Nelson -- Sociology Final

Discuss the theories of collective action: convergence theory, contagion theory, and emergent norm theory.

* Convergence theory: states that collective action happens when people with similar ideas and tendencies gather in the same place • Doesn't necessarily involve planning • Main problem is that its often reduced to the sum of its parts • Doesn't explain the inconsistency of group action * Contagion theory: Claims that collective action arises because of people's tendency to conform to the behavior of others with whom they are in close contact • Downplays individual agency and treats individuals as mindless sheep, thoughtlessly following the actions of their neighbors • Doesn't explain inconsistency * Emergent Norm theory: emphasizes the influence of "keynoters" in promoting new behavioral norms, especially in unusual situations for which already established norms are inadequate. • Keynoters are not the same as leaders. They don't have to stand on podiums, shouting into megaphones. They can be just people whose action become, either intentionally or not, the behavior of the copied group • Doesn't explain collective action perfectly, doesn't always explain why some people emerge as leaders

2. What are the two types of collective action? Give examples of membership.

* Crowd collective action • Must be face to face with the other members of your group * Mass collective action • Can be done without being face to face- if members of the National Rifle Association ask all of its members to writer letters to their senators protesting a particular law

4. What were the main rivals to doctors at this point in American history?

1. "Indian" doctors 2. midwives 3. bonesetters 4. inoculators 5. Thomsonian medicine

8. What have been the primary "engines" of medicalization, and what are the primary dangers of this process as seen by Conrad?

1. Engines: biotechnology, consumers, managed care 2. Dangers: 1. Narrow focus on individuals rather than social context 2. Obscures social forces that influence well-being 3. Reinforces technical fixes for larger social problems

6. What processes led to the strengthening of the AMA, and how did this result in the growing power of physicians?

1. Greater means of organization through communication and travel 2. Malpractice: lawsuits, doctors not a part of medical societies could not get insurance. Members of a local medical society were immune from testimony against a fellow member - so everyone joined

3. For any group, the accumulation of authority requires solving at least two distinct problems. What are these problems and how do they relate to the American context of the 19th century?

1. Internal problem of consensus 2. External problem of legitimacy. The biggest challenge for medical practitioners in 19th century was reaching some agreement among themselves as to the acceptable bounds of the profession

5. What is meant by the term "medical sectarianism," and how did this situation undermine the authority of doctors as a whole?

1. The existence in the community of various schools and sects, flourishing and popular, each claiming to present a complete system of medical practice 2. Doctors were denouncing each other's treatments a. Homeopathy 1. Infinite dilutions of a substance to the point where not a single molecule remains, have a medical benefit 2. Water "remembers" the substances that were in it in the past b. Eclectic medicine 1. Extension of Thomsonian herbalism 2. Added botanical remedies and anything else that seemed beneficial to patient

7. What does the term "medicalization" refer to, and at what levels of society can it be found?

1. The process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions, and thus become the subject of medical study, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment. 1. Culture - medical model is used to define or frame problems 2. Organizations - adopt a medical approach to treating a particular problem. 3. Interactions - a physician defines a problem or treats a social problem with a medical treatment.

2. What three premises does Starr base his analysis of the rise of physicians on?

1. The rise of the medical profession to prominence and power was not inevitable. One has to examine how historical actors pursued their interests under particular conditions in order to bring this about. 2. The organization of medical care cannot be understood without reference to larger arenas of power and social structure in society. 3. The problem of professional sovereignty calls for an analysis of both CULTURE and INSTITUTIONS.

3. Explain how, according to Max Weber, Protestantism was central to the development of modern capitalism.

Calvinist teachings shaped the kind of personalities needed for capitalism to develop. Early protestant sects believed that each person had a calling, which entailed fulfilling one's duty to God through day-to-day work in disciplines, rational labor.

5. Contrary to secularization theory, which posited that pluralism would undermine the credibility of faith, why have Americans maintained high levels of religiosity?

Growing rates of church membership and church attendance. 86% of Americans claim a religious affiliation, although identifying, believing, and participating can mean quite different things. Americans believe that God is important in their lives.

Explain the differences between prejudice and discrimination. Describe Merton's diagram for explaining the intersections of prejudice and discrimination. Give examples of each cell.

Prejudice: Thoughts and feelings about an ethnic group Discrimination: an act based on the thoughts and feelings Merton's diagram describes the different intersections between people who are prejudiced and people who discriminate -------- Active Bigot : prejudices & discriminates -- hard to come by, because largely unaccepted; KKK members Timid Bigot : Prejudiced (does not discriminate) -- Closet racist Fair Weather Liberal : Discriminates (is not prejudiced) -- someone who considers themselves open minded about race, but will only share a bus seat with someone of their race All-Weather Liberal : neither -- normal person.

What is "racialization" and how has it differed between Muslims and the Irish

Racialization -- is the formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological boundaries of difference around formerly unnoticed group of people. Muslims cannot "turn on or off" being Muslim at will because of their appearance. Americans discriminate against Muslims because of their involvement in terrorist attacks in the US. The majority of Muslims in the US and throughout the world strongly disagree with Islamic extremism. Brown-skinned men with beards and head scarfs are subjected to discrimination, because people think they are Muslim, when in fact are Sikh or Punjabi Irish people can "turn on or off" being Irish at will. They're white, but no one assumes that their Irish because they're white.

2. What are the types of things which can be sacred? How can one identify what is sacred in a particular group or society?

That which the profane cannot touch with impunity. These not only pertain to group's adherents but especially to outsiders. Time - Ramadan, Lent, Easter Place - Sanctuary, Mecca Beings - Gods, angels, ancestors Objects - sacraments, Koran Music - Hymns, sacred music Actions: done in ritual context

1. Give an example of how the sacred is separated from the profane. What social functions are served by this separation?

The home has fallen from grace, with its members seeking refuge and relief at the workplace. For the supermom, bombarded with demands, work increasingly becomes a safe place of comfort and ease. The workplace has become a haven from the chaos from the emotional and physical disarray of the second shift at home.

2. Explain what Marx meant by the statement that religion is "the opiate of the masses." Explain how Marx linked faith and social stratification.

To Marx, religion is a clever means of stratification, of allocating rewards such that some people benefit handsomely from the fruits of society while others suffer.

What does it mean to say that race is a myth?

To say race is a myth means that it is largely a social construction, a s et of stories we tell ourselves to organize reality and make sense of the world, rather than a fixed biological reality.

6. What predictions does RM theory have regarding the overall level of resources in a society? What kinds of resources are particularly important?

o As the amount of resources in society increases, the Social Movement Sector will increase also. The kind of technology and communication resources available is particularly important. Mass mailings, telephone, the Internet, twitter and Facebook all contribute to this

1. What are the distinct stages of social movements?

o Emergeà, Coalesceà, Bureaucratizeà Either success, failure, co-optation, repression, go mainstream and then à Decline

4. How does the "resource-mobilization theory" build on a weakness of the "classical model" in the effort to theorize on the way social movements arise?

o Emphasizes political context and goals but also states that social movements are unlikely to emerge without the necessary resources- or, if they do, are unlikely to succeed. o Discontent and the availability of resources are the key factors that determine if a social movement will coalesce

7. What is the "frame alignment" approach to mobilization and what kinds of questions and issues does it highlight?

o Focuses on how individuals are recruited into movement organizations o "Frame" taken from Goffman: "schemata of interpretation" that enables individuals to "locate, perceive, identify, and label" occurrences both in their own lives and in the larger world o Relative deprivation models assume an almost automatic connection between grievances and movement participation o Resource mobilization assumes constancy and ubiquity of grievances o The Frame Alignment perspective emphasizes that it is not merely the presence or absence of grievances, but the manner in which

5. What are "conscious constituents" as conceptualized in the resource mobilization model, and how might they be significant for movement outcomes?

o Individual and organizational may provide major sources of support

2. How does the "free rider" problem speak to Marx's assumption that people will organize to provide a public good (like a class revolution) on the basis of their collective interests?

o Rational actors will let others bear the cost of providing them because they cannot be excluded from the benefits o People will act collectively to further their shared economic interests (once they are aware of them- class consciousness)

3. What does the J-cure refer to and how is it related to psychological processes of frustration-aggression?

o Relates to the rising expectations meet a downturn in condition o Connected to biological processes (frustration-aggression) o Like Marx, political violence is an automatic and inevitable response to deprivation

4. You should know the five stages of Smelser's Value-Added model.

o Structural conduciveness: openings for the formation of social movements due to how society is organized o Structural strain: tensions which produce conflicting interests o Growth and spread of generalized beliefs- ideologies which identify what is wrong, who is to blame, and how to fix it (framing) o Precipitating factors: or events that may impact on any of the previous three (political opportunity) o Mobilization of participants for organized action. This takes leadership and coordination (resource mobilization) o Operation of social control (how authorities address the problem, or use force of repression)

3. What is "demographic transition theory"?

• A society's transition from a high fertility / high mortality environment to a low fertility / low mortality environment due to modernization; fertility declines are likely to occur once certain modernization thresholds are met (declining agricultural labor force participation, increased educational attainment and literacy, increased life expectancy, declines in infant mortality, delay in the age of first marriage and improved standard of living)

4. What did the Kitty Genovese incident seem to illustrate about the effects of urban living?

• The Kitty Genovese incident displays Louis Wirths' theory that urbanites deal with strangers, and their interactions are impersonal, and the impersonality becomes a habit. The overstimulation of the senses forces us to become insensitive to most of what happens around us, and this becomes ingrained.

2. You should know the six major historical population shifts and what the main underlying factors of each were.

• Agricultural revolution: fertility rates were high, and mortality rates were high due to famine, disease, and war; this lead to low population growth • Industrial revolution: agricultural advances, better health care, improved diet, and better sanitation allowed for populations to grow; however, European countries experienced declines in populations because fertility was low • Fertility decline: decline in fertility in industrial nations because of increased cost of large families in industrial societies; mortality declined too, but population growth still decreased • Global population growth: explosion of populations in less developed countries due to lower mortality rates cause by advances in agriculture and public health, and industrialization • Declining fertility in less-developed countries: decline in fertility due to lower agricultural employment levels, higher educational attainment, improved life expectancy, and increasing affluence • Decline in developed nations to below replacement levels

3. What is Tonnies' contrast between "geminschaft" and "gesellschaft"?

• Gemeinschaft means community or the small cohesive societies like farming villages. In these communities everyone is connected to one another and people agree on the norms • Gesellschaft means society, where people are mostly strangers and tied only by self-interest, not common purpose or identity. There is little agreement about norms.

4. The article states that "Zero population growth, which characterized human population for more than 99 percent of its history, must be achieved once again, at least as long-term average, if the human species is to survive". Why?

• If the population continues to grow, the world population would rocket to 12 billion by 2050, 24 billion by 2100, and so on. Humanity would outweigh the Earth and then the solar system in remarkably short period of time if the represent growth rate continued indefinitely.

3. What developments allowed for the expansion of cities in the 20th century?

• Industrial technology promoted agricultural revolution. Dairy production and the amount of people a single farm could feed increased. Advances included new machines, animal breeds, varieties of plants, weed sprays, fertilizers, crop rotation, drainage, and irrigation system. Huge reduction in labor: fewer farmers could feed greater numbers of people.

1. What factors limited the size of cities before the industrial revolution?

• Poor transportation (food had to be brought to feed a city), disease (infections disease spread by close contact in dense areas), filth (contamination of water and food, poor sewage systems, poor garbage collection)

2. What conditions characterized the preindustrial city, and why did people want to live there?

• Preindustrial cities contained no more than 5,000-10,000 inhabitants; capitals no more than 40,000-60,000; Rome is the exception at 500,000 • Filthy, high rates of disease, no sewage treatment, few sewers, uncollected garbage, smog from chimneys, walled in, could not expand upward, dark, dangerous, no sidewalks, no lights • People came for economic incentives (increased incomes), more interesting and stimulating life, vice, anonymity • Adventuresome single young adults were the ones who constantly replenished city populations

5. What is the "psychic overload" theory regarding residential density, and what does the evidence from studies of crowding show about rates of pathology?

• Psychic overload is when the population density of cities causes serious physical and mental pathologies. Density viewed at the macro level had no effect on people (alcohol, mental illness, suicide, etc. were not higher). However, on a micro social level, people crowded in smaller homes complained about lack of privacy and demands. They responded to crowding by withdrawing both physically and emotionally. They had poorer mental health, social relationships, family fights, unsatisfied marriages, and childcare

1. What 3 primary methods do demographers use?

• Rates: ratio or percentages • Cohort: enables researchers to track demographic changes among a group of persons born during a particular time period • Age and sex structures: document population distribution by age group and gender composition within each age group; used to identify patterns of population growth, stability, and decline

4. How does the concept of a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area solve the definitional problems of urbanization posed by reliance on legal boundaries?

• SMSAs solved a way to identify the sphere of influence of a city: the area where the inhabitants depend on the central city for jobs, recreation, newspapers, television. The SMSA included the surrounding county of a large city, who's inhabitants were largely involved with the city.

3. What is a social movement? Describe 4 types of social movements and give examples.

• Social Movement: Collective behavior that is purposeful, organized, and institutionalized but not ritualized • 4 Types: o Alternative: seek the most limited societal change- target a narrow group of people. Usually issue oriented, focusing on a singular concern and seeking to change individual's behaviors in relation to that issue. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is an example o Redemptive: target specific groups, however, they advocate for more radical change in behavior. Ex: covenant house after you run away from home and lived on the streets addicted to drugs. Helps to reorganize life o Reformative: advocate for limited social change across an entire society. Ex: Critical Mass: advocates for more bicycle-friendly commuting in Oregon, San Francisco and many other global locations. Not limited to small group of people rather it aims to change the transportation method of the entire western world. Scope of the change is relatively minor o Revolutionary: Advocate the radical reorganization of society. Ex: Occupy Wall Street

2. You should know the TFR and the crude birth rate and how these are calculated.

• TFR (total fertility rate) is the average total number of children a woman will have. It's measured by adding the birth rates of each of the five-year groups and multiplying it by 5. It is 2.05 children in the US • • Crude birth rate is the number of babies born in a given year divided by the mid-year population, and it is expressed by the number of births per 1000 people. In 2006, the estimated crude birth rate was 14 births per 1000 people in the US and 21 births per 1000 people in the world.

2. What is concentric or "urban zone" chart show and what urban processes is it trying to analyze?

• The concentric or "urban zone" chart shows a central business district, surrounded by a wholesale light manufacturing circle, surrounded by a working class residential circle, surrounded by a medium class residential circle. The chart is trying to analyze the way in which cities develop.

1. What distinctively urban populations did the early Chicago School sociologists study?

• The hobo, the gang, the ghetto, the gold coast and the slum, and the taxi-dance hall

1. What are the four "proximate determinants of fertility" identified by Bongaarts?

• The proportion of women married or in a sexual union • The percent of women using contraception • The proportion of women who are infecund (because they are breastfeeding, etc.) • The level of induced abortion

3. What are the three basic age structures, and in what ways does the age structure of a society affect its demographic and social character?

• There are three general types of population pyramids: those depicting rapid growth, slow growth, and population decline. • Rapid growth is characterized by high fertility and declining mortality. Each age cohort is larger than the one born before it. An example is Ethiopia • Slow growth is characterized by a fertility rate that is slightly above the mortality rate. An example is the United States • Decrease is characterized by a mortality rate that is slightly above the fertility rate. An example is Italy

5. According to Lynn Lofland, what strategies do people use to mitigate the impact of living among strangers?

• Urban dwellers can maximize the encountering of known others through creating "home territories" which are relatively small pieces of public space which is taken over and turned into a home away from home. These home territories are formed by colonization (appropriation of a public or semi-public space by the same group at regular times), restricted orbits (accessing only certain specific sites within the cities), and traveling packs (going with known others in sufficient numbers to create an interactional bubble).

9. Weber famously defined a state as that entity which has legitimate claim to the use of violence within a territory. How does the case of Somaliland cast doubt on this idea?

a. Somaliland did not gain independence or legitimate rule.

1. What has been the status of healers in other times and places throughout history?

1. Physicians have not always received higher status in society 2. Under Romans they were slaves, freedmen, and foreigners 3. Doctoring was a low-grade occupation 4. In England doctors struggled for patronage (ability to control appointments in office)

7. What are the social forces that shape religious preferences?

1. Social class - recruitment happens through existing social ties 2. Gender - women seem more inclined to want a high tension faith than men 3. Race/ethnicity - racial and ethnic minorities also seem to prefer higher tension faith 4. Life events and crises - may predispose people to higher tension faiths 5. Socialization -

What are the major storylines about the changes in work over the 20th century regarding: occupations, work safety, work hours, gender and family, unemployment rates, and unionization?

* The majority of the male labor force shifted from material extraction to material processing, to working with people and information * The decline of the farm population reflects a long process of attrition driven by huge technical advances in agriculture * The ratio of engineers to population increased steadily. The comparable ratio for lawyers and physicians remained largely unchanged until 1970, when it began to rise markedly. * Even in blue-collar occupations, en's work became cleaner, less strenuous, and much safer * The proportion of American men who were in the labor force declined * Daily and weekly work hours declined until WWII, but annual work hours continued to decline moderately throughout the century * The time women devoted to housekeeping declined steeply * Married women entered the paid labor force in large numbers * Attitudes toward the employment of married women shifted from strong disapproval to equally strong approval * The concentration of working women in a few occupations diminished as opportunities expanded * The unemployment rate fluctuated with the business cycle and military manpower needs * The unionized share of the labor force peaked in midcentury. The union based moved from the private to the public sector.

1. French and Raven identify six sources of power. You should be able to recognize them and give examples from everyday life

1. Reward power - ability to mediate the distribution of positive reinforces (rewards) salaries, freedom, social approval, food for hungry people 2. Coercive power - when you threaten and punish those that don't comply with requests or demands. Relies upon threats of physical force, loss of pay. 3. Legitimate power - revolves around a code or standard, duty, moral obligation. Source of power lies exclusively in the beliefs of the objects of power, not in the perceived capacities of the power holder. 4. Referent power - based on attraction or respect for the power holder - celebs 5. Expert power - doctor's. based on skills and abilities 6. Informational Power - persons can turn info into power by providing it to others who need it, or keeping it from others. when friend has gossip

2. Each of these sources of power also has a "macro" version which operates at the level of the nation-state. You should know these as well and be able to identify them.

1. Reward power - the welfare state 2. Coercive power - criminal justice 3. Legitimate power - power of legitimacy (minimizes the need for maintaining means of coercion in constant readiness) 4. Referent power - Soft power or influence through attraction 5. Expert power 6. Informational power - mass media

6. How do Stark and Finke characterize the "demand side" of religion, particularly the taste for "tension" and its distribution in the population?

1. Asks how much and what kind of religion people want and prefer. 2. The relationship between the religious group and the outside world can be characterized by the degree of a. Distinctiveness, separation, antagonism 3. Sect = high tension and church = low tension

5. What is a "religious economy" and what does it include?

1. Consists of all the religious activity going on in any society. Includes 1. A market of current and potential individual adherents 2. A set of one or more organizations seeking to attract or maintain these adherents 3. The religious culture offered by the organizations

2. Discuss the historical evolution of doctors from a profession of little prestige to the important place they hold in present-day society.

1. Doctors have not always been as socially prestigious and powerful. They were low paying jobs and had a lower status and were not well recognized in society. 2. Emergence of licensing, degrees and awards, restricted number of doctors. 3. Emergence of more important roles for large institutions: hospitals came to depend on doctors for their supply of customers 4. Doctors offer a universally valued product, health and longevity. Their power and prestige derive largely from the fact that they offer something everybody wants - to feel better and live a long life. 5. Their individualized objectivity, which gives them a certain power in their relationship with clients. They are simultaneously very intimate and personal but also objective and highly technical

4. How would functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism approach the concept of the state?

1. Functionalist: a. Government serves to plan and direct society, meets social needs, maintains law and order b. Pluralism: in a democracy, competing interest groups limit the centralization of power. Parties must be responsive the interests of a diverse group of voters. 2. Conflict: The same people who are on top of the class and status hierarchies are also on top of the power hierarchy. 3. Symbolic Interactionism: 1. Politics as impression management. Representatives of each party strive to create impressions, images, and symbols supportive of their positions 2. Political symbols and rituals a. Politics is also about deeply symbolic events and ritual displays

4. Family structure, size, and birth order are determinants of mortality. Larger families have higher child mortality rates. Why might this be?

1. High infant mortality is a function of poverty. Babies who are not robust at birth do not receive the health care they need to overcome their vulnerability. Larger families typically receive a lower per capital income, which leads to higher mortality rates.

6. What is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)? Why did the number of "illnesses" grow from 60 in the 1952 edition to around 400 in the fourth edition? What does this have to do with social construction?

1. It represents the social construction of mental illness. It contains 60 disorders. It standardizes the canon of mental disorders and their definitions. 2. Its use has increased because of the bureaucratic requirements of the insurance industry. 3. Dynamic psychiatry, was usurped by diagnostic psychiatry, which seeks to identify the symptoms of specific underlying diseases.

1. What are the signs that doctors' authority is declining? How does this affect patients?

1. Market forces had infiltrated medicine (rising cost of health care and maintenance organizations) 2. Rise of external regulation (medical bill of rights)

5. What three schools of thought address how socio-economic status affects health outcomes?

1. The psychosocial interpretation focuses on individual's social class status relative to that of those around them. Feelings of low worth cause people to stress and wear down their bodies. 2. Materialist interpretation: the differential access to a healthy life - is a result of socioeconomic factors 3. fundamental causes interpretation: focuses on examining how social factors shape illness and health to understand the pervasive link between SES and health.

8. What are the two primary dynamics in the supply side of religious economies, and what are their consequences for religion as a whole, and for particular religious' organizations?

1. The shifting of religious firms from one niche to another 2. Changes in market regulation.

3. In the 1950s, Talcott Parsons created the concept of the sick role. Define his concept and discuss how this concept would affect your treatment with regard to a mental illness.

1. The sick person has the right to not perform normal social roles and not to be held accountable for his or her condition. 2. Those who have adopted the sick role cannot be looked down on or morally judged if they do not work, but they may be the source of opprobrium (harsh criticism) if they fail to take their medicine.

3. According to Durkheim's scheme, magic is not religion. Why?

1. There is no community of believers, just a provider/client relationship

7. What are some of the ways in which people in the United States with fewer resources are at a greater health risk? According to the Whitehall Study, why are certain groups at a particular disadvantage?

1. Those that hold lower ranks and statuses have higher rates of common illnesses and ailments. 2. Whitehall study shows that who you are, where you live, how much you earn, and what you do all determine your health. Speculates that social stress results from lower rank in the hierarchy of social class led directly to poorer outcomes for those at the bottom.

3. You should be able to identify and define Weber's three types of legitimate authority.

1. Traditional or Customary Authority - obedience out of custom or habit. It's always been done that way. No legal compulsion. 2. Bureaucratic or Legal-Rational Authority - An allegiance to a system of written rules (US Constitution, Hopkins code of student conduct). 3. Charismatic Authority - Belief of followers in extraordinary powers of the leader.

What 3 key beliefs characterizet he ideology of racism

A. That humans are divided into distinct bloodlines and or physical types B. These bloodlines or phyiscal traits are linked to distinct cultures, behaviors, personalities, and intellectual abilities. C. Certain groups are superior to others

What "tools" did whites use to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods during the 20th century?

Black ghettos were systematically and intentionally created during first half of 20th century Tools included: o City ordinances and zoning (black people could legally not move on a block of 50% or more whites and vice versa, professional planners prepared racial zoning plans) o Riots (communal violence aimed at driving blacks out of white neighborhoods) o Targeted violence (targeted violence among periphery of ghetto when blacks families tried to buy homes in surrounding white areas) o Restrictive covenants (in the property deed contract people wrote that blacks could never buy the building) o Public housing (concentration of public housing can isolate poor blacks, different public housing units have different racial occupants) o Federal housing programs (provided low interest loans for refinancing urban mortgages, blacks were "redlined" by making their neighborhoods unable to afford the loans) o White flight (white people moved to the suburbs)

Your text notes three ways by which groups respond to domination: Withdrawal, passing, and acceptance vs. resistance. Discuss each with an example.

Withdrawal: Leaving dominant group. In the Great Migration, blacks fled rural south in search of jobs and equality in the industrialized north and west Passing: Blending in with dominant group. Malcolm X and Michael Jackson changed their appearances, attempting to look white to blend in with dominant group. Malcolm X straightened his hair and Michael Jackson.. ya know.. Acceptance: oppressed group feigns compliance and hides its true feelings of resentment. They use stereotypes to their own advantage to play the part in the presence of the dominant group. Philadelphian blacks learn two languages: on of the street and one of the mainstream society. Resistance: Collective resistnace can be expressed through a movement such as revolution or genocide.

According to the "perverse incentives" thesis, why would a more robust safety network be more desirable?

If we had an attractive alternative to the labor market in the form of very robust safety net resources, people would opt for the safety net instead of the labor market.

What is the Cause of equity inequality, include blacks, latinos, and native americans in your explanation.

Nonwhites, especially blacks, Natives , and Latinos, lag behind whites on a number of social outcomes (income, education, crime rates, infant mortality) Blacks: Less likely to graduate college or hold a professional job, twice as likely to be unemployed and die before first year of life, less money. Once cause is intitutionalized restraints on black property accumulation Native Americans: Poverty and wealth are low; lost wealth because they previously lived off the land, and then were impoverished and dispossessed by exploitative US policies. Latinos: Vary but wealth is much lower

6. What is the sect-church cycle? How can this help us understand social change?

Sects are high tension bodies that don't fit well within the existing social environment. • Start out by splintering off an existing church, typically when church leaders become too involved in secular issues in some member's eyes. • To distance themselves from worldly concerns, members may form their own sect. • Over time if the sect picks up a significant following, it transforms into its own church, ultimately becoming part of the mainstream • If this happens a new splinter group, may become discontent and branch off to form their own sect. the cycle then continues.

4. How do the different aspects of religion affect society according to Durkheim and why does he argue that some form of religion is inevitable?

There can be no society that does not experience the need at regular intervals to maintain and strengthen the collective feelings and ideas that provide its coherence and its distinct individuality. This moral remaking can be achieved only through meetings, assemblies, and congregations in which the individuals, pressing close to one another, reaffirm in common their common sentiments."

1. What was Durkheim's rationale for examining religion among the Australian aborigines?

They are the most primitive society known and it holds the key to the fundamentals of ALL religion.

2. What three changes did the rise of the industrial era bring to the nature and functioning of families?

a. A gendered division of labor arose in the household, where women now were in exclusive charge of maintaining the home and rearing children b. As the mobility of families searching for paid labor opportunities increased, they became separated from their kinship networks. c. Creation of the cult of domesticity

10. What are the myths about affirmative action as it relates to college admissions?

a. Affirmative action is thought to be the only form of preferential treatment. In reality, schools give preferential treatment based on many characteristics, not just race or ethnicity. b. Affirmative action takes away opportunities from deserving white students

10. What are the 3 dimensions of power according to Luke's theory?

a. Decision making power b. Non decision making power c. Ideological power

4. What are some of the hypotheses about why the US is different from European nations when it comes to inequality, poverty, and social welfare provision?

a. Economic rewards are far more lopsided here than in European countries - and this inequality drives American poverty rates. b. Issue of timing: though the European countries that transitioned to the free market capitalism more recently did so when political institutions were better able to protect the weak through collective bargaining, welfare state transfers and universal public services c. Institutional: fragmented US political system makes it difficult to develop a comprehensive safety net in the same way that the European countries with strong central government and a parliamentary system of elections can d. Key aspect of "American exceptionalism" is that we have no history of feudalism. Without such a feudal history, the American cultural tradition of individualism has acted as a hindrance to such paternalism.

7. According to Barrington Moore, how is the emergence of capitalism related to the development of political democracy?

a. For democracy to emerge, the bourgeoisie must be strong enough to attenuate the control of the land owning feudal lords. If the bourgeoisie is strong enough a revolution takes place.

8. Contrast the functionalist and conflict perspectives on higher education.

a. Functionalist: the rise of education boils down to simple supply and demand. As industrialization took hold throughout the 20th century, jobs became more technical and required a more educated workforce. By attaining more education students were simply responding to employer data b. Conflict: the dramatic increase in college graduation may be traced to American views on education and the expansion of the school system in the 20th century

8. How do large-scale coordination problems lead to what Robert Michels called the "iron law of oligarchy?"

a. High levels of mass participation become unsustainable. Direct deliberate democracy is difficult to pull off when the populace grows beyond a few hundred citizens. In large and complex organizations, the power structure will inevitably begin to resemble an oligarchy, a form of government in which power lies with a small group of leaders.

1. Why do feminists view the family wage as a "patriarchal bargain?"

a. It is a living wage that provides a male breadwinner but at the cost of women's autonomy and freedom. The male breadwinner female homemaker family, firmly, disadvantaged women in several ways.

2. Why does Conley conclude that the results of the MTO experiment show that "income is not the main problem, social division is."

a. MTO's results serve as an indictment both of the social problems rampant in poor neighborhoods and of the larger society that has invested in fated communities, suburban sprawl, and other forms of segregation.

1. How do the Mandurucu Villagers of South America, the Na people of China, and Zambian mothers question Malinowski's conclusions about the traditional family form?

a. Mandurucu: men and women live in separate houses at different ends of their village; they eat separate meals, and sleep apart. Only meet up to have sex b. Na: institution of marriage doesn't exist. Do not have any practice like it, nor do they put much thought into fatherhood. Children grow up with uncles. Sex occurs in the middle of the night, during spontaneous encounters. No social rules regarding who can be with whom. c. Zambian mothers don't nurture their daughters in the way you would expect. When a Zambian girl needs advice, she is expected to seek out an older female relative as a confidante in preference to her other.

9. What are some of the problems with using SAT to predict student performance? Why is it still used?

a. SAT does not predict college outcomes above and beyond high school grades and class rank. b. SAT accurately predicts the college outcomes only for white students. It doesn't do well to predicting outcomes such as college GPA for black and Hispanics c. SAT scores are consistently correlated with race, ethnicity, and class. d. Still used because for colleges that receive many applications, using a numerical cutoff substantially lessens workload.

1. Explain the official poverty line of the Us, which was created by Mollie Orshansky. What are criticisms of this measurement?

a. She used a strategy unlike any other- she took the US department of Agriculture's recommendations for the minimum amount of healthy food, estimated the cost for a variety of family types, and multiplied this figure by a factor of three, b. Criticisms: early criticism revolved around her choice of three as the multiplier, some critics believed the number was too high because the poor often spent more than one-third o their income on food during the 1950s and 1960s. i. However this argument appears flawed because of its circularity: The poor may have been spending more of their resources on food because they were poor, because food is the most basic necessity of all we do not know what other necessities the poor may have forsakes

3. What does the "Aspen effect" and Desmond's work on eviction tell us about the effect of economic segregation?

a. That the intersection of inequality and real estate has reached absurd dimensions. High levels of income and wealth inequality mix with economic segregation to create a bad mix for the poor among us. Those at the bottom, have to travel farther and farther to reach their low-wage jobs servicing the needs of the wealthy.

3. According to the feminist critique of the family, how are power and money related?

a. Women's earnings tend to be spent on extras, so called luxury items. Her money is devalued as "fun money." Men's earnings, on the other hand, are earmarked for essentials. A households income is gendered. The distinctions between household incomes help protect a man's status and sense of masculinity when a wife also takes on a breadwinner role in dual-income families.

2. What are the three competing explanations for the rise of educational attainment and educational requirements by employers?

• 1. Credentials are measures that reflect human capital (acquisition of skills and knowledge in a knowledge economy) • 2. Credentials act as signals to employees based on the degree and the place that the degree has come from • 3. Credentials are a social currency, and as more Americans earn higher degrees, credential inflation means staying in school longer and longer

In what ways did the federal government contribute both directly and indirectly to the disparities between blacks and whites in terms of housing and neighborhoods?

• 1910, legislation legally enforced residential segregation; then struck down in 1917 because it violated property owner rights, not human rights • Building permits, public housing siting, highway construction, slum removal were all done with race in mind • Public housing segregated • Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC) that offered long-term mortgage was not made available to blacks due to "redlining" • FHA and VA increased home ownership

2. Define bureaucracy and its five characteristics. How did Max Weber describe bureaucracies?

• A bureaucracy is a legal-rational organization that governs with reference to formal rules and roles and emphasizes meritocracy • Five characteristics include o Structure hierarchically o Positions within are highly specialized o Impersonal: the person working in a bureaucracy is detached from the role he or she plays; their individual attributions are relatively unimportant o Meritocracy: promotions are based on achievement o Highly efficient: due to the application of practical, specialized knowledge to specific goals

5. Summarize the main points of Dalton Conley's 2004 book about the presence of "status hierarches" among US siblings, The Pecking Order.

• A compelling but largely invisible struggle also takes place in the home. There is a pecking order among siblings - a status hierarchy that can ignite the family with competition, struggle and resentment. Parents often encourage / assist this unknowingly. Birth position matters only in the context of larger families and limited resources. The children born first or last into a large family seem to fare better socioeconomically that those born in the middle. Middle kids feel the effects of a shrinking pie - they tend to be shortchanged on resources like money and attention.

7. Explain the difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty. Give examples of each.

• Absolute poverty: the point at which a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members. England 1795 made up the difference between a worker's wage and the cost of bread sufficient to feed his family. Poverty line measure of Mollie Orshansky (see below). • Relative poverty: the determination of poverty based on a percentage of the median income in a given location. For example, it could consider poverty to include anyone with less than ½ the median income of a given area.

2. The Coleman Report (1966) was ten years after Brown v. Board of education. Did the study uphold the idea that schools were "separate but equal"? Explain.

• Achievement gaps between black and white schools remained high. The Coleman study tried to explain the gap by measuring differences between the schools that blacks and whites attended (including textbook availability and classroom size). The results showed that resources didn't matter. Instead achievement among schools could be attributed to two factors: family background and the other peers with whom students attended school. Blacks fared better in majority white schools. Low income children did better in middle class schools

2. Discuss the theoretical perspectives of the transition to capitalism of Adam Smith, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. How are they similar? How are they different?

• Adam Smith: (positive) Individual self-interest in an environment of others acting similarly will lead to a situation of competition, as long as basic laws and contracts are honored. The drive for exchange combines with an ever-increasing division of labor to produce greater wealth for all • Georg Simmel: (positive) money was not an agent of social change; rather monetary payment was a depersonalization of exchange; with the arrival of capitalism, payment forms evolved toward giving more and more freedom to the worker • Karl Marx: (negative) capitalism is both fundamentally flawed and inevitable doomed and it causes alienation; alienation takes four forms under capitalist production • Max Weber: social change is generated not just by technology but ideas themselves; theological insecurity and instilling a doctrine of predestination in combination with an advancement in accounting practices, laid the groundwork for economic development

3. What two intermediate life-stages were introduced into the culture in the past 150 years, and what social changes brought this about?

• Adolescents as a protective stage started in the 1990s. Graduation rates and the amount of high schools increased. Youth were to be protected from the work force. • Early adulthood/emerging adulthood started in the 2000s. People who graduate from college do not immediately settle down. They go to graduate school and living with significant others but are not married.

3. Karl Marx felt that workers in a capitalist society were alienated in four ways. List these four ways and give examples of each.

• Alienation from the product: workers do not have complete knowledge of what they are producing; the steps of the process are now separated; ex: shoes in a factory • Alienation from the process: workers are not involved in every step of the process; for example, a shoe maker today must go to work every day to meet a quota to be shipped off; however a shoemaker before produced and sold his own shoes and could choose when to work • Alienation from other people: capitalism turns all relations into market relations; new start using the language of worth to describe the moral qualities of individuals • Alienation from the self: humans can create something in our minds before we physically create it, but capitalism denies the person to use his creativity to create

6. How do historical cultural ideals relate to current rates of marriage and divorce in the United States? Name one reason why the likelihood of being currently married might be lower among those with low incomes.

• Americans value marriage very highly, yet America has the highest divorce rate. The most politically and religiously conservative states have the highest rates of divorce. The poorest states have the highest divorce rates. Couples who cannot provide themselves a middle-class lifestyle may begin to question the utility of marriage. They face all of the responsibility of looking out for each other without the means to live the ideal lifestyle to which they apply. Young people hold off marriage until they have established financial stability.

What incentives do employers have to move to this type of structure?

• Avoid unionization • Avoid paying benefits and shift these burdens to other parties • Minimize liability for workplace injuries, illness, discrimination or harassment claims • Undercuts wage pressure due to perceived fairness among employees

5. In modern Romance, the author states, "In the history of our species, no group has ever had as many romantic options as we have now." In this situation, how does the logic of decision-making lead to the "paradox of choice" in relationships?

• Because there are so many options, this divides us into two types of people: satisfiers and maximizers. Satisfiers satisfy and then suffice. Maximizers seek out the best.

1. What factors inside classrooms can affect students' learning experiences?

• Building, materials, class size, school curricula, administration, extracurricular activities

4. How does he (Collins) test these ideas, and what does he (Collins) find in terms of empirical support? What is his alternative explanation?

• Change in the proportion of skilled to unskilled jobs accounts for 15% of changing educational requirements. Evidence remains unclear as to whether existing jobs are upgraded in the skill level required.

1. Describe Max Weber's three accounts of a ruler's "superiority and fitness to rule". Give examples of each.

• Charismatic Authority: rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader; person has "a way with people", center of attention, comfortable making decisions, responds to crises, and delivers order well; example is a charismatic presidential candidate - would you want to have dinner with candidate X?; hard to pass down • Traditional Authority: rests on appeals to the past or traditions; hereditary monarchs are an example whereby the crown is passed down through a single family as are the customs; struggles with adapting to environment • Legal-Rational Authority: based on legal and impersonal rules where even individuals in position of authority are subject to the rules

How was the experience of segregation of white ethnics different from those of African Americans in cities like Chicago?

• Chicago's black population grew due to the Great Migration. Chicago defender urged southern blacks to come to the city, because WWI had cut of the supply of European workers. Chicago's black population grew, but blacks were isolated to a small portion of the city. The segregation index was 91.9

2. How was "childhood" thought of differently in the past?

• Childhood was never a protective stage before. As soon as children were able to help support the family, they did. This is representative in a picture of baby Jesus with a small head that is similarly proportional to the rest of the body like an adults head would be

4. What are the various meanings of cohabitation, and how do they relate to marriage, at least in the US?

• Cohabitation can be a testing ground for marriage, a long-term alternative to marriage, another way of being single (because they're not thinking of marriage). It is a seen as a serious step in which you are sexually faithful, so in terms of fidelity, its more like marriage than dating.

7. How is the American family changing by social class?

• College grads are more likely to marry, less likely to have children outside of marriage. Total number of singles having children has increased, not because of single parents but because of co-habitators

2. According to Edin and Nelson's interviews in "Doing the Best I Can", what does the period of "courtship" look like, and how might this affect the couples' stability after a child is born?

• Courtships periods are short with little selectivity. The relationship can begin with contraception, but this falls off. Pregnancy prompts the real relationship and cohabitation - but the relationship is more about the baby and less about the couple. Most couples break up. People marry later, but have kids along the way

4. Discuss the main findings from research on the chore wars - the gendered division of household labor - as studied by Hochschild (1989, 2003) and Zelizer (2005).

• Domestic duties such as housework and child care still fall disproportionality on women's shoulders even though 60% of women participated in the workforce in 2008. Women return from the office to take up " the second shift". Women have made gains in the public realm but the revolution at home has stalled. Men surpass women in leisurely activities and sleeping. On average, women work longer than men, too.

5. What are some of the most common economic survival strategies the authors found in their interview?

• Donates plasma, private charity, trade SNAP for cash, took the gutter apart and rigged it up over the garbage can to flush toilets, doubling up in houses

6. What did Murray and Herrnstein suggest is the cause of poverty? If this argument were supported by policy makers, what would happen to the poor? How would the self-fulfilling prophecy fit into this?

• Good genes lead to higher incomes and make for good parenting. The US has become more meritocratic over the last half-century: fewer people with bad genes have risen to the top, and fewer with good ones have gotten stuck at the bottom. Therefore, investing in prenatal care, childcare, and reductions in child poverty would make no difference in the long run. Those who are made to believe they have "bad genes" would live accordingly and be less likely to leave poverty. Those who are made to believe they have "good genes" would live accordingly and be more likely to stay out of poverty

6. Compare and contrast hard power and soft power using examples.

• Hard power: the use of military or economic force to influence behavior in international politics; for example during WWII the allied powers used military force to influence the behavior of Germany, Japan, and Italy • Soft power: soft or co-optive power is getting others to want what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments; if a state can make its power seem legitimate in the eyes of others, it will encounter less resistance to its wishes; example is bringing KFC to Egypt through soft power - people are attracted to the American culture

5. What do findings on racial discrimination among graduates of elite institutions tell us about the "signaling effect" hypothesis?

• Higher education credentials do not equalize employment opportunities for blacks compared to whites, even among elite university graduates. Therefore, employers care about more than simple job-related capacities

5. Define the three theories - logic of industrialization, neo-Marxist theory, and state centered approaches - that explain how and why the welfare state developed.

• Industrialization: nations develop social welfare benefits to satisfy the social needs created by industrializations; it takes care of the people who are not needed in the labor market: children, people with disabilities, and the elderly • Neo-Marxist: the welfare state is the mediator of class conflict, granting concessions to both capitalists and workers to ensure the long-term health of society; reduces the tension between democracy and capitalism; to serve the interests of the rich owners, the welfare state buys off workers by providing necessities and a degree of economic security • State centered: government bureaucrats design policies based on perceived social conditions, because if they benefit society they enhance their power in society

What has been the end result of these discriminatory tactics regarding racial disparities and wealth?

• Investment in suburbs and disinvestment in central cities meant investment in whites as opposed to blacks. Lack of capital flowing into black urban neighborhoods made it impossible for people to sell homes, leading to decline in property and spiral of disinvestment and decay.

2. What is the Earned Income Tax Credit and how did it contribute to the "success" of welfare reform?

• It is a refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income couples, particularly those with children. EIC phases in slowly, has a medium-length plateau, and then phases out more slowly that it phased in • The EITC promotes work, reduces poverty, and supports children's development

What have been the effects of workplace fissuring on workplace safety and on wages of American workers?

• Laws originally intended to ensure basic labor standards and to protect workers from health and safety risks now enable these changes by focusing regulatory attention on the wrong parties • Core federal and state laws that regulate employment, often dating back to the first half of the 20th century, often assume simple and direct employee/employer relationships • They make presumptions about responsibility and liability similar to those we make as customers, presumptions that ignore the transformation that has occurred under the hood of many business enterprises • The new organization of the workplace also undermines the mechanisms that once led to the workforce sharing part of the value created by their large corporate employers. By shedding employment to other parties, lead companies change a wage-setting problem into a contracting decision. The result is stagnation of real wages for many of the jobs formerly done inside.

What does David Weil mean by the "fissured workplaces"?

• Many companies facing increasingly restive capital markets, shed activities deemed peripheral to their core business models: out went janitors, security guards, payroll administrators, and information technology specialists • But then came activities many of us would assume were more central to these well-known businesses: the front desk staff at hotel check-in, the drivers for the package delivery companies who come to our home or offices, the tower workers who help assure uninterrupted cell phone service promoted in the commercials

3. For college-educated Americans, what are the contexts of marriage and relationship formation?

• Marriage is now about fulfillment and happiness and less about the "good enough" relationship. As people get older, they feel pressured to find the "perfect spouse".

1. What is the general story regarding education and the connection between marriage and childbearing in the United States?

• Marriage rates increase with education. Divorce rates decrease with education. Age of first marriage increases with education.

4. What role do both educational level and age play in how men and women use social media in dating?

• More educated people use online dating than less educated. 25-45 year olds use it more than younger or older populations. This is perhaps due to geographic area and transportation.

4. Your text discusses four recent phenomena that make the current period of globalization novel: new markets, new means of exchange, new players, and new rules. Discuss each of these phenomena and use examples.

• New markets allow for anyone with proper equipment to participate • New means of exchange (cell phones, computers, email, internet) allow for instantaneous transactions • New players which are transnational can regulate trade • New rules allow multiple players to make negotiations

6. Why do people bother to marry, and why does Cherlin call marriage a "capstone experience"?

• People marry for public commitment, creates enforceable trust (allows investment with less fear of abandonment), gives legal rights and privileges, and is symbolic (marker of prestige, personal achievement). • Marriage is a capstone event, because it is the last step after you do all the other "adult stuff" such as graduating school, getting a job, buying a house, etc. Before it was the first step.

5. Explain the culture of poverty thesis.

• Poor people adopt certain practices that differ from those of middle class, "mainstream" society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances. This could include illegal work, multigenerational living arrangements, multifamily households, serial relationships in place of marriage, and the pooling of community resources as a form of informal social insurance. Once these survival adaptations are in place, they take lives of their own, and in the long run they hold poor people back when they are no longer advantageous.

3. Bureaucracies are known as impersonal entities. Explain how this can be positive or negative.

• Positive: lack of manipulation; no favoritism within organization; promotions are based on achievement • Negative: lack of personal responsibility for one's decisions

4. According to Durkheim, how does religion contribute to social solidarity?

• Religion perpetuates social solidaridity by strengthening the collective conscience: the shared beliefs and ideas, ways of thinking and knowing. Religion strengthens the bonds of people not only to their gods but also to their society.

3. What evidence do Edin and Shaefer have for their claim that "welfare is dead"?

• Serves significantly fewer people (children, adults, and families) and a significantly smaller percent of Americans • In interviews, responses included: "they're not giving that out anymore" "what's that" "there are too many needy people, there's not enough to go around"

3. Provide definitions of social capital and cultural capital. Then discuss how these combine to influence educational outcomes.

• Social capital is any relationship between people that can facilitate the actions of others. By being connecting to certain people, you can be more or less likely to receive a higher or lower education and a higher or lower status in society. • Cultural capital is the symbolic and interactional resources that people use to their advantage. Parents provide their children with cultural capital by transmitting the attitudes and knowledge needed to succeed in the current educational system. Some important aspects of embodied cultural capital include the ability to deal with bureaucracies, confidence in public social settings, and even a sense of entitlement. • In a school setting, many of these advantages work in concert with the rewards that schools give to students with values and expectations aligned with those of the institution. For example, teachers tend to place a high emphasis on parental involvement because it improves students' educational outcomes.

5. What is the "changing marriage bargain"?

• Specialization model was a 1950s deal in which wage work and housework was split • Then, during the post WWII period, the housewife role constricted women's lives • Now both spouses contribute to the family income. This income pooling model is a reflection of greater acceptance of women's work outside the home, men's stagnating wages need women for family money, and changing values of gender roles.

4. Describe and explain the Milgram experiment. What were the researches trying to measure? What did this experiment help to explain?

• Subjects believed that they were giving another subject electric shock when they got questions wrong. While the questioned subject expressed pain as voltage increased, the questioner continued, because authority told them to continue (even though the questioner was told that they could stop at any time at the beginning of the experiment). The researches were trying to measure one's obedience to authority despite moral beliefs. The experiment shed some light on how normal people could be complicit in war crimes like the holocaust

5. Do IQ tests reliably measure intelligence for everyone equally? Why or why not?

• The IQ test measures only one kind of intelligence. It does not measure the ability to think creatively or understand complicated scientific concepts, and these forms of intelligence might also be relevant to academic achievement. IQ tests may also be culturally biased toward those with white, middle-class knowledge - in other words intelligence in which a dominant group in society deems worthy. Finally, the test does not measure innate intelligence, and by the time children are tested, they have interacted with their environment in ways that have affected their performance.

4. Briefly outline Rosenthal and Jacobson's 1968 study of the Pygmalion effect. Then discuss how teachers' expectations of students could positively and negatively affect students' academic achievement.

• The Pygmalion effect is also called the self-fulfilling prophecy. The power of teachers' expectations and self-fulfilling prophecy can work both ways. Students might benefit from high expectations or their outcomes can be depressed by low expectations.

7. What is the "hidden curriculum" of education? In this light, how do Marxist theorists like Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (1975) interpret the role of schools?

• The hidden curriculum is the nonacademic and less overt socialization functions of schooling. The curriculum is taught by the school not by any teacher. They pick up an approach to living and an attitude to learning. Schools socialize by passing down the values, beliefs, and attitudes that are important in American society.

8. How does the neighborhood one calls home affect a poor person's life chances? How does the study "moving to Opportunity" add to our understanding of poverty?

• The neighborhood one calls home affects a poor person's life chances due to the self-fulfilling prophecy. • When a sample of families were either made to move to a low-poverty area or to a high poverty area. Those in nicer neighborhoods reported experiencing less stress from violence and other factors and were generally happier and healthier. Test scores increased, school truancy dropped, and health improved. Didn't answer question on poverty, because income didn't change. But it did answer question on social environment effects.

3. What two things should be true, according to Randall Collins, if the technological "measure of human capital" explanation is correct?

• The proportion of skilled to unskilled jobs changes as newly created jobs require more skills and low-skill jobs are eliminated by technology • Existing jobs are upgraded in the skill level required

6. What types of solutions do they propose, and what is the "litmus test" of policy they endorse?

• The ultimate litmus test for any reform is whether it will serve to integrate the poor into society or isolate them from it • Solution will give impoverished the opportunity to work, a place to raise children, and cash safety net

6. Explain how sex and social class intersect and may account for educational differences between males and females.

• Thirty years ago, girls lagged behind boys in educational outcomes, but "girl power mantras", title IX, and the feminist movement have seemingly changed this. Girls are less likely to repeat a grade, dropout, and they outperform boys in national reading and writing tests (roughly equal in math). They attend college and graduate programs in higher numbers and are more likely to graduate. However, women in the workforce still earn on average 80% that of a man with equal education. Men are more likely to engage in risky behavior and experience more serious problems in school. Boys score higher than girls on every AP test except for foreign language. Girls take AP test more. Boys from lower-class backgrounds have started doing worse from the 1960s, while boys from middle and upper class families have not been very effected.

4. What two forms of instability combine to make reliance on work a perilous prospect for many of the nation's poorest families?

• Unstable jobs (unsafe work conditions, not enough hours, work hours fluctuate, labor law violations) • Unstable personal lives (volatile living arrangements, family and friends are unsupportive and possibly harmful)

1. You should know the basic trends in terms of educational attainment and its relation to lifetime earnings in the US.

• We are entering school earlier and staying in school longer. While the price of education has skyrocketed, the further you go in school, the more money you are likely to make (except for PhD).