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Learning Objectives
• Summarize the concept of social hierarchy as related to the development of social class
A social hierarchy refers to the arrangement of people in society, with some people having more power and others having less. Social hierarchies, also referred to as social stratification, largely refers to socioeconomics, or the amount of material and social capital that an individual possesses. However, the socioeconomic classification is a stand-in for the amount of power possessed by an individual. Thus, one can layer and categorize individuals and classify them by group according to how much social power they possess.
Social class is the layer or social stratum denoting socioeconomic power into which an individual falls. In other words, social class describes how people are differentiated based upon their wealth or power. In the late eighteenth century, class came to replace such categories as estates, rank, and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions. This corresponded to a general decrease in the significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics and an increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy. While hereditary characteristics, such as being born into a wealthy family, continue to influence the ease with which one establishes adult social standing, the model that emphasizes class and achieved status maintains the status quo in capitalistic societies, particularly the United States.
The study of social class and hierarchies fundamentally asks questions about inequality. Sociology has a long history of studying stratification and teaching about various kinds of inequality, including economic inequality, racial and ethnic inequality, and gender inequality. Inequality means that people have unequal access to scarce and valued resources in society, such as health care, education, jobs, property, housing, and political influence. Sociologists study the causes and effects of inequality.
As such, sociologists pay particular attention to socioeconomic status, as it signifies an equation of power and wealth that denotes a particular form of inequality. Late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century German social theorist Max Weber proposed that socioeconomic status was configured by a combination of power, property, and prestige. For Weber, power refers to an individual’s ability to impose his will on others, regardless of their wishes. Property refers to the sum total of one’s possessions in addition to their income. Property therefore goes beyond income as a measure of social class because it measures accumulated wealth in addition to one’s earning potential. Prestige refers to the reputation or esteem associated with one’s position in society. Prestige used to be associated with family name, but now more frequently is yoked to occupation. Occupations like physicians or lawyers tend to hold more prestige than bartenders or janitors.
Power, prestige, and property tend to go hand in hand. An individual who is born into a wealthy family is likely to be born with more property and have access to better educational resources to achieve prestige, culminating in more power. Yet this is not always the case. For example, a professor may have little property, but has high prestige. Conversely, a “trust-fund baby” or someone left family money, might have much property, but little prestige in a society that values personal achievement.
Social class is commonly organized into a three-class model, by which individuals are separated into upper, middle, and lower classes. The upper class consists of the wealthy and powerful individuals who own and control the means of production. In the United States, the upper class is comprised of the richest 1-2% of the country, but other countries, particularly in Europe, still emphasize aristocracy and the family into which one was born. The middle class is the broadest swath of society, consisting of professional workers, small business owners, and low-level managers. These people are also referred to as “white collar workers. ” The lower class consists of people who work wage jobs rather than salaried positions. Referred to as “blue collar workers,” the lower class has little economic security and includes both individuals working lower-paying positions and unemployed and/or homeless people.
Social class in the United States looks a little bit different than one might suppose given the three-class model. Consider the following facts: Four hundred Americans have the same wealth as the bottom 50% of Americans combined. Twenty-five Americans have a combined income almost as great as the combined incomes of two billion of the world’s poor. In 2007, CEOs in the top American companies received an average salary of \$10.5 million per year, 344 times the pay of the average worker. Half of American children will reside in a household that uses food stamps at some point in their childhoods. As you can see, the upper class in the United States contains very few Americans; the population is concentrated in the middle and lower classes. Yet, the few people in the upper class control a disproportionate amount of American wealth.
Key Points
• A social hierarchy refers to the arrangement of people in society, with some people having more power and others having less.
• Max Weber evaluated an individual’s social class by a measure of power, property, and prestige.
• Social class is typically thought of in a three-class model, dividing a population into upper, middle, and lower classes.
• In the United States, very few people are in the upper class, but the upper class possesses a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth.
Key Terms
• socioeconomics: The branch of economics that deals with social aspects.
• White Collar Workers: The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor. Typically white collar work is performed in an office or cubicle.
• Three-Class Model: It includes the “rich,” the “middle class,” and the “poor. “
• social facts: the values, cultural norms, and social structures which transcend the individual and are capable of exercising a social constraint | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.03%3A_Elements_of_Social_Interaction/5.3E%3A_Social_Class.txt |
Groups are collections of people who identify and interact with one another and are united in some way.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss how heuristics allow people to learn about people within a society based on group affiliation and give examples of both positive and negative heuristics
A social group is a collection of people who identify and interact with one another. They are united in some way, meaning that they may share interests, values, language, backgrounds, social roles, or family ties.
Perceiving society as a composite of groups allows for one to generalize about a particular person. If you know something about which groups a particular person belongs to, you may import certain character traits to that particular individual. In this way, groups operate as a cognitive heuristic, meaning that people use groups as a shortcut to use generalized information to learn about a particular person. If you know that Johnny is a member of the Computer Geek Club, you will assume that Johnny likes computers. Thus, you use group identity to generalize and make assumptions about a specific individual. Heuristics are sometimes perceived to be legitimate assumptions about an individual and sometimes deemed illegitimate. Legitimate heuristics tend to just be those that import positive generalizations to a particular person. For example, if you know that Sue holds an undergraduate degree, you may assume that Sue is an educated individual. However, the same heuristic can function in negative ways; this is the underlying mechanism that enables stereotypes. Stereotyping is when one makes generalizations about a particular person in a negative way based on their perceived group identity. Racism is one example of this; making assumptions about an individual because of their racial background is an example of negative group heuristics and stereotyping. Both legitimate and illegitimate heuristics demonstrate how knowledge about one’s group affiliations conveys perceived social knowledge about that individual.
In this way, a person’s group affiliation is associated with that person’s identity. The relationship between identity and politics is dynamic and contested. Sometimes a person is perceived to be part of a group to which they identify, such as when someone makes assumptions about another person’s identity based on their racial background. Conversely, an individual may claim membership to a group that rejects the petition. Take, for example, Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 campaign for the United States Senate. In public remarks, Warren declared that she had Native American heritage and was part Cherokee. However, many Cherokee individuals protested the declaration and insisted that Ms. Warren was not Cherokee until she could prove otherwise. By this, one can see how groups can serve as an interface between an individual and society at large.
Key Points
• Groups can be united by shared interests, values, language, backgrounds, social roles, or family ties.
• Group identification is one way that individuals make assumptions about others’ identities.
• Groups operate as cognitive heuristics. Heuristics are sometimes perceived to be legitimate assumptions about an individual and sometimes deemed illegitimate. Legitimate heuristics tend to just be those that import positive generalizations to a particular person.
• Group affiliation is negotiated. Sometimes an individual will protest an assumed group affiliation. Other times, a group will contest an individual’s claim to membership.
Key Terms
• Legitimate Heuristic: Generally, a heuristic that imports positive generalizations to a particular person.
• stereotype: A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image of a group of people or things.
• heuristic: An experience-based technique for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Examples include using a rule of thumb or making an educated guess. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.03%3A_Elements_of_Social_Interaction/5.3F%3A_Groups.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Discuss how the development of social institutions, both formal and informal, acts a guide for the rules and expectation of people within society
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given community. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual lives and intention by enforcing rules that govern cooperative behavior. While institutions are obviously comprised of individuals and create rules through these individuals’ agentic actions, institutions act as forces of socialization, meaning that they teach individuals to conform to their norms.
Institutions can be either formal or informal. Formal institutions are those that are created with the intention of governing human behavior. Examples include the United States Congress, an institution that is designed to create the laws of the United States. However, formal institutions do not have to have the force of the law at their disposal. Another example is the Roman Catholic Church. While violating the tenets of the Catholic Church is not in violation of law, the Church expects its members to adhere to its religious codes. Informal institutions are those that are not designed to regulate conduct, but often end up doing so as members seek to conform to communal standards. Institutions can also be abstract, such as the institution of marriage. This means that marriage has become a social expectation, with informal rules for how married people are expected to behave.
While institutions tend to appear to people in society as part of the natural, unchanging landscape of their lives, sociological studies of institutions reveal institutions a social constructs, meaning that they are created by individuals and particular historical and cultural moment. Sociology traditionally analyzes social institutions in terms of interlocking social roles and expectations. Social institutions are created by and defined by their own creation of social roles for their members. The social function of the institution is the fulfillment of the assigned roles.
Institutionalization refers to the process of embedding something, such as a concept, a social role, a value, or a logic within an organization, social system, or society as a whole. The process of institutionalization elucidates how values, norms, and institutions are so closely intertwined.
Key Points
• Institutions can either be formal, in that they are designed to govern behavior, or informal, in that they govern behavior by socialization rather than overt practices.
• Institutionalization refers to the process of embedding something, such as a concept, a social role, a value, or a logic within an organization, social system, or society as a whole.
• Institutions can also be abstract, such as the institution of marriage.
Key Terms
• Informal Institutions: They are those that are not designed to regulate conduct, but often end up doing so as members seek to conform to communal standards.
• Formal Institutions: They are those that are created with the intention of governing human behavior.
5.3H: Social Networks
Learning Objectives
• Assess the role of social networks in the socialization of people
A social network is a social structure that exists between actors—individuals or organizations. A social network indicates the way that people and organizations are connected through various social familiarities, ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. Social networks are composed of nodes and ties. The person or organization participating in the network is called a node. Ties are the various types of connections between these nodes. Ties are assessed in terms of strength. Loose connections, like mere acquaintances, are called weak ties. Strong ties, like family bonds are called strong ties.
Shape and Size
The shape and size of social networks influence their utility for their nodal participants. Smaller, tighter networks composed of strong ties behave differently than larger, looser networks of weak ties. The looser and larger the network, the more likely nodes are to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members. Participants in smaller networks are more likely to share values and information, increasing efficiency, but decreasing creativity.
Small World Phenomenon
The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase “six degrees of separation” after a 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram which found that two random US citizens were connected by an average of six acquaintances.
Facebook as a Social Network: This video discusses the merits and problems with Facebook as a social network.
The study of social networks is called either social network analysis or social network theory. Research has indicated that social networks operate on many levels—from familial to national—and play a critical role in determining the ways that problems are solved, the way organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals. Social network theory argues that individual traits and characteristics usually presumed to have significance actually matter far less than an individual’s relationship and ties to other actors in a network. Critics argue that this perspective diminishes the power and agency of the individual. Despite these criticisms, sociologists study social networks because of their influence on individuals. Social networks are seen as the basic tool individuals use to connect to society.
Key Points
• A social network is comprised by various nodes and the ties that connect them.
• Nodes can be individuals or organizations.
• Ties are the various types of connections these nodes. Ties are assessed in terms of strength. Loose connections, like mere acquaintances, are called weak ties. Strong ties, like family bonds are called strong ties.
• The study of networks is called either social network analysis or social network theory.
• The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short. The concept gave rise to the phrase “six degrees of separation” after Stanley Milgram’s 1967 experiment.
Key Terms
• Ties: They are the various types of connections between nodes.
• node: They are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors.
• Social Network Analysis: It is the study of social networks | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/05%3A_Social_Interaction/5.03%3A_Elements_of_Social_Interaction/5.3G%3A_Social_Institutions.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain how virtual worlds are changing the face of societal interactions, such as through the development of new language and like-minded communities
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another. Individuals create online representations of themselves called avatars that can interact on the internet under direction of the avatar’s creator. Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from reality or fantasy worlds. Example rules are gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions and communication.
Social interaction between users can range from communication via text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, touch, voice command, and balance senses. Many MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) have real-time actions and communication. Players create a character who travels between buildings, towns and worlds to carry out business or leisure activities. Communication is usually textual, but real-time voice communication is also possible.
Many studies of virtual worlds have questioned the virtual world’s ability to convey nuanced emotional messages as people do in face-to-face interactions. Certainly, users have developed techniques in the virtual world to communicate emotion. Beyond writing messages, users can communicate using emoticons, or simple “smilies” that visually depict simple emotions. While emoticons obviously do not convey the same range of mixed emotions as a human face, it is clear that participants in virtual worlds are innovating with language and images to develop new forms of communication.
Another aspect of social interaction in virtual worlds is variation of interactions between participants. While interaction with other participants in virtual worlds can often be done in real-time, time consistency is not always maintained in online virtual worlds.
Although the social interactions of participants in virtual worlds are often viewed in the context of online games, other forms of interaction are common. These include forums, wikis, chat rooms and video-conferences. Communities are born which have their own rules, topics, jokes and even language. Members of such communities can find like-minded people to interact with, whether this be through a shared passion, the wish to share information, or a desire to meet new people and experience new things.
Virtual Worlds: This video provides an overview of three different virtual worlds (There.com, Second Life, and World of Warcraft) and shows how different individuals and companies use the websites.
Key Points
• Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from reality or fantasy worlds. Social interaction between users can range from communication via text, graphical icons, visual gesture, touch, voice command, and balance senses.
• Researchers have questioned the virtual world ‘s ability to convey nuanced emotional messages in face-to-face interactions. That said, participants in virtual worlds are innovating with language and images to develop new forms of communication like emoticons.
• Another aspect of social interaction in virtual worlds is variation in interactions between participants. While the interaction with other participants in virtual worlds can often be done in real-time, time consistency is not always maintained in online virtual worlds.
Key Terms
• emoticon: A graphical representation, either in the form of an image or made up of ASCII characters, of a particular emotion of the writer.
• Virtual World: It is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another.
• avatar: The physical embodiment of an idea or concept; a personification.
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Learning Objectives
• Contrast the social cohesion-based concept of a social group with the social identity concept
In the social sciences, a social group is two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and have a collective sense of unity. This is a very broad definition, as it includes groups of all sizes, from dyads to whole societies. A society can be viewed as a large group, though most social groups are considerably smaller. Society can also be viewed as people who interact with one another, sharing similarities pertaining to culture and territorial boundaries.
A social group exhibits some degree of social cohesion and is more than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals, such as people waiting at a bus stop or people waiting in a line. Characteristics shared by members of a group may include interests, values, representations, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties. One way of determining if a collection of people can be considered a group is if individuals who belong to that collection use the self-referent pronoun “we;” using “we” to refer to a collection of people often implies that the collection thinks of itself as a group. Examples of groups include: families, companies, circles of friends, clubs, local chapters of fraternities and sororities, and local religious congregations.
Renowned social psychologist Muzafer Sherif formulated a technical definition of a social group. It is a social unit consisting of a number of individuals interacting with each other with respect to:
1. common motives and goals;
2. an accepted division of labor;
3. established status relationships;
4. accepted norms and values with reference to matters relevant to the group; and
5. the development of accepted sanctions, such as raise and punishment, when norms were respected or violated.
Explicitly contrasted with a social cohesion-based definition for social groups is the social identity perspective, which draws on insights made in social identity theory. The social identity approach posits that the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of social groups is “awareness of a common category membership” and that a social group can be “usefully conceptualized as a number of individuals who have internalized the same social category membership as a component of their self concept. ” Stated otherwise, while the social cohesion approach expects group members to ask “who am I attracted to? ” the social identity perspective expects group members to simply ask “who am I? ”
Key Points
• A social group exhibits some degree of social cohesion and is more than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals.
• Social cohesion can be formed through shared interests, values, representations, ethnic or social background, and kinship ties, among other factors.
• The social identity approach posits that the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of social groups is the awareness that an individual belongs and is recognized as a member of a group.
• The social identity approach posits that the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of social groups is the awareness that the individual belongs and is recognized as a member of a group.
Key Terms
• social group: A collection of humans or animals that share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity.
• The social identity approach: Posits that the necessary and sufficient condition for the formation of social groups is awareness of a common category membership.
• The social cohesion approach: More than a simple collection or aggregate of individuals, such as people waiting at a bus stop, or people waiting in a line. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.01%3A_Types_of_Social_Groups/6.1A%3A_The_Nature_of_Groups.txt |
Learning Objectives
• List at least three defining characteristics of a primary group
Sociologists distinguish between two types of groups based upon their characteristics. A primary group is typically a small social group whose members share close, personal, enduring relationships. These groups are marked by concern for one another, shared activities and culture, and long periods of time spent together. The goal of primary groups is actually the relationships themselves rather than achieving some other purpose. Families and close friends are examples of primary groups.
Charles Cooley
The concept of the primary group was introduced by Charles Cooley, a sociologist from the Chicago School of sociology, in his book Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind (1909). Primary groups play an important role in the development of personal identity. Cooley argued that the impact of the primary group is so great that individuals cling to primary ideals in more complex associations and even create new primary groupings within formal organizations. To that extent, he viewed society as a constant experiment in enlarging social experience and in coordinating variety. He, therefore, analyzed the operation of such complex social forms as formal institutions and social class systems and the subtle controls of public opinion.
Functions of Primary Groups
A primary group is a group in which one exchanges implicit items, such as love, caring, concern, support, etc. Examples of these would be family groups, love relationships, crisis support groups, and church groups. Relationships formed in primary groups are often long lasting and goals in themselves. They also are often psychologically comforting to the individuals involved and provide a source of support and encouragement.
Key Points
• Primary groups are marked by concern for one another, shared activities and culture, and long periods of time spent together. They are psychologically comforting and quite influential in developing personal identity.
• Families and close friends are examples of primary groups.
• The goal of primary groups is actually the relationships themselves rather than achieving some other purpose.
• The concept of the primary group was introduced by Charles Cooley in his book, Social Organization : A Study of the Larger Mind.
Key Terms
• Close friends: They are examples of primary groups.
• group: A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.
• relationship: Connection or association; the condition of being related.
6.1C: Secondary Groups
Learning Objectives
• Outline the main distinctions between primary and secondary groups
Unlike first groups, secondary groups are large groups whose relationships are impersonal and goal oriented. People in a secondary group interact on a less personal level than in a primary group, and their relationships are generally temporary rather than long lasting. Some secondary groups may last for many years, though most are short term. Such groups also begin and end with very little significance in the lives of the people involved.
Secondary relationships involve weak emotional ties and little personal knowledge of one another. In contrast to primary groups, secondary groups don’t have the goal of maintaining and developing the relationships themselves.
Charles Cooley
The distinction between primary and secondary groups was originally proposed by Charles Cooley. He labeled groups as “primary” because people often experience such groups early in their life and such groups play an important role in the development of personal identity. Secondary groups generally develop later in life and are much less likely to be influential on one’s identity.
Functions
Since secondary groups are established to perform functions, people’s roles are more interchangeable. A secondary group is one you have chosen to be a part of. They are based on interests and activities. They are where many people can meet close friends or people they would just call acquaintances. Secondary groups are also groups in which one exchanges explicit commodities, such as labor for wages, services for payments, etc. Examples of these would be employment, vendor-to-client relationships, a doctor, a mechanic, an accountant, and such. A university class, an athletic team, and workers in an office all likely form secondary groups. Primary groups can form within secondary groups as relationships become more personal and close.
Key Points
• The distinction between primary and secondary groups was originally proposed by Charles Cooley. He termed them “secondary” because they generally develop later in life and are much less likely to be influential on one’s identity than primary groups.
• Secondary relationships involve weak emotional ties and little personal knowledge of one another. In contrast to primary groups, secondary groups don’t have the goal of maintaining and developing the relationships themselves.
• Secondary groups include groups in which one exchanges explicit commodities, such as labor for wages, services for payments, and such. They also include university classes, athletic teams, and groups of co-workers.
Key Terms
• primary group: It is typically a small social group whose members share close, personal, enduring relationships. These groups are marked by concern for one another, shared activities and culture, and long periods of time spent together.
• group: A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.
• Secondary groups: They are large groups whose relationships are impersonal and goal-oriented. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.01%3A_Types_of_Social_Groups/6.1B%3A_Primary_Groups.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Recall two of the key features of in-group biases toward out-groups
In sociology and social psychology, in-groups and out-groups are social groups to which an individual feels as though he or she belongs as a member, or towards which they feel contempt, opposition, or a desire to compete, respectively. People tend to hold positive attitudes towards members of their own groups, a phenomenon known as in-group bias. The term originates from social identity theory which grew out of the work of social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner.
In-group favoritism refers to a preference and affinity for one’s in-group over the out-group or anyone viewed as outside the in-group. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, linking, allocation of resources, and many other ways. A key notion in understanding in-group/out-group biases is determining the psychological mechanism that drives the bias. One of the key determinants of group biases is the need to improve self-esteem. That is individuals will find a reason, no matter how insignificant, to prove to themselves why their group is superior.
Intergroup aggression is any behavior intended to harm another person because he or she is a member of an out group. Intergroup aggression is a by product of in-group bias, in that if the beliefs of the in-group are challenged or if the in-group feels threatened, then they will express aggression toward the out-group. The major motive for intergroup aggression is the perception of a conflict of interest between in-group and out-group. The way the aggression is justified is through dehumanizing the out-group, because the more the out-group is dehumanized the “less they deserve the humane treatment enjoined by universal norms. ”
The out-group homogeneity effect is one’s perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members, e.g. “they are alike; we are diverse. ” The out-group homogeneity effect has been found using a wide variety of different social groups, from political and racial groups to age and gender groups. Perceivers tend to have impressions about the diversity or variability of group members around those central tendencies or typical attributes of those group members. Thus, out-group stereotypicality judgments are overestimated, supporting the view that out-group stereotypes are over-generalizations In an experiment testing out-group homogeneity, researchers revealed that people of other races are perceived to look more alike than members of one’s own race. When white students were shown faces of a few white and a few black individuals, they later more accurately recognized white faces they had seen and often falsely recognized black faces not seen before. The opposite results were found when subjects consisted of black individuals.
Prejudice is a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinct group, based solely on their membership within that group. There are three components. The first is the affective component, representing both the type of emotion linked with the attitude and the severity of the attitude. The second is a cognitive component, involving beliefs and thoughts that make up the attitude. The third is a behavioral component, relating to one’s actions – people do not just hold attitudes, they act on them as well. Prejudice primarily refers to a negative attitude about others, although one can also have a positive prejudice in favor of something. Prejudice is similar to stereotype in that a stereotype is a generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members.
Key Points
• In- group favoritism refers to a preference and affinity for one’s in-group over the out-group, or anyone viewed as outside the in-group.
• One of the key determinants of group biases is the need to improve self-esteem. That is individuals will find a reason, no matter how insignificant, to prove to themselves why their group is superior.
• Intergroup aggression is any behavior intended to harm another person, because he or she is a member of an out-group, the behavior being viewed by its targets as undesirable.
• The out-group homogeneity effect is one’s perception of out-group members as more similar to one another than are in-group members (e.g., “they are alike; we are diverse”).
• Prejudice is a hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinct group, based solely on their membership within that group.
• A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people in which identical characteristics are assigned to virtually all members of the group, regardless of actual variation among the members.
Key Terms
• in-group bias: It refers to a preference and affinity for one’s in-group over the out-group, or anyone viewed as outside the in-group.
• Intergroup aggression: It is any behavior intended to harm another person because he or she is a member of an out-group, the behavior being viewed by its targets as undesirable.
• In-group favoritism: It refers to a preference and affinity for one’s in-group over the out-group, or anyone viewed as outside the in-group. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, linking, allocation of resources and many other ways. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.01%3A_Types_of_Social_Groups/6.1D%3A_In-Groups_and_Out-Groups.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain the purpose of a reference group
Social comparison theory is centered on the belief that there is a drive within individuals to gain accurate self-evaluations. Individuals evaluate their own opinions and define the self by comparing themselves to others. One important concept in this theory is the reference group. A reference group refers to a group to which an individual or another group is compared. Sociologists call any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior a reference group.
Reference groups are used in order to evaluate and determine the nature of a given individual or other group’s characteristics and sociological attributes. It is the group to which the individual relates or aspires to relate himself or herself psychologically. Reference groups become the individual’s frame of reference and source for ordering his or her experiences, perceptions, cognition, and ideas of self. It is important for determining a person’s self-identity, attitudes, and social ties. These groups become the basis of reference in making comparisons or contrasts and in evaluating one’s appearance and performance.
Robert K. Merton hypothesized that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires. Reference groups act as a frame of reference to which people always refer to evaluate their achievements, their role performance, aspirations and ambitions. A reference group can either be from a membership group or non-membership group.
An example of a reference group is a group of people who have a certain level of affluence. For example, an individual in the U.S. with an annual income of \$80,000, may consider himself affluent if he compares himself to those in the middle of the income strata, who earn roughly \$32,000 a year. If, however, the same person considers the relevant reference group to be those in the top 0.1% of households in the U.S., those making \$1.6 million or more, then the individual’s income of \$80,000 would make him or her seem rather poor.
Key Points
• Social comparison theory argues that individuals use comparisons with others to gain accurate self-evaluations and learn how to define the self. A reference group is a concept referring to a group to which an individual or another group is compared.
• Reference groups provide the benchmarks and contrast needed for comparison and evaluation of group and personal characteristics.
• Robert K. Merton hypothesized that individuals compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which the individual aspires.
Key Terms
• self-identity: a multi-dimensional construct that refers to an individual’s perception of “self” in relation to any number of characteristics, such as academics and non academics, gender roles and sexuality, racial identity,and many others.
• social role: it is a set of connected behaviors, rights, and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation.
• reference group: it is a concept referring to a group to which an individual or another group is compared.
6.1F: Social Networks
Learning Objectives
• Diagram, in miniature, your social networks using nodes and ties
A social network is a social structure between actors, either individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities, ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. The study of social networks is called both “social network analysis” and “social network theory. ” Research in a number of academic fields has demonstrated that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals. Sociologists are interested in social networks because of their influence on and importance for the individual. Social networks are the basic tools used by individuals to meet other people, recreate, and to find social support.
Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. In its most simple form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. In sociology, social capital is the expected collective or economic benefits derived from the preferential treatment and cooperation between individuals and groups.
The rule of 150 states that the size of a genuine social network is limited to about 150 members. The rule arises from cross-cultural studies in sociology and especially anthropology of the maximum size of a village. The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase “six degrees of separation” after a 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram that found that two random U.S. citizens were connected by an average of six acquaintances. Milgram also identified the concept of the familiar stranger, or an individual who is recognized from regular activities, but with whom one does not interact. Somebody who is seen daily on the train or at the gym, but with whom one does not otherwise communicate, is an example of a familiar stranger. If such individuals meet in an unfamiliar setting, for example, while travelling, they are more likely to introduce themselves than would perfect strangers, since they have a background of shared experiences.
Studies
Recent research suggests that the social networks of Americans are shrinking, and more and more people have no close confidants or people with whom they can share their most intimate thoughts. In 1985, the mean network size of individuals in the United States was 2.94 people. Networks declined by almost an entire confidant by 2004, to 2.08 people. Almost half, 46.3% of Americans, say they have only one or no confidants with whom they can discuss important matters. The most frequently occurring response to the question of how many confidants one has was zero in 2004.
Key Points
• The study of social networks is called both “social network analysis” and “social network theory “.
• Social network theory views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors.
• In sociology, social capital is the expected collective or economic benefits derived from the preferential treatment and cooperation between individuals and groups.
• The rule of 150 states that the size of a genuine social network is limited to about 150 members.
• The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short.
• Milgram also identified the concept of the familiar stranger, or an individual who is recognized from regular activities, but with whom one does not interact.
• Milgram also identified the concept of the familiar stranger, or an individual who is recognized from regular activities, but with whom one does not interact.
Key Terms
• node: They are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors.
• social capital: The good will, sympathy, and connections created by social interaction within and between social networks. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.01%3A_Types_of_Social_Groups/6.1E%3A_Reference_Groups.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Discuss at least three central features of online communities
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership rituals. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a bulletin board system or one where only a restricted number of people can initiate posts, such as Weblogs. Online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life. Many means are used in social software separately or in combination, including text-based chat rooms and forums that use voice, video text, or avatars.
The Development of Online Communities
The idea of a community is not a new concept. What is new, however, is transferring it over into the online world. A community was previously defined as a group from a single location. If you lived in the designated area, you became a part of that community. Interaction between community members was done primarily face-to-face and in a social setting. This definition for community no longer applies. In the online world, social interactions no longer have to be face-to-face or based on proximity. Instead, they can be with literally anyone, anywhere. There is a set of values to consider when developing an online community. Some of these values include: opportunity, education, culture, democracy, human services, equality within the economy, information, sustainability, and communication.
Cost plays a role in all aspects and stages for online communities. Fairly cheap and easily attainable technologies and programs have also influenced the increase in establishment of online communities. While payment is necessary to participate in some online communities, such as certain dating websites or for monthly game subscriptions, many other sites are free to users such as the social networks Facebook and Twitter. Because of deregulation and increased Internet access, the popularity of online communities has escalated. Online communities provide instant gratification, entertainment, and learning.
Building Online Communities
Every online community has a distinct set of members who participate differently. A lurker observes the community and viewing content, but does not add to the community content or discussion. A novice engages the community, starts to provide content, and tentatively interacts in a few discussions. A regular consistently adds to the community discussion and content and interacts with other users. A leader is recognized as a veteran participant, connecting with regulars to make higher concepts and ideas. Finally, an elder leaves the community for a variety of reasons. For instance, the elder might experience a change in interests or lack the time to stay connected.
Studies
In 2001, consultants at McKinsey & Company did a study where they found that only 2% of transaction site customers returned after their first purchase. In contrast, 60% of new online communities users began using and visiting the sites regularly after their first experiences. Online communities have changed the game for retail firms, as they have forced them to change their business strategies.
Key Points
• An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership rituals.
• An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a bulletin board system or one where only a restricted number of people can initiate posts, such as Weblogs.
• Cost plays a role in all aspects and stages for online communities. Fairly cheap and easily attainable technologies and programs have also influenced the increase in establishment of online communities.
Key Terms
• information system: Any data processing system, either manual or computerized
• Online communities: It is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual.
• weblog: A website in the form of an ongoing journal; a blog.
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Social groups are defined and separated by boundaries.
Learning Objectives
• Explain what tends to happen to individuals when their group boundaries are impermeable, and also when they are permeable
Key Points
• Cultural sociologists define symbolic boundaries as “conceptual distinctions made by social actors…that separate people into groups and generate feelings of similarity and group membership. ” These boundaries are necessary for the existence of in-groups and out-groups.
• Where group boundaries are considered permeable (e.g., a group member may pass from a low status group into a high status group), individuals are more likely to engage in individual mobility strategies.
• Where group boundaries are considered impermeable, and where status relations are considered reasonably stable, individuals are predicted to engage in social creativity behaviors.
• One important factor in how symbolic boundaries function is how widely they are accepted as valid. Symbolic boundaries are a “necessary but insufficient” condition for social change.
• According to sociologists, it is “only when symbolic boundaries are widely agreed upon can they take on a constraining character… and become social boundaries. ” Thus, rituals and traditions to define boundaries are extremely influential in determining how groups interact.
• In the social sciences, the word “clique” is used to describe a group of 2 to 12 “persons who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting. “
Key Terms
• symbolic boundary: Conceptual distinctions made by social actors that separate people into groups and generate feelings of similarity and group membership.
• individual mobility: The ability of an individual to move from one social group to another.
Social groups are defined by boundaries. Cultural sociologists define symbolic boundaries as “conceptual distinctions made by social actors…that separate people into groups and generate feelings of similarity and group membership. ” In-groups, or social groups to which an individual feels he or she belongs as a member, and out-groups, or groups with which an individual does not identify, would be impossible without symbolic boundaries.
Permeability of Group Boundaries
The perceived permeability of group boundaries is important in determining how members define their identity. Where group boundaries are considered permeable (e.g., a group member may pass from a low status group into a high status group), individuals are more likely to engage in individual mobility strategies. That is, individuals “disassociate from the group and pursue individual goals designed to improve their personal lot rather than that of their in-group. ”
Where group boundaries are considered impermeable, and where status relations are considered reasonably stable, individuals are predicted to engage in social creativity behaviors. Here, without changing necessarily the objective resources of in the in-group or the out-group, low status in-group members are still able to increase their positive distinctiveness. This may be achieved by comparing the in-group to the out-group on some new dimension, changing the values assigned to the attributes of the group, and choosing an alternative out-group by which to compare the in-group.
Defining Boundaries
One important factor in how symbolic boundaries function is how widely they are accepted as valid. Symbolic boundaries are a “necessary but insufficient” condition for social change. According to sociologists, it is “only when symbolic boundaries are widely agreed upon can they take on a constraining character… and become social boundaries. ” Thus, rituals and traditions to define boundaries are extremely influential in determining how groups interact.
Emile Durkheim was interested in this idea. He saw the symbolic boundary between the sacred and the profane as the most profound of all social facts, and the one from which lesser symbolic boundaries were derived. Rituals, whether secular or religious, were for Durkheim the means by which groups maintained their symbolic and moral boundaries. Mary Douglas has subsequently emphasized the role of symbolic boundaries in organizing experience, private and public, even in a secular society. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.02%3A_Functions_of_Social_Groups/6.2A%3A_Defining_Boundaries.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate the seven types of leadership (functional, autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, expressive, authoritarian, and toxic) arguing which one is best
Theories of Leadership
The trait theory of leadership seeks to find attributes that all leaders possess. According to researchers of leadership, all individuals can and do emerge as leaders across a variety of situations and tasks. Significant relationships exist between leadership and such individual traits as: intelligence, adjustment, extraversion, consciousness, openness to experience, and general self-efficacy.
Considering the criticisms of the trait theory outlined above, several researchers have begun to adopt a different perspective of leader individual differences–the leader attribute pattern approach. In contrast to the traditional approach, the leader attribute pattern approach is based on theorists’ arguments that the influence of individual characteristics on outcomes is best understood by considering the person as an integrated totality rather than a summation of individual variables.
Situational theory also appeared as a reaction to the trait theory of leadership. Social scientists argued that history was more than the result of intervention of great men. Herbert Spencer (1884) said that the times produce the person and not the other way around. This theory assumes that different situations call for different characteristics; according to this group of theories, no single optimal psychographic profile of a leader exists. By contrast, functional leadership theory is a particularly useful theory for addressing specific leader behaviors expected to contribute to organizational or unit effectiveness. This theory argues that the leader’s main job is to see that whatever is necessary to group needs is taken care of; thus, a leader can be said to have done their job well when they have contributed to group effectiveness and cohesion.
Styles of Leaderships
Leadership style refers to a leader’s behavior. It is the result of the philosophy, personality, and experience of the leader. Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictators. The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members and by practicing social equality. This style of leadership works well because people feel their voice is being heard, but it can result in fighting and animosity if opinions clash and decisions can not be reached. In the laissez-faire leadership style, a person may be in a leadership position without providing leadership, leaving the group to fend for itself. Subordinates are given a free hand in deciding their own policies and methods. Expressive leaders are concerned about the emotional well-being of the group and want the group to function harmoniously. Authoritarian leaders are dictator-like; they make all the decisions for the group and have the final say, regardless of other’s feelings or opinions. Finally, someone with a toxic leadership style is a person who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the leader-follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a condition that’s worse than when he/she originally found it.
Key Points
• Situational theory states that the times produce the person and not the other way around.
• Functional leadership theory argues that the leader ‘s main job is to see that whatever is necessary to group needs is taken care of.
• Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader.
• The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members.
• In the laissez-faire leadership style, a person may be in a leadership position without providing leadership, leaving the group to fend for itself.
• A toxic leader is someone who leaves the group in a worse-off condition than when he or she first found them.
• A toxic leader is someone who leaves the group in a worse-off condition than when he or she first found them.
Key Terms
• Toxic leadership: A toxic leader is someone who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the leader-follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a worse-off condition than when he/she first found them.
• Autocratic leadership: All decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictators.
• Trait theory of leadership: It is defined as integrated patterns of personal characteristics that reflect a range of individual differences and foster consistent leader effectiveness across a variety of group and organizational situations
• leader: one who organizes or directs a group of people
Leadership is the ability to organize a group of people to achieve a common purpose. Although the leader may or may not have any formal authority, students of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, and intelligence, among others. A leader is somebody who people follow, somebody who guides or directs others. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.02%3A_Functions_of_Social_Groups/6.2B%3A_Choosing_Leaders.txt |
Decision-making is the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios.
Learning Objectives
• Describe three examples of voting which can be used to come to a decision
Key Points
• Groups face unique challenges in decision-making, and as a result there are various decision-making strategies used by groups.
• Consensus decision-making requires that a majority approve a given course of action, but that the minority agrees to go along with the course of action.
• When a consensus is impossible or impractical, voting can be used to come to a decision. Range voting, majority voting, and plurality voting are three examples of this type of decision-making.
• Group polarization refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
• Groupthink is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.
• Groupthinking is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
• Group polarization refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
Key Terms
• Consensus decision-making: It is a group decision making process that seeks the consent, not necessarily the agreement of participants and the resolution of objections.
• groupthink: A process of reasoning or decision making by a group, especially one characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to a perceived majority view.
• Group polarization: It refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
Decision-making is the mental process resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision-making process produces a final choice. Group decision-making is the process used when individuals are brought together in a group to solve problems. According to the idea of synergy, decisions made collectively tend to be more effective than decisions made by a single individual. However, there are situations in which the decisions made by a collection of individuals are riddled with error, or poor judgment. For example, groups high in cohesion have been noted to have a negative effect on group decision making and hence on group effectiveness.
Formal Systems for Making Decisions
Consensus decision-making tries to avoid “winners” and “losers”. Consensus requires that a majority approve a given course of action, but that the minority agrees to go along with the course of action. In other words, if the minority opposes the course of action, consensus requires that the course of action be modified to remove objectionable features.
When a consensus is impossible, impractical, or undesirable, different voting systems can be used for a group to decide on an outcome. Three examples are range voting, majority voting, and plurality voting. Range voting lets each member score one or more of the available options. The option with the highest average is chosen. Majority voting requires support from more than 50% of the members of the group. Plurality voting is where the largest block in a group decides, even if it falls short of a majority.
Social Settings
Decision making in groups is sometimes examined separately as process and outcome. Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints.
Similarly, group polarization refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. These more extreme decisions are towards greater risk if the individual’s initial tendency is to be risky and towards greater caution if individual’s initial tendency is to be cautious. In 2009, an interesting occurrence of group polarization was found in a study conducted by Luhan, Kocher, and Sutter, in which subjects played a ‘dictator game’. In this game, both individual and group decision-making was observed to see how individual preferences with respect to the allocation of money between a dictator and a recipient are transformed into a team decision. Their main finding was that team decisions were more selfish and competitive, less trusting and less altruistic than individual decisions. This study therefore offers evidence of group polarization, where the actions of individuals when in a group were more extreme than when the individual acted individually.
6.2D: Setting Goals
Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T. ) goals.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples of the ways in which improving choice, effort, persistence, and cognition affect outcomes in goal-setting
Key Points
• Setting goals affects outcomes in four ways: choice, effort, persistence, and cognition. Individuals tend to exhibit more of these positive qualities when they are working toward a goal.
• The enhancement of performance through goals requires feedback. Without feedback, goal setting is unlikely to work.
• Edwin A Locke concluded that 90% of laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than did easy goals or no goals at all.
Key Terms
• feedback: Critical assessment on information produced.
• goal: A desired result that one works to achieve.
Setting goals involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T. ) benchmarks for results. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that it’s an effective tool for making progress because participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them. On a personal level, setting goals helps people work toward their own objectives, which are most commonly financial or career-based goals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKKwOdi1VhU
Setting Goals – A Story Time Running Journey: This video shows how setting goals can be used for sports – in this case, for running.
Elements of Goal-Setting
Setting goals affects outcomes in four ways: by improving choice, effort, persistence, and cognition. By choice, we mean that goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions. Secondly, goals can lead to more effort. For example, if a person typically produces four widgets an hour, and sets the goal of producing six, he may work more intensely toward the goal. Third, through improved persistence, someone becomes more prone to work through setbacks when pursuing a goal. Finally, by cognition, we mean that goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behavior.
Five Great Reasons Why You Should Set Goals: Goal-setting is used in business for sustainability, progress, and continued success.
The enhancement of performance through goals requires feedback. Goal setting and feedback go hand in hand, for without feedback, goal setting is unlikely to work. Providing feedback on short-term objectives helps to sustain motivation and commitment to a goal. Feedback should also be provided on the strategies followed to achieve the goals and the final outcomes achieved as well. Goal-setting may have little effect if individuals can’t see the results of their performance in relation to the goal.
Studies in Goal-Setting
The first empirical studies were performed by Cecil Alec Mace in 1935. Later in the mid-1960s, Edwin A. Locke began to examine goal setting, a topic he continued to explore for thirty years. He concluded that 90% of laboratory and field studies involving specific and challenging goals led to higher performance than did easy goals or no goals at all. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.02%3A_Functions_of_Social_Groups/6.2C%3A_Making_Decisions.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Give examples of group polarization, groupthink and herd behavior in real life
Group polarization is the phenomenon that when placed in group situations, people will make decisions and form opinions that are more extreme than when they are in individual situations. The phenomenon has shown that after participating in a discussion group, members tend to advocate more extreme positions and call for riskier courses of action than individuals who did not participate in any such discussion.
The importance of group polarization is significant as it helps explain group behavior in a variety of real-life situations. Examples of these situations include public policy, terrorism, college life, and violence. For instance, group polarization can largely be seen at political conventions that are broadcasted nation wide before a large election. Generally, a political party holds the same ideals and fundamentals. At times, however, individual members of the party may waver on where they stand on smaller subjects. During a political convention, the political party as a group is strongly united in one location and is exposed to many persuasive speakers. As a result, each individual in the political party leaves more energized and steadfast on where the party as a whole stands with regards to all subjects and behind all candidates, even if they were wavering on where they stood before hand.
Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. Irving Janis led the initial research on the groupthink theory. The United States Bay of Pigs Invasion was one of the primary political case studies that Janis used in explaining the theory of groupthink. The invasion plan was initiated by the Eisenhower administration, but when the Kennedy White House took over, it “uncritically accepted” the CIA’s plan. When some people attempted to present their objections to the plan, the Kennedy team as a whole ignored these objections and kept believing in the morality of their plan. Janis claimed the fiasco that ensued could have been prevented if the Kennedy administration had followed the same methods of preventing groupthink that it later followed during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Herd Behavior
Herd behavior describes how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction. The term pertains to the behavior of animals in herds, flocks and schools, and to human conduct during activities such as stock market bubbles and crashes, street demonstrations, sporting events, religious gatherings, episodes of mob violence and everyday decision-making, judgment and opinion-forming.
Key Points
• Group polarization is the phenomenon that when placed in group situations, people will make decisions and form opinions that are more extreme than when they are in individual situations.
• Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
• Herd behavior describes how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction.
• All of these phenomena show how membership in a group can overcome individual behavior.
Key Terms
• herd behavior: The behavior exhibited by individuals in a group who act together without planned direction.
• Group polarization: It refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
• groupthink: A process of reasoning or decision making by a group, especially one characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to a perceived majority view.
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• John F. Kennedy, White House photo portrait, looking up. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...looking_up.jpg. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.02%3A_Functions_of_Social_Groups/6.2E%3A_Controlling_the_Behaviors_of_Group_Members.txt |
Formal structure of an organization or group includes a fixed set of rules for intra-organization procedures and structures.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast formal with informal organizations
Key Points
• A formal organization has its own set of distinct characteristics, including well-defined rules and regulations, an organizational structure, and determined objectives and policies, among other characteristics.
• Formal rules are often adapted to subjective interests, giving the practical everyday life of an organization more informality.
• The deviation from rulemaking on a higher level was documented for the first time in the Hawthorne studies in 1924. This deviation was referred to as informal organization.
Key Terms
• procedure: A particular method for performing a task.
• Formal organization: It is a fixed set of rules of intra-organization procedures and structures.
What are Formal Organizations?
The formal structure of a group or organization includes a fixed set of rules of procedures and structures, usually set out in writing, with a language of rules that ostensibly leave little discretion for interpretation. In some societies and organizations, such rules may be strictly followed; in others, they may be little more than an empty formalism.
Characteristics of Formal Organization
A formal organization has its own set of distinct characteristics. These include well-defined rules and regulation, an organizational structure, and determined objectives and policies, among other characteristics.
Distinction from Informal Organization
Formal rules are often adapted to subjective interests giving the practical everyday life of an organization more informality. Practical experience shows no organization is ever completely rule-bound: all real organizations represent some mix of formal and informal characteristics. When attempting to create a formal structure for an organization, it is necessary to recognize informal organization in order to create workable structures. Tended effectively, the informal organization complements the more explicit structures, plans, and processes of the formal organization. Informal organization can accelerate and enhance responses to unanticipated events, foster innovation, enable people to solve problems that require collaboration across boundaries, and create paths where the formal organization may someday need to pave a way.
The Hawthorne Studies
The deviation from rulemaking on a higher level was documented for the first time in the Hawthorne studies in 1924. This deviation was referred to as informal organization. At first this discovery was ignored and dismissed as the product of avoidable errors, until these unwritten laws of were recognized to have more influence on the fate of the enterprise than those conceived on organizational charts of the executive level. Numerous empirical studies in sociological organization research followed, particularly during the Human Relations Movement—the researchers of organizational development who study the behavior of people in groups, in particular workplace groups.
6.3B: Informal Structure
The informal organization is the aggregate of behaviors, interactions, norms, and personal/professional connections.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the function of informal groups within a formal organizational structure
Key Points
• Keith Davis suggests that informal groups serve at least four major functions within the formal organizational structure.
• Informal groups perpetuate the cultural and social values that the group holds dear.
• Informal groups provide social status and satisfaction that may not be obtained from the formal organization.
• Informal groups develop a communication channel to keep its members informed about what management actions will affect them in various ways.
• Informal groups provide social control by influencing and regulating behavior inside and outside the group.
Key Terms
• Informal organizations: It consists of a dynamic set of personal relationships, social networks, communities of common interest, and emotional sources of motivation. The informal organization evolves organically and spontaneously in response to changes in the work environment, the flux of people through its porous boundaries, and the complex social dynamics of its members.
What is Informal Organization?
The informal organization is the interlocking social structure that governs how people work together in practice. It is the aggregate of behaviors, interactions, norms, and personal/professional connections through which work gets done and relationships are built among people. It consists of a dynamic set of personal relationships, social networks, communities of common interest, and emotional sources of motivation. The informal organization evolves organically in response to changes in the work environment, the flux of people through its porous boundaries, and the complex social dynamics of its members.
Key Characteristics of Informal Organizations
The nature of the informal organization becomes more distinct when its key characteristics are juxtaposed with those of the formal organization. The informal organization is characterized by constant evolution; grass roots; being dynamic and responsive; requiring insider knowledge to be seen; treating people as individuals; being flat and fluid; being cohered by trust and reciprocity; and being difficult to pin down.
Functions of Informal Organizations
Keith Davis suggests that informal groups serve at least four major functions within the formal organizational structure.
First, they perpetuate the cultural and social values that the group holds dear. Certain values are usually already commonly held among informal group members. Day-to-day interaction reinforces these values that perpetuate a particular lifestyle and preserve group unity and integrity. For example, a college management class of 50 students may contain several informal groups that constitute the informal organization within the formal structure of the class.
Second, they provide social status and satisfaction that may not be obtained from the formal organization. In a large organization, a worker may feel like an anonymous number rather than a unique individual. Members of informal groups share jokes and gripes, eat together, play and work together, and are friends—contributing to personal esteem, satisfaction, and a feeling of worth.
Third, the informal group develops a communication channel to keep its members informed about what management actions will affect them in various ways. Many astute managers use the grapevine to “informally” convey certain information about company actions and rumors.
Finally, they provide social control by influencing and regulating behavior inside and outside the group. Internal control persuades members of the group to conform to its lifestyle. For example, if a student starts to wear a coat and tie to class, informal group members may convince the student that such attire is not acceptable and therefore to return to sandals, jeans, and T-shirts.
Business Approaches
Under rapid growth business approach, Starbucks, which grew from 100 employees to over 100,000 in just over a decade, provides structures to support improvisation. Under the Learning Organization model, following a four-year study of the Toyota Production System, Steven J. Spear and H. Kent Bowen concluded in Harvard Business Review that the legendary flexibility of Toyota’s operations is due to the way the scientific method is ingrained in its workers—not through formal training or manuals but through unwritten principles that govern how workers work, interact, construct, and learn.
6.3C: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
“Gemeinschaft” (community) and “Gesellschaft” (society) are concepts referring to two different forms of social organization.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the differences between Ferdinand Tönnies’s notions Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Key Points
• Gemeinschaft, often translated as ” community “, is a concept referring to individuals bound together by common norms, often because of shared physical space and shared beliefs.
• Gesellschaft, often translated as ” society “, refers to associations in which self-interest is the primary justification for membership.
• The equilibrium in Gemeinschaft is achieved through morals, conformism, and exclusion (social control) while Gesellschaft keeps its equilibrium through police, laws, tribunals and prisons. Rules in Gemeinschaft are implicit, while Gesellschaft has explicit rules (written laws).
• Eric Hobsbawm has argued that as globalization turns the entire planet into an increasingly remote kind of Gesellschaft,
• Fredric Jameson highlights the ambivalent envy felt by those constructed by Gessellschaft for remaining enclaves of Gemeinschaft, even as they inevitably corrode their existence.
Key Terms
• norm: A rule that is enforced by members of a community.
• institution: An established organization, especially one dedicated to education, public service, culture, or the care of the destitute, poor etc.
In Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887), Ferdinand Tönnies set out to develop concepts that could be used as analytic tools for understanding why and how the social world is organized.
Gemeinschaft, frequently translated as “community,” refers to individuals bound together by common norms, often because of shared physical space and shared beliefs. Familial ties represent the purest form of gemeinschaft, although religious institutions are also a classic example of this type of relationship. Such groupings based on feelings of togetherness and mutual bonds are maintained by members of the group who see the existence of the group as their key goal. Characteristics of these groups include slight specialization and division of labor, strong personal relationships, and relatively simple social institutions.
Gesellschaft, frequently translated as “society,” refers to associations in which self-interest is the primary justification for membership. A modern business is a good example of an association in which individuals seek to maximize their own self-interest, and in order to do so, an association to coordinate efforts is formed. The specialization of professional roles holds them together, and often formal authority is necessary to maintain structures. Characteristics of these groups include highly calculated divisions of labor, impersonal secondary relationships, and strong social institutions. Such groups are sustained by their members’ individual aims and goals.
The equilibrium in Gemeinschaft is achieved through morals, conformism, and exclusion (social control), while Gesellschaft keeps its equilibrium through police, laws, tribunals and prisons. Amish and Hassidic communities are examples of Gemeinschaft, while state municipalities are types of Gesellschaft. Rules in Gemeinschaft are implicit, while Gesellschaft has explicit rules (written laws).
Tönnies’ distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, like others between tradition and modernity, has been criticized for over-generalizing differences between societies, and implying that all societies were following a similar evolutionary path, which he has never proclaimed. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.03%3A_Large_Social_Groups/6.3A%3A_Formal_Structure.txt |
Mechanical and organic solidarity are concepts referring to different modes of establishing and maintaining social order and cohesion.
Learning Objectives
• Apply Durkheim’s concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity to groups in the real world
Key Points
• Social scientists have long sought to understand how and why individuals live together—especially in dense settings such as those found in urban environments.
• In The Division of Labour in Society, Emile Durkheim outlined two theories to explain how social order and solidarity are established and maintained.
• Solidarity describes connections between individuals that allows them to form a cohesive social unit. Durkheim argued solidarity is significant because it is a necessary component of a functioning civilization and a necessary component of a fulfilling human life.
• Durkheim described two forms of solidarity: mechanical and organic, roughly corresponding to smaller and larger societies.
• Mechanical solidarity refers to connection, cohesion, and integration born from homogeneity, or similar work, education, religiosity, and lifestyle. Organic solidarity is born from the interdependence of individuals in more advanced societies, particularly professional dependence.
Key Terms
• Solidarity: It is the integration—and degree and type of integration—shown by a society or group with people and their neighbors.
• Collective Conscious: A conscience for Durkheim is preeminently the organ of sentiments and representations; it is not the rational organ that the term consciousness would imply.
• Emile Durkheim: David Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology.
Social scientists have long sought to understand how and why individuals live together—especially in dense settings such as those found in urban environments. In The Division of Labor in Society, Emile Durkheim outlined two theories that attempt to explain how social order and solidarity is established and maintained. Solidarity describes connections between individuals that allow them to form a cohesive social network. Durkheim argued solidarity is significant because it is a necessary component of a functioning civilization and a necessary component of a fulfilling human life.
Durkheim described two forms of solidarity: mechanical and organic, roughly corresponding to smaller and larger societies.
Mechanical Solidarity
Mechanical solidarity refers to connection, cohesion, and integration born from homogeneity, or similar work, education, religiosity, and lifestyle. Normally operating in small-scale ” traditional ” societies, mechanical solidarity often describes familial networks; it is often seen as a function of individuals being submerged in a collective consciousness. Collective consciousness is achieved when individuals begin to think and act in relatively similar ways. Though traditional small towns, familial networks, and religious congregations are often cited examples of mechanical solidarity, dispersed religious communities would also qualify if they can be said to share a collective conscience.
Organic Solidarity
Organic solidarity is born from the interdependence of individuals in more advanced societies, particularly professional dependence. Although individuals perform very different roles in an organization, and they often have different values and interests, there is a cohesion that arises from the compartmentalization and specialization woven into “modern” life. For example, farmers produce the food to feed the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmer to produce the food.
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A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials who implements the rules, laws, and functions of their institution.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the function of bureaucrats
Key Points
• A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government.
• Public administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work.
• Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant and hinders or prevents action or decision-making. Examples include filling out paperwork, obtaining licenses, having multiple people or committees approve a decision and various low-level rules.
• Street-level bureaucracy is the subset of a public agency or government institution containing the individuals who carry out and enforce the actions required by laws and public policies.
• Street-level bureaucrats include police officers, firefighters, and other individuals, who on a daily basis interact with regular citizens and provide the force behind the given rules and laws in their areas of expertise.
Key Terms
• Street-level bureaucracy: It is the subset of a public agency or government institution containing the individuals who carry out and enforce the actions required by laws and public policies
• red tape: A derisive term for regulations or bureaucratic procedures that are considered excessive or excessively time- and effort-consuming.
• Public administration: It houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work.
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a government or organization who implements the rules, laws, and functions of their institution. A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government. Bureaucrat jobs were historically often “desk jobs,” though the modern bureaucrat may be found “in the field” as well as in an office. Public administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. In the US, civil servants and academics such as Woodrow Wilson promoted American civil service reform in the 1880s, moving public administration into academia.
Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making. It is usually applied to governments, corporations and other large organizations. Red tape generally includes filling out paperwork, obtaining licenses, having multiple people or committees approve a decision and various low-level rules that make conducting one’s affairs slower, more difficult, or both. Red tape can also include “filing and certification requirements, reporting, investigation, inspection and enforcement practices, and procedures”. The “cutting of red tape” is a popular electoral and policy promise. In the United States, a number of committees have discussed and debated Red Tape Reduction Acts. Across the Atlantic, the European Commission has a competition that offers an award for the “Best Idea for Red Tape Reduction”. The competition is “aimed at identifying innovative suggestions for reducing unnecessary bureaucracy stemming from European law”. In 2008, the European Commission held a conference entitled ‘Cutting Red Tape for Europe’. The goal of the conference was “reducing red tape and overbearing bureaucracy” to help “business people and entrepreneurs improve competitiveness”.
As opposed to bureaucrats carrying out “desk jobs,” street-level bureaucracy is the subset of a public agency or government institution containing the individuals who carry out and enforce the actions required by laws and public policies. Street-level bureaucracy is accompanied by the idea that these individuals vary the extents to which they enforce the rules and laws assigned to them. The concept of street-level bureaucracy was first coined by Michael Lipsky in 1980, who argued that “policy implementation in the end comes down to the people who actually implement it”. He argued that state employees such as police and social workers should be seen as part of the “policy-making community” and as exercisers of political power. Street-level bureaucrats include police officers, firefighters, and other individuals, who on a daily basis interact with regular citizens and provide the force behind the given rules and laws in their areas of expertise. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.04%3A_Bureaucracy/6.4A%3A_Bureaucracies_and_Formal_Groups.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Describe Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy and his concept of the “iron cage”
Weberian bureaucracy was a term coined by Max Weber, a notable German sociologist, political economist, and administrative scholar, who contributed to the study of bureaucracy, administrative discourses, and literature during the mid-1800s and early 1900s. In his 1922 masterpiece, Economy and Society, Weber described many ideal types of public administration and governance. His critical study of the bureaucratization of society was one of the most enduring parts of this work. It was Weber who began the study of bureaucracy and whose works led to the popularization of this term. Many aspects of modern public administration date back to him. This is epitomized in the fact that a classic, hierarchically-organized civil service is still called a “Weberian civil service. ”
Weber listed the following as preconditions for the emergence of bureaucracy: the growth in size and density of the population being administered, the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a monetary economy requiring a more efficient administrative system. As a result of the development of communication and transportation technologies, like telegraphs and automobiles, a more efficient administration became not only possible but demanded by the public. Accompanying this shift was an increasing democratization and rationalization of culture. This resulted in public demands for a new administrative system that treated all humans equally. Weber’s ideal bureaucracy is characterized by the following:
• hierarchical organization
• delineated lines of authority with fixed areas of activity
• action taken on the basis of, and recorded in, written rules
• bureaucratic officials with expert training
• rules implemented by neutral officials
• and career advancement depending on technical qualifications judged by organization, not individuals
Rational-Legal Authority
Weber identified in bureaucracies a rational-legal authority in which legitimacy is seen as coming from a legal order. The majority of modern bureaucratic officials and political leaders represent this type of authority. However, while recognizing bureaucracy as the most efficient form of organization, and perhaps indispensable for the modern state, Weber also saw it as a threat to individual freedoms. For Weber, the implementation of bureaucracies in government was a kind of rationalization, in which traditional motivators for behavior were cast aside. Instead of utilizing traditions, emotions, or values to motivate behavior, in a bureaucracy, people used rational calculation. Regarding Western societies, Weber called this increasing rationalization an “iron cage” that trapped individuals in systems based solely on efficiency, rational calculation, and control. In his theory, the “iron cage” is the one set of rules and laws that we are all subjected to. According to Weber, the shift from old forms of mobility, like kinship, to new forms, like strict, legal rules, was a direct result of the growth of bureaucracy and capitalism.
Key Points
• Weber listed several preconditions for the emergence of bureaucracy: the growth in size of the population being administered, the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out, and the existence of a monetary economy requiring a more efficient administrative system.
• Weber identified in bureaucracies a rational-legal authority in which legitimacy is seen as coming from a legal order and the laws enacted within it. This is contrasted with traditional forms of authority, which arose from phenomena like kinship.
• Rationalization describes a transition in society, wherein traditional motivators of behavior, like values, beliefs, and emotions, are replaced with rational calculations.
• Weber termed the increasing rationalization in Western societies an “iron cage” that traps individuals in systems based solely on efficiency, rational calculation and control.
Key Terms
• Rational-legal authority: A form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy.
• ideal type: An ideal type is not a particular person or thing that exists in the world, but an extreme form of a concept used by sociologists in theories. For example, although there is not a perfectly “modern” society, the term “modern” is used as an ideal type in certain theories to make large-scale points.
• iron cage: a theory proposed by Max Weber which argues that rationalization and rules trap humans in a figurative “cage” of thought based on rational calculations | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.04%3A_Bureaucracy/6.4B%3A_Webers_Model_for_Bureaucracy.txt |
Sociologist George Ritzer theorizes “McDonaldization” as a contemporary form of rationalization.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how George Ritzer’s categorizes efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control with reference to the McDonalds model
Key Points
• In Ritzer’s reconceptualization, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization that Weber found inherent in bureaucracies extended to fast-food chains such as McDonalds under globalization.
• According to Ritzer, McDonaldization is comprised of four main components: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control.
• The first one, efficiency, is geared toward the minimization of time as the optimal method for accomplishing a task. The second, calculability, refers to the quantifiable objectives of fast-food chains, seeing quantity as quality.
• With the rise of predictability, the third component, all consumers can predict receiving the same service and the same product every time they interact with the McDonaldized organization. Under control, the fourth component, employees become standardized and replaced by non-human technologies.
• Under cultural hybridization, as McDonald’s enters a country, consumer patterns are unified and local cultures are westernized.
• As a response, the process of de-Mcdonaldization offers alternatives to this model of production and organization.
Key Terms
• Max Weber: (1864–1920) A German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself.
“McDonaldization” is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). McDonaldization as described by Ritzer is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management. In sociology, rationalization refers to the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in society with rational, calculated ones. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a more representative contemporary paradigm in contemporary societies. In Ritzer’s book, McDonald’s serves as the case model of this process in the 1990s.
The McDonaldization Theory of George Ritzer: “McDonaldization” is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). He explains it occurs when a culture possesses the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a more representative contemporary paradigm.
Components of McDonaldization
According to Ritzer, McDonaldization is comprised of four main components: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. The first one, efficiency, is the optimal method for accomplishing a task. Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the organization is geared toward the minimization of time. From a customer perspective, efficiency is achieving the fastest way to get from being hungry to being full.
The second component, calculability, refers to the quantifiable objectives of fast-food chains. McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product. This allows people to quantify how much they’re getting versus how much they’re paying. Workers in these organizations are judged by how fast they accomplish tasks instead of the quality of work they do. This relates to the idea of availability versus variety – you can get a lot of one thing, but not necessarily the thing you want. Increase in volume does not equate to increase in choice.
Third, predictability is the idea that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same product every time they interact with the McDonaldized organization. This also applies to the workers in those organizations. Their tasks are highly repetitive, highly routine, and predictable.
Fourth, under control, employees become standardized and replaced by non-human technologies. Lastly, as part of standardization, cultural hybridization occurs. Ritzer argues that as McDonald’s enters a country, consumer patterns are unified, and starting with the food chains, local cultures are westernized.
Ritzer also outlines irrationality of rationality as a fifth aspect of McDonaldization. As Ritzer said, “Irrationality means that rational systems are unreasonable systems. By that I mean that they deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within or are served by them. ” He further states that beyond dehumanization further irrationalities emerge; including the inefficient masses of red tape, over quantification leading to low quality work, unpredictability as employees grow unclear about what they are supposed to do, and the loss of control due to other inadequacies.
Examples
Junk-journalism, defined here as inoffensive and trivial news served up in palatable portions, is an example of Mcdonaldization. Another example could be McUniversities, which features modularized curricula, delivering degrees in a fast-track pick-and-mix fashion to satisfy all tastes. The diminished quality of these products can only be disguised by extensive advertising which constantly repackages them to look new. When we look at schools and classrooms across the world, there is an ever increasing similarity between that of Western classrooms and the rest of the world. This can be considered an example of how Western culture, focused on efficiency of transfer of knowledge, has spread around the rest of the world.
De-McDonaldization
As a response, the process of de-Mcdonaldization offers alternatives to this model of production and organization. Many corporations have been making an effort to deny the kind of rationalization similar to what Ritzer calls McDonaldization. Protests have also been arising in nation-states to protect localized economies and traditional values.
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Since it is easier for fewer people to agree on goals and to coordinate their work, smaller groups are more cohesive than larger groups.
Learning Objectives
• Relate group size to group cohesiveness
Key Points
• A group is said to be in a state of cohesion when its members possess bonds linking them to one another and to the group as a whole.
• An intimate community is one in which some members recognize and are recognized by all of the others, and most of the members recognize and are recognized by many of the others. Relationships in intimate communities tend to be more stable and the groups more cohesive.
• Dunbar’s number is the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. It is usually estimated to be around 150, and this serves as an upper bound on the size of intimate communities.
Key Terms
• dunbar’s number: Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.
• cohesiveness: The state of being cohesive.
A group is said to be in a state of cohesion when its members possess bonds linking them to one another and to the group as a whole. According to Festinger, Schachter, and Back (1950), group cohesion develops from a field of binding social forces that act on members to stay in the group. Groups that possess strong unifying forces typically stick together over time, whereas groups that lack such bonds between members usually disintegrate.
The Role of Group Size
Since it is easier for fewer people to agree on goals and to coordinate their work, smaller groups are often more cohesive than larger groups. Group cohesiveness may suffer, though, if the group lacks enough members to perform its tasks well.
An intimate community is one in which some members recognize and are recognized by all of the others, and most of the members recognize and are recognized by many of the others. This is in contrast to (usually larger) communities where members are known and interact mostly within their own subgroup, such as a neighborhood, department, or occupation. The contrast between the two types is illustrated by comparing hamlet with town, military company with battalion, parish church with diocese, or a country school with a huge urban one.
The Limits of Group Size
Intimate communities seldom have more than about 150 members, a number derived from the “Dunbar’s Number” concept. This is the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. While no precise value has been unanimously agreed upon, it has been proposed to lie between 100 and 230, with a commonly used value of 150. The concept is based on studies of social animals, which have shown a correlation between the typical frontal brain capacity the members of a species has and the maximum size of the groups in which they live. Like animals, the number of relationships the human brain can handle is large but not unlimited.
Dunbar’s Number: Dr. Robin Dunbar explains the concept of Dunbar’s number. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.05%3A_Group_Dynamics/6.5A%3A_Effects_of_Group_Size_on_Stability_and_Intimacy.txt |
Size (number of people involved) is an important characteristic of groups, organizations and communities in which social behavior occurs.
Learning Objectives
• Describe Georg Simmel’s view on group size
Key Points
• A social group has been defined as two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity. Groups can be categorized according to size.
• Individual behavior has been shown to be influenced by the presence of others. For example, an individual’s performance at work or the individual’s decision-making processes (as in the term “groupthink”).
• Dyads and triads are the smallest social groups. Social interaction in a dyad is typically more intense because neither member shares the other’s attention with anyone else. A triad is more stable because one member can act as a mediator if the relationship between the other two become strained.
• As an organization or community grows in size it is apt to experience changes in the way it operates. As the size of a group increases, the need for more organization or leadership also becomes more obvious.
• German sociologist Georg Simmel argued that as the group becomes greater, the individual becomes separated and grows more alone, isolated and segmented. Simmel’s view was somewhat ambiguous with respect to group size’s affect on the individual.
Key Terms
• social group: A collection of humans or animals that share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity.
• impersonal: Lacking warmth or emotion; cold.
• dyad: A pair of things standing in particular relation; dyadic relation.
• triad: a group of three people
In the social sciences a social group is defined as two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity. Social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. Groups can also be categorized in various ways, one of which is according to the number of people present within the group. This makes sense if the size of the group has consequences for the way group members relate with each other.
Individual behavior deviates substantially in a group setting; therefore, it is difficult to determine group behavior by looking solely at the individuals that comprise the group. Group attitudes and behavior depend upon several variables: size, structure, the purpose that the group serves, group development and various influences upon a group. Group dynamics refers to a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group or between social groups. Individual behavior has been shown to be influenced by the presence of others. For example, an individual’s performance at work or the individual’s decision-making processes (as in the term “groupthink”).
Effects of Group Size
Size (the number of people involved) is an important characteristic of groups, organizations and communities in which social behavior occurs.
Dyads and triads are the smallest social groups. Social interaction in a dyad is typically more intense than in larger groups because neither member shares the other’s attention with anyone else. A triad is more stable than a dyad because one member can act as a mediator should the relationship between the other two become strained.
As an organization or community grows in size it is apt to experience tipping points where the way it operates needs to change. The complexity of large groupings is partly because they are made up of interrelated subgroups. As the size of a group increases, the need for more organization or leadership also often becomes more obvious.
German sociologist Georg Simmel argued that as the group becomes greater, the individual becomes separated and grows more alone, isolated and segmented. Simmel’s view was somewhat ambiguous with respect to group size. On one hand, he believed that the bigger the group the better for the individual. In a larger group it would be harder to exert control on an individual, but there is a possibility of the individual becoming distant and impersonal. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.05%3A_Group_Dynamics/6.5B%3A_Effects_of_Group_Size_on_Attitude_and_Behavior.txt |
The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies conducted in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how the Asch experiment sought to measure conformity in groups
Key Points
• The Asch conformity experiments consisted of a group “vision test”, where study participants were found to be more likely to conform to obviously wrong answers if first given by other “participants”, who were actually working for the experimenter.
• The experiment found that over a third of subjects conformed to giving a wrong answer.
• In terms of gender, males show around half the effect of females (tested in same-sex groups). Conformity is also higher among members of an in-group.
Key Terms
• conformity: the ideology of adhering to one standard or social uniformity
Conducted by social psychologist Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College, the Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. They are also known as the Asch paradigm. In the experiment, students were asked to participate in a group “vision test. ” In reality, all but one of the participants were working for Asch (i.e. confederates), and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to their behavior.
Method
The original experiment was conducted with 123 male participants. Each participant was put into a group with five to seven confederates. The participants were shown a card with a line on it (the reference line), followed by another card with three lines on it labeled a, b, and c. The participants were then asked to say out loud which of the three lines matched in length the reference line, as well as other responses such as the length of the reference line to an everyday object, which lines were the same length, and so on.
Each line question was called a “trial. ” The “real” participant answered last or next to last. For the first two trials, the subject would feel at ease in the experiment, as he and the other “participants” gave the obvious, correct answer. On the third trial, all the confederates would start giving the same wrong answer. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates answered incorrectly for 12 of them. These 12 were known as the “critical trials. ”
The aim was to see whether the real participants would conform to the wrong answers of the confederates and change their answer to respond in the same way, despite it being the wrong answer.
Results
Dr. Asch thought that the majority of people would not conform to something obviously wrong, but the results showed that only 24% of the participants did not conform on any trial. Seventy five percent conformed at least once, 5% conformed every time, and when surrounded by individuals all voicing an incorrect answer, participants provided incorrect responses on a high proportion of the questions (32%). Overall, there was a 37% conformity rate by subjects averaged across all critical trials. In a control group, with no pressure to conform to an erroneous answer, only one subject out of 35 ever gave an incorrect answer.
Study Variations
Variations of the basic paradigm tested how many cohorts were necessary to induce conformity, examining the influence of just one cohort and as many as fifteen. Results indicated that one cohort has virtually no influence and two cohorts have only a small influence. When three or more cohorts are present, the tendency to conform increases only modestly. The maximum effect occurs with four cohorts. Adding additional cohorts does not produce a stronger effect.
In terms of gender, males show around half the effect of females (tested in same-sex groups). Conformity is also higher among members of an in-group.
The unanimity of the confederates has also been varied. When the confederates are not unanimous in their judgment, even if only one confederate voices a different opinion, participants are much more likely to resist the urge to conform (only 5% to 10% conform) than when the confederates all agree. This result holds whether or not the dissenting confederate gives the correct answer. As long as the dissenting confederate gives an answer that is different from the majority, participants are more likely to give the correct answer.
This finding illuminates the power that even a small dissenting minority can have upon a larger group. This demonstrates the importance of privacy in answering important and life-changing questions, so that people do not feel pressured to conform. For example, anonymous surveys can allow people to fully express how they feel about a particular subject without fear of retribution or retaliation from others in the group or the larger society. Having a witness or ally (someone who agrees with the point of view) also makes it less likely that conformity will occur.
Interpretations
Asch suggested that this reflected poorly on factors such as education, which he thought must over-train conformity. Other researchers have argued that it is rational to use other people’s judgments as evidence. Others have suggested that the high conformity rate was due to social norms regarding politeness, which is consistent with subjects’ own claims that they did not actually believe the others’ judgments and were indeed merely conforming. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.05%3A_Group_Dynamics/6.5C%3A_The_Asch_Experiment-_The_Power_of_Peer_Pressure.txt |
The Milgram experiment found that most people are willing to obey authority figures over their personal objections.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss two interpretations of the results of the Milgram experiment
Key Points
• The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s.
• The Milgram experiment investigated whether study participants would obey commands to administer increasingly painful “shocks” to other particpants who were actually actors only pretending to be shocked.
• The original experiment found that 65 percent of participants deferred to the authority of the experimenter and administered the final 450 volt “shock”.
Key Terms
• authority figures: A person that displays a form or a symbol of authority.
• milgram experiment: It was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. It measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.
The Milgram experiment—based on obedience to authority figures—was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. It measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.
Milgram devised his psychological study to answer the question of whether the millions participating in the Holocaust actually consciously shared the intent of its genocidal goals. Milgram’s experiments suggested that the millions of accomplices were merely following orders, despite violating their moral beliefs.
The Milgram Experiment was also quite controversial, and considered by many scientists to be unethical and physically or psychologically abusive, motivating more thorough review boards and committee reviews for research with human subjects.
The Experiment
The volunteer subject used a list of word pairs to play the role of “teacher” with another participant, the “learner”. In reality, the learner was a confederate working for the experimenter and only acting as a participant. The naïve participants drew slips of paper to determine their roles, but unknown to them, both slips said “teacher,” and the confederate always claimed to have the slip that read “learner. ” At this point, the “teacher” and “learner” were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other.
The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. They would read the first word of each pair and four possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher was instructed administer an electric shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.
The teacher was given an electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the “learner” would supposedly receive during the experiment. The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level.
In one version of the experiment, the confederate told the participant that he had a heart condition. After a number of voltage level increases, the confederate started to bang on the wall that separated them from the participant. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about their heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease.
At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible.
If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:
1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires that you continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.
If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.
Results
Before conducting the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage.
In Milgram’s first set of experiments, 65 percent (26 of 40) of experiment participants administered the experiment’s final massive 450-volt shock, though many were very uncomfortable doing so. At some point, every participant paused and questioned the experiment, some saying they would refund the money they were paid for participating in the experiment.
Interpretations
Professor Milgram elaborated two theories explaining his results:
• The first is the theory of conformism, based on the Solomon Asch conformity experiments, describing the fundamental relationship between the group of reference and the individual person. It states that a subject who has neither ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision making to the group and its hierarchy.
• The second is the agentic state theory, where, according to Milgram, “the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view themselves as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and they therefore no longer see themselves as responsible for their actions…” | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.05%3A_Group_Dynamics/6.5D%3A_The_Milgram_Experiment-_The_Power_of_Authority.txt |
In groupthink, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what he or she believes is the consensus of the group.
Learning Objectives
Explain why groupthink occurs and how it can be minimized
“Groupthink” is a term coined by Yale research psychologist Irving Janis to describe a process by which a group can make poor or irrational decisions.
In a groupthink situation, each member of the group attempts to conform his or her opinions to what they believe to be the consensus of the group. While this may seem like a rational approach to decision making, it can result in the group ultimately agreeing upon an action that each member individually might consider to be unwise.
Janis originally defined the term as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. ” The word “groupthink” was intended to be reminiscent of George Orwell’s coinages in his novel, 1984, from the fictional language Newspeak, such as “doublethink” and “duckspeak. ”
Groupthink tends to occur on committees and in large organizations, and Janis originally studied the groupthink phenomena in historical cases, such as the Pearl Harbor bombing, the Vietnam War, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Managing Groupthink
Management consultants often recommend putting in place a variety of mechamisms to minimize groupthink. One common method is to place responsibility and authority for a decision in the hands of a single person who can turn to others for advice. Another mechanism is to pre-select an individual to take the role of disagreeing with any suggestion presented. This makes other individuals more likely to present their own ideas and point out flaws in others and reduces the stigma associated with being the first to take negative stances.
Anonymous feedback via a suggestion box or online chat has also been found to be a useful remedy for groupthink. Negative or dissenting views of proposals can be raised without any individual being identifiable by others as having lodged a critique. In this way, group solidarity is preserved, as all members have plausible deniability that they raised a dissenting point.
Key Points
• ” Groupthink ” is a term coined by Yale research psychologist Irving Janis.
• Groupthink describes a process by which a group can make poor or irrational decisions.
• Groupthink tends to occur on committees and in large organizations.
Key Terms
• consensus: A process of decision making that seeks widespread agreement among group members.
• groupthink: A process of reasoning or decision making by a group, especially one characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to a perceived majority view.
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Mechanical solidarity is found in less structurally complex societies while organic solidarity emerges in industrialized societies.
Learning Objectives
• Give examples for societies held together by mechanical or organic solidarity
Key Points
• In mechanical solidarity social cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals: People feel connected through similar work, educational and religious training, and lifestyle, which is often based on the kinship ties of familial networks.
• Organic solidarity is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies. It comes from the interdependence that arises from specialization of work and the complementarities between people.
• The two types of solidarity can be distinguished by morphological and demographic features, type of norms in existence, and the intensity and content of the conscience collective.
Key Terms
• Solidarity: A bond of unity between individuals, united around a common goal or against a common enemy, such as the unifying principle that defines the labor movement.
• cohesion: State of cohering, or of working together.
As part of his theory of the development of societies in, The Division of Labour in Society (1893), sociologist Emile Durkheim characterized two categories of societal solidarity: organic and mechanical.
Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
In a society exhibiting mechanical solidarity, its cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals. People feel connected through similar work, educational and religious training, and lifestyle. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in “traditional” and small-scale societies, and it is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks.
Organic solidarity is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies. It comes from the interdependence that arises from specialization of work and the complementarities between people—a development that occurs in “modern” and “industrial” societies. Although individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interest, the order and very solidarity of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specified tasks. “Organic” refers to the interdependence of the component parts. Thus, social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts (e.g., farmers produce the food to feed the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmer to produce the food). As a simple example, farmers produce food to feed factory workers who produce tractors that, in the end, allow the farmer to produce more food.
The two types of solidarity can be distinguished by formal and demographic features, type of norms in existence, and the intensity and content of the conscience collective.
6.6B: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Introduced by German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are two conceptual models for types of human association.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how status is achieved in Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft respectively
Key Points
• Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are sociological categories, introduced by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, which describe two common kinds of human groupings or association.
• Gemeinschaft (” community “) is an association in which individuals are oriented to the larger group as much as, and often more than, their own self interest, and are further regulated by common social mores or beliefs about the appropriate behavior and responsibility of members of the association.
• Gesellschaft (” society “) describes associations in which, for the individual, the larger association never takes precedence over their own self interest, and these associations lack the same level of shared social mores as Gemeinschaft.
Key Terms
• association: A group of persons associated for a common purpose; an organization; society.
• kinship: relation or connection by blood, marriage, or adoption
Introduced by German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are two conceptual models for types of human association.
Gemeinschaft
Gemeinschaft (“community”) is an association in which individuals are mainly oriented to the will of the larger group, generally more than their own self-interest. Their activities are regulated by common mores or beliefs about the appropriate behavior and responsibilities of members of the association. These associations are marked by what Tönnies called “unity of will. ” He saw the family as the most perfect expression of Gemeinschaft; however, he also expected that Gemeinschaft could be based on shared place and shared belief as well as kinship, and included globally dispersed religious communities as possible examples of Gemeinschaft.
Gemeinschaft community involves ascribed status, meaning a fixed status given by birth. For example, an individual born from farmers will come to occupy their parents’ role until death. Gemeinschaften (“communities”) are broadly characterized by a moderate division of labor, strong personal relationships, strong families, and relatively simple social institutions. In such societies, there is less of a need to enforce social control externally due to a collective sense of loyalty individuals feel for society.
Gesellschaft
In contrast, Gesellschaft (“society”) describes associations in which the larger association never takes precedence over the individual’s self interest, and these associations lack the same level of shared social mores. Gesellschaft is maintained through individuals acting on their own self-interest. A modern business is a good example of Gesellschaft: the workers, managers, and owners may have very little in terms of shared orientations or beliefs, or they may not care deeply for the product they are making, but it is in all their self interest to come to work to make money, and, therefore, the business continues.
Gesellschaft society involves achieved status, or a status reached by education and professional advancement. Unlike Gemeinschaften (“communities”), Gesellschaften (“societies”) emphasize secondary relationships rather than familial or community ties, and there is generally less individual loyalty to the larger community. Social cohesion in Gesellschaften typically derives from a more elaborate division of labor. Such societies are, therefore, potentially more susceptible to class conflict, as well as racial and ethnic conflicts.
As all conceptual models, these categories can be challenged by social change. For instance, during the social upheavals of the Reconstruction era in the United States, former slaves, whose kinship ties were forcibly disrupted under slavery, forged new communities that shared aspects of both Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. A current example of a Gemeinschaft community would be the Amish, whereas the United States would be considered a Gesellschaft society. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/06%3A_Social_Groups_and_Organization/6.06%3A_Social_Structure_in_the_Global_Perspective/6.6A%3A_Durkheims_Mechanical_and_Organic_Solidarity.txt |
Lenski’s sociological evolution approach views technological progress as the most basic factor in the evolution of societies and cultures.
Learning Objectives
• Describe Lenski’s four stages of human development
Key Points
• Sociocultural evolution is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and societies have changed over time.
• Gerhard Lenski is an American sociologist known for contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and ecological-evolutionary social theory.
• Lanski views technological progress as the most basic factor in the evolution of societies and cultures.
• Lanski distinguishes four stages of human development, based on advances in the history of communication. In these four stages, information is passed on in this order: genetically, individually, through signs, and lastly, through symbols or language.
• The relationship between population and production is central to Lenski’s thought.
Key Terms
• shared culture: Lenski claims that members of a society are united by a shared culture, although cultural patterns become more diverse as a society gains more complex technology and information.
• Gerhard Lenski: He is an American sociologist known for contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and ecological-evolutionary social theory.
• Sociocultural evolution: It is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and societies have changed over time.
Sociocultural evolution is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and societies have changed over time. Most nineteenth century and some twentieth century approaches aimed to provide models for the evolution of humankind as a whole, argue that different societies are at different stages of social development. Gerhard Lenski is an American sociologist known for contributions to the sociology of religion, social inequality, and ecological-evolutionary social theory.
Technological Progress
In his books, Power and Privilege and Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology, Lenski expands on the works of Leslie White and Lewis Henry Morgan. He views technological progress as the most basic factor in the evolution of societies and cultures. Unlike White, who defined technology as the ability to create and utilize energy, Lenski focuses on information, its amount and its uses.
Four Stages of Human Development
Lenski claims that members of a society are united by a shared culture, although cultural patterns become more diverse as a society gains more complex technology and information. The more information and knowledge a given society has, especially where it allows humans to shape their environment, the more advanced it is. He distinguishes four stages of human development, based on advances in the history of communication.
In the first stage, information is passed by genes. In the second state, with the development of agriculture, humans are able to pass information through individual experience. In the third, humans begin to use signs and develop logic. In the fourth, they create symbols, and develop language and writing. Advances in the technology of communication translate into advances in a society’s economic system and political system, distribution of goods, social inequality and other spheres of social life.
Population and Production
The relationship between population and production is central to Lenski’s thought. Human reproductive capacity exceeds the available resources in the environment. Thus, Lenski concludes, human populations are limited by their capability of food production. According to Lenski, human capacity for population growth has been a “profoundly destabilizing force throughout human history and may well be the ultimate source of most social and cultural change.” It is the relationships among population, production, and environment that drive sociocultural evolution.
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Learning Objectives
• Define deviance and explain the nature of deviant behavior
Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate informal social norms or formally-enacted rules. Among those who study social norms and their relation to deviance are sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and criminologists, all of whom investigate how norms change and are enforced over time.
Deviance is often divided into two types of activities. The first, crime, is the violation of formally enacted laws and is referred to as formal deviance. Examples of formal deviance include robbery, theft, rape, murder, and assault. The second type of deviant behavior involves violations of informal social norms (norms that have not been codified into law) and is referred to as informal deviance. Examples of informal deviance include picking one’s nose, belching loudly, or standing unnecessarily close to another person.
Deviance can vary dramatically across cultures. Cultural norms are relative, which makes deviant behavior relative as well. For instance, in the United States, Americans do not generally impose time-based restrictions on speech. However, in the Christ Desert Monastery, specific rules govern determine when residents can and cannot speak, and speech is banned between 7:30 pm and 4:00 am. These rules are one example of how norms vary across cultures.
Current sociological research on deviance takes many forms. For example, Dr. Karen Halnon of Pennsylvania State University studies informal deviance and focuses on what she calls “deviance vacations,” whereby people of a given socioeconomic status voluntarily enter a different, often lower, social strata. One example involves heterosexual white males who become drag queens on weekends. This behavior represents a luxury, because heterosexual white males can afford to make a temporarily shift, knowing that they may subsequently return to the comforts of their prevailing socioeconomic status. Other examples include performers who may affect deviant behaviors in order to gain credibility with an aim to increasing commercial profits.
Key Points
• Deviant behavior may violate formally-enacted rules or informal social norms.
• Formal deviance includes criminal violation of formally-enacted laws. Examples of formal deviance include robbery, theft, rape, murder, and assault.
• Informal deviance refers to violations of informal social norms, which are norms that have not been codified into law. Examples of informal deviance include picking one’s nose, belching loudly, or standing unnecessarily close to another person.
• Deviance can vary dramatically across cultures. Cultural norms are relative, which makes deviant behavior relative as well.
Key Terms
• Formal Deviance: Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules (e.g., crime), as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and mores).
• deviance: Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms, such as laws or the norm that discourages public nose-picking.
• Informal Deviance: Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules (e.g., crime), as well as informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and mores).
7.1B: Norms and Sanctions
Norms are social rules of behavior, and a sanction is a form of punishment against violation of different norms.
Key Points
• Deviance, or the violations of social norms, can be easier to identify than the norm itself. For this reason, deviance frequently provides a tool to learn about norms.
• Norms and deviance always depend on the culture in which they exist.To study norms and deviance, one must contextualize the action, or consider the action in light of all of the circumstances surrounding it.
• Norms can be formal, as in the case of laws, or informal, as in the case of codes of etiquette. Formal deviance results in legal sanctions, such as fines or prison, while informal deviance results in social sanctions or stigma.
• The violation of a folkway leads to the development of a preference rather than stigmatization. When a more is violated, on the other hand, it results in a more serious degree of social sanction.
• Informal deviance, or violation of unwritten, social rules of behavior, results in social sanction, or stigma.
• A folkway leads to the development of a preference rather than stigmatization.
• When a more is violated, it results in a more serious degree of social sanction.
Key Terms
• folkway: A custom or belief common to members of a society or culture.
• stigma: A mark of infamy or disgrace.
• More: A way to refer to norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance. Mores include an aversion for societal taboos, such as incest or pederasty.
Norms are the social rules that govern behavior in a community. Norms can be explicit (such as laws) or implicit (such as codes of polite behavior). Norms can be difficult to identify because they are so deeply instilled in members of a given society. Norms are learned by growing up in a particular culture and can be difficult to learn if one does not grow up in the same social milieu.
The act of violating a social norm is called deviance. Individuals usually have a much easier time identifying the transgression of norms than the norms themselves. For example, few Americans would think to tell a sociologist that it is a social norm to hold the door open for a fellow pedestrian entering a building if within a particular distance. However, someone might remark that another person is rude because he or she did not hold the door open. Studying norms and studying deviance are inseparable endeavors.
Like deviance, norms are always culturally contingent. To study norms and deviance, one must contextualize the action, or consider the action in light of all of the circumstances surrounding it. For example, one cannot merely say that showing up nude to a job interview is a violation of social norms. While it is usually social convention to show up in some manner of (usually professional ) dress to a job interview, this is most likely not the case for someone interviewing to be a nude model. To understand the norm, one must understand the context.
The violation of social norms, or deviance, results in social sanction. Different degrees of violation result in different degrees of sanction. There are three main forms of social sanction for deviance: 1) legal sanction, 2) stigmatization, and 3) preference for one behavior over another. Formal deviance, or the violation of legal codes, results in criminal action initiated by the state. Informal deviance, or violation of unwritten, social rules of behavior, results in social sanction, or stigma. Lesser degrees of social violation result in preference rather than stigmatization. While society might deem it preferable to show up to most job interviews wearing a suit rather than casual attire, you will likely not be out of the running for the job if you are wearing khakis rather than a suit. However, should you show up nude to most interviews, you would likely be stigmatized for your behavior, since it would be such a drastic departure from the norm.
We say that the norm that governs wearing professional rather than casual attire to a job interview is a folkway because its violation results in lesser degree of social sanction—the development of a preference rather than stigmatization. The norm that governs wearing clothing to most job interviews, rather than showing up nude, is a more because its violation results in a more serious degree of social sanction. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.01%3A_Deviance/7.1A%3A_Deviance.txt |
Social stigma in deviance is the disapproval of a person because they do not fit the require social norms that are given in society.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the meaning of stigma through the work of two sociologists
Key Points
• Social stigma is severe social disapproval of a person because of a particular trait that indicates their deviance from social norms.
• Émile Durkheim, one of the founders of the social sciences, began to address the social marking of deviance in the late nineteenth century.
• Erving Goffman presented the fundamentals of stigma as a social theory, including his interpretation of “stigma” as a means of spoiling identity. By this, he referred to the stigmatized trait’s ability to “spoil” recognition of the individual’s adherence to social norms in other facets of self.
• Without a society, one cannot have stigma. To have stigma, one must have a stigmatizer and someone who is stigmatized. As such, this is a dynamic and social relationship.
Key Terms
• stigmatized: Subject to a stigma; marked as an outcast.
• stigma: A mark of infamy or disgrace.
• deviance: Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms, such as laws or the norm that discourages public nose-picking.
Social stigma is the extreme disapproval of an individual based on social characteristics that are perceived to distinguish them from other members of a society. Social stigma is so profound that it overpowers positive social feedback regarding the way in which the same individual adheres to other social norms. For example, Terry might be stigmatized because she has a limp. Stigma attaches to Terry because of her limp, overpowering the ways in which Terry might be social normative–perhaps she is a white, Protestant, or a heterosexual female with a limp. The limp marks Terry, despite her other traits.
Stigma plays a primary role in sociological theory. Émile Durkheim, one of the founders of the social sciences, began to address the social marking of deviance in the late nineteenth century. Erving Goffman, an American sociologist, is responsible for bringing the term and theory of stigma into the main social theoretical fold. In his work, Goffman presented the fundamentals of stigma as a social theory, including his interpretation of “stigma” as a means of spoiling identity. By this, he referred to the stigmatized trait’s ability to “spoil” recognition of the individual’s adherence to social norms in other facets of self. Goffman identified three main types of stigma: (1) stigma associated with mental illness; (2) stigma associated with physical deformation; and (3) stigma attached to identification with a particular race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, etc.
While Goffman is responsible for the seminal texts in stigma theory, stigmatization is still a popular theme in contemporary sociological research. In Conceptualizing Stigma (2001), sociologists Jo Phelan and Bruce Link interpret stigma as the convergence of four different factors: (1) differentiation and labeling of various segments of society; (2) linking the labeling of different social demographics to prejudices about these individuals; (3) the development of an us-versus-them ethic; and (4) disadvantaging the people who are labeled and placed in the “them” category.
Ultimately, stigma is about social control. A corollary to this is that stigma is necessarily a social phenomenon. Without a society, one cannot have stigma. To have stigma, one must have a stigmatizer and someone who is stigmatized. As such, this is a dynamic and social relationship. Given that stigmas arise from social relationships, the theory places emphasis, not on the existence of deviant traits, but on the perception and marking of certain traits as deviant by a second party. For example, theorists of stigma care little about whether Emily has a psychiatric diagnosis, but rather on how Sally perceives Emily’s psychiatric diagnosis and, subsequently, treats Emily differently. Stigma depends on a another individual perceiving and knowing about the stigmatized trait. As stigma is necessarily a social relation, it is necessarily imbued with relations of power. Stigma works to control deviant members of the population and encourage conformity.
Be Aware: End the Stigma Against Mental Illness: Be Aware is an awareness campaign that aims to end the stigma against mental illness.
7.1D: Deviance and Technology
Advances in technology have resulted in new forms of deviance as well as new forms of control.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the impact of technological innovation on forms of deviance and social control
Key Points
• Cyberloafing refers to the use of high-speed internet by employees for personal use instead of work-related purposes.
• Production deviance refers to the behaviors of deviant employees that have a negative impact on the overall productivity of the organization.
• Property deviance refers to cases in which workers damage an employer’s property without authorization.
• Property deviance typically involves theft, but it may include sabotage, intentional errors in work, and the misuse of expense accounts.
Key Terms
• Property Deviance: Property deviance is “where employees either damage or acquire tangible assets…without authorization”. This type of deviance typically involves theft but may include “sabotage, intentional errors in work, misusing expense accounts”, among other examples.
• cyberloafing: The use of computers by employees for purposes unrelated to work.
• sabotage: A deliberate action aimed at weakening an enemy through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction.
As technology has opened up a new space for cyberculture, new forms of deviance and social control have appeared. Some individuals use technology as a means of deviating from more traditional cultural norms. For example, in the United States, employees in offices are encouraged to remain productive and efficient, letting their minds wander off-task as little as possible. In the past decade, most companies have installed high-speed internet access as a means of improving efficiency. However, employees often reappropriate the internet access to avoid work by using social networking sites. Such procrastination and corporate inefficiency stemming from internet access is called “cyberloafing. ”
In addition to new forms of deviance in traditional cultural mores, new forms of deviance have arisen within cyberculture. New technologies result in new standards of how to engage with them. The behaviors of deviant employees ultimately have a negative impact on the overall productivity of an organization. For this reason, all of these behaviors are considered production deviance. More serious cases of deviant behavior involve property deviance. Property deviance refers to workers damaging an employer’s property without authorization. This type of deviance typically involves theft but may include sabotage, intentional errors in work, and the misuse of expense accounts.
Just as new forms of deviance have come about as a result of technological advances, so too have new means of controlling deviant populations. In reaction to cyberloafing, companies have developed new technologies to monitor employees’ computers and restrict social networking during the workday. These methods include installing proxy servers to prevent programs from accessing resources like Internet Relay Chat, AOL Instant Messenger, or online gambling services. Other practices include strict disciplinary measures for employees found cyberloafing, and carrot-and-stick measures, such as providing free or subsidized Internet access for employees outside of working hours. Technology is used in policing to monitor formal deviants and encourage conformity to the law and social norms. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.01%3A_Deviance/7.1C%3A_Deviance_and_Social_Stigma.txt |
Deviance provides society the boundaries to determine acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in society.
Learning Objectives
• Describe how structural functionalism views the relation between deviance and social change
Key Points
• Deviance provides the key to understanding the disruption and recalibration of society that occurs over time.
• Systems of deviance create norms and tell members of a given society how to behave by laying out patterns of acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
• Deviance allows for group majorities to unite around their worldview, often at the expense of those marked as deviant.
• Social parameters create boundaries between populations and lead to an us-versus-them mentality within various groups.
• Being marked as deviant can actually bolster solidarity within the marked community as members take pride and ownership in their stigmatized identity.
• Some traits will be stigmatized and can potentially cause social disruption. However, as traits become more mainstream, society will gradually adjust to incorporate the formerly stigmatized traits.
Key Terms
• structural functionalism: The structural-functionalist approach to deviance argues that deviant behavior plays an important role in society by laying out patterns of what is acceptable and unacceptable. These social parameters create boundaries and enable an us-verus-them mentality.
What function does the notion of deviance play in society? Sociologists who identify with the tradition of structural- functionalism ask this type of question. Structural functionalism has its roots embedded in the very origins of sociological thought and the development of sociology as a discipline. A structural functionalist approach emphasizes social solidarity and stability in social structures. Structural functionalists ask: How does any given social phenomenon contribute to social stability? This cannot be answered without addressing this question of deviance.
For the structural functionalist, deviance serves two primary roles in creating social stability. First, systems of deviance create norms and tell members of a given society how to behave by laying out patterns of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. In order to know how not to unsettle society, one must be aware of what behaviors are marked as deviant. Second, these social parameters create boundaries between populations and enable an us-versus-them mentality within various groups. Deviance allows for group majorities to unite around their worldview, at the expense of those marked as deviant. Conversely, being marked as deviant can actually bolster solidarity within the marked community as members take pride and ownership in their stigmatized identity, creating cohesive units of their own.
From a structural-functionalist perspective, then, how does society change, particularly in regards to establishing norms and deviant behaviors? Deviance provides the key to understanding the disruption and recalibration of society that occurs over time. Some traits will be stigmatized and can potentially cause social disruption. However, as traits become more mainstream, society will gradually adjust to incorporate the formerly stigmatized traits. Take, for example, homosexuality. In urban America 50 years ago, homosexual behavior was considered deviant. On the one hand, this fractured society into those marked as homosexuals and those unmarked (normative heterosexuals). While this us-versus-them mentality solidified social identities and solidarities within the two categories, there was nevertheless an overarching social schism. As time went on, homosexuality came to be accepted as more mainstream. Accordingly, what originally appears as a fracturing of society actually reinforces social stability by enabling mechanisms for social adjustment and development.
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Social control theory argues that relationships, commitments, values, and beliefs encourage conformity.
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between methods of social control
Key Points
• Internal means of control, such as an individual’s own sense of right and wrong, decrease the likelihood that one will deviate from social norms.
• Through external means of control, individuals conform because an authority figure threatens sanctions if the individual disobeys.
• Jackson Toby argued that individuals engaged in non-delinquent community activities felt as thought they had too much to lose by joining delinquent groups and, hence, had a “stake in conformity “.
• F. Ivan Nye argued that youth may be directly controlled through constraints imposed by parents, through limits on the opportunity for delinquency, and through parental rewards and punishments.
• Michel Foucault argues that the eighteenth century introduced a new form of power: discipline. Discipline is a power relation in which the subject is complicit. This is contrasted with the previous strategy of regulating bodies but not seeking complicity.
• Socialization refers to the lifelong process of inheriting, interpreting, and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies.
Key Terms
• socialization: The process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it.
• Social Control Theory: Social control theory proposes that people’s relationships, commitments, values, norms, and beliefs encourage them not to break the law. Thus, if moral codes are internalized and individuals are tied into, and have a stake in their wider community, they will voluntarily limit their propensity to commit deviant acts.
• Discipline and Punish: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison is a 1975 book by the French philosopher Michel Foucault.
Social control theory describes internal means of social control. It argues that relationships, commitments, values, and beliefs encourage conformity—if moral codes are internalized and individuals are tied into broader communities, individuals will voluntarily limit deviant acts. This interpretation suggests the power of internal means of control, such as one’s own conscious, ego, and sensibilities about right and wrong, are powerful in mitigating the likelihood that one will deviate from social norms. This stands in contrast to external means of control, in which individuals conform because an authority figure (such as the state ) threatens sanctions should the individual disobey.
Social control theory seeks to understand how to reduce deviance. Ultimately, social control theory is Hobbesian; it presupposes that all choices are constrained by social relations and contracts between parties. Like Hobbes, adherents to social control theory suggest that morality is created within a social order by assigning costs and consequences to certain actions that are marked as evil, wrong, illegal, or deviant.
Jackson Toby
An internal understanding of means of control became articulated in sociological theory in the mid-twentieth century. In 1957, Jackson Toby published an article entitled “Social Disorganization and Stake in Conformity: Complementary Factors in the Predatory Behavior of Hoodlums,” which discussed why adolescents were inclined or disinclined to engage in delinquent activities. Toby argued that individuals engaged in non-delinquent community activities felt as thought they had too much to lose by joining delinquent groups and, hence, had a “stake in conformity.” The notion of an individual being shaped by his ties to his community, of having a “stake in conformity,” laid the groundwork for the idea of internalized norms that act as a method of social control.
F. Ivan Nye
Toby’s study was followed in 1958 by F. Ivan Nye’s book Family Relationships and Delinquent Behavior. Nye carried on the tradition of studying juvenile delinquency as a means of theorizing about deviance and social control. Nye conducted formal interviews of 780 young people in Washington State, though his sample was criticized for not including individuals from urban backgrounds and for only selecting individuals who were likely to describe their families unfavorably. Nye focused on the family unit as a source of control and specified three types of control: (1) direct control, or the use of punishments and rewards to incentivize particular behaviors; (2) indirect control, or the affectionate identification with individuals who adhere to social norms; and (3) internal control, or the manipulation of an individual’s conscience or sense of guilt to encourage conformity.
Youth may be directly controlled through constraints imposed by parents, through limits on the opportunity for delinquency, or through parental rewards and punishments. However, youth may be constrained when free from direct control by their anticipation of parental disapproval (indirect control), or through the development of a conscience, an internal constraint on behavior.
Michel Foucault
How do individuals develop a particular conscience that promotes social adherence? This is the question taken up by social theorist Michel Foucault in his 1975 seminal text, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Foucault argues that the eighteenth century introduced a new form of power: discipline. Prior to this period, government achieved social control by the mere regulation of bodies. Deviants were controlled by the threat and frequent use of the death penalty or indefinite incarceration.
Discipline, however, is a power relation in which the subject is complicit. Rather than the state only regulating bodies, the state began to achieve social control by molding the minds of its subjects such that individuals were educated to conform even when out of the direct gaze of the punishing authority. The training of subjects’ minds occurs broadly in society via socialization, or the lifelong process of inheriting, interpreting, and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies. Simply by living within a particular cultural context, one learns and internalizes the norms of society. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.02%3A_Social_Control/7.2A%3A_Social_Control_Theory.txt |
Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms.
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate among compliance, identification, and internalization; and between obedience and conformity
Key Points
• Norms are implicit rules shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others and among society or social group.
• Herbert Kelman identified three major types of conformity: compliance, identification, and internalization.
• Compliance is public conformity, while possibly keeping one’s own original beliefs for oneself. Identification is conforming to someone who is liked and respected. Internalization is accepting the belief or behavior and conforming both publicly and privately, if the source is credible.
• Obedience is a form of social influence in which a person accepts instructions or orders from an authority figure.
• Stanley Milgram created a highly controversial and often replicated study, the Milgram experiment, where he focused on how long participants would listen to and obey orders from the experimenter.
• In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo placed college age students into an artificial prison environment in order to study the impact of “social forces” on participants behavior.
• Stanley Milgram created a highly controversial and often replicated study, the Milgram experiment, where he focused how long participants would listen to and obey orders from the experimenter.
• In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo placed college age students into an artificial prison environment in order to study the impacts of “social forces” on participants behavior.
Key Terms
• identification: A feeling of support, sympathy, understanding, or belonging towards somebody or something.
• compliance: the tendency of conforming with or agreeing to the wishes of others
• conformity: the ideology of adhering to one standard or social uniformity
Conformity
Social control is established by encouraging individuals to conform and obey social norms, both through formal and informal means. Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. The tendency to conform occurs in small groups and in society as a whole, and may result from subtle unconscious influences or direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when an individual is alone. For example, people tend to follow social norms when eating or watching television, regardless of whether others are present. As conformity is a group phenomenon, factors such as group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment, and public opinion help determine the level of conformity an individual displays.
Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three major types of conformity: compliance, identification, and internalization. Compliance is public conformity, while possibly keeping one’s own original beliefs independent. It is motivated by the need for approval and the fear of being rejected. Identification is conforming to someone who is liked and respected, such as a celebrity or a favorite uncle. This can be motivated by the attractiveness of the source, and this is a deeper type of conformism than compliance. Internalization is accepting the belief or behavior and conforming both publicly and privately. It is the deepest influence on people, and it will affect them for a long time.
Solomon E. Asch conducted a classic study of conformity. He exposed students in a group to a series of lines, and the participants were asked to match the length of one line with a standard line, a task with a very clear right answer. Only one individual in the group was a true student, however – the rest were confederates, or actors that were pretending to be students, but knew the true aim of the study. The confederates were instructed to unanimously give the wrong answer (matching the standard line with an incorrect line) in 12 of the 18 trials. The results showed a surprisingly high degree of conformity: 76% of the students conformed on at least one trial, giving the wrong answer to match the answer of the confederates (who they perceived as actual students). On average people conformed one-third of the time, even in situations where the correct answer was obvious.
Obedience
In human behavior, obedience is a form of social influence in which a person accepts instructions or orders from an authority figure. Obedience differs from compliance, which is behavior influenced by peers, and from conformity, which is behavior intended to match that of the majority. Obedience can be seen as both a sin and a virtue. For example in a situation when one orders a person to kill another innocent person and he or she does this willingly, it is a sin. However, when one orders a person to kill an enemy who will end a lot of innocent lives and he or she does this willingly, it can be deemed a virtue.
Stanley Milgram created a highly controversial and often replicated study of obedience. In the Milgram experiment, participants were told they were going to contribute to a study about punishment and learning, but the actual focus was on how long they would listen to and obey orders from the experimenter. The participants were instructed that they had to shock a person in another room for every wrong answer on a learning task, and the shocks increased with intensity for each wrong answer. If participants questioned the procedure, the researcher would encourage them to continue. The Milgram study found that participants would obey orders even when it posed severe harm to others.
The other classical study on obedience was conducted at Stanford University during the 1970’s. Phillip Zimbardo was the principle investigator responsible for the experiment. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, college-age students were put into a pseudo prison environment in order to study the impacts of “social forces” on participants’ behavior. Unlike the Milgram study, in which each participant underwent the same experimental conditions, the Zimbardo study used random assignment so that half the participants were prison guards and the other half were prisoners. The experimental setting was made to physically resemble a prison, while simultaneously inducing “a psychological state of imprisonment.” Zimbardo found that the guards in the study obeyed orders so willingly that their behavior turned aggressive. Likewise, prisoners were hostile to and resented their guards, and because of the psychological duress induced in the experiment, it had to be shut down after only 6 days. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.02%3A_Social_Control/7.2B%3A_Conformity_and_Obedience.txt |
Informal social control refers to the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate the mechanisms of informal social control
Key Points
• Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval. In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion.
• Socialization is a term used by sociologists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, which provide an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society.
• The family is often the most important agent of socialization because it is the center of the child’s life.
• A peer group is a social group whose members have interests, social positions, and age in common. It can also be an important agent of socialization.
• A peer group is a social group whose members have interests, social positions and age in common.
Key Terms
• Informal sanctions: These are the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws. These can include peer and community pressure, bystander intervention in a crime, and collective responses such as citizen patrol groups.
Informal social control —the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws—includes peer and community pressure, bystander intervention in a crime, and collective responses such as citizen patrol groups. The social values that are present in individuals are products of informal social control. It is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed through customs, norms, and mores.
Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval. In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion. An example of a negative sanction is seen in a scene from the Pink Floyd film The Wall, where the young protagonist is ridiculed and verbally abused by a high school teacher for writing poetry in a mathematics class. As with formal controls, informal controls reward or punish acceptable or unacceptable behavior. Informal controls differ from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society. For example, at a women’s institute meeting, a disapproving look might convey that it is inappropriate to flirt with the minister. In a criminal gang, a stronger sanction applies in the case of someone threatening to inform to the police.
Socialization
Socialization is a term used by sociologists to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs, and ideologies, which provide an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society. Primary socialization occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate for individuals as members of a particular culture. Secondary socialization takes place outside the home, where children and adults learn how to act in a way that is appropriate for the situations they are in. Finally, re-socialization refers to the process of discarding former behavior patterns and reflexes, accepting new ones as part of a transition in one’s life.
The family is often the most important agent of socialization because it is the center of the child’s life. Agents of socialization can differ in effects. A peer group is a social group whose members have interests, social positions, and age in common. It can also be an important influence on a child, as this is where children can escape supervision and learn to form relationships on their own. The influence of the peer group typically peaks during adolescence. However, peer groups generally only affect short-term interests, unlike the long-term influence exerted by the family. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.02%3A_Social_Control/7.2C%3A_Informal_Means_of_Control.txt |
Formal means of social control are generally state-determined, through the creation of laws and their enforcement.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the relationship between formal means of social control and state authority
Key Points
• Formal means of control include the threats of sanctions or enforced sanctions manipulated by the state to encourage social control.
• The death penalty and imprisonment are forms of social control that the government utilizes to maintain the rule of law.
• Social theorist Max Weber contributed to our understanding of formal social control by writing about the state’s monopoly on violence.
• In democratic societies, the goals and mechanisms of formal social control are determined through legislation by elected representatives and thus enjoy a measure of support from the population and voluntary compliance.
Key Terms
• Politics as Vocation: An essay that Weber wrote of the definitional relationship between the state and violence in the early twentieth century.
• Max Weber: (1864–1920) A German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself.
• Formal means of Control: Formal sanctions such as fines and imprisonment.
Formal means of social control are the means of social control exercised by the government and other organizations who use law enforcement mechanisms and sanctions such as fines and imprisonment to enact social control. In democratic societies the goals and mechanisms of formal social control are determined through legislation by elected representatives. This gives the control mechanisms a measure of support from the population and voluntary compliance. The mechanisms utilized by the state as means of formal social control span the gamut from the death penalty to curfew laws.
From a legal perspective, sanctions are penalties or other means of enforcement used to provide incentives for obedience with the law, or rules and regulations. Criminal sanctions can take the form of serious punishment, such as corporal or capital punishment, incarceration, or severe fines. Within the civil law context, sanctions are usually monetary fines.
Our understanding of formal control is enhanced by social theorist Max Weber’s work on the state’s use of violence. Weber writes of the definitional relationship between the state and violence in the early twentieth century in his essay “Politics as Vocation. ” Weber concludes that the state is that which has a monopoloy on violence. By this, Weber means that the state is the only institution within a society who can legitimately exercise violence on society’s members. When Sam kills Katie, he is a criminal guilty of murder. When the state kills Katie, it is enacting its authority to use the death penalty to protect society. Weber uses this definition to define what constitutes the state. The formal means of social control and the monopoly on violence serve a similar role in defining the state—they both illustrate the unique relationship between the state and its subjects.
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Sociological theories of deviance are those that use social context and social pressures to explain deviance.
Learning Objectives
• Describe four different sociological approaches to deviance
Key Points
• Social strain typology, developed by Robert K. Merton, is based upon two criteria: (1) a person’s motivations or adherence to cultural goals; (2) a person’s belief in how to attain her goals.
• According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.
• Structural functionalism argues that deviant behavior plays an active, constructive role in society by ultimately helping cohere different populations within a society.
• Conflict theory suggests that deviant behaviors result from social, political, or material inequalities in a social group.
• Labeling theory argues that people become deviant as a result of people forcing that identity upon them and then adopting the identity.
Key Terms
• conformity: the ideology of adhering to one standard or social uniformity
• typology: The systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics.
• Retrospective labeling: Occurs when a deviant recognizes her acts as deviant prior to the primary deviance, while prospective labeling is when the deviant recognizes future acts as deviant.
The study of social deviance is the study of the violation of cultural norms in either formal or informal contexts. Social deviance is a phenomenon that has existed in all societies with norms. Sociological theories of deviance are those that use social context and social pressures to explain deviance.
Social Strain Typology
Four main sociological theories of deviance exist. The first is the social strain typology developed by American sociologist Robert K. Merton. Merton proposed a typology of deviant behavior, a classification scheme designed to facilitate understanding. Merton typology of deviance was based on two criteria: (1) a person’s motivations or adherence to cultural goals; (2) a person’s belief in how to attain her goals. According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Merton’s typology is fascinating because it suggests that people can turn to deviance in the pursuit of widely accepted social values and goals. For instance, individuals in the U.S. who sell illegal drugs have rejected the culturally acceptable means of making money, but they still share the widely accepted cultural value of making money. Thus, deviance can be the result of accepting one norm, but breaking another in order to pursue the first.
Structural Functionalism
The second main sociological explanation of deviance comes from structural functionalism. This approach argues that deviant behavior plays an active, constructive role in society by ultimately helping to cohere different populations within a particular society. Deviance helps to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It draws lines and demarcates boundaries. This is an important function that affirms the cultural values and norms of a society for the members of that society. In addition to clarifying the moral boundaries of society, deviant behavior can also promote social unity by creating an “us-versus-them” mentality in relation to deviant individuals. Finally, deviance is actually seen as one means for society to change over time. Deviant behavior can imbalance the social equilibrium but—in the process of restoring balance—society will adjust norms. With changing norms in response to deviance, the deviant behavior can contribute to long-term social stability.
Conflict Theory
The third main sociological theory of deviance is conflict theory. Conflict theory suggests that deviant behaviors result from social, political, or material inequalities of a social group. In response to these inequalities, certain groups will act deviantly in order to change their circumstances, change the social structure that engendered their circumstances, or just to “act out” against their oppressors. An example of conflict theory would be the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in the fall of 2011. Angered at the extreme inequalities in wealth distribution in the United States, protesters began to organize more communal ways of living in Zucotti Park—near Wall Street in New York City—in order to protest the lavish means of life of those at the top of the socioeconomic ladder. The protesters were deviating from social norms of coherence in order to articulate grievances against the extremely wealthy. Their actions and perspectives demonstrate the use of conflict theory to explain social deviance.
Labeling Theory
The fourth main sociological theory of deviance is labeling theory. Labeling theory refers to the idea that individuals become deviant when a deviant label is applied to them; they adopt the label by exhibiting the behaviors, actions, and attitudes associated with the label. Labeling theory argues that people become deviant as a result of others forcing that identity upon them. This process works because of stigma; in applying a deviant label, one attaches a stigmatized identity to the labeled individual.
Labeling theory allows us to understand how past behaviors of a deviant-labeled individual are reinterpreted in accordance with their label. This process of recasting past actions in light of a current deviant identity is referred to as “retrospective labeling. ” A clear example of retrospective labeling is seen in how the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre were recast after the incident took place. Much of their behavior leading up to the school shootings has been reinterpreted in light of the deviant identity with which they were labeled as a result of the shootings. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.03%3A_Theories_of_Crime_and_Deviance/7.3A%3A_Sociological_Theories_of_Deviance.txt |
A biological theory of deviance proposes that an individual deviates from social norms largely because of their biological makeup.
Learning Objectives
• Outline the main assumptions of three biological theories of deviance
Key Points
• A biological interpretation of formal deviance was first advanced by the Italian School of Criminology, a school of thought originating from Italy during the mid-nineteenth century.
• The school was headed by medical criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who argued that criminality was a biological trait found in some human beings. The term Lombroso used to describe the appearance of organisms resembling ancestral forms of life is atavism.
• The idea of atavism drew a connection between an individual’s appearance and their biological propensity to deviate from social norms.
• Enrico Ferri took this idea farther, arguing that anyone convicted of a crime should be detained for as long as possible. According to Ferri’s line of thought, if individuals committed crimes because of their biological constitution, what was the point of deterrence or rehabilitation?
• Garofalo is perhaps best known for his efforts to formulate a “natural” definition of crime. According to his view, those who violate human universal laws are themselves “unnatural”.
Key Terms
• penology: The processes devised and adopted for the punishment and prevention of crime.
• atavism: The reappearance of an ancestral characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence.
• Italian School of Criminology: The Italian school of criminology was founded at the end of the 19th century by Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) and two of his Italian disciples, Enrico Ferri (1856–1929) and Raffaele Garofalo (1851–1934).
A biological theory of deviance proposes that an individual deviates from social norms largely because of their biological makeup. The theory primarily pertains to formal deviance, using biological reasons to explain criminality, though it can certainly extend to informal deviance.
Cesare Lombroso
A biological interpretation of formal deviance was first advanced by the Italian School of Criminology, a school of thought originating from Italy during the mid-nineteenth century. The school was headed by medical criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who argued that criminality was a biological trait found in some human beings. Enrico Ferri and Raffaelo Garofalo continued the Italian School as Lombroso’s predecessors. The Italian School was interested in why some individuals engaged in criminal behavior and others did not. Their explanation was that some individuals had a biological propensity for crime.
The term Lombroso used to describe the appearance of organisms resembling ancestral forms of life is atavism. He belived that atavism was a sign of inherent criminalities, and thus he viewed born criminals as a form of human sub-species. Lombroso believed that atavism could be identified by a number of measurable physical stigmata—a protruding jaw, drooping eyes, large ears, twisted and flattish nose, long arms relative to the lower limbs, sloping shoulders, and a coccyx that resembled “the stump of a tail. ” The concept of atavism was glaringly wrong, but like so many others of his time, Lombroso sought to understand behavioral phenomena with reference to the principles of evolution as they were understood at the time.
Enrico Ferri
Lombroso’s work was continued by Erico Ferri’s study of penology, the section of criminology that is concerned with the philosophy and practice of various societies in their attempt to repress criminal activities. Ferri’s work on penology was instrumental in developing the “social defense” justification for the detention of individuals convicted of crimes. Ferri argued that anyone convicted of a crime should be detained for as long as possible. According to Ferri’s line of thought, if individuals committed crimes because of their biological constitution, what was the point of deterrence or rehabilitation? For Ferri, none of these therapeutic interventions could change the offender’s biology, making them pointless. After an individual had been convicted of a crime, the state ‘s responsibility was to protect the community and prevent the criminal from doing more harm—as his biology determined he would do.
Raffaelo Garofalo
Garofalo is perhaps best known for his efforts to formulate a “natural” definition of crime. Classical thinkers accepted the legal definition of crime uncritically; crime is what the law says it is. This appeared to be rather arbitrary and “unscientific” to Garofalo, who wanted to anchor the definition of crime in something natural. Most significant was Garofalo’s reformulation of classical notions of crime and his redefinition of crime as a violation of natural law, or a human universal.
A human universal is a trait, characteristic, or behavior that exists across cultures, regardless of the nuances of a given context. A famous example of a universal is the incest taboo. Exempting a very small number of small communities, all human cultures have a taboo against incest in some form. Garofalo’s presentaion of crime as a violation of a human universal allows for one to characterize criminals as unnatural. As soon as criminals are marked as inhuman or unnatural, the public has license to think of an individual convicted of a crime as completely unlike the rest of society; a whole new range of punishments are authorized, including serious social stigmatization.
Biological Theories Today
Italian School biological explanations have not resonated in criminal justice systems in America. However, some traces still exist. Now, the conversation about crime and biological explanations focuses more on the relationship between genetics and crime than the relationship between phenotypic features and crime. Because the modern emphasis is on actual genetics rather than phenotypic expressions of genes, stereotyping of individuals with “criminal” traits or propensities is more difficult. For example, when walking down the street, you can tell who has a protruding jaw, but you can’t tell who has the genetic combination that increases one’s propensity for aggression. Though the debate has mutated, a biological explanation for deviance and crime is still commonplace. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.03%3A_Theories_of_Crime_and_Deviance/7.3B%3A_Biological_Theories_of_Deviance.txt |
Psychological theories of deviance use a deviant’s psychology to explain his motivation or compulsion to violate social norms.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the problematic aspects of psychological theories of deviance
Key Points
• Conduct disorder is a psychological disorder diagnosed in childhood that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others of major age-appropriate norms are violated.
• Deviant behavior can also be explained by psychological trauma in one’s past.
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition in which a traumatic incident in one’s past compels an individual to have abnormal reactions to stimuli.
• Though psychological theories are frequently employed to explain deviant behavior, one should bear in mind that the stability of psychological categories is constantly in flux.
Key Terms
• conduct disorder: Conduct disorder is a psychological disorder diagnosed in childhood that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated.
• Psychological theory of deviance: In many ways, psychological theories of deviance mirror biological explanations (see section: Biological Theories of Deviance), only with an emphasis on the brain.
• post-traumatic stress disorder: Any condition that develops following some stressful situation or event, such as sleep disturbance, recurrent dreams, withdrawal or lack of concentration.
Psychological theories of deviance use a deviant’s psychology to explain his motivation and compulsion to violate social norms. In many ways, psychological theories of deviance mirror biological explanations, only with an added emphasis on brain function. Whereas historical biological explanations, such as those provided by the Italian School, used biological traits from the whole body (e.g., protruding jaws, large ears) as signifiers of a biological propensity for criminal behavior, today’s psychological theories of deviance use the biology of the brain (in terms of the structure of the brain, levels of neurotransmitters, and psychiatric diagnoses) to explain deviance.
Conduct Disorder
One case study of a psychological theory of deviance is the case of conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is a psychological disorder diagnosed in childhood that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others and major age-appropriate norms are violated. This childhood disorder is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder. According the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–IV (the professional manual listing all medically recognized mental disorders and their symptoms), conduct disorder presents as aggressive and disrespectful behavior. Compared to normal controls, youth with early and adolescent onset of conduct disorder displayed reduced responses in the brain regions associated with antisocial behavior. In addition, youth with conduct disorder demonstrated less responsiveness in the orbitofrontal regions of the brain during a stimulus-reinforcement and reward task. These psychological symptoms of conduct disorder, both in terms of neuroanatomy and neurotransmitter regulation, help to explain the explanatory link between psychology and crime. Moreover, they demonstrate the increasingly fluid boundary between psychological and biological theories of deviance.
Psychological Trauma
Psychological theories of deviance do not necessarily have a biological element. Deviant behavior can also be explained by psychological trauma in one’s past. Take, for example, the case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is a psychological condition in which a traumatic incident in one’s past causes an individual to have abnormal reactions to stimuli. PTSD is frequently invoked in cases of child abuse, in which the psychological trauma of having been abused as a child can contribute to deviant behavior in the future. PTSD is also discussed in cases of deviant, violent behavior on the part of individuals who have experienced trauma while in the military. Consider the case of Sergeant Robert Bales. Sgt. Bales is an American soldier who has served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. Sgt. Bales is accused of getting drunk and going into a town nearby his post in Afghanistan and murdering 16 Afghanis without provocation. Experts are already speculating that the psychological trauma of multiple redeployments contributed to Sgt. Bales’s alleged deviance.
Problems with Psychological Theories of Deviance
While psychiatric diagnoses are commonly used to explain deviance, one must remember that what counts as a legitimate diagnosis is always in contention. The DSM, the manual for what the psychological community recognizes as a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis, is a revised manual. One example of the importance of these revisions: homosexuality used to be included in the DSM as a psychiatric condition. Thus, until it was removed in 1986, homosexuality (the psychological condition) could have been a psychological explanation for deviant sexuality. However, since being removed from the DSM, homosexuality is no longer recognized as a legitimate psychiatric condition and, therefore, the now debunked homosexuality-as-psychiatric-condition does not serve an explanatory role in regards to deviant sexuality. This goes to demonstrate the fluctuating nature of psychological theories of deviance.
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Functionalism claims that deviance help to create social stability by presenting explanations of non-normative and normative behaviors.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the functionalist view of deviance in society
Key Points
• A structural functionalist approach emphasizes social solidarity, divided into organic and mechanical typologies, and stability in social structures.
• Deviance provides the key to understanding the disruption and recalibration of society that occurs over time. Some traits that could cause social disruption will be stigmatized.
• Systems of deviance create norms and tell members of a given society on how to behave by laying out patterns of acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
• Deviance allows for group majorities to unite around their worldview, often at the expense of those marked as deviant. Social parameters create boundaries between populations and enable an “us-versus-them” mentality within the two groups.
• Being marked as deviant can actually bolster solidarity within the marked community as members take pride and ownership in their stigmatized identity.
• Some traits will be stigmatized and can potentially cause social disruption. However, as traits become more mainstream, society will gradually adjust to incorporate the formerly stigmatized traits.
Key Terms
• structural functionalism: A sociological approach that looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole.
• population: A count of the number of residents within a political or geographical boundary, such as a town, a nation, or the world or of the number of individuals belonging to a particular group.
• Social Parameters: The given rules and norms in a given social situation.
What function does deviance play in society? This is a question asked by sociologists subscribing to the school of structural functionalism. Structural functionalism has its roots in the very origins of sociological thought and the development of sociology as a discipline. Though precursors of structural functionalism have been in existence since the mid-1800’s, structural functionalism was solidified by Émile Durkheim in the late nineteenth century. A structural functionalist approach emphasizes social solidarity, divided into organic and mechanical typologies, and stability in social structures. Structural functionalists ask “How does any given social phenomenon contribute to social stability?” This question cannot be answered without investigating deviance.
Functions of Crime: This is a short clip from the “Functions of Crime” segment of their new seven-part DVD “Short Cuts to Sociology: Crime and Deviance. ”
For the structural functionalist, deviance serves two primary roles in creating social stability. First, systems of recognizing and punishing deviance create norms and tell members of a given society how to behave by laying out patterns of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. In order to avoid unsettling society, one must be aware of what behaviors are marked as deviant. Second, these social parameters create boundaries between populations and enable an “us-versus-them” mentality within different groups. Deviance allows for the majorities to unite around their normativity, at the expense of those marked as deviant. Conversely, being marked as deviant can actual bolster solidarity within the marked community, as members take pride and ownership in their stigmatized identity and create cohesive units of their own (for example, members of the LGBT community unifying around Pride).
From a structural functionalist perspective, then, how does society change, particularly in regards to establishing norms and deviant behaviors? Deviance provides the key to understanding the disruption and re-calibration of society that occurs over time. Some traits will be stigmatized and can potentially cause social disruption. However, as traits become more mainstream, society will gradually adjust to incorporate the formerly stigmatized traits.
Take, again, the example of homosexuality. In urban America 50 years ago, homosexual behavior was considered deviant. On the one hand, this fractured society into those marked as homosexuals and those unmarked as normative heterosexuals. While this us-versus-them mentality solidified social identities and solidarities within the two categories, there was an overarching social schism. As time went on, homosexuality has come to be accepted as somewhat more mainstream. Accordingly, what originally appears as a fracturing of society actually reinforces social stability by enabling mechanisms for social adjustment and development. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.04%3A_The_Functionalist_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.4A%3A_The_Functionalist_Perspective_on_Deviance.txt |
Strain theory states that social structures within society may pressure citizens to commit crimes.
Learning Objectives
• Apply Merton’s typology of deviance to the real world and give examples for each type
Key Points
• Social strain theory was developed by famed American sociologist Robert K. Merton. “Strain” refers to the discrepancies between culturally defined goals and the institutionalized means available to achieve these goals.
• Merton was proposing a typology of deviance based upon two criteria: (1) a person’s motivations or her adherence to cultural goals; (2) a person’s belief in how to attain his goals.
• A typology is a classification scheme designed to facilitate understanding.
• According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.
Key Terms
• typology: The systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics.
• Social strain theory: Social strain theory was developed by famed American sociologist Robert K. Merton who, in his discussion of deviance, proposed a typology of deviant behavior.
Social strain theory was developed by famed American sociologist Robert K. Merton. The theory states that social structures may pressure citizens to commit crimes. Strain may be structural, which refers to the processes at the societal level that filter down and affect how the individual perceives his or her needs. Strain may also be individual, which refers to the frictions and pains experienced by an individual as he or she looks for ways to satisfy individual needs. These types of strain can insinuate social structures within society that then pressure citizens to become criminals.
In his discussion of deviance Merton proposed a typology of deviant behavior that illustrated the possible discrepancies between culturally defined goals and the institutionalized means available to achieve these goals. A typology is a classification scheme designed to facilitate understanding. In this case, Merton was proposing a typology of deviance based upon two criteria: (1) a person’s motivations or his adherence to cultural goals; (2) a person’s belief in how to attain his goals. According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria:
• Conformity involves the acceptance of the cultural goals and means of attaining those goals.
• Innovation involves the acceptance of the goals of a culture but the rejection of the traditional and/or legitimate means of attaining those goals. For example, a member of the Mafia values wealth but employs alternative means of attaining his wealth; in this example, the Mafia member’s means would be deviant.
• Ritualism involves the rejection of cultural goals but the routinized acceptance of the means for achieving the goals.
• Retreatism involves the rejection of both the cultural goals and the traditional means of achieving those goals.
• Rebellion is a special case wherein the individual rejects both the cultural goals and traditional means of achieving them but actively attempts to replace both elements of the society with different goals and means.
What makes Merton’s typology so fascinating is that people can turn to deviance in the pursuit of widely accepted social values and goals. For instance, individuals in the U.S. who sell illegal drugs have rejected the culturally acceptable means of making money, but still share the widely accepted cultural value in the U.S. of making money. Thus, deviance can be the result of accepting one norm, but breaking another in order to pursue the first. In this sense, according social strain theory, social values actually produce deviance in two ways. First, an actor can reject social values and therefore become deviant. Additionally, an actor can accept social values but use deviant means to realize them.
Critics point to the fact that there is an ample amount of crime/delinquent behavior that is “non-utilitarian, malicious, and negativistic” (O’Grady, 2011), which highlights that not all crimes are explicable using Merton’s theory. Crimes such as vandalism, for example, can’t be explained by a need for material acquisition. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.04%3A_The_Functionalist_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.4B%3A_Strain_Theory-_How_Social_Values_Produce_Deviance.txt |
Learning Objectives
Explain how illegitimate opportunity structures function in different subcultures
American sociologists Richard Cowan and Lloyd Ohlin extended Robert K. Merton’s social strain theory to directly address juvenile delinquency and social class. If you recall, social strain theory develops a typology of deviance in which an individual can deviate on two planes. An individual can be deviant by refusing to accept social norms or an individual can deviate by accepting social norms but using deviant means to achieve their realization. In the context of the U.S., in which prosperity is a social value, one could deviate by rejecting the notion of wealth. Alternatively, one could deviate by aspiring to a wealthy lifestyle but earning one’s living as a pickpocket.
In 1960, Cowan and Ohlin published Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs. In this work, they noted that the individuals who achieved social norms by deviant means frequently operated from within institutions that, similarly to those operating in normative institutions, had rules of behavior. A key to understanding Cowan and Ohlin’s theory is the notion of subculture. A subculture is a group of people with a culture that differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. Subcultures create a stacking or layering effect within a larger cultural context. While a pickpocket may deviate from American social norms, he adheres to social norms of a smaller group of individuals who identify as American pickpockets. Cowan and Ohlin asserted that subcultures have rules of their own. Illegitimate opportunity structures are the rules that operate within deviant subcultures. Cowan and Ohlin emphasized how the structures of these deviant subcultures paralleled the rules and operations of more socially acceptable institutions.
Cowan and Ohlin used juvenile delinquency as a case study to explore this theory of illegitimate opportunity structures. In a criminal subculture, youth learn to use crime for material gain. This subculture usually forms in areas where there is an established organization of adult crime that provides an illegitimate opportunity structure for youths to learn how to behave criminally for material success. In a conflict subculture, youth learn to form gangs as a way to express frustration about the lack of normative opportunity structures in their neighborhood. New initiates into the gang will learn how to engage in conflict or gang activities to express frustrations by watching gang leadership. Thus, gangs become a subculture of their own, in contradistinction to the normative, peaceful model of youth behavior. Finally, in a retreatist subculture youth learn to reject both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures. These individuals are thought to be “double failures” in that they engage in conduct that is neither normative and accepted by society at large nor deviant but accepted by a subculture.
Criminal and conflict subcultures demonstrate that individuals can reject the normative means of the culture at large and still find a place within a smaller deviant subculture. The retreatist subculture is the exception that proves the rule of illegitimate opportunity structures. The extreme deviance and isolation of individuals affiliated with a retreatist subculture demonstrate that others who engage in deviant behavior are able to find a subculture to which to subscribe.
Key Points
• American sociologists Richard Cowan and Lloyd Ohlin extended Robert K. Merton’s social strain theory to directly address juvenile delinquency and social class.
• A subculture is a group of people with a culture that differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.
• In a criminal subculture, youth learn to use crime for material gain.
• In a conflict subculture, youth learn to form gangs as a way to express frustration about the lack of normative opportunity structures in their neighborhood.
• In a retreatist subculture youth learn to reject both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures.
• In a retreatist subculture youth learn to reject both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures
Key Terms
• Conflict subculture: In a conflict subculture, youth learn to form gangs as a way to express frustration about the lack of normative opportunity structures in their neighborhood.
• subculture: A portion of a culture distinguished from the larger society around it by its customs or other features.
• Illegitimate opportunity structure: In criminology, subcultural theory emerged from the work of the Chicago School on gangs and developed through the symbolic interactionism school into a set of theories arguing that certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attitudes that are conducive to crime and violence. The primary focus is on juvenile delinquency because theorists believe that if this pattern of offending can be understood and controlled, it will break the transition from teenage offender into habitual criminal.
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Conflict theories emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that critique the broad socio-political system.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how conflict theory understands deviance and crime in society
Key Points
• In conflict theory, deviant behaviors are actions that do not go along with the social institutions.
• Marx himself did not write about deviant behavior, but he wrote about alienation amongst the proletariat, as well as between the proletariat and the finished product, which causes conflict and, thus, deviant behavior.
• Marx used the term ” lumpenproletariat ” to describe that layer of the working class which is unlikely to ever achieve class consciousness.
• Michel Foucault believed that torture had been phased out from modern society due to the dispersion of power; there was no need any more for the wrath of the state on a deviant individual.
• According to Foucault, instead individuals are controlled by institutions. Contemporary society is characterized by the lack of free will on the part of individuals because institutions of knowledge, norms, and values, are in place to categorize and control humans.
Key Terms
• institution: An established organization, especially one dedicated to education, public service, culture, or the care of the destitute, poor etc.
• Deviant Behavior: The violation of prevailing norms or cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave.
• lumpenproletariat: the lowest stratum of the proletariat
Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules, as well as informal violations of social norms. In sociology, conflict theories are perspectives that emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that critique the broad socio-political system, or that otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservativism. Conflict theories draw attention to power differentials, such as class conflict, and generally contrast historically dominant ideologies. It is therefore a macro level analysis of society. Karl Marx is the father of the social conflict theory, which is a component of the four paradigms of sociology.
In conflict theory, deviant behaviors are actions that do not comply with social institutions. The institution’s ability to change norms, wealth, or status comes into conflict with the individual. The legal rights of poor folks might be ignored, while the middle class side with the elites rather than the poor. Conflict theory is based upon the view that the fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic forces operating within society.
Karl Marx
Marx himself did not write about deviant behavior specifically, but he wrote about alienation amongst the proletariat, as well as between the proletariat and the finished product, which causes conflict, and thus deviant behavior. Alienation is the systemic result of living in a socially stratified society, because being a mechanistic part of a social class alienates a person from his or her humanity. In a capitalist society, the worker’s alienation from his and her humanity occurs because the worker can only express labor, a fundamental social aspect of personal individuality, through a privately owned system of industrial production in which each worker is an instrument, a thing, not a person. However, Marx used the term lumpenproletariat to describe that layer of the working class, unlikely to ever achieve class consciousness, lost to socially useful production, and, therefore, of no use in revolutionary struggle or an actual impediment to the realization of a classless society
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault believed that torture had been phased out from modern society due to the dispersion of power; so there was no need any more for the wrath of the state on a deviant individual. Rather, the modern state receives praise for its fairness and dispersion of power that, instead of controlling each individual, controls the mass. He also theorized that institutions control people through the use of discipline. The modern prison is a template for these institutions, because it controls its inmates by the perfect use of discipline. Foucault theorizes that, in a sense, the contemporary society is characterized by the lack of free will on the part of individuals. Institutions of knowledge, norms, and values, are in place to categorize and control humans. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.05%3A_The_Conflict_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.5A%3A_The_Conflict_Perspective_on_Deviance.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain why white-collar crime is less likely to be tracked in the U.S.
Of the classical founders of social science, conflict theory is most commonly associated with Karl Marx. Based on a dialectical materialist account of history, Marxism posited that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, would inevitably produce internal tensions leading to its own destruction. Marx ushered in radical change, advocating proletarian revolution and freedom from the ruling classes. In Marxist theory, the class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the conflict between two main classes: the bourgeoisie, the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat who must sell their own labor power.
Theory of Deviance
Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay theorized that social disorganization was a root cause of deviancy and crime, especially for minority youth. They discussed the fact that inner city kids tended to be more involved in a criminal lifestyle than kids who lived in the suburbs. Being able to afford to live in better parts of the city (and thus having wealth) afforded certain kids better opportunities in terms of lifestyle and education, leading to less crime and criminal involvement.
White-Collar Crime
White-collar crime is a financially motivated, nonviolent crime committed for illegal monetary gain. Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime initially was defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. ” A clear example of how deviance reflects power imbalances is in the reporting and tracking of crimes. Indeed, white-collar crimes are typically committed by individuals in higher social classes. That white-collar crimes are less likely to be tracked, less likely to be reported, less likely to be prosecuted, and are more likely to be committed by people in higher social classes suggests that the way crimes are punished in the United States tends to favor the affluent while punitively punishing the less affluent. Additionally, men benefit more from white-collar crime than do women, as they are more likely to attempt these crimes when they are in more powerful positions, allowing them to reap greater rewards.
The Criminal Justice System
Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts. Those accused of crime have protections against abuse of investigatory and prosecution powers.
Within the criminal justice system, there are three basic elements that constitute it: the police, the courts, and punishment. The police maintain public order by enforcing the law. Police use personal discretion in deciding whether and how to handle a situation. Research suggests that police are more likely to make an arrest if the offense is serious, if bystanders are present, or if the suspect is of a visible minority. Courts rely on an adversarial process in which attorneys-one representing the defendant and one representing the crown-present their cases in the presence of a judge who monitors legal procedures. In practice, courts resolve most cases through a plea bargain. Though efficient, this method puts less-powerful people at a disadvantage. There are four jurisdictions for punishment: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and societal protection. Community-bases corrections include probation and parole. These programs lower the cost of supervising people convicted of crimes and reduce prison overcrowding but have not been shown to reduce recidivism.
Key Points
• In Marxist theory, the class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the conflict between two main classes.
• Bourgeoisie are the capitalists who own the means of production, while the much larger proletariat who must sell their own labor power.
• White-collar crime is a financially motivated, nonviolent crime committed for illegal monetary gain.
• Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring, and mitigating crime or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
• Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
• There are four jurisdictions for punishment: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and societal protection.
• Courts rely on an adversarial process in which attorneys-one representing the defendant and one representing the crown-present their cases in the presence of a judge who monitors legal procedures
• There are four jurisdictions for punishment: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and societal protection.
Key Terms
• Marxist Theory: An economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry centered upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis–critique of the development of capitalism.
• white-collar crime: A non-violent crime, generally for personal gain and often involving money.
• plea bargain: An agreement in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge instead of not guilty to a greater one | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.05%3A_The_Conflict_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.5B%3A_Class_Crime_and_the_Criminal_Justice_System.txt |
Power and inequality determine the socioeconomic conditions of different classes.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the four basic assumptions of social stratification theory
Key Points
• Social stratification is a concept involving the classification of persons into groups based on shared socioeconomic conditions.
• Conflict theories, such as Marxism, focus on the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility found in stratified societies.
• Social stratification has been shown to cause many social problems, including homicide, infant mortality, obesity, teenage pregnancies, emotional depression, teen suicide, and a high prison population.
• In modern Western societies, stratification is broadly organized into three main layers: upper class, middle class, and lower class.
• Conflict theories, such as Marxism, point to the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility found in stratified societies.
• In Marxist theory, the capitalist mode of production consists of two main economic parts: the substructure and the Superstructure. Marx
• Social stratification has been shown to cause many social problems.
Key Terms
• Marxist Theory: An economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry centered upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis–critique of the development of capitalism.
• Conflict Theories: Perspectives in social science that emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, critique the broad socio-political system, or otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism.
• Weberian: Of or relating to Max Weber (1864–1920), influential German sociologist and political economist.
Power and Inequality
In social science and politics, power is the ability to influence the behavior of people. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to (or regularly found in) humans as social beings. French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926–1984) saw power as “a complex strategic situation in a given society social setting”. Power may be held through authority, social class (material wealth), personal charisma, expertise or knowledge, persuasion, force (such as law or violence), and a myriad of other dynamics.
Because power operates both relationally and reciprocally, sociologists speak of the balance of power between people in a relationship. All parties to all relationships have some power; the sociological examination of power concerns itself with discovering and describing the relative strengths – equal or unequal, stable or subject to periodic change. Given that power is not innate and can be granted to others, to acquire power you must possess or control a form of power currency (such as wealth, social status, authority, etc.).
Social inequality and stratification
Social inequality refers to relational processes in society that have the effect of limiting or harming a group’s social status, social class, and social circle. Areas of social inequality include access to voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, the extent of property rights and access to education, health care, quality housing, traveling, transportation, vacationing and other social goods and services.
The reasons for social inequality can vary, but are often broad and far reaching. Social inequality can emerge through a society’s understanding of appropriate gender roles, or through the prevalence of social stereotyping. They can also be established through discriminatory legislation. Social inequalities exist between ethnic or religious groups, classes and countries, making the concept a global phenomenon.
In sociology, social stratification is a concept involving the classification of persons into groups based on shared socioeconomic conditions; it is a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions. Theories of social stratification are based on four basic principles:
1. Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.
2. Social stratification carries over from generation to generation.
3. Social stratification is universal but variable.
4. Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well.
Classifications of stratification
In modern Western societies, stratification is broadly organized into three main layers: upper class, middle class, and lower class.
The upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of the wealthiest members of society, who also wield the greatest political power. The upper class is generally contained within the wealthiest 1–2 percent of the population, with wealth passed from generation to generation.
In Weberian socioeconomic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. The common measures of what constitutes middle class vary significantly between cultures.
The working class describes the group of people employed in lower tier jobs, often including those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes. Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
Social Stratification and Marxism
Conflict theories, such as Marxism, focus on the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility found in stratified societies. Many sociological theorists have criticized the extent to which the working classes are unlikely to advance socioeconomically; the wealthy tend to hold political power which they use to exploit the proletariat inter-generationally.
In Marxist theory, the capitalist mode of production consists of two main economic parts: the substructure and the superstructure. Marx saw classes as defined by people’s relationship to the means of productions in two basic ways: either they own productive property or they labor for others. The base comprehends the forces and relations of production: employer-employee work conditions, the technical division of labor, and property relations—into which people enter to produce the necessities and amenities of life. These relations determine society’s other relationships and ideas, which are described as its superstructure. The superstructure of a society includes its culture, institutions, political power structures, roles, rituals, and state.
Social stratification has been shown to cause many social problems. A comprehensive study of major world economies revealed that homicide, infant mortality, obesity, teenage pregnancies, emotional depression, teen suicide, and prison population all correlate with higher social inequality.
There are three common characteristics of stratified systems:
1. Rankings apply to social categories of people who share a common characteristic without necessarily interacting or identifying with each other. The process of being ranked can be changed by the person being ranked, and it can differ based on race, gender, and social class.
2. People’s life experiences and opportunities depend on their social category. This characteristic can be changed by the amount of work a person can put into their interests. The use of resources can influence others.
3. The ranks of different social categories change slowly over time. This has occurred frequently in the United States ever since the American revolution—the U.S. Constitution has been altered several times to specify rights for everyone. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.05%3A_The_Conflict_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.5C%3A_Power_and_Inequality.txt |
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the sociological approach to oppression
Key Points
• Anarchists and other libertarian socialists argue that police and law themselves are oppression. The term oppression, in such instances, refers to the subordination of a given group or social category by unjust use of force or authority in order to achieve the effects of oppression.
• In psychology, racism, sexism and other prejudices are often studied as individual beliefs which, although not necessarily oppressive in themselves, can lead to oppression if they are codified in law or become parts of a culture.
• In sociology, prejudices are often studied as being institutionalized systems of oppression in some societies.
• In sociology and psychology, internalized oppression is the manner in which an oppressed group comes to use against itself the methods of the oppressor.
Key Terms
• anarchist: One who believes in or advocates the absence of hierarchy and authority in most forms (compare anarchism), especially one who works toward the realization of such.
• prejudice: An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge of the facts.
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and anxiety. Injustice refers to the absence of justice. The term may be applied either in reference to a particular event or act, or to a larger status quo. The term generally refers to misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is uncorrected or otherwise sanctioned by a legal system. Misuse and abuse with regard to a particular case or context may represent a systemic failure to serve the cause of justice.
Anarchists and other libertarian socialists argue that police and laws themselves are oppression. The term oppression, in such instances, refers to the subordination of a given group or social category by unjust use of force, authority, or societal norms in order to achieve the effects mentioned above. When institutionalized, formally or informally, it may achieve the dimension of systematic oppression. Oppression is customarily experienced as a consequence of, and expressed in, the form of a prevailing, if unconscious, assumption that the given target is in some way inferior. Oppression is rarely limited solely to formal government action: An individual may be the particular focus of oppression or persecution, and in such circumstances, have no group membership in which to share, and thus maybe mitigate the burden of ostracism.
In psychology, racism, sexism and other prejudices are often studied as individual beliefs which, although not necessarily oppressive in themselves, can lead to oppression if they are codified in law or become parts of a culture. By comparison, in sociology, these prejudices are often studied as being institutionalized systems of oppression in some societies. In sociology, the tools of oppression include a progression of denigration, dehumanization, and demonization which often generate scapegoating, which is used to justify aggression against targeted groups and individuals.
In sociology and psychology, internalized oppression is the manner in which an oppressed group comes to use against itself the methods of the oppressor. For example, sometimes members of marginalized groups hold an oppressive view toward their own group, or start to believe in negative stereotypes.
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Differential association is when individuals base their behaviors by association and interaction with others.
Learning Objectives
• List Sutherland’s nine key points
Key Points
• In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland.
• Differential association theory proposes that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior.
• Differential association predicts that an individual will choose the criminal path when the balance of definitions for law-breaking exceeds those for law-abiding.
• One critique leveled against differential association stems from the idea that people can be independent, rational actors and individually motivated.
Key Terms
• Edwin Sutherland: Considered as one of the most influential criminologists of the 20th century. He was a sociologist of the symbolic interactionist school of thought and is best known for defining white-collar crime and differential association—a general theory of crime and delinquency.
• Differential Association Theory: This theory predicts that an individual will choose the criminal path when the balance of definitions for law-breaking exceeds those for law-abiding.
• differential association: a theory in criminology developed by Edwin Sutherland, proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior
In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland (1883–1950) proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. Differential association theory is the most talked-about of the learning theories of deviance. This theory focuses on how individuals learn to become criminals, but it does not concern itself with why they become criminals.
Differential association predicts that an individual will choose the criminal path when the balance of definitions for law-breaking exceeds those for law-abiding. This tendency will be reinforced if social association provides active people in the person’s life. The earlier in life an individual comes under the influence high status people within a group, the more likely the individual is to follow in their footsteps. This does not deny that there may be practical motives for crime. If a person is hungry but has no money, there is a temptation to steal. But the use of “needs” and “values” is equivocal. To some extent, both non-criminal and criminal individuals are motivated by the need for money and social gain.
Sutherland’s Nine Points
The principles of Sutherland’s theory of differential association can be summarized into nine key points.
1. Criminal behavior is learned.
2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.
3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.
4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes techniques of committing the crime (which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes simple) and the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable.
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law.
7. Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.
9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.
An important quality of differential association theory is the frequency and intensity of interaction. The amount of time that a person is exposed to a particular definition and at what point the interaction began are both crucial for explaining criminal activity. The process of learning criminal behavior is really not any different from the process involved in learning any other type of behavior. Sutherland maintains that there is no unique learning process associated with acquiring non-normative ways of behaving.
One very unique aspect of this theory is that it works to explain more than just juvenile delinquency and crime committed by lower class individuals. Since crime is understood to be learned behavior, the theory is also applicable to white-collar, corporate, and organized crime.
One critique leveled against differential association stems from the idea that people can be independent, rational actors and individually motivated. This notion of one being a criminal based on his or her environment is problematic—the theory does not take into account personality traits that might affect a person’s susceptibility to these environmental influences. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.06%3A_The_Symbolic-Interactionalist_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.6A%3A_Differential_Association_Theory.txt |
Control theory explains that societal institutions without strong control of society can result in deviant behavior.
Learning Objectives
• Identify the central assumption of control theory
Key Points
• Control theory advances the proposition that weak bonds between the individual and society allow people to deviate. Establishing strong social bonds, such as family ties or close community groups, will prevent crime.
• According to Travis Hirschi, people will conform to a group when they believe they have more to gain from conformity than by deviance.
• Decentralized control or market control is typically maintained through factors such as price, competition, or market share.
• Centralized control such as bureaucratic control is typically maintained through administrative or hierarchical techniques such as creating standards or policies.
• Mixed control is typically maintained by keeping a set of values and beliefs or norms and traditions.
• Mixed control is typically maintained by keeping a set of values and beliefs or norms and traditions.
Key Terms
• control theory: The theory states that behavior is caused not by outside stimuli, but by what a person wants most at any given time. According to control theory, weak social systems result in deviant behavior.
• deviance: Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms, such as laws or the norm that discourages public nose-picking.
Control theory advances the proposition that weak bonds between the individual and society allow people to deviate. In other words, deviant behavior occurs when external controls on behavior are weak. If the individual has strong social bonds with positive influences, deviant behavior is less likely than for another individual who has no family or friends.
Social Bonds
According to Travis Hirschi, norms emerge to deter deviant behavior, leading to conformity and groups. People will conform to a group when they believe they have more to gain from conformity than by deviance. Hirschi argued a person follows norms because they have a bond with society. These social bonds have four elements: opportunity, attachment, belief, and involvement. When any one of these bonds are weakened or broken a person is more likely to act in defiance.
Control Theory in sociology can either be classified as centralized, decentralized, or mixed. Decentralized control, or market control, is typically maintained through factors such as price, competition, or market share. Centralized control, such as bureaucratic control, is typically maintained through administrative or hierarchical techniques that create standards or policies. An example of mixed control is clan control, which contains both centralized and decentralized control. Mixed control is typically maintained by establishing a set of values and beliefs or norms and traditions.
Critique
While control theory gives an adequate explanation of non-serious forms of youthful delinquency, it fails to explain adult criminal behavior and serious instances of youth crime. Moreover, control theory is met with some resistance for its compliance to a conservative view of the broader social order. From a control theory perspective, children who are properly bonded to their parents would be involved in less crime than children who have weaker parental bonds; control theory assumes that the family is a naturally law-abiding institution. The theory’s biggest weakness is that it places too much importance on the bonds relative to an individual and society, without looking at other concepts like autonomy and impulsiveness. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.06%3A_The_Symbolic-Interactionalist_Perspective_on_Deviance/7.6B%3A_Control_Theory.txt |
Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent to an act, but instead the result of the externally-imposed label of “deviant”.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the labeling theory approach to deviance
Key Points
• George Herbert Mead posited that the self is socially constructed and reconstructed through the interactions which each person has with the community. Thus, if the community labels an individual as “deviant”, the individual will integrate this label into his sense of self.
• A social role is a set of expectations we have about a behavior. They are necessary for the organization and functioning of any society or group.
• Deviant roles are very special roles that society provides for deviant behavior.
• Mental illness and homosexuality are two examples of labels given to individual displaying deviant behavior.
• People who believe in hard labeling believe that mental illness does not exist. According to them, these illnesses are entirely socially constructed when we attach the label “mentally ill” to a behavior.
• Soft labeling supporters believe that mental illnesses are not socially constructed.
• People who believe in hard labeling believe that mental illness does not exist – they are entirely socially constructed.
• Soft labeling supporters believe that mental illnesses are not socially constructed.
Key Terms
• Labeling theory: Labeling theory is closely related to social-construction and symbolic-interaction analysis.
• Deviant roles: Labeling theory concerns itself mostly not with the normal roles that define our lives, but with those very special roles that society provides for deviant behavior.
• social role: Labeling theory concerns itself mostly not with the normal roles that define our lives, but with those very special roles that society provides for deviant behavior, called deviant roles, stigmatic roles, or social stigma.
Labeling Theory
Labeling theory is closely related to social-construction and symbolic-interaction analysis. It holds that deviance is not an inherent tendency of an individual, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. The theory is concerned with how the self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. The theory was prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, and some modified versions of the theory are still popular today.
Sociology – Labelling theory: Short presentation on labeling theory.
Theoretical Origins
Labeling theory had its origins in Suicide, a book by French sociologist Émile Durkheim. He argued that crime is not so much a violation of a penal code as it is an act that outrages society. He was the first to suggest that deviant labeling satisfies that function and satisfies society’s need to control the behavior. George Herbert Mead posited that the self is socially constructed and reconstructed through the interactions which each person has with the community. The labeling theory suggests that people are given labels based on how others view their tendencies or behaviors. Each individual is aware of how they are judged by others because he or she has adopted many different roles and functions in social interactions and has been able to gauge the reactions of those present.
Social Roles
Labeling theory concerns itself not with the normal roles that define our lives, but with those very special roles that society provides for deviant behavior, called deviant roles, stigmatic roles, or social stigma. A social role is a set of expectations we have about a behavior. Social roles are necessary for the organization and functioning of any society or group. We expect the postman, for example, to adhere to certain fixed rules about how he does his job.
Labeling theory hypothesizes that the labels applied to individuals influence their behavior, particularly that the application of negative or stigmatizing labels promotes deviant behavior. They become a self-fulfilling prophecy: an individual who is labeled has little choice but to conform to the essential meaning of that judgment. Consequently, labeling theory postulates that it is possible to prevent social deviance via a limited social shaming reaction in “labelers” and replace moral indignation with tolerance.
Labeling Deviants
The social construction of deviant behavior plays an important role in the labeling process that occurs in society. This process involves not only the labeling of criminally deviant behavior, which is behavior that does not fit socially constructed norms, but also labeling that reflects stereotyped or stigmatized behavior of the “mentally ill.” Furthermore, the application of labeling theory to homosexuality has been extremely controversial. It was Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues who pointed out the big discrepancy between the behavior and the role attached to it.
Hard Labeling and Soft Labeling
There are two distinctions in labeling: hard labeling and soft labeling. People who believe in hard labeling believe that mental illness does not exist. It is merely deviance from the norms of society that people attribute to mental illness. Thus, mental illnesses are socially constructed illnesses and psychotic disorders do not exist. People who believe in soft labeling believe that mental illnesses do, in fact, exist. Unlike the supporters of hard labeling, soft labeling supporters believe that mental illnesses are not socially constructed but are objective problems.
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Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction.
Learning Objectives
• Relate cultural change to changing definitions of crime
Key Points
• While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime. Breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as “offenses” or as “infractions. ” Torts are wrongs against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action.
• In sociology, a normative definition views crime as deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms, or cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally.
• Criminalization is a procedure deployed by society as a pre-emptive, harm-reduction device, using the threat of punishment as a deterrent to anyone proposing to engage in the behavior causing harm.
• As cultures change and the political environment shifts, societies may criminalize or decriminalize certain behaviors, which directly affects crime statistics and social perception of crime and deviant behavior..
• Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society.
• As cultures change and the political environment shifts, societies may criminalize or decriminalize certain behaviors, which directly affects the crime statistics.
• Crime statistics refers to the collection and calculation on data on crime in a given location.
• Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society.
Key Terms
• criminalization: The act of making a previously legal activity illegal.
• Deviant Behavior: The violation of prevailing norms or cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave.
• Breaches of Contract: An action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party’s performance.
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Crimes may also result in cautions, rehabilitation, or be unenforced. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently, in different localities, and at different time stages of the crime. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example, breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as “offenses” or as “infractions. ” Modern societies generally regard crimes as offenses against the public or the state, as distinguished from torts, which are wrongs against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action.
In sociology, a normative definition views crime as deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms, or cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally. This approach considers the complex realities surrounding the concept of crime and seeks to understand how changing social, political, psychological, and economic conditions may affect changing definitions of crime and the form of the legal, law-enforcement, and penal responses made by society.
These structural realities remain fluid and often contentious. For example: as cultures change and the political environment shifts, societies may criminalize or decriminalize certain behaviors, which directly affects the statistical crime rates, influences the allocation of resources for the enforcement of laws, and re-influences the general public opinion. One can view criminalization as a procedure deployed by society as a pre-emptive, harm-reduction device, using the threat of punishment as a deterrent to anyone proposing to engage in the behavior causing harm. The state becomes involved because governing entities can become convinced that the costs of not criminalizing, through allowing the harms to continue unabated, outweigh the costs of criminalizing it, restricting individual liberty, for example, to minimize harm to others.
Similarly, changes in the collection and calculation of data on crime may affect the public perceptions of the extent of any given “crime problem.” All such adjustments to crime statistics, together with the experience of people in their everyday lives, shape attitudes on the extent to which the state should use law or social engineering to enforce or encourage any particular social norm. Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7A%3A_Crime.txt |
Criminal law, as opposed to civil law, is the body of law that relates to crime and that defines conduct that is not allowed.
Learning Objectives
• Identify and differentiate between different types of crimes
Key Points
• In criminal law, an offense against the person usually refers to a crime which is committed by direct physical harm or force being applied to another person.
• A violent crime is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim.
• Sex crimes are forms of human sexual behavior that are crimes. Someone who commits one is said to be a sex offender.
• Property crime involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim.
• Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, sex, or gender identity.
• Organized crime is the transnational, national, or local grouping of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity.
• Virtual crime refers to a virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG).
• Organized crime are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity
Key Terms
• Property Crime: Property crime is a category of crime that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime only involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim.
• organized crime: A set of large criminal organizations (often competing for markets and territories) that deal in illegal goods and services.
• Violent Crime: A violent crime, or crime of violence, is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, (including criminal ends) such as robbery. Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons.
Criminal law, as opposed to civil law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It could be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey these laws. Criminal law is distinctive for the uniquely serious potential consequences, or sanctions, for failure to abide by its rules.
Offenses Against the Person
In criminal law, an offense against the person usually refers to a crime which is committed by direct physical harm or force being applied to another person. They are usually analyzed by division into fatal offenses, sexual offenses, or non-fatal non-sexual offenses. Although most sexual offenses will also be offenses against the person, sexual crimes are usually categorized separately. Similarly, although many homicides also involve an offense against the person, they are usually categorized under the more serious category.
Violent Crimes
A violent crime is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons. They also include both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. The United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) counts five categories of crime as violent crimes: murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. According to BJS figures, the rate of violent crime victimization in the United States declined by more than two thirds between the years 1994 and 2009. On September 30, 2009, 7.9% of sentenced prisoners in federal prisons were in for violent crimes; 52.4% of sentenced prisoners in state prisons at yearend 2008 were in for violent crimes; and 21.6% of convicted inmates in jails in 2002 were in for violent crimes.
Sex Crimes
Sex crimes are forms of human sexual behavior that are crimes. Someone who commits one is said to be a sex offender. Some sex crimes are crimes of violence that involve sex. Others are violations of social taboos, such as incest, sodomy, indecent exposure or exhibitionism. There is much variation among cultures as to what is considered a crime or not, and in what ways or to what extent crimes are punished.
Property Crimes
Property crime is a category of crime that includes burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime only involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim. Although robbery involves taking property, it is classified as a violent crime, since force, or threat of force, on an individual is involved, in contrast to burglary which typically takes place in an unoccupied dwelling or other unoccupied building. In 2005, only 18% of reported cases of larceny/theft were cleared in the United States.
Hate Crimes
Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, sex, or gender identity.
Virtual Crimes
Virtual crime refers to a virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). The huge time and effort invested into such games can lead online “crime” to spill over into real world crime, and even blur the distinctions between the two. Some countries have introduced special police investigation units to cover such “virtual crimes. ” South Korea is one such country, and looked into 22,000 cases in the first six months of 2003.
Organized Crime
Organized crime is the transnational, national, or local grouping of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for “protection. ” An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7B%3A_Types_of_Crime.txt |
Crime statistics attempt to provide statistical measures of the crime in societies.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate U.S. crime statistics and the various ways law enforcement officials gather them
Key Points
• The two major methods for collecting crime data are law enforcement reports and victimization statistical surveys.
• Statistics from law enforcement organizations are normally readily available and are generally reliable in terms of identifying what crime is being dealt with by law enforcement organizations.
• Victimization surveys are useful because they show some types of crime are well reported to law enforcement officials, while other types of crime are under reported.
• The U.S. has two major data collection programs: the Uniform Crime Reports from the FBI, and the National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Key Terms
• Victimization Statistical Surveys: The survey results are used for the purposes of building a crime index.
• crime: a specific act committed in violation of the law
• Uniform Crime Reports: The UCR Program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of over 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, federal, and other law enforcement agencies who voluntarily report data on crimes brought to their attention.
• Crime Statistics: The collection and/or calculation of data on crime.
Crime statistics attempt to provide statistical measures of the crime in societies. Several methods for measuring crime exist, including household surveys, hospital or insurance records, and compilations by police and similar law enforcement agencies. Typically official crime statistics refer to the latter, but some offences are likely to go unreported to the police. Public surveys are sometimes conducted to estimate the amount of crime not reported to police. Given that crime is usually secretive by nature, measurements of it are likely to be inaccurate. The two major methods for collecting crime data are law enforcement reports and victimization statistical surveys.
Crime statistics are gathered and reported by many countries and are of interest to several international organizations, including Interpol and the United Nations. Law enforcement agencies in some countries, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States and the Home Office in England & Wales, publish crime indices, which are compilations of statistics for various types of crime. The U.S. has two major data collection programs: the Uniform Crime Reports from the FBI and the National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The National Crime Victimization Survey has its use, but it also limited in its scope. For example, it only collects data on the following crimes – assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, rape and robbery. The U.S. has no comprehensive infrastructure to monitor crime trends and report the information to related parties, such as law enforcement.
Crime can generally be broken down into 2 categories – violent and nonviolent. Violent crimes involve harm to another person, generally done intentionally. The seriousness of the crime is determined by the amount of harm; use of a weapon also increases the seriousness. By contrast, nonviolent crime involves harm to property and/or possessions. Fraud or certain drug charges are examples of nonviolent crimes.
Because of the difficulties in quantifying how much crime actually occurs, researchers generally take two approaches to gathering statistics about crime. First, they often use statistics from law enforcement organizations. These statistics are normally readily available and are generally reliable in terms of identifying what crime is being dealt with by law enforcement organizations, as they are gathered by law enforcement officers in the course of their duties, and are often extracted directly from law enforcement computer systems. However, these statistics often tend to reflect the productivity and law enforcement activities of the officers concerned, and may bear little relationship to the actual amount of crime. One way in which victimization surveys are useful is that they show some types of crime are well reported to law enforcement officials, while other types of crime are under reported. These surveys also give insights as to why crime is reported, or not. This allows degrees of confidence to be assigned to various crime statistics.
Research using a series of victim surveys in 18 countries of the European Union in 2005, funded by the European Commission, has reported that the level of crime in Europe has fallen back to the levels of 1990, and notes that levels of common crime have shown declining trends in the U.S., Canada, Australia and other industrialized countries as well. The European researchers say a general consensus identifies demographic change as the leading cause for this international trend. Although homicide and robbery rates rose in the U.S. in the 1980s, by the end of the century they had declined by 40%. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7C%3A_Crime_Statistics.txt |
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behaviors by minors. A juvenile delinquent is typically under the age of 18.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the factors that influence the development of delinquency in youth and the ways the legal system deals with this delinquency
Key Points
• A juvenile delinquent is a person who is typically under the age of 18 and commits an act that otherwise would have been charged as a crime had they been an adult.
• There are three categories of juvenile delinquency: delinquency, criminal behavior, and status offenses. Delinquency includes crimes committed by minors which are dealt with by the juvenile courts and justice system.
• Criminal behavior are crimes dealt with by the criminal justice system.
• Status offenses are offenses which are only classified as such because the person is a minor; they also dealt with by the juvenile courts.
• Poverty is a large predictor of low parental monitoring, harsh parenting, and association with deviant peer groups, all of which are in turn associated with juvenile offending. Family factors also have an influence on delinquency.
• Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal or other antisocial activity.
• Poverty is a large predictor of low parental monitoring, harsh parenting, and association with deviant peer groups, all of which are in turn associated with juvenile offending.
• Family factors which may have an influence on offending include: the level of parental supervision, the way parents discipline a child, particularly harsh punishment, parental conflict or separation, criminal parents or siblings, parental abuse or neglect, and the quality of the parent-child relationship
• Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal, or other antisocial, activity.
Key Terms
• Delinquency Prevention: Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal or other antisocial activity. Prevention services may include activities such as substance abuse education and treatment, family counseling, youth mentoring, parenting education, educational support, and youth sheltering. Increasing availability and use of family planning services, including education and contraceptives helps to reduce unintended pregnancy and unwanted births, which are risk factors for delinquency.
• Status Offenses: A status offense is an action that is prohibited only to a certain class of people, and most often applied to offenses only committed by minors.
• juvenile delinquency: Participation in illegal behaviour by minors.
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers and courts. A juvenile delinquent is a person who is typically under the age of 18 and commits an act that would have otherwise been charged as a crime if the minor was an adult. Depending on the type and severity of the offense committed, it is possible for persons under 18 to be charged and tried as adults.
Juvenile delinquency can be separated into three categories:
1. Delinquency: crimes committed by minors that are dealt with by the juvenile courts and justice system;
2. Criminal behavior: crimes dealt with by the criminal justice system;
3. Status offenses: offenses which are only classified as such because one is a minor, such as truancy, also dealt with by the juvenile courts.
Young men disproportionately commit juvenile delinquency. Feminist theorists and others have examined why this is the case. One suggestion is that ideas of masculinity may make young men more likely to offend. Being tough, powerful, aggressive, daring, and competitive becomes a way for young men to assert and express their masculinity. Alternatively, young men may actually be naturally more aggressive, daring, and prone to risk-taking. According to a study led by Florida State University criminologist Kevin M. Beaver, adolescent males who possess a certain type of variation in a specific gene are more likely to flock to delinquent peers. The study, which appeared in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Genetic Psychology, is the first to establish a statistically significant association between an affinity for antisocial peer groups and a particular variation (called the 10-repeat allele) of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1).
There is also a significant skew in the racial statistics for juvenile offenders. When considering these statistics, which state that Black and Latino teens are more likely to commit juvenile offenses, it is important to keep the following in mind: poverty is a large predictor of low parental monitoring, harsh parenting, and association with deviant peer groups, all of which are in turn associated with juvenile offending. The majority of adolescents who live in poverty are racial minorities.
Family factors that may have an influence on offending include:
• the level of parental supervision,
• the way parents discipline a child,
• particularly harsh punishment,
• parental conflict or separation,
• criminal parents or siblings,
• parental abuse or neglect,
• the quality of the parent-child relationship.
Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal or other antisocial activity. Because the development of delinquency in youth is influenced by numerous factors, prevention efforts need to be comprehensive in scope. Prevention services may include activities like substance abuse education and treatment, family counseling, youth mentoring, parenting education, educational support, and youth sheltering. Increasing availability and use of family planning services, including education and contraceptives, helps to reduce unintended pregnancy and unwanted births—which are risk factors for delinquency.
Juvenile Delinquency: Juvenile delinquency refers to antisocial or illegal behavior by children or adolescents, for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the causes of youth crime. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7D%3A_Juvenile_Crime.txt |
A violent crime is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how the United States Department of Justice classifies violent crime
Key Points
• The United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) counts five categories of crime as violent crimes: murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.
• Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons. With the exception of rape, males are the primary victims of all forms of violent crime.
• The rate of violent crime victimization in the United States declined by more than two thirds between the years 1994 and 2009.
Key Terms
• Simple Assault: In law, assault is a crime which involves causing a victim to apprehend violence.
• aggravated assault: Assault with disregard for the value of life, or with a deadly weapon.
• Forcible Rape: A type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person’s consent.
A violent crime is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent crimes include crimes committed with and without weapons. With the exception of rape (which accounts for 6% of all reported violent crimes), males are the primary victims of all forms of violent crime.
The comparison of violent crime statistics between countries is usually problematic due to the way different countries classify crime. Valid comparisons require that similar offences between jurisdictions be compared. Often this is not possible because crime statistics aggregate equivalent offences in such different ways that make it difficult or impossible to obtain a valid comparison.
The United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) counts five categories of crime as violent crimes: murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. According to the BJS, the rate of violent crime victimization in the United States declined by more than two thirds between the years 1994 and 2009. Nearly 8% of sentenced prisoners in federal prisons on September 30, 2009 were in for violent crimes; 52.4% of sentenced prisoners in state prisons at yearend in 2008 were in for violent crimes; and 21.6% of convicted inmates in jails in 2002 were in for violent crimes.
Since the 13th century AD, evidence shows large long-term declines in the rate of murder, from one hundred people to one person per 100,000 between 1200 and 2000 AD. By contrast, there is a widespread belief that violent crime is on the rise, due largely to a mass media, which disproportionately reports violent crime.
7.7F: Property Crime
Property crime only involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss different types of property crime
Key Points
• Burglary of residences, retail establishments, and other commercial facilities involves breaking and entering, and then stealing property.
• Theft of cash is most common, followed by vehicle parts, clothing, and tools.
• Shoplifting is a specific type of theft, in which products are taken from retail shops without paying.
• Motor vehicle theft is a common form of property crime, often perpetrated by youths for joyriding.
• The percentage of U.S. households that experienced property crime dropped from 21% in 1994 to 12% in 2004. Moreover, from 1996 to 2005, the number of arrests in the United States for property crime has declined by 22.1%.
Key Terms
• burglary: The crime of unlawfully breaking into a vehicle, house, store, or other enclosure with the intent to steal.
• shoplifting: It is the theft of goods from a retail establishment. It is one of the most common property crimes dealt with by police and courts.
• Property Crime: Property crime is a category of crime that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime only involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim.
Property crime is a category of crime that includes larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, vandalism, and burglary. Property crime only involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim. Property crimes are high-volume crimes, with cash, electronics, power tools, cameras, and jewelry often targeted.
Burglary of residences, retail establishments, and other commercial facilities involves breaking and entering, and then stealing property. Attempted forcible entry into a property is also classified as burglary in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) definition. In the United States, burglary rates are highest in August and lowest in February, with weather, length-of-day, and other factors having an effect on rates. Fall and winter are peak seasons for burglary in Denmark. Most residential burglaries occur on weekdays, between 10 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m., when homes are the least likely to be occupied. Some crime prevention programs, such as Neighborhood Watch, have shown little effectiveness in reducing burglary and other crime.
Theft of cash is most common, followed by vehicle parts, clothing, and tools. In 2005, only 18% of reported cases of larceny and theft were cleared in the United States. Shoplifting is a specific type of theft, in which products are taken from retail shops without paying. Items popular with shoplifters include cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, and fashionable clothing. Motor vehicle theft is a common form of property crime, often perpetrated by youths for joyriding. The FBI includes attempted motor vehicle thefts in its Uniform Crime Report (UCR) definition. Crime prevention and target-hardening measures, such as car alarms and ignition locks, have been effective deterrents against motor vehicle theft, as have been practices such as etching VINs on car parts. Only 13% of reported motor vehicle theft cases were cleared in the United States in 2005.
Statistics for violent crimes are accessible and available to the public. In 2004, 12% of households in the United States experienced some type of property crime, with theft being the most common. The percentage of U.S. households that experienced property crime dropped from 21% in 1994 to 12% in 2004. Moreover, from 1996 to 2005, the number of arrests in the United States for property crime has declined by 22.1%. The decline is far larger for offenders under age 18, with a decrease of 43.8% in property crime arrests, compared to a 9.5% decrease for those 18 and over. The peak age for property crime arrests in the United States is 16, compared to 18 for violent crime arrests. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7E%3A_Violent_Crime.txt |
White-collar crime is a financially motivated, nonviolent crime committed for illegal monetary gain.
Learning Objectives
• Describe Edwin Sutherland’s work on white collar crime
Key Points
• White-collar crime, is similar to corporate crime, because white-collar employees are more likely to commit fraud, bribery, ponzi schemes, insider trading, embezzlement, cyber crime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery.
• The term “white-collar crime” was coined in 1939 by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland, who defined it as a “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”.
• White collar crimes stand in contrast to blue-collar street crimes include arson, burglary, theft, assault, rape, and vandalism.
• Corporate crime deals with the company as a whole. Their difference is that white-collar crime benefits the individual involved, and corporate crime benefits the company or the corporation.
• Insider trading, the trading of stock by someone with access to publicly unavailable information, is a type of fraud.
Key Terms
• insider trading: Buying or selling securities of a publicly-held company by a person who has privileged access to information concerning the company’s financial condition or plans.
• copyright infringement: The unauthorized use of copyrighted material in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.
White-collar crime is a financially motivated, nonviolent crime committed for illegal monetary gain. White-collar crime, is similar to corporate crime, because white-collar employees are more likely to commit fraud, bribery, ponzi schemes, insider trading, embezzlement, cyber crime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery.
The term “white-collar crime” was coined in 1939 by Edwin Sutherland, who defined it as a “crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation” in a speech entitled “The White Collar Criminal” delivered to the American Sociological Society. Much of Sutherland’s work was to separate and define the differences in blue-collar street crimes such as arson, burglary, theft, assault, rape, and vandalism, which are often blamed on psychological, associational, and structural factors. Instead, white-collar criminals are opportunists, who learn to take advantage of their circumstances to accumulate financial gain. They are educated, intelligent, affluent, and confident individuals whose jobs involve unmonitored access to large sums of money.
Corporate crime deals with the company as a whole. The relationship that white-collar crime has with corporate crime is that they are similar because they both are involved within the business world. Their difference is that white-collar crime benefits the individual involved, and corporate crime benefits the company or the corporation. Insider trading, the trading of stock by someone with access to publicly unavailable information, is a type of fraud. One well-known insider trading case in the United States is the ImClone stock trading case. In December 2001, top-level executives sold their shares in ImClone Systems, a pharmaceutical company that manufactured an anti-cancer drug. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated numerous top-level executives, as well as Martha Stewart, a friend of ImClone’s former chief executive who had also sold her shares at the same time. The SEC reached a settlement in 2005.
One common misconception about corporate crime is that its effects are mainly financial. For example, pharmaceutical companies may make false claims regarding their drugs and factories may illegally dump toxic waste. Indeed, the Hooker Chemical Company dumped toxic waste into the abandoned Love Canal in Niagara Falls and sold the land without disclosing the dumping. It was sold in the 1950’s to a private housing developer, whose residents began experiencing major health problems such as miscarriages and birth defects in the 1970’s. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7G%3A_White-Collar_Crime.txt |
Organized crime refers to transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast patron-client networks and bureaucratic organized crime groups
Key Points
• An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.
• Patron-client networks are defined by the fluid interactions they produce.
• The best known patron-client networks are the Sicilian and Italian American Cosa Nostra, most commonly known as the Sicilian Mafia.
• Bureaucratic and corporate organized crime groups are defined by the general rigidity of their internal structures.
• The term “street gang” is commonly used interchangeably with “youth gang”, referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet “gang” criteria.
Key Terms
• Corporate Organized Crime: Crimes committed either by a corporation (i.e., a business entity having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals acting on behalf of a corporation or other business entity (see vicarious liability and corporate liability).
• Patron-Client Networks: Patron-client networks are defined by the fluid interactions they produce. Organized crime groups operate as smaller units within the overall network, and as such tend towards valuing significant others, familiarity of social and economic environments, or tradition.
• corporate crime: illegal acts committed by a business or corporation (a business entity having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities) or by individuals acting on behalf of a business
• Street Gang: A group of recurrently associating individuals with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in the community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behavior.
Organized crime refers to transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for “protection.” Gangs may become “disciplined” enough to be considered “organized.” An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.
Patron-client networks are defined by the fluid interactions they produce. Organized crime groups operate as smaller units within the overall network, and as such tend towards valuing significant others, familiarity of social and economic environments, or tradition.
Some notable patron-client networks involve the Russian and Albanian mafias, the Japanese Yakuza, the Irish mob, and the Sicilian and Italian American Cosa Nostra (i.e. the Sicilian mafia).
Bureaucratic and corporate organized crime groups are defined by the general rigidity of their internal structures. Focusing more on how the operations works, succeeds, sustains itself or avoids retribution, they are generally typified by: a complex authority structure; an extensive division of labor between classes and the organization; responsibilities carried out in an impersonal manner; and top-down communication and rule enforcement mechanisms.
A distinctive gang culture underpins many, but not all, organized groups; this may develop through recruiting strategies, social learning processes in the corrective system experienced by youth, family, or peer involvement in crime, and the coercive actions of criminal authority figures. The term “street gang” is commonly used interchangeably with “youth gang”, referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet “gang” criteria.
Organized crime groups often victimize businesses through the use of extortion or theft and fraud activities like hijacking cargo trucks, robbing goods, committing bankruptcy fraud, insurance fraud, or stock fraud. Organized crime groups seek out corrupt public officials in executive, law enforcement, and judicial roles so that their activities can avoid, or at least receive early warnings about, investigation and prosecution.
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• Handcuffs, Omagh u00a9 Kenneth Allen :: Geograph Ireland. Provided by: Geograph Ireland. Located at: http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2740933. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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• Crime dog | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Provided by: Flickr. Located at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kongharald/239818101/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Federal Bureau of Investigation Seal | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Provided by: Flickr. Located at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/5790408372/. License: CC BY: Attribution
• Juvenile Delinquency. Located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfLa5sKfZes. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright. License Terms: Standard YouTube license
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• aggravated assault. Provided by: Wiktionary. Located at: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aggravated_assault. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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• Property Crime. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Property%20Crime. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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• burglary. Provided by: Wiktionary. Located at: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/burglary. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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• Theft. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theft.jpg. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Propertycrime-us. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Propertycrime-us.svg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• BernardMadoff. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...nardMadoff.jpg. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Organized crime. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Corporate Organized Crime. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpora...anized%20Crime. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Boundless. Provided by: Boundless Learning. Located at: www.boundless.com//sociology/...orate-crime--2. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Street Gang. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Street%20Gang. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Patron-Client Networks. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Patron-Client%20Networks. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
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• Theft. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theft.jpg. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
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• BernardMadoff. Provided by: Wikimedia. Located at: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BernardMadoff.jpg. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• AlCaponemugshotCPD. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Al...mugshotCPD.jpg. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.07%3A_Crime/7.7H%3A_Organized_Crime.txt |
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder.
Learning Objectives
• Explain the relationship between the police and the state, differentiating between preventive police and police detectives
Key Points
• Preventive police wear uniforms and perform functions that require an immediate recognition of an officer’s legal authority, such as traffic control, stopping and detaining motorists, and active crime response and prevention.
• Police detectives are responsible for investigations and detective work. “Plainclothes” officers dress in attire consistent with that worn by the general public for purposes of blending in.
• Specialized units exist within many law enforcement organizations for dealing with particular types of crime, such as traffic law enforcement and crash investigation, homicide, or fraud.
• In United States constitutional law, police power is the capacity of the states to regulate behavior and enforce order within their territory for the betterment of the general welfare, morals, health, and safety of their inhabitants.
• Transnational policing pertains to all those forms for policing that, in some sense, cross national borders.
• INTERPOL is an organization facilitating international police cooperation.
Key Terms
• INTERPOL: Commonly used name for the International Criminal Police Organization, an international organization facilitating police cooperation.
• Specialized Units: Subdivisions within many law enforcement organizations for dealing with particular types of crime, such as traffic law enforcement and crash investigation, homicide, or fraud.
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder. Their powers include the legitimized use of force. The term police is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from military or other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie and military police are military units charged with civil policing.
Preventive Police and Police Detectives
In most Western police forces, perhaps the most significant division is between preventive police and detectives. Terminology varies from country to country. Preventive police designates the police that patrol and respond to emergencies and other incidents, as opposed to detective services. As the name “uniformed” suggests, preventive police wear uniforms and perform functions that require an immediate recognition of an officer’s legal authority, such as traffic control, stopping and detaining motorists, and more active crime response and prevention. On the other hand, police detectives are responsible for investigations and detective work. Detectives, in contrast to uniform police, typically wear ‘business attire’ in bureaucratic and investigative functions where a uniformed presence would be either a distraction or intimidating. “Plainclothes” officers dress in attire consistent with that worn by the general public for purposes of blending in, but a need to establish police authority still exists.
Specialized units exist within many law enforcement organizations for dealing with particular types of crime, such as traffic law enforcement and crash investigation, homicide, or fraud. In counter insurgency type campaigns, select and specially trained units of police armed and equipped as light infantry have been designated as police field forces. They perform paramilitary type patrols and ambushes whilst retaining their police powers in areas that were highly dangerous.
Police in the United States
In United States constitutional law, police power is defined as the capacity of the states to regulate behavior and enforce order within their territory for the betterment of the general welfare, morals, health, and safety of their inhabitants. Police power can be exercised in the form of making laws and compelling obedience to those laws through legal sanctions, physical means, or other forms of coercion and inducements. In the United States, concern over such issues has increasingly weighed upon law enforcement agencies, courts, and legislatures at every level of government since the 1960s. Incidents such as the 1965 Watts Riots and the videotaped 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police officers and the riot following their acquittal have been suggested by some as evidence that U.S. police are dangerously lacking in appropriate controls.
Transnational Police
The term transnational policing entered into use in the mid-1990s as a description for forms of policing that transcended the boundaries of the sovereign nation state. Transnational policing pertains to all those forms for policing that, in some sense, transgress national borders. This includes a variety of practices, but cross-border police cooperation, criminal intelligence exchange between police agencies working in different nation-states, and police development-aid to weak, failed, or failing states are the three types that have received the most scholarly attention. The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), widely known as INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its common name in 1956. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.08%3A_Reactions_to_Deviance/7.8A%3A_Police.txt |
A court is a form of tribunal with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties, and carry out the administration of justice.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the three levels of the court system
Key Points
• In both common law and civil law legal systems, courts are the central means for dispute resolution. Generally, all persons have an ability to bring their claims before a court.
• Jurisdiction refers to the court’s practical authority to decide cases. There are two types of jurisdiction. The first is personal jurisdiction: the court’s jurisdiction over the parties to a lawsuit.
• Secondly, subject -matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear cases of a particular type or cases relating to a specific subject matter.
• There are three levels of courts. Trial courts initially hear cases and review evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case. Appellate courts hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. The Supreme Court primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts.
• A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate, or determine claims or disputes.
• The Supreme Court primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts.
• A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate, or determine claims or disputes.
Key Terms
• civil law: The body of law dealing with the private relations between members of a community; it contrasts with criminal law, military law, and ecclesiastical law.
• common law: Law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals (also called case law), as distinguished from legislative statutes or regulations promulgated by the executive branch.
• tribunal: Any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate, or determine claims or disputes.
What is a Court?
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties, and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law. In both common law and civil law legal systems, courts are the central means for dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all persons have an ability to bring their claims before a court. Similarly, the rights of those accused of a crime include the right to present a defense before a court.
The system of courts that interpret and apply the law are collectively known as the judiciary. The place where a court sits is known as a venue. The room where court proceedings occur is known as a courtroom, and the building is known as a courthouse; court facilities range from simple and very small facilities in rural communities, to large buildings in cities. A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges.
Jurisdiction
The practical authority given to the court is known as its jurisdiction, or the court’s power to decide certain kinds of questions or petitions. A plaintiff is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a civil lawsuit before a court. A defendant is any party required to answer a plaintiff’s complaint in a civil lawsuit, or any party that has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute. A legal remedy is the means with which a court of law (usually in the exercise of civil law jurisdiction) enforces a right, imposes a penalty, or makes some other court order to impose its will.
In the United States, the legal authority of a court to take action is based on personal jurisdiction, subject-matter jurisdiction, and venue over the parties to the litigation. Personal jurisdiction refers to a court’s jurisdiction over the parties to a lawsuit. Personal jurisdiction means the power of the court to decide a dispute, as against a particular person. Subject-matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear cases of a particular type, or cases relating to a specific subject matter. For instance, bankruptcy court only has the authority to hear bankruptcy cases.
Types of Courts
In most jurisdictions, the court system is divided into at least three levels: the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appellate court that hears an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal; and a supreme court, which primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts. A tribunal, in the general sense, is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes, whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, the Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.08%3A_Reactions_to_Deviance/7.8B%3A_Courts.txt |
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze recent developments in the rate of incarceration in the U.S.
Key Points
• Imprisonment is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime.
• The modern prison system was born in London, influenced by the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham.
• In the U.S., jails are county or city administrated institutions, which house both inmates awaiting trial on the local level, and convicted misdemeanants serving a term of one year or less.
• Supermax prisons provide long term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in the prison system.
• The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world (743 per 100,000 population ).
Key Terms
• Supermax Prisons: Prisons that provide long term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in the prison system.
• Jeremy Bentham: An English founder of utilitarianism who was influential in designing the first modern prisons.
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime. For most of history, imprisoning has not been a punishment in itself, but rather a way to confine criminals until corporal or capital punishment was administered. Only in the 19thcentury, beginning in Britain, did prisons as they are known today become commonplace. The modern prison system was born in London, influenced by the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham.
Prison Design
Prisons are normally surrounded by fencing, walls, earthworks, geographical features, or other barriers to prevent escape. Multiple barriers, concertina wire, electrified fencing, secured and defensible main gates, armed guard towers, lighting, motion sensors, dogs and roving patrols may all also be present, depending on the level of security.
Modern prison designs have sought to increasingly restrict and control the movement of prisoners throughout the facility, while permitting a maximal degree of direct monitoring by a smaller prison staff. As compared to traditional large landing-cellblock designs, which were inherited from the 19th century and which permitted only intermittent observation of prisoners, many newer prisons are designed in a decentralized “popular” layout.
Incarceration in the United States
In the United States, “jail” and “prison” refer to separate levels of incarceration; generally speaking, jails are county or city administrated institutions which house both inmates awaiting trial on the local level, and convicted misdemeanants serving a term of one year or less, while prisons are state or federal facilities housing convicted felons serving a term of more than one year. Supermax prisons provide long term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in the prison system—the “worst of the worst” criminals, and those who pose a threat to national and international security.
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world (743 per 100,000 population). Incarceration rate in the U.S. for federal and state prisons in 2007 was the highest in history of the country. It was 5.5 times greater than the sharp peak that occurred during the Great Depression at 137 per 100,000 in 1939. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in U.S. count jails and federal and state prisons at yearend 2010; this represents about 0.7% of adults in the U.S. resident population. Additionally, 4,933,667 adults at yearend 2009 were on probation or on parole. In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009, representing about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 39.4% of the total prison and jail population in 2009. According to the 2010 census of the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks (including Hispanic blacks) comprised 13.6% of the US population. Hispanics (of all races) were 20.6% of the total jail and prison population in 2009. Hispanics comprised 16.3% of the U.S. population according to the 2010 U.S. census. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/07%3A_Deviance_Social_Control_and_Crime/7.08%3A_Reactions_to_Deviance/7.8C%3A_Prisons.txt |
Capital punishment is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate arguments for and against the death penalty
Key Points
• Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences.
• Supporters of the death penalty argue that the death penalty is morally justified when applied to murder cases, especially cases with aggravating elements, such as multiple homicide, child murder, torture murder and mass killing including terrorism or genocide.
• Capital punishment is often opposed on the grounds that innocent people will inevitably be executed.
• Abolitionists believe capital punishment is the worst violation of human rights.
Key Terms
• insubordination: The quality of being insubordinate; disobedience to lawful authority.
• capital punishment: Punishment by death.
• capital crime: A crime that is punishable by death.
What Is Capital Punishment?
Capital punishment is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as “capital crimes” or “capital offenses. ” Capital punishment has in the past been practiced by most societies. Currently, only 58 nations actively practice it, and 97 countries have abolished it. Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world’s population live in countries where executions take place–the People’s Republic of China, India, the United States, and Indonesia–the four most-populous countries in the world, that continue to apply the death penalty.
Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies–both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. In most places that practice capital punishment, it is reserved for murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery, incest, and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes, such as apostasy in Islamic nations. In many countries that use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world courts, martial have imposed death sentences for offenses, such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.
Arguments For and Against
Supporters of the death penalty argue that the death penalty is morally justified when applied in murder, especially with aggravating elements, such as multiple homicide, child murder, torture murder, and mass killing including terrorism or genocide. Some even argue that not applying the death penalty in latter cases are patently unjust. Supporters of the death penalty, especially those who do not believe in the deterrent effect of the death penalty, say the threat of the death penalty could be used to urge capital defendants to plead guilty, testify against accomplices, or disclose the location of the victim’s body.
Capital punishment is often opposed on the grounds that innocent people will inevitably be executed. Between 1973 and 2005, 123 people in 25 states were released from death row when new evidence of their innocence emerged. Abolitionists believe capital punishment is the worst violation of human rights, because the right to life is the most important, and judicial execution violates it without necessity and inflicts to the condemned to a psychological torture. In addition, opponents of the death penalty use the argument that executing a criminal costs more than life imprisonment does. Many states have found it cheaper to sentence criminals to life in prison than to go through the time-consuming and bureaucratic process of executing a convicted criminal.
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Global stratification refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the world.
Learning Objectives
• Analyze the three dominant theories that attempt to explain global stratification
Key Points
• Society is stratified into social classes based on individuals’ socioeconomic status, gender, and race.
• Stratification results in inequality when resources, opportunities, and privileges are distributed based on individuals’ positions in the social hierarchy.
• Stratification and inequality can be analyzed as micro-, meso-, and macro-level phenomena, as they are produced in small group interactions, through organizations and institutions, and through global economic structures.
• There are three dominant theories that consider why inequality exists on a global scale. First, some sociologists use a theory of development and modernization to argue that poor nations remain poor because they hold onto traditional attitudes and beliefs, technologies and institutions.
• Second, dependency theory blames colonialism and neocolonialism (continuing economic dependence on former colonial countries) for global stratification.
• Lastly, world systems theory suggests that all countries are divided into a three-tier hierarchy based on their relationship to the global economy, and that a country’s position in this hierarchy determines its own economic development.
Key Terms
• Global Stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the world.
• socioeconomic status: One’s social position as determined by income, wealth, occupational prestige, and educational attainment.
• inequality: An unfair, not equal, state.
Global stratification refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the world. Sociologists speak of stratification in terms of socioeconomic status (SES). Socioeconomic status is a measure of a person’s position in a class structure. For example, a person may be designated as “lower class” or “upper class” based on their SES. A person’s SES is usually determined by their income, occupational prestige, wealth, and educational attainment, though other variables are sometimes considered.
Inequality occurs when a person’s position in the social hierarchy is tied to different access to resources. Inequality largely depends on differences in wealth. For example, a homeowner will have access to consistent shelter, while a person who cannot afford to own a home may have substandard shelter or be homeless. Because of their different levels of wealth, they have different access to shelter. Likewise, a wealthy person may receive higher quality medical care than a poor person, have greater access to nutritional foods, and be able to attend higher caliber schools. Material resources are not distributed equally to people of all economic statuses.
While stratification is most commonly associated with socioeconomic status, society is also stratified by statuses such as race and gender. Together with SES, race and gender shape the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges among individuals. For example, within a given social class, women are less likely to receive job promotions than men. Similarly, within American cities with heavily racially segregated neighborhoods, racial minorities are less likely to have access to high quality schools than white people.
Perspectives on Stratification
Stratification is generally analyzed from three different perspectives: micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level.
Micro-level analysis focuses on how prestige and personal influence create inequality through face-to-face and small group interactions. For example, the more physically attractive a person is, the more likely they are to achieve status in small groups. This effect happens on a small-scale and is difficult to analyze as a uniform, widespread occurrence. Thus, stratification based on levels of physical attractiveness is analyzed as a micro-level process.
Meso-level analysis of stratification focuses on how connections to organizations and institutions produce inequality. For example, parents, teachers, and friends convey expectations about one’s class position that teach different skills and values based on status. These educational disparities occur in the small setting of a classroom, but are consistent across a wide range of schools. Thus, they are analyzed as meso-level phenomena that reinforce systems of inequality.
Macro-level analysis of stratification considers the role of international economic systems in shaping individuals’ resources and opportunities. For example, the small African nation of Cape Verde is significantly indebted to European nations and the U.S., and the majority of the nation’s industry is controlled by foreign investors. As the nation’s economy has ceded control of once public services, such as electricity, its citizen have lost jobs and the price of electricity has increased. Thus, the nation’s position in the world economy has resulted in poverty for many of its citizens. A global structure, or a macro-level phenomenon, produces unequal distribution of resources for people living in various nations.
Theories of Macro-Level Inequality
There are three dominant theories that sociologists use to consider why inequality exists on a global scale. First, some sociologists use a theory of development and modernization to argue that poor nations remain poor because they hold onto traditional attitudes and beliefs, technologies and institutions. According to this theory, in the modern world, the rise of capitalism brought modern attitudes, modern technologies, and modern institutions which helped countries progress and have a higher standard of living. Modernists believe economic growth is the key to reducing poverty in poor countries.
Second, dependency theory blames colonialism and neocolonialism (continuing economic dependence on former colonial countries) for global stratification. Countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past and today through foreign debt and transnational corporations (TNCs). According to dependency theory, the key to reversing inequality is to relieve former colonies of their debts so that they can benefit from their own industry and resources.
Lastly, world systems theory suggests that all countries are divided into a three-tier hierarchy based on their relationship to the global economy, and that a country’s position in this hierarchy determines its own economic development. In this model nations are divided into core, semiperipheral, and peripheral countries. Core nations (e.g. the United States, France, Germany, and Japan) are dominant capitalist countries characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization. Semiperipheral countries (e.g. South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, and South Africa) are less developed than core nations but are more developed than peripheral nations. Peripheral countries (e.g. Cape Verde, Haiti, and Honduras) are dependent on core countries for capital, and have very little industrialization and urbanization. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.01%3A_Systems_of_Stratification/8.1A%3A_Stratification.txt |
Slavery is a system in which people are bought and sold as property, forced to work, or held in captivity against their will.
Learning Objectives
• Describe different types of slavery
Key Points
• Slavery is a system of social stratification that has been institutionally supported in many societies around the world throughout history.
• The Atlantic slave trade brought African slaves to the Americas from the 1600’s to the 1900’s, spurring the growth of slave use on plantations in the U.S., where the slave population reached 4 million before slavery was made illegal in 1863.
• Human trafficking, or the illegal trade of humans, is primarily used for forcing women and children into sex industries.
Key Terms
• Atlantic Slave Trade: The enterprise through which African slaves were brought to work on plantations in the Caribbean Islands, Latin America, and the southern United States primarily.
• bonded labor: A form of indenture in which a loan is repaid by work, the worker being unable to leave until the debt is repaid
• slavery: an institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers
• debt bondage: A condition similar to slavery where human beings are unable to control their lives or their work due to unpaid debts.
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth; and can also be deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. Historically, slavery was institutionally recognized by many societies. In more recent times slavery has been outlawed in most societies, but continues through the practices of debt bondage, indentured servitude, serfdom, domestic servants kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers, and forced marriage.
Slavery predates written records and has existed in many cultures. The number of slaves today is higher than at any point in history, remaining as high as 12 million to 27 million. Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations. Human trafficking, or the illegal trade of humans, is primarily used for forcing women and children into sex industries.
Types of Slavery
Chattel slavery, so named because people are treated as the personal property, chattels, of an owner and are bought and sold as commodities, is the original form of slavery. When taking these chattels across national borders, it is referred to as human trafficking, especially when these slaves provide sexual services.
Debt bondage or bonded labor occurs when a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt and their duration may be undefined. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents’ debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today.
Forced labor is when an individual is forced to work against his or her will, under threat of violence or other punishment, with restrictions on their freedom. It is also used as a general term to describe all types of slavery and may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription and penal labor.
History of Slavery
Evidence of slavery predates written records, and has existed in many cultures. Prehistoric graves from about 8000 BCE in Lower Egypt suggest that a Libyan people enslaved a San-like tribe. Slavery is rare among hunter-gatherer populations, as slavery is a system of social stratification. Mass slavery also requires economic surpluses and a high population density to be viable. Due to these factors, the practice of slavery would have only proliferated after the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution about 11,000 years ago.
In the United States, the most notorious instance of slavery is the Atlantic slave trade, through which African slaves were brought to work on plantations in the Caribbean Islands, Latin America, and the southern United States primarily. An estimated 12 million Africans arrived in the Americas from the 1600’s to the 1900’s. Of these, an estimated 645,000 were brought to what is now the United States. The usual estimate is that about 15 percent of slaves died during the voyage, with mortality rates considerably higher in Africa itself as the process of capturing and transporting indigenous peoples to the ships often proved fatal. Although the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended shortly after the American Revolution, slavery remained a central economic institution in the southern states of the United States, from where slavery expanded with the westward movement of population. By 1860, 500,000 American slaves had grown to 4 million. Slavery was officially abolished in 1863; but, even after the Civil War, many former slaves were essentially enslaved as tenant farmers. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.01%3A_Systems_of_Stratification/8.1B%3A_Slavery.txt |
Caste systems are closed social stratification systems in which people inherit their position and experience little mobility.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the caste system in ancient India with the estate system in feudal Europe
Key Points
• Castes are most often stratified by race or ethnicity, economic status, or religious status.
• Castes have been noted in societies all over the world throughout history, though they are mistakenly often assumed to be a tradition specific to India.
• Historically, the caste system in India consisted of four well known categories: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (commerce), Shudras (workmen). Some people left out of these four caste classifications were called “outcasts” or “untouchables” and were shunned and ostracized.
Key Terms
• endogamy: The practice of marrying or being required to marry within one’s own ethnic, religious, or social group.
• estate: A major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country and formerly possessing distinct political rights (w:Estates of the realm)
• social stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines some or all elements of endogamy, hereditary transmission of occupation, social class, social identity, hierarchy, exclusion, and power. Caste as a closed social stratification system in which membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life; castes are also endogamous, meaning marriage is proscribed outside one’s caste, and offspring are automatically members of their parents’ caste.
Although Indian society is often associated with the word “caste,” the system is common in many non-Indian societies. Caste systems have been found across the globe, in widely different cultural settings, including predominantly Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and other societies. UNICEF estimates that identification and sometimes discrimination based on caste affects 250 million people worldwide.
In colonial Spain, throughout South America and Central America, castas referred to a method of stratifying people based on race, ethnicity, and social status and was in common usage since the 16th century. The term caste was applied to Indian society in the 17th century, via the Portuguese. The Dutch also used the word caste in their 19thcentury ethnographic studies of Bali and other parts of southeast Asia. In Latin American sociological studies, the word caste often includes multiple factors such as race, ethnicity, and economic status. Multiple factors were used to determine caste in part because of numerous mixed births during the colonial times between natives, Europeans, and people brought in as slaves or indentured laborers.
Some literature suggests that the term caste should not be confused with race or social class. Members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race or class, as in India, Japan, Korea, Nigeria, Yemen, or Europe. Usually, but not always, members of the same caste are of the same social rank, have a similar group of occupations, and typically have social mores which distinguish them from other groups. Some sociologists suggest that caste systems come in two forms: racial caste systems and non-racial caste systems.
India
Caste is often associated with India. Historically, the caste system in India consisted of four well known categories (Varnas): Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (commerce), Shudras (workmen). Some people left out of these four caste classifications were called “outcasts” or “untouchables” and were shunned and ostracized. Ancient Indian legal texts, such as Manusmṛti (ca. 200 BCE-200 CE), suggest that caste systems have been part of Indian society for millennia.
Other Indian scriptures suggest ancient Indian law was not rigid about endogamy within castes. For example, Nāradasmṛti, another text on ancient Indian law, written after Manusmṛti and dated to be over 1400 years old, approves of many, but not all marriages across caste lines. The Nāradasmṛti set out categories of approved marriages between castes. Several statutes recognized offsprings of mixed castes, much like caste system of colonial Spain. Ancient Indian texts also suggest that India’s social stratification system was controversial, a topic of profound historical debates within the Indian community, and inspired efforts for reform.
Europe
Social systems identical to caste systems found elsewhere in the world have historically existed in Europe as well. European societies were historically stratified according to closed, endogamous social systems with groups such as the nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie, and peasants. These caste groups had distinctive privileges and unequal rights, which were not a product of informal advantages such as wealth and were not rights enjoyed as citizens of the state. These unequal and distinct privileges were sanctioned by law or social mores, were exclusive to each distinct social subset of society, and were inherited automatically by offspring. In some European countries, these closed social classes or castes were given titles, followed mores and codes of behavior specific to their caste, and even wore distinctive dress. Nobility rarely married commoners, and if they did, they lost certain privileges. Caste endogamy wasn’t limited to royalty; in Finland, for example, it was a crime—until modern times—to seduce and defraud into marriage by declaring a false social class. In parts of Europe, these closed social caste groups were called estates.
Along with the three or four estates recognized in various European countries, an additional group existed below the bottom layer of the hierarchical society. This bottom social strata with limited rights was understood to serve those with recognized social status. Prominent for centuries throughout Europe, and enduring through the mid-19thcentury in some areas, members of this numerically large caste were called serfs. In some countries such as Russia, the 1857 census found that over 35 percent of the population could be categorized as a serf. Serf mobility was heavily restricted, and in matters of marriage and living arrangements, they were subject to rules dictated by the State, the Church, by landowners, and by often rigid local custom and tradition. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.01%3A_Systems_of_Stratification/8.1C%3A_Caste_Systems.txt |
Social class refers to the grouping of individuals in a stratified social hierarchy, usually based on wealth, education, and occupation.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast Marx’s understanding of ‘class’ with Weber’s class model
Key Points
• Sociologists may analyze social class using a simple three-stratum model of stratification, Marxist theory, or a structural-functionalist approach.
• Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification that saw political power as an interplay between “class”, ” status ” and ” group power. ” Weber theorized that class position was determined by a person’s skills and education, rather than by their relationship to the means of production.
• The three-stratum model of stratification recognizes three categories: a wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional or salaried workers; and a lower class who rely on hourly wages for their livelihood.
• In Marxist theory, the class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by two main classes: the bourgeoisie, or the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat (or working class ) who must sell their own labor power for wages.
• Social class often has far reaching effects, influencing one’s educational and professional opportunities and access to resources such as healthcare and housing.
Key Terms
• class mobility: Movement from one class status to another–either upward or downward.
• socioeconomic status: One’s social position as determined by income, wealth, occupational prestige, and educational attainment.
• class consciousness: A term used in social sciences and political theory to refer to the beliefs that a person holds regarding one’s social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their class interests.
Social class refers to the grouping of individuals into positions on a stratified social hierarchy. Class is an object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and social historians. However, there is not a consensus on the best definition of the term “class,” and the term has different contextual meanings. In common parlance, the term “social class” is usually synonymous with socioeconomic status, which is one’s social position as determined by income, wealth, occupational prestige, and educational attainment.
Common models used to think about social class come from Marxist theory: common stratum theory, which divides society into the upper, middle, and working class; and structural-functionalism.
Class in Marxist Theory
According to the class social theorist Karl Marx, class is a combination of objective and subjective factors. Objectively, a class shares a common relationship to the means of production. Subjectively, the members will necessarily have some perception of their similarity and common interests, called class consciousness. Class consciousness is not simply an awareness of one’s own class interest but is also a set of shared views regarding how society should be organized legally, culturally, socially and politically.
In Marxist theory, the class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by two main classes: the bourgeoisie, or the capitalists who own the means of production, and the much larger proletariat (or working class) who must sell their own labor power for wages. For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods—in capitalism this is the domination and exploitation of workers by owners of capital.
Weberian Class
The class sociologist Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification that saw political power as an interplay between “class”, “status” and “group power. ” Weber theorized that class position was determined by a person’s skills and education, rather than by their relationship to the means of production.
Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of Germany. He noted that contrary to Marx’s theories, stratification was based on more than simply ownership of capital. Weber examined how many members of the aristocracy lacked economic wealth yet had strong political power. Many wealthy families lacked prestige and power, for example, because they were Jewish. Weber introduced three independent factors that form his theory of stratification hierarchy: class, status, and power: class is person’s economic position in a society; status is a person’s prestige, social honor, or popularity in a society; power is a person’s ability to get his way despite the resistance of others. While these three factors are often connected, someone can have high status without immense wealth, or wealth without power.
The Common Three-Stratum Model
Contemporary sociological concepts of social class often assume three general categories: a very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional or salaried workers, small business owners, and low-level managers; and a lower class, who rely on hourly wages for their livelihood.
The upper class is the social class composed of those who are wealthy, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest political power.
The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, consisting of the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the lower class and upper class. One example of the contestation of this term is that In the United States middle class is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered lower class. Middle class workers are sometimes called white-collar workers.
The lower or working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed as wage or hourly workers, and an underclass—those who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state. Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers.
Consequences of Social Class
A person’s socioeconomic class has wide-ranging effects. It may determine the schools he is able to attend, the jobs open to him, who he may marry, and his treatment by police and the courts. A person’s social class has a significant impact on his physical health, his ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition, and his life expectancy.
Class mobility refers to movement from one class status to another–either upward or downward. Sociologists who measure class in terms of socioeconomic status use statistical data measuring income, education, wealth and other indexes to locate people on a continuum, typically divided into “quintiles” or segments of 20% each. This approach facilitates tracking people over time to measure relative class mobility. For example, the income and education level of parents can be compared to that of their children to show inter-generational class mobility. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.01%3A_Systems_of_Stratification/8.1D%3A_Class.txt |
Along with economic class and race, society is stratified by gender, with women often holding a lower social position than men.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the effects of gender discrimination on women’s employment and wealth
Key Points
• In the labor force, women are often relegated to lower status jobs, lower wages, and fewer promotions and raises than their male counterparts.
• Sexism is discrimination against a person on the basis of their sex, and tends to result in disadvantages for women who do not embrace their traditional gender role as mother and household overseer.
• Women’s participation in the labor force also varies depending on marital status and social class.
Key Terms
• sexism: The belief that people of one sex or gender are inherently superior to people of the other sex or gender.
• Motherhood Penalty: The loss of pay and promotions among women due to the perceived association between women and the demands of childrearing.
• Informal Economies: Employment domains that are not regulated by governments and law enforcement.
Economic class, race, and gender shape the opportunities, the privileges, and the inequalities experienced by individuals and groups. The United States continues to be greatly stratified along these three lines.
Capitalism also takes advantage of gender inequality. Women workers are often used as a source of cheap labor in informal economies, or employment domains that are not regulated by governments and law enforcement. For example, women work for low wages without health benefits as nannies and maids in New York, in clothing sweatshops in Los Angeles, and on rose farms in Ethiopia. In formal economies, women often receive less pay and have less chances for promotion than men. This phenomenon is referred to as the gender gap in employment.
Current U.S. labor force statistics illustrate women’s changing role in the labor force. For instance, since 1971, women’s participation in the labor force has grown from 32 million (43.4% of the female population 16 and over) to 68 million (59.2% of the female population 16 and over). Women also make, on average, \$17,000 less than men do. Women tend to be concentrated in less prestigious and lower paying occupations than men, particularly those that are traditionally considered women’s jobs or pink-collar jobs. Women’s participation in the labor force also varies depending on marital status and social class.
Sociological research shows that women are not paid the same wages as men for similar work. Women tend to make between 75% and 91% of what men make for comparable work, with the highest inequality between men and women found among those with college and graduate degrees. The fact that women earn less than men with equal qualifications helps explain why women are enrolling in college at higher rates than men — they require a college education to make the same amount as men with a high school diploma. The income gap between genders used to be similar between middle-class and affluent workers, but it is now widest among the most highly paid. A woman earning in the 95th percentile in 2006 would earn about \$95,000 per year; a man in the 95th earning percentile would make about \$115,000, a 28% difference.
The most common explanation for the wage gap between men and women is the finding that women pay a motherhood penalty, regardless of whether or not they are actually mothers. This can be explained from the perspective of a potential employer: assuming you have two equally qualified candidates for a position, both are in their mid-twenties, married, and straight out of college, but one is a male and the other is female, which would you choose? Many employers choose men over women because women are “at risk” of having a child, even though they may not want to have children. The employer considers women who have children to be cumbersome, based on the expectation that women will take maternity leave and will be primarily responsible for childrearing. If women do actually take time off to bear and raise children, this further reduces the likelihood that they will be considered for raises or promotions.
Sexism
Sexism is discrimination against people based on their sex or gender, and can result in lower social status for women. Sexism can refer to three subtly different beliefs or attitudes: the belief that one sex is superior to the other; the belief that men and women are very different and that this should be strongly reflected in society, language, and the law; the simple hatred of men (misandry) or women (misogyny). Many peoples’ beliefs about sex equality range along a continuum. Some people believe that women should have equal access with men to all jobs, while others believe that while women are superior to men in a few aspects, in most aspects men are superior to women.
Sexist beliefs are an example of essentialist thought, which holds that individuals can be understood (and often discriminated against) based on the characteristics of the group to which they belong–in this case, their gender.
Sexism has been linked to widespread gender discrimination. One example is the disparity in wealth between men and women in the U.S. Sociological research has shown that there are fewer wealthy women than there are wealthy men and that they are less likely to control the management of their own wealth. Up until the 19th Century most women could not own property and women’s participation in the paid labor force outside the home was limited. It is possible that wealth among the elite may be redistributed toward a more equal balance between the sexes with increasing numbers of women entering the workforce and moving toward more financially lucrative positions in major corporations.
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Stratification results in inequality when resources, opportunities, and privileges are distributed based on position in social hierarchy.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the three dominant theories of global inequality
Key Points
• Society is stratified into social classes based on an individual’s socioeconomic status, gender, and race.
• Stratification and inequality can be analyzed as micro-, meso-, and macro-level phenomena, as they are produced in small group interactions, through organizations and institutions, and through global economic structures.
• Sociologists use three primary theories to analyze macro-level stratification and inequality: development and modernization theory, dependency theory, and world systems theory.
Key Terms
• Macro-Level Stratification: The role of international economic systems in shaping individuals’ resources and opportunities by privileging certain social stratas.
• Global Stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the world.
• Modernization Theory: Argues that poor nations remain poor because they hold onto traditional attitudes, beliefs, technologies, and institutions.
Global stratification refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups in societies around the world.
Global inequality refers to the unequal distribution of resources among individuals and groups based on their position in the social hierarchy. Classic sociologist Max Weber analyzed three dimensions of stratification: class, status, and party. Modern sociologists, however, generally speak of stratification in terms of socioeconomic status (SES). A person’s SES is usually determined by their income, occupational prestige, wealth, and educational attainment, though other variables are sometimes considered.
Stratification and Inequality
Stratification refers to the range of social classes that result from variations in socioeconomic status. Significantly, because SES measures a range of variables, it does not merely measure economic inequality. For example, despite earning equal salaries, two persons may have differences in power, property, and prestige. These three indicators can indicate someone’s social position; however, they are not always consistent.
Inequality occurs when a person’s position in the social hierarchy is tied to different access to resources, and it largely depends on differences in wealth. For example, a wealthy person may receive higher quality medical care than a poor person, have greater access to nutritional foods, and be able to attend higher caliber schools. Material resources are not distributed equally to people of all economic statuses.
While stratification is most commonly associated with socioeconomic status, society is also stratified by statuses such as race and gender. Together with SES, these shape the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges among individuals. For example, within a given social class, women are less likely to receive job promotions than men. Similarly, within American cities with heavily racially-segregated neighborhoods, racial minorities are less likely to have access to high quality schools than white people.
Perspectives Towards Stratification
Stratification is generally analyzed from three different perspectives: micro, meso, and macro. Micro-level analysis focuses on how prestige and personal influence create inequality through face-to-face and small group interactions. Meso-level analysis focuses on how connections to organizations and institutions produce inequality. Macro-level analysis considers the role of economic systems in shaping individuals’ resources and opportunities.
Macro-level analyses of stratification can include global analyses of how positions in the international economic system shape access to resources and opportunities. For example, the small African nation of Cape Verde is significantly indebted to European nations and the U.S., and the majority of its industry is controlled by foreign investors. As the nation’s economy has ceded control of once-public services, such as electricity, its citizens have lost jobs and the price of electricity has increased. Thus, the nation’s position in the world economy has resulted in poverty for many of its citizens.
A global structure, or a macro-level phenomenon, produces unequal distribution of resources for people living in various nations.
Theories of Macro-Level Inequality
There are three dominant theories that sociologists use to consider why inequality exists on a global scale.
Global Social Stratification: People in countries around the world experience different access to resources and opportunities and different standards of living, based on their position in the global hierarchy.
Firstly, some sociologists use a theory of development and modernization to argue that poor nations remain poor because they hold onto traditional attitudes and beliefs, technologies and institutions, such as traditional economic systems and forms of government. Modernists believe large economic growth is the key to reducing poverty in poor countries.
Secondly, dependency theory blames colonialism and neocolonialism (continuing economic dependence on former colonial countries) for global poverty. Countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past and today through foreign debt and transnational corporations (TNCs). According to dependency theory, wealthy countries would not be as rich as they are today if they did not have these materials, and the key to reversing inequality is to relieve former colonies of their debts so that they can benefit from their own industry and resources.
Lastly, world systems theory suggests that all countries are divided into a three-tier hierarchy based on their relationship to the global economy, and that a country’s position in this hierarchy determines its own economic development.
According to world systems theory as articulated by sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, core countries are at the top of the global hierarchy as they can extract material resources and labor from less developed countries. These core countries own most of the world’s capital and technology, and have great control over world trade and economic agreements. Semiperipheral countries generally provide labor and materials to core countries, which benefits core countries but also increases income within the semiperipheral country. Peripheral countries are generally indebted to wealthy nations, and their land and populations are often exploited for the gain of other countries.
Because of this hierarchy, individuals living in core countries generally have higher standards of living than those in semiperipheral or peripheral countries.
Key Points
• Industrialized countries are at the top of the global socioeconomic hierarchy, and their populations generally enjoy a high standard of living.
• Most commonly, the criteria used to evaluate a country’s level of development is its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
• One measure of a nation’s level of development is the Human Development Index (HDI), a statistical measure developed by the United Nations that gauges a country’s level of human development.
Key Terms
• Developed Country: A sovereign state with a highly developed economy relative to other nations.
• Industrialized Country: A sovereign state with a highly developed economy relative to other nations.
• Human Development Index (HDI): A composite statistic used to rank countries by level of “human development,” taken as a synonym of the older term “standard of living. “
• gross domestic product: (GDP) The market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year, or over a given period of time; often used as an indicator of a country’s material standard of living.
An industrialized country, also commonly referred to as a developed country, is a sovereign state with a highly developed economy relative to other nations. Most commonly, the criteria used to evaluate a country’s level of development is its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. However, many other variables are frequently taken into account. Factors used to measure a country’s development can include: per capita income, level of industrialization, extent of infrastructure, life expectancy, literacy rate, and general standard of living. The criteria to use and the countries to classify as developed are contentious issues, as discussed below.
Characteristics of Industrialized Countries
In terms of global stratification, industrialized countries are at the top of the global hierarchy. Developed countries, which include such nations as the United States, France, and Japan, have higher GDPs, per-capita incomes, levels of industrialization, breadth of infrastructure, and general standards of living than less developed nations. Consequently, people living in developed countries have greater access to such resources as food, education, roads, and electricity than their counterparts in less developed nations.
Human Development Index
One measure of a nation’s level of development is the Human Development Index (HDI), a statistical measure developed by the United Nations that gauges a country’s level of development. Often, national income or gross domestic product (GDP) are used alone to measure how prosperous a nation’s economy is. HDI considers these factors, but also accounts for how income is invested in healthcare, education, and other infrastructure. Thus, HDI is often used to predict trends in a nation’s development.
Criticisms
The Human Development Index, along with the entire concept of “developing” and “developed” countries, has been criticized on a number of grounds. The term “developing” implies inferiority compared to a developed country, and it also assumes a desire to develop along the traditional Western model of economic development. Critics argue that this is a rather Western-centric perspective. Critics also argue that it does take into account any ecological considerations and focuses almost exclusively on national performance and ranking. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.02%3A_Global_Stratification/8.2A%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality.txt |
Industrializing countries have low standards of living, undeveloped industry, and low Human Development Indices (HDIs).
Learning Objectives
• Explain why some scholars use the term ‘less-developed country’ instead of ‘industrializing country’
Key Points
• In the global hierarchy, industrializing countries are at the middle of the global economic order as measured by indicators such as income per capita, basic infrastructure, literacy rates, or HDI.
• HDI is the measure of development that is used by the United Nations. HDI considers a country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP), per capita income, rate of literacy, life expectancy, basic infrastructure, and other factors to determine how developed a country is.
• Because so-called “industrializing countries” do not always have economic growth, some scholars prefer the descriptive term “less- developed country ” to describe nations with smaller economies than developed countries.
Key Terms
• Human Development Index (HDI): A composite statistic used to rank countries by level of “human development,” taken as a synonym of the older term “standard of living. “
• Developing Country: A nation with a low living standard, undeveloped industrial base, and low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries.
• Industrializing Country: A nation with a low living standard, undeveloped industrial base, and low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries.
An industrializing country, also commonly referred to as a developing country or a less-developed country, is a nation with a low standard of living, undeveloped industrial base, and low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. HDI is the measure of development that is used by the United Nations. HDI considers a country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP), per capita income, rate of literacy, life expectancy, basic infrastructure, and other factors affecting standard of living to determine how developed a country is. Industrializing countries have HDIs between the most and least industrialized countries in the world.
Considering global stratification, industrializing nations are at the middle of the hierarchy. Standards of living in industrializing nations are lower than in developed countries, but range widely depending on whether a nation is rapidly industrializing or is in decline. For example, India is considered a industrializing country. Many Indians, particularly in rural areas and urban slums, live in extreme poverty and have little access to healthcare, education, and paid employment. However, standards of living in India have greatly improved in recent decades as a result of a rapidly expanding economy. By contrast, in Afghanistan, which is also considered an industrializing nation, war and drought has halted economic growth and standards of living have not been rising substantially.
“Industrializing” versus “Less-developed”
Many scholars and social theorists have criticized the term “industrializing country” for being misleading. First, it implies that a country’s economy is growing; some partially industrialized countries are stagnant or in decline. Second, critics claim the term masks the inequality within each country. In other words, saying that India is an industrializing country hides the fact that within India some people are very wealthy and have a high standard of living, while some Indians are very poor and have few resources and opportunities. Because of such critiques, some scholars use the term less-developed country to describe the present circumstances in countries with relatively small economies and little infrastructure.
Developing Countries Need Infrastructure to Facilitate Trade: According to research from the World Bank, one challenge facing industrializing nations is how to successfully export products when they do not have pre-existing infrastructures to facilitiate international trade. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.02%3A_Global_Stratification/8.2B%3A_Industrializing_Countries.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Describe the characteristics of Least Developed Countries
In contrast to industrialized and industrializing countries, the world’s least industrialized countries exhibit extremely poor economic growth and have the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) measures in the world. HDI is the measure of development that is used by the United Nations. HDI considers a country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP), per capita income, rate of literacy, life expectancy, basic infrastructure, and other factors affecting standard of living to determine how developed a country is. To be considered a least industrialized country, or least developed country (LDC) as they are commonly called, a country must have a small economy and low standards of living.
Defining an LDC
By the United Nations’ standards, a country must meet three specific criteria to be classified as an LDC:
1. Low income (a three-year average gross national income of less that \$905 USD per capita)
2. Human resource weakness, based on indicators of nutrition, health, education, and literacy
3. Economic vulnerability, based on instability of agricultural production, instability of exports of goods and services, and a high percentage of population displaced by natural disaster, for example.
The UN uses such specific standards for defining LDCs because the UN provides support and advocacy services to LDCs. Thus, the definition of LDCs is more rigid than the definition of developing/industrializing and developed/industrialized countries.
Characteristics
Not all LDCs are alike, but many characteristics are shared. For example, the majority of LDCs are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. LDCs in this region are particularly likely to have authoritarian governments such as dictatorships. Similarly, for many LDCs AIDS is a major issue, overwhelming unstable medical infrastructures. In all LDCs, populations have a low standard of living. People living in LDCs are unlikely to have consistent access to electricity, clean water, healthcare, education, and in many cases food and shelter.
The “Third World”
In the past, countries that are now labeled as LDCs were known as “third world” countries. Third world countries were undeveloped countries that were neither major players in the capitalist world market nor communist states under the USSR. Most current scholars consider the term “third world” to be outdated. Modern sociologists are more likely to describe the world’s least industrialized nations as “peripheral,” referring to their marginalized position in the world economy. Least industrialized nations are likely to be exploited by more developed nations for material and human resources, such as oil and cheap labor. They participate in the world economy, but do not greatly benefit from it. Least industrialized nations are at the bottom of a stratified global economic order, and play only a peripheral role in the international economy.
Global Humanitarian Forum Discussion of Special Needs of Least Industrialized Countries: Here policy makers discuss the challenges that countries with small, insecure economies and inadequate infrastructure face as they seek higher status in the global hierarchy.
Key Points
• Least industrialized countries are more likely than more developed countries to have authoritarian governments, uncontrolled epidemics, and low access to services such as healthcare and education.
• According to the UN, and least industrialized countries meet three standards:1. Low income (a three-year average gross national income of less that \$905 USD per capita) 2. Human resource weakness3. Economic vulnerability.
• Modern sociologists consider the world’s least industrialized countries to play a peripheral role in the world economy, and therefore refer to them as peripheral nations.
Key Terms
• Least Industrialized Countries: The countries at the bottom of a stratified global economic order, which play only a peripheral role in the international economy.
• Third World Countries: Those countries not aligned with the west or the east during the Cold War, especially the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
• Human Development Index (HDI): A composite statistic used to rank countries by level of “human development,” taken as a synonym of the older term “standard of living. “ | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.02%3A_Global_Stratification/8.2C%3A_Least_Industrialized_Countries.txt |
There is a wide gap between the wealth of the world’s richest countries and its poorest.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the development of global inequality in the 20th century
Key Points
• Global inequality is thought to have peaked around the year 1970, but inequality remains significant and persistent.
• According to social reproduction theory, rich and powerful individuals benefit from being at the top of the economic hierarchy and have the influence needed to protect their status, so they contribute to the persistence of global inequality.
• Even though global inequality has decreased in recent decades, inequality is persistent and shows no signs of disappearing.
Key Terms
• Social Reproduction Theory: According to this theory of inequality, rich and powerful individuals and institutions perpetuate inequality to protect their high status.
• Twin Peaks: Opposite clusters of the world’s richest and poorest countries.
• divergence: The degree to which two or more things separate or move in opposite directions.
There is a vast gap between the wealth of the world’s richest countries and its poorest, resulting in different access to resources and opportunities for each country’s population. To discuss this global inequality, sociologists may refer to the world’s ” twin peaks,” or two groups of its richest and poorest countries. At the top of the hierarchy, a group of countries that includes the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia has 13% of the world’s population but receives 45% of its income (adjusted for international purchasing power). At the bottom of the hierarchy, a group of countries including India, Indonesia, and China has 42% of the world’s population but receives only 9% of income (adjusted for international purchasing power). The existence of these twin peaks demonstrates that there is a wide gap between the world’s wealthiest and poorest nations.
Throughout most of the 20th century, there was a trend towards divergence between the economies of richer and poorer countries. In other words, the gap between wealthy, developed nations and poorer, developing nations widened — global inequality increased. Current research indicates, however, that global inequality peaked around 1970. Around the year 1970, world income was distributed between extremely rich and extremely poor countries, with little overlap. Since the 1970s, trends show that an increasing percentage of the world’s population lives in middle-income countries. Thus, there is a broader spectrum of incomes, with fewer people living at the extremes of wealth and poverty than in the past. Since 1970, global inequality has decreased.
Even though global inequality has decreased in recent decades, inequality is persistent and shows no signs of disappearing. Evidence used by researchers to demonstrate the presence of global inequality includes: the poorest 10% of Americans have a higher standard of living than 2/3 of the world’s population; the richest 1% of the world’s population holds as much wealth as the poorest 10% of the population; and the three richest individuals in the world possess greater wealth than the poorest 10% of the population. These statistics are small glimpses of the big picture of global economy, but begin to illustrate the great inequality that exists.
Sociologists who study global inequality have proposed social reproduction theory as one way to explain the persistence of inequality. According to social reproduction theory, rich and powerful individuals and institutions perpetuate inequality to protect their high status. The rich and powerful control the means of production (such as factories, land, and transportation) and often have strong influence in government. Moreover, they often control the media, schools, and courts, extending their influence in various social realms. Because individuals and institutions at the top of the economic hierarchy benefit from their status, they use their influence to protect their positions.
A related explanation for the persistence of inequality is the idea that culture teaches acceptance of the extant economic hierarchy. According to this view, individuals are taught to believe that the rich and powerful are more talented, hardworking, and intelligent than the poor. This explanation holds that the misconception that poor people are lazy or irresponsible is widespread, and that people are therefore likely to accept that poor people deserve to be poor. People who ascribe to the cultural belief that the rich are deserving of their wealth are unlikely to challenge economic inequality, so they thereby perpetuate it.
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Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between dependency theory, world-systems theory, and the Marxist perspective on colonialism
Key Points
• The colonial period ranges from the 1450s to the 1970s, beginning when several European powers (Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France especially) established colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
• Decolonization took place after the First and Second World Wars as former colonies established independence from colonial powers.
• Neocolonialism refers to the unequal economic and power relations that currently exist between former colonies and former colonizing nations.
• Marx viewed colonialism as part of the global capitalist system, which has led to exploitation, social change, and uneven development.
• Dependency theory argues that countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past through colonialism and today through foreign debt and trade.
• World-systems theory splits the world economic system into core, peripheral, and semi-peripheral countries.
Key Terms
• decolonization: The freeing of a colony or territory from dependent status by granting it sovereignty.
• Age of Discovery: A period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contact with Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania and mapping the planet.
• Scramble for Africa: A process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914.
• colonialism: the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of territories (or colonies) in one geographic area by people from another area
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colonies in one territory, imposed by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole, or parent state, claims sovereignty over the colony, and the social structure, government, and economy of the colony are changed by colonizers from the metropole. Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships between the metropole and the colony, and between the colonists and the indigenous, or native, population.
History of Colonialism
Modern colonialism started with the Age of Discovery, during which Portugal and Spain discovered new lands across the oceans (including the Americas and Atlantic/South Pacific islands) and built trading posts. According to some scholars, building these colonies across oceans differentiates colonialism from other types of expansionism. These new lands were first divided between the Portuguese Empire and Spanish Empire, though the British, French, and Dutch soon acquired vast territory as well.
The 17th century saw the creation of the French colonial empire, the Dutch Empire, and the English colonial empire, which later became the British Empire. It also saw the establishment of some Swedish overseas colonies and a Danish colonial empire.
The spread of colonial empires diminished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, largely due to the American Revolutionary War and Latin American wars for independence. However, many new colonies were established after this period, including the German colonial empire and Belgian colonial empire. In the late 19th century, many European powers were involved in the so-called Scramble for Africa, in which many African colonies were established.
Decolonization
After the First World War, the victorious allies divided up the German colonial empire and much of the Ottoman Empire according to League of Nations mandates. These territories were divided into three classes based on how quickly they would be ready for independence. Decolonization outside the Americas lagged until after World War II. In ideal cases, decolonized colonies were granted sovereignty, or the right to self-govern, becoming independent countries.
Neocolonialism
The term “neocolonialism” has been used to refer to a variety of contexts since the decolonization that took place after World War II. Generally, it does not refer to any type of direct colonization, but colonialism by other means. Specifically, neocolonialism refers to the theory that former or existing economic relationships—the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement—are used to maintain control of former colonies after formal independence was achieved. In broader usage, neocolonialism may simply refer to the involvement of powerful countries in the affairs of less powerful countries; this is especially relevant in modern Latin America. In this sense, neocolonialism implies a form of economic imperialism.
Colonialism and Neocolonialism in the World System
One approach sociologists take to colonialism and neocolonialism is a Marxist perspective. Marx viewed colonialism as part of the global capitalist system, which has led to exploitation, social change, and uneven development. He argued that it was destructive and produced dependency. According to some Marxist historians, in all of the colonial countries ruled by Western European countries, indigenous people were robbed of health and opportunities. From a Marxist perspective, colonies are considered vis-à-vis modes of production. The search for raw materials and new investment opportunities is the result of inter-capitalist rivalry for capital accumulation.
Dependency theory builds upon Marxist thought, blaming colonialism and neocolonialism for poverty within the world system. This theory argues that countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past and today through foreign debt and foreign trade.
World-Systems Theory
The world-systems theory suggests that the aftermath of colonialism and the continuing practice of neocolonialism produces unequal economic relations within the world system. Sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein elaborated on these forms of economic inequality. In this theory, the world economic system is divided into a hierarchy of three types of countries: core, semiperipheral, and peripheral. Core countries (e.g., U.S., Japan, Germany) are dominant capitalist countries characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization. Peripheral countries (e.g., most African countries and low income countries in South America) are dependent on core countries for capital, and have very little industrialization and urbanization. Peripheral countries are usually agrarian and have low literacy rates and lack Internet connection in many areas. Semiperipheral countries (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa) are less developed than core nations but are more developed than peripheral nations. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.03%3A__Stratification_in_the_World_System/8.3A%3A_Colonialism_and_Neocolonialism.txt |
A multinational corporation (MNC) is a business enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country.
Learning Objectives
• Reconstruct the debate between critics and proponents of economic globalization
Key Points
• Multinational corporations affect local and national policies by causing governments to compete with each other to be attractive to multinational corporation investment in their country.
• Multinational corporations often hold power over local and national governments through a monopoly on technological and intellectual property. Because of their size, multinationals can also have a significant impact on government policy through the threat of market withdrawal.
• Economic globalization refers to increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, services, technology and capital. Multinational corporations play a key role in this process.
• Those who view economic globalization positively cite evidence of per capita GDP growth, decrease in poverty, and a narrowing gap between rich and poor nations.
• Those who view economic globalization negatively cite evidence of exploitation of the local labor force, funneling of important resources away from the country itself into foreign exports, and overall dependency of developing countries upon wealthy countries.
• Those who view economic globalization positively cite evidence of per capita GDP growth, decrease in poverty, and a narrowing gap between rich and poor nations.
• Those who view economic globalization negatively cite evidence of exploitation of the local labor force, funneling of important resources away from the country itself into foreign exports, and overall dependency of developing countries upon wealthy countries.
Key Terms
• Economic Imperialism: The geopolitical practice of using capitalism, business globalization, and cultural imperialism to control a country, in lieu of either direct military control or indirect political control.
• Market Withdrawal: The act or threat of removing one’s goods or services from the consumer market, potentially reducing the supply of a product, or of jobs.
• tax break: A deduction in tax that is given in order to encourage a certain economic activity or a social objective.
A multinational corporation (MNC) or multinational enterprise (MNE) is a corporate enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country.
A MNC differs slightly from a transnational corporation (TNC), because while MNC’s are traditionally national companies with foreign subsidiaries, a TNC does not identify itself with one national home. However, these terms are often used interchangeably. Multinational corporations can have a powerful influence in local economies, and even the world economy.
Influence on Local and National Economies
National and local governments often compete with one another to attract MNC facilities, with the expectation of increased tax revenue, employment, and economic activity. To compete, political entities may offer MNCs incentives such as tax breaks, pledges of governmental assistance or subsidized infrastructure, or lax environmental or labor regulations.
Besides holding the promise of economic growth for local and national governments, multinational corporations also exert power over political entities once they are established, through their control over technical and intellectual property. For example, Adidas holds patents on shoe designs, Siemens A.G. holds many patents on equipment and infrastructure and Microsoft benefits from software patents. These patents often allow multinational corporations to exercise a monopoly in the local economy, preventing local enterprises from developing. This also functions to keep labor costs low, sometimes exploitatively so.
Because of their size, multinational corporations can also have a significant impact on government policy through the threat of market withdrawal.
Influence on the World Economy
Multinational corporations play an important role in the world economy through the process of economic globalization; in other words, the increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, services, technology and capital.
Multinational corporations have played a leading role in this globalization, establishing multiple links between the economies of various countries. Using capital from developed countries, MNCs establish factories and plants in developing countries, where they can access raw materials and labor more cheaply. The finished products are then shipped back to wealthy countries where there is a consumer market.
These multiple links lead to an increasing economic integration between various economies, resulting in the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market.
A Positive View of Economic Globalization
Those who view this phenomenon positively cite the evidence of per capita GDP growth, decrease in poverty, and a narrowing gap between rich and poor nations. Proponents of economic globalization argue that the economic benefits are widely shared between different parts of society, discounting critics who point to rising inequality between the rich and poor within nations who have joined the global market.
Those in favour of globalization also cite evidence of overall improvement of living standards and poverty reduction in globalizing countries. For example, there has been a 5.4 percent annual growth in income for the poorest fifth of the population of Malaysia. Even in China, where inequality continues to be a problem, the poorest fifth of the population saw a 3.8 percent annual growth in income in 2001. Finally, there is evidence that the gap has narrowed between rich and poor countries, which is often touted as a positive benefit of economic globalization.
Critical Views of Economic Globalization
Not all observers of economic globalization have a positive evaluation. As discussed above, multinational corporations exert powerful influence over local and national governments, often prompting them to enact policies that benefit business, rather than protecting the rights of local people. Thus, economic globalization in the form of MNCs can lead to exploitation of the local labor force, funneling of important resources away from the country itself into foreign exports, and overall dependency of developing countries upon wealthy countries.
In addition to the uneven distribution of benefits that often occurs, critics also point to the ways that resources are diverted from the local population into foreign exports. For example, some of the land in Cape Verde could be planted and harvested to feed people but is planted instead with cash crops for foreign exchange. Fresh produce is regularly sold or changed to a nonperishable type, such as canned tuna for export, rather than consumed by the population. Widespread malnutrition is one of the effects of this foreign dependency.
Finally, economic globalization may result in unequal economic relations of dependency between developing and developed countries. Instead of acting independently on behalf of the people in the country, governments of developing countries may act more in the interests of MNCs and of other nations on whom they rely on for aid. They may feel that without these forms of economic connection, their country cannot survive.
Thus, dependent relations that were formed in the colonial period continue on today in the form of what many scholars call neocolonialism or economic imperialism. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.03%3A__Stratification_in_the_World_System/8.3B%3A_Multinational_Corporations.txt |
Poverty is the condition of not having access to material resources, income, or wealth.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the definitions of poverty, absolute poverty, and extreme poverty
Key Points
• The U.S. officially defines poverty using the poverty line, which is the measure of those whose incomes are less than three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget.
• Absolute poverty is the level of poverty where individuals and families cannot meet food, shelter, warmth, and safety needs, while relative poverty refers to economic disadvantage compared to wealthier members of society.
• Extreme poverty is a severe lack of material possessions or money, defined by the World Bank as living on less than US \$1.25 a day.
• Poverty may correspond not only to lack of resources, but to lack of opportunity to improve one’s standard of living and acquire resources.
• Globally, countries are stratified in an economic hierarchy that is often measured by GNI PPP, or gross national income converted to international dollars. Individuals in wealthy countries are less likely to live in poverty than those in poor countries.
Key Terms
• Economic Stratification: Economic stratification refers to the condition within a society where social classes are separated, or stratified, along economic lines, with distinct economic strata, or levels.
• GNI PPP: The GNI PPP is the gross national income of a country converted to international dollars using a factor called the purchasing power parity, and is a commonly used measure of national economic well-being.
• The Poverty Line: The threshold of poverty, below which one’s income does not cover necessities.
Poverty describes the state of not having access to material resources, wealth, or income. The U.S. officially defines poverty using the poverty line, which is the official measure of those whose incomes are less than three times the approximate cost of a subsistence level food budget. This definition has been in use in the U.S. to track demographic changes and allocate welfare aid since the 1960s. Near poverty is when one earns up to 25% above the poverty line; put otherwise, a person near poverty has an income below 125% of the current poverty line. Absolute poverty is the level of poverty where individuals and families cannot meet food, shelter, warmth, and safety needs, while relative poverty refers to economic disadvantage compared to wealthier members of society. Extreme poverty is a severe lack of material possessions or money, defined by the World Bank as living on less than US \$1.25 a day.
Poverty may correspond not only to lack of resources, but to lack of opportunity to improve one’s standard of living and acquire resources. Life chances are an individual’s access to basic opportunities and resources in the marketplace. Someone who is living in poverty but has high life chances may be able to improve their economic standing, while someone with low life chances will likely have a consistently low standard of living.
Billions of people around the world live in poverty, and often experience hunger, preventable illness, and low life expectancy as a result. A commonly used measure of national economic well-being is the GNI PPP. The GNI PPP is the gross national income of a country converted to international dollars using a factor called the purchasing power parity. In other words, GNI PPP lets you understand how much a person could buy with a given amount of money (in other words, a person’s annual income), regardless of the country’s currency. It enables comparisons between the relative wealth and poverty of countries — the higher a country’s GNI PPP is, the better off the average person in that country is.
Comparing GNI PPPs makes clear that there is global economic stratification, or that countries are arranged in a hierarchy based on the unequal distribution wealth.The developed world is over 6 times wealthier than the less developed world. Globally, Africa has the highest level of poverty, with the average person earning less than 10% of what the average US citizen earns. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.03%3A__Stratification_in_the_World_System/8.3C%3A_Poverty.txt |
Modernization deals with social change from agrarian societies to industrial ones, with new technologies playing an important role.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss some problems with modernization theory, especially for poorer countries
Key Points
• The Renaissance period (14th-17th centuries) was an important era of introducing new technologies of mechanization and efficient production which paved the way for the Industrial Revolution.
• The printing press, invented by Johannes Gutenburg in the 15th century, is regarded as one of the most important Renaissance inventions because it allowed the rapid spread of information across borders.
• The mass production technologies perfected during the Industrial Revolution led to a dramatic change in production processes, which in turn spurred on patterns of urbanization, wage labor, and nuclear family life.
• The Information Revolution refers to the most recent era of technological developments, including cell phones and the Internet.
• The assumption that it is always beneficial to adopt new technologies in order to modernize must be questioned, because it can sometimes lead to value judgments against societies and groups who do not use the latest technologies.
Key Terms
• Information Revolution: Refers to the most recent era of technological developments, including cell phones and the Internet.
• Industrial Revolution: The major technological, socioeconomic, and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century, resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual labor to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing.
• modernization: A model of an evolutionary transition from a “pre-modern” or “traditional” society to a “modern” society, including the adoption of new industry and technology.
Background
New technology is a major source of social change. Modernization deals with social change from agrarian societies to industrial ones, so it is important to look at technology changes across contexts. New technologies do not change societies by themselves. Rather, it is the response to technology that causes change. Frequently, a new technology will be recognized but not put to use for a very long time. Later, it may be taken up on large scale such that an entire society is revolutionized by it.
From the perspective of Western societies, one of the most important epochs for technological innovation was the Renaissance, which spanned roughly the 14th through 17th centuries starting from Italy and spreading throughout the rest of Europe. Many technologies which had profound impact of social life were either invented or popularized during this time. For example, the compound crank and connecting rod converted circular motion into reciprocal motion and was of utmost importance for the mechanization of work processes, later becoming integrated into machine design. The mariner’s astrolabe played an important role in sea navigation, aiding in the discovery of the Americas and other overseas lands. Other technologies introduced during this time include the cranked reel (used to wind skeins of yarn), the blast furnace (enhanced iron production), and the rotary grindstone with treadle.
The Printing Press
Of extreme significance during this period was the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s by Johannes Gutenburg. Paving the way for mass production of printed material, the printing press is widely regarded as one of the most important inventions of the Renaissance. It made possible the relatively free flow of information, which transcended borders and induced a sharp rise in Renaissance literacy, learning, and education. It also allowed for greater circulation of (sometimes revolutionary) ideas among the rising middle classes and peasants and threatened the traditional power monopoly of the ruling nobility. The printing press became a key factor in the rapid spread of the Protestant Revolution and is thought to have enabled the development of national identities.
The Renaissance
The technologies of the Renaissance period, which introduced methods of mechanization, were the predecessors of the mass-production techniques that fueled the Industrial Revolution during the 18th and 19thcenturies, which started in Great Britain and emanated outwards. Key technologies developed during this period included the steam engine, new iron smelting methods, and the water frame, spinning Jenny, and spinning mule (in the textile industry). As a result of these developments, new factories sprung up everywhere and production shifted from homes or small workshops to factories. These developments also shaped new patterns of urbanization, labor, and family life, all of which may be deemed a process of modernization. For example, people moved from the countryside into the city in search of new work opportunities, more people were employed as wage-laborers doing repetitive tasks in a factory, and nuclear families became disconnected from the more extended kinship networks found in rural areas as people moved into cities.
Modernization continues apace today as technologies spread into areas that were previously less technologically advanced and as new innovations are introduced almost daily. Cell phones, for example, have changed the lives of millions throughout the world. This is especially true in Africa and parts of the Middle East where there is a low cost communication infrastructure. Spread of Internet connection is another powerful factor which facilitates rapid flows of information and interconnection between people in all corners of the globe. These processes may be considered the phase of technological innovation following the Industrial Revolution, which some have labeled the Information Revolution.
Modernization through technological innovation is seen by modernization theorists as a key way that poor countries can “catch up” to the developed world. The converse may also prove to be true though, if nations that do not adopt cutting edge technology at the same pace as developed nations are shut out of the global economy. This can lead to ethnocentric bias and prejudice against poorer countries who do not develop the new technologies that higher income countries do. Another flaw with modernization theory is its failure to recognize that if poorer countries adopt the technologies of higher-income countries, this may foster dependence. Poorer countries will rely on higher-income countries for support and guidance, thus widening (rather than narrowing) the power differential.
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• Poverty. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.03%3A__Stratification_in_the_World_System/8.3D%3A_Modernization_and_Technology.txt |
World health research considers global patterns of interaction between people, products, money and information as they affect health trends.
Learning Objectives
• Explain why health interventions must not just address diseases but also structural factors
Key Points
• Global illnesses are often classified into the categories ” diseases of affluence ” and ” diseases of poverty,” reflecting the impact of national economic development on health conditions and outcomes.
• Diseases of affluence refer to physical and mental health conditions for which personal lifestyles and societal conditions associated with economic development are believed to be an important risk factor, and they include many non-communicable diseases.
• Diseases of poverty are usually infectious diseases that are often related to poor sanitation, low vaccination coverage, inadequate public health services, and weak enforcement of environmental health and safety regulations.
• Because health trends are impacted by social, economic, and political conditions, global health interventions must address not just diseases themselves, but also the structural factors which prevent certain groups from accessing adequate healthcare.
Key Terms
• diseases of poverty: A group of conditions largely consisting of infectious diseases that are related to poor sanitation, low vaccination coverage, and inadequate health and safety regulations.
• World Health Organization (WHO): A specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is concerned with international public health.
• diseases of affluence: Refers to diseases that are caused by personal lifestyles and social conditions associated with affluence, such as high fat diets and environmental pollution.
As flows of people, money, products, and information increasingly transcend national boundaries, it becomes important to study health trends not just within nations, but from a worldwide perspective. World (or global) health as a research field emerged out of this necessity and lies at the intersection of the medical and social science disciplines, including the fields of demography (the study of population trends), economics, epidemiology (the study of the distribution of health events in a population), political economy, and sociology.
Historically, global health studies rose to prominence in the 1940s, after World War II reconfigured geopolitical alignments and international relations. In 1948, the member states of the newly formed United Nations gathered together to create the World Health Organization (WHO). The organization began with a focus on prevention and eradication of contagious diseases, such as cholera, smallpox, and malaria. WHO initiatives have evolved and expanded throughout the years, however. For example immunization initiatives were launched in the 1970’s, HIV/AIDs initiatives in the 1980’s, and violence awareness initiatives in the 2000’s. While the WHO is the key international agency for monitoring and promoting global health, many other groups also participate.
Diseases of Affluence and Diseases of Poverty
The main diseases and health conditions prioritized by global health initiatives are sometimes classified under the terms diseases of affluence and diseases of poverty, although the impacts of globalization are increasingly blurring any such distinction.
Diseases of affluence refer to physical health conditions for which personal lifestyles (such as lack of exercise or eating a high-fat diet) and societal conditions (such as stressful work arrangements or environmental pollution) associated with economic development are believed to be an important risk factor. Examples of diseases of affluence include Type II diabetes, asthma, coronary heart disease, obesity, hypertension, cancer, and alcoholism. Depression and other mental health conditions may also be included as conditions associated with increased social isolation and lower levels of psychological well being observed in many developed countries. Many of these conditions are interrelated. For example, obesity can be linked to many other illnesses and deaths in high-income nations.
So-called diseases of affluence are predicted to become more prevalent in developing countries, as diseases of poverty decline, longevity increases, and lifestyles change. In 2008, nearly 80% of deaths due to non-communicable diseases, including heart disease, strokes, chronic lung diseases, cancers, and diabetes, occurred in low- and middle-income countries.
In contrast, the diseases of poverty tend to consist largely of infectious diseases, often related to poor sanitation, low vaccination coverage, inadequate public health services, and weak enforcement of environmental health and safety regulations. At the global level, the three primary poverty-related diseases are AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Developing countries account for 95% of the global AIDS prevalence and 98% of active tuberculosis infections. Furthermore, 90% of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, these three diseases account for 10% of global mortality.
Treatable childhood diseases are another set of illnesses that are seen at disproportionately high rates in poor countries, despite the existence of cures for the diseases for decades. These illnesses include measles, pertussis, diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, and polio. Among children under the age of 5 in the developing world, malnutrition, which results from either a lack of food or an inadequately diversified diet, contributes to 53% of deaths associated with infectious diseases. Malnutrition impairs the immune system, thereby increasing the frequency, severity, and duration of childhood illnesses. Micronutrient deficiencies also compromise intellectual potential, growth, development, and adult productivity.
Health Interventions
As the above discussion of diseases of poverty and diseases of affluence reveals, health trends are closely related to social, political, and economic patterns. Thus, health interventions must likewise address not just diseases themselves, but the structural factors which prevent certain groups from accessing adequate healthcare or from having adequate information with which to practice healthy habits and prevent disease. These interventions could include addressing issues of structural inequality, that is, the highly unequal distribution of global wealth that results in conditions of extreme poverty which are difficult if not impossible to escape. It could also mean addressing the global economic patterns which result in healthcare workers having more incentive to work in developed countries and leaving developing countries short staffed. Finally, health interventions could advance by considering the relationship of national and international politics to the establishment of adequate education and healthcare systems. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.04%3A_Global_Diversity/8.4A%3A_World_Health_Trends.txt |
Those with weak support structures are more vulnerable to hunger and starvation than those with strong family networks.
Learning Objectives
• Describe different attempts to understand world hunger
Key Points
• Globally, hunger, malnutrition, starvation, and related health problems cause a significant number of deaths, particularly in the developing world.
• Conflicting perspectives on global hunger attribute the problem to food shortages, poor food distribution, and economic policies that favor export over local consumption.
• Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize, in part for his work in demonstrating that hunger in modern times is not typically the product of a lack of food, but rather of problems in food distribution networks and governmental policies in the developing world.
Key Terms
• Malthusianism: The idea that population growth will outpace food production, resulting in widespread famine and population reduction.
• food sovereignty: A policy framework advocated for by a number of farmers, peasants, pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, women, rural youth, and environmental organizations, which consists of the right of peoples to define their own food, agriculture, livestock, and fisheries systems, in contrast to having food largely subject to international market forces.
“Hunger” is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food. “Malnutrition” is a general term for conditions caused by improper diet or nutrition, and can occur in conjunction with under- or overconsumption of calories. Undernutrition is the result of chronic underconsumption of food.
Two terms frequently associated with hunger are “famine” and “starvation. ” Famine is the widespread scarcity of food, and it is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Starvation describes a state of exhaustion of the body caused by lack of food and may be fatal.
World Statistics
While statistics vary based on measurements used, it is generally agreed that the number of malnourished or undernourished people in the world was around 1 billion people in 2010, about a sixth of the world’s total population. Hunger is particularly devastating for children. Approximately six million children die of hunger every year.
Understanding Hunger
Attempts to understand why hunger exists are not new. Thomas Malthus, in the six editions of his book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, published from 1798 to 1826, argued that the explosive population growth happening in his time could not continue indefinitely. He claimed population growth would eventually be checked by famine and disease, because the earth’s ability to produce food would not be able to keep up with the size of the population. His dire predictions are widely known as “Malthusianism. ”
Current population growth, which is still on the rise, seems to disprove Malthus’ theory, hunger problems notwithstanding. In fact, many believe that the earth is more than capable of sustaining the current world population. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations purports that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone–over 6 billion people–and could feed double that number of people. Amartya Sen won his 1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work in demonstrating that hunger in modern times is not typically the product of a lack of food, but rather problems in food distribution networks and governmental policies in the developing world.
Today, there is a wide range of opinions as to why the hunger problem is so persistent. Some organizations raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the free trade economic order prevents this from happening. These advocates argue that free trade policies transfer economic decision-making power into the hands of multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and transnational corporations, so that local people are unable to determine what is done with food that is locally produced.
At the other end of the spectrum, transnational organizations like the World Bank claim to be part of the solution to hunger, maintaining that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.
The Role of the Family in Hunger Problems
The family plays an important role in understanding patterns of hunger. Those who have a weak or non-existent family support structure are more likely than those with strong family networks to go hungry. Children and seniors are the most vulnerable to going hungry for lack of familial support.
Children, since they are less able to provide for themselves than adults, are more likely to go hungry if they live in unstable families or on the streets. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause (at least partially) 60% of children’s deaths in the developing world.
Seniors are another at-risk population for hunger. According to one 2007 study, over 11.4% of seniors in the United States experience some form of food insecurity. The most at-risk segments of the senior population include those who lack a strong family structure (i.e., those who were never married), live alone, or live with a grandchild (but with no adult child present). | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.04%3A_Global_Diversity/8.4B%3A_Hunger_Malnutrition_and_Family.txt |
Childhood mortality is high in developing countries where malnutrition, infectious diseases, and unsanitary conditions are widespread.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the most common causes of child mortality
Key Points
• International organizations have worked to improve maternal and childhood health conditions around the world, and have helped to reduce the number of childhood deaths from 17 million annually in the 1980s to 10 million annually in the 2000s.
• Without diagnosis and treatment, about 35% of HIV-infected pregnant women will transmit HIV to their infants. As a result, approximately 1,000 HIV-infected children are born every day.
• Birth defects are among the leading global causes of infant and child mortality, with an estimated 4.9 million birth defect pregnancies worldwide each year. The majority of these occur in low- and middle- income countries.
• The World Health Organization has estimated that about 1.5 million children under age 5 years continue to die annually from diseases that are preventable via the administration of vaccines, making up approximately 20% of overall childhood mortality.
• Spreading technology, health information, and nutrition and medication may held reduce rates of infant and child mortality in developing countries.
Key Terms
• dengue: An acute febrile disease of the tropics caused by a flavivirus, transmitted by mosquitoes, and characterized by high fever, rash, headache, and severe muscle and joint pain.
• birth defect: Any of several medical disorders that are present at birth.
• Diarrheal Diseases: The condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day, which is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide.
In the 1980’s, the United States increased funding for maternal and childhood health programs. At that time, it was estimated that 17 million children under the age of 5 died every year. By 2006, largely due to the efforts of many international aid organizations, the annual number of deaths of children under the age of 5 was 10 million. Even with the great advances in childhood health that have occurred in recent decades, many health problems still afflict infant and child populations.
HIV/AIDS
Without diagnosis and treatment, about 35% of HIV-infected pregnant women will transmit HIV to their infants. As a result, approximately 1,000 HIV-infected children are born every day, accounting for about 370,000 new pediatric infections annually, 85% of which are in 25 sub-Saharan African countries. Without antiretroviral drugs, half of these children die by age 2. Of the estimated 2.3 million children worldwide with HIV, 1.27 million are estimated to need treatment and only 356,000 (28%) receive it.
Birth Defects
Birth defects are among the leading global causes of infant and child mortality, with an estimated 4.9 million birth defect pregnancies worldwide each year. The majority of these occur in low and middle income countries.
Birth defect trends and risk factors are difficult to monitor because many countries do not have systems that can accurately track the prevalence of birth defects. International organizations have been working to expand monitoring systems and improve laboratory capacity. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researches and tracks birth defects and coordinates the surveillance and research activities of about 40 member programs of the International Clearing House for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research.
Infectious Diseases
In Asia, dengue fever, an infectious tropical disease, is a major cause of child mortality. Global research teams have been working to improve methods for diagnosing and treating dengue. A 2011 CDC report found that the incidence of dengue has increased worldwide in recent decades, but little is known about its incidence in Africa.
Diarrheal diseases cause an estimated 1.4 million deaths per year in children under 5 years old. In developing countries, diarrheal diseases are also a leading cause of death from infections among persons with HIV. Lack of access to water and sanitation and poor hygiene are responsible for most of these deaths. Poor nutrition is also an important factor in diarrheal disease risk.
The World Health Organization has estimated that about 1.5 million children under age 5 years continue to die annually from diseases that are preventable via the administration of vaccines, making up approximately 20% of overall childhood mortality. Vaccines can prevent pneumonia and diarrhea, the two leading causes of death among children under age 5. Other immunizations that can improve maternal and child health are tetanus immunization of pregnant women and polio immunization. Moreover, an estimated 4 million newborns die in the first four weeks of life, accounting for 40% of all deaths among children under the age of 5. Improved pre- and post-natal care, as well as more accessible information about infant health, could help reduce the infant mortality rate.
Interventions
Infant mortality rates are reduced by increasing availability of safe emergency pregnancy care and training doctors and nurses to promote safe breast feeding for HIV infected women and other support and guidance related to pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum periods. Globally, untreated maternal syphilis still causes more than 650,000 adverse pregnancy outcomes, including about 350,000 pre-birth deaths, each year. The overwhelming majority of these are in countries with limited laboratory capacity for syphilis testing as part of basic pregnancy care. Congenital syphilis, passed from mother to child, can be eliminated through universal screening of pregnant women early in pregnancy, and prompt treatment with at least one injection of penicillin. International organizations are working to make these interventions available. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.04%3A_Global_Diversity/8.4C%3A_The_Health_of_Infants_and_Children.txt |
HIV/AIDS results in high infection and mortality rates amidst inadequate distribution of preventative information and treatment.
Learning Objectives
• Describe how HIV/AIDS affects different regions on a global scale
Key Points
• HIV/AIDS is primarily transferred through sexual contact, blood transfusions and needle sharing, and mother-child contact during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding.
• HIV/AIDS has disproportionately impacted low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, with high proportions of infected women and children and low access to adequate healthcare and anti-retroviral drugs there.
• Governmental and non-profit organizations have developed to improve HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and social services, but many populations continue to be ravaged by the disease.
Key Terms
• pandemic: A disease that hits a wide geographical area and affects a large proportion of the population.
Human immunodeficiency virus infection / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The illness interferes with the immune system, making people with AIDS much more likely to get infections, including opportunistic infections and tumors that do not usually affect people with working immune systems. This susceptibility increases as these disease gets worse.
HIV is transmitted primarily via sexual intercourse (including oral sex and anal sex), contaminated blood transfusions and hypodermic needles, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. Prevention of HIV infection, primarily through safe sex and needle-exchange programs, is a key strategy to control the disease. There is no known cure for or vaccine against HIV, but antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease and may lead to a near-normal life expectancy for people with HIV. Antiretroviral treatment reduces the risk of death and complications from the disease. However, these medications are expensive and may be associated with side effects of their own.
HIV/AIDS and World Health
HIV/AIDS is a major health problem in many parts of the world, and is considered a pandemic—a disease outbreak which is present over a large area and is actively spreading. In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there are 33.4 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 2.7 million new HIV infections per year and 2.0 million annual deaths due to AIDS. Of the approximately 34 million people infected with HIV/AIDS, approximately 16.8 million are women and 3.4 million are younger than 15 years old. AIDS was first recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1981 and its cause, HIV, was identified in the early 1980s.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected by the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2010, an estimated 68% (22.9 million) of all HIV cases and 66% of all deaths (1.2 million) occurred in this region. About 5% of the sub-Saharan African adult population is infected and HIV/AIDS is believed to be the cause of 10% of all deaths in children. Women compose nearly 60% of cases in the region. South Africa has the largest population of people with HIV of any country in the world, at 5.9 million.
South and Southeast Asia is the second most affected region in the world. In 2010, this region had an estimated 4 million cases, or 12% of all people living with HIV, resulting in approximately 250,000 deaths. Approximately 2.4 million of these cases are in India.
Prevalence is lowest in Western and Central Europe at 0.2% and East Asia at 0.1%. In 2008 in the United States, approximately 1.2 million people were living with HIV, resulting in about 17,500 deaths. The CDC estimated that in 2008 20% of infected Americans were unaware of their infection.
Prevention
Many international organizations are working to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and its mortality rate. Campaigns have attempted to distribute condoms to HIV/AIDS stricken regions–consistent condom use reduces the risk of HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long-term. Circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa has been found to reduce the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men by between 38% and 66% over two years. Based on these studies, the World Health Organization has recommended male circumcision as a method of preventing female-to-male HIV transmission. Additionally, early treatment of HIV-infected people with antiretrovirals protected 96% of sexual partners from infection.
Treatment
People infected with HIV/AIDS can be treated with anti-retroviral drugs. This medication can relieve many of the symptoms associated with the infection, such as increased susceptibility to other viral infections. Moreover, benefits of treatment include a decreased risk of progression from HIV to AIDS and a decreased risk of death. Medication can also include a decreased risk of transmission of the disease to sexual partners and a decrease in mother to child transmission. However, these drugs often have significant side effects and they are expensive, making them difficult to access in low-income countries. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.04%3A_Global_Diversity/8.4D%3A_HIV_and_AIDS.txt |
The world population has been growing continuously since the 14th century, but the growth rate has been decreasing in the last few decades.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate scenarios of over and underpopulation
Key Points
• The demographic transition describes countries’ shifts from high population growth— fueled by high birth rates and low death rates—to population stability or shrinkage— brought about by low birth and death rates. This transition occurs in tandem with economic development.
• Human overpopulation is a state where the population exceeds the available material and social resources; underpopulation occurs when the birth rate is not sufficient to maintain a stable population.
• Overpopulation can lead to many problems, including famine, disease, conflict, and underdevelopment of national economic and social potential; underpopulation can lead to reductions in the GDP and slowed economic growth.
• Proposed solutions to global overpopulation include a survival of the fittest attitude, economic development to stimulate the demographic transition in countries with growing populations, and a combination of population control and self-sufficiency methods.
Key Terms
• Malthusianism: The idea that population growth will outpace food production, resulting in widespread famine and population reduction.
• demographic transition: The shift from high birth rates and death rates to low birth rates and death rates, usually occurring alongside economic development.
• laissez-faire: Describes a policy of governmental non-interference in economic affairs.
The world population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine and the Black Death in 1350, when it stood at around 370 million. Between October 2011 and March 2012, it was estimated that the world population exceeded 7 billion. The world population growth rate was estimated at 1.1% per year as of 2011, a rate which has declined since its peak during the 1950s–1970s.
The Demographic Transition
Despite an overall pattern of growth, population trends are not even across countries. The demographic transition helps explain the differences between countries. The demographic transition refers to the shift from high birth rates and death rates to low birth and death rates; this occurs as part of the economic development of a country. The basic premises of the theory are as follows: in pre-industrial societies, population growth is relatively slow because both birth and death rates are high; as countries develop, death rates fall faster than birth rates do, resulting in large population growth; as development stabilizes, birth rates drop off and the population stabilizes.
Overpopulation at a National Level
Overpopulation indicates a scenario in which the population of a living species exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. Overpopulation is not a function of the number or density of the individuals, but rather the number of individuals compared to the resources they need to survive. In other words, it is a ratio—population:resources. Resources important in measures of overpopulation include clean water, food, shelter, healthcare, etc.
Most of the population growth in the world today comes from developing countries, most notably African countries, where birth rates have remained high. Many of these countries are struggling to provide food and resources necessary to support a young, growing population. Overpopulation can result in a variety of problems, including famine, shortage of natural resources, spread of communicable disease due to dense populations, and conflict over scarce resources.
Underpopulation at a National Level
Once countries pass through the demographic transition, some experience fertility rate decreases so substantial that they fall well below replacement level—the birth rate needed to maintain a stable population—and their populations begin to shrink. About half the world population lives in nations with sub-replacement fertility. A new fear for many governments, particularly those in countries with very low fertility rates, is underpopulation—a state in which the declining population reduces the GDP and economic growth of the country, as population growth is often a driving force of economic expansion. To combat extremely low fertility rates, some of these governments have introduced pro-family policies, such as payments to parents for having children and extensive parental leave for parents.
Debates about Overpopulation on a Global Level
Despite concerns of underpopulation in individual countries, overpopulation is still the most pressing concern for those who track global population trends. Presently, the world’s population grows by approximately 80 million annually. The United Nations projects that the world population will stabilize in 2075 at nine billion due to declining fertility rates.
Concerns about overpopulation are not new; early in the 19th century, Thomas Malthus argued in “An Essay on the Principle of Population” that, if left unrestricted, human populations would continue to grow until they would become too large to be supported by the food grown on available agricultural land. Once the population exceeded the planet’s carrying capacity, the population would be restrained through mass famine and starvation. Malthus argued for population control—policies intended to lower the birth rate—to avoid this happening. His arguments are widely known as Malthusianism, and present-day proponents of this theory are called Neo-Malthusians. Critics of Malthus point to the fact that the widespread famines he predicted have not occurred, even though the world population has continued to expand.
Possible Solutions to Overpopulation
Some approach overpopulation with a laissez-faire attitude, arguing that if the earth’s ecosystem becomes overtaxed, it will naturally regulate itself. In this mode of thought, disease or starvation are natural means of decreasing the population. Objections to this argument include that a huge number of plant and animal species would go extinct; terrible pollution would arise in some areas, and it would be difficult to abate; and moral problems would be created—great suffering for the people who do not have access to resources.
Others argue that economic development is the best way to reduce population growth because economic development can spur demographic transitions that lead to reduced fertility rates. Where women’s status has improved, for example, there has generally been a drastic reduction in the birth rate, resulting in more sustainable growth levels. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.04%3A_Global_Diversity/8.4E%3A_Population_Trends.txt |
On average, global life expectancies have been increasing and birth rates declining, resulting in global aging.
Learning Objectives
• Examine aging as a global issue
Key Points
• Developments in healthcare, lifestyle, and political stability have led to longer life expectancy worldwide.
• While global life expectancy is increasing, the rate at which the world population is aging is not uniform across countries—life expectancies are higher in wealthier, developed countries than in poorer, developing ones.
• Growing life expectancy is not the only factor contributing to global aging. As nations develop, average birth rates decline.
• As more people in a nation’s population reach old age, the nation’s healthcare and social security system will be strained.
Key Terms
• life expectancy: The amount of time one is expected to live.
• life span: the length of time for which a person lives, or for which something exists or is current or valid
Globally, most countries are seeing the average life expectancy of their populations increase. This trend translates to a greater percentage of the world’s population over the age of 65. However, the rate at which the world’s population is aging is not uniform across the world—some countries have actually seen decreasing life expectancies.
Economic circumstances are one factor that affects life expectancy. Citizens living in wealthier, more developed countries or regions tend to have higher life expectancies. For example, in the United Kingdom, life expectancy in the wealthiest areas is several years longer than in the poorest areas. Wealth may be correlated to factors such as diet and lifestyle as well as better access to medical care—many wealthy European countries offer universal healthcare. As more people in a nation’s population reach old age, its healthcare and social security system will be strained. This strain is occurring in the United States, where people born into the baby boomer generation of the 1950s–1960s are aging and reaching retirement age, thus tapping into Medicaid and social security funds at unprecedented rates.
People living in poorer, less developed countries tend to have lower life expectancies. Much of the higher death rates in poorer nations is due to war, starvation, infant deaths, diseases, and lack of access to adequate health care. The presence of one risk factor is often related to another—war torn countries, for example, are likely to have more instances of starvation. Likewise, people with diseases may have a difficult time getting or sustaining a job, making them vulnerable to starvation. The impact of AIDS on life expectancy is particularly significant in many sub-Saharan African countries. As nations develop, their life expectancy generally rises.
Growing life expectancy is not the only factor contributing to global aging. As nations develop, the average number of children per parent drops. There are several possible reasons for this trend: first, in poorer countries, it may be important to have many children because infant mortality is high and children provide financial support for households and support for their parents in retirement. As a population gets richer, these reasons will become less important. Second, as women become more educated, they tend to delay having children until later in life. This naturally leads to fewer childbirths.
A drop in the birth rate means that the percentage of people in a society who are young will decline. This, combined with higher life expectancies, means that the ratio of old to young people will grow and the population as a whole will age. These two trends, stemming from the growing global economy, cause global aging.
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The distribution of wealth and income reveals inequalities among and within countries and the ways in which wealth is redistributed.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss methods and policies of wealth redistribution
Key Points
• The distribution of wealth compares the assets —including income, land, stocks, and other investments—held by the richest and poorest members of society, while the distribution of income compares only how much money each group earns per year.
• Since the 1970s, the gap in wealth between the highest and lowest brackets of earners has grown, with 2 percent of the population owning a majority of global wealth and the bottom half of the population owning less than 1 percent of global wealth in the year 2000.
• Policies aimed at redistributing wealth may attempt to either increase the wealth of the upper class or decrease inequality. These policies may include the adoption of national economic systems or the operation of small scale charitable organizations.
Key Terms
• income distribution: In economics, income distribution is how a nation’s total GDP is spread amongst its population.
• distribution of wealth: A measure of how assets are divided throughout the population.
• Pareto Distribution: A statistical measure that is often used to model the distribution of wealth.
• wealth: the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It differs from the income distribution in that it looks at the distribution of asset ownership in a society, rather than the current income of members of that society. There are many ways in which the distribution of wealth can be analyzed. One commonly used method is to compare the wealth of the richest ten percent with the wealth of the poorest ten percent. In many societies, the richest ten percent control more than half of the total wealth. A Pareto distribution is a statistical measure that is often used to model the distribution of wealth, though other mathematical models are also used. The Gini coefficient measures the amount of wealth or income inequality in a society by plotting the proportion of total income (or wealth) earned by the bottom x percent of the population.
Recent Measures of Distribution
At the end of the 20th century, wealth was concentrated among the G8 nations (France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Russia) and Western industrialized nations, along with several Asian and OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations. A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the United Nations reports that the richest 1 percent of adults owned 40 percent of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10 percent of adults accounted for 85 percent of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned 1 percent of global wealth. Moreover, another study found that the richest 2 percent of the population owned more than half of global assets as of the year 2000. In terms of distribution of income, a May 2011 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated that the gap between rich and poor in OECD countries (most of which are “high income” economies) was at its highest level since the 1970s.
Real Estate
One form of wealth is land or real estate. As with general wealth distribution, land is also distributed unequally. Sizable numbers of households own no land, while a small percentage of people at the top of the economic hierarchy own most of the world’s privately held land. For example, 10 percent of land owners in Baltimore, Maryland own 58 percent of the taxable land value. The bottom 10 percent of those who own any land own less than 1 percent of the total land value.
World Distribution of Financial Wealth
In 2007, 147 companies controlled nearly 40 percent of the monetary value of all transnational corporations. On an international level, wealth is distributed unequally between nations, which are stratified in a world economic order.
Redistribution of Wealth and Public Policy
In many societies, attempts have been made to redistribute wealth through property redistribution, taxation, or regulation. Sometimes these policies are engineered to favor the upper class, while in other cases they are intended to diminish inequality between the upper and lower classes. Examples of this practice go back at least to the Roman republic in the third century B.C., when laws were passed limiting the amount of wealth or land that could be owned by any one family. Motivations for such limitations on wealth include the desire for equality of opportunity, a fear that great wealth leads to political corruption, the belief that limiting wealth will gain the political favor of a voting bloc, or fear that extreme concentration of wealth results in rebellion.
Various forms of socialism, an economic system in which the state exerts significant control over wealth distribution, attempt to diminish the unequal distribution of wealth and the conflicts that arise from it. Communism, an economic system that (in its ideal form) consists of state ownership of assets and industry and the equal distribution of resources among the population, can be seen as an attempt to eradicate wealth inequality through government policy. An idea taken from Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto is that wealth should be distributed as according to the precepts of, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. ” While states such as the Soviet Union and China have implemented communist systems to varying degrees, Marxism has never been realized in its ideal form, and no country has had a totally equal distribution of wealth.
In addition to government efforts to redistribute wealth, the tradition of individual and organizational charity is a voluntary means of wealth transference. Many voluntary charitable organizations make concerted efforts to aid those in need by redistributing wealth and material resources. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.05%3A_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Global_Stratification_in_Mexico/8.5A%3A_Distribution_of_Wealth_and_Income.txt |
Social mobility is the extent to which individuals can move between social positions, either in their lifetime or between generations.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the various types of social mobiliy, the status systems they exist in, and their status between countries and over time.
Key Points
• Social mobility is most often discussed in terms of vertical mobility, which refers to movement between higher and lower status positions, or movement up and down the social ladder.
• Social mobility varies between countries and over time, with status more or less tied to social position at birth in different cultural contexts.
• Public policy may attempt to regulate the extent to which people are socially mobile, as when public school systems attempt to evenly distribute educational opportunities or religious bodies attempt to limit the movement of women.
Key Terms
• meritocratic: Used to describe a type of society where wealth, income, and social status are assigned through competition.
• cultural capital: Non-financial social assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means, such as education, intellect, style of speech, dress, and even physical appearance.
• ascribed status: The social status of a person that is given from birth or assumed involuntarily later in life.
Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups in social position over time. Most commonly, social mobility refers to the change in wealth and social status of individuals or families. However, it may also refer to changes in health status, literacy rate, education, or other variables among groups, such as classes, ethnic groups, or countries.
Types of Social Mobility
Social mobility typically refers to vertical mobility—movement of individuals or groups up or down from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marriage. Nonetheless, social mobility can also refer to horizontal mobility—movement from one position to another within the same social level, as when someone changes between two equally prestigious occupations.
In some cases, social mobility is intergenerational, as when children attain a higher or lower status than their parents held. Other times, social mobility is intra-generational, meaning that a person changes status within their lifetime. A high level of intergenerational mobility is often considered praiseworthy, and can be seen as a sign of equality of opportunity in a society.
Social mobility can be enabled to varying extents by economic capital, cultural capital, human capital, and social capital. Economic capital includes a person’s financial and material resources, such as income and accumulated wealth. Cultural capital includes resources ranging from holding a graduate degree to having a grasp of a group’s customs and rituals, both of which may confer an advantage in job markets and social exchanges. Human capital refers to such individual traits as competence and work ethic, which may enable increased educational or professional attainment. Social capital includes the advantages conferred by one’s social network, such as access to professional opportunities and insider knowledge. These types of capital facilitate mobility by providing access to opportunities and the tools to acquire wealth and status.
Status Systems
Societies present different opportunities for mobility depending on their system of values. For example, Western capitalist countries are generally meritocratic, in which social standing is based on such personal attributes as educational attainment, income, and occupational prestige. In such countries, highly skilled jobs pay better than low-skilled jobs. This type of society has an open status system, which functions on the basis of achieved status, or status gained through one’s own merit. Thus, the degree of mobility in Western capitalist states ideally depends on the extent to which individuals have access to educational and economic opportunity, rather than their position at birth. On the other hand, closed status systems are based on ascribed status. Ascribed status is a fixed position a person is born into, not based on their performance. When this ascriptive status rule is used (for example, in Medieval Europe), people are placed in a position based on personal traits beyond their control.
The ability of an individual to become wealthy out of poverty does not necessarily indicate that there is social mobility in his or her society. Some societies with low or nonexistent social mobility afford free individuals opportunities to initiate enterprise and amass wealth, but wealth fails to “buy” entry into a higher social class. In feudal Japan and Confucianist China, wealthy merchants occupied the lowest ranks in society. In pre-revolutionary France, a nobleman, however poor, was from the “second estate” of society and thus considered superior to a wealthy merchant (from the “third estate”). These examples demonstrate how social mobility is not simply based on economic capital, but also social and cultural capital.
A Comparative View of Social Mobility
Several studies have been conducted to compare social mobility between countries. Recent data shows that of nine developed countries, the United States and United Kingdom have the lowest intergenerational vertical social mobility, with about half of the advantages of having a parent with a high income passed on to the next generation. The four developed countries with the the highest social mobility are Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Canada, with less than 20% of advantages of having a high income parent passed on to their children.
Not only does social mobility vary across types of countries, it can also change over time. For example, social mobility in the United States has varied widely since the 19th century. In the United States in the mid-19thcentury, inequality was low and social mobility was high. In the 19th century, the U.S. had much higher social mobility than comparably developed nations like the U.K., due in part to the common school movement and open public school system, a large farming industry, and high geographic mobility. However, during the latter half of the 20th century and the early 21st century, social mobility has decreased and social inequality has grown in the U.S. In other words, in the U.S. an individual’s family background may be more predictive of social position today than it was in 1850. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.05%3A_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Global_Stratification_in_Mexico/8.5B%3A_Social_Mobility.txt |
Mexico’s rapid economic changes have led to huge gains in GDP, but have caused social problems such as stratification and inequality.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss poverty and economic growth in Mexico
Key Points
• Mexico’s economy has expanded in recent years, but the benefits of economic growth have not reached all sectors of the workforce, resulting in economic stratification, a significant proportion of the population living in poverty, and high rates of underemployment.
• Mexico’s entry into free trade agreements has solidified its position in world market and aided its national economic growth, but has arguably failed to improve standards of living for much of it’s population.
• Mexico’s industrial and agricultural sectors illustrate the uneven nature of economic development, which often benefits individuals and groups who have financial capital and assets, while not significantly improving the situation of lower classes, particularly those in poverty.
Key Terms
• social stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.
• Developed Nations: a sovereign state which has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure in comparison to other, less developed nations.
• poverty: The state of one who lacks material possessions, wealth, or access to social resources and opportunities.
Mexico’s economy has undergone significant changes in the past century, with implications for the country’s economic position and its population. After the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) overturned the previous land distribution system, in which a few hacienda owners overworked and underpaid millions of peasants, the new Mexican leaders instituted a nominally socialist democracy. The years from 1930-1970, during which Mexico instituted its new protectionist economic policy, have been dubbed by economic historians as the “Mexican Miracle,” a period of economic growth and capital accumulation. While population doubled from 1940 to 1970, gross domestic product (GDP), the sum of national production and a common measure of economic growth, increased sixfold during the same period.
After the international oil and interest rate crisis in 1982, which had a profoundly negative impact on the Mexican economy, Mexican leaders changed economic directions. They instituted neoliberal reforms which increasingly integrated Mexico’s economy with that of other nations. Trade liberalization continued after that, with several free trade agreements with Latin American and European countries, Japan, and Israel signed during former President Vincente Fox’s leadership (2000-2006). Thus, Mexico became one of the most open countries in the world to trade, and the economic base shifted accordingly to exports and imports.
Social Stratification, Poverty, and Unemployment
Mexico’s economic development has been substantial. However, general GDP growth obscures some pervasive problems that have persisted and even worsened in recent years, including social stratification, poverty, and unemployment.
Social stratification, or the grouping of individuals into a hierarchy based on socioeconomic status, is highly present in Mexico and can be traced back to the colonial period. During the colonial period, before Mexico’s independence, the upper class was composed of those who owned the land and the lower class was made of those who worked the land. After the Mexican Revolution, the government ceded an estimated 50% of the land to the general population. Though this slightly reduced the gap between the wealthy and the poor, land ownership continued to be main source of wealth for Mexicans and has dictated the hierarchy of wealth distribution among the population.
After the country entered its economic industrial transformation, industrialists, businessmen, and politicians have controlled the direction of wealth in Mexico and have remained among the wealthy. The monopoly that the wealthy have over resources in Mexico is evidenced in OECD statistics: Mexico is the country with the second highest degree of economic disparity between the extremely poor and extremely rich, after Chile, although this gap has been diminishing over the last decade. The bottom 10% of income earners possess 1.36% of the country’s assets, whereas the upper 10% possesses almost 36%. 85% of national wealth is concentrated in a few families of entrepreneurs, corporate magnates, and politicians. Thus, economic industrialization has not necessarily led to an improved standard of living for a significant portion of the Mexican population, many of whom live in poverty.
The gap between the rich and poor has not only remained large between classes, but also has been growing between northern and southern regions. As reforms have taken place, the southern states, such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero, have remained isolated from the rest of the country. The national government provides less funding to these southern regions than to northern regions. Consequently, infrastructure, social development, education, and economic growth have lagged behind in southern states. These states hold the highest levels of illiteracy, unemployment, lack of basic services such as running water and sanitation, overall urban infrastructure, and government stability.
Poverty
Poverty in Mexico is characterized as lack of access to basic human needs such as nutrition, clean water, and shelter. Poverty can also include lack of access to extends to social services such as education, healthcare, security, and income. Current figures indicate that as much as 44.2% of Mexico’s population lives below the poverty line as defined by the country’s National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation.
While causes of poverty are multiple, many social scientists have posited that the government’s emphasis on national economic growth has neglected the needs of the country’s poorer citizens. For example, Mexico’s heavy dependency on foreign influences, particularly the United States, has led it to adopt policies that do not favor its own citizens. Similarly, many critics claim that while the NAFTA agreement proved effective in increasing Mexico’s economic performance, foreign trade policies have not done enough to promote social advancement and reduce poverty. To remain competitive in the international market, Mexico has had to offer low wages to its workers while allowing high returns and generous concessions to international corporations. Nonetheless, the government’s current administration has made attempts to reduce poverty by providing improved education, healthcare, and job opportunities to citizens. In recent years, a middle class, once virtually nonexistent, has begun to emerge. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.05%3A_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Global_Stratification_in_Mexico/8.5C%3A_Mexicos_Economy.txt |
Mexican society still shows traces of the racial and ethnic caste system that was instituted by the Spanish during the colonial period.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how racial relations in Mexico have been influenced by the colonial caste system
Key Points
• With regards to Mexican population groups, processes of identity formation and social stratification can be analyzed both in terms of race and of ethnicity. This is because definitions of each depend upon biological and socio-cultural traits.
• The large majority of Mexicans can be classified as “mestizos,” meaning that they neither identify fully with any indigenous culture nor with a European heritage. Rather, they identify as having cultural traits and heritage that combine elements from indigenous and European traditions.
• Mexican officials intentionally spread a racial ideology, known as mestizaje, that encouraged miscegenation between European and indigenous people. This was intended to distribute European descent throughout the population and create a new mestizo national identity.
Key Terms
• miscegenation: the mixing or blending of race in marriage or breeding; interracial marriage
• indigenous: native to a land or region, especially before an intrusion
• Caste System: an elaborate and complex social system that combines some or all elements of endogamy, hereditary transmission of occupation, social class, social identity, hierarchy, exclusion and power
Race Relations in Mexico
Generally speaking, Mexican ethnic and racial relations can be arranged on an axis between two extremes, European and Native American heritage. This division is a remnant of the colonial Spanish caste system, which categorized individuals according to their perceived level of biological mixture between these two groups. Along this axis, a color hierarchy emerged that persists in importance today. In this hierarchy, those who are viewed as being more European, or “white,” are generally endowed with higher social status. Those who are viewed as being more “indigenous,” or “dark,” are typically given less social prestige.
The color hierarchy is utilized for more than simply classifying people based on their phenotypical traits, or physical appearance. It is also a way to racialize socio-cultural traits. For example, because upward social mobility is generally correlated with “whitening,” if persons with indigenous biological and cultural roots rise to positions of power and prestige, they tend to be viewed as more “white” than if they belonged to a lower social class.
The racial hierarchy is complicated by the presence of considerable numbers of people with partly African and Asian heritage. Nonetheless, these groups are often categorized on the color hierarchy somewhere between indigenous and European.
Indigenous Groups
As a classifier, indigenous identity was constructed by the dominant European and Mestizo majority and imposed upon indigenous people as a pejorative. This identity was associated with a lack of assimilation into modern Mexico. This identity therefore became socially stigmatizing, and contrary to social expectations and ideals. In early post-revolutionary Mexico, cultural policies were paternalistic towards indigenous people, and contained efforts to completely assimilate indigenous peoples into Mestizo culture.
The category of “indigena” (indigenous) can be defined according to linguistic criteria as people who speak one of Mexico’s 62 indigenous languages. This categorization method is used by the National Mexican Institute of Statistics. Conversely, indigenous identity can also be defined broadly to include all persons who self-identify as having an indigenous cultural background, whether or not they speak an indigenous language.
Blancos/Güeros
Mexicans of European descent, often called “blancos” (“whites”) or “güeros” in Mexican Spanish, have light skin and predominantly European features. These people are typically associated with Mexico’s upper and middle socioeconomic classes. Because “Mestizos” are also people with varying amounts of European ancestry, the differentiation between “mestizos” and “blancos” is often based on socio-cultural rather than biological boundaries.
Europeans began arriving to Mexico after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The descendants of the conquistadors, along with new arrivals from Spain, formed a new elite class of the population. Intermixing eventually produced a Mestizo group that would become the nation’s demographic majority by the time of Independence. That being said, during this time, power remained firmly in the hands of the elite, called “criollo. ”
Today, most blancos are still associated with the Spanish colonial order. Although some would not be considered “white” by U.S. or European standards, one way blancos distinguish themselves is by keeping separate from the Mestizo and other classes in Mexico. In popular conception, blancos are closely associated with ideas of modernity, which supposedly means that they are the closest culturally to Americans and Europeans (both are idealized as white).
Mestizos
The large majority of Mexicans are classified as “mestizos,” meaning that they neither identify fully with any indigenous culture nor with a particular non-Mexican heritage. Instead, they identify as having cultural traits and heritage that combine elements from indigenous and European traditions. By the deliberate efforts of post-revolutionary governments, the “mestizo identity” was constructed as the basis of the modern Mexican national identity, through a process of cultural synthesis referred to as mestizaje.
The term “mestizo” is not widely used in Mexican society today, and it has been dropped as a category in population censuses. That being said, it is still used in social and cultural studies when referring to the non-indigenous part of the Mexican population. The word has somewhat pejorative colloquial connotations. Most people who would be defined as mestizos in the sociological literature would probably self-identify simply as Mexicans. In addition, people will self-identify as “gente de razón” (“people of reason”), in contrast to “gente de costumbre” (“people of tradition”), thus further differentiating themselves from the status of indigeneity, which is considered superstitious and backward.
The Process of “Mestizaje”
In the Mexican post-revolutionary period, mestizaje was a racial ideology that combined ideologies of white superiority with the social reality of a postcolonial, multiracial setting. It promoted the use of planned miscegenation (the mixing of racial groups through reproduction) as a eugenic strategy to improve the overall quality of the population. In the logic of “mestizaje,” the distribution of white genetic material throughout the population would improve citizens.
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In spite of purported economic growth, both women and men in Mexico have to deal with social stratification, poverty, and unemployment.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the causes of poverty in Mexico
Key Points
• Mexico’s primary, secondary, and tertiary economic sectors have all expanded in recent years, but the benefits of economic growth have not reached all sectors of the workforce, resulting in economic stratification.
• Mexico’s entry into free trade agreements (like NAFTA) has solidified its position in the world market and has aided its national economic growth, but has arguably failed to improve standards of living for much of its population.
• Mexico’s industrial and agricultural sectors illustrate the uneven nature of economic development, which often benefits individuals and groups who have financial capital and assets, while not significantly improving the situation of lower classes, particularly those in poverty.
Key Terms
• social stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.
• Developed Nations: a sovereign state which has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure in comparison to other, less developed nations.
• underemployment: the condition of having employment for which one is overqualified, or employment that does not meet the desired hours of work and wages desired by the employee
In the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), the prevailing land distribution system, in which a handful of hacienda owners overworked and underpaid millions of peasants, was overturned by new Mexican leaders, who replaced it with a nominally socialist democracy. From 1930 until 1970, Mexico instituted this new economic policy. During these forty years, a time period economic historians have dubbed the “Mexican Miracle,” the nation experienced dramatic economic growth and capital accumulation. The nation adopted policies of economic protectionism, which contributed to an economic boom in which industries rapidly expanded their production. Important changes in the economic structure included the following:
• free land distribution to peasants
• the nationalization of the oil and railroad companies
• the introduction of social rights into the constitution
• the birth of large and influential labor unions
• the upgrading of infrastructure.
As a result of these changes, between 1940 to 1970, the population of Mexico doubled, and the gross domestic product (GDP), the sum of national production and a common measure of economic growth, increased sixfold.
Social Stratification, Poverty, and Unemployment
Social stratification, or the grouping of individuals into a hierarchy based on socioeconomic status, is highly present in Mexico and can be traced back to the colonial period. During the colonial period, before Mexico’s independence, the upper class was composed of those who owned land, and the lower class was composed of those who worked the land. After the Mexican Revolution, the government ceded an estimated 50% of the land to the general population. Though this slightly reduced the gap between the wealthy and the poor, land ownership continued to be a main source of wealth for Mexicans, and it dictated the hierarchy of wealth distribution amongst the population.
The gap between the rich and poor has not only remained large between classes, but also has been growing between northern and southern regions. As reforms have taken place, the southern states, such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero, have remained isolated from the rest of the country. The national government provides less funding to these southern regions than to northern regions. Consequently, infrastructure, social development, education, and economic growth have lagged behind in southern states. These states have the highest levels of illiteracy and unemployment, and the lowest levels of urban infrastructure, government stability, and basic services, like running water and sanitation.
Poverty
Poverty in Mexico is characterized as a lack of access to basic human needs, such as nutrition, clean water, and shelter. Poverty can also include a lack of access to social services such as education, healthcare, security, and income. Current statistics indicate that as much as 44.2% of Mexico’s population lives below the poverty line, as defined by the country’s National Council of Social Development Policy Evaluation. In 2008, 33.7% of the population lived in moderate poverty, and at least 10.5% suffered from extreme poverty.
While the causes of poverty are multiple, many social scientists have posited that the government’s emphasis on national economic growth has neglected the needs of the country’s poorer citizens. For example, Mexico’s heavy dependency on foreign influences, particularly the United States, has led it to adopt policies that do not favor its own citizens. Similarly, many critics claim that while the NAFTA agreement proved effective in increasing Mexico’s economic performance, foreign trade policies have not done enough to promote social advancement and reduce poverty. To remain competitive in the international market, Mexico has had to offer low wages to its workers, while at the same time allowing high returns and generous concessions to international corporations.
Unemployment
Unemployment, or the rate of potential members of the labor force who are unable to find or maintain employment, has been at continuously high levels in Mexico. In spite of splendid macroeconomic indicators, low levels of inflation, and stable currency, job creation has not kept pace with a growing population and labor pool.
Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, such as holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, or being over-qualified for a position. Over-qualification occurs when an employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the requirements of the job.
In Mexico, underemployment results largely from over-qualification. There are few high paying jobs available for university graduates. Often, college graduates search for years to find a job that is suitable for their qualifications, while working low-paying jobs that do not utilize their skills in the meantime. Situations like this have caused the standard of living among the urban middle class to deteriorate and has also resulted in emigration from this sector to other countries, especially the United States and Canada. The situation also depicts how Mexico’s economy has failed to provide the structural opportunities for social mobility that industrialization and economic development purportedly promise. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.05%3A_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Global_Stratification_in_Mexico/8.5E%3A_The_Status_of_Women_in_Mexico.txt |
From a functionalist point of view, inequality plays a role in holding society together and encouraging efficiency.
Learning Objectives
• Review the functionialist perspective on inequality
Key Points
• According to a functionalist perspective, differences in power, wealth, and other rewards within the social structure are justified, because they motivate the most qualified people to exercise their talents in the most important jobs.
• Society is unequally structured because of people’s inherent inequality in functional importance.
• A problem with this view is that it is difficult to determine the functional importance of any job.
• Another problem with this view is that it assumes that the current system of stratification is fair and rational, which is not always the case.
Key Terms
• social stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.
• functional importance: The degree to which a job is unique and requires skill.
The structural-functional approach to stratification asks the same question that it does of the other components of society: What function or purpose does it serve? The answer is that all aspects of society, even poverty, contribute in some way to the larger system’s overall stability.
According to structural-functionalists, stratification and inequality are inevitable and beneficial to society. The layers of society, conceptualized as a pyramid, are the inevitable sorting of unequal people. The layering is useful because it ensures that the best people are at the top and those who are less worthy are further down the pyramid, and therefore have less power and are given fewer rewards than the high quality people at the top. The Davis-Moore hypothesis, advanced by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore in a paper published in 1945, is a central claim within the structural functionalist paradigm, and purports that the unequal distribution of rewards serves a purpose in society. Inequality ensures that the most functionally important jobs are filled by the best qualified people. In other words, it makes sense for the CEO of a company, whose position is more important functionally, to make more money than a janitor working for the same company.
A job’s functional importance is determined by the degree to which the job is unique and requires skill, meaning whether only a few, or many other people, can perform the same function adequately. Garbage collectors are important to public sanitation, but do not need to be rewarded highly because little training or talent is required to perform their job. For example, according to this theory doctors should be rewarded highly, because extensive training is required to do their job. It is logical that society must offer greater rewards (e.g., income, vacations, promotion) to motivate the most qualified people to fill the most important positions.
Critiques of the Functionalist Perspective
There are several problems with this approach to stratification. First, it is difficult to determine the functional importance of any job, as the accompanying specialization and inter-dependence make every position necessary to the overall operation. According to this critique, the engineers in a factory, for example, are just as important as the other workers in the factory to the success of a project. In another example, a primary school teacher in the U.S. earns \$29,000 per year, whereas a National Basketball Association player can earn as much as \$21 million per year. Are basketball players more essential to society than teachers? Are basketball players more functionally important than teachers? In 2009, comedian Jerry Seinfeld earned \$85 million. Do his earnings demonstrate his contribution to society? If NBA players or famous comedians went on strike and decided not to work, most people would not notice. However, if teachers, bus drivers, nurses, cleaners, garbage collectors, or waitresses stopped working, society would close down. Thus, functionalism can be critiqued on the basis that there is little connection between income and functional importance.
Second, functionalism assumes that the system of social stratification is fair and rational, and that the “best” people end up on top because of their superiority. But in real life, the system does not work so easily or perfectly. For example, some would argue that former U.S. president George W. Bush was not the smartest or most politically talented individual, but he was well connected and born at the top of the stratification system (white, male, wealthy, American), and therefore was elected to a position with great power—the U.S. presidency. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6A%3A_The_Functionalist_Perspective-_Motivating_Qualified_Peop.txt |
Conflict theory of stratification holds that inequality is harmful to society because it creates a fixed system of winners and losers.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the conflict theory of inequality to the funcionalist theory of inequality
Key Points
• According to conflict theory, capitalist economic competition unfairly privileges the rich, who have the power to perpetrate an unfair system that works to their advantage.
• “Losers” who are at the bottom of the social stratification have little opportunity to improve their situation, since those at the top tend to have far more political and economic power.
• Functionalists argue against the conflict theory approach by contending that people don’t always act out of economic self-interest, and that people who want to succeed can do so through hard work.
Key Terms
• conflict theory: A social science perspective that holds that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society, with inequality perpetuated because it benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.
• social stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of social classes, or castes, within a society.
• tax break: A deduction in tax that is given in order to encourage a certain economic activity or a social objective.
Conflict theorists argue that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society. According to conflict theory, social stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. Thus, it creates a system of winners and losers that is maintained by those who are on the top. The people who are losers do not get a fair chance to compete, and thus are stuck on the bottom. For example, many wealthy families pay low wages to nannies to care for their children, to gardeners to attend to their rose gardens, and to maids to pick up their dirty socks. These low wage workers do not make enough to move beyond a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle, and have no means to move ahead. Therefore, conflict theorists believe that this competitive system, together with the way the game is “fixed”, ends up creating and perpetuating stratification systems.
According to conflict theory, capitalism, an economic system based on free-market competition, particularly benefits the rich by assuming that the “trickle down” mechanism is the best way to spread the benefits of wealth across society. Governments that promote capitalism often establish corporate welfare through direct subsidies, tax breaks, and other support that benefit big businesses. They assume that the market will allow these benefits to the rich to make their way to the poor through competition. For example, the Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart, receives enormous tax breaks. Whether the benefits of these tax breaks have made their way down to ordinary people through better business practices or better working conditions for Wal-Mart employees is questionable. Conflict theorists would argue that they haven’t, but rather have been used by the Walton family to solidify the patterns of stratification that keep the family rich.
Functionalists criticize this approach by arguing that people do not always act largely out of economic self-interest. For example, Chuck Feeney, the creator of Duty Free Shoppers, has given \$4 billion to charities. Bill Gates has given 58% of his wealth to charity. Functionalists also argue that conflict theorists underestimate people’s ability to move upward in society. They argue that if people really want to succeed, they can do so through hard work. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6B%3A_The_Conflict_Perspective-_Class_Conflict_and_Scarce_Reso.txt |
The interactionist perspective on social inequality focuses on the way that micro-interactions maintain structural inequality.
Learning Objectives
• Design a scenario which illustrates the interactionist perspective on inequality in action
Key Points
• Interactionists often consider the question of how power is exchanged in a situation.
• The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power or authority than others.
• Micro-interactions all have the ability to reinforce or undermine power and status differentials. Thus, social stratification is a result of these individual interactions.
Key Terms
• Social Roles: One’s position and responsibilities in society, which are largely determined in modern developed nations by occupation and family position.
• Interactionist Perspective: An approach to inequality that focuses on how micro-interactions reflect and create unequal power dynamics.
The interactionist perspective on inequality focuses on how micro-interactions reflect and create unequal power dynamics. Interactionists consider the question of how power is exchanged in a situation. For example, when a child and an adult engage in conversation, the adult establishes their power by claiming knowledge and authority that the child cannot. When considering larger systems of inequality, interactionists look at the inequality between social roles. Social roles refer to one’s position and responsibilities in society, which are largely determined in modern developed nations by occupation. The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power, or authority, than others.
An example using real social roles can help illustrate the interactionist perspective: A CEO has more power than a receptionist. Macro-sociologists may explain this disparity by pointing to the unequal education of the two employees, the unequal salaries they earn, or the differing skill levels required to fulfill each job. Interactionists, on the other hand, would focus on the way that day-to-day exchanges demonstrate and reinforce the gap between the CEO and receptionist. When the receptionist hangs up the CEO’s jacket, he takes on a subservient position; when the receptionist makes excuses for the CEO missing a deadline, he accepts responsibility for the CEO’s mistake; when the receptionist laughs at jokes that he does not find funny, he flatters the CEO because he recognizes that his job depends on doing so. All of these micro-interactions, which may seem trivial at the time, add up to status inequality, according to the interactionist.
8.6D: Lenskis Synthesis
In Lenski’s view, inequality is a natural product of societal development.
Learning Objectives
• Paraphrase the process which led to inequality, according to the Gehard Lenski’s theory, including different levels of society
Key Points
• As societies moved from hunter/gatherer to pastoralist/horticulturalist to agricultural to industrial and then to post-industrial structures, more surplus goods were created.
• Surplus goods created the possibility for some people to accumulate more possessions than others.
• Individuals with more goods have an economic advantage relative to those with less good because they have greater bargaining power, creating social inequality.
Key Terms
• Societal Development: The process of transitioning from a hunter/gatherer economic model to an industrialized one.
• surplus: That which remains when use or need is satisfied, or when a limit is reached; excess.
• Hunter-gatherer: Describes societies with no division of labor in which people hunt and gather food and materials to meet their basic needs.
In sociologist Gerhard Lenski ‘s view, inequality is a product of societal development. Lenski differentiated societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy. Human groups begin as hunter-gatherers, move toward pastoralism and/or horticulturalism, develop toward an agrarian society, and ultimately end up industrializing (with the potential to develop a service industry following industrialization ). While this is a common progression, not all societies pass through every stage.
Hunting, Gathering, Subsistence
The origins of inequality can be found in the transition from hunter/gatherer societies to horticultural/pastoralist societies. In hunter/gather societies (around 50,000 B.C.), small groups of people gathered what they could find, hunted, and fished. People collected enough food to satisfy all of their needs, but no more—there was no surplus of goods. There was little trading between the groups, and there was not much inequality between groups because everyone possessed basically the same goods as everyone else. Division of labor was virtually non-existent—people working for subsistence completed all steps of each job. Food gathering and food production were the focus of work.
Horticulture, Pastoralism, Surplus
In horticultural/pastoralist societies (around 12,000 B.C.), groups grew very large, and humans began to settle in one place. For the first time, people had more time to do work other than producing food, such as making leather and weapons. This new division of labor led to surplus goods and the accumulation of possessions. Groups traded these surplus goods with each other, and trade led to inequality because some people accumulated more possessions than others. As societies developed more advanced technologies and underwent industrialization, more surplus was created, increasing the potential for social inequality. According to Lenski, inequality is the result of increasing surplus—some individuals will have ownership of surplus goods, others will not. Those with more goods have an economic advantage relative to those with less goods because they have greater bargaining power, creating social inequality. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6C%3A_The_Interactionist_Perspective.txt |
In the Marxist perspective, social stratification is created by unequal property relations, or unequal access to the means of production.
Learning Objectives
• Diagram the relationship between the owners of production, the proletariat, the substructure and the superstructure according to Marx’s view
Key Points
• In capitalist societies, the bourgeoisie class owns the means of production while the proletariat class sells their labor to the bourgeoisie.
• The bourgeoisie have power and status, which they use to maintain the society’s superstructure —it’s values, ideologies, and norms.
• In an ideal Marxist communist society, everyone would share access to the means of production and social stratification would be nonexistent.
Key Terms
• egalitarian communist society: A society in which the state owns the means of production and equally distributes resources.
• superstructure: The ideas, philosophies, and culture that are built upon the means of production.
• substructure: The base of society, which in Marxist terms includes relations of production.
In Marx’s view, social stratification is created by people’s differing relationship to the means of production: either they own productive property or they labor for others.
In Marxist theory, the capitalist mode of production consists of two main economic parts: the substructure and the Superstructure. In a capitalist society, the ruling class, or the bourgeoisie, owns the means of production, such as machines or tools that can be used to produce valuable objects. The working class, or the proletariat, only possess their own labor power, which they sell to the ruling class in the form of wage labor to survive. These relations of production—employer-employee relations, the technical division of labor, and property relations—form the base of society or, in Marxist terms, the substructure. From this material substructure, the superstructure emerges. The superstructure includes the ideas, philosophies and culture of a society. In a capitalist society, the ruling class promotes its own ideologies and values as the norm for the entire society, and these ideas and values are accepted by the working class.
A temporary status quo could be achieved by employing various methods of social control—consciously or unconsciously—by the bourgeoisie in various aspects of social life. Eventually, however, Marx believed the capitalist economic order would erode, through its own internal conflict; this would lead to revolutionary consciousness and the development of egalitarian communist society. In this communist society, the state would own the means of production, and it would equally distribute resources to all citizens. The means of production would be shared by all members of society, and social stratification would be abolished.
8.6F: Webers View of Stratification
Max Weber formed a three-component theory of stratification in which social difference is determined by class, status, and power.
Learning Objectives
• Recall the three components of stratification in Weberian theory, including their definitions
Key Points
• Class is a person’s economic position, based on birth and individual achievement.
• Status is one’s social prestige or honor, which may or may not be influenced by class.
• Power is one’s ability to get one’s way despite the resistance of others.
Key Terms
• power: The ability to get one’s way even in the face of opposition to one’s goals.
• status: A person’s social position or standing relative to that of others.
• class: A person’s economic position in society, based on birth and individual achievement.
Classic sociologist Max Weber was strongly influenced by Marx’s ideas, but rejected the possibility of effective communism, arguing that it would require an even greater level of detrimental social control and bureaucratization than capitalist society. Weber criticized the dialectical presumption of proletariat revolt, believing it to be unlikely. Instead, he developed the three-component theory of stratification and the concept of life chances. Weber supposed there were more class divisions than Marx suggested, taking different concepts from both functionalist and Marxist theories to create his own system. Weber claimed there are four main classes: the upper class, the white-collar workers, the petite bourgeoisie, and the manual working class. Weber’s theory more closely resembles theories of modern Western class structures embraced by sociologists, although economic status does not seem to depend strictly on earnings in the way Weber envisioned.
Working half a century later than Marx, Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of Germany. Weber examined how many members of the aristocracy lacked economic wealth, yet had strong political power. He noted that, contrary to Marx’s theories, stratification was based on more than ownership of capital. Many wealthy families lacked prestige and power, for example, because they were Jewish. Weber introduced three independent factors that form his theory of stratification hierarchy: class, status, and power. He treated these as separate but related sources of power, each with different effects on social action.
Three Sources of Power
Class is a person’s economic position in a society, based on birth and individual achievement. Weber differs from Marx in that he did not see this as the supreme factor in stratification. Weber noted that managers of corporations or industries control firms they do not own; Marx would have placed such a person in the proletariat.
Status refers to a person’s prestige, social honor, or popularity in a society. Weber noted that political power was not rooted solely in capital value, but also in one’s individual status. Poets or saints, for example, can possess immense influence on society, often with little economic worth.
Power refers to a person’s ability to get their way despite the resistance of others. For example, individuals in state jobs, such as an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a member of the United States Congress, may hold little property or status, but they still hold immense power. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6E%3A_Marxs_View_of_Class_Differentiation.txt |
Market-oriented theories of inequality argue that supply and demand will regulate prices and wages and stabilize inequality.
Learning Objectives
• Evaluate the concept of the market-oriented theory of inequality
Key Points
• When supply meets demand, prices reach a state of equilibrium and cease fluctuating.
• According to market-oriented theories, over time the low wages earned by agricultural laborers will induce more people to learn other skills, thus reducing the pool of agricultural laborers.
• The supply and demand model is commonly applied to wages, in the market for labor. The typical roles of supplier and consumer are reversed.
Key Terms
• supply and demand: An economic model of price determination in a market based on the relative scarcity or abundance of goods and services.
• equilibrium: In economics, the point at which supply equals demand and prices cease fluctuating.
• free market: Any economic market in which trade is unregulated; an economic system free from government intervention.
Market-oriented theories of inequality are focused on the laws of the free market. The free market refers to a capitalist economic order in which prices are set based on competition. In a free market, prices are supposed to be regulated by the law of supply and demand. According to supply and demand, if a produce or service is scarce but desired by many, it will fetch a high price. Conversely, if a product or service is readily available and desired by few, it will fetch a low price. When the supply of a product exactly meets the demand for it, the price reaches a state of equilibrium and no longer fluctuates.
The model is commonly applied to wages, in the market for labor. The typical roles of supplier and consumer are reversed. The suppliers are individuals, who try to sell (supply) their labor for the highest price. The consumers of labors are businesses, which try to buy (demand) the type of labor they need at the lowest price. As populations increase, wages fall for any given unskilled or skilled labor supply. Conversely, wages tend to go up with a decrease in population. When demand exceeds supply, suppliers can raise the price, but when supply exceeds demand, suppliers will have to decrease the price in order to make sales. Consumers who can afford the higher prices may still buy, but others may forgo the purchase altogether, demand a better price, buy a similar item, or shop elsewhere. As the price rises, suppliers may also choose to increase production, or more suppliers may enter the business.
Considering inequality, market-oriented theories claim that if left to the free-market, all products and services will reach equilibrium, and price stability will reduce inequality. For example, in countries with huge pools of unskilled agricultural laborers but limited agricultural land, agricultural land is very poorly compensated. According to market-oriented theories, over time the low wages earned by agricultural laborers will induce more people to learn other skills, thus reducing the pool of agricultural laborers. With less supply and stable demand, the wage for agricultural labor will rise to a sustainable level. Thus, the status of agricultural laborers will rise, and inequality will be reduced. Generally, market-oriented theories hold that when supply of labor and goods meets demand, the economic order will reach equilibrium, and inequality will either be non-existent or will be stable. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6G%3A_Market-Oriented_Theories.txt |
Dependency theory states that colonialism and neocolonialism have created unequal economic relations between poor and wealthy countries.
Learning Objectives
• Explain malnourishment and hunger in the “third world” through dependency theory
Key Points
• In the past, colonialism allowed wealthy countries to plunder their colonies for material benefits—raw materials like rubber, sugar, and slave labor.
• Today, poor countries have taken enormous loans from wealthy countries in order to stay afloat. Paying off the compound interest from this debt prevents them from investing resources into their own country.
• Foreign trade gets in the way of local governments’ ability to improve the living conditions of their people by encouraging the export of food and other raw materials to wealthy consumer markets.
Key Terms
• foreign trade: The exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories.
• foreign debt: A debt that a country, an organization in a country, or a resident individual in a country owes to those in other countries.
• neocolonialism: The control or domination by a powerful country over weaker ones (especially former colonies) by the use of economic pressure, political suppression, and cultural dominance.
• dependency ratio: an age-population measurement of those typically not in the labor force (the dependent part) and those typically in the labor force (the productive part)
Dependency theories propose that colonialism and neocolonialism —continuing economic dependence on and exploitation of former colonial countries—are the main causes global poverty. Countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past and continue to do so today through foreign debt and foreign trade.
Historical Dependency
Historically, wealthy nations have taken a great quantity of materials from poor countries, such as minerals and metals necessary to make automobiles, weapons, and jewelry. Large amounts of agricultural products that can only be grown in the hot climates of the poor countries, such as coffee, tea, sugar, and cocoa, have been exported to and manufactured in the wealthy countries. Wealthy countries would not be as rich as they are today if they did not have these materials. Wealthy countries increased their own profits by organizing cheap labor through slavery.
King Leopold II, for example, who was King of Belgium from 1865-1909, forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to work as slaves in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The invention of the bicycle tire in the 1890s and later the automobile tire meant that rubber was in high demand; wild rubber vines were widespread in the Congo, earning Leopold millions. The Democratic Republic of Congo is still suffering from the plunder of natural resources, torture, and killing that was endured during Leopold’s reign.
Modern Dependency
Today, poor countries are trapped by large debts which prevent them from developing. For example, between 1970 and 2002, the continent of Africa received \$540 billion in loans from wealthy nations—through the World Bank and IMF. African countries have paid back \$550 billion of their debt but they still owe \$295 billion. The difference is the result of compound interest. Countries cannot focus on economic or human development when they are constantly paying off debt; these countries will continue to remain undeveloped. Dependency theorists believe large economic aid is not necessarily the key to reducing poverty and developing, but rather debt relief may be a more effective step.
In addition, foreign trade and business often mitigate local governments’ ability to improve the living conditions of their people. This trade often comes in the form of transnational corporations (TNCs). The governments of poor countries invite these TNCs to invest in their country with the hope of developing the country and bringing material benefit to the people. However, workers’ time and energy are often poured into producing goods that they themselves will not consume. For example, some of the land in Cape Verde could be planted and harvested to feed local people, but it is planted instead with cash crops for foreign exchange. Fresh produce is regularly sold or changed to a nonperishable type such as tuna canned for export rather than consumed by the population.
Malnutrition and Dependency
Widespread malnutrition is one of the effects of this foreign dependency. This is common around the globe. Brazil is the second largest exporter of agricultural products, but 50 percent of its population is malnourished. Although Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of cattle in Africa, much of the population suffers from malnutrition and the government continues to export large numbers of cattle to the Middle East. Even during the peak of the infamous 1985 famine, the government was sending dried meat to Egypt.
Through unequal economic relations with wealthy countries in the form of continued debts and foreign trade, poor countries continue to be dependent and unable to tap into their full potential for development. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6H%3A_Dependency_Theories.txt |
World Systems Theory posits that there is a world economic system in which some countries benefit while others are exploited.
Learning Objectives
• Produce a map of the world that shows some countries as core, peripheral, and semi-peripheral according to Wallerstein’s theory
Key Points
• Immanuel Wallerstein developed World Systems Theory and its three-level hierarchy: core, periphery, and semi-periphery.
• Core countries are dominant capitalist countries that exploit peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.
• Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.
• Semi-peripheral countries share characteristics of both core and peripheral countries.
Key Terms
• peripheral: Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.
• core: Describes dominant capitalist countries which exploit the peripheral countries for labor and raw materials.
• semi-peripheral: Countries that share characteristics of both core and periphery countries.
World Systems Theory, like dependency theory, suggests that wealthy countries benefit from other countries and exploit those countries’ citizens. In contrast to dependency theory, however, this model recognizes the minimal benefits that are enjoyed by low status countries in the world system. The theory originated with sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, who suggests that the way a country is integrated into the capitalist world system determines how economic development takes place in that country.
According to Wallerstein, the world economic system is divided into a hierarchy of three types of countries: core, semiperipheral, and peripheral. Core countries (e.g., U.S., Japan, Germany) are dominant, capitalist countries characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization. Core countries are capital intensive, have high wages and high technology production patterns and lower amounts of labor exploitation and coercion. Peripheral countries (e.g., most African countries and low income countries in South America) are dependent on core countries for capital and are less industrialized and urbanized. Peripheral countries are usually agrarian, have low literacy rates and lack consistent Internet access. Semi-peripheral countries (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa) are less developed than core nations but more developed than peripheral nations. They are the buffer between core and peripheral countries.
Core countries own most of the world’s capital and technology and have great control over world trade and economic agreements. They are also the cultural centers which attract artists and intellectuals. Peripheral countries generally provide labor and materials to core countries. Semiperipheral countries exploit peripheral countries, just as core countries exploit both semiperipheral and peripheral countries. Core countries extract raw materials with little cost. They can also set the prices for the agricultural products that peripheral countries export regardless of market prices, forcing small farmers to abandon their fields because they can’t afford to pay for labor and fertilizer. The wealthy in peripheral countries benefit from the labor of poor workers and from their own economic relations with core country capitalists.
8.6J: State-Centered Theories
According to state-centered theories of inequality, the government should regulate the distribution of resources to protect workers.
Learning Objectives
• Compare socialist and communist state-centered theories
Key Points
• Socialist and communist economic systems operate on the premise that inequality is best addressed by the state, rather than through the free-market.
• State-centered theories of inequality critique market-driven theories on the basis that capitalists embroiled in the free-market will act to increase their own wealth, exploiting the lower classes.
• State-centered theories propose that states should enact policies to prevent exploitation and promote the equal distribution of goods and wages.
Key Terms
• State-Centered Theories of Inequality: Theories that emphasize the role of governmental policy and economic planning in producing economic stratification. These theories assert that intentional state policies must be aimed at equitably distributing resources and opportunities.
• Market-Oriented Theories of Inequality: Economic models that assert that the capitalist free-market will naturally regulate prices and wages.
State-centered theories of inequality emphasize the role of governmental policy and economic planning in producing economic stratification. In contrast to market-oriented theories of inequality, state-centered theories do not assert that the capitalist free-market will naturally regulate prices and wages. State-centered theories assert that intentional state policies must be aimed at equitably distributing resources and opportunities.
Socialism and Communism
Socialism and communism operate on the assumption that states can regulate (and potentially eliminate) inequality. Socialism is an economic and political system in which the state owns the majority industry, but resources are allocated based on a combination of natural rights and individual achievements. Communism operates on the principle that resources should be completely equally distributed, on the basis that every person has a natural right to food, shelter, and generally an equal share of a society’s wealth. Socialism includes a combination of public and private property, while under communist systems all property is publicly held and administered by the state.
A socialist economic system would consist of an organisation of production to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs. Goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit driven by the accumulation of capital. Accounting would be based on physical quantities, a common physical magnitude, or a direct measure of labour-time. Distribution of output would be based on the principle of individual contribution.
State-centered theories of inequality critique market-driven ones on the basis that capitalists embroiled in the free-market will act to increase their own wealth, exploiting the lower classes. Accordingly, these theories propose that states should enact policies to prevent exploitation and promote the equal distribution of goods and wages. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/08%3A_Global_Stratification_and_Inequality/8.06%3A_Sociological_Theories_and_Global_Inequality/8.6I%3A_World-Systems_Theory.txt |
Social theorists think differently about global inequality based on their sociological perspective.
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between the positions on social inequality taken by functionalists, Marxists, modern liberalism, and social justice advocates
Key Points
• Functionalists are likely to believe that inequality is beneficial to societies and is naturally regulated by market forces to foster economic growth.
• Marxists, on the other hand, are likely to see inequality as detrimental to society and to advocate government regulation of the means of production and distribution of property.
• In modern liberal societies, individuals tend to value human rights according to the idea that all people are born with equal value.
• Social justice advocates generally argue that inequality is unfair, as it leaves some individuals with greater life chances and higher standards of living than others regardless of individual worth or merit.
Key Terms
• State-Oriented Approach: A strategy for reducing inequality in which governments instate policies to equally distribute opportunities and resources.
• Market-Oriented Approach: A perspective on inequality that asserts that a free market will result in prices that benefit the smooth functioning and growth of economies.
• Functionalist Approach: An approach that asserts that global inequality is not a problem at all, but rather benefits society as it produces an incentive structure to motivate highly capable individuals to pursue positions of power.
There is significant debate among sociologists, other social scientists, and policy makers over the best approach to global inequality. Some theorists who embrace a functionalist approach assert that global inequality is not a problem at all, but rather benefits society as it produces an incentive structure to motivate highly capable individuals to pursue positions of power. Functionalists are likely to embrace market-oriented approaches to inequality, on the basis that a free market will result in prices that benefit the smooth-functioning and growth of economies. Marxists, by contrast, see global inequality as indicative of exploitation and consider it a detriment to society. These thinkers are likely to support state -oriented approaches to regulating inequality, with governments instating policies to equally distribute opportunities and resources. Interactionists recognize global inequality, but consider it only in the context of individual relations and, therefore, see no role for state intervention.
Whatever sociological theory one adopts to explain the existence of inequality, not all theorists consider inequality to be a problem that needs correction. The idea that all members of a society should be equal is often associated with modern liberalism. In modern liberal societies, individuals tend to value human rights according to the idea that all people are born with equal value. The logic of human rights does not necessarily imply that all people should achieve equal status, but it does assume that all should have equal opportunities to advance, or Weberian life chances. Those who evaluate global inequality and consider it to violate human rights may advocate for solutions to inequality using the language of social justice. Social justice advocates generally argue that inequality is unfair, as it leaves some individuals with greater life chances and higher standards of living than others, regardless of individual worth or merit.
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Society is stratified into social classes on the basis of wealth, income, educational attainment, and occupation.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the discrepancies in the formation of social classes, as identified by various sociologists
Key Points
• There are competing models for thinking about social classes in the U.S. — most Americans believe in a three tier structure that includes the upper, middle, and lower classes, but popular variations delineate an upper-middle class and a working class.
• Individuals tend to form relationships with others in their own class, and to consequently acculturate to, or learn the values of behaviors of, their own class. This process strengthens distinctions between classes as each group establishes a unique class culture.
• Due to class mobility, in some cases individuals may also acculturate to the culture of another class when ascending or descending in the social order.
Key Terms
• social network: The web of a person’s social, family, and business contacts, who provide material and social resources and opportunities.
• acculturate: To acquire the culture (including systems of value and belief) of the society that one inhabits, starting at birth.
• Class Culture: A system of beliefs, values, and behaviors that is particular to a socioeconomic group.
Most social scientists agree that society is stratified into a hierarchical arrangement of social classes. Social classes are groupings of individuals in a hierarchy, usually based on wealth, educational attainment, occupation, income, and membership in a subculture or social network. Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes upper class, the middle class, and the lower class or working class. More complex models that have been proposed by social scientists describe as many as a dozen class levels.
Meanwhile, some scholars deny the very existence of discrete social classes in American society. In spite of debate, most social scientists agree that in the U.S. there is a social class structure in which people are hierarchically ranked. Elsewhere in the world, one’s social class may depend more upon race/ethnicity, position at birth, or religious affiliation. For example, in Mexico, society is stratified into classes determined by European or indigenous lineage as well as wealth. In the U.K. class position depends somewhat on family lineage, with members of the nobility traditionally belonging to the aristocracy.
Class Culture
Social class is sometimes presented as a description of how members of society have sorted themselves along a continuum of positions varying in importance, influence, prestige, and compensation. Thought of this way, once individuals identify as being within a class group they begin to adhere to the behaviors they expect of that class. Thus, a person who considers him or herself to be upper class will dress differently from a person who considers him or herself to be working class — one may wear a business suit on a daily basis, while the other wears jeans, for example. By adhering to class expectations, individuals create sharper distinctions between classes than may otherwise exist.
Sociologists studying class distinctions since the 1970s have found that social classes each have unique cultural traits. The phenomenon, referred to as class culture, has been shown to have a strong influence on the mundane lives of people, affecting everything from the manner in which they raise their children, to how they initiate and maintain romantic relationships, to the color in which they paint their houses. The overall tendency of individuals to associate mostly with those of equal standing as themselves has strengthened class differences. Because individuals’ social networks tend to be within their own class, they acculturate to, or learn the values and behaviors of, their own class. Due to class mobility, in some cases individuals may also acculturate to the culture of another class when ascending or descending in the social order. Nonetheless, the impact of class culture on delineating a social hierarchy is significant. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.01%3A_Social_Class/9.1A%3A_Social_Class.txt |
Property is the total of one’s possessions and, therefore, may be a better measure of social class than income.
Learning Objectives
• Describe the various forms of property – private, public and collective – and their functions
Key Points
• Property goes beyond income as a measure of social class as it reflects the accumulated wealth (e.g., homes, stocks, bonds, savings) in addition to one’s earning potential.
• Private property is distinguishable from public property and collective property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community, or government rather than by individuals or a business entity.
• Economic liberals consider private property to be essential for the construction of a prosperous society.
• Socialists view private property relations as limiting the potential of productive forces in the economy.
• Libertarians believe that private property rights are a requisite for rational and efficient economic calculation.
Key Terms
• libertarian: A believer in a political doctrine that emphasizes individual liberty and a lack of governmental regulation and oversight both in matters of the economy (‘free market’) and in personal behavior.
• economic liberals: Economic liberalism is the ideological belief in organizing the economy on individualist lines, such that the greatest possible number of economic decisions are made by private individuals and not by collective institutions.
Property refers to the sum total of one’s possessions, as well as their regular income. It goes beyond income as a measure of social class, as it reflects wealth accumulated (e.g., homes, stocks, bonds, savings) in addition to one’s earning potential. Property is a better overall measure of social class than income, as many individuals who are considered wealthy actually have very small income, and those with less property tend to have less power and prestige.
Private property is the ownership, control, employment, ability to dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property by persons and privately owned firms. Private property is distinguishable from public property and collective property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community, or government rather than by individuals or a business entity. The concept of property is not equivalent to that of possession. Property and ownership refer to a socially constructed circumstance conferred upon individuals or collective entities by the state, whereas possession is a physical phenomenon.
Economic liberals consider private property to be essential for the construction of a prosperous society. They believe private ownership of land ensures the land will be put to productive use and its value protected by the landowner. If the owners must pay property taxes, this forces the owners to maintain a productive output from the land to keep taxes current.
On the other hand, socialists view private property relations as limiting the potential of productive forces in the economy. They believe private property becomes useless when it concentrates into centralized, socialized institutions based on private appropriation of revenue until the role of the capitalist becomes redundant.
Lastly, libertarians believe that private property rights are a requisite for rational economic calculation, and that without clearly defined property rights, the prices of goods and services cannot be determined in an “efficient” manner, making the most efficient economic calculation impossible. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.01%3A_Social_Class/9.1B%3A_Property.txt |
Power refers to someone’s ability to get others to do his or her will, regardless of whether or not they want to.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the positives and negatives associated with the use of power and how power operates in society
Key Points
• Legitimate power, power given to individuals willingly by others, is called ” authority “.
• Illegitimate power, power taken by force or the threat of force, is called ” coercion “.
• Coercion is power taken by force or the threat of force.
• Influence, in contrast to coercion, refers to the means by which power is used.
• Because power operates both relationally and reciprocally, sociologists speak of the balance of power between parties to a relationship. All parties to all relationships have some power.
Key Terms
• coercion: Actual or threatened force for the purpose of compelling action by another person; the act of coercing.
• influence: An action exerted by a person or thing with such power on another to cause change.
Power refers to someone’s ability to get others to do his or her will, regardless of whether or not they want to. It is also a measurement of an entity’s ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. Legitimate power, power given to individuals willingly by others, is called “authority;” illegitimate power, power taken by force or the threat of force, is called “coercion. ” In the corporate environment, power is often expressed as upward or downward. With downward power, a company’s superior influences subordinates. When a company exerts upward power, it is the subordinates who influence the decisions of the leader. Often, the study of power in a society is referred to as “politics. ”
Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings. The use of power need not involve coercion (force or the threat of force). At one extreme, it more closely resembles what everyday English-speakers call “influence,” or the means by which power is used. Although power can be seen as various forms of constraint on human action, it can also be understood as that which makes action possible, although in a limited scope.
Because power operates both relationally and reciprocally, sociologists speak of the balance of power between parties to a relationship. All parties to all relationships have some power. The sociological examination of power concerns itself with discovering and describing the relative strengths–equal or unequal, stable, or subject to periodic change. Sociologists usually analyze relationships in which the parties have relatively equal or nearly equal power in terms of constraint rather than of power.
9.1D: Prestige
Prestige refers to the reputation or esteem associated with one’s position in society, which is closely tied to their social class.
Learning Objectives
• Compare the two types of prestige – achieved and ascribed, and how prestige is related to power, property and social mobility
Key Points
• Prestige used to be associated with one’s family name, but for most people in developed countries, prestige is now generally tied to one’s occupation.
• Highly skilled occupations tend to have more prestige associated with them than low skill occupations.
• Prestige is often related to the other two indicators of social class – property and power.
• Prestige is an important element in social mobility.
Key Terms
• occupation: A regular activity performed in exchange for payment, including jobs and professions.
• social class: A group of people in a stratified hierarchy, based on social power, wealth, educational attainment, and other criteria.
• prestige: A measure of how good the reputation of something or someone is, or how favorably something or someone is regarded.
Prestige refers to the reputation or esteem associated with one’s position in society. A person can earn prestige by his or her own achievements, which is known as achieved status, or they can be placed in the stratification system by their inherited position, which is called ascribed status. For example, prestige used to be associated with one’s family name (ascribed status), but for most people in developed countries, prestige is now generally tied to one’s occupation (achieved status). Occupations like physicians or lawyers tend to have more prestige associated with them than occupations like bartender or janitor. An individual’s prestige is closely tied to their social class – the higher the prestige of an individual (through their occupation or, sometimes, their family name), the higher their social class.
Prestige is often related to the other two indicators of social class – property and power. A Supreme Court justice, for example, is usually wealthy, enjoys a great deal of prestige, and exercises significant power. In some cases, however, a person ranks differently on these indicators, such as funeral directors. Their prestige is fairly low, but most have higher incomes than college professors, who are among the most educated people in America and have high prestige.
Prestige is a strong element in social mobility. On the one hand, choosing certain occupations or attending certain schools can influence a person’s level of prestige. While these opportunities are not equally available to everyone, one’s choices can, at least to a limited extent, increase or decrease one’s prestige, and lead to social mobility. On the other hand, certain elements of prestige are fixed; family name, place of birth, parents’ occupations, etc., are unchangeable parts of prestige that cause social stratification. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.01%3A_Social_Class/9.1C%3A_Power.txt |
Status inconsistency occurs when an individual’s social positions are varied and these variations influence his or her overall social status.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the concept of status inconsistency and how this phenomena can lead to frustration for people
Key Points
• Introduced by the sociologist Gerhard Lenski in the 1950s, status inconsistency theories predict that people whose status is inconsistent will be more frustrated and dissatisfied than people with consistent statuses.
• Sociologists investigate issues of status inconsistency in order to better understand status systems and stratification.
• Max Weber articulated three major dimensions of stratification in his discussion of class, power, and status.
Key Terms
• sociologist: A social scientist focused on the study of society, human social interaction, and the rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups and institutions.
• status inconsistency: A situation in which an individual’s varied social positions can have both positive and negative influences on his or her social status.
• Max Weber: (1864–1920) A German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself.
Status inconsistency is a situation where an individual’s social positions have both positive and negative influences on his or her social status. Introduced by the sociologist Gerhard Lenski in the 1950s, status inconsistency theories predict that people whose statuses are inconsistent will be more frustrated and dissatisfied than people with consistent statuses. For example, a teacher may have a positive societal image (respect, prestige, etc.), which increases her status but she may earn little money, which simultaneously decreases her status.
All societies have some basis for social stratification, and industrial societies are characterized by multiple dimensions to which some vertical hierarchy may be imputed. The notion of status inconsistency is simple: It is defined as occupying different vertical positions in two or more hierarchies. Sociologists investigate issues of status inconsistency in order to better understand status systems and stratification, and because some sociologists believe that positions of status inconsistency might have strong effects on people’s behavior.
Max Weber articulated three major dimensions of stratification in his discussion of class, power, and status. This multifaceted framework provides the background concepts for discussing status inconsistency. Status inconsistency theories predict that people whose status is inconsistent, or higher on one dimension than one another, will be more frustrated and dissatisfied than people with consistent statuses.
Gerhard Lenski originally predicted that people suffering from status inconsistency would favor political actions and parties directed against higher status groups. According to Lenski, the concept can be used to further explain why status groups made up of wealthy minorities who would be presumed conservative tend to be liberal instead. Since Lenski coined the term, status inconsistency has remained controversial with limited empirical verification.
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Most social scientists agree that American society is stratified into social classes, based on wealth, education, and occupation.
Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast two different social class models
Key Points
• There are competing models for dividing society into discrete classes, but most are based upon a basic three-tiered model that includes an upper class, middle class, and lower class.
• Each social class is thought to share particular cultural traits, such as manner of dress and speech, that reinforce divisions between different classes.
• The “American Dream” holds that U.S. society is meritocratic and status is based on individual achievement, but many social scientists tend to support the idea that inequality is persistent in America and often results from inherited advantages or disadvantages.
Key Terms
• social network: The web of a person’s social, family, and business contacts, who provide material and social resources and opportunities.
• acculturate: To acquire the culture (including systems of value and belief) of the society that one inhabits, starting at birth.
• The American Dream: The belief that with hard work, courage, and determination, anyone can prosper and achieve success.
In the United States, most social scientists agree that society is stratified into a hierarchical arrangement of social classes. Social classes are groupings of individuals in a hierarchy, usually based on wealth, educational attainment, occupation, income, and membership in a subculture or social network. Social class in the United States is a controversial topic; there have been many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the rich or upper class, the middle class, and the poor or working class. More complex models that have been proposed by social scientists describe as many as a dozen class levels. Meanwhile, some scholars deny the very existence of discrete social classes in American society. In spite of this debate, most social scientists agree that in the United States, there is a social class structure in which people are hierarchically ranked.
Models of U.S. Social Classes
One social class model proposed by sociologists posits that there are six social classes in America. In this model, the upper class in America (3% of the population) is divided into the upper-upper class (1% of the U.S. population), earning hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in income per year, while the lower-upper class (2%) earns millions in annual income. The middle class (40%) is divided into the upper-middle class (14%, earning \$76,000 or more per year) and the lower-middle class (26%, earning \$46,000 to \$75,000 annually). The working class (30%) earns \$19,000 to \$45,000. The lower class (27%) is divided into the working poor (13%, earning \$9000 to \$18,000) and the underclass (14%, earning under \$9000). This model has gained traction as a tool for thinking about social classes in America, but it notably does not fully account for variations in status based on non-economic factors, such as education and occupational prestige. This critique is somewhat mitigated by the fact that income is often closely aligned with other indicators of status: Those with high incomes likely have substantial education, high-status occupations, and powerful social networks.
Another model for thinking about social class in the United States attributes the following general characteristics to each tier: The upper class has vast accumulated wealth and significant control over corporations and political institutions, and their privilege is usually inherited; the corporate elite is a class of high-salaried stockholders, such as CEOs, who do not necessarily have inherited privilege but have achieved high status through their careers; the upper middle class consists of highly educated salaried professionals whose occupations are held in high esteem, such as lawyers, engineers, and professors; the middle class is the most vaguely defined and largest social class, and is generally thought to include people in mid-level managerial positions or relatively low status professional positions, such as high school teachers and small business owners; the working class generally refers to those without college degrees who do unskilled service work, such as being a sales clerk or housecleaner, and it includes most people whose incomes fall below the poverty line.
Definition of Middle Class
Since the middle class is the largest yet most vaguely defined class, it is important to think about how people come to identify themselves as “middle class.” Some people define middle class by income, whereas others are more concerned with values and job description. For example, one may define themselves as middle class if they needed to go to college to obtain their job, despite having a lower income than a blue-collar worker. Another person may believe that since he makes \$100,000 a year (regardless of his job status), he is middle class. Most people define middle class in terms of income and values (such as education and religion).
Class Culture
Sociologists studying class distinctions since the 1970s have found that social classes each have unique cultural traits. The phenomenon, referred to as class culture, has been shown to have a strong influence on the mundane lives of people. Class culture is thought to affect everything from the manner in which people raise their children, to how they initiate and maintain romantic relationships, to the color in which they paint their houses. The overall tendency of individuals to associate mostly with those of equal standing as themselves has strengthened class differences. Because individuals’ social networks tend to be within their own class, they acculturate to, or learn the values and behaviors of, their own class. Due to class mobility, in some cases, individuals may also acculturate to the culture of another class when ascending or descending in the social order. Nonetheless, the impact of class culture on the social hierarchy is significant.
Debates over the Existence and Significance of U.S. Social Classes
According to the logic of the American Dream, American society is meritocratic and class is achievement based. In other words, one’s membership in a particular social class is based on their educational and career accomplishments, and class distinctions, therefore, are not rigid. Many sociologists dispute the existence of such class mobility and point to the ways in which social class is inherited.
Social theorists who dispute the existence of social classes in the United States tend to argue that society is stratified along a continuous gradation, rather than into delineated categories. In other words, there is inequality in America, with some people attaining higher status and higher standards of living than others. There is no clear place to draw the line separating one status group from the next. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.02%3A_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.2A%3A_Social_Class_in_the_U.S..txt |
Individual and household income remains one of the most prominent indicators of class status within the United States.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the relationship between income and class status
Key Points
• Personal income is an individual’s total earnings from wages, investment earnings, and other sources, and the mostly widely cited data on personal income comes from the U.S. Census Bureau ‘s population surveys.
• Though individuals in a household may hold low prestige or low earning jobs, having multiple incomes can allow for upward class mobility as a household’s wealth increases.
• According to the U.S. Census, men tend to have higher income than women, while Asians and whites earned more than African Americans and Hispanics.
Key Terms
• U.S. Census Bureau: The government agency that is responsible for the United States Census, which gathers national demographic and economic data.
• income: money one earns by working, or by capitalising off other people’s work
• Bureau of Economic Analysis: The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that measures important economic statistics, including the gross domestic product of the United States.
• personal income: All of an individual’s monetary earnings, including salary, investment gains, inheritance, and any other gains.
Income in the United States is most commonly measured by U.S. Census Bureau in terms of either household or individual income and remains one of the most prominent indicators of class status. Income is not one of its causes. In other words, income does not determine the status of an individual or household but rather reflects that status. Some say that income and prestige are the incentives provided by society in order to fill needed positions with the most qualified and motivated personnel possible.
Personal income is an individual’s total earnings from wages, investment interest, and other sources. In the United States, the most widely cited personal income statistics are the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s personal income and the Census Bureau’s per capita money income. The Census Bureau also produces alternative estimates of income and poverty based on broadened definitions of income that include many components that are not included in money income. Estimates are available by demographic characteristics of householders and by the composition of households. According to the US Census, men tend to have higher income than women, while Asians and whites earned more than African Americans and Hispanics.
The combination of two or more incomes allows for households to increase their income substantially without moving higher on the occupational ladder or attaining higher educational degrees. Thus, it is important to remember that the favorable economic position of households in the top two quintiles is in some cases, the result of combined income, rather than the high status of a single worker.
9.2C: Wealth
Wealth is commonly measured in terms of net worth, which is the sum of all assets, including home equity, minus all liabilities.
Learning Objectives
• Define “wealth” and explain how it differs from “income”
Key Points
• The wealth — more specifically, the median net worth —of households in the United States varies with relation to race, education, geographic location, and gender.
• While income is often seen as a type of wealth in colloquial language use, wealth and income are different measures of economic prosperity.
• Assets are known as the raw materials of wealth, and they consist primarily of stocks and other financial and non-financial property, particularly homeownership, that allows individuals to increase their wealth.
• Home ownership is one of the main sources of wealth among families in the United States, but can be inaccessible to low income households due to high interest rates.
Key Terms
• Assets: Any property or object of value that one possesses, usually considered as applicable to the payment of one’s debts.
• interest rate: The percentage of an amount of money charged for its use per some period of time (often a year).
• net worth: The total assets minus total liabilities of an individual or a company.
Wealth in the United States is commonly measured in terms of net worth, which is the sum of all assets, including home equity, minus all liabilities. The wealth—more specifically, the median net worth—of households in the United States varies with relation to race, education, geographic location, and gender. While income is often seen as a type of wealth in colloquial language use, wealth and income are two substantially different measures of economic prosperity. While there may be a high correlation between income and wealth, the relationship cannot be described as causal.
Assets are known as the raw materials of wealth, and they consist primarily of stocks and other financial and non-financial property, particularly home ownership, that allows individuals to increase their wealth. Home ownership is one of the main sources of wealth among families in the United States. However, there are racial differences in the acquisition of housing, and this inequality reproduces stratification in wealth across race. For white families, home ownership is worth, on average, \$60,000 more than it is worth for black families. A lower proportion of people of color than white people have access to the financial resources needed to purchase a home with the intention of letting its value appreciate over time to increase personal wealth. In many communities with large minority populations, high interest rates can cause roadblocks to home ownership.
Data on personal wealth in the United States shows that the inequality between the nation’s richest and poorest citizens is vast. For example, just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined. In 2007 more than 37 million U.S. citizens, or 12.5% of the population, were classified as poor by the Census Bureau. In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country’s total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country’s wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.02%3A_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.2B%3A_Income.txt |
In the U.S., educational attainment is strongly correlated to income and occupation, and therefore to social class.
Learning Objectives
• Describe how higher educational attainment relates to social class
Key Points
• American society values post-secondary education very highly; it is one of the main determinants of social class, along with income, wealth, and occupation.
• Tertiary education (or “higher education”) is required for many middle and upper class professions.
• Educational attainment is strongly related to income in the United States.
Key Terms
• low-interest loans: Money lent with only a small percentage of interest accruing as a charge, often made available to students.
• scholarship: Monetary aid given to a student to assist them in paying for an education.
• tertiary education: Higher education, including college education and vocational programs beyond high school.
The educational attainment of the U.S. population parallels that of many other industrialized countries, with the vast majority of the population having completed secondary education and a rising number of college graduates outnumbering high school dropouts. As a whole, the U.S. population is spending more years in formal educational programs. American society highly values post-secondary education, or education beyond high school; it is one of the main determinants of class and status in the U.S. In fact, the attainment of post-secondary and graduate degrees is often considered the most important feature distinguishing middle and upper middle class people from lower or working class people. In this regard, universities can be regarded as the gatekeepers of the professional middle class.
Many middle-class professions require post-secondary degrees, which are classified as tertiary education (or “higher education”). Tertiary education is rarely free, but the costs do vary widely; tuition at elite private colleges often exceeds \$200,000 for a four-year program while public colleges and universities typically charge much less (for state residents). Many public institutions, such as the University of California system, rival elite private schools in reputation and quality. Many colleges and universities offer scholarships to make higher education more affordable. Government and private lenders also offer low-interest loans. Still, by all accounts, the average cost of education is increasing.
In the U.S., income is strongly related to educational attainment. In 2005, the majority of people with doctorate and professional degrees were counted among the nation’s top 15% of income earners. The income of people with bachelor’s degrees was above the national median, while the median income of people with some college education remained near the national median. According to U.S. Census Bureau, 9% of persons aged 25 or older had a graduate degree, 27.9% had a bachelor’s degree or more, and 53% had attended at least some college. According to the same census, 85% of the U.S. population had graduated from high school. These numbers indicate that the average American does not have a college degree or higher. Having a degree is strongly linked to occupation, and therefore income; degree holders work in more highly skilled professions and earn more on average. Thus, having a bachelor’s or graduate degree is a strong indicator of social class.
Income and educational levels differ by race, age, household configuration, and geography. Although the incomes of both men and women are associated with higher educational attainment (higher incomes for higher educational attainment), there remains an income gap between races and genders at each educational level. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.02%3A_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.2D%3A_Education.txt |
In the United States, occupation and occupational prestige are primary indicators of social class, along with income, wealth, and education.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how occupation may affect a person’s social class
Key Points
• High status professional occupations, such as those of a doctor, lawyer, or CEO, require high educational attainment and are associated with the upper-middle and upper classes.
• Occupation often corresponds with income and educational attainment, which combined determine a person’s social class. However, occupations with high occupational prestige can increase one’s social class without a corresponding increase in indicators, such as income.
• To enter the professions, a person usually must hold a professional degree. Examples of professional degrees include JDs for law, MDs for medicine, and MBAs for business.
Key Terms
• profession: An occupation, trade, craft, or activity in which one has a professed expertise in a particular area, especially one requiring a high level of skill or training.
• educational attainment: Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed.
• occupational prestige: The rating of a job based on the social esteem or respect granted to an occupation.
In the United States, occupation is a primary indicator of social class, along with income, wealth, and education. Occupation is closely linked to Americans’ identities, and is a salient marker of status. The importance of occupation in part results from the substantial amount of time that American’s devote to their careers. The average work week in the United States for those employed full time is 42.9 hours long, and 30% of the population works more than 40 hours per week.
High educational attainment is generally a pre-requisite for entering high status professional occupations. Professional occupations, sometimes called “the professions” or “white collar jobs,” include highly skilled positions, such as that of a lawyer, physician, and CEO. Having a professional occupation is associated with being a member of the upper-middle or upper class. To enter the professions, a person usually must hold a professional degree. Examples of professional degrees include JDs for law, MDs for medicine, and MBAs for business. Because the professions are considered highly skilled, require high educational attainment, and provide high incomes, they are associated with high social status.
Sociologists often talk about the status associated with various occupations in terms of occupational prestige. Occupational prestige refers to the esteem in which society holds a particular occupation. Occupational prestige is one way in which occupation may affect a person’s social class independent of income and educational attainment. While high status occupations often reap high incomes and require significant education, in some cases these three variables are not linked. For example, being a university professor has high status and requires high educational attainment, but does not always result in high income. Its status depends upon the high esteem in which professors are held. In large part because of high occupational prestige, university professors are generally considered members of the upper-middle class. Conversely, funeral directors generally have high incomes and often high educational attainment. Being a funeral director is not a high status job, however, because Americans do not tend to hold the occupation in high esteem it has low occupational prestige. Funeral directors are, therefore, often considered members of the middle class. As illustrated by this example, occupations with high prestige can raise one’s social class even without improving one’s economic status.
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American society is stratified into social classes based on wealth, income, educational attainment, occupation, and social networks.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss America’s class structure and its relation to the concept of the “American Dream”
Key Points
• There are competing models for thinking about social classes in the U.S. — most Americans recognize a three-tier structure that includes the upper, middle, and lower classes, but variations delineate an upper-middle class and a working class.
• High income earners likely are substantially educated, have high- status occupations, and maintain powerful social networks.
• According to the “American Dream,” American society is meritocratic and class is achievement-based. In other words, one’s membership in a particular social class is based on educational and career accomplishments.
Key Terms
• social network: The web of a person’s social, family, and business contacts, who provide material and social resources and opportunities.
• The American Dream: The belief that with hard work, courage, and determination, anyone can prosper and achieve success.
• Corporate Elite: A class of high-salaried stockholders, such as corporate CEOs, who do not necessarily have inherited privilege but have achieved high status through their careers.
Most social scientists in the U.S. agree that society is stratified into social classes. Social classes are hierarchical groupings of individuals that are usually based on wealth, educational attainment, occupation, income, or membership in a subculture or social network. Social class in the United States is a controversial issue, having many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans recognize a simple three-tier model that includes the upper class, the middle class, and the lower or working class. Some social scientists have proposed more complex models that may include as many as a dozen class levels. Meanwhile, some scholars deny the very existence of discrete social classes in American society. In spite of debate, most social scientists do agree that in the U.S. people are hierarchically ranked in a social class structure.
Models of U.S. Social Classes
A team of sociologists recently posited that there are six social classes in America. In this model, the upper class (3% of the population ) is divided into upper-upper class (1% of the U.S. population, earning hundreds of millions to billions per year) and the lower-upper class (2%, earning millions per year). The middle class (40%) is divided into upper-middle class (14%, earning \$76,000 or more per year) and the lower-middle class (26%, earning \$46,000 to \$75,000 per year). The working class (30%) earns \$19,000 to \$45,000 per year. The lower class (27%) is divided into working poor (13%, earning \$9000 to 18,000 per year) and underclass (14%, earning under \$9000 per year). This model has gained traction as a tool for thinking about social classes in America, but it does not fully account for variations in status based on non-economic factors, such as education and occupational prestige. This critique is somewhat mitigated by the fact that income is often closely aligned with other indicators of status; for example, those with high incomes likely have substantial education, high status occupations, and powerful social networks.
A commonly used model for thinking about social classes in the U.S. attributes the following general characteristics to each tier: the upper class has vast accumulated wealth and significant control over corporations and political institutions, and their privilege is usually inherited; the corporate elite consists of high-salaried stockholders, such as corporate CEOs, who did not necessarily inherit privilege but have achieved high status through their careers; the upper-middle class consists of highly educated salaried professionals whose occupations are held in high esteem, such as lawyers, engineers, and professors; the middle class (the most vaguely defined and largest social class) is generally thought to include people in mid-level managerial positions or relatively low status professional positions, such as high school teachers and small business owners; the working class generally refers to those without college degrees who do low level service work, such as working as a sales clerk or housekeeper, and includes most people whose incomes fall below the poverty line. In the above outline of social class, status clearly depends not only on income, but also occupational prestige and educational attainment.
Debates over the Existence and Significance of U.S. Social Classes
According to the “American Dream,” American society is meritocratic and class is achievement-based. In other words, membership in a particular social class is based on educational and career accomplishments. Many sociologists dispute the existence of such class mobility and point to the ways in which social class is inherited. For example, a son or daughter of a wealthy individual may carry a higher status and different cultural connotations than a member of the nouveau riche (“new money”). Likewise, being born into a particular social class may confer advantages or disadvantages that increase the likelihood that an adult will remain in the social class into which they were born.
Social theorists who dispute the existence of social classes in the U.S. tend to argue that society is stratified along a continuous gradation, rather than into delineated categories. In other words, there is inequality in America, with some people attaining higher status and higher standards of living than others. But there is no clear place to draw a line separating one status group from the next. Whether one ascribes to the view that classes are discrete groups or levels along a continuum, it is important to remember that all social classes in the United States, except the upper class, consist of tens of millions of people. Thus social classes form social groups so large that they feature considerable internal diversity and any statement regarding a given social class’ culture should be seen as a broad generalization. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.03%3A_The_Class_Structure_in_the_U.S./9.3A%3A_Class_Structure_in_the_U.S..txt |
The American upper class is the highest socioeconomic bracket in the social hierarchy and is defined by its members’ great wealth and power.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the most important characteristics of the upper class in the U.S.
Key Points
• Members of the upper class accumulate wealth through investments and capital gains, rather than through annual salaries.
• Households with net worths of \$1 million or more may be identified as members of the upper-most socioeconomic demographic, depending on the class model used.
• Sociologist Leonard Beeghley asserts that all households with a net worth of \$1 million or more are considered “rich. ” He divides the rich into two sub- groups: the rich and the super-rich.
Key Terms
• investment: The expenditure of capital in expectation of deriving income or profit from its use.
• capital gain: An increase in the value of a capital asset, such as stock or real estate.
The American upper class refers to the “top layer,” or highest socioeconomic bracket, of society in the United States. This social class is most commonly described as those with great wealth and power, and may also be referred to as the capitalist class, or simply as “the rich. ” People in this class commonly have immense influence in the nation’s political and economic institutions as well as in the media.
Many politicians, heirs to fortunes, top business executives such as CEOs, successful venture capitalists, and celebrities are considered members of the upper class. Some prominent and high-rung professionals may also be included if they attain great influence and wealth. The main distinguishing feature of this class is their source of income. While the vast majority of people and households derive their income from salaries, those in the upper class derive their income primarily from investments and capital gains.
Households with a net worth of \$1 million or more may be identified as members of the upper-most socioeconomic demographic, depending on the class model used. While most contemporary sociologists estimate that only 1% of households are members of the upper class, sociologist Leonard Beeghley asserts that all households with a net worth of \$1 million or more are considered “rich. ” He divides the rich into two sub-groups: the rich and the super-rich. The rich constitute roughly 5% of U.S. households and their wealth is largely in the form of home equity. Other contemporary sociologists, such as Dennis Gilbert, argue that this group is not part of the upper class but rather part of the upper middle class, as its standard of living is largely derived from occupation-generated income and its affluence falls far short of that attained by the top percentile. The super-rich, according to Beeghley, are those able to live off their wealth without depending on occupation-derived income. This demographic constitutes roughly 0.9% of American households. Beeghley’s definition of the super-rich is congruent with the definition of upper class employed by most other sociologists. The top.01% of the population, with an annual income of \$9.5 million or more, received 5% of the income of the United States in 2007. These 15,000 families have been characterized as the “richest of the rich. ” | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.03%3A_The_Class_Structure_in_the_U.S./9.3B%3A_The_Upper_Class.txt |
The upper-middle class refers to people within the middle class that have high educational attainment, high salaries, and high status jobs.
Learning Objectives
• Identify the central characteristics of the upper-middle class in the U.S.
Key Points
• Members of the upper-middle class have substantially less wealth and prestige than the upper class, but a higher standard of living than the lower-middle class or working class.
• The U.S. upper-middle class consists mostly of white-collar professionals who have a high degree of autonomy in their work. The most common professions of the upper-middle class tend to center on conceptualizing, consulting, and instruction.
• In addition to having autonomy in their work, above-average incomes, and advanced educations, the upper middle class also tends to be powerful; members are influential in setting trends and shaping public opinion.
Key Terms
• educational attainment: Educational attainment is a term commonly used by statisticians to refer to the highest degree of education an individual has completed.
• salaried professionals: White-collar employees whose work is largely self-directed and is compensated with an annual salary, rather than an hourly wage.
Sociologists use the term “upper-middle class” to refer to the social group consisting of higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term “lower-middle class,” which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term “middle class. ” There is considerable debate as to how to define the upper-middle class. According to the rubric laid out by sociologist Max Weber, the upper-middle class consists of well-educated professionals with graduate degrees and comfortable incomes.
In 1951, sociologist C. Wright Mills conducted one of first major studies of the middle class in America. According to his definition, the middle class consists of an upper-middle class, made up of professionals distinguished by exceptionally high educational attainment and high economic security; and a lower-middle class, consisting of semi-professionals. While the groups overlap, differences between those at the center of both groups are considerable.
Among modern sociologists, the American upper-middle class is defined using income, education, and occupation as primary indicators. There is some debate over what exactly the term “upper-middle class” means, but in academic models, the term generally applies to highly educated, salaried professionals whose work is largely self-directed. The U.S. upper-middle class consists mostly of white-collar professionals who have a high degree of autonomy in their work. The most common professions of the upper-middle class tend to center on conceptualizing, consulting, and instruction. They include such occupations as lawyer, physician, dentist, engineer, professor, architect, civil service executive, and civilian contractor. Many members of the upper-middle class have graduate degrees, such as law, business, or medical degrees, which are often required for professional occupations. Educational attainment is a distinguishing feature of the upper-middle class. Additionally, household incomes in the upper-middle class commonly exceed \$100,000, with some smaller one-income earners earning incomes in the high 5-figure range.
In addition to autonomy in their work, above-average incomes, and advanced educations, the upper middle class also tends to be powerful; members are influential in setting trends and shaping public opinion. Moreover, members of the upper-middle class are generally more economically secure than their lower-middle class counterparts. Holding advanced degrees and high status in corporations and institutions tends to insulate the upper-middle class from economic downturns. Members of this class are likely to be in the top income quintile, or the top 20% of the economic hierarchy. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.03%3A_The_Class_Structure_in_the_U.S./9.3C%3A_The_Upper_Middle_Class.txt |
The lower-middle class are those with some education and comfortable salaries, but with socioeconomic statuses below the upper-middle class.
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the differences between the lower and upper-middle class
Key Points
• The lower-middle class, also sometimes simply referred to as “middle class,” includes roughly one third of U.S. households, and is thought to be growing.
• Individuals in the lower-middle class tend to hold low status professional or white collar jobs, such as school teacher, nurse, or paralegal.
• The lower-middle class is among the largest social classes, rivaled only by the working class, and it is thought to be growing.
Key Terms
• college education: Education beyond secondary school, usually culminating in a bachelor’s degree and serving as a necessary credential for middle class occupations.
• White Collar: Describes a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work for a salary.
• professional: A person whose occupation is highly skilled, salaried, and requires high educational attainment.
In developed nations across the world, the lower-middle class is a sub-division of the middle class that refers to households and individuals who are somewhat educated and usually stably employed, but who have not attained the education, occupational prestige, or income of the upper-middle class.
In American society, the middle class is often divided into the lower-middle class and upper-middle class. The lower-middle class (also sometimes simply referred to as the middle class) consists of roughly one third of households—it is roughly twice as large as the upper-middle and upper classes. Lower-middle class individuals commonly have some college education or a bachelor’s degree and earn a comfortable living. The lower-middle class is among the largest social classes, rivaled only by the working class, and it is thought to be growing.
Individuals in the lower-middle class tend to hold low status professional or white collar jobs, such as school teacher, nurse, or paralegal. These types of occupations usually require some education but generally do not require a graduate degree. Lower-middle class occupations usually provide comfortable salaries, but put individuals beneath the top third of incomes.
According to some class models the lower middle class is located roughly between the 52nd and 84thpercentile of society. In terms of personal income distribution in 2005, that would mean gross annual personal incomes from about \$32,500 to \$60,000. Since 42% of all households had two income earners, with the majority of those in the top 40% of gross income, household income figures would be significantly higher, ranging from roughly \$50,000 to \$100,000 annually. In terms of educational attainment, 27% of persons had a bachelor’s degree or higher. If the upper middle and upper class combined are to constitute 16% of the population, it becomes clear that some of those in the lower middle class boast college degrees or some college education.
9.3E: The Working Class
The working class consists of individuals and households with low educational attainment, low status occupations, and below average incomes.
Learning Objectives
• Explain how differences in class culture may affect working-class students who enter the post-secondary education system
Key Points
• Members of the working class usually have a high school diploma or some college education, and may work in low-skilled occupations like retail sales or manual labor.
• Due to differences between middle and working-class cultures, working-class college students may face “culture shock” upon entering the post-secondary education system, with its “middle class” culture.
• Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in the urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
Key Terms
• working class: The social class of those who perform physical or low-skilled work for a living, as opposed to the professional or middle class, the upper class, or the upper middle class.
• Blue Collar: Describes working-class occupations, especially those involving manual labor.
• manual labor: Any work done by hand; usually implying it is unskilled or physically demanding.
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs (as measured by skill, education, and income), often extending to those who are unemployed or otherwise earning below-average incomes. Working classes are mainly found in industrialized economies and in the urban areas of non-industrialized economies.
In the United States, the parameters of the working class remain vaguely defined and are contentious. Since many members of the working class, as defined by academic models, are often identified in the vernacular as being middle class, there is considerable ambiguity over the term’s meaning. In the class models devised by sociologists, the working class comprises between 30 percent and 35 percent of the population, roughly the same percentage as the lower middle class. Those in the working class are commonly employed in low-skilled occupations, including clerical and retail positions and blue collar or manual labor occupations. Low-level, white-collar employees are sometimes included in this class, such as secretaries and call center employees.
Education, for example, can pose an especially intransigent barrier in the United States. Members of the working class commonly have only a high school diploma, although some may have minimal college courses to their credit as well. Due to differences between middle and working-class cultures, working-class college students may face “culture shock” upon entering the post-secondary education system, with its “middle class” culture. Research showing that working-class students are taught to value obedience over leadership and creativity can partially account for the difficulties that many working-class individuals face upon entering colleges and universities.
Battle Strike: Class War: Workers battle with the police during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934.
9.3F: The Lower Class
The lower class consists of those at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy who have low education, low income, and low status jobs.
Learning Objectives
• Differentiate between the terms “lower class,” “working poor,” and “underclass”
Key Points
• Low educational attainment and disabilities are two of the main reasons individuals can either struggle to find work or fall into the lower class.
• Generally, the term lower class describes individuals working easily-filled employment positions. These positions typically have little prestige or economic compensation, and do not require workers to have a high school education.
• Lower class households are at the greatest risk of falling below the poverty line if a job holder suddenly becomes unemployed.
Key Terms
• Poverty line: This is the threshold of poverty used by the U.S. Census Bureau to define the minimum income one must earn to meet basic material needs.
• public assistance: the various forms of material aid provided by the government to those who are in need
• underclass: the poorest class of people in a given society
• manual labor: Any work done by hand; usually implying it is unskilled or physically demanding.
Defining the Lower Class
The lower class in the United States refers to individuals who are at, or near, the lower end of the socioeconomic hierarchy. As with all social classes in the United States, the lower class is loosely defined, and its boundaries and definitions are subject to debate. When used by social scientists, the lower class is typically defined as service employees, low-level manual laborers, and the unemployed. Those who are employed in lower class occupations are often colloquially referred to as the working poor. Those who do not participate in the labor force, and who rely on public assistance, such as food stamps and welfare checks, as their main source of income, are commonly identified as members of the underclass, or, colloquially, the poor. Generally, lower class individuals work easily-filled employment positions that have little prestige or economic compensation. These individuals often lack a high school education.
Unemployment and the Poverty Line
A number of things can cause an individual to become unemployed. Two of the most common causes are low educational attainment and disabilities, the latter of which includes both physical and mental ailments that preclude educational or occupational success. The poverty line is defined as the income level at which an individual becomes eligible for public assistance. While only about 12% of households fall below the poverty threshold at one point in time, the total percentage of households that will, at some point during the course of a single year, fall below the poverty line, is much higher. Many such households waver above and below the line throughout a single year. Lower class households are at the greatest risk of falling below this poverty line, particularly if a job holder becomes unemployed. For all of these reasons, lower class households are the most economically vulnerable in the United States. | textbooks/socialsci/Sociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Sociology_(Boundless)/09%3A_Stratification_Inequality_and_Social_Class_in_the_U.S./9.03%3A_The_Class_Structure_in_the_U.S./9.3D%3A_The_Lower_Middle_Class.txt |
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