GL Lecture 2 Flashcards
Globalization according to lecture thesis
Umbrella term for a variety of phenomena and processes that we experience as rapid, comprehensive social change
Eriksen metaphor
«overheating»
accelerated change :
- causes different aspects of our social life to rob against one another = friction generates heat.
- so many aspects of our lives getting faster, and as they come into contact = generates more heat
examples of crisis
political, climate, refugees
combination of scale of the pb
key issue of globalization
ability of the world to change drastically
social change for harper and leicht
significant alteration (adaptation, change) of social structure and cultural patterns through time. think of how the pop of a country changed in 50y
situation in sg today and in 1819
today : more than half of the people = migrants
1819 : influx of british indian and chinese migration
social structure according to harper and leicht
a persistent network of social relationships where interaction between persons / groups has become routine and repetitive (social roles, groups, organizations, institutions, taken for granted)
family types
nuclear : mom dad children
extended : grands parents, uncles
culture
shared way of living and thinking that includes symbols and language (verbal and non verbal), knowledge, beliefs, values (what is good or bad), norms (how people are expected to behave) and techniques ranging from common folk recipes to sophisticated technologies and material objects
culture simple
rules by which people govern themselves
social structure simple
the way people organize themselves to play within the rules
«methodological nationalism»
a norm in scholarly research : tendency to look at everything in schools / research through the lense of the nation ; the nation-state as the sole unit of analysis or as a container for social processes = not the case
nation state
one scale amongst others
significance types
- statistical significance
- clinical significance
- social significance —> debated, don’t have good measurement, issues with temporality and spatiality
types of social changes
1) change in personnel, ex: organisation / institution
2) change in way parts of structures relate. ex : family to institution —> USA evol 40-50y accepting family don’t have to look like 1 mom 1 dad 1 child (can be single-parenting / homosexual ) BO admin coming around trans rights issues
DT admin making impossible trans in army
3) Change in function of structures ( politicization of family, HBD rules in sg on marriage criteria )
4) Change in relationship between different structures. (legal regimes allow / disallow)
5) Emergence of new structures. ex : extended kinship networks to deal with disrupts to necluar fam. adaptation to slavery in usa south
scales of social change
Macro : global / world, societies
Meso : societies, institutions, org
Micro : org, small groups, individuals
time frames of social change
human time vs geological time
being able to move in another country only with permission, while in geological time humans have always been moving around earth
since when social changes began to speed up
last 500y
society as «open systems»
cannot be closed off from change, always changing
external changes
- globalization : outsourcing, countries opening their borders, low cost workforce but rise of middle class
- technology : boats, firearms
internal changes (mostly)
1) gap between ideals and practices : multiracial, equal country but discrimination to a minority group
2) individual differences via socialisation
3) definition and performance of social roles
4) competition for power and resources
exemple of non open system
north korea
examples of global social change
1) nation state
—> between 1790-1975, most people in the world had their political institutions completely replaced (before 1950’s, lots of colonies)
today nation-state = only form of pol org recognised
2) capitalism
evolution of capitalism 1300s - 1989 out of feudalism. few exceptions (NK Cuba China) colonialism then collapse of cold war syst = 2 moments essential to replacing most people’s economic systems with capitalism
3) english as a global language
colonialism —> british empire —> american hegemony
migration to usa
1840 - 1924 huge influx of people coming from all around the world moving to usa
social change counts —> people already there questioning their legitimacy
- americans were protestants, irish catholics
- flood mexican immigrants looking for safety 1903
refugee crisis
2005-present,
flood, accepting refugees would cause too many social changes
urbanisation and informality
people are moving to cities.
Sao Paulo Brazil Favela (informal) next to formal, legal housing
No urban informality in Europe, japan, north america.
People moving to urban areas = social changes (different values, disconnected from nuclear or extended families, groups created)
globalization as social change
doesn’t sufficiently explain what is changing and how but helps understand why important
