Sociology test

The scientific study of the connection between the individual and social structure

Intellectually disciplined process of actively conceptualizing information gathered form observation as a guide to belief and action.

Allows us to see connections between individual- and structural- level phenomenon

Inherent connection between history and biography.  Writing at a time of tremendous social change; alienation and confusion

Normally involves one person.

Involves a large number of the population

What is the structure of a particular society?  Where does this society stand in human history?  What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?  Who and what is privileged?

Getting the basic facts right. Distinguishes social science from opinion/belief

Understanding Social Rules.  1. Rules are enforced.  2.  Rules take different forms. A. Laws: Rules enforced/ backed by power of government.  B) Social Norms:  Standards of behavior, socially imposed and often self- impose.  3.  Rules are frequently not neutral.  4.  Power and rules interact 5.  Rules can be inconsistent.  6.  Rules can change

What values do we care about?  Along what lines or against which standards do we evaluate various issues?

Freedom, Prosperity, Efficiency, Fairness, Democracy

Post-Industrialism or " knowledge economy" or " the information society".  High levels of technological development and productivity

U.S. is moving towards a post- industrialism

Integration into the world economy

Technology, capital assists, factory, machinery, tools.  Used by hired labor to produce things.

Peasants " tied " to the land

Ownership of people forced to labor

Means of production owned by consumers; production for survival.

Most producers own their means of production. ( Most people " self-employed", small scale).  Goods are produced for both consumption and the market

Means of production are state-owned; state officials ( bureaucrats) make decision about technology, production, and so on; economy is run via a centralized planning process

• 1. Production is organized for the market
• 2. The means of production are privately owned and investment is privately controlled
• 3. Workers are hired as employees from a free ( not enslaved ) labor force

• ◦Emphasis on freedom from coercion; permits voluntary
• exchange on free market
• ◦Market regulations act as restrictions on voluntary
• market participation for individuals and organizations
• ◦Minimal regulations for “truly” voluntary contracts and
• free individual expression

The free market and unfettered private ownership is the most efficient way of organizing the economy

• ◦Governments are backed by force and are therefore
• inherent threats to freedom
• ◦State’s power should be limited to protecting freedoms
• and rights – not restricting them

State incompetence.  State malevolence

Prioritizes individualism.  People have individual autonomy to direct their own actions.  Voluntarily follow orders.

The ability or capacity to choose.  Range of possible choices expanded under capitalism.

Capitalism and free markets have contradictory effects on individual freedom.  Weak regulation means little influence to counteract and democratize these effects.

• —One of the most pervasive inefficiencies of capitalist
• markets
• Profit maximization encourages firms to ignore or
• neglect negative externalities, leaving them out of their cost-benefit
• equation…but the costs get transferred
• ◦Ex: Environmental effects of dumping toxic waste in a
• lake instead of treating the waste using costly processes that cut into profit

• Defined as something that benefits people, even if they
• didn’t voluntarily contribute to producing it
• ◦Difficult to exclude people from consuming
• ◦Ex. National defense, public education, roads
• Contributes to higher economic productivity that
• benefits society overall
• ◦Unregulated markets tend to produce public goods well
• below socially optimal levels

• ◦“Free riders” disregard public good in favor of their
• own interests; difficult to manage in free markets

• —Human activities within markets revolve around the
• rational pursuit of self-interest
• Interactions between human values, personality traits,
• and market forces result in highly complex relationships and issues
• Market behaviors can weaken some traits and values while
• enhancing others

Inequality is associated with concentrations of income and wealth among elites.

Inequality that is unfair and could be remedied  if our social institutions were set up differently.

• ◦Moral – is this inequality
• unfair?
• ◦Sociological – if so, could this
• unfairness be remedied through social change?
• Inequality + Injustice + Power
• = Oppression
• —Injustices continue because people with power to change
• them are unwilling to pay the costs of doing so; not due to inertia

• ◦Inequalities are “fair” as long as the rules that govern
• participation are fair
• Rules consistently applied to all on an even playing field
• –“Equal opportunity”

• –Everyone is entitled to a sufficient share of resources
• that are necessary for full participation in society, exercise of rights
• ◦“Equal access” to sufficient resources
• ◦How much is enough is up to society to define

• The means needed to rectify a social injustice may
• conflict with another important value
• ◦Issue of educational inequalities and “fair play”
• ◦“Freedom versus Fairness”
• Support of one value may come at the cost of another in
• the form of unjust inequality

• Some argue that economic inequality, though perhaps
• unfair (“bad luck”), is necessary. Changing it wouldn’t improve the situation
• for the poor and would make things worse for the wealthy

• —Inequalities are deeply connected to incentives, both
• for the poor and wealthy
• ◦The poor need incentives to work hard. Wealth
• redistribution would remove that incentive. Work ethic among the poor would
• decline and poor children would be invariably worse off.
• The affluent need
• incentives to be productive and to invest. Their hard work leads to a “trickle
• down” effect that improves the situation of all. Redistribution of wealth would
• remove the incentive to generate more wealth…no rising tide

• ◦Higher inequality erodes sense of community, generates
• resentment and conflict within society; can lead to higher rates of crime and
• disorder and lower productivity; need for greater levels of enforcement
• ◦Concentration of resources into the hands of the elites
• gives them disproportionate political and social influence; fosters
• self-serving policies

The U.S. has significantly high child poverty levels compared to other countries such as Norway

The GDP per capita has increased over the years from 1959 through 2007.

Most people living in poverty are white but by percentage more blacks and hispanics live in poverty

The solution to poverty must be to somehow change the person, not the society.  Personal Responsibility

The most important causes of poverty lie in the rules of the game and power relations of society, not in the internal internalized cultural characteristics of poor people

• ◦Combination of individual needs (human capital) and
• structural opportunities (living wage jobs)

Takes place when a group of individuals are unable to gain access to the means needed for basic livelihood.

• ◦Inequality between top and bottom earners
• ◦Technological change and globalization contribute to but
• don’t fully account for the degree of inequality or its rapid increase over
• time since the 1970s

• ◦Inequality in earnings contributed to inequality in
• wealth because those with higher earnings are better able to save and invest

• ◦The economic shift from generating profit by producing
• goods and services to profiting from buying/selling assets
• ◦Less synchronicity between productivity growth and wage
• growth; hourly earnings remain stagnant despite increased productivity and
• resulting profits

• —Economy
• ◦Produce and buy goods and services
• State
• ◦Govern collective affairs
• Civil society
• ◦Get together voluntarily in organizations to pursue
• common purposes

• ◦Society made up of separate, isolated individuals rather
• than integrated communities

• In addition to or in place of state-imposed restrictions
• for employers, unions reduce the imbalance of power in employment contract

• ◦Union wage premium
• “Free riders”

• ◦Encourages active political participation
• ◦Potential of the labor movement

Organizations embedded in an important area of life – the workplace

• ◦Drastic amendment to Wagner Act
• –Restricted union rights and permitted activities
• –Gave states options to limit union effectiveness through “right-to-work” laws.  Fostered an
• environment of lax enforcement

◦Contribution to increasing economic inequality

◦Political participation of working class people

◦Priorities and policies of Democratic Party

Citizens in the U.S. influence the decisions carried out by the state mainly by electing public officials to make those decisions.

Citizens are directly engaged in shaping public policy and its implementation

Juries, referenda, open public hearings, public issue campaign, social protests.

Non-elected government officials.

• ◦Helps address problem of turning legislation into policy
• that works for communities

• ◦Continues in American tradition of civic activism and voluntary association
• Direct citizen involvement in governance; development
• and implementation of policy
• ◦

Limitations – need for organized community, committed local government, funding sources◦Depends on vision, commitment, and skills of localactivists to build community power

Rules backed by the government

Dress code and good manners

The many actions that we choose too engage in are governed by rules.  These social rules are changed by the actions they regulate.

Sometimes rules change as the unintended consequence

Regulates markets to improve democratic conditions

Even in highly commercialized capitalists, most people believe there are moral limits to the domains in which markets should be allowed to organize our activities.  Human beings and democratic rights should not be treated like commodities

Workers have a capacity to punish employers for failing to agree to a satisfactory contract by collectively refusing to work