Social Structure and the Individual Flashcards
What are social structures?
According to Lemert, social structures are:
Organizing: sort us into different groups
Enduring: maintains form over a time
Invisible: due to work in the background
But Salient: we know they exist due to their effects
They consist of the rules and resources that guide our behavior
What are rules?
The formal and informal expectations for behaving in any given situation
Formal rules are laws.
Informal expectations are not written out but established like raising hands in class to ask questions
What are resources?
The things we have or acquire
Ex. Money, wealth, shelter, home, education
What are the five elements of social structure?
Status, Roles, Groups, Networks, Institutions
Each of these things can: impose rules on us that constrain our behavior and provide us with resources that help us do things we couldn’t do otherwise
What is status?
A person’s or group’s socially determined position within a large group or society.
Has to do with respect, esteem, other people give you
It can be ascribed or achieved
What is ascribed status?
Assigned to a person by society
Ex. Appearance, Being royalty like Prince Harry
What is achieved status?
Results at least in part from a person’s efforts
Ex. Career or occupation
Performers like Beyonce being recognized for their talents
What are roles?
The set of expectations concerning the behavior and attitudes of people who occupy a particular social status
Different roles come with different expectations
All the roles and expectations come to fit together in harmony
Role helps us interact with others but it can also limits us
Ex. Role of a mother is to be caring, nurturing to do their child
What are groups?
Two or more people with similar values and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis
A lot of our social interactions take place in groups
Can constrain us and can give access to resources
What are networks?
A series of social relationships that link a person directly to other individuals and indirectly to even more people
Networks can constrain you by limiting what you are exposed to and can give you access to resources
What are institutions?
The central domains of social life that guide our behaviors and meet our basic social needs
All impose certain expectations and rules of contract
Ex. Healthcare system, education system
Can both enable and constrain
What is identity?
Individuals’ definition of who they are
May draw on multiple dimensions of status
What is agency?
Our capacity to act given the structural rules and resources that impact our behavior
What is the structure of opportunity?
The distribution of resources and opportunities across society shapes the choices individuals make
Yet structure does not determine everything about people’s lives
What is social reproduction?
The structures of modern societies tend to reproduce themselves from one generation to the next, on and on (Lemert)
What is reflexivity?
It is evaluating one’s position in the social world, evaluating the rules we are expected to follow, and evaluating the resources we have at our disposal or can acquire
Why are social structures so durable?
Social structures make it easy to do things that reproduce the structures that already exist
But it is not impossible for people to make changes with collective activism
