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Meritocracy

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An ideal system in which personal effort- or merit- determined social standing

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Caste System

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A system in which people are born into a social class and remain in that class for their whole life

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Endogamous Marriages

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Unions of people within the same social category

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Exogamous Marriages

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Unions of spouses from different social categories

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Standard of Living

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Level of wealth available to acquire material goods and comforts to maintain a particular socioeconomic lifestyle

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Top 1% contains ...

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More than 50% of worlds weath

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Intragenerational Mobility

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A difference in social class between members of the same genreration

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Downward Mobility

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A lowering of one's social class

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Social Stratification

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Determined by wealth, income, race, education, and power

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Intergenerational Mobility

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A dif. in social class between dif. generations of a family

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Davis-Moore Thesis

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Thesis that argues some social stratification is a social necessity,early attempt explain why stratification occurs

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Global Stratification

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A comparison of the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries as a whole. Highlights worldwide patterns of social inequality.

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Structural Mobility

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When societal changes enable a whole group of people to move up or down the social later

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Wealth

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The value of money and assets a person has from, for ex.- inheritance

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Upward Mobility

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An increase (upward shift) in social class

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Measurement of Standard Living

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GNI (gross national income) PPP (purchasing power parity)

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GNI PPP

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An annual report (published by PRB)that measures the relative economonic well-being of all world's countries

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GNI

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Measures current value of goods and services produced by a country, prodoctive output

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PPP

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Measures the relative power a country has to purchase those same goods and services, buying power

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Conflict Theory

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Karl Marx Capitalists continue to get richer, working class scrape by Opposing interests= classes divided by dif of wealth and power

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Symbolic Interaction

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To understand relationship between humans and society, human action/interaction only understandable through exchange of symbols -Humans act towards things based on the symbol they've already associated with it -meanings come from social interaction -social action comes from cohesion of individual lines of action

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Structural Functionalism

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Look to explain why society functions the way it does by looking at how different social classes interact with one another

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Global vs. Social Stratification

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Global- Focus on inequalities between entire countries Social- Focus on inequality between smaller groups of ppl

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How do symbolic interactionists examine the ways in which class is defined? What do they know about class?

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-Micro-level -examine everyday interactions between ppl to understand society as a whole -try to explain how people's social standing affect their everyday interactions -know people will interact with those of same social standing--> why we tend to spend time with ppl like ourselves -this theory groups people together

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How do conflict theorists examine the ways in which class is defined? What do they know about class?

answer

They are deeply critical of social stratification because they believe that it creates class conflict, asserting that it benefits some people and not all of society. Many draw on the work of Karl Marx and believe that the strained working relationship between employers and workers still exist.

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How do structural functionalists examine the ways in which class is defined? What do they know about class?

answer

They examine how society's parts operate. Different aspects of society exist because they serve a needed purpose->the davis-moore thesis.

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Middle class

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What social class is quickly disappearing from modern economics?

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Trends in poverty

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While men and women may have the same rate of economic poverty, women are suffering more in terms of overall well-being. It is harder for females to get credit to expand a business, to take the time to earn new skill, or to spend extra hours improving their craft

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Effects of absolute poverty

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The poor experience inadequate health care, limited education, the inaccessibility of birth control, and the prevalence of crime.

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Underground economy

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an unregulated economy of labor and goods that operates outside of governance, regulatory systems, or human protections.

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Continent with greatest number of impoverished nations

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Africa

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Continent with the greatest number of people in poverty

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Asia

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How do we stop companies from using child labor and sweatshops?

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Protest

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Deindustrialization

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Loss of industrial production, usually to peripheral and semiperipheral nations where the costs are lower.

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Dominant race group

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The group that is the majority and holds the most power in a given society.

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Racial steering

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An example of racist practices in which real estate agents direct prospective homeowners toward or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race.

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Scapegoat theory

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Suggests that the dominant group will displace their unfocused aggression onto a subordinate group. (people don't like to take the blame so they will often look for others they can force their aggression on, often choose the easy target of the powerless)

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Symbolic interactionist's definition of race

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Race and ethnicity provide strong symbols as sources of identity and some propose that the symbols of race, not race itself, are what leads to racism. Racial prejudice is formed through interactions between members of the dominant group. Without these interactions, individuals in the dominant group would not hold racist views.

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Example of symbolic interactionist def. of race

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An individual whose beliefs about a particular group are based on images conveyed in popular media, and those are unquestionably believed because the individual has never personally met a member of that group.

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Conflict theory perspective of race

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They examine the numerous past and current struggles between the white ruling class and racial and ethnic minorities, nothing specific conflicts that have arisen when the dominant group perceived a threat from the minority group. We cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes.

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Structural functionalist definition of race

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Racial and ethnic inequalities must have served an important function in order to exist as long as they have. Racism and discrimination contribute positively, but only to the dominant group.

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Discrimination

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Consists of actions against a group of people and can be based on age, religion, health, and other indicators.

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Culture of Prejudice

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Refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture. We grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice.

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White Privilage

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Refers to the face that dominant groups often accept their experience as the normative (and hence, superior) experience. Very few white people are willing to acknowledge the benefits they receive simply by being white.

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Expulsion

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Refers to a subordinate group being forced, by a dominant group, to leave a certain area or country. Can be a factor in genocide, but can also stand on its own as a destructive group interaction.

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Segregation

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Refers to the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions.Can be separated into de jure (law enforced) segregation and de facto (without law) segregation.

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Pluralism

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represented by the ideal of the US as a "salad bowl" : a mixture of different cultures where each culture retains its own identity and yet adds to the "flavor" of the whole. There is a mutual respect on the part of all cultures.

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Assimation

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Describes the process by which a minority or group gives up its own identity by taking on the characteristics of the dominant culture. Is a function of immigration.

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Stereotypes

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Oversimplified ideas about groups of people

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Sex vs. gender

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The terms are not interchangeable. A person's sex is determined by biology, but it does not always correspond to his or her gender. Gender refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female.

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Sexual Orientation

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Someone's emotional or sexual attraction to a gender (male or female)

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Sexism

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Prejudiced beliefs that value one sex over another.

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Transgender

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Individuals who identify with the role opposite or their biological sex

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Sexuality

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A person's capasity for sexual feelings

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Gender Socialization

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Occurs through four major agents of socialization: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Children learn at young ages that there are distinct expectations for boys and girls.

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Men vs. woman wages

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Even when a woman's employment status is equal to a man's, she will generally make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Also, women who are in the paid labor force still do the majority of the unpaid work at home (84% of women).

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Conflict view of gender

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Society is a struggle for dominance among social groups (like women vs. men) that compete for scarce resources. Men are the dominant group, while women are the subordination group. Social problems are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups.

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Functionalist view of gender

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They argue that gender roles were established well before the pre-industrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the home and women typically took care of the domestic responsibilities in or around the home. These roles were considered functional because women were often limited by the physical restraints of pregnancy and nursing and unable to leave the home for long periods of time.

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Symbolic interaction view of gender

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They aim to understand human behavior by analyzing the critical role of symbols in human interaction. ex: going into a bank to get a loan and appeal to the loan officer based on his/her gender by associating with values of masculinity or femininity. Also, shifts in symbolic meaning. ex: the word "gay"

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"doing gender"

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When people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the gender role assigned to them.

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Homophobia

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an extreme or irrational aversion to homosexuals

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Male vs female learning abilities myths

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Girls have to take home economics or humanities courses and boys have to take math and science classes. Girls are less intelligent or important than boys.

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Uniqueness of U.S. middle class

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The middle class is broken into upper and lower subcategories.

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Uniqueness of U.S. upper-middle class

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People tend to hold bachelor's and postgraduate degrees. They've studied business, management, law, medicine, etc. Tend to pursue careers that earn comfortable incomes and provide families with large homes and nice cars, vacations, and children receive quality education and health care.

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Why Immanuel Wallerstein's classification is prefered by sociologists

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Wallerstein's classification uses neutral terms that allow his classification of nations to be less biased and appear less ethnocentric.

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How companies get away with outsourcing

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Americans want lower prices for their consumable products, and the only way for companies to deliver those low prices is to outsource the work to cheaper laborers.

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Gross national income

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Number World Bank uses to determine the status and classification of each nation

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Social construction of race means...

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Race is not biologically identifiable

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Agents of socialization

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1) family 2) friends 3) school

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Industrial revolution

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Historical event that was greatly responsible for global stratification as we see it today

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Key to social mobility

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Education

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Income, employment and class

answer

Factors considered when evaluating someone's standard of living

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