Soc 100 - Class

Question 1

Mechanical Solidarity vs Organic Solidarity

Answer 1

Mechanical: United by similarity, effective in small homogenous societies
Organic: United thru difference, big heterogeneous societies

Question 2

What did Durkheim think increased with the increase of division of labor?

Answer 2

Volume and Density of pop.

requires more specialisation to keep greater number of people together.�

Question 3

Absolute vs Relative Poverty

Answer 3

Absolute - measured by universal standard, ability to get food or shelter
Relative: how far behind riches are you in your society (how much control over work or independence)

Question 4

Around 10% of children in Canada live below the ________________ level defined by the government�. Define.

Answer 4

low-income cut-off (LICO)

-determines minimum income needed to meet expenditures for size of family

Question 5

Culture of Poverty

Answer 5

Oscar Lewis’s term for values, norms & behaviour patterns of some urban poor, which left them ill-suited to urban life.
Often embraced hedonism, accepted marginalised status, didn’t see selves rising�
-Dominant groups argue that society is open: those at the bottom are the ones who simply didn’t work hard enough to succeed.

Question 6

Moral Hazard

Answer 6

-means that ppl feel they can take risks because they are not immediately responsible for the consequences
Free market theorists emphasise moral hazard – need for punishments in system for those who don’t work.

Question 7

Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish describes emergence of a new type of crime from 18th century onwards:

Answer 7

Delinquency.
An ill-disciplined individual; petty criminal, perhaps including minor public disorder.
Someone not really ‘trained’ to lead responsible life of good, hardworking citizen.

Question 8

Lumpenproletariat

Answer 8

Delinquents are the lumpenproletariat of the world of crime: small-time criminals, vagabonds, drunks, hooligans.
Condemned for their lack of work ethic and failure to take responsibility for their lives. No structure, no long-term job, no plans – in short, no life plan.

Question 9

Differential Association

Answer 9

Theoretical explanation for crime suggesting it’s learned by associating with other criminals and with those who hold law in contempt.

Question 10

What did Edwin Sutherland deny in his White Collar Crime?

Answer 10

Denied link between poverty and criminal outlook.

-Fun: If corporations really were people, it has been argued, they would be classified as psychopathic.

Question 11

Inter vs Intragenerational Mobility

Answer 11

Inter: Children improve on parents’ social rank
Intra: Individual improves rank in own lifetime

Question 12

Vertical vs Horizontal Mobility

Answer 12

Vert: Moving up or down social ranks
Horiz: Moving across them, to similar fields

Question 13

Societies with strongest ______ ______ have most mobility.

Answer 13

welfare support
-US ranks very low, whilst Sweden ranks very high.
�

Question 14

Workers who had ___________ had significantly lower rates of stress-related illness.

Answer 14

Karasek & Theorell showed that workers who had control over tasks (not subject to orders of others) had significantly lower rates of stress-related illness.
�

Question 15

Strata

Answer 15

Strata = merely units of measurement
Ranks society as a whole by one principle (eg wealth) then compares people as statistical groups (quantiles, e.g. “top 20%”).
�-just statistical constructs, no objective unity

Question 16

Classes

Answer 16

Describes social system, and identifies specific locations or positions within it, defined by structural relations and role in overall system.
-objective structures, individuals unconsciously defined by class

Question 17

Groups

Answer 17

Self-identified groups (aristocracy, artists etc) gain power by seizing certain instruments of social control or sources of wealth
�-Groups define selves, exist because of shared interests

Question 18

Productive vs Distributive Classes

Answer 18

Productive: Groups defined by position within structure of production, like Marx’s classes: what do they do?
�Distributive: Classes defined by their share of the rewards of society: how much do they get? (Weber)
�

Question 19

Estates

Answer 19

Classes defined by laws, & granted specific rights & privileges. Like feudal aristocracy.

Question 20

Post-Industrial Society

Answer 20

Used to describe modern Western societies, which were formerly industrial centres, but which have now transitioned to service economies with less manual labour.

Question 21

Petty Bourgeoisie

Answer 21

Small businesses, one or two employees, or self-employed (middle class)
-Opposed to vanilla bourgeoisie, which is big businesses, profits from exploiting labor

Question 22

Systems of Stratification: Economic Class

Answer 22

Determined by “market situation”: what access do you have to property?

Question 23

Systems of Stratification: Social Status Group

Answer 23

Defined by “style of life… expected of all those who wish to belong.” (p.932)

Question 24

Lenski suggests that _____ _____ is the fundamental system of stratification

Answer 24

physical force (“the power to take life”)�

Question 25

Status Inconsistency

Answer 25

An individual’s rank in one class system may differ from his/her rank in another.
Often leads to anxiety or radicalism.
-e.g. high educatin but low wealth

Question 26

Ascribed Status vs Achieved

Answer 26

Ascribed: A status or social rank based on unchangeable or inborn characteristics, e.g. gender, race. You can’t just acquire or lose this status. (gender, ethnicity)
�Achieved: Status or social rank that you have ‘earned’ by your actions; in theory, anyone could gain or lose this rank or position.
�

Question 27

Theorists of race and gender argue that life-chances of any individual are determined at least by :

Answer 27

class, gender and race in different ways.�
-e.g. Situation of middle-class African-Americans different from inner-city poor African-Americans; may face less prejudice�

Question 28

How do dimensions in intersectionality interact?

Answer 28

Each dimension shapes the other (e.g. gender, race, class), but neither dimension can be reduced to the other: racialised hierarchies are distinct from class, and vice versa.
Historical circumstances lead to each shaping the other.
�

Question 29

Anomie vs Alienation

Answer 29

Anomie:
-MOSTLY, a WEAKENED CONNECTION to the social WHOLE (durkheim, correlated w suicide)
Alienation: separation of the person from his/her nature as a free producer and creator (Marx, alienating labor)

Question 30

Melvin Seeman’s five key dimensions of alienation

Answer 30

Sense of Powerlessness: feeling out of control. (alienation)
Meaninglessness: work appears purposeless. (both)
Normlessness: sense that work lacks any guiding intelligence of oversight. (anomie)
Isolation: feeling of being cut off from other workers. (anomie)
Self-estrangement: lack of personal fulfillment in job. (alienation)

Question 31

Mental labourers vs material

Answer 31

mental: view over whole process, control those beneath them, as well as having view over them
material: under orders from mental laborers, depend on orders to perform

Question 32

Non-standard work arrangements

Answer 32

So-called ‘McJobs’: short-term, low-skill jobs with limited future prospects.
Often involves part-time work, multiple jobs, lack of security. May be self-employed�

Question 33

Trend in canada of long-term vs short-term jobs in canada? Manufacturing jobs?

Answer 33

General decline in long-term jobs in secure positions in Canada and across developed world:
Decline in manufacturing industry, and increase in easily-transferrable service jobs.
�

Question 34

Deskilling of Jobs. Leads to…

Answer 34

improved technology (including computers) means work is more automated & needs less training – so employers need fewer workers, or can employ lower-skilled.
�-LACK of security, undermines wrkers

Question 35

Taylorism or Scientific Management. Why bad?

Answer 35

Aims at absolute maximum efficiency in the workplace, especially factories.
Trains workers to follow exact procedures, and ‘manages’ them like machines.
�-Dehumanizes workers, no autonomy, treated like animals or machines, cogs in a machine

Question 36

Monopoly Capital

Answer 36

Giant corporations that dominate economy, excluding small businesses, and leaving workers with few options but to work for them.

Question 37

Harry Braverman’s _____ __ ______ ______ traces increasing ____ and ______ of work into two groups:

Answer 37

Labor & Monopoly Capital (1974) traces increasing homogenisation and polarisation�:
-Small number of high-skilled, high-paid individuals.
-Large mass of increasingly-unskilled workers.
�

Question 38

Blue collar AND _____ _____ both become deskilled.

Answer 38

White Collar.

it becomes proletarianised, put under constant watch by overseers, regimented, and controlled.�

Question 39

Free Labourer. How still not ‘free’?

Answer 39

Modern workers, able to choose who they work for – except for themselves!
Contrast with feudal serfs, who were bound to specific aristocratic lords.
-Not bound to serfs, but bound instead to capitalism as a whole

Question 40

How is capitalism inherently exploitative (marx)?

Answer 40

: the workers have no choice but to work for capitalists; profits of bourgeoisie come from paying workers as little as possible.

Question 41

Marxist Erik Olin Wright’s three principles of exploitation

Answer 41

Inverse interdependence principle: capitalists’ well-being depends on deprivation of workers.
Exclusion principle: capitalists make it difficult for workers to escape by excluding them from resources.
Appropriation principle: capitalists take labour of workers by paying less than its real value.

Question 42

Class Conflict

Answer 42

Social struggles caused by confrontation of interests between structurally-defined classes.
May be long-term persistent class struggle or open revolutionary class war�.

Question 43

Class Consciousness

Answer 43

Both an individual’s awareness of being a member of particular class, and self-identity as class member…
…and a class’s awareness of its real group interest in the long run.

Question 44

\_\_\_\_\_ or \_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_ rely on & develop class consciousness: they serve as form of organisation for working classes. They encourage...
-Falling because of...

Answer 44

Trade or Labour Unions rely on & develop class consciousness: they serve as form of organisation for working classes.
Unions encourage social solidarity of workers.
�-Fall in Union Membership related to pressures of globalisation: unions undermined by possibility of outsourcing jobs to cheaper parts of world.
�

Question 45

Three outlined truths/principles in Communist Manifesto

Answer 45

“The history of all hitherto-existing society is the history of class struggle”: classes always fighting for social supremacy.
Under capitalism, conflicting interests of bourgeoisie and proletariat lead to ever-greater immiseration of proletariat.
This coincides with periodic crises of capitalism, due to falling rates of profit and economic problems.