If someone states: “Members of the middle and upper classes have an easier time getting into universities and getting jobs," this person was not making claims about each individual person in these groups, but about ______________ social groups.

patterns among

Race and ethnicity are examples of how complex and interrelated social categories are. While race and ethnicity are related in important ways and often used interchangeably, they are not interchangeable. Race is a __________________ system of classifying humans based on phenotypical characteristics (skin color, hair texture, and bone structure). Ethnicity refers to people bound by a common language, culture, spiritual tradition, and/or ancestry. Ethnic groups can bridge national borders and still be one group (such as the Cree community, which straddles the United States and Canada).

socially constructed

________ are the group(s) at the top of the social hierarchy.

Dominant group

_______________ refers to the biological, genetic, or phenotypical characteristics that are used to distinguish female and male bodies: genitals, body structure, hormones, and so on. These biological differences among humans are necessary for reproduction. _____________, on the other hand, is what it means to have that body in that culture--how you are “supposed” to feel and act based on whether your body is seen as female or male.

Sex; gender

Which of the following is NOT an example of "deep" culture?

Literature

___________ is/are the norms, values, practices, patterns of communication, language, laws, customs, and meanings shared by a group of people located in a given time and place.

Culture

_________________ refers to our systematic training into the norms of our culture; the process of learning the meanings and practices that enable us to make sense of and behave appropriately in that culture.

Socialization

According to Marx, capitalist societies can never be ______________: They are founded on individualistic and egoistic principles and only the elite few hold economic power.

Socialist

In Marx’s view, _____________ system of communal property is morally superior to capitalism’s system of private ownership

Socialisms

Durkheim argued that suffering could be found __________________, not just the proletariat, and believed that Marx overlooked the importance of merit in defining the dynamics of justice in social systems.

among all classes

Durkheim noted that justice was, in fact, the basis of moral order and social solidarity in modern societies. Earlier societies had relied on __________________, which depended on social homogeneity, but modern societies aimed for ______________ based on role differentiation and specialization. Justice was an important component of organic solidarity.

mechanical solidarity; organic solidarity

While Weber offered no clear moral judgment about the distribution of power in society, he argued that Marx’s narrow focus on class ignored ___________________.

noneconomic bases of power

Du Bois studied urban life, and he focused his work primarily on racial inequality and discrimination. He wrote about the ways in which Blacks were discriminated against in all areas of social life. Which of the following restrictions/limitations did Blacks experience in their civil and political rights compared to Whites?

restricted from most jobs suffered from more job competition less job security

Smith (1990) introduced stand-point theory, which recommends conducting sociology from the point of view of ____________.

Women

What do Critical Race Theorists provide as evidence of the detrimental effects of racism?

few minorities in graduate and professional education programs higher unemployment lower incomes

Which of the following is NOT one of the shared principles of critical social justice approaches?

White Men are the primary reason for inequality throughout history

__________________ means to think with complexity; to go below the surface when considering an issue and explore its multiple dimensions and nuances.

Critical Thinking

Social Change

process by which society becomes something different while remaining in some respects the same

Cyclical Perspectives

Spengler: culture passes through same stages of growth and decline as individuals Toynbee: civilizations arise in response to some challenge, such as severe climate or warlike neighbors

Collective behaviors

ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that develop among a large number of people and that are relatively spontaneous and unstructured

Fashion

folkway that lasts for short time and enjoys widespread acceptance within society

Fad

folkway that lasts for short time and enjoys acceptance among only a segment of population

Craze

fad that becomes all-consuming passion

Mass hysteria

rapid dissemination of contagious anxiety, usually associated with some mysterious force

Crowd

temporary, relatively unorganized gathering of people in close physical proximity - myth of the "mad" crowd has influenced government approaches to the public since the late 1800's -drove Mussolini's view of the masses and the emergence of Fascism (reason for an "elite" governing the majority"

Smelser Value-added model

each step increases the potential for various forms of collective behavior -structural conduciveness, structural strain, growth and spread of generalized belief, operation of social control

Riots

collective behaviors where “one or more persons, part of a larger gathering, are engaged in violence against person or property or threaten to so engage and are judged capable of enacting that threat” -spontaneous, random, are always violent or directly threaten violence -has impacting police training in policing public disorder

Social Movements

-people intervene in process of social change -a collective, organized, sustained, and non-institutional challenge to authorities, power holders, or cultural beliefs and practices -What is the score of the intended change (is it a group of people or entire society?) and how much change is intended by the social movement (is it limited or radical change)

Revolutionary movements

replacement of existing value scheme

Reform movements

implement existing value scheme more adequately

Resistance movements

institute change and block or eliminate previously instituted change

Expressive movements

renovating or renewing of people from within

Relative deprivation

discontent associated with gap between what people actually have and what they have come to expect and feel to be their just due

Resource Mobilization Approaches

-social discontent is constant and endemic -participants choose to participate as a response to a rational decision-making process resources and organizations outside the protest group are crucial in determining score and outcomes of collective action

Political process model

emphasizes the relationship between a mobilized social movement and a favorable structure of political opportunities

Synthetic Social Movement Theory

The attempt to integrate the literature on social movements -five factors shaping movement activity: opportunity structures, framing, mobilization, repertoires of contention, collective identity

Futurists

individuals who specialize in the study of the future - U.S being restructured from an industrial to an information society -modern societies shifting from national to global economy

Legal Identity and Power

Corporations are defined as legally devised entities that organize activities and receive special protections from the state similar to those of individuals. This "corporate personhood" allows them to exercise significant influence, such as in the Citizens United Supreme Court case, which rescinded limitations on corporate election spending.

Commercial Transformation

Large corporations are a core force influencing the direction, scope, and speed of social change. They have transformed material life by shifting society toward an "American Dream" characterized by unlimited abundance and personal fulfillment through material consumption.

Competitive Dynamics

Corporations operate within a framework of rule-governed competition for buyers, sellers, and profits. This competition involves the use of power sources like money, information, and reputation to gain compliance or market share.

Resistance to Change

While corporations drive change, they can also represent a source of resistance to social change when it conflicts with their commercial interests.

Monopoly on Force

The state is defined as a human community that successfully claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. It is considered the sole source of the "right" to use violence, often seen in its most extreme form through war to compel behavior.

Providing Public Goods

"Strong states" drive social change by providing essential services and infrastructure, including: Public Health, Infrastructure, Economic Stability

Legal and Civil Rights

how state institutions (such as courts) can be used to prolong and expand people's rights, effectively providing solutions to societal problems.

State-Driven Models

Massey uses examples like state-driven social change in modern China to illustrate how centralized government power can rapidly transform a society.

Resistance to the State

Just as with corporations, there is often significant resistance to state-directed social change, especially when public resources are redirected or when state actions are perceived as overstepping.

Dimensions of thinking Critically about Knowledge

Dimension 1: the acquisition of new information that may challenge our common sense (such as looking out the window and seeing what we believe is a flat landscape). Dimension 2: understanding the meaning given to information (e.g., the meaning given to the journeys of explorers such as Columbus, that are presumed to have debunked the idea of a flat Earth, and thus were instrumental in the advancement of knowledge and civilization).

Knowledge is socially constructed

Dimension 1: In critical analysis of knowledge claims that are presented as neutral, universal, and “objective,” for example, Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of America. Dimension 2: In critical self-reflection about their own social perspective and subjectivity, for example, how the Columbus myth and the teacher’s racial identity influence what s/he teaches about the history of North America.

Social Stratification

The concept that social groups are relationally positioned and ranked into a hierarchy of unequal value (e.g., people without disabilities are seen as more valuable than people with disabilities). This ranking is used to justify the unequal distribution of resources among social groups

Minoritized group

This devaluing encompasses how the group is represented, what degree of access to resources it is granted, and how the unequal access is rationalized. Traditionally, a group in this position has been referred to as the minority group. However, this language has been replaced with the term minoritized in order to capture the active dynamics that create the lower status in society, and also to signal that a group’s status is not necessarily related to how many or few of them there are in the population at large.

Positionality

The recognition that where you stand in relation to others in society shapes what you can see and understand about the world.

Personal and cultural knowledge

the explanations and interpretations people acquire from their personal experiences in their homes, with their family and community cultures.

Popular knowledge

the facts, beliefs, and various character and plot types that are institutionalized within television, movies, and other forms of mass-mediated popular culture.

Mainstream academic Knowledge

the concepts, paradigms, theories, and explanations that make up the traditional and established canon in the behavioral and social sciences.

School Knowledge

the facts and concepts presented in textbooks, teachers’ guides, and other aspects of the formal curriculum designed for use in schools.

Transformative academic knowledge

the concepts and explanations that challenge mainstream academic knowledge and that expand the canon

Prejudice

a preconceived, generalized, and rigid attitude, belief, or feeling held toward an entire group of people and its individual members, usually based on group traits like race, religion, gender, or social class rather than personal experience

Discrimination

the unjust, unequal, or prejudicial behavior and treatment directed against individuals or groups based on their membership in a particular social category, such as race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation

Structural Domain of Power

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 and operates through the laws and policies of social institutions

Hegemonic Domain of Power

a form or mode of social organization that uses ideas and ideology to absorb and thereby depoliticize oppressed groups’ dissent

John Rawl's Theory of Justice

fairness: society should be organized so everyone has equal basic rights, and inequalities are acceptable only if they help those who are worst off

Gauthier's Theory of Justice

people are rational and self-interested. This means that individuals make choices that benefit themselves, but they recognize that cooperation can be more advantageous than constant conflict.

Scanlon's Theory of Justice

focuses on fairness in how rules are justified to everyone, emphasizing principles that no one could reasonably reject.