Lecture 1

Sociology​: ​ the systematic study of human society and social interaction; helps to make us
aware of the connection between our own world and that of other people
- Aids in showing that inequalities exist within all social system, promotes tolerance and
understanding by allowing individuals to look beyond personal experiences and
common sense and use theories and evidence to define a situation

Sociologists​: look for patterns of commonalities in human behavior by studying human

societies and social interactions to develop theories about the shaping of human behavior and
group life

Sociological Imagination​: ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and a
larger society
- Key to understanding the difference between personal problems (that affect individual
networks) and public issues (that affect large numbers of people in a society)

Key Components of Sociology​:

1. Sociologists gather data through systematic research
a. Quantitative research: scientific objectivity, data measured numerically
b. Qualitative research: interpretive description/words, analyze underlying
meanings and patterns

Society​: large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the
same political authority and dominant cultural expectations

Theory:​ used to provide meaning to observations - logically interrelated statements that

attempt to describe, explain, and occasionally predict social events, and explain problems,
actions, and problems
1. Structural Functionalism​: framework that society is a stable and orderly system in
which everything has a function and purpose
a. Manifest function​: functions that are intended and recognized by society
(sports, education)
b. Latent function​: functions are that unintended and hidden (sports can cause
low self worth, cliques in high school)
2. Conflict Theory​: groups in society are engaged in a power struggle for control over
resources (competition between whites/minorities, men/women, rich/poor)
a. Advantage comes from power (ability to carry out a will despite resistance) and
prestige (positive or negative social estimation of honor)
3. Symbolic Interaction​: everything in society has a meaning based on symbolic
communication between social actors/people (stop sign, affair)
a. Social Construction of Reality:​ an individual’s reality is based on their own
experiences (rich person explaining what it is like to be poor, construct it)
 b. Labeling Theory​: socially constructed process in which control agents will
cause designated deviants to accept the label placed upon them (tell someone
they are stupid, they will behave stupid)
c. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy​: behavior conforms to definition of the situation so that
the original false conception comes true (a kid is doing well in school but are
told they are not so they end up believing this and drop out)
Major Names​:
1. Auguste Comte:​ coined term sociology
2. Harriet Martineau:​ early female sociologist, racial and gender equality
3. Herbert Spencer​: wrote about social order and change (survival of the fittest)
4. Emile Durkheim​: people are a product of their environment (anomie and suicide)
5. Karl Marx​: economist, class conflict is a result of rich controlling poor
6. Max Weber:​ social scientist, believed sociology should be studied as a science (no
personal values or economic interests causing bias)

Ferguson Reading 1: ​Defining Contested Concepts

Oppression:​ exists when one group has historically gained power and control over valued
assets of a society by exploiting the labor and lives of other groups and then by using those
assets to secure its position of power into the future
1. Race, class, gender, sexuality = ​systems of oppression
2. Exploitation​ is a power relationship resulting from unequal distribution of productive
assets in a society - this is reinforced and masked as a belief system that interprets
the inequalities as a natural outcome of each group

Social Location​: an individual’s or group’s place in a hierarchy

1. Questions you ask when you first meet someone serve as indicators for social
experiences, cultural experiences, and social location
2. Race, class, gender, sexual, age, ethnicity, nationality = social location hierarchies

Power​: the capacity to achieve one’s aims despite resistance

1. Hierarchies persist over time because they are intersecting systems of power
relationships - dominance is maintained because their position enables them to
continue
2. Three faces of power: design/manipulate, win through force or competition, name and
write the story

Heterosexism:​ system of power relations because heterosexuals set the laws and acceptable
practices governing adult intimate life (they set the rules)
1. Heterosexual marriage was established originally and the standard and legally
privileged status - heterosexuals are automatically given advantages (right to marry,
right to adopt, etc.).
 2. Change has occurred recently, however, regarding the legal status of gay people
(marriage, prohibition of employment discrimination, etc.).
3. Restrictions do not affect all LGBTQ individuals the same; class and race privilege
plays a role in this (intersectionality). For example, white upper/middle class educated
gay men and women hold privilege (able to sue for discrimination, etc.).
4. The powerful place definitions among LGBTQ indivudals - “deviant, sexual predators,
sinners”. bot

Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality:

1. Priority
a. Significant history in the US, embedded in important institutions (education,
religion, family, economy, law)
b. Large-scale social movements of resistance → visible and publically conscious
inequalities
c. Analysis will provide tools to analyze other dimensions of inequality
2. Definitions
a. Race​: ancestry and selected physical characteristics (skin color, hair texture,
eye shape)
b. Class​: position in the economy, distribution of wealth, income, poverty;
distribution of power and authority in the workforce
c. Sex​: biological and anatomical characteristics attributed to males and females
d. Gender:​ culturally and socially structured relationships between women and
men
e. Sexual Orientation:​ sex of partners in emotional-sexual relationships
3. Privileged and Unprivileged Lens
a. Privileged individuals (who benefit from existing social arrangements) are blind
to the fact that their privilege is dependent on the unfair exclusion of or direct
harm to others.
b. Unprivileged individuals view the unfairness as painfully apparent. However,
sometimes they may not see the inequality because they lack access to
information and resources that the dominant groups control. (ex- author’s girls
school receiving no funding and the boy’s school receiving funding)
4. “Gender-Blind, Race-Blind, Classless, Sexually Restrained”
a. Ideologies are presented as neutral and as the goal to strive for
b. Currently aimed at obscuring the privilege that accompanies whiteness and
maleness rather than seeking to transform them from superiority to
responsibility
c. Classless: differences in hard work and talent not oppression are the core
causes of extreme economic differences
d. Sexual Restraint: they should be denied, contained, or ignored- neither
discussed in public nor condoned
e. Use of these ideologies implies that we seek to not see and not know
(ignorance is preferred for social policy)
f. These stances prevail because:
i. Privileged members benefit and find dismissing oppression easy
ii. In education and media, we do not systematically learn about
experiences of the oppressed groups
 5. Oppressed Groups
a. The experiences of oppressed groups are either excluded or distorted in our
society by being presented in limited and stereotyped ways.
b. We rarely learn of the common ground in our experiences or of the ways that
the lives and struggles of oppressed groups can and have benefitted the entire
society.
c. They are the canary and signal when the atmosphere is not healthy;
atmosphere should be fixed not the canary.
Domains and Associated Institutions​:
1. Ideological domain: media, arts, religion, and education
a. Produce and distribute ideas and knowledge about society (shape public
image)
2. Political domain: government, law, civil/criminal justice, police, military
a. Creating and enforcing laws and government structures, dominant groups
exert control over behavior of others
3. Economic domain: major industries (finance health, care, manufacturing, housing,
transportation, communication) and work
a. Producing and distributing valued goods and services, dominant groups are
more competitive in workplace

Cross Cutting Institutions (Family):

1. Ideological: family values is political values that serves interests of nuclear,
heterosexual, white, middle/upper class, Christian families (reinforces dominance)
2. Political: public power of men gives them power in the family, making it difficult for
women and children to challenge abuse of the power in the family or justice system
3. Economic: current tax laws determining what part of income earned by individual
workers will be retained by the state is set by family status

Internalized Oppression:​ society continues without disruption - shows not only power of
dominant groups but also persuasive power of dominant ideologies to convince subordinate
group members that the current social hierarchies are acceptable and cannot be changed
1. Self-negation: restrictions because oppressed groups believe negative views and
limits (negation of others - restrict other oppressed groups)

Resistance:​ macro social level of community, micro level of individual and family
Lecture 2
Demography​: field within sociology that specifically examines population size, composition,
distribution

Population Change:​
1. Fertility, mortality, migration → can also affect age, sex, race, marital status,
education, occupation, income, and size of household
2. Zero population growth = factors do not affect population change (no increase)
3. Sex ratio: measures population compositon, ratio of males to every hundred females

Community​: set of social relationships operating within boundaries or locations, provides

people sense of identity and feeling of belonging

Culture:​ knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects passed down
generations in society (within family, community, nation, religion, and racial/ethnic group)
1. Cultural universal:​ common practice shared by all societies
2. Subculture​: category of people sharing attributes and beliefs that set them apart from
dominant culture (native americans)
3. Counterculture:​ group that rejects dominant values and seeks alternative (cults)
4. Two types of culture:
a. Material​: physical and tangible creations (clothing, homes, art)
b. Non-material​: abstract and intangible, influences behavior (values, language)
5. Four components:
a. Symbols​: meaningful representation, shared meaning
b. Languages:​ expresses ideas, communication
c. Values:​ collective ideas, right and wrong/good and bad
d. Norms:​ established rules of behavior, standard of conduct
i. Prescriptive: appropriate, acceptable
ii. Non-prescriptive: inappropriate, unacceptable
iii. Formal: written, punishment included
iv. Informal: unwritten, just understood by people
6. Culture​ ​shock:​ disorientation experiences when people first encounter cultures
different from their own, believe they cannot depend on their own assumptions
7. Ethnocentrism​: assumption that one’s own culture and way of life are superior to all
others
8. Cultural​ ​relativism​: belief that behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed
and analyzed by culture’s own standards
9. Popular​ ​Culture:​ activities, products, services (appeal to middle and working class)
10. High​ ​culture​: activities patronized by elite, used by dominant rich to exclude others
(cultural capital theory)
Ferguson Reading 42
Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption

1. Media Framing and the Performance of Class in Everyday Life

a. Media: help shape society to create cultural perceptions
i. Causes emulation of upper class and shunning of poor
1. Have to be rich to have a happy life
a. Shows like American idol - ordinary people to be famous
2. Media makes us think upper class is better than we are
3. Media also suggests we have no allegiance for those in our own
class or less fortunate
ii. Vicarious living- watching how other individual live rather than
experiencing life for ourselves
1. Promotes hedonistic consumerism
iii. Equality does not exist in society by
1. Have cheaper stuff and having celebrities market them
2. The Upper classes: Affluence and consumerism for all
a. People who watch the shows that glorify lifestyle tend to have higher rates of
spending bc it triggers consumer desires
b. Consensus framing: upper class members just like everyone else
c. Admiration framing: portrays them as generous, caring
d. Emulation framing: suggests people in all classes should reward themselves
with a few perks of a wealthy person by buying jewelry etc
e. Causes people to get further into debt
f. Average us household spends 13% of its after tax income to service debts
3. The poor and homeless-negative role models in media
a. Portray them as deserving sympathy on holidays or when disaster strikes
b. Blamed for their own problems and people think they are bumps, alcoholic,
drug addicts, etc -due to their individual pathological behavior
c. Thematic framing- poor and homeless as “faceless” statistics
d. Episodic framing: highlights problems of poor byt does not link to larger
societal problems- educational opportunities, unemployment, low wage jobs
e. Shows make poor or homeless seem “crazy” and that they are deviants who
might harm themselves or others
f. Makes people view the poor and homeless as “Other”, the outsider
4. The working class
a. Considered as “labor”
b. Only like 60 minutes or 20/20 show how low wages, lack of benefits, and
hazardous working conditions is a problem but those are deemed as boring
c. Caricature framing: depicts people as dumb, white trash, bigots, slobs
i. The way they speak is not ss good as middle or upper class
ii. Extreme makeover: ordinary people to improve by cosmetic surgery,
new clothings, different hairstyles
5. Middle class framing and kiddy consumerism
a. Middle class values framing: focuses on nation holds the nation together
b. Children buy into consumerism culture bc they believe it is what defines them
6. Media framing and our distorted view of inequality
 a. Socially constructed reality: not an accurate reflection of the US
7. The Realities of Class
a. Rich getting richer
8. Realities of hedonistic consumerism
a. Consumerism that this becomes the main reason for their existence
b. Every 15 seconds someone becomes bankrupt
c. Average american household is carrying more than 8000 in credit card debt

“In a mass mediated culture such as ours, the media do not simply mirror society; rather, they
help to shape it and create cultural perceptions” (Ferguson, 433)
“The blurring between what is real and what is not real encourages people to emulate the
upper classes and shun the working class and the poor” (Ferguson, 433)
“Constantly bombarded by stories about the lifestyle of the rich and famous, viewers feel a
sense of intimacy with elites, with whom they have little or no contact in their daily lives”
(Ferguson, 433)
“Equality does not exist in a contemporary society” - but individuals believe they have an
equal right and chance to acquire items that will help them identify with a higher class, but
since you actually need to be able to purchase them class comes into play

Lecture 3
Socialization​: lifelong process of social interaction, individuals gain self-identity and
physical/mental/social skills needed for survival
- Figure out norms and values, establish core beliefs, likes and dislikes
- Self concept​:​ establish totality of our beliefs and feelings about ourselves
- Looking glass self​:​ base sense of self on the perceptions of others (how other people
see you)
Role Taking:​ person mentally assumes role of another person to understand the world from
their point of view
Agents of Socialization​: persons, groups, or institutions that teach us what we need to know in
order to participate in society
- Families:​ transmit cultural and social values, family action and treatment shapes you
- Schools:​ amount of time spent surrounded by teachers passing on skills and
knowledge socialize a student
- Peer groups​: groups of people linked by common interests, equal social position, and
are usually similar in age, important in childhood to adolescence, impacts how children
perceive themselves and see society’s expectations
- Mass Media​: informs of events, introduces people and viewpoints on issues, brings
awareness, shows products and services you should buy to become more accepted,
entertain through letting individuals live through others experiences (shows)
Anticipatory Socialization:​ refers to the process of socialization in which a person rehearses
for future positions, occupations, and social relationships
Resocialization:​ learn new and different sets of attitudes, values, and behaviors (can be
involuntary - military, prison, mental hospitals)

Ferguson Reading 5
“Class in its historical origins was not and is not now a separate construct from
gender; rather class was and is expressed in genderic terms”

A) “Women’s sexual and reproductive capacities formed one of the major sources for the
creation of private property, on which class is based” - commodification of women
a) “Class is constructed out of gender relations” - men have advantage over
women
b) “All historically known economic and social systems have incorporated the
basic principles of patriarchy”
c) Earliest form of patriarchy in the archaic state
i) “Gender definitions became institutionalized in laws, the organization of
hierarchies and in religion. Gender was also expressed in leading
metaphors that shaped the culture and entered the explanatory
systems of Western civilization”
d) Neolithic age - women were exchanged in marriage to avoid warfare and
because “societies with more women could produce more children” -
automatically gave men rights and power women did not have (“women
themselves became a resource”)
e) Establishment of class → women in elite classes could substitute for men in
their absence, represented their husband and father’s interests, and served as
social connections between elite families
i) “Power depended on their attachment to elite men and was based on
their satisfactory performance in rendering these men sexual and
reproductive services” - women were replaced if they couldn’t

B) Class is “maintained by gendered marriage arrangements and inheritance practices”

a) Class is formed genderically - women were resources or property - “what turns
property into class is a set of institutional practices that perpetuate property
holdings within a small elite”
i) Homogamy: practice of restricting marriages to people within the same
properties group ensures continuity of property holdings within the
group
ii) Ancient near east - dowry and bride price
 iii) Industrial age -
(1) “The work of women and children in home industry thus
subsidized the profits and capital accumulation on which
industrialization was based”
(2) “Wife and children thus functioned as unpaid hired help of the
father”
(3) Homogamy and gendered inheritance practices continued to be
important for upper and middle classes in the 19th century,
education was the separator - rise of capitalism meant women
needed education not skills based
(a) “Women were denied economic opportunities that might
maintain them independent of marriage” - “issue of
access to education became..the primary and earliest
demand in their search for emancipation”

C) Class defined differently for men and women - “class describes multilayered locations,
relations, and experiences, differing according to sex, race, nationality and stage in the
life cycle”

Class is a process over time through which hierarchical relations are created and maintained
in such a way as to give some men power and privilege over women and other men by their
control over material resources, sexual and reproductive services, education and knowledge.
Such control over others is maintained by a complex weave of social relations among the
dependent groups, which offer each group some advantages over other groups, sufficient to
keep each group within the dominance system, subordinate to the top elite.

Merchants of Cool
In the mini-documentary "Merchants of Cool", the idea of role-taking is utilized by marketers to
influence the formation of labels in our society in the way that it forces young people to imagine
the ways that others their age define success. Teens are shown popular culture figures that live
in extreme affluence in early adulthood; this forces some level of self-evaluation and can lead to
the teenage consumer labeling themselves or others in a negative way as a result. If they aren't
living up to a certain standard and aren't able to live a role that they are repeatedly presented,
they do not achieve the label of "cool" and are therefore less worthy.

In the documentary video, the agents of socialization were largely credited to be the marketing
presences of this world, from advertising agencies to MTV executives. These people and
institutions contribute heavily to the formation of a fantasy of an ideal life and person, and are
further responsible for increasing the pressure on young people to fulfill a certain role.

Teenage boys - wrestling is most popular - masculine, strong, fear factor, competition
Girls - midriff prematurely adult, consumed by appearance, sex, collection of sexual cliches but
packaged as empowerment
I am sexual object but im proud of it
Flaunt ur sexuality even if you dont understand it - britney spears

Generation Like
Theme goes with symbolic interaction
Likes are a form of interaction, given meaning because society uses it to reflect popularity and
acceptance - likes define a society