SOCY 1000; Exam 4; McConnell
Who developed the culture of poverty?
Oscar Lewis
The following is part of Weber's definition of what?: "... action is oriented toward the acquisition of social 'power', that is to say, toward influencing a communal action no matter what its content may be."
Party
Action is oriented toward the acquisition of social power, that is to say, toward influencing a communal action no matter what its content may be. In principle, ___________ may exist in a social club as well as in a state... For _______ actions are always directed toward a goal which is striven for in a planned manner. This goal may be a cause... Or the goal may be personal
Party/ parties
What is being described here? Who is describing it? "The most important event for displaying and acquiring status is the ________. This is a purely expressive event, the essence of which is associating with others. A ________ is more public than a date, but can still be relatively exclusive. Often __________ involve some form of deviance from adult norms. . . . Moreover, it nearly always implies and often involves romantic or sexual liaisons. Being invited to the right _________ is a mark of high status. This frequently requires keeping secret the time and location of such ___________—so those who are not wanted do not show up."
Partying; Milner
What class does the furthest point in Erik Olin Wright's model represent?
Petty Bourgeoisie
The ability to compel someone to do something despite their wants; the ability to make people do things they otherwise would not do
Power
Weber explained that parties are based on what?
Power
20% per _________; 5 _________ Upper, middle, and lower ____________ data is compared to each other to see what __________ has the highest income and wealth in the country and to see financial inequality
Quintile(s)
Groups from which the individuals within them receive their values and the norms which they follow; individuals develop expectations about what they can attain by observing reference groups. They shape members' attitudes, generate their feelings, and direct their actions; reference groups make members see their place in the world
Reference group
People will experience relative deprivation in regard to what?
Reference group
Holds that people are poor if they have significantly less income and wealth than the average person in their society
Relative approach to poverty
Discontent associated with the gap between what we have (the circumstances of our membership group) and what we believe we should have (the circumstances of our reference group)
Relative deprivation
The lack of talented people to fill the most functionally important jobs; talented people are scarce; not many people are willing to put in the stress, responsibility, time, etc. into these jobs because they are high
Scarcity of personnel
What contradictory class location is on the second bottom row of Wright's model?
Semiautonomous employees
Culture can change when the economic situation changes
Situational view
-Each generation of the poor exhibits the same lifestyle because each generation experiences the same conditions: poor housing, crowding, deprivation, and isolation. -The poor will not perpetually be held back by culture and will be able to rationally take new economic opportunities when they appear -When the economic situation of the poor improves, the culture of poverty will dissolve and a new cultural orientation will develop
Situational view of poverty
If you associate with those of higher status your status increases, and if you associate with those of lower status your status decreases.... On the other hand, disassociation is important: The status-conscious avoid people and objects that are low status, and may even try to publicly denigrate them.
Social associations
The social ranking of individuals and groups into higher and lower positions within a social structure according to cultural, political, or economic criteria
Social stratification
The members of .... recognize one another; normally communities; same lifestyle, which defines the group
Status groups
What is Milner describing here?: "Any expansion of a status category with more members will decrease the value of status markers."
Status inflation
It is easier to get into a _________ than a ________
Status; class
Weber defined social classes in terms with his...
System of production
-"The culture of poverty is both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their marginal position in a class stratified, highly individuated, capitalistic society. It represents an effort to cope with feelings of hopelessness and despair which develop from the realization of the improbability of achieving success in terms of the values and goals of the larger society." -"It is also something positive and provides some rewards without which the poor could hardly carry on.
The distinction between poverty and the culture of poverty
The lack of effective participation and integration of the poor in the major institutions of the larger society is one of the crucial characteristics of the culture of poverty
The first article for the summarized culture of poverty
On the level of the individual the major characteristics are a strong feeling of marginality, of helplessness, of dependence and of inferiority
The fourth article for the summarized culture of poverty
Who is Lewis describing here in major institutions of the larger society? "They have a critical attitude toward some of the basic institutions of the dominant classes, hatred of the police, mistrust of government and those in high position, and a cynicism which extends even to the church."
The poor
(3) x (the crisis food basket) Adjusted for family size and age of head of household
The poverty threshold calculation
When we look at the culture of poverty on the local community level, we find poor housing conditions, crowding, gregariousness, but above all a minimum of organization beyond the level of the nuclear and extended family; social disorganization
The second article for the summarized culture of poverty
On the family level the major traits of the culture of poverty are the absence of childhood as a specially prolonged and protected stage in the life cycle, early initiation into sex, free unions or consensual marriages, a relatively high incidence of the abandonment of wives and children
The third article for the summarized culture of poverty
Status is the accumulated approval and disapproval that people express toward an actor or an object... Status is the sum of the evaluations that are 'located' in the minds of other people with whom a person interacts
Theory of Status Relations
A party is any group, such as peta or antifa. What is their goal?
To gain power
T/F: According to Davis and Moore, the jobs which do more to meet more of society's needs have greater functional importance
True
T/F: Classes of managers have arisen in capitalist society because because control of the means of production has been separated from ownership
True
T/F: David and Moore concluded that stratification is a system for motivating scarce talent
True
T/F: It is possible for a person to have negative wealth
True
T/F: Modern societies, in contrast to premodern societies, more often stratify groups according to class
True
T/F: Oscar Lewis found that those in a culture of poverty do not defer gratification
True
T/F: Oscar Lewis predicted that the culture of poverty will keep future generations from socially and economically advancing
True
T/F: Status groups are usually endogamous
True
T/F: The situational view of poverty predicts that the poor will develop a new cultural orientation when their economic situation improves
True
T/F: Wealth inequality is greater than income inequality
True
(assets) - (debts)
Wealth
What question does Milner answer here?: "This is due to the centrality of peer status in school settings and the competition that results for a largely inexpansible resource."
Why are teenagers so mean?
"When the poor become class-conscious or active members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world, they are no longer part of the __________ ____ _________, although they may still be desperately poor. Any movement, be it religious, pacifist, or revolutionary, which organizes and gives hope to the poor and effectively promotes solidarity and a sense of identification with larger groups, destroys the psychological and social core of the __________ ____ _________" -Lewis
culture of poverty
In contrast to classes, _________ groups are normally communities... We wish to designate as '_________ situation' every typical component of the life fate of men that is determined by a specific, positive or negative, social estimation of honor... In content, _________ honor is normally expressed by the fact that above all else a specific style of life can be expected from all those who wish to belong to the circle. Linked with this expectation are restrictions on 'social' intercourse (that is, intercourse which is not subservient to economic or any other of business's 'functional' purposes). These restrictions may lead to complete endogamous closure
status
Complete the following statement from a student "People who believed that they were cool simply because they wore expensive clothes were often.........."
the butt of many private jokes
What words complete this part of Weber's definition of class?: "A number of people have in common a specific casual component of their..."
"Life chances"
Any expansion of a status category with more members will decrease the value of status markers and result in....
"status inflation"
To calculate the poverty line, the cost of a family's crisis food basket is multiplied by what?
3
Lewis posted _____ articles about the culture of poverty but can be summarized in _____
70; 4
What does class determine?
A person's life chances
Divides the poor from the non-poor by using some fixed standard, usually the lack of money to purchase a minimum amount of food, shelter, and clothing
Absolute measure of poverty
Which of the following terms summarizes Oscar Lewis' explanation of the culture of poverty?
Adaptation
Items having economic value such as cars, works of art, collectibles, homes and other real estate, in addition to stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other forms of financial ownership
Assets
Why is Davis and Moore's theory questionable? Hint: Police officers and teachers are essential and functionally important yet have a weak pay; people in these positions feel less important or deserving because of this theory
Because some jobs do not match their salary
Bourgeoisie ←→ Proletariat
Capitalist relations of production
Stratification in which groups are rigidly ranked in terms of religious notions of hereditary purity and impurity; ex. Brahman
Caste system
We may speak of a '________' when: 1.) A number of people have in common a specific casual 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... class situation is in this sense ultimately a market situation."
Class
But it is important to see that economic resources are primarily a means and not the basis of status. . . . Wealth is an effective means to status only when converted into appropriate status symbols. . . . One must be able to develop the right personal style and the appropriate associations to be accepted
Class and status
An economically based system of stratification characterized by relative categorization and somewhat loose social mobility
Class system
What does the following describe? Those with higher status tend to elaborate and complicate the norms. Primarily, they do this to make it harder for outsiders and upstarts to conform and thereby become competitors.... When high status norms can be copied with relative ease, an alternative strategy is to change the norms frequently, so those outsiders are always a step behind
Conformity to the norms
What does the following represent in Erik Olin Wright's model? -Top managers/ middle managers/ technocrats -Bottom managers/ foreman/ line supervisors -Small employers -Semiautonomous employees
Contradictory class locations
Upper class → upper middle class/ lower middle class → working class → lower class
Conventional model
The culture of poverty, however, is not only an adaptation to a set of objective conditions of the larger society. Once it comes into existence it tends to perpetuate itself from generation to generation
Cultural determinism
Who quotes the following? "If the skills required are scarce by reason of the rarity of talent or the costliness of training, the position, if functionally important, must have an attractive power that will draw the necessary skills in competition with other positions. This means, in effect, that the position must be high in the social scale- must command great prestige, high salary, ample leisure, and the like."
Davis and Moore
Which of the following is a form of income?
Dividends
Who identified contradictory class locations?
Erik Olin Wright
Who made the Distribution of the Economically Active Population into Contradictory Class Locations (1969)?
Erik Olin Wright
A form of social stratification with a primary political basis; laws distribute power unequally and give different political, cultural, or economic criteria; ex. Feudal system
Estate system
Fill in the blank. What does this describe? _____________ relations are those that have no specific purpose but focus on companionship. These relationships necessarily involve emotional intimacy and attachments
Expressive
What kind of social associations most determine a person's status?
Expressive
T/F: A group with a high class situation will always have high status
False
T/F: A person's weekly paychecks are assets
False
T/F: Marx's labor theory of surplus value shows how the value of a commodity is created by the market
False
T/F: Oscar Lewis found that poverty always produces a culture of poverty
False
T/F: The poverty line is a relative approach to poverty
False
T/F: Weber recognized that classes most often form communities
False
When people are feel desperately sad and helpless they feel as they cannot improve the quality of life
Fatalism
What book did Murray Milner publish? What was it about?
Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids Theory of Status Relations
Jobs that perform functions that do more to meet society's needs; essential jobs; doctors, lawyers, etc.
Functional importance
David and Moore's article "Some Principles of Stratification" applies the logic of what?
Functionalism
What theory mainly regards the wealthy or higher class?
Functionalist theory
What are in competition with other positions because talented people are not willing to do them, therefor benefits and rewards attach to functionally important jobs as a motive as opposed to the other competing positions? (ex.: doctors get paid more than cashiers because the doctor's job is more difficult yet the salary is used as a motive for people to put in the work)
Functionally important jobs
Weber was an ___________, Marx was _____________
Idealist; materialist
Status is 'located' primarily in other peoples' minds. Hence, in contrast to wealth or political position it cannot be appropriated.
Inalienability
What is Milner describing here?: "Status is located primarily in other peoples' minds. Hence, in contrast to wealth or political position, it cannot be appropriated."
Inalienability
Money received by a person for work in the form of a salary or hourly wages, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or welfare payments), from interest accrued from savings, or from dividends paid on stocks
Income
These three divisions (class, status, party) are the ways in which people can be ranked. The ranking of one person will be _____________ across the three
Inconsistent
Because status is relatively inexpanisble, when the status of some is increased, the status of others will eventually decrease; if someone moves up, someone will eventually have to move down.
Inexpansibility
What characteristic of status makes teenagers knock down the status of others to keep their elite category small?
Inexpansibility
Fill in the blank. What does this describe? ________________ relationships are formed for some specific purpose or goal. These relationships usually limit or restrict emotional intimacy
Instrumental
Who used functionalist reasoning to explain why some people have more money than someone else in the 1940's? -Also wrote "Some Principles of Stratification"
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
An estate system is based on what?
Law
Who quoted this? What is it about? "Other traits include a high incidence of maternal deprivation, of orality, of weak ego structure,... a lack of impulse control, a strong present-time orientation with relatively little ability to defer gratification and to plan for the future, a sense of resignation and fatalism,... and a high tolerance for psychological pathology of all sorts."
Lewis; the poor
We see class in a...
Market
Where did Weber identify classes?
Market
What words complete Weber's following statement?: "Class situation is, in this sense, ultimately..."
Market situation
Who quotes the following? "Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks."
Marx
Who identified three groups people can be stratified? What are they?
Max Weber Class, status, party
Who quotes the following? "Failure to conform to these practices violates norms that can result in sanctions from one's own group and from other groups as well."
Milner
