Thought Experiment Flashcards
Take a typical man on the street from the year 1900 and drop him into the 1950s. Then take someone from the 1950s and move him into the present day. Who would experience the greater change?
The man from 1900 in the 1950s would be awestruck at the change in technology.
The man from 1950 in the present day would be most awestruck by societies changed norms
Explain the man from 1900 to 1950 experiencing the greater change due to technology.
- Instead of horse-drawn carriages, there would be streets and highways jammed with cars/trucks/buses
- Immense skyscrapers
- Mammoth bridges
- Flying machines overhead
- New appliances (radios, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines)
- Super market (instant coffee, frozen vegetables)
- Massive Medical improvements
- “The newness of this time-traveler’s physical surroundings - the speed and power of everyday machines - would be profoundly disorienting.”
How did Piggly Wiggly change the grocery store game?
It was founded in 1916 and it was the first self-service grocery store. It provided checkout stands, priced every item in the store, carried a line of nationally advertised brands, and used refrigerated cases to keep produce fresh.
If the time traveler came to from 1950s to 2000, would the technology amaze him in the same way it would for the man from 1900 to 1950?
No. Technology would not be radically different.
- Still drive a car to work, -Trains would likely leave the same station
- Airplanes leave the same airport
- Suburban homes are simply bigger
- Television has more channels but it is still basically the same
- New appliances would be quickly learned
- New technologies (QWERTY keyboard, CD, DVD, Internet, PC, ATMs, wireless phones) would quickly be learnt
The time traveler might be reasonably disappointed by the pace of progress.
How would the time traveler from 1900 to 1950 react to societies changed norms?
-Life would be remarkably similar.
-Factories would likely have the same divisions of labor, same hierarchical systems of control
-Offices would have similar bureaucracy – still have to climb up the corporate ladder
-Scheduled work day (9 to 5)
Suit and tie
-White and male
-Values and office politics would remain similar
-Few women in the work place (except as secretaries)
-Few inter-racial relations professionally
-Marry young, stay married
-Likely would work for the same company for his entire career
-Leisure time would might switch to more movies/TV but recreational opportunities would remain the same
THE FAMILY MAN
-Participation in civic institutions (Moose Lodges and bowling leagues)
THE COMPANY MAN
-A life structure by the values
and norms of organizations
How would the time traveler from 1950 to 2000 react to societies changed norms?
This is a period of dizzying social and cultural changes.
On the street are a greater number of ethnic groups, mixed-race couples, same-sex couples, and people would always seem to be on the go.
What is life like in the office in 2000?
- A new dress code, new schedule, new rules(Jeans, open-necked shirts, dress down Fridays)
- Flexibility, people would come and go as they pleased
- Tattoos and piercing
- Women and non-whites would be managersIndividuality and expression over conformity and organizational norms
- “Ethnic jokes would fall embarrassingly flat”
- Smoking would equal banishment to the parking lot
- Employees would never seem to be working although they might seem lazy and obsessed with exercise
- They would seem career-conscious yet never seem to stay with a company
- Caring but anti-social
While the physical surroundings would be relatively familiar, the feel of the place would be bewilderingly different.
What did Marx mean we he mentioned the “idiocy” of rural life?
- Marx didn’t mean that rural peasants/people were stupid or mentally inept
- He used the phrase “idiocy of rural life” to refer to “narrow horizons” of country folk and their “isolation from wider society”
- He was drawing on the Greek word idiotes, meaning “a person concerned only with his own private affairs and not with those of the wider community”
But the self-absorbed rural individual is a contested view…are urban dwellers not more interested in their own private affairs?
Oh absolutely.
What is WIrth’s distinction between Urbanism and Urbanization?
Urbanism: an interrelated set of social and psychological responses to these trends
Urbanization: a related set of economic and demographic trends producing rapid and dramatic changes in cities
The classic sociological definition of urbanism, or urban way of life, by Louis Wirth in 1938 was based on the premise that urbanism has some _________.
Basic negative qualities that were departures from a supposedly more positive rural past.
What are the main attributes of urbanization according to Wirth?
- Size
- Density
- Social Heterogeneity
What does size mean in urbanization?
- More people equals greater cultural and economic diversity
- Migration and immigration increase the potential for diverse groups to come into close contact
- Greater population creates the need for formal control systems
- Large differentiated populations lead to divided/specialized occupational structures
- Social interactions are increasingly depersonalized
- Relationships based on functional and formal roles as opposed to personal relationships
- Real risk of social disorganization and disintegration
What does density mean in urbanization?
- Increased populations attempt to crowd into inadequate amounts of urban space
- Competition for space intensifies producing spatial fragmentation and segregation
- Social-psychological effects of increased density produces geographic stereotypes
- People attempt to maintain social distance
- Crowding and diversity may lead to a greater degree of tolerance
What does social heterogeneity mean in urbanization?
- More people = greater difference
- Questions about social mobility and the link to spatial mobility
- Weakened family ties
- Increased value placed on individual achievement (increased commercialism which in turn further erodes personal relationships)
