Soc. Ch. 7-10

Front 1

Bourgeoisie

Back 1

Karl Marx's term for capitalists, those who own the means of production

Front 2

Caste system

Back 2

a form of social stratification in which one's status is determined by birth and is lifelong

Front 3

Class consciousness

Back 3

Karl Marx's term for awareness of a shared identity based on one's position in means of production

Front 4

Class system

Back 4

a form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions

Front 5

Colonialism

Back 5

the process by which one nation takes over another, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources

Front 6

Culture of poverty

Back 6

the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children.

Front 7

Divine right of kings

Back 7

the idea that king's authority comes directly from god

Front 8

Endogamy

Back 8

the practice of marrying within one's own group

Front 9

false class consciousness

Back 9

Karl Marx's term to refer to workers identifying with the interests of capitalists

Front 10

Globalization of capitalism

Back 10

capitalism (investing to make profits within a rational system) becoming the globe's dominant economic system

Front 11

ideology

Back 11

beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements

Front 12

means of production

Back 12

the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth

Front 13

meritocracy

Back 13

a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit

Front 14

multinational corporations

Back 14

companies that operate across called transnational corporations

Front 15

neocolonialism

Back 15

the economic and political dominance of the least industrialized nations by the most industrialized nations

Front 16

proletariate

Back 16

Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

Front 17

slavery

Back 17

a form of social stratification in which some people own other people

Front 18

social mobility

Back 18

movement up or down the social class ladder

Front 19

social stratification

Back 19

the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society or other group

Front 20

world systems theory

Back 20

economic and political connections that tie the world's countries together

Front 21

anomie

Back 21

a condition resulting from status inconsistency

Front 22

contradictory class locations

Back 22

Erik Wright's term for a position in the class structure that generates contradictory

Front 23

culture of poverty

Back 23

the assumption that values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics on to their children

Front 24

downward social mobility

Back 24

movement down the social ladder

Front 25

exchange mobility

Back 25

about the same numbers of people moving up and down the social class ladder, such that, on balance, the social class system shows little change

Front 26

feminization of poverty

Back 26

a trend in the U.S. poverty whereby most poor families are headed women, furthered by prejudice toward single women households

Front 27

Horatio Alger myth

Back 27

the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough

Front 28

income

Back 28

a flow of money

Front 29

intergenerational mobility

Back 29

the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next

Front 30

poverty line

Back 30

the official measure of poverty; calculated to include those whose incomes are less than three times a low-cost food budget

Front 31

power

Back 31

the ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others

Front 32

power elite

Back 32

C. Wright Mils's term for the top people in the U.S. corporations, military, and politics who make the nation's major decisions

Front 33

prestige

Back 33

respect of regard

Front 34

property

Back 34

a person's total wealth minus their debt; can be buildings, land,animals, machinery, cars, stocks, bonds, businesses, furniture, bank accounts, etc

Front 35

social class

Back 35

according to Weber, a large number of people who rank close to one another in wealth, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production of workers who sell their labor

Front 36

status

Back 36

social ranking; the position that someone occupies in society or a social group

Front 37

status consistency

Back 37

people ranking high or low on all three dimensions of social group

Front 38

status inconsistency

Back 38

people ranking high on some dimensions of social class

Front 39

structural mobility

Back 39

movement up or down the social class ladder that is due to changes in the structure of society, not to individual efforts

Front 40

underclass

Back 40

a group of people for whom poverty persists year after year across generations

Front 41

upward social mobility

Back 41

movement up the social ladder

Front 42

wealth

Back 42

concentrated and sustained property and income

Front 43

assimilation

Back 43

the process of being absorbed into the mainstream of culture

Front 44

DISCRIMINATION

Back 44

an act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or group

Front 45

dominant group

Back 45

the group with the most power, greatest privileges, and highest social status

Front 46

ethnic cleansing

Back 46

the persecution through imprisonment, expulsion, or killing members of an ethnic minority by a majority to achieve ethnic homogeneity in a majority-controlled territory

Front 47

ethnic work

Back 47

activities designed to discover, enhance, or maintain ethnic and racial identification

Front 48

ethnicity (and ethnic)

Back 48

having distinctive cultural characteristics

Front 49

genocide

Back 49

the systematic annihilation or attempted annihilation of a people based on their presumed race or ethnic group

Front 50

individual discrimination

Back 50

the negative treatment of one person by another on the basis that person's perceived characteristics

Front 51

institutional discrimination

Back 51

the negative treatment of a minority group that is built into a society's institutions, also called systematic discrimination

Front 52

internal colonialism

Back 52

the policy of economically exploiting a minority group

Front 53

multiculturalism

Back 53

a philosophy or political policy that permits or encourages groups to express their individual, unique racial and ethnic identities; also called pluralism

Front 54

melting pot

Back 54

the view that Americans of various backgrounds would blend into a sort of ethnic stew, leaving behind their distinctive ethnic identities and forming a new ethnic group

Front 55

minority group

Back 55

people who are singled out for unequal treatment on the basis of their physical and cultural characteristics, and who regard themselves as objects or collective discrimination

Front 56

pan-indianism

Back 56

a movement that focuses on common elements in the culture of Native Americans in order to develop a cross-tribal self identity and to work toward the welfare if all Native Americans

Front 57

pluralism

Back 57

the diffusion of power among many interest groups which prevents any single group from gaining control

Front 58

population transfer

Back 58

forcing a minority group to relocate

Front 59

PREJUDICE

Back 59

an attitude of prejudging, usually in a negative way

Front 60

race

Back 60

a group whose inherited physical characteristics distinguish it from another group

Front 61

racism

Back 61

prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race

Front 62

reserve labor force

Back 62

the term used by conflict theorists for the unemployed, who can be put to work during times of high production and then discarded when no longer needed

Front 63

rising expectations

Back 63

the sense that better conditions are soon to follow, which, if unfulfilled, creates mounting frustration

Front 64

scapegoat

Back 64

an individual or group unfairly blamed for someone else's troubles

Front 65

segregation

Back 65

the policy of keeping racial or ethnic groups separated

Front 66

selective perception

Back 66

seeing certain features of an object or situation, but remaining blind to others

Front 67

split labor market

Back 67

a term used by conflict theorists for the practice of weakening the bargaining power of workers by splitting them along racial, ethnic, sex, age, or any other lines

Front 68

capital punishment

Back 68

the death penalty

Front 69

capitalist class

Back 69

the wealthy who own the means of production and buy the labor of the
working class

Front 70

control theory

Back 70

the idea that two control systems—inner controls and outer controls—
work against our tendencies to deviate