Deze samenvatting is gebaseerd op het studiejaar 2013-2014.

1: The Perspective, Theory, and Method of Sociology

This chapter gives an introduction to the discipline of sociology. The most important skill to gain is the ability to use the sociological perspective. This chapter will also introduce the sociological theory which will help you to build an understanding about what you see when using the sociological perspective. Furthermore this chapter will explain how sociologists ‘do’ sociology by describing three general approaches to conduct research and four specific methods of data collection.

1.1: The Sociological Perspective

Sociology is the systematic study of human society. At the heart of sociology is a distinctive point of view called the sociological perspective.

Seeing the General in the Particular

Sociological perspective is defined as: seeing the general in the particular (Berger, 1963). This tells us that sociologist look for general patterns in the behavior of particular people. It is true that every individual is unique but society shapes the lives of people in various categories very differently. You will begin to see the world sociologically when you start realizing how the general categories into which we fall shape our particular life experiences. A good example of this is the classic study by Lillian Rubin(1976) about women’s hopes for their marriages. Rubin found that higher-income women typically expected the men they married to be sensitive to others, to talk readily, and to share feelings and experiences. Lower-income women had very different expectations and were looking for men who did not drink too much, were not violent, and held steady jobs.

To sum it up: what women expect in a marriage partner has a lot to do with their social class position. The sociological perspective shows us that factors such as our sex, age, race, and social class guide our selection of a partner. It also tells us that it might me more accurate if we see ‘love’ as a feeling we have for others who match up with what society teaches us to want in a life partner.

Seeing the strange in the familiar

It seems at first that by using the sociological perspective you will see the strange in the familiar. The sociological perspective reveals to us the initially strange idea that society shapes what we think and do in patterned ways.

Seeing Society in Our Everyday Lives

The society which we live in have a lot of influence on our everyday choices in food, clothing, music, schooling, jobs, and just about everything else. Even the most personal decisions we make turn out to be shaped by society. To see how influential society is consider the decision by women to have children that is also governed by social patterns, or Durkheim’s classical theory about suicide that shows that even here social forces are at work.

Seeing Sociologically: Marginality and Crisis

Almost everyone can learn themselves to see the world through the sociological perspective, but two situations help people to see clearly how society shapes individuals lives:

• Living on the margins of society ( The greater people’s social marginality, the better they are able to use the sociological perspective).

• Living through a social crisis. (periods of rapid change or crisis make everyone feel al little off balance that encourages us to use the sociological perspective. C. Wright Mills (1959) illustrated this idea by using the Great Depression of the 1930s.

1.2: The Importance of a Global Perspective

As globalization is still going strong which is also due to new information technology that draws even the farthest reaches of the planet together, many academic disciplines are talking of a global perspective. The global perspective is important to sociology because global awareness is a logical extension of the sociological perspective. If sociology in general tells us that our place in society shapes our life experiences it is logical to think then that the position of our society in the larger world system affects everyone in your country.

The 195 nations in the world can be divided into three categories according to their level of economic development:

1. High-income countries: (nations with the highest overall standards of living).

2. Middle-income countries: (nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole).

3. Low-income countries: (nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor)

Comparisons between all the nations can be made for the following five reasons:

• Where we live shapes the lives we lead.

• Societies throughout the world are increasingly interconnected.

• What happens in the rest of the world affects life here in our own country

• Many social problems that we face in our own country are far more serious elsewhere.

• Thinking globally helps us learn more about ourselves.

In an increasingly interconnected world, we can understand our way of live and ourselves only to the extent that we understand others and the societies in which they live. Sociology is an invitation to learn a new way of looking at the world around us.

1.3: Applying the Sociological Perspective

Sociology has had an impact/influence in many ways:

• Sociology and Public Policy: Sociology have helped shape public policy in countless ways from racial desecration to laws regulating divorce.

• Sociology and Personal Growth: Using sociology pays off in four ways:

• The sociological perspective helps us assess the truth of ‘common sense’.

• The sociological perspective helps us see the opportunities and constraints in our lives.

• The sociological perspective empowers us to be active participants in our society.

• The sociological perspective help us to live in a diverse world.

• Careers: The ‘Sociology Advantage’: Having a background in sociology is excellent preparation for the working world. You can become a teacher, college professor or researcher in sociology. You can also become a researcher that is linked to government agencies or private foundations and business, gathering important information on social behavior and carrying out evaluation research. In addition some sociologists work as clinical sociologists. They, as much as clinical psychologists do this with the goal of improving the lives of troubled clients. Difference with clinical psychology is that clinical sociology has a stronger focus on de difficulties in the individual’s web of social relationships instead of in the personality of the individual. Furthermore, you don’t have to become a sociologist if you have studied sociology; you can also apply for jobs in, for example, criminal justice or in the health care. In both fields it is really an advantage if you are in possession of a sociological perspective.

1.4: The Origins of Sociology

Social Change and Sociology

People began to be more aware of society and their place in it because of the many big changes in Europe during the 18^th and 19^th century. Because of this the development of sociology really spurred. The three most important changes in the development of sociology are:

• The rise of a factory-based economy.

• The explosive growth of cities.

• New ideas about democracy and political rights.

Science and Sociology

Throughout history people have been fascinated with the nature of society. In China among these people were the brilliant K’ung Fu-tsu & Confusius and in Greece you had Plato and Aristotle. In the Roman Empire there was Marcus Aurelius, St. Thomas Aquinas and Christine de Pizan and William Shakespeare. They all wrote about the workings of society. What all these thinkers have in common is that they were all are more interested imagining the ideal society instead of the real society. The French social thinker Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined the term ‘sociology’ in 1838 to describe this new way of thinking: to be as a thinker more interested in de ideal society than in de real society.

Comte saw sociology as the product of three stages of historical development:

• Theological stage (the church in the Middle Ages).

• Metaphysical stage (The Enlightment and the ideas of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau).\

• Scientific stage (Physics, chemistry, sociology).

Comte’s approach is called positivism. He thought that the idea of knowledge being based on tradition or metaphysics was speculation. Comte thought that knowledge was based on science.

As a positivist, Comte believed that society operates according to certain laws, just as the physical world operates according to gravity and other laws of nature. He believed that by using science people could come to understand not only the laws of the physical world, but also the laws of the social world. Comte’s ideas about sociology are still popular and even today most sociologists continue to consider science to be a crucial part in sociology but our thinking about society has evolved and we now also know that we are creatures of imagination and spontaneity, so human behavior can never be explained by rigid ‘laws of society’.

1.5: Sociological Theory

An important part of sociology is formulating theories. This comes from the desire to translate observations into understandings. A theory is a statement of how and why specific facts are related. The job of sociological theory is to explain social behavior in the real world. To test and refine these theories, sociologists need to do research. In deciding which theory they should choose, they choose a road map, or a theoretical approach to guide their thinking. A theoretical approach is a basic image of society that guides thinking and research.

In sociology there are three major theoretical approaches:

1)The Structural-Functional Approach: this is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system where all the parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach points to a relatively stable pattern of social behavior, otherwise known as a social structure. In each structure sociologists are searching for social functions. These are the consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society as a whole. The level of analysis is Macro-level.

There are three structural-functional pioneers: 1) Auguste Comte (he pointed out the need to keep society unified when many traditions were breaking dowm. 2) Emile Durkheim and 3) Herbert Spencer who compared society with the human body: just as the structural parts of the human body each carry out certain functions to help the entire organism to survive, social structures operate together to preserve society.

Robert K.Merton (1910-2003) expanded the understanding of social functions by pointing out that any social structure probably has many functions. Social functions can be divided in 1) manifest functions (consequences that can be recognized and are intended) and 2) latent functions (consequences that can’t be recognized and are not intentionally). Merton also recognized that not all the consequences/effects of social functions are good, thus a social dysfunction is any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society.

By the mid-1900s most sociologists favored the structural-functional approach but in recent decades its influence has declined. Critics point out that the structural-functional approach is not critical of inequalities based on social class, race, ethnicity and gender. All of these inequalities cause tension and conflict. Because the structural-functional approach focuses on stability (at the expense of conflict) it makes it conservative

2) The Social-Conflict Approach: is a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change and is a critical response to the structural-functional approach. This approach focuses on how factors like class, race, ethnicity, gender and age are linked to inequality in terms of money, power, education and social prestige. This approach rejects the idea that social structure promotes the operation of society as a whole. Instead it focuses on how any social pattern benefits some people while hurting others. This approach has led to two important theories: 1) Gender-Conflict Theory (from this feminism was born) and 2) Race-Conflict Theory. The level of analysis is Macro-level.

Critiques on this approach are about the fact that it largely ignores how shared values and interdependence can unify members of a society. This is mainly due to the fact that The Social-Conflict Approach focuses too much on inequality. Some critics say that a Social-Conflict Approach is not objective. A final criticism is that it paints society in broad strokes (in terms of ‘family, ‘social class’, ‘race’ etc.

3) The Symbolic-Interaction Approach: is a framework for building theory that sees society as a product of the everyday interactions of individuals. This theory has roots in the thinking of Max Weber (1864-1920). He emphasized understanding a particular setting form the point of view of the people in it. The level of analysis is Micro-level

In this approach the society is seen as an ongoing process in where people interact in countless settings using symbolic communications. The reality people experience is variable and changing. We create a reality for ourselves by looking at others. We first define our surroundings, decide what we think of others en then we can shape our own identity. Mirco-level sociology by using the Symbolic-Interaction Approach shows us how individuals construct and experience society. However, by focusing on the individual en what is unique this approach risks overlooking the widespread influence of culture as well as factors like class, gender and race.

Keep in mind that using all three approaches is the best way to fully understand society. Each approach teaches us a new aspect of society that together can give a broader picture on the workings of a society in smaller parts and as a whole (micro as well as macro level).

1.6: Three ways to do Sociology

There are three ways to construct sociological research:

1) Positivist Sociology is the study of society based on scientific observations of social behavior. Positivist research discovers facts by using science which is a logical system that develops knowledge from direct, systematic observation. Positivist sociology is sometimes called empirical sociology because it is based on empirical evidence which is information we can verify with our senses. A basic element of science is the concept. This is a mental construct that represents some part of the world in a simplified form. A variable is a concept whose value changes from case to case (example: height, weight, age). The concept ‘social class’ can describe people’s social standing by using values like upper class, middle class and lower class. The use of variables depends on measurement which is a procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case. Researchers must operationalize a variable before they can measure it.

Sociologists use descriptive statistics to state what is average for a large population ( the mean), to find out what the score at a halfway point in a listing of numbers from lowest to highest is (median) and to find out which score occurs the most (mode). For a measurement to be useful it has to be reliable and valid. Reliability refers to the consistency in measurement, but consistency does not guarantee validity which means that the measurement actually measures what you want it to measure.

The payoff of all your hard work is determining how the measured variables relate to each other. Correlation means a relationship in which two or more variables change together. This is not where it stops because a sociologist wants to know not just if variables change together but also which variable changes the other. The most ideal is when a scientist can determine cause and effect which is a relationship in which change in one variable causes change in another. The cause is the independent variable and the effect is the dependent variable. Important to remember is that just because two variables change together this does not mean that they have a cause-effect relationship. When to variables change together but neither one causes the other this relationship is called a spurious or false correlation.

Objectivity is an important guiding principle in science. It means that the person who is doing the research is neutral and such objective research allows the facts to speak for themselves and not be influenced by the personal values en biases of the researcher. It is of course impossible to achieve total neutrality but carefully observing the rules of scientific research will maximize objectivity. According to Weber, sociologist must be dedicated to finding truth as it is rather than as they think it should be. Researchers must stay open-minded and be willing to accept the results as they come. The argument Weber makes is still very important to sociology today although most researchers are realizing that nobody can be completely objective en know about all their biases which includes being aware of one’s own political/social background which can be a big influence.

The corresponding theoretical approach within positivist sociology is the structural-functional approach.

2) Interpretive Sociology

Within sociology not every sociologists will agree with the statement that the best way for conducting research about human society is science. This is because humans are much more than objects moving around in ways that can be measured. We are active creatures but our humanity lies in the fact that we attach some meaning to our actions and it is precisely this meaning that is not easily observed directly. This is way sociologist have invented an interpretive sociology which is the study of society that focuses on discovering the meanings people attach to their social world. Max Weber is a pioneer in this kind of sociology.

Interpretive sociology differs in three ways form positivist sociology:

• Positivist sociology focuses on actions because this is what we can observe directly interpretive sociology focuses on people’s understanding of their actions.

• Positivist sociology claims that objective reality is about those things that really exist, are really out there. It can be observed so this reality exists ‘out there’. Interpretive sociology says that reality is subjective and people give meanings that are constructed within their own minds.

• Positivist sociology with a focus on outward behavior favor quantitative data, interpretive sociology with a focus on inward behavior favors qualitative data.

Weber claims that the key to interpretive sociology lies in ‘verstehen’. It is not just to observe what people do, but also to share in their world of meaning coming the appreciate why people act as they do.

The corresponding theoretical approach within interpretative sociology is the structural symbolic-interaction approach. And de researcher is not a neutral observer but an participant.

3) Critical Sociology

Another branch within sociology who do not agree with the scientific method of positivist sociology are the ones is the critical sociology. This is the study of society that focuses on the need for social change. Sociologists who use critical sociology seek to change not only society but also the character of research itself. Society is patterns of inequality and the reality is that some categories of people dominate others.

Critical sociology wants to go beyond the positivism’s focus on studying the world as it is. Within critical sociology the researcher is guided by politics and uses research strategically so that they are maybe able to change society. The researcher is thus an activist and the corresponding theoretical approach is the social-conflict approach.

1.7: Gender and Research

In recent years it has come to light that research is affected by gender. Gender means the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being male or female.

According to Eichler, (1988) and Giovannini, (1992) gender can affect sociological research in five ways:

• Androcentricity

• Overgeneralization

• Gender blindness

• Double standards

• Interference

It must be stressed that there is nothing wrong with focusing a research on people of one sex or the other but every sociologist must be aware and mindful of how gender can effect an investigation.

1.8: Research Ethics

Like all other science fields sociology must be aware of the fact their work can harm as well as help people or communities. It is for this reason that sociologists have established guidelines for conducting research. Here are a few:

• Sociologist must try to be skillful and fair-minded in their work.

• Disclose all research findings without omitting significant data.

• They should make their results available to others

• Sociologist must make sure that the subjects that take part in a research project are not harmed and they must stop immediately when they suspect that some participants are being harmed.

• They have to protect the privacy of participants

• They have to let participants sign an informed consent which means that the participant must fully understand their responsibilities and the risks that come with the research before agreeing to take part.

• Sociologist must include in their published results all sources of financial support.

• Before beginning research in another country an investigator must become familiar enough with that society to understand what people there are likely to regard as a violation of privacy or a source of personal danger.

1.9: Research Methods

A research method is a systematic plan for doing research. The four most commonly used will be described below; these are the experiment, surveys, participant observation and the use of existing data.

Testing a Hypothesis: The Experiment

An experiment is a research method for investigating cause and effect under highly controlled conditions. They closely follow the logic of science, testing a specific hypothesis (which is an educated guess about how variables are linked). In an experiment the evidence needed to reject or accept a hypothesis is gathered in four steps.

• State which variable is the independent variable en which is the dependent variable.

• Measure the initial value of the dependent variable.

• Expose the dependent variable to the independent variable.

• Measure the dependent variable again to see what change took place.

(In the book the above is illustrated with the Stanford Prison Experiment)

Asking Questions: Survey Research

A survey is a research method in which subjects respond to a series of statements or questions on a questionnaire or in an interview. A survey picks a population (for example students) this is called the survey population. In most cases it is impossible to ask everyone who falls in a survey population to take part in a research so most researcher will take a sample from the survey population to make it more workable. A sample is a much smaller number of subjects selected to represent to entire population.

Besides selecting the subjects, the survey also needs a specific plan for asking and recording answers. This is in most cases done with the questionnaire method which can be a series of closed-ended questions like on a multiple –choice test. It can also happen that the researcher wants subjects to respond freely, to permit all opinions to be expressed. Then the researcher must ask open-ended questions in the questionnaire. The downside to this is that it can be quite a grueling task to make sense of the given open-ended answers.

In an interview a researcher personally asks subjects a series of questions, thereby solving the problem common to the questionnaire method: that some subjects don’t return the questionnaire to the researcher. With an interview the researcher can also ask deeper questions which provide in-depth responses. Downside to the interview method is that a researcher by asking the question him or herself can influence the subject, even in subtle ways. ( for example if you raise your eyebrow when someone gives you an answer, the subject can notice this and feel that you think something of here behavior). Furthermore interviews are expensive and time consuming.

In the book the survey research is illustrated by the research of Benjamin on studying the African elite (1991).

In the Field: Participant Observation

Participant observation is a research method in which investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities. This method is extremely useful for a exploratory and descriptive study of people in a natural setting, falling within interpretative sociology and produces qualitative data. Participant observation has not a lot of hard and fast rules but this flexibility allows researchers to explore the unfamiliar and adapt to the unexpected. Limitations are that it is time-consuming, replication of research is difficult and the researcher must balance the roles of participant and observer.

To illustrate the participant observation method the authors use the book ‘street corner society’ written by Whyte (1981, orig. 1943).

Using Available Data: Existing Sources

Not all research is done to gather new data, sometimes sociologists use existing sources, data that is collected by others. This is useful for exploratory, descriptive of explanatory research whenever suitable data is available. Advantages are that it saves time en money because you don’t need to collect the data yourself and it makes historical research possible. On the downside, as a researcher you have no control over the possible biases inside the data and not all the data may fit the current research needs.

To illustrate conducting research using available data the authors refer to the award winning study ‘Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia’ by E.Digby Baltzell (1979).

1.10: Putting it All Together: 10 Steps in Sociological Research

Here are ten questions that will guide you through a research project:

• What is your topic?

• What have others already learned?

• What, exactly, are your questions

• What will you need to carry out your research?

• Are there ethical concerns?

• What method will you use?

• How will you record the data?

• What do the data tell you?

• What are your conclusions?

• How can you share what you’ve learned with others?

2: The Workings of Culture

2.1 What is culture?

A culture is the ways of thinking, ways of acting, and material objects that together form a way of life for people. When you study a culture, you will have to consider the thoughts (nonmaterial culture) and things (material culture). The terms society and culture belong together but their precise meaning differ. Culture is a shared way of life and society refers to people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture. Society and culture need each other, otherwise they could not exist. If there is no culture, there is no society and vice versa.

When we travel to a county which has a whole different culture and an unfamiliar way of life it is most likely that you will feel some sort of culture shock. This is because we have the tendency to view our own way of life as ‘natural’. Most people around the world view their behavior as ‘natural’ but really, there is no such thing as ‘natural’ behavior. This is also a reason why we differ from animals who behave very much the same all around the world because their behavior is guided by instincts. This is in contrast with the creative power of humans. Only humans rely on culture rather than on instinct to create a way of life and ensure our survival.

Culture and Human Intelligence

5 million years ago, our distant human ancestors began walking upright. Stone Age achievements like: learning how to walk upright, building simple shelters, learning about the advantages of hunting in groups, the use of fire, tools and weapons mark the point at which our ancestors embarked on a distinct evolutionary course, making culture their primary strategy of survival. About 250.000 years ago the Homo sapiens had emerged. Humans continued to evolve and by about 40.000 years ago these ‘humans’ looked more or less like us. By looking at the cave art and wide range of tools that have survived we can suggest that these modern Homo sapiens developed culture really quickly. Settlements came into view about 12000 years ago in the region of the Middle-East and this marked a turning point because about this time the biological forces (instincts) had almost disappeared, replaced by the new tendency to fashion the natural environment to our purposes.

2.2 Elements of a culture

All cultures differ from each other but all cultures have four elements in common: symbols, language, values and norms.

1) Symbols (which is the basis for all the other elements). Humans transform the elements of the world into symbols. A symbol is anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture. Societies create new symbols every day. We are so dependent on our culture’s symbols that sometimes we take them for granted. We become aware of the importance of symbols when we are in a different culture and we don’t know or understand their symbol usage. We then feel lost and isolated, unsure of how to act and sometimes frightened. This inability to understand the meaning of a symbol in a different country is in essence what a culture shock is (for reasons both experienced as inflicted). Symbolic meanings also vary within a single society.

2) Language is the heart of a symbolic system. Language is a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another. Humans have made a lot of different alphabets to express all the languages we speak. Language allows much more than communication, it is the key to cultural transmission. Besides the fact that language skills links us to the past, they also spark the human imagination so that we can make causal connections between symbols in new ways. In doing so, we create a limitless range of future possibilities. Language sets humans apart from other creatures because of language we are self conscious, aware of limitations and ultimate mortality, yet are able to dream and strive for a better present and future.

The Sapir- Whorf thesis holds that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language. The symbols we use in a language does affect our reality because we shape reality out of our symbols, but it doesn’t determine reality in the way Sapir and Whorf claimed it to be.

3) Values and beliefs. When we admire a certain characters from books or movies, we are supporting certain values. Values are culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living. Values underlie beliefs which are specific ideas that people hold to be true.

Here are some characteristics about values:

• Values are often in harmony but sometimes in conflict

• Values change over time

• Values differ from culture to culture but in general it can be said that the values that are important in higher income countries differ somewhat from those common in lower income countries. Values in lower income countries focus more on survival, in higher income country the focus is on individualization and self-expression.

4) Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. In daily life people respond to other people with sanctions: rewards or punishments that encourage conformity to cultural norms. The term mores is coined by William Graham Sumner (1959, orig. 1606) to refer to norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance. Less attention is paid to folkways which are the norms for routine or casual interaction. When we learn about different kinds of cultural norms we gain the ability to look at our own behavior.

Important to remember is that the values and norms we set are more a reflection of how we want people ideally to behave, they are not a reflection of how people are actually behaving in reality.

2.3 Culture and technology

Every culture has, besides values and norms, a wide range of artifacts (physical human creations). These artifacts reflect to a certain extent the underlying cultural values. It also reflects a society’s level of technology, knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings. Researcher Gerhard Lenski (2010) says that the level of technology is a crucial factor that has an influence on what kind of ideas and artifacts a certain society has made or are possible to make.

The most basic way of life was hunting and gathering when humans used simple tools to hunt and gather vegetation for food. These kind of societies appeared around 3 million years ago en were still the dominant way of life until the 1800’s. Everybody from very young to very old helped in these societies to search for food. Women searched for vegetation while the men were out hunting. Because the two tasks were both considered having equal value, the two sexes also have the same social importance within their society. Hunting and gathering societies have no formal leader(s), they may have one person they look up to like a shaman of priest, but also they have to search for food, so it is a simple and egalitarian way of live. Because they have limited technology, hunters and gatherers are very vulnerable for the forces of nature. In the world today societies that are made up from hunters and gatherers are slowly decreasing.

Horticultural societies is a society were the people who live in it use hand tools to raise crops and they began to exist 10 000 years ago. In regions where there was a really dry climate people could not raise crops, instead they focused on the domestication of animals (pastoralism). The difference between pastoral peoples and horticulturalists is that pastoral people remain nomadic whilst horticulturalists build permanent settlements. In comparing pastoralism and horticulture with hunting and gathering it comes to light that pastoral and horticultural societies are more unequal because some families are the ruling elite.

Technological advances led to agriculture which is a large-scale cultivation using plows which are harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources. Agriculture developed 5000 years ago and first appeared in the Middle-East. Like horticultural societies also agricultural societies build permanent settlements. The development of agrarian technology expanded human choices and sparks urban growth but it also makes social life more individualistic and impersonal. There is also more social inequality.

Industrial societies came into view when people began replacing human muscles and animals with machines (industrialization). Industry is the production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machines. In industrial societies people work in factories and this replaced the traditional cultural values that till then guided agrarian societies. Industry also made the world look like a smaller place because goods and people could travel faster by boat and train. Industry also raised the standard of living and extended human life expectancy.

A lot of cultures have now entered the postindustrial era. Post industrialism refers to the production of information using computer technology. Postindustrial society centers around computers and other electronics that create, process, store, and apply ideas and information.

2.4 Cultural Diversity

Counties with a lot of cultural diversity like Holland or the US are multicultural; countries with no cultural diversity like Japan are monocultural. Cultural diversity also comes from social class. A society is divided into a high culture (cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite, like going to the opera or theater) and a popular culture (cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population). Sociologists feel some unease with the popular judgment that high culture is better than popular culture because of two reasons: first neither elite nor ordinary people all share the same tastes nor interests, the two groups also differ from each other within their own group. Second we must ask ourselves is we praise high culture because it really is better or if we praise high culture because its members have more power, money and prestige.

Subculture refers to cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population. Most people belong to more than one subculture. So we all belong into multiple subcultures without having to commit to only one of them. In reality some subcultures can be so dominant that a subculture can be strong enough to set people apart from other people (like religion and ethnicity).

Multiculturalism is a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of one’s county and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions. In reality the recognition for and equal standing of other cultures in a country is not always the case. In most countries that have more than one culture living in their society there is a hierarchy of different cultures that live in the same country.

When historians report events form the point of view of the English ancestry, and other historians from the point of European ancestry whilst paying little attention to the perspectives of other cultures this is called Eurocentrism ( the dominance of European (especially English) cultural patterns). To counter Eurocentrism, some multicultural educators call for Afrocentrism (emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns).

Supporters of multiculturalism say that by using this view we can learn a lot about our own countries past, we can understand the cultural diversity better and we can strengthen the academic achievement of African American children.

Multiculturalism is still very popular and favorable but there are some criticisms as well:

• Adversaries say it encourages divisiveness rather than unity because it urges people to identify with only their own category rather than with the nation as a whole.

• Critics say that multiculturalism harms minorities themselves:

  • Multicultural policies seem to support the same racial segregation that we have struggled to overcome.

  • It will create narrow-minded people because early in their education they get taught on certain topics from only one point of view.

• The whole global war on terrorism gave as a lot to think about and that we still have a lot to learn about tolerance and peacemaking.

Within a society where there is cultural diversity there is also in most cases a group that rejects the conventional ideas or behavior. This group is called a counterculture that has cultural patterns that strongly oppose to the widely accepted cultural patterns within a society.

A culture is always changing, if we like it or not. In most cases when one aspect of a culture changes, it also inflicts changes in other segments of a culture. These close relationships among various elements of a cultural system together are called the principle of cultural integration.

Some parts of a culture change faster than others, and this disrupts a cultural system. This fact is called a cultural lag by Ogburn (1964).

There are three causes that inflict cultural changes:

• Invention (process of creating new cultural elements).

• Discovery (recognizing and understanding more fully something that has already existed a long time).

• Diffusion (The spread of objects or traits form one society to another).

Given the fact that a specific culture forms the basis for everyday experiences, it is no wonder that people judge someone else’s culture by the standards of their own culture (ethnocentrism). Contrary to ethnocentrism there is cultural relativism. This is when people judge a culture by its own standards.

More than ever, societies around the world are more and more in contact with each other. This is thanks to the flow of goods (global economy), information (global communication) and people (global migration).

2.5 Theories of Culture

In this section, three macro theoretical approaches are further explained:

• Structural-Functional theory:

• • • Thinks of culture as a system of behavior by which members of societies cooperate to meet their needs. Cultural patterns are rooted in the values and beliefs that are very important to a culture and tend to by fairly stable.

• Social-conflict and Feminist theories:

• • • Thinks of culture as a system that benefits some people and disadvantages others. The foundation of cultural conflict is according to Marx the economic production, feminist find that cultural conflict comes from gender issues.

• Sociobiology theory:

• • • Thinks of culture as a system of behavior that is partly shaped by human biology. Cultural patterns come from biological evolution.

2.6 Culture and Human Freedom

Culture can be seen as a constraint, or as a freedom. Culture as a constraint because we may be the only creatures on this planet who can name ourselves but this is precisely why we also feel alienation. Furthermore it’s a fact that culture is a matter of habit which also limits our choices and drives us to repeat patterns. Culture can also be seen as a freedom because we ourselves shape make and remake our own culture.

3: Socialization Process, a Lifelong Process

3.1 What is socialization?

Socialization is a continuous process that lasts your whole life. It develops our humanity but also our particular personalities. The importance of socialization can be seen in the fact that when a person experiences extended periods of social isolation this can inflict permanent damage. Socialization is more a matter of nurture then of nature. Not more than a century ago, people thought that biological instincts were the impetus of human behavior. For us as human beings it is in our nature to nurture others.

3.2 Key figures that contributed to our understanding of Socialization

There are some important key figures that made a big contribution in helping us to understand socialization. In this section the authors name seven of them.

1) Sigmund Freud

He found that the human personality consists of three parts:

• The id: is an innate, pleasure-seeking human drive.

• The Superego: The demands of society in the form of internalized values and norms.

• Ego: Our efforts to balance innate, pleasure-seeking drives and the demands of society.

2) Jean Piget

He believed that human development comes from biological maturation and of gaining social experiences. He identified four stages of cognitive development.

• The sensorimotor stage (experience the world only through senses).

• The preoperational stage (experience the world for the first time through sybols and other language).

• The concrete operational stage (experience the world for the first time through causal connections in their surroundings).

• The formal operational stage (experience the world for the first time through abstract and critical thinking).

3) Lawrence Kohlberg

He applied the four stages of Piget to develop stages of moral development:

• We first judge rightness in pre conventional terms that are in line with our individual needs.

• Next conventional moral reasoning takes account of parental attitudes and cultural norms.

• Finally, post conventional reasoning allows us the criticize society itself.

4) Carol Gilligan

One of her findings is that gender plays an important role in moral development. Males rely more on abstract standards of rightness and females rely more on the effects of actions on relationships.

5) George Herbert Mead

According to Mead the ‘self’ is a part of your personality and that includes self-awareness and self-image. Your ‘self’ develops as a result of social experience (which involves the exchange of symbols). Social interaction depends on understanding the intentions of another, which requires you to step into someone else’s shoes. Human action is according to Mead partly spontaneous (I), and partly in response with others (Me). We gain social experience partly through understanding the generalized other.

6) Charles Horton Cooley

He is the first one to use the term ‘looking-glass self’. With this he wanted to explain that we act a certain way so that other people look at us, how we want them to look at us. We try to put an image in the minds of others so that we can manage the way others look at us.

7) Erik H. Erikson

He identified various challenges that individuals face in their life, form being born to old age. Personality formation is in his eyes a lifelong process. If you have success at one stage it prepares you for the next stage. He points out how several factors (family, school) shape our personalities.

3.3 Special importance of familiar settings in the socialization process

Every social experience affects our socialization process in some way, but there are a few familiar settings that have a special importance:

• The family: For some years the family has to teach children values, norms and beliefs, this teaching is not always intentionally, children also learn from their surroundings/type of environment that parents create. The family also gives children an identity (social race and class play al large part in shaping the child’s identity.

• The school: Schooling will enlarge the social world of a child. They get to know people with different backgrounds. They also begin to understand the importance of class and race. As they are exploring the importance of these factors, they are most likely to do so in clusters with other children that have their class, race and gender.

• The peer-group: By the time children go to school they have also found out about peer groups ( a social group whose members have interests, social position and age in common).Peer group allows children to escape supervision of adults (which are often concerned who their children are friends with). Adults (parents) will always have a strong more lasting influence then peers (who have influence on short-term things like music taste and tv-programs). Any neighborhood has several peer groups and every member of every group finds their own group the best. People are also influenced by the groups they want to join, this process is called: anticipatory socialization.

• The mass media: not only important because they are so powerful but also because the influence of mass media is most likely to differ from that of the family, the school or the peer group. Mass media introduces people to ideas and images that reflect the larger society and the entire world.

In the end we see that socialization is not a simple learning process but a complex balancing act as we absorb information from a variety of sources, this information is weighed and sorted en with this we form our unique personalities.

3.4 Socialization and Lifecycle

Childhood has a special importance in the socialization process, learning will continue throughout the rest of your life. The course of one’s life reveals how society organizes human experience according to age which are divided into stages of live:

• Childhood

• Adolescence

• Adulthood

• Old age

The brief examination of the life course (p.85-86) leaves us with two important conclusions:

• Although each stage of life reflects the biological process of aging, life course is for the greater part a social construction.

• In any society the live stages present certain problems and transitions that involve learning something new and unlearning familiar routines.

The life experiences of people also vary depending on when and in what age they were born. Members of an age cohort are generally influenced by the same economic en cultural trends, and tend to have the same values and develop the same attitudes.

3.5 Total Institutions

Last type of socialization can be experienced in total institutions like prisons and mental hospitals. People in these institutions (inmates) are isolated and controlled by an administrative staff. Goffman (1961) has identified three characteristics: 1) all aspects of daily life are controlled by a staff, 2) Life in a total institution is controlled and standardized, 3) formal rules dictate when, were and how the inmates go about their daily lives.

The purpose is to ‘resocialize’ an inmates’ personality by this careful controlled environment. (resocialization). It’s a two-part process: 1) the staff breaks down an existing identity and when that’s finished, 2) the staff tries to built a new image (self) through a system of rewards or punishments. These total institutions affect all people who are in it in a different way.

4: Social interaction in Daily Life

This chapter offers a micro-level look at society. First it will deal with identifying social structures, then the authors try to explain how people construct reality and lastly it applies lessons that we learned to three important dimensions: humor, emotions and gender.

4.1 Social Structure

All members of society rely on social structure. In every society people use the idea of status to build their lives. Status is part of our social identity en defines our relationships with one another. Simmel has pointed out that we first need to know who the person is before we can deal with the person. An individual has more than one status; we all have a status set. These sets change over your life course. Over a lifetime people gain and lose a lot of statuses.

Statuses can be classified in terms of how people get their status:

• Ascribed status you are given at birth (being a son, being Dutch, etc, you have little choice over this status).

• Achieved status is a status you take on voluntarily and reflects personal ability and effort. (like honor student, writer, lawyer, etc).

We all have statuses, but some statuses are more important than others. A status that has a special importance is called a master status. This status can be negative or positive.

A person holds a status and performs a role. A role is expected behavior of someone who holds a particular status. Statuses and roles are different in each country. Just like we hold many statuses at the same time we also perform multiple roles (role set).

When you juggle many responsibilities at the same time that come with the various statuses and roles it is not unlikely that this sometimes will lead to a role conflict. We get pulled in various directions as we try to respond to many roles and sometimes this becomes too much for one person to handle. Even within one status, you can have multiple roles and sometimes there can be tension among roles that are connected to the same status (role strain).

4.2 Social Construction of Reality

The process by which people construct a reality through social interaction is called the social construction of reality. This is de foundation of the symbolic-interaction approach. We present ourselves in a way that suits the setting and our purposes and as others do this as well, we construct a reality. Street smarts are a form of constructing reality and the situations that are defined as being real, have real consequences (Thomas Theorem).

In most cases we take social reality for granted. To become more aware, Garfinkel (1967) came up with ethnomethodology which is the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings. A good way become aware of everyday reality is when you break the rules.

Social background (class and culture) affects what we see. Put in a global perspective it becomes clear that reality building varies even more. People build reality from the surroundings that they live in and their view or social reality about the same subjects can be totally different form your social reality.

4.3 Presentation of the Self

Sociologist Erving Goffman analyzed social interaction and explained how people live their lives much like the actors on a stage (Dramaturgical analysis). This analysis offers a fresh new look at the concepts of status and role. In this analysis the status is the part of play and a role is a script and your performance is the presentation of the self (your effort to create specific impressions in the minds of others), this is also called impression management.

When we are ‘playing our part’ we can also communicate without saying a single word, this is called nonverbal communication for which we use body language (gestures, bodymovement, facial expressions etc).

Gender is also a key element in the presentation of the self:

• Demeanor (the way we act and carry ourselves) is a indicator of power, the more power, the more freedom you have in the way you are allowed to act. Women generally have jobs with lesser power then men, so demeanor is a gender issue as well.

• Personal space (the surrounding area which you claim as your private space) When you are speaking to a person, you stay several feet apart but in de middle east people stand much closer than we do. Just about everywhere men often intrude into women’s personal space, and if a women moves into a men’s personal space he often thinks she wants sex.

Staring (eye contact) encourages interaction, smiling often shows pleasure, but can also be a sign of pleasing other people or submission, and touching suggests intimacy and caring.

Goffman suggests that we idealize our intensions by constructing performances. We try to convince others that our actions reflect ideal cultural standards rather than selfish motives. We all use idealization in some degree.

Embarrassment is an ever-present danger because idealized performances typically contain some degree of deception. As people we tend to overlook these ‘flaws’ to avoid embarrassment for the other person en we want to help the person recover from his or her embarrassment.

Goffman’s research shows that although behavior is spontaneous in some ways, it is more patterned then we like to think.

4.4 Three Applications of Interaction in Daily Life

This paragraph illustrates the major elements of social interaction whilst focusing on three important dimensions: emotions, laughing and humor.

Emotions (social construction of feeling) or feelings are very important (what we do often matters less then how we feel about it). Just as society guides our behavior, it also guides our emotions. Every humanbeing has the same basic emotions, but culture guides 1) what makes us feel a certain emotion, 2) how people show their emotions and 3) how people value their emotions.

Laughing: (social construction of gender) Language is gender related. The way women and men an speak defines them as different types of people. How people respond is a reflection of what society thinks is a typical female or a male answer. This also shows that society attach greater power to what men say, then to what women say.

Humor: Humor is part of a culture, and people in different countries have a different kind of humor. Humor is a result of a difference between conventional and unconventional facets of a situation. It is much more important than you think, it’s a mental escape from a conventional world that is not entirely what you want it to be.

5: The Workings of Groups & Organization in Society

This chapter firstly explains what a social group is and will speak of the different types of social groups. Then the differences between the social groups will be discussed. In the last segment the focus will shift to formal organizations that govern various tasks in modern day cities.

5.1 Social Groups, what are they?

Almost everyone wants to belong or fit in into a group. A social group is a group that consists of two people who identify with one another and interact with each other. Examples for groups are: couples, friend circles, church, neighborhoods, large organizations. A group contains people with shared experiences, loyalties and interests. Social groups think of themselves as a special ‘we’. Keep in mind that not every collection of individuals is a social group (common status, Women etc. are categories, not groups.

There are two types of social groups:

• Primary group (Small group, members share personal and lasting relationships, personal orientation).

• Secondary group (Bigger group than the primary group, feels impersonal, has a goal orientation, so the members strive towards a specific goal or activity).

Keep in mind that these traits define two groups in an ideal from, in reality most groups have elements of both. Also watch out for the generalization that small towns emphasize primary relationships and that large cities are characterized by secondary relationships.

Important element of a group is the leader. There are two types of leaders:

• Instrumental leadership (concentrate on performance, usually have formal secondary relationships with its members)

• Expressive leadership (concentrate on the well being of its members, often has informal personal relationships with its members).

Sociologists describe leadership in terms of decision-making style:

• Authoritarian leadership (members have to obey orders, focuses on instrumental concerns, takes personal charge)

• Democratic leadership (More expressive, wants to include everyone in the decision making, makes for creative solutions in stress situations).

• Laissez-faire leadership (Allows the group to function more or less on its own.

Members want everyone in their group to fit in. This gives a secure feeling of belonging but group-pressure can also be very unpleasant and dangerous. Experiments by Asch (1952) and Milgram (1963, 1965, 1986) shows that even strangers can encourage group conformity. This overly desire to fit in, can lead to groupthink (Janis, 1972, 1989).

We use references groups to assess our own attitudes and behavior. Reference groups can be primary or secondary. Through our need to conform It shows how the attitudes of others affect us. A reference group is a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions. We do not make judgements about ourselves in isolation, and we don’t compare ourselves with everyone we see or meet. Regardless of our situation in absolute terms, we form a subjective sense about how we look at ourselves by comparing ourselves to reference groups (Stouffer et.al. (1949).

We all have a favorite and a non favorite group, an in- or an out-group. We feel loyalty to the in-group and we feel a sense of competition or opposition for an out-group.

There are different groupsizes according to Simmel:

• The Dyad (2 persons)

• The Triad (3 persons)

As a group gets bigger, it becomes more stable and capable of coping with the loss of some members. Bigger groups have a lesser intense interaction so there is also less personal attachment and more focus on formal rules and regulations.

Race ethnicity, class and gender play a role in group dynamics. Peter Blau discovered three ways in which social diversity influences group dynamics:

• Large groups turn inward

• Heterogeneous groups turn outward

• Physical boundaries create social boundaries.

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A network is a web of social ties, a social web. Largest network of all is the internet. Some networks are almost a group but it contains of people we know and who know us but we rarely interact with them. Network ties give as the sense we live in a small world. Network ties way be weak but they can come in very handy and can be a powerful resource (whom you know is often just as important as what you know). Networks are based on colleges, café’s, political parties, personal interests etc. Some networks have more power, prestige and wealth then others, and some networks are denser than others. Gender also plays a part in networks. Although networks of man en women are the same size, women have more relatives in their networks and men more co-workers.

5.2 Types and Origins of Formal Organizations

Etzioni identified three categories of formal organizations:

• Utilitarian organizations

• Normative organizations

• Coercive organizations

It is possible for an organization to fall into each organization category, it depends on how you look at the organization.

Formal organizations already existed thousands of years ago but they lacked technology and they had traditional cultures ( tradition makes a society conservative, organizations hardly change because of this). The rise of the organizational society is a result of the rationalization of society (this is when people were starting to think rational instead of traditional).

It is really hard to run an organization effectively. People began to rationally design a model so that an organization could run effectively, this is called bureaucracy.

Weber identified six key elements that a bureaucratic organization should have:

• Specialization

• Hierarchy of offices

• Rules and regulations

• Technical competence

• Impersonality

• Formal written communications

How well an organization performs depends also on the factors (technology, economic, political events, current events, available workforce and other organizations) outside an organization that affects is operation (organizational environment).

In real life, bureaucracy has an informal side. Human beings are creative enough to resist bureaucratic regulations. Informality comes partly from the personality of the organizational leader. Different types of leaders will produce different kinds of bureaucracy. Emails have loosened up bureaucratic organizations because everyone, from the lowest to the highest ranking can bypass immediate superiors and come in to direct contact with the boss.

There are a few problems with bureaucracy, it can dehuminaze (Bureaucratic alienation) and manipulate us and some say it is a threat to political democracy. Rob Merton coined the term bureaucratic ritualism to refer to the focus on rules and regulations to the point that it undermines an organization’s goals. Rules and regulations are there to reach a goal, they are not a goal in itself. In some cases, bureaucratic organizations tend to take a life of their own beyond their formal objectives (bureaucratic inertia)

Robert Michels pointed out the relation between bureaucracy and political oligarchy. The pyramid shape of an bureaucratic organization shows that only a few leaders lead an entire organization consisting of many workers.

5.3 Evolution of Formal Organizations

According to Weber a bureaucracy is a top-down system and a century ago his idea took shape in the organizational model that is called scientific management. This is the application of scientific principles to the operation of a business or other larger organization. It consist of three steps:

• Managers carefully observe how each worker performs the job.

• Managers analyze their observed data to search for new ways which will make the job more efficiently.

• Management provides guidance and incentives for workers to do their jobs more efficiently.

The principles of scientific management do lead to greater productivity but by breaking every job into a lot of smaller steps and give managers more control over their workers scientific management also leads to social inequality between managers and workers.

5.4 The Future of Formal Organizations

One challenge to conventional bureaucracy is to become more open and flexible in order to take advantage of the experience, ideas and creativity of everyone who works for them. Weber knew and acknowledged that bureaucratic systems would be efficient but also dehumanizing. It limits creativity, choice and freedom. But there is a change coming as large organizations more strive to a flatter, more flexible model that encourages communication and creativity.

6: Sexuality and its Impact on Society

This chapter will explain that sex is a not just a simple biological process linked to reproduction. Society shapes human sexuality and guides sexuality in our daily lives.

6.1 Understanding sexuality

In a biological way, sex refers to the bodily differences between man and women (primary sex characteristics, genitalia and organs used to reproduce) and secondary sex characteristics, bodily developments apart from genitals that makes man manly and women feminine)

Gender is different, this term refers to the psychological sex a person has (is cultural).

On the one hand sexuality is a biological issue because:

• Your sex is determined when you are conceived

• Males and females have different genitals and bodily development that make you either a man or a woman.

• Hermaphrodites have a combination of male and female genitalia.

• Transsexual people feel that they have been born in the wrong body; they want to be the sex that they are not born with. (female wants to be male and vice versa) .

On the other hand sexuality is a cultural issue

• For humans sex is not a biological programming but a matter of cultural meaning and personal choice.

• Sexual practices vary in every society. Every society has a different opinion on sexual practices like kissing, standards of beauty etc.

• The incest taboo exists in all societies because the regulation of sexuality is a necessary element of social organization. Specific taboos vary from one society to another.

6.2 Sexual attitudes in de US

The sexual revolution (1960s 1970s) made sexuality an topic that could be more openly discussed. The baby boomers were the first generation that grew up with the idea that sex was a normal part of live.

The sexual counterrevolution (1980s) had huge amount of critique at the ‘permissiveness’ and urged to people to return to a more traditional way of family life with the old family values.

Alfred Kinsey was the first to study sexual behavior in the US and many followed him. Al these researches have reached interesting conclusions about sexuality in the US.

• Premarital sexual intercourse became more common during the 20^th century

• Almost half of young men have had intercourse in their senior year in High School.

• Among all adults in the US, sexual activity varies.

• Extramarital sex is condemned widely all over the world.

6.3 Sexual orientation

There exist our sexual orientations:

• Heterosexuality (attracted to the opposite sex)

• Homosexuality (attracted to the same sex)

• Bisexuality (attracted to both sexes)

• Asexuality (attracted to neither sexes)

Most research supports the conclusion that sexual orientation is rooted in biology in much the same way as being right-handed or left handed. Sexual orientation is not a matter of neat categories, its not like someone can say that he or she is 100% this or that. Many hetero’s have homosexual experiences and vice versa. Homosexuality still is an hot topic in debates and although the gay rights movement has helped to change the public attitude towards gay people still a lot of people have great difficulty in accepting homosexuality.

6.4 Sexual issues and controversies

In the US about 750000 teenagers become pregnant each year. The rate of teenage pregnancy has dropped since the ‘50s but a difference with the present situation is that teens that were pregnant in the 50’s got married and a lot of teens pregnant today don’t get married. They have a high risk of dropping out and becoming poor.

Pornography is sexually explicit material that causes sexual arousal. Every community sets their own standards of decency. Conservatives condemn pornography based on morals, liberals see pornography as a power issue and find it demeaning to women.

A prostitute is someone who sales sexual services. Prostitution is illegal almost everywhere in de US. Many people think of prostitution as a victimless crime but it does victimize women and is the cause of widely spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Every year in de US 85000 people get raped, but the actual number is most likely to be higher. About 10 % of all the rapes involve men as the victim.

In 1900 al states of the US have banned laws of abortion. People who are opposed to abortion call themselves as being ‘pro life’ and are against abortion on moral grounds. People who support abortion call themselves ‘pro-choice’ and think that every woman has the right to choose abortion.

6.5 Theories of sexuality

You can apply the three theories to sexuality:

Structural-functional theory: Level of analysis is macro, according to this theory society depends on sexuality for reproduction and society uses the incest taboo and other norms to control sexuality in order to maintain social order. Sexuality has changed over time because as advances in birth control technology separate sex from reproduction, societies are more relaxed when wanting to control sexuality.

Symbolic-interaction theory: Level of analysis is micro, according to this theory sexual practices vary among the many cultures in the world. Some societies allow individuals more freedom than others in matters of sexual behavior. Sexuality has changed over time because the meanings people attach to virginity and other sexual matter are all socially constructed and subject to change.

Social-Conflict/Feminist theory: Level of analysis is macro, according to this theory is sexuality linked to social inequality. US society regulates women’s’ sexuality more than a men’s sexuality. This theory isn’t conclusive if sexuality has changed over time, in some ways it has in some ways it hasn’t. Some sexual standards have relaxed, but society still defines women in sexual terms.

7: Deviant Behavior

This chapter explains how and why society creates and encourages both conformity and deviance. Also the concept of crime is introduced and looks at the way the criminal justice system works.

7.1 Deviance

It is called deviance when someone violates the norm ranging from minor infractions (bad manners) to major infractions (serious violence). One category of deviance is crime and this also has a wide range. Not all deviance involves action or even choice.

All of us are subject to social control; often this is an informal process but in cases of serious deviance may have to be handled by the criminal justice system. Every society sees deviance in a different way and has largely to do with how society is organized.

Biological context and biological theories about crime give a limited explanation. It may be true that biological traits in combination with environmental factors explain why some people commit serious crimes. Because the biological context looks closely at the individual it offers no insight whatsoever on how some kinds of behaviors come to be identified as deviant in the first place. Current research puts a greater focus on social influences than on biological influences because the research is still not decisive enough.

Psychology research has shown that personality patterns have some connection to deviance. The people who commit serious crimes are sometimes psychopaths. However most serious crimes are committed by people who are psychological defined as normal.

Biologist and psychologist view deviance as a trait of individuals. The reason why biological and psychological research has a limited value is because deviance is more rooted in the organization of society.

Deviance is shaped by society because

• We can say that deviance varies according to cultural norms.

• People become deviant as others define them in that way.

• Both norms and the way people define rule-breaking involve social power.

7.2 The Function of Deviance

Durkheim made the statement that there is nothing special about deviance; in fact according to him deviance has four essential functions:

• Deviance affirms cultural values and norms

• Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries

• Responding to deviance brings people together

• Deviance encourages social change.

R.Merton argued that some deviance may be necessary for a society to function, but too much deviance results from particular social arrangements. R.Cloward and L.Ohlin (1966) extended Merton’s theory proposing that crime results not simply form limited legitimate opportunity but also from readily accessible illegitimate opportunity. Deviance or conformity depends on the relative opportunity structure that frames a person’s life. Albert Cohen Suggests that criminality is most common among lower-class youths because they have the least opportunity to achieve success by conventional means. Walter Miller adds that deviant subcultures are characterized by trouble, toughness, smartness, a need for excitement, a belief in fate end a desire for freedom. E.Anderson explains that poor urban neighborhoods most people manage to conform to conventional of decent values. But because people in these neighborhoods are constantly faced with crime, people (young men) feel neglect and hostility towards police or even their parents. At that point young men can decide to live by the ‘street code’ to show others that he can survive on the streets.

7.3 Defining Deviance

With symbolic-interaction analysis came the labeling theory which is the idea that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions.

E.Lemert observed that some deviance may provoke some reaction from others but this process has little effect on the self-concept. Lemert calls this primary deviance. After an audience takes notice of deviant acts, it may change the person who committed deviant acts. He or she is going to talk, dress and act differently, rejecting people who are critical of his or her actions and go on repeatedly breaking rules. Lemert calls this change of self concept secondary deviance.

Secondary deviance is the start of an deviant career. (Goffman) When someone develops a deeper commitment to deviant behavior they typically acquire a stigma. This operates as a master status, overpowering other statuses of dimensions of identity.

Once people begin to stigmitaze they may engage in retrospective labeling (this is when you take the past of a deviant person and see in this past also deviant acts that maybe weren’t there). It also can provoke projective labeling. This is when people use a deviant identity to predict the persons future actions.

T.Szasz claims that people are too quick in labeling certain behavior they find annoying as deviant or even as mental illnesses.

Labeling theory by Szasz and Goffman helps to explain an important shift in the way our society understands deviance. Over the past fifty years the growing influence of psychiatry and medicine has resulted in the medicalization of deviance.

When you define a certain acts as deviant it has three consequences:

• It affects who responds to deviance

• Issue of how people respond to deviance

• Issue of the competence of the deviant person.

According to E.Sutherland a person’s tendency toward conformity or deviance depends on the amount of contact with others who encourage or reject conventional behavior (differential association)

T. Hirschi is the developer of the control theory which states that social control depends on people’s anticipating the consequences of the behavior. Hirschi links conformity to four different types of social control:

1. Attachment

2. Commitment

3. Involvement

4. Belief

7.4 Deviance and inequality

Social-conflict theory says that laws and other norms operate the way they do to protect the interests of powerful members of a society (Marxist view). There are three types of crime:

• White collar crimes: Crimes that are committed by people who are in a high social position. Sutherlands says that these kind of crimes don’t get prosecuted that often and are most likely to come before civil court (rather than criminal court).

• Corporate crimes: Are illegal actions made by corporations or people that are acting on the behalf of the corporation. Corporate crimes cause a lot of public harm but in most cases they walk freely.

• Organized Crimes: These are crimes committed by business that supply illegal goods or services.

7.5 Deviance race and Gender

Race-conflict and feminist theory see deviance as a reflection of racial and gender inequality. Racial-conflict theory calls criminal acts towards a person by an offender which is motivated by racial or other bias a hate crime. Deviant labels are more readily applied to women and other minorities. Important to deviance is that it is a means of control. Dominant people discredit others so they can dominate them.

7.6 Crime

There are two major crime types that are in the crime index of the FBI:

• Crimes against the person (murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery).

• Crimes against property (Burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

A third category that is not included in the index is:

• Victimless crime (Illegal drug use, prostitution and gambling).

Researches use official crime statistics to conduct victimizing surveys. These are some crime patterns from the US that research has discovered:

• 62% are arrested for property crimes, and 80 % of people arrested for violent crimes are male.

• Arrest rates peak in late adolescence and drop with age.

• Street crime is common among people of lower social class and class differences in criminality are smaller.

• More white people than African Americans are arrested for street crimes, however in relation to their population size, more African Americans are arrested.

7.7 The Criminal Justice System of the US.

The criminal justice system is the formal response to crime. The US criminal justice system consists of a police, the courts and the system of punishments and corrections.

• The police will decide based on logic and personal discretion whether and how to handle a situation. Research suggests that police officers are more likely to arrest someone if the offense is serious, if there are bystanders, or if the suspect is African American or Latino.

• The Courts give a verdict based on the advice of attorneys. Two attorneys, one for the defendant and one for the state, will present their cases in the presence of a judge. In most cases it will not come to this but the attorneys will settle the case through plea bargaining.

There are four justifications for punishment:

• Retribution

• Deterrence

• Rehabilitation

• Societal protection

The death penalty is still legal in most of the states of the US. People living in the US are still pro-death penalty but judges, criminal prosecutors and members of trial jury are less and less likely to give the death penalty. Four reasons:

• Crime rate has gone down over the past couple of years.

• It may be that the death penalty has been used unjustly.

• It is now also an option to give a criminal a lifelong jail sentence without the possibility of parole.

• Death penalty cases are really expensive and these high costs are a serious factor for why the state doesn’t give the death-penalty as much as before.

Prison is the place we use to correct and alter behavior of criminals but in reality it isn’t as effective as one might hope, and it costs a lot of money to maintain prisons. A recent alternative to prison is the community-based corrections which are correctional programs that operate within society at large rather than behind prison bars. As a result, they are saving money and the prisons are less overcrowded. There are three forms of community based correction:

• Probation

• Shock probation

• Parole

8: Social Stratification in Society

This chapter introduces the concept of social stratification.

8.1 Social stratification

Every society has some social stratification, this is defined as a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy and it is based on four principles

Social stratification:

• Is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.

• Carries over from generation to generation.

• Is universal but variable.

• Involves not just inequality but beliefs as well.

8.2 Caste and Class systems

A society can have a closed system (caste system) or an open system (class system). A caste system is social stratification based on ascription, or birth. Many of the agrarian societies are caste systems (like India) because agriculture demands a lifelong routine of hard work.

Caste systems: 1)Determines the direction of a person’s life, 2)Demands that people marry others from the same caste.3)Guides everyday life by keeping people in the company of their own kind. 4) Rest on powerful cultural beliefs.

Class systems: 1) are based on birth and on individual achievement (meritocracy).2) Permit social mobility. 3) are common in industrial and postindustrial societies

Stratification is not just based on birth, but also on your merits (Latin for ‘earned’) This includes knowledge, abilities and effort. A society with a pure meritocracy has never existed. Class systems in industrial societies did move towards a meritocracy but at the same time keep elements caste systems to maintain order and social unity. Status consistency is the degree of uniformity in a person’s social standing across various dimensions of social inequality. (Caste system has little social mobility so a high status consistency).

The United Kingdom is a good example of a country that has a mix of caste and meritocracy in their class system. It’s an industrial nation which has a long agrarian history. For an example of a classless society we have to turn to the former Sovjet Union. When in 1985 Gorbachev took power and introduced his perestroika it was the start of one of the most dramatic social movements in history. In the 20^th century there was upward social mobility in Russia. Expanding industry drew a lot of poor peasants into factories and offices; this is a good example of structural social mobility. When we want an example of new emerging class systems which is a mix of old political and new industrial hierarchy, then China is a good one to study.

A reason that explains way social hierarchies still exist is by ideology. An ideology consists of cultural beliefs that justify a particular social arrangement, like social hierarchies or patterns of inequality.

8.3 Applying theory to social stratification

Structural-functional theory: Davis-Moore thesis proposes that social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of a society. They give a good argument: if it wouldn’t be beneficial why else has every culture some form of social stratification? Davis and Moore claim that a society could be egalitarian but only if people really want to be. Do we want to have a society in which all people can perform any job they want? Would we like it if someone performs poorly he or she gets the same reward as someone who performs good? A system like this wouldn’t really inspire people to try their best. The thesis by Davis-Moore gives a suggestion not a definite answer to the question why social stratification exists.

Melvin Tunim critised the Davis-Moore thesis:

• He wondered how you assess the importance of a particular occupation. Furthermore, do rewards actually reflect the contribution someone makes to society?

• He claimed that Davis and Moore ignore how the caste elements of social stratification can prevent the development of individual talent.

• Living in a society that places so much emphasis on money we tend to overestimate the importance of high-paying work

Structural-functional theory (p.213):

• Level of analysis is on macro-level

• Stratification is a system of unequal rewards that benefits society as a whole.

• Social position reflects personal talents and abilities in a competitive economy.

• Unequal rewards are fair, because they boost economic production and spur people on to work harder and try new ideas.

Social-conflict theory: According to Marx social stratification is rooted in people’s relationship to the means of production. Aristocracy in industrial capitalism was replaced by the capitalists and the peasants by the proletarians. Capitalists and proletarians will come into conflict with one another because they have opposing interests and the division between rich and poor. Marx thought that overtime the proletarians would overthrow the capitalists. Because the poorer are getting poorer and the richer are getting richer he foresaw that Capitalism would bring about its own downfall. According to Marx the poor people don’t enjoy their work anymore because they have little control over what kind of products they make and how they make the products, work only produces alienation. After capitalism would be overthrown, socialism would replace capitalism and take over.

Why has this revolution never happened? Four reasons:

1) Fragmentation of the capitalist elite.

2) A higher standard of living.

3) More worker organization.

4) Greater legal protections.

Max Weber agreed with Marx that social stratification is the cause for social conflict but he found Marx’s two-class model too simple. Weber identified three distinct dimensions of social stratification: Economic class, social status/prestige and power. The conflict exists between people at various positions on a multidimensional hierarchy of socioeconomic status (SES).

Social-conflict theory: (p.213)

• Level of analysis is on macro-level.

• Stratification is a division of a society’s resources that benefits dome people and harms others.

• Social position reflects the way society divides resources.

• Unequal rewards are not fair, they only divide society.

Symbolic-interaction theory

Social-conflict theory & Structural-functional theory treat social stratification as a macro-level issue. Symbolic-interaction theory about social stratification uses a micro-level approach. In this theory stratification is a factor that guides people’s interactions in everyday life. The products we consume all say something about our social position. Some people may or may not find unequal rewards as fair. People may view their social position as a measure of self-worth and will justify inequality in terms of personal differences.

8.4 A Global Perspective: Stratification and Technology

In this section the relationship between a society’s level of technology and its type of social stratification is explained on the basis of Gerard Lenski’s model of sociocultural evolution. This analysis gives the following conclusion: The advancing of technology initially increases social stratification (strongest social stratification is in agrarian societies) but industrialization has reversed this trend, and reduced social stratification for a while, till the postindustrial society emerged and social stratification again increased.

8.5 Inequality in the US

There are many dimensions involved in social stratification:

• Income: This is the money you earn by working or the money you get out of investments. These earnings are unequal. In de US the richest families make 12 times more money than the poorest families.

• Wealth: Your wealth is the total value of all your assets minus the depts. The distribution of wealth is even more unequal then income.

• Power: income and wealth together determines how much power a person has.

• Occupational Prestige: when you are working, you’re not just earning money, you’re also earning prestige. White-collar jobs offer more income and prestige then blue-collar jobs. Jobs that generate low income and prestige are often done by women and people of color.

• Schooling: The way you were schooled has a big influence on both your occupation and income. Some people have more opportunities to go to good schools/universities.

• Family ancestry, race and ethnicity and gender all have an effect on your social standing.

8.6 Social Classes in the US

It is not easy to define classes in the US because of the low level of consistency, it is more like a fluid class system instead of a rigid class system like de caste system. But the author of this book uses the four general rankings (which also can be subdivided into other categories):

• The upper class: 5% of the US population

• • • Upper-uppers: Old rich, inherited their wealth.

    • Lower-uppers : New rich, Work high-paying jobs to earn their money.

• The middle class: 40-50% of the US population

• • • Upper-middles: have significant wealth, more prestige then average-middles.

    • Average-middles: less prestige, do white-collar work and most of them have attended or attend college.

• The working class: 30-40% of the US population, blue-collar work, only 1/3 of the children attends college.

• The lower class: 20% of the US population. Lack financial security because they have low incomes, many life below the poverty line, 50% of the lower class hasn’t completed high school.

People that have high social standing, in general have better health, have certain values and political beliefs, and pass on cultural capital to their children. In the US they have a certain amount of social mobility, only small changes occur from one generation to the next. Because of the expansion the world economy the richest families now make more money than ever. People that are in the lower classes only have had small increases in income.

8.7 Poverty in the US

There is relative poverty and absolute poverty, about 1.4 billion people all over the world are at risk to fall in the ‘absolute poverty’ category. In the US there are about 46,2 million people living in poverty (that’s about 15.1% of the population) 50% of these 46,2 million poor people is under the age of 25. About 70% of the poor are white but in relation to their population African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be poor. More and more of these poor families are headed by Women (feminization of poverty). It can be suggested that society itself is the main cause for poverty because almost half the US population is either poor or low-income.

How can we explain this poverty? On the one hand you can blame the individuals, like Oscar Lewis with his ‘culture of poverty thesis’ that suggest that poverty is due to the deficiencies of poor people that exist in themselves. On the other hand you can blame society for the existence of poverty like William Julius Wilson does. He says that poverty is caused by the unequal distribution of wealth and the lack of good paying jobs. In today’s world social inequality has risen. Most people think that the gap between rich and poor people is too big and are also concerned that you don’t get ahead by just working hard.