Week 3 - Social Solidarity

Question 1

defining social solidarity? who is the primary thinker, what was his primary concern?
Community?
divsions of labor?

Hint: 2 denominations

Answer 1

Emile Durkheim

Western capitalist societies increasingly individualized, diverse and specialized - anomie - social solidarity is the glue that binds individuals together

Community can be seen as a mold - discrim and conflict if your don’t fit in
denotes (indicates) equality

Division of labor - how labor is divided amongst members of a society

Question 2

Durkheim, types solidarity?

Answer 2

Two different types
Mechanical:
Based on commonality/similarity
Typically share the same values and follow the rules of the group - low degree of individual autonomy
The collective/common conscience is sharply defined
Can act as a powerful constraint on individual behavior
ex: the amish

Organic:
Presupposes difference between individuals and groups - based on accepting the differences between social and economic
Less in common and greater degrees of difference
Allows for increasing individualism and autonomy/ greater interdependence between groups and individuals
Marks end of social development
ex: amish people intergrated in american society

Question 3

define capitalism? who is the primary thinker?
define false consciousness? 
define class consciousness?

Answer 3

The basic necessities of life are not collectively owned and controlled
“Formally free” labor
Class disparity - shareholders owning the production
Changes in community: uncontrolled urbanization and move from agro to industrial

2 classes
Cap class: ownership of mean of production - buying workers capacity to produce other commodities and profit off them
Working/wage laborers: sell labor as a commodity on the market

False consciousness: beliefs, ideology of a person are not in that persons’ best interest

Class consciousness: awareness of actual material/political interests as members of a unified class

Question 4

What are the four aspects of alienation?

hint: poem

Answer 4

From stuff made,
From making stuff,
From fellow makers,
From our human nature, Them cap-ittle-pigs are alienatin’ us.

From the product of one’s labor - workers do not own what they produce or the profit from their work
From the labor process - workers do not control the conditions under which they work
From fellow workers as a class - competitive economy
From human nature or “species being” - work as a compulsion rather than a free activity
Allows for greater control and predictability of the products - highly routinized - deskilling, instead of learning new skills employees can become deskilled in many ways

Question 5

what are class relations? the competing ideas…

Answer 5

reduce costs to maximize profit vs. earn a wage to live

Question 6

define rationalization? who is the primary thinker? provide example?
what are the effects?
what is the iron cage, origins?

Answer 6

Max Weber

Organizational systems that operate on the principle of efficiency, calculability, control, and predictability

(ex: “McDonaldization” - all aspects of the job are thought about and incorporated within a single rational system)
- Standardization of production and employees
- Highly routinized
- Deskilling: employees never learn new skills, they become adept at one menial task

The way in which capitalism is facilitated - overcoming “magical” ways of thinking in favor of calculations

Iron cage: trapped by efficiency
- Protestant work ethic based on Calvinist principle of predestination (work hard and you will be rewarded by god)

Question 7

The personality market and “white collar: the american middle class” - who is the thinker? what are the primary arguments?

Answer 7

C. Wright Mills

“Personality market” - The buying and use of workers’ social personalities as property of owner
The shift from manufacturing to service industries and jobs
Personalities become rationalized, managed for the goals of the organization

Question 8

define androcentric culture, who is the primary thinker?

Answer 8

“Man-made world” - women socialized into passivity and domesticity, women as a preposition to men, not defined independently
Ideally, marriage as a partnership but in reality a type of servitude (“Giving away” the bride)
Equality and economic independence