The Importance Of Social Location

Many distinguishing factors determine how an individual is placed in society throughout their course of life. This placement in society can otherwise be named social location. Social location can be defined as the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society (Henslin 2). Factors such as politics, education, religion, family, and even social inequality play a key role in determining ones social location. Sociologists use these factors in deciphering how an individual will behave in society. Throughout this course of Sociology we have uncovered how social location is shaped by the factors stated above, and learned what the effects and correlations between these factors and determining ones social location …show more content…
Whether this background be ethnic, geographical, or race it all determines who an individual is and how they will behave. A persons social location will determine their norms, values, and memberships. Depending on where a society member came from (meaning family history), their education level, social class, and many other factors affect ones norms and values and how they pick the people to form relationships with. We can use a scenario to get a better picture on how social location effects norms, values, and groups: a middle class man with a wife and two kids, living in the suburbs with a steady career is going to have different norms, values, and groups than a billionaire man with no wife or kids. The middle class man is more likely to cookout at home with his family and other friends of the family with children similar in ages than the billionaire with no kids or wife. Also, a billionaire is more likely to attend fancy dinner parties and dine on expensive food every night than the middle class man. This scenario further explains how social location effects norms, values, and groups. People with similar social locations and background are more likely to flock together, and exhibit the same values and …show more content…
When you think of politics, you probably think of power or authority. Politics is a good resource used to group people. Whether is be your view on a issue, note that those views were formed from the other factors listed above, your prestige, or social class you will find someone with the similar views. Sociologists use politics to group people within a group. In this group most have the same background on the other factors such as religion and education. Education is a powerful tool. Throughout this course, and completing my book report I was shown that education is one of the strongest weapons you can give somebody. Not only is education a weapon it is also a good indicator of social location. The level of education one receives can play a big part on someones location. For example, people with a higher education is are more likely to hold a higher prestige and income rather than a high-school dropout. No, this does not always hold true, but the level of education one receives can often show how well they will do in society. Another factor that is related to social location is religion. Religion groups people together according to their beliefs and moral views. People in the same religion are more often to exhibit the same norms, values, and memberships, because they believe in the same things. A Muslim is more