Soc. 6.

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State-Centric Theories
Differing sharply from market- oriented theories, state-centered
theories argue that appropriate government policies do not interfere
with economic development but rather can play a key role in bringing
it about.

East Asian governments have sometimes aggressively acted to

ensure political stability, while keeping labor costs low. They have
accomplished this by outlawing trade unions, banning strikes, jailing
labor leaders, and, in general, silencing the voices of workers. The
governments of Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore in particular
have engaged in such practices.
For example, state agencies have provided cheap loans and tax
breaks to businesses that invest in industries the government
favors.
Some governments have prevented businesses from investing
their profits in other countries, forcing them to invest in
economic growth at home. Sometimes governments have
owned and controlled key industries.
East Asian governments have often been heavily involved in social
programs such as low-cost housing and universal education. For example, state agencies
have provided cheap loans and tax
breaks to businesses that invest in industries the government
favors. Some governments have prevented businesses from investing
their profits in other countries, forcing them to invest in
economic growth at home. Sometimes governments have
owned and controlled key industries.

The world’s largest public housing systems (outside socialist or formerly

socialist countries) have been in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Other factors, also debated among scholars, include benefiting

from

a long period of economic growth,

the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States
(which led the United States and its allies to invest heavily in
the region to discourage the spread of communism),

a cultural emphasis on hard work and respect for authority,

and

a colonial legacy that weakened the power of large

landowners.
Global Commodity-Chains Theory
Another important offshoot of the world-systems approach is a
concept that emphasizes the global nature of economic
activities.

“chain” extending from the raw materials.

The commodity-chain approach sees manufacturing as becoming
increasingly globalized.
The “rise of the rest” (Zakaria, 2009) has been fueled by
export-oriented industrialization in which a growing number of
countries now manufacture goods for world consumption.

China, which moved from the ranks of low income to

upper-middle income largely because of its exports of
manufactured goods, partly accounts for this trend.

Yet the most profitable activities in the commodity chain—

engineering, design, and advertising—usually occur in core
countries, whereas the least profitable activities, such as factory
production, occur in peripheral countries.
The iPhone commodity chain says a great deal about the economics of global
production today. Not one of the 212 million iPhones sold in 2016 was
actually “made in America”.
But with the exception of some of the chips and some glass,
which were made in the United States, the production and
assembly of all other component parts occurred elsewhere.

Why does Apple source its components from so many locations and
complete its final assembly in China? With sales of Android phones on
the rise, and Xiomi smartphones going for half the price of an iPhone
in China, Apple is concerned with costs.
It is also because China represents a huge and growing market for
Apple; assembling iPhones in China brings them closer to the world’s
largest emerging economy. Ultimately, however, final assembly occurs in China because
China can inexpensively produce what is needed, when it is
needed, largely without regard to the human costs of doing so.
Forbes magazine named Apple the world’s most valuable brand in the world in 2016; Google
and Microsoft were #2 and #3

IS GLOBAL INEQUALITY RISING?

The question of whether global inequality is increasing or
diminishing has polarized opinion in recent years.

Anti-globalization activists argue that globalization generates more

inequality, while defenders argue that it is proving to be a great
leveling force between the world's rich and poor.
The first dramatic changes in global inequality occurred more
than two centuries ago with the Industrial Revolution, as
Europe and then other regions underwent rapid economic expansion,
leaving the rest of the world far behind in terms of wealth and
material goods.
We focus on differences between high- and low-income
countries in terms of:

Health

Starvation and Famine

Education and Literacy

People in high-income countries are far healthier than their

counterparts in low- income countries.

Low-income countries generally suffer from inadequate health

facilities, and when they do have hospitals or clinics, these seldom
serve the poorest people. People living in low-income countries also
lack proper sanitation, drink polluted water and run a much greater
risk of contracting infectious diseases. They are more likely to suffer
malnourishment, starvation and famine.

Hunger, malnutrition and famine are major global sources of poor health; they
are not new problems, but long-standing issues.

Education and literacy are important routes to economic

development.

Here, again, lower-income countries are disadvantaged, since

they can seldom afford high-quality public education systems. As a
consequence, children in high-income countries are much more
likely to get schooling than are children in low-income countries, and
adults in high- income countries are much more likely to be able to
read and write.
Education is important for several reasons. First, it
contributes to economic growth, since people with advanced
schooling provide the skilled work necessary for high-wage
industries.

Second, education offers the only hope of escaping from the cycle of
harsh working conditions and poverty, since poorly educated people
are condemned to low-wage, unskilled jobs.
Finally, educated people are less likely to have large numbers of
children, thus slowing the global population explosion that
contributes to global poverty.
A further important reason for the relatively low levels of children in primary education in
low-income countries is children's involvement in work at the expense of their education.

Children are often forced to work because of a combination of family poverty, lack of
education
provision and traditional indifference to the plight of those who are poor or who
belong to ethnic minorities.

Can Poor Countries Become Rich?

By the mid-1970s, a number of low-income countries in East

Asia were undergoing a process of industrialization that
appeared to threaten the global economic dominance of the
United States and Europe.

This process began with Japan in the 1950s, but quickly

extended to the newly industrializing countries (NICs), that is,
the rapidly growing economies of the world, particularly in East
Asia but also in Latin America.
Economists have tended to assume that the developing countries, en
bloc, would experience higher average rates of economic growth than
the developed, high-income ones, as their development starts to catch
up. However, until quite recently this was often not the case. This has
changed since the mid-1990s, though, as the average growth rates of
low- and middle-income countries have been higher than those in the
developed world.

Life Course and Family

Theories of Child Development

One of the most distinctive features of human

beings, compared to other animals, is that humans
are self-aware.

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

The American sociologist and philosopher, George

Herbert Mead, investigated how children learn to
use the concepts of ‘I’ and 'me' to describe
themselves. But unusually at the time, Mead
insisted that a sociological perspective was
necessary if we are to understand how the self
emerges and develops.
According to Mead, infants and young children first of all develop as social beings by
imitating the actions of those around them. Play is one way in
which this takes place, and in their play small
children often imitate what adults do. Mead called this 'taking the role of the other' -learning
what
it is like to be in the shoes of another person. It is only at this
stage that children acquire a developed sense of self. Children
achieve an understanding of themselves as separate agents-
as a 'me' - by seeing themselves through the eyes of others.

We achieve self·awareness, according to Mead, when we

learn to distinguish the 'me' from the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is the
unsocialized infant, a bundle of spontaneous wants and
desires. The 'me', as Mead used the term, is the social self.
Individuals develop self-consciousness, Mead argued, by
coming to see themselves as others see them, which allows
for an 'internal conversation' between the individual ‘I’ and
the social 'me'. According to Mead's theory, this conversation
is what we call 'thinking’.

JEAN PIAGET

Piaget described several distinct stages of cognitive

development during which children learn to think about
themselves
Piaget called the first stage, which lasts from birth up to
about the age of 2, the sensorimotor stage

infants cannot differentiate themselves from their environment.

Pre-Operational Stage lasts from the ages of 2 to 7.
During the course of it, children acquire a mastery of
language and become able to use words to represent
objects and images in a symbolic fashion.

Pre-Operational Stage lasts from the ages of 2 to 7. Piaget termed the stage 'pre-
operational' because
children are not yet able to use their developing mental
capabilities systematically. Children in this stage are
egocentric.

As Piaget used it, this concept does not refer to

selfishness, but to the tendency of the child to interpret
the world exclusively in terms of his own position. A third period, the concrete operational
stage, lasts from the ages of 7 to 11. During this
phase, children master abstract, logical notions.
They are able to handle ideas such as causality
without much difficulty.
The years from 11 to 15 cover what Piaget called the formal operational stage. During
adolescence, the developing child becomes able to grasp highly abstract and hypothetical
ideas. According to Piaget, the first three stages of development are universal; but not all
adults reach the fourth, formal operational stage.

Agencies of socialization

Agencies of socialization are groups or social contexts in which significant processes of

socialization occur.

FAMILY
Since family systems vary widely, the range of family contacts that the infant experiences is
by no means standard across cultures.

In modern societies, most early socialization occurs within a small-scale family context and
children spend their early years within a domestic unit containing mother, father
and perhaps one or two other children. In many other cultures, by contrast, aunts, uncles
and grandparents are often part of a single household and serve as care- takers
even for very young infants. Yet even within modern societies there are many variations in
the nature of family contexts. Some children are brought up in single-
parent households, some are cared for by two mothering and
fathering agents (divorced parents and step-parents).

SCHOOLS

Another important socializing agency is the school.

Schooling is a formal process: students pursue a
definite curriculum of subjects. Yet schools are
agencies of socialization in more subtle respects.
Children are expected to be quiet in class, be punctual
at lessons and observe rules of school discipline. They
are required to accept and respond to the authority of
the teaching staff. Reactions of teachers also affect the
expectations children have of themselves. These
expectations in turn become linked to their job
experience when they leave school. Peer groups are
often formed at school, and the system of keeping
children in classes according to age reinforces their
impact.

Another socializing agency is the peer group. Peer

groups consist of children of a similar age. Peer
relations are likely to have a significant impact beyond
childhood and adolescence. Informal groups of people
of similar ages, at work and in other situations, are
usually of enduring importance in shaping individuals'
attitudes and behavior.

MASS MEDIA

Newspapers, periodicals and journals flourished

in the West from the early 1800s onward, but they
were confined to a fairly small readership. It was
not until a century later that such printed
materials became part of people's daily
experience. The spread of mass media involving
printed documents was soon accompanied by
electronic communication - radio, television ,
records and videos, bringing with them concerns
about undue influence on opinions, attitudes and
behavior. The media plays a large role in shaping
our understanding of the world and therefore in
socialization.

Gender Socialization

Agencies of socialization play an important role in how

children learn gender roles.

Gender learning by infants is almost certainly

unconscious. Before children can accurately label
themselves as either a boy or a girl, they receive a range
of pre-verbal cues.

Sigmund Freud's Theory

According to Freud, the learning of gender differences in infants and

young children is centered on the possession or absence of the penis.
'I have a penis' is equivalent to 'I am a boy', while 'I am a girl' is
equivalent to" lack a penis'. Freud is careful to say that it is not just
the anatomical distinctions that matter here; the possession or
absence of the penis are symbolic of masculinity and femininity.

At around the age of 4 or 5, the theory goes, a boy feels threatened by

the discipline and autonomy his father demands of him, fantasizing
that the father wishes to remove his penis. Partly consciously, but
mostly on an unconscious level, the boy recognizes the father as a
rival for the affections of his mother. In repressing erotic feelings
towards the mother and accepting the father as a superior being, the
boy identifies with the father and becomes aware of his male
identity. The boy gives up his love for his mother out of an
unconscious fear of castration by his father. – the Oedipus Complex
The Life-Course

The various transitions through which individuals pass

during their lives seem at first to be biologically fixed. This
common-sense view of the human life-cycle is widely
accepted in society and strongly suggests that there exists a
universal and uniform set of stages through which all people
pass. For example, everyone who lives to old age has been an
infant, a child, a youth and an adult, and everyone dies
eventually. However, historically and sociologically, this is
not correct. These apparently natural biological stages are
part of the human life-course, which is social as well as
biological (Viocent 2003).

Stages of the life-course are influenced by cultural differences

and also by the material circumstances of people's lives in
given types of society.

To people living in modern societies, child- hood is a clear

and distinct stage of life. Children are distinct from babies or
toddlers; childhood intervenes between infancy and the teen
years. Yet the concept of childhood, like so many other
aspects of social life today, has only come into being over the
past two or three centuries. In many earlier societies, young people moved directly from a
lengthy infancy into working roles within the conununity. The idea of the 'teenager', so
familiar to us today, also did not
exist until recently. The biological changes involved in
puberty (the point at which a person becomes capable of
adult sexual activity and reproduction) are universal. Yet in
many cultures these do not produce the degree of turmoil
and uncertainty often found among young people in modern
societies.
Sociologists have started to theorize a relatively new
phase within the life-course in developed societies,
which we can call young adulthood. Most young adults in the modern world today
can look forward to a life stretching right through to old age. But in pre-modern times,
few could anticipate such a future with much confidence - and nor do young adults in the
poorer parts of the developing world today.
Death through sickness or injury was much
more frequent among all age groups than it is
today, and women in particular were at great
risk because of the high rate of mortality in
childbirth.

In traditional societies, older people were often

accorded a great deal of respect. Among cultures that
included age-grades, the elders usually had a major -
often the final - say over matters of importance to the
community. Within families, the authority of both men
and women mostly increased with age. In industrialized societies, by contrast, older people
tend to lack authority within both the family and the wider social community. Having retired
from the labor force, they may be poorer than ever before in their lives.

Biological, psychological and social ageing

are not the same and may vary
considerably within and across cultures.

It is important not to confuse a person's social age with their chronological age. Physical
ageing is inevitable, but for most people, proper nutrition, diet and exercise
can preserve a high level of health well into later life. Functionalist theories of ageing
originally argued that the disengagement of older people
from society was desirable. Disengagement
theory held that older people should pull back
from their traditional social roles as younger
people move into them.

Death as a Social Phenomenon

Death, dying and bereavement have now become part of life-course studies.

Many developed societies have hidden death and dying behind the scenes of social life but
some now appear to be undergoing an informalization of mourning as people seek
new, less rigid, more individualized public rituals and personalized ways of dealing with
death and dying.

BASIC CONCEPTS

A family is a group of persons directly linked by kin

connections, the adult members of whom assume
responsibility for caring for children.

Kinship ties are connections between individuals.

established either through marriage or through the
lines of descent that connect blood relatives (mothers,
fathers, siblings, offspring, etc.).

Marriage can be defined as a socially acknowledged

and approved sexual union between two adult
individuals. When two people marry, they become kin
to one another; the marriage bond also, however,
connects together a wider range of kinspeople.

BASIC CONCEPTS
Family relationships are always recognized within
wider kinship groups. In virtually all societies we
can identify what sociologists and anthropologists
call the nuclear family, two adults living
together with their own or adopted children in a
household.

Households are single individuals or groups of

people who share a common housing unit,
common living rooms and the essentials for living,
such as food. In most traditional societies, the
nuclear family was part of a larger kinship
network of some type.

BASIC CONCEPTS

When close relatives other than a married couple

and children live either in the same household or
in a close and continuous relationship with one
another, we speak of an extended family. An
extended family may include grandparents,
brothers and their wives, sisters and their
husbands, aunts and nephews.

In most Western societies, marriage, and

therefore the family, are associated with
monogamy. It is illegal for a man or woman to be
married to more than one spouse at anyone time.

BASIC CONCEPTS

Polygamy allows a husband or wife to have more

than one spouse. There are two types of polygamy:
polygyny, in which a man may be married to
more than one woman at the same time, and
polyandry, much less common, in which a
woman may have two or more husbands
simultaneously.

In Western societies, marriage - and therefore the family - is associated with monogamy.
Many other cultures tolerate or encourage polygamy, in which an individual may be married
to two or more spouses at the same time.

DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE

There is considerable diversity in family forms among ethnic minority groups. In Britain for
example, families of South Asian and African- Caribbean origin differ
from the dominant family types.

Divorce rates have been rising since 1945 and the number of first marriages has declined. As
a result, a growing proportion of the population live in
lone-parent households.

COHABITATION

Cohabitation (where a couple lives together in a sexual relationship outside marriage) has
become more widespread in many industrial countries.

Gay men and lesbians are increasingly able to live together as couples, as attitudes to
homosexuality become more relaxed. In some instances, homosexual couples have gained
the legal right to be defined as a family.

PROBLEMS

Family life is not always happy and harmonious; sexual abuse and domestic violence
sometimes occur within it. Most sexual abuse of children and domestic violence is carried
out by males, and seems to connect with other types of
violent behavior in which some men are involved.

Marriage has ceased to be the condition for regular sexual experience - for either sex - and is
no longer the basis of economic activity. However, marriage and the family remain firmly
established institutions, while undergoing major stresses and
strains.

Sexuality and Gender

In traditional societies, sexuality was tied tightly to the
process of reproduction, but in our current age it has
been separated from it. Over the last few decades in Western countries,
important aspects of people's sexual lives have been
altered in a fundamental way.

Biology and Sexual Behavior

There is clearly a biological component to sexuality, because female anatomy differs

from that of the male. There also exists a biological imperative to reproduce; other-
wise, the human species would become extinct.
For humans, sexual activity is much more
than biological. It is symbolic, reflecting
who we are and the emotions we are
experiencing.
Forms of Sexuality

Most people, in all societies, are heterosexual -

they look to the other sex for emotional
involvement and sexual pleasure. Hetero-
sexuality in every society has historically been
the basis of marriage and family. Yet there are
many minority sexual tastes and inclinations
too.

In all societies there are sexual norms that approve of some practices while discouraging
or condemning others. Members of a society learn these norms through socialization.

Over the last few decades, for example, sexual norms in Western cultures have been linked
to ideas of romantic love and family relationships. Such norms, however, vary widely
between different cultures.

Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation concerns the direction of one's

sexual or romantic attraction. Homosexuality involves the sexual or romantic
attraction for persons of one's own sex. Today, the term
gay is used to refer to male homosexuals, lesbian for
female homosexuals, and bi as shorthand for bisexuals,
people who experience sexual or romantic attraction
for persons of either sex. Orientation of sexual activities or feelings towards
others of the same sex exist in all cultures. In some
non-Western cultures, homosexual relations are
accepted or even encouraged among certain groups.

Michel Foucault

In his studies of sexuality, Michel Foucault has

shown that before the eighteenth century in
Europe, the notion of a homosexual person seems
barely to have existed (Foucault 1978).

Is sexual orientation inborn or

learned?

Most sociologists today argue that sexual orientation of all

kinds results from a complex interplay between biological
factors and social learning

Studies of twins hold some promise for understanding if

there is any genetic basis for homosexuality, since identical
twins share identical genes. Studies show that (Bailey and
PilIard (1991; Bailey 1993) a woman or man is five times
more likely to be lesbian or gay if her or his identical twin is
lesbian or gay than if his or her Sibling is lesbian or gay but
related only through adoption.

These results offer some support for the importance of

biological factors, since the higher the percentage of shared
genes, the greater the percentage of cases in which both
siblings were homosexual. It is clear that even studies of identical twins
cannot fully isolate biological from social
factors.

Law and Homosexuality

The death penalty for 'unnatural acts' was abolished in the United States after
independence, and in European countries in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. Until just a few decades ago, however, homosexuality remained a crimi- nal
activity in virtually all Western countries. The shift of homosexuals from the margins of
society to the mainstream is not yet complete, but rapid progress has been seen over recent
year. In many ways, homosexuality has become more normalized -
more of an accepted part of everyday society, with many
countries passing legislation to protect the rights of
homosexuals.

Gay and lesbian civil rights

Until recently, most homosexuals hid their sexual

orientation, for fear that 'coming out of the closet'
would cost them their jobs, families and friends, and
leave them open to verbal and physical abuse

The current global wave ofgay and lesbian civil rights

movements began partly as an outgrowth of the social
movements of the 1960s, which emphasized pride in
racial and ethnic identity. One pivotal event was the
Stonewall Riots in June 1969 in the United States,
when New York City's gay community - angered by
continual police harassment - fought the New York
Police Department for two days (Weeks 1977; D'Emilio
1983). There are enormous differences between countries in
the degree to which homosexuality is legally
punishable.

Sexuality, Morality and Religion

Attitudes towards sexual behavior are not uniform

across the world's societies, and even within a
single country they undergo significant changes
throughout history.

Sex Work

Today, prostitution is more widely seen by sociologists

as just one form of sex work. Sex work can be defined
as the provision of sexual services in a financial
exchange between consenting adults, though, of course,
children (and adults) have historically been - and still
are - forced into sex work in both developed and
developing countries.

Sex workers, like prostitutes, are mostly female, and

sex work includes at least all of the following: actors in
porno- graphic films, nude modelling, striptease and
lap dancers, live sex show workers, providers of erotic
massage, phone sex workers and home-based 'webcam
sex' via the Internet, if this involves a financial
exchange (Weitzer 2000).

Sex Work

The original 1970s concept of the sex worker aimed to destigmatize the working practices of
prostitutes and other women working in the sex industry. Provided
that sexual services were exchanged between freely consenting adults, it was argued that
such work should be treated like any other type of work and prostitution,
in particular, should be decriminalized. Prostitutes around the world today come mainly
from poorer social backgrounds, as they did in the past, but they
have now been joined by considerable numbers of
middle-class women working across the range of sex
work described above and many see their work as
providing useful and respectable sexual services.

Sex Work

Nevertheless, the concept of sex work remains controversial, as many feminists actively
campaign against the sex industry, seeing it as degrading to women, strongly linked to sexual
abuse and drug addiction, and ultimately rooted
in women's subordination to men.

One possible conclusion to be drawn is that sex work expresses, and to some extent helps
perpetuate, the tendency of men to treat women as objects who can be 'used' for sexual
purposes. Prostitution expresses in a particular context the
inequalities of power between men and women.
Gender

'Sex' is an ambiguous term. It can mean, as in the previous sections, 'sexual activity'.
However, it can also refer to the physical characteristics that separate men and women.

In general, sociologists use the term 'sex' to refer to the anatomical and physiological
differences that define male and female bodies. Gender, by
contrast, concerns the psychological, social and cultural differences between males and
females.
Gender is linked to socially constructed notions of masculinity and femininity; it is not
necessarily a
direct product of an individual's biological sex.
Some authors hold that aspects of human biology - ranging from hormones to chromosomes
to brain size to genetics - are responsible for innate differences in behavior between men
and women.

Abortion Debate

The abortion debate has become so intense in

many countries precisely because it centers on
basic ethical issues to which there are no easy
solutions. Those who are 'pro-life' believe that
abortion is always wrong except in extreme
circumstances, because it is equivalent to murder.
For them, ethical issues are above all subject to
the value that must be placed on human life.
Those who are 'pro-choice' argue that the mother's
control over her own body - her own right to live a
rewarding life - must be the primary
consideration.

Abortion Debate

The abortion debate has become so intense in

many countries precisely because it centers on
basic ethical issues to which there are no easy
solutions. Those who are 'pro-life' believe that
abortion is always wrong except in extreme
circumstances, because it is equivalent to murder.
For them, ethical issues are above all subject to
the value that must be placed on human life.
Those who are 'pro-choice' argue that the mother's
control over her own body - her own right to live a
rewarding life - must be the primary
consideration.

Connell sets forth three aspects which interact to form a

society's gender order - patterns of power relations between
masculinities and femininities that are widespread
throughout society - namely, labor, power and cathexis
(personal sexual relationships). These three realms are
distinct but interrelated parts of society that work together
and change in relation to one other. They represent the main
sites in which gender relations are constituted and
constrained.

Connell sets forth three aspects which interact to form a

society's gender order - patterns of power relations between
masculinities and femininities that are widespread
throughout society - namely, labor, power and cathexis
(personal sexual relationships). These three realms are
distinct but interrelated parts of society that work together
and change in relation to one other. They represent the main
sites in which gender relations are constituted and
constrained.

Theories of Gender Inequality

Gender is a critical factor in structuring the types of

opportunities and life chances faced by individuals and
groups, and strongly influences the roles they play
within social institutions from the household to the
state.

Men's roles are generally more highly valued and

rewarded than women's roles: in almost every culture,
women bear the primary responsibility for childcare
and domestic work, while men have traditionally borne
responsibility for providing the family livelihood.

The prevailing division of labor between the sexes has

led to men and women assuming unequal positions in
terms of power, prestige and wealth.

Liberal Feminism

Liberal feminism looks for explanations of gender

inequalities in social and cultural attitudes. Unlike radical
and socialist feminists, liberal feminists do not see women's
subordination as part of a larger system or structure. Instead,
they draw attention to many separate factors which
contribute to inequalities between men and women.
Socialist and Marxist Feminism

Socialist feminism developed from Marx's conflict theory,

although Marx himself had little to say about gender
inequality. It has been critical of liberal feminism for its
perceived inability to see that there are powerful interests in
society hostile to equality for women (Bryson 1993). Socialist
feminists have sought to defeat both patriarchy and
capitalism (MitchellI966).

Engels

Engels argued that under capitalism, material and economic factors

underlay women's subservience to men, because patriarchy (like
class oppression) has its roots in private property.

Radical Feminism

At the heart of radical feminism is the belief that men are

responsible for and benefit from the exploitation of women.
The analysis of patriarchy - the systematic domination of
females by males - is of central concern to this branch of
feminism. Patriarchy is viewed as a universal phenomenon
that has existed across time and cultures.

Black Feminism

Black feminist writings tend to emphasize history - aspects of

the past which inform the current problems facing black
women.

Postmodern Feminism

Like black feminism, postmodern feminism challenges

the idea that there is a unitary basis of identity and
experience shared by all women by all women. This
strand of feminism draws on the cultural phenomenon
of postmodernism in the arts, architecture, philosophy
and economics.

RACE
Race is one of the most complex concepts in sociology, not least because
of the contradiction between its widespread, everyday usage and its
supposedly 'scientific' basis. Many people today believe,
mistakenly, that humans can be readily separated into
biologically different races.

In many ancient civilizations, distinctions were often drawn between

social groups on visible skin color differences, usually between lighter
and darker skin tones.

However, before the modern period, it was more common for perceived
distinctions between human groupings to be based on tribal or kinship
affiliations.

These groups were numerous, and the basis of their classification was
relatively unconnected to modern ideas of race, with its biological or
genetic connotations.

Instead, classification rested on cultural similarity and group

membership.

RACE

Scientific theories of race arose in the late eighteenth and early

nineteenth centuries. They were used to justify the emerging
social order, as England and other European nations became
imperial powers ruling over subject territories and populations.

Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-82), sometimes

called the father of modern racism, proposed the existence of
just three races: white (Caucasian), black (Negroid) and
yellow (Mongoloid).

According to de Gobineau, the white race possesses superior

intelligence, morality and will-power, and it is these inherited
qualities that underlie the spread of Western influence across the
world. The blacks, by contrast, are the least capable, marked by
an animal nature, a lack of morality and emotional instability. In the years following the
Second World War, 'race science' was
thoroughly discredited.

In biological terms, there are no clear- cut races, only a

range of physical variations in human beings. Human population groups are a continuum.
The genetic diversity
within populations that share visible physical traits is as great as the
diversity between them. In the light of this evidence, the scientific
community has virtually abandoned the concept of race.
Many social scientists concur, arguing that race is nothing
more than an ideological construct. Race can be understood as a set of social relationships,
which allow individuals and groups to be located and
various attributes or competencies assigned, on the basis
of biologically grounded features.

Racial distinctions are more than ways of describing

human differences - they are also important factors
in the reproduction of patterns of power and
inequality within society.

The process by which understandings of race is used to

classify individuals or groups of people is called
racialization. Historically, racialization meant that
certain groups of people came to be labeled as
distinct biological groups on the basis of naturally
occurring physical features.

ETHNICITY

While the idea of race mistakenly implies something fixed and

biological, the concept of ethnicity is one that is purely social
in meaning.

Ethnicity refers to the cultural practices and outlooks of a given

community of people which sets them apart from others.

Members of ethnic groups see them - selves as culturally

distinct from other groups and are seen by them, in return, as
different.

Different characteristics may serve to distinguish ethnic groups,

but the most usual ones are language, history or ancestry
(real or imagined), religion and styles of dress or
adornment.

ETHNICITY

Ethnic differences are wholly learned, there is nothing innate

about ethnicity; it is a purely social phenomenon that is
produced and reproduced over time.

Through socialization, young people assimilate the lifestyles,

norms and beliefs of ethnic communities.
However, what marks out ethnic groups is often the use of
'exclusionary devices', such as the prohibiting of
intermarriage, which serve to sharpen and maintain
culturally established boundaries.

Sociologists favor the term 'ethnicity' over' race' because it is a

social concept with no biological meaning to cause confusion.

However, references to ethnicity and ethnic differences can

also be problematic especially if they suggest a contrast with
some 'non-ethnic' norm. Ex: British vs. Ethnic Cuisine.

MINORITY GROUPS

The notion of minority groups (often 'ethnic minorities')

is widely used in sociology and is more than a merely
numerical distinction.

In sociology, members of a minority group are

disadvantaged when compared with the dominant group
- a group possessing more wealth, power and prestige -
and have some sense of group solidarity, of
belonging together.

The experience of being the subject of prejudice

and discrimination tends to heighten feelings of
common loyalty and interests.

PREJUDICE AND
DISCRIMINATION

The concept of race is relatively modern, but prejudice

and discrimination have been widespread in
human history, and we must first clearly distinguish
between them. Prejudices are often grounded in stereotypes, fixed and
inflexible characterizations of a group of people. Stereotypes
are often applied to ethnic minority groups, such as
the notion that all black men are naturally athletic or that all
East Asians are hardworking, diligent students.
RACISM

One widespread form of prejudice is racism -

prejudice based on socially significant physical
distinctions.

A racist is someone who believes that some

individuals are superior or inferior to others
on the basis of racialized differences.

The concept of institutional racism was developed in

the USA in the late 1960s by civil rights campaigners
who saw that racism underpinned American society,
rather than merely representing the opinions of a small
minority of people (Omi and Winant 1994)

NEW RACISM

Despite the fall of Nazism, the end of legalized segregation in the US and
the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, racist attitudes have not
disappeared.

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF
RACISM

-Ethnocentrism, group closure and

allocation of resources

-Conflict Theories

Ethnocentrism, Group Closure and

Allocation of Resources:

Sociological concepts relevant to ethnic conflicts on a general level

are those of ethnocentrism, ethnic group closure and resource
allocation. Ethnocentrism is a suspicion of outsiders combined
with a tendency to evaluate the culture of others in terms of one's
own culture.

Ethnocentrism and group closure, or ethnic group closure,

frequently go together. 'Closure' refers to the process whereby
groups maintain boundaries separating themselves from others.

Exclusionary devices include limiting or prohibiting intermarriage

between the groups, restrictions on social contact or economic
relationships like trading, and the physical separation of groups (as
in the case of ethnic ghettos).

Conflict Theories

Conflict theories, by contrast, are concerned with the links between

racism and prejudice on the one hand and relationships of power
and inequality on the other.

Early conflict approaches to racism were heavily influenced by

Marxist ideas, which saw the economic system as the determining
factor for all other aspects of society. Some Marxist theorists
held that racism was a product of the capitalist system,
arguing that the ruling class used slavery, colonization
and racism as tools for exploiting labor. (Cox 1959)

MODELS OF ETHNIC
INTEGRATION

The first model is assimilation, meaning that

immigrants abandon their original customs and
practices, molding their behavior to the values and
norms of the majority. An assimilationist approach demands that immigrants change their
language,dress, lifestyles and cultural outlooks as part ofintegrating into a new social order.
Ethnic minorities tend to experience discrimination,
harassment and material deprivation in the housing
market.

Ethnic diversity can greatly enrich societies.

Multiethnic states are often vibrant and dynamic places. Ethnic cleansing involves the forced
relocation of ethnic populations through targeted violence, harassment,
threats and campaigns of terror.

Genocide, by contrast, describes the systematic elimination of one ethnic group at the hands
of another.

MIGRATION

Immigration, the movement of people into a

country to settle, and emigration, the process by
which people leave a country to settle in another,
combine to produce global migration patterns
linking countries of origin and countries of
destination.

MODELS OF MIGRATION

Scholars have identified four models of migration to

describe the main global population movements since
1945. The classic model of migration applies to
countries such as Canada, the United States and Australia,
The colonial model of immigration, pursued by
countries such as France and the United Kingdom, Countries such as Germany, Switzerland
and Belgium have followed a third policy - the
guest worker's model. Finally, illegal forms of immigration are
becoming increasingly common as a result of
tightening immigration laws in many
industrialized countries.

Macro-level factors refer to overarching issues such as the

political situation in an area, the laws and regulations controlling
immigration and emigration, or changes in the international
economy.

Micro-level factors, on the other hand, are concerned with the

resources, knowledge and understandings that the migrant
populations themselves possess.

DIASPORA

Diaspora refers to the dispersal of an ethnic

population from an original homeland into
foreign areas, often in a forced manner or under
traumatic circumstances.

RELIGION

Religion has had a strong hold over the lives of human

beings for thousands of years. In one form or another,
religion is found in all known human societies.
religion has continued
to be a central part of human experience, influencing
how we perceive and react to the environments in which we live

Sociologists define religion as a cultural system of

commonly shared beliefs and rituals

three key elements in th,s definition:

1) Religion is a form of culture.
2) 2) Religion involves beliefs that take the form of ritualized practices.
3) religion provides a sense of purpose - a feeling that life is ultimately meaningful.

Sociologists are not concerned with whether

religious beliefs are true or false.
RELIGION IN CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL
THEORY

Karl Marx

In spite of his influence on the subject, Karl Marx never

studied religion in any detail. Marx accepted the view that religion represents human
self-alienation.
Religion, he writes, is the 'heart of a heartless world' -
a haven from the harshness of daily reality. religion in its traditional form will, and
should, disappear
Marx declared, in a famous phrase, that religion
has been the 'opium of the people'.
Emile Durkheim

Unlike Marx, Durkheim does not connect religion primarily with social
inequalities or power, but instead relates it to the overall nature of the
institutions of a society. he argues that totemism represents
religion in its most 'elementary' form. defines religion in terms of a distinction between the
sacred and the profane.

Max Weber

Max Weber, by contrast, embarked on an enormous project to

study the major religions of the world. Most of his attention was concentrated on what he
called the
world religions - those that have attracted large numbers
of believers and decisively affected the course of global
history.
Marx was right to claim that religion often has ideological implications,
serving to justify the interests of ruling groups at the expense of others:
there are innumerable instances of this in history. Ex: European
Colonialism and Christian Missionaries.

Yet Weber was certainly correct to emphasize the unsettling, and often
revolutionary, impact of religious ideals on pre-established
social orders. Despite the churches' early support for slavery in the
United States, many church leaders later played a key role in the fight
to abolish it.

Among the most valuable aspects of Durkheim's writings is his stress on

ritual and ceremony. All religions involve regular assemblies of
believers, at which ritual prescriptions are observed.

ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONS:

Judaism

Judaism is the oldest of the three religions, dating from about 1000 BCE. The early Hebrews
were nomads, living in and around ancient Egypt.

ISLAM

The origins of Islam, today the second largest

religion in the world.

HINDUISM
Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism

SECULARIZATION

Secularization describes the process whereby religion loses its influence over the various
spheres of social life. With the exception of the USA, most of the industrialized countries
have experienced considerable secularization according to this index.

Fundamentalism has become common among some believers in different religious groups
across the world. Fundamentalists' believe in returning to the fundamentals of their religious
doctrines.

ORGANIZATIONS AND
NETWORKS
McDonaldization

The American sociologist George Ritzer (1983, 1993, 1998) argues that McDonald's provides
a vivid metaphor of the transformations taking place in industrialized societies. He argues
that what we are witnessing is the 'McDonaldization' of society.

According to Ritzer, McDonaldization is 'the process by which the principles of the fast-food
restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of
American society as well as the rest of the world'. Ritzer uses the four guiding principles for
McDonald's restaurants - efficiency, calculability, uniformity and control through automation
- to show that our society is becoming ever more 'rationalized' with time
. Organizations

The study and theory of organizations is an important

aspect of sociology

Understanding organizations demands an investigation of their internal arrangements and

management practices, and their roles within the wider society and
this requires both empirical research and theoretical development. Organizations tend to be
highly formal in modern industrial and post-industrial societies. A formal
organization is one that is rationally designed to
achieve its objectives, often by means of explicit rules, regulations and procedures. The
edifices in which hospitals, colleges or business firms carry on their activities are generally
custom built. Organizations can therefore be said to have a regulative function; they
influence and shape people's behavior in particular ways and some are representative of
society's values.

It is easy to see why organizations are so important to us today. In the pre-modern world,
families, close relatives and neighbors provided for most needs - food, the instruction of
children, work and leisure- time activities.
The Tremendous Influence of
Organizations

Organizations have come to exert over our lives cannot be seen as wholly beneficial.
Organizations often have the effect of taking things out of our own hands and putting them
under the control of officials or experts over whom we have little influence.

Max Weber: Modernity as Bureaucratic Domination

The German sociologist, Max Weber, developed the first systematic interpretation of the rise
of modern organizations. He saw them as ways of coordinating the
activities of human beings in a fairly stable way across space and time. All large-scale
modern organizations, according to Weber, tend to be bureaucratic in nature. According to
Weber, the expansion of bureaucracy is inevitable in modern societies; bureaucratic
authority is the only way of coping with the administrative requirements of large- scale
social systems. However, Weber also argued that bureaucracy exhibits a number of major
failings, which have important implications for the nature of modern social life. He often
likened bureaucracies to sophisticated machines operating by the principle of rationality. But
he recognized that bureaucracies could be inefficient and he accepted that many
bureaucratic jobs are dull, offering little opportunity for the exercise of creative capabilities.

Formal and Informal Relations

Weber's analysis of bureaucracy gave prime place to formal relations within organizations -
the relations between people as stated in the rules of the organization. Weber had little to
say about the informal connections and small-group relations that may exist in all
organizations. But in bureaucracies, informal ways of doing things
often allow for a flexibility that could not otherwise be achieved.

The Dysfunctions of Bureaucracy

Robert Merton, a functionalist sociologist, examined Weber's

bureaucratic ideal type and concluded that several elements
inherent in bureaucracy could lead to harmful consequences
for the smooth functioning of the bureaucracy itself (Merton
1957). He referred to these as 'dysfunctions of bureaucracy'.

Even in democratic countries, government organizations

hold enormous amounts of information about people, from
records of our dates of birth, schools and universities
attended and jobs held, to data on income used for tax
collecting, and information used for issuing drivers' licenses
and allocating National Insurance numbers. Since we do not
always know what information is held on us, and which
agencies are holding it, people fear that such surveillance
activities can infringe on the principle of democracy.
These fears formed the basis of George Orwell's famous
novel, 1984, in which the state, 'Big Brother', uses
surveillance of its citizens to suppress internal criticism and
the difference of opinion normal in any democracy.

Can Bureaucracy be Defended?

In an influential book, In Praise of Bureaucracy (2000), du Gay questions the negative view of
bureaucracy. Whilst recognizing that bureaucracies can and do, of course, have
flaws, he seeks to defend bureaucracy against the most common lines of criticism directed
against it. First, du Gay argues against the claim that there are ethical
problems with the idea of bureaucracy. He singles out the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman's
book, Modernity and the Holocaust (1989), as an important account of this view.
Bauman believes that it was only with the development of the bureaucratic institutions
associated with modem society that horrendous acts like the holocaust in the Second World
Warbecame possible. The planned genocide of millions of people by the Nazis in
Final Solution could only happen once institutions were in place that distanced people from
taking moral responsibility for their actions. Rather than being a barbaric
explosion of violence, Bauman argues that the holocaust was only possible because rational
bureaucratic institutions had
emerged that.

International Governmental
Organizations
EU
NATO
IGO

Corporations and Corporate Power

Since the turn of the twentieth century, modern capitalist

economies have been increasingly influenced by the rise of
large business corporations. A recent survey of the world's
top 200 corporations showed that between 1983 and 1999
their combined sales grew from the equivalent of 25 per cent
to 27.5 per cent of world GDP.
Types of Corporate Capitalism

There have been three general stages in the development of

business corporations, although each overlaps with the
others and all continue to coexist today. The first stage,
characteristic of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
was dominated by family capitalism. Large firms were run
either by individual entrepreneurs or by members of the
same family and then passed on to their descendants. These
individuals and families did not just own a single large
corporation, but held a diversity of economic interests and
stood at the apex of economic empires.

Most of the big firms founded by entrepreneurial families

have since become public companies

Women and the Corporation

Feminists have argued that the emergence of the modern

organization and the bureaucratic career was dependent on a
particular gender configuration. They point to two main ways
in which gender is embedded in the very structure of modern
organizations.

Critical Management Studies

Critical management studies (CMS) - as the name suggests - adopts

a critical approach to mainstream management studies (Alvesson
and Willmott 2003) and has risen to prominence since the mid-
1990s.

Actor Network Theory

Actor-network theory (or ANT) is a theoretical approach to the study

of human-non- human relationships, with its origins in sociological
studies of natural science and scientific research.

Social Networks

Networks are all the direct and indirect connections that link
a person or a group with other people or groups. Your
personal networks thus include people you know directly
(such as your friends) as well as people you know indirectly
(such as your friends' friends). Personal networks often
include people of similar race, class, ethnicity and other types
of social background, although there are exceptions.