FRAMES - interpretation schemes that enable individuals to understand and label occurrences in their daily lives.
**basically, a frame focuses on some aspects of reality to promote a particular interpretation of an event or issue.
What are the 3 key parts of social movements’ frames?
- Diagnostic = social movement and activists “diagnose” the problem
- Prognostic = a social movement tries to propose a solution to the problem
- Motivational = social movement activists try to get individuals to do something to solve the problem
Different types of frames lead to different types of action
What is selection bias?
With media and social movements, the gatekeepers’ (editors’) choice to report on a small number of protest events.
Media agendas can influence this selection, independent of the events’ characteristics.
What are issue attention cycles?
The idea that the public is more likely to become alarmed about a problem and concerned with its amelioration at certain times.
Learning the cost of addressing the problem can quash this enthusiasm, followed by a “POST-PROBLEM PHASE” of sporadic recaptured interest.
ex. A group concerned with gun control has a better chance of getting media attention after a large-scale incident of gun violence.
What is description bias?
In terms of social movements, the media’s positive or negative depiction of a protest event or activist.
Describe organizational models of media coverage
Its perspective is that the media acts as a gatekeeper that determines what events are newsworthy.
Due to the way it is set up, it tends to rely on official sources and GENERALIST journalists, leading to a particular type of coverage of protest.
What are generalist reporters? What’s an issue with media hiring them?
Generalists can write a story on anything and do not specialize in one area. This eliminates the need to have one reporter for each area.
Generalists are cheaper and easier to hire, but they do not know as much about each area because they move from one topic to another.
As a result, they are more reliant on official government sources for information!! –> this means that the news is more likely to represent the interests and perspectives of officials and those in power than of challengers.
What’s the ideological model of media coverage?
The perspective that media, political, and corporate elites make a concerted effort to CONTROL the information released through the media.
Argues that broader structures of power relations in society affect the portrayal of social movements and protest.
This model tends to focus on INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY for social problems and neglect social causes!
What is the protest paradigm?
The way that the media tend to cover protest events –> works to delegitimate and marginalize protesters and focuses on highlighting details of violence, visible drama, and deviant/strange behaviour.
What is the Oka Crisis?
A standoff, occurring in 1990, between the Mohawk First Nations and the Quebec police/Canadian army over the contested use of an area of land called the Pines.
What are the 2 dimensions of social group success?
Gamson came up with these dimensions:
- ACCEPTANCE = A measure of social movement success in which a movement is considered a valid representative for a legitimate set of concerns.
- NEW ADVANTAGES = measure of social movement success in which a group gains benefits, such as a new policy or law, during a challenge and its aftermath.
When we combine these two dimensions, there are four distinct outcomes:
- Full response (full acceptance & many new advantages)
- Collapse (no acceptance, no new advantages)
- Co-optation (full acceptance, no new advantages)
- Pre-emption (no acceptance, many new advantages)
What is fracking?
It is a contentious method of extracting natural gas and oil, and poses significant environmental and health risks.
How did biographical availability contribute to the success of the fracking campaign?
Why were activists able to ban fracking in New York but not in other places across the US?
New York differs from states like Texas and North Dakota is in the prevalence of environmental groups.
Areas without such groups at the ready are vulnerable to the imposition of harmful environmental practices.
Define public sociology. Who coined it?
Coined by Herbert Gans
A sociological approach that attempts to interact with audiences outside academia by encouraging sociologists to engage more with the public and bring sociological ideas to wider audiences outside traditional academic circles
*This movement uses the theories and findings of sociology
A report based on interviews and surveys with recipients of Ontario’s basic income pilot project found a decrease ________________________.
A decrease in labour market participation
Describe the periods of Katz’ Heterosexuality Timeline
- Pre-Heterosexual Era (Victorian)
- Having sex was only for procreation (having babies)
- Having sex for sexual pleasure between men & women is WRONG - Late Victorian Sex-Love
- More open about sex in media, with others, etc.
- Rise in the authority of medical doctors to define what was “normal” and “abnormal” sexual pleasure - Heterosexuality: The First Years (1892-1900)
- The first known English word for “heterosexual:” appeared in a medical journal –> but at the time the word meant as “inclination to both sexes” for pleasure
outside of procreation - The Heterosexual Mystique
- Heterosexuality as an identity was used as a ‘solution’ to the ‘problems’ above as a ‘natural biological urge’ humans have for ‘survival’ - The Heterosexual Steps Out
- The word “heterosexual” was used in the New York Times to distinguish the more ‘normative’ heterosexual from homosexual - Heterosexual Hegemony (1945-1965)
- dominance of heterosexuality after world war 2 and with baby boombers - Heterosexuality Questioned: 1965-1982
- All questioned heterosexuality as the norm
ex. civil rights movement, gay liberation movement
What are disaligning frames?
Adversaries seek to challenge and reframe that
way issues are presented by social movement
activists
