Ntres 2201 1st Edition Lecture 13Outline of Last LectureI. Prelim infoII. SociologyA) What is sociology?B) Mills: sociological imaginationC) Dominant sociological theoriesOutline of Current LectureI. SociologyA) Social theoriesII. InequalityCurrent Lecture*We are moving from “lenses” to topics and issuesI. Sociology*Sociological imagination (you can’t understand the individual or society unless you understand the otherA) Social theories -Culture-#Functionalist #Note: power is pretty benign in this, very different than “conflict-based perspectives” which include power and class-Power – #Weber #Power is the driving force, not culture. In fact, power just uses culture convince the people that power is acting in their interest#This is called legitimizing ideology. This works well as long as there is a dominant culture -Class – #Marx (Marx is primarily writing as an economist)#The problem is not that there are too many people, but rather class #Class is your relationship to the means of production [raw materials, work force/labor, infrastructure]#Two classes: Capitalists control the means of production; the other class is labor. The relationship between capitalists and laborers is called relationship of production#Through this system, the burger flipper at McDonald’s and Tom Brady are thesame class… so why do they make such different wages? Being a QB is more specialized and in demand than a burger flipper#You make investment to generate surplus value#Lowering costs: 1) Pay less on material, 2) Fewer workers3) Longer work days, etc#Supply crisis#Demand crisis: we need to think of society as more than a labor pool…. They are also a pool of consumers. There needs to be a continuous increase in consumption*It makes sense for you to pay workers the very least you can get away with*In this case, people stop consuming because they are not making enough money to continue doing so*This is what happened in 2008*Strategies:1) Credit (people can consume beyond their income; can create instability)2) Subsidizing (subsidize the consumer [welfare], subsidize the producer [allow for products to be sold for less])*Marx was hoping that this would anger people, causing the lower class to band together and blur the class lines#Government is working for the interests of capital, not citizens#Dominant ideology: in the US, and example is the idea of individuality and hardwork (this does happen to prop up the capitalist class)*If we all buy into this, the ideology becomes stronger, and the class difference becomes larger*Environmental sociology (the environment itself is a causal force to shape the systems of society)*Human exemption: humans are separate from nature, we don’t have to consider the environment’s role in influencing our behaviors*We can continue to overcome any limits set by the environment*Counter: The physical environment still matters, environmental differences influence societal organization (snowy region vs warm region, dry vs wet [to deal with dry regions, we’ve had to build dams, design irrigation, etc)*The biophysical environment is finite *Most of the environmental problems we face are rooted in human exemptions that doesn’t realize nature’s role in shaping society… the systems we have are unsustainable *Environmental sociology is fundamentally science driven (environmental science itself shows us how severe these problems are)II. Inequality*How do we measure inequality?-Society is stratified-Inequality is the process by which resources and opportunities are distributed around aspects of society-How does this stratification occur?1) Conflict-based#Some people are better off because others are worse off2) Functionalist-based#Different social actors play different social roles, we as society decide what roles are rewarded and how much*How is it distributed, how has it