Part 1 Introduction 9 4 13 Sociology the study of society all different sized groups C W Mills Context social upheaval Cold War civil rights Vietnam State of modern life men feel trapped no control understanding uncertainty fear moving too fast Use sociological thinking to fight back combination of biography and history need to see connections beyond one s self need to understand where we are in relation to the social change Private troubles vs public issues Agency the individual and its power to change society structures VS Structure institutions governments exert power on individuals not controlled by one thing large focus hard to change Sociological work Question Theory a map approach Qualitative research interviews case studies observation Quantitative research statistics 1 9 9 13 Intersectionality An outgrowth of feminist theory reaction to perceived deficiencies with the theory 1980 s third wave of feminists thought second wave was too focused on certain issues An argument for intersections of race class gender etc co existing The circumstances under which the individual and the larger society come together The Matrix of Domination Power web we are at different points in that web which determine our social power A black man will have more power than some people but less power than other people Important for socially conscious people who believe in an equal society Important as an individual experience is situated awareness unawareness privilege Works differently in different domains Oppression is maintained through all domains constrained by categories Categories are binaries one option or the other cannot easily move back and forth no in between race class gender sexual orientation disability Systemic not individual Socially constructed change as people change Constraining 2 The Lowest Difficulty Setting John Scalzi Privilege white male Privilege the degree to which an individual has a certain social power to move through the world easily likelihood of doing well is better Does not mean everything will be great but things will tend to be easier help is easier to get The Master s Tools Audre Lorde We can only work within a certain system for so long at some point must break out using our own tools We must use our tools to dismantle the inequalities of society Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged Recognizing differences will help us to overcome them and bring us together unity within differences There is no hierarchy of oppressions Oppression Olympics those with disadvantages fight for who is at more of a disadvantage On a global scale Problems that occur in the US occur around the world on both larger and smaller scales poverty war death killed by disaster social inequality income 3 Part 2 Social Class 9 11 13 Social Class One of the oldest sociological theories Myths fiction stories reveal our social class values and ideas of society America s myth theory everyone has the opportunity to do whatever they want climb up the social ladder and become President in reality better to be a white male class doesn t matter as much as it does in other countries Social inequality Social stratification and implications how society is split up and made unequal people at the top have access to certain things that people at the bottom do not ex buying a car someone who cannot buy a car will have trouble moving up the ladder healthcare poorer countries have less money to spend hurts the economy richer countries have consumer economies Social mobility What determines class Money vs wealth material things what you know who you know social network circle taste art wine Beginning to distinguish between old money and new money favoring old money Ascribed status born into that status inherited Achieved status marry into a class born into a lower class family work to become educated and get a job with high prestige Stratification Slavery may or may not have allowed mobility US extreme Caste India recently thought to be outdated born into caste cannot leave based on esteem prestige not wealth property 4 Estate medieval Europe no mobility Lords serfs Class most mobility most democratic least determined by which you are born into Classes in the US Upper upper middle lower middle working lower Middle class has the most power in the US found most admirable American dream not snobbish lazy average people who work and live traditional lives idolized those in middle class trying to get into the upper class keep from falling to lower working classes Mobility Horizontal getting a new job that is at the same level as previous one Vertical getting a new job that is more prestigious than the previous Intergenerational when the children have better jobs than the ones their parents had Intragenerational when one manages to move classes through their own life lower per or upper lower Move between classes by working hard marriage investments connections with people social circles networking athletics education What is class really Karl Marx what someone owns material the capitalist class owns all of the stuff factories and all components of factories and can extract the wealth political power proletariat workers Max Weber income and wealth along with status party and skill culture importance of material social organizational resources Pierre Bourdieu cultural capital which is hierarchically valued how people know where to spend money houses power to move through life as you spend Social class and power What the haves have that the have nots do not Knowledge 5 Connections Formal educations Actual cultural goods 9 16 13 Class and the working poor Why is society functioning differently who is doing better why does it happen how can we make things more equitable better for everybody Nobody is intentionally making life hard for anyone else Occupy Wall Street 1979 2007 Income rises fastest at the top get wealthier faster 0 1 bottom 90 income stays relatively flat different along racial lines also Ideally each generation should do a little better than the generation before them Garfinkel the best way to understand why something is successful is to break it down or examine its breakdown Black white employed women at first black women were more likely to be employed in Oct 2008 they suffered job loss first and were hit harder in June 2011 white women were more employed Need to understand the Intersectionality of class race employment income to understand the bigger