SA150: Midterm #2 Flashcards
“Race”
- term first applied to humans in context of European colonial expansion during the 16th/17th centuries
- reflects beliefs about biological superiority and inferiority in context of colonial power
- most common pattern: white supremacy
- don’t exist as clear biological entities among humans
- early scientists three races= Causasian, mongoloid and negroid (always left people out!)
Racialization
The EXISTING counterpart to “race”
-social process where groups of people are viewed and judged as different in terms of their intellect/morality/values/innate worth because of diffs in appearance or cultural heritage
What does being invisible mean?
Having the freedom to act in a given situation
Racialization of Canada’s native people
- started in 16th century Europe in discussion of whether or not aboriginal people were human/have souls
- Western Europeans saw them as the other
- sociological perspective: aboriginal people studied primarily as social problems
- lack of balance in their portrayal
- aboriginal voices barely heard in sociological study of the people and their history
Relational accountability
Approach that shows people’s strengths as well as their weaknesses, so that problems can be viewed alongside successes
Legal statuses of Canadian aboriginal people
- registered Indian
- Bill C31 Indian
- band member
- reserve resident
- treaty Indian (has its own categories)
- Metis
- Eskimo
The Indian act
Administered by the federal department of Indian affairs
Passed in 1876
Gave sexist definition of Indian to men of Indian blood that belongs to a particular band, and their children and wife
If woman marries someone not legally Indian=loses her Indian status
If non-Indian woman marries Indian man=gets legal Indian status
Changed with Bill C-31 (people who lost their Indian status could apply to get it back)
Inuit
Been in Canada for shorter time
Canada didn’t take responsibility for them until 1939 when they wanted to claim the Arctic territory
Given metal disks with number to keep track of them
Own 18% of land
Receive royalties from natural resources
Don’t require license to fish/hunt
Metis
metis= anyone of mixed native and non native heritage
Metis= descendants of French fur traders and cree women
Culture started in late eighteenth century
Struggled with Hudson’s bay company over the trade monopoly
Eventually sold to gov of Canada
Started colony in Manitoba regardless of Metis land rights
Metis + Louis riel achieved military takeover and set up independent gov to negotiate with Ottawa
Manitoba act of 1870: established the province and recognized rights of Metis
Metis given SCRIPS, certificates declaring that bearer could receive payment in land/cash/goods
People bought these from Metis
Metis moved west
Set up independent gov in Saskatchewan
Federal Canadian forces attacked and defeated them
Colonies now have some rights but not royalties from gas or oil
Powley test
Used by Supreme Court of Canada to determine whether native and Metis people can lawfully hunt without a license
Black people in Canada (why they came and what they were met with)
Black communities existed in Nova Scotia since offered freedom to slaves who left their American masters to fight on the British side in the American Revolution
More came later to maritime colonies when they were offered freedom by the British government during the war of 1812
Offered less land/opportunities compared to white immigrants and endured a lot of hardship and prejudice
Why has the black population of Canada declined several times?
1792: black loyalists left Atlantic colonies for the new African colony of Sierra Leone
Returned to US after civil war which ended slavery
1871-1911: steady drop in black pop of Canada up until 70s when the pop rose again
Now third highest visible minority
Where is the black pop found in Canada?
Country’s third highest visible minority behind Chinese people and south Asians
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec: leading visible minority
In BC: rank last among six official visible minority’s
In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, high pop is thanks to 18/19th century immigration
Quebec: more recent immigration from former French colonies like Haiti chad etc
Four elements of racism
1- racialization: construction of certain groups as biologically superior or inferior
2- prejudice: pre judgments of others on the basis of group membership
3- discrimination: acts where individuals are treated differently based on their group membership
4- power: manifested when institutionalized advantages are regularly handed to one or more groups over others
Why can’t people of colour be racist?
Because they do not systematically benefit from racism
There is no systematic cultural or institutional support or sanction for the racial bigotry of people of colour
Belief that non white people can be prejudice but not racist
They can perform discriminatory acts but cannot be racist without support
Definitely true of systemic racism
Racial bigotry
Open, conscious expression of racist views by an individual
Systemic (institutionalized) racism
When racist practices/rules/laws become institutionalized or made part of a system
Ex: head tax on Asians as it was purposely put on to discourage Asian immigrants from coming to Canada
Friendly/polite/smiling racism
Racism that is subtle and hidden in a way behind a smile or friendly words
Master narratives
The stories that countries construct about their history
Get repeated in textbooks and stories people tell
Racism downplayed or hidden completely
Mistreatment of minorities, stories that make dominant culture or ancestors look bad=excluded
Four categories of theoretical approaches to ethnicity
Social constructivism
Instrumentalism
Primordialism
Anti-colonialism
Primordialism (essentialism)
View that every ethnic group is made up of certain traits that have been carried down from past to present with barely any change (or none at all)
- leads to belief that tribal conflicts in Africa happened before colonialism and that the conflicts happen only when the influence of colonial power is gone
- takes blame off colonial powers as during colonization=no conflicts
- static view of culture (doesn’t change from inside, change comes from outside sources)
- functionalist theory; poorly explains development of conflict
Colonialism
Economic and political exploitation of a weaker country or people by a stronger one
Typically involves domination by a European state of an African, American or Asian people
Also happens with other cultures too
Internal colonialism
Colonialism of one people by another within a single country
Ex: history of Canada (European settlers and aboriginal people)
Anti-colonialism (or post-colonialism)
Theoretical framework that analyzes the destructive impact colonialism has on both the colonizer and the colonized
-franz fanon and Albert memmi
-colonizer and colonized negatively condition each other and no party can be neutral in the relationship between the two
-to do with ethnicity: involves identifying colonialism as factor in development/escalation of conflict between ethnic groups
Ex: Huron vs Iroquois in Canada bc of ties with competed english and French groups
-indirect rule= governance policy in which a European nation uses the members of a particular ethnic group as its intermediaries in ruling an area of Africa
-problem: attributes every negative change in a colonized area to outside forces (no agency of colonized groups)
-corrective perspective=dual colonialism
Dual colonialism
Better than anti-colonialism
Idea that under colonial regime, most oppressed groups suffer both at hands of colonizing outsider group and at the hands of the local group that is given power/privilege by outside group
Ethnicity and epiphenomenal
Epiphenomenal=secondary effect or phenomenon that comes from but does not causally influence a separate phenomenon
- Marx: first to use it in sociology
- suggests that ethnic conflict is really just a byproduct of the struggle between economic classes
Instrumentalist
- traditionally presented as direct opposition to primordialism and compatible with epiphenomenalism
- focuses on emerging ethnicity instead of long established ethnic characteristics
- acknowledges that elites can give power to people who identify with them ethnically
- ethnic identification/action comes from competition for resources
- ethnic groups become self-aware through improved communications and writing and ethnic learning
- ethnic entrepreneurs= elite members who mobilize ethnicity for personal gain (ex: hitler)
Social constructivism
View that ethnicity is constructed by individuals for varying social purposes
Instrumentalism=partly formed version of social constructivism bc has how ethnicity is constructed by the elite but overstates influence and impact of the elite (fails to give the non-elite members any agency or power to choose and act without being manipulated)
-social constructivist theory would look to the motivations of the broader group
The quiet revolution of the 1960’s
Set of actions and policies that together represented an attempt by a growing educated/skilled/urban middle class to overthrow 3 social bodies that combined to restrict the people
1- English-dominated large businesses
2- union national (provincial political party that used a lot of conservative control through support of the premier)
3- the Catholic Church
Decrease in inequality of French and English brought on by provincial policies and practices
Cultural mosaic
Societies where individual ethnic, cultural and religious groups are able to maintain separate identities like Canada
Opposite of melting pot
Vertical mosaic
John porter
Refers to hierarchy (ranking) of higher and lower ethnic cultural and religious groups
Mosiac: diff tiles stacked (not placed evenly) with the tiles representing white Anglo-Saxon Protestants on top
W.E.B. Du bois
First African-American sociologist
Wrote about major problems and concerns of Africans living in the us and other parts of the world
Pan-Africanist= sees connection between the oppression or success of Africans and their descendants around the world
Daniel G. hill
First black Canadian sociologist (but not born here)
Worked in human rights in the government
Intersectionality
Refers to the way that different social factors combine to shape the experience of a minoritized group
-theory was developed in context of black feminist thought (Crenshaw and Collins); argues against white liberal feminist notion that all females experience being “female” the same
Interlocking matrix of domination
Gender-based stereotypes + racial prejudice creates an interlocking matrix of domination even more powerful/oppressive than gender alone (intersectionality theory)
Sex vs gender
Sex: biological division into male and female
Gender: parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity (aka roles and characteristics society assigns to women and men)
Gender role
Set of attitudes and expectations concerning behaviour that relates to being male or female
Differ across cultures
Who carried out most of the critical work on gender theory?
Feminist sociologists
Four strains of feminist theory
1- feminist liberalism
2- feminist essentialism
3- feminist socialism
3- feminist postmodernism
Feminist liberalism
Identifies women as a class entitled to rights as women Values contributions of women in the public realm of the workplace and examines whether women get fair pay for the work they do (pay equity) Got benefits/security for women on maternity leave
Criticism of feminist liberalism
It’s view of gender roles centres around the idea that it universalizes the position of white/middle class/hetero/western women
Fails to recognize that the social location of this category of women enables them to receive benefits not available to other women
Feminist essentialism
Looks at differences in how women and men think and argues for equality (or female superiority) in that difference
Women’s morality and maternal thinking involve norms that are natural to them; this way of thinking viewed negatively in patriarchal (male-dominated) society
Criticisms of feminist essentialism
- universalizes women assuming that all experience gender in the same way
- confuses natural phenomena with women’s strategies for coping with patriarchal demands
- invites people to continue thinking of women as social housekeepers in worlds that men build
- Indian feminist’s critique: think inherent caring function is just an ideology that gets in the way of their full human development
Feminist socialism
Have to revise their Marxism so as to account for gender, something that Marx ignored
Want sexuality and gender relations included in analyses in society
Belief that it’s useful to look at intersections of oppression between class and gender
Recognizes diff struggles for women of diff classes
Criticism of feminist socialism
Danger of factors such as race, ethnicity and sexual orientation getting overlooked in the focus on class
Feminist postmodernism
Takes strongest social constructionist position (almost diametrically opposed to that of feminist essentialism)
Sometimes go against view that all women are biologically all female
Women more as subjects than objects of sociological study (allowing perspective of women studied to guide their research)
Involves standpoint theory and queer theory
Queer theory
Rejects the idea that male and female gender are natural binary opposites
And disputes idea that gender identity is connected to some biological essence, arguing instead that gender identity is related to the dramatic effect of a gender performance
Gender should be a continuum
Gendered
Certain jobs and the university/college programs that prepare people to work in those jobs are considered gendered
Two parts:
1- one sex will be more prevalent (85% or more)
2- work itself has gendered meanings and terms used to define it
Numbers of men and women in college/uni programs
Men: graduates in engineering and applied sciences, more uni degrees in general, more degrees in math and physical sciences
Women: more college diplomas and university degrees in health and related jobs, social sciences and services at community level
Feminization of an occupation
Occurs when a particular job/profession/industry becomes dominated or associated with women
Ex: bank teller and secretary
Why did young women turn to illegally selling gin during the 18th century gin craze in London?
Required little to no capital
Didn’t require membership to any organization
Women weren’t effectively or explicitly excluded
(Some women would just sell other sellers out to gain the same amount as they would make as a maid)
Raewynn Connell’s four performances of masculinity
1- hegemonic masculinity: practices that are meant to normalize and naturalize men’s dominance and women’s subordination
2- subordinate masculinity: behaviours and ways of presenting oneself that threaten the hegemonic masculinity (gay men, girly men, etc)
3- marginalized masculinity: masculinity adapted to race and class
4- complicit masculinity: not exactly hegemonic but benefit from ways that hegemonic masculinities construct the gender order and gender practices
Two stereotypes of East Asian women
Lotus blossom baby (geisha as an expensive prostitute)
Dragon lady (tough businesswomen)
Indian princess
Heroine that forms an important part of American story of how their country was built
Abandons her people to help the incoming colonial power
Squaw
Figure that’s been used by white writers to characterize the aboriginal people as savages
Two meanings of two-spirited person (berdache)
Man who sometimes dresses as a women and takes part in some domestic activities associated with women
OR
Women who engages in hunting and warfare and takes on leadership roles
Makes up the respected third gender
Environmental sociology
Social science
Examines history of our relationship with the environment
Focus: where we have gone wrong and looking for ways to reverse our mistakes in the future
Science comes in when proving/disapproving climate change, tracking carbon admissions/weather patterns, testing safety of drinking water, etc
Sociology part examines social context (political interpreters who promote info with bias; standpoint must always be taken into account)
Two keys to assessing enviro arguments from a social scientific perspective
Operational definitions
Vested interests
Operational definitions
Needed for variables in any research you are analyzing or carrying out yourself
All operational definitions leak aka they are not perfect and people will argue about best definition
Can be fixed in peer review process from community of scholars (scientific social process)
Ex: hard to determine definitions for pollution, lung damage, limits on safe vs dangerous or acceptable vs unacceptable
Vested interests
Any interest in the results of a scientific study (and its interpretation) that may be strong enough to override the interest of ensuring those results are accurate/truthful
Scientific measurement is precise but interpreting data not so much
Significant=word that means nothing in reports; need definitions
Watch out for interests of scientists/organizations
Tobacco strategy
Important to trace science back to its social location
Funding by capital from large companies=conservative views
Tobacco strategy
Scientists that work for big companies and have interests of company as a first priority (over the actual scientific truth) and will skew research to help the company
In the tobacco example, trying to convince people that smoking isn’t bad go your health
Hunter and gatherer (forager) cultures
Survived by fishing, hunting, and harvesting wild crops
Nomadic
Minimally altered the enviro as they were aware that too much change could destroy their livelihood
Some groups would stop fishing or hunting to allow species to return to a decent population size
Farming culture
People started settling in fixed communities where they could grow crops and raise animals that had once been wild
Gens of farmers + agriculture tech = more control over nature (led to genetically modified/transgenic food, etc)
Potentially more destructive relationship with the enviro
Horticultural societies: practice low level agriculture on a smaller scale; can also have damaging effect
Industrial and post-industrial culture
Industrial culture= farmland replaced by cities and traditional farming practices replaced by large-scale manufacturing
Causes pollution and takes up a lot of natural resources + non-renewable resources
Post-industrial: more awareness of the enviro now than ever=possibility that we can reduce our carbon footprint; lead us to social ecology
Two diff ways of interpreting workplace-related injury and illness
1- social ecology view: sees these as essentially social in their origin and in the way people deal with them (working conditions set in place by company, monitored by political authorities, workers not in position to oppose unsafe enviro practices; sociological imagination)
2- keep it individual and personal, reflecting individual choices and physical state of person affected; blaming the victim
Red herring
Logical fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is introduced into an argument to distract from the original more important issue
Moral community
Individuals have shared mutual identities and a commitment to a common purpose
Victimology
Portraying people only as helpless victims rather than agents and leaders
Eco feminism
Social, political and spiritual movement that aims to start a post-industrial culture
Coined by Francoise d’Eaubonne
Refers to linking of enviro concerns with feminism
They argue that there’s a strong parallel between the subordination of women and the degradation of nature through male domination and control
Contemporary ecofeminists: capitalist and patriarchal systems that predominate in the world create triple domination of women, nature and the developing world
Ex: European witch hunts represented as patriarchal triumph of male knowledge over nature based wisdom of female herbalists and midwives
Three strands of Eco feminism
1- emphasizes that social justice has to be achieved together with the well being of the enviro since all human life depends on the earth
2- need to maintain balance between using earth as resource and respecting earth’s needs
3- spiritual; emphasizes idea that planet is sacred
*desire to recover pagan wisdom ; spirituality is life force in everything
Criticism of pagan-focused Eco feminism
Focusing too much on the idea of mystical connection with nature and not enough on actual social and material conditions of women
Rotten apple approach
Aims to argue that the fault lies not with the system but with the individuals that make it up
Typical of tabloids
Sociologists believe that fault is in the whole orchard (the system)
Is China the largest exporter in the world?
No, third largest behind USA and Germany
The China price
China has a competitive advantage in the manufacture and assembly of almost anything because work in China is really cheap (bc exploited Chinese workers and enviro suffering)
Luddites
People who are thought to oppose industrialization or technology, but really they were going against the social/political machinery of their time (aka the system)
Skilled tradesmen who worked out of home and made good money
Lost work because of new machinery
Hated the new work regime (long hours, etc)
Also opposed manufacturing of need (people needing to suddenly buy things that were once made in the home)
Social change
Group of people have experienced dramatic change in one part of their lives and must adjust other parts of their lives in order to adapt
Five interpretations of social change
1- modernism 2- conservatism 3- postmodernism 4- evolution 5- fashion
**no “right” one, all have diff degrees of applicability in diff situations
Modernism
Change equals progress
What is modern will automatically be better than the old thing it replaces
Views society as advancing along a straight path from primitive to sophisticated (not open to diff paths of development)
August Comte (French thinker)
Involves positivism (belief that rules, methods and presumed objectivity of the natural sciences can be applied to social sciences with no accommodations made for the biases/subjectivity of the social scientist)
Involves social Darwinism
Morgan’s idea of society progressing through stages
Up until mid 20th century: idea that science and technology would combine to make life a lot better
Science will replace religion
Social Darwinism (modernism)
Societies naturally proceed from simple/inferior to complex/superior
Only the strongest societies triumph
Herbert spencer
Idea of “survival of the fittest” applied to societies
Idea of society progressing through distinct stages
Lewis Henry Morgan
Three stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization
(Work their way up through gaining experimental knowledge)
Influenced Durkheim and Parsons
Modernist theories of politics (modernism)
Incorporate idea that societies are always improving politically
Becoming more democratic (more respect for human rights and barriers between societies coming down)
Leaders of developing empires use this to justify their decisions
Criticism of modernism
Narrow vision: whatever innovation benefits the dominant class is justifiable on the grounds of making progress
A lot of today’s problems cannot be solved by tech
Human leisure time is not increasing as it was thought that it would
Where is modernist view valid?
Medical technology (despite the fact that prevention is better than cure)
Conservatism
Sees social change as potentially more destructive than constructive (especially in emotionally-charged areas of life like family, sexuality, gender roles, etc)
Easy to say that this view is just for old timers or religious fanatics, but some values and customs like neighbourliness and community should be preserved
Shouldn’t be confused with large-C conservatism
Involves cycle of civilization
Cycle of civilization (conservatism)
Belief that civilizations rise and fall in a more or less predictable cycle
Very old idea
Political globalization.
Intensification and expansion of political interrelations around the globe
People of globalization taking a modernist view of change argue that it benefits many countries by spreading democracy (only valid depending on how democracy is defined)
Democracy
Government elected by its citizens Freedom of speech, press, etc Opposite to leader that doesn't need to fear for their safety Open education Etc
Polyarchies
Societies run by shifting coalitions of powerful interest groups
Oligarchy
Society run by a few powerful individuals or groups
Criticism of conservatism
Slippery-slope reasoning: logical fallacy that one thing (ex: gay marriage) is evidence of the imminent collapse of the entire social order = overreaction
Tendency to project backwards an idealized picture of social life from which the modern world is said to have fallen
Luddite’s achievements
Wages raised slightly in certain areas
Social reform now paid attention to
A bit more attention paid to social welfare
**teaches us that machines are not socially neutral, and can destroy more jobs than creating them
Postmodernism
Focus on voice
Challenges idea that researchers can speak for people that they study without having them have a voice in some way
Challenges idea that anyone with any authority can talk of progress or decline across all society (has to depend on which group)
Digital divide
Digital divide
Socioeconomic gap separating those who can or cannot use/possess modern computer tech or internet access
Virtual class
Arthur Kroker (futurist) Conservatism position Marxist views + postmodernist wordplay Virtual class=class of visionary capitalists (people in tech jobs) Acts like a class in 3 ways 1- responsible for loss of jobs by those who don't belong in the class; supports goals of neoliberalism that promotes interests of big business 2- it's role in the Internet becoming restricted and controlled by those who know and can afford to use it 3- restricts freedom of creativity; value of pattern maintenance
Evolution
Means adapting well to particular circumstances
Highly misused scientific concept
Ex: people started having more kids in time of prosperity, now less kids because more expensive, parents finish school later, etc
Fashion
Change for its own sake
We seek new things, not for a specific reason
Ex: education ideas like whole language, collaborative learning, advanced learning= promote new styles of edu but might not be better than old ones
Relative deprivation
Sense of having less or enjoying fewer benefits than another group
Negative feelings a individual has when comparing themselves with others (aka the reference group)
Ex: in China when western media and products/inflation was introduced
Weakness in relative deprivation theory
How to distinguish between absolute deprivation and relative deprivation?
Ex: actually being poor vs feeling poor
Sociology must change (how are the five models of social change involved?)
Modernist: must improve, get better
Conservatism: must ensure that we don’t stray too far from original vision that gave sociology perception
Postmodernism: look at who is benefitting and who is not
Evolution: must evolve and adapt
Fashion: could improve by being presented in new ways
Why is the Canadian sociology and anthropology assoc. losing members?
1- external competition from American sociological organizations
2- internal comp from Canadian journal of sociology
3- changing organizational enviro
4- unprofessionalism
What does the textbook suggest about where sociology should go from here?
Create aboriginal sociology (or minority sociology)
Voices of minorities need to be heard
Recognize background of authors of textbooks and how they may have biases (spirituality, role of elder, etc missing)
Standpoint !!
Exploitation
Economic forms of inequality; one group dominates another economically, appropriating a surplus value produced by the subordinate group
Oppression
- more subtle form of domination
- social, political or ideological constructions of groups or categories of people placed at a disadvantage because of dominant groups or classes in society
Ascriptive features
Ancestry/race/caste Gender Disability Sexual orientation Age Appearance (obesity) Aka things you can't change?
Sex vs gender
Sex: biological differences between males and females
Gender: attitudes, beliefs and behaviours we associate with masculinity or femininity
Gender identity
Ones identification with (or sense of belonging to) a particular sex, biologically psychologically and socially
Sexuality
Activities intended to lead to erotic arousal and produce genital response
This behaviour is guided by a set of social scripts
Linked to gender roles
Sexual scripts
Who we should find attractive, where/when it is appropriate to be aroused, what is permissible, how to behave sexually…etc.
The traditional sexual script
Meet a member of the opposite sex
Fall in love
Get married
THEN have sex with spouse
Two examples of sexual scripts in Canada today
1- premarital sex widely accepted
2- majority of Canadians approve of living with someone you’re not married to
Social constructivism
Sociohistoric changes led to development of gender inequality
- long distance war and conquest
- plow agriculture
- separation of public and private spheres
Three parts of constructing gender through socialization
1- primary socialization
2- secondary socialization
3- the mass media
What is the new sexual ethic we are moving towards?
Sexual pluralism
- doesn’t negate need for regulation
- redefining sexuality is important to achieve gender equality
Gender stereotypes
Not fixed
Don’t need to match the sex you’re born with
Operate on a continuum of masculinity and femininity
Gender oppression in three areas
Material wellbeing (access to economic resources) Prestige (average evaluation of occupational activities and positions arranged in a hierarchy) Power (capacity to impose your will on others, regardless of any resistance)
Four varieties of feminism
Liberal (individual)
Essentialist (nature and nurture)
Socialist (class and gender)
Multiethnic (class, gender and ethnicity)
Feminist essentialism
(Or essentialist feminism)
An approach that involves looking at differences between the way women and men think)
Critique of essentialism
- Ignores historical variability
- ignores rapid decline in gender diffs
- deeply flawed evidence
- generalizes from average
- exaggerates permanence
- ignores power
Socialist feminism
Focuses on intersections of class exploitation and gender oppression (ex: double shift)
Critique of socialist feminism
Factors like race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation tended to be overlooked by socialist feminists in the past
Examples of movements towards gender equality
Employment equity Affirmative action Maternity support Public child care Equal pay for work of equal value
E. Durkheim and functionalism
Idea that racial/ethnic groups exist for social cohesion, loyalty to one group, solidarity (collective consciousness)
-provide roots and social connectedness in fragmented society
M. Weber and conflict theory
Group formation is associated to:
Inclusion/exclusion practices for access to valuable resources
Economic advantages
Affection/appreciation vs repulsion/contempt
Symbolic interactionalism
Ethnic and racial labels = subordinate minority groups
Segregation = social distance
Racial or ethnic socialization = ongoing racial conflicts in society
Ethnicity and “race”
-central factors in power relations
-set boundaries among groups
-designate hierarchical positions of superiority and inferiority among and within collectives
“Race”=not fixed (single human race but…)
Race
- people who share biologically transmitted traits (ex: skin colour, facial features, hair texture, and body shape)
- only skin deep
- socially constructed
- single human race
Ethnicity
Shared cultural heritage
Distinctive social identity
Objective vs subjective criteria for ethnicity
Objective criteria: ancestry, cultural practices, dress, language, religion
Subjective criteria: internalization of distinctive social identity, may persist beyond cultural assimilation
Minority
- socially disadvantaged category
- includes people with disabilities and women
- distinctive identity
- subordinated
Prejudice
Rigid and irrational generalization about an entire category of people supported by little or no evidence
Positive vs negative prejudice
Positive: favouring aspects of people like ourselves
Negative: condemning those who are different than us
Discrimination
Practice that denies members of particular groups equal access to societal rewards
The ACTION of prejudice (not just attitude)
Positive or negative
Ranges from subtle to blatant
Racism
Belief that hereditary groups are innately different in social behaviour and mental capacities
Can be ranked as superior or inferior
Powerful and destructive form of prejudice
Remains serious social issue in Canada and other parts of the world
The four part cycle of racial stereotypes
Racial slurs/stereotypes
Self perception
Internalization of stereotypes
Racialized behaviour
Two types of nationalism to do with ethnicity
Ethnic nationalism (politicized ethnicity, old stock Canadians)
Civic nationalism (citizenship based)
Examples of approaches to ethnic conflict
Genocide Mass-population transfers Segregation Differential exclusion Assimilation Multicultural integration
What is the preferred approach to ethnic conflict?
Multicultural integration!
Bc it involves fashioning of a transcendent identity, without eliminating the subculture groups identity
Policies of minorities (5)
Emigrate Secession Conversion Cultural revival Active resistance
Political theory in the 90s: what were the two parallel debates?
Minority rights vs citizenship (mutual suspicion)
Minority rights advocates say good citizenship = subordinating minority to majority rule
Citizenship advocates say minority rights reflect narrow self interest
Problems with “difference blind” institutions
Say that they’re neutral but lean towards the needs/interests/identities of majority group
Adoption of minority rights is required to help remedy their disadvantages
Environmental theory
- examines the history of our relationship with the environment
- assumes that science of the environment is embedded in a social context
- scientific facts don’t speak for themselves; they must be interpreted by someone and that affects the info (standpoint theory)
What was the focus of sociology until the 70s?
Nurture (not nature)
- steadily evolving social progress
- increasing prosperity and material comfort
- class mobility for all segments of society
Ignored environmental cost of economic growth!
Dominant paradigm in economics
Emphasizes moral imperative of material wealth creation and moral conviction that humans have inalienable right to dominate nature
Alternative environmental paradigm
Rejects views in dominant paradigm of economics and stresses need to adopt small scale, decentralized economic and political structures in harmony with nature
What’s the main issue with the environment?
Ecological crisis is terminal of anthropocene (or humans domination phase of the planet)
Climate change
We need a world-scale solution!
Top 3 GHG emitters and top 3 per capita
Top 3 overall: China, US, European Union
Top 3 per capita: Canada, US, Russian federation
Sustainable development
Economic development that meets needs of present without compromising ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Ecologically sustainable culture
A way of life that meets the needs of the present generation without threatening the environment for future generations
Four types of ecological problems
Solid waste (North Americans throw out 0.7 billion kg per day; disposable society)
Rain forests (regions of dense forestation, most of which circle the globe close to the equator; falling victim to surging demands for beef and hardwood)
Declining biodiversity (loss of animals, plants, micro organisms by clearing forests, useful for drugs)
Global warming (rise in earth’s average temperature due to increasing concentration of greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide, nitric oxide)
How global warming amplifies feedback
Melting polar seas -> more solar absorption
Melting tundra -> more methane gas
Low oceanic CO2 absorption -> more global warming
Species extinction -> destroyed ecosystems
**70% desertification by 2025 (today’s its at 40%)
Environmental dangers
Soil destruction
Toxic waste
Polluting nitrogen
Carbon dioxide -> carbonic acid -> speed up warming
Denial strategies for environment problems
Technical or market solutions
Abstraction of physical and social roots -> engineering solutions
Engineering solutions to environmental problems
Massive nuclear energy
Sulphur dioxide in stratosphere to block the sun
-both can cause unanticipated problems
-addressing symptoms, not causes
What are political economists arguments about environmental problems?
They argue environmental problems derive less from decisions of individual consumers and more from relentless economic development pursued by industrial capitalists and the state
Unsustainable capitalism
Inherent need of our economic system to yield profits by creating consumer demand, regardless of the economic consequences
Individualistic solution to environmental crisis
Population growth will impose changes unless we are proactive
- conserve finite resources: seek other sources of energy and conserve water
- reduce and recycle waste: be ecocentric and not egocentric
J.B. Foster’s 5 solutions to environmental problems
1- stop carbon burning 2- tax oil production 3- end deforestation 4- start reforestation 5- redistribute income and wealth
Critique of J.B. Foster and his solutions to the environmental issues
Economism: thinking that what is “rational” will actually be done
That most exploited/alienated will rebel
Critique of individualist ideas of environmental issue solutions
Individualism: thinking that individuals can change with moral appeals
But actually…
Ecological crisis=systematic
Social movements may help change
Social movements: collective action emerged in response to:
State making
Urbanization
Proletarianization
Industrialization
Power
Ability of an individual or group to impose its will on others, even if they resist
Authority
Power widely viewed as legitimate
Authorities
People who occupy command positions of legitimized power structures
Social movements
Enduring collective attempts to change part or all of social order by rioting, petitioning, striking, demonstrating, and establishing pressure groups/unions/political parties
Political parties
Organizations that seek to control state power
Transition from feudalism to capitalism
Popular mobilization: From defensive (preserve old customs, ex: Luddites) to offensive (establish new rights)
Our thesis for social movement and sociology
Sociology developed to “normalize” social movements BUT sociology itself has been divided along lines similar to those found in society
- defenders of status quo
- proponents of change
Collective action and social movements
Often based on emotion and principles, movements may be seen as unfortunate, deviant, and excessive responses to strains and dislocations
BUT they are an integral part of the process of change itself!!
Origin of social movement
Collective action in various societies throughout history, but:
Qualitative change with capitalism from revenge/resistance directed at local targets to sustained/cumulative pressure campaigns on national centres of decision-making
Intellectual currents of social movement
- enlightenment (Liberty, equality and fraternity) to scientific method
- explaining social facts
- scientific investigation to social “laws” (August compte)
- social facts are socially constructed
Conclusion on enlightenment (social movements)
If socially constructed, then social laws are malleable social creations
Therefore they may be altered by conscious intervention of social actors but often in ways they neither intended nor anticipated
Three main points of social movements
- modern social movements assume the feasibility of social agency
- that social order is contested and malleable (not given by divine or magical determination)
- social movements have played a constitutive role in social development
Common thread of social movements
1- internal solidarity
2- common adversary
3- challenge system limits -> social movements -> integral part of modern world
Capitalism’s challengers (social movement)
Struggles in the factories and in the streets
Ideological counterpart of conservative thinking
How did Karl Marx represent social struggles ?
In a central way
Coherent interpretation of history
Trenchant analysis of exploitation
Compelling vision of a more humane society that could result from the transcendence of capitalism
Four spheres of social practices (social movements)
1- economy or mode of production
2- political system or the state
3- cultural sphere
4- social reproduction
Spheres as analytical constructs (social movements)
Structural functionalism: each sphere = necessary for social stability and viability
Marxist theory: mode of production = determining element
Each sphere works differently in each society
The way spheres connect to each other differs in each society
Ideologies
Contrasting ideas about the organization of society
Disagree about how societies are, can be and should be organized along their spheres
Conservative ideology (social movement)
No value to transformative movement goals and the possibility of them working
Only desirable and feasible change= small shifts in existing institutions
Celebrates status quo even if in theory it admits the value of gradual change
Social movements of faith
Religious values as centre
Faith as totality of practice, discourse and belief; permeates society as a whole
State should promote faith
Family/gender structured by religious teachings
Charity rather than state meddling with economy
Liberals = separation of spheres (social movements)
Liberals, civil libertarians and human rights activists agree
The state (the sphere of coercion) should be as limited as possible
Keep church and state separate
Liberals want to keep government out of…
- capitalist economy, family life, sexual activities , etc (the reproductive sphere)
- no limits on what media can say or what organizations people can join
- freedom of speech and assembly
- individuals = key decision makers
Socialists = primacy of the mode of production
Separation of spheres is something of a sham
Capitalism is split between owners of means of production and workers
Socialists (social movements)
- capitalists inequality permeates all practices and relationships of society = unequal, exploitive, oppression, unjust
- take over state power, turn private property into public ownership and satisfy human needs and wants
- individuals truly free to develop their unique talents and creative powers
Social democrats (social movements)
- liberal + socialist ideologies
- keep church and state separate
- keep state outside private matters
- don’t trust the market as much as liberals do
- yet, state must intervene to introduce a human face on capitalism
Four conclusion points on social movement
1- social movements always inclined to capture or at least influence the state in order to attain their ends
2- sociology normalized social movements
3- sociology split between defenders and challengers of status quo
4- toward a sociology of subordinate groups and classes, the explore and oppressed?
