Sociology Exam Review

First Half
What is Sociology?
 The systematic study of human activity in cultural and historical context
 Provides meaningful insights into culture, structure and power relations
 Comparative study of social groups, systems, institutions, human interaction
 Augustus Compte first coined the term

How did the study of sociology emerge through 3 revolutions?

 Questions arose after 3 revolutions which cause major changes in social reorganization
 Scientific Revolution (1550) Findings based on evidence, not speculation
 Democratic Revolution (1750) People can organize society and human intervention
solves social problems
 Industrial Revolution (1780) Mass industrialization in Europe leads to urbanization,
creates social problems and new divisions of labor force

Durkheim
 Study showing no correlation between mental disturbance and suicide
 Social solidarity is the biggest cause
 Shows why it is important to study social structures in relation to human activity
 Patterns of practice are not solely based on individual motivations, choice

Functionalism Conflict Theory Post-structuralism Similarities

Durkheim (late 1800s) Marx/Engels (late 1800) Foucault (1960s)
- Follows evolutionary - Materialism, class - History is discontinuous - Individuals conduct
patterns (progress) conflict -> revolution (progress is not inevitable) within social relations
- Consistent social laws - Structural Inequalities - Emphasizes truth, - Process of
that pattern behavior (systematic flaws, meaning, knowledge, power normalization
- Definite structure division of labour) - Meanings vary and can be - Connect local and
(core norms) - Class structure system inconsistent global practices
- Things exist because - Power is top down - Power is distributed - Develop concepts and
they have a purpose (leaders are wealthy agency (knowledge = methods that change
(imbalances fix powerful) power) with social problems
themselves)

What is sociological imagination?

 Capacity to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures
 C. Wright Mills
What is the difference between Micro- and Macro- structures?
 Micro are patterns in intimate relations formed through face-to-face interactions (i.e.
families, friend groups, co-workers)
 Macro are patterns that lie outside a person’s acquaintances (i.e. Social classes, social
cohorts, governments, power systems)

What is culture and how is it studied?

 Shared symbols and definitions created by people to solve real life problems
 Culture is studied as an independent variable, not a reflection of society

What is socialization?
 Process where people learn to function in social life, become aware of themselves as
they interact with others
 Nature vs. Nurture
 Primary Socialization acquiring basic skills from parents and family
 Secondary Socialization outside the family after childhood

What is ethnocentrism? Examples

 The belief of superiority for their own ethnic group
 Judging a different culture based on the standards of their own heritage only
 Nazi Germany (Hitler believed his own race was the only one worth keeping)
 Religion and judging people if they don’t believe the same

Homogenization VS Pluralism

Homogenization refers to the reduction of cultural diversity. Local cultures are transformed by
popular outside cultures.
Pluralism when smaller groups within a large society maintain their unique identity and values.
The wider culture accepts them.

Chapter 6 (part 1) - Social Collectivities

Social network
 A set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material/emotional resources
 Don’t have a membership list, a sense of group identity or shared goals
 Can be formal or informal

Bureaucracy – a large impersonal organization (collective goal) composed of many clearly

defined positions arranged in hierarchy. Typically formal.

Social group vs. Category

 Group: One or more social networks of people who identify with one another and
adhere to norms, roles and statuses (teams, gangs, bands)
  Category: Composed of people who share similar roles but don’t actually identify with
one another (Successful business women who don’t know each other)

Stanley Milgram Experiment (Obedience)

 People had to give shocks to learners who got questions wrong to the point where the
electricity could have killed them.
 Separating people from the negative effects of their actions increases compliance
(demonstrating the effects of social distance)
 Found that a shockingly large portion of people would follow the authority (reluctantly)
even though they knew the affects. Authority changes the way people act

Authority Structures
 There are 3 ways in which people’s behaviour is structured by bureaucratic environment
o Norms of solidarity demand conformity
o Structures of authority tend to render people obedient
o Bureaucracies are highly effective structures of authority

Group Think: Pressure to conform despite individual misgivings (know it’s bad but still do it)
Bystander Apathy: See someone in an emergency but no one offers help because they assume
someone else will. Studies show that the bigger the crowd, the less likely someone will respond
Bureaucratic Ritualism: Bureaucrats become so preoccupied with rules and regulations that
they make it difficult for the organization to actually complete their goals
Bureaucratic Inertia: The tendency of corporations to not change even though it is necessary
Oligarchy: Tendency for all power to be concentrated at the top in the hands of a select few
Society: Group of people who interact, share a culture and usually a territory

7 Characteristics of an Ideal bureaucracy (Max Weber)

 Division of labour
 Hierarchy of positions
 Formal system of rules
 Reliance on written documents
 Separation of the person from the office
 Hiring and promotion based on technical merit
 Protection of careers

Leadership Approaches in bureaucratic environments

 Authoritarian: authority figure demands strict compliance from staff
 Laissez-faire: staff are left to work things out on their own with no guidance
 Democratic: Group members/employees are involved in the decision-making process

Bio Power (Michel Foucault)

 A form of power that falls outside traditional views
  Exerts power of a population through policies that influence biological survival
o Namely sex, reproduction, health and mortality

Chapter 6 (Part 2) – Deviance and Crime

Deviance vs. Crime
 Deviance occurs when someone departs from a norm in order to evoke a reaction
 Crime is simply deviance against the government’s laws

Crimes without victims

 Consensual acts committed by 2 adults that is illegal but where no 3rd party is affected
 These acts should be decriminalized because…
o Makes criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens
o Criminal laws don’t usually prohibit these actions anyway
o Weakens the law and demonstrates the inability of law to deter behaviours
o Produces opportunities for secondary deviance like black markets and corruption

Adolescents from Divorced families are deviant study (Aaron Cicourel)

 Demonstrates police and judicial prejudice to teens from broken families
 Police are more likely to assume the worst when they see them doing something
 There may be more resources used to monitor these teens and so they see more

Durkheim’s arguments about crime

 Says deviance and crime are beneficial to society
 They give people the opportunity to reinforce social solidarity and common morals,
punish and condemn and clarify moral boundaries
 Helps societies adapt to social change

Strain Theory (Robert Merton)

 Discrepancy between cultural ideals and structural realities forces someone to be
deviant

Control Theory (Travis Hirschi)

 The degree to which people are prevented from violating laws accounts for variations in
crime and deviance
 More control means less crime (vice versa)

Institutional Racism
 Police, courts and other institutions discriminate against minorities
 More likely to get apprehended and prosecuted
 Black lives matter and police brutality in the US
 Indigenous communities in Canada
Declining Crime Rates
1. New policing strategies/enforcement strategies that target specific crimes to reduce
2. Changing demographics (less people fall in the age 15-24 cohort)
3. Coincides with economic growth since unemployment leads to crime
4. Changes in family planning options like abortion

Media distorts crime reporting

1. The amount it is covered. Grossly exaggerates occurrence of crime (4th most covered)
2. Type of coverage. Reporting all violent crimes gives impression that it occurs regularly
3. The nature and quality of coverage. Bias for highlighting the extreme and unusual

Social Control
 A social system’s attempts to regulates people’s thoughts, feeling, behaviors
 Internal: managing people’s mental activity and shaping their minds
 External: Regulates people by imposing punishments or offering rewards

Laws: Norm that is regulated by government bodies. Breaking laws result in formal sanctions
Sanctions: Penalties that are sometimes imposed by way of discipline or punishment
Formal Punishment: When an institution penalizes someone for breaking a regulation
Informal Punishment: Involves a mild sanction that is imposed during face-to-face interaction
Stigma: Negatively evaluated because of a marker that distinguishes them from others
Moral Panics: Extreme over reaction when people believe that a form of deviance is negatively
affecting or posing a threat to society

Chapter 7

Social Stratification
 Organizing a society into different layers or strata
o Based on wealth, income or social status
 There are 3 types of stratification that vary culturally and historically
o Caste system – Occupation is fixed at birth, no social mobility in lower class,
marriage is endogamous (same class)
o Feudal systems – based off promises and obligations, supported by military,
duties performed for land, during periods of unrest (King, noble, knight, slave)
o Class system – Created by economic relations, people can move and marry
between classes
Income trends
 The rich have been getting richer while everyone else is receiving less (income
distribution increased only in highest tier)
 Income quintile takes the share of total income for each fifth of the population

Gini Index / Gini coefficient

 The proportion of total income that would have to be redistributed for perfect equality
o 0 means there is absolute equality (no money redistributed needed)
o 1 means absolute inequality (100% of the money needs to be redistributed)

Human Capital vs. Social Capital vs. Cultural Capital

 Human Capital – Useful skills and knowledge that an individual possesses
 Social Capital – networks and connections made by a person
 Cultural Capital – knowledge, tastes and habits that legitimize status and power
(learned expertise and competence to cultural symbols like style, habits, language)
o Pierre Bourdieu argues that cultural capital creates social dominance between
generations

Theories of stratification
 Conflict Theory (Marx) – class is determined by a person’s relation to means of
production, social change depends on class consciousness
o Proletariat – working class, not owners
o Bourgeoise – owners of means of production that do no labor but earn $$
 Weber – class is the shared life chances/opportunities to acquire awards, determined
not by production but by market situation (possession of goods and education)
o Status Groups – differ based on prestige, social honour and lifestyle
o Parties – organizations that impose their will on others

Poverty
 No agreed-upon definition of poverty in Canada

Power – The ability to impose control on others despite resistance

Authority – legitimate, institutionalized power with moral consent
Low-income Cut-off – Stats Canada term for income threshold where a family below spends
over 20% of income on necessities
Socioeconomic Status (SES) – Combines data on income, education, occupational prestige in a
single index of socioeconomic hierarchy

Intergenerational vs. Intragenerational movement

 Intra – mobility that occurs within a single generation
 Inter – mobility that occurs between generations
Chapter 8 (Part 1) - Globalization

Globalization
 Occurs when people and institutions become increasingly aware and dependent on each
other
 Concept and process that achieves worldly effects
 Driven by politics, economics and technologies

How globalization spreads

 Politics – different country’s can learn effective control patters
 Technology – social media influences the way other people do things
 Economics – global trade allows for more choice

Common features among multinational corporations

 Foreign labor and foreign production
 Skills and advances in design, technology and management
 World markets
 Massive advertising campaigns

Global commodity chain

 A worldwide network of labor and production process that results in a finished
commodity (The iPhone is made all over the world)

Globalization vs. Glocalization

 Glocalization – Activities that are both global and local. Creates an opportunities more
familiar with global activities.
 Globalization – Refers more to the process and activities of the world becoming more
connected

McDonaldization
 Process by which principles of fast food restaurants are coming to dominate sectors of
the world
 A form of rationalization that values efficiency, calculability and predictability
 Used as an example of the homogenizing effect of globalization

Tourist Gaze
 A set of expectations or stereotypes informed by discrimination and racism that
travelers set on populations in order to receive the authentic experience

Colonialism – the direct political control of one country, nation or territory by another nation
Modernization Theory vs. Dependency Theory
 Modernization Theory – under-development results from poor countries lacking
western attributes like values, mentalities, business practices and stable governments
 Dependency Theory – under-development is the result of exploitative relationships
between the rich and poor like mounting debt, supporting authoritarian governments

Foreign aid criticisms

 Aid is accompanied by high overhead costs and admin costs
 Aid is given on conditions
 May not involve donation of high priority items
 Creates expensive dependence on foreign items

Globalization and the Environment

 Positive – Globalization will have a good impact
o Encourages spread of environmental norms and standards (institutional change
in the face of international peer pressure)
o Environmental convergence and increased efficiency because globalization can
eliminate unnecessary production
 Negative – Globalization will cause harm to human performance to environment
o Global production creates new consumer classes and intensifies consumption
o Global institutions like NAFTA and the World Bank promote environmental
degradation and they exploit developing countries

Chapter 8 (part 2) – Inequality

Race vs. Ethnicity
 Race – a category used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical features
 Ethnicity – People whose cultural markers are deemed socially significant.
o Ethnic groups differ from one another in terms of language, religion, customs,
values ancestors

Scapegoating – person or category of people blamed for someone else’s problems/actions

Prejudice – An attitude that holds judgements of a group based on preconceived stereotypes
Racism – Beliefs based on a visible characteristic of a group, such a skin colour

Symbolic Ethnicity
 Nostalgic allegiances to the culture of immigrant generations that is not incorporated
into every day practice
 St. Paddy’s day, Irish Canadians don’t often talk about heritage except then
Cultural Appropriation
 A dominant culture takes aspects of another culture for use in a different context that
has no benefit to country of origin
 Examples like “American” Chinese food and pho

Environmental Racism
 Minority populations are located in proximity to environmental risks and health hazards
 The ghetto is always in bad areas

Ethnocentrism
 The belief of superiority for their own ethnic group
 Judging a different culture based on the standards of their own heritage only
 Nazi Germany (Hitler believed his own race was the only one worth keeping)
 Religion and judging people if they don’t believe the same

Vertical Mosaic
 Although Canada is a cultural mosaic, the different groups are unequal in status and
power (education, occupation, income)
 Works to the advantage of some groups and disadvantage of others

Orientalism (Edward Said)

 Western authors focused on the “exotic” parts of eastern culture
 Affects understanding of diverse global cultures because it is filtered through lens
 Perpetuates a narrow view of “the Other”

White supremacy
 Companies normalize white skin colour and claim that other skin colours are different
 Colour film was optimized for white skin and this affects how skin tones are seen in film
 Dove advertised a skin care product as “normal to dark skin”
 Leads to the racist belief that white people are the better or normal people

Viola Desmond
 Civil rights activist challenged black segregation, particularly in schools and movie
theaters
 Arrested in Nova Scotia but later pardoned and appears on Canadian $10

Legacy of segregation and institutionalized racism is Canada

 Residential schools that segregated indigenous children
o Lasting effects because 88% in child services are aboriginal
 There is an overrepresentation of Indigenous and visible minority populations in jails
 Racial profiling has been replaced with risk assessment policies but discrimination is still
prevalent in discretionary situations
 o Carding – Police ask for ID without probable cause and records show
disproportionate amounts of visible minorities
 Making certain foreign plants illegal to target specific ethnic populations
 Nature of crimes enforced (i.e. street crimes) target vulnerable populations while crimes
to indigenous woman go unprioritized
 Immigration policies and practices (Detention, Deportation) designed to filter and
discriminate. They favor some populations on “desirable characteristics”

White-washing – involves glossing over or omitting injustices with biased, selective or distorted
presentation of data.

Strategies to counter racism

 Restitution – Try to make up for damage or harm
 Formal apology – Implying or openly admitting wrong-doing
 Reconciliation – Restoring friendly relation, strategies to arrive at
agreement/understanding
 Harm reduction policies – Criminal Code amendment
 Employment Equity Policies – Give preference to minority group members competing
against equally-qualified candidates
 Reparations – Monetary (or other) compensation to repair wrongdoing

Critical Race Theory

1. Race is a modern idea
2. Race has no genetic basis
3. Slavery predates the concept of race that we understand today
4. US concepts of race and freedom emerged together
5. Race legitmates/justifies social inequalities as natural
6. Human subspecies don’t exist
7. Skin colour is only skin deep
8. Most genetic variation is within races, not between them
9. Though race is not biological, racism is still real
10. Colour-blindness doesn’t end racism

Chapter 9 (Part 1) – Sexualities and Gender Stratification

Sex vs. Gender
 Sex – biological category based on seeing a distinct separation between make or female
organs at birth and the genetic programming of hormones
 Gender – social category referring to feelings, attitudes, desires and behaviors that are
associated with a particular sexual category
Theories to gender dynamics
 Essentialism (Biological determinism) – gender differences are a reflection of biological
differences
 Constructionism – The differences between what it means to be male and female are
socially constructed in practice and ideology
 Post-Structuralist – reject the assumption that nature and culture exist in separate
realms (basically a mix of essentialism and constructionism)

Glass ceiling
 The hidden barrier to success and achieving full potential
 Women still receive less according to stats can (wage gap)

Intersectionality
 Women experience sexism differently (intensity) due to differences in race, class, ability,
gender, sexuality
 Rich white woman will receive less feminism than poor black woman

Important issues in the waves of feminism

 1st Wave (late 1800s) – emerged out of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics,
advocated for women’s right to vote
 2nd Wave (1960-1990) – advocated for reproductive rights, equal rights, sexual freedom.
Argued against women treated as sex objects
 3rd Wave (mid 1990s) – Breaking assumptions about the essence of women, celebrated
ambiguity of what being a woman means, finding new forms of empowerment
 4th Wave (2000s) – focuses on material inequality, avoiding dualistic ways of thinking

Rape Culture
 Cultural conditions and attitudes that promote or contribute to the normalization of
sexual exploitation, including assumptions of power and desire

History of sexuality (Michel Foucault)

 Sexuality is not seen as an essential element of human capacities
 Instead seen as something socially constructed to maximize health and wealth of
industrial society

Chapter 9 (Part 2) – Sociology of the body

Habitus – human body has to be trained to occupy a habitus within which the individual
acquires an appropriate deportment that is shaped by social class
Civilizing Process – social and political processes that unfold through and upon the body.
Looked at the history and emergence if posture, demeanor, actions and emotions
Techniques of the body (Mauss) – different cultures and societies make use of the body in
different ways. Viewed the body as instrument to be controlled and manipulated.
*All of these acts as ways to keep control and power because they describe how one should act
to be normal and a good member of society

Social constructionists understanding of the body

 Things are not discovered, they are socially produced
 What appears to be naturally recurring phenomena are products of social process

Ableism – Prejudice and discrimination against people who experience disability

Body normativity
 Ideal standard or model; taken for granted or assumed the norm
 Body normativity built into design can reflect status and produce inequality

Cyborgs (Donna Haraway)

 Entities that embody elements of both the living and the dead
 Augmented reality and surgery (VR)

Individual vs. Social model of disability vs. Co-Constructionist

 Individual – focus on the body as pathological
 Social – rejects the body being disabled and instead focuses on disabling environments
(access and removing disability barriers)
 Co-constructionalist: intersections of body and technology (abling the disabled)

Life Course – a patterned sequence of experiences over time (social, cultural, historical)
Ageism – prejudice and discrimination against people based on category of age
Gerontocracy – A society that is ruled by older people

Margaret lock
 Questioned western assumptions about menopause (compared medical and political
configurations of menopause in North America with Japanese concept of Konenki)
 Found that women’s changes like menopause were not universal

Chapter 10 (part 1) – Work and the Economy

Economy – Social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and exchange of
goods, services and information

Work related revolutions

 Agricultural revolution (10,000 years ago) – Established new relationship with land
o Created conditions for stable human development
o Increased production and area of land cultivated by humans
 Industrial revolution (late 1700s) – Established new relationship with manufacturing
o International trade/commerce stimulated market growth
 o Manufacturing became the dominant sector
 Post-industrial revolution (late 1900s) – large scale shifts in provisions of labor
o Factory and computer automation of tasks that used to require physical labor
o ¾ of workforce is now in the service industry in Canada

Durkheim and division of labor

 Division of labor in society tends to increase in complexity
 Labor becomes more specialized with every revolution
 Leads to more hierarchical relations

Deskilling – work tasks are broken into simple routines requiring little training/skill
Fordism – industrial management based on assembly line methods (inexpensive, uniform
products in high volume)
Taylorism – Scientific management principle applied to workers in order to train them to
eliminate unnecessary actions
McJobs – unstimulating, low-paid jobs with few prospects
Time Crunch – over-work, stress, lack of leisure that are promoted by consumption demands
and need for compensation, employer demands and lack of unionization
Labour market segmentation – division of the market into distinct settings where work is found
in different ways and workers have distinct characteristics (little mobility between settings)

Criticisms of deskilling
 Skilled jobs require high level of complexity, which are often utilized in the service
sector (the fastest-growing sector)
 Technological innovation kills jobs in some places but creates other (maintenance)
 Growing importance of information technology jobs that pay well

Capitalism – private ownership of property (competition in pursuit of profit)

Communism – public ownership of property (government planning)
Democratic Socialism – public ownership of certain basic industries and substantial
government intervention into the market (Canada)

Chapter 10 (part 2) – Collective Action and Social Movements

Collective Action – occurs when people act in unison to achieve or to resist social, political and
economic change. Can be routine (non-violent, follows patterns) or non-routine (unguided)
Social Movement – attempts to change all or a part of political/social order (by rioting,
petitioning, striking, demonstrating and establishing groups unions)

Strain
 The breakdown of traditional norms that precedes collective action
 People feel a violation of norms involving a perceived gap between rewards deserved
and rewards received
  Absolute Deprivation – a condition of extreme poverty
 Relative Deprivation – intolerable gap between social rewards people perceive they
deserve and what they actually get

Successful solidarity Theory

1. Resource Mobilization – social movements cohere because of increasing organizational
and material resources
2. Political opportunities – Movement growth happens during election campaigns.
Influential allies may offer support, existing alignments are unstable and elite groups are
divided in conflict
3. Social control – Methods of ensuring conformity

Solidarity Theory – social movements are social organizations that emerge when potential
members can mobilize resources, take advantage of new political opportunity and avoids high
level of social control by authority

Unions – organizations of workers that seek to defend and promote their members’ interests

Frame Alignment Technique

 Process by which individual interests, beliefs, values become congruent with the
activities, goals and ideology of a social movement
o When social movement leaders reach out to other organizations who they think
may be sympathetic to their cause
o Stretching objectives and activities to attract more people

Social control impacts social movements

 If authorities show indecisiveness/weakness, movement partisans get bolder
 The most extreme violence is mostly initiated by authorities, not movement partisans
 Violent repression can suppress discontent for a period of time

Historical variations in Social movements

 Civil Citizenship (1700s) – the right to free speech, freedom of religion, justice before
the law
 Political citizenship (1800s) – Right to run for office and vote
 Social Citizenship (1900s) – the right to a certain level of economic security and full
participation in the social life of the country

New Social Movements

 Attract a disproportionately large number of highly educated people in social, cultural
and educational fields
 Have global potential
 Use new forms of protest like online fundraising