Social Transformation

Question 1

Methodology

Answer 1

The broad principles of how to conduct research and how interpretive paradigms are to be applied.

Question 2

Agency

Answer 2

An individual or social group’s will to be self-defining and selfdetermining.

Question 3

Binary thinking

Answer 3

A way of conceptualizing realities that divides concepts into two, mutually exclusive categories, e.g., white/black, man/woman, reason/emotion, and heterosexual/homosexual.

Question 4

Black community

Answer 4

A set of institutions, communication networks, and practices that help African-Americans respond to social, economic, and political challenges confronting them. Also known as the Black public sphere or
Black civil society.

Question 5

Black nationalism

Answer 5

A political philosophy based on the belief that Black people constitute a people or nation with a common history and destiny.

Question 6

Capitalism

Answer 6

An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production. Capitalism is typically characterized by extreme distributions of wealth and large differences between the rich and the poor.

Question 7

Commodification

Answer 7

In capitalist political economies, land, products, services,

and ideas are assigned economic values and are bought and sold in marketplaces as commodities.

Question 8

Critical social theory

Answer 8

Bodies of knowledge and sets of institutional practices
that actively grapple with the central questions facing groups of people. These groups are differently placed in specific political, social, and historic contexts characterized by injustice. What makes critical social theory “critical” is its commitment to justice, for one’s own group and/or for that of other groups.

Question 9

Disciplinary domain of power

Answer 9

A way of ruling that relies on bureaucratic

hierarchies and techniques of surveillance.

Question 10

Epistemology

Answer 10

Standards used to assess knowledge or why we believe what we believe to be true.

Question 11

Essentialism

Answer 11

Belief that individuals or groups have inherent, unchanging characteristics rooted in biology or a self-contained culture that explain their status. When linked to oppressions of race, gender, and sexuality, binary thinking constructs “essential” group differences.

Question 12

Eurocentrism

Answer 12

An ideology that presents the ideas and experiences of whites as normal, normative, and ideal. Also known as white racism or white supremacy.

Question 13

Hegemonic domain of power

Answer 13

A form or mode of social organization that uses
ideas and ideology to absorb and thereby depoliticize oppressed groups’ dissent. Alternatively, the diffusion of power throughout the social system where multiple groups police one another and suppress one another’s dissent.

Question 14

Identity politics

Answer 14

A way of knowing that sees lived experiences as important to creating knowledge and crafting group-based political strategies. Also, a form of political resistance where an oppressed group rejects its devalued status.

Question 15

Ideology

Answer 15

A body of ideas reflecting the interests of a particular social group. Scientific racism and sexism constitute ideologies that support domination. Black nationalism and feminism constitute counter-ideologies that oppose such domination.

Question 16

Interpersonal domain of power

Answer 16

Discriminatory practices of everyday lived experience that because they are so routine typically go unnoticed or remain unidentified. Strategies of everyday racism and everyday resistance occur in this domain.

Question 17

Intersectionality

Answer 17

Analysis claiming that systems of race, social class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, and age form mutually constructing features of social organization, which shape Black women’s experiences and, in turn, are shaped by Black women.

Question 18

Matrix of domination

Answer 18

The overall organization of hierarchical power relations for any society. Any specific matrix of domination has (1) a particular arrangement of intersecting systems of oppression, e.g., race, social class, gender, sexuality, citizenship status, ethnicity and age; and (2) a particular
organization of its domains of power, e.g., structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal.

Question 19

Oppositional knowledge

Answer 19

A type of knowledge developed by, for, and/or in

defense of an oppressed group’s interests. Ideally, it fosters the group’s selfdefinition and self-determination.

Question 20

Oppression

Answer 20

An unjust situation where, systematically and over a long period of time, one group denies another group access to the resources of society. Race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, age, and ethnicity constitute major forms of oppression.

Question 21

Outsider-within-locations

Answer 21

Social locations or border spaces marking the
boundaries between groups of unequal power. Individuals acquire identities as “outsiders within” by their placement in these social locations.

Question 22

Paradigm

Answer 22

An interpretive framework used to explain social phenomena.

Question 23

Public and private spheres

Answer 23

Two areas of social organization with the public
sphere of work and government typically juxtaposed to the private sphere
of home and family

Question 24

Racial segregation

Answer 24

A constellation of policies that separate groups by race
based on the belief that proximity to the group deemed to be inferior will
harm the allegedly superior group.Though currently forbidden by law in
the United States, racially segregated neighborhoods, schools, occupational
categories, and access to public facilities persist.

Question 25

Racial solidarity

Answer 25

The belief that members of a racial group have common
interests and should support one another above the interests of members
of other racial groups.

Question 26

Racism

Answer 26

A system of unequal power and privilege where humans are divided into groups or “races” with social rewards unevenly distributed to groups based on their racial classification. Variations of racism include institutionalized racism, scientific racism, and everyday racism. In the United States, racial segregation constitutes a fundamental principle of how racism is organized.

Question 27

Rhetoric of color-blindness

Answer 27

A view of the world that resists talking of race

because to do so is believed to perpetuate racism

Question 28

Scientific racism

Answer 28

A specific body of knowledge about Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, Whites, and Latinos produced within biology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and other academic disciplines. Scientific racism was designed to prove the inferiority of people of color.

Question 29

Self-definition

Answer 29

The power to name one’s own reality

Question 30

Self-determination

Answer 30

The power to decide one’s own destiny

Question 31

Social class

Answer 31

In its most general sense, social groups differentiated from one another by economic status, cultural forms, practices, or ways of life. Social class refers to a group of people who share a common placement in a political economy

Question 32

Social justice project

Answer 32

An organized, long-term effort to eliminate oppression

and empower individuals and groups within a just society.

Question 33

Standpoint theory

Answer 33

A social theory arguing that group location in hierarchical
power relations produces common challenges for individuals in those groups. Moreover, shared experiences can foster similar angles of vision
leading to group knowledge or standpoint deemed essential for informed political action.

Question 34

Structural domain of power

Answer 34

A constellation of organized practices in employment, government, education, law, business, and housing that work to maintain an unequal and unjust distribution of social resources. Unlike bias and prejudice, which are characteristics of individuals, the structural domain
of power operates through the laws and policies of social institutions.

Question 35

Subjugated knowledge

Answer 35

The secret knowledges generated by oppressed groups.
Such knowledge typically remains hidden because revealing it weakens its purpose of assisting them in dealing with oppression. Subjugated knowledges that aim to resist oppression constitute oppositional knowledges.

Question 36

Transnationalism

Answer 36

A view of the world that sees certain interests as going
beyond the borders of individual nation-states. Whereas internationalism emphasizes the relationship among nation-states, transnationalism takes a global perspective.

Question 37

African Diaspora

Answer 37

The mass dispersion of peoples from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trades, from the 1500s to the 1800s. This Diaspora took millions of people from Western and Central Africa to different regions throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.

Question 38

Redlining

Answer 38

The systematic denial of various services by federal government agencies, local governments as well as the private sector either directly or through the selective raising of prices.

Question 39

Insurgency

Answer 39

An active revolt or uprising.

Question 40

Futile

Answer 40

Incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.

Question 41

Indigent

Answer 41

“Poor… needy”

Question 42

Individualism

Answer 42

A social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control.

Question 43

Dole

Answer 43

Benefit paid by the government to the unemployed.

Question 44

Demarcate

Answer 44

Separate or distinguish from.