Sociology Final

Erik Olin Wright

"The starting point for Marxist class analysis is a stark observation: The world in which we live involves a juxtaposition of extraordinary prosperity and enhanced potentials for human creativity and fulfillment along with continuing human misery and thwarted lives."

Welfare State

A system in which the state is responsible for the well-being of its citizens

Status Hierarchy

A system of stratification based on social prestige

How is Weber's definition of class different from Marx's definition of social class?

**Marx: presents a causal chain moving from the economic base to the cultural and religious superstructure. Religion is the result of class and economic interests. Class as Social Relations of Production **Weber: the causal connection works two ways, creating an "elective affinity." Ideas from religion can influence the course of history and societal structure. For Weber, then, classes are clusters of households which share roughly the same amount of assets and income-earning power and thus yield similar life chances for their members. For Weber, consciousness of social class—and therefore the subjective "groupness" of individual classes—is always an historically contingent process. Sometimes people with similar life chances formed distinctive groups, sometimes they didn't. Weber introduces another axis of social hierarchy which is analytically distinct from—but empirically connected to—social class. He calls this "status honor."

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

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

How do Stark and Fine 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

What incentives do employers have to move to the fissured workplace structure?

1. Avoid unionization 2. Avoid paying benefits and shift these burdens to other parties 3. Minimize liability for workplace injuries, illness, discrimination or harassment claims 4. Undercuts wage pressure due to perceived fairness among employees

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

What are the six corresponding sources of power at the Macro level?

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

Feminism

A consciousness-raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief is that men and women should be given the same opportunity and respect

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

1. Credentials measure the skills that people have to obtain a certain job. Knowledge is human capital. Therefore employers require more education 2. Credentials are a scarce resource in the form of social currency that can be traded for privilege. 3. Technology expands so people need education to be trained for these technologically-involved jobs. Credentials are measures, codifying the acquisition of skills and knowledge. In a knowledge economy, credentials reflect productive human capital. Credentials act as a signal to employers. A BA from the local state university conveys meaningful information: the employer has hired other graduates from the program and associates it with a reliable expectation for the degree holder:they can do the job. Credentials are a social currency, a scarce resource that can be traded for privilege. As more Americans earn higher degrees, credential inflation means staying in school longer and longer.

How has the prestige of being a doctor changed throughout history?

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

What are the distinct stages of social movement?

1. Emergence-Problems are being Identified 2. Coalescence- Mobilize Resources and Networks 3. Institutionalization-Develop a formal structure to promote the cause.

What led to medicalization and what are the dangers of this process according to 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

How would functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism approach the concept of a 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

What 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

Why do larger families have higher child mortality rates?

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.

What three premises does Starr base the rise of physcians on?

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

What two distinct problems were solved in the 19th century U.S. which allowed groups to gain authority?

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

What is DSM and why did the number of illnesses grow so drastically? 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.

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)

What has been the status of healers throughout various time periods in 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)

What are the six sources of power as defined by French and Raven and give examples?

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

Alienation

A condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation that then confront them as alien powers; according to Marx, the basic state of being in a capitalist society

What social forces 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 is meant by medical sectarianism and how did this 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

What is medicalization 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.

What three schools of thought address how socio-economic status might impact health?

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.

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.

What is the sick role and how would it affect the treatment of 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.

Why is magic not religion?

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

Why are the people in the U.S. who have fewer resources at greter health risks? According to the Whitehall study, why are certain groups at a 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.

What are 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 are Weber's three accounts of a ruler's superiority and fitness to rule? Give examples

1. charismatic authority: Martin Luther King J. 2. traditional authority: Parents 3. legal-rational authority: President

Scientific Racism

19th century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race

Karl Marx

A German thinker of the 1800s, predicted that workers around the world would come together and overthrow the ruling class

Secularism

A general movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief toward a rational, scientific orientation, a trend adopted by industrialized nations in the form of separation of church and state

Social Movement Organization

A group developed to recruit new members and coordinate participation in a particular social movement; these groups often raise money, clarify goals, and structure participation in the movement

Corporation

A legal entity unto itself that has a legal personhood distinct from that of its members-namely its owners and shareholders

Essentialism

A line of thought that explains social phenomena in terms of natural ones

Parenting-Stress Hypothesis

A paradigm in which low income, unstable employment, a lack of cultural resources, and a feeling of inferiority from social class comparisons exacerbate household stress levels, which leads to detrimental parenting practices such as yelling, and hitting, which are not conducive to healthy child development

Gender

A social position, the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories

Meritocracy

A system where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement; a society that assigns social status, power, and economic rewards based on achievement, not ascribed personal attrbutes or favoritism

Describe the Milgram experiment and what it was trying to measure? What did this experiment help explain?

A volunteer was supposed to administer shocks if the learner (an actor) got a memory question wrong. The shocks went up to a deadly 450v which would easily kill a person. However, the actor was not actually receiving shocks.

Why do feminists view wage as the patriarchal bargain?

A wage that provides a male breadwinner enough to support wife and children but at the cost of a women's autonomy and freedom.

What three beliefs characterize the 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 were the four ways in which Marx believed that workers were alienated in a capitalist society?

Act of working: worker becomes the machine, a tool in the machine products of work: products do not belong to workers other workers: cooperation replaced by competition human potential: dehumanization rather than human potential

Collective Action

Action that takes place in groups and diverges from the social norms of the situation

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

Adam Smith-Positive view, individual self interest in an environment of others acting similarly will lead to a situation of competion, as long as basic laws and contracts are honored. specialized jobs are key, cycle of division of labor, innovation, and trade is from the production of goods that society wants, in proportion, and at a fair price. cash not trade. Georg Simmel-Positive view, piece work payment gives the worker more freedom, wage labor protects the employer. salary pays workers a sum total, honorarium- payment for a professional service rendered nominally without charge, keep business and pleasure separate Karl Marx-Bad view, alienation from product, process, others, and self. system will self destruct causes overproduction. the working class will rise up followed by socialism and then Communism. Max Weber- Bad view, this system came from the protestant reformation, theological insecurities and predestination, technology and ideas generate social change. modern industry, bureaucracy, and rationality created an iron cage

What are the myths of affirmative action in the college admissions process?

Affirmative action is not really based on racial minorities. Rather, it tends to help athletes and legacies, both of which were disproportionately white. Affirmative action is also based on living in rural communities, life experiences, or having certain leadership experiences. Whites also do not have a tougher time in college admissions because only one fifth of American colleges are selective. Also Asians would gain more acceptance if this logic were correct. Minorities who gain accpetance are also not underprepared for college as some people might believe.

What is a social movement? Describe the four types of social movements and give examples.

Alternative Social Movement: social movements that seek the most limited societal change and often target a narrow group of people (ex. Mothers Against Drunk Driving). Redemptive social movements: this movement targets specific groups; however, they advocate for more radical change in behavior (fundamental Christianity). Reformative social movement: movements that seek to change some specific behavior about the social structure (civil rights movement, Pro-Life) . Revolutionary movement: movements that seek to completely change every aspect of society (2011 pro-democracy revolution in Egypt.)

Socialism

An economic system in which most or all of the needs of the population are met through non-market methods of distribution

Capitalism

An economic system in which property and goods are primarily privately owned; investments are determined by private decisions; and prices, production, and the distribution of goods are determined primarily by competition in an unfettered marketplace.

Credentialism

An over-emphasis on credentials for signaling social status or qualifications for a job

Status Attainment Model

Approach that ranks individuals by socio-economic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more favorable positions

State

As defined by Max Weber, "a human community that successfully ​claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory"

Legal-rational Authority

Authority based on legal, impersonal rules; the rules rule

Traditional Authority

Authority that rests on appeals to the past or traditions

Charismatic Authority

Authority that rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader

How can the environment affect the display of genetic traits?

Because of their genetic makeup, individuals differ in their responsiveness to qualities of the environment. (People have unique, genetically influenced reactions t particular experiences)

In what ways does consumer capitalism leverage gender ideas in order to help companies profit?

Because we tend to be anxious about this in our everyday lives, consumer capitalism and the advertising industry have conveniently provided quite a few props to help us perform our gender appropriately.

What do social capital and cultual capital hve in common and how do these combine to produce educational outcomes?

Certain skills allow people to be accepted into institutions of higher learning, including self-confidence, a sense of entitlement, and piano playing skills. Furthermore, children with higher-earning parents usually participate in more activities that earn them more social capital. Parents and teachers of middle class or upper class families also communicate more frequently than parents of lower class families.

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)

Compare and contrast hard power and soft power by using examples

Both are two types of foreign policy tools Hard power: a coercive approach to international political relations, one that involves the use of military and economic power to influence or control Cuban embargo Soft power: a persuasive approach to international political relations, involving the use of a nation's cultural, historical and diplomatic influence. United States

What are the shortcomings of relying on socialization to understand the maintanance of gender ideals and norms?

Boys and girls are socialized into their respective roles by agents of socialization (family, peers, school, mass media). ◦ This involves both conscious and unconscious learning, looking to role models, and differential rewards for acting according to gender norms. ◦ This treats individuals as too passive. ◦ Suggests that gendered behavior is something learned only in childhood. ◦ How do we account for changes in gender ideals if each new generation is completely socialized by the previous one?

Underclass

Building on the theory of poverty, it is the theory that the poor not only are different from mainstream society in their inability to take advantage of what society has to offer but also are increasingly deviant and even dangerous to the rest of us

Why was Protestantism vital to the development of 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.

What conditions characterized the preindustrial city, and why did people want to live there? What developments allowed for the expansion of cities in the 20th century?

Cities had a limited food supply, had a lot of disease, were unsanitary (open sewage, garbage not collected), and were unsafe. Economic incentive: skilled craftsmen, merchants, physicians, and the like gathered in cities b/c they could provide food for themselves and maintain their craft. Lead a more interesting and stimulating life, there were a lot of new ideas and innovations in cities. Pursuit of vices

What does Weber mean by life chances and how does this differ between different social classes?

Class as market-determined life chances. "The typical chance for a supply of goods, external living conditions, and personal life experiences." "We may speak of a 'class' when 1. a number of people have in common a specific causal component of their life chances, in so far as 2. this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods and opportunities for income, and 3. is represented under the conditions of the commodity or labor markets. This is "class situation."

What does Erik Olin Wright mean by contradictory class locations? What problem with Marxist class analysis is the concept trying to address?

Class societies are primarily dichotomous—there is a line of division between two antagonistic classes, one dominant and one subordinate. Erik Olin Wright: "The starting point for Marxist class analysis is a stark observation: The world in which we live involves a juxtaposition of extraordinary prosperity and enhanced potentials for human creativity and fulfillment along with continuing human misery and thwarted lives."

Social Movement

Collective behavior that is purposeful, organized, and institutionalized but not ritualized

What is Tonnies' contrast between "Geminshaft" and "Gesellschaft"?

Community or small, cohesive societies like farming villages. Everyone is connected to one another and people agree on the norms. Gesellschaft: Society where people are mostly strangers and tied only by self-interest, not common purpose or identity. Little agreement about norms

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

Convergence theory, contagion theory, and emergent norm theory.: Convergence theory- collective action happens when people with similar ideas and tendencies gather in the same place. Contagion theory is a theory of crowd behavior that suggests that people in collective situations lose their individuality and become swept up in the behaviors of others, the crowd develops a collective mind of its own. Emergent norm theory: people are not sure how to behave when they begin to interact in collective behavior. As they discuss their potential behavior, norms governing their behavior emerge, and social order and rationality then guide their behavior

What are the five social stratification systems and how do they justify inequality?

Five Types of Social Stratification (Slavery) Stratification system in which some people own others as their property and control their activities. People become slaves through birth, military defeat, or debt. 15. Five Types of Social Stratification (Caste) Stratification system in which people are assigned to the social group (caste) of their parents. Their affiliation entails specific rights and duties and determines their lifestyle, occupational choices, wealth, and prestige. 16. Five Types of Social Stratification (Estate) Stratification system based on legal and customary distinctions between a group that possesses land and power by virtue of noble birth, and a group that works for the first group in exchange for land and protection. 17. Five Types of Social Stratification (Class) See Classical Sociological Thinkers > Karl Marx > Class and Elements of Society > Social Structure > Key Concepts: Marxism, Weber, and Conflict Theory > Social Class. 18. Five Types of Social Stratification (Social Mobility) The movement of individuals or groups up and down stratification hierarchies. Mobility depends on type of stratification: It is quite rare under slavery and more common under class systems.

How does the case of John/Joan support the view of sex as a category based on nature? How does this case support the view of sex as socially constructed and enforced?

David Reimer was born an identical (non-intersex) twin boy in 1965. At the age of 8 months, David and his brother each had a minor medical problem involving his penis, and a doctor decided to treat the problem with circumcision. The doctor botched the circumcision on David, using an inappropriate method and accidentally burning off virtually all of David's penis. At the advice of psychologist John Money at Johns Hopkins University, David's parents agreed to have him "sex reassigned" and made into a girl via surgical, hormonal, and psychological treatments—i.e., via the system Money advocated for intersex children. For many years, John Money claimed that David (known in the interim as "Brenda") turned out to be a "real" girl with a female gender identity. Money used this case to bolster his approach to intersex —the approach that is still used throughout much of the U.S. and developed world—one that relies on the assumption that gender identity is all about nurture (upbringing), not nature (inborn traits), and that gender assignment is the key to treating all children with atypical sex anatomies. As it turns out, Money was lying. He knew Brenda was never happy as a girl, and he knew that as soon as David found out what happened to him, David reassumed the social identity of a boy. The case of David Reimer has been used by the proponents of the "gender is inborn" (nature) theory as proof that they are right. We like to point out that what the story of David Reimer teaches us most clearly is how much people are harmed by being lied to and treated in inhumane ways. We don't think we can ever predict, with absolute certainty, what gender identity a person will grow up to have. What we can predict with a good degree of certainty is that children who are treated with shame, secrecy, and lies will suffer at the hands of medical providers who may think they have the best of intentions and the best of theories.

Sexuality

Desire, sexual preference, and sexual identity and behavior

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

Food had to be brought into the city to feed the people living there, and only so much could be brought in. Disease- people stayed within the walls that protected them. Attracted criminals because they could get a fresh start in the city

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

GPA is a stronger indicator of predicting performance for incoming college students than the SAT. It is only good at predicting performance for white students. They are very correlated with race, ethnicity, and class. Stereotype threat in the sense that negative stereotypes create a sense of test anxiety. Family background is also a significant factor. Colleges receive many applications and this is a relatively easy way to lessen the workload for admissions counselors. Collegboard is also very good at selling its product to people.

What are the conflict and functionalist perspectives on higher education?

Educational attainment is created by supply and demand. Jobs become technical and require more education to perform proficiently. However, the skills acquired in school are often not specifically related to their jobs. Conflict theory believes that education separates the elite from the regular, and as education became more attainable, higher degrees became more and more important, which has also led to the rise of credentialism. As a result, many people become overqualified for their jobs. There is also differentiation in higher education in terms of selectivity of college.

What is the equality of condition and why did Thomas Malthus argue against striving for this type of equality?

Equality of condition is the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point from which to pursue his or her goals. He thought that a more equal distribution of resources would increase the world's population to unsustainable levels and ultimately bring about mass starvation and conflict.

Sect

High tension organizations that do not fit well with the existing social environment. They are attractive to society's least privileged-outcasts, minorities, or the poor-because they downplay worldly pleasures by stressing otherworldly promises

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

The political boundaries that divide large communities often have no relation to the actual social and economic boundaries, socially, cities do not simply stop at their legal boundaries but rather extend into many adjacent communities, so the SMSA was invented in 1950. SMSA definition of a city includes the central city (with at least 50,000 residents) and all surrounding counties where 75 percent of the labor force is not in agriculture and where either 15 percent of the workers commute to the city or 25 percent of the workers commute from the city

What two things should be true, according to Randall Collins if the technological explanation is correct?

Formal education must provide the necessary training for these skilled jobs. Low-skilled jobs are eliminated by technology so new jobs require skilled workers. Existing jobs require more skills with technology.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

German Philosopher and historian (1770-1831) he believed in the Hegelian Dialectic, that ideas are the driving force of history, and in history being progressive. Even though Marx and Engels disagreed with the Hegelian Dialectic they respected him.

How do sex and social class intersect and accounts for educational differences between males and females?

Girls tend to complete higher education but this does not equate to higher wages or jobs for women on the workplace. Boys also have more disciplinary issues than girls but they score higher on achievement tests in STEM fields than girls. Girls only performed as well as boys when both of the girl's parents were college-educated. Boys from lower classes perform less well than girls.

What has contributed to the blurring of the lines between the middle and working classes in the U.S. since WWII?

Greater access to markers of a middle-class lifestyle, such as home ownership, a college education for their children, and more leisure activities

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.

What is the fissured workplace?

Have contractors out, competing in different areas to lower wages (subcontracting, misclassification of workers, franchising)

Index of Dissimilarity

Percent of 1 group's population that would have to move for each unit's racial makeup to be proportionate to the makeup of the larger area

According to the perverse incentives thesis, why would a more robust safety net not be 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.

Doing Gender

Performing roles that are typically associated with one's gender

Institutional Racism

Institutions and social dynamics that may seem race-neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups

Sacred Canopy

Peter Berger's term to describe the entire set of religious norms, symbols, and beliefs that express the most important thing in life-namely, the feeling that life is worth living and that reality is meaningful and ordered, not just random chaos

Ontological Equality

Philosophical and religious notion that all people are created equal

How are bureaucracies as impersonal entities positive or negative?

Positive: personality traits do not affect how a person fulfills his role and promotions are based on achievements Negative: lack of personal responsibility for one's moral decisions within the framework of the organization

The Coleman Report was ten years after Brown v. Board of Education. Did the study uphold the idea that schools were "separate but unequal"? Explain

It did not support the idea that schools were "separate but unequal." This was because it suggests that the achievement gap could be solely attributed to two factors: family background and quality of their peers. Therefore, school characteristics mattered very little in the quality of the education the students received. Differences in resources to the schools didn't matter.

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

It focuses on how individuals are recruited into movement organizations. It is not merely the presence or absence of grievances but the manner in which grievances are interpreted that get people involved. 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

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

It only tests scientific and creative thinking which may be relevant to academic achievement.They are culturally biased to white, middle class knowledge, and Children have interacted with the environment by the time they have been administered the test.

What did the Kitty Genovese incident seem to illustrate about the effects of urban living predicted by Simmel and Wirth?

Kitty Genovese incident was an example of bystander apathy. Both Simmel and Wirth said that city living makes people indifferent and impersonal. So Kitty being killed was an example of city people not caring enough about others

Eugenics

Literally meaning well born, a pseudoscience the postulates that controlling the fertility of populations could influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation

Exchange Mobility

Mobility in which, if we hold fixed the changing distribution of jobs, individuals trade jobs, not one to one but in a way that ultimately balances out

Structural Mobility

Mobility that is inevitable from changes in an economy

Pluralism

The presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society

Domination

The probability that a command with specific content will be obeyed by a given group of people

Discuss new rules, new players, new means of exchange, and new markets and how they make globalization novel. Give examples.

New markets: anyone with proper equipment can participate >> dating sites New means of exchange: new means of exchange mean almost instantaneous transactions >> internet New players: Transnational players >> WTO New rules: Multilateral trade agreements that are the end result of multi player negotiations >> NAFTA

What is the cause of equity inequality? Include Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans.

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 institutionalized 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

How does Karl Marx define social class? How is this different from the way most Americans think about social class?

Not Annual Income? Accumulated Wealth? Educational Attainment? Occupational prestige? Instead, social class is Social Relations of Production.

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

Not just the polite society, but the dark corners. Robert Park combined sociology with investigative journalism to see all the stuff that wasn't talked about; ethnic enclaves, gangs, deviant occupations, behavior in public places, mixed neighborhoods, etc

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Of the following social theorists, whose ideas about private property and social conflict could be said to align most closely with those of Karl Marx?

Ethnicity

One's ethnic quality of affiliation. It is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchical, fluid and multiple, and based on cultural differences, not physical ones per se.

What are ontological equality, equality of opportunity, equality of condition, and equality of outcome? Provide examples

Ontological Equality the notion that everyone is created equal in the eyes of God. 10. Equality of opportunity the idea that inequality of condition is acceptable so long as everyone has the same opportunities for advancement and is judged by the same standards. 11. Equality of Condition the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point from which to pursue his or her goals. 12. Equality of Outcome the notion that everyone in a society should end up with the same "rewards" regardless of his or her starting point, opportunities, or contributions.

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

People maximize the encountering of known others through creating home territories: small piece of public space which is taken over and turned into a home away from home. Colonization: appropriation of a public or semi-public space by same group at regular time. Use local for own private purposes, engage in backstage behavior, have a proprietary attitude toward setting. Restricted orbits: accessing only limited sites within city. Traveling in packs: going with known others in sufficient numbers to create an interactional bubble

What are "conscience constituents" as conceptualized in the resource mobilization model, and how might they be significant for movements outcomes?

People who provide resources for a social movement organization but who are not themselves members of the aggrieved group that the organization champions. People who are involved but who are not directly affected by the movement. Resource mobilization needs the support of conscience constituents to mobilize discontent in society into coordinated action

Medicalization

The process in which problems not seen as traditionally medical come to be seen as such

What are some conclusions we can draw from sex differences that stem from biological differences?

Possible cause: Circulation hormones Hypothesis: The level of sex hormones in the blood stream affects cognitive performance Research support: - Some research suggests the findings that women's performances on certain cognitive tasks are different during their menstrual cycle - Some research suggests that there is a correlation between sex hormones and performance on cognitive tasks in elderly women - Seasonal fluctuation in performance tasks has been seen in men Possible cause: Brain organization Hypothesis: Prenatal exposure to a different sex hormone causes differences in how the brain is organized (e.g. different hemispheric specialization). Some research suggests that men's brains are more lateralized than women's. Such differences in organization are suggesting that there is a difference in cognitive performance Research support: - Research on brain damage patients provides strong support that men's brains are lateralized - There is also evidence that for certain patients with brain injuries there may be sex differences for specific abilities - Auditory and visual laterality that men are more lateralized then women - However, for handedness is more lateralized with women - Corpus Callosum seems to be larger in than men

How do large scale coordination problems lead to the iron law of oligarchy?

Power increasingly becomes concentrated in the hands of a few members of an organization, no matter how democratic it might be at the start, nor how big, because it is hard to get everyone to agree

Politics

Power relations among people or other social actors

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination. Describe Merton's diagram for explaining the intersections of prejudice and discrimination and give examples of each.

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

Psychic overload theory- that the population density of cities causes serious physical and mental pathologies. It was studied to see if more dense areas have higher rates of pathology, but the results did not support the psychic overload theory. People in dense areas were not more prone to alcoholism, mental illness, suicide, and other such problems. Those who did show higher levels of such problem were likely to show them anywhere; they result from other things like poverty, not from living in a dense area

Racialization

The formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological boundaries of difference around a formerly unnoticed group of people

What is racialization and how has differed between the Irish and Muslims?

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.

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?

Rational actors will let others bear the cost of providing them because they cannot be excluded from the benefits → people won't bear the responsibility when they know if someone else can do it and they would get the same result.

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

Refers to relative deprivation: there's an intolerable gap between what people want and what they get. Leads to frustration and aggression when people don't get what they expect.

Church

Religious body that exists in a relatively low tension state with their social surroundings. They have mainstream "safe" beliefs and practices relative to those of the general population

Cult

Religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not fit easily with the sect-church cycle

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

Rise in employer violations • 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 assume simple and direct employee/employer relationships. • They make presumptions about responsibility and liability that ignore the transformation that has occurred under the hood of many business enterprises Wage stagnation • By shedding employment to other parties, lead companies change a wage-setting problem into a contracting decision

Straight-line Assimilation

Robert Park's 1920s universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate; they first arrive, then settle in, and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenous country

According to Rosabeth Moss Kanter's Research, what are some of the psychological and social effects on minority status members within groups or organizations?

Root of the problem is not in socialization and behavior but rather in the structure of the corporation itself. Furthermore she explained these in 4 "hidden structures" 1) demographic structure - "how many people hold different positions and what the ages races and genders etc... of these people are" 2) power structure - complaints with regard to women as too cautious, too controlling and too stingy with rewards.. 151 3) opportunity structure - some people got ahead some did not. Mostly those who are able to get ahead are in positions that lead to promotions. the difference between those in a dead end desk job and those in promotable positions. 4) Shadow Structure - implies that men are at the core, while women are kept to the periphery.

How does the case of Somaliland cast doubt on the idea that the state is an entity that has a legitmate claim to use of violence?

Sealand and Somaliland are 2 self-declared states. Though they may not be recognized as independent states by the world, they have their own centralized governments and rules and thus qualify as states.

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.

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

Shows how cities develop, based on the Darwinian struggle. Some people live in city center and others live farther and farther out in concentric areas. Shows how and why city develops so that certain people live closer and further from the city center

How and why are the sacred separated from the profane?

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.

Social Capital

The information, knowledge of people or things, and connections that help individuals enter, gain power in, or otherwise leverage social networks

Authority

The justifiable right to exercise power

Segregation

The legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity

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?

Social movements are collective rather than symptoms of individual discontent like the way the classical model paints it. Resource mobilization theory emphasizes political context and goals, but says it won't happen without the necessary resources.

Postmodernity

Social relations characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations

Premodernity

Social relations characterized by concentric circles of social affliation, a low degree of division of labor, relatively underdeveloped technology, and traditional social norms.

Modernity

Social relations characterized by rationality, bureaucratization, and objectivity, as well as individuality created by nonconcentric, but overlapping group affiliations

What is the Woman Question from a functionalist and a feminist point of view? What are some problems with each of these perspectives?

Society is a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together Functionalist Perspective: o Societal elements function to maintain social order o Biological differences are natural and therefore naturally lead to a difference in gender roles o Look to functions and dysfunctions to explain social phenomena o i.e. Prostitution satisfies needs of patrons and hoes. biology is not destiny and identification by gender is wrong Feminist Perspective : -Provides productive avenues of collaboration with sociologists, especially conflict -Theorists and symbolic interactionists -Compatible with conflict theory in because says structured social inequality is maintained by ideologies frequently accepted by both the privileged and oppressed -Valuable contribution: attention placed on discrimination of women are not helpless victims -Disagreement on identifying problems and how we solve them

What is structural mobility and how does this concept describe the decline of manufacturng jobs in the U.S. since the early 1970's?

Structural mobility is the opportunity for someone to move up/down a social ladder. Manufacturing jobs suffered greatly during the Industrial revolution. Mechanical inventions changed the standard for production. After this occurred, men and women were then working in factories and industrial technology had by then raised the standard of living in most places-it also created inequalities between countries as some countries continued increasing in wealth and technology while the others remained nonindustrialized.

Why types of things can be sacred? How can one identify what is sacred in a group or a community?

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

What is the Hidden Curriculum of education? In this light, how do Marxist theorists like Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (1976) interpret the role of schools?

The Hidden curriculum describes the social and nonacademic skills acquaired through schooling. Bowles and Herbert believe that schools are the pawns of capitalists and that they help to maintain the dominant and subordinate positions in the workforce by teaching self-discipline, obedience, dependability, and punctuality. The hidden curriculum is the non-academic and less overt socialization functions of schooling. According to Bowles and Gintis, the capitalist society unwittingly uses this system to socialize students of various backgrounds. This is what we did to Native American children

Briefly outline Rosenthal and Jacobson's 1968 study of the Pygmilion effect and how do teacher's expectations and postively or negatively affect student's academic performance?

The Pygmalion effect is more commonly known as the "self-fulfilling prophecy," where teacher expectations affect student performance. When teachers believe that a student is capable, they might be more inclined to motivate that student. When they don't think a student can handle a subject, they might be quicker to give up on him/her.

Social Mobility

The movement between different positions within a system of social stratifcation within a given society

Hidden Curriculum

The nonacademic and less overt functions of schooling

Power

The ability to carry out one's own will despite resistance

Social Darwinism

The application of Darwinian ideas to society-namely the evolutionary survival of the fittest

Culture of Poverty

The argument that people adopt certain mainstream pratices that differ from those of middle class "mainstream" society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances

One-drop Rule

The belief that one drop of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscengeneration

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others, and the tendency to view other cultures from the perspective of one's own

Sex

The biological differences that distinguish males from females

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class

Hegemonic Masculinity

The condition in which men are dominant and privileged and this dominance and privilege are invisible

Stratification

The separation of people into higher and lower categories by race, wealth, or gender. Implies not just differentiation by degree, but also by kind. Qualitative differences between relatively bounded groups. In the US, we can speak of a class society. The estate system is a politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility. The caste system is a system of stratification based on hereditary notions of religious and theological purity and generally offers no prospects for social mobility. The class system is an economically based system of stratification with somewhat loose social mobility based on roles in the production process rather than individual characteristics.

Sick Role

The social rights and obligations of a sick individual

Cultural Capital

The symbolic and interactional resources that people use to gain advantage in their various situations.

Proletariat

The working class

According to Durkheim, how do the different aspects of society affect society 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."

What are deceptive distinctions and how do they create gender differences?

They are the distinctions that we see between men and women and think of as due to gender. However, "it turns out that many of the differences between women and men that we observe in our everyday lives are actually not gender differences at all, but differences that are the result of being in different positions or in different arenas" (119). They complicate gender issues because they make people believe men and women are different when in fact the difference they are observing is due to the positions the men and women are in.

Why did Durkheim examine religion among the Australian Aborigines?

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

How do the cases of the Hijra and the Travesti challenge our understanding of sex and gender?

This challenges out western thinking by understanding that make and females don't have to chose to be a boy or a girl based on their sex. People should be open to what they feel as if what they want to be.

Stereotype Threat

When members of a negatively stereotyped group are placed in a situation where they fear they may confirm those stereotypes

Thomas Malthus

Tina believes that inequality is necessary to keep Earth's population in check. Her view is most consistent with the views of which theorist?

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 Marx mean when he says that religion is the opiate of the masses?

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.

How do Marx and Weber differ in the ways that they link religion?

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. 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.

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 set of stories we tell ourselves to organize reality and make sense of the world, rather than a fixed biological reality.

What factors inside the classroom can affect student's learning experiences?

Tracking in which students are divided into separate vocational or educational tracks based on their performance in certain school subjects so that students are better fit into their academic environment. General track students often do not benefit and upperclass white children are overrepresented in the college track while poorer minorities are overrepresented in the vocational track. The Pygmilion Effect is also evident for teachers that have different expectations for their students. Fellow classmates, resources, class size, disruption of other students, class size, teacher's instructional behavior

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

Unskilled to skilled jobs account for 15% of changing educational requirements. Elementary education corresponds to higher economic growth, but higher education does not necessarily promote economic growth. Educated employees are not necessarily more productive, perhaps even the reverse. Most skills are acquired on the job or through on the job training rather than through school. Schooling allocates scarce resources and makes the individual liable to blame rather than the society. It is a way to maintain the perceived legitimate meritocracy.

You should know the basic trends in terms of educational attainment and its relation to lifetime earnings in the U.S.?

We are entering school at an earlier age and we are staying in school for far longer. Postgraduate education is becoming more common. The is a large earnings gap between associates and bachelor's degree.

Groups respond to domination through withdrawal, passing, and acceptance vs resistance. Discuss each idea and give examples.

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 resistance can be expressed through a movement such as revolution or genocide.

What are the three dimensions of power according to Luke's theory?

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

What are some different types of hypothesis about why the U.S. is different from some European nations when it comes to poverty, inequality, and 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.

How did the emergence of capitalism lead to 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.

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.

What is the official poverty line of the U.S, which was created by Molly Orshansky. What are the 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

What does the Aspen Effect and Desmond's work on eviction tell us about the effects 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.

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

Define bureacracy and its five characteristics

o Division of labor o Ranking/ hierarchy of authority o Employment based on formal qualification o Written rules and regulation o Specific lines of promotion and advancement

In what ways did the government contribute directly and indirectly to the housing 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

What is the "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)

Explain the difference between relative and absolute poverty and give some 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. • 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.

What were the six major historical shifts and the underlying factors that led to each?

• 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

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 off 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

What are some of the most common economic survival strategies the authors found in their interviews?

• 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

What do Murray and Heinstein 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

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 a 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 a remarkably short period of time if the present growth rate continued indefinitely.

What has been the end results of these discriminatory tactics regarding racial disparities in 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.

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 is the culture of poverty thesis and how well does it explain persistent poverty in the U.S.?

• 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.

What three 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

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.

What evidence do Edin and Schaefer have 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"

TFR and How Crude Birth Rates 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.

How does the neighborhood one calls home affect a poor person's chances? How does the study "Moving to Opportunity" affect 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.

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

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

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

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)

What is doing gender? Give examples

◦ We all "do gender" constantly. ◦ "Gender performances" are NOT just something done in exotic or "deviant" situations like "drag queens." The way you do your hair, the clothes you wear, whether or not you shave and where you shave, the scented products you put on, the way you walk and carry yourself, the way you talk, even the way you're sitting right now are all part of how you perform your gender.