SOCI 2P00 Midterm
Everyday Theorizing
The way of developing explanations of the world around us based on our own personal experiences (but can lack generalizability)
Zygmunt Bauman
Claims sociology is not just a formal discipline but a way of thinking with its own mental maps
- Examines the complex relationship between sociology and common sense
Hegemony
Developed by Antoni Gramsci who is situated with western marxism
- the process by which dominant culture maintains its dominant position in society
Cultural Hegemony
Refers to domination acheived through ideological and cultural means, allowing a group to influence values, norms, ideas, expectations and behavior of society
- Gramsci argues that the lower class consents to being rules by the ruling class. consent is conducted in social institutions like education
Key Characteristics of Formal Theories
- Logical rigour
- Empirical rigour
- Conceptual rigour
- Second-order questions
- Relates to existing bodies of knowledge
Theoretical Pluralism
The general regocnition within a field of study that there is more than one legitimate frame of analysis for research
Structural Functionalism
- Created by emile durkheim
- Sees society as an organism with different parts that work together to promote social order such as education, family etc.
- These parts serve functions; mainfest functions are intended or obvious and latent functions are unintended (kids socializing at school)
Conflict Theory
- Imagines society as being composed of different groups that stuggles of ressources such as power and money
- Karl Marx developed class conflict theory as the central conflict in society and source of social inequality
- Race conflict thoery: W.E.B Dubois
Symbolic Interactionism
- Developed by Max Weber
- Beleives sociology needed to focus on peoples individual social sitations and the meanings they attach to them
- Interested in the understanding of the shared reality that people create through their interactions (giving waving your hand the meaning of hello)
Postmodernism
- Shares a conservative position, focused fragmented on social change and questions of change
- Grand narratives; ideas that are unfairly said to be true for everybody (ex. objectivity, identity)
Understanding funtionalism
- Examines societies various aspects and functions as a whole
- Considers the reprecussions to society when certain areas fail to perform their functions
- Crime viewed as functional ; show people consequences of breaking social norms
Mechanical Solidarity
Arises from commonalities in society such as beliefs, values and lifestyles (high number of similarities amongst people)
Organic Solidarity
Arises from interdependence amongst members of society; based upon the dependece individuals have on each other in more advanced societies
Collective Conscience
the body of beliefs and sentiments common to the average of members of a society
Collective Consciousness
the reason why and how individuals who are different can come together and form a society; shared set of values or beliefs
Anomie
- A social condition described as disappearing norms and values
- Developed by emile durkheim
- Thought of as normlessness and can make people feel a sense of unbelonging
The Sacred
- Transcends everyday life, set apart from society
- Essential for social bonding and solidarity can be found in thinfs like sports, art and relationships
The Profane
Encompasses dull/uninteresting things like jobs, bills
Social Order Theory
Emphasizes the importance of shared norms and values in maintaining an orderly society
5 Types of Cognitive Bias
- Availability heuristic
- Salience error
- Ostrich effect
- Outcome bias
- Confirmation bias
- Cognitive biases sway our judgement
3 Thoeires of Knowledge
- Positivist
- Interpretive (how our senses filter what is true)
- Critical
- Ethical considerations in social science research
Post-Truth
- Questions the breakdown of methodical inquiry
- The internet changed the world of information giving a voice to previously marginalized groups
- People changed where they go to find news and information and became less conscious of the source of information (reliability)
- Search methodologies: relevancy, popularity, personality and publicity
Dorothy Smith
- Incorporates the perspectives and experiences of women
- Draws on marx on feminist standpoint theory arguing that sociological theory gives a distorted view of the world because it is constructed by men and ignores the perspectives of women
- Critique: too subjective because it is not generalized towards everyone (personal experience; not all women have the same experiences)
Metodical Inquiry
- Involves conscious choices and systematic approaches
- Requires clarifying the relationship between gathering and interpreting facts
- Inquiry is a natural human tendency (childrens curiosity)
Abstraction
- Describes the process of framing an issues, establishing boundaries that define a discrete phenomenon within an interconnected reality
- A type of mapping; social theory as a map of social realtions/structures
- A zoom lens to focus on specific aspects
- Assesed by criteria like extension, generality, vantage point
Extension
Specific limits in time and space that bound a particular abstraction (Focuses on the institutions we studied in, what school and when)
Generality
Range from the most specific to the more general (what courses you took in school)
Vantage point
Desribes the perspective built into each abtraction that necessarily views reality from a particular location (undergraduate school afterwards)
Sears & Cairns; school
- Critique of the dominant model of university education based on the premises of the conflict model and influenced by theories associated with critical pedagogy
- Design of the classroom assumes that sitting still and listening to an educator is the best way to learn
Banking Model of Education
- Views students as ATMS and teachers as inputting the knowledge into the 'atms'
- Focuses on acquistion rather than transformation
Social order/Functionalist Approach on School
Manifest function - what something was intended to do (schools teaching children knowledge)
Latent function - what something was unintended to do (schools socializing children)
The Schooled Society
- Society is created and defined by education
- People are spending more time at school in their lives and it is becoming more inclusive and expanding
Why is Schooling Becoming so Popular (theory approaches)
- Functionalism; development of a complex division of labor and preparing children for adult roles (prepare and train people for specific roles in economy (jobs))
- Human Capitol Theory: schools produce workers to fill the jobs in the labor market
- Conflict Theory: how social inequalities are implemented in the education system
- Neo-institutional theory: believes maybe we're over educated
Human Capitol
SKILLS
- Schools emerged because people need human capitol (skills) in order to get jobs