sociology chapter 16 quiz
In 1968, Garrett Hardin described the tragedy of the commons. The classic example of the commons is a pasture where any community member can graze his or her livestock. What would be the modern equivalent of the commons?
natural resources, like water, air, forests, and plants
To what extent do the poorest members of American society participate in social movements?
less than any other class
How did Marshall McLuhan believe that the world would turn into a "global village"?
Television and other media technology would link people all over the world.
According to a study published in Conservation Letters, a research team led by biologist Brian MacKenzie ran computer models of the population dynamics of the bluefin tuna. The models suggest that even if fishing were banned immediately, the population of bluefin in the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans will most likely collapse. This is a serious issue for sushi lovers everywhere, and some sociologists call it
a tragedy of the commons
Although it might cause a great deal of harm in the long run, individual companies have an economic interest in fossil fuels. What is it called when the pursuit of individual gain leads to loss for a larger group?
a tragedy of the commons
While technological advancement has many benefits, it also has risks. Which is an emerging social problem linked to online technological innovation?
large-scale data breaches
A major achievement of social movements geared toward increasing employment equality for minorities and women has been the widespread adoption of equal employment officers in many large organizations. When they achieved this stage, the social movements could be said to have
bureaucratized.
People who believe that the government is not doing enough about climate change have gotten fed up and are starting to organize, which means they are starting to
coalesce
What was one of the earliest theories of collective behavior?
contagion
"An agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organized crowd. . . . It forms a single being . . ." Which theory describes this quote?
contagion theory
The Internet was available long before online classes were available. It took schools and universities years to adapt to the new technology. According to your textbook, this slowness to adapt to new technology is called __________.
cultural lag
Today, many young people face an unprecedented problem: what to do when their parents try to friend them on Facebook or another social networking site. Technology has given us unprecedented ways to document our lives online, but some are not quite sure how to share this documentation with older generations. What is this problem called?
cultural lag
n trying to understand the evacuation during the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, B. E. Aguirre, Dennis Wenger, and Gabriela Vigo argue that the more "the search for meaning in the milling process focuses upon defining the situation as serious, the quicker should be the mobilization of people and the initiation of collective behavior." What type of theory are they using to make this prediction?
emergent norm theory
The process by which social structures and institutions become global rather than national is called
globalization.
A public goods dilemma occurs when
individuals must give something to a collective resource without necessarily taking anything in return.
Focusing on ideas and cultural debates rather than on material things and questioning the achievements of science and technology are both characteristic features of
postmodernity
For many years there have been efforts to organize teaching assistants on college campuses and form a union. Often, these efforts fail because of practical reasons such as there being limited volunteers, leaders graduate and leave, and the organizers have limited money for supplies. What theory would be interested in these reasons?
resource mobilization
When activists begin to amass the things they need to sustain their movement—including volunteers, money, and office space—they are engaging in
resource mobilization.
In recent years, salsa has overtaken ketchup as America's most popular condiment. This is an example of
social change.
The transformation of culture over time is called
social change.
What do sociologists call behaviors that are rational for any given individual but that lead to disaster for an entire group?
social dilemmas
Which of the different theoretical perspectives considered throughout the text might explore the ways in which designating and redefining animals of a given species as endangered changes the way people interact with and treat them?
symbolic interactionism
In the 1990s, many isolated individuals began to see the growth of federal prison populations as a problem. Later, they would form groups to protest the policies that imprisoned so many, but first they were part of
the incipient stage of a social movement.
What is it called when individual fishing boats harvest more fish each year in order to maximize profits while, as a result, threatening the fish population with extinction?
the tragedy of the commons
A company that dumps toxic waste in a river to keep costs down will likely never get caught by environmental regulators. According to Garrett Harden, we can best understand the costs of this action in terms of a
tragedy of the commons.