o Institutions
social forms that organize the behaviors of those within them according to certain, taken-for-granted, conventions that people follow
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| o Institutions | social forms that organize the behaviors of those within them according to certain, taken-for-granted, conventions that people follow |
| Social Structure | things that exist outside of our control, but exert a force on our lives, enabling and constraining our actions in the world |
| Human Agency | the actions of individuals and groups in society and the choices we make |
| Structuration | the two-way process by which we shape our social world through our individual actions (agency) and by which we are shaped by social structure |
| o Social inequality | the uneven distribution of life changes distributed to individuals and groups by the institutions that structure society and enable or constrain agency to different degrees |
| o Social change | change in social structures over time |
| o Deindustrialization | the steady loss of the unskilled and semiskilled manufacturing jobs that, with mixed results, had sustained the urban working class since the start of the industrial revolution |
| o Class | a segment of a population who share similar life chances |
| Family income | the total amount of money coming into a family unit |
| o Wealth | the accumulated money, assets, and property owned by a person or family |
| • Profession | a high-status occupation that has rigorous training standards and gives one significant autonomy over their field |
| • Career | an occupation where one can enter at a low rung and have the opportunity to follow a succession of promotions until retirement |
| • Job | occupations that can range from poorly to moderately compensated with limited long-term protections or opportunities for advancement |
| o Cumulative disadvantage | the compounding effect where inequality in one aspect of life leads to or creates inequality in other aspects of life |
| o Racial formation | the process by which social, economic, and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories |
| Racialization | the extension of racial meaning to a previously racially unclassified relationship, social practice, or group |
| Race | a classification system used for social stratification, formed through ideological beliefs, institutional practices, interests of power, group identities, and meanings developed through group interactions |
| o Ethnicity | a group of people connected through culture similarities, such as - but not exclusively - geographic location, language, or shared practices or rituals |
| o Nationality | a system of classification determined by one fulfilling the criteria for membership to a specific nation state(s) |
| o In-group | a group of people sharing similar interests and attitudes, producing feelings of solidarity, community, and exclusivity |
| Out-group | people outside one’s own in-group; generally viewed less favorably than in-group members |
| Social distance | the lack of sympathy, interaction, and understanding between in- and out-groups in society, such as nationality, race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation |
| o Racial wealth gap | the difference between the money, property, and assets owned by different racial groups in society |
| o Stereotype | a familiar and often-repeated characterization of the members of a particular social group or category (e.g. ethnic, gender, age, or sexual categories) whose prevalence has the effect of reducing, simplifying, and generalizing the features of the group as a whole. |
| Prejudice | holding preconceived ideas about a person or group |
| Discrimination | behavior that denies the members of a group resources or rewards available to others |
| Racism | discrimination against the members of a racial groups by a powerful other |
| Institutional racism | patterns of discrimination based on race that have become structured into existing social institutions |
| o Sex | socially agreed upon biological criteria for classifying people as male or female |
| Sex categorization | the identification of people as male or female in everyday life |
| Gender | cultural beliefs about “appropriate” behaviors for sex category |
| Gender binary | a system of sex categorization that focuses exclusively on male and female sex categories |
| Gender roles | the behavioral expectations for roles associated with being a specific gender |
| o Doing gender | engaging in behavior at the risk of gender assessment (either positive or negative) |
| Accountability | the assessment (positive or negative) of a person’s gender performance by others, based on normative conceptions and attitudes about what is “appropriate” |
| o Emotional labor | the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display |
| Surface acting | pretending not to feel one’s true feelings and disguising them when on the job |
| Deep acting | deceiving oneself into thinking they are not feeling what they are feeling |
| o Socioeconomic status | an individual’s standing in a ranking of positions based on education, occupation, and income |
| Subjective social status | an individual’s perception of their social rank |
| o Racial wage | a psychological benefit afforded the dominant racial class that allowed for a feeling of superiority despite poor economic positioning |
| o Social space | a location in society in which regions are divided up according to the capital one had access to |
| Socialization | the process of learning to behave according to the norms and values of society |
| Habitus | the habits of speech, work, lifestyles, and fields of interest and appreciation that determine where an individual feels comfortable, knowledgeable, and at home |
| Forms of capital | things that are acquired, accumulate, and are of value in some situation |
| • Economic capital | money and material resources |
| • Social capital | social networks and relations of trust |
| • Cultural capital | the ability to engage in and appreciate various lifestyles, and the components of those lifestyles (lifestyle preferences, tastes, language, attitudes, etc.) |
| • Human capital | specific skills, knowledge, and expertise |
| o Doing class | engaging in behavior at the risk of class assessment (either positive or negative) |
| o Sexual scripts | culturally produced, shared, and reinforced social norms that serve as blueprints to guide sexual behavior |
| Heteronormativity | the assumption that heterosexuality is the normal or preferred sexual orientation |
| o Doing race | engaging in behavior at the risk of race assessment (either positive or negative) |
| o Social closure | the practice of monopolizing access to valuable tires and the experiences that constitute them as of a certain class |
| Cultural hierarchy | a system where elites use culture to establish in-group boundaries and identify who belongs in elite spaces |
| o Identity | a person’s location in social life and their sense of self; sense of “who they are” |
| Social Identity | sense of self that is built up over time as a person participates in social life and identifies with a community of others with whom there is a feeling of similarity and common purpose |
| Situated Identity | the sense of self tied to roles we play in specific, immediate social situations |
| Personal Identity | sense of separateness established over time as the person pursues his/her own goals that differ from those of the community |
| Racial identity | social membership in a particular racial group, both the sense of belonging one has, and how others feel about their proper fit within a racial group |
| Gender identity | one’s internal sense of being male, female, neither, or a different gender classification |
| • Sexual orientation | an individual’s physical or emotional attraction to another individual or group |
| o Intersectionality | the unique experiences of individuals as determined by the combination of identities they possess and the ways in which social structures shape the life chances of that combination of identities |
| Double Standard | when similar behavior is held differently accountable based on the identity of the performer |
| o Power | the ability of people or groups to realize their will over the will of others |
| Authority | power that is accepted as legitimate (just) |
| • Rational-legal authority | power that is legitimized by law or written rules and regulations in organizations |
| • Charismatic authority | power that is legitimized on the basis of a leader’s exceptional personal qualities or the demonstration of extraordinary insight and accomplishment that inspires loyalty and obedience from followers |
| • Traditional authority | power that is legitimized on the basis of long-standing customs, handed down from generation to generation |
| Coercion | power that people do not accept as legitimate (illegitimate, unjust, power) |
| o Power elite | power is concentrated in the hands of a circle of corporate, political, and military leaders who dominate and control the political agenda |
| Diversity in Power Elite | the power elite has become diversified in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, but everyone still passes through elite schools and elite social space, and comes to represent the interests of elites |
| o Pluralist position | a view of society as divided among varying interest groups, all of which are jockeying for power and position, with the ultimate decisions depending on who can build the winning coalition of voters |
| o Deindustrialization | “the steady loss of the unskilled and semiskilled manufacturing jobs that, with mixed results, had sustained the urban working class since the start of the industrial revolution” |
| Outsourcing | the shifting of production or work to a subcontractor, often in a low-wage country |
| Globalization | the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets |
| GDP | the total value of goods and services produced in a nation |
| Life expectancy | the average number of years a person born in a given year can expect to live |
| • Morbidity | the amount of disease, impairment, and accident in a population |
| • Mortality | the number of deaths in a population |
| o Infant mortality rate | the number of deaths among infants less than one year of age for every 1,000 babies born alive in a given year |
| o Maternal mortality rate | the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births |
| Modernization | a school of thought that stresses the transition from traditional society to modern society and the need for modern ideas, technology, and institutions for a society to advance economically |
| Dependency theory | an approach to global inequality that stresses a global structure where poor nations are dependent on the economic and political power of richer nations |
| Neoliberalism | view of economics that emphasizes limited government, privatization, free markets, and free trade |
| World systems theory | theory of the modern global economic system that divides the world into core, semiperiphery, and periphery nations and argues that core countries will continue to prosper while countries in the periphery will be impoverished by world trade |
| o Social movements | ongoing efforts by groups to promote (or prevent) social change |
| Collective action | people coming together in both planned and spontaneous actions and demonstrations |
| Resource mobilization | social movements are successful to the extent they can acquire and use key resources |
| Political process model | movements are successful to the extent that broader social conditions, such as the political climate, are supportive of the movement |
| Relative deprivation | the discontent that people feel when they compare their situation to similar others who are better off |
| Recruitment through Networks | people are recruited to movements through pre-existing networks with current movement members |
| Frame alignment | the interactive process in which movement leaders frame (define) their movement in a way that reaches potential followers and motivates them to join the movement |
| o Social mobility | the movement of people both upward and downward in a stratified system |
| o Meritocracy | a form of stratification that ranks people on their individual merits |
| Social reproduction | the tendency of people to remain in their social classes of origin and to replicate the experiences of their parents |
| o Residential segregation | the extent to which members of different groups live in separate neighborhoods within a geographic area (e.g., city, metropolitan area, county) |
| The Great Migration | a movement of 6 million Black Southerners from the South and into cities in the Northeast, Midwest, and West |
| Redlining | a discriminatory practice where financial services are withheld from neighborhoods that have high rates of racial and ethnic minority residents |
| o Eviction | landlord initiated forced moves from rental properties |