Soc 101 Chap 5-6

Functionalist Perspective: unskilled immigrants provide labor for receiving nations; relieves unemployment problems for sending nations.

A sociological approach that emphasizes the way that the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.

What is a stereotype? Differentiate a Racial Group from an Ethnic Group.

A stereotype is an unreliable generalization about all members of a group that doesn't recognize individual differences within the group. Ethnic Group - Describes a group that is set apart from others primarily because if its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. Racial Group - Describes a group that is set apart from others because of obvious physical differences, i.e. skin color

Define:Poverty Line; Feminization of Poverty; Absolute Poverty; Relative Poverty

Absolute poverty refers to the minimum level of subsistence that no family should be expected to live below. One commonly used measure of absolute poverty is the federal government's poverty line, a money income figure that is adjusted annually to reflect the consumption requirements of families based on their size and composition. The poverty line serves as an official definition of which people are poor. Relative poverty is a floating standard of deprivation by which people at the bottom of society, whatever their lifestyles, are judged to be disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole. Feminization of Poverty is a trend in which women constitute an increasing proportion of the poor people of the united states.

Differentiate Class Consciousness and False Consciousness.

Class Consciousness - A subjective awareness of common vested interests and the need for collective political action to bring about social change False Consciousness - Attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect its - objective position

What is Neo-colonialism? Compare it to Colonialism

Colonialism - When a foreign power maintains political, social, economic, and cultural domination over a people for an extended period; rule by outsiders Neocolonialism - Dependence on more industrialized nations including their former colonial masters, for managerial and technical expertise, investment capital, and manufactured goods kept former colonies in a subservient position

What is Color-blind racism?

Color-blind Racism - The use of principle of race neutrality to defend a racially unequal status quo.

Conflict Perspectives: Economics of immigrations: job losses and social services. Exploitation of immigrants.

Conflict perspective is a sociological approach that assumes that social behaviors is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, including housing, money, access to services, and political representation. Exploitation theory is the unequal treatment of subordinate groups as an integral part of capitalism.

Explain Daniel Rossides' Five Class Model

Daniel Rossides Used a 5-class model to describe the class system of the U.S.: the upper class, the upper-middle class, the lower-middle class, the working class, and the lower class

Explain Davis and Moore's views on Stratification. Why do they think societies cannot prevent inequality?

Davis and Moore - Believed that stratification is universal and that social inequality is necessary so that people will be motivated to fill functionally important positions

Explain Lenski's views on the emergence and persistence of social inequality.

Economic systems change as their society becomes more complex and as technology advances it becomes capable of producing a considerable surplus of goods allowing for a rigid class structure to develop. The surplus of goods reinforces the social stratification system.

Differentiate the Functionalist and Conflict stratification models

Functionalists assert that stratification benefits spicety by motivating people to fill demanding positions. Conflict theorists, however, see stratification as a major source of societal tension. Interactionists stress the way in which stratification shapes an individual's lifestyle.

What is Globalization, and what are its positive and negative features?

Globalization - The worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and exchange of ideas. Multinational Corporations - Commercial organizations that are headquartered in one country but do business throughout the world Functionalist View of Multinational Corporations - Multinational corporations bring jobs and industry to areas where subsistence agriculture previously served as the only means of survival Conflict View of Multinational Corporations - Multinational corporations exploit workers to maximize profits Dependency Theory - Even as developing countries make economic advances, they remain weak and subservient to core nations and corporations in an increasingly intertwined global economy

Differentiate America's immigrations laws of the 1920s and the 1960s.

In the 1920's, US policy gave preference to people from western Europe, while making it difficult for residents of southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa to enter the country. Since the 1960's, policies in the united states have encouraged the immigration of people who have relatives here as well as those who needed skills.

What makes the U.S. a multiracial society? What percentage of the U.S. population claim multiracial ancestry?

In the late twentieth century, with immigration from Latin America rising, the fluid nature of racial formation became evident. Suddenly. People were speaking about the "Latin Americanization"of the united States, or about biracial, Black-White society being replacedby a triracial one, In the 2010 census, over 9 million people in the united states (or about 2.9 percent of the population) reported that they were two or more races. Half the people classified as multiracial were under the age of 18.

Describe Marx's Class Model and Weber's stratification model, and Weber's concept of Life Chances

Karl Marx wrote that capitalism created two distinct social classes, the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Max Weber identified three analytically distinct components of stratification: class, status group, and power. The concept was introduced by German sociologist Max Weber. It is a probabilisticconcept, describing how likely it is, given certain factors, that an individual's life will turn out a certain way. According to this theory, life chances are positively correlated with one's socioeconomic status.

How does Marxist theory view racial subordination within a capitalist system?

Karl marx viewed the exploitation of the lower class as a basic part of the capitalist economic system. From a Marxist point of view, racism keeps members of subordinate groups in low-paying jobs, thereby supplying the capitalist ruling class with a pool of cheap labor.

Conflict perspective: prejudice and discrimination; differentiate the two concepts.

Prejudice - A negative attitude toward an entire category of people, often an ethnic or racial group. Discrimination - The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups based on some type of arbitrary bias.

What is Racial Formation? How is the concept of "race" socially constructed? What is the "One- Drop" rule?

Racial Formation - Sociohistorical process in which racial categories are created, inhibited, transformed, and destroyed; those with power define groups according to racial social structure. The "One-drop rule" stated if a person had even a single drop of "black blood," that person was defined and viewed as balk, even if he or she appeared to be white. This is a vivid example of the social construction of race - the process by which people come to define a group as a race based in part on physical characteristics, but also on historical, cultural, and economic factors.

What is racial profiling? Affirmative Action? The Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Racial Profiling - Defined as any arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on a person's behavior. Affirmative Action - The positive efforts to recruit members of subordinate groups or women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities. The civil rights act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in public accomodations and publicly owned facilities on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, and gender.

What is racism; ethnocentrism; institutional racism; a glass ceiling; scapegoating?

Racism - The belief that one race is supreme and all others are innately inferior. Ethnocentrism - The tendency to assume that one's own culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others. Institutional discrimination - The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a society. Glass Ceiling - An invisible barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified individual in a work environment because of the individual's gender, race, or ethnicity. A scape goat is a person or group that is made to bear blame for others.

Differentiate Slavery, Caste Systems, Estates, and Class Systems:

Slavery is a system of enforced servitude in which some people are legally owned by other people. A Caste System is hereditary system of rank, usually religiously dictated, that tends to be fixed and immobile An Estate System is a system of stratification under which peasants were required to work land leased to them by nobles in exchange for military protection and other services. Also known as feudalism. Class System a social ranking based primarily on economic position on which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility.

What is Social Mobility? Explain: Intergenerational Mobility; Intra-generational Mobility; Vertical and Horizontal Mobility.

Social Mobility - The movement of individuals or groups from one position in a society's stratification system to another Horizontal Mobility - Movement of positions in which each occupation has the same prestige ranking Vertical Mobility - The movement of a person from one social position to another of a different rank Intergenerational Mobility - Involves changes in the social position of children relative to their parents Intragenerational Mobility - Involves changes in a person's social position within his or her adult life

What are the Multiple (Objective and Subjective) ways of measuring a person's Social Class?

Socioeconomic Status - A measure of social class that is based on income, education, and occupation

What is symbolic ethnicity?

Symbolic Ethnicity - An emphasis on concerns such as ethnic food or political issues rather than on deeper ties to one's ethnic food or political issues rather than on deeper ties to one's ethnic heritage.

Differentiate Wealth and Income. Relate each to social inequality and power.

The condition in which members of society enjoy different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power is termed social inequality. Every society manifests some degree of social inequality. Sociologists refer to the structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power as stratification. In industrial societies, these unequal rewards are evident both in people's income- in their salaries and wages- and their wealth- in material assets such as land, stocks, and other properties.

Explain Thorsten Veblen's Conspicuous Consumption and Conspicuous Leisure

Thorstein Veblen - Noted that those at the top of the social hierarchy typically convert part of their wealth into conspicuous consumption Conspicuous Consumption - Purchasing more automobiles than they can reasonably use and building houses with more rooms than they can possibly occupy Conspicuous Leisure - Jetting to remote destinations and staying just long enough to have dinner or view a sunset over some historic locale

What is Exploitation Theory? Oliver C. Cox and Robert Blauner as Exploitation theorists.

Used the exploitation theory to explain the basis of racial subordination in the united states.

Describe Wallerstein's World System Analysis

Views the global economic system as one divided between nations that control wealth and nations from which resources are taken

What is "white privilege"?

White Privilege - Rights or immunities granted to people as a particular benefit or favor simply because they are White.