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who said "religion is the opiate of the masses"
Marx
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religion is often _____ and _______
- prescriptive (offers direction for important choices, ethics)
- explanatory (explains the world)
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religion is a form of ________
- culture (beliefs and practices)
- takes many forms
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Liberation theology
- christianity and socialism come together?
- happened at the height of the cold war
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in 2011, ____ of Canadians identified as Christian
- 67.3%
- Mainstream Christianity groups: roman catholic and protestant groups
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religous demographic in Canada is _____
- changing
- we are becoming increasingly diverse as a nation
- also growing number who identify with "no religion" - what does this actually mean?
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functional definitions of religion
- focus on what the religion does for the social group and the individual
- ie. social cohesion
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substantive definitions of religion
- examine what religion is, what does not count as religion
- tend to emphasize core elements like belief in a higher being, a set of prescribed beliefs and rituals
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is church of satan a religion?
they don't believe in a higher power, so is it a religion?
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how did religion affect social cohesion?
- Durkheim
- religion greatly contributed to social cohesion
- at its core, religion is a social/group phenomena
- argued society divided the world into a binary, differentiating between things deemed sacred and profane (sacred = focus of religion)
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what problems do new religious movements face?
- they face stigma, harassment, denial of beliefs
- have a hard time gaining legitimacy
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secularization looks at:
- how important is religion in different public sectors?
- how many people are "religious"?
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In Canada, is there separation of church and state?
- No
- but, church has no authority over the state
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social movements
- attempts to modify/overthrow existing power relations, often by working outside the formal political process
- normally comprised of non-elite members of society with little or no control over major economic, symbolic, political, or military resources
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protest
an organized public demonstration expressing strong objection to an official policy or course of action
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riot
a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd
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differentiation between riots and protests can depend on ______
perception
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Le Bon
- The Crowd (book)
- anonymity
- less resistant to hypnotic effects
- emotional contagion
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academic criticism of Le Bon
- critical of any approach that discredits crowd disorder as irrational, doesn't give it any underlying meaning or justification
- people may behave differently in a crowd but they still know what they're doing
- rationalize what they're doing
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power
(Weber def) ability to realize one's will despite the resistance of others
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power as relational
- ability to pursue your dreams and ambitions is highly affected by power relations and your place within them
- continually contested, not a fixed possession
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modern state
- notions of civil society, middle class
- rose during the Industrial Revolution
- urban middle-classes created and power was increasingly based on money and capital ownership
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development of bureaucracies
- 1800s
- organizational form that utilize impersonal practices and procedures
- authority comes with the title, not the qualities of the individual who has the title
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two of Weber's seven essential features of bureaucracies
- formal system of rules
- separation of the person from the office
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material processes
- those who control material resources can realize their will over others, exercise and challenge power
- during industrial era, became moreso who controlled the means of production
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Weber on materialism?
- agreed with marx that industrial societies were stratified
- but thought there were other ways for power to be asserted:
- class
- status (prestige)
- party (organizational and institutional resources)
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Mills thoughts on power
- after the second world war, US was controlled by a group of corporate, military, and political leaders
- they controlled the interlocking hierarchies of the economy, army, and state
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hegemony
- working class do not revolt under difficult circumstances because elites manufacture consent of the population by enlisting social institutions
- counter-hegemonic ideals must be generated to challenge existing power and bring change
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institutionalist societies are concerned with ______
the institutions that shape political outcomes
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institutions
- set the rules and guidelines around social interactions
- patterns of behavior that order people's lives in predictable ways
- establish stable patterns that are not easily changed
- once estabilished, institutions can affect types of decision-making by encouraging different "paths" of action
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Theda Skocpol
- studies on revolutions in China, France, Russia
- showed how each was related to the inability of existing state structures to cope with crises, so revolutionaries could take advantage
- looked at institutions that governed at the time
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globalization
social process by which traditional constraints posed by geography, economic activity, culture, and social configurations have diminished and replaced by international processes
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transnationalism
may see more interaction across borders, but these changes aren't global
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framing theory
- need for "collective action frames" to identify grievances, promote a cause, shape a common identity
- examines how collective understandings are created and communicated in order to realize objects
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political processes approach
- social movements determined by opportunities (scandal, unhappiness) and constraints (funding, access to media, organizational problems)
- suggests that politics can be characterized by constraints and opportunities
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Hacktivism
subversive use of computers and networks for political ends
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slacktivism
minimal efforts ("likes") for political ends
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3 core framing tasks of framing theory
- 1. diagnostic frames define social problems, injustices
- 2. prognostic frames articulate solutions and strategies for positive social change
- 3. motivational frames compel people to join the social movement
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why do some movements succeed and others fail?
- unity and diversity have tradeoffs
- diversity can = broad membership, but which may end up fragmentation -> disagreement
- unity around a specific single common goal = powerful, but can't sustain a lasting movement once achieved
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today, politics and social movements are often _______
transnational
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convergence
makes people, societies, states more similar
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divergence
makes the world unequal, differentiated, diverse
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world system perspective
- current economic globalization is simply a continuation of a series of long economic cycles in the capitalist world system
- rejects "national" development
- unequal power hierarchy where capital accumulation flow from periphery to core
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what theory did the unequal power hierarchy part of world system perspective develop from?
- Marx's dependency theory
- during mid 20th century, some countries weren't moving ahead like other countries were
- dependency theory stated that this was part of the plan, meant to be exploited by those with the capital
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world system perspective's sorting of states?
- developed core
- semi-periphery (ex. China) exploited and exploiter
- underdeveloped periphery
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structural adjustment programs
- world bank/IMF(??) told less developed countries to open up to foreign trade, required lots of privatization (like water)
- private enterprises bought up their state-owned industry, exploited them
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world society perspective
- why do states share similar structures despite their diverse histories?
- from common set of "world cultural" norms, scripts, models adopted by states
- come from efforts of NGOs, intergovernmental bodies, experts
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institutional isomorphism
countries want to look like they're following the norm
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(world society perspective) states are motivated to enact the prescribed scripts by ______
- embeddedness and model density
- states embedded in relations with each other
- adoption of models by other states makes them more attractive
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Giddens
- time-space compression
- distances shrink, time is accelerated or compressed
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glocalization
- mixing of global and local
- how globalized identities, products, and structures are adapted and modified in local practice
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world systems theory explains ______
inequality and exploitation
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world society theory explains _______
isomorphism and similarities
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space/time explains ______
increasing global interconnectedness, mixing of global and local, changes in space/time
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neo-liberalism
- promotes the efficacy of free markets, limited gov't, private property
- as an economic model: market forces are the way to organize society, allocated resources. likes privatization, deregulation, free flow of capital, minimal gov't interference in market activities
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if ur a neoliberalist: more competition leads to _____
greater consumer choice and efficiency
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if ur a neoliberalist: global economic integration is ______
inevitable
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if ur a neoliberalist: individual or society/group?
primacy of individual over society/group
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digital divide
- seperation of people who have internet and those who don't (rural areas, people who can't afford it)
- even if you have the internet, you have to know how to use it
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with globalization, more ________ movement across nations
temporary and permanent
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globalization promotes ______ and ________
convergence and divergence
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globalization is a complex set of processes linked to:
- capitalism
- insitutional isomorphism
- changes in time/space
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what would a scientist say knowledge is?
knowledge/truth is produced through rigorous objectivity and the application of the scientific mind
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what would a sociologist say knowledge is?
knowledge is the product of social processes
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Robert Merton's Scientific Norms (CUDOS)
- communalism
- universalism
- disinterestedness
- organized skepticism
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communalism (CUDOS)
the products of science belong to the whole scientific community (discoveries are not a secret)
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universalism (CUDOS)
all scientists can contribute without being judged on personal characteristics
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disinterestedness (CUDOS)
scientists do not act out of personal gain
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organized skepticism (CUDOS)
- claims are exposed to critical scrutiny and peer review
- science is self-critical
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what did science include once sociologists started seeing it as a social enterprise?
- self-interest
- power
- ritual
- tradition
- symbolism
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Thomas Kuhn
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- incl. scientific paradigms, problem-solving, anomalies, change
- argues that science itself is a social enterprise
- commits ppl to seeing the world in a certain way, which explains why it can withstand a fair amount of contradictory evidence (anomalies)
- dogmatic principles?
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social construction: scientific facts are ________
- constructed
- process of construction is tidied up in written accounts
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Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar
- "Laboratory Life"
- treated a laboratory like a different culture/tribe
- how does a lab work as a social institution?
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Public Understanding of Science
- how is scientific knowledge being constructed and used in public domains?
- used to exert authority, or as a basis for decision-making (politics)
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symbolic interactionism
- focuses on interaction among individuals and the everyday use of symbols
- symbols come to be shared through the process of socialization
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symbolic interactionism in the media:
- its microsociological focus gives it a limited applicability
- doesn't easily extend to how media institutions are organized/their role in society
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structural functionalism in the media
- this macrosociological theory focuses on social order
- order is maintained by a shared consensus about social norms (social cohesion)
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media contributes to social oder by performing four functions:
- surveillance of the environment
- correlation of parts of society (cohesion)
- transmission of social heritage (how culture carries forward ideas, beliefs, etc)
- entertainment (maintaining social order diffuses tensions of society?)
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conflict theory in the media:
- macrosociological theory, concentrates on social conflict bw unequal groups and change
- allows sociologists to question rather than defend media institutions
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feminism in the media
- contemporary feminist theory on the media concerned with several themes:
- difference (how the media justifies inequality bw men and women on the basis of natural differences)
- voice (degree to which women are denied opportunity to speak in various forms of communication)
- representation (ways in which women are depicted in the media, consequences of these characterizations
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two main types of critical theory
- political economy
- cultural studies
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political economy
focuses on ownership/control of the media, gov't policy/regulation, conflicts over ownership, policy, globalization
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cultural studies
emphasizes importance of the ideology embedded in media content, interpretation by audience members, efforts to change media representations/provide alternate messages
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public ownership
- media owned by the gov't (ex. CBC)
- freely available, education, ensures a Canadian voice
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private ownership
media owned by commercial firms, content based on ability to produce profit
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types of private media ownership: vertical integration
- one firm owning media enterprises that link production, distribution, and exhibition or retail to guarantee an outlet for prices
- may prevent content from other sources
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net neutrality
principle that internet providers should enable access to all content regardless of the source, without favoring or blocking any particular products or websites
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types of private media ownership: cross-ownership
when a media company owns organizations that are associated with diff types of media for efficient, economical use of administrative costs
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types of media ownership: conglomerate
- a company that owns many firms engaged in a variety of business activities (media may be a major or minor part of the business)
- combines horizontal or vertical or cross-ownership
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surveillance
routine collection of data about individuals w the specific purpose of governing, regulating, managing, or influencing what they do in the future
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power and surveillance
if surveillance is about monitoring and data collection for the purposes of governing, managing, or influencing
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cyber-utopianism
- technologies will liberate us from power structures
- liberate = decentralize power hierarchies
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cyber-pessimism/realism
technologies are used to benefit powerful corporations and states
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the new empowerment
we can use technologies to profoundly affect one another (for good and bad)
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digital enclosure
- an interactive (thru "new media") realm wherein every action and transaction generates information about itself
- creates a digital record
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"asymmetrical loss of privacy"
we're becoming more transparent, but companies collecting the info are opaque
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