Week 1 slides Flashcards
What is sociology?
The study of how societies are organized and how that organization affects the behaviour of the people who live in them.
Overlaps with economics, psychology, anthropology, and political science.
- sociologists study markets, small group behaviour, attitudes , voting behaviour, customs and traditions.
What did C.Wright say about sociological imagination?
Said we should look at the intersection of our personal stories with the larger social context.
Social Imagination. Why is scotch tape called Scotch? and why does its have plaid packaging?
- Old stereotypes portrayed Scottish people as cheap
- anything scotch was cheap, or a good buy
When did sociology emerge and what was the social context?
emerged in 1800s.
industrial revolution
- massive urbanization
rapid movement to cities
How are people in cities?
- increasingly dependant on each other
can’t grow their own food or build own house
trade wages for food, clothing, shelter
Specialization called division of labor - advantages: allows different groups to specialize in various tasks, becoming particularly
good at them & creating a surplus to trade - disadvantages: few options for those who don’t have a desirable skill or product to offer others
What were the founders of sociology?
early sociologists were trying to explain the rapid changes they saw around them.
- and predict the consequences of those changes for society over time
Who were the 5 key founder of sociology?
Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Jane Addams, W.E.B. du bois
Who was Karl Marx?
Believed all societies throughout history were
based on social conflict
○ Key to understanding a society was to look at the
economic relationships in that society—how things
are made and distributed
○ Groups with different resources and interests always
struggle – dialectic
■ Proletariat
■ Bourgeoisie
What are the social classes?
2 economic groups/social classes - key in an industrial capitalist society
- capitalist: own factories
- workers: work for wages
Both groups want more economic resources
Marx says these groups will ALWAYS be in conflict
What is alienation?
Workers suffer from alienation - feeling of being disconnected
- little control over how they do their work
○ Little autonomy
○ From the product
○ From the means of production
○ From each other
○ From species being
○ From oneself
Who is Emile Durkheim?
● Wanted sociology to be a rigorous science
○ Gather data & test ideas
● Sociologists should focus on social facts
○ Things that exist outside the individual and put constraints on our behavior
○ Look at patterns rather than the individual
● Durkheim emphasized solidarity: how people in a society are connected
■ Mechanical solidarity- highly integrated with one another (traditional)
■ Organic solidarity- distantly connected, but highly reliant (industrial)
● Key elements in society are
○ Integration- how tied you are to others
○ Regulation- social norms
Who is Max Weber?
Unlike Marx and Durkheim, Weber said we need to look at
individuals and the meanings they make of their own behavior–
Interpretive understanding
● Social Action - behaviors that produce structures
○ We should investigate to understand the causes of social actions
● Our values influence our behavior– Culture
○ Ex: Protestant Ethic & growth of capitalism
Who is Jane Addams?
Studied poverty, particularly as it affected
women and children
● Founded Hull House as a center of
activism, social reform, and study
● Argued for socially-engaged research
○ Get those you study involved in the research –
they are experts on their own lives
○ Research should lead to social reforms that
improve residents’ lives
● Chicago School of Sociology
Who is W.E.B. Du Bois?
Studied race and interactions between races
○ Most researchers ignored race relations and studied primarily White groups
● Also engaged in activism
○ Co-founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
● Challenged Marxist views of society
○ Said slavery was key to development of American society
○ Marx said slavery couldn’t exist within capitalism
○ Du Bois disagreed
■ Slavery became a major way of creating wealth – made money for those shipping and selling
enslaved people, those using enslaved people instead of paying workers
What did W.E.B. Du Bois explain about psychological wage?
Du Bois explained why low-wage White workers didn’t united with enslaved
Black workers
● People care about more than economic factors
○ Status in a hierarchy matters – who you are above, who is above you
● Whiteness provided a form of status, regardless of someone’s income
○ The reassurance that at least they were better off than Black people was a psychological wage
that poor Whites received from a racist system
○ Whites would always be above Blacks in terms of social status
○ Led to resistance to any changes that would lead to more equality among races,
even if White
workers would be better off
Who is Thorstein Veblen?
Leisure Class
● Conspicuous Consumption
● Pecuniary emulation
○ Keeping up with the Joneses
● Veblen Good- luxury item that increases in
prices as demand increases
● Status Symbol
