Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
23 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
Sociology:
• What is it? |
The systematic study of human society and the behaviour of people in society (Naiman)
|
|
|
• Purpose of sociology?
|
To debunk myth of “Nature,” demonstrating that human beings, even when they believe they are acting out of natural instincts, are in fact, regulated by complex and historically specific social structures and cultural norms. Ex De Coubertin (Father of the Olympics) believed females should not participate in sport but crown the male victors with Laurel leaves. (Nature relations changed over time: Gender relations)
|
|
|
• Focus of sociology?
|
Society, political, economic. It is bidirectional. The relationship between individual and society
|
|
|
• How does it study/explain human behaviour?
Difference between psychological and sociological approaches to understanding/explaining behaviou |
ex) for athletes burning out the psyc. Perspective would consider it is due to stress and strategies are like behaviour modification, coping techniques, and says that the system is OK, but the individual isn’t. For Sociological perspectives burnout could be caused by power control. Strategies would be to change organization, and believes that the system needs to change and that it’s not just the athlete.
|
|
|
• Naturalise
|
• Critique of reality as due to nature: ex) gender arrangement: naturalizes females of primary caretaker of children. Gives off that woman is instinctually better equipped to be the caretaker. When parenting in a sociological perspective is actually a learned behaviour. Formed by what is conventional as a society and gets handed down from generation without question.
|
|
|
• Common sense beliefs (CSB)
|
product of ignorance or invested interest. “A wisely shared belief/explanation about the social and physical worlds held by people in society (and/or subcultures within society) ex) what everyone knows (common beliefs/knowledge) shared amongst ppl in a soc. But not everyone necessarily agrees per se. EX) Throwing like a girl: naturalizes sport as being masculine, and to throw like a girl is emasculating a boy(Implicit). (Explicit: improper throwing action).
|
|
|
• Berger and Luckman’s explanation of CSB:
|
Ideal undergone “process of objectification” ( ideas have taken a life of their own). Convention is objective knowledge about reality ( goes from many ways to explaining something to just one way of explaining something).
|
|
|
• Principles for critiquing CSB:
|
Always question CSB. Is there empirical evidence &/or rigorous examination? Is there micro-level understanding ( ppl attempt to make sense of issues based on personal experience).
|
|
|
• Race: social category of CSB (not a biological one):
|
higher classes have more money and education, and therefore ones health status is shaped by race, class and gender.
|
|
|
• Racial ideology:
|
Belief held by individuals and used to describe/interpret people, behaviours, and events in racial terms. Ignores social and cultural factors when explaining success or failure of black athletes.EX) White ppl gain athletic success by training opportunities and hard work and dedication, not genes. While black athletes success is due to natural ability.Theory that races have anatomical differences. Ex) Scientific rascism claims in an article that there was a diff in brain size, intellect, and race. (based on Chambliss readings on sport excellence)
|
|
|
• Socially constructed:
|
Based on underlying premises: ppl shaped by culture, which shapes how they view reality. Culture: shared meaning, cultural codes, Tacit Knowledge (unspoken. Its dynamic, pulp fiction. Shapes how we do scial practices. EX) Grammar, we just internally know it but cant explain it. ~ Representstion is socially structured by a) Conceptual B) Language ex) The physical object of a tree. Concept is the bark, leaves, branches. The language: Tree. And the meaning comes from cultural surrounding and conventions.Social reproduction and transformation ex) Workers pay and hours changed during the industrialization era.
|
|
|
• Ideology:
|
General perspectives used to make sense of the world. Everyday logic used to live lives. When ideologies become dominant= hegemonic. Hegemonic ideologies maintain existing arrangement of power, wealth and status. Every society has a prevailing ideology that forms a basis of commonsense. A bases that often remains invisible to most ppl of that society. EX) it appears as “Neutral” while other diff ideologies appear “radical”. Individ/grp/orgs striving for power seek to form ideology of a society and to become what they want it to be.
|
|
|
• Hegemony:
|
Gramsci's interpretation to how power operates in society: ideologies and commonsense.
" The process through which dominant social groups extend their influence so as to continually refashion and establish their own way of life, modes of practices, values and beliefs as commonsense, in order to win consent for the system and structure od social relations that maintain their dominant position. ex) Tax cuts: only good for upper class because they are the ones paying high on taxes. Taxwa pay for programs for those who cant afford it. So Cutting taxes is actually cutting lower income family's opportunities, thus spreading the class system further. |
|
|
* Hegemonic power
|
*dynamic, never complete ( like a dance bwt subordinate and dominant groups). Resistance by subordinate groups while incorporation by dominant groups
EX) Amateur code in sport (O'Brien and Szeman) |
|
|
Social reproduction
|
How societies keep going over time in relatively the same shape/form regarding: soc. practices, soc. relations, beliefs, values, etc.
|
|
|
Social transformation
|
Processes of change within a society, intended and unintended
ex) Workers pay and hours changed during the industrialization era. |
|
|
• Structure
• What is it? |
Social Structures are: "Powers of relations bwt ppl that extend across a number of institutions and, in doing so, effectively structure the lives of individuals (HALL).
|
|
|
• How do Social structures work/operate?
|
*Shape behaviour
*peer pressure analogy * Felt social expectations (dos and donts) to behave in certain ways ( expectations rooted in cultural norms (norms are not ethics because it doesnt have to be necessarily right or wrong). Ex) Gay football players keep their sexuality in the closet due to the shaping of hegemonic masculinity or the ideology of masculinity. So to be heterosexual is enabling and homosexual considered constraining. |
|
|
• How are Soc. Str. reproduced?
• Examples |
structures shape us, and being shaped by those structures reproduces them.
ex) African American males and scholarships: they experience high rates of violence, poverty, and unemployment/education. African parents thought their kids had a destiny in sport. So these structures were produced. |
|
|
• Agency
• What is it? |
refers to human action, emphasizing the undetermined aspect of human action as opposed to that which is determined
*voluntary/self-directed action/behaviour *connected to social transformation |
|
|
• Structure-Agency relationship
|
Undetermined action is considered using your agency and determined action id considered using social structure ex" fashion, connected to social transformation
*sociologists tend understand ppls relationships with the middle road (that both are working) |
|
|
• Sociological imagination
• What is it? |
Way of looking at world: connection between individual issues(PERSONAL TROUBLES) and social issues (PUBLIC ISSUES)
* SI is the ability to make sense of PT in relation to PI |
|
|
Sociological Imagination examples:
• Personal Troubles/Public Issues |
Ben Johnson's situation
EX) Personal trouble: His own self expectations to be number 1, use of steroids and getting caught. Public Issue: Nationalism( he had a lot of pressure from his fans), media( made him the token guy for canada), economic (athletes being underpaid, especially getting nothing if they dont win), cultural value of winning (its everything, and if you dont win, ppl hate you) The Dubin Inquiry: focused on blaming the individual, but not the social structure ( thats why PT and PI is connected, its the structures of society on the individual) |
