CHAPTER ONE - Social Sciences at Hunter College (CUNY)



CHAPTER ONE

THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter introduces the reader to the basic subject matter and research methods of sociology. Sociology is defined as the study of social forces that shape individual life. Eitzen and Baca Zinn then outline what they consider to be the three dominant assumptions of the sociological perspective: 1) that humans are by nature social beings; 2) that individual behavior is socially determined; and 3) that individuals create, sustain, and change the social forms within which they live.

New to this edition is a discussion of the historical development of sociology. The contributions of August Comte, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. The authors go on to survey commonly used sociological methods and data sources. Problems of the sociological perspective are considered -- among these, and most important, are the issues of objectivity and value neutrality. Eitzen and Baca Zinn suggest that the pursuit of sociological "truths" does not take place in a political vacuum, but that values intrude at every point in the social science endeavor. Both the shapers and beneficiaries of social policy need to be reminded of this fact.

The chapter underscores the need to be aware of our value stances or biases as we engage in the sociological endeavor. The student is left with an awareness of the strengths and limitations of the sociological perspective after reading this introductory chapter.

KEY THEORISTS

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) - Comte is the founder of modern sociology who coined the word sociology for the science of society and group life. Comte sough to establish sociology as a science based upon positivism. He believed that using scientific principles, sociologists could solve social problems (e.g., poverty, crime, and war).

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) - Durkheim provided the rationale for sociology by emphasizing social facts. His classic work, Suicide, demonstrates how social factors explain individual behavior. Durkheim was also interested in the bases of social solidarity and contributed such core sociological concepts as social roles, socialization, anomie, deviant behavior, social control, and the social bond. Durkheim's works provide the foundation for the order model of sociological analysis.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) - Karl Marx was an economic determinist. He was vitally interested in how capitalism shaped society. He emphasized the exploitation of workers (the proletariat) by the ownership class (the bourgeoisie) as they attempted to maximize their profits. Marx believed that these owners of capital (the ruling class) also determined the prevailing ideas in society by virtue of their control over the political system, religion, and media outlets. In this way, members of the working class accept the prevailing consciousness. Marx referred to this as false consciousness. He believed that the social change that is the inherent contradictions in capitalism caused the to recognize their oppression and develop class consciousness (recognizing their class interests, common oppression and understanding of who their oppressors are), resulting in a revolt against the system.

Marx's view of the world is the foundation of the conflict perspective. Marx also contributed such core sociological concepts as systems of inequality, social class, power, alienation, and social movements.

Max Weber (1864 -1920) - Much of Weber's thought was a reaction to the writings of Karl Marx. Weber felt that Marx's view was too narrowly simplistic. Weber argued that the basic structure of society comes from three sources: the political, the economic, and cultural spheres - not just the economic as Marx argued. To Weber, social class includes economic resources, status (prestige), and power dimensions. He also suggested that political power comes from both economic sources and from the expressive qualities of individual leaders (i.e., charisma). In his extensive analysis of bureaucracy, Weber attempted to show that power may also reside in organizations. In his classic work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber illustrated how religious ideology shape the government.

Core concepts contributed to the discipline of sociology by Weber include: power, ideology, charisma, bureaucracy, and social change.

CHAPTER TWO

THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL GROUPS

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

The main objective of Chapter Two is to provide students with the vocabulary needed to describe, analyze, and understand social phenomena. Introduced, through both small-group and society-wide examples of social structure, are fundamental concepts such as: social structure, social organization, culture, role, and norm.

Through comparisons of primary and secondary groups, students learn about the impact of the group on individual behavior. (This edition includes a new section that discusses both the benefits and disadvantages of "Bureaucracy: The Ultimate Secondary Group.") The chapter also cites a number of classic studies, experiments, and theories involving the processes that emerge in primary and secondary groups (e.g., the research of Asch, Sherif, Festinger, and the theories of Durkheim).

KEY THEORISTS

Philip Zimbardo - the psychologist who conducted an experiment that offers a dramatic example of the power of role over behavior. His experiment, conducted on a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford University psychology department, illustrated that social factors superseded individual ones on determining the behavior of participants in the study.

Max Weber - Weber coined the word bureaucracy and identified the distinctive organizational characteristics that enable bureaucracies to maximize their organizational efficiency. (See p.36 for a list of those characteristics. He also cited the danger inherent in bureaucracy’s “iron cage@ of rationality.

George Ritzer - the contemporary sociologist who identified the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American Society as well as the rest of the world. Ritzer called this process AMcDonaldization.@

Emile Durkheim - one of the founders of modern sociology. His classic study of suicide (cited on pp. 37-38) illustrated the profound influence of social groups on individuals.

Muzafer Sherif - conducted a series of experiments to determine the extent of conformity among individuals. His conclusions about group pressure on individual members is considered more valid than that conducted by Solomon Asch as it reflects natural group process. (See pp. 38-39 for a comparison of the two class experiments conducted by Asch and Sherif.)

CHAPTER THREE

THE DUALITY OF SOCIAL LIFE: ORDER AND CONFLICT

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter presents two of the dominant theoretical perspectives in sociology: structural functionalism (order theory) and conflict theory. These perspectives contain different and, at times, apparently contradictory assumptions about the nature of social reality. Taken together, they give a realistic view of the nature of society.

The fact that such markedly different perspectives coexist also demonstrates that sociologists do not always agree on a view of the social world. Eitzen and Baca Zinn want students to appreciate the complexity and the sometimes contradictory nature of the social world, and to establish a framework (that combines aspects of both order and conflict theories) from which to examine social institutions in the remainder of the book. The authors suggest that integration and consensus produce conflict and change, and that conflict and change must not be overlooked as inevitable outcomes of social order and the social structure.

KEY THEORISTS

Emile Durkheim - The French social theorists of the early 1900s who, like other order theorists, sought to answer the questions: AWhat is the nature of the social bond? What holds groups together?@ For Durkheim there are two types of societies, based on the way members are bonded. He believed that society is based on the division of labor, in which the members involved in specialized tasks are united by their dependence on others.

Durkheim focused on integration by attempting to determine the manifest and latent consequences of social structures, norms, and social activities. His analysis of the manifest and latent consequences of criminal punishment led to the conclusion that society is integrated through belief in the same rules

Karl Marx - The most famous conflict theorists, Marx theorized that there exists in every society, a dynamic tension between two groups--those who own the means of production and those who work for the owners. (One exception to this dichotomization was the last historical stage of communism according to Marx). In marked contrast to Durkheim, Marx viewed the groups as the sources of division and exploitation. Marx focused on inequality--the oppressors and the oppressed, the powerful and the powerless. for him the powerful protect their privileges by supporting the status quo. Laws, religion, education, and the mass media all work to the advantage of the advantaged. The powerful will use and abuse the powerless, thereby sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Marx believed that the destruction of the elite is accomplished when the dominated people unite and overthrow the dominants.

Ralf Dahrendorf - A contemporary conflict theorist who also viewed conflict as a ubiquitous phenomenon, not because of economic factors as Marx believed, but because of other aspects of social organization. By its very nature, organization means that power will be distributed unequally according to Dahrendorf. He theorized that the population will therefore be separated into the haves and the have nots with respect to power. Because organization also means constraint, there will be a situation in all societies in which the constraints are determined by the powerful, thereby ensuring that the have-nots will be conflict with the haves--thus, the important insight that conflict is endemic to social organization.

CHAPTER FOUR

CULTURE

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

In this chapter, Eitzen and Baca Zinn focus on the substance of what members of a society share - their culture. While the chapter provides a general conceptual framework and vocabulary for the concept of culture, U.S. culture receives additional and special attention.

Culture is defined as the knowledge that people share - knowledge which is socially constructed. Culture is characterized as 1) an emergent process, 2) involving learned behavior which, 3) channels behavior, and 4) maintains a group=s boundaries.

Six components of culture are identified and discussed: symbols, technology, roles, ideologies, norms and values. Eitzen and Baca Zinn include a discussion of cultural relativity and ethnocentrism. The last half of the chapter focuses on the dominant values in the United States and the implications of cultural diversity.

KEY THEORISTS

Harold Garfinkel - an ethnomethodologist who used this technique to discover the implicit bases of social interaction.

Max Weber - one of sociology's "founding fathers" who described the impact of the Protestant ethic on economic development in modern societies.

CHAPTER FIVE

SOCIALIZATION

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter is concerned with socialization, which is the process of learning one's culture. Eitzen and Baca Zinn examine the interactive process by which individuals learn language, meanings, and ideas. They introduce the perspectives of symbolic interaction (Cooley and Mead) and Freudian (psychoanalytic) theory in the context of socialization. Every culture pursues its dominant themes and values. Humans are products of these cultures, and they tend to manifest the personality that is appropriate for their culture.

The more homogeneous the culture, the more this observation holds. In a large heterogeneous society such as the United States, extensive personality differences reflect the diverse emphases of various subcultures and the idiosyncratic experiences of individuals.

Agents of socialization discussed in this chapter - the family, school and the media.

KEY THEORISTS

Charles H. Cooley (1864-1929) - Best known for his "looking-glass self" theory, Cooley believed that children's conceptions of themselves arise through interaction with other people. Thus, in Cooley's theory of personality development, feedback the individual receives from other people is the critical process in the development of personality. This reaction to the definitions of others creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

George H. Mead (1863-1931) - Like Cooley, Mead theorized about the relationship of self and society. This symbolic interactionist believed that children find out who they are as they learn about society and society's expectations. He contended that by the age of two, children have become self-consciousness and thus are able to react to themselves as others will react to them.

Next, comes the "play stage" as children between about four to seven years of age learn to "take the role of others." The final stage in the child's development is the "game stage" which begins at about age eight. Mead suggested that in the "play stage," children learn what is expected of them by others; in the "game stage children are provided with constraints from many other people, including people they don't know. Children's incorporation and understanding of the pressures of society formulate the "generalized other."

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) - The Afather of psychoanalysis,@ Freud emphasized the biological dimension along with social factors in personality development. Freud's concept of "self" included three components - the id (an expression of a primitive biological force), the ego (the rational part of the self that controls the id=s basic urges), and the superego (conscience) which regulates both.

CHAPTER SIX

SOCIAL CONTROL

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

The focus of this chapter is on social control at the societal level. Eitzen and Baca Zinn divide the chapter between the concepts of ideological social control and direct social control.

This chapter is intended to introduce students to sources of social control. More importantly, this chapter should encourage students to look critically at their own cultural institutions and the roles they play in maintaining the status quo.

KEY THEORISTS

Peter Berger - Berger identified eight sources of social control. They are: force, economic rewards or punishments, ridicule and gossip, ostracism, fraud and deception, belief systems, spheres of intimates, and the contract. (See pp.132-133 for a brief explanation of each.)

Michael J. Parenti - A conflict theorist who has written extensively about the bias of the media and how it serves to reinforce the system. His book Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment (1992) demonstrates that films and television programs promote images and ideologies that support imperialism, capitalism, racism, sexism, militarism, authoritarian violence, vigilantism, and anti-working class attitudes. (See pp.138-139 for a list of specific examples.)

In Democracy for the Few (5th ed.) Parenti described the techniques for shaping and controlling the behavior of nonconformists developed by practitioners and theoreticians in science and medicine. (See p.141 of text).

Richard Quinney - In the conflict-model tradition, Quinney contends that society is held together by some segments coercing others. His "interest-group theory" is closely related to the Marxist tradition, arguing that crime is behavior that conflicts with the segments of society that have the power to shape criminal policy.

Piven and Cloward - In their classic study of public welfare, Piven and Cloward have argued that public assistance programs serve a social control function in times of mass unemployment by diffusing social unrest.

CHAPTER SEVEN

DEVIANCE

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter focuses on the issue of behavior that does not conform to social expectations asking: What is deviance? Who is deviant? What causes deviance and what are the solutions to deviance?

The authors examine biological, psychological and sociological theories of deviance. There is an extensive critique of the individual-oriented ("blaming the victims) explanations for deviance. Next, Eitzen and Baca Zinn focus on two theories that place the blame for deviance on the role of society: labeling theory and conflict theory

KEY THEORISTS

Kai T. Erikson - A contemporary sociologist who argues that ADeviance is not a property inherent in any particular behavior; it is a property conferred upon that behavior by the people who come into direct or indirect contact with it.@ Thus, it was Erikson who established that deviance is not an absolute, but a relative, notion. His perspective helped provide a foundation for labeling theory.

Howard Becker - A major contributor to the labeling perspective, Decker suggested that deviance is socially created. He contended that social organizations create right and wrong by originating norms, the infraction of which constitutes deviance. This means that nothing inherent in a particular act make it deviant. Whether an act is deviant depends on how other people react to it, according to Becker.

Emile Durkheim - To this classic order theorist, deviance is an integral part of all healthy societies. Deviant behavior, according to Durkheim, actually has positive consequences for society, because it gives the nondeviants a sense of solidarity. By punishing the deviant, the group expresses its collective indignation and reaffirms its commitment to the rules.

Durkheim believed that the true function of punishment is to reaffirm the importance of the rule being violated, not the Prevention of future crimes. In other words, the punishment of crimes serves to strengthen our belief both as individuals and as members of a collectivity in the legitimacy of society's norms. Thus, to Durkheim, the solidarity of society is enhanced as its members unite in their opposition to deviants.

Caesare Lombroso (1835-1909) - Lombroso is the early criminologist who argued that physical stigmata were indicators of atavism (i.e., the belief that criminal deviance is the result of faulty socialization). While his theory has been generally discredited it is a classic example of a biological theory for deviance that focused on physiognomy.

Edwin Sutherland - Sutherland?s theory of differential association sought to explain why some persons are criminals while others are not, even when both share certain social characteristics (e.g. social class position). Sutherland believed that individuals learn to deviate through their interaction with others; he contended that one learns to deviate the same way that conformists learn to conform. His differential association theory holds that if our close associates are deviants, there is a good possibility that we will learn the techniques and the deviant values that make criminal act possible. This theory is a significant departure from the environmental determinist perspective that was so popular when Sutherland developed his theory in 1937.

Robert Merton - This structural functionalist (i.e., order theorist) is well known for his anomie theory of deviance. Merton argued that societal values determine both what are the appropriate goals (success through the acquisition of the wealthy) and the approved means for achieving these goals. The problem occurs when some people are denied access to the legitimate means of attaining these goals. Viewed from Merton's perspective, deviant behavior is a result of social structure and not the result of individual pathology. While Merton's analysis provides many important insights, your authors suggest that the emphasis is on the adjustments people make to the circumstances of society. Deviance is seen as a property of people because they cannot adapt to the discrepancy between the goal and the means of society.

Edward Banfield - Banfield argues that lower-class individuals have a propensity toward criminal behavior. He asserts that a person in the lower class does not have a strong sense of morality, and thus is not constrained by legal rules. Banfield contends that these persons have weak ego strength, a present-time orientation, a propensity for taking risk, and a willingness to inflict injury. This is a theory that has been widely accepted by scholars but there is strong evidence that Banfield's assertions about the "lower-class culture" are incorrect. (See p.164 of the text for an explanation why.)

Ralph Lemert - Lemert is generally associated with the labeling theory. It was Lemert who differentiated between primary and secondary deviance. He defined primary deviance as the rule-breaking that occurs before labeling and secondary deviance as that behavior resulting from the labeling process.

CHAPTER EIGHT

STRUCTURAL SOURCES OF SOCIETAL CHANGE: ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

In this chapter, the two massive Changes in progress in the United Stated are examined - 1) the Atransformation for the economy@ that combines deindustrialization, globalization, computer chip technology, and the rapid movement of capital; and 2) Athe new immigration@ which is changing the racial composition of the United States, as Latino, African American, and Asian American populations increase dramatically. Eitzen and Baca Zinn examine the external (global) and internal (domestic) origins of these changes and the consequences of these changes for individuals, families, communities, and for the institutions of society.

KEY THEORISTS

Peter Drucker - the contemporary social analyst who has described the rapid rise and fall of the blue-collar worker in this century.

Michael J. Parenti - the contemporary conflict theorist who in this chapter summarizes the bleak picture in the U.S. today by describing the "Third-Worldization" of the American economy. (See p.197)

Jeremy Rifkin - this widely recognized Afuturist@ writes of the susceptibility of the recently downsized to the politics of paranoia and hate as they search for groups to blame for their plight. (See Rifkin's The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Lost-Market Era [New York: Putnam and Sons, 1995].)

Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley - these two contemporary researchers are widely recognized for their study of the universal dilemma faced by Immigrants to the U.S. today. They have also written on erroneous assumptions about the cost of illegal immigrants to Americans that launched Proposition 187 in California. (See pp.211-212 of the text.)

Walda Katy-Fishman - A conflict theorist who argues strongly that the economic issue that presents the greatest challenge to the U.S. is NOT the lack of education among workers but a lack of jobs. See p.199 of the text for elaboration.

CHAPTER NINE

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

In this chapter, the major concepts and assumptions underlying structured social inequality, or stratification, are introduced. Eitzen and Baca Zinn discuss various theories, seeking an explanation for social stratification. These include order theory, conflict theory, deficiency theories (biological and cultural), and structural theories.

KEY THEORISTS

Patricia Hill Collins - A conflict theorist wrote about the matrix of domination created by the intersection of class, race, and gender. Collins discussed the implications of these intersections, concluding that: 1) people experience race, class, gender, and sexuality differently depending on their social location in these structures of inequality; 2) class, race, and gender are components of both social structure and social interaction; 3) the inequality matrix impacts on the relational nature of dominance and subordination. (See textbook pages 225-226 for more.)

Kingsley, Davis and Wilbert Moore - Two classic structural functionalists who argued that the smooth functioning of society requires that the various tasks be accomplished through a division of labor. They contended that in order to have the most critical tasks in society done by the most talented people, differential rewards are required. Thus, a differential reward system guarantees that the important societal functions are fulfilled, thereby ensuring the maintenance of society. (See textbook pages 227-228 for the conflict views on this subject.)

Karl Marx - The founding father of conflict theory who believed that the dominant ideology in any society is always the ideology of the ruling class. The ruling class, according to Marx, uses the media, schools, religion, and other institutions to legitimate systems of inequality. The end result was that the oppressed tend to accept their oppression (i.e., false consciousness results). Marx argued however, that when the oppressed become aware of their common oppression and their manipulation by the powerful to serve the interests of the powerful, they will develop an objective awareness of their common exploitation (class consciousness) thus becoming unified in a cause to advance their class interests.

Herbert Spencer - The British philosopher and sociologist who promoted a theory later known as Social Darwinism. An evolutionary theorist, Spencer argued that the poor were poor because they were unfit. APoverty was nature's way of....getting rid of the weak.@

Arthur Jensen and Richard Herrnstein - Biological determinists who argued that one's lack of success was related to one's lack of intelligence. Obviously, a highly controversial theory. (See p.229 of the textbook for a discussion of the flaws in the logic and in the evidence used by Jensen and Herrnstein as well as the logic of Herrnstein and Charles Murray in The Bell Curve [1994].)

Edward Banfield - This political scientist argued that the difference between the poor and the nonpoor is cultural - the former have a present-time orientation while the nonpoor have a future time orientation. Banfield failed to see the present-time orientation of the poor as a function of the hopelessness of their situation (See p.234 in the textbook for a discussion of the flaws in the culture-of-poverty hypothesis which Banfield is commonly linked with.)

Michael Harrington - Harrington wrote The Other America. This is the book often credited with sparking the "War on Poverty" launched the federal government during the 1960s during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Harrington placed the blame for poverty on society, not the poor; he emphasized the effects of institutional discrimination on the disadvantages faced by the poor.

Herbert Gans - Gans is cited in this chapter for his classic article about the functions of poverty. He did not intend his analysis to suggest that because it is often functional, that poverty should exist, or that it must exist. Gans recognized that, for one thing, poverty has more dysfunctions than functions. For another, he recognized that it is possible to suggest functional alternatives. (See "Diversity: Who Benefits from Poverty" on p.238 of the text for a summary of Gans' views.)

CHAPTER TEN

CLASS

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter focuses on one hierarchy of stratification - the social class system - which is the ranking based primarily on economic resources. Americans are clearly stratified with dramatic differences in wealth, income, educational attainment, and occupational prestige. The chapter details the different perspectives of conflict theorists, who emphasize differences in control over others and oneself, and order theorists, who focus more on lifestyle differences between the social classes. Both agree that one's economic situation is the determining factor affecting life chances.

Eitzen and Baca Zinn discuss the dimensions of inequality wealth income, education, and occupation. Other areas of social class are also covered including social mobility. Finally, the authors have a section on the growing number of homeless people and provide a structural analysis of this growing problem.

KEY THEORISTS

Randall Collins - Collins is an often-quoted contemporary conflict theorist. In his analysis of formal organizations he noted that in the role of supervisor, one places the individual with the interests of management in opposition to the working class. It was also Collins who distinguished between managers and supervisors as the Aorder-givers@ and the working class who he defined as the Aorder-takers.@

Erik Olin Wright - Wright and his associates conducted an empirical investigation of the U.S. class structure using the conflict approach. He argued that it is incorrect to rank occupations as order theorists do, because within the various occupational categories there are managers/supervisors and workers. He also noted that social class is closely related to gender and race.

Christopher Jencks - Jencks and his associates have provided one of the most methodologically sophisticated analyses to date of the determinants of upward mobility to date. Jencks found that family background is the most important factor in determining one's social mobility. Educational attainment and students' personality traits followed in order of importance. All three of these factors were of greater importance than grades and IQ.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

RACIAL INEQUALITY

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter supports the premise that the United States is a racist society. The authors begin the chapter with the classic sociological definition of a minority group. Eitzen and Baca Zinn continue with a discussion of four minority groups in the United States: African Americans, Chicanos, Asian Americans and Native Americans.

They continue with an analysis of the different explanations for racial inequality emphasizing structural discrimination theories. Special attention is given to discrimination against Blacks and Hispanics. Finally, they conclude with an examination of contemporary racial and ethnic relations and issues.

KEY THEORISTS

Arthur Jensen and Richard Herrnstein - These two men are closely associated with the classical explanation for the inferiority of certain groups that maintains that their inferiority is the result of flawed genetic traits. Richard Herrnstein combined with Charles Murray to write The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994). This latest in a long series of works, claims that genetic inferiority cannot be altered by environmental intervention (e.g., Head Start and Affirmative Action). (Note: There is no definitive evidence for the thesis that racial groups differ in intelligence.)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Moynihan's 1967 report charged that the "tangle of pathology" within Black ghettos was rooted in the deterioration of the Negro family. This cultural deficiency theory states that a web of pathological patterns (e.g., out-of-wedlock births, high rates of marital dissolution, and female-headed households) passed down through successive generations. His theory is a classic case of blaming the victim. Moynihan's report locates the cause of pathology within Blacks, not in the racially stratified society.

David Wellman - Wellman made an extensive critique of bias theories and challenged the notion that the attitudes of White Americans are the major cause of racism. He argued that this view which concentrates only on bigots, ignores the discriminating acts of those who are not prejudiced. Moreover, to Wellman, it is the racial organization of society that is the cause of people's racial beliefs. He suggested that the determining feature of majority-minority relations is not prejudice, but rather the superior position of the majority and the institutions that maintain this superiority. (See pp.292 and 293 of the text for more.)

Gunnar Myrdal - Gunnar Myrdal argued in his classic work, An American Dilemma (1994), that prejudiced attitudes are the source of discriminatory actions which keep minorities in a subordinate status. This bias theory argues that the inferior status of minorities reinforces negative stereotypes that in turn justify the predjudice of the majority; this process results in a vicious cycle that perpetuates the secondary status from one generation to another.

William Julius Wilson - Wilson is a contemporary sociologist who has written extensively on the economic polarization in U.S. inner cities. In his classic book, The Truly Disadvantaged, (1987), Wilson describes how economic changes in society have removed jobs and other opportunities from inner-city residents, severely affecting the families of these residents.

According to Wilson, social problems of the ghetto are due to transformations of the larger economy and the class structure of ghetto neighborhoods. The movement of middle-class black professionals from the inner-city has left behind a concentration of the most disadvantaged segments of the Black urban population. In his most recent work, When Work Disappears (1996), Wilson argues that family dissolution, and welfare are the consequences of the disappearance of work.

Wilson has argued for over a decade that jobs influence the likelihood of marriage among Blacks. He suggests that increasing male joblessness is a major factor in the rise of Black single mothers and female-headed households. Wilson believes that the lack inner city is being destroyed by economic forces, not by its own behaviors and culture.

CHAPTER TWELVE

GENDER INEQUALITY

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter continues the analysis of stratification in general, and particularly discrimination against women as a social group. Gender stratification is examined from the order and the conflict perspectives. Both agree that gender-role patterns in society are primarily social in origin, not biological. Order and conflict perspectives differ, however, in their interpretation of arbitrary division.

The authors suggest that while socialization accounts for differences in women's and men's roles, male dominance is sustained by a complex web of structural forces in society. However, while the capitalist economy undoubtedly benefits from sex inequality, the poverty that it creates ultimately damages the society and deprives it of the potential contributions of half of the population. Despite recent legal, political, and personal gains, men remain subordinate in the society.

KEY THEORISTS

Talcott Parsons - Parsons is a major order theorist who argued that with industrialization, the family and the role of women as nurturers and caretakers has become more important than ever. He noted the importance of role dichtominzation where women take on the "expressive" roles of providing affection and support within the family, while men perform "instrumental" roles outside the family that provide economic support. To Parsons, this division of labor is not only practical--it is also necessary because it assures that the important societal tasks are accomplished.

Randall Collins - Like other conflict theorists, Collins emphasized male control of both women and valued resources. He also noted that gender stratification as an outcome of how women and men are tied to the economic structure of society. Collins' examination of gender stratification in both simple and more complex societies found that in simple societies, men dominate by virtue of sheer strength; as societies become more developed, male domination takes the form of control of valued economic resources. While women use their femininity to acquire resources through marriage, Collins noted that they become subordinated in the process. (This is an idea that originated in the work of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx who viewed marriage as a means of enforcing male power.)

Deborah Tannen - This sociolinguist argues that women and men have different styles of communication and different communication goals. Tannen contends that women and men speak different "genderlects." Like cultural dialects, she argues that these differences sometimes lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding based on how girls and boys learn to use language differently in their sex-separate peer groups.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter - Kanter conducted the classic study, Men and Women of the Corporation (1977), which found that workplace conditions shape behavior. She argued that "when women seem to be less motivated or committed, it is probably because their jobs carry less opportunity." Kanter concluded that what has been considered typical women's behavior can be explained by structural position.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE ECONOMY

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

The task of this chapter is to describe the economy on the United States. The premise is that all other social institutions are shaped by economic factors. Four areas of the economy are emphasized: domination of the economy by huge corporations, maldistribution of wealth, structural transformation of the economy, and current economic crises.

Eitzen and Baca Zinn make a strong case for the need to understand the capitalist system as a way of understanding the distribution of wealth and power in this country. The authors cite the influence of large corporations and their control over our lives. Part of this control results in the inequalities which are characteristic of life in the U.S. This leads the authors to a structural analysis of the economy. New to this edition is a discussion of work in U.S. society and problems associated with it.

KEY THEORISTS

Karl Marx (1818-1883) - Marx is one of the founding fathers of sociology and a classic conflict theorist. He predicted that capitalism was doomed by several inherent contradictions that would produce a class of people bent on destroying it. The most significant of these contradictions is the inevitability of monopolies. (See the footnote on p.359 for a list of the factors that Marx believed increase the probability of the proletariat building a class consciousness, which is the condition necessary before class conflict and the ushering in of a new economic system.) Marx contended that the ultimate result of free enterprise is firms becoming bigger and bigger as they eliminate their competition or absorb competing firms until monopolies exist in each of the various sectors of the economy. (For the most part, the evidence in U.S. society upholds Marx's prediction.)

Marx also argued that in capitalism, worker alienation is inevitable because workers lack control over their labor, because they are manipulated by their managers, because they work in large and impersonal settings, and because they work at specialized tasks.

Frederick Taylor - Taylor is the founder of scientific management (a.k.a. Talorization) which became the trend in U.S. industry around 1900. Scientific management was based on breaking down work into very specialized tasks, the standardization of tools and procedures, and the speeding up of repetitive work. These efforts to increase worker efficiency and thus increase profits meant that workers developed a very limited range of skills. This specialization had the effect of making workers highly susceptible to automation and to be easily replaced by cheaper workers.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

POWER AND POLITICS

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter tries to answer the question, "Who are the real power wielders in U.S. society?" Two contrasting models, an elitist and a pluralist model, are presented. However, the location and exercise of power is difficult to determine, especially in a large and complex society such as the U.S., where those making the decisions are often pressured by powerful interest groups.

The primary objectives of this chapter are 1) to encourage the reader to take a critical look at the distribution of power in the United States and 2) to call into question the representative democracy view of power distribution that is held by most Americans.

KEY THEORISTS

Karl Marx - Again, Marx's perspectives offer valuable insight into the sources of power. For Marx, economic power and political power were synonymous; the economic elite, through its ownership and control of the economy, exerts tremendous influence on government policies and actions and thus comprises a ruling class. One of the ways that the elite manipulate the masses, in the eyes of Marx, is through control of visible government leaders. Note that Marxists agree that the state serves the interests of the capitalist class. They disagree on how this is accomplished. (See Mills, Domhoff, and Parenti for examples of these variations.)

C. Wright Mills - Mills's view of the U.S. structure of power argues that key persons in three sectors - the corporate rich, the executive branch of government, and the military - comprise a power elite that makes all important decisions. Mills believed that this power elite routinely interact together and have similar interests and goals. The power base of the elite is the key institutional positions that they occupy. Note that Mills (who was writing in the 1950s) believed that the power elite was a relatively new phenomenon resulting from a number of historical and social forces that have enlarged and centralized the facilities of power, making the decisions of small groups much more consequential than in any other age. Also note that an important ingredient in Mill's view is that the elite is a self-conscious cohesive unit. Their unity is based on three factors: psychological similarity, social interaction, and coinciding interests. (See pp.394-398 for more.)

G. William Domhoff - Domhoff is best known for his "governing class theory." This theory is more broadly based than Mill's "power elite." (Note that p.399 of the text discusses the similarity of Domhoff's perspective to Mill's power elite.) The major difference, however, between the views of Mills and Domhoff is that Domhoff has asserted the complete ascendancy of the upper class to the apex of power. The three key questions that Domhoff suggested reveal who has power are "Who benefits?", "Who governs?", and "Who wins?." (See pp.399-401 for more.)

Michael J. Parenti - Parenti's approach to the study of power is one that emphasizes the "bias of the system." He contends that the government can be organized for the benefit of the majority, but it is not always neutral. Parenti contends that the state regulates; it stifles the opposition; it makes and enforces the law; it makes war on its enemies (both foreign and domestic); and its policies determine how resources are apportioned. From Parenti=s view point, the government is generally biased toward policies that benefit the wealthy, especially the business community.

Parenti wrote that: "The ability to control the definition of interests is the ability to define the agenda of issues, a capacity tantamount to winning battles without having to fight them." United States schools, churches and families possess this power. Also, the belief in democracy works to the advantage of the power elite. Again, Parenti writes, "As now constituted, elections serve as a great asset in consolidating the ensting social order by propagating the appearances of popular rule.... Elections legitimate the rule of the propertied class by investing it with the moral authority of popular consent.@ False consciousness, anyone? (See pp. 401-403)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

FAMILIES

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter details the diversity of the American family. This is particularly important as American society tries to deal with the large number of alternatives available to its citizens.

The authors stress the linkages between the family and the economy. These linkages mean that families are not isolated units free from outside constraints, but that they are affected by many outside forces. These ties are discussed fin terms of the stratification system and the changing family roles of men and women.

KEY THEORISTS

Katherine Newman - In her study of downward mobility in the middle class, Newman noted the personal consequences of "falling from grace" for middle class and working class families. She noted that downward mobility is devastating in the U.S. not only because of the loss in economic resources but also because self-worth is so closely connected occupation. She contends that people in the U.S. tend to interpret loss of status as the fault of the downwardly mobile. Newman argues that the stress, marital tension, and depression family members experience are normal, given the persistent tensions generated by downward mobility. She notes that for some families problems of physical brutality, incapacitating alcoholism, desertion, and even suicide result.

Jessie Bernard - It was Jessie Bernard who described differences between marriage Ahis,@ and marriage Ahers.@ She contended that the legal, social, and personal changes that women experience when they marry result in significant disadvantages. Bernard suggests that this is due to the dependency, the secondary status, and the uneven responsibilities that marriage brings for women. Bernard's classic work on marriage revealed that marital union actually contains two marriages.

Arlie Hochschild - This sociologist argues that traditional gender ideologies lead women to identify with home and family whereas men identify with work and career. Like Jessie Bernard, Hochschild believed that while they may live in the same physical space, wives and husbands experience differently the social world of the family. It was Arlie Hochschild who coined the term "the second shift" to describe the work that awaits women who work outside the home, upon their return home from their job. (See p.439 for more on Athe second shift.@)

Lillian Rubin - did a classic study of blue-collar families that illustrates the separateness of wives and husbands. She points out that the quality of marital relationships is strongly influenced by class position. The three positive attributes most frequently mentioned by working class women in Rubin's study were AHe's a steady worker, he doesn't drink, and he doesn't hit me.@ Not one woman in the professional middle class families mentioned these qualities when answering the same question. They focused, instead, on intimacy, sharing, communication and more subtly on the comforts, status, and prestige their husband's occupation afford.

Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales - These two classic order theorist's defined "the normal family." They focused on married couples and their children who filled two central functions (socialization of children and emotional support) with a fixed division of labor (a stay-at-home nurturing mother and a breadwinning father). Parsons and Bales noted the function of dichotomized role definitions in which women filled the "expressive" or emotional roles of providing affection and support, while men fill the "instrumental" roles that provide economic support by working outside of the family.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

EDUCATION

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter is divided into four sections which describe and evaluate the American educational system and its relationship to the other social institutions.

The first section describes the characteristics of American education: conservatism - the preservation of culture, roles, values, and training necessary for the maintenance of society; the belief in mass education; local control of schools; teaching competition; reinforcement of the stratification system; and a pre-occupation with order and control.

The second section focuses on youth in accordance with their class position and point them toward factory, bureaucratic, or leadership roles in the economy.

The third section describes the current role of education in perpetuating inequality in society by promoting the relationship between school success and socioeconomic status. It describes who is likely to achieve success in school, and why.

The final section summarizes the chapter by looking at education from the order and conflict perspectives.

KEY THEORISTS

Michael J. Parenti - In Parenti?s book Democracy for the Few (1995), he discusses the consequences of the socialization function performed by American education. He believes that the education process to be more involved in providing students with "stories of their nation's exploits that might be more valued for their inspirational nationalism than for their historical accuracy." Parenti contends that students are instructed to believe in America's "global virtue and moral superiority" and to hold a rather uncritical view of American politico-economic institutions.

Like most conflict theorists, Parenti finds that teachers concentrate on the formal aspects of representative government and provide scant attention to the influences that wealthy, powerful groups exercise over political life. He notes that it is no accident that the history of resistance to slavery, racism, and U.S. expansionist wars is largely untaught in American schools at anytime. (See pp.452-453 for more from Parenti's Democracy for the Few.)

James S. Coleman - Coleman et al. conducted an analyses of all third-, sixth-, ninth-, and twelfth-grade pupils in 4,000 American schools that set the agenda for decades of debate over U.S. education. The Coleman report noted that Whites surpass Blacks in various achievement areas and that the gaps increase the longer they remain in school. His 1966 study concluded that clearly, the school is to blame, for in no instance is the initial gap narrowed. Coleman suggested that moreover, the increasing gaps are understated, because there is a greater tendency for the people of lowest aptitude to drop out of school.

James Coleman (1993) more recently suggested that schools need to be less Aadministrative driven@ and more Aoutput driven.@ (John Macionis (1997) offers that APerhaps this transformation could begin by ensuring that graduation from high school depends on what a student has learned rather than simply on the length of time spent in a classroom.@) Output based education anyone? See p.462 of your text for William Ryan's summarization of class differentiated educational experiences for more.

Christopher Jencks - Jencks and his associates added to the research of Bocoles and Gintis on the relationship between one=s socioeconomic background and how much education one receives. Jencks found that educational attainment, particularly from college, is very important to later success, but it's not so much what one learns in school as the obtaining of the credentials that counts. He also noted that the probability of high educational attainment is closely tied to one's family background.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RELIGION

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

In this last in the series of chapters dealing with social institutions, Eitzen and Baca Zinn focus on the relationship of religion to the culture of American society as a whole. They analyze the actual and potential role of the church as an agent of social stability and as an agent of social change. They also show the interdependence of religion and other social institutions.

Five main topics are considered in this chapter: the general integrative and divisive features of religion as a social institution; the differing interpretations of religion by three classical sociologists (Durkheim, Marx, and Weber); the distinctive features of American religion; current religious trends; and the basic dilemma of the contemporary mainline Christian church.

KEY THEORISTS

Emile Durkheim - This classic sociologist explored the question of why religion is universal in human societies. He reasoned that religion must help to maintain society. Durkheim studied the religion of the Australian aborigines to understand the role of religion in societal survival.

Among Durkheim's observations was that the notion of the sacred is bestowed onto something; it is not a phenomena that is intrinsic, he also concluded that what the group worships is really society itself - thus, people create religion. When members of a society share religious beliefs, they form a moral community and thus, the solidarity of the society is enhanced.

Durkheim also believed that society is held together by religious rituals and festivals in which the groups values and beliefs are reaffirmed.

Karl Marx - Marx is the second of the three classic sociologists discussed in this chapter. While Durkheim interpreted the unity achieved through religion as positive. Marx viewed it as negative. Marx was concerned that religion inhibits social change by making existing social arrangements seem right and inevitable.

He also noted that another way that religion promotes the status quo by teaching the powerless to accept religious beliefs that are against their own interests. Marx suggests that in effect, we should not assert ourselves, and accept oppression. In doing so, religion reinterprets oppression and poverty to be a special form of righteousness. Thus, religion is the ultimate tool to promote false consciousness.

Max Weber - It has been said that Max Weber had an on going debate with the ghost of Karl Marx. Clearly he disagreed with Marx's belief that religion impeded social change by being an opiate of the masses and by encouraging the oppressed to accept their lot. Weber also disagreed with Marx's contention that economic considerations superseded ideology. Weber?s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism first published in 1904 refuted Marx on both grounds. In that work, Weber demonstrated that the religious beliefs of John Calvin were instrumental to the rise of capitalism in Europe; the Calvinist doctrine of predestination was the key. (See pp.486-487 for further discussion of Weber's theory that religious ideology was a key to economic change.)

Marx. Clearly he disagreed with Marx's belief that religion impeded social change by being an opiate of the masses and by encouraging the oppressed to accept their lot. Weber also disagreed with Marx's contention that economic considerations superseded ideology. Weber?s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism first published in 1904 refuted Marx on both grounds. In that work, Weber demonstrated that the religious beliefs of John Calvin were instrumental to the rise of capitalism in Europe; the Calvinist doctrine of predestination was the key. (See pp.486-487 for further discussion of Weber's theory that religious ideology was a key to economic change.)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

AGENCY: INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS IN SOCIETY CHANGING SOCIAL STRUCTURES

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This final chapter is divided into two major parts. The first is conceptual, considering social movements, the collective and organized efforts of human actors to change society. This section describes the types of social movements and the conditions under which they succeed or fail. The second part is illustrative, focusing on two case studies of agency--the civil rights movement and the movement to bring gender equity to sport.

KEY THEORISTS

Vincent Harding - Harding is a historian who has done an in-depth study of the civil rights movement. He explains that the movement is a long and continuous one. Harding points out the importance of the laws and customs that permitted the oppression of the slaves. Despite their oppression, Harding describes the evolution of a black community that "....moved actively in search of freedom, integrity, and home - a community that could not be dehumanized." He believes that one of the most significant movements toward the definition of freedom came as black families all over the South made the Hmomentous decision to withdraw their women from the full-time agricultural labor force. In many cases children moved out of the roll of field hands as well. White violence toward Blacks escalated in response to behavioral changes of former slaves and eventually the Black Codes emerged. Harding describes them as H...the slave codes revived."

The frequent references to Harding's writings on the history of the civil rights movement Illustrates the value of history as a basis for better understanding the life-cycle of a social movement. For more of Hardings insights on the subject, you may want to consult There is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (New York: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1981).

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download