Key Theories Flashcards

Question

What is Bourdieu's view of meritocracy?

Answer 1

- **Social capital** = social groups and conections an individual has based on their social position - **Cultural capital** = skills, knowledge, attribute, beliefs, norms, and values an individual has due to their social position - Lack of these act as barriers to meritocracy

Answer 2

- **Weber: status and power** matter more than class - **Economic determinism**: Functionalists say social mobility is possible due to meritocracy - Ignores **growing modern middle class** - Marx anticipated that the middle class would shrink and form a larger working class but the opposite has happened - Feminists say they ignore gender inequality - We are still yet to have a successful communist revolution

Answer 3

**'New Affluent Worker'**: - Studied workers at a car plant in **Luton** - Had a level of affluence where they could afford **luxuries** such as **cars** and **holidays** - Had changed **politically** - no longer strictly **labour** voters as didn't trust them to make a difference

Answer 4

- **Deindustrialisation and globalisation** have sped up capitalism and made proletariat exploitation worse e.g. sweatshops - **Flexible accumulation**: capitalists can take advantage of globalisation to produce quicker and cheaper than ever - CRITICISES MARX - he believed that the nation state was the main agent of exploitation - **National governments have declined in importance** and been replaced by international organisations e.g. NATO, UN - We now have a sense of **image politics** - the people we vote for and the people in power are different - those funding the government continue to benefit - politicians are **image lobbyists** e.g. people may vote for Trump, but **Elon Musk** has gained power through this election - People no longer think on class lines and vote on other issues e.g. environment, immigration

Answer 5

Rejects Marx's idea of a one-way system and provides a model of **two-way causality** between the 3 levels of society: 1. The **economic level**: production in order to satisfy needs (basically Marx's 'base') 2. The **political level**: organisations - also the **repressive state apparatus** e.g. army and police used to control proletariat through force 3. The **ideological level**: the way people see themselves and the world - the **ideological state apparatus** e.g. education and media - teaches and enforces bourgeois beliefs, norms, and values The ideological and political levels are not mere reflections of the economic level as Marx would say - they have **'relative autonomy'** and can influence the economic level (and each other) just as they are influenced by it

Answer 6

**Three Storey Building Analogy**: - Top Living Quarters = ideological - First Floor Offices = political - Ground Floor Shop = economic A busy period in the shop -> office deciding to hire more people -> owner living in top floor being able to afford luxuries as they have more profit - economic level impacts ideological and political Owner deciding to have a child -> goes on maternity leave in the office -> less business - ideological impacts economic and political Firing someone in the office -> owner can't go on holiday as have to spend more time in shop + ground floor being slower due to being understaffed - political can impact ideological and economic

Answer 7

- Political impacting ideological and economic - **euthanasia bill** would reduce dependency ratio and lead to a greater acceptance of death - Ideological impacting economic and political - acceptance of LGBTQ led to legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2013 - gay couples have more spending power which increases economic investment - **pink pound**

Answer 8

- **Craib**: Althusser claims to provide a more concept of social structure while analysing scientifically but ironically he has heavily influenced **postmodernists** who reject ideas of structures and analysing society scientifically - Althusser doesn't replace economic determinism he just replaces it with a more complex form

Answer 9

- The ruling class exercise **hegemony** as their **ideas** and **values** are **dominant** - this enables them to persuade people to consent to their rule. Revolution is only possible if the WC challenge ruling class hegemony - The RC maintain power through **coercion and consent** - organisations like the police which maintain hegemony - WC have **dual class consciousness** - they have some awareness of exploitation and have the capacity to unite and change their positions due to **free will** - Challenging RC hegemony requires **organic intellectuals** - special people who can give a vopice to those that need it and inspire a social class to action - they have grown out of this same position and now lead others e.g. **Martin Luther King**, **Lenin**

Answer 10

- **Catholic priests** in **South America** combined Marxism and Catholic teachings in their sermons - They believed that Christianity had a duty to challenge economic and political oppression - they could do this as they had **relative autonomy** from the dictatorship - This led to the **1979 Nicaraguan Revolution** led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front led by priests and uni students - the organic intellectuals

Answer 11

- **Willis**: the lads used free will to reject bourgeois ideology - Underplays the importance of coercion and consent in his work and overplays how **likely** and **easy** it would be to create a **counter hegemony**

Answer 12

Sylvia **Walby** 1990 identified 6 main ways in which patriarchy works in society: 1. **Domestic labour** serves men 2. **Paid work** - e.g. gender pay gap + glass cieling 3. **The State** - promoted an ideological patriarchal image of the family and marriage e.g. abortion laws 4. **Physical violence** by men often occurs in the home 5. Women and girl’s **sexuality** are limited and controlled by family more than men’s 6. **The Media** presents and ideological image of women’s family roles There are 2 types of patriarchy: private = in the home e.g. decision making, domestic violence, public = society at large e.g. government decisionmaking, work discrimination

Answer 13

- **Firestone and Ortner**: gender inequality is universal. This is because **pregnancy disables women** forcing them to be dependent on men. **All men benefit** from patriarchy - unpaid domestic labour and sex services. **The person is political** - patriarchy stems from sexual relationships so the power relationships created cause **'sexual politics'** - **Brownmiller**: the fear of rape is a powerful deterrent against women being out alone at night - even women who arent victims of male violence are controlled by it - **Heidensohn**: women are controlled at work, in the home, and in public - Sexuality is a social construct completely created for male pleasure - **Rich**: women in pornography are used as passive sex objects - penetration is used for male pleasure and forces women into usatisfying heterosexual relationships - **Levy: Raunch Culture** - our culture is becoming increasingly sexualised and objectifying women is becoming more common as women are showing their sexuality in more aspects of society e.g. music. More women see sexuality as their only source of power. e.g. Sexxy Red, Only Fans models

Answer 14

**Greer**: - **Separatism**: living independently from men either in **matrifocal** (female dominated households), or **matrilocal** (living near the mother's family - **Political Lesbianism**: heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive - stop sleeping with the enemy - **Consciousness Raising**: highlighting the shared experiences of women in **collective action** e.g. the **‘slut walk’**, **#metoo** **Firestone**: contraception was a step towards greater gender equality but full equality would require the development of an **artifical womb** - women would no longer have to be disabled by pregnancy

Answer 15

- **Sommerville**: they ignore the march of progress - better jobs, divorce, control over fertility and propose **unworkable solutions e.g. political lesbianism** can't work due to heterosexual attraction - **Rowbotham**: vague use of term patriarchal and **not all men** oppress women - **Pollert: patriarchy is a circular argument** - it's both the cause and outcome of oppression e.g. male violence is somehow both a cause and example of patriarchy

Answer 16

Believe that the main cause of women’s oppression is capitalism because: - **Smith**: women are used to reproduce the labour force - **Ansley** says women absorb male anger and are the **’takers of shit’** - **Benston**: women are a **reserve army of cheap labour** - **Delphy and Leonard**: women are a source of cheap, exploitative labour - domestic work - **Barrett**: women still choose to get married and have children despite knowing the oppression this brings due to an **ideology of familialism**. The bourgeoisie promote an ideology of the traditional family and so women's success is measured through motherhood and their relationships - **Mitchell: abolishing capitalism would liberate women** - unequal labour force continues to oppress women and ideas of feminism are entrenched in capitalism

Answer 17

- **Walby** (1986) says women working supports capitalism in 2 ways: lowers wages (higher demand for jobs), increases consumerism (women earning more = women buying more) - **Underplay** the significance of **non-material** inequality from culture and ethnicity

Answer 18

- **Friedan: gender socialisation** is responsible for women's lack of opportunities - women are expected to take on the role of mother and are socialised into gender norms reflecting **societal expectations of femininity and masculinity** - **Sommerville: March of Progress**: society has made progressing in achieving gender equality - **laws and Policies** have helped achieve gender equality e.g. Equality Act 2010, Right to Vote 1918 - Seen in **Sue Sharpe’s ‘Just like a girl’**: girls had optimism about future jobs and enjoy greater educational success

Answer 19

- Removing gender socialisation - Establishing more positive female role models - Changing gender expectations - Implementing policies that promote gender equality

Answer 20

- Changing gender socialisation and expectations e.g. The Boy in the Dress, This Girl Can - Policies like the Equality Act 2010 - **Faudi**: due to the changing of gender expectations there is a **crisis of masculinity** as men are now uncertain in their role

Answer 21

- **Overoptimistic**: offers no solution to patriarchy as a structure - Doesn’t explain why men dominate and why women are oppressed - Fails to understand that **women’s experiences differ** - the march of progress has not ocurred for everyone

Answer 22

Believe all other feminist groups are **essentialists** - women’s experiences differ due to class, ethnicity, ability, etc - **Mirza**: difference feminism is needed to highlight and challenge distorted assumptions that black women are passive to racism, patriarchy, and class inequality - **Butler**: white women have claimed a false universal womanhood e.g. glass cieling VS concrete cieling, gender pay gap being worse for black women - **Black Feminists**: racial oppression appears outside the home - **Amos and Parmar**: ethnicity affects nature of family and so women’s experiences of it - **Dallas and Sapsford**: black family provides support and resistance from racism

Answer 23

**Walby**: while women's expriences do differ, focusing on this takes away from the shared experiences of patriarchy and disunities women. This makes the feminist movement weaker.

Answer 24

- There are **multiple discourses** where patriarchy operates and patriarchy differs between them e.g. science, religion, media - **The enlightenment project** allowed men to gain power in various discourses e.g. biology being used to justify women staying in the home, education not being accessible to women - **Butler: men control the discourses** and so control women through them. This form of patriarchy changes across socieites e.g. womanhood in saudi arabia is shaped by religious discourse whereas its shaped by media/culture in the UK EVAL: **Segal**: oppression is not just a discourse it is a **real inequality** - feminists need to focus on inequaliry

Answer 25

- Top Down Approach - Society shapes individual behaviour, values and identities - Individuals are like puppets - **Positivist** approach - quantitative

Answer 26

- Bottom Up Approach - Focus on individual behaviour in everyday social norms - Observe interactions and how people define their identities - Social institutions are socially contrasted by individuals and people have **freewill** - **Interpretivist** approach - qualitative

Answer 27

- Getting **verstehen** is the main point of sociology - observation alone is not enough - we need **empathetic understanding** to truly understand behaviour - **The Level of Cause: objective structural factors** - society's structures dictating behaviour - **The level of meaning: subjective meanings** individuals apply to their actions - **Social action**: the actions and reactions of individuals

Answer 28

**Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism**: - *The level of cause:* the protestant reformation/ **great schism**. Breakaway from catholicism created social change on an objective structural level - develop of **calvinism** - *The level of meaning:* many calvinists chose to respond to their religious teachings by leading an **ascetic** lifestyle and reinvesting in their businesses which in turn led to building the beginnings of capitalism - they **chose to do this**

Answer 29

- **Instrumental/rational**: an individual carries out an action for a certain **goal** e.g. a boss may fire someone not because they want to but to make profit - **Value**: actions that are determined by a **conscious belief** in the **inherent value** of something - there is no way of calculating the value of this action e.g. doing something nice like holding the door for someone because you think its the nice thing to do - **Traditional**: actions that happen because they've **always been done** - individuals have no choice or particular goal e.g. celebrating birthdays - **Affective**: any action **led by emotion** e.g. crying, shouting. Individuals don't think of the **consequences**. Charismatic leaders use this to their advantage

Answer 30

Still relevant today - **influenced symbolic interactionalism**

Answer 31

- **Strong contribution** to sociology and our understanding of **free will** - emphasises how humans can react to social structures rather than them dictating all our behaviour - **Shutz: too individualistic** - fails to explain how some symbols have shared meanings - Behaviour doesn't fall into 4 neat categories e.g. celebrating religious festivals can be value and traditional

Answer 32

Symbol = something that represents something else and individuals have attached meaning to it An interpretive phase comes between the stimulus and our response to it

Answer 33

- Unlike animals our behaviour is not shaped by fixed instincts - Humans respond to the world by **giving meanings** to things and **attaching symbols** to the world - Animals respond to stimuli in an automatic way whereas **humans interpret meanings**

Answer 34

1. **Stimulus**: the original symbol e.g. two fingers 2. **Interpretive phase**: indivs interpret the stimulus e.g. swearing or peace sign? 3. **Response**: indivs respond to the symbol based on how they interpret it e.g. be angry or be happy

Answer 35

We take on **the role of the 'other'** and try to see ourselves as others do. This develops through interaction - The **'I'** is your opinion of yourself which is shaped by the 'me' - The **'Me'** is the socialised aspect of an indivudal **based on interactions** - The I is always trying to bend the rules set by the 'me' - The 'me' prevents the I from breaking rules and regulations - The I is constantly being **creative** and **expressive** to get around these rules - e.g. a boy's I may want to wear a dress but his me stops him as this breaks social norms

Answer 36

**Looking Glass Self**: - Describes the process of **negotiated interaction** - Image of ourselves is reflected like a mirror - We modify or change our behaviour to reflect other people’s image - Self-concept is **socially constructed** and subject to change based on social situation

Answer 37

- We develop a notion of our true selves in childhood by **playing games** - teaches us various roles and how to interact with each other - For an individual to know how to respond to the symbols and for them to have meaning to them they must **know their role in society** - Each person must learn to **take the viewpoint of others** - We have to **read the meaning** of a situation - There is scope for **error** - we may read the rules/symbols wrong

Answer 38

1. **Meaning**: the meaning an individual attaches to phenomena. This **creates the symbolic interaction** between 2 people. e.g. stepping on someone's foot being a sign of rudeness 2. **Language**: we can **negotiate meaning** through language as we identify meaning in speech, acts, and understanding. e.g. the person saying sorry 3. **Thought**: response to the meaning and language - each individual interprets the symbol in their own way e.g. accident or on purpose. Thought is a **mental conversation** that requires different points of view e.g. accepting that it was an accident and that they're sorry

Answer 39

**Dramaturgical Analogy**: - Society is like a stage and we are all 'actors' acting out scripts - **Impression of management**: control the impression your performance gives to the audience - We do this to attempt to convince the audience that we are the kind of person we want them to believe we are - There is **no true self** - when we are alone we are simply **'backstage'** preparing for our next performance We control impression management through: **symbols** (gestures, appearance, language etc), different **settings** of interactions (the ‘front’ and ‘backstage’), **role distance** (between real self and our roles)

Answer 40

- Doesn't explain **group behaviour** - more of a psychological explanation of individual actions rather than a sociological understanding of behaviour - Ignores power imbalances between individuals - not everyone has the freedom to negotiate meaning e.g. criminals can't do this with police officers - Ignores wider social structures that impact our behaviour e.g. norms and values - not completely down to the individual

Answer 41

- **Becker**: labelling theory - as described in his book 'The Outsiders' - **Young**: deviancy amplification e.g. Notting Hill hippies - **Cohen**: folk devils and moral panics e.g. mods vs rockers

Answer 42

**Giddens**: - Both structures in society and human behaviour are dependent on each other - **Duality**: people are constrained by the structure of capitalism BUT the structure only exists if people continue supporting it - Individuals are constantly **reflecting** on their actions - traditions and societal expectations are losing influence - there is now less of a need to behave the way we've always done - e.g. laws only exist because people support and follow them - **South Korea**'s failed attempt to establish **martial law**

Answer 43

- **Structuralists**: exaggerates free will - we are dictated by structures - **Social action theorists**: exaggerates influence of structures on individuals

Answer 44

A person/group/organisation with power to create and enforce rules and impose their morals, views, and attitudes towards others

Answer 45

An exaggerated outburst of public concern over the morality or behaviour of a group in society

Answer 46

1. Individual is labelled as ‘other’ by someone in position of power 2. Individual is treated accordingly by society (master status is placed onto them) 3. Individual begins to see them self as different and associate with that label (**self-fulfilling prophecy**) 4. Individual becomes that label (if a label of deviance then starts **deviant career**)

Answer 47

Strengths: - shows statistics are skewed - certain groups are overrepresented in crime statistics due to labelling - can explain why deviance may occur or is increased Weaknesses: - assumes people passively accept their label - subject qualitative research that focuses on individuals - can’t be generalised - suggests without labelling crime wouldn’t exist

Answer 48

- **Husserl**: the world as we know it is a **product of the individual mind** - **Schutz**: the way individuals see the world isn't completely unique. We **share** these with people which is what enables us to live in communities. These develop through **shared experiences** and so can **vary between social groups** - e.g. tourists may have the shared response of confusion to the phenomenon of tube stations whereas Londoners have the shared response of understanding

Answer 49

- **Typifications**: the categories that help us to organise our experiences and the world around us - **general knowledge** on how the world works e.g. doctors helping us - Shared typifications create a **life world** - common assumptions of how the world works e.g. red light = stop - This makes us develop **recipe knowledge** - the ability to interpet a situation, action, or motivation **without really thinking about it** e.g. understanding how pedals and wheels works make us able to learn how to drive a car - This creates a **natural attitude** - **taking things of everyday life for granted** e.g. posting a letter trusting all the various people involved will do their jobs - postman will pick it up, post office will sort it, postman will drive and deliver it, the recipient will read it and respond

Answer 50

**Berger and Luckman**: while it is right to focus on **common sense knowledge** and **shared reactions** it is WRONG to say that reality is inter-subjective. Once shared meanings have been created, society becomes an **external reality** that reflects back on us e.g. religion is a set of ideas that we created but had become a **powerful structure** which now constrains us

Answer 51

- The study of how social order is maintained and how we've created meaning which has become common sense - **Garfinkel**: people construct common sense knowledge and the rules and processes we us to produce meanings. This creates the norms and values of society and **maintains social order** - Social order is created by everyone **creating** and **applying common sense knowledge** and **typifications** to overyday life - Human behaviour creates social order rather than societal structures deciding human behaviour - **Indexicality**: everything is dependent on context - nothing has a fixed meanining e.g. introductions in the UK are handshakes whereas in East Asia they may be bows - **Reflexivity**: the use of common sense knowledge to interpret everyday structures and construct a sense of order

Answer 52

- **Garfinkle** had PPs act as **lodgers** in their own home or **the haggled** over the price of grocerie at the supermarket checkout - Breaching experiments disrupt people's sense of order and challenge their reflexivity by undermining assumptions about a situation - Challenging their taken for granted assumptions allowed Garfinkle to show that **social order is 'participant produced'** - it's not fixed but an accomplishment of those who took part

Answer 53

- Uncovers the role of individuals in maintaining social order - **Craib**: uncovers taken for granted rules but **fails to explain the origins of common sense** - Marxists: shared common sense is just ruling class ideology that serves capitalism

Answer 54

- **Anti-foundationalism** - there is no objective criteria to prove a theory true or false - no theory that explains all of society can be proven right. - All theories are **relativistic** - no one has special access to the truth - Power and knowledge are inter-related - **knowledge is always an exercise of power** and **power is always a function of knowledge** - Discipline is a mechanism of power and was excercised over individuals through sovereign power. Society now self-rules rather than the sovereign ruling by force e.g. the **panopticon** - the prisoners lack of knowledge forces them to practice self-surveillance and self-discipline

Answer 55

- Ignores the **emotional aspects** of punishment e.g. **revenge** rather than surveillance - Prisoners often find ways of resisting control - they don't all practice self-surveillance

Answer 56

- Society has experienced the **death of the metanarrative** - People no longer believe in the myth of truth and have lost faith in the superiority of science and progress - e.g. **COVID 19 Conspiracies** - 5G, created in a lab in China, plot of 'Big Pharma'

Answer 57

- The postmodern world is **media saturated** - The media has created **simulacra** - false images that represent the world e.g. TV, film - E.g. **Disney Land** is an entire 'land' devoted to simulacrum - it's an imitation of society based on an imitation - The domination of simulacrum has led to a **hyperreality** as we are unable to distinguish between reality and media e.g. reality TV, deepfakes, AI, filters

Answer 58

- Globalisation means that we have access to different channels with different versions of the truth - So much **fragmentation** means soceity is now insecure and uncertain of how to behave e.g. rise in family diversity over the secure nuclear family - **Metanarratives in the past have failed** to deliver a better society so people have lost faith in them e.g. 1917 Revolution led to Soviet repression, science has contributed to global warming - We can now **pick and mix** or identity as we are not constrained by metanarratives deciding how we act e.g. **Usher and Thompson: post fordist education**, **Hervieu-Leger: spiritual shoppers**

Answer 59

- **Philo and Miller**: not everyone has the ability change their identity - WC don't have the same access to MC lifestyle e.g. going on holiday, eating at nice restaurants - **Archer**: WC identities are pre-determined due to **symbolic violence** - they form **nike identities** as they are denied status due to their 'inferior' habitus - **Best and Kellner**: postmodernism identifies important theories of society today but doesn't explain how they came about e.g. how did the media come about, how did consumption occur? - **Ethnocentric**: only applies to industrialised, more economically developed countries - **Harvey**: fragmentation, consumption and other characteristics of postmodernity are **caused by capitalism** rather than a decline in metanarratives and these changes do not bring about choice but rather accelerate exploitation e.g. capitalists take advantage of capitalism to practice **flexible accumulation**

Answer 60

- **Walby**: metanarratives have NOT declined - patriarchy is in every structure - **Barrett**: they overestimate the diversity of 'truths' in media - it still reflects patriarchal values e.g. the ideology of **familialism** - **Koskela**: surveillance is patriarchal and a reflection of the male gaze

Key Theories Flashcards

(84 cards)