There are a plethora of social institutions and variables that make up society. In fact, there are so many moving parts to our societal machine that there is an entire field dedicated to studying it. This field is, of course, sociology. This you already knew. There are three really important elements, or categories, that exist in this field. Actually there is a superabundance of important categories in this filed, but the ones being discussed right now are social location, social inequalities, and social institutions. The reason for talking about these three specifically is the connection that they share. Each one of these categories are influenced by and influence the other ones. Of course the main influencer among these is social location. …show more content…
All people have a social location that is defined by their gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and geographic location. Each group membership confers a certain set of social roles and rules, power, and privilege (or lack of), which heavily influence our identity and how we see the world” ("Glossary."). Our social location has a massive effect on our group values, norms, and memberships. Our group values are the values that are practiced by the groups we affiliate ourselves with. Are social location is the reason why we choose these specific groups and thus are social location is what determines the group values in which we adhere to. For example, someone who is homosexual or transgendered would typically align themselves politically with the Democratic Party. This creates the highly likely adoption of the values that come along with such affiliations. The norms in a group are determined by the individuals who make up that group. Being that Social Location is the reason for which a person joins a certain group, it would make logical sense to assume that a person’s personal background, which effects their affiliations, would determine the individuals involved in said group and thus the norms. Social location also has an enormous impact on social …show more content…
Every one of these variables can be traced back to a connection with an individual’s social location. While there are many different variables that cause inequality in society, the majority of it is caused by difference in race, sex, and gender. The problem with the first and last categories is the fact that both are social constructs. Which inherently speaks to the norms of a specific society. The social location of an entire society, which is determined by the norms of that society can actually cause the creation of social constructs like race and gender. The norms of this certain society dictate what types of skin tone, hair color, personality, etc., are prominent in such a society. This in turn causes the creation of these social constructed labels to help explain the difference. Humans have a habit of doing this because they are afraid of what they do not understand, so they must create an explanation. This is probably how most, if not all, religions came about. Because of the norms created by the entire societies social location, the creation of differences causes certain individuals to be treated differently and thus creates social inequality. In actuality difference in race does not biologically exist (Templeton). Social location’s impact does not stop there. Other major areas that social location effects are the social
They then use those components as a framework to analyze the specific mechanisms that are causing this change. In this framework they include typology of categories, which is the agreed upon boundaries that divide society by race, and as the means to measure the growing heterogeneity in this category they use survey data’s to analyze the shift in typology over time. The survey data’s show which racial categories individuals identify with while filling out these surveys, and by analyzing these data’s the authors were able to find out that over time people started to check multiple boxes/categories while identifying with their race. Secondly, the authors used classification of individuals, which is grouping people based on shared attributes. This is when individuals become part of a group by having shared or similar attributes that other members of the group identify with. The authors turned to science in order to identify the changes in this category. It was seen that over time the genetic makeup of individuals in different groups started to change, this can be due to reasons like interatrial marriages which allow the offspring’s to identify with multiple racial & ethnic categories. Then the authors use the relative position of groups, which is the social hierarchy of groups
While studying sociology, it is necessary to develop a sociological imagination. It is helpful to learn the views and perspectives of sociology in order to better understand how social forces, social institutions, and social structures impact someone’s life. By having a better understanding of how these things contribute to our lives, we also have a better understanding of why certain events occur.
“Meanings justify the differential treatment that groups receive as some groups are deemed more worthy of, and eligible to receive, society’s valued resources than others. It now serves as a way to treat people unfairly” (Smith, Racilization). Discrimination perpetuates race and leads to racial inequality. Discrimination can be categorical or statistical. Categorical discrimination is unfair treatment from the discriminator of people from a particular social group because he believes this discrimination is mandatory for acceptance into his social group. Statistical discrimination is unfair treatment of an individual because of the preconceived notions that are prevalent surrounding the social group they take part
Overall if it wasn't for my ethnicity, religion, and income I would not be the person I am today with the same values and morals. It is apparent social classes are revolved around income and power and people are born into social class but that does not mean a person has to stay in that social class. As for myself being raised a catholic Latina, with working middle class parents my destiny does not have to be the same. Sociologically, social structure affects almost everything in our life from our ambitions to our social life and the way we interact with others. sociological imagination helps us to understand the effects of social forces on our lives.
Social location plays a huge role in our day-to-day life. We 're classified by social class, education, gender, race, ethnicity, and the culture. Henslin (2015) notes, “One of the beautiful and fascination aspects of sociology is that it enables us to look at both parts of our current reality: being part of a global network and having unique experiences in our smaller corners of life” (p. 3). That statement is what draws me into sociology, we know that everyone 's treated different, and get more privileges than others based on social
American socialization is seen by sociologists as the process by which individuals learn new aspects of life and society. The individual is taught the importance of education, values, beliefs, and the behavior that is expected in an environment. As the individual becomes an adult, they start to occupy new roles and status in a society. In other words, the individual change their way of thinking and behavior. For instance, many urban cities have different cultures, languages social structures, ethnicities and hierarchies. In American society, certain individuals have wealth, prestige and power. In particular, certain cities have different social structures based on who lives in them, to the type of education and roles being presented. Two cities
The movie “A Bug’s Life” shares the story of a colony of ants that are trapped in a vicious cycle of gathering food for the powerful grasshoppers year after year. The ants become wary of collecting food and soon realize a revolution is needed to free themselves from the grip of the grasshoppers. Throughout “A Bug’s Life”, a critical analysis of character interaction contributes to a greater understanding of the functionalist theory, conflict theory, and Marxism and how these sociological principles create a competitive society and inevitably lead to societal change.
Race as a “…social and historical idea, not biological” (Palaita, Lecture 1/25/18), only works because according to Social Construction Theory, “…these categories work because our complacency allows us to presume that the identities are natural and a group’s social status relies on biology, rather than social/cultural circumstances” (Palaita, Lecture 1/25/18). Our unwillingness to challenge these identities has allowed these categories to be used to determine who will be on the advantageous side of the inequality we face here in the United States. If we no longer accepted these conditions, and change the way social groups are viewed and treated, we may create a new norm and close the inequality gap between social
Many sociologists have questioned how race came into existence by examining the concept that race is social created. This another way people divide into a social classes and establish their status in a society. Newman race is defined as “ a category of individuals labeled and treated similar because of common inborn biological traits (pg. 361).” Race inequality is unfair opportunity for people from different racial groups because of their attributed prestige as a race, although can be treated unjust by ethnicity as well. According to Newman ethnicity differs from race because it relates to cultural affiliation, but also can be treated unequally on account of ignorance. Today, racial and ethnic inequality play a major role in society including
Reflecting directly on the cultural attitudes and sociocultural messages explained throughout this course, it is clear that race, gender, and sexuality are all socially constructed in one way or another. Contrary to popular belief, race is actually almost completely socially constructed, it is not biological. Further, a human’s DNA does not differentiate at all to create any specific race. However, society has categorized certain things, such as skin color, to determine the race of individuals. In simpler terms, there are not specific genes that parents pass on to their offspring that determine their race; society categorizes people into specific races when they are born based on their
Social location can be defined as the place people have into their societies. It is a vital concept in sociology studies because this theory plays a fundamental role in determining who individuals are and how they behave. As the variation of geographic position may condition the environmental characteristics of places, social location has strong influence on people’s make up as well. For instance, social characteristics such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic class, among others, are strongly linked to which society people come from. The individual’s position in society imply the effect of certain social forces that shape their lives. An illustrative example is the polygamy, which is a practice of marrying
Social stratification systems are present in every functioning society. A stratification system organizes the members of the society into different categories so that members of the society know their social position in society (Larkin, 2015). Members of the society are placed into the different categories based on their race and gender. Every stratification system allows for a different amount of social mobility. In this essay we will look at three social stratification systems, slavery, caste, and class, and we will compare males and females by race, class, and education.
Before I started taking the course of sociology I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything, it was just supposed to be an easy online class. However, that was not the case. It challenged my mind. I started to see sociology all around me, starting with family, then friends, and how I see things overall in general. The fact that we have an everyday life in which there are patterns in ways of living is what sets a platform for a sociological breakdown and for being a part in what we do. A better way of understanding ourselves. We use sociology in many ways every day. One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and sociology are definitely two different words and situations, but they tend to hold a close relationship. While sociology is the study of the human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction. Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, ideas, and emotions. Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in things such as ideas. For an example, race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions. Current sociological theories focus mainly on how there are many different factors in our everyday items of life, like movies. We were assigned a final to write a review for a movie in sociological form. The movie that was on the list that also happened to be one of my favorite movies, Toy Story. When we were assigned the assignment, I never thought about how in-depth it was with sociol...
ignores the subjective nature of social problems." [2] This becomes apparent when one realizes that not all harmful conditions are considered to be social problems, such as the nutritional concerns of a high fat diet. Another flaw in considering social problems to be the result of objective conditions of harm is that "the objective conditions that people define as social problems have relatively little in common." [3] A list of social problems will have a great
Different social classes can be distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, and wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life span, education, religion, and culture. The 19th century was primarily divided into four distinct social groups (or classes): “upper class”, “middle class”, “working class”, and “under class”. Beneath the working class of industrial workers, submerged the “under class”. They were often referred to as the “sunken people”-- those of which lived in poverty. Each class included a wide range of occupations of varying status and income; there was a large gap between the classes. Early in the 19th century the labels “working classes” and “middle classes” were already coming into frequent usage. The old inherited aristocracy, reinforced by the new gentry who owned their success to business, industry, and the professions, evolved into an “upper class” which grimly maintained control over the political system, depriving not only the working classes, but also the middle classes of a voice in (the) political developments. However, the increasingly powerful middle classes undertook organized demonstrations to remedy this situation while the working class became hostile to not only the upper class, but the middle class as well. The working class was not exactly the lowest class but endured a lot of hardships. They endured unemployment, long hours with little pay; factories full of filth, animals and pests, harsh climate/temperatures,...