SOCY 3001 Final

Dialectical Materialism (K. Marx)

A dialectic is a theoretical concept that describes the intrinsic dynamic relations within a phenomenon. Dialectics contain different elements that are naturally antagonistic to or in tension with on another—this antagonism is what energizes and brings about change. Dialectics are cyclical in nature, with each new cycle bringing a different and generally unpredictable resolution. The resolution contains its own antagonistic elements, and the cycle continues. [How history is documented—measure society by materials (economically, through production, technology-drives production→ Mode of production moving us through time]

Self (G.H. Mead)

According to Mead, the self is a perspective, a conversation, and a story. The self is a perspective in the sense that it is the place from which we view our own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. It's an internal conversation or symbolic interaction between the I and the Me through which we arrive at the meaning and evaluation we will give to our own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings, which we then thread together into a story we tell ourselves and others about who we are (the meaning of this particular social object). The self is initially created through successive stages of role taking and the internalization of language.

Alienation (K. Marx)

Alienation is a concept in Marx's theory of the effects of capitalism on consciousness and human nature and is based on the idea that there is an intrinsic connection between the producer and the product. The word alienation means to be separated from; it also implies that there is something that faces humans as an unknown or alien object. For Marx, there are four different kinds of alienation potentially affecting the worker: alienation from one's own species-being, alienation from other social beings, alienation from the work process, and alienation from the product. Alienation also forms the basis of private property.

Anomie (E. Durkheim)

Anomie is a concept that is used by both Durkheim and Georg Simmel. Anomie literally means to be without norms or laws. Because human beings are not intrinsically driven, they require behavioral regulation. Without norms guiding behavior, life becomes meaningless. Anomie is a pathology of modernity and tends to occur under high levels of structural differentiation and division of labor when the culture of society does not generalize quickly enough. High levels of anomie can lead to anomic suicide.

Significant Gestures i.e. Symbols (G.H. Mead)

Are abstract and arbitrary in their relationship to an object. Significant gestures are also reflexive in that they call out the same response in the sender and receiver. Significant gestures are the central element in Mead's theory of the mind, self, and society, due to their reflexive nature.

Bureaucracy (M. Weber)

Bureaucracy is a system of organizing people and their behavior that is characterized by the presence of written rules and communication, job placement by accreditation, expert knowledge, clearly outlined responsibilities and authorities, explicit career ladders, and an office hierarchy. The purposes of the bureaucratic form are to rationalize, routinize behavior. Unintended consequences include the bureaucratic personality and the iron cage of bureaucracy.

Discourses (F. Douglass)

Discourse is a theoretical concept that is widely used but is most specifically associated with the contemporary work of Michael Foucault. A discourse is an institutionalized way of thinking and speaking. It sets the limits of what can be spoken, and more importantly, how something may be spoken of. In setting these limits, discourses delineate the actors in a field, their relationships to one another, and their subjectivities. Discourses are thus an exercise of power.

Double Consciousness (W.E.B. Dubois)

Double consciousness is part of Du Bois's understanding of the black experience in the United States. It generally refers to the experience of one's identity being fragmented into several, contradictory facets. These facets are at war with and negate one another so that the disenfranchised is left with no true consciousness. -Blacks: Saw selves in 2 ways simultaneously -As American's (positive valuation) -As African Americans (negative valuation)

Verstehen (M. Weber)

Empathetic understanding. -As a social science methodology, in context of ethnographic studies. An ethnographer is one who steeps him-or himself in a culture deeply enough to understand it, yet maintains the outsider perspective sufficiently to tell the story of an unknown culture to others. -Motive the meaning the actor attaches. This understanding seeks to know why an actor does what he or she does.

Sexuo-Economic Relations (C.P. Gilman)

Gynoecocentric theory originated with Lester F. Ward and is used by Gilman to explain gender inequality. Gynoecocentric theory argues that women, not men, are the general species type for humans: it is through women that the race is born and the first social connections created. In gynoecocentric theory, men and women have essential sex-specific energies. -Society only becomes possible when male energy at odds with stable community (subordination of women) -The "mother-child relationship" as the natural social relationship -Male modification via monogamous marriage -The resultant sexuo-economic arrangement (women removed from the work environment and placed in an artificial male environment (with domestic duties and economically dependent) -Responding to this environment [women change, modify and adapt (culturally and physically] -This leads to a morbid excess in sex distinction (develop new skills of attraction for economic survival)

Otherness (F. Douglass)

Having other to define a group (e.g. with man as the standard and women the other. Man or he represented people generally and helps establish men as universal).

Things (H. Martineau)

Identifying sociology's subject matter- the observation of things. Not speculation, faith or hope, but empirical data. Use physical indicators to observe something hard to ascertain (can't see).

Exploitation (K. Marx)

Is a central concept in Marx's theory of capitalism. It is the measurable difference between what a worker gets paid and the worth of the product produced—it is the source of capitalist profit. Exploitation also has the characteristic of giving workers leverage over capitalists. The dependency of capitalists upon exploitation for profit is what gives labor the power to negotiate and strike. Exploitation, then, is dialectical in nature.

Positivism (A. Comte)

Is a philosophy of science first articulated by Auguste Comte. There are three foundations of this way of understanding the universe. 1) Belief in the infinite potential of the human mind & knowledge. Knowledge, according to Comte, has progressed through three distinct phases: theological (people sought absolute knowledge, the essential nature and ultimate cause of everything), metaphysical (transitory phase; connecting facts by ideas that are no longer entirely supernatural and have not yet become completely natural), and positivistic (Observation trumps imaginations. Truth is judged by empirical observation and it progresses through skepticism). In the positivistic phase, there is virtually no limit to what human beings can discover--the limit of knowledge is set only by the boundaries of the universe 2) Everything within this universe is empirical and operates according to invariant, natural laws that govern behavior in predictable ways, as with the law of gravity 3) Belief in science as the best way to improve human existence.

Representation (W.E.B. Dubois)

Is a term that has become extremely important in contemporary cultural analysis. The meaning has to be constructed, and we use representational systems of concepts and ideas. Representation, then, is the symbolic practice through which meaning is given to the world around us. It involves the production and consumption of cultural items and is a major site of conflict, negotiation, and potential oppression.

Human Happiness (H. Martineau)

Martineau believes that all humans have an inalienable right to happiness. Most important law of social life: the pursuit of happiness. The aim of human association/ the sign of a democratic society. Why we are all social. Happiness not intrinsic, it is a social production/accomplishment. Happier with more fulfilling interactions.

Money (G. Simmel)

Money as a theoretical concept is a generalized media of economic exchange that can vary in its abstraction. Initially, precious metals were used as money—this form of money was values in and of itself. Later, paper was used as a symbol for gold and silver; this money was more abstract but nevertheless had an objective base. In time, gold and silver in back of paper money was dropped and paper money became pure symbol. Credit and debit cards then came to function in the place of paper money. Simmel sees the increasing use of abstraction of money as having both positive and negative effects: It increases personal freedom, rationalization, calculability, the number and extent of exchange relations, continuity between groups and individuals, and trust in the national system. At the same time, the increased use of money decreases the level of emotional attachment that individuals can have to thinks and other people, and it reduces the level of moral constraint.

Morals and Manners (H. Martineau)

Morals = what a society says; Manners = what a society does in practice. Study by distance between morals and manners. Larger gap → less democratic and developed.

Morbid Excess in Sex Distinction (C.P. Gilman)

Morbid excess in sex distinction is a theoretical concept in Gilman's evolutionary theory of gender. Sex distinctions are those physical and visual cues that make sexes different from one another. Gilman argues that the sex distinctions in humans have been carried to a harmful extreme due to women no longer living in the natural environment of economic pursuit, but, rather, living in the artificial environment of the home that has been established by men. Women have thus been physically and sexually changed by evolution so that they can better survive under patriarchy.

Rationalization (M. Weber)

Rationalization is a central concept in Weber's theory of modernity and social change. It is the process through which affective ties, spirituality, and tradition are replaced by rational calculation, efficiency, and control. Rationalization is most associated with increasing levels of bureaucratization.

Generalized Other (G.H. Mead)

Refers to sets of attitudes that an individual may take toward himself or herself—it is the general attitude or perspective of a community. The generalized other allows the individual to have a less segmented self as the perspectives of many others are generalized into a single view. It is through the generalized other that the community exercises control over the conduct of its individual members.

Rituals (E. Durkheim)

Rituals are the key to Durkheim's theory of social solidarity. In Durkheimian theory, rituals are patterned sequences of behavior that re-create high levels of copresene, common emotional mood, and common focus of attention. In Durkheim's scheme, rituals function to create and reinvigorate a group's moral boundaries and identity.

Role-Taking (G.H. Mead)

Role taking is the central mechanism in Mead's theory of the self, through which an individual is able to get outside of her or his own actions and take them as a social object. Specifically, role taking is the process through which an individual puts her-or himself in the position (role) of another for the express purpose of viewing her-or himself from that other person's role. There are three stages of role taking: 1) Play stage 2) Game stage 3) Formation of self

Social Forms (G. Simmel)

Social forms are Simmel's basic perspective of social life. A form is a patterned mode of interaction through which people meet personal and group goals; forms exist prior to the interaction and provide rules and values that guide the interaction and contribute to the subjective experience of the individual; and forms also imply social types—types of people that occupy position within social forms (i.e. stranger, adventurer)

Social Institutions (H. Spencer)

Social institution is a key concept in many macro-level theories of society. For most sociologists, social institutions are collective moral sets of predetermined meanings, values, legitimations, and scripts for behavior that resist individual agency and are perceived to meet the survival needs of a society. The main institutions studied by sociologists are family, education, religion, law, government, and the economy.

Social Solidarity (E. Durkheim)

Social solidarity is Durkheim's term for the level of integration in a society. Generally speaking, integration is the blending and organizing of separate and diverse elements into a more complete, balanced whole. Social solidarity specifically refers to the subjective sense of group membership that individuals have, the constraint of individual behaviors for the group good, and the organization of social units and groups into a single system. Durkheim argues that social solidarity is different in modern societies compared to traditional ones [Mechanical (Premodern; refers to high levels of group cohesiveness and normative regulation) → organic solidarity (Modern; is created through mutual dependency, generalized culture, and intermediate groups and organizations)]

Species Being (K. Marx)

Species-being is one of Marx's basic assumptions about human nature. The idea links the way humans as a species survive with human consciousness. According to Marx, every species is unique and defined by the way it exists as a biological organism. Humans exist and survive through creative production. Human consciousness, then, is created as people see the humanity in the world that has been economically produced. False consciousness and ideology increase as humans fail to perceive their intrinsic link to production.

Collective Consciousness (E. Durkheim)

The collective consciousness is a central theoretical issue in Durkheim's theory of social solidarity. It refers to the collective representations (cognitive elements) and sentiments (emotional elements) that guide and bind together any social group. The collective consciousness varies by four elements: the degree to which culture is shared; the amount of power the culture has to guide individual's thoughts, feelings and actions; its degree of clarity; and its relative levels of religious versus secular content. Each of these is related to the amount of ritual performance in a collective. According to Durkheim, the collective consciousness takes on a life of its own and independently influences human thought, emotion, and behavior, particularly in response to high levels of ritual.

Requisite Needs (H. Spencer)

The concept of requisite needs is an essential assumption of the functionalist perspective. Requisite needs are requirements that every system must meet in order to survive. Because every system has the same needs, functionalists argue that all systems can be understood using the same set of ideas.

Social Facts (E. Durkheim)

The concept of social facts is the foundation of Durkheim's empirical approach to sociology. Durkheim argues that the facticity of society is established by its objective nature and felt influence. Society exists apart from individuals; it was present before any specific individual was born and it will exist after that person's death. Further, society appears to unavoidably influence the individual from the outside—people conform to its demands even if they don't want to. Durkheim used the existence of social facts to argue for society's unique existence and to argue for scientific sociology. *Social facts are the values, cultural norms, and social structures which transcend the individual and are capable of exercising a social constraint*

Iron Cage of Bureaucracy (M. Weber)

The iron cage of bureaucracy is an important effect in Weber's theory of bureaucracy and rationalization. There are two ways the idea is used. First, once in place, bureaucracies are difficult if not impossible to get rid of. Second, while in the beginning of modernity people strove to have a rationally controlled life, the pervasive presence of bureaucratic organization has forced people to rationally control life, to become narrow specialists without mind.

Objective Culture (G. Simmel)

The issue of objective culture is central to Simmel's theorizing. Objective culture must be understood in reference to subjective culture, which is culture that is essentially and wholly meaningful and understood by an individual. Culture becomes objective as its size, diversity of components, and complexity increase. Among the effects of increasing objective culture are anomie and the blasé attitude.

Organismic Analogy (H. Spencer)

The organismic analogy is specific to functionalist theorizing and implies that society works like a biological organism in that it has survival needs and evolves to greater complexity. The analogy also implies that society, just like complex organisms, operates like a system of interrelated parts that tend toward stasis or balance, and any derivation from that life- balance is seen as illness or pathology.

The Spirit of Capitalism (M. Weber)

The spirit of capitalism is a key factor in Weber's explanation of rational capitalism. The spirit of capitalism refers to the cultural values and beliefs that make rational capitalism possible: the belief that life should be rationally organized, that economic work is the most valued of all action, and that quantification is the true estimate of value and worth.

Theory (A. Comte)

Theory is a logical explanation of how some empirical phenomenon works in general terms. Theory is built up from concepts, definitions, and relationships. The goals of scientific theory are to explain, predict, and control empirical phenomena.