Awc Social Problems Test 1

Front 1

Sociological imagination

Interplay between individual and society.

Back 1

The task of sociologists regarding interpreting social problems is to realize that individual circumstances are inextricably linked to the structure/conditions of society.

the sociological imagination is the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each other.

an individual needs to be able to pull him/herself away from the situation and to be able to think from an alternative point of view. It requires us to "think ourselves away from our daily routines and look at them anew".

Front 2

Labeling Process/Labeling theory

Labeling theory is based on the idea that behaviors are deviant only when society labels them as deviant. As such, conforming members of society, who interpret certain behaviors as deviant and then attach this label to individuals,

Back 2

1. Engage in deviant behavior-guilty by association.

2. Influential authority as adult-popular person as a child.

3. Spreads gossip.

4. Label returns back to original person.

5. Self-fulfilling prophecy-self doubt-engaging in act.

Front 3

Norm Violations

Social Conditions

Back 3

Acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in a society.

Societally induced conditions that cause psychic and material suffering for any segment of the population.

Front 4

Institutional deviance

Back 4

Occurs when institution fail to fulfill the needs of the people. When government is run by the few for the benefit of the few, when businesses supposedly in competition fix prices to gouge the consumers, when criminal justice system is biased against the poor and people of color, then society is permitting what is called institutionalized deviance

Front 5

Deviant behavior

Norm Violations

Back 5

Actions that violate social norms.

Acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in a society.

Front 6

Challenge Question:

Person blame approach

System blame approach

Back 6

Social problems are the result of corrupt, immoral pathological individuals.

Social problems result from corrupt social systems and poor social conditions.

Front 7

Cultural Deprivation

Back 7

Certain ethnic groups are inherently inferior and deficient.

Front 8

Sociological Theory

Back 8

Explanation based on scientific theory, in attempt to explain social problems.

A set of ideas that explains a range of human behavior and a variety of social and societal events based on sociological methods.

Front 9

Differential Fertility

Back 9

Refers to the differences in average number of children born to a woman by social category.

Fertility rate among the poor is exceptionally high.

Children and work in fields/farms, they can beg and they are cheap labor.

Front 10

Demographic transition

Back 10

Countries that go through three stages as they become more developed which affects the population rate.

1. Agricultural stage-high birth/death rate resulting in low population growth.
2. Transition stage-high birth rates and low death rates resulting in population explosion.
3. Urbanization stage-low birth rate while death rates remain stable resulting in low population growth. Shift of people from rural to cities.

Front 11

Why is family planning difficult to implement?

Back 11

Modern contraceptives, education and abortions..

Religious beliefs forbade it.

Fertility rates would decline when women were educated, work outside of home or to be in business with others.

In hard times and political unrest couples delay marriage and accepting of birth control.

Front 12

Underdeveloped nations lack life chances; the chances throughout one's life to experience "good things"

Back 12

Opportunities for a better life-increase life chances for other areas.

Front 13

Food and Hunger
• If everyone worldwide adopted a
vegetarian diet, then the current
food production could feed 10 billion
people
• Food production is grossly unevenly
distributed… 1 in 3 persons
worldwide are food deprived…WHY?

Back 13

1. Overpopulation
2. Conversion of farmland to urbanization and suburbanization
3. Dumping of food to maintain agricultural prices
4. People eating more meat, thus diverting grain to feed livestock

Front 14

The New Slavery

Back 14

“New slavery” is characterized by ‘debt
bondage’, ‘human trafficking’ and ‘forced
begging’
• Children in poor, developing nations are sold
by their parents into the sex slave industry
or forced to work the streets begging
• Adults in poor, developing nations are
caught in debt bondage due to borrowing
money and/or smuggling and housing
expenses in hopes of decent job in another
region of the world.

Front 15

Corporate Dumping

Back 15

Situation where a firm exports outdated fashions, obsolete technology, or items banned in the home country to unsuspecting importers enticed by attractive prices.

Front 16

Biosphere

Back 16

The surface layer of the planet
and the surrounding atmosphere,
which provides land, air, water,
and energy necessary to sustain
life…

Front 17

Degradation of land

Back 17

•Topsoil—three-foot layer of soil that
provides for crops and grazing—is being
depleted due to careless farming and
urbanization

•Topsoil is being lost to wind and water erosion
•Land is being converted to housing,
shopping malls, roads, schools, etc.

Front 18

Destruction of Rain Forests

Back 18

•Tropical rain forests house about half of all species on earth…
•Massive destruction is occurring by lumber, petroleum, and mining companies
•Destruction is occurring at the hands of poor due to lack of resources…need for survival
•In Cambodia, deforestation is occurring for sassafras oil used in the drug ecstasy
•Two major consequences of deforestation: climate change and vanishing of species

Front 19

Environmental Pollution

What is the solution??

Back 19

•Chemical Pollution
1. The manufacture of chemicals results in toxic wastes: foods, detergents, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, clothing, insulation…
2. Toxic chemicals are released into the: air, water, land, underground, and sewage
3. The EPA places dump sites that are the greatest risk on the Superfund National Priorities List: Love Canal, NY; New Orleans; New Jersey Shores
4. US corporations are heavily involved in ‘global dumping’
5. Accidental spills can be very destructive and expensive

Front 20

Environmental Pollution

Back 20

•Solid Waste Pollution
1. Americans generate 250 million tons of solid waste: old food, glass, clothing, electronics, plastics, metals, textiles, rubber, wood, paper, etc.
2. The average American produces ~ 5lbs of waste per day

3. ‘Toxic sludge’ is produced—a mixture of human and industrial waste in washwater
4. Landfills are commonly used to handle solid waste, but they disproportionately located in poor, rural areas

5. Incinerating garbage has two benefits: reduces garbage by 90% and produces steam/electricity

Front 21

Environmental Pollution

Back 21

•Water Pollution
1. Major sources of water pollution:
industries, farmers, cities, oil spills
2. Polluted water causes major health risks:
cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhea
3. Major Superfund Sites: Mississippi River,
Upper Hudson River [from General Electric]

Front 22

Environmental Racism

Back 22

The trend of dumping where poor people reside,
especially people of color

Front 23

Environmental Pollution

Back 23

•Radiation Pollution
1. Technology has added to the radiation
pollution: X-rays for medical and dental,
nuclear weapon testing, and nuclear
accidents…
1986: Chernobyl in Soviet Union
1979: Three Mile Island, PA

2011 Japan

Front 24

Environmental Pollution

Back 24

•Air Pollution
1. Air pollution causes major health issues: asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, cancer, CNS dysfunction
2. Most affected are those people who live near industrial plants or in big cities where pollutants get trapped in the thick air

[Los Angeles, Mexico City, Seoul, Cairo]
3. Automobiles emit five dangerous gases resulting in ‘greenhouse effect’

Front 25

GREENHOUSE EFFECT

Back 25

When harmful gases accumulate in the earth’s atmosphere and act like a glass ceiling…resulting in warming of the earth, melting of glaciers, significant changing
climate, megastorms, rapid spread of tropical diseases”

Front 26

Cultural Sources

Sources of Environmental Problems

Back 26

1. Cornucopia View of Nature ‘nature is a vast storehouse awaiting it use’
2. Faith in Technology ‘science will fix everything’
3. Growth Ethic ‘new technology/things are always better than old…’
4. Materialism… ‘planned obsolescence’ [manufacturing goods that will wear out
quickly]
5. Individualism strive for ‘American Dream’

Front 27

Solutions to Environmental Problems

Back 27

1. Individual/Local

Recycling, Govt Policies

2. Societal Level Solutions

Funding, Education, Disposing waste properly

3. Global Level Solutions

Dumping to other countries

Front 28

Capital Flight

Back 28

Companies moving to low wage locales in rural areas and overseas.

Front 29

Urban Problems

Back 29

Redlining: Not providing loans or insurance in "undesirable" locations-urban ghettos.

Redlining, discrimination and disinvestment create urban job loss.

Front 30

Urban Problems

Back 30

Central city poverty areas: neighborhoods in which at least one in five households live below the poverty line
2. High poverty areas: areas where at least two in five households fall below poverty line–public housing developments
3. Poverty results from urban job loss and disinvestment

4. The inner-city poor adopt a lifestyle of crime for survival purposes

Front 31

Urban Problems

Back 31

• Urban Housing Crisis
1. “Unaffordable housing”: housing that costs more than 30% of a family’s monthly income
2. Urban affordable housing is declining because:

i. Gentrification: converting poor sections into up-scale condominiums, townhouses, lofts
ii. Warehousing: sitting on poor poverty/investments until developers are ready to gentrify while getting rid of renters
iii. Slumlording: buying property in poor areas with no intentions of upkeep while maintaining high rent

Front 32

Urban Problems

Back 32

Urban Schools
1. Government funding has shifted to suburban schools
2. Urban schools lack resources [i.e.,
technology, books, sports equipment]
3. Classrooms are overcrowded
4. Attendance and graduation rates are low
5. Teachers are underpaid

Front 33

Urban Problems

Back 33

• Crimes, Drugs, and Gangs
1. High rates of violent street crimes
2. High number of disconnected youth. Nothing constructive to do
3. Participation in drug rings can bring money, status, and survival

4. Gangs are source of ‘meaningful relationships’
5. One in three Black males is under supervision of the criminal justice system
6. Fear of inner-city crime keeps consumers away from city businesses

Front 34

Triage

Back 34

Only treating the most urgent patients-others must wait for days/weeks to be treated.

Front 35

Suburban Problems

Back 35

Suburban Sprawl
1. White Flight: suburbs growing with White, middle-class families causing major segregation, shrinking of innercities, and job loss for urbanites
2. Boomburg: a suburban city with a population of at least 100,00…has strip developments, office parks, and ‘bigbox’
retailers
3. Suburban Sprawl: low-density, automobile-dependent developments characterized by tract housing, fast-food franchises, and visual blight [a similar look, whether on outskirts of Phoenix, Detroit, Philadelphia]

Front 36

Suburban Problems

Back 36

Automobile Dependency
1. Due to suburban sprawl, residents are dependent on automobiles to get everywhere—school, work, sports, shopping, eating, nightlife, et.
2. Suburbanites are unable to walk anywhere…thus, tend to be less active-social isolation.
3. High levels of social isolation in the
suburbs…neighbors stay to themselves isolated in the privatized homes

Front 37

Rural Problems

Back 37

Forestry, back country, back roads/hills

Poverty and Jobs in Rural Areas
1. Median household income in rural areas is
$40,000 [e.g., inner-cities: $44,000 and
suburban: $56,000]-ideal situation
• Farming
• Manufacturing
• Extraction of Natural Resources
• Recreational and Leisure—Seasonal Work

Front 38

Rural Problems

Urban police-racial profiling

Good ole boy town

Back 38

• Healthcare and Delivery
1. Rural areas have an overwhelming number of elders
2. Death rates are higher in rural areas due to
vehicle accidents and dangerous labor
3. Rural residents tend not to seek out medical
assistance
4. Hospitals are poorly funded

Front 39

Rural Problems

Back 39

•Crime and Illicit Drugs
1.Drug and alcohol use and drug
production are high in rural areas
2.Production is high—particularly for
THC and methamphetamine—because
of remote, indiscreet locations
3.Law enforcement tends to be more lax
because ‘everyone knows everyone’

Front 40

Rural Problems

Back 40

• Small-town Decline
1. Rural life use to center around the school, the town square, and the church…these social institutions have been replaced by commercialized, chain franchises—Walmart, McDonalds, Lowes, Big Lots, etc.
2. Rural residents must travel to the suburbs for work
3. Loss of a sense of community, solidarity, and identity
4. Rise of ‘colonias’ or shantytown settlements of Latino immigrants