Assignment 2 Sociology
Use your textbook, any related videos listed on the course homepage and related powerpoint presentations posted on the course homepage to respond to all ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS. Responses should be thorough, include definitions, examples, and demonstrate clear understanding of conceptual objectives listed on the Syllabus. Each response should be 3-4 pages in length and double spaced. APA FORMAT
Match the correct chapter readings with the topics below. Depending on what edition you use the chapter numbers may be different. So, read the correct chapter according to each question topic.
FOR ASSIGNMENT 2:
Chapter 2 – Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods
Please read chapter on research methods in sociology and related PowerPoint and videos on Course Homepage to address the following question. Be sure to use terms from your textbook and posted review sheets on the course homepage, as well as information gleamed from the powerpoint presentation.
Describe in detail each of the seven steps of the sociological research process (as outlined in the course powerpoint): (describe what is involved in each step and give examples from major sociological studies cited in the related websites).
1. define the variables (dependent and independent variables; cause vs. correlation)
2. write a hypothesis
3. conduct literature review
4. select a research design (observation, experiment, survey, case study, content analysis)
5. collect the data (do the research)
6. analyze the data
7. draw conclusions (generalizations and inferences)
Stanford Prison Experiment
Black Like Me
https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2011/may.html
Tally’s Corner
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022603483.html
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc251e.pdf
AND SEE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ON COURSE HOMEPAGE:
RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIOLOGY
Video for Chapter 2
The Real World SIXTH EDITION
Having Trouble Meeting Your Deadline?
Get your assignment on Assignment 2 Sociology completed on time. avoid delay and – ORDER NOW
n W. W. NORTON
NEW YORK • LONDON
The Real World An Introduction to Sociology
SIXTH EDITION
Kerry Ferris | Jill Stein
W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program— trade books and college texts— were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today— with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year— W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.
Copyright © 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008 by Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein
All rights reserved Printed in Canada
Editor: Sasha Levitt Project Editor: Diane Cipollone Editorial Assistants: Miranda Schonbrun, Erika Nakagawa Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi Production Manager: Eric Pier- Hocking Media Editor: Eileen Connell Media Project Editor: Danielle Belfiore Media Editorial Assistant: Grace Tuttle Marketing Manager, Sociology: Julia Hall Design Director: Rubina Yeh Photo Editor: Ted Szczepanski Permissions Manager: Megan Schindel Permissions Clearer: Bethany Salminen Composition: Jouve Illustrations: Alex Eben Meyer Manufacturing: Transcontinental
Permission to use copyrighted material begins on p. C- 1.
ISBN: 978-0-393-63930-8
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
v
KERRY FERRIS is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northern Illinois University. She uses ethnographic methods and a symbolic interactionist approach to study celebrity as a system of social power. Her past studies have included analyses of fan- celebrity relations, celebrity sightings, celebrity stalking, red- carpet celebrity interviews, and the work lives of professional celebrity impersonators. Her current project examines small- market television newscasters in the American Midwest and their experiences of celebrity on a local level. Her work has been published in Symbolic Interaction, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, The Journal of Popular Culture, and Text & Performance Quarterly. She is the coauthor, with Scott R. Harris, of Stargazing: Celebrity, Fame, and Social Interaction.
JILL STEIN is Professor of Sociology at Santa Barbara City College, which was recently named the top community college in the United States by the Aspen Institute. She teaches introduction to sociology in both face- to- face and online formats every semester. In addition, she is involved in many student- success initiatives at the local and state levels. Her research examines narrative processes in twelve- step programs, the role of popular culture in higher learning, and group culture among professional rock musicians. Her work has been published in Symbolic Interaction, Youth & Society, and TR AILS (Teaching Resources and Innovations Library).
About the Authors
vii
Contents PREFACE xxiii
CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITION xxix
PART I: Thinking Sociologically and Doing Sociology 2
CHAPTER 1: Sociology and the Real World 6
How to Read This Chapter 9
Practical vs. Scientific Knowledge 9
What Is Sociology? 9
The Sociological Perspective 10 Beginner’s Mind 10
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Doing Nothing 11
IN RELATIONSHIPS: It’s Official: Men Talk More Than Women 12
Culture Shock 12 The Sociological Imagination 13
Levels of Analysis: Micro- and Macrosociology 14
IN THE FUTURE: C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination 15
Sociology’s Family Tree 16 Sociology’s Roots 16
Macrosociological Theory 19 Structural Functionalism 19 Conflict Theory 21
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Eurocentrism and Sociological Theory 23
Weberian Theory 25
ON THE JOB: Famous Sociology Majors 26
Microsociological Theory 27 Symbolic Interactionism 28
CONTENTSviii
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Theories of Celebrity Gossip 31
New Theoretical Approaches 33 Postmodern Theory 33 Midrange Theory 34
Closing Comments 35
CHAPTER 2: Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods 38
How to Read This Chapter 41
An Overview of Research Methods 41 The Scientific Approach 41 Which Method to Use? 43
Ethnography/Participant Observation 45 Advantages and Disadvantages 47
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Watching People Talk 47
Interviews 48 Advantages and Disadvantages 49
IN THE FUTURE: Action Research 50
Surveys 50 Advantages and Disadvantages 52
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Media Usage Patterns 53
Existing Sources 54 Advantages and Disadvantages 55
Experimental Methods 56 Advantages and Disadvantages 57
Social Network Analyis 57
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Social Networking Sites as Sources of Data 58 Advantages and Disadvantages 59
Issues in Sociological Research 59 Nonacademic Uses of Research Methods 59 Values, Objectivity, and Reactivity 60
ON THE JOB: Sociology, Market Research, and Design Strategy 61
Research Ethics 63
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: The Nuremberg Code and Research Ethics 64
Closing Comments 65
CONTENTS ix
PART II: Framing Social Life 68
CHAPTER 3: Culture 72
How to Read This Chapter 75
What Is Culture? 75 How Has Culture Been Studied? 75 Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism 75
ON THE JOB: The Sharing Economy and Unlikely Cultural Ambassadors 77
Components of Culture 78 Material Culture 78 Symbolic Culture 79 Values, Norms, and Sanctions 81
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Individual Values vs. University Culture 82
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Seeing Culture in a Subculture 84
Variations in Culture 85 Dominant Culture 85 Subcultures and Countercultures 85
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Otaku Culture and the Globalization of Niche Interests 86
Culture Wars 87 Ideal vs. Real Culture 88
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: How the Image Shapes the Need 89
Cultural Change 90 Technological Change 90 Cultural Diffusion and Cultural Leveling 90 Cultural Imperialism 91
American Culture in Perspective 91
IN THE FUTURE: Online Radicalization 92
Closing Comments 93
CONTENTSx
CHAPTER 4: Socialization, Interaction, and the Self 96
How to Read This Chapter 99
What Is Human Nature? 99 The Nature vs. Nurture Debate 99
The Process of Socialization 99
IN THE FUTURE: Genetics and Sociology 100
Social Isolation 100
Theories of the Self 102 Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud 103 The Looking- Glass Self: Charles Cooley 104 Mind, Self, and Society: George Herbert Mead 105 Dramaturgy: Erving Goffman 106
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Impression Management in Action 108
Agents of Socialization 109 The Family 109 Schools 110 Peers 110 The Media 111
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: TV as an Agent of Socialization 112
Adult Socialization 113
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Sister Pauline Quinn and Training Dogs in Prison 114
Statuses and Roles 115 Multiple Roles and Role Conflict 115
Emotions and Personality 116 The Social Construction of Emotions 116
Interacting Online 116
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Cross- Cultural Responses to Grief 117
ON THE JOB: The Wages of Emotion Work 118
Closing Comments 119
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER 5: Separate and Together: Life in Groups 122
How to Read This Chapter 125
What Is a Group? 125 Primary and Secondary Groups 125 Social Networks 126
Separate from Groups: Anomie or Virtual Membership? 127
IN THE FUTURE: What Happens to Group Ties in a Virtual World? 128
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: “Who’s in Your Feed?” 130
Group Dynamics 131 Dyads, Triads, and More 131
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Social Networking: You’re Not the Customer— You’re the Product 132
In- Groups and Out- Groups 132 Reference Groups 133
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: The Twenty Statements Test: Who Am I? 134
Group Cohesion 135
Social Influence (Peer Pressure) 136 Experiments in Conformity 137
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Group vs. Individual Norms: Honor Killings 138
Working Together: Teams and Leadership 141 Teamwork 141
ON THE JOB: Teamwork and the Tour de France 142
Power, Authority, and Style 142
Bureaucracy 144 The McDonaldization of Society 145 Responding to Bureaucratic Constraints 146
Closing Comments 147
CHAPTER 6: Deviance 150
How to Read This Chapter 153
Defining Deviance 153
Deviance across Cultures 153
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Body Modification 154
Theories of Deviance 155 Functionalism 155
CONTENTSxii
Conflict Theory 156 Symbolic Interactionism 157
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Cyberbullying, Trolls, and Online Deviance 158
The Stigma of Deviance 161 Managing Deviant Identities 162
ON THE JOB: Is “Cash Register Honesty” Good Enough? 163
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: AA’s Pioneer Women 164
Studying Deviance 165 The Emotional Attraction of Deviance 165
The Study of Crime 165 Crime and Demographics 167
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Norm Breaking on Television 169
The Criminal Justice System 170
IN THE FUTURE: American vs. Scandinavian Prisons 171
Reconsidering Deviance? 172
Closing Comments 173
PART III: Understanding Inequality 176
CHAPTER 7: Social Class: The Structure of Inequality 180
How to Read This Chapter 184
Social Stratification and Social Inequality 184
Systems of Stratification 184 Slavery 184 Caste 185
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Systems of Stratification around the World 186
Social Class 188
Social Classes in the United States 188 The Upper Class 188 The Upper- Middle Class 189 The Middle Class 189
CONTENTS xiii
The Working ( Lower- Middle) Class 190 The Working Poor and Underclass 190 Problematic Categories 190
Theories of Social Class 191 Conflict Theory 191 Weberian Theory 191 Structural Functionalism 192 Postmodernism 193 Symbolic Interactionism 193
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Everyday Class Consciousness 195
Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances 195 Family 195
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Socioeconomic Status and Mate Selection 196
Health 196 Education 197 Work and Income 198 Criminal Justice 199
Social Mobility 200
Poverty 201 Social Welfare and Welfare Reform 202 The “Culture of Poverty” and Its Critics 204
ON THE JOB: Get a Job! Minimum Wage or Living Wage? 205
The Invisibility of Poverty 206
Inequality and the Ideology of the American Dream 209
IN THE FUTURE: Why We Can’t Afford the Rich 210
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Advertising and the American Dream 212
Closing Comments 213
CHAPTER 8: Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience 216
How to Read This Chapter 219
Defining Race and Ethnicity 219 “Ethnic Options”: Symbolic and Situational Ethnicity 221
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Displaying Ethnicity 222
The U.S. Population by Race 223 What Is a Minority? 223
CONTENTSxiv
Racism in Its Many Forms 224 Prejudice and Discrimination 224 White Nationalism 225 White Privilege and Color- Blind Racism 226 Microagressions 227 Cultural Appropriation 227 Reverse Racism 229 Antiracist Allies 229
IN THE FUTURE: Whose Lives Matter? 230
Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Race 230 Structural Functionalism 230 Conflict Theory 231 Symbolic Interactionism 232
IN RELATIONSHIPS: From the Lovings to Kimye: Interracial Dating and Marriage 234
Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances 236 Family 236 Health 237 Education 238 Work and Income 238
ON THE JOB: Diversity Programs: Do They Work? 239
Criminal Justice 240 Intersectionality 241
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Does TV Reflect the Realities of Race? 241
Intergroup Relations: Conflict or Cooperation 243
Genocide 243 Population Transfer 243 Internal Colonialism and
Segregation 244 Assimilation 244
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: “The Biggest Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis of Our Time” 245
Pluralism 246
Closing Comments 247
CONTENTS xv
CHAPTER 9: Constructing Gender and Sexuality 250
How to Read This Chapter 253
Sex and Gender 253 Sex 253
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Different Societies, Different Genders 254
Gender 254
Sexuality and Sexual Orientation 256 “Queering the Binary” 257
Socialization: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 257 Families 257
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Rape Culture and Campus Social Life 258
Schools 259 Peers 260 The Media 260
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: The Fashion Police: Gender and the Rules of Beauty 261
Prejudice and Discrimination 262 Gendered Language and Microaggressions 264
Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality 264 Functionalism 264 Conflict Theory 265 Interactionism 265 Feminist Theory 266
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances 266 Families 267 Health 267 Education 268
ON THE JOB: Female Athletes and the Battle for Equal Pay 268
Work and Income 269
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: The Second Shift: Gender Norms and Household Labor 271
Criminal Justice 273
IN THE FUTURE: Human Trafficking 274
Intersectionality 275
Social Movements 276 Women’s Movements 276 Men’s Movements 277 LGBTQ Movements 277
Closing Comments 279
CONTENTSxvi
PART IV: Social Institutions and the Micro- Macro Link 282
CHAPTER 10: Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion 286
How to Read This Chapter 289
What Is Politics? 289 Political Systems: Government 289 The American Political System 291 Who Rules America? 292 The Media and the Political Process 295
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Satirical News Shows 298
Patriotism and Protest 300 Politics: The Micro- Macro Link 302
What Is Education? 302 A Brief History of Modern Education 302 Education and the Reproduction of Society 303 Classic Studies of Education 305
IN THE FUTURE: A College Degree: What’s It Worth? 306
The Present and Future of Education 306
ON THE JOB: For- Profit Colleges: At What Cost? 310
Education: The Micro- Macro Link 312
What Is Religion? 313 Theoretical Approaches to Religion 313 Religion in America 315 Religious Trends 315
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Thou Shalt Not Kill: Religion, Violence, and Terrorism 316
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Measures of Religiosity 318
A Secular Society? 319
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Can a Relationship with God Improve Your GPA? 320
Religion: The Micro- Macro Link 321
Closing Comments 321
CONTENTS xvii
CHAPTER 11: The Economy and Work 324
How to Read This Chapter 327
Historical and Economic Changes 327 The Agricultural Revolution 327 The Industrial Revolution 328 The Information Revolution 330
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: The World of Work and Workers as Seen on TV 331
World Economic Systems 332 Capitalism 332 Socialism 333 The U.S. Economy 333
ON THE JOB: Internships: Free Menial Labor or a Leg Up? 334
The Nature of Work 335 Agricultural Work 335 Industrial Work 335 Postindustrial Work 336
Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope 339 Individual Resistance: Handling Bureaucracy 339 Collective Resistance: Unions 340
IN RELATIONSHIPS: The Value of Break Time 342
The Conscience of Corporate America 343 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: World of Warcraft and “Gold Farming” in
China 344
The Economics of Globalization 345 International Trade 346 Transnational Corporations 346 Global Sweatshop Labor 348
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Are Your Clothes Part of the Global Commodity Chain? 349
Outsourcing 350
Different Ways of Working 351 Professional Socialization in Unusual Fields 351
IN THE FUTURE: Will Your Job Be “ Uber- ized”? 352
The Contingent Workforce 354 The Third Sector and Volunteerism 355
Time for a Vacation? 356
Closing Comments 357
CONTENTSxviii
CHAPTER 12: Life at Home: Families and Relationships 360
How to Read This Chapter 363
What Is the Family? 363
Sociological Perspectives on Families 363
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Talking about Kin 364
Structural Functionalism 364 Conflict Theory 365 Symbolic Interactionism 365 Feminist and Queer Theory 366
Mate Selection 367
Relationship Trends 368 Unmarried Life 368 Single and Solo Parenting 369 Blended Families 370 Childfree Living 371
Breaking Up 371 ON THE JOB: When Building Families Is Part of Your Job 372
Custody, Visitation, and Child Support 373
The Work of Family 373 DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Comparative
Mealtime 374
Gender, Sexuality, and Family Labor 375
Family and the Life Course 376 IN RELATIONSHIPS: From Boomerang Kids to the Sandwich
Generation 377
Aging in the Family 378
Trouble in Families 378 Intimate Partner Violence 379
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Family Troubles in Film 380
Child and Elder Abuse 381
IN THE FUTURE: Trends in Baby Making: Back to the Future? 382
Postmodern Families: The New Normal 383
Closing Comments 383
CONTENTS xix
CHAPTER 13: Leisure and Media 386
How to Read This Chapter 389
A Sociology of Leisure 389 What Is Leisure? 389 Trends in Leisure 390 ON THE JOB: Professional Musicians: Playing Is Work 392
The Study of Media 393 The Media and Democracy 393 The Structure of Media Industries 394
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Blockbuster Hits and the Business of Movies 394
The Regulation of Media Content 398
Culture and Consumption of Media 399 High, Low, and Popular Culture 399
IN THE FUTURE: The Return of Free- Range Kids? 400
Media Effects and Audiences 401 Theories of Media Effects 402 Active Audiences: Minimal Effects Theories 402 Interpretive Strategies and Communities 403
Leisure and Relationships 405 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: The Other Football 406
Leisure and Community 407 Collectors and Hobbyists 408 Hangouts: The Third Place 409
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Fan– Celebrity Relations 410
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Now Go Hang Out 410
Travel and Tourism 412
Closing Comments 413
CHAPTER 14: Health and Illness 416
How to Read This Chapter 419
The Sociology of Medicine, Health, and Illness 419
Defining Health and Illness 420 Types of Illnesses 420 Approaches to Medical Treatment 421
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Student Health Issues Survey 421
CONTENTSxx
The Process of Medicalization 423 The Social Construction of Mental Illness 423
IN THE FUTURE: Solving the Mystery of Autism 424
Epidemiology and Disease Patterns 425
Social Inequality, Health, and Illness 427 Intersections of Class 427
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Zika Virus: Women and Children Last 428
Intersections of Race 429 Intersections of Gender 429
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Better Living through Chemistry 430
Inequality and the Problem of Food Deserts 430
Medicine as a Social Institution 432 Institutional Contexts 433 Doctor– Patient Relations 433
ON THE JOB: Cultural Competence in Health Professions 434
The Sick Role 436
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Medicine on Television 437
Issues in Medicine and Health Care 438 Health Care Reform in the United States 438 Complementary and Alternative Medicine 439 Medical Ethics 440 End of Life 441
Closing Comments 441
PART V: Envisioning the Future and Creating Social Change 444
CHAPTER 15: Populations, Cities, and the Environment 448
How to Read This Chapter 451
Population 451 Demography 451
IN THE FUTURE: Living to 150 453
Theories of Population Change 454
CONTENTS xxi
Cities 456 Trends in Urbanization 458
ON THE JOB: Agriculture: From the Country to the City 459
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Imagining the Cities of Tomorrow 460
Living in the City 462
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Encounters with Strangers 464
The Environment 465 Environmental Problems 466
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Water, Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink 470
Environmental Sociology 471
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Student Attitudes on Environmentalism 472
Closing Comments 477
CHAPTER 16: Social Change 480
How to Read This Chapter 483
What Is Social Change? 483 ON THE JOB: Helping Professions: Agents of Social Change 484
Collective Behavior 485 Crowds 485 Mass Behavior 487
Social Movements 489 Promoting and Resisting Change 489
IN RELATIONSHIPS: Hashtag Activism: #Resist with #Indivisible 491
Theories of Social Movements 492
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Activist Groups Get Organized 494
Stages in a Social Movement 495
Technology and Social Change 496 IN THE FUTURE: Utopia— or Doomsday? 497
DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: The “Unplug” Experiment 498
Technology in the Global Village 499
CONTENTSxxii
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Bhutan and Gross National Happiness 500
Living in a Postmodern World 502
Closing Comments 503
GLOSSARY G- 1
REFERENCES R- 1
CREDITS C- 1
INDEX I- 1
xxiii
Preface
Welcome to the Sixth Edition of The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. We hope you will appreciate what is new not only in the textbook’s fresh look and updated materials, but also what is new in the innovative ways it goes about teaching sociology. That’s exactly what we set out to do when we first embarked on the original project of writing this textbook, and it’s what we continue to do here in the Sixth Edition.
At the beginning, we had had years of experience in college and university class- rooms, teaching introductory sociology to thousands of students from all backgrounds and walks of life; we had discovered a lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to making sociology exciting and effective. As seasoned instructors, we had developed an approach to teaching and learning that reflected our passion for the sub- ject and our concern with best practices in pedagogy. But we were having trouble finding a textbook that encompassed all the elements we had identified and that made such a difference in our own experience. We were tired of seeing the same old formulas found in almost every textbook. And we figured we were not alone. Other students and instruc- tors were probably equally frustrated with repetitive formats, stodgy styles, and seem- ingly irrelevant or overly predictable materials. That is a great misfortune, for sociology, at its best, is a discipline that holds great value and is both intellectually stimulating and personally resonant. Although the impetus to write this textbook began as a way of answering our own needs, our goal became to create a textbook of even greater benefit to others who might also be looking for something new.
We are gratified by the response The Real World has received from instructors and students alike, so we are preserving many of the features that have made the textbook a success. At the same time, we have done more than just simply revise the textbook. In this edition, you will find significant new content and added features that will further enhance the teaching and learning process, and keep us as close to the cutting edge as possible. Many of the original elements we developed for students and instructors appear again in these pages. As a foundation, we have maintained a writing style that we hope is accessible and interesting as well as scholarly. One of the core pedagogical strengths of this textbook is its focus on everyday life, the media, technology, and pop culture. We know that the combination of these themes is inherently appealing to students, and that it relates to their lives. And because both new generations and more experienced soci- ology instructors might also be looking for something different, another of this book’s strengths is an integrated emphasis on critical thinking and analytic skills. Rather than merely presenting or reviewing major concepts in sociology, which can often seem dry and remote, we seek to make the abstract more concrete through real- world examples and hands- on applications.
In this text we take a fresh and accessible theoretical approach appropriate to our con- temporary world. While we emphasize the interactionist perspective, we cover a range of theoretical thought, including postmodernism. We also build innovative methodo- logical exercises into each chapter, giving students the opportunity to put into practice what they are learning. We present material that is familiar and relevant to students in a way that allows them to make profound analytic connections between their individual
PREFACExxiv
particular real- world case study. This serves as a simple, practical model for students to then make their own applica- tions and analyses.
Bolded In- Text Terms As a student of sociology, you will be learning many new concepts and terms. Throughout each chapter, you will see a number of words or phrases in bold type. You may already recognize some of these from their more common vernacu- lar use. But it is important to pay special attention to the way that they are used sociologically. For this reason you will find definitions in the margins of each page, where you can refer to them as you read. You should consider these bolded words and phrases your conceptual “tools” for doing sociology. As you progress through the chapters in this textbook, you will be collecting the contents of a toolkit that you can use to bet- ter understand yourself and the world around you. The bolded terms can also be found in the Glossary at the back of the book.
Relevance Boxes In each chapter you will find Relevance Boxes with three different themes: On the Job, In Relationships, and In the Future. Relevance Boxes allow students to see the practi- cal implications and personal value of sociology in their lives. On the Job explores the ways different people use sociological training or insights in a variety of work set- tings. In Relationships looks at how sociology can help us to better understand our friendships, intimate partnerships, and family relations. In the Future provides a glimpse into emerging trends in a rapidly changing society, and what stu- dents might expect to encounter on the horizon. We include these boxes to show how taking this course could bear fruit in your life (and in the lives of others) beyond just fulfilling your college requirements.
Data Workshops Data Workshops are designed to give students the opportu- nity to gain hands- on experience in the practice of sociology while they are learning. We think this is one of the most fun parts of being a sociologist. Each chapter features two Data Workshops, one on “Analyzing Everyday Life” and one on “Analyzing Media and Pop Culture.” Students will use one of the research methods covered in Chapter 2 to deal with actual data from the real world— whether it’s data they col- lect themselves or raw data provided from another source. The Data Workshops lead students through the process of analyzing data using the related conceptual tools they have just acquired in the chapter. For the Sixth Edition, we now offer online tutorials for eight of the in- text Data Workshops, which we hope will make these popular exercises easier to assign and grade. Each Data Workshop is also included in the Interactive Instructor’s Guide (IIG).
lives and the structure of their society. We provide instruc- tors with ways to reenergize their teaching, and we give even general education students a reason to be fascinated by and engrossed in their sociology courses. We do this by staying in touch with our students and the rapidly changing real world, and by bringing our insight, experience, and intellectual rigor to bear on a new way of teaching introductory sociology.
Whether you are a student or an instructor, you have prob- ably seen a lot of textbooks. As authors, we have thought very carefully about how to write this textbook to make it more meaningful and effective for you. We think it is important to point out some newly added and unique features of this text- book and to tell you why they are included and what we hope you will get out of them.
Part Introductions The sixteen chapters in this text are grouped into five parts, and each part opens with its own introductory essay. Each part introduction highlights a piece of original sociological research that encompasses the major themes that group the chapters together. The in- depth discussion of the featured book shows what the real work of academic sociologists consists of and reveals how sociological research frequently unites topics covered in separate chapters in introductory textbooks.
Opening Vignettes Each chapter begins with an opening vignette that gives stu- dents an idea about the topics or themes they will encounter in the chapter. The vignettes are drawn from current events and everyday life, the media, arts, and popular culture. They are designed to grab your attention and stimulate your curi- osity to learn more by reading the chapter that follows.
How to Read This Chapter After the vignette, you will find a section that provides you with some goals and strategies that we believe will be use- ful in reading that particular chapter. We know from our experience in teaching introductory sociology that it is often worthwhile to let students know what to expect in advance so that they can better make their way through the material. Not all chapters require the same approach; we want to bring to your attention what we think is the best approach to each one, so you can keep that in mind while reading.
Theory in Everyday Life Although we provide thorough coverage in Chapter 1, we find that students often benefit from additional help with under- standing the mechanics of social theory and how to apply it to various real- world phenomena. These boxes in every chapter break down the major theoretical approaches and illustrate how each perspective might be used to analyze a
PREFACE xxv
on that promise, making introductory sociology an intellectu- ally stimulating and personally relevant enterprise for profes- sors and students, in the classroom as well as outside it.
Resources
InQuizitive This adaptive learning tool personalizes quiz questions for each student in an engaging, gamelike environment to help them master the core sociological concepts presented in every chapter of The Real World. Used as a pre- lecture tool, InQuizitive helps students come to class better prepared to apply the sociological concepts from the reading. A new “How to Read Charts and Graphs” activity helps students improve their data literacy.
The Real World Ebook Norton Ebooks give students and instructors an enhanced reading experience at a fraction of the cost of a print text- book. The ebook for The Real World can be viewed on— and synced among— all computers and mobile devices and allows students to take notes, bookmark, search, highlight, and even read offline. Instructors can add their own notes for students.
Everyday Sociology Blog everydaysociologyblog.com Designed for a general audience, this exciting and unique online forum encourages visitors to actively explore soci- ology’s relevance to pop culture, media, and everyday life. Moderated by Karen Sternheimer (University of Southern California), the blog features postings on topical subjects, video interviews with well- known sociologists, as well as contributions from special guests during the academic year.
Sociology in Practice DVDs This DVD series, including a new “Sociology in Practice: Thinking about Gender” DVD, contains more than fourteen hours of video clips drawn from documentaries by independ- ent filmmakers. The clips are ideal for initiating classroom discussion and encouraging students to apply sociological concepts to popular and real- world issues. The clips are offered in streaming versions in the coursepack. Each streamed clip is accompanied by a quiz, exercise, or activity.
Coursepack The coursepack for the Sixth Edition of The Real World offers a variety of activities and assessment and review materials for instructors who use Blackboard and other learning man- agement systems:
✱ Multiple- choice chapter- review quizzes
✱ Key term flashcards and matching quizzes
Global Perspective Boxes Although this textbook focuses primarily on contemporary American society, we believe that in this time of increasing globalization, it is also important to look at other societies around the world. Each chapter includes a Global Perspec- tive box that highlights some of the differences and simi- larities between the United States and other cultures. This feature will help students develop the ability to see compara- tive and analogous patterns across cultures, which is one of the key functions of a sociological perspective.
Images and Graphics We think that it is crucial to include not only written infor- mation but also images and graphics in the textbook. This kind of presentation is increasingly common and students are likely to encounter complex information in graphical form in many of their textbooks. We want to help students gain in visual literacy as they are exposed to a variety of materials and learn in different ways. We also know that students share our interest in media, technology, and popu- lar culture, and we want to show the connections between real life and sociological thinking. For these reasons, you will find many kinds of images and graphics in each chapter. These are not just decorations; they are an integral part of the text, so please study these as carefully as you would the rest of the printed page.
Closing Comments Each chapter ends with closing comments that wrap up the discussion and give some final thoughts about the important themes that have been covered. This gives us a chance not so much to summarize or reiterate but to reflect, in a slightly different way, on what we have discussed, as well as to point to the future. We hope that the closing comments will give you something to think about, or even talk about with others, long after you’ve finished reading the chapter.
End- of- Chapter Materials The end of each chapter contains additional materials that will enhance the learning process. “Everything You Need to Know About ” review apparatus at the end of each chap- ter includes checklists, review questions, prompts about the Everyday Sociology blog, and infographics. They are designed to be easy to read and understand quickly, condensing the most important information from the chapter into two pages.
In our experience, the most important thing for students to take away from an introductory sociology class is a socio- logical perspective— not just a storehouse of facts, which will inevitably fade over time. Sociology promises a new way of looking at and thinking about the social world, which can serve students in good stead no matter what they find them- selves doing in the future. We hope that this textbook delivers
PREFACExxvi
the best textbook- support materials in sociology. Design direc- tor, Hope Miller Goodell, illustrator, Alex Eben Meyer, and the designers at Faceout Studio deserve special thanks for creat- ing the beautiful design and art for the book. And we are very appreciative of the exceptional Norton “travelers”; it is through their efforts that this book has gotten out into the world.
In the course of our creating the Sixth Edition, many instructors offered advice and comments on particular chap- ters, or in some cases, large sections of the text. We are deeply indebted to them.
Brooke Bain, California State University, Fullerton Chris Baker, Walters State Community College Leslie Baker- Kimmons, Chicago State University Marissa Bañuelos, California State University, Fullerton Thomas Barry, Central Oregon Community College Christopher Biga, University of Alabama at Birmingham Elson Boles, Saginaw Valley State University Mike Bossick, Central Piedmont Community College Sergio Bouda, California State University, Fullerton Jeneve Brooks, Troy University Nina Brown, Community College of Baltimore County Raven Bruno, Cape Fear Community College Favor Campbell, University of Texas at San Antonio Laura Colmenero- Chilberg, Black Hills State University Molly Cueto, Lone Star College– Kingwood Gayle D’Andrea, J Sargeant Reynolds Community College Sophia Demasi, Montgomery County Community College Gianna Durso- Finley, Mercer County Community College Marilyn Espitia, San Diego Miramar College Catherine Felton, Central Piedmont Community College Janie Filoteo, Lone Star College– Tomball John Gannon, College of Southern Nevada– Charleston Tiffany Gause, Saddleback College Patricia Gibbs, Foothill College Jan Gordon, Surry Community College Melissa Gosdin, Albany State University Edward Gott, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Matt Gregory, University of Massachusetts– Boston Tara Hefferan, Central Michigan University Anthony Hickey, Western Carolina University David Hilton, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Jean Hoth, Rochester Community and Technical College Christopher Huggins, University of Kentucky Danielle James, Community College of Baltimore County Leigh Keever, Chattahoochee Technical College Kimberly Lancaster, Coastal Carolina Community College Thomas LaPorte, Chattahoochee Technical College Andrew Lash, Valencia College Jon Loessin, Wharton County Junior College Tim Lubben, Kennesaw State University Crystal Lupo, Auburn University Wilbrod Madzura, Normandale Community College Lori Maida, Westchester County Community College
✱ Streaming clips from the Sociology in Practice DVD series, including the new “Thinking about Gender” DVD
✱ Discussion questions and multiple- choice quizzes for select Sociology in Practice DVD clips
✱ Census activities (select chapters)
Interactive Instructor’s Guide The easy- to- navigate Interactive Instructor’s Guide makes lecture development easy with an array of teaching resources that can be searched and browsed according to a number of criteria. Resources include chapter outlines, blog exercises, suggested readings, lecture ideas, and discussion questions.
Test Bank The questions in The Real World Test Bank, 25 percent of which are new to the Sixth Edition, were written to conform to Bloom’s taxonomy. There are 60–70 multiple- choice and 10–15 essay questions per chapter. Available in PDF, Exam- View, Word, BNK, and RTF formats.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the many people who helped make this textbook possible. To everyone at W. W. Norton, we believe you are absolutely the best publisher in the busi- ness and that we are fortunate to get to work with you. Thank you, Roby Harrington, for signing us. Our deep appreciation goes out to Steve Dunn for believing in us and playing such a critical role in shaping the original vision of this project. Thank you for showing us we could do this and for your sub- stantial support throughout. We would like to acknowledge Melea Seward for her efforts during the early drafts of the book. Her innovative approach and enthusiasm were much appreciated. We owe much gratitude to Karl Bakeman for his tremendous talent, work, and dedication on our behalf. His vision and leadership has been an inspiration, and a central reason for the success of this book. We feel so lucky to be a part of your team. This edition marks the second with our gifted editor Sasha Levitt, who brought phenomenally great ideas, energy, and enthusiasm to the project as well as a spe- cial talent for corralling wayward authors. We appreciate how much you invested in joining us in this work. This edi- tion is all the better because of your exceptional generosity, creativity, and determination.
We have many others to thank as well. We are especially grateful to our project editor, Diane Cipollone; production manager, Eric Pier- Hocking; and editorial assistant, Erika Nakagawa, for managing the countless details involved in cre- ating this book. Jane Miller and Ted Szczepanski showed won- derful creativity in the photo research that they did for The Real World. Media editor, Eileen Connell, associate media editor, Mary Williams, and media assistant, Grace Tuttle, developed
PREFACE xxvii
We would also like to thank the research assistants who worked with us on this project: Laurica Brown, Nathaniel Burke, Whitney Bush, Kate Grimaldi, Lauren Gunther, Mary Ingram, Ja’Nean Palacios, and Karl Thulin. Very special thanks to Neil Dryden, and also to Natasha Chen Christian- sen, whose thoughtful contributions to multiple editions of the text have proven invaluable.
We wish to especially thank Al Ferris for his wise and gen- erous counsel in helping us to establish our corporate identity and at every juncture along the way. Thanks to Kevin Eben- hoch for his friendly and efficient services. We would like to thank our families and friends whose encouragement and support helped to sustain us through the length of this project and beyond. It is also with great pleasure that we thank our spouses Greg Wennerdahl and David Unger, respectively— you appeared in our lives just as we were completing the first edi- tion, and your continued presence through this process has been a source of strength and joy. We are happy to have shared these many editions with you. To Marissa Unger, an impres- sive reader and writer herself, thanks for being such a positive model of your generation for us. And to our newest reader, Eliot Julian Ferris- Wennerdahl (E.J.): may you always approach life’s challenges with wonder, hope, and a sense of endless possibility.
We are grateful to colleagues who have served as mentors in our intellectual development and as inspiration to a life of writing. And finally, we offer our thanks to all of the students we have had the privilege to work with over the years. Getting to share the sociological imagination with you makes it all worthwhile.
Kerry Ferris Jill Stein
Kenneth Mentor, University of North Carolina– Pembroke Barret Michalec, University of Delaware Susan Miller, Palomar College Tina Mougouris, San Jacinto College– Central Ken Muir, Appalachian State University Layana Navarre- Jackson, University of Iowa Christina Partin, University of South Florida Michael Perez, California State University, Fullerton Marla A. Perry, Nashville State Community College Carla Pfeffer, University of South Carolina Andrew Pollard, Niagara County Community College Robert Pullen, Troy University Aaryn Purvis, Pearl River Community College Carter Rakovski, California State University, Fullerton Julie Reid, University of Southern Mississippi Tamatha Renae Esguerra, California State University,
Fullerton Michael Rutz, John Tyler Community College Chad Sexton, Ocean County College Deirdre Slavik, Northwest Arkansas Community College Emery Smith, Umpqua Community College Mindy Stombler, Georgia State University Adrienne Trier- Bieniek, Valencia College Linda Vang, Fresno City College Nancy White, Coastal Carolina Community College James Williams, John Tyler Community College KC Williams, Coastal Carolina Community College Terri Winnick, Ohio State University– Mansfield Amy Wong, San Diego State University Robert Wood, South Plains College Jennifer Woodruff, Heartland Community College Susan Wurtzburg, University of Hawaii– Manoa Sharon Wiederstein, Blinn College Matt Wray, Temple University Anna Zajacova, Western University
xxix
Changes in the Sixth Edition
Part 1 (Thinking Sociologically and Doing Sociology): The Part 1 opener now introduces readers to Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond, author of On the Fire- line and the Pulitzer Prize– winning Evicted: Power and Profit in the American City. By tracing his path to sociology, the opener gives students the opportunity to see how this influential scholar’s background propelled him toward his profession.
Chapter 1 (Sociology and the Real World): The chapter opens with a new discus- sion of the Discovery Channel’s reality show Naked and Afraid. Everyday actor and social analyst have been added as key terms. The In Relationships box on men talk- ing more than women now includes a discussion of the recently coined phenomenon of “mansplaining” and associated research. Data from 2016 on the gender makeup of certain professions, including auto mechanics and secretaries, support the assertion that the U.S. labor market is still heavily gender segregated. Critical race theory has been added as a crucial branch of thought that actively studies institutional racism and the way race intersects with other identities. Data on the number of students who are awarded a BA degree in sociology have been updated. The “Analyzing Media and Pop Culture” Data Workshop has been thoroughly revised and now highlights the 2016 presidential campaign as an example of a situation where celebrity gossip and hard news converged.
Chapter 2 (Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods): The discus- sion of autoethnography has been expanded. In the discussion of interview methods, the authors introduce readers to sociologist Tamara Mose’s 2016 interview study of NYC parents and how they use playdates to ensure that both parents and children socialize with people like themselves, reproducing inequalities of class and race. The discussion of the growing popularity of using the Internet, including SurveyMonkey, to conduct research has been expanded. In the section on existing sources, the authors now discuss how social historian Peter Stearns consulted childrearing manuals for his comparative historical study of the changing meanings of childhood during the 19th and 20th centuries. An entirely new section explores social network analysis (SNA) as an emerging research method that can be used to study disease transmission, infor- mation diffusion, and adolescent risk behaviors. A new On the Job box explores the career path of a recent sociology major who went on to work for market research firm Nielsen, highlighting the value of a sociological imagination. The section on research ethics now explores the controversy surrounding Alice Goffman’s 2014 ethnography On the Run.
CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITIONxxx
Chapter 3 (Culture): A brand new chapter opener on bath- room bills and the fight for transgender rights introduces the concept of culture wars. The section on signs, gestures, and language now includes an expanded discussion of emojis. A new “Analyzing Everyday Life” Data Workshop, titled “See- ing Culture in Subculture,” invites students to use their soci- ological imaginations to observe a subcultural group to which they belong and examine both material and symbolic culture. The discussion of patriot groups has been updated with a new discussion of the 41-day armed occupation of Oregon’s Mal- heur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Data on the number of anti- government patriot groups have been updated. The dis- cussion of countercultural groups now includes a discussion of hacktivist groups such as Anonymous. The culture wars section has been updated with a discussion of the Alt- Right movement as well as former NFL quarterback Colin Kaeper- nick’s protest of racial inequality. The section on cultural diffusion now discusses Japan’s Metabo Law, which requires overweight people to attend dieting classes. A new In the Future box on online radicalization explores how terrorist organizations such as ISIS and domestic extremist groups use the Internet to attract followers.
Chapter 4 (Socialization, Interaction, and the Self ): The section on social isolation now tells the story of Chris- topher Knight— better known as the North Pond Hermit— and what happened to his sense of self after 27 years living in complete isolation. The discussion of family as an agent of socialization now references Ralph LaRossa’s research on fathers. The “Analyzing Media and Pop Culture” Data Work- shop now includes shows that depict persons with disabili- ties and transgender characters. A new On the Job box on emotion work explores Louwanda Evans’s recent research on black pilots and black flight attendants and how they deal with racism on the job. The discussion of Sherry Turkle’s work has been updated to include her most recent book, Reclaiming Conversation (2015).
Chapter 5 (Separate and Together: Life in Groups): The chapter- opening discussion of the FA MU hazing inci- dent now includes the conclusion to the lawsuit. A new In the Future box considers the future of virtua l rea lity tech- nolog y and its possible effect on group ties. The discussion of the Internet ’s role in developing or undermining human connection has been streamlined. In the Data Workshop, data on socia l media users and Facebook users have been updated to reflect their ever- increasing popularity. The section on reference groups now uses peer groups as its main example. The 2016 presidentia l election is used as an example of groupthink. The Globa l Perspective box (Group vs. Individua l Norms) has been updated with additiona l statistics about honor killings and a new example: the 2016 murder of Pa kistani socia l media star Q andeel Ba loch in
an a lleged honor killing. Jeff Bezos’s “two pizza rule” is mentioned in the discussion of socia l loa fing. The section on leadership styles now considers gender stereotypes and Sher yl Sandberg ’s recent efforts to encourage women to “lean in.”
Chapter 6 (Deviance): The chapter opener on the chang- ing ideas surrounding marijuana use has been reworked and updated in light of recent legislation legalizing the substance. In the section on theories of deviance, Travis Hirschi’s social control theory is now introduced and defined. In the section on conflict theory, Richard Quinney’s theory of capitalism and its role in encouraging deviance is explained. The 2008 recession is provided as a new example of how wealth and privilege protect the powerful from being defined as deviant or punished. NBC’s The Biggest Loser is now used to demon- strate primary and secondary deviance. The discussion of cyberbullying has become the basis for a new In Relation- ships box on online deviance. The “Analyzing Media and Pop Culture” Data Workshop has been updated with new TV shows and now asks students to consider what types of deviance are absent from TV. Data throughout “The Study of Crime” section, including the homicide rate and arrest rates by age, gender, and race, have been updated. Figure 6.2, on violent crime and property crime rates, has also been updated with 2015 data. Criminology and cybercrime have been added as key terms. The discussion of age and crime has been expanded. The discussion of race and crime now draws on Michelle Alexander’s work to show how race shapes one’s life chances even after serving time. A new section on hate crimes, with up- to- date statistics from the FBI, has been added. A new figure charts the incarceration rate in the United States from 1925 to 2015. A new section discusses the prison- industrial complex and prison privatization. In the end- of- chapter spread, the “Who Goes to Prison in the United States?” bar chart has been updated with 2015 data. The end-of-chapter spread now directs students to a recent Everyday Sociology blog post on what has been called the Ferguson effect.
Chapter 7 (Social Classes: The Structure of Inequal- ity): The chapter opener has been tweaked to clarify that the photos included show average families across the globe. New statistics from the Walkfree Foundation and the National Human Trafficking Hotline shed light on the scope of mod- ern slavery in the United States and across the globe. A new section on Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow (2011) highlights discrimination based on criminal convictions. Data on the wealthiest Americans have been updated. The Kardashians are included as an example of individuals who converted their wealth into celebrity. A new study by Stan- ford economist Raj Chetty is included to highlight dimin- ishing social mobility in the United States. The section on
CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITION xxxi
on the recent DOJ investigation into the Ferguson Police Department. Ta- Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me (2015) is also featured. A new section explores the rise of white nationalist groups, highlighting the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as research by Joe Feagin. A new discussion of racial microaggressions has been added, as well as a reference to 2016 blockbuster Get Out. The con- troversy regarding cultural appropriation in Hollywood has been updated with more contemporary film examples. The discussion of Rachel Dolezal now highlights Rogers Brubak- er’s provocative new proposition about the permeability of race and gender, contrasting Caitlyn Jenner’s coming- out as transgender with Dolezal’s outing as white. The authors also point to Paris Jackson, and her racial self- identification, as an intriguing counterpoint. A new section introduces and defines the concept of reverse racism, highlighting a recent survey about discrimination against whites. Anti- racist allies are covered in a new section. A new In the Future box on the Black Lives Matter movement explores ways that stu- dents can fight systemic racism. Critical race theory is now introduced and defined within the section on conflict theo- ries of race. The In Relationships box has been updated with more recent data on the prevalence of, and public opinion on, interracial marriage. Data throughout the “Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances” section, including data on marriage rates and birth rates by race, have been updated. The discussion of health disparities has been expanded and now highlights new research by Case and Deaton on the rise in “deaths of despair” among white Americans without a college degree. Data on life expectancy and health insurance coverage have been updated. The discussion of education now includes new research by both Victor Rios, on the “ school- to- prison” pipeline, and Claude Steele, on stereotype threat, as well as updated high school graduation rates. The “Work and Income” section has been updated with 2016 data on the racial and ethnic composition of the workforce and median household income by race, and now discusses an experi- mental study on the effect of racially identifiable names on hiring decisions. The On the Job box on diversity initiatives has been overhauled and now focuses on research by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev. In the criminal justice section, data on the racial breakdown of the prison population, as well as murder rates by race and racially motivated hate crimes, have been updated and a new discussion on racial profiling in traffic stops has been added. A new Data Workshop, titled “Does TV Reflect the Realities of Race?” has students do a content analysis of a current TV show with minority char- acters, such as Black- ish, Fresh Off the Boat, and Master of None. A new Global Perspectives box on the Syrian Civil War focuses on the struggles faced by Syrian refugees set- tling in new communities. The end- of- chapter spread now directs students to a recent Everyday Sociology blog post on how Get Out reinterprets W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of double consciousness.
symbolic interactionism now discusses a study by Christine Mallinson and Becky Child that explores linguistic patterns among different groups of black Appalachian women. In the “Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances” section, data on average age at first marriage, health insurance coverage, median earnings, and educational attainment have all been updated. Figure 7.2 on college enrollment by income level has been updated. Data on TANF and SNAP recipients have been updated. Federal poverty line has been added as a key term, and the discussion of poverty has been updated with 2016 data, including Figures 7.4 and 7.5. Data related to federal spending have been updated in the text and in Figure 7.6. In light of the twentieth anniversary of welfare reform, a new discussion of Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer’s book, $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America (2016), examines the effect of welfare reform on families and individuals that used to rely on these safety net programs. More recent public opinion polls on welfare and poverty have been added. The On the Job box has been updated with more recent informa- tion on the “Fight for $15” movement, including companies that have raised their minimum wages. The “Culture of Pov- erty” section now highlights research by Thomas Piketty on the rise of “supermanagers” earning “supersalaries.” The discussion of political disenfranchisement has been updated with a discussion of the 2016 Olympics. The digital divide section has been updated with more recent data on Internet access by household income and educational attainment as well as a new study on the use of the Internet for job hunt- ing. Data on homelessness in NYC have been updated. A new In the Future box draws on Professor Andrew Sayer’s new book, W hy We Can’t Afford the Rich (2016), to illustrate why extreme wealth should be considered a serious social prob- lem. This box also introduces the new key terms wealth gap and oligarchy. Data on credit card debt and student loan debt have been updated. New polls indicate Millennials’ views on the American Dream.
Chapter 8 (Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience): A brand new chapter opener uses recent tweets by comedian Chris Rock to introduce a discussion of racial profiling in traffic stops, or “driving while black.” The section on defining race now discusses the “one drop” rule. A new discussion of the Scotch- Irish people, including a reference to J.D. Vance and his blockbuster memoir Hillbilly Elegy, has been added to the section on ethnicity. A new section, titled “The U.S. Pop- ulation by Race,” examines the changing racial landscape of the United States, with a focus on the rise in people who iden- tify as belonging to more than one race. The data on minor- ities have been updated with more recent information and predictions, and Figure 8.1 has been updated with 2016 data and now includes percentages. New polls show Americans’ views on race relations. The discussion of institutional dis- crimination has been thoroughly rewritten and now centers
CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITIONxxxii
how he was able to successfully court the media. The Data Workshop on satirical news shows has been updated with new shows such as Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. The sec- tion on social media has been revised to consider the role of social media in the 2016 presidential election, including the emergence of “fake news.” The topic of patriotism and pro- test now includes coverage of the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. In the section on education, data on high school graduation and dropout rates, median earnings by educa- tional attainment, and unemployment rates by educational attainment have all been updated. The In the Future box on the value of a college degree has been updated with lifetime earnings by educational attainment data as well as a new dis- cussion of earnings by college major. The discussion of char- ter schools has been updated with more recent data. Data on community college enrollment have been updated. The On the Job box on for- profit colleges has been updated to reflect recent action taken by Congress as well as more recent data on for- profit enrollment, fees, and loans. In the introductory section on theoretical approaches to religion, a new reference to Max Weber’s theory on the relationship between Protes- tant Christian values and capitalism has been added. The discussion of the rise of evangelicalism has been updated with more recent data. The discussion of the separation of church and state now references the 2015 controversy over displaying the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol. The “Voter Turnout by Educational Level” figure in the end- of- chapter spread now looks at the 2016 election.
Chapter 11 (The Economy and Work): The section on industrial work highlights the recent drop in manufacturing jobs, due both to automation and offshoring. The discussion of telecommuting has been updated based on a recent Gallup report on the state of the American workplace. The discus- sion of resistance strategies now looks at the recent case of federal employees at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior, among other agencies, setting up rogue Twitter accounts in order to leak infor- mation to the public. A new In the Future box, titled “Will Your Job Be ‘ Uber- ized’?” charts the rise of the gig economy, highlighting its effect on those who still rely on traditional employment. Data on union membership and strikes have been updated. The discussion of corporate citizenship now references the “We Are Still In” letter created in the wake of President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. The topic of international trade now mentions the Trans Pacific Partnership. Data on transnational corpora- tions and the table ranking the world’s economies have been updated. Data on foreign employment by U.S. companies as well as IT export revenue to India have been updated. The discussion of the outsourcing of surrogacy has been updated in light of recent legislation. The “Professional Socializa- tion in Unusual Fields” section now looks at Matthew Des- mond’s study of wildland firefighters and how the men are
Chapter 9 (Constructing Gender and Sexuality): The chapter opener on Caster Semenya has been updated to con- sider a recent IA AF ruling on testosterone levels in female athletes as well as Semenya’s participation in the Rio Olym- pics. The discussion of intersex people now highlights soci- ologist Georgiann Davis’s critique of the classification of intersex as a medical disorder. The Global Perspectives box now includes a discussion of bacha posh, girls in Afghanistan who are dressed up and treated like boys. The In Relation- ships box on rape culture has been thoroughly revised and now discusses the infamous Stanford Rape Case as well as recent research by Lisa Wade on hookup culture. The dis- cussion of transgender representation on TV shows has been updated with new examples. In the section on preju- dice and discrimination, a recent internal memo written by a male engineer at Google pointing to biological differences as partly to blame for the low representation of women in tech is highlighted. Misogyny has been added as a key term. Data on hate crimes motivated by anti– sexual orientation or anti– gender identity sentiment have been added. In the “Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances” section, data on differ- ing marriage and divorce rates by sex, the gender gap in life expectancy, and educational attainment by sex have all been updated. A new school climate survey highlights rates of har- assment of LGBT students. The In the Future box on human trafficking has been thoroughly revised to better reflect the current state of the issue, including current estimates on the prevalence of human trafficking. The discussion of work and income has been updated with 2016 data on labor force participation by sex and marital status, the gender wage gap, and the sex segregation of certain professions. The sec- tion on women in the military has been updated to reflect the fact that women are now eligible for combat roles. Data on female personnel and sexual assault in the military have been updated. A new On the Job box takes an in- depth look at the gender pay gap and its causes, highlighting the story of the U.S. women’s national ice hockey team. In the section on criminal justice, data on arrest rates by sex, homicide rates by sex, and hate crimes have been updated. Public opinion on gay marriage has been updated. In the end-of-chapter spread, data on female representation on corporate boards of directors have been updated.
Chapter 10 (Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion): The discussion of voting in the United States now includes coverage of the 2016 election, including voter participation rates by different demographic factors. In the section on interest groups, the percentage of incumbent rep- resentatives and senators reelected in 2016 has been added. A discussion of Super PAC spending in the 2016 election cycle has been added. The discussion of the media and the political process has been thoroughly revised in light of the election of Donald Trump, including new coverage of his campaign and
CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITION xxxiii
Internet?” discusses developments in the fight for net neu- trality. The discussion of high and low culture now includes a reference to Lin- Manuel Miranda’s hip hop– inspired musical Hamilton. In the section on interpretive strate- gies, Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade, is presented as an example of a cultural product that can be read in a number of different ways. The discussion of textual poaching now considers how new technologies have made it even easier to engage with pop culture. The travel and tourism section now includes a discussion of America’s National Park System and has been updated with 2015 data.
Chapter 14 (The Sociology of Medicine, Health, and Illness): A new chapter opener points to the recent water crisis in Flint, Michigan, as an example of how social sta- tus and environment can intersect with health and illness. The “Analyzing Everyday Life” Data Workshop includes results from a 2016 survey by the American College Health Association, including the percentage of students who expe- rience more than average stress or tremendous stress. The In the Future box on autism spectrum disorder has been updated with more recent research on possible causes as well as developments in brain- imaging technolog y. Data on the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been updated. A new Global Perspectives box, titled “Zika Virus: Women and Children Last,” discusses the history of Zika as well as the recent outbreak of the virus and its disproportionate impact on women. The “Social Inequality, Health, and Illness” section has been expanded and now includes dedicated sections on health disparities based on class, race, and gender. The discussion of class- based disparities in health highlights a recent study by Raj Chetty on the gap in life expectancy between the richest 1 percent and the poorest 1 percent. This section also points to education as a key factor linking SES and disparate health outcomes. A new discussion of race- based disparities in health includes data on life expec- tancy by race/ethnicity as well as rates of hypertension and diabetes. The discussion of gender gaps in mental health has been expanded. The section on food deserts now mentions Michelle Obama and the Partnership for a Healthier Amer- ica initiative that campaigned to eliminate food deserts. Data on spending on prescription drugs and drug market- ing have been added in the In Relationships box on direct- to- consumer drug marketing. The section on medicine as a social institution now examines a recent study on the phenomenon of degree rationing. The discussion of doctor- patient interactions now features a 2016 study that found that elderly hospitalized patients treated by female doctors had better outcomes than those treated by male doctors. The list of shows about hospitals in the “Analyzing Media and Pop Culture” Data Workshop has been updated. The discussion of the Affordable Care Act has been updated to consider a 2017 public opinion poll as well as recent efforts
socialized before they even apply for the job. The On the Job box on internships includes data from the class of 2016. Data on volunteering have been updated. A new section com- pares U.S. workers to workers from other developed coun- tries, specifically highlighting how the United States stacks up when it comes to paid vacation time. The figures on “Who Works at Minimum Wage?” in the end- of- chapter spread have been updated with 2017 data.
Chapter 12 (Life at Home: Families and Relationships): The section on mate selection now references a recent study on what Americans say they are most looking for in a mate, including a new figure with the survey results. The discus- sion of interracial marriage has been thoroughly updated and now looks at intermarriage rates by race as well as changes in public opinion. The “Relationship Trends” section includes a new figure that shows the breakdown of different types of households in 2016. The discussion of cohabitation has been expanded. Data on nonmarital childbearing, single- parent households, and remarriage have been updated. The discus- sion of child- free adults now includes research on the effect of children on parents’ happiness levels. A reconceived On the Job box now focuses on workers who help build families through foster care and adoption. The discussion of “break- ing up” now looks at research into the tendency of divorce to run in families. The section on custody and child support has been updated with data from a 2016 U.S. Census Bureau report on custodial parents. Data in the “Aging in the Family” section, including life expectancy, elderly poverty, older adults living alone, and adults living in nursing homes, have all been updated. The “Trouble in Families” section now introduces the term intimate partner violence and includes data on prevalence and rates across different groups. The list of films included in the Data Workshop has been updated. The In the Future box now includes data on out- of- hospital births as well as research on the effect of doulas. Data on child and elder abuse have been updated.
Chapter 13 (Leisure and Media): The chapter opener on Bollywood now includes a reference to 2016 Best Pic- ture nominee La La Land. The “What Is Leisure?” section includes a new figure that breaks down leisure activities by age group. Data on employment in the leisure/hospitality sector as well as amount of money spent on entertainment in the United States have been updated. The discussion of the National Basketball League and the value of NBA teams has been updated with data released in 2017. The “Media and Democracy” section now includes a discussion of how social media have made it possible for politicians to bypass traditional media outlets, specifically Donald Trump’s use of Twitter. The discussion of mergers now references the 2017 merger of Verizon and Yahoo. Table 13.1 has been updated with 2016 revenue. A new section titled “Who Regulates the
CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITIONxxxiv
Chapter 16 (Social Change): A new chapter opener explores how the development of new technologies, including the Internet of Things, is driving both positive social change and creating new forms of risk. The discussion of the riots in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray has been updated. The examples in the “Fads and Fashions” section have been swapped out and now include man buns, kale, and fidget spin- ners. The discussion of fashion trends now explores the phe- nomenon of fast- fashion brands such as Zara and Forever 21. The discussion of reactionary hate movements such as the Council of Conservative Citizens now highlights the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The section on theories of social movements has been reorganized, with separate sections on mass society theory and relative depri- vation theory. A new discussion of gerrymandering has been added to the section on the history of voting rights in the United States. A new In Relationships box analyzes the era of hashtag activism through the example of the Indivisible movement. The discussion of technology and social change now references new gene- editing technology CRISPR. Data on the most popular TV shows have been updated, as well as the percentage of the global population with access to the Internet. A new In the Future box asks students to consider whether new technologies are leading us toward utopia or doomsday.
to repeal the legislation. Data on CAM usage and spending have been updated. The discussion of death with dignity laws points to the recent passage of California’s End of Life Option Act, highlighting those states that have passed death with dignity legislation.
Chapter 15 (Populations, Cities, and the Environment): In the section on demography, data on global fertility rates, mortality rates, life expectancy, net migration rate have all been updated. Figure 15.1 has been updated with 2015 life expectancy data. The In the Future box includes more recent UN estimates on the number of centenarians. A new figure charting the demographic transition has been added to accompany the text discussion of this important theory. The On the Job box now includes a reference to South Los Angeles’s “Gangsta Gardener,” Ron Finlay. The “Trends in Urbanization” section now discusses the affordable housing crisis and Matthew Desmond’s ethnography on eviction. The list of suggested films in the “Analyzing Media and Pop Cul- ture” Data Workshop has been updated. The discussion of pollution includes a reference to the recent Flint water crisis. Climate justice has been introduced as a new key term. The discussion of environmental justice explores the recent con- troversy over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The Real World SIXTH EDITION
Thinking Sociologically
and Doing Sociology
PART I
PART I4
Matthew worked as a wildland firefighter in the rugged backcountry of northern Arizona where he grew up, earn- ing money in this dangerous profession to help put himself through college. Like many of his fellow firefighters, he came from a rural, working- class background where the practical skills he had acquired in his youth proved useful in the con- text of this risky, sometimes even deadly, job. He drew upon this experience when writing his first book, On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters. Matthew was likewise inspired by another event from his past— losing his childhood home to foreclosure. The anger and humiliation he felt at the time later drove him to study issues surrounding housing. When he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, he moved into a trailer park in Milwaukee to bet- ter understand how evictions exacerbate poverty.
What do these people have in common? They are all promi- nent American sociology professors. You may not have heard of them (yet), but they have each made an exceptional impact on their profession.
Pepper went to Yale when the school had just begun to admit female students, and some campus buildings didn’t even have wom- en’s restrooms yet. She was soon document- ing the sexual revolution as it took shape on campus. Her academic work spilled over into the popular media, when she began writing a sex advice column for Glamour magazine. Since then she has become a go- to authority on everything sex, love, and relationships.
Victor was a gang member who dropped out of school when he was fourteen and learned to steal cars, landing him in juvenile detention. If it had not been for the intervention of one extraordinarily dedicated high school teacher who held onto her high expectations for him, Victor’s life story might not have turned out so well. He went on to earn a doctorate in ethnic studies, examining the street life he had once known.
Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington, is a leading researcher on sex and intimate rela- tionships. Her work has resonated widely with the public; she is often cited in the press and makes frequent appearances across a variety of media outlets. Since 2014, she has appeared as a regular cast member on the reality TV show Married at First Sight. Victor Rios has become a sought- after author and speaker whose sometimes autobiographical research on race, law enforcement, and social control also led him to found a program for at- risk youth in Santa Barbara, where he is a pro- fessor at the University of California. Matthew Desmond is a sociology professor at Harvard University. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, his powerful firsthand account of deep poverty and homelessness in America, earned widespread acclaim, including a Pulitzer Prize. He also was recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, or “Genius Grant.”
Each sociologist has a unique story about how he or she ended up in sociology and built a career in academia. It was
Victor RiosPepper Schwartz Matthew Desmond
PART I 5
not obvious from the beginning that any of them would be academic superstars; they each faced a different set of obstacles to success but were somehow motivated to keep on. Perhaps it was because they had been deeply touched by something happening in the real world, something that was also relevant to their own lives. It inspired in them a pas- sion for pursuing a question, an issue, or a cause that was meaningful to them. Each of them has made important con- nections between their personal lives and their professional careers. In turn, their work extends beyond academia, mak- ing a collective contribution to the lives of individuals and even to society as a whole.
Their paths to sociology were very different, and they have each taught and researched different topics. Despite these dif- ferences, they share a way of looking at the world. Sociologists have a unique viewpoint called the “sociological perspective.” In fact, we hope that you will acquire your own version of the sociological perspective over the course of this term. Then you will share something in common with these and other sociol- ogy professors, including your own.
Schwartz, Rios, and Desmond also hold in common their commitment to sociological theories and concepts. This means that their ideas— and the questions they ask and answer— are guided by the established traditions of sociological thought.
They may build on those traditions or criticize them, but every sociologist engages in a theoretical dialogue that links centu- ries and generations. You will become part of this dialogue as you learn more about sociological theory.
Finally, Schwartz, Rios, Desmond, and others like them conduct their research using specific sociological methods. Whether quantitative or qualitative, these means of gather- ing and analyzing data are distinctive to sociology, and every sociologist develops research projects using the methods best suited to the questions she wants to answer.
Each sociologist’s personal journey affects his professional legacy, and knowing something about an author’s life helps students understand the author’s work. A person’s values, experiences, and family context all shape his interests and objectives— and this is as true of eminent sociologists as it will be for you.
In this first part, we will introduce you to the discipline of sociology and its theoretical traditions (Chapter 1) and to the work of sociology and its research methodologies (Chapter 2). This section is your opportunity to get to know sociology— its perspectives, theories, and research practices.
Perhaps someday your intellectual autobiography will be added to those of Schwartz, Rios, and Desmond— and your story will start by opening this book.
T he Gold & Silver Pawn Shop is a family- owned business located less than two miles off
the Las Vegas strip. Open twenty- four hours a day, it attracts a wide variety of customers
who come to buy and sell an even wider array of items, both common and rare. Richard
“The Old Man” Harrison and his son Rick opened the business together in 1989. Through
their doors comes everything from antique coins to a Samurai sword, a Super Bowl ring, or a
never- before- seen photo of Jimi Hendrix. The challenge is figuring out whether something’s
authentic or fake and then negotiating what price to pay. Sometimes experts are called to weigh
in on the value of an item. But the real fun is watching the Harrisons haggle with customers— and
each other— over good deals and bad.
Sociology and the Real World
CHAPTER 1
6
7
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World8
Each week, two contestants, one man and one woman, total strangers and
completely naked, are dropped deep into the wilderness with almost no supplies
to see if they can survive together for twenty- one days. In journeys across six
continents, in such places as the Australian outback, the jungles of Belize, and
the savannah of Namibia, these pairs of contestants are tested both physically
and mentally, forced to discover what they’re truly made of. Will they “tap out” and
ask to leave the competition early, or will they have the fortitude to prevail through
whatever hardships their journey delivers? And perhaps most importantly, can
these strangers forge a working partnership so essential to the act of survival, or
will pride, fear, or some other human weakness undermine their success?
Three sisters, whose names all start with the letter K, alternately squabble and
cooperate with each other and members of their large blended family, including a
brother, mother, stepparent, half sisters, stepbrothers, and assorted significant oth-
ers. Their privileged lives are on continual display, and they have become famous
mainly for being famous. Their family dramas, rife with both glamorous and embar-
rassing moments, are chronicled in excruciating detail. With her music mogul hus-
band on her arm, Kim attends galas, fashion shows, and awards ceremonies with
fellow members of the glitterati. Meanwhile, sisters Khloe and Kourtney jet set around
the globe, opening up boutiques in cities like New York and Miami. The sisters shop
constantly and take countless selfies while millions of fans follow them on Instagram.
Is any of this real? Yes— kind of. It’s “reality television,” specifically His-
tory Channel’s Pawn Stars, Discovery’s Naked and Afraid, and E!’s Keeping Up
with the Kardashians. And there’s a lot more where those came from. In the fall
2017 lineup, there were literally hundreds of reality shows on the major net-
works and cable stations, with an unknown number of programs undoubtedly in
the works. Hell’s Kitchen, The Voice, Million Dollar Listing, The Bachelor, and Teen
Mom were just a few of the more popular shows, as well as the show that started
it all in 1992, MTV’s The Real World, which filmed its thirty-third season in 2017.
Some of the shows claim to follow real people through their everyday lives or
on the job, while others impose bizarre conditions on participants, subject them
to stylized competitions and gross- out stunts, or make their dreams come true.
Millions tune in every week to see real people eat bugs, get fired, suffer romantic
rejection, reveal their poor parenting, get branded as fat or ugly, cry over their mis-
fortunes, or get voted out of the house or off the island— mortifying themselves on
camera for the possibility of success, money, or fame.
Why are we so interested in these people? Because people are interesting!
Because we are people, too. No matter how different we are from the folks on reality
TV, we are part of the same society, and for that reason we are curious about how
they live. We compare their lives with ours, wonder how common or unusual they or
we are, and marvel that we are all part of the same, real world. We, too, may want to
win competitions, date an attractive guy or girl, find a high- profile job, feel pretty or
handsome, be part of an exclusive group, or have a lovely home and family. We may
even want to be on a reality show ourselves.
What Is Sociology? 9
coherent, clear, and consistent as it could be. For example, you are probably very skilled at using a smartphone. It brings you into daily contact with friends and family, puts you in touch with the pizza delivery guy, and allows you to register for classes and find out your grades at the end of the term. But you probably can’t explain how it works in a technical way; you know only how it works for you in a practical, everyday way. This is the important feature of the everyday actor’s knowledge: It is practical, not scientific.
To acquire knowledge about the social world that is system- atic, comprehensive, coherent, clear, and consistent, you’ll need to take a different approach. The social analyst has to “place in question everything that seems unquestionable” to the everyday actor (Schutz 1962, p. 96). In other words, the social analyst takes the perspective of a stranger in the social world; she tries to verify what the everyday actor might just accept as truth. For instance, people tend to believe that women are more talkative than men. This might seem so evident, in fact, as not to be worth investigating. The social analyst, however, would investigate and deliver a more complex conclusion than you might think.
There are strengths and weaknesses in both approaches: The analyst sees with clarity what the actor glosses over, but the actor understands implicitly what the analyst labors to grasp. Once you’ve learned more about the theories and methods that come next, you’ll be able to combine the virtues of both analyst and actor. The result will be a more profound and comprehensive understanding of the social world in which we all live.
What Is Sociology? Even among those working in the field, there is some debate about defining sociology. A look at the term’s Latin and Greek roots, socius and logos, suggests that sociology means the study of society, which is a good place to start. A slightly more elaborate definition might be the systematic or scien- tific study of human society and social behavior. This could include almost any level within the structure of society, from large- scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and relationships between individuals.
Another definition comes from Howard Becker (1986), who suggests that sociology can best be understood as the study of people “doing things together.” This version reminds us that neither society nor the individual exists in isolation
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER You are embarking on a fascinating journey as you learn to see, think, and analyze yourself and the world around you from a sociological perspective. The tools presented here will help you build a foundation for new knowledge and insights into social life.
We will also share the story of the historical and intellec- tual development of the discipline of sociology. We want to show you how the ideas that shape sociology are linked and introduce you to the interesting men and women who came up with those ideas. Too often, theorists seem to be talking heads, icons of social analysis who experience neither life- altering calamities nor shifting professional fortunes. We want to overcome that perception. We believe that our individual experiences and historical contexts shape our thoughts and the professional worlds we choose to join. This is as true for Karl Marx as it is for Kerry Ferris, as true for Jane Addams as it is for Jill Stein— it’s true for all of us; your own experiences and cultural and historical contexts will shape your ideas and work. In fact, someday, someone may write a chapter about you!
As authors and teachers, we encourage you to develop some basic study techniques that will assist you in your suc- cess as a new student to sociology (and perhaps beyond). You may want to highlight portions of the text or take notes while you read. Mark passages you don’t understand, or keep a list of questions about any aspect of the chapter. Don’t hesitate to discuss those questions with your instructor or fellow students; those dialogues can be one of the most gratifying parts of the learning process. Finally, we recommend that you attend class regularly— whether you’re in a face- to- face class- room or online— as there is really no substitute for the shared experience of learning sociology with others.
We are excited to join you on this journey of discovery. Though you may know a lot about social life already, we hope to introduce you to even more— about yourself and the world around you— and to provide valuable tools for the future. We wouldn’t want you to miss a thing. So here is where we start.
Practical vs. Scientific Knowledge You already possess many of the skills of an astute analyst of social life, but you take your knowledge for granted because you gained it as an everyday actor. In this course, you will build a new identity: social analyst. These are two very differ- ent ways of experiencing the same social world.
The everyday actor approaches his social world with what is referred to as “reciped,” or practical, knowledge (Schutz 1962), which allows him to get along in his every- day life. However, practical knowledge is not necessarily as
EVERYDAY ACTOR someone who approaches the world by using knowledge that is practical or taken for granted
SOCIAL ANALYST someone who approaches the world by using reasoning and questions to gain deeper insights
SOCIOLOGY the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large- scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions
SOCIETY a group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from others
10 CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World
think sociologically, but, for many, the following practices are helpful.
Beginner’s Mind One technique for gaining a sociological perspective comes from Bernard McGrane (1994), who promotes a shift in think- ing borrowed from the Zen Buddhist tradition. McGrane sug- gests that we practice what is called beginner’s mind— the opposite of expert’s mind, which is so filled with facts, pro- jections, assumptions, opinions, and explanations that it can’t learn anything new. If we would like to better under- stand the world around us, we must unlearn what we already know. Beginner’s mind approaches the world without know- ing in advance what it will find; it is open and receptive to experience.
Perhaps our greatest obstacle to making new discoveries is our habitual ways of thinking. “Discovery,” McGrane says, “is not the seeing of a new thing— but rather a new way of see- ing things” (1994, p. 3). One way to achieve this kind of aware- ness is to practice being present in the moment. You might have tried this already if you’ve done any training in what is called “mindfulness.” The problem is we are all too often pre- occupied with thoughts and feelings that prevent us from fully participating in reality. If we can find some inner stillness and stop our normal mental chatter, then McGrane says there is a possibility for true learning to occur. It is in this quiet space that a personal “paradigm shift” (a new model for understand- ing self and society) can take place.
and that humans are essentially social beings. Not only is our survival contingent on the fact that we live in various groups (families, neighborhoods, dorms), but also our sense of self derives from our membership in society. In turn, the accu- mulated activities that people do together create the pat- terns and structures we call society. So sociologists want to understand how humans affect society, as well as how soci- ety affects humans.
One way to better understand sociology is to contrast it with other social sciences, disciplines that examine the human or social world, much as the natural sciences exam- ine the natural or physical world. These include anthropol- ogy, psychology, economics, political science, and sometimes history, geography, and communication studies. Each has its own particular focus on the social world. In some ways, soci- ology’s territory overlaps with other social sciences, even while maintaining its own approach.
Like history, sociology compares the past and the pres- ent in order to understand both; unlike history, sociology is more likely to focus on contemporary society. Sociology is interested in societies at all levels of development, while
anthropology is more likely to concentrate on traditional or small, indigenous cultures. Soci- ology looks at a range of social institutions, unlike econom- ics or political science, which each focus on a single institu- tion. Like geography, sociology considers the relationship of people to places, though geog- raphy is more concerned with the places themselves. And like communication studies, sociol-
ogy examines human communication— at both the social and the interpersonal levels, rather than one or the other. Finally, sociology looks at the individual in relationship to external social forces, whereas psychology specializes in internal states of mind. As you can begin to see, sociology covers a huge intellectual territory, making it exceptional among the social sciences in taking a comprehensive, integrative approach to understanding human life (Figure 1.1).
The Sociological Perspective How do sociologists go about understanding human life in society? The first step is to develop what we call the sociological perspective, which is also referred to as tak- ing a sociological approach or thinking sociologically. In any case, it means looking at the world in a unique way and see- ing it in a whole new light. You may be naturally inclined to
SOCIAL SCIENCES the disciplines that use the scientific method to examine the social world
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE a way of looking at the world through a sociological lens
BEGINNER’S MIND approaching the world without preconceptions in order to see things in a new way
Figure 1.1 Sociology and the Social Sciences
Sociology overlaps with other social sciences, but much of the territory it covers is unique.
Geography
Anthropology
History
Political Science
Economics
Psychology
SOCIOLOGY
Communication Studies
The Sociological Perspective 11
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Doing Nothing Bernard McGrane suggests that we actually “do” soci- ology, rather than just study it. His book The Un- TV and the 10 MPH Car (1994) features exercises designed to help students experience the mundane, routine, and everyday level of society in a new way. This Data Workshop is an adaptation of one of his experiments. You will be practicing beginner’s mind, one of the ways to gain a sociological perspective, or to think like a sociologist.
Step 1: Conducting the Experiment This exercise requires that you stand in a relatively busy public space (a mall, street corner, park, or cam- pus quad) and literally do nothing for ten minutes. That means just standing there and being unoccupied. Don’t wait for someone, take a break, sightsee, or otherwise engage in a normal kind of activity. Also don’t daydream or think about the past or the future; don’t entertain yourself with plans or internal dialogues. Don’t whis- tle, hum, fidget, look in your bag, play with your phone, take notes, or do anything else that might distract you from just being there and doing nothing. Do, however, observe the reactions of others to you, and pay atten- tion to your own thoughts and feelings during these ten minutes.
Step 2: Taking Notes about the Experience Immediately after conducting the experiment, write some informal notes about what happened or did not happen. These notes can be loosely structured (with sen- tence fragments or bullet points, if you wish), and they should be casual and written in the first person. Discuss the experience and its meaning to you in as much detail as possible. Include a description of other people’s reac- tions as well as your own thoughts and feelings before, during, and after the experiment.
This exercise may seem deceptively simple at first, but the subtle change from “doing something ” to “doing nothing ” makes everything different. It helps turn the ordinary world into a strange place. It makes you more aware of your own sense of self (or lack thereof ) and how identity is constructed through interaction. You may find
it a challenge to put aside the mental and physical activi- ties that you normally engage in to pass the time. And you may feel uncomfortable standing in a public place when other people can’t quite figure out who you are and what you’re doing. Finally, you will no longer be able to take for granted how the meaning of a situation is being defined or interpreted. Divested of your role as an everyday actor, you’ll learn how the most mundane activities (like just standing around) can become major objects of sociolog- ical inquiry.
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Complete the exercise and bring your written notes to class. Partner with another student and take turns presenting your findings. Discuss the ways in which your experiences were similar or different. What was it like to “do” sociology? Did you see things in a new way? What was the most interesting part about conduct- ing the experiment?
DO- IT- YOURSELF Complete the exercise and write a two- to three- page essay based on the main concepts and prompts from this Data Workshop. Describe your experi- ence and the results of your research. How did the exper- iment help you learn to think more like a sociologist? You may want to include snippets of your informal written notes to illustrate your points. Attach the informal notes to your finished essay.
Doing Nothing How does standing in a crowded place and doing nothing change how you experience the ordinary world?
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World12
encounters with the local natives and their way of life can seem so strange to us that they produce a kind of disorienta- tion and doubt about our ability to make sense of things. Put- ting all judgment aside for the moment, this state of mind can be very useful. For it is at this point, when we so completely lack an understanding of our surroundings, that we are truly able to perceive what is right in front of our eyes.
As sociologists, we try to create this effect without nec- essarily displacing ourselves geographically: we become curious and eager visitors to our own lives. We often find that what is familiar to us, if viewed from an outsider’s per- spective, is just as exotic as some foreign culture, only we’ve forgotten this is true because it’s our own and we know it so well. To better understand this state of mind, you might imagine what it would be like to return home after being shipwrecked and living alone on a desert island. Or, if you’ve traveled abroad or moved away to attend college, perhaps it’s something you’ve already experienced but didn’t know what to call.
Culture Shock Peter Berger (1963) describes what kind of person becomes a sociologist: someone with a passionate interest in the world
of human affairs, someone who is intense, curious, and daring in the pursuit of knowledge. “ People who like to avoid shocking dis- coveries . . . should stay away from sociology,” he warns (p. 24). The sociologist cares about the issues of ultimate importance to humanity, as well as the most mundane occurrences of every- day existence.
Another way to gain a socio- logical perspective is to attempt to create in ourselves a sense of culture shock. Anthropologists use the term to describe the experience of visiting an “exotic” foreign culture. The first
CULTURE SHOCK a sense of disorientation that occurs when entering a radically new social or cultural environment
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION a quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our individual circumstances and larger social forces
The practice of sociology may look pretty simple or natu-ral at the outset. It doesn’t seem to require much special training to figure out other people and to know something about how the world works. All it takes is membership in soci- ety and some life experience to count yourself an expert on the topic. Look at how successful you are already, just to have arrived at the point of being a college student. So what more can sociology deliver?
The practice of sociology may also seem to be about just a bunch of common sense. But this is true only part of the time. Some of what you learn may indeed seem familiar and may confirm some of the conclusions you’ve made about it. Draw- ing on the personal knowledge you have accumulated in life will be a valuable asset as a starting place, but it can also be a stumbling block to deeper understanding. There are times that the things that “everyone knows” turn out not to be true, or at least not as simple as we might have thought.
Take, for instance, the widely held belief that women talk more than men. Experience seems to confirm that this is true, obviously! Women are chatty, and a lot of men, if not the strong silent type, definitely have trouble getting a word in edgewise. And women have a hard time getting men to talk when they want them to; sometimes, to get a man to tell you what he’s thinking, you have to drag it out of him. While you may recognize this description of the different genders,
IN RELATIONSHIPS It’s Official: Men Talk More Than Women
and may be able to relate with your own anecdote of such an encounter (or perhaps many such encounters), your casual assumptions about who talks more may need some revising.
Numerous sociological studies that analyze conver- sational dynamics show that, despite stereotypes to the contrary, it’s actually men who are slightly more talkative (Leaper and Ayres 2007). How could that be?
Well, it depends on the context. Men are more talkative with their wives and with strangers. Women are more talkative with their children and with college classmates. With close friends and families, men and women are equally talkative. Studies have also shown other, perhaps more easily predictable, gender differences. For example, men use speech that is more asser- tive (they want to persuade others), while women use speech that is more affiliative (they are more focused on connecting with others). Sociologists have long noted that men are also more dominant in conversations, cutting off and interrupting women more often (Anderson and Leaper 1998; Hancock and Rubin 2015; Kollock, Blumstein, and Schwartz 1985).
“Mansplaining” is another way that men assert their dominance in conversations (Solnit 2008). The word is rather new, but the idea has been around for decades (Roth- man 2012). Mansplaining is the tendency, especially for men, to explain things in a condescending or patronizing way, with the presumption that the one doing the explaining knows
The Sociological Perspective 13
The Sociological Imagination One of the classic statements about the sociologica l per- spective comes from C. Wright Mills (1916–1962), who describes a qua lity of mind that a ll great socia l ana lysts seem to possess: the sociological imagination. By this, he means the ability to understand “the intersection between biography and histor y,” or the interplay of self and the world; this is sociolog y ’s task and its “promise” (Mills 1959).
We norma lly think of our own problems as being a private matter of character, chance, or circumstance, and we over- look the fact that these may be caused in part by, or at least occur within, a specific cultura l and historica l context. For example, if you can’t find a job, you may feel that it’s because you don’t have the right skills, educationa l background, or experience. But it may a lso be the result of problems in the larger economy such as outsourcing, downsizing, restric- tive policies, changing technologies, or migration patterns.
In other words, your individua l unemployment may be part of a larger socia l and historica l phenomenon.
Most of the time, we use psychological rather than socio – logical arguments to explain the way things are. For instance, if someone is carrying a lot of credit card debt, psychologi- cal reasoning might focus on the person’s lack of self- control or inability to delay gratification. Sociological reasoning, however, might focus on the impact of cultural norms that promote a lifestyle beyond most people’s means, or on economic changes that require more Americans to rely on credit cards because their wages have not kept up with inflation.
The sociological imagination searches for the link between micro and macro levels of analysis. We must look for how larger
more than the listener (even when this is clearly not the case). Men are more likely to “mansplain” in conversations with women, reinforcing gender stereotypes about who has more power and, in these cases, more knowledge. Perhaps because so many people have been on the receiving end of mansplain- ing, the word has gained acceptance into the current lexicon as well as the Oxford English Dictionary (Steinmetz 2014). It has become a useful label for a widely recognized behavior. Of course, it’s not only men who engage in mansplaining to women; sometimes men mansplain to other men, and some- times women do it to men or to each other (McClintock 2016).
These findings seem to defy what has been considered a biological fact, that the female brain is wired to be more ver- bal and, therefore, that women talk more. But because who talks more varies by situation, the evidence seems to point to language and conversational differences as influenced more by social than biological forces, including power dynamics. So despite how it might feel from your own personal expe- rience, sociology has debunked some common myths about women and men, requiring us to rethink simplistic gender stereotypes.
This is why doing sociology is in some regards a radical undertaking. It requires of us a willingness to suspend our own preconceptions, assumptions, and beliefs about the way things are. As sociologists, we need to learn to question
everything, especially our own taken- for- granted notions about others and ourselves. Once these notions have been set aside, even temporarily, we gain a fresh perspective with which to uncover and discover aspects of social life we hadn’t noticed before. We are then able to reinterpret our previous understanding of the world, perhaps challenging, or possibly confirming, what we thought we already knew.
Kanye West takes the microphone away from Taylor Swift to give an impromptu speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.
C. Wright Mills
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World14
Microsociology concentrates on the interactions between individuals and the ways in which those interactions construct the larger patterns, processes, and institutions of society. As the word indicates (“micro” means small), micro- sociology looks at the smallest building blocks of society in order to understand its large- scale structure. A classic exam- ple of research that takes a micro approach is Pam Fishman’s article “Interaction: The Work Women Do” (1978). Like many scholars who had observed the feminist movements of the 1960s and ’70s, Fishman was concerned with issues of power and domination in male- female relationships: Are men more powerful than women in our society? If so, how is this power created and maintained in everyday interactions? In her research, Fishman recorded and analyzed heterosexual cou- ples’ everyday conversations in their homes. She found some real differences in the conversational strategies of men and women and some surprising results about who talked more.
One such conversation took place in the kitchen, where a woman was having a difficult time getting her partner to join her in a discussion about the history of education. He fre- quently interrupted, changed the subject, failed to respond for long stretches, and even flipped on the garbage disposal while she was speaking. She persevered, trying to gain control of the conversation. Fishman recorded many more conversations between couples and identified a variety of patterns. One of her findings was that women ask nearly three times as many questions as men do. While other researchers have proposed that women’s psychological insecurities are the reason for this finding, Fishman noted that women are in fact follow- ing a firmly held rule of conversational structure: When the
social forces, such as race, class, gender, religion, economics, or pol- itics, are involved in creating the context of a person’s life. Mills’s characterization of sociology as the intersection between biogra- phy and history reminds us that the process works in both direc- tions: while larger social forces influence individual lives, individ- ual lives can affect society as well.
One of the most important benefits of using the sociological imagination is access to a world beyond our own immediate sphere, where we can discover radically different ways of experiencing life and interpreting reality. It can help us appreciate alternative viewpoints and understand how they may have come about. This, in turn, helps us to better understand how we devel- oped our own values, beliefs, and attitudes.
Sociology asks us to see our familiar world in a new way, and doing so means we may need to abandon, or at least reevaluate, our opinions about that world and our place in it. It is tempting to believe that our opinions are widely held, that our worldview is the best or, at least, most common. Taking a sociological perspective forces us to see fallacies in our way of thinking. Because other individuals are different from us— belonging to different social groups, participating in differ- ent social institutions, living in different cities or countries, listening to different songs, watching different TV programs, engaging in different religious practices— they may look at the world very differently than we do. But a sociological perspective also allows us to see the other side of this equa- tion: in cases where we assume that others are different from us, we may be surprised to find that their approach to their everyday world is quite similar to ours.
Levels of Analysis: Micro- and Macrosociology Consider a photographer with state- of- the- art equipment. She can view her subject through either a zoom lens or a wide- angle lens. Through the zoom lens, she sees intri- cate details about the subject’s appearance; through the wide- angle lens, she gets the “big picture” and a sense of the broader context in which the subject is located. Both views are valuable in understanding the subject, and both result in photographs of the same thing.
Sociological perspectives are like the photographer’s lenses, giving us different ways of looking at a common subject (New- man 2000). Sociologists can take a microsociological (zoom lens) perspective, a macrosociological ( wide- angle lens) per- spective, or any number of perspectives located on the contin- uum between the two (Figure 1.2).
Figure 1.2 The Macro-Micro Continuum
Sociology covers a wide range of topics at different levels of analysis.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS (Economics, Politics, Education, Religion)
SOCIAL INEQUALITY (Class, Race, Gender)
SOCIETY
CULTURE
GROUPS
ROLES
SOCIALIZATION
INTERACTION
SELF
MICROSOCIOLOGY the level of analysis that studies face- to- face and small- group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and structures of society
MACROSOCIOLOGY the level of analysis that studies large- scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals
Levels of Analysis: Micro- and Macrosociology 15
speaker cannot guarantee that she or he will get a response, she or he is more likely to ask a question. Questions provoke answers, which makes them a useful conversational tool for those who may have less power in interpersonal relation- ships and in society at large. And women are more likely to be in this position than men. Thus, in her micro- level analysis
of conversation, Fishman was able to see how macro- level (“macro” means large) phenomena such as gender and power are manifested in everyday interactions.
Macrosociology approaches the study of society from the opposite direction, by looking at large- scale social structure to determine how it affects the lives of groups
IN THE FUTURE C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination
still considered anorexia quite rare, so why is there so much awareness about eating disorders now? Anorexia and bulimia are experienced in intensely personal ways, and eating disor- ders are usually explained in purely psychological terms. But Bordo, thinking about them sociologically, argues that cul- tural factors help create eating disorders. Contemporary cul- ture’s obsession with bodies that are “slim, tight, and young” (p. 140) shapes individual psychologies. Eating disorders, then, are symptoms of a troubled culture as well as a troubled individual. This is not to deny that personal and psychologi- cal factors aren’t important, but it is a reminder that social and cultural factors create the environment that makes it possible to experience problems like eating disorders in the first place.
Today you may be a student in an introductory sociol- ogy class; this year, around 30,000 students will receive bachelor’s degrees in sociology (U.S. Department of Educa- tion 2017d). Whether or not you end up majoring in sociol- ogy, C. Wright Mills wanted everyone to develop and sharpen a sociological imagination. In fact, that is the goal we share in writing this textbook. How might the sociological imagi- nation be useful to you in the future?
The “sociological imagination” is a term that seemingly every sociology student encounters. It was first intro- duced by C. Wright Mills in his 1959 book by the same name, and over time it has become an enduring cornerstone of the discipline. It captures the spirit of inquiry, the quality of mind, and the guiding principles that all sociologists should embrace. Mills was sometimes critical of sociology as a discipline, so he offered himself as a “public intellectual,” one who could speak beyond the confines of academia and address some of the most pressing social issues of the time. Mills was convinced that sociology had something to offer everyone, not just academics.
Mills highlighted the distinction between “personal trou- bles” and “public issues” as “an essential tool of the socio- logical imagination and a feature of all classic work in social science” (Mills 1959, p. 8). He explained that almost any fea- ture of an individual’s daily life can be better understood if this distinction is applied to it. Unemployment, war, marriage, and housing are all experienced as personal troubles, but to be fully understood, they must also be seen as manifestations of long- standing institutions and larger social structures. As Mills pointed out, “In so far as an economy is so arranged that slumps occur, the problem of unemployment becomes inca- pable of personal solution” (Mills 1959, p. 10). This lesson was driven home again during the Great Recession, which began in 2007. A series of major banks had created securities that bun- dled a large number of mortgages made to so- called sub- prime borrowers. When many of these mortgages went into default, it led to an economic chain reaction that culminated in unem- ployment levels higher than any seen since the Great Depres- sion of the 1930s. For the many millions of people thrown out of work, unemployment was experienced as a personal trouble, but one that could be understood only as a public issue.
In even more fundamental ways, Mills believed that people are shaped by the connections between “the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history” (Mills 1959, p. 4). These connections could influence the most personal fea- tures of someone’s life, shaping the very kind of people “they are becoming” (p. 4). In her book Unbearable Weight (1995), Susan Bordo describes how anorexia came to be recognized as a national mental health problem. In 1973, psychiatrists
Personal Troubles and Public Issues High foreclosure rates in the wake of the recession were both a personal trouble and a public issue.
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World16
of these perspectives as being on a continuum with each other; while some sociologists adhere to radically micro or exclu- sively macro perspectives, most are somewhere in between. The next part of this chapter explores some specific theoreti- cal traditions within sociology and shows you where each falls along this continuum.
Sociology’s Family Tree Great thinkers have been trying to understand the world and our place in it since the beginning of time. Some have done this by developing theories: abstract propositions about how things are as well as how they should be. Sometimes we also refer to theories as “approaches,” “schools of thought,” “paradigms,” or “perspectives.” Social theories, then, are guiding principles or abstract models that attempt to explain and predict the social world.
As we embark on the discussion of theory, it may be useful to think of sociology as having a “family tree” made up of real people who were living in a particular time and place and who were related along various intertwining lines to other members of the same larger family tree. First, we will exam- ine sociology’s early historical roots. Then, as we follow the growth of the discipline, we will identify its major branches and trace the relationships among their offshoots and the other “limbs” that make up the entire family tree. Finally, we will examine some of the newest theoretical approaches and members of the family tree (page 17), and consider the possible future of sociological theory.
Sociology’s Roots The earliest Western social theorists focused on establish- ing society as an appropriate object of scientific scrutiny, which was itself a revolutionary concept. None of these early theorists were themselves sociologists (since the
and individuals. If we want to stick to the topic of gender inequality, we can find plenty of examples of research proj- ects that take a macro approach; many deal with the work- place. Despite the gains made in recent years, the U.S. labor market is still predominantly sex segregated— that is, men and women are concentrated in different occupations. In 2016, for example, 98.3 percent of auto mechanics were male, whereas 94.6 percent of secretaries and administra- tive assistants were female (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017j). This feature of social structure, some argue, has a direct effect on the bottom line for individual workers, male and female. Our social institutions, from religion to the fam- ily and education, also play a part in sending women and men on different career trajectories, which often results in them earning differing paychecks.
A related example comes from the work of Christine Williams. She found that while women in male- dominated fields experience limits on their advancement, dubbed the “glass ceiling” effect, men in female- dominated occupations experience unusually rapid rates of upward mobility— the “glass escalator” (Williams 1995). Here, then, we see a macro approach to the topic of gender and power: large- scale fea- tures of social structure (patterns of occupational sex segregation) create the constraints within which individuals and groups (women and men in the workplace) experience successes or failures in their everyday lives.
As you can see, these two per- spectives make different assump- tions about how society works: the micro perspective assumes that society’s larger structures are shaped through individual inter- actions, while the macro perspec- tive assumes that society’s larger structures shape those individual interactions. It is useful to think
Levels of Analysis These two views of the New York Public Library represent different levels of analysis in sociology. Microsociology zooms in to focus on individuals, their interactions, and groups in order to understand their contribution to larger social structures. In contrast, macrosociology pulls back to examine large- scale social processes and their effects on individuals and groups.
THEORIES abstract propositions that explain the social world and make predictions about the future
PARADIGM a set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way of understanding social reality
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World18
in her culture. She felt that respect was denied to her as a single woman.
In 1835, “Mrs.” Martineau traveled to the United States to judge the new democracy on its own terms rather than by European standards. But she was disappointed: By condoning slavery and deny- ing full citizenship rights to women and blacks, the American experiment was, in her eyes, flawed and hypo- critical. She wrote two books describing her observations, Society in America (1837) and Retrospect of Western Travel (1838), both critical of American leadership and culture. By holding the United States to its own publicly stated demo- cratic standards, rather than seeing the country from an ethnocentric British perspective, she was a precursor to the naturalistic sociologists who would establish the discipline in America. In 1853, Martineau made perhaps her most important contribution to sociolog y: she translated Comte’s Introduction to Positive Philosophy into English, thus mak- ing his ideas accessible in England and America.
HERBERT SPENCER (1820–1903) was primarily respon- sible for the establishment of sociology in Britain and Amer- ica. Although Spencer did not receive academic training, he grew up in a highly individu- alistic family and was encour- aged to think and learn on his own. His interests leaned heavily toward physical sci- ence and, instead of attend- ing college, Spencer chose to become a railway engineer. When railway work dried up, he turned to journalism and eventually worked for a major periodical in London. There he became acquainted with leading English academics and began to publish his own thoughts in book form.
In 1862, Spencer drew up a list of what he ca lled “first principles” (in a book by that name), and near the top of the list was the notion of evolution driven by natura l selection. Charles Darwin is the best- known proponent of the theory, but the idea of evolution was in wide circulation before Darwin made it famous. Spencer proposed that societies, like biologica l organisms, evolve through time by adapting to changing conditions, with less successful adaptations fa lling by the wayside. He coined the phrase “surviva l of the fittest,” and his socia l philosophy is sometimes known
discipline didn’t yet exist) but rather people from a variety of backgrounds— philosophers, theologians, economists, his- torians, journalists— who were trying to look at society in a new way. In doing so, they laid the groundwork not only for the discipline as a whole but also for the different schools of thought that are still shaping sociology today.
AUGUSTE COMTE (1798–1857) was the first to pro- vide a program for the scientific study of society, or a “social physics,” as he labeled it. Comte, a French scientist, devel-
oped a theory of the progress of human thinking from its early theological and meta- physical stages toward a final “positive,” or scientific, stage. Positivism seeks to identify laws that describe the behav- ior of a particular reality, such as the laws of mathematics and physics, in which people gain knowledge of the world directly through their senses. Having grown up in the after- math of the French Revolu-
tion and its lingering political instability, Comte felt that society needed positivist guidance toward both social prog- ress and social order. After studying at an elite science and technology college, where he was introduced to the newly dis- covered scientific method, he began to imagine a way of apply- ing the methodology to social affairs. His ideas, featured in Introduction to Positive Philosophy (1842), became the foun- dation of a scientific discipline that would describe the laws of social phenomena and help control social life; he called it “sociology.”
Although Comte is remembered today mainly for coining the term, he played a significant role in the development of sociology as a discipline. His efforts to distinguish appropri- ate methods and topics for sociologists provided the kernel of a discipline. Other social thinkers advanced his work: Harriet Martineau and Herbert Spencer in England and Émile Durk- heim in France.
HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802–1876) was born in Eng- land to progressive parents who made sure their daughter was well educated. She became a journalist and political economist, proclaiming views that were radical for her time: endorsing labor unions, the abolition of slavery, and women’s suffrage. Though Martineau never married, she preferred to be addressed as “Mrs.”—not because she wished for a husband
(indeed, she strongly rejected marriage, seeing it as a tool for the subjugation of women) but because she recognized that the title conveyed respect and status
POSITIVISM the theory that sense perceptions are the only valid source of knowledge
Auguste Comte
Harriet Martineau
Herbert Spencer
Macrosociological Theory 19
as social Darwinism. In the late 1800s, Spencer’s work, including The Study of Sociology (1873) and The Principles of Sociology (1897), was virtua lly synonymous with sociol- og y in the English- speaking world. The scope and volume of his writing served to announce sociolog y as a serious dis- cipline and laid the groundwork for the next generation of theorists, whose observations of large- sca le socia l change would bring a new viewpoint to socia l theory.
Macrosociological Theory Theorists in late- nineteenth- century Europe were living dur- ing extraordinary times. They were attempting to explain social order, social change, and social inequality while the world around them changed as a result of the Industrial Revolu- tion. At the same time, they were witnessing political upheaval and the birth of democracy brought about by the French and American Revolutions. These were changes on the grandest of scale in the macro order of society. Frequently referred to as classical sociology, the theories that arose during this period reflect the broad subject matter of a sweeping era.
Structural Functionalism Structural functionalism, or functionalist theory, was the dominant theoretical perspective within sociology well into the mid- twentieth century. New (or neo-) functionalists con- tinue to apply their own vision of the theory to study a wide variety of social phenomena today.
FOUNDER AND KEY CONTRIBUTIONS Émile Durk- heim (1858–1917) is the central figure in functionalist theory. He was born into a close- knit and deeply religious Jewish
family who instilled in him a strong sense of morality (not just as an abstract concept but as a concrete influence on social relations) and a strong work ethic. After witnessing the ravages of the Franco- Prussian War (1870–1871), he hoped that applied science could stabilize and revitalize France in the aftermath of its devastating defeat. He did not believe that traditional, abstract moral philosophy
was effective in increasing understanding and bringing about social change, so he turned instead to the concrete science of sociology as represented in Comte’s work.
In his f irst major study, The Division of Labor in Soci- ety (1893), Durkheim stated that socia l bonds were
present in a ll t y pes of societies but that different t y pes of societies created different t y pes of bonds. He suggested that the mechanica l solidarity experienced by people in a simple ag ricultura l societ y bound them together on the basis of sha red traditions, beliefs, a nd experiences. In industria l societies, where factor y work was becoming increasingly specia lized, organic solidarity preva iled: People’s bonds were based on the tasks they performed, interdependence, a nd individua l rights. Both t y pes of solida rit y have interpersona l bonds— just with different qua lities.
Durkheim believed that even the most individualis- tic actions have sociological explanations and set out to establish a scientific meth- odolog y for studying these actions. He chose for his case study the most individu- alistic of actions, suicide, and used statistical data to show that suicides were related to social factors such as religious affiliation, mari- tal status, and employment. Explaining a particular sui- cide by focusing exclusively on the victim’s psychological makeup neglected the impact of social bonds. According to Durkheim in his now- classic study Suicide (1897), even the darkest depression has its roots in an individual’s con- nections to the social world, or rather his lack of connec- tion. Durkheim theorized that suicide is one result of ano- mie, a sense of disconnection brought about by the changing conditions of modern life. The more firmly anchored a per- son is to family, religion, and the workplace, the less ano- mie he is likely to experience.
In his final major study, The Elementary Forms of Reli- gious Life (1912), Durkheim suggested that religion was a powerful source of social solidarity, or unity, because it reinforced collective bonds and shared moral values. He believed that society could be understood by examining the most basic forms of religion. Durkheim’s study of the indige- nous peoples of Australia led him to a universal definition of religion: Though religious traditions might differ, any form of religion is unified in its definition of what is considered
Émile Durkheim
SOCIAL DARWINISM the application of the theory of evolution and the notion of “survival of the fittest” to the study of society
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM a paradigm based on the assumption that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures
MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY the type of social bonds present in premodern, agrarian societies, in which shared traditions and beliefs created a sense of social cohesion
ORGANIC SOLIDARITY the type of social bonds present in modern societies, based on difference, interdependence, and individual rights
ANOMIE “normlessness”; term used to describe the alienation and loss of purpose that result from weaker social bonds and an increased pace of change
SOLIDARITY the degree of integration or unity within a particular society; the extent to which individuals feel connected to other members of their group
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World20
ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES The origins of structural func- tionalism can be traced back to the roots of sociology. Auguste Comte proposed that society itself could and should be stud- ied. Herbert Spencer added the idea that societies are living organisms that grow and evolve, just like other species on the planet. As the discipline of biology might study the physical organism of the human body, the discipline of sociology could study social organisms in the world of human development. Durkheim integrated and advanced these insights into a com- prehensive theory for understanding the nature of society.
There are two main principles of functionalism. First, society is conceived as a stable, ordered system made up of interrelated parts, or structures. Second, each structure has a function that contributes to the continued stability or equi- librium of the unified whole. Structures are identified as social institutions such as the family, the educational system, poli- tics, the economy, and religion. They meet society’s needs by performing different functions, and every function is neces- sary to maintain social order and stability. Any disorganiza- tion or dysfunction in a structure leads to change and a new equilibrium; if one structure is transformed, the others must also adjust. For example, if families fail to discipline children, then schools, churches, and the courts must pick up the slack.
It may seem contradictory that a theory concerned with order and stability would emerge in a discipline that arose in a period of rapid social change. But it is important to remember that change had previously occurred much more slowly and that one response to rapid social change is to try to understand what had come before— stability, order, and equilibrium.
OFFSHOOTS Structural functionalism was the dominant theoretical perspective in Europe for much of the early twentieth century. It was exported and updated by American functionalists, who increased its popularity and helped spread its reach well into the 1960s. For example, Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) elaborated on the theory and applied it to modern society, specifying some of the functions that social structures might fulfill in contempo- rary life. A healthy society must provide a means for people to adapt to their environment; for example, families, schools, and religious institutions work together to socialize children. A functional soci- ety includes opportunities for success— for example, promot- ing education to help its mem- bers pursue and realize their goals. For society to survive, there must be social cohesion; for example, shared religious and moral values.
Another modern American functionalist, Robert Merton (1910–2003), delineated the theory even further, identifying
to be sacred and profane. Every person who follows a par- ticular set of beliefs and practices will “unite into one single moral community” (Durkheim 1912/1995, p. 44).
Durkheim also noted that rituals or ceremonies that brought people together into communities were created and practiced to enhance the feeling of emotional unity that reaffirmed solidarity and social order. When people gathered for religious events, their individual acts, taken together, created a feeling of being swept up in something larger than
themselves. It made them feel as if they had entered a “special world inhabited by exception- ally intense forces that invade and transform” them (Durkheim 1912/1995, p. 220). Durkheim referred to this as collective effervescence. This sense of participants being transported by a shared wave of energy can happen during a Catholic Mass, for instance, as much as it can by attending a live concert or sport- ing event at a sold- out arena.
A distinction between the sacred and the profane, and the creation of and participation in shared ritual activity, creates a collective conscience (or collective consciousness) that contains the morality, the cos- mology, and the beliefs “common to the group” (p. 379). The shared beliefs and values that make up the collective conscience of the group are what make social soli- darity possible, but they must
be frequently renewed through the ritual, by which a group “revitalizes the sense it has of itself and its unity” (p. 379). Durkheim believed that this process happens in all societ- ies, whether united through a common religious tradition or through shared secular beliefs and practices.
Durkheim’s attempt to establish sociolog y as an impor- tant, independent academic discipline was enormously successful. He not only made significant contributions to the existing literature but also demonstrated the effective- ness of using scientific, empirical methods to study “social reality,” essentially validating Comte’s proposal from half a century earlier. Durkheim became the first professor of social science in France, at the University of Bordeaux in 1887, and later won a similar appointment at the Sorbonne in Paris, the very heart of French academic life. Today, Durkheim’s eminence in the social sciences is as strong as ever, and his ideas are still applied and extended by contem- porary theorists.
SACRED the holy, divine, or supernatural
PROFANE the ordinary, mundane, or everyday
COLLECTIVE EFFERVESCENCE an intense energy in shared events where people feel swept up in something larger than themselves
COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE the shared morals and beliefs that are common to a group and that foster social solidarity
EMPIRICAL based on scientific experimentation or observation
STRUCTURE a social institution that is relatively stable over time and that meets the needs of society by performing functions necessary to maintain social order and stability
DYSFUNCTION a disturbance to or undesirable consequence of some aspect of the social system
Talcott Parsons
Macrosociological Theory 21
poor provide a market for used and off- price goods and keep thrift stores and social welfare agencies in business. They have symbolic value as well, allow- ing those higher in the social hierarchy to feel compassion toward the “deserving” poor and to feel threatened by the “undeserving” poor, who are often seen as dangerous social deviants. Ultimately, the cir- cular reasoning that charac- terizes functionalist thought turns out to be its biggest prob- lem: the mere persistence of an institution should not be seen as an adequate explanation for its existence.
Conflict Theory Conflict theory is the second major school of thought in sociology. Like structural functionalism, it’s a macro- level approach to understanding social life that dates to mid- nineteenth- century Europe. As conflict theory developed, however, its emphasis on social inequality as the basic char- acteristic of society helped answer some of the critiques of structural functionalism.
FOUNDER AND KEY CONTRIBUTIONS The work of Karl Marx (1818–1883), a German social philosopher, cul- tural commentator, and political activist, was the inspiration for conflict theory, so the terms “conflict theory” and “Marx- ism” are sometimes used interchangeably in the social sci- ences. Marx’s ideas have become better known to the world as the basis for communism, the political system adopted by numerous countries (such as China, Cuba, and the for- mer Soviet Union) that have often been viewed as enemies of democracy and the United States. This association has led many to a narrow belief that Marx was nothing more than a misguided agitator who helped cause more than a century of political turmoil. It is important to separate Marx himself from the cur- rent, political application of communism and to consider the possibility that he might not have supported the ways political leaders used his ideas decades later. Sociologists
manifest and latent functions for different social structures. Manifest functions are the obvious, intended functions of a social structure, while latent functions are the less obvious, perhaps unintended functions. For example, the manifest functions of edu- cation are to prepare future members of society by teach- ing them how to read and write and by instructing them on society’s system of norms, values, and laws. However, education has a latent function as well, which is to keep kids busy and out of trouble eight hours a day, five days a week, for twelve years (or longer). Do not doubt that this is also an important contribution to social order!
Functionalism’s influence waned in the late twentieth century but did not die out. A “ neo- functionalist” movement, begun in the 1980s and ’90s, attempted to reconstruct func- tionalist theories so that they remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. Theorists such as Neil Smelser and Jeffrey Alexander have attempted to modify functionalist theory to better incorporate problems such as racial and ethnic iden- tity in a diverse society (Alexander 1988, 2012; Alexander and Smelser 1998; Smelser 1985).
ADVANTAGES AND CRITIQUES One of the great advan- tages of functionalism is its inclusion of all social institutions. Functionalism attempts to provide a universal social theory, a way of explaining society in one comprehensive model. Part of functionalism’s appeal may also lie in its ability to bring order to a potentially disorderly world. Were it not for some of the volcanic social upheavals of recent history— the civil rights, antiwar, and women’s liberation movements are not easily explained using this model— functionalist theory might still reign supreme in American sociology. Functionalism, generally preoccupied with stability, takes the position that only dysfunc- tion can create social change. This conservative bias is part of a larger problem with the theory: Functionalism provides little insight into social processes because its model of society is static rather than dynamic. Its focus on the macro level also means that functionalism has less interest in explaining inde- pendent human action; there is no apparent approach to the lives of individuals except as part of social institutions.
Functionalism’s explanations of social inequality are espe- cially unsatisfying: If poverty, racism, and sexism exist, they must serve a function for society; they must be necessary and inevitable. This view is problematic for many. Sociologist Her- bert Gans, in a critical essay (1971), reviewed the functions of poverty for society. The poor, for example, do our “dirty work,” filling the menial, low- wage jobs that are necessary to keep society running smoothly but that others refuse to do. The
MANIFEST FUNCTIONS the obvious, intended functions of a social structure for the social system
LATENT FUNCTIONS the less obvious, perhaps unintended functions of a social structure
CONFLICT THEORY a paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change and that emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change
SOCIAL INEQUALITY the unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society
Robert Merton
Karl Marx
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World22
a member of the bourgeoisie. Everything of value in society resulted from human labor, which was the proletariat’s most valuable asset. Yet they suffered from what Marx called alien- ation because they were unable to directly benefit from the fruits of their own labor. Workers were paid wages, but it was the fac- tory owners who grew rich as a result of their toil.
The powerful few in the bourgeoisie were not only wea lthy but a lso enjoyed socia l privilege and power. They were able to protect their interests, preserve their posi- tions, and pass a long their advantages to their heirs. The proletariat were often so absorbed in making a living that they were less apt to protest the conditions that led to their oppression. But eventua lly, Marx believed, the oppression would become unbearable, and the proletariat would rise up against the bourgeoisie, abolishing capita lism for good. He envisioned in its place a classless society with no pri- vate ownership in which each person contributed to and benefited from the public good. Freed from oppressive con- ditions, individua ls would then be able to pursue higher interests such as art and education and eventua lly live in a more ega litarian, utopian society. But in order to achieve such a state, the oppressed must first recognize how the current system worked against them.
In 1849, Marx withdrew from politica l activity in order to concentrate on writing Das Kapital (edited by Engels and published in 1890). The multivolume work provided a thor- ough exposition of his program for socia l change, which later became the foundation of politica l systems such as communism and socia lism. Marx intended it to be his main contribution to sociolog y, but developments in the socia l sciences have placed more emphasis on his earlier writ- ings. Because Marx held such radica l ideas, his ideas were not immediately embraced by sociologists in genera l. It was not until the 1960s when conflict theory became a domi- nant perspective that Marx was truly received as a giant of sociolog y.
ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES Conflict theory proposes that conflict and tension are basic facts of social life and suggests that people have disagreements over goals and values and are involved in struggles over both resources and power. The the- ory thus focuses on the processes of dominance, competition, upheaval, and social change.
Conflict theory takes a materialist view of society (focused on labor practices and economic reality) and extends it to other social inequalities. Marx maintained that economic productivity is related to other processes in soci- ety, including political and intellectual life. The wealthy and powerful bourgeoisie control major social institutions, rein- forcing the class structure so that the state, education, reli- gion, and even the family are organized to represent their interests. Conflict theory takes a critical stance toward existing social arrangements and attempts to expose their inner workings.
have found that Marx’s theory continues to provide a power- ful tool for understanding social phenomena. The idea that conflict between social groups is central to the workings of society and serves as the engine of social change is one of the most vital perspectives in sociology today.
Marx grew up in a modernizing, industrializing yet politi- cally and religiously conservative monarchy; this, plus the fact that his was a restless, argumentative personality, accounts in great part for his social theory. Marx studied law and philoso- phy in Bonn and Berlin, receiving a PhD in 1841. His personal ties with radicals effectively barred him from entering aca- demia, so he turned to journalism, writing stories that often antagonized government censors and officials.
For most of his life, Marx led an economically fragile exis- tence. He managed to maintain a tenuous middle- class lifestyle, but only with financial support from his close friend and chief intellectual collaborator Friedrich Engels, who studied the condi-
tions of the English working class. Marx’s own circumstances may have sparked his interest in social inequality, or the uneven and often unfair distribution of resources (in this case, wealth) in society, but he never experienced firsthand the particular burdens and difficulties of the working class.
The Industrial Revolution was a time of rapid social change, when large numbers of people were moving from an agricul- tural life in rural areas to manu- facturing jobs in urban areas. Technological advances and a wage- based economy promised an age of prosperity and abun- dance, but they created new kinds of poverty, crime, and dis- ease. Marx believed that most of those problems were a result of
capitalism, the emerging economic system based on the pri- vate for- profit operation of industry. He proposed a radical alternative to the inherent inequalities of this system in the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), perhaps his most famous book.
In industrial society, the forces of capitalism were creating distinct social and economic classes, exacerbating the dispari- ties between the wealthy and the poor. Marx felt that this would inevitably lead to class struggle between those who owned the means of production (anything that could create more wealth: money, property, factories, other types of businesses) and those who worked for them. He argued that the most impor- tant factor in social life was a person’s relationship to the means of production: in other words, whether someone was a worker, and thus a member of the proletariat, or an owner, and thus
MEANS OF PRODUCTION anything that can create wealth: money, property, factories, and other types of businesses, and the infrastructure necessary to run them
PROLETARIAT workers; those who have no means of production of their own and so are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live
BOURGEOISIE owners; the class of modern capitalists who own the means of production and employ wage laborers
ALIENATION the sense of dissatisfaction the modern worker feels as a result of producing goods that are owned and controlled by someone else
Macrosociological Theory 23
on the happiness promised in the afterlife rather than on deprivations suffered in this world. Indeed, heaven is seen as a reward for patiently suf- fering those deprivations. How does this serve the interests of the ruling class? By keeping the working class from demanding better conditions in this life.
Conflict theory sees the transformation of society over time as inevitable. Marx argued that the only way to change the status quo is for the masses to
Because the ideology, or belief system, that permeates society arises from the values of the ruling class, beliefs that seem to be widely held are actually a kind of justifica- tion that help rationalize and explain the status quo. Most people readily accept the prevailing ideolog y, despite its failure to represent the reality of their lives. Marx referred to this acceptance as false consciousness, a denial of the truth that allows for the perpetuation of the inequalities inherent in the class structure. For example, he is often quoted as saying, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” This is not a criticism of religion so much as a criticism of the use of religion to create false consciousness in the work- ing class. Encouraged in their piety, the proletariat focus
IDEOLOGY a system of beliefs, attitudes, and values that directs a society and reproduces the status quo of the bourgeoisie
FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS a denial of the truth on the part of the oppressed when they fail to recognize that the interests of the ruling class are embedded in the dominant ideology
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Eurocentrism and Sociological Theory
Also overlooked in conventional histories of sociol- ogy are Indian scholar Benoy Sarkar (1887–1949), Filipino activist and poet José Rizal (1861–1896), and Japanese folk- lorist Kunio Yanagita (1875–1962)—all of whom applied sociological insights to the problems of their nations. Sarkar explored India’s religious divisions, Rizal analyzed the Phil- ippines’ fight for independence from Spain, and Yanagita used qualitative methods to explore Japan’s culture and its long- standing isolationism. They have received virtually no notice for their achievements outside their own countries (Alatas and Sinha 2001).
Filipino sociologist Clarence Batan (2004) argues that West- ern theorists like Marx, Weber, and Durkheim may inspire non- Western scholars but that their theories arose in response to specific social problems that were particular to Western soci- eties. Non- Western societies face different issues, including the legacy of colonialism imposed by the Western countries from which those classical sociological theories sprang. Batan calls for sociologists in non- Western countries to respond to the needs of their societ- ies by developing new theo- retical frameworks that take post colonial realities into account. Batan himself, along with other contemporary non- Western sociologists, works toward this goal every day in his research and teach- ing. Shouldn’t your sociology professors do the same?
EUROCENTRIC the tendency to favor European or Western histories, cultures, and values over those of non- Western societies
Ibn Khaldun
You might get the impression from this chapter that the major sociological theorists were all either European or American. In fact, some ideas central to sociological theory were proposed in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East centuries before Marx, Weber, and Durkheim were even born, but we give these Western thinkers all the credit. Why?
Both the social world and social theory are often Eurocentric: They tend to privilege Europe and the West over other cultures. This means that hierarchies of global power, in which superpowers such as the United States and former colonial rulers such as Britain and France dominate,
are replicated in aca- demic disciplines like sociology. Scholars who work against inequality and exploitation should note this distressing irony.
One influential non- Western thinker was Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), an Arab Muslim philosopher and politician who lived in fourteenth- century North Africa. His coin- ing of the term as sabiyah, or “social cohesion,” precedes Durkheim’s work on the same subject by more than 500 years, and his argument that larger social and historical forces shape individual lives predates Mills’s insight about sociology as “the intersection of biography and history” by almost 600 years! Yet Khaldun is rarely credited for pro- posing sociology as a discipline— ilm alumran, he called it, or “the science of civilization.” This honor is reserved for French scholar Auguste Comte, working centuries later in the West.
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World24
Other modern perspectives have taken conflict theory’s insights on economic inequality and adapted them to the study of contemporary inequalities of race, gender, and sexuality (Crenshaw et al. 1996; Matsuda et al. 1993). Begin- ning with the pioneering work of W.E.B. DuBois, sociology started to focus on inequalities of race and ethnicity, inspir- ing important studies about the causes and consequences of prejudice and discrimination and helping propel momen- tous social changes resulting from the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Critical race theory, which emerged out of legal scholarship in the 1970s and 1980s, is concerned with the relationship among race, racism, and power. This con- troversial theory argues that racism is deeply embedded in American institutions, including our laws. This institu- tional racism serves to both perpetuate white privilege and marginalize people of color. Adherents of critical race theory are dedicated to not just studying race— and how it inter- sects with other identities such as sex and class— but also in actively working to end racial oppression ( Bonilla- Silva 2015; Delgado and Stefancic 2001, 2012).
Feminist theory developed alongside the twentieth- century women’s rights movement. By applying assump- tions about gender inequality to various social institutions— the family, education, the economy, or the media— feminist theory allows for a new way of understanding those institu- tions and the changing role of gender in contemporary society. Theorists such as Judith Butler (1999), bell hooks (2003), and Catharine MacKinnon (2005) link gender with inequality in other social hierarchies— race and ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation— and argue that gender and power are inextricably intertwined in our society.
The gay and lesbian rights movement that gained momen- tum in the 1970s and ’80s inspired a new set of theoretical and conceptual tools for social scientists: queer theory. Queer theory proposes that categories of sexuality— homo, hetero, bi, trans— should be viewed as “social constructs” (Seidman 2003). It asserts that no sexual category is fundamentally
attain class consciousness, or revolutionary conscious- ness. This can happen only when people recognize how society works and challenge those in power. He believed that social change would occur when there was enough ten- sion and conflict. Marx proposed a dialectical model of historical or social change, whereby two extreme positions would eventually necessitate some kind of compromise: the resulting “middle ground” would mean that society had actually moved forward. Any existing social arrangement, called the thesis, would inevitably generate its opposite, or
antithesis, and the contradic- tions and conflicts between the two would lead to an altogether new social arrangement, or synthesis.
OFFSHOOTS Marx’s work has been reinterpreted and applied in various ways, and conflict theory has evolved within the greater intellectual community. Despite Marx’s single- minded focus on economic exploitation and trans- formation, his ideas have helped inspire theorists interested in all forms of power and inequality.
One of the most widely adopted forms of modern Marx- ism is called critical theory (also sometimes referred to as the Frankfurt School or neo- Marxism). From the 1930s to the 1960s, critical theory was argu- ably at the cutting edge of social theory. Critical theorists were among the first to see the impor- tance of mass communications and popular culture as power- ful ideological tools in capitalist societies. They coined the term “culture industries” to refer to these increasingly important social institutions, which came to dominate and permeate social life (Adorno and Horkheimer
1979). They also criticized the growing consumerism associ- ated with the spread of capitalism, believing that it could ulti- mately lead to a decline in personal freedom and the decay of democracy (Marcuse 1964/1991). Critical theory influenced several generations of radical thinkers throughout Europe and the United States, inspiring the cultural studies move- ment and the postmodernists, who were considered the cut- ting edge of social theory in the 1980s and ’90s (Habermas 1984, 1987).
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS the recognition of social inequality on the part of the oppressed, leading to revolutionary action
DIALECTICAL MODEL Karl Marx’s model of historical change, whereby two extreme positions come into conflict and create some new outcome
THESIS the existing social arrangements in a dialectical model
ANTITHESIS the opposition to the existing arrangements in a dialectical model
SYNTHESIS the new social system created out of the conflict between thesis and antithesis in a dialectical model
CRITICAL THEORY a contemporary form of conflict theory that criticizes many different systems and ideologies of domination and oppression
CRITICAL RACE THEORY the study of the relationship among race, racism, and power
FEMINIST THEORY a theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in society and the way that gender structures the social world
bell hooks Feminist theorists such as bell hooks consider the intersection of gender and race.
Macrosociological Theory 25
were Protestants and descendants of victims of religious persecution. Weber, though not religious himself, exhibited the relentless work ethic held in high regard by devout Prot- estants. Although he was sickly and withdrawn as a young man, work served as a way for him to rebel against his father and the leisure classes in general. He studied law and history and worked as a lawyer while establishing his credentials for a university teaching position.
While pursuing his studies, Weber remained at home and financially dependent on his father, a situation he came to resent. Eventually he broke away, marrying his second cousin in 1893 and beginning a career teaching economics at the Uni- versity of Freiburg and later the University of Heidelberg. Weber rapidly established himself as a prominent member of the Ger- man intellectual scene. He might have continued in this manner had it not been for a disastrous visit from his parents in 1897, during which Weber fought bitterly with his father and threw him out of the house. When his father died a month later, Weber suffered a nervous breakdown that left him unable to work for several years. The strain of these events and years of incessant labor had appar- ently caught up with him. He even- tually recovered and resumed his intense scholarship, but the break- down left Weber disillusioned with the strict academic regimen.
Weber subsequently expressed a pessimistic view of social forces, such as the work ethic, that shaped modern life. Like other social theorists of his time, Weber was interested in the shift from a more traditional society to a modern industrial one. Perhaps his most overriding concern was with the process of rational- ization, or the application of economic logic to all spheres of human activity. In Economy and Society (1921), Weber pro- posed that modern industrialized societies were character- ized by efficient, goal- oriented, rule- governed bureaucracies. He believed that individual behavior was increasingly driven by such bureaucratic goals, which had become more impor- tant motivational factors than traditions, values, or emo- tions. Weber’s classic sociological discussion of the origins of the capitalist system, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904), concluded with the image of people trapped by their industrious way of life in what he called an iron cage
deviant or normal; we create such definitions, so we can change them as well. Indeed, some theorists, such as Marjorie Garber (1997), argue that strict categories themselves are no longer relevant and that more fluid notions of identity should replace conventional dichotomies such as gay/straight.
ADVANTAGES AND CRITIQUES One of Karl Marx’s great contributions to the social sciences is the principle of praxis, or practical action: intellectuals should act on what they believe. Marx wished not only to describe the world but also to change it. Indeed, Marxist ideas have been important in achieving change through many twentieth- century social movements, including civil rights, antiwar, women’s rights, gay rights, animal rights, environmentalism, and multicul- turalism. If these groups had not protested the status quo, we might never have addressed some of the century’s social problems. Conflict theory is useful in understanding not only macro- level social issues (such as systematic discrimination against minority groups) but also micro- level personal inter- actions (such as those between bosses and employees).
Conflict theory stands in sharp contrast to structural func- tionalism. Conflict theory argues that a social arrangement’s existence does not mean that it’s beneficial; it may merely rep- resent the interests of those in power. The theory challenges the status quo and emphasizes the need for social upheaval. In focusing on tension and conflict, however, conflict theory can often ignore those parts of society that are truly orderly, stable, and enduring. Although society certainly has its share of dis- agreements, there are also shared values and common beliefs that hold it together. Conflict theory can be criticized for over- looking these less controversial dimensions of social reality.
Weberian Theory Max Weber (1864–1920) was another important European macrosociological theorist during the Industrial Revolu- tion. His work forms another large branch of sociology’s family tree, and his ideas continue to inspire in their current application, yet he is not always included among the three major branches of the discipline. Weberian theory is not a
minor branch of sociology, nor is it considered merely an offshoot of one or the other major branches of the tree. It draws from a background shared by the other macro theorists but forms its own independent limb.
Weber grew up in the German city of Berlin. His father was a successful entre- preneur and member of a tra- ditional and authoritarian aristocracy. Both his parents
QUEER THEORY social theory about gender and sexual identity; emphasizes the importance of difference and rejects ideas of innate identities or restrictive categories
PRAXIS the application of theory to practical action in an effort to improve aspects of society
RATIONALIZATION the application of economic logic to human activity; the use of formal rules and regulations in order to maximize efficiency without consideration of subjective or individual concerns
BUREAUCRACIES secondary groups designed to perform tasks efficiently, characterized by specialization, technical competence, hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, and formal written communication
IRON CAGE Max Weber’s pessimistic description of modern life, in which we are caught in bureaucratic structures that control our lives through rigid rules and rationalization
Max Weber
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World26
and rationalization to the fast- food industry and has warned about “McDonaldization” creeping into other aspects of con- temporary life, such as education and law enforcement. More recently, Ritzer has applied Weberian theory to the forces of globalization, demonstrating how the principles of McDon- aldization have been exported and adopted across the globe (Ritzer and Rand 2007).
The key concepts we have touched on here will be expanded as we apply Weberian theory to a variety of topics in upcom- ing chapters of the text. In addition to making some of the most important contributions to theory within the discipline, Weber was also influential in improving research methods by suggesting that researchers avoid imposing their own
of bureaucratic rules. He believed that contemporary life was filled with disenchantment (similar to Durkheim’s concept of anomie and Marx’s concept of alienation) as the inevitable result of the dehumanizing fea- tures of the bureaucracies that dominated the modern social landscape.
Weber’s insights into the nature of society continue to inspire sociologists today. For instance, George Ritzer (1996, 2013) has applied Weber’s theories of bureaucracy
DISENCHANTMENT the rationalization of modern society
VERSTEHEN “empathic understanding”; Weber’s term to describe good social research, which tries to understand the meanings that individuals attach to various aspects of social reality
Sociology continues to be a popular major at colleges and universities in the United States and in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. According to the Department of Education (2017d), over a half million bachelor of arts degrees in sociology were awarded in the United States between 1990 and 2015. Clearly, there are many reasons stu- dents are enthusiastic about the subject. What may be less clear is how to turn this passion into a paycheck. Students con- sidering majoring in the subject often ask, “What can I do with a degree in sociology?” Their parents may be asking the same question.
Students interested in academic careers can pursue graduate degrees and become professors and researchers— real practicing sociologists. But the vast majority of sociol- ogy majors will not necessarily become sociologists with a capital S. Their studies have prepared them to be valuable, accomplished participants in a variety of fields, including law
ON THE JOB Famous Sociology Majors
and government, business administration, social welfare, public health, education, counseling and human resources, advertising and marketing, public relations and the media, and nonprofit organizations. A major in sociology, in other words, can lead almost anywhere. And while the roster of former sociology majors contains names both well known and unsung, from President Ronald Reagan and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to the public defender giving legal aid to low- income clients and the health- care profes- sional bringing wellness programs into large corporations, we will focus here on three important Americans you may not have associated with sociology.
The first individual may be the least likely to be identi- fied as a sociology major, since his career was centered in the arts. Saul Bellow (1915–2005) was one of the most acclaimed American novelists of the twentieth century; his books include Seize the Day, Herzog, and Humboldt’s Gift. He won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award (three
times), the Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also a successful playwright and journalist and taught at several universities. Bellow was born in Montreal to Jewish parents, Rus- sian émigrés who later settled in the slums of Chicago while he was still a child. He began his under- graduate studies in English at the University of Chicago but left within two years after being told Kal PennMichelle ObamaSaul Bellow
Microsociological Theory 27
opinions on their scientific analysis; we’ll examine these ideas more closely in Chapter 2.
Weber’s work served as a bridge between early social the- ory, which focused primarily on the macro level of society, and subsequent theories that focused more intently on the micro level. He was interested in how individual motivation led to certain social actions and how those actions helped shape society as a whole. Unlike Marx and Durkheim, Weber was cautious about attributing any reality to social institutions or forces independent of individual action and meaningful thought. He invoked the German term verstehen (“empathic understanding”) to describe how a social scientist should study human action: that is, with a kind of scientific empathy
for actors’ experiences, intentions, and actions. In this way, Weber helped lay the groundwork for the third grand theory in sociology.
Microsociological Theory As the twentieth century dawned and the careers of the macro theorists such as Durkheim, Marx, and Weber matured, political, cultural, and academic power began to shift from Europe. As manifested by the waves of emigrants leaving the Old World for the New World, America was seen as the land of opportunity, both material and intellectual. So it was in the
by the department chair that no Jew could really grasp Eng- lish literature. He then enrolled at Northwestern University, graduating in 1937 with honors in sociology. Literary critics have noted that Bellow’s background in sociology, as well as his own personal history, may have influenced both the style and subject of his work. Many of the great themes of Ameri- can social life appear in his novels: culture, power, wealth and poverty, war, religion, urban life, gender relations, and, above all, the social contract that keeps us together in the face of forces that threaten to tear us apart.
Our next profile is of Michelle Robinson Obama (b. 1964), the first African American First Lady of the United States. Michelle Obama has become one of the most recognizable and widely admired sociology majors in the world, using her role as First Lady to fight childhood obesity, help work- ing mothers and military families, and encourage public service. Born and raised in working- class Chicago, she can trace her ancestry to slaves on both sides of her family tree. Her father worked for the city’s water department but saw both of his children graduate from Princeton University and go on to successful professional careers. After obtaining her BA in sociology— her senior thesis dealt with alienation experienced by African American students in an Ivy League institution— she earned her law degree at Harvard, worked at a prestigious law firm in Chicago, and then served in the mayor’s office. In addition to law and politics, her choice of majors was a critical stepping- stone on her way to success.
Our last sociology major is Kalpen Modi (b. 1977), who served as an associate director with the White House Office of Public Engagement (OPE) in 2009. In this role, he acted as
a liaison to young Americans, the arts, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. He also served on the Presi- dent’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. This may come as a surprise to those who know him as the actor Kal Penn, most famous for his role as the wisecracking, easygoing stoner Kumar in the Harold and Kumar film series or as Kevin on How I Met Your Mother. As an actor, Penn has been critical of the racial and ethnic stereotypes often associated with playing a person of South Asian descent. At one point, he nearly turned down a recurring role as a terrorist on the TV drama 24 because he didn’t want to reinforce the negative “connection between media images and people’s thought processes” (Yuan 2007). While it might be easy to make similar claims against Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, one of his co- stars defended the film by arguing that it “approached the level of sociology, albeit scatological, sexually obsessed sociology,” as “it probed questions of ethnic identity, conformism and family expecta- tions versus personal satisfaction” (Garvin 2008, p. M1). Penn continues to juggle politics with acting, reflecting a deep com- mitment to sociological ideals and a desire to use his influence to help build more positive media portrayals of minorities. In 2016, Penn joined the cast of TV drama Designated Survivor in the role of White House press secretary.
Regardless of whether you go any further in this discipline— or if you end up working in politics, the arts, or public service— the most important thing to take away from an introductory sociology class is a sociological perspective. Sociology promises a new way of looking at, thinking about, and taking action in the world around us, which will serve you well no matter where you find yourself in the future.
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World28
This group, the theories they developed together, and the way they went about studying the social world are frequently referred to (either individually or collectively) as the Chicago School of sociology.
Chicago was in many ways a frontier city in the early twentieth century. Rapidly transformed by industrialization, immigration, and ethnic diversity, Chicago became a unique laboratory in which to practice a new type of sociology that differed both theoretically and methodologically from the European models. Instead of doing comparative and histori- cal work like the macro theorists before them, the members of the Chicago School went out into the city to conduct inter- views and collect observational data. Their studies were par- ticularly inspired by Max Weber’s concept of verstehen as the proper attitude to adopt in the field. Their focus was on the micro level of everyday interactions (such as race relations in urban neighborhoods) as the building blocks of larger social phenomena (such as racial inequality).
The new school of thought was strongly influenced by a phil- osophical perspective called pragmatism, developed largely by William James and John Dewey, which was gaining accep- tance among American social theorists in the early 1900s. James was a Harvard professor whose interests spanned art, medicine, law, education, theology, philosophy, and psychology; he also traveled extensively and was acquainted with some of the most important scholars of the time. To James, pragma- tism meant seeking the truth of an idea by evaluating its use- fulness in everyday life; in other words, if it works, it’s true! He thought that living in the world involved making practical adaptations to whatever we encountered; if those adaptations made our lives run more smoothly, then the ideas behind them must be both useful and true. James’s ideas inspired educa- tional psychologist and philosopher John Dewey, who also grappled with pragmatism’s main questions: How do we adapt to our environments? How do we acquire the knowledge that allows us to act in our everyday lives? Unlike the social Dar- winists, pragmatists implied that the process of adaptation is essentially immediate and that it involves conscious thought. George Herbert Mead would be the one who eventually pulled these ideas (and others, too) together into a theory meant to address questions about the relationship between thought and action, the individual and society.
Mead came from a progressive family and grew up in the Midwest and Northeast during the late 1800s, where his father, a professor of theology at Oberlin College, died when George was a teenager, and his widowed mother eventually became president of Mount Holyoke College. Mead attended college at Oberlin and Harvard and did his graduate studies in psychology at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin in Ger- many. Before he became a full- time professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and later the University of Chi- cago, Mead waited tables and did railroad surveying and con- struction work. He was also a tutor to William James’s family in Cambridge, Massachusetts; since his later theories were
twentieth century, and increasingly in the United States, that the discipline of sociology continued to develop and the ideas of its third major school of thought began to coalesce.
Symbolic Interactionism Sociology’s third grand theory, symbolic interactionism (or interactionist theory), proved its greatest influence through much of the 1900s. It is America’s unique contri- bution to the discipline and an answer to many of the criti- cisms of other paradigms. Symbolic interactionism helps us explain both our individual personalities and the ways in which we are all linked together; it allows us to understand the processes by which social order and social change are constructed. As a theoretical perspective, it is vital, versatile, and still evolving.
FOUNDER AND KEY CONTRIBUTIONS Symbolic inter- actionism is derived largely from the teachings of George Her- bert Mead (1863–1931). But there were many others involved in the development of this particular school of thought, and it
is worthwhile to examine the social context in which they lived and worked.
At the start of the twen- tieth century, sociology was still something of an import from the European intel- lectual scene, and American practitioners had just begun developing their own ideas regarding the nature and workings of society. The Uni- versity of Chicago of the 1920s provided a stimulating intel- lectual setting for a hand-
ful of academics who built on each other’s work and advanced what became known as the first new major branch within the discipline. Since there were so few social theorists in the coun- try, the head of the department, Albion Small, a philosopher by training, recruited professors from various eastern colleges who had often studied other dis- ciplines such as theology and psy- chology. The fledgling sociology department grew to include such influential members as Robert Park, W. I. Thomas, Charles Hor- ton Cooley, and later George Her- bert Mead and Herbert Blumer.
George Herbert Mead
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM a paradigm that sees interaction and meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created through interaction
CHICAGO SCHOOL a type of sociology practiced at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s that centered on urban settings and field research methods
PRAGMATISM a perspective that assumes organisms (including humans) make practical adaptations to their environments; humans do this through cognition, interpretation, and interaction
Microsociological Theory 29
Despite its geographi- cal location in a city full of real- world inequality (or per- haps because of it), the Chi- cago School of sociology had very few women or people of color among its membership. Take W.E.B. DuBois and Jane Addams, for example: These two scholars were neither students nor faculty members at the University of Chicago, although both are often asso- ciated with Chicago School perspectives, values, and methods. Both led the way for other minorities and women to become influential scholars in the discipline of sociology.
William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) DuBois (1868–1963) was a notable pioneer in the study of race relations as a profes- sor of sociology at Atlanta University and one of the most influ- ential African American leaders of his time. After becoming the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard University, DuBois did groundbreaking research on the history of the slave trade, post– Civil War Reconstruction, the problems of urban ghetto life, and the nature of black American society. DuBois was so brilliant and prolific that it is often said that all subse- quent studies of race and racial inequality in America depend to some degree on his work. Throughout his life, DuBois was involved in various forms of social activism. He was an indis- pensable forerunner in the civil rights movement; among his many civic and political achievements, DuBois was a founding member, in 1909, of the National Association for the Advance- ment of Colored People (NAACP), an organization commit- ted to the cause of ending racism and injustice. Because of his anti- racist, anti- poverty, and anti- war activism, DuBois was targeted by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy as a communist. However, he did not become a mem- ber of the Communist Party until he was ninety- three years old, and then only did so as a form of political protest against the persecution of its members by the U.S. government. Eventu- ally, DuBois became disillusioned by the persistent injustices of American society and emigrated to Ghana, where he died at
ninety- five, one year before the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law.
Jane Addams (1860–1935) was another pioneer in the field of sociology whose numerous accomplishments range from the halls of academia to the forefront of social activism. Though she never officially joined the faculty because she feared it would curtail her political activism, Addams
influenced by James, we can only wonder exactly who was tutoring whom in this arrangement! Mead’s background and training uniquely positioned him to bridge the gap between sociology and psychology and to address the links between the individual and society.
Mead proposed that both human development and the meanings we assign to everyday objects and events are funda- mentally social processes; they require the interaction of mul- tiple individuals. And what is crucial to the development of self and society is language, the means by which we communicate with one another. For Mead, there is no mind without language, and language itself is a product of social interactions (1934, pp. 191–192). According to Mead, the most important human behaviors consist of linguistic “gestures,” such as words and facial expressions. People develop the ability to engage in con- versation using these gestures; further, both society and indi- vidual selves are constructed through this kind of symbolic communication. Mead argued that we use language to “name ourselves, think about ourselves, talk to ourselves, and feel proud or ashamed of ourselves” and that “we can act toward ourselves in all the ways we can act toward others” (Hewitt 2000, p. 10). He was curious about how the mind develops but did not believe that it develops separately from its social envi- ronment. For Mead, then, society and self are created through communicative acts such as speech and gestures; the individ- ual personality is shaped by society, and vice versa.
Herbert Blumer (1900–1987), a graduate student and later a professor at the University of Chicago, was closely associ- ated with Mead and was largely credited with continuing Mead’s life’s work. While completing his master’s degree, Blumer played football for the University of Missouri Tigers, and during the 1920s and 1930s he maintained dual careers as a sociology professor and a professional football player for the former Chicago Cardinals. On Mondays, he would often come to class wrapped in bandages after a tough Sunday game. What he did off the gridiron, however, was of critical importance to the discipline. Blumer appealed for research- ers to get “down and dirty” with the dynamics of social life. He also published a clear and compelling series of works based on Mead’s fundamental ideas. After Mead’s death in 1931, Blumer gave Mead’s theory the name it now goes by: symbolic inter-
actionism. Thus, Mead and Blumer became the somewhat unwitting founders of a much larger theoretical perspec- tive. Blumer’s long career at the University of Chicago and later at the University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley, ensured the training of many future schol- ars and secured the inclusion of symbolic interactionism as one of the major schools of thought within the discipline.Herbert Blumer Jane Addams
W.E.B. DuBois
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World30
did teach extension courses at the University of Chicago and was among a handful of women teaching in American uni- versities at the time. Though not a mother herself, Addams believed that women have a special kind of responsibility toward solving social problems because they are trained to care for others. She was one of the first proponents of applied sociology— addressing the most pressing problems of her day through hands- on work with the people and places that were the subject of her research. This practical approach is perhaps best demonstrated by Hull House, the Chicago community center she established in 1889 to offer shelter, medical care, legal advice, training, and education to new immigrants, single mothers, and the poor. As a result of her commitment to delivering support and services where they were most needed, Addams is often considered the founder of what is now a separate field outside the discipline: social work. Addams also helped found two important organizations that continue to fight for freedom and equality today: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and, along with W.E.B. DuBois, the NAACP. She served as the president of the Women’s Inter- national League for Peace and Freedom and in 1931 became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES For symbolic interactionists, society is produced and reproduced through our interactions with each other by means of language and our interpretations of that language. Symbolic interactionism sees face- to- face interaction as the building block of everything else in society, because it is through interaction that we create a meaningful social reality.
Here are the three basic tenets of symbolic interactionism, as laid out by Blumer (1969, p. 2). First, we act toward things on the basis of their meanings. For example, a tree can provide a shady place to rest, or it can be an obstacle to building a road or home; each of these meanings suggests a different set of actions. This is as true for physical objects like trees as it is
for people (like mothers or cops), institutions (church or school), beliefs (honesty or equality), or any social activity. Second, meanings are not inherent; rather, they are negotiated through interaction with others. That is, whether the tree is an obstacle or an oasis is not an intrinsic quality of the tree itself but rather some- thing that people must figure out among themselves. The same tree can mean one thing to one person and something else to another. And third, meanings can change or be modified through interac- tion. For example, the contractor who sees the tree as an obstacle
might be persuaded to spare it by the neighbor who appreci- ates its shade. Now the tree means the same thing to both of them: it is something to protect and build around rather than to condemn and bulldoze.
Symbolic interactionism proposes that social facts exist only because we create and re- create them through our inter- actions; this gives the theory wide explanatory power and a versatility that allows it to address any sociological issue. Although symbolic interactionism is focused on how self and society develop through interaction with others, it is useful in explaining and analyzing a wide variety of specific social issues, from inequalities of race and gender to the group dynamics of families or co- workers.
OFFSHOOTS Symbolic interactionism opened the door for innovative sociologists who focused on social acts (such as face- to- face interaction) rather than social facts (such as vast bureaucratic institutions). They were able to extend the field in a variety of ways, allowing new perspectives to come under the umbrella of symbolic interactionism.
Erving Goffman (1922–1982) furthered symbolic interac- tionist conceptions of the self in a seemingly radical way, indicat- ing that the self is essentially “on loan” to us from society; it is created through interac- tion with others and hence ever changing within various social contexts. For example, you may want to make a dif- ferent kind of impression on a first date than you do on a job interview or when you face an opponent in a game of poker. Goffman used the theatrical metaphor of dramaturgy to describe the ways in which we engage in a strategic presenta- tion of ourselves to others. In this way, he elaborated on Mead’s ideas in a specific fashion, utilizing a wide range of data to help support his arguments.
Harold Garfinkel, the founder of ethnomethodolog y (the study of “folk methods,” or everyday ana lysis of inter- action), maintains that as members of society we must acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to act practi- ca lly in our everyday lives (Garfinkel 1967). He argues that much of this knowledge remains in the background, “seen but unnoticed,” and that we assume that others have the same knowledge we do when we interact with them. These assumptions a llow us to make meaning out of even seem- ingly troublesome or ambiguous events; but such shared understandings can a lso be quite precarious, and there is a good dea l of work required to sustain them, even as we are unaware that we are doing so.
Conversation analysis, pioneered by sociologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, is also related
Erving Goffman
DRAMATURGY an approach pioneered by Erving Goffman in which social life is analyzed in terms of its similarities to theatrical performance
ETHNOMETHODOLOGY the study of “folk methods” and background knowledge that sustain a shared sense of reality in everyday interactions
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS a sociological approach that looks at how we create meaning in naturally occurring conversation, often by taping conversations and examining their transcripts
Microsociological Theory 31
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Theories of Celebrity Gossip TMZ, which debuted in 2005, has become one of the most popular celebrity gossip sites in the world. It is consist- ently among the top 100 websites (of any kind) in the United States, with upward of 25 million unique visitors a month. TMZ provides users with up- to- the- minute pop culture news, publishing hundreds of posts each day that expose the real and rumored doings of celebrities. It has become the go- to site any time a celebrity gets arrested, dies, goes to rehab, cheats, or behaves badly in some other way.
TMZ is part of a new breed of celebrity gossip outlets, including PerezHilton, ONTD, Gawker, RadarOnline, Dlisted, and PopSugar, that have radically transformed the way that celebrities and other public figures are cov- ered in the media. They’re providing more coverage than ever and at greater speed. Stories that used to take at least a week to appear in pre- digital- era print magazines such as People or Us can now be posted online nearly instantaneously. That sometimes puts gossip sites on the forefront of breaking news. For instance, TMZ was the first outlet to report the news of Michael Jackson’s death in 2009, beating the traditional mainstream media by one hour.
It’s not just the volume or speed of delivery that’s dif- ferent; celebrity gossip sites are changing the substance of the coverage as well. Print magazines or mainstream television programs such as Entertainment Tonight or E! News used to provide mostly flattering coverage of celeb- rities. They were unwilling to report too many negative stories because they relied on the goodwill of celebri- ties to gain access into their lives. This tends to remain the rule in entertainment news, where there is still no
to symbolic interactionism. It is based on the ethnometh- odological idea that as everyday actors we are constantly analyzing and giving meaning to our social world (Clayman 2002; Heritage and Clayman 2010; Schegloff 1986, 1999, 2007). Conversation analysts are convinced that the best place to look for the social processes of meaning- production is in naturally occurring conversation and that the best way to get at the meanings an everyday actor gives to the things others say and do is to look closely at how he responds. Con- versation analysts therefore use highly technical methods to scrutinize each conversational turn closely, operating on the assumption that any larger social phenomenon is con- structed step- by- step through interaction.
ADVANTAGES AND CRITIQUES As society changes, so must the discipline that studies it, and symbolic interaction- ism has invigorated sociology in ways that are linked to the past and looking toward the future. The founding of symbolic interactionism provided a new and different way of looking at the world. It is “the only perspective that assumes an active, expressive model of the human actor and that treats the indi- vidual and the social at the same level of analysis” (O’Brien and Kollock 1997, p. 39). Therein lies much of its power and its appeal.
As a new school of thought focusing on the micro level of society, symbolic interactionism was not always met with immediate approval by the academy. Over time, symbolic interactionism has been integrated relatively seamlessly into sociology, and its fundamental precepts have become widely accepted. During the second half of the twentieth century, the scope of symbolic interactionism widened, its topics multi- plied, and its theoretical linkages became more varied. In fact, there was some concern that symbolic interactionism was expanding so much that it risked erupting into something else entirely (Fine 1993). One of symbolic interactionism’s most enduring contributions is in the area of research methods. Practices such as ethnography and conversation analysis are data rich, technically complex, and empirically well grounded (Katz 1997; Schegloff 1999), giving us new insights into peren- nial questions about social life.
As a relative newcomer to the field of social theory, sym- bolic interactionism was dubbed “the loyal opposition” (Mul- lins 1973) by those who saw it solely as a reaction or as merely a supplement to the more dominant macrosociological theo- ries that preceded it. Gary Fine sums up the critiques in this way: Symbolic interactionism is “apolitical (and hence, sup- portive of the status quo), unscientific (hence, little more than tenured journalism), hostile to the classical questions of macrosociology (hence, limited to social psychology), and astructural (hence, fundamentally nonsociological)” (1993, p. 65). Critiques argue that the scope of symbolic interac- tionism is limited, that it cannot address the most important sociological issues, and that its authority is restricted to the study of face- to- face interaction.
Each of these critiques has been answered over the years. Ultimately, some critics have seen the usefulness of an interactionist perspective and have even begun incor- porating it into more macro work. Even in the hotly con- tested micro- versus- macro debate, a kind of détente has been established, recognizing that a ll levels of ana lysis are necessary for sociologica l understanding and that interac- tionist theories and methods are critica l for a full picture of socia l life.
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World32
gender, sexuality, or other inequalities? Whose interests are being served and who gets exploited? Who suffers and who benefits from celebrity gossip?
3. Symbolic Interactionism What does celebrity gossip mean to society as a whole? What does it mean to individual members of society? Can gossip have different meanings for different individuals or groups of individuals? How do those meanings get con- structed in interaction? And how does celebrity gossip shape and influence our everyday lives?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P – PA I R – S H A R E Print out your three stories and bring them to class. Consider how each of the three sets of questions might be applied. Jot down your thoughts and make note of particular images and text. Get together in groups of two or three, and talk about your findings. How does each sociological theory fit with your examples? What new insights were provided by each perspective?
DO – IT- YO U R S E L F Select the material you will ana- lyze, and answer each of the three sets of questions in a three- page essay. Discuss the main principles of the three theoretical perspectives and explain how each can be applied. You will want to include specific examples from your chosen stories to illustrate your points. Did the theo- ries overlap at all, or did they contradict each other? Was there any one theory you felt did a better or worse job of explaining celebrity gossip? Attach the stories to your paper.
shortage of promotional puff pieces and lightweight fare without much bite.
But more recently, gossip sites such as TMZ and oth- ers have been taking a harsher, more critical stance toward their subjects. They’ve also started engaging in investigative journalism practices, something that was formerly reserved for the mainstream news media. And they’re covering a wider range of “celebrities” that reg- ularly includes professional athletes as well as business executives and even political figures. This has resulted in some major national news stories being generated first by gossip sites, with the traditional media picking up the story soon after. For example, it was TMZ that first released the footage of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City hotel elevator. Within hours of TMZ posting the disturbing footage, the Ravens had termi- nated Rice’s contract.
The worlds of celebrity gossip and hard news con- verged again during the 2016 presidential campaign. A month before the election, the Washington Post released a video from 2005 in which Donald Trump made vulgar remarks about women to Billy Bush, who was then the host of Access Hollywood. The two men were talking on an Access Hollywood bus when Trump’s lewd comments about groping women were caught on a hot microphone. The tape created an uproar, and Trump issued a video apology. What had started as celebrity news from a celeb- rity show was picked up by every leading mainstream media outlet.
Whatever your opinion of tabloid news, and many peo- ple regard it as just mean, stupid, or shallow, you don’t have to enjoy celebrity gossip to see its sociological rele- vance. For this Data Workshop, we’d like you to immerse yourself in the celebrity gossip site of your choice. Pick three stories to work with. Scrutinize the pictures, read the headlines and text carefully, and review the reader comments. Then consider how you might answer the fol- lowing questions according to each of sociology’s three major schools of thought:
1. Structural Functionalism What is the function (or functions) of celebrity gossip for society? What purpose(s) does it serve, and how does it help society maintain stability and order? Discuss how notions of the sacred and profane are characterized. Are there manifest and latent functions of celebrity gossip? And are there any dysfunctions in it?
2. Conflict Theory What forms of inequality are revealed in celebrity gossip? In particular, what does it have to say about class, race,
Celebrity Gossip and Society Founded in 2005, TMZ is a leading purveyor of celebrity and entertainment news.
New Theoretical Approaches 33
an ideological stance that began with the eighteenth- century Enlightenment, or Age of Rea- son. Modernist thought values scientific knowledge, a linear (or timeline- like) view of history, and a belief in the universality of human nature. In postmod- ernism, on the other hand, there are no absolutes— no claims to truth, reason, right, order, or sta- bility. Everything is therefore relative— fragmented, tempo- rary, and contingent. Postmod- ernists believe that certainty is illusory and prefer to play with the possibilities created by fluidity, complexity, multidimensionality, and even non- sense. They propose that there are no universal human truths from which we can interpret the meaning of existence. On one hand, postmodernism can be celebrated as a liberating influence that rescues us from the stifling effects of rational- ity and tradition. On the other hand, it can be condemned as a detrimental influence that imprisons us in a world of relativ- ity, nihilism, and chaos.
Postmodernists are also critical of what they call “grand narratives,” overarching stories and theories that justify dom- inant beliefs and give a (false) sense of order and coherence to the world. Postmodernists are interested in deconstruction, or taking apart and examining these stories and theories. For example, they claim that “factual” accounts of history are no more accurate than those that might be found in fiction. They prefer the notion of mini- narratives, or small- scale sto- ries, that describe individual or group practices rather than narratives that attempt to be universal or global. These mini- narratives can then be combined in a variety of ways, creating a collage of meaning.
One way of understanding what postmodernism looks like is to examine how it has crept into our popular culture. Hip- hop is an example of a postmodern art form. It is a hybrid that borrows from other established genres, from rhythm and blues to rock and reggae. Hip- hop also takes samples from existing songs, mixes these with new musical tracks, and overlays it
New Theoretical Approaches Because the three major schools of thought and their offshoots all have weaknesses as well as strengths, they will probably never fully explain the totality of social phenomena, even when taken together. And because society itself is always changing, there are always new phenomena to explain. So new perspec- tives will, and indeed must, continue to arise. In this section, we will consider two more contemporary approaches: post- modernism and midrange theory. Both grew out of the deep groundwork established by the other major schools of thought within sociology, as well as by looking beyond the confines of the discipline for inspiration. Each is a response to conditions both in the fast- changing social world around us and within the ongoing intellectual dialogues taking place among those continuing to study our times and ourselves.
Postmodern Theory In the late twentieth century, some social thinkers looked at the proliferation of theories and data and began to question whether we could ever know society or ourselves with any certainty. What is truth, and who has the right to claim it? Or, for that matter, what is reality, and how can it be known? In an era of increasing doubt and cynicism, has meaning become meaningless? Postmodernism, a theory that encompasses a wide range of areas— from art and architecture, music and film, to communications and technology— addresses these and other questions.
The postmodern perspective developed primarily out of the French intellectual scene in the second half of the twentieth century and is still associated with three of its most impor- tant proponents. It’s probably worth noting that postmodern- ists themselves don’t really like that label, but nonetheless Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007), and Michel Foucault (1926–1984) are the major figures most often included in the group.
In order to understand postmodernism, we first need to juxtapose it with modernism, the movement against which it reacted. Modernism is both a historical period and
POSTMODERNISM a paradigm that suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux
MODERNISM a paradigm that places trust in the power of science and technology to create progress, solve problems, and improve life
DECONSTRUCTION a type of critical postmodern analysis that involves taking apart or disassembling old ways of thinking
Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Jean Baudrillard
CHAPTER 1 Sociology and the Real World34
a way toward a deeper, more nuanced understanding of social life. As one of the most contemporary of the theoretical per- spectives, postmodernism corresponds to the Information Age and feels natural and intuitive for many students whose lives are immersed in this world. By focusing on individuals and small- scale activities in which change happens on a local, limited basis, postmodernism offers an alternative to such cultural trends as consumerism and globalization. However unwelcome the theory might be to some critics, it is likely that the postmodern shifts we have seen in society (in music and films, for example) will continue.
Midrange Theory The second new theoretica l approach is midrange theory. It shares some views with postmodernism, especia lly in its preference for mini- narratives over sweeping statements or “grand theories” made by the classica l socia l theorists— a period dominated by what Robert Merton ca lls “tota l sociologica l systems” (1996, p. 46), which provided an over- arching, comprehensive explanation of society as a whole.
Merton feared that an uncritical reverence for classi- cal theory and an excessive attachment to tradition could impede the flow of new ideas and was just as likely to hold sociology back as to advance it. Because classical theories sought to develop large- scale theoretical systems that applied to the most macro level of society, they were often extremely
all with rap lyrics, resulting in a unique new sound. Mash- ups are another postmodern twist in music. Take, for instance, the Grey Album by DJ Danger Mouse, which uses tracks from the Beatles’ classic White Album and combines them with Jay- Z’s Black Album to create something wholly new yet borrowed.
Many resist the postmodern position against essential meaning or truth; the rise in religious fundamentalism may be a reaction to the postmodern view, an expression of the desire to return to absolute truths and steadfast traditions. Sociologists are quick to criticize postmodernism for discard- ing the scientific method and the knowledge they believe it has
generated. Social leaders with a conservative agenda have been suspicious of the postmodern impulse to dismiss moral stan- dards. While it is clear that many people criticize postmodernism,
a much larger number are probably oblivious to it, which in itself may be more damning than any other response.
Although it is not a widely practiced perspective, post- modernism has nevertheless gained supporters. Those who challenge the status quo, whether in the arts, politics, or the academy, find attractive postmodernism’s ability to embrace a multiplicity of powerful and promising alternatives. At the very least, postmodernism allows us to question scientific ide- als about clarity and coherence, revealing inherent shortcom- ings and weaknesses in our current arguments and providing
Perspective Approach to Society Case Study: College Admissions in the United States
Structural Functionalism
Assumes that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures.
Those who are admitted are worthy and well qualified, while those who are not admitted do not deserve to be. There are other places in society for them besides the university.
Conflict Theory
Sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change and emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change.
Admissions decisions may be made on the basis of criteria other than grades and scores. For example, some applicants may get in because their fathers are major university donors, while others may get in because of their talents in sports or music. Some may be denied admission based on criteria like race, gender, or sexuality.
Symbolic Interactionism
Asserts that interaction and meaning are central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created through interaction.
University admissions processes are all about self- presentation and meaning-making in interaction. How does an applicant present himself or herself to impress the admissions committee? How does the admissions committee develop an understanding of the kind of applicant it’s looking for? How do applicants interpret their acceptances and rejections?
Postmodernism Suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux.
An acceptance doesn’t mean you’re smart, and a rejection doesn’t mean you’re stupid; be careful of any “facts” you may be presented with, as they are illusory and contingent.
Table 1.1 Theory in Everyday Life
MIDRANGE THEORY an approach that integrates empiricism and grand theory
35Closing Comments
society. As Bernard McGrane says, “Sociology is both dan- gerous and liberating” (1994, p. 10), as much because of what we can learn about ourselves as because of what we can learn about the world around us.
As a discipline, sociology possesses some of the qualities of the society it seeks to understand: it is broad, complex, and ever changing. This can make mastering sociology a rather unwieldy business, as much for the students and teachers who grapple with it in the classroom as for the experts out working in the field. We want you to become familiar with the members of sociology’s family tree from its varied historical roots to the tips of its offshoots that might one day become important future branches. Because we have no single acknowledged uni- versal sociological theory that satisfactorily explains all social phenomena (despite claims otherwise by some theorists), new theories can be developed all the time. Social theory tries to explain what is happening in, to, and around us. For any and every possible new, different, or important phenomenon— from the most mundane personal experience to questions of ulti- mate global significance— sociologists will attempt to explain it, understand it, analyze it, and predict its future. By looking at the development of the discipline, we are reminded that the contemporary grows out of the classical, and that older theories inspire and provoke newer ones. Theorists past and present remain engaged in a continual and evolving dialogue through their ideas and their work, and until such time as soci- ety is completely explained, the branches of sociology’s family tree will continue to grow in remarkable ways.
difficult to test or research in any practical way. As one critic lamented, too “many sociological products can— effectively and unfortunately— be considered both bad science and bad literature” (Boudon 1991, p. 522).
To counter this tendency, Merton proposed that sociolo- gists focus more on “theories of the middle range.” Midrange (or middle range) theory is not a theory of something in par- ticular, but rather a style of theorizing. It is an attempt not so much to make the elusive macro- micro link, but to strike a balance somewhere between those polarities, shifting both the sights and the process of doing sociolog y. Work in this vein concentrates on incorporating research questions and empirical data into smaller- scale theories that eventually build into a more comprehensive body of sociological theory. Midrange theories are those “that lie between the minor but necessary working hypotheses that evolve in abundance during day- to- day research and the all- inclusive system- atic efforts to develop a unified theory that will explain” the whole social world (Merton 1996, p. 41).
Since the 1990s and 2000s, a host of sociologists have taken up the call to midrange theory, from Sharon Hays’s study of the contradictions within modern motherhood (1996), to Dalton Conley’s work on racial identity (2000) and his examination of what constitutes leisure in the digital age (2009), to Peter Bearman’s work on public health issues such as the rise of “vaccine refusers” (2010). Midrange theory connects specific research projects that generate empirical data with larger- scale theories about social structure. It aims to build knowl- edge cumulatively while offering a way to make sociology more effective as a science rather than just a way of thinking. With more sociologists appreciating such a stance, midrange theory is helping to push the discipline forward into the sociol- ogy of the future.
CLOSING COMMENTS We hope that this chapter has given you a thorough and com- pelling introduction to the study of sociology and that per- haps you, too, will find it an appealing pursuit. Many of you will have already started a sociological journey, although likely a casual or personal one . . . until now. The popularity of reality TV speaks to our fascination with the everyday lives of other people, whether Hoarders or Shark Tank or The Real Housewives of ________ (fill in the blank). As students of sociology, we are interested in everyday life because we are excited to understand more about how its patterns and pro- cesses create our larger social reality. As we become better social analysts, using strategies to set aside any blinding preconceptions or distracting conclusions, we can become better acquainted with some of the fundamental tools that can turn our natural curiosity into scientific inquiry. A socio- logical perspective allows us to grasp the connection between our individual experiences and the forces and structures of
36
Everything You Need to Know about Sociology
THEORIES OF SOCIOLOGY
✱ Structural functionalism: The assumption that society is a uni- fied whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures.
✱ Conflict theory: The belief that social conflict is the basis of society and social change that emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change.
✱ Weberian theory: The application of economic logic to human activity that uses formal rules and regula- tions in order to maximize efficiency without consideration of subjective or individual concerns.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: An ap proach that sees interaction and meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created through interaction.
✱ Postmodern theory: An approach that suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux.
✱ Midrange theory: An approach that integrates empiricism and grand theory.
REVIEW 1. What does it mean to possess a socio-
logical imagination? Think of your favorite food. What historical events had to happen and what institutions have to function in order for this food to be available? What sort of mean- ings does it have?
2. How does the level of analysis you adopt affect your assumptions about how society works? Could Pam Fish- man have done her research on gen- der and power in conversations from a macro perspective? Perhaps with a survey? Could Christine Williams have done her research on gender and power in occupations from a micro perspective? Perhaps with inter- views? How might this change their conclusions?
3. Symbolic interactionism argues that meanings are not inherent in things themselves but are socially derived and negotiated through interaction with others. Think of some recent fashion trend. Can you describe this trend in terms of what it means to those who embrace it? What sorts of interactions produce and maintain this meaning?
“ Sociology is the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large- scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions.
“
37
Key Works in Sociology 1837
1838
1848
1867
1893
1897
1902
1903
1904
1912
1921
1934
1937
1949
1956
1959
1959
1966
1981
1984
1989
Harriet Martineau, Society in America
Auguste Comte, Cours de Philosophie Positive
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx, Das Kapital
Émile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society
Émile Durkheim, Suicide
Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order
W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Max Weber, Economy and Society
George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society
Talcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action
Robert Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite
C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination
Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Peter Berger & Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality
bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman?
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction
Catharine MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State
EXPLORE
The Rationality of Irrationality George Ritzer applied Max Weber’s theories of bureaucracy and rationality to the fast- food industry. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to learn how Weber’s theories adapt to everyday life.
http://wwnPag.es/trw401
H umorist Dave Barry, the Pulitzer Prize– winning columnist and author, has written many
entertaining articles as a reporter and social commentator. Some of his thoughts on
college, however, seem particularly appropriate for this chapter. In one of his most pop-
ular essays, Barry advises students not to choose a major that involves “known facts” and
“right answers” but rather a subject in which “nobody really understands what anybody else is
talking about, and which involves virtually no actual facts” (Barry 1987, p. 203). For example,
sociology:
Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods
CHAPTER 2
38
39
40
For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and away the number- one sub-
ject. I sat through hundreds of hours of sociology courses, and read gobs of
sociology writing, and I never once heard or read a coherent statement. This
is because sociologists want to be considered scientists, so they spend
most of their time translating simple, obvious observations into scientific-
sounding code. If you plan to major in sociology, you’ll have to learn to do
the same thing. For example, suppose you have observed that children cry
when they fall down. You should write: “Methodological observation of the
sociometrical behavior tendencies of prematurated isolates indicates that a
causal relationship exists between groundward tropism and lachrimatory, or
‘crying’ behavior forms.” If you can keep this up for fifty or sixty pages, you
will get a large government grant.
Although Barry exaggerates a bit, if there weren’t some truth to what he is
saying, his joke would be meaningless. While sociologists draw much of their inspi-
ration from the natural (or “hard”) sciences (such as chemistry and biology) and
try to study society in a scientific way, many people still think of sociology as
“unscientific” or a “soft” science. In response, some sociologists may try too hard
to sound scientific and incorporate complicated terminology in their writing.
It is possible, of course, to conduct research and write about it in a clear,
straightforward, and even elegant way, as the best sociologists have demon-
strated. Contrary to Barry’s humorous claims, sociology can be both scientific and
comprehensible. So let’s turn now to a discussion of how sociologists conduct
their research, which includes the methods of gathering information and conveying
that information to others. For the record, Dave Barry went to Haverford College
near Philadelphia, where he majored in English.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods
An Overview of Research Methods 41
Qualitative researchers like Fine find patterns in their data by using interpretive rather than statistical analysis.
The Scientific Approach The scientific method is the standard procedure for acquir- ing and verifying empirical (concrete, scientific) knowledge. The scientific method provides researchers with a series of basic steps to follow; over the years, sociologists have updated and modified this model so that it bet- ter fits the study of human behav- iors. While not every sociologist adheres to each of the steps in order, the scientific method pro- vides a general plan for conduct- ing research in a systematic way (see Figure 2.1).
1. In the first step, the researcher identifies a problem or asks a general question, like “Does violent TV lead to violent behavior?” and begins to think about a specific research plan designed to answer that question.
2. Before proceeding, however, a researcher usually does a literature review to become thoroughly familiar with all other research done previously on a given topic. Doing so will prevent a researcher from duplicating work that has already been done and may also provide the background upon which to conduct new research.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER In Chapter 1 we introduced you to a set of tools that will help you develop a sociological imagination and apply particular theoretical perspectives to the social world. In this chapter you will acquire methodological tools that will help you to further understand social life. The tools will also help you in the Data Workshops throughout the book, which are designed to give you the experience of conducting the same type of research that professional sociologists do. For this reason, we recommend that you look at this chapter as a sort of “ how- to” guide: Read through all the “directions” first, recognizing that you will soon be putting these methods into practice. Then remember that you have this chapter as a resource for future reference. These methods are your tools for real- world research— it’s important that you understand them, but even more important that you get a chance to use them.
An Overview of Research Methods While theories make hypothetical claims, methods produce data that will support, disprove, or modify those claims. Soci- ologists who do quantitative research work with numerical data; that is, they translate the social world into numbers that can then be manipulated mathematically. Any type of social statistic is an example of quantitative data: You may have read in the newspaper, for instance, that in 2015 some 34 percent of male drivers involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes had a blood alcohol content at or above 0.08 percent, compared with 21 percent of female drivers (Insurance Institute for High- way Safety 2016). Quantitative methodologies distill large amounts of information into numbers that are more easily communicated to others, often in the form of rates and per- centages or charts and graphs.
Sociologists who do qualitative research work with non- numerical data such as texts, written field notes, interview transcripts, videos, or photographs. Rather than condensing lived experience into numbers, qualitative researchers try to describe the cases they study in great detail. They may engage in participant observation, in which they enter the social world they wish to study, or they may do in- depth interviews; analyze transcripts of conversations; glean data from histori- cal books, letters, or diaries; and even use social networking sites or text messages as sources of data for their investiga- tions. Sociologist Gary Fine, for example, has observed a vari- ety of different social worlds, including those of professional restaurant chefs (1996), members of high school debate teams (2001), and meteorologists who predict the weather (2010). Fine was able to discover important sociological insights through immersion in each of the social worlds he studied.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH research that translates the social world into numbers that can be treated mathematically; this type of research often tries to find cause- and- effect relationships
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH research that works with nonnumerical data such as texts, field notes, interview transcripts, photographs, and tape recordings; this type of research more often tries to understand how people make sense of their world
SCIENTIFIC METHOD a procedure for acquiring knowledge that emphasizes collecting concrete data through observation and experimentation
LITERATURE REVIEW a thorough search through previously published studies relevant to a particular topic
Sociological Methods Take Many Forms Sociologists use both quantitative methods, such as surveys, and qualitative methods, such as participant observation, to study the social world.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods42
order to best examine their relationship to one another. Sociologists use a range of methods and sometimes combine one or more methods. These will be discussed in greater depth later in the chapter.
5. The researcher then collects the data. In this case, the researcher would conduct the experiment by first exposing kids to TV violence, then observing their behavior toward the clown doll. Data might be collected by using video equipment as well as by taking notes.
6. Next, the researcher must analyze the data, evaluating the accuracy or inaccuracy of the hypothesis in predict- ing the outcome. In the real- life experiment on which this example is based, the children were more likely to hit the clown doll themselves if they saw the TV actors being rewarded for their violent behavior; if the actors were punished for their behavior, the children were less likely to hit the doll (Bandura 1965).
7. Finally, the researcher then disseminates the find- ings of the experiment in the scientific community (often through presentations at professional meetings, through publications, or in the classroom) as well as among the general public, thus completing the last step in the research process.
One limit of the scientific method is that it can’t always distinguish between correlation and causation. If two
HYPOTHESIS a theoretical statement explaining the relationship between two or more phenomena
VARIABLES two or more phenomena that a researcher believes are related; these will be examined in the experiment
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION a clear and precise definition of a variable that facilitates its measurement
Figure 2.1 Steps of the Scientific Method While not all sociologists follow these seven steps in lock-step order, the scientific method provides a general overview of the research process.
3. Next, the researcher forms a hypothesis, a theoreti- cal statement that she thinks will explain the relation- ship between two phenomena, which are known as variables. In the hypothesis “Watching violence on TV causes children to act violently in real life,” the two varia- bles are “watching violence on TV” and “acting violently.”
In short, the researcher is saying one variable has a causal connec- tion to the other. The researcher can use the hypothesis to predict possible outcomes: “If watching violence on TV causes children to act violently in real life, then exposing five- year- olds to violent TV shows will make them more likely to hit the inflatable clown doll placed in the room with them.” The researcher must clearly give an operational definition to the variables so that she can observe and measure them accurately. For
example, there is a wide range of violence on television and in real life. Does “violence” include words as well as actions, a slap as well as murder?
4. In this step, the researcher chooses a research design or method to use to conduct her study. A classic example is to perform an experiment meant to isolate variables in
1. Identify a problem or ask
a question
3. Form a hypothesis;
give operational definitions to
variables
6. Analyze data
2. Conduct a literature
review
5. Collect data
7. Disseminate findings
4. Choose a research design
or method
An Overview of Research Methods 43
variables change in conjunction with each other, or if a change in one seems to lead to a change in the other, they are corre- lated. Even if they are correlated, though, the change in one variable may not be caused by the change in the other variable. Instead, there may be some intervening variable that causes the changes in both. The classic example is the corre- lation between ice cream sales and rates of violent crime. As ice cream sales increase, so do rates of violent crime like mur- der and rape. Does ice cream consumption cause people to act violently? Or do violent actions cause people to buy ice cream? Turns out, it’s neither— this is what is known as a spurious correlation. Both ice cream sales and violent crime rates are influenced by a third variable: weather. As the tempera- ture climbs, so do people’s rates of ice cream purchase and the likelihood that they’ll be involved in a violent crime (probably because they are outside for more hours of the day and hence available to each other in a way that makes violent crime possible). Knowing that correlation does not equal causation is important, as it can help us all be more critical consumers of scientific findings.
We are constantly gathering data in order to understand what is true. Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn, in fact, argued that truth is relative and dependent on the paradigm through which one sees the world (1962/1970). Paradigms are broad theoretical models about how things work in the social and natural worlds. For example, humans believed for centu- ries that the universe revolved around the earth. It’s easy to understand why. The available data, after all, seemed to support such a theory: we don’t feel the earth moving beneath us, and it appears from our vantage point that the stars, sun, and moon rise and set on our horizon. This earth- centered, or geocentric, view of the universe was the basis for all scientific theory until 1543, when the Polish astronomer
Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the earth revolved around the sun (Armitage 1951). Using mathematical methods, Coper- nicus arrived at a new theory, heliocentrism, in which the earth rotates around the sun and on its own axis— thereby account- ing for the twenty- four- hour days as well as the four seasons of the year. This caused what Kuhn called a paradigm shift, a major break from the assumptions made by the previous model. Paradigm shifts occur when new data force new ways of looking at the world. And methods are what generate data.
Which Method to Use? Since each sociological method has specific benefits and limitations, each is more appropriate for certain types of research. Thus, when a researcher begins a project, one of her most important decisions is which methods to use. Sup- pose, for example, a sociologist is interested in studying Wood- stock, one of the major musical and cultural milestones of the 1960s. Although there are many ways to approach this event, our sociologist wants to study the attendees’ experiences. What was it really like to be at Wood- stock? What did it mean to those who were there? What are their interpretations of this iconic moment in hippie culture?
During the event itself, the ideal method for studying the fes- tivalgoers at Woodstock might have been to assemble a team of researchers trained in par- ticipant observation; that is, they would actually be in the thick of things, observing and participat- ing at the same time. They could gather firsthand data on the music, clothes, dancing, drugs, “free love,” and so forth. How- ever, the opportunity to be a participant observer of that par- ticular cultural phenomenon has long since passed. What are some other options?
Interviews are a possibility. The researcher could ask Woodstock attendees to recount their experiences. But how would she recruit them? Woodstock- goers live all over the world now, and it might be difficult (and expensive) to track down enough of them to make an interview study feasible. Another problem with interviewing this group: The three- day event happened more than forty years ago. How would the passage of time affect their memories? How much detail could they actually remember about the experience after so long?
How about a survey? The researcher could certainly send a questionnaire through the mail or administer it online, and
Violence on Television In his famous 1965 study, Albert Bandura supported his hypothesis that watching violence on TV causes children to act violently in real life by observing children who, after watching a video of an adult beating a doll, then behaved similarly toward the doll.
CORRELATION a relationship between variables in which they change together and may or may not be causal
CAUSATION a relationship between variables in which a change in one directly produces a change in the other
INTERVENING VARIABLE a third variable, sometimes overlooked, that explains the relationship between two other variables
SPURIOUS CORRELATION the appearance of causation produced by an intervening variable
PARADIGM SHIFT a major change in basic assumptions of a particular scientific discipline
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods44
this method would be much less expensive than face- to- face interviews. But here she runs into the same problem as with an interview study: How does she find all these folks? A stan- dard tactic for recruiting survey participants involves placing an ad in a local newspaper. But an ad in the New York Times, for example, or even a community website like Craigslist would draw only a limited number of Woodstock alumni. Also, some attendees might want to put that part of their lives behind them; others who receive the questionnaire in the mail might send it straight into the trash. Finally, the researcher might encounter the problem of impostors— people who say they were at Woodstock but were really nowhere near it.
What about using existing sources? Plenty has been writ- ten about Woodstock over the years. Many firsthand accounts have been published, and there is an abundance of film and photography as well. Our researcher could use these materi- als to analyze the concert from the perspectives of the partici- pants. These accounts would necessarily be selective, focusing only on particular aspects of the Woodstock experience.
Is it possible to conduct an experiment that replicates the original Woodstock? Some would say that Woodstock 1999 was such an experiment and that it failed miserably, with fires, violence, arrests, and acres of mud. However, systematic
scientific experiments are different from blatant attempts to cash in on the Woodstock mystique. While the unique condi- tions of the 1969 gathering cannot be re- created in a lab set- ting, it is possible to identify some of the defining features of the Woodstock experience and to explore those experimen- tally. Over a three- day period, tens of thousands of strangers came together in a mass gathering, mostly devoid of any offi- cial presence (no cops, fences, roads, ticket booths, or porta- potties) and had an almost entirely peaceful experience. How did this happen? Altruism, cooperation, and trust between strangers are some of the measurable group qualities that seem to have been present. An experimenter might be able to create laboratory environments in which subjects participate in activities that highlight one or more of these qualities— even without the mud, music, and drugs that were part of the original Woodstock experience.
No matter what methodological choice our researcher makes, she will sacrifice some types of information in order to acquire others, and she will trade in one set of advantages and disadvantages for another. Her choices will be guided not only by what she wants to accomplish sociologically but also by the methods she is a competent practitioner of, the time in which she wants to complete the project, the resources available from
What Was It Really Like at Woodstock? You could use many different methodologies to investigate this question, including interviews, surveys, existing sources, or experiments.
Ethnography/Participant Observation 45
accounts of their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences in the field as a focal point of their study (Ellis 1997). Autoeth- nographers theorize a link between personal and cultural experiences, and their writings are meant to evoke responses in the readers. Both personal and analytical, autoethnography is one of the newer qualitative methods employed by sociolo- gists (Ellis, Adams, and Bochner 2010).
Researchers sometimes take brief, sketchy notes in the field, writing key words or short quotations in small note- books, on cocktail napkins, or in text messages. These jottings can help jog their memories when they sit down to write at the end of the day and elaborate on the details. Sometimes, however, it is not possible to write while in the field and researchers must rely on “head notes,” that is, on memory alone.
Anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1973), well known for his work on Indonesian culture and society, coined the term thick description to convey the quali- ties of well- written field notes. It takes more than mere photo- graphic detail to make field notes “thick”; sensitivity to the context and to interactional details such as facial expressions and tone of voice enriches what might other- wise be just a list of events. Thick description involves exploring all the possible meanings of a phe- nomenon (for example, a blinking eye) within a particular cultural setting. A good ethnography is not only systematic and holistic, but it should also allow the reader to understand what the world is like from another’s perspective.
One example of participant observation research is Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas’s study of poor moms, in their ethnography Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage (2005). Edin and Kefalas wanted to examine a group that faces harsh judgments from the mainstream: urban single moms. For years, policymakers and mainstream Americans have focused on single motherhood as the source of a variety of social problems. Edin and Kefalas wanted to see the issue from the perspective and lives of the women being stigmatized in order to uncover the realities of single motherhood. Their goal was to give poor single mothers the ability to personally
any funding agencies, and her access to cooperative, qualified people, both as respondents and as research assistants.
The rest of this chapter will discuss six methods in detail: ethnography/participant observation, interviews, surveys, existing sources, experiments, and social network analysis. We will see how various sociologists have used these methods to conduct research on the general topic of “family dynamics.”
Ethnography/Participant Observation
Ethnography is one of the most commonly used research methods in the social sciences. Also referred to as ethnographic research, it is a qualitative method that allows for the study of a
wide variety of people and places. A key feature of this method is fieldwork; research takes place in naturally occurring social environments out in the real world, where the researcher can study firsthand the day- to- day lives of the people there. Eth- nographic research is conducted through participant obser- vation, so the terms are often used interchangeably. With this method the researcher must become a participant in the group or setting being studied as well as an observer of it. This method often entails deep immersion into a field site, some- times lasting over a period of months or even years, so that the researcher can develop a member’s eye view and come to know the social world from the inside out. Ethnography, which liter- ally means “writing [from the Greek graphos] culture [ethnos],” is also the term used for the product of participant observation research; it is a written report of the results of the study, often presented in book form.
The first order of business in participant observation research is to gain entry or access to the chosen field site or setting. Certain groups may be more or less difficult to approach, as you can imagine, and there may be some places where no outsider is allowed to go. Still, sociologists have been able to study an astounding number of different and var- ied social worlds. Once access has been negotiated, it is also important for researchers to establish good rapport with their subjects. Researchers may differ in their levels of involvement with a group or in their closeness to certain members. But it is often the case that trust and acceptance are necessary before research can begin in earnest.
Data are collected primarily through writing detailed field notes every day to document what happened. Some research- ers may also take photos or videos in the course of their fieldwork, but honing their own observational skills is most critical. Field notes describe the scene or setting, as well as the activities and interactions of the researcher and the group members, in as much detail as possible; they become the basis of the data analysis the researcher does later on.
Some researchers do a form of participant observation called autoethnography where they produce richly detailed
ETHNOGRAPHY a naturalistic method based on studying people in their own environment in order to understand the meanings they attribute to their activities; also the written work that results from the study
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION a methodology associated with ethnography whereby the researcher both observes and becomes a member in a social setting
ACCESS the process by which an ethnographer gains entry to a field setting
RAPPORT a positive relationship often characterized by mutual trust or sympathy
FIELD NOTES detailed notes taken by an ethnographer describing her activities and interactions, which later become the basis of the analysis
AUTOETHNOGRAPHY a form of participant observation where the feelings and actions of the researcher become a focal point of the ethnographic study
THICK DESCRIPTION the presentation of detailed data on interactions and meaning within a cultural context, from the perspective of its members
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods46
moms viewed their babies as the only positive factor in their lives. Numerous stories detailed the troubled directions in which the women’s lives were heading before they had their children. The conclusions Edin and Kefalas were able to draw from their ethnographic research were contrary to wide- spread opinion about the consequences of single motherhood for many women in poverty: the (perceived) low cost of early child- rearing and the high value and worth of mothering are enough to combat the difficulties of single motherhood.
Ethnographic researchers must pay attention to how their own social statuses— including gender, age, race, and parenthood— shape the kind of access they can have and, hence, the kind of knowledge they can obtain as part of their research. The fact that Edin and Kefalas were women and mothers themselves played a role in their ability to create rap- port and gain access as they lived and worked in East Camden. Participant observers must also consider that their own pres- ence probably affects the interactions and relationships in the group they are observing, an idea known as reflexivity. A researcher’s personal feelings about the members of a group also come into play. Ethnographers may feel respect, con- tempt, curiosity, boredom, and other emotions during their time in the field, and these feelings may influence their obser- vations. It is true that other kinds of researchers also have to take their feelings into account. But because ethnographers have such close personal ties to the people they study, the issue of reflexivity is especially important to them.
Like Edin and Kefalas, most ethnographers are “overt” about their research roles; that is, they are open about their sociologi- cal intentions. Overt research is generally preferred, because it eliminates the potential ethical problems of deception. Some- times, however, circumstances dictate that researchers take a “covert” role and observe members without letting them know that they are doing research. One researcher who kept his iden- tity secret is Richard Mitchell, who studied militant survival- ist groups for many years (2001). In order to be a participant observer in such groups, Mitchell sometimes had to present himself as an eager apostle, a true believer in the survivalists’ paranoid, racist ideologies. Often this meant being surrounded by men who were heavily armed and deeply suspicious of out- siders (Mitchell and Charmaz 1996). However, he also felt that the value of the research was worth the risk, that it was more important than his own personal peril and the ethical objec- tions of those who disapprove of covert research because it pro- vided insight into a secretive group whose actions could pose a danger to the larger society.
Ethnographers look for patterns and themes that are revealed in their field notes. In other words, they use an induc- tive approach: they start by immersing themselves in their field notes and fitting the data into categories, such as “episodes of conflict” or “common vocabulary shared by members.” Iden- tifying relationships among these categories then allows eth- nographers to build theoretical propositions, a form of analysis known as grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967).
answer the question that wealth- ier Americans ask of them: Why don’t they get married? And why have babies if they have to struggle so hard to support them? Edin moved her entire family to East Camden, New Jersey, where they lived for two and a half years while she did her research. In order to become more integrated into the community, she joined the local church, volunteered at after- school and summer pro- grams, ate at local restaurants, shopped at local stores, taught Sunday school, and went to com- munity events. Kefalas volun- teered at the local GED tutoring program for teen mothers.
Edin and Kefalas were able to study 162 black, white, and Puerto Rican mothers with an average age of twenty-five. All of the women were single parents who earned less than $16,000 a year. What Edin and Kefalas discovered was that mother- hood, from the perspective of
many of the women they met, was a stabilizing agent in their lives. Rather than disrupting their path to success, many of the
Richard Mitchell’s Dancing at Armageddon In order to learn about militant groups’ ideologies, Richard Mitchell had to conceal his identity and use covert methods.
REFLEXIVITY how the identity and activities of the researcher influence what is going on in the field setting
GROUNDED THEORY an inductive method of generating theory from data by creating categories in which to place data and then looking for relationships among categories
REPLICABILITY research that can be repeated and, thus, later verified by other researchers
VALIDITY the accuracy of a question or measurement tool; the degree to which a researcher is measuring what he thinks he is measuring
REPRESENTATIVENESS the degree to which a particular studied group is similar to, or represents, any part of the larger society
BIAS an opinion held by the researcher that might affect the research or analysis
Ethnography/Participant Observation 47
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Watching People Talk Participant observation research requires a keen eye and ear, and field notes must faithfully capture the details of what is seen and heard. While writing field notes may
sound fairly easy (don’t we all know how to describe the things we’ve observed?), it’s actually one of the most grue- ling forms of data collection in the social sciences. Why? Because thick description is a much more demanding task than the casual description you’re used to providing in everyday conversation. It requires a rigorous consciousness of what is going on around you while it is happening and a strenuous effort to recall those goings- on after leaving the field and returning to your computer to type them up.
This Data Workshop gives you an opportunity to prac- tice doing ethnographic research (make sure you have read and reviewed that section of the chapter). Specifi- cally, it is an exercise in writing field notes using what Clif- ford Geertz calls thick description. To make things a little easier, you’ll focus on listening first and then on watching. The verbal and the visual are separated so that you can concentrate on one kind of description at a time. In your future ethnographic work, you’ll be writing field notes that describe both verbal and nonverbal behavior at once.
✱ Field Observations: First, for five to ten minutes, lis- ten to (eavesdrop on) a conversation whose partici- pants you can’t see. They might be sitting behind you on a bus or at a nearby table in a restaurant— you’re close enough to hear them but positioned so that you can’t see them. Then, for five to ten minutes, observe a conversation you can’t hear— one tak- ing place, for example, on the other side of the campus quad. Even though you can’t hear what’s being said, you can see the interaction as it takes place.
✱ Written Descriptions: Write an extremely detailed description of each conversation. Describe the par- ticipants and the setting, and include your ideas about what you think is going on and what you think you know about the participants. Try to describe everything you heard or saw to support any conclu- sions you draw. For each of the five- to ten- minute observation periods, you should aim to take two or more double- spaced pages of field notes.
Advantages and Disadvantages ADVANTAGES
1. Ethnographic research excels at telling richly detailed stories that contribute to our understanding of social life. It offers a means of studying groups whose stories might not otherwise be told (Katz 1997). These include deviant groups such as fight clubs ( Jackson- Jacobs 2004) as well as exceptional groups such as elite college athletes (Adler and Adler 1991).
2. Ethnographic research can challenge our taken- for- granted notions about groups we thought we knew. For instance, from Edin and Kefalas’s work on single moth- ers, we learn that these women are not the irresponsible, unstable individuals we may have thought they were. They desire and seek out the best for their children, just like mothers in other groups and communities.
3. The detailed nature of ethnographic research can help reshape the stereotypes we hold about others and on which social policy is often based. A study like that of Edin and Kefalas can have policy consequences because it sheds light on the motivations and needs of single urban mothers, as well as giving us a clear picture of the resources available to them.
4. Much of the pioneering methodological innovation of the last half- century has come from ethnography, especially on the issue of reflexivity and researcher roles in the field.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Ethnographic research suffers from a lack of replicability, the ability of another researcher to repeat or replicate the study. Repeating a study in order to test the validity of its results is an important ele- ment of the scientific method, but because of the unique combinations of people, timing, setting, and researcher role, no one can ever undertake the same study twice.
2. A major critique has to do with an ethnographic study’s degree of representativeness— whether a particular study can apply to anything larger. What is the value of studying relatively small groups of people if one can- not then say that these groups represent parts of the society at large? Though Edin and Kefalas’s work focused on East Camden, their conclusions are supposed to apply to single mothers in any number of other cities as well.
3. Participant observers must also be wary of personal bias. There is always a possibility that prejudice or favor can slip into the research process. Not all researchers are transparent about their own agendas. We need to keep in mind how a researcher’s own values and opin- ions might affect his research and analysis.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods48
as particular kinds of questions. Interviews, however, are always conducted by the researcher, whereas surveys may be taken independently by the respondent.
When using interviews to collect data about a particular question or project, sociologists must first identify a tar- get population, or group that is the focus of their study. If it is a large group, for instance, all parents with children under eighteen years of age, it might be impossible to study each and every one of them. Researchers, then, must select a sample, or a smaller group that is representative of the larger group. The sample will be used to make generaliza- tions that can apply to the larger target population. The num- ber of possible respondents in a sample depends on the type of study, the nature of the questions, and the amount of time and staff available. In most research studies, interviews can be administered to only a limited number of people, so the scope of such projects is usually smaller than for other meth- ods, such as surveys. While most interviews are conducted one on one, some researchers will organize a focus group, in which a number of participants (perhaps five to ten) will be interviewed at the same time, also allowing for group mem- bers to interact with each other. This may be one means of increasing the sample size of a study. Researchers must get informed consent from those who will be participating in the study; in other words, respondents must know what they are getting into and explicitly agree to participate. This is particularly important because most interviews are audio or video recorded.
Sociologist Tamara Mose used interviews in her recent study of how parents and children benefit from playdates. Her curiosity about the ritual of the playdate arose as she raised her own children in a diverse and gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. In her 2016 book, The Playdate: Par- ents, Children and the New Expectations of Play, Mose looks at how parents arrange private play opportunities, ostensibly for their children, but also for their own professional and personal benefit. As she conducted and analyzed her interviews, Mose noticed that playdates often ensure that both parents and children socialize with people much like themselves. Even the type of snacks provided at playdates makes a difference. One health- conscious mom grumbled that another child’s parents had served Domino’s pizza and was contemplating switching schools so that he would no longer be exposed to such undesirable refreshments— or the families who serve them (Mose 2016, pp. 133–134). By excluding others who are different, less affluent, or even just “out of the zone” (New York City slang for kids from a different school district), playdates reproduce inequalities of class and race as well as enhance family privilege.
Arlie Hochschild used interviews to conduct her land- mark study on parents in two- career families, The Second Shift (Hochschild and Machung 1989). In this book, Hochs- child looks at how couples handle the pressures of working at a job and then coming home to what she calls “the second
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Choose a partner and exchange your field notes. As you read through your partner’s descrip- tions, mark with an asterisk (*) the passages where you can see and hear clearly the things your partner describes. Circle the passages that contain evaluative words (like “angry” or “sweet”) or summaries of action or conversation rather than detailed description (like “They argued about who would pay the bill”). And place a question mark next to the passages where you are left feeling like you would like to know more. Your partner will do this with your descrip- tions as well, and you can discuss your responses to each other’s work. Finally, as a class, use your discussions to develop a group consensus about what constitutes good descriptive detail. This is the kind of detail ethnographers strive to produce in their field notes every day.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Write a two- to three- page essay discussing your fieldwork experience. What was it like to do participant observation research? Did you find listening or watching more or less difficult, and why? How did your data differ with each of the observations? Provide examples of thick description from your field notes, and make sure to attach your field notes to your paper.
Interviews You’ve probably seen countless interview- ers, microphone in hand, clamoring to ask their questions at the crime scene, after the big game, or on the red carpet. Sociologists also use
interviews— face- to- face, information- seeking conver- sations— to gather qualitative data directly from research subjects, or respondents. When sociologists conduct inter- views, they try to do so systematically and with a more sci-
entific approach than is used for the kind of interviews you might typically see on TV or read in the news. Sometimes, interviews are the only method used in a research project, but sociologists may also combine interviews with other methods, such as participant observation or analysis of existing sources. Closely related to interviews are surveys, which we will consider in the next section. Both meth- ods are concerned with asking people questions, usually very specific groups of people as well
INTERVIEWS person- to- person conversations for the purpose of gathering information by means of questions posed to respondents
RESPONDENT a participant in a study from whom the researcher seeks to gather information
TARGET POPULATION the entire group about which a researcher would like to be able to generalize
SAMPLE the members of the target population who will actually be studied
Interviews 49
of parenthood. More neutra l language, such as “Tell me about the pluses and minuses of single parenthood,” is pref- erable. In some studies, researchers will solicit the entire life history of a respondent, a chronologica l account of the story of his life from childhood to the present or of some portion of it.
Once the interviews have been conducted, they are usually transcribed so that researchers can analyze them in textual form; they can sort through the material looking for patterns of similarities and differences among the answers. Some researchers may use computer applications designed to help analyze such data; others do it “by hand.” For her analysis, Hochschild categorized the types of household chores done by men and women and quantified the amount of time spent daily and weekly on those chores. She then categorized couples as “traditional,” “transitional,” or “egalitarian,” depending on how they divided up household labor.
Advantages and Disadvantages ADVANTAGES
1. Interviews allow respon- dents to speak in their own words; they can reveal their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, internal states that would not necessarily be accessible by any other means. In so many other instances, it is the researcher who tells the story. A book like The Second Shift, which features direct quotations from interview transcripts, provides the reader with an authentic and intimate por- trait of the lives of married couples. Hochschild was able to get at the different subjective experiences of the women and men in her study and to see how each of them perceived the reality of his or her situation.
2. Interviews may help the researcher dispel certain preconceptions and dis- cover issues that might have otherwise been overlooked. For example, before Hoch- schild began her project,
shift”—doing housework and taking care of children. Hoch- schild, who was herself in a two- career family, wanted to find out how couples were dealing with changing family roles in light of the fact that more women had entered the workforce. Were women able to juggle all their responsi- bilities, and to what extent were men helping their wives in running the household? Hochschild and her assistants interviewed fifty couples in two- career marriages and forty- five other people who were also a part of the respondents’ domestic arrangements, such as babysitters, day- care pro- viders, and teachers. From this sample of households that Hochschild studied, we can now extrapolate to a much larger population; her findings should also be applicable to similar couples elsewhere.
When conducting an interview, how do you know what to ask? Composing good questions is one of the most dif- ficult parts of interviewing. Most interviewers use many different questions, covering a range of issues related to the project. Questions may be closed- or open- ended. A closed- ended question imposes a limit on the possible response: for example, “Are you for or against couples liv- ing together before they are married?” An open- ended question, on the other hand, allows for a wide variety of responses: “What do you think about couples living together before they are married?”
Researchers must be careful to avoid biased or leading questions, those that predispose a respondent to answer in a certain way. Overly complex questions are a problem, as are double- barreled questions, those that involve too many issues at one time. It is a lso important to be aware of any ambiguous or inflammatory language that might confuse or spark an emotiona l reaction on the part of the respondent. Asking a single parent how difficult her life is will elicit data about the difficulties, but not about the joys,
Turning Play into Work Tamara Mose conducted interviews with parents of young children in New York City for her study of playdates and how these organized meetings reproduce inequalities based on race and class.
FOCUS GROUP a process for interviewing a number of participants together that also allows for interaction among group members
INFORMED CONSENT a safeguard through which the researcher makes sure that respondents are freely participating and understand the nature of the research
CLOSED- ENDED QUESTION a question asked of a respondent that imposes a limit on the possible responses
OPEN- ENDED QUESTION a question asked of a respondent that allows the answer to take whatever form the respondent chooses
LEADING QUESTIONS questions that predispose a respondent to answer in a certain way
DOUBLE- BARRELED QUESTIONS questions that attempt to get at multiple issues at once, and so tend to receive incomplete or confusing answers
LIFE HISTORY an approach to interviewing that asks for a chronological account of the respondent’s entire life or some portion of it
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods50
many other studies had already been conducted on fami- lies with two working parents, but few seemed to examine in depth the real- life dilemma of the two- career family that Hochschild herself was experiencing.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Interview respondents are not always forthcoming or truthful. They may be selective about what they say in order to present themselves in the most favorable light. Sometimes they are difficult to talk to, and at other times they may try too hard to be helpful. Although an adept interviewer will be able to encourage meaning- ful responses, she can never take at face value what any respondent might say. To counteract this problem, Hochschild observed a few of the families she had inter- viewed. She saw that what these couples said about themselves in interviews was sometimes at odds with how they acted at home.
2. Another problem is representativeness: whether the con- clusions of interview research can be applied to larger groups. Because face- to- face interviewing is time con- suming, interviews are rarely used with large numbers of people. Can findings from a small sample be generalized to a larger population? In regard to Hochschild’s research, can we say that interviews with fifty couples, although carefully selected by the researcher, give a true picture of the lives of all two- career families? Hochschild answered this question by comparing selected information about her couples with data from a huge national survey.
Surveys How many times have you filled out a survey? Prob- ably more times than you realize. If you responded to the last U.S. government census, if you have ever been solicited by a polling agency to give your
opinion about a public issue, or if you have ever been asked
In addition to the other methods discussed in this chapter, action research is a growing trend in social science meth- odology. Action research combines social science research with community problem solving and social change, in a way that calls into question some of sociology’s closely held beliefs about ethics, bias, and the role of the researcher.
While action research is not exactly new, it has been gain- ing popularity recently, across the social sciences as well as
in practice- oriented disci- plines such as nursing, pub- lic health, education, urban planning, and management. Pioneers in action research tended to come from the areas of inequality studies such as feminist research, critical race studies, and pov- erty and community develop- ment research, and there is a clear historical link to the ethnographers of the Chi-
cago School, with their community and reform- oriented approaches (Emerson 2002; Marullo 1999).
Action researchers are more likely than traditional researchers to be invested in social change and commu- nity improvement goals. They see their research skills as
IN THE FUTURE Action Research
problem- solving tools, and they view those whom others might call “research subjects” as active, collaborative, equal participants in the project. In other words, action research- ers do research with people, not on people, and see their work as part of a “scholarship of engagement” (Rajaram 2007, p. 139), rather than one of erudite distance.
An award- winning example of action research is the work of Chicago’s Community Organizing and Family Issues group (COFI). Its project “Why Isn’t Johnny in Preschool?” sought to answer this question, particularly among families in low- income, racially diverse neighborhoods, where kids are less likely to be enrolled in early childhood education programs. They sent community members, trained in socio- logical interview methods, out into their neighborhoods to talk with more than 5,000 other parents about the barriers to preschool enrollment. Their findings included family con- cerns about cost, transportation, and confusing paperwork and bureaucracies, among other obstacles.
These findings were used to design outreach and public awareness campaigns that promoted the importance of pre- school attendance and provided information packets that helped families find solutions to some of the problems identi- fied in the research. Preschool attendance increased in the targeted neighborhoods as a result (COFI 2009), and COFI received the Leo P. Chall Award for its work “successfully link[ing] research with social action, thereby strengthening
ACTION RESEARCH a type of research aimed at creating social change, in which the researcher works closely with members of a community who participate in the research process and collaborate toward the goal of social change
Surveys 51
to evaluate your college classes and instructors at the end of a semester, you were part of somebody’s survey research.
Surveys are questionnaires that are administered to a sample of respondents selected from a target population. One of the earliest sociologists to use informal surveys was Karl Marx. In the 1880s, Marx sent questionnaires to more than 25,000 French workers in an effort to determine the extent to which they were exploited by employers. Although we don’t know how many surveys were returned to him or what the individual responses were, the project clearly influenced his writing, which focused heavily on workers’ rights.
Today, many universities have research centers devoted to conducting survey research. One such center is the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where sociologists have been engaged in ongoing studies of the health of marriage and family in America, issuing a series of reports on what they call “The State of Our Unions” over the past several years. Researchers have surveyed young adults in their twenties about a range of
topics, including their attitudes toward dating, cohabita- tion, marriage, and parenthood.
Survey research tends to be macro and quantitative in nature: it looks at large- scale social patterns and employs sta- tistics and other mathematical means of analysis. Social scien- tists who use surveys must follow specific procedures in order to produce valid results. They need a good questionnaire and wise sample selection. Most surveys are composed of closed- ended questions, or those for which all possible answers are provided. Answers may be as simple as a “yes” or “no” or more complex. A common type of questionnaire is based on the Likert scale, a format in which respondents can choose along a continuum— from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” for example.
SURVEYS research method based on questionnaires that are administered to a sample of respondents selected from a target population
LIKERT SCALE a way of formatting a survey questionnaire so that the respondent can choose an answer along a continuum
community organizations and influencing public policy” (Sociological Initiatives Foundation 2010).
As citizens become research collaborators and soci- ologists become research activists, there will inevitably be some tension between research goals and practical goals.
Addressing real- world problems means that methodologies must be tailored to the constraints of the actual situation, rather than adhere to the ideal- type models required by the discipline. All participants must be allowed to be part of the decision- making process, and all must be provided equal access to information, data, and findings (which even the most open- minded traditional researchers may balk at). Eth- ical considerations differ from those of traditional research as well: action research is designed to bring about change and is “aligned with values” (Riel 2010), so claims of objec- tivity are out of the question.
These differences make action research controversial among more traditional social scientists, but this method is gaining popularity among students. Action research pro- vides both graduate and undergraduate students with the opportunity to be of service in their communities, while also fulfilling academic requirements, and many students prefer this active approach to social change over a research project that takes place entirely in a library or lab. More high schools and colleges are making community service projects part of their graduation requirements, and even more will likely do so in the near future. Action research itself is fundamentally future oriented due to its focus on social change and commu- nity improvement, and it provides a way to make a positive impact while also advancing social science research. Does it get any better than that?
Head Start A teacher works with the children of migrant and seasonal workers in Illinois.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods52
sampling is used. For example, in the National Marriage Proj- ect study, researchers surveyed a statistically representative sample of 1,003 young adults. Here they would have used more sophisticated manipulating or weighting techniques, ensuring that the proportion of certain variables such as race, class, gen- der, or age in the sample group is accurately representative of the larger population.
In order for a survey to be considered valid, there must be a sufficiently high response rate. It is sometimes difficult to get enough individuals to participate in a survey. Even if only half of a sample group actually returned the completed surveys, that would be considered a very good result. General claims can be made about a larger population from a survey with a response rate of only 20 to 30 percent. Once the surveys are returned, the researchers begin the process of tabulating and analyzing the data. Responses are usually coded or turned into numeri- cal figures so that they can be more easily analyzed on a com- puter. Researchers often want to understand the relationship between certain variables; for instance, what is the effect of infidelity on divorce? There are many computer applications, such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), that can help researchers perform complicated calculations and reach conclusions about relationships. This is where advanced statistical skills become an important part of social analysis.
An increasing number of researchers use the Internet rather than conduct survey research in person or by mail (Best and Krueger 2004; Sue and Ritter 2007). The Internet has opened up new possibilities for reaching respondents as more and more people have Internet access. While online sur- veys promise a certain amount of ease and cost- effectiveness, they also present researchers with significant challenges, especially in terms of scientific sampling. For example, Sur- vey Monkey provides free online survey capabilities to just about anyone. While the software does offer some assistance in writing good questions, calculating randomness, and doing representative sampling, users who are not trained social scientists will likely not make use of these features. This cre- ates a conundrum: Survey Monkey and other online survey tools can make survey methods more accessible to users, but it is still the users themselves— not the software— who have to make sure the survey is reliable, valid, and representative. As more researchers use online methods, the perception of them as unconventional or out of the mainstream is fading (Roberts et al., 2016).
Advantages and Disadvantages ADVANTAGES
1. Survey research is one of the best methods for gathering original data on a population that is too large to study by other means, such as by direct observation or inter- views. Surveys can be widely distributed, reaching a
Some questionnaires also offer such options as “don’t know” or “doesn’t apply.” Surveys may include open- ended questions, or those to which the respondents provide their own answers. These are often formatted as write- in questions and can pro- vide researchers with more qualitative data.
Both questions and possible (given) answers on a survey must be written in such a way as to avoid confusion or ambigu- ity. While this is also true for interviews, it is even more impor- tant for surveys because the researcher is not generally present to clarify any misunderstandings. Common pitfalls are leading
questions; negative questions, which ask respondents what they don’t think instead of what they do; and double- barreled ques- tions. Bias can also be a problem if questions or answers are worded in a slanted fashion.
The format of a questionnaire is also important. Something as simple as the order in which the items are presented can influ- ence responses. Mentioning an issue like divorce or infidelity in earlier questions can mean that respondents are thinking about it when they answer later questions, and as a result, their answers might be different than they would otherwise have been. Questionnaires should be clear and easy to follow. Once a ques- tionnaire is constructed, it is a good idea to have a small group pretest it to ensure it is clear and comprehensible. A preliminary small-scale pilot study can help to work out any issues with the survey design before adminis- tering it to a larger group.
Another important element in survey research is sampling techniques. As with interviews, the researcher must identify the
specific target population she wishes to study: for example, “all married couples with children living at home” or “all young adults between the ages of twenty and twenty- nine.” By using correct sampling techniques, researchers can survey a smaller number of respondents and then make accurate inferences about the larger population. In quantitative research, social scientists use probability sampling, in which random chance is used to select participants. Researchers might generate a simple random sample, where each member of the larger target popu- lation has an equal chance of being included in the sample based on random selection. In other cases, a more advanced type of
NEGATIVE QUESTIONS survey questions that ask respondents what they don’t think instead of what they do think
PILOT STUDY a small- scale study carried out to test the feasibility of conducting a study on a larger scale
PROBABILITY SAMPLING any sampling procedure that uses randomization
SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLE a particular type of probability sample in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected
REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE a sample taken so that findings from members of the sample group can be generalized to the larger population; also referred to as a stratified sample
RESPONSE RATE the number or percentage of surveys completed by respondents and returned to researchers
RELIABILITY the consistency of a question or measurement tool; the degree to which the same questions will produce similar answers
Surveys 53
large number of people. Researchers can then general- ize their findings to an even larger population.
2. Survey research is also relatively quick and economical and can provide a vast amount of data. Online surveys now promise a way to gain access to even greater num- bers of people at even lower cost.
3. In general, survey research is comparatively strong on reliability. This means that we can be sure that the same kind of data are collected each time the same question is asked.
4. In survey research, there is less concern about inter- viewer or observer bias entering into the research pro- cess. Respondents may feel more comfortable giving candid answers to sensitive questions because they answer the questions in private and are usually assured of the anonymity of their responses.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Survey research generally lacks qualitative data that might better capture the social reality the researcher wishes to examine. Because most survey questions don’t allow the respondent to qualify his answer, they don’t allow for a full range of expression and may not accurately reflect the true meaning of the respondent’s thoughts. For example, asking a respondent to choose one reason from a list of reasons for divorce might not provide a full explanation for the failure of that person’s marriage. The reasons may have been both financial and emotional, but the survey may not provide the respon- dent with the ability to convey this answer. Adding write- in questions is one way to minimize this disadvantage.
2. In general, since not all respondents are honest in self- reports, survey research is comparatively weak on valid- ity. For example, a respondent may be ashamed about his divorce and may not want to reveal the true reasons behind it to a stranger on a questionnaire.
3. Often there are problems with the sampling process, especially when respondents self- select to participate, that make generalizability more difficult. Gathering data online only exacerbates this problem. For instance, if a survey seeking to know the incidence of domestic violence in the population is administered only to the members of a domestic violence support group, then the incidence of domestic violence will be 100 percent— misrepresenting the true rate of incidence in the larger population.
4. It’s possible that survey research will be used to make a claim or support a point of view rather than for pure sci- entific discovery; for example, a manufacturer of SUVs may report that 90 percent of all American families sur- veyed wish they had a larger car. We will consider this limitation later, in the section on nonacademic uses of research methods.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Media Usage Patterns Recent studies have shown that the aver- age American spends around eleven hours a day using some type of electronic media— computers, tablets, TV, radio, smartphones,
and so on (Nielsen 2014). That’s almost half a day, or nearly two- thirds of our waking hours. For many people this means that they rarely unplug. But there is more to the picture than just the total number of hours Americans spend using media. What other kinds of questions might we be interested in asking about this increasingly impor- tant aspect of our lives?
For example, we might ask people what kind of media they are using. How much time is spent with each of these, as well as when and where? How much money do individuals spend on media- related equipment or activ- ities? How much do people multitask, using more than one device at a time? Do different groups prefer differ- ent types of media? How do factors like age, education, gender, or income influence media usage? What else do people do while using media— do they work, eat, clean, talk, drive, exercise, study, or even sleep? Now come up with more of your own questions!
In this Data Workshop, you will be conducting your own survey research about media usage in everyday life. Consult the relevant section of this chapter for a review of this method. Your task is twofold. First, you will get some practice designing a study and constructing and administering a survey questionnaire. Second, you will get the chance to do a preliminary analysis of the data you collect and possibly discover something for yourself about the patterns of media usage among those who par- ticipate in your pilot study.
Because of the variety of ways of doing such a project, you should choose how you would like to customize your research. Since this is only a preliminary effort at survey research, the project will have to be somewhat limited. Nonetheless, try to follow these basic steps in order to make your research process as scientific as possible:
1. Decide what aspects of media usage you want to study.
2. Select a sample from the target population you wish to study (student athletes, seniors, people with a col- lege degree, and so on).
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods54
books, magazines, TV shows, or websites. While all these materials may have been created for another purpose, they can constitute valuable data to be used in social research. Existing sources are considered unobtrusive measures because they don’t require that the researcher intrude upon or disturb the people in a social context or setting they are studying.
Sociologists take different approaches to working with existing sources. For instance, social demographers study the size, composition, growth, and distribution of human populations. The statistical information used in such research is generally produced by other social scientists or by government agencies such as public health departments. In fact, the U.S. Census Bureau makes a massive amount of its data freely available to the public on its website, census.gov. Other sociologists do what could be called “social archae- ology.” They dig through and examine the social environ- ment in order to understand the people in it. For instance, the average American throws away over two pounds of garbage a day. What might we learn by looking through someone’s trash?
Some sociologists do comparative historical research, which seeks to understand relationships between elements of society in various regions and time periods. These research- ers go back in time and analyze cultural artifacts such as lit- erature, paintings, newspapers, and photographs (Bauer and Gaskell 2000). As an example, social historian Peter Stea- rns (2004) consulted various existing sources for his book Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in Amer- ica to investigate the changing meanings of childhood during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and how these chang- ing views influenced the way Americans parent their chil- dren. He examined child rearing manuals that were popular at the time, as well as newspapers and journals.
These documents showed that, while children were once viewed as self- sufficient mini- adults whose labor both within and outside the home was necessary to keep families afloat, prevailing social norms began to change in the late 1800s. The world was changing rapidly: Industrial expansion, rapid population growth, urbanization, and technological advances in sanitation, transportation, and communication bewildered parents and led to a wave of advice- giving from “experts.” In the face of unsettling social change, children were seen as particularly vulnerable. Parents felt an urgent obligation to protect them from strong emotions like fear, loneliness, or grief; from afflictions like polio, tooth decay, poor posture, and “crib death” (SIDS); from kidnappers, murderers, sexual predators, and schoolyard bullies; from poisoned Halloween candy, boredom, loss of innocence, and errant dodgeballs. Being held responsible for their children’s protection from these endless sources of harm, many par- ents experienced a sense of guilt and anxiety that increased steadily over the course of the twentieth century. Stearns charted these changes using existing sources and found
3. Write and format your survey questionnaire.
4. Administer the questionnaire to the individuals in your sample.
5. Analyze the data collected in the survey, and present your findings.
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Working in small groups of three to four students, begin designing a survey project by dis- cussing Steps 1 and 2. Then collaborate on Step 3. If time allows, play the role of a pilot group and test the ques- tionnaire by filling out the survey as outlined in Step 4. Then consider Step 5, looking for any patterns that may have emerged from the data. Finally, discuss as a group what needs to be changed or what else needs to be accom- plished to complete an actual survey.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Design your own survey research project, completing all of the preceding steps. Choose at least five to eight people to be included in your sample. After administering the questionnaire, write a three- to four- page essay discussing the research process and your preliminary findings. What was the most challenging part of doing survey research? What insights did you gain about media usage from the participants in your study? What would you change if you intended to do a larger study in the future? Remember to attach the survey ques- tionnaire to your paper.
Existing Sources Nearly all sociologists use existing sources when they approach a particular research ques-
tion. As the term implies, an almost unlimited amount of data already exists out there in the world that can be useful to soci- ologists for their studies. With other methods, researchers have to generate their own data first- hand from field notes, interviews, or surveys. With existing (or sec- ondary) sources, researchers may discover a treasure trove of data in unexpected places or hid- den in plain view, ready for the taking. This material can include everything from archival or his- torical records such as marriage licenses or building permits to various forms of media such as
EXISTING SOURCES materials that have been produced for some other reason but that can be used as data for social research
UNOBTRUSIVE MEASURES research methods that rely on existing sources and where the researcher does not intrude upon or disturb the social setting or its subjects
COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL RESEARCH research that uses existing sources to study relationships among elements of society in various regions and time periods
Existing Sources 55
college- educated women over the age of forty had less than a 3 percent chance of getting married. After reviewing new census data, Newsweek had to revise that number to more than 40 percent (McGinn 2006). You can count this book’s two authors as among those women who would marry in their forties.
Advantages and Disadvantages ADVANTAGES
1. Researchers are able to work with information they could not possibly obtain on their own. The U.S. Cen- sus Bureau, for example, collects information about the entire national population (family size, education, income, occupational status, and residential patterns), something an individual researcher has neither the time nor funds to do. In addition, the analysis of exist- ing data can be a convenient way for sociologists to pool their resources; one researcher can take data col- lected by another and use it for his own project, thereby increasing what can be learned from the same set of data.
2. Using sources such as newspapers, political speeches, and cultural artifacts, sociologists are able to learn about many social worlds, in different time periods, that they would never be able to enter themselves; for example, preserved letters and diaries from the early 1800s have allowed researchers to analyze the experiences of wives and mothers on the American frontier (Peavy and Smith 1998).
3. Researchers can use the same data to replicate projects that have been conducted before, which is a good way to test findings for reliability or to see changes across time.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Researchers drawing on existing sources often seek to answer questions that the original authors did not have in mind. If you were interested in the sex lives of those frontier women in the early 1800s, for example, you would be unlikely to find any clear references in their letters or diaries.
2. Similarly, content analysis, although it can describe the messages inherent in the media, does not illu- minate how such messages are interpreted. So we can say that women’s roles on television have lower status than men’s, but additional research would be required to identify the effects of these images on viewers.
them ominous. Indeed, his work may have predicted the advent of today’s “helicopter parent.”
Content analysis is another widely used approach to working with existing sources. Researchers look for recurrent themes or count the number of times that specific variables— such as particular words or visual elements— appear in a text, image, or media message. They then analyze the variables and relationships among them. For example, content analysis has repeatedly shown that the roles women play on television are typically of lower status than are the roles of men and con- tinue to reinforce traditional gender stereotypes. Women are more likely than men to be portrayed as nonprofessionals— housewives and mothers— and are more likely to be sexualized and shown in provocative clothing, whereas men usually hold professional statuses in addition to being portrayed as hus- bands and fathers (Collins 2011).
Despite some recent improvements in the depiction of women in the media, this pattern has persisted. If we look at some of the top- rated network sitcoms of 2016, which included The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Two Broke Girls, and Mom, we see that the majority of men were highly accom- plished professionals while the women were unemployed or struggling. This contradicts the reality of unemployment in the United States; in 2016, 4.9 percent of men in the work- force were unemployed compared to 4.8 percent of women (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017m).
After obtaining their data, researchers must decide which analytic tools will be best suited to their research questions. The analysis of existing sources can be qualita- tive or quantitative in nature. Sometimes new data sets can challenge old findings. For instance, in 2006, Newsweek magazine revisited a controversial article written twenty years earlier, “The Marriage Crunch,” which reported that
CONTENT ANALYSIS a method in which researchers identify and study specific variables or themes that appear in a text, image, or media message
Helicopter Parents Peter Stearns used existing sources such as childrearing manuals for his study of the changing meanings of childhood.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods56
randomly assign them to two different groups, making sure that members of each group were similar in terms of age, income, education, and religion as well as length of time married. One group, the experimental group, would receive marriage counseling, while the other, the control group, would not. In this experiment, marriage counseling is the independent variable; it is the factor that is predicted to cause change in the experimental group. The dependent variable (or factor that is changed by the independent variable) is the likelihood of staying married or getting divorced. In such an experiment, the researcher could compare the two groups and then make con- clusions about whether receiving marriage counseling leads to more couples staying married, leads to more couples getting divorced, or has no impact at all.
Another area in which sociological experiments have been conducted is gender- role socialization in families. Research has shown that a child’s earliest exposure to what it means to be a boy or girl comes from parents and other caregivers. Boy and girl infants are treated differently by adults— from the way they’re dressed to the toys they’re given to play with— and are expected to act differently (Thorne 1993). In one experiment, adult subjects were asked to play with a small baby, who was dressed in either pink or blue. The subjects assumed the gen- der of the infant by the color of its clothes and acted accord- ingly. When they thought it was a boy (in blue), they handled the baby less gently and talked in a louder voice, saying things like, “Aren’t you a big, strong boy?” When they thought it was a girl (in pink), they held the baby closer to themselves and spoke more softly: “What a sweet little girl!” In both cases, it was actually the same baby; only the color of the clothing was changed. From this experiment, we can see how gender influ- ences the way that we perceive and interact with others from a very early age.
Sociologists may also use quasi- experimental meth- ods when they study ethnic and gender discrimination in
Experimental Methods Unlike participant observation, interviews, sur- veys, or existing sources, experiments actually closely resemble the scientific method with which we began this chapter. You might associate experi-
ments with laboratory scientists in white coats, but experimen- tal research methods are also used by social scientists, some of whom are interested in such issues as group power dynamics, racial discrimination, and gen- der socialization. Experiments take place not only in laboratory settings but also in corporate boardrooms and even on street corners.
When sociologists conduct experiments, they start with two basic goa ls. First, they strive to develop precise tools with which to observe, record, and measure their data. Sec- ond, they attempt to control for a ll possible variables except the one under investigation: They regulate every thing except the variable they ’re interested in so
that they can draw clearer conclusions about what caused that variable to change (if it did).
For instance, a classic social experiment might be set up like this: A researcher who is interested in divorce wants to inves- tigate whether marriage counseling actually helps couples stay together. He would recruit couples for the experiment and then
Gender Role Socialization Starts in Infancy In Barrie Thorne’s experiment, she asked adults to play with babies dressed in either blue or pink. Thorne found that people treated the baby differently depending on whether they thought it was a girl or a boy.
EXPERIMENTS formal tests of specific variables and effects, performed in a setting where all aspects of the situation can be controlled
EXPERIMENTAL GROUP the members of a test group who receive the experimental treatment
CONTROL GROUP the members of a test group who are allowed to continue without intervention so that they can be compared with the experimental group
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE the factor that is predicted to cause change
DEPENDENT VARIABLE the factor that is changed (or not) by the independent variable
Social Network Analysis 57
controlled setting. Laboratories are by design artifi- cial environments. We take a leap in claiming that the same results found in the lab will also occur in the real world.
2. Achieving distance from the messy realities of the social world is also the major weakness with sociolog- ical experiments. Although experiments can be useful for the development of theory and for explaining the impact of isolated variables, they are generally not very effective for describing more complex processes and interactions. By definition, experiments seek to eliminate elements that will have an unforeseen effect, and that’s just not the way the real world works.
Social Network Analysis Starting in the early twentieth century, social scientists began to explore how people are connected to one another and how these connections influence their behavior, put them at risk for disease, and even predict mental health. Social net- work analysis (SNA) is a tool for measuring and visualizing the structure of social relationships between two or more people. Using a questionnaire, researchers ask respondents to name who within a given community they look to for infor- mation, advice, support, and so on. These data are then used to study disease transmission, information diffusion, adoles- cent risk behaviors, corporate behavior, and many other top- ics (Kadushin 2012).
For example, Figure 2.2 is a network diagram of friend- ships among twelve- year- old students in one sixth- grade classroom. Each colored dot is a girl (red) or boy (blue) in the class. As you can see, the girls are almost exclusively friends with other girls, as are boys with other boys. Looking at the
housing, employment, or policing (Brief et al. 1995; Charles 2001; McIntyre, Moberg, and Posner 1980). In such studies, individuals who were similar in all respects except for ethnic- ity or gender were asked to interview for the same jobs, apply for the same mortgage loans, or engage in some other activ- ity. As in the pink- and- blue baby experiment, people who had exactly the same qualifications were treated differently based on their race and gender, with whites and men given better jobs or mortgage rates, and women and minorities given inferior jobs or rates, or none at all. Through such studies, researchers are able to observe behaviors that may indicate discrimina- tion or unequal treatment.
On the whole, data analysis for experimental sociology tends to be quantitative rather than qualitative because the main goal of an experiment is to isolate a variable and explore the degree to which that variable affects a particular social situation (Smith 1990). The quantitative techniques for ana- lyzing data range from straightforward statistical analyses to complex mathematical modeling.
Advantages and Disadvantages ADVANTAGES
1. Experiments give sociologists a way to manipulate and control the social environment they seek to understand. Experiments can be designed so that there is a minimal amount of outside interference. A researcher can con- struct a model of the social situation she is interested in and watch as it unfolds before her, without any of the unpredictable intrusions of the real world. Researchers can also select participants who have exactly the char- acteristics they want to explore, such as the babies and adults in the gender- role socialization experiment.
2. Experimental methods are the best method for establish- ing causality— whether a change in the independent varia- ble causes a change in the dependent variable. This ability to assess causality makes experiments particularly effec- tive at detecting bias and discrimination, such as discrim- ination against mothers in the workplace, known as the “motherhood penalty” (Correll, Benard, and Paik 2007).
3. Much like physics experiments, highly controlled socio- logical experiments can theoretically be repeated— they have replicability— so that findings can be tested more than once. An experiment such as the pink- and- blue baby study could easily be performed again and again to gauge historical and cultural changes in gender socialization.
DISADVANTAGES
1. Experiments are applicable only to certain types of research that can be constructed and measured in a
Figure 2.2 Network Diagram of Friendships among Students in One Sixth-Grade Class
SOURCE: Valente 2015.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods58
“cliques”). It is worth noting only girls nominated boys as friends; no boys nominated girls as friends (as shown by the directionality of the arrows). Thus, we can say that these ties lack reciprocity, meaning the arrows, or connections, flow only in one direction. Finally, every member of this network is connected in about three steps or has an average of three degrees of separation from every other member. Researchers
cluster of girls, you see a few girls with a lot of arrows point- ing to them. These are the people who nominated them as friends. The more arrows pointing in, the more popular— or “central”—that person is within the network. Another important position within this network is those students who link the boys and girls to one another. These “bridges” enable information to flow between the groups (also called
While sociologists interested in studying interpersonal relationships use a wide variety of archival materi- als, the Internet has created whole new ways of conducting research. Letters, journals, and diaries have always been a rich source of data but have usually been available only many years after they were written. In contrast, social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook create a treasure trove of data that can be accessed unobtrusively in real time. Given that Facebook is one of the most visited sites on the Internet and full of sociologically fascinating phenomena, it’s not surprising to find that numerous researchers are using Facebook as a source of data to study such issues as relation- ships, identity, self- esteem, and popularity.
One of the earliest and most ambitious projects using social networking sites was conducted by Nicholas Chris- takis and Jason Kaufman of Harvard and Andreas Wimmer of UCLA. Their data consisted of all the publicly available Facebook profiles of an entire class at an anonymous East Coast university from their freshman to senior years. The researchers were interested in examining the relationship “between patterns of social affiliation and aesthetic proclivi- ties” (Kaufman 2008). In other words, they were looking at the relationship between the number and type of friends someone had and the kind of books, music, and movies the person liked.
The researchers found that online social networks looked a lot like social networks established through traditional, real- life, face- to- face contact. People’s networks on Face- book tended to exhibit “homophily”; that is, people tend to be Facebook friends with other people like them, especially in terms of race and gender. In some ways, this isn’t surprising. Increasingly, an individual’s online profile is an extension of her everyday life. What might be more surprising, however, is the way in which social networks can spread influence. Researchers now have the data to show how such seemingly individual things as a person’s taste in clothes, level of hap- piness, and even body size are influenced by social networks (Christakis and Fowler 2009). For researchers, Facebook is
IN RELATIONSHIPS Social Networking Sites as Sources of Data
especially exciting because it offers a data set rich enough to test ideas that up to now have only been theorized about. As Christakis points out, concepts about how social net- works function were “first described by Simmel 100 years ago. . . . He just theorize[d] about it 100 years ago, but he didn’t have the data. Now we can engage that data” (Rosenbloom 2007).
But social networking sites do more than just provide researchers with new data to answer old questions; they also connect friends and family in new ways. Young people use the “relationship status” feature of Facebook as the new standard for evaluating dating; they aren’t really a couple until they change their status to “in a relationship.” And Facebook has also changed the ways that families interact. The extended family, which is often now separated geographically, is more easily reunited online. Facebook was originally created for col- lege students, but it now attracts their parents, and even their grandparents, all logging on to stay in touch. And be aware that with our interconnected web of relationships, if your friend’s friend’s friend on Facebook has quit smoking or gained weight, it can influence the likelihood that you will do the same.
Mining Social Media As more people of varying ages, races, and backgrounds use social media, researchers can analyze these networks as a major part of real life.
Issues in Sociological Research 59
DISADVANTAGES
1. Social network analysis, because it is fundamentally quantitative, can gloss over important details and diver- sity in the experiences of social actors.
2. Big data is expensive to collect and analyze, and large social network data sets often come from sources that have been assembled for other purposes (such as advertising) or that pose a threat to privacy. Big data is often criticized as nontheoretical “data dumps.” If you look at a network with thousands or millions of links, you’re likely to discover some sort of finding. The question becomes one of asking if such a finding would hold up in a smaller, more connected, interpersonal network.
Issues in Sociological Research As sociologists, we don’t conduct our research in a cultural vacuum. In our professional as well as personal lives, all our actions have consequences, and we must be aware of how the things we do affect others. For this reason, any introduction to sociological methods is incomplete without a discussion of three topics: the nonacademic uses of sociological research; values, objectivity, and reactivity in the research process; and the importance of ethics in conducting social research.
Nonacademic Uses of Research Methods The research methods discussed in this chapter are fre- quently applied outside the field of sociology. The U.S. Census Bureau, for example, has been taking a survey of the total pop- ulation once every ten years since 1790. The census attempts to reach every person residing in the country and makes reports available on a wide range of social, demographic, and economic features. Many government decisions, from where to build a new school or hospital to where to install a new stoplight, are made using demographic data from the census and other major surveys.
Sociological research methods are also used by private orga- nizations, such as political campaign offices and news agencies. You are probably familiar with polls (another form of survey research) conducted by organizations like Gallup, Zogby, and Roper. And you have certainly seen the results of election polls, which indicate the candidates or issues voters are likely to sup- port. Polls, however, do not just reflect public opinion; they can also be used to shape it. Not all of them are conducted under strict scientific protocols. Whenever you hear poll results, try to learn who commissioned the poll and determine whether they are promoting (or opposing) any particular agenda.
use these types of data to understand substance abuse, bully- ing and victimization, and delinquency and to design inter- ventions to address adolescent issues.
With the advent of social media, especially Facebook in the early 2000s, “social network” became a household phrase. While many people today mistakenly think that SNA began with the study of online social networks, it well predates the Internet. Some of the earliest work in the area of SNA began with sociologist Georg Simmel, who studied social ties between members of a community and how the size of a group affects the relationships between its members, or actors. In the late 1960s, Stanley Milgram’s work on the “small world” phenomenon brought publicity to the field with his studies showing that everyone is connected by an average of five and a half to six steps to everyone else in the world (Travers and Milgram 1969). This phenomenon was later coined the “six degrees of separation.” The advent of computer programs for analyzing networks helped create a large, diverse field that incorporates scientists from varying fields, including sociol- ogy, anthropology, political science, medicine, physics, and computer science.
Social network programs have now been created to study large- scale networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. Today, social network researchers can study Twitter feeds and other social media sites to discover pat- terns of communication between and among terrorist groups in order to disrupt their activities (Everton 2012). Studies of social media are also being conducted to better understand the flow of information, the nature of political discourse, and types of civic engagement. One such study looked at how orga- nizers of the Occupy Wall Street movement used Twitter to organize and spread the movement (Tremayne 2014).
Advantages and Disadvantages ADVANTAGES
1. Social network analysis can trace the route of just about anything— an idea, disease, rumor, or trend— as it moves through a social group, community, or society. This makes SNA a useful method for epidemiologists (scien- tists who study diseases within populations), political sociologists, and market researchers.
2. Social network analysis contributes to the production of “big data”—data sets so large that typical computer and storage programs cannot handle them—which has become increasingly popular in both the academic and the business worlds. Big data enables corpora- tions to identify major trends quickly, target audiences effectively, and make predictions. Big data also cre- ates new fields of research for social scientists (Lazar et al. 2009).
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods60
VALUES Like biological or physical scientists, most soci- ologists believe that they should not allow their personal beliefs to influence their research. The classic sociological statement on neutrality comes from Max Weber (1925/1946), who, in his essay “Science as a Vocation,” coined the phrase value- free sociology to convey the idea that in doing research sociologists need to separate facts from their own individual values. Although most sociologists agree with this ideal, some challenge the notion of value- free sociology. For instance, some Marxist researchers believe it is appropri- ate to combine social research and social action or praxis. For them, the study of society is intimately linked to a com- mitment to actively solve social problems. Likewise, action research seeks not only to understand but also to change the social world. On the other hand, some symbolic interaction- ists, like David Matza (1969), believe that the very inten- tion of changing the world prohibits a researcher from truly understanding that world. The question of whether sociolo- gists should engage only in basic research, which is justi- fied as the search for knowledge for its own sake, or rather engage in applied research, which requires putting into action what is learned, continues to be debated within the discipline.
Despite the safeguards built into research methodologies, there are still opportunities for bias, or personal preferences, to subtly influence how the work is done. Bias can infiltrate every part of the research process— from identifying a proj- ect to selecting a sample, from the wording of questions to the analysis and write- up of the data. Earl Babbie (2002) claims that research biases have come into play in the area of U.S. racial relations, and he documents several histori- cal cases to illustrate the point. In 1896, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of “separate but equal” as a means of “guaranteeing equal protection” for African Americans while still allowing racial segregation. Although no research was directly cited, it is widely believed that the ruling was influenced by the work of William Graham Sumner, a lead- ing social scientist at the time. Sumner believed that the customs of a society were relatively impervious to outside influence and that therefore the legal system should not be used to enforce social change. The saying “You can’t legislate morality” is a reflection of such thinking. So instead of allow- ing blacks the same rights and access to resources, the Court continued to uphold segregation.
The doctrine of “separate but equal” persisted until it was finally overturned in 1954 in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which out- lawed racial segregation in schools. This time, the Supreme Court justices based their unanimous decision on several other, more contemporary sociological and psychological studies (Blaunstein and Zangrando 1970). Apparently, the Court was now of the belief that morality could be legislated.
A decade later, controversy erupted again when in 1966 a noted sociologist, James Coleman, published his
Businesses and corpora- tions have turned to sociologi- cal research in order to better understand the human dynamics within their companies. Some ethnographers, for instance, have studied organizational culture and reported their findings to executives. Edgar Schein (1997, 2010) is often referred to as an industrial ethnographer because he conducts fieldwork in business settings in order to help man-
agement identify and deal with dilemmas in the workplace, such as how to motivate workers. Many of the experimen- tal “games” developed by sociological researchers can be put to use in the business world to build teams, train employees, or even conduct job interviews. During a corporate retreat, for example, employees might be asked to participate in an obstacle or ropes course, in which they have to work together in order to succeed. By observing the strategies participants use, an employer might learn how task- oriented networks are formed, how leaders are chosen, or how cooperation emerges under pressure. Similarly, experimental games that require subjects to budget imaginary money or communicate an idea in a round of charades may offer insight into how social groups operate or may identify the most effective communicators from a pool of applicants.
Market research is perhaps the most common of all nonaca- demic uses of sociological methods. In order to be successful, most companies will engage in some sort of study of the mar- ketplace, either through their own internal sales and market- ing departments or by hiring an outside consultant. The efforts of all these companies to understand the buying public have created a multibillion- dollar marketing and advertising indus- try. If you’ve ever clicked “yes” on a pop- up dialog box from a website, allowed “cookies” onto your browser, or cast a vote for your favorite contestants on Dancing with the Stars, then someone has gathered data about your tastes and habits. It is important to note, however, that not all market studies, in fact probably very few, meet the rigorous standards that are other- wise applied to “scientific” research. Remember, too, that the bottom line for any company that uses market research is the desire to sell you their products or services. Just how well do these marketers know you already?
Values, Objectivity, and Reactivity It’s important to recognize that scientific research is done by human beings, not robots. Humans have flaws, prejudices, and blind spots, and all these things can affect the way they conduct research.
VALUE- FREE SOCIOLOGY an ideal whereby researchers identify facts without allowing their own personal beliefs or biases to interfere
BASIC RESEARCH the search for knowledge without an agenda or practical goal in mind
APPLIED RESEARCH the search for knowledge that can be used to create social change
Issues in Sociological Research 61
After college graduation, Whitney Bush moved to Chicago because some of her best friends already lived there. It was a personal decision— she didn’t have a job waiting for her, and she hadn’t thought much about where to look for one. She had double- majored in sociology and math because she enjoyed both and did well in them. She headed for the Windy City, married her college sweetheart, and set about looking for a way to pay the rent. After submitting applications for a num- ber of entry- level positions, she was called for an interview at the Nielsen Company, a leader in the commercial study of con- sumer behavior (what is often called “market research”). She got the job: “Working in market research was a way for me to combine my favorite part of math ( statistics— the discipline of looking for meaningful patterns) with my sociology- informed curiosity about what people think, feel, and do in their every- day lives. I began learning to tell stories from data.” And those stories were used by Nielsen’s clients to get consumers to watch and buy products, from television shows to floor wax.
Bush quickly moved from her data- analyst role into posi- tions that involved mentoring, managing, and training per- sonnel at Nielsen offices all over the world. As she traveled and sometimes stayed for extended periods of time in places like Mumbai, India, she found her sociology education help- ful in other ways, too, and enjoyed learning about and adapting to new cultures as part of her work. But then Bush’s personal life took an unexpected turn. Getting divorced while still in her twenties was a source of uncertainty and anxiety, but it was also an opportunity to think deliberately about what she wanted to do with her future.
Bush decided to go back to school, moving across the coun- try to enter a San Francisco– based MBA program in a field of study that hadn’t even existed when she was in college. Design strategy is a discipline that combines qualitative research, design- driven innovation, and entrepreneurial business skills to help firms make novel and profitable decisions. Despite
ON THE JOB Sociology, Market Research, and Design Strategy
being an emergent field and, as such, a bit of a risk, “it was a no- brainer for me,” Whitney said. She has since earned her MBA and returned to the world of market research, this time with a new angle: “It feels like a big lean [ back] into sociology, both from the perspective of designing research as social interac- tions (e.g., group activities, in- context observation, etc.), as well as using sociological lenses to understand what people say and do (e.g., real vs. projected self— thanks, Erving Goff- man!) and then to take strategic action.”
As Whitney carves out her new niche in an emergent area of work, she recognizes the ways in which her sociology degree prepared her for this unique career trajectory: “[It] cultivated in me an ability to observe, to ask why things are the way that they are, and to generate alternatives to the status quo— in my personal life as well as in my career.”
Leaning into Sociology Whitney Bush’s sociology degree—and well developed sociological imagination—set her up to succeed in market research.
findings about a national study on race and education. Cole- man claimed that the academic performance of African American students attending integrated schools was no better than that of those attending segregated schools; that such things as libraries, laboratories, or expenditures per student had less influence on academic performance than neighborhoods or family. While some criticized Coleman on methodological grounds, others were more concerned that his findings might be used to support a return to segregation.
This has not happened, but neither has complete integration. We still need to work toward creating an educational system that serves all students well, and social research will con- tinue to be part of that process. Most social scientists, and the American public in general, support civil rights and racial equality. These beliefs inspire research at the same time that research inspires continued social change. Even though we aim for value- free sociology, there are some topics on which it is hard to remain neutral.
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods62
likely to go undiagnosed, which meant that women were more likely than men to die from heart attacks. Why? Because med- ical research on heart attacks used mostly male subjects and so had not discovered that women’s symptoms are different from men’s (Rabin 2008). It is easy now, through hindsight, to see that our “knowledge” was severely distorted. We must, therefore, be willing to recognize that what currently passes for fact may some day be challenged.
Another obstacle to achieving objectivity is our subjec- tive nature as human beings. Our own experience of the world and, therefore, our sense of reality are inevitably per- sonal and idiosyncratic. Although we recognize our innate subjectivity, we still long for and actively pursue what we call absolute truth. But some social scientists question this ideal; they propose that subjectivity is not only unavoid- able but also may be preferable when it comes to the study of human beings. This is especially true of sociologists who do autoethnography, in which they themselves— and their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences— are the focus of their study (Ellis 1997). Furthermore, some postmodern think- ers have gone so far as to reject the notion that there is any objective reality out there in the first place. Their arguments parallel certain trends in the physical sciences as well, where developments such as chaos theory and fuzzy logic suggest the need to reconsider the assumption of an orderly universe.
REACTIVITY In addition to maintaining their objectiv- ity, social scientists must be concerned with reactivity, the ways that people and events respond to being studied. One classic example of reactivity comes from studies that were conducted from 1927 to 1932 at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric in Chicago. Elton Mayo (1949), a Harvard business school professor, sought to examine the effect of varying work conditions on motivation and productivity in the factory. When he changed certain conditions— such as lighting levels, rest breaks, and even rates of pay— he found that each change resulted in a rise in productivity both in the individual worker and in the group. What was more surpris- ing, however, was that returning to the original conditions also resulted in a rise in productivity. Mayo concluded, then, that the variables he had manipulated were not the causes of productivity; rather, it was the effect of being studied, or what is now referred to as the Hawthorne effect. In other words, the workers had responded to the researchers’ interest in their performance, and it was this attention that had caused the improvement.
Researchers must always be aware that their subjects, whether in an experiment or in a natural observation, are active and intelligent participants. The subjects may be able to sense what the researchers are trying to understand or prove and in effect “give them what they want” by responding to even the unspoken goals of the research. Our presence as research- ers always has some effect on those we study, whether notice- able to us or not.
OBJECTIVITY The notion of objectivity, or impartiality, plays a fundamental role in scientific practice. As far back as Auguste Comte, sociologists have maintained that they could study society rationally and objectively. If a researcher is rational and objective, then he should be able to observe real- ity, distinguish actual facts from mental concepts, and sepa- rate truth from feeling or opinion. This ideal may be desirable and reasonable, but can “facts” really speak for themselves? And if so, can we discover those facts without somehow involving ourselves in them?
Some “facts” that sociologists once took to be objective real- ity have since been invalidated. Racist, sexist, and ethnocentric perspectives long dominated the field and passed for “truth.” For many years, scientific reality consisted only of the experience of white European males, and the realities of women, ethnic minorities, and others outside the mainstream were categori- cally ignored or dismissed.
For example, until recently, heart problems in women were
OBJECTIVITY impartiality; the ability to allow the facts to speak for themselves
REACTIVITY the tendency of people and events to react to the process of being studied
HAWTHORNE EFFECT a specific example of reactivity, in which the desired effect is the result not of the independent variable but of the research itself
Little Rock Nine Students try to prevent Elizabeth Eckford from getting to Little Rock’s Central High School after a federal court ordered the school to desegregate.
Issues in Sociological Research 63
Indiana— and since the town featured in the Middletown studies was widely viewed as an example of the shallowness and triviality of modern American culture, this was not such a good thing for Muncie’s reputation!
Sometimes worse than having others recognize a place or person is having subjects themselves find out what was writ- ten about them. Carolyn Ellis (1995, 2007) had an unsettling experience when she returned to the small mid- Atlantic fish- ing village in which she had spent years living and doing field- work. In the time she had been gone, she had published a book about the village, and excerpts had made their way back to the villagers, who were upset with the way that Ellis had depicted them. These villagers, who had consid- ered Ellis to be their friend, felt deeply betrayed; they felt that she had abused their hospitality and misrepresented them as uncouth, uneducated hicks. Despite her protests that she was simply doing her job as a sociologist, many villagers refused to speak with her again, and she was shut out of a social world of which she had once been an integral part.
More recently, Alice Goffman (yes, daughter of Erving) incited a heated debate on research ethics with her con- troversial ethnography on the troubled lives of a group of young black men in Philadelphia, whom she spent six years getting to know. On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City was published to great acclaim, catapulting the young scholar into the spotlight— and inciting a serious backlash. While the book reignited age- old questions about the politics
Research Ethics Doing research that involves other human beings means that we must address moral issues (questions about right and wrong conduct) as we make decisions that will affect them. For this reason, various academic disciplines have devel- oped ethical guidelines— professional standards for honest and honorable dealings with others— meant to help direct the decision making of such researchers. When we use other people as means to an end, we must protect them as ends in themselves.
It’s easy to understand the risks of participating in, say, a pharmaceutical drug trial or a study of the effects of radia- tion treatment on certain types of cancers. The risks of par- ticipating in social research are different and more subtle. It is often the case, for example, that social researchers don’t fully explain the details of their research project to the participat- ing subjects. Sometimes this is necessary; survey respondents, for example, must be able to answer questions without inter- ference from the researcher. Also, ethnographic field- workers operate on various levels of secrecy or deception; even when an ethnographer has openly declared herself a researcher, it is often impossible for her to remind every person she speaks with that she is a scientific observer as well as a participant. And if she engages in “covert” research and deliberately pres- ents an inauthentic self to the group, that makes all her inter- actions inauthentic as well. This can affect the field- worker’s ability to discover the members’ real, grounded meanings. What, then, has she really been able to learn about the setting and its members?
Codes of ethics in the social sciences do not provide strict rules for researchers to abide by in these cases; rather, they set out principles to guide the researcher’s decision making. Secrecy and deceit are thus never strictly prohibited; instead, researchers are cautioned to acquire the informed consent of their subjects and to conduct themselves in a way that protects the subjects from harm.
What other kinds of harm can come to participants? They’re not likely to get diseases, and there is usually little physical risk in sitting down to complete a survey question- naire! But harm can result, mostly as a result of the breaching of confidentiality. Research subjects are entitled to “rights of biographical anonymity”: Researchers are required to protect their privacy. This protection is essential to gath- ering valid data, especially when dealing with controver- sial topics or vulnerable populations. Respondents must be guaranteed that no one will be able to identify them from reading the research findings. But while most researchers take steps to disguise the identities of individuals and loca- tions, it is sometimes difficult to keep others from uncover- ing them. For example, in two classic sociological studies the pseudonym “Middletown” was used to evoke the notion of an “average” American city and to conceal that city’s real name and location (Lynd and Lynd 1929/1959, 1937). In spite of this intention, it was long ago revealed to be Muncie,
“Middletown” Although Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd used the pseudonym “Middletown” in their classic studies of stagnation and change in modern American culture, it was long ago revealed that Middletown is actually Muncie, Indiana.
DECEPTION the extent to which the participants in a research project are unaware of the project or its goals
CONFIDENTIALITY the assurance that no one other than the researcher will know the identity of a respondent
CHAPTER 2 Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods64
The origins of contemporary research ethics can be traced back to the Nuremberg military tribunals of the late 1940s, in which a group of Nazi doctors were tried for the horrific “experiments” they had performed during World War II. These experiments involved the torture and death of thousands of concentration camp inmates. Of the twenty- three Nazi doctors tried at Nuremberg, sixteen were con- victed of war crimes. Besides a kind of justice for the deaths of so many, the other enduring result of the trials was the Nuremberg Code, a set of moral and ethical guidelines for performing research on human beings. According to these guidelines, developed by two doctors, Andrew Ivy and Leo Alexander, scientists must accept certain responsibilities: to perform only research that can “yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods”; to pro- tect their human subjects from “all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury”; and to perform research only on subjects who give their informed, noncoerced consent.
In the United States, there was strong support for the Nuremberg Code. But at the same time that the code was being developed, the U.S. government was involved in its own medical atrocity, though it would not be revealed to the pub- lic until decades later: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service began a forty- year- long study of “untreated syphilis in the male negro”: 399 African Ameri- can men from Tuskegee, an impoverished region of Alabama,
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE The Nuremberg Code and Research Ethics
who were infected with syphilis were left untreated so that doctors could observe the natural progression of the disease. The symptoms include painful sores, hair loss, sterility, blind- ness, paralysis, and insanity and almost always lead to death. The disease can be transmitted by men to their sexual partners, and infected women can pass it on to their infants. By 1947, penicillin was widely accepted as the preferred treatment for syphilis, but government doctors decided to leave the Tuske- gee men untreated to avoid interfering with the study’s results.
While these doctors had not intentionally inflicted the disease on the subjects, neither had they offered a cure when it became available. The full story of the Tuskegee experi- ment was not revealed until 1972, and it was not until 1997 that President Bill Clinton issued an official apology from the U.S. government to the victims and their families. Clearly, Americans were as guilty of violating moral and ethical codes as Germans had been at a similar time in history.
What is important to take away from this lesson is the need for all scientific research to adhere to ethical standards— this includes the social as well as medical sciences. In either case, researchers must consider the potential harm that they can cause to human subjects. You may not think of sociologists as dealing with life- and- death issues; yet, as researchers, we often find ourselves in positions where certain kinds of stud- ies cannot be undertaken because of concerns for the well- being of the potential subjects.
The Nuremberg Code In the wake of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals after World War II, science organizations adopted a set of guidelines to regulate researchers’ ethical conduct. Whether in biology, psychiatry, or sociology, researchers must consider the potential harm they can cause to research participants.
65Closing Comments
of representation, or who can speak for whom (can a privi- leged white woman with expensive degrees really speak for these marginalized minority men?), it was an anonymous sixty- page critique that put Goffman in the hot seat. The unsigned letter, which was sent out to scholars all across the country, included a long list of alleged inconsistencies that called into question the truthfulness of her account of events. Goffman explained that many of the inconsistencies were the result of her efforts to protect the anonymity of her sources, as required by the American Sociological Associa- tion (ASA) Code of Ethics.
One particularly problematic passage, according to her critics, constitutes not only an ethical violation but also a prosecutable felony. In the wake of the murder of one of their friends, “Mike” searches for the shooter, often with Goffman as chauffeur:
One night Mike thought he saw a 4th Street guy walk into a Chinese restaurant. He tucked his gun in his jeans, got out of the car, and hid in the adjacent alleyway. I waited in the car with the engine running, ready to speed off as soon as Mike ran back and got inside. But when the man came out with his food, Mike seemed to think this wasn’t the man he’d thought it was. He walked back to the car and we drove on. (Goffman 2014, p. 262)
Not only were some of her fellow social scientists disturbed by this admission, legal experts were too. Northwestern Uni- versity law professor Steven Lubet wrote in a review article: “Taking Goffman’s narrative at face value, one would have to conclude that her actions— driving around with an armed man, looking for somebody to kill— constituted conspiracy to commit murder under Pennsylvania law” (Lubet 2015).
As we noted earlier, ethical violations are not the same as criminal violations, and in this case, the alleged criminal viola- tion is a serious one. Goffman has not been and likely will not be charged with any crime, at least in part because the statute of limitations has expired. But her case reminds us that even sociologists can sometimes find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
In order to encourage the protection of research sub- jects, each academic discipline has adopted its own code of ethics to provide guidelines for researchers. The ASA Code of Ethics, for example, sets out recommendations for how to avoid bias, adhere to professional standards, and protect respondents from harm. In addition, universities
where research is conducted have a body known as an insti- tutional review board, or IRB, a group of scholars who meet regularly to review the research proposals of their colleagues. If an IRB has reservations about the safety of the participants in a given research project, it may require changes to the proto- col or may even stop the project from going forward. In extreme cases, funding may be revoked if the participants are being put at undue risk; entire university power structures have been undermined as a result of pervasive research ethics problems.
The power invested in IRBs is seen as controversial by some. The boards are often made up entirely of scholars in medicine, biology, chemistry, and physics; social scien- tists have questioned these scholars’ ability to make judg- ments about social research. Because IRBs have the power to shut down research projects, perhaps they should be discipline- specific, with biologists judging biologists, psy- chologists judging psychologists, and sociologists judging sociologists.
CLOSING COMMENTS In this chapter, you have learned the different methods used by sociologists to investigate the social world. Each method has its strengths and limitations, and each can be fruitfully applied to a variety of research questions. In fact, this is exactly what you will be doing.
Each chapter from this point on will feature two Data Work- shops in which you will be asked to apply one of the methods from this chapter to an actual sociological research project. You will get a chance to practice doing the work of sociological research by actually gathering and analyzing your own data. You may find yourself referring back to this chapter to remind yourself of the specific mechanics of one or another of the research methods. This is exactly what you should be doing; it’s okay if two months from now you don’t remember all the details. Just because you’re moving on to Chapter 3, don’t for- get that Chapter 2 can continue to be useful to you throughout the term— and maybe even beyond that.
CODE OF ETHICS ethical guidelines for researchers to consult as they design a project
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD a group of scholars within a university who meet regularly to review and approve the research proposals of their colleagues and make recommendations for how to protect human subjects
66
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 1. Identify a problem or ask a question
2. Conduct a literature review
3. Form a hypothesis; give operational definitions to variables
4. Choose research design or method
5. Collect data
6. Analyze data
7. Disseminate findings
“ Research methods are strategies that produce data to support, disprove, or modify theoretical claims.
“
Everything You Need to Know about Sociological Research Methods
REVIEW 1. Try to write a survey or interview
question that asks about a respon- dent’s political affiliation without being biased or using language that might spark an emotional response.
2. Imagine that your teacher asks you to do a simple random sample of your class. How would you select your sample so that you could be sure each member had an equal chance of being included?
3. Researchers are now using social net- working websites like Facebook and Twitter to gather a wide variety of data. If researchers read your profile (or those of your friends or family), do you think they would have a valid understanding of who you (or they) are? Is there a weakness of research that relies on existing sources?
67
EXPLORE
A Random Invitation: The American Community Survey The ACS is a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau each year to learn more about the American population. The survey not only provides data on population changes but also provides annual data on marital status, housing, education, and income. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to find out if the American Community Survey really paints an accurate picture of the American population.
http://wwnPag.es/trw402
Ethnography
Interviews
Surveys
Existing Sources
Experiments
Study groups that are often overlooked by other methods
Challenge our taken-for-granted notions about groups we thought we knew
Reshape the stereotypes we hold about others
Allow respondents to speak in their own words
Dispel certain preconceptions
Discover issues that might have otherwise been overlooked
Gather original data on a population that is too large to study by other means
Relatively quick and economical and can provide a vast amount of data
Comparatively strong on reliability
Less concern about research bias
Work with information researchers could not possibly obtain for themselves
Manipulate and control the social environment researchers to minimize outside interference
High replicability
Applicable only to certain types of research that can be constructed and measured in a controlled setting
Not very effective for describing more complex processes and interactions
Answers to questions that the original authors did not have in mind are not available
Does not illuminate how original sources were interpreted
Lacks qualitative data that might better capture the social reality
Not all respondents are honest in self-reports
Problems with the sampling process can make generalizability difficult
Lack of representativeness
Lack of replicability
Lack of representativeness
Respondents are not always forthcoming or truthful
Main Sociological Research Methods
Method Advantages Disadvantages
Framing Social Life
PART II
PART II70
Rupp and Taylor recognize that the particular culture of the 801 Cabaret is nestled within multiple contemporary American subcultures. For example, Key West is an island subculture that offers a year- round, touristy, carnivalesque atmosphere as part of its charm. It “remains a flamboyant mix of cultures. . . . [I]t shelters not only vibrant Cuban and Bahamian enclaves, but also artistic, hippie, and gay com- munities. . . . The city [says journalist Charles Kuralt] is ‘full of dreamers, drifters, and dropouts, spongers and idlers and barflies, writers and fishermen, islanders from the Carib- bean and gays from the big cities, painters and pensioners, treasure hunters, real estate speculators, smugglers, run- aways, old Conchs and young lovers . . . all elaborately toler- ant of one another’” (Rupp and Taylor 2003, pp. 50–51). For the 801 girls, this means that the subcultures associated with both gay masculinity and drag performance are supported and sustained on the island in ways they might not be on the mainland. Because of the island’s unique mix of subcultures, one of the performers asserts that “Key West is the true home of accepted diversity” (p. 55).
In Key West’s culture, many kinds of people feel free to be themselves. But what does that really mean? For the drag queens at the 801 Cabaret, their performances are about putting on a different identity than the one they present in their everyday lives. These are men with flashy female alter- egos: Kevin becomes “Kylie”; Roger becomes “Inga”; Dean becomes “Milla.” And their process of becoming is elaborate and grueling:
How does culture shape our social worlds? How are our personal identities produced by our cultural contexts and social interactions? How does participation in group life shape both individual experience and social structure? How are what is normal and what is deviant defined, and what are the consequences for people who are labeled accordingly? Part II of this text addresses these questions in the next four chap- ters on culture (Chapter 3), the self and interac- tion (Chapter 4), groups (Chapter 5), and deviance (Chapter 6). The ability to examine, describe, analyze, and explain the points of intersection between the individual world and the social world is sociology’s special contribution to the larger scholarly endeavor. Within the next four chapters,
you will encounter many works by sociologists that illustrate the links between the individual and society. Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor’s book Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret (2003) is perfect for highlighting these themes.
Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret is an eth- nographic portrait of a Key West, Florida, drag club, where gay male performers don sexy dresses, lavish wigs, and theatrical makeup and sing and dance for a diverse audience: tourists and locals, men and women, gays and straights. Rupp and Taylor get to know the “801 girls” and their friends, family, and audience members, and the authors even try out their own sort of drag. (That’s right— women dressed as men dressed as women!)
Some of the girls shave all over their bodies, some their faces, chests, legs, and arms, some just their faces. . . . They powder their faces, necks, and chests, using a thick base to hide their beards. . . . Eyeliner, eye shadow, mas- cara, false eyelashes, lip liner, and lipstick are painstak- ingly applied. (pp. 12–13)
So far, this doesn’t sound all that different than the rituals many women perform every morning in front of the mir- ror. After the makeup, however, things get a little more intri- cate, as the “girls”
Sociologists Verta Taylor and Leila Rupp The authors getting into drag themselves.
PART II 71
tuck their penises and testicles between their legs, using a gaff [a special panty], or several, to make sure everything stays out of sight . . . panty hose, sometimes several layers . . . corsets and waist cinchers . . . they all, of course, wear bras . . . [filled with] water balloons (the tied end makes an amazingly realistic nipple), half a Nerf foot- ball, lentil beans in a pair of nylons, foam or silicone pros- theses. (pp. 20–21)
All this work to look like women— and that’s not taking into account the exhausting work of acting the part, onstage and off. While drag queens do not seek to convince their audiences that they are “real” women, they do move, speak, sing, and dance in stereotypically feminine style as part of their per- formances. And that’s the insight that drag queens provide about our own identities: it’s all performance! Our male and female selves are the products of interactional accomplish- ments, and “real” women do many of the same things that drag queens do in order to express femininity.
Because the drag queens perform different identities onstage and off, the 801 Cabaret calls into question some of our most important and taken- for- granted boundaries between social groups: males and females, and gays and straights. In fact, drag queens are living examples of the intersections between these groups. One of the performers says:
Last night— though this happens almost every night— [this woman] goes, “I’m straight, I’m a woman, I’m not a lesbian, but you’re so beautiful, I find you so attractive” . . . [and] a straight guy, has been straight for like fifty years or something like that . . . goes, “You know, I’ve been straight all my life, and I know you’re a man, but you’re so beautiful. . . . I can’t keep my eyes off you.” (p. 201)
Drag queens and drag shows allow others to cross between groups, to see what life might be like in a world in which gender boundaries are fluid and homosexuality is normal:
As one of the few ways that straight people encounter gay culture— where, in fact, straight people live for an hour or two in an environment where gay is normal and straight is other— drag shows . . . play an important role for the gay/lesbian movement. Precisely because drag shows are entertaining, they attract people who might never otherwise be exposed to gay politics. As one female audience member put it, they “take something difficult and make it light.” (pp. 207–208)
Finally, drag shows also challenge our notions about what is normal and what is deviant; performers embrace what would otherwise be considered a stigmatized identity and turn it into something to be proud of. Drag queens can be seen as voluntary outsiders, unconcerned about fitting into main- stream society. Rupp and Taylor make the argument that drag
is a form of social protest— against a society in which gen- der and sexual orientation are crammed into limiting, two- category systems; in which identities are seen as immutable; and in which certain forms of cultural expression are margin- alized. Their analysis of the social world of one Key West drag club offers sociological insights into the lives of the individual performers who work against social stigma and limitations to provide new ways of looking at culture, self, and society.
Performing Gender Drag queens and “real” women perform femininity in similar ways.
Drag Queens on Stage How do drag queens use entertainment and performance to undermine gender stereotypes?
Culture
CHAPTER 3
72
F or most of us, deciding which public bathroom to use is something we do without much
deliberation. In fact, the norm of sex- segregated bathrooms is so pervasive it appears
natural or logical. But we can actually learn a great deal about culture from restrooms.
For example, the fact that women’s restrooms often have baby- changing stations while men’s
restrooms do not demonstrates cultural values about who is expected to be responsible for
child care.
Similarly, anxieties over who can use which bathroom tell us something else about our
culture. For example, many mothers may allow their young sons to use the women’s public
restroom. Other women using the restroom don’t usually see this as a problem. We’re less
comfortable, however, with fathers bringing their daughters into men’s public restrooms. And
once children are old enough to use the restroom on their own, there is an expectation that
their sex will dictate the one they should use. Thus, if an adult man were found using the wom-
en’s restroom, he would likely face some social, and possibly legal, sanctions for violating that
protocol. What does our reaction to such scenarios reveal about our beliefs and assumptions?
The United States is currently embroiled in cultural and legal debates over transgender per-
sons and whether they should be allowed to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identity.
74
In 2016, North Carolina lawmakers passed HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy
and Security Act, which requires residents to use the restroom that matches their
sex assigned at birth or face legal sanctions. This “bathroom bill“ was described
by proponents as “commonsense” legislation that protects people who feel their
privacy may be violated if a person of the opposite sex uses their restroom. Oppo-
nents, by contrast, have described it as “the most anti- LGBT legislation in the
United States”—essentially discrimination condoned and reinforced by law. Oppo-
nents believe these bathroom bills have the potential to inspire future laws that
permit discrimination based on one’s gender identity.
These battles over bathroom bills are an example of a “culture war,” a term
used to describe the clashes that occur as a result of conflicting viewpoints
(Bloom 1987; Garber 1998). Trans activists have been on the front line of this
culture war, using social media to protest what they perceive as discriminatory
laws with hashtags such as #Occupotty and #WeJustNeedToPee. There have also
been responses at the level of government, including a recent change to the White
House floor plan: the designation of its first gender- neutral restroom. Under the
Obama administration, the Education Department and the Justice Department
issued guidelines to public schools, saying they must permit trans students to use
the bathrooms aligned with their gender identity. The letter also urged schools
to allow students to dress for prom and graduation in the way they feel most
comfortable. The administration based these guidelines on Title IX, a federal law
that prohibits discrimination based on a student’s sex, arguing that this includes a
person’s gender identity. Soon after President Trump took office in 2017, however,
he revoked the guidelines, allowing schools to create their own policies for trans-
gender students.
Restroom restriction laws are based on the essentialist premise that gender
emerges naturally from one’s sex assigned at birth— either male or female. This
binary approach to sex and gender has long been used to organize social life. It
goes along with another assumption about gender— the perception that men rep-
resent more of a threat to others, with women often the target of such threats.
This assumption provides a key insight into why lawmakers have attempted to ban
trans people from using the restroom aligned with their gender identity. They argue
that trans people using the “wrong” bathroom present a risk to vulnerable people:
namely, women and children. As sociologists, we must ask what these arguments
communicate about the values and norms of a society and investigate the veracity
of these claims. Recent studies show that transgender people are more likely to be
victimized (Herman 2013). Despite the lack of evidence for the main argument of
bathroom restriction laws, many people still support them, demonstrating our cul-
ture’s deeply held ideas about sex and gender. For the moment, the gender- neutral
restroom in the White House remains. But the culture wars are far from over.
CHAPTER 3 Culture
What Is Culture? 75
of a given countr y, state, or community, of people belonging to an ethnic or religious group, or of those working in the same profession. We can even say that sports enthusiasts, schoolmates, or a clique of friends a ll share in a common culture. We’ll discuss some of these cultura l variations later in the chapter.
How Has Culture Been Studied? People study culture in a variety of ways. Theologians and phi- losophers, for example, might debate the morals and values of an ideal culture. Art, literature, and film scholars focus on certain aspects of culture— novels, films, paintings, plays— as expres- sive, symbolic activities. Cultural anthropologists often inves- tigate societies outside the United States, traveling around the world engaging in empirical fieldwork, while archaeologists study the cultures of the past, digging for artifacts that docu- ment the historical realities of peoples long dead.
In contrast, sociologists usually focus on culture closer to home, often in the same societies to which they belong. At the same time, however, sociologists may also engage in the pro- cess of “othering” by studying the unusual, extraordinary, or deviant in cultural groups. In so doing, they may fail to consider some aspects of the culture that is right in front of them. This is where the sociology of everyday life offers certain benefits. By studying the mundane as well as the exceptional, we can learn about culture in all of its inter- esting permutations. We can learn not only about the differ- ences between cultural groups—“us” and “them”—but also about the similarities.
Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Culture acts as a lens through which we view the world. That lens, however, can either elucidate or obscure what we are looking at. Often, we can’t clearly see our own culture, pre- cisely because we are so familiar with it. Yet, when exposed to another culture, through travel, television, or other means, we can readily see what is different or seemingly “exotic.” Rarely does our perspective allow us to recognize the strangeness in our own culture.
One of the best examples of the challenges in observing culture is presented in a famous article by Horace Miner titled “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” (1956). The article focuses on the beliefs and practices of this North American people concerning the care of their bodies. Miner observes that their fundamental belief appears to be that the human body is ugly
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER Culture is one of the fundamental elements of social life and thus a very important topic in sociology. Many of the concepts presented here will come up again in almost every subsequent chapter. You will need to keep these concepts in mind as you learn about other substantive areas. You will also want to think about how culture is relevant to the things you already know from your own life experience. Try to come up with some of your own examples as you read along. The subject of culture is inherently interesting to most people. But although culture is familiar to all of us, you should be seeing it in a new and different way by the time you finish this chapter.
What Is Culture? Culture encompasses practically all of human civilization and touches on almost every aspect of social life. It is so much a part of the world around us that we may not recognize the extent to which it shapes and defines who we are. In the broadest sense, we can say that culture is the entire way of life of a group of people. It can include everything from lan- guage and gestures to style of dress and standards of beauty, from customs and rituals to tools and artifacts, from music and child- rearing practices to the proper way for custom- ers to line up in a grocery store. It forms basic beliefs and assumptions about the world and the way things work, and it defines the moral parameters of what is right and wrong, good and bad.
Although culture varies from group to group, all societies develop some form of culture. It is the human equivalent of instinct in animals: although we humans do have some basic instincts, culture actually accounts for our great success as a species. We are totally dependent on it to deal with the demands of life in society. As culture develops, it is shared among members of a group, handed down from generation to generation, and passed along from one group or individual to another.
A lthough culture may seem to us to be “second nature,” it is actua lly learned rather than innate. Because we learn it so slowly and incrementa lly, we are of ten unaware of the process. For instance, few of us would be conscious of having learned a ll the slang words we currently use or the distance we typica lly maintain from others while ta lking with them. We may not remember exactly when we f irst felt patriotic or how we formed our opinions about people in the upper class. We a ll carr y culture inside ourselves; it becomes ingrained and interna lized into our way of think- ing and acting. Culture g uides the way we ma ke sense of the world around us and the way we ma ke decisions about what to do and how to do it. We can ta lk about the culture
CULTURE the entire way of life of a group of people (including both material and symbolic elements) that acts as a lens through which one views the world and that is passed from one generation to the next
CHAPTER 3 Culture76
and is susceptible to decay and disease and that the only way to counter these conditions is to engage in elaborate ceremonies and rituals. All members of the Nacirema culture conform to a greater or lesser degree to these practices and then pass them along to their children. One passage describes the household shrine where many of the body rituals take place:
While each family has at least one shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are pri- vate and secret. . . . The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into a wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. . . . Beneath the charm- box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in suc- cession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm- box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution. (p. 504)
The Nacirema regularly visit medicine men, “ holy- mouth men,” and other specialized practitioners from whom they procure magical potions:
The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth- rite. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.
Do the Nacirema seem like a strange group of people, or are they somehow familiar? Miner writes as though he were an anthropologist studying some exotic tribe of primitive people. In actuality, the passages above describe the bathroom and personal health- care habits of the average American. (Note that “Nacirema” is “American” spelled backward.) He doesn’t
embellish or make up anything; he merely approaches the topic as if he knows nothing about its meaning. So the “ charm- box” is a medicine cabinet, the “holy water” font is a sink, the medi- cine men and “ holy- mouth men” are doctors and dentists, and the exotic “ mouth- rite” is the practice of brushing teeth.
One of the reasons that Min- er’s article has become so popular is that it demonstrates how easy
it is to fail to see our own culture, precisely because we take it for granted. The article reminds students who are becoming social analysts how useful culture shock is in helping to see even what is most familiar as bizarre or strange. Throughout this chapter, keep in mind that your powers of observation must be applied to looking at both “them” and “us.”
Another, related problem arises when trying to under- stand cultures other than our own. Generally, we think of our own culture as being the “normal” one, a belief known as ethnocentrism. We don’t realize that culture is something learned and that there is nothing inherently better about ours. Ethnocentrism means that we use our own culture as a kind of measuring stick with which to judge other individu- als or societies; anyone outside our group seems “ off- center” or abnormal. While ethnocentrism may give us a sense of pride in our own group, it can also prevent us from seeing and understanding others. In some cases, ethnocentrism can be a source of prejudice and hostility.
As sociologists, we want to have as clear a view of any soci- ety as possible; this requires that we suspend, at least tempo- rarily, our ethnocentrism. There are several ways to do this. In Chapter 1, we learned about the beginner’s mind, culture shock, and the sociological imagination— all ways to see the world anew. We can add to that list cultural relativism,
“Body Ritual among the Nacirema” Horace Miner reminds us how easy it is to overlook aspects of our own culture, precisely because they seem so normal to us.
ETHNOCENTRISM the principle of using one’s own culture as a means or standard by which to evaluate another group or individual, leading to the view that cultures other than one’s own are abnormal or inferior
CULTURAL RELATIVISM the principle of understanding other cultures on their own terms, rather than judging or evaluating according to one’s own culture
What Is Culture? 7777
In 1949 Bob Luitweiler founded Servas International “to build understanding, tolerance, and world peace.” Instead of trying to change the behavior of world leaders, or the way that governments worked, Luitweiler’s goal was to convince ordi- nary people to do one simple thing: visit each other. Servas International was the first modern hospitality exchange pro- gram. People all over the world signed up to be “hosts,” volun- teering to open their homes, free of charge, to travelers from all over the globe. During these relatively short visits, hosts would “share with travelers their daily lives, their concerns about social and economic issues, and their commitment to promoting peace through friendship and cultural exchange.” The hope was that both the hosts and the guests would be able to learn more about the other’s culture.
Almost seventy years later, however, it was the emer- gence of the “sharing economy” that really allowed hospital- ity exchange to take off. The sharing economy, sometimes called the “peer to peer” economy, refers to a new business model made possible by the spread of the Internet and mobile devices. It was always possible to try to rent out a spare bed- room, car, or power tool lying around in the garage, but for almost everyone it was far more trouble than it was worth. The Internet changed all that by allowing far more informa- tion to be collected and shared, solving the trust problem that kept networks like Servas small and relatively exclusive. Fol- lowing the model pioneered by companies like eBay, sharing economy websites allow users to rate each other and thereby build a reputation for trustworthiness:
Reputation is a requirement of the sharing economy. For Airbnb hosts and Uber and Lyft drivers, positive ratings are paramount to their success. It might seem crazy to stay at a stranger’s house, but on Airbnb host reviews facilitate trust among strangers. (Schlegel 2014)
The results of these technological innovations have been staggering. Airbnb, founded in 2008 to allow people to rent
ON THE JOB The Sharing Economy and Unlikely Cultural Ambassadors
out their homes and apartments on a short- term basis, now boasts that it has had more than 160 million guests book a stay through its website, which lists rentals in 191 countries and more than 65,000 cities.
While Airbnb likes to brag that its rental listings include more than 1,400 castles, their rivals at Couchsurfing.com have taken a different approach to the sharing economy. Their website tells the story of how their CEO surfed a Dumpster that a University of Texas professor had “converted and refin- ished as part of a sustainable micro- housing project.” Rather than letting people rent out their living spaces, Couchsurfing allows travelers to connect with people who are willing to let them crash on the “couch” for free. The Couchsurfing mis- sion statement emphasizes the way this mode of travel can promote social change: “We envision a world made better by travel and travel made richer by connection,” and hope that when couchsurfers “share their lives with” their hosts, the resulting friendships will help generate “cultural exchange and mutual respect.” Though the organization has had a somewhat tumultuous history, it claims 7 million members in more than 100,000 cities worldwide.
However much Airbnb and Couchsurfing differ in their business models, both agree that one of the advantages of traveling this way is that it can turn everyday people into unlikely but effective cultural ambassadors. A search of Airbnb’s website shows scores of people describing them- selves as the “unofficial ambassador” for their communities. When people “list their couch” on Couchsurfing’s website, they’re inviting strangers into their homes and taking on the role of tour guide as well as host. You can even simply set your couch’s status to “Not Right Now (but I can hang out)” if you aren’t able to host guests but still “want to be available as a city resource for travelers.” Although some remain cynical about the motives of traveling couchsurfers, seeing them as more interested in traveling cheaply than in creating con- nections, it’s hard to deny that cultural exchange is really happening thanks to these and other similar organizations.
which means seeing each different culture as simply that— different. Not better or worse, not right or wrong, but on its own terms. Doing so helps us place different values, beliefs, norms, and practices within their own cultural context. By practicing cultural relativism, or being culturally sensitive,
we begin to see others more clearly and without judgment and, therefore, to appreciate their way of life. We can discover viewpoints and interpretations of reality different from our own. Cultural relativism becomes all the more important in our increasingly diverse society.
CHAPTER 3 Culture78
Material Culture and the Architecture of Santa Barbara Local leaders have preserved the city’s history and resisted the pressures of encroaching urban development by insisting on maintaining the look of “old California.”
can tell us something about the people who live or work there. And the sports arenas, modes of transportation, historical monuments, and city dumps reveal the characteristics of a community. Perhaps the proliferation of drive- thru fast- food restaurants in practically every corner of the United States says something about American tastes and lifestyle: we spend more time on the road, cook fewer meals at home, and prefer the ease and predictability of knowing what we’ll get each time we pull up to our favorite chain. If you were visit- ing another country, you might see some very different items of material culture.
Studying the signif icance of materia l culture is like going on an archaeologica l dig, but learning about the pres- ent rather than the distant past. Let ’s ta ke as an example a sociologica l “dig ” in Santa Barbara, Ca lifornia, where one of the authors of this book lives. Loca l leaders there have been active in preser ving the image of the city, particularly in its downtown historica l area. The origina l mission, pre- sidio (militar y post), courthouse, and other landmarks built by early Spanish settlers are a ll still intact. A lthough the town has grown up around these buildings, zoning reg ula- tions require that new construction f it with the distinctive Mediterranean architecture of the “red tile roof ” district. The size and design are restricted, as are the use of signs, lighting, paint, and landscaping. Thus, the newly built gro- cer y store with its textured stucco wa lls, tile mura ls, and arched porticos may be diff icult to disting uish from the centur y- old post off ice a few blocks away. By studying its materia l culture, we can see how Santa Barbara manages to preser ve its histor y and heritage and successfully resist the pressures of encroaching urban development. The
Components of Culture Since culture is such a broad concept, it is more easily grasped if we break it down into its constituent parts. Sociologists conceive of culture as consisting of two major categories: material culture and symbolic culture.
Material Culture Material culture is any physical object to which we give social meaning: art and artifacts, tools and utensils, machines and weapons, clothing and furniture, buildings and toys— the list is immense. Any physical thing that people create, use, or appreciate might be considered material culture.
Examining material culture can tell us a great deal about a particular group or society. Just look around you, whether in your dorm room, a library, a coffeehouse, or a park— there should be many items that you can identify as belonging to material culture. Start with your own clothes and accessories and then extend your observations to your surroundings— the room, building, landscaping, street, neighborhood, com- munity, and further outward. For instance, the designer
label on a woman’s purse might convey that she follows the cur- rent fashion trends, or the ath- letic logo on a man’s T- shirt might tell us that he is into skateboarding. Likewise, the carpeting, light fixtures, furni- ture, and artwork in a building
MATERIAL CULTURE the objects associated with a cultural group, such as tools, machines, utensils, buildings, and artwork; any physical object to which we give social meaning
Components of Culture 79
meaningfully represent some- thing else. They all convey infor- mation. Numbers and letters are the most common signs, but you are probably familiar with lots of other graphic symbols indi- cating, for instance, which is the men’s or women’s restroom or whether it’s unisex, where the elevator is going, how to pause the video you’re watching, or in which lane you should be driving.
While we can easily take for granted the meaning of most symbols, others we may have to learn when we first encoun- ter them. Some symbols may be nearly universal, while others may be particular to a given culture. It may take some inter- pretive work to understand what a sign means if you are unfa- miliar with the context in which it is displayed.
Take emojis, for instance, those cute (or devious) little expressions that we can add to our text messages and social media posts. Originally developed in Japan, where the word emoji means “pictograph,” these symbols have become
distinctive “old Ca lifornia” look and feel of the city is per- haps its greatest charm, something that appea ls to loca ls and a steady f lock of tourists a like.
Symbolic Culture Nonmaterial or symbolic culture reflects the ideas and beliefs of a group of people. It can be something as specific as a certain rule or custom, such as driving on the right side of the road in the United States and on the left side in the United Kingdom. It can also be a broad social system, such as democracy, or a large- scale social pattern, such as marriage. Because symbolic culture is so important to social life, let’s look further at some of its main components.
COMMUNICATION: SIGNS, GESTURES, AND LAN- GUAGE One of the most important functions of symbolic culture is to allow us to communicate— through signs, ges- tures, and language. These form the basis of social interac- tion and are the foundation of culture.
Signs (or symbols) such as traffic signals, price tags, notes on sheet music, or product logos have all been designed to
SYMBOLIC CULTURE the ideas associated with a cultural group, including ways of thinking (beliefs, values, and assumptions) and ways of behaving (norms, interactions, and communication)
SIGNS symbols that stand for or convey an idea
Gestures and Body Language If you travel to a foreign culture, pay special attention to how others interpret your body language. Common friendly gestures in one culture can be offensive or confusing in another.
CHAPTER 3 Culture80
around us; and to share our perspectives on reality. In this way, the cumulative experience of a group of people— their culture— can be contained in and presented through language.
Language is so important that many have argued that it shapes not only our communication but our perception— the way that we see things— as well. In the 1930s, anthropolo- gists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf conducted research on the impact of language on the mind. In work- ing with the Hopi tribe in the American Southwest, the anthropologists claimed to have discovered that the Hopi had no words to distinguish the past, present, or future and that, therefore, they did not “see” or experience time in the same way as those whose language provided such words. The result of this research was the development of what is known as the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis (some- times referred to as the principle of linguistic relativity). Their hypothesis broke from traditional understandings about language by asserting that language actually struc- tures thought, that perception not only suggests the need for words with which to express what is perceived but also that the words themselves help create those same perceptions (Sapir 1949; Whorf 1956).
The studies by Sapir and Whorf were not published until the 1950s, when they were met with competing linguistic theories. In particular, the idea that Eskimos (or Inuits, as they are now called) had many more words for snow than people of Western cultures was sharply challenged, as was the notion that the Hopi had no words for future or past tense (Martin 1986; Pullum 1991). Although there is still some disagreement about how strongly language influences thought (Edgerton 1992), the ideas behind the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis continue to influence numerous social thinkers. Language does play a significant role in how people con- struct a sense of reality and how they categorize the people, places, and things around them. For instance, the work of sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel (2003) looks at how different groups (such as Jews and Arabs, or Serbs and Croats) use language to construct an understanding of their heritage— through what he calls “social memory.” In a country like the United States, where there are approximately 43 million foreign- born people who speak well over 100 different lan- guages, there are bound to be differences in perceptual reali- ties as a result (Lopez and Radford 2017).
Does the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis hold true for your world? Let’s take an example closer to home. Perhaps you have seen the 2004 movie Mean Girls, loosely based on a pop sociology book by Rosalind Wiseman, Queen Bees and Wan- nabes, about the culture of high school girls (2002). Both book and film present a social map of the cafeteria and school grounds, identifying where different groups of students— the “jocks,” “cheerleaders,” “goths,” “preppies,” “skaters,” “nerds,” “ hacky- sack kids,” “easy girls,” and “partiers”—hang
ubiquitous around the world. Over one thousand emojis are now recognized as part of the Unicode Standard for comput- ing, and more are being added every year. Recently, the human emojis (or emoticons) were modi- fied so that you could choose among a range of skin tones and hair colors in an attempt to better represent our diversity. Although widely used, not every emoji is understood in the same way by all people. The sleepy face emoji is one of the most confus- ing; because it has a water drop between the eyes and mouth, most people think it’s crying, but in fact that’s not a tear but rather
a droplet of drool, which is supposed to indicate sleeping. Gestures are signs made with the body— clapping, nod-
ding, smiling, or any number of facial expressions. Some- times, these acts are referred to as “body language” or “nonverbal communication,” since they don’t require any words. Gestures can be as subtle as a knowing glance or as obvious as a raised fist. Most of the time, we can assume that other people will get what we are trying to say with our ges- tures. But, while gestures might seem natural and universal, just a matter of common sense, few of them besides those that represent basic emotions are innate; most have to be learned. For instance, the “thumbs up” sign, which is associated with praise or approval in the United States, might be interpreted as an obscene or insulting gesture in parts of Asia or South America. Every culture has its own way of expressing praise and insulting others. So before leaving for a country whose culture is unfamiliar, it might be worth finding out whether shaking hands and waving goodbye are appropriate ways to communicate.
Language, probably the most significant component of culture, is what has allowed us to fully develop and express ourselves as human beings, and it is what distinguishes us from all other species on the planet. Although language varies from culture to culture, it is a human universal and present in all societies. It is one of the most complex, fluid, and creative symbol systems: letters or pictograms are combined to form words, and words combined to form sentences, in an almost infinite number of possible ways.
Language is the basis of symbolic culture and the pri- mary means through which we communicate with one another. It allows us to convey complicated abstract con- cepts and to pass along a culture from one generation to the next. Language helps us to conceive of the past and to plan for the future; to categorize the people, places, and things
GESTURES the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate without words; actions that have symbolic meaning
LANGUAGE a system of communication using vocal sounds, gestures, or written symbols; the basis of symbolic culture and the primary means through which we communicate with one another and perpetuate our culture
SAPIR- WHORF HYPOTHESIS the idea that language structures thought and that ways of looking at the world are embedded in language
Components of Culture 81
much more important than it is now. In today’s economy, workers realize that they may be “downsized” in times of financial trouble or that they may change careers over the course of their lifetime and hence feel less obligation to an employer.
NORMS Norms are the rules and guidelines regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable; they develop directly out of a culture’s value system. Whether legal regulations or just social expectations, norms are largely agreed upon by most members of a group. Some norms are formal, which means they are officially codified and explicitly stated. These include laws such as those making it illegal to speed in a school zone or drink before you turn twenty- one. Other formal norms include the rules for playing basketball or the requirements for membership in your college’s honor society, the rights secured by the Amendments to the U.S. Constitu- tion, and the behavioral prescriptions conveyed in the Ten Commandments. Despite the relative authority of formal norms, they are not always followed.
Other norms are informal, meaning that they are implicit and unspoken. For instance, when we wait in line to buy tick- ets for a movie, we expect that no one will cut in front of us. Informal norms are so much a part of our assumptions about life that they are embedded in our consciousness; they cover almost every aspect of our social lives, from what we say and do to even how we think and feel. Though we might have difficulty listing all the norms that are a part of everyday life, most of us have learned them quite well. They are simply “the way things are done.” Often, it is only when norms are violated (as when someone cuts in line) that we recognize they exist.
Norms can be broken down further into three types. Folk- ways are the ordinary con ven- tions of everyday life about what is acceptable or proper and are not always strictly enforced. Folkways are the customary ways that people do things, and they ensure smooth and orderly social interactions. Examples are standards of dress and rules of etiquette: in most places, wearing flip- flops with a business suit and eating with your fingers from the buffet line is just not done! When people do not conform to folkways, they are thought of as peculiar or eccentric but not necessarily dangerous.
out. The book also includes the “populars” (referred to in the movie as the “plastics”) and the popular “wannabes.”
You were probably aware of similar categories for distin- guishing groups at your school. Do such classification sys- tems influence the way you see other people? Do they lead you to identify people by type and place them into those catego- ries? If no such labels existed (or if your school had different labels), would you still perceive your former classmates the same way? Probably not. These kinds of questions highlight how important language is to the meanings we give to our everyday world.
Values, Norms, and Sanctions Values and norms are symbolic culture in thought and action. When we know the values of a particular group and see how individuals are controlled by its social norms, then we can appreciate their beliefs and ideals and find the evidence of these throughout their everyday lives.
VALUES Values are the set of shared beliefs that a group of people considers to be worthwhile or desirable in life— what is good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly. They articulate the essence of everything that a cultural group cherishes in its society. For instance, most Americans value the equality and individual freedoms of democracy. Struc- tural functionalists, such as Durkheim, stress the strength of shared values and their role in regulating the behavior of society’s members. However, there is not always widespread agreement about which values should represent a society, and values may change or new values may emerge over time. For example, workers’ loyalty to their company was once
Mean Girls and the Cafeteria Classification System A scene from the film Mean Girls illustrates the different classification schemes that are used to identify and categorize the world around us.
VALUES ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or worthy in a particular group; they express what the group cherishes and honors
NORMS rules or guidelines regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable and appropriate within a particular culture; these typically emanate from the group’s values
LAWS types of norms that are formally codified to provide an explicit statement about what is permissible or forbidden, legal or illegal in a given society
FOLKWAYS loosely enforced norms involving common customs, practices, or procedures that ensure smooth social interaction and acceptance
CHAPTER 3 Culture8282
Mores are norms that carry a greater moral significance and are more closely related to the core values of a cultural group. Unlike folkways, mores are norms to which practically everyone is expected to conform. Breaches are treated seriously and in some cases can bring severe repercussions. Such mores as the prohibition of theft, rape, and murder are also formalized,
so that there is not only public condemnation for such acts but also strict laws against them. Taboos, actually a type of mores, are the most powerful of all norms. We sometimes use the word in a casual way to indicate, say, a forbidden subject. But as a sociological term it holds even greater meaning. Taboos are extremely serious. Sociologists say that our sense
Let’s talk about sex on campus.Both Dr. Ferris’s and Dr. Stein’s schools (public, state- funded institutions) provide on- campus sexual health ser- vices for students, including a wide range of contraceptive choices, STI (sexually transmitted infection) testing and treatment, and pregnancy testing. Does your college health services center offer these services, too?
Many colleges and universities do not offer students the full range of sexual health- care services, and some offer none at all. For example, Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash- ington, offers no contraceptive benefits to students but does cover STIs. While only a small percentage of Catholic univer- sities in the United States have offered any kind of contracep- tion to students, there has been some pushback at campuses such as Fordham, especially since the passage of the Afford- able Care Act, which mandated coverage (Catholics for a Free Choice 2002; Edwards- Levy 2012). It’s harder to generalize about non- Catholic religious schools— some do, some don’t. Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City and Texas Chris- tian University in Fort Worth, for example, do offer contra- ception to students, while Liberty University in Virginia and Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts don’t appear to offer any birth control services. Schools without religious affiliations are more likely to offer contraceptive services if they have a student health center, but these are not found on all campuses.
Universities have their own cultures that include tradi- tions, customs, beliefs, and values, just like any other cultural group. Some universities borrow their cultural values from the larger organizations (such as religious groups) that spon- sor them; even unaffiliated universities have statements of their institutional values on their websites.
What does it mean for you that your college may be guided by a set of institutional policies that prohibits dispensing contraception to students? It means that some of your most personal, private, individual choices have already been made
IN RELATIONSHIPS Individual Values vs. University Culture
for you (or at least made more complicated for you) by your school. It’s possible that your individual values coincide with your college’s culture when it comes to such issues. But if your university’s institutional values and your individual values are different, you may find yourself in a situation where the university has some unanticipated control over your every- day life and personal relationships. Schools can mandate who your dorm roommate can be (and whether you can room with someone you know, or someone of the same or opposite sex); they can make and enforce rules about your academic and ath- letic activities; they can decide what kind of medical care you can get on campus. They can even influence your sex life.
University Culture Like other cultural groups, universities have traditions, customs, beliefs, and values that can affect students’ everyday lives.
Components of Culture 83
work supervisors, and even parents. Each has a certain amount of power that they can exercise to get others to follow their rules. So when someone is caught violating a norm, there is usually some prescribed sanction that will then be administered, serving as a deterrent to that behavior.
But equally important in maintaining social order is the process of socialization by which people internalize norms. For instance, in 1983, the U.S. Department of Trans- portation pioneered the slogan “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”; a few years later, the term “designated driver” was introduced into the popular lexi- con. Over the years, these slogans have helped change the way we think about our personal respon- sibility for others, with nearly 80 percent of Americans now claiming that they have taken action to prevent someone from driving while intoxicated. What began as an external statement of social mores quickly became our own personal sense of moral- ity. We are often unaware of the extent to which our own con- science keeps us from violating social norms in the first place. If we have internalized norms, then outside sanctions are no longer needed to make us do the right thing. Social control, then, frequently looks like self- control and is taught through the socialization process by family, peers, the media, and religious organizations, among others.
of what is taboo is so deeply ingrained that the very thought of committing a taboo act, such as cannibalism or incest, evokes strong feelings of disgust or horror.
Norms are specific to a culture, time period, and situation. What are folkways to one group might be mores to another. For instance, public nudity is acceptable in many cultures, whereas it is not only frowned upon in American culture but also illegal in most instances. At the same time, Americans do permit nudity in such situations as strip clubs and nudist resorts, allowing for a kind of moral holiday from the strictures of imposed norms. At certain times, such as Mardi Gras and spring break, mild norm violations are tolerated. Certain places may also lend themselves to the suspension of norms— think Las Vegas (and the slogan “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”).
Similarly, what would be considered murder on the city streets might be regarded as va lor on the battlefield. And we are probably a ll aware of how the folkways around proper etiquette and attire can vary greatly from one gen- eration to the next; fifty years ago, girls were just starting to wear jeans to school, for example. Now they come to school in a ll sorts of casua l attire, including pajama bot- toms and slippers.
SANCTIONS Sanctions are a means of enforcing norms. They include rewards for conformity and punishments for violations. Positive sanctions express approval and may come in the form of a handshake, a smile, praise, or perhaps an award. Negative sanctions express disapproval and may come in the form of a frown, harsh words, or perhaps a fine or incarceration.
From a functionalist perspective, we can see how sanctions help to establish social control, ensuring that people behave to some degree in acceptable ways and thus promoting social cohesion. There are many forms of authority in our culture— from the government and police to school administrators,
Norms Are Specific to a Situation, Culture, and Time Period For example, Mardi Gras and spring break are often considered “moral holidays,” times when mild norm violations are tolerated.
MORES norms that carry great moral significance, are closely related to the core values of a cultural group, and often involve severe repercussions for violators
TABOO a norm ingrained so deeply that even thinking about violating it evokes strong feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion
MORAL HOLIDAY a specified time period during which some norm violations are allowed
SANCTIONS positive or negative reactions to the ways that people follow or disobey norms, including rewards for conformity and punishments for violations
SOCIAL CONTROL the formal and informal mechanisms used to elicit conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion
CHAPTER 3 Culture84
the student center on campus, or a large family gather- ing. Spend at least 30 minutes in the setting, consider- ing both the material and symbolic culture embodied in your field site. Jot down notes with some specific details about what you see, both in the physical environ- ment and in social interactions among members of the group.
Step 3: Identifying Cultural Components Read through your field notes and reflect on your experi- ence. Then consider the following questions:
✱ What aspects of material culture did you notice in the setting? This can include the physical surround- ings, architecture, furniture, equipment, clothing, artwork, food, or other objects. Can you explain the meaning, function, or purpose of particular items of material culture?
✱ What did you notice about language in the setting? Are there any particular words, terms, mottos, or sayings that are commonly used among members? What are their meanings? What else did you notice about talk and interaction in the setting? Were there
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Seeing Culture in a Subculture When it comes to culture, we are like fish in water. Because we’re so deeply immersed in it, we may not really see it. When culture becomes something we take for granted, we
lose sight of what’s distinctive or different about it. One of the best ways to “see” culture is to approach it as an out- sider, or as someone who is learning about it for the first time. Even if it’s a culture to which you’ve belonged your entire life, you can always act as if you are a new member trying to understand your group. In any event, to better appreciate culture you’ll need to suspend your ethnocen- trism and practice cultural relativism.
In this Data Workshop, you will be examining a sub- cultural group to which you belong. As someone living in a diverse, modern society, you are likely to belong to many subcultural groups. You’ll be doing some participant obser- vation research in a social setting (and taking field notes), focusing on various components of material and symbolic culture that help to define your group. At the same time you’ll be reflecting on your own membership in the group, and writing a short ethnography about it. Refer to the sec- tion in Chapter 2 on participant observation/ethnographic research methods for a review before conducting your study.
Step 1: Choosing Your Cultural Group Begin by choosing a subculture to examine. There are numerous possibilities. You could choose an ethnic group (such as Latino or African American), a nationality (such as Mexican or Swedish), a religion (such as Catholic or Mormon), an occupation (such as a server or parking valet), a sports team or club (such as intramural Ultimate Frisbee or student government), or an interest or hobby (such as video gaming or crafting). With so many from which to choose, the most important thing is to select one that gives you plenty of material to work with and is easy to observe. Provide a brief description of the subcultural group and its members.
Step 2: Observing Group Culture Find a place where you can observe members of your subculture in some naturally occurring social setting. Depending on which subculture you choose, you might visit a church, park, or gym, a retail store or restaurant,
Culture on Campus College campuses are home to myriad subcultures, including “Quidditch” players and members of the Muslim Students Association.
Variations in Culture 85
any signs or other written materials associated with the setting?
✱ What aspects of symbolic culture are part of this sub- culture? Describe values that members of the group uphold, listing at least three values that are key to the group’s culture. What are the group’s ideas, beliefs, or attitudes? Does the group have a mission or goal?
✱ What kinds of social norms guide the behavior of individuals, and how are these norms related to group values? What are the folkways of the group? How do these folkways shape what members do or say? What are some of the rules governing mem- bers? Why are they important?
✱ What did you observe in the setting that seemed especially familiar or unfamiliar to you? Was there anything that surprised you? What insights were you able to gain by suspending ethnocentrism and practicing cultural relativism? What did you learn about yourself as a member of the subculture after conducting this study?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Do the fieldwork outlined in Steps 1 and 2, and bring your field notes with you to class for reference. In groups of two or three, discuss your expe- riences and exchange answers to the questions in Step 3. Take this opportunity to learn more about different sub- cultural groups.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Write a three- to four- page essay analyzing your field experiences and taking into consid- eration the questions in Step 3. Make sure to refer to your field notes in the essay and include them as an attachment to your paper.
Variations in Culture We know there are differences between cultures, but there can also be variations within cultures. For instance, sociologists who have tried to identify the core values that make up Ameri- can society (Bellah et al. 1985; Williams 1965) have found that while there do seem to be certain beliefs that most Americans share, such as freedom and democracy, there are also incon- sistencies between such beliefs as individualism (in which we do what is best for ourselves) and humanitarianism (in which we do what is best for others), and between equality and group superiority. New values such as self- fulfillment and environmentalism could also be added to the list, having gained popularity in recent years.
It is even difficult to speak of an “American culture.” “Cul- tural diversity” and “multiculturalism” have both become buzzwords in the past few decades, precisely because people are aware of the increasing variety of cultural groups within American society. Multiculturalism generally describes a policy that involves honoring the diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds of various individuals and groups. In the following chapters, we will explore some of these differences in greater depth.
Dominant Culture Although “culture” is a term we usually apply to an entire group of people, what we find in reality is that there are often many subgroups within a larger culture, each with its own particular makeup. These subgroups, however, are not all equal. Some, by virtue of size, wealth, or historical happen- stance, are able to lay claim to greater power and influence in society than others. The values, norms, and practices of the most powerful groups are referred to as the mainstream or dominant culture, while others are seen as “alternative” or minority views. The power of the dominant cul- ture may mean that other ways of seeing and doing things are rel- egated to second- class status— in this way, dominant culture can produce cultural hegemony, or dominance (Gramsci 1985, 1988).
Let’s take popular music as an example. Commercial radio stations often have very limited playlists. No matter what the genre (country, pop, hip- hop, metal), the songs played are determined by station and record company business interests, not your artistic preferences. Truly new artists and alternative sounds are more likely to be heard on public, college, or satellite radio stations or online. Even music streaming services like Pandora or Spotify must deliver audiences to advertisers, which may make it harder to resist the pressure to “mainstream.” The dominant sta- tus of commercial radio (even online) and the corporate inter- ests of the music industry dictate that musicians outside the mainstream will never be as big as Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.
Subcultures and Countercultures If sociologists focus only on the dominant culture in Ameri- can society, we risk overlooking the inequalities that struc- ture our society— as well as the influences that even small
MULTICULTURALISM a policy that values diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds and so encourages the retention of cultural differences within the larger society
DOMINANT CULTURE the values, norms, and practices of the group within society that is most powerful (in terms of wealth, prestige, status, influence, etc.)
HEGEMONY term developed by Antonio Gramsci to describe the cultural aspects of social control, whereby the ideas of the dominant group are accepted by all
CHAPTER 3 Culture8686
If you are not an otaku, you probably don’t know what otaku is. If you are an otaku, you may not want others to know what otaku is, since otaku culture has often been misunderstood by those on the outside. So, what is otaku?
Otaku is a Japanese word used to describe devoted fans, usually of manga, anime, or video games. Otaku are extremely knowledgeable about whatever it is they are fans of— and while that kind of obsessive interest is sometimes looked down upon by others, otaku themselves see this intense knowledge as a badge of honor. They view themselves as dedicated rather than obsessed, connoisseurs rather than fanatics, and superior to other hobbyists who aren’t as eru- dite about the object of their enthusiasm. In fact, otaku may now be certified as experts in Japan bytaking a rigorous, nationally recognized exam (McNicol 2006).
Organizing and displaying their belongings is a cen- tral part of otaku culture— many otaku have special rooms in their homes for their museum- like collections of action figures, paintings, or comic books. Photographs of otaku in their “otaku spaces” (Galbraith 2012) illuminate the connection among fantasy worlds, material commodities, and virtual communities that otaku culture uniquely embodies.
Once confined entirely to Japan (and to small neighbor- hood clubs even there), the Internet has made otaku culture accessible to people all over the world. Indeed, fans of just about everything now depend on social media to connect them with one another and to allow them to share their fasci- nations with others who appreciate what it means to be truly dedicated. Otaku who in the past might have been viewed with suspicion because of their intense involvement in what others considered a fringe pastime can now validate their commitments by interacting with others who share their interests, whether they are down the street or a world away.
Closely related to its reliance on social media, otaku cul- ture is also characterized by its global reach. Indeed, what is distinctive about otaku culture is the uncommon direction in which it has traveled. Instead of the United States or another Western culture spreading eastward, otaku culture is an
example of the East influencing the West: otaku represents the globalization and transnationalization of what had previ- ously been Japan- specific. As science fiction writer William Gibson (2001) says, “There is something post- national about it, extra- geographic,” meaning that in otaku culture, citizen- ship matters less than shared interests, nationality less than knowledge, and location less than expertise. Your identity is defined by what you’re into, by where your passions lie, and by what “geeks you out.”
Whether or not your passion is for manga, anime, or video games, if you’re an obsessive fan of some other genre of enter- tainment, and you’re deeply involved in its culture of fandom, then perhaps you can also appreciate what it means to be an otaku.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Otaku Culture and the Globalization of Niche Interests
East to West The Internet helped spread otaku culture from Japan to the rest of the world.
cultural groups outside the mainstream can exert. The United States is filled with thousands of different cultural groups, any of which could be called a subculture— a cul- ture within a culture. A subculture is a particular social group that has a distinctive way of life, including its own
set of values and norms, practices, and beliefs, but that exists harmoniously within the larger mainstream culture. A subculture can be based on ethnicity, age, interests, or anything else that draws individuals together. Any of the following groups could be considered subcultures within
Variations in Culture 87
Anonymous, an international group of cyber activists— or “hacktivists”—who carry out their attacks online, is another example of a countercultural group. While loosely organized, members of Anonymous are united in their opposition to censorship or governmental or institutional control of the Internet. As such, their targets have included large corporations and major financial institutions such as Nissan, Visa, PayPal, Bank of America, and the New York Stock Exchange. Members of Anonymous have also sought to undermine the operations of terrorist organizations such as ISIS. Their tactics often involve disrupting or disabling the computer networks or social media accounts of their adversaries or leaking damaging classified or sensitive information. At the same time, Anonymous has also lent its computer skills to social movements such as Black Lives Matter to help advance their cause. Want to learn more about the hacker subculture? According to a member of Anonymous, USA Network’s breakout hit Mr. Robot about a fictional hacktivist collective called fsociety, is “the most accurate portrayal of security and hacking culture ever to grace the screen” (Wortham 2015).
Culture Wars Although a countercultural group can pose a threat to the larger society, conflict does not always come from the extreme margins of society; it can also emerge from within
American society: Korean Americans, senior citizens, snow- boarders, White Sox fans, greyhound owners, firefighters, Trekkers.
A counterculture, another kind of subgroup, differs from a subculture in that its norms and values are often incompat- ible with or in direct opposition to the mainstream (Zellner 1995). Some countercultures are political or activist groups attempting to bring about social change; others resist main- stream values by living outside society or practicing an alter- native lifestyle. In the 1960s, hippies, antiwar protesters, feminists, and others on the so- called political left were col- lectively known as “the counterculture.” But radicals come in many stripes. Any group that opposes the dominant culture— whether they are eco- terrorists, computer hackers, or modern- day polygamists— can be considered a counterculture.
In the mid- 1990s, American countercultures of the far right gained prominence in the wake of two high- profile events. The FBI’s 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian com- pound in Waco, Texas, which resulted in eighty- two deaths, became a source of inspiration for other groups that promote armed resistance to government forces. Two years later, in April 1995, a man with ties to “militia” or “patriot” groups, Timothy McVeigh, detonated a bomb in the Alfred R. Mur- rah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Members of the “militia movement,” who trace their heritage to the Minutemen of the American Revolution (an elite fight- ing force, the first to arrive at a battle), see themselves as the last line of defense for the liberties outlined in the U.S. Con- stitution. Moreover, they believe that the federal government has become the enemy of those liberties. They hold that gun control, environmental protection laws, and other legisla- tion violate individual and states’ rights.
In 1996, a year after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Southern Poverty Law Center counted a record 858 active groups in the United States belonging to the “militia move- ment.” More recently, they have tracked a resurgence in mili- tia groups since the 2008 election of Barack Obama. In 2015, the number of anti- government “patriot” groups hit a new high of 998 (Southern Poverty Law Center 2016). The first days of 2016 brought another highly publicized event, a forty- one- day armed occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by a group of ranchers demanding that the government return the land to local control. Before the stand- off ended in mid- February 2016, one of the ranchers was shot to death during a pursuit by FBI and state troopers. At the end of the siege, the occupiers were arrested and charges were filed against them. Ultimately, seven of the ranchers, includ- ing the leaders of the group, brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were acquitted of federal conspiracy and weapons charges. The verdict came as a surprise to many, and some critics fear that it will embolden other groups. According to the FBI, such “sovereign citizens,” as they are sometimes called, are among the greatest threat to law enforcement in the United States (Dickson 2014; Kurzman and Schanzer 2015).
Hacker Subculture Rami Malek plays a member of fictional hacktivist group fsociety on the popular TV show Mr. Robot. Hackers, like members of Anonymous, are a current example of a countercultural group.
SUBCULTURE a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle
COUNTERCULTURE a group within society that openly rejects or actively opposes society’s values and norms
CHAPTER 3 Culture88
the San Francisco 49ers, caused an uproar when he protested racial oppression and inequality in the United States by kneel- ing during the National Anthem. Other NFL players followed suit. And at the end of the season, after their team clinched the Super Bowl, a number of players on the New England Patri- ots declined their invitation to the White House to meet with President Trump (Mather 2017).
We could add many more examples to the list of battle- ground issues, including family values, LGBTQ rights, immi- gration, bio- medical ethics, gun violence, and school prayer. Culture wars are bound to continue as we confront the diffi- cult realities that are a part of living in a multicultural, demo- cratic society.
Ideal vs. Real Culture Some norms and values are more aspired to than actually prac- ticed. It is useful to draw a distinction between ideal culture, the norms and values that members of a society believe should be observed in principle, and real culture, the patterns of behavior that actually exist. Whether it is an organization that falls short of its own mission statement or a person who says one thing and does another (a self- described vegetarian, for example, who sometimes enjoys a Big Mac), what people believe in and what they do may be two different things.
An enduring example of the difference between ideal and real cultures is the United States itself. For a nation that has enshrined in its founding documents the notion that “all men are created equal,” it continues to have trouble realizing full equality for all its citizens. From slavery to Western expansion, from the oppression of women and discrimination against ethnic minorities to the battle for transgender rights, we are still a nation that believes in equality but doesn’t always deliver it.
the mainstream. Culture in any diverse society is characterized by points of tension and divi- sion. There is not always uni- form agreement about which values and norms ought to be upheld, leading to culture wars like the one currently unfolding over transgender rights. These clashes are frequently played out in the media and online, where social commentators, political pundits, and bloggers debate the issues. Culture wars are mainly waged over values and moral-
ity and the solutions to social problems, with liberals and conservatives fighting to define culture in the United States (Hunter 1991, 2006).
Culture wars often play out on the political stage. To some degree, the rise of the ultraconservative Tea Party move- ment in the last decade was a response to a host of conten- tious social issues such as abortion and same- sex marriage. Republican- based Tea Partyers favor small government and have called for drastic cuts in taxes and social welfare fund- ing, among other things. The Alt- Right, another conservative spin- off, has gained power more recently, while Trumpism has highlighted deep political and cultural divisions among Americans.
Popular culture is another site of frequent debate in the cul- ture wars. One area of concern is the contents of entertainment media, especially when it contains graphic material such as violence, drug use, or sexuality. Celebrities and sports figures who serve as role models may also stir controversy. During the 2016–2017 NFL season, Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for
Culture Wars Today a culture war is waging over transgender rights. Many states have introduced bathroom bills, legislation that requires people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their assigned sex. As a 49ers player, Colin Kaepernick protested racial inequality and oppression by kneeling during the National Anthem, inspiring his teammates to do the same.
CULTURE WARS clashes within mainstream society over the values and norms that should be upheld
IDEAL CULTURE the norms, values, and patterns of behavior that members of a society believe should be observed in principle
REAL CULTURE the norms, values, and patterns of behavior that actually exist within a society (which may or may not correspond to the society’s ideals)
Variations in Culture 89
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
How the Image Shapes the Need Yet another photo of Kim Kardashian in sky- high Louboutins is splashed across the tabloids. This time she’s at a service station, pumping her own gas into a white- hot Ferrari
458 Italia. Most of us cannot afford such status symbols, but it doesn’t stop us from wondering what it would be like to wear designer shoes or drive an exotic sports car. In fact, advertisers want to sell us just those kind of fantasies, effec- tively cashing in on two of our most basic human needs in contemporary society— clothing and transportation. For most people, clothes and cars have become something of a necessity of modern life, even if we don’t actually need these things to survive. For many reasons we need to get dressed and we need to get around somehow, but our desire for clothing and transportation is not determined by instinct alone. So how does culture, in particular through the media, influence the ways in which we satisfy those needs?
For this Data Workshop, you will be using existing sources— specifically, popular magazines in print or online— to discover how culture gives meaning to items considered necessary for modern living. You will be doing content analysis to arrive at your conclusions. Refer back to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method.
Pick your necessity— clothes or cars. Now go to your local bookstore or newsstand, or go online, and identify a magazine dedicated to that necessity. For example, you could choose a magazine such as InStyle, Essence, or Vogue for women’s clothing, or GQ, Details, or Esquire for men’s
Popular Magazines What kinds of lifestyles are these magazines trying to sell to consumers?
clothing. For cars, you could choose Car and Driver, Road and Track, or Motor Trend. Immerse yourself in the con- tent of the magazine, looking over the headlines, articles, photo spreads, and advertisements. Then consider the fol- lowing questions. Support your answers with data in the form of clippings, photocopies, or screenshots of images and text taken from the print magazines or their websites.
✱ How is the modern necessity of [clothing or cars] presented in the magazine? Can you find any themes, patterns, or topics that seem predominant in the magazine?
✱ Describe one example of material culture (physical objects) and one example of symbolic culture (lan- guage, norms) that best represent the magazine’s approach to [clothing or cars].
✱ What values or beliefs about [clothing or cars] are reflected in the magazine? What kind of messages are embedded in the images and text in articles and advertisements?
✱ How does the magazine suggest that we satisfy our needs for [clothing or cars]? How much of the maga- zine’s content is about satisfying just the bare mini- mum of our need for [clothing or cars]?
✱ Who is the magazine’s intended audience? How are you addressed as the reader? How does the maga- zine affect you and your desires for [clothing or cars]? Do you find yourself wanting the [clothing or cars] pictured?
✱ Who benefits when you act on your desires by pur- chasing the products featured in the magazine?
✱ Finally, which force is more important in shap- ing human behavior when it comes to modern necessities— instinct or culture?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Collect your data from the mag- azine and jot down some preliminary notes based on your answers to the questions provided. Bring your examples to class and present them to a partner who has chosen the same topic (cars or clothing). Compare and contrast your answers and develop them further together.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Write a three- to four- page essay based on your answers to the questions provided. In addi- tion, discuss your experience of doing content analysis of existing sources for research. Provide your examples of data (in print or digital format) as an attachment to the paper.
CHAPTER 3 Culture90
Cultural Change Cultures usually change slowly and incrementally, although change can also happen in rapid and dramatic ways. We saw rapid change as a result of the social movements of the 1960s, and we may be seeing it again, albeit for different reasons, as we move through the early decades of the 2000s. Change is usually thought of as “progress”—we move from what seem to be outmoded ways of doing things to more innovative prac- tices. Earlier in the chapter, we saw how variations in culture, whether they resulted from multiculturalism, countercul- tures, or culture wars, could all lead to growth and change in the larger society. Now we look at several other important processes that can also contribute to cultural change.
Technological Change One of the most significant influences on any society is its material culture. And most changes in material culture tend to be technological. We usually equate technology with “ hi- tech” electronic or digital devices. But technology can be anything from a hammer to the space shuttle, from graffiti to a search engine algorithm to hypertext markup language (HTML), as well as the “know how” it takes to use it.
New technology often provides the basis and structure through which culture is disseminated to members of a social group. For instance, we are currently living in the Digital Age or Information Age, a revolutionary time in history spurred
by the invention of the computer microchip. This technology has already produced radical changes in society, much as the steam engine did during the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
One of the most prominent fea- tures of this Information Age is the spread of mass and social media. It
was not until the 1950s that television became a regular part of daily life in the United States and only in the 1990s that the Inter- net became commonplace. Cell phones morphed into smart- phones in the 2000s, while tablet devices and cloud computing allowed for storing and streaming content in the 2010s. Most of us now would have trouble remembering life before these tech- nological advancements; that’s how much we rely on them and take them for granted. This digital revolution is shaping our culture— and the rest of the world— at an increasingly rapid pace.
Cultural Diffusion and Cultural Leveling Cultural change can also occur when different groups share their material and nonmaterial culture with each other, a process called cultural diffusion. Since each culture has its
own tools, beliefs, and practices, exposure to another culture may mean that certain aspects of it will then be appropriated. For example, as McDonald’ s- style restaurants set up shop in cultures where fast food had previously been unknown, it wasn’t only hamburgers that got relocated— other aspects of fast- food culture came along as well.
Eric Schlosser (2002) began seeing the effects of a Western diet on the Japanese during the 1980s, when they doubled their consumption of fast- food meals— and their rates of obesity. Their risks of heart disease and stroke also increased. Although Japan has some of the lowest obesity rates in the world, there was enough concern about it that a law was passed in 2008 requiring people between the ages of forty- five and seventy- four to have their waistlines measured once a year. Those falling outside the acceptable range are encouraged to seek medical attention (Marsh 2016). The “Metabo Law” addresses other diet- related problems, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, and has been widely promoted in the country. While it is difficult to prove how much fast food is to blame for worsening health conditions in Japan, it is clear that a single cultural product cannot be exported without carrying a raft of cultural consequences with it.
Cultural diffusion usually occurs in the direction from more developed to less developed nations. In particular, “Western” culture has spread rapidly to the rest of the world— driven by capitalism and globalization and aided by new forms of transportation and communication that allow for ever faster exchanges.
Cultural leveling occurs when cultures that were once distinct become increasingly similar to one another. If you travel, you may have already seen this phenomenon in towns across the United States and countries around the world. The Walmarts on the interstates, for instance, have driven independent mom- and- pop stores from Main Streets all over
Do You Want Fries with That? As American fast-food restaurants have popped up in Japan, the country’s rates of obesity and heart disease have increased.
TECHNOLOGY material artifacts and the knowledge and techniques required to use them
CULTURAL DIFFUSION the dissemination of material and symbolic culture (tools and technology, beliefs and behavior) from one group to another
American Culture in Perspective 91
the country. Many people bemoan this development and the consequent loss of uniqueness and diversity it represents. As cultures begin to blend, new mixes emerge. This can result in an interesting hybrid— for example, of East and West— but it can also mean a blander, more diluted culture of sameness.
While Western culture is a dominant force in this pro- cess, cultural diffusion and cultural leveling do not have to occur in a one- way direction. Other societies have also had an influence on culture in the United States. For instance, Japanese anime was for many years a fringe interest in the United States, usually associated with computer geeks and other outsiders; now Disney has teamed up with Hayao Miyazaki, Japan’s leading anime filmmaker, to sell his mov- ies (such as Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo) to a mainstream American audience. Still, the United States, the dominant producer of global media, remains the primary exporter of cultural content throughout the world.
Cultural Imperialism Other countries around the world are becoming inundated with America’s TV programs, movies, music, satellite radio, newspapers, magazines, and web content. You can watch MTV in India and Game of Thrones in Uzbekistan, surf the Internet in Vietnam, or listen to Rihanna in Morocco. Many view this increased access to information and entertain- ment as good news for the spread of freedom and democracy. But the media are necessarily a reflection of the culture in which they are produced. So not only are we selling enter- tainment, but also we are implicitly promoting certain West- ern ideas. And it can become a problem when the images and ideas found in the media conflict with the traditional norms and values of other countries.
The proliferation of Western media amounts to what some social critics call cultural imperialism (Schiller 1995). These critics conceive of media as a kind of invading force that enters a country and takes it over— much like an army, but with film, television, music, soft drinks, and running shoes instead of guns. Historically, imperialism involved the conquering of other nations by monarchies for their own glory and enrichment. The British Empire, for example, was once able to use its military might to occupy and control a third of the world’s total land area. But now it is possible to cross a border and to occupy a territory culturally, without setting foot on foreign soil. Because they command so many economic resources, Western media companies are powerful enough to create a form of cultural domination wherever their products go.
Of the countries that consider the messages in Western media dangerous, some forbid or restrict the flow of infor- mation, others impose various kinds of censorship, and still others try to promote their own cultural productions. Iran, for example, officially censors all non- Islamic media content on television, radio, film, and the Internet (though
many Iranians use hidden satellite dishes to plug into illegal Western programming). In the long run, it may be very difficult to prevent cultural imperialism from spreading.
American Culture in Perspective Because American culture is highly visible worldwide, the country’s moral and political values have equally high visibil- ity. That means when reruns of Friends or Grey’s Anatomy air in places like Egypt or Malaysia or Lebanon, American values on the topics of sex, gender, work, and family are being trans- mitted as well. When such military ventures as Operation Enduring Freedom (in Afghanistan) or Operation Iraqi Free- dom are undertaken, part of their mission involves exporting the political values associated with democracy, capitalism, and even Christianity. Well, you may say, Friends is funny, and Grey’s is a great way to kill time, and democracy is a good thing— so what’s the problem here?
In some parts of the world, the premise of these shows would be unthinkable in real life: in many traditional cultures, both women and men live with their parents until they marry, sometimes to partners chosen for them by their families. A show in which
CULTURAL LEVELING the process by which cultures that were once unique and distinct become increasingly similar
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM the imposition of one culture’s beliefs and practices on another culture through media and consumer products rather than by military force
Lady Gaga Lands in Dubai Some social critics maintain that the spread of Western media, such as pop music by Lady Gaga, amounts to cultural imperialism.
CHAPTER 3 Culture9292
IN THE FUTURE Online Radicalization
reduced the territory that ISIS can claim as their Islamic caliphate (or base), the group has been able to survive, and expand, online.
While Islamic extremist groups have been the focus of much attention regarding their online recruitment tactics, they are not the only ones who use them. Domestic extremist groups such as white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups also use the same strategies and tools. In August 2017, members of far-right groups descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, for a Unite the Right rally that erupted in violence when James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car through a group of counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring nineteen others. He was said to be inspired by reading the notorious neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, the same one Dylann Roof visited before his murderous ram- page on a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
The web-hosting company Go Daddy moved swiftly after Charlottesville to take down the Daily Stormer, and it has been rejected by every other domain registrar in the United States and abroad. This shutout has likely sent the site to relocate on the dark web, which can only be accessed by heavily encrypted software that protects a user’s identity (Gaffey 2017). But this doesn’t mean that its extremist ideas—or those espoused by other hate groups—have completely disappeared. It would seem certain that we are going to grapple with issues of free speech and online terrorist recruitment for some time to come.
Online recruitment: Colleges use it to attract students. Employers use it to attract applicants. The armed ser- vices use it to attract trainees. Nonprofits use it to attract volunteers. Charities use it to attract donors. And extremist groups use it to attract followers.
Terrorist organizations, such as ISIS or the Islamic State, have found a powerful new tool in the Internet to spread their ideological message and recruit new members to their cause. Social media in particular has allowed such groups to reach people in Western nations, including the United States. Until very recently, a new recruit would have to actually travel to a hotbed of terrorist activity such as Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria in order to join in with militants using extreme violence in pursuit of their goals. Now, that same person can become radi- calized more quickly than ever before, and all without leaving the country.
Terrorist organizations take advantage of computer whizzes in their ranks and English-speaking militants who are familiar with Western culture to produce and distrib- ute materials that appeal to vulnerable young men cruising the Internet. Twitter and YouTube have proved to be active platforms for American ISIS sympathizers to pick up terror- ist propaganda. This has inspired some to become lone wolf, homegrown, or self-radicalized terrorists such as those who carried out the 2013 bombing in Boston, the 2015 mass shoot- ing in San Bernardino, and the 2016 massacre in Orlando.
Of course, social media user policies explicitly prohibit content that supports or promotes violent or illegal activi- ties, but it still gets through. Twitter has suspended more than 635,000 accounts linked to the Islamic State since 2015, and Facebook and YouTube regularly take down material linked to militant groups. More recently, these social media companies (along with Microsoft) teamed up to develop and share a new program that can more quickly identify and remove the most egregious content, such as recruitment videos and behead- ings (Hennigan 2017). But they haven’t been able to prevent foreign operatives from finding new recruits online, who then move their conversations to encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram, where they can avoid detection.
State intelligence agencies and law enforcement around the world have been largely ineffective in curtailing this com- munication pipeline. They struggle to identify, understand, and intervene in a process that is difficult to trace and that often happens anonymously over the Internet. While mili- tary actions in Afghanistan and elsewhere have substantially
Far-Right Radicalization Far-right groups use Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among other tools, to radicalize young men who feel alienated by the mainstream culture. The Internet has made these men—who refer to themselves as “NEETS,” or “not in education, employment, or training”—more reachable than ever.
93Closing Comments
similar magnitude within the United States as well. The question of the meaning of American culture in a larger global context is a complicated one.
CLOSING COMMENTS In this chapter, we have seen how seemingly simple elements of material culture (cars and comic books) and symbolic cul- ture (norms and values) create complex links between the individual and society, as well as between different societies around the globe. American culture in particular, sociolo- gists often argue, is hegemonic (dominant), in that certain interests (such as creating a global market for American products) prevail, while others (such as encouraging local development and self- determination) are subordinated. Within the United States, this can mean that the cultural norms, values, beliefs, and practices of certain subcultures— such as minority ethnic or religious groups— are devalued. Elsewhere, it can mean that the United States is accused of cultural imperialism by nations whose values and practices are different from its own.
Whose cultural values and practices are “better” or “right”? The sociological perspective avoids these evaluative terms when examining culture, choosing instead to take a relativistic approach. In other words, different cultures should (in most cases) be evaluated not according to outside standards but according to their own sets of values and norms. But we should always recognize that this commitment to cultural relativism is a value in itself— which makes cultural relativism neither right nor wrong but rather a proper subject for intellectual examination.
young men and women live on their own, with almost no fam- ily involvement, dating and sleeping with people to whom they are not married, presents values that are distasteful in these cultures. American values, or at least the perceptions of them shaped by Hollywood and pop- culture exports, can breed negative feelings toward the United States. The value placed on individualism, sexual freedom, and material satis- faction in American life can antagonize cultures that place a higher value on familial involvement and moral and social restraint and may result in anti- American sentiment.
Politics can generate the same anti- American feelings. For example, the United States has recently been involved in attempts to stem the development of nuclear weapons in developing countries like Iran and Pakistan while still maintaining its own nuclear arsenal at home. Other nations may question why American politicians think they should be able to withhold from other countries privileges the United States itself enjoys, such as developing a nuclear weapons program. Much of the resentment against the United States abroad emerges as a result of this type of phenomenon— America’s perceived failure to live up to its own political values and ideals or to apply them fairly to others.
Putting American culture in perspective means recog- nizing that because it is pervasive, it may also be viewed with suspicion and even contempt when the values it expresses clash with those of other cultures. But the nature of anti- Americanism is complex— it’s not merely a failure by other nations to understand “good” television shows or accept “superior” political systems. There are meaningful cultural differences between Americans and others, and we should keep those differences in mind as we read about or travel to other cultures. Indeed, there are cultural differences of
Perspective Approach to Culture Case Study: Religion
Structural Functionalism
Values and norms are widely shared and agreed upon; they contribute to social stability by reinforcing common bonds and constraining individual behavior.
Religion is an important social institution that functions as the basis for the morals and ethics that followers embrace and that are applied to both society and the individual, thus promoting social order.
Conflict Theory
Values and norms are part of the dominant culture and tend to represent and protect the interests of the most powerful groups in society.
Religion serves to control the masses by creating rules for behavior; sanctions against violators may not be equally or fairly applied. Culture wars reflect tensions among groups over which values and norms will dominate.
Symbolic Interactionism
Values and norms are social constructions that may vary over time and in different contexts; meaning is created, maintained, and changed through ongoing social interaction.
Religion consists of beliefs and rituals that are part of the interaction among followers. Reciting the Lord’s Prayer, bowing toward Mecca, and keeping a kosher home are meaningful displays of different religious values and norms. Leaders may play a role in creating social change.
Table 3.1 Theory in Everyday Life
94
Everything You Need to Know about Culture
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
✱ Material culture: Any physical object to which we give social meaning.
✱ Signs: Symbols that stand for or convey ideas.
✱ Gestures: The ways people use their bodies to communicate without words.
✱ Language: A system of communi- cation using vocal sounds, gestures, or written symbols; the primary means through which we communi- cate with each other and perpetuate our culture.
✱ Values: Shared beliefs that a group of people consider to be worthwhile or desirable; they articulate everything that a cultural group cherishes and honors.
✱ Norms: Rules or guidelines regard- ing what kinds of behavior are accept- able and appropriate.
✱ Sanctions: Positive or negative reactions to the ways people follow or disobey norms.
REVIEW 1. List five pieces of material culture
you have with you right now, and explain what these pieces indicate about the tastes, habits, and lifestyles supported by your cultural group.
2. When was the last time you violated a folkway? How were you sanctioned? What sorts of sanctions do we impose on those who go against our accepted mores?
3. Make a list of ways in which the media— including advertisements— reach you each day. How many of these media messages represent mainstream Western ideals? What kinds of media messages do not con- form to these norms?
“ Culture is the entire way of life of a group of people, including both material and symbolic elements, that acts as a lens through which one views the world and is passed from one generation to the next.
“
95
What does the color red mean in different cultures? Seeing Red
1 – Western/American 2 – Japanese 3 – Hindu 4 – Native American 5 – Chinese
6 – Eastern European 7 – Muslim 8 – African 9 – South American
Strength 2
SOURCE: McCandless 2009.
Passion 1,2,3,4,6
Good Luck 5,6,8
Courage 1,6
Danger 1,9
Erotic 1,3
Love 1,6
Marriage 3,5
Radicalism 1,6
Success 4,5,9
Anger 1,2,6,8
Heat 1,3,6,7
Beauty 6
Desire 1
Energy 3
Excitement 1
Happiness 5
Power 6
Repels Evil 2
N u
m b
e r
K e
y
EXPLORE
Breaching Age Norms on Television Norm breaching tells us a lot about the unwritten rules of social life. When everyday norms are violated, people often get very uncomfortable. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to find out what a hidden camera show can tell us about how society deals with people who break norms.
http://wwnPag.es/trw403
96
CHAPTER 4
Socialization, Interaction, and the Self
W hat do you look like? Well, it really depends on the situation. Sometimes, we don’t
have complete control over how we present ourselves. If you work at a place with
a dress code or uniform, you don’t get to choose what you wear. If you are visiting
your grandparents, you might dress more conservatively than you would if you were going to
a party with your friends. Other times, how you look is a reflection of what you are doing. If
you are lounging around your house reading, you will look drastically different than you would
for a job interview. These are all facets of who you are, grounded in the real activities of your
97
everyday life— school, work, hobbies, relationships. Online, though, reality doesn’t
have to limit you to such mundane identities. Online, you can look however you
want.
We are constantly asked to attach our image to various platforms. If you take
a look at your driver’s license, passport, or student ID card, you probably have a
picture that you had no control over (and may even hide from other people). If your
best friend inputted a picture of you on her phone so that she can see who is tex-
ting or calling her, she may have chosen a picture that you don’t find particularly
flattering. However, if you are involved in social media such as Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram, you can carefully craft your image by controlling what you wear, who
you are with, the angle you are viewed from, what your hair looks like, and what
expression is on your face— all through your profile picture.
More often than not, the pictures used on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are
“selfies” taken with cell phones. Through technology, we are able to capture our
identity without the photographer as intermediary. For some, the ability to photo-
graph ourselves allows for a freedom of expression that wouldn’t exist if we were
being observed by another person. And the selfies we choose to represent our-
selves can reveal more than just what we look like.
Look at your own profile picture. Are you pictured with another person (that’s
an “ussie”)? Are you doing an activity? Do you have a prop? Are you smiling? Are
you frowning? Are you making a silly face? Do you look like you do in everyday life,
or are you dressed up for an event? Are you in costume? Are you photographed
from above or below? What’s the background? Is your profile picture even a pho-
tograph of yourself? Is it instead your kid, your kitty, or the camellias in your front
yard?
Choosing a profile picture is one of many ways we express ourselves in social
interaction. Because our online identities are often removed from the context of
our everyday lives, we can express anything we want about who we are (or think
we are, or wish to be).
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self98
The Process of Socialization 99
Both are right. You don’t have to look far to see that genet- ics, or nature, plays a role in who we are. For example, research shows that high levels of testosterone contribute to stereo- typically masculine traits such as aggressiveness and com- petitiveness. However, it is also true that facing a competitive challenge (such as a baseball game) causes testosterone levels to rise. So is it the hormone that makes us competitive, or is it competition that stimulates hormone production? An addi- tional example involves a study of moral and social develop- ment in people with brain injuries. Steven W. Anderson and colleagues (1999) studied patients whose prefrontal cortex had been damaged. Those who had received the injury as infants struggled with moral and social reasoning, finding it difficult or impossible to puzzle out questions like “Is it accept- able for a man to steal the drug needed to save his wife’s life if he can’t afford to pay for it?” People who received the same injury as adults, however, were able to deal with such issues. Anderson and his research team hypothesized that there is a crucial period in brain development when people acquire the capacity for moral reasoning. In other words, nature provides a biological window through which social and moral develop- ment occurs.
The point is, there is a complex relationship between nature and nurture. Neither one alone is suf- ficient to explain what makes us human. Certainly, heredity gives us a basic potential, but it is pri- marily our social environment that determines whether we will realize or fall short of that poten- tial. We are subject to social influ- ences from the moment we are born (and even before), and these influences only increase over the years. In part because the influence of social contact hap- pens so gradually and to some extent unconsciously, we don’t really notice what or how we are learning.
The Process of Socialization We often speak of “socializing” with our friends, yet the idea of “socializing” is only part of what sociologists mean by socialization. Socialization is a twofold process. It includes the process by which a society, culture, or group teaches indi- viduals to become functioning members, and the process by which individuals learn and internalize the values and norms of the group.
Socialization thus works on both an individual and a social level: we learn our society’s way of life and make it our own. Socialization accomplishes two main goals. First, it teaches members the skills necessary to satisfy basic human needs and to defend themselves against danger, thus ensuring that society itself will continue to exist. Second, socialization
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER In this chapter, you will learn how the self is connected to all social phenomena (such as gender, race, and the media) and how interaction constructs them all. You will be acquiring some new analytic tools, including the concepts of socializa- tion and impression management, which will be referenced again in the chapters to come. In addition, you will be intro- duced to a new way of looking at the self— indeed, a new way of looking at your self— that emphasizes the role of the social in creating the individual. And you will be reminded of the reverse: as your society makes you who you are, you have a role (in fact, many roles) to play in shaping your society.
What Is Human Nature? “That’s just human nature” is a phrase often used to explain everything from violence and jealousy to love and altruism. But what is human nature, really? What is the thing about us that is unique and irreducible, that we all have in common and that separates us from other creatures? From a sociologist’s perspective, culture and society are what make us human. These things that we have created also make us who we are. We have to learn the meanings we give to food, housing, sex, and everything else, and society is the teacher.
You would be a very different person if you had been born in fourteenth- century Japan, in an Aztec peasant family, or in the Norwegian royal court. You would have learned a different language, a different set of everyday skills, and a different set of meanings about how the world works. Also, your sense of who you are would be radically different in each case because of the particular social structures and interactions you would encounter. If you were a member of an Aztec peasant family, for example, you would expect to be married to someone of your parents’ choosing in your early teens (McCaa 1994). Girls were considered old maids if they were still single at age fif- teen and might have ended up as prostitutes or concubines if they did not find a husband by this tender age.
The Nature vs. Nurture Debate If it is culture and society that make us human, what role does our genetic makeup play? Aren’t we born with certain instincts? These are questions posed in what is often called the nature vs. nurture debate. Those taking the nature side— often sociobiologists, some psychologists, and oth- ers in the natural sciences— argue that behavioral traits can be explained by genetics. Those taking the nurture side— sociologists and others in the social sciences— argue that human behavior is learned and shaped through social inter- action. Which of these arguments is right?
NATURE VS. NURTURE DEBATE the ongoing discussion of the respective roles of genetics and socialization in determining individual behaviors and traits
SOCIALIZATION the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group, by which we become functioning members of society
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self100
although local authorities conducted numerous searches, he managed to elude capture until he was finally arrested, at the age of forty-seven, in the spring of 2013.
In an interview with a journalist, Knight reflected on the power of social isolation on one’s identity:
I did examine myself. Solitude did increase my percep- tion. But here’s the tricky thing— when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the seasons the hour hand. I didn’t even have a name. I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free” (Finkel 2014).
Perhaps even more demonstrative of the importance of socialization are cases of feral children. When infants are
teaches individuals the norms, values, and beliefs associated with their culture and provides ways to ensure that members adhere to their shared way of life.
Social Isolation We can appreciate how important socialization is when we see what happens to people who are deprived of social contact. For twenty- seven years, Christopher Knight—better known as the North Pond hermit—lived undetected in the woods of rural Maine. Sometime in the mid- 1980s, at the age of twenty, Knight left civilization and eventually established a campsite on private land some distance from the cabins ringing North Pond. And there he stayed, in complete isolation. During that time, he spoke to only one person (an accidental encounter) and made no purchases of any kind. It is estimated that Knight committed more than 1,000 burglaries over the years, and
Sociologists have long been interested in resolving the nature vs. nurture debate and just how much each side contributes to human behavior, or even determines it. In the 1990s, dramatic new possibilities for gathering scientific data were made available as a result of discoveries in the emerg- ing field of genetics. In 2003, the Human Genome Project was completed, which identified all the genes constituting human DNA. At the same time that geneticists had hoped that knowledge of the genes would reveal all the answers to human behavior, they were finding that the social environment could actually change genes. Thus geneticists became interested in some of the same questions that a small but influential off- shoot of sociologists had also been studying.
Sociobiology became a controversial topic within soci- ology in 1975 with the publication of Edward O. Wilson’s Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Many sociologists criti-
cized the book, seeing it as an example of genetic determin- ism, as Wilson came down squarely on the nature side of the debate when he pro- posed that genes play a far greater role in human
behavior than social or cultural factors. Wilson continued to develop these ideas in his 1978 work On Human Nature, in which he argued “that the evidence is strong that a substan- tial fraction of human behavioral variation is based on genetic difference” (p. 43).
IN THE FUTURE Genetics and Sociology
Other sociologists who followed Wilson’s argument that genes play a larger role in human behavior caused further controversy as they stood in opposition to long- held and widely embraced sociological models of the self. In 1994, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray published The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, in which they argued, among other things, that there are mea- surable differences in intelligence between races. In 2005, Larry Summers, then president of Harvard University, gave a speech in which he suggested that one of the reasons there were so few women teaching science and engineer- ing at elite universities was because of genetic differences between the sexes. Despite widespread criticism, psycholo- gist Steven Pinker publicly defended Summers’s remarks. Pinker argued that if there was greater innate variability in men’s mathematical abilities, then “there would be a slightly higher proportion of men at the high end of the scale,” which would lead to an overrepresentation of men in elite positions (Pinker 2005).
These debates made any discussion of genes and behavior frustrating. For example, there was an enormous amount of evi- dence that intelligence was not simply inheritable and that it certainly didn’t vary by race. Likewise, the “evidence” that Pinker cited, showing that men and women have natural dif- ferences in their mathematical ability, is suspect. While stud- ies in the United States and some other countries show men with a greater variability in mathematical ability, studies in Lithuania, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Denmark
SOCIOBIOLOGY a branch of science that uses biological and evolutionary explanations for social behavior
The Process of Socialization 101
depicted in the biblical Garden of Eden. Without human con- tact, the children who were used in these cruel experiments did not reveal any divine truths to the experimenters— they simply perished (Van Cleve 1972).
Scientific ethics would never allow such experiments today, but we are still fascinated with the phenomenon of isolated children. While we can tell fictional versions of these stories (such as in the 2015 film Room), there are unfortunately some real- life instances involv- ing children who have lived in extreme social isolation. Though rare, these cases give social scientists the chance to study the effects of social isolation and to better understand the relationship between human development and socialization (Davis 1940; Davis and Moore 1947).
born, they exhibit almost none of the learned behaviors that characterize human beings. Even their instincts for food or shelter or self- preservation are barely recognizable and almost impossible for them to act on alone. Babies do have innate capacities but can fully develop as human beings only through contact with others. There are several startling cases that demonstrate this (Newton 2004). Perhaps you have heard myths about children who have grown up in the wild. Supposedly, there are real cases of children being raised by wolves, as well as works of fiction such as Tarzan of the Apes and The Jungle Book. Such stories present images of primitive humans who have survived outside of society and who are both heathen and uncivilized yet pure and uncorrupt, who lack in social graces but possess the keenest of instincts. Legend has it that as far back as the thirteenth century, experiments were conducted by German emperor Frederick II to see whether humans could return to their natural and perfect state as
failed to produce the same results (Feingold 1992). Another study found that the gender gap in math scores disappears in countries that promote gender equality (Guiso et al., 2008). For sociologists, this suggested that something much more compli- cated was going on. Despite these challenges, Pinker seemed to
feed a popular desire to find genes that “controlled” behaviors. From the “gay” gene to the “promiscuity” gene, the mass media rushed to report, often in oversimplified ways, new research on the relationship between genetics and behavior.
A new generation of sociologists is trying to unite genet- ics and sociology in more interesting ways, beyond a simple opposition between nature and nurture. The term “sociobiol- ogy” is even falling out of favor, as researchers have taken to calling their work “genetically informed sociology” (Guo, Tong, and Cai 2008) or even “social genomics” (Conley and Fletcher 2017) instead. These trailblazers caution us to remember that genetics are conditioned by social experience and that there may be no simple cause- and- effect equation between genes and behavior. With the human genome containing 25,000 indi- vidual genes, it should not be surprising that behaviors do not spring from a single gene. Instead, “genes ‘hunt in packs,’ meaning that behaviors likely reflect networks of genes that work together” (Shanahan, Bauldry, and Freeman 2010, p. 36). Moreover, these genes do not work independently of social or cultural factors; rather, they work with them. Today there is increasing evidence “pointing to the importance of social factors in regulating genetic action” (Shanahan, Bauldry, and Freeman 2010, p. 37). In other words, our social and environ- mental context can significantly alter the way a gene expresses itself. And, indeed, with our increasingly sophisticated under- standing of how biology and environment interact, some soci- ologists (like Conley and Fletcher) have declared that the nature vs. nurture war is over.
Nature vs. Nurture What parts of your life are affected by your genes? by your society?
FERAL CHILDREN in myths and rare real- world cases, children who have had little human contact and may have lived in social isolation from a young age
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self102
adding new words to her vocabulary. She was gaining some social skills and forming relationships with the researchers, all of which made them optimistic about Genie’s prognosis for recovery.
The team began to splinter as they disagreed about Genie’s care. Funding to support further research was ultimately with- drawn, and all testing and scientific observation ended. Genie was placed in a series of foster homes, where she suffered fur- ther abuse and lost much of her capacity for speech. Genie’s case was effectively closed in 1978, and we know little about her cur- rent status. There is still debate over the ethics of such research on humans.
Unfortunately, Genie was not the last child to be raised in social isolation. Real- life cases occasionally emerge, such as the 2008 case of Elizabeth Fritzl in Austria, who was held captive for twenty- four years in her father’s basement, along with four of her children. Each case confirms that the effects of extreme social isolation are devastating and tragic. It is only through contact with others that people develop the qualities we consider natural and normal in a human being.
The socialization process begins in infancy and is espe- cially productive once a child begins to understand and use language (Ochs 1986). But socialization is not complete at that point. It is a lifelong process that continues to shape us through experiences such as school, work, marriage, and par- enthood, as we will see in the next few sections.
Theories of the Self Having a sense of one’s self is perhaps the most fundamen- tal of all human experiences. When seventeenth- century philosopher René Descartes exclaimed, “I think, therefore I am,” he was expressing this basic fact— that we possess a consciousness about ourselves. More recently, some have examined whether higher mammals or primates might also have this same self- consciousness; while that has yet to be determined, we do know that consciousness is at the core of humanness.
The self is our experience of a distinct, real, personal iden- tity that is separate and different from all other people. We can be “proud of ourselves,” “lose control of ourselves,” or want to “change ourselves,” suggesting that we have the ability to think about ourselves as if we were more than one being and to see ourselves from the vantage point of an observer. Our thoughts and feelings emanate both from and toward ourselves; this is, in effect, how we come to “know” ourselves.
But just where does this sense of a self come from? How do we arrive at self- knowledge? When sociologists address these questions, they look at both the individual and society to find the answer. They believe that the self is created and modi- fied through social interaction over the course of a lifetime. But while sociologists agree that the self is largely a social product there are still a number of theories about how the self develops, as we will see.
One well- known modern case involves a child named Genie (a pseudonym), who was discovered by child welfare services in 1970 (Rymer 1994). At the time she was thirteen years old and had been living with her family in Arcadia, Cal- ifornia, where she had been severely neglected and abused. The authorities were shocked to find that the young girl had not developed like a normal child. Since infancy, Genie’s father had kept her locked in a small room, where she was often tied to a potty chair or crib, and she was deprived of practically all human interaction. She had not been exposed to language much and therefore had not learned to speak. Because her movements had been restricted and she was also
malnourished, Genie lacked in physical development. She was afraid of strangers and devoid of any social skills. She exhib- ited some animal- like qualities; she clawed and sniffed and spat frequently.
Genie was taken into custody and placed in the care of a team of scientists who were given an unprecedented opportunity to both study and treat her case. Would it be possible to reverse the effects of extreme social isolation? Could Genie learn language? Could she be socialized and learn to interact with others? Or would it be too late for her to develop normally? The team commenced at once to study the process of socialization and language acquisition, expos- ing Genie to caring people and a whole new world. At first she made rapid progress with both sign language and nonverbal communication. She was also learning to vocalize, quickly
Mowgli, the “Man Cub” Fictional accounts of feral children such as Mowgli, the hero of the animated Disney film The Jungle Book, are quite different from real socially isolated children who struggle to learn language and interact with others.
SELF the individual’s conscious, reflexive experience of a personal identity separate and distinct from others
Theories of the Self 103
thoughts and behavior. For example, the unconscious urge to slay one’s rivals may manifest itself in a conscious decision to work harder at the office in order to outshine a competitive co- worker.
According to Freud, the mind consists of three interre- lated systems: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, which is composed of biological drives, is the source of instinctive, psychic energy. Its main goal is to achieve pleasure and to avoid pain in all situations, which makes the id a selfish and unrealistic part of the mind. For example, despite all your hard work, sometimes that competitive co- worker is the one who gets the raise— not exactly what the pleasure- seeking, power- hungry id desired. The ego, by contrast, is the part that deals with the real world. It operates on the basis of reason and helps to mediate and integrate the demands of both the id and the superego. So the ego is the part of the self that says, “Okay, this time the other guy won, but if I keep try- ing, I’m bound to get that raise eventually.”
The superego is composed of two components: the con- science and the ego- idea l. The conscience ser ves to keep us from engaging in socia lly unde- sirable behavior, and the ego- idea l upholds our vision of who we believe we should idea lly be. The superego develops as a result of parenta l g uidance, particularly in the form of the rewards and punishments we receive as children. It inhibits the urges of the id and encour- ages the ego to find mora lly acceptable forms of behavior. So the superego helps suppress the urge to kill your competi- tor and keeps you working toward getting that raise in socia lly acceptable ways. Each of these systems ser ves a different menta l or emotiona l function, yet they a ll work together to keep the individua l in a more or less hea lthy state of ba lance.
Freud (1905) also proposed that between infancy and adulthood, the personality passes through four distinct psychosexual stages of development. Each stage is associ- ated with a different erogenous zone. Freud’s theory emerged from his therapy work with adult patients who were asked to try to recall earlier periods from their lives. According to the theory, a child passes through the first three stages of develop- ment between the ages of one and five. Most people have little or no memory whatsoever of this period. Yet, according to psy- choanalytic theory, it sets the stage for the rest of one’s adult life. The last stage of development begins around the age of
Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud The psychoanalytic perspective on the self, which is usually associated with Sigmund Freud, emphasizes childhood and sexual development as indelible influences on an individ- ual’s identity, and in turn how society is upheld through the transformation of human instincts. While Freud’s ideas have generated a great deal of controversy, they remain compelling for sociologists.
Perhaps Freud’s greatest contribution to understanding the self is his idea of the unconscious mind, as featured in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900/1955). Freud believed that the conscious level of awareness is but the tip of the iceberg and that just below the surface is a far greater area of the mind, the subconscious and the unconscious. He pro- posed that this unconscious energy is the source of conscious
Dreams and the Subconscious In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud outlined three psychological systems— the id, the ego, and the superego— that regulate subconscious drives and help keep an individual mentally balanced.
ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO according to Freud, the three interrelated parts that make up the mind: the id consists of basic inborn drives that are the source of instinctive psychic energy; the ego is the realistic aspect of the mind that balances the forces of the id and the superego; the superego has two components (the conscience and the ego- ideal) and represents the internalized demands of society
PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT four distinct stages of the development of the self between birth and adulthood, according to Freud; personality quirks are a result of being fixated, or stuck, at any stage
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self104
The Looking- Glass Self: Charles Cooley Around the same time Freud was developing his theories (early 1900s), other social theorists interested in the self were working on the other side of the Atlantic. Charles Cooley, an early member of the Chicago School of sociology, devised a simple but elegant way to conceptualize how individuals gain a sense of self. His idea is captured in the following short poem, which summarizes a profound and complex process.
Each to each a looking- glass, Reflects the other that doth pass.
Cooley (1909) referred to this concept as the looking- glass self. He believed that we all act like mirrors to each other, reflecting back to one another an image of ourselves. We do this in three steps (Yeung and Martin 2003).
1. We imagine how we look to others— not just in a physical sense, but in how we present ourselves. For example, we may imagine that others find us friendly, funny, or hard- working. The idea we have of ourselves is particularly important in regard to significant others. Whether they are parents, bosses, friends, or partners, we care about how we look to these people.
2. We imagine other people’s judgment of us. We try to pic- ture others’ reactions and to interpret what they must be feeling. What is their opinion of me? Do they think I am smart enough? Lazy? Boring? Too tall?
3. We experience some kind of feeling about ourselves based on our perception of other people’s judgments. If we imagine, for instance, that they think of us as com- petent, we may feel pride; conversely, if we think they consider us inadequate, we may feel shame or embar- rassment. The important point here is that we respond to the judgments that we believe others make about us, without really knowing for sure what they think. And we’re not always right. We may draw wildly unrealistic conclusions. But according to Cooley, it is these percep- tions, not reality, that determine the feelings we ulti- mately have about ourselves.
The social looking glass— the way we see ourselves reflected back from others— together with the feelings we develop as a result of what we imagine they see in us, forms our concept of self. For Cooley, there could be no sense of self without society, for there is no individual self without a corresponding “other” to provide us with our looking- glass self- image.
The suggestion that we are dependent on what others think of us— or rather what we think they think— for our own
twelve, but few people success- fully complete this final transi- tion to maturity. In some cases, the transitions through the first three stages are not completely successful either, so that people
may find themselves stuck, or “fixated,” at an earlier stage. Per- haps you’ve known someone who is considered to have an “oral fixation”—this person, thought to be partially stuck in the first stage of development, might smoke, overeat, or be verbally aggressive. Someone who is “anal retentive”—a neatnik, tight- wad, or control freak— is thought to be partially stuck in the second stage. These kinds of personality traits, rooted in early childhood (according to Freud), appear as “ hang- ups” in the adult.
Another of Freud’s important contributions to sociology is found in his later work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930/2010). In it he extended his thesis to show how the psychological makeup of the individual helps to create social order, or civilization, while at the same time being con- strained by society’s structures and demands, causing the person to become discontent. Again Freud focused on the subconscious drives or instincts of the individual. He referred to two main impulses: “Eros,” the libido or life instinct, and “Thanatos,” which is aggression or the death instinct. To live successfully in human community, we must find socially acceptable ways of channeling these instincts. We cannot simply act out on our sexual or aggressive impulses without harming ourselves and others and threatening the larger collective. The raw and primitive drives of the individual must be managed somehow. When instincts are repressed or turned inward, they become the conscience and a source of guilt and neuroses. When instincts are sublimated or turned outward, they are positively transformed. There are many constructive ways of expressing sexual energy, redirecting it toward creative pursuits that produce the great works of cul- ture, commerce, or science. Likewise, aggressive instincts can find appropriate outlets in competitive sports, politics, and other competitions, or can be felt vicariously through forms of entertainment like video games or amusement park rides. To live in a civilized society means agreeing to norms and sanctions that infringe on personal freedom but serve to protect the well- being of the group. Civilization demands that we give up some satisfaction of acting on instinct to gain the lesser happiness but greater security of living within the bounds of society.
Other sociologists have extended Freud’s work, focusing especially on gender identity— seeing oneself as feminine or masculine. Nancy Chodorow, a feminist and psychoanalytic sociologist, has written widely on human behavior and inter- nal psychic structures and how patterns of gendered parenting and early childhood development can lead to the reproduction of traditional gender roles in society (1978, 1994).
LOOKING- GLASS SELF the notion that the self develops through our perception of others’ evaluations and appraisals of us
Theories of the Self 105
According to Mead, the development of the self unfolds in several stages as we move through childhood. First is the preparatory stage. Children under the age of three lack a completely developed sense of self, and so they have difficulty distinguishing themselves from others. Such children begin the development process by simply imitating or mimicking others around them (making faces, playing patty- cake) with- out fully understanding the meaning of their behavior. After age three, children enter the play stage of development when they start to pretend or play at being “mommy,” “firefighter,” “princess,” or “doctor.” This is referred to as taking the role of the particular or significant other. As children learn the behavior associated with being a mother or doctor, they inter- nalize the expectations of those particular others and begin to gain new perspectives in addi- tion to their own. Such play also serves the purpose of anticipa- tory socialization for the real- life roles a child might play in the future.
In the final or game stage of development, children’s self- awareness increases through a process Mead described using the example of games. By the early school years, children begin to take part in organized games. Each child must follow the rules of the game, which means that he or she must simultaneously take into account the roles of all the other players. Mead calls this overview the perspective of the generalized other. Thus, children begin to understand the set of standards common to a social group— their playmates— and to see themselves from oth- ers’ viewpoints. By taking the perspective of the generalized other, children are able to see themselves as objects. They gradually learn to internalize the expectations of the generalized other for themselves and to evaluate their own behavior. This is the beginning of under- standing the attitudes and expectations of society as a whole.
Mead also recognized the dialectical or dual nature of the self— that is, the self as both subject and object. What we refer to as “I” is the subject component— the experience of a spontaneous, active, and creative part of ourselves, some- what less socialized. What we refer to as “me” is the object component— the experience of a norm- abiding, conforming
self- concept might seem appalling: Are we really that hung up on what other people think? But while some of us may be influenced to a greater or lesser degree, all of us come to know ourselves through relationships, either real or imagined, with others.
Mind, Self, and Society: George Herbert Mead Another member of the Chicago School, George Herbert Mead, expanded on Cooley’s ideas about the development of the self and laid the essential groundwork that became the theory of symbolic interactionism. Mead also believed that the self is created through social interaction. He believed that this process starts in childhood— that children begin to develop a sense of self at about the same time that they began to learn language. The acquisition of language skills coincides with the growth of mental capacities, including the ability to think of ourselves as separate and distinct and to see ourselves in relationship to others (Mead 1934).
PREPARATORY STAGE the first stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self wherein children mimic or imitate others
PLAY STAGE the second stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self wherein children pretend to play the role of the particular or significant other
PARTICULAR OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER the perspectives and expectations of a particular role that a child learns and internalizes
GAME STAGE the third stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self wherein children play organized games and take on the perspective of the generalized other
GENERALIZED OTHER the perspectives and expectations of a network of others (or of society in general) that a child learns and then takes into account when shaping his or her own behavior
DUAL NATURE OF THE SELF the idea that we experience the self as both subject and object, the “I” and the “me”
The Particular Other According to Mead, children begin to develop a sense of self by imitating others and playing roles.
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self106
situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Thomas and Thomas 1928, p. 572). In other words, because we encounter ambiguous situations every day, many mean- ings are possible. The way we define each situation, then, becomes its reality.
For example, suppose you’re walking down the street and you witness a woman slapping a man in public. What are the possible meanings of that situation? It could be a fight; it could be a joke or a friendly greeting, depending on how hard the slap is; it could be that he has just passed out and she is hoping to revive him; or the participants could be actors shooting a scene from a film. Each of these definitions leads to a different set of potential consequences— you might intervene, call the police, stand by and laugh, ignore them, summon paramedics, or ask for an autograph, depending on which meaning you act upon. Each definition of the situation lends itself to a differ- ent approach, and the consequences are real.
Goffman looked at how we define situations interactionally— not just cognitively within our own heads but also in interac- tion with others. Think about it: How do you get your definition of the situation across to others? If you think a classroom lec- ture is boring, you may look over at your best friend and roll your eyes . . . she nods, indicating that she knows what you mean. The eye roll and the nod are expressions of behavior, tools we use to project our definitions of the situation to others.
What Goffman calls expressions given are typically ver- bal and intended— most of our speech falls into this category. Almost all of what we say, we mean to say, at least at that moment. Only in situations of extreme emotional response— such as fear, pain, or ecstasy— might we make unintended
part of ourselves, more socialized and therefore reliant on others. The two components are inseparable and are united to form a single self in each of us. It is this process of recog-
nizing the dual nature of the self, taking the role of the par- ticular other, and seeing the perspective of the generalized other that Mead suggests leads to the development of the self.
Dramaturgy: Erving Goffman Erving Goffman is another among the group of symbolic interactionists who saw micro- level, face- to- face interaction as the building block of every other aspect of society. Goff- man believed that all meaning, as well as our individual selves, is constructed through interac- tion. Many of his key ideas are expressed in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956).
To understand Goffman’s work, we first need to briefly consider another of the early Chicago School sociologists, W. I. Thomas. What is now called the Thomas theorem states that “if people define
THOMAS THEOREM classic formulation of the way individuals determine reality, whereby “if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”
DEFINITION OF THE SITUATION an agreement with others about “what is going on” in a given circumstance; this consensus allows us to coordinate our actions with others and realize goals
EXPRESSIONS OF BEHAVIOR small actions such as an eye roll or head nod that serve as an interactional tool to help project our definition of the situation to others
EXPRESSIONS GIVEN expressions that are intentional and usually verbal, such as utterances
Psychoanalysis
Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind as composed of an interrelated system (id, ego, superego) that underlies human behavior; personality develops through psychosexual stages.
Parents instill a conscience (superego) in children through rules that govern their instinctual behavior (id) until children mature and are self- governing (ego).
Looking- Glass Self
Cooley’s theory of the self concept as derived from how we imagine others see us, and the feelings about our selves based on the perceived judgments of others.
Parents and significant others serve as a reflection to children, who develop a sense of self based on their appraisals, real or imagined.
Mind, Self, and Society
Mead’s theory of the self that develops through three stages (preparatory, play, and game); in role taking the particular or generalized other, we learn to see ourselves as others do.
Children gain a sense of self through imitation, play, and games, in which they learn various roles and take on the perspectives of others.
Dramaturgy
Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self; we are like actors on a stage whose performance strategies aid in impression management.
Children learn the arts of impression management and may present a different self to their parents than to other children or to teachers.
Perspective Approach to Self and Interaction Case Study: Identity in Childhood
Table 4.1 Theory in Everyday Life
Theories of the Self 107
briefcase into a bar, but it’s probably not a good idea to carry a bottle of beer into the classroom.
The front makes a big difference in how we perceive and interact with the people we encounter there. Students and professors recognize one another and know how to interact when on campus or in the classroom. But in other venues, we are out of context, and this can confuse us. We seldom think of our professors as people who have off- campus lives— it’s hard to see them as people who dine out, see movies, or buy under- wear (for that matter, professors rarely think of their students this way either!). So when we encoun- ter one another in unfamiliar regions, we often don’t know how to behave because the old class- room scripts don’t work.
Our personal front— appearance, manner, and style of dress (or “costume”), as well as gender, race, and age— helps establish the definition of the situation as well. For example, Dr. Ferris is told quite often that she “doesn’t look like a pro- fessor.” This illustrates how we use elements of personal front to make judgments about people: if our images of profes- sors involve gruff, grizzled, older men in unfashionable clothes, then someone who is younger, friendlier, and female must work harder at convincing others that she is in fact a professor. Simi- larly, when a student happens to see Dr. Ferris at a restaurant, movie theater, or department store, the student’s response is almost always the same: “What are you doing here?”
In addition, there are places known as back regions, or back- stage, where we prepare (or rehearse) for our performances. And then there are front regions, or frontstage, where we play a particular role and perform for an “audience” of others. We behave differently— and present different selves— frontstage than we do backstage; your professor behaved differently this morning while he showered, shaved, dressed, and made break- fast for his kids than he is behaving now, lecturing and answer- ing questions in his sociology class. For Goffman, the key to understanding these nuances in impression management
utterances. Expressions given off, like the eye roll and the nod, are typically nonverbal but observable in various ways and may be intended or unintended. Things like facial expressions, mannerisms, body language, and styles of dress are important indicators to others about the definition of the situation.
IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT Reading meaning in oth- ers’ expressions of behavior requires a bit of caution. We know that people may deliberately say things to hide what they really feel, so we tend to think we get more real insight from expressions given off because we believe them to be unin- tended. But expressions given off can be manipulated as well. In a sense, Goffman was saying that it’s not just what you say but also how you say it that creates meaning. And he was a cynic, although he believed that everyday actors can be sin- cere. Goffman saw social life as a sort of con game, in which we work at controlling the impressions others have of us. He called this process impression management. Like actors on a stage, we play our parts and use all our communica- tive resources (verbal and nonverbal) to present a particular impression to others. We say and do what we think is neces- sary to communicate who we are and what we think, and we refrain from saying and doing things that might damage the impression we want others to have of us.
It is this focus on the performance strategies of impres- sion management that has led scholars to refer to Goffman’s central ideas as dramaturgy— and the theatrical allusion is entirely intended. As in the theater, we use certain tools to aid in our impression management. The front, for example, is the setting that helps establish a particular meaning (like a classroom for teaching or a bar for drinking). The specific social setting, or region (which includes the location, scenery, décor, and props), provides more elements that help establish the boundaries of the interactional context. You might carry a
EXPRESSIONS GIVEN OFF observable expressions that can be either intended or unintended and are usually nonverbal
IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT the effort to control the impressions we make on others so that they form a desired view of us and the situation; the use of self- presentation and performance tactics
DRAMATURGY an approach pioneered by Erving Goffman in which social life is analyzed in terms of its similarities to theatrical performance
FRONT in the dramaturgical perspective, the setting or scene of performances that helps establish the definition of the situation
REGION the context in which the performance takes place, including location, decor, and props
PERSONAL FRONT the performance tactics we use to present ourselves to others, including appearance, costume, and manner
BACKSTAGE the places where we rehearse and prepare for our performances
FRONTSTAGE the places where we deliver our performances to an audience of others
The Selfie as Impression Management According to Goffman, we control the impressions others have of us through the process of impression management. How many times do you have to take and retake a selfie to get it just right?
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self108
is to recognize that we present different selves in different situations, and the responses of others to those selves con- tinually shape and mold our definitions of situation and self. Thus we can say that the self is a social construction (Berger and Luckmann 1966). The self is something that is cre- ated or invented in interaction with others who also partici- pate in agreeing to the reality or meaning of that self as it is being presented in the situation.
We also make claims about who we are in our interac- tions. These claims can be either accepted or contradicted by others, which can make things either easier or harder for our self- image. Most of the time, others support the selves we project. For example, when your professor starts lecturing and you begin to take notes, you are supporting the version of self that he is presenting: he is “doing professor,” and in response, you are “doing student.” Another way that we support the selves that people present is to allow them to save face— to prevent them from realizing that they’ve done something embarrassing. Goffman calls this cooling the mark out, a phrase borrowed from con games, but it can be used as a tool of civility and tact as well. When the professor mixes up two
related concepts in a lecture, for example, you let it pass because you know what she really meant to say. Or, even worse, you overlook the spinach between your professor’s teeth until it can be called to his attention privately!
There are also situations in which the selves we project are contested or even destroyed. For example, if you raised your hand
in a 200-person lecture hall and told the professor that he had spinach between his teeth, you would be undermining the self he is trying to present. His identity as an expert, an authority figure, and a senior mentor would be publicly damaged once you called attention to his dental gaffe (unless he was able to deflect the situation gracefully). In Goffman’s view, then, the presentation of self and impression management are about power as well as about self. If you embarrass your professor in front of an auditorium full of students, he no longer possesses quite as much power as he did a few moments before.
Goffman’s view of our interactions can be disturbing to some people, for it suggests that we are always acting, that we are never being honest about who we really are. But Goffman would challenge this interpretation of his work. Yes, some people deliberately deceive others in their pre- sentation of self, but we must all present some type of self in social situations. Why wouldn’t those selves be presented sincerely? As Goffman- inspired sociologist Josh Meyrowitz says, “ While a dishonest judge may pretend to be an hon- est judge, even an honest judge must play the role of ‘honest judge’” (1985, p. 30).
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION the process by which a concept or practice is created and maintained by participants who collectively agree that it exists
COOLING THE MARK OUT behaviors that help others to save face or avoid embarrassment, often referred to as civility or tact
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Impression Management in Action They say that you never get to make a first impression twice, that people can size us up in a matter of seconds and quickly jump
to conclusions about who we are. How well do you know yourself and the impressions you make on others? This exercise is designed to help make your own impression management work visible— and to help you see how inte- gral it is to your everyday life. For this Data Workshop you will be doing participant observation research with yourself as the subject. Research that involves observing one’s own behavior is known as autoethnography. Refer to Chapter 2 for a review of this method.
Your task will be to observe yourself as you participate in two different social situations. Afterward, you will do a comparative analysis of your presentation of self in each setting. As you examine the most minute details of your- self in interactions, you will probably discover that you perform somewhat different versions of yourself in the two situations. “Doing student,” for instance, might be very different from “doing boyfriend.” Let’s see.
Step 1: Observation Choose two different situations that you will encounter this week in your everyday life and commit to observ- ing yourself for thirty minutes as you participate in each. For example, you may observe yourself at work, at a family birthday celebration, at lunch with friends, in your math class, riding on the bus or train, or watching an athletic match. The two situations you choose don’t need to be extraordinary in any way; in fact, the more mundane, the better. But they should be markedly dif- ferent from one another.
Step 2: Field notes In an autoethnography, your own actions, thoughts, and feelings are the focus of study. Write some informal field notes about your experience so that you can refer to them when you discuss your findings. Your notes can be casual in tone and loose in format, but, as always, it’s a good idea to write them as soon as possible after your time in the field. That way you capture more of the details you’ll want to remember. Aim for at least one (or more!) full page of notes for each of the two situations.
Agents of Socialization 109
Agents of Socialization Since our sense of self is shaped by social interaction, we should now turn our attention to the socializing forces that have the most significant impact on our lives. These forces, called agents of socialization, provide structured situa- tions in which socialization takes place. While there is a vari- ety of such influences in American society, notably religion, as well as our political and economic systems, we will focus here on what may be the four most predominant agents of socialization: the family, schools, peers, and the media.
The Family The family is the single most significant agent of socializa- tion in all societies. It’s easy to see why. The family is the original group to which we belong. It is where early emotional and social bonds are created, where language is learned, and where we first begin to internalize the norms and val- ues of our society. Most of our primary socialization, which teaches us to become mature, responsible members of soci- ety, takes place within the family. It is not surprising, then, that the family has perhaps the longest- lasting influence on the individual.
Much research has focused on the role of mothers in child- rearing practices (Goode 1982), although attention has also turned to the significance of fathers, as well as siblings and other relatives. For example, Ralph LaRossa’s research (2016) looks at historical changes in the role of men as active parents and how men feel about their involvement in their children’s lives. The family has such a pow- erful impact on us partly because as young children we have limited outside contact (until we start day care or school) and therefore few if any other influences. The family is our world.
The family is also in the world. Where a family is located, both geographically and socially— its ethnic, class, religious, educational, and political background— will affect family members (Lareau 2003). For example, one of the most impor- tant lessons we learn in families is about gender roles: we see what moms and dads, sisters and brothers are expected to do (like mow the lawn or fold the laundry) and convert these observations into general rules about gender in society (Chodorow 1978).
Socialization differs from family to family because each family has its own particular set of values and beliefs. A single family can also change over time. As years pass, chil- dren may not be raised in the same way as their older siblings, for the simple reason that parents have no experience with babies when their first child is born but plenty of experience by the time the youngest comes along. Nor are all aspects of
Step 3: Analysis After observing yourself in the two situations, read through your field notes and consider the following questions:
✱ What type of “front” do you encounter when you enter each situation? What role do you play and who is your “audience”?
✱ How does the “region” or setting (location, scenery, and props) affect your presentation of self there?
✱ Can you identify “backstage” and “frontstage” regions for each situation? Which of your activities are prepa- ration and which are performance?
✱ What type of “personal front” (appearance, manner, dress) do you bring to each situation?
✱ How are your facial expressions, body language, and so forth (“expressions given off”) different in each situation?
✱ What kinds of things do you say (“expressions given”) in each situation?
✱ How convincing are you at managing the impres- sion you want to make on others in each of the two situations?
✱ Who are you in each situation? Do you present a slightly different version of yourself in each? Why?
A final Goffman- inspired question to ask is this: Does engaging in impression management mean that we have no basic, unchanging self ? If we bring different selves to differ- ent situations, what does that say about the idea of a “true self ”? This issue is an important one, and we hope you use your Data Workshop findings to pursue it in greater depth.
There are two options for completing the Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Carry out your observations and bring your field notes to class with you. Partner with another student and discuss your experiences. Work together on developing your analysis by responding to the Data Workshop questions. Use this as a way to learn more about yourself and others.
DO- IT- YOURSELF For Step 1, use ethnographic methods of data gathering. Create written field notes to record your actions, interactions, and thoughts during each thirty- minute observation period. Be as detailed as possible. Then write a three- to four- page essay applying Goffman’s dram- aturgical analysis to your own experiences, in response to the questions in Step 3. Refer to your field notes in the essay, and include them with your paper.
AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION social groups, institutions, and individuals (especially the family, schools, peers, and the mass media) that provide structured situations in which socialization takes place
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self110
like racial and gender hegemony (Jay 2003). The socializa- tion children receive from teachers, staff members, and other students occurs simultaneously and overlaps with what they learn in the family.
Recently, there has been increasing scrutiny regarding the role of teachers, especially in public schools. Because teachers are such potent role models for students, parents are concerned about the moral standing of those who are in charge of teaching their children, as well as their training and competence. There is increasing pressure for schools to take on even more responsibilities, including dealing with issues that used to be taught at home or in church— such as sex, violence, drugs and alcohol, and general morality and citizenship.
Peers Peer groups are groups of people who are about the same age and have similar social characteristics. Peers may be friends at school or from the neighborhood, members of a sports team, or cabin mates at summer camp. As children get older, peers often become more important than par- ents as agents of socialization. As the influence of peers increases, the influence of parents decreases. While the family still has the most long- lasting influence on an indi- vidual, it is peers who have the most intense and immediate effect on each other.
By adolescence, young people spend more time with their peers than with their parents or anyone else (Larson and Richards 1991). Membership in a peer group provides young people with a way of exercising independence from, and
socialization deliberate; some in fact are quite unintentional (as when a father’s violent temper or a mother’s depression is passed down to the next generation).
Schools Many people remember their school years with fondness, dread, or perhaps relief that they’re over! No wonder school makes such a great subject for bad dreams and movie scripts. Public elementary and secondary schools were first established in the United States in the 1800s. While attendance was uneven at first, education advocates believed that schooling played a criti-
cal role in maintaining a democ- racy (though blacks and women still lacked the right to vote) and in shaping future generations of citizens. Over the years, schools have gradually taken on greater responsibilities than merely
teaching a prescribed curriculum. Schools now provide physi- cal education, meals, discipline, and child care, all formerly the provinces of other social institutions.
When children begin attending school (including preschool and day care), it may be their first significant experience away from home. School helps them to become less dependent on the family, providing a bridge to other social groups. In school, children learn that they will be judged on their behavior and on academic performance. They learn not only formal sub- jects but also a hidden curriculum (Jackson 1968), a set of behavioral traits such as punctuality, neatness, discipline, hard work, competition, and obedience, and even ideologies
The Power of Family The family is the original group to which each person belongs, and it is the most important agent of socialization.
HIDDEN CURRICULUM values or behaviors that students learn indirectly over the course of their schooling
Agents of Socialization 111
The women of Fiji only recently encountered TV and other forms of modern media. How do we measure the cumu- lative effect of the ubiquitous exposure to the media pervad- ing American society, day in and day out? Whose messages are we listening to, and what are we being told about our- selves and each other? On average, Americans watch about three hours of television per day and spend more hours lis- tening to music, reading, watching movies, playing video games, surfing the web, or using social media. By the time young people graduate from high school, they will have spent far more time with the media than in the classroom. While some worry that this means kids are lost in a fantasy world, Hodge and Tripp (1986) have argued that watching TV actually helps kids learn to distinguish between real- ity and fantasy, an important developmental milestone. In addition to their ability to entertain, the media also have great potential to inform and educate. It is clear that we internalize many of the values, beliefs, and norms pre- sented in the media and that their powerful influence in our lives only stands to increase as we proceed deeper into the Information Age.
possibly reacting against, adult control. Young people tend to form peer subcultures that are almost entirely centered on their own interests, such as gaming or disc golf or garage bands, with distinct values and norms related to those interests.
The need to “fit in” with a peer group may seem overwhelm- ing to some young people. Some will do almost anything to belong— even betray their own values: Bradley and Wildman (2002) found that peer pressure was a predictor of adolescent participation in risky behaviors such as dangerous driving, unsafe sex, and drug and alcohol use. Peer pressure can also produce beneficial outcomes, such as increased engagement with academic work and a positive sense of ethnic identity (Shin, Daly, and Vera 2007). Peer groups, while providing important and enjoyable social bonds, can also be the source of painful self- doubt, ridicule, or rejection.
The Media The media’s role as one of the most significant sources of socialization is a somewhat recent phenomenon. Televi- sion began infiltrating American homes in the 1950s, and Internet usage has become widespread only in the past two decades. Yet, for many of us, it would be almost impossible to imagine life without the media— whether print, broadcast, or digital. This huge explosion, the dawning of the Information Age, is something we already take for granted, but we don’t always see the ways in which it is changing our lives.
Many sociologists question whether the media may have even usurped some of the functions of the family in teach- ing basic norms and values and giving advice on common problems. As an example, take the people of Fiji, a South Pacific island that lacked widespread access to television until 1995. A group of Harvard Medical School researchers took this unique opportunity to study the effects of television on the local population. Specifically, they were interested in the ways in which Western programs influenced eating hab- its and body image among adolescent girls in a culture that “traditionally supported robust appetites and body shapes” (A. Becker et al. 2002).
Through surveys and interviews with the young women (the mean age was around seventeen) in 1995, just months after television was introduced, and again in 1998, the researchers ascertained that Western television was in fact affecting body image and corresponding behaviors among the Fijian girls. In those three years, the percentage of subjects whose survey responses indicated an eating disorder jumped from 12 to 29, and the percentage who reported self- induced vomiting as a form of weight control rose from none to 11. Dieting and dis- satisfaction with weight were prevalent— and 83 percent of the girls who were interviewed reported that they felt televi- sion “had specifically influenced their friends and/or them- selves to feel differently about or change their body shape or weight” (A. Becker et al. 2002).
Fashion for Whom? Most women do not look like this model, yet her body type is held up as the ideal in magazines and other forms of media.
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self112
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
TV as an Agent of Socialization Television is a powerful and surreptitious agent of socialization. It is everywhere, and we devour thousands of hours of it— so it
seems important to ask what kinds of messages we are getting about ourselves and our society from all that viewing. How does TV socialize us? You’re going to help answer that question.
For this Data Workshop you will be using existing sources and doing a content analysis of a particular TV pro- gram. See the section on existing sources in Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. Choose one of the most popular TV series currently on the air— at the time of this writing, your choices might include NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, or Orange Is the New Black. Choose a regular drama or comedy series rather than a news program, talk show, game show, or reality show. Make sure that the show takes place in contemporary times (rather than in the past or in some fantasy world), since your aim will be to analyze how the show depicts modern society and affects today’s viewer.
Now choose some aspect of social status and individ- ual identity that you want to focus on, such as gender (how women or men are portrayed), sexuality (heterosexuals, gay men, or lesbians), disability (people who are deaf or blind or in wheelchairs), or class (poor people, wealthy people, or the middle class). For instance, you might look at the depiction of women in Two Broke Girls or men in The Big Bang Theory, the representation of people with disabilities in Speechless or Switched at Birth, or the portrayal of transgender people in Transparent or the wealthy in Empire or Billions.
Watch an episode of your chosen program in its entirety. You will want to record the program or look for an episode on DVD, Netflix, Hulu, or another online source so that you can review certain scenes or bits of dialogue several times. It is important to take some notes as you watch, paying attention to the program’s content with reference to your particular topic choice.
To give you an example of how to do this workshop, we use depictions of women (in brackets) as our topic and the program Modern Family. You should substitute your own TV program and choice of topic for each of the fol- lowing questions:
✱ In this episode of the program, how many [women] characters are there? How does the number of
[women] characters compare with the number of other characters? Are the [women’s] roles major characters or minor characters? How can you tell?
✱ What types of roles do the [women] characters have? What are their activities, attitudes, and interactions like on the show? What kinds of things do they do and say that tell you who they are and what they are like?
✱ Are the portrayals of [women] positive or negative? Humorous or serious? One- dimensional or multidi- mensional? How can you tell?
✱ What image(s) of [women] does this program por- tray? In other words, what messages do the words, pictures, plot lines, and characters convey to view- ers about [women] in general?
In the case of Modern Family, there are some interesting portrayals of women to analyze. There are two adult women as part of the main cast: Claire Dunphy and Gloria Pritchett. The women are related to each other through Jay Pritchett, who is Claire’s father and Gloria’s husband (it’s a second marriage for both). Claire and Gloria are both stay- at- home moms. Gloria appears to be just a sexy, gold- digging “trophy wife” but is also portrayed as having a depth of wisdom and strength that results from her experiences in a tough neigh- borhood of her Colombian hometown. Claire is a “daddy’s girl” who is initially jealous of Gloria and who searches for meaningful work as her children grow older (she eventually gets a job at her father’s company). These women relate to each other, as well as the men in their lives, in ways that pro- vide powerful messages about gender roles and femininity.
Now that you have examined the roles and portrayals, let’s consider the effects on society:
✱ How does the content of this program contribute to our socialization process? What do we learn about [women] in society from watching the program? After finishing your analysis, what do you think about TV’s powers of socialization?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Watch your chosen episode of TV and bring your notes with you to class. Partner with another student and present your findings. Work together on responding to the Data Workshop questions. Listen for any differences or variations in each other’s insights.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Write a three- to four- page essay in response to the Data Workshop questions, including a content analysis of your chosen TV program. Make sure to refer to specific segments of the episode that help to support your discussion of TV as an agent of socializa- tion. Attach your notes on the program to your paper.
Agents of Socialization 113
means jumping into a dating pool that may look quite differ- ent from the last time you were in it—“safe sex,” “splitting the check,” and other new norms may be hard for older daters to assimilate. Adult socialization often requires the replace- ment of previously learned norms and values with different ones, what is known as resocialization. Facing a serious ill- ness or growing old also often involves intensive resocializa- tion. In order to cope with a new view of what their aging body will permit them to do, people must discard previous behaviors in favor of others (not working out every day, for example).
Another dramatic example of resocialization is found in total institutions (Goffman 1961), such as prisons, cults, and mental hospitals, and, in some cases, even boarding schools, nursing homes, monasteries, and the military. In total institu- tions, residents are severed from their previous relations with society, and their former identities are systematically stripped away and reformed. There may be different ends toward which
RESOCIALIZATION the process of replacing previously learned norms and values with new ones as a part of a transition in life
TOTAL INSTITUTIONS institutions in which individuals are cut off from the rest of society so that they can be controlled and regulated for the purpose of systematically stripping away previous roles and identities in order to create new ones
Desocialization Total Institutions such as the military and cults put new members through a process of resocialization by controlling most aspects of their lives and stripping them of old identities to create new ones. On the left, officers lead new recruits through drills at boot camp; followers of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, “Moonies,” get married en masse.
Adult Socialization Being an “adult” somehow signifies that we’ve learned well enough how to conduct ourselves as autonomous members of society. But adults are by no means completely social- ized. Life is continually presenting us with new situations and new roles with unfamiliar norms and values. We are constantly learning and adjusting to new conditions over the life course and thereby participating in secondary socialization.
For example, your college training will teach you a great deal about the behaviors that will be expected of you in your chosen profession, such as responsibility and punctuality. But after graduating and obtaining a job, you will likely find further, unanticipated expectations. At the very least, you will be socialized to the local culture of a specific workplace, where new rules and customs (like “Always be closing!” in a real estate office) are observed. As your career unfolds, such episodes of socialization will recur as you take on different responsibilities or switch jobs.
Other examples of altered life circumstances include mar- rying, becoming divorced or widowed, raising a family, mov- ing to a new community, losing a job, or retiring— all of which require modifying attitudes and behaviors. For example, being divorced or widowed after many years of marriage
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self114
Can adopting a puppy change your fundamental sense of self for the better? According to Sister Pauline Quinn, a Dominican nun, it can when the puppies are adopted by prison inmates who train them to become service or therapy dogs. Sister Pauline knew something firsthand about life in a total institution, and not just the convent. Born Kathy Quinn, she was once a chronic runaway because of a dysfunctional family life and was eventually institutionalized for lack of another place for her to go. For several years afterward, she was home- less, staying in abandoned buildings and trying to avoid getting picked up by the police as a vagrant. Kathy Quinn could well have died on the streets of Los Angeles, but instead her life was turned around when she found Joni, a German shepherd.
Quinn felt that the dog was the beginning of the process of resocialization that helped her reestablish herself as a func- tioning member of society. It was the first time she had a true friend, one whose unconditional love was restoring her badly damaged self- esteem. Her time in institutions had left her “depersonalized,” stripped of any positive identity with which to tackle the demands of life on the “outside.” The bond that forms between a human and a dog provides positive feedback and a loving relationship that can influence one’s sense of self. The work that Quinn did in training Joni transformed not only the dog but the person as well, eventually leading her to a happier and more productive life devoted to helping others.
Quinn was particularly drawn to the plight of women pris- oners and believed that they, too, could find similar benefits through contact with dogs. She knew that life in prison could be extremely depersonalizing, especially for women, and that rehabilitation, if it was offered at all, was too often unsuccess- ful, returning convicts to the streets without having rebuilt their identities and their lives. In 1981, with the assistance of Dr. Leo Bustad, a professor of veterinary science at the Uni- versity of Washington, she approached the Washington State Correctional Center for Women and proposed that inmates volunteer to train puppies adopted from local shelters and rescue organizations to become service and therapy dogs. The result was the Prison Pet Partnership Program.
The women selected to participate in the program get more than just dogs to train; they get the opportunity for substan- tial resocialization, which helps them to develop new, positive
IN RELATIONSHIPS Sister Pauline Quinn and Training Dogs in Prison
identities and learn valuable social skills that can translate to the outside world. The labor- intensive process of training a dog is perfectly suited to the needs and abilities of inmates, who have a great surplus of time and a desperate need to find constructive ways to occupy it. The rigors of dog training, which places an emphasis on achieving discipline and obedi- ence through repetition and positive reinforcement, is a les- son not lost on the trainers. During the months of training, the animals even sleep with the inmates, providing added psycho- logical benefits. Prisons report significant improvements in morale and behavior once dog- training programs are in place. Allowing prisoners access to the dogs’ unconditional love and giving the prisoners a chance to contribute to society in a meaningful way increase the likelihood that the prisoners will reenter mainstream society successfully.
More than half of state prisons have now established similar dog-training programs, and military prisons have begun com- parable programs to train service dogs for disabled veterans. A service animal can cost as much as $10,000 to train, so these prison programs make a difference in placing more dogs with the people who need them. Just as important here, each relationship with a dog transforms the life of the inmate, who gets another chance at developing a more positive sense of self in the process.
Rehabilitation through Dog Training Inmates reap many benefits when they train service and therapy dogs, including learning new skills that can help them find jobs once they leave prison.
total institutions are geared, such as creating good soldiers, punishing criminals, or managing mental illness, but the pro- cess of resocialization is similar: All previous identities are suppressed, and an entirely new, disciplined self is created.
Relatively few adults experience resocialization to the degree of the total institution. All, however, continue to learn and synthesize norms and values throughout their lives as they move into different roles and social settings.
Statuses and Roles 115
Multiple Roles and Role Conflict In setting out general expectations for behavior, roles help shape our actions in ways that may come to define us to ourselves and others. For example, we often describe ourselves according to personality traits: “I am a responsible person,” “a nurturer,” “competitive,” or “always cheerful.” These traits are often the same as the role expectations attached to our various statuses as professionals, parents, athletes, or friends. If a person can play a number of different roles well, it can enhance her sense of self, but it is not always easy to juggle the varying demands and expectations associated with multiple roles. Sometimes problems arise in our everyday lives because of our roles.
The story of professional baseball player Daniel Murphy illustrates some of these prob- lems. In 2014, Murphy and his wife, Tori, were expecting a baby whose due date coincided with the beginning of the base- ball season. Murphy ended up taking three days off for the birth of baby Noah and missed both the Mets’ season opener and an away- game against the Washington Nationals. As a result of taking three days of paternity leave, Murphy became the focus of an unex- pected controversy as several high- profile sportscasters crit- icized him for missing work to be with his family. This high- lights what is known as role conflict, a situation in which two or more roles have con- tradictory expectations. His occupational role as profes- sional athlete required actions that were seemingly incompat- ible with his familial role as husband and father. Murphy chose his family over baseball, explaining in an interview, “My wife and I discussed it and we felt the best thing for our family was for me to try to stay” for a few days after the baby’s birth (Rubin 2014).
Murphy’s situation may have caused him to experience role strain as well, which occurs when there are contradictory expectations within one single role a person plays: As a new father, Murphy was expected to be present and involved. But he was also expected to support his growing family financially
Statuses and Roles While agents of socialization play an important role in devel- oping our individual identities, so does the larger scaffolding of society. This happens as we take on (or have imposed upon us) different statuses and roles.
A status is a position in a social hierarchy that comes with a set of expectations. Sometimes these positions are for- malized: “professor,” “president,” or even “parent.” Parental obligations, for example, are written into laws that prohibit the neglect and abuse of children. Other statuses are more informal: You may be the “class clown,” for instance, or the “conscience” of your group of friends. The contours of these informal statuses are less explicit but still widely recogniz- able. We all occupy a number of statuses, as we hold positions in multiple social hierarchies at once. Some statuses change over the course of a lifetime (e.g., marital or parental status), while others usually do not (e.g., gender).
There are different kinds of statuses. An ascribed status is one we are born with that is unlikely to change (such as our gender or race). An embodied status is located in our physi- cal selves (such as beauty or disability). Finally, an achieved status is one we have earned through our own efforts (such as an occupation, hobby, or skill) or that has been acquired in some other way (such as a criminal identity, mental ill- ness, or drug addiction). All statuses influence how others see and respond to us. However, some ascribed, embodied, or achieved statuses take on the power of what sociologists call a master status— a status that seems to override all others in our identities.
Master statuses carry with them expectations that may blind people to other facets of our personalities. People quickly make assumptions about what women, Asians, doc- tors, or alcoholics are like and may judge us according to those expectations rather than our actual attributes. This kind of judgment, often referred to as stereotyping, is looked upon as negative or destructive. However, it is important to realize that we all use these expectations in our everyday lives; ste- reotyping, as problematic as it is, is all but unavoidable.
A role is the set of behaviors expected from a particular status position. Sociologists such as Erving Goffman (1956) and Ralph Turner (1978) deliberately use the theatrical anal- ogy to describe how roles provide a kind of script, outlining what we are expected to say and do as a result of our position in the social structure. Professors, then, are expected to be responsible teachers and researchers. Employment contracts and faculty handbooks may specify the role even further: professors must hold a certain number of office hours per week, for example, and must obtain permission from the university in order to skip classes or take a leave of absence. Class clowns don’t sign a contract, nor are they issued a handbook, but they have role expectations nonetheless: They are expected to turn a classroom event into a joke whenever possible and to sacri- fice their own success in order to provide laughs for others.
STATUS a position in a social hierarchy that carries a particular set of expectations
ASCRIBED STATUS a status that is inborn; usually difficult or impossible to change
EMBODIED STATUS a status generated by physical characteristics
ACHIEVED STATUS a status earned through individual effort or imposed by others
MASTER STATUS a status that is always relevant and affects all other statuses we possess
STEREOTYPING judging others based on preconceived generalizations about groups or categories of people
ROLE the set of behaviors expected of someone because of his or her status
ROLE CONFLICT experienced when we occupy two or more roles with contradictory expectations
ROLE STRAIN experienced when there are contradictory expectations within one role
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self116
and this required him to be away from home. When the Mets later traded Murphy to the Nationals, he may have experienced a pro- cess known as role exit, when a person leaves behind a role he once occupied.
You may not become a profes- sional athlete with a new baby arriving on Opening Day, but it is certain that you will find your- self in situations where there are competing demands between multiple roles or within a single role you play. How will you resolve those tensions?
Statuses and roles help shape our identities by providing guide- lines (sometimes formal, some- times informal) for our own behavior and by providing the patterns that others use to inter-
act with us. They are part of the construction of our social selves.
Emotions and Personality As the Murphys’ experience demonstrates, role conflicts can be very emotional events. Our emotions are intensely per- sonal responses to the unique situations of our lives. We react with happiness, anger, fear, or sorrow to our own experiences, as well as things that happen to others, even fictionalized events in books, movies, or video games. Individuals sometimes react very differently— what makes one person laugh may make
another cry. It would seem, then, that our emotions are the one thing about our lives that aren’t dictated by society, that can’t be explained with reference to sociological concepts or theories.
Well, our emotions aren’t fully determined by society, but they are indeed social. We respond individually, but there also are social patterns in our emotional responses. For example, some emotional responses differ according to the culture— even an emotion as personal as grief, as noted in the Global Per- spective box that follows.
The Social Construction of Emotions Sometimes our interaction with others affects our emotional responses: we may yell angrily at a political rally along with everyone else, realizing only later that we don’t really feel that strongly about the issue at all; we may stifle our tears in front of the coach but shed them freely after the game. Role- taking emotions, such as sympathy, embarrassment, and shame, require that we be able to see things from someone else’s point of view. When a friend is injured in an accident, you know she is feeling pain, so you feel sympathy for her. Feeling rules (Hochschild 1975) are socially constructed norms regarding the appropriate feelings and displays of emotion. We are aware of the pressure to conform to feeling rules even when they are unspoken or we don’t agree with them (for example, “Boys don’t cry,” “No laughing at funerals”). Emotions are thus sociologi- cal phenomena, and our individual reactions are influenced (if not determined) by our social and cultural surroundings.
Finally, emotions can also be influenced by social institu- tions, such as workplaces or religious groups. Arlie Hochs- child’s (1983) study of flight attendants revealed that when airlines required their employees to be cheerful on the job, the employees’ authentic emotions were displaced (they weren’t necessarily always cheerful). Flight attendants were required to manage their own feelings as a requirement of their job— what Hochschild calls emotion work— maintaining a bright, perky, happy demeanor in- flight, no matter what they actually felt. Because of the structural pressures of emotion work, they became alienated from their own real feelings.
Interacting Online As we learned in earlier chapters, sociological theories and approaches can change over time— indeed, they must. As the society around them changes, sociologists can’t always hold on to their tried- and- true ways of looking at the world. New and innovative approaches take the place of traditional paradigms.
Most sociological perspectives on interaction, for example, focus on interactions that occur in copresence— that is, when individuals are in one another’s face- to- face, physical company. More and more, however, we find ourselves in situations outside physical copresence, aided by rapidly developing technologies.
Role Conflict Daniel Murphy, a professional baseball player, incited controversy when he missed Opening Day in order to be with his wife when their son was born.
ROLE EXIT the process of leaving a role that we will no longer occupy
ROLE- TAKING EMOTIONS emotions such as sympathy, embarrassment, or shame that require that we assume the perspective of another person or group and respond accordingly
FEELING RULES norms regarding the expression and display of emotions; expectations about the acceptable or desirable feelings in a given situation
EMOTION WORK (EMOTIONAL LABOR) the process of evoking, suppressing, or otherwise managing feelings to create a publicly observable display of emotion
COPRESENCE face- to- face interaction or being in the presence of others
Interacting Online 117
Businesspeople can hold video conferences with colleagues in other cities. The lovelorn can seek relationship advice and find prospective mates online. Students can text their friends at faraway colleges and carry on real- time conversations using Skype or Facetime. Doctors on the mainland can perform remote robotic surgery on shipboard patients in the middle
When it comes to emotions, grief seems to be one of the strongest. No matter what we believe about the after- life (or lack thereof ), we mourn the passing of our loved ones. In many different societies, the cultural practices sur- rounding grief and mourning are directed toward giving the deceased a proper send- off and comforting those left behind. But you might be surprised at what other cultures consider comforting in times of grief !
For example, Maoris (the native people of New Zea- land) believe that death is not final until all funeral rites are complete— which takes an entire year. Though the body is buried after three days, the relatives and friends of the deceased speak of and to her as if she were alive until the year of mourning is complete.
The Roma (often incorrectly referred to as “Gypsies”) mourn in particularly intense and public ways: both men and women refuse to wash, shave, or comb their hair, neglect to eat for three days, and absorb themselves totally in the process of mourning, sometimes to the point of harming themselves. In addition to this passionate grieving, Roma mourners provide the dead with clothes, money, and other useful objects for their journey to the afterlife. In contrast to Western societies, where black is the pre- vailing color of grief, Roma mourners traditionally wear white clothes, and the favored color for funeral decorations is red.
Red is also the color of grief for the Ashanti of Ghana, who wear red clothing, smear red clay on their arms and foreheads, and wear headbands festooned with red peppers. Proper Ashanti expressions of grief are distinguished by gen- der: women must wail, and men must fire guns into the air. In fact, the amount of gunpowder used in a funeral is considered a mark of the grieving family’s status in the community.
When mourning their dead, many cultures, including the Irish, hold “wakes”: long- lasting, heavily attended parties hon- oring and celebrating the lives of the dead. At a wake, while tears may fall, there is also likely to be singing, dancing, drink- ing, laughing, and all manner of seemingly celebratory emo- tional outbursts. So despite the fact that all cultures mourn and all individuals feel grief, we express those emotions in dif- ferent ways depending on the society of which we are a part.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Cross- Cultural Responses to Grief
How Different Cultures Grieve Maori warriors row a coffin to their burial ground (top), mourning Roma women weep over a coffin (center), and Ashanti women practice a traditional funeral dance (bottom).
of the ocean. Do conventional theories have the explanatory power to encompass these new ways of interacting? And since interaction is vital to the development of the self, how do these new ways of interacting create new types of social identities?
Researchers like Josh Meyrowitz (1985), Marc Smith and Peter Kollock (1998), Steve Jones (1997), Philip Howard (Jones
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Interaction, and the Self118
In her groundbreaking work The Managed Heart, sociol-ogist Arlie Hochschild (1983) introduced the concept of emotion work, or the ways in which workers are expected to manage— and sell— their feelings in the name of good service. Conducted in the 1980s, Hochschild’s research focused on flight attendants. The almost entirely female corps of flight attendants was required to present a cheerful and calm front regardless of how they felt on the inside or how badly they were treated by passengers. The airlines promised pretty, perky, and perfectly obliging stewardesses as part of their ad campaigns, raising clients’ gendered and sexualized expecta- tions for their onboard experiences.
In the years since this landmark book, other researchers have explored the role of gender, sex, and emotional labor in many different types of service work. But flight attendants remain the archetypal emotion workers— stuck at 30,000 feet with demand- ing, irate, and/or sexually aggressive clients, in an industry where smiling subservience is a job requirement. A recent book, Louwanda Evans’s Cabin Pressure: African American Pilots, Flight Attendants and Emotional Labor (2011), adds a new dimension— race— to Hochschild’s concept of emotional labor. Black pilots work in a setting dominated by white men (less than 1 percent of commercial airline pilots are black), and black flight attendants work in a setting dominated by white women (about 14 percent of flight attendants are black) (2011, p. 6). This means that in addition to the emotional labor expected of all crew
ON THE JOB The Wages of Emotion Work
members, black crew members must manage their own and their passengers’ emotions around race, racialized stereotypes, and other types of race- based expectations.
For example, black pilots describe over and over again the assumptions made about them by passengers: that they are incompetent and unqualified compared to their white coun- terparts. This is a tough emotional burden to bear while on the job. “The black pilot has to prove that he’s not a jackass. You are assumed to be inept,” said one of the pilots Evans interviewed (2011, p. 17). Another pilot overheard a passen- ger in the boarding area complain to the gate agent: “That [ N- word] better not be flying my plane” (2011, p. 1).
Flight attendants, who have the most intensive in- flight contact with passengers, bear the burden of racialized emotion work as well. One senior black flight attendant describes what happened when she offered a white male passenger a drink:
“Would you mind getting someone else to bring me my drink? I would prefer you not touch my cup.” Initially, I thought that maybe it was something religious and based on my gender because we get that sometimes. But then a white female flight attendant served him his Coke with no problems. I was shocked and upset, and as a matter of fact, I did not want him to have a drink at all! (2011, p. 1)
The problem for emotional laborers, of course, is that it doesn’t matter what they want, or how they feel, or how they might like to respond to a rude or racist customer. It is a requirement of their job that they keep smiling, get the passen- ger what he or she wants (in this case, a drink served by white hands), and force themselves not to show how they really feel.
The rise of the service economy has led to what Hochs- child refers to as the “commercialization of feeling ” (1983). Emotion work is a requirement of many different types of work, including retail sales workers, front desk reception- ists, restaurant wait staff, even your Uber driver eager for that five- star rating (Stark, 2016). In fact, you probably have a job that requires at least some emotional labor. Are there gendered, racialized, or sexualized aspects to that work? Are you expected to keep your mouth shut when clients, custom- ers, patients, or passengers say or do something you don’t like? Are you required to do it while trapped in an airtight, enclosed space five miles above the earth? Will this change how you see and treat the flight crew the next time you board an airplane?
Emotion Work at 30,000 Feet Black pilots and black flight attendants must manage their emotions when they confront racism on the job.
119Closing Comments
the postmodern individual tends to have a “pastiche personal- ity,” one that “borrow[s] bits and pieces of identity from whatever sources are available” (p. 150). What this means is that the self is being constructed in new ways that were unforeseen by early symbolic interactionists, who could not have imagined that interaction would one day include so many possible influences from both the real world and the world of virtual reality.
CLOSING COMMENTS By now you may be wondering, are we all just prisoners of socialization? How much freedom do we really have if we are all shaped and influenced to such an extent by others and by society? Are our ideas of ourselves as individuals— unique and independent— just a sorry illusion?
It is true that the process of socialization can be rather homogenizing. And it tends to be conservative, pushing people toward some sort of lowest common denominator, toward the mainstream. But still, not everybody ends up the same. In fact, no two people are ever really alike. Despite all the social forces at play in creating the individual, the process by which we gain a sense of self, or become socialized members of society, is never wholly finished.
We are not just passive recipients of all the influences around us. We are active participants. We possess what is called agency, meaning that we are spontaneous, intelligent, and creative. We exercise free will. Symbolic interactionism tells us that we are always doing the work of interpreting, defining, making sense of, and responding to our social envi- ronment. That gives us a great deal of personal power in every social situation. The process is not unilateral; rather, it is reciprocal and multidirectional. Remember that you are shap- ing society as much as it is shaping you
and Howard 2003), and Barry Wellman (2004) were among the pioneers in the sociology of technologically mediated inter- action. They looked at how we began interacting with each other in virtual space and via electronic media— and how we inter- acted with the machines themselves. Today, people like Sherry Turkle, who directs the Initiative on Technology and the Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), study differ- ent ways that technology and identity intersect— through our use of computers, robots, technologically sophisticated toys, and so on (1997, 2005). In Alone Together (2011), Turkle focuses on the problems of the social media age. Online interactions allow us to contain and reduce risks— not risk to life and limb, necessarily, but risk to self. When we interact online, we can control when, where, and how we communicate. This means that, if we want, we can keep others at arm’s length, which fur- ther allows us to perform a self that may or may not correspond to who we are in real life. We have become less willing to take risks in terms of forging intimate bonds online, and while we may have lots of connections (friends, fans, followers), we expe- rience less depth in our relationships with them. Turkle believes that we all lose something in a world of mediated relationships, and her latest work, Reclaiming Conversation (2015), contains a call to put down our devices, pull up a chair, and talk to one another in real, old- fashioned copresence. Turkle is concerned that when we replace face- to- face communication with tweets, texts, and snaps, our ability to conduct meaningful face- to- face communication atrophies and with it our capacity for empathy.
danah boyd is slightly less gloomy about technology. She finds that Internet users— especially teens— seek private spaces in which to conduct their personal relationships and view online environments like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as places that can offer such privacy. They invite only their close friends into their electronic circles and then use those virtual spaces as getaways from the pressures of parents, teachers, and other adults. This is contrary to the ways that adults use social media— grownups tweet and post to expand their social circles and spread the word about their accomplishments, while teens do so only for the chosen few. The differences in generational cohorts’ perspectives on online interaction are conveyed by the title of boyd’s book: It’s Complicated (2014).
These and other researchers seek answers to the follow- ing question: Who will we become as we increasingly interact with and through digital technologies? Their work is helping sociology enter the age of interactive media and giving us new ways of looking at interactions and identities.
Postmodern theorists claim that the role of technology in interaction is one of the primary features of postmodern life. They believe that in the Information Age, social think- ers must arrive at new ways to explain the development of the self in light of the digital media that inundate our social world (Holstein and Gubrium 2000). We are now exposed to more sources and multiple points of view that may shape our sense of self and socialize us in different ways than ever before (Gottschalk 1993). Kenneth Gergen (1991) coined the term the saturated self to refer to this phenomenon and claims that
SATURATED SELF a postmodern idea that the self is now developed by multiple influences chosen from a wide range of media sources
AGENCY the ability of the individual to act freely and independently
Mediating Interaction With new technologies like Facetime, we can interact with each other outside of physical copresence. How will these new technologies affect our interactions and identities?
120
Everything You Need to Know about Socialization
REVIEW 1. Think about a social issue about
which you hold a very different opin- ion than your grandparents or people their age, such as drug legalization, sexual mores, or even fashion. How might this difference of opinion be the result of different socialization?
2. According to Erving Goffman, we all engage in impression management to control what others think of us. Choose one interaction, and list every aspect of the personal front you use to manage the impression you create.
3. Describe yourself in terms of your statuses and roles. Which are master statuses? Which roles are less impor- tant? Which statuses have changed over the course of your lifetime? Which roles do you anticipate occu- pying in the future?
AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION
✱ Family: The original group to which people belong, where early emotional and social bonds are created, lan- guage is learned, and where we first begin to internalize the norms and values of society.
✱ School: Helps people become less dependent on their family and pro- vides a bridge to other social groups.
✱ Peers: Provide young people with a way of exercising independence from, and possibly reacting against, adult control.
✱ Mass media: Entertains, informs, educates, and is responsible for the internalization of many values, beliefs, and norms of society.
“ Socialization is the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social groups, by which we become functioning members of society.
“
121
EXPLORE
Harry’s Law, Girls, and the Media Marketplace Does popular entertainment provide an accurate representation of society? What does learning about society through television tell us? Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to explore these questions through the lens of HBO’s show Girls.
http://wwnPag.es/trw404
122
CHAPTER 5
Separate and Together: Life in Groups
I f you’re a college student and a musician, we hope you’re not familiar with these terms and
their definitions: “hot seat” (being beaten with drum sticks, mallets, and straps while cov-
ered with a blanket in the back of the band bus) and “crossing over” (being kicked and hit
by your bandmates as you run down the aisle of the bus). It might seem like being subjected
to these brutal attacks would mean that it is time to quit the band. In reality, this ritual is how
your bandmates might let you know that they want you to stay— and even advance in the band
leadership hierarchy. But on November 19, 2011, this ritual went horribly wrong on the Florida
123
A&M University (FAMU) “Marching 100” band bus. Drum major Robert Champion
suffered such severe injuries at the hands of his bandmates that he died at a hos-
pital later that night. His family, friends, fellow musicians, and university community
were grief- stricken, of course. But his death also touched off a national contro-
versy over “hazing” that has yet to subside.
The hazing process is meant to test newcomers and transform them into group
members; if you can endure the abuse, you can be part of the group. Although
hazing is usually associated with college fraternities, it has been known to occur in
high school and college clubs, athletic teams, sororities, marching bands, and even
church groups, as well as in police and fire departments and the military. Although
hazing is against the law in almost every state and is usually prohibited by group
charters, it is still a popular— though risky— way of initiating new members. Every
year, it results in at least one death and countless injuries. All told, there have been
over 150 hazing deaths among U.S. college students since 1970. Experts estimate
that alcohol plays a major role in around 80 percent of these incidents (Nuwer
1999, 2004, 2016).
The FAMU hazing has left a tragic legacy. Twelve of Champion’s bandmates
were charged with manslaughter in his death and four were ultimately convicted
and sentenced to prison. The band itself was suspended for nearly two years,
the band director was fired, and the FAMU president resigned in the wake of the
incident. In addition, Champion’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against
the university and were ultimately awarded $1.1 million and an apology. They later
established the Robert D. Champion Drum Major for Change Foundation to help
fight hazing in schools, bands, and athletics nationwide (Hudak 2015).
Despite all of these devastating consequences, some of Champion’s band-
mates have protested that he and other students volunteered to be hazed that
night because they wanted to be able to move into leadership roles in the band.
This fact highlights a key question in all hazing cases: who is responsible when the
consequences of hazing include illegality, injury, or even death— the host group or
the individual who submits to hazing?
The relationship between the individual and the group is a complex one. We
sometimes do things in groups, both good and bad, that we might never do as
individuals. Exploring group dynamics from a sociological perspective can help us
understand and even eliminate problems like hazing and maximize the benefits
of group life as well.
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups124
What Is a Group? 125
Charles Horton Cooley (1909) introduced the term pri- mary for this type of group because such groups have the most profound effects on us as individuals. Primary groups provide most of our emotional satisfaction through interaction with other members, are responsible for much of our socializa- tion, and remain central to our identities throughout our lives. We measure who we are, and perhaps how we’ve changed, by the way we interact with primary group members. To Cooley (as we saw in Chapter 4), primary groups represent the most important “looking glasses” in the formation of our social selves— they constitute our “significant others.”
Larger, less intimate groups are known as secondary groups: These include co- workers, col- lege classes, athletic organiza- tions, labor unions, and political parties. Interaction here is more formal and impersonal. Second- ary groups are usually organized around a specific activity or the accomplishment of a task. Mem- bership is often temporary and does not usually carry the same potential for emotional satisfac- tion that primary group member- ship does. Nonetheless, a great deal of what we do involves sec- ondary groups.
Because secondary groups can include larger numbers of people and be geographically diffuse, membership can be almost com- pletely anonymous. At the same time, however, secondary group membership often generates pri- mary group ties as well. Close personal relationships can begin with the more impersonal ties of secondary groups (the friends you make at work, for example) and are sometimes a direct out- growth of our attempts to coun- teract the depersonalizing nature of secondary groups. For this reason, it is sometimes difficult to classify a particular group. Your soccer team may indeed be goal oriented, but you’ve probably also developed personal ties to at least some of your teammates. So, is your team a primary or secondary group? It features elements of both, proving that real life can be even more complex than the models sociolo- gists devise to explain it.
There are other ways that seemingly insignificant rela- tionships with near strangers can have a powerful and posi- tive impact on our own lives. Many social researchers are interested in examining the ways in which people make up for
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER This chapter explores some of the different ways we organize our lives in groups. Here you will gain some of the analytic tools you can use to understand the specific groups we’ll be inves- tigating in later chapters. Concepts such as peer pressure, teamwork, bureaucratization, and anomie can be fruitfully applied to analyses of families, work and volunteer organiza- tions, political groups, and religious communities. Consider this chapter an introduction to group dynamics in general— a springboard from which to begin our sociological analysis of particular types of groups. As you read, think about the groups you belong to and how they affect your values and behavior. What is your influence on such groups? Have you ever “gone along” with group rules but later wished you hadn’t?
What Is a Group? We often use the term group to refer to any collection of two or more people who have something in common, whether it’s their appearance, culture, occupation, or just a physical prox- imity. When sociologists speak of a group or social group, however, they mean a collection of people who not only share some attribute but also identify with one another and have ongoing social relations— like a family, a Star Trek fan club, a soccer team, a sorority, or the guys you play poker with every month.
A crowd, such as the throngs of sightseers at a tourist attraction or people who gather to watch a fire, would not usu- ally be considered a group in the sociological sense. While crowd members do interact (Goffman 1971), they don’t nec- essarily have a sense of common identity, and they rarely assemble again once they disperse. Collections of people such as crowds, audiences, and queues are known as aggregates— people who happen to find themselves together in a particu- lar physical location. People in aggregates don’t form lasting social relations, but people in groups do. Similarly, people belonging in the same category— everyone eighteen years of age or all owners of Chevy trucks, for example— don’t regularly interact with one another or have any common sense of con- nection other than their status in the category.
Primary and Secondary Groups Groups in which we are intimately associated with the other members, such as families and close friends, are known as primary groups. Primary groups typically involve more face- to- face interaction, greater cooperation, and deeper feelings of belonging. Members often associate with each other for no other reason than to spend time together.
GROUP a collection of people who share some attribute, identify with one another, and interact with each other
CROWD a temporary gathering of people in a public place; members might interact but do not identify with each other and will not remain in contact
AGGREGATES collections of people who share a physical location but do not have lasting social relations
CATEGORY people who share one or more attributes but who lack a sense of common identity or belonging
PRIMARY GROUPS groups composed of the people who are most important to our sense of self; members’ relationships are typically characterized by face- to- face interaction, high levels of cooperation, and intense feelings of belonging
SECONDARY GROUPS groups that are larger and less intimate than primary groups; members’ relationships are usually organized around a specific goal and are often temporary
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups126
social ties. Social ties can be direct, such as the tie between you and your friend, or indirect, such as the tie between you and your friend’s cousin whom you’ve never met.
To understand how a social network works, think of your- self at the center with lines connecting you to all your friends, family, peers, and so on. These lines represent direct ties. Now think about all the family, friends, and peers who belong to each of these people. The lines connecting you to this second group must pass through the people in your first network; this second set of lines represents indirect ties. Indirect ties can include business transactions— flows of goods, services, mate- rials, or monies— between organizations or nations. They can even represent the flow of ideas. For instance, when you read ancient Greek philosophy, you become part of a network that spans centuries of writing, thinking, and educating.
In Chapter 2 you learned about the principle of “six degrees of separation,” which suggests that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else within six steps: “If you know 100 people, and each of them knows 100 more, then you have 10,000 friends of friends. Take that a step further to three degrees and you are connected to 1 million people. At six degrees, the num- ber increases to 9 billion” (Schofield 2004). This means, theo- retically, that you’re connected to every human on the planet. It might be the case that somebody you know knows someone who knows somebody else who knows the president of the United States or a yak herdsman in the Himalayas; in other words, you might be separated from either of these others by just four degrees.
Sociologists who study networks are concerned not only with how networks are constructed but also how influence moves along a network and, thus, which persons or organiza- tions have more influence than others within the network. In his book Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (2003), sociologist Duncan Watts examined not only the connections individuals have to one another but also how those connec- tions shape our actions. He found, for example, that we may change our minds about whom to vote for if enough of our friends are voting for the other candidate. Social networks can help us understand everything from the spread of fads and fashions to the way people hear about job openings to how sexually transmitted diseases are spread among various segments of the population.
WINNERS, LOSERS, AND INFLUENCE How does the flow of influence work at the level of an international organi- zation? We could take the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an example. Comprising 161 member nations, the WTO monitors the trade rules among countries and resolves inter- national disputes over trade. While all member nations are part of the network, they hold different positions of power within it. We might hypothesize that nations that win the most disputes have the most influence within the network. But Joseph Conti (2003, 2005, 2010) finds that while the United States, one of the most powerful members of the
the loss of intimate contact that is commonly shared among those who belong to primary groups. Melinda Blau and Karen Fingerman (2009) have identified what they call “consequen- tial strangers”—people we might not think of as mattering much to our sense of happiness or well- being but who nonethe- less play an important role in our otherwise fragmented post- modern lives. These people are not total strangers but are more likely to be acquaintances from the places we work, shop, play, or conduct business— from the local barista at the coffeehouse
or our favorite manicurist to the checkout clerk at the grocery store or that guy at the gym. These are people who become familiar and essential parts of our every- day lives. These people serve as social anchors, just as our close friends or family members do.
Blau and Fingerman suggest that we need a new framework or perspective with which to look at the people in our world and perhaps to expand the number and range, as well as the value we ascribe to them. It seems that we need both primary and secondary relationships, as well as those along the continuum between the two.
Social Networks You and your family, your friends, peers, colleagues, teachers, and co- workers constitute a social network. Sociologists who study networks call the connections between individuals
Primary Groups Are Typically Families or Close Friends Deborah Daniels (front left, in pink) opened her home to four generations of her family after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their New Orleans homes in 2005.
SOCIAL NETWORK the web of direct and indirect ties connecting an individual to other people who may also affect the individual
SOCIAL TIES connections between individuals
Separate from Groups: Anomie or Virtual Membership? 127
While we may have complete control over whom we are con- nected to directly, we exert little control over our indirect connections. Contagion not only influences an individual’s health but also can spread everything from obesity to smok- ing and substance abuse. For example, sexually transmitted diseases are more likely among people who have had four or more partners in the past year. In particular, whites who have many partners tend to have sex with other whites who have many partners, and whites who have few partners tend to have sex with whites who have few partners. STDs, then, are kept in “core” groups of active white partners and are found less often in less active groups. This spread of STDs can be seen as a literal consequence of the contagion principle of social networks.
When we think of someone as being “well connected,” we imagine that they not only have lots of close friends but also might have relationships and acquaintances in a large and diverse social circle. As the old adage goes, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And who they know, and who they know— and now you have a social network.
Separate from Groups: Anomie or Virtual Membership? According to Durkheim, all the social groups with which we are connected (families, peers, co- workers, and so on) have this particular feature: the norms of the group place certain limits on our individual actions. For example, you may have wanted to backpack through Europe after you graduated from high school, but your parents demanded that you stay home, work, and save money for college. Durkheim argues that we need these limits— otherwise, we would want many things we could never have, and the lengths to which we would go in search of our unattainable desires would be boundless. Think about it: if you were always searching for but never getting the things you wanted, you would be very unhappy and over time might even become suicidal. Durkheim (1893/1964) called such a state of normlessness anomie and believed that group membership keeps us from feeling it. So group membership not only anchors us to the social world— it’s what keeps us alive.
Durkheim was worried that in our increasingly fragmented modern society, anomie would become more and more com- mon. Other scholars share Durkheim’s position, noting that Americans today are less likely than ever to belong to the types of civic organizations and com- munity groups that can combat anomie and keep us connected to one another. Harvard profes- sor Robert Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
WTO, is involved in the vast majority of disputes, it usually loses. The question that remains for the network theorist is whether “winning” or “losing” is an effective way to measure influence. What Conti concludes is that America’s centrality, a network analysis term that means an actor with the most ties in a given network, is what gives it powerful influence and not the actual outcomes of the disputes.
JOBS, GENDER, AND NETWORKS How does the flow of influence work at the level of interactions between individu- als? Sociologists look at how personal ties, both direct and indirect, can influence a person’s life.
In the pathbreaking work “The Strength of Weak Ties” (1973), Mark Granovetter measured how a person’s distant rela- tives and acquaintances, attached to different social networks, pass along information about job opportunities. An individual with high socioeconomic status, or SES (taking into account income, education, and occupation), for example, usually has relatives and acquaintances with similarly high SES. Because those relatives and acquaintances belong to different social networks, all with high SES, the job seeker now has indirect connections with a vast array of high- SES contacts who can provide job leads. In other words, if your father, mother, and sis- ter are all actors, you would likely “inherit” a network of acting contacts. The implications of Granovetter’s findings are that people tend to form homogeneous social networks— to have direct ties to those who are like themselves, whether through race, class background, national origin, or religion. Further, individuals with low SES are likely to form direct ties to others with low SES and thus indirect ties as well. Information about job opportunities is less likely to travel along those networks.
More recent findings about the strength of weak ties, from Matt Hoffman and Lisa Torres (2002), indicate that women who are part of networks that include more men than women are more likely to hear about good job leads. But if their net- works include more women than men, then those same women are less likely to hear about quality jobs. The number of men or women within a man’s network doesn’t seem to matter; men are just as likely to get quality information about job oppor- tunities from both men and women in their social networks. Hoffman and Torres offer two rationales to explain their find- ings. First, women are simply less likely than men to hear about job leads. Second, women who do hear about job leads are more likely to pass along that information to men; they may feel threatened by the idea of more women in their places of employment and fear loss of their own jobs. So our networks work for us, but they may also work against us.
SEXUAL HEALTH AND NETWORKS Nicholas Christa- kis and James Fowler (2009, 2013) provide another example of how transmission happens between individuals belong- ing to similar social networks. They explain two principles: first, all social networks have a connection, and second, there is contagion, which refers to what flows through social ties.
ANOMIE “normlessness”; term used to describe the alienation and loss of purpose that result from weaker social bonds and an increased pace of change
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups128
IN THE FUTURE What Happens to Group Ties in a Virtual World?
Virtual reality (VR) is no longer the stuff of science fiction. In fact, VR has recently gone from being a technology that most of us simply imagined or read about to one that has begun to appear in peoples’ homes, with Facebook, Google, Sony, and Microsoft all bringing new products to market. For example, Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that creates an immersive 3D vision and sound experience (Urstadt and Frier 2016). When Mark Zuckerberg bought the company behind Oculus Rift for $2 billion, he said in his announce- ment, “Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face- to- face just by putting on goggles in your home.”
As Zuckerberg highlighted, virtual reality offers not only the potential for enhanced games but also may increase access to the arts, medicine, education, and even travel for all members of society. If a musician performs a concert in virtual reality, will all concertgoers be able to access front- row seats, indicating a leveling of class- based access to consumer products, or will industries replicate real- world inequalities in the services and products offered in virtual reality? VR also has the potential to create greater empathy and understanding across cultures; filmmakers and journal- ists have a new tool to bring us closer to the lives of others (Berman 2017). As part of a campaign to highlight the plight of refugees, the United Nations released the first- ever VR film, Clouds over Sidra, which drops viewers inside Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp.
And virtual reality doesn’t simply end at visual and men- tal stimulation. Japanese developer Tenga has created a full- body virtual interface that includes not only a headset but also a bodysuit with sensors that send impulses all over the wearer’s body to make it feel like the wearer is being touched by another human being. It might not be a surprise to learn that companies like Tenga are using VR to simulate sexual contact and thereby capitalize on the lucrative market for adult toys.
If we no longer have to meet up in physical places to engage in such activities, how will this shape our relation- ships with family, friends, and even strangers? In the future, with virtual reality and full- body sensors, you might be able to experience giving a hug to a loved one in another part
of the country, or doctors might be able to virtually guide mechanized surgical equipment to provide medical services to those in geographically remote locations.
Virtual realities might alter nearly everything we do in the future, which can raise some real anxieties. How far will such technologies reach into our lives and in what ways? Is doing something in virtual reality the same as doing it in “meatspace” (the physical world)? How do the experiences compare? For example, for years, researchers and educators have been concerned with the effectiveness of online courses as compared to face- to- face instruction. How will virtual reality factor into that debate? Will VR eliminate the need for physical classrooms?
Virtual reality has seemingly unlimited potential. You and your friends might all be able to watch a movie in a VR theater each from your own homes but experience it together. You could join them to tour museums across the globe, attend lectures at Harvard University, walk the streets through one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, or climb Mount Everest together. But just because you’re capable of doing something with other people in virtual reality doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t opt to do it alone. Will technolo- gies such as this bring us closer together or drive us further apart?
Virtual Reality Will VR facilitate relationships and civic engagement? Or will this new technology undermine our “real world” connections?
Separate from Groups: Anomie or Virtual Membership? 129
2011; Lenhart 2015) contradict many of these tech- induced anxieties. According to Pew, users of social media may actu- ally be more connected with others than nonusers. Facebook users were found to have more close relationships and higher levels of social support and to be more trusting of others and more politically engaged than users of other social media and nonusers. In addition, sociologists Eric Klinenberg (2012a) and Claude Fischer (2011) make the case that, despite a rise in social media use and an increase in single- person house- holds, Americans are no more or less lonely or detached from one another than they have ever been.
The Internet has made it possible for people who might not otherwise have met to come together— albeit in cyberspace— and to belong to a variety of online groups. From participants involved in massively multiplayer online role- playing games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft or Second Life, to support groups that “meet” regularly to deal with personal issues or medical conditions, to fans of different authors, bands, artists, or filmmakers swapping comments, technology offers us new opportunities to connect by making us members of virtual communities.
So what will the future hold with regard to technology and our relationships with one another? To answer that, we might actually want to look to the past. Remember Émile Dur- kheim’s concerns about anomie and modern life? Durkheim was worried that the technological and cultural changes that accompanied the Indus- trial Revolution would cause people to become more discon- nected from one another and that this disconnection would be detrimental both to individu- als (who might be more likely to
(2000), argues that we no longer practice the type of “civic engagement” that builds democratic community and keeps anomie at bay: Fewer people bowl in leagues than ever before, and people are less likely to participate in organizations like the League of Women Voters, PTA, or Kiwanis or engage in regular activities like monthly bridge games or Sunday pic- nics. He even offers statistics on how many angry drivers “flip the bird” at other drivers every year— all part of his argument about our disintegrating collective bonds. Putnam’s critics argue that he longs for the “good ol’ days” that will never be again (and perhaps never were). It may be true that we don’t belong to bridge clubs anymore, but we have a new set of resources to help us connect with others and avoid anomie.
In the years since Putnam’s influential work first appeared, there has been an explosion of new technologies, and with it, some similar debates about the potential effects on social life. Some social thinkers are concerned that the Internet will only serve to exacerbate our condition of isolation and sepa- ration from one another. They argue that the Internet makes us more lonely, replacing our face- to- face bonds with a set of “broader but shallower” online connections that don’t really do the trick (Marche 2012). This argument also includes the criticism that we are more disconnected from our communi- ties as a result of our immersion in online worlds: we are not as committed to civic life, local politics, or public service as we should be or once were. Even scholars who once saw promise in the rise of the Internet, such as MIT’s Sherry Turkle (2011, 2015), now worry that we have come to prioritize technolo- gies over relationships and that, furthermore, we may need to unplug from our devices in order to reclaim the most basic person- to- person connections.
Findings from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project (Greenwood et al. 2016; Hampton et al.
The Good Old Days? In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam argues that the decline of group activities, such as bingo nights or league bowling, represents a decline in civic engagement. However, technologies such as the Internet and social networking sites have allowed large numbers of people to gather, connect, and avoid anomie.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES social groups whose interactions are mediated through information technologies, particularly the Internet
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups130
commit suicide as a result) and for society (which would lack necessary cohesion and solidarity). Over a hundred years later, critics have similar concerns about the changes being ushered in by the Digital Age. It seems that rapid changes in technology and society, no matter what they look like or when they occur, induce anxiety.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
“Who’s in Your Feed?” Did you know that almost 70 percent of all adults— and 86 percent of young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty- nine— use some kind of social network-
ing site? That Facebook has more than 1 billion daily active users, that 500 million tweets are sent on Twitter every day, or that more than 30 billion photos have been uploaded to Instagram? And then there’s also the tens (or hundreds) of millions of things that are happening right now on LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat. The statistics for social media usage are astounding. And there’s a good chance you’re adding to those numbers with each status update, selfie, or pin.
The skyrocketing popularity of social networking sites has social scientists scrambling to keep up with study- ing what this rapidly evolving technology means not only for our personal identity and everyday lives but also for our relationships with others and the nature of social interaction in groups. The very idea of what constitutes a group has changed, and sociologists have had to broaden their definition of the term to include what people are doing in online or virtual communities. If people gather together to share interests, offer advice, provide support, or exchange ideas but never meet in person, are they still a group?
In sociological terms, we can see how social network- ing can help us make the most of our primary and sec- ondary group connections. It is easier than ever to stay in touch with the important people in our lives (even if they are not in close physical proximity) and reconnect with old acquaintances. Social networking has brought people together who might not have otherwise been able to find each other in the past, when it was not possible to search for others based on their common interests, backgrounds, and demographic details. Now you can find that long- lost
friend from fifth grade, meet new people who are into the same things as you, or keep tabs on someone you already see on a daily basis. So, who’s in your feed?
For this Data Workshop you will be conducting inter- views to find out how people use social networking in their everyday lives and its role in shaping individual and group identity online. You’ll begin to see how group life is created, maintained, and changed online by group members who might share many things in common— especially other people. Your task will be to construct a set of interview questions and to gather responses from subjects you recruit to take part in your pilot study. Then you can make some preliminary analyses based on your findings. Refer to the section on interviews in Chapter 2 for a review of this research method.
There are several choices to make in the way you structure your research project. Because this is such a small- scale study, you do not need to take a scientific sample, but you should include members of the target population you want to study— for example, college stu- dents or lacrosse players. Because there are many social networking sites that people use, you will also need to choose whether to focus on just one, such as Facebook, or to make your questions apply more broadly to multiple sites. You’ll need to customize your interview questions accordingly. Here are some questions to get you started. You may choose some or all of these, modify them as needed, put them in a different order, or add some ques- tions of your own.
✱ What social networking sites do you use? When, where, and how often?
✱ How do you decide to whom to send friend/ connection/follower requests?
✱ How do you decide from whom to accept friend/ connection/follower requests?
✱ How many people do you feel comfortable having on your friends/connections/followers list?
✱ How many of the people in your social network do you know in real life?
✱ Are there people in your life with whom you refuse to interact on social media?
✱ Are your networks public or for approved friends/ connections/followers only?
✱ When you look at your list of friends/connections/ followers, how much diversity is there in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, class, age, sexuality, geo- graphic location, or other factors?
Group Dynamics 131
siblings, for example (Simmel 1950). Although relationships in a dyad are usually intense, dyads are also fundamentally unstable, because if one person wants out of the group, it’s over. A triad is slightly more stable because the addition of a third person means that con- flicts between two members can be refereed by the third. As additional people are added to a group, it may no longer be pos- sible for everyone to know or interact with everyone else per- sonally (think of all the residents of a large apartment building),
✱ What do you like to do most on social networking sites?
✱ How often do you post to social networking sites?
✱ Does your friends/connections/followers list affect what you decide to post online?
✱ What kinds of groups have you joined online? Why?
✱ Does social networking help you feel more con- nected to others? Why or why not?
✱ What other functions does social networking play in your life?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Construct your interview ques- tions and obtain some initial responses from yourself and one or two others. Jot down some notes about your pre- liminary findings. Bring your questionnaire to class and interview a partner. Discuss your answers and what else you might like to know about social networking. Listen for any differences in others’ insights.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Conduct a small pilot study on social networking. Prepare a questionnaire and interview three to five respondents. Ask permission if you would like to record their answers. Write a three- to four- page essay discussing your experience and preliminary find- ings. What more would you like to know about social networking?
Group Dynamics Sociologists have always been interested in how groups form, change, disintegrate, achieve great goals, or commit horren- dous wrongs. Add all these phenomena together and they con- stitute group dynamics. How do groups affect an individual’s sense of self ? What forces bind members to a group? How do groups influence their members? When do groups excel at the tasks they undertake? What are the qualities of group lead- ers? When are groups destructive to the individual? How can relations between groups be improved? We will attempt to answer some of these questions in the next sections.
Dyads, Triads, and More The size of a group affects how it operates and the types of individual relationships that can occur within it (Figure 5.1). A dyad, the smallest possible social group, consists of only two members— a romantic couple, two best friends, or two
GROUP DYNAMICS the patterns of interaction between groups and individuals
DYAD a two- person social group
TRIAD a three- person social group
A
DYAD
One Relationship
Three Relationships
TRIAD
Six Relationships
GROUP OF FOUR
Ten Relationships
GROUP OF FIVE
A
B
BC
A C
B D
A C
E D
B
Figure 5.1 The Effects of Group Size on Relationships
Smaller groups feature fewer and more intimate personal ties; larger groups feature more relationships, but they are also likely to be more impersonal.
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups132
Social networking sites have come a long way since the early days of the Internet. Today Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are all in the top twenty- five most visited sites by Internet users in the United States. Facebook alone boasts more than 1 billion active daily users.
The rise of social networking has been so rapid that social scientists can barely keep pace with studying what this new technology means, but it has become clear that when social networks become online social networks, they also become big business. “When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.” This aphorism seems to have been independently coined by a number of different people, and it expresses one of the most significant features of social networking websites. Online, social networks exist because businesses like Facebook facilitate them. For everyone who participates, the rewards and benefits are obvious— staying in touch with faraway friends and family, sharing photos of cute babies and kittens, organizing for political change. But are there risks as well?
In 2014 researchers at Facebook and Cornell University published a paper arguing that “emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness,” and this can happen through exposure to emotionally charged posts on Facebook (Kramer, Guillory, and Hancock 2014).
IN RELATIONSHIPS Social Networking: You’re Not the Customer— You’re the Product
The researchers wondered if “exposure to emotional content led people to post content that was consistent with the expo- sure.” Does seeing happy posts lead to more happy posts, and seeing sad posts lead to more downbeat ones?
To test this hypothesis, Facebook performed an experi- ment on almost 700,000 users. Every time someone logs into Facebook, the site displays a newsfeed of posts by people in their network; however, rather than simply dis- playing every post, Facebook uses an algorithm to pick a smaller subset of material. For one week Facebook tweaked this algorithm so hundreds of thousands of unwitting users saw posts that were either slightly more positive, or slightly more negative, than usual. Researchers then analyzed the emotional content of the posts created by their test subjects and determined that the users who saw happier content wrote posts with more positive words, while users who saw more depressing content created posts with more negative words.
An uproar followed the publication of these findings. Not only did Facebook experiment on people without their knowledge or permission, but they did so in a way that caused emotional harm. Facebook was almost universally con- demned, and the lead investigator of the study issued a pub- lic apology. However, not everyone thought Facebook was in the wrong. Their most prominent defender was Christian
and so policies may have to be established to enable communi- cation and resolve conflicts. The features of dyads and triads point out an important axiom of group dynamics in general: The smaller a group is, the more likely it is to be based on personal ties; larger
groups are more likely to be based on rules and regulations (as we’ll see later when we examine bureaucracies).
In- Groups and Out- Groups An in- group is a group a member identifies with and feels loy- alty toward. Members usually feel a certain distinctness from or even hostility toward other groups, known as out- groups. Most of us are associated with a number of in- and out- groups,
stemming from our ethnic, familial, professional, athletic, and educational backgrounds, for example. Group loyalty and cohe- sion intensify when differences are strongly defined between the “us” of an in- group and the “them” of an out- group; we may also feel a sense of superiority toward those who are excluded from our in- group. School sports rivalries make clear in- group and out- group distinctions, as evident in this popular slogan seen on T- shirts and bumper stickers all over Los Angeles: “My favorite teams are UCLA and whoever’s playing USC!”
As we might expect, in- group membership can be a source of prejudice and discrimination based on class, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political opinion. The differ- ences attributed to an out- group often become exaggerated, if not entirely fabricated to begin with: “All Irishmen are drunks” or “All Mexicans are lazy,” for example. Robert Mer- ton (1968) noted how the same qualities or behaviors that are viewed positively when they are “ours” are viewed negatively
IN- GROUP a group that one identifies with and feels loyalty toward
OUT- GROUP a group toward which an individual feels opposition, rivalry, or hostility
Group Dynamics 133
don’t see ourselves as having the same desirable qualities, we may adopt a negative self- image. We make such comparisons often, evaluating whether and how we measure up to those who provide a model or benchmark for us.
A reference group may also be one to which we aspire to belong but of which we are not yet a member. Take a profes- sional group, for example. If someday we plan on becoming a nurse or lawyer, we may look to those groups and wonder if we, too, have what it takes to join their ranks. We can base our com- parisons on real people we know or on fictional characters we see in film and TV or online. We may even compare ourselves to celebrities or sports stars; while it’s unlikely we’ll join their ranks, the glitterati can still serve as a powerful reference group, influencing our actions and our own sense of self.
when they are “theirs”: the out- group is “lazy,” whereas the in- group is “ laid- back”; they are “snobbish,” we are “classy”; they are “zealots,” we are “devout.” At their worst, in- group/ out- group dynamics create the backdrop for such social tragedies as slavery and genocide.
Reference Groups Our perception of a group and what it takes to be a bona fide member can be crucial to our sense of self. When a group provides standards by which a person evaluates his own per- sonal attributes, it is known as a reference group. A com- mon reference group is one’s peers. We might ask ourselves: Am I maintaining a higher or lower grade point average than other students in my class? Am I faster or slower than other runners on the track team? We often try to live up to the standards of our peers and compare ourselves to them. If we
Rudder, the co- founder of dating/social networking web- site OkCupid. In the aftermath of Facebook’s experiment he posted a blog entry on OkCupid titled “We Experiment on Human Beings!” Rudder is unapologetic about OkCupid’s practices and doesn’t think anyone should be upset at Face- book either: “We noticed recently that people didn’t like it when Facebook ‘experimented’ with their newsfeed. . . . Guess what, everybody: If you use the Internet, you’re the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site. That’s how websites work.”
Although he detailed a number of “experiments,” the one that got the most attention was based on OkCupid’s “match percentage.” OkCupid asks users a number of questions and then matches people who answered in complementary ways. For this experiment they took people who were only a 30 per- cent match and told them they were a 90 percent match. They found that when people were told they were a better match, the odds of them carrying on a conversation online did in fact increase, but some were shocked that a site dedi- cated to helping people find love would resort to this kind of deception.
Facebook apologized for the way it handled the publica- tion of the experiment, while OkCupid seemed positively proud of its practices, but neither organization said anything to indicate that they would stop doing such experiments.
Social Networks Are Big Business Facebook conducted an experiment on users of the social networking site to determine whether emotional states can be transferred via contagion.
Online social networks are an increasingly important part of people’s lives, but the consequences of giving so much power over our personal lives to a for- profit business are still not well understood. What does it mean to live in a world where a corporation has a profit motive to meddle in our social networks?
REFERENCE GROUP a group that provides a standard of comparison against which we evaluate ourselves
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups134
Step 1: The Twenty Statements Test (TST) In the spaces provided below, write down twenty different responses to the question “Who am I?” Don’t worry about evaluating the logic or importance of your responses— just write the statements quickly and in whatever order they occur to you. Leave the “Response Mode” spaces blank for the moment; they will be used for scoring after you have completed the statements. Give yourself five minutes to complete this task.
Statements Response Mode 1. I am .%
2. I am .%
3. I am .%
4. I am .%
5. I am .%
6. I am .%
7. I am .%
8. I am .%
9. I am .%
10. I am .%
11. I am .%
12. I am .%
13. I am .%
14. I am .%
15. I am .%
16. I am .%
17. I am .%
18. I am .%
19. I am .%
20. I am .%
TOTALS: A- Mode: B- Mode: C- Mode: && D- Mode:
Step 2: Scoring Now it’s time to score your responses according to the following four categories. Evaluate, to the best of your ability, which responses fall into the A- mode, B- mode, C- mode, and D- mode categories.
A- mode responses are physical characteristics of the type that might be found on your driver’s license: “I am
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
The Twenty Statements Test: Who Am I?
The Twenty Statements Test (TST) is a well- known instrument that is widely used to measure self- concept. The TST was originally
developed in the 1950s by social psychologist Manfred Kuhn as a way of determining the degree to which we base our self- concepts on our membership in different groups (Kuhn and McPartland 1954). Group affiliation proved to be a significant and prevalent quality that defined Ameri- cans of the 1950s and 1960s. In the following decades, the TST was adopted by other researchers for its ease of use and ability to provide direct firsthand data from respondents. Despite some methodological critiques, the TST has been used to examine the self- concept of members of various ethnic, gender, and generational groups, as well as to make cross- cultural comparisons (Carpenter and Meade- Pruitt 2008).
In some of the earliest and most influential work using the TST, Louis Zurcher (1977) studied the chang- ing self- images of Americans in the 1970s and 1980s. Zurcher found that respondents in this later group were more likely to base their self- concept on individual traits and independent action rather than on group member- ship. These results represented a major shift in how people defined themselves and, perhaps, in society as a whole. Zurcher and his colleague Ralph Turner (1976) became concerned about this shift away from group identification and toward a more radically individualis- tic sense of self. Why were they so concerned? We might also ask, what are people like now? Have things contin- ued to change since the 1980s? What can the TST tell us about contemporary society and ourselves today?
For this Data Workshop, you will be using the Twenty Statements Test to examine how self- concept is defined within a particular group of respondents. The TST is a questionnaire that elicits open- ended responses; it can be treated as a quasi- survey research method. Return to the section in Chapter 2 for a review of survey research. We have provided a format for the questionnaire. Start by completing Steps 1 and 2 and taking this simple test yourself. Then we will find out more about what your responses mean— for you and for society, in Step 3.
Group Dynamics 135
the individual is linked to others (Turner 1976). The pri- mary characteristics of the C- mode, or “impulsive,” self are the pursuit of individual satisfaction, an orientation toward the present, and a sense that the individual should not be linked to others and that group obligations inhibit individual expression. Zurcher and Turner worried that a society full of self- interested (and even selfish), impul- sive individuals might no longer care about the common good and would only work to satisfy their own needs.
What do you think are the consequences for a society overwhelmingly populated by one type of mode or the other? How would schools, families, workplaces, sports teams, governments, and charitable organizations and other groups function if almost everyone fell into the B- mode or C- mode category? Are these two orientations mutually exclusive, or can you combine the best parts of both? What can you do to optimize the qualities of each mode for yourself and for the groups you belong to?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Take the TST yourself (Step 1), and score it (Step 2). Get ready to discuss the results with others by jotting down some initial thoughts about your results. Bring your completed questionnaire and notes to class, and discuss them with two or more students in small groups. How many “institutional” or “impulsive” selves are part of your discussion group? Compare your responses and work together on analyzing the group’s findings (Step 3).
DO- IT- YOURSELF Conduct a pilot study using the TST. Find a small sample population of three to five other people and administer the test to each of them. Collect, compare, and analyze the responses from your group. Present and analyze your findings in a three- page essay. Make sure to refer to your TST data in the essay; as long as you’ve preserved the confidentiality of respondents, include the completed questionnaires with your paper.
a blonde”; “I am short”; “I am a Wisconsin resident”; “I am strong ”; “I am tired.”
B- mode responses describe socially defined roles and statuses usually associated with group membership of some sort: “I am a college student”; “I am a Catholic”; “I am an African American”; “I am a quarterback”; “I am a daughter”; “I am a sales clerk.”
C- mode responses reflect personal traits, styles of behavior, or emotional states: “I am a happy person”; “I am a country music fan”; “I am competitive”; “I am laid- back”; “I am a fashionable dresser.”
D- mode responses are more general than specific; they may express an abstract or existential quality: “I am me”; “I am part of the universe”; “I am a human being ”; “I am alive.”
You may have some difficulty deciding how to catego- rize certain responses— for example, where does “I am an American” go? Is it an A- mode, because it is where I live as a physical location, or is it a B- mode, because it is my nation- ality and the country with which I identify? Or where does “I am lazy” go? Is it an A- mode, because it describes my current physical state, or is it a C- mode, because it is one of my habitual character traits? Use your best judgment. Now count the number of each type of response and pro- vide the totals for each mode at the bottom.
So, which category got the most responses? We predict that although some of you may have given
more B- mode responses, the predominant mode among those taking the test will be C- mode. Often, respond- ents have a combination of these two modes. People with more B- mode responses base their self- concept on group membership and institutional roles, whereas people with more C- mode responses see themselves as more inde- pendent and define themselves according to their individ- ual actions and emotions rather than their connections to others. It is likely that there are few (if any) people whose responses fall predominantly in the A or D mode. Those with more A- mode responses may feel that they have a “skin deep” self- concept, based more on their appear- ance to others than on their internal qualities. Those with more D- mode responses are harder to categorize and may feel uncertain about the source of their sense of self.
Step 3: Analysis Does the shift from a predominantly B- mode society to a predominantly C- mode society still hold today? And if so, what are we to make of it? The primary characteristics of the B- mode, or “institutional,” self are a willingness to adhere to group standards and accept group obligations as well as an orientation toward the future and a sense that
Group Cohesion A basic concept in the study of group dynamics is group cohesion, the sense of solidarity or team spirit that members feel toward their group. Put another way, group cohesion is the force that binds members together. A group is said to be more cohesive when individuals feel strongly tied to member- ship, so it is likely that a group of fraternity brothers is more cohesive than a random group of classmates. The life of a group depends on at least a minimum level of cohesion. If members
GROUP COHESION the sense of solidarity or loyalty that individuals feel toward a group to which they belong
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups136
of the group. Cohesion may be enhanced when members are able to cooperate and work together in achieving goals (Thye and Lawler 2002). This might help explain cohesion among fans of the Green Bay Packers or members of a local Elks lodge.
GROUPTHINK W hereas a high degree of cohesion might seem desirable, it can a lso lead to the kind of poor decision ma king seen in hazing cases. In a process Ir ving Janus (1971, 1982) ca lled groupthink, highly cohesive groups may demand absolute conformity and punish those who threaten to undermine the consensus. A lthough group- think does help maintain solidarity, it can a lso short- circuit the decision- ma king process, letting a desire for unanimity prevail over critica l reasoning. W hen this hap- pens, groups may begin to feel invulnerable and mora lly superior (W hite 1989). Members who would otherwise wish to dissent may instead cave in to peer pressure and go a long with the group.
The problem of groupthink can be found in insular groups such as fraternities or private clubs and even reach into the highest level of industry or government, sometimes with disastrous results. For instance, there are those who believe that the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 may have been a result of NASA scientists’ failing to take seri- ously those who suspected weaknesses in the shuttle’s launch design (Vaughan 1996). In the instance of the U.S. military, groupthink may have been to blame for the failure of the CIA and the White House to accurately assess the state of Saddam Hussein’s programs for weapons of mass destruction; the per- ceived existence of such weapons was a primary rationale for waging the Iraq War in 2003. A report by the Senate Intelli- gence Committee claimed that a groupthink dynamic caused those involved to lose objectivity and to embellish or exagger- ate findings that justified the U.S. invasion (Ehrenreich 2004; Isikoff 2004).
The 2016 U.S. presidential election points to another possible instance of groupthink, this time on the part of the media. In the months and weeks leading up to the election, news outlets and polling organizations were nearly unani- mous in predicting a win for Democratic presidential candi- date Hillary Clinton. As such, Trump’s victory on November 8 produced widespread shock and disbelief among many Americans.
Social Influence (Peer Pressure) While you may not have any personal experience with groupthink, you are certain to find the next set of sociologi- cal concepts all too familiar. When individuals are part of groups, they are necessarily influenced by other members.
begin to lose their strong sense of commitment, the group will gradually disintegrate (Friedkin 2004; Friedkin, Jia, and Bullo 2016).
Cohesion is enhanced in a number of ways. It tends to rely heavily on interpersonal factors such as shared values and shared demographic traits like race, age, gender, or class
(Cota et al. 1995). We can see this kind of cohesion, for example, in a clique of junior high school girls or members of a church congregation. Cohesion also tends to rely on an attraction to the group as a whole or to cer- tain individuals as exemplars
Group Cohesion Why might fraternity brothers feel more group cohesion than a large group of students attending a lecture?
GROUPTHINK in very cohesive groups, the tendency to enforce a high degree of conformity among members, creating a demand for unanimous agreement
Social Influence (Peer Pressure) 137
a leader or group as their own. When internalization occurs, there is no separation between beliefs and behavior; people believe in what they are doing and feel that it is morally right. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous practice the principles of the twelve- step program, making it an integral part of their identity and way of life.
Experiments in Conformity Three rather famous social psychological studies were con- ducted in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with the related goal of trying to understand more about the dynamics of social pres- sure and, in particular, about group conformity and obedi- ence to authority.
THE ASCH EXPERIMENT The first of these experiments was a study on compliance conducted in 1951 by Solomon Asch (1958), who gathered groups of seven or eight students to participate in what he called an experiment on visual percep- tion. In fact, only one of the students in each group was a real research subject; the others knew ahead of time how they were supposed to act. During the experiment, the participants were asked to look at a set of three straight lines and to match the length of a fourth line to one of the other three (see Figure 5.2). In each case, the real research subjects would be the last to give an answer. At first, all participants gave the same cor- rect answer. After a few rounds, however, the experimenter’s confederates began to give the same consistently wrong answer. They were completely unanimous in perceiving the line lengths incorrectly. How would the real subjects react when it came to their turn?
Most subjects felt considerable pressure to comply with the rest of the group. A third (33 percent) were “yielders” who
Sociologists refer to this as social influence, or peer pres- sure. Knowing how social influence works can help you when you need to convince others to act in a certain way (like agreeing on a specific restaurant or movie). In turn, it can also help you recognize when others are trying to influence you (to drink too much or drive too fast, for example).
The idea of social influence is not new: The Greek philoso- pher Aristotle considered persuasion in his Rhetoric. But the more modern studies on social influence date back to World War II, when social scientists were trying to help in the war effort by using motivational films to boost morale among ser- vicemen. Since then, the study of social influence has become an expanding part of the field devoted to discovering the prin- ciples that determine our beliefs, create our attitudes, and move us to action (Cialdini and Trost 1998; Friedkin and Cook 1990; Friedkin and Granovetter 1998). Recent research on social influence has revealed that everything from our per- formance in school (Altermatt and Pomerantz 2005), to how we settle disagreements in small groups (Friedkin and John- sen 2014), to the likelihood that we will commit rape (Bohner et al. 2006) can be subject to the influence of others. We will focus here on how social influence functions in everyday situations.
Almost all members of society are susceptible to what is either real or imagined social pressure to conform. In gen- eral, we conform because we want to gain acceptance and approval (positive sanctions) and avoid rejection and disap- proval (negative sanctions). We follow prescriptions, doing the things we’re supposed to do, as well as proscriptions, avoiding the things we’re not supposed to do.
Social psychologists have determined that social influence produces one of three kinds of conformity: compliance, iden- tification, or internalization (Kelman 1958). Compliance, the mildest kind of conformity, means going along with something because you expect to gain rewards or avoid punishments. When people comply, however, they don’t actually change their own ideas or beliefs. Take, for example, someone who is court ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings because of a drunk driving offense. This person might comply in order to avoid a jail sentence or hefty fine, but he might not be persuaded to join AA once the required visits are done.
Identification, a somewhat stronger kind of conformity, is induced by a person’s desire to establish or maintain a rela- tionship with a person or group. It’s possible that the person required to attend AA might actually begin to identify with other members. A person who identifies with a group con- forms to the members’ wishes and follows their behavior. This is especially true when there is a strong attraction to the group. So perhaps the person who was first ordered to attend AA decides to keep going to meetings, stay sober, and become a member of the group himself.
Internalization, the strongest kind of conformity and most long- lasting, occurs when individuals adopt the beliefs of
SOCIAL INFLUENCE group control over others’ decisions
A B
Exhibit 2Exhibit 1
C
Figure 5.2 Which Line in Exhibit 2 Matches Exhibit 1?
Solomon Asch’s studies showed that some people will go against the evidence of their own senses if others around them seem to have different perceptions.
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups138
gave in at least half the time to what they knew were the wrong answers. Another 40 percent yielded less frequently but still gave some wrong answers. Only 25 percent were “inde- pendents,” refusing to give in to the majority. In a debriefing period after the experiment, some subjects reported that they had assumed the rest of the participants were right and they were wrong. Other subjects knew they were not wrong but did not want to appear different from the rest of the group. Almost all of them were greatly distressed by the discrepancy between their own perceptions and those of the other partici- pants. Clearly, it can be difficult to resist peer pressure and to maintain independence in a group situation. What would you have done?
THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT Stanley Milgram’s experi- ence as a graduate student of Solomon Asch’s led him to work further on conformity. His first experiments were conducted
in 1961, just after the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eich- mann had begun in Israel. Many of those who were prose- cuted in the years after World War II offered the defense that they were “only following orders.” But it was not just soldiers who sent millions of innocents to concentration camps— ordinary citizens turned in their neighbors. Milgram wanted to know whether something particular about the German national psyche led so many to act as accomplices to the mass executions, why they complied with authority figures even when orders conflicted with their own consciences. While we usually think that following orders is a good thing, in the case of the Holocaust, it amounted to a “crime of obedience.”
The Milgram experiment (1963, 1974) used a laboratory setting to test the lengths to which ordinary people would follow orders from a legitimate authority figure. The experi- ment included three roles: the “experimenter” (a scientist in a white lab coat), a “teacher,” and a “learner.” The teachers were
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Group vs. Individual Norms: Honor Killings
In American culture, when reports of family members mur-dering each other emerge, the reasons generally include abuse, crimes of passion, or monetary gain. The murder of Kathleen Savio by her ex- husband Drew Peterson in 2004 is among the most notorious cases of murder within a family. Her death was ruled an accident until 2007, when the case grabbed headlines as Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy, vanished without a trace. What made matters all the more fishy was that Stacy had also been Peterson’s alibi on the night that Savio went missing. This led law enforcement to re- open the case
into Savio’s death and even- tually led to Peterson being convicted of her murder and sentenced to thirty- eight years in prison. Despite his conviction in the Savio case, many believe Drew Peterson
still got away with murder: the Stacy Peterson case remains unsolved.
While “murders involving family members killing other family members are not terribly rare,” the reaction to such tragedies is especially harsh, judging murderers like Peterson as dishonorable traitors to their families, men who were more concerned with their own personal gain than their loyalty to family (Berman 2014). But what if the reason for a murder of a family member is to uphold the reputation of the family as a whole? Honor killing is the murder of a
family member based on the belief that the victim is bring- ing dishonor to the family or the community. In honor kill- ings, which are primarily seen in Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, the victims are usually women who have not lived up to the moral codes set by the religion or community. Reasons for honor killings may include refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being a rape victim, dressing or acting immodestly, or having sex outside marriage.
The United Nations has estimated that as many as 5,000 women a year are murdered in honor killings worldwide, though there is no reliable or definitive accounting, and these crimes are rarely classified or prosecuted as such (United Nations 2000). Researchers believe the numbers may be far greater, and they point to an increase in the last two decades (Chesler 2010; McCoy 2014). In Pakistan alone, there were more than 1,000 honor killings in 2015 (British Broad- casting Corporation 2016). The methods of killing range from shooting the victim to setting her on fire or stoning her to death. In each case, the person who commits the murder is seen as the norm enforcer and not the norm violator, as he is doing it to seek vindication and to right a wrong. In this cul- tural context, the murdered woman is viewed as someone who deserved to die for betraying and dishonoring her family.
Some who study honor killings maintain that in countries with less access to basic resources, health care, and human capital, there is a correlating lack of social power and equality for women. Gender inequality is exacerbated in places where
HONOR KILLING the murder of a family member— usually female— who is believed to have brought dishonor to the family
Social Influence (Peer Pressure) 139
the only real research subjects in the experiment: Although the teachers were led to believe otherwise, the learners were actually confederates of the experimenters. When roles were assigned at the outset of the experiment, the research subjects were always picked to play the teacher, despite a seemingly random assignment of roles.
The stated goal of the experiment was to measure the effect of punishment on memory and learning. The teacher was instructed to read aloud a set of word pairs for the learner to memorize. The teacher would then repeat the first word in the pair and, for each incorrect answer, administer a shock of increasing voltage to the learner. The teacher watched while the experimenter strapped the learner to a chair and applied electrodes to his arms. The teacher was then directed to an adjoining room where he could communicate with, but not see, the learner. This room contained a machine with a series of levers indicating the increasing levels of voltage that
would be administered for each successive incorrect answer. (In actuality, the machine was not connected to the learner, and he received no shocks.)
The experiment began. As the teacher amplified the voltage for each incorrect answer, the learner responded in increas- ingly vocal ways. In reality, the teacher was hearing a pre- recorded tape that included exclamations, banging on the wall, complaints by the learner about a heart condition, and finally, silence. Many subjects grew uncomfortable at around 135 volts, often pausing and expressing a desire to check on the learner or discontinue the experiment. At that point, the experimenter would give a succession of orders, prodding the teacher to continue. After being assured that they would not be held responsible, most subjects continued, many reaching the maximum of 450 volts.
Milgram and his colleagues were stunned by the results. They had predicted that only a few of the subjects would be
In the Name of Family Pakistani actress and social media sensation Qandeel Baloch was murdered by her brother in a 2016 honor killing.
there are fewer social resources, making honor killings more likely (Wilkinson 2005). Clashes occur when the cultural practice of honor killing is brought to Western countries like France, Canada, and the United States, where a woman’s sexual freedom may face informal sanctions but is widely accepted as the norm. In some cases it is the adoption of Western values by women in traditional societies, such as India, Iraq, or Yemen, that is invoked as the grounds for honor killings.
One such case made global headlines in 2016. It involved the murder of Qandeel Baloch, a twenty- six- year- old model and social media star who some called the Kim Kardashian of Pakistan (Zraick 2016). Baloch was celebrated by many as a new feminist hero, a strong, independent woman unafraid to express herself or stir controversy. But Baloch also drew harsh criticism by many who disapproved of her provocative online pictures and videos. While sleeping at her parents’ home, Baloch was drugged and strangled to death by her brother, who then proudly proclaimed to the press that he had killed his sister for the “shameful” pictures she had posted to Facebook. “She was bringing dishonor to our family,” he said (Iftikhar 2016). Baloch’s murder incited a massive public outcry, with many petitioning authorities to prosecute and convict Waseem Azeem for murder, a rare outcome in a case of honor killing. Pakistani law permits honor killings to be resolved by the families themselves.
The cultural norm promoting strong family values that causes disgust toward murderers such as Drew Peterson is
the same norm behind honor killings. However, in honor kill- ings, the family is seen as more important than each individ- ual family member; therefore, an individual member should suffer severe punishment for bringing shame to the family. While Waseem Azeem’s actions appear to most Americans’ individualist notions of justice as a betrayal of the family, in countries such as Pakistan these same actions are viewed as justified within the larger cultural understandings of family honor.
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups140
abusive and potentially dangerous situation. Rioting began by the second day; the guards quelled it harshly, harassing the prisoners and depriving them of food, sleep, and basic sani- tation. Several guards became increasingly sadistic as the experiment went on, degrading and punishing any prisoner who challenged their authority, and several prisoners showed signs of psychological trauma. After only six days, Zimbardo was compelled to shut down the experiment after a graduate student researcher (whom he later married) became appalled by the conditions.
The Stanford Prison Experiment provided another example of the way situational dynamics, rather than individuals’ per- sonal attributes, can determine behavior.
MILGRAM REVISITED Some researchers have claimed that the Asch experiment was a “child of its time”—that stu- dents in the 1950s were more obedient in their roles, and the culture placed greater emphasis on the value of confor- mity (Perrin and Spencer 1980, 1981). Researchers in recent
willing to inflict the maximum voltage. In the first set of exper- iments, 65 percent of the participants administered the maxi- mum voltage, though many were very uncomfortable doing so and all paused at some point. Only one participant refused outright to administer even low- voltage shocks. Milgram’s results highlight the dynamics of conformity revealed in the Asch experiment. A subject will often rely on the expertise of an individual or group, in this case the experimenter, when faced with a difficult decision. We also see how thoroughly socialized most people are to obey authority and carry out orders, especially when they no longer consider themselves responsible for their actions. Clearly, few people have the per- sonal resources to resist authority, even when it goes against their consciences.
THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT The Stan- ford Prison Experiment, conducted by Milgram’s high school classmate Philip Zimbardo (1971), also examined the power of authority. Twenty- four undergraduates deemed psycho- logically healthy and stable were recruited to participate in a two- week mock prison simulation. Role assignment as pris- oner or guard was based on a coin toss. Guards were given batons, khaki clothing, and mirrored sunglasses and were told they could not physically harm the prisoners but could otherwise create feelings of boredom, fear, or powerlessness. Prisoners were “arrested” and taken to a mock “jail” set up in the basement of a university building, where they were strip- searched, dressed in smocks and stocking caps (to simulate shaven heads), and assigned identity numbers. A research assistant played the role of warden, while Zimbardo himself was the superintendent.
The students quickly inhabited their roles, but soon exceeded the experimenters’ expectations, resulting in an
The Milgram Experiment How did Stanley Milgram test participants’ obedience to authority? Do you think he would get the same results today?
The Stanford Prison Experiment Why do you think the students in Zimbardo’s experiment inhabited their roles so completely? What does it reveal about group behavior?
Working Together: Teams and Leadership 141
Teamwork Are two heads better than one? Or do too many cooks spoil the broth? Early research on groups (Homans 1951) typi- cally assumed that it was always more productive to work in a team rather than alone. However, researchers soon recog- nized that both the nature of the task and the characteristics of the group have a lot to do with the comparative advantage or disadvantage of working in a group (Goodacre 1953). When we measure productivity, groups almost always outperform single individuals. Things get a bit more complicated, how- ever, when groups are compared with the same number of people working by themselves.
In one of the earliest attempts to systematically study group productivity, experimental social psychologist Ivan Steiner (1972) compared the potential productivity of a group (what they should be able to do) with the group’s actual pro- ductivity (what they in fact got done). According to Steiner, actual group productivity can never equal potential produc- tivity because there will always be losses in the team process. Two major sources of inefficiency in particular come with the group process, and both get worse as group size increases. One source is organization: coordinating activities and del- egating tasks. For example, if four friends are going to help you move to a new apartment, some time will be lost while you figure out who should pack what, how the furniture will be arranged in the truck, where the boxes should go in the new apartment, and so forth.
Another source of inefficiency is the phenomenon known as social loafing, which means that as more individuals are added to a task, each one takes it a little easier (Karau and Williams 1993). Furthermore, as more people become involved, the harder it is to discern individual effort. If it is impossible for any single person to receive credit or blame, motivation usually suffers. Have you ever asked too many people to help you move to a new apartment? If so, chances are that a few did most of the work, some showed up late and helped out a bit, and others did very little but had a good time talking and eating pizza. Having too many “helpers” may contribute to social loafing. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has taken this quite seriously, instituting something referred to as the two pizza rule. If a team of Amazon workers cannot be fed by two pizzas, then that team is too large. Too many people means too much miscommunication, chaos, and bureaucracy, which leads to social loafing and reduces effi- ciency and slows progress (Morgan 2014).
Solutions to the problem of social loafing include rec- ognizing individual effort and finding ways to make a task more interesting or personally rewarding. But such solutions are not always possible. It might be difficult, for instance, to
decades who have replicated the Asch experiment have in fact seen significantly lower rates of compliance, suggest- ing that the historical and cultural context in which the experiment was conducted had an effect on how subjects performed (Bond and Sussex 1996). This conclusion echoes some of Ralph Turner’s findings about the institutional or impulsive self, discussed in an earlier Data Workshop; namely, he found that patterns of behavior can change over time and that separate generations may respond differently to social pressures.
The power of the group continues to interest sociolo- gists, psychologists, and others who want to understand what drives our powerful impulse to comply (Cialdini 1998). Both the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments would be considered unethical by today’s professional standards. Although each of the experiments revealed important truths about obedience to authority, some of the participants suf- fered real, and in some cases long- lasting, psychological pain beyond what is considered an acceptable threshold of mini- mal harm.
Yet the experiments remain relevant because real- life examples of crimes of obedience continue to occur— whether in the case of the prison guards at Abu Ghraib or in a serial telephone hoax perpetrated on fast- food workers in which a caller posing as a police officer instructed assistant managers to abuse fellow workers (Wolfson 2005).
Nearly half a century elapsed before researchers at Santa Clara University found a means of replicating the Milgram experiment that would pass the institutional review board process for research on human subjects. After a careful screening process, Jerry Burger (2009) conducted a modified version of the famous experiment that protected the well- being of the participants while still providing a valid com- parison to the original. Contrary to expectations, obedience rates were only slightly lower in Burger’s replication than they had been in Milgram’s lab more than forty- five years earlier.
Although we might like to imagine ourselves as being more able to resist the same forces of conformity that trip up research participants who consistently cave in to social pres- sure, it’s likely that if we found ourselves in situations simi- lar to those created in the laboratory, we’d go along and obey authority, too.
Working Together: Teams and Leadership What does it mean to make a “group effort”? Sometimes we can accomplish things together that we could not do alone. But such outcomes are far from guaranteed. Whether group efforts result in synergy or inefficiency may depend on a num- ber of factors, including the makeup of its members and the relationship between leaders and followers.
SOCIAL LOAFING the phenomenon in which each individual contributes a little less as more individuals are added to a task; a source of inefficiency when working in teams
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups142
Group Effort British cyclist Chris Froome, in the yellow jersey, completed the Tour de France with the support of his teammates.
The Tour de France is the world’s premiere competitive cycling event. It is a race that lasts more than three weeks, covers more than 2,000 miles, and traverses the European Alps. Each summer, it draws a television audience of mil- lions worldwide, many of whom never ride their own bikes and do not pay attention to any other bicycle racing events at any other time of year. It has also seen more than its share of controversy: Seven- time Tour winner Lance Armstrong was stripped of his medals and banned from competitive cycling for life after admitting to “doping,” or using banned substances to improve his athletic performance. Other recent winners, including American Floyd Landis and Spain’s Alberto Conta- dor, have also been stripped of their wins and been banned for doping; in fact, in the more than 110-year history of the Tour de France, the race has been fraught with doping scandals. Early riders used alcohol, ether, and strychnine to improve their stamina and speed.
Since 2010, the winners of the Tour have been verifiably drug free. But they still cannot say that their victories were achieved without assistance. In fact, no one wins the Tour de France on his own. Winning riders are supported by teams of eight other premier athletes who must coordinate complex teamwork relations to prevail over the other twenty or so teams in competition. As with so many other areas of social life, individual success is buoyed by the work of many. No one can become president of the United States, win an Oscar, reach the summit of Mount Everest, open a restaurant, meet a sales quota, or earn a bachelor’s degree without relying on others— groups as well as individuals— to support his or her efforts. So, although the winner of the Tour is listed individu- ally, he didn’t do it alone.
Each team member has a particular specialty, and each stage of the race requires a different strategy. Sprinters may be needed to make a “breakaway” early in the race; “ super- climbers” are necessary in the mountainous regions; and
ON THE JOB Teamwork and the Tour de France
sometimes the entire team has to protect the team leader, “blocking” and “drafting” in order to save energy. Teamwork is required to organize bathroom and food breaks, as the race stops for no man. Extremely consistent riders (rouleurs) are prized, as are those who ride with aggressiveness and bravery (combativité). When the individual winner crosses the finish line on the Champs- Elysées in Paris, it is the sacrifices of his altruistic teammates that have made his win possible.
Which position will you find yourself in when you enter the workplace? Will you be the team leader whose individual successes depend on the contributions of others? Or will you be the team member whose special skills support the achievements of the group? It is likely that you will find your- self in both situations over the course of your working life. So remember, when you don the maillot jaune (the yellow jersey worn by the Tour de France leader), in most cases it takes a team effort to get you to the winner’s circle.
make “moving day” more rewarding. Another solution, how- ever, is suggested by social identity theory. Having a social identity, as opposed to a personal one, involves thinking and
feeling like a representative of a group (Turner and Killian 1987); you have a real desire to belong to, not simply keep company with, the group. According to this model, the most efficient teams are characterized by the greatest
shared social identity among their members; such social iden- tity increases motivation and places the needs of the group above purely personal concerns (Turner and Reynolds 2010).
Power, Authority, and Style Effective group leaders possess a variety of qualities, some of which are particular to the kind of group they lead. The leader of a therapeutic support group, for example, needs the proper credentials as well as experience and compassion for his
SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY a theory of group formation and maintenance that stresses the need of individual members to feel a sense of belonging
Working Together: Teams and Leadership 143
patients. The captain of a sports team must display expertise at her game as well as the ability to inspire her teammates. An office manager must be well organized and good at dealing with different kinds of people. A police commander must be in good physical shape, skilled in law enforcement tactics, and quick- thinking in a crisis.
One thing almost all leaders have in common, though, is power— the ability to control the actions of others. Whether it is coercive power (backed by the threat of force) or merely influential power (supported by persuasion), leadership involves getting people to do things they may or may not want to do. For example, a football coach might wield both coercive and influential power over his players. Although the athletes want to win games, they might not want to run their training drills every day. During a workout, team mem- bers might respond to either the threat of being kicked off the team or encouragement from the coach. Power, in what- ever form it takes, is both a privilege and a requirement of leadership.
Because leadership requires the exercise of power, most formal organizations have institutionalized it in some offi- cially recognized form of authority. Max Weber (1913/1962) identified three types of authority that may be found in social organizations. Traditional authority, based in custom, birthright, or divine right, is usually associated with mon- archies and dynasties. Kings and queens inherit the throne, not only through lineage but also by divine appointment, meaning by higher authority. Their personal qualities don’t really matter, and they can’t be replaced by legal proceed- ings. Legal- rational authority, on the other hand, is based in laws and rules, not in the lineage of any individual leader. Modern presidencies and parliaments are built on this kind of authority. The third type, charismatic authority, is based
in the remarkable personal qualities of the leader. Neither rules nor traditions are necessary for the establishment of a charismatic leader— indeed, the leader can be a revolution- ary, breaking rules and defying traditions. This is perhaps the only place we will ever find Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler in the same category— by all accounts both were extremely charismatic leaders.
The three types of author- ity are not necessarily mutu- ally exclusive; they can coexist within the same leader. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were appealing and char- ismatic leaders within the context of the legal- rational authority of the presidency; the Kennedy family is considered an American political dynasty of sorts, following a tradition of leadership within the struc- ture of electoral politics. The late King Hussein of Jordan was revered for his extraor- dinary charisma and states- manship despite his traumatic ascent to the throne: As a teen- ager, he witnessed his grandfa- ther’s assassination and, as his heir, was crowned less than a year later. For people like Bill Clinton (a legal- rational ruler) and King Hussein (a traditional ruler), their charisma was not necessarily the root of their authority, but it did play a part in their ability to rule.
POWER the ability to control the actions of others
COERCIVE POWER power that is backed by the threat of force
INFLUENTIAL POWER power that is supported by persuasion
AUTHORITY the legitimate right to wield power
TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY authority based in custom, birthright, or divine right
LEGAL- RATIONAL AUTHORITY authority based in laws, rules, and procedures, not in the heredity or personality of any individual leader
CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY authority based in the perception of remarkable personal qualities in a leader
Perspective Approach to Groups Case Study: Fraternities
Structural Functionalism
Life in groups helps to regulate and give meaning to individual experience, contributing to social cohesion and stability.
Affiliation groups like fraternities help create social cohesion in the context of a larger, possibly alienating, university system by bringing young men with shared values together.
Conflict Theory
Group membership is often the basis for the distrbution of rewards, privileges, and opportunities in our society. An individual may be treated preferentially or prejudicially based on his or her group membership.
In-group and out-group dynamics can contribute to stereotyping and conflict as fraternity brothers develop an “us vs. them” perspective regarding other frats and non-Greeks.
Symbolic Interactionism
Group norms, values, and dynamics are generated situationally, in interaction with other members.
The pressure to conform to group culture (as in the cases of peer pressure and groupthink) can lead individuals to do things they might never do alone, and can have negative consequences, as in the case of fraternity hazing and binge drinking. It can also lead to positive actions, such as when fraternity members volunteer or raise money for charity.
Table 5.1 Theory in Everyday Life
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups144
Qualities of Leadership Nelson Mandela, pictured here with the South African rugby team, the Springboks, is an example of a leader with both legal- rational and charismatic authority. Mandela used his charismatic leadership to unite post- apartheid South Africa through rugby, culminating in a narrow victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final.
leadership. In an effort to reach a larger and younger audience, Sandberg recently partnered with the Girl Scouts and other powerful women in politics, business, and the arts, including Beyoncé, Jennifer Garner, and Condoleeza Rice, to launch the “ban bossy” campaign. Perhaps by example, more girls and women will embrace being leaders, and more people will feel comfortable following them.
Bureaucracy Examples of bureaucracy, a specific type of secondary group, are everywhere in your life— your university, employer, Inter- net service provider, fast- food restaurant, and even church are likely to be organized bureaucratically. Bureaucracies are designed to perform tasks efficiently, and they approach their tasks, whatever they are, with calculations designed deliber- ately to meet their goals.
Bureaucracies have certain organizational traits that help them operate efficiently. Max Weber (1921/1968) identified these characteristics as follows:
1. Specialization: All members of a bureaucracy are assigned specialized roles and tasks.
2. Technical competence: All members are expressly trained and qualified for their specific roles within the organization.
3. Hierarchy: Bureaucracies always feature the supervi- sion of subordinates by higher- ranking managers and bosses.
4. Rules and regulations: These are meant to make all operations as predictable as possible.
In addition to different types of power and authority, group leaders may exhibit different personal leadership styles as well. Some are more instrumental— that is, they are task or goal oriented— while others are more expressive or concerned with maintaining harmony within the group (Parsons and Bales 1955). An instrumental leader is less concerned with people’s feelings than with getting the job done, whereas an expressive leader conveys interest in group members’ emotions as well as
their achievements. We often con- sider leadership styles through the lens of gender, expecting men to be more instrumental and women to be more expressive. In fact, we sometimes feel surprised or upset when these gendered expecta- tions aren’t met: A male leader with a more expressive style (like California governor Jerry Brown, once nicknamed “Moonbeam” for his emotive, touchy- feely style) is sometimes seen as weak, while a female leader with a more instrumental style (such as Hillary Clinton, whose ambition
and drive have earned her criticism throughout her politi- cal career) is sometimes seen as pushy.
Such gender stereotypes can keep women out of board- rooms. Some women may hesitate to take on leadership roles for fear of being called “bossy,” “pushy,” or even a “ball buster” when they assert themselves in the workplace and elsewhere. In her best- selling book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg encourages girls and women to aspire to leadership roles. Sandberg’s own style has been characterized as a blend of expressive and instrumental
INSTRUMENTAL LEADERSHIP leadership that is task or goal oriented
EXPRESSIVE LEADERSHIP leadership concerned with maintaining emotional and relational harmony within the group
BUREAUCRACY a type of secondary group designed to perform tasks efficiently, characterized by specialization, technical competence, hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, and formal written communication
Bureaucracy 145
5. Impersonality: In a bureaucracy, rules come before people; no individual receives special treatment.
6. Formal written communication: Documents such as memos (or e- mails) are the heart of the organization and the most effective way to communicate.
You can see these traits in action at your own college or university. Take specialization and technical competence, for instance. Virtually none of your professors could teach another’s classes: Your sociology professor would likely be completely useless in a chemistry lab, a math classroom, or even an English seminar. The groundskeepers, campus police officers, soccer coaches, and librarians are all spe- cially qualified to do their own jobs and no one else’s. In addition, there are layers of hierarchy at a university, from the trustees and president to the vice chancellors, provosts, deans, and department chairs. Professors are, in some ways, at the bottom of the academic hierarchy (except for you, the students)! And every other campus unit (athletics, residence life, food service, facilities maintenance) has its own hierar- chy as well.
Regulations keep a university running smoothly— or at least that’s what they are meant to do. Undoubtedly, though, you have run up against a regulation that kept you from doing something you really wanted to do— for example, add a class after a deadline or move into a campus apartment. This is where the feature of impersonality also comes into play: The rules of the bureaucracy trumped your individual needs, no matter how deserving you thought you were. This is espe- cially true at larger universities; at small schools, special treatment is still sometimes possible. But big bureaucracies
often treat you “like a number”—and in fact, you are a number to your college; your student ID number is the first thing you are issued on arrival.
The McDonaldization of Society Weber’s model of bureaucracy seems cold and heartless, alien- ating and impersonal, rule- bound, inflexible, and undemo- cratic. Indeed, many bureaucracies are like this. They are highly efficient secondary groups that operate on the principle of rationalization, where the focus is on logical procedures, rules and regulations are paramount, and an individual’s unique personal qualities are unimportant. Worse yet, some of the hyperrationalized features of successful bureaucracies are trickling down into other areas of our everyday lives.
Sociologist George Ritzer (1993) called this trickle- down rationalization process McDon- aldization. We touch- tone our way through telephone calls at work, never speaking to a real person; at lunch, we construct our own salads at the salad bar and bus our own tables after- ward; at the bank, we no longer interact with human tellers but rather drive through the ATM on the way home, where we micro- wave our dinners and watch increasingly predictable sitcoms or movie sequels on TV. Ritzer
RATIONALIZATION the application of economic logic to human activity; the use of formal rules and regulations in order to maximize efficiency without consideration of subjective or individual concerns
MCDONALDIZATION George Ritzer’s term describing the spread of bureaucratic rationalization and the accompanying increases in efficiency and dehumanization
Bureaucracies Are Everywhere Bureaucratic regulations are supposed to make organizations run smoothly; however, bureaucracy can also be impersonal, inflexible, and hyperrational.
CHAPTER 5 Separate and Together: Life in Groups146
Responding to Bureaucratic Constraints Not everything about bureaucracies is bad. In fact, in con- temporary, postindustrial society, just about everything you need or want is created, produced, distributed, and serviced by a bureaucracy. The water in the tap, the lights, the streets, the car and its insurance, the food on the table, the table itself, the clothes on your back, and the movies, songs, and books you enjoy— all are the products of bureaucratic orga- nizations. As problematic as they are, we can’t live without them. So how can we benefit from our contact with bureau- cracies without being controlled by them?
For one thing, even the most overrationalized, McDon- aldized bureaucracy is populated by people who are capable of forming primary group relationships as well, who might cele- brate birthdays, throw parties, and go out for drinks after work. Indeed, interpersonal interactions help humanize bureau- cracies. Further, in forward- thinking organizations, new management strategies meant to address alienation and dis- enchantment are being implemented. Yes, bureaucracies still seek to be as efficient and predictable as possible in their daily operations. But some, such as Apple, Toyota, and Google, are trying to play up their human side as well— becoming “enlight- ened” bureaucracies by being inclusive, sharing responsibility, and providing opportunities for all to advance.
In fact, businesses like Google have come to believe that cor- porate success and employee well- being are complementary. Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google with the idea that analyzing information could lead to a better search engine, and as their company grew, they also embraced the idea that data analysis could create a better, happier workplace. For example, they found that they weren’t hiring enough women, and those they hired were quitting significantly faster than men. When they crunched the numbers, Google’s human resources department— or, as they call it, People Operations— found that women who turned down job offers had disproportionately been interviewed by men, a problem that was easily solved (Miller 2012). When they looked at who exactly was quitting, they found that “women who had recently given birth were leaving at twice Google’s average departure rate,” a problem they addressed by increasing maternity leave (Manjoo 2013).
For the past few decades, businesses have spent an increas- ing amount of time and money on employee training and devel- opment, with over $46 billion devoted to just team- building games and exercises alone (Browning 2014). Many large busi- nesses are also involved in organizing employee retreats to teach managers how to understand individual strengths and weaknesses, support individual skills and talents, and encour- age cooperation, trust, and leadership. Some, such as Fidelity Financial, have adopted the Japanese management technique called kaizen, in which lower- level workers are encouraged to suggest innovative ways to improve the organization, and upper- level managers are required to actually put these ideas
is critical of the dehumanizing aspects of McDonaldiza- tion and hopes that increased awareness of the process will help us avoid the “iron cage” of bureaucracy— a term coined by Weber to illustrate the way bureaucracies can trap individuals.
Sociologist Robin Leidner delved further into the McDon- aldization phenomenon in her book Fast Food, Fast Talk (1993). Through fieldwork in actual McDonald’s franchises, Leidner developed a model for understanding the increas- ing routinization of service industries, in this case the ubiq- uitous fast- food restaurant. In particular, she looks at how standardized “scripts” for interaction help shape customers’ experiences. The physical atmosphere of a McDonald’s is not conducive to hanging out (unlike, say, a café); customers don’t expect to sit down and be waited on. Rather, they respond to expectations that they will enter, order food from a predeter- mined menu and pay for it, eat quickly, deposit trash in the receptacles, and then leave. Leidner exposes these processes of routinization by looking at what happens when break- downs occur in these expectations.
For example, Leidner noted that McDonald’s trains work- ers to refer to customers as “guests,” reinforcing the obliga- tion to serve them respectfully even if that respect is not reciprocated. Leidner observed that if customers were angry or uncooperative, workers tried even harder to serve them swiftly so that they would leave faster and have less time to make trouble in the restaurant. Workers developed a mind- set that allowed them to handle problem customers in a way that minimized trouble and facilitated the workers’ routin- ized job.
McDonaldization in Action According to Ritzer, there are four main principles of McDonaldization: predictability, calculability, efficiency, and control. What other industries are adopting these principles?
147Closing Comments
Ritual” in 2017—and participants are invited to contribute in some meaningful way to its realization, most often artistically. Matt Wray (2011), a sociologist who’s also a burner, explains that “fire, art, dust, and bodies collide and collude to make bizarre and unforgettable transformations” as thousands of people step outside their normal lives and interact in new ways.
Much of what is appealing about Burning Man is that it chal- lenges many of the norms and values of mainstream society, especially those associated with conformity, bureaucracy, and capitalism. Black Rock resembles a city when the thousands of participants converge, but one composed of tents and RVs gath- ered into neighborhoods with names like “Tic Toc Town” and “Capitalist Pig Camp” (Doherty 2000, 2004). The city has its own informal economy as well. Once an admission fee is paid, money is no longer used. Participants must bring enough sup- plies to support themselves or use alternate forms of currency, such as barter, trade, gifts, or services. Corporate sponsorship is strictly avoided, and logos of any kind are banned.
Despite its stated ideals, there is not total freedom at Burning Man. Over the years, various government and local law- enforcement agencies have imposed some restrictions on the event, such as bans on fireworks, guns, and dogs. However, most conflict is handled by the Black Rock City Rangers, who “are volunteers trained in dispute resolution techniques that help diffuse conflict and manage disruptive behavior before it escalates” (Gomez 2013).
On the last night of the festival, the giant wooden struc- ture known as the Burning Man is lit on fire, and the cele- brants discover their own personal epiphanies as they watch it burn. When the festival is over, participants are commit- ted to leaving no trace behind. One burner called the festival “authentic life,” with the other days of the year “a tasteless mirage, a pacific struggle against the backwardness of Middle America— consumer culture, bad politics, Fear Factor, and fear thy neighbor” (Babiak 2004). So while Burning Man par- ticipants don’t abandon permanently the web of contemporary bureaucracies that shapes their lives, they gain some relief by ditching it all once a year, if just for a few days.
CLOSING COMMENTS Groups make our lives possible by providing the necessities of our existence— food, clothes, cars, homes, and all the other things we use on a daily basis. Groups make our lives enjoyable by providing us with companionship and recreation— from our friends and families to the entertainment conglomerates that produce our favorite music and films. Groups also make our lives problematic. Bureaucracies can squelch our indi- viduality, major manufacturers can create social and envi- ronmental problems, and some organizations can engender conflict and prejudice among groups. We are at our best in groups, and our worst. We can do great things together, and horrible things. Sociology helps us understand group life at both extremes and everywhere in between.
into practice, rewarding individual creativity and benefiting the company at the same time (Hakim 2001; Pollack 1999). Make no mistake— corporations are not sacrificing the bot- tom line for the good of the individual. They’re still looking for ways to improve productivity and cut costs. But often they are finding that the needs of the individual and those of the orga- nization are not mutually exclusive.
BURNING MAN In the barren Black Rock Desert of Nevada, some people actively seek out an escape from their bureau- cratically regimented life, at least for one week every summer, at a festival called Burning Man (Chen 2004; Sonner 2002). The festival, begun in 1990 on a beach near San Francisco with just twenty participants, drew nearly 70,000 people in 2016. Burning Man is hard to describe for those who have never attended. It is a freewheeling experiment in temporary community, where there are no rules except to protect the well- being of participants (“burners”) and where everyone gathers together to celebrate various forms of self- expression and self- reliance not normally encountered in everyday life.
Burning Man attracts a wide variety of individuals from different backgrounds (though it may be difficult to tell beneath the body paint, mud, or costumes that many wear). Unlike in many places in the real world, participants are encouraged to interact with each other; there are no strangers at “the Burn.” Each year is characterized by a different theme—“American Dream” in 2008, “Carnival of Mirrors” in 2015, and “Radical
Burning Man Finale Each year thousands of “burners” gather in the Black Rock Desert to celebrate the rejection of such values as conformity, bureaucracy, and capitalism.
148
Everything You Need to Know about Groups
TYPES OF GROUPS ✱ Primary groups: People who are
most important to our sense of self; characterized by face- to- face inter- action, high levels of cooperation, and intense feelings of belonging.
✱ Secondary groups: Groups that are larger and less intimate than primary groups; relationships are organized around a specific goal.
✱ Dyads: The smallest possible group, consisting of only two members.
✱ Triads: A slightly more stable small group consisting of three people; the third member can referee conflicts that arise between the other two.
✱ In- groups: Groups that members identify with and feel loyalty toward.
✱ Out- groups: Any group that an indi- vidual feels opposition, rivalry, or hostility toward.
✱ Reference groups: Groups that pro- vide a standard of comparison against which we evaluate ourselves.
REVIEW 1. Which groups serve as your reference
groups? Are you a member of all your reference groups? How do these ref- erence groups affect your self- image?
2. The text identifies three types of con- formity: compliance, identification, and internalization. Describe some moments when you’ve exhibited each type of conformity.
3. Theorist George Ritzer believes that McDonaldization, the spread of the organizational principles of bureau- cracies to all areas of life, is a growing concern. Thinking about Weber’s six characteristics of bureaucracies, can you identify areas of your life that have been McDonaldized?
“ A group is a collection of people who share some attribute, identify with one another, and interact with each other.
“
149
EXPLORE
It Takes a Village . . . to Create Binge Drinkers What group of people do you think has the biggest influence over teens’ drinking habits? The answer might not be what you think. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to discover how social groups can influence teen drinking.
http://wwnPag.es/trw405
The kinds of people you know can determine your next job. “Ties” or contacts become a key method to network and reach a higher status.
SOURCE: Granovetter 1973
Strong or Weak?
Local Bridge A person who can connect
two people who don’t know each other. Bridges can connect people outside
their circle and help them reach different jobs.
Tight Circles When everyone in a circle primarily has strong ties
with each other, it becomes difficult to reach
beyond that circle.
STRONG TIES are people you are close with, such as relatives, good friends, and mentors.
WEAK TIES are acquaintances.
W ould it surprise you to learn that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
were cannabis farmers? They called it “hemp” and used the fibrous stalks to make
fabric, rope, and paper, including the paper on which Jefferson drafted the Declara-
tion of Independence. There is no evidence that the Founding Fathers used their crop to get
high: the fact that they harvested hemp for its stalks may have meant that its flowers (in which
the intoxicating resin THC is located) may not have had a chance to bloom.
Over time, hemp as an industrial crop began to have more and more competition— from
other agricultural products, such as cotton and timber, and from other chemical and industrial
Deviance
CHAPTER 6
150
152
processes that had the backing of powerful industries and individuals. In the
1920s and 1930s, William Randolph Hearst, along with others in hemp- competitive
industries, exerted pressure on government officials to make hemp’s intoxicating
by- product, marijuana, illegal. A propaganda campaign against marijuana was led
by Hearst’s media outlets, promoting it as a dangerous threat to America’s youth,
public health, and national security. A film called Reefer Madness was shown in
schools as an anti- marijuana propaganda piece, using images of insanity, rape, and
murder to paint a picture of pot as a catastrophic scourge on society. Marijuana
was associated with criminals, reprobates, jazz musicians, and (gasp!) ethnic
minorities and was presented to schoolchildren as the cause of immediate social
and moral chaos. By 1937, every state had outlawed the use of marijuana as an
intoxicant, and cannabis farming had been effectively eliminated by the passage of
the prohibitively high Marijuana Tax Act.
Fast forward to the present, in which the current surge in environmentalism is
part of the change in views about Cannabis sativa: restoring legal hemp farming
nationwide would allow the production of tree- free paper and other fiber and textile
products, which would please many people who are worried about the depletion
of environmental resources. After an election- year sweep, three more states (Cal-
ifornia, Nevada, and Massachussetts) legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Once these and other new laws take effect, a majority of U.S. states will have
legalized marijuana in some form or another. This is good news for patients whose
conditions may be helped by medical marijuana use, for recreational users who
think pot should be treated like alcohol in the eyes of the law, and for business-
people eager to capitalize on new opportunities for profit. Many hope that other
states will legalize marijuana as well, and that the “dominoes” will continue to fall.
How is it possible that there could be such different reactions to the users of
this plant? Changing values lead to changing laws and changing practices in every-
day life. Along with cultural values, definitions of deviance change over time, and
we can sometimes observe them as they swing back and forth, from one extreme
to the other, over the course of history. What was once mainstream becomes
defined as deviant; what is now seen as deviant may soon become normal and
acceptable. Shouldn’t we be able to agree on whether marijuana production and
use are deviant? As we shall see, nothing is inherently deviant— rather, it is the
cultural, historical, and situational context that makes it so.
CHAPTER 6 Deviance
Deviance across Cultures 153
Deviance across Cultures It is important to remember that when sociologists use the term “deviant,” they are making a social judgment, never a moral one. If a particular behavior is considered deviant, this means that it violates the values and norms of a particular group, not that it is inherently wrong or that other groups will make the same judgment.
Much of the literature on deviance focuses on crime, but not only do different cultures define strikingly different behav- iors as criminal, they also differ in how those crimes are pun- ished. Most serious crime in the United States today is punished by imprisonment. This method of punishment was rare until the nineteenth century, however, as maintaining a prison requires considerable resources. Buildings must be constructed and maintained, guards and other staff must be paid, and prisoners must be fed and clothed. For groups without these resources, incarceration is not a possibility, even assuming it would be a desirable option. Instead, there is a whole host of other tech- niques of punishment.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER Have you ever driven faster than the posted speed limit? Have you ever gotten caught picking your nose in public? Did you have your first taste of beer, wine, or hard liquor before you reached the legal drinking age? Did you pierce some- thing (your lip, eyebrow, or belly button) that your grand- mother wouldn’t have wanted you to pierce? If you work in an office, did you ever take home a pen, pencil, or packet of Post- it notes?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are the embodiment of what we seek to understand in this chapter: You are deviant. Remember this as you read the chapter.
Defining Deviance Deviance is a behavior, trait, or belief that departs from a norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group. The norms and the group reactions are necessary for a behav- ior or characteristic to be defined as deviant (Goode 1997). The importance of norms becomes clear when we remember that what is deviant in one culture might be normal in another (see Chapter 3); even within the same culture, what was deviant a century ago— like marijuana use— might be perfectly accept- able now (and vice versa). The importance of group reactions is clear when we look at the varied reactions that norm violations generate: Some violations are seen as only mildly deviant (like chewing with your mouth open), while others are so strongly taboo that they are almost unthinkable (like cannibalism).
Deviant behavior must be sufficiently serious or unusual to spark a negative sanction or punishment. For example, if you were having dinner with friends and used the wrong fork for your salad, you would be violating a minor norm but your friends probably wouldn’t react in a negative fashion; they might not even notice. On the other hand, if you ate an entire steak dinner— meat, mashed potatoes, and salad— with your hands, your friends probably would react. They might criticize your behavior strongly (“That’s totally disgusting!”) and even refuse to eat with you again. This latter example, then, would be considered deviant behavior among your group of friends— and among most groups in American society.
Because definitions of deviance are constructed from cul- tural, historical, and situational norms, sociologists are inter- ested in a number of topics under the rubric of deviance. First, how are norms and rules created, and how do certain norms and rules become especially important? Second, who is sub- ject to the rules, and how is rule breaking identified? Third, what types of sanctions (punishments or rewards) are dis- pensed to society’s violators? Fourth, how do people who break the rules see themselves, and how do others see them? And finally, how have sociologists attempted to explain rule mak- ing, rule breaking, and responses to rule breaking?
DEVIANCE a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction
Challenging Norms As a pregnant transgender man, Trystan Reese faced criticism for challenging society’s norms about gender and parenting and was labeled deviant by some.
CHAPTER 6 Deviance154
Branding has long since died out as a method of punish-ment, but in a perfect illustration of the mutability of deviance, it has made something of a comeback as a form of body decoration (Parker 1998). What used to be an involun- tary mark of shame has been reclaimed as a voluntary mark of pride. Small branding irons of stainless steel are heated with a blowtorch until white hot and are held on the skin for a sec- ond or two. Some who undergo the procedure burn incense to cover the smell of their own flesh burning. Many African American fraternities have a long tradition of branding, usu- ally in the shape of one of the fraternity’s Greek letters. The practice has received a public boost as several popular ath- letes have prominently displayed their fraternity brands. Basketball legend Michael Jordan sports such a brand, as does the NFL’s Malcolm Jenkins. Branding is spreading to other subcultures, where it is just another extension of tattoos, Mohawks, and body piercings as an outward man- ifestation of youthful rebellion or an expression of personal aesthetic or group identification.
When it comes to body modification, what Americans might label deviant might be identified as desirable or normal in other cultures and vice versa. Among the Suri of southwest- ern Ethiopia, progressively larger plates are inserted into the lower lip so that it gradually becomes enlarged. The Padaung women of Burma stretch their necks with brass rings. Young girls begin by encircling their necks with just a few rings, then add more as they grow; by the time of maturity, their necks are considerably elongated. Breast augmentation surgery is
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Body Modification
commonplace in the United States, while butt augmentation is popular in Brazil.
Body modification does not always need to be dramatic. In reality, there is a great number of subtle methods of body modification practiced by most Americans that may not seem so obvious if we concentrate on eyebrow rings and neck tat- toos. First of all, there have always been body modifications for the middle and upper classes. Corsets, worn by women through the ages until the early twentieth century, are an obvious example. Stomachs were flattened with “stays,” long strips of some rigid material like whalebone. A tightly laced corset could achieve a dramatically narrow waistline but often at a serious cost to the wearer’s health. Women some- times even had ribs removed in order to accommodate them. The hair salon is another great unacknowledged center for body modification. If you get a perm, you are breaking the disulfide bonds in your hair and reshaping them to straighten them or make them curly. Even a simple haircut is a type of body modification— luckily, for those of us who have gotten bad haircuts, they’re temporary!
Some body modifications seem so “normal” that we prac- tice them as routines without considering how they may seem deviant elsewhere. Other cultures may view Ameri- cans’ obsession with hair removal— shaving, tweezing, and waxing— as bizarre. As you can see, whether it’s wearing a corset, branding yourself, or shaving your legs, the bound- aries between beauty and deviance are fluid across time and place.
Theories of Deviance 155
Functionalism As you may recall, adherents of functionalism argue that each element of social structure helps maintain the stability of society. What, then, is the function of deviance for society? Émile Durkheim came up with a couple of functions. First, deviance can help a society clarify its moral boundaries. We are reminded about our shared notions of what is right when we have to address wrongdoings of various sorts. In 2005, Terri Schiavo, a hospital patient in St. Petersburg, Florida, received national attention when a legal battle was fought over her life. Schiavo had been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990 and kept alive through a gastric feeding tube. Her husband, Michael, petitioned the courts in 1998 to end life support; he thought it was the right thing to do and was what Terri would have wanted. Her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler, took legal action against Michael’s decision— they thought it was wrong. While most people might have had a vague idea of how they felt about artificially prolonging life, the Schiavo case forced them to think concretely about how such choices affect actual people. After a seven- year process, the courts sided with Michael Schiavo, and on March 18, 2005, his wife’s feeding tube was removed. She died thirteen days later.
Another function of deviance is to promote social cohesion (one of functionalism’s valued ideals); people can be brought together as a community in the face of crime or other violations. For example, while the country was divided over the decision in the Schiavo case, an opinion poll by ABC News on March 21, 2005, reported that 70 percent of Americans believed that Michael Schiavo had the authority to make decisions on behalf of his wife and that the case should not have been a federal matter. In the same poll, 63 percent maintained that the federal government was involved solely for political advantage. Whatever they believed about prolong- ing life, the majority of Americans thus agreed that the choice was best made by family and not the government.
Social cohesion is central to other theories of deviance as well. Travis Hirschi’s social control theory hypothesizes that the stronger one’s social bonds— to family and religious, civic, and other groups— the less likely one is to commit crime. Such bonds tend to increase one’s investment in the commu- nity and also increase one’s commitment to that community’s shared values and norms. With both internal and external forces regulating behavior, Hirchi argues that social bonds promote conformity (Hirschi 1969).
STRUCTURAL STRAIN THEORY Sociologist Robert Merton (1938/1976) provides a bridge between function- a list and conflict theories of deviance. Like Durkheim,
For example, the Amish, a religious community whose members do without modern devices like electricity, cars, and telephones, practice meidung, which means shunning those who violate the strict norms of the group (Kephart 2000). A biblical rule instructs them “not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber— not even to eat with such a one” (1 Corinthians 5:11). In other words, the Amish believe they should not associate with rule breakers even when they come from within their own family. No one does business with, eats with, or even talks to the guilty party. The shunning is temporary, however: After a short period, the violator is expected to publicly apologize and make amends and is then welcomed back into the community.
A much more permanent method of punishment is total banishment from the community. For many Native Ameri- can people, the social group was so important that banish- ment was considered a fate worse than death (Champagne 1994). It was one of a variety of practices used to maintain social control (along with shaming songs, contests, and chal- lenges of strength) and something of a rarity because it com- pletely severed ties between the group and the individual. Banishment has a long history of use in all parts of the world, from British prisoners being “transported” to Australia to Russian dissidents being exiled to Siberia, and has been one of the most cost- effective methods of punishment ever discovered.
Just as methods of punishment vary between societies and groups, they also change over time. In Colonial America, for example, corporal punishment was the rule for the majority of crimes (Walker 1997). These days, the phrase “corporal pun- ishment” may conjure up images of elementary school teach- ers spanking students, probably because spanking was the last vestige of what was once a vast repertoire of techniques. Thieves, pickpockets, and others who would today be con- sidered petty criminals were flogged, had their ears cropped, had their noses slit, had their fingers or hands cut off, or were branded. These punishments were designed not only to deliver pain but also to mark the offender. As such, the particular punishment was often designed to fit the crime. A pickpocket might have a hand cut off; a forger might have an “F” branded on his forehead. Brands were also used to mark African Amer- ican slaves as property during the 1800s.
Theories of Deviance In this section, we will learn how three sociological para- digms discussed in Chapter 1—functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism— can be applied to devi- ance. We will also learn about other related theories that have been developed specifically to explain particular aspects of deviance.
SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY a theory of crime, proposed by Travis Hirschi, that posits that strong social bonds increase conformity and decrease deviance
CHAPTER 6 Deviance156
actually helps out the mob rather than attempt to fight it. Finally, the Joker, whose portrayal by Heath Ledger won him a posthumous Academy Award, embodies the true spirit of the rebel. Rather than attempting to fight crime, the Joker causes mayhem for both law enforcers and the mob bosses with the ultimate goal of bringing about the downfall of all of Gotham. While the mob bosses stand to gain financially from their crime sprees, the Joker’s sadistic goal is to see the entire city descend into chaos and anarchy.
Conflict Theory Conflict theorists, who study inequalities of wealth and power, note that inequalities are present in our definitions of deviance as well. In other words, conflict theorists believe that rules are applied unequally and that punishments for rule violators are unequally distributed: Those at the top are subject to different rules and sanctions than those nearer the bottom, and the behaviors of less powerful groups and indi- viduals are more likely to be criminalized than the behaviors of the powerful. American criminologist Richard Quinney theorized that capitalism— and the exploitation and oppres- sion of the working class— make deviant and even criminal behavior nearly inescapable for workers. The ruling class can make laws that target the poor. When the poor act out against repression, they become targets for law enforcement, while the rich and powerful remain free to do what they like.
Norms, rules, and laws are used to regulate the behav- ior of individuals and groups. This process, known as
Merton acknowledges that some deviance is inevitable in society. But like conflict theorists, he argues that an indi- vidua l’s position in the socia l structure will affect his expe- rience of deviance and conformity. Socia l inequa lity can create situations in which people experience tension (or strain) between the goa ls society says they should be work- ing toward ( like financia l success) and the means they have available to meet those goa ls (not everyone is able to work hard at a legitimate job).
Our society’s intense emphasis on financial success and materialism— through the mythology of the “American Dream”—can be stressful for those whose chances of realizing
that dream are limited (Mess- ner and Rosenfeld 2012). The rewards of conformity are avail- able only to those who can pursue approved goals through approved means. Any other combination of means and goals is deviant in one way or another (see Figure 6.1). Innovators, for example, might seek financial success via unconventional means (such as drug dealing or embezzlement). Ritualists go through the con- ventional motions while aban- doning all hope of success, and retreatists (like dropouts or hermits) renounce the culture’s goals and means entirely and live outside conventional norms alto- gether. At the far end of the con- tinuum, rebels reject the cultural definitions of success and the nor- mative means of achieving it and advocate radical alternatives to the existing social order.
For example, consider the characters in the film The Dark
Knight, an action movie that documents Batman’s clean- up of Gotham City. The goal is to combat the corruption that has overcome Gotham through multiple lucrative crimi- nal mobs. In the movie, conformity is represented by Dis- trict Attorney Harvey Dent, who is attempting to fight crime through the approved means of the law. Dent, along with Police Lieutenant James Gordon and Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes, enact a tough campaign to convict all mob bosses through the testimony of their accountant. Batman is an innovator who fights crime using cunning, high- tech weaponry, and uncon- ventional means that ignore the legal process. As always, tra- ditional bureaucrats like Police Commissioner Loeb and the Gotham mayor are ritualists who operate within the param- eters that they have been given with little hope of quelling the crime wave. Corrupt Officer Ramirez is a retreatist who
Conformity
Ritualism
Innovation
Accept Reject
NEW MEANS
INSTITUTIONALIZED MEANS
A cc
ep t
R ej
ec t
N E
W G
O A
L S
C U
LT U
R A
L G
O A
L S
Retreatism
Rebellion
Figure 6.1 Merton’s Typology of Deviance
Different orientations toward society’s goals and differential access to the means to achieve those goals combine to create different categories of deviance.
INNOVATORS individuals who accept society’s approved goals but not society’s approved means to achieve them
RITUALISTS individuals who have given up hope of achieving society’s approved goals but still operate according to society’s approved means
RETREATISTS individuals who renounce society’s approved goals and means entirely and live outside conventional norms altogether
REBELS individuals who reject society’s approved goals and means and instead create and work toward their own (sometimes revolutionary) goals using new means
SOCIAL CONTROL the formal and informal mechanisms used to elicit conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion
Theories of Deviance 157
The recent and ongoing controversy over voter identifica- tion laws reveals how even policies that some would argue are neutral really do affect some groups differently than others. At the time of the 2016 presidential election, twelve states had a photo identification requirement for voters, meaning that voters must show a photo ID in order to cast a vote. While supporters of such laws argue that they help stem voter fraud, opponents say that voter fraud is almost non- existent. They argue that voter ID requirements are really meant to keep various groups— ethnic and racial minorities, immigrants, the elderly, and the poor, all of whom tend to vote Democrat— away from the vot- ing booth. These groups don’t always have IDs and may have trouble getting them, especially if there is a fee involved. Unfortunately, there is a good deal of evidence to support the conflict theorists’ argument that rules are applied unequally in our hierarchical society.
Symbolic Interactionism While conflict theorists and functionalists focus on in equalities and the social functions of deviance, interaction- ists consider the way that interpersonal relationships and everyday interactions shape definitions of deviance.
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY One such approach is Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory (Sutherland 1939; Sutherland et al. 1992), which asserts that we learn to be deviant through our interactions
social control, can be either informal, as in the exercise of control through customs, norms, and expectations, or for- mal, as in the exercise of control through laws or other offi- cial regulations. Both formal social control and informal social control can be exercised unequally in a hierarchical society, and this is what conflict theory is concerned with when it comes to the topic of deviance.
As recently as 2003, more than a dozen U.S. states still imposed heterosexuality on their citizens through anti- sodomy laws, which prohibited any sexual acts that did not lead to procreation. While in theory anti- sodomy laws could include acts like masturbation and heterosexual oral sex, in practice these laws were generally imposed against same- sex partners. Before a Supreme Court ruling invalidated all state anti- sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), sexual acts done in the privacy of your own home could be penalized with fines and jail time in states such as Florida, Idaho, and Michigan. From a conflict theorist perspective, anti- sodomy laws were a way for the heterosexual majority to exercise control over same- sex minorities.
As another example, the Great Recession of 2008 was in large part caused by banks engaging in risky and often predatory mortgage lending. Millions of ordinary people lost not only their homes but also their jobs and life savings dur- ing the ensuing economic crisis, and both the national econ- omy and global economy were on the verge of collapse. But the banks and corporations were bailed out with taxpayer money, and only a single Wall Street executive was ever prosecuted in relation to the crash (Lewis 2011). This unhappy episode in American history is just one illustration of the way that wealth and privilege protect the powerful from being defined as deviant or being punished for their violations.
Rebel with a Cause In The Dark Knight, Batman is an innovator who fights crime unconventionally, Harvey Dent is a ritualist who conforms to established parameters, and the Joker is a rebel intent on bringing about the downfall of Gotham.
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY Edwin Sutherland’s hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our associations with deviant peers
CHAPTER 6 Deviance158
would seem to socialize an individual into their rule- breaking culture. But, as it turns out, not all who hang out with deviants become deviant themselves, and plenty of people who engage in deviant acts have never consorted with other rule breakers. Also, in cases where deviance is not the result of a willful act (mental illness, for example), a learning theory such as this one is not a useful explana- tion. While differential association theory seeks to explain “why they do it,” it cannot fully explain every case of deviant behavior— nor can any theory of deviance.
LABELING THEORY Howard Becker’s labeling theory (1963) proposes that deviance is not inherent in any act, belief, or condition; instead, it is determined by the social context. A man who kills an intruder who is attacking his child may be labeled a hero, while a man who kills a cashier in the process
with others who break the rules. This is the theory of devi- ance that your parents subscribed to when you were a teen- ager: Don’t hang out with the bad kids! Simple peer pressure
by those you associate with can lead to deviant behavior. For instance, an athlete who uses steroids to help build strength might also influence his team- mates to start “doping” even though this practice is banned in most sports. Have you ever been influenced by others to do
something deviant that you would have never tried on your own?
This theory of deviance seems at first glance to be pretty sensible— interacting often with those who break the rules
LABELING THEORY Howard Becker’s idea that deviance is a consequence of external judgments, or labels, that modify the individual’s self- concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person
With the advent of the Internet came new ways of inter-acting with one another . . . and new ways of being devi- ant. Or maybe they’re just old ways of being deviant in a new relational context. Because bullies and trolls go way, way back.
Although parents and schools have always worried about bullying, their concerns have multiplied since children and teenagers started using the Internet. The phenomenon of cyberbullying— the use of electronic and social media to tease, threaten, or humiliate someone— catapulted to the fore- front of national consciousness after the suicide of thirteen- year- old Megan Meier in October 2006. Megan had received an online message from a boy named Josh, who said he lived nearby but that his family didn’t have a phone. During the next several weeks, they sent messages back and forth and seemed
to have become close very quickly. Then, without warn- ing, Josh started taunting and abusing her. Megan was devastated and hung herself in her closet. Several weeks later, the Meiers learned that “Josh” was not a real person and that the online account
had been created by neighborhood mom Lori Drew, in order to get back at Megan for snubbing her daughter.
Unfortunately, Megan’s is not an isolated case. More recently, eleven- year- old Tyler Benz killed himself after receiving a series of texts claiming that his thirteen- year- old
girlfriend had committed suicide. The texts turned out to be from the girlfriend herself. No one explained that the texts were a prank, and Benz took them so seriously that he hung himself in his bedroom closet. The girl is facing charges (Phillips 2017).
A 2016 survey found that about a third of all young people have been victims of cyberbullying at some point in their lives (Patchin and Hinduja 2016). According to the U.S. Depart- ment of Education, 20 percent of students between the ages of twelve and eighteen reported being bullied during the 2014–2015 school year; 12 percent of those students reported being bullied online or by text (National Center for Education Statistics 2016). So while cyberbullying is still less common than its off- line equivalent, in several ways it’s more fright- ening. Like every phenomenon created by the Information Revolution, cyberbullying (sometimes called “electronic aggression”) is faster and connects more people than off- line activity. Traditional bullying usually happens at school, while cyberbullying can happen anytime and in the privacy of your own home. Likewise, the effects are longer lasting. One of the most common forms of cyberbullying is spreading rumors about someone. Traditional bullying relied on word of mouth or the proverbial graffiti on the bathroom wall to do this. But word of mouth is limited, and only so many people can read nasty comments scrawled on the stall in the bath- room before the janitor washes it off. Online, there is almost no limit to how many people might see a nasty comment, even if it is later taken down.
IN RELATIONSHIPS Cyberbullying, Trolls, and Online Deviance
CYBERBULLYING the use of electronic media (web pages, social networking sites, e- mail, Twitter, cell phones) to tease, harass, threaten, or humiliate someone
Theories of Deviance 159
In fact, the opposite turned out to be true. Once admitted, the pseudo- patients turned immediately to the task of get- ting themselves discharged— and failed miserably. Although they behaved as normally and pleasantly as possible, doctors and nurses continued to treat them as mentally ill patients in need of treatment. No amount of explanation on the part of the pseudo- patients could convince the hospital staff of their sanity (though, in an interesting twist, it was usually obvious to the other patients). When they were finally dis- charged (after one to seven weeks!), it was not because the staff had finally seen through the deception; they were all released with their schizophrenia “in remission.” As Rosen- han concluded, “Once labeled schizophrenic, the pseudo- patient was stuck with that label” (1973, p. 253). The effects of this “sticky” deviant label on actual patients can follow them through their lives, even after they leave the hospital.
of robbing a store may be labeled a villain. Even though the act of homicide is the same, the way the person who did it is treated differs greatly depending on the label.
Labeling theory recognizes that labels will vary depend- ing on the culture, time period, and situation. David Rosen- han’s study “On Being Sane in Insane Places” (1973) provides a striking demonstration of the power of labeling and the importance of context. Rosenhan and seven other research- ers gained admission to psychiatric hospitals as patients. Other than falsifying their names and occupations, the eight subjects gave honest answers to all but one of the questions in the entrance examination. They all complained of hearing voices, a symptom often linked to schizophrenia. Neverthe- less, the subjects felt certain that once they were hospital- ized, they would be quickly exposed as “ pseudo- patients,” not really mentally ill.
So far, most research has focused on cyberbullying that is perpetrated by someone who knows the victim in real life, but there have always been Internet bullies (or “trolls”) who seek to abuse people they’ve never met or have only encountered online. For example, after Megan Meier’s suicide, a blog was created by someone with no connection to her case, called “Megan Had It Coming,” that contained posts from a cast of characters who purported to know Megan, all expressing a distinct lack of remorse. The blogger, a thirty- two- year- old computer programmer from Seattle, had a history of humiliating others online and expressed pride in his achieve- ments. Indeed, “trolls” seem to enjoy their abusive activities and often continue under different usernames even after they have been blocked by service providers or website administrators. Trolls make a game of harrassing, bullying, and stalking others online: Threats of violence are common, as is “doxxing,” or the practice of publishing private, humili- ating information (photos, financial data, etc.) online for all to see (Stein 2016).
As more and more of people’s lives play out online, cyber- bullying will only become more common. Will we treat it the way we treat other related forms of deviance? In “real” life, abuses like slander, harassment, and stalking can be pros- ecuted as crimes. But it is harder to apply such penalties to Internet trolls and cyberbullies, given the questions about identity and jurisdiction that arise in online settings. Perhaps the only way to respond to this type of deviance is to troll the trolls?
Cyberbullying Tina Meier holds two pictures of her daughter Megan, who committed suicide after receiving cruel online messages.
CHAPTER 6 Deviance160
sometimes possible for an individual to turn what could have been a negative identity into a positive one. John Kitsuse (1980) calls this tertiary deviance, which occurs when the person labeled deviant rejects the notion of deviance entirely and attempts to redefine her “deviant” attributes or behavior as normal. Some members of The Biggest Loser cast demonstrated this level of deviance as well. Many contestants gain the weight back after leaving the show, their bodies fighting to return to their original weights; for some, this leads them to a newfound acceptance of their body shape and size (Huddleston 2016; Kolata 2016). This argument—“sure, I’m fat, but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that”—is an attempt to recast that identity as acceptable difference rather than deviance.
Some of the most exciting, but also disturbing, research on labeling theory has focused on self- fulfilling prophecy, a term coined by Robert Merton in his 1948 article of the same name. Merton’s concept was derived from the so- called Thomas theorem, formulated by sociologist W. I. Thomas in 1928, which held that “if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” From this theorem, Merton developed his notion of the self- fulfilling prophecy, which is basically a prediction that causes itself to come true merely by being stated. He offered the example of a bank in the Depression- era 1930s that collapsed through “a rumor of insolvency,” when enough investors became convinced that the bank was out of money (1948, p. 194).
Merton arg ued that the self- fulf illing prophecy can be used to explain some racia l and ethnic issues in the United States, and subsequent research has borne him out. For example, Elija h A nderson’s classic Streetwise (1990) details how the police and community perceive black ma le inner- city teen agers as a crimina l element, with the result that they are more likely to be arrested than other teenag- ers, and citizens are a lso more likely to report black ma les for crimes. This cloud of suspicion that surrounds black urban teens requires them to defend their innocence in situations that other teens can negotiate with little or no diff iculty. Young black ma les are a lso more likely to be incarcerated, which only feeds the public image of crimi- na lity. The racia l discrimination and prof iling by police and the community thus lead to a negative cycle that is dif- f icult to brea k.
Stereotypes are often part of self- fulfilling prophecies. Claude Steele’s research (1997) on stereotype threat shows that when students worry that their own poor aca- demic performance could unintentionally confirm a nega- tive stereotype of their social group, they actually perform poorly, thus confirming that stereotype. Stereotype threat has been measured in high- achieving African American stu- dents as well as highly ranked female math students (Spen- cer, Steele, and Quinn 1999). Stereotypes and self- fulfilling prophecies are not always negative. Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou (2014) found that Asian American students can actu- ally benefit from both. In the case of stereotype promise,
Labeling theory is also concerned with how individuals think of themselves once a deviant label has been applied. Recall Cooley’s concept of the “ looking- glass self ”: how we perceive ourselves depends in part on how others see us, so if others react to us as deviant, we are likely to internalize that label (even if we object to it). Applying deviant labels can
also lead to further deviance, as a person moves from primary deviance (the thing that gets her labeled in the first place) to secondary deviance (a deviant identity or career) (Lemert 1951).
If you’ve watched NBC’s The Biggest Loser, you’ve seen examples of both types of devi- ance. On the show, overweight and obese contestants sign up for an intensive weight- loss boot camp, and viewers follow the ups and downs of their progress over the course of each season. Their excess body weight, which is seen as deviant in contempo- rary U.S. culture, is an example of primary deviance, and con- testants’ recognition that they are “fatties” who need to slim down is an example of secondary deviance.
Although deviant labels are sticky and hard to shake, it is
PRIMARY DEVIANCE in labeling theory, the initial act or attitude that causes one to be labeled deviant
SECONDARY DEVIANCE in labeling theory, the subsequent deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant
TERTIARY DEVIANCE redefining the stigma associated with a deviant label as a positive phenomenon
SELF- FULFILLING PROPHECY an inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a prediction that causes itself to come true
STEREOTYPE THREAT a kind of self- fulfilling prophecy in which the fear of performing poorly— and confirming stereotypes about their social groups— causes students to perform poorly
Labeling Theory Deviant labels such as “teen mom” vary based on culture, time period, and context.
The Stigma of Deviance 161
about the bea rer, a nd to this day we continue to use the term to sig nif y some disgrace or fa il- ing. A lthough we no longer live in a societ y where we a re forced to wea r our rule violations bra nded onto our bodies, stig- matized identities still ca rr y serious socia l consequences.
Stigma, a centra l concept in the sociolog y of deviance, was ana lyzed and elaborated by Er ving Goffman (1962) in his book of the same name. Once an individua l has been labeled as deviant, he is stigmatized and acquires what Goffman ca lls a “spoiled identity.” There are three main types of stigma: physica l (including physica l or menta l impairments), mora l (signs of a f lawed character), and triba l (membership in a discredited or oppressed group). A lmost any departure from the norm can have a stigmatiz- ing effect, including a physica l disability, a past battle with
Asian American students are more likely to be placed in Advanced Placement (AP) classes, receive high grades, and be treated well by teachers because others assume that they are high achievers. In both cases, the stereotypes become real as people (teachers, students, others) act based on them— even in cases where students are trying to avoid this very problem.
Labels a lone are not 100 percent deterministic, and prophecies are not a lways self- fulfilling. But in our soci- ety, deviant labels can override other aspects of individ- ua l identity and exert a powerful influence on self- image, treatment by others, and even socia l and institutiona l policies.
The Stigma of Deviance In a ncient Greece, crimina ls a nd slaves were bra nded with hot irons, ma king a ma rk ca lled a stig ma , from the Greek word for tattoo. The stig ma was mea nt to ser ve as a n outwa rd indication that there was something sha meful
Perspective Approach to Deviance Case Study: Plagiarism
Structural Functionalism Deviance clarifies moral boundaries and promotes social cohesion.
Punishing those who plagiarize separates those who should be in college from those who aren’t responsible enough.
Control Theory
Strong social bonds increase conformity and decrease deviance.
Requiring incoming college students to sign an honor code on the first day of orientation pledging that they will not cheat while they are a member of their college community.
Structural Strain Theory
An individual’s position in society determines whether she has the means to achieve her goals or must otherwise turn to deviance.
A student’s attitude about plagiarizing depends on whether she has the means to write the paper.
Conflict Theory
Definitions and rules of deviance are applied unequally based on power.
Students with fewer resources are punished harshly and have fewer options afterward; students with more money or connections can either transfer to another school or rely on their parents for help.
Symbolic Interactionism The definition of deviance is relative and depends on the culture, time period, and situation.
Plagiarism may be labeled as deviant in the United States but not in Russia or India.
Differential Association Theory
Deviance is learned through interactions with others who break the rules.
Students learn to cheat because they hang out with other students who plagiarize.
Labeling Theory Deviance is determined by the reactions of others; applying deviant labels to an individual may lead her to further deviance.
A student who is caught plagiarizing may come to believe she is unable to write without cheating.
Table 6.1 Theory in Everyday Life
STEREOTYPE PROMISE a kind of self- fulfilling prophecy in which positive stereotypes, such as the “model minority” label applied to Asian Americans, lead to positive performance outcomes
STIGMA Erving Goffman’s term for any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or group’s identity and that may exclude those who are devalued from normal social interaction
CHAPTER 6 Deviance162
a lcohol or menta l illness, time ser ved in jail, or sexua l trans- gressions. Goffman recognizes that what may once have been a stigmatized identity may change over time or may var y according to culture or socia l context. Being black or Jewish is a stigma only if one lives in a racist or anti- Semitic society. In a community entirely popu- lated by A frican A mericans,
it is white people who may be stigmatized; an a ll- Jewish enclave may see non- Jews as outside the norm. Goffman is careful to note that not a ll stigmatized identities are just or deser ved— only that they are specif ic to the norms and prejudices of a particular group, time period, or context.
Managing Deviant Identities Goffman was particularly interested in the effects of stigma- tization on individual identity and interactions with others. At the macro level, society does not treat the stigmatized very well; if you suffer from serious depression, for example, you may find that your health insurance does not cover your treat- ment. At the micro level, you may also find that your friends don’t fully understand your depression- related problems. In fact, you may find yourself working to keep others from finding out that you are depressed or receiving treatment for
depression precisely in order to avoid such situations. Hav- ing a stigmatized identity— of any sort— makes navigating the social world difficult.
PASSING How can stigmatized individuals negotiate the perils of everyday interaction? One strategy analyzed by Goffman is called passing, or concealing stigmatizing infor- mation. The allusion to racial passing is entirely intended— Goffman meant to call to mind the experiences of light- skinned African Americans who, for more than 300 years and particu- larly in the decades before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, sought access to the privileges of whiteness (and relief from discrimination) by concealing their racial heritage and passing as white. The case of racial passing is instructive in developing an understanding of all types of passing— such as the passing engaged in by employees who dress to conceal their tattoos when at work, or people with illnesses like diabe- tes or depression or disabilities such as hearing impairments who try to keep their conditions a secret.
IN- GROUP ORIENTATION Not everyone can pass, though, because not all stigma is concealable. While it may be possible to conceal your status as an ex- convict or survivor of rape, it is more difficult to conceal extreme shortness or obesity. And while some people cannot pass, others refuse to do so as a matter of principle. These people don’t believe that their identities should be seen as deviant, and they certainly don’t believe that they should have to change or conceal those identities just to make “normals” feel more comfortable. They have what Goffman calls an in- group orientation— they reject the standards that mark them as deviant and may even actively propose new standards in which their special identities are well within the normal range. For example, such groups as PFLAG (Parents, Fami- lies, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), NAD (National Association of the Deaf ), and NA AFA (National Associa- tion to Advance Fat Acceptance) have allowed members of stigmatized groups to feel greater self- esteem and to unite in fighting against prejudice and discrimination. Activism might also take a more individual form of merely being “out,” open, and unapologetic about one’s identity. This in itself can be difficult and exhausting (as passing is); however, those with an in- group orientation see it as a powerful way to address society’s changing definitions of deviance.
DEVIANCE AVOWAL AND VOLUNTARY OUTSIDERS Under most circumstances, people reject the deviant label and what it seems to imply about their personal identity. However, there are some who choose to be called a deviant. Those who belong to a particular subculture, for example— whether outlaw biker, rock musician, or eco- warrior— may celebrate their membership in a deviant group. Howard
PASSING presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group to which you belong
IN- GROUP ORIENTATION among stigmatized individuals, the rejection of prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity
United Against Prejudice Through events like the Million Pound March, groups like the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance embrace an in- group orientation and reject the standards that mark them as deviant.
The Stigma of Deviance 163
Becker (1963) referred to such individuals as outsiders, people living in one way or another outside mainstream society. They may pass among “normals,” continuing to work and participate in everyday life. Or their deviant identity may have become a master status, thus prevent- ing them from interacting along conventional lines; when this happens, a person’s deviance may be thought to reveal his underlying nature. For instance, members of the punk subculture, easily identified by their distinctive look, are generally assumed to be loud troublemakers, whatever their individual personality traits may be.
Some potential deviants may actually initiate the label- ing process against themselves or provoke others to do so, a condition Ralph Turner (1972) calls deviance avowal. Turner suggests that it may be useful to conceive of devi- ance as a role rather than as an isolated behavior that vio- lates a single norm. And in some cases, it may be beneficial for an individual to identify with the deviant role. In the
ON THE JOB Is “Cash Register Honesty” Good Enough?
a pen, or a pad of paper from the office? Made personal cop- ies on the office copier? Used your work computer to surf the web, download music or movies, play video games, or send an e- mail to a friend? Eaten or drunk company products? How about taking a little more time than you’re supposed to on your lunch break or leaving work a little early?
It’s called “pilfering,” and it happens on the job tens of thousands of times a day. And it all adds up. Most companies consider these kinds of losses as just another factor in the cost of doing business. But how is it that so many people think nothing of these small infractions in spite of prevailing social norms that discourage stealing and while otherwise being upstanding or even exemplary employees?
You could say that these people are practicing “cash reg- ister honesty.” That is, they draw the line at actually stealing money (or its equivalent) out of the till but don’t hesitate to make off with other odds and ends that might have a less eas- ily calculable value. Employees may be deterred by informal social control or by more formal surveillance measures such as videotaping, keystroke logging, or other kinds of scanning and searching practiced by employers. But even when they do get away with taking home a pen or snacking on the merchan- dise, they might be appalled at the suggestion that they are deviant, especially since everyone else seems to take some- thing now and then.
While we might like to think that most employees wouldn’t take money from the cash register or mer- chandise from the showroom floor, walk away with a laptop computer, drive away with the company car, or filter sales receipts to their own bank account, employee theft is still a major problem. According to a 2010 survey by the Associa- tion of Certified Fraud Examiners (2012), the typical business is estimated to lose about 5 percent of its annual revenues to employee fraud. This translates to a median loss of $140,000 per year per organization. Others estimate that employee theft is involved in up to one- third of all U.S. corporate bank- ruptcies (Russakoff and Goodman 2011). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that 75 percent of all employees steal once, and that half of those individuals will steal repeatedly (Jones 2012). Michael Cunningham (Cunningham and Jones 2010), a professor of psychology at the University of Louisville and a consultant to the security industry, warns that only one in every three potential employees will be completely trustwor- thy. Of the other two, one may be tempted to steal given the opportunity, while the other will be more or less constantly looking for a chance to get away with taking company property.
Although we may consider ourselves the trustworthy ones, we may not recognize that our own behavior could still be con- tributing to the tens of billions of dollars lost each year. How? Well, have you ever taken home paper clips, Post- it notes,
Alcoholics Anonymous program, for example, the first step in recovery is for a member to admit that she is an alcoholic. Since total abstinence from drinking is the goal, only those who believe they have a drinking problem and who willingly accept the label of alcoholic can take the suggested steps toward recovery.
Deviance avowa l can a lso help a person avoid the pres- sures of having to adopt certain conventiona l norms, or what Turner ca lls the “neutra lization of commitment.” For instance, a recovering a lcoholic might resist taking a typica l nine- to- five job, claiming that the stress of corporate work had a lways made him drink before. Another recovering a lco- holic who refuses to attend family gatherings might offer
OUTSIDERS according to Howard Becker, those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from “normal” society
DEVIANCE AVOWAL process by which an individual self- identifies as deviant and initiates her own labeling process
CHAPTER 6 Deviance164
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
AA’s Pioneer Women Alcoholics Anonymous offers an interest- ing case where members choose to embrace a deviant identity as a positive aspect of themselves, one that is critical to their suc-
cess in the program. Research by Melvin Pollner and Jill Stein (1996, 2001) has focused on the role of narrative storytelling as a key feature of reconstructing the alco- holic’s sense of self and turning a stigmatized identity into a valued asset in the process of recovery. The basic text of the twelve- step program is laid out in the book Alcoholics Anonymous (1939/2001), often referred to by members as the “Big Book.” Its first 164 pages have remained virtually the same since it was first published in 1939; it is now in its fourth edition. The book also includes dozens of personal stories written by AA mem- bers themselves. These chapters always begin with the “Pioneers of AA,” but in each subsequent edition some new (and more modern) stories have been added, while others have been dropped. That such a large part of the Big Book is devoted to the personal stories of members shows their importance. They are intended to help new- comers to the program identify with and relate to the lives of other recovering alcoholics and to follow their examples.
In this Data Workshop, you will examine the story of “Marty M.”—one of AA’s pioneers and one of the first women to join the program, way back in 1939, when the book was just being written. Her story is the fourth that appears ( but not until the second and subsequent edi- tions) and is called “Women Suffer Too.” The title refers to a widely held notion at the time that only men could be alcoholics. The idea of a woman alcoholic was almost unthinkable. Marty M. defied the conventions of her day in many ways. She was a divorcee, entrepreneur, world traveler, and later, philanthropist. But first and fore- most, she was a sober drunk. Marty M.’s story follows the classic narrative structure of all AA stories: what
we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. It is told from the perspective of a sober alcoholic looking back on her life and understanding that through the process of deviance avowal ( by accepting her alco- holism) she was able to transform a negative past into a positive life.
For this Data Workshop you will be examining an existing source and doing a content analysis of the story “Women Suffer Too.” Refer to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. The text of the story can be found in the Big Book (pages 222–229) and accessed online at various websites, including http://www.aa.org/assets /en_US/en_bigbook_personalstories_partI.pdf.
Read the story in its entirety, keeping in mind how the study of life histories or oral histories can reveal important features of societal norms and everyday life. Remember that Marty M. lived in a particular time period and social context. Pay close attention to how the story describes both deviant behavior and the pro- cess of deviance avowal, and consider the following questions:
✱ Identify the instances of deviance described in the author’s story. Why were these behaviors consid- ered deviant?
✱ In what ways was she in denial about her condition early on? How did she actively try to disavow the deviant label?
✱ At what point did she begin the process of deviance avowal? How did admitting that she was an alco- holic affect her self- concept?
✱ In what ways did deviance avowal allow her to see her past in a different light? How did her devi- ant identity finally become a positive part of her life?
✱ How have our perceptions about alcoholics and alcoholism changed since the pioneer days of A A?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Prepare some written notes based on your answers to the questions that you can refer to during in- class discussions. Share your reactions and conclusions with other students in small groups. Listen for any differences in each other’s insights.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Write a three- to four- page essay answering the questions. Include your own reactions to the story. Make sure to refer to specific passages from the story that help to support your analysis.
as an excuse that she can’t be around family because they drink at every occasion. In such ways, people become volun- tary outsiders, finding it preferable to be a deviant in spite of the prevailing norms of mainstream society.
The Study of Crime 165
Studying Deviance When studying deviance, sociologists have often focused on the most obvious forms of deviant behavior— crime, mental illness, and sexual deviance. This “nuts and sluts” approach (Liazos 1972) usually focuses on the deviance of the poor and powerless, while accepting the values and norms of the powerful in an unacknowledged way. Social scientists tended to apply definitions of deviance uncritically in their research and failed to question the ways in which the defi- nitions themselves may have perpetuated inequalities and untruths.
David Matza (1969), a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, set out to remedy this situation. He urged social scientists to set aside their preconceived notions in order to understand deviant phenomena on their own terms— a perspective he called “naturalism.” Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor, for example, spent three years with a dozen drag queens in order to gain perspective for their research in Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret (2003)—at one point, they even performed onstage (see Part II’s introduction to read more). Matza’s fundamental admonition to those studying deviance is that they must appreciate the diversity and complexity of a particular social world— the world of street gangs, drug addicts, strippers, fight clubs, outlaw bikers, homeless people, or the severely disfigured. If such a world is approached as a simple social pathology that needs correcting, the researcher will never fully understand it. A sociological perspective requires that we seek insight without applying judgment— a difficult task indeed.
The Emotional Attraction of Deviance Most sociological perspectives on deviance focus on aspects of a person’s background that would influence him to act in deviant ways. This is the case with both functionalist and conflict perspectives. For example, many sociological stud- ies of crime make the case that youth with limited access to education may be more likely to turn to dealing drugs or theft. Labeling theory also suggests that a person’s social location is a crucial determinant: It shapes how others see the per- son, as well as his or her own self- view, and these perceptions can lead a person from primary to secondary deviance and into a deviant career. One of the main problems with such theories, however, is that they can’t explain why some people with backgrounds that should incline them to deviance never actually violate any rules, while others with no defining back- ground factors do become deviant.
Approaches that focus exclusively on background fac- tors neglect one very important element: the deviant’s own in- the- moment experience of committing a deviant act, what sociologist Jack Katz refers to as the “foreground” of
deviance. In The Seductions of Crime (1988), Katz looks at how emotiona lly seductive crime can be, how shoplifting or even committing murder might produce a particular kind of rush that becomes the very reason for carrying out the act. For example, what shoplifters often seek is not the DVD or perfume itself as much as the “sneaky thrill” of stea ling it. Initia lly drawn to stea ling by the thought of just how easy it might be, the shoplifter tests her ability to be secretly deviant— in public— while appearing to be perfectly norma l. This perspective explains why the vast majority of shop- lifters are not from underprivileged backgrounds but are people who could easily afford the stolen items. How else might we explain why a wea lthy and famous actress such as Lindsay Lohan would try to stea l a necklace from a jewelry store?
Similarly, muggers’ and robbers’ actions reveal that they get more satisfaction from their crimes than from the things they steal. They are excited by the sense of superiority they gain by setting up and playing tricks on their victims. In fact, they can come to feel morally superior, thinking that their victims deserve their fate because they are less observant and savvy. Even murderous rages can be seen as seductive ways to overcome an overwhelming sense of humiliation. A victim of adultery, for example, may kill instead of sim- ply ending the relationship because murder, or “righteous slaughter,” feels like the most appropriate response. In a real- life example from 2014, twenty- two- year- old gunman Elliott Rodger killed seven people (including himself ) and wounded thirteen in Isla Vista, California. He left behind a video man- ifesto explaining that he was angry after being romantically rejected by women. In effect, he was seduced by the possibil- ity of becoming a powerful avenger rather than remaining a wounded and impotent victim.
Katz’s foreground model of deviance deepens our appre- ciation for the complexity of deviant behavior and reminds us that social actors are not mere products of their environ- ment but are active participants in creating meaningful experiences for themselves, even if harmful to others.
The Study of Crime Crime is a particular type of deviance: It is the violation of a norm that has been codified into law, for which you could be arrested and imprisoned. Official state- backed sanctions, such as laws, exert more power over the individual than do nonlegal norms. For example, if you risked arrest for gos- siping about your roommate, you might think twice about doing it. “Might,” however, is the key word here, for the risk of arrest and jail time does not always deter people from breaking laws. In fact, ordinary people break laws every day without really thinking about it (speeding, underage drinking, stealing those pens and pen- cils from the office). As we saw
CRIME a violation of a norm that has been codified into law
CHAPTER 6 Deviance166
rarely audits it for accuracy), it is useful in helping to track trends in overa ll crime as well as particular patterns; it a lso records the number of arrests made compared with the number of crimes committed, which is the most traditiona l measure of police effectiveness.
Through the UCR, criminologists are able to make com- parisons in crime rates using such variables as year and region. One notable finding is that rates of violent crime declined significantly in the last decade of the twenti- eth century. The year 1991 saw the highest homicide rates in U.S. history, at 9.8 per 100,000 persons or 24,700 mur- ders. Between 1991 and 2000, there was a dramatic drop in homicide rates, and the number continued to decline to 4.4 murders per 100,000 persons, or 14,164 murders, in 2014 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016a). Violent crime, though, increased nearly 4 percent from 2014 to 2015; the number of murders jumped up 11 percent. Other findings from the UCR include the observation that murder rates peak in the months of July and August. Perhaps related to summer heat and humidity, murder rates are also higher in the southern states. Financial hardship may influence mur- der rates, as southern states also have the lowest median family incomes. Other patterns identifiable in UCR data: murder is committed most frequently by a friend or relative of the victim and seldom by a stranger; robbery occurs most frequently in urban areas among youth.
Other trends are visible in the UCR as well. Property crimes occur more frequently than violent crimes. The most common crime is larceny, with burglary and motor vehicle theft trailing far behind. Although there has also been a decline in rates of property crime in the last decade, it is not as extreme as the drop in violent crime. And with the arrival of the Information Age, the category of cybercrime has emerged, covering a wide variety of illegal violations com- mitted via the Internet.
earlier, being bad can feel good, and even murder can feel righ- teous at the time (Katz 1988).
These are among the many reasons that sociologists study crime— in fact, there’s a word for the study of crime, criminals, and the criminal justice system: criminology. Criminologists ask and attempt to answer questions like the following: Who makes the laws? Who breaks them? Who benefits from defining and enforcing them? How do indi- viduals begin committing crime, and how do they desist? What are the intentions and outcomes of law enforcement institutions? Using systematic data and social scientific theory, the work of criminologists contributes to our understanding of this type of deviance in our society.
In the United States, crime is officia lly measured by the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), the FBI’s tabulation of every crime reported by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies around the country. In particular, the UCR is used to track the “crime index,” or the eight offenses considered especia lly reprehensible in our society (see Figure 6.2). Murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery are categorized as violent crime. Burglary (theft inside the home), larceny (of persona l property), motor vehicle theft, and arson are considered property crime. Even though the UCR has been shown to be a flawed system (participation by agencies is voluntary, and the FBI
700
800
900
1,000 Aggravated assault Robbery Rape Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
600
500
200
100
400
300
1996 2000 2004 0
C ri m
es p
er 1
0 0 ,0
0 0 in
h ab
ita n ts
2008 2012 20151992
VIOLENT CRIME PROPERTY CRIME
5,000
6,000
7,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
C ri m
es p
er 1
0 0 ,0
0 0 in
h ab
ita n ts
1,000
1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 0
Motor vehicle theft
Larceny
Burglary
20151992
Figure 6.2 Crime in the United States, 1992–2015
SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016a.
CRIMINOLOGY the systematic scientific study of crime, criminals, and criminal justice
UNIFORM CRIME REPORT (UCR) an official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI’s official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies
VIOLENT CRIME crimes in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery
PROPERTY CRIME crimes that do not involve violence, including burglary, larceny- theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson
CYBERCRIME crimes committed via the Internet, including identity theft, embezzlement, fraud, sexual predation, and financial scams
The Study of Crime 167
Crime and Demographics When criminologists look at quantitative crime data, which provide information on who is more likely to commit or be a victim of crime, they may learn more about the cause of crime. We should, however, question the assumptions and biases of the data. For example, Robert Merton’s theory of the self- fulfilling prophecy prompts us to ask, if society has a ten- dency to cast certain categories of people as criminal types, will this assumption ensure that they will indeed be labeled and treated like criminals? This has certainly seemed to be true in cases like the high- profile 2014 killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson. And, as David Matza warned, will our preconceived notions about a category of people influ- ence our interpretations of numerical data? In this section, we look at the relationship between crime and demograph- ics such as class, age, gender, and race and examine alternate explanations for what may seem like clear numerical fact.
CLASS Statistics consistently tell us that crime rates are higher in poor urban areas than in wealthier suburbs, but these higher crime rates may not actually be the result of increased criminal behavior. Rather, police tend to concen- trate their efforts in urban areas, which they assume are more prone to crime, and thus make more arrests there. It appears that social class is more directly related to how citi- zens are officially treated by the police, courts, and prisons than to which individuals are likely to commit crime. And even if we do accept these statistics as an accurate represen- tation of crime rates, such theorists as Robert Sampson and
William Julius Wilson (2005) argue that the same factors that cause an area to become economically and socially dis- advantaged also encourage criminal activity. Lack of jobs, lack of after- school child care, and lack of good schools, for example, are all factors that can lead to economic strain and criminal activity.
On the other end of the social class spectrum, white col- lar crime has been defined by sociologist Edwin Sutherland as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” White collar crime can include fraud, embezzlement, or insider trading. Most white collar criminals come from a relatively privileged background (Shover and Wright 2001), and it is no coinci- dence that white collar crime is policed and punished less stren- uously than street crime.
AGE The younger the popula- tion, the more likely its mem- bers are to commit crimes. Criminologists have shown that this relationship between age and crime has remained stable since 1935, with the peak age for arrests being nineteen. In the United States, fifteen- to nineteen- year- olds make up 6.5 percent of the population yet account for 13 percent of criminal arrests. In addition, there is a specific set of laws, courts, and correctional facilities for juveniles. Some acts are only crimes when they are committed by people under eighteen— curfew violations, for example. Juvenile courts usually involve bench trials (no jury), and some sentences (such as moving the offender into a foster home) are only applied in juvenile cases.
The Who, What, Where, and When of Crime The HBO series The Wire was set in Baltimore and focused on topics such as drug dealing, government corruption, and failed school systems. How would a criminologist explain this scene?
WHITE COLLAR CRIME crime committed by a high- status individual in the course of his occupation
CHAPTER 6 Deviance168
On the other end of the spectrum, people sixty- five and older make up about 15 percent of the population and account for only 1 percent of arrests (U.S. Census Bureau 2017d; Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016a). We call this trend aging out of crime. Here, too, however, we must be careful about what we read into official statistics. Since our stereo- typical image of a criminal is youthful, it may be that the pub- lic and police are more likely to accuse and arrest young people and less likely to target seniors. In addition, youth may com- mit more visible crimes (like robbery or assault), while older people may commit crimes that are more difficult to detect, like embezzlement or fraud.
GENDER Males are more likely than females to commit crime. In fact, males accounted for 89 percent of arrests for murder and 73 percent of all arrests in 2015 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016a). Earlier researchers hypothesized that the gender difference in crime rates was based on physi- cal, emotional, and psychological differences between men and women. The logic was that women were too weak, pas- sive, or unintelligent to commit crime. This argument has been replaced by a focus on the social and economic roles of women. Starting in the 1970s, criminologists found that lower crime rates among women could be explained by their lower status in the power hierarchy. Conflict theorists such as James Messerschmidt (1993) argued that once women start gaining power in the labor market through education and income, crime rates among women will rise to more closely match those among men. This hypothesis has been largely supported by recent trends. Between 2006 and 2015, the
number of males arrested decreased by more than a quarter (26 percent), while the number of females arrested decreased by only 12 percent (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016a). So while at first glance it may seem logical to argue that women’s crime rates are lower because of genetics, on closer examination, we see that social structure plays an impor- tant role.
RACE The relationship between race and crime is a con- troversial one. According to the UCR, African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 27 percent of all arrests (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016a). Once again, sociologists caution against making a link between biology and criminal activity. Instead, they maintain that the relationship can be explained by Merton’s self- fulfilling prophecy and by class variables. For example, we could hypothesize that African Americans are exposed to higher rates of crime because more of them live in lower- class neighborhoods— and that here, it is class that matters more than race.
Race shapes life experiences even after criminal offenders have paid their debt to society: Legal scholar Michelle Alex- ander makes the argument that once African Americans (and in particular, African American men) come into contact with the criminal justice system, they are permanently stigma- tized and stripped of their civil rights. As she explains in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblind- ess, “They are legally denied the ability to obtain employment, housing, and public benefits— much as African Americans were once forced into a segregated, second- class citizenship in the Jim Crow era” (2011, p. 4).
HATE CRIMES When criminals deliberately target vic- tims because of their demographic characteristics (race, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or dis- ability status) it’s classified as a hate crime. Hate crime charges are usually added to other criminal charges, such as assault, arson, or vandalism, when it is suspected that the original crime was motivated by bias. Such crimes are investigated and prosecuted at both the local and federal lev- els. National hate crime statistics are collected by the FBI, although not all local jurisdictions participate in the counts. Given this information, we should recognize the likelihood that official statistics underreport hate crimes. In 2015, the FBI reported 5,850 hate crimes, of which close to 60 percent were racially motivated; close to 20 percent targeted victims because of sexual orientation (Federal Bureau of Investiga- tion 2016c).
CRIME AND INTERSECTIONALITY Finally, it is impor – tant to recognize that none of these variables— class, age, gen- der, race— affect crime rates in isolation; they work together to shape the experiences of individuals as well as the larger
Gender Gap in Crime Orange Is the New Black follows the lives of female inmates at the fictional Litchfield Penitentiary. Women currently make up about 7 percent of the prison population.
The Study of Crime 169
Why is there so much deviance on television? Are these shows merely entertainment, or is something more going on here? When we watch them, do we feel morally superior or get some kind of vicarious thrill? Does exposure to so much deviance help reinforce our social norms or serve to erode them?
For this Data Workshop you will be using existing sources and doing a content analysis of an episode from a particular TV show. Return to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. Choose a contemporary TV show that is available for multiple viewings, either by recording it or accessing it online or on DVD. As you watch the episode, take some notes about the con- tent and try to document all the ways in which deviant behavior is portrayed on the show. Then consider the following questions:
✱ Who is the intended audience for this program? Why did you choose it?
✱ What kind of deviance is featured? Give specific examples of situations, scenes, dialogue, or charac- ters, and explain why they are examples of deviance.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Norm Breaking on Television It’s clear that deviance is a fascinating sub- ject not only for sociologists but for millions of television viewers as well. That’s why
we’ve seen a proliferation of shows in recent years that feature people breaking almost every kind of social norm imaginable, from folkways to taboos. We might expect to see deviance covered in a talk show or news- magazine program, but it’s a staple of many other gen- res. We see it in reality TV shows like Teen Mom, which focuses on how high schoolers deal with pregnancy and parenthood, and Mafia Wives, which portrays women whose husbands may be criminals with mob connec- tions. But it’s not just reality TV shows that feature deviance. Dramas such as Riverdale, House of Cards, American Horror Story, or Billions, comedies such as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or Mom, hybrids such as Transparent or Orange Is the New Black, and even ani- mated shows such as The Simpsons or Family Guy all deal with various elements of the pathological or dys- functional. And there are many more such shows that we could add to the list.
society. Nikki Jones’s (2012) ethnographic study of inner- city African American girls in Philadelphia shows how all of these variables contribute to young women’s experiences with violence in their everyday lives. For example, the girls in Jones’s study find themselves caught in a bind as they attempt to navigate community standards of both respecta- bility and practica lity. In order to be perceived as “respect- able,” they must adhere to expectations, be “good girls,” and avoid violence, while a lso meeting feminine and race- based appearance norms (such as slender bodies and light com- plexions). On the other hand, the practica l rea lities of life in what are often risky neighborhoods mean these girls must be ready at any time to look and act tough and be willing to fight to defend themselves and others in direct violation of the “good girl” expectations. Thus, their race, class, gender, and age put them in a situation where they must navigate the competing demands of respectability and toughness, ba lancing their good girl image while a lways being pre- pared for the rea lities of crime and violence.
On-Air Deviance TV shows such as 13 Reasons Why and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt turn norm breaking into must- see TV.
CHAPTER 6 Deviance170
two factors— in this case, the cost of punishment versus the benefit of the crime.
Other justif ications for punishment include retribution— the notion that society has the right to “get even”—and incapacitation, the notion that crimi- na ls should be conf ined or even executed to protect soci- ety from further injur y. Some arg ue, though, that society should focus not on punishment but on rehabilitation: The prison system should tr y to reform the crimina l so that once released, he will not return to a life of crime. Each approach to punishment invokes different ideas about who the crimina l is and what his relationship is to the larger society: Is he someone who can plan a head and curb his ille- ga l behavior so as not to face a possible negative outcome? Is she someone who can work toward persona l transforma- tion? Is he someone who must be punished quid pro quo? Or should she just be removed from society permanently?
In the United States, the local, state, and federal govern- ment bureaucracies responsible for making laws together with the police, courts, and prison systems make up the criminal justice system— a system that, like any other social institution, reflects the society in which it operates. This means that while the American criminal justice sys- tem provides important benefits, such as social control and even employment for its workers, it also replicates some of the inequalities of power in our society. The research of Vic- tor Rios, whom we introduced in the Part I opener, focuses on this issue. Rios, a professor of sociolog y at the Univer- sity of California, Santa Barbara, went from gang member to PhD partly because a teacher intervened and put him in touch with a mentoring program at a local university. Oth- erwise, Rios believes, he would have become another victim of the “youth control complex,” his term for the way a vari- ety of institutions, including law enforcement, the judicial system, and public schools, work together to “criminalize, stigmatize, and punish” working- class youth. Rios believes that the educational system has embraced a self- defeating strateg y by adopting the attitudes and tactics of law enforcement, even as law enforcement and the judicial sys- tem have turned to more draconian measures. Increasingly, our society attempts to control gang violence and drug use with brute force, but this sort of indiscriminate policing often creates the very crime it is designed to eliminate as “enhanced policing, surveillance, and punitive treatment of youth of color” help to create a “ school- to- prison pipeline” (Rios 2009, p. 151).
In another example of the dysfunctions of the crimina l justice system, in 2003 seventeen inmates on Illinois’s death row were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they had been sentenced to die. Some cases involved errors made by over worked or underqua lif ied defense attorneys. Further, more than two- thirds of the inmates were A fri- can A merican, many of them convicted by a ll- white juries (Ryan 2003). As a result, then- governor George Ryan
The Criminal Justice System The question of deterrence is part of an ongoing debate about our criminal laws. Theorists who maintain that offenders carefully calculate the cost and benefits of each crime argue that punishment has a deterrent effect— that if the punishment seems too severe, people won’t commit the crime. That’s the logic behind California’s contro- versial “three strikes” law: The punishment for three felonies is an automatic life sentence. While deterrence theory seems practical enough, it is impor- tant to note that in matters of sociolog y, seldom is there such a direct and causal link between
DETERRENCE an approach to punishment that relies on the threat of harsh penalties to discourage people from committing crimes
RETRIBUTION an approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge for the crime as the appropriate goal
INCAPACITATION an approach to punishment that seeks to protect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them
REHABILITATION an approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM a collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police, courts, and prisons, that creates and enforces laws
✱ What kinds of deviance are missing from media portraya ls?
✱ Is the deviance celebrated or condemned?
✱ How does it make you feel to watch the program?
✱ What effect do you think the show has on other viewers?
✱ Do you think the program supports or cha llenges prevailing socia l norms?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P – PA I R – S H A R E Watch your chosen episode and bring some written notes to class that you can refer to in small- group discussions. Compare and contrast the analyses of the different programs in your group. What are the similarities and differences among programs?
DO- IT- YOURSELF View your chosen TV program, taking some informal notes about the episode. Write a three- to four- page essay answering the questions and reflecting on your own experience conducting this con- tent analysis. What do you think these shows tell us about contemporary American society and our attitudes toward deviance? Attach your notes to the paper, and include a citation for the episode you viewed.
The Study of Crime 171
Because of the way we think about punishment in the United States, American prisons are usually imposing, windowless buildings, walled off with high fences, barbed wire, and armed guards. They are infamously overcrowded and often violent, and prisoners are in need of medical, men- tal health, and rehabilitative care of which they receive little. American prisons are placed either in the middle of nowhere (rural and less inhabited areas) or in the middle of impover- ished and depopulated urban areas (so as to remain largely invisible to those who live in more privileged circumstances). Visiting a prison is something we only consider doing if we have an incarcerated relative to see or we want to rack up some volunteer hours. We certainly wouldn’t consider tour- ing prisons as vacation spots, nor would we want to stay long at any vacation spot that was itself too near a prison. We react to prisons and prisoners with fear and revulsion and insti- tutionalize those emotions in the way we situate, construct, operate, and populate our penitentiaries.
This is not always the case in other parts of the world. In Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, and Norway) and neighbor- ing Nordic countries like Finland and Iceland in particular, many of the penal complexes are what criminologists call “open” prisons. Organized more like boarding schools than detention centers, open prisons operate on a model very dif- ferent than that used in the United States. Instead of focus- ing on retribution and incapacitation, Scandinavia’s open prisons provide prisoners with an opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and re- enter society as reformed, contributing members.
For example, Helsinki’s Suomenlinna Island prison is not walled off from the surrounding town, which is located in a scenic archipelago that caters to tourists, arts patrons, and picnickers. Prisoners live in dormitory- like accommodations and hold jobs in the town’s maintenance and tourism depart- ments, doing upkeep on the facilities for wages that run from $6 to $10 per hour. They wear their own clothes, cook their own meals, and have televisions and sound systems in their rooms. They can visit with their families in Helsinki, and they have supportive rather than adversarial relationships with the guards.
Places like Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway are, of course, smaller than the United States and somewhat more demographically homogeneous. However, Scandina- vian prison populations are proportionally much smaller than U.S. prison populations (U.S. rates are ten times those of Scandinavian countries) and much more representative of
IN THE FUTURE American vs. Scandinavian Prisons
the larger society in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. And after serving their debt to society, Scandinavian ex- cons are far less likely to re- offend: They have a recidivism rate that is less than half that of U.S. prisoners.
How do they do it? Pundits will, of course, argue about which Scandinavian
strategy is the key to such successful prisoner rehabilitation. But throughout the Nordic countries, criminal justice pol- icy is governed by research rather than politics. Legislators do not make decisions about how to house, treat, or control prison populations; instead, social scientists do. Criminologi- cal research on what does and doesn’t work forms the basis for decision making, and professionals in the criminal justice field are the ones who make those decisions. This is in stark contrast to the United States, in which “tough on crime” poli- tics, fear- mongering media, and private corporate interests have created an overcrowded, violent, expensive, and ineffec- tive prison system. If we were to approach criminal offenders with compassion rather than fear, would the results be differ- ent? Is this something we are willing to try?
Open Prisons Norway’s Halden Prison uses education, job training, and therapy to help rehabilitate inmates. The Norwegian Correctional Service makes all inmates a “reintegration guarantee,” helping them find homes and jobs once they are released.
CHAPTER 6 Deviance172
that has overlapped directly with the increase in prison priva- tization over the last twenty years.
Reconsidering Deviance? Because definitions of deviance are historically, culturally, and situationally specific, they are often in flux and can be contested in a variety of ways. If you think about it, most of our interpersonal arguments, legislative battles, and move- ments for social change are about the question of what is deviant. Remember the case of marijuana use and cultivation from the opening pages of this chapter? It’s a perfect example of how the question of how to define deviance is one that we will constantly wrestle with as a society.
Even in Durkheim’s hypothetical “society of saints” (1895), deviance is unavoidable. But are there instances in which a rule violation is actually a principled act that should gener- ate a positive rather than negative reaction? Sociologists use the term positive deviance to describe situations in which norms are broken in the name of the good. Next we provide two examples of positive deviance: In both cases, individuals broke laws and were initially seen as criminals. In hindsight, they are now considered heroes.
became convinced that capital punishment was unfairly and even wrongly applied in some cases, and he suspended the death pena lty a ltogether (it was off icia lly abolished in Illinois in 2011). W hen inequities and errors such as these exist in the
crimina l justice system, we must question the true mean- ing of the word “justice” in our society.
THE PRISON- INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX One trend in cor- rections in the United States is the switch from government- run prison systems to privately run penitentiaries. Once prisons are privately contracted, they become for- profit busi- nesses that push for increased state subsidies while adopting cost- saving measures such as requiring unpaid labor from inmates and reducing spending on education, health care, and food for inmates. When prisons become businesses, they become more focused on their bottom line and pleasing shareholders than rehabilitating their prisoners. Critics of private prisons question the benefit of this trend, especially given the rapid increase in incarceration rates (Figure 6.3)
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT the death penalty
POSITIVE DEVIANCE actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic
N u
m b
e r
o f
p ri
so n
e rs
p e
r 10
0, 00
0 U
.S . r
e si
d e
n ts
Year
1925 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Figure 6.3 Incarceration Rate,* 1925–2015
*Incarceration rate is the number of prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction sentenced to more than one year per 100,000 U.S residents.
SOURCES: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics 1982, Prisoners Series 1983–2015.
173Closing Comments
The massacre would have continued unchecked had it not been for three other American soldiers— Hugh Thompson, Lawrence Colburn, and Glenn Andreotta— who flew their heli- copter into the middle of the carnage at My Lai, against the orders of their superiors, and called for backup help to airlift dozens of survivors to safety. They then turned their guns on their fellow Americans, threatening to shoot if they tried to harm any more villagers. For years, the army tried to cover up the three men’s heroism in order to keep the whole ugly truth of My Lai a secret. But finally, in 1998, the men were recognized for their bravery and heroism with medals and citations— for having had the courage and skill to perform a perilous rescue and the moral conviction necessary to defy authority.
Can you think of a time when someone in your community exhibited positive deviance?
CLOSING COMMENTS The sociological study of crime and deviance raises compli- cated issues of morality and ethics. When we study sensitive topics like rape and alcoholism or vulnerable populations like juvenile delinquents and the mentally ill, we have a respon- sibility as scholars to recognize the effects our attention may have on the people we study. As David Matza noted, we must try to eschew moral judgments in our work, no matter how difficult that may be. And as our professional code of ethics demonstrates, we must protect the people we study from any negative outcomes. Groups lodged under the rubric of devi- ance can be disempowered by this label, and policy decisions made on the basis of social science research may further injure an already marginalized group. On the other hand, a sociologi- cal perspective on deviance and crime provides for the pos- sibility that groups previously labeled and marginalized may someday receive assistance and legitimacy from the larger society as well. The sociological perspective is a powerful tool.
The first example is the simple act of civil disobedience performed by Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, in Montgom- ery, Alabama, an act often considered pivotal in launching the civil rights movement. In those days, a Montgomery city ordinance required buses to be segregated: Whites sat in front and blacks in the back. Rosa Parks defied the law by refusing to give up her front seat to a white man and move to the back. Her arrest galvanized the black community and triggered a bus boycott and subsequent protests that eventually ended segre- gation in the South.
It is worth recognizing that Parks was not an accidental symbol; she was an experienced activist. In her one small, cou- rageous act of defiance, she served as a catalyst that eventually helped to advance the fight against racial discrimination all across America. More than forty years after the day she took her seat on the bus, Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. When she died in 2005, it was front- page news. Her funeral was attended by luminaries of all types and races: mayors, members of Congress, presidents, CEOs, clergy, celebrities, and as many others as could fit into the packed church and spill outside its doors.
The second example is the story of three soldiers who put a stop to a massacre during the Vietnam War. On March 16, 1968, the men of Charlie Company, a U.S. battalion under the com- mand of Lieutenant William Calley, stormed into the village of My Lai in South Vietnam on a “search and destroy” mission and opened fire on its civilian inhabitants. The boys and men of the village had gone to tend the fields, leaving only unarmed women, children, and the elderly. Hundreds were killed on that terrible day, in direct violation of military law. Although the soldiers should have ceased fire when they saw that the enemy (members of the Viet Cong) was not present, they obeyed the commands of their leaders and continued ravaging the vil- lage. Calley was later convicted in a court martial; his men, claiming that they were only “following orders,” were not held responsible.
174
Everything You Need to Know about Deviance
THEORIES OF DEVIANCE
✱ Functionalism: Deviance reminds us of our shared notions of wrong and right and promotes social cohesion.
✱ Structural strain: Social inequality creates tension between society’s goals and the means an individual has to achieve those goals.
✱ Conflict: Both society’s rules and the punishments for breaking those rules are applied unequally.
✱ Differential association: We learn to be deviant through interactions with people who break rules.
✱ Labeling: Deviance is determined by the social context.
REVIEW 1. There are many ways to be mildly
deviant without breaking any laws. How do we sanction minor deviant acts?
2. Have you ever known someone to reject the “deviant” label and turn his or her negative identity into a positive one? What was the deviant identity? What term describes this sort of deviance? Do you know any- one who has embraced a stigmatized role through deviance avowal? How might these strategies be useful to individuals?
3. The United States has the dubious distinction of leading every other nation in both the largest total num- ber and largest percentage of incar- cerated citizens. Why do you think America has more prisoners than any other country?
“ Deviance is a behavior, trait, or belief that departs from the norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group.
“
175
EXPLORE
Policing, Solidarity, and Conflict Many news stories have noted that violent crime rates have risen in certain cities. Some are blaming the so-called Ferguson effect. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to learn more about how the different theoretical perspectives can help us better understand the relationship between communities and their police departments.
http://wwnPag.es/trw606
SOURCES: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics 2017, “Prisoners in 2015”; U.S. Census Bureau 2017, “National Population by Characteristics Tables: 2010–2016”
Who Goes to Prison in the United States? Prison Population ( by Race and Hispanic Origin), 2015
Total U.S. Population ( by Race and Hispanic Origin), 2015
35.4% Black
21.6% Hispanic
33.8% White
Prison Population ( by Gender), 2015
Total U.S. Population ( by Gender), 2015
13.3% Black
17.1% Hispanic
62.6% White
50.8% Female
49.2% Male
7.3% Female
92.7% Male
Understanding Inequality
PART III
PART III178
Duneier studied men and women who live on the streets of New York’s Greenwich Village, selling used goods— mostly books and magazines— to passersby. Duneier befriended the vendors and became part of their curbside culture for five years, during which he conducted his ethnographic research. By examining the intersecting lives of people who frequent the Village, Duneier shows what social inequality looks and feels like and what it means to those who live with it every day. On Sixth Avenue, the class differences between the vendors and their customers are obvious. The vendors live from day to day in a cash- based, informal economy; they are poor and often “unhoused”; most are African American males; some are edu- cated, others are not; and all have stories of how they became part of the sidewalk culture. The passersby, on the other hand, are of all ages, races, and occupations, and they are likely to be both employed and housed. They are often well educated; some are wealthy. Interactions between these vendors and customers cut across boundaries of class, race, and sometimes gender— all interrelated forms of social inequality.
A key insight in Duneier’s work is that the street vendors are not necessarily what they seem at first glance. It would be easy to characterize these people as lacking any social aspi- rations, given that so many are homeless and don’t fit into con- ventional social roles. Though they might offend some by their appearance, few are drug addicts, alcoholics, or criminals— and they are pursuing the same kinds of goals as those of many of the passersby. In this liberal neighborhood, sales of written material are allowed on the streets without permits or fees, thus providing these marginalized citizens with an oppor- tunity for entrepreneurial activity and a chance to earn an
All societies have systems for group-ing, ranking, and categorizing people, and within any social structure, some people occupy superior positions and others hold inferior positions. While such distinctions may appear to be natural, emanating from real dif- ferences among people, they are actually social constructions. Society has created and given meaning to such concepts as class, race, and gender, and consequently, those concepts have taken on great social significance. The social analyst’s job is to understand how these cat- egories are established in the first place, how
they are maintained or changed, and the ways they affect society and the lives of individuals.
For instance, sociologist Mitchell Duneier’s book Sidewalk (Duneier and Carter 1999) tells the story of a marginalized group of New York City street vendors whose lives and social identities are much more complex than the casual pass- erby might imagine. The story considers the con- vergence of class (Chapter 7), race (Chapter 8), and gender (Chapter 9) in the social structure of the city and its inhabitants’ everyday interac- tions. In many ways, Sidewalk brings together the themes of these next three chapters.
honest living. Most vendors say they are trying “to live ‘better’ lives within the framework of their own and society’s weak- nesses.” Most work hard to construct a sense of decency and reputability in their dealings with customers. Although some of them violate social norms, in most ways the vendors adhere to a code of conduct that minimizes any negative impact they might have on the surrounding community.
Many vendors develop friendly, ongoing relations with regu- lar buyers despite their different positions in social status hier- archies. Sometimes, however, the chasm between the vendors and their customers is difficult to bridge. For example, the male vendors in Duneier’s study regularly engaged in flirtatious banter with female passersby. Their efforts at engaging the women in interactions brought a fleeting sense of entitlement and power to men who otherwise have few resources. Typi- cally, the vendors were ignored or rebuffed by the women. When asked why this was the case, one of the vendors said, “She wants room and board, clothing, makeup, hairdos, fabu- lous dinners, and rent” (Duneier and Carter 1999, p. 196). In other words, because he is poor, he cannot provide these upper- middle- class amenities. The women, however, may perceive this behavior as sexual harassment and, accordingly, may use standard streetwise avoidance techniques. Here, social class becomes the great divide in everyday gender relations.
Some people oppose the street vendors’ presence in the neighborhood, and the vendors are frequently the target of anti- peddling campaigns by the mayor’s office, police, and local businesses. Yet Duneier believes that expelling these street vendors in an effort to “improve” the neighborhood would actually be counterproductive. Without the unconventional
PART III 179
form of employment that street vending provides to these otherwise destitute people, there would likely be more crime, panhandling, and deviance. Moreover, as law- abiding citizens with a strong desire to conform to social norms, the vendors often serve as mentors to other homeless people, easing them back into mainstream society. Duneier contends that street vendors are an asset to the area and that they contribute to the vibrancy and health of the Village.
While the study is focused on New York’s Sixth Avenue ven- dors, it provides insights into the structure of difference and social inequality in the United States, showing that interac- tionist perspectives can also be relevant to the study of class, race, and gender, which are more often examined through macrosociological theories. What we come to learn is that the world of sidewalk vending is highly complex and organized, with its own rules and social order.
180
T he photographs on page 183 show median- income families from six nations— the United
States, Iceland, Mali, Bhutan, Thailand, and Kuwait. In other words, these people are
statistically average for their countries and represent the middle of the socioeconomic
range of their national population. They are each pictured outside the family home with all their
worldly goods displayed around them. And while tallying people’s stuff isn’t the most scientific
way to measure status, the visuals allow us to see what inequalities look like on the ground
Social Class: The Structure of Inequality
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality182
level, in real people’s real homes (or, rather, outside of them!). These pictures, from
Peter Menzel’s book Material World: A Global Family Portrait (1995), clearly illustrate
some of the most striking inequalities of wealth and power that exist among soci-
eties worldwide. How do these drastically different realities arise?
Compare, for example, the U.S. and Thai families, the Skeens and the Kuenkaews.
What are the differences between these families as evidenced by their posses-
sions? The two Skeen children have their own bedrooms; the two Kuenkaew chil-
dren sleep on one bed covered in mosquito netting. The Kuenkaews own two water
buffaloes, several chickens, and a family dog; their home is surrounded by banana,
coconut, mango, and other fruit trees. In contrast, the Skeens have a pet dog and
several stuffed deer heads hanging on the wall, trophies of Mr. Skeen’s favorite
pastime, hunting. The Skeens have three radios, three stereos, five telephones,
two televisions, a VCR, a computer, and three vehicles; the Kuenkaews own one
radio, one black- and- white television, a recently purchased handheld video game
that the children and parents enjoy playing, and their most valued possession, a
motor scooter.
Similar comparisons may be made between the Natoma family in Mali, the
Namgay family in Bhutan, the Thoroddsen family in Iceland, and the Abdulla family
in Kuwait. The younger Mrs. Natoma carries water from the village well in a bucket
balanced on her head; the Abdullas have a private indoor swimming pool. The
Thoroddsens enjoy weekend trips to the hot springs in their town; the Namgays
own little and live near a Buddhist monastery where monks chant daily for peace.
Remembering that each of these families is “average” compared to their com-
patriots, these photographs reveal stark contrasts between the world’s wealthiest
citizens in places like the United States and Kuwait and its poorest people in coun-
tries like Mali and Bhutan. These families represent vastly different lifestyles and
life chances resulting from very different economic and social conditions. Imagine
yourself in their place. What are the real meanings of terms like “rich” and “poor,”
and how do sociologists define and apply them? These family photos provide a
place to start.
183
Family Portraits Clockwise from the top left: the Skeens (Pearland, Texas), the Thoroddsens (Hafnarfjordur, Iceland), the Abdullas (Kuwait City, Kuwait), the Natomas (Kouakourou, Mali), the Kuenkaews (Ban Muang Wa, Thailand), and the Namgays (Shingkhey, Bhutan).
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality184
Because social inequality affects a person’s life experience so profoundly, it is worthwhile to examine how stratification works.
There are four basic principles of social stratification. First, it is a characteristic of a society, rather than a reflection of individual differences. For instance, if we say that in Japan men rank higher in the social hierarchy than women, this doesn’t mean that a particular woman, such as actress/singer Ryoko Hirosue, couldn’t attain a higher status than a par- ticular man; it means only that in Japan as a whole, men rank higher. Second, social stratification persists over generations. In Great Britain, a child inherits not only physical character- istics such as race but also other indicators of class standing, such as regional accent. It is because of this principle of strati- fication that wealthy families remain wealthy from one gen- eration to the next.
Third, while all societies stratify their members, dif- ferent societies use different criteria for ranking them. For instance, the criterion in industrialized nations is material wealth (social class), but in hunter- gatherer societies, such as the Khoisan Bushmen of southern Africa, it is gender. Fourth, social stratification is maintained through beliefs that are widely shared by members of society. In the United States, it is still common to think that people are poor not only because of the existing class structure but also because they have some- how failed to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
Systems of Stratification In order to better understand social stratification, it is use- ful to examine various historical periods and to make global comparisons across cultures. So here we look at three major systems of stratification: slavery, caste, and social class.
Slavery Slavery, the most extreme system of social stratification, relegates people to the status of property, mainly for the pur- pose of providing labor for the slave owner. Slaves can thus be bought and sold like any other commodity. They aren’t paid for their labor and in fact are forced to work under mental or physical threat. Occupying the lowest rank in the social hier- archy, slaves have none of the rights common to free members of the same societies in which they live.
Slavery has been practiced since the earliest times (the Bible features stories of the Israelites as slaves) and has con- tinued for millennia in South America, Europe, and the United States. Sometimes the race, nationality, or religion of the slave owners was the same as that of the slaves, as was the case in ancient Greece and Rome. Historically, a person could become enslaved in one of several ways. One way was through debt: A person who couldn’t repay what he owed might be taken into slavery by his creditor. Another way was through warfare: Groups of vanquished soldiers might become slaves to the
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER In this chapter, we will examine the phenomenon of stratifi- cation that occurs in all human societies, our own included. Despite rhetorical claims about equality of opportunity for all, America is a profoundly hierarchical society, with the benefits and rewards of living here unequally distributed among its people. A sociological perspective on stratification will increase your understanding in several important ways. First, it will help you recognize inequities in places you may have overlooked, such as your own town, neighborhood, or school, and in the media. Second, it will help you consider how social divisions and hierarchies of privilege and disadvantage appear across many of our institutions; access to health care, the justice system, employment, and housing are all gov- erned by structures of inequality. Third, it should enable you to identify your own place in these social arrangements and to see how some of your own life chances have been shaped by your position (or your family’s position) in certain hierar- chies. Finally, a knowledge of stratification may help you play a role in changing systems of inequality. Look for ways that you can alleviate some of the problems that social inequality causes— if you can have an impact, even a small one, then this chapter will not have been in vain!
Social Stratification and Social Inequality Social stratification in one form or another is present in all societies. This means that members of a given society are categorized and divided into groups, which are then placed in a social hierarchy. Members may be grouped according to their gender, race, class, age, or other characteristics, depending on whatever criteria are important to that soci- ety. Some groups will be ranked higher in the social strata (levels), while others will fall into the lower ranks. The higher- level groups enjoy more access to the rewards and resources within that society, leaving lower- level groups with less.
This unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige results in what is called social inequality. We find several dif- ferent systems of stratification operating in the United States, where it is not hard to demon- strate that being wealthy, white, or male typically confers a higher status (and all that goes along with it) on a person than does being poor, nonwhite, or female.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy
SOCIAL INEQUALITY the unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society
SLAVERY the most extreme form of social stratification, based on the legal ownership of people
Systems of Stratification 185
India is the country most closely associated with the caste system, based there in the Hindu (majority) religion. The caste system ranks individuals into one of five categories: Brahman (scholars and priests), ksatriya or chhetri (rulers and warriors), vaisya (merchants and traders), sudra (farm- ers, artisans, and laborers), and the untouchables (social out- casts). The caste system is a reflection of what Hindus call karma, the complex moral law of cause and effect that governs the universe (Cohen 2001). Accord- ing to this belief, membership in a particular caste is seen as a well- deserved reward or punishment for virtuous or sinful behavior in a past life. Caste is thus con- sidered a spiritual rather than material status, but it still results in real- world inequalities. Caste- related segregation and discrim- ination were prohibited in 1949 by India’s constitution, but they are still prevalent. Resistance to social change remains, and thus far the social ramifications of the caste system have not been completely dismantled.
THE CASE OF SOUTH AFRICA An interesting example of the caste system was apartheid, a legal separation of racial and ethnic groups that was enforced between 1948 and 1991
victors, and the women and children of the losing side could also be taken into slavery. A person who was caught commit- ting a crime could become a slave as a kind of punishment and as a means of compensating the victim. And some slaves were captured and kidnapped, as in the case of the transatlantic slave trade from Africa to the Americas.
Slavery as an economic system was profitable for the slave owner. In most systems of slavery, people were slaves for life, doing work in agriculture, construction, mining, or domes- tic service, and sometimes in the military, industry, or com- merce. Their children would also become slaves, thus making the owner a greater profit. In some systems, however, slavery was temporary, and some slaves could buy their own freedom.
Slavery is now prohibited by every nation in the world, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Not only is it illegal, but it is considered immoral as well. Nevertheless, the shocking fact is that slavery continues to exist today in such places as India, South Asia, West Africa, and many other places around the world in the form of child soldiers, serfdom, forced and bonded laborers, human trafficking, and sex slaves.
America and the Western world are not exempt from these same shocking practices either, where people are held as agri- cultural, domestic, and sex slaves. The National Human Traf- ficking Hotline reported over 5,000 cases of slavery in the United States in 2016 alone; more than 80 percent of those cases involved sexual slavery, and more than 30 percent occurred in just three states (California, Texas, and Florida). Americans also play an indirect role in supporting slavery else- where in the world by means of our material appetites and the type of labor utilized in certain countries to satisfy our varied consumer demands (Bales and Soodalter 2009). Using a some- what broader definition of slavery that includes all of the above plus other conditions such as forced marriage, debt bondage, and the sale or exploitation of children, researchers at the Walk Free Foundation (2017) believe there are more than 40 million people trapped in some form of modern slavery. That is more enslaved people in terms of total numbers (not proportion) than at any other time in human history (Bales 2000).
Caste Caste represents another type of social stratification found in various parts of the world. The traditional caste system is based on heredity, whereby whole groups of people are born into a certain strata. Castes may be differentiated along reli- gious, economic, or political lines, as well as by skin color or other physical characteristics. The caste system creates a highly stratified society where there is little or no chance of a person changing her position within the hierarchy, no mat- ter what she may achieve individually. Members must marry within their own group, and their caste ranking is passed on to their children. In general, members of higher- ranking castes tend to be more prosperous, whereas members of lower- ranking castes tend to have fewer material resources, live in abject poverty, and suffer discrimination.
Modern- Day Slavery Women and children work in a brickyard in Pakistan. Bonded labor is one form of modern slavery.
CASTE SYSTEM a form of social stratification in which status is determined by one’s family history and background and cannot be changed
APARTHEID the system of segregation of racial and ethnic groups that was legal in South Africa between 1948 and 1991
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality186
they usually led slightly more privileged lives than blacks. Despite claims of “separate but equal,” the standard of living among whites far exceeded that of any other group.
In South Africa under the apartheid system, whites held all the political, economic, and social power, despite being a numerical minority. It was not long before civil unrest and resistance to the system began developing within South Africa and among the international community. Blacks and even some whites began to organize wage strikes and demonstrations, and sanctions were imposed by Western nations. The plights of high- profile anti- apartheid lead- ers such as Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela became known worldwide. Pressure on the white government continued to grow, until the country was in an almost constant state of emergency. In 1991, apartheid as a legal institution was finally abolished. Its legacy, however, has been much more difficult to dismantle.
It has been over twenty years since democratic elec- tions in which all South African citizens could participate were first held in 1994. And still change is happening very slowly. Although nonwhites now share the same rights and
in South Africa. The term itself literally means “apartness” in Afrikaans and Dutch. The consequence of apartheid was to create great disparity among those in the different strata of society.
South Africans were legally classified into four main racial groups: white (English and Dutch heritage), Indian (from India), “colored” (mixed race), and black. Blacks formed a large majority, at 60 percent of the population. These groups were geographically and socially separated from one another. Blacks were forcibly removed from almost 80 percent of the country, which was reserved for the three minority groups, and were relocated to independent “homelands” similar to the Indian reservations in the United States. They could not enter other parts of the country without a pass— usually in order to work as “guest laborers” in white areas. Ironically, African Americans visiting South Africa were given “honorary white” status and could move freely within the country. Social services for whites and nonwhites were separate as well: Schools, hospitals, buses, parks, beaches, libraries, theaters, public restrooms, and even graveyards were segregated. Indi- ans and “coloreds” were also discriminated against, though
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Systems of Stratification around the World
Although stratification systems in other countries may appear different from those in the United States, they all result in patterns of inequality. Brazil, for example, has a system of stratification based on skin color rather than ( but closely related to) race. In Iran the most impor- tant distinction is religious: Muslim versus non- Muslim. Finally, Sweden tries to minimize economic inequality ( but doesn’t entirely succeed) with government support programs for all.
Brazil Race is a powerful influence on social stratification in Brazil, where the situation is even more complex than in the United States. By any standards, Brazil is a remarkably diverse nation. The early settlers to the area were mainly European, and with their arrival the number of native inhabitants declined sharply as a result of violence and disease. Through the mid- 1800s, slaves from Africa were imported, and in the twentieth century, a new wave of immigrants arrived from Asia and the Middle East.
For much of Brazilian history, the European whites enjoyed a privileged status. However, as people from different races
Polite Racism While intermarriage has eliminated distinct racial groups, Brazil remains stratified by race.
married and raised children, new racial categories emerged. Sociologist Gilberto Freyre claimed in 1970 that this new mixture of races and cultures was a unique strength that led to something like a “racial democracy.” Although the idea was appealing, it was subsequently challenged by other social sci- entists, who argued that Brazil was still highly stratified by race, if only in a less obvious way (Telles 2004). Intermarriage
Systems of Stratification 187
some ways, new patterns of class stratification are replacing rather than erasing old patterns of racial stratification.
THE NEW JIM CROW Law professor and civil rights attor – ney Michelle Alexander (2011) argues that there is a simi- lar caste system in the United States, but that it operates through the criminal justice system. While it is no longer legal or socially acceptable to discriminate against people based on race, we still allow discrimination based on crimi- nal convictions; in other words, felons are denied many of their citizenship rights, including voting in many states, even after they have been released from prison. And since black men are disproportionately represented in the prison population, they are also disproportionately affected by felon disenfranchisement and the lifelong stigmatization associ- ated with the identity of the ex- con. “An extraordinary per- centage of black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today, just as they have been throughout most of American history,” argues Alexander. “They are also subject to legalized discrimination in employment, housing, educa- tion, public benefits, and jury service, just as their parents,
privileges as whites, social inequality and discrimination have decreased little (Nattras and Seekings 2001; Seekings and Nattras 2005). South Africa remains a country with one of the most unequal distributions of income in the world. The wealthiest 10 percent of the population earn nearly 60 percent of the nation’s total income; this upper economic strata is almost exclusively composed of whites, a group that makes up just under 9 percent of South Africa’s population (Chiles 2012). Though black incomes and employment rates have improved, a large income gap remains, with the rich, and especially the already rich whites, getting richer (Boyle 2009). On average, whites are still paid six times more than blacks (Laing 2012).
There are other measures of wealth inequality that per- sist as well. Whites still own around 70 percent of the land in South Africa, despite promises to redistribute 30 percent of that land to blacks (Atauhene 2011). The restoration of land seized during apartheid is only slowly being accomplished and at a price to those making claims. Similar inequalities between whites and other races in South Africa are present in education, health care, and the criminal justice system. In
may have eliminated clearly defined racial groups, but skin color still largely defines an individual’s place in society, with light- skinned Brazilians enjoying privileges of wealth and power denied to their dark- skinned counterparts. Contempo- rary critics have referred to this inequality as racismo cordial, or “polite racism.”
Iran The basis for social stratification in Iran has undergone radical changes since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which transformed the country from a constitutional monarchy to a theocracy. Before the revolution, political and economic power was concentrated in the upper class, made up of land- owners, industrialists, and business executives; the middle class consisted of entrepreneurs, small- business owners, merchants, and members of the civil service. Economic mobility was an option largely for those with secular values and a Western education— that is, those who had gone to col- lege in the United States or Europe and who believed in the separation of church and state. After the revolution, how- ever, religion became a primary influence on stratification. Many members of the civil service who were not Muslim or
who held Western university degrees were forced into exile; those who remained were required to attend special classes on Islamic law in order to keep their positions. Strict obser- vance of Islamic law and custom has become a prerequisite for maintaining one’s social position, and many of the new political elites are religious leaders.
Sweden Sweden has deliberately attempted to craft a system that lessens social inequality, a policy made somewhat easier, per- haps, by the country’s relative homogeneity of race, ethnicity, and religion. Sweden provides its citizens with a far greater number of social services than the United States does: The government guarantees its citizens a high level of access to health care, education, child and elderly care, unemployment benefits, and public facilities like libraries and parks. In order to furnish such programs, taxes are high, with a top taxation rate of 60 percent for the wealthiest Swedes. Although the Swedish system certainly has its problems (high taxation rates among them), there are demonstrated benefits, includ- ing increased life expectancy and literacy, and decreased infant mortality, homelessness, poverty, and crime.
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality188
and bankers) that they were among the middle class in the first place; their race obscured their class in the eyes of whites and made it difficult for whites to see them as “belonging” in certain neighborhoods or business establishments at all. This is an example of how, in the reality of everyday life, race and class are experienced as inseparable; their effects on our experiences are intertwined, even as we attempt to unravel them in different chapters in sociology textbooks. Keep this concept of intersectionality in mind as you read on about class and then again in subsequent chapters when we address other forms of social inequality.
Sociologists are not always in agreement about what deter- mines class standing or where the boundaries are between different social classes. We will consider some of these dis- agreements after first taking a look at the United States and its class system.
Social Classes in the United States It is difficult to draw exact lines between the social classes in the United States; in fact, it may be useful to imagine them as occurring along a continuum rather than being strictly divided. The most commonly identified categories are upper class, middle class, and lower class. If we want to make even finer distinctions, the middle class can be divided into the upper- middle, middle, and working (or lower- middle) class (Gilbert 2014; Wright et al. 1982). You probably have some idea of which class you belong to, even if you don’t know the exact definition of each category. Interestingly, most Americans claim that they belong somewhere in the middle class even when their life experiences and backgrounds would suggest otherwise. While keeping in mind that the borders between the classes can be blurry, let’s examine a typical model of the different social classes (Figure 7.1).
The Upper Class The upper class makes up just 1 percent of the U.S. popula- tion, and its total net worth is greater than that of the entire other 99 percent (Beeghley 2008). The upper class consists of elites who have gained membership in various ways. Some, like the Rockefellers and Carnegies, come into “old money” through family fortunes; others, like Mark Zuckerberg or Lady Gaga, generate “new money” through individual achievements. Many in the upper class maintain that status not through income from a job but by investing enormous sums of money and taking advantage of whopping tax deductions offered to those with investment- based fortunes. Members of this class make around $2 million per year (and sometimes far more than that) and are often highly educated and influential. They tend to attend private schools and prestigious universities and display a distinctive lifestyle; some seek positions of power in
grandparents, and great- grandparents were.” Instead of slavery or the segregation laws of the Jim Crow era, Alex- ander writes, discriminatory criminal laws and an unfair justice system enforce racial inequality in the United States today.
Social Class Social class, a system of stratification practiced primarily in capitalist societies, ranks groups of people according to their wealth, property, power, and prestige. It is also referred to by sociologists as socioeconomic status (SES) to keep in mind the social as well as economic basis of this system of strati- fication. The social class system is much less rigid than the caste system. Although children tend to “inherit” the social class of their parents, during the course of a lifetime they can move up or down levels in the strata. Strictly speaking, social class is not based on race, ethnicity, gender, or age, although, as we will see, there is often an overlap between class and other variables.
INTERSECTIONALITY It is important to recognize that while social statistics often address issues of inequality one variable at a time, social actors do not. In other words, we experience our lives not just as “ middle- class” or “ working- class” or “ upper- class” people, but as women and men; blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians; college or high school gradu- ates; Christians, Jews, or Muslims; spouses or singles; and so on. Our lived experience is one of intersectionality, a concept that acknowledges that multiple dimensions of sta- tus and inequality intersect to shape who we are and how we live (Crenshaw 1991). Our life chances are influenced by our class and our race and our gender and our religion and
our age (and multiple other cat- egories) all together, not one at a time.
An example of this can be seen in the ethnographic research of sociologist Karyn R. Lacy (2007), who studied black middle- class suburbanites in the Washing- ton, DC, region. As Lacy’s find- ings show, social status is more complex than just a “ middle- class” salary might indicate: Her respondents’ identities were shaped by their income, occupa- tion (in mostly white- dominated professions), residential status (as suburban homeowners), and race. In fact, many reported being frustrated as they tried to convince others (such as store employees, real- estate agents,
SOCIAL CLASS a system of stratification based on access to such resources as wealth, property, power, and prestige
SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES) a measure of an individual’s place within a social class system; often used interchangeably with “class”
INTERSECTIONALITY a concept that identifies how different categories of inequality (race, class, gender, etc.) intersect to shape the lives of individuals and groups
UPPER CLASS an elite and largely self- sustaining group who possess most of the country’s wealth; they constitute about 1 percent of the U.S. population
Social Classes in the United States 189
Typical Occupations
Investors, heirs, executives, media/sports personalities
Professionals and managers
Semi-professionals, lower-level managers, white collar and highly skilled blue collar jobs
Low and unskilled workers, lower-paid manual and service jobs, seasonal work
Seldom employed or unemployed, part-time labor, many rely on public or private assistance
Semiskilled labor, service, manual, and clerical jobs
Typical Education
Some prestigious university degrees
College and university degrees, some graduate degrees
Two- and four-year college degrees
Some high school
Some high school
High school degrees
Typical Household Incomes
$2 million
$150,000
$70,000
$25,000
$15,000
$40,000
Percentage of Population
CLASS
UPPER CLASS
UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS
MIDDLE CLASS
WORKING (LOWER- MIDDLE) CLASS
WORKING POOR
UNDERCLASS
1%
14%
30%
13%
12%
30%
Figure 7.1 The U.S. Social Class Ladder SOURCE: Gilbert 2014.
UPPER- MIDDLE CLASS social class consisting of mostly highly educated professionals and managers who have considerable financial stability; they constitute about 14 percent of the U.S. population
MIDDLE CLASS social class composed primarily of white collar workers with a broad range of education and incomes; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population
WHITE COLLAR a description characterizing lower- level professional and management workers and some highly skilled laborers in technical jobs
government or philanthropy. The upper class is largely self- sustaining, with most members remaining stable and few new ones able to gain membership in its ranks.
The Upper- Middle Class The upper- middle class comprises about 14 percent of the population. This group tends to be well educated (with college or postgraduate degrees) and highly skilled. Members work primarily in executive, managerial, and professional jobs. They may enjoy modest support from investments but gen- erally depend on income from salaried work, making around $150,000 per year. As a result, the upper- middle class is most likely to feel some financial stability. They usually own their homes and may especially value activities like travel and higher education.
The Middle Class The middle class makes up about 30 percent of the popu- lation, though some social analysts believe that the middle class is shrinking as a result of a variety of phenomena, including economic recession, along with high unemploy- ment, corporate downsizing, and outsourcing of work to
foreign countries. Many people who would have once been considered middle class may have moved down to the lower- middle class, while some others have moved up to the upper- middle class. The middle class comprises pri- marily white collar workers, skilled laborers in technical and lower- management jobs, small entrepreneurs, and oth- ers earning around $70,000 per year. Most members have a high school education and a two- or four- year college degree. While members of the middle class have traditionally been homeowners (a sign of having achieved the American Dream), this trend changed during the recent recession and the associ- ated banking and mortgage cri- ses. Along with issues like the cost of housing, and given other debts carried by many Ameri- cans, not all middle- class people can afford their own homes anymore.
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality190
work skills valuable in the job market. Typical occupations include unskilled, temporary, and seasonal jobs— including minimum- wage jobs, housekeeping, day labor, and migrant agricultural work. The average income is around $25,000. This group suffers from higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, with some members receiving social wel- fare subsidies.
Another 12 percent of the population, the underclass, could be categorized as truly disadvantaged. These Ameri- cans live in poverty conditions and typica lly earn $15,000 or less per year. As such, they may have chronic difficulty getting enough money to support their basic needs. They may hold a few steady jobs and depend on public benefits or charity to survive. They are often found in inner cities, where they live in substandard housing or are homeless; their numbers are increasing in the suburbs as well. They are part of a group that is considered officia lly impover- ished by federa l government standards. A separate section later in this chapter will be devoted to discussing poverty.
Problematic Categories Because SES is based on a collection of complex variables (including income, wealth, and education, as well as power or prestige), it is difficult to say exactly where, for example, middle class ends and upper class begins. In addition, indi- viduals may embody a variety of characteristics that make precise SES classification difficult. Someone may be highly educated, for example, but make money cleaning houses while working on her novel.
So how would we categorize a person such as the late Sam Walton, founder of Walmart? He was the product of a
The Working ( Lower- Middle) Class The working class, or lower- middle class, makes up about 30 percent of the population. Members typically have a high school education and generally work in manual labor, or blue collar, jobs, as well as in the service industry (retail, restaurant, tourism, etc.)—jobs that are often more routine, where employees have little control in the workplace. Mem- bers of the working class typically earn around $40,000 per year. A small portion, especially those who belong to a union, may earn above- average incomes for this class.
Working- class people typically have a low net worth and live in rental housing or in a modest home they have inherited or long saved for.
The Working Poor and Underclass The working poor constitute approximately 13 percent of the population. Members are generally not well educated; most have not completed high school and experience lower levels of literacy than the other classes. They may also lack other
Status Inconsistencies Sam Walton, the “Okie” billionaire, and Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who was revered around the world but had no personal wealth, are two examples that complicate SES classifications.
WORKING CLASS or LOWER- MIDDLE CLASS social class consisting of mostly blue collar or service industry workers who are less likely to have a college degree; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population
BLUE COLLAR a description characterizing skilled and semi- skilled workers who perform manual labor or work in service or clerical jobs
WORKING POOR poorly educated manual and service workers who may work full- time but remain near or below the poverty line; they constitute about 13 percent of the U.S. population
Theories of Social Class 191
struggling “Okie” family, a farm boy and state college gradu- ate who became a billionaire businessman. Walton did not come from a background of privilege; he neither attended an elite university nor worked in a prestigious occupation. He was called “America’s shopkeeper,” and despite amass- ing a huge fortune, Walton remained close to his rural roots. What sociologists would say is that Walton is an example of status inconsistency, or stark contrasts between the lev- els of the various statuses he occupied. Another example is Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who ministered to the poor, sick, and dying in Calcutta, India. As a member of the clerg y, she held some occupational prestige, but her religious order took vows of poverty, and she had virtually no personal wealth. Yet Mother Teresa was regularly ranked as among the most admired people of the twentieth century. She gar- nered numerous honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize, but she was most concerned with how to parlay whatever power she gained into helping the world’s most needy.
Of course, not all examples are quite this dramatic, but status inconsistencies are especially prevalent in the United States because of our “open” class system. Class mobility (which will be discussed in more detail later) is more eas- ily attainable here than in many other countries, so we are more likely to see people with a mixture of different statuses. While we seem to be able to recognize class distinctions implicitly, there are no systematic ways of delineating each category. Still, sociologists have made an effort to under- stand and define class, and we turn now to the theories that result from those efforts.
Theories of Social Class In this section, we will look at social stratification from the perspectives of each of the major schools of thought within sociology. We start with classical conflict and Weberian theories and structural functionalism, and then consider postmodern and symbolic interactionist theories. Each per- spective offers different ideas about what determines social class, with the macro theorists focusing on larger- scale social structures and the postmodern and micro theorists focusing more on meaning, interpretation, and interactions in every- day life.
Conflict Theory Karl Marx formed his social theories at a time when monu- mental changes were occurring in the stratification systems that characterized nineteenth- century Europe. The feudal system, which consisted of a hierarchy of privileged nobles who were responsible for and served by a lower stratum of serfs (forced laborers), was breaking down. Cities were grow- ing larger as more people moved from rural areas to take part in the new forms of industry that were emerging there.
With these changes, what had traditionally determined a per- son’s social standing (whether one was born a noble or a serf ) was no longer as relevant. Marx was concerned about a new kind of social inequality that he saw emerging— between the capital- ists (bourgeoisie), who owned the means of production, and the workers (proletariat), who owned only their own labor.
Marx argued that economic relationships were quickly becom- ing the only social relationships that mattered: The impersonal forces of the market were creat- ing a new, rigid system of social stratification in which capital- ists had every economic advan- tage and workers had none. He believed that the classes would remain divided and social inequality would grow; that wealth and privilege would be concentrated among a small group of capitalists and that workers would continue to be exploited. Contemporary conflict theorists continue to understand social class in a similar way. Erik Olin Wright (1997), for example, describes an animated film he made as a student in which the pawns on a chessboard attempt to overthrow the aristocracy (kings, queens, knights, and bishops) but realize that the “rules of the game” doom them to relive the same unequal roles— a metaphor for the way social structure shapes and sustains inequality.
Weberian Theory Max Weber noted that owning the means of production was not the only way of achieving upper- class status; a person could also accumulate wealth consisting of income and property. As a contemporary example, Microsoft and Facebook are both publicly traded companies on the stock market, which means that they are owned by thousands of individual share- holders who benefit when the company turns a profit. But the people who started those companies have amassed far greater fortunes. In 2017, Microsoft co- founder Bill Gates (worth $86 billion) was ranked the #1 richest person in the world, while Facebook co- founder Mark Zuckerberg (worth $56 billion) was ranked #5 (Dolan 2017). Weber suggested that power (the ability to impose one’s will on others) should be considered as part of the equation when measuring a per- son’s class standing. Although they may not own their corpo- rations, executives can exert influence over the marketplace, consumers, and the work lives of their employees. And they can use their wealth to support various causes and campaigns.
UNDERCLASS the poorest group, comprising the homeless and chronically unemployed who may depend on public or private assistance; they constitute about 12 percent of the U.S. population
STATUS INCONSISTENCY a situation in which an individual holds differing and contradictory levels of status in terms of wealth, power, prestige, or other elements of socioeconomic status
FEUDAL SYSTEM a system of social stratification based on a hereditary nobility who were responsible for and served by a lower stratum of forced laborers called serfs
WEALTH a measure of net worth that includes income, property, and other assets
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality192
Weber believed that another important element in social class has to do with prestige, the social honor granted to people because of their membership in certain groups. A per- son’s occupation is a common source of prestige: In a typical ranking, you might find physicians near the top and janitors near the bottom. Take note that athletes rank higher than sociologists in Table 7.1. People’s relative prestige can affect not only their wealth or power but also how they are perceived in social situations. Wealth by itself can also be a source of prestige, though not always. In some social circles, especially those that are more traditional or have a history of aristoc- racy, a distinction is made between “old money” and “new money.” In the United States it is more prestigious to come from a family heritage of wealth than to have recently made a fortune.
For Weber, wealth, power, and prestige are interrelated because they often come together, but it is also possible to convert one to the other. The Kardashian sisters, for example, whose father Robert was a wealthy attorney (most memora- bly in the O.J. Simpson case) and a businessman who inher- ited his parents’ meat- packing fortune, turned that aspect of their status into a certain type of contemporary prestige— celebrity. They did little themselves to gain their prestige
besides being born into wealth and being willing to participate in the reality shows that now bear their names. Still, it is important to distinguish these three ele- ments: property and wealth can be inherited or earned, power
usually comes from occupying certain roles within organiza- tions, and prestige is based on a person’s social identity and is bestowed by others.
Structural Functionalism Functionalism emphasizes social order and solidarity based on commonly shared values about what is good and worth- while. The system of stratification that has emerged over time, though not egalitarian, is still functional for society in a num- ber of ways. Because there is a variety of roles to perform for the maintenance and good of the whole, there must be incen- tives to ensure that individuals will occupy those roles that are most necessary or important. Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore (1945) discuss some of the principles of stratification that result in a system of rewards that are unequally distrib- uted among various roles. The assumption is that some roles are more desirable than others and may require greater tal- ent or training. In addition, certain roles may be more critical than others to the functioning of society, as well as difficult to fill, so there must be a mechanism for attracting and securing the best individuals to those positions. This would mean that there is widespread consensus about which positions are most important— either in terms of their special qualifications or
Table 7.1 The Relative Social Prestige of Selected Occupations in the United States
White Collar Occupations
Prestige Score
Blue Collar Occupations
Physician 86
Lawyer 75
Professor 74
Architect 73
Dentist 72
Member of the Clergy 69
Pharmacist 68
Registered Nurse 66
65 Athlete
Electrical Engineer 64
Veterinarian 62
Airplane Pilot 61
Sociologist 61
60 Police Officer
Actor 58
53 Firefighter
Social Worker 52
51 Electrician
46 Secretary
40 Farmer
36 Child- Care Worker
36 Hairdresser
31 Auto- Body Repairperson
Cashier 29
28 Waiter/Waitress
22 Janitor
SOURCE: National Opinion Research Center 2015.
the potential scarcity of qualified individuals to occupy those positions— and that society accepts the need to bestow re – wards upon people who are considered of greater importance.
Take, for instance, the role of a physician, which has the highest ranking of occupational prestige in American soci- ety (National Opinion Research Center 2015). Doctors play an important role in providing highly prized services to other members of society. Think of the steps it takes to become
PRESTIGE the social honor people are given because of their membership in well- regarded social groups
Theories of Social Class 193
a doctor. A person must have an extensive education and graduate training and must complete a long and intensive internship before being certified to practice medicine. This individual also devotes a great deal of personal resources of time and money to this process. It is further assumed that there are only so many people who might have the talent and determination to become doctors, and so it follows that there must be incentives or rewards for them to enter the field of medicine.
The functionalist perspective helps explain the exist- ing system of social stratification and its persistence, but it still leaves us with questions about the structured inequali- ties that it continues to reproduce. Is it really functional for social rewards (such as wealth, power, and prestige) to be so unequally divided among members of society? And while we might agree that doctors are very important to society, are they more so than teachers and carpenters? Our heroes of pop culture (famous actors, athletes, musicians) can rise to the highest ranks while our everyday heroes ( day- care providers, firefighters, mechanics) may struggle to make a living. Whose values are structuring the system and, after closer scrutiny, is it clear that compensating stockbrokers more than bricklayers is really functional to society as a whole? We will revisit some of these questions in later sec- tions of the chapter.
Postmodernism Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1973, 1984) studied French schools to examine a phenomenon referred to as social reproduction, which means that social class is passed down
from one generation to the next and thus remains relatively stable. According to Bourdieu, this happens as a result of each generation’s acquisition of what he called cultural capital: Children inherit tastes, habits, and expectations from their parents, and this cultural capital either helps or hinders them as they become adults. For example, having highly educated parents who can help with homework and enforce useful study habits makes it more likely a child will succeed in school. Just the parents’ expectation that their children will earn similar cre dentials can be a powerful incentive. Since better- educated parents tend to come from the middle and upper classes, their children will also have better chances to attain that same status.
According to Bourdieu, cultural capital also shapes the perceptions that others form about a person. For instance, in job interviews, the candidates who can best impress a poten- tial employer with their social skills may be chosen over other workers who may be equally qualified but less adept socially. Since cultural capital has such profound effects, people often try to acquire it— to “better” themselves. They may take adult education classes, attend lectures and concerts, join a tennis club, or travel to Europe— all in an attempt to increase their cultural capital. Often, however, the effects of early childhood are too powerful to overcome. It can be difficult for someone who grew up in a less privileged environ- ment to project a different class background; their accent, for example, may give them away (“He talks like a hillbilly,” “She just sounds too ‘street’”). There is evidence to suggest that social mobility in the United States is falling: While 90 percent of children born in the 1940s earned more than their parents, only 50 percent of young people today are likely to do the same (Chetty et al. 2016a).
Symbolic Interactionism If macrosociologists believe that there is little an individual can do to change systems of structured inequality, interac- tionists believe that all social structures— including systems of inequality— are constructed from the building blocks of everyday interaction. For instance, sociologist David Sud- now (1972) argues that we make split- second judgments about who people are and which social status they occupy based on appearance. We take action based on what we observe “at a glance.” Along the same lines, Aaron Cicourel (1972) suggests that we make inferences about the status of others when we encounter them in different social situations. For example, you may assume that the passengers sitting in the first- class cabin of an airplane are wealthier than those in coach. But perhaps one of those first- class passengers is a “starving student” whose seat was upgraded because coach
SOCIAL REPRODUCTION the tendency of social classes to remain relatively stable as class status is passed down from one generation to the next
CULTURAL CAPITAL the tastes, habits, expectations, skills, knowledge, and other cultural assets that help us gain advantages in society
Social Reproduction The Kardashian sisters are famous for being famous. How did their inherited wealth influence their career paths?
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality194
points for each black- and- white family photograph in a ster- ling silver frame; subtract three points for any work of art depicting cowboys. When we total the final score, higher numbers indicate higher SES, and vice versa.
While Fussell’s living room scale may seem like a joke, we really do make snap judgments about the status of oth- ers based on just this sort of information. (Here it should be noted that in Dr. Stein’s living room, the fireplace and TV wall unit are side by side, while Dr. Ferris’s living room features a silver- framed black- and- white photograph of her father as a child— dressed like a cowboy, on horseback! As we’ve said before, real life sometimes defies easy categorization.) The Data Workshop that follows will help you see how swiftly and automatically you employ class categories in your interactions with others.
While we have considered the theories of macrosociolo- gists and symbolic interactionists separately here, there are actually some intersections between interaction and struc- ture. Our identities as “working class” or “privileged” indi- viduals may be structured by preexisting categories, yet those identities are also performed every day in our interactions with others. The structural perspective and the interactionist perspective are not mutually exclusive when it comes to a dis- cussion of class: They are complementary. Status inequality is structured, categorical, and external; it is also interaction- ally created and sustained. Structure shapes interaction, and interaction generates structure.
Contemporary sociologists have conducted studies that make this connection clear. For example, Christine Mallinson and Becky Childs (2007), who studied the linguistic patterns of groups of black Appalachian women, found that the loca- tions of group interactions tended to reinforce class divisions in the larger society: The group of women who met formally at a local church engaged in talk that reflected topics and vocab- ularies associated with higher SES, while the women who met informally on a friend’s porch engaged in talk that reflected topics and vocabularies associated with lower SES. The lin- guistic patterns in these “communities of practice” reinforce class divisions within and between the groups.
All the information we gather at a glance is used to make evaluations of others’ wealth, income, occupation, education, and other categories that indicate status and prestige. In some ways, it doesn’t matter whether we’re right— especially in anonymous public places like airports. You should be aware, however, that you do use these cues to evaluate the status of others in split seconds and that you act on those evaluations every day. Maybe you chose to stand on the bus or on the sub- way rather than sit next to someone who didn’t look quite “right”—whatever that means to you. Often, we end up fall- ing back on stereotypes that may lead us to false conclusions about a person’s status or character. When it comes to every- day class consciousness, appearances are sometimes deceiv- ing, but they are always consequential.
was overbooked— by thrifty millionaires. “Wealthy,” “poor,” and “middle class” are statuses that, rather than existing in and of themselves, are continuously being negotiated in interaction.
Erving Goffman (1956) noted that we “read” different aspects of identity by interpreting the behavior of others and that we become accustomed to others “reading” our behavior in the same way. This means that our clothing, our speech, our gestures, the cars we drive, the homes we live in, the people we hang out with, and the things we do on vacation are all part of our presentation of self and provide information that oth-
ers use to make judgments about our SES. In turn, we look for these same clues in the behavior of oth- ers. This type of everyday class consciousness, or awareness of our own and others’ social sta-
tus, is important for us to understand but difficult to identify empirically.
As a humorous answer to this dilemma, University of Pennsylvania English professor Paul Fussell (1983) created the “living room scale,” which lists items that we may find in someone’s living room and attaches point values to them. For example, if you have a copy of the New York Review of Books on your coffee table, add five points. A copy of Popular Mechan- ics? Subtract five. A working fireplace? Add four. A wall unit with built- in television and stereo? Subtract four. Add three
EVERYDAY CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS awareness of one’s own social status and that of others
Everyday Class Consciousness Clothes, cars, homes, and vacation plans are all indicators of socioeconomic status. What impression does this living room give of who might live here?
Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances 195
status— height, weight, race, age, gender, hairstyle, tat- toos, piercings, watch or other jewelry, or makeup? Per- haps their style of dress, the colors, fabrics, or logos on a T- shirt, hat, purse, sunglasses, or shoes caught your attention. Did you notice anything else, such as the per- son’s posture, voice, or mannerisms? If you observed someone on the street, did you see the car he or she was driving? What was its make, year, and condition? Did you notice other status clues in any accessories the per- son had— a laptop or smartphone, a baby stroller or shop- ping bags? How did the setting itself (mall, post office, airport) influence your assumptions about their social class standing?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Conduct your participant obser- vation research according to the instructions. Prepare some ethnographic field notes that you can refer to in class. Get together with one or more of your fellow stu- dents and share your experiences. Note similarities and differences in the criteria used by each group member to determine the social class of the people they observed.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Conduct your research in a public place and write a three- to four- page essay describing your observations of four to five people from the field site. Answer the questions in the preceding section, and make specific reference to your field notes as the data to sup- port your analysis (remember to attach the field notes to your paper). What are the consequences of everyday class consciousness? How does it affect your perceptions, atti- tudes, and behavior?
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Everyday Class Consciousness When we are out in public places, we can quickly gather bits of information about other people in the social environment. These “data” are useful in forming judg-
ments and evaluations about them. Even the smallest presentational details can tell us something about who they are. So, how do you know which social class other people belong to? How do you feel about the fact that others will also be trying to figure out your class status? Do the assessments we make about others (and that they make about us) influence our thoughts, attitudes, and behavior? What are the consequences of everyday class consciousness?
In this Data Workshop you will be conducting par- ticipant observation research to understand more about how we size up other people in terms of their socioeconomic status. Return to the section in Chap- ter 2 for a refresher on ethnography/participant obser- vation research methods. First, choose a location to be the field site for your study; it should be a busy public place with a variety of passersby. You will want to be both a participant and an observer in the setting. So, for example, you could pretend to be waiting for someone at the airport, sitting in the food court at the mall, or standing in line at the post office. Next, you’ll want to make some discreet but in- depth observations about a small number of people in the setting. One way to take a simple sample of the population is to select every sev- enth or tenth person who walks by you. Spend several long moments looking closely at him or her. Ask your- self quickly: What class status do you think this person holds? Don’t think too long at this point; just regis- ter your guess. Continue this process as you observe another three or four people. Now it is time to write some ethnographic field notes, preferably while you’re still in the field, or as soon as possible afterward. You’ll want your notes to include as many details as possible about the people you selected.
Consider the following questions as you analyze your data. What kinds of things did you observe about others that helped inform your evaluation of their class
Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances Belonging to a certain social class brings such profound con- sequences that it’s possible to make general predictions about a person’s life chances in regard to education, work, crime, family, and health just by knowing his or her SES. The follow- ing discussion may help you appreciate the respective privi- leges and hardships associated with different levels of the social hierarchy.
Family Sociologists know that people are likely to marry or have long- term relationships with persons whose social and cultural backgrounds are similar to their own— not because they are
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality196
You say you don’t judge a book by its cover? You say it’s the person who matters, and not the social categories he or she belongs to? We may believe these things, but sociological studies strongly suggest that we don’t act on them. When it comes to dating, courtship, and marriage (“mate selection” activities, as defined by social scientists), we tend to make homogamous choices. Homogamy (“like marries like”) means that we choose romantic partners based on our simi- larities in background and group membership. Despite the old adage that “opposites attract,” decades of sociological research show that we make choices based on similarities in race, eth- nicity, religion, class, education, age— even height and levels of physical attractiveness (Kalmijn 1998). Homogamy based on
socioeconomic status is espe- cially clear: We tend to marry those who share the same economic and educational backgrounds. This holds true even if we practice heterog- amy (marrying someone who is different from us) in other areas, such as race or religion. Why is class- based homog- amy so prevalent?
As it turns out, we have relatively few opportunities to meet people of different
socioeconomic backgrounds during the course of our every- day lives. At home, at school, on the job, at the coffee shop or gym, we are likely to be surrounded by those who are like us, classwise. Homogamy is more strictly enforced in upper- class families than in other social classes. Those who enjoy the privileges of wealth often want to make sure those privileges continue into the next generation and may moni- tor their children’s activities by sending them to prestigious schools and posh summer camps so that they don’t get the opportunity to meet anyone but other privileged kids. This helps ensure that wealth and power remain consolidated within a relatively small community. If you spend all your free time at the country club pool instead of getting a sum- mer job at Starbucks or McDonald’s, your opportunities to meet the hoi polloi are limited.
If we focus only on those in the public eye, it is easy to see how limits on opportunity result in marriages between afflu- ent and powerful families. This happens in political families. For example, Julie Nixon, daughter of a former U.S. presi- dent, married David Eisenhower, grandson of another former president. Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former attorney gen- eral Robert Kennedy, married (and later divorced) Andrew Cuomo, son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo. After the divorce, Andrew ascended to the New York gover- nor’s mansion as well and found love again with Food Net- work star Sandra Lee. And it happens among celebrities, whether movie stars (and now exes) Brad Pitt and Angelina
IN RELATIONSHIPS Socioeconomic Status and Mate Selection
HOMOGAMY the tendency to choose romantic partners who are similar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership
HETEROGAMY the tendency to choose romantic partners who are dissimilar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership
looking for such similarities, but simply because they have more access to people like themselves. When you develop ties to classmates, fellow workers, neighbors, and members of clubs, these people may share your cultural background as well as your social class. It is from such groups that marriage and domestic partners most often come.
Social class also plays a role in the age at which people marry: The average age of first marriage for women with high school diplomas is twenty- five, while for women with graduate degrees it is thirty. People with higher levels of edu- cation are also less likely to get divorced (Lewis and Kreider 2015; Wang 2015). The age at which people start a family and the number of children they have are also related to educa- tional attainment. The average age at which women with a master’s degree or more have their first child is thirty, while the average age for women with a high school diploma is just
twenty- four (Livingston 2015). Less educated women also have a higher average number of births throughout their life- time than more educated women. On average, women with- out a high school diploma have 2.8 children, whereas women with a bachelor’s degree have about 1.9 children (U.S. Census Bureau 2015a).
Health Those at the bottom of the social class ladder are the least likely to obtain adequate nutrition, shelter, clothing, and health care and are thus more prone to illness. Often they cannot afford to see a doctor, fill a prescription, or go to a hos- pital. Instead of preventing an illness from becoming worse, they must wait until a health crisis occurs, and then they have no option but expensive emergency room care. Health- care
Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances 197
Jolie, singers Beyoncé and Jay-Z, or NFL quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen. All practiced a form of status homogamy by partnering with people from the same social circles— other famous and wealthy celebrities. Whether they met on set, at the yacht club, or at an awards show, they met in a status- restricted setting to which not everyone is eligible for entry.
Questions have arisen recently about how Internet tech- nologies may facilitate— or impede— our tendency toward homogamy. Dating apps allow people who occupy vastly different social circles to meet online— and perhaps fall in love. In this way, it would seem that Internet dating has the potential to inhibit our off- line predilection for people who belong to the same social groups as we do. On the other hand, Internet dating can also assist us in choosing people who are like us, in that certain sites cater to particular social groups: J Date (for Jewish singles), The League (for Ivy Leaguers), BlackPeopleMeet (for black singles), and even Trek Dating. com (for Star Trek fans). As these and other such sites specifically select for social group membership, they may actually strengthen homogamous effects in online mate selection processes.
Vast differences in class standing between marital part- ners are usually the stuff of fairy tales and fantasy. The “Cin- derella story,” in which a low- status woman is romantically “rescued” by a high- status man, is familiar to us all— yet we likely have seen it happen only in storybooks and movie
theaters. Classics like Sabrina and Pretty Woman feature low- status women being wooed by wealthy men. The only touch of sociological reality in these tales is the portrayal of women’s hypergamy and men’s hypogamy; that is, when class boundaries are crossed, women usually marry up while men marry down. Take a look at the role of SES in your own mate selection activities: Are you homoga- mous or heterogamous?
Jay- Z and Beyoncé Knowles “Like marries like.”
HYPERGAMY marrying “up” in the social class hierarchy
HYPOGAMY marrying “down” in the social class hierarchy
reforms, such as those provided by the Affordable Care Act, are meant to help change that pattern.
A recent study out of Stanford University found that for men, the richest 1 percent live, on average, nearly fifteen years longer than the poorest 1 percent. For women, the gap in life expectancy was just over ten years (Chetty et al. 2016b). One factor that contributes to these disparities in health is exercise. As education and income increase, so does the likelihood of a person engaging in some physical activity. For instance, only 24 percent of respondents living below the poverty level report engaging in physical activ- ity regularly, compared with 43 percent of those living at the higher income level (CDC 2013a). Education may have something to do with these disparities, as more knowledge about the health benefits of exercise may lead to more active participation. But we can also see exercise as a luxury for
those in higher social classes, who are not struggling with the day- to- day efforts to survive that characterize the lives of the poor.
Education How children perform in school determines whether and where they go to college, what professions they enter, and how much they are paid. And generally, those with more edu- cation make more money. The median annual earnings for those with advanced professional (medical and law) degrees is $100,120, followed by doctoral degrees at $91,644, master’s degrees at $65,881, bachelor’s degrees at $52,782, and high school diplomas at $31,600 (U.S. Census Bureau 2017k). On the surface, these earnings may seem fair. After all, shouldn’t people with more education make more money? However, as
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality198
jobs will be available to those without college degrees, and of those jobs, fewer will support middle- class lifestyles. Yet not all students are equally prepared for or able to afford a col- lege education, which creates a risk that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will slip farther down the social class ladder.
Work and Income In the past couple of decades, we have seen a widening income gap between those at the top, middle, and bottom of the scale (see Figure 7.3). According to a 2015 report, upper- income families are seven times more wealthy than middle- income families, and more than seventy times more wealthy than lower- income ones (Pew Research Center 2015g). Income is the product of work, and members of different social classes, with unequal educational opportunities, tend to work in different types of jobs.
At the bottom of the scale, members of the lower class gen- erally experience difficulties in the job market and may endure periods of unemployment or underemployment (working in a job that doesn’t pay enough to support a person’s needs, is sea- sonal or temporary, or doesn’t make full use of their skills). Among the lower class are people receiving a variety of forms of government aid. In 2016, some 2.7 million people were receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Office of Family Assistance 2017) and 44.2 million were receiving help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (U.S. Department of Agriculture 2017).
Members of the working ( lower- middle) class work for wages in a variety of blue collar jobs. They can generally earn a dependable income through skilled or semiskilled
sociologists, we must probe further and ask some fundamen- tal questions; for example, who has access to education, and how good is that education?
One of the main goals of education is to make sure stu- dents get a chance to succeed both in school and in life. But to meet this goal, schools would have to serve all students equally, and they aren’t always able to do so. Schools with low- income students often receive fewer resources, have greater difficulty in attracting qualified teachers, and expe- rience less support from parents (Fischer and Kmec 2004). A student’s social class background will also influence her attitude toward education. The higher the family’s SES, the higher the student’s expectations for educational achieve- ment. Students from higher social classes are expected to complete more years of school and are more likely to attend— and graduate— college than those from lower social classes (Bozick et al. 2010; Reardon 2012). It’s not surprising to find that 84 percent of high school graduates from high- income families are enrolled in college, compared to 64 percent of high school graduates from middle- income families and just 58 percent of high school graduates from low- income fami- lies (Figure 7.2). Even larger than the gap in college enroll- ment between the rich and poor is the gap in graduation rates: Young adults from families in the top income group are four times more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher within ten years of graduating high school than young adults from families in the bottom income group (60 percent versus 15 percent) (Cahalan et al. 2016).
Although educational attainment is at an all- time high in the United States, a high school education doesn’t mean what it once did. College and advanced degrees are becom- ing more important. If the trends continue, fewer and fewer
100%
50%
25%
0% 1975 1980 1985 1990
P er
ce n ta
g e
en ro
lle d
in c
o lle
g e
1995 2000 2005 20142010
75%
58% 64%
84%
High income Middle income Low income
Figure 7.2 Percentage of High School Grads Enrolled in Two- or Four- Year College, by Income Level SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education 2016b.
Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances 199
Corporations seeking to cut costs have resorted to a variety of strategies. Some have restructured their workforce and made do with leaner payrolls, while others have relocated their operations overseas in countries where labor costs are lower. Both manufacturing and service jobs are subject to downsizing and outsourcing, meaning that blue collar and white collar workers— and even some higher- ranking executives— are now vulnerable. Their jobs, and class status, may be more precarious than ever before.
Criminal Justice In general, people of lower SES are more likely to encounter the criminal justice system, whether as a perpetrator or vic- tim of a crime, than those of higher SES. But the statistics are not as straightforward as they might seem. One influen- tial study (Blau and Blau 1982) showed that while poverty is associated with higher rates of violent crime, variables such as dense population and anomie (a sense of alienation or lack of social connections) have an even greater impact on crime rates.
People in lower classes are often more visible, less pow- erful, and thus more likely to be apprehended and labeled as criminals than those from higher social classes. There are also differences in how crimes are prosecuted. White col- lar criminals are less likely to be arrested, prosecuted, or convicted than ordinary “street” criminals (Schwellenbach 2008). White collar criminals (such as Enron heads Jeffrey Skilling and the late Kenneth Lay, and Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme bilked wealthy clients of billions of dollars) can also afford the best legal representation and hence enjoy dis- tinct advantages in the courtroom. If white collar criminals
occupations, but they may also experience periods of unem- ployment tied to fluctuations in the economy, layoffs, and plant closings.
While factory work and other types of skilled labor were once enough to support a middle- class lifestyle, most middle- class jobs today are found in the service, information, and tech- nology sectors. Most households here require two incomes to maintain a comfortable lifestyle, and many middle- class jobs require some sort of college degree.
Those in the upper- middle class tend to work in executive and professional fields. Some members are business owners; a small portion owns large farms or ranches. Others, known as the “creative class” (Florida 2002)—architects, writers, scientists, artists, professors, and engineers— tend to cluster in “creative” cities, such as Austin, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Through exceptional success in any profession or art, or sometimes through inheritance, one can join the upper class. In the United States, the upper class is influential in politics, business, and culture, largely because of its economic privilege: In our highly stratified society, the top 1 percent consistently captures nearly a quarter of all income. Since the recession, the incomes of the top 1 percent have grown 37 percent, while the incomes of the bottom 99 percent have only grown by 7.6 percent (Saez 2016).
As a result of the recent recession, workers— most often in lower- middle and lower- class occupations— increasingly find themselves engaging in what is termed “precarious labor” (Kalleberg 2009). Precarious labor is work that is uncertain, unpredictable, and unprotected, such as contract labor, temporary work, or part- time work. Economic fluctua- tions often affect these workers first, placing them at greater risk of layoffs because of downsizing and outsourcing.
1979 -50%
0%
50%
100%
150%
200%
250%
300%
1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2010
153.9%
58.9% 45.9% 33.5% 27.6% 14.1%
RecessionTop 1 percent 96–99% 91–95% 81–90% Middle fifth Bottom fifth
C u m
u la
tiv e
p er
ce n t
ch an
g e
si n ce
1 9 7 9
Figure 7.3 Change in Average Real Annual Household Income, by Income Group, 1979–2010 SOURCE: Gould 2014.
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality200
Social Mobility How do people move from one social class to another? In other words, how do they achieve social mobility? Sociolo- gists use the concept of social mobility to measure move- ment within the stratification system of a particular society, whether it’s a small town, a state, or a nation. In some societ- ies, social mobility is highly restricted by formal or informal rules. India’s caste system is an example of what sociolo- gists refer to as a closed system: There is very little oppor- tunity for social mobility among classes. The United States, where social mobility is possible, is perceived to be an open system. But that wasn’t always the case. In the period before the Civil War, slavery was widespread, keeping African Americans from climbing the social class ladder.
The movement of people among social classes can happen in three ways: through intergenerational mobility, intragen- erational mobility, or structural mobility. Intergenerational mobility refers to the movement that occurs from one genera- tion to the next, when a child eventually moves into a different social class from that of her parents. Americans have always placed great faith in the idea of economic mobility. Research shows that Baby Boomers (the generation of children born immediately after World War II) have, for the most part, achieved upward intergenerational mobility: On the whole, they amassed more wealth during the course of their lives and consequently moved up the social class ladder.
Since then, however, mobility seems to have stalled and in the last fifty years it has not gotten any easier to climb the social class ladder, despite progressive social policy changes that were intended to help more people. In fact, since the 1980s, it has gotten much harder (Carr and Weimers 2016). New research has found that young adults today are signifi- cantly less likely than past generations of young adults to earn more than their parents (Chetty et al. 2016a). Perhaps more distressing is the finding that people born near the bottom tend to stay near the bottom. Children raised in wealthy fami- lies can expect to make 200 percent more income than chil- dren raised in poor families and 75 percent more than those raised in middle- class families (Mitnik and Grusky 2015). Conversely, there are many mechanisms in place, such as tax laws and social policies, that allow those at the top of the ladder to protect their assets and pass them down to the next generation, making it more difficult for the middle and lower classes to improve their positions (Chetty et al. 2014).
Intragenerational mobility refers to the movement that occurs during the course of an individual’s lifetime. In other words, it is the measure between the social class a person is born into and the social class status she achieves during her lifetime. Intragenerational mobility can be measured in two directions. Horizontal social mobility, which is fairly common, refers to the changing of jobs within a social class: A therapist who shifts careers so that he can teach college experiences horizontal mobility. Vertical social mobility is
are convicted, their sentences are likely to be lighter. Still, while Enron’s Kenneth Lay avoided prison time by dying of a massive heart attack several months before his Octo- ber 2006 sentencing date, Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced to twenty- four years in prison, and Madoff received 150 years for his crimes.
Studies have claimed that 90 percent of inmates on death row could not afford to hire a lawyer when they were tried (Lane and Tabak 1991) and that the quality of representation, rather than the actual facts presented in a trial, determines whether someone is sentenced to death (ACLU 2003). Studies have also
shown that race and SES influ- ence whether the death penalty is sought. Prosecutors are more likely to seek the death penalty if the killer is black or if the victim was white, while those who are able to hire legal counsel are less likely to be sentenced to death. Therefore, the intersection of race and SES can dramatically affect the outcome of criminal sentenc- ing (Phillips 2009).
Lower- class people are also more likely to be the victims of violent crime. Statistics consistently show that poor people are more than twice as likely to be victims of violent crime than those in higher social class brackets (Harrell et al. 2014; Truman and Morgan 2016). At the same time, people with lower SES are also more likely to feel at risk of harassment by police. As both education and income decreased, respondents reported feeling more threat- ened by police; as education and income increased, they felt less threatened ( Levinson 2002).
Social class affects more than just our financial or material
state— it is intricately woven into the fabric of our lives. You may once have concluded that differences in people’s educa- tion, work, family, or health were simply a matter of individual preference or effort, or that each individual is responsible for her own circumstances. While this may be true to some extent, research shows that social class background has a profound impact on one’s life chances, leading those with different sta- tuses into very different life courses. This means that we can’t take for granted whatever advantages or disadvantages we might experience but should acknowledge how hierarchies of inequality have helped create our particular social realities.
SOCIAL MOBILITY the movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchical system of social classes
CLOSED SYSTEM a social system with very little opportunity to move from one class to another
OPEN SYSTEM a social system with ample opportunities to move from one class to another
INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY movement between social classes that occurs from one generation to the next
INTRAGENERATIONAL MOBILITY the movement between social classes that occurs during the course of an individual’s lifetime
HORIZONTAL SOCIAL MOBILITY the movement of individuals or groups within a particular social class, most often a result of changing occupations
VERTICAL SOCIAL MOBILITY the movement between different class statuses, often called either upward mobility or downward mobility
Poverty 201
example, a retail clerk who works part- time for minimum wage might be considered among the working poor compared with a neurosurgeon whose salary places her comfortably in the upper- middle class. Many communities are character- ized by such dual realities. Absolute deprivation, on the other hand, is a measure whereby people are unable to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, and health care. In the African country of Swaziland, for example, more than 28 percent of adults are living with HIV/AIDS. Many lack access to health care, exacerbating the HIV epidemic and making this country among the lowest in terms of life expectancy, averaging less than fifty- three years (Central Intelligence Agency 2017). Hunger, malnutrition, and the inability to afford medications are some of the basic indica- tors of absolute poverty.
In the United States, the federal poverty line— an abso- lute measure, calculated annually— indicates the total annual income below which a family would be impoverished. These figures are derived from either the poverty thresholds estab- lished by the Census Bureau or the guidelines determined by the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2017, the poverty threshold was $24,600 for a family of four, $20,420 for a family of three, $16,240 for a fam- ily of two, and $12,060 for an indi- vidual (Federal Register 2017). In fact, families making much more than these amounts, although not officially qualifying as below the poverty line, might still be unable to afford some basic necessities.
How many people fall below the poverty line? The numbers are startling, given that we usu- ally think of the United States as a wealthy nation. In 2016, 12.7 percent of the population, or 40.6 million people, were considered to be living in poverty (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). During the past forty years, the percentage of people living in poverty has fluctuated in the low teens, but it has never dipped below 10 percent. In fact, the number has occasionally risen to more than 15 percent, as it did in 2009 and 2011, while in the late 1950s it rose to as high as 22 percent (see Figure 7.4).
Contrary to popular myth, most people living in poverty are not unemployed; this is why they are often categorized as among the working poor. The annual earnings of a full- time worker making $7.25 an hour (the prevailing federal minimum wage since 2009) still put him below the poverty line if he is trying to support a family. In fact, at no time in its nearly eighty- year history has the federal minimum wage
movement up or down the social ladder and thus is often called upward or downward mobility. If this same therapist marries a president of a large corporation, he might experience upward mobility. On the other hand, if he or his wife becomes unem- ployed, he might experience downward mobility. People are far more likely to experience horizontal than vertical social mobility.
Although we usually think of social mobility as the result of individual effort (or lack thereof ), other factors can contribute to a change in one’s social class. Structural mobility occurs when large numbers of people move up or down the social ladder because of structural changes in soci- ety as a whole, particularly when the economy is affected by large- scale events. For instance, during the Great Depres- sion of the early 1930s, precipitated by the stock market crash of 1929, huge numbers of upper- and middle- class people suddenly found themselves among the poor. Con- versely, during the dot- com boom of the late 1990s, devel- oping and investing in new technologies made many people into overnight millionaires. Both of these extreme periods eventually leveled out. Still, many people in the Depression era remained in their new class, never able to climb up the social ladder again.
Poverty Social mobility is most difficult— and most essential— for those who live at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. In this section, we look at what it means to experience poverty in the United States.
Poverty can be defined in relative or absolute terms. Relative deprivation is a comparative measure, whereby people are considered impoverished if their standard of living is lower than that of other members of society— for
STRUCTURAL MOBILITY changes in the social status of large numbers of people as a result of structural changes in society
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION a relative measure of poverty based on the standard of living in a particular society
ABSOLUTE DEPRIVATION an objective measure of poverty, defined by the inability to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, or health care
FEDERAL POVERTY LINE federal index that defines “official” poverty in the United States based on household income; updated annually
Social Mobility President Trump is flanked by his two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. In the United States, it’s much easier to stay at the top than to move up.
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality202
is highest in the South, though there are concentrations of people living in poverty in every region of the country, in inner cities, in rural areas, and also in suburbs (Plumer 2013).
Social Welfare and Welfare Reform Some of the most heated debates about the nature of pov- erty involve how or even whether society should help those who are impoverished. Some argue that government assis- tance lifts people out of poverty and helps them become self- supporting; others say that it fosters a dependence on aid and causes further problems.
The idea behind the current American welfare state, which consists of such programs as Social Security, unem- ployment insurance, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), was first proposed by President Frank- lin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. These pro- grams, collectively called the New Deal, were a response to a national crisis and were meant to serve as a safety net for cit- izens, helping them in times of adversity or old age, poverty, or joblessness. The 1960s ushered in a new war on poverty. A second wave of programs, such as Medicaid and Head Start, intended to solve a variety of social and economic problems, was proposed by President John F. Kennedy and instituted by President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his Great Society program in 1964.
The welfare system attempted to be fair by providing uniform, standard benefits to all the nation’s needy without
been sufficient for a worker to exist above the poverty line with a dependent, such as a child, unemployed spouse, or family member. According to researchers, more than 80 percent of low- income minimum- wage workers, even if they are work- ing full- time, are not earning enough to guarantee a decent standard of living, and many cannot afford some of the basic necessities ( Wicks- Lim and Thompson 2010).
The poverty line has often been criticized because of the way it is uniformly applied without regard to regional or other differences. For instance, a family living in Washing- ton, DC, might need two or three times as much income as a family in Des Moines, Iowa, for expenses like rent, trans- portation, health insurance, and child care (exceptions are made for Alaska and Hawaii, both states with extremely high costs of living). In addition, some families may be eligible for some form of government assistance, such as the Supple- mental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the earned income tax credit (EITC), which makes a difference in the total amount of their household money. Many working fami- lies thus live close to the edge and struggle to make ends meet but are not included as part of the official poverty statistics (Gould, Cooke, and Kimball 2015; Sherman 2012; Waldron, Roberts, and Reamer 2004).
Poverty is also more prominent among certain population groups (Figure 7.5). For instance, poverty rates are higher among blacks (22 percent) and Hispanics (19 percent) than Asians (10 percent) or whites (9 percent) (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). They are higher for the elderly, disabled, and those who are foreign born, as well as for women, children, and single- parent households. By geographic region, poverty
50
45
40
35
30
15
20
25
10
5
0
N u
m b
er s
in m
ill io
n s,
r at
es in
p er
ce n
t
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
Recession
Poverty rate
12.7%
Number in poverty
40.6 million
2000 2005 2010 2015
Figure 7.4 Number in Poverty and Poverty Rate, 1959–2016 SOURCE: Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017.
Poverty 203
Welfare Reform Act, it ended the concept of “entitlements” by requiring recipients to find work within two years of receiv- ing assistance and imposing a limit of five years as the total amount of time in which families could receive assistance. The act also decentralized the federal system of public assis- tance, allowing individual states to design their own pro- grams, some of which would deny or reduce certain benefits and impose their own criteria for eligibility. The rationale was to encourage people on welfare to take responsibility for working themselves out of poverty. In 2003, Congress approved changes to the act, requiring an even larger percent- age of recipients to take jobs and work longer hours.
regard to their personal circumstances and with no time limit. Social Security and Medicaid lifted aging retirees and others with medical issues out of poverty, and programs like Head Start and Upward Bound offered educational support for poor children. Food stamps, now called SNAP, improved nutrition for those with limited incomes, and job- training programs helped the poor gain marketable skills. By 1970, the poverty rate had declined from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent (Califano 1999), the fastest it has ever dropped.
In the 1980s, political opinion turned against social welfare programs despite their successes. Critics claimed that these programs were responsible for creating a permanent under- class of people living off government checks— some receiv- ing benefits they didn’t deserve— and essentially discouraging them from seeking work. Much of the rhetoric surrounding welfare programs stems from concerns about federal spend- ing. People commonly assume that welfare constitutes a large portion of the federal budget, when in fact only 10 percent of the federal budget in 2015 ($362 billion) was spent on safety net programs such as the earned income tax credit, Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled poor, low- income housing assistance, and unemployment insurance (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 2016). Compare that with Social Security (about 24 percent of spending, or $888 billion) or defense and the war on terror (about 16 percent of spending, or $602 billion) (Figure 7.6).
In response to criticism of welfare programs, reforms arrived in the 1990s. Under President Bill Clinton, the Per- sonal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was passed into law in 1996. Often referred to as the
40%
30%
20%
10%
0
22.0
19.4
Race
P er
ce n ta
g e
in p
o ve
rt y
White, non-Hispanic Blacks Asians
Male Female
Under 18 Aged 18−64 Aged 65+
Hispanics
Age Sex
18.0
11.6 9.3
11.3
14.0
8.8 10.1
Figure 7.5 Poverty in the United States by Selected Characteristics, 2016 SOURCE: Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017.
Social Security: 24%
Total spending: $3.7 trillion
Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP:
25%
National defense:
16%
Safety net programs:
10%
Benefits for federal retirees and veterans:
8%
Transportation: 2%
Education: 3%
Other: 4%
Interest on debt: 6%
Science: 2%
Figure 7.6 Federal Spending, 2015 SOURCE: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 2016.
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality204
as 72 percent for Democrats compared to just 36 percent of Republicans (Pew Research Center 2015b). Americans are similarly divided when it comes to perceptions of the impact of government aid to the poor: While nearly half (49 percent) of all people say government aid to the poor “does more good than harm because people are unable to escape poverty until basic needs are met,” nearly the same proportion (44 percent) feel it “does more harm than good by making people dependent on the government” (Pew Research Center 2015e).
Americans remain conflicted in their opinions about people living in poverty. Overall, 53 percent say that cir- cumstances beyond one’s control are more often to blame if a person is impoverished, while about a third (34 percent) say that an individual’s lack of effort is more often to blame (Pew Research Center 2016a). Still, 37 percent of registered voters acknowledge that hard work in itself is no guarantee of success (Pew Research Center 2016c).
The “Culture of Poverty” and Its Critics Some argue that what keeps people impoverished is not pub- lic policy but rather the result of entrenched cultural atti- tudes. Oscar Lewis (1959) first promoted the idea of a culture of poverty after he studied poor Hispanics in Mexico and the United States. Lewis suggested that the poor, because they were excluded from the mainstream, developed a way of life that was qualitatively different from that of middle- class groups that allowed them to cope with the dire circumstance of poverty. This way of life includes attitudes of resignation and fatalism, which lead them to accept their fate rather than trying to improve their lot. It also emphasizes immedi- ate gratification, making it difficult for impoverished people to plan or save for the future or to join trade unions or com- munity groups that might help them improve their situation.
While welfare reform has been an economic “success” in terms of reducing the number of people on welfare, there is still a great deal to be learned about its success or fail- ure in transforming the lives of the poor. Evidence suggests that moving from welfare to work does not increase income levels— in other words, federal assistance is merely replaced with an equally low- paying job, which has the effect of keep- ing families beneath the poverty line once they’re off welfare. The reasons for this— the increased costs of child care, health insurance, and transportation— make it difficult for former welfare recipients to succeed outside the system (Hao and Cherlin 2004; Hays 2003; Slack et al. 2006).
As the twentieth anniversary of Clinton’s welfare reform approached, sociologists Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer began investigating what had happened to families and indi- viduals affected by welfare reform— in other words, those who had “maxxed out” their states’ benefit caps and who were on their own, without the social safety net that social welfare programs had once provided (their research centered on Cleveland, Ohio, and environs). In their book, $2 a Day: Liv- ing on Almost Nothing in America (2016a), Edin and Shaefer report that while welfare rolls have declined over 75 percent since 1996, the number of Americans living in absolute pov- erty has skyrocketed to approximately 1.5 million families (including 3 million children). Especially in the wake of the Great Recession, full- time, well- paid jobs are hard to find, and with neither cash assistance from welfare programs nor sufficient earnings from stable work, poor people are unable to meet even the most basic needs of their families: “[The] biggest problem— by far— has been the lack of access to a cash safety net— money— when failing to find or keep a job. In 21 st- century America, a family needs at least some cash to have any chance at stability. Only money can pay the rent (though a minority of families get subsidies via a housing voucher). Only money buys socks, underwear, and school supplies. Money is what’s needed to keep the utilities on” (Edin and Shaefer 2016b).
With significantly less cash from work, TANF, or other sources, how are the truly disadvantaged getting by? In 2014, plasma “donations” (sales, really, of a vital bodily fluid) hit an all- time high of 32.5 million, tripling since 2004 (Edin and Shaefer 2016b). Food pantry usage almost doubled in the same time period, to a high of close to 7 million families (Barrocio and Shaefer 2016). They live with friends or in their cars or on the streets. In other words, without a robust social safety net, the poorest of our citizens are not getting by.
Support for a government social safety net to help the poor has long been split, often along political lines. In 2015, a majority of 55 percent said that helping people escape poverty is a major role of the government, jumping as high
Falling through the Safety Net Two women donate plasma in Eagle Pass, Texas. Plasma donations have skyrocketed in recent years.
CULTURE OF POVERTY entrenched attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead the poor to accept their fate rather than attempt to improve their lot
Poverty 205
There are many misconceptions about people living in poverty, and one is that they’re in such conditions because they’re unwilling to work. What many fail to real- ize is that working, even full- time at forty or more hours per week, may not be enough to lift people and their families out of poverty. So telling someone to just go get a job (assuming work is available) may be shortsighted. While unemploy- ment and underemployment are both issues in themselves, full- time employment in a minimum- wage job can also be problematic.
Who are minimum- wage workers? While the common per- ception is that they are predominately teenagers or other young people working part- time, the average minimum- wage worker is thirty- six years old, female, and working full- time. Fully 89 percent of minimum- wage workers are at least twenty, and 37 percent are over forty (Cooper and Essrow 2015). They work largely in service industries such as hospitality and retail and are particularly concentrated in the fast- food sector.
First passed into law as part of the New Deal in the years following the Great Depression, the federal minimum wage— the lowest hourly amount an employer is required to pay workers— is considered a fundamental measure to protect workers from exploitation. Since 2009, the federal mini- mum wage has been set at $7.25 per hour (though individual states may mandate higher minimum wages, as many states currently do). At the federal rate, a full- time minimum- wage worker earns approximately $1,256 per month before taxes. Despite increases over the years, the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation. There are other problems as well. When adjusted for real dollars, the hourly minimum wage is worth $4 less today than in the late 1960s, making it increas- ingly difficult to survive on minimum wage. In 2015, 8.6 million workers were among the working poor, people who spent at least twenty-seven weeks in the labor force but who still didn’t make enough to escape poverty, including nearly 12 percent of service workers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017l).
In response, there is a growing movement to establish a “living wage” instead of a minimum wage. Whereas the mini- mum wage is defined as pay sufficient for basic survival, a living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a decent standard of living. Most consider it the minimum income necessary to obtain not only food, clothing, and shel- ter, but also utilities, transportation, health care, education, and savings for retirement. A living wage, then, might vary depending on the community and its cost of living, but it can run from 50 to 150 percent higher than a minimum wage (or from about $11 to about $18 if we use the federal minimum as a starting point). More than 125 U.S. municipalities have
ON THE JOB Get a Job! Minimum Wage or Living Wage?
already passed some form of living wage ordinance since the first one was instated in Baltimore in 1994 (National Employ- ment Law Project 2011; Neumark 2004), including such major cities as Seattle, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Miami. Activists in dozens more cities across the country, both large and small, have launched living wage campaigns, the largest of which is “Fight for $15,” a movement that seeks to turn the minimum wage into a living wage by raising it to at least $15 per hour everywhere. Among some of the most high profile are living wage movements in Los Angeles and New York City, both places with millions of low- wage workers and high costs of living (Kirkham and Hsu 2014).
In the wake of more cities passing local minimum wage ordinances, some of America’s biggest retail firms have also followed suit. Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, raised wages for its lowest- paid workers to $10 per hour in 2016. This was seen as something of a victory, although activ- ists were pushing for a starting rate of $15 per hour, a figure that is closer to a living wage. Other retailers soon did likewise, including McDonald’s, Target, and Gap, Inc. Costco and IKEA went even higher, to $12 per hour (Gustafson 2015). Still, none of these rates meets the demands of the living wage activists.
Debates about raising the federal minimum wage have persisted over many decades. It is a complex issue that brings up many questions about whether higher wages will also lead businesses to increase consumer prices, lay off workers, or relocate to where labor is less expensive. More important, will raising the minimum wage or establishing a living wage help reduce poverty in America and provide millions more working people with a decent standard of living? Your future, or that of someone you know, is likely at stake.
The Fight for $15 Low-wage workers in Los Angeles protest for a $15 per hour nationwide minimum wage.
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality206
and poverty (as ours does) reveals structural reasons why pov- erty persists, such as laws that protect the inheritances of the wealthy but provide few breaks for working families. Research like Conley’s helps us understand that there are alternative explanations for why people are poor and even suggests that extreme wealth ought to be conceptualized as a social problem similar to that of extreme poverty. Especially in the United States, the rise of what Thomas Piketty (2014) calls “super- managers” earning “supersalaries” has meant that the top 1 percent of the population (CEOs, high- level money manag- ers, and other professionals) earn an average of twenty- five to thirty times what the other 99 percent earn (Luhby and Yellin 2016). This idea resonated with the Occupy Movement and other activists who question the health of an economic system in which just 1 percent of the population has amassed so much of the nation’s money and power.
The Invisibility of Poverty Although we are used to seeing televised images of abject pov- erty from overseas— crying children with bloated bellies and spindly limbs in Asia, Africa, or Latin America— we rarely see similar images from the United States. While it may be true that few Americans are as impoverished as people living in Zimbabwe, Haiti, or Honduras, some 41 million Americans lived below the poverty line in 2016 (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). That’s more than 12 percent of the population of the wealthiest nation in the world. How can such large num- bers of people remain all but hidden to their fellow Ameri- cans? What makes poverty invisible? Consider some of these factors.
RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION One factor is residential segregation— the geographical isolation of the impoverished from the rest of the city (or in the case of rural areas, from any neighbors at all). Such segregation often occurs along racial as well as socioeconomic lines, further exacerbating class divisions (Massey and Denton 1993). In the phrase “wrong side of the tracks,” used to describe poverty- stricken neigh- borhoods, there is usually a racial connotation as well, since railroad tracks traditionally served as boundaries that kept black neighborhoods separated from white ones in the nine- teenth century (Ananat 2005).
Residential segregation is accomplished most notably through public housing projects, which are typically high- density, low- income apartment complexes in urban areas, funded and managed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Living in these apartment com- plexes, many of which are in high- crime neighborhoods and are poorly maintained, can be dangerous as well as unpleas- ant. But when housing authorities attempt to reintegrate low- income tenants into other parts of town, neighbors often complain, vociferously, that they do not want “those” people in their neighborhood.
Once such a culture is formed, Lewis argued, it takes on a life of its own and is passed on from parents to children, leaving them ill- equipped to change.
The culture of poverty theory was later adopted by other social scientists (Banfield 1970) and applied to Americans living in poverty, particularly those in inner cities. Not sur- prisingly, though, the theory has been met with consider- able controversy, in part because it suggests that there is little point in trying to eradicate poverty because it’s more a problem of culture (attitudes, lifestyle, and behavior) than of economics. By focusing on individual character and personal- ity, the theory tends to blame the victims of poverty for their own misfortunes while overlooking the force of their social conditions.
The tendency to see victims of social injustice as deserv- ing of their fates is explained by what social psychologists call the just- world hypothesis. According to this argument, we have a strong need to believe that the world is orderly, predict- able, and fair in order to achieve our goals in life. When we encounter situations that contradict this belief, we either act quickly to restore justice and order or persuade ourselves that no injustice has occurred. This can result in assuming that victims have “asked for it” or deserve whatever has befallen them. This attitude is continually reinforced through the morality tales that are a ubiquitous part of our news and entertainment, which tell us that good is rewarded and evil punished.
The just- world hypothesis, developed by Melvin Lerner (1965, 1980), was tested through a series of experiments that documented how people can convince themselves that others deserve what they get. In these experiments, cash prizes were randomly distributed to students completing the exact same tasks in the exact same way. Observers, however, judged the cash recipients as the more deserving, harder workers. Other researchers (Rubin and Peplau 1975) have found that people with strong beliefs in a just world tend to “feel less of a need to engage in activities to change society or to alleviate the plight of social victims.” In the face of poverty, many simply become apathetic. It is important to be aware of our own tendencies to follow such thinking, so that we might avoid becoming blind to others’ misfortunes.
Another problem with the culture of poverty theory is that it lacks a certain sociological imagination. It fails to take into account the structural factors that shape culture and are part of the preexisting problem in which impoverished individuals find themselves. Dalton Conley (2002) argues that to solve the problem of poverty, we must examine wealth as well. A social system that allows extremes of both wealth
JUST- WORLD HYPOTHESIS argues that people have a deep need to see the world as orderly, predictable, and fair, which creates a tendency to view victims of social injustice as deserving of their fates
RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION the geographical separation of the poor from the rest of an area’s population
Poverty 207
system has not served them; if the government ignores their interests, why bother to become involved? Because of their lack of involvement, the impover- ished lack political clout and the resources to make their plight a high- profile political pri- ority. Politicians at the local and national levels have little motivation to address their needs, because as a constituency the impoverished wield less power than such groups as senior citizens, “soccer moms,” and small- business own- ers. When the impoverished do organize politically, even their successes may not be well known. One group, Mothers of East Los Angeles (whose motto includes the phrase “not economically rich, but culturally wealthy”), has been suc- cessfully protecting its neighborhood from environmental degradation and exploitation for decades. The group has rebuffed plans to build a prison, toxic waste plants, and an oil pipeline near homes and schools in its community. But have you ever heard of it?
High- profile occasions, such as political conventions and major sporting events, put a media spotlight on city streets. In the run- up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, city officials and representatives of the International Olympic Committeee promised that construction and infrastructure projects would benefit not just wealthy international tour- ists coming to the Games but also the impoverished favela
Residential segregation is also exacerbated by the prac- tice of “redlining,” in which banks and mortgage lenders identify high- risk areas (usually low- income or minority neighborhoods) and either refuse mortgages to applicants from those neighborhoods or offer loans at prohibitively high rates. Redlining keeps low- income people from acquir- ing assets (such as real estate) that might allow them to rise out of poverty and move to a more affluent neighborhood. Though redlining is technically illegal, there is evidence that it is still practiced today in banking, insurance, and other industries, disproportionately affecting the poor and minorities (Wilson 2009). In one instance, a major mort- gage company, MidAmerica Bank, settled a redlining case in Chicago by agreeing to open more branches in low- income and minority neighborhoods and to include consumers from those communities in the bank’s advertising campaigns, which had previously targeted only buyers at higher income levels.
POLITICAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT People living in poverty may also remain invisible to the larger society be – cause of their lack of political power. Disenfranchisement is a correlate of poverty: The impoverished are less likely to vote or otherwise participate in political life (Kerbo and Gonzalez 2003). When everyday life is a struggle, it is difficult to muster the extra energ y necessary to work for political change. The impoverished may also feel that the
DISENFRANCHISEMENT the removal of the rights of citizenship through economic, political, or legal means
Perspective Approach to Social Inequality Case Study: Poverty
Structural Functionalism
Social inequality is a necessary part of society. Different reward structures are necessary as an incentive for the best qualified people to occupy the most important positions. Even poverty has functions that help maintain social order.
Poverty is functional for society: The poor take otherwise undesirable jobs and housing, purchase discount and secondhand goods, and provide work for thousands, including social service caseworkers and others who work with the poor.
Conflict Theory
Social inequality creates intergroup conflict— poor and rich groups have different interests and may find themselves at odds as they attempt to secure and protect these interests.
Social welfare programs that assist the poor are funded by tax dollars, which some wealthy citizens may be reluctant to provide because taxes reduce their net income. This can create conflict between rich and poor groups in society.
Symbolic Interactionism
Social inequality is part of our presentation of self. We develop everyday class consciousness as a way to distinguish the status of others.
Poor and wealthy persons have differential access to the “props” used to project particular versions of self. In particular, professional clothing such as business suits can be too expensive for poor individuals to purchase, which can put them at a disadvantage in job interviews for which a professional image is necessary. Organizations like Dress for Success provide professional clothing for those who can’t afford it, leveling the playing field a bit in terms of impression management.
Table 7.2 Theory in Everyday Life
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality208
matters in the areas of education and the job market. Internet access and proficiency are quickly becoming a requirement for both finding and keeping a job, meaning that those without such access or proficiency are at a disadvantage (Smith 2015).
HOMELESSNESS In certain situations, the people who are most impoverished are deliberately removed from pub- lic view. Police are sometimes ordered to scour the streets, rousting the homeless and herding them out of sight, as they did in 1988 in New York City’s Tompkins Square Park (an infamous riot ensued).
Mostly, though, the homeless remain invisible. We don’t know exactly how many homeless live in the United States. The Census Bureau focuses its population counts on house- holds, so the homeless living in long- term shelters may get counted, but not those on the streets. One recent estimate is that at least 2.5 to 3.5 million people (approximately 1 per- cent of the U.S. population) will experience homelessness at least once during a given year, with an additional 7.4 million people living doubled up with others out of economic neces- sity (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty 2015). The recent recession left many people unemployed and their finances drained, creating a surge in homelessness that included many who were formerly among the middle classes. “We have this emergence of a very visible and very large home- less population in the shadow of tremendous affluence,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco (Gee et al. 2017).
Each year, the city of New York attempts to measure the number of homeless men and women. Volunteers comb the streets in the overnight hours, making note of all those they find sleeping on park benches or in building stairwells. They do not, however, enter abandoned buildings or subway tunnels, where many of New York’s homeless seek shelter.
(or slum- dwellers) who make up almost 25 percent of Rio’s population. In reality, though, the “improvements” either took place in already affluent areas or demolished favela housing
without plans for replacement or relocation. So favela resi- dents became activists themselves, marching in the streets to demand inclusion in government decision making. Favela advocacy groups helped craft “Agenda 2017,” a plan for improved services and human rights protections for poor residents and neighborhoods (Waldron 2016). Activism like this can turn previously invisible communities into forces to be reckoned with politically.
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE In a postindustrial economy, most people will have to demonstrate a certain level of computer proficiency in order to secure a job. One way or another, the majority of jobs in contemporary society involve computers, so it’s likely you’ll have to know how to use certain programs to do your work, whatever it may be. Because you are attend- ing college, you’ll probably be lucky enough to acquire some of these skills in the course of your education. But not everyone has the same opportunities, and many Americans lack the basic computer literacy, experience, and access necessary to compete in a job market that increasingly demands such skills. This inequality in access to and use of digital technol- ogy is known as the digital divide.
The hierarchies of inequality in the larger society— such as socioeconomic status, race, age, and educational attainment— all shape one’s access to technology (Glaser 2007). For example, while 88 percent of all adults in the United States use the Internet regularly, there are differences in access among various demographic groups. In 2016 there were lower Internet usage rates among households with incomes under $30,000 (79 percent), those with a high school education or less (68 percent), and seniors (64 percent) (Pew Research Center 2017a). Similarly, while nearly all adults (97 percent) with an income over $100,000 own a desktop or laptop com- puter, only 56 percent of those with an income of less than $30,000 do (Anderson 2017).
With the rise in popularity and availability of smartphones, more underrepresented groups are gaining Internet access. Still, some researchers expect the digital divide between the “haves” and the “ have- nots” to continue and even expand into the next decades (Pew Research Center 2017a). These dis- parities mirror the contours of other sorts of social inequal- ity, especially because technology requires resources— funds to purchase devices and the means to get online. Those higher up the social class ladder have more of these resources than the working poor or underclass. The digital divide is really about the benefits of having technological competence and access, especially as it relates to the additional opportunities and advantages it brings. Most important, the digital divide
DIGITAL DIVIDE the unequal access to computer and Internet technology, both globally and within the United States
Counting the Homeless Volunteers speak with a homeless man on a subway for the all- night Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE). The goal is to obtain an estimate of individuals living on the street in New York City in order to help the government provide better services for the homeless population.
Inequality and the Ideology of the American Dream 209
job that you enjoy; being able to afford nice vacations; hav- ing a big- screen TV, nice clothes, or season tickets to your team’s home games. For most Americans, the dream also means that all people, no matter how humble their begin- nings, can succeed in whatever they set out to do if they work hard enough. In other words, a poor boy or girl could grow up to become president of the United States, an astronaut, a professional basketball player, a captain of industry, or a movie star.
One problem with the American Dream, however, is that it doesn’t always match reality. It’s more of an ideology: a belief system that explains and justifies some sort of social arrangement, in this case America’s social class hierarchy. The ideology of the American Dream legitimizes stratifica- tion by reinforcing the idea that everyone has the same chance to get ahead and that success or failure depends on the per- son (Hochschild 1996). Inequality is presented as a system of incentives and rewards for achievement. If we can credit anyone who does succeed, then logically we must also blame anyone who fails. The well- socialized American buys into this belief system, without recognizing its structural flaws. We are caught in what Marx would call “false consciousness,” the inability to see the ways in which we may be oppressed.
Nevertheless, it’s not easy to dismiss the idea of the American Dream, especially when there are so many high- profile examples. Take, for instance, Oprah Winfrey. Born in Mississippi in 1954, Winfrey endured a childhood of abject poverty. In 2016, Forbes magazine listed her as #239 of the 400 richest Americans, with an impressive personal
The 2016 count of the New York City homeless population found that nearly 2,800 people were living on the city’s streets (NYC.gov 2016). Another 62,435 were living in shelters, including more than 15,000 families with 23,764 children; this number is nearly 80 percent higher than it was ten years ago, largely due to a lack of affordable housing (Coalition for the Homeless 2017). Although this is sometimes a difficult population to locate and there may be questions about the accuracy of reports, such counts help the city estimate its needs for homeless services in the coming year.
The homeless also remain invisible to most of us because of our own feelings of discomfort and guilt. John Coleman, a former college president and business executive, discovered this when he lived in poverty, if only temporarily, on the streets of Manhattan. Coleman went “undercover” as a homeless man for ten days and found that the minute he shed his privileged identity, people looked at him differently— or not at all. During his days on the streets, Coleman passed by and made eye con- tact with his accountant, his landlord, and a co- worker— each looked right through him, without recognition. But he was not invisible to everyone. Police officers often shook him awake to get him moving from whatever meager shelter he had found for the night. A waiter at a diner took one look at him and forced him to pay up front for his 99-cent breakfast special. Other homeless men, though, showed him kindness and generosity (Coleman 1983).
To whom are the homeless (and others living in poverty) most visible? Those who work with them: caseworkers, social service providers, government bureaucrats, volunteers and charity workers, clergy, cops, business owners (including those who may not want to deal with them, as well as those who may exploit them). And now, they are more visible to you.
With a sociological perspective, you can now see the effects of social stratification everywhere you turn. And when you recognize the multiple, complex causes of poverty— such as limited educational and job opportunities, stagnating wages, economic downturns, racism, mental illness, and sub- stance abuse— it will no longer be as simple to consider each individual responsible for his or her own plight. Finally, the sociological perspective will give you the ability to imagine possible solutions to the problems associated with poverty— solutions that focus on large- scale social changes as well as individual actions, including your own. Don’t let poverty remain invisible.
Inequality and the Ideology of the American Dream Ask almost anyone about the American Dream and they are likely to mention some of the following: owning your own home; having a good marriage and great kids; finding a good
The American Dream Oprah Winfrey’s meteoric rise from a childhood of poverty to her position as one of the most powerful celebrities in America is often cited as a prime example of the American Dream. How does Oprah’s success represent the exception rather than the rule?
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality210
wealth of $2.8 billion. In 2010, Forbes honored her as the world’s most powerful celebrity (of 100), based on a com- posite that included earnings ($165 million that year) and dominance across various media. In that same year, Win-
frey launched her own indepen- dent cable network— the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN. The accolades and awards span many categories. Not only is she extremely successful as a media
mogul and personality, but she is also widely praised for her philanthropic efforts and is admired as a symbol of what can be achieved in pursuit of the American Dream. The prob- lem is, we tend to think of her as representing the rule rather
than the exception. For most Americans, the rags- to- riches upward mobility she has achieved is very unrealistic.
Though popula r opinion a nd rhetoric espouse the A merica n Drea m ideolog y or that the United States is a meritocracy (a system in which rewa rds a re distributed based on merit), sociolog ists f ind contra r y evidence. In fact, no matter how ha rd they work, most people will ma ke little movement at a ll. A nd the deg ree of mobilit y they do achieve ca n depend on their ethnicit y, class status, or gender rather tha n merit. For exa mple, whites a re more likely to experience upwa rd mobilit y tha n persons of color (Ma zumder 2012), a nd ma rried women a re more likely to experience upwa rd mobilit y tha n nonma rried women (Li a nd Singelma nn 1998). Immig ra nt persons of color a re
As noted in other sections of this chapter, the wealth gap is growing, both domestically and globally. The very rich are getting richer, and everyone else, no matter how hard they work, is either getting poorer or struggling to stay even. By 2012, the richest 1 percent of households in the United States owned 42 percent of the country’s wealth, driven in large part by the top 0.1 percent of households: Their share of the coun- try’s wealth jumped from 7 percent in 1978 to 22 percent in 2012 (Saez and Zucman 2016). This is a problem not only for those who are at the bottom of the economic hierarchy— it
is a problem for the entire planet. This is the argument of Professor Andrew Sayer, who makes a case for extreme wealth as a serious social problem in his new book Why
We Can’t Afford the Rich (2016). For Sayer, the wealth gap is about social justice (and injustice) in more ways than one. Not only does inequality mean that some individuals and groups suffer more than others in our society, but also the uber- wealthy are a drain on the economy and a threat to the planet.
According to Sayer (2016), here’s why we can’t afford the rich:
1. In contemporary capitalism, the super- rich usually get and stay that way as a result of “wealth extraction” rather than “wealth creation.” In other words, their money is less likely to be the result of their own inventions, ideas, or entrepreneurship; rather, they profit from what they (and their ancestors) already own: capital gains and interest
IN THE FUTURE Why We Can’t Afford the Rich
from investments, rents, and royalties from inherited properties. The truly rich extract wealth from others through their control of money and property, while the rest of us work in order to be able to give that money to the already wealthy in the form of rent payments, interest on debt, and surplus value from our labor.
2. With economic power often comes excessive and anti- democratic political influence. In other words, the tiny group of disproportionately wealthy individuals is also disproportionately powerful in other areas of civic life. Of course, this isn’t news to anyone who read Chapter 1: C. Wright Mills argues the same thing in his theory of the power elite. It isn’t hard to see this proposition in action in national, state, and local politics. Who has the money to run for office (and win)? Usually, it’s people who are already rich. Our forty- fifth president, real estate mogul Donald J. Trump, and the billionaires he appointed to important Cabinet and ambassador positions are perfect examples.
3. The super- rich are super- consumers. This seems fairly obvious— the more money they have, the more they probably spend. But think about what this means if you take it to its logical end point: Excessive consumption means excessive use of scarce resources such as energy, water, and raw materials such as lumber, metals, and rubber. Not only does excessive consumption deplete these resources, but it leads to waste and pollution as well. Think of the many celebrities who have multiple homes in various locales. Each of those homes needs electricity to turn on the lights, irrigation systems to water the lawn,
WEALTH GAP the unequal distribution of assets across a population
MERITOCRACY a system in which rewards are distributed based on merit
Inequality and the Ideology of the American Dream 211
the most likely to experience downwa rd socia l mobilit y (McCa ll 2001). It is a lso much ha rder for those who sta r t at the bottom of the class ladder to rise up the ra nks (DePa rle 2012). W here you live matters as well: Those who live in the nonwhite por tions of racia lly seg regated a reas have lower levels of upwa rd mobility, but if you’re from a low- income fa mily who lives in a high- income count y, your ea rning cha nces improve over those of simila r fa milies in low- income counties (Chett y et a l. 2014).
A 2015 Harvard poll showed college- age millennials evenly split on the issue of the American Dream: About half say it still exists, while half declared it dead (Harvard IOP 2015). The numbers shift when broken down by such factors as education, gender, and race of the respondent. More college
graduates (58 percent) believe in the American Dream than those with just a high school education (42 percent). While 52 percent of Hispanics believe in the American Dream, the same is true of 49 percent of whites and just 44 percent of blacks.
Although the American Dream tends to promote con- sumerism as a way to achieve “the good life,” the fact is that chasing after it has left us feeling less secure and satisfied— not to mention less wealthy— than previous generations (De Graaf, Waan, and Naylor 2002). Some pundits suggest that we have lost focus on the original meaning of the American Dream, that our increasing obsession with the idea of “more (or newer or bigger) is better” is leading to more debt, less free time, and greater discontent. In 2016, for households carrying
and other resource- guzzling functions to maintain the property, even when no one is living there. Oprah Winfrey (who owns five houses from Chicago to Hawaii), we’re talking to you!
4. Finally, wealth depends on continued use of fossil fuels— to create and maintain it and to live the lifestyle of the “rich and famous.” With this comes disproportionate environmental impact. We all use fossil fuels, but most of us drive one car to work and probably fly in airplanes once or twice a year, if at all. Former late night host Jay Leno owns 150 cars. Actor Patrick Dempsey competes in prestigious “24 hour” races all over the world where he
drives high- performance race cars really fast for twenty- four hours straight with no destination at all. Those weekly trips in the corporate jet also make the carbon footprints of the rich much bigger than those of ordinary folk. And don’t forget all the associated air and water pollution.
To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgera ld, the ver y rich live differently than you and me. A nd as their wea lth grows, it translates into more austerity, less purchasing power, and more insecurity (in employment, housing, hea lth, and environment) for the rest of the population. The recent turn toward oligarchy (rule by the wea lthy few) in the United States and else- where ma kes this feel espe- cia lly urgent, as President Trump and his Cabinet of billionaires implement poli- cies that benef it their wea lthy friends at the expense of the poor, the middle class, the environment, and the rest of the planet.
The wealthy can use their greater resources to shield themselves from the outcomes of global warming, famine, disease, and uprising for a while— but not forever. Looking toward the future, a more sustainable society must be based on a fairer distribution of economic resources. We must pioneer different ways of living in order to reduce inequali- ties of wealth, power, consumption, and waste, and keep our society alive.
Conspicuous Consumption One reason we can’t afford the rich, according to Sayer, is because the wealthy are super-consumers who sap scarce resources.
OLIGARCHY political rule by a small group of people, usually members of a wealthy or otherwise dominant class
CHAPTER 7 Social Class: The Structure of Inequality212
And the sales pitch seems to be working. Like no other generation, today’s eighteen- to thirty- four- year- olds have grown up in a consumer culture with all its varied enticements, but they are having a harder time reaching financial stability in adulthood than did their parents. Many young people are finding themselves caught in a difficult job market, with too few positions and too little pay, at the same time they are carrying larger student loans and mounting credit card debt. The credit card industry has garnered many critics who claim that it is designed to keep people in debt. Some reforms to the industry and a declining num- ber of credit card holders during post- recession years have made a dent in the student debt crisis. Yet many young people still embrace easy credit only to discover that late- payment fees and high interest rates can keep them from paying down their balances.
In 2015, seven in ten college graduates left school with student loan debt; the average amount owed rose to $30,100 (TICAS 2016). On top of that, more than half of all college students use credit cards (Sallie Mae 2016). While some students may be spending on luxuries like fancy clothes, expensive meals, and high- tech toys that they really can’t afford, many young people are using credit cards for basic household needs and expenses, such as prescription medications and car repairs. And the appeal to spend more is always there, urging you to buy your way into the American Dream, and perhaps leading you further into debt. So let’s examine where some of this pressure to spend comes from— advertising.
In this Data Workshop, you will analyze some adver- tisements in terms of the ideology of the American Dream. This entails the use of existing sources and doing a content analysis to look for patterns of meaning within and across the ads. See the section on existing sources in Chapter 2 for a review of this research method.
To start your research, find three or four ads from magazines, newspapers, websites, or other sources. These should be print ads rather than video clips. Look for ads that are of interest to your particular age, gender, or other demographic group. In particular, try to iden- tify ads that are selling the idea of the American Dream of wealth, success, or living the “good life.” Examine both the visual (images and layout) and textual (words) elements of the advertisements.
For each of the ads, consider the following questions:
✱ What product or service is being advertised?
✱ For whom is the advertisement intended?
✱ Does the ad “work”? Would you like to buy the prod- uct or service? Why or why not?
credit card debt, the average amount was nearly $17,000 (Wooley 2016). A recent Gallup poll reported that about half of Americans feel that they do not have enough time to do all of the things they need to do in their everyday lives ( Newport 2015).
A countervailing trend in American life, sometimes referred to as the simplicity movement, rejects rampant consumerism and seeks to reverse some of its consequences for the individua l, for society, and for the planet. This move- ment, a backlash against the traditiona l American Dream, encourages people to “downshift” by working less, earn- ing less, and spending less in order to put their lifestyles in sync with their (nonmateria listic) va lues (Grigsby 2004; Schor 1999). What does this mean in practice? Growing your own vegetables, perhaps, or riding your bike to work, wearing secondhand clothes, and spending more time with friends and family and less time commuting, shopping, or watching TV.
One of the most radical extensions of this philosophy is embraced by “freegans” (Barnard 2016)—a term that merges “free” with “vegan” (a person who eats no animal products). Freegans are people who avoid consumerism and who engage in strategies to support themselves without participating in a conventional economic system. This can mean scavenging for usable food, clothing, and other goods, sometimes called “urban foraging ” or “dumpster diving,” along with sharing housing and transportation with others in order to work less and minimize their impact on the planet.
SIMPLICITY MOVEMENT a loosely knit movement that opposes consumerism and encourages people to work less, earn less, and spend less, in accordance with nonmaterialistic values
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Advertising and the American Dream We are surrounded by advertising, which aims not only to give us information about products but also to create and stimulate a buying public with demands for an ever- increasing array of
goods and services. Advertising shapes our conscious- ness and tells us what to dream and how to pursue those dreams. It provides us with a concept of the good life and tells us that it’s available to everyone. Advertising equates shopping and acquisition with emotional fulfillment, freedom, fun, happiness, security, and self- satisfaction.
213Closing Comments
✱ In addition to a product or service, what else are the advertisers trying to “sell”?
✱ What are the explicit (obvious) and implicit (subtle) messages conveyed in the ad?
✱ How do these messages make you feel? Do they play on your emotions, desires, or sense of self- worth? If so, in what ways?
Once you have examined all the ads, consider these more general questions:
✱ What were the similarities or differences between the ads you chose with regard to their underlying ideology?
✱ How do the ads represent a particular lifestyle that you should aspire to? How does that influence your buying habits?
✱ What types of ads have a strong effect on you? Why?
✱ What kinds of pressures do you feel to keep up with the material possessions of your friends, neighbors, or co- workers?
✱ Why do you think we are lured into shopping and acquiring material possessions?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Select three ads and bring them with you to class (either the physical ads from a magazine or newspaper, photocopies, or screen shots of online ads). Reflect on the questions as they apply to one or more of your ads, and be ready to discuss your answers with other students, in pairs or small groups. Compare and contrast each other’s contributions.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Write a three- to four- page essay discussing your general thoughts on advertising, con- sumption, and the American Dream. Include an analysis of the specific ads you chose, answering the sets of ques- tions. Make sure to attach the ads to your paper.
CLOSING COMMENTS Social stratification is all about power. Stratification sys- tems, like SES, allocate different types of social power, such as wealth, political influence, and occupational prestige, and do so in fundamentally unequal ways. These inequali- ties are part of both the larger social structure and our everyday interactions. In the following chapters, we will examine other systems of stratification— namely, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexuality. While we separate these topics for organizational purposes, they are not experienced as separate in our everyday lives. We are women or men, working class or upper class, black or white, gay or straight simultaneously. Our experiences of these social categories are intertwined. We will continue to examine intersection- ality and the complex relationship between our positions in the social structure and the varying social forces that shape our lives.
214
Everything You Need to Know about Social Stratification
THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASS
✱ Conflict: Social classes are highly stratified and continue to grow fur- ther apart.
✱ Weberian: Wealth, power, and pres- tige are interrelated, but one can also be converted into another.
✱ Structural functionalism: Strati- fication is necessary for society to function.
✱ Postmodernism: Social class is passed down from one generation to the next through cultural capital.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: We judge people’s social class constantly during everyday interactions.
REVIEW 1. Think about your own class status.
Is it consistent across the criteria that make up socioeconomic status (income, wealth, education, occu- pation, and power)? Or are you an example of status inconsistency?
2. According to Pierre Bourdieu, the cultural tools we inherit from our par- ents can be very important in trying to gain economic assets. What sort of cultural capital did you inherit? Has it ever helped you materially? Have you ever done something to acquire more cultural capital?
3. Erving Goffman says we “read” other people through social interaction to get a sense of their class status. What sort of clues can tell you about a per- son’s social class within thirty sec- onds of meeting that person?
“ Social stratification is present in all societies. People are categorized and divided into groups, including gender, race, class, and age, which are then placed in a social hierarchy.
“
215
35K
SOURCE: Poke 2017.
How Rich Are You?
The average undergraduate sociology major earns
around $35,000 in an entry level job. That salary .
makes you the 48,656,639th richest person on Earth
by income. In 1 hour you would earn $18.23.
The average worker in Zimbabwe earns only $0.53
in the same time. If you earn $35,000 in your first job after
$college, it would take the average worker in Indonesia
47 years to earn the same amount. It’ll only take you
2 minutes to earn enough for a refreshing can
of soda. The average worker in Ghana has to work for
approximately 7 hours to buy a can of soda.
EXPLORE
Food: What’s Class Got to Do with It? Income and obesity are related: Poorer people have limited access to and less money to spend on fresh produce and high- quality brands. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to find out what happens when a sociologist from the middle class in Culver City tries to shop for food in the low- income city of Compton.
http://wwnPag.es/trw407
216
CHAPTER 8
L ike a lot of celebrities, comedian and actor Chris Rock has a verified Twitter account. Unlike many of his peers, he isn’t a big fan of tweeting selfies. But in 2015 he posted three of them in less than two months, each taken immediately after he had been pulled
over by the police. Social media posts such as Chris Rock’s selfies have put real faces on the issue of racial
profiling by police. Rock’s recent run- ins with police even have a specific name: “driving while black.” Racial profiling is pervasive on America’s roads and highways. And this is nothing new: Civil rights groups in the 1950s and 1960s were already voicing bitter complaints about “the stopping of Negroes on foot or in cars without obvious basis” (Harris 1999). It would be nice to think that half a century would be enough time to solve such a serious social problem, but today both the political and legal situation make driving while black a fundamentally different experience.
Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience
217
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience218
Politically, the war on drugs has made driving while black (or brown) even riskier than before. In the 1980s the federal government dramatically increased its efforts to catch drug smugglers. Nationally this meant an increasingly militarized border and airport security. At the state and local levels, however, it meant law enforce- ment wanted to search a lot more cars. Despite overwhelming evidence that rates of illegal drug use are similar across racial lines, police and highway patrol officers have often disproportionately targeted nonwhite motorists when searching for drug couriers. Of course, it’s not legal to stop drivers just because of their race; however, the current legal situation allows the police to stop more or less anyone, at any time, because “traffic codes are so minutely drawn that virtually every driver will break some rule within a few blocks” (LaFraniere and Lehren 2015). This led to massive increases in “pretext stops,” where the violation cited as justifying the traffic stop is just a pretext to investigate the people in the car. In 1996, the Supreme Court found that pretext searches did not violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
The phrase “driving while black” is an explicit claim about racial injustice. Are we all afforded the same rights, or are black and white drivers treated differently? For a long time this question was hard to answer empirically due to a lack of data on race and traffic stops. Even now there is no comprehensive nationwide data- base on who gets stopped, but the data that do exist make it clear that race mat- ters. For example, a black driver is about 31 percent more likely to be pulled over than a white driver, and once pulled over “white drivers were significantly less likely to be searched than black or Hispanic drivers” (Ingraham 2014).
Even in the face of these damning statistics many police departments have argued that racial bias is not at fault, speculating, for instance, that African Amer- icans might just be driving more or violating traffic laws more often. However, as the New York Times found, there are “wide racial differences in measure after measure of police conduct” (LaFraniere and Lehren 2015). For instance, studies have shown that African Americans are more likely to be involved in a traffic stop that only resulted in a citation for “out of sight offenses,” like an expired license or registration. African Americans are also more likely to be pulled over in the day- time, when their race is more visible, than at night.
In the African American community, having “the talk” with your kids isn’t just about sex; it often involves talking to them about how to interact with the police. As Ta- Nehisi Coates (2015) warns his own son in Between the World and Me, “The police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body. It does not matter if the destruction is the result of an unfortu- nate overreaction. It does not matter if it originates in a misunderstanding. It does not matter if the destruction springs from a foolish policy.”
Driving while intoxicated is a crime, and the only thing that parents need to tell their children is not to do it. Driving while black is not an actual crime, but black parents are forced to tell their children that sometimes it will be treated like it is.
Defining Race and Ethnicity 219
significant difference between commonsense notions of race and ethnicity and what social scientists have to say about them.
The idea of different races as belonging to distinguish- able categories has existed for hundreds of years. In the nine- teenth century, biologists came up with a schema that grouped humans into three races: Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid (corresponding roughly to black, Asian, and white). It was believed that each race was characterized by its own biologi- cal makeup, separate and distinct from the others. Modern scientists, however, possess advanced tools for examining race in a much more sophisticated way. What they have found, ironically, is that there are no “pure” races— that the lines among races are blurry rather than fixed. A person who looks white will inevitably have biological material from other races, as will someone who looks black. There is also no such thing as a “superior” race, as race itself is not the reason that different groups might display positive or negative charac- teristics (such as intelligence, athleticism, or artistic ability). Furthermore, there is greater genetic diversity within racial populations than between them. So within the Asian popu- lation, members differ more from each other (Koreans from Chinese, for example) than they do from whites. From a bio- logical standpoint, the difference between someone with type O blood and someone with type A blood is much more signifi- cant than the differences between a dark- skinned and a light- skinned person. And yet blood types are not used in our society as a way of distinguishing groups for any reason other than medical treatment.
The physical differences we see between groups, such as skin color or hair texture, are due to geographic adapta- tions. People living in places closer to the equator have more
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER Our goal in this chapter is for you to acquire a fundamental understanding of race and ethnicity as socially constructed categories. While each is based on traits we may see as bio- logical, such as skin color or facial features, the meanings attached to race and ethnicity are created, maintained, and modified over time through social processes in which we all take part.
When a society categorizes people based on their race and ethnicity (and all societies do), it creates a system of stratifi- cation that leads to inequality. Society’s resources— wealth, power, privilege, opportunity— are distributed according to these categories, thereby perpetuating inequalities that are all too familiar here in the United States. We also hope you will come to understand the importance of race and ethnicity in forming individual identity. Our racial and ethnic identi- ties have profound effects on our sense of self, and our bonds to other people may be based on shared identities— or may tran- scend those categories entirely.
Defining Race and Ethnicity “Race” and “ethnicity” are words we use so often in every- day speech that we might not think we need a definition of either. But people tend to use the words interchangeably, as if they mean essentially the same thing. There is, however, a
What Is Race? Rashida Jones (left) is the daughter of black producer Quincy Jones and white actress and model Peggy Lipton. Twins Kian and Remee, with their parents Remi Horder and Kylee Hodgson, were born within a minute of each other with different skin colors.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience220
Jones’s racial background now make you think of her in a dif- ferent way?
Ethnicity is another social category that is applied to a group with a shared ancestry or cultural heritage. The Scotch- Irish (or Scots- Irish), for instance, are a distinct ethnic group in American society, linked by a common cultural heritage that includes language, religion, and history; the Scotch- Irish people, with few exceptions, are also white. In the eighteenth century they migrated to frontier territories in the United States and settled into parts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Many Scotch- Irish are clustered in rural Appalachia. J. D. Vance (2016) writes about this group in his best- selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. He characterizes the Scotch- Irish as a tight- knit and fiercely loyal group that clings to traditional family values, evangelical Christianity, and conservative politics. The Jewish people are another example; contrary to what the Nazis and other white supremacists may believe, Jews are an ethnic group but not a race. They share a religious and cultural background but are dispersed in many parts of the world. The stereotypical image is challenged when we see a blond, blue- eyed Jew from Scan- dinavia or a black Ethiopian Jew.
As an example of the social construction of race and eth- nicity, let’s look at the evidence documenting the historical changes in the boundaries of the category “white.” In the early 1900s, native- born Americans, who were frequently Protes- tant, did not consider recent Irish, Italian, or Jewish immi- grants to be white and restricted where these groups could live and work (Brodkin 1999; Ignatiev 1996, 2008). Such housing
melanin (and darker skin) to protect them from too much sun- light, while people living closer to the poles have less melanin (and lighter skin), which allows them to absorb enough sun- light to produce vitamin D (a compound necessary for human health). We have attributed great significance to quite super- ficial differences. Such conclusions overlook the fact that all humans, whatever racial categories they seem to inhabit, are 99.9 percent genetically identical. And of that remaining 0.1 percent of our genetic material, only 15 percent of its varia-
tion occurs between geographi- cally distinct groups. In other words, there’s not enough “wiggle room” in the human genome for race to be a genetic trait (Harvard Magazine 2008). There is no race chromosome in our DNA.
Sociologists, then, have come to understand race as a social category, based on real or per- ceived biological differences between groups of people. Race is
more meaningful to us on a social level than it is on a biologi- cal level (Montagu 1998). There have also been varying crite- ria for determining who belongs in which race. The “one drop” rule— a way of defining any person with just one drop of blood from African ancestry as black— was used as a justification for slavery and denying rights during much of the nineteenth century. Actress Rashida Jones may “look white” to many, but in some southern states in 1925, she could just as easily have been considered black or Native American. Does knowing
Mulberry Street at the Turn of the Century In the early 1900s, Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants were not considered “whites.” Because of residential segregation, new immigrants poured into densely populated neighborhoods like this one on New York’s Lower East Side, where they had little choice but to live in squalid tenements and work in sweatshops.
RACE a socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people
ETHNICITY a socially defined category based on a common language, religion, nationality, history, or some other cultural factor
Defining Race and Ethnicity 221
Similar ethnic displays occur on such holidays as Passover, Cinco de Mayo, and Nouruz.
Another way we can show group membership is through situational ethnicity, when we deliberately assert our eth- nicity in some situations while downplaying it in others. Situ- ational ethnicity involves a kind of cost- benefit analysis that symbolic ethnicity does not: We need to appraise each situa- tion to determine whether or not it favors our ethnicity. For example, Dr. Ferris’s Lebanese ancestry never mattered much, outside her own family, when she lived in Southern California. In fact, it was often something she felt she should downplay, given a political climate in which people of Arabic background were sometimes viewed with suspicion. But when she moved to Peoria, Illinois, she discovered that this small city had a rela- tively large population of Leba- nese descent and that the mayor, a city councilman, the state sena- tor, the congressman, local busi- ness, arts, and religious leaders, and prominent families were all Lebanese. This suddenly made Dr. Ferris’s ethnicity a valuable asset in a way that it had never been before. She received a good deal of social support and made new friends based on shared revelations of ethnic group membership. In the case of situ- ational ethnicity, we see how larger social forces can govern the identities we choose— if we have a choice.
Neither situational nor symbolic ethnicity is available to those who are visibly nonmainstream, whatever that may look like in a given society. In the United States, this generally means that nonwhites do not have a choice about whether to display their group membership (although this may eventually change as we become a “ majority- minority” nation). Most nonwhites don’t have “ethnic options” that
discrimination forced new immigrants to cluster in urban neighborhoods or “ghettos.” After World War II, however, as the second generation of Irish, Italian, and Jewish immi- grants reached adulthood, the importance of ethnic identity declined and skin color became the main way to differentiate between who was white and who was not. Today, the question is whether people of Middle Eastern descent are white. In the post– 9/11 war on terrorism climate, Arabs and Muslims have been identified as racially and ethnically distinct in significant and even harmful ways. While these groups possess a range of skin colors and facial features, it may be their symbolic label- ing in these difficult times that makes them “nonwhite.”
“Ethnic Options”: Symbolic and Situational Ethnicity How do we display our racial and ethnic group membership? We may do so in a number of ways: through dress, language, food, and religious practices; through preferences in music, art, or literature; even through the projects we find interesting and the topics we pursue at school. Sometimes these practices make our group membership obvious to others; sometimes they don’t. White ethnics like Irish Americans and Italian Americans, for example, can actually choose when and how they display their ethnic group membership to others.
One way group membership is displayed is through symbolic ethnicity, enactments of ethnic identity that occur only on special occasions. For example, most Irish Americans have been so fully assimilated for multiple generations that their Irish ancestry may not matter much to them on a daily basis. But on St. Patrick’s Day (especially in cities like Boston and New York), displays of Irish identity can be pretty over- whelming! Parades, hats, “Kiss me, I’m Irish” buttons, green clothing, green beer (and in Chicago, a green river!), corned beef and cabbage— all are elements of symbolic ethnicity.
Symbolic Ethnicity Irish Americans and Mexican Americans often embrace ethnic identity on special occasions like St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo.
SYMBOLIC ETHNICITY an ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly affect everyday life
SITUATIONAL ETHNICITY an ethnic identity that can be either displayed or concealed depending on its usefulness in a given situation
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience222
✱ What kind of music is being played, and what types of foods or crafts are available?
✱ Are different languages being spoken? If so, by whom and in what situations?
✱ What are the differences in the activities of adults and children, men and women, members and visitors?
✱ Listen for snatches of conversation in which mem- bers explain such traditions as buying a goldfish on the first day of spring (Iranian), wrapping and tying a tamale (Mexican), or wearing the claddagh ring (Irish).
✱ Can you identify any other elements relating to eth- nicity in the setting, such as architecture, decor, art, or other items of material culture?
Finally, ask yourself these questions about your own ethnic identity:
✱ Do you have the option to display your ethnicity in some situations and withhold it in others? Why or why not?
✱ How do you decide whether, when, and how to dis- play your ethnicity? What kind of cost- benefit analysis do you use?
✱ What role do ethnic and racial stereotypes, or stereotypes based on nationality, play in the process of displaying ethnicity?
✱ How do you think ethnic displays are received by others?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Prepare written notes about your fieldwork that you can refer to in class. Discuss your experience with two or more students in a small group. Compare and contrast your fieldwork findings with those of your group members. Listen as each person describes his or her own ethnic displays. As a group, can you come up with an overarching statement (or set of statements) about situational and/or symbolic ethnicity that helps explain what you learned?
DO- IT- YOURSELF Prepare written notes about your fieldwork. Consider all the questions and prompts pro- vided and write a three- page paper describing your observations and experience, applying the concepts of situational and symbolic ethnicity in your analysis. Remember to attach your field notes to the paper.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Displaying Ethnicity Choose a setting where you can watch people “doing ” ethnicity, either situational or symbolic. You should be able to find mul-
tiple places, occasions, or other opportunities to conduct this kind of research. For instance, you can go to a St. Pat- rick’s Day parade, if your city hosts one, or attend an ethnic festival of some sort (such as St. Anthony’s Feast Day in Boston’s Italian North End or Los Angeles’s annual Afri- can Marketplace). Or just visit one of your city’s ethnic neighborhoods: Stroll through an Italian market in South Philadelphia, or shop the streets of Chicago’s Ukrain- ian Village, Greektown, or Pilsen (a Mexican American neighborhood). You could check out the windmills and eat pastry in Solvang, a small city in central California founded by Danish teachers. If you think your town is too tiny to have any ethnic diversity, think again: Even minus- cule Postville, Iowa (population 2,200), includes a large Hasidic Jewish population, with significant clusters of Mexican, Guatemalan, Ukrainian, Nigerian, Bosnian, and Czech immigrants. You may even find an appropriate set- ting on your college campus or at one of your own family gatherings.
For this Data Workshop you will be doing participant observation in order to produce a short ethnographic study. Return to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. Once you have chosen a setting, notice your surroundings. Join in the activities around you while at the same time carefully observing how the other partic- ipants display their ethnic membership. As part of your observation, you will be writing field notes. Consider the following:
✱ What are participants wearing: traditiona l ethnic costumes, contemporary T- shirts, other symbols displaying their ethnic identity?
they can take or leave. As sociologist Mary Waters explains, “The social and political consequences of being Asian or Hispanic or black are not, for the most part, symbolic, nor are they voluntary. They are real, unavoidable, and sometimes hurtful” (1990, p. 156).
The U.S. Population by Race 223
California provides us with another example. In 2016, whites made up less than 40 percent of the state’s population, whereas other ethnic groups (Hispanics/Latinos, blacks, Asian Americans, Native Americans) when added together constituted a majority of over 60 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2017l). California, then, is a majority- minority state. Whites represent less than half the population; however, this doesn’t make whites a minority group. Notably, whites remain the dominant group in terms of power, resources, and represen- tation in social institutions. For instance, Hispanics/Lati- nos continue to be underrepresented in the University of California system (as both students and faculty) as well as in the state government and as business owners but overrepre- sented in prisons, in poverty counts, and as victims of violent crimes. Similar disparities can be found in Hawaii, Texas, and New Mexico, all of which are majority- minority states, as is the District of Columbia.
Historically, whites have constituted a considerable majority of the American population, but this proportion is shrinking. In 1965, whites made up 85 percent of the popula- tion, compared to just over 60 percent now. The proportion of the U.S. population that is black has remained constant over the last few decades, while the proportions of Asians and Hispanics/Latinos have grown. Demographers predict that these trends will continue, and that by 2044, whites will make up just 48 percent of the U.S. popula- tion. This means that no single
The U.S. Population by Race With each new generation, the United States is becoming a more diverse nation. Figure 8.1 shows the breakdown of various racial and ethnic groups and their percentage of the U.S. popu- lation. In 2016, whites made up approximately 61 percent of the population, Hispanics/Latinos 18 percent, blacks 13 per- cent, Asians 6 percent, and Native Americans about 1 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2017m). The picture is actually more com- plicated than these categories suggest. Many Americans iden- tify themselves as belonging to two or more races.
The U.S. Census Bureau conducts a comprehensive nation- wide survey of the American people every ten years with smaller- scale surveys in the intervening years. In the 2000 Census, Americans were given the opportunity for the first time to identify with more than one race, thus creating fifty- seven possible racial combinations. In 2016, 2.6 percent of the population identified as multiracial. That proportion is expected to rise to over 6 percent by 2060 (U.S. Census Bureau 2015c). The Census Bureau is considering revising the categories for the next count in 2020 to better match the way Americans conceive of their own racial identities.
Throughout its history, there have always been multiracial people in the United States, beginning with the European set- tlers who mixed with Native Americans and black slaves alike (Brooks 2002; Clinton and Gillespie 1997). Immigrant popula- tions coming to the United States have added to its multicul- tural makeup. It is only logical that the separate lineages of the American people would eventually meld to a greater degree. We might, therefore, wonder: Will race and ethnicity continue to be as important in the future as they have been in the past?
What Is a Minority? A minority is commonly thought of as a group that’s smaller in number than the majority group. Thus, we could say that in the United States, whites are a majority while African Ameri- cans, Asians, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Americans are minorities, because whites outnumber each of these other groups. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. Sociologists define a minority group as people who are recognized as belonging to a social category (here either a racial or ethnic group) and who suffer from unequal treatment as a result of that status. A minority group is denied the access to power and resources generally accorded to others in the dominant groups. Therefore, it is possible to be in the numerical major- ity and still have minority status with regard to power and opportunity. Take South Africa, for example: Blacks there dramatically outnumber whites by a ratio of seven to one, yet before the 1994 election of President Nelson Mandela, a small white minority controlled the country while blacks occupied the lowest status in that society.
White, non-Hispanic
61.3%Hispanic or Latino* 17.8%
Black or African American
13.3%
Asian 5.7%
Two or More Races
2.6%
American Indian and
Alaska Native 1.3%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
0.2%
Figure 8.1 Racial and Ethnic Populations in the United States, 2016 *Hispanic origin is considered an ethnicity, not a race. Hispanics may be of any race. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau 2017j.
MINORITY GROUP social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society’s dominant groups though they are not necessarily fewer in number than the dominant groups
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience224
high-profile incidents of police brutality and the killing of unarmed black men, including Freddie Gray, Michael Brown Jr., and Eric Garner, contributed to social unrest. By 2016, polls showed that 69 percent of Americans thought that race relations were generally bad— the same level of racial discon- tent reported in 1992 after the Rodney King riots (Russonello 2016). Concerns about race relations deepened in the wake of Trump’s election. In 2017, polls revealed that 42 percent of Americans said they personally worried “a great deal” about race relations in the United States, up 7 percentage points since the previous year (Gallup 2017).
Prejudice and Discrimination Prejudice and discrimination are closely related to racism, and though the terms are often used interchangeably, there are important distinctions between them. Prejudice, liter- ally a “prejudgment,” is an inflexible attitude (usually negative, although it can work in the reverse) about a particular group of people that is rooted in generalizations or stereotypes. Exam- ples of prejudice include opinions like “All Irish are drunks” or “All Mexicans are lazy.” Prejudiced ideas don’t always flow from the dominant group toward minorities. For instance, it’s possible for members of a minority group to hold nega- tive stereotypes about the dominant group. It is also possible for minority group members to be prejudiced against them- selves or their own group— what is sometimes referred to as “internalized racism” (Pyke 2010). Prejudiced ideas circulate through culture, making them hard to avoid, even for those who would wish not to have them. As we are socialized into the values and norms of society, we may unknowingly pick up some prejudice as well.
Prejudice of ten, though not a lways, leads to discrimin ation: an action or behavior that results in the unequa l treatment of individua ls because of their mem- bership in a certain racia l or ethnic group. A person might be said to suffer discrimination if she is turned down for a job promotion or a home loan because she’s black or His- panic. It is possible, though unlikely, that a person can be prejudiced and still not discriminate against others. For example, a teacher can believe that Asian A merican stu- dents are better at math and science, yet deliberately not let this belief inf luence his g rading of A sia n A merica n students. Conversely, a person may not be prejudiced at a ll but still unknowingly participate in discrimination. Mem- bers of the dominant group, still whites in A merica, may enjoy certain benef its and advantages denied to minority group members. W hites may believe in equa lity but not act in such a way as to cha llenge the injustices perpetuated by our systems of stratif ication.
Discrimination can take different forms. Individual discrimination occurs when one person treats others unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. A racist teacher might discriminate against a Hispanic student by assigning
racial or ethnic group will represent the majority of the U.S. population, making the United States a majority- minority country (Pew Research Center 2015d; U.S. Census Bureau 2015c). Should we change the language of racial relations? Are the words “majority” and “minority” too confusing now that racial demographics have changed?
Membership in a minority group may serve as a kind of “master status,” overriding any other status, such as gender or age. Members may be subjected to racist beliefs about the group as a whole and thus suffer from a range of social disadvantages. Unequal and unfair treatment, as well as lack of access to power and resources, typically generates a strong sense of common identity and solidarity among members of minority groups.
Racism in Its Many Forms In order for social inequality to persist, the unequal treatment that minority groups suffer must be supported by the domi- nant groups. Racism, an ideology or set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group over another, provides this support; it is used to justify unequal social arrangements between the dominant and minority groups (Kendi 2016). Racist beliefs are often rooted in the assump- tion that differences among groups are innate, or biologically based. They can also arise from a negative view of a group’s cultural characteristics. In both cases, racism presumes that one group is better than another.
Some students have difficulty recognizing just how persis- tent and pervasive racism is in contemporary American soci- ety, while others experience it on a daily basis. We hear claims that it has been erased. While we’ve made tremendous strides, especially in the wake of the civil rights movement, and again
with renewed calls for social jus- tice from the Black Lives Matter movement, racism is not yet a thing of the past. Racism is woven into the fabric of American soci- ety, from its historical roots to the present day. It is part of our national legacy and still persists within our social institutions.
There is still deep skepti- cism about whether negative racial attitudes are changing in America (Bobo et al. 2012). Many were hopeful that the election of the first black president, Barack Obama, in 2008 and again in 2012 was a sign of racial healing. But during his terms in office, racial strife continued and some would say worsened. Numerous
RACISM a set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group; used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences among groups are genetic
PREJUDICE an idea about the characteristics of a group that is applied to all members of that group and is unlikely to change regardless of the evidence against it
DISCRIMINATION unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice
INDIVIDUAL DISCRIMINATION discrimination carried out by one person against another
Racism in Its Many Forms 225
society, drawing heavily from personal experience. In the book, which was written as a let- ter to his fifteen- year- old son, Coates warns of the omnipres- ent dangers facing black men. He describes how their black bod- ies have always been at risk of destruction— once at the hands of slave masters and lynching mobs and now from police who frisk, detain, beat, cage, and humiliate them. Coates concedes that “all of this is common to black people. And all of this is old for black people. No one is held responsible” (p. 9). Coates hopes to inspire his son to learn all he can about the noble his- tory of black people, to discover empowering stories that have often been repressed or just unheard. His son will need to be armed with this knowledge in order to push back against a country in which his body is considered dispensable.
White Nationalism Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Aryan Broth- erhood, and Neo- Nazis espouse overtly racist and anti- Semitic ideas about white supremacy and racial separation. They believe that whites are innately superior to all other races and should thus hold power and control over all social institutions and resources. They want an all- white nation. Images of men in white robes and hoods burning crosses, lynch mobs, and skinheads with Swastika tattoos are meant to strike terror and intimidation. While the KKK may be an extreme example, some of the ideas embraced by white
him a lower grade than he deserves. Institutional discrimination, in contrast, is usually more systematic and widespread and occurs when institutions (such as govern- ment agencies, schools, or banks) practice discriminatory policies that affect whole groups of individuals.
A powerful example of institutional discrimination involves the city of Ferguson, Missouri. Protests broke out in 2014 after a Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. Unrest over the issue escalated when a grand jury failed to charge the officer with murder. This led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which found that the Ferguson Police Depart- ment had been routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents (U.S. Department of Justice 2015). The DOJ issued a scathing report that documented widespread racial bias that pervaded practically every aspect of the local crimi- nal justice process. In a city where blacks comprise 67 percent of the population, they accounted for 85 percent of vehicle stops, 88 percent of cases involving use of force, and 93 per- cent of arrests. The New York Times summarized the find- ings by describing Ferguson as “a place where officers stopped and handcuffed people without probable cause, hurled racial slurs, used stun guns without provocation, and treated anyone as suspicious merely for questioning police tactics” (Apuzzo and Eligon 2015). The Justice Department concluded that the distrust and fear that blacks felt toward the Ferguson police had indeed been well- founded. Of course, of equal concern is the probability that Ferguson is not an isolated case.
In his award- winning best seller Between the World and Me (2015), social commentator Ta- Nehisi Coates speaks powerfully about racism and discrimination in American
Ferguson, Missouri Protests erupted after the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by police in 2014. The Department of Justice confirmed that the Ferguson Police Department had violated the civil rights of black residents over many years.
INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION discrimination carried out systematically by institutions (political, economic, educational, and others) that affects all members of a group who come into contact with it
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience226
and greater emphasis on multiculturalism, some whites feel that the country no longer represents their identity or inter- ests. Those who feel anxious about the direction of social change may be attracted to white nationalist ideas. Of course, many whites and nonwhites alike welcome the nation’s grow- ing diversity and inclusivity. As the United States becomes an increasingly majority- minority nation, however, we are likely to see more pushback from the more extreme factions of the far-right wing.
White Privilege and Color- Blind Racism The concept of privilege is gaining greater currency while still garnering much debate. There are various mecha- nisms of privilege. In a stratif ied society, one may have privilege based on class, race, gender, sexua lity, or other factors. The idea of the privileges of race dates back to early sociolog y and the work of W. E. B. DuBois (1903). More recently, Pegg y McIntosh (1988) reintroduced the idea in a well- known article about “unpacking the invisible knap- sack ” of white privilege. In the past few decades, the idea has made its way into the various branches of academia and more widely into the nationa l conversation. “ W hite privilege” is the idea that one group (whites) in a society enjoys certain unearned advantages not available to others (nonwhites) and that group members (whites) are largely unaware of the unequa l benef its they possess. Privilege can include a wide range of advantages experienced in our large socia l institutions as well as in our sma ll ever yday interactions (Wise 2011, 2012).
Because privilege is often invisible to the privileged, it can blind them to the challenges faced by members of non- privileged groups. Whites may claim, for example, that race no longer matters and that we live in a “ color- blind” society. Color- blind racism purports to dismiss the factor of race from the equation of social inequality ( Bonilla- Silva 2013). After all, we elected a black president, so racism must be a thing of the past, right? The notion of color blindness sounds good ( judging people by the “content of their character” rather than by the color of their skin), but it is also problem- atic because it implies that race should be both invisible and inconsequential. And that just isn’t true.
We don’t live in a “postracial” world, at least not yet. Race does matter, and racism does still exist. Racism today is neither as blatant as it once was— blacks and whites don’t use separate bathrooms or drinking fountains— nor is it only a black- and- white issue. But it has taken other more subtle forms, such as the high concentration of liquor stores in predominantly black urban areas or the high concentration of Latino immigrants in low- wage jobs. Claims of color blindness make these more subtle forms of racism difficult to acknowledge and, therefore,
supremacist groups are also part of the more populist alt- right movement. They share a common commitment to white nationalism, or the belief that the nation should be built around a white identity that is reflected in religion, politics, economics, and culture.
White nationalism has gained traction in recent years, becoming much more visible during the presidential campaign and election of Donald Trump. Trump’s anti- immigrant ideas dovetail with white nationalist sentiment, and his administration has sought to bring those ideas into the political mainstream. Many of us watched in horror in August 2017 as white nationalists descended upon Charlot- tesville, Virginia, for a “Unite the Right” rally that erupted in violence and ended with one woman dead and numerous others injured. However, writing in the aftermath of the vio- lence, sociologist Joe Feagin urges us to remember that white supremacy and white nationalism are nothing new, but rather have been with us since our country’s founding. This history,
he writes, is key to understand- ing why “racism today remains extensive, foundational, and sys- temic” (Feagin 2017, 2000). And while it may be tempting to write off white nationalism as devi- ant from American values and the views of a fringe minority, research shows these same rac- ist views are in fact held by many whites across the United States (Picca and Feagin 2007).
For much of American his- tory, white dominance has been a reality. But with changing demo- graphics, advances in civil rights,
WHITE NATIONALISM the belief that the nation should be built around a white identity that is reflected in religion, politics, economics, and culture
PRIVILEGE unearned advantage accorded to members of dominant social groups (males, whites, heterosexuals, the physically able, etc.)
COLOR- BLIND RACISM an ideology that removes race as an explanation for any form of unequal treatment
White Nationalism In August 2017, members of white nationalist groups joined together in Charlottesville, Virginia, for a “Unite the Right” rally.
Racism in Its Many Forms 227
difficult to address productively. According to social scientists like Eduardo Bonilla- Silva (2003, 2017), color blindness is just a new form of racism.
Color- blind racism is hard to combat, especially when so many people think it is a good thing to try and overlook race, to say that they don’t see it. But there is an alternative: race consciousness, or an awareness of the importance of race in our everyday lives and in our dealings with social institutions. A race- conscious approach recognizes that despite the civil rights gains of the last hundred years, race is still a powerful factor in shaping our everyday lives and the world we live in. If we are to have a truly egalitarian society, we must recognize the historical record of racism and the social conditions that perpetuate contemporary inequalities. Whites and others might find that their own racial privilege plays a part in the social structure of racial inequality.
Microaggressions Racism is not always as obvious as a swastika or the “ N- word.” Sometimes it’s much more subtle. Racial microaggressions are the small- scale racial slights, insults, and mispercep- tions that play out in everyday interactions between people (Sue 2010; Sue et al. 2007). These exchanges typically occur between a person from the dominant (white) group and a member of a racial or ethnic minority. While microaggres- sions are typically subtle, casual, and often unintentional, they still deliver a powerful message that serves to denigrate or marginalize others because of their group membership. Sometimes these take the form of questions like “What are you?” or “Where are you really from?” that are demands to know a person’s racial, ethnic, or national identity and reveal the underlying assumptions of the questioner as well as the persistence of racial stereotypes in shaping how we see and perceive each other.
Microaggressions can also be seen in body language, such as when a white woman clutches her handbag more closely when she passes by a group of Latino men, or when a white person reaches out to touch a black person’s hair without permission to see what it feels like. Microaggressions can include instances when persons of color are treated as second- class citizens, such as when they are mistaken for a service worker in a retail store or when they are passed over by a taxi cab driver who picks up a white person instead. Sometimes a microaggression might look like a compliment on the sur- face, such as when Asians are praised for how smart they are or mixed- race persons are told that they look exotic, but these statements further affirm stereotypes and may be taken as demeaning as well.
Cultural Appropriation Another not always subtle form of racism has been identi- fied as the practice of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation occurs when members of the dominant group adopt, co- opt, or otherwise take cultural elements from a marginalized group and use them for their own advantage. Cultural elements can include art, music, dance, dress, lan- guage, religious rituals, and other forms of expression that originate in a particular group. We see this borrowing (or some would say stealing) of cultural elements in a range of contexts, from costumes for Halloween or for college theme parties, to the carefully crafted images and musical stylings of singers like Katy Perry and Igg y Azalea. Some- times cultural appropriation is just insensitive. It can hurt the members of an aggrieved group, who may feel wronged, insulted, and offended. At the same time, it can have broader effects and serve to perpetuate negative stereotypes, exac- erbate interracial relations, and further entrench social inequalities.
Let’s look at some of the many instances of using the cultural symbols of various Native Ameri- can peoples. Recent fashion run- way trends have included suede and fringe, moccasins, and tur- quoise jewelry. Add to that some championship sports teams like MLB’s Cleveland Indians or the NFL’s Washington Redskins, both of which continue to use their derogatory names (and mascots) despite widespread objections. Critics contend that it is a prob- lem when specific items or prac- tices with sacred value (such as a headdress or a sweat lodge) are used without awareness of their
RACE CONSCIOUSNESS an ideology that acknowledges race as a powerful social construct that shapes our individual and social experiences
MICROAGGRESSIONS everyday uses of subtle verbal and nonverbal communications that convey denigrating or dismissive messages to members of certain social groups
CULTURAL APPROPRIATION the adoption of cultural elements belonging to an oppressed group by members of the dominant group, without permission and often for the dominant group’s gainGet Out Jordon Peele’s horror film Get Out dramatizes the
microaggressions that black people face in their everyday lives.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience228
of much impassioned dialogue about race and racial identity. Some characterized what Dolezal did as “passing,” although in the opposite way it usually works. Others sympathized with her deep identification and desire to immerse herself in black culture (Michael 2015). Others questioned why she hadn’t just been honest about her racial background, remain- ing an ally to the black community and to the cause of justice. Still many more felt deeply incensed by Dolezal’s deception and by her claims to have experienced racial oppression as a black woman.
Rogers Brubaker (2016) took the case of Rachel Dolezal in a different direction to help develop a provocative new proposi- tion about the permeability of race and gender. If we can accept the notion that a person can be transgender (that is, having a gender identity that is different than the sex assigned to a per- son at birth), then is it also possible for a person to be “transra- cial” and identify with a racial group other than the one he or she was born into? Brubaker makes an interesting compari- son between Caitlyn Jenner “coming out” as transgender and Rachel Dolezal being “outed” as white, both of which happened in 2015. Why is the one a more legitimate claim on identity than the other?
Paris Jackson, the daughter of Michael Jackson, presents an intriguing counterpoint. Questions about the parent- age of Jackson’s children have long been mired in contro- versy (was Michael really the father?). And at first glance, Paris Jackson appears white (not biracial), from her skin color and facial features to her blue eyes and blond hair. Yet in interviews, she asserts that her father always told her, “You’re black. Be proud of your roots.” So she considers her- self black (Hiatt 2017). We may never find out Paris Jack- son’s racial background like we did for Dolezal. How does that affect whether we accept her self- identification? Is she black because she says so?
significance or in a disrespectful way. Furthermore, cultural appropriation most often benefits the dominant group, which takes an oppressed group’s cultural symbols and turns them into a commodity for profit. This kind of pillaging is postmod- ern cultural imperialism.
Hollywood has a long track record of cultural appropria- tion and commodification intended to enrich its owners and shareholders. In the early decades of the film industry, white actors often played minority characters, and there is a long list of disgraceful portrayals to name. Yet such practices have continued, despite considerable backlash both past and present. Recently we have seen A- list white actors cast in roles that are distinctly nonwhite, including Matt Damon, who played a Chinese warlord in The Great Wall; Scarlett Johansson, who played a Japanese anime character in Ghost in the Shell; and Emma Stone, who played a mixed- race Asian character in Aloha. These portrayals sparked controversy and were widely criticized as “ white- washing” (Burr 2017; Martinelli 2015; Wong 2016). Perhaps this backlash will persuade studios and filmmakers to rethink their casting in the future and instead draw from the pool of talented and culturally appropriate actors waiting to fill such roles. These changes may happen more often as more minorities move into positions of power in the film industry.
THE CASE OF RACHEL DOLEZAL It is not always clear when the use of cultural elements by an outsider constitutes cultural appropriation and when it is cultural appreciation, and this ambiguity has been a source of debate. A case in point is Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who identified as black and went to great lengths to embody that chosen identity. A civil rights activist, leader of a local chapter of the NA ACP, and pro- fessor of Africana studies, Dolezal presented herself as black for many years until her parents revealed in 2015 that their daughter was in fact white. Suddenly, Dolezal was the subject
White Washing in Hollywood Controversy erupted over the casting of white actress Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell. Johansson plays a Japanese anime character in the film.
Rachel Dolezal The former leader of the Spokane, Washington, branch of the NAACP identifies as black despite being born to two white parents.
Racism in Its Many Forms 229
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Affirmative action is a particu- larly contentious area, and one about which claims of reverse racism have been made. Affirmative action policies, programs, and practices were established to help create opportunities for underrepresented minorities in housing, education, and employment. Some of the goals of affirmative action are to promote diversity and inclusion, provide equal access, and reduce the effects of historical discrimination. In the past few decades, critics have become more vocal in their opposition to affirmative action in the college admissions process. Several high- profile cases of white students suing universities on the grounds of reverse racism (because minority students were admitted when they were denied) have reached the Supreme Court and been struck down. Nevertheless, several states have passed laws banning the practice of affirmative action in higher education. California, which has the largest system of higher edu- cation in the nation, has sought to use other means to ensure a more equitable representation of students in its campus popula- tions. While some opponents see affirmative action as giving one group of people unfair preferen- tial treatment over others, proponents of social justice argue that these kinds of programs are necessary for creating a more level playing field in the United States.
Antiracist Allies In the struggle for racial justice, people of color have neces- sarily led the way. Whites also have a role to play, and they can work in solidarity toward the same goals by becoming antiracist allies. One of the most effective ways that whites
Reverse Racism Reverse racism is the claim that whites can also suffer dis- crimination based on their race and thus can experience the same kinds of disadvantages that minority groups have regu- larly encountered. This belief is persistent in the face of much data to refute it. A recent survey found that 49 percent of all Americans agree that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities, while another 49 percent disagree (Jones et al. 2016). These responses diverge when broken down by race: Only 29 percent of blacks and 38 percent of Hispanics agreed, compared with 57 percent of whites. Some of this dif- ference of opinion among groups may derive from a funda- mental misperception about what racism is and how it works.
Let’s break it down. While whites may confront some forms of temporary, occasional, or situational discrimination, they don’t suffer from the widespread cumulative disadvan- tages in almost every sphere of social life that are perpetuated within a historically and pervasively racist society. Even if all people of color espoused a hatred of whites, they would not be in the position to affect white people’s ability to get an educa- tion or well- paying job or find a home, or increase the odds that whites would be racially profiled and disproportionately imprisoned. Racism against whites is not supported by the social structure or its major social institutions. According to sociologist Robin DiAngelo (2012), racism requires the ongoing use of institutional power and authority to perpetu- ate prejudiced and discriminatory actions in systemic ways with far- reaching effects. People of color may hold prejudices and discriminate against some whites, but they don’t have the collective power to transform our society into one that is sys- tematically biased against whites. Whites have the position and the power to influence the laws, practices, customs, and norms that define American society in ways not widely avail- able to people of culture.
REVERSE RACISM the claim by whites that they suffer discrimination based upon their race and, therefore, experience social disadvantages
ANTIRACIST ALLIES whites and others working toward the goal of ending racial injustice
Turban Day in NYC Sikhs gather in New York’s Times Square to celebrate the holiday of Vaisakhi and educate others about their faith by wrapping turbans on passersby.
Paris Jackson The daughter of Michael Jackson identifies as black.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience230
framework for whites who want to be part of the solution. More whites are realizing that if they want a more inclusive, fair, and just society, they can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines.
Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Race Sociologists reject the notion that race has an objective or scientific meaning and instead seek to understand why race continues to play such a critical role in society. They have pro- duced a number of theories about the connections between race, discrimination, and social inequality.
Structural Functionalism For example, functiona list theor y has provided a useful lens for ana lyzing how certain ethnic groups, mainly Euro- pean immigrants (such as the Irish and Ita lians) arriving
can challenge racism is by working with other whites to help them gain a greater awareness of how racism works and what they can do about it. This means more than just lending sym- pathy or support to organizations such as the Black Lives Matter movement or the Anti- Defamation League. It also means confronting racism in their own everyday lives, when and where they see it. Many whites have begun to think criti- cally about white supremacy and white privilege, and they are in a unique position to recruit other whites to do likewise.
For many, it starts with getting educated about matters of race and racism and by listening to, rather than speaking for, people of color. It may also entail following the work of white antiracist authors and activists. In a growing number of social settings, such as schools, churches, and workplaces, whites are initiating peer group meetings to help support each other in their efforts to become better allies. New and existing orga- nizations, such as the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) or Stepping Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), are now orga- nizing around the goal of eradicating racism and can offer a
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement arose in response to the extrajudicial killings of black men in cities across the United States, starting with the shooting of Trayvon Mar- tin. Its mission was, most urgently, to make the United States a safer place for black people, a mission that challenges our country to acknowledge the continued existence of systemic racism. We have discussed this concept elsewhere in this chapter and book: systemic racism (sometimes called struc- tural or institutional racism) is found in the policies and prac- tices of social institutions (like education, the economy, the military, etc.) that result in discrimination against and exclu- sion of members of racial minority groups.
Neither individual intent nor explicitly racist policy is necessary for systemic racism to occur. In fact, most insti- tutional settings (schools, businesses, government agencies) have diversity policies and are populated by individuals who really do want an inclusive environment and equitable out- comes. Plus, it’s almost always against the law to craft poli- cies that openly favor one racial group over another, and any institution that tries to do so will likely find itself in court. Systemic racism is built into all of our country’s structures and institutions because it was part of our founding prin- ciples: The Constitution supported slavery by legally dehu- manizing people of African descent, and the racism of our early republic still shapes us centuries later. Many people want to believe that we live in a “postracial” world, that
IN THE FUTURE Whose Lives Matter?
racism isn’t a problem anymore, and that those who claim it is— like BLM activists— are themselves racist for suggesting that there is still a racial divide. But if you have been paying attention while reading this chapter, you cannot deny that our country is still riven by racism.
One of the main claims made by BLM is that law enforce- ment, as one of our most powerful social institutions, dis- criminates against black people in myriad ways, including shooting to kill in cases where there is little or no actual threat to anyone’s safety or when shots would likely not be fired at a white person. In addition, officers are less likely to be charged or convicted when they shoot black people. While cell phone videos and police dashboard and body cameras have finally made this problem visible to all, it is still diffi- cult for many Americans to see these incidents as examples of systemic racism. Our temptation is to find some way to blame the victim (“he must have looked at the cop wrong”) or to make it about individual “bad apples” in an otherwise upstanding police force. BLM asks that we look at the system in addition to the individuals involved.
As sociologists, we must ask: Why do we resist the idea of systemic racism? In order to dismantle a discriminatory system, mustn’t we see and understand it first? How can we plot a future in which Americans of all races acknowledge systemic racism, understand how it works, and commit to breaking it down for the good of all? How long will it take for
Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Race 231
Conflict Theory Conflict theory focuses on the struggle for power and control. Classic Marxist analyses of race, developed by sociologists in the 1960s, looked for the source of racism in capitalist hier- archies. Edna Bonacich (1980), for instance, argued that rac- ism is partly driven by economic competition and the struggle over scarce resources. A “split labor market,” in which one group of workers (usually defined by race, ethnicity, or gen- der) is routinely paid less than those in other groups, keeps wages low for racial and ethnic minorities, compounding the effects of racism with those of poverty. William Julius Wil- son (1980) posited that openly racist government policies and individual racist attitudes were the driving forces behind the creation of a black underclass but that the underclass is now perpetuated by economic factors, not racial ones. While this link between race and class is useful and important, it doesn’t provide a satisfactory explanation for all forms of racial and ethnic stratification.
in the early 1900s, eventua lly became assimilated into the larger society. Functiona lism, however, has proven less successful in explaining the persistence of racia l divi- sions and why other races and ethnicities, such as A frican A mericans and Hispanics, have continued to maintain their distinct identities a longside the white majority cul- ture today.
Perhaps what functiona lism can best offer is an explana- tion of how prejudice and discrimination develop by focus- ing on socia l solidarity and group cohesion. Groups have a tendency toward ethnocentrism, or the belief that one’s own culture and way of life are right and norma l. Function- a lists contend that positive feelings about one’s group are strong ties that bind people together. At the same time, this cohesiveness can lead members to see others, especia lly those of other races or ethnicities, in an unfavorable light. According to functiona lists, these cultura l differences and the lack of integration into the larger society on the part of minorities tend to feed fear and hostility.
The Faces of a Movement Meet the co-founders of Black Lives Matter: Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza, and Patrisse Cullors.
black lives to matter to all of us? The more we know about the history of race and racism in the United States, the better we will be able to understand that racism did not disappear with the abolition of slavery (or the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, or the Brown v. Board of Education decision, or the Civil Rights Act, or the election of a black president), and the sooner we will understand that racism is more compli- cated than just black and white.
W hat ca n you contribute to the acknowledg ment, apprehension, a nd obliteration of systemic racism in the United States? First, learn about our nation’s histor y— not the sa nitized version of it that you may have gotten in elementa r y or high school, but the rea l, messy, a nd com- plicated version you have access to now. Maybe sta r t with Howa rd Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States a nd Ibra m Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016). You’ll a lso wa nt to listen— to people whose experiences a re different from yours. This ca n happen just about a ny where— in the class- room, at the bus stop, in church, at work, or even in your own fa mily.
Then act— in whatever way you have the ability to act. That may mean you join a movement like BLM and partici- pate in marches, lobbying, or other political tactics. But it can also mean refusing to laugh at racist jokes. It can mean spending money at businesses owned by people of color. It
can mean writing a letter to the editor of your local newspa- per. It can mean talking to your kids about race, difference, and inequality. It can mean volunteering in your community. It can mean traveling to other cities, states, or countries. None of these actions alone will solve the problem of sys- temic racism. But the more people who are aware, interested, and active, the better are our chances for a future with less systemic racism.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience232
agenda for social justice. Some of the most visible figures in critical race theory engage in what is sometimes called pub- lic sociolog y— bridging legal and scholarly works with front- line involvement in solutions to the real- world problems of racial and gender oppression.
Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionists focus on how we perceive and inter- pret race in everyday life, looking at the meanings and ideas we hold and how this helps to produce and perpetuate real- world consequences. Meanings can and do change over time, and so has our understanding of race.
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE Sociologists understand race as a social rather than a bio- logical category. Students often find this idea confusing, because the everyday understanding of race in the United States is that it is based on skin color, which is an inherited physical trait. Sociologists who study race, however, point out that there is no physical trait that will always accu- rately identify what race someone belongs to. As Michael Omi and Howard Winant point out in Racial Formation in the United States (1994, 2015), “although the concept of race invokes biologically based human characteristics,” which particular features are chosen to make racial distinctions “is always and necessarily a social and historical process” (1994, p. 55). Indeed, although Americans talk about skin color as the principal physical marker of racial identity, some scholars argue that hair is a more important factor (Banks 2000). Even though they are expressed in terms of physical traits, the definitions of different racial groups are “at best imprecise and at worst completely arbitrary” (Omi and Winant 1994, 2015, p. 55). The definition of race is not stable but rather changes over time as racial categories are contested and developed.
This is not to say that race is unimportant. Omi and Winant show how racial groups are created socially and historically by arguing that “race can be understood as a fundamental dimension of social organization and cultural meaning in the U.S.” (1994, p. viii). Real, physical bodies still matter to this process, but it is the meaning attributed to these bodies that determines what racial categories will exist, who will belong in them, and what they will mean.
For example, sociologist Stuart Hall was born in Jamaica but immigrated to England as a young man, where he became one of the founding figures in the development of cultural studies. He explained the social construction of race by recounting a conversation he had with his young son, who was the product of a mixed marriage. Hall describes a moment when his “son, who was two and a half, was learn- ing the colors.” Hall explained to him, “‘You’re Black.’ And he said, ‘No. I’m brown’” (2006, p. 222). Hall’s son was thinking
In recent years, conflict theorists have developed new approaches to understanding race. In his book Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California (2008), for example, Tomas Almaguer looks at the history of race relations in California during the late nineteenth century. He describes a racial hierarchy that placed whites at the top, followed by Mexicans, blacks, Asians, and Native Americans at the bottom. Rather than focusing exclusively on class, he exam- ines how white supremacist ideology became institutional- ized. Racist beliefs became a part of political and economic life during that period. Ideas like “manifest destiny” (the belief that the United States had a mission to expand its territories) helped justify the taking of lands, and the notion that Native Ameri-
cans were “uncivilized heathens” helped justify killing them. Soci- ologists also argue that race isn’t just a secondary phenomenon that results from the class system: It permeates both lived experience
and larger- scale activity, such as the economy and the govern- ment (Omi and Winant 1994, 2015).
Still others have sought to understand the meaning of race from the individual’s point of view and have begun to analyze the ways that race, class, and gender inequalities intersect. For instance, writers like Patricia Hill Collins (2006), bell hooks (1990), and Gloria Anzaldúa (1987) argue that race must be explained in the terms in which it is experienced, not as overarching general theories. Though some of these writ- ers have been sharply critical of the symbolic interaction- ist tradition, which they believe does not take into account macro social forces that shape the realities of stratification, they share with interactionism a conviction that race, like all other aspects of social life, is created symbolically in every- day interactions. We will explore that idea further in the next section.
Critical race theory is an important, though still some- what controversial, outgrowth of conflict theory (Bell 1980; Delgado and Stefancic 2012; Williams 1991). It was devel- oped in the 1980s by legal scholars who drew upon writings in the social sciences to form a school of thought around the issues of race, politics, and power. They believe that racism permeates our social institutions, especially our judicial system, and must be recognized and addressed as such. One feature of critical race theory is a focus on intersectional- ity, or taking into account how race is also modified by class, gender, sexuality, and other social statuses. To under- stand the experiences of racism, one must consider the dif- fering experiences of a woman of color, or a middle- class black man, or a gay Latino. Critical race theory encourages the inclusion of narratives from a multitude of intersect- ing voices and viewpoints. Another feature of critical race theory is its commitment to cha llenging racist laws and policies and to engage in a kind of activism that not only cri- tiques the status quo but also is intended to push forward an
CRITICAL RACE THEORY the study of the relationship between race, racism, and power
Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Race 233
a discussion of passing. DuBois asked whether one could be black and at the same time claim one’s rights as an Ameri- can. Given the history of oppression and enslavement of Afri- can Americans, DuBois was not the only person to wonder whether this was possible. There are many social forces that disenfranchise and exclude minorities, and the phenomenon of passing suggests that in some places and times, it has been more advantageous to appear white if at all possible.
One hundred years later, a different kind of passing is gaining attention in the black community. Black masculinity makes demands on black men that include a public persona of heterosexuality. For black men who have sex with other men, this often creates a pressure to “pass,” or live an apparently het- ero lifestyle in which sexual rela- tions with men happen only “on the down low” or “DL.” Jeffrey McCune’s (2014) ethnographic study of a Chicago nightclub catering to gay black men reveals the ways in which race shapes the performance of both gender and sexuality for men on the DL. “The Gate” played hip- hop music, infamous for its hypermasculine, heteronormative, and sometimes homophobic lyrics, but that didn’t stop the cli- entele from turning the Gate into a space where their same- sex desires could be comfortably expressed. In their everyday lives, these men did the interactional work necessary to keep their sexuality private and their conventionally masculine and heterosexual images intact. But on Friday nights at the Gate, McCune observes that they could enjoy the coexistence of their multiple identities. Dancing to hip- hop music with other black men allowed them to both reinforce and accept
in purely physical terms. If race really were biological, he would have been correct, but as Hall explains, he has the “wrong referent,” because he was not “talking about your paintbox” (p. 222). Hall understands that it is not skin color that created racial categories. If that were true, his son would belong to a different race than he. Race is not a preexisting biological category; it is a social one that is framed in terms of biological features.
Another aspect of the social construction of race is that we “read” others through myriad cues, and we in turn make our- selves readable to others by our own self- presentations. Our identity is constructed in the negotiation between what we project and what others recognize. Even master statuses such as race, gender, and age are negotiated in this way. So how do we project our racial or ethnic identities and read the racial or ethnic identities of others? We might think immediately of stereotypes like surfer dudes, sorority girls, “welfare moms,” and so on. But in fact there are more subtle ways in which we project and receive our racial and ethnic identities. The inter- actional accomplishment of race is often easiest to see in the most unusual situations.
PASSING Racial passing, or living as if one is a member of a different racial category, has a long history in the United States. Both during and after slavery, some light- skinned African Americans attempted to live as whites in order to avoid the dire consequences of being black in a racist soci- ety. And people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds still pass, intentionally or unintentionally, every day in the United States. Passing involves manufacturing or maintain- ing a new identity that is more beneficial than one’s real iden- tity. W. E. B. DuBois, a pioneer in the study of race, devised the concept of double- consciousness, which seems relevant to
PASSING presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group to which you belong
DOUBLE- CONSCIOUSNESS W. E. B. DuBois’s term for the divided identity experienced by blacks in the United States
Passing in Moonlight The 2016 film Moonlight tells the story of Chiron (left), a gay man on the down low. Chiron, like the men in Jeffrey McCune’s study of a Chicago night club, keeps his sexuality private, projecting a traditionally masculine and heterosexual identity.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience234
text messaging, we may not have any of the kind of physical cues that can tell us something about the other person. We may only have their written words to decipher and maybe just a small, inscrutable thumbnail photo of them in a corner of the posts, which makes it all the more difficult to ascertain their racial or ethnic background. This has been touted as one of the more democratizing traits of the Internet— that it can transcend, even obliterate, the real- world physical traits associated with categories like race, gender, or age that nor- mally define us. It is such aspects of embodied identity (the way we are perceived in the physical world) that have histori- cally been used as the basis for discrimination. These same
dominant definitions of race, gender, and sexuality while also resisting and subverting them.
EMBODIED (AND DISEMBODIED) IDENTITIES Are we heading toward a future when race will matter less and less? In a digital age does race disappear when more and more
interactions take place exclu- sively online? When we’re inter- acting online, we may not always be able to see what others look like. In many online spaces, such as in e- mail, chat functions, or
Though it is now rather commonplace, at one point in history forty- one out of the fifty American states pro- hibited miscegenation— the romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races. In 1958, for example, Mildred and Richard Loving, an African American woman and a white man, married and settled in their native state of Virginia. In July of that year, they were arrested for violating the state’s “Act to Preserve Racial Purity” and con- victed. The judge sentenced them to a year in prison but sus- pended the sentence on the condition that the couple leave the state. The Lovings moved to Washington, DC, where in 1967 the Supreme Court overturned all such laws, ruling that the state of Virginia had denied the Lovings their constitutional
rights. While the Loving deci- sion technically cleared the way for interracial marriages nationwide, states were slow to change their laws. It took until 2000 for the state of Ala-
bama to finally overturn the last antimiscegenation statute left in the nation.
Just because it’s legal doesn’t always make it easy. People who date interracially may still face stigma and discrimina- tion at a social and personal level. They may have to deal with in- group pressures from family, peers, and others to date (and especially marry) someone of their own race. Partner- ing with someone outside of one’s group may be perceived as being disloyal and can elicit strong sanctions from other members. Stereotypes about members of different racial and ethnic groups are also slow to disappear. People may hold on to racist and sexist notions about the attributes (or deficits) of men and women from different ethnic backgrounds and
IN RELATIONSHIPS From the Lovings to Kimye: Interracial Dating and Marriage
their suitability as romantic partners. We see these tensions played out in popular culture, in films, on TV shows, and in our own everyday lives. But real change is happening.
As diversity has rapidly increased in the United States, so has the number of interracia l marriages. Young adults have more relationships with more people from diverse backgrounds, and they are more favorable to forming a romantic partnership with someone from another racia l or ethnic group. Spurred in part by a rise in immigration to the United States, interracia l marriage has increased
MISCEGENATION romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races
Mildred and Richard Loving Their interracial marriage was illegal in 1958.
EMBODIED IDENTITY those elements of identity that are generated through others’ perceptions of our physical traits
Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Race 235
Responses also help establish racial identity: It’s not just what you say, but how others receive it. In some discussions, the African American identity of participants is accepted, but in other cases that status is contested, in what Burkhal- ter calls “identity challenges.” Identity challenges are usually accusations that one is not “really” black or not black enough.
Burkhalter argues that race is not irrefutably identifiable even in face- to- face interactions and that we must establish it interactionally both on- and off- line. We can’t always tell by looking what race someone belongs to and how that per- son might define his own racial identity. We may make mis- takes of attribution. Stereotypes can come into play in either
ways of knowing about others through embodied characteris- tics are not necessarily available to those interacting online.
While the Internet has the potential to minimize race and other visible traits, that’s not always desirable. It depends on the context. Sometimes we go online and want to display our racial identity, but that can be challenging when all we have are words. In the case of online communities that are based on racial identity, race must still be “done” interactionally. To sound authentically African American online, for instance, you have to include what sociologist Byron Burkhalter (1999) calls “racially relevant” content and language— for example, referring to other African American women as “sisters.”
steadily, from just 0.4 percent of a ll married people in 1960 to 10 percent in 2015; the share climbs to 17 percent among newly weds, who have had perhaps the most diverse dating pool of any generation (Livingston and Brown 2017). These figures do not yet reflect same- sex partners or unmarried cohabiters, groups that would certainly add to the trend.
The prevalence of intermarriage varies by demographic group and at the intersections of race, gender, age, and edu- cation. While the data point to a marked rise in intermar- riage across all the major ethnic and racial groups in the United States, intermarriage is most common among Asians (29 percent of newlyweds) and Hispanics (27 percent), fol- lowed by blacks (18 percent) and whites (11 percent). The data are somewhat complex. For instance, if we also consider the variable of gender, Asian women marry outside their race far more often than Asian men do, while African American women marry far less often outside their race than African American men do. Finally, interracial marriage is somewhat more common among those who are college educated (Liv- ingston and Brown 2017).
Since the time of the Loving case, society’s attitudes about mixed- race relationships have radically changed, becoming much more positive. In 2017, 39 percent of Americans said that marrying someone of a different race was good for soci- ety. More Millennials say this is a good trend than do Gen Xers or Baby Boomers (Livingston and Brown 2017). The decline in disapproval rates over time is even more dramatic: The number of nonblack adults who said they would be opposed to a close relative marrying a black person declined from a high of 63 percent in 1990 to a low of 14 percent in 2017. Disapproval for interracial marriage to Hispanics or Asians is just 9 percent, and for whites it was 4 percent.
Stigma, prejudice, and restrictive racial stereotypes, as well as entrenched negative beliefs on the part of some people, all remain persistent challenges to creating a more widely accepting, multicultural, and multiracial society. Nonetheless, the growing number of interracial marriages, while still relatively small, is an indication of significant social change. One researcher said that this trend “reflects an important shift toward blurring a long- held color line in the United States” (Frey 2014).
How do you feel about interracial relationships? There’s some likelihood that you or someone you know is already in one. Or just look around— there are more interracial couples now than ever.
The Big Sick In this romantic comedy based on his own life, Pakistani comedian Kumail Nanjiani falls in love with an American graduate student. His traditional Muslim parents don’t approve of the match.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience236
Family Race, ethnicity, and their correlates (such as SES) shape family life in a variety of ways. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2016b) showed that in 2015, of the white population over fifteen years of age, 51 percent were married, 11 percent divorced, 6 percent widowed, and 30 percent never married. Of the African American population over age fifteen, 29 percent were married, 12 percent divorced, 6 percent widowed, and
arena but in different directions: In face- to- face interaction, seeing racial characteristics leads to stereotyping; online, applying stereotypical templates leads to assumptions about race. The Internet is thus not a place where all the problem- atic distinctions disappear— they just manifest themselves in different ways.
Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances A law professor decides that it is time to buy a house. After careful research into neighborhoods and land values, she picks one. With her excellent credit history and prestigious job, she easily obtains a mortgage over the phone. When the mortgage forms arrive in the mail, she sees to her surprise that the phone representative has identified her race as “white.” Smiling, she checks another box, “African American,” and mails back the form. Suddenly, everything changes. The lend- ing bank wants a bigger down payment and a higher interest rate. When she threatens to sue, the bank backs down. She learns that the bank’s motivation is falling property values in the proposed neighborhood. She doesn’t understand this; those property values were completely stable when she was researching the area. Then she realizes that she is the reason for the plummeting values.
As Patricia Williams’s (1997) experience illustrates, mem- bership in socially constructed categories of race and ethnic- ity can often carry a high price. We now look at other ways this price might be paid in the areas of family, health, education, work, and criminal justice.
White
10%
20%
30%
40%
0% Black Hispanic Asian
12
24
Men Women
12
26 28
21
36
10
P er
ce n ta
g e
o f
n ew
ly w
ed s
w h o
a re
in te
rm ar
ri ed
Figure 8.2 Intermarriage Rates by Race
SOURCE: Livingston and Brown 2017.
Table 8.1 Theory in Everyday Life
Perspective Approach to Race and Ethnicity Case Study: Racial Inequality
Structural Functionalism
Racial and ethnic differences are a necessary part of society. Even racial inequality has functions that help maintain social order.
The functions of racial inequality and conflict for society could include the creation of social cohesion within both the dominant and minority groups.
Conflict Theory
Racial and ethnic differences create intergroup conflict; minority and majority groups have different interests and may find themselves at odds as they attempt to secure and protect their interests.
Some members of majority groups (whites and men in particular) object to affirmative action programs that assist underrepresented groups. This can create conflict among racial groups in society.
Symbolic Interactionism
Race and ethnicity are part of our identity as displayed through our presentation of self.
Some individuals (white ethnics and light- skinned nonwhites in particular) have the option to conceal their race or ethnicity in situations where it might be advantageous to do so. This may allow them as individuals to escape the effects of racial inequality but does not erase it from society at large.
Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances 237
Researchers Anne Case and Angus Deaton (2015) recently found surprising new reasons to be concerned about the health of whites as well, specifically middle- aged whites without a college degree. After many decades of declining mortality or death rates among all Americans aged forty- five to fifty- four, this group has experienced a startling reversal of this trend. The mortality rate in midlife for whites with just a high school education actually increased a half percent a year between 1999 and 2014. While this group used to have death rates that were 30 percent lower than those of blacks, their rates are now 30 percent higher. While part of this increase is due to slowing progress in combating heart disease and cancer, the researchers also found evidence of a rise in what they called “deaths of despair”—death by drugs, alcohol, and suicide (Case and Deaton 2017). Case and Deaton found that the lack of steady, well- paying jobs was an aggravating factor causing pain, distress, and social dysfunction to build up over time and further exacerbate conditions.
Another ongoing issue for Americans is access to health- care insurance and medical services. Many health- care consumers rely on insurance benefits provided through their employer if they have a job with such benefits; if not, they must buy individual insurance policies in order to meet their medical needs, and many Americans cannot afford basic health- care coverage. In 2016, 6 percent of whites didn’t have health insurance, along with 8 percent of Asian Americans, 11 percent of blacks, and 16 percent of Hispan- ics (Figure 8.3). The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA, or Obamacare) was designed to address such inequities by pro- viding something like universal health- care coverage, but the law has remained an area of contention. Under the Trump
50 percent never married. The Hispanic population reported 43 percent over age fifteen married, 9 percent divorced, 3 per- cent widowed, and 42 percent never married. Thus, African Americans are more likely than whites and Hispanics to never marry or to be divorced. This means that black and Hispanic children are significantly more likely to live in single- parent homes. In 2015, for example, 74 percent of white children and 83 percent of Asian children lived with two married parents compared to just 34 percent of black children and 60 percent of Hispanic children; nearly half of all black children live with their mother only (Child Trends Databank 2015).
Kathryn Edin (2005) has argued that low- income women of all ethnicities see marriage as having few benefits. They feel that the men they are likely to encounter as possible husbands will not offer the advantages (financial stability, respectabil- ity, trust) that make the rewards of marriage worth the risks. This doesn’t mean, of course, that most low- income women don’t love their male companions; it only means that they believe a legal bond would not substantially improve their lot in life.
In 2015, the birth rates for American teenage mothers (ages fifteen to nineteen) varied significantly by race. The birth rate for white teenage moms was 16 per 1,000 births, while the birth rate for African Americans was 32 per 1,000; for Hispanics it was 35 per 1,000 (Martin et al. 2017). Social thinkers such as Angela Y. Davis argue that African Ameri- can teenage girls in particular see fewer opportunities for education and work and choose motherhood instead (2001). Davis believes that social policies aimed at punishing teen- age mothers of color will be ineffective; only by attacking the racism inherent in the educational system and the workforce will these teens be at less risk of becoming mothers.
Health Health is an area in which we find widespread disparity among racial and ethnic groups. Although whites have typi- cally fared better in health matters than minorities, this is not always the case. Recent findings reveal a more complicated picture of the nation’s health when intersections between race, class, and gender are taken into account.
One way of measuring health is to look at life expectancy. White male children born in 2015 can expect to live to be around 76 years old, while white females can expect to live to 81. African American males’ life expectancy is 71 years, and African American females’ is 78. While whites still live lon- ger than blacks, these figures represent an important nar- rowing of the black– white gap in life expectancy. In 1980, this gap in life expectancy was almost 7 years for men and nearly 6 years for women; it’s now 4.5 years for men and 3 years for women. Notably, Hispanic men and women have the highest life expectancy, higher even than whites: 79 years for Hispanic men and 84 for Hispanic women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017b).
25%
20%
15%
10%
7.6%
10.5%
16.0%
6.3%
5%
0 Whites Asians Blacks Hispanics
Figure 8.3 Americans without Health Insurance by Race/Ethnicity, 2016
SOURCE: Barnett and Berchick 2017.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience238
racial stereotypes may adversely affect African American students when they are in highly demanding situations in which they might risk confirming those stereotypes. In competitive, high- stakes academic conditions (such as test- taking), stereotype threat can cause sufficient anxi- ety in those students to effectively harm their abilities. In less stressful situations, when no negative stereotypes are invoked, these students perform as well as peers of other races. Steele suggests that stereotype threat may help explain some of the achievement gap between racial groups. Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou (2015) have identified an inverse phenomenon that they call “stereotype promise.” Because there are positive stereotypes associated with the academic performance of Asian Americans, those students may reap benefits in similarly stressful situations when they might confirm such stereotypes.
Earning an education is extremely important in American society. Not only does it translate to greater success in the workforce, but it also confers social status and cultural capital that can prove valuable in other arenas.
Work and Income In 2016, African Americans made up 12 percent and His- panics 17 percent of the tota l workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017f ). If jobs were truly given to people regardless of racia l or ethnic identity, we would expect to see these same distributions across occupations. However, that is not the case. For example, in 2016, African Ameri- cans constituted 9.1 percent and Hispanics 9.3 percent of a ll management, professiona l, and related occupations
administration, lawmakers have proposed repealing the ACA and replacing it with a different plan.
Disparities in access to health care can adversely affect members of a racial group. This may partially help to explain the gap in life expectancy rates for men and women of different races. Minorities are also often disproportionately exposed to other factors that affect life span, such as dangers in the work- place, toxins in the environment, violence, and stress.
Education One of America’s cultural myths is that everyone has equal access to education, the key to a secure, well- paying job. However, by looking at those who actually receive degrees, we can see that the playing field is not that level. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2017a), the high school graduation rate in 2015 was 90 percent for Asians, 88 percent for whites, 78 percent for Hispanics, and just 75 percent for blacks. The reasons for dropping out of high school are com- plex, but the highest rates are associated with those from economically disadvantaged and non– English- speaking backgrounds. In 2015, Hispanics had the highest high school dropout rate of all racial groups at 9 percent.
Victor Rios (2017) spent five years in schools and commu- nity centers documenting what happens to Latino youth in what has been called the school- to- prison pipeline. Rios traces a pattern in which some Latino youth encounter negative experiences with teachers and other school authorities who misunderstand the students’ cultural cues and background. This can result in those students being labeled as “bad,” “devi- ant,” or “at risk,” further stigmatizing them within the school system. There may be greater scrutiny and punishment of Latino youth, sometimes leading to suspension or expulsion from school. This process serves to criminalize Latino youth, sending them on a path away from education and mainstream society. At the same time, these youths are also surveilled by police in their communities, where they may experience simi- larly negative interactions and consequences.
In higher education, there are similar disparities of achieve- ment at each level. In 2016, 56 percent of Asian Americans over age twenty- five, 37 percent of whites, 23 percent of blacks, and 16 percent of Hispanics had a bachelor’s degree or higher (Figure 8.4). Further, 24 percent of Asian Americans, 14 per- cent of whites, 9 percent of African Americans, and 5 percent of Hispanics had advanced degrees (master’s, professional degrees, and doctorates) (U.S. Census Bureau 2017c). Thus, Asian Americans and whites enjoy more success overall in the U.S. educational system than African Americans and His- panics do. The reasons for the disparity are again complex, involving both economic and cultural factors.
Claude Steele (2010) has identified something called “stereotype threat,” a social- psychological mechanism at play among minority college students that hinders their academic performance. Steele discovered that negative
50%
60%
40%
30%
20%
37.3%
23.3%
16.4%
55.9%
10%
0 Whites Asians Blacks Hispanics
Figure 8.4 Americans over Age 25 with Bachelor’s Degrees by Race/Ethnicity, 2016
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau 2017c.
Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances 239
Many workplaces— academic, government, and corporate— are experimenting with different programs in an effort to increase the diversity of their workforces. A quick look at the numbers and it is clear why these programs are necessary: In 2016, there were five African American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and twenty- one female CEOs, rep- resenting 1 percent and 4.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, respectively. With companies like Bank of America settling huge race- discrimination lawsuits in recent years, the stakes are high, but what do we know about these different diversity initiatives and their ability to truly increase diversity?
Sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev (2016) analyzed three decades of data from more than 800 U.S. firms, and interviewed hundreds of managers and executives, to learn what works— and what doesn’ t— when it comes to diversity programs. First, Dobbin and Kalev found that top- down approaches to diversity, including diversity training programs as well as tools like hiring tests and per- formance ratings, are generally not effective. They found that the positive effects of diversity training typically faded after just a few days, and some companies experienced adverse effects. Part of the problem, they found, is that companies often make these training programs mandatory, evoking anger and resistance from participants. Companies saw much better results when they made the training voluntary. Companies that instituted voluntary diversity training pro- grams saw increases of 9 percent to 13 percent in women and black, Hispanic, and Asian men in management positions after five years (Dobbin and Kalev 2016).
But the most effective diversity programs, Dobbin and Kalev found, are not the ones that come from above but rather those that engage managers in solving the problem, increase managers’ contact with female and minority work- ers, and promote social accountability. These programs include mentoring and college recruitment programs. For example, five years after implementing a college recruit- ment program targeting women, companies saw their share of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian women in management increase by an average of 10 percent. Diversity task forces and diversity managers were also found to be successful, namely by increasing social accountability. When managers knew their hiring decisions were going to be reviewed by a diversity manager, they were more likely to consider all qual- ified applicants (Dobbin and Kalev 2016). A growing num- ber of organizations, from the Veterans Administration to Fortune 500 companies and community colleges, have estab- lished new internal offices or centers whose sole directive is
ON THE JOB Diversity Programs: Do They Work?
infusing diversity, equity, and cultural competency into the workplace culture, policies, and environment.
Of course, there may be some backlash to such organiza- tional changes. A recent study found that high- status groups such as white men interpret pro- diversity messages as unfair and as threatening to their status position. The exper- iment found that when an organization mentioned being pro- diversity, white male applicants were more likely to express concerns over discrimination and overall performed less well than white men applying to a company that didn’t mention diversity (Dover, Major, and Kaiser 2016). There may be those individuals who argue that promoting workplace diversity through training and employee- support programs is neither necessary nor a worthwhile use of organizational resources. Everyone has an equal chance of making it to the top, they say, and women, blacks, Latinos, gays and lesbians, the disabled, and other workers should all just “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.” The debate over whether historically disad- vantaged groups should receive any kind of special attention has been with us for decades and will continue to rumble for as long as inequality persists in our society.
But think about it this way: If you were the CEO, presi- dent, or director of an organization, wouldn’t you want to make sure you were doing everything you could to create a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace that benefits from the contributions of everyone working for you? And that you weren’t overlooking the skills and talents of poten- tial employees for baseless reasons like their gender, race, or sexual orientation?
Diversity Training Sociological research has shown that companies experience better outcomes when they make diversity training voluntary.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience240
Criminal Justice Although the majority of the U.S. population is white— about 61 percent, as opposed to about 13 percent black and 18 per- cent Hispanic— we don’t find these same proportions in the prison population. Of all state and federal prisoners in 2015, 35 percent were African American, while 34 percent were white and 22 percent Hispanic (Carson and Anderson 2016). Why are larger proportions of African Americans and His- panics in prison?
One explanation is the practice of racial profiling in policing, which we discussed in the chapter opener. Data on pedestrian and motor vehicle stops demonstrate that blacks and Hispanics are 127 percent more likely than whites to be stopped and 43 percent more likely to be frisked. Despite this unequal policing, blacks and Hispanics are 42 percent and 32 percent less likely to be in possession of a weapon or drugs than are whites (American Civil Liberties Union 2008). While not justified statistically, these higher stop and search rates increase the likelihood that black and Hispanic drivers and pedestrians will be placed into contact with the criminal jus- tice system and experience unequal treatment in the applica- tion of laws.
Some laws that don’t seem race based still create racially differentiated outcomes. For example, federal law until 2010 handed out far tougher sentences to crack cocaine users (who were more likely to be black) than to users of powdered cocaine (who were more likely to be white or Hispanic). If you possessed a small amount of crack cocaine, say 5 grams (for personal use), you’d get the same mandatory ten- year sen- tence that you would receive if you possessed a huge amount of powder cocaine, like 500 grams (enough for hundreds of uses). This disparity was rooted in the misperception of crack as a far more dangerous or damaging substance, when in fact it is actually quite similar to powder cocaine.
During the 1980s and 1990s crack cocaine use soared, in part because of its lower price point. Black communities suffered disproportionately from what was called the “crack epidemic.” In 2010, 79 percent of the federally sentenced crack offenders were black, despite research indicating that two- thirds of crack users were white or Hispanic. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the sentencing disparity from a ratio of 100:1 to 18:1. While this judicial reform was a step toward greater fairness, it still means that sentencing for crack cocaine is eighteen times harsher than for powder cocaine. Many social justice advocates call for the complete elimination of the disparity (a 1:1 ratio). Another issue is that the law does not apply retroactively to those offenders who were already sentenced before its passage. Furthermore, the Fair Sentencing Act applies only to federal offenders, leav- ing a much larger number of nonviolent drug offenders to face far stiffer penalties at the state and local levels.
Other factors to consider are higher unemployment rates among minority groups, as well as higher dropout rates; in
(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017f ). That means that these positions, which usua lly require advanced degrees, are primarily held by whites.
In contrast, persons of color carry the burden of some of society ’s most difficult jobs. In 2016, 38 percent of a ll nurs- ing, psychiatric, and home hea lth aides and 24 percent of a ll posta l clerks were black, while Hispanics were more likely to be employed in farming (45 percent of tota l) and as maids and house cleaners (47 percent of tota l) (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017f ). Except for nursing, these jobs are more likely to be semiskilled or unskilled. Thus, people of color, who are less likely to achieve high levels of education, are more likely to swell the bottom rungs of the job mar- ket. Interestingly, some lower- level jobs have shifted from African Americans to Hispanics over time. For instance, in 1983, African Americans accounted for 42 percent and His- panics for 12 percent of a ll private household cleaners; by 2016, blacks accounted for only 17 percent. A similar shift may be seen with other low- wage jobs. This means that persons of color increasingly compete with each other for such jobs.
Research indicates that blacks face discrimination in the U.S. labor market. One study looked at the impact of racia lly identifiable names on one’s chances of receiving job ca llbacks from employers (Bertrand and Mullaina- than 2004). Researchers submitted resumes in response to help- wanted ads in Boston and Chicago. To manipulate the perception of race, each resume was assigned either a ste- reotypically white name such as Emily or Greg or a black- sounding name such as Lakisha or Jamal. The study results showed marked discrimination. Resumes with white- sounding names garnered a 50 percent higher callback rate than identical resumes with black- sounding names. When the researchers listed additional qualifications, the higher- quality resume elicited 30 percent more callbacks for the white applicants but a far smaller increase for blacks. Dis- crimination occurred regardless of the job occupation or industry.
In 2016, the median household income was $65,041 for whites, $47,675 for Hispanics, and $39,490 for Afri- can Americans. Asian Americans had the highest median income at $81,431 (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). The median incomes of Asian Americans and whites thus place them in the middle class, while those of blacks and Hispan- ics place them in the lower- middle (working) class. Afri- can Americans and Hispanics are more disproportionately represented than whites in the income brackets between $0 and $49,999, while whites are more disproportionately represented in income brackets above $50,000. In 2016, 9 percent of whites lived below the poverty line, compared with 22 percent of African Americans and 19 percent of His- panics (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). These numbers make it easy to see how race and class intersect to influence life outcomes.
Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances 241
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Does TV Reflect the Realities of Race?
Maybe you’ve noticed a change recently in the television landscape. In the past several years, we’ve seen an increase in the num-
ber of TV series that include diverse casts from a range of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Shows like Black- ish and Insecure, Master of None, and Jane the Vir- gin revolve around main characters who are black, South Asian, and Latina. And they’re not alone. There are many other TV shows with predominantly nonwhite casts on cable and streaming networks. It wasn’t so long ago that TV was largely populated by white characters, with only the occasional minority sidekick thrown in. Today it is much easier to find shows that feature multicultural casts and in which race is a central theme of the comedy, drama, or action.
While such gains are encouraging, we are still far from reaching something that looks like racial parity onscreen. Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population is composed of minorities, and yet they remain woefully underrepresented both in front of and behind the cam- era as actors, writers, directors, and show runners (Hunt et al. 2017). During the 2014–2015 season, minorities represented just 11 percent of lead roles in broadcast
other words, a lack of education and job opportunities may contribute to incarceration rates. There is also some evidence that there are connections between declining marriage rates and incarceration (Pettit and Western 2004).
It is also clear that African Americans are far more likely than whites to be murdered: In 2015, blacks accounted for approximately 53 percent of murder victims nationwide despite representing only 13 percent of the population; whites represent 61 percent of the U.S. population but 44 percent of murder victims (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016b). Finally, over half of the reported hate crimes in 2015 were attributed to race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias (59 percent), with 30 percent targeting blacks, 11 percent targeting Jews, and 10 percent targeting whites (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016c). The Southern Poverty Law Center charted a disturb- ing trend that worsened in 2016, fueled in part by the Trump campaign and its anti- immigrant rhetoric and proposals to ban Muslims from entering the country. The number of hate groups in the United States rose to 917, up from 892 in 2015. The most dramatic growth was the near tripling of anti- Muslim hate groups from 35 in 2015 to 101 in 2016 (Potok 2017).
Intersectionality As you might have already concluded, race and ethnicity do not shape our life chances in isolation from other social sta- tuses and aspects of identity. Instead, race and ethnicity are frequently enmeshed with social class, gender, sexual- ity, and more. Sociologist France Winddance Twine (2011b) demonstrates this in her ethnographic study of white women who have families with black men. As the intimate partners of black men, these women effectively lose some of their whiteness— especially in the eyes of their white working- class friends and family— and become “honorary blacks.” This loss of whiteness is a form of punishment exacted by their
Table 8.2 Federal Cocaine Offenders by Race/Ethnicity, 2012
Powder Crack All Drug Types
Race/Ethnicity Percent Percent Percent
White 12.6 4.2 21.8
Black 32.3 88.1 38.8
Hispanic 54.2 7.1 37.2
Asian 0.5 0.3 1.5
SOURCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics 2015a.
ethnicity- and class- based communities, but it is not meted out equally to white men who marry black women. Twine’s work identifies the intersection of class, race, and gender by showing the ways in which “interracial intimacy and the rac- ism that accompanies it is a gendered experience” (p. 30).
An additional social status, motherhood, is also part of the intersectionality in Twine’s study. White mothers of interra- cial children may not possess the racial literacy to raise those children in a world that will almost certainly see and treat them as black. From cooking and hair care to preparation for experiencing racism, these mothers— because they are women and because they are white— must calibrate their parenting practices in order to address race and racism in ways that their own mothers did not. In Twine’s work, race, class, gen- der, and parenthood combine to shape the lived experiences of individuals and families.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience242
Atlanta Ballers Being Mary Jane Black-ish The Carmichael Show Devious Maids Empire First Family of Hip- Hop Fresh Off the Boat Grey’s Anatomy
How to Get Away with Murder
Insecure Jane the Virgin Master of None New Girl Orange Is the New Black Power Scandal The Shahs of Sunset The Vet Life
You will be using existing sources as a research method and doing a content analysis of one episode of the TV series you chose. Refer to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. Watch a recent episode of your chosen series in its entirety. You will want to record the program or look for an episode on DVD or that you can stream from Netflix, Hulu, or another online source so that you can review certain scenes, interactions, or bits of dialogue several times. Take notes as you watch, paying special attention to the episode’s content as it relates to race and ethnicity. Your notes can be informal but should be spe- cific and detailed. Your notes will serve as the data set you’ll be analyzing.
Consider your response to the following prompts or add your own questions for analysis:
✱ Look up your series on IMDb or Wikipedia to learn more about its creators. Who is in control of pro- duction, direction, or writing, and how might that affect the show’s content?
✱ Is race an explicit theme of the show, and if so, how is it addressed? Or are matters of race more implicit or in the background?
scripted TV shows, though this does represent a sizeable increase from just 5 percent in the 2011–2012 season. According to UCLA media researchers Darnell Hunt and Ana- Christina Ramon, “From the earliest days of the industry, white males have dominated the plum posi- tions in front of and behind the camera, thereby margin- alizing women and minorities in the creative process by which a nation circulates popular stories about itself ” (2015, p. 53).
Another reason we may be seeing more minorities on TV is simply a matter of the bottom line: America’s increasingly diverse audiences prefer more diverse TV content. Along with an increase in the number of minor- ity characters comes more variety in the ways they are portrayed. With more minorities in positions of power in the creative process, more TV shows are now taking on race in incisive, courageous, and nuanced ways. Audi- ences are seeing a broader range of character portrayals and situations and settings that more closely reflect the lived experiences of minority members. Seeing one- self represented in the media is critically important to feeling included in a multicultural society. Greater rep- resentation can also serve to challenge racial and ethnic stereotypes and break down preconceived ideas about the members of minority groups. But that’s not to say that TV is completely realistic when it comes to race. We are only getting a selective slice of the real world when we watch TV, and often that content can still be narrow, superficial, exaggerated, or just plain unrealistic.
For this Data Workshop you’ll be watching TV and analyzing how it reflects the realities of race and eth- nicity in contemporary society. Choose a TV series (drama, comedy, or reality TV ) that takes place in cur- rent times and includes minority characters. You might consider those already mentioned earlier or one of the following:
Diversity on TV Jane the Virgin and Black-ish are two shows currently on air with predominately non-white casts. Despite the success of these shows, minorities still remain highly underrepresented as actors, writers, and directors.
Intergroup Relations: Conflict or Cooperation 243
examine five basic patterns of intergroup relationships, from the most violent to the most tolerant. Keep in mind that some ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, may suffer severa l different patterns of hardship over a period of time.
Genocide The first pattern represents the worst possible outcome between dominant and subordinate groups. Not only has genocide— the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or cultural group— taken place in the past, but it continues today in certain parts of the globe.
The twentieth century witnessed numerous incidents of genocide. From 1915 to 1923, during and after World War I, the Turkish government massacred 1.5 million Armenians in what is often referred to as the “forgotten genocide.” Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler’s rule killed two- thirds of the Jews of Europe. Few paid attention to the Armenian tragedy, and many refused to believe the initial reports of Hitler’s death camps as well (Hitler himself recognized this, and is alleged to have asked, “ Who remembers the Armenians?” when he embarked on his own genocidal project). In the latter half of the century, such events became all too common. From the atrocities of Darfur to Slobodan Miloševič’s ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and the Hutu slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda, genocide has become a familiar feature of the modern landscape.
It is also possible to consider the violence perpetuated by the early Americans against the Native American tribes who occupied North America as a form of genocide. While Native Americans died from diseases introduced by the settlers, they were also systematically killed by the European colonists. In the few hundred years that it took for the United States to be settled from coast to coast, the Native American population was almost completely wiped out. Estimates for the total number killed range anywhere from 15 million up to 100 mil- lion (Cook 1998; Stannard 1993).
Population Transfer The treatment of Native Americans leads us to the next pat- tern of group relations— population transfer, or the forc- ible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied. In the early nineteenth century, Native Ameri- cans who had not perished in battles with U.S. soldiers were forced by the U.S. government to move onto Indian reserva- tions (also referred to as tribal lands or American Indian nations) west of the Mississippi River. They were often moved far away from the lands where they had lived for gen- erations (mostly southern states), as these were desirable
GENOCIDE the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or cultural group
POPULATION TRANSFER the forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied
✱ How many minority characters are featured in the episode? What proportion of the total cast do they represent?
✱ In what ways are minority characters portrayed? (You may choose to focus on one or two characters or more.) Do the characters uphold certain racial or ethnic stereotypes or challenge them?
✱ Describe instances in which characters display aspects of situational or symbolic ethnicity.
✱ How does the race or ethnicity of characters inter- sect with other social statuses or identities such as class, gender, or sexuality?
✱ To what extent do you think the show reflects the “real world”? Use the information in the “Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances” section of this chapter for reference.
✱ In what ways might the show help to maintain or perpetuate prejudice and discrimination? In what ways might the show help to counteract prejudice and discrimination?
✱ What kind of an impact did the episode have on you as a viewer? How might it shape the perceptions of other audience members with regard to race or ethnicity?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Bring your informal notes to class and be ready to discuss your preliminary analysis of the show. Form a small group with one or more class- mates, and take turns talking about your responses to the prompts. Discuss your own findings, and listen to how others in the group analyzed their shows. What kinds of similarities or differences did you find in your respective analyses? Were there any common themes that emerged across everyone’s chosen shows?
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Take notes while you watch an episode of your chosen TV show. Write a three- to four- page paper discussing your content analysis and responses to the prompts above. Make sure to incorporate and explain the relevant sociological concepts about race and ethnicity in your discussion. Attach your informal notes as an appendix to your paper.
Intergroup Relations: Conflict or Cooperation The relationships among racia l and ethnic groups in a soci- ety can take different forms. In some instances, groups may be tolerant and respectful of one another, while in other cases there is unending hostility. In this section, we will
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience244
as India, Burma (now Myanmar), the West Indies, South Africa, and Australia, as well as America before its indepen- dence, is an example of colonialism.
Internal colonialism de scribes the exploitation of a minority group within the dominant group’s own borders. Internal colonialism often takes the form of economic exploitation and includes some sort of physical segregation of groups by race or ethnicity. For example, in the U.S. South up to the 1960s, not only did blacks live in separate neigh- borhoods, but they also were restricted to “coloreds”-only sections of buses, parks, restaurants, and even drinking foun- tains. If members of the minority group live close by yet in their own part of town (for instance, on the “other side of the tracks”), they are separate and, hence, unequal but still near enough to serve as workers for the dominant group. Segrega- tion was not just confined to the South; it permeated other areas of society. Separation by races could be found in divi- sions serving in the U.S. military and among teams playing in professional sports like baseball, football, and basketball. Efforts to desegregate American society were accelerated through the civil rights movement.
Assimilation With assimilation, a minority group is absorbed into the dominant group; this process is the centra l idea behind America’s “melting pot.” On the surface, assimilation seems like a reasonable solution to the potentia l conflicts among different groups. If everyone belongs to the same group, if the society is largely homogenous, then conflict will decrease.
During much of the twentieth century, immigrants to the United States were eager to adopt an American way of life, become citizens, learn English, and lose any trace of their “ foreign- ness.” The Irish, Italians, and Eastern Europeans were all once considered “ethnics” but were eventually assim- ilated into the larger category of white Americans. Today,
territories that the whites wished to acquire for them- selves. Between 1838 and 1839, in one of the most well- known examples, the state of Georgia and the federal government forcibly marched 17,000 Chero- kees westward over 800 miles, a grueling journey known as the Trail of Tears. Along the way, more than 4,000 people died of hunger, exposure, or disease.
The separate territories established for the Native Amer- icans are an example of a kind of partitioning that we can see
happening today in Israel between the Israelis and Pales- tinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There the Israeli government restricts the movement of Palestinians and has even built miles of barriers designed to wall them in and keep them separate from the Israeli population. Sometimes popu- lation transfer takes a more indirect form. For instance, it is possible to make life so miserable in a region that a group of people will choose to leave “voluntarily.” This was the case with early Mormons, whose religious persecution in the East and Midwest between 1846 and 1869 drove 70,000 to cross the country (taking what is called the Mormon Pioneer Trail) and settle in the Great Salt Lake Valley region of Utah.
Internal Colonialism and Segregation The term “colonialism” refers to a policy whereby a stronger nation takes control of a weaker nation (the “colony”) in order to extend the stronger nation’s territory or to exploit the colo- ny’s resources for the stronger nation’s own enrichment. The British Empire, which once included such distant countries
INTERNAL COLONIALISM the economic and political subjugation of the minority group by the dominant group within a nation
SEGREGATION the physical and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity
ASSIMILATION a pattern of relations between ethnic or racial groups in which the minority group is absorbed into the mainstream or dominant group, making society more homogenous
Survivors of Genocide Holocaust survivor Ehud Valter displays the card documenting his transfer between the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Annie Karakaian, 101, survived the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 in what was then the Ottoman Empire.
Intergroup Relations: Conflict or Cooperation 245
It was just a small act of defiance that helped launch a rev-olution and left 11 million refugees without a place to call home. The roots of the Syrian civil war can be traced back to several different inciting forces. One such spark was a piece of anti- government graffiti, spray- painted on the wall of a school building by a teenage boy in the southern city of Daraa in March 2011. The details surrounding who actually wrote the graffiti— or even exactly what it said— are disputed, but soon after the graffiti was discovered, the Syrian mukhabarat (intelligence agency) showed up at the school and eventu- ally arrested as many as twenty- two teenage boys. The boys were held in isolation and tortured while their families grew desperate. After weeks of local street protests, the regime finally released the boys. But the protests in Daraa continued, spreading to other parts of Syria, inspired by the Arab Spring protests that had swept the region the previous year. By April the Syrian army was dispatched to Daraa, and the Syrian civil war commenced.
What began as a confrontation between angry pro- democracy protesters and a repressive regime quickly became fantastically complicated. The Assad regime, domi- nated by Alawite Muslims, is supported by many of Syria’s religious minorities, but it is also opposed by at least three distinct groups: the largely Sunni opposition forces, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or Daesh), and Kurdish militias. Each of the four factions has vastly different goals and support from different international sources (including the United States and Russia). This complexity has birthed the bloodiest conflict of the twenty- first century.
Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations High Com- mission on Refugees (2016), believes that “Syria is the big- gest humanitarian and refugee crisis of our time.” Before the war began, Syria had a population of about 22 million. Between 2011 and 2017, almost half the population became refugees, and another 500,000 are estimated to have died in the fighting. More than 6 million of the refugees have fled to other parts of Syria and are officially considered internally displaced people. Another 5 million have left Syria alto- gether. This level of population transfer has fundamentally transformed Syria and radically altered the lives of the mil- lions of people driven into exile.
The vast majority of the international refugees have gone to countries that share a border with Syria: Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. A much smaller number have been reset- tled in Europe or North America. During the first five years of the Syrian civil war, about 12,000 refugees were admitted
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE “The Biggest Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis of Our Time”
to the United States, with most of those entering in 2016. Although efforts are made to resettle refugees in communi- ties with existing Syrian immigrant populations, there are only so many of those places. Of the 231 cities and towns now home to Syrian refugees, San Diego has taken more than any other city, but there has been a real push to place refugees in more affordable medium- sized cities like Boise, Idaho, which has accepted more refugees than New York and Los Angeles combined (Park and Omri 2016).
These refugees face a unique set of challenges, in many cases being among the first Syrians to settle in their commu- nities without an immigrant or refugee community to turn to for help. The challenge is even greater for refugees coming to a country where their religion, language, and even the way they dress can provoke negative reactions. Asmaa Albukaie, along with her two sons, was the first Syrian refugee to be resettled in Idaho. She says that when she first arrived, Boise was a “very welcoming community,” but that the warmth dimmed somewhat over time and that on occasion “people have screamed at her and called her a ‘terrorist’” (Margo- lis 2016). For refugee families, like all those trying to make a home here, there is constant tension between the impor- tance of assimilation and the need to hold on to some of their own culture. “None of this is easy,” said Ahmad Alabood, one of the new arrivals. Looking for work, learning to speak Eng- lish and drive a car, paying bills, and navigating daily life in a new place is like “learning American culture in 90 days” (Robertson 2016).
Syrian Refugees Almost half the population of Syria has fled the war-torn country. The resettling of Syrian refugees poses a humanitarian crisis on a global level.
CHAPTER 8 Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience246
funding directed to programs aimed at improving race rela- tions and encouraging multicultural harmony. As a sign of that commitment, the 1988 Canadian Multiculturalism Act declared that the role of government is to bring about “equal access for all Canadians in the economic, social, cultural, and political realms” (Mitchell 1993).
The United States is still moving toward becoming a more multicultura l and ega litarian society, a lthough in recent years there has been a backlash against the idea of plura lism. Some critics blame the educationa l system for a llowing what they consider margina l academic areas, such as ethnic studies, women’s studies, gay and lesbian studies, and the like, to be featured a longside the classic curriculum. Others question the need for biling ua l edu- cation and English as a second lang uage (ESL) programs, despite research showing benef its to nonnative spea k- ers (Krashen 1996). A nd groups such as U.S. English and English First advocate for legislation ma king English the nationa l lang uage and setting limits on the use of other lang uages. Nevertheless, since the future seems sure to bring an ever greater racia l and ethnic mix to the countr y, A mericans may yet be able to incorporate multicultura l- ism into our sense of nationa l identity.
they are practically unrecognizable as distinct ethnic groups unless they choose to emphasize characteristics that would so distinguish them. It is likely that this process will con- tinue with the newer wave of immigrants; for instance, some census- type forms no longer distinguish Hispanic or Middle Eastern as separate categories from white.
But although there is something to be gained by assimilation— namely, membership in the dominant population— there is also something to be sacrificed. Minority group members may lose their previous ethnic or racial iden- tity, either through racial assimilation, having children with the dominant group until the different races are completely mixed, or through cultural assimilation, in which members learn the cultural practices of the dominant group. In some cases, both types of assimilation take place at the same time.
In addition, the process of assimilation is not always entered into voluntarily. Sometimes members of a minor- ity group may be forced to acquire new behaviors and are forbidden to practice their own religion or speak their own language, until these are all but forgotten. For some, assimi- lation results in the tragic loss of a distinctive racial or eth- nic identity. This is true for many Native Americans, for instance, who in just a few generations have lost the ability to speak their tribal languages or have forgotten cultural prac- tices of their not- so- distant ancestors.
Pluralism Pluralism not only permits racial and ethnic variation within one society, it actually encourages people to embrace diversity as a positive feature of a society. The traditional image of the melting pot is exchanged with a “salad bowl” in which all the different ingredients maintain their distinct qualities, even as they are tossed together. In the last few decades, the United States has seen more and more groups celebrating their racial or ethnic roots, developing a strong common consciousness, and expressing pride in their unique identity.
At the core of pluralism, also referred to as multiculturalism, is tolerance of racial and eth- nic differences. An example of successful multiculturalism is seen in Canada. This country’s population is diverse, composed of not only two official linguistic groups (English and French) but also ethnic and racial minorities that include European, Chinese, and Indian immigrants as well as members of “First Nations,” or Canadian native peoples. The Canadian government is com- mitted to the ideals of multicul- turalism, with a great deal of
Jackie Robinson is most often cited as the first athlete to break the “color barrier” in professional sports when he made his debut in major league baseball in 1947.
RACIAL ASSIMILATION the process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage
CULTURAL ASSIMILATION the process by which racial or ethnic groups are absorbed into the dominant group by adopting the dominant group’s culture
PLURALISM a cultural pattern of intergroup relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation and acceptance within a society
247Closing Comments
this way, we contribute to the diversity of our community and society. The more we understand and appreciate the diverse population of our nation, the less likely we may be to con- tribute to the destructive consequences of racial and ethnic categorization.
The impor ta nt sociolog ica l insight here is that since categories of race a nd ethnicit y a re socia lly constructed, their mea nings a re socia lly constructed as well. Histori- ca lly, we have constructed mea nings that favor some a nd exploit a nd oppress others. Is it possible to construct mea nings for racia l a nd ethnic categories that va lue a nd celebrate them a ll? Over time, a nd with your newly acquired sociolog ica l insights, we hope you will be pa r t of that tra nsformation.
CLOSING COMMENTS Constructing categories of race and ethnicity seems inevi- tably to lead to stratification and inequality and to such destructive social processes as stereotyping, segregation, prejudice, and discrimination. Are there any positive conse- quences, either for society or for individuals? As it turns out, there are.
Racial and ethnic categories help to create a sense of iden- tity for members of these groups, which can lead to feelings of unity and solidarity— a sense of belonging to something that is larger than oneself, of cultural connection, and of shared history. We see this in action during ethnic festivals and holidays. When we share our own group unity with others in
248
Everything You Need to Know about Race and Ethnicity
THEORIES OF RACE AND ETHNICITY
✱ Structural functionalism: Groups have a tendency toward ethnocen- trism, which binds people together but also makes them act unfavorably toward those outside the group.
✱ Conflict theory: Majority groups use racism and ethnocentrism to protect their interests.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: Race and ethnicity are created symbolically in everyday interactions.
REVIEW 1. How do you identify yourself in terms
of race or ethnicity? Are there special occasions or situations in which you are more likely to display your eth- nicity or race? Do you identify with more than one racial or ethnic group or know anyone who does? What does this tell you about the origin of these categories?
2. Affirmative action in college admis- sions is one of the most controversial topics in America today. Why would a college want to consider race or ethnicity when making admissions decisions? What factors do you think admissions boards should consider?
3. Although the Supreme Court ruled against antimiscegenation laws in 1967, homogamy, or assortive mating, is reinforced by social conventions. Would you date someone of a differ- ent race? Does your answer change depending on which racial or ethnic group you’re thinking about?
“ Race is a social category based on real or perceived biological differences among groups of people. Ethnicity is a social category based on a group’s shared ancestry or cultural heritage.
“
249
EXPLORE
Get Out and DuBois Like the best science fiction, the best horror films always have some kind of social commentary. Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out is an unflinching allegory for race in America. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to learn how the film reinterprets W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of double consciousness.
http://wwnPag.es/trw608
2016
U.S. Population by Race in 2060
Black 13.3%
14.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native
Asian
Two or More Races
Non-Hispanic White
Hispanic (of any Race)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015c, “Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S.”; U.S. Census Bureau, 2017j, “National Population by Characteristics Tables: 2016.”
1.3%
1.3%
5.7%
9.3%
0.2%
0.3%
2.6%
6.2%
17.8%
28.6%
61.3%
43.6%
Percent of total population 2060
250
CHAPTER 9
250
E ight seconds is an infinitesimally small amount of time to most people. In fact, there are
very few tasks that you can accomplish in eight seconds. For Caster Semenya, eight
seconds was enough time to cause the world to question her identity.
Semenya was born in 1991 and raised in the small village of Ga-Masehlong in South Africa.
She lived her life as female without any question until her outstanding performance at the
2009 African Junior Championships, where she broke previous records with a time of 1:56.72
in the 800-meter race. One month later, she broke the world record at the 2009 World Champi-
onships, drawing the attention of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
Constructing Gender and Sexuality
251
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality252
because her race time beat her performance in a 2008 competition by eight sec-
onds. Eight seconds was all it took for Semenya to be cast into the world spotlight.
Female athletes frequently have to face the stigma of not being seen as fem-
inine because of the physicality required to be an elite athlete. The low body-fat
percentages and accentuated musculatures that result from intensive sports
training may even cause women to stop having menstrual periods. As our notions
of gender are strongly linked to the body, female athletes often find themselves
in the difficult position of defending themselves against the sanctions associated
with being perceived as “masculine.” In fact, sex-determination testing has been
a recurring theme for female athletes since the 1968 Olympics, when many Soviet
female athletes were accused of being male. Sex-determination testing is gener-
ally performed by a team of physicians, including gynecologists and endocrinol-
ogists. Critics claim that these tests are humiliating, inaccurate, and insensitive.
In 2009, the IAAF required Semenya to undergo sex-determination testing to
confirm eligibility to compete as a woman after her unprecedented eight-second
improvement in the 800-meter race. In the media storm that followed, the public
at large speculated that Semenya had no uterus, or that she possessed unde-
scended testicles that produced extra testosterone, enhancing her performance.
Bloggers, tabloids, and talk shows all made Semenya a household name. It seemed
like everyone had a diagnosis for Semenya, and few of them involved her being a
“normal” female. In the eleven months that it took the IAAF to complete the test-
ing, Semenya was banned from competing. If the testing revealed that she was
not biologically female, her gold medals would be taken from her and she would
relinquish her title as world champion in the 800-meter race.
On July 6, 2010, the IAAF announced that Semenya could keep her title and
medals and that she was eligible to compete in future races as a woman. But
her troubles did not end there. Reports leaked out that she had testosterone lev-
els three times higher than most women. Semenya found herself the target of
renewed criticism and hostility from the press, other athletes, and the public. In
2011, the IAAF imposed a new rule requiring all female athletes with functioning
testosterone levels above a certain level to reduce their testosterone (through
medication or surgery) below the threshold. Semenya complied. She qualified to
run in the 2012 London Olympics, where she won silver in the 800-meter race.
By 2015, she was back in the news. An appeals court had overturned the IAAF
ruling in a case brought by another runner, Dutee Chand. The court found there
was a lack of evidence to conclude that higher levels of testosterone enhanced the
performance of female athletes enough to exclude them from competing. Semenya
resumed training—and winning—setting new world records in the process.
When Semenya returned to the Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio, controversy fol-
lowed. This time Semenya won the gold medal in the 800-meter race. Two of her
competitors complained bitterly, and sports commentators weighed in again, drag-
ging out a new round of accusations and vicious attacks.
Sex and Gender 253
birth. This raises the question of which set of attributes is most consequential to our everyday lives.
Sex Sex refers to an individual’s membership in one of two cat- egories—male or female. The distinctions between male and female are based on such bio- logical factors as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs, all of which make up the primary sex characteristics. Males and females also pos- sess different secondary sex characteristics, such as facial and body hair, musculature, and other features that are unrelated to reproduction (Table 9.1). Many of these physical differences become evident in puberty.
Most people assume that everyone is either male or female. However, about 17 babies in 1,000 are born intersex, having a variant chromosomal makeup and mixed or inde- terminate male and female sex characteristics (Fausto- Sterling 2000). While most cases of intersex are detected at birth, some do not appear until puberty or adulthood. When a baby is born intersex, nature hasn’t clearly indi- cated whether the infant is male or female. In modern West- ern society, the prospect of an ambiguously sexed person seems so threatening and unacceptable that most parents seek out surgical and other procedures to quickly remedy
Should any female athlete have to face the kind of cruelty and public humiliation that Semenya experienced? Or is it fair game to insist on more answers? The question of ambiguous sex in female athletes is among the most complicated issues in sports and one that extends far beyond the playing field. Eight seconds changed Semenya’s life and raised our aware- ness of how important definitions of sex and gender are for society.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER We often think of gender and sexuality as part of our biologi- cal inheritance, unchanging and unchangeable. We hope that after reading this chapter you will understand the ways in which our gender and sexual identities are about what we do in addition to being about who we are. Gender and sexuality may be based in physiology, but their meanings are constructed in social contexts. As you read, pay attention to the processes involved in constructing the meanings of genders and sexual- ities, as well as to the real consequences of gender and sexual inequality. As you become aware of these problems, perhaps you’ll begin to think about solutions as well.
Sex and Gender Although people often use the terms “sex” and “gender” inter- changeably, sociologists differentiate between the two: Most view “sex” as biological but “gender” as social or cultural. Even though a person is usually the same sex and gender, this is not always the case, as we will see. Our gender identity and gender expression may differ from the sex we are assigned at
SEX an individual’s membership in one of two categories—male or female—based on biological factors
PRIMARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS biological factors, such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs, that distinguish males from females
SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS physical differences between males and females, including facial and body hair, musculature, and bone structure, that are unrelated to reproduction
INTERSEX a person whose chromosomes or sex characteristics are neither exclusively male nor exclusively female
Females Males
Chromosomes XX XY
Dominant Hormone Estrogen Testosterone
Primary Sex Characteristics Reproductive organs: vagina, cervix, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, other glands
Reproductive organs: penis, testicles, scrotum, prostate, other glands
Secondary Sex Characteristics
Shorter than males; larger breasts; wider hips than shoulders; less facial hair; more subcutaneous fat; fat deposits around buttocks, thighs, and hips; smoother skin texture
Abdominal, chest, body, and facial hair; larger hands and feet; broader shoulders and chest; heavier skull and bone structure; greater muscle mass and strength; Adam’s apple and deeper voice; fat deposits around abdominals and waist; coarser skin texture
Table 9.1 Human Sex Characteristics
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality254
the situation (in most cases, female is the most viable and expedient choice). More recently, the rights of intersex peo- ple have come into focus; many adults maintain they should have the freedom to choose for themselves whether to take
medical measures or remain as they are. Sociologist Georgiann Davis (2015) has critiqued the practice of classifying intersex as a medical disorder rather than simply as a biological variation;
calling it an abnormality is often harmful to intersex people and can have profound life consequences.
Gender Gender refers to the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers to be normal, natural, right, and good for its male and female members. In other words, gender reflects our notions about what is appropriately “masculine” or “feminine.” Some societies, for example, expect men to
GENDER the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Different Societies, Different Genders
In modern Western societies, we are assigned a gender. Someone looks us over at birth (or even before) and declares, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” Even though some infants are born with indeterminate genitals, they are almost always assigned to one gender or the other as soon as possible, even if surgery is required. We are now hearing terms like “genderqueer” and “genderfluid” used to refer to people who don’t strictly iden- tify as either male or female. But many Americans still find the idea of such an identity unacceptable. Let’s consider three societies that do acknowledge a “third gender.”
Berdaches or “Two-Spirit” People When nineteenth-century explorers and missionaries wrote about the native tribes they encountered in America, they also described individuals within those tribes who were neither male nor female but somehow both. These people—called “ber- daches” by nonnatives and “two-spirit” by natives—were usu- ally biological males who dressed as women and took on types of work we think of as feminine, such as cooking and domestic labor. They could also be biological females who took on tradi- tionally male pursuits, such as hunting, trapping, and warfare. Male two-spirits have been documented in nearly 150 Native American cultures and female two-spirits in almost half that number. Some researchers believe that people who became two-spirits were assigned to such a role from a very young age, if not from birth, for reasons of “demographic necessity” (Trexler 2002). In the northern reaches of what is now Can- ada, for example, couples who had given birth to all girls may have decided that their next child would be raised as a boy (and therefore a hunter who could provide food for the fam- ily)—no matter what. In more southern regions, a family who needed a female child may have deliberately raised a boy as a girl; male two-spirits were valued for their height and strength.
Research on two-spirits seems contradictory. Some believe that, based on the records of the early Europeans, they were looked down on by their own tribes. Others point out that some two-spirits were respected and played impor- tant roles in the religious life of their communities. What we do know is that two-spirits were acknowledged as a third gender. Native creation myths include such references as “When the spirit people made men and women, they also made berdaches” (Roscoe 2000, p. 4)—allowing this group a recognized place in the order of things.
Hijras The hijras of South Asia are a modern example of third-gen- der individuals. Like berdaches, hijras are recognized by their society as an acceptable variation on gender—neither male nor female but something else entirely. They are usually bio- logical males who have all or part of their genitals removed, and most become hijras voluntarily in their teens or twenties. They dress and live as females and are referred to as daughter, sister, grandmother, or aunt.
Like berdaches, hijras take part in the religious life of their people; they are specifically mentioned (and thus vali- dated) in the epic Hindu texts as having been recognized by the deity Rama. Today, the presence of hijras at weddings and at the births of male children is thought to be auspicious. In 2012, the third-gender option was officially added to Paki- stan’s national identity cards (Frayer 2012).
Bacha Posh The bacha posh of Afghanistan were largely unknown to the outside world prior to 2010. The term means “a girl who is dressed up and disguised as a boy” and refers to a common practice that’s been kept secret for centuries and continues
Sex and Gender 255
immutable and biological and as an unambiguous, two-category system. Also called the gender binary, this system classifies gender into two distinct, opposite, and separate categories. Accord- ing to this view, you’re either male or female from birth to death, and there are no other options. Chromosomes, hormones, and
be more aggressive and competitive and women to be more emotional and nurturing. We often think of such character- istics as biologically determined or “natural,” but no society leaves it completely up to nature to dictate the behavior of its male and female members. While we tend to feel that our gender is a deeply personal part of who we are, we also learn to interpret and enact gender in ways that are culturally and historically specific.
Depending on their field of study, sociologists look at gen- der from different perspectives. Essentialists see gender as
ESSENTIALISTS those who believe gender roles have a genetic or biological origin and therefore cannot be changed
GENDER BINARY a system of classification with only two distinct and opposite gender categories
today (Nordberg 2014). In a patriarchal and gender-segre- gated society, men hold all the power. As such, boy children are strongly preferred over girls. When a wife fails to produce a male baby, it brings shame on the family, undermining their chances to gain respect and maintain their position within the community. Consequently, when a family has two, three, four, or more girls but no boys, they may choose to turn one of the girls into a bacha posh.
In the process of becoming a bacha posh, a girl does more than just dress the part. She is raised as a boy, acts like one, and is viewed and accepted as one by society. For Afghan girls, becoming a bacha posh opens up a whole new world for them. Bacha posh can leave the house without an escort, go to school, drive a car, and even get a job, bringing much needed support to the family. While most bacha posh comply with
Life Outside the Binary Hijras of South Asia (left) are recognised by society as neither female nor male but a third gender. It is considered good luck to have a hijra at a wedding or at the birth of a male child. In Afghanistan, families with no male children may opt to turn one of their girls into a bacha posh (right). A bacha posh can leave the house without an escort and drive—activities off limits to girls.
being turned back into a girl when they hit puberty, some opt to remain a bacha posh into adulthood.
The two-spirit, hijra, and bacha posh may sound similar to cross-dressers or transgender persons in Western soci- ety, but the analog y isn’t entirely appropriate. A two-spirit or hijra is always referred to by that term, not “he” or “she,” whereas the bacha posh are not called “son” or “daughter” but always bacha posh. In the United States we still struggle with terminolog y and fret over how to fit trans people into existing male or female pigeonholes. Keep in mind the possi- bility that gender is malleable. The characteristics we think of as definitive, such as sex, gender, and sexuality, may be viewed differently in other cultures and time periods, which means that it should be possible to view them differently here and now.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality256
include those with multiple genders ( bigender, trigender, pangender), those with no gender (nongender), and those whose gender fluctuates over time (genderfluid). Recogniz- ing that this type of gender nonconformity exists is some- times difficult for people who are used to thinking of sex and gender as binary classifications and assume that there are two, and only two, categories for sex (male/female) and for gender (masculine/feminine) and that our membership in one or the other category is permanent and unchang- ing. However, it has become clear to sociologists that not everyone experiences sex, gender, or sexuality in unam- biguous ways.
Sexuality and Sexual Orientation What is sexuality? And what is it doing in a sociology text- book? The term “sexuality” is used in a variety of ways; for example, it is used to describe sexual behavior, desires, and fantasies (the things people actually do as well as the things they think or dream about doing). It is also used to describe sexual orientation or identity, which is the inclination to feel sexual desire toward and engage in sexual behavior with persons of a particular gender.
Our society recognizes a number of sexual orientations, and they are each related to our two-category or binary gen- der system. Heterosexuality, or sexual desire for the other gender, is the normative and dominant category, which may be why the slang term for it is “straight.” Most people iden- tify themselves as heterosexual, and there are privileges attached to membership in this category. Homosexuality, or sexual desire for the same gender, is a minority category; the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior found that about 4 percent of adults self-identify as gay or lesbian (Reece et al. 2010). As with other minority statuses, there are a vari- ety of difficulties and disadvantages attached to membership in this category. Bisexuality—sexual attraction to both gen- ders—is also a minority category, with about 3 percent of men and 4 percent of women identifying as bisexual (Reece et al. 2010). Asexuality involves the lack of sexual attraction of any kind. Asexual people are basically nonsexual and are a very small minority group, with only about 1 percent of adults identifying as asexual (Bogaert 2004). There have been vari- ous claims and controversy about the exact percentage of adults who identify with each category of sexual orientation. Another recent study found somewhat different numbers: 96.6 percent identified as heterosexual, 1.6 percent gay or lesbian, 0.7 percent bisexual, and the remaining 1.1 percent identified as ‘‘something else,’’ “I don’t know the answer,’’ or refused to provide an answer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2014a).
Still, even these categories are limiting. As early as the 1940s, the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey suggested
genitalia determine your identity—the way you see your- self, the way you interact with others, and the activities you engage in every day. Culture, according to essentialists, plays little to no role. Essentialism is generally found outside the discipline in such fields as medicine, theology, and biology
and within sociology in the sub- field of sociobiology. Most main- stream sociologists, however, use a constructionist approach to gender: They see gender as a social construction and acknowl- edge the possibility that binary male-female categories aren’t the only way to classify individu- als. Constructionists believe that the meaning of masculinity and femininity may differ drastically in different societies and histori- cal periods.
GENDER IDENTITY Our deeply held sense of ourselves as male, female, or some other gender is called our gender identity. Our gender identity may or may not correspond with the sex we have been assigned at birth. When our sex and gender identity match up (e.g., female sex, female gender identity), we are cisgender—the prefix cis means “same,” indi- cating that our sex and gender correspond. We use the term transgender (or noncisgender) to describe those whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth.
Separate from our gender iden – tity is our gender expression, or our external manifestations of gender, which include “mas- culine” or “feminine” clothing, grooming, behavior, body lan- guage, gestures, and even names. Transgender persons (“trans” persons for short) may or may not undergo medical or surgical procedures as part of a transition
during which they change their gender expression to align with their gender identity rather than with the sex they were assigned at birth. It is important to remember that transgen- der identity is not dependent on medical procedures.
Trans individuals are just one group of gender- nonconforming persons in contemporary society; others
CONSTRUCTIONISTS those who believe that notions of gender are socially determined, such that a binary system is just one possibility among many
GENDER IDENTITY an individual’s self-definition or sense of gender
CISGENDER term used when gender identity and/or expression aligns with the sex assigned at birth
TRANSGENDER term used when gender identity and/or expression is different from the sex assigned at birth
GENDER EXPRESSION an individual’s behavioral manifestations of gender
GENDER NONCONFORMING term used when gender identity and/or expression differs from societal expectations about gender roles
SEXUALITY the character or quality of being sexual
SEXUAL ORIENTATION or IDENTITY the inclination to feel sexual desire toward people of a particular gender
HETEROSEXUALITY sexual attraction toward members of the other gender
HOMOSEXUALITY sexual attraction toward members of one’s own gender
BISEXUALITY sexual attraction toward members of both genders
ASEXUALITY the lack of sexual attraction of any kind; no interest in or desire for sex
Socialization: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 257
Socialization: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Gender role socialization—the subtle, pervasive process of learning what constitutes masculinity and femininity—begins early and continues throughout our lives. It is accomplished primarily by the four major agents of socialization: families, schools, peers, and the media, though other social institutions, such as religion, may also play a part in the process. In addition to perpetuating binary notions of gender and gender conformity, the process of socialization also tends to support heteronormativity (the assumption that hetero- sexuality is the only acceptable orientation).
Families Families are usually the primary source of socialization. Indeed, Kara Smith (2005) argues that gender role socialization begins even before birth. Because the sex of the fetus can now be determined in utero, families may begin relating to the new baby as either a girl or a boy far in advance of the baby’s arrival. Smith’s research demonstrates how knowing the baby’s sex affects how the mother talks to her fetus—the choice of words as well as tone of voice. Once babies are born, female and male clothes, rooms, and toys will differ, as will the stories the chil- dren are told.
Most telling, however, is the way in which significant others—parents, siblings, extended family, and caregivers— interact with the baby. Through social learning, the process of learning behaviors and meanings through social interac- tion, babies respond to and internalize the expectations of
that human sexuality is far more diverse than commonly assumed. His own studies led him to believe that people are not exclusively heterosexual or homosexual but can fall along a wide spectrum (Kinsey et al. 1948/1998; Kinsey and Geb- hard 1953/1998). Kinsey and others who have followed him have suggested that we can best understand sexual orienta- tion not through binary categories (gay versus straight) but rather as a fluid continuum that can change over the course of a person’s lifetime (Figure 9.1).
“Queering the Binary” For most of the twentieth century, “queer” was a pejora- tive term applied mainly to gay men ( before that, it was used to mean “odd” or “peculiar” in a nonsexual way). But in the 1990s, with the emergence of “queer theory,” the term underwent a remarkable transformation as both activists and academics began using it in a very different way. In aca- demia, queer theory rejects the idea of a single gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, or transgender identity, emphasiz- ing instead the importance of difference (Butler 1993). It asserts that being queer is about “possibilities, gaps, over- laps, dissonances, and resonances” (Sedg wick 1993, p. 8) and suggests that any kind of categorization is outmoded and limiting.
Queer is now used to describe anything that challenges prevailing binary notions of sex, gender, and sexuality (and is sometimes used to describe nonconformity in other areas as well). “Queer” encompasses a wider range of gen- der and sexual diversity than terms like “gay” and “trans” and implies a questioning of society’s traditional gender and sexual arrangements. It has come to be represented by a “Q” appended to the acronym “LGBT” to make it more inclu- sive, as in LGBTQ. That acronym, and what it stands for, is also contested. Many activists and organizations believe it should be even more inclusive, proposing a longer version— LGBTQIA—that encompasses “intersex” and “asexual” peo- ple under the community umbrella. “A” is not for “allies,” as some assume, because allies are not oppressed in the same way. Sometimes “+” is added to the end to represent allies as well as people with other sexual identities.
QUEER THEORY social theory about gender and sexual identity; emphasizes the importance of difference and rejects ideas of innate identities or restrictive categories
LGBTQ lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer
GENDER ROLE SOCIALIZATION the lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine, primarily through agents of socialization
HETERONORMATIVITY the belief that heterosexuality is and should be the norm
SOCIAL LEARNING the process of learning behaviors and meanings through social interaction
Exclusively heterosexual
Predominately heterosexual; only incidentally homosexual
Predominately heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
Predominately homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
Predominately homosexual; only incidentally heterosexual
Equally heterosexual and homosexual
Excusively homosexual
0 1 2 4 53 6
Figure 9.1 The Kinsey Scale of Sexuality
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality258
It happened in early 2015, behind a dumpster, just outside a Stanford University fraternity house. Two students saw what they thought was a crime in progress. A man was sexually assaulting a woman who was passed out and half naked on the ground. When they confronted him, he fled, but they chased after him and pinned him down until police arrived. The case against Brock Turner, a Stanford freshman on the swim team, made national headlines. A criminal court convicted Turner on three counts of felony sexual assault. Prosecutors asked for six years in prison, consistent with sentencing guidelines. Instead, the judge handed down a sentence of six months in county jail, feeling a prison sentence might have adverse “collateral consequences” on Turner. He was released after serving just three months.
The problem of sexual assault on campus has become so serious and so widespread that it is now characterized as an epidemic. According to researchers, at least one in five
women in college (and one in six- teen men) will be the victim of sexual assault. In a recent col- lege survey, 10 percent of women reported having been physically forced to have intercourse, 15 per- cent said someone tried to force
them but failed, and 11 percent said they had been victimized while passed out, asleep, drugged, or otherwise incapaci- tated (Ford and England 2015).
Campus sexual assaults have gotten a lot of press lately, as has the concept of rape culture, or an environment in which sexual violence against women is normalized and perpetu- ated through cultural norms and values. While rape culture is not unique to college campuses, there are some features of campus life that make distinctive contributions to rape cul- ture (Armstrong, Hamilton, and Sweeney 2006). For exam- ple, a widely held notion about college life is that students are supposed to party. So, before first-year students even set foot on campus, they may feel a certain amount of pressure to participate in the party scene. Many campuses have policies that restrict alcohol use. This pushes the party scene off cam- pus, often into privately owned fraternity houses, giving frat brothers more control over how parties are organized, who attends, how alcohol is served, and what happens if some- thing goes wrong. This can be a recipe for disaster, including alcohol poisoning, injury, and death, as well as sexual assault. In fact, most campus assaults happen at or after a party.
The hookup culture that dominates today’s college cam- puses also contributes to rape culture (Wade 2017). Hook- ups are all about quick, easy, casual sexual encounters. Both women and men participate in hookup culture, and many
IN RELATIONSHIPS Rape Culture and Campus Social Life
genuinely enjoy the freedom, excitement, and pleasure that come with it. But that’s not to say that these interactions are always reciprocal, egalitarian, or even agreed upon. Some of the behaviors that are celebrated in hookup culture make it difficult to distinguish between a hookup and sexual assault. Men are encouraged to be on the prowl for women and to do whatever it takes to hook up. This often means getting women drunk (alcohol is the most commonly used date rape drug on campuses), groping them in public, and sometimes being forceful in order to get what they want.
Many universities have notoriously bad records when it comes to investigating and responding to campus sexual assault. When an incident occurs, colleges often seem more concerned about public relations and their own reputa- tions than about the safety of their students. Colleges may be especially keen to protect student athletes and frater- nity brothers, men who are disproportionately valuable to the institution. Knowing that little may be done to bring a campus rapist to justice can mean that survivors don’t feel comfortable reporting assaults to campus authorities. Even when sexual assault cases are reported, the response is often underwhelming. Less than one-third of all campus sexual assault cases result in an expulsion (Kingkade 2014).
Those in charge of student services and campus life often participate in “victim blaming” in their attempts to prevent sexual assault. Women are advised repeatedly on how to avoid being raped (don’t go to parties alone, don’t get intoxi- cated, don’t accept drinks or rides home from people you don’t know, etc.), implying that if a woman is assaulted, it is because she failed to follow these instructions. Meanwhile, there has been far less focus on educating men in rape pre- vention—skills that can help them challenge other men who engage in risky or violent behaviors and intervene in situa- tions to protect the health and safety of women.
Survivors and their supporters have recently turned to federal civil rights legislation referred to as “Title IX” to exert pressure on colleges to better prevent and respond to reports of sexual violence. Under the U.S. Department of Educa- tion’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs that receive federal funding. The law recognizes that sexual vio- lence perpetuates inequality and thus violates students’ civil rights. In 2011, the OCR issued guidelines to academic institu- tions about improving how they handle sexual assault allega- tions. Title IX is backed by the threat of withdrawing federal funding from institutions that are not in compliance. While awareness about the power of Title IX has grown, so has the backlash from those who believe it has overreached.
RAPE CULTURE a set of beliefs, norms, and values that normalizes sexual violence against women
Socialization: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 259
others around them. Sometimes there is a conscious effort to instill certain behaviors in children—such as by repri- manding a young boy for crying. At other times, social learn- ing happens in a more subtle way, as the baby learns through observation, imitation, and play. Children rather quickly begin to exhibit gender-stereotyped behaviors. By the age of two, they are aware of their own and others’ gender, and by age three, they begin to identify specific traits associated with each gender.
Gender pervades every aspect of family life. It may be implicit in the chores or privileges girls and boys are given (washing the dishes versus mowing the lawn), the way they are disciplined or punished, where they go or don’t go, or what they are encouraged or forbidden to do. Lessons such as “that’s not very ladylike” and “big boys don’t cry” are echoed in children’s literature, in toys made specifically for girls or boys, and in the games they play. And as we grow up, we are always watching our other family members, using them as role models for our own beliefs and behaviors. In adulthood, our families may still influence what kind of career or mate we choose, how we run our household, and how we raise our own children.
How families are formed matters for the socialization pro- cess as well. To the extent that laws have historically ratified only heterosexual marriages, we have learned that heterosex- uality and biological parenting are the “normal” or “natural” ways to form a family. Of course, these assumptions overlook the many other ways real families are formed.
Schools Differences in the educational experiences of girls and boys also begin to appear early, both in the classroom and on the playground. Early on, girls and boys are frequently put in same-sex groups and assigned gender-stereotyped tasks, such as playing with dolls or playing with trucks. Same- sex groups also form on the playground, with girls and boys engaging in different kinds of social and athletic activities (Thorne 1993). By the fifth grade, gender norms are firmly established, as can be seen in the segregation that takes place even in co-ed schools.
One of the key areas of difference is in the way that teach- ers, both women and men, typically interact with students. Whether or not they realize it, teachers tend to favor boys in several ways. Boys receive more attention and instructional time and are more likely to be called on in class. And boys are posed with more challenging questions and tasks and are given more praise for the quality of their work. Boys are also, however, more likely to make teachers angry by mis- behaving and therefore to receive some form of punishment (Smith 1999).
Despite boys’ favorable treatment, girls in elementary school tend to earn higher grades. But their academic achieve- ments are often discounted. In fact, the media often paint this gender discrepancy as a crisis for boys. When they do perform
well, girls are typically credited for hard work rather than intellectual ability. They are encouraged to focus on social skills or appearance rather than brain power. By the time they reach middle or junior high school, girls begin to slip behind and to lose their sense of academic self-esteem. These troubles are compounded in adolescent girls, who begin to feel uneasy about competing with boys, embarrassed by their own suc- cess, or uncomfortable engaging in male-dominated subjects like math or science.
Gender role socialization in schools can take other forms as well. Textbooks often still contain sexist language and gender stereotypes. Women and minorities are underrepre- sented, both as subjects and as authors (Robson 2001). In the social structure of the school itself, women tend to be concen- trated at the lower levels, as teachers and aides, while men tend to occupy upper-management and administrative posi- tions. In such ways, schooling as a whole reinforces gender stereotypes.
For LGBTQ students, school is often a place where they learn (or relearn) the lesson that they will only be accepted if they hide their true identities. Heteronormativity per- vades school life, from canonical textbooks with images of traditional families, to an emphasis on heterosexual dating (prom and homecoming queens and their kings). The binary
Heteronormativity in Schools Coy Mathis, a transgender girl, had to sue for the right to use the girls’ bathroom at her elementary school in Colorado.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality260
be accepted, what to value, and what is normal” as well as “how gender fits into society” (Barner 1999). Across the media landscape gender roles are represented in highly ste- reotypical ways. Boys and girls learn that certain activities and attitudes are more appropriate for one gender than for the other. Girls should be beautiful, caring, sensitive, and reserved, while boys should be assertive, strong, and ana- lytic. This starts at a particularly young age: “by the time a child reaches kindergarten, she will ‘know’ more television characters than real people” (Barner 1999). In addition to TV, magazines like Seventeen and Teen Vogue are aimed mostly at adolescents. Some have even speculated that increases in anorexia and bulimia among teenage girls can be linked to the images of women they see in the media (Kilbourne 1999). Teenage girls may consider actresses and models the stan- dard of beauty to aspire to, even though such women “often are far below the normal weight recommendations” (Schiller et al. 1998).
The case of video games presents some contradictions regarding media and gender role socialization. What was once thought of as a male bastion is becoming increasingly more gender balanced (perhaps precipitating conflicts like those experienced by feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and other women). The stereotype of a video game enthusiast used to be a male player who preferred first-person-shooter games like the Call of Duty, Halo, and Bioshock franchises. While males still make up some 59 percent of video game players, some interesting changes are happening in the mar- ket. Females are beginning to represent a greater portion of game players, particularly when it comes to online games played on computers (as opposed to video games played on consoles). Female gamers tend to be more interested in mas- sively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft and Rift, where relationships are emphasized, or games such as Family Farm or The Sims series, which focus on building a commnity. An even greater number of females play arcade- style, or what are referred to as casual, games, where they represent 74 percent of all players. Gaming is no longer domi- nated by males, but the games that boys and girls choose to play may still be guided by gender differences.
Before the 1960s, sexua l diversity was a ltogether absent from television. When it did appear, it was usua lly treated in a negative manner: In the 1967 CBS documentary The Homosexuals, one psychiatrist claims that “the fact that somebody ’s homosexua l . . . automatica lly rules out the pos- sibility that he will remain happy for long.” In recent years, however, increasing levels of tolerance toward LGBTQ peo- ple have been reflected in increasingly positive represen- tations of gays, lesbians, and trans persons on television, a lthough these gains have not been without controversy. In 1997, the A BC sitcom Ellen introduced the first lesbian lead character in a prime-time series; two years later, the NBC sitcom Will & G race featured two gay ma le characters. Other shows followed, while cable networks a lso developed
division of restrooms in school buildings can also be prob- lematic for transgender students. More gender-neutral bathrooms have been appearing in public schools, but in 2017 President Trump struck down Obama-era guidelines designed to protect the rights of trans and other students.
Peers In Western societies, peer groups are an increasingly impor- tant agent of socialization. By the age of three, children develop a preference for same-sex playmates, a tendency that increases markedly as childhood progresses. Children in preschool are three times more likely to play with same- sex playmates—eleven times more likely in kindergarten— and it is not until well after puberty that this pattern changes even a little (Maccoby and Jacklin 1987). While some have argued that such gender segregation is the result of inherent differences between men and women, there is evidence to support the notion that same-sex peer groups can help cre- ate gendered behavior. Researchers have found, for example, that when children play with same-sex peers, their activi- ties are more likely to be gender typed (girls have pretend tea parties, for example) than when boys and girls play together (Fabes, Martin, and Hanish 2003). In addition, children (especially boys) are punished (mocked) by their peers for crossing over these gendered borders (Thorne 1993).
C. J. Pascoe’s ethnography of high school boys, Dude, You’re a Fag, shows just how powerful peer groups can be in enforcing gender roles and the assumptions about sexuality that underlie them. Not only do boys police each other’s per- formance of masculinity by criticizing nonnormative (and, in their minds, effeminate) behavior, dress, and other prac- tices, but also they “lay claim to masculine identities by lob- bing homophobic epithets at one another” (Pascoe 2007, p. 5). Calling someone a “fag” inflates the offender’s own sense of masculinity, while demonstrating to others the conse- quences of deviating from masculine norms.
The need to impress others and to feel popular with peers increases in the teenage years. Boys tend to gain prestige through athletic ability, a well-developed sense of humor, or taking risks and defying norms (Kimmel 2009). Girls tend to gain prestige through social position and physical attrac- tiveness. It’s easy to imagine what kinds of behaviors result from such peer pressure and the consequences of falling short in any way. In the extreme, it can lead to bullying, rebellious behavior, or eating disorders. Similar pressures in regard to dating and mating continue through the early adult years as well, enforcing heteronormativity and privileging cisgender identities by ostracizing transgressors.
The Media From a variety of media sources, such as movies, comic books, or popular music, we learn “how to behave, how to
Socialization: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 261
even contradict the influence of other agents of socialization. At the same time, the media also serve to socialize families, peers, and educators, giving them an even more overarching power in society.
LGBTQ-themed shows such as Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight G uy, and The L Word. In 2013, transgender actress Laverne Cox was cast as a transgender inmate in Netflix’s prison drama Orange Is the New Black (which not incidenta lly featured a bisexua l lead character as well), and in 2014 Jeffrey Tambor took on the role of Maura Pfeffer- man, a retired professor who comes out as transgender late in life, in Transparent. In 2015, Caitlyn Jenner starred in an eight-part documentary series titled I Am Cait about her transition to living life as a transgender woman; TLC is cur- rently airing a rea lity series titled I Am Jazz, which chron- icles the life of trans teen Jazz Jennings and her family. In 2017, Laverne Cox made history (again) when she was cast as the first transgender lead character on network televi- sion in the CBS lega l drama Doubt.
Just because LGBTQ persons are included on television, however, doesn’t mean that they have achieved equal status. Clearly, there is not the same kind of acceptance of same-sex relations as of heterosexual relations, as evidenced by how romantic couples are treated on TV. Until 2000, there had never been a gay male kiss on a network program (although there had been two lesbian kisses). As recently as 2014, the sports world was scandalized when Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted by the NFL, celebrated joining the St. Louis Rams by kissing his boyfriend on camera. Trans characters are still often presented as villains, victims, or sex workers rather than in more ordinary and more positive roles. Some social scientists argue that more personal contact between members of different social groups reduces preju- dice and discrimination (Pettigrew and Tropp 2011). If the media provide people with their only exposure to gays and les- bians, then it is all the more important that these portrayals represent those communities in realistic ways.
For many centuries of human history, children have learned how to act appropriately from family, peers, and school. As the influence of the media becomes more perva- sive in our society, we can see how it may compete with or
Transgender Characters and Actors on TV Jeffrey Tambor (left) has won multiple awards playing a trans woman in the Amazon series Transparent; Laverne Cox made history as the first transgender lead character in a network drama in the CBS series Doubt.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
The Fashion Police: Gender and the Rules of Beauty
Gender role socialization starts with a baby wrapped in pink or blue and continues to perme- ate every stage in our lives from there. Messages
about what it means to be a girl or a boy are everywhere. We are told over and over, and in a million subtle ways, what is appropriate or desirable for each sex. Ideas about masculinity and femininity are played out innumera- ble times across an expanding media landscape. Gender norms reflect our ideals about beauty, style, fitness, and physical or sexual attractiveness, and examples of these ideals are on constant display—on our TVs and touch screens, in the grocery store, and at the bus stop. We can’t avoid them.
This Data Workshop asks you to closely examine the covers of men’s and women’s magazines to discover what they have to say about gender and the rules of beauty. You will be using existing sources and doing a content analy- sis of the magazine covers. Refer to the section on existing sources in Chapter 2 for a review of this research method.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality262
✱ What words and phrases appear on the cover? Which words are bold, italicized, in capital letters, in larger or smaller font sizes, and why? What is the overall tone? What are the explicit and implicit mes- sages embedded in the words?
✱ As a whole, what are the major themes and pat- terns that emerge from the cover? Do these themes support or challenge gender norms and the rules of beauty? Besides gender, do other factors of intersec- tionality—race, class, age, or sexual orientation— seem to affect the message?
✱ Compare and contrast the women’s and the men’s magazines. What are the similarities and differ- ences between the two covers, and how do you explain them? How do you think such magazines influence how we see ourselves and others?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Examine the content of the two magazine covers and take some preliminary notes based on your answers to the Data Workshop questions. Bring copies of the magazine covers to class and pair with a partner to discuss them. What kinds of similarities and differences did you find in your data? Work together to further develop each of your analyses.
D O – I T-YO U R S E L F Do a content analysis of your two magazine covers, and write a three-page essay based on your answers to the Data Workshop questions. Support your analysis with specific examples from your data. Make sure to attach copies of the magazine covers (in print or digital format) to your paper.
Choose one magazine that focuses on either women’s fashion or fitness and one magazine that focuses on either men’s fashion or fitness. Here are some suggestions:
✱ For women’s fashion: Vogue, Elle, Essence, Glam- our, Latina, InStyle
✱ For women’s fitness: Health, Shape, or Women’s Health, or a sports-related magazine such as Out- side, Yoga, Golf Digest, or Runner’s World that fea- tures a female cover model
✱ For men’s fashion: Details, Esquire, GQ, or Maxim
✱ For men’s fitness: Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, or Men’s Journal, or a sports-related magazine such as Outside, Yoga, Golf Digest, or Runner’s World that features a male cover model
Locate a recent issue of each of the two magazines you’ve chosen; you can find hard copies at a bookstore, library, or newsstand, or you can access a digital issue online. Keep in mind that you’ll need a physical copy (or digital file) of the cover to work with, so make a tearsheet or photocopy of it, or take a screen shot or digital photo that you can refer to and share. Once you have your two magazine covers, you’re ready to do a content analysis.
Immerse yourself in all the visual elements and text on each cover. Look at the general display and layout, the specific photos, and any other kinds of graphics. Scru- tinize the headlines and which words were used. All of this becomes your data. As you examine the covers more closely, consider this set of questions:
✱ How are the cover models presented? Describe their body type. Does it reflect the idea ls for mas- culine and feminine beauty? How are they posing ? What does their posture, facia l expressions, ges- tures, or other physica l attributes convey?
✱ How are the cover models styled? Describe their clothing, hair, makeup, and accessories. Are the cover models engaged in any activities? What do their actions (or inaction) tell us about who they are?
✱ What is the background or scene of the magazine cover? Does it appear to be taken in a studio, or is it a location shot of some kind? What does the back- ground convey?
✱ What colors are used for the magazine cover? Look at the background, the title or masthead, and any kind of text or added graphics. What, if any, are the other visual aspects of the cover?
Prejudice and Discrimination As with other aspects of our identities, gender and sexual- ity have become the basis for hierarchies of inequality and, hence, for prejudice and discrimination as well. What is important to remember is that privileges, opportunities, and resources in an unequal society are distributed based on cat- egory membership.
Gender inequa lity can be found in a ll past and present societies. It invariably takes the form of patriarchy, or ma le domination. There is little evidence that a matriar- cha l (fema le-dominated) society has ever existed, a lthough some societies have been more pro-feminine than others. The Vanatinai, for example, are a sma ll society in New
Prejudice and Discrimination 263
target for bloody assaults. The harassment quickly escalated online and spilled over into her real life. The mainstream media picked up the story, giving Sarkeesian a larger platform, but also making her a more visible target for continued abuse. Her speaking engagements and public appearances were dogged by bomb threats. While Sarkeesian might be one of the most high-profile victims, she is not alone. In 2015, the Broad- band Commission convened at the United Nations to present findings on “the rising tide of online violence against women and girls” as a worldwide wake-up call (Frank 2015). Sarkees- ian was joined on a panel that included entertainment indus- try executive Madeline Di Nonno and game developer Zoe Quinn, among other pro- feminist voices.
Prejudice and discrimination can also be based on sexual ori- entation, gender expression, and gender identity. Homophobia (fear of those who are not het- erosexual) and transphobia (fear of those who don’t conform to society’s gender expectations) form the basis for discrimina- tion against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, as well as trans and gender-nonconforming per- sons. Some have pointed out that homophobia and transphobia are not true “phobias,” like agora- phobia or claustrophobia, which are psychological phenomena. Rather, they are prejudices, like racism or sexism, which are cul- tural norms that are learned and transmitted socially. Some find the terms homophobia and trans- phobia problematic because they suggest that the problems faced by LGBTQ persons are the result of a few maladjusted indi- viduals rather than the product of deeply institutionalized cul- tural values and norms (Frank 2012; Kitzinger 1987). Indeed, some have suggested that “heterosexism” or “cisgenderism” would be more useful terms in that they are analogous to sexism and racism and describe an ideological system that stigmatizes any nonhet- erosexual or noncisgender identities or behaviors (Herek 1990; Rothblum 1996).
The discrimination faced by LGBTQ persons ranges from subtle social exclusion to violent assaults and is one of the reasons that gays, lesbians, and trans persons sometimes hide their true identities from family, friends, or coworkers. “Coming out,” or revealing one’s gender identity or sexuality,
Guinea in which women share equa l access to positions of prestige, power, and control over the means of production (Lepowsky 1993).
From the patriarchal point of view, gender inequality can be traced back to biological differences in early societies, when activities like hunting and warfare were more essen- tial to the livelihood of human groups. Women could not par- ticipate as effectively as men in these activities because of their lesser physical strength and because of the demands of bearing and nursing children. Therefore, a division of labor arose, with women handling activities within the secured “home” territory. Men delivered the scarcest and most prized resources to the group, such as game from hunting or territory from warfare, and became powerful by controlling the distri- bution of these resources.
This account of the origins of gender inequality does not explain its persistence in contemporary societies. Physical strength is no longer required in the vast majority of jobs. Nor are large numbers of children required for the continuation of society, and women are not necessarily restricted in their activities because of the demands of caring for them. Still, sexism—the belief that one sex, usually male, is superior to the other—persists to some degree in all contemporary cul- tures. In Silicon Valley, for example, sexism is alive and well, as evidenced by a 3,300-word manifesto circulated by a male engineer at Google in August 2017. Written in response to Google’s recent efforts to increase diversity among its heavily white and heavily male workforce, the internal memo argued that the unequal representation of women in tech roles is partly due to biological differences between men and women, including women’s “higher anxiety” and “lower stress toler- ance” and “men’s higher drive for status” (Swisher 2017).
Sometimes sexism comes in the form of misog yny, which can be expressed as a dislike, contempt, or hatred of women. Misog yny as a type of ingrained prejudice is often an underlying factor in discrimination against women. A striking example of misogyny involves the online harass- ment or cyberbullying of feminist media critic Anita Sar- keesian. The video game industry has long been dominated by men, who produce games for a largely male audience of players. Many of the most popular video games are embedded with sexist and misogynistic attitudes, and female charac- ters, when they appear, are often presented in stereotypical or demeaning ways (for instance, the “damsel in distress” who must be rescued by a male character or the scantily clad female as a sexual object for male pleasure). In response, Anita Sarkeesian began producing a series of videos critiqu- ing female representation in the gaming industry and posting them on her website Feminist Frequency.
The videos triggered a vicious backlash, first by individ- ual, anonymous, and presumably male gamers, but then by a more organized and coordinated campaign of intimidation. Her attackers sent death and rape threats and even developed a video game in which an image of Sarkeesian was used as a
PATRIARCHY literally meaning “rule of the father”; a male- dominated society
SEXISM the belief that one sex, usually male, is superior to the other
MISOGYNY an ingrained prejudice against women; dislike, contempt, or hatred of women
HOMOPHOBIA fear of or discrimination toward gay, lesbian, and bisexual people
TRANSPHOBIA fear of or discrimination toward transgender or other gender-nonconforming people
HETEROSEXISM belief in the superiority of heterosexuality and heterosexuals
CISGENDERISM belief in the superiority of cisgender persons and identities
COMING OUT to openly declare one’s true identity to those who might not be aware of it; short for “coming out of the closet,” a phrase used to describe how gays and lesbians have felt compelled to keep their sexual orientation secret
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality264
The vocabulary associated with sex, gender, and sexuality may seem to be a confusing minefield for those who are unfa- miliar with it. Preferred terms may change faster within LGBTQ communities than outside of them, leaving open the possibility for individuals to give and take offense. Various LGBTQ organizations post glossaries on the Internet to help guide speakers, writers, and others. Check out the websites of GLA AD (a media advocacy organization) or HRC (Human Rights Campaign) for examples of such glossaries. In addi- tion, when interacting with LGBTQ persons, it is impor- tant to respect them and their preferences. As tempting as it might be to slap a label on people when we first encounter them, the right thing to do is to allow others to self-identify and to then affirm that self-identification by using a person’s chosen name and preferred pronoun (he or she, or a neutral pronoun like they).
Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality Each of the three main sociological paradigms has explained gender inequality in different ways; in addition, there is a theoretical perspective devoted entirely to the questions sur- rounding gender and gender inequality in society. We will take a brief look at each in this section.
Functionalism Functionalists generally believe that there are still social roles better suited to one gender than the other, and societies are more stable when norms are fulfilled by the appropriate sex. In particular, functionalists emphasize how “female” roles may work in tandem with “male” roles within the fam- ily. Talcott Parsons, for example, identified two complemen- tary roles (Parsons and Bales 1955). One is an instrumental role: being task oriented, a “breadwinner,” and an authority figure. The other is an expressive role: providing emotional support and nurturing. The expressive role is crucial not only for the care of children but also for stabilizing the personality of the instrumental partner against the stresses of the com- petitive world. In this view, since women are considered bet- ter suited to the expressive role and men to the instrumental role, gender segregation serves to uphold the traditional fam- ily and its social functions.
Expressive and instrumental roles may be complemen- tary, but the social rewards for filling them are far from equal. The functionalist view does not explain very well why gen- der relations are characterized by such inequality. While the work of raising children and maintaining a household is intensive and difficult, there is a tendency to dismiss it as being unskilled and instinctive, which results in the devalu- ation of traditionally feminine work. Those who support a patriarchal society argue that this is again because resources
can feel unsafe in an anti-gay, anti-trans society. Some fear not only the social and emotional repercussions they might experience but also becoming the victim of a hate crime. Almost 20 percent of all hate crimes are motivated by anti– sexual orientation or anti–gender identity biases; advocates believe these numbers are underreported (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016c).
Gendered Language and Microaggressions Some sociologists argue that language shapes culture, while others say the opposite. In any case, by looking at our lan- guage, we can see how certain words reflect cultural values and norms, particularly sexism, heterosexism, and cisgen- derism. We often use such language without thinking, and this form of (often unintended) discrimination is called a microaggression (Sue 2010). But intentional or not, micro- aggressions are experienced as insulting and demeaning.
For instance, the English language has long assumed that the default category for all human experience is male. We have traditionally used the generic “he,” referred to the human race as “mankind,” and noted that “all men are created equal.” If something is man-made, it is made by humans, not just male humans. But clearly, not everyone experiences the world from a male perspective, and using this kind of language can make some women feel excluded and demeaned.
Not everyone experiences the world from a heterosexual perspective either, but in most societies heterosexuality is assumed and is part of the structure of society in ways that we may not even notice. For example, some people use the terms “gay” or “queer” to describe things they don’t like, imply- ing that being gay or queer is a bad thing. Even less obvious: assumptions of heterosexuality on the part of others, such as the new acquaintance who asks a woman what her husband does, or the well-meaning auntie who buys her cute nephew a T-shirt that says “Ladies’ Man.” Small acts such as these rein-
force heterosexist assumptions and can make gays, lesbians, and bisexuals feel invisible and invalidated.
Trans persons also experience microaggressions often when, intentionally or unintentionally, they are “misgendered” by others. While it can be accidental (call- ing a trans woman “sir” on the phone, or a trans man “ma’am,” for example), it is sometimes deliberate, as when an unsup- portive family member refuses to use the trans person’s preferred name or gender pronoun.
MICROAGGRESSIONS everyday uses of subtle verbal and nonverbal communications that convey denigrating or dismissive messages to members of certain social groups
INSTRUMENTAL ROLE the position of the family member who provides material support; often an authority figure
EXPRESSIVE ROLE the position of the family member who provides emotional support and nurturing
Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality 265
with private property. This theory was introduced by Fried- rich Engels in 1884. Engels noted that capitalists (the owners of property) benefited from maintaining patriarchal families, with women in the private sphere and men in the public work- place, in at least two ways. Women do the work of reproduc- ing the labor force (on which the capitalists depend) without receiving any direct compensation, and they serve as an inex- pensive “reserve army” of labor when the need arises. Engels suggested that if private property were abolished, the material inequalities producing social classes would disappear, and there would no longer be powerful interests forcing women into domestic roles.
Conflict theorists point out that whether or not gender inequality is a product of class conflict, all men benefit from it in the short term. Zillah Eisenstein (1979) notes that men stand to lose a good deal if gender segregation disappears: They would have to do more unpaid work, or pay to have their homes kept up and children cared for; they would have to find jobs in a larger and more competitive market; and they would lose some power and prestige if they were no longer the more viable breadwinners.
Interactionism While conflict theorists and functionalists focus on gen- der from a macrosociological perspective, interactionists emphasize how gender is socially constructed and main- tained in our everyday lives. According to interactionists, gender is so important to our social selves that we can barely interact with anyone without first determining that person’s gender identity. We need to categorize, and we need to be cat- egorizable as well. For some people, this is no easy matter. For example, gender-nonconforming people such as transgender or nongendered individuals may not fit easily into society’s preexisting categories and may experience difficulty in their interactions with others who expect them to do so.
UCLA’s Harold Garfinkel (1967/1984) was one of the first sociologists to focus on the interactional work involved in expressing gender identity in a world of binary categories. He conducted intensive interviews with “Agnes,” a trans woman born with male genitalia and raised as a boy, who was undergo- ing sex-reassignment treatment at the UCLA medical center. While Agnes had always known that she was a “120 percent natural normal woman,” it was only when she was seventeen that she began to learn how to “do being female”—to look, behave, and talk like a woman. Agnes got a job and a room- mate—even a boyfriend—and set about learning what would be expected of her as a woman. She carefully adopted her female roommate’s style of dress, makeup, and body language; she listened to what her female friends said and how they spoke. She learned how to maintain “proper” deference (it was a different era) to her male boss at work, and she listened to her boyfriend and his female family members as they expressed their expectations for her as a future wife and mother. Unlike
provided by men in their instrumental roles are ultimately more valuable. This value, however, is being questioned in light of evidence indicating that juvenile delinquency and crime rates are higher when there is no adult supervision in the home and that expressive roles are thus important. The functionalist view also fails to acknowledge that families are often sources of social instability, with violence and abuse in families all too common.
Conflict Theory Conflict theorists take a different approach. According to this perspective, men have historically had access to most of society’s material resources and privileges, and consequently they generally seek to maintain their dominant status. Thus, conflict theorists see gender inequality in much the same way as they see race and class inequality—as manifestations of exploitation.
Some conflict theorists argue that gender inequality is just a derivative of class inequality and that it therefore originates
The Function of Gender Inequality In the 1950s, Talcott Parsons argued that gender role expectations upheld the traditional family. Male “breadwinners” fulfilled an instrumental role by being task oriented and authoritative, while female “homemakers” embodied an expressive role by providing emotional support. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet featured the era’s prototypical family.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality266
to “writing women back in” to scholarship in history, litera- ture, art, and the social and natural sciences, areas in which the lives and contributions of women have traditionally been minimized or overlooked entirely. Theorists such as Judith Butler (1999), bell hooks (2003), and Catharine MacKinnon (2005) link gender inequality with inequality in other social hierarchies—race and ethnicity, class, and sexual orienta- tion—and argue that gender and power are inextricably inter- twined in our society.
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances If two infants, one girl and one boy, are born at the same time in the same location from parents of similar racial and socio- economic background, sociologists can predict answers to questions like the following: Who is more likely to live longer, attend college, or go to prison? Who might make a good living or live in poverty? Who is more likely to be married, divorced, or widowed, be a single parent or the victim of a violent crime, or join the military?
In this section, we will analyze how gender affects our lives. We will look specifically at how expectations regard- ing gender and sexuality shape our experiences with family, health, education, work and income, the military, and crimi- nal justice. For instance, women traditionally are caretakers of their families and more likely than men to go to college. Men make more money than women and are more likely to head religious institutions. These conditions are the result of values and norms that encourage certain behaviors in women and men.
other women, though, Agnes had to take extra precautions, such as avoiding sexual intercourse with her boyfriend (not too unusual in the early 1960s), wearing skirts and other clothing that would disguise her male anatomy, and avoiding activities (such as swimming at the beach) that would make her differences obvious until after she had completed her sur- gical transition.
“Passing” as a female was a good deal of work for Agnes, and she constantly dealt with the fear that her secret would be discovered. But even Garfinkel, who knew her secret already, found her enactment of femininity quite convincing. Indeed, he was utterly charmed by her. Even though you may think you have nothing in common with Agnes or other transgen- der people, you actually enact gender in much the same way Agnes did.
Feminist Theory Feminist theory has developed in the last thirty years in a way that has revolutionized society and the social sciences. Related to both conflict theory (in its focus on inequality) and interactionist theory (in its focus on the lived experiences of women and men), feminist theory flourished alongside the women’s movement dedicated to securing the same rights and freedoms for both women and men in society. It developed into a way of looking at the world that focuses on enhancing scholarly understanding of gender inequities in society. By applying assumptions about gender inequality to various social institutions—the family, education, the economy, or media—feminist theory allows for a new way of understand- ing those institutions and the changing role of gender in con- temporary society. Feminist theory and methods contribute
Perspective Approach to Gender Inequality Case Study: Male- and Female- Dominated Occupations
Functionalism
Sex determines which roles men and women are best suited to; it is more appropriate for men to play instrumental roles and for women to play expressive roles.
Women are naturally more nurturing and thus make better nurses and teachers of young children; men are naturally more logical and thus make better lawyers and computer programmers.
Conflict Theory
Because of the traditional division of labor in families, males have had more access to resources and privileges and have sought to maintain their dominance.
Male- dominated occupations generally hold more prestige and are better paid; women may encounter difficulties entering male- dominated occupations, whereas men may more easily succeed in female- dominated occupations.
Symbolic Interactionism
Gender is learned through the process of socialization; gender inequalities are reproduced through interactions with family, peers, schools, and the media.
Girls and boys are socialized differently and may be encouraged to seek out gender- appropriate training, college majors, and career goals, leading them to enter male- and female- dominated occupations.
Table 9.2 Theory in Everyday Life
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances 267
Health Of the more than 325 million Americans, more than half are female. Why are there more women? One reason is that women live longer; females born in 2015 are expected to live for an average of 81.2 years, whereas males are expected to live 76.3 years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017b). The longer men live, the closer their life expectancy comes to that of women, but the overall average is depressed because young men are at greater risk of accidental death. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that men ages twenty to twenty-four are three times as likely to die as a result of accidents, almost five times as likely to commit suicide, and almost seven times more likely to be murdered (CDC 2016).
These days, however, more women are engaged in stress- related behavior—such as working outside the home, smoking, and drinking—so the gap may be closing. While the five-year difference in life expectancy for children born in 2015 is sig- nificant, this gender gap is the smallest it’s been in fifty years. And while life expectancy has increased for all Americans, predicted life spans for American women rose by 2.5 years over the last twenty-five years, compared to 4.5 years for men. Some of the change can be attributed to men taking more care with their health, but at the same time women have increased their risk factors for disease. For example, lung cancer used to be thought of as a man’s disease, but as more women began lighting up over the past decades, their relative risk of death from lung cancer rose and is now nearly identical to that of men (Thun 2013). Such trends have led researchers to call smoking “the great equalizer” (National Institutes of Health 2014; Perls and Fretts 1998).
While both women and men suffer from heart disease and cancer in fairly equal numbers, other health disorders are gender related. One example is depression, which women are almost twice as likely to suffer from as men (Burton 2012; Kessler 2003). Historically, the medical profession has diag- nosed women far more often than men with depression, “hys- teria,” and other mental conditions. Thus, women have been denied equal rights and equitable working conditions and pay if they were thought, as a category, to be mentally unfit. This issue, however, is controversial. Some maintain that the larger percentage of depressed women may be a result of reporting rather than the actual number of cases. In other words, women may be more likely to report such symptoms, whereas men may ignore them or may feel a greater sense of stigma in reporting them (Byrne 1981; Martin et al. 2013).
Systematic data about the life expectancy of LGBTQ indi- viduals are not available yet, but early research suggests that being gay might have implications for health as well, but only for those who live in less tolerant areas. One study found that “living in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice” was associated with a “life expectancy difference of roughly 12 years” (Hatzenbuehler et al. 2014). Some of this decrease
It is important to remember the concept of intersec- tiona lity—that gender and sexua lity are intertwined with other factors, such as race and class. Therefore, it is diff i- cult to separate out the effects of gender on categories like marriage, education, and work. Single women with chil- dren are probably more likely to live in poverty, less likely to have a college education, and more likely to work in ser vice-sector jobs. However, a person is not automatica lly poor or destined to be divorced because she is fema le. The categories a ll work together to construct the complexity of a person’s life.
Families When it comes to family, men are more likely than women to report never having been married (35 percent of men com- pared to 29 percent of women), perhaps reflecting the stron- ger societal pressure for women to marry at some point in their lives. Men are also slightly more likely than women to report being married, 53 percent of men compared to 51 per- cent of women. About 9 percent of women are widowed (only 2.8 percent of men are), and 11 percent of women (9 percent of men) are currently divorced (U.S. Census Bureau 2016b). Some of these differences may be accounted for by the longer life spans of women.
Divorce seems to be much more difficult for women with children than for men. Women are more likely to retain the primary caregiving role after divorce and to suffer finan- cially because of it. About five of every six custodial parents— parents who live with children while the other parent lives elsewhere—are mothers. Less than half (46 percent) of all custodial parents receive the full amount of child support due, and about a quarter receive none. About 29 percent of all custodial parents and their children live below the poverty level, a rate more than twice as high as the total population. The poverty rate of custodial mothers (31 percent) is nearly double the poverty rate of custodial fathers (17 percent) (Grall 2016).
And while women are contributing to household income by working outside the home, they are finding that they are still responsible for being the family’s primary caregiver. In the work- place, this creates problems. Time taken out of work in order to care for sick children is seen as nonproductive time, and women who do take such time off may face discrimination (Wharton and Blair-Loy 2002). And most women, when they leave work, still face household chores at home—the second shift.
Up until recently LGBTQ individuals couldn’t legally marry at all. In June 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Oberge- fell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, legalizing gay marriage nationwide. According to Gallup, a majority of same-sex couples (61 percent) are now married, up from 38 percent before the ruling (Jones 2017). Just over 10 percent of all LGBT adults are currently married to a same-sex spouse (Jones 2017).
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality268
since the 1990s, women have increasingly outnumbered men in college, especially in the traditional eighteen-to-twenty- four age group. Starting in the mid-1990s women made up the majority of college graduates, and in 2015 they earned 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees. By 2000 more women than men were earning master’s degrees, and by 2005 more women were earning doctorates as well (U.S. Department of Educa- tion 2017b). However, men earn more than women at every level of education, from those not completing high school to those obtaining advanced degrees. In fact, in order to make as much money as a man with a bachelor’s degree, a woman has to have a PhD (Carnevale, Rose, and Cheah 2011). These wage discrepancies make gender inequality very difficult to ignore.
The picture is more complicated when examining educa- tional attainment among LGBTQ individuals. Census data show that people in same-sex couples who live together are significantly more likely to have college degrees than people in opposite-sex couples, 46 percent compared to 33 percent
in life expectancy can be connected to issues like suicide and homicide that may also result from prejudice. But researchers also report that “psychosocial stressors are strongly linked to cardiovascular risk, and this kind of stress may represent an indirect pathway through which prejudice contributes to mortality” (Hatzenbuehler et al. 2014). Perhaps relatedly, sexual minorities are more likely to smoke, drink, and use illicit drugs, and they suffer from higher rates of mental ill- ness (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin- istration 2016). Additionally, LGBTQ adults are less likely to have health insurance and also less likely to have a personal doctor (Gates 2014).
Education In fall 2017, more than 20 million students headed off to col- leges in the United States, and about 12.5 million of them were female (U.S. Department of Education 2017c). In fact,
In 2017, the U.S. women’s national ice hockey team was about to do one of two things: defend its title in the World Champi- onships or go on strike. The team wanted better wages, but it wasn’t about any particular sum of money; it was about equity. It was about the men’s team flying business class while the women’s team flew coach. It was about the women’s team only receiving financial support in the six months leading up to the Winter Olympics despite training all year, every year. As Team Captain Megan Duggan explained, it was about “a living wage and for USA Hockey to fully support its programs for women and girls and stop treating us like an afterthought” (Zirin 2017). Fortunately, three days before the tournament, USA Hockey and the women’s national team reached an agreement that included travel and insurance provisions equal to those received by the men’s team, a guaranteed year-round monthly stipend, and larger performance bonuses (Berkman 2017). Now the players can get back to doing what they do best—winning titles.
The gender pay gap—which refers to the difference in wom- en’s average earnings and men’s average earnings—is not just an issue for female athletes. Women get paid less in nearly all occupations. Currently, women in the United States earn about 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. Put another way, in order for the average woman to earn what the average man did in 2017, she would have to continue working almost four more months into the following year, until April 4, 2018, to be exact.
Part of the reason for the gender pay gap is occupational segregation. As you learned earlier, the U.S. workforce is
ON THE JOB Female Athletes and the Battle for Equal Pay
highly segregated by sex, with men largely pursuing occupa- tions held by men and women pursuing occupations held by women. Female-dominated occupations such as education and health services pay less than male-dominated occupa- tions, reflecting cultural ideas about the value of “women’s work” (Chodorow 2009). This is also true of occupations with the same skill level. Researchers estimate that about half of the gender wage gap can be explained by these occu- pational differences (Blau and Kahn 2007). Men also work more hours for pay than women, contributing to the gender pay gap (Cha and Weeden 2014). This gap in hours can be largely explained by women’s disproportionate responsibil- ity for housework and child care.
The gender pay gap also reflects ongoing discrimination and inequalities against women in the job market, and these inequalities are compounded by the effects of race. The gen- der pay gap is largest for women of color. Black and Hispanic women suffer the greatest losses, earning only 68 cents and 62 cents, respectively, for each dollar that a white man earns. Even among their male counterparts, women of color also lose out: Black women earn 90 cents for every dollar earned by black men, and Hispanic women earn 92 cents for every dol- lar earned by Hispanic men (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017h).
Research shows that the wage gap is most narrow between women and men in their first years after graduat- ing from college. The gap widens when workers hit their late
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances 269
twenties to mid-thirties, the age range when many women get married and have children. When women return to the workforce after taking leave, they encounter what has been called the “motherhood penalty” (Correll, Benard, and Paik 2007). Perceived by employers as less competent workers, mothers are less likely to be hired than nonmothers, and when they are hired, they are offered lower salaries. Con- versely, men experience a boost to their careers when they have children, referred to as the “fatherhood bonus” (Kille- wald 2013).
U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team The World Champions threatened to strike over wages and equity issues.
The movement around “Equal Pay Day” has increased the awareness of the gender pay gap, but it has also inspired backlash. Some have argued that if you adjust the data for factors like education, experience, occupation, maternity leave, and personal preferences, the pay gap will go away. But this reasoning is problematic. It doesn’t take into account the ongoing sexism that may influence such things as how women are tracked into majors in college, which jobs women seek out, and how much maternity leave they take. Recent studies suggest that even when we account for all these fac- tors (and others), there is still a gap of at least 8 percent that cannot be explained by anything other than discrimination (Blau and Kahn 2016). While that might not sound like such a big deal, these sums make a substantial difference in the lives of women and their families.
So what can be done? Fair wage advocates have proposed increasing the scope of the Equa l Pay Act, which hasn’t been updated since 1963. They want to see stronger incentives for employers to follow the law and enhanced enforcement when they don’t, a long with more protections for workers who cha llenge wage disparities. They point out that it is good business for companies to conduct wage audits that proactively address gender-based pay differences. And they urge individua ls to do what the U.S. women’s nationa l ice hockey team did: empower themselves by learning how to negotiate better sa laries, benefits, and programs in the workplace.
(Kurtzleben 2013). However, when researchers survey all self- identified LGBTQ individuals, they find that “Americans with lower levels of education are more likely than their higher edu- cated counterparts to identify as LGBT” (Gates 2012).
For many queer youth, the most difficult period in dealing with their sexual and gender identities in a transphobic and homophobic culture occurs during their adolescent years. Research shows that LGBTQ youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide (Ryan et al. 2009). In 2015, 6 percent of heterosexual students compared to 29 percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students had attempted sui- cide (Kann et al. 2016). The 2015 National School Climate Survey (Kosciw et al. 2016) showed that nearly nine out of ten LGBTQ students experience harassment in school. Almost 85 percent of LGBTQ students reported being ver- bally harassed, while 35 percent reported being physically harassed, and 16 reported physical assault in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
Many schools have enacted anti-bullying policies that can help lower instances of harassment and raise the rates of staff inter vention. School programs that heighten a ll students’ awareness of stigma and its consequences can help change campus climate (Rabow, Stein, and Conley 1999).
Work and Income In whatever aspect of work we analyze—the rates of partici- pation in the labor force, the kinds of jobs, the levels of pay, the balance between work and family—gender inequality is highly visible. For example, in 2016, 69 percent of men were in the labor force, but only 57 percent of women, though women’s participation rates have been increasing over time. Interest- ingly men and women have historically had relatively similar rates of unemployment; in 2016 about as many men (4.9 per- cent) were unemployed as women (4.8 percent). But because
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality270
Table 9.3 Selected Occupations by Gender, 2016
Occupation Percent Women
Preschool and kindergarten teachers 97.5
Dental hygienists 97.1
Secretaries and administrative assistants 94.6
Registered nurses 90.0
Maids and housekeepers 89.6
Paralegals and legal assistants 86.7
Librarians 83.8
Waiters and waitresses 70.0
Psychologists 67.5
Customer service representatives 65.0
News analysts, reporters, and correspondents
48.8
Retail salespersons 48.4
Medical scientists 46.9
Physicians and surgeons 38.2
Lawyers 35.7
Chief executives 27.3
Computer programmers 22.6
Clergy 17.6
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers 5.2
Firefighters 3.5
Carpenters 2.1
Automotive service technicians and mechanics
1.7
traditional family dynamics still endure, women are more likely than men to be found outside the labor force altogether (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017o).
Marriage seems to have opposite effects on women’s and men’s participation rates. Never married women are more likely to work than married women, while married men are more likely to work than single men. In 2015, 63 percent of never married women (as opposed to 58 percent of married women) worked, while 73 percent of married men (com- pared with nearly 67 percent of never married men) did (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017o). This discrepancy could possibly be explained by the assumption that men are heads of households, and single women are considered responsible for their own finances.
Since 1970, the number of mothers in the labor force has been on the rise. Only 53 percent of single mothers and 41 percent of married mothers in 1970 participated in the labor force. In 2015, this rose to 75 percent for unmarried mothers and 68 percent for married mothers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017o).
Many jobs are gendered; they traditionally have been and continue to be performed by women or men. As Table 9.3 shows, nurses, kindergarten teachers, dental hygienists, secretaries, paralegals, and housekeepers are female-domi- nated professions, whereas airplane pilots, auto mechanics, firefighters, carpenters, and the clerg y are male-dominated professions. In 2016, nearly 98 percent of all teachers of young children and 95 percent of secretaries were women. Less than 2 percent of all automotive mechanics and less than 4 percent of all firefighters were women. Gendered jobs have far- reaching consequences. For example, physi- cians often earn four or more times as much as nurses. So when women constitute 90 percent of all nurses but only 38 percent of all physicians and surgeons, the monetary stakes are striking.
Why are some jobs considered best performed by women and others by men? Why are women vastly underrepresented as pilots and auto mechanics and men nearly absent as secre- taries and child-care workers? Socially constructed catego- ries of occupations are extremely resilient. Despite advances in workplace technologies that would enable both women and men to perform similarly in jobs, men still vastly outnumber women in certain professions, especially those with high salaries and prestige. It is also interesting to note that jobs
that are traditionally female are consistently undervalued and underpaid. “Pink-collar” jobs—nurses, secretaries, librarians—are considered less desirable in a patriarchal society (England 1992).
Income levels and poverty rates also show inequality between women and men. In
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017i.
2016, men earned an average of $51,640, while the average annual earnings for women was $41,554 (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). The earnings ratio (sometimes called the wage or pay gap) has improved since the 1960s and 1970s; however, the 2016 earnings ratio of 80.5:100 still translates to 80 cents earned by women for each dollar earned by men (Figure 9.2).
FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY the economic trend showing that women are more likely than men to live in poverty, caused in part by the gendered gap in wages, the higher proportion of single mothers compared to single fathers, and the increasing costs of child care
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances 271
Recession
2010 20152005200019951990198519801975197019651960
Earnings of women
Female-to-male earnings ratio
80.5 percent
$51,640
$41,554
E a
rn in
g s
in t
h o
u sa
n d
s (2
01 6
d o
lla rs
)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Earnings of men
Figure 9.2 Female-to-Male Earnings Ratio, 1960–2016
SOURCE: Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
The Second Shift: Gender Norms and Household Labor
Gender roles have changed a great deal in recent decades, giving men and women a much larger range of options than before.
Still we continue to con- form to many traditional gender norms, both in the workplace and at home. When it comes to couples and families, it is easy to see the extent to which expectations for men and women differ. Sociologist Arlie Hochschild has con- ducted extensive studies of two-parent households and the division of labor for the many tasks of domestic life (Hochschild and Machung 1989). She coined the term the second shift to refer to the unpaid work—cook- ing, cleaning, laundry, child care, home repair, yard
SECOND SHIFT the unpaid housework and child care often expected of women after they complete their day’s paid labor
In 2016, the median income for married-couple house – holds was $87,057. For male-headed households with no wife present, the median income was $58,051—dramati- cally higher than the $41,027 for female-headed households with no husband present. The median household income for women living alone was $30,572, while for single men it was $41,749. Finally, women are more likely to live in poverty than men. This situation, often referred to as the feminization of poverty, results from a combination of social forces, including the gendered gap in wages, the higher proportion of single women taking on the financial respon- sibility of children, and the increasing costs of child care. Of the 40.6 million Americans living below the poverty line in 2016, females constituted the largest group, whether living alone or in female-headed households (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017).
In states that do not have laws prohibiting it, employers can still discriminate against LGBTQ persons in hiring and pay. In 2016, between 11 and 28 percent of LGBTQ workers reported losing a promotion simply because of their sexual orientation, and 27 percent of transgender workers reported being fired, not hired, or denied a promotion (Singh and Durso 2017). Given the number of LGBTQ workers compared to, say, the number of women workers, this means that the rate of LGBTQ discrimination is several times higher—a concerning statistic. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is proposed legislation that places both sexual orientation and gender identity in a protected class along with race and gender, but it has consistently failed to pass both houses of Congress to make it to the president’s desk.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality272
work—that must be done at home after the day’s paid labor, the first shift, is complete.
With the typical couple today, both men and women work outside the home, and for most households it takes two incomes to pay the bills and raise a family. If both people are already working a first shift, then whose responsibility is it to take on all the other tasks waiting at home? It’s probably not surprising that Hochschild found that women do most of the second shift—but not always. Perhaps you have noticed this second shift work in your own home or family.
You’ll notice that some tasks must be done every day, or even several times each day—like cooking meals, for example. Other tasks, like laundry, are done less often but on a regular basis. Still others are irregular or seasonal like raking leaves or unstopping a clogged drain. Some tasks are focused on people, like helping kids with homework, whereas others, like cleaning out the gutters, are focused on objects. Studies show that men tend to participate in more instrumental tasks, such as car repair and yard work, while women tend to engage in more expressive tasks, such as mediating arguments and calming upset children. And then there are all the seemingly endless tasks that revolve around the family ’s daily needs, and who is doing that? Most often, it’s women; this is how they rack up an extra month of housework a year (that’s a month of twenty- four-hour days)!
For this Data Workshop, you will investigate the second shift by interviewing one working parent in a two-person couple who share a household with one or more children. Return to the section on interviews in Chapter 2 for a review of Hochschild and this research method.
Construct a set of interview questions to ask a work- ing parent about how he or she juggles family and work. These can include some closed-ended as well as open- ended questions. One of the easiest ways to start an interview like this is to just ask the person to describe everything she or he does in a typical day, perhaps using the previous day as an example. This can be done in chronological order. Try to identify all the types of work that your respondent does in a typical day, includ- ing paid work, unpaid work, interaction work, emotion work, and so on. Be aware you may need to prompt your respondent if you suspect the person has overlooked some part of his or her day or if you need more details.
You’ll also want to ask some other questions about how tasks are divided among members of the house- hold (spouse/partner, children, others). Who does what and why? Ask your interviewee to describe both his or her own tasks and also what his or her partner does. You might also try to determine how completing
these tasks (or not completing them) affects the respondent’s relationships with other members of the household. Feel free to develop some additional ques- tions of your own.
Once your questionnaire is ready, identify an inter- viewee who is a member of the target population, and ask for the person’s consent to participate in your pilot study. Ask your respondent to be candid and to answer your questions as fully as possible. Be prepared to take detailed notes and/or record your interview. Either way you’ll need to produce a rough transcription of the responses to review and analyze.
After completing the interview, refer to your written notes or transcripts and do some further analysis. Reflect on the data and ask yourself the following questions:
✱ Does there appear to be a gendered division of labor in the home? How are the tasks divided? Who does most of the daily work and why?
✱ Did your interview confirm that women do more of the second shift, or was your respondent an excep- tion to the rule?
✱ Is it inevitable that one person in a couple always does more work than the other? What effects might these inequities have on marriages and live-in relationships? Can you think of a better solution to sharing household labor?
✱ What might you have learned if you could have interviewed the other partner as well?
✱ Although a single interview is not a scientific sam- ple, do you think your findings could still apply to a larger population?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP-PAIR-SHARE Conduct the interview and bring your questionnaire and notes and/or transcripts to class. Pair up with a partner, present your preliminary find- ings, and compare and contrast what you learned from the experience. Try to further develop your analyses together.
DO-IT-YOURSELF Conduct the interview and make some preliminary notes and/or transcripts. Write a three-page essay analyzing your data. Make sure to use specific quotations from your respondent to support your analysis. Include a copy of your interview ques- tionnaire and your notes/transcripts as attachments to your paper.
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances 273
likely than men to report gender harassment. Laura Miller (1997) makes the distinction that gender harassment, rather than being sexual in nature, instead is used to enforce tradi- tional gender norms, such as aggression in males and nurtur- ing in females, as well as to punish violations of these norms. Interestingly, the men in Miller’s study were more likely to report being harassed by their drill sergeants, while women were more likely to be harassed by their fellow trainees.
The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office was formed in 2004 by the Department of Defense to coordinate the military’s response to sexual assault. The 2016 annual report on sexual assault in the military revealed that an esti- mated 14,900 service members were assaulted that year, which was fewer than the 20,300 reported in 2014 (Cronk 2017). The Pentagon has long acknowledged that the number of officially reported cases of sexual harassment in the mili- tary may represent only a fraction of the total number of vic- tims. The 2016 report also showed that one in three service members chose to report their assaults last year, an increase from one in four people in 2014; ten years ago only one in four- teen service members reported the crime. Counterintuitively, military leaders argue that the recent dramatic increase in reports of sexual assault is good news. Because sexual assault and sexual harassment so often went unreported in the past, “increased reporting signals not only growing trust of com- mand and confidence in the response system, but serves as the gateway to provide more victims with support and to hold a greater number of offenders appropriately accountable” (U.S. Department of Defense 2014). Despite the progress made, the military can still be an inhospitable place for female and gay service members.
Criminal Justice The experience of men and women differs with regard to almost every social institution, and the criminal justice sys- tem is no exception. The social construction of masculinity as aggressive, dominant, and physical corresponds to statistics on gender and crime. Men are more likely to die violent deaths and to be victims of assault. Women are slightly more likely to be victims of personal theft and much more likely to be victims of rape. Also women are far more likely to be victim- ized by their intimate partners (spouses or current or former boyfriends). Of the 2,818 homicides involving female victims in 2015, 36 percent were committed by an intimate partner. Among the 10,608 homicide incidents involving male victims in 2015, 2.5 percent were committed by an intimate partner (FBI 2016a).
In analyzing arrest rates for 2015, we find that men are overwhelmingly represented in nearly all categories, includ- ing murder, rape, sex offenses, theft, assault, and drug charges. There are only two categories of crimes where women out- number men: prostitution and embezzlement. It is impor- tant for us as sociologists to recognize this discrepancy as an
THE MILITARY The military provides a particular case study when it comes to issues of work and gender. The huge institution that is the military is composed mostly of men. Until recently, women were restricted to noncombat units (though the reality of war meant they often found themselves in the midst of combat situations). In 2015, only 15 percent of enlisted personnel were female. The number of women in the ranks varies by service branch, with women compris- ing 19 percent of the U.S. Air Force and 14 percent of the U.S. Army but only 8 percent of U.S. Marines (Parker, Cillufo, and Stepler 2017). In 2016, for the first time in history, women became eligible for combat roles in every branch of the armed forces. Among the top ranks of generals and admirals, just over 7 percent are women. In 2008, Lieutenant General Ann E. Dunwoody became the first woman promoted to the high- est rank of four-star general in the U.S. armed forces; by 2016, there were only two others at that rank.
The LGBTQ rights movement won a large victory in 2010 with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). Signed into law in 1993, DADT arose amid existing military policies that required the discharge of gay military service members. DADT was an attempt to curb those discharges by requiring that military administration not “ask” about a service mem- ber’s sexual orientation and that service members not “tell” about it, either. Initially offering promise that gay service members would be allowed to serve, DADT brought about an environment of secrecy in which gay service members had to keep silent—or lie—about their personal lives, as well as accept or even engage in anti-gay activities and discourse or face dis- charge. This environment spurred “witch hunts” that brought about the involuntary discharge of more than 14,000 service members. The repeal of DADT did not come quickly or easily, but President Obama signed the bill into law in 2010, allowing gay service members to serve openly without recrimination or threat of discharge.
Rape and sexual assault are increasingly acknowledged as a serious problem in the military, and women are far more
Women in the Military Women now serve in every branch of the military and in all positions, including combat roles.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality274
IN THE FUTURE Human Trafficking
The policy in the United States is to aggressively pursue human-trafficking crimes and to bring their perpetrators to justice. Multiple federal agencies are involved in the effort, including the Department of State (DOS), the Department of Homeland Sercurity (DHS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ). In 2016 these agencies investigated more than 3,800 cases of suspected human trafficking, ultimately securing convictions against 439 traffickers whose sentences ranged from twelve months to life imprisonment (U.S. Department of State 2017). Advocates have called upon federal prosecu- tors and courts to award mandatory restitution for victims of human trafficking. The United States already provides critical services and support to help victims after they are rescued.
The trafficking of girls and women as sex slaves remains an emotiona l issue, regardless of the arguments about the accuracy of the numbers. It is still something that is hard to imagine existing in modern-day form, in the United States or elsewhere in the world. Because it is a crime that is so difficult to combat, future efforts to stop trafficking must involve raising awareness of the issue; it is most often com- munity members who first tip off law enforcement when they suspect this kind of illega l activity. Equa lly important are identifying and resolving the larger socia l and eco- nomic problems that make people vulnerable to traffick- ing (such as extreme poverty and sexism) and coordinating internationa l law enforcement efforts and interdiction. Sociologica l insight is necessary for any and a ll of these things to occur.
We usually think of slavery as something that happened in the past, a deplorable historical artifact that is not only wholly unconscionable by contemporary standards but also outlawed everywhere in the world. The truth is that mod- ern-day slavery not only exists but also is perhaps a problem of greater proportion than we might expect.
In 2017, United States law enforcement uncovered a “mod- ern-day sex slave ring” they described as one of the most elabo- rate and extensive sex-trafficking operations they had ever seen (Davey 2017). The multimillion-dollar operation had gone on for more than eight years and involved hundreds of women who were shuttled between various cities, including Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. These young women, most of them from impoverished communities in Thailand, were promised a better life in the United States and that they would be able to help support their families back home. Once they arrived, the women found those promises came at an appallingly high price: They were required to work as prostitutes until they could pay off exhorbitant “bondage debts” of up to $60,000 each. The authorities said that the women were kept seques- tered in prostitution houses and prevented from leaving; their work hours often ran all day, every day. While this is a particu- larly high-profile case, it is not an isolated one. More than 3,500 sex-trafficking cases were reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center in 2016 alone.
The United Nations has defined human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability . . . for the purpose of exploitation.” As this definition conveys, human trafficking takes many forms, and while labor trafficking is a significant problem, victims who are trafficked into the sex industry often garner more attention because this crime seems even more heinous.
As with all illegal activities, it is difficult to get accurate numbers on sex trafficking. Estimates range from 600,000 to more than 2.5 million people being trafficked worldwide each year. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were 2.4 million victims of human trafficking across the globe and that some 80 percent of them were being exploited as sex slaves. Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile and former head of the UN agency on women’s rights and gender equality, called sex trafficking “one of the fastest growing” and most lucrative crimes in the world. And according to the United Nations, only 1 in 100 victims is ever rescued (Lederer 2012).
Modern-Day Slavery Former victim and now advocate Oree Freeman is part of a worldwide campaign to raise awareness of child exploitation and sex trafficking.
Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances 275
strictly a necessity, is an important part of a woman’s beauty regimen. But not all participants see their manicures the same way. One of Kang ’s respondents, an African American customer, talks about the meaning of her manicure by ref- erencing race rather than gender: “Black people on a whole have not been the ones who get pampered. There was a time when only white people could do this” (p. 165). For her, mani- cures are a symbol of progress (for black people, at least) in the arena of racial justice. In addition, male clients are often viewed with suspicion because, as one manicurist says, they come “just to hold a woman’s hand” (Kang, 2010, p. 88). Kang ’s work shows us how race and gender, along with other social statuses like class and sexual orientation, intersect at the nail salon (and in other settings as well).
By analyzing such visible indicators as labor partici- pation rates, income levels, arrest rates, and experiences related to the family, work, education, and the military, we can easily see the real consequences of gender inequality: Women and men experience life differently. So what can we say about the life outcomes of our two infants? The female is likely to live longer. Though they are both likely to marry, she is more likely to get divorced or become widowed. If she doesn’t drop out in response to anti-LGBTQ harassment or exclusion, she is more likely to graduate from high school and to attend college. However, if the male also attends college, he is more likely to graduate. If they earn the same degree, he will probably earn more money. Each has a good chance of ending up in certain professions over others (the military for him, nursing for her). He is more likely to die a violent death, while she is more likely to experience rape or some other crime perpetrated by someone with whom she is intimate. If either is LGBTQ , that person is at higher risk of bias-motivated attacks as well. While their gender and sex- ual categories surely do not guarantee these experiences, we as sociologists can safely make such predictions in the aggregate.
example of how crime is influenced by the social construction of gender. Because males are perceived as being more likely to be involved in violent crime and property crime, they are generally kept under more scrutiny by the police than females are. Of the more than 1.5 million people in state and federal prisons, the vast majority (around 93 percent) are men (Car- son and Anderson 2016).
The experiences of LGBTQ persons are distinctive both as victims and as offenders. Bias-motivated attacks on the basis of sexual orientation are the third-highest category of hate crimes tracked by the federal government (after race and religion). Nearly 20 percent of all hate crimes are motivated by sexual-orientation or gender-identity bias. In 2015 federal records show 1,219 anti–sexual orientation hate crimes and 118 anti-transgender or anti–gender-nonconforming attacks (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2016c). Given their propor- tions within the larger population, LGBTQ people are the most likely targets of hate crimes in America. While it is dif- ficult to find crime statistics that record the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of the offender, it is important to rec- ognize that LGBTQ persons do experience arrest, trial, con- viction, and imprisonment. Once in prison, LGBTQ inmates are vulnerable to sexual victimization at up to thirteen times the level of risk for the average inmate (Sexton, Jenness, and Sumner 2009).
Intersectionality Once again, the issue of intersectionality is important to keep in mind when we discuss gender and life chances: Gen- der rarely shapes individual experience in isolation but is instead linked to other social statuses in the effects it has on our lives. The intersection of gender with class, race, eth- nicity, and immigration status is visible in Miliann Kang’s (2010) study of the work of Asian immigrant women (mostly from Korea) in nail salons. Kang argues that the feminin- ity that is central to the beauty rituals performed in salons is also racialized. For example, the expectations our society has for Asian women are different from the expectations for their non-Asian female clientele. Because the quality of “subservience,” for instance, is often seen as “natural” in Asian women, customers may feel that they can make more demands on their manicurists than they would with other service providers. Indeed, Kang observed manicurists pro- viding “massage, elder-care, counseling for teens, commu- nity outreach [and] therapy for stressed-out clients” (p. 240) in addition to the salon services for which they were ostensi- bly being paid.
When customers and workers meet over the manicure table, they are not just coming together as women who share gendered experiences. Indeed, they may not share experi- ences at all, given their different class, race, ethnic, and sex- ual identities. For example, you might think of manicures as a kind of girly indulgence—an activity that, while not
Salons and Status Class, race, and gender intersect at the salon. For some women, manicures represent a hard-won indulgence; for the female salon workers, their immigrant status is often linked to an expectation of subservience.
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality276
FIRST WAVE In the United States, the history of the women’s movement can be divided into three historica l waves. The first wave began with a convention held in Sen- eca Fa lls, New York, in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The convention, numbering about 300 people, issued a Declaration of Sentiments stat- ing generally that “all men and women are created equal” and demanded specifically that women be given the right to vote. Stanton believed that in a democracy the right to vote is the fundamental right on which all others depend. Not surprisingly, then, the campaign to win the vote, known as the suffrage movement, became the cause most identified with the first wave of the women’s movement, even though that goal would not be achieved until 1920. Neither Stanton nor Mott nor the well-known suffragist Susan B. Anthony would live to see victory. Of the 100 women and men who signed the Declaration of Sentiments, only one, a young worker named Charlotte Woodward, lived to cast a ballot.
SECOND WAVE Just as the first wave of feminism is most closely associated with the right to vote, the second wave, which took place during the 1960s and 1970s, is associ- ated with equal access to education and employment. The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1963, the establishment of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, and the emergence of women’s consciousness-raising groups were key events in second- wave feminism. In those decades, young activists felt that the women’s movement had lost its momentum after the vote was won and that other issues needed to be addressed. In the opening pages of The Feminine Mystique, Friedan spoke of “the problem that had no name,” a problem that “lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women” (1963, p. 55): the sense of limitation and dissatisfaction that many women felt with their lives.
During one of the most prosperous periods in American history, Friedan was discovering that countless women were unhappy with the traditional roles they had been assigned, that the “mystique of feminine fulfillment” was no longer so fulfilling (1963, p. 18). Women were restricted from pursuing activities outside these traditional roles, whether by cultural norms or by actual laws that barred them from schools, workplaces, and professional organiza- tions. Women who tried to breach these barriers were seen as “unfeminine.” Some were even told, as former North Car- olina senator Elizabeth Dole was when she entered Harvard Law School in 1962, that they were taking an opportunity away from a more deserving man.
The second wave of the women’s movement pushed for and achieved such reforms as equal opportunity laws, legislation against sexual harassment and marital rape, and a general increase in public awareness about gender discrimination in our society. Some of the public, however, reacted with hostil- ity to women’s demands for legal and cultural “liberation,” and
Social Movements Because most societies, throughout most of human history, have been patriarchal and heteronormative, women and LGBTQ people have often struggled to attain and preserve their most basic human and civil rights. In the recent his- tory of the United States, there have been several important political and social movements intended to improve the sta- tus of these groups.
Women’s Movements Feminism is the belief in the socia l, politica l, a nd eco- nomic equa lit y of the sexes and the socia l movements orga nized a round that belief. Thus, feminism is both a theoretica l perspective (a s discussed ea rlier in this chap- ter) a nd a socia l movement. It is impor ta nt to keep in mind that feminist concepts a nd goa ls a re not static but a re a lways focused on bring ing about g reater gender equa lit y in a pa r ticula r time a nd place. Rebecca West, a n ea rly-
t wentieth-centur y femi- nist, put it this way in 1913: “I myself have never been able to f ind out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people ca ll me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differenti- ate me from a doormat or a prostitute” (Shiach 1999).
The Problem That Had No Name In The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan (center) articulated a sense of limitation and dissatisfaction that many women felt with their lives.
FEMINISM belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes; also the social movements organized around that belief
FIRST WAVE the earliest period of feminist activism, from the mid- nineteenth century until American women won the right to vote in 1920
Social Movements 277
The pro-feminist men’s movement, on the other hand, is based in the belief that men should support feminism in the interest of fairness to women and because men’s lives are also constrained by gender and sexism and are enriched by feminist social change. Pro-feminist men suggest that the idea that men are superior is a burden and that, in the long term, men will be happier if society becomes less sexist. They argue that men need to share more of the responsibilities of child care, contest economic disparities and violence against women, and generally respect and value women’s lives. How- ever much society has changed because of these movements, serious questions remain about men’s and women’s roles and the future of their relations with each other.
LGBTQ Movements In 1968, police raided a gay bar in New York City called the Stonewall Inn. At the time, patrons of gay bars were fre- quently singled out for harassment from the police, and the pent-up resentment and frustration this caused erupted into a week of violence following the raid. Although this was not the first time gay citizens had been harassed by law enforce- ment, nor was it the first time gay citizens had protested the harassment, Stonewall was a watershed moment, jump- starting a larger, more visible LGBTQ liberation movement. The Stonewall riots ushered in a new era of campaigning for civil rights for gays, lesbians, bisexu- als, and trans individuals.
Dana Rosenfeld (2003), who studies LGBTQ identity, asserts that there are two distinct cohorts among members: those who lived before the gay liberation move- ment of the 1960s and 1970s and those who lived during and after it. The earlier generation would have felt discredited if their sexual orientation had become public knowledge, whereas the later generation believed that making their identity public was celebrating an essential aspect of the self that should not be denied. This was both a per- sonal and political struggle to advance acceptance and equal rights. There were many LGBTQ rights groups that emerged after Stonewall, and they continue to fight for progressive change on many fronts, from AIDS research to anti–hate crime legislation.
there continues to be a certain amount of backlash against feminist causes as a result.
THIRD WAVE Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, the third wave of feminism focused primarily on diversity. These feminists criticize the first two waves for concentrating on “women” as one category (mainly white and middle class) and marginalizing the concerns of women of color, lesbi- ans, and working-class women. Third-wave feminists are more focused on intersectionality. And they have become more concerned with ideas about personal identity and free- dom from limiting categories. Third-wave feminism is also concerned with globalization and the rights of women in all countries along with environmental and animal rights. The movement includes many if not most college students—even if you don’t call yourself a feminist, you likely believe in femi- nist values, such as equality, diversity, and global intercon- nectedness. You are the third wave, and you will help make a difference.
Men’s Movements The women’s movement, especially the second and third waves, has asked us to rethink gender roles and the place of women in society, and men have responded in a variety of ways. Some have countered feminists’ arguments, some have agreed with and supported feminism, and others have taken positions somewhere in between. And just as feminism called existing definitions of womanhood into question, so too did it ask us to reexamine what it means to be a man.
In the mid-1970s, the notion of men’s liberation (or the need to free men from oppressive gender roles) became more widespread. Influential studies pointed to evidence that men suffer from greater stress, poorer health, and a shorter life expectancy and argued that these resulted from pressures to achieve success combined with men’s inability to express themselves and their emotions (Farrell 1975; Goldberg 1976). American men had become confused about what it means to be a “real man” (Kimmel 1987). They were facing new discom- fort and anxiety about their masculinity. These ideas became fairly popular, largely among middle-class, white, heterosex- ual men, and some sought counseling or formed discussion groups about “the male role” (Segal 1990). Men were coming together and organizing in an attempt to address their own concerns and what was called a “crisis of masculinity” (Bly 1990; Connell 1995; Faludi 1999).
As the men’s movement grew, it also splintered into two primary factions. The men’s rights movement (which also includes the fathers’ rights movement) argues that because of feminism, men are actually discriminated against and even oppressed both in the legal arena and in everyday life. These men (and some women as well) suggest that feminism has created a new kind of sexism by privileging women, or by attempting to erase differences altogether.
SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT the movement organized around gaining voting rights for women
SECOND WAVE the period of feminist activism during the 1960s and 1970s, often associated with the issues of women’s equal access to employment and education
THIRD WAVE the most recent period of feminist activism, focusing on issues of diversity, globalization, and the variety of identities women can possess
MEN’S LIBERATION a movement that originated in the 1970s to discuss the challenges of masculinity
MEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT an offshoot of male liberation whose members believe that feminism promotes discrimination against men
PRO-FEMINIST MEN’S MOVEMENT an offshoot of male liberation whose members support feminism and believe that sexism harms both men and women
CHAPTER 9 Constructing Gender and Sexuality278
This has financial ramifications for families, as many couples depend on Social Security, veterans’ benefits, or disability benefits; it also allows a spouse to inherit those benefits upon his or her partner’s passing. Many federal agencies, such as the IRS and the Social Security Administration, base eligibility on state of residence (Halloran 2013).
In 2015, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage across the United States. The Court upheld the notion that the right to marry is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment and that same-sex couples should be accorded equal protection under the Constitution. Before that ruling, same-sex marriage was legal in thirty-seven states and the District of Colum- bia and banned in thirteen states. The United States joined twenty-one other national governments in legally recognizing same-sex marriages.
Public opinion, as well as laws governing same-sex mar- riage, has changed rapidly. In 2001, 57 percent of Ameri- cans opposed same-sex marriage and 35 percent were in favor. In a dramatic switch, in 2017, 62 percent of Americans were in favor and 32 percent opposed. Attitudes differed among demographic groups, with young Americans show- ing the highest approval rates, and white evangelicals and black Protestants showing the lowest levels of support (Pew Research Center 2017b).
It is important to note that amid these debates, general- izations run rampant. Opponents to gay marriage are largely portrayed as members of religious institutions and the con- servative right, but there are many institutions and members within those groups that support same-sex marriage. Con- versely, there are many within the LGBTQ community who do not support same-sex marriage, as it is viewed as assimilation- ist and as an acceptance of heteronormative structures, such
When successful, such social movements can change society and make a difference in the individual lives of many.
For the last several decades, the battle for marriage equal- ity has grown into one of the most visible—and controversial— issues for the LGBTQ rights movements and for the nation as a whole. Some of the first victories for LGBTQ families came from the passage of legal statutes in some parts of the coun- try that granted same-sex couples certain rights as “domestic partners” and greater privileges and protections through civil unions. In 2004, the first states in the nation began legalizing same-sex marriages; at the same time, other states began banning it.
There were many legal (and moral) challenges from both sides. Opponents of same-sex marriage have put forth a num- ber of arguments against it. Some have used the rhetoric of “protecting marriage” or “protecting family,” implying that same-sex marriage would harm or destroy those institutions. This largely ignores prolific research that shows that chil- dren’s psychological and physical well-being benefits from being raised by two parents whose union is legally recognized by social institutions. Others have argued that marriage has deep religious meaning; many religions do not support or condone same-sex relations, and many clergy refuse to offici- ate at such marriages.
Proponents of same-sex marriage emphasize that mar- riage is a state-sanctioned right. There are many benefits that legal marriages convey upon spouses that do not apply to those
in domestic partnerships and civil unions. As federally rec- ognized, marriages offer “por- tability” across all fifty states; if you’re married in one state, you’re married in all states.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE federally recognized marriage between members of the same sex; made legal in the United States in 2015
Marriage Equality In June 2015, the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, guaranteeing married same-sex couples the same rights as married opposite-sex couples.
279Closing Comments
ending, the struggle is far from over. Just a month into his presidency, Donald Trump rescinded his predecessor’s guide- lines for accommodating trans students in public schools.
CLOSING COMMENTS Sex, gender, sexua l orientation, and trans identities are sta- tus categories that structure socia l inequa lity and shape individua l identities. They are different but interrelated, and we a ll experience their overlap in our everyday lives: We categorize ourselves and others and ma ke assump- tions about one another based on these perceived catego- ries. A sociologica l perspective a llows us to see the cultura l and environmenta l influences on what may be considered biologica lly based identities and lets us identify and cri- tique the stratification systems that have resulted from these influences. Most important, a sociologica l perspec- tive a llows us to see how destructive sexism is for men and women and how crippling homophobia and transphobia can be for the straight, cisgender majority as well as the queer minority. Stereotypes are socia lly constructed; therefore, they can be socia lly deconstructed and socia lly recon- structed as well.
as binary gender roles and monogamy, rather than a critique of them. Lisa Duggan (2003) and Cathy Cohen (2005) contend that arguing for same-sex marriage creates “hierarchies of worthiness,” in that benefits are afforded to the most “socially acceptable” within the LGBTQ community—those who most closely mimic heterosexual unions.
As we can see, the same-sex marriage debate is a political, social, civil rights, moral, and religious issue. Now that same- sex marriage is legally recognized nationwide, gay families will be afforded the same legal standing as heterosexual families.
LGBTQ rights issues are still plentiful in other areas: Sex- ual minorities and gender-nonconforming persons face dis- crimination in housing, education, employment, and health care, as well as everyday microaggressions, harassment, and violence, but awareness of these problems is increasing. Hate crimes based on sexual or gender identity are punishable under federal law, and a growing minority of states and ter- ritories (including Puerto Rico and Washington, DC) outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. In his 2015 State of the Union address, Barack Obama became the first president to explicitly con- demn discrimination against transgender persons. But while legal discrimination against LGBTQ persons may slowly be
280
Everything You Need to Know about Gender and Sexuality
THEORIES OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY
✱ Functionalism: Men and women should remain in traditional social roles to keep society stable.
✱ Conflict theory: Men have control over most of society’s resources and privileges and will continue to main- tain their dominant status through the exploitation of women.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: Gender is socially constructed and main- tained in our everyday lives.
REVIEW 1. Consider the ways you were social-
ized by your family. In what ways was your socialization gendered? What toys did you play with as a child? What extracurricular activities were you encouraged to pursue? What household chores did you perform?
2. Our society upholds expectations about which gender more appropri- ately fills the instrumental and the expressive roles. In your family, were the nurturing and emotional sup- port primarily provided by women? How do these gendered expecta- tions reinforce the traditional family structure? How do they perpetuate gender inequality?
3. The second shift refers to the house- work that must be done after the day’s paid labor is complete; women do a disproportionate amount of this work. Why do you think this is? What types of tasks does our society expect women to do? How do the tasks expected of men differ?
“ Sociologists differentiate sex as biological and gender as social. Sex refers to two biologically distinct categories: male or female. Gender refers to physical and behavioral traits that society considers ‘normal’ for men and women.
“
281
EXPLORE
Gender and Sports: Forty Years of Title IX Title IX, passed in 1972, is an amendment to the Civil Rights Act banning gender discrimination in school sports. Even though it is now over forty years old and many female athletes have benefited from it, there are still significant challenges in getting equal funding, facilities, and support. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read more about a sociologist’s analysis of the effects of Title IX.
http://wwnPag.es/trw409
SOURCE: Credit Suisse 2016.
Women on Corporate Boards of Directors, 2015 By Country
46.7%
30.8%
22.8%
34.0%
19.9%
16.6%
17.6%
11.2%
6.5%
1.1%
Norway
Italy
United Kingdom
20.5%Canada
France
South Africa
United States
Israel
India
Russia
5.7%Mexico
Japan
PART IV Social
Institutions and the Micro-
Macro Link
284 PART IV
In the next four chapters, we will look at specific social insti – tutions, including politics, education, and religion ( Chapter 10), the economy (Chapter 11), the family (Chapter 12), the media (Chapter 13), and the health- care system (Chapter 14), and their role in structuring your everyday life. You will be intro- duced to a variety of sociological research that focuses on how these social institutions and others work; here, we high- light a sociological researcher whose work integrates many of them. In his book Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (2002), Eric Klinenberg examines the circumstances surrounding Chicago’s catastrophic heat wave in 1995 that killed more than 700 people. Klinenberg analyzes the week- long heat wave as more than a meteorological phenomenon. People died, he argues, because of a combination of disturb- ing demographic trends and dangerous institutional policies present at all times in all major urban areas.
For one week in mid- July of 1995, the city of Chicago suffered the worst heat wave in its history: Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees for four days in a row, and heat indices (the “real feel” air temperature) hit a high of 126 degrees. His- toric buildings baked like ovens, but fear of crime left many
Our everyday lives take place within the contexts of many overlapping and interde- pendent social institutions. A social institution is a collection of patterned social practices that are repeated continuously and regularly over time and supported by social norms. Poli- tics, education, religion, the economy, the fam- ily, the media, and health care are all social
institutions, and you have contact with many of these (and others) on a daily basis. The macro- level patterns and structures of social insti- tutions shape your own micro- level individual experiences; at the same time, it’s important to remember that social institutions are created, maintained, and changed by individual actions and interaction.
people feeling trapped inside their apartments. Children passed out in overheated school buses. City residents blasted their air conditioning (if they had it), mobbed the tiny beaches of Lake Michigan, and broke open fire hydrants to stay cool. As a result, power outages peppered the area and water pressure dropped dangerously. Roads buckled, train tracks warped, and people suffered from heat- related illnesses in large num- bers. The city’s 911 emergency system overloaded, and some callers waited two hours for ambulances to arrive; more than twenty hospitals closed their emergency rooms, overwhelmed with patients. The death toll mounted, with the elderly and the poor especially vulnerable. In this single week, 739 Chicago- ans died as a result of the heat. According to Klinenberg, the individual “isolation, deprivation, and vulnerability” that led to these deaths resulted from a variety of institutional struc- tures, including poverty, racial segregation, family disloca- tion, and city politics. These institutional arrangements must be examined and changed in order to avoid future tragedies.
Many of those who died during the heat wave were elderly people who lived alone: sick or fragile, their mobility com- promised, their neighborhoods changing around them, their
285PART IV
church needs significant financial resources to reach out to its members— and such resources may be hard to come by in poor neighborhoods. So a person’s risk of heat- related death during July 1995 was partly based on place. In Chicago, as in most major cities, place, race, and class are closely connected.
In July 1995, Chicago’s government services also failed in a number of ways when the city’s residents needed them most. However, Klinenberg argues that the city’s bureaucra- cies were no more ill- prepared to deal with catastrophe dur- ing that week than during any other. Long- term, macro- level changes in city politics mean that both the political will and the material resources to provide assistance to the poor were fatally absent. For example, overextended paramedics and firefighters had no centralized office to contact to register their observations or complaints. As a result, many problems went unheeded by the city until emergency services were too swamped to provide timely assistance. There was little coor- dination among the local, state, and federal agencies that dealt with social welfare and emergency services. Finally, Klinen- berg indicts city officials for “governing by public relations” (p. 143)—that is, for using the media to deflect attention from the city’s problems, including minimizing both the scope of the heat wave and the city’s accountability.
Klinenberg’s “social autopsy” reveals the failure of social institutions on a massive scale— and the disturbing prospect that this disaster could happen again, anywhere, if we do not take steps to change flawed social systems. Structural and institutional arrangements— including city government, health- care providers, families, schools, religious organiza- tions, and the media— must change in order to avoid individual tragedies. But individual actions help bring about institutional change, and Heat Wave reveals important ways in which all our fates intertwine, as they are shaped by the social institu- tions we encounter every day. How can we better manage this interdependence, for the good of all?
families far away or neglectful, and their social networks dis- solving. In many cases, the elderly victims of the heat wave were so isolated that no one ever claimed their bodies (Klinen- berg 2002, p. 15). The story of Pauline Jankowitz, eighty- five, who (happily) survived the heat wave, illustrates these demo- graphic trends (Klinenberg 2002, pp. 50–54). Pauline lived alone on the third floor of an apartment building with no eleva- tor. She suffered from incontinence and walked with a crutch. She recognized her vulnerability and left her apartment only once every two months. Her two children lived in other states and rarely visited, so a volunteer from a charitable organiza- tion did Pauline’s weekly grocery shopping. However, Pauline no longer had any connections with her immigrant neigh- bors and spent most of her time in her apartment listening to radio talk shows. Pauline’s isolation is hardly unique. Her circumstances illustrate the ways that the geographic mobil- ity of the contemporary family, the changing populations of urban neighborhoods, the financial limitations of retirement incomes, and the lack of supportive social services all contrib- ute to situations in which elderly individuals may live, face crises, and die alone.
Klinenberg argues that race and class inequality also con- tributed to the death toll in the Chicago heat wave. He shows that the death tolls were highest in the city’s “black belt,” a group of predominantly African American neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city. (These neighborhoods also have relatively high levels of poverty and crime and relatively large populations of elderly residents.) Social ties in these neighborhoods are hard to maintain: Poverty contributes to residential transiency, so neighbors may not get to know one another before they must move to housing elsewhere. Gang activity and crime make residents afraid to walk down the street or sit on their own front porches. And although some of the neighborhoods in question have powerful reli- gious organizations in their midst, even the most proactive
286
Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion
CHAPTER 10
Y ou probably know the Pledge of Allegiance by heart and said it countless times in
elementary and high school, but you may not have thought much about its words or
why you were required to say them.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation, under God, indivisible,
with Liberty and Justice for all.
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion288
For decades, reciting the pledge was just a routine part of being a student in
the United States. How could it possibly be controversial? A lot of people think it
is. As you will see, the Pledge of Allegiance brings together questions about three
important social institutions in American life: politics, education, and religion.
The Pledge of Allegiance was originally written in 1892 and did not contain the
phrase “under God”; that was added in 1954, when President Eisenhower signed a
bill making the change official. The added words generated no controversy at the
time. The president declared that their addition would affirm “the dedication of our
nation and our people to the Almighty,” and Senator Joseph McCarthy said “it was
a clear indication that the United States was committed to ending the threat of
‘godless’ Communism” ( Brinkley- Rogers 2002).
Since as early as 1943, the Supreme Court has ruled that children cannot be
forced to recite the pledge. In 1943, the issue revolved around the patriotic nature
of the pledge. However, in 2002 the issue became its religious nature. Judge Alfred
Goodwin of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that reciting the pledge in
public schools “places students in the untenable position of choosing between
participating in an exercise with religious content or protesting,” an especially
damaging scenario because “the coercive effect of the policy here is particularly
pronounced in the school setting, given the age and impressionability of school-
children” (Weinstein 2003). After all, how many second- graders would be willing to
stand out from their peers in so dramatic a fashion?
California physician Dr. Michael Newdow is a long- time activist committed to
preserving the separation of church and state. When his daughter’s second- grade
class began reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, Newdow became disturbed because
it contained the phrase “one Nation, under God.” Newdow filed a lawsuit, and in
February 2003 the Ninth Circuit Court held the pledge to be in violation of the Con-
stitution because the reference to God violated the separation of church and state.
Many civic and political leaders— liberals as well as conservatives— denounced
the decision. The Senate passed a resolution condemning it, and the attorney gen-
eral announced that the Justice Department would “spare no effort to preserve
the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag” (Weinstein
2003). Almost universally, lawmakers came out in defense of the pledge, agreeing
with Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, who in his dissenting opinion argued that the
phrase “under God” had “no tendency to establish a religion in this country or to
suppress anyone’s exercise, or non- exercise, of religion, except in the fevered eye
of persons who most fervently would like to drive all tincture of religion out of the
public life of our polity” (Egelko 2002). Ultimately, the case went all the way to the
Supreme Court, which overturned the lower court’s ruling on a technicality but did
not address whether the language in the pledge violates the First Amendment.
What Is Politics? 289
What Is Politics? Politics has concerned social thinkers since at least the time of the philosophers in ancient Greece. The word “politics” comes from the Greek politikos, meaning “of or relating to citizens.” As a sociological term, politics pertains especially to the methods and tactics of managing a political entity, such as a nation or state, as well as the administration and control of its internal and external affairs. But it can also mean the attitudes and activities of groups and individuals. To understand the relationship between citizens and their particular political environment, we must first look at the variety of political systems and study the American system of democracy. Then we will examine elections and voting, lob- bies and special interest groups, and the role of the media in the political process.
Political Systems: Government Government is the formal, organized agency that exercises power and control in modern society. Governments are vested with the power and authority to make laws and enforce them. Max Weber defined power as the ability to get others to do one’s bidding. When sociologists talk about authority, they are refer- ring to the legitimate, noncoer- cive exercise of power (see the discussion of Weber’s subtypes of authority in Chapter 5). Through- out the world and throughout his- tory, governments have taken a variety of forms. When evaluat- ing types of governance as soci- ologists, we ask certain questions about the relationship between leaders and followers: Who has power and who does not, what kind of power is exerted, and how far does that power extend?
TOTAL POWER AND AUTHORITY Authoritarianism is a politica l system that denies ordinary citizens represen- tation by and control over their own government. Thus, citi- zens have no say in who rules them, what laws are made, or how those laws are enforced. Genera lly, politica l power is concentrated in the hands of a few elites who control mili- tary and economic resources. A dictatorship is one form of authoritarianism. In most instances, a dictator does not
Although there is a great deal of disagreement over what should be done in this case, all the participants agree, even if only implicitly, that social institutions play an important role in the lives of Americans. For example, if school starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 3:00 p.m., this schedule structures the life of an entire household. It dictates what time children should go to bed and get up in the morning; when breakfast and dinner are prepared, served, and eaten; and what types of arrangements must be made for transportation, after- school activities, and child care. In turn, a school exists only because of the actions of the teachers, students, parents, and administrators who are part of the surrounding community.
Social institutions represent a bit of a sociological para- dox. They function at the macro level to shape our everyday interactions, but at the micro level those same everyday interactions construct social institutions. Because they are at the center of both micro- and macrosociology, social institutions give us the opportunity to examine the connec- tion between interaction and structure, between the indi- vidual and society. In this chapter, we will focus on the social institutions of politics, education, and religion as places where the micro and the macro come together, and we will show how the intersections among social institutions shape everyday life.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER We have devoted entire chapters to other social institu- tions such as health care, work, and family, but here we have grouped politics, education, and religion together for a rea- son. These institutions intersect in distinctive and often unexamined ways in our everyday lives— the daily recita- tion of the Pledge of Allegiance is just one example. Local and national controversies over school vouchers and sex education are other examples of the ways in which political, educational, and religious concerns overlap. Every day we make decisions or engage in debates that address moral val- ues, political practicalities, and educational expectations all bundled together.
When you read this chapter, we want you to be able to see the relationships among these three social institutions as well as make the connection between micro- and macrosociol- ogy. This is a key opportunity to use the sociological theories and methods you have learned in previous chapters to find the intersections between individual experience and social structure, and the overlaps among various social institu- tions in everyday life. After reading this chapter, you should have a deeper understanding of how social institutions shape your individual experience and how you as an individual con- tribute to shaping those institutions.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS systems and structures within society that shape the activities of groups and individuals
POLITICS methods and tactics intended to influence government policy, policy- related attitudes, and activities
GOVERNMENT the formal, organized agency that exercises power and control in modern society, especially through the creation and enforcement of laws
POWER the ability to impose one’s will on others
AUTHORITY the legitimate right to wield power
AUTHORITARIANISM system of government by and for a small number of elites that does not include representation of ordinary citizens
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion290
a family, such as the Tudors of England, the Ming Dynasty of China, and the Romanovs of Russia. Nobility is handed down through family lines and can include numerous family mem- bers who hold royal titles. Monarchs are not popularly elected and are not usually accountable to the general citizenry, and some may rule by “divine right,” the claim that they are lead- ers chosen by God.
Monarchies can be divided into two categories: abso- lute and constitutiona l. Absolute monarchs typica lly have complete authority over their subjects, much like a dic- tator. Constitutiona l monarchs are roya l f ig ures whose powers are def ined by a politica l charter and limited by a parliament or other governing body. Most monarchies were wea kened, overthrown, or other wise made obsolete during the many socia l revolutions of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, such as the French Revolution (1789) and the Russian Revolution (1917). In contemporar y times, some Asian and European nations, such as Japan, Thailand, Great Britain, and Sweden, still enjoy their roya l families as nationa l f ig ureheads and celebrities, though their kings, queens, princes, and princesses don’t have any rea l power in these constitutiona l monarchies. There are, however, a few remaining modern examples of more abso- lute monarchies in the world, among them Saudi A rabia and Brunei.
CITIZENS AND DEMOCRACY Democracy originated in ancient Greece and represented a radical new political system. In a democracy, citizens share in directing the activities of their government rather than being ruled by an autocratic individual or authoritarian group. The idea is that educated citizens should participate in the election of offi- cials who then represent their interests in lawmaking, law enforcement, resource allocation, and international affairs. Democracy is not only a political system but also a philosophy that emphasizes the right and capacity of individuals, acting either directly or through representatives, to control through majority rule the institutions that govern them. Democracy is
gain power by being elected or through succession but seizes power and becomes an absolute ruler. Dictators may gain control through a military coup, as occurred when General Augusto Pinochet came to power in Chile in 1973. In other cases, leaders may be legally elected or appointed (often with coercion) but then become dictators once in power, abolish- ing any constitutional limits on their authority— such as President Charles Taylor of Liberia. In 2012, Taylor was sen- tenced by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague to fifty years in prison for crimes against humanity. Dictators are most often individuals but can also be associated with political parties or groups, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Totalitarianism is the most extreme and modern version of authoritarianism. The government seeks to control every aspect, public and private, of citizens’ lives. Unlike older
forms of authoritarianism, a totalitarian government can uti- lize all the contrivances of sur- veillance technology, systems of mass communication, and mod- ern weapons to control its citi- zens (Arendt 1958). Totalitarian governments are usually headed by a dictator, whether a ruler or
a single political party. Through propaganda, totalitarian regimes can further control the population by disseminating ideology aimed at shaping their thoughts, values, and atti- tudes. An example of a modern totalitarian ruler is Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who succeeded his father, the notorious Kim Jong Il, in 2011. Under the Kims, North Korea has main- tained one of the worst human rights records in the world, restricting the basic freedoms of its people. The country also has a stagnant, internationally isolated economy, which is further drained by its nuclear arms program.
MONARCHIES AND THE STATE Monarchies are gov- ern ments ruled by a king or queen. In a monarchy, sover- eignty is vested in a successive line of rulers, usually within
Dictators Try to Control All Aspects of Citizens’ Lives Leaders such as Kim Jong Un of North Korea, Augusto Pinochet of Chile, and Charles Taylor of Liberia are among the world’s most notorious dictators.
MONARCHY a government ruled by a king or queen, with succession of rulers kept within the family
DEMOCRACY a political system in which all citizens have the right to participate
What Is Politics? 291
people who were ineligible to vote— mainly noncitizens and felons— and excluded eligible overseas voters. Since the 2004 election, voting rates have been based on the “ voting- eligible population,” which changes the overall voting picture and challenges the notion of decline in voter turnout. In 2004, voter turnout was 55 percent for the “ voting- age population” and 61 percent for the “ voting- eligible population.”
Voter turnout improved again in the presidential election of 2008, in which Barack Obama, the first African Ameri- can president, was elected. An estimated 62 percent of the voting- eligible population cast their ballots, including 52 to 53 percent of voters between the ages of eighteen and twenty- nine— the highest youth turnout since eighteen- year- olds gained the right to vote in 1972. In 2012, 59 percent of all eli- gible voters turned out to reelect Barack Obama (McDonald 2014). Voter turnout in midterm elections is typically lower than in presidential elections, especially among younger vot- ers (DeSilver 2014). In the 2014 midterms, voter participa- tion in the United States hit its lowest mark in seventy years, with just 36 percent of eligible voters turning up at the polls (McDonald 2014). Turnout in the 2016 presidential election held steady compared to 2012 and 2008, coming in at 60 per- cent of eligible voters (Nonprofit Vote 2017).
Even with these fluctuations, voter participation rates are much lower in the United States than in some compa- rable democratic nations. Why? A number of social factors affect the likelihood that someone will vote. Age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, geographic location, social class, and educa- tion are all demographic variables that influence voter partic- ipation, as well as how people vote. For example, Minnesota had the highest voter turnout of any state in the 2016 presi- dential election— nearly three- quarters of its citizens voted— whereas only 43 percent of eligible voters from Hawaii turned out (Nonprofit Vote 2017). What explains this difference? Turnout may be affected by factors ranging from the number of items on the ballot to the weather. Senior citizens are much more likely to vote than young adults— compare a 71 percent reported turnout for those over age sixty with a 43 percent reported turnout among eighteen- to twenty- nine- year- olds (U.S. Elections Project 2017). The top reasons people gave for not voting in 2016 were that they “did not like candidates or campaign issues” (25 percent), were “not interested” (15 per- cent), or were “too busy/scheduling conflict” (14 percent) (U.S. Census Bureau 2017p).
In some instances, however, people do not vote because they are disenfranchised— barred from voting. All states except Maine and Vermont disenfranchise convicted felons while they are incarcerated. Thirty- five states disenfran- chise felons on parole, thirty do so for felons on probation, and eleven others permanently disenfranchise some or all felons who have completed their sentences (Uggen et al. 2012).
associated with the values of basic human rights, civil liber- ties, freedom, and equality.
Democracy may seem like the ideal system of government, but remember that not all citizens are equally represented even by a democratic government. In many democratic nations, women, ethnic or racial minorities, members of certain religions, and immigrants have been excluded from citizenship or from equal participation in the political pro- cess. In the United States, women did not have the right to vote until 1920. And while the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution technically gave adult males of all races voting rights in 1870, barriers such as poll taxes, liter- acy tests, and “grandfather clauses” kept African Americans from exercising those rights for almost 100 years, until the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed. Native Americans were legally excluded from voting in federal elections until 1924, and residents of the District of Columbia were not allowed to vote in presidential elections until 1961. In some states, convicted felons lose their right to vote, even after they have served their sentence and completed their parole, and can only regain this right by bringing a suit against the state. As you can see, even the world’s leading democracy has not always seen all citizens as equal.
The American Political System When American colonists rebelled against British authority in 1776, they created the first modern democracy. American democracy, however, is much more complicated than “rule by the people.” In the following sections, we focus on voting, theories about who governs, the power of interest groups, and the influence of the media on the political system.
VOTING IN THE UNITED STATES The American politi- cal system prides itself on being a democracy, a government that confers power to the people. In this form of government, power is formally exercised through the election process, which provides each person with a vote. Sociologists have long been interested in the social factors— such as age, educa- tion, religion, or ethnic background— that influence whether and how individuals vote.
By the end of the twentieth century, many had become concerned about a steady, decades- long decline in American voter turnout. For example, in the 1960 presidential election, 63 percent of the electorate cast ballots, but by 1996, that num- ber had fallen to below 50 percent for the first time since 1924.
Voter turnout began improving in the 2004 presidential election, but it is important to consider how voter turnout has been measured. Prior to the 2004 election, the voter turnout rate was typically calculated by dividing the total number of votes by the “ voting- age population”—everyone aged eighteen and older residing in the United States. This figure included
DISENFRANCHISED stripped of voting rights, either temporarily or permanently
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion292
Even when voters do appear at the polls, there may be other troubles. During the 2000 presidential election, irreg- ularities in ballots and vote counts in Florida delayed the state’s ability to declare a winner for several weeks. In some of Florida’s poor and minority districts, faulty voting equip- ment, poorly trained poll workers, and scarce resources kept almost 200,000 votes from being counted— votes that were likely predominantly Democratic. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NA ACP) brought a voting discrimination suit against the state of Florida that was settled with a donation to the organization’s efforts toward voter education and mobilization. Much media attention has focused on the invisible disenfranchisement of poor and minority voters, and some states have enacted more progressive laws to deal with these problems by pro- viding greater access to the disabled, making absentee bal- loting easier, or keeping the polls open longer. This election controversy is an example of how structural issues (unequal state voting resources) can affect individual experience (the ability to make one’s vote count) and how those indi- vidual experiences in turn affect the larger society (electing George W. Bush in 2000 rather than Al Gore).
Who Rules America? Ideally, in a democracy, elected officials represent the inter- ests of the people in doing the business of government. But how much do we really know about what legislators do or how government business is conducted? What about the interests of other groups besides “the people”? To what extent do other groups influence how government is run? Who has the most power in directing the course of the nation? The president and Congress? Judges? Big business and the military? What happens behind the scenes? Who really rules America? Soci- ologists have devised two answers to the question of who rules America— the idea of a power elite and the pluralist theory of power.
THE POWER ELITE Conflict theorists argue that power is held by a small but extremely influential group of individuals who form an elite social class. C. Wright Mills (1956, 1970) was one of the first to propose a theory of the power elite, a relatively small number of influential individuals occupy- ing the top positions within the major economic, political, and military institutions of the country. This insular and self- perpetuating group controls much of the key decision- making processes in the United States. Members of the power elite have the full power and weight of their respec- tive institutions at their disposal. Their close association allows them to collaborate in ways that best serve their par- ticular interests, which may not coincide with those of the people. Thus, their actions have tremendous implications for the rest of the population. For instance, military leaders may persuade the president to declare war, senators may pass
Human rights groups have long protested this policy, argu- ing that it is not a legitimate function of the penal system. In addition, individuals may be mistakenly identified as former felons and improperly stricken from the rolls, which occurred in Florida in the 2000 presidential election (Hull 2002; Uggen and Manza 2002). Consequently, many eligible voters were turned away from the polls.
Another obstacle to potential voters lies with registra- tion, which in most cases must be done well in advance of an election. In the United States, even individuals with the legal right to vote cannot do so unless they are registered. Recent legislation, such as the 2000 Motor- Voter Act, allows voters
to register when renewing a driv- er’s license, and a few states offer online voter registration, mak- ing registration easier. Another problem for many working Americans is that elections are held on a Tuesday rather than a weekend or a national holiday (something done in other demo-
cratic countries). Finally, thirty- four states require voters to present identification in order to vote in federal, state, and local elections, while seven states have strict photo ID laws. Studies indicate that turnout declines when IDs are required (de Alth 2009). Because more than 21 million American citi- zens (more than one in ten) lack proper photo identification, voter participation is affected, with minorities, the elderly, and low- income Americans disproportionately affected (ACLU 2017). Voter ID laws tend to suppress turnout for the Democratic Party (Newkirk 2017).
POWER ELITE a relatively small group of people in the top ranks of economic, political, and military institutions who make many of the important decisions in American society
Identification Required Despite studies that show voter fraud to be rare, many states require voters to present identification; these laws disproportionately affect minority voters.
What Is Politics? 293
or her work ethic or life choices. Furthermore, the United States continues to be controlled by white upper- class men. Finally, those who have the power to create social change by economic, political, or military reforms may choose to do so only when it is to their own advantage.
PLURALISM According to the pluralist model, power is held by a variety of organizations and institutions (such as corporations, political parties, professional organizations, and ethnic and religious groups), each with its own resources and interests. Each organization is assumed to have equal access to the power structure, and a system of checks and balances in the form of laws, policies, and the courts keeps any one group from having too much power over the others (Dahl 1961).
The American politica l sys- tem is organized so that individ- ua ls, groups, and organizations can contribute to candidates’ campaigns. Special interest groups (sometimes ca lled advocacy groups) play an important role in the politica l process. These are organizations formed expressly to raise and spend money in order to influence elected officia ls and public opinion. Specia l interest groups can include corpo- rate organizations, lobbies, politica l action committees (PACs), and 527 groups (named after the corresponding IRS code). Many 527s run by specia l interest groups raise unlimited amounts of “soft money,” which can be used for
legislation that cuts billions of dollars from social welfare programs, and corporate executives may post record gains for stockholders or downsize companies and lay off thou- sands of workers.
G. William Domhoff has studied the power elite exten- sively, looking at how the economic, politica l, and military institutions overlap and form a network of influence (1983, 1987, 1990, 2002, 2013). The power elite not only know each other persona lly and professiona lly, but they a lso recog- nize their status as part of the ultimate “members only ” club. Many of them were born into powerful families who still control huge U.S. corporations. Many of the power elite attended the same prep schools and Iv y League colleges. They may live in the same neighborhoods or belong to the same country clubs. They may go to the same churches or give to the same charities. More important, they often serve on each other’s boards of directors and do business directly with other members. One related study identified only 5,778 individua ls in these elite positions, meaning that less than 0.0026 percent of the entire U.S. population are among the power elite (Dye 2002). These individua ls are overwhelm- ingly white ma les. A lthough a few powerful women and eth- nic or racia l minorities a lso hold elite positions, diversity among corporate leaders has been declining since its peak in 2007–2011 (Zweigenhaft and Domhoff 2014).
What are the implications of this class dominance theory of power? For one, it debunks the original American rags- to- riches mytholog y that says anyone who works hard can get to the top. If power is concentrated in such a small fraction of a percentage of the population, chances are that the aver- age person will never wield any real power, regardless of his
Members Only According to the theory of the power elite, the country is run by a small group of people from the top ranks of economic, political, and military institutions. Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, has a six-digit membership fee.
PLURALIST MODEL a system of political power in which a wide variety of individuals and groups have equal access to resources and the mechanisms of power
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS organizations that raise and spend money to influence elected officials and/or public opinion
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion294
various types of advocacy, if not directly by candidates. Specia l interest groups’ contributions to candidates and causes can reach into the hundreds of millions, a nd even billions, of dollars (Table 10.1).
The average citizen may have little idea of the influence of wealthy donor organizations in the political process. There is almost always a positive correlation between a can- didate’s campaign spending and his or her success: Money wins elections. In the 2012 presidential race, Barack Obama raised more than $715 million to Mitt Romney’s $446 mil- lion. As in the presidential race, incumbents (those already occupying the electoral seat) are usually in the best posi- tion to raise money because of their high- profile position; incumbency, therefore, is one of the most important advan- tages a candidate can have. In 2016, 97 percent of incumbent representatives and 87 percent of incumbent senators won reelection (Center for Responsive Politics 2016b). It is also an advantage to have your campaign backed by a billionaire (like the Koch brothers or George Soros). And, of course, in 2016, it was the billionaire himself who financed (and won) the presidential election, though he did so with significant support from corporations, lobbying organizations, and other interest groups.
A political action committee (PAC) is a type of tax- exempt group that was designed to raise money to campaign for or against candidates, ballot measures, or other legislation. A PAC typically supports the interests or agenda of a select group or organization. For instance, BAMPAC, or the Black America Political Action Committee, represents the spe- cial interests of African Americans, while AAPAC, the Arab American PAC, lobbies for political interests of Arab Ameri- cans. NOW PAC, the National Organization for Women PAC, advocates feminist issues. Some of the biggest PACs are con- nected to trades, such as the National Education Association or the Carpenters & Joiners Union. The National Football League is represented by the Gridiron PAC, and Major League Baseball has its own PAC as well. Even the interests of extra- terrestrials are represented through X- PPAC, the Extrater- restrial Phenomena PAC.
As a result of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling, corporate funding of independent, campaign- related expenditures is no longer prohibited. In fact, the Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee decision allowed unlimited spending by corporations, unions, and other noncampaign entities, calling it a First Amendment right. This opened the door to a new kind of PAC— the “Super PAC,” which can accept
these unlimited contributions and use the monies to do things like produce and air issue- based ads, as long as they do not coor- dinate with the candidate or the candidate’s political party. What this has meant in practice
POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES (PACS) organizations that raise money to support the interests of a select group or organization
Lobbying Client Total
U.S. Chamber of Commerce $1,353,830,680
National Association of Realtors $426,256,141
American Medical Association $358,282,500
General Electric $348,350,000
American Hospital Association $332,108,909
Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America
$318,671,550
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $302,872,964
AARP $266,831,064
Northrop Grumman $247,662,213
Boeing $246,923,310
Table 10.1 Top 10 Spenders on Lobbying, 1998–2017
SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics 2017.
is that political candidates can benefit from the unlimited spending of a Super PAC without being in violation of the campaign finance laws that still apply to their own party organizations. Following the inception of Citizens United, research has shown that Super PACs are being funded pri- marily by a small group of ultrawealthy contributors.
In the 2016 presidentia l election cycle, Super PACs spent more than $1 billion in support of a ll candidates and causes, with conser vative organizations outspend- ing libera l organizations by about three to two (Center for Responsive Politics 2016a). These amounts are astro- nomica lly higher than they might have been had Citizens United not removed the limits on corporate donations by ca lling them “free speech.” Though it has been diff icult to ma ke def initive conclusions about the relationships between specia l interest groups and legislators, the stag- gering amounts of money these groups generate cannot be ignored. As sociologists, we seek to uncover the mecha- nisms of inf luence in our politica l system. Monitoring the actions of top donors, PACs, Super PACs, and other specia l interest groups provides insight into how our politica l sys- tem works.
What Is Politics? 295
of the past several decades have unfolded before us on the TV or computer screen. It’s unlikely that the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the impeachment of President Clinton, the attacks of 9/11, the tragedy of Hur- ricane Katrina, the Boston Marathon bombings, the Black Lives Matter movement, or the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on same- sex marriage would have emerged, developed, and resolved in quite the way they did without the media bring- ing those issues and images into our living rooms. Social media added to the immediacy and shared nature of the con- versation. The media can make momentous events a part of the national dialogue and involve voters, citizens, and even global attention, influencing public opinion and promoting political activism and change.
CAMPAIGNS AND ELECTIONS Some of the most sig- nifi cant changes in the political process have occurred in the realm of campaigns and elections. Political actors have adapted to a media- saturated society, and their strategies for success must include great media savvy (Dutta and Fraser 2008; Skarzynska 2004). Any group or individual wishing to influence voters must court the media, either by attempt- ing to gain coverage of a particular issue or candidate or by directly buying space or time through advertisements.
And as much as the power of media has transformed poli- tics, the reverse is also true: Politics shapes our perspective on the media. For example, the 2016 presidential election year started with most Americans— about three- quarters of both Republicans and Democrats alike— believing in the media’s role as a “watchdog” for political leaders. But the divisive Trump vs. Clinton campaign season left an enormous par- tisan gap in that attitude. By early 2017, 89 percent of Demo- crats, compared to just 42 percent of Republicans, supported
The Media and the Political Process In addition to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, the media play a key role in the political pro- cess. This has been true since the founding of the country and has taken on even more significant proportions in the Information Age. The media render checks and balances on power by informing and educating the populace and serv- ing as a watchdog on government. In fact, the framers of the U.S. Constitution probably envisioned the watchdog role as the media’s primary function. After all, they believed that a free press was essential to the health of the new democracy. Thus, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expres- sion and freedom of the press (along with other rights).
Still, it’s hard to imagine that the country’s founders could have envisioned what “the press” would become. To them, it literally meant printing presses. There were no broadcast media or digital media back then— no mass media or social media as we know them. So contemporary lawmakers have had to interpret the Constitution in light of modern concerns and developments. They must try to balance the rights of a free press while protecting the country from abuses of power by the media or by the individuals who own the media. And we must all consider the media’s tremendous potential to sway and manipulate our thoughts and feelings and to influ- ence the political process.
The media have always played a role in American politics, informing the public about the important issues of the day. But their role has increased dramatically during the past fifty years, coinciding with the spread of television in the 1950s and 1960s and the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s. Many of the social movements and landmark political events
Perspective Approach to Social Institutions Case Study: Understanding Political Power in America
Structural Functionalism
Social institutions such as politics, education, and religion provide critical functions for the needs of society and help maintain order and unity.
The theory of pluralism suggests that in a democracy, power is held in a variety of hands; each group is assumed to have equal access to power and can thus serve as a system of checks and balances.
Conflict Theory
Social institutions such as politics, education, and religion represent the interests of those in power and thus create and maintain inequalities in society.
The theory of the power elite suggests that power in the United States is concentrated in the hands of a small group of decision makers and that the masses have little power in the democratic process.
Symbolic Interactionism
Social institutions such as politics, education, and religion are created through individual participation; they give meaning to and are part of the everyday experience of members.
The theory of the social construction of presidential candidates suggests that the messages we receive from the media help shape our perceptions and influence public opinion and voting behavior.
Table 10.2 Theory in Everyday Life
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion296
meetings, church groups, speeches made by politicians or activists out on the stump, or exhaustive coverage in newspa- pers or on radio. Nowadays, media coverage of politics is more likely to emphasize human interest stories, personalities, high- profile spectacles, and planned events— and less likely to explain the background and implications of issues and
the idea of the media as political watchdog, with Trump sup- porters in particular distrusting the “mainstream media” and turning to Trump- approved fringe outlets such as Breitbart in order to get their news.
At one time, the voting public was informed of the issues through local political party representatives, town hall
The Media’s Role in the Political Process The power of media to bring political news from across the nation has transformed the political process. For example, the Boston Marathon bombings, the attacks on September 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina would not have had such widespread impact without the media.
What Is Politics? 297
press conferences, photo oppor- tunities, or sometimes protests. In our postmodern era, the news has been condensed into just a few seconds’ worth of informa- tion. What politicians say to the press is often scripted by “spin doctors” who manipulate rhetoric to give it a positive appearance designed to be catchy and compelling while not necessarily delivering much substance; many people form their views of candidates from these processed bits of infor- mation. It is no wonder that celebrity politicians are becom- ing more common and popular. After all, who knows better how to use the media, how to stand before the cameras and speak in interviews, than those who have been professionally trained as actors? President Ronald Reagan, formerly a Hol- lywood actor and commercial spokesperson, is perhaps the greatest example of this. He knew how to hit his marks and deliver his lines. He was even called “The Great Communi- cator” despite his inability to speak extemporaneously. Oth- ers have followed in Reagan’s path, including basketball star Bill Bradley, astronaut John Glenn, and comedian Al Fran- ken, who became senators; wrestler Jesse Ventura and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who both became governors; singer Sonny Bono, who became a congressman; and actor Clint Eastwood, who became a mayor.
Donald Trump— a businessman and reality television celebrity— provides another example. As a maverick Republi- can presidential candidate in the 2016 election, Trump gained notoriety with his impulsive manner and bare- knuckle politi- cal combativeness. Critics claimed that he was a case in point
policy debates (Kellner 2005; J. Thompson 2012). And not all news programs offer strictly objective reporting. We hear a lot about politics through pundits, media personalities who offer political commentary (and their own opinions) along with the news. Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher, Glenn Beck, Megyn Kelly, Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris- Perry, Ari- anna Huffington, and Matt Drudge are just a few of the many pundits found on either side of the aisle and across media platforms.
The public is also influenced by opinion leaders, high- profile people who interpret political information for us (Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955). Instead of getting information about the issues directly, we allow our views to be shaped by these opinion leaders whom we trust to tell us what to believe. Someone like Dan Rather and his website “News and Guts,” for instance, can influence not only what we read but also our political values. Even within your group of friends, there may be someone who, while not as famous as Rather, is more polit- ically savvy than the rest of the group and can communicate information to you in ways that may influence your opinions.
STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE? One of the first and most dramatic examples of the media’s impact on politics occurred during the presidential campaign of 1960. The debates between John F. Kennedy, the Democrat, and Richard Nixon, the Republican, were the first to be broadcast live on televi- sion. Kennedy, the younger candidate, recognized the power of television and understood the importance of presenting a “telegenic” image. He allowed media handlers to advise him on makeup, hairstyle, clothes, and the appropriate demeanor for the TV cameras. Conversely, Nixon refused to make any special preparation for the event. As a seasoned politician, he planned to rely on his command of the issues and his consid- erable debating skills.
Those who watched the debates on television saw dra- matic differences between the two candidates. Kennedy looked fresh, young, and energetic; Nixon looked sweaty, old, and tired. Those who listened to the debates on the radio, as previous generations had for years, judged the two candi- dates not by looks or mannerisms but by the content of their speech. When polled after the debates, TV audiences thought that Kennedy won the debate; radio audiences thought Nixon was the winner. As history shows, Kennedy won the election and helped to change the relationship between the media and political campaigns. Although Kennedy’s performance during the debate was only one factor in the election, it was significant. Other presidential candidates became so ner- vous about the effects of televised debates that none agreed to participate in them until 1976. Now, political candidates are constantly in the spotlight, visible to us across a range of visual media platforms and looking fresh, energetic, and put- together is a must 24/7.
Another feature of modern politics is “soundbites”—those short audio or visual snippets taken from press releases,
OPINION LEADERS high- profile individuals whose interpretation of events influences the public
Make America Great Again The media has transformed the way presidential candidates run their campaigns. Donald Trump managed to effectively court the press, dominating and shaping news coverage.
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion298
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Satirical News Shows The media have a longstanding relation- ship with the political process and the American people. A free press is meant to inform the public about important
matters facing the nation. As the formats for media continue to change, so has the delivery of news. Post- modern sociologist Jean Baudrillard claimed that “the image has come to replace the real” (1981/1994). By this, he meant that we have lost the ability to distinguish between what is real and what is unreal, especially where media representations are involved, and that we have also come to accept the unreal as sufficient— thereby no longer needing the real. He called this new artificially constructed “reality” the simulacrum, or a
of “style over substance.” His image as a Washington outsider and “man of the people” was carefully promoted; he resisted being coached and groomed like other candidates, and his unusual hairstyle and long, flapping neckties became part of his signature style. While critics cited his lack of knowledge and experience in governance, supporters saw him as a suc- cessful entrepreneur not afraid to speak his mind, and many decided that was what they wanted in the Oval Office. During
the campaign, Trump made some outlandish claims— that Presi- dent Obama was the founder of ISIS, for example. Rather than ignoring him, the mainstream media presented Trump as harm- less entertainment, not a serious presidential contender— all the
while giving him considerable free airtime to reach his sup- porters. Meanwhile, conservative and previously marginal “ alt- right” media sources slavered over Trump and promoted his candidacy with disaffected white working- class voters who did take him seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he sur- prised most mainstream pundits by winning the 2016 Elec- toral College and, hence, the White House.
Does the increased focus on a politician’s style and person- ality, rather than platform and policies, mean that we are get- ting less substance in what we consume? This Data Workshop may help you answer this question.
simulation that becomes as good as the original. Some would warn that we need to be more aware of how this plays out in the political arena, even beyond its role in style over substance.
A key example of Baudrillard’s simulacrum can be found in the growing popularity of satirical news shows. Journalism and political satire share a long history, and the number of outlets for this kind of mix has recently exploded. The list includes TV shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment, as well as online sites like the Onion News Network and the HuffPostShow.
Satirical news TV shows so closely resemble real news TV shows that it is often hard to tell which is which. Satirical news TV shows get their humor from paro- dying real news, so they often mirror the mainstream press in covering certain topics and events. The same material is fodder for both. But satirical news, of course, is not held to the same journalistic standards that apply to reporting the real news. Satirical newscasters read- ily mimic their network anchor counterparts, and the shows are made with the same production values view- ers have come to expect on the broadcast dial. All of this is making it more and more difficult to tell the difference between the simulation and the real thing.
The Daily Show set the bar for satirical news on TV, spawning many copycats and spinoffs. The show has won multiple awards and distinctions and has con- sistently been ranked among the most popular shows of any kind for the eighteen to thirty- four age group (Gross 2010). Although Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, and John Oliver only play at being journalists on air, they often look like— and even function like— the real thing. A poll taken during the 2008 election cycle revealed that more than 40 percent of young people between eighteen and twenty- nine cited Stewart and The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report as their primary sources of political news (Pew Research Center 2008). By the time he retired from The Daily Show in 2015, Jon Stewart had been dubbed “the most trusted name in fake news” or the “Walter Cronkite” of fake news (Page 2015). As Baudrillard might say, the unreal [newscaster] had come to replace the real [one].
Today you can see many more sources for the dissem- ination of satirical news. Although the primary intent is to be funny and entertaining, it doesn’t preclude taking on serious subjects and disseminating messages with a viewpoint and the potential to influence audiences. As satirical news shows have become more popular and more widespread, what does that mean for real news and
SIMULACRUM an image or media representation that does not reflect reality in any meaningful way but is treated as real
What Is Politics? 299
✱ Despite being satirical, these shows also provide serious commentary about important issues in American life. What are some of the underlying messages of the humorous material on the show?
✱ Are you among the audience members who get politi- cal news from comedy shows? To what extent do you believe these shows might influence people’s politi- cal ideas? Do you think that they increase young people’s awareness of issues, or are they a confound- ing distraction?
✱ If we consider what postmodernists say about the increasing power of the image or simulacrum in our everyday lives, how can we tell the difference between what is real and what is not real?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Choose a recent episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, or Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and take notes while watching. Be ready with some preliminary answers to the Data Workshop questions. Pair up with one or more classmates and discuss your findings in small groups. Were your thoughts about satirical news shared by others?
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Choose a recent episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, or Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and take notes while watching. Write a three- page paper answer- ing the Data Workshop questions and analyzing the role of journalism— real and satirical— in the American polit- ical process.
its role in educating and informing the people? It seems that satirical news has become an important and endur- ing voice in humor and in American political culture.
This Data Workshop asks you to analyze the phe- nomenon of satirical news, its real popularity, and its possible influence on young people and politics. Choose your show— The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, or Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Select a recent episode of the show, and make sure it is available for multiple viewings. You will be gathering data from an existing source and doing a content analysis of the episode. Refer to the section in Chapter 2 for a review of this research method.
As you watch the episode, consider the following points (you may want to take informal notes while view- ing and add more of your own comments and observa- tions afterward):
✱ In what ways does the show resemble a traditiona l network news program? Examine the format of the show, the cast and correspondents, the regular program segments (news reporting, interviews), the structure of the stage set, the design of the graphics, and other aspects of the production.
✱ Make a list of the topics that are covered on the show. Compare the stories presented on the satirical news show with stories presented in the real news dur- ing the same time period. How much of the news is completely made up, and how much is actually about real- world events?
✱ A comedic news show, even when it covers real issues, is not held to the same journalistic standards as traditional news outlets. How does an audience member know what to believe about the truth of any particular statement or story?
Political Satire on TV Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee mine news headlines for comedy. Should we take them seriously?
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion300
Clearly, the media play an important role in informing and educating the voting public. Despite our “free press,” however, we must also be aware of how the media can be used to fur- ther the purposes of powerful interest groups and individu- als. The democratic system stands to suffer if only those with the most money or celebrity can influence public opinion by buying their way into the hearts and minds of Americans.
Patriotism and Protest Even though freedom of speech is a legal right in the United States, when we criticize some policy or some action of the government, we may, ironically, be called unpatriotic by those who support it. This is especially true in times of war or national crisis, when many citizens believe we should pull together as a country and present a united front to the world. During the 1960s, for example, at the height of U.S. involve- ment in Vietnam, many Americans considered anti- war protesters “ un- American” because of their vocal criticism of American intervention in Southeast Asia. After Sep- tember 11, 2001, those who questioned the competence of U.S. intelligence agencies (such as journalists, elected representatives, and survivors of those killed in the attacks) were effectively silenced until more than a year later, when Congress impaneled a commission to investigate intelligence agencies’ preparation for and response to the attacks. The
SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICS A s much a s the media changed the political process in the twentieth century, it seems likely that new forms of media will transform it all the more. The power of social media goes beyond simply provid- ing information; it also allows for interaction, networking, and user- generated content.
An increasing number of Americans are getting their polit- ical and campaign news online, including social networking sites. In the 2016 presidential election, Facebook and Twit- ter took center stage. While all three major- party candidates (Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump) used Facebook and Twitter extensively in their campaigns, one candidate stood out in the ways that he utilized these social media platforms. Trump offered his Facebook and Twit- ter feeds as sources of news for his followers by providing links to other news outlets so that users could read content that praised Trump or his policy proposals (Pew Research Center 2016b). Often the links were to Fox News, a recognized conservative- slanting outlet, or even CNN, a more centrist mainstream news source. But Trump’s posts also featured links to more marginal news outlets, including the alt- right Breitbart News and conspiracy- theory- rich InfoWars, and his high- profile candidacy shone light on what had previously been dark and ugly corners of the Internet.
Socia l media a lso contributed to the rise of “fake news,” which played an important role in the 2016 election. Because it is relatively easy to design websites with the look and feel of legitimate news outlets, fraudulent news stories can spread quickly online; shares and retweets on Facebook and Twitter keep this kind of fake news a live. One example from the 2016 election included the claim that anti- Trump protesters were paid by the Democratic Party (Maheshwari 2016), a claim that Trump himself took up and continued to level at the resistance movement months after the claim was debunked by legitimate news outlets. Other types of fake news proliferated during this election cycle as well. One conspiracy theory— that Democratic candidate Hill- ary Clinton was running a child- trafficking ring out of the basement of a D.C. pizza parlor— seems beyond outlandish. And yet it inspired many believers to threaten and harass the owner and employees, and one man showed up with multiple weapons and fired into the restaurant. Luckily no one was injured in the “Pizzagate” shooting (Syrluga and Siddiqui 2016).
Further, Trump picked up on the phrase “fake news” and began using it in an attempt to delegitimize recognized and respected mainstream news outlets when they reported something he didn’t like. If a story painted the president in a less than flattering light— even if it was robustly verifiable— Trump accused it of being fake news, usually in a late- night or early- morning tweetstorm. This insistence that mainstream news outlets were lying about him helped widen an already gaping chasm between Trump voters (a numerical minority) and the rest of the country.
Echo Chambers In 2016, partisan “news” outlets— especially those found online— contributed to an increase in what pundits have called the political “echo chamber,” a phenomenon in which readers seek out and consume only those sources that confirm beliefs they already hold.
What Is Politics? 301
hundreds of protests across the country, with large turnouts in cities such as St. Louis, New York, Washington, DC, Oakland, Detroit, Miami, and Columbus. Black Lives Matter symbols and slogans entered into popular culture: the hoodie worn by Trayvon Martin when he was shot to death and “I Can’t Breathe”—Eric Garner’s last words before he was killed in a chokehold.
Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 election surprised voters and pundits alike. The shock also seemed to energize activ- ists, who immediately began organizing protest marches and other initiatives aimed at countering Trump’s campaign promises, which included banning Muslims from enter- ing the United States, building a border wall, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and eliminating business regulation, environmental protection, and social welfare programs from the federal agenda. The first major demonstration— the Women’s March on Washington— occurred on January 21, 2017, the day after Trump was inaugurated. While more than half a million protesters stormed the nation’s capital, satel- lite marches in cities all over the United States drew mil- lions more protesting Trump’s promises to restrict women’s reproductive rights, defund child- care and health- care pro- grams, and roll back environmental restrictions. One report estimated that about 1 percent of the U.S. population was out in the streets marching against the new president and his agenda, with millions more joining sister marches on every continent— even Antarctica (Darrow 2017).
Is it unpatriotic to criticize your government in times of national crisis or to call for change to an unfair legal system? Those who do so argue that such criticism is the most patri- otic act of all: that blind acceptance of government is not the
commission’s report confirmed problems within the intel- ligence community that contributed to the inability to fore- see and forestall the attacks— corroborating the criticisms of “unpatriotic” protesters.
Numerous protests occurred during the course of the Iraq War. Protests at the 2004 Democratic and Republican national conventions in Boston and New York City were nota- ble for their size, their creativity, and the intense response they provoked from law enforcement. Both protesters and police used the Internet and cell phones to coordinate their actions, and in one demonstration, 5,000 bicyclists clogged the streets of Manhattan for a protest ride. In 2011, the Occupy movement spread from New York City’s Zuccotti Park all over the country and the world, protesting social, economic, and political inequality. Carrying signs saying “We Are the 99%,” Occupy protesters expressed their opposition to a system that allows a small minority (the “1%”) to hold a majority of the wealth and power while ordinary middle- class citizens suffer unemployment, foreclosure, and disempowerment.
In 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement emerged after George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted in the case of the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin. Protests grew in 2014 in the wake of sev- eral incidents where unarmed black men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City, were killed by police officers. In each case, a grand jury decided not to indict the officers involved. Protesters claim that these are not isolated incidents, but rather they point to a long and ongoing history of inequities in policing in minor- ity communities, racial profiling, and excessive use of force by law enforcement. Black Lives Matter supporters organized
The Women’s March on Washington On January 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the forty-fifth president of the United States, more than half a million protesters stormed the nation’s capital. Millions more participated in satellite marches across the globe.
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion302
What Is Education? Most modern political systems recognize the importance of universal education. The framers of the U.S. Constitution realized that an informed public was essential to the sur- vival of democracy. Education, therefore, was seen as criti- cal to the founding of the new republic. In the United States, public education has traditionally been under state and local control, although the federal government began playing a larger role in the latter half of the twentieth century. How- ever, private schools and religious schools are also involved in education. About 9 percent of K– 12 students attend private schools (either religious or secular), 88 percent attend public schools, and 3 percent are homeschooled (U.S. Department of Education 2013).
Education is the central means by which a society trans- mits its knowledge, values, and expectations to its members. The general goal of education is to give students the necessary understanding for effective social functioning. Education often includes the transmission of information, principles, and values, the regulation of personal character, and disci- pline of the mind. Education can be either formal or informal and can occur in a variety of settings, although we commonly think of it as tied to school systems.
A Brief History of Modern Education Formal, institutionalized, secular education in Western civilization began in ancient Greece around the eighth cen- tury B.C.E., when students studied philosophy, mathematics, music, and gymnastics. Higher education was carried out by philosophers before the rise of schools as an institution. In the Middle Ages, the church was the main educator, with schools in monasteries and cathedrals, and until about 1200 C.E., the schools focused mainly on training students to be priests. During the thirteenth century, lay education emerged. It consisted of apprentice training for a small group of the com- mon people or education in chivalry for the more privileged. During the Middle Ages, universities offered courses in three subjects— law, theology, and medicine— and these courses were available only to the most privileged members of soci- ety: royals, aristocrats, and those from families with ties to the monarchy and the church.
W hile systems of education have evolved a g reat dea l since the Middle A ges, the roots of what we would rec- og nize as modern mass education ca n be traced back to the idea lism of the Europea n Enlightenment of the eigh- teenth a nd nineteenth centuries. During this period, the va lue of education g reatly increased. The leading thinkers of the day, such as Volta ire, Locke, a nd Fra nk lin, empha- sized knowledge— reason, log ic, a nd science— over reli- g ious tradition. They were convinced that the well- being a nd future of modern societ y depended on enlightened
same as patriotism and that citizens should make every effort to correct society’s flaws. Those on the opposite side may say, “My country, right or wrong” and believe that the decisions of our elected leaders and the actions of those who carry out our laws are beyond reproach. Regardless of your views, keep in mind that those who criticize government policies are doing exactly what our democratic system calls for and protects. Dissent and its tolerance are crucial elements of an open soci- ety, and you have a constitutionally protected right to oppose, criticize, and protest.
Politics: The Micro- Macro Link Political institutions and their products (such as laws or bureaucratic systems) shape our everyday lives. A law such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensures your right to apply for and hold a job without being discriminated against because of race, gender, or religion. No matter who you are or what kind of work you do, you are protected by this law. And even if you have never experienced discrimination in the workplace, this law is probably one of the reasons why.
Huge government bureaucracies like the Department of Education shape your everyday life as well. Even if you attend a private university, you had to submit a FAFSA (Free Appli- cation for Federal Student Aid) in order to determine your eli- gibility for any type of financial aid— federal and state grants and loans and aid programs administered by your campus. All these student aid sources require the FAFSA, and your ability to attend the college of your choice may therefore depend on the decisions made by this government bureaucracy.
In addition to seeing how political institutions shape our everyday lives, it is important to remember that we have built these institutions ourselves, through our participation in the democratic process. When we vote, sign petitions, or partici- pate in demonstrations, we bring our individual influence to bear on the larger social structure— even if, ultimately, the cause or candidate we support doesn’t prevail. So remember, micro- macro connections are made every day as you partici- pate with others in political processes and live in a culture shaped by its political institutions.
Democratic processes require a free press and an edu- cated polity; to ma ke decisions and cast votes, you must have the tools to gather information and comprehend the issues your vote will inf luence. This is only one of the many links between politica l and educationa l institu- tions in our society. As we move into the segment of this
chapter that dea ls with educa- tion, tr y to think of a ll the ways that politics and education are connected— and remember to look for micro- macro connec- tions as you learn about educa- tiona l institutions as well.
EDUCATION the process by which a society transmits its knowledge, values, and expectations to its members so they can function effectively
What Is Education? 303
lowest high school graduation rate at 69 percent, and Iowa had the highest, at 91 percent. Dif- ferent racial and ethnic groups have varying graduation rates: In 2014–2015, 90 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander students, 88 percent of white students, 75 percent of black students, and 78 percent of Hispanic students graduated high school on time (U.S. Department of Education 2017a).
Education and the Reproduction of Society Schooling serves a number of important functions in our society. The transmission of knowledge is a clear function of education. In addition, we learn to follow society’s rules and to respect authority, and we are socialized to develop other qualities that will eventually make us efficient and obedi- ent workers. In school, we also learn our places in the larger society— practices such as tracking, in which students are identified as “gifted” or are placed into remedial or voca- tional education, teach us about success and achievement and our chances for both. When placed in a lower- ability or remedial track, for instance, students lose access to courses such as calculus and Advanced Placement (AP) classes (Useem 1990), which effectively locks them out of certain colleges, certain majors, and even certain future careers, all by the time they’re sixteen years old.
EDUCATION AND INEQUALITY While we firmly believe, as a society, that education is the key to achievement and suc- cess, it is also true that educational institutions can replicate
self- knowledge, which could be achieved only through lea rning.
Education in the United States grew rapidly during this same period. The founders’ belief that it is the government’s responsibility to provide basic education to all its citizens— and that fulfilling this obligation is beneficial for both society and the individual— helped create the U.S. public education system. Schooling came to be seen as a necessity rather than a luxury and became legally mandatory for all children age six- teen and younger; Massachusetts was the first state to enact such a law in 1852. As larger proportions of the population began attending schools, curricula became more varied and included both academic and vocational education to prepare students for a diversifying set of future occupations (not just farming or housewifery). By 1929, elementary, junior high, and high schools had spread to every state and territory in the nation, including Alaska, and opportunities for higher edu- cation also expanded, especially in the land- grant colleges of the western United States.
Higher education is now available to everyone in the United States. Before 1900, less than 2 percent of Americans finished high school, and even fewer went on to college. In 2015, the high school graduation rate topped 83 percent for the first time in U.S. history, with a record high number of high school students earning diplomas. High school drop- out rates are also at a record low with less than 6 percent of students dropping out of high school in 2015. The increase in high school graduation rates is marked by a significant decrease in dropouts among black and Hispanic students, whose dropout rates have decreased to 6.5 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively (U.S. Department of Education 2017a). There are variations according to state and school district: New Mexico and the District of Columbia had the
The Rise of Mass Education Beginning in the nineteenth century, schooling began to be considered a necessity for preparing children to enter modern industrial occupations.
TRACKING the placement of students in educational “tracks,” or programs of study (e.g., college prep, remedial), that determine the types of classes they take
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion304
in the classroom? Female students may notice, for instance, that their teachers pay more attention to male students, and they may learn to think that boys are smarter than girls. Cau- casian or Asian students may notice that there are fewer Afri- can American and Hispanic students in the gifted classroom than in the remedial classroom, and they may learn to think that whites and Asians are smarter than blacks and Hispan- ics. Children without disabilities may see disabled kids left out of activities or sent to the special education center and learn to think that these students are less worthy than nondis- abled kids. These micro- inequities are common in American classrooms.
They are experienced by individuals but are the result of structural forces external to those individuals. In other words, micro- inequities result from macro- level inequali- ties in the larger educational and social systems. And these micro- inequities teach us as much as our more explicit lessons in math, literature, or history. Acquiring a sociological per- spective on educational institutions and processes will help you “unlearn” these lessons and understand that educational attainment is often as much about social stratification as it is about individual ability.
THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM Sociologists have long been interested in the hidden curriculum, the lessons that stu- dents learn indirectly but that are an implicit part of their socialization in the school environment (Jackson 1968). Many sociologists have analyzed the hidden curriculum to explain the nonacademic roles filled by mass education.
One such role is the training of future workers, which was examined by Bowles and Gintis (1977) in their study School- ing in Capitalist America. They argue that schools train a labor force with the appropriate skills, personalities, and attitudes for a corporate economy. Although the official cur- riculum is supposed to promote personal improvement and social mobility, the hidden curriculum of “rules, routines, and regulations” actually produces a submissive and obedient
systems of inequality. Educational achievements do improve our life chances; U.S. Census data consistently indicate that those with higher educational attainment also have higher median incomes: In 2015, young adults with a high school diploma had median yearly earnings of $30,500 compared to $36,900 for those with an associate’s degree, $50,000 for those with bachelor’s degree, and $60,000 for those with a master’s degree or higher (U.S. Department of Education 2017a). Moreover, unemployment rates are directly corre- lated with educational attainment: In 2016, the unemploy- ment rate was 5.2 percent for people without a high school diploma, 2.7 percent for people with a bachelor’s degree, and just 2.4 percent for people with a master’s degree (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017g).
It is a lso worth noting some of the complexity of gen- der inequa lity in higher education, as we find that among
young adults ages twenty- five to twenty- nine, there is a grow- ing gap between the percentage of women (40 percent) and men (33 percent) with bachelor’s degrees or higher (U.S. Census Bureau 2017c). A lthough more
women than men earn bachelor’s degrees, in the job mar- ket women make considerably less than their ma le coun- terparts. In 2015, the median annua l earnings of women with bachelor’s degrees or higher was $50,000, compared to $59,700 for men, (U.S. Department of Education 2017a). Likewise, college accessibility remains unequa l: Only 15 percent of people from low- income backgrounds, com- pared to nearly two- thirds from high- income families, obtain bachelor’s degrees (U.S. Department of Education 2016a). So education benefits everyone, but it does not ben- efit everyone equa lly, and inequa lity in educationa l benefits mirrors inequa lity in the larger society.
How do these patterns manifest themselves? What do these educational inequalities look and feel like for students
HIDDEN CURRICULUM values or behaviors that students learn indirectly over the course of their schooling
Hidden Curriculum Sociologists argue that schools train students to be ideal workers by promoting a curriculum of “rules, routines, and regulations.”
What Is Education? 305
in the experimental group had increased their IQ scores by a significantly greater margin than their peers in the con- trol group. The researchers concluded that the teachers’ attitudes about their students unintentionally influenced the students’ academic performance. In other words, when teachers expected students to succeed, the students indeed tended to improve (and it was assumed that the opposite would be true as well).
The results of Pygmalion in the Classroom have been critiqued by other researchers, on both theoretical and methodological grounds, especially because the research- ers used standardized IQ tests and small subject samples (Baker and Crist 1971). Nonetheless, this study and others support the proposition that teacher expectations affect stu- dents’ behavior and achievement in measurable ways. Some studies indicate that student labeling is often arbitrary and biased, with the result that teachers— whether consciously or unconsciously— may be reinforcing existing class, ethnic, ability, and gender inequalities (Fairbanks 1992; Sadker and Sadker 1995). This also means that changes in classroom interaction could lead to an improvement in academic perfor- mance among students from underprivileged backgrounds.
A CONFLICT STUDY The next study, which also looks at inequalities in schools, is consistent with a conflict perspec- tive, which sees society as a system characterized by inequal- ity and competition. Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities (1991) is an ethnographic study of public schools in cities across the country, including Washington, DC, Chicago, and San Antonio. Kozol, a former teacher, contends that because schools are funded by local property taxes, children in poor neighborhoods are trapped in poor schools, which reinforces inequality. He documents the significant differ- ences among America’s schools: “The highest spending dis- tricts have twice as many art, music, and foreign language teachers . . . 75 percent more physical education teachers . . . 50 percent more nurses, school librarians, guidance coun- selors, and psychologists . . . and 60 percent more personnel in school administration than the low- spending districts” (Kozol 1991, p. 167).
When Kozol interviewed the parents and students in wealthy school districts, he discovered that many of them believe educational inequalities are a thing of the past, “some- thing dating maybe back to slavery or maybe to the era of offi- cial segregation” but not to anything “recent or contemporary or ongoing” (Kozol 1991, p. 179). In stark contrast to this view, Kozol describes underfunded schools he visited— the hun- dreds of classrooms without teachers in Chicago, the thou- sands of children without classrooms in schools throughout New Jersey. His overall impression was that these urban schools were, by and large, extraordinarily unhappy places. How, he asks, could the children in these schools have an equal chance at success? A structural functionalist might respond that schools are not intended to provide equal chances.
workforce that is prepared to take orders and perform repeti- tive tasks. According to this analysis, schools look a lot like factories. Students have no control over their curriculum, must obey instructions, and gain little intrinsic satisfaction from their schoolwork. Because students learn these norms and values in school, they are willing to accept similar condi- tions when they become workers.
A similar analysis can explain how the hidden curriculum reinforces and reproduces conditions of social inequality by presenting and reinforcing an image of what is considered “normal,” “right,” or “good.” While the official curriculum has come a long way toward recognizing the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the nation, there are still major gaps and exclusions (FitzGerald 1980; Thornton 2003). Schools can- not always rectify these oversights because the hidden cur- riculum can work through much more subtle mechanisms as well. How the curriculum is presented and the way the school is organized can be powerful messengers of the hidden curric- ulum. For instance, even schools that attempt to implement multicultural education may undermine their own efforts if the staff and administration do not mirror the lessons they teach. If teachers and administrators are mostly white, mostly heterosexual, or mostly male (or mostly female, as is the case in lower grades), they may belie the very lessons they try to teach— what students hear and what they see just don’t add up. When schools attempt to alter only what is taught and not the way it is taught, they may change the curriculum, but they won’t affect what students are learning (Christakis 1995; Falconer and Byrnes 2003).
Classic Studies of Education Sociologists and other researchers have studied education from a variety of perspectives. In this section, we review three classic studies of education, each offering a different approach and distinctive insights into its significance, both as a social institution and in the lives of individuals.
A SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST STUDY The first study looks at education from the symbolic interactionist perspec- tive, which maintains that the social world is constructed through the interactions of individuals. Robert Rosenthal, a Harvard psychologist, and Leonore Jacobson, an elemen- tary school principal, worked together on Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development (1968). The researchers began the experi- ment by administering a basic IQ test to students in the first through sixth grades, although they told teachers the test was designed to predict which students would “bloom” aca- demically in the next year. They then randomly selected an experimental group of students and falsely told their teach- ers that these students were predicted to develop rapidly in the coming school year. At the end of the year, the research- ers administered the same IQ test and found that students
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion306
have set up a complicated credential system (education) to keep the number of job applicants down and to ensure that there is a large population forced to work at unpleas- ant jobs for low wages. Collins makes the radical recom- mendation that we consider “abolishing compulsory school requirements and making formal credential requirements for employment illegal” (Collins 1979, p. 198). This would make it illegal for employers to ask how much education a job applicant has, much as it is currently illegal to ask about race or gender.
The Present and Future of Education During the past several decades, many educators, parents, and legislators have come to believe that America’s educa- tional system is in crisis, that public schools are failing to provide adequate training for students. Critics list a variety
A STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALIST STUDY Accord- ing to the structural functionalist perspective, educational inequality is merely preparation for occupational inequali- ties later in life. (Remember, functionalists believe that every social phenomenon has a role to play in keeping society at equilibrium.) In the third study, The Credential Society, soci- ologist Randall Collins (1979) argues that class inequalities are reproduced in educational settings and that there is very little schools can do to increase learning. Although many people assume that better teachers, better facilities, and bet- ter funding can increase test scores, he points out that when class background factors are held constant, none of these other factors seems to have any effect.
Collins believes that reproducing the existing class struc- ture is the true function of education. Schools, for example, provide the credentials to ensure that the children of the middle class will continue to receive middle- class jobs. To protect their own job security, members of lucrative occupa- tions, such as accountants, lawyers, and financial analysts,
INTO THE FUTURE A College Degree: What’s It Worth?
obtaining a degree. And according to the Pew Research Cen- ter, a college degree is worth more than ever as the earnings gap between those with a college education and those with- out continues to widen (Pew Research Center 2014b). Today workers with a doctoral degree bring in average lifetime earnings of $3.3 million, compared to $2.3 million for work- ers with a bachelor’s degree, $1.3 million for those with only a high school diploma, and just $973,000 for those without a high school diploma (Carnevale, Rose, and Cheah 2011). This means that workers with a college degree earn an average of 75 percent more— or about $1 million— over their lifetime than workers with just a high school diploma.
While supporters see these figures as zingers, there are some cracks in the consensus. The most obvious disclaimer when “investing” in a four- year college is the one attached to any investment: Past returns are no guarantee of future returns. College was a terrific investment in the past, but will that still be true for those applying for admission today? Of course, a lot depends on just how much a particular college costs. For many students, it makes sense to attend a more affordable college, where it still takes about nine years after graduation to get to the breakeven point. For those students paying higher tuition costs (say, at a private college), it may take closer to seventeen years to break even. Those figures presume that a student finishes a BA in four years.
Young Americans are told that a college degree is the best way to prepare for the job market. However, as far back as the 1970s, sociologists like Randall Collins have won- dered whether college is always a sound investment. The usual argument in favor of higher education, even as it has become increasingly expensive, is that students are “invest- ing in themselves.” But this “investment” theory makes sense only if education is producing graduates who have skills and knowledge they can turn into higher wages. In The Credential Society, Collins argued that “job skills of all sorts are actually acquired in the work situation rather than in a formal training institution,” while college only provides a credential (1979, p. 193). That credential can be enormously valuable, of course, but it’s subject to inflation. As more and more people attend college, jobs that used to require high school diplomas start wanting bachelor’s degrees, and so on. If Collins is correct, or even partially correct, sooner or later school will become a bad investment. Are we there yet? Experts disagree.
Many experts stand by higher education as a sound investment from which graduates reap good returns. Mary Daly, a senior vice president and researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank, says there is strong evidence that a college degree still gives people an “earnings advantage” (Bengali and Daly 2014). Research shows that the benefits of col- lege in terms of higher earnings far outweigh the costs of
What Is Education? 307
poverty and academic underachievement. A recent study showed that nearly half of all public school students within the United States live in poverty, marking an increase in the growing rates of poverty within the public education sys- tem (Sparks 2013). With only about half of students from high- poverty high schools going on to attend college, poverty remains one of the biggest predictors of academic achieve- ment and educational attainment (Sparks and Adams 2013). Concerns about the decline in American educational stan- dards and competitiveness have elicited a variety of responses on the part of parents, communities, the government, and other agencies. A number of educational trends are already in place and may play an important role in shaping the future of American education.
THE COMMON CORE Some efforts have been aimed at try – ing to address problems at the K– 12 level. One such tactic is the Common Core State Standards, developed in 2009 with the intention to remedy America’s stagnant academic
of problems, including low rates of literacy and poor stan- dardized test scores, lack of sufficient funding and crumbling infrastructure, low pay for teachers, overcrowded class- rooms, and high rates of crime on campus.
In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Educa- tion released a report on the state of American public schools. A Nation at Risk concluded, in apocalyptic terms, that the American educational system was in a crisis so serious that “if an unfriendly foreign power” had created it, “we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Largely on the basis of declin- ing standardized test scores, the report argued that the United States was “committing an act of unthinking, unilateral edu- cational disarmament.” Not all the commission’s conclusions have been affirmed, but more than three decades later, numer- ous studies point to ongoing problems in education and the persistence of an “achievement gap” between students from different demographic groups.
Much of the research surrounding America’s failing pub- lic education system points toward a connection between
There’s also the question of college major. The annual wages of recent college graduates vary quite widely— from $27,000 to $50,000—based on major (Carnevale, Cheah, and Hanson 2015). Students graduating in some fields, such as engineering or architecture, earn signifcantly more than those majoring in education, the arts, or psychology. Workers with STEM majors have the highest annual median earnings. For example, the median annual earnings of workers with a major in petroleum engineering is $136,000; compare that to $39,000 for workers with a major in early childhood education or $42,000 for social work majors. This adds up over a work- er’s lifetime: Workers with the top- paying college majors earn $3.4 million more over a lifetime than those with the lowest- earning majors (Carnevale, Cheah, and Hanson 2015).
Still, there are some pretty high- profile dissenters. Nobel Prize– winning economist James Heckman believes the value of college depends on the student: “Even with these high prices, you’re still finding a high return for individuals who are bright and motivated,” but for those who aren’t “col- lege ready, then the answer is no, it’s not worth it” (McArdle 2012). Another skeptic is Peter Capelli (2015), a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He notes that many college graduates end up in jobs for which they don’t need a degree and that some students would be better off financially by not going to college at all.
New College Graduates Is a college degree still a smart investment?
One of the most visible challenges to the idea that every- one should go to college comes from PayPal co- founder Peter Thiel. In 2011 he created the Thiel Fellowship, which pays twenty young people $100,000 for two years to pursue their ideas and business plans outside of school. With such notable college dropouts as Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg to point to, college might actually stand in the way of success for some people. Undoubtedly, though, such cases are the rare excep- tion, making a college degree a pretty safe bet.
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion308
Ideally, charter schools can make changes and imple- ment decisions faster than ordinary public schools because of their freedom from district governance. They can moni- tor their successes (and failures) more closely and are more responsive to the needs of students, parents, and communi- ties. In reality, charter schools face many challenges. Because charter schools are free from certain regulations, they have the freedom to operate independently and on private spon- sorship. Still, many of them struggle to raise funds. This can potentially create disparities in public education and exclude certain student populations (National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education 2015).
SCHOOL VOUCHERS First proposed in the 1990s, school vouchers allow parents in neighborhoods where the public schools are inadequate to send their children to the private school of their choice. In other words, taxpayers receive a voucher for some of the money that a public school would have received to educate their child, and they apply that money to private school tuition. Most school- voucher programs fund 75 percent to 90 percent of the cost of a private school, with parents making up the rest.
Despite the growing use of school vouchers, there has been little evidence to indicate that vouchers increase academic achievement (Usher and Kober 2011). Proponents of school vouchers (such as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos) argue that they give parents more choice and control over their chil- dren’s education and pressure public schools to improve or risk the loss of their voucher- eligible student body. Opponents argue that vouchers do not improve public education but do the opposite: They drain funds from vulnerable public schools and cause them to deteriorate further. Opponents also say that if parents use vouchers for parochial schools, public monies are funding religious education, thus threatening the separation of church and state. While the Supreme Court has ruled the voucher system to be constitutional and numerous experi- mental voucher programs are already in place, the privatiza- tion of public education remains controversial in any form.
HOMESCHOOLING AND UNSCHOOLING Home- schooling or home- based education is the education of school- aged children under their parents’ supervision out- side a regular school campus. Many parents homeschool their children not only to control their academic education but also to limit their exposure to the socializing effects of peer cul- ture in public schools. Some homeschooled children enroll in regular schools part- time or share instruction with other families, but most of their education takes place at home. While many families homeschool their children for their entire K– 12 years, many others try it for only a short time.
Homeschooling in the United States has been growing steadily since the 1980s, with current growth rates of 5–12 per- cent a year. Currently, an estimated 1.8 million students in the United States are homeschooled, accounting for a little over
achievement levels. Unlike No Child Left Behind, the Com- mon Core is a state- led rather than federal initiative, and state adoption of standards is voluntary, although Presi- dent Obama did create a grant incentive program, Race to the Top, for states that adopt the standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative 2015). In total, forty- two states have adopted the Common Core as a way to standardize and improve test scores while better preparing students for col- lege. The next step is assessing the results. Because there is not yet one set of standardized assessment tools for the Com- mon Core, it remains unclear how the program will affect the trajectory of public education; however, many concerns remain regarding the ability of any one- size- fits- all attempt to reform America’s education system. Whether states retain or opt out of the Common Core, debates about course content, standards, testing, and accountability continue.
CHARTER SCHOOLS Charter schools are public schools that are run by private entities, such as a parents’ group or an educational corporation. They operate with relative free- dom from many of the bureaucratic regulations that apply to traditional public schools. Charter schools represent a com- promise position between public and private schools and pro- vide a way for parents to exercise control over their students’ educational experiences without completely abandoning the public school system. By 2017, forty- two states and the Dis- trict of Columbia had established charter school programs, and 6,750 charter schools were serving a total of more than 2.5 million students (U.S. Department of Education 2017a). State laws regarding charter schools govern sponsorship, number of schools, regulatory waivers, degree of fiscal or legal autonomy, and performance expectations.
The “charter” establishing such schools is a contract detailing the school’s mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. Charter schools are designed to support educational innova- tion; some have special emphases like arts or science; others offer special services like health clinics or community- based internships for students. The IDEA charter high school in Washington, DC, instructs students in the skills needed to
work in the architecture and construction trades while also teaching the traditional high school curriculum. In Madison, Wisconsin, educators started Nuestro Mundo Community School, a Spanish immersion program. By fifth grade, all stu- dents are equally fluent in Span- ish and English. The Madison school district created the school to help close the gap between the test scores of Hispanic students and their non- Hispanic peers.
CHARTER SCHOOLS public schools run by private entities to give parents greater control over their children’s education
SCHOOL VOUCHERS payments from the government to parents whose children attend failing public schools; the money helps parents pay private school tuition
HOMESCHOOLING the education of children by their parents, at home
What Is Education? 309
meaningful to the students and honors their particular aptitudes and learning styles. Students become lifelong learners and gain useful life skills.
Although their numbers are still relatively small, adults who were unschooled report high levels of satisfaction in their later careers. Many propo- nents of unschooling denounce the traditional model of formal education, which they say is not conducive to learning or future success. Some crit- ics believe that unschooling is too radical an approach and worry about isolation and children who lack social skills and self- motivation. Homeschooling and unschooling are educa- tional trends that continue to grow, as they offer an attractive alternative to the shortcomings of traditional education.
EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOLS AND DUAL ENROLL- MENT PROGRAMS Early college high schools are new in stitutions that blend high school and college into a coher- ent educational program in which students earn both a high school diploma and two years of college credit toward a bachelor’s degree. In addition to local efforts to create these schools, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in partner- ship with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, has contrib- uted over $120 million to launch early college high schools. Since 2002, more than 240 early college high schools in twenty- eight states have served over 75,000 students. The goal of these programs is to serve students who might
3 percent of the school- age population. Homeschools account for about the same percentage of students as either charter schools or private schools in the United States (U.S. Depart- ment of Education 2017e).
Clearly, homeschooling is a significant phenomenon in education, but how is it working? One of the largest stud- ies of homeschooling arrived at rather startling results. The academic achievement of homeschooled students, on aver- age, was significantly above that of public school students (Ray 1997, 2008, 2013). In addition, homeschooled students did well even if their parents were not certified teachers and the state did not highly regulate homeschooling. One advan- tage of homeschooling seems to be the flexibility in custom- izing curriculum and pedagogy to the needs of each child. Yet questions remain about the possible academic and social disadvantages to students removed from typical school environments.
More recently, the unschooling movement has gained popularity. Although it is similar to homeschooling in that parents oversee their child’s learning, unschooling is an alter- native to traditional education and homeschooling alike. As its name suggests, unschooling rejects the standard curriculum that is typically taught to students, as well as conventional teaching methods and classroom environments. Unschool- ing, as a philosophy, advocates student- centered learning by encouraging students to learn through their own freely cho- sen activities, interests, and real- world experiences. Parents offer support, guidance, and resources, but children initiate their own direction and exploration of subject matter. A par- ent may give instruction when asked and so facilitate lessons, but the point of departure is always the child’s innate curios- ity and desire to learn. This approach makes lessons more
Homeschooling The Wilson family in Myrtle Point, Oregon, study together at the kitchen table as part of their homeschooling program.
UNSCHOOLING a homeschooling alternative that rejects the standard curriculum in favor of student- driven types of learning
EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOLS institutions in which students earn a high school diploma and two years of credit toward a bachelor’s degree
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion310
rate and the lowest graduation rate of any ethnic group in the United States. These new high schools aim to engage students by offering them cha llenging academic work while simultaneously providing the necessary guidance and sup- port structures. Early college high schools are sma ll (with no more than 75–100 students per grade) and thus can pro- vide the benefits of a close community, an intimate learning environment, and persona lized academic attention. Com- pared to other high schools, early college high schools boast a higher graduation rate while a lso addressing the issue of dropouts. A 2013 eva luation research study of the effect of early college high schools found that students enrolled in these schools were significantly more likely to both attend and graduate from college; minority students saw the great- est impact (Berger et a l. 2014).
Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to gain college credit for the courses they take through
otherwise face greater obstacles making the transition from high school to higher education. In an effort to address the achievement gap in public education, early college high schools aim to serve low- income students and minorities.
Each early college high school is a collaborative endeavor between a public school district and an accredited higher education partner. In Phoenix, Arizona, high school stu- dents can join the Gateway High School program and simultaneously get a high school diploma and an associ-
ate’s degree from Gateway Community College. In Oregon, Portland Community College partners with the Native Amer- ican Youth and Family Center to offer a similar program for Native American youth, who have the highest college dropout
The University of Phoenix is one of the most successful for- profit colleges in the country, part of an industry that has experienced explosive growth in the last decade. Perhaps you know someone who is among the millions of students who attend for- profit colleges each year. Or perhaps you’ve seen one of those TV commercials that for- profit colleges run, the kind that show successful graduates giving testimonials about their great new careers in the aerospace industry and how they owe it all to the education they received at DeVry University— and how you can do it too!
Among the reasons for the growth in popularity of for- profit colleges is their open enrollment policies and flexibil- ity in scheduling. Many offer night and weekend classes as well as fully online degree and certificate programs, often with a special focus on job- related curriculum and training. For- profits are especially interested in serving nontradi- tional students, including minorities, low- income, and first- generation students, along with veterans and adult learners. Many students are seeking to acquire specific skills or train- ing they hope will make them more successful in a competi- tive job market. So why not choose a for- profit school?
Historically, most colleges and universities in the United States have been not- for- profit institutions. The expansion of the University of Phoenix— along with other for- profits such as DeVry, Capella University, and “ off- shore” schools like Ross Schools of Medicine— is somewhat new. These col- leges are run more like businesses than traditional schools.
ON THE JOB For- Profit Colleges: At What Cost?
Many are subsidiaries of larger corporations, and all are expected to make money for investors and shareholders. The proliferation of for- profits has been a boon to students; they now enroll about 7 percent of all college students in the United States. At the same time, there has been growing con- cern and criticism from lawmakers, educators, and politi- cians about the role of for- profits in the recent student loan debt crisis, and whether the schools are really delivering the kind of success that they promise.
For- profit colleges compare less favorably to traditional two- and four- year colleges on a number of key indicators. One issue is cost. According to the College Board, the aver- age cost of tuition and fees in 2016 was $16,000 at for- profit institutions, compared to $3,520 at two- year public non- profit schools and $9,650 at the four- year level; only private nonprofits cost more at $33,480 per year (College Board 2016). Another issue is how students bear those costs. The majority of students take out loans to pay for college: 51 per- cent of students at public four- year schools, 63 percent at private schools, and 73 percent at for- profit schools (Cel- lini and Darolia 2016). Not only are students attending for- profit schools more likely to take out loans, but they’re also less likely to be able to pay them off. While for- profits enroll about 7 percent of all college students, they account for about 35 percent of all student loan defaults (U.S. Department of Education 2017a). The majority of those loans come through federal aid programs or are secured through government
DUAL ENROLLMENT programs that allow high school students to simultaneously enroll in college classes, earning credit for both high school and college degrees
What Is Education? 311
programs, limited financial resources, and the daunting processes of applying to and entering higher education may hinder academic achievement. By changing the structure of the high school and compressing the number of years required for an undergraduate degree, early college high schools and dual enrollment programs are having a significant impact on high school students, who are demonstrating high levels of attendance, improved promo- tion rates, and success in college- level courses.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES You know what a community college is— you may even attend one right now. A community college is a two- year school that provides general educa- tion classes for students who want to save money while
a concurrent enrollment agreement with a local college. Through this exchange, dual enrollment students take classes, often at a local community college, and simultane- ously earn high school and college credit for their work. While AP classes provide high- achieving students the opportunity to earn college credits, dual enrollment allows many more high school students the opportunity to take college- level courses. By providing high school students with the oppor- tunity to get a head start on college work, dual enrollment programs can help ease the transition to college and allow students to “try on” or rehearse college attendance (Karp 2012). It has also been shown that dual enrollment programs can increase postsecondary academic achievement while also decreasing the amount of time students take to obtain their degree (Allen and Dadgar 2012).
For many students, the path to postsecondary educa- tion is difficult. Large, impersonal middle and high school
COMMUNITY COLLEGE two- year institution that provides students with general education and facilitates transfer to a four- year university
agencies. For graduates of for- profit schools, the average debt among those who borrowed is nearly $40,000 (Snider 2014).
Completion rates are another issue. Only 23 percent of students who attend for- profit schools actually graduate, compared to 59 percent of students at public nonprofits and 66 percent at private nonprofits (U.S. Department of Edu- cation 2017a). Graduates of for- profit institutions may also struggle to have their degrees taken seriously. While for- profit colleges boast many student success stories, these all too often fail to materialize. They are accused of making inflated promises, and in some cases even falsifying reports about their student job placement rates. Graduates of for- profit schools are less likely to secure employment in their fields of choice. Many have to settle for jobs that don’t even require the higher education they invested in, and some end up earning less than they did before they began attending the school (Cellini and Turner 2016). And this happens at just the time when student loan repayments come due.
In the face of these growing problems, the for- prof it industr y has recently come under investigation by state and federa l agencies. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Edu- cation led a crackdown on abuses at Corinthian Colleges, including violations of state laws and predator y lending practices (the corporate college shut down a ll operations in 2015). In 2016, Congress constrained the use of federa l loan funds at for- prof it schools, and the Department of
Education suspended the accrediting body that ser viced many for- prof it schools. In the wa ke of these actions, some high- prof ile schools like ITT Tech closed their doors. This has, unfortunately, lef t students carr ying unman- ageable debt loads that won’t go away, even if they declare bankruptcy.
Certificate of Debt Less than a quarter of students who attend for- profit colleges like the University of Phoenix and DeVry University actually graduate, and those who do often carry significant student loan debt.
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion312
issues as declining public funding sources and the chang- ing needs of a growing, diverse student body. Despite these hurdles, though, community colleges continue to provide a wealth of opportunities.
ONLINE LEARNING Online education (also called dis- tance learning) is not really a new concept—“correspondence courses” have been available for hundreds of years and served as a way for people in remote locations (like farmers or military members and their families) or people who were homebound or physically disabled to benefit from the same educational opportunities available to others. In previous eras, distance learning courses relied on the postal service and more recently on audiotapes and videos to help students learn independently. With the advent of the Internet and real- time electronic communication, distance learning was transformed forever. Universities and private businesses use these technologies to offer courses to anyone with an Internet connection. Certificates and degrees of all kinds are within the reach of students who, because of time, geog- raphy, or other constraints, cannot come to campus.
According to a frequently cited report by the Online Learn- ing Consortium (2016) on the state of online learning, in 2014 more than 5.8 million, or 28 percent of all college students, were taking at least one class online, an increase of about a quarter million students over the previous year. Online enrollments have been growing steadily even while overall higher education enrollment has been declining (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center 2017).
As with any application of technology to education, there are both pros and cons to online learning. Like the old- fashioned correspondence courses, online technologies provide educational access for those who might otherwise not be able to pursue a degree. However, distance learning is not a good fit for all students, and attrition rates from online courses are notoriously high. Online classes often lack the personal touch and dynamic interaction of standard class- room instruction. For this reason, students may feel that there is something important (if intangible) missing from their educational experience. Since you will probably expe- rience both traditional and online learning in your college career, ultimately you’ll be the judge.
Education: The Micro- Macro Link As societies change, so do educational institutions, and so does the individual’s experience of education. For example, a big part of being a student today is knowing how to use digital technolog y. The typical student today does a good amount of work online, whether it’s reading an e- book, accessing course materials online, or watching videos as homework. Digital technolog y is so integrated into the teaching and learning process that many students now take
preparing to transfer to a four- year university, right? While this definition of a community college is technically true, community colleges have become much more than just a springboard to a four- year degree. They provide vocational and technical training for people planning practical careers, retrain “downsized” workers seeking new career paths, and offer enrichment classes for retirees. In 1901, six stu- dents enrolled at the first “junior college” in Joliet, Illinois; today there are 1,108 community colleges across the coun- try (American Association of Community Colleges 2017). In 2015, approximately 6.5 million students were enrolled in two- year community colleges, making up about 38 per- cent of all students enrolled in college in the United States (U.S. Department of Education 2017a).
The contemporary community college typically offers more than just basic general education and college preparatory courses. In fact, the California Community College system, the largest in the nation, offers classes in more than 175 fields (California Community College Chancellor’s Office 2015). Honors programs, study abroad options, intercollegiate sports, music programs, on- campus residence halls, and internships can now be part of the two- year experience. Community col- leges help students prepare for careers that give back to the
community. Two of the most in- demand programs of study are administration of justice and health sciences. Fully 80 percent of firefighters, police officers, and EMTs and more than half of all new nurses and health- care workers trained at community
colleges (American Association of Community Colleges 2011). Community colleges have gained recognition for playing a
critical role in preparing the country’s workforce. In an effort to serve more people in need of training, many states are now offering programs in which students enrolled in community college can earn a bachelor’s degree on campus, rather than transferring to a four- year university. Community college baccalaureate programs allow students to still earn a bach- elor’s degree while avoiding the high costs and barriers to access that surround four- year university admission. More than twenty states already offer such programs, with more states planning to follow (Koseff 2014).
In 2015, President Obama launched the American College Promise program, a federal initiative to make community college attendance free for many students. Inspired by the success of Tennessee and Chicago’s tuition- free community college programs, this new initiative could affect up to 9 mil- lion students by increasing community college accessibility (Parsons 2015). With increasing tuition costs at four- year universities, more affordable community colleges could help propel many students who would not otherwise be able to afford tuition to pursue higher education. While much of this is good news, community colleges also struggle with such
ONLINE EDUCATION any educational course or program in which the teacher and the student meet via the Internet, rather than meeting physically in a classroom
What Is Religion? 313
contributing to the triumpth of capitalism in Europe and the United States. Other sociological theories have focused on the function of religion in society, the ways in which religion promotes inequality and conflict, and how religious meaning is constructed through interaction.
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM For members of any religion, beliefs and rituals serve a number of functions. First, religion shapes everyday behavior by providing mor- als, values, rules, and norms for its participants. From the Judeo- Christian commandment “Thou shalt not kill” to the Buddhist commitment to reconcile strife to the Qur’anic requirement to eschew alcohol and impure foods, religious rules govern both the largest and smallest events and actions of followers’ daily lives. Religious practices usually include some type of penance or rehabilitation for those who break the rules: Catholics can confess their sins to a priest and be assigned prayer or good works to redeem themselves; Muslims spend the month of Ramadan fasting during daylight hours to purify their bodies and souls; Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement and also involves fasting, as well as appeals for wrongs to be forgiven.
Another function of religion is to give meaning to our lives. Religious beliefs can help us understand just about every- thing we encounter because every religion has a system of beliefs that explains such funda- mental questions as, How did we get here? What is our purpose in life? Why do bad things happen to good people? All religious tra- ditions address these questions, helping their followers explain the inexplicable, making the terrible more tolerable, and assuring believers that there is a larger plan. Finally, religion provides the opportunity to come together with others— to share in group activity and identity, form cohesive social organizations, and be part of a congregation of like- minded others.
CONFLICT THEORY These are the (mostly unifying) func- tions of religion for individuals and for society, but there are also ways in which religion can promote inequality, conflict, and change. From a conflict perspective, the doctrines of the three major monotheistic religions— religions that worship one divine figure (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)—are quite sexist. Orthodox Judaism mandates the separation of men and women in worship and in everyday life; Catholicism and many Protestant sects prohibit women from becoming priests or pastors; traditional, observant Muslim women must keep their bodies completely covered at all times. There are very few nonsexist religions, and those with strongly
it for granted. This is one of the many ways that macro- level change (in this case, the development of technolog y) affects your everyday life through your participation in the social institution of education. What you learn about the world in school on an everyday basis— as well as how you learn it— is shaped by larger social forces.
Education is not the only social institution concerned with teaching members of society important information, values, and norms. Religion is another social institution from which we learn a great deal about being members of society. Even if we rebel against our religious upbringing or have no religious affiliation, our lives are touched in important ways by religion because it is a dominant social institution in the United States. As you read the following section, think about the intersection of the micro and the macro in the study of religion and about the intersection of religion with other social institutions, including politics and education.
What Is Religion? No doubt we each have our own definition of religion based on personal experience. But a sociological definition must be broad enough to encompass all kinds of religious experi- ences. For sociologists, religion includes any institutional- ized system of shared beliefs (propositions and ideas held on the basis of faith) and rituals (practices based on those beliefs) that identify a relationship between the sacred (holy, divine, or supernatural) and the profane (ordinary, mundane, or everyday). Those who study religion recognize that there are different types of religious groups: denomi- nations (major subgroups of larger religions, such as Prot- estantism within Christianity or Shia within Islam), sects (smaller subgroups, such as the Amish or Mennonites), and cults (usually very small, intense, close- knit groups focused on individual leaders— like David Koresh and the Branch Davidians— or specific issues like the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate). Sociologists do not evaluate the truth of any system of beliefs; they study the ways that religions shape and are shaped by cultural institutions and processes, as well as the ways that religions influence and are influenced by the behavior of individuals.
Theoretical Approaches to Religion Sociological theorists have tried to explain the rise, attrac- tion, and effects of religion, as well as its relationship to the larger society and its role in the lives of individuals. One of the most discussed sociological takes on religion is Max Weber’s (1905) theory about the link between Protestant Christian values and the rise of capitalism in the West. According to Weber, Protestants’ emphasis on hard work and frugality facilitated the accumulation of property and wealth,
RELIGION any institutionalized system of shared beliefs and rituals that identify a relationship between the sacred and the profane
SACRED the holy, divine, or supernatural
PROFANE the ordinary, mundane, or everyday
MONOTHEISTIC a term describing religions that worship a single divine figure
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion314
From a conflict perspective, then, religion is complex: It can subjugate and oppress at the same time it can liberate. This may help explain Americans’ seemingly contradictory approach to religion. While quasi- religious principles are at the core of many of our closely held national ideologies, many Americans also believe that religion should be kept separate from our collective political life.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM Symbolic interactionist approaches to religion focus on how religious meaning is constructed in interaction and how religion is incorporated into the everyday life of individuals and groups. With its focus on interaction and interpretation, this approach is appropri- ate for examining religious symbolism, religious commu- nication, and religious practices. For example, one might think that being female in a conservative religion would be oppressive. But interactionist studies show that it is possible to refashion the meaning of religious proclamations about gender in ways that benefit religious women’s sense of value and personal power. Orit Avishai’s 2008 study of Orthodox Jewish women, for example, shows that they are anything but “doormats”—rather, they are able to construct meaning- ful ways of “doing religion” that preserve their sense of per- sonal agency and self- determination within the value system of their faith. Similar studies of religious women (Bartkowski and Read 2003; Gallagher 2004; Mahmood 2004) have iden- tified related trends among Muslims and Christians: Despite religious doctrines that appear to prescribe docility, women are able to construct agency, empowerment, and resistance in their everyday interactions by framing their roles as individ- ual choices, their work as central to family and community, and their obedience as a way of triumphing over social and personal problems.
nonsexist values and practices (such as Wicca) are usually mar- ginalized. Some religions have anti- LGBTQ or racist doctrines as well: Some Protestant sects refuse to ordain gay clergy, and until 1978 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS,
or Mormons) believed that people with dark skin were cursed by God and forbade African Americans from marrying in the temple.
Religious organizations have also been agents of social justice and political change. For example, religion has been closely linked to movements for African American rights. The movement for the abolition of slavery was entwined with Christian reformers like the Methodists and Baptists. The civil rights movement in the twentieth century began in Southern Protestant churches and was led by a team of Christian ministers, including the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In Africa and Latin America, liberation theology has been instrumental in fighting exploitation, oppression, and poverty. Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador used this distinctive combination of Marxism and Christianity to argue against the country’s repressive military dictatorship. Though Romero was assassinated while saying Mass in 1980, his legacy lives on in human rights movements all over the world. The Polish labor movement Solidarność, led by Catho- lic shipyard workers in Gdańsk and supported by the late Pope John Paul II, was the crucible for democratic change in the Eastern bloc in the 1980s. Communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe had restricted religious freedom and labor union organizing for decades; Solidarność helped break down both of those barriers.
Religion and Social Justice Óscar Romero, the late archbishop of El Salvador, who was beatified by Pope Francis in 2015 (left), and Lech Walesa (right, speaking into a bullhorn) of Poland both led movements against repressive political regimes.
LIBERATION THEOLOGY a movement within the Catholic Church to understand Christianity from the perspective of the poor and oppressed, with a focus on fighting injustice
What Is Religion? 315
Religious Trends There is a moderate level of reli- gious diversity in the United States compared to other coun- tries in the world (Pew Research Center 2015a). The United States is largely Christian (divided into different sects), but Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and other reli- gions are also practiced by a portion of the population (see Figure 10.1). Many Americans switch religions over the course of their lives. Fully a third of American adults currently iden- tify with a different religion than the one they were born into (Pew Research Center 2015a). There have been other shifts in reli- gious preferences in the past few decades as well. One of those trends is toward fundamentalism, which is not a religion in itself but a traditionalist approach that can be applied to any religion. Another trend is away from organized churches toward an “unchurched” spirituality that borrows elements from many traditions but is affiliated with none.
FUNDAMENTALISM Fundamentalist approaches to reli- gious belief and practice are on the rise both worldwide and in the United States. Fundamentalism is a way of under- standing and interpreting sacred texts that can be part of any denomination or sect. Fundamentalist Christianity, for example, centers on a strict, sometimes literal, interpretation
Religion in America How religious is the American public? That depends on the measures used (Hill and Wood 1999; Theodorou 2015). Soci- ologists usually define religiosity as the consistent and reg- ular practice of religious beliefs, and they gauge religiosity in terms of frequency of attendance at worship services and the importance of religious beliefs to an individual. Researchers have identified two broad categories of religiosity: extrinsic and intrinsic (Allport and Ross 1967). Extrinsic religios- ity refers to a person’s public display of commitment, such as attendance at religious services or other related functions. Intrinsic religiosity refers to a person’s inner religious life or personal relationship to the divine.
Recent studies have found that 89 percent of A mericans believe in God, more than ha lf (53 percent) of A mericans say religion is ver y important to them, and more than a third (36 percent) of A mericans say they go to religious ser vices at least once a week (Pew Research Center 2015h; Theodorou 2015). These numbers are somewhat mislead- ing, however, because there are big differences in religious aff iliation and participation across demographic groups. Gender, age, race, geographic region, politica l party, and education are a ll variables that inf luence religiosity. For example, more than one- f if th of the tota l U.S. public (23 percent) and more than a third of Millennia ls are reli- giously unaff iliated, the highest percentages ever reported. W hites are more likely to identif y as religiously unaff ili- ated than both blacks and Hispanics, and men are more likely to identif y as religiously unaff iliated than women (Pew Research Center 2015a). In other words, younger people, whites, and men are less likely to identif y as reli- gious than other groups in society.
RELIGIOSITY the regular practice of religious beliefs, often measured in terms of frequency of attendance at worship services and the importance of religious beliefs to an individual
EXTRINSIC RELIGIOSITY a person’s public display of commitment to a religious faith
INTRINSIC RELIGIOSITY a person’s inner religious life or personal relationship to the divine
FUNDAMENTALISM the practice of emphasizing literal interpretation of texts and a “return” to a time of greater religious purity; represented by the most conservative group within any religion
Evangelical Protestant Churches 25.4%
Mainline Protestant Churches 14.7%
Historically Black Churches 6.5%
Catholic 20.8%
Hindu 0.7%
Muslim 0.9%
Other Faiths 1.8%
Unaffiliated 22.8%
Mormon 1.6%
Other Christian 1.7%
Jewish 1.9%
Buddhist 0.7%
Figure 10.1 Religious Composition of the United States
SOURCE: Pew Research Center 2015a.
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion316
The history of religious conflict is extensive and convo-luted, having been around for as long as humans have worshipped gods. No faith is exempt, and religion has played a significant role in conflicts from the ancient Israelites and Canaanites around 1200 B.C.E. to al- Qaeda’s destruction of New York City’s World Trade Center in 2001 to Sri Lanka’s civil war between the Hindu Tamil Tigers and the Buddhist Sinhalese, which lasted more than twenty- five years before finally ending in 2009.
Mark Juergensmeyer’s book Terror in the Mind of God (2003) analyzes the history and meaning of religious vio- lence in general and terrorism in particular. He notes that groups using terror have historically had diverse agendas and motivations, but only within the past thirty years has religion come to play a prominent role in terrorist violence. A more recent study confirms this trend. The number of countries with high or very high levels of social hostilities involving religion reached a peak in 2012. Of the 198 coun- tries studied, some 33 percent had high or very high levels of religion- related terrorist violence; these countries rep- resent 74 percent of the world’s population. Christians and Muslims, who combined make up more than half of the world’s population, faced harassment in the largest number of countries. The harassment of Jews also reached a seven- year high in 2013 (Pew Research Center 2015c).
Juergensmeyer’s work uses many examples to illustrate the cross- cultural similarities of religious violence. Within the Christian tradition, Juergensmeyer discusses the Irish Republican Army (IR A) in Northern Ireland and the Army of God, whose adherents have killed doctors who perform abortions in the United States. Within Judaism, he exam- ines the case of Baruch Goldstein, who killed twenty- eight Muslims in 1994 when he opened fire in the Ibrahim Mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs, a shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims. Juergensmeyer also investigated Islamic terror- ism, such as the first attempt to bomb the World Trade Cen- ter in 1993 (done by al- Qaeda- affiliated perpetrators) and the activities of the Palestinian group Hamas, which pio- neered the use of suicide bombings in the Middle East. Sikh terrorists were responsible for the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her bodyguard in India in 1984, and a Buddhist Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, launched the notorious Sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.
More recently, ISIS or ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria/Levant), a terrorist group that controls parts
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Thou Shalt Not Kill: Religion, Violence, and Terrorism
of Syria and Iraq and is present in other territories in the Middle East, has asserted its authority to establish an Islamic state and to expand its reach through armed warfare. The group has gained notoriety for using socia l media as a means of recruitment and to spread its propa- ganda. The release of videos showing mass executions and beheadings of “inf idels,” foreign soldiers, aid workers, and journa lists has been widely condemned by Muslims and by governments and internationa l organizations worldwide. Sadly, terror in the name of religion persists, and we sus- pect that you will be able to add new incidents to the list of recent religious violence.
Juergensmeyer argues that the common thread linking religious violence in such disparate traditions and far- flung corners of the world is a reliance on a particular kind of religious perspective. “The social tensions of this moment of history . . . cry out for absolute solutions,” he says, and in a world that seems increasingly beyond individual con- trol, religious violence offers a way to reassert some kind of power.
The list of wars, conflicts, and terrorist acts inspired or justified by religion is tragically long, extending throughout history and reaching across continents. Religious conflict is not a thing of the past, nor is your country (or your religion, whatever it may be) untouched by it.
Religious Violence People comfort one another during a vigil to honor the 22 killed and more than 115 injured during a terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, in May 2017.
What Is Religion? 317
2004) because fundamental- ism provides a return to tradi- tion and to simple, unambiguous values and ideologies. Declar- ing one’s loyalty to a traditional religious group that promises certainty in the face of change may be comforting to individuals— but it has broader social and political consequences as well.
Between 1990 and 2001, the number of Americans who described themselves as “Fundamentalist Christians” tri- pled, and the number describing themselves as “evangelical Christians” (a variant of fundamentalist groups) more than quadrupled (Kosmin, Mayer, and Keysar 2001). Currently, more than half of U.S. Protestants— and a quarter of all adults— identify as evangelical (Pew Research Center 2015a). Funda- mentalists who take an evangelical approach attempt to convert individuals to their way of worshipping. Evangelicals see their conversion work as a service to others— an attempt to save souls— and have adapted many modern technologies (including television and social media) to their cause. With the growth of the evangelical movement, their beliefs have also spilled over into other areas of social life. For example, evangelical Protestants are less likely to see the separation of church and state as a good thing; they may believe religion plays too little role in politics rather than too much (Pew Research Center 2012).
UNCHURCHED SPIRITUALITY About 23 percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation (Smith and Cooper- man 2016)—interestingly, this group is more likely to be younger, male, and to live in western and northeastern states. Having no religious affiliation, however, does not nec- essarily mean that a person is an “unbeliever.” In fact, less than a third of the religiously unaffiliated identify as atheists or agnostics (7 percent of all U.S. adults), while more than
of the Bible and advocates a return to the historic founding principles of Christianity, arguing that modern approaches to Christianity are corrupt and inauthentic. Other religions have fundamentalist strains as well. Orthodox Judaism, for example, promotes a literal reading of the Torah and other Jewish spiritual and legal tracts. Fundamentalist Islam par- allels Jewish and Christian fundamentalisms in that it also requires strict, literal, and traditional interpretations of the Qur’an and other sacred texts. Fundamentalist approaches to all three of these major religions gained popularity in response to the complex social changes of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States and around the world (Patterson
The Rise of Fundamentalism Members of the New Birth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, come together in prayer. A megachurch with upward of 25,000 members, New Birth Baptist Church reflects the growth of evangelicalism in the United States.
Religious Tradition Bahá’í Buddhist Hindu Islam Judaism
Figure 10.2 Second Largest Religious Tradition in Each State, 2010
SOURCE: Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies 2012.
EVANGELICAL a term describing conservative Christians who emphasize converting others to their faith
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion318
its development, the questionnaire has been applied to many populations in a variety of places and times. Now it is your turn to ask the questions and learn more about the role of religion in everyday life by conducting your own small- scale study.
This Data Workshop asks you to examine the religi- osity of a sample group of research participants. You will be designing a questionnaire, conducting interviews, and then analyzing the responses you get. Review the section on interviews in Chapter 2 to help you prepare.
Begin by choosing a population you wish to study. This could be other college students, family members, co- workers, or some other group; remember to ask for their consent to participate. You’ll want to gather some basic demographic background from each respondent. Consider such variables as race and ethnicity, class, national background, gender, and/or age of your sample. Researchers have documented variations of religiosity across different social groups. There are many possi- bilities for comparing and contrasting within or across categories. Because this is a pilot study, the number of people you can interview will necessarily be small. You’ll probably have to draw from what is referred to as a “convenience sample” of respondents, rather than using a more scientific random sample. How many peo- ple you include in your sample may also depend on how many questions you’d like to ask each respondent.
For this study you will be conducting one- on- one interviews. You will need to record your interviewees’ answers, either by taking notes or by digital means. Your questionnaire is likely to have both closed- and open- ended questions. The kinds of questions you ask may also help determine the number of questions to include. Closed- ended questions typically have yes or no answers, which can be quickly noted, but you can also ask your respondents to elaborate. Your questionnaire may also include some open- ended questions, which respondents can answer in a variety of ways. Whatever kinds of questions you include, you’ll need to consider the total length of the interview and just how much talk you can easily transcribe.
To help you with the design of your questionnaire, you can start by choosing from the following list of questions (adapted from Lewis et al. 2001). You may want to modify the order or wording of the questions, or delete some. And definitely try adding some questions of your own. Questions about religious affiliation, mem- bership, and attendance at services can tell you some- thing about an individual’s level of commitment, but there are many other ways to measure religiosity, both extrinsic and intrinsic. You can create questions that measure people’s concrete practice of religion and their abstract sense of what religion means to them. Once
two- thirds describe themselves as having no particular religion (Lipka 2015). As yet another indicator of our paradoxical atti- tudes about religion, Americans are increasingly seeking guid- ance and fulfillment through nontraditional means, with
many labeling themselves “spiritual but not religious.” This trend involves new definitions of belief and practice, often expressed privately and individually rather than in orga- nized group settings.
As noted earlier, some organized religions still include elements of sexism, racial prejudice, homophobia, anti- Semitism, and conformity that turn people off, and so spiritual seekers may utilize a kind of “cafeteria” strategy, choosing elements from various traditions and weaving them together into something unique. This type of unchurched spirituality (Fuller 2002), frowned upon by some religious organizations, is becoming increasingly popular, as spiritual seekers mix bits of astrology, alternative healing, twelve- step programs, and even witchcraft with elements of more traditional doctrines.
UNCHURCHED a term describing those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious and who often adopt aspects of various religious traditions
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Measures of Religiosity The term “religiosity” refers to the extent of a person’s commitment to a religion. From what the majority of Americans report to pollsters, we can conclude that they are
significantly more religious than people of other indus- trialized nations. Fully 53 percent of Americans say that religion is very important in their lives, while just 26 per- cent of Italians, 21 percent of Germans and Spaniards, and 14 percent of the French say the same (Theodorou 2015). Are Americans really that much more religious? It’s not always an easy thing to measure. Some research- ers suspect, however, that these varying results may be caused by the discrepancy between what people say and what they actually do (Holifield 2015; Vedantam 2010). Sociologists debate about how studies are conducted and whether respondents give accurate accounts. One widely used instrument is the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (Plante and Boccaccini 1997). Since
What Is Religion? 319
make notes about any preliminary results, and bring them with you to class. Get together with one or two other stu- dents and discuss your findings. Look for similarities and differences in both your own findings and those of your discussion group members. See if you can identify any patterns that emerge from the data gathered by the entire group.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Design a questionnaire and con- duct interviews with a small group of respondents from your sample (perhaps six or seven people). Write a two- to three- page essay describing the interview research process and analyzing your findings, attaching any notes or transcripts to your paper. How do your findings con- firm or refute any hypotheses you might have had before beginning the study? What do your data suggest about the role of religion in society?
you’ve finalized the questions, you’re ready to conduct the interviews.
✱ Are you affiliated with any religion?
✱ Are you affiliated with any particular sect or denomination?
✱ Do you belong to a church, synagogue, temple, or other place of worship?
✱ How often do you attend religious services?
✱ Do you participate in other church- related activities?
✱ How often do you read or study sacred texts or scripture?
✱ How often do you pray or meditate or engage in some other religious practice?
✱ How important is your relationship with God [or another religious figure]?
✱ To what extent is your religious faith important to you?
✱ To what extent do you consider your religious faith to be an important part of who you are as a person?
✱ Do you look to your faith as a source of comfort?
✱ Do you look to your faith as a source of inspiration?
✱ Do you look to your faith as providing meaning, direction, or purpose in your life?
✱ Does your faith affect your relationships with other people?
✱ Does your faith influence your decisions in regard to family, friends, work, school, or other aspects of your life?
✱ How has your commitment to your religion changed over time?
After gathering data through interviews, you’ll want to begin to analyze your findings. Sift through your notes or transcripts and compile the answers to various questions. See what kinds of patterns you can find— similarities, differences, comparisons, and contradic- tions. What do you think these data reveal about the role of religion in your subjects’ lives?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Design a questionnaire and con- duct interviews with a small sample from your population (perhaps three or four people). Look over their answers,
A Secular Society? The separation of church and state is a time- honored (and controversial) American principle, established by the found- ers to preserve freedom of religion— one of the main rea- sons Europeans came to North America. As important and central as this principle is to American politics, we haven’t always been able to maintain it in practice. Consider the dollar bill with the motto “In God We Trust.” Witness the 2015 controversy over displaying the Ten Commandments in front of the Oklahoma state capitol building, or Presi- dent George W. Bush’s allocation of federal monies to “ faith- based” charitable organizations. Even the school- voucher debate centers on this issue: Should public education funds be used to send children to private schools, many of which are religious? And, of course, specifically Christian values and practices shape the everyday life of all Americans— Christian or not. Whether we are a secular society, one that separates church and state, is a complicated issue.
For example, given the Constitution’s “establishment clause,” it seems we shouldn’t be concerned about a presi- dent’s religious affiliation (or lack thereof ). The only official eligibility requirements for the job of U.S. president are that the person be thirty- five years old, a natural- born U.S. citizen, and a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years. There is no requirement that the president be a man, though all of them have been, or a Christian, but all of them have been. It seems that an unspoken requirement for the presi- dency includes being a man of Christian faith, with Protestant Christianity being preferred. The only Catholic to hold the office, John F. Kennedy, endured a storm of controversy during his
SECULAR nonreligious; a secular society separates church and state and does not endorse any religion
CHAPTER 10 Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion320
Sociologists don’t usually address questions like “Is there a God?” as these are not questions to which empirical, sci- entific methods can be applied. It is impossible to prove that God exists (at least by the rules of science)—and it is equally impossible to prove that God doesn’t exist. Social scientists can’t prove or deny God’s existence, but they are interested in studying the important role that religion and spirituality play in our everyday lives. In fact, sociologists have been address- ing that question since the discipline first began.
From a sociological perspective, religion serves many functions. It is the basis for community and it perme- ates many of our social institutions. It is woven into the social fabric and our personal lives. In many cultures, reli- gious participation is a requirement of group membership (Caughey 1984, 1999). On an individual level, members may be expected to demonstrate their belief by engaging in a personal relationship with God (or gods, saints, or spir- its). Members are encouraged to work on that relationship through a variety of practices. Prayer and meditation are central to many faiths, and an important means of commu- nicating with a higher power. In many ways a relationship with God resembles our face- to- face interactions in the real world. Many believe that they can talk with and listen to God and that a close relationship brings many of the same kinds of comfort and support that we get from family and friends (Sharp 2010).
Much contemporary research examines religiosity, or the rates at which people engage in religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Recently, there has been growing con- cern about the declining rates of religiosity among young people attending college. It raises many questions about what happens over the course of a student’s academic life. Does college pose a threat to one’s religious or spiritual beliefs, or can it serve to deepen them? Does higher educa- tion interfere with a relationship to a higher power or actu- ally make it stronger?
While young Americans as a group are becoming increas- ingly secular, some researchers have found that there is a renewed engagement with religion and spirituality among undergraduate college students across the United States. College students today can be almost evenly divided into
IN RELATIONSHIPS Can a Relationship with God Improve Your GPA?
three groups according to their worldviews, with 32 percent identifying as religious, 32 percent identifying as spiritual, and another 28 percent identifying as secular (Kosman and Keysar 2013). Although some religious behavior (such as attendance at religious services) declines during col- lege, overall spirituality among students increases signifi- cantly. According to the 2016 American Freshman survey, 43 percent of first- year college students say that integrating spirituality into their lives is “essential” or “very important” (Eagan et al. 2017).
A major nationwide longitudinal study on spirituality in higher education was recently completed by researchers at UCLA (Astin et al. 2010). They collected data from more than 14,500 undergraduates attending 136 colleges and universi- ties. Among the measures they developed were five qualities of spirituality: equanimity (the capacity to maintain a sense of calm centeredness), spiritual quest (the active search for answers to life’s big questions), ethic caring (a sense of care or compassion for others), charitable involvement (a lifestyle that includes service to others), and an ecumenical world- view (a global perspective that transcends egocentrism and ethnocentrism).
The researchers found that spirituality has a positive effect on traditional college outcomes such as academic per- formance, psychological well- being, leadership skills, and satisfaction with college. Study abroad programs, interdis- ciplinary coursework, service learning, and other forms of civic engagement contribute to spiritual growth by expos- ing students to new and diverse people, cultures, and ideas. Students also grow in global awareness and caring and are more committed to social justice. Students who are also actively engaged in some form of “inner work,” such as self- reflection, contemplation, prayer, or meditation, show the greatest growth in spirituality. Inner work helps facilitate intellectual self- confidence and psychological well- being, and it is even shown to have a positive effect on students’ grade point averages.
Spirituality is an important part of many students’ lives, and it can also enhance their college experience in many ways. So yes, a relationship with God— if it leads you to spiri- tual growth— really can improve your GPA.
321Closing Comments
on that day. We may take for granted these aspects of our “official” calendars, but they do beg the question: Is every person equally free to practice his or her faith in American society?
Religion: The Micro- Macro Link Religion is a source of conflict and misunderstanding but also a wellspring of comfort and meaning for many. Whether you are Catholic, Methodist, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist, a Mor- mon or Wiccan or Scientologist, you share common experi- ences with others in the practice of your religion, no matter how different your belief systems and rituals may be. A sense of meaning, a set of rules and guidelines by which to live your life, a way of explaining the world around you, a feeling of belonging and group identity— sociologists recognize these patterns across religious traditions.
Religion is yet another social institution that helps us see the link between macro- level social structure and micro- level everyday experience. Religious beliefs, practices, and prejudices can inflame global conflicts and resolve them and can shape national political life in observable and unexam- ined ways. At the same time, religion is integral in the every- day lives of many Americans who find comfort and kinship in their religious beliefs and practices. “In God We Trust” is the motto for both our nation and many of its people, no matter what their faith.
CLOSING COMMENTS All three of the social institutions examined in this chapter— politics, education, and religion— are part of the structure of our society, and they are linked in a variety of ways. For example, state and federal policy decisions about school vouchers affect individual students and neighbor- hood public schools, and they benefit parochial schools and the religious institutions that run them. Politics, education, religion, and other social institutions influence your every- day life in ways you may not have realized. We hope you have gained greater awareness of how these social institu- tions shape your life as a member of society— and how you can influence them as well. Your vote changes the political landscape; your role as a student influences the culture of your college and university; your membership in a religious congregation affects the lives of fellow worshippers. Insti- tutions affect individuals, but individuals can influence institutions as well— this is the essence of the sociological imagination and the macro- micro link.
1960 campaign, when critics feared that America would be ruled by the Pope if Kennedy was elected. Rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim dogged both terms of his presidency.
In both government and private industry, schedules are organized around Christian holidays with little or no atten- tion paid to religious holidays of other groups. Schools, banks, and government agencies are all closed on Christmas Day, even though this holiday is not observed by more than 15 percent of Americans. Your university’s system of vaca- tion periods is likely organized around both Christmas and Easter— important Christian holidays. Universities rarely give days off for Yom Kippur or Passover, two very important Jewish holidays, or Eid al Ftir, the last day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which calls for a variety of special celebrations. This means that Jewish and Muslim students and staff who observe these holidays must go through the hassle of making special arrangements to compensate for classes or meetings missed. They may have to use valuable vacation or sick time or even forfeit credit for exams given
Separation of Church and State? This six-foot granite monument of the Ten Commandments was removed overnight from the Oklahoma state capitol in 2015 after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the statue violated the constitution.
322
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau 2017p, “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2016.”
61.4%
37.1%
63.3%
74.2%
80.3%
Voter Turnout in the 2016 Election by Educational Level
225K
200K
175K
150K
125K
100K
75K
50K
25K
All Ages & Both Sexes (in thousands)
Total
Total Citizen Population Reported Voters
Less than 9th
Grade
9th to 12th
Grade, no Diploma
Bachelor’s Degree
Advanced Degree
35.3%
51.5% High
School Graduate
Some College or Associate
Degree
Everything You Need to Know about Social Institutions
THEORIES OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
✱ Structural functionalism: Social institutions provide critical func- tions and help to maintain order.
✱ Conflict theory: Social institutions represent the interests of those in power and thus create and maintain inequalities.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: Social institutions are created through indi- vidual participation.
REVIEW 1. Were you eligible to vote in the last
election? If so, did you? If you didn’t vote, why not? The voting rate for voting- eligible U.S. citizens ages eigh- teen to twenty- four is much lower than the rate for senior citizens. Why do you think that is?
2. Much of this chapter’s discussion of education focuses on elementary and high schools. Do you think the same theories apply to college classrooms? Have you experienced a hidden cur- riculum since you left high school?
3. There is some debate over how to measure religiosity: Should it be based on how spiritual you feel or on how often you attend religious services? Which way do you think is more valid? Why? Can you think of a better way to measure it?
“ Social institutions such as school, religion, and government organize our group life and constrain our everyday lives. By studying them, we can examine connections between the individual and society.
“
323
EXPLORE
Happy Interdependence Day! The idea of interdependence is that everyone and everything is connected. Your personal successes and failures may also be the result of social systems like education and politics. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read more on how interdependence can change society.
http://wwnPag.es/trw410
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau 2017p, “Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2016.”
61.4%
37.1%
63.3%
74.2%
80.3%
Voter Turnout in the 2016 Election by Educational Level
225K
200K
175K
150K
125K
100K
75K
50K
25K
All Ages & Both Sexes (in thousands)
Total
Total Citizen Population Reported Voters
Less than 9th
Grade
9th to 12th
Grade, no Diploma
Bachelor’s Degree
Advanced Degree
35.3%
51.5% High
School Graduate
Some College or Associate
Degree
324
CHAPTER 11
T he history of one family’s jobs and occupations can provide some sociological insight
into the development of work and the economy over time. For example, Dr. Ferris’s great-
grandfathers included a military man in Missouri, a tailor in Texas, and a stonemason
and a butcher, both in a tiny mountain village in Lebanon. Despite their geographical and cul-
tural distance from one another, they all were involved in occupations that have existed since
ancient times and were still common in the late nineteenth century. Their various jobs repre-
sent much of the range of possible jobs in agricultural societies. Some people were skilled
craftsmen, some were soldiers, and most others farmed. While women sometimes helped
The Economy and Work
325
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work326
with the farming or other types of work, their primary task was homemaking and
child- rearing.
Moving up a generation in the family tree, you can see that in the first half of
the twentieth century, Ferris’s grandparents were involved in military and service
work, with some industrial labor experience as well. One grandfather emigrated
from Lebanon to Massachusetts, where he worked in the local brass foundry. This
kind of hard physical labor in a stiflingly hot factory was the norm during the indus-
trial era. While he worked at the foundry, his wife secretly worked at a local laundry,
hiding her earnings from him. These secret earnings later helped them afford to
take a step up in the occupational hierarchy: they bought a restaurant and ran it
successfully. Ferris’s other grandfather was an army doctor who was stationed all
over the United States and the world. His wife followed, making a home with the
children wherever they were stationed. She served as a hostess and provided cru-
cial support for her husband’s career, which was customary in the early twentieth
century.
By the time Ferris’s parents started working in the second half of the twentieth
century, her mother was part of a new generation of women who were far more
likely than their own mothers to pursue a college education and a career outside
the home, even while raising children. Both of Ferris’s parents earned advanced
degrees (mom an MA and dad a JD); as a writer and an attorney, respectively, they
both engaged in service- and knowledge- based work. These areas experienced
tremendous growth as the country moved into a postindustrial Information Age
economy. Dr. Ferris, as a professor with a PhD, is also a knowledge worker— still
just three generations away from great- grandparents without formal educa-
tions. Because of historical changes in gendered career expectations, she has
enjoyed opportunities her grandmothers and great- grandmothers could never have
imagined. And as we move further into the twenty- first century, developments in
the economic and occupational landscape are likely to create a world in which
Dr. Ferris’s son, E. J., may hold a job that has not even been invented yet— perhaps
in an entirely new, currently unimagined field.
Your own occupational family tree probably holds similar insights into the
development of both world and U.S. economic systems over time. And this is no
accident— as different as our families and their experiences may be, the patterns
and trends in the kinds of work our relatives did can be a rich topic for sociological
analysis. Our individual occupational choices are always made within the context
of larger economic and social structures, both local and global. In this chapter, we
will examine those structures and the experiences of individuals within them.
Historical and Economic Changes 327
Historical and Economic Changes We start with the history of U.S. economies, paying special attention to the agricultural, industrial, and postindustrial periods— and how new technologies have changed the nature of work in each of these periods.
The Agricultural Revolution Perhaps the earliest form of economy in North America was found in pre- sixteenth- century Native American societies. An estimated 2 million to 10 million indigenous people inhab- ited the continent prior to colonization by Europeans. Some were hunting- and- gathering societies, which had to be highly mobile, relocating for food and weather conditions. The divi- sion of labor revolved around survival, with the men hunting animals or foraging for plant sources of food. The women, children, and elderly cooked, sewed, and did other tasks at the campsite. Some were horticultural societies based on the domestication of animals, farming, and generating a
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER After reading this chapter, you should understand why work is a classic topic of sociological inquiry: it is a fulcrum point between the micro and the macro and a link between the indi- vidual and the social. You will see the connection between the everyday conditions of your life on the job and the larger structural changes related to history, technology, and the economic system in which you work. We want you to become familiar with the classic and more recent sociological studies in this area and how they have shaped our ways of thinking about the social world of economy and work. You will know something about the past and perhaps have more insight about the future and your place in it.
An economy deals not only with money but also with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and ser- vices within a society. In this chapter, we look at issues regard- ing the economy, focusing specifically on work, because the economy shapes the types of work available as well as our patterns of working.
Great- grandmother: Homemaker
Great- grandfather: Stonemason
Mother: Writer
Father: Lawyer
Kerry Ferris: College professor
Grandfather: Restaurant owner
Grandmother: Homemaker
Grandfather: Military officer
Grandmother: Homemaker
Great- grandmother: Homemaker
Great- grandfather:
Butcher
Great- grandmother: Homemaker
Great- grandfather:
Military officer
Great- grandmother: Homemaker
Great- grandfather:
Tailor
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work328
farmed by black slaves brought from Africa (Davis 2001). Slave labor was essentially free, which increased owners’ profits. Poor white people sometimes owned small farms or worked as tenant farmers or sharecroppers. White men were usu- ally owners of land and small businesses, while white women were usually household managers.
The Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a time of rapid techno- logical, social, and economic change that almost completely transformed life in modern times— a radical break from the past, disrupting social patterns that had been relatively sta- ble for centuries. When we discuss the Industrial Revolution in this section, we will look at the technological innovations of the era and how they changed American society and cul- ture, the economy, and the lives of workers.
The Industrial Revolution began in England with the invention of the steam engine in 1769, which was first used to power machinery, starting with the manufacture of textiles. By the end of the eighteenth century, steam- powered factories had spread to the United States and other nations (Hughes and Cain 1994). With more mechanized machinery such as the cotton gin, the American economy moved from manual labor to machine manufacturing. Even farming would change with the introduction of mechanical plows and reapers. The nineteenth century brought steam- powered ships and rail- ways, the internal combustion engine, electrical power gen- eration, and new tools and appliances. By the end of the 1800s, the modern corporation had emerged— a business that could manage a range of activities across geographic regions. A suc- cessful corporation not only manufactured products but also managed all aspects of marketing and distribution.
With the shift to a manufacturing economy, vast num- bers of people migrated into cities from rural areas in search of work. There was a great influx of immigrants, primarily from Europe, who provided a steady source of cheap, easily exploitable labor. By 1910, more than 13 million people liv- ing in the United States were foreign born (Gibson and Len- non 2001). Densely populated neighborhoods sprang up to accommodate the masses, housing was often substandard, and many families lived in poverty. Employment in manufac- turing meant that people no longer worked in or around their homes as artisans or craftsmen, as many had in the past, but that instead they went off into the industrial districts of large cities to work in factories. Wage labor replaced the household subsistence model of the agricultural society.
The Industrial Revolution changed not only working con- ditions but also the lives of workers. The United States and most other industrializing nations experienced great popula- tion booms not only because of immigration but also because of discoveries in science and medicine that led to increased life expectancy and decreased infant mortality. Also many more people had access to dependable food and water sources
surplus of resources. They had more permanent settlements and a greater diversification of labor because different types of workers, such as farmers, crafts- people, and traders, were all nec- essary to the economy.
The Agricultural Revolu- tion continued some of the social and economic trends that began with horticultural societies. Bet- ter farming and ranching tech- niques allowed larger groups to thrive and remain in one location for longer periods of time. The
Agricultural Revolution lasted for many centuries, but in the eighteenth century, food production was greatly increased by new innovations in farming and animal husbandry. Among those developments were the invention of new types of plows and mechanized seed spreaders, new techniques of crop rota- tion and irrigation, and advancements in the selective breed- ing of livestock.
The agricultural economy that flourished in the early United States encouraged a stratified labor force. For large plantation owners to accumulate wealth from cotton or sugar- cane crops, they depended on cheap, plentiful labor. The divi- sion of labor fell largely along race, gender, and class lines (Amott and Matthaei 1996). In the pre– Civil War era, many of the plantations of the South that were owned by whites were
Slaves at Work in the Field The agricultural economy in the South depended on slave labor to grow cotton and tobacco.
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION the social and economic changes, including population increases, that followed from the domestication of plants and animals and the gradually increasing efficiency of food production
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION the rapid transformation of social life resulting from the technological and economic developments that began with the assembly line, steam power, and urbanization
Historical and Economic Changes 329
women, such as millwork and sewing in textile factories, for meager wages and under dangerous conditions.
The theories of Karl Marx are most often associated with the spread of industrialization, the capitalist economies that it produced, and the workers who toiled in factories. His ideas provide a classic analysis of industrial work then and now. Much of what Marx asserted about class conflict and the cir- cumstances of his time can apply with slight modification to capitalists and workers in the current industrial workplace.
According to Marx, the powerful have always exploited workers. As he asserted in The Communist Manifesto, “oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition to one another” in a perpetual struggle for economic resources, as all history “is the history of class struggles” (Marx 2001, p. 245). Economic exploitation is still present in a modern industrial economy, which allows for the accumulation of what is called “surplus value.” The proletariat, or workers, in an industrial economy pos sess only one thing of economic value, and that is their time, which they sell to capitalists who own the means of production. Workers are paid for their time and labor, but their wages do not represent the full profit from the sale of the goods they produce. The sale of the goods not only covers the workers’ wages and the expenses of running the factory but also generates additional revenue or surplus value, which then belongs to the owner.
Marx believed that workers in capitalist societies expe- rienced alienation in many ways as a result of that system. Workers are alienated, Marx argued, because they are paid for their labor but do not own the things they produce. Unlike the farmers and craft workers of prior eras, industrial work- ers feel no sense of personal satisfaction in producing goods that are owned and controlled by someone else. Workers are also alienated from the process of work and their own creative activity. In traditional, precapitalist societies, many found joy
and some form of health care. Laws giving some protections to workers, such as child labor reforms, also emerged as an important aspect of the overall health of working popu- lations. Although many factory workers were unskilled, the American workforce of the early twentieth century was becoming better trained and more educated than that of any previous generation.
The growing population of the United States became a market for the mass- produced goods it was manufacturing. Because industrial workers no longer worked on farms and in the home producing their own food and clothes, they had to purchase those items with the wages they earned for their labor. They also had to buy services, such as health care and child care, from other providers. Other changes in everyday life were also part of the Industrial Revolution: Americans were introduced to new forms of communication with the invention of the Morse telegraph in 1837 and the telephone in 1876, and they traveled more easily across the country with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
The industrial economy increased stratification of the workforce along class, race, and gender lines (Amott and Matthaei 1996). Wealthy white families owned the means of production, such as factories, energy sources, or land, and the financial institutions that supported the accumulation of wealth; the men were in the workplace, while the women ran the household. A middle class of educated, skilled work- ers emerged, often in managerial professions. Working- class white men now earned a “family wage” at the factory, while women worked without pay in the home. But for families that needed more than one income, women and even chil- dren joined the workforce. Poor women, immigrant women, and women of color increasingly performed domestic labor in white women’s households (Amott and Matthaei 1996). But they also worked at factory jobs that were reserved for
Women Working in a Shoe Factory Many factory jobs that were reserved for women paid meager wages and required working under dangerous conditions.
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work330
the United States is still involved in agriculture and manu- facturing, but these are shrinking parts of our economy. As American companies compete on the global market, they may find it more profitable to move production overseas to exploit cheaper materials and labor in developing countries. Accord- ing to the Department of Labor, the U.S. economy currently consists of ten “supersectors” (or areas in which people work) that fall under two broad categories: goods- producing indus- tries and service- providing industries (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015b). Fully two- thirds of the supersectors deal in knowledge or service work.
Supersectors of the U.S. Economy:
Construction Education and Health Services Financial Activities Information Leisure and Hospitality Manufacturing Natural Resources and Mining Other Services Professional and Business Services Trade, Transportation, and Utilities
Knowledge work is done by anyone who works primar- ily with information or who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace (Drucker 2003; Loo 2017). For such workers, information and knowledge are both the raw material and the product of their labor. Knowledge workers produce with their heads rather than with their hands. They create value in the economy through their ideas, creativity, judgments, analyses, designs, and innovations. Some examples of knowledge work include advertising, engineering, marketing, product devel- opment, research, science, urban planning, and web design. Microsoft, a major software development company, further broadens this category to include anyone who works with the flow of information within businesses.
The service sector, or service industry, has also experi- enced tremendous growth in the postindustrial economy and employs a large number of American workers. Service work is done by anyone who provides a service to businesses or individual clients. Services may entail the distribution or sale of goods from producer to consumer (wholesaling and retail- ing), transformation of goods in the process of delivering them (the restaurant business), or no goods at all (massage therapy, housecleaning). All service work has a focus on serving and interacting with people. Service work can be found in such industries as banking, consulting, education, entertainment, health care, insurance, investment, legal services, leisure, news media, restaurants (including fast food), retail, tourism, and transportation.
Some service work pays well, particularly at the man- agement and executive levels, and in certain fields, such as
and fulfillment in the process of production. But the worker under capitalism cannot feel that kind of satisfaction, and instead work is merely a means of making a living. The worker is alienated from other people, “the alienation of man from man,” as Marx called it. Instead of cooperating, work- ers are forced to compete for scarce jobs and resources, turn- ing other workers into rivals rather than partners. Workers are also alienated from the owners, as they recognize work as “an activity that is under the domination, oppression, and yoke of another man” (Marx 2001, p. 92).
Marx was describing work in the industrial era of the nineteenth century, but his analyses can apply to today’s industrial workers as well. While some firms may allow workers greater autonomy, dignity, and a personal stake in the process and goods they produce, many workers still toil in the same conditions of exploitation, alienation, and class struggle that Marx thought needed to change.
The Information Revolution The Information Revolution is the most recent of the historical and technological changes that have led to new economic and working conditions in the United States and around the world. Also referred to as the Digital Revolution, Digital Age, or Postindustrial Age, it is expected to bring about as dramatic a transformation of society as the revolu- tions that preceded it (Castells 2000). We may not recognize how truly radical this change is, partly because we are at the beginning of a revolution that will continue to evolve over our lifetimes.
The Information Revolution began in the 1970s with the development of the microchip or microprocessor used in com- puters and other electronic devices. The capacity and speed of microprocessors increase according to Moore’s Law (dou- bling every eighteen months to two years). When computers
were coupled with the introduc- tion of the Internet in the early 1990s and became more afford- able, they were soon widely used. Other technologies associated with the Information Revolu- tion include computer network- ing and all types of digital media, satellite and cable broadcasting, and telecommunications. These technologies have become a ubiq- uitous part of everyday life in the twenty- first century.
The Information Revolution brought a profound shift from an economy based on the produc- tion of goods to one based on the production of knowledge and ser- vices (Castells 2000). Of course,
INFORMATION REVOLUTION the recent social revolution made possible by the development of the microchip in the 1970s, which brought about vast improvements in the ability to manage information
KNOWLEDGE WORK work that primarily deals with information; producing value in the economy through ideas, judgments, analyses, designs, or innovations
SERVICE WORK work that involves providing a service to businesses or individual clients, customers, or consumers rather than manufacturing goods
Historical and Economic Changes 331
on television’s most popular dramas and sitcoms. As one of the most powerful sources of socialization in the lives of young people, television may contribute to our attitudes and ideas about the working world. Some jobs are totally absent from the TV landscape, some are shown as merely the butt of jokes, and others are made to seem impossibly hip, glamorous, and exciting. How real is any of it? Do the jobs on TV accurately reflect those jobs in real life? How do TV jobs compare with those of your family, friends, or acquaintances? What kinds of work- related issues do characters on television experience compared to those of real people in those same types of jobs or industries? What are the underlying messages of the depictions of work and workers on TV?
Sociologists who are interested in the media often ask such questions when comparing media content to the real world. This Data Workshop asks you to look at how fictionalized TV dramas and sitcoms portray jobs and the realities of working life. Your instructor might want you to do both of the exercises, or just one of the two. For either exercise you will be using existing sources and doing a content analysis. Refer to Chapter 2 for a refresher on this research method.
Exercise One: Working Conditions and TV Jobs Examine the modern workplace as depicted on a current TV drama or sitcom. You’ll want to take notes as you view one episode of the program, and you may need multiple viewings to collect your data. Look at the way characters perform their jobs in the show. Often workers are shown socializing or engaging in other kinds of personal activ- ities while on the job. How much real work gets done? And when characters are actually working, what aspects of that work are featured during the program? Often we see only the most unusual or glamorous aspects of work while the day- to- day routine or behind- the- scenes aspects rarely appear. Another dimension is how charac- ters relate to their jobs and to their co- workers. Are they happy and fulfilled by the work they do? Do they complain about work, or experience other kinds of troubles with their jobs? How are power and resistance exercised in the workplace? Discuss your findings and assess the extent to which you believe the programs accurately reflect these professions in real life.
Exercise Two: Making a Living on TV Examine the modern worker as depicted on a current TV drama or sitcom. View an episode of your chosen program and do a content analysis. Take written notes and describe in as much detail as possible the character’s work and life- style to answer the following prompts. What kinds of les- sons do we learn about work and money from a TV show? We rarely get much information about how characters
banking, entertainment, and law; but much service sector employment is unstable, part- time or temporary, low paying, and often without such benefits as health care or retirement. Women, persons of color, and the poor are likely to be found in the service sector, thus perpetuating a lower- class status among those holding such positions (Fisher 2015). Finally, unemployment rates for service sector workers remain higher than for knowledge workers (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015a).
During the last recession, all sectors of the contemporary global economy experienced slowdown, but some were hit harder than others. The United States saw some of its high- est unemployment rates since the Great Depression— close to 10 percent overall, with much higher rates in certain regions and industries. States like California and Nevada, previously the sites of seemingly nonstop growth, topped the unemploy- ment numbers along with more traditional “ rust- belt” states like Michigan and Illinois, as well as in the South in places like Georgia and North Carolina (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis- tics 2012b). This was the result of a crash in the real estate and finance sectors, in addition to a drop in the construction and manufacturing trades. The recession also affected groups of workers accustomed to seeing themselves as immune to lay- offs; older workers, the college educated, men, and whites saw higher rates of unemployment compared with other groups (Anderson 2009).
The postindustrial economy presents a very different social reality from the economy in other periods in history. The Information Revolution has changed almost every aspect of our lives and has become a part of many of our social insti- tutions, including the economy and work. And with those changes have come new vulnerabilities, as the recent reces- sion has demonstrated. In the next sections, we look at current world economic systems and the features of work in industrial and postindustrial settings.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
The World of Work and Workers as Seen on TV
FBI agent, judge, nurse, salesperson, news- caster, football coach, city council member, firefighter, private investigator, district attor-
ney, forensics expert, restaurant server, police officer, interior designer, school principal, military officer— these are just some of the jobs of characters you’d find
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work332
Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the laws of free market competition, privatization of the means of produc- tion, and production for profit. In capitalism’s purest form, values for goods and services are derived solely by the market relationship between supply and demand, and the resources necessary for production of goods and services are all pri- vately owned. Owners, or capitalists, must employ workers to make products and perform services to generate a profit. Workers sell their labor to owners for a wage. The difference between the cost of production of a product or service and its price is profit to which the owner is entitled.
Capitalism tends to encourage class stratification. Because owners make profits, they can accumulate wealth. Workers are not in a structural position to get ahead financially. The ideologies of the free market, private property, and profit- seeking motives that define capitalism also shape institutions other than the economy. In capitalist nations, we see increas- ing privatization of such basic human services as water and transportation systems, health care, housing, and education. Thus, hospitals, public schools, prisons, and even government health and welfare agencies are increasingly taken over by private for- profit firms.
Under capitalism, workers must sell their labor to capi- talists for a wage. They are encouraged to be productive and efficient or they will suffer reduced wages, decreased social welfare services such as health insurance and retirement, downsizing, and layoffs. Until recently, under the capitalist system in the United States, disgruntled workers could with- hold their labor by striking. Now, under a transnational capi- talist system, firms experiencing strikes may decide to move their operations overseas to countries where few workers have the right to strike.
A capitalist economy encourages efficiency through tech- nological innovation, expansion of markets, and reduction of production costs. Thus, owners, in their efforts to seek
have gotten their jobs or what kind of training or experi- ence got them to their positions. We also know very little about how hard they work or what they get paid. TV char- acters often seem to live extravagant lifestyles with little relationship between actual salaries and what they can afford to buy. Provide examples from the show and discuss the characters’ standard of living. Could real people work- ing comparable jobs afford the same lifestyle that the tele- vision characters seem to enjoy? Finally, how do television characters influence our own career goals and aspirations?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Complete one or both of the exercises provided and follow the instructions as out- lined. Bring your notes to class and get together with one or two students to discuss. (Your instructor may organize groups according to which exercises were completed.) Compare your findings with those of other members of the group. What conclusions do you share?
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Choose one of the exercises pro- vided (or your instructor may assign a specific exercise) and follow the instructions as outlined. Write a three- to four- page essay analyzing your findings. Make sure to attach your notes to the paper.
World Economic Systems Capitalism, socialism, and communism are political- economic systems found around the world, often in overlap- ping forms. Each system can be conceived of in an idealized form, but in the real world most nations feature a mix of elements drawn from different systems.
Working in Prime Time How do television shows like Brooklyn Nine- Nine (left) and Silicon Valley (right) represent working life?
World Economic Systems 333
politica l elites who enjoy a higher class of living than work- ers, and urban workers of ten benef it from having closer access to resources than rura l workers. Further, reduc- tion of class inequa lities does not g uarantee a reduction in other types of inequa lities, such as racism, sexism, and ageism.
The U.S. Economy To understand the political economy of various nations, think of capitalism and socialism as opposite ends of a continuum with nations placed along its span as being more capital- ist or more socialist. The United States would undoubtedly lie closer to the capitalist side than Sweden would, but even U.S. capitalism is not a pure form.
While the United States is a capitalist nation, it also has socialist elements. Although capitalist businesses are pri- vately owned, many benefit from government subsidies— grants, tax incentives, and special con- tracts. This is often referred to as “corporate welfare.” In pure capi- talism, such support would not exist. Government intervenes in the economy in other ways as well. Agencies such as the Fed- eral Reserve Board often manip- ulate interest rates to stimulate the economy and control infla- tion. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (also referred to as the “bailout bill”) funneled more than $700 billion in government funds into banks, insurance companies, and other struggling private corporations in order to prop up the U.S. economy. Such government inter- ventions constitute forms of socialism.
If the United States were purely capitalist, such institu- tions as education and health care would all be privately owned. However, most schools and many universities are publicly owned and operated. Even private universities get government monies, usually in the form of grants and fed- eral financial aid. Health care is a trickier example, as much change is taking place in this arena. Medicare and Medicaid are long- standing federal programs that provide subsidized health care for the elderly and the poor. The Affordable Care Act of 2010, which rolled out in 2013–2014, ushered in more federally mandated and subsidized health care coverage for millions of Americans; the future of the ACA, however, is uncertain in the Trump era, as Republicans attempt to fulfill their campaign promise to “repeal and replace” Obama’s leg- islation). But many individuals and their employers still buy
efficiency, often seek to replace workers with new technolo- gies, reduce social welfare spending, and cut labor costs. Therefore, workers are responsible for maintaining their own competitiveness. They must seek an education and/or skills to compete for jobs and maintain their competency over their working lifetimes. However, firms must also increase their competitiveness. They may move production operations to overseas sites where they can take advantage of deregulated environments and cheap labor costs.
Socialism Socialism is an economic system based on collective own- ership of the means of production, collective distribution of goods and services, and government regulation of the econ- omy. Under socialism, there are no private for- profit trans- actions. In its purest form, socialism seeks to meet the basic needs of all citizens rather than encouraging profits for some individuals over others.
In a socialist system, the government rather than individu- als owns— or at least regulates the ownership of— all busi- nesses, farms, and factories, and profits are redistributed to the collective citizenry. This system encourages a collectiv- ist work ethic with individuals theoretically working for the common good of all citizens. Citizens have access to such resources as health care, food, housing, and other social ser- vices to meet their basic needs. Unlike with capitalism, these services are an entitlement of all people, not just those who can afford them.
In socialism, a central and usually highly bureaucratic government regulates all aspects of the economy— ownership of resources and means of production, regulation of lending policies, interest rates, and currency values— as well as set- ting labor policies regarding such issues as parental leave, retirement, and the right to strike. Such intense regulation of the economy should reduce class inequalities and extreme poverty. In communism, the most extreme form of social- ism, the government owns everything and all citizens work for the government and are considered equal, with no class distinctions. Socialism and communism, like capitalism, are theoretical or ideal types. Thus, no nations are purely social- ist or communist. Even communist countries like Cuba or China are increasingly incorporating capitalist ideologies into their regimes.
Under socia lism, workers are not at risk of extreme pov- erty and class division as they might be within a capita list society. They are not as vulnerable as capita list workers to being replaced by new technologica l innovations or the transnationa l movement of capita l. However, they a lso do not enjoy the same consumption patterns that capita l- ist economies encourage. Socia lism cannot provide capi- ta lism’s middle- class luxuries. Though class division is reduced, it is still present. Many socia list nations have
CAPITALISM an economic system based on the laws of free market competition, privatization of the means of production, and production for profit
SOCIALISM an economic system based on the collective ownership of the means of production, collective distribution of goods and services, and government regulation
COMMUNISM a system of government that eliminates private property; it is the most extreme form of socialism, because all citizens work for the government and there are no class distinctions
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work334
Someone mentions an internship, and you think . . . what? Bored college students making coffee for the boss? Belea- guered production assistants on a film set? Monica Lewinsky in the White House? Whatever your impression, the fact is internships are an increasingly important part of the college experience. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2016), more than 56 percent of the class of 2016 interned during their undergraduate careers. At worst, the hapless intern may get really good at adding toner to the copier and not much else or, conversely, the employer may engage in exploitative practices in which student interns are overworked and quite often unpaid. At best, however, an internship can benefit both the intern and the company and may be useful in the long run for everyone involved.
Depending on where you’re enrolled, you may be able to arrange an internship through your college or university and receive academic credit, or you may have to set up a nonacademic internship that leaves out the school a lto- gether. Organizations of a ll kinds— corporate, public, non- profit, and others— look for college students to fill some of their employment needs. Of course, there’s a lways the pos- sibility that the work you’re assigned as an intern will be mind- numbing or pointless, or that you’ll have to work long hours, and oftentimes forgo a paycheck! About 56 percent of the internships reported by the class of 2016 were paid and 44 percent unpaid (Nationa l Association of Colleges and Employers 2016b). There is a difference, however, in who gets what kinds of positions. Typica lly men and stu- dents from higher- income backgrounds are more likely to obtain paid internships than are women and lower- income students (Gardner 2011).
Many might ask, why bother with an internship? For starters, an internship may help you decide what you want to be— or don’t want to be— when you graduate. After intern- ing in a state’s attorney’s office, you may decide that being a lawyer isn’t everything you thought it would be and you’d like to work with crime victims in a social service capacity instead. Even if you are sure about your future career path, you may want to consider branching out in the internships you apply for. You’ll gain diverse skills and experience and be exposed to careers you might like just as much. Most Ameri- cans don’t remain in the same job for their entire working lives, so keeping your options open during college isn’t such a bad idea. Even if you decide you’d prefer not to work for that corporation or in that field, the contacts you develop
ON THE JOB Internships: Free Menial Labor or a Leg Up?
may help you find another position. These are people who are already established in the profession, and a good refer- ence is always valuable when you’re in the job market.
An internship on your résumé is also likely to make you a more attractive job candidate. Many organizations turn first to their own interns when hiring. The entire internship can, in some respects, be viewed as an extended job interview. Even if your experience doesn’t deal directly with the job you’re applying for, having completed an internship demon- strates to potential employers your ability to work hard and manage your time. Here, too, the benefits of a paid internship go beyond just receiving a paycheck. According to the results of a survey on the graduating class of 2015 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2016a), students who worked in paid internships were more likely to receive full-time job offers than students who completed unpaid internships. More than 70 percent of students who had a paid internship at a private for-profit company were offered jobs, compared to just 44 percent of students who had unpaid internships. Students who worked in paid internships were also offered a higher median starting salary than their peers with unpaid internships.
Internships work out well for employers, too— some say too well. At the very least, they’re getting cheap (and often free) labor. Critics have raised questions about the value of unpaid internships, further intensifying debates regard- ing the exploitation of student workers (Perlin 2011, 2012). Recently, unpaid internships made headline news after unpaid interns sued several high- profile companies, includ- ing NBC Universal, Fox Searchlight, Sony, and Condé Nast. The lawsuits claimed that the companies violated the two requirements for unpaid workers, as set by the U.S. Depart- ment of Labor: Interns must be assigned different work than paid employees and must receive training in an educational environment.
Enlightened organizations are mindful of the many other benefits they reap when employing interns, paid and unpaid. They are often rewarded with a highly educated or highly trained workforce. Taking on young workers can also help a company stay connected to younger and more diverse popu- lations and may provide them with some new perspectives and ideas. Organizations also realize that providing intern- ships can create goodwill— from the students who intern with them, from the universities through which the intern- ships are organized, and even from the general public.
The Nature of Work 335
health insurance from for- profit insurers, and hospitals are often run for profit as well.
The government also spends millions of dollars annu- ally for other general assistance or public aid programs for low- income families, including the Supplemental Nutri- tion Assistance Program (or SNAP— previously known as food stamps) and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), often referred to as “entitlements.” Thus, public ser- vices are available to meet some of the basic needs of the poor, elderly, and disabled; current and former armed forces person- nel; and expectant mothers, infants, and children. Our Social Security system, though partially funded through payroll taxes, is a public system providing retirement, survivorship, and disability benefits to eligible Americans. And even the wealthiest among us get public subsidies in the form of tax deductions— for home ownership, investments, inheritances, and for sheltering monies in corporations. Debates continue about whether these services satisfactorily meet the needs of low- income Americans and whether it’s the government’s responsibility to provide them. Conservative politicians who periodically accuse their rivals of “socialist” tendencies may need to be reminded that things they enjoy every day— like streetlights and highway maintenance, police protection and firefighters, libraries and public schools— are all part of a system of centrally funded and regulated services they likely would not want to do without.
In theory, capitalism and socialism are opposites. In real- ity, there is no pure form of either capitalism or socialism; rather, nations typically have some features of both economic systems. Each system represents a different political ideol- ogy and economic reality for the people and workers in its economy. Economic systems evolve and change over time, and with them, the institution of work.
The Nature of Work Historical and technological changes leading to the Agricul- tural, Industrial, and Information revolutions fundamentally changed societies across several centuries. Societies have also adopted economic systems— capitalist, socialist, or a combination of both— that influence the types of work avail- able, as well as our patterns of working.
Agricultural Work As humans shifted from hunting- and- gathering communi- ties, the ways in which we provisioned for ourselves began to change into what we now ca ll agricultura l work. Because there are no written works from this time period, the theo- ries for this change are still debated. Agricultura l work involves farming in sma ll groups, families, or communities to grow the food and materia ls necessary for sustenance. During this period of labor, agricultura l work meant that instead of buying flour at a store, you would sow, maintain,
The New Look of Agricultural Work A tomato breeder at Monsanto, a large agribusiness corporation, surveys his plants.
grow, and harvest wheat, and mill your own flour to then cook with in your home. This was in addition to weaving fabrics and caring for livestock. Anthropologists have con- tended that this shift from hunting and gathering to agri- cultura l work increased the amount of labor individua ls had to perform daily, which led to divisions of labor as well as to, eventua lly, slave labor in order to maintain larger and larger farms.
While agricultural work continues to be a large part of the U.S. and global labor market today, it looks significantly different as a result of industrial and postindustrial changes. For example, farmers now utilize technologies such as crop rotation, irrigation, mass production, and transportation. These elements are part of what is termed the “agribusiness” system, a marriage of agriculture and business, which refers to an integrated and interdependent system that includes the actual labor of farming as well as developing and sell- ing farm equipment, food processing, marketing, and sales. Agricultural work, which was once a family or small com- munity endeavor, is becoming less and less common as large agribusiness corporations such as Dow, DuPont, and Monsanto are able to push smaller farms out of the market. Agricultural work is also becoming increasingly stratified, with numerous hierarchical positions ranging from contract fieldworkers to farm executives (Holmes 2011). Overall, less than 2 percent of U.S. workers are employed in agriculture (World Bank 2017a).
Industrial Work The spread of industrialism in the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries created “work” in the modern sense. Before the Industrial Revolution, most of the population engaged in agriculture, and the production of goods was organized around the household or small craft shops. In the industrial
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work336
Postindustrial Work Social theorists of the Industrial Age, like Karl Marx and his contemporaries, were unable to predict how technological innovation would transform work and the economy in the twentieth century and beyond. They could not foresee the transition to a postindustrial, service- oriented economy. Nor could they foresee the advent of easily available consumer credit, which has meant that workers can buy things they can’t currently afford, materially improving their everyday lives without the hassle of starting a class revolution (even if it means they may never pay off their debts).
Service and knowledge workers make up the majority of the workforce in a postindustrial economy, but these workers have very different experiences on the job.
SERVICE WORK Service work, as the dominant form of employment in the postindustrial economy, often involves direct contact with clients, customers, patients, or students by those rendering the service, whether they are waiters, cashiers, nurses, doctors, teachers, or receptionists. In ser- vice work, situations arise when the worker’s concerns, standards, and expectations conflict with those of clients. For example, an emergency for a client may be routine for a worker, as when your TV cable service goes out during a Green Bay Packers game and the customer service represen- tative just keeps telling you they’re working on it! As another example, you have a toothache, but the dentist doesn’t have an open appointment until tomorrow. It’s not the dentist who has to give you the bad news but the receptionist who must try to convince you to wait until then.
At the same time, service workers are subject to the scru- tiny and critique of a manager or supervisor, so in addition to the potential clash between workers and clients, there are also issues of autonomy and control over their work. This can create distinctive tensions in service work interactions, and power relationships both subtle and more obvious are clearly present in this type of work.
One case study provides a classic— and highly personal— analysis of service work. Barbara Ehrenreich explored some of the issues of power and work in her book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2001). As research for the book, Ehrenreich took minimum- wage service jobs in three different cities— as a waitress in Florida, a hotel maid in Maine, and a Walmart employee in Minnesota— and experienced the difficulties of trying to make ends meet and maintain her self- respect in low- wage service positions.
Ehrenreich found that service workers in these types of jobs are likely to be exploited in a number of ways. First, the low wages, lack of benefits, and grueling hours make it difficult to pay even the most basic bills. She discovered this herself when she couldn’t scrape up enough money for a deposit on an apart- ment and ended up living in a sleazy hotel and getting her din- ner from the local charity’s food pantry. Her co- workers lived
world, progress meant making machines that could produce more goods, more efficiently. Industrialization ushered in dramatic changes in how people worked and lived. Workers had to leave their homes to work in the factories that housed the new industrial machinery, and this meant that house- holds were no longer the main centers of economic activity.
The industrial economy revolved around the mass pro- duction of goods, aided by use of the assembly line in the manufacturing process, in which parts were added to a product in sequential order. The moving assembly line is attributed to Henry Ford, who in 1913 used it to manufac- ture automobiles in Detroit, Michigan. With assembly- line production, the process of manufacturing became not only more mechanized but also more routine driven. In contrast to the artisan mode, in which one worker or a team of work- ers would produce an item in its entirety from start to finish, on an assembly line each worker would do one or two spe- cific tasks over and over again. Many workers disliked the assembly line because they never had the satisfaction of see- ing the finished product, and they were also frustrated with the unsafe, exhausting working conditions.
Because factories were usually located in cities, industri- alization went hand- in- hand with urbanization: As industri- alization spread, workers moved from rural to urban areas. Cities offered very different kinds of lodging— tenement apart- ments in crowded ghettos with no land or greenspace. And home and work were separated in a way they had not been for those in agricultural societies: Wage labor took place in fac- tories, and then wages were used to buy goods (like food and clothing) that had previously been produced at home. Workers became less self- sufficient and more dependent on others to produce and sell to them the necessities of everyday life.
The industrial economy helped create robust growth in the United States for many decades (with periodic downturns such as the Great Depression in the 1930s and the more recent reces- sions of the 1980s and 2000s). Plentiful manufacturing and industrial jobs meant that high school graduates could enter the job market making a good wage. They could buy houses and raise families with their manufacturing paychecks and become solid members of the middle class. But as the econ- omy began to transform once more, from an industrial to a postindustrial system, the nature of work changed as well. Manufacturing began to become more automated (using robots instead of people), and jobs moved “offshore” to coun- tries where labor was cheaper. Industrial jobs in the United States plummeted from 18 million in 1990 to 12.5 million in 2017 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017a; Wilson 2014). Even in the states with the highest proportion of manufac- turing jobs (Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa), the percentages range from only 13 percent to 17 percent (Cen- ter for Manufacturing Research 2016). Most jobs, even in the most industry- heavy states, are not industrial jobs anymore, and workers are now subject to lower wages, higher credential- ing requirements, and less access to middle- class amenities.
The Nature of Work 337
Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich found that many service workers barely scrape by working long hours for minimum wage and no benefits. Because many service workers live paycheck to paycheck, they often have trouble asserting their rights or taking time off for illnesses because of fear of losing their jobs.
in flophouses, in their cars, or in small apartments crowded with family, friends, and strangers, and one ate nothing but a small bag of Doritos every day for lunch. They were fired for asserting their rights or for getting ill or injured, and they developed chronic health problems because of the stress and poor conditions under which they labored. And yet, they couldn’t stop— they were all reliant on the next paycheck to get by (or not get by, as Ehrenreich argues), and so they had to endure abuse, exploitation, and all sorts of risks for the tenu- ous security of serving, scrubbing, and selling.
You encounter these people every day— when you eat at a restaurant, shop at a “big box” retailer, or stay at a hotel— and you may even be one such person yourself. Ehrenreich argues that there’s no way to “make it” under these circumstances, and her experiences illustrate this argument with chilling clarity.
Inequalities of power in service work have many sources— gender, race, age, and immigration status— and those with greater power (clients, managers) may take advantage without even realizing it. Ehrenreich reminds us that even in “respect- able” forms of service work, exploitation is common. What about jobs that are illegal— such as prostitution or the work of undocumented farm laborers? These workers lack the legal protections that even Walmart employees or chain restaurant waitstaff have access to, and they may be subject to prosecu- tion and punishment merely for doing their jobs.
KNOWLEDGE WORK In the twenty- first century, knowledge or information work is increasingly common while manual labor is increasingly rare (Adelstein 2011). The massive changes wrought by information technologies—
sometimes referred to as the “new economy”—have trans- formed the nature of work again in ways that are not yet fully understood (Loo 2017). While many of these technologies purport to increase productivity and save time, the aver- age worker is now working more hours in a week than her predecessor in the pre– Information Age workplace.
The majority of the workforce in the United States now holds jobs that involve working with information, and most new jobs being created are primarily within this sector. Many knowledge workers are employed in traditional fields as teachers, accountants, lawyers, or scientists, but knowledge work also includes people who work in newer areas such as wireless communications, net- work systems analysis, computer programming, software devel- opment, account management, information security, and data- base administration.
Another important feature of the Information Age workplace is greatly diminished impor- tance of place. This phenomenon has been called the “death of distance” (Caincross 1995). Work that can be done on a com- puter can be done from any location, as Internet technologies make a worker’s location almost irrelevant to his or her abil- ity to get the work done and to work with others (Fried and Hansson 2013).
A look at telecommuting reveals more about the nature of knowledge work. More and more workers are doing telework or telecommuting. They stay at home rather than com- mute to the office, and they are connected to their workplace through communications technology. According to Gallup,
TELECOMMUTING working from home while staying connected to the office through communications technology
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work338
the potential to yield happier and more productive employees (O’Leary 2013).
As technology develops, debates remain about the posi- tive and negative aspects of physically and geographically separating workers from one another. Some suggest that new technologies will actually increase the need for face- to- face contact and tightly knit workplaces. For example, workers who write code for computer software can do so anywhere they have a computer and instantly send the results to those who will package and market the software, but software companies are still the most geographically concentrated of any industry. Internet giant Google, one of the world’s larg- est publicly traded companies, refers to its home office in Mountain View, California, as “the Googleplex” and has gone to great lengths to make it an appealing place for employees to work. The campuslike atmosphere has beautiful grounds, interesting art and architecture, delicious meals served in friendly surroundings, and volleyball nets for impromptu games. They do this precisely because the company still wants its workers together at the same location in order to foster greater creativity and group cohesion. Google is just one of many tech firms that make up California’s “Silicon Valley”; Apple, Intel, Facebook, HP, Oracle, PayPal, eBay, Netflix, Adobe, Yahoo, Twitter, Fitbit, Pandora, Shutterfly, Yelp, and Square are also based there. In the Information Age, more and more work requires the creative manipula- tion of knowledge, and for this workers need to brainstorm and share ideas in more interactive ways than technology currently allows. The tech industry suggests that even when work can be done anywhere, there will still be a real need to bring people together, at least some of the time.
The rise of new technologies may roll back many of the original effects of the Industrial Revolution. Manufacturing
fully 43 percent of workers spend at least some of their time working remotely, meaning in a location different from their co- workers, including 57 percent of workers in computer and information systems and 48 percent of those working in the arts, design, entertainment, and the media (Gallup 2017b).
Supporters claim that telecommuting has many benefits for the worker, the business, and society at large. Employees get flexible work schedules. Traffic delays, parking problems, and time wasted commuting don’t exist for the telecom- muter. Businesses get increased productivity and fewer sick days when they allow employees to telecommute. Although many employers worry that allowing employees to work from home would reduce accountability, some believe that the opposite is true. In traditional office environments, the only measure of employee value is the number of hours pres- ent in the office, regardless of what gets done, whereas tele- commuters must demonstrate their accomplishments more concretely. According to studies, telecommuting decreases workplace distractions and boosts worker productivity; telecommuters often work longer hours and are more effi- cient than their in- office peers and co- workers (Wisenberg Brin 2013).
Telecommuting has also made it easier for a wider range of employees to participate in the workforce; this helps many groups, including single parents, seniors, or workers with disabilities, stay employed full- time (Tugend 2014). While telecommuting is on the rise, it has not been universally embraced. In an interesting reversal to this trend, Internet giant Yahoo restricted telecommuting in 2013 and asked many employees to return to the office. Best Buy followed suit, making it seem as if telecommuting was losing favor among big employers. Still, research suggests that telecom- muting will continue to grow. If managed effectively, it has
The Postindustrial Office? To attract the best knowledge workers and motivate them to work long hours, information and technology companies like Google go to great lengths to make the workplace appealing.
Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope 339
made it necessary for many people to work at the same loca- tion, causing the growth of cities and the decline of rural and small- town populations. However, with new technologies that let people work from anywhere, perhaps telecommut- ing will cause cities to shrink again as more people will be able to live without reference to the company that employs them. Small towns are now offering an attractive alterna- tive to outsourcing. High- tech jobs are beginning to relocate to rural areas, where companies are finding it cheaper to do business and more attractive for their employees (Pinto 2005). It’s possible that information technology may one day reunite the worlds of work and home that the Industrial Revolution tore asunder.
Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope Individuals and groups cope with their working conditions in a variety of ways called resistance strategies. These are tactics that let workers take back a degree of control over the conditions of their labor and feel that they have some sense of autonomy even in the face of dehumanizing, alienat- ing constraints imposed by the terms and demands of their employment.
Individual resistance can range from the fairly benign, such as using work time to surf the web, to the truly dangerous, such as sabotaging the assembly line. More often, individual resistance may be simply personalizing the workspace with photos or daydreaming on the job as a type of escape. Collec- tive forms of resistance that seek solutions to shared work- place problems include union organizing and membership, strikes, walkouts, and work stoppages.
This discussion begins with an examination of individual resistance strategies within service work. We bring Max Weber’s theory on bureaucracy into the present to see how workers today are coping with the constraints of those orga- nizations. Last, we look at collective resistance strategies— union organization, both past and present.
Individual Resistance: Handling Bureaucracy Bureaucratic organizations are found in almost every sec- tor of the economy. In Weber’s theory of bureaucracies, he highlighted the rational, impersonal, and coldly efficient nature of this form of social organization (refer to Chapter 5 for a review). Workers in highly bureaucratic organizations often feel the lack of autonomy in their everyday work lives. Autonomy is the ability to direct one’s individual destiny— to have the power to control the conditions of one’s labor— and this is generally lacking for people who work in highly struc- tured, rule- bound, and depersonalized environments. Their daily tasks are structured by external forces; for example, the
pace of the assembly line is decided for them and they cannot slow it down or speed it up if they need to take a break or want to finish work early.
In many corporate settings, employees at all levels are under various types of surveillance: Electronic key cards monitor their comings and goings, cameras record their activ- ities, computer transactions are screened, and phone calls are recorded. In retail sales, workers’ interactions with custom- ers are often scripted, so that even what they say to others is outside their control. Not only is there a lack of autonomy, but there is a lso a lack of individua lity in these workplaces. Workers are treated more like robots than people. Unlike a robot, however, human workers can resist and undermine the bureaucratic constraints that limit their autonomy in the workplace— and they do so in a wide variety of ways.
A fascinating recent example of workers resisting the bureaucratic constraints of their workplaces began occur- ring in the early days of the Trump administration. As the new president took office, he began imposing gag orders on career federal employees in government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. These employees, whose agencies are closely tied to government policies involving resource use and climate change, were ordered to stop talking to the media about issues like scientific research findings, grant- funding opportunities, and environmental policy. The work- ers perceived the new president as being hostile to their agencies’ missions of preserving and pro- tecting natural resources. But as faceless, nameless employees of huge bureaucracies, how could they express serious disagree- ment with their boss, the president of the United States, with- out losing their jobs?
The answer soon became visible to millions on Twit- ter: New “rogue” agency accounts deliberately leaked the information the president wanted to suppress . . . and more. It started when the National Park Service retweeted a New York Times reporter’s feed of side- by- side photos com- paring crowds at Trump’s 2017 inauguration with those at Obama’s 2009 inauguration. This image made President Trump so angry that the Department of the Interior (which includes the National Park Service) deactivated all of its Twitter accounts. Over the next few days and weeks, how- ever, “rogue” accounts began to appear; the accounts were not officially linked to the agencies they represented but were clearly maintained by current employees who knew what was happening inside the agencies and who wanted the public to know, too. Accounts with names like Alt EPA, Alt FDA, Rogue NASA, Alt USDA, Angry National Park, and Alternative NOA A started “leaking ” information about climate change, federal funding cuts, and censorship by the administration. There was even an account for Rogue POTUS Staff, purportedly run by a group of West Wing
RESISTANCE STRATEGIES ways that workers express discontent with their working conditions and try to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work340
improvise on the steps, personalizing them in tiny but still noticeable ways:
Just do the Six Steps, but do it in your own way. It’s not like you have to say “Hi, welcome to McDonald’s.” You can say, “Hi, how are you doing?” or “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” “Good evening,” things like that. (p. 138)
Leidner observed that there were limits within which work- ers could
use the script as a starting point and inject [their] own personality into the interactions. Thus, some window workers joked or chatted with customers and tried to make the exchanges enjoyable for both parties. This stance implied an assertion of equality with customers and a refusal to suppress the self completely. (p. 190)
Leidner proposes that submitting to scripted interactions all day long suppresses the real self and that this sort of tightly controlled work environment can actually be damaging to the individual.
One of the functions of McDonald’s service script is to reg- ulate the power relationship between customer and worker: customers’ demands can be delivered with all types of atti- tude, but workers must always serve customers with a smile. The script constrains workers’ responses. If they have rude or even abusive customers, they must still stick to the script:
You have to take their crap. [Laughs.] I’m not the type of per- son to say, “OK, have it your way.” I mean, I have to admit, I’m tempted to backtalk a lot. That gets me in a lot of trou- ble. So I mean, when a customer’s rude to me I just have to walk away and say, “Could you take this order please, before I say something I’m not supposed to say?” (p. 133)
When engaging in these actions on the job, workers may be inviting a reprimand from their supervisor or worse. But they are also engaging in resistance, asserting their own identi- ties in the face of a depersonalizing routine or an administra- tion whose policies they oppose. They are being active rather than passive, controlling the situation rather than being con- trolled by it. They are asserting their own autonomy on the job, and it is apparently worth the risk.
It is difficult to think of a form of employment that would allow us to avoid bureaucratic constraints altogether. What types of resistance strategies have you used to regain a bit of independence and power in the workplace?
Collective Resistance: Unions Although individual resistance strategies may provide a small measure of autonomy for some workers, they don’t fundamentally change the working conditions or make
employees. Highly politicized, discrediting, and embar- rassing information about the administration flowed from insiders to the public via these anonymous online channels, and there wasn’t much President Trump could do about it.
But you don’t have to be a high- ranking government knowledge worker to find opportunities for on- the- job resis- tance. Robin Leidner’s study Fast Food, Fast Talk (1993) pro- vides an in- depth look at individual resistance strategies in the service sector. The study focused on McDonald’s employ- ees and the routinized nature of their interactions with cus- tomers. Under the golden arches, every contact between the counter staff and the hungry consumer is strictly scripted, seemingly with no room for improvisation or creativity. Or is there?
McDonald’s workers are trained to interact with custom- ers using “The Six Steps”: greeting, taking orders, assembling food, presenting it, receiving payment, and thanking them for their business. As monotonous as these steps are, work- ers don’t necessarily resent routinization— it helps them do their jobs effectively. And some workers, like this woman,
Resistance Strategies Photos from the New York Times, retweeted by the National Park Service, comparing crowds at Obama’s 2009 inauguration (top) and Trump’s in 2017 (bottom) enraged the White House. When the administration deactivated the National Park Service’s Twitter accounts, “rogue” accounts began appearing in their place.
Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope 341
permanent improvements to the terms of employment for all workers. That is why workers sometimes seek more lasting solutions to their problems by organizing to instigate collec- tive resistance strategies. They do so by forming unions.
A union benefits workers in various ways and serves to counterbalance the power of employers. A labor union is an association of workers who come together to improve their economic status and working conditions. The two main types of unions are craft unions, in which all the members are skilled in a certain craft (e.g., the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners), and industrial unions, in which all the members work in the same industry regardless of their particular skill (e.g., the Service Employees International Union). Some unions are local with small memberships; oth- ers are large national organizations representing millions of workers.
Union negotiations with employers about the terms of employment and working conditions are coordinated through collective bargaining, in which contract decisions between management and union representatives must be mutually agreed upon rather than imposed unilater- ally. When disagreements arise between management and employees, unionized workers may threaten to or actu- ally stage a temporary walkout, work stoppage, or strike to express their grievance and force corporate managers and owners to negotiate. Often the striking workers will try to discourage the public from patronizing the businesses impli- cated in the labor dispute and try to prevent other, outside replacement workers (sometimes called “scab labor”) from taking their jobs while they are out on strike.
Unions have a long history in the United States. At vari- ous times, they have existed on the margins of society and been vigorously opposed by capitalists and other free- market supporters. Unions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were brutally suppressed by capitalists, and union organizers were frequently arrested and jailed. Often they
were charged with conspiracy because attempts to form unions were illegal for much of U.S. his- tory. The Typographical Union (representing print typesetters), which formed in 1852, is usu- ally considered the “first durable national organization of workers” in the United States. By 1881, a number of smaller labor groups banded together to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL), eventually becoming the AFL- CIO (by adding the groups in the Con- gress of Industrial Organizations), still recognized as a pow- erful union today.
Unions of this era fought for a variety of workplace reforms. During the 1912 textile mill strikes in Lawrence, Massachu- setts, the workers’ slogan was “bread and roses,” emphasiz- ing their desire for something more than wages sufficient to survive. Unions also led campaigns to end child labor, to establish an eight- hour workday and a five- day workweek, and to increase workplace safety. For this reason, unions are still sometimes referred to as “the people who brought you the weekend.” We now take for granted much of what the early unions won to improve the lives of American workers. It is not surprising that many were willing to fight for unionization even in the face of extreme opposition.
In 2016, approximately 14.6 million American work- ers belonged to a union. However, union membership has been in steep decline since its peak in the 1950s. In 1955, approximately 35 percent of the labor force was unionized; by 2016, only 10.7 percent of the workforce belonged to a union (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017n). With a shift in the U.S. economy from manufacturing to the service sector, the only unions to grow since the early 1970s have been public sector employees’ unions. Compared to private sector work- ers, public sector workers are five times more likely to be a part of a union.
Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912 During the textile mill strike, workers demanded “bread and roses,” eloquently capturing their desire for something more than just the wages needed to survive.
UNION an association of workers who bargain collectively for increased wages and benefits and better working conditions
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work342
If the model employee is someone who is supposed to be sin-gularly focused on his or her job, it might seem like a contra- diction to say that taking breaks or socializing with others at work is actually a sign of a healthy work environment. Accord- ing to recent research, however, coffee breaks should not be considered a waste of time or productivity; instead, they have important social as well as financial value for organizations (Stroeback 2013). Other studies have confirmed that the social bonds that are formed when sharing coffee breaks help create a positive group climate, which, in turn, has the poten- tial to increase productivity within the organization (Waber et al. 2010). The proverbial coffee break is a subject that soci- ologists take very seriously.
Let’s face it, work can be stressful. Whether you work in an office, in retail, or on a factory floor, the workplace is fraught with difficulties and demands. Coffee breaks are an important social practice within workplace culture, as they provide a cru- cial coping mechanism for workers. The kind of casual, infor- mal encounters that take place during breaks in the workday are essential in promoting the professional and personal well- being of employees. This is especially true of difficult or stress- ful jobs. One study found that job stress was relieved by forming “communities of coping” during coffee breaks with co- workers.
Collegial relations are created during coffee breaks because “when having a coffee break, employees talk about themselves, their lives, and each other with symbols and stories not necessarily related to work relationships or
organizational membership” (Stroeback 2013, p. 383). These communities provide a space for social interaction with fel- low employees, allowing them to share both professional opinions and personal frustrations with their work. Co- workers thus nurture a shared sense of investment in their jobs and in one another as a community.
This is not the first time that a sociologist has essen- tially endorsed goofing off with your co- workers. Play can be understood as resistance or opposition to work, but it is also an integral part of making work more enjoyable and, in the long run, more productive. Paradoxically, we find that play emerges in even the most harsh and strenuous work envi- ronments, demonstrated by Donald Roy in his classic study of “banana time,” a short break in the day where workers use play to subvert the monotony of factory work (Roy 1959). If work is seen as unpleasant and painful, then workers must find ways to make it more tolerable. Roy, quoting social theo- rist Henri de Man, relates that even in a factory system, it was “psychologically impossible to deprive any kind of work of all its positive emotional elements . . . the instinct for play and the creative impulse” (Roy 1959, p. 160).
Play, then, helps workers reclaim and assert their identity when the workplace seems otherwise devoid of positive mean- ing. Informal interactions with co- workers while on the job are not just distractions from the workload at hand. Instead, these shared breaks turn out to be crucial to job satisfaction. And that’s good for the employee and the company alike.
IN RELATIONSHIPS The Value of Break Time
Banana Time Studies show that the “communities of coping” that workers form during coffee breaks reduce stress and promote a positive group climate.
The Conscience of Corporate America 343
be devastating and deadly consequences when corporations privilege profit making above any costs or damage done to individuals, society, or the planet.
The financial crisis that hit the country in 2007–2008 was precipitated in part by financial scandals involving major Wall Street players such as Lehman Brothers, JPMor- gan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. After a slew of financial deceptions, securities fraud, bankruptcies, bank failures, bailouts, and mortgage foreclosures, the U.S. econ- omy suffered a deep and lengthy recession whose effects have continued to be far- reaching. Despite the economic toll on the country and criminal actions on the part of some cor- porate officers, many of those top executives escaped legal prosecution or paying for the enormous losses they caused. As news about corporate wrongdoing of all kinds continues to surface, it is leading to more widespread criticism and mistrust of corporate motives and practices.
Of course, not all corporations are evil (or at least not always evil) and in recent years a growing number of orga- nizations have taken it upon themselves to become good corporate citizens. In an effort to bolster their reputations, and perhaps avoid outside intervention, corporations are adopting new forms of self- regulation and taking proactive measures to integrate social and ethical concerns into their business models. Corporate social responsibility, or CSR (also called corporate conscience or citizenship), is a rela- tively new movement but one that is spreading. At best, this shift is leading more corporations to take steps toward mak- ing a more positive impact on society and the world. Corpora- tions engage in good citizenship in a number of ways; some are focused on environmental issues or workers’ rights, oth- ers on a range of social programs and philanthropic giving. A recent example is illustrative.
In March 2015 then Indiana Governor (now Vice Presi- dent) Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restora- tion Act. The Indiana law differed from most legislation covering religious freedoms in two ways. First, it applied to the religious feelings of businesses and corporations, rather than simply protecting individua ls. Second it applied “regardless of whether the state or any other gov- ernmenta l entity is a party to the proceeding.” In other words, most lega l ana lysts agreed that it would a llow busi- nesses to deny ser vice to gays and lesbians (or a lmost any other group). Not surprisingly, the law was met with swif t rebuke from many constituencies.
Facing widespread protests, Indiana quickly revised the law so that it could not be used as a defense for discrimina- tion on the basis of sexua l orientation or gender identity. Ever yone from actor George Ta kei to the a lternative rock band Wilco got involved in these protests, but a great dea l of the credit for the decisive change has to go to corporate A merica. Sa lesforce.com declared a boycott on the state and announced it would cancel any business trips that would require employees to travel to Indiana. Tim Cook,
At the same time that unions were growing in strength and numbers, challenges came from industry and govern- ment. Beginning with the Taft- Hartley Act of 1947, laws have been established that limit the power of unions and the activities of members. Some twenty- four states have passed “ right- to- work” laws that prohibit workplaces from making union membership a requirement of all employees. As long as the economy was growing rapidly, and wages and ben- efits continued to rise, the perceived need for unions waned. However, when the economy faltered in the 1970s, American corporations found it was cheaper to move production over- seas to countries whose working conditions were practically unregulated. Industries that leave the United States, referred to as “runaway shops,” have been especially prevalent in manufacturing, where firms take advantage of cheap labor and lax environmental laws in other countries. More recently, an increasing number of service sector jobs have been moved overseas. As a result, many unions have largely changed focus from fighting for better wages and working conditions to keeping jobs in this country.
The number of labor actions has also been on the decline. In the 1950s, an average of 352 major strikes occurred each year; by 2016, that number had fallen to just fifteen (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017k). Many strategies have been used by major U.S. corporations to successfully block union efforts across a variety of work disputes. Although strikes may occur less often now than in the past, there are still cases (such as the 2012 and 2015 West Coast dockwork- ers’ strikes) to show their effectiveness in winning battles between unions and employers.
The Conscience of Corporate America From a Weberian perspective, we can see that large bureau- cracies laden with rules and procedures can deprive employ- ees of a sense of autonomy, individuality, and control. From a Marxist perspective, we can see how large capitalist corpo- rations sometimes exploit their workers and cause alienation and that their power hierarchies often exclude women and minorities. These criticisms are true in the aggregate. Money, power, and influence converge in corporate America, and with these forms of power come opportunities for greed, exploita- tion, and abuse. But not all corporations are bad actors, and sometimes we see major corporate players transcend self- interest and act with great altruism.
Unfortunately, negative stories about corporate Amer- ica are not scarce, whether it concerns oil and energy firms, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance providers, or the world of high finance. Cases of corporate malfeasance continue to occur as they have throughout the history of capi- talism. Some involve illegal activities, while others are char- acterized by unethical, if not criminal, behaviors. There can
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work344
globa l warming. But hundreds of U.S. businesses disagreed and responded to Trump’s withdrawa l with their own state- ment announcing that they will continue to support actions to meet the Paris Agreement goa ls. Titled “ We Are Still In,” the letter was signed by heads of Google, Apple, Microsoft, eBay, IBM, Target, IKEA, Timberland, North Face, Star- bucks, Gap, Levi Strauss, and even the 800-pound gorilla of globa l retailing, Wa lmart. Their commitment to upholding the Paris Agreement— no matter what policies a president may adopt— is a way of recognizing that business can be good for the planet. W hether it ’s based on a ltruism or just good for business, big corporations are suddenly part of the nationa l conversation about climate change and socia l justice in a way they never have been before. Nowadays it seems like good citizenship and good business can go hand in hand.
the openly gay CEO of Apple, wrote a widely distributed op- ed piece for the Washington Post criticizing the law both because “discrimination, in a ll its forms, is bad for busi- ness” and because it existed only to “rationa lize injustice” (Cook 2015). By the time the law was amended, the list of corporations that had publicly come out against it included PayPa l, Gap, Nike, A ngie’s List, A nthem, Wa lmart, and Levi Strauss.
An even more recent example of good corporate citizen- ship is the role of various companies in upholding the Paris climate accord. In June 2017, President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the world’s most important treaty to combat climate change (only two other countries, Syria and Nicaragua, are not part of the accord). His justification was that it was bad for businesses to be forced to adhere to regulations designed to reduce
Many people are familiar with the concept of sweatshops, where cheap labor is exploited to make clothing and goods for people in industrialized nations. While people easily understand how labor can be exploited for the production of material goods, a more difficult concept to grasp is how labor can be exploited in the market for virtual goods. Rather than working long hours under inhumane conditions for little pay in order to produce luxury items such as Nikes and Ray- Bans, “gold farmers” are exploited in order to create the ultimate luxury product— status in an online computer game.
Some of the most popular forms of video games are mas- sively multiplayer online role- playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft (WoW), Ultima Online, and Ever- quest. WoW is the most popular of these games, with approxi- mately 10 million subscribers, or about 35 percent of the market; it earned over $1 billion in revenues in 2013 (Tassi 2014). As with many MMORPGs, players make an initial investment to purchase the software for the game, and they are also charged a monthly subscription fee in order to play. In WoW, players use a character avatar through which they explore the virtual world, complete quests, and interact with other players or nonplayer characters (NPCs). Quests are assignments given by an NPC that usually involve killing a monster, gathering resources, or finding a difficult- to- locate object. Successful quests are rewarded with in- game money and experience points that a character can use to buy new skills and equipment. Because of the interactive nature of WoW, advancing in the game isn’t just a matter of personal
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE World of Warcraft and “Gold Farming” in China
achievement but also a matter of reputation and status in the community.
“Gold farms” profit from the importance of advancement in an MMORPG. According to estimates, around 100,000 people in China are employed as gold farmers, making $120 to $250 (U.S.) per month playing WoW for twelve- to eighteen- hour shifts (Vincent 2011). These Chinese gold farmers carry out in- game actions so that they can earn virtual money to buy equipment, skills, and status. These virtual assets are sold to real (recreational) players for real- world money, cre- ating a unique intersection of virtual and real- world econo- mies. Literally, a player can spend real- world money to buy status and reputation in an online game. Since many of the beginning levels of WoW involve spending long hours doing repetitive and dull virtual tasks, the idea of being able to bypass this tedium to start at more advanced levels appeals to many players. Creating characters requires time and effort that players who use the services of gold farmers are unable or unwilling to devote to the game.
Many of the criticisms of manufacturing sweatshops can be applied to the gold- farming phenomenon. Gold farmers labor for the benefit of middle- class gamers in industria lized nations. Ge Jin (2006), a PhD student at the University of Ca lifornia, San Diego, has documented working conditions in gold- farming “sweatshops,” where he filmed workers crowded into an airport hangar, bleary eyed, chain smoking, and sleeping two to a single mat on the floor. Are bad jobs better than no jobs? Though most people
The Economics of Globalization 345
The Economics of Globalization Globalization describes the cultural and economic changes that have occurred as a result of dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries. Although there has always been some global economic trade— East Asia’s ancient spice and silk trade routes and the sixteenth- century English and Dutch shipping empires are early examples— the effects of globalization have become more highly visible since the 1970s. Globalization has been fostered through the devel- opment of international economic institutions; innovations in technology; the movement of money, information, and people; and infrastructure that supports such expansion.
in developed nations would view $3 a day as extremely low pay, in impoverished communities “$1 or $2 a day can be a life- transforming wage” (Kristof and WuDunn 2000). While there are those who argue that playing a computer game ta kes less of a physica l toll than subsistence farm- ing or factory work, it is evident that there is an imba lance between the amount of money that workers are paid to pro- duce these virtua l resources and the prices that gamers pay to buy them. The sum of $200 can buy 500 pieces of online
gold in WoW, which would take an estimated 100 hours of playing to earn.
The gaming world is up in arms about the gold- farming phenomenon. While some gamers find that the opportunity to buy gold augments their playing experience, other gam- ers hold that buying from gold farmers confers an unfair advantage to those with expendable income. Purists argue that MMORPGs should be free of the corruption of the real world and that escapism is not possible with people buying status and reputation. Players who use the services of gold farmers affect the virtual economy by driving up the prices of the rarest items. Traditional players then become resent- ful, as these price increases require them to work longer for items that players with real- world cash can purchase with little effort.
Strategies for retaliation against players identified as gold farmers include verbal harassment inside the game. Rather than taking out their frustrations on the gold farm brokers who benefit from the process, some players will fol- low suspected gold farmers within the game and bombard them with racist comments. Gold farming then becomes a matter not just of class and economics but also of race and racism.
Are gold farms good or bad? Should the virtual world be free of the corruption of the real world? Are gamers just too invested in their games? These are all questions to ask when pondering the intersections of the virtual world and real world that collide in the gold- farming sweatshops.
Chinese Gold Farmers How has the popularity of online games such as World of Warcraft led to the rise of new types of sweatshops?
GLOBALIZATION the cultural and economic changes resulting from dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries
Today, it is possible to view the world as having one global econ- omy, with huge corporations whose production processes span national borders, interna- tional regulatory bodies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), financial bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and transnational trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) redefining economic relationships between and among nations.
Supporters of globalization believe that “free trade” can lead to more efficient allocation of resources, lower prices, more employment, and higher output, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. Critics believe that free
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work346
Transnational Corporations Transnational corporations (TNCs) are another part of the global economy. These firms purposefully transcend national borders so that their products can be manufactured, distrib- uted, marketed, and sold from many bases all over the world. We may think of companies like Coca- Cola or General Elec- tric as quintessentially American, but they are more accu- rately understood as global or transnational corporations. What is distinctive about today’s TNCs is the way they shape the global economy. In the past fifty years, they have experi- enced unprecedented growth in both numbers of firms and amount of economic impact.
The United Nations’ list of the world’s top 100 nonfinancial TNCs assigns firms a “transnationality index” by assessing the ratios between foreign employment and total employ- ment, foreign investments and total investments, and foreign sales and total sales (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2017). Among the top twenty- five “trans- national” firms are four U.S. companies: Chevron (7), General Electric (8), Exxon Mobil (9), and Apple (14). The petroleum industry is the most transnational, followed by electronics and pharmaceuticals. All of these firms make products that are marketed strongly as “American” brands, yet they are clearly global organizations.
TNCs exert tremendous influence in the global economy. They can be found among the top global economies, ranked by either gross domestic product (GDP) or total sales. In 2016, Walmart was actually the twenty-third-largest economy according to its earnings. Toyota ranked higher than both Chile and France (see Table 11.1). As corporations grow, new TNCs have been added to the list. When we consider that firms have the economic weight of nations, we can understand just how much political clout TNCs wield in terms of global governance. For instance, an American TNC can exercise
trade promotes a self- interested corporate agenda and that powerful and autonomous multinational corporations can exploit workers and increasingly shape the politics of nation- states. And the recent global recession, marked by financial crises in the United States, Europe, and China, shows us that all world economies are connected, for better or for worse.
International Trade To explain economic globalization, social scientists have used the terms “shallow integration” and “deep integra- tion” (Dicken 1998). Shallow integration refers to the flow of goods and services that characterized international trade until several decades ago. In a shallow integration model, a national company would arrange with a foreign company to either import or export products exclusively within that sin- gle nation’s economy. For example, thirty years ago, a Japa- nese car would have been made almost entirely in Japan, and a pair of American jeans would have been made in the United States. Thus, Japan would export cars to the United States, and the United States would import these Japanese cars. Likewise, the United States would export jeans to Japan, and Japan would import the American jeans. To protect their interests, nations would impose taxes on imports, some- times making those imports more expensive to buy than similar products made at home.
Deep integration refers to the global flow of goods and services in today’s economy. While companies still make arrangements with other companies for imports and exports, their relationships are far more complex. Most sig- nificantly, companies are no longer national; they are mul- tinational, with major decision making, production, and/ or distribution branches of a particular company spread all over the world. When we look at the labels on our clothing, the global nature of their origin is often concealed. The label may say “Made in . . . ,” but the raw materials or other parts may have originated somewhere else.
When nations make laws to protect national economic interests, they must often do so with a host of other nations in mind. NAFTA is an excellent example of this complex web of global relationships. Many major apparel companies, such as Nike and Gap, have marketing and design head- quarters in the United States, but many of their garment factories are in Mexico, another country in NAFTA. Under NAFTA, U.S. companies can avoid paying taxes when they export raw materials to Mexico and then import the fin- ished products. A similar global trade agreement, the Trans Pacific Partnership (or TPP), provides for similar benefits to its signatories, which include Pacific Rim nations in Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. These global trade agree- ments often benefit private industry much more than they do nations and sometimes remain controversial even after they have become law.
Coca- Cola and the Global Economy An employee oversees production at a new Coca- Cola plant in Indonesia. While Coca- Cola is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the company has plants that span the globe.
The Economics of Globalization 347
Table 11.1 Ranking the World’s Economies
Rank 2016 Company/Country GDP/Revenues (billions) Rank 2016 Company/Country
GDP/Revenues (billions)
1 United States $18,569 26 Thailand $407
2 China $11,199 27 Nigeria $405
3 Japan $4,939 28 Iran $393
4 Germany $3,467 29 Austria $386
5 United Kingdom $2,619 30 Norway $371
6 France $2,465 31 United Arab Emirates $349
7 India $2,264 32 Egypt $336
8 Italy $1,850 33 Hong Kong $321
9 Brazil $1,796 34 Israel $319
10 Canada $1,530 35 State Grid $315
11 Republic of Korea $1,411 36 Denmark $306
12 Russian Federation $1,283 37 Philippines $305
13 Spain $1,232 38 Singapore $297
14 Australia $1,204 39 Malaysia $296
15 Mexico $1,046 40 South Africa $295
16 Indonesia $932 41 Ireland $294
17 Turkey $858 42 Pakistan $284
18 Netherlands $771 43 Colombia $282
19 Switzerland $660 44 Sinopec Group $268
20 Saudi Arabia $646 45 China National Petroleum $263
21 Argentina $546 46 Toyota Motor $255
22 Sweden $511 47 Chile $247
23 Walmart $486 48 Volkswagen $240
24 Poland $470 49 Royal Dutch Shell $240
25 Belgium $466 50 Finland $237
SOURCES: Fortune 2017; World Bank 2017b.
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work348
minimal wages and worked excessive hours under unsani- tary and dangerous conditions.
Sweatshops, however, are not a thing of the past. Unfortu- nately, there are many in the world today making large num- bers of the goods that we unknowingly consume. Though perhaps more prevalent overseas, sweatshops exist in the United States as well. The General Accounting Office (GAO) defines a sweatshop as “an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law governing minimum wage and overtime, child labor, industrial homework, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation, or industrial regu- lation” (Ross 1997, p. 12). Such cases are not isolated. In 2012 an undercover investigation of ten garment contractors in the fashion district of Los Angeles found widespread labor vio- lations and workers operating under sweatshop conditions (U.S. Department of Labor 2012). More than thirty different retailers, including Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, had gar- ments being produced by contractors in violation. According to the investigation, garment workers were being paid less than both the federal and California minimum wages and were not being paid overtime, amounting to over $300,000 recovered in unpaid wages. It might be shocking to imagine that these types of abuse and exploitation of workers still occur in the United States.
American companies may also manufacture goods over- seas using foreign sweatshop labor. Nike, Gap, and clothing lines associated with Mary- Kate and Ashley Olsen, Jay- Z, Ivanka Trump, and Sean “Diddy” Combs have all been charged with using sweatshop labor in Southeast Asia, Central Amer- ica, and elsewhere and have been pressured to reform their practices. Factory fires in 2012 killed 289 garment workers in Pakistan and 117 in Bangladesh, and in April 2013, over 1,000 garment workers in Bangladesh were killed when their factory building collapsed. In the first two cases, workers were trapped in buildings without proper emergency exits, where clothing was made for American companies such as
powerful influence by donating huge amounts of money to lob- byists and political campaigns. Further, in international regu- latory bodies, such as the World Trade Organization, TNCs are often able to influence trade law at a global level.
Another manifestation of the ever increasing economic power of TNCs is competition in the global market. Because TNCs can take advantage of cheap pools of labor by either relocating their own factories or outsourcing the work, nations compete with each other for these contracts by under- cutting their citizens’ wages and offering incentives, such as tax- free zones. Scholars, politicians, activists, and commen- tators have called this the “race to the bottom.” These kinds of policies hurt the local populations, often depriving workers of decent wages and the potential benefits, such as schools and hospitals, that would have been derived from taxes.
Global Sweatshop Labor One way the race to the bottom hurts workers in their own countries is by creating an environment where sweatshop labor can exist. A sweatshop is a workplace where work- ers are subjected to extreme exploitation, including below- standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions that may pose health or safety hazards. Sweatshop workers are often intimidated with threats of physical discipline and are prevented from forming unions or other workers’ rights groups. Historically, sweatshops originated during the Industrial Revolution as a system where middlemen earned profits from the difference between what they received for delivering on a contract and the amount they paid to the workers who produced the contracted goods. The profit was said to be “sweated” from the workers, because they received
SWEATSHOP a workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including below- standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions that may pose health or safety hazards
Blood, Sweat, and Tears Activists lead a demonstration in protest of working conditions at a factory in Bangladesh used by H&M (left). People crowd outside the ruins of Rana Plaza, an eight- story garment factory that collapsed in April 2013, killing more than a thousand workers (right).
The Economics of Globalization 349
The manufacturing of goods, from garments to elec- tronics to automobiles, used to happen primarily in the United States and other Western nations; today’s manufacturing centers are located primarily in poorer nations, such as the Philippines, China, Indonesia, and many Latin American countries. American corpora- tions such as Nike, Gap, and Levi- Strauss have closed all their U.S. manufacturing plants and hired con- tractors and subcontractors from East Asia and Latin America to make their products at substantially lower prices. Now these companies focus large amounts of financial resources on “branding ” their products (Klein 2000). Branding is the process, usually accomplished through advertising, by which companies gain consum- ers’ attention and loyalty. Much of the money you pay for some products goes toward financing these branding campaigns, while a much smaller sum pays the workers who actually make the products.
In this Data Workshop you will be using existing sources in your research and analysis. Return to the sec- tion in Chapter 2 for a review of this method. The fol- lowing three exercises will help you better understand where the things that you buy come from and the con- tinuing disparity between product values and workers’ wages. Document what you find in written notes. (You can also take photos of the items.)
Exercise One: The Global Closet Pick out five to ten items of clothing from your closet. Now check the labels. Where were your clothes made? Make a list of the nations represented in your closet. How many nations are in East Asia or Latin America or other parts of the globe? Is there a difference between where an item is made and where it is assembled? Does the label indicate where the fabric originated?
Exercise Two: Once “Made in the U.S.A.” Ask your parents, aunts or uncles, or grandparents if you can look at the labels of their older clothes. Or go to a thrift store or secondhand store and look for older or vintage clothes there. Again pick out five to ten items of cloth- ing. How many of those items were made in the United States? How many were made elsewhere? What does this tell you about the globalization of the garment manufac- turing industry over the past several decades?
Exercise Three: Are Your Favorite Brands “Sweat Free”? Choose one or more of your favorite brands of clothing, shoes, or other fashion accessories. What is your brand’s stance on sweatshop labor? Do workers who make your favorite products earn a living wage? You can check many corporations’ ethics regarding labor conditions by
Walmart, J. C. Penney, and Kohl’s (Ahmed 2012). In the last case, the deadliest garment- industry accident in history, the building was made of shoddy materials and constructed on unstable ground and thus could not withstand the vibrations of machinery within (Associated Press 2013).
Many universities have also been in the practice of pur- chasing their logo apparel from clothing manufacturers that use sweatshop labor. Students at schools like the Uni- versity of Michigan, University of North Carolina, Univer- sity of Wisconsin– Madison, University of California, Duke University, and Georgetown University have all acted to pressure their respective administrators into changing uni- versity purchasing policy to seek out union- made and verifi- ably sweatshop- free products. By 2015, more than 180 colleges and universities had joined the Worker Rights Consortium and pledged to uphold the Fair Labor Association workplace code of conduct when it comes to choosing manufacturers for their apparel. We encourage you to do your own research on whether sweatshop products have reached the student store on your campus or wherever you shop for clothing— and whether such items are in your own closet already.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Are Your Clothes Part of the Global Commodity Chain?
You probably own and consume a large number of products that originated in fara- way countries, including your car, clothing, or shoes. These items have traveled widely
during the process from production to consumption. Food, pharmaceuticals, and electronics are other exam- ples of globally made products. Social scientists call such international movements of goods “global commodity chains” (Dunaway 2014; Gereffi and Korzeniewicz 1994).
Global commodity chains are networks of corpora- tions, product designers and engineers, manufacturing firms, distribution channels (such as ocean freightlin- ers, railroads, and trucking firms), and consumer outlets (such as Walmart). Global commodity chains start with a product design and brand name and end with the con- sumer making a purchase. But between start and finish is often a complex global process involving many differ- ent people, in many different nations, all contributing to the final product.
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work350
is usually achieved by transferring employment to locations where the cost of labor is much cheaper. In the 1990s, when this trend was just beginning, U.S. firms employed 7 million workers in other countries (O’Reilly 1992). With techno- logical advances, over the past couple of decades more busi- nesses have been able to increase their foreign employment pools significantly. Foreign employment by U.S. multinational companies grew to more than 13 million workers in 2014 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis 2016).
The economic benefits of outsourcing are gained by busi- nesses, but the drawbacks are felt by the people who make up the American labor pool. Figures vary regarding the num- ber of jobs that have been lost as the practice of outsourc- ing has continued to grow. While offshoring is practiced by numerous U.S. businesses, they are often reluctant to fully disclose details. Companies like General Electric, Caterpil- lar, Microsoft, and Walmart employ close to one- fifth of all American workers. Yet during the 2000s, companies like these shrank their domestic workforces by 2.9 million while increasing their rosters of foreign employees by 2.4 million (U.S. Department of Commerce 2012). Data show that out- sourcing to China between 2001 and 2013 cost the United States 3.2 million jobs, almost two- thirds of which were in manufacturing (Scott and Kimball 2014).
A variety of jobs are suitable for outsourcing. Manufac- turing jobs were some of the first to go, but an increasing number of service jobs have followed in the last couple of decades. Among them are office and clerical staff, purchas- ing, finance, and human resources workers. Offshoring is also happening in other service areas requiring highly skilled workers. Jobs in information technology– producing industries, such as data entry, communication services, communication equipment, and computer hardware, soft- ware, and services, are some of the main jobs involved in outsourcing. In a recent five- year period, Oracle, a business hardware and software giant, hired twice as many workers
doing a simple search on the Internet. Or visit the web- site of one of the following pro- labor organizations to see how your brands score:
✱ Institute for Globa l Labour and Human Rights: w w w.globa llabourrights.org
✱ CorpWatch: www.corpwatch.org
✱ Global Exchange: www.globalexchange.org
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Complete the exercises provided, following the instructions as outlined. Bring your notes to class to discuss with other students in pairs or small groups. Your instructor may organize groups so that all members have done the same exercise or all members have done a different exercise. Compare your findings as a group. Did you find similar or different results?
DO- IT- YOURSELF Complete the exercises provided and follow the instructions as outlined. Write a three- to four- page essay analyzing your findings. Attach any writ- ten notes or other documentation to your paper.
Outsourcing The U.S. economy is increasingly affected by globalization, and as a result, American companies have sought out new business models to reduce costs and remain competitive. One increasingly popular approach is outsourcing or offshoring. Outsourcing involves “contracting out” or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform. Typically, a compa- ny’s decision to outsource is made for financial reasons and
Perspective Approach to Work and the Economy Case Study: Outsourcing of Work
Functionalism
Different types of work (high prestige and pay to low prestige and pay) are necessary to the economy and have functions that help maintain social order.
Outsourcing is necessary to keep both national and global economies stable in the current market.
Conflict Theory A stratified labor market creates intergroup conflict— wealthier capitalists may exploit less powerful workers.
Outsourcing exploits poor and developing nations and laid- off local workers, all while enriching corporations.
Symbolic Interactionism Work is central to our self- concept. We are intensely identified with our work, both by ourselves and by others.
Workers whose jobs are outsourced may come to see themselves as worthless and expendable because it seems that others see them that way too.
Table 11.2 Theory in Everyday Life
Different Ways of Working 351
and sperm of a couple who are unable to conceive on their own. Although this practice is legal in the United States, it has been outlawed in other Western coun- tries. In recent years, there has been a surrogate baby boom in places such as India. Outsourc- ing has occurred in this market for the same reasons as in other industries: There is an available workforce overseas where the costs are much cheaper than in the United States.
A burgeoning number of agencies in India specialize in surrogacy— over 3,000 in 2012 (Verma 2017). Prospective American parents who use these services can more easily fulfill their desire for a biological baby and at a fifth of what it would cost at home. The arrangement also benefits the sur- rogate in India who might earn as much in nine months car- rying a baby to term ($4,000–$5,000) as she would for ten years of labor as a maid. Understandably, there are concerns about surrogacy exploitating young, poor women, and so the Indian government has drafted ( but, as of 2017, not yet passed) a law prohibiting foreign parents from hiring Indian surrogates. But until then it remains legal, not only in India but also in Thailand, the Ukraine, and Georgia. If we can now outsource pregnancy, what other jobs might be next?
Different Ways of Working There are alternative ways of working, not all of which fit into typical categories of work. First we look at professional socialization, the process by which new members learn and internalize the norms and values of their group, examin- ing case studies of workers in three unusual fields. Then we examine the contingent workforce— those who work in positions that are temporary or freelance or who work as independent contractors. Finally, we take a look at nonprofit corporations— private organizations whose missions go beyond the bottom line— and volunteerism, the work of peo- ple who seek no compensation for their investment of time and energy.
Professional Socialization in Unusual Fields Ever y new job requires some sort of training for the pro- spective employee. Anyone in a new position confronts an unfamiliar set of expectations and workplace norms that must be learned so the new person can fit into the environ- ment. This process, called professional socialization, involves learning not only the social role but also the various details about how to do the job. Several sociological studies have
abroad as in the United States (Wessel 2011). Over the last decade, Cisco Systems, another tech firm, increased its por- tion of foreign workers from 26 percent to 46 percent of all company employees.
Although countries in Southeast Asia, such as the Philip- pines, and those in Eastern Europe are key sites for informa- tion technology offshoring, India has become the primary location for this practice because of the shared English language and cheap employment. It makes sense to employ workers abroad if, for instance, a company can hire a com- puter engineer in India for $10,000 a year compared with one who does the same work but costs $60,000 to $90,000 in the United States. By 2016, information technology export rev- enue from the United States to India had grown into a $67 bil- lion business (India Brand Equity Foundation 2017). China has become the second- largest outsourcing provider to the United States (Zheng 2012).
When we think about outsourcing, we may picture a foreign worker assembling an American model automo- bile, or we may remember the foreign accent of someone we spoke with at a help desk or call center who provided us with tech support or customer service. Although outsourcing is still most common in areas such as manufacturing and infor- mation services, it has spread into new and what might seem like far less likely types of employment.
Sociologist France Winddance Twine (2011a) has researched the growing trend in outsourcing the womb. For the past several decades, infertile couples who wish to have biological children have been hiring women to serve as sur- rogates. These woman are impregnated in vitro with the egg
A Surrogate Baby Boom India has become a key site for outsourcing the womb. Young women serve as surrogates for infertile American couples who wish to have their own biological children at a fraction of the cost of an American surrogate.
OUTSOURCING “contracting out” or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform; typically done for financial reasons
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work352
me that they found ‘cases’ of young children emotiona lly disturbing. . . . Yet, these students reportedly did ‘get used to it,’ ‘keep it down,’ and dea l with emotiona lly distressing ‘cases’” (pp. 108–109). Cahill found that successful mortu- ary science students were those who could best dea l with the emotiona l component of the work.
Matthew Desmond (2006) studied how newcomers are socialized into the work life of wildland firefighting in the Southwest. The occupation of a U.S. Forest Service wild- land firefighter is visceral and all- consuming. During the fire season, wildland firefighters live together in the forests they protect, usually in isolated encampments, waiting and wondering where the next blaze will occur. Fighting fire is intensely physical work and, of course, incredibly risky; phys- ical strength and stamina are necessary to dig, chop, climb, and run with heavy gear in high heat. But this kind of work requires a special quality of mind and self- identity as well. Desmond notes that the socialization process for wildland
explored the process of professional socialization, focusing on medical students (Becker et al. 1961; Fox 1957; Haas and Shaffir 1977, 1982), teachers (Lortie 1968), clergy (Kleinman 1984), nurses (Stimson 1967), social workers (Loseke and Cahill 1986), and lawyers (Granfield 1992).
Spencer Cahill’s study of students preparing to become funera l directors focused on the practica l skills developed by mortuary science students and the “emotiona l labor” (see Hochschild 1983) involved in this occupation. Most socia l interaction within the mortuary science program revolved around death; as a result, students learned how to engage in the practice of “norma lizing ta lk.” “Mortuary science education requires students to adopt an occupationa l rhet- oric and esoteric language that communicate professiona l authority and a ca lm composure towards matters that most of the lay public finds emotiona lly upsetting ” (Cahill 1999, p. 106). In addition, students were required to control their own emotiona l responses to the work. “Some students told
On- demand app- based services have emerged and boomed in the last few years, and it seems no industry is immune to their pull. A few years ago it might have seemed weird— even dangerous— to get a ride to the airport from a stranger driving a nondescript late- model minivan; indeed, your par- ents would probably still balk at this and instead take a tradi- tional, centrally dispatched yellow taxi.
The workers who drive your U bers, shop for your gro- ceries, and show up at your house to hang your pictures are part of what ’s known as the “gig economy.” This refers to a way of working that doesn’t involve stable, full- time employment with one company but rather a series of free- lance jobs (“gigs”) that may ta ke advantage of individu- a ls’ unique skill sets but that provide neither stability nor benef its. W hile the gig economy is currently concentrated in the “rides and rooms” industries, the “taskif ication” of work has spread to other areas as well, including house- cleaning (Neatso), laundr y (Washio), and grocer y shopping (Instacart).
According to the Pew Research Center, fully 72 percent of Americans have used some type of “ on- demand” online service; usage is highest among the young, the college edu- cated, and those with household incomes above $100,000. Nearly a quarter of Americans reported earning money in the gig economy, either by renting out a property, selling something online, or completing a task or job via a digital platform (Smith 2016a, 2016b).
IN THE FUTURE Will Your Job Be “ Uber- ized”?
There have always been “gig” workers, and even very suc- cessful ones (Dr. Ferris’s dog- sitter, who also sells handmade jewelry, styles hair, delivers pizza, and plays bagpipes in parades, recently bought her own home with her earnings). What has changed about this kind of labor is the way tech- nology facilitates it. Before the Internet, freelancers adver- tised through newspapers, hung posters on telephone poles, or just relied on word of mouth. They remained their own bosses, set their own rates, and made their own decisions about when they should, could, and would work. But with the proliferation of smartphones that put web connectivity and applications at just about everyone’s fingertips, services have popped up that do the work of electronic intermediar- ies, connecting gig workers with clients. Apps also modulate pricing, charging what the market will bear given the type of service, location, and even time of day.
For busy people with little time for mundane chores but with money to pay others to do them, these services take the effort out of searching for the right provider at the right price, right now! But for the workers who provide those services, it isn’t always such a great deal (Heller 2017). Uber drivers, for example, don’t get overtime pay or health benefits, nor do they qualify for worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, or retirement benefits. They do not currently have the right to unionize, and the company can lower their pay and “switch off” drivers (take them out of service) without notice. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Some say yes: As giggers they can
Different Ways of Working 353
work and earn when they want, and someone else takes care of the paperwork. A Pew Research Center survey shows that almost 70 percent of respondents cite flexible time as the top benefit of gig work (Smith 2016a). They also see this type of work as good for those who don’t need a full- time job (54 per- cent) and for those just entering the job market (37 percent). But the respondents also acknowledge the downside of gig work: Nearly a quarter of Americans believe these arrange- ments allow companies to take advantage of workers and another 21 percent believe that gig work places too large of a financial burden on workers. They also recognize that this may not be the kind of work upon which one can build a career.
Others note that this way of organizing work can be det- rimental to those who still rely on traditional employers and employment: The more on- demand, app- based ride services there are, the lower the demand is for traditional, centrally dispatched taxicabs and drivers. Same with Airbnb and hotel rooms: When people rent out their own apartments to tourists, traditional hotels make less money, generate fewer tax dol- lars, and produce less employment for their maids, busboys, concierges, and catering staff. App- based gig work undercuts the conventional low- wage job market, which may make it harder for already vulnerable workers to get a paycheck. This trickle- down underemployment may magnify inequalities that already exist in our society (Schor et al. 2016).
Could your career be “Uberized,” meaning taskified, gigged- out, broken down into parts that could be done by
The Gig Economy Uber, the ride-sharing service, has been accused of exploiting its workers, discriminating against riders with disabilities, sexism, and predatory pricing.
separate, lower- paid service providers? Maybe. It isn’t just less skilled labor like housecleaning or driving that is subject to taskification. Professional work is giggable too: Doctors make house calls through Medicast; masseurs seek clients on Soothe and Zeel; attorneys UpCounsel; on- the- spot child care can be found on KangaDo; and the so- called “ one- on- one” education model turns teachers into freelancers and students into customers in some private schools (Spencer 2017). Maybe the next revolution in work will be known as the Gig Revolution.
firefighters begins years— and sometimes generations— before they even apply for the job.
Many of the men who do this work come from rural working- class backgrounds. This often means that they have spent time working and playing outdoors— on a farm, perhaps, or hunting and fishing with their fathers and brothers (who may have served as wildland firefighters themselves). They can shoot and sharpen tools and drive off- road vehicles, and they can take care of themselves in the woods or on the trail in ways that those from large urban environments usually cannot. They may have grown up in relatively isolated communities— in small towns, on Native reservations, or on ranchland with few neighbors and little experience of city life. They have been socialized into what Desmond calls “country masculinity,” and as a result, they have already acquired certain competencies and qualities that provide good preparation for the rigors of wildland firefighting. So while the Forest Service does train its new
On the Fireline While many occupations require on-the-job socialization into the workplace’s culture and norms, others, like wildland firefighting, have a much longer socialization process that begins well before the first day of work.
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work354
involve explicit or implicit contracts for long- term employ- ment. These workers are referred to as the contingent workforce. It is made up of four categories: independent contractors, on- call workers, temporary workers, and con- tract company workers— sometimes called “temps” or “freelancers.”
During the past couple of decades, contingent work has become an a lternative to long- term, full- time employ- ment and has grown three times faster than traditiona l jobs. If we count the self- employed in this group, the tota l contingent workforce in 2012 numbered a lmost 44 mil- lion, or 31 percent of a ll workers. The U.S. Department of Labor projects that by 2020 there will be a lmost 65 mil- lion contingent workers, constituting approximately 40 percent of the tota l workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012a).
Many see this situation as a potential disaster, as inferior jobs are created by corporations seeking to slash overhead, especially those costs associated with health benefits, which are almost never available to contingent workers. Employ- ers have a number of financial and legal responsibilities to their regular workers— overtime pay, health insurance, Social Security, disability, and workers’ compensation benefits— that don’t apply to temps or independent contractors. Many fear businesses will increasingly turn to alternative employment arrangements solely to cut costs to the distinct disadvantage of their employees.
The case histories of two giant firms show the potential for the exploitation of contingent workers. Sometimes busi- nesses will classify workers as “independent contractors” even though they do the same work in the same place as regular workers. In an infamous example in the late 1990s, Microsoft was forced to pay $97 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it had wrongly classified a group of employees as independent contractors, making them ineligible for ben- efits. These workers had been hired as freelancers to work on specific projects, but “the workers were fully integrated into Microsoft’s workforce, working under nearly identical circumstances as Microsoft’s regular employees . . . the same core hours at the same location and the same supervisors as regular employees” (Muhl 2002).
A different, though equally exploitative, tactic was used by the contractors hired to clean Walmart stores. In 2003, federal agents arrested 245 undocumented workers in sixty different Walmart stores around the country. The workers came from eighteen nations, but very few of them actually worked for Walmart. Instead, they were employed by inde- pendent contractors hired by Walmart to do its nightly clean- ing (Bartels 2003). Although companies are not responsible for the actions of subcontractors they hire, they can be held responsible if it is proven they knew something illegal was going on. This is especially important when the jobs that are offered to undocumented workers are exploitative or abusive.
recruits, the success of any new hire is likely to be based more on his experiences before joining the organization. The social- ization of these workers occurs before they enter this unusual line of work.
Jacqueline Lewis (1998) examined the socia lization of exotic dancers and what goes into learning their job. “For exotic dancers, achieving job competence involves getting accustomed to working in a sex- related occupation and the practice of taking their clothes off in public for money ” (Lewis 1998, p. 1). On- the- job socia lization was essentia l for the women who entered this line of work: “Similar to the socia lization experiences of individua ls in other occu- pations, novice dancers learn through interaction and observation while on the job. . . . Since there is no forma l certification structure, peers play an important role in this transformation process” (p. 5). Lewis found that severa l women felt the socia lization process “inadequately pre- pared them for some of the rea lities of the life of an exotic dancer” (p. 12)—mainly the negative impact it would have on their private lives and the difficulties of having long- term heterosexua l relationships with men outside the industr y.
The Contingent Workforce Traditionally, most Americans have hoped to find a job they would keep their whole lives, one that would provide forty- hour workweeks along with vacations and health and retire- ment benefits. Increasingly, this sort of job is becoming rare. A growing percentage of Americans have less steady work arrangements that could be defined as work that does not
CONTINGENT WORKFORCE those who work in positions that are temporary or freelance or who work as independent contractors
The Just- in- Time Professor The postsecondary academic workforce has experienced a shift away from full- time tenured or tenure- track faculty to part- time adjunct instructors. Adjunct instructors now represent half of all higher education faculty, up from 20 percent in 1970.
Different Ways of Working 355
organizations, designed to run as cost- effectively as pos- sible and to direct any gains or earnings, above basic oper- ating expenses, back into the causes they support. Together, these organizations and the workers who staff them consti- tute what social scientists call the Independent (or Third) Sector of the economy.
The Third Sector represents one of the most distinctive and commendable features of our society. In 2016, more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations were registered with the Internal Revenue Service and accorded tax privileges (National Center for Charitable Statistics 2016). Nonprof- its contributed an estimated $906 billion to the U.S. economy in 2013, which amounted to more than 5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (McK- eever 2015).
The Third Sector helps soci- ety in a number of ways. First, these organizations play a signif icant part in the A meri- can system of plura lism, operating a longside the f irst two sectors of government and business while helping to streng then and ma ke them work better. A lthough we think of nonprof its, business, and government as separate, they are rea lly interconnected through their impact on pub- lic policy. Second, nonprof it organizations deliver a wide range of vita l ser vices to millions of people in a lmost ever y socia l categor y. Last, they are a humanizing force in A mer- ican society, a llowing an important avenue of expression for a ltruism.
When contractors hire employees who work seven days a week and receive no overtime pay or benefits, then those contractors are in violation of overtime, Social Security, and workers’ compensation laws. Furthermore, it is much harder for legitimate contractors to win bids for contracts when their competition can offer lower prices by illegally under- paying their workers.
It is not surprising to discover a lack of job satisfaction among temporary workers, mainly clerica l and manufac- turing workers and on- ca ll workers, such as construction workers, nurses, adjunct instructors, and truck drivers (Dickson and Lorenz 2009). Many temporary workers hope they will be able to use their temp job as a springboard to a permanent one, but often this does not happen. However, the flexibility and freedom of a lternative work arrange- ments appea l to a substantia l number of workers, such as students, parents with children at home, and retirees. Though the increase in nontraditiona l employment has many potentia l negative effects, there is a great dea l of diversity in the characteristics of contingent workers, some of whom may experience more or less satisfaction with their work arrangements. While there is clearly a downside to being a temp or independent contractor, research indi- cates that there can a lso be great satisfaction among these freelance workers.
Of the four categories tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, independent contractors make up the largest group— a lmost two- thirds of the tota l. In contrast to the tra- ditiona l worker, the occupationa l profile of the independent contractor is skewed toward severa l high- skilled fields, including writers and artists, insurance and rea l estate agents, construction trade employees, and other technica l and computer- related professions. They tend to be better paid than the average worker and prefer their employment situation for the flexibility and freedom it offers (Fishman 2011). However, even in this category, a significant minority of workers, especia lly women, make less money and are less satisfied with their situation. Some a lso suffer from a lien- ation, disenchantment, and burnout.
The Third Sector and Volunteerism Not all corporations seek a profit, nor do all workers get paid a wage for their labor. Numerous organizations engage in social welfare, social justice, or environmental services. Typically, these are churches, schools, hospitals, philan- thropic foundations, art institutions, scientific research centers, and a multitude of other organizations, both perma- nent and temporary. They are private, rather than govern- ment, organizations and are devoted to serving the general welfare, not their own financial interests. They are nonprofit
INDEPENDENT (OR THIRD) SECTOR the part of the economy composed of nonprofit organizations; their workers are mission driven, rather than profit driven, and such organizations direct surplus funds to the causes they support
The Third Sector A Williams College student volunteers at a local high school, where she tutors English language learners.
CHAPTER 11 The Economy and Work356
jobs in traditional fields; not all workers have permanent or full- time jobs; and not all workers do it for a paycheck.
Time for a Vacation? Americans like to think we’re hard workers. We are, of course. But we might be working too hard. Compared to European Union (EU) countries (and other developed countries around the globe), we work up to eight weeks more each year. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (Ray, Sanes, and Schmitt 2013), most of the world’s wea lthiest nations mandate a certain amount of paid vacation time— from ten days in Japan to thirty- eight in Austria (Figure 11.1). The United States? Zero. That’s right: U.S. workers are not lega lly entitled to any paid vacation. Your employer may offer it— about 75 percent of U.S. employers do— but if you’re a part- time or low- wage worker (in food service and retail jobs, for instance), you probably don’t get any paid vacation, and you don’t have any lega l way to get it, either.
So, we definitely work more . . . but is that better? Does working more days per year necessarily translate into higher productivity? Not necessarily:
Because the United States is the second- most produc- tive developed country as measured by GDP per capita and has no mandatory vacation time, some might argue that vacation reduces productivity. However, in another measure of labor productivity— GDP per hour worked— the U.S. was only marginally better than Germany and France, both developed countries that guarantee among the most vacation time. (Hess 2013)
While most nonprofits have some paid employees, they also rely on volunteers to deliver their services to the pub- lic. Volunteerism reflects a profound and important Ameri- can value— that citizens in a democracy have a personal responsibility to serve those in need. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016b) reported that in 2015, an estimated 62.6 million Americans, or about 25 percent of the total pop- ulation, engaged in some form of volunteer work. Volunteers each spent a median of 52 hours on volunteer activities dur- ing the given year. Women tend to volunteer in larger num- bers: More than 28 percent of all U.S. women, compared to 22 percent of men, volunteered in 2015. Persons thirty- five to forty- four years old were the most likely to volunteer (nearly 30 percent), while volunteer rates were lowest among those in their early twenties (18 percent). Volunteers come from every socioeconomic level, but members of the middle and upper- middle classes are most likely to volunteer, as are those with a higher level of educational attainment. All races and ethnicities are represented, but whites volunteer at higher rates than blacks, Asians, and Hispanics. The esti- mated total value of donated hours in 2015 was $184 billion (Corporation for National & Community Service 2016).
People engage in volunteer work for many reasons— for social justice, social change, religious values, work experi- ence, and participation in clubs and social groups, and even out of boredom. Not only does volunteering satisfy our most altruistic ideals; it can also be a way to enhance our careers, strengthen our relationships, and even let us live out fanta- sies or dreams that are not part of our normal, everyday lives. And in so doing, volunteers help create a different world for themselves and others. There are many ways of working— some conventional, some alternative. Not all workers have
0
1 30
28
13
25 2 25 25
Paid Holidays
Paid Vacation
11
20
10
20
10
20
10
20
9
20
8
20
6
20 20
9
10 10
0
13
22
12
22
Fr an
ce
Un ite
d Ki
ng do
m
Au st
ria
No rw
ay
Sw ed
en
Po rtu
ga l
Sp ain Ita
ly
Be lg
ium
Ge rm
an y
Ne w
Ze ala
nd
Ire lan
d
Au st
ra lia
Gr ee
ce
Sw itz
er lan
d
Ca na
da
Ja pa
n
Un ite
d St
at es
5
W o
rk in
g D
a ys
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Figure 11.1 Paid Vacation and Paid Holidays
SOURCE: Ray, Sanes, and Schmitt 2013.
357Closing Comments
CLOSING COMMENTS You may never have imagined that work was such a big part of life. You might have had a job of some kind, but now you probably have a better idea of just how important work is on both a collective and an individual level. Work is so impor- tant that sociologists have devoted much of their own work to studying it. We can be fairly certain that work will remain a major reality in the human experience into the distant future. We hope that you have gained some insight into the structure and meaning of work in your own lives and the lives of others in society.
So maybe we Americans shouldn’t work so much after a ll? Mandatory paid vacation a llows workers to engage in self- care, spend time with family, and travel the world with- out having to give up sa lary. In fact, some EU countries actu- a lly give vacation pay to their workers in order to help them meet the extra costs of travel during their time off! Sounds crazy to American ears, but think about it: More time off plus more money to spend during that time off generates more economic activity and may mean more productivity once you’re back on the job (Mohn 2014). So if you’re one of the lucky Americans whose employer offers paid vacation time, by a ll means use it. It’s your patriotic duty!
358
Everything You Need to Know about the Economy and Work
THEORIES OF THE ECONOMY AND WORK
✱ Structural functionalism: Differ- ent types of work, even ones with low prestige and pay, are necessary to the economy and help maintain social order.
✱ Conflict theory: A stratified labor market creates intergroup conflict in which wealthier capitalists may exploit less powerful workers.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: We are intensely identified with our work, both by ourselves and by others.
REVIEW 1. Think about the jobs you would like
to get after you finish college. Do any of them involve directly participating in the production of physical goods?
2. Thinking of the United States as a capitalist nation with some social- ist elements, are there any ways you directly benefit from government intervention in the economy?
3. Marx described four ways that mod- ern wage labor is alienating. Do you think these apply to you and to the job you have or would like to have? If you have a job, would you choose to keep it even if you became independently wealthy?
“ Work is a fulcrum point between the micro and the macro and a link between the individual and the social.
“
359
EXPLORE
In Defense of Face Time In the age of digital communication, why bother to meet with someone face- to- face? Meetings allow us to see expressions and hear tones of voice— important social cues to someone’s feelings and intent. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read more about a sociology professor’s thoughts on the benefits of meeting with students in person.
http://wwnPag.es/trw411
Who Works at Minimum Wage?
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017d.
By Gender and Age
By Education
52% Adult women
36% Some college or associate’s degree
11% Bachelor’s degree or higher
21% Less than high school
31% High school graduate
12% Teenage girls
9% Teenage boys
27% Adult men
360
CHAPTER 12
T omas, a single doctor in his sixties, has lived in the same home in Houston for thirty
years, and always with three much- loved dogs: two boxers named Blaze and Pepe, and a
Boston terrier named Brownie. They are his devoted companions. When one of the dogs
dies, Tomas gets a new dog of the same breed and keeps the dog’s name. Thus, if Pepe died, the
new boxer would be named Pepe; if Brownie died, the new Boston terrier would also be Brownie.
Tomas’s relationship with his dogs has lasted for thirty years. Are Tomas and the dogs a family?
Stacie and Eric met in college and married a year after they graduated. Their job hunts,
however, led them in different directions: Stacie took a job with an international policy agency
Life at Home: Families and Relationships
361
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships362
in Washington, D.C., and Eric went to work for a major corporation in Miami. Living
in their respective cities, they spend lots of time Facetiming and lots of money on
weekend plane tickets. After about five years, Stacie became pregnant, and the
baby is due in a few months. Are Stacie and Eric a family?
Jeannie and Elena met in graduate school— almost twenty years ago. They are
both professors in Minneapolis, Kansas, and together they bought and fixed up an
old house. They had wanted to formalize their commitment to one another, but they
could not do so for many years because of a ban on same- sex marriage in Kansas.
Nevertheless, they adopted a little boy named Conor, who is now in his teens. Are
Jeannie, Elena, and Conor a family?
For some of you, the answers may come easily, but others may find yourselves
wondering— are these groups really families? Tomas loves Brownie, Blaze, and
Pepe, but can you really be a family if most of your members aren’t human? And is
Tomas’s replacement policy similar to or different from the practice of remarrying
when a spouse dies? What about Stacie and Eric? They’re married and are having
a biological child, which seems to make them easily definable as a family. Yet they
don’t live under the same roof or even in the same state. What does that make
them? Even Tomas and the dogs live together. And so do Jeannie and Elena, who
own their home together. And they’re raising their son Conor together, even though
they couldn’t jointly adopt him like a married heterosexual couple could. Instead,
Elena had to adopt him on her own first, with Jeannie becoming his second parent
later. With same- sex marriage now legal across the United States, they are thinking
about tying the knot. Do these complications mean that they aren’t a real family?
It all depends on how you define family. If emotional bonds and mutual support
are the only criteria, then all of these groups are families. But if a marital bond is
required, then only Stacie and Eric are a family. If other legal ties are included, then
Elena, Jeannie, and Conor can be a family too. If you have to be heterosexual, then
Jeannie and Elena are out, and we really don’t know about Tomas, do we? If the
longevity of the relationships is the key, then Tomas and the dogs win over both of
these other potential families. But if you have to be human and irreplaceable, then
all those Brownies, Blazes, and Pepes don’t qualify. And if a shared residence must
be part of the equation, then Tomas and the dogs are in and so are Jeannie and
Elena, but Stacie and Eric are out. While the archetypal image of the nuclear family
endures, sociologists who study families are astonished by how rapidly our ideas
about the ideal family have changed in recent years. So how do you define family?
Sociological Perspectives on Families 363
Subsequent waves of social change, such as the women’s lib- eration movement and the move toward individual independence and self- fulfillment, have begun to erode the dominance of the married, heterosexual nuclear family, as increased divorce rates, working mothers, single parents, same- sex marriage, LGBTQ fam- ilies, and other alternative family arrangements become more com- mon. Many sociologists speak of the sociology not of the family but rather of families. “Family situa- tions in contemporary society are so varied and diverse that it sim- ply makes no sociological sense to speak of a single ideal- type model of ‘the family’ at all” (Ber- nardes 1985, p. 209).
Even though a two- het erosex u a l- m a r r ied- pa rent household with a stay- at- home mother, a breadwinning father, and their two biological children is no longer the norm, this type of family remains the model by which new forms of fam- ily are judged. However, there are exceptions, as common- sense definitions of family reflect the changes occurring in the larger society at any given moment. Marriage still equates with family, and about half of Americans ages eighteen and older are married. But other ways of coupling and cohabit- ing are also embraced. Children seem to be important in our customary definitions of family: One study found that unmar- ried couples, both gay and heterosexual, are more likely to be considered a family if children are present (Powell et al. 2010). Still, family is not always about children; 6 percent of married women are childless by choice, and their numbers are growing (Reyes 2013).
As you will see as you read this chapter, what constitutes the model or hypothetical family may be very different from how families define themselves “on the ground.”
Sociological Perspectives on Families Among the sociological perspectives on the family, struc- tural functionalists view it as a cultural universal and try to identify its functions for society. Conflict theorists argue that there are inherent inequalities both within and between families. Symbolic interactionists focus on the family as the product of interactional processes, while feminist and queer theoretical perspectives question male dominance
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER In this chapter, we examine society’s most basic social group— the family. Yet what makes a family is subject to debate. Sociology doesn’t define a family by who its members are but by what they do, how they relate to one another, and what their relationship is to the larger society. You will prob- ably see some of your own family’s story in these discussions. We’ll look at the dynamic diversity of family forms in the con- temporary United States, the functions of family for society, the hierarchies of inequality that shape family life, the work that gets done by and in families, the kinds of troubles fami- lies experience, and the political and cultural controversies that affect families. You will learn that when it comes to fam- ily life, change is the only constant.
What Is the Family? The U.S. Census Bureau defines “family” as two or more indi- viduals related by blood, marriage, or adoption living in the same household. This definition is a starting point, but it’s too limited to encompass even the family arrangements described in the opening vignette. Contemporary sociologists use the word family to mean a social group whose members are bound by some type of tie— legal, biological, emotional, or a combination of all three. They may or may not share a household, but family members are interdependent and have a sense of mutual responsibility for one another’s care. We don’t define family by specific types of people (parents or children) or specific types of ties (marriage or biology) because we believe the definition should be broad enough to encompass a variety of forms. However, this very variety is the source of controversy both within and outside academia. Regardless of the definition, most people recognize family as an integral social institution found in every society.
The family as an institution has always changed in response to its social, cultural, political, and economic milieu. Before the Industrial Revolution, “family” tended to mean extended family— a large group of kin, or relatives, which could include grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cous- ins living in one household. After the Industrial Revolution, this configuration was largely superseded by the nuclear family— a heterosexual couple, usually married, living in their own household and raising children. Along the way, the family moved from a more public social institution to a private one, as many functions formerly associated with the family were transferred to other institutions. For example, work and production moved from the family to the factory, education moved from the family to the school, and govern- ment took over a variety of social welfare and support ser- vices formerly taken care of by the extended family.
MARRIAGE a formally recognized bond between two spouses, establishing contractual rights and obligations between them
ADOPTION the legal process of acquiring parental responsibilities for a child other than one’s biological offspring
FAMILY a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties, or a combination of all three
EXTENDED FAMILY a large group of relatives, usually including at least three generations living either in one household or in close proximity
KIN relatives or relations, usually those related by common descent
NUCLEAR FAMILY a heterosexual couple with one or more children living in a single household
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships364
In P. D. Eastman’s children’s book Are You My Mother? a newly hatched bird wanders about asking everyone— and everything— she encounters, “Are you my mother?” Sadly for the newborn, neither the construction crane, nor the cow, nor the cat is the parent she is searching for. On the last page of the book, however, the tiny bird is serendipitously returned to her nest and reunited with a maternal- looking chickadee.
When reading something like Are You My Mother? most people in the Western world would assume that the word “mother” means “female parent.” However, in the Hawaiian language, makuahine means both “mother” and “aunt” and refers to any female relative in the generation of that per-
son’s parents; makuakane is the equivalent term for men (Schwimmer 2001; Stanton 1995). In Hawaiian, then, “Are you my mother?” could just as easily mean “Are you my father’s brother’s wife?” In
China, though, kinship terms are very precise. There are par- ticular terms for a “father’s brother’s wife” that vary depend- ing on whether the wife is married to the older brother or a younger one ( Levi- Strauss 1949/1969)!
One reason we name our kin is to delineate the relation- ships and obligations we share. In some cases, we use the term fictive kin to refer to people who are not related to us through blood or through marriage. Such kin are created through closely knit friendships to the family. You may have a family friend you call Auntie So- and- So. In other societies, fictive kin may be culturally prescribed. In Jordan, it is perfectly normal for adult strangers to address one another with the Arabic equivalents of brother/sister, maternal aunt/uncle, and pater- nal aunt/uncle. In addition, an older Jordanian woman may affectionately refer to a child (of either gender) as “mother” (Farghal and Shakir 1994).
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Talking about Kin
Sometimes fictive kinship ties are formalized through cer- emony, as when a female in India ties a sacred thread around the wrist of an unrelated close male friend to indicate that she considers him a brother. In Latin America, godparents (compadrazgo, a word that can be translated as “ co- parent” rather than “godparent”) are considered permanent members of their godchildren’s family. Not surprisingly, the Spanish words for “daughter” and “son” are very close to the words for “goddaughter” and “godson” (Davila 1971; van den Berghe 1979).
Examining kinship terms is one way to understand the diversity of families and how kin fulfill their social roles. As you can see, aunts, elder brothers, godparents, and family friends can all be important family members.FICTIVE KIN close
relations with people we consider “like family” but who are not related to us by blood or marriage
and heteronormativity as yardsticks for determining what is “normal” when it comes to family. Each of these theories offers useful insights into our understanding of family units.
Structural Functionalism In Suicide, Émile Durkheim (1897/1951) argued that the Industrial Revolution and the division of labor had under- mined the older social institutions that formerly regulated society, leaving some people suffering from anomie, or norm- lessness, that sometimes resulted in suicide. He found that
marriage and family, at least for men, decreased the chances of suicide because they provide the structure and regulation that Durkheim believed people require to be happy. Durkheim hypothesized that men who were married and had children were less likely to kill themselves because of their obligations to their families, while single men had less to tether them to this mortal coil, and hence would be more likely to succumb to suicidal impulses.
The structural functionalists who followed Durkheim argued that society’s survival requires institutions that can serve its essential functions: economic production, the
Sociological Perspectives on Families 365
Gender is not the only system of stratification that shapes our experience in families. Age and ability may be the basis for inequality, conflict, and even violence within families and will be discussed in more detail later in the chapter.
Symbolic Interactionism As Jim Holstein and Jay Gubrium point out in their book What Is Family (1990), the family does not exist, only fami- lies. These symbolic interactionists consider it more effective to look at how family relations are created and maintained in interaction than how they are structured. Even though the legal bond of marriage has the same technical meaning for every couple, individual marriages may have very different expectations and rules for behavior. One couple may require sexual monogamy within their marriage, while their neigh- bors may not; one couple may pool their finances, while their neighbors may keep separate bank accounts. This approach conceives of family as a fluid, adaptable set of concepts and practices that people use “for constructing the meaning of social bonds” (Holstein and Gubrium 1995), a set of vocabu- laries to describe particular relationships.
Consider the number of relatives, defined by blood or mar- riage, most people have who play no meaningful role in their lives, who “aren’t really family.” When we describe people in terms of family, we are making claims about the “rights,
socialization of children, instrumental and emotional sup- port, and sexual control. Although the family is no longer directly involved in economic production, it performs the functions that allow production to happen. Talcott Parsons (1955) argued that “the modern nuclear family was espe- cially complementary to the requirements of an industrial economy” because it freed individuals from onerous obli- gations to extended family members and made possible the geographic and social mobility demanded by the modern economy (Mann et al. 1997).
In the most basic sense, the family is responsible for the reproduction of society as it produces and socializes children who will in turn become future workers and produce and socialize more new members of society. This is what Parsons referred to as “pattern maintenance,” whereby the values and norms of a society are passed on to the next generation. Family also, ideally, brings emotional support for its mem- bers by providing us with significant others such as spouses, parents, and siblings, and regulates sexuality by helping define with whom we can and cannot mate (in most societies, our brothers, sisters, or parents). These patterns, according to functionalists, help society run smoothly and maintain stability and order, and family as a social institution contrib- utes to social order as a result.
Conflict Theory Conflict theorists recognize that the family produces and socializes children to function efficiently in a capitalist economy, but they see this function as problematic. The nuclear family, a relatively recent historical invention, acts as the primary economic unit in modern capitalist soci- ety, and since conflict theorists see capitalism as oppres- sive, they claim that this form of family contributes to that oppression— and is often understood as an oppressive institution in itself. Conflict theorists believe that society revolves around conflict over scarce resources and that conflict within the family is also about the competition for resources: time, energ y, and the leisure to pursue more interesting recreational activities.
In this analysis, the family can allow exploitation through a sex- based rather than by a class- based division of labor. Conflict perspectives overlap with feminist perspectives on the family, as feminists assume that the family is a gendered social institution and that men and women experience fam- ily differently. In patriarchal societies, men wield greater power than women, both within and outside the family, and women’s contribution to family and society (such as house- hold labor, child rearing, and other traditionally female work) is devalued and unpaid or underpaid (Thorne 1992). Considering men to be “heads of household” and providing them with legal rights that women don’t have (which in some countries include the right to inherit property or to seek a divorce) means that families themselves are places in which women are discriminated against.
Lucy and Ricky I Love Lucy featured real-life married couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. According to symbolic interactionist theories of families, individual marriages are defined by different rules and expectations.
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships366
Feminist theorists question male dominance, both within and outside families (hooks 2003, 2005; MacKinnon 2005, 2006). Why, for example, when heterosexual partners share a home, do we refer to the male partner as the “head of house- hold”? This simple and often taken- for- granted designa- tion bestows upon men the power to make decisions, control financial and other resources, and expect domestic labor and emotional support from the women in their families. This is just one of many elements of family and social structure that tend to privilege men and exploit women, and assump- tions like this about gender in families affect us all. That includes the authors of this textbook. When Dr. Ferris mar- ried her husband, she did not take his last name, but they did want to share joint access to each other’s bank accounts. She arranged with her bank to add her husband’s name to her account, giving them both the authority to sign checks. When the next month’s bank statement was posted, it showed just her husband’s name! Dr. Ferris’s name had been removed from her own financial life once she acquired a male “head of household.” As you might imagine, the bank president got an earful about this error.
Queer theorists further critique traditiona l perspec- tives on family by resisting heteronormativity as well as sexism in their ana lyses (Butler 1999, 2004; Sedg wick 1990, 2014). The ma le head of household example works here, too. If men are assumed to be “heads” of families, who, then, heads nonheterosexua l families? How would gay or lesbian couples determine who is the “head”? What about single women— who heads their households? Neither mas- culinity nor heterosexua lity should be a requirement for individua ls to have power and autonomy within families (or outside them). Feminist and queer theories help us see that more diverse and ega litarian family structures are possible (Oswa ld et a l. 2005).
obligations, and sentiments” that exist within their relation- ships (Gubrium and Buckholdt 1982). Consequently, we are constantly evaluating and reevaluating the attitudes and behaviors of those around us, assigning family status to new people and dismissing others from our circle of meaningful family relations. In All Our Kin, an ethnography of kinship relations in an urban African American community, Carol Stack (1974) found this dynamic at work in the way people talked about family— including this woman, who explained,
Most people kin to me are in this neighborhood$.$.$.$but I got people in the South, in Chicago, and in Ohio too. I couldn’t tell most of their names and most of them aren’t really kinfolk to me.$.$.$.$Take my father, he’s no father to me. I ain’t got but one daddy and that’s Jason. The one who raised me. My kids’ daddies, that’s something else, all their daddies’ people really take to them— they always doing things and making a fuss about them. We help each other out and that’s what kinfolks are all about. (p. 45)
A symbolic interactionist might say that “family members do not merely passively conform to others’ expectations” but rather “actively and creatively construct and modify their roles through interactions” (Dupuis and Smale 2000, p. 311)—that is, the people who help each other out, who care for each other, and who express that care are family, whether or not they are legally or biologically related. Sociologist Philip Cohen (2014) has coined the term “personal family” to describe some of these relationships.
Feminist and Queer Theory Feminist and queer theoretical perspectives on fam- ily address what other sociological perspectives overlook: the interplay of gender and sexuality in family and society.
Perspective Approach to Family Case Study: Marriage
Structural Functionalism
Family performs necessary functions, such as the socialization of children, that help society run smoothly and maintain social order.
Marriage regulates sexuality and forms the basis for family, with all its other functions.
Conflict Theory
Family is a site of various forms of stratification and can produce and reproduce inequalities based on these statuses.
Marriage as a civil right was not extended to all same- sex couples in the United States until 2015. Nontraditional families are still marginalized in many ways, while the nuclear family remains the standard.
Symbolic Interactionism
Family is a social construction; it is created, changed, and maintained in interaction.
Marriage is not made solely by completing a legal contract but is also constructed through the accumulation of everyday interactions between partners over the years. Rules and expectations may vary from one marriage to another.
Table 12.1 Theory in Everyday Life
Mate Selection 367
now meet and converse with people in all parts of the world, so our pool of potential mates moves beyond local bounds. But this technology, while it can weaken the effects of propin- quity, can also intensify the effects of homogamy by bringing together people with very specific interests and identities. Examples include online dating services such as Christian Mingle for Christian singles; OurTime.com for people over age fifty; and Athletic Passions for people into fitness and sports. Online dating giant eHarmony hosts special subsites for black, Hispanic, Asian, and Jewish daters who wish to meet people like themselves. There’s even a service for rural daters called Farmersonly.com!
Courtship, romance, and inti- macy are all influenced by the larger culture— and are also his- torically specific. As an example of how family forms and defini- tions change over time, marriage between people of different racial, ethnic, or national back- grounds was actually prohibited for most of U.S. history. From the time of slavery through the 1960s, mixed- race relationships were considered criminal and were also punished outside the law. Fears of interracial rela- tionships led to the lynching of African American men and the creation of antimiscegenation laws in several states that prohibited the mixing of racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, or sexual interaction (Messerschmidt 1998). The most significant of these laws fell after the 1967 Supreme Court declared that Virginia’s law banning marriage between persons of different races was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment (Loving v. Virginia 1967).
Mate Selection You may think that you are attracted to certain people because of their unique individual characteristics or some- thing intangible called “chemistry.” As Figure 12.1 shows, a majority of Americans say that “love” is what they’re look- ing for most in a mate and is their main reason for marry- ing (Livingston and Caumont 2017). In reality, however, Cupid’s arrow is largely aimed by society. Two time- tested concepts in social science— homogamy and propinquity— tell us a lot about how the mate- selection process works. Homogamy literally means “like marries like”: We tend to choose mates who are similar to us in class, race, ethnicity, age, religion, education, and even levels of attractiveness. Indeed, some groups encourage and even enforce the prac- tice of endogamy by requiring that their members choose mates only from within the group. Such groups may even impose harsh punishments for exogamy, or “marrying out.” You can certainly find examples of people whose romantic relationships cross group and category lines— interracial or interreligious couples, or “May/December” romances— but these relationships are often viewed with disapproval by others in the couples’ social circles. There are consider- able social pressures to adhere to homogamy.
Propinquity refers to geographical proximity: We tend to choose people who live nearby. This is logical; we are likely to find possible mates among the people in our neighborhood, at work, or at school. The Internet makes courtship and romance possible across much greater geographical distances, as we can
100%
88
81
76
49
30
28
23
80%60%40%20%
Love
Making a lifelong commitment
Companionship
Having children
A relationship recognized in a
religious ceremony
0%
Financial stability
For legal rights and benefits
is a very important reason to get married Percentage of Americans who say
Figure 12.1 Top Reasons for Marrying SOURCE: Livingston and Caumont 2017.
Kimye It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court ruled antimiscegenation laws unconstitutional in the landmark Loving v. Virginia. In 2015, 17 percent of newlyweds were in interracial marriages.
HOMOGAMY the tendency to choose romantic partners who are similar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership
ENDOGAMY marriage to someone within one’s social group
EXOGAMY marriage to someone from a different social group
PROPINQUITY the tendency to partner with people who live close by
ANTIMISCEGENATION the prohibition of interracial marriage, cohabitation, or sexual interaction
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships368
Polyandry, in which a woman has multiple husbands, has been documented in Tibet but is the rarer form of polygamy. Polyamory is a type of multiple- person partnership in which each individual, regardless of gender or sexual orien- tation, is in a relationship with each of the other individuals belonging to the group.
While we experience courtship at an individual, inter- actional level, it will always be shaped by macro- structural forces in the larger society, such as racial, ethnic, or religious prejudices and gendered role expectations. But courtship changes as other aspects of the surrounding culture change. As our society becomes less racist, sexist, and heterosexist, romantic options will expand as well. The development of intimate romantic relationships is not something “natural”; it is socially constructed to appear natural.
Relationship Trends Family relationships can take a number of different forms. From being single, to married with— or without— children, to divorced and then remarried, when it comes to modern family relationships, there are many possible outcomes. Relationship trends may also change over time, with some arrangements becoming more widespread while others become less so.
Unmarried Life There’s a pervasive idea in American society that puts mar- riage and family at the center of everyone’s lives, when in fact it’s becoming less and less so. Many people live outside such arrangements. The average American now spends the major- ity of his or her life as unmarried because people live lon- ger, delay marriage, or choose a single lifestyle (Klinenberg 2012b).
The term “single” often implies a young heterosexual adult who is actively seeking a partner for a relationship or marriage. But singles also include people of any sexual ori- entation who live together or are in a relationship without opting to get married, people living alone who are in long- distance relationships, people living in communes, widows and widowers, and some clergy members as well as those who are single as a result of divorce or who simply choose not to have a partner.
Married couples were the dominant model through the 1950s, but their numbers have slipped from nearly 80 per- cent of households in 1960 to 48 percent in 2016 (U.S. Census Bureau 2017f ). Married couples with children— the tra- ditional model of family— totaled less than 20 percent of households in 2016, and that number is projected to drop. The remaining households are single parents, cohabiting partners, or others. A stunning 28 percent of all households in 2016 consisted of people who live alone (Figure 12.2), and unmarried people have been the majority in the United States since 2005 (U.S. Census Bureau 2017a).
While once uncommon, mixed- race unions are becom- ing more commonplace. In 1980, just 3 percent of all married people had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity. That share had more than tripled— to 10 percent of all married people— by 2015. Interracial marriage rates are even higher among new- lyweds: In 2015, 17 percent of newlyweds had a spouse of a dif- ferent race (Livingston and Brown 2017). The most dramatic increases are seen among black newlyweds; from 1980 to 2015, the share who married someone of a different race rose from 5 percent to 18 percent. Whites, too, are intermarrying more often, with their rates rising from 4 percent to 11 per- cent. Asians and Hispanics are the most likely to intermarry: 29 percent of Asian and 27 percent of Hispanic newlyweds in 2015 were married to someone of a different race.
Attitudes about interracial marriage are changing as well. The number of Americans who say that marrying someone of a different race is good for society rose from 24 percent in 2010 to 39 percent in 2017 (Livingston and Brown 2017). Younger Americans are even more positive about people of differ-
ent races marrying each other; roughly half of all Millenials view this as a positive trend (Pew Research Center 2014a). Mixed- race couples still face prejudice and discrimination, but opposi- tion to interracial marriage has decreased dramatically.
As one of the most high- profile issues of the past decade, same- sex marriage has under- gone a similar transformation. The United States was deeply divided over the issue, with some states passing bans on same- sex marriage and others making it legal. In 2015, the Supreme
Court ruled that such bans were unconstitutional, effec- tively allowing gays and lesbians to marry nationwide. Of course, not all gay and lesbian partners will want to marry. And some queer couples were already able to marry without any changes in the law— a cisgender woman and her trans- gender male partner, for example (Pfeffer 2012). Finally, nei- ther LGBTQ nor heterosexual persons need legal marriage to form romantic relationships or establish families. So the notion that marriage is the basis for family— as well as the traditional definitions of marriage and family— are called into question by modern family trends.
Monogamy, or marrying only one individual at a time, is still considered the only legal form of marriage in modern Western culture. Polygamy, or having multiple spouses, may be practiced among some subcultures around the world but is not widely acknowledged as a legitimate form of marriage. The more commonly known form of polygamy is polygyny, in which a man is married to multiple wives.
MONOGAMY the practice of marrying (or being in a relationship with) one person at a time
POLYGAMY a system of marriage that allows people to have more than one spouse at a time
POLYGYNY a system of marriage that allows men to have multiple wives
POLYANDRY a system of marriage that allows women to have multiple husbands
POLYAMORY a system of multiple- person partnership
Relationship Trends 369
Because marriage has for so long been seen as the nor- mative basis for families and households, unmarried people can sometimes feel as if the world is organized specifica lly to exclude them. Indeed, single people are usua lly charged more for auto and hea lth insurance than married people; some ta x breaks are only available to married couples, and even hotel rooms and vacation packages are usua lly advertised with “double occupancy ” rates. Single people routinely grumble about relatives who ask when they are going to “settle down and get married.” Since those who live a lone are more likely to be older women (Klinenberg 2012b, p. 5), they may experience multiple forms of discrimination at once.
But as the number of people who live alone increases, so does their potential power to change a society in which they are no longer a minority. Among the growing movement of activ- ists promoting the rights of unmarried people in the United States is the nonprofit group Unmarried Equality. The group engages in research, edu- cation, and advocacy for unmarried and single adults of all types and are concerned about the discrimination that is built into the American social system, especially at an eco- nomic and political level but also in terms of culture and values. One of their efforts is to increase the recognition of unmarrieds and singles as a constituency of voters, workers, taxpayers, and consumers worthy of equal rights and protection.
Single and Solo Parenting Although some people become single parents through divorce or death, others choose to go solo and have children without the support of a committed partner— through adop- tion, artificial insemination, or surrogacy. Attitudes about
Some unmarried couples live together before or instead of being married. Demographers call this cohabitation. Cohabitation has become increasingly commonplace: In 1996, just 3 percent of U.S. adults lived with an unmarried partner. Today, more than 18 million people— or 7 percent of U.S. adults— are living with an unmarried partner (U.S. Census Bureau 2017g). While this proportion is still relatively small compared to the 51 percent of U.S. adults who are married, it represents a 30 percent increase in the number of U.S. adults cohabiting just in the last ten years (Stepler 2017). A possible reason for this rise in cohabitation may be the growing economic independence of individuals today, resulting in less financial motivation for marriage as a legal contract. Changing attitudes about religion have also made sexual relationships outside marriage more socially acceptable.
Cohabitation is most common among young adults twenty- five to thirty- four years of age. Today, nearly three- quarters of women between the ages of twenty- five and twenty- nine have cohabited at some point (Lamidi and Manning 2016). It’s worth noting that cohabitation is also growing among older Americans; adults fifty years of age or older make up 23 per- cent of all cohabiting couples (Stepler 2017). Cohabitors are also comprised of the largest number of interracial couples: 18 percent of cohabiting adults live with a partner of another race or ethnicity (Livingston 2017).
Marriage is no longer the prerequisite for childbearing. In 2015, nearly 40 percent of all births were to unmarried women. A significant majority (58 percent) of premarital births, however, are to cohabiting couples (Curtin, Ventura, and Martinez 2014). More than a third of opposite- sex cohab- iting couples have children, while about 14 percent of same- sex male cohabiting couples and 26 percent of same- sex female cohabiting couples have children (Krivickas and Lofquist 2011; U.S. Census Bureau 2017h).
Married couples 48.2%
Cohabiting couples
6.7%
Single parents 10.8%
Living alone 28.0%
Other 6.3%
Figure 12.2 Households by Type, 2016
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau 2017f.
Cohabiting Couples On the TV show Insecure, Issa Rae’s character tackles relationship issues with her live-in boyfriend. Cohabitation has become much more commonplace, especially among young adults between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four.
COHABITATION living together as a romantic couple without being married
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships370
children. Even so, the number of single dads has increased almost tenfold since 1960, and this increase seems likely to continue.
Regardless of the circumstances of single parenting, rais- ing children without the help of a partner is challenging. Financially, physically, and emotionally, single parents must perform a task that was traditionally shared by a community rather than an individual.
Blended Families Most divorced people will eventually marry someone else. In fact, four in ten new marriages involve at least one partner who was married before (Livingston 2014). Consequently, about one in six children today is living in a blended family or stepfamily (Pew Research Center 2015f ). However, statistics about stepfamilies are inconsistent and often contradictory because it is difficult to quantify and define the intricate rela- tionships involved in a stepfamily. The U.S. Census has not routinely accounted for them in its data gathering.
There are no traditional norms or models for stepfami- lies, and our firmly held notions of the “traditional” family lead many in stepfamilies to find the transition to a new fam- ily situation difficult. Stepfamilies face special challenges, for example, when there are children in different stages of the life cycle. The needs and concerns of teenagers may be vastly different from those of their infant half brother or half sister, and it may take more work to adjust to the new living situation. With the added challenges of blending in- laws, finances, and households, remarriages are even more likely to end in divorce than first marriages. However, in success- ful remarriages, partners are usually older and have learned
solo mothers vary greatly and often depend on the mother’s age, education level, occupation, income, and support net- work of friends and extended family members. Women with more of these resources, including solo celebrity moms like Sandra Bullock, Charlize Theron, and Sheryl Crow, may be subject to less criticism for “going it alone” than women who are younger, earn less money, and have less education or social support.
A prevailing middle- class assumption about single moth- ers is that young women in the inner city become mothers to access welfare benefits. Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas (2005) spent five years doing in- depth research with 162 low- income single mothers to understand their attitudes about parenthood and marriage. They dispelled the myth that these women become mothers to cash in on welfare benefits and instead found that for these young women, having a baby is a symbol of belonging and being valued. While becoming a lawyer or a CEO may seem like a pipe dream, being a good mother is an accessible role that can generate respect and admiration in the community.
Single- parent households vary significantly by race. In 2016, 26 percent of white families with children under eigh- teen were single- parent families compared with 60 percent of black families (U.S. Census Bureau 2017e). This means that black children are much more likely to be raised by a single parent: In 2016, 22 percent of white children were living with a single parent compared to 55 percent of black children. Of the 11.8 million single- parent households in the United States, a little more than 2 million are headed by single men. Solo dads face dilemmas similar to those faced by single moms, but with the added suspicion and stigma surrounding society’s notions of men who spend time with
Modern Families The Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan on Modern Family is a large blended family of stepparents, step-siblings, half-siblings, and stepchildren. Today, about one in six children is living in a blended family.
Breaking Up 371
about 30 percent of parents remained at about the same state of happiness or better after they had a baby, while the rest experienced some drop in their overall well- being. Another study showed that childfree couples are happier in their rela- tionships and more satisfied with their partners than couples with children (Gabb et al. 2013).
Breaking Up Although many people stay in unsatisfying marriages or other relationships, couples break up every day. In this section, we consider the changing patterns of breakups, divorces, and remarriages as they affect children and adults. We also look at the resulting issues of custody, visitation, and child support.
In 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that nearly 134 million persons were married while more than 25 mil- lion were divorced. Thus, in 2016 about 55 percent of the population over age eighteen were married while about 10 percent were divorced (U.S. Census Bureau 2017a). The percentage of married people who have divorced has greatly increased since 1950, but it is not accurate to say that approximately 50 percent of all marriages now end in divorce, although that myth persists (Miller 2014). In fact, the divorce rate actually decreased by 25 percent from 1980 to 2015 (Anderson 2016).
About 57 percent of those who divorce will eventually marry other people (Livingston 2014). There is a gender gap in remarriage patterns, with 64 percent of previously mar- ried men having remarried compared to 52 percent of pre- viously married women. This gender gap may be explained by the fact that married women are less happy than single women and their married male husbands. According to soci- ologist Lisa Wade (2017), women are more likely to file for divorce, and when they do, they are happier as divorcees than they were when married (while the opposite is true for men). Remarriage rates among younger Americans in the United States are actually significantly lower now than they were in 1960; the opposite is true of older adults (Livingston 2014). This may be due to a number of factors, including an increase in cohabitation among unmarried couples.
The work of sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger (2003) has focused on studying the divorce cycle, or the tendency of divorce to run in families. In the early 1970s, the children of divorced parents were more than three times more likely to divorce than their peers from intact families, but those fig- ures dropped to about one and a half times by the mid- 1990s. Still, this seemed to indicate a strong pattern of intergen- erational transmission of divorce. Wolfinger and others have speculated that every family structure transition (such as divorce or remarriage) that children experience in their fam- ily of origin cumulatively increases the likelihood of negative outcomes for those children. Other research has quantified
important lessons about compatibility and relationship maintenance from the failure of their first marriages.
Some partners in gay and lesbian couples have a hetero- sexual marriage (and divorce) in their past. While it is diffi- cult to estimate, one study hypothesized that approximately 4 percent of heterosexual marriages have one gay or bisexual partner (Laumann et al. 1994). While not all these marriages end in divorce, when they do, the gay partner becomes free to form a new family with the partner of his or her choice, just as the heterosexual partner does. So while the majority of blended families are heterosexual, some will be “mixed ori- entation” and include stepparents of more than one sexual orientation.
Childfree Living Having children used to be seen as a mandate and being childless a tragedy— especially for women. We still cling to this imperative: 90 percent of adults surveyed in a 2013 poll either had children or wanted them (Reyes 2013). But because men and women (gay and straight, married and unmarried) now have more choice than ever about whether to have children, a growing number are choosing to live “childfree” rather than “childless.” In 2014, 15 percent of women between the ages of forty and forty- four didn’t have any children, up from 10 percent in the mid- 1970s (Livings- ton 2015). There are many reasons people opt out of parent- hood: Children are expensive and exhausting, and raising them takes energ y away from other things that individuals may value more, such as careers, avocations, and other rela- tionships. Others describe not having children as an ethi- cally responsible decision not to add to the world’s growing population (Blackstone 2014).
Childfree adults field all sorts of exasperating questions about their lives, from “Wait, don’t you like kids?” to “Oh, that’s too bad you can’t get pregnant” to “Who is going to take care of you when you get old?” and the classic, “Well, that’s just selfish.” In fact, people who remain childfree may love kids, be quite fertile, be generous with others, and have a perfectly good plan in place for their retirement years; they just don’t want to raise kids. But childfree people— especially women— are stigmatized for their choice and are often the object of pity, suspicion, and discrimination. Researcher Laura Scott (2009) describes our society as “pronatalist,” meaning that our cultural values support childbearing and child rearing as the normative and preferred practice, and those who choose to remain childfree must battle against the judgments others make about them based on their nonconformity.
Despite the pervasive idea that parenthood brings greater joy to life, in reality, having a child can have a fairly strong negative impact on a person’s happiness. The effect of a new baby during the first two years of its life can be more devas- tating to parents than a divorce, unemployment, or even the death of their partner (Margolis and Myrskylä 2015). Only
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships372
If you’ve read this far in this chapter, you’ve probably already gotten the sociological message: Families don’t “just happen.” They are the product of interactional work. When most peo- ple say it takes “work” to make a family, they just mean it takes effort. But for the social workers, caregivers, child psychologists, lawyers, and others who are employed in the foster care and adoption systems, “making” families is what they do for a living.
In the United States today there are more than 425,000 children in foster care and more than 2 million adopted chil- dren. These children come from an extraordinarily diverse set of circumstances and backgrounds. They are different ages, have different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and are even from different parts of the world. What they all have in com- mon is that a social worker or someone else from the helping professions worked to make them part of a family. For about 55 percent of the children in foster care the case plan is to reunite them with their parents or guardians. Another 25 per- cent are awaiting adoption, and the rest have less common case plans, like emancipation (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2016). For these kids, a social worker is going to play an important role in their lives.
Judith Schagrin, who spent her career working for Baltimore County Children’s Services, compares a foster care placement to an “arranged marriage” and “like arranged marriages, some- times they work out and sometimes they’re just a bad match” (Green 2016). Social workers must spend time getting to know the children they represent as well as the prospective foster families while often juggling very full caseloads. When people think about the problems associated with foster care, usually they think about children being abused by foster parents. Such abuse is always tragic, but it is also quite rare. On an everyday basis, social workers are focused on finding foster parents who are a good fit and can provide children with safety and stability.
According to the 2010 Census, 2.3 percent of all children in the United States are adopted. Some of these adoptions involve stepparents who adopt the children of a new spouse, but there are still about 1.8 million adopted children who live in a household without either of their biological parents (Vandivere et al. 2009). Although the numbers have slowed in recent years, as many as 25 percent of those children were adopted internationally. Not all international adoptions result in interracial families, but they often do: 40 percent of adop- tive families “were involved in a transracial, transethnic, or transcultural adoption” (Kreider and Lofquist 2010).
Transracial adoptions (where the race or ethnicity of the adopted child is different than the race or ethnicity of the parents) illustrates the challenges faced by social workers who facilitate and monitor adoptions. While everyone agrees
ON THE JOB When Building Families Is Part of Your Job
that social workers should be screening adoptive parents to make sure they’ll provide a loving, supportive, and welcoming home, the situation gets more complicated when you have to define terms like “supportive.” For instance, should parents be encouraged to adopt across racial or ethnic lines? The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1995 made it easier to match prospective adoptees with parents from a different racial background, but debate remains over whether race and cul- ture should be considered when building families (Kreider and Lofquist 2010).
The adoption process is long and complicated and social workers are there from start to finish. They start by leading training sessions in which families learn about adoption and the important issues surrounding it— for example, how to talk about adoption with children and other family members, what to expect in cases of international or interracial adoption, or how to maintain an open relationship with an adopted child’s birth family. Then they screen the prospective parents and take them through the extensive state licensing procedures that will qualify them to adopt a child. They interview prospective par- ents about their desire to adopt, their family life, and their hopes for the future. This stage of the process includes visiting their homes to make sure they can provide a safe environment, col- lecting letters of recommendation from friends and employers, and even obtaining veterinary clearances on the family pets!
Despite the vital importance of this work, social workers are perpetually in short supply. It is estimated that over the next fifteen to twenty years the United States will experience a shortfall of more than 195,000 social workers (Lin, Lin, and Zhang 2016). So if you’re interested in the helping profes- sions, you can have an incredibly rewarding profession and job security.
Fostering Families The TV show The Fosters features a multiethnic blended family of a biological child, adopted twins, and two foster children.
The Work of Family 373
custodial parents. Sociologists have found that many parents make informal arrangements or decisions without the mediation of the legal system about child support schedules soon after the divorce (Grall 2016; Peters et al. 1993) and the stability of pay- ments varies substantially, even among the most reliable payers (Meyer and Bartfeld 1998).
As children are more likely to live in poverty after their parents’ divorce, child sup- port policies are important. Women are more likely to suf- fer downward economic mobility after divorce, especially if they retain custody of their children. In 2013, the poverty rate for custodial- mother families was 31 percent, compared to 17 percent for custodial- father families (Grall 2016). Fur- stenberg, Hoffman, and Shrestha (1995) found that women experience on average a 25 percent decline in their eco- nomic well- being after a divorce. Accompanying this post- divorce decline in financial resources are often scholastic failure, disruptive conduct, and troubled relationships in children of divorced families (Keith and Finlay 1988; Mor- rison and Cherlin 1995). However, it is not clear whether these behavior problems are the effect of the divorce itself or of the problems that led up to the divorce. Jui- Chung Allen Li (2007), a researcher for the R AND Corporation, found that if the behavior of children is compared before and then after divorce, the divorce itself has very little impact on their grades or conduct.
The Work of Family When we think of work, we usually think of activities done for a paycheck. But paid labor is not the only type of work that sociologists are interested in— especially in the study of fam- ily. Many types of work— both paid and unpaid— are neces- sary to keep a family operating: child care, housecleaning, car maintenance, cooking, bill paying, helping with homework, and doing laundry— the list seems endless, especially when you are the one doing the work!
These tasks can be instrumental or expressive. Instru- mental tasks generally achieve a tangible goal (washing the dishes, fixing the gutters), whereas expressive tasks gener- ally achieve emotional or relational goals (remembering rela- tives’ birthdays, playing Chutes and Ladders with the kids). In a real- world family, however, much of the work has both instrumental and expressive elements. The expressive work of remembering and celebrating birthdays, for example, includes all sorts of instrumental tasks, such as buying presents, writ- ing cards, and baking cakes (Di Leonardo 1987; Pleck 2000).
Instrumental tasks, such as cooking dinner, include expressive elements as well. As a social scientist committed
this factor, noting that each parental breakup experienced while growing up increases the odds of those children dis- solving their own adult relationships by 16 percent (Amato and Patterson 2016). According to Wolfinger (2017), “If you experience relationships as transitory while growing up, that’s what you’ll do as an adult.” It is important to note, how- ever, that transitions in the structure of one’s family of origin are but one of many factors that determine how children of divorce fare in their own marriages.
Legalization of same- sex marriage now presents the pos- sibility of divorce for gay and lesbian couples as well. Since all U.S. states and territories recognize such marriages, they should also allow for legal reciprocity when it comes to divorce. Because same- sex marriage is relatively new, there is not as yet a lot of data on divorce rates. Although early research indicates that about 1 percent of same- sex couples divorce per year, compared with 2 percent of heterosexual couples, these data are disputed (Badgett and Mallory 2014).
Divorce isn’t the only way to break up, of course. And since not all couples opt to marry, their breakups are not required to occur within the legal framework of divorce. Divorce laws can help streamline the process for those who are married, while those who are not married must cobble together a package of separate legal contracts that meets their needs as well as their children’s needs.
Custody, Visitation, and Child Support Reviewing the legal policies that address the consequences of parental breakups for children, sociologists are concerned with whether custody, visitation, and child support effec- tively replace the resources, both emotional and financial, of a two- person household. Do they help children?
Custody is the physical and legal responsibility for the everyday life and routines of children. In previous decades it was mothers who were disproportionately awarded sole cus- tody of children. But more recently there has been a dramatic shift toward shared custody between both parents (Cancian and Meyer 1998; Cancian et al. 2014). By 2008, mother sole- custody had declined from a high of 80 percent to just 42 per- cent. This decline reflects an increase in shared custody from 5 percent to 27 percent of all cases. There has been little change in father sole- custody, which has remained at about 10 percent.
Courts award visitation to noncustodial parents to protect parent– child relationships. Generally, parents with regular visitation patterns are better able to meet the psychologi- cal and financial needs of their children. Fathers who visit regularly are more likely to maintain strong relationships with their children and to pay child support (Seltzer, Schaef- fer, and Charng 1989). Despite increased vigilance of courts and lawmakers regarding mandated child support policies, noncustodial parents often fail to make regular payments to
CUSTODY the physical and legal responsibility of caring for children; assigned by a court for divorced or unmarried parents
INSTRUMENTAL TASKS the practical physical tasks necessary to maintain family life
EXPRESSIVE TASKS the emotional work necessary to support family members
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships374
they were a time of tension and arguments, or perhaps the family rarely ate a meal together.
In this Data Workshop, you will be doing participant observation research and writing a short ethnography on mealtime activity. See Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. You will pick two different mealtime settings or situations to examine. You can choose from among a range of possibilities, including the following:
✱ Which mea l you study— breakfast, lunch, or dinner
✱ Where the meal takes place— in your family home, at a friend’s or a relative’s house, at your own apart- ment or dormitory dining hall, or at a workplace lunchroom, picnic in the park, or restaurant
✱ Who is eating the meal— family members, room- mates, friends, co- workers, or strangers
After you do the participant observation at the two meal- times, write some field notes and answer the following questions in as much detail as you can. These field notes will serve as data for your analysis:
✱ What are the prevailing rules, ritua ls, norms, and va lues associated with the setting and situation? For example, does everyone sit down to eat at the
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Comparative Mealtime Some of us carry a strong and positive image of our family gathered around the dining room table for dinner each evening. While we were growing up, dinner may
have been the one time in the day when the whole family was together and shared food, stories, lessons, and news. For many of us, a great deal of socialization took place around the dinner table; we learned about manners (“Sit up straight,” “Don’t speak with your mouth full”) as well as morality, politics, or anything else that seemed important to the adults raising us. Some of us, on the other hand, may have different memories of family mealtimes. Perhaps
to making the invisible labor of family visible, Marjorie DeVault (1991/1994) excavates all the knowledge, skills, and practices— both instrumental and expressive— we take for granted when we feed our families. Not only is the knowledge of cooking needed, but also the necessary shopping must be done to stock the kitchen; to make meals that account for family members’ likes, dislikes, and allergies; and to create varied and balanced menus. Producing meals that please, satisfy, and bring individuals together is just one of the ways that family is created and sustained through interactional work— both instrumental and expressive. We constitute family in and through meals and every other mundane activ- ity of everyday life.
What’s for Dinner? Compare these two family meals. What do our mealtime practices tell us about contemporary American families?
The Work of Family 375
need to cook a meal, do some laundry and cleaning, and take care of your children or perhaps your elderly parents. Who is more likely to come home to this scenario? When you ask young couples, 67 percent say that sharing household chores is key to a successful marriage (Geiger 2016). But is that what’s actually happening? Let’s look at the division of labor within the household.
Men and women have always performed different roles to ensure the survival of their families, but these roles were not considered unequal until after the Industrial Revolution. At that time, men began to leave their homes to earn wages working in factories. Women remained at home to take care of children and carry out other domestic responsibilities. As men’s earned wages replaced subsistence farming— in which women had always participated— these wages became the primary mechanism for providing food, clothing, and shelter for families, thus giving men economic power over women. In more recent decades, however, most families require a two- person income in order to make ends meet. So now most women work too.
Despite women’s increasing participation in the paid workforce, they are still more likely to perform the bulk of household and caregiving labor. A study of working couples and parents by A rlie Hochschild and A nne Machung (1989) found that women were indeed working two jobs: paid labor outside the home, or the f irst shif t, and unpaid labor inside the home, or the second shift. In a few cases, men share house- hold chores equitably or even do more than their partners (Coltrane 1997), but in most cases women bear the brunt of unpaid household labor. Hochs- child and Machung ’s obser vations were groundbrea king in their ana lysis of post- feminist families. Despite the gains of the women’s movement, couples were still divid- ing the household labor a long traditiona l gender lines. Ste- reoty pica l “women’s work ” is usua lly more labor intensive, consisting of chores such as grocer y shopping, washing dishes, cooking, laundr y, and child care, while men tend to do more occasiona l or sporadic outdoor ( yard) work and auto and home repairs. The women in the study tried numerous strategies to achieve ba lance between work and home: hiring other women to clean their houses and care for their children; relying on friends or family members for help; refusing to do certain chores, especia lly those consid- ered to be genera lly “men’s work ”; lowering their expecta- tions for cleanliness or qua lity of child care; or reducing the number of hours they worked outside the home. But some women accept their dua l workloads without any help to avoid conf licts with spouses and children. Hochschild and Machung ca lled these women “Supermoms” but a lso found that these “Supermoms” of ten felt unhappy or emo- tiona lly numb.
same time? Do people leave after they finish even if others are still eating ? Do you need to get in line to order or pay for food?
✱ What kinds of complementary roles are the various participants engaged in? Who cooks the food, sets the table, clears the table, does the dishes, and so forth? Or are you served in a cafeteria or restaurant?
✱ What other types of activities (besides eating) are taking place at mealtime? Are people watching TV, listening to music or a ballgame, reading the news- paper, or texting?
✱ What social purposes does the setting or situation serve other than providing a mealtime environment for the participants? For example, what do the par- ticipants talk about? If children are involved, do they talk about school or their friends? Are family activ- ities or problems discussed? What kinds of interac- tions do you see among co- workers or roommates?
Further analyze your field notes to identify patterns within each setting and meal. What are the similarities and differences between settings and meals? How do participants make these mealtimes meaningful as social events?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Make the mealtime observations and prepare some written notes about your preliminary findings that you can refer to during class. Get together with one or two other students and discuss your research. Compare the analyses of the different meals observed by the group members. What are the similarities and differ- ences in your findings? What patterns emerge from the data gathered by the entire group?
DO- IT- YOURSELF Complete the research process. Write a three- to four- page essay answering the questions provided and reflecting on your own experience in con- ducting this study. What do you think your observations tell us about contemporary Americans and the practices and functions of mealtimes? Don’t forget to attach your field notes to your essay.
SECOND SHIFT the unpaid housework and child care often expected of women after they finish their day’s paid labor
Gender, Sexuality, and Family Labor Imagine working a labor- intensive forty to sixty hours wait- ing tables, making automobile parts, doing data entry, or teaching second graders. You arrive home feeling tired, hun- gry, and worn out, but you cannot sit down to relax. You still
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships376
more work hours tend to take responsibility for stereotypi- cal male chores. Perhaps it indicates progress that there is growing dissatisfaction with these arrangements among both women and men.
With the increasing visibility of same- sex couples, alter- native models are now available for comparison. In same- sex couples, the household chores can’t be unequally distributed by gender, but they aren’t always divided equally, either. We might ask, then, what principle do they use to divide respon- sibilities? In some respects, same- sex couples have already broken out of the normative family structure that still applies to hetero couples. This may allow them to be more creative in determining how the work of family gets done. Research indicates that same- sex couples tend to communicate better, share duties more fairly, and assign chores based on personal preference rather than by gender, income, or hours worked (Matos 2015). Importantly, same- sex couples are more likely to share equally the most time- consuming work of child care. Although this doesn’t mean that everything is split 50-50 or that getting closer to that ratio is the key to a happy relation- ship, communicating about chores and feeling heard by one’s partner are key to creating the most satisfaction in either same- sex or opposite- sex couples.
And while there is very little sociological research on trans families, scholar Carla Pfeffer’s (2012, 2014) studies of cisgender women in partnership with transgender men com- plicate things even further. In these queer families, the des- ignations of gay/straight, male/female, wife/husband, and mother/father are nonnormative, making it problematic to ask if the women/wives/mothers are disproportionally tak- ing on the “second shift.” How do we categorize the labor of a child’s biological mother (childbearing, breastfeeding, and other child- care activities, especially in the early months) when the same person may also be the child’s legal father? Same- sex and trans families can help us reframe the work of family and perhaps organize it differently in the future. After all, everybody’s time is valuable.
Family and the Life Course As an agent of socialization and the most basic of primary groups, the family molds everyone— young children, teenag- ers, adults, and senior citizens— and its influences continue throughout the life course.
When we are children, our families provide us with our first lessons in how to be members of society. Children’s expe- riences are shaped by family size, birth order, presence or absence of parents, socioeconomic status, and other sociologi- cal variables. Dalton Conley’s 2004 work, The Pecking Order, maintains that inequality between siblings; things outside the family’s control, such as the economy, war, illness, and death; and marital discord affect each child at different stages in his
Although Hochschild and Machung’s observations were groundbreaking in their analysis of post- feminist fami- lies, their concept of the “Supermom” has been applicable to working- class mothers all along. The stay- at- home parent is possible only when one salary can support the entire fam- ily. Before college- educated women were encouraged to work in the paid labor force, working- class women were there out of necessity. The strategies that middle- class women use to negotiate their second shift are available only to wealthier families. After all, a woman who cleans another family’s house and takes care of their children rarely has the finan- cial resources to hire someone to do the same for her. And so the second shift is present in working- class homes as well (Miller and Sassler 2012), with women rarely getting the priv- ilege of “downtime” that men enjoy.
More recent studies have found little change: Tradi- tional gender roles still influence the domestic lives of work- ing families. Among dual- earner couples, gender, income, and the number of hours worked outside the home were all predictive of how household responsibilities were divided (Matos 2015). Women, lower earners, and those with fewer work hours tend to take responsibility for stereotypical female chores, whereas men, higher earners, and those with
Supermom For many American women, “work” doesn’t end when they leave the workplace. On returning home, many begin what Arlie Hochschild calls “the second shift,” doing the unpaid work of running a household, including doing the laundry, feeding the children, and helping with homework.
Family and the Life Course 377
When people talk about the disappearance of the nuclear family, they are usually referring to the divorce rate, but, especially for the Baby Boom generation, families are chang- ing in other ways as well. Traditionally, becoming middle- aged was associated with the “midlife crisis” but also with maturity, wisdom, and increased professional skills. While this might seem like a contradiction, changes in the nature of the family make these qualities seem more like a neces- sity! Increasing numbers of middle- aged people are becom- ing members of a “sandwich generation,” adults who provide material and emotional support for both young children and older living parents (Lachman 2004, p. 322). This effect is magnified by the increasing number of so- called boomerang kids, who leave home at eighteen to attend college but often return home for at least a short period of time afterward.
Both of these dynamics are being driven less by choice than by demographic and economic necessity. In 1970, the average age at first marriage was less than twenty- one for women and a little over twenty- three for men. In 2016, the median age at first marriage for women was 27.4, and for men it was 29.5 (U.S. Census Bureau 2017i). As a result, people are having children later, increasing the chances that child rearing and elder care will overlap. Advances in life expectancy also con- tribute to the sandwich effect; many of the medical advances that allow people to live longer also increase their need for material support.
While there have always been adults caring for their elderly parents, never before have there been this many elderly. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of the “oldest old,” those eighty- five and older, increased 30 per- cent between 2000 and 2010, while the total U.S. population grew by only 10 percent during that time (Werner 2011).
Meanwhile, between tuition increases, student loans, and the slow job market, students leaving college are more likely to need help from their parents than ever before. In 1980, less than 9 percent of all individuals between twenty- five and thirty- four lived with their parents. By 2016, this pro- portion had increased to 15 percent, still a small group but one that has increased significantly during the past three decades (Fry 2017).
Members of the sandwich generation have found them- selves with more responsibilities than ever before. Not only are their parents living longer, but medical costs associated with old age are growing rapidly, and often they have chil- dren, of all ages, still dependent on them as well. Never before has there been a substantial cohort of Americans so directly burdened with such a wide range of family responsibilities.
However, in some ways, the more the sandwich generation adults and the boomerang kids change the family, the more they stay the same, especially in the way that gender roles manifest themselves. Even among eighteen- to twenty- four- year- olds, boys are more likely to live at home than girls. While men and women might be driven by the same finan- cial troubles, moving back in with her parents has different consequences for a woman. She is likely to be asked to take on more domestic responsibilities, and typically she feels a greater loss of independence.
Gender functions in similar ways for the sandwich genera- tion, as it is still mostly women who are called on to provide the emotional and instrumental support for elderly parents, even when those women also work. In fact, “working women who do take on caregiving tasks may reduce their work hours” (Velkoff and Lawson 1998, p. 2), finding themselves having to prioritize family over career in ways men often do not.
Despite the many costs associated with being a member of the sandwich generation, there is good news as well. Although there are challenges associated with “dual responsibilities,” these are mostly experienced as “a ‘squeeze’ but not stress,” and these relationships are also a source of happiness and well- being (Lachman 2004, p. 322). And while there is still a certain stigma associated with moving back in with your par- ents, the fact that so many are willing to do so suggests that today’s boomerang kids may enjoy closer relationships with their parents than did the kids of previous generations.
IN RELATIONSHIPS From Boomerang Kids to the Sandwich Generation
The Sandwich Generation With four generations under one roof, the LaRock and Bruno families are an extreme example of the sandwich generation, where adults provide support for both young children and aging parents.
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships378
resources; in 2016, 9.3 percent of adults sixty- five and older lived below the poverty line (Semega, Fontenot, and Kollar 2017). Some seniors solve the problems by living with their adult children or with nonfamily members; even so, in 2016, 35 percent of women and 20 percent of men age sixty- five and older lived alone. The proportion of older adults living alone increases with age, with nearly half (46 percent) of women age seventy- five and older doing so in 2016 (Administration on Aging 2016).
Like other traditional functions of the family (such as edu- cating children), care of the elderly is no longer a primary duty of family and has been taken over by other institutions: Some senior citizens will spend time in a nursing home, being housed and cared for by people other than their family members. In 2015, approximately 1.5 million seniors ages sixty- five years and older, or about 3 percent, lived in institutional settings such as nursing homes. These numbers increase dramatically with age; approximately 9 percent of people ages eighty- five and older live in such institutional settings (Administration on Aging 2016).
Coping with the transitions of retirement, loss of one’s partner, declining health, and death are central tasks for seniors. However, as the average life span extends, the elderly are also taking on new roles in society. Many live healthy, vibrant, active lives and are engaged with their families and communities in ways that are productive for both the indi- vidual and the person’s groups.
Trouble in Families While families are often a place of comfort, support, and unconditional love, some are not a “haven in a heartless world” (Lasch 1977). The family may be where we are at the greatest risk— emotionally, socially, and physically. “People are more likely to be killed, physically assaulted, sexually victimized$.$.$.$in their own homes by other family members than anywhere else, or by anyone else, in our society” (Gelles 1995, p. 450).
The concept of private nuclear families did not emerge in the United States until the early 1900s. In colonial times, child rearing was a collective effort in which community lead- ers and neighbors often overruled parental decisions about children. In the late 1800s, mothers looked to other mothers for advice about their children (Coontz 2000). Mothers’ jour- nals at the time show that the opinions of other women were often more important than the husband’s in family decisions. Not until the 1900s did the isolated nuclear family become the ideal in the minds of Americans. Because of current social norms about the privacy of family life, and because the family is the site of unequal power relations and intense feelings, the circumstances for trouble and violence are ripe.
Domestic abuse is an umbrella term for a variety of behaviors that involve violence or abuse within a household setting. Domestic abuse may be aimed at an intimate partner
or her life, resulting in different experiences for each child. Con- ley argues that family proves not to be the consistent influence many people view it to be.
In addition, the presence of children shapes the lives of par-
ents. Relationship satisfaction tends to decline when there are small children in the house, and heterosexual couples’ gendered division of labor becomes more traditional when children are born, even if it has been nontraditional up to that point. As children get older, they may exert other types of influence on their parents— for example, children can pres- sure their parents to quit smoking or eat healthier food. And, of course, later in life, they may be called on to care for their elderly parents as well as their own offspring— a phenomenon known as “the sandwich generation” effect.
Aging in the Family The American population is aging. The number of Ameri- cans sixty- five or older is growing twice as fast as the popu- lation as a whole (Werner 2011). This is because the Baby Boom generation (the large number of Americans born in the post– World War II era) is moving into middle age and beyond, concurrent with advances in medical technology. Average life expectancy in the United States was nearly seventy- nine (with women living an average of five years longer than men) in 2015. More people are living longer, and that has an impact on families and society.
Planning for an aging population means taking into account both the basic and special needs of older individu- als. Retirement income is an important part of this planning. Social Security benefits are the major source of income for most of the elderly in the United States. Without other sources of income, retired citizens may find themselves with limited
DOMESTIC ABUSE any physical, verbal, financial, sexual, or psychological behaviors abusers use to gain and maintain power over their victims
The New Senior Citizen More people are living longer and leading vibrant, active lives. Robert Marchand is a centarian who still cycles competitively.
Trouble in Families 379
than those in higher socioeco- nomic groups. Age and economic security, however, do not make someone immune to abuse.
Contrary to popular opin- ion, most abusive partners are neither “out of control” nor have “anger management problems” in the traditional sense. They often seem charming and calm to co- workers, friends, and police officers; they deliberately decide to be violent with those least likely to report the crime and over whom they maintain the most control: their family members. IPV results from the abuser’s desire for power over the victim, and abus- ers often blame their victims: I wouldn’t have beaten you if dinner had been on time, or if you hadn’t been ‘flirting’ with the sales associate at the mall. One abuser is reported to have said to police officers, “Yes, I hit her five or six times, but it was only to calm her down” (Scutt 2003).
A four- stage cycle of violence seems to occur in almost every abusive relationship. In the first stage, the abusive
or at other members of the family, especially children or elders. Abusers use a variety of behaviors to gain and main- tain control over their victims. These behaviors fall into five main categories: physical (slapping, punching, kicking, chok- ing, shoving, restraining), verbal (insults, taunts, threats, degrading statements), financial (insisting on complete con- trol of all household finances, including making decisions about who will work and when), sexual (rape, molestation), and psychological or emotional abuse (mind games, threats, stalking, intimidation). Although not all abusers are physi- cally violent toward their partners, any one type of abuse increases the likelihood of the others. In an abusive relation- ship, it is extremely rare to find only one form of abuse.
Intimate Partner Violence Imagine that tomorrow’s newspapers ran front- page head- lines about a newly discovered disease epidemic that could potentially kill one- quarter of all American women. Between 1 million and 4 million women would be afflicted in the next year alone. What kind of public reaction would there be?
Let’s reframe the scenario: In the United States, nearly one out of every four women has suffered severe physical vio- lence at the hands of an intimate partner (Smith et al. 2017). Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to violence that occurs between two people in a close relationship, including cur- rent and former spouses and dating and sexual partners. IPV includes five main types of behavior: physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, psychological aggression, and control of reproductive or sexual health (Smith et al. 2017). More than one in three (37 percent) women have experienced sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate part- ner during her lifetime and nearly 7 percent of women in just the last year. Nearly half of women reported psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetimes.
Rates of intimate partner violence vary somewhat across groups. American Indian/Alaska Natives are most often vic- timized by partners, followed by blacks, whites, and Hispan- ics; Asian women are victimized least often (Smith et al. 2017). Among LGBTQ partners, 43 percent of gay men and 19 per- cent of lesbian women experience relationship violence com- pared with 16 percent of heterosexual couples; 10 percent of bisexuals and 9 percent of queer partners experience intimate partner violence (Waters 2015).
Women are certainly not the only victims of intimate partner violence, but statistically, they are more likely than men to be victimized by an intimate partner: According to the Department of Justice, between 2003 and 2012, 82 per- cent of intimate partner violence was committed against women (Catalano 2013; Truman and Morgan 2014). Women between the ages of eighteen and twenty- four are victims of abuse at the hands of an intimate partner more frequently than women (and men) in any other age group. Women with lower household earnings are also more likely to be abused
Ray Rice Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on an Atlantic City surveillance camera as he coldcocked his fiancée, now his wife, and dragged her out of an elevator. This incident set in motion an investigation that effectively ended Rice’s NFL career and shined a light on professional football as a game that involves violence both on and off the field.
CYCLE OF VIOLENCE a common behavior pattern in abusive relationships; the cycle begins happily, then the relationship grows tense, and the tension explodes in abuse, followed by a period of contrition that allows the cycle to repeat
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships380
disabilities and illnesses, sex and dating, pregnancy, death, delinquency, and financial difficulties. Other mov- ies could certainly be added to this list; ask your instruc- tor if there is another you’d like to choose. Your movie should be available on DVD or online so that you can view (and review) it carefully. Please be aware of MPAA ratings and watch only those movies that are appropriate for your age and that you are comfortable viewing: Affliction Mi Familia (My Family) American Beauty My Big Fat Greek Wedding Amreeka Ordinary People August: Osage County Precious The Big Sick Rachel Getting Married Boyhood The Royal Tenenbaums The Descendants Saving Face The Ice Storm The Squid and the Whale In America Stepmom In the Bedroom Still Alice The Joy Luck Club Terms of Endearment The Kids Are All Right Twentieth Century Women Kramer vs. Kramer We Don’t Live Here Anymore Lion What’s Eating Gilbert Grape Manchester by the Sea You Can Count on Me
Choose a movie that is primarily about contemporary family relations and problems; then read through the workshop prompts and keep them in mind while viewing. Watch the film closely and pay attention to the plotlines, scenes, characters, and dialogues in which family trou- bles are depicted. Take notes as you watch the movie; you may need to review certain segments several times to do a thorough content analysis. As part of the process, you will also be doing an Internet search to gather more data about the family problems and their incidence in contemporary society. Be sure to note the source of your web references. Respond to the following points and questions:
✱ Give some background information on the film and why you chose it.
✱ Describe the family troubles that are the focus of the film. How are these problems manifested in the lives of the family members?
✱ How do the various characters deal with their prob- lems? What solutions do they propose through their talk or actions? How effective are these solutions in addressing the family’s troubles?
✱ Put the family’s problems in a broader sociological context. In what ways are the individual troubles of family members linked to larger social patterns and problems?
✱ Gather some recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, other government or private agencies, or
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Family Troubles in Film Family relations have long been the basis of good comic, tragic, and dramatic films. This Data Workshop asks you to examine fam- ily dynamics and, more specifically, family
troubles, as depicted in a feature film. You will be using existing sources and doing both a content analysis and a historical comparative analysis of a film dealing with family troubles. Return to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method.
The following films depict a variety of family troubles: marital issues, divorce, domestic abuse, parental neglect,
partner is charming, attentive, and thoughtful; disagree- ments are glossed over and the relationship looks stable and healthy. However, tension is building to the second stage, often described as “walking on eggshells.” Here, both par- ties sense that something will happen no matter what the victim may do to try to avoid it. During the third stage, acute abuse and violence occur, lasting for seconds, hours, or even days. Whatever happens, the abuser will invariably blame the victim for the incident. The fourth stage, often referred to as “loving contrition,” is the “honeymoon” phase and is one of the reasons victims remain in abusive relationships. After the violence, the abuser will apologize profusely and promise that it will never happen again. The abuser may buy the victim gifts, beg forgiveness, and talk about getting help or making a change. Most abusers, however, have no interest in chang- ing because they don’t want to give up their control over their victims. Soon the cycle starts again, with flowers and gifts giving way to tension, uneasiness, and another battering.
Victims of intimate partner violence stay with their abus- ers for many reasons. After years of abuse, victims often believe what their abusers tell them: that they can’t make it on their own and are somehow responsible for the abuse. If they have not been allowed to attend school or to work, they may not have employment skills. Often children are involved, or abusers threaten to harm other family members. Many victims have been isolated from friends and family and are afraid to speak of the abuse to anyone, and they see no options but to remain where they are. Survivors who do manage to leave may find that their abusive partners pres- ent an even greater risk to their safety after they have exited the relationship (Dunn 2002).
Trouble in Families 381
that responsibility. Incest is another form of child abuse that exploits the trust that children must place in their caregiv- ers. Inappropriate sexual relationships between parents and children have devastating lifelong consequences for child victims, which may include self- destructive behavior, such as eating disorders and substance abuse, and the inability to form trusting relationships later in life. In addition, those who were physically or sexually abused as children have a much higher likelihood of becoming abusers themselves.
Elder abuse is another form of domestic abuse. It is esti- mated that about 10 percent of older adults have been sub- jected to elder abuse (Lachs and Pillemer 2015). Like child abuse, elder abuse can take distinctive forms. As well as physical, ver- bal, emotional, and sexual abuse, there is financial exploitation or theft; relatives or other caregiv- ers may steal or misuse the elder’s property or financial resources. Another form is neglect and abandonment. Some elders are
Child and Elder Abuse Children and the elderly also suffer at the hands of abusive family members— and can suffer in distinctive ways that are linked to their special status in the family. Child abuse and elder abuse, which fall under the umbrella term of “domestic abuse,” are likely to be underreported, partly because of the relative powerlessness of the victims and the private settings of the abuse. Official statistics show that about 1 percent of children in the United States are abused in some way, though given underreporting the number is likely much higher (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2017). Chil- dren under the age of one and black children suffer from the highest rates of abuse.
In addition to physical violence and verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse, children may experience a distinctive type of abuse known as neglect— inadequate nutrition, insuf- ficient clothing or shelter, and unhygienic or unsafe living conditions. Three- fourths of child abuse victims suffer from neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2017). Because children depend on adults for their care and well- being, they suffer when those adults abandon or corrupt
various news sources. How widespread are these problems in the real world? How are they being dis- cussed and dealt with at a public level?
✱ How accurately do you think the family’s troubles, and their possible solutions, were depicted in the film? What kind of a role, if any, do you think the media can play in helping to improve family trou- bles and associated social problems?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Complete the research activities and develop some preliminary analyses. Prepare some
informal notes that you can refer to during in- class dis- cussions. Pair up with one or more classmates and dis- cuss your insights. Compare and contrast the analyses of the films observed by participants in your group.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Complete the research activities described and develop some preliminary answers to the questions. Write a three- to four- page essay about the film’s relevance. What do you think your observations tell us about contemporary American families and the ways in which family troubles are portrayed on film? Remember to include your notes and provide any refer- ences you used.
Family Troubles? What do films like The Kids Are All Right and Boyhood tell us about contemporary American families?
NEGLECT a form of child abuse in which the caregiver fails to provide adequate nutrition, sufficient clothing or shelter, or hygienic and safe living conditions
INCEST sexual contact between family members; a form of child abuse when it occurs between a child and a caregiver
CHAPTER 12 Life at Home: Families and Relationships382
The first successful progeny of in vitro fertilization, or IVF (referred to disparagingly as a “ test- tube baby”), was born in 1978. Louise Brown Mullinder is now a parent herself, and millions of “ test- tube babies” have been conceived, born, and raised all over the world. Assisted reproductive technol- ogy has come a long way since the experiment that resulted in Louise’s birth. Now would- be parents have many options: Fertility treatments, IVF, egg and sperm donations, and ges- tational surrogacy are all growing in popularity. And artificial wombs are being developed that would allow the entire gesta- tion process to occur “in vitro”—no actual human pregnancy required (Mejia 2014). What do these developments mean for the future of the family?
Some of the benefits are already clear: People who were once unable to have biological children now can do so. Single people, LGBTQ people, infertile people, and postmenopausal women can access these ways of creating family— if they have the necessary financial resources. A round of IVF costs between $10,000 and $15,000, and a woman typically has to go through two to three rounds before getting pregnant, while expenses for surrogate birth can reach $100,000 or more.
Advances in technology have also made a variety of genetic screenings possible, allowing parents to determine whether an embryo carries certain diseases or disorders or if it pro- vides the genetic match necessary to be a “savior sibling ” for an older child in need of a transplant. Technologies like these make it possible to imagine a future of “designer” children whose genetic characteristics, such as gender, intelligence, or disease susceptibility, can be manipulated by parents and doctors. The ethics of such a scenario are problematic to say the least.
At the same time that baby- making technologies depart for the future (while leaving cultural ethics struggling to catch up), there is a countermovement to return to practices of the past when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth. In the past, and in other cultures, women often labored and gave birth at home, surrounded by experienced and supportive female friends and family members. Hospital birthing practices have made that rarer now, especially in the United States. While most women still give birth in hospitals, attended by obstet- rical staff, a growing minority of births are occurring outside the hospital: In 2012, 1.4 percent of births occurred outside a hospital, up from just 0.9 percent in 2004; two- thirds of out- of- hospital births take place at home (MacDorman, Mathews, and Declercq 2014).
IN THE FUTURE Trends in Baby Making: Back to the Future?
Additionally, a growing number of mothers- to- be are employing “doulas”—birth support professionals who help pregnant women through labor and delivery, providing assis- tance, encouragement, and care that medical staff and co- parents can’t always provide. The rise in popularity of doulas is linked to women wanting to have a more pleasurable birth experience, along with growing criticism of hospital birth (Port 2014; Declerq et al. 2007). And those who use doula services, within or outside of hospitals, are almost unani- mously satisfied with them, giving doulas higher ratings as birth attendants than they give friends, family members, partners, doctors, or nurses. Research shows that women assisted by doulas are less likely to have low- birth- weight babies or experience a birth complication and more likely to engage in breastfeeding (Gruber, Cupito, and Dobson 2013). Until recently, the practices of doulas had been predomi- nately passed down within family/communal traditions; now, more formal training is provided, with several organi- zations offering training and certification for doulas.
Despite the inevitable bureaucratization of even this tra- ditional practice, the popularity of doulas indicates that the future of childbirth is not all about cutting- edge technology. Doulas take us “back to the future,” with time- honored prac- tices that women have used for centuries. And indeed, there is no reason why doulas can’t coexist with assisted repro- ductive technologies. The past always has something to offer the future.
Assisted Reproduction A doula helps a new mother wrap her newborn son.
383
ways that best fit and meet their needs. Indeed, diverse family forms are not especially new; they are merely new to main- stream working- and middle- class families. Minority fami- lies, those living in poverty, and gays and lesbians have always had to improvise to fit into a society that ignored or devalued their needs and activities (Edin and Lein 1997; Stacey 1998; Stack 1974; Weston 1991). Diverse, improvisational post- modern family forms will become more and more familiar to the rest of society as we all cope with the social and cultural changes of the twenty- first century.
CLOSING COMMENTS When sociologists study the dynamics of family, they must define the subject of their interest. What exactly is family? This process sometimes leads to definitions that lie outside the traditional notions of biological or legal relations that have historically defined family. Certainly, this is true if one looks outside the United States at the astonishing variety of customs and practices that define family around the world. Here, too, the nature of the nuclear family is changing, while new types of family groupings are becoming more common- place. The emergence of these “brave new families” has led to a sea change in the study of families, with an increasing rec- ognition of the diversity and plurality that characterize fam- ily arrangements.
dependent on others to care for them. Refusal to provide food, shelter, health care, or protection can be as devastating to an elder as it is to a child. Both elder abuse and child abuse exploit the special powerlessness of victims and are difficult to monitor and control.
Postmodern Families: The New Normal In 1960, over two- thirds of families consisted of a married couple with a male breadwinner, a stay- at- home mom, and their children. By 2012, less than one- quarter of families looked like this, and there was no single arrangement that could be used to describe the majority of families (Cohen 2014). Instead, we are looking at a growing diversity of fam- ily forms, including unmarried parents, childfree families, blended families, multiracial families, LGBTQ families, and extended family households. This diversity is a result of a number of social changes over the past half- century, includ- ing technological innovations in household labor, improved birth control, greater employment opportunities and increas- ing educational attainment for women, rising divorce rates, increasing acceptance of mixed- race and LGBTQ persons and households, and changes in social welfare programs and laws. Families respond to these social- structural changes in
Closing Comments
Everything You Need to Know about Families
THEORIES OF THE FAMILY
✱ Structural functionalism: The fam- ily is responsible for the reproduction of society as it produces and social- izes children.
✱ Conflict theory: Conflict within the family is about the competition for scarce resources: time, energy, and leisure; exploitation occurs through a sexual rather than a class- based division of labor.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: Family is a social construction that is created, changed, and maintained through ongoing interaction.
REVIEW 1. How does this chapter’s definition
of family differ from the one used by the U.S. Census Bureau? Make a list of everyone you consider a family member. Is there anyone on this list who wouldn’t qualify according to the Census Bureau’s definition?
2. Conflict theorists believe that strife within the family is fueled by compe- tition for resources. What is the basis for inequality within the family? In families, who tends to receive fewer resources?
3. Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung found that women who work outside the home often face a “second shift” of housework when they get home. How do men avoid doing their share of this work? Have you ever noticed someone— perhaps yourself—adopting these tactics?
“ Sociology doesn’t define a family by who its members are but by what they do, how they relate to one another, and what their relationship is to the larger society.
“
384
EXPLORE
Family Rules: What Is a Family? When you think of a romantic couple, do you think of just two people? Yet other people are part of any romantic relationship, not only parents and friends but also society and the government, particularly if your relationship does not fall within the accepted norms. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read a sociologist’s explanation of different relationships.
http://wwnPag.es/trw412
SOURCE: Pew Research Social and Demographic Trends 2010, “Interactive: The Changing American Family”
Trends in American Families
Never Married Cohabitating
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Pe rc
en ta
ge o
f A m
er ic
an s 1
8 an
d O
ld er
Decade
Married Divorced/SeparatedL e
g e
n d
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
385
386
CHAPTER 13
Y ou’re sitting in a darkened theater watching a movie unfold on the big screen. Two
young lovers meet, woo, and marry. They honeymoon at a mountain resort— where,
unfortunately, they are kidnapped by political rebels who break into song, swinging
their rifles in unison as they dance in camouflage fatigues. After the ransom is paid, the cou-
ple returns to the city, where they shop for housewares— at a store where clerks croon and
shoppers dance in the aisles. But before they are allowed to live happily ever after, their baby
is switched at birth with another infant, and they must track down their child with the help
of a singing police detective/spiritual advisor. The film lasts more than three hours; during
Leisure and Media
387
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media388
that time, audience members (men in one section, women and children in another)
come and go, fetching delicious snacks that extend far beyond prosaic popcorn
and soda. They yell, groan, sing, talk back, and even throw things at the screen—
but nobody shushes them. Where are you? You’re in “Bollywood.”
This term, an obvious play on the American film capital, is used to describe a
particular class of movies produced in Mumbai (or Bombay). The Indian film indus-
try is the most prolific in the world, and the movies it produces are very different
from those Americans are used to. A typical film usually includes romance, politi-
cal intrigue, and dramatic events such as kidnappings, military battles, or natural
disasters— and there is always lots of singing and dancing! In other words, Indian
films are a mixture of what American audiences understand to be separate genres:
romance, musical, action, thriller, and so on. As a result, Americans often react to
Indian films as strange, exhausting, and disorganized, while Indians find American
movies boring, unemotional, and too short (Srinivas 1998).
Some American audiences got their first taste of Bollywood from British
director Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, a film that borrowed some of the same
stylistic elements and won the Best Picture Academy Award in 2009. You might
have seen La La Land in 2016—it won Oscars for directing and acting, and it, too,
borrowed elements from Bollywood, including dazzling sets, bright colors, romance,
and song- and- dance numbers. Still, it’s unlikely that the theatergoing experience
for U.S. audiences was anything close to what is typical in India. In Indian theaters,
silence is not the norm; audience members respond to what’s on- screen in ways
that seem startling or even wrong to Americans. The only American film experience
that resembles the Bollywood model is the midnight showings of The Rocky Horror
Picture Show, where enthusiastic fans dress up, sing along, talk back, throw toast,
and shoot squirt guns at the screen. (Never heard of The Rocky Horror Picture
Show? Look it up. We bet there’s a screening in your area!) In Bollywood, though,
this type of behavior is the rule rather than the exception.
A Sociology of Leisure 389
children and adults” (Kraus 1995). In many ways, it is leisure that provides the most “meaningful experiences” and allows people “opportunities to reveal their true selves” (Havitz and Dimanche 1999). This suggests that leisure is well worth studying. Indeed, leisure studies has become established as a separate academic discipline within the social sciences. Alongside studies in communications and sociology, we can approach the topic of leisure in a variety of ways.
The idea of leisure itself is rather new historically. In the premodern world, the line between work and play was not nearly as clearly defined as it is today— in part because there was an awful lot of work to be done and there were fewer options for entertainment, especially among the working classes. Activities we now engage in almost exclusively as a form of recreation (like gardening, hunting and fishing, or knitting) were necessities in the past, and common pas- times like going to the movies and watching television didn’t even exist. Even in the late nineteenth century, low wages and long hours meant that only the wealthy had the time and resources to pursue recreational activities with any consistency.
This situation began to change between 1890 and 1940, as the amount of time that the middle class could devote to leisure activities grew rapidly (Fischer 1994). The increase in leisure time was largely fueled by industrialization and technologi- cal progress that increased work productivity and spurred time- saving inventions for the home such as the washing machine, dishwasher, and vacuum cleaner. While contemporary Americans still work more hours than their counterparts in other developed nations, on an average day we manage to find about five hours of leisure time (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017c). While this is true for the majority, not everyone has the same amount of time, money, or inclination to participate in leisure pursuits.
What we do with our leisure time is changing, too. The Information Age has ushered in technological innovations that have radically altered the nature and types of leisure activities that we can enjoy. The average American spends more than half of his or her total leisure hours consum- ing media, from video games to social networking. Devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops keep us plugged in virtually 24/7.
Many people think of their nonwork time as “free time” or leisure, using the terms interchangeably. But it’s not always easy to determine whether an activity counts as leisure. Sometimes work and leisure may seem to blend or overlap. And free time is not always the same thing as leisure time. Sociologist Chris Rojek (1985, 1995, 2000) warns us not to equate free time (or nonworking time) with leisure time.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER In this chapter, we will look at leisure and some of the many things we do for fun. This does not mean that the chapter is any less important than others that cover more traditional ground. In fact, we can and should treat topics such as the media and entertainment, sports and recreation, tourism, and hobbies with the same analytic approaches we use to examine other core aspects of culture and society. The pro- duction and consumption of leisure activities may seem lightweight or trivial at first glance, but they are worthy of serious sociological consideration. As social institutions, the media and leisure industries play a key role in contem- porary life. We will look at the structure and meaning of leisure, its impact on society, and its ubiquitous place in our everyday experiences. Paying attention to your own leisure activities and media usage will add to your understanding of the chapter.
A Sociology of Leisure Leisure is time that can be spent doing whatever you want— or nothing at all. It can include any activity that is satisfying or amusing, experienced as refreshing for body and mind. This means that just about any activity could fall under this heading, depending on individual preference, and that people can spend their leisure time engaged in all sorts of activities. Leisure is broad enough, then, to encompass a wide variety of pastimes: playing volleyball, traveling to Italy, gardening, woodworking, doing needlepoint, gaming, listening to music, sleeping in, watching television, reading, shopping, writ- ing poetry, hiking, building houses for Habitat for Human- ity, baking cookies— the possibilities are endless. For some people, watching TV is a leisure activity. For others, leisure means such activities as skydiving or snowboarding. For many, it’s both. It’s important to note that what makes some- thing a leisure activity is not its appearance on this or any other list but rather the experience of the activity itself. Does it feel enjoyable, liberating, even transformative? Then we can call it leisure.
What Is Leisure? The study of leisure is somewhat new in sociology, but there are many reasons why it has become an important area of interest. The term “leisure” is primarily defined in contrast to paid labor or other obligatory activities, or as the opposite of work. Work has typically been understood as serious and consequential, while leisure activities are seen as minor or trivial. Leisure activities, though, absorb so much time, energy, and resources that they must represent “important developmental goals and meet other personal needs of both
LEISURE a period of time that can be spent relaxing, engaging in recreation, or otherwise indulging in freely chosen activities
RECREATION any satisfying, amusing, and stimulating activity that is experienced as refreshing and renewing for body, mind, and spirit
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media390
study seems more like a leisure activity than doing retail sales at a store. However, studying at a café seems more like work than merely meeting friends to chat.
In another scenario, Cheryl finishes work for the day, picks up her children from school, cooks her family an eve- ning mea l, helps her children with their schoolwork, and then puts them to bed. You could say that Cheryl leaves one workplace (her job) only to enter another (her home and family). When has she had any free time? Arguably, Cheryl continues to work after she leaves her job at 5:00 p.m. and thus has no free time. She, however, may think of spending time with her family as her free time. Or is free time when we have “nothing ” to do? If so, what constitutes “noth- ing ”? Because leisure is hard to define, it’s a lso difficult to measure.
Rather than understanding leisure as the opposite of work, sociologists see the two as complementary activities within a capitalist economic system— two activities linked by consumption (Rojek 1985, 1995). Thus, we work for wages to consume a variety of goods and services, including leisure. As we consume more leisure, we must earn more wages to pay for it. We choose leisure time to supplement our work- ing lives, and the connection between the two is more than merely oppositional.
Trends in Leisure Many discussions of modern leisure- time activities empha- size three related trends that have changed the ways in which we engage in these activities. We now look at these develop- ments in turn: the decline of public life, the formalization of recreation, and the commodification of leisure.
Sociologist Richard Sennett argues that modernity has seen the “fall of public man,” as people increasingly seek ref- uge in “ties of family or intimate association” (Sennett 1977, p. 3). This decline in public life has affected leisure in far- reaching ways. After World War II, the mass migration to the suburbs and the introduction of television encouraged peo- ple to stay home and even usurped shared, public activities such as moviegoing (Fischer 1994). Television in particular has been called “the 800-pound gorilla of leisure time” (Put- nam 1995). Despite the development of the Internet and its many options for online activities, TV watching remains an enduring and popular pastime. Notably, eighteen- to twenty- four-year-olds watch just over two hours of traditional TV per day, a decline of more than 40 percent from just five years ago (Nielsen 2017).
One large- scale longitudinal study sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts found that “Americans are increasingly less likely to go out for a dose of the arts, and more likely to stay home and enjoy performances in front of their home entertainment centers” (Yin 2003). The effect has been most obvious in music and theater, but even the visual arts are starting to see a change. People still visit museums
He argues that leisure, by its very definition, constitutes some kind of choice about how to spend one’s time. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
In one scenario, Amber, Zack, and Juan— all taking the same sociolog y class— plan an evening study session at a local café. The café is bustling with other students study-
ing too. Amber arrives late from her job as a sales clerk. Zack and Juan have already outlined a few chapters and drunk a few cups of coffee. The three chat for a while before continuing to study. Peri-
odically, they check their cell phones and send text messages. At the end of the night, they plan to meet again the following day. When does work end and leisure begin? In this scenario, it is difficult to decide which is which. Meeting at a café to
Rise of the Leisure Class Around the turn of the twentieth century, industrial productivity and new technologies created new opportunities for leisure among the middle and upper classes. Note this early travel magazine.
CONSUMPTION the utilization of goods and services, either for personal use or in manufacturing
A Sociology of Leisure 391
and galleries, but a growing number are also looking at pic- tures online or in books and magazines.
If television began this process, then more recent devel- opments have only intensified it. Digital entertainment across a variety of platforms has made the private home an even more attractive site for leisure. Critics fear that the Internet has further isolated individuals from the outside world and also from one another. Technolog y can divide us even when we’re together. With everyone glued to small and big screens alike, are we losing our sense of civic and inter- personal engagement?
In a paradoxical twist, when we do come together to engage in shared leisure activities, they are more likely to be organized than spontaneous. Our entertainment and rec- reation are prepackaged and arranged for us. This develop- ment of “organization over spontaneity” is illustrated by the rise of Little League baseball as an organized alternative to impromptu after- school sandlot games (Fischer 1994). There is a great deal of debate as to whether this increased organization is good or bad. New technology has indirectly assisted this process: smartphones, social media, radio, and TV advertising all make it easier to connect people for orga- nized activities. Sites like Meetup.com are tools for further organization; someone can start a Meetup group around almost any shared interest.
COMMODIFICATION OF LEISURE One development that is making an enormous impact on our lives is the mas- sive increase in the commodification or commercialization of leisure activities. Where people formerly made their own fun, they now purchase it in the form of goods and services. In 2016, the average American spent over $2,900 on entertain- ment, representing 5 percent of all expenditures that year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017e). Much of that is spent on media products (music, movies, video games, apps, books, magazines, newspapers, and so on), but it also includes spend- ing on toys, hobbies, sporting equipment, and admissions fees to a variety of attractions.
Simple, inexpensive outdoor activities like hiking are still popular, but they increasingly compete with “tech- nologically innovative forms of play such as scuba diving, parasailing, skydiving, and hang- gliding, snowmobiling, and other kinds of off- road travel [that] have opened up new environments for the play experience” (Kraus 1995). Even those activities that were once necessities, like hunting and fishing, now come with a dizzying array of commodities. Sport fishing relies on expen- sive boats, lures, rods, and sonar to help locate the fish. Hunting seems to demand special cloth- ing, scent blockers, calls and decoys, infrared vision enhance- ment, and even special hearing aids that allow hunters to tune in to specific frequencies while stalking particular animals. Instead of visiting the local swimming hole, we pay to visit water parks. Instead of playing softball or soccer, we may simply watch sports on TV, played by professionals. In almost every case, our recreation is mediated by goods and services that we seem to “require” in order to have fun.
3.0
2.0
2.7
0.2 0.3
0.7 0.6
0.1 0.3
0.6
0.2
0.5 0.3
2.5
2.0
1.5 A
ve ra
g e
h o
u rs
p e
r d
a y
1.0
0.5
0 Watching TV Reading Relaxing,
thinking Socializing,
communicating Playing games/ computer use
for leisure
Sports, exercise, and
recreation
Ages 15–24 Total 15 years and over Figure 13.1 Leisure
Time on an Average Day
NOTE: Data include all days of the week and are annual averages for 2016.
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017c.
COMMODIFICATION the process by which it becomes possible to buy and sell a particular good or service
Shopping as Recreation Old- style shopping malls are being replaced with outdoor lifestyle centers like the Grove in Los Angeles.
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media392
The ultimate example of the commercialization of leisure, however, is shopping: where the purchase of commodities becomes an end in itself. Recreational shopping is a recent historical development. Until the mid- twentieth century, people shopped mainly to acquire food, clothing, fuel, tools, and other essential goods. In addition, we have become aspirational shoppers; we shop to live out our fantasies and dreams, and the shopping experience itself delivers a “sen- sual and emotional high” (Zukin 2004, p. 220). Shopping is no longer just about “bread”—it has also become its own “circus.”
There are more than 100,000 malls and shopping centers nationwide to support our habit (U.S. Census Bureau 2012).
In recent years, the shopping mall has undergone changes. The old- style enclosed shopping center has declined in popu- larity, and the country is littered with shuttered and empty malls. Some blame the mall’s demise on the Internet and the ease and convenience of shopping online, but Americans still do most of their spending in brick- and- mortar stores. At the same time, new (or refurbished) malls are offering more than just a place to buy things. In order to attract and
ON THE JOB Professional Musicians: Playing Is Work
While professional musicians readily acknowledge the benefits inherent in their work, it doesn’t mean they have nothing to complain about. True, they aren’t doing strenu- ous manual labor and they aren’t stuck in a cubicle from 9:00 to 5:00. But neither is what they do as fun and easy as it might appear. The work conditions can be difficult and the days long and grueling. Writing, recording, rehearsing, and touring require sustained concentration, teamwork, and stamina. The work is often characterized by drudg- ery and repetition rather than spontaneity and creativity. After years in the business, some musicians suffer from the same kind of disenchantment with their careers that work- ers in other fields experience, despite whatever notions of romance might have attracted them to the music business in the first place (Stein 1997).
The rewards of working in any glamorous profession, whether it’s music, show business, or sports, probably seem well worth any of these difficulties. As social observers, how- ever, we need to consider what goes on behind the scenes and remember that what looks like play to one person might feel a whole lot more like work to another.
Who wouldn’t want to be a rock star? Lear- jetting from city to city, mobbed by adoring fans, staying in four- star hotel suites, partying backstage with celebrities, and getting paid tons of money to play— and the operative word is “play”— music. Such are the stereotypes of the professional musician’s life. But a closer look at the real work they do reveals some underlying contradictions to the public images we see of their fame and success.
The casual observer is likely to underestimate what it takes to “make it” as a professional musician. Regardless of how talented, naturally gifted, or even lucky a musician might be, it’s going to take a lot of hard work to succeed. We don’t ordinarily appreciate all the seemingly endless hours musicians must devote to learning and perfecting their craft. In fact, it takes something like 10,000 hours to become an expert in any field, according to Malcolm Gladwell (2008), who studied “outliers” or exceptionally successful people. Gladwell claims that greatness takes an enormous amount of time, and that the “10,000 Hour Rule” applies to under- standing how the Beatles honed their skills in the years prior to becoming famous. This dispels the notion that anybody can become an “overnight success” and upholds the truism that everybody must “pay their dues” in order to make it in the music business.
Of course, there are also many different versions of suc- cess as a professional musician, and some of them are a lot less glamorous than what we might imagine. Not every suc- cessful musician becomes rich and famous. Many work in relative obscurity as band members, backup singers, session players, songwriters, or producers. Their careers can be tenu- ous, uneven, and short- lived. The recent films 20 Feet from Stardom and The Wrecking Crew document the lives of such professionals, giving greater recognition to those who toil just outside the brightest spotlight. Still, most musicians love what they do and feel fortunate if they can make a living at it.
20 Feet from Stardom Backup singers Jo Lawry, Judith Hill, and Lisa Fischer take the spotlight in the 2013 documentary.
The Study of Media 393
conclude that the media’s purpose is simply to supply infor- mation, educate, or entertain. While this is not incorrect, it is a somewhat incomplete view of a complex and sophisticated social institution.
The Media and Democracy One of the first things to remember about the media is their intimate relationship to a democratic system of government. The media have always been seen as both an instrument of the state and a tool for social change. Some of the original struggles during the fight for American independence were waged around these very issues. Early American leaders rec- ognized the importance of news in educating and mobilizing the new citizenry. They were opposed to European govern- ments’ control over the media (which consisted at that time of books and newspapers) and sought instead to free the press so that it could be used as a voice of the people. That is precisely why the framers of the U.S. Constitution included guarantees to freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
These are among our most precious and fiercely defended rights as Americans. The press was also intended to serve as a kind of watchdog for government, independently examin- ing political leaders and giving the people another means of checks and balances against the three branches of the gov- ernment. It would ensure that no branch, whether the execu- tive, legislative, or judicial, amassed too much power. Thus, the media are a last defense of an open, democratic system. They play a critical role in uncovering and exposing all kinds of government malfeasance, corruption, and incompetence.
Interestingly, social media have made it possible for poli- ticians to bypass traditional media outlets (like news chan- nels) and communicate directly with the people. President Donald Trump has famously used his Twitter account to do this, tweeting explicitly about his desire to silence the main- stream media and limit their First Amendment freedoms. In a February 2017 tweet he even pronounced that CNN, The New York Times, and the three major networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) were “the enemy of the American People!” He has accused media outlets on numerous occasions of disseminat- ing “fake news” when he has disliked or disagreed with what they broadcast.
While the principle of a free press still stands today, it is worth considering just who is free to own what we currently refer to as “the press,” in other words, a media outlet. Who has access to the media, who controls media products, whose voice is reaching a mass audience, and what kind of message is being sent by these powerful instruments of “free speech”?
captivate shoppers, malls are becoming “lifestyle” centers for entertainment and social gathering (Nielsen 2013).
Leisure, money, and business intersect in other ways as well. Almost any kind of activity we enjoy must be supported in some way by others. From hiking in the local foothills (consider how the Parks and Recreation Department might be involved in maintaining trails) to eating an ice cream cone (consider the manufacturing, delivery, and service involved in getting the cone to your hand), many people work to make these activities possible. When you go to a professional base- ball or basketball game, chances are that you’re there to root for your favorite team, eat hot dogs and drink soda or beer, and generally have a good time with family or friends. Work is probably the last thing on your mind. But what about the people who help provide that experience for you— the park- ing attendants, ticket- takers, security officers, ushers, food and souvenir vendors, janitors, and maintenance workers? What about the team owners, talent scouts, agents, manag- ers, coaches, trainers, and players themselves? If the game is covered by the media, then you can add announcers, report- ers, sportscasters, photographers, camera crews, producers, editors, publishers, advertisers, and others. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 16 million people work in the leisure and hospitality sector of the economy. That includes jobs in the arts, entertainment, and recreation as well as the lodging and food services that often go along with them (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017b).
Clearly, leisure is big business. Let’s take the National Basketball Association (NBA) as an example. In 2017, the New York Knicks were the top- grossing team, worth an esti- mated $3.3 billion. The average NBA team is now valued at nearly $1.4 billion. All told, the NBA’s thirty teams raked in nearly $6 billion in the 2016–2017 season (Forbes 2017). According to the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), the Chicago Bulls boasted the highest attendance of any team in 2016–2017 with more than 888,000 people attending forty- one home games, an average of about 21,680 spectators per game (ESPN 2017). Many more millions of fans tuned into NBA games on radio and TV or watched online. Overall, the businesses that could be broadly classified as providing leisure or entertainment are easily worth tril- lions of dollars. As such, these industries account for a major part of the U.S. and global economies.
The Study of Media Any study of leisure must necessarily consider media. As we have seen, people spend their leisure time engaged in a wide variety of activities. For many Americans, consuming media— reading the newspaper, watching TV, listening to the radio, or browsing the Internet— accounts for a large por- tion of this time. Clearly, the media have extensive reach. It is a major social institution and one with increasing power and importance in the digital age. At first glance, we might
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media394
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Blockbuster Hits and the Business of Movies
The seventh installment in the Star Wars film series was released in December 2015. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the first film in what will be the third Star Wars tril-
ogy. Yes, that means nine Star Wars movies released (or planned) so far. When the Walt Disney Co. bought Lucas- film (the original home of Star Wars) for over $4 billion in 2012, the acquisition made headlines. Just a few years earlier, in 2009, Disney had pulled off an aggressive buyout of Marvel, the comic book and movie studio, for the same amount (Barnes 2009). Taken together, these two deals presented some of the most lucrative possibilities ever in terms of Disney’s added ability for synergy, marketing, and future growth (Gabler 2012). Disney now owned some of the most recognizable and bankable brands in enter- tainment and was poised to translate them into greater
create recognizable characters that appear in commercials or at its theme park; release the movie on its DVD label; and later broadcast it on the company’s cable channel and television network.
The cornucopia of media choices is thus somewhat deceiving. Many brands and labels are all really just differ- ent company identities within a larger structure. There are actually very few “independent” media producers that can remain viable in such a marketplace. Often, once an inde- pendent becomes successful, it is quickly bought out by a larger conglomerate, which is searching for ways to increase revenues. Another trend consists of a merger between two or more companies to create an even bigger media giant. The model for this trend took place in 2000 with the merger between a new media company, AOL (America Online), and an older one, Time Warner. In 2017, wireless carrier Verizon bought Internet provider Yahoo in a deal that merged two of the nation’s largest tech providers. Mergers like this one typ- ically require the approval of relevant federal agencies; for example, AT&T is currently negotiating to buy Time Warner, but this deal awaits the approval of the Department of Jus- tice’s antitrust arm. In the new business- friendly Republi- can administration, we are likely to see ever bigger and more powerful media conglomeration in the future.
The Structure of Media Industries Media companies are among the many big businesses that drive the U.S. economy, and their profits and losses are closely followed by investors in the stock market. Media products are among the country’s biggest exports, fueling a worldwide demand for information and entertainment. The number of these companies seems to constantly expand, and there are almost too many publishing houses, production companies, TV networks, film studios, radio stations, record labels, and website and game developers to name. Then there are also the companies that make the hardware, software, and digital devices on which we consume it all. As the media industries grow, so does their power. Let’s look at some inter- related trends in the structure of media industries.
CONGLOMERATION What is not readily evident from this seeming proliferation of media is that the businesses
are often owned by the same large parent companies. The trend toward conglomeration began growing in the 1990s (McChesney 2000). Huge cor- porations were acquiring media companies as part of their larger holdings. This is why a company like Seagram’s, which manu- factures alcoholic beverages, bought (and later sold) Univer- sal (then MCA), which produces film, television, and music. Or how General Electric, which makes everything from light bulbs to jet engines, came to own
the NBC television network. Now Comcast owns both NBC and Universal. Buying successful media companies makes good sense as an economic investment, so it is not surpris- ing that other corporations might want to share in the huge profits generated by the entertainment industry.
A typical media conglomerate might comprise many divi- sions: book and magazine publishing, radio and TV broad- casting, a cable network, a movie studio and theaters, record labels, video game distribution, websites, a theme park, even a sports franchise. Also referred to as horizontal integra- tion, this allows the company to take advantage of its own organizational structure and market its products across a wide range of media formats and outlets. Media companies favor products they can “ cross- promote” along their various divisions, thus creating what is called synergy. For exam- ple, a company might produce a movie that is adapted from a book it published; distribute the film to theaters it owns; advertise and review it in company newspapers, magazines, and TV programs; put the soundtrack on its record label;
CONGLOMERATION the process by which a single corporation acquires ownership of a variety of otherwise unrelated businesses
SYNERGY a mutually beneficial interaction between parts of an organization that allows it to create something greater than the sum of its individual outputs
MERGER the legal combination of two companies, usually in order to maximize efficiency and profits by eliminating redundant infrastructure and personnel
The Study of Media 395
particular brand (whether it’s an automobile, cell phone, or soda) to audiences. Or the partner might be involved in merchandising tie- ins with the film, like when a fast- food chain offers customers a free toy or collector’s cup with purchase. Many companies also create merchan- dise such as action figures, posters, T- shirts, or hats to further promote and profit from their films.
For this Data Workshop you will be asked to use existing sources to investigate the marketing and pro- motion for a recent blockbuster movie. Refer to Chap- ter 2 for a review of this research method. Choose a movie that exemplifies the strategies of hit making. It’s not necessary that you see the film yourself ( but you may) in order for you to analyze the corporate econom- ics behind making it. There is a variety of sources and materials you can examine online. All the major stu- dios create official websites for their movie releases. Or you can visit IMDb.com, the Internet Movie Database site that provides detailed information on every film made. Look for company credits like who produced and distributed the film and its soundtrack. Review the box office receipts, and note the film’s costs and prof- its. Check out the studio’s site for links to merchandise and related social media campaigns. Read some busi- ness news articles about the movie’s success. There are likely to be other sites where you can find out more about how your blockbuster did business.
Once you have the data, consider these questions:
✱ How many elements from the strategies described here can you find to help account for your film’s success?
✱ Did the movie studio take advantage of all possible avenues to reap the greatest profits, or can you sug- gest other ways the studio could have improved or expanded its sales campaigns?
✱ How does the corporate business model shape the kind of movies that get made?
✱ What makes blockbusters popular with audiences, and why?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Choose a blockbuster film to examine. Look at how the movie was marketed. Make notes about what you find to bring to class. Discuss with others in small groups, comparing the different films and their promotional campaigns.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Write a three- to four- page essay addressing the questions provided and the various ways that movie studios attempt to produce hits. Make ref- erence to the data you collected about the marketing campaigns.
successes and profits, a situation to which any media com- pany would aspire.
Most people think of movies as primarily a form of entertainment. But in this Data Workshop we want you to consider them as a business. And the movie business is big business, especially when it comes to those mega blockbuster hits. Making movies for a mass audience is expensive (and risky), but it can also be highly profita- ble. The major studios that make these kinds of mov- ies must come up with strategies to help maximize the potential for profits and minimize the potential risks of financing a costly “flop.” How can media companies ensure that their biggest movies become their biggest hits? This is where their corporate practices and struc- tures can benefit the bottom line.
Big media companies like Disney have an advantage when it comes to producing and distributing their prod- ucts. When a parent company owns many other subsidi- aries, it can market its properties across a variety of media outlets. In other words, such companies can benefit from cross- promotion. The greater the diversity and reach of a company’s divisions, the more opportunities there are to create synergy. The most attractive properties are those that might start as a comic book but can then be turned into a movie and a video game, where the stars of the movie can be featured on TV talk shows or magazine cov- ers and where fans will be able to follow additional story lines and interact on websites, through social media, or at fan conventions. Think of all the avenues for promotion that a media giant might own and exploit.
One common practice in filmmaking follows the adage that “nothing succeeds like success.” Studio execs favor movie “franchises” from which many hits can be spawned. Think James Bond, The Avengers, Mission Impossible, X- Men, Spider- Man, The Fast and the Furi- ous, Transformers, Harry Potter, Batman, and such. These films were the basis for producing many other, sometimes even more successful, films in the form of prequels, sequels, and spinoffs. A related approach is to do remakes by producing an updated version of an older film or show that was successful before, for instance, Ocean’s Eleven or Godzilla, or, in a new twist, producing live- action versions of what were originally animated films, like Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella.
Another strategy for increasing the odds of a hit, or at least diminishing the losses that might incur from a flop, is to partner with an outside company and engage in what is referred to as “ co- promotion.” In these rela- tionships, the partner company invests in the film for some kind of consideration, primarily rights to promote its products in conjunction with the film. This takes several forms. The partner can provide product place- ment within the film to more covertly “advertise” its
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media396
ensure that Internet providers treat all data equally and that they don’t discriminate among different companies, allowing some but not others faster or cheaper services. If the largest companies are allowed to control the dissemination of infor- mation, does that undermine the constitutional rights of aver- age citizens to have their voices heard?
Even in today’s heavily concentrated media market, there are still opportunities for alternative voices to be heard. This is thanks, in part, to a proliferation of digital technology. These alternative voices, though, are typically confined to small, marginal outlets. Still, almost anyone can now find a platform on which to express themselves. For instance, blog- gers and podcasters are able to circumvent the constraints of commercial radio and print journalism to transmit their political opinions or musical sensibilities to an (admittedly small) audience online. Artists of all types can build their own websites to promote (and sometimes sell) their work. Websites like YouTube allow individuals to upload home- made videos to their own channels. Someone else may gar- ner thousands, or tens of thousands, of followers on Twitter
CONCENTRATION Mergers and acquisitions associ- ated with conglomeration result in yet another major trend: concentration. The ownership of media companies of all kinds is now concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer large conglomerates. Communication researchers who fol- low media ownership saw a consistent trend through the 1980s and 1990s characterized by mergers and buyouts and resulting in fewer but larger media companies in the 2000s (Bagdikian 2004; McChesney 1997, 2004). Researchers often refer to the big five or six global media conglomerates, down from more than twenty- five such companies just a decade or two ago, that now dominate the media industries (Free Press 2017; Klinenberg 2007; Shah 2007). The cur- rent list includes Comcast, 21st Century Fox, Time Warner
Inc., the Walt Disney Company, Viacom, and CBS, as shown in Table 13.1. While few in number, these media giants keep getting bigger. American companies comprise about 90 percent of all global media (Le 2014). That leaves only a small percentage of media companies truly indepen- dent from this corporate reality.
Two government agencies, the Federal Communications Com- mission (FCC) and the Securi- ties and Exchange Commission (SEC), are charged with regu- lating the large conglomerates. The FCC has established some restrictions on media- outlet ownership by any single company in order to avoid a monopoly in any one market. Otherwise, one media giant might be able to own all the newspapers and TV and radio stations in a region,
effectively stifling any competition and potentially provid- ing a single voice for information where several voices serve a democracy better. And the SEC is involved in antitrust legislation, governing mergers between companies and further discouraging monopolies from forming. However, in recent years, increasing deregulation, the reduction or removal of government restrictions on the media industry, has allowed companies to gain control of ever- larger chunks of the media market.
These decisions are often fiercely debated by the U.S. Con- gress, media companies, and media watchdog groups. Social critics are concerned about increasing concentration and its possible consequences for a democratic society that values freedom of the press and a plurality of voices. “Net neutral- ity” has become an important frontier in the battle for control over the delivery of data over the Internet. Proponents want to
The Disney Empire Disney CEO Robert Iger (left) with Star Wars creator George Lucas in Walt Disney World. Through acquisitions of major companies like Lucasfilm and Marvel, Disney now occupies a more horizontally integrated position in the entertainment industry.
CONCENTRATION the process by which the number of companies producing and distributing a particular commodity decreases, often through mergers and conglomeration
MONOPOLY a situation in which there is only one individual or organization, without competitors, providing a particular good or service
ANTITRUST LEGISLATION laws designed to maintain competition in the marketplace by prohibiting monopolies, price fixing, or other forms of collusion among businesses
DEREGULATION reduction or removal of government controls from an industry to allow for a free and efficient marketplace
The Study of Media 397
entertainment and media will be at least as important as the companies that actually make the entertainment. And many companies, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, will try to do both.
A look at Apple, and a ll the products that Apple has made ubiquitous, can help to illustrate these points. While Apple used to make computers and still does, the com- pany has expanded its products and furthered its reach. A long with iMacs and MacBooks, there are iPods, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV, and the Apple Watch. Of course, Apple a lso developed and owns a number of software programs that make the devices run, including the operating system (MacOS), streaming video player (QuickTime), and web browser (Safari). You can manage your Apple devices using iTunes, which is a lso a media library, music player, online radio station, and storefront. Remember that Apple devices are a ll designed to a llow customers to buy other things as well— software, music, movies, books, apps, and games. If that weren’t enough, Apple has made dozens of acquisi- tions in the past two years, including buying Beats Elec- tronics for $3 billion in 2014. The company was founded by music moguls Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine; it origina lly made speakers and headphones and then added an online music streaming service. Buying up other companies and devel- oping more products a llows Apple to better compete with other media and tech companies. The goa l, as a lways, is to increase Apple’s market share and profits.
A nother area of change involves the astronomica l growth in mobile media. Seemingly everyone now carries
or Instagram. With the rapid development of faster, cheaper, and more user- friendly digital media, more people now have access to technologies that allow them to produce and dis- tribute their own work in the global marketplace. It’s worth asking, though, whose voices get heard in a saturated media landscape? Can an individual, or small enterprise, really hope to compete?
POWER SHIFTS The past decade has seen unprecedented change in the structure and organization of media indus- tries. So called “new media” have exploded. Technolog y and communications companies have become key players in a marketplace once dominated by more traditional media leaders. We see many cases where new and old media firms combine forces to create the emerging giants of an evolving industry. These giants are increasingly structured around horizontal integration, a type of organization where the company can control almost every aspect of the produc- tion and distribution process and use its various subsidiar- ies and divisions to market products across many different platforms. The idea is always to reach a bigger share of audi- ences and consumers. Companies might also seek vertical integration, allowing them to effectively monopolize a par- ticular industry.
New and converging media and communications tech- nologies have revolutionized the way these industries work. Power has shifted from companies that produce products to companies that distribute them. What is becoming clear is that in a digital age, the companies that provide access to
Table 13.1 The Concentration of Media Outlets
Corporation 2016 Revenues (in billions)*
Principal Holdings
Comcast $80.4 NBC, Telemundo, MSNBC, Bravo, USA Network, Syfy, E!, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features, Oxygen
Walt Disney Company $55.6 ABC, ESPN, A&E, Lifetime, Disney Channel, Walt Disney Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Touchstone Pictures, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Time Warner Inc. $29.3 HBO, CNN, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, Cinemax, TMZ.com, NBA. com, NCAA.com, Adult Swim, Warner Brothers Pictures
21st Century Fox $28.5 FOX, National Geographic, FX, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios
CBS $13.2 CBS, Showtime, Simon & Schuster, CNET, TVGuide.com, Metacritic, GameSpot
Viacom $12.5 Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, BET, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Spike, TV Land
*Data for 21st Century Fox from fiscal 2017.
SOURCE: Selyukh 2016.
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media398
Association of America agreed to place warning stickers on certain a lbums containing songs about drugs, sex, violence, and other potentia lly objectionable subjects. These labels (“Parenta l Advisory: Explicit Lyrics”) were the recording industry ’s response to pressure from U.S. Senate hearings and lobbying from the Parents’ Music Resource Center, headed by Tipper Gore (former wife of then senator and future vice president A l Gore).
The 1990s ushered in self- regulation for other media industries eager to avoid government restrictions on their products. The Entertainment Software Rating Board estab- lished a rating system for video games in 1993 based on age appropriateness. In 1997, television programs began featur- ing a ratings system that not only suggests the appropriate age for viewers but also warns of violence ( real- life or car- toon), sex (including dialogue with sexual innuendo), and offensive language. The “ V- chip” was added to TV receivers to allow parents to block violent programs altogether. More means of controlling content appeared as digital media spread to new devices. In the 2000s, software programs were developed to limit access to certain types of websites. Parents could now choose to block or filter not only websites but also instant messaging, game apps, file transfers, and downloads. By the 2010s, parents had options to control mobile devices and even to do remote tracking of their children’s activities.
These voluntary measures at regulating content, self- imposed by media industries, acknowledge the concern that some material is unsuitable, especially for children. Some studies of the effectiveness of these measures indicate that children are still being exposed to objectionable mate- rial and that parents may be misled if they believe ratings systems or blocking software are preventing their children from having access to those materials (AV Comparatives 2014; Garry and Spurlin 2007). With the massive prolifera- tion of adult material that is available online, it has become increasingly difficult to police content and the possibility of exposure.
WHO REGULATES THE INTERNET? No one owns the Internet, but your ISP (Internet Service Provider) owns the lines through which Internet content is delivered to your device. Until recently, “net neutrality” was the law of the land, meaning that no Internet- based service or content could be privileged over another. Net neutrality ensured that the Internet functioned the same way no matter who was using it and no matter what they were using it for. The Internet was seen as a public good that should be available equitably to all, no matter what content was accessed. The Trump admin- istration and its new FCC chair, Agit Pai, have promised to change this policy. Without government regulation, your ISP could impose caps on your data use at any given time in order to limit your streaming of certain online products. In the age of media conglomeration, this could mean “throttling” your streaming speed when you’re accessing the competitor’s
a smartphone, and these devices are not only being used to make phone calls or text. We use them to do all sorts of things online— things that we used to do on a computer just a hand- ful of years ago. This has translated into enormous economic power for the telecommunications industry and companies like Samsung that make the devices and wireless carriers like AT&T and Verizon. The other big winners are tech com- panies like Google and social media sites like Facebook and Snapchat. We’re talking about a current consumer base of several billion users. As more people take their media on the go, these companies will be vying for consumers and look- ing to boost profits with ad revenues and sales. There will be more mergers, such as the 2017 deal between Verizon and Yahoo, as media giants adjust to and prosper from new tech- nologies and new business trends. This increased consolida- tion is bound to affect users in numerous ways.
The Regulation of Media Content Another area of intense debate about media industries revolves around the content they produce and government censorship. Some claim that media content, especially when it is violent or sexual in nature, has a negative effect on soci- ety and should therefore be restricted; others believe that the right to free speech or artistic freedom should in no way be infringed upon and support a media free market. What role, if any, should the government play in negotiating these com- peting interests?
The FCC imposes regulations on what the media may pro- duce, once again qualifying the notion of absolute freedom of expression. As you may be aware, certain types of speech are not protected under the Constitution. Material consid- ered to be obscene, for example, is illegal. The criteria used to define obscenity are based on a momentous 1959 Supreme Court decision, Roth v. United States. According to the rul- ing, child pornography and other “material which deals with sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest” are consid- ered obscene. However, the line between “indecent” material, which is restricted but not forbidden, and obscene material is sometimes hard to draw.
R ATINGS AND WARNINGS O ver t he pa s t severa l decades, various media industries have turned to self- regulation of the materia ls they produce, often in the face of threats of censorship and in an effort to avoid out- side regulation by government agencies. These efforts first began in 1968 when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA A) established the movie ratings with which you are likely familiar. Those ratings are G, PG, R , and more recently PG- 13 and NC- 17, the latter to distin- guish materia l unfit for anyone under seventeen from adult or pornographic materia l carrying an X rating. Next was the music business in 1985, when the Recording Industry
Culture and Consumption of Media 399
was titled “The Art of the Motorcycle,” and the critics were upset because motorcycles were not, in their opinion, art. The public, on the other hand, loved it— the exhibit broke all previous museum attendance records. People who might never otherwise have set foot in the museum came to view this colorful collection of motorcycles dating back to 1868.
The motorcycles at the Guggenheim stirred up a long- standing debate over the very definitions of art and cul- ture. The critics’ objections were based on their perception that popular culture, or mass culture (motorcycles), had invaded a high culture venue (the Guggenheim Museum). In this case, popular culture was seen as unsavory and even dangerous— the implica- tion being that pop culture is a mass phenomenon that some- how threatens the position of the elites by challenging their preferences. As with so many sociological concepts, these terms come originally from the German; in this case, kultur (the culture of the elite classes) and massenkultur (the culture of the masses). But are these two cat- egories really so separate? As you may have noticed in your own everyday experiences, the distinctions between the two categories are blurring and relaxing.
First, there are multiple high cultures and multiple pop cultures, based on differences in taste and aesthetics. Also, each category has its own set of hierarchies. For example, rap and hip- hop music are definitely pop culture phenomena. Produced by mostly minority artists for whom “street cred- ibility” is one of the most important qualifications, these musical forms have widespread popular appeal, especially among teenagers and young adults. But rap and hip- hop have
content. This would allow corporate (and individual) cus- tomers to pay for “better” (more, faster, smoother) Internet service if they have the resources to do so, while those with- out such resources (smaller companies, less wealthy indi- viduals) will likely see slowdowns or even become unable to access certain types of content. Dismantling net neutrality gives wealthy and powerful interests fuller access to online content while effectively censoring access for those with fewer resources.
Culture and Consumption of Media Conflicts about the appropriateness of this or that cultural product often hinge on perceived differences in the value of one kind of cultural consumption over another. For instance, is opera “better” for you, or for society, than heavy metal music? Does one elevate and the other debase? And if so, why, and who decides? Perhaps it’s not even a question of either/or, but rather a matter of taste, time, and context.
High, Low, and Popular Culture “Culture wars” about audiences and the appropriateness of material can be fought just about anywhere. In the sum- mer of 1998, an exhibit opened at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that was uniformly panned by the critics. The New Republic called the exhibit “a pop nostalgia org y masquerading as a major artistic statement,” and Salon’s art critic accused the Guggenheim of “wear[ing] its cultural pants around its ankles” and “sucking down to our low- est impulses.” What were they so upset about? The exhibit
Is This Art? The 1998 show “The Art of the Motorcycle” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York broke attendance records but attracted negative reviews from art critics for “sucking down to our lowest impulses.”
Net Neutrality In 2015, amid protests across the country, the FCC voted in favor of net neutrality— the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally. The future of net neutrality, however, remains uncertain.
POPULAR CULTURE forms of cultural expression usually associated with the masses, consumer goods, and commercial products
HIGH CULTURE those forms of cultural expression usually associated with the elite or dominant classes
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media400
When Baby Boomers reminisce about their childhoods, their memories often include hours spent with friends riding bikes, playing in the street, walking to the park, tink- ering in the backyard, and maybe riding the bus or the sub- way downtown for a movie or an ice cream cone. Kids were out exploring their immediate environment, whether it was urban, suburban, or rural. And they were usually doing so without much direct parental supervision. In other words, most of their leisure time was unstructured and unsupervised; they were on their own, and as long as they made it home in time for dinner, everything was cool. “Go out and play,” said Mom, “and come back when the streetlights go on.”
If you are in your twenties, you probably have a very dif- ferent set of memories from your own childhood. You were probably driven to school (in an approved child safety seat) by a parent or other caregiver, then picked up and chauf- feured to your after- school program, piano lesson, swim or soccer practice, Girl or Boy Scout meeting, or chess club, depending on what day of the week it was. Weekends were full of sports or robotics competitions or maybe a school play or musical recital. Chances are you were raised by what have come to be called “helicopter parents,” or parents who hovered over you and made sure your calendar was filled with the kinds of organized activities they hoped would con- tribute to your future success in school and the workplace.
IN THE FUTURE The Return of Free- Range Kids?
If your parents hovered, it was because they loved you and wanted the best for you. But children of helicopter par- ents may find it harder to seek and find independence as they move into adult life. So the latest crop of parents has begun rethinking child- rearing once again, and there is now a push to allow kids to enjoy more liberation and empowerment, even if that means some increase in risk. “ Free- range par- enting” is back in style.
New York journa list Lenore Skenazy (2008) became the accidenta l spokesperson for this movement when, in 2008, she wrote a column for the New York Sun about her nine- year- old son ta king the subway home from a depart- ment store . . . a lone. She had no idea how polarizing the column would be. People either praised her for encourag- ing her son’s independence or threatened to turn her in to Child Protective Ser vices! Skenazy ’s stor y took on a life of its own, and she made the rounds of ta lk shows and news inter views, eventua lly writing a book ca lled Free- Range Kids (2009) with chapter headings like “Rela x: Not Ever y Little Thing You Do Has That Much Impact on Your Child’s Development,” “Quit Tr ying to Control Ever y- thing. It Doesn’t Work A ny way,” and “ Wa lking to School.” Skenazy and her supporters arg ue that parents should be willing to loosen their grip on their kids’ lives— let them explore on their own, ma ke their own mista kes (and dea l
There is another way in which these kinds of distinctions are problematic. In the real world, most cultural products contain elements of both mass and high culture. Why do you think we call certain TV programs soap “operas”? The story lines and intense emotions of The Young and the Rest- less parallel and sometimes rival those of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Led Zeppelin and Van Halen songs, when written out in standard musical notation, show a recognizable symphonic structure. Some of their compositions are as complex as those found in classical music. Rap and hip- hop overtly draw on other types of music in the practice of sampling, and Lud- wig van Beethoven, Georges Bizet, and Béla Bartók have all been sampled by R&B artists. Lin- Manuel Miranda’s Ham- ilton, a hip- hop musical about the United States’ first secre- tary of the treasury, won eleven Tony Awards ( just shy of the record twelve Tonys won by The Producers) for successfully combining high and pop culture. These examples, and many others, indicate that high culture and pop culture are not mutually exclusive and can coexist within the same product.
their own elites, artists who are at the top of the charts and who have a great deal of influence within and outside their pop culture domain. Artists such as Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and Jay- Z, the elites of the rap and hip- hop worlds, show that the distinction between mass and elite is a fuzzy one.
The boundaries between high culture and popular cul- ture are often permeable, so the way we categorize any particular type of art or artist can change over time. We usua lly consider the works of Shakespeare as the pinnacle of high culture, but this was not a lways so; in previous eras, his plays were performed before commoners and aristo- crats a like. The director A lfred Hitchcock is among the most revered filmmakers of a ll time, but he was not a lways held in such high esteem. Early on, critics dismissed his films as schlock; now they are considered pillars of the film canon. Even television is shedding its reputation as dispos- able fluff. Shows like Westworld and Game of Thrones are the subject of serious literary criticism once reserved only for high art.
Media Effects and Audiences 401
your own unique individual preferences are in some ways pre- determined by your age, race, gender, class, level of education, and regional location.
Media Effects and Audiences Media researchers have sought to understand whether popular culture can influence certain types of behavior (Anderson et a l. 2010; Gerbner and Gross 1976; Ma lamuth and Donnerstein 1984; Wein- stein 1991, 2000). Do TV crime shows increase our propensity to violence? Does pornography lead to the abuse of women? Does heav y meta l music make teenagers suicida l? Such ques- tions suggest that cultura l products impose their intrinsic
TASTES AND MEANING The distinctions between high and popular culture are based on the characteristics of their audiences. Differences of class, education, race, and even religion help create these categories. Sociologist Her- bert Gans (1999) calls the groups of people who share simi- lar artistic, recreational, and intellectual interests taste publics. Taste publics aren’t necessarily organized groups, but they do inhabit the same aesthetic worlds, which Gans calls taste cultures; that is, people who share the same tastes will also usually move in the same cultural circles. For example, sociologist David Halle (1993) found that members of the upper class are more likely to have abstract paintings hanging in their homes, while members of the working class are more likely to display family photographs in their homes.
The music, movies, clothes, foods, art, books, magazines, cars, sports, and television programs you enjoy are influenced at least in part by your position in society. Unknowingly, you belong to a number of taste publics and inhabit a number of taste cultures, in that you share your interests with others who are similar to you demographically. What you think of as
Are the Kids All Right? Proponents of free- range parenting believe that free unsupervised play is critical for children’s development into healthy, resilient adults.
with the consequences), and essentia lly learn to fend for themselves.
This approach still creates controversy. In 2015, the Meitiv family of Montgomery County, Maryland, was twice reported to authorities for allowing their children, ten and six, to walk to and from a neighborhood park by themselves. Other free- range parents have faced similar interference. Despite the fact that their kids weren’t lost, faced no particu- lar danger, and weren’t being abused or neglected, the par- ents were called to account for letting them walk around and play in their own familiar neighborhoods unsupervised.
Parents’ fears of children being victimized, injured, kid- napped, or killed are something of a red herring. Statistics show that most of these hazards are at all- time lows and have been decreasing for decades. Of course, certain specific neighborhoods may not be conducive to unsupervised play, but most children in the United States live much safer lives than they did fifty years ago; bad things are more likely to befall children at the hands of their parents and caregivers than by strangers. But while crime is down, fear of crime is up, due in part to the amount of violence we can now watch on television (Jamieson and Romer 2014). This means that our perceptions of the dangers of simple, ordinary activities (like walking to the park) may be based in fictional rather than real- world experiences.
It is unclear how many parents are part of the free- range movement, but Skenazy’s book was a best seller and she now hosts a television show on the topic. Will the free- range movement grow? Will overprotective parents overcome their (possibly unfounded) fears and encourage their kids to become independent, responsible, and safe? Is free- range parenting old- fashioned— or is it the future of play?
TASTE PUBLICS groups of people who share similar artistic, literary, media, recreational, and intellectual interests
TASTE CULTURES areas of culture that share similar aesthetics and standards of taste
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media402
is a general one that can include sound and image as well as print.) This notion was contained in the model known as the hypodermic needle theory (or magic bullet the- ory). The assumption was that, like an injection, media content was shot directly into the audience members, who responded instantaneously to its stimulus (Lazarsfeld and Katz 1955). One of the key examples often cited to support this theory was the 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’s short story “ War of the Worlds” narrated by Orson Welles. The radio show used a mock news- bulletin format and was played uninterrupted by commercial breaks. Listeners who tuned in after the beginning of the show did not realize it was merely a dramatization of a Martian invasion. It was reported that audience members numbering in the millions actually believed the “news” was true and were so fright- ened as to have sparked widespread panic. Though this might seem rather exaggerated now, the theory still points to an important principle about the media’s potential to directly influence behavior.
Active Audiences: Minimal Effects Theories Media scholars quickly realized that the hypodermic needle theory was not accurate or applicable for the most part— that audience members were not as passive or easily persuaded as first believed and that the various forms of media them- selves were not as all- powerful in their influence over indi- viduals. A number of related theories were developed during the 1960s and 1970s that proposed the media had limited or minimal effects.
Contemporar y research on the effects of media has supported the idea of active audiences. The focus of
meanings on their audiences in a simplistic, stimulus- and- response fashion. But while it is true that media are potentia lly powerful transmitters of cul- tura l va lues and norms, the pro- cess is neither immediate nor uncomplicated.
Sometimes dramatic cur- rent events like the 2012 mass shooting of audience members during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises raise
concerns about the relationship between media content and rea l life. The influence or effects of the media on society have been studied for many decades by scholars in a range of disciplines, including psycholog y, communications, and sociolog y. The theories they have generated run a long a spectrum, from the media having great power and influ- ence over audiences, to their having little or none, to audi- ences themselves being centra l in the creation of meaning. It is worth examining what each of these theories has to say about the effects of media on society and the individua l and to consider the applicability of any theory to the postmod- ern, digita l world in which we now live.
Theories of Media Effects In the early years of mass media, it was thought that audi- ence members of all sorts (including readers) were passive recipients of content and that whatever meaning was in the “texts” they consumed was transmitted unaltered and absorbed straight into their consciousness. (The term “text”
Young, Scrappy, and Hungry Hit Broadway musical Hamilton effectively blends high and low culture. Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda (center) credits Biggie Smalls, The West Wing, Jay-Z, and classic musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita as influences.
HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY (MAGIC BULLET THEORY) a theory that explains the effects of media as if their contents simply entered directly into the consumer, who is powerless to resist their influence
ACTIVE AUDIENCES a term used to characterize audience members as active participants in “reading” or constructing the meaning of the media they consume
Media Effects and Audiences 403
get consumers to buy products or used in the political arena to sway public opinion or to gar- ner votes. Two related theories suggest that the influence of the media is more limited than marketing executives or cam- paign managers might other- wise wish. Reinforcement theory argues that individuals tend to seek out and listen to only those messages that align with their existing attitudes and beliefs. Thus audience members typically tune out anything that might seem too challenging and instead prefer only those mes- sages that support what they already believe (Atkin 1973, 1985; Klapper 1960).
The agenda- setting the- ory focuses on how the mass media can influence the pub- lic by the way stories are pre- sented in the news (McCombs and Shaw 1972, 1977). Depend- ing on which stories are chosen as newsworthy and how much time and space are devoted to their coverage, the public gets a sense of the va lue or impor- tance of any given event. The media may not be able to tell audiences what to think, but they do set the agenda for what (stories) to think about. Fina lly, the two- step flow model of communication suggests that audiences get much of their information from “opinion leaders” who can convey and explain important news rather than from more direct or firsthand sources (Lazarsfeld and Katz 1955). Certainly someone like Oprah Winfrey exemplifies this; she is known for her widespread ability to influence and can introduce millions of her audience members to whatever is her latest concern.
Interpretive Strategies and Communities Media research in the 1980s and 1990s maintained its focus on active audiences. Theorists proposed that media consumers bring to the experience different interpretive strategies. This approach argues that different individu- als, because of their different experiences, perspectives, and personalities, may respond to media content in unique and idiosyncratic ways. This means that whatever meanings
research a lso shif ted. Instead of asking, “ W hat do media do to people? ” scholars began to ask, “ W hat do people do with media? ” (Severin and Tankard 1997). The uses and gratifications paradigm contains severa l theories that emphasize a more actively engaged audience member (Katz 1959). Blumler and Katz (1974) highlighted f ive areas in which audiences sought gratif ication and fulf illed needs through their use of the media. First, audiences could achieve some sense of escape from rea lity; second, audi- ences could use media for socia l interaction, forming rela- tionships to characters, or conversing with others about products and programs; third, they could gain some aspect of persona l identity by incorporating elements found in the media into their ever yday lives; fourth, the media could ser ve to inform and educate audiences; and f if th, audi- ence members could consume media purely for the sa ke of entertainment.
Many media scholars have been interested in the per- suasive powers of the media, whether used in advertising to
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS PARADIGM approaches to understanding media effects that focus on how the media fulfill individuals’ psychological or social needs
REINFORCEMENT THEORY theory that suggests that audiences seek messages in the media that reinforce their existing attitudes and beliefs and are thus not influenced by challenging or contradictory information
AGENDA- SETTING THEORY theory that the media can set the public agenda by selecting certain news stories and excluding others, thus influencing what audiences think about
TWO- STEP FLOW MODEL theory on media effects that suggests audiences get information through opinion leaders who influence their attitudes and beliefs, rather than through direct, firsthand sources
INTERPRETIVE STRATEGIES the ideas and frameworks that audience members bring to bear on a particular media text to understand its meaningWar of the Worlds A radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’s short
story “The War of the Worlds” caused widespread panic when listeners misinterpreted the mock news bulletin as an account of a real Martian invasion.
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media404
restructuring indicates that viewers can read different meanings into the text than were intended by the producers— indeed, can reproduce the text in order to make those mean- ings central. Jenkins’s ideas have also been applied to new forms of digital media that provide fans with more control over content and more opportunities for engaging in what he calls participatory culture (Jenkins 2006). New technolo- gies have made textual poaching much easier: Social media connect fans to one another while providing easier access to the original textual content (via YouTube, for example) and user- friendly photo- and video- editing software. Not all artists appreciate their fans’ textual poaching, but some, like Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, are flattered that people love their characters enough to imagine new stories for them.
Responding to cultural texts is thus an exercise in the dis- tribution of power. The more active the audience is in inter- preting the text, the less control the producers have over the messages that are communicated. While you may not go so far as one of Jenkins’s “textual poachers,” neither are you a passive recipient of predigested pop- culture pabulum. Your consumption of media (film, television, music, books) and live performance (concerts, theater, sports) is active in the sense that you contribute your own interpretive resources— context, experience, and perspective. And to the extent that you share these experiences with others, you may find that you are part of an interpretive community— a group of like- minded people who enjoy cultural products in the same way.
may be inherent in texts, consumers may read them in the intended ways but can also modify and even invert the meanings of texts depending on their own backgrounds and purposes. Different interpretive strategies lead back to the idea of polysemy— that any given text may have multiple meanings.
Working within the cultural studies perspective, Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model (1980, 1997) combines elements of the hypodermic needle/magic bullet and active audience theories. This model assumes on the one hand that specific ideological messages are loaded, or encoded, into cul- tural products and that they therefore have the potential to influence individuals, especially with regard to promoting the interests of capitalist elites. On the other hand, individuals
may respond to messages embed- ded in the media in a variety of ways. In fact, when faced with ideologically encoded cultural products like movies or music, for example, we may decode them in novel ways. Further, we can engage in “cultural resistance” or choose “oppositional” or “against the grain” readings of products, subverting their original or dom- inant meaning.
For example, Beyoncé’s recent visual album, Lemonade, can be read in a number of ways. Mil- lions of fans (and many reviewers and cultural commentators) saw it as a manifesto of black femi- nist empowerment, while a small subgroup of critics— like feminist theorist bell hooks (2016)—were disappointed with the video’s familiar commodification of the female body and felt it didn’t go
far enough in condemning the exploitation of women, African Americans, and other subordinated groups. This type of split in the interpretation of cultural texts is actually common and is visible across the artistic spectrum. It helps explain why your mom loved Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” as ardently as your grandma hated it.
Henry Jenkins (1992) extends the model to something he calls textual poaching, wherein audience members take the original product and manipulate it themselves— often to tell stories or express ideologies very different from the orig- inal. For example, fans of the TV show Star Trek have taken episodes of the program, deconstructed, and re- edited them to create new stories (called “K/S,” or “Slash”) in which Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are not just best friends and co- workers but also passionate gay lovers. This oppositional
ENCODING/DECODING MODEL a theory on media that combines models that privilege the media producer and models that view the audience as the primary source of meaning; this theory recognizes that media texts are created to deliver specific messages and that individuals actively interpret them
TEXTUAL POACHING Henry Jenkins’s term for the ways that audience members manipulate an original cultural product to create a new one; a common way for fans to exert some control over the media they consume
INTERPRETIVE COMMUNITY a group of people dedicated to the consumption and interpretation of a particular cultural product and who create a collective, social meaning for the product
Interpreting Beyoncé’s Lemonade Media theorists propose that we respond to media content in unique ways based on our backgrounds and personalities. Is Lemonade a black feminist manifesto or just another example of the commodification of the female body? Depends who you ask.
Leisure and Relationships 405
Leisure and Relationships As spectators, we have many choices for how to watch sports or other events. We can attend a live game if we can afford the tickets or watch it played on TV or stream it online, or we can hear the play- by- play over radio or satellite. At the same time, we can participate through social media and weigh in on the action along with other commentators and fans. We can watch the game alone or with others, at home, in dorm lounges, or at a sports bar. We can also choose to record the game and watch it at a later time. With so many ways to fol- low our favorite teams and players, it’s not surprising to find how important they are to our sense of self and belonging to a community.
Our recreational choices can lead us to form unique bonds with others. Some of those bonds take the form of role model relationships, in which more prominent mem- bers of a leisure subculture serve as examples for us to strive toward. It is a widely accepted practice to look up to, admire, and mold ourselves after exceptional people and celebrities of all types.
Let’s look at the influence of sports figures. Athletes have always been role models, but they have never been as visible as they are now. Sports media are a con- stant, making it easier to follow our favorite players both on and off the court (or field). All that exposure can turn them into superstars, but it can also reveal their feet of clay. In the 1990s, for instance, kids chanted “I wanna be like Mike” to communicate their admiration for Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods, who in 1997 became the youngest golfer and first person of color ever to win the Masters Tournament, generated the same type of hero worship among youngsters, who intoned “I am Tiger Woods” as they stepped up to the tee in record numbers.
Role models like Jordan and Woods may inspire us to excel in sports and in other areas as well, since both of them have excelled in business and in charity. But their personal failures ( both men admitted to marital infidelity) make us wonder what kinds of role models they really are. Some would argue that sports figures are not appropriate role models: Even though they must work hard in order to excel, they still possess unique skills and talents that the rest of us don’t have. In fact, another basketball player, Charles Bark- ley, who played with the Phoenix Suns at the time, famously asserted “I am not a role model,” arguing that parents and teachers were more appropriate examples for children to follow. And interestingly, each of the above quotes (“I wanna be like Mike,” “I am Tiger Woods,” and “I am not a
The concept of the interpretive community is usua lly attributed to literar y theorist Stanley Fish (1980), who believed that a lthough an author might have intended a certain meaning in a text, it is individua l readers who inevitably interpret the text in their own ways, thus creat- ing the potentia l for an a lmost inf inite number of mean- ings of the same text. Sociologists use the term polysemy to describe how any cultura l product is subject to mul- tiple interpretations and hence has many possible mean- ings (Fiske 1989; Ha ll 1980). For instance, an animated show like The Simpsons or Family G uy can be enjoyed on a variety of levels, by children for its humor a lone and by adults for its socia l commentar y. Polysemy helps us under- stand how one person can absolutely love the same movie (or song, painting, cartoon, necklace, car, mea l, or tattoo) that another person absolutely hates. W hen audiences are made up of people from different backgrounds, it is more likely that polysemy will come into play, that is, that audi- ence members will interpret the same texts in different ways. Meaning is not a given, nor is it entirely open— we ma ke meaning individua lly and together, as audiences and consumers of culture.
The fact that we usually end up interpreting the same books in the same ways has to do with shared culture and frameworks that members of the same interpretive commu- nities have in common. Janice Radway (1991), in her ethnog- raphy of romance- novel readers, argued that cultural context is the reason that readers share similar sets of reading strat- egies and interpretive codes. Whether visiting a museum exhibit, going to a concert, or watching a TV show, members of interpretive communities bring with them shared sensi- bilities about understanding cultural products through their own particular lenses.
POLYSEMY having many possible meanings or interpretations
ROLE MODEL an individual who serves as an example for others to strive toward and emulate
Textual Poaching Star Trek fans manipulate old footage in order to create new stories that suggest a very different interpretation of Kirk and Spock’s relationship than the one portrayed on the original show.
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media406
Do you know the rules for cricket, that complicated ball and bat sport so popular in India? What’s up with the Canadi- ans and their love of curling, you know, the game played on ice with the brooms? How about jai alai, what Spain proclaims is the world’s fastest sport, the one with the three- walled court? Every country seems to have its favorite sport, but there is one that is most beloved the world over— football. No, not that football— the other one. What Americans call soccer but everyone else calls football is wildly popular internation- ally, but it is just beginning to take off among U.S. sports fans. American interest in soccer seems to spike every four years when the World Cup rolls around; otherwise, major league soccer still lags well behind the professional sports behe- moths of football, baseball, and basketball.
The rest of the world, however, thinks Americans are crazy. In almost every other country around the world, foot- ball (soccer) is a major sport. There are local and national competitions between teams and international competi- tion between national teams. Salaries for top players often surpass deals made with elite American athletes, with tens of millions of dollars going to heavyweights like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
While soccer has a lackluster fan base in the United States, the sport inspires intense devotion from fans across the globe. But sometimes that passion has a downside. More specifically, it’s the rowdy and sometimes violent fans, often referred to as “hooligans,” who have garnered attention from their association with soccer. The British, especially, are infamous for the mobs of “yobs” (slang for hooligans) that cause mayhem both in Great Britain and elsewhere in the soccer- playing world as they follow and fight over their teams. Violence typically breaks out between fans of rival teams. Brawls may escalate into riots and stampedes, leading to injury, death, and destruction of property. Soc- cer, like many sports, has a violent history: In the medieval period, entire towns would participate in soccer matches to resolve disputes, and kings and queens at times had the game banned because of violence. In those days, it was the play- ers who had to be concerned for their safety; since the rise of contemporary hooliganism, it’s now the spectators who need to be wary.
Hooliganism began in England in the 1960s and then quickly spread to many other European nations and beyond (Buford 1993). As the popularity of soccer increased, inju- ries and even fatalities mounted. Fortunately, there has been a marked reduction in the number of violent incidents in recent years. This is due to a number of factors, including
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE The Other Football
more self- regulation among fans, better stadium designs, more intervention by security personnel, and increased efforts on the part of police forces (Morris 2014). These mea- sures have not eliminated hooliganism, but every year fewer people are injured at soccer matches around the world.
Why does soccer spur violence in some of its fans? Some theories speculate that the fanaticism of hooligans is only an excuse to be violent (this argument has been applied to violence in other sports as well). Skinheads, for example, have used soccer matches to broadcast their beliefs. Others assert that fandom can develop into a nationalistic fervor that increases the likelihood of violence (Brimson 2010). For example, for British fans who feel united against a foreign team while in a foreign country, it may be easy to feel both isolated and compelled to defend the honor of their team and country— especially when emotions are already height- ened with the fury of athletic competition (King 1995). This argument can be levied at other sports and their fans as well. Think of the riots that often ensue in college towns after a big victory for the home team.
A lthough fan violence at U.S. sporting events is certainly not unheard of, so far nothing on the sca le of soccer hooli- ganism has occurred. Why is such behavior rarer in the United States? Is it because U.S. teams are seldom involved in truly internationa l competition? Or is it because there are so many different professiona l sports and teams to follow? As soccer— the rea l footba ll— grows in popularity in the United States, will the sport’s hooligans come with it, too?
A History of Violence Russian fans riot during a football match between FK Austria Wien and Zenit St. Petersburg.
Leisure and Relationships 407
to be?” or should he just be himself and not worry about what fans think of him? Can any celebrity afford to do that?
Aside from sports and entertainment role models, we also build relationships with people who share our interests— our soccer teammates, fellow collectors of Star Wars memora- bilia, bluegrass aficionados, or backgammon players. These are important members of our social world.
Leisure and Community Your friendship with the people you play pickup basketball with every Thursday evening, the members of your gardening club, or the folks you watch Game of Thrones with is unlikely to be confined solely to a love of basketball, gardening, or tele- vision; your bonds probably extend into other areas of your lives as well. But it is your shared interests that have brought you together, and these activities speak to the heart of Émile Durkheim’s pioneering sociological questions about com- munity and social cohesion, first asked more than a hundred years ago and still central today.
Some scholars argue that a critical problem has emerged in contemporary society that undermines social cohesion. They contend that group values in important social groups such as the family, the church, or a labor union have been eclipsed by a rhetoric that espouses radical individual rights first and fore- most. For instance, dinner with the family might be passed up in favor of a mother’s Pilates lesson or a brother’s going to a friend’s house to watch the fight on TV. Or the Catholic requirement to attend Mass each week might be fulfilled only on Christmas and Easter.
Sociologist A mitai Etzioni is the leading proponent of a movement that seeks to remedy this problem: Communi- tarianism a rg ues that indi- vidua l rights do not ca ncel out collective responsibility. The movement is a n attempt to rebuild a sense of group va l- ues that benef it a ll rather than
Deflategate 2015 In 2015 Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, was accused of participating in a ball deflation scheme. Controversies such as this one beg the question of whether sports stars make good role models.
COMMUNITARIANISM a political and moral philosophy focused on strengthening civil society and communal bonds
Table 13.2 Theory in Everyday Life
Perspective Approach to Recreation and Leisure Case Study: Spectator Sports in America
Structural Functionalism
Social institutions such as recreation and leisure provide for the needs of society and its members and help to maintain social cohesion and unity.
Participation in spectator sports helps to reaffirm social bonds; rooting for a team underscores the value of performance and competition.
Conflict Theory Social institutions such as recreation and leisure reflect the existing power structures in society and thus create and maintain social inequalities.
Participation in spectator sports legitimizes conflict between groups in society and the belief in winners and losers.
Symbolic Interactionism Social institutions such as recreation and leisure are produced when people act together; they play a meaningful role in the everyday lives of members.
Participation in spectator sports provides members with a sense of group affiliation and personal identification.
role model”) was eventually used in Nike commercials— all to inspire consumers to buy expensive sporting goods. In a commercial for Nike, Cleveland Cavalier star LeBron James riffed on the “I am not a role model” theme by asking “ What should I do?” of his audience. “Should I be who you want me
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media408
merely the individua l. Etzioni’s version of communita ri- a nism (1996) is specific in its proposa ls about how to ba l- ance individua l rights with socia l responsibilities. But the question for us here is this: A re bonds based on sha red leisure interests enough to constitute a sense of group responsibility compatible with communitaria n aims? Or a re basketba ll, ga rdening, television, a nd the like just too f limsy a basis for rea l group identity?
Robert Bellah, whose work has examined group va lues in the United States, supplies another critique but a lso hints at a potentia l answer for us. He argues that bonds based on shared interests like those mentioned earlier don’t create
rea l community. Rather, such groups constitute lifestyle enclaves, which are different from rea l communities in that they are likely to remain private and segmented, focused on their own shared interests rather
than involved in the larger group life (Bellah, Sullivan, and Tipton 1985). So you and your fellow ba llplayers, knitters, or TV fans may find your connections to each other to be persona lly rewarding, but you aren’t necessarily contribut- ing to the common good. Or are you?
In Kerry Ferris’s (2001) research on Star Trek and soap opera fan clubs, she found that while people in these clubs did initially bond solely because of their dedication to par- ticular TV shows, these bonds developed over time in ways that Bellah might not have predicted. Eventually, the groups branched out from their narrow focus and began to pursue
things like charitable fund- raising and community service projects that expanded the boundaries of their lifestyle enclave. One Star Trek fan club, for example, raised money to help an animal welfare organization that was sponsored by Trek actor William Shatner; while their contributions were guided by their specific interests (how many other people even know what Shatner’s favorite charity is?), their community spirit was obvious. So perhaps a sense of shared mission within a small group of TV viewers or tulip enthusi- asts is not incompatible with a larger sense of social respon- sibility after all. You can indulge your individual sense of play and work for the common good as well.
Collectors and Hobbyists Sports are not the only recreationa l pursuits that draw people together. Many collectors’ groups organize annua l conventions so that members with shared interests can hobnob with one another for one intensive weekend (Rubel and Rosman 2001). Collectors of Dolly Parton memorabilia, for example, meet once a year in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to buy, sell, and trade Dolly- related items and share their love of the country music diva. Fans of a different kind of dolly, Barbie, a lso meet annua lly to connect with others who collect Barbie, her friends, and a ll their accessories. You’ll find her on- again, off- again boyfriend Ken there as well, a lthough he now has his own convention, or “Kenven- tion.” And at yet another weekend convention, collectors gather together to “keep history a live” and honor rea l mili- tary heroes both past and present, by buying, selling, and
LIFESTYLE ENCLAVES groups of people drawn together by shared interests, especially those relating to hobbies, sports, and media
Creative Cosplay Events like Comic Con draw together fans of comic books, video games, anime, and sci- fi films. The Internet has made it easier for people with shared interests to find each other.
Leisure and Relationships 409
trading twelve- inch action figures die- cast in the image of notable members of the armed forces.
But collectors and hobbyists are no longer limited to meeting face- to- face at an annual convention or weekend workshop. The Internet has helped spawn myriad virtual communities where enthusiasts can interact online. Do- it- yourselfers and garage woodworkers who might normally work alone have found compatriot crafters with whom they can converse. Connecting with others who share the same interests is facilitated by a plethora of websites and social media. Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, eBay, and Etsy allow collectors and hobbyists to meet, organize activities, swap tips, show off their wares, and search for the perfect purchases. In some cases, like online gaming, the Internet is the sole source of the hobby.
Hangouts: The Third Place Away from work or school, where else do you spend your time? Researcher Robert Putnam (2000) laments that, in the United States at least, you will probably be watching TV at home rather than gathering in a public place to socialize with others. But if you lived in France, you might head to the corner café; in Germany, the neighborhood Bierstube; in Greece, the local taverna. Establishments such as these bear the label third place (after home and work, which are first and second). They are informal public places where people come together regularly for conversation and camaraderie. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg (1999, 2002) calls these “great good places” at the heart of community. He is among a grow- ing number of critics who have begun to worry that there are few such places left in the United States— and that we might be suffering as a society because of it.
You know the place— the loca l diner with a counter that ’s a lways full of old men ta lking about f ishing for
bluegill, complaining about the cost of prescription medica- tions, or bemoaning the irre- sponsibility of youth. You might have thought such ta lk trivia l or silly, but the interactions and relationships that develop in third places are impor- tant far beyond any specif ic conversationa l content. Cof- feehouse, bar, or barbershop— third places are more than just hangouts. Oldenburg arg ues that they are core settings for informa l but essentia l aspects of public and community life. They provide opportunities to connect with others in ways that relieve a lienation and anomie, problems Dur- kheim attributed to modern society. A nd there are more genera lized benef its to society as well— the feeling of pub- lic spirit generated in third places can streng then civil society, increase politica l awareness and participation, and sustain democracy from the ground up. So that loca l hangout spot is more important than it appears to be. It helps maintain socia l cohesion and links the individua l to the community.
In the years since Oldenburg coined the term, third places have not disappeared, but they have changed. Gone are the loca l bookstores where many once gathered. But new technolog y has a lso drawn people to new hot spots, as they huddle around free Wi- Fi wherever it may be. Some may bemoan that we have become a nation of isolated screen gazers, even when we’re occupying the same space. But the Internet is a lso making it easier for people to find each other, and mobile apps like Meetup and Foursquare may actua lly support community building and bringing people back together.
THIRD PLACE any informal public place where people come together regularly for conversation and camaraderie when not at work or at home
CIVIL SOCIETY those organizations, institutions, and interactions outside government, family, and work that promote social bonds and the smooth functioning of society
Where’s Your Third Place? Whether it’s a coffeehouse, diner, barbershop, or neighborhood pub, third places are informal public places where people come together regularly for conversation and camaraderie.
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media410
It is simply taken for granted that an American will know about a huge swarming throng of unmet figures through his [sic] consumption of the various media. (Caughey 1984, p. 32)
Who is this “huge swarming throng ”? Celebrities— people with whom few of us have actual face- to- face interactions but whom many of us feel we know, sometimes intimately. Celebrities can be important in the lives of ordinary people— as role models, objects of desire, or just friendly figures encountered daily on the TV or computer screen. And just because these relation- ships are one- sided doesn’t mean that they aren’t relationships.
Most of us put very little energy into developing these types of relationships. Frankly, we don’t have to, as we are constantly bombarded with information about celebrities all the time. We can’t help but acquire information about their professional and personal lives, even if it’s just while stand- ing in line at the supermarket (Ehrenreich 1990). But some fans deliberately pursue information about and contact with celebrities in more active ways. Maybe you read a magazine article or watched a TV show to learn more about your favorite athlete; maybe you bought a ticket to a performance with the hopes of seeing your favorite musician after the show. Maybe you serendipitously crossed paths with your favorite actor at the airport or in line at the post office. Encounters like these, while exciting, can also be expensive and unpredictable, and
IN RELATIONSHIPS Fan- Celebrity Relations
the contact between fan and celebrity is largely outside the fan’s control (Ferris 2001, 2004; Ferris and Harris 2010).
Recently the Internet has made it easier for fans to engi- neer encounters with celebrities. Gawker, TMZ, Popsugar, and PerezHilton are a few of the websites that are making big business out of celebrity watching. They all carry the latest gossip and prized candid photos of stars that generate millions of web hits every month. Gawker, which is based in New York City, distinguished itself by publishing the “Stalker Map,” visually pinpointing celebrities as soon as they were spotted. While this particular map is no longer available online, other maps and apps provide similar types of infor- mation (including UrbanSpoon’s list of top restaurants and the celebrities who regularly dine at them). With more people using smartphones, news about celebrities travels fast, as do those wishing to pursue them. And sometimes, fan expec- tations and senses of entitlement to celebrity contact go dangerously awry.
Security experts usually try to keep the details under wraps, but it is safe to say that most public figures have a number of potentially dangerous fans whose activities are monitored by both public law enforcement and private secu- rity firms. Several celebrities have been killed (Beatle John Lennon, actress Rebecca Schaeffer, Tejano star Selena) or seriously wounded (actress Theresa Saldana) by obsessed fans. Others have endured repeated home break- ins (Sandra
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Now Go Hang Out Third places are important to a sense of community and belonging. Are they at risk of disappearing, or are they still attracting people who want to hang out somewhere
together? For this Data Workshop you will be doing a short ethnography of a third place. You’ll investigate the
social setting of a local hangout using participant obser- vation. Refer to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. You are encouraged to pick a place where you, or others you know, hang out for real, as this background knowledge can help with your analysis; in this case, you’ll also be doing an autoethnography.
It doesn’t matter which kind of hangout you choose; it could be a bar, restaurant, gym, park, student union, or bookstore. What’s important is to make sure that it’s a real hangout, someplace where people linger, that they return to regularly to socialize. Part of your work will be to determine just what constitutes a good hangout. So think a bit about your own habits and those of your friends, and choose what you think is a good hangout to study where you’ll be both a participant and an observer.
Leisure and Relationships 411
Bullock, Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Madonna, and Brad Pitt), and many are plagued by “ pop- up” visits from fans who follow them surreptitiously and then reveal themselves in airports, restaurants, or public restrooms. Threatening let- ters are sometimes sent to the stars’ management offices and even delivered to their home addresses. In order to protect Hollywood celebrities and other public figures from danger- ous fans, the Los Angeles Police Department has created a division called the Threat Management Unit, and California further led the nation in passing anti- stalking laws in 1990 that have served as models for those in other states. Unfortu- nately, legislation doesn’t deter all stalkers.
For some, celebrity stalking is a professional obligation. These people include members of the press, and especially the paparazzi— freelance photographers who pursue celeb- rities in order to get candid shots. Paparazzi may charter helicopters, hack through forests, or scale castle walls in daring stunts in order to capture images of celebrity dates, weddings, and newborn babies. Their intrusiveness can even provoke violence from celebrities, as witnessed when former NBA star Lamar Odom ripped open the car doors of mem- bers of the paparazzi who were following him, pulling their equipment out onto the street and smashing it with a crow- bar. In some instances, it is actually the photographer who is assaulted, as in the case of one who took a punch in the jaw from actor Alec Baldwin.
Photo Opportunity Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield hold notecards with the names of nonprofit organizations in front of their faces.
While paparazzi can be annoying to celebrities, fans con- sume their products every day. When we read supermarket tabloids, watch TV entertainment news shows, or scan head- lines on gossip blogs, we support the paparazzi’s activities— because they support ours. They feed our imaginations, provide us with information about celebrities, and help us envision the worlds of those who are part of our everyday lives but have no idea who we are.
Begin by spending about a half hour or more at the third place you’ve chosen to study. Even if you’re already familiar with the setting, try to have a beginner’s mind and take in as much detail about what’s happening as possible. Be prepared to write some informal ethno- graphic field notes describing both the physical and social setting. Examine the items of material culture and the physical layout of the space. Watch the people and note how they interact around (and perhaps with) you, listen for snippets of conversation, and be aware of your own role as both a participant and observer.
Once you’ve completed your field notes, you’re ready for some analysis. Consider these questions:
✱ What is the physica l space like, and why is it con- ducive to people hanging out?
✱ What makes this place a good hangout for the people there?
✱ Can you distinguish who are the “regulars” and who are not? How do you tell a one- time visitor from a regular?
✱ How do people establish themselves as regulars?
✱ What kinds of interactions take place at the hang- out? Are people congregated in pairs or small groups, or are they mostly alone?
✱ What kinds of activities are people engaged in at the hangout?
Finally, approach one or two people you think are reg- ulars and ask them the following questions. Alternatively,
CHAPTER 13 Leisure and Media412
if you’re a regular, you can answer these questions yourself:
✱ What does the third place mean to the regulars who go there?
✱ How does the hangout function in the course of their everyday lives?
✱ In what respect is being a regular at the hangout a part of someone’s identity?
In writing up your analysis, include some examples of the particular idioculture you find— the distinctive cus- toms, values, and language expressed in the place and in the interactions of the people who hang out there.
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Visit a third place and prepare written field notes that you can refer to in class. Partner with one or two other students and discuss your findings. Listen for any differences or variations in each other’s experiences and insights.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Conduct ethnographic research at a field site. Write a three- to four- page essay answering the questions provided. Use specific excerpts from your field notes to support your analysis and make sure to attach your field notes to your finished paper.
33 percent of all U.S. service exports and 11 percent of its total exports (U.S. Department of Commerce 2016).
The impact of tourism on a place is more than just eco- nomic. Tourism can have a profound effect on a culture as well. While we may travel to learn to appreciate different cultures, we may also exoticize or even mistreat other groups as we fit them into our own recreational needs, rather than learning about them on their own terms (Urry 1990, 1992, 2002). Travel and tourism shape not just our individual relations with oth- ers but also political relations between nations on a global scale. One area of contention concerns the environmental impact of travel and tourism.
For example, America’s National Parks were established to preserve unique natural beauty and critical ecosystems so that our citizens could continue to benefit from them. We learn about them through books (like Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods), photos (like Ansel Adams’s pictures of Yosemite), and documentary films (like Ken Burns’s PBS series Amer- ica’s Best Idea). If we’re lucky, we get to visit them, too. San Francisco’s Golden Gate Recreational Area is the most popu- lar, but the Great Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone are also favorites. The National Park Service promotes visits by issuing free passes to all fourth graders in
America the Beautiful In 2016 more than 330 million people visited National Parks such as Yellowstone, Zion, the Grand Canyon, and Shenandoah.
Travel and Tourism While some people find respite in hangouts close to home, others relax and rejuvenate by seeing the world. The travel and tourism industries (which include airlines, hotels, car- rental agencies, restaurants, theme parks, resorts, and other attractions) are multibillion- dollar businesses and play an important part in the U.S. economy. And it’s a sector that keeps growing. In 2015, the travel and tourism industries in the United States employed 5.4 million workers directly and helped support another 2.2 million jobs in related industries. Travel and tourism sales generated a total of $1.6 trillion (U.S. Department of Commerce 2016). The United States is the second- most popular destination (after France) for world travelers: More than 77 million, or 6.5 percent, of the world’s travelers came to the United States in 2015. International
visitors spent over $246 billion on travel- and tourism- related goods and services. These dol- lar figures are important to the overall economy: Travel and tourism account for about
IDIOCULTURE the customs, practices, and values expressed in a particular place by the people who interact there
413Closing Comments
make a negative impact. Other sociologists argue that ecotour- ism, if effectively managed, can make positive contributions to both the environment and local communities (Bandy 1996; Scheyvens 2000; Wearing and Wearing 1999; Weinberg, Bel- lows, and Ekster 2002; Wood 2002). Tourists and travel com- panies must actively attempt to counterbalance their impact with sensitivity to the environ- ment as well as to the values of local communities. The ques- tion remains whether ecotourism can live up to its claims and place environmental and cultural concerns before profits.
CLOSING COMMENTS Who would have thought that the things you do for fun might actually be important? The many activities considered part of leisure— travel, entertainment, sports, hobbies— while prevalent features of our everyday lives, play an increasingly significant role in the shape of society. We hope we haven’t spoiled their pleasure by asking you to examine their vari- ous structures and meanings. You can still enjoy your leisure activities even after you’ve learned to view them from a criti- cal, sociological perspective!
the United States and selling $80 lifetime passes to travel- ers who are sixty- two years old and older. Visitors, though, mean traffic, trash, and threats to the ecosystems within each park. Human impacts include pollution from cars and boats, tons of garbage from campers and picnickers, and even graffiti on boulders and historic structures. Tourists trample delicate vegetation and interfere with the lives of birds and animals, often without intending to do so. The National Park Service sponsors ongoing preservation and conservation programs, but the necessary funding is not always provided, and the tension between use and abuse of the parks is a con- stant struggle.
One response to the impact of tourism on places is the phe- nomenon of ecotourism. Ecotourism is characterized by the efforts of tourists and the travel industry to lessen the nega- tive consequences of tourism on the environment as well as on local cultures. Ecotourism promotes a consciousness about environmentally and culturally sensitive travel options. Eco- tourists are often from highly industrialized nations and are usually visiting less developed nations. But if they are truly aware of their potential to cause harm, shouldn’t they avoid environmentally sensitive locations such as rain forests or the habitats of endangered species?
Sociologists who study ecotourism have mixed views about its effectiveness. Some argue that it is merely con- sumerism with a “green” wrapping, that the “eco” part of the label is a marketing technique to make tourists feel less guilty about traveling to places where they can’t help but
ECOTOURISM foreign travel with the goal of minimizing the environmental consequences of tourism as well as its possible negative effects on local cultures and economies, typically involving people from highly industrialized nations traveling to less developed countries
414
Everything You Need to Know about Leisure and the Media
THEORIES OF LEISURE AND THE MEDIA
✱ Structural functionalism: Leisure activities and the media help main- tain social cohesion through taste publics.
✱ Conflict theory: Leisure activities and the media reflect existing power inequalities, particularly in the com- modification of leisure; the types of leisure and media we consume differ based on our social class.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: People’s everyday lives are greatly affected by shared leisure activities or the con- sumption of the same media.
REVIEW 1. What does “commercialization of
leisure” mean? Think of one of your favorite leisure activities and make a list of every aspect of this activity that costs money, either directly or indirectly.
2. Sociologists have long associated types of leisure activities with dif- ferent social classes. Which leisure activities are associated with wealthy elites or with the working class? Which leisure activities, if any, have no class associations?
3. How powerful are the media in per- suading us to buy certain products or hold particular beliefs? Discuss reinforcement theory, agenda set- ting, and/or the two- step flow model. Which of these theories best explains the influence of the media?
“ Leisure is time that can be spent doing whatever you want. A large portion of Americans’ leisure time is spent consuming mass media.
“
415
EXPLORE
Consuming Elite Athleticism Eugene, Oregon, is a major location for running and track and field, in part because of Bill Bowerman, the late coach for the University of Oregon and the co- founder of Nike. A running culture is prevalent in Eugene: the city celebrates its identity as TrackTown USA, formal activities like the Olympic trials are often held there, and many people wear Nike clothes and shoes. Nike had a significant presence at the 2012 Olympic trials, including shuttle buses with the Nike logo and a “Shoe Lab” showcasing the latest technology in running shoes. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read more about a sociologist’s analysis of how Nike successfully markets elite athleticism to consumers.
http:wwnPag.es/trw413
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017c.
Leisure Time on an Average Day
Playing Games; Using Computer for Leisure (25 minutes)
NOTE: Data include all persons age 15 and over. Data include all days of the week and are annual averages for 2016.
Watching TV (2.7 hours)
Socializing and Communicating (39 minutes)
Relaxing and Thinking (19 minutes)
Participating in Sports, Exercise, Recreation (19 minutes)
Reading (17 minutes)
Other Leisure Activities (25 minutes)
Total Leisure and Sports Time = 5 hours, 8 minutes
416
CHAPTER 14
416
Health and Illness
R esidents of Flint, Michigan, started to notice there was something wrong with their
water back in April 2014, not long after the city switched from Detroit’s water source,
Lake Huron, to the Flint River instead. The city was on the brink of bankruptcy, and a
state- appointed emergency manager ordered the switch as a temporary cost- saving measure.
After the switch, the water didn’t look right, and it didn’t taste, smell, or feel right either. Resi-
dents started to experience a variety of symptoms— skin rashes, breathing problems, digestive
disorders. Alarmed parents noticed that their children weren’t meeting developmental mile-
stones and took them to doctors for testing. That’s when they learned about the lead.
417
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness418
The new water source was more corrosive, and it damaged the protective coating inside the city’s aging lead pipes that deliver water to residents. Lead from the pipes leached into the water system, creating a massive public health crisis. No amount of lead in water is safe for drinking, and the health repercus- sions can be devastating. Lead poisoning can cause brain damage and other serious health problems. The effects can be long- lasting and irreversible and are especially dangerous to children under the age of five. Young children exposed to lead are at greater risk for developmental delays, attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and lower IQ scores. Even low levels of lead can be damaging if exposure continues over many months, which is what happened in Flint.
State officials should have known there was something wrong, too, but they were slow to address the problem. Environmental regulators insisted that the water was safe, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. It took more than eighteen months for Michigan governor Rick Snyder to acknowledge the lead problem and to coordinate a response. Worse still, the water supply was found to have other contaminants as well. Bacteria caused an outbreak of Legion- naire’s disease that ultimately killed twelve residents and made others very sick. Yet, it wasn’t until January 2016 that the governor declared a state of emergency in Flint, asking the federal government to step in.
Even then, relief efforts have been slow and often inadequate. Of critical importance was installing water faucet filters in every home. Distribution centers were also set up for residents to make the daily trek to pick up cases of bot- tled water. Many residents don’t trust that filters do enough to keep them safe, not even for showering. The daily routine of cooking and cleaning is no longer a simple matter. The stress of living under these conditions, the worry, anger, and frustration take an additional toll.
By the end of 2016, only 2 percent of the estimated 30,000 lead pipes connect- ing homes to the water system had been replaced. It will take hundreds of millions of dollars and many more years before the job is done. At the same time, residents need critical social support services for their families and children. Sadly, they will face costly health consequences for years, and possibly generations, to come.
Sociologists think it’s important to consider why this happened in Flint of all places. The majority of Flint’s residents are black and 40 percent of the res- idents live in poverty. Would the response have been different if the city was more affluent—or white?
The public health crisis in Flint is just one example of how social status and environment can intersect with health and illness. Elsewhere we find similar exam- ples that illustrate this key sociological insight. For instance, researchers recently determined that living anywhere close to heavy traffic (such as a freeway or busy highway) is associated with a higher incidence of dementia (Chen et al. 2017). The city of Las Vegas presents another case. According to sociologist Matt Wray and his colleagues (2008), merely being in Las Vegas, as either a resident or a tourist, increases one’s suicide risk. Such research recognizes what we will be exploring in this chapter: Although health, illness, and mortality are physiological phenomena, they are also unquestionably shaped by social factors.
The Sociology of Medicine, Health, and Illness 419
context. Think about what having a hea lthy body means in a developed country like the United States. We va lue slim, athletic builds and bodies with just the right amount of curves and consider people with these body types to be hea lthier than people with more fleshy builds. But in Dakar, Senega l, people tend to va lue body types that in the United States would be considered clinica lly overweight. Senega- lese women in particular associate these body types with hea lth (and by extension with wea lth enough to eat well); slimmer women actua lly want to gain weight in order to attain the “desirable,” “hea lthy ” build (Holdsworth et a l. 2004). Another example: In the United States, “hea lthy ” teeth are not just free of cavities but a lso straight and white. So in addition to brushing teeth daily and visiting the den- tist regularly, Americans spend big money on orthodontic and whitening procedures. Meanwhile, in many other parts of the world, irregularly shaped or unevenly colored teeth are not necessarily seen as “bad” or “unhea lthy,” and cos- metic dentistry is far less common. These examples indi- cate that our definitions of hea lth (and beauty as a sign of hea lth) are determined at least in part by our cultura l con- text and not a lways by a biologica l bottom line.
Another important aspect of hea lth as a socia l phe- nomenon involves the spread of disease. Think about it: You’ve caught a good number of illnesses from other people. Someone behind you in the movie theater coughed, and you got a cold (if you were lucky) or tuberculosis (if you were unlucky). Someone flipping burgers at a fast- food restau- rant forgot to wash her hands, and you got an upset stomach (if you were lucky) or hepatitis A (if you were unlucky). If you have young children in school or day care, you know that kids are like family disease vectors— they catch bugs from other kids, bring them home, and spread them around to family members.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER Hea lth and illness are constants of human existence, a natura l part of having a physica l body that is subject to injur y, disease, aging, and death. Hea lth and illness are not just physica l states— they a lso include aspects of our menta l well- being and are inf luenced by shif ting cultura l beliefs about what is idea l and desirable. As a society, we have established the socia l institution of medicine to address the cha llenges of our physica l existence. Soci- ologists ask you to consider how larger socia l forces help shape this institution and your own embodied experience of hea lth or illness.
The Sociology of Medicine, Health, and Illness Why is sociology interested in topics that might seem more at home in a medical school textbook? Well, for one thing, our bodies (where health and illness are ostensibly located) are social objects. Our physical selves have socially constructed meanings and are affected by social forces. This means that the very definition of health is social; our individual health is subject not just to cross- cultural or historically specific inter- pretive differences but also to different influences depending on where and when we live, as well as what statuses we hold in our society.
Let’s look at a couple of examples where the nature of hea lth is defined by its socia l rather than biologica l
Health in a Cultural Context Senegalese women live in a society that values fuller body types that might be classified as overweight in other cultures. The United States puts such a strong emphasis on straight, white teeth that many people spend thousands of dollars on cosmetic dental procedures.
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness420
and autism. There is, it should be noted, no scientific evi- dence to support such a link.
A highly vaccinated community maintains what is called “herd immunity,” a kind of group resistance that helps pro- tect even the unvaccinated from contracting the disease (herd immunity for measles requires about a 95 percent vac- cination rate). Those who voluntarily decline vaccinations, though, put both themselves and the rest of the “herd” at risk. The lower the vaccination rate of a community (residents of a town, for example, or students at a school, or visitors to a theme park), the lower the group’s collective immunity and the more vulnerable to infection members become.
Our bodies are social objects, and our social experiences and social location shape our prospects for health and risks of disease. These are only some of the reasons that health and illness are social phenomena. As you read this chapter, you’ll find that there are social, cultural, and subcultural factors affecting just about everything having to do with health and illness.
Defining Health and Illness Terms such as “hea lthy ” and “sick” may seem straightfor- ward, but their meanings are not absolute or universa l. The World Hea lth Organization (WHO), a division of the United Nations charged with overseeing globa l hea lth issues, defines hea lth as “a state of complete physica l, menta l, and socia l well- being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity ” (WHO 1946). Let’s look further at how illnesses are defined and treated in the United States.
Types of Illnesses Diseases and illnesses are commonly categorized as either acute or chronic. Acute diseases have a sudden onset, may be briefly incapacitating, and are either curable or fatal. These illnesses are often caused by an organism such as a germ, virus, or parasite that infects the body and disrupts the nor- mal functioning of one or more areas. Many acute illnesses are contagious and can spread from one person to many peo- ple. The common cold, pneumonia, and measles could all be considered acute illnesses. Chronic diseases develop over a longer period of time and may not be detected until later in their progression. They can sometimes be related to environ- ment, lifestyle, and personal choices. Many chronic diseases are manageable, but others progress and eventually become fatal. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of dia- betes can all be considered chronic diseases.
The kinds of diseases that affect us can vary over time and by place. For most of history, humans worried about becoming afflicted with acute diseases. Indeed, prior to
Social milieu affects your risk of disease. Take, for exam- ple, the recent nationwide measles epidemic that began in Anaheim, California. Measles is a highly contagious dis- ease that causes fever, a full- body rash, and sometimes other complications. Death is rare in developed countries like the United States, with widespread vaccination programs and
high- quality health care, but fatality rates can be as high as 30 percent in places without such amenities, or in popula- tions that cannot receive vac- cines, such as infants under twelve months of age or people with compromised immune systems such as AIDS or che- motherapy patients. In early 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a measles outbreak that appears to have started at Disneyland. Multiple Califor- nia cases eventually spread to almost two hundred cases in twenty- four states and the Dis- trict of Columbia (CDC 2015). Most of the cases in the Disney- land outbreak were in unvac-
cinated people; about half were ineligible for vaccination because they were too young or had other illnesses, but the other half chose to go unvaccinated for other reasons, often related to fears of a link between the measles vaccination
Outbreak in California A large multistate measles outbreak in 2015 prompted a nationwide debate over whether parents have the right to opt out of vaccinating their children for diseases like measles.
ACUTE DISEASES diseases that have a sudden onset, may be briefly incapacitating, and are either curable or fatal
CHRONIC DISEASES diseases that develop over a longer period of time and may not be detected until symptoms occur later in their progression
CURATIVE or CRISIS MEDICINE type of health care that treats the disease or condition once it has manifested
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE type of health care that aims to avoid or forestall the onset of disease by taking preventive measures, often including lifestyle changes
Defining Health and Illness 421
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Student Health Issues Survey For many young people, moving away from home and going to college mark the beginning of their independent lives as adults. While there is much to celebrate at this milestone,
it can also be a time full of new demands and challenges. Perhaps you or someone you know is dealing with homesickness, an abusive relationship, or stress and anxiety. As a college student, you can learn to become
nutrition, smoking cessation, stress reduction, and other mea- sures to maintain or improve one’s health. Lifestyle changes are often the most effective and least costly ways to prevent a range of chronic conditions. Palliative care focuses on symptom and pain relief and on providing a nurturing and supportive environment to those suffering from a serious illness or at the end of life, either in addition to or in place of fighting the illness or disease.
1900, the leading causes of death in the United States were influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gastroenteritis. Over the past century, drastic changes in medicine and pub- lic health have all but wiped out certain acute diseases (such as polio), while chronic ones (such as diabetes and heart dis- ease) have grown vastly in proportion (CDC 2017a). Chronic diseases have become among the most important factors governing health and illness today. Seven of the top ten causes of death in the United States are chronic diseases; the top three are heart disease, cancer, and chronic respi- ratory illnesses like asthma and emphysema (CDC 2017b; Hoyert and Xu 2012). However, acute diseases continue to pose significant threats to people living in the develop- ing world, where the top killers still include respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, and malaria (WHO 2017).
Approaches to Medical Treatment The health care system in the United States is characterized by three approaches: curative or crisis, preventive, and pallia- tive. Curative or crisis medicine treats the disease once it has become apparent. Sometimes this works well, especially in the case of acute illnesses like food poisoning, or sports injuries like a torn ligament, that have no early treatment option. But in the case of chronic illnesses, a delay in recog- nizing causes or symptoms before the disease advances may mean the difference between recovery and death. Preventive medicine aims to avoid or forestall the onset of disease by making lifestyle changes: regular exercise, proper diet and
Acute Diseases Patients in Sudan wait for treatment in the TB ward of a hospital. Diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), diarrheal diseases, and malaria are the top causes of death in the developing world.
PALLIATIVE CARE type of health care that focuses on symptom and pain relief and providing a supportive environment for critically ill or dying patients
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness422
more responsible and disciplined and more conscien- tious about taking care of yourself. But you can also be threatened by alcohol or substance abuse, eating disor- ders, or depression. The college years are an important phase of development and one in which many young peo- ple struggle to some degree with their newfound adult lives.
The American College Health Association (ACHA) is an organization that partners with colleges and uni- versities to conduct large- scale surveys on the habits, behaviors, and perceptions affecting the health and well- being of their student populations. In 2016, the ACHA surveyed more than 95,000 students at 137 institutions. They found some interesting trends; for instance, 43 percent of students said they experienced “more than average stress” within the last twelve months, while another 11 percent said they experi- enced “tremendous stress.” Women reported higher levels of stress than men. Results from the ACHA sur- vey are helping colleges and universities offer educa- tion and support services regarding a variety of issues (ACHA 2016).
For this Data Workshop you will be conducting your own small- scale survey study of health and well- ness issues. Refer to Chapter 2 for a review of survey research. You will be designing a questionnaire, distrib- uting surveys to a sample of your target population, and then analyzing the responses.
Begin by thinking about whom you would like to study and what kinds of questions you would like to ask them. Your respondents should all be college students; remember to ask for their consent to participate. You’ll want to gather some basic demographic background from each respondent. Consider such variables as race and ethnicity, class, national background, gender, religion, and/or age of your sample. There are many
possibilities for comparing and contrasting within or across categories. Because this is only a pilot study, the number of people you can survey will necessarily be small. You’ll probably have to draw from what is referred to as a “convenience sample” of respondents rather than using a more scientific random sample. How many peo- ple you include in your sample may also depend on how many questions you’d like to ask each respondent.
Typically, survey questions are closed- ended with preset response options, usually yes or no or agree/dis- agree (Likert scale). You may also want to include open- ended questions that allow respondents to answer in their own words. The kinds of questions you ask may also help to determine the number of questions to include. There’s no one right way to structure a survey, but do keep the questionnaires as clear and simple as possible. Here is a list of possible topics for your study. Feel free to add your own topics.
anger pregnancy body image peer pressure depression relationships drugs and alcohol sexual assault eating disorders sexually transmitted diseases exercise sleep difficulties financial issues stress and anxiety gambling suicide grades and studying tobacco use grief and loss violence homesickness
Questions about daily habits, relationships, and emo- tions can tell you something about an individual’s men- tal and physical health. You might ask students about their lifestyles— what they eat, how much they sleep, whether they exercise, drink or smoke, or practice safe sex. Do they play a musical instrument, are they on a sports team, or do they belong to any campus clubs? You might ask about their physical health— how often they get sick, or what they do to stay healthy. Or you might ask about their mental health— whether they experience stress, depression, and/or anxiety, what causes them to feel it, and what they do to alleviate it. Some topics may be too sensitive or personal in nature, so use good judg- ment. Let your respondents know that they can decline to answer any questions that make them uncomfortable. Remember that you must also respect the privacy and confidentiality of your respondents. Once you’ve final- ized the questions, you’re ready to distribute the surveys.
After gathering data, you’ll want to begin to analyze your findings. Sift through your completed surveys and compile some notes about what you find. See what kinds of patterns you can find— similarities, differences,
College Health A student at the University of Northern Iowa visits the school’s student health clinic.
The Process of Medicalization 423
(Cassidy 2006). While home births have increased in the past decade, they still account for less than 2 percent of births in the United States (CDC 2014b). We now see pregnancy as a “medical condition” for which a hospital birth— and, often, a doctor’s intervention in the form of an episiotomy or caesar- ean section— is the “treatment.”
Death has undergone the same transformation: Once a nat- ural (though sad) part of family life, it is now something that we will go to great medical lengths to delay (though we can never stave it off forever). Death also used to occur at home, but today about 75 percent of patients die in other settings (CDC 2013b), despite the fact that studies show it is less stressful for terminally ill patients to die at home (Searing 2010). For many people living great distances away from relatives, dying at home is no longer even an option.
Medicalization changes both the meaning of a condition and the meaning of the individual who suffers from it. In the case of birth and death, it turns a natural part of the human life cycle into something unfamiliar that we fear we can’t handle on our own. We therefore turn to medical experts who may or may not intervene in ways that actually help and may in fact further traumatize patients and their families. In other cases, such as with conditions like addiction, obesity, or mental or emotional problems, medical- ization takes the pressure off the person. The fact that they drink too much, eat too much, can’t concentrate, or are sad all the time is no longer their fault as individuals— it is the fault of the disease. We would never advise someone to “just get over” pneumonia or a broken leg— and as the process of medicalization continues, we are less likely to think of addiction, obesity, and depression as conditions people should “just get over” on their own.
The Social Construction of Mental Illness Understanding that disease can be socially constructed allows us to see how its meanings can change over time. For example, take the social meaning of mental illness. Over the course of history and in different societies, theories of the causes of mental illness have varied widely. Each new theory led to a different type of treatment (and justification for that treatment), some of which seem shockingly inhuman to us now. For example, in fourteenth- century London, Bethlem Royal Hospital (which is still in operation today) became a kind of prison for those suffering from mental illnesses. Based on the theory that mental illness was a moral failing caused by demonic possession or individual weakness, the “treatment” for those who suffered was removal from society. Bethlem, or Bedlam as it came to be known, warehoused the mentally ill under the most horrifying of conditions, which
comparisons, and contradictions. What do you think these data reveal about how your respondents cope with the health issues they encounter at school?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Design a questionnaire and dis- tribute surveys to a small sample from your target pop- ulation (perhaps three or four people). Look over their answers, make notes about any preliminary results, and bring them with you to class. Get together with one or two other students and discuss your findings. Look for sim- ilarities and differences in both your own findings and those of your discussion group members. See if you can identify any patterns that emerge from the data gathered by the entire group.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Design a questionnaire and distrib- ute surveys to a small group of respondents from your target population (perhaps six or seven people). Write a two- to three- page essay describing the research process and analyzing your findings. Be sure to attach a copy of your questionnaire and any notes you took to your paper. How do your findings confirm or refute any hypotheses you might have had before beginning the study? What do your data suggest about the relationship between college life and student health?
The Process of Medicalization Because what constitutes illness can be socially constructed, it’s interesting to look at how some problems that were once not considered medical conditions have been trans- formed into illnesses over time. This process is known as medicalization, and it has affected our perspective on a variety of behaviors and conditions. A half century ago, we thought of alcoholism and addiction as the result of weak will or bad character, but we now see them as diseases that respond to medical and therapeutic treatment. Kids who might have been written off as “unruly” or “incorrigible” in the 1950s are now diagnosed with attention- deficit/hyperac- tivity disorder, or ADHD, and given drugs to keep them calm and focused (Conrad 2006). Obesity, once seen as a failure of willpower, can now be treated with surgery and drugs.
Even birth and death have been medicalized. In the early years of the twentieth century, more than half of American women gave birth at home, attended only by family, friends, or midwives, without drugs or surgeries. By 1955, that number had declined steeply, to about 1 percent of American women
MEDICALIZATION the process by which some behaviors or conditions that were once seen as personal problems are redefined as medical issues
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness424
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as defined by the Amer-ican Psychiatric Association (2017), is a “complex devel- opmental disorder that can cause problems with thinking, feeling, language and the ability to relate to others.” The disor- der can also feature repetitive behaviors and restricted inter- ests. These symptoms can range from severe to very mild, and thus are categorized as a “spectrum.” ASD symptoms gener- ally become evident before the age of three and last through- out a person’s life, though many do improve over time with social skills training, behavioral therapy, and other interven- tions (Dawson and Bernier 2013).
What causes ASD remains unclear. It’s presumed to have a genetic link, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. A widely accepted hypothesis is that ASD is multifactoral, meaning that both genetics and environment influence its prevalence. A number of studies indicate that advanced maternal age (King et al. 2009), closely spaced pregnancies, birth weight, prematurity, and birth order ( Cheslack- Postava, Liu, and Bearman 2011) could play a role. Environmental factors such as air pollution and exposure to toxins may also be contribut- ing to ASD (Raanan et al., 2015). There has been a great deal of controversy around the issue of vaccines and ASD. Despite overwhelming evidence and the fact that all the major medi- cal boards and organizations have discredited any link, there are still parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. Para- doxically, vaccine deniers may be putting their own and others’ children at greater risk for other disabling or deadly diseases (such as mumps or measles), while trying to “protect” them from ASD.
While the causes for ASD are not totally clear, how we understand disabilities is socially constructed and thus has important ramifications for how a group of people are medi- cally and socially treated. A change in the definition of ASD can have significant consequences. For example, Asperger’s syndrome first appeared in the fourth edition of the Diag- nostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1994 as a separate disorder, but by the time the fifth edition DSM was released in 2013, Asperger’s had been folded into the larger umbrella category of ASD. These changes are not simply a matter of categorization; diagnosis, treatment, and access to services often rest on the ability to identify and differentiate particular aspects of the disorder. Research shows that in the years when diagnostic criteria are changed, the odds of a patient being diagnosed with ASD increases (King et al. 2009).
For several decades, rates of ASD in the United States continued to rise. It was uncertain whether the increase
IN THE FUTURE Solving the Mystery of Autism
was due to greater detection and diagnosis or to actual prevalence in the population. More recently, research indi- cates that rise has leveled off. According to the CDC, one in 68 children (or 1.46 percent) has ASD (Christensen et al. 2016). Boys are more than four times as likely to be identi- fied with ASD as girls (one in 42 for boys and one in 189 for girls). Some researchers suspect that this disparity can be partly explained by the fact that girls tend to exhibit milder symptoms than boys and are thus less often diagnosed. ASD appears in children of all socioeconomic backgrounds, but the rates are skewed by race. Roughly one in 65 white chil- dren has ASD compared to one in 76 black children and one in 99 Hispanic children. It’s likely that all racial groups have a similar prevalence but that black and Hispanic children are not diagnosed as often.
Advances in brain imaging now make it possible to identify high- risk children much earlier in infancy. This is important because research shows that treatment for ASD is more successful the sooner it begins, while the brain is still developing. Brain imaging is already helping us to better understand why children with ASD have trouble navigating the social world, and also why they often have extraordi- nary talents in areas such as math, music, and art. Research is ongoing and may bring us better ways to treat and even prevent ASD in the future. Until the mystery of autism is solved, early diagnosis and intervention is crucial, and so is providing support and social services to those with ASD and their families.
On the Spectrum These twin boys function on opposite ends of the autism spectrum. How is our understanding of ASD socially constructed?
Epidemiology and Disease Patterns 425
sciences with a public health orientation to answer impor- tant questions about the origins and spread of disease.
Epidemiologists swing into action whenever a new dis- ease emerges or an unexpected outbreak of a previously eradicated disease resurfaces. For example, in the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014, epidemiological research- ers established the connection between hundreds and then thousands of patients, analyzed the genetic makeup of the virus that infected them, and confirmed that they were suf- fering from a strain of Ebola that was evolving as it was being transmitted. As a result of this research, widespread public health awareness campaigns were put in place to educate people about the transmis- sion, prevention, and treatment of the disease. In particular, traditional burial practices, including washing, touching, and kissing the body of the deceased, were targeted as the primary modes of transmission, since it was through these practices that the disease could devastate entire families and communities. Health care workers were also at high risk due to their close contact with infected patients, and so Ebola prevention protocols were developed to help keep them safe. Despite these attempts at intervention, the dis- ease spread quickly and eventually killed over 11,000 peo- ple, approximately 50 percent of those infected.
included overcrowding, lack of food, water, and sanitation, whippings, and “exorcisms.”
In Colonial America, the prevailing theory was that mental illness was caused by the astrological position of the moon at the time of the individual’s birth; hence the term “lunatic.” According to this theory, mental illness was located inside a lunatic’s body, and the only possible cures involved treatments meant to release the illness, such as bleeding (which often killed the patients) and long- term induced vomiting (also potentially fatal). In the 1930s, the cause of mental illness was believed to be located in a par- ticular portion of the brain, the removal of which would thus provide the cure. The lobotomy, in which a bit of the brain (or lobe) was surgically removed, often without anesthesia, seemed to work nicely; patients became calm enough to leave the hospital and return home. We now know that lobotomies merely disconnected two critical parts of the brain from one another, leaving patients unable to feel emotions or act on the information provided to them by their senses.
These approaches to mental illness now seem ridiculous and cruel. We know that mental illness is not caused by demon possession, a weak will, or astrological accidents, and we know that beatings, exorcisms, and lobotomies cannot restore mental health. We are certain (aren’t we?) that mental ill- ness is caused by problems of brain chemistry and that proper treatment involves medications that restore that chemistry to its healthy balance. But given the history of changing mean- ings and treatments, we have to ask: What makes this theory any better than the others? How can we be sure that this time we’ve gotten it right? Isn’t it possible that, a hundred years from now, we’ll discover the “real” cause of mental illness and that drug treatments will seem as useless and inhuman as surgeries and bleedings do now?
Epidemiology and Disease Patterns As we have noted, sociologists are interested in the social aspect of disease patterns. The study of these patterns is known as epidemiology. Epidemiologists collect and ana- lyze data in order to understand the causes of a particular illness, how it is communicated, the factors affecting its development and distribution in a population, where it is likely to spread, and what the most effective interventions might be. Over many centuries of human history, major ill- nesses such as cholera, typhus, yellow fever, and smallpox would sweep across vast stretches of the globe and decimate populations from practically every continent. More recently, such illnesses as tuberculosis, malaria, and measles con- tinue to kill millions around the world. What future illnesses might threaten humanity next, and can we identify them before widespread devastation occurs? Epidemiologists combine data and methods from the biological and social
A Misguided Treatment Dr. Walter Freeman revolutionized the lobotomy procedure, which he performed with an ice pick– like instrument that severed nerve connections in the front part of the brain.
EPIDEMIOLOGY the study of disease patterns to understand the cause of illnesses, how they are spread, and what interventions to take
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness426
given country. In Central Europe and Central Asia, intrave- nous drug use is responsible for the majority of cases (O’Neill 2007). In Latin America, the routes by which HIV is trans- mitted are more diverse, but same- sex male intercourse is the most common. In Southeast Asia, commercial sex work- ers make up a much larger percentage of the HIV- positive population. In sub- Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS is a general- ized epidemic spread through the entire population, such that in some countries more than 30 percent of adults are infected.
As a pandemic, HIV/AIDS is distributed disproportion- ately: Only about 4 percent of all cases are in the developed world— places like the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and other wealthy industrialized nations. In the developed world the vast majority of HIV/AIDS sufferers have access to antiretroviral drugs, which transform the disease into something much closer to a chronic condition and significantly improves patient outcomes. For a long time these drugs were prohibitively expensive in the developing world, so the vast majority of patients could not receive them. Since 2010 there has been a surge in access to antiretroviral drugs in precisely the world’s most infected regions. By 2016, 53 percent of patients worldwide were accessing antiretro- viral therapy, making their prognosis considerably better (UNAIDS 2017).
Epidemiologists are now identifying the role of global climate change in spreading some of the most important diseases afflicting the world, and they are tracking how this process occurs (Barrett, Charles, and Temte 2015). Because climate affects things like the availability of fresh water and “arable” (or farmable) land, it also affects where people live and their patterns of migration. As people leave places where
The Ebola epidemic spread to ten countries, but it never officially became what is known as a pandemic. What are the differences between the two terms? An epidemic occurs when a significantly higher number of cases of a particular disease occur during a particu- lar time period than might oth- erwise be expected. The term pandemic is used when cases
of the disease also cover an especially large geographical region (say, a continent or the entire globe). What constitutes an epidemic is usually determined by national public health organizations— in the United States, that would be the Cen- ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta (Koerner 2003). The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, monitors and defines pandemics.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the disease it causes, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), is an example of a pandemic. More than 75 million people have been infected with HIV/AIDS since the virus was first identified in the early 1980s, and about 35 million have died from it. Cur- rently there are more than 36 million people living with HIV/ AIDS (UNAIDS 2017). This makes HIV/AIDS a global phe- nomenon, but it can also be looked at as a series of epidemics. AIDS is always the same disease, but it is a very different epi- demic depending on where it is.
In many places, HIV/AIDS is a concentrated epidemic, with the majority of cases transmitted by a particular method and among a particular subpopulation within a
EPIDEMIC occurs when a significantly higher number of cases of a particular disease occur during a particular time period than might otherwise be expected
PANDEMIC occurs when a significantly higher number of cases of a disease also spreads through an especially large geographical region spanning many countries or even continents
A Modern- Day Epidemic A sign in Freetown, Sierra Leone, warns of the dangers of Ebola. The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa claimed more than 11,000 lives.
Social Inequality, Health, and Illness 427
and “What kind of treatment do they get?” are all influenced by social hierarchies and struc- tures of inequality. Since we gave you a fairly comprehensive pic- ture of the relationships between different forms of inequality and different health outcomes in prior chapters, we’ll just sum- marize some of the main findings first, and then go into more depth here about a specific problem that is linked to a variety of illnesses and is caused largely by social inequalities.
Intersections of Class It’s easy to see how one’s social class might have an effect on one’s health. People of higher socioeconomic status (SES) not only can afford more and better health care services (insurance plans, doctor visits, diagnostic tests and treat- ments, prescription medications) but also may have greater access to other resources (better nutrition, cleaner neigh- borhoods, more preventive practices like exercise) that posi- tively influence their health. As a group, people with higher SES are better informed health consumers and they gener- ally enjoy more physical well- being than those of lower SES (Blackwell and Villarroel 2016). People with higher incomes can also expect to live longer lives. This is true throughout the income distribution, but it is most stark when comparing those at the very top with those at the very bottom. A recent study found that the gap in life expectancy between the rich- est 1 percent and the poorest 1 percent was 14.6 years for men and 10.1 years for women (Chetty et al. 2016b).
Being on the lower end of the social class ladder brings many problems that are the inverse of the advantages mentioned
climate change has made food, water, and other resources scarce, they crowd into other areas that may then experience overpopulation. When people live in very close quarters, the risks rise for malnutrition, waterborne illnesses such as cholera, and other infectious diseases to spread (Khasnis and Nettleman 2005).
Global climate change can also affect animal populations that spread diseases among humans. Even small increases in temperature can multiply the numbers of vector organisms that carry and spread pathogens (infectious agents) in a given area. Mosquitoes carrying malaria, for example, used to be limited to sub- Saharan Africa and other hot or tropi- cal regions. But in Kenya, malaria has recently penetrated mountainous regions that were once too chilly for mosqui- toes to survive, and similar reports have come from parts of Europe and as far north as Moscow, Russia (Bouzid et al. 2014; Caminade et al. 2014). The United States is also at risk. Other illnesses such as Lyme disease (carried by ticks), yel- low and dengue fevers and West Nile virus (carried by mos- quitoes), avian influenza (carried by birds), and even plague (carried by fleas on rodents) may skyrocket as climate change drives these vector animals out of their customary terri- tories and into new ecosystems (Dell’Amore 2008; Morin, Comrie, and Ernst 2013).
Social Inequality, Health, and Illness As we have seen in previous chapters, a person’s socioeconomic status, race, and gender also shape their experiences of health and illness. Answers to such questions as “Who gets sick?” “What kinds of diseases do they get?” “Who gets treatment?”
VECTOR ORGANISMS animals like mosquitoes, ticks, and birds that carry and spread pathogens (germs or other infectious agents) in a given area
Table 14.1 Theory in Everyday Life: Explanations of Addiction
Perspective Approach to Medicine and Health Case Study: Drug and Alcohol Addiction
Structural Functionalism
Disease is a threat to social order, and sick people cannot fulfill their roles and contribute to society; the health care system should return patients to health and normal functioning as members of society.
People who become addicted to drugs and alcohol may be responding to strains in the social system and their own lives; they may adapt by retreating or escaping through drugs and alcohol.
Conflict Theory
Health and the health care system are valuable resources that are unequally shared in society; conflict may arise among different groups seeking access to and control over these resources.
Those in power can define social policy and create laws regarding medicine and health care; people of lower social status are more likely to be scrutinized as problem drinkers or drug addicts and may be unduly punished.
Symbolic Interactionism
The meanings of health and illness are dependent on historical, cultural, and situational contexts. Stigma may be attached to certain disease states and to those who suffer from them.
People learn to use alcohol and drugs in social interaction and are influenced by peers and other groups; they may attach different meanings and values to substances and behaviors.
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness428
In 1947, a virus was discovered in Uganda’s Zika Forest. Researchers isolated the virus, determined that it could be mosquito- borne, and noted that its symptoms seemed lim- ited to fever, mild discomfort, and sometimes a rash. Over the years, a number of articles about the Zika virus were published in medical journals, and cases of Zika infection were identi- fied in mostly tropical locations where the carrier mosquitoes were located: Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific Island nations. Then, in 2013, a large outbreak hit French Pol- ynesia; at the same time, cases started showing up in less trop- ical, more developed regions such as Australia, Japan, North America, and Europe (Cohen 2016). Along with its growing epidemiological footprint, Zika also became associated with more serious symptoms, such as Guillain- Barre syndrome, a neurological problem that can cause temporary paralysis.
Then, in 2015, Brazil was hit with the largest Zika out- break ever recorded. Over an eighteen- month period, more than 300,000 Brazilians were diagnosed with Zika. Given the sometimes mild symptoms, it is possible that many more were infected but did not realize it at the time. But a devastat- ing complication soon became visible: Brazilian women who contracted Zika while pregnant began giving birth to micro- cephalic babies. Microcephaly is a congenital defect in which babies are born with smaller than normal brains and skulls; it causes developmental and medical complications throughout the life course. Over 6,000 babies were born with microceph- aly during the almost two- year period of Brazil’s Zika emer- gency, compared to an average rate of about 160 microcephaly cases per year before the Zika epidemic.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Zika Virus: Women and Children Last
This connection turned what had been seen as a mild ill- ness into a serious national— and international— health crisis as Rio de Janeiro was scheduled to host the Summer Olympic Games in August 2016. That meant that tens of thousands of athletes and over half a million tourists would soon descend on a country with a serious outbreak of a mosquito- borne dis- ease that had horrifying outcomes for the babies of women who contracted it during pregnancy. To make matters worse, it was becoming evident that Zika could also be transmitted sexually. The potential for a global Zika explosion made tour- ists, Brazilian bureaucrats, Olympic teams, and international health officials extremely wary. Some called for boycotts and even cancellation of the Games. Instead, community pre- vention campaigns focused on mosquito control; advisories were issued to residents, athletes, and tourists; and the 2016 Games went on.
The central advisory issued by the WHO was, basically, “If you live in or travel to a Zika- affected area, don’t get pregnant.” Logical from a health perspective and easy enough if you’re a man. But it is not always possible for women to avoid or end potentially disastrous pregnancies, especially in places where contraceptives are expensive or difficult to access, levels of sexual violence are high, and abortion is illegal or hard to get. Where are these places? The same places that are high risk for the Zika virus. Brazil, for example, criminalizes abortion, as do several other Latin American countries, and the procedure is increasingly restricted even in some U.S. states. Abortion is criminalized in Puerto Rico, a Zika- affected U.S. Territory, despite federal laws that should supersede. No matter where one lives, contraception can be expensive or otherwise hard to access, especially for those in poverty.
So while the mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus may infect men and women equally, the burden of the disease and the onus of preventing its worst consequences fall unequally on women, and specificially women who are likely to have restricted access to the tools of prevention. That makes Zika a gender issue. For most who contracted it, Zika wasn’t much worse than a common cold, and quick response to the 2015– 2016 outbreak has helped limit the number of those seriously affected. But Zika’s long- term effects on the babies of women who contracted it while pregnant will continue for decades. Prevention efforts across the globe have limited Zika’s spread so far, and a possible vaccine is currently in clinical trials (Mukherjee 2016). But Brazil will have a cohort of thousands of microcephalic children who will require a lifetime of ser- vices and support.
The Face of Microcephaly Babies with microcephaly, a serious complication of the Zika virus, have smaller brains and skulls.
Social Inequality, Health, and Illness 429
place or in residential neighborhoods. For example, Emily Rosenbaum (2008) found that Hispanics and blacks in New York City tended to live in poorer- quality housing in lower- income neighborhoods and to suffer much higher incidents of asthma than their Asian, white, and higher- SES counterparts.
Intersections of Gender Gender is another source of inequality that complicates the health picture for men and women. Health is one place where gender inequality typically benefits women over men, as women are generally healthier and enjoy a longer life expec- tancy in spite of having a lower SES than men. In 2015, the average life expectancy for women (81.2 years) was about five years longer than average life expectancy for men (76.3 years). Traditional male gender role expectations may result in men who work in more dangerous occupations and engage in more risky lifestyle behaviors (such as smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and driving fast). The more strongly men iden- tify with stereotypical ideas about masculinity, the more likely they are to avoid preventive health care, regardless of their level of SES (Springer and Mouzon 2011).
Men and women suffer from some diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, in about equal numbers. Heart disease has long been thought of as a “man’s disease,” although about the same number of men and women die from it each year (Xu et al. 2016). As such, women were not screened and treated for heart disease as early or as aggressively as were men. In addition, much of the research on cardiovascular disease has histori- cally focused on men. It wasn’t until recently that research- ers recognized that women often experience different heart attack symptoms than men ( Leifheit- Limson et al. 2015). This has resulted in higher death rates from heart attacks among women.
When it comes to mental health, women are 40 per- cent more likely than men to develop mood or anxiety
earlier. People with lower SES have substantially higher rates of various diseases and chronic illnesses, along with higher death rates and shorter life expectancy (Blackwell and Vil- larroel 2016; Lynch et al. 1998). They may have little regular access to health care providers, lack the ability to participate in preventive practices, or have trouble affording prescrip- tion medications and other recommended procedures (Lynch et al. 1997). The effects of poverty consistently correlate with higher incidences of mental health problems (Groh 2007). People living in poverty are twice as likely as those who are not to suffer from depression (Brown 2012).
Educational attainment is a key factor linking SES and dis- parate health outcomes. Sociologists believe that education is a root cause of good health (Hummer and Hernandez 2013). Individuals with more education are less likely to be obese and are less likely to smoke. In 2015, more than 25 percent of people without a high school diploma and more than 20 per- cent of people with a high school diploma smoked cigarettes compared to just 6 percent of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher (CDC 2017b). Highly educated adults have lower mortality rates than those who are less educated, and this holds across racial/ethnic, gender, and age groups. Remaining life expectancy at age twenty- five is about a decade shorter for those who have not completed high school compared to those who have a college degree (Hummer and Hernandez 2013).
Intersections of Race Inequalities of race and ethnicity are often connected to lower socioeconomic status. When we add race and ethnicity to the health equation, we find significant differences between groups who are higher or lower in the social hierarchy. Many problems that affect people of lower SES are further exacer- bated in minority groups.
Disparities by race and ethnicity persist in almost every key measurement of health. For example, in 2015, life expec- tancy for white men (76.3 years) was 4.5 years longer than for black men (71.8 years); similarly, life expectancy for white women (81.1) was 3 years longer than for black women (78.1). Notably, Hispanics have the longest life expectancy at birth: 79.3 years for men and 84.3 years for women (CDC 2017b).
African Americans have long been discriminated against and still suffer disproportionately from the stresses of pov- erty. They have higher rates of hypertension, an important risk factor in cardiovascular disease, stroke, kidney fail- ure, and other health conditions. Rates of diabetes also vary across race and ethnicity. Native Americans have the high- est prevalence at 33 percent, while the rate is 7.1 percent for whites, 11.8 percent for blacks, and 12.6 percent for Hispan- ics (Spanakis and Golden 2013). African Americans and His- panics are less likely to be able to afford health insurance and, consequently, to have access to health care or to engage in regular health practices (CDC 2016b).
Researchers have shown that minorities are more often exposed to unhealthful surroundings, whether in the work-
Opioid Addiction A billboard in Middletown, Ohio, proffers hope to those struggling with addiction to heroin. The current opioid crisis, which killed more than 30,000 Americans in 2015, has disproportionately affected whites.
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness430
You’ve seen the ads in magazines, on television, and in subway stations: pictures of healthy- looking people enjoying life, along with the tagline, “Ask your doctor if [this medication] is right for you.” It’s called direct- to- consumer (DTC) drug marketing. It was illegal in the United States until 1985 and was uncommon until the late 1990s. That was when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) greenlighted such marketing for television, and now it is everywhere. Phar- maceutical companies can now appeal directly to potential patients, who then take their newfound knowledge into the exam room and suggest the drug to (or even demand it from) their doctors.
This is a reversal of the way the process originally worked, as only doctors used to have the specialized knowledge necessary to identify and prescribe drug treatments. Now patients are empowered with medical information— or is it that they are swayed by persuasive marketing campaigns? Most ordinary consumers don’t have the ability to evaluate drugs based on their efficacy in clinical trials or their risk of possible side effects, so pharmaceutical advertisers often appeal instead to our desire for happy relationships at home, at work, and with friends. The images in the ads signal that these relationships will improve if we start a new drug regi- men using their latest product.
Some of the most frequently advertised prescription- only drugs are those that treat erectile dysfunction, as well as those that treat depression and anxiety. Both of these classes of drugs are advertised directly to consumers as being the cure
IN RELATIONSHIPS Better Living through Chemistry
for troubles in their relationships. In the case of Cialis, Viagra, and Levitra, the goal is to make the male consumer ready to perform sexually at any time, and the ads show happy (hetero) relationships as the implied result of taking the drug. With drugs like Abilify or Cymbalta, the ads show depressed or anx- ious people (usually women) whose relationships with fam- ily, friends, co- workers, and even pets are no longer a source of pleasure for them. Then they take the drug and regain their ability to enjoy things like camping, board games, lunch dates with friends, and walks in the park. The appeal in both cases is to our desire to have enjoyable and fulfilling relationships with others and to feel good about ourselves. We are advised that we can achieve these goals by, quite literally, “swallow- ing ” what the ads are selling.
Prescription drugs are a massive market, and Americans spent about $310 billion on them in 2015 (QuintilesIMS 2016). In the same year, the pharmaceutical industry spent over $5 billion on TV advertisements targeting that market. Nine out of ten big pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than on research. The top spender, Johnson & Johnson, spent $17.5 billion on sales and marketing in 2013, compared with $8.2 billion for research and development (Anderson 2014). Johnson & Johnson was also the industry’s top earner, with over $70 billion in revenues.
Clearly, these marketing expenditures are paying off for the pharmaceutical industry. But all this money begs another question: Is this good for consumers? Does drug advertising translate into better health outcomes for more
as a food desert, a predominantly low- income commu- nity in which the residents have little or no access to fresh, affordable, hea lthy foods. Most food deserts are located in densely populated urban areas that may have convenience stores and fast- food restaurants but no grocery stores or other outlet for fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and other hea lthy foods. Sparsely populated rura l areas, where stores are far away and hard to access, can a lso be considered food deserts. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that more than 23 million Americans live in food deserts (USDA 2012). This means that they may have to shop at drugstores, liquor stores, or corner mini- marts for food items or subsist on the chicken nuggets, bur- ritos, or burgers and fries from the takeout chain on the corner. People who live in food deserts may have few mea l
disorders such as depression. They are also more vulner- able to trauma and stress- related disorders (Li and Graham 2017). Researchers have speculated that female sex hor- mones may play a role. Women are also more likely to seek out mental health care than men, which may mean that there is a discrepancy in the rates of reporting and diagnosis of mental illness among women (rather than a discrepency in the rates of occurrence).
Inequality and the Problem of Food Deserts When the water crisis hit the residents of Flint, Michigan, in 2014, they were a lready dea ling with another big prob- lem: getting hea lthy food. Much of the city of Flint qua lifies
Social Inequality, Health, and Illness 431
people? Initial research suggests that DTC can be both beneficial and detrimental to public health ( Ventola 2011). Proponents of DTC argue that these ads help to inform, educate, and empower patients, encouraging dialogue with health care providers and thus strengthening those rela- tionships. Supporters claim that DTC can help remove the stigma associated with certain diseases and increase patient compliance with treatments. Lastly, DTC can reduce the underdiagnosis and undertreatment of health conditions. Opponents of DTC contend that advertising misinforms patients, overemphasizes the benefits, and encourages inap- propriate usage and overutilization of drugs. They argue that DTC strains relationships between patients and clinicians and wastes appointment time. Opponents claim that DTC often promotes new drugs before their long- term safety is fully known.
And, of course, DTC leads to increases in the cost of drugs. Recently, the pharmaceutical industry, or “Big Pharma,” has been under fire for its pricing practices. The story of Daraprim, a drug used to treat infections caused by para- sites, is shocking: After Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the drug in 2015, the company raised the price by more than 5,000 percent. One tablet used to cost $13.50; it now costs $750. A typical protocol could cost anywhere from $300,000 to $600,000 (Beck 2015; Johnson 2017). While the Daraprim case is extreme, skyrocketing prescription drug costs are nei- ther new nor uncommon (Hartung et al. 2016; Walker 2014). This is especially true for patented, brand- name drugs with
no generic equivalent— the kind of drugs that are often mar- keted directly to consumers.
While experts on either side continue to debate whether DTC ads do more harm than good (the American Medi- cal Association has already called for a ban on the practice), you’re not likely to see these ads going anywhere soon. After all, Big Pharma wants us to have sexy marriages, happy fami- lies, gratifying work lives, and enjoyable friendships. And it just so happens that their (often expensive) drugs can help us do so. Just ask your doctor!
Brought to You by Big Pharma With direct- to- consumer marketing, pharmaceutical companies can advertise the benefits of new drugs directly to patients.
the 1960s and 1970s as a result of perceived problems with secu- rity, profitability, real- estate costs, and parking ( Ferguson and Abell 1998). In their place, bodegas, liquor stores, and fast- food chains popped up, leaving central urban populations with far fewer healthy food options. Some city and state governments are trying to entice super- markets back to these neighborhoods with programs like tax incentives, grants, or loans for big food retailers and subsidies for farmers’ markets (Haber 2010). Similar programs have also been proposed at the federal level. In 2011, then first lady Michelle Obama embarked on a campaign to eliminate food deserts as a part of the Partnership for a Healthier America
choices that aren’t highly processed and loaded with fat, sugar, and chemica ls.
Food deserts are often in neighborhoods that are pre- dominantly low- income or nonwhite in population. This means that the effects of food deserts are experienced dis- proportionately by the poor, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minority groups. The health effects of living in a food desert are significant: The risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease for African Americans increases by half and for Hispanics by two- thirds (Powell et al. 2007; Whitacre et al. 2009). So, while any given individual may be at risk for obesity, diabetes, or heart disease, living in a food desert increases those risks.
Why do food deserts exist? They are not a new phenomenon. Grocery chains began leaving urban areas for the suburbs in
FOOD DESERT a community in which the residents have little or no access to fresh, affordable, healthy foods, usually located in densely populated, urban areas
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness432
other medical professionals know the AMA as a trade union that creates the rules and regulations governing medical licensure. Almost all issues concerning medicine in both public health and professional regulation are governed by the AMA.
Milton Friedman (1994), the winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics and a vocal critic of the AMA, argued that the AMA limits admissions to medical schools and restricts medical licensing to advance the interests of physicians. He viewed the AMA as a monopolizing organization that reduced the quantity and quality of medical care by forcing the public to pay more for medical services because of the lack of qualified physicians. For example, the AMA does not allow physicians who are trained in foreign countries to practice in the United States without passing the United States Medi- cal Licensing Exam (USMLE). For many of these physicians, fulfilling the requirements of the USMLE is a lengthy and arduous process that often necessitates repeating medical residency before they are allowed to practice medicine— even though they were fully licensed and practicing physicians in their country of origin.
The AMA enforces these restrictions despite a serious shortage of physicians in the United States. Overall, it is estimated that there will be a deficit of between 61,700 and 94,700 physicians by 2025. You might think this is because fewer students are interested in medical careers, but in fact, in 2014, only 43 percent of all medical school applicants were admitted to traditional U.S. medical schools. Consequently, many applicants turn to medical schools outside the United States, though only about half of those graduates are suc- cessful in entering postgraduate residency programs back in
initiative. Major food retailers pledged to open or expand 1,500 grocery stores in neighborhoods without one; but by 2014, they had opened or renovated only 602, leaving far too many communities in need (Associated Press 2015).
As we have seen, our individual health is shaped by our neighborhood context, which is itself shaped by race and class inequality, the actions of big corporations, and the responses of governmental bodies at all levels. This phenomenon is known as deprivation amplification, meaning that our individual disease risks (based on our heredity and physiol-
ogy) may be amplified by social factors (Macintyre, MacDonald, and Ellaway 2008). The solu- tions to these health problems are not going to be found merely at the individual level— they must incorporate social action as well. Yes, you need to eat more
healthfully in order to control your diabetes, but you must be able to find healthy foods close by and at affordable prices in order to do so.
Medicine as a Social Institution For proof that medicine is a social institution, take a look at the American Medical Association (AMA). The AMA is usu- ally thought of as an organization that makes health recom- mendations on such topics as childhood obesity and cancer prevention to benefit the general public. But physicians and
Food Deserts The absence of grocery stores contributes to the lack of healthy food options available in urban and poor neighborhoods.
DEPRIVATION AMPLIFICATION when our individual disease risks (based on our heredity and physiology) are amplified by social factors
Medicine as a Social Institution 433
the United States. The result is fewer United States medical school (USMD) graduates, who then fill less than two- thirds of the residency program openings nationwide. The scarcity of USMD physicians translates to greater professional status relative to international or non- USMD physicians. By under- producing USMD physicians, they remain in high demand. This phenomenon, known as degree rationing, has been hap- pening since the 1950s (Jenkins and Reddy 2017).
The AMA also delineates the professional boundaries for the practice of medicine. For instance, surgery is the exclu- sive territory of physicians, making their services highly valued. If physical therapists could also perform surgery, it would undercut the authority and status of physicians. Com- petition from alternative service providers might also chal- lenge what physicians could charge for surgical procedures. The medical profession has been quite successful at staving off incursions into their territories. As another example, the AMA and the American College of Obstetricians and Gyne- cologists also restrict such practices as home births. Even though trained midwives and doulas (who provide emotional support) can safely assist at home births, pregnant women have their options limited by the pressure that the AMA places on women to have labor and delivery at a hospital attended by physicians. As a result, these professionals are forced to operate on the margins of the industry, while phy- sicians and hospitals are able to increase their profits from hospital births.
Institutional Contexts The institutional context can have a powerful effect on the interactions that occur within it. You might remember David Rosenhan’s study “On Being Sane in Insane Places” (1973) from Chapter 6, in which “ pseudo- patients” who were admit- ted to a mental hospital were unable to convince hospital staffers of their sanity. In this case, the place itself overrode the individuals’ claims to normalcy: Once they were defined by and situated within the institution, they could no longer exert any power over their own status, and every interac- tion they had served as “proof ” of their presumed mental ill- ness. Erving Goffman (1961) found something similar in his study of hospitalized mental patients, Asylums: Psychiatric patients frequently offered explanations for being there that highlighted their normalcy and attempted to reframe their selves as sane and healthy. They inevitably failed to change anyone’s mind, however, since the power of their institu- tionally inflicted diagnoses was indisputable.
Sociologist Elaine Feder- Alford’s (2006) ethnomethod- ological analysis of her own hospitalization (for streptococ- cal pneumonia) shows that these social processes are still at work in medical institutions. She describes being treated like a “piece of meat,” an object, or an “incompetent child” by hospital staff during her illness. She felt dehumanized and powerless, as if they saw her as a diagnosis, rather than as a
human being. Medical professionals plunged long syringes into her stomach without explaining why and accused her of being an alcoholic because she contracted a liver infec- tion. The institution she inhabited as a patient defined her very differently than she defined herself, creating conflict at just the point in time when she was most ill and least able to defend her definition of herself and the situation. As her condition improved, so did her ability to assert her humanity and negotiate for better treatment within the institutional setting. Her experience left her dismayed at the power of the hospital to reduce the patient to an object and led her to promote “proposals that acknowledge patients in a hospital setting as human beings with individual needs and feelings” (p. 618).
Doctor– Patient Relations The institutional context of medicine shapes the interactions between individuals within it. But those interactions also contribute to the shape of the institution itself. Sociologists have long been interested in studying interactions in health care settings. Studies of doctor– patient interactions have shown that while we may think that doctors automatically have more status (and hence more power) than patients, this actually has to be established in the interaction; it is not an inevitable feature of medical settings. The “smallest details of the way in which participants talk to one other can have sizable impacts on the eventual outcomes,” and outcomes depend on who participates in the interaction (doctors, phar- macists, physical therapists, patients, parents, kids) and in
Medicine as a Social Institution Medical students shadow a doctor in an emergency room. The path to becoming a doctor is highly regimented, and only more rules and regulations apply once becoming a doctor.
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness434
the power of their participants are constituted, maintained, or changed.
Other findings are equally counterintuitive: While you might think that what constitutes good or bad medical news is pretty obvious (say, a benign tumor versus a malignant one), doctors and patients do not always agree on whether a particular diagnosis is pleasant or unpleasant, trivial or serious. Doctors’ commentary during examinations, for example, is often an attempt to guide patients in their inter- pretation of the diagnostic findings. Patients do not always catch the doctor’s drift and sometimes seem disappointed when the doctor informs them that there is nothing much wrong with them (Heritage and Stivers 1999; Maynard and Frankel 2006).
what kind of setting the interaction takes place (office visits, phone consultations, surgical theaters) (Pilnick, Hindmarsh, and Teas Gill 2009, p. 11).
There are, however, both institutional and geographic influences on these kinds of interactions. Doctors in rural settings are more likely to spend time engaging in emotional labor with their patients than doctors in urban settings, even when accounting for time spent per patient and num- ber of patients seen per day. Doctors in rural settings are more likely to know their patients from their community and interact with them in less instrumental ways, which stud- ies have demonstrated leads to improved patient outcomes ( Desjarlais- deKlerk and Wallace 2013). It is through such subtle interactional processes that social institutions and
Lia Lee was a baby when her epileptic seizures began. When she was three years old, she had an especially seri- ous attack, and her parents, Hmong immigrants living in Cal- ifornia’s Central Valley, brought her to the Merced County Medical Center for treatment. What happened to Lia, her fam- ily, and her doctors during the next two years is the subject of journalist Anne Fadiman’s book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1998).
The book’s title refers to the way the Hmong, a Southeast Asian ethnic group, view Lia’s affliction. Indeed, their under- standing of all health problems involves malevolent attempts
by evil spirits, known as dabs, to meddle with human souls. The differences between Hmong under- standings of epilepsy and its appropriate treatment and those of the Western medical establishment cre- ated the conflict in which Lia Lee was trapped.
The details of Lia’s case are heart- wrenching: Both her par- ents and her doctors tried their best to heal her. But because of cultural and language differences, they were unable to understand each other’s perspective. They became suspi- cious and mistrustful of each other, which made collabora- tion even harder. The doctors firmly believed in Western biomedical approaches to epilepsy; they thought that if the Lees gave Lia the right medicines at the right times, she would be fine. Meanwhile, the Lees firmly believed that the dab had Lia’s soul in its grip and that traditional Hmong procedures
ON THE JOB Cultural Competence in Health Professions
(such as shamanic healing ceremonies) should be part of her treatment.
Both parties saw the other side’s actions as counterproduc- tive; they resisted cooperating because they each believed the other’s approach would make Lia’s condition worse. Caught in this standoff between Western medicine and Hmong tradi- tion, Lia did get worse, eventually suffering “The Big One,” a seizure that left her with severe and permanent brain damage. After decades spent in a vegetative state, tended lovingly by her family, Lia died in 2012.
Lia Lee’s case has been a touchstone for a number of more recent attempts to increase the cultural awareness of health care professionals, with the hopes of avoiding future cases like hers. This movement has coined the term cultural competence to describe the concept of acknowledging and incorporating a patient’s cultural background as part of the treatment process. Cultural competence refers to the abil- ity of health practitioners and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients (Betancourt, Green, and Carillo 2012). As the U.S. population continues to grow in diversity, it becomes increasingly important that health care profession- als are adept at interacting with patients from a wide variety of backgrounds. Because such skills can have life or death con- sequences, many health care organizations such as hospitals and clinics have implemented cultural competency policies, programs, and training. These initiatives help foster cross- cultural communication and improve the delivery of services that meet the needs of patients. Cultural competence has also emerged as a way for institutions to address factors that con- tribute to health disparities for minority group members.
CULTURAL COMPETENCE the concept of acknowledging and incorporating a patient’s cultural background as part of the treatment process; the recognition that patients’ beliefs shape their approach to health care
Medicine as a Social Institution 435
W hile other studies have documented differences in the way men and women practice medicine, this study is the f irst to link these gender disparities in care to actua l patient outcomes. Other studies have previously con- f irmed that fema le doctors are more likely to adhere to clinica l g uidelines, order preventive tests, and to provide more patient- centered care (Lurie et a l. 1993). Fema le doctors have a different communication style with their patients; they are of ten more encouraging and reassur- ing. They a lso spend more time on patient visits than do ma le doctors. The results show that ’s good for patients, but it ’s a lso good for hospita ls and insurance companies. Unfortunately, only about a third of practicing doctors in the United States are fema le (a lthough they ma ke up ha lf
Recent research on doctor– patient interactions has uncovered some surprising, possibly life- changing, find- ings. A 2016 study found that elderly hospitalized patients treated by female doctors had better outcomes than those treated by male doctors (Tsugawa et al. 2016). If treated by a female doctor, patients had a 4 percent lower risk of dying prematurely and a 5 percent lower risk of being rehospitalized within thirty days. This was true across a range of medical conditions. When applied over a large population, these effects make a significant differ- ence. The researchers estimated that if male doctors could achieve the same outcomes as their female colleagues, there would be 32,000 fewer deaths each year among Medicare patients alone.
Training in the area of cultural competence is now becom- ing part of the standard curriculum for pre- med and medical students. For example, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has produced a set of curriculum recom- mendations for medical schools and provides evaluation tools for assessing the impact of cultural competency initiatives once they are in place (2017). The goal is to train new physi- cians to recognize the importance of cultural knowledge and beliefs— their patients’ and their own— in health care encoun- ters and to provide them with strategies for effective diagno- sis, treatment, and interaction in cross- cultural encounters.
As part of the AAMC’s plan, students are encouraged to examine their own cultural backgrounds, assumptions, and biases and to exercise nonjudgment when asking questions and listening to patients discuss their own health beliefs. They are trained to respect patients’ diverse ideas about health and illness, to recognize when to use interpreters, and even to collaborate with traditional healers from their patients’ cultures. They are also urged to appreciate the power imbal- ances between doctors and patients and to work to eliminate racism and stereotyping from health care practices.
Undergraduate students often assume that they should major in a “hard” science such as biology if they want to go into a health profession. But given the rising importance of cultural competence in health professions, this may not be the ideal foundation. A student with a social science background, like sociology, may be even better prepared for working in the medical field than a biologist. An understanding of such issues as ethnocentrism, inequality, and the importance of culture in the lives of individuals means that students of sociology are already ahead of bio majors when it comes to issues of cultural
Culture Clash Foua Yang holds a photo of her daughter Lia Lee, who fell into a vegetative state at the age of five after a catastrophic seizure. The heartbreaking case of this Hmong family and their experience with Western medicine inspired a movement to increase the cultural competence of health care professionals.
competence in the practice of medicine. Indeed, as of 2015, the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) now includes questions in psychology and sociology.
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness436
normal. If the sick person abides by these requirements, he or she will not be treated as deviant by society; but if the sick person languishes for too long, doesn’t do much to improve his or her condition, or seems too interested in staying sick, that person is likely to experience negative sanctions from society.
As you might imagine, the concept of the sick role has changed over the many decades since Parsons first proposed it, in part because of advances in diagnostic technology. For example, with genetic testing, we can now identify people who are at risk of certain diseases before they ever become ill (indeed, not everyone who is at risk becomes ill). What does this new diagnostic label—“at risk”—mean for the perfor- mance of the sick role? Those people with genetic risk factors but no symptoms of disease exist in a liminal space between the healthy and the sick. They inhabit a “potential sick role,” with a different set of expectations than in Parsons’s tra- ditional model. One particularly interesting finding is that those who are in the lowest risk category sometimes try to get themselves recategorized as high risk. This may be because it is easier to determine the expectations for a high- risk patient (regular screenings, warning family members that they might be at risk, etc.) than for a low- risk patient. This suggests a more dynamic, nuanced definition of the “sick role” and provides for the possibility that the experience of health and illness is not as straightforward as Parsons originally hypothesized.
of a ll graduates from medica l schools). Gender discrimina- tion may be a part of why there aren’t more fema le doctors in the workforce; on average,
fema le doctors are still paid less and promoted less of ten than their ma le colleag ues. W hat ’s most important is f ig- uring out how to bring down morta lity rates for ever yone so that a ll patients can have a better outcome regardless of the gender of their doctor.
Additiona l research on medica l interaction has moved beyond focusing merely on doctor– patient interaction, acknowledging that there are other important dyads (and triads and groups) in medica l institutions that are worth examining. Interactions between patients and speech ther- apists, pharmacists, or dentists are structured differently and address different issues than those between patients and physicians. And interactions between hea lth care prac- titioners (such as doctor– nurse, surgeon– anesthetist, or trainee– teacher), either within or outside of patients’ pres- ence, are equa lly important. So are interactions facilitated by medica l technologies, such as ultrasound screenings, which place nurse practitioners into complex scenarios where their expertise is in tension with the technolog y ’s forced standardization (Pilnick, Hindmarsh, and Teas Gill 2009). One powerful ana lysis of an emergency- services ca ll shows what happens “when words fail,” as the dis- patcher becomes irritated with the panic- stricken ca ller, and their clash about what constitutes an appropriate ca ll for help results in the victim’s death (Wha len, Zimmerman, and Wha len 1988). Studies such as this one indicate that rules, roles, and other elements of institutiona l order are emergent and situationa l. They are not necessarily writ- ten down somewhere for the rest of us to follow but instead are created and maintained (and sometimes distorted) in interaction.
The Sick Role Of course, in addition to being shaped in interaction, rules and roles in medical institutions are influenced by exter- nal social structures as well. One example of this is the sick role. This concept, advanced by functionalist Talcott Parsons (1951), was a way of encapsulating the actions and attitudes that society expects from someone who is ill, as well as the actions and attitudes that a person might expect from other members of society. Being ill is, from a function- alist perspective, a form of deviance; it violates norms about health and productivity. So, as part of the sick role, a patient is exempted from his or her regular responsibilities (such as work, child care, or other, less tangible obligations) and is not held responsible for his or her illness. However, the patient also has a new set of duties, which include seeking medical help as part of an earnest effort to recuperate and get back to
Sick Role and Genetic Risk How might people who have a genetic risk of certain diseases but who show no symptoms exist in a space between the healthy and the sick?
SICK ROLE the actions and attitudes that society expects from someone who is ill
Medicine as a Social Institution 437
For this Data Workshop, you will be using existing sources to do a content analysis comparing the world of TV with the real world. Refer back to Chapter 2 for a refresher on this research method. Select a scripted medical drama or comedy (not a reality or documentary show), using the following list as inspiration. Choose a show that is fairly recent so that it is up- to- date with what’s happening in medicine. And make sure that it is available online (or on DVD) for multiple viewings:
Chicago Hope House, M.D. Chicago Med The Night Shift Children’s Hospital Nurse Jackie Code Black Private Practice Dr. Ken Rosewood ER Royal Pains The Good Doctor Scrubs Grey’s Anatomy
Select an episode that deals with a specific disease or condition. Watch the episode closely and pay atten- tion to the plotlines, scenes, characters, and dialogues in which the specific disease or medical condition is depicted. Take notes as you watch and include specific details; you may have to review some scenes several times before you can do a thorough content analysis.
Next, look up the epidemiology of that disease or condition. You may start with a web search, but make sure you are consulting a medical journal site or an organization such as the Mayo Clinic or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rather than Wikipedia or WebMD. For example, articles from the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Medical Associa- tion, or American Association of Family Physicians will yield more thorough and accurate data for the purposes of this exercise.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Medicine on Television From M*A*S*H to St. Elsewhere, from Dr. Kildare to Doogie Howser and House, Americans have long been captivated by television shows about
hospitals. Medical dramas and comedies have been some of the most critically acclaimed and highest- rated prime- time television shows over the years. Many medical shows have multiple fan sites for discussing every detail of every episode. And because these shows are so preva- lent and popular, they influence America’s perception of different diseases and treatments, the roles of patients and medical staff, and the nature and function of the med- ical institution.
In conventional American television, the medical problems faced by the protagonists are easily solved. There is generally a patient or multiple patients with medical conditions that are triaged, diagnosed, treated, and healed within a single episode. Anyone who has dealt with a serious illness or accident knows that the reality of health care in the United States is a pro- longed process that involves long waits, multiple visits to multiple doctors and different facilities for testing, and complicated interactions with insurance provid- ers. The anger, sadness, and frustration of the patient’s experience are generally glossed over in favor of the viewpoint of the medical professionals involved in the process.
Medicine on Television Code Black and The Good Doctor are both medical dramas that portray hospitals in ways that don’t always resonate with real life.
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness438
You may want to consider the following questions when looking at the disease’s epidemiology:
✱ How common is the disease or condition?
✱ What are the causes of and contributing factors to the disease or condition?
✱ Does it affect different groups (for example, men and women, or patients of different races or ethnicities) in different ways?
✱ Which groups are more likely to contract the dis- ease or condition? Why?
✱ Who is involved in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease or condition?
✱ How expensive, rare, dangerous, and/or available are the treatments, and are there any side effects?
✱ How rich, lucky, or well insured would a patient have to be to undergo treatments?
Compare and contrast the show’s treatment of the disease or condition to the statistics your research has revealed. How accurate was the portrayal? How does the show’s treatment of illness reflect the average experience of an American patient with the same illness? And most important, what kinds of effects would any discrepan- cies have on the perceptions of audiences, patients, and even physicians regarding the disease or condition and its treatment? How does this affect American viewers’ understanding of the health care system?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Conduct a content analysis of one episode of your chosen TV show and develop some preliminary answers to the questions posed. Prepare written notes that you can refer to during in- class discus- sions. Pair up with one or more classmates and discuss your findings in small groups. Compare and contrast the analyses of actual and fictional disease experiences as observed by participants in your group.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Complete your content analysis and develop some preliminary answers to the questions posed. Then write a three- to four- page essay discussing your answers and reflecting on your observations of the differences between fictional depictions of disease and treatment and real- world data. What do you think your observations tell us about the contemporary U.S. health care system and the ways in which it is depicted on television?
Issues in Medicine and Health Care The fields of medicine and health care have continued to evolve and advance, often affecting individual lives in pro- found ways and addressing some of the most pressing prob- lems facing humanity. While much of the progress over the last decades has been tremendously positive, there are still unfulfilled promises and new questions to resolve. In this last section, we examine some of the current trends and future challenges in medicine and health care.
Health Care Reform in the United States In 1974, when Richard Nixon gave his final State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, he called for “a new system that makes high- quality health care available to every American in a dignified manner and at a price he can afford” (1974). Nixon, a Republican, had previously described compre- hensive health care reform as the highest priority on his unfin- ished agenda for the United States. It would remain a national priority that eluded many other politicians for many more decades until 2010, when the Patient Protection and Afford- able Care Act was signed into law. This legislation, commonly known as the ACA or “Obamacare,” finally brought something like universal health care coverage to all U.S. citizens. Yet the act was not met with universal approval. It simultaneously frustrated many longtime advocates of health care reform by not going far enough while infuriating others by going too far.
The ACA is being phased in slowly over ten years, with the goal of increasing the number of Americans receiving health care coverage every year. The law includes major insurance reforms, including allowing children to remain on their par- ents’ insurance plan through age twenty- six, rather than the previous limits of age twenty- one or after college graduation. Also, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to anyone with preexisting conditions such as diabetes or epi- lepsy. Importantly, the law closes loopholes that once allowed insurance companies to deny or limit coverage to people who became ill. Insurers are no longer allowed to impose lifetime spending caps— allotting a certain amount of money for a given patient over that patient’s lifetime— a limit surpassed by many who have serious illnesses. Additionally, the law bans rescission— canceling coverage only after a person gets sick. Women can no longer be charged more than men for their health insurance, Medicare recipients can get additional dis- counts on prescription drugs, and insurers cannot raise their rates more than 10 percent per year without justification.
One of the most important provisions was the creation of federal and state- run insurance exchange systems to cover the unemployed, self- employed, and anyone else without insurance. While mandates require more people to buy into
Issues in Medicine and Health Care 439
products are ancient (such as acupuncture and herbs), while others are only new to the West- ern world or arose in the past few decades (such as biofeedback, fasting, and “juice cleanses”).
Complementary and alterna- tive medicine has generated both enthusiasts and critics. Some skeptics call this type of medi- cine “quackery,” nothing more than modern- day “snake oil” that promotes false hopes to a vulner- able public. Others who may have found few satisfactory answers within the medical establish- ment become staunch believers in the benefits of various CAM treatments. Indeed, some CAM practices and practitioners are slowly gaining legitimacy (and popularity), and integrative medicine is a burgeoning part of the field that combines conventional medicine with particular CAM practices that have proven most safe and effective. Scientific studies of CAM practices lag behind those done on conventional medicine, and more evidence is needed about whether and how CAM prac- tices work and on which patients with what conditions. It’s possible that some forms of alternative medicine may one day prove better at treating some conditions than conventional medicine. But it is still rare for insurers to cover alternative medicine, so patients currently seeking those treatments typi- cally have to pay out of pocket.
coverage plans, there are some exceptions for the poor, and subsidies are offered for other low- income individuals and families to help in purchasing insurance. Companies that employ more than fifty people have to provide health insur- ance or suffer fines, but new small- business exchanges were created to help companies comply; there are also tax cred- its available to support small businesses in covering their employees.
In many ways, the ACA has delivered on its promises. Indeed, the number of uninsured Americans fell to a record low in 2016 of just 8.8 percent or 28.2 million people (Marti- nez et al. 2017). When the ACA’s provisions first began taking effect in 2010, the uninsured rate was 16 percent. That means there were 20.4 million fewer people who lacked health insur- ance coverage in 2016 compared with 2010.
Even before the legislation had passed, opponents began organizing to repeal the law. They believed that it would cost too much, raise taxes, hurt businesses, and lead to a govern- ment takeover of health care, among other complaints. Oppo- nents have also challenged the constitutionality of the law and taken their cause to state and federal courts. Since 2017, the Trump administration and Republican- led Congress have taken steps to repeal the ACA and replace it with new legis- lation. At the same time, there have been increasingly vocal protests by individuals and groups concerned about repeal efforts. Americans remain divided over Obamacare, but sup- port is growing. In 2017, 49 percent of all adults had a favorable opinion of the ACA, compared to 44 percent who had an unfa- vorable opinion (Kaiser Family Foundation 2017).
Health care reform is likely to remain a battleground. There are many disagreements about how best to design and imple- ment a national health care plan for Americans, but few would argue we don’t need one. Until the ACA, the United States was the last wealthy, industrialized nation in the world without some form of universal health coverage for its citizens. While we haven’t exactly caught up to our peers, the ACA undeniably constitutes a major change to the U.S. health care system.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine In all likelihood, you or someone you know has participated in some form of alternative medicine. If you’ve ever tried deep breathing for relaxation, a nutritional supplement to gain or lose weight, or an herbal remedy for a cold, if you’ve gone to a chiropractor, had a massage, or taken a yoga class, then you’ve made use of alternative medicine. Complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) is a group of medical treat- ments, practices, and products that includes acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnosis, and meditation, as well as traditional healers like shamans and movement therapies like Pilates. Complementary medicine can be used in conjunction with conventional Western medicine, whereas alternative medicine is used instead of it. Some of these practices or
Complementary Medicine New Yorkers participate in a group yoga class in Bryant Park. About a third of Americans use complementary health approaches such as yoga, acupuncture, and chiropractic care.
RESCISSION the practice by insurance companies of canceling coverage only after a person gets sick
COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE a group of medical treatments, practices, and products that can be used in conjunction with conventional Western medicine
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE a group of medical treatments, practices, and products that are used instead of conventional Western medicine
INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE the combination of conventional medicine with complementary practices and treatments that have proven to be safe and effective
CHAPTER 14 Health and Illness440
The Human Genome Project (HGP) is a scientific endeavor that seeks to identify and map the 20,000 to 25,000 genes that make up human DNA from both a physical and functional perspective. The project began in 1990, and the first version of the genome was completed in 2003, although research based on the project continues. Scientists hope that decoding DNA will help elucidate how the human body works, provid- ing clues for how to treat and possibly prevent serious ill- nesses. One of the results of the HGP is the ability to identify predispositions to hereditary diseases such as certain types of cancer, cystic fibrosis, and liver disease through genetic testing. Results from the HGP may also provide the key to the management of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The rapid advancement of medical technologies like the HGP also brings numerous ethical issues to the table. One of the more controversial aspects of these advances is genetic testing in utero and at birth. For example, preimplantation genetic diagnosis allows doctors to test DNA samples from embryos that are grown in vitro. These tests can tell whether a baby will be born with certain disorders and allow for the selection of only certain embryos for implantation. Genetic testing in utero can inform parents of possible genetic mutations in the embryo, potentially allowing parents to choose whether to have a disabled child. There are ethical concerns about genetic testing becoming a modern- day form of eugenics, in which the human gene pool is “improved” through science.
In cases where genetic testing reveals future susceptibil- ity to disease for otherwise healthy individuals, there are ethical issues about the use of the genetic profiles. Can a per- son be stigmatized because of his or her genetic profile? Will insurance companies be able to deny coverage or even treat- ment of illnesses that can now be revealed through in utero genetic testing? Will parents be encouraged to end pregnan- cies if the fetus’s genetic profile reveals a torturous, expensive,
The increasing number of people who have turned to CAM practices is remarkable. In the United States, 38 percent of adults age eighteen and over and nearly 12 percent of children have used one or more forms of CAM within the past year (Nahin et al. 2016). Celebrities and professional athletes often attribute successful recoveries
from illnesses or injuries to CAM therapies. Both the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants employ a “staff acupunc- turist” (Healthcare Medicine Institute 2010). Green Bay Pack- ers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said in a 2015 interview that while he initially tried accupuncture at the urging of his girl- friend, he came to rely on it to help heal a serious calf injury later in the season (Dougherty 2015). Actress and lifestyle entrepre- neur Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness empire Goop sells not only vitamins and supplements but also subscriptions to health advice from doctors, nutritionists, and other experts (who pre- sumably recommend Goop products).
The largest category of CAM users is women with higher levels of education and income. Natural supplements (nonvi- tamin products such as fish oil/omega 3, glucosamine, echi- nacea, flaxseed, and ginseng), deep breathing, meditation, chiropractic, yoga, acupuncture, and massage are some of the most frequently used forms of CAM. The percentage of American adults who practice yoga rose substantially from 5 percent in 2002 to nearly 10 percent in 2012 (Clarke et al. 2015). Americans are most likely to seek these treatments for neck, back, joint, and headache pain but may also use them for anxiety, high cholesterol, head and chest colds, and insomnia. In 2012, American adults spent more than $30 bil- lion on CAM treatments: about half on visits to CAM prac- titioners, 40 percent on natural product supplements, and about 10 percent on self- care approaches. That amounts to just over 9 percent of the total out- of- pocket U.S. spending on all forms of health care (Nahin et al. 2016).
Medical Ethics Medical science continues to progress at a rapid pace, bring- ing new discoveries and producing innovations that are bound to change human health in the future. We tend to think of these advancements as having a uniformly positive impact on society, but this is not always true. In many cases, new advancements bring new and sometimes troubling issues to the fore. Bioethics is the study of controversial moral or ethical issues related to scientific and medical advance- ments. Among hot topics are questions about extending life through artificial means, stem cell research, the use of ani- mals in medical experiments, and even the idea of human cloning.
BIOETHICS the study of controversial moral or ethical issues related to scientific and medical advancements
EUGENICS an attempt to selectively manipulate the gene pool in order to produce and “improve” human beings through medical science
Pandora’s Box? New gene-editing technology CRISPR allows scientists to make precise alterations to DNA. Some critics are concerned about the use of this technology to alter human embryos in order to create designer babies.
441
may be owed in part to Maynard’s legacy. As of 2017, seven states— California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington— allow physicians to prescribe certain patients life- ending medication. Another thirty states are considering death with dignity legislation.
CLOSING COMMENTS Concerns about health and illness are a constant part of human existence. As individuals, we will each face the pleasures and frustrations of living in a physical body that is affected by our lifestyles and life chances. A sociological approach is especially helpful in allowing us to understand the links between social structures and processes and health outcomes. We recognize that health is not merely a biologi- cal state but rather another important area of human life affected by social institutions and social inequalities. Medi- cine and health care are rapidly advancing, and as a result, we may someday live longer and healthier lives, but we will always be shaped by the social contexts in which our lives take place. Science may soon discover new treatments for old diseases, but it is just as likely that we will have to continue dealing with current and as- yet- unknown challenges to our health in the future. It is certain that there will be cultural changes in our values and beliefs that bring about new under- standings and practices regarding the relationship between society and the health of people and the planet.
or stigmatizing condition? Certainly, medical technology is advancing rapidly enough to cause a cultural lag or delay in the legal, ethical, and social issues surrounding its use.
End of Life Another area in which ethics may lag behind science is end- of- life care. On the one hand, we now possess the technologies and treatments to prolong the lives of patients who in prior eras would have died much more rapidly than they now do from diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheim- er’s disease, cystic fibrosis, and certain cancers and from trau- matic injuries. In addition, hospice and palliative care can now make terminally ill patients more comfortable and give them more time to prepare for the inevitable. On the other hand, this ability to prolong life can sometimes make it more difficult to distinguish between “living” and “dying” (such as cases of patients in persistent vegetative states) and hence to respond appropriately to those who are close to death (Kaufman 2005). The ability to rescue patients from the brink of death and to keep on life support those who would otherwise pass away raises the question: Just because we can keep someone alive, does that mean that we should always do so?
Organizations such as Compassion and Choices and Final Exit promote the right of terminally ill patients to invoke medically assisted suicide and the ability to “die with dignity,” or while they are still in control of their bodies and minds. But critics worry that this approach will encourage ending life for the “wrong” reasons, such as treatable depres- sion or disability. This often leaves critically ill patients and their families wondering what to do and when to do it. How to approach death and dying has always challenged us and there is every indication that, even in our age of advanced medical technolog y, it will continue to do so.
Take the example of Brittany Maynard, who was diag- nosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of twenty- nine and given six months to live. Like many who receive such a prognosis, Maynard and her husband, Dan Diaz, tried to make those six months count. They traveled, visited loved ones, and checked items off Maynard’s “bucket list.” But May- nard also decided that, when the time came, she wanted to have control over when and how she died. She knew that, as a resident of California, she would not be legally allowed to do this, so she and Dan packed up and moved to Oregon, where a “death with dignity” law allows doctors to prescribe medica- tion that terminally ill patients can use to end their own lives when they see fit. Maynard did so on November 1, 2014, but not before becoming an activist for doctor- assisted suicide and voicing strong support for aid- in- dying legislation. The passage of California’s End of Life Option Act in June 2016
Aid in Dying At the Capitol in Sacramento, Dan Diaz watches a video recording of his late wife, Brittany Maynard, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of twenty- nine. Maynard moved to Oregon from California in order to take advantage of Oregon’s death with dignity law.
Closing Comments
442
Health, illness, and mortality are physiological phenomena; they are also unquestionably shaped by social factors.
“
Everything You Need to Know about Health and Illness
THEORIES OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS
✱ Structural functionalism: Disease is a threat to social order; therefore, the health- care system should return patients to health and normal func- tioning as members of society.
✱ Conflict theory: Health and the health- care system are valuable resources that are unequally shared in society.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: The meaning of health and illness are dependent on historical, cultural, and situational contexts.
REVIEW 1. What do you think about the pro-
cess by which such things as hyper- activity and obesity are now seen as medical conditions as opposed to behavioral problems? Can you think of other behaviors or conditions that are becoming “medicalized”? Should we consider video game or Internet addiction as a medical condition?
2. Do you believe that health care is a basic right that should be provided to all citizens, or is it a privilege that individuals must earn? What are some of the benefits included in uni- versal health- care systems in such countries as France, Canada, and Britain?
“
443
EXPLORE
Marketing Health The HPV vaccine Gardasil has been highly controversial since it was first approved in 2006. It was originally approved for females and was marketed particularly toward eleven- and twelve- year- old girls. Later, Gardasil was approved for males, and now it is approved for females and males ages nine to twenty- six. The marketing message for Gardasil has changed throughout the years, from an anti- STD vaccine to an anti- cancer vaccine to an anti- STD vaccine again. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read more about a sociologist’s analysis of how social gender norms affected the marketing of this vaccine.
http://wwnPag.es/trw414
SOURCE: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation 2016.
Female Life Expectancies in the Washington, DC, Area
Learn more about the health of your community at www.countyhealthrankings.org
National Average (2014): 81.5 Years
CARROLL COUNTY 81.1 Years
BALTIMORE COUNTY 81.7 Years
BALTIMORE CITY 76.0 Years
HOWARD COUNTY 84.0 Years
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY 81.0 Years
MONTGOMERY COUNTY 83.5 Years
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY 83.5 Years
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 79.5 Years
445
Envisioning the Future and
Creating Social Change
PART V
446
In 2000, the Census confirmed that Las Vegas was the fastest- growing metropolitan area in the United States. Its population increased 83 percent during the 1990s and has continued to grow well into the twenty- first century, with the Clark County Metro Area (of which Las Vegas is a part) surpassing the 2 million mark in 2014. Las Vegas’s population boom showed signs of slowing during the recession years and for some time after, but new Census data confirm continued growth in this once again burgeoning urban locale (El Nasser 2010; U.S. Census Bureau 2015e).
People have flocked to Las Vegas because of its booming employment and housing market, and they have come from all over the country and around the world. Some of those new- comers to Las Vegas are former residents of California, seek- ing refuge from the state’s high cost of living. Another segment of the Las Vegas population boom are senior citizens, who make up about 13 percent of the populace. Retirees are valued consumers who spend money on new homes and other items when they arrive in the city; however, as they age, they may create a strain on local health care resources. Another major population segment is Hispanic Americans, who make up more than 30 percent of Las Vegas’s population. They are the fastest- growing ethnic group in southern Nevada, and they, too, are valued consumers, courted by advertisers in both English- and Spanish- language media. In addition, the area has a growing population of foreign- born immigrants, some of whom work at casinos, hotels, and resorts and whose labor supports the region’s biggest industry, tourism.
In addition to these demographic trends, Las Vegas is also an economic trendsetter, for better or worse. Its employment rates were consistently high because of the large number of service jobs in the casino, resort, and tourist industries, but these jobs generally offer low pay and few benefits. There is
also other work to do in Las Vegas. Major industries include construction and real estate sales (though these industries were hit hard by the recent recession), banking, and other financial services, often related to the casino industry (Gott- deiner et al. 1999). As the economy diversifies, the population grows— and as the population grows, more services and other work become necessary. Cards must be dealt, meals must be cooked, hotel rooms must be cleaned, children must be taught, cars must be repaired, and houses must be built, sold, and financed. However, if a population begins to decline, the mar- ket for all those goods and services diminishes, and jobs of all sorts become harder to find.
Las Vegas’s housing boom began in the 1970s with the advent of master- planned communities. These residential developments, often built around golf courses, were move- in ready when the economy began growing and diversifying in the 1980s, and more middle- class families began moving into the city. Master- planned suburbs continue to sprout in and around Las Vegas, filling Clark County with people and all the things they use, including houses, schools, stores, roads, and cars. During the recent recession, this boom went bust. In 2014, Las Vegas held one of the highest real estate foreclosure rates in the country (Robison 2014). Whatever takes place in the larger U.S. real estate market happens even more spectac- ularly in Las Vegas.
Environmental issues are important to life in the real Las Vegas, which is located in a desert ecosystem where water is scarce and rainfall is infrequent. Hundreds of thousands of people live in this ecosystem, in sprawling suburban hous- ing developments. Lawns, pools, and golf courses require billions of gallons of water that the immediate environment does not provide, yet growth continues. Las Vegas competes with several other arid states, including California, for water
Las Vegas— Sin City, Entertainment Capi-tal of the World, home of glitz, glitter, and gambling; fantasy mecca, international tourist destination where fortunes and marriages are made and broken; populated by showgirls, gangsters, high- rollers, and Elvis imperson- ators. This is the “Hollywood Vegas” according to Mark Gottdiener, Claudia C. Collins, and David R. Dickens. Their book, Las Vegas: The Social Production of an All- American City (1999), chronicles the development of Las Vegas from its days as a pit stop for Spanish explorers
in the early 1800s to the neon marvel it has become.
Gottdiener, Collins, and Dickens analyze the Hollywood Vegas, but they argue that there is another Las Vegas as well, where regular people live, work, and go to school, the supermarket, and the movies. What is the real Las Vegas like? It’s big, it’s growing fast, and its demographic, economic, and cultural trends represent the social changes taking place in many cities across the country— even those without pulsat- ing neon or posh casinos.
PART V
447
casinos continue to spring up on Indian reservations in almost half the U.S. states.
Las Vegas is also the site of unusually powerful labor unions, which represent many of the service employees— cooks, wait- ers, musicians, hotel employees— whose work keeps the city running. At a time when union membership is down in the rest of the country, Las Vegas is a strong union city— ironically located in Nevada, a right- to- work state. Union laborers tend to have higher wages and more benefits than nonunion work- ers because of the power of collective bargaining. The resur- gence of union membership in Las Vegas’s service industries may inspire workers in other cities with service- and tourism- dominated economies.
Gottdiener and his coauthors argue that “in many ways Las Vegas represents, though often in exaggerated form, sev- eral impor tant trends in contemporary American society as a whole” (1999, p. xi). In Part V, we examine many of those trends from a sociological perspective as part of our focus on social change. In Chapter 15, we examine a variety of demographic and environmental trends, such as suburbanization, migration, and aging. And we consider processes of cultural and social change, such as activism by labor unions and environmen- talists, in Chapter 16. As you read these chapters, think about your own city or town and the trends you have observed close to home. Also think about the changes you would like to see in your surroundings; a sociological perspective can help you strategize to make those changes happen. In any case, keep an eye on Las Vegas for changes yet to come— because, as research demonstrates, what happens in Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas!
resources. Water from the Colorado River is pumped in at great expense from Lake Mead to fill pools and water lawns, as well as for household use. Lake Mead is also the destination for all of Las Vegas’s outgoing effluent— treated sewage and runoff full of lawn chemicals. These environmental toxins cycle back into the drinking water consumed by the area’s residents.
Water isn’t the only environmental issue that Las Vegas faces. Atomic test sites from the 1950s and 1960s, located in the Mojave Desert, were once in the middle of nowhere— but suburban sprawl continues to draw closer to these areas. The same is true of a number of desert chemical plants in areas that are also being encroached upon by residential develop- ment. Recently, environmental activists have successfully prohibited nuclear waste transport and dumping in the Las Vegas area.
A fluctuating population, an economy dominated by service- industry work, a natural environment strained to its limits by desert sprawl— this is the real Las Vegas. Add the glittery, neon- lit Hollywood fantasy town, and you have a van- guard city for the twenty- first century. Economic, environ- mental, and demographic trends that already appear in Las Vegas— including the booms and busts of the larger economy— will become increasingly visible in other U.S. cities.
Cultural and social changes occurring in Las Vegas may also be visible where you live— including the legalization of gambling. While Las Vegas was once the center of a gambling industry dominated by organized crime, legal casinos are now operated all over the country by groups of all sorts, including state governments and Native American tribes. Gambling boats float on many Midwestern lakes and rivers, and resort
PART V
448448
Populations, Cities, and the Environment
C hris McCandless was the picture of success. The son of upper- middle- class profes-
sionals in Washington, DC, he had just graduated from Emory University in Atlanta
and was headed for law school. Nonetheless, he felt constrained and even betrayed
by a society that perpetuated poverty and inequality and often seemed to care so little for its
individual members. He wanted to experience the personal freedom of being untethered from
obligations to family, school, and work— even though that meant letting go of the emotional
and material security they provide.
CHAPTER 15
449
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment450
After graduation, Chris headed for the wilderness, which he saw as pure and
untainted while he viewed society as corrupt and damaged. Chris moved in and out
of the social world during the next two years; he lived in the wilderness success-
fully for long stretches of time but always came back to civilization for supplies, to
earn a little money, and to make some human connections. After spending months
alone in the deserts of the Southwest, he arrived in Bullhead City, Arizona, and
took a job at a McDonald’s. He was leather- skinned and malnourished, had no
money or belongings, and had lost his car in a flash flood— but he was still alive,
and after a brief stint in what he considered the most sinister of all social insti-
tutions (the fast- food industry), he disappeared back into nature again, this time
headed to the great unspoiled expanses of Alaska.
Chris did a lot of reading in preparation for his journey, and he seemed able to
endure the physical and emotional hardships of being alone in the wilderness for
months at a time. His journal entries reveal that he often felt exhilarated and truly
believed that his was the superior way of life. But Chris’s story did not end happily.
Two years after he left his hometown of Atlanta, his body was found on the Alas-
kan tundra many miles outside Fairbanks by a group of moose hunters.
In his book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer reconstructed Chris’s journey through
diaries and interviews. Krakauer determined that while living on the tundra for four
months alone, Chris had inadvertently eaten something that may have poisoned
him. Realizing how sick he was, he began to yearn for the saving presence of other
humans— for both assistance and companionship. At the very end, Chris’s journal
entries reveal a desire to return to the social world and a recognition of the pro-
tection society offers from the rigors of nature. Chris did not get to reenter society
with his newfound insight, but perhaps we can learn more about our own relation-
ship to both the natural and the social worlds from his story.
Population 451
the beginning of every new decade, census takers try to con- tact every person living in the country. Surveys, either short or long form, are sent to every household to gather a range of demographic information, from household size and age of family members to their gender, education level, income, and ethnic background. In the years between the decennial cen- sus, smaller- scale studies are continuously conducted by the Census Bureau. Other countries are less systematic at gather- ing data, so many statistics that refer to global population are necessarily based on scientific estimates.
Three basic demographic variables are crucial to under- standing population dynamics. The first is fertility rate— the average number of births per 1,000 people in the total popula- tion. The total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman would be expected to have during her childbearing years. The fertility rate for 2015 in the United States was approxi- mately 1.88. Fertility rates vary across the globe, with some of the highest rates in sub- Saharan Africa, with Niger at 7.4, and some of the lowest in Southeast Asia, with Singapore at 1.23 (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2017).
The next demographic vari- able is mortality rate (or death rate)—the number of deaths that can be expected per 1,000 people per year. This statistic is usu- ally modified by other factors, so the mortality rate within a par- ticular country varies within age, sex, ethnic, and regional groups. A related concept is infant mortality rate, or the average number of deaths per 1,000 live births. The death rate for 2015 in the United States was approxi- mately 8.2 and the infant mortal- ity rate was approximately 6. Mortality and infant mortality rates vary across the globe, some of the highest being in Afri- can countries, with a death rate of 15.3 in the Central Afri- can Republic, for example, and an infant mortality rate of 94. Some of the lowest mortality rates are found in wealthier Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar with 1.5, and some of the lowest infant mortality rates are found in Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore with 2 (United Nations Depart- ment of Economic and Social Affairs 2017).
Another related concept is life expectancy, or the average age to which a person can expect to live. Here, too, other fac- tors are involved, so life expectancy of people within a particu- lar country varies by sex, ethnicity, and social class. In general, life expectancy rose dramatically in the twentieth century.
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER This chapter covers three big and deeply connected topics in sociology: population, urbanization, and the environment. To this point, we have focused mostly on society— on people and their effect on each other. But humans live in a natural as well as a social world, and their environment is another key factor in their lives. We are affected by and have a profound effect on the planet earth. The number of humans who live on the planet has nearly tripled since the middle of the last century, from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 7.6 billion in 2017. Popu- lation studies show that ever greater numbers of people are settling into large, sprawling cities— a trend called urbaniza- tion. Growing populations and increased urbanization create new demands and pressures on the global environment as more natural resources are consumed and more pollution and waste are produced. Remember that these huge global shifts are the result of the cumulative actions of many individuals over time.
Population If we want to understand the relationship between the social world and the natural world, we must examine human population. The next sections look at how sociologists study population and its related issues. To paraphrase sociologist Samuel Preston, the study of population has something for everyone: the confrontations of nature and civilization; the dramas of sex and death, politics and war; and the tensions between self- interest and altruism.
Demography Demography is the study of the size, composition, dis- tribution, and changes in human population. Sociologists and others who study population are called demographers. Demography is essentially a macro- level, quantitative approach to society, but it is more than just simply counting heads. Population dynamics are influenced not only by bio- logical factors such as births and deaths but also by socio- logical factors such as cultural values, religious beliefs, and political and economic systems. People are not just animals who reproduce by instinct; they are subject to structural con- straints as well as individual agency, all of which affect their behavior and ultimately the world in which they live.
The U.S. government has long been interested in keep- ing track of those residing within its geographic boundar- ies. The U.S. Constitution mandates that a census be taken every ten years. The U.S. Census Bureau, a part of the Depart- ment of Commerce, regularly conducts these studies of the population, going back to the first such attempt in 1790. At
DEMOGRAPHY study of the size, composition, distribution, and changes in human population
FERTILITY RATE a measure of population growth through reproduction; often expressed as the number of births per 1,000 people in a particular population or the average number of children a woman would bear over a lifetime
MORTALITY RATE a measure of the decrease in population due to deaths; often expressed as the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a particular population
INFANT MORTALITY average number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births in a particular population
LIFE EXPECTANCY average age to which people in a particular population are expected to live
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment452
and emigration. Immigrants are those people coming into a country or region to which they are not native. Emigrants are those departing from a country or region with the intention of settling permanently elsewhere. Internal migration refers to patterns within a country, where the movement is generally from rural to urban areas.
The net migration for any country is the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a coun- try during the year. The net migration rate in the United States was 2.9 in 2016, which means that there was an increase of 2.9 persons for every 1,000 inhabitants in the United States. Migration patterns can sometimes be con- troversial: In the United States, for example, illegal immi- gration from Latin America has been a point of political conflict for several decades. In general, worldwide migration patterns show that people are moving from least industrial- ized to most industrialized countries. There are often other economic or political reasons for migration, with refugees pouring in and out of some countries depending on pat- terns of war, famine, or other problems. Countries with the highest net migration rates include Qatar and the British Virgin Islands (both have very small populations to start with, so it only takes a few immigrants to increase their net migration rate), while those with the lowest rates include the war- torn countries of Central African Republic and Syria (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2017).
The study of population dynamics involves the interplay among these three sources of population change: fertility, mortality, and migration. These variables are used to con- struct current population models and future projections. We can apply demographic variables to the global population or to a population within a particular region or country.
If we focus on the United States, we can track several inter- esting population trends. The United States is currently the
The life expectancy for a person born in the United States in 2015 is approximately 78.8 years of age; the average for men is 76.3, while for women it is 81.2 (CDC 2017c). Life expectancy in the United States varies by social location, as noted in sev- eral earlier chapters: Race, class, gender, and other factors influence our health, the types of illness we suffer, our access to care, and hence the age at which we die. As Figure 15.1
shows, life expectancy also var- ies greatly across the globe, with some of the highest averages in wealthier nations such as Japan at almost 84, and some of the lowest in African countries such as Angola at approximately 52 years— in large part because of the AIDS epidemic (World Health Organization 2016). Life span, or longevity, has also increased dramatically— again, depending on where you live. More people around the globe are living past 100 years of age. The world record for the oldest per- son documented lived to age 122 ( Mai- Duc 2015).
The last demographic vari- able that we will consider is migration— the movement of people from one geographic area
to another for the purposes of resettling. Migrations have occurred throughout human history and have played an important part in populating the planet. As a demographic variable, migration neither adds to nor subtracts from the total number of people on the planet; it simply refers to their reloca- tion from place to place. Related concepts are immigration
LIFE SPAN or LONGEVITY the uppermost age to which a person can potentially live
MIGRATION movement of people from one geographic area to another for the purpose of resettling
IMMIGRATION entering one country from another to take up permanent residence
EMIGRATION leaving one country to live permanently in another
INTERNAL MIGRATION movement of a population within a country
NET MIGRATION net effect of immigration and emigration on a particular population; expressed as an increase or decrease
B
< 50 5 0– 59 60– 69 70– 79 80– 87 Not applicable No data
Figure 15.1 Global Life Expectancy at Birth, 2015
SOURCE: World Health Organization 2016.
Population 453
IN THE FUTURE Living to 150
is a product of increasing life spans: In 1900, when life expec- tancy in the United States was less than fifty years, people didn’t have a chance to “retire” at all. Retiring at sixty- five, our current average age, seems ridiculous (not to mention boring) if you’ll be living another eighty years or so. The prospect arises, then, of people pursuing multiple careers (including the multiple educations necessary to prepare for them) in one lifetime. So people may find themselves retir- ing two, three, or more times in their 100-plus years.
Our current notion of marriage as a “’til death do us part” contract also may deserve some revision if we’re going to live to 150. Will we just marry later? Or will multiple mar- riages over the course of a lifetime become more common and acceptable? Will marriage contracts have to include “sunset clauses” or expiration dates, at which time we may renew them if we choose? Don’t laugh— this has already been proposed by lawmakers in Mexico! And what about family planning? Will we push the boundaries of fertility as we push the boundaries of longevity? If so, will nuclear families be larger? Will extended family living or communal child care become more common?
Finally, what will happen to our values, morals, and beliefs? So many of the social rules about marriage, fam- ily, and life in general are rooted in religion— how will reli- gion respond if and when we find ourselves living longer and hence calling some of these rules into question? We already worry that attempts to extend life and stave off death amount to “playing God.” If we live longer, will religion be forced to pay more attention to this life and less to the afterlife?
All we can say in answer to these questions is that if you eat right, exercise, and have good genes, you can stick around to see for yourselves . . .
Author Sonia Arrison (2011) predicts that her own son, born in 2010, may very well live to be 150 years old. This preschooler and his generational cohort are poised to reap the benefits of health and technological advances that promise to extend their lifetimes far beyond those of their ancestors.
You are probably already familiar with some of the devel- opments contributing to our increased life spans. Medical advances have conquered (or at least controlled) many of the diseases that once kept us from growing old, such as small- pox, measles, diphtheria, polio, and tuberculosis. Injuries that were once guaranteed to be fatal are now treatable and sur- vivable through advanced surgical techniques. Public health measures have improved sanitation, food and water safety, and community education. New concerns with environmen- tal degradation, pollution, pesticides, and chemicals are lead- ing to less toxic exposure. Of course, all these things are more likely to be true in wealthier, developed regions such as the United States and Europe; life spans are still much shorter in areas where these advances are not widely available.
Even so, centenarians— people who live to be over 100 years of age— are getting to be more common worldwide. The United Nations estimated there were about 451,000 cen- tenarians in 2015, compared to less than 100,000 in 1900, with the United States, Japan, and China in the top three positions (Stepler 2016). And in the United Kingdom, one- third of all babies born in 2013 are expected to live to 100 (Christensen and Willingham 2014). Most current cente- narians are women. And our current centenarians got old the old- fashioned way: clean living, healthy food, exercise, stress management, and good genes. Arrison’s son and his friends may have the assistance of technological advances that sound like science fiction but are or will soon be reality.
Drugs to treat chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and even inflammation may have the side effect of extending life spans (Duncan 2012). Stem cell research may allow for the regeneration of damaged cells, organs, and other body parts. Gene therapy may eradicate killers such as sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, various cancers, and other hered- itary diseases (Glor 2012). Technology that replaces human body parts with machines and connects those machines directly to our brains may expand the number of “cyborgs,” or partially bionic humans, in addition to expanding our defini- tion of what constitutes “natural” life (Duncan 2012).
These possibilities sound fascinating, don’t they? But they all focus solely on keeping individuals healthy and alive. What happens to society if people start living much longer, healthier lives? For one thing, longer lives mean that we must reconsider the whole notion of retirement. Retirement itself
World’s Oldest Person In 2017, Violet Brown of Jamaica held the title of world’s oldest person, before ceding it to Nabi Tajima of Japan upon Brown’s death. Both women were born in 1900.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment454
third most populous nation (after China and India), with more than 325 million people. It is also one of the fastest- growing industrialized nations. According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. population is projected to grow by 98 million between 2014 and 2060—an average increase of 2.1 million people per year. The native population is projected to increase by 22 per- cent while the foreign- born population is expected to grow by an astounding 85 percent (U.S. Census Bureau 2015c). While the overall trend sees people moving to the “sunbelt” states in the South and West from “rustbelt” states in the North and East, there are notable exceptions: In recent years, North Dakota— fueled by an oil boom— has had one of the highest growth rates in the country. In contrast, Illinois, West Virginia, and Vermont are experiencing the biggest declines in popula- tion (U.S. Census Bureau 2017n).
Theories of Population Change Concerns about population growth first emerged in the eigh- teenth century during the Industrial Revolution. Many demo- graphic variables at that time contributed to rapid growth in the newly burgeoning urban areas of Europe. Mechanization, which increased agricultural production, and the introduc- tion of a hearty new staple from South America— the potato— made available enough food for people to sustain themselves and support larger families. Other technological and scien- tific advances helped decrease infant mortality rates while increasing fertility and extending life expectancy. As a result, the first real population boom in human history occurred.
Thomas Malthus, a British clergy member turned politi- cal economist, was one of the first scholars to sound the alarm on overpopulation. Although he lived at a time when people believed in technology and progress, the promise of prosper- ity and abundance, and the perfectibility of human society, he himself was less than optimistic about the future. Based on his observation of the world around him, Malthus wrote a book in 1798 called An Essay on the Principle of Population, in which his basic premise, the Malthusian theorem, stated that the population would expand at a much faster rate than agriculture; inevitably at some future point, people would far outnumber the available land and food sources. If population increases surpass the ability of the earth to provide a basic level of subsistence, then massive suffering would follow. His theory has two simple principles: that population growth is exponential or geometric (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 . . . ) and that produc- tion is additive or arithmetic (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 . . . ).
According to his calculations, society was headed for disaster, or what is called the Malthusian trap. To avoid such a catastro- phe, Malthus (1798/1997) made several rather radical policy recommendations. He may have
been the first to propose that humans should collectively limit their reproduction to save themselves and preserve their environments. He urged “moral restraint” in sexual reproduction to curtail overpopulation. If human beings were unable to restrain themselves (by postponing mar- riage or practicing abstinence), nature would exert “positive checks” on population growth through famine, war, and dis- ease. Malthus also advocated state assistance to the lower classes so they could more readily achieve a middle- class lifestyle supported by decent wages and benefits and adopt the values associated with later marriage and smaller fami- lies (New School 2004).
Malthus’s ideas were not always popular, though they were influential and widely read. Charles Darwin noted that Mal- thusian theory was an important influence on his own theory of evolution and natural selection. Malthus also influenced whole new generations of social thinkers, not just demogra- phers but others as well, and their respective ideas on popula- tion growth.
More than 200 years later, some people, the neo- Malthusians, or New Malthusians, essentially still agree with him. Among the notable modern voices looking at the problem of overpopulation are William Catton (1980), Paul and Ann Ehrlich (1990), and Garrett Hardin (1993). They worry about the rapid pace of population growth and believe that Malthus’s basic prediction could be true. In some respects, they claim, the problem has even gotten worse. There are a lot more people on the planet in the twenty- first century, so their continued reproduction expands even more quickly than in Malthus’s time. And with continued tech- nological advancements— such as wars that use “surgical strikes,” modern standards of sanitation, and the eradication of many diseases— people are living much longer than before. When Malthus was alive, there were approximately 1 billion people on the planet; it was the first time in recorded history that the population reached that number. The time required for that number to double and for each additional billion to be added has continued to decrease (Figure 15.2). Today there are more than 7.5 billion people on the planet— and counting. The United Nations predicts that world population will sur- pass 9.5 billion by 2050 and continue to grow to more than 11 billion by the end of the century (United Nations Depart- ment of Economics and Social Affairs 2017).
The New Malthusians also point to several sociological factors that influence the reproductive lives of many and pro- mote large families. Religion still plays a role in many societ- ies: The Catholic Church still forbids members to practice any birth control besides the rhythm method, even though 77 per- cent of American Catholics surveyed in a poll said the church should allow them to use some form of artificial contraception (Pew Research Center 2014c). In many poorer nations, more children mean more financial support for the family. They work various jobs in their youth to help sustain the household, and for parents, children may be the only source of support
MALTHUSIAN THEOREM the theory that exponential growth in population will outpace arithmetic growth in food production and other resources
Population 455
support higher populations. In Stage 2, as a country is develop- ing economically, improvements in sanitation and food sup plies mean that the death rate decreases drastically. However, birth rates stay high at this stage, which leads to rapid population growth. Countries currently in Stage 2 include Laos, Afghani- stan, and Angola. In Stage 3, industrialized countries see birth rates fall in response to the decrease in mortality as well as to improvements in technology that require fewer people to keep things running smoothly. In this stage, populations start sta- bilizing, as has occurred in places like Mexico, Sudan, and the Philippines, as well as South Africa, Egypt, and a number of Central American and South Asian nations. In Stage 4, as eco- nomic development is achieved, countries see low birth rates, low death rates, and low rates of popu- lation growth. The United States, Canada, China, Brazil, and much of Europe are currently in Stage 4. In some cases, population growth dips below replacement levels in this stage, which has led theorists to propose a possible Stage 5, in which populations of highly developed countries begin to decline, as has happened in places like Japan and Hungary.
The important insight of demographic transition theory is that the relationship between population and resources changes in each stage of economic and industrial develop- ment, and not all countries experience those stages at the same historical time. It is also important to note that, even in Stage 4 (or 5), resources can still be unequally distrib- uted, resulting in deprivation for some residents of even the richest, most developed nations, such as the United States. For example, in the United States, nearly 13 percent of
they have in old age. Some governments encourage the expan- sion of their population base and promote the addition of new citizens who can become taxpayers or soldiers. They may even provide incentives to parents, such as tax deductions for each child. Finally, cultural influences, from “family values” to “machismo,” sometimes confer more prestige on those with children; women gain status in the valued role of mother, while men gain status for their perceived virility.
Not everyone agrees with Malthus’s argument, even today. Economists such as Julian Simon (1996, 2000) and demogra- phers such as William Peterson (2003) believe that Malthus reached faulty conclusions and that he couldn’t have envi- sioned the many modern developments that would influence population dynamics. In fact, the anti- Malthusians are more concerned about the population shrinking and the possibil- ity of a demographic free fall. Some countries, such as Japan, are already dealing with new problems caused by a rapidly shrinking population. The United States may soon face a sim- ilar dilemma as the birth rate falls below replacement levels (usually calculated as 2.1). Demographers don’t anticipate a widespread free fall in population happening just yet, but they forecast a very different future when the pattern of demo- graphic transition, now occurring in many industrialized nations, spreads to the rest of the developing world.
Demographic transition theory is an alternative to the Malthusian perspective that takes more recent historical pat- terns into account and looks at countries and their populations based on the stages of economic development they experience (see Figure 15.3). In Stage 1, during a country’s preindustrial period, fertility and mortality rates are high while production is low; this means that population growth is low as well, since births and deaths cancel each other out, and resources cannot
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION a theory about change over time from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates, resulting in a stabilized population
2000 22001600 18001200 14001000600 8004000
Only 300 million people in the world?
W o
rl d
P o
p u
la ti
o n
( in
b ill
io n
s)
200 C.E.
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
2010
2050 (projected)
1999
1987
1975
1960
1930
1800
3
2
1
0
Figure 15.2 World Population Growth over 2,000 Years
SOURCE: Population Reference Bureau 2010.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment456
living. Cities, however, are not a modern development. They have been in existence for thousands of years. We find evi- dence of ancient cities in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America. By comparison to today’s standards, these early cities would be considered quite small. They generally had just several thousand residents and were typically agri- cultural centers along major trade routes. Some much larger cities, however, had hundreds of thousands of residents, such as the Mediterranean cities of Athens and Rome. One reason cities were able to thrive was advances in agriculture that allowed surpluses of food to be readily available to support a population that was not directly involved in its production. People were thus freed to engage in other activities necessary for the functioning of the city and its residents.
Cities were not the prevalent residential areas until well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until then, the vast majority of people worldwide lived in rural or country areas. The wide- scale development of cities, or urban areas, was made possible by the significant social, economic, and political changes accompanying the Industrial Revolution, when masses of people were drawn into cities to find hous- ing and the manufacturing jobs they needed to earn a living. Fewer families were involved in farming, as large compa- nies, or agribusiness, began to emerge. Cities were populated not only by migrants from rural areas but also by immigrants from other countries, seeking opportunity and a better way of life. Industrialization provided the jobs and the means of communication and transportation to build the burgeoning city infrastructure that could support growing numbers of residents. This process in which growing numbers of people move from rural to urban areas is called urbanization.
The term “city” is currently used to refer to an urban settlement with a large population, usually at least 50,000
households experience hunger or food insecurity, that is, the limited or uncertain ability to acquire adequate and safe foods (U.S. Department of Agriculture 2015).
So who is right? Will the world population eventually sta- bilize, or will it continue to spiral out of control? Will tech- nological advances allow us to get needed resources to a growing global populace? We may not know the answer to those questions for many years, so in the meantime we con- tinue to speculate about what may happen as new countries join the ranks of the developed world. Will fertility decrease? Will death rates continue to slow? Science constantly brings
technological advancements that enhance health and pro- long life, but new and deadly diseases such as AIDS, Zika, or Ebola may claim an ever greater death toll in nations too poor to afford the medicines needed for treatment. As the world’s cur- rent occupants, we have to live now with the consequences of our choices. Many policy and advocacy groups concerned
with population issues have been established in the past few decades, including Zero Population Growth, World Overpopu- lation Awareness, the Population Institute, and the Popula- tion Reference Bureau. To find out more, visit their websites.
Cities The dynamics of population growth (and sometimes shrink- age) throughout human history have been accompanied by the development of larger cities in which more people are now
RURAL relating to sparsely settled areas; in the United States, any county with a population density between 10 and 59.9 people per square mile
URBAN relating to cities; typically describes densely populated areas
URBANIZATION movement of increasing numbers of people from rural areas to cities
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Bi rth
a nd
d ea
th ra
te s
(p er
1 ,0
00 p
eo pl
e pe
r y ea
r)
10 Total Population
Natural Increase
Natural Decrease
Birth rate
Death rate
20
30
40
Figure 15.3 Demographic Transition
Cities 457
from Boston to Washington, DC, and including twenty- two other metropolises such as New York City and Philadel- phia. BosWash has a total population of almost 50 million, or approximately 17 percent of the entire U.S. population. Mega- lopolises are found worldwide in countries including Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, India, China, and Japan (Castells and Susser 2002). These are some- times called megaregions or global cities to emphasize their position in an increasingly global- ized world as centers of economic, political, and social power (Sas- sen 1991).
In the early 1800s, only about 3 percent of the world’s popula- tion lived in urban areas and only one city had a population greater than 1 million people: Peking, China (now called Beijing). In the early 1900s, almost 14 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas, and a dozen or so cities around the world (includ- ing New York City, London, Paris, Moscow, and Tokyo) had 1 million or more residents. By the early 2000s, more than 50 percent of the world’s population was living in urban areas, and we now have to count as large cities those with 10 million people or more; there were thirty- one of these megacities in the world in 2016—home to 7 percent of the global population (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2016).
to 100,000 people. Although a few states, including Wyo- ming, West Virginia, Delaware, Maine, and Vermont, have no cities with populations of 100,000 people or more, Cali- fornia has seventy cities with more than 100,000 people, followed by Texas with thirty- six and Florida with twenty- one. Urban demographers use the word metropolis to refer to an urban area with an even larger population— usually at least 500,000 people— that typically serves as the economic, political, and cultural center for a region. The U.S. Census Bureau defines the term Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as a metropolitan area that includes a major city of at least 50,000 inhabitants that is surrounded by an adja- cent area that is socially and economically integrated with the city. In 2015, the United States (including Puerto Rico) contained 389 MSAs; more than fifty of these had popula- tions of 1 million or more (Office of Management and Budget 2015). Many of the largest American cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego, have continued to grow rapidly in the past decade.
Largest of all is a megalopolis, also sometimes called a megacity— a group of densely populated metropolises (or agglomerations) that grow contiguous to each other and eventually combine to form a huge urban complex (Gottman 1961). One American megalopolis is referred to as “ChiP- itts,” or the Great Lakes megalopolis, a group of metropolitan areas in the Midwest, extending from Pittsburgh to Chicago (and including Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis), with a total population of almost 60 million. The ChiPitts metro areas are linked not only by geographic proximity but also by economics, transportation, and commu- nications systems (Gottman and Harper 1990). Another mega- lopolis is “BosWash” or the Northeast megalopolis, extending
METROPOLIS an urban area with a large population, usually 500,000 to 1 million people
METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREA (MSA) an area with at least one major city of 50,000 or more inhabitants that is surrounded by adjacent counties that are socially and economically integrated with the city core
MEGALOPOLIS a group of densely populated metropolises that grow dependent on each other and eventually combine to form a huge urban complex
GLOBAL CITIES a term for megacities that emphasizes their global impact as centers of economic, political, and social power
Urban Population 80.0% to 100.0% 50.0% to 79.9% 20.0% to 49.9% 0.1% to 19.9% No Urban Population
Urban areas include urbanized areas and urban clusters.
Figure 15.4 Percent Population Residing in Urban Areas by County, 2010
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau 2013.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment458
that homeownership gave suburbanites a sense of pride and more privacy and space, which they va lued greatly.
Suburbanization also reflected a retreat from some of the problems associated with city living— crowding, noise, and crime. As more families were able to afford single- family homes, large yards with the proverbial white picket fence and a two- car garage became the literal image of the “Ameri- can Dream” (Fava 1956; Kelly 1993). The decades- long shift of populations to the suburbs has accelerated and expanded throughout the nation, with more families moving farther and farther away into what’s been called the “exurbs” (Berube et al. 2006; Frey 2003).
Suburban life has its own problems: long commutes, little contact between neighbors, and de facto racial segregation in housing and schools. Some observers have also criticized the monotonous uniformity of the new suburbs, claiming that they promote listless personalities, conformity, and escapism (Jackson 1985; Riesman 1957; Whyte 1956). Another problem related to suburbanization is urban sprawl (sometimes also called suburban sprawl). This phenomenon has to do with how cities and suburbs grow. It is often a derogatory term applied to the peripheral expansion of urban boundaries and is asso- ciated with irresponsible or poorly planned development. Critics say that such areas are often unsightly, characterized by a homogenous landscape of housing subdivisions, office parks, and corner strip malls lacking character or green space (Duany, Plater- Zyberk, and Speck 2001; Gutfreund 2004; Kunstler 1993) and bringing problems of traffic, pollution, crowded schools, and high taxes.
While most suburbs remain “bedroom communities” or pri- marily residential, others have become edge cities with their own centers of employment and commerce (Garreau 1992). Edge cities are usually in close proximity to intersecting high- ways and urban areas. “Silicon Valley” is a prime example: The once sleepy suburb of San Jose became a center of high- tech industry during the dot- com boom of the 1990s. Edge cities are one answer to the problems associated with suburbanization. Smart growth advocates are also promoting alternatives to suburban growth, emphasizing redevelopment of inner cities or older suburbs to create better communities. Elements of smart growth include town centers; transit- and pedestrian- friendly streets; a greater mix of housing, commercial, and retail properties; and the preservation of open space and other environmental amenities.
Many long- established cities suffered when populations began moving to the suburbs— including Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia in the North and East (the rustbelt) as well as New Orleans, St. Louis, and San Francisco in the South, Mid- west, and West (U.S. Census Bureau 2005). Since the 1950s and 1960s, people have left cities not only to find more space and bigger homes in the nearby suburbs but also to flee other problems endemic to the city. Largely, those escaping the cit- ies were upper- and middle- class whites who could afford to leave— a trend often referred to as white flight (or sometimes
A similar pattern can be seen in the United States. In the early 1800s, just 6 percent of the population lived in urban areas, whereas 94 percent lived in rural areas. In the early 1900s, the split was 40 percent urban and 60 percent rural. In 2017, 83 percent of the population was urban and 17 percent was rural. As of 2017, ten American cities had populations over 1 million; the largest, New York City, has a population of over 8.5 million (U.S. Census Bureau 2017o).
Cities are often characterized by urban density, mea- sured by the total number of people per square mile. Some of the most densely populated cities in the United States include Guttenberg, New Jersey, with 58,821 residents per square mile; New York City with 27,016; San Francisco with 17,246; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, with 14,057 (U.S. Census Bureau 2013). By contrast, rural areas are characterized by low den- sity. Rural counties are those with populations of 10 to 59.9 people per square mile; frontier counties are those with 0.5 to 9.9 people; and remote counties are those with 0.04 people per square mile or fewer. Alaska is the most rural state in the United States, followed by Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Trends in Urbanization A long with urbanization, an important countertrend surfaced in the years immediately following World
War II. Suburbanization is the shif t of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward the edges of cities, where larger expanses of land were avail- able for housing developments that provided families with a chance to buy a home of their own and avoid the overcrowd- ing of inner- city life. One of the f irst signif icant suburbs was ca lled Levittown ( based on the name of the builders), a community of 17,450 tract houses for 75,000 people built in Hempstead, New York, in the late 1940s. The simply designed homes were mass- produced and sold at prices affordable to returning veter- ans and the new growing mid- dle class (Wattel 1958). In the 1950s, the second Levittown was built near Philadelphia, and in the 1960s a third in New Jersey. Herbert Gans’s study The Levittowners (1967) found
URBAN DENSITY concentration of people in a city, measured by the total number of people per square mile
SUBURBANIZATION the shift of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward the edges of cities
URBAN SPRAWL a derogatory term for the expansion of urban or suburban boundaries, associated with irresponsible or poorly planned development
EDGE CITIES centers of employment and commerce that began as suburban commuter communities
SMART GROWTH term for economic and urban planning policies that emphasize responsible development and renewal
WHITE FLIGHT movement of upper- and middle- class whites who could afford to leave the cities for the suburbs, especially in the 1950s and 1960s
Cities 459
John Peterson is not your average Midwestern farmer. First of all, he’s an organic farmer: No pesticides or chemical fertilizers are allowed at Angelic Organics, a 100-acre biody- namic farm located almost two hours west of Chicago. Angelic Organics is also one of the largest community supported agri- culture (CSA) farms in the nation: The farm is supported in part by local shareholders, who buy a share of the farm and then receive a portion of its harvest, meaning that no super- markets or cross- country truck travel stands between the shareholders and their weekly boxes of onions, kale, squash, tomatoes, peppers, basil, and rutabagas. John’s unique and colorful story of saving his family’s failing conventional farm by transforming it into a thriving organic CSA was featured in the critically acclaimed documentary The Real Dirt on Farmer John. Farmer John is an eccentric, biodynamic, community- supported vegetable and herb farmer in Caledonia, Illinois. And he’s a man on a mission.
Understanding the need for education and outreach, Farmer John teamed up with Tom Spaulding and other Chicago- area shareholders to create a learning center at Angelic Organics. Angelic Organics Learning Center (AOLC) is dedicated to spreading the word about organic food production throughout the greater Chicago area. AOLC recognizes that while not everyone is destined to become a real rural farmer, even city dwellers can incorporate some of Farmer John’s practices into their own backyard garden- ing endeavors and everyday household practices. Classes in soap making, chicken care, beekeeping, cheese making, and composting teach urban gardeners skills that help them save money, care for their families’ health, and become more responsible stewards of their little patches of earth.
Angelic Organics Learning Center also sponsors an “urban initiative” that brings community gardening to the inner city. For example, their Roots and Wings program in Rockford, Illinois, involves local youth in growing organic produce in city plots. The kids also learn to cook, serve, and eat the fresh food they have produced themselves, and they sell their surplus at local farmers’ markets so that their neighbors can enjoy the bounty as well. The youth partici- pants don’t just reap the benefits of learning about food and urban agriculture— they also become skilled at business, leadership, and problem solving. AOLC runs similar pro- grams with city partners in the Chicago neighborhoods of Englewood and Little Village.
ON THE JOB Agriculture: From the Country to the City
Urban farming like the type that Farmer John and the Angelic Organics Learning Center advocate and teach is becoming more popular in the United States. Gardeners lay sod on top of skyscrapers in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco to grow vegetables and herbs for local chefs (Burros 2009). These rooftop gardens also provide insulation and drainage for the buildings and contribute to cooler cities ( temperature- wise, that is). At ground level, community gardens provide space for apart- ment dwellers to grow their own healthy fruits and vegeta- bles as well as save money and make connections with others by doing so.
In some cases, urban gardening requires real rebellion: “Gangsta gardener” and community leader Ron Finley planted vegetables in the strips of earth between the side- walk and the street in his South Los Angeles neighborhood and ended up with multiple citations for “gardening without a permit” on what were tiny plots of city- owned land. But Finley persisted and has built a movement around turning unused urban spaces into productive mini- farms, or “food forests,” as Finley calls them.
There is probably an urban farm in your city or town. There may even be an urban farmer in your neighborhood. And anyone who recognizes the benefits— for individuals, society, and the environment— can try their hand at urban farming. All it takes is a little dirt.
Guerilla Gardening Self-described “gangsta gardener” Ron Finley turns unused spaces in his South Los Angeles neighborhood into mini-farms.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment460
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
Imagining the Cities of Tomorrow People have always been interested in the future. Storytellers, inventors, scientists, politicians, and daydreamers have tried to
imagine and, in some instances, create a vision of what will come.
Imagining the city of tomorrow is an almost constant theme in contemporary popular culture—books and comics, radio and TV, movies, and video games. Some of these represent a brighter vision of tomorrow, a utopia
(“yuppies”), artists, or retirees, recognized the potential for rehabilitating downtown buildings (Castells 1984). They valued the variety and excitement of urban living more than the mini- malls of sleepy suburbia (Florida 2004). The term “gentrification” carries a distinct class connotation; while converting, renovating, remodeling, and constructing new buildings beautifies old city neighborhoods, it also increases property values and tends to displace poorer residents (Zukin 1987, 1989). Gentrification, then, does not eradicate the prob- lems of poverty; it forces the poor to move elsewhere.
The process of gentrification often leaves lower- income and minority Americans with few to no options. In both cit- ies and suburbs, affordable housing has become increas- ingly scarce over the last few decades. Older public housing projects are being vacated and demolished by officials who believe that concentrated poverty is bad for neighborhoods and neighbors, but affordable housing units often have long waiting lists. Low- income families have a hard time keeping up with high rents in more expensive areas, even when they receive government subsidies. Cities interested in profiting from gentrification are reluctant to support the construc- tion of inexpensively priced housing units. Neighbors often don’t want “those people” (the poor, new immigrants, or racial minorities) on their blocks, and developers just go where the money is. As Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond found while doing participant observation research for his ethnog- raphy Evicted (2016), Americans who can’t find affordable housing end up living in squalid rooming houses, homeless shelters, and trailer parks. Without a safe, dependable roof over your head, everything else— the ability to get to a job, to go to school, to stay healthy— starts to fall apart.
“suburban flight”). Those remaining in cities were predomi- nantly minorities, seniors, immigrants, working class, or poor. White flight left urban areas abandoned by businesses and financial institutions, leading to broken- down and boarded- up shops and streets and creating ghettos that further exacer- bated the problems associated with inner cities (Wilson 1996). Although suburbs are starting to diversify (Frey 2014), they still carry the symbolic blemish of white flight.
In the 1960s and 1970s, to address the problem of decaying inner cities, local city governments and private investors took advantage of urban renewal efforts that included renovation,
selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives aimed at revitalizing business districts and residential neigh- borhoods (Frieden and Sagalyn 1992). Urban renewal has been a limited success. While it did revi- talize many areas, it often came at a high cost to existing commu- nities. In many cases, it resulted in the destruction of vibrant, if rundown, neighborhoods (Mol- lenkopf 1983).
Urban renewal is linked to another trend that has also changed many formerly blighted cities: gentrification. This is the transformation of the physical, social, economic, and cultural life of formerly working- class or poor inner- city neighborhoods into more affluent middle- class communi- ties as wealthier people return to the cities (Glass 1964). This trend, which took off in the 1990s, is evident in some of the nation’s largest cities, such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco (Mele 2000). Various higher- income individuals, whether they were young professionals
URBAN RENEWAL efforts to rejuvenate decaying inner cities, including renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives
GENTRIFICATION transformation of the physical, social, economic, and cultural life of formerly working- class or poor inner- city neighborhoods into more affluent middle- class communities
Block Party Troutman Street in Brooklyn, New York, which used to be an open drug and prostitution market, has undergone a process of gentrification and is now home to a host of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops.
Cities 461
The Fifth Element Total Recall Gattaca Tron Her The Truman Show The Hunger Games V for Vendetta Idiocracy Videodrome
For this Data Workshop, you will be using existing sources and doing a content analysis. Refer to Chap- ter 2 for a review of this research method. Now watch the movie while keeping in mind the concepts you have learned from this chapter, especially with regard to urbanization. Take notes about the settings and environments in the movie. Identify and cap- ture key scenes or dia- logue that address the city and city life in the film. In conducting your content analysis, consider some of the following questions.
✱ At what point in the future does the movie take place?
✱ What is the major theme of the movie? What is its overall message?
✱ Does the movie represent a utopian or dystopian vision of the future? Does it represent positive or negative changes to society?
✱ What sorts of futuristic elements are included in the movie, such as time travel, virtual reality, mind con- trol, wars between humans and machines, or apoca- lyptic destruction?
where humankind is finally freed from drudgery and dis- ease, strife, and suffering. Some represent a darker vision of tomorrow, a dystopia where humankind is trapped in a ruthless, apocalyptic world of machines and nature gone mad.
Although examples of the city of the future appear in many different media, this Data Workshop asks that you focus on film. You may have a favorite movie depicting the future, whether it’s in the genre of science fiction, action adventure, thriller, horror, drama, or comedy. In deciding which movie to choose for your content anal- ysis, consider whether the movie proposes a serious or realistic possibility of the future and avoid anything too far out in terms of monsters, aliens, or fantasy worlds.
The following is a partial list of movies that could sat- isfy the assignment. This list is not exhaustive, and you may prefer to use a film not in the list. (Please be aware of MPAA ratings for movies and select appropriate material for your age group.)
12 Monkeys Independence Day 1984 Left Behind A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) Mad Max Back to the Future The Matrix Blade Runner Metropolis Bladerunner 2049 Minority Report Brazil Oblivion Chappie The Purge Children of Men Road Warrior The Day after Tomorrow Slaughterhouse Five Demolition Man Snowpiercer District 9 Solaris Divergent Strange Days Elysium The Terminator eXistenZ Terminator 2: Fahrenheit 451 Judgment Day
City of the Future In the film The Fifth Element, flying cars buzz between ultratall skyscrapers. Could this version of the future realistically occur? Would you like to live in such a future?
UTOPIA literally “no place”; an ideal society in which all social ills have been overcome
DYSTOPIA opposite of a utopia; a world where social problems are magnified and the quality of life is extremely low
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment462
with more narrow goals and to engage less frequently in inti- mate interaction with one another. Wirth’s (1938) analysis was in line with the belief that cities cause social atomization— that they are filled with free- floating individuals rather than members of a community. Another sociologist, Claude Fischer (1976), found that people create a sense of community by dividing the city into little worlds within which they feel familiar and involved. These groups allow for informal and close relationships, giving city dwellers more intimacy and a feeling of belonging.
In 1962, Herbert Gans published a major ethnographic study, The Urban Villagers, in which he identified distinct categories of urbanites, or people who live in urban areas. The first are called “cosmopolites”—students, intellectuals, artists, entertainers, and other professionals who are drawn to the city because of its cultural benefits and convenience to their lifestyles. The next group are the “singles,” unmarried people seeking jobs, entertainment, and partners with whom to settle down. Singles may include cosmopolites as well. When singles do find a marriage partner or mate, they tend to move to the suburbs, often in preparation to start a family.
Another group of city dwellers are the “ethnic villag- ers,” often recent immigrants to the area. They tend to settle near others with whom they share a common racial, ethnic, national, religious, or language background; these are often distant relatives or others with whom they have a connection. This is why many major cities still have Chinatowns, Little Italys, and other ethnic neighborhoods. Once here, immi- grants form tightly knit ethnic enclaves that resemble the vil- lages of their home countries.
The last group of urban dwellers are the “deprived” and the “trapped.” These are the people at the bottom of the social hierarchy— the poor, homeless, disabled, elderly, and men- tally ill. Without resources and means of support, they cannot afford to leave the city, even if they could find jobs, services, or housing elsewhere; they are inescapably stuck where they are. This perpetuates a cycle of poverty and despair.
ALIENATION AND ALTRUISM: THE CASE OF NEW YORK CITY As products of the Industrial Revolu- tion, cities are celebrated for providing unprecedented degrees of freedom for individuals. Life in rural agricultural commu- nities was much more restrictive, with family and neighbors placing tight constraints on behavior. However, sociology has been suspicious of cities, seeing this very freedom as a source of alienation. Early sociologist Georg Simmel argued that while urban environments “allowed a much greater degree of individual liberty,” they did so only “at the expense of treating others in objective and instrumental terms” and relating to others only through a “cold and heartless calculus” (Harvey 1990). In short, except for their chosen subcultures, city dwell- ers fail to develop community, feel little connection with neighbors, have relationships that are largely shallow and impersonal, and fail to care about each other (Simmel 1950).
SOCIAL ATOMIZATION a social situation that emphasizes individualism over collective or group identities
URBANITES people who live in cities
ALIENATION decreasing importance of social ties and community and the corresponding increase in impersonal associations and instrumental logic
✱ How is the modern city or landscape of the future depicted? What are its structural features in both public and private realms?
✱ Compare the future with the present. How is the future the same or different? How is it better or worse?
✱ What are people like in the future? How are they affected by their environment? How does their envi- ronment affect their lives?
✱ Could this version of the future realistically occur? Would you like to live in such a future?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Conduct your content analysis and develop some preliminary answers to the questions provided. Prepare some written notes that you can refer to during in- class discussions. Pair up with one or more classmates and discuss your findings in small groups. Compare and contrast the analyses of the films observed by participants in your group.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Complete the research activities described and develop some preliminary answers to the questions provided. Then write a three- to four- page essay discussing your answers and reflecting on your observations of the film. What do you think your obser- vations tell us about our society’s hopes and fears for the future of cities and city life?
Living in the City Who lives in cities? What about city life continues to attract droves of people? Big cities offer residents bright lights, a fast pace, excitement, and opportunity. They differ from small rural towns and suburban neighborhoods, so a certain type of person is more likely to be found living there.
Louis Wirth, a member of the Chicago School of sociology, proposed the idea of “urban- ism as a way of life.” He believed that cities affected the outlook, mentality, and lifestyle of their residents. While cities offer per- sonal freedom, relaxed moral restraints, relative anonym- ity, variety, and diversity, there is also a certain social cost involved. People tend to belong to more formal organizations
Cities 463
no member of the group decides that it is an emergency, and therefore worthy of reacting, it is likely that all members will continue to ignore the situation.
These conclusions can also help explain a time when New Yorkers did come to each other’s aid out of a sense of belonging and community: in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. In the hours and days after the attacks, Ameri- cans rushed to help however they could. “Tens of thousands of patriotic Americans rolled up their sleeves and gave blood,” monetary donations poured in, and ordinary New Yorkers rushed to pitch in (Stapleton 2002). Some of the most heroic rescue efforts at the World Trade Center were made by ordinary people who rushed to help as soon as they heard. Two Port Authority police officers, Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, were the last people to be found alive in the collapsed remains of the World Trade Center tow- ers. They were discovered by Charles Sereika, a former para- medic, and David Karnes, an accountant from Connecticut
The murder of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese in New York City has come to represent all such fears about modern urban life. Late on March 13, 1964, Genovese was returning home from her job as a bar manager when she was attacked by a man named Winston Moseley. He first attacked Genovese after she parked her car outside the Kew Gardens apart- ment building where she lived. She was stabbed several times before her attacker was frightened off when lights went on in nearby apartments. Badly wounded and bleeding, Genovese was later reported to have shouted, “Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!” (Gansberg 1964). Some- how, she then made her way to the back of the building, appar- ently trying to get to the staircase that led to her apartment. However, her assailant returned and stabbed and beat her to death, before sexually assaulting her. The entire attack, although intermittent, was reported to have lasted nearly thirty minutes.
As horrible as this was, it wouldn’t be remembered today if it were just a tragic murder. What has made this case mem- orable was the story that developed in the aftermath about the number of bystanders who must have heard the crime taking place but failed to take action. The New York Times reported that thirty- eight people witnessed Genovese get- ting attacked and yet no one came to her aid. For many, this seemed to be the ultimate indictment of big cities in general, and New York City in particular, and much of the press cov- erage seemed to demonize the individuals who failed to “get involved.” While we now know that some neighbors did in fact try to intervene (Cook 2015), it was not enough to change the outcome.
In the aftermath of the Genovese murder, John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968) conducted several experiments on altruism and helping behaviors. These experiments were designed to test what came to be called the bystander effect, or the diffusion of responsibility. In one experiment, different- sized groups of test subjects heard what sounded like a woman having an accident in the next room. Darley and Latané found that the higher the number of bystand- ers present, the lower the chances that any of them would attempt to help. Basically, they theorized that the respon- sibility “diffused” throughout the crowd so that no one per- son felt responsible enough to do anything, most assuming that someone else would help. However, when groups were small, the chances that someone would do something to help increased greatly.
In a similar experiment, they placed different- sized groups of subjects in a room, under the pretense of taking a test, and gradually filled the room with smoke. Again, they found that the greater the number of subjects in a room, the lower the chances that anyone would mention the smoke. Here, along with the diffusion of responsibility, they argued that pluralistic ignorance was at work. When large groups of people encounter an ambiguous or unusual situation, they tend to look to each other for help in defining the situation. If
ALTRUISM unselfish concern for the well- being of others and helping behaviors performed without self- interested motivation
BYSTANDER EFFECT or DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY the social dynamic wherein the more people who are present in a moment of crisis, the less likely any one of them is to take action
PLURALISTIC IGNORANCE a process in which members of a group individually conclude that there is no need to take action because they see that other group members have not done so
COMMUNITY a group of people living in the same local area who share a sense of participation, belonging, and fellowship
Kitty Genovese The original account of the twenty- eight- year- old’s murder outside her Queens apartment building claimed that there were thirty- eight witnesses— none of whom intervened.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment464
Cities are places where strangers come together. Before there were cities, there were also no strangers; those who were unknown were driven off, killed, or quickly assimilated into the clan, tribe, or group (Lofland 1973). With the advent of cities came the prospect of living life in close proximity to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people we will never know and from whom we cannot be completely segregated. City life would seem to bring the prospect for all sorts of chaos and conflict— and yet every day, in contemporary cities, mil- lions of people go about their business in relative harmony, brushing elbows with each other on the sidewalk or subway in encounters that are neither friendly nor unfriendly but merely orderly.
What are the interactional structures that order urban life? Public interactions with strangers can be treacherous, as we encounter people we do not know and whose reactions we cannot predict. For the most part, we are not talking about the danger of physical attack. More common than getting mugged is being “looked at funny,” getting “goosed,” or being
the target of “wolf whistles.” These are threats to self more than anything else— being treated as a nonperson, or as a piece of meat. How do we guard against these minor molestations when we walk down the street every day?
A specific way we deal with strangers in public is by prac- ticing what Erving Goffman (1971) called civil inattention. This is a taken- for- granted rule of public place interaction, a basic public courtesy we extend to one another that helps guard against unpleasant interactions with strangers. About eight or ten feet away from each other, we tend to look at and then away from the person we are approaching— all in one sweep of our gaze. We have looked, but not too intently or for too long. This allows us to navigate through urban spaces without bumping into strangers and to avoid the kinds of interactions that might lead to trouble.
The practice of civil inattention is so commonplace that you may not realize you do it every day. Now, walk down the street and notice your own gazework and that of others— with full comprehension of how this simple act helps avoid conflict, enables smooth interactions between strangers, and basically makes city life possible.
IN RELATIONSHIPS Encounters with Strangers
What might move us to violate civil inattention— to inter- act with strangers in ways that might otherwise be for- bidden? Anything, Goffman suggests, that makes us more “open.” Open persons are those whose identities expose them to the overtures of others. Examples of open persons are police officers (and others in uniform), pregnant women, small children, the disabled, those with unusual physical characteristics such as height or hair color, same- sex couples . . . the list goes on and on. One type of open person you have probably encountered is a person walking a dog. Dogs serve as what Goffman called “bridging devices”—excuses for strang- ers to begin conversations that the rules of civil inattention would otherwise prevent. Dogs facilitate interactions in pub- lic places— indeed, dogs serve as (perhaps unwitting) team members in their masters’ performances (Robins, Sanders, and Cahill 1991). They can be referred to by others as a kind of icebreaker as well (Wood et al. 2007). We’ve all found our- selves exclaiming, “Cute puppy!” or “Wow, that’s a big dog” as we pass dogwalkers on the street, and sometimes those utterances develop into longer conversations.
And, of course, there’s the classic notion of the dog as “chick magnet” or “dude magnet,” helping its owner attract, converse with, and pick up women or men for romantic pur- poses. So perhaps we should give our pooches more credit for helping connect us with each other and make city life more humane.
CIVIL INATTENTION an unspoken rule governing interactions in public places, whereby individuals briefly notice others before ignoring them
Don’t Talk to Strangers, Unless They’re with a Dog Erving Goffman observed that dogs facilitate interactions among strangers by serving as bridging devices.
The Environment 465
cities in which most of them live. Now how do those people interact with the natural environment and what impact does the environment have on how they live? Whether we go camp- ing, surfing, or just take a walk through Central Park, we all go to nature to escape, to recreate, to relax. It is ironic that we now seek out nature as a retreat from the demands of society, because society itself originated and evolved at least in part to protect us against the demands of nature.
The cooperation and interdependence that characterize most social groups allow individuals to withstand the risks of the natural environment. The products of culture— clothing, architecture, automobiles, and many others— contribute to our ability to live in what would otherwise be inhospitable sur- roundings. Without her insu- lated house and its furnace, her layers of clothing topped with a Gore- Tex parka, and her car with a remote starter and all- weather tires, Dr. Ferris would have a hard time surviving the harsh winters in northern Illinois. And all these survival tools are supplied because she is part of a society whose other members have created what she needs to be safe and warm in the elements. Society provides all of us with a buffer against nature; without it, we wouldn’t last very long in the ocean, the snowdrifts, or the desert.
The environment is a somewhat recent area of interest among sociologists, coinciding with the general public’s con- cern about environmental issues (Guber 2003). When soci- ologists use the term environment, it encompasses aspects of both the natural and the human- made environment and includes everything from the most micro level of organisms
who “had changed into his Marine camouflage outfit” and driven down to Manhattan as soon as he heard the news (Dwyer 2001). The movie World Trade Center (2006) by Oli- ver Stone depicts their story. And even if things have somewhat returned to normal (meaning people are less friendly now), almost everyone agrees that New Yorkers “were wonderful during the crisis, and we were tender to each other. . . . Volun- teers streamed to the site” and “after only a few days there were so many, they were turned away by the hundreds. . . . Strangers spoke to each other in the street, in stores, and on the subway” (Hustvedt 2002).
So what made the difference in the two events? Many of those who heard Kitty Genovese being murdered may have believed that it was a bar fight or a lover’s quarrel. Not knowing what was happening, they were unsure how to respond; there was no emergency telephone system the way there is now, and many people were reluctant to get personally involved with the police. In the aftermath of the Kitty Genovese murder, the “911” emergency system was created, neighborhood watch groups were formed, and Good Samaritan laws were passed to protect bystanders from liability in emergencies. So now, whenever bystanders do jump in to help, it is in part because of the changes that Genovese’s murder provoked. While alien- ation is part of life in cities, so is altruism. Both are part of our shared social worlds.
The Environment The final section of this chapter once again considers the connection between the social and the natural worlds. Human populations have grown tremendously, as have the
ENVIRONMENT in sociology, the natural world, the human- made environment, and the interaction between the two
Perspective Approach to the Natural Environment Case Study: Urban Sprawl
Structural Functionalism
The natural world exists in order to keep the social world running smoothly. The environment provides raw materials and space for development in order to meet society’s needs.
As population increases, cities must grow in order to accommodate the growing population, so urban sprawl is functional for society.
Conflict Theory
Not all groups or individuals benefit equally from society’s use of the natural environment.
Urban sprawl creates largely white upper- and middle- class suburbs around cities whose residents are minorities, seniors, immigrants, working class, and/or poor. This means that suburban residents may have access to resources, like well- funded schools, that urban dwellers may not.
Symbolic Interactionism
The meanings assigned to the natural environment will determine how society sees and uses it.
Redefining open land as a scarce resource, and redefining urban areas as valuable spaces, may lead to the reduction of urban sprawl: Open land could be conserved, while urban spaces could be rehabilitated and revitalized.
Table 15.1 Theory in Everyday Life
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment466
build everything in material culture that is part of the mod- ern world. Humans have long been presented with the chal- lenge of managing their use of natural resources, but those challenges have changed in the postindustrial era.
Renewable resources are natural resources that can be regenerated; for instance, oxygen is replenished by plants and trees, water by evaporation and rain clouds, trees and plants by pollens and seeds, and animals by mating and reproduction. The wind blows and the sun shines in ample abundance. Nonrenewable resources are those that can- not be replaced (except through tens of thousands of years of geological processes); they include fossil fuels such as oil and minerals such as coal, copper, and iron. All natural resources are susceptible to overuse or overconsumption and even- tually to depletion or even exhaustion. As a result of rising demands, we have already seen rising costs or outright short- ages for such commodities as seafood, timber, and gasoline.
One of the world’s most pressing problems is how to meet enormous and growing demands for energy. We need energy— gas, electric, or nuclear— to help power everything from cars and televisions to factories and airplanes. But these forms of energy are not inexhaustible. We have relied primarily on nonrenewable sources, such as coal and fos- sil fuels, to meet our needs. The current mix of fuel sources comes from 37 percent petroleum, 29 percent natural gas, 15 percent coal, 9 percent nuclear, and only about 10 percent renewable energy sources (U.S. Energy Information Admin- istration 2017b). Renewable sources such as wind and solar power are being developed, but they are not sufficient yet to provide the substantial quantities of energy we will need in the future.
to all the parts of the earth that support life. Sociologists study the ways that societies are dependent on the natural world; how cultural values and beliefs shape views about and influ- ence usage of the environment; the politics and economics of natural resources; and the social construction of conflicts, prob-
lems, and solutions that are a result of our relationship to the natural world.
First, we will look at environmental problems as social problems. This discussion encompasses two big areas: prob- lems of consumption and problems of waste. Sociologists, however, must look beyond descriptions of problems and attempt to apply analytic frameworks for understanding the social complexities underlying them.
Environmental Problems Many students first become acquainted with the subject of the environment through the lens of social problems. Learning the “three Rs” in schools has now come to mean reduce, reuse, recycle. We need to help “save” the environment because it is under threat from consumption and waste.
PROBLEMS OF CONSUMPTION The planet earth pro- vides an abundance of natural resources, including air, water, land, wildlife, plants, and minerals. We have learned to exploit these resources not only for basic survival but also to
The Social World and the Natural World Society affects nature even in the remotest places—including our oceans and in outer space! Garbage floats off the shore of Manila Bay (left), and NASA illustrates the objects orbiting Earth (right).
RENEWABLE RESOURCES resources that replenish at a rate comparable to the rate at which they are consumed
NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES finite resources that can become exhausted; includes those that take so long to replenish as to be effectively finite
The Environment 467
More than 7,000 medical compounds are derived from native plants. Rain forests also play a key role in global climate con- trol, evaporation and rainfall, and clearing the air of carbon dioxide (Myers and Kent 2005).
In 1950, rain forests covered twice as much area as they do today, and they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Cur- rently, there are approximately 3.5 billion acres of rain forest worldwide, down from more than 7 billion. More than 78 mil- lion acres of rain forest are lost every year— 215,000 acres every day, or about 150 acres every minute! Destruction of the rain forests is of sociological import because it results from collective human behavior. The immediate cause of this destruction is to accommodate the logging, mining, and ranching industries. Although these industries may benefit the peoples of those regions, they are primarily providing for the consumption demands of the more developed nations of the world (Myers and Kent 2004).
In addition to rain forests, worldwide biodiversity is in dangerous decline. According to the United Nations, humans pose a distinct threat to thousands of other species on the planet (United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). The UN asserts that the natural rate of extinction has multiplied by as much as a thousand times within the past cen- tury. Perhaps hardest hit has been marine life, with a 90 per- cent decrease in the amount of fish in the world’s fisheries. In addition, more than 22,000 species are threatened with extinction, including roughly 13 percent of birds, 25 percent of mammals, 41 percent of amphibians, and 34 percent of coni- fers (International Union for Conservation of Nature 2014). These mass die- offs are being driven by human activities, including the destruction of habitats, pollution, the introduc- tion of nonnative species, and overuse. “We will need to make sure that we don’t disrupt the biological web to the point where
Industrialized nations are the largest consumers of energy, using approximately 70 percent of the total energy produced in the world; of those nations, the United States uses over 18 percent, Russia uses 6 percent, and Germany less than 3 percent (U.S. Energy Information Administration 2017a). Developing nations that now use the remaining 30 percent are becoming more industrialized, and consequently their energy needs will also increase, thus closing the energy usage gap among nations during the next twenty- five years. In that same time, total worldwide energy consumption is projected to grow approximately 28 percent by 2040 (U.S. Energy Infor- mation Administration 2017a).
Oil is a finite resource, and at some point the supply will be exhausted. For many decades the United States has relied heavily on foreign oil imports. More recently there has been high demand for more domestic oil exploration and produc- tion. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” involves drilling thousands of feet underground to extract natural gas stores from shale. Fracking has released vast new quantities of oil and natural gas in the United States, accounting for about half of domestic production (Prince and Tovar 2015). The practice is not without dangers and controversy: Fracking has been proven to contaminate groundwater and is starting to cause earthquakes in regions without active faults.
Another critical area of consumption is the rain forests in South America, Central America, Australia, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rain forests are ecosystems located in tropi- cal and temperate regions that are home to diverse plant and animal life (as well as indigenous peoples). Although rain forests cover only about 6 percent of the earth’s landmass, they contain close to 50 percent of all microorganisms and plant and animal species in the world (Mittermeier, Myers, and Mittermeier 2000). Previously unknown life forms are being discovered there every year, while thousands are being driven to extinction. Products derived from the rain forest include not only foods and woods but also pharmaceuticals:
Threats to Biodiversity and the Climate Rain forests, which play a key role in regulating the global climate and are home to almost 50 percent of the world’s plant and animal species, are being destroyed at a rate of millions of acres each year.
BIODIVERSITY the variety of species of plants and animals existing at any given time
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment468
of this pollution are many: factories dumping chemical and solid wastes; agricultural runoff of manure, pesticides, and fertilizers; human sewage and urban runoff; and toxic chem- icals falling from the skies in rain.
Access to freshwater is not equal throughout the world. In developing nations, infected water is a significant cause of dis- ease and death. There is a definite link between water scarcity and poverty; in some African countries, around 38 percent of the population is without access to adequate water (UN Water 2013). Access to clean, affordable water is also an issue in the United States. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims that the United States has one of the safest supplies of drinking water, about 10 percent of water systems in the nation don’t meet EPA standards (Environ- mental Protection Agency 2016). Agricultural runoff taints waterways with fertilizers and animal effluent, creating algae blooms and undrinkable water in the Midwest, South, and other farming areas. California and the Southwest are in almost constant states of crippling drought, importing water from other parts of the country at great expense.
Residents of Flint, Michigan, found out in 2015 that their tap water was contaminated with dangerously high levels of lead from aging, corroded pipes. This contamination was the result of decisions made by local and state politicians to save money by switching Flint’s water to a source that was cheaper but improperly treated. With several government employees facing civil and criminal charges, the city switched back to its original water source, but until the corroded pipes are fixed, dangerous amounts of lead will still exist in some of Flint’s tap water. In the aftermath of the Flint crisis, excessive levels of lead were found in over 2,000 municipal water systems in all fifty states (Young and Nichols 2016).
collapse of the whole system becomes irreversible,” says researcher Anantha Duraiappah (Couvrette 2005).
PROBLEMS OF WASTE Problems of consumption are linked to problems of waste, often two sides of the same coin. Consider water and air. Water is another natural resource that can be overused; we understand what happens during a drought, or when lakes, rivers, or underground aquifers are drained and then go dry. But water can also be damaged by what we put into it. And while we don’t normally think of
consuming air, it is an essential natural resource, and we can damage its quality and change for the worse the very atmo- sphere of the planet. Let’s look at these examples of pollution.
Water is indispensable for life. About 71 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water (U.S. Geological Survey 2014). Almost 97 percent of it is in oceans of saltwater, home to
a vast array of sea creatures and plants. Only 1 percent of the total is freshwater, found in lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers; the other 2 percent is in polar ice caps and glaciers. This is a small percentage to meet human needs— from drinking water to water for agricultural and ranching pur- poses. The world’s water supply, both in oceans and fresh- water, has been under increased threat from pollution by industrial development and population growth— mostly by allowing contaminants to enter the oceans, lakes, and riv- ers or to seep into underground water supplies. The sources
POLLUTION any environmental contaminant that harms living beings
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) a U.S. government agency established in 1969 to protect public health and the environment through policies and enforcement
Flint Water Crisis A resident of Flint, Michigan, bathes her three-week-old baby son in bottled water after she learned that the city’s tap water was contaminated with lead.
The Environment 469
(NASA 2014). Pollution problems may be even greater in devel- oping nations that are rapidly becoming industrialized.
Greenhouse gases are also contributing to a change in the makeup of the earth’s atmosphere. Scientists call this the greenhouse effect. The earth’s climate is regulated through a process in which some of the sun’s heat and energy are retained within the atmosphere. Naturally occurring gases (such as water vapor or carbon diox- ide) help trap some of the earth’s outgoing heat, which in turn maintains a stable, livable cli- mate. An increase in greenhouse gases from air pollution results in greater retention of heat within the earth’s atmosphere, leading to global warming, an increase in the world’s average temperature. One effect of global warming is climate change, in which weather patterns shift and become more extreme as a result of the increased temper- ature. Problems such as more severe droughts; stronger and more frequent hurricanes, tor- nadoes, and cyclones; and increased rain and flooding are all part of climate change.
Scientists believe that in the past fifty to one hundred years, the average temperature of the earth has risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. They predict that greenhouse gases will continue to increase the earth’s temperature another 2 to 12 degrees by 2100 (Environmental Protection Agency 2014). A
Perhaps even more taken for granted than the water we drink is the air we breathe, but it, too, is a resource whose qual- ity and quantity must be carefully guarded. The atmosphere is made up of thin layers of gases surrounding the planet and making life possible. It interacts with the land, oceans, and sun to produce the earth’s climate and weather. The air that we breathe is ubiquitous, so we might not even think of it as a natural resource. But the earth’s atmosphere and its ability to sustain life are at risk from pollution. Not all threats come from humans; for instance, volcanoes or forest fires started by lightning can emit massive clouds of smoke, ash, and debris into the atmosphere. Human activity, however, accounts for a tremendous amount of air pollution, especially emissions from factories, power plants, and automobiles. The most com- mon pollutants (carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, and particulates such as soot, smoke, and dust) not only create ugly smog and haze but also are haz- ardous to the health of humans and other species. Gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, and ozone are called greenhouse gases. These pollutants not only create ugly smog and haze but also are hazardous to the health of humans and other species.
The U.S. Congress passed the first Clean Air Act in 1963, which has been followed over the decades by numerous amend- ments and other legislation to help regulate industries involved in emissions. Regulations and technological advancements have helped reduce air pollution in the United States. Still, we have one of the highest per capita rates of any nation, emitting some 17.6 metric tons of greenhouse gases per person (World Bank 2015). It is estimated that more than 142 million people, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, live in areas report- ing higher levels of ozone than are safe by national standards
GREENHOUSE EFFECT the process in which increased production of greenhouse gases, especially those arising from human activity (e.g., carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) cause changes to the earth’s atmosphere
GLOBAL WARMING gradual increase in the earth’s temperature, driven recently by an increase in greenhouse gases and other human activity
CLIMATE CHANGE The increase in extreme weather patterns linked to global warming
Climate Change Maldivian Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Ibrahim Didi (left) calls attention to the threat of global warming to low- lying countries by holding an underwater meeting to sign a document calling on all nations to cut down their carbon dioxide emissions. Hurricane Harvey (right) pounded areas of Texas with more than 50 inches of rain in August 2017, inflicting nearly $200 billion in damage.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment470
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Water, Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink
As the worldwide population continues to grow, water accessibility has become a central issue with a global context. With global population projected to grow approx- imately 2 to 3 billion people over the next forty years, the worldwide demand for food is consequently expected to sky- rocket by 70 percent. While water is considered a “renewable resource,” massive population growth matched with an ever increasing demand for food has threatened the global water supply. Agriculture and food production make up the largest sources of freshwater consumption, with anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of global freshwater being used directly for food consumption (UN Water 2013). With accessibility expected to decrease in many areas of the world, water has become a new battleground as many regions continue to struggle to secure clean water and maintain control of local water supplies.
At the forefront of the global water crisis are the nations of Africa, whose water supplies have been contentiously sought after by international corporations and wealthy investors alike (Bienkowski 2013). Unlike the national borders that divide countries, water is frequently a “trans- boundary” resource in that rivers can cross political bound- aries (United Nations 2014b). Wealthy countries often exploit natural resources, such as water, from less developed countries— often to the detriment of the local population. With around one- third of the world’s transboundary water basins, Africa has become a hot spot for land grabs, or water grabs, by wealthy countries seeking more affordable access to supplies of water (GR AIN 2012). Despite the fact that Africa is one of the driest regions in the world, with more than 300 million people living in a water- scarce environ- ment, wealthier countries also facing water scarcity— such as Saudi Arabia— have created incentives for corporations to capitalize on the continent’s water supply and divest from using domestic water supplies (UN Water 2013).
While Saudi Arabia has been able to save millions of gal- lons of water each year and avoid depleting its own natural water sources by tapping into Africa’s water supply, Africa continues to face water scarcity alongside poverty and hun- ger. The Alwera River in Ethiopia provides water to thou- sands of people within the surrounding area and has recently become a site of water grabbing. Billionaire Mohammed al- Amoudi is one of the many wealthy Saudi investors who have established plantations in Africa with the intention to
divest from nearby water sources (GR AIN 2012). Saudi com- panies have purchased millions of hectares of land in Africa to obtain access to water, including efforts to acquire the headwaters of the Nile River (Pierce 2012).
Take the case of Bolivia. In 2000, Bolivia’s municipal water system was sold to a transnational consortium in exchange for debt relief, prompting the infamous Cocha- bamba Water War. Farmers, factory workers, students, and middle- class professionals all came together in opposition to water privatization, organizing strikes, road blockages, and protests and eventually forcing the return of the country’s water supply to popular control. Despite this happy ending, Bolivia still struggles to control and monitor the activities of the country’s 28,000 local water and sanitation providers, many of which are plagued by deteriorated systems and com- munity conflicts (Achtenberg 2013).
Ultimately, the struggles for water in the United States and throughout the world signal larger issues around acces- sibility, rights, and control of natural and vital resources. In 2010, the United Nations created a resolution that officially recognized access to clean water as a human right; how- ever, little has been resolved to combat water grabbing and privatization efforts within vulnerable developing countries (United Nations 2014a). While people in developing coun- tries struggle to maintain control of their valuable water resources, threats of privatization and water grabbing have only escalated as the global population and demand for food production continue to increase.
Water Scarcity The UN estimates that 1.8 billion people will be living in areas with absolute water scarcity by 2050.
The Environment 471
through political lobbying and campaign contributions as well as appeals to change public opinion. Attacking the prac- tices of these corporations can also be detrimental to the workers who need their jobs and to governments that depend on these industries for products critical to the nation’s well- being and security (Schnaiberg and Gould 1994). Even though the treadmill of production is not an environmen- tally friendly process, numerous societies are invested in its continued existence, and we will likely see enduring conflict between the economy and the environment at the interna- tional, national, regional, and local levels.
The Trump administration’s campaign against climate science is an example of how corporations support the tread- mill of production against even the most rigorous scientific rec- ommendations to the contrary. It is also an example of how a population’s attitudes about the environment can be shaped by economics and politics. Under- standing societal attitudes about the environment is an essential part of environmental sociology. Early work in this area began with a group of Chicago School sociologists, including Robert Park (1961) and Amos Hawley (1950), who helped establish the field of human ecology. Extend- ing this work in the 1970s, Wil- liam Catton and Riley Dunlap (1978, 1980) developed the new ecological paradigm.
Historically, Westerners have had a particularly anthro- pocentric, or human- centered, relationship with the environ- ment, perceiving nature as something to master. Nature is believed to be inexhaustible and hence can be used with impunity to serve humankind. Consumption is equated with success. This is consistent with the Judeo- Christian belief in man’s dominion over the earth. Western culture thus perpetuates human exceptionalism, an attitude that humans are exempt from natural ecologi- cal limits (Dunlap and Catton 1994). Much of our progress through industrialization supports this notion that technol- ogy will allow us to overcome any environmental challenge. In contrast, the new ecological paradigm treats humans as part of the ecosystem or biosphere, one of many species that inter- act with the natural environment. Nature has limits that we must respect, and this may constrain economic development. The new ecological paradigm recognizes that human activity
climate change of a few degrees can cause catastrophic conse- quences for the world and its inhabitants. Even slightly higher temperatures could melt polar ice caps and increase the sea level, shrink the landmasses of islands and continents, change global weather patterns, and alter ecosystems that support life on earth. Despite scientific consensus and mounting evi- dence that all of these disastrous changes are in fact happen- ing, the Trump administration has made a policy of attacking climate science, pulling out of international agreements for fighting global warming, and defunding the agencies charged with managing environmental degradation, such as the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency. This policy position effectively privileges corporate profit over environmental preservation.
Another pollution problem is garbage. U.S. waste produc- tion is twice that of any other nation. The average Ameri- can generates about 4.4 pounds of trash per day— about 1,600 pounds per year (Environmental Protection Agency 2012). The country dumps about 251 million tons of garbage a year; about 34.7 percent of it is recycled, leaving the rest for landfills and incinerators (Environmental Protection Agency 2012). Some of our trash even gets blasted into outer space (such as satellites and other objects that have become obso- lete), where nearly 30,000 pieces of litter are orbiting the planet (BBC News 2013)! And have you ever thought about light pollution or noise pollution? Depending on your sensi- tivity to these types of pollution, you may be dismayed not to see stars in the night sky because of so many streetlights and neon signs or be annoyed by the almost constant sound of traffic and other noise, both of which are part of life in big cities.
Environmental Sociology To analyze problems of the environment, sociologists have developed environmental sociology, a distinct subfield of sociology that tackles environmental issues and examines the reciprocal interactions between the physical environ- ment, social structure (including technology), and human behavior.
Contemporary industrial societies have been built on the premise of progress— on conquering nature and using natural resources to fuel production and increase profits (Schnaiberg and Gould 1994). Government policies and economic systems have frequently supported this belief. While progress has usu- ally meant great wealth for some and goods and services for many, it has come at a price: environmental degradation and the accompanying social problems.
Environmental sociologists refer to this process as the treadmill of production (Schnaiberg 1980). They assert that the drive for economic growth in capitalist societies persists, even at the expense of the environment and despite opposition from activists and other groups, because corpo- rate expansion provides critical taxable wealth and the jobs essential to the economic life of a society. Large corporations can typically defend themselves against calls for account- ability for damages and exercise considerable influence
ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY the study of the interaction between society and the natural environment, including the social causes and consequences of environmental problems
TREADMILL OF PRODUCTION term describing the operation of modern economic systems that require constant growth, which causes increased exploitation of resources and environmental degradation
NEW ECOLOGICAL PARADIGM a way of understanding human life as just one part of an ecosystem that includes many species’ interactions with the environment; suggests that there should be ecological limits on human activity
ANTHROPOCENTRIC literally “human centered”; the idea that needs and desires of human beings should take priority over concerns about other species or the natural environment
HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM the attitude that humans are exempt from natural ecological limits
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment472
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Student Attitudes on Environmentalism
“Sustainability,” “environmentalism,” and “being green” are all terms that refer to reduc- ing human impact on the environment. Even though environmentally based social move-
ments have become so mainstream that there is now an entire television channel, Planet Green, devoted to the topic, there are those who believe that environmentalists are alarmists who have invented issues like global warm- ing, resource depletion, and growing landfills.
This Data Workshop asks you to examine the attitudes of your fellow college students in order to
determine the extent of their environmental beliefs and behaviors. Do they believe that climate change has human causes? Do they recycle or conserve various resources and, if so, how? Do they worry about things like their “carbon footprint”?
For this Data Workshop you will be creating a survey about environmental attitudes and actions, administer- ing it to your fellow students, and analyzing the findings. Refer to Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. Because this is a preliminary or pilot study, your sample population will be small, between five and ten respond- ents. Make sure to collect some demographic data such as age, gender, class, race/ethnicity, GPA, and major so that you can determine whether there is any relation- ship between backgrounds and attitudes.
In constructing the survey, consider using a Likert scale ( agree– disagree format) to collect data on atti- tudes, as doing so will help streamline your analysis. Survey respondents can select the degree to which they agree or disagree with statements. Use the following statements as a starting place:
✱ Eating facilities on campus should use environ- menta lly friendly products.
✱ I use environmentally friendly products at home as much as I can.
✱ I feel motivated to recycle.
✱ I use the recycling bins on campus.
✱ There are enough recycling bins on campus.
✱ If I see a piece of trash on the ground when I am out- side, I will pick it up and dispose of it properly.
✱ Global warming is a threat to our planet.
✱ Humans and industry have contributed to global warming.
✱ I make attempts to reduce my carbon footprint by driving less and conserving energy in my daily life.
✱ Sustainability is an important issue for the entire world.
✱ If we don’t reduce, reuse, and recycle, our world will face serious consequences.
✱ Environmentalism is a worthwhile cause.
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Once you have administered the survey, analyze your findings. What kinds of pat- terns can you identify? Are college students concerned
can have both intended and unintended consequences that shape social life and life on the planet.
Scientists as well as environmental advocates and policy makers are in disagreement about the future consequences of global climate change. Some argue that global warming is part of the natural progression of the earth. Others say it has been brought about primarily by human activity and that we are headed toward catastrophe. Still others argue that though global warming exists, it is not a cause for concern. How such problems as global warming are defined and understood depends on underlying values and beliefs. You might not con- sider global climate change so bad if you also thought that extinction of some plant and animal life was an acceptable part of the evolutionary process of natural selection. Or you might not be so concerned by such issues if you thought that clean air, fossil fuels, or other natural resources were commodi- ties in a free market and that nations must compete for their availability and take responsibility for their consequences. Our definitions and interpretations of evidence regarding environ- mental problems are also filtered through our own cultural beliefs and values.
Research on environmental attitudes has had a marked influence on studies of environmental movements (Buttel 1987; Dunlap and Catton 1979). Environmental sociologists are interested in the processes that create attitude change and the relationship between attitudes and behavior. They want to understand why certain groups have become more “biocentric” (as opposed to anthropocentric), or more environ- mentally sensitive, and what inspires great numbers of people to participate in environmental movements.
The Environment 473
(1854/1993). Thoreau has inspired many generations, and his centra l argument, about how humans affect the natu- ra l environment and thus must actively choose to preserve it, continues to be the backbone of environmenta l activ- ism in the United States. While preservation or conserva- tion remains a key focus, the environmenta l movement has become increasingly interested in how to respond to or pre- vent ecologica l disasters.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are often referred to as the conservation era; environmental- ism in that time tended to reflect Thoreau’s preservation argument. In this time, state and national parks, such as Yosemite (1864), Yellowstone (1872), and the Grand Canyon (1906), were established through legislative protection and funding. Congress approved the creation of the National Park Service in 1916 and continued to pass environmental laws to protect the wilderness and to regulate industries that impinged on it, such as mining and logging. Early envi- ronmental groups such as the Audubon Society (1886) and the Sierra Club (1892) that emphasized the conservation of wildlife and nature were also established around that time and are still in existence today.
From the mid- twentieth century on, environmentalism changed in response to sev- eral ecological disasters. For example, in 1948, in the town of Donora, Pennsylvania, twenty people died and more than 7,000 others were hospitalized when industrial waste that formed concentrated smog was released into the atmosphere and settled over the town, severely compro- mising the air quality for its res- idents. Congress responded to that ecological disaster (albeit late) by passing some of the first environmental legislation of the modern era, the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955.
The second era, the modern environmental movement, began in the 1960s in part as a response to Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring (1962). Her book was an impassioned critique of the effects of pesticide use, specifically dichloro- diphenyl- trichloroethane, com- monly known as DDT. The 1950s had witnessed an explosion of development in new chemicals such as fertilizers and pes- ticides, often hailed as revolutionary and miraculous in the practice of agriculture. But these same chemicals harmed or killed beneficial organisms and wildlife such as songbirds (hence the title of the book). There was even speculation that they could work their way up the food chain, becoming carcin- ogens in humans. Although the companies manufacturing
THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT People have long been concerned about the relationship between humans and nature and about the impact of society on the environment. When people organize around these concerns, their collective efforts can have profound effects. When sociologists study the environmental movement, topics of interest include the origins of the groups involved, their internal organization and social network formation, their political role, and their presence at local, regional, national, and international levels. In this section, we will trace the four major eras in the history of the environmental movement in the United States while discussing major flashpoints in its development.
Most socia l scientists and historians date the begin- ning of the American environmenta l movement to the writings of Henry David Thoreau in the mid- 1800s, espe- cia lly Walden; or, Life in the Woods, concerning the rejec- tion of urban materia lism and the virtues of simple living
John Muir An early conservationist, Muir led the movement to establish national parks such as Yosemite.
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT a social movement organized around concerns about the relationship between humans and the environment
CONSERVATION ERA earliest stage of the environmental movement, which focused on the preservation of “wilderness” areas
MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT beginning in the 1960s, the second major stage of the environmental movement; focused on the environmental consequences of new technologies, oil exploration, chemical production, and nuclear power plants
about the environment? Does this concern translate into action? How do your findings confirm or refute any hypotheses that you might have had before beginning this study? What do you think your data reveal overall? Note the similarities and differences in your findings and those of your group members. See if you can come up with a statement that identifies and incorporates the general patterns found in the data gathered by the entire group.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Compose and administer a survey to your sample population. Write a three- to four- page essay describing your research project and analyzing your find- ings. Attach your completed surveys and any notes to your paper.
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment474
thirty- year oil spill at the Guadalupe Dunes in California in 1994 (Beamish 2002); and an even larger oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Each of these events elicited public out- rage. Through a series of amendments and executive orders, the EPA was given broader powers that included the means to investigate ecological crises, organize cleanups, punish offenders, establish further regulations, and research envi- ronmentally friendly technologies.
The third era of the environmental movement, referred to as mainstream environmentalism, began in the 1970s. It emerged, in part, as a response to the Reagan administra- tion’s anti- environmental deregulation policies. National and international environmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace as well as other watchdog groups, were becoming increasingly institutionalized. They began using well- crafted promotional campaigns and sophisticated politi- cal tactics to gain the attention of legislators and secure victo- ries in their ongoing battles. Mainstream environmentalism evolved into a cluster of public interest groups, many of which had their own political action committees, or PACs, to lobby for positive legislative change. In addition to legal expertise, they developed economic and scientific expertise to support research, generate grants, and acquire land for preservation.
A link between the modern era and the mainstream era of environmentalism is Earth Day. The original event was con- ceived of by environmental activist and then senator Gaylord Nelson as both a “ teach- in” and a protest gathering to express concerns about environmental issues. On the first Earth Day— celebrated March 22, 1970—20 million people participated. Earth Day is still celebrated nationally and internationally. Typically, it includes a variety of groups— environmentally friendly businesses, nonprofit organizations, local government
DDT and other chemicals vig- orously fought such allegations, public outcry eventually led to government hearings and an EPA ban on DDT in the United States and other countries (Bai- ley 2002).
While there has been consid- erable debate about the validity of the science behind the DDT scare, it drew unprecedented public attention to environ- mental issues that had never been addressed before. As for- mer vice president Al Gore explained in the introduction to the 1994 edition of the book, Silent Spring “brought envi- ronmental issues to the atten-
tion not just of industry and government; it brought them to the public, and put our democracy itself on the side of saving the Earth” (Carson 1994). As awareness about environmental issues grew, so did the amount of environmental legislation. As a result, environmentalism was able to find credibility in American society, and its practice has become an enduring force in public policy.
Unfortunately, many other ecological disasters occurred in the decades that followed. Some of the most notable were an oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969 (Molotch 1970); the dis- covery of toxic waste in the Love Canal in 1978; the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979; the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989; the discovery of a
Nuclear Disaster Evacuees from Fukushima, Japan, receive radiation scans. This nuclear plant suffered severe damage from an earthquake- generated tsunami in 2011.
MAINSTREAM ENVIRONMENTALISM beginning in the 1970s, the third stage of the environmental movement; characterized by enhanced organization, improved promotional campaigns and political tactics, and an increased reliance on economic and scientific expertise
EARTH DAY an annual event conceived of by environmental activist and former senator Gaylord Nelson to encourage support for and increase awareness of environmental concerns; first celebrated on March 22, 1970
The Environment 475
example of grassroots organization. It emerged as a response to environmental inequities, threats to public health, and the differential enforcement and treatment of certain communi- ties with regard to ecological concerns. Despite significant improvements in environmental protections, millions of people in the United States live in communities threatened by ecological hazards. Those living in poverty and other minority communities are dis- proportionately at risk and bear a greater portion of the nation’s environmental prob- lems. For example, Flint, Michi- gan, which is stil dealing with the consequences of lead-con- taminated water, is a majority African American city whose population has a poverty rate of over 40 percent. The term envi- ronmental racism is applied when an environmental policy or practice negatively affects individuals, groups, or commu- nities based on class, race, or ethnicity (Bullard 1993). Access to environmental equality, or living in a healthy environment, has been framed as a basic human right.
Advocates of climate justice frame global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature, by relating the effects of climate change to concepts of justice, particularly environ- mental justice and social justice, and by examining issues such as equality, human rights, col- lective rights, and the histori- cal responsibilities for climate change. In just one example, the Indian city of Delhi suffers lev- els of smog that are literally off the charts, five or more times that which is already considered unhealthy in the United States. Protection from the ill effects of breathing such smoggy air can be had by purchasing a special mask, but not everyone can afford to do so. Delhi’s millions of poor residents struggle to breathe daily and they will see greater risks in the future as well, since breathing polluted air leads to chronic respiratory diseases (asthma, COPD) as well as lung and other cancers, heart attacks, and birth defects.
agencies, and others— teaching people about ways to help the environment while celebrating their relationship to it.
A fourth era of the environmental movement, represent- ing grassroots efforts, emerged in the 1980s amid criticism that although mainstream environmental organizations were serving important functions in the overall effort, they were too accommodating to industry and government (Gott- lieb 1997). Grassroots environmentalism is distinguished from mainstream environmentalism by its belief in citizen participation in environmental decision making. Its focus is often regional or local, and it can include both urban and rural areas. Grassroots groups are often less formally orga- nized than their mainstream counterparts, which, in some instances, frees members from ineffective bureaucratic struc- tures as they fight for issues of great importance to them. Grassroots environmentalism draws on a variety of ideolo- gies, including feminist, native, and spiritual ecologies, and cuts across ethnic, racial, and class lines.
NIMBY, which stands for “not in my back yard,” was origi- nally a derogatory term applied to those who complained about any kind of undesirable activity in their neighborhoods that would threaten their own health or local environment but were not concerned if it happened to people somewhere else. Now the term “NIMBY” has been appropriated by the environmental movement for the people “somewhere else” who are fighting against environmental degradation on their home turf, often without significant resources, to protect their families and surrounding communities. Sometimes it makes sense to wage battles at the local level where the problems are readily apparent and the approaches to solving them more tangible. And, of course, if people everywhere were willing to fight in this way, then anti- environmental corporations would have to change their practices or be forced out of all possible locations.
Another expression of grassroots environmentalism is the Green Party. Established in 1984, the basic Green Party platform of ten principles includes a commitment to environ- mentalism, social justice, decentralization, community- based economics, feminism, and diversity. The environmental goal is a sustainable world in which nature and human society coexist in harmony. The Green Party seeks to be an alternative voice in political and policy debates that often challenges the mainstream Republican and Democratic parties and rejects corporate backing. Members would like to see the political process returned to the people. Candidates from the Green Party have been elected to various political seats at the local and state levels, and Ralph Nader, a longtime consumer pro- tection advocate, was its candidate in the presidential election of 2000, garnering enough votes to have perhaps changed the outcome of that election.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE The env ironmenta l justice (or “ eco- justice”) movement represents a signifi- cant branch of the environmental movement and is also an
GRASSROOTS ENVIRONMENTALISM beginning in the 1980s, fourth stage of the environmental movement; distinguished by the diversity of its members and belief in citizen participation in environmental decision making
NIMBY short for “not in my back yard”; originally referred to protests aimed at shifting undesirable activities onto those with less power; now sometimes used without negative connotations to describe local environmental activists
GREEN PARTY a U.S. political party established in 1984 to bring political attention to environmentalism, social justice, diversity, and related principles
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE a movement that aims to remedy environmental inequities such as threats to public health and the unequal treatment of certain communities with regard to ecological concerns
ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM any environmental policy or practice that negatively affects individuals, groups, or communities because of their race or ethnicity
CLIMATE JUSTICE a perspective that frames global warming as a moral issue, proposing that those who are least responsible for climate change tend to suffer its worst consequences
CHAPTER 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment476
Feinstein, as well as activists such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and actress Shailene Woodley) see this as an unmistakable case of environmental racism: A heavy- polluting industry prevailed over a long- suffering Native community because of the political and economic power of their largely white allies, including a “ pro- business” president.
Research on environmental justice is one of the fastest- growing areas of scholarship within environmental sociology. Sociologist Robert Bullard is among the leading research- ers in this area. His book Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality (1990) examined the economic, social, and psychological effects associated with locating noxious facilities (such as landfills, hazardous- waste dumps, and lead smelters) within lower- income African American communi- ties, where they have been less likely to meet with significant opposition.
Environmental justice groups are beginning to sway administrative decisions and have won several important court victories (Bullard, Johnson, and Wright 1997; Bullard and Wright 1990; Kaczor 1996). The EPA was even convinced to create an Office on Environmental Equity. There is still much work to be done in this area. Some of the most important battles in the environmental justice movement will be fought beyond U.S. borders, in other countries suffering from similar and even worse environmental problems.
SUSTAINABILITY The study of sustainability (or sus- tainable development) is among the most recent areas of environmental sociology, having emerged in the 1990s, and it continues to generate some controversy (McMichael
The irony: It is the cars and factories owned by wealthy Indi- ans that pollute the air the poor must breathe unfiltered. A fundamental proposition of climate justice is that those who are least responsible for climate change suffer its gravest consequences.
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests are an exam- ple of a movement for environmental justice. The pipeline was a project of a Texas- based oil company, Energy Transfer Part- ners, and was meant to carry oil from a North Dakota frack- ing field to a storage facility in southern Illinois. The original plan was to have the pipeline go through Bismarck, North Dakota. The Army Corps of Engineers, however, altered the route because of its additional length and the potential for serious consequences in the advent of a spill; it was too close to municipal water sources, homes, and protected wetlands. So the route was revised to instead pass under the Missouri River near the water sources for the Standing Rock Reserva- tion, home of several bands of Sioux Nation natives.
This did not sit well with the Standing Rock Sioux. Why should their community shoulder the risk of a spill? In pro- test, one family set up camp at the proposed construction site in April 2016. Hundreds and eventually thousands of protest- ers soon made Sacred Stone Camp their home. In addition, millions of Americans signed petitions seeking a halt to con- struction. Lawsuits and injunctions were filed, environmen- tal impact statements were requested, and demonstrators chained themselves to pieces of heavy equipment, all in hopes that they would be able to reroute the pipeline away from the tribes’ water supplies. Standing Rock protesters and their supporters (including senators Bernie Sanders and Dianne
Stand with Standing Rock Thousands of people gathered on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota to protest the construction of a 1,200-mile oil pipeline that would pass underneath the Missouri River, the primary water source for a number of Native American tribes.
477Closing Comments
trade companies. Others are modifications to our infrastruc- ture, such as green building, ecological design, xeriscape ( water- conserving) gardening, and land conservation. Tech- nological changes can be made in the way we use energy— from hybrid or biodiesel cars to solar power. Some state and local gov- ernments are enforcing stricter environmental standards and regulations than those imposed at the federal level. More than 700 U.S. mayors signed on to an urban anti– global warm- ing agreement that some call the “municipal Kyoto” in refer- ence to the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty on global climate change that the United States has declined to ratify (Caplan 2005; Roosevelt 2007). Every little bit makes a differ- ence: Northern Illinois University, like many other colleges, gives entering freshmen their own reusable water bottles to refill at “hydration stations” all over campus, keeping tons of plastic out of landfills.
CLOSING COMMENTS In this chapter, we have crossed a huge terrain— from popu- lation through urbanization to the environment. We hope that you can now see the connection among these three seemingly disparate areas of study. Human population has grown throughout history, particularly in the past 200 years. The rate at which the population increases is influenced by both biological and social factors. Where all these people live has also changed over time. As more of them locate in urban areas, cities play a key role in how we inhabit the world and what kind of world that becomes. The billions of people inhabiting the planet are part of an ecosystem, and they continue to have an impact on it. The natural environment both affects and is affected by human activity. So population, urbanization, and the environment are intimately related. There is a mutual effect and interdependence among them, where trends and changes in one reverberate through the others. As residents of planet earth, we all take part in the dynamic, both enjoying or suffering current realities and creating future ones.
1996). The idea of sustainability was popularized in a United Nations World Commission on Environment and Devel- opment (1987) report titled “Our Common Future,” often referred to as the Brundtland Report. Sustainability is a broad concept that tries to reconcile global economic devel- opment with environmental protection; it is based on the premise that the development aspirations of all countries cannot be met by following the path already taken by indus- trialized nations; the world’s ecosystems cannot support it. Yet, since improving the conditions of the world’s poor is an international goal, we must find ways to promote economic growth that both respect social justice and protect the envi- ronment, not only in the present but for future generations as well (Agyeman, Bullard, and Evans 2003; Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel 2002).
One way to grasp the magnitude of supporting humans on the planet is the ecological footprint, an estimation of how much land and water area is required to produce all the goods we consume and to assimilate all the waste we gener- ate. The current ecological footprint of the average Ameri- can, approximately 20 acres, represents about five times the global average share of the earth’s resources (for more infor- mation, check out the online Ecological Footprint Explorer). Compare that to someone from China, whose ecological footprint is approximately 8 acres, or someone from Haiti, with a little over 1.5 acres. Modern industrialized countries are overusing resources at an alarming rate: We would need 1.7 planet earths to support the world’s population if every- one else were to adopt the consumption habits of the average American (Lu 2017).
Working toward sustainable development is a challenge. We have to find ways to meet the needs of a growing world population— for food, shelter, health care, education, and employment— while ensuring we sustain nature and the environment, whether that is freshwater, clean air, wildlife populations, natural resources, or nontoxic communities. It is even more important to work toward sustainability as we become increasingly globalized and have to think about the rest of the world and far into the future (Holdren, Daily, and Ehrlich 1995).
Some solutions toward sustainability are already being implemented. These include lifestyle modifications such as engaging in voluntary simplicity, recycling, practicing veg- etarianism and veganism, buying organic foods, and using goods or services from environmentally friendly and fair
SUSTAINABILITY economic development that aims to reconcile global economic growth with environmental protection
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT an estimation of the land and water area required to produce all the goods an individual consumes and to assimilate all the waste an individual generates
SOURCE: U.N. Population Division 2016.
World’s Largest Cities
38,140
26,454
24,484
21,357
21,297
21,240
21,157
20,337
19,128
18,604
18,237
17,121
Tokyo, Japan
Delhi, India
Shanghai, China
Mumbai (Bombay), India
São Paulo, Brazil
Beijing, China
Ciudad de México (Mexico City), Mexico
Kinki M.M.A. (Osaka), Japan
Al-Qahirah (Cairo), Egypt
New York-Newark, USA
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Karachi, Pakistan
Everything You Need to Know about Populations, Cities, and the Environment
“ Environment is a key factor in people’s lives. Environment is influenced by several sociological factors, including demographics.
“
THEORIES OF POPULATIONS, CITIES, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
✱ Structural functionalism: The natural world exists in order to keep the social world running smoothly.
✱ Conflict theory: Not all groups or individuals benefit equally from soci- ety’s use of the natural environment.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: The meanings assigned to the natural environment will determine how society uses it.
REVIEW 1. How many children would you like
to have? The demographic predic- tions of the neo- Malthusians and the anti- Malthusians disagree sharply. According to the anti- Malthusians, what changes in social structure might make people less interested in having lots of children?
2. Make a list of all the ways you use water other than for drinking. Do you believe that the planet can continue to support the kind of consumption in the American standard of living? What do you think will happen when growing populations in developing nations want to live like Americans?
3. Do you prefer to live in a dense urban area or a more lightly populated sub- urban one? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? What sorts of social and/or environmental problems are created by the situation you prefer?
478
SOURCE: U.N. Population Division 2016.
World’s Largest Cities
38,140
26,454
24,484
21,357
21,297
21,240
21,157
20,337
19,128
18,604
18,237
17,121
Tokyo, Japan
Delhi, India
Shanghai, China
Mumbai (Bombay), India
São Paulo, Brazil
Beijing, China
Ciudad de México (Mexico City), Mexico
Kinki M.M.A. (Osaka), Japan
Al-Qahirah (Cairo), Egypt
New York-Newark, USA
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Karachi, Pakistan
EXPLORE
Social Movements and the Environment Today it seems like environmental concerns are finally coming to a head: Debates are roiling over climate change, overpopulation, the growing energy demands of China and India, and hydraulic fracturing. However, another big energy crisis occurred in 1973: OPEC embargoed oil to the United States. Individuals and businesses started practicing conservation&.&.&.& at least until the 1980s, when environmentalism seemed bad for business. Visit the Everyday Sociology blog to read more about environmentalism in the late twentieth century and what issues are relevant for today.
http://wwnPag.es/trw415
479
480
Social Change
H ave you ever wanted your own personal robot that could order groceries, do your laun-
dry, or drive you safely home from a party? Well, you’re about to get your wish.
This future is coming thanks to a few related developments in technology that are
already taking place. It starts, of course, with the Internet and all of us having the ability to
be online all the time. We use the Internet to do a dizzying array of things, from networking
on social media, to shopping, to doing business and schoolwork, to streaming movies, TV, and
music. Cloud computing is increasingly how we access, store, and manage our digital lives. You
no longer need a computer or a hard drive when everything is hosted on a remote server like
Apple iCloud or Google Drive. Now your term paper is safe on the cloud, no excuses.
Along with the Internet, we now have the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s a system in which
technological devices, such as smartphones and household gadgets, are able to “talk” to each
CHAPTER 16
481
CHAPTER 16 Social Change482
other and exchange information. There’s a huge market for “smart” consumer
goods, such as thermostats that auto- adjust to the user’s preferred temperature,
lights that go on and off at preprogrammed times, and washer and dryer machines
that communicate to coordinate their cycles. There are already way more “things”
connected to the Internet than there are people in the world. Approximately 18 bil-
lion devices were connected to the Internet in 2017, and an estimated 30 billion
will be connected by 2022 (Ericsson 2017).
Developers have found more and more ways to utilize smart technology, which
relies on inter- device communication, creating endless possibilities for the IoT. For
example, there’s been an explosion of interest and investment in developing the
first self- driving cars that communicate with GPS systems for navigation and are
equipped with external sensors to assess driving hazards and weather conditions.
Tesla was an early leader in the race to bring the driverless car to market. Tech
firms such as Google and Intel and ride- sharing company Uber have also jumped
into the race (Davies 2017).
Of course, when you interact with your smart home or driverless car, you won’t
need an actual life- size robot anymore; instead, you’ll be talking with a chatbot,
your digital personal assistant. A chatbot is software that you chat with to help
get complex tasks done. It will replace a lot of your current technology, like web
browsers and apps, and will work across all platforms and devices, including the
IoT. You might be utilizing an early version of this technology already, but Apple’s
Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are just the beginning. Eventually, chatbots will become
master- bots able to connect and coordinate many aspects of your life and revolu-
tionize your relationship to smart devices.
If you’re like a lot of people, you welcome this onslaught of innovation. But it’s
important to stop to consider where all this technology is leading us. Our con-
nectedness, what people appreciate so much about the Internet and their smart
devices, is also creating new forms of risk. We are already confronting some of
the problems of living online— viruses, ransom ware, invasions of privacy, cyber-
bullying, and credit card and identity theft. But a new class of problems linked to
technology may be even more dangerous. Large- scale cyberattacks in the form of
data breaches, leaks, or malware pose a serious threat to our social institutions
and infrastructure. Hackers have already infiltrated major corporations (Sony and
Verizon), universities (UCLA and New York University), social networks (LinkedIn
and Yahoo), and federal agencies (the CIA, FBI, and NSA).
So what does all this mean? We’re still finding out. As new technologies
are being developed and adopted at an increasingly rapid pace, we can see both
the promise and risk of social change. Your automated home and driverless car
have the potential to revolutionize your world— or bring it to a screeching halt. It all
depends on whose orders the bots are following.
What Is Social Change? 483
recognize several major “social revolutions”—periods of time during which large- scale social change took place so rapidly that the whole of human society was dramatically redefined. The Agricultural Revolution made it possible for previously nomadic peoples to settle in one place, store surplus food for future use, and sustain larger populations with the products of their farms, herds, and flocks. The Industrial Revolution altered the way people worked, produced, and consumed goods and lived together in cities. And the Information Revo- lution (which is ongoing) has launched us into cyberspace thanks to digital technology and the Internet, and again soci- ety is being transformed because of it (Castells 2014; Rainee and Wellman 2012).
In addition to the pace, other elements of social change vary as well. Some changes are deliberate or intended, while others are unplanned or unintentional. For example, the invention of the automobile brought about intended changes— like the ability to travel greater distances more efficiently— yet it also brought about unforeseen events, such as the pollution of the atmosphere and the deaths of more than 30,000 people every year in car accidents. Some social changes are more contro- versial than others— the racial integration of public schools, for example, versus salsa’s overtaking ketchup as America’s top condiment— and some are more important than others. Most fashion trends have little lasting impact— remember the acid- washed jeans of the 1980s or grunge in the 1990s? Prob- ably not. But some— like pants for women, miniskirts, and the bikini— have been extremely influential in their impact on gender roles in society.
So society is always changing, and the rates, intentional- ity, controversy, and importance of individual changes vary. But how does social change occur? One way is through a major physical event: Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions can radically alter the structures and cultures of the communities they strike. Demographic factors also come into play; for instance, as the Baby Boomers have aged, American society has had to build schools and colleges (in the 1950s and 1960s), suburbs (in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s), retirement facilities (in the 1990s and 2000s), and long- term care facilities and hospi- tals (in the 2010s) to accommodate this huge population bulge. Another source of social change lies in discoveries and innovations, such as fire and the wheel. Try to imagine what your life would be like if humans had not figured out how to generate light and heat by striking sparks into kin- dling. Or, for that matter, imagine if the smartphone had never been invented.
Social change is often the result of human action. Jonas Salk, for example, developed a cure for polio, and Helen Keller overcame her own physical limitations to advocate for the rights of people living with disabilities. But our most important contributions to social change are made through
HOW TO READ THIS CHAPTER There are a couple of reasons why we are ending this book with a chapter on social change. The first is that, to para- phrase an old cliché, change is the only constant. It is happen- ing everywhere, all the time, in myriad variations. One of your challenges after reading this chapter will be to identify some of these social changes and to understand their patterns, causes, and consequences.
The other reason is more personal: We hope that read- ing this chapter will motivate you to work for social change yourself. The study of sociology can sometimes be a bit dis- heartening, as we learn the many ways in which our lives are constrained by social forces and institutional structures. But this chapter helps us remember that C. Wright Mills’s “inter- section of biography and history” is a two- way street: While society shapes the individual, the individual can shape soci- ety. You have the power to bring about social change, espe- cially when you work together with others who share your views, values, and visions for a better world. So we want you to read this chapter with optimism; by understanding the pro- cesses of social change, you will be better qualified to make it happen yourself.
What Is Social Change? No doubt you’ve heard your parents, grandparents, or other older family members reflect on “the way things were” when they were children. Hard- to- imagine times such as those before indoor plumbing or television, or during the Great Depression or World War II, undeniably made older Ameri- cans’ lives very different from your own. People born even one generation apart can have different overall life experiences as a result of ongoing processes of social change. Consider how different life was for your professors who grew up during the Cold War versus your own childhood experiences in a post– 9/11 America, or how different you feel from your grandpar- ents, who came of age without the Internet and smartphones. Our culture evolves over time, as do our social institutions— the family, work, religion, education, and political systems. Sociologists define the transformation of culture over time as social change.
It’s easy to identify particular historical periods where major social transformation was unmistakable: the Renais- sance, the French Revolution, the Civil War, the women’s rights movement. But it’s important to realize that social change is occurring at all times, not just at moments of obvious cultural or political upheaval. The rate at which it happens, however, varies over time, with some historical periods experiencing rapid social change and others experi- encing more gradual change. For example, social scientists
SOCIAL CHANGE the transformation of a culture over time
CHAPTER 16 Social Change484
Helping Professions Teachers and nurses engage in small acts of social change in their everyday encounters with students and patients.
Does it sometimes seem as though there’s no possible way you could ever make a contribution to changing the world? You’re just one person, after all, and you may not be rich, famous, or all that influential. Right now, your primary concerns probably include graduating and perhaps getting your teaching credential (or social work certification or nurs- ing license) so you can get a job! Also on the “to do” list: find a life partner, start a family, maybe buy a house. But don’t think that focusing on your personal goals means that you’re totally out of the social change loop. The way you live your life can make a difference all by itself.
Many sociology majors enter what are termed helping pro- fessions; these include nursing, counseling, and teaching and can also include careers in the social service, nonprofit, and law enforcement sectors. If you do go into this type of profes- sion, you will find that every individual encounter you have with a client, student, patient, or offender will be an opportu- nity to make a tiny step toward social change.
As a first- grade teacher, for example, you will be able to introduce students to the joys of reading— a contribution to overcoming illiteracy, even if it involves only twenty kids. As a public health nurse, you urge patients with tuberculosis to finish their courses of antibiotics or you vaccinate children against polio, diphtheria, and measles— and in doing so, you protect the community’s health as well as the health of your patients. When, as a social worker or psychologist, you lead a therapy group for husbands who batter their wives, you have the opportunity to help change the behavior of these men— and to protect their children from continuing a gen- erational cycle of violence. When, as a police officer, you help run your neighborhood’s after- school youth programs, you give teenagers alternatives to crime and delinquency, and their choices affect the entire community. When, as a lawyer, you donate your services to a legal clinic that helps undocu- mented workers gain residency, work permits, and citizen- ship, you contribute to solving the problems associated with illegal immigration and help change the demographic makeup of your city, state, and country. And even when you volunteer at the adult education center, teaching a computer- training class just once a week, you give your students the opportunity to add a new set of skills to their résumés, find new jobs, and reduce your county’s unemployment figures, even if minutely.
ON THE JOB Helping Professions: Agents of Social Change
Your contributions to social change don’t stop here— whom you marry, where you choose to live, and what you teach your children all contribute to the ever present, ongo- ing processes of social change. So you don’t have to sail away on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship or camp out with the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota to make a difference in the world— you can do so in your everyday life as a member of a helping profession, as a community volunteer, and as a parent.
Collective Behavior 485
A more recent idea gives us a better understanding. Emergent norm theory (Turner and Killian 1987) argues that collective behavior is not as uniform as Le Bon sug- gested, and that any number of factors can motivate people to participate in crowd activities. The underlying assump- tion here is that a group is guided by norms (shared cultural expectations for behavior) that emerge in response to a situ- ation and, as a result, the behavior of those in the crowd is structured to fit within the col- lective action. So while it may appear that a crowd is one large, indistinguishable mass, the individuals who make it up can have varying understandings of what their roles are within the crowd as well as the meaning of their actions.
Collective behavior generally takes three forms: crowd behav- ior, mass behavior, and social movements. While these three types are discussed separately here, they are not mutually exclusive. In the real world, they may overlap whenever collective behavior actually occurs.
Crowds A crowd is formed when a large number of people come together, either on purpose or random ly. If you have ever strolled around
the collective action of many: The civil rights movement, for example, fundamentally reshaped American society, as did the women’s movement and the LGBTQ rights movement. For this reason, we will spend a good portion of this chapter examining social movements, along with other types of col- lective behavior.
Collective Behavior When we join a group, we don’t disappear as individuals. But we do tend to act differently in groups than we might alone. Collective behavior occurs when individuals con- verge, thus creating a group or crowd, who join in some sort of shared action. Crowds may form for different reasons, and people may gather for different purposes, but there is a com- mon pattern to their behavior. While crowds may seem dis- orderly from the outside, collective behavior theories suggest that such occurrences are often organized and do maintain a certain amount of order.
Gustave Le Bon (1896) was one of the first social theorists to focus on the phenomenon of crowd behavior and what he called the “popular mind.” He coined the term contagion theory, which suggests that when people come together, they get swept up in a crowd, which develops a “mob mentality.” Le Bon likened such groups to herds of animals, where indi- viduality and rational thought disappear and the external stimulus of the collective action takes over. So, in the case of rampaging soccer hooligans, contagion theory would argue that these fans have given their rational thought over to a mob impulse and can no longer make independent decisions about their actions. But while the theory may seem useful when look- ing at cases like soccer hooliganism, it doesn’t fully explain the wide range of collective behavior beyond the mindless mob.
What Are the Sources of Social Change? Disasters such as the hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017 can radically change the structures and cultures of the communities they destroy.
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR behavior that follows from the formation of a group or crowd of people who take action together toward a shared goal
CONTAGION THEORY one of the earliest theories of collective action; suggests that individuals who join a crowd can become “infected” by a mob mentality and lose the ability to reason
EMERGENT NORM THEORY a theory of collective behavior that assumes individual members of a crowd make their own decisions about behavior and that norms are created through others’ acceptance or rejection of these behaviors
CROWD a temporary gathering of people in a public place; members might interact but do not identify with each other and will not remain in contact
CHAPTER 16 Social Change486
in 2014, it erupted in violence when partygoers clashed with police trying to control the scene. Fires broke out, cars were demolished, bottles and bricks became weapons. The ensuing melee led to dozens of injuries (both students and police) and over a hundred arrests (Duke 2014). Such collective action can be characterized as a riot: a group of people engaged in disor- derly behavior directed toward other people and/or property that results in disturbing the peace. After the riot in 2014, new strategies for crowd control were put into place. Deltopia still rages, but it is a smaller, more orderly event.
On April 12, 2015, three white police officers in Baltimore pursued and apprehended twenty- five- year- old Freddie Gray after he reportedly made eye contact with the officers. Find- ing what they deemed an illegal switchblade knife clipped to Gray’s pants, the officers proceeded to arrest Gray. Using her cell phone, a civilian onlooker captured the arrest on video, which showed officers dragging Gray, screaming in pain, into a police van. Upon arrival at the police station, Gray was already in a coma, having suffered a severe spinal injury. He died a week later in a local hospital.
When news of Gray’s death became public, Baltimore resi- dents gathered to protest outside the police station. In the days that followed, the protests escalated; what was initially a dem- onstration against a specific case of alleged police brutality became an expression of frustration about the city’s wider set of social problems, including poverty, racism, crime, and years of unaddressed complaints about law enforcement abuse of communities of color. Eventually a full- scale riot developed, with looters breaking windows and throwing rocks while police and National Guard advanced and a state of emergency was declared. The violence lasted for ten days, finally quieting after Gray’s funeral was held and a curfew was put in place. Citizens awoke to relative quiet on April 29 and began the work of cleaning up their neighborhoods, while still expressing a desire to see justice done in Freddie Gray’s case. Supporters in cities such as Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia also held anti- police- brutality demonstrations. On May 1, Gray’s death
a large city, you may have noticed a street performer (such as a mime, musician, or break dancer) trying to entertain pass- ersby. In time, a crowd starts to develop. So despite the fact that those who stopped to watch had
different reasons for walking down that street at that partic- ular time, they have now become part of a crowd whose pur- pose is to be an audience for a street performer. As a crowd, they must adjust their behavior somewhat: Perhaps they stop conversing or put away their cell phones so as not to disturb the performer or those around them, clapping at the end of the performance. Even with this conformity of behavior, however, the fact remains that the individual motivation for joining the onlookers may vary. One person may have stopped because he was struck by the performer’s talent, another because her feet hurt from walking. At a certain point, others may pause sim- ply because they see the existing crowd and are curious.
While the street performer type of crowd comes about in a somewhat random way and is most often benign and tem- porary, other types of crowds can form in a more deliberate manner and lead to more highly expressive and consequential action. Let’s look at two recent examples with very different trajectories: a street party in Isla Vista, California, and a pro- test rally in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Floatopia” began as a social gathering for mostly college students attending the University of California, Santa Bar- bara, and quickly grew into a popular annual event. The idea was for partygoers to bring rafts and other flotation devices to adjacent beaches for a day (and night) of fun. By 2011 the event was attracting over 10,000 people (thanks to Facebook), a num- ber that overwhelmed the scarce facilities, leaving behind a massive amount of trash and human waste sullying the shore. As university officials moved to close the beaches, the event relocated to Del Playa, the bluff- top street above the beach. “Deltopia,” as the event was renamed, grew even bigger, and
A Tale of Two Cities While the people involved gathered together for different reasons, the events in both Isla Vista, California, and Baltimore, Maryland, illustrate how collective behavior can evolve into riots.
RIOT continuous disorderly behavior by a group of people that disturbs the peace and is directed toward other people and/or property
Collective Behavior 487
go— and come back again. Fashion trends may take a cue from New York fashion week, the street styles of Miami, or the sum- mer music festival scene. Photos of Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid at Coachella have made festival wear such as wide bell bottom pants, fringe, and the cold- shoulder top the most de rigueur items for young women to rock.
Popular culture can also influence fashion. A look at two hit TV series is instructive. Mad Men (2007–2015) became popu- lar not only for its great writing and acting but also for its cele- bration of the fashion of the 1950s and 1960s. The men’s dapper suits and the women’s full skirts and cinched waists brought retro glamour back to the world of fashion. When the hip- hop drama Empire debuted in 2015, it became an overnight sensa- tion, as much for its story lines as for its fashionable music- biz characters. And it’s not just the women who flaunt the flashy designer clothes; the men in the series are equally noticeable for their style as well. The real- life actors who play roles in these TV series are often closely followed in the tabloids, fashion maga- zines, and blogosphere, where fans like to critique or emulate their styles, both onscreen and off.
A whole industry has grown up around the consumer’s desire to have those same looks the same moment they become popular. Fast- fashion brands such as Zara, Forever 21, H&M, Topshop, and Uniqlo quickly produce inexpensive knock- offs of the most current fashion trends for the mass market. These brands take advantage of a global supply chain that enables them to inexpensively manufacture trendy, up- to- date clothes, right when they’re most popular. So if you can’t make it to Bonnaroo, you can always buy what the festivalgoers
was ruled a homicide, and charges were filed against the three arresting officers, as well as three more officers (all black) who participated in transporting Gray in the police van. While none of the officers was ultimately convicted, the case led to impor- tant policing reforms: Baltimore police now wear body cam- eras and their vehicles are equipped with cameras as well.
The events in both Isla Vista and Baltimore demonstrate how collective behavior can develop into riots. Furthermore, they show how collective behavior can be both organized and chaotic, depending on the shared norms that emerge (McPhail 1991).
Mass Behavior Mass behavior occurs when large groups of people not nec- essarily in the same geographical location engage in similar behavior. Mass behavior can range from buying a certain type of sneakers or getting a tattoo to playing Candy Crush Saga on Facebook. Sociologists have focused on three areas of mass behavior in particular. Two areas, fads and fashions, should be familiar to you. The third too often goes unrecognized by those involved: social dilemmas.
FADS AND FASHIONS Fads are interests that are fol- lowed with great enthusiasm for a period of time. They can include products (such as electric cars or iPads), words or phrases (“selfie” or “sorry, not sorry”), clothing styles (aviator sunglasses or Toms shoes), hair styles (the fade or man bun), activities (spinning or vaping), gadgets (the Fitbit or fidget spinners), foods (sriracha or kale), or even pets ( purse- sized toy dogs or anything mixed with a poodle). For fads to con- tinue for any length of time, social networks are necessary to spread the enthusiasm (Aguirre, Quarantelli, and Mendoza 1988; Gladwell 2000; Jones 2009). While fads tend not to result in lasting social change, they do follow certain social norms and can create a unified identity for those who practice them (Best 2006).
Dieting is a good example. Many Americans have followed such fad diets of the past as the all- grapefruit or the no- white- food diet; others have joined the low- carbohydrate fad of the Atkins and South Beach diets. During their heyday in the mid- 2000s, the low- carbohydrate diets in particular had an impact on food industries, with grocery stores and fast- food chains trying to cater to the needs of their customers. Now, the paleo diet is the new low- carb approach, with adherents eating like “cavemen” did, which means lots of burgers but no buns. Gluten- free diets seem to be a more lasting trend. What- ever comes next, it is likely that in wealthy countries like the United States, diet fads are sure to continue.
Another type of mass behavior is fashion: a widespread style of behavior and appearance. Fashion can mark you as belonging to a certain group; military fatigues and school uniforms are two examples. Like fads, certain fashions (such as extremely baggy clothes for boys and leggings for girls) can enjoy huge popularity for a time. Fashions come and
A Fashion Empire Taraji P. Henson’s character, Cookie, from the hit show Empire, is known for her glamourous high- fashion ensembles by top designers like Gucci, Alexander McQueen, and Balmain.
MASS BEHAVIOR large groups of people engaging in similar behaviors without necessarily being in the same place
FADS interests or practices followed enthusiastically for a relatively short period of time
FASHION the widespread custom or style of behavior and appearance at a particular time or in a particular place
CHAPTER 16 Social Change488
interests of the collective? Social dilemmas help us under- stand this calculation.
There are two classes of social dilemmas. The first is known as a tragedy of the commons. In 1968, Garrett Hardin wrote an essay describing why this kind of dilemma emerges in soci- ety. He begins with the classic example of the “commons,” which in the past served as a pasture shared by the whole community and on which anyone could graze their livestock. Because access to the commons was free and without restric- tion, each individual had an incentive to put as many head of livestock on the commons as possible, thereby increasing his own personal gain. But as everyone made that same decision, the commons inevitably became overgrazed. When a common resource is used beyond its carrying capacity, it eventually collapses, becoming totally incapable of supporting any life at all. This is the tragedy— when the commons is ruined. In a tragedy of the commons, the benefit is to the individual but the cost is shared by all.
The tragedy of the commons applies to recent history as well. Our natural resources, such as water, air, fossil fuels, for- ests, plants, and animals, might all be considered similar to a commons. In the case of the U.S. fishing trade, especially, we have seen how, as Hardin put it, “freedom in a commons brings ruin to all” (1968, p. 1244). For example, Dr. Stein remembers living in Santa Barbara in the late 1970s, when local abalones were plentiful. Divers off the California coast and around the Channel Islands could make a good living harvesting these mollusks along rocky shorelines. Any good seafood restau- rant regularly offered abalone steaks on its menu, and a casual beachgoer might find abalone shells strewn along the sand. By the 1990s, however, abalones had all but disappeared. As each diver reached the same conclusion— that catching as many abalones as possible would increase his own profits— and more divers moved into the same fishing territory, the aba- lones were no longer able to regenerate their stocks and were eventually depleted to near extinction.
A partial solution is now in place with the designation of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, a feder- ally protected area where commercial fishing is prohibited. In a variety of similar cases, such as the lobster trappers off the New England coast, regulatory agencies have had to step in and place restrictions on the territories and amount of yields allowed. Otherwise, a tragedy of the commons is likely to ensue. We might also consider social as well as natural resources as similar to a commons. For example, when too many people crowd the freeways at rush hour or throw litter out the window of their cars, the result is the commons in ruin.
So what can we do to solve these problems? If we could somehow increase the number of abalones in the sea or the number of lanes on the freeway, that would help solve two of them, but only temporarily. At some point, use overwhelms supply. To Hardin, social dilemmas are a “class of human problems which can be classified as having ‘no technical solution’” (1968, p. 1243). What he means is that science or
were wearing at your local fast- fashion retail store just a week or two later. Zara, the behemoth of the fast- fashion industry, raked in more than $28 billion in sales in 2017.
SOCIAL DILEMMAS In the third category of mass behav- ior, called a social dilemma, behavior that is rational for an individual can lead to collective disaster. Let’s take an example that’s familiar to everyone: getting stuck in a traffic jam. You creep along slowly for what seems like forever and
finally arrive at the source of the holdup. It’s an accident, with two cars, a police cruiser, and an ambulance pulled over to the shoulder. But the accident isn’t even on your side of the freeway, and there’s nothing blocking your lanes of traffic. The holdup on your side is a result of every- body slowing down to get a good look. If they had just kept on driv- ing at their normal speed, there
wouldn’t be a traffic jam. So what do you do when you finally get up to the scene of the accident? You slow down and take a look, too.
When many people make that same (seemingly) rational decision (to slow down for only a few seconds), the cumula- tive effect causes a kind of collective disaster (a traffic jam). As social beings, we deal with such situations almost daily, yet rarely do we see how best to handle them. According to many social thinkers, going all the way back to philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), we live in a world governed by self- interest. How is our self- interest balanced with the
Tragedy of the Commons Abalone divers rest after climbing up a cliff. Since the 1990s, abalones have all but disappeared from the central coast of California due to overfishing.
SOCIAL DILEMMA a situation in which behavior that is rational for the individual can, when practiced by many people, lead to collective disaster
TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS a type of social dilemma in which many individuals’ overexploitation of a public resource depletes or degrades that common resource
Social Movements 489
Amendment to the U.S. Con- stitution (giving women the right to vote), women’s lib, the A FL- CIO workers union, Pen- tecosta lism, the Revolutionary War, or Nazism— and yet a ll of these were, at the time of their inception, rightly termed “socia l movements.”
So what precisely is a social movement? Does the term as accurately describe the efforts of liberals to elect a Democrat to Congress as it does the efforts of peace activists to end a war? The answer is no. According to Perry and Pugh (1978), “Social movements are collectives with a degree of leadership, organization, and ideological com- mitment to promote or resist change” (p. 221); Meyer (2000) adds that social movements “challenge cultural codes and transform the lives of their participants” (p. 39). A political campaign cannot usually be described as a social movement, because although it may be considered an organized collective with leadership and (sometimes) ideological commitment, and may indeed transform the lives of its participants, its pur- pose is not to fundamentally alter the status quo. Antiwar pro- testers, on the other hand, are usually trying not only to stop a specific violent conflict but also to change cultural support of war as an accepted means of solving disputes.
Promoting and Resisting Change Because society is constantly changing, new social move- ments are always on the horizon, and even long- standing ones change their goals, strategies, and organizational forms over time. For example, American feminism has taken mul- tiple forms during the past 150 years. Contrast the focus in the early twentieth century on voting rights for women with the 1960s era’s broader concerns with equal opportunity and “liberation” from the constraints of sexism, and then with the crusade in the 1990s to include previously excluded groups like minority women. Greater emphasis on interna- tional women’s rights followed in the 2000s, and finally in the 2010s, some feminists started to agitate over transwomen’s rights as part of the movement. Feminism’s self- definition, public profile, objectives, and tactics have changed over time in response to the movement’s own successes and failures.
You may be involved yourself in social movements that didn’t even exist in your grandparents’ or parents’ genera- tion (or even ten years ago). Movements like Critical Mass (cyclists who ride through city streets in large groups each month to protest an automobile- centric society), Straight Edge (non violent, drug- free, politically aware, and some- times even vegan punk rockers who reject promiscuous youth cultures), and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment
technology alone cannot solve the problems. The solutions must come from members of society: People will have to change their behavior.
The other class of social dilemmas is called a public goods dilemma, in which individuals must contribute to a collective resource from which they may not ever ben- efit. Blood banks are a good example. Because human blood can’t be stored for much longer than a month at a time, many people must volunteer to donate blood regularly in order to keep supplies steady. Blood donors can be viewed as helping to create what is referred to as a “public good,” in this case a blood bank. What motivates these people, on average some 9.5 million a year, to contribute something vital to themselves for which they may never receive anything in return? Every- one is equally entitled to draw from the blood bank regard- less of whether they have ever given blood. People who take advantage of a public good without having contributed to its creation are called “free riders.” In a public goods dilemma, unlike a tragedy of the commons, the cost is to the individual but the benefit is shared by all.
So how do we get people to contribute to a public good if they are not required to do so? There are numerous examples of this social dilemma in everyday life, as you know if you’ve ever witnessed a membership drive on public radio or pub- lic television. These noncommercial networks must appeal to individuals to contribute money so that they can con- tinue to produce and broadcast programs. But regardless of whether a person responds to the pledge drive, as free riders they can still tune into the station anytime at no cost. Public goods dilemmas are also a class of human problems for which there are no technical solutions. This is why the government requires us to make certain contributions, in the form of taxes, in order to create such public goods as roads, schools, and fire departments. But there are many other types of pub- lic goods, such as blood banks, that only individuals can cre- ate through their own voluntary contributions.
By examining social dilemmas, we are presented with a dramatic example of mass behavior. We begin to see how seemingly small individual acts add up and cumulatively shape society. So the next time you are faced with a problem like where to throw your litter or whether to give blood, ask yourself what kind of collective outcome you would like your behavior to contribute to.
Social Movements Socia l movements are another form of collective behavior. Because they typica lly involve more resources and last a longer time, socia l movements are a particularly impor- tant part of socia l change. For many Americans, the term social movement is inextricably linked to thoughts of long- haired hippies, Volkswagen buses, and the antiwar protests of the 1960s. They may not think of the Nineteenth
PUBLIC GOODS DILEMMA a type of social dilemma in which individuals incur the cost to contribute to a collective resource, though they may never benefit from that resource
SOCIAL MOVEMENT any social group with leadership, organization, and an ideological commitment to promote or resist social change
CHAPTER 16 Social Change490
supremacist website the Daily Stormer. That website has been credited with inspiring others to commit hate crimes, including James A lex Fields Jr., who drove into a crowd of counterprotesters at a Unite the Right ra lly in Charlottes- ville, Virginia, killing one and injuring many others. The American Border Patrol is a militia group of private citi- zens who patrol and surveil the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to deter and disrupt the passage of illega l immi- grants; they are characterized as an extremist group that blames immigrants for a slew of contemporary problems in the United States.
Other regressive movements aren’t necessarily motivated by prejudice or hatred of diversity. The voluntary simplicity movement urges members to downsize in all areas of their lives— consumption, time at work, hours in front of the TV or computer screens, impact on the environment— in the belief that returning to a simpler approach to life will allow them more personal freedom and will benefit society in the long run by conserving resources and reducing stress. Similarly, the Slow Food movement was founded as a radical response to the “McDonaldization” of world cuisines. It now focuses on fresh, local, traditional foods, ethically sourced, pre- pared with care, and served in an atmosphere of calm and hospitality— the polar opposite of overprocessed, reheated burgers and fries served in a paper bag and eaten in the car. Slow Food has even influenced the Chipotle restaurant chain, whose corporate philosophy— and menu— try to align with the values of that movement.
The “rural rebound” that started in the 1990s, in which urban residents moved to nonmetropolitan areas in unprece- dented numbers, is a type of demographic change that seems, on its face, to represent a regressive, back- to- basics move- ment as well (Johnson 1999). But a rural rebound doesn’t
of Animals, which campaigns against meat, leather and furs, animal experimentation, and other forms of cruelty) have taken shape in just the past few decades. Hacktivists (hack- ers who use technology to spread subversive messages) have emerged as a social movement more recently; groups such as WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and LulzSec are among the most visible. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement came onto the scene in 2013 with a hashtag on social media in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin. Since then, BLM has grown in influence and numbers, becoming a nationwide
movement. You have differ- ent opportunities for activism because you live in a different world than your parents did— even if you’re still living in the same town.
Some emerging socia l move- ments are actua lly regressive, or reactionary; that is, they explicitly resist certain socia l changes, working to make sure things stay the same or even move backward to earlier forms
of socia l order. Further a long the extreme right are some reactionary hate groups like the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group that wants to stop the ethnic and religious integration of American society and create a homogeneous, a ll- white society. Dylann Roof— the perpetrator of a bruta l attack on a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that claimed the lives of nine parishioners in June 2015—was reportedly inspired by the Council of Conservative Citizens and the white
Emerging Social Movements Black Lives Matter, an example of a new progressive social movement, was formed in 2013 in the wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
ACTIVISM any activity intended to bring about social change
REGRESSIVE term describing resistance to particular social changes, efforts to maintain the status quo, or attempts to reestablish an earlier form of social order
PROGRESSIVE term describing efforts to promote forward- thinking social change
Social Movements 491
necessarily mean that people have returned to declining rural industries, such as farming or mining. The rebound occurred, and still continues today, at least in part because of progressive, or forward- thinking, social change. New tech- nologies have made rural living less isolating and facilitated new ways of working. The Internet allows people to work from anywhere in the world, which means that high- powered stockbrokers don’t need to live in Manhattan and work in a
“pit” on Wall Street. They can move to Eagle County, Colo- rado, or Walworth County, Wisconsin, and enjoy cheaper real estate, less traffic and crime, and more natural beauty while still performing their jobs. Along with better broad- band service, federal assistance and investment in rural communities have increased home ownership and added infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, and public spaces that likewise improve rural quality of life (Vilsack 2016).
Resistance in the Age of Trump The Indivisible guide outlines practical steps citizens can take to effectively resist Trump’s legislative agenda.
Progressive voters and Democratic Party politicians woke up on November 8, 2016, confident that they were about to elect the United States’ first female president in Hillary Clin- ton. They were shocked, then, when Donald J. Trump, while garnering 3 million fewer popular votes than Clinton, won enough electoral votes to move into the White House. “Now what?” many of them found themselves wondering.
Ezra Levin and wife, Leah Greenberg, were two such people. Former congressional staffers who lived in Wash- ington, D.C., and worked for nonprofit organizations, they were deeply worried about the damage they thought a Trump administration could do to the country. But what was to be done? The election was over, the die was cast, and the Repub- licans controlled both houses of Congress, too. A few weeks later, Levin and Greenberg found themselves commiserat- ing with friends, many of whom were also politics “wonks.” The conversation soon turned from expressing frustration to brainstorming practical suggestions for how to effectively resist the Trump legislative agenda. Because they had both worked for congresspeople, they knew what kinds of tactics worked best, and they started writing their ideas down.
The handbook— a kind of grassroots “wiki” on how to effect political change from the ground up— kept growing, and finally they decided to post it on Twitter with the mes- sage: “Please share w/ your friends to help fight Trump’s rac- ism, authoritarianism, & corruption on their home turf.” In a matter of days, “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resist- ing the Trump Agenda” was picked up and shared online by high- profile folks like former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, activist and ex– Star Trek actor George Takei, Hol- lywood actor/director Miranda July, and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau. The Indivisible Guide was picked up by other progressive groups as well: Organizers of the Women’s March, the biggest political protest in the history of the United States and possibly the world, referred their mem- bers to Indivisible’s tactics as a way to build the movement beyond the one- day event. It was also read and shared online by thousands of ordinary people looking for ways to get more politically engaged themselves.
Twitter and Facebook spread the Indivisible Guide like a virus, marked with hashtags like “#resist,” “#indivisible,” and “#notmypresident.” Indivisible’s advice was simple: Put pressure on your representatives by calling their offices, meeting with them (either at or outside their offices or at other events like ribbon cuttings or fundraisers), and show- ing up at town hall forums and asking pointed questions. By making these efforts both individually and collectively as part of a local community group, you will make an impact on their votes. Congressional representatives began to be inun- dated with more mail, phone calls, and visits from their con- stituents than they had received in years.
Indivisible went from online guide to real- life movement in a remarkably short period of time. Its viral spread could only be accomplished in the digital age, but its advice to activists was remarkably old- fashioned. Those who question the efficacy of hashtag activism can no longer doubt that the Internet can successfully connect us to millions of others who share our vision (whatever that vision may be) and that social media have arrived as an invaluable resource in the process of social change.
IN RELATIONSHIPS Hashtag Activism: #Resist with #Indivisible
CHAPTER 16 Social Change492
perceived injustices on several fronts. While people of color may have been alienated from the larger white society, they were certainly not isolated “joiners” who took up with social movements simply to “satisfy some kind of psychological need” (Meyer 2000, p. 37). The civil rights movement and others were practical political responses to inequality and oppression and provided opportunities for the oppressed to “redistribute political and economic power democrati- cally and fairly” (Zirakzadeh 1997, p. 15). This explanation is called relative deprivation theory because it focuses on the actions of deprived or oppressed groups seeking rights already enjoyed by others in society; they are deprived rela- tive to other groups.
Interestingly, the poorest and most oppressed people tend not to participate in social movements, despite their rela- tive deprivation. For these individuals, the consequences of participation may be too high, and they may not have the resources necessary to join in (Perry and Pugh 1978; Zirakzadeh 1997). After all, if someone is working three jobs to support her family, it is unlikely that she has the time or energ y to carry a sign in a street protest. There have been notable exceptions to this trend. In the American West dur- ing the 1960s and 1970s, migrant farm workers organized successfully under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. In the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of low- income janitors across the United States gained fairer wages and benefits by orga- nizing unions as part of a Justice for Janitors campaign. And in the 2010s, low- wage workers in New York City (in industries such as retail, fast food, airport, and car washing) have continued to demand fair wages and the right to union- ize (Lewis 2013; McGeehan 2015). The battle to establish a “living wage” (adequate to afford a decent standard of liv- ing) has spread to many other cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. At the same time, successful efforts have been countered by numerous states and in cities such as St. Louis, where new legislation has reinstated the (lower) minimum wage (Noguchi 2017).
A look at the history of voting rights in the United States shows the power of relative deprivation theory to explain certain types of social movements. For more than a hundred years, women and persons of color lobbied hard for the right to vote. (We could also turn this claim on its head by saying that for more than a hundred years, many white men fought hard to exclude women and persons of color from voting.) Women won the right to vote in 1919 with passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. To reach this point, suffragists spent decades protesting male- only voting through parades, written propaganda, debates, sit- ins, and hunger strikes. The suffrage movement, however, was primarily a white wom- en’s battle. At a rally in 1851, Sojourner Truth gave a famous speech (“Ain’t I a Woman?”) highlighting the exclusion of women of color from the movement. These women would have to wait until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before they could legally vote.
Emerging social movements, whether progressive, regres- sive, or some combination of both, will undoubtedly change the social landscape over time. If your activism is successful— and even if it isn’ t— then the social world will be a different place by the time the next generation comes of age. Imagine what kinds of activism they will be able to engage in then.
Theories of Social Movements We can safely say that most of the institutions with which we are familiar began as social movements. How did they arise? Why do people join them? And how do today’s radicals become tomorrow’s establishment? Several theories attempt to address these questions, but the assumptions behind them have evolved over time.
MASS SOCIETY THEORY Scholars working in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s generally viewed social movements with suspicion— as “dysfunctional, irrational, and excep- tionally dangerous” (Meyer 2000, p. 37). People who joined a movement were thought to be attracted not by its ideals but
by the refuge it offered “from the anxieties, barrenness, and meaninglessness of an individ- ual existence” (Zirakzadeh 1997, p. 9). This explanation, labeled by sociologists as mass society theory, was not so remark- able when you consider that researchers in those decades had witnessed the effects of Nazism, Fascism, Stalinism, and McCar- thyism, all of which originated as social movements that eventu- ally devastated millions of lives (Zirakzadeh 1997).
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION THEORY By the 1960s, however, a sea change had occurred, and a new generation of scholars researching the whos, hows, and whys of social movements were inclined to be more sympathetic. After all, the 1960s had seen the rise and relative success of the anti- war and civil rights movements. Studies done on student protesters in the 1960s showed that they “were more likely than their less active colleagues to be politically oriented, socially engaged, and psychologically well adapted” and that “participation in nonconventional politics tend[ed] to be an addition rather than an alternative to conventional means of participation” (Meyer 2000, pp. 37, 42). In other words, despite the assumptions of theorists working in the mid- twentieth century, activists were not disaffected loners but were instead highly engaged individuals seeking to address
MASS SOCIETY THEORY a theory of social movements that assumes people join not because of the movement’s ideals but to satisfy a psychological need to belong to something larger than themselves
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION THEORY a theory of social movements that focuses on the actions of oppressed groups seeking rights or opportunities already enjoyed by others in the society
Social Movements 493
is limited by gerrymandering, that disproportionately dis- enfranchises whites, men, and seniors. Opponents of par- tisan gerrymandering have taken their cause to the courts, challenging the practice in states such as Wisconsin. If the Supreme Court decides that gerrymandering there is uncon- stitutional, it would establish a precedent leading to a wave of lawsuits nationwide.
RESOURCE MOBILIZATION Another way to look at social movements is by using resource mobilization theory. Here the focus is on how practical considerations such as recruitment, fundraising, and media coverage help or hinder social movements. The kind of society we live in has a lot to do with whether we are likely to join social movements, the tactics those movements will use, and whether the move- ments will succeed. For example, in a country like the United States, with strong free- speech protections, anyone wanting to support reproductive rights can publish books and articles, march in the streets (with some restrictions), promote their views on social media, or start a letter- writing campaign to pressure lawmakers.
On the other hand, under a restrictive regime like that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, peace- ful protest is not an option, and merely teaching a female to read has been met with suspicion and hostility. In 2012, the Pakistani Taliban shot fourteen- year- old Malala Yousafzai in the head because she spoke out in favor
Officially, African American males were granted the right to vote with the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, but individual states effectively nullified this right by passing regulations requiring literacy tests, prohibitive poll taxes, and grandfa- ther clauses (if your grandfather had voted, you could too) that specifically excluded them from voting. It wasn’t until the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed that all African American citizens (men and women) gained the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote. The Voting Rights Act achieved significant inroads in protecting African Ameri- cans’ right to vote, in part by requiring certain states (Ala- bama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia) to seek federal approval to change voting laws. In fact, it was so successful that the Supreme Court decided to remove that requirement in 2013. Not everyone has been in favor of that move: Critics of the decision argue that policies like voter ID, proof of citizenship, and limited early voting discriminate against minority voters (Hurley 2013; Liptak 2013).
Still, neither the Voting Rights Act nor the Nineteenth Amendment is enough to secure voting rights for all Ameri- cans. To become a registered voter, you must be a U.S. citizen (either native born or naturalized), eighteen years old, legally reside in the state in which you vote, and have an address of some kind. Most states do not allow ex- offenders, prisoners, or those designated mentally ill or incapacitated to vote. There are presently social movements underway to secure this right for some of these disenfranchised Americans, such as certain categories of ex- offenders, the mentally disabled, and people with no stable addresses.
Another tool that can be used to enhance or suppress the effects of various groups of voters is gerrymandering, or redistricting, whereby the officials in power at the state level deliberately redraw the borders of voting districts in order to advantage their political party. One type of gerryman- dering, called “packing,” is basically the voting equivalent of segregation: Put as many of the opposing party’s voters in as few districts as possible, thereby limiting the num- ber of seats they will win. Another type, called “cracking,” accomplishes the same goal by spreading the opposition voters thinly throughout a larger number of districts: In this case, their influence is diluted and the dominant party can win more seats. Both packing and cracking make for some oddly shaped districts. Michigan has one district that some have described as “Bart Simpson holding a fishing pole,” and there’s one in Maryland labeled the “Pinwheel of Death.” These weird shapes string together neighborhoods that may have nothing at all in common in order to create voting blocks that advantage the party in power.
Gerrymandering is a creative— and legal— way to effectively disenfranchise one party and its associated demographic groups. If gerrymandering reduces the voting power of Demo- crats, that disproportionately disenfranchises women, people of color, and young people; if the voting power of Republicans
GERRYMANDERING redrawing the boundary lines of state voting districts in order to advantage one political party over another
RESOURCE MOBILIZATION THEORY a theory of social movements that focuses on the practical constraints that help or hinder social movements’ action
Malala Yousafzai While boarding the bus to school, Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen. In 2014, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote the education of women and girls across the globe.
CHAPTER 16 Social Change494
shopping season, retailers give incentives to customers by offering extended hours, tremendous discounts, and gifts. Customers sleep in parking lots waiting for the stores to open (often as early as 4 a.m.) and are so eager to buy merchandise at discounted prices that injuries and even deaths have resulted. Every year seems to bring another extreme case where someone is trampled to death by crowds rushing through the doors. In 2008, a stampede left one Walmart worker dead, while a shooting at Toys ‘R’ Us resulted in the deaths of two customers. In 2011, there were forty- six reported injuries but no deaths. In 2013, the hashtag #WalmartFights began trending, with Twit- ter users posting about incidents in numerous locations. The website Black Friday Death Count keeps a running tally; from 2006 to 2016, ten deaths and 105 serious inju- ries were attributed to Black Friday.
In protest of the rampant consumerism of Black Friday, a group of social activists started “Buy Noth- ing Day.” Adbusters, an anticonsumerist organization, promotes the event as “a day for society to examine the issue of overconsumption.” The basic goal of Buy Noth- ing Day is to actually spend no money purchasing items on Black Friday in order to raise awareness of the dan- gers of consumerism and overconsumption. Adbusters also encourages other forms of awareness. Supporters have staged demonstrations in shopping malls where they brandish scissors and cut up credit cards while encouraging shoppers to liberate themselves from debt.
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Everyday Life
Activist Groups Get Organized The day after Thanksgiving is also known as “Black Friday,” the biggest shopping day of the year. On that day, which is thought of by many as the kickoff day to the holiday
of educating girls. She survived the attack and was trans- ferred to a British hospital for treatment. She has become an international symbol for women’s rights and continues her activism— from afar; it is too dangerous for her to return to her home country, where she is still wanted by the Taliban (Walsh 2013). In 2014, at just seventeen years old, Yousafzai became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. She continues to be a strong advocate for girls’ education on the global stage.
In addition to a tolerant society, social movements need a long list of practical and human resources, without which it would be impossible to accomplish their goals. This list includes volunteers, funding, office space, phone banks, computers, Internet access, copy machines, and pens and pencils— as well as the know- how to put these resources into action. Social movements need participants, so recruitment is an important consideration. They also need money. Fund- ing may go to support staff or pay for overhead, but much of what is raised will be spent on producing and soliciting media coverage to get the message out. Social media have become an important resource both for fundraising and spreading the word. Small start- ups can use “crowdfunding” sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter to raise money to get their busi- ness off the ground. A nascent social movement can begin organizing online, raising money via crowdfunding to run its operations while simultaneously raising awareness and support through social networks.
However interesting or important a type of social change may be, no progress will be made unless certain practi- cal resources are available. So if we consider the plight of women in Taliban- ruled parts of Pakistan or Afghanistan, for instance, we realize that some of the most basic human activi- ties, such as reading and meeting together freely, are actu- ally social movement resources that not everyone can take for granted. Protest and social movements have always been at the heart of American society and are likely to continue to define it in the future.
Anticonsumerism How do activist groups protest the excesses of consumerism?
Social Movements 495
For some, the idea of Buy Nothing Day has grown into a Buy Nothing Year. The Compact is an anticonsumer- ist group whose members pledge to go a year without buying anything new. Members are only allowed to purchase new underwear, food, and health and safety items, such as brake fluid and toilet paper. Otherwise, they have to make do with the items they already have in their homes (come on: how many bottles of lotion or sunscreen are lurking in your bathroom cabinet right now?), buy from secondhand stores, trade for what they need, or make their own items. Other groups, like the Freegans, take a radical approach to consumerism and try to find everything for free. Websites like FreeCycle and BuyNothingProject help in the cause.
Such groups have much in common: They wish to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic effects of U.S. consumerist culture and to simplify their lives. While it might seem extreme to most Americans to go an entire year without buying new items, many people find multiple benefits to liv- ing simply and, through their example, they are able to raise other people’s consciousness about consumption, waste, and carbon footprints.
This Data Workshop asks you to analyze any activist group that is working for some kind of social change. You will be using existing sources to do a content analysis of various materials developed by the organization. Refer to the section in Chapter 2 for a review of this research method. In particular, you will be looking at how the group works to promote and advance its agenda. Exam- ine the group’s use of various forms of media— including websites and social media as well as the more traditional radio, television, newspapers, magazines, brochures, or direct mail. Gather data by bookmarking links, taking screenshots or photos, making printouts, or compos- ing informal notes about what you find. Once you have enough data to analyze, follow these steps:
1. Describe the activist group you chose. Identify the group’s commitment to a larger social movement or cause, and discuss its particular goals.
2. How is the group attempting to use resource mobili- zation for its cause? What are its strategies regard- ing these three important activities?
a. recruiting members and organizing supporters b. raising funds c. transforming public opinion and/or achieving
change
3. Describe the group’s media campaign. What differ- ent forms of media does the group use to convey its message? Which do you think is most successful? Least successful? Why?
4. In addition to the use of media, what other strat- egies does the group use to achieve its goa ls? For instance, does the group organize ra llies or protests or participate in community events? (These activi- ties may be connected to larger media strategies; for example, a film screening or protest march might be advertised to attract greater support or news coverage.)
5. How effective is the group at convincing others to join the cause? What kind of reaction did the group elicit from you? How might the group improve its recruiting efforts?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
PREP- PAIR- SHARE Collect your data and write some informal notes addressing the steps outlined earlier; bring these notes to class for reference. Partner with one or more students and present your findings. Compare your analyses and insights with others in your group.
DO- IT- YOURSELF Collect existing source data on your chosen activist group and follow the steps outlined ear- lier. Write a three- to four- page paper about the group’s strategies, making specific reference to the materials it developed. Attach photos, screenshots, prints, links, or other relevant data to your paper.
Stages in a Social Movement Social movements begin with a few ideas and some people who believe in them. How do they reach the point of marching in the streets (or recruiting members online)? They develop in stages, as identified by Armand Mauss (1975). Mauss described the first one as the “incipient” stage, when the pub- lic takes notice of a situation and defines it as a problem (Perry and Pugh 1978). People do not start organizing because they are content; rather, they “see a discrepancy, either real or per- ceived, between what they are getting and what they believe they should be getting” and decide to take action (Perry and Pugh 1978, p. 237).
For example, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many laborers were frustrated over their long working hours, low wages, lack of free weekends, and unsafe working conditions. In response, they began to organize— or, in Mauss’s words, to “coalesce,” which is the second stage— and their movement gained momentum. Laborers, long an exploited segment of the workforce, drew on both tradition- ally accepted means of dissent, such as pushing for legislation that would improve working conditions, and tactics that were
CHAPTER 16 Social Change496
It is perhaps impossible to overstate the importance of social movements in any given society; life as we know it has been shaped by the rise and fall of all sorts of such move- ments. Imagine what the religious makeup of the world would be like if Martin Luther and his followers had not rebelled against the Catholic Church in the early sixteenth century, or what American culture would be like if Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement hadn’t successfully orga- nized. What would world politics have been like if the Nazis hadn’t come to power in the 1930s or the Soviet Union hadn’t broken up in 1991? What would the United States look like if the environmental movement hadn’t spawned our national and state park systems? The list is endless. Take a moment to consider a few ideas and movements that in today’s culture seem radical. Regardless of whether those movements suc- ceed in the traditional sense of the word, it is a pretty safe bet that they will help shape the world for generations to come. And while the progress made by any social movement tends to happen slowly, the possibility for change and a better soci- ety for those future generations is the driving force for those who participate.
Technology and Social Change As we have already seen, revolutionary social change is often the result of a technological development, whether that tech- nological development is the plow, the assembly line, or the microchip. When new inventions spread from one society
(at the time) “at the edges of political legitimacy,” such as strik- ing (Meyer 2000, p. 40).
Today, working conditions have greatly improved for many (though by no means for all) blue- collar workers, and unions, once considered marginal or radical, are now seen as part of the establishment. Mauss and others would argue that all successful social movements are eventually incor- porated into institutions— that they become “bureaucra- tized” (third stage). Perry and Pugh assert that “in order to survive, social movements must adapt to their host society or succeed in changing it. When they are successful, they become social institutions in their own right” (1978, p. 265). To take another example, early American colonists rebel- ling against British rule were part of a social movement, but by the late 1700s, they had ceased to be radicals and had become part of the new nation’s government.
A social movement’s development can sometimes look a lot like failure; that is, one way or another, the movement will eventually “decline” (fourth stage). If it succeeds, it is incorporated into the dominant culture; if it fails, it ceases to exist as an active movement— but it may have left an indelible mark on its host society nevertheless. Prohibi- tionists are an excellent case in point. Although those who wished to outlaw alcohol in the United States eventually failed, after the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) was repealed in 1933, their efforts had a huge impact on Ameri- can culture. There are still hundreds of “dry” municipali- ties where alcohol is not sold, for example, and laws about what time of day (or night) you can purchase alcohol, as well as the legal age (now twenty- one in all states) for consumption.
Perspective Approach to Social Change Case Study: The Environmental Movement
Structural Functionalism
Sometimes social change is necessary to maintain equilibrium and order in society.
Natural resources are necessary for the survival of society, so the growth of a social movement dedicated to the wise use and conservation of natural resources is functional for society.
Conflict Theory
Social change is the inevitable result of social inequality and conflict between groups over power and resources.
Environmental privileges (such as scenic natural vistas, clean water, and unpolluted air) are unequally distributed among groups in society. The environmental movement works to secure the rights of all citizens, rich and poor, to a clean, healthy, beautiful, and sustainable world.
Symbolic Interactionism
Social change involves changes in the meaning of things as well as changes in laws, culture, and social behavior.
The environmental movement works to safeguard animal species by having them declared “endangered” or “threatened.” Redefining groups of animals in this way allows for their protection through endangered species laws rather than their decimation through hunting or habitat reduction.
Table 16.1 Theory in Everyday Life
497Technology and Social Change
IN THE FUTURE Utopia— or Doomsday?
So what’s next? What kind of future are we headed for? We have already experienced so much social change to get here today; the world is a very different place now than it was a generation— even a decade— ago. We are always on the brink of something new and revolutionary, and it’s possible to see glimpses on the horizon. But there’s a lot of disagreement about whether we’re heading toward utopia or if doomsday is around the corner. Either way, change is coming, brought on by some combination of natural, technological, and social processes.
There have always been optimists and dreamers who see a bright future filled with promise. We’ll have greater health and longer life expectancy with new treatments for disease and new ways of practicing and delivering health care. There will be more abundance with better ways to produce food, energy, and the consumer goods and services that people need. We’ll work less and play more in better designed com- munities. With more access to more resources, inequality will diminish, and we can finally find more ways to get along with each other. We’ll live in a totally wired world, where technological advances like artificial intelligence and virtual reality free us from drudgery and open up endless possibilities for the edification and transformation of humans. We’ll travel around in driverless cars and high- speed hyperloops, vacation
in space, and colonize Mars. These are just some of the prom- ises that tomorrow’s pioneers and innovators are working on at this very moment.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the pessi- mists and doomsayers who take a dim view of the future ahead. They predict a time when the world gives out and society collapses and are making plans for how to ride out the apoca lypse. It may come in the form of nuclear war, destruction at the press of a button. Or it may come in the form of dirty bombs or chemica l and biologica l warfare that will wipe out great centers of human population, leaving whole swaths of continents barren and uninhabitable. Con- flict might play out on a sma ller sca le, with warring factions turning to armed resistance and insurrection in our towns and cities.
Nature may wreak havoc on us, triggered by physical events such as earthquakes, droughts, and raging wildfires. Global climate change could cause more ice shelves to drift and melt away, raising sea levels and inundating coastlines worldwide. The food chain may collapse if honeybees die off or if genetically modified plants stop producing seeds. Humans may succumb to old diseases and new plagues we don’t know how to fight. Hackers may turn connectivity against us, infecting and dismantling our means of com- munication, commerce, and governance. Or we may all get outsmarted by technolog y, once it knows how to learn with- out us. Survivalists and billionaires alike are stockpiling reinforcements or building self- contained bunkers under- ground, while others seek out Mars as an alternative to life on Earth.
What’s going to happen in the future? How will things change? If you’ve been practicing to be a sociologist, then you’ve acquired some tools that might be useful as social change unfolds. You’ll have developed a sociological imagi- nation, which allows you to see the connections between what’s happening in your own individual life and the larger public issues. And once you start seeing things like a soci- ologist, you can’t un-see them. Your newfound awareness makes you a more astute social analyst and actor. Hold on to the sociological perspective and you’ll have a better chance of contributing to the kind of positive social change you’d like to see in the world. Remember that the future doesn’t happen on its own; it’s made by people doing things together,
just like us. Doomsday Preppers Perhaps more valuable than a gas mask or canned food is a well-developed sociological imagination.
CHAPTER 16 Social Change498
DATA WORKSHOP
Analyzing Media and Pop Culture
The “Unplug” Experiment Zen sociologist Bernard McGrane (1994; McGrane and Gunderson 2010) is noted for having designed a series of experiments widely used in teaching sociology students.
This includes the “Doing Nothing ” Data Workshop fea- tured in Chapter 1. The “ Un- TV” experiment is another of his most popular, in which he asks students to “watch” TV without turning it on. While these experiments may appear simple at first, the ideas they highlight are very sophisticated. Participants are required to use “begin- ner’s mind” (setting aside all their prior judgments, opinions, and even experiences) to achieve an unusual level of consciousness about a particular aspect of their everyday lives.
This Data Workshop is inspired by the “ Un- TV” experiment but lets you decide which form of media technology you’d like to unplug from. It should be some- thing that regularly takes up your time and attention and that might actually be hard for you to give up. For most people, the most ubiquitous device in their world is a cell phone, but you could also choose a computer, music player, or a tablet, or some other media format you use a lot, like cable TV, radio, or video games. Think about how long you can go without using this technology or device on a typical day (or longer). If you’re like many people, even a few hours away from your cell phone or computer screen might seem like a very long time.
CULTURAL DIFFUSION the dissemination of material and symbolic culture (tools and technology, beliefs and behavior) from one group to another
TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM a theory of social change that assumes changes in technology drive changes in society, rather than vice versa
CULTURAL LAG the time between changes in material culture or technology and the resulting changes in the broader culture’s relevant norms, values, meanings, and laws
to another we call this process cultural diffusion. Social movements can also arise as a result of the diffusion of tech- nological advancements: Labor unions multiplied in the fac- tories of the Industrial Revolution, and today the Internet can bring more people together to work for social change than ever before. As you might imagine, then, sociologists have generated theories that seek to explain the particular influ- ence of technology in creating social change (Kurzweil 1990; Pool 1997). One common characteristic of these theories is an emphasis on technological determinism— the idea that technology plays a defining role in shaping society. As one of the earliest proponents of this approach, William Ogburn (1964) described the process of social change as beginning with invention or discovery and proceeding when the inven- tion is spread from one group or society to another. In the remainder of the chapter, we look at the relationship between technology and social change.
With so many amazing technological advances happen- ing in the world today, we tend to think that technology is the
answer to all our problems. But is it? Often those same advances come with issues of their own. At the beginning of this chapter, we saw how emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things are transforming our everyday lives for the better while also exposing us to new forms of risk. It seems that no social change is without its unforeseen, uninten- tional outcomes, some of which are positive and some of which are not.
We may welcome the inven- tion of e- commerce, in vitro fer- tilization, or sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and notice only later that
they bring unanticipated problems. For example, the Inter- net gives us access to an unprecedented number of goods and services that are just a click away. That’s good news for consumers, but less so for travel agencies that barely man- age to stay in business as individuals make their own flight, rental car, and hotel reservations online or bypass hotels and rental cars altogether and use Airbnb to find lodging and Lyft to get around their destination. Similarly, in vitro fertiliza- tion has allowed countless infertile couples to conceive. But it has also led a race to genetically modify embryos. Scientists using CRISPR, a new gene-editing technology, have already succeeded in repairing disease-causing mutations in human embryos. While this might lead to a future cure for cancer, it could also be used to create “designer babies.” Technologies such as CRISPR open up a Pandora’s box of ethical and moral questions about intervening in human DNA. And SUVs, newly popular again due to lower gas prices, not only guzzle gasoline
but are also more likely than other cars to kill or injure people when involved in an accident.
As a society, how do we respond to technological develop- ments that seem to solve one set of problems (such as disease, infertility, communication, and transportation) while creat- ing new ones? Often we must play “ catch- up,” scrambling to fix a problem once it manifests itself, rather than being able to plan ahead and prevent it in the first place. Cultural lag is the term sociologists use to describe this disconnect between a changing social condition and cultural adjustment to that change. Material culture (such as the technologies just dis- cussed) often changes faster than nonmaterial culture (such as beliefs and laws), and we struggle to create new values and norms that correspond with new technologies.
Technology and Social Change 499
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES social groups whose interactions are mediated through information technologies, particularly the Internet
GLOBAL VILLAGE Marshall McLuhan’s term describing the way that new communication technologies override barriers of space and time, joining together people all over the globe
How are you going to feel when you can’t text mes- sage, watch videos on YouTube, post pictures on Ins- tagram, or check your newsfeed on Facebook? We take these technologies for granted and cannot imagine our lives without them— but maybe life would be better! What are some of the benefits of unplugging? When we detach from our devices, we also get to disconnect from the overstimulation that comes from living in a media- saturated world. Can just a few hours of being unplugged reduce anxiety, dependency, fatigue, and information overload? Or does unplugging make you feel even more stressed out? That’s what this experiment is designed to reveal. A great part of the difficulty of this experiment is actually getting yourself to do it. But even more so, it can be a challenge to confront your own habits and depend- encies on a deep level. The “Unplug ” experiment asks you to do just that.
In this Data Workshop, you will be doing participant observation research while also preparing to write an autoethnography of your experience. Return to the sec- tion in Chapter 2 for a review of these research meth- ods. You will be writing detailed field notes of what you observe during the experiment. Remember that you are attempting to use a beginner’s mind. Don’t try to figure out what will happen before you begin. Just “see what you can see.” The idea is for you to notice the way the technology permeates your everyday life and what happens when you try to resist using it. Follow the numbered prompts below.
1. Choose a media technology for the experiment. This should be something you use regularly but that you can safely turn off for a period of time. Why did you choose this technology, and how does it represent an interesting experiment?
2. Determine how long you will go without this tech- nology; it could be for an hour, an afternoon, or three days, depending on how often you use it. What’s important is to create an impact by turning it off. Is the time period you determined adequate in length to produce meaningful results?
3. Go about your daily business while you refrain from using your chosen technology during the designated period. Don’t become distracted. Keep a part of your focus on what’s happening with the experiment and check in on yourself frequently. Take field notes at points during the research process or immediately upon completing it.
4. What happens as the experiment unfolds? Are you having any difficulties? When and why? What are your thoughts, feelings, and sensations? How atten- tive are you to the details of your reactions?
5. What happens as time progresses? How is it different the further or closer you are to the end of the allotted
time for the experiment? Are you relieved to turn on your device again? Or were there some unexpected benefits of turning it off? What do you see now about using the technology that you did not notice before? Does it feel any different to resume using the tech- nology after having conducted the experiment?
There are two options for completing this Data Workshop:
P R E P- PA I R- S H A R E Complete your observations, and prepare some field notes about the experiment that you can refer to in class. Get together with one or more stu- dents. What devices or technologies did you unplug from? Who had more or less difficulty with the experiment? Compare your insights and experiences with each other.
D O – I T- YO U R S E L F Complete the experiment and dis- cuss your results. Write a three- to four- page paper ana- lyzing your experience and insights. What do you think life was like for people before your chosen technology was invented? Make sure to attach your field notes.
Technology in the Global Village Over the years, social thinkers have expressed concerns about the effects of new technolog y. Some believed that electronic media would prove to be a dangerous, divisive, and degrading force in modern culture. Marshall McLu- han (1964), a Canadian communications researcher who also subscribed to the notion of technological determinism, expressed a degree of optimism that amounted to a utopian vision of what the various media could do for human soci- ety. McLuhan was particularly interested in television, which in the early 1960s was just then infiltrating house- holds in North America. He imagined that television could re- create a sense of intimate community by linking people in disparate locations around the world through its broad- casts. Just as tribe members had once gathered to share sto- ries around the light of a camp- fire, people would now sit in the glow of their TV screens, mak- ing television a kind of “virtual campfire” and those watching together members of a virtual community. McLuhan coined the term global village to capture that notion. He did not live to see the advent of the Internet a few decades later,
CHAPTER 16 Social Change500
global reality. Social scientists use the term globalization to refer to social structures and institutions such as poli- tics and commerce that must now be conceived on a global rather than national scale. We can no longer remain isolated from social and political forces that reverberate around the world. There are now billions of people who have access to television and the Internet. More than 1 billion were esti- mated to have watched the first walk on the moon in 1969. Since then, other live events such as the funerals of Princess Diana in 1997 and Michael Jackson in 2009, as well as the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Syrian
but he certainly understood the potential for media to extend the human senses and join us to one another in unprecedented ways.
The intervening years have not totally confirmed McLuhan’s utopian vision. New technolo- gies have in fact had a profound
impact on society, but in what ways and whether this impact has been positive or negative are still to be determined. What we do know is that media technology has become a
While change may be inevitable, perhaps we can deter-mine the direction, elements, and pace of that change. That is exactly what the current leaders of Bhutan are attempting to do. They provide an example of how to hold on to tradition, maintain a unique cultural identity, and exercise control over the pace of social change.
Bhutan is a tiny country of fewer than 1 million people, precariously perched at the “roof of the world” in the Hima- layan Mountains. Despite its remote location between two of the world’s most powerful and populous nations— China to the north and India to the south— Bhutan has remained a sovereign, independent nation throughout its history. In this ancient land, it seems almost as if time has stood still. It is only in the past few decades that Bhutan has emerged from its almost total isolation and taken some cautious steps into the postmodern era.
Bhutan is a predominantly Buddhist country that until recently had been ruled by a king who had four wives (who were all sisters!) along with a cadre of mostly Western- educated officials. In 2008, at the behest of its enlightened monarch, Bhutan held its first democratic elections. Despite that political change, it may still be the only country in the world where the government’s number- one concern is some- thing it calls “Gross National Happiness”: a blend of eco- nomic development and cultural richness; food, clothing, and shelter; health care and education; spiritual values; and individual contentment.
The government hopes to achieve Gross National Happi- ness by carefully identifying and adopting what the West is doing right while also rejecting its cynicism and consumer- ism. For example, the Bhutanese do not allow exploitation of their natural resources. There is no lumber industry in their millions of acres of lush forests, which instead have been
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Bhutan and Gross National Happiness
designated national parks. Although Mt. Everest is nearby in Nepal, mountain climbers are forbidden to ascend the peaks of Bhutan’s mountains. The Bhutanese have, however, taken advantage of one natural resource originating in the snowcap— immense, fast- flowing rivers that generate hydro- electric power, which is then exported to neighboring coun- tries. Tourism to Bhutan could also have become a lucrative trade. But here, too, the government has limited the number of visitors who can enter the country each year.
For the most part, Bhutan has managed to avoid being overwhelmed by the forces of globalization and cultural leveling. While some Bhutanese enjoy basic modern conve- niences like cell phone service and wireless Internet, in the capital city of Thimphu there are still no chain stores— no Starbucks, Targets, or Burger Kings. Especially remark- able is that the Bhutanese have so far been able to defend themselves against what might be the most powerful global intruder of all— television. For many years Bhutan was the only country in the world to ban TV. It was not until 2006 that television service was widely available across the country. Even so, programming was strictly limited. Because networks like MTV and CNN were also sneaking in via satel- lite, the government created its own national television net- work, the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), to provide a counterbalance to Western programs (Schell 2002).
At first, the BBS produced only a daily half- hour news- cast in both English and the native language of Dzongkha, but soon they added documentaries and entertainment shows. Most of the BBS’s programming is geared toward the distinct tastes and interests of the Bhutanese audi- ence, while still being aligned with the guiding principles of their country. The Bhutanese broadcasters see audience members not as primarily consumers but as citizens in need
GLOBALIZATION the cultural and economic changes resulting from dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries
Technology and Social Change 501
and ESPN, all belong to U.S. media conglomerates. These networks produce programs that are aired to audiences in hundreds of other countries. In 2017, NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) was named the most popular dramatic television series in the world based on viewing surveys of sixty- five countries. That season, more than 45 million people worldwide tuned in to watch NCIS. The Big Bang Theory was named the number- one comedy in the world, and The Bold and the Beautiful topped the list of global soap operas for the eleventh time (Vivarelli 2017). In the last several years, there has also been an explosion of streaming content produced by
refugee crisis have attracted even larger global audiences. These are among the most significant images burned into our collective minds. But would it be a surprise to know that some of the most watched broadcasts of all time are interna- tional sporting events like the FIFA World Cup, the Tour de France, and the Olympics? No, the SuperBowl does not top the list (Clark 2014).
While news and sports attract the largest audiences, enter- tainment media are not far behind. Television produced in the West dominates the global market. The world’s most valu- able television networks, including CNN, MTV, Disney, FOX,
of knowledge that can help them in their pursuit of Gross National Happiness.
Still, some worry about the homogenizing effects of tele- vision, especia lly for a new generation of children growing up with it. The arriva l of the Internet has compounded such problems and may be much harder to withstand. Today, about ha lf of the globa l population has Internet access (Internationa l Telecommunications Union 2017). While this means that the Bhutanese can now access BBS pro- gramming on YouTube, it is the plethora of media from out- side their own borders that may pose the greatest threat to
Gross National Happiness Global networks like MTV and CNN that cross borders via satellite concern Bhutanese leaders who see their children emulating foreign television programs. To counterbalance Western influence, the government created a national television network, the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS).
their way of life. It is important not to romanticize life in Bhutan or even the pursuit of Gross Nationa l Happiness. A lthough the country is now a democracy, it still endures high rates of infant morta lity, poverty, and illiteracy. Life expectancies are low, and women’s opportunities are lim- ited. Certain types of socia l change would seem to be nec- essary and inevitable. However, as they prepare for change, Bhutanese leaders remain idea listic about the ability of their traditiona l culture to resist Western va lues and to avoid the socia l problems that are so commonplace in other parts of the world.
CHAPTER 16 Social Change502
Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu—all American companies. Very few other countries have the infrastructure or budgets to produce similar shows with the same technical quality. This makes it hard to compete with the most popular programs that set world tastes.
With this proliferation of Western media, we also find that the contents tend to reflect Western values. Communication researchers often talk about the “politics of information flow,” and we can see that the message, or ideology, embedded in TV shows or films tends to flow from industrialized countries like the United States to the rest of the world (Schiller 1976, 1992, 1996; Tomlinson 1991). Americans brought up on the principle of a free press and living in a media- saturated society are not
typically alarmed by the prolif- eration of our popular culture to other parts of the globe. In fact, we might assume that ours is the voice of freedom and democ- racy, a force for positive change in places marked by censorship and disinformation (Rasmussen 2014; Rothkop 1997). But others question this flood of ideas, espe- cially ideas about individualism and consumerism, coming from the West.
And Western ideas can cross cultural boundaries all too eas- ily: It is almost impossible to block the reception of satellite
and Internet communications to audiences anywhere in the world. This sets up a new kind of tension in the struggle for power and influence. It is now possible for a country to be “occupied” by an invisible invader that arrives through the airwaves or by satellite and wireless networks. A country can be conquered by ideas rather than by force, a phenomenon known as cultural imperialism. Some consider the West- ern media’s powerful influence as a kind of cultural domina- tion. The result of this domination is often cultural leveling, a homogenizing process whereby societies lose their particu- lar uniqueness as they all start to resemble one another.
As media technology makes possible a multiplicity of voices, Westerners have also been influenced by Eastern ideas (witness the popularity of yoga). Yet Western values continue to dominate and to shape the “village” that is the global village. They sometimes conflict with the values of other nations, some of which have tried to resist the West- ern media stranglehold and maintain their own distinctive cultural identity (see the case of Bhutan in this chapter’s Global Perspective box). Challenges persist as to whether meaningful and egalitarian communication on a global level can really take place (Fortner and Fackler 2011; Gozzi 1996). Perhaps as technology advances, cultural distinctions can be maintained and divisions eliminated, thus approaching McLuhan’s vision of a world united.
Living in a Postmodern World Today, the digital age is but a few decades old, and already most of you probably cannot remember a time when you did not have a remote control, game controller, mouse, or cell phone in hand. And you cannot imagine living without them. It is safe to assume that we will see many more scientific and technological advancements in the near future. In particular, media technologies are likely to become cheaper, lighter, eas- ier to use, faster, more flexible, more interactive, and capable of carrying more information. Despite what some call the “digital divide” (the uneven distribution of technology among different groups of people), technologies will play an increas- ingly important role in almost every aspect of our lives, and technological literacy will be a necessary skill for anyone participating in contemporary society.
Is all progress good? Is every technological advance ben- eficial? These questions arise because our society is in the midst of a major transformation: We are moving from a mod- ern society to a postmodern society. Modernity refers to the social conditions and attitudes characteristic of industrial- ized societies, which include the decline of traditional com- munity, an increase in individual autonomy and diversity of beliefs, and a strong belief in the ability of science and technology to improve our quality of life (Berger 1977). In many ways, this last promise of modernity has in fact been
Cultural Diffusion NCIS, the most popular dramatic TV series in the world, acts as a medium for spreading American culture and ideas to other countries.
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM the imposition of one culture’s beliefs and practices on another culture through media and consumer products rather than by military force
CULTURAL LEVELING the process by which cultures that were once unique and distinct become increasingly similar
MODERNITY a term that characterizes industrialized societies, including the decline of tradition, an increase in individualism, and a belief in progress, technology, and science
503Closing Comments
fulfilled. Since the Industrial Revolution, rates of infant mortality have declined, life expectancies have increased, and a number of common diseases have been cured or con- trolled. However, along with these advances have come increases in income inequality, violent crime, and child pov- erty ( Miringoff and Miringoff 1999). So while modern soci- ety has its benefits, there are also problems, which is where the postmodern critique begins.
Postmodernity refers to the social conditions and atti- tudes characteristic of postindustrialized societies, which include a focus on ideas and cultural debates rather than material things and a questioning of the achievements of sci- ence and technology. According to postmodern thought, the progress promised by modernity has failed to solve impor- tant social problems (such as income inequality), and modern institutions (families, schools, workplaces, governments) are implicated in this failure. Although change is forecast in all these areas, there is no agreed- upon blueprint for what that change might look like.
The Industrial Revolution transformed Western society from traditional to modern. The Information Revolution is transforming Western society from modern to postmodern. While we are not yet certain what this particular transforma- tion will mean in our everyday lives, we can be sure that it will not be the final transformation our society will undergo. Soci- ety will continue to be shaped by technology, not only at the macro level of culture and social institutions but also at the micro level of groups and individuals. Technology will change what the world looks like as well as how we perceive it. It will greatly extend our abilities to obtain information and will influ- ence the way we use it. We will become more comfortable with multitasking; navigating through nonlinear hyperspace; deal- ing with symbols, images, and sound as well as text; moving at a rapid pace; coping with a fractured sense of self; socializing online; experimenting with game strategies; and accepting the unpredictable.
Should we call such developments progress? What will we gain, and what do we stand to lose? Your parents and grand- parents will not understand the postmodern, digital era in the same way that you do. So it is you who will be engineering the terms of the future. Perhaps now would be a good time to ask yourself what you can do as part of this new social revo- lution. Can you risk just sitting back and watching what will
happen? Or are you willing to take what you have learned and go out and make a differ- ence? We hope this chapter has inspired you to take an active role in creating whatever posi- tive social change you envision.
CLOSING COMMENTS Throughout this text, we have focused on the sociological features of everyday life, including the role of the media and popular culture in society. The media are often the place where new developments, trends, and social changes first become visible. And our everyday lives are the places where we experience both social constraints and social change at the most fundamental level. You now have the tools neces- sary to understand these phenomena, because you now pos- sess the sociological perspective.
The sociologica l perspective sometimes highlights dis- tressing facts— the persistence of poverty and prejudice, for example, or the rea lities of crime. But it a llows for opti- mism as well. This is because the intersection of biography and history goes both ways: Society shapes individua l lives, but individua ls influence their society as well. Any discon- certing rea lizations you may have had during the course of this semester should be tempered by your knowledge that change is possible, and that you are its primary source.
Ultimately, this should be the most relevant element of your education in sociolog y. Years from now, no one will care whether you remember the details of labeling theory or the difference between organic and mechanica l solidarity. What will continue to matter is your sense of investment in your society— your commitment to your family, your workplace, your community, and your world. Your mindful involvement in a ll of these areas can make each of them bet- ter places— to raise children, to live, to work, to collaborate with others. Armed with the sociologica l perspective, you now have a new set of responsibilities: to investigate and participate in your socia l world, both loca lly and globa lly. We hope you do so with optimism and persistence, and in partnership with others.
POSTMODERNITY a term that characterizes postindustrial societies, including a focus on the production and management of information and skepticism of science and technology
504
Everything You Need to Know about Social Change
THEORIES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
✱ Structural functionalism: Some- times social change is necessary to maintain equilibrium and order in society.
✱ Conflict theory: Social change is the inevitable result of social inequal- ity and conflict between groups over power and resources.
✱ Symbolic interactionism: Social change involves changes in the mean- ings of things as well as changes in laws, culture, and social behavior.
REVIEW 1. People born even one generation
apart can have quite different life experiences because of ongoing social and technological changes. List at least three technologies that did not exist when your parents were your age. What social changes have these technologies generated?
2. “Cultural lag ” is the term sociolo- gists use for the period of time when norms, values, and laws are not yet up to date with new technology because material culture changes faster than nonmaterial culture. Describe at least one change in material culture for which there is still some degree of cultural lag. What evidence suggests that we haven’t developed adequate norms yet?
“ While society shapes the individual, the individual can shape society: you have the power to bring about social change.
“
505
EXPLORE
Life after Your Sociology Class What happens when your sociology class ends? Visit the Everyday Sociology blog for a sociology professor’s suggestions on how to continue exploring the sociological imagination.
http://wwnPag.es/trw416
SOURCES: Geigler 2016; Leonhardt and Parlapiano 2015; McCarthy 2015.
Changing Social Attitudes in the United States Same-Sex Marriage (Percentage Who Favor)
27% 1996
62% 2017
Legalized Marijuana (Percentage Who Support)
24% 1980
53% 2015
Gay or Lesbian President (Percentage Who Would Vote for)
26% 1978
Interracial Marriage (Percentage Who Approve)
87% 2013
74% 2015
4% 1958
Female President (Percentage Who Would Vote for)
33% 1937
92%
2 0
1 5
G-1
absolute deprivation an objective measure of poverty, defined by the inability to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, or health care
access the process by which an ethnographer gains entry to a field setting
achieved status a status earned through individual effort or imposed by others
action research a type of research aimed at creating social change, in which the researcher works closely with members of a community who participate in the research process and collaborate toward the goal of social change
active audiences a term used to characterize audience members as active participants in “reading ” or construct- ing the meaning of the media they consume
activism any activity intended to bring about social change
acute diseases diseases that have a sudden onset, may be briefly incapacitating, and are either curable or fatal
adoption the legal process of acquiring parental responsi- bilities for a child other than one’s biological offspring
agency the ability of the individual to act freely and independently
agenda- setting theory theory that the media can set the public agenda by selecting certain news stories and excluding others, thus influencing what audiences think about
agents of socialization social groups, institutions, and individuals (especially the family, schools, peers, and the mass media) that provide structured situations in which socialization takes place
aggregates collections of people who share a physical loca- tion but do not have lasting social relations
Agricultural Revolution the social and economic changes, including population increases, that followed from the domestication of plants and animals and the gradually increasing efficiency of food production
alienation decreasing importance of social ties and com- munity and the corresponding increase in impersonal associations and instrumental logic; also, according to Marx, the sense of dissatisfaction the modern worker feels as a result of producing goods that are owned and con- trolled by someone else
Glossary
alternative medicine a group of medical treatments, prac- tices, and products that are used instead of conventional Western medicine
altruism unselfish concern for the well- being of others and helping behaviors performed without self- interested motivation
anomie “normlessness”; term used to describe the alien- ation and loss of purpose that result from weaker social bonds and an increased pace of change
anthropocentric literally “human centered”; the idea that needs and desires of human beings should take priority over concerns about other species or the natural environment
antimiscegenation the prohibition of interracial marriage, cohabitation, or sexual interaction
antiracist allies whites and others working toward the goal of ending racial injustice
antithesis the opposition to the existing arrangements in a dialectical model
antitrust legislation laws designed to maintain competi- tion in the marketplace by prohibiting monopolies, price fixing, or other forms of collusion among businesses
apartheid the system of segregation of racial and ethnic groups that was legal in South Africa between 1948 and 1991
applied research the search for knowledge that can be used to create social change
ascribed status a status that is inborn; usually difficult or impossible to change
asexuality the lack of sexual attraction of any kind; no interest in or desire for sex
assimilation a pattern of relations between ethnic or racial groups in which the minority group is absorbed into the mainstream or dominant group, making society more homogenous
authoritarianism system of government by and for a small number of elites that does not include representation of ordinary citizens
authority the legitimate right to wield power autoethnography a form of participant observation where
the feelings and actions of the researcher become a focal point of the ethnographic study
GLOSSARYG-2
backstage the places in which we rehearse and prepare for our performances
basic research the search for knowledge without any agenda or practical goal in mind
beginner’s mind approaching the world without precon- ceptions in order to see things in a new way
belief a proposition or idea held on the basis of faith bias an opinion held by the researcher that might affect the
research or analysis biodiversity the variety of species of plants and animals
existing at any given time bioethics the study of controversial moral or ethical issues
related to scientific and medical advancements bisexuality sexual attraction toward members of both
genders blue collar a description characterizing skilled and semi-
skilled workers who perform manual labor or work in service or clerical jobs
bourgeoisie owners; the class of modern capitalists who own the means of production and employ wage laborers
bureaucracy a type of secondary group designed to perform tasks efficiently, characterized by specialization, technical competence, hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, and formal written communication
bystander effect or diffusion of responsibility the social dynamic wherein the more people who are present in a moment of crisis, the less likely any one of them is to take action
capital punishment the death penalty capitalism an economic system based on the laws of
free market competition, privatization of the means of production, and production for profit
caste system a form of social stratification in which status is determined by one’s family history and background and cannot be changed
category people who share one or more attributes but who lack a sense of common identity or belonging
causation a relationship between variables in which a change in one directly produces a change in the other
charismatic authority authority based in the perception of remarkable personal qualities in a leader
charter schools public schools run by private entities to give parents greater control over their children’s education
Chicago School a type of sociology practiced at the Univer- sity of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s that centered on urban settings and field research methods
chronic diseases diseases that develop over a longer period of time and may not be detected until symptoms occur later in their progression
cisgender term used when gender identity and/or expression aligns with the sex assigned at birth
cisgenderism belief in the superiority of cisgender persons and identities
civil inattention an unspoken rule governing interactions in public places, whereby individuals briefly notice others before ignoring them
civil society those organizations, institutions, and interac- tions outside government, family, and work that promote social bonds and the smooth functioning of society
class consciousness the recognition of social inequality on the part of the oppressed, leading to revolutionary action
climate change the increase in extreme weather patterns linked to global warming
climate justice a perspective that frames global warm- ing as a moral issue, proposing that those who are least responsible for climate change tend to suffer its worst consequences
closed- ended question a question asked of a respondent that imposes a limit on the possible responses
closed system a social system with very little opportunity to move from one class to another
code of ethics ethical guidelines for researchers to consult as they design a project
coercive power power that is backed by the threat of force cohabitation living together as a romantic couple without
being married collective behavior behavior that follows from the forma-
tion of a group or crowd of people who take action together toward a shared goal
collective conscience the shared morals and beliefs that are common to a group and that foster social solidarity
collective effervescence an intense energy in shared events where people feel swept up in something larger than themselves
color- blind racism an ideology that removes race as an explanation for any form of unequal treatment
coming out to openly declare one’s true identity to those who might not be aware of it; short for “coming out of the closet,” a phrase used to describe how gays and lesbians have felt compelled to keep their sexual orientation secret
commodification the process by which it becomes possible to buy and sell a particular good or service
communism a system of government that eliminates private property; the most extreme form of socialism, because all citizens work for the government and there are no class distinctions
communitarianism a political and moral philosophy focused on strengthening civil society and communal bonds
community a group of people living in the same local area who share a sense of participation, belonging, and fellowship
community college two- year institution that provides students with general education and facilitates transfer to a four- year university
GLOSSARY G-3
comparative historical research research that uses existing sources to study relationships among elements of society in various regions and time periods
complementary medicine a group of medical treatments, practices, and products that can be used in conjunction with conventional Western medicine
concentration the process by which the number of companies producing and distributing a particular commodity decreases, often through mergers and conglomeration
confidentiality the assurance that no one other than the researcher will know the identity of a respondent
conflict theory a paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change and that emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change
conglomeration the process by which a single corporation acquires ownership of a variety of otherwise unrelated businesses
conservation era earliest stage of the environmental movement, which focused on the preservation of “wilderness” areas
constructionists those who believe that notions of gender are socially determined, such that a binary system is just one possibility among many
consumption the utilization of goods and services, either for personal use or in manufacturing
contagion theory one of the earliest theories of collective action; suggests that individuals who join a crowd can become “infected” by a mob mentality and lose the ability to reason
content analysis a method in which researchers identify and study specific variables or themes that appear in a text, image, or media message
contingent workforce those who work in positions that are temporary or freelance or who work as independent contractors
control group the members of a test group who are allowed to continue without intervention so that they can be com- pared with the experimental group
conversation analysis a sociological approach that looks at how we create meaning in naturally occurring conver- sation, often by taping conversations and examining their transcripts
cooling the mark out behaviors that help others to save face or avoid embarrassment, often referred to as civility or tact
copresence face- to- face interaction or being in the pres- ence of others
correlation a relationship between variables in which they change together, and may or may not be causal
counterculture a group within society that openly rejects or actively opposes society’s values and norms
crime a violation of a norm that has been codified into law
criminal justice system a collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police, courts, and prisons, that cre- ates and enforces laws
criminology the systematic scientific study of crime, crimi- nals, and criminal justice
critical race theory the study of the relationship among race, racism, and power
critical theory a contemporary form of conflict theory that criticizes many different systems and ideologies of domination and oppression
crowd a temporary gathering of people in a public place; members might interact but do not identify with each other and will not remain in contact
cultural appropriation the adoption of cultural elements belonging to an oppressed group by members of the dominant group, without permission and often for the dominant group’s gain
cultural assimilation the process by which racial or ethnic groups are absorbed into the dominant group by adopting the dominant group’s culture
cultural capital the tastes, habits, expectations, skills, knowledge, and other cultural assets that help us gain advantages in society
cultural competence the concept of acknowledging and incorporating a patient’s cultural background as part of the treatment process; the recognition that patients’ beliefs shape their approach to health care
cultural diffusion the dissemination of material and sym- bolic culture (tools and technology, beliefs and behavior) from one group to another
cultural imperialism the imposition of one culture’s beliefs and practices on another culture through media and consumer products rather than by military force
cultural lag the time between changes in material culture or technology and the resulting changes in the broader culture’s relevant norms, values, meanings, and laws
cultural leveling the process by which cultures that were once unique and distinct become increasingly similar
cultural relativism the principle of understanding other cultures on their own terms, rather than judging or evalu- ating according to one’s own culture
culture the entire way of life of a group of people (includ- ing both material and symbolic elements) that acts as a lens through which one views the world and that is passed from one generation to the next
culture of poverty entrenched attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead the poor to accept their fate rather than attempt to improve their lot
culture shock a sense of disorientation that occurs when entering a radically new social or cultural environment
culture wars clashes within mainstream society over the values and norms that should be upheld
curative or crisis medicine type of health care that treats the disease or condition once it has manifested
GLOSSARYG-4
custody the physical and legal responsibility of caring for children; assigned by a court for divorced or unmarried parents
cyberbullying the use of electronic media (web pages, social networking sites, e- mail, Twitter, cell phones) to tease, harass, threaten, or humiliate someone
cybercrime crimes committed via the Internet, including identity theft, embezzlement, fraud, sexual predation, and financial scams
cycle of violence a common behavior pattern in abusive relationships; the cycle begins happily, then the relation- ship grows tense, and the tension explodes in abuse, followed by a period of contrition that allows the cycle to repeat
deception the extent to which the participants in a research project are unaware of the project or its goals
deconstruction a type of critical postmodern analysis that involves taking apart or disassembling old ways of thinking
definition of the situation an agreement with others about “what is going on” in a given circumstance; this consensus allows us to coordinate our actions with others and realize goals
democracy a political system in which all citizens have the right to participate
demographic transition a theory about change over time from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates, resulting in a stabilized population
demography study of the size, composition, distribution, and changes in human population
dependent variable the factor that is changed (or not) by the independent variable
deprivation amplification when our individual disease risks ( based on heredity and physiology) are amplified by social factors
deregulation reduction or removal of government con- trols from an industry to allow for a free and efficient marketplace
deterrence an approach to punishment that relies on the threat of harsh penalties to discourage people from committing crimes
deviance a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction
deviance avowal process by which an individual self- identifies as deviant and initiates his or her own labeling process
dialectical model Karl Marx’s model of historical change, whereby two extreme positions come into conflict and create some new outcome
differential association theory Edwin Sutherland’s hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our asso- ciations with deviant peers
digital divide the unequal access to computer and Internet technology, both globally and within the United States
discrimination unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice
disenchantment the rationalization of modern society disenfranchised stripped of voting rights, either
temporarily or permanently disenfranchisement the removal of the rights of
citizenship through economic, political, or legal means domestic abuse any physical, verbal, financial, sexual, or
psychological behaviors abusers use to gain and maintain power over their victims
dominant culture the values, norms, and practices of the group within society that is most powerful (in terms of wealth, prestige, status, influence, etc.)
double- barreled questions questions that attempt to get at multiple issues at once, and so tend to receive incomplete or confusing answers
double- consciousness W.E.B. DuBois’s term for the divided identity experienced by blacks in the United States
dramaturgy an approach pioneered by Erving Goffman in which social life is analyzed in terms of its similarities to theatrical performance
dual enrollment programs that allow high school students to simultaneously enroll in college classes, earning credit for both high school and college degrees
dual nature of the self the idea that we experience the self as both subject and object, the “I” and the “me”
dyad a two- person social group dysfunction a disturbance to or undesirable consequence
of some aspect of the social system dystopia opposite of a utopia; a world where social
problems are magnified and the quality of life is extremely low
early college high schools institutions in which students earn a high school diploma and two years of credit toward a bachelor’s degree
Earth Day an annual event conceived of by environmental activist and former senator Gaylord Nelson to encourage support for and increase awareness of environmental concerns; first celebrated on March 22, 1970
ecological footprint an estimation of the land and water area required to produce all the goods an individual consumes and to assimilate all the wastes an individual generates
ecotourism foreign travel with the goal of minimizing the environmental consequences of tourism as well as its possible negative effects on local cultures and economies, typically involving people from highly industrialized nations traveling to less developed countries
GLOSSARY G-5
edge cities centers of employment and commerce that began as suburban commuter communities
education the process by which a society transmits its knowledge, values, and expectations to its members so they can function effectively
embodied identity those elements of identity that are gen- erated through others’ perceptions of our physical traits
embodied status a status generated by physical characteristics
emergent norm theory a theory of collective behavior that assumes individual members of a crowd make their own decisions about behavior and that norms are created through others’ acceptance or rejection of these behaviors
emigration leaving one country to live permanently in another
emotion work (emotional labor) the process of evoking, suppressing, or otherwise managing feelings to create a publicly observable display of emotion
empirical based on scientific experimentation or observation
encoding/decoding model a theory on media that com- bines models that privilege the media producer and models that view the audience as the primary source of meaning; this theory recognizes that media texts are created to deliver specific messages and that individuals actively interpret them
endogamy marriage to someone within one’s social group environment in sociology, the natural world, the human-
made environment, and the interaction between the two environmental justice a movement that aims to remedy
environmental inequities such as threats to public health and the unequal treatment of certain communities with regard to ecological concerns
environmental movement a social movement organized around concerns about the relationship between humans and the environment
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a U.S. govern- ment agency established in 1969 to protect public health and the environment through policies and enforcement
environmental racism any environmental policy or practice that negatively affects individuals, groups, or communities because of their race or ethnicity
environmental sociology the study of the interaction between society and the natural environment, including the social causes and consequences of environmental problems
epidemic occurs when a significantly higher number of cases of a particular disease occur during a particular time period than might otherwise be expected
epidemiology the study of disease patterns to understand the cause of illnesses, how they are spread, and what inter- ventions to take
essentialists those who believe gender roles have a genetic or biological origin and therefore cannot be changed
ethnicity a socially defined category based on common language, religion, nationality, history, or another cultural factor
ethnocentrism the principle of using one’s own culture as a means or standard by which to evaluate another group or individual, leading to the view that cultures other than one’s own are abnormal or inferior
ethnography a naturalistic method based on studying people in their own environment in order to understand the meanings they attribute to their activities; also, the written work that results from the study
ethnomethodology the study of “folk methods” and background knowledge that sustains a shared sense of reality in everyday interactions
eugenics an attempt to selectively manipulate the gene pool in order to produce and “improve” human beings through medical science
Eurocentric the tendency to favor European or Western histories, cultures, and values over those of non- Western societies
evangelical a term describing conservative Christians who emphasize converting others to their faith
everyday actor someone who approaches the world by using knowledge that is practical or taken for granted
everyday class consciousness awareness of one’s own social status and that of others
existing sources materials that have been produced for some other reason but that can be used as data for social research
exogamy marriage to someone from a different social group experimental group the members of a test group who
receive the experimental treatment experiments formal tests of specific variables and effects,
performed in a setting where all aspects of the situation can be controlled
expressions given expressions that are intentional and usually verbal, such as utterances
expressions given off observable expressions that can be either intended or unintended and are usually nonverbal
expressions of behavior small actions such as an eye roll or head nod that serve as an interactional tool to help project our definition of the situation to others
expressive leadership leadership concerned with maintaining emotional and relational harmony within the group
expressive role the position of the family member who provides emotional support and nurturing
expressive tasks the emotional work necessary to support family members
extended family a large group of relatives, usually includ- ing at least three generations living either in one house- hold or in close proximity
extrinsic religiosity a person’s public display of commit- ment to a religious faith
GLOSSARYG-6
fads interests or practices followed enthusiastically for a relatively short period of time
false consciousness a denial of the truth on the part of the oppressed when they fail to recognize that the interests of the ruling class are embedded in the dominant ideology
family a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties, or a combination of all three
fashion the widespread custom or style of behavior and appearance at a particular time or in a particular place
federal poverty line federal index that defines “official” poverty in the United States based on household income; updated annually
feeling rules norms regarding the expression and display of emotions; expectations about the acceptable or desirable feelings in a given situation
feminism belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes; also the social movements organized around that belief
feminist theory a theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in society and the way that gender structures the social world
feminization of poverty the economic trend showing that women are more likely than men to live in poverty, caused in part by the gendered gap in wages, the higher propor- tion of single mothers compared to single fathers, and the increasing costs of child care
feral children in myths and rare real- world cases, children who have had little human contact and may have lived in social isolation from a young age
fertility rate a measure of population growth through reproduction; often expressed as the number of births per 1,000 people in a particular population or the average number of children a woman would bear over a lifetime
feudal system a system of social stratification based on a hereditary nobility who were responsible for and served by a lower stratum of forced laborers called serfs
fictive kin close relations with people considered “like family” but who are not related to us by blood or marriage
field notes detailed notes taken by an ethnographer describing her activities and interactions, which later become the basis of the analysis
first wave the earliest period of feminist activism, from the mid- nineteenth century until American women won the right to vote in 1920
focus group a process for interviewing a number of participants together that also allows for interaction among group members
folkways loosely enforced norms involving common customs, practices, or procedures that ensure smooth social interaction and acceptance
food desert a community in which the residents have little or no access to fresh, affordable, healthy foods, usually located in densely populated, urban areas
front in the dramaturgical perspective, the setting or scene of performances that helps establish the definition of the situation
frontstage the places in which we deliver our performances to an audience of others
fundamentalism the practice of emphasizing literal interpretation of texts and a “return” to a time of greater religious purity; represented by the most conservative group within any religion
game stage the third stage in Mead’s theory of the develop- ment of self wherein children play organized games and take on the perspective of the generalized other
gender the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members
gender binary a system of classification with only two distinct and opposite gender categories
gender expression an individual’s behavioral manifesta- tions of gender
gender identity an individual’s self- definition or sense of gender
gender nonconforming term used when gender identity and/or expression differs from societal expectations about gender roles
gender role socialization the lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine, primarily through agents of socialization
generalized other the perspectives and expectations of a network of others (or of society in general) that a child learns and then takes into account when shaping his or her own behavior
genocide the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, national, or cultural group
gentrification transformation of the physical, social, eco- nomic, and cultural life of formerly working- class or poor inner- city neighborhoods into more affluent middle- class communities
gerrymandering redrawing the boundary lines of state voting districts in order to advantage one political party over another
gestures the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate without words; actions that have symbolic meaning
global cities megacities that emphasizes their global impact as centers of economic, political, and social power
global village Marshall McLuhan’s term describing the way that new communication technologies override barriers of space and time, joining together people all over the globe
global warming gradual increase in the earth’s tempera- ture, driven recently by an increase in greenhouse gases and other human activity
GLOSSARY G-7
globalization the cultural and economic changes result- ing from dramatically increased international trade and exchange in the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries
government the formal, organized agency that exercises power and control in modern society, especially through the creation and enforcement of laws
grassroots environmentalism beginning in the 1980s, fourth stage of the environmental movement; distin- guished by the diversity of its members and belief in citizen participation in environmental decision making
Green Party a U.S. political party established in 1984 to bring political attention to environmentalism, social justice, diversity, and related principles
greenhouse effect the process in which increased produc- tion of greenhouse gases, especially those arising from human activity (e.g., carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) cause changes to the earth’s atmosphere
grounded theory an inductive method of generating theory from data by creating categories in which to place data and then looking for relationships among categories
group a collection of people who share some attribute, identify with one another, and interact with each other
group cohesion the sense of solidarity or loyalty that individuals feel toward a group to which they belong
group dynamics the patterns of interaction between groups and individuals
groupthink in very cohesive groups, the tendency to enforce a high degree of conformity among members, creating a demand for unanimous agreement
Hawthorne effect a specific example of reactivity, in which the desired effect is the result not of the independent variable but of the research itself
hegemony term developed by Antonio Gramsci to describe the cultural aspects of social control, whereby the ideas of the dominant group are accepted by all
heterogamy the tendency to choose romantic partners who are dissimilar in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership
heteronormativity the belief that heterosexuality is and should be the norm
heterosexism belief in the superiority of heterosexuality and heterosexuals
heterosexuality sexual attraction toward members of the other gender
hidden curriculum values or behaviors that students learn indirectly over the course of their schooling
high culture those forms of cultural expression usually associated with the elite or dominant classes
homeschooling the education of children by their parents, at home
homogamy the tendency to choose romantic partners who are similar to us in terms of class, race, education, religion, and other social group membership
homophobia fear of or discrimination toward gay, lesbian, and bisexual people
homosexuality sexual attraction toward members of one’s own gender
honor killing the murder of a family member— usually female— who is believed to have brought dishonor to the family
horizontal social mobility the movement of individuals or groups within a particular social class, most often a result of changing occupations
human exceptionalism the attitude that humans are exempt from natural ecological limits
hypergamy marrying “up” in the social class hierarchy hypodermic needle theory (magic bullet theory) a
theory that explains the effects of media as if their con- tents simply entered directly into the consumer, who is powerless to resist their influence
hypogamy marrying “down” in the social class hierarchy hypothesis a theoretical statement explaining the relation-
ship between two or more phenomena
id, ego, and superego according to Freud, the three interre- lated parts that make up the mind: the id consists of basic inborn drives that are the source of instinctive psychic energy; the ego is the realistic aspect of the mind that bal- ances the forces of the id and the superego; the superego has two components (the conscience and the ego- ideal) and represents the internalized demands of society
ideal culture the norms, values, and patterns of behavior that members of a society believe should be observed in principle
ideology a system of beliefs, attitudes, and values that directs a society and reproduces the status quo of the bourgeoisie
idioculture the customs, practices, and values expressed in a particular place by the people who interact there
immigration entering one country from another to take up permanent residence
impression management the effort to control the impres- sions we make on others so that they form a desired view of us and the situation; the use of self- presentation and performance tactics
incapacitation an approach to punishment that seeks to pro- tect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them
incest sexual contact between family members; a form of child abuse when it occurs between a child and a caregiver
Independent (or Third) Sector the part of the economy composed of nonprofit organizations; their workers are mission driven, rather than profit driven, and such organi- zations direct surplus funds to the causes they support
GLOSSARYG-8
independent variable the factor that is predicted to cause change
individual discrimination discrimination carried out by one person against another
Industrial Revolution the rapid transformation of social life resulting from the technological and economic devel- opments that began with the assembly line, steam power, and urbanization
infant mortality average number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births in a particular population
influential power power that is supported by persuasion Information Revolution the recent social revolution made
possible by the development of the microchip in the 1970s, which brought about vast improvements in the ability to manage information
informed consent a safeguard through which the researcher makes sure that respondents are freely partici- pating and understand the nature of the research
in- group a group that one identifies with and feels loyalty toward
in- group orientation among stigmatized individuals, the rejection of prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity
innovators individuals who accept society’s approved goals but not society’s approved means to achieve them
institutional discrimination discrimination carried out systematically by institutions (political, economic, educa- tional, and others) that affects all members of a group who come into contact with it
institutional review board a group of scholars within a university who meet regularly to review and approve the research proposals of their colleagues and make recom- mendations for how to protect human subjects
instrumental leadership leadership that is task or goal oriented
instrumental role the position of the family member who provides material support; often an authority figure
instrumental tasks the practical physical tasks necessary to maintain family life
integrative medicine the combination of conventional medicine with complementary practices and treatments that have proven to be safe and effective
intergenerational mobility movement between social classes that occurs from one generation to the next
internal colonialism the economic and political subjuga- tion of the minority group by the dominant group within a nation
internal migration movement of a population within a country
interpretive community a group of people dedicated to the consumption and interpretation of a particular cul- tural product and who create a collective, social meaning for the product
interpretive strategies the ideas and frameworks that audience members bring to bear on a particular media text to understand its meaning
intersectionality a concept that identifies how different categories of inequality (race, class, gender, etc.) intersect to shape the lives of individuals and groups
intersex a person whose chromosomes or sex characteris- tics are neither exclusively male nor exclusively female
intervening variable a third variable, sometimes over- looked, that explains the relationship between two other variables
interviews person- to- person conversations for the purpose of gathering information by means of questions posed to respondents
intragenerational mobility the movement between social classes that occurs during the course of an individual’s lifetime
intrinsic religiosity a person’s inner religious life or per- sonal relationship to the divine
iron cage Max Weber’s pessimistic description of modern life, in which we are caught in bureaucratic structures that control our lives through rigid rules and rationalization
just- world hypothesis argues that people have a deep need to see the world as orderly, predictable, and fair, which creates a tendency to view victims of social injustice as deserving of their fates
kin relatives or relations, usually those related by common descent
knowledge work work that primarily deals with informa- tion; producing value in the economy through ideas, judg- ments, analyses, designs, or innovations
labeling theory Howard Becker’s idea that deviance is a consequence of external judgments, or labels, that modify the individual’s self- concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person
language a system of communication using vocal sounds, gestures, or written symbols; the basis of symbolic culture and the primary means through which we communicate with one another and perpetuate our culture
latent functions the less obvious, perhaps unintended functions of a social structure
laws types of norms that are formally codified to provide an explicit statement about what is permissible or forbidden, legal or illegal in a given society
leading questions questions that predispose a respondent to answer in a certain way
GLOSSARY G-9
legal- rational authority authority based in laws, rules, and procedures, not in the heredity or personality of any individual leader
leisure a period of time that can be spent relaxing, engag- ing in recreation, or otherwise indulging in freely chosen activities
LGBTQ lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (some- times “I” is added for “intersex” and “A” for “asexual”)
liberation theology a movement within the Catholic Church to understand Christianity from the perspec- tive of the poor and oppressed, with a focus on fighting injustice
life expectancy average age to which people in a particular population are expected to live
life history an approach to interviewing that asks for a chronological account of the respondent’s entire life or some portion of it
life span or longevity the uppermost age to which a person can potentially live
lifestyle enclaves groups of people drawn together by shared interests, especially those relating to hobbies, sports, and media
Likert scale a way of formatting a survey questionnaire so that the respondent can choose an answer along a continuum
literature review a thorough search through previously published studies relevant to a particular topic
looking- glass self the notion that the self develops through our perception of others’ evaluations and appraisals of us
lower- middle class see working class
macrosociology the level of analysis that studies large- scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals
mainstream environmentalism beginning in the 1970s, the third stage of the environmental movement; charac- terized by enhanced organization, improved promotional campaigns and political tactics, and an increased reliance on economic and scientific expertise
Malthusian theorem the theory that exponential growth in population will outpace arithmetic growth in food pro- duction and other resources
manifest functions the obvious, intended functions of a social structure for the social system
marriage a formally recognized bond between two spouses, establishing contractual rights and obligations between them
mass behavior large groups of people engaging in similar behaviors without necessarily being in the same place
mass society theory a theory of social movements that assumes people join not because of the movements’ ideals but to satisfy a psychological need to belong to something larger than themselves
master status a status that is always relevant and affects all other statuses we possess
material culture the objects associated with a cultural group, such as tools, machines, utensils, buildings, and art- work; any physical object to which we give social meaning
McDonaldization George Ritzer’s term describing the spread of bureaucratic rationalization and the accompa- nying increases in efficiency and dehumanization
means of production anything that can create wealth: money, property, factories, and other types of businesses, and the infrastructure necessary to run them
mechanical solidarity the type of social bonds present in premodern, agrarian societies, in which shared traditions and beliefs created a sense of social cohesion
medicalization the process by which some behaviors or conditions that were once seen as personal problems are redefined as medical issues
megalopolis a group of densely populated metropolises that grow dependent on each other and eventually combine to form a huge urban complex
men’s liberation a movement that originated in the 1970s to discuss the challenges of masculinity
men’s rights movement an offshoot of male liberation whose members believe that feminism promotes discrimi- nation against men
merger the legal combination of two companies, usually in order to maximize efficiency and profits by eliminating redundant infrastructure and personnel
meritocracy a system in which rewards are distributed based on merit
metropolis an urban area with a large population, usually 500,000 to 1 million people
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) an area with at least one major city of 50,000 or more inhabitants that is surrounded by adjacent counties that are socially and economically integrated with the city core
microaggressions everyday uses of subtle verbal and nonverbal communications that convey denigrating or dismissive messages to members of certain social groups
microsociology the level of analysis that studies face- to- face and small- group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and structures of society
middle class social class composed primarily of white col- lar workers with a broad range of education and incomes; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population
midrange theory an approach that integrates empiricism and grand theory
migration movement of people from one geographic area to another for the purpose of resettling
minority group social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society’s dominant groups though they are not necessarily fewer in number than the dominant groups
GLOSSARYG-10
miscegenation romantic, sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races
misogyny an ingrained prejudice against women; dislike, contempt, or hatred of women
modern environmental movement beginning in the 1960s, the second major stage of the environmental move- ment; focused on the environmental consequences of new technologies, oil exploration, chemical production, and nuclear power plants
modernism a paradigm that places trust in the power of science and technology to create progress, solve problems, and improve life
modernity a term that characterizes industrialized societ- ies, including the decline of tradition, an increase in individualism, and a belief in progress, technology, and science
monarchy a government ruled by a king or queen, with suc- cession of rulers kept within the family
monogamy the practice of marrying (or being in a relation- ship with) one person at a time
monopoly a situation in which there is only one individual or organization, without competitors, providing a particu- lar good or service
monotheistic a term describing religions that worship a single divine figure
moral holiday a specified time period during which some norm violations are allowed
mores norms that carry great moral significance, are closely related to the core values of a cultural group, and often involve severe repercussions for violators
mortality rate a measure of the decrease in population due to deaths; often expressed as the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a particular population
multiculturalism a policy that values diverse racial, eth- nic, national, and linguistic backgrounds and so encour- ages the retention of cultural differences within the larger society
nature vs. nurture debate the ongoing discussion of the respective roles of genetics and socialization in determin- ing individual behaviors and traits
negative questions survey questions that ask respondents what they don’t think instead of what they do think
neglect a form of child abuse in which the caregiver fails to provide adequate nutrition, sufficient clothing or shelter, or hygienic and safe living conditions
net migration net effect of immigration and emigration on a particular population; expressed as an increase or decrease
new ecological paradigm a way of understanding human life as just one part of an ecosystem that includes many species’ interactions with the environment; suggests that there should be ecological limits on human activity
NIMBY short for “not in my back yard”; originally referred to protests aimed at shifting undesirable activities onto those with less power; now sometimes used without negative connotations to describe local environmental activists
nonrenewable resources finite resources that can become exhausted; includes those that take so long to replenish as to be effectively finite
norms rules or guidelines regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable and appropriate within a particular culture; these typically emanate from the group’s values
nuclear family a heterosexual couple with one or more children living in a single household
objectivity impartiality; the ability to allow the facts to speak for themselves
oligarchy political rule by a small group of people, usualy members of a wealthy or otherwise dominant class
online education any educational course or program in which the teacher and the student meet via the Internet, rather than meeting physically in a classroom
open system a social system with ample opportunities to move from one class to another
open- ended question a question asked of a respondent that allows the answer to take whatever form the respon- dent chooses
operational definition a clear and precise definition of a variable that facilitates its measurement
opinion leaders high- profile individuals whose interpreta- tion of events influences the public
organic solidarity the type of social bonds present in modern societies, based on difference, interdependence, and individual rights
out- group a group toward which an individual feels opposi- tion, rivalry, or hostility
outsiders according to Howard Becker, those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from “normal” society
outsourcing “contracting out” or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform; typically done for financial reasons
palliative care type of health care that focuses on symptom and pain relief and providing a supportive environment for critically ill or dying patients
pandemic occurs when a significantly higher number of cases of a disease also spreads through an especially large geographical region spanning many countries or even continents
paradigm a set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way of understanding social reality
GLOSSARY G-11
paradigm shift a major change in basic assumptions of a particular scientific discipline
participant observation a methodology associated with ethnography whereby the researcher both observes and becomes a member in a social setting
particular or significant other the perspectives and expectations of a particular role that a child learns and internalizes
passing presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group to which you belong
patriarchy literally meaning “rule of the father”; a male- dominated society
personal front the performance tactics we use to present ourselves to others, including appearance, costume, and manner
pilot study a small- scale study carried out to test the feasi- bility of conducting a study on a larger scale
play stage the second stage in Mead’s theory of the develop- ment of self wherein children pretend to play the role of the particular or significant other
pluralism a cultural pattern of intergroup relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation and acceptance within a society
pluralist model a system of political power in which a wide variety of individuals and groups have equal access to resources and the mechanisms of power
pluralistic ignorance a process in which members of a group individually conclude that there is no need to take action because they see that other group members have not done so
political action committees (PACs) organizations that raise money to support the interests of a select group or organization
politics methods and tactics intended to influence govern- ment policy, policy- related attitudes, and activities
pollution any environmental contamination that harms living beings
polyamory a system of multiple- person partnership polyandry a system of marriage that allows women to have
multiple husbands polygamy a system of marriage that allows people to have
more than one spouse at a time polygyny a system of marriage that allows men to have
multiple wives polysemy having many possible meanings or
interpretations popular culture forms of cultural expression usually asso-
ciated with the masses, consumer goods, and commercial products
population transfer the forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied
positive deviance actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic
positivism the theory that sense perceptions are the only valid source of knowledge
postmodernism a paradigm that suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux
postmodernity a term that characterizes postindustrial societies, including a focus on the production and man- agement of information and skepticism of science and technology
power the ability to impose one’s will on others power elite a relatively small group of people in the top
ranks of economic, political, and military institutions who make many of the important decisions in American society
pragmatism a perspective that assumes organisms (includ- ing humans) make practical adaptations to their environ- ments; humans do this through cognition, interpretation, and interaction
praxis the application of theory to practical action in an effort to improve aspects of society
prejudice an idea about the characteristics of a group that is applied to all members of that group and is unlikely to change regardless of the evidence against it
preparatory stage the first stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self wherein children mimic or imitate others
prestige the social honor people are given because of their membership in well- regarded social groups
preventive medicine type of health care that aims to avoid or forestall the onset of disease by taking preventive mea- sures, often including lifestyle changes
primary deviance in labeling theory, the initial act or atti- tude that causes one to be labeled deviant
primary groups groups composed of the people who are most important to one’s sense of self; members’ relation- ships are typically characterized by face- to- face interac- tion, high levels of cooperation, and intense feelings of belonging
primary sex characteristics biological factors, such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs, that distinguish males from females
privilege unearned advantage accorded to members of dominant social groups (males, whites, heterosexuals, the physically able, etc.)
probability sampling any sampling procedure that uses randomization
profane the ordinary, mundane, or everyday pro- feminist men’s movement an offshoot of male libera-
tion whose members support feminism and believe that sexism harms both men and women
progressive term describing efforts to promote forward- thinking social change
proletariat workers; those who have no means of produc- tion of their own and so are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live
GLOSSARYG-12
property crime crimes that do not involve violence, including burglary, larceny- theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson
propinquity the tendency to partner with people who live close by
psychosexual stages of development four distinct stages of the development of the self between birth and adult- hood, according to Freud; personality quirks are a result of being fixated, or stuck, at any stage
public goods dilemma a type of social dilemma in which individuals incur the cost to contribute to a collec- tive resource, though they may never benefit from that resource
qualitative research research that works with nonnumer- ical data such as texts, field notes, interview transcripts, photographs, and tape recordings; this type of research more often tries to understand how people make sense of their world
quantitative research research that translates the social world into numbers that can be treated mathematically; this type of research often tries to find cause- and- effect relationships
queer theory social theory about gender and sexual iden- tity; emphasizes the importance of difference and rejects ideas of innate identities or restrictive categories
race a socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people
race consciousness an ideology that acknowledges race as a powerful social construct that shapes our individual and social experiences
racial assimilation the process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage
racism a set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial or ethnic group; used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences among groups are genetic
rape culture a set of beliefs, norms, and values that normal- izes sexual violence against women
rapport a positive relationship often characterized by mutual trust or sympathy
rationalization the application of economic logic to human activity; the use of formal rules and regulations in order to maximize efficiency without consideration of subjective or individual concerns
reactivity the tendency of people and events to react to the process of being studied
real culture the norms, values, and patterns of behavior that actually exist within a society (which may or may not correspond to the society’s ideals)
rebels individuals who reject society’s approved goals and means and instead create and work toward their own (sometimes revolutionary) goals using new means
recreation any satisfying, amusing, and stimulating activity that is experienced as refreshing and renewing for body, mind, and spirit
reference group a group that provides a standard of com- parison against which we evaluate ourselves
reflexivity how the identity and activities of the researcher influence what is going on in the field setting
region the context in which the performance takes place, including location, décor, and props
regressive term describing resistance to particular social changes, efforts to maintain the status quo, or attempts to reestablish an earlier form of social order
rehabilitation an approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty
reinforcement theory theory that suggests that audiences seek messages in the media that reinforce their existing attitudes and beliefs and are thus not influenced by chal- lenging or contradictory information
relative deprivation a relative measure of poverty based on the standard of living in a particular society
relative deprivation theory a theory of social movements that focuses on the actions of oppressed groups seeking rights or opportunities already enjoyed by others in the society
reliability the consistency of a question or measurement tool; the degree to which the same questions will produce similar answers
religion any institutionalized system of shared beliefs and rituals that identify a relationship between the sacred and the profane
religiosity the regular practice of religious beliefs, often measured in terms of frequency of attendance at worship services and the importance of religious beliefs to an individual
renewable resources resources that replenish at a rate comparable to the rate at which they are consumed
replicability research that can be repeated and, thus, later verified by other researchers
representative sample a sample taken so that findings from members of the sample group can be generalized to the larger population; also referred to as a stratified sample
representativeness the degree to which a particular stud- ied group is similar to, or represents, any part of the larger society
rescission the practice by insurance companies of cancel- ing coverage only after a person gets sick
residential segregation the geographical separation of the poor from the rest of an area’s population
resistance strategies ways that workers express discon- tent with their working conditions and try to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor
GLOSSARY G-13
resocialization the process of replacing previously learned norms and values with new ones as a part of a transition in life
resource mobilization theory a theory of social move- ments that focuses on the practical constraints that help or hinder social movements’ action
respondent a participant in a study from whom the researcher seeks to gather information
response rate the number or percentage of surveys completed by respondents and returned to researchers
retreatists individuals who renounce society’s approved goals and means entirely and live outside conventional norms altogether
retribution an approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge for the crime as the appropriate goal
reverse racism the claim by whites that they suffer discrimination based upon their race and, therefore, experience social disadvantages
riot continuous disorderly behavior by a group of people that disturbs the peace and is directed toward other people and/or property
ritual a practice based on religious beliefs ritualists individuals who have given up hope of achiev-
ing society’s approved goals but still operate according to society’s approved means
role the set of behaviors expected of someone because of his or her status
role conflict experienced when we occupy two or more roles with contradictory expectations
role exit the process of leaving a role that we will no longer occupy
role model an individual who serves as an example for others to strive toward and emulate
role strain experienced when there are contradictory expectations within one role
role- taking emotions emotions such as sympathy, embarrassment, or shame that require that we assume the perspective of another person or group and respond accordingly
rural relating to sparsely settled areas; in the United States, any county with a population density between 10 and 59.9 people per square mile
sacred the holy, divine, or supernatural same- sex marriage federally recognized marriage between
members of the same sex; made legal in the United States in 2015
sample the members of the target population who will actu- ally be studied
sanctions positive or negative reactions to the ways that people follow or disobey norms, including rewards for conformity and punishments for violations
Sapir- Whorf hypothesis the idea that language struc- tures thought and that ways of looking at the world are embedded in language
saturated self a postmodern idea that the self is now devel- oped by multiple influences chosen from a wide range of media sources
school vouchers payments from the government to parents whose children attend failing public schools; the money helps parents pay private school tuition
scientific method a procedure for acquiring knowledge that emphasizes collecting concrete data through observa- tion and experimentation
second shift the unpaid housework and child care often expected of women after they finish their day’s paid labor
second wave the period of feminist activism during the 1960s and 1970s, often associated with the issues of women’s equal access to employment and education
secondary deviance in labeling theory, the subsequent deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant
secondary groups groups that are larger and less intimate than primary groups; members’ relationships are usually organized around a specific goal and are often temporary
secondary sex characteristics physical differences between males and females, including facial and body hair, musculature, and bone structure, that are unrelated to reproduction
secular nonreligious; a secular society separates church and state and does not endorse any religion
segregation the physical and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity
self the individual’s conscious, reflexive experience of a personal identity separate and distinct from others
self- fulfilling prophecy an inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a predic- tion that causes itself to come true
service work work that involves providing a service to businesses or individual clients, customers, or consumers rather than manufacturing goods
sex an individual’s membership in one of two categories— male or female— based on biological factors
sexism the belief that one sex, usually male, is superior to the other
sexual orientation or sexual identity the inclination to feel sexual desire toward people of a particular gender
sexuality the character or quality of being sexual sick role the actions and attitudes that society expects from
someone who is ill signs symbols that stand for or convey an idea simple random sample a particular type of probability
sample in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected
GLOSSARYG-14
simplicity movement a loosely knit movement that opposes consumerism and encourages people to work less, earn less, and spend less, in accordance with nonmaterial- istic values
simulacrum an image or media representation that does not reflect reality in any meaningful way but is treated as real
situational ethnicity an ethnic identity that can be either displayed or concealed depending on its usefulness in a given situation
slavery the most extreme form of social stratification, based on the legal ownership of people
smart growth term for economic and urban planning poli- cies that emphasize responsible development and renewal
social analyst someone who approaches the world by using reasoning and questions to gain deeper insights
social atomization a social situation that emphasizes individualism over collective or group identities
social change the transformation of a culture over time social class a system of stratification based on access to
such resources as wealth, property, power, and prestige social construction the process by which a concept or
practice is created and maintained by participants who collectively agree that it exists
social control the formal and informal mechanisms used to elicit conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion
social control theory a theory of crime, proposed by Travis Hirschi, that posits that strong social bonds increase con- formity and decrease deviance
social Darwinism the application of the theory of evolu- tion and the notion of “survival of the fittest” to the study of society
social dilemma a situation in which behavior that is ratio- nal for the individual can, when practiced by many people, lead to collective disaster
social identity theory a theory of group formation and maintenance that stresses the need of individual members to feel a sense of belonging
social inequality the unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society
social influence group control over others’ decisions social institutions systems and structures within society
that shape the activities of groups and individuals social learning the process of learning behaviors and
meanings through social interaction social loafing the phenomenon in which each individual
contributes a little less as more individuals are added to a task; a source of inefficiency when working in teams
social mobility the movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchical system of social classes
social movement any social groups with leadership, orga- nization, and an ideological commitment to promote or resist social change
social network the web of direct and indirect ties connect- ing an individual to other people who may also affect the individual
social reproduction the tendency of social classes to remain relatively stable as class status is passed down from one generation to the next
social sciences the disciplines that use the scientific method to examine the social world
social stratification the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy
social ties connections between individuals socialism an economic system based on the collective
ownership of the means of production, collective distribu- tion of goods and services, and government regulation
socialization the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group, by which we become functioning members of society
society a group of people who shape their lives in aggre- gated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from others
sociobiology a branch of science that uses biological and evolutionary explanations for social behavior
socioeconomic status (SES) a measure of an individual’s place within a social class system; often used interchange- ably with “class”
sociological imagination a quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our individual circumstances and larger social forces
sociological perspective a way of looking at the world through a sociological lens
sociology the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large- scale institu- tions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions
solidarity the degree of integration or unity within a particular society; the extent to which individuals feel connected to other members of their group
special interest groups organizations that raise and spend money to influence elected officials and/or public opinion
spurious correlation the appearance of causation pro- duced by an intervening variable
status a position in a social hierarchy that carries a particu- lar set of expectations
status inconsistency a situation in which an individual holds differing levels of status in terms of wealth, power, prestige, or other elements of socioeconomic status
stereotype promise a kind of self- fulfilling prophecy in which positive stereotypes, such as the “model minority” label applied to Asian Americans, lead to positive perfor- mance outcomes for Asian Americans
stereotype threat a kind of self- fulfilling prophecy in which the fear of performing poorly— and confirming stereotypes about their social groups— causes students to perform poorly
GLOSSARY G-15
stereotyping judging others based on preconceived gener- alizations about groups or categories of people
stigma Erving Goffman’s term for any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or group’s identity and that may exclude those who are devalued from normal social interaction
structural functionalism a paradigm based on the assumption that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures
structural mobility changes in the social status of large numbers of people as a result of structural changes in society
structure a social institution that is relatively stable over time and that meets the needs of society by performing functions necessary to maintain social order and stability
subculture a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle
suburbanization the shift of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward the edges of cities
suffrage movement the movement organized around gain- ing voting rights for women
surveys research method based on questionnaires that are administered to a sample of respondents selected from a target population
sustainability economic development that aims to reconcile global economic growth with environmental protection
sweatshop a workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including below- standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions that may pose health or safety hazards
symbolic culture the ideas associated with a cultural group, including ways of thinking ( beliefs, values, and assumptions) and ways of behaving (norms, interactions, and communication)
symbolic ethnicity an ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly affect everyday life
symbolic interactionism a paradigm that sees interac- tion and meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created through interaction
synergy a mutually beneficial interaction between parts of an organization that allows it to create something greater than the sum of its individual outputs
synthesis the new social system created out of the conflict between thesis and antithesis in a dialectical model
taboo a norm ingrained so deeply that even thinking about violating it evokes strong feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion
target population the entire group about which a researcher would like to be able to generalize
taste cultures areas of culture that share similar aesthetics and standards of taste
taste publics groups of people who share similar artistic, literary, media, recreational, and intellectual interests
technological determinism a theory of social change that assumes changes in technology drive changes in society, rather than vice versa
technology material artifacts and the knowledge and techniques required to use them
telecommuting working from home while staying con- nected to the office through communications technology
tertiary deviance redefining the stigma associated with a deviant label as a positive phenomenon
textual poaching Henry Jenkins’s term for the ways that audience members manipulate an original cultural prod- uct to create a new one; a common way for fans to exert some control over the media they consume
theories abstract propositions that explain the social world and make predictions about the future
thesis the existing social arrangements in a dialectical model
thick description the presentation of detailed data on interactions and meaning within a cultural context, from the perspective of its members
third place any informal public place where people come together regularly for conversation and camaraderie when not at work or at home
third wave the most recent period of feminist activism, focusing on issues of diversity, globalization, and the variety of identities women can possess
Thomas theorem classic formulation of the way individu- als determine reality, whereby “if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”
total institutions institutions in which individuals are cut off from the rest of society so that they can be controlled and regulated for the purpose of systematically stripping away previous roles and identities in order to create new ones
tracking the placement of students in educational “tracks,” or programs of study (e.g., college prep, remedial), that determine the types of classes they take
traditional authority authority based in custom, birth- right, or divine right
tragedy of the commons a type of social dilemma in which many individuals’ overexploitation of a public resource depletes or degrades that common resource
transgender term used when gender identity and/or expression is different from the sex assigned at birth
transphobia fear of or discrimination toward transgender or other gender- nonconforming people
treadmill of production term describing the operation of modern economic systems that require constant growth, which causes increased exploitation of resources and environmental degradation
GLOSSARYG-16
triad a three- person social group two- step flow model theory on media effects that suggests
audiences get information through opinion leaders who influence their attitudes and beliefs, rather than through direct, firsthand sources
unchurched a term describing those who consider them- selves spiritual but not religious and who often adopt aspects of various religious traditions
underclass the poorest group, comprising the homeless and chronically unemployed who may depend on public or private assistance; they constitute about 12 percent of the U.S. population
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) an official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI’s official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies
union an association of workers who bargain collectively for increased wages and benefits and better working conditions
unobtrusive measures research methods that rely on existing sources and where the researcher does not intrude upon or disturb the social setting or its subjects
unschooling a homeschooling alternative that rejects the standard curriculum in favor of student- driven types of learning
upper class an elite and largely self- sustaining group who possess most of the country’s wealth; they constitute about 1 percent of the U.S. population
upper- middle class social class consisting of mostly highly educated professionals and managers who have consider- able financial stability; they constitute about 14 percent of the U.S. population
urban relating to cities; typically describes densely popu- lated areas
urban density concentration of people in a city, measured by the total number of people per square mile
urban renewal efforts to rejuvenate decaying inner cities, including renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives
urban sprawl a derogatory term for the expansion of urban or suburban boundaries, associated with irresponsible or poorly planned development
urbanites people who live in cities urbanization movement of increasing numbers of people
from rural areas to cities uses and gratifications paradigm approaches to under-
standing media effects that focus on how the media fulfill individuals’ psychological or social needs
utopia literally “no place”; an ideal society in which all social ills have been overcome
validity the accuracy of a question or measurement tool; the degree to which a researcher is measuring what he thinks he is measuring
value- free sociology an ideal whereby researchers identify facts without allowing their own personal beliefs or biases to interfere
values ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or worthy in a particular group; they express what the group cherishes and honors
variables two or more phenomena that a researcher believes are related; these will be examined in the experiment
vector organisms animals like mosquitoes, ticks, and birds that carry and spread pathogens (germs or other infec- tious agents) in a given area
verstehen “empathic understanding ”; Weber’s term to describe good social research, which tries to understand the meanings that individuals attach to various aspects of social reality
vertical social mobility the movement between differ- ent class statuses, often called either upward mobility or downward mobility
violent crime crimes in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery
virtual communities social groups whose interactions are mediated through information technologies, particularly the Internet
wealth a measure of net worth that includes income, property, and other assets
wealth gap the unequal distribution of assets across a population
white collar a description characterizing lower- level professional and management workers and some highly skilled laborers in technical jobs
white collar crime crime committed by a high- status individual in the course of his occupation
white flight movement of upper- and middle- class whites who could afford to leave the cities for the suburbs, especially in the 1950s and 1960s
white nationalism the belief that the nation should be built around a white identity that is reflected in religion, politics, economics, and culture
working class or lower- middle class social class consist- ing of mostly blue collar or service industry workers who are less likely to have a college degree; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population
working poor poorly educated manual and service work- ers who may work full- time but remain near or below the poverty line; they constitute about 13 percent of the U.S. population
R-1
Abel, Jaison R.; and Deitz, Richard. 2014. “Do the benefits of college still outweigh the costs?” Current Issues in Economics and Finance: Federal Reserve Bank of New York. http://www.newyorkfed.org /research/current_issues/ci20-3.pdf
Achtenberg, Emily. 2013. “From water wars to water scar- city: Bolivia’s cautionary tale.” North American Congress on Latina America, June. https://nacla.org/blog/2013/6/5/water wars- water- scarcity- bolivia’ s- cautionary- tale
Acierno, R.; Hernandez, M. A.; Amstadter, A. B.; Resnick, H. S.; Steve, K.; Muzzy, W.; et al. 2010. “Prevalence and correlates of emotional, physical, sexual, and financial abuse and potential neglect in the United States: The national elder mistreatment study.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 100, no. 2: 292–297.
ACLU. 2003. “Inadequate representation.” American Civil Liber- ties Union online publication, October 8. https://www.aclu.org /capital/unequal/10390pub20031008.html
______. 2017. “Fact sheet on voter ID laws.” https://www.aclu.org /other/ oppose- voter- id- legislation- fact- sheet
Adelstein, Jennifer. 2011. “What makes a knowledge society? Priv- ileging discourses.” In Katerina Nicolopoulou, Mine Karatas- Özkan, Ahu Tatli, and John Taylor, eds., Global Knowledge Work: Diversity and Relational Perspectives. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 3–21.
Adler, Patricia A.; and Adler, Peter. 1991. Backboards and Blackboards: College Athletes and Role Engulfment. New York: Columbia University Press.
Administration on Aging. 2016. “A profile of older Americans: 2016.” https://www.acl.gov/sites/default/files/Aging%20and%20Disa bility%20in%20America/2016-Profile.pdf
Adorno, T.; and Horkheimer, M. 1979. “The culture industry: Enlight- enment as mass deception.” In T. Adorno and M. Horkheimer, eds., Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso.
Aguirre, Benigno; Quarantelli, Enrico; and Mendoza, Jorge L. 1988. “The collective behavior of fads: The characteristics, effects and career of streaking.” American Sociological Review, vol. 53: 569–589.
Agyeman, Julian; Bullard, Robert D.; and Evans, Bob; eds. 2003. Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ahmed, Farid. 2012. “At least 117 killed in fire at Bangladeshi clothing factory.” CNN, November 25. http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/25 /world/asia/ bangladesh- factory- fire/index.html
Alatas, Syed Farid; and Sinha, Vineeta. 2001. “Teaching classical sociological theory in Singapore: The context of Eurocentrism.” Teaching Sociology, vol. 29, no. 3: 316–331.
Alcoholics Anonymous. 2001 (orig. 1939). Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism, 4th ed. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Service.
References Alexander, Jeffrey. 1988. “Parsons’ ‘structure’ in American sociology.”
Sociological Theory, vol. 6, no. 1: 96–102. ______. 2012. Trauma: A Social Theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ______; and Smelser, Neil. 1998. Diversity and Its Discontents: Cul-
tural Conflict and Common Ground in Contemporary American Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Alexander, Michelle. 2011. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
Allen, Drew; and Dadgar, Mina. 2012. “Does dual enrollment increase students’ success in college? Evidence from a quasi- experimental analysis of dual enrollment in New York City.” Wiley Periodicals, Inc. June. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/he.20010 /abstract
Allen, I. Elaine; and Seaman, Jeff. 2013. “Changing course: Ten years of tracking online education in the United States.” Welles- ley, MA: Babson College/Quahog Research Group. http://www .onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/changingcourse.pdf
Allport, G.; and Ross, M. 1967. “Personal religious orientation and prejudice.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 5, no. 4: 432–443.
Almaguer, Tomas. 2008. Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Altermatt, Ellen Rydell; and Pomerantz, Eva M. 2005. “The implica- tions of having high- achieving versus low- achieving friends: A longitudinal analysis.” Social Development, vol. 14, no. 1: 61–81.
Amato, Paul R.; and Patterson, Sarah E. 2016. “The intergenerational transmission of union instability in early adulthood.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 79, no. 3. December 5. http://onlineli brary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12384/full
American Association of Community Colleges. 2011. http://aacc .nche.edu/pages/default.aspx
______. 2017. “Fast facts 2017.” https://www.aacc.nche.edu /research-trends/fast-facts/
American Civil Liberties Union. 2008. “A study of racially dis- parate outcomes in the Los Angeles Police Department.” htt p s : //www. a c l u s o ca l .o rg /s i t e s /d e fa u l t /f i l e s /w p – c o nt e nt /uploads /2015/09/11837125- LAPD – Racial- Profiling- Report -ACLU.pdf
American College Health Association. 2016. “American College Health Association— National college health assessment.” http:// www.acha-ncha.org /docs/NCHA-II%20SPRING%202016%20 US%20REFERENCE%20GROUP%20DATA%20REPORT.pdf
American Psychiatric Association. 2017. “What is Autism Spec- trum Disorder?” https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families /autism/ what- is- autism- spectrum- disorder
Amott, Teresa; and Matthaei, Julie. 1996. Race, Class, Gender, and Work: A Multicultural Ethnic History of Women in the United States, 2nd ed. Boston: South End Press.
REFERENCESR-2
Ananat, Elizabeth Oltmans. 2005. “The wrong side of the tracks: Esti- mating the causal effects of racial segregation on city outcomes.” Unpublished working paper. MIT Department of Economics.
Anderson, Craig A., et al. 2010. “Violent video game effects on aggres- sion, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and West- ern countries: A meta- analytic review.” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 136, no. 2: 151–173.
Anderson, Doug. 2009. “The changing face of unemployment.” Nielsenwire. March 1. blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer / the- changing- face- of- unemployment
Anderson, Elijah. 1990. Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Anderson, Kristin J.; and Leaper, Campbell. 1998. “ Meta- analysis of gender effects on conversational interruption: Who, what, when, where, and why.” Sex Roles, vol. 39, no. 3-4: 225–252.
Anderson, L. R. 2016. “Divorce rate in the U.S.: Geographic variation, 2015.” Family Profiles, FP- 16-21. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family & Marriage Research.
Anderson, R. 2014. “Pharmaceutical industry gets high on fat profits.” BBC News, November 6. http://www.bbc.com/news / business- 28212223
Anderson, Steven W.; Bechara, Antoine; Damasio, Hann; Tranel, Daniel; and Damasio, Antonio R. 1999. “Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cor- tex.” Nature Neuroscience, vol. 2, no. 11: 1032–1037.
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
Apuzzo, Matt; and Eligon, John. 2015. “Ferguson police tainted by bias, Justice Department says.” New York Times, March 4. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/us/us-calls-on-ferguson – to- overhaul- criminal- justice- system.html
Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Origins of Totalitarianism. London: Allen and Unwin Press.
Armitage, Angus. 1951. The World of Copernicus. New York: Mentor Books.
Armstrong, Elizabeth A.; Hamilton, Laura; and Sweeney, Brian. 2006. “Sexual assault on campus: A multilevel, integrative approach to party rape social problems,” Social Problems, vol. 53, no. 4: 483–499.
Arrison, Sonia. 2011. One Hundred Plus: How the Coming Age of Lon- gevity Will Change Everything, from Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith. Boston: Basic Books.
Asch, S. 1958. “Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments.” In E. E. Maccoby, T. M. Newcomb, and E. L. Hartley, eds., Readings in Social Psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Associated Press. 2013. “Bangladesh factory collapse blamed on swampy ground and heavy machinery.” http://www.guardian .co.uk /world /2013/may/23/ bangladesh- factory- collapse- rana – plaza
______. 2015. “Supermarkets in food deserts.” http://interactives .ap.org/2015/food-deserts/
Association of American Medical Colleges. 2009. “Scientific foun- dations for future physicians.” http://www.hhmi.org/grants/pdf /08-209_ AAMC- HHMI_report.pdf
______. 2017. “Promoting a diverse and culturally competent health care workforce.” AAMC News, May 30. https://news.aamc.org /for-the-media/article/ diverse- healthcare- workforce/
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. 2012. 2012 Report to the Nations: Key Findings and Highlights. http://www.acfe.com / rttn- high lights.aspx
Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. 2012. “Second largest religious tradition in each state, 2010.”
Astin, Alexander W.; Astin, Helen S.; and Lindholm, Jennifer A. 2010. “National study of spirituality in higher education: Students’ search for meaning and purpose.” UCLA Higher Education Research Institute. http://spirituality.ucla.edu/findings/
Atauhene, B. 2011. “South Africa’s land reform crisis: Eliminating the legacy of apartheid.” Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no. 4: 121–129.
Atkin, C. 1973. “Instrumental utilities and information seeking.” In P. Clark, ed., New Models for Mass Communication Research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
______. 1985. “Informational utility and selective exposure.” In D. Zillmann and J. Bryant, eds., Selective Exposure to Commu- nication. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
AV Comparatives. 2014. “Parental control test and review 2014.” September 14. http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content /uploads/2014/09/Parental_Control_Report_2014.pdf
Avishai, Orit. 2008. “Doing religion in a secular world: Women in con- servative religions and the question of agency.” Gender and Soci- ety, vol. 22, no. 4: 409–433.
Babbie, Earl. 2002. The Basics of Social Research. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Babiak, T. 2004. “Everything goes at Burning Man: Counterculture fest is everything that North America isn’t.” National Post, Sep- tember 6, p. B10.
Baca Zinn, Maxine; and Eitzen, D. Stanley. 2002. Diversity in Fami- lies. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Badgett, M. V.; and Mallory, C. 2014. “Patterns of relationships for same- sex couples: Divorce and terminations.” http://williamsinstitute .law.ucla.edu / wp- content /uploads / Badgett- Mallory- Divorce – Terminations- Dec- 2014.pdf
Bagdikian, Ben H. 2004. The New Media Monopoly. Boston: Beacon Press.
Bailey, Holly. 2010. “ABC News/Yahoo! News Poll: People are losing faith in the American Dream.” Yahoo! News, September 21. www .news.yahoo.com
Bailey, Martha J.; and Dynarski, Susan M. 2011. “Inequality in post- secondary attainment.” In Greg Duncan and Richard Murnane, eds., Whither Opportunity: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Chil- dren’s Life Chances, 117–132. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Bailey, Ronald. 2002. “Silent Spring at 40: Rachel Carson’s classic is not aging well.” Reason Online Magazine, June 12. http://reason .com/rb/rb061202.shtml
Baker, J. P.; and Crist, J. L. 1971. “Teacher expectancies: A review of the literature.” In J. D. Elashoff and R. E. Snow, eds., Pygmalion Reconsidered: A Case Study in Statistical Inference: Reconsid- eration of the Rosenthal- Jacobson Data on Teacher Expectancy. Worthington, OH: Charles A. Jones.
Bales, Kevin. 2000. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______; and Soodalter, Ron. 2009. The Slave Next Door: Human Traf- ficking and Slavery in America Today. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bandura, A. 1965. “Influence of models’ reinforcement contingencies on the acquisition of imitative response.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 1: 589–595.
Bandy, Joe. 1996. “Managing the other of nature: Sustainability, spec- tacle, and global regimes of capital in ecotourism.” Public Culture, vol. 8, no. 3: 539–566.
Banfield, E. C. 1970. The Unheavenly City. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
Banks, Ingrid. 2000. Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women’s Consciousness. New York: New York University Press.
REFERENCES R-3
Barner, Mark R. 1999. “ Sex- role stereotyping in FCC- mandated chil- dren’s educational television.” Journal of Broadcasting & Elec- tronic Media, vol. 43, no. 4: 551.
Barnes, Brooke. 2009. “Disney swoops into action buying Marvel for $4 billion.” New York Times, August 31. http://www.nytimes.com
Barnett, Jessica C.; and Berchick, Edward R. 2017. “Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2016.” U.S. Census Bureau. https:// www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017 /demo/p60-260.pdf
Barrett, Bruce; Charles, Joel W.; and Temte, Jonathan L. 2015. “Climate change, human health, and epidemiological transition.” Preventive Medicine, vol. 70: 69–75.
Bartels, Chuck. 2003. “ Wal- Mart starting to look at all its 1.1 million U.S. workers.” Times- Picayune (New Orleans, LA), October 25, “Money,” p. 1.
Barry, Dave. 1987. Dave Barry’s Bad Habits: A 100% Fact- Free Book. New York: Holt, p. 203.
Bartkowski, John P.; and Read, Jen’nan Ghazal. 2003. “Veiled submission: Gender, power, and identity among evangelical and Muslim women in the United States.” Qualitative Sociology, vol. 26: 71–92.
Batan, Clarence M. 2004. “Of strengths and tensions: A dialogue of ideas between the classics and Philippine sociology.” UNITAS, vol. 77, no. 2: 163–186.
Baudrillard, Jean. 1994 (orig. 1981). Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Glaser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Bauer, Martin W.; and Gaskell, George, eds. 2000. Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound. London; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Baum, Sandry; Ma, Jennifer; and Payea, Kathleen. 2013. “Education pays: The benefits of higher education for individuals and society.” https://trends.collegeboard.org /sites /default /files /education – pays- 2013- full- report- 022714.pdf
BBC News. 2013. “‘Urgent need’ to remove space debris.” April 25. http://www.bbc.co.uk
Beamish, Thomas. 2002. Silent Spill: The Organization of an Indus- trial Crisis. Boston: MIT Press.
Beard, Jennifer; Feeley, Frank; and Rosen, Sydney. 2009. “Economic and quality of life outcomes of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/ AIDS in developing countries: A systematic literature review.” AIDS Care, vol. 21, no. 11: 1343–1356.
Bearman, Peter S. 2010. “Just so stories: Vaccines, autism, and the single- bullet disorder.” Social Psychological Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 2: 112–115.
Beck, Julie. 2015. “The drug with a 5,000 percent markup.” The Atlan- tic, September 22. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive /2015/09/ daraprim- turing- pharmaceuticals- martin- shkreli /406546/
Becker, A.; Burwell, R.; Herzog, D.; Hamburg, P.; and Gilman, S. 2002. “Eating behaviours and attitudes following prolonged exposure to television among ethnic Fijian adolescent girls.” The British Jour- nal of Psychiatry, vol. 180: 509–514.
Becker, Howard S. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Devi- ance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
______. 1986. Doing Things Together: Selected Papers. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
______; Greer, Blanche; Hughes, Everett C.; and Strauss, Anselm L. 1961. Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Beeghley, Leonard. 2008. The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bell, Daniel. 1976. The Coming of Post- Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books.
Bell, Derrick A., Jr. 1980. “Brown v. Board of Education and the interest- convergence dilemma.” Harvard Law Review, vol. 93, no. 3: 518–533.
Bellah, Robert; Sullivan, William; and Tipton, Steven. 1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bengali, Leila; and Daly, Mary C. 2014. “Is it still worth going to college?” FRBSF Economic Letter, May 5. http://www.frbsf.org / economic- research /publications/ economic- letter/2014/may / is- college- worth- it- education- tuition- wages/
Berger, Andrea; Turk- Bicakci, Lori; Garet, Michael; Knudson, Joel; and Hoshen, Gur. 2014. “Early college, continued success: Early college high school initiative impact study.” American Insti- tutions for Research, January 15. http://www.air.org/resource / early- college- continued- success- early- college- high- school – initiative- impact- study- 2014
Berger, P. L. 1977. Facing Up to Modernity: Excursions in Society, Pol- itics, and Religion. New York: Basic Books.
______; and Luckmann, T. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Berger, Peter. 1963. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. New York: Doubleday.
Berkman, Seth. 2017. “U.S. women’s hockey team strikes a deal with U.S.A. Hockey.” New York Times. March 28. https://www .nytimes.com /2017/03/28/sports /hockey/ usa- hockey- uswnt – boycott.html?_r=0
Berman, A. 2017. “How Google is revealing unmapped areas of the world in virtual reality.” March 10. https://singularityhub .com/2017/03/10/ how- google- is- revealing- unmapped- areas- of – the- world- in- virtual- reality/
Berman, Mark. 2014. “Horror and few answers in small Florida town after man kills his daughter and six grandchildren.” Washington Post, September 19.
Bernardes, Jon. 1985. “Do we really know what the family is?” In P. Close and R. Collins, eds., Family and Economy in Modern Society. New York: Macmillan.
Bertrand, Marianne; and Mullainathan, Sendhil. 2004. “Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination.” American Economic Review, vol. 94, no, 4: 991–1013.
Berube, A.; Singer, A.; Wilson, J. H.; and Frey, W. H. 2006. “Finding exurbia: America’s fast- growing communities at the metropolitan fringe.” Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Best, Joel. 2006. Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Best, Samuel J.; and Krueger, Brian S. 2004. Internet Data Collec- tion. Sage University Paper Series no. 141. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Betancourt, Joseph R.; Green, Alexander R.; and Carrillo, J. Emilio. 2012. “Cultural competence in health care: Emerging frameworks and practical approaches.” The Commonwealth Fund, October. h t t p : //w w w.c o m m o n w e a l t h f u n d .o r g /u s r _ d o c / b e t a n c o u r t _culturalcompetence_576.pdf
Bienkowski, Brian. 2013. “Corporations grabbing land and water over- seas.” Scientific American, February. http://www.scientificamerican .com/article/ corporations- grabbing- land and- water- overseas/
Blackstone, A. 2014. “Childless… or childfree?” Contexts, vol. 13, no. 4: 68–70.
Blackwell, D. L.; and Villarroel, M. A. 2016. “Summary health statis- tics for U.S. adults: 2015, Table A- 11a, National Health Interview Survey.” National Center for Health Statistics. http://www.cdc .gov/nchs/nhis/SHS/tables.htm
REFERENCESR-4
Blau, F. D.; and Kahn, L. M. 2007. “The gender pay gap: Have women gone as far as they can go?” Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 21: 7–23.
Blau, F. D.; and Kahn, L. M. 2016. “The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations.” IZA Discussion Paper Series, 9656. Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor. http://ftp.iza .org/dp9656.pdf.
Blau, Judith R.; and Blau, Peter M. 1982. “The cost of inequality: Met- ropolitan structure and violent crime.” American Sociological Review, vol. 47, no. 1: 114–129.
Blau, Melinda; and Fingerman, Karen. 2009. Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don’t Seem To Matter . . . But Really Do. New York: Norton.
Blaunstein, Albert; and Zangrando, Robert, eds. 1970. Civil Rights and the Black American. New York: Washington Square Press.
Block, Melissa. 2016. “The sensitive question of intersex athletes.” All Things Considered. National Public Radio. August 16. http://www .npr.org /sections /thetorch /2016/08/16/490236620/ south – african- star- raises- sensitive- questions- about- intersex- athletes
Bloom, Allan. 1987. The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Blumler, J. G.; and Katz, Elihu. 1974. The Uses of Mass Communica- tion: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Bly, Robert. 1990. Iron John: A Book About Men. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison- Wesley.
Bobo, Lawrence; Charles, Camille Z.; Krysan, Maria; and Sim- mons, Alicia D. 2012. “The real record on racial attitudes.” In Peter V. Marsden, ed., Social Trends in American Life: Findings from the General Social Survey since 1972. Princeton, NJ: Prince- ton University Press, pp. 38–83.
Bogaert, Anthony F. 2004. “Asexuality: Prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample.” Journal of Sex, vol. 41, no. 3: 279–287.
Bohner, Gerd; Siebler, Frank; and Schmelcher, Jurgen. 2006. “Social norms and the likelihood of raping: Perceived rape myth accept- ance of others affects men’s rape proclivity.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 32, no. 3: 286–297.
Bonacich, Edna. 1980. The Economic Basis of Ethnic Solidarity: Small Business in the Japanese American Community. Berkeley: Univer- sity of California Press.
Bond, Rod; and Sussex, Peter B. 1996. “Culture and conformity: A meta- analysis of studies using Asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task.” Psychological Bulletin, vo1. 119, no. 1: 111–137.
Bonilla- Silva, Eduardo. 2013/2017. Racism Without Racists: Color- Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
______. 2015. “More than prejudice: Restatement, reflections, and new directions in critical race theory.” Sociology of Race and Eth- nicity, vol. 1, no. 1: 75–89.
Bordo, Susan. 1995. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boudon, Raymond. 1991. “What middle- range theories are.” Contem- porary Sociology, vol. 20, no. 4: 519–522.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1973. “Cultural reproduction and social reproduc- tion.” In Richard Brown, ed., Knowledge, Education, and Social Change: Papers in the Sociology of Education. London: Tavistock.
______. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bouzid, M.; Colon- Gonzalez, F. J.; Lung, T.; Lake, I. R.; and Hunter, P. R. 2014. “Climate change and the emergence of vector- borne diseases in Europe: Case study of dengue fever.” MBC Pub- lic Health, vol. 14: 781.
Bowles, Samuel; and Gintis, Herbert. 1977. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books.
______. 2014. It’s Complicated. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Boyle, Brendan. 2009. “Income gap is growing: The rich are getting
richer— and rich whites quicker than rich blacks.” South Afri- can Times, October 8. http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/arti cle143706.ece
Bozick, Robert; Alexander, Karl; and Entwisel, Doris, et al. 2010. “Framing the future: Revisiting the place of educational expecta- tions in status attainment.” Social Forces, vol. 88, no. 5: 2027–2052.
Bradley, Graham; and Wildman, Karen. 2002. “Psychosocial predic- tors of emerging adults’ risk and reckless behaviors.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 31, no. 4: 253–265.
Brief, Arthur P.; Buttram, Robert T.; Elliott, Jodi D.; Reizenstein, Robin M.; and McCline, Richard L. 1995. “Releasing the beast: A study of compliance with orders to use race as a selection crite- rion.” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 51, no. 3: 177–193.
Brimson, Dougie. 2010. March of the Hooligans: Soccer’s Bloody Fra- ternity. London: Virgin Books.
Brinkley- Rogers, Paul. 2002. “Pledge of allegiance reflects timeline of nation’s history.” Columbus Dispatch, June 28, p. 2A.
British Broadcasting Corporation. 2016. “Pakistan honour killings on the rise, report reveals.” April 1. http://www.bbc.com/news / world- asia- 35943732
Brodkin, Karen. 1999. How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univer- sity Press.
Brooks, James F. 2002. Confounding the Color Line: The Indian- Black Experience in North America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Brown, Alyssa. 2012. “With poverty comes depression, more than other illnesses.” Gallup Well- Being Index. October 30. http://www .gallup.com /poll /158417/ poverty- comes- depression- illness .aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign =syndication
Browning, Lynnley. 2014. “Do team games for employees really improve productivity?” Newsweek, October 26.
Brubaker, Rogers. 2016. Trans: Gender and Race in an Age of Unsettled Identities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Buford, Bill. 1993. Among the Thugs. New York: Vintage. Bullard, Robert. 1990. Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environ-
mental Quality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ______. 1993. Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the
Grassroots. Boston: South End Press. ______; Johnson, Glenn S.; and Wright, Beverly H. 1997. “Confronting
environmental injustice: It’s the right thing to do.” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 5, no. 1: 63–79.
______; and Wright, Beverly H. 1990. “The quest for environmental equity: Mobilizing the African- American community for social change.” Society and Natural Resources, vol. 3: 301–311.
Burger, Jerry M. 2009. “Replicating Milgram: Would people still obey today?” American Psychologist, vol. 64, no. 1: 1–11.
Burkhalter, Byron. 1999. “Reading race online.” In Marc Smith and Peter Kollock, eds., Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
Burr, Ty. 2017. “Is ‘Ghost in the Shell’ an act of Hollywood whitewash- ing? Yes. And no.” Boston Globe, March 31. https://www.bostonglobe .c o m /a r t s /m ov i e s /2 0 17/0 3 / 3 0 / g h o s t – s h e l l – a c t – h o l l ywo o d – whitewashing- yes- and/o2qlxojR8iVe45DNeTQEWN/story.html
Burros, Marian. 2009. “Urban farming, a bit closer to the sun.” New York Times, June 16.
Burton, Neel. 2012. “Compared to men, women are twice as likely to develop depression.” Psychology Today, May 17. http://archpsyc .jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1733742
REFERENCES R-5
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex.” New York: Routledge.
______. 1999. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. ______. 2004. Undoing Gender. New York and London: Routledge. Buttel, Frederick H. 1987. “New directions in environmental sociol-
ogy.” Annual Review of Sociology, 13: 465–488. Byrne, D. G. 1981. “Sex differences in the reporting of symptoms of
depression in the general population.” British Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 20: 83–92.
Cahill, Spencer. 1999. “Emotional capital and professional socialization: The case of mortuary science students (and me).” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 62 (June): 101–116.
Caincross, Francis. 1995. “The death of distance.” Survey Telecom- munications, The Economist, vol. 30 (September): 5.
Califano, Joseph A., Jr. 1999. “What was really great about the Great Society?” Washington Monthly, October.
California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. 2015. “Key facts about California community colleges,” January. http:// californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/PolicyInAction/KeyFacts .aspx
Caminade, Cyril et al. 2014. “Impact of climate change on global malaria distribution.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 111, no. 9: 3286–3291.
Cancian, Maria; Brown, P. R.; and Cook, S. T. 2014. “Who gets custody now? Dramatic changes in children’s living arrangements after divorce.” Demography, vol. 51, no. 4: 1381–1396.
______; and Meyer, Daniel R. 1998. “Who gets custody?” Demography, vol. 35, no. 2: 147–157.
Caplan, Jeremy. 2005. “How green is my town.” U.S. Snapshot, Time, July 18.
Cappelli, Peter. 2015. Will College Pay Off? A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You’ll Ever Make. New York: Public Affairs.
Carnevale, A.; Cheah, B.; and Hanson, A. R. 2015. “The economic value of college majors.” Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports /valueofcollegemajors/
______; Rose, S. J.; and Cheah, B. 2011. “The college payoff: Education, occupations, lifetime earnings.” Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, August 5. http://www.cew .georgetown.edu/collegepayoff.com
Carpenter, Sandra; and Meade- Pruitt, S. Maria. 2008. “Does the Twenty Statements Test elicit self- concept aspects that are most descriptive?” World Cultures eJournal, vol. 16, no. 1.
Carson, E. A.; and Anderson, E. 2016. “Prisoners in 2015.” U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, December. https://www.bjs.gov/content /pub/pdf/p15.pdf
Carson, Rachel. 1962/1994. Silent Spring. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Case, Anne; and Deaton, Angus. 2015. “Rising morbidity and mortal-
ity in midlife among white non- Hispanic Americans in the 21st century.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 112, no. 49. http://www.pnas.org /content/112/49/15078
Case, Anne; and Deaton, Sir Angus. 2017. “Mortality and morbidity in the 21st century.” Brookings. March 23. https://www.brookings.edu / bpea- articles/ mortality- and- morbidity- in- the- 21 st- century/
Cassidy, Tina. 2006. Birth. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Castells, Manuel. 1984. “Cultural identity, sexual liberation and
urban structure: The gay community in San Francisco.” In The City and the Grassroots: A Cross- Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______. 2000. The Rise of the Network Society, vol. 1. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
______; and Susser, Ida. 2002. The Castells Reader on Cities and Social Theory. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
______. 2014. “The impact of the Internet on society: A global per- spective.” OpenMind. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/article / the- impact- of- the- internet- on- society- a globalperspective/?utm _source=views&utm_medium=article07&utm_content=Internet -society
Catalano, S. 2013. “Intimate partner violence: Attributes of victimi- zation, 1993–2011.” U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://www .bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ipvav9311.pdf
Catalyst. 2013. “Women on boards.” May 31. http://catalyst.org /knowledge/ women- boards
Catholics for a Free Choice. 2002. “Student bodies: Reproductive health care at Catholic universities.” http://www.catholicsforchoice.org /topics/healthcare/documents/2002studentbodies.pdf
Catton, William R., Jr. 1980. Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revo- lutionary Change. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
______; and Dunlap, Riley E. 1978. “Environmental sociology: A new paradigm.” American Sociologist, vol. 13: 41–49.
______. 1980. “A new ecological paradigm for post- exuberant society.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 24, no. 1: 15–47.
Caughey, John L. 1984. Imaginary Social Worlds: A Cultural Approach. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
______. 1999. “Imaginary social relationships.” In Joseph Harris and Jay Rosen, eds., Media Journal: Reading and Writing About Popu- lar Culture. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Cellini, S. R.; and Darolia, R. 2016. “Brown Center on education pol- icy.” Brookings Institute. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content /uploads/2016/07/cellini.pdf
______; and Turner, N. 2016. “Gainfully employed? Assessing the employment and earnings of for- profit college students using administrative data.” NBER Working Paper No. 22287. http:// www.nber.org/papers/w22287
Center for Manufacturing Research. 2016. “Manufacturing employment by state.” http://www.nam.org/Data-and-Reports / S t a t e – M a n u f a c t u r i n g – D a t a / S t a t e – M a n u f a c t u r i n g – D a t a / Manufacturing- Employment- by- State- March- 2016/
Center for Responsive Politics. 2016a. “2016 outside spending, by Super PAC.” https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending /summ.php?chrt=V&type=S
______. 2016b. “Reelection rates over the years.” https://www.opense crets.org/overview/reelect.php
______. 2017. “Lobbying: Top spenders, 1998–2017.” https://www .opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?showYear=a&indexType=s
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 2016. “Policy basics: Where do our federal tax dollars go?” Retrieved from http://www.cbpp .org /research /federal-budget /policy-basics-where- do- our- federal – tax- dollars- go
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2013a. “Health behavior of adults: United States, 2008–2010.” http://www.cdc.gov/nchs /data/series/sr_10/sr10_257.pdf
______. 2013b. “Health, United States, 2013.” http://www.cdc.gov /nchs/data/hus/hus13.pdf#068
______. 2014a. “Sexual orientation and health among U.S. adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2013.” http://www.cdc.gov /nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr077.pdf
______. 2014b. “Trends in out- of- hospital births in the United States, 1990–2012.” http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db144 .htm
______. 2015. “Measles cases and outbreaks.” http://www.cdc.gov /measles/ cases- outbreaks.html
______. 2016. “Deaths: Leading causes for 2014.” www.cdc.gov/nchs /data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_05.pdf
______. 2017a. “Chronic disease overview.” https://www.cdc.gov /chronicdisease/overview/index.htm#ref1
REFERENCESR-6
______. 2017b. “Health in the United States, 2016: With chartbook on long- term health trends.” https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus /hus16.pdf
______. 2017c. “Health in the United States, 2016: With chartbook on long- term health trends. Table 15.” https://www.cdc.gov/nchs /data/hus/hus16.pdf#015
Central Intelligence Agency. 2017. “The World Factbook: Swaziland.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook /geos/wz.html
Cha, Youngioo; and Weeden, K. A. 2014. “Overwork and the slow convergence in the gender gap in wages.” American Sociological Review, vol. 79, no. 3: 457–484.
Champagne, Duane. 1994. Native America: Portrait of the People. Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press.
Charles, Camille Zubrinsky. 2001. “Processes of racial residential segregation.” In Alice O’Connor, Chris Tilly, and Lawrence Bobo, eds., Urban Inequality: Evidence from Four Cities. New York: Rus- sell Sage Foundation.
Chen, Hong, PhD, et al. 2017. “Living near major roads and the incidence of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple scle- rosis: A population- based cohort study.” The Lancet, vol. 389, no. 10070 (January): 718–726. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016 /S0140-6736(16)32399-6
Chen, Katherine K. 2004. “The Burning Man organization grows up: Blending bureaucratic and alternative structures.” Doctoral Dis- sertation. Harvard University.
Cherlin, Andrew J.; and Furstenberg, Frank F., Jr. 1994. “Stepfamilies in the United States: A reconsideration.” Annual Review of Sociol- ogy, vol. 20: 359–381.
Cheslack- Postava, Keely; Liu, Kayuet; and Bearman, Peter S. 2011. “Closely spaced pregnancies are associated with increased odds of autism in California sibling births.” Pediatrics, vol. 127, no. 2: 246–253.
Chesler, Phyllis. 2010. “Worldwide trends in honor killings.” Middle East Quarterly, Spring: 3–11.
Chesley, Noelle. 2011. “ Stay- at- home fathers and breadwinning mothers.” Gender & Society, vol. 25, no. 5: 642–664.
Chetty, Raj, et al. 2014. “Is the United States still a land of oppor- tunity? Recent trends in intergenerational mobility.” National Bureau of Economic Research. January. http://www.nber.org /papers/w19844
Chetty, R.; Grusky, D.; Hell, M.; Hendren, N.; Manduca, R.; and Narang, J. 2016a. “The fading American dream: Trends in abso- lute income mobility since 1940.” http://www.equality-of-oppor tunity.org/assets/documents/abs_mobility_summary.pdf
______; Stepner, M.; Abraham, S.; Lin, S.; Scuderi, B.; Turner, N.; Bergeron, A.; and Cutler, D. 2016b. “The association between income and life expectancy in the United States, 2001–2014.” JAMA. 2016; vol. 315, no. 16: 1750–1766. doi:10.1001/ jama.2016.4226. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article -abstract/2513561
Child Trends Databank. 2015. “Family structure.” https://www .childtrends.org/?indicators=family-structure
Chiles, Nick. 2012. “Huge wage gap between blacks and whites threatens to tear South Africa apart.” Atlanta Black Star. Septem- ber 4. http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/09/04/ huge- wage- gap – between- blacks- and- whites- threatens-to-tear-south-africa-apart/
Chodorow, Nancy. 1978. The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanal- ysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______. 1994. Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities: Freud and Beyond. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
______. 2009. The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Christakis, N. A. 1995. “The similarity and frequency of proposals to reform U.S. medical education: Constant concerns.” Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 274: 706.
______; and Fowler, James. 2009. Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
______; and Fowler, James H. 2013. “Social contagion theory: Exam- ining dynamic social networks and human behavior.” Statistics in Medicine, vol. 32, no. 4 (February): %556–577. doi:10.1002/sim.5408
Christensen, D. L.; Baio, J.; and Braun, K. V. et al. 2016. “Prevalence and characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder among children aged 8 years— Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitor- ing Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2012.” MMWR Surveillance Summaries 2016, vol. 65, no. SS- 3: 1–23. Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6503a1
Christensen, Jen; and Willingham, Val. 2014. “Live to 100: Num- ber of centenarians has doubled.” CNN. June 4. http://www.cnn .com/2014/06/04/health/centenarian-death/
Cialdini, Robert B. 1998. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, rev. ed. Foxboro: Toronto Perennial Currents.
______; and Trost, M. R. 1998. “Social influence: Social norms, conformity, and compliance.” In D. T. Gilbert, S. E. Fiske, and G. Lindzey, eds., Handbook of Social Psychology, vol. 2. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw- Hill.
Cicourel, Aaron V. 1972. “Basic and normative rules in the negotia- tion of status and role.” In D. Sudnow, ed., Studies in Social Inter- action. New York: Free Press.
Clark, Meagan. 2014. “What is the world’s most- watched TV pro- gram? Hint: It’s not in the US.” International Business Times, February 6. http://www.ibtimes.com/ what- worlds- most- watched – tv- program-hint-its-not-us-1553678
Clarke, T. C.; Black, L. I.; Stussman, B. J.; Barnes, P. M.; and Nahin, R. L. 2015. “Trends in the use of complementary health approaches among adults: United States, 2002–2012.” National Health Statistics Reports, no 79. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
Clayman, Steven E. 2002. “Sequence and solidarity.” Advances in Group Processes, vol. 19: 229–253.
Clinton, Catherine; and Gillespie, Michelle, eds. 1997. The Devil’s Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South. New York: Oxford Univer- sity Press.
Coates, Ta- Nehisi. 2015. Between the World and Me. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
Cohen, Jon. 2016. “Zika’s long strange trip into the limelight.” Sci- ence, February 8. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02 / zika- s- long- strange- trip- limelight
Cohen, Philip. 2014. The Family: Diversity, Inequality and Social Change. New York: W. W. Norton.
Cohen, S. P. 2001. India: Emerging Power. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Coleman, James S. 1966. “Equality of Educational Opportunity (COLEMAN) Study (EEOS).” Ann Arbor, MI: Inter- university Consortium for Political and Social Research. http://doi.org /10.3886/ICPSR06389.v3.
Coleman, John R. 1983. “Diary of a homeless man.” New York Maga- zine, February.
College Board. Annual Survey of Colleges. 2016. “Trends in college pricing 2016.” https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files /2016- trends- college- pricing- web_1.pdf
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2006. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Collins, R. L. 2011. “Content analysis of gender roles in media: Where are we now and where should we go?” Sex Roles, vol. 64: 290.
REFERENCES R-7
Collins, Randall. 1979. The Credential Society: An Historical Soci- ology of Education and Stratification. New York: Worthington Press.
Coltrane, Scott. 1997. Family Man: Fatherhood, Housework and Gen- der Equity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Common Core State Standards Initiative. 2015. “About the Stand- ards.” http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/
Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI). 2009. “Why isn’t Johnny in preschool?” http://www.cofionline.org/files /earlylearningre port.pdf
Comte, Auguste. 1988 (orig. 1842). Introduction to Positive Philoso- phy. Frederick Ferré ed. and tr. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
Conley, Dalton. 2000. Honky. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
______. 2002. Wealth and Poverty in America: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
______. 2004. The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why. New York: Pantheon.
______. 2009. Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Black- Berry Moms and Economic Anxiety. New York: Pantheon.
Conley, D.; and Fletcher, J. 2017. The Genome Factor: What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals about Ourselves, Our History, and the Future. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Connell, R. W. 1995. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Conrad, Peter. 2006. Identifying Hyperactive Children: The Medicali- zation of Deviant Behavior. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Conti, Joseph. 2003. “Trade, power, and law: Dispute settlement in the World Trade Organization, 1995–2002.” Unpublished Mas- ter’s Thesis. University of California, Santa Barbara.
______. 2005. “Power through process: Determinants of dispute reso- lution outcomes in the World Trade Organization.” Unpublished Dissertation. University of California, Santa Barbara, Depart- ment of Sociology.
______. 2010. “Learning to dispute: Repeat participation, expertise, and reputation at the World Trade Organization.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 1: 625–662.
Cook, Kevin. 2015. Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, and the Crime That Changed America. New York: W. W. Norton.
Cook, Noble David. 1998. Born to Die: Disease and New World Con- quest, 1492–1650. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cook, Tim. 2015. “Pro discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dan- gerous.” Washington Post, March 29. http://www.washingtonpost .com/opinions/pro discrimination- religious- freedom- laws- are – dangerous- to- america/2015/03/29/bdb4ce9 e- d66d 11e4-ba28 -f2a685dc7f89_story.html
Cooley, Charles Horton. 1909. Social Organization: A Study of the Large Mind. New York: Scribner.
Coontz, Stephanie. 2000. The Way We Never Were: American Fami- lies and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books.
Cooper, David; and Essrow, Dan. 2013. “ Low- wage workers are older than you think.” Economic Policy Institute, August 28. http:// www.e p i .o rg /p u b l i cat i o n /wa ge -wo r ke rs – o l d e r – 8 8 – p e rc e nt – workers- benefit
Cooper, H. 2014. “Pentagon study finds 50% increase in reports of military sexual assaults.” New York Times, May 1. http://www . ny t i m e s.c o m /2 0 14 /0 5 /0 2 /u s /m i l i t a r y- sex- a ssa u l t – re p o r t .html?_r=0
Corporation for National & Community Service. 2016. “New report: Service unites Americans; Volunteers give service worth $184 bil- lion.” https://www.nationalservice.gov/newsroom/press-releases /2016/ new- report- service- unites- americans- volunteers- give – service- worth- 184
Correll, S. J.; Benard, S.; and Paik, I. 2007. “Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 112, no. 5: 1297–1339.
Cota, A. A.; Evans, C. R.; Dion, K. L.; Kilik, L. L.; and Longman, R. S. 1995. “The structure of group cohesion.” Personality and Social Psychol- ogy Bulletin, vol. 21: 572–580.
Couvrette, Phil. 2005. “World’s biodiversity declining at an alarm- ing rate.” Associated Press. May 20. www.enn.com/top_stories /article/1604
CREDO. 2013. The National Charter School Study. Stanford Univer- sity Center for Research on Education Outcomes. https://credo .stanford.edu /documents/NCSS%202013%20Final%20Draft. pdf
Crenshaw, Kimberle; Gotanda, Neil; Peller, Garry; and Thomas, Kendall, eds. 1996. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. New York: New Press.
Cronk, Terri M. 2017. “DoD releases latest military sexual assault report.” https://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/1168765 / dod- releases- latest- military- sexual- assault- report/
Cunningham, M.; and Jones, J. W. 2010. “Attitude and behavior assessments versus personality tests for personnel selection: Impact on key business indicators.” Human Capital Research Report. Chicago: General Dynamics Information Technology.
Curtin, Sally C.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; and Martinez, Gladys M. 2014. “Recent declines in nonmarital childbearing in the United States.” NCHS Data Brief, No. 162. August. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs /data/databriefs/db162.pdf
Dahl, Robert A. 1961. Who Governs? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Darley, John; and Latané, Bibb. 1968. “Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 8: 377–383.
Darrow, Barb. 2017. “Turns out attendance at Women’s March events was bigger than estimated.” Fortune. January 23. http://fortune .com/2017/01/23/womens-march-crowd-estimates/
Davey, Monica. 2017. “21 across U.S. are indicted in ‘ modern- day sex slave’ ring.” New York Times. May 25. https://www.nytimes .com/2017/05/25/us/ raid- sex- trafficking- thailand.html
Davies, Alex. 2017. “Detroit is stomping Silicon Valley in the self- driving car race.” Wired, April 3. https://www.wired.com/2017/04 / detroit- stomping- silicon- valley- self- driving- car- race/
Davila, M. 1971. “Compadrazgo: Fictive kinship in Latin America.” In N. Graburn, ed., Readings in Kinship and Social Structure. New York: Harper & Row.
Davis, Angela Y. 2001. “Outcast mothers and surrogates: Racism and reproductive politics.” In Laurel Richardson, Verta Tay- lor, and Nancy Whittier, eds., Feminist Frontiers IV. Boston: McGraw- Hill.
Davis, Georgiann. 2015. Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis. New York: New York University Press.
Davis, Kingsley. 1940. “Extreme social isolation of a child.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 45 (January): 554–565.
______; and Moore, Wilbert. 1945. “Some principles of stratification.” American Sociological Review, vol. 10, no. 2: 242–249.
______. 1947. “Final note on a case of extreme isolation.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 52, no. 5: 432–437.
Dawson, G.; and Bernier, R. 2013. “A quarter century of progress on the early detection and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Development and Psychopathology, vol. 25: 1455–1472.
De Alth, Shelley. 2009. “ID at the polls: Assessing the impact of recent state voter ID laws on voter turnout.” Harvard Law and Policy Review, vol. 3: 185–202.
REFERENCESR-8
Declercq, E. R.; Sakala, C.; Corry, M. P.; and Applebaum, S. 2007. “Lis- tening to mothers II: Report of the second national U.S. survey of women’s childbearing experiences.” The Journal of Perinatal Education, vol. 16: 9–14.
De Graaf, John; Waan, David; and Naylor, Thomas. 2002. Affluenza: The All- Consuming Epidemic. San Francisco: Berrett- Koehler.
Delgado, Richard; and Stefancic, Jean. 2012. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press.
Dell’Amore, Christine. 2008. “‘Deadly dozen’ diseases could stem from global warming.” National Geographic News, October 7. http://www .news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081007-climate -diseases.html
DeParle, Jason. 2012. “Harder for Americans to rise from lower rungs.” New York Times. January 4. http://www.nytimes.com/2012 /01/05/us / harder- for- americans- to- rise- from- lower- rungs .html?pagewanted=all
Desilver, Drew. 2014a. “College enrollment among low- income stu- dents still trails richer groups.” Pew Research Center. January 15. http://www.pewresearch.org /fact-tank /2014/01/15/college – enrollment- among- low- income- students- still- trails- richer -groups/
______. 2014b. “Voter turnout always drops off for midterm elec- tions, but why?” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch .org/fact-tank/2014/07/24/voter- turnout- always- drops- off- for – midterm- elections- but- why/
Desjarlais- deKlerk, Kristen; and Wallace, Jean E. 2013. “Instrumen- tal and socioemotional communications in doctor- patient inter- actions in urban and rural clinics.” BMC Health Services Research, vol. 13: 261.
Desmond, Matthew. 2006. “Becoming a firefighter.” Ethnography, vol. 7, no. 4: 387–421.
______. 2016. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. New York: Crown.
DeVault, Marjorie. 1994 (orig. 1991). Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
DiAngelo, R. 2012. What Does It Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy. New York: Peter Lang.
Di Leonardo, Micaela. 1987. “The female world of cards and holidays: Women, families, and the work of kinship.” Signs, vol. 12, no. 3: 340–350.
Dicken, Peter. 1998. The Global Shift: Transforming the World Econ- omy, 3rd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
Dickson, Caitlyn. 2014. “Sovereign citizens are America’s top cop- killers.” The Daily Beast. November 25. http://www.thedailybeast .com /articles /2014/11/25/ sovereign- citizens- are-america-s -top-cop-killers.html
Dickson, Kevin; and Lorenz, Alicia. 2009. “Psychological empower- ment and job satisfaction of temporary and part- time nonstandard workers.” Institute of Behavioral and Applied Management. http:// www.ibam.com/pubs/jbam/articles/vol10/no2/JBAM_10_2_2.pdf
Dobbin, F.; and Kalev, A. 2016. “Why diversity programs fail.” Har- vard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity – programs- fail
Doherty, Brian. 2000. “Burning Man grows up.” Reason, vol. 31: 24–33. http://www.reason.com/0002/fe.bd.burning.shtml
______. 2004. This Is Burning Man. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Domhoff, G. William. 1983. Who Rules America Now? A View from the Eighties. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
______. 1987. Power Elites and Organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. ______. 1990. The Power Elite and the State: How Policy Is Made in
America. New York: de Gruyter.
______. 2002. Who Rules America Now? Power and Politics in the Year 2000, 3rd ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
______. 2013. Who Rules America? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich. New York: McGraw Hill.
Donnelly, Denise; and Finkelhor, David. 1993. “Who has joint cus- tody? Class differences in the determination of custody arrange- ments.” Family Relations, vol. 42, no. 1: 57–60.
Dougherty, P. 2015. “Despite skeptics, acupuncture finds favor with athletes.” Press- Gazette Media, January 14. http://www.packersnews .com /story/sports /nfl /packers /2015/01/14/ despite- skeptics – acupuncture- finds- favor- with- athletes/21782441/Packersnews .com
Dover, Tessa L.; Major, Brenda; and Kaiser, Cheryl R. 2016. “Diversity policies rarely make companies fairer, and they feel threatening to white men.” Harvard Business Review, January 4.
Drucker, Peter. 2003. The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Writings on Management. New York: Collins.
Duany, Andres; Plater- Zyberk, Elizabeth; and Speck, Jeff. 2001. Sub- urban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press.
DuBois, W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.; [Cambridge]: University Press John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
Duggan, Lisa. 2003. The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalisam, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.
Duke, Alan. 2014. “‘Deltopia’ party in California turns violent; doz- ens arrested.” CNN, April 7. http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/06/us / california- street- party- melee/
Dunaway, Wilma. 2014. Gendered Commodity Chains: Seeing Wom- en’s Work and Households in Global Production. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Duncan, David Ewing. 2012. “How long do you want to live?” New York Times Sunday Review, August 25.
Duneier, Mitchell; and Carter, Ovie. 1999. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Dunlap, Riley, E.; and Catton, William, Jr. 1979. “Environmental soci- ology.” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 5: 243–273.
______. 1994. “Struggling with human exemptionalism: The rise, decline and revitalization of environmental sociology.” The Amer- ican Sociologist, vol. 25: 5–30.
Dunn, J. L. 2002. Courting Disaster: Intimate Stalking, Culture, and Criminal Justice. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Dupuis, Sherry L.; and Smale, Bryan J. A. 2000. “Bittersweet journeys: Meanings of leisure in the institution- based caregiving context.” Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 32, no. 3: 303.
Durkheim, Emile. 1895. The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Simon & Schuster.
______. 1951 (orig. 1897). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Trans. John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
______. 1984 (orig. 1893). The Division of Labor in Society. Trans. W. D. Halls. New York: Free Press.
______. 1995 (orig. 1912). The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Trans. Karen E. Fields. New York: Free Press.
Dutta, Soumitra; and Fraser, Mathew. 2008. “Barack Obama and the Facebook election.” U.S. News and World Report, November 19. http://www.usnews.com /opinion /articles/2008/11/19/barack – obama- and- the- facebook- election
Dwyer, Jim. 2001. “A nation challenged.” New York Times, Novem- ber 6, p. A1.
Dye, Thomas R. 2002. Who’s Running America? The Bush Restora- tion, 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
REFERENCES R-9
Eagan, K. et al. 2017. “The American freshman: National norms fall 2016.” https://www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs/TheAmericanFreshman2016 .pdf
Edgerton, Robert B. 1992. Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony. New York: Free Press.
Edin, Kathryn. 2000. “Few good men.” American Prospect, vol. 11, no. 4 (January 3).
______; and Kefalas, Maria. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______; and Lein, Laura. 1997. Making Ends Meet. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
______; and Shaefer, H. Luke. 2016a. $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
______; 2016b. “20 years since welfare ‘reform.’” The Atlantic, August 22.
Edwards- Levy, Ariel. 2012. “Students at Catholic colleges protest lack of access to birth control.” The Huffington Post, February 9. http://www.huffingtonpost.com /2012/02/09/catholic-college -students-birth-control_n_1265771.html
Egelko, Bob. 2002. “Pledge of allegiance ruled unconstitutional; many say ruling by S. F. court hasn’t a prayer after appeals.” San Fran- cisco Chronicle, June 27, p. A1.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 1990. The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed. New York: Pantheon.
______. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. New York: Metropolitan Books.
______. 2004. “All together now.” New York Times, July 15. Ehrlich, Paul R.; and Ehrlich, Anne H. 1990. The Population Explo-
sion. New York: Simon & Schuster. Eisenstein, Zillah. 1979. “Capitalist patriarchy and the case for social-
ist feminism.” Monthly Review, February. El Nasser, Haye. 2010. “Downturn douses Nevada’s population
growth streak.” USA Today, November 8. Ellis, Carolyn. 1995. “Emotional and ethical quagmires in return-
ing to the field.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 24: 68–96.
______. 1997. “Evocative autoethnography: Writing emotionally about our lives.” In W. G. Tierney and Y. S. Lincoln, eds., Representation and the Text: Re- framing the Narrative Voice. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
______. 2007. “Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others.” Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 13, no. 3: 3–29.
______; Adams, Tony E.; and Bochner, Arthur P. 2010. “Autoethnog- raphy: An overview [40 paragraphs].” Forum Qualitative Sozial- forschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, vol. 12, no. 1, art. 10. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101108.
Emerson, Robert. 2002. Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, 2nd ed. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
England, Paula. 1992. Comparable Worth: Theories and Evidence. Edi- son, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
Enten, Harry. 2016. “‘Shy’ voters probably aren’t why the polls missed Trump.” FiveThirtyEight. November 16. https://fivethir tyeight .com/features/ shy-voters-probably-arent-why-the- polls- missed – trump/
Environmental Protection Agency. 2012. “Municipal solid waste.” http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/
______. 2014. “Climate change facts: Answers to common questions.” http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/facts.html
______. 2016. “Moving forward for America’s drinking water.” The EPA Blog, April 26. https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2016/04 / moving- forward- for- americas- drinking- water/
Ericsson. 2017. “Ericsson mobility report.” https://www.ericsson .com /assets/local /mobility-report /documents/2017/ericsson – mobility- report- june- 2017.pdf
ESPN. 2017. “NBA attendance report.” http://www.espn.com/nba /attendance
Etzioni, Amitai. 1996. “The responsive community: A communitarian perspective.” American Sociological Review, vol. 61, no. 1: 1–11.
Evans, L. 2011. Cabin Pressure: African American Pilots, Flight Attendants and Emotional Labor. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Everton, Sean F. 2012. Disrupting Dark Networks. Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press.
Fabes, Richard A.; Martin, Carol Lynn; and Hanish, Laura D. 2003. “Young children’s play qualities in same-, other-, and mixed- sex peer groups.” Child Development, vol. 74, no. 3: 921.
Fadiman, Anne. 1998. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Fairbanks, C. 1992. “Labels, literacy and enabled learning: Glenn’s story.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 62, no. 4: 475–493.
Falconer, Renee C.; and Byrnes, Deborah A. 2003. “When good inten- tions are not enough: A response to increasing diversity in an early childhood setting.” Journal of Research in Childhood Education, vol. 17, no. 2: 188.
Faludi, Susan. 1999. Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. New York: William & Morrow.
Farghal, M.; and Shakir, A. 1994. “Kin terms and titles of address as relational social honorifics in Jordanian Arabic.” Anthropological Linguistics, no. 36: 240–253.
Farrell, Warren. 1975. The Liberated Man. New York: Bantam. Fausto- Sterling, Anne. 2000. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the
Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. Fava, S. F. 1956. “Suburbanism as a way of life.” American Sociological
Review, vol. 21: 34–37. Feagin, J. 2000. Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future
Reparations. New York: Routledge. ______. 2017. “After Charlottesville: A contexts symposium.” https://
contexts.org/blog/after-charlottesville/#feagin. Feder- Alford, Elaine. 2006. “Only a piece of meat: One patient’s
reflections on her eight- day hospital experience.” Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 3: 596–620.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (FBI). 2016a. “Crime in the United States, 2015.” December 14. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015
______. 2016b. “2015 Crime in the United States. Expanded homi- cide.” https://ucr.fbi.gov/ crime- in- the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s. -2015/ offenses- known- to- law- enforcement/ expanded- homicide
______. 2016c. “Hate crime statistics: 2015.” https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate -crime/2015/topic-pages/incidentsandoffenses_final
Federal Register. 2017. “Annual update of the HHS poverty guide- lines.” https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/31 /2017-02076/ annual- update- of- the- hhs- poverty- guidelines
Feingold, Alan. 1992. “Sex differences in variability in intellectual abilities: A new look at an old controversy.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 62: 61–84.
Feingold, David. 2010. “Trafficking in numbers.” In Peter Andreas and Kelly Greenhill, eds., Sex, Drugs, and Body Counts. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Ferguson, Bruce; and Abell, Barbara. 1998. “The urban grocery store gap.” Commentary (Winter): 6–14.
Ferris, Kerry. 2001. “Through a glass, darkly: The dynamics of fan- celebrity encounters.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 24, no. 1 (February): 25–47.
REFERENCESR-10
______.2004. “Seeing and being seen: The moral order of celebrity sightings.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 33, no. 3: 236–264.
______; and Harris, Scott R. 2010. Stargazing: Celebrity, Fame and Social Interaction. New York: Routledge
Fine, Gary Alan. 1993. “The sad demise, mysterious disappearance, and glorious triumph of symbolic interactionism.” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 19: 61–87.
______. 1996. Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______. 2001. Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
______. 2010. Authors of the Storm: Meteorology and the Culture of Prediction. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Finkel, M. 2014. “The strange and curious tale of the last true hermit.” GQ, August 4. http://www.gq.com/story/ the- last- true – hermit
Fischer, Claude S. 1976. The Urban Experience. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
______. 1994. “Changes in leisure activities, 1890–1940.” Journal of Social History, vol. 27, no. 3: 453.
______. 2011. Still Connected. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Fischer, Mary J.; and Kmec, Julie A. 2004. “Neighborhood socioeco-
nomic conditions as moderators of family resource transmission: High school completion among at- risk youth.” Sociological Per- spectives, vol. 47, no. 4: 507–527.
Fish, Stanley. 1980. Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Inter- pretive Communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fisher, Milia. 2015. “Women of color and the gender wage gap.” Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues /women/reports/2015/04/14/110962/women- of- color- and- the – gender- wage- gap/
Fishman, Pamela. 1978. “Interaction: The work women do.” Social Problems, vol. 25: 433.
Fishman, Stephen. 2011. “Working as a consultant or independent contractor.” Consultant and Independent Contractor Agreements. Berkeley, CA: NOLO.
Fiske, Jonathan. 1989. Understanding Popular Culture. London: Unwin Hyman.
FitzGerald, Frances. 1980. America Revised: History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century. New York: Vintage Books.
Florida, Richard. 2002. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It Is Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.
______. 2004. Cities and the Creative Class. New York: Routledge. Forbes. 2017. “Forbes releases 19th annual NBA team valuations.”
https://www.forbes.com /sites /forbespr/2017/02/15/forbes – releases- 19 th- annual- nba- team- valuations/#5b4deeed7f03
Ford, Jessie; and England, Paula. 2015. “What percent of college women are sexually assaulted in college?” Contexts, Jan. 12. https://contexts.org /blog /what-percent-of-college- women- are – sexually- assaulted- in- college/
Fortner, Robert S.; and Fackler, Mark P. 2011. The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley- Blackwell.
Fortune. 2017. “Global 500.” Fortune. http://fortune.com/global500/ Fox, Renee. 1957. “Training for uncertainty.” In Robert Merton, ed.,
The Student Physician. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Frank, Allegra. 2015. “Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn and more take
aim at cyber harassment against women.” Polygon. September 25. https://www.polygon.com/2015/9/25/9399169/united-nations – women- cyber- violence- anita- sarkeesian- zoe- quinn
Frank, Nathaniel. 2012. “The Associated Press bans homopho- bia.” Slate. November 27. http://www.slate.com/articles/double
_x /doublex /2012/11/the_ap_bans_homophobia_is_the_word _really_inaccurate.html
Frayer, Lauren. 2012. “Pakistan’s transgenders in a category of their own.” National Public Radio, September 3. http://www.npr.org /2012/09/03/160496712/ pakistans- transgenders- in- a- category – of- their- own?sc=17&f=1001
Free Press. 2017. “Who owns the media?” https://www.freepress.net /ownership/chart
Freud, Sigmund. 1955 (orig. 1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. London: Hogarth.
______. 1905. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. New York: Avon Books.
______. 2010 (orig. 1930). Civilization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton.
Frey, William H. 2003. “The new migration equation.” Orlando Sen- tinel, November 9.
Frey, W. H. 2014. Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute.
Frey, W. H. 2014. “The suburbs: Not just for white people anymore.” The New Republic, November 24. https://newrepublic.com /article/120372/ white- suburbs- are- more- and- more- thing- past
Fried, J.; and Hansson, D. H. 2013. Remote. New York: Crown Business. Friedan, Betty. 1963. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Norton. Frieden, Bernard; and Sagalyn, Lynne B. 1992. Downtown, Inc.: How
America Rebuilds Cities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Friedkin, Noah E. 2004. “Social cohesion.” Annual Review of Sociol-
ogy, vol. 30: 409–425. ______; and Cook, Karen S. 1990. “Peer group influence.” Sociological
Methods and Research, vol. 19, no. 1: 122–143. ______; and Granovetter, Mark, eds. 1998. A Structural Theory of
Social Influence. Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cam- bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
______; Jia, P.; and Bullo, F. 2016. “A theory of the evolution of social power: Natural trajectories of interpersonal influence systems along issue sequences.” Sociological Science, vol. 3: 444–472.
______; and Johnsen, Eugene C. 2014. Social Influence Network The- ory: A Sociological Examination of Small Group Dynamics. Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Friedman, Milton. 1994. “Medical licensure.” Freedom Daily, Janu- ary. http://www.fff.org/freedom/0194e.asp
Fry, R. 2017. “It’s becoming more common for young adults to live at home— and for longer stretches.” Pew Research Center. http:// www.pewresearch.org / fact- tank /2017/05/05/ its- becoming – more- common- for- young- adults- to-live-at-home-and-for – longer- stretches/
Fuller, Robert C. 2002. Spiritual but Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Furstenberg, Frank; Hoffman, Saul; and Shrestha, Laura. 1995. “The effect of divorce on intergenerational transfers: New evidence.” Demography, vol. 32, no. 3: 319–333.
Fussell, Paul. 1983. Class: A Guide Through the American Status Sys- tem. New York: Touchstone.
Gabb, Jacqui; Klett- Davies, Martina; Fink, Janet; and Thomae, Manuela. 2013. “Enduring love? Couple relationships in the 21st century.” The Open University. November. http://www.open .ac.uk /researchprojects /enduringlove /sites /www.open.ac.uk .researchprojects.enduringlove/files/files/ecms/ web- content / Final- Enduring- Love- Survey- Report.pdf
Gabler, Neil. 2012. “It’s a brand- news day in Hollywood.” Los Ange- les Times, November 10. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment /movies /moviesnow/ la- et- mn- ca- disney- lucasfilm- marvel -20121111,0,7695955.story
REFERENCES R-11
Gaffey, Conor. 2017. “ Neo- Nazi site the Daily Stormer tried to go online in Albania. It failed.” Newsweek, August 31. http://www.newsweek .com/ daily- stormer- andrew- anglin- charlottesville- 657468
Galbraith, Patrick W. 2012. Otaku Spaces. Seattle, WA: Chin Music Press.
Gallagher, Sally K. 2004. “The marginalization of evangelical femi- nism.” Sociology of Religion, vol. 65, no. 3: 215–237.
Gallup. 2017a. “Americans’ worries about race relations at record high.” March 15. http://www.gallup.com/poll/206057/americans – worry- race- relations- record- high.aspx
______. 2017b. “State of the American workplace.” http://www.gallup .com /reports/199961/state-american-workplace-report-2017 .aspx
Gans, Herbert J. 1962. The Urban Villagers. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc., The Macmillan Company.
______. 1967. The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Sub- urban Community. New York: Columbia University Press.
______. 1971. “The uses of poverty: The poor pay all.” Social Policy, July– August: 20–24.
______. 1999. Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Eval- uation of Taste. New York: Basic Books.
Gansberg, Martin. 1964. “37 who saw murder didn’t call the police: Apathy at stabbing of Queens woman shocks inspector.” New York Times, March 27.
Garber, Marjorie. 1997. Vested Interests: Cross Dressing and Cultural Anxiety. London: Routledge.
______. 1998. The Symptoms of Culture. New York: Routledge. Gardner, Phil. 2011. “The debate over unpaid college intern-
ships.” Intern Bridge, Inc. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc /download?doi=10.1.1.372.1710&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Garfinkel, H. 1967/1984. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Garr, Emily. 2008. “The unemployment trend by state.” Economic Policy Institute Economic Snapshots. http://www.epi.org/content .cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20080924
Garreau, Joel. 1992. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. New York: Anchor Books.
Garry, Patrick M.; and Spurlin, Candice J. 2007. “The effectiveness of media rating systems in preventing children’s exposure to violent and sexually explicit media content: An empirical study.” Okla- homa City University Law Review, vol. 32, no. 2. http://ssrn.com /abstract=1139167
Garvin, Glenn. 2008. “Too pretty? That’s when it got ugly.” The Miami Herald, March 23.
Gates, Gary. 2012. “Gallup Special Report: The U.S. adult LGBT pop- ulation.” October. http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/research / census- lgbt- demographics- studies / gallup- special- report -18 oct- 2012/#sthash.61XZT5ub.dpuf
______. 2014. “In US, LGBT more likely than non- LGBT to be unin- sured.” August 26. http://www.gallup.com/poll/175445/lgbt-likely – non- lgbt- uninsured.aspx
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight.” In The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Geiger, Abigail. 2016. “Sharing chores a key to good marriage, say majority of married adults.” Pew Research Center. November 30. http://www.pewresearch.org /fact-tank /2016/11/30/sharing – chores- a- key- to- good- marriage- say- majority- of- married- adults/
Gelles, Richard J. 1995. Contemporary Families: A Sociological View. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gemar, K.; Zarkowski, P.; and Avery, D. 2008. “Hotel room suicide: Las Vegas and Clark County.” Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epi- demiology, 43:25–27.
Gerbner, George; and Gross, L. 1976. “Living with television: The Vio- lence Profile.” Journal of Communication (Spring): 173–199.
Gereffi, Gary; and Korzeniewicz, Miguel, eds. 1994. Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Gergen, Kenneth. 1991. The Saturated Self. New York: Basic Books. Gibson, Campbell; and Lennon, Emily. 2001. “Historical census
statistics on the foreign- born population of the United States: 1850–1990.” U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Division. http:// www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029.html
Gilbert, Dennis. 2014. The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. http://www .sagepub.com/upm-data/60307_Chapter_1.pdf
Gladwell, Malcolm. 2000. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
______. 2008. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Glaser, Barney G.; and Strauss, Anselm L. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
Glaser, Mark. 2007. MediaShift. PBS. “Your guide to the digital divide.” January 17. http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/01 /digging_deeperyour_guide_to_th.html
Glass, Ruth. 1964. “Aspects of change.” In Centre for Urban Studies, ed., London: Aspects of Change. London: MacGibbon and Kee.
Glor, Jeff. 2012. “Could babies born today live to 150?” CBS News, Feb- ruary 9. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57373788 / could- babies- born- today- live- to- 150
Goffman, Alice. 2014. On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. New York: Picador.
Goffman, Erving. 1956. Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
______. 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
______. 1962. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
______. 1971. Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. New York: Basic Books.
Goldberg, Herb. 1976. The Hazards of Being Male. New York: Nash. Gomez, Manuel. 2013. “Order in the desert: Law abiding behavior at
Burning Man.” Journal of Dispute Resolution, 349–374. Goodacre, Daniel M. 1953. “Group characteristics of good and poor
performing combat units.” Sociometry, vol. 16, no. 2: 168–179. Goode, Erich. 1997. Deviant Behavior, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall. Goode, William J. 1982. The Family. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gottdiener, Mark; Collins, Claudia C.; and Dickens, David R. 1999.
Las Vegas: The Social Production of an All- American City. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Gottlieb, Robert. 1997. “Reconstructing Environmentalism: Complex Movements, Diverse Roots, in Out of the Woods: Essays in Envi- ronmental History.” Char Miller and Hal Rothman eds., 145–47.
Gottman, Jean. 1961. Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Sea- board of the United States. New York: Twentieth Century Fund.
______; and Harper, Robert. 1990. Since Megalopolis: The Urban Writ- ings of Jean Gottman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Gottschalk, Simon. 1993. “Uncomfortably numb: Countercultural impulses in the postmodern era.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 16, no. 4: 357–378.
Gould, E.; Cooke, T.; and Kimball, W. 2015. “What families need to get by.” Economic Policy Institute. http://www.epi.org/publication / w h a t – fa m i l i e s – n e e d – t o – g e t – b y- e p i s – 2 0 1 5 – fa m i l y- b u d g e t -calculator/.
Gould, Elise. 2014. “Why America’s workers need faster wage growth— and what we can do about it.” Economic Policy Insti- tute. August 27. http://www.epi.org/publication/why-americas – workers- need- faster- wage- growth/
REFERENCESR-12
Gozzi, Raymond, Jr. 1996. “Will the media create a global village?” ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 53: 65–68.
Graham, Lawrence Otis. 1996. A Member of the Club: Reflections on Life in a Racially Polarized World. New York: Harper Perennial.
GRAIN. 2012. “Squeezing Africa dry: Behind every land grab is a water grab.” June 11. http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4516 – squeezing- africa- dry- behind- every- land- grab- is- a water- grab
Grall, Timothy S. 2016. “Custodial mothers and fathers and their child support: 2013.” U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census .gov/content /dam /Census / library/publications /2016/demo /P60-255.pdf
Gramsci, Antonio. 1985. Selections from Cultural Writings. Cam- bridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
______. 1988. An Antonio Gramsci Reader. David Forgacs, ed. Boston: Schocken.
Granfield, Robert. 1992. Making Elite Lawyers. New York: Routledge. Granovetter, Mark. 1973. “The strength of weak ties.” American Jour-
nal of Sociology, vol. 78, no. 6: 1360–1380. Green, Adrienne. 2016. “From social worker to foster parent and
back.” The Atlantic. August 11. https://www.theatlantic.com /business/archive/2016/08/ social- worker/495533/
Greenwood, Shannon; Perrin, Andrew; and Duggan, Maeve. 2016. “Social media update 2016: Facebook usage and engagement is on the rise, while adoption of other platforms holds steady.” Pew Research Center. November 11. http://www.pewinternet .org/2016/11/11/ social- media- update- 2016/
Groh, Carla J. 2007. “Poverty, mental health, and women: Implica- tions for psychiatric nurses in primary care settings.” Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, vol. 13, no. 5: 267–274.
Gross, Terry. 2010. “Jon Stewart: The most trusted name in fake news.” National Public Radio. October 4. www.npr.org/templates /story/story.php?storyId=130321994
Gruber, K. J.; Cupito, S. H.; and Dobson, C. F. 2013. “Impact of doulas on healthy birth outcomes.” The Journal of Perinatal Education, vol. 22, no. 1: 49–58. http://doi.org/10.1891/1058-1243.22.1.49
Guber, Deborah Lynn. 2003. The Grassroots of a Green Revolution: Polling America on the Environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gubrium, Jaber; and Buckholdt, D. R. 1982. “Fictive family: Everyday usage, analytic, and human service considerations.” American Anthropologist, vol. 84, no. 4: 878.
Guo, Guang; Tong, Yuying; and Cai, Tianji. 2008. “Gene by social- context interactions for number of sexual partners among white male youths: Genetics- informed sociology.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 114, Suppl: S36–S66.
Gustafson, Krystina. 2015. “ Wal- Mart pay hike starts wage war.” NBC News. February 25. http://www.nbcnews.com/business /economy/ wal- mart- pay-hike-starts-wage-war-n312671
Gutfreund, Owen. 2004. Twentieth Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape. New York: Oxford Uni- versity Press.
Haas, Jack; and Shaffir, William. 1977. “The professionalization of med- ical students: Development competence and a cloak of competence.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 1: 71–88.
______. 1982. “Taking on the role of doctor: A dramaturgical analysis of professionalization.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 5: 187–203.
Haber, Gary. 2010. “Bill tries to lure grocers to Maryland’s poor areas.” Baltimore Business Journal, March 26. http://baltimore.bizjour nals.com/baltimore/stories/2010/03/29/story4.html
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Thomas McCarthy, trans.. Boston: Beacon Press.
______. 1987. The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2: Life- world and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Thomas McCarthy, trans. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hakim, Danny. 2001. “Fidelity picks a president of funds unit.” New York Times, May 22, p. C1.
Hall, Stuart. 1980. “Encoding/decoding.” In S. Hall, D. Hob- son, A. Lowe, and P. Willis, eds., Culture, Media, Language. Lon- don: Hutchinson.
______. 1997. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage in association with the Open University.
______. 2006. “Constructing difference: Creating ‘other’ identities.” In Paula Rothenberg, ed., Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically About Global Issues. New York: Worth Publishers.
Halle, David. 1993. Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Halloran, Liz. 2013. “After DOMA: What’s next for gay married couples.” NPR. June 26. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo -way/2013/06/26/195881288/ after- doma- whats- next- for- gay – married- couples
Hampton, Keith N.; Goulet, Lauren Sessions; Rainie, Lee; and Pur- cell, Kristen. 2011. “Social networking sites and our lives.” Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Internet and Ameri- can Life Project, June 16. http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files /Reports /2011/PIP%20-%20Social%20networking%20sites %20and%20our%20lives.pdf
Hancock, Adrienne B.; and Rubin, Benjamin A. 2015. “Influence of communication partner’s gender on language.” Journal of Lan- guage and Social Psychology, vol. 34, no. 1: 46–64.
Hao, Lingxin; and Cherlin, Andrew J. 2004. “Welfare reform and teenage pregnancy, childbirth, and school dropout.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 66: 179–194.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. “The tragedy of the commons.” Science, vol. 162: 1243–1248.
______. 1993. Living Within Limits. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hartung, Daniel M.; Bourdette, Dennis N.; Ahmed, Sharia M.; and Whitham, Ruth H. 2015. “The cost of multiple sclerosis drugs in the US and the pharmaceutical industry.” Neurology. April 24. htt p : //m a n a ge d h e a l t h ca re exe c u t i ve . m o d e r n m e d i c i n e .c o m / managed- healthcare- executive/news/ aarp- study- finds- sharp – rise- price- brand- name- prescription- drugs?page=full
Harvard IOP. 2015. “Harvard IOP Fall 2015: Trump, Carson lead Republican primary; Sanders edging Clinton among Democrats, Harvard IOP poll finds,” p. 207.
Harvard Magazine. 2008. “Race in a genetic world.” May– June: 62–65.
Harvey, David. 1990. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Cambridge, MA: Wiley -Blackwell.
Hatzenbuehler, M. L; Bellatorre, A.; Lee, Y.; Finch, B. K.; Muennig, P.; and Fiscella, K. 2014. “Structural stigma and all- cause mortal- ity in sexual minority populations.” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 103: 33–41.
Havitz, Mark E.; and Dimanche, Frederic. 1999. “Leisure involvement revisited: Drive properties and paradoxes.” Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 31, no. 2: 122.
Hawley, Amos H. 1950. Human Ecology: A Theory of Community Structure. New York: Ronald Press.
Hayase, Nozomi. 2010. “Otaku: A silent cultural revolution.” Cul- tureunplugged.com. http://truthseekers.cultureunplugged.com /truth_seekers/2010/07/ otaku- a- silent- cultural- revolution-.html
Hays, Sharon. 1996. The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
REFERENCES R-13
______. 2003. Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. New York: Oxford University Press.
Healthcare Medicine Institute. 2010. “San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees acupuncture.” May 25. http:// w w w. h e a l t h c m i . c o m / a c u p u n c t u r i s t – n e w s – o n l i n e / 2 6 0 -sanfranciscogiantsnewyorkyankeesacupuncture
Heilprin, John. 2005. “FBI: Radical- activist groups are major threat.” Seattle Times, May 19. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html /nationworld/2002280292_ecoterror19.html
Heller, Nathan. 2017. “Is the gig economy working?” New Yorker Mag- azine, May 15. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/15 / is- the- gig- economy- working
Hennigan, W. J. 2017. “The U.S. military is targeting Islamic State’s virtual caliphate by hunting & killing its online operatives one- by -one.” Los Angeles Times, May 5. http://www.latimes.com/world /middleeast/la-fg-isis-online-20170502-story.html
Herek, G. M. 1990. “The context of anti- gay violence: Notes on cul- tural and psychological heterosexism.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 5: 316–333.
Heritage, John; and Clayman, Steven E. 2010. Talk in Action: Interac- tions, Identities and Institutions. Boston: Wiley- Blackwell.
Heritage, J.; and Stivers, T. 1999. “Online commentary in acute med- ical visits: A method of shaping patient expectations.” Social Sci- ence and Medicine, vol. 49, no. 11: 1501–1517.
Herman, J. 2013. “Gendered restrooms and minority stress: The public regulation of gender and its impact on transgender people’s lives,” Journal of Public Management & Social Policy 19 (1): 65.
Herrnstein, R.; and Murray, C. 1994. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press.
Hess, Alexander E. M. 2013. “On holiday: Countries with the most vacation days.” USA Today, June 8. https://www.usatoday.com /story/money/business/2013/06/08/countries- most- vacation – days/2400193/
Hewitt, John. P. 2000. Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Hiatt, Brian. 2017. “Paris Jackson: After Neverland.” Rolling Stone. January 24.
Hill, Peter; and Wood, Ralph. 1999. Measures of Religiosity. Birming- ham, AL: Religious Education Press.
Hirschi, Travis. 1969. Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hochschild, Arlie Russel. 1975. “The sociology of feeling and emo- tion.” In Marcia Millman and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, eds., Another Voice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
______. 1983. The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______; and Machung, Anne. 1989. The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home. New York: Viking.
Hochschild, Jennifer L. 1996. Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hodge, Robert; and Tripp, David. 1986. Children and Television: A Semiotic Approach. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Hoffman, Matt; and Torres, Lisa. 2002. “It’s not only ‘who you know’ that matters: Gender, personal contacts, and job lead quality.” Gender and Society, vol. 16, no. 6: 793–813.
Holdren, John P.; Daily, Gretchen; and Ehrlich, Paul R. 1995. “The meaning of sustainability: Biogeophysical aspects.” In M. Munasinghe and W. Shearer, eds., Defining and Measuring Sustainability: The Biogeophysical Foundations. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Holdsworth, M.; Gartner, A.; Landais, E.; Maire, B.; and Del- peuch, F. 2004. “Perceptions of healthy and desirable body size in
urban Senegalese women.” International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, vol. 28, no. 12: 1561–1568.
Holifield, E. B. 2015. “Why do Americans seem so religious?” Sacred Matters. https://sacredmattersmagazine.com/why-do- americans – seem- so- religious/
Holmes, Seth M. 2011. “Structural vulnerability and hierarchies of ethnicity and citizenship on the farm, medical anthropology: Cross- cultural studies in health and illness.” Medical Anthropol- ogy, vol. 30, no. 4: 425–449.
Holstein, James; and Gubrium, Jaber. 1990. What Is Family? Moun- tain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
______. 1995. “Deprivatization and the construction of domestic life.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 57, no. 4: 894.
______. 2000. The Self We Live By: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World. New York: Oxford University Press.
Homans, George. 1951. The Human Group. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
hooks, bell. 1990. Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics. Bos- ton: South End Press.
______. 2003. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. London: Routledge.
______. 2005. Soul Sister: Women, Friendship, and Fulfillment. Cam- bridge, MA: South End Press.
______. 2016. “Moving beyond pain.” http://www.bellhooksinstitute .com/blog/2016/5/9/ moving- beyond- pain
Hoyert, Donna; and Xu, Jiaquan. 2012. “Deaths: Preliminary data for 2011.” National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 61, no. 6. http://www .cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_06.pdf
Hudak, S. 2015. “FAMU settles hazing lawsuit spawned by death of drum major Robert Champion.” Orlando Sentinel. http://www .orlandosentinel.com/news/ famu- hazing- band/ os- famu- hazing – robert- champion- settlement- 20150918-story.html
Huddleston, Tom. 2016. “NBC under pressure to cancel Biggest Loser.” Fortune. May 23. http://fortune.com/2016/05/23/biggest – loser- nbc- contestants/
Hughes, Jonathon; and Cain, Louis. 1994. American Economic His- tory, 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
Hull, Elizabeth. 2002. “Florida’s former felons: You can’t vote here.” Commonwealth, vol. 129, no. 12: 16.
Hummer, Robert A.; and Hernandez, Elaine M. 2013. “The effect of educational attainment on adult mortality in the United States.” Population Bulletin, vol. 68, no. 1.
Humphrey, Craig R.; Lewis, Tammy L.; and Buttel, Frederick H. 2002. Environment, Energy, and Society: A New Synthesis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Hunt, Darnell; and Ramon, Ana- Christina. 2015. “Hollywood diver- sity report 2015.” Ralph J. Bunche Center for African Ameri- can Studies at UCLA. http://www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu/wp -content /uploads/2015/02/2015- Hollywood- Diversity- Report -2-25-15.pdf
Hunt, Darnell et al. 2017. “Hollywood diversity report 2017.” Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. http://www.bunchecenter.ucla.edu / wp- content /uploads/2017 /04/2017- Hollywood- Diversity- Report- 2-21-17.pdf
Hunter, James D. 1991. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York: Basic Books.
Hunter, James D. 2006. “Is there a culture war? A dialogue on val- ues and American public life.” Washington, DC: The Brookings Press.
Hurley, Lawrence. 2013. “Supreme Court guts key part of landmark Vot- ing Rights Act.” Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25 / us- usa- court- voting- idUSBRE95O0TU20130625
Hustvedt, Siri. 2002. “9/11 six months on.” The Observer, March 10. Special Supplement, p. 6.
REFERENCESR-14
Ignatiev, Noel. 1996, 2008. How the Irish Became White. London: Routledge.
Iftikhar, Arsalan. 2016. “Honor killings are a global problem.” Time. July 29. http://time.com/4415554/honor-killing-qandeel -baloch/
India Brand Equity Foundation. 2017. “IT and ITeS.” https://www .ibef.org/industry/information-technology-india.aspx
Ingraham, Christopher. 2014. “You really can get pulled over for driv- ing while black, federal statistics show.” Washington Post, Sep- tember 9. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014 /09/09/ you- really- can- get- pulled- over- for- driving- while- black – federal- statistics- show
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. 2016. US health map. Seattle, WA: IHME, University of Washington. http://vizhub .healthdata.org/subnational/usa.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. 2016. “Teenagers. Fatality facts.” http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/teenagers/fatalityfacts /teenagers
International Telecommunications Union. 2017. “ICT facts and fig- ures 2017.” https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents /facts/ICTFactsFigures2017.pdf
International Union for Conservation of Nature. 2014. “Overview of the IUCN Red List.” http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/overview
Isikoff, Michael. 2004. “The dots never existed.” Newsweek, July 19.
Jackson, K. T. 1985. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jackson, Phillip. 1968. Life in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Jackson- Jacobs, Curtis. 2004. “Taking a beating: The narrative grat- ifications of fighting as an underdog.” In Hayward et al., eds., Cul- tural Criminology Unleashed. London: Glasshouse.
Jamieson, Patrick; and Romer, Don. 2014. “Violence in popu- lar U.S. prime time TV dramas and the cultivation of fear: A time series analysis.” Media and Communication, vol. 2, no. 2:31–41.
Janus, Irving L. 1971. “Groupthink.” Psychology Today, November. ______. 1982. Groupthink. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton- Mifflin. Jay, M. 2003. “Critical race theory, multicultural education, and the
hidden curriculum of hegemony,” Multicultural Perspectives, vol. 5, no. 4: 3–9.
Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Partici- patory Culture. London. Routledge.
______. 2006. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press.
Jenkins, Tania M.; and Reddy, Shalini. 2017. “Revisiting the rationing of medical degrees in the United States.” Contexts, January 11. https://contexts.org/articles/ revisiting- the- rationing- of- medical -degrees-in-the-united-states/
Jin, Ge. 2006. “Chinese gold farmers.” http://www. we- make- money- not- art.com/archives/2006/03/ge-jin-a-phd-st.php
Jobs for the Future. 2013. “Early college high schools get results.” http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/ECHS_get_results_040113 .pdf
Johnson, Carolyn Y. 2017. “What happened to the $750 pill that cat- apulted Martin Shkreli to infamy.” Washington Post, August 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01 / what- happened- to- the- 750- pill- that- catapulted- pharma – bro- martin- shkreli- to- infamy/?utm_term=.3f99e7e46ba4
Johnson, Kenneth M. 1999. “The rural rebound.” Population Refer- ence Bureau Reports on America, vol. 1, no. 3 (August).
______; and Beale, Calvin L. 1994. “The recent revival of widespread population growth in nonmetropolitan America.” Rural Sociology, vol. 59, no. 4: 655–667.
Jones, Andrew R. 2009. Fads, Fetishes, and Fun: A Sociological Analy- sis of Pop Culture. San Diego, CA: Cognella.
Jones, Greg. 2012. “Good workers gone bad: How to spot employee theft.” CNBC, February 12. http://www.cnbc.com/id/46556452 /Good_Workers_Gone_Bad_How_to_Spot_Employee_Theft
Jones, Jeffrey M. 2017. “In US, 10.2% of LGBT adults now married to same- sex spouse.” Gallup. http://www.gallup.com/poll/212702 / lgbt- adults- married- sex- spouse.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm _ m e d i u m = e m a i l & u t m _ c o n t e n t = m o r e l i n k& u t m _ c a m p a i g n =syndication
Jones, Nikki. 2012. Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner- City Violence. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Jones, Robert P.; Cox, Daniel; and Banchoff, Thomas. 2012. A Gener- ation in Transition: Religion, Values, and Politics Among College- Age Millennials. Washington, DC: Public Religion Research Institute, Georgetown University, 2012.
Jones, Robert P. et al. 2016. “How immigration and concerns about cultural changes are shaping the 2016 election.” Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). June 23.
Jones, Steve. 1997. Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
______; and Philip Howard, eds. 2003. Society Online: The Internet in Context. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Juergensmeyer, Mark. 2003. Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kaczor, Bill. 1996. “Neighborhood blames years of woe on ‘Mount Dioxin.’” Charleston Gazette, March 11.
Kadushin, Charles. 2012. Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kaiser Family Foundation. 2017. “Visualizing health policy: U.S. pub- lic opinion on health care reform, 2017.” March 29. http://www .kff.org/ health- costs/ press- release/ visualizing- health- policy- us – public- opinion-on-health-care-reform-2017/
Kalev, Alexandra; Dobbin, Frank; and Kelly, Erin. 2006. “Best prac- tices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirma- tive action and diversity policies.” American Sociological Review, vol. 71 (August): 589–617.
Kalleberg, Arne L. 2009. “Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition.” American Sociological Review, vol. 74, no. 1: 1–22.
Kalmijn, M. 1998. “Intermarriage and homogamy: Causes, patterns, trends.” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 24: 395–421.
Kang, Miliann. 2010. The Managed Hand: Race, Gender, and the Body in Beauty Service Work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Kann, L.; Olsen, E. O.; McManus, T. et al. 2016. “Sexual identity, sex of sexual contacts, and health- related behaviors among students in grades 9–12—United States and selected sites, 2015.” MMWR Surveillance Summaries 2016, vol. 65, no. SS- 9: 1–202.
Karau, S. J.; and Williams, K. D. 1993. “Social loafing: A meta- analytic review and theoretical integration.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 65: 681–706.
Katz, Elihu. 1959. “Mass communication research and the study of popular culture.” Studies in Public Communication, vol. 2: 1–6. http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/165
______; and Lazarsfeld, Paul F. 1955. Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. New York: Macmillan Free Press.
Katz, Jack. 1988. Seductions of Crime: Moral and Sensual Attractions of Doing Evil. New York: Basic Books.
______. 1997. “Ethnography’s warrants.” Sociological Methods & Research, vol. 25, no. 4: 391–423.
REFERENCES R-15
Kaufman, Jason. 2008. Harvard University, Department of Sociology home page. http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/kaufman/
Kaufman, Sharon. 2005. . . . And a Time to Die: How American Hospi- tals Shape the End of Life. New York: Scribner.
Keaton, Patrick. 2014. “Selected statistics from the public elemen- tary and secondary education universe: School year 2012–13.” National Center for Education Statistics, October 30. http://nces .ed.gov/pubs2013/2014098/findings.asp
Keith, Verna M.; and Finlay, Barbara. 1988. “The impact of parental divorce on children’s educational attainment, marital timing, and likelihood of divorce.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 50, no. 3: 797–809.
______. 2005. Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy: Terrorism, War and Election Battles. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Kelly, Barbara. 1993. Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kelman, H. 1958. “Compliance, identification, and internalization: Three processes of attitude change.” Journal of Conflict Resolu- tion, vol. 1: 51–60.
Kendi, Ibram X. 2016. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. New York: Nation Books.
Kephart, William. 2000. Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Kerbo, Harold R.; and Gonzalez, Juan J. 2003. “Class and nonvoting in comparative perspective: Possible causes and consequences in the United States.” Research in Political Sociology, vol. 12: 175–196.
Kessler, R. C. 2003. “Epidemiology of women and depression.” Jour- nal of Affective Disorders, vol. 74, no. 1: 5–13.
Khasnis, Atul A.; and Nettleman, Mary D. 2005. “Global warming and infectious disease.” Archives of Medical Research, vol. 36, no. 6: 689–696.
Kilbourne, Jean. 1999. Killing Us Softly 3. Dir. Sut Jhally. Center for Media Literacy.
Killewald, Alexandra. 2013. “A reconsideration of the fatherhood premium: Marriage, residence, biology, and the wages of fathers.” American Sociological Review, vol. 78: 96–116.
Kimmel, Michael. 1987. Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
______. 2009. Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. New York: Harper Perennial.
King, A. 1995. “Outline of a practical theory of football violence.” Soci- ology, vol. 24: 635–652.
King, Marissa D.; Fountain, Christine; Dakhlallah, Diana; and Bearman, Peter S. 2009. “Estimated autism risk and older repro- ductive age.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 99, no. 9: 1673–1679.
Kingkade, Tyler. 2014. “Fewer than one- third of campus sexual assault cases result in expulsion.” Huffington Post. September 29. http://www.huffingtonpost.com /2014/09/29/campus-sexual -assault_n_5888742.html
Kinsey, Alfred C.; Pomeroy, Wardell B.; and Martin, Clyde E. 1998 (orig. 1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
______; and Gebhard, Paul H. 1998 (orig. 1953). Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Kirkham, Chris. 2015. “U.S. is asked to forgive debt of Corinthian col- leges students.” Los Angeles Times, April 9. http://www.latimes .com/business/ la- fi- corinthian- student- debt- 20150410-story.html
Kirkham, Chris; and Hsu, Tiffany. 2014. “LA wage hikes spark fierce debate.” Los Angeles Times, October 24. http://www.latimes .com /business/ la-fi-minimum-wage-debates-20141025-story .html#page=1
Kitsuse, John I. 1980. “Coming out all over: Deviants and the politics of social problems.” Social Problems, vol. 28: 1–13.
Kitzinger, C. 1987. The Social Construction of Lesbianism. London: Sage. Klapper, J. 1960. The Effects of Mass Communication. New York: Free
Press. Klein, Naomi. 2000. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
New York: Picador. Kleinman, Sherryl. 1984. Equals Before God: Seminarians as Human-
istic Professionals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Klinenberg, Eric. 2002. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of a Disaster in
Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ______. 2007. “Breaking the news.” Mother Jones, March/April. http://
www.motherjones.com /news /feature /2007/03/breaking_the _news.html
______. 2012a. “Facebook isn’t making us lonely.” Slate, April 19. http:// www.slate.com /articles/life/culturebox /2012/04/is_facebook _making_us_lonely_no_the_atlantic_cover_story_is_wrong_. single .html
______. 2012b. Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise of Living Alone. New York: Penguin Press.
Koerner, Brendan I. 2003. “Outbreaks vs. epidemics: Whether it’s time to freak about the flu.” Slate, December 19. http://www.slate .com/id/2092969
Kolata, G. 2016. “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ their bodies fought to regain weight.” New York Times¸ May 2. https://www.nytimes.com /2016/05/02/health/ biggest- loser- weight- loss.html?_r=2
Kollock, Peter; Blumstein, Philip; and Schwartz, Pepper. 1985. “Sex and power in interaction: Conversational privileges and duties.” American Sociological Review, vol. 50, no. 1: 34–46.
Kosciw, Joseph G.; Greytak, Emily A.; Giga, Noreen M.; Villenas, C.; and Danischewski, David J. 2016. “The 2015 National School Cli mate Survey.” https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2015%20National % 2 0 G L S E N % 2 0 2 0 1 5 % 2 0 Na t i o n a l % 2 0 S c h o o l % 2 0 C l i m a t e %20Survey%20%28NSCS%29%20-%20Full%20Report_0.pdf
Koseff, Alexei. 2014. “Jerry Brown approves community college bach- elor’s degrees.” Sacramento Bee, September, 29. http://www.sacbee .com /news/politics-government /capitol-alert /article2615016 .html
Kosmin, Barry A.; and Keysar, Ariela. 2013. “Religious, spiritual, and secular: The emergence of three distinct worldviews among American college students.” Hartford, CT: Trinity College. http://www.trincoll.edu/Academics/centers/isssc/Documents /ARIS_2013_College%20Students_Sept_25_final_draft.pdf
______; Mayer, Egon; and Keysar, Ariela. 2001. “American Religious Identification Survey.” The Graduate Center of the City Uni- versity of New York. http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research _briefs/aris/aris_index.htm
Kozol, J. 1991. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown Publishing.
Krakauer, Jon. 1997. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books. Kramer, A. D. I.; Guillory, J. E.; and Hancock, J. T. 2014. “Experimen-
tal evidence of massive- scale emotional contagion through social networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, vol. 111, no. 24.
Krashen, S. D. 1996. Under Attack: The Case against Bilingual Educa- tion. Culver City, CA: Language Education Associates.
Kraus, Richard G. 1995. “Play’s new identity: Big business.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, vol. 66, no. 8: 36.
Kreider, Rose M.; and Lofquist, Daphne A. 2010. “Adopted children and stepchildren: 2010.” Adoption Quarterly, vol. 13: 268–291.
Kristof, N.; and WuDunn, S. 2000. “Two cheers for sweatshops.” New York Times Magazine, September 24. http://www.nytimes.com /library/magazine/home/20000924 mag- sweatshops.html
Krivickas, Kristy; and Lofquist, Daphne. 2011. “Demographics of same- sex couple households with children.” http://www.census .gov/hhes/same sex/files/ Krivickas- Lofquist%20PAA%202011.pdf
REFERENCESR-16
Kuhn, Manfred; and McPartland, T. S. 1954. “An empirical investiga- tion of self- attitude.” American Sociological Review, vol. 19: 68–79.
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1970 (orig. 1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolu- tions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kunstler, J. H. 1993. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man- Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Kurtzleben, D. 2013. “Gay couples more educated, higher- income than heterosexual couples.” U.S. News and World Report, March 1. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/03/01/gay-couples – more- educated- higher- income- than- heterosexual- couples
Kurzman, Charles; and Schanzer, David. 2015. “Law enforcement assessment of the violent extremism threat.” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. June 25. https://sites.duke .edu/tcths/files/2013/06/Kurzman_Schanzer_Law_Enforcement _Assessment_of_the_Violent_Extremist_Threat_final.pdf
Kurzweil, Ray. 1990. The Age of Intelligent Machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lachman, Margie. 2004. “Development in midlife.” Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 55: 305–31.
Lachs, M.; and Pillemer, K. 2015. “Elder abuse.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 373: 1947–1956. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1404688
Lacy, Karyn R. 2007. Blue Chip Black: Race, Class, and Status in the New Black Middle Class. Berkeley: University of California Press.
LaFraniere, Sharon; and Lehren, Andrew W. 2015. “The dispropor- tionate risks of driving while black.” New York Times, October 25. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/ racial-disparity-traffic -stops-driving-black.html?_r=0
LaMarre, Thomas. 2004. “An introduction to the otaku movement.” EnterText, vol. 4, no. 1: 151–187.
Laing, Aislinn. 2012. “South Africa’s whites still paid six times more than blacks.” The Telegraph, October 30. http://www .t e l e g r a p h . c o .u k /n e w s /w o r l d n e w s /a f r i c a a n d i n d i a n o c e a n /southafrica/9643548/ South- Africas- whites- still- paid- six- times – more- than- blacks.html
Lamidi, E.; and Manning, W. D. 2016. “Marriage and cohabitation expe- riences among young adults.” Family Profiles, FP- 16-17. Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Marriage and Family Research. http:// www.bgsu.edu /ncfmr/resources/data / family- profiles/ lamidi- manning- marriage-cohabitation-young-adults-fp-16-17.html
Lane, J. Mark; and Tabak, Ronald J. 1991. “Judicial activism and leg- islative ‘reform’ of federal habeas corpus: A critical analysis of recent developments and current proposals.” Albany Law Review, vol. 55, no. 1: 1–95.
Lareau, Annette. 2003. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
LaRossa, R. 2016. “The culture of fatherhood and the late- twentieth- century new fatherhood movement: An interpretive perspec- tive.” In Laura Tropp and Janice Kelly, eds., Deconstructing Dads: Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, chapter 1.
Larson, Doran. 2013. “Why Scandinavian prisons are superior.” The Atlantic, September 24. http://www.theatlantic.com /international /archive /2013/09/ why- scandinavian- prisons – are- superior/279949/
Larson, R. W.; and Richards, M. H. 1991. “Daily companionship in late childhood and early adolescence: Changing developmental con- texts.” Child Development, vol. 62: 284–300.
Lasch, Christopher. 1977. Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged. New York: Basic Books.
Laumann, Edward O; Gagnon, John H.; Michael, Robert T.; and Michaels, Stuart. 1994. The Social Organization of Sexuality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lazar, D.; et al. 2009. “Computational social science.” Science, vol. 323, no. 5915: 721–723.
Lazarsfeld, Paul; and Katz, Elihu. 1955. Personal Influence. New York: Free Press.
Le, Vanna. 2014. “Global 2000: The world’s largest media com- panies of 2014.” Forbes, May 7. http://www.forbes.com/sites /vannale/2014/05/07/ global- 2000- the- worlds- largest- media – companies- of- 2014/
Leaper, Campbell; and Ayers, Melanie M. 2007. “A meta- analytic review of gender variations in adults’ language use: Talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech.” Personality and Social Psychology Review, vol. 11: 328–363.
Le Bon, Gustave. 1896. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. New York: Viking Press.
Lederer, Edith. 2012. “U.N.: 4 million human trafficking vic- tims.” Associated Press, April 3. http://www.news.yahoo.com / un- 2-4- million- human- trafficking- victims- 004512192.html
Lee, Jennifer; and Bean, Frank D. 2012. The Diversity Paradox: Immi- gration and the Color Line in Twenty- First Century America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Lee, Jennifer; and Zhou, Min. 2014. “The success frame and achieve- ment paradox: The costs and consequences for Asian Americans.” Race and Social Problems, vol. 6, no. 1: 38–55.
______. 2015. The Asian American Achievement Paradox. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Leidner, Robin. 1993. Fast Food, Fast Talk. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Leifheit- Limson, Erica C.; D’Onofrio, Gail et al. 2015. “Sex differences in cardiac risk factors, perceived risk, and health care provider discussion of risk and risk modification among young patients with acute myocardial infarction.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vol. 66, no. 18, November. http://www.onlinejacc .org/content/66/18/1949
Lemert, Edwin M. 1951. Social Pathology: A Systematic Approach to the Theory of Sociopathic Behavior. New York: McGraw- Hill.
Lenhart, Amanda. 2015. “Teens, technology and friendships: Video games, social media and mobile phones play an integral role in how teens meet and interact with friends.” Pew Research Center. August 6. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/06 / teens- technology- and- friendships/
Lepowsky, Maria Alexandra. 1993. Gender and Power from Fruit of the Motherland. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lerner, Melvin. 1965. “Evaluation of performance as a function of performer’s reward and attractiveness.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 1, no. 4: 355–360.
______. 1980. The Belief in a Just World: A Fundamental Delusion. New York: Plenum Press.
Levi- Strauss, C. 1969 (orig. 1949). In R. Needham, ed., The Elemen- tary Structures of Kinship. rev. ed. J. Bell and J. von Sturmer, trans.. Boston: Beacon Press.
Lewis, Christopher Alan; Shelvin, Mark; McGuckin, Conor; and Navratil, Marek. 2001. “The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire: Confirmatory factor analysis.” Pastoral Psy- chology, vol. 49, no. 5. http://www.infm.ulst.ac.uk/~chris/64.pdf
Lewis, Jacqueline. 1998. “Learning to strip: The socialization experi- ences of exotic dancers.” Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, vol. 7: 1–16.
Lewis, Jason. 2013. “New report details plans for low- wage worker justice.” The Village Voice, February 14. http://blogs.villagevoice .com/runninscared/2013/02/new_report_deta.php
Lewis, Michael. 2011. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. New York: W. W. Norton.
Lewis, Oscar. 1959. Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Cul- ture of Poverty. New York: Basic Books.
REFERENCES R-17
Li, J.; and Singelmann, J. 1998. “Gender differences in class mobility: A comparative study of the United States, Sweden, and West Ger- many.” Acta Sociologica, vol. 41, no. 4: 315–333.
Li, Jui- Chung Allen. 2007. “The Impact of Divorce on Children’s Behavior Problems.” A Briefing Paper Prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families, July 21. https://contemporaryfamilies .org/ impact- divorce- childrens- behavior- problems/
Li, Sophie H.; and Graham, Bronwyn M. 2017. “Why are women so vulnerable to anxiety, trauma- related and stress- related disor- ders? The potential role of sex hormones.” The Lancet Psychia- try, vol. 4, no. 1: 73–82. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science /article/pii/S2215036616303583
Liazos, Alexander. 1972. “The poverty of the sociology of deviance: Nuts, sluts and perverts.” Social Problems, vol. 20: 103–120.
Lin, Vernon W.; Lin, Joyce; and Zhang, Xiaoming. 2016. “U.S. social worker workforce report card: Forecasting nationwide short- ages.” Social Work, vol. 61, no. 1: 7–11.
Lipka, Michael. 2013. “What surveys say about worship attendance— and why some stay home.” Pew Research Center. September 13. http://www.pewresearch.org/ fact- tank/2013/09/13/ what- surveys – say- about- worship- attendance- and- why- some- stay- home/
______. 2015. “A closer look at America’s rapidly growing reli- gious ‘nones’.” Pew Research Center, May 13. http://www . p e w r e s e a r c h .o r g / fa c t – t a n k /2 0 1 5 /0 5 / 1 3 / a – c l o s e r – l o o k- a t -americas-rapidly-growing-religious-nones/
Livingston, Gretchen. 2013. “The rise of single fathers.” July 2. http:// www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/07/02/the-rise-of-single-fathers/
______. 2014. “ Four- in- ten couples are saying ‘I Do,’ again.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/11/14 /four-in-ten-couples- are- saying- i- do- again/
______. 2015. “Childlessness falls, family size grows among highly educated women.” Pew Research Center. May 7. http://www .pewsocialtrends.org /2015/05/07/ childlessness- falls- family – size- grows- among- highly- educated- women/
______. 2017. “Among U.S. cohabiters, 18% have a partner of a differ- ent race or ethnicity.” Pew Research Center. June 8. http://www .pewresearch.org/ fact- tank/2017/06/08/ among- u- s- cohabiters – 18- have- a- partner- of-a-different-race-or-ethnicity/
______; and Brown, A. 2017. “Intermarriage in the U.S. 50 years after Loving v. Virginia.” Pew Research Center. May 18. http:// www.pewsocialtrends.org /2017/05/18/intermarriage-in-the – u- s- 50- years- after- loving- v- virginia/
______; and Caumont, Andrea. 2017. “Five facts on love and mar- riage in America.” Pew Research Center. February 13. http:// www.pewresearch.org /fact-tank /2017/02/13/5-facts-about – love- and- marriage/
Lofland, Lyn. 1973. A World of Strangers: Order and Action in Urban Public Space. New York: Basic Books.
Loo, Sai. 2017. Creative Working in the Knowledge Economy. Abing- don: Routledge.
Lopez, G. and Radford, J. 2017. “Facts on U.S. Immigrants.” Pew Research Center. May 3. http://www.pewhispanic.org /2017/05/03/ facts- on- u- s- immigrants- current- data/
Lortie, Dan. 1968. “Shared ordeal and induction to work.” In Howard Becker, Blancher Greer, David Reisman, and Robert Weiss, eds., Institutions and the Person. Chicago: Aldine.
Loseke, Donileen; and Cahill, Spencer. 1986. “Actors in search of a character: Student social workers’ quest for professional iden- tity.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 9: 245–258.
Lu, Denise. 2017. “We would need 1.7 Earths to make our consump- tion sustainable.” Washington Post, May 4.
Lubet, Steven. 2015. “Ethics on the run.” The New Rambler: An Online Review of Books. May 26. http://newramblerreview .com/ book-reviews/law/ethics-on-the-run.
Lurie, Nicole; Slater, Jonathan; McGovern, Paul; Ekstrum, Jacque- line; Quam, Lois; and Margolis, Karen. 1993. “Preventive care for women— does the sex of the physician matter?” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 329:478-482, August 12. doi: 10.1056/ NEJM199308123290707
Lynch, J. W.; Kaplan, G. A.; and Shema, S. J. 1997. “Cumulative impact of sustained economic hardship on physical, cognitive, psycho- logical, and social functioning.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 337, no. 26: 1889–1895.
______. 1998. “Income inequality and mortality in metropolitan areas of the United States.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 88, no. 7: 1074–1080.
Lynd, Robert S.; and Lynd, Helen Merrell. 1937. Middletown in Tran- sition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts. New York: Harcourt Brace.
______. 1959 (orig. 1929). Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture. San Diego, CA: Harvest Books/Harcourt Brace.
Maccoby, E. E.; and Jacklin, C. N. 1987. “Sex segregation in childhood.” In H. W. Reese, ed., Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
MacDorman, M. F.; Mathews, T. J.; and Declercq, E. 2014. “Trends in out- of- hospital births in the United States, 1990–2012.” NCHS data brief, no 144. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
Macintyre, S.; MacDonald, L.; and Ellaway, A. 2008. “Do poorer people have poorer access to local resources and facilities? The distribu- tion of local resources by area deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland.” Social Sciences & Medicine, vol. 67, no. 6: 900–914.
MacKinnon, Catharine A. 2005. Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws. Cam- bridge, MA: Belknap Press.
______. 2006. Are Women Human?: And Other International Dia- logues. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Maheshwari, Sapna. 2016. “How fake news goes viral.” New York Times, November 20.
Mahmood, Saba. 2004. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Mai- Duc, Christine. 2015. “The world’s new oldest person: Ger- trude Weaver, 116, of Arkansas.” Los Angeles Times, April 6. http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/ la- na- nn- arkansas -worlds-oldest-person-dies-20150406-story.html
Malamuth, Neil; and Donnerstein, Edward, eds. 1984. Pornography and Sexual Aggression. New York: Academic Press.
Malthus, Thomas. 1997 (orig. 1798). An Essay on the Principle of Population, as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers. London: J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Churchyard. http:// www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/malthus/malthus.0.html
Manjoo, Farhad. 2013. “How Google became such a great place to work.” Slate, January 21. http://www.slate.com /articles/technology/technology/2013/01/google_people_operations _the_secrets_of_the_world_s_most_scientific_human.html
Mann, Susan A.; Grimes, Michael D.; Kemp, Alice Abel; and Jenkins, Pamela J. 1997. “Paradigm shifts in family sociology? Evidence from three decades of family textbooks.” Journal of Family Issues, vol. 18, no. 3: 315.
Marche, Stephen. 2012. “Is Facebook making us lonely?” The Atlantic, May. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is -facebook-making-us-lonely/8930
Marcuse, Herbert. 1991 (orig. 1964). One- Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon Press.
Margolis, Jason. 2016. “Idaho’s first Syrian refugee wants Amer- icans to understand their country’s vetting process.” Public
REFERENCESR-18
Radio International. October 20. http://www.pri.org/stories /2016-10-20/ idaho- s- first- syrian- refugee- wants- americans – understand- their- countrys- vetting.
Margolis, Rachel; and Myrskylä, Mikko. 2015. “Parental well- being surrounding first birth as a determinant of further parity progres- sion.” Demography, vol. 52, no. 4: 1147–1166.
Marsh, Sarah. 2016. “Many suffer but no one talks about it: The rise of eating disorders in Japan.” The Guardian. May 16. https://www .theguardian.com/world/2016/may/17/ many- suffer- but- no- one – talks- about- it- the- rise- of- eating- disorders- in- japan
Martin, J. A.; Hamilton, B. E.; Osterman, M. J. K. et al. 2017. “Births: Final data for 2015.” National Vital Statistics Report, vol. 66, no 1. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
Martin, Laura. 1986. “Eskimo words for snow: A case study in the gen- esis and decay of an anthropological example.” American Anthro- pologist, vol. 88, no. 2: 418–423.
Martin, Lisa A.; Neighbors, Harold W.; and Griffith, Derek M. 2013. “The experience of symptoms of depression in men vs. women: Analysis of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.” JAMA Psychiatry, vol. 70, no. 10: 1100–1106.
Martinelli, Marissa. 2015. “Cameron Crowe apologized for casting Emma Stone as a half- Asian character. Sort of.” Slate, June 13. http://www.slate.com /blogs/browbeat /2015/06/03/cameron_ crowe_apology_for_white_washed_casting_in_aloha.html
Martinez, M. E.; Zammitti, E. P.; and Cohen, R. A. 2017. “Health insur- ance coverage: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January– September 2016.” National Center for Health Statistics. CDC. February. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/
Marullo, Sam. 1999. “Sociology’s essential role: Promoting critical analysis in service learning.” In J. Ostrow, G. Hesser, and S. Enos, eds., Cultivating the Sociological Imagination: Concepts and Mod- els for Service Learning in Sociology. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
Marx, Karl. 1982 (orig. 1848). The Communist Manifesto. New York: International.
______. 2001. Selected Writings. David McLellan, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
______. 2006 (orig. 1890). Das Kapital. Miami, FL: Synergy Interna- tional of the Americas, Ltd.
Maslin Nir, Sarah. 2010. “Embracing A life of solitude.” New York Times, April 14.
Massey, D. S.; and Denton N. A. 1993. American Apartheid: Segrega- tion and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mather, V. 2017. “Six New England Patriots say they will skip a White House visit.” New York Times, February 8. https:// www.nytimes.com /2017/02/08/sports /football / new- england – patriots-white-house-visit-donald-trump.html
Matos, Kenneth. 2015. “Modern families: Same- and different- sex couples negotiating at home.” Families and Work Institute. http:// www.familiesandwork.org/downloads/modern-families.pdf
Matsuda, Mari J.; Lawrence, C. R.; Delgado, Richard; and Cren- shaw, Kimberle. 1993. Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech and the First Amendment. Boulder, CO: West- view Press.
Matza, David. 1969. Becoming Deviant. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pren- tice Hall.
Mauss, Armand L. 1975. Social Problems as Social Movements. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.
Maynard, D. W.; and Frankel, R. M. 2006. “On diagnostic rationality: Bad news, good news, and the symptom residue.” In J. Heritage and D. Maynard, eds., Communication in Medical Care: Interac- tion between Primary Care Physicians and Patients. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mayo, Elton. 1949. Hawthorne and the Western Electric Company, The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilisation. New York: Routledge.
Mazumder, Bhashkar. 2012. “Upward intergenerational economic mobility in the United States.” PEW Charitable Trusts. http://www .pewtrusts.org /~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2012 /empreportsupward20intergen20mobility2008530pdf
McArdle, Megan. 2012. “Is college a lousy investment?” Newsweek, September 9.
McCaa, Robert. 1994. “Child marriage and complex families among the Nahuas of ancient Mexico.” Latin American Population His- tory Bulletin, 26: 2–11.
McCall, L. 2001. “Sources of racial wage inequality in metropolitan labor markets: Racial, ethnic, and gender differences.” American Sociological Review, vol. 66, no. 4: 520–541.
McCandless, David. 2009. Information Is Beautiful. New York: Harper Collins.
McChesney, Robert. 1997. Corporate Media and the Threat to Democ- racy. Open Media Pamphlet Series. New York: Seven Stories Press.
______. 2000. Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. New York: New Press.
______. 2004. The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty- First Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.
McClintock, Elizabeth Aura. 2016. “It’s a man’s, and a woman’s, world: The psychology of mansplaining.” Psychology Today, March 31. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ it-s-man-s-and-woman – s- world/201603/ the- psychology- mansplaining
McCombs, Maxwell; and Shaw, Donald. 1972. “The agenda- setting function of mass media.” Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 36, no.: 176–187.
______. 1977. “The agenda- setting function of the press.” In D. Shaw and M. McCombs, eds., The Emergence of American Political Issues: The Agenda- Setting Function of the Press. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing.
McCoy, Terrence. 2014. “In Pakistan, 1,000 women die in ‘honor kill- ings’ annually. Why is this happening?” Washington Post, May 28. htt p s : //www.wa s h i n g t o n p o s t .c o m /n ew s /m o r n i n g – m i x /w p /2014/05/28/ in- pakistan- honor- killings- claim- 1000- womens – l i ve s – a n n u a l l y- w hy- i s – t h i s – s t i l l – h a p p e n i n g / ? u t m _ te r m = .fa130c56f680
McCune, J. 2014. Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Poli- tics of Passing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McDonald, Michael. 2014. “National general election VEP turn- out rates, 1789–present.” United States Elections Project. June. http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present
McGhee, Paul E.; and Frueh, Terry. 1980. “Television viewing and the learning of sex- role stereotypes.” Sex Roles, vol. 6, no. 2: 179.
McGheehan, Patrick. 2015. “Cuomo moves to raise wages for New York fast- food workers.” New York Times, May 6. http://www .nytimes.com /2015/05/07/nyregion / cuomo- moves- to- raise – wages- for- new- york- fast- food- workers.html?_r=0
McGinn, Daniel. 2006. “Marriage by the numbers.” Newsweek, June 5.
McGrane, Bernard. 1994. The Un- TV and the 10 MPH Car: Experi- ments in Personal Freedom and Everyday Life. New York: Small Press.
______; and Gunderson, John. 2010. Watching TV Is Not Required: Thinking About Media and Thinking About Thinking. New York: Routledge.
McIntosh, Peggy. 1988. “White privilege and male privilege: A per- sonal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies.” Working Paper No. 189. Center for Research on Women. Wellsey, MA: Wellsley College.
REFERENCES R-19
McIntyre, Shelby; Moberg, Dennis J.; and Posner, Barry Z. 1980. “Pref- erential treatment in preselection decisions according to sex and race.” Academy of Management Journal, vol. 23, no. 4: 738–749.
McKeever, B. 2015. “The nonprofit sector in brief 2015: Public char- ities, giving, and volunteering.” http://www.urban.org/research /publication/ nonprofit- sector- brief- 2015-public-charities-giving -and-volunteering
McLuhan, Marshall. 1964. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill.
McMichael, Philip. 1996. Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
McNicol, Tony. 2006. “Meet the geek elite.” Wired Magazine, vol. 14, no. 7. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/posts.html?pg=5
McPhail, Clark. 1991. The Myth of the Madding Crowd. New York: de Gruyter.
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Charles Morris, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mejia, P. 2014. “Fetuses in artificial wombs: Medical marvel or misog- ynist malpractice?” Newsweek, August 6.
Mele, Christopher. 2000. Selling the Lower East Side: Culture, Real Estate, and Resistance in New York City. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Menzel, Peter. 1995. Material World: A Global Family Portrait. Sierra Club Books.
Merton, Robert K. 1938. “Social structure and anomie.” American Sociological Review, vol. 3, no. 5: 672–682.
______. 1948. “The self- fulfilling prophecy.” Antioch Review, vol. 8, no. 2: 193–210.
______. 1968. Social Theory and Social Structure. 2nd rev. ed. New York: Free Press.
______. 1996. On Social Structure and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Messerschmidt, James W. 1993. Masculinities and Crime: Critique and Reconceptualization of Theory. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.
______. 1998. “Men victimizing men: The case of lynching: 1865–1900.” In Lee H. Bowker, ed., Masculinities and Violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Messner, Steven F.; and Rosenfeld, Richard. 2012. Crime and the American Dream, 5th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing.
Meyer, D. 2000. “Social movements: Creating communities of change.” In R. Teske and M. Tetreault, eds., Conscious Acts and the Politics of Social Change. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Meyer, Daniel R.; and Bartfeld, Judi. 1998. “Patterns of child support compliance in Wisconsin.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 60, no. 2: 309–318.
Meyrowitz, Joshua. 1985. No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.
Michael, Ali. 2015. “Sometimes I don’t want to be white either.” Huffing ton Post, June 16. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ ali- michael/ i – sometimes- dont-want-to-be-white-either_b_7595852.html
Milgram, Stanley. 1963. “Behavioral Study of Obedience.” Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology, vol. 67: 371–378.
______. 1974. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper & Row.
Miller, Amanda Jayne; and Sassler, Sharon. 2012. “The construction of gender among working- class cohabiting couples.” Qualitative Sociology, vol. 35, no. 4: 427–446.
Miller, Claire Cain. 2012. “In Google’s inner circle, a falling number of women.” New York Times, August 22.
______. 2014. “The divorce surge is over, but the myth lives on.” New York Times, December 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02 /upshot / the- divorce- surge- is- over- but- the- myth- lives- on .html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0
Miller, Laura. 1997. “Women in the military.” Social Psychology Quar- terly, vol. 60, no. 10: 32–51.
Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
______. 1970 (orig. 1956). The Power Elite. New York: Oxford Univer- sity Press.
Miner, Horace. 1956. “Body ritual among the Nacirema.” American Anthropologist, vol. 58, no. 3: 503–507.
Miringoff, Marc; and Miringoff, Marque- Luisa. 1999. The Social Health of the Nation: How America Is Really Doing. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mitchell, Katharyne. 1993. “Multiculturalism, or the united colors of capitalism?” Antipode, vol. 25, no. 4: 263–294.
Mitchell, Richard. 2001. Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
______; and Charmaz, Kathy. 1996. “The myth of silent authorship: Self, substance and style in ethnographic writing.” Symbolic Inter- action, vol. 19, no. 4: 285–302.
Mittermeier, Russell A.; Myers, Norman; and Mittermeier, Cristina Goettsch. 2000. Hotspots: Earth’s Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions. Arlington, VA: Conservation International.
Mohn, Tanya. 2014. “Take a vacation: It’s good for productivity and the economy, according to a new study.” Forbes, February 28. https://www.forbes.com /sites/tanyamohn /2014/02/28/take-a – vacation- its- good- for- productivity- and- the- economy- according – to- a- new- study/#5700a3955a33
Mollenkopf, John. 1983. The Contested City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Molotch, Harvey. 1970. “Oil in Santa Barbara and power in America.” Sociological Inquiry, vol. 40: 131–144.
Montagu, A. 1998. Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Altamira Press.
Morgan, Jacob. 2014. The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization. New York: Wiley.
Morin, C. W.; Comrie, A. C.; and Ernst, K. C. 2013. “Climate and den- gue transmission: Evidence and implications.” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 121: 1264–1272.
Morris, Bill. 2014. “What is it about soccer that brings out the hooligan in its fans?” The Daily Beast, June 25. http://www.thedailybeast .com/articles/2014/06/25/ what- is- it- about- soccer- that- brings – out- the- hooligan- in- its- fans.html
Morrison, Donna Ruane; and Cherlin, Andrew J. 1995. “The divorce process and young children’s well- being: A prospec- tive analysis.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 57, no. 3: 800–812.
Mose, Tamara R. 2016. The Playdate: Parents, Children, and the New Expectations of Play. New York: New York University Press.
Muhl, Charles J. 2002. “What is an employee? The answer depends on the federal law; in a legal context, the classification of a worker as either an employee or an independent contractor can have significant consequences.” Monthly Labor Review, vol. 125, no. 1: 3–11.
Mukherjee, Siddhartha. 2016. “The race for a Zika vaccine.” The New Yorker, August 22. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine /2016/08/22/ the- race- for- a- zika- vaccine
Mullins, N. 1973. Theories and Theory Groups in Contemporary American Sociology. New York: Harper & Row.
Myers, Norman; and Kent, Jennifer. 2004. The New Consumers: The Influence of Affluence on the Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press.
______, eds. 2005. The New Atlas of Planet Management. Berkeley: University of California Press.
REFERENCESR-20
Nahin, R. L.; Barnes, P. M.; and Stussman, B. J. 2016. “Expenditures on complementary health approaches: United States, 2012.” National Health Statistics Reports; no 95. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
NASA. 2014. “New NASA images highlight U.S. air quality improve- ment.” http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/new-nasa-images – highlight- us- air- quality- improvement/
National Association of Colleges and Employers. 2013a. “Class of 2013: Paid interns outpace unpaid peers in job offers, salaries.” May 29. https://www.naceweb.org/s05292013/paid unpaid- interns- job- offer.aspx
______. 2013b. “Just 38 percent of unpaid internships were sub- ject to FSLA guidelines.” June 26. https://www.naceweb.org /s06262013/ unpaid- internship- FLSA- guidelines.aspx
______. 2016a. “The class of 2016 student survey report.” http://www .naceweb.org /uploadedfiles/files/2016/publications/executive -summary/2016- nace- student- survey- executive- summary.pdf
______. 2016b. “Paid interns/co-ops see greater offer rates and salary offers than their unpaid classmates.” http://www.naceweb.org/ job-market/internships/paid-interns-co-ops-see-greater-offer- rates-and-salary-offers-than-their-unpaid-classmates/
National Center for Charitable Statistics. 2016. “Quick facts about nonprofits.” http://nccs.urban.org/data-statistics/quick-facts-about -nonprofits
National Center for Education Statistics. 2016. “Student reports of bullying: Results from the 2015 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey.” U.S. Department of Education, December 2016. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017 /2017015.pdf
National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. 2015. “Charter schools.” http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files /Charter%20 Schools- FAQ.pdf
National Employment Law Project (NELP). 2011. “Local living wage laws and coverage.” http://www.nelp.org/index.php/site/issues /category/living_wage_laws/
National Institutes of Health. 2014. “SEER cancer statistics review, 1975–2011.” http://seer.cancer.gov/archive/csr/1975_2011/
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. 2015. “Home- lessness in America: Overview of data and causes.” http://www .nlchp.org/documents/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet
National Opinion Research Center. 2015. “General Social Surveys, 1972–2014: Cumulative Codebook.” http://publicdata.norc.org /GSS/DOCUMENTS/BOOK/GSS_Codebook.pdf
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. 2017. “Term enroll- ment estimates, spring 2017.” https://nscresearchcenter.org / wp- content/uploads/ CurrentTermEnrollment- Spring2017.pdf
Nattras, Nicoli; and Seekings, Jeremy. 2001. “Two nations? Race and economic inequality in South Africa today.” Daedalus, vol. 139 (winter): 45–70.
Neumark, David. 2004. “The economic effects of mandated wage floors.” Public Policy Institute of California. http://www.ppic.org /content/pubs/op/OP_204DNOP.pdf
New School. 2004. “Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766–1834.” http:// cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/malthus.htm
Newkirk II, Van R. 2017. “How voter ID laws discriminate.” The Atlantic, February 18. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics /archive/2017/02/ how-voter-id-laws-discriminate-study/517218/
Newman, David M. 2000. Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Newton, Michael. 2004. Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children. New York: Picador.
Nielsen. 2013. “State of the media: U.S. consumer usage report.” January 7. http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate /u s /e n / r e p o r t s – d ow n l o a d s /2 0 1 3 % 2 0 R e p o r t s / N i e l s e n – U S -Consumer-Usage-Report-2012-FINAL.pdf
______. 2014. “An era of growth: The cross- platform report.” March 5. http://www.nielsen.com /content /corporate /us /en /reports /2014/ an- era- of-growth-the-cross-platform-report.html
______. 2017. “The state of traditional TV: Updated with Q1 2017 data.” July 26. http://www.marketingcharts.com/featured-24817
Nixon, Richard. 1974. “Address on the State of the Union delivered before a joint session of the Congress,” January 30. In J. T. Wooley and G. Peters, eds., The American Presidency Project. http://www .presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4327
Noguchi, Yuki. 2017. “As cities raise minimum wages, many states are rolling them back.” National Public Radio, July 18. http://www .npr.org/2017/07/18/537901833/ as- cities- raise- minimum- wages – many- states- are- rolling- them- back
NonProfit Vote. 2017. “America goes to the polls 2016: A report on voter turnout in the 2016 election.” http://www.nonprofitvote .org/documents/2017/03/ america- goes- polls- 2016.pdf
Nordberg, Jenny. 2014. The Underground Girls of Kabul. New York: Crown Publishing.
Nuwer, Hank. 1999. Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Haz- ing and Binge Drinking. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
______. 2004. The Hazing Reader. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
______. 2014. “Hank Nuwer’s list of hazing deaths.” http://www .hanknuwer.com/hazingdeaths.html
O’Brien, Jodi; and Kollock, Peter. 1997. The Production of Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Ochs, Elinor. 1986. “Introduction.” In Bambi B. Schieffelin and Elinor Ochs, eds., Language and Socialization Across Cultures. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Office of Management and Budget. 2015. “OMB Bulletin No. 15-01: Revised delineations of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micro- politan Statistical Areas, and Combined Statistical Areas, and guidance on uses of the delineations of these areas.” https:// www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/bulletins /2015/15-01.pdf
Ogburn, William. 1964. On Cultural and Social Change: Selected Papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Oldenburg, Ray. 1999. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Marlowe & Company.
______. 2002. Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories about the “Great Good Places” at the Heart of Our Communities. De Capo Press.
O’Leary, Michael Boyer. 2013. “Telecommuting can boost produc- tivity and job performance.” U.S. News, March 15. http://www .usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/03/15/ telecommuting- can – boost- productivity- and- job- performance
Omi, Michael; and Winant, Howard. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
______. 2015. Racial Formation in the United States, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.
O’Neill, J. 2007. “HIV/AIDS in the developing world: What can we do?” In R. Gallo, ed., Retroviruses: Biology, Pathogenic Mecha- nisms and Treatment, The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection. London: Henry Stewart Talks.
Online Learning Consortium. 2016. “Report: One in four stu- dents enrolled in online courses.” February 25. https:// onlinelearningconsortium.org /news_item /report-one- four – students- enrolled- online- courses/
O’Reilly, Brian. 1992. “Looking ahead: Jobs are fast moving abroad.” Fortune, December 14, pp. 52–66.
REFERENCES R-21
Oswald, R. F.; Blume, L; and Marks, S. 2005. “Decentering het- eronormativity: A model for family studies.” In V. L. Bengt- son, A. C. Acock, K. R. Allen, P. Dilworth- Anderson, and D. M. Klein, eds., Sourcebook of Family Theory and Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Oswald, Ramona Faith; Kuvalanka, Katherine A.; Balter Blume, Libby; and Berkowitz, Dana. 2012. “Queering the family.” In Sally A. Lloyd, April L. Few, and Katherine R. Allen, eds., Hand- book of Feminist Family Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Paasonen, S.; et al. 2007. “Pornification and the education of desire.” In S. Paasonen et al., eds., Pornification: Sex and Sexuality in Media Culture. Oxford, UK: Berg.
Page, Clarence. 2015. “Fake news never looked so good.” The Chi- cago Tribune, February 13. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news /o p i n i o n /p a ge / c t – b r i a n – w i l l i a m s – j o n – s tewa r t – d a i l y- s h ow – perspec- 0215- jm- 20150213-column.html
Park, Haeyoun; and Omri, Rudy. 2016. “U.S. reaches goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees. Here’s where they went.” New York Times, August 31. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/30 /us/ syrian- refugees- in- the- united- states.html
Park, Robert Ezra. 1961. “Human ecology.” Reprinted in G. A. Theo- dorson, ed., Studies in Human Ecology. New York: Row, Peterson & Company.
Parker, Kim; Cilluffo, Anthony; and Stepler, Renee. 2017. “6 facts about the U.S. military and its changing demographics.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/13/6 – facts- about- the- u- s- military- and- its- changing- demographics/
Parker, Lonnae O’Neal. 1998. “Brand identities.” Washington Post, May 11.
Parlapiano, Alicia. 2013. “Movement on social issues.” New York Times, March 25.
Parsons, Christi. 2015. “Obama plan for free community col- lege: U.S. would pay 75%, states 25%.” Los Angeles Times, Janu- ary. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obama-community -college-20150108-story.html
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. ______. 1955. “The American family: Its relation to personality and
social structure.” In Talcott Parsons and R. Bales, eds., Family Socialization and Interaction Process. New York: Free Press.
______; and Bales, R.; eds. 1955. Family, Socialization and Interaction Process. New York: Free Press.
Pascoe, C. J. 2007. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkley: University of California Press, p. 5.
Patchin, Justin A.; and Hinduja, Sameer. 2016. “Summary of cyberbullying research (2004–2016).” Cyberbullying Research Center. http://cyberbullying.org/summary-of-our-cyberbullying -research
Patterson, Margot. 2004. “The rise of global fundamentalism.” National Catholic Reporter, May 7.
Peavy, Linda; and Smith, Ursula. 1998. Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Perlin, Ross. 2011. Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. New York: Verso.
______. 2012. “Today’s internships are a racket, not an opportunity.” New York Times, February 2. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate /2012/02/04/ do- unpaid- internships exploit- college- students/todays – internships- are- a- racket- not- an- opportunity
Perls, T. T.; and Fretts, R. 1998. “Why women live longer than men.” Scientific American Presents: Women’s Health: A Lifelong Guide, vol. 9, no. 4: 100–104.
Perrin, S.; and Spencer, C. P. 1980. “The Asch effect: A child of its time.” Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, vol. 32: 405–406.
______. 1981. “Independence or conformity in the Asch experiment as a reflection of cultural and situational factors.” British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 20: 215–210.
Perry, J.; and Pugh, M. 1978. Collective Behavior: Response to Social Stress. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.
Peters, H. Elizabeth; Argys, Laura M.; Maccoby, Eleanor E.; and Mnookin, Robert H. 1993. “Enforcing divorce settlements: Evi- dence from child support compliance and award modifications.” Demography, vol. 30, no. 4: 719–735.
Peterson, W. 2003. From Persons to People: Further Studies in the Politics of Population. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Pettigrew, Thomas F., and Tropp, Linda R. 2011. When Groups Meet: The Dynamics of Intergroup Contact. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
Pettit, Becky; and Western, Bruce. 2004. “Mass imprisonment and the life course: Race and class inequality in U.S. incarceration.” American Sociological Review, vol. 69: 151–169.
Pew Internet and American Life Project. 2012. “Privacy management on social media sites.” http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/02/24 / privacy-management-on-social-media-sites/.
Pew Research Center. 2008. “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.” http://religions.pewforum.org
______. 2012. “Religion and the unaffiliated.” http://www.pew forum .org /2012/10/09/ nones- on- the- rise- religion /# what- keeps -people-out-of-the-pews
______. 2014a. “Millennials in adulthood.” http://www.pewsocial trends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/
______. 2014b. “The rising cost of not going to college.” h t t p : //w w w. p e w s o c i a l t r e n d s . o r g / 2 0 1 4 / 0 2 / 1 1 /t h e – r i s i n g – cost- of- not- going- to- college/
______. 2014c. “U.S. Catholics view Pope Francis as a change for the better.” March 6. http://www.pewforum.org/2014/03/06 / catholics- view- pope- francis- as-a-change-for-the-better/
______. 2015a. “America’s changing religious landscape.” http:// www.pewforum.org /2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious -landscape/
______. 2015b. “Beyond distrust: How Americans view their govern ment.” http://www.people-press.org/files/2015/11/11-23-2015 -Governance-release.pdf
______. 2015c. “Latest trends in religious restrictions and hostilities.” http://www.pewforum.org/2015/02/26/religious-hostilities/
______. 2015d. “Modern immigration wave brings 59 million to U.S., driving population growth and change through 2065.” http://www .pewhispanic.org/2015/09/28/ chapter- 2- immigrations- impact – on- past- and- future- u- s- population- change/
______. 2015e. “Most say government policies since recession have done little to help middle class, poor.” http://www. people- press.org /2015/03/04/ most- say- government- policies- since- recession- have – done- little-to-help-middle-class-poor/
______. 2015f. “Parenting in America.” http://www.pewsocialtrends .org/2015/12/17/1- the- american- family- today/
______. 2015g. “The American middle class is losing ground.” http:// www.pewsocialtrends.org /files /2015/12/2015-12-09_middle -class_ FINAL- report.pdf
______. 2015h. “U.S. public becoming less religious.” http://www .pewforum.org/2015/11/03/ u- s- public- becoming- less- religious/
______. 2016a. “Campaign exposes fissures over issues, values, and how life has changed in the U.S.” http://www. people-press.org /files/2016/03/3-31-16-March-Political-release-1.pdf
______. 2016b. “Election 2016: Campaigns as a direct source of news.” http://www.journalism.org/2016/07/18/election-2016 – campaigns- as- a- direct- source- of- news/
______. 2016c. “Low approval of Trump’s transition but outlook for his presidency improves.” http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content
REFERENCESR-22
/uploads/sites/5/2016/12/08135748/12-08-16-December-political -release.pdf
______. 2017a. “Internet/broadband factsheet.” January 12. http:// www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/
______. 2017b. “Support for same- sex marriage grows, even among groups that had been skeptical.” http://www.people-press.org /2017/06/26/ support- fo r- sa me – sex- ma rr ia ge – grows – eve n – among- groups- that- had- been- skeptical/
Pew Research Social and Demographic Trends. 2010. “Interactive: The changing American family.” http://www.pewsocialtrends .org/2010/11/18/five-decades-of-marriage-trends/
Pfeffer, C. A. 2012. “Normative resistance and inventive pragma- tism: Negotiating structure and agency in transgender families.” Gender & Society, vol. 26, no. 4: 574–602.
______. 2014. “‘I don’t like passing as a straight woman’: Queer negoti- ations of identity and social group membership.” American Jour- nal of Sociology, vol. 120, no. 1: 1–44.
Phillips, Kristine. 2017. “An 11- year- old boy killed himself after his girlfriend faked her death. She’s now facing charges.” Wash- ington Post. April 11. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news /education/wp/2017/04/09/ an- 11- year- old- boy- killed- himself – after- his- girlfriend- faked- her-death-shes-now-facing-charges /?utm_term=.ca89bc624c0b
Phillips, S. 2009. “Criminology: Legal disparities in the capital of cap- ital punishment.” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, vol. 99, no. 3: 717.
Picca, L. and Feagin, J. 2007. Two- Faced Racism: Whites in the Back- stage and Frontstage. New York: Routledge.
Pierce, Fred. 2012. “Saudi Arabia takes a claim on the Nile.” National Geographic, December. http://news.nationalgeographic.com /news/2012/12/121217-saudi-arabia-water-grabs ethiopia/
Pilnick, Alison; Hindmarsh, Jon; and Teas Gill, Virginia. 2009. “Beyond ‘doctor and patient’: Developments in the study of healthcare interactions.” Sociology of Health & Illness, vol. 31, no. 6: 787–802.
Pinker, Stephen. 2005. “Psychoanalysis Q- and- A: Steven Pinker.” The Harvard Crimson, January 19. http://www.thecrimson.com /article/2005/1/19/ psychoanalysis- q- and- a- steven- pinker- in- an/
Pinto, Barbara. 2005. “Small town USA may offer solution to out- sourcing: Company redeploys workers to rural towns instead of sending jobs overseas.” ABC World News Tonight, August 25.
Plante, Thomas G.; and Boccaccini, Marcus. 1997. “The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire.” Pastoral Psychology, vol. 45: 375–387.
Pleck, Elizabeth H. 2000. Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Con- sumer Culture, and Family Ritual. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni- versity Press.
Plumer, Brad. 2013. “Poverty is growing twice as fast in the suburbs as in cities.” Washington Post, May 23. http://www.washingtonpost .com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/23/ poverty- is- now- growing – twice- as- fast- in- the- suburbs- as- in- the- city/
Pollack, Andres. 1999. “Aerospace gets Japan’s message: Without military largess, industry takes the lean path.” New York Times, March 9, p. C1.
Pollner, Melvin; and Stein, Jill. 1996. “Narrative mapping of social worlds: The voice of experience in Alcoholics Anonymous.” Jour- nal of Symbolic Interaction, vol. 19, no. 3: 203–223.
______. 2001. “ Doubled- over in laughter: Humor and the construction of selves in Alcoholics Anonymous.” In Jaber Gubrium and James Holstein, eds., Institutional Selves: Personal Troubles in Organiza- tional Context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pool, Robert. 1997. Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technol- ogy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Population Reference Bureau. 2010. “World population data sheet.” http://www.prb.org/pdf10/10wpds_eng.pdf
Port, Dina Roth. 2014. “Doulas: Not just for hippie moms.” Parents Magazine. http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/doula / doulas- not- just- for- hippie- moms/
Potok, M. 2017. “The year in hate and extremism intelligence report.” Southern Poverty Law Center, Spring, no. 162.
______; Bolzendahl, Catherine; Geist, Claudia; and Carr Stellman, Lala. 2010. Counted Out: Same- Sex Relations and Americans’ Defi- nition of Family. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Powell, L. M.; Slater, S.; Mirtcheva, D.; Bao, Y.; and Cha- loupka, F. J. 2007. “Food store availability and neighborhood char- acteristics in the United States.” Preventive Medicine, vol. 44, no. 3: 189–195.
Prince, Marcell; and Carols, Tovar. 2015. “How much U.S. oil and gas comes from fracking?” Wall Street Journal. April 1. h t t p : // b l o g s .w s j.c o m /c o r p o r a t e – i n t e l l i g e n c e / 2 0 1 5 / 0 4 / 0 1 / how- much- u- s- oil- and- gas- comes- from- fracking/
Proctor, B. D.; Semega, J. L.; and Kollar, M. A. 2016. “Income and poverty in the United States: 2015.” U.S. Census Bureau, Septem- ber 16. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library /publications/2016/demo/p60-256.pdf
Pullum, Geoffrey K. 1991. The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language. Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press.
Putnam, Robert D. 1995. “Tuning in, tuning out: The strange disap- pearance of social capital in America.” Political Science & Politics, vol. 28, no. 4: 664.
______. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Pyke, Karen D. 2010. “What is internalized racial oppression and why don’t we study it? Acknowledging racism’s hidden injuries.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 53, no. 4: 551–572.
QuintilesIMS. 2016. “Medicines use and spending in the U.S.—A review of 2015 and outlook to 2020.” http://www.imshealth.com/en / thought- leadership/ quintilesims- institute/reports/ medicines- use – and- spending- in- the- us- a- review- of- 2015- and- outlook- to-2020
Raanan, Raz et al. 2015. “Autism Spectrum Disorder and particulate matter air pollution before, during, and after pregnancy: A nested case– control analysis within the Nurses’ Health Study II Cohort.” Environmental Health Perspectives, March. https://ehp.niehs.nih .gov/1408133/
Rabin, Roni Caryn. 2008. “Severe heart attacks deadlier for women.” New York Times, December 8.
Rabow, Jerome; Stein, Jill; and Conley, Terri. 1999. “Teaching social justice and encountering society: The pink triangle experiment.” Youth and Society, vol. 30, no. 4: 483–514.
Radway, A. Janice. 1991. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Rainee, L.; and Wellman, B. 2012. Networked. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rajaram, Shireen S. 2007. “An action research project: Community lead poisoning prevention.” Teaching Sociology, vol. 35, no. 2: 138–150.
Rasmussen, Terje. 2014. “Internet and the political public sphere.” Sociology Compass, vol. 8, no. 12: 1315–1329. http://onlinelibrary .wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.12228/full
Ray, Brian. 1997. “Strengths of their own— home schoolers across Amer- ica: Academic achievement, family characteristics, and longitudinal traits.” Salem, OR: National Home Education Research Institute.
REFERENCES R-23
______. 2008. “Research facts on homeschooling.” National Home Education Research Institute. http://www.nheri.org / Research- Facts- on- Homeschooling.html
______. 2013. “Homeschooling associated with beneficial learner and societal outcomes but educators do not promote it.” Peabody Journal of Education: Issues of Leadership, Policy, and Organiza- tions, vol. 88, no. 3.
Ray, Rebecca; Sanes, Milla; and Schmitt, John. 2013. “No vaca- tion nation revisited.” Washington, DC, Center for Economic and Policy Research. http://cepr.net/documents/no-vacation – update- 2014-04.pdf
Reece, M.; Herbenick, D.; Schick, V.; Sanders, S.; Dodge, B.; and Fortenberry, J. 2010. “Condom use rates in a national probability sample of males and females, ages 14 to 94 in the United States.” Journal of Sexual Medicine, vol. 7 (suppl. 5): 266–267.
Reyes, Emily Alpert. 2013. “More married women in U.S. aren’t having children.” Los Angeles Times, December 8. http://articles .latimes.com /2013/dec /08/nation / la-na-childless-couples -20131208
Riel, M. 2010. “Understanding action research.” Center for Collab- orative Action Research, Pepperdine University. http://cadres .pepperdine.edu/ccar/define.html
Riesman, D. 1957. “The suburban dislocation.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 314: 123.
Rios, Victor. 2009. “The consequence of the criminal justice pipeline on Black and Latino Masculinity.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. May: 150–162.
______. 2017. Human Targets: Schools, Police, and the Criminalization of Latino Youth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ritzer, George. 1993. The McDonaldization of Society: An Investi- gation into the Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
______. 1996. The McDonaldization of Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
______. 2013. The McDonaldization of Society: 20th Anniversary Edi- tion. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
______; and Ryan, J. Michael. 2007. “Postmodern social theory and sociology: On symbolic exchange with a ‘dead’ theory.” In Jason Powell and Tim Owen, eds., Reconstructing Postmodernism: Critical Debates. Hauppauge: Nova Science Publishers.
Roberts, S.; Snee, H.; Hine, C.; Morey, Y.; and Watson, H., eds., 2016. Digital Methods for Social Science: An Interdisciplinary Guide to Research Innovation. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Robertson, Joe. 2016. “Syrian families flee civil war, warily make new lives in Kansas City.” Kansas City Star, September 24. http:// www.kansascity.com/news/local/article103609747.html
Robins, Douglas; Sanders, Clinton; and Cahill, Spencer. 1991. “Dogs and their people: Pet- facilitated interaction in a public setting.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 20, no. 1: 3–25.
Robison, Jennifer. 2014. “Nevada again posts one of higher foreclo- sure rates in U.S.” Las Vegas Journal- Review, February 12.
Robson, D. 2001. “Women and minorities in economics textbooks: Are they being adequately represented?” Journal of Economic Education, vol. 32, no. 2: 186–191.
Rojek, Chris. 1985. Capitalism and Leisure Theory. London: Tavistock. ______. 1995. Decentering Leisure: Rethinking Leisure Theory. Lon-
don: Sage. ______. 2000. “Leisure and the rich today: Veblen’s thesis after a cen-
tury.” Leisure Studies, vol. 19, no. 1: 1–15. Roosevelt, Margaret. 2007. “U.S. mayors find it’s not easy to be green:
Assessing progress is difficult for 728 cities in a Kyoto- like pact.” Los Angeles Times. November 4. http://articles.latimes.com/2007 /nov/04/nation/ na- mayors4
Roscoe, W. 2000. “How to become a berdache: Toward a unified anal- ysis of gender.” In G. Herdt, ed., Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. New York: Zone Books.
Rosenbaum, Emily. 2008. “Racial/ethnic differences in asthma prev- alence: The role of housing and neighborhood environments.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 49, no. 2: 131–145.
Rosenbloom, Stephanie. 2007. “On Facebook, scholars link up with data.” New York Times, December 17. http://www.nytimes .com /2007/12/17/style/17facebook.html?ex=1355720400&en =33ca15953318a6f5&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod =permalink
Rosenfeld, Dana. 2003. The Changing of the Guard: Lesbian and Gay Elders, Identity, and Social Change. Philadelphia: Temple Univer- sity Press.
Rosenhan, David. 1973. “On being sane in insane places.” Science, vol. 179 (January): 250–258.
Rosenthal, A. M. 1964/2008. Thirty- Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case. New York: Melville House.
Rosenthal, R.; and Jacobson, L. 1968. Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development. New York: Rinehart and Winston.
Rosin, Hannah. 2012. The End of Men: And the Rise of Women. New York: Riverhead Books.
Ross, Andrew. 1997. “Introduction.” In Andrew Ross, ed., No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers. New York: Verso.
Rothblum, Esther. 1996. Preventing Heterosexism and Homophobia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rothkop, David. 1997. “In praise of cultural imperialism? Effects of globalization on culture.” Foreign Policy, June 22.
Rothman, Lily. 2012. “A cultural history of mansplaining.” The Atlan- tic, November 1. http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012 /11/ a- cultural- history- of- mansplaining/264380/
Roy, D. F. 1959. “Banana time: Job satisfaction and informal interac- tion.” Human Organization, 18: 158–168.
Rubel, Paula; and Rosman, Abraham. 2001. “The collecting passion in America.” Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie (English), vol. 126, no. 2: 313–330.
Rubin, Adam. 2014. “Daniel Murphy: Right to take leave.” April 4. http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/10721495/daniel – murphy- new- york- mets- deflects- criticism- taking- paternity -leave
Rubin, Zick; and Peplau, Letitia Anne. 1975. “Who believes in a just world?” Journal of Social Issues, vol. 31, no. 3: 65–89.
Rupp, Leila; and Taylor, Verta. 2003. Drag Queens of the 801 Cabaret. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Russakoff, Rich; and Goodman, Mary. 2011. “Employee theft: Are you blind to it?” CBS Money Watch. July 14. http:// www.cbsnews.com /8301-505143_162-48640192/employee – theft- are- you- blind- to- it/
Russonello, Giovanni. 2016. “Race relations are at lowest point in Obama presidency, poll finds.” New York Times. July 13. https:// w w w. n y t i m e s . c o m / 2 0 1 6 / 0 7/ 1 4 /u s /m o s t – a m e r i c a n s – h o l d – grim- view- of- race- relations- poll- finds.html?_r=0
Ryan, Caitlin; Huebner, David; Diaz, Rafael; and Sanchez, Jorge. 2009. “Family rejection as a predictor of negative health outcomes in White and Latino lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults.” Pedi- atrics, vol. 123, no. 1: 346–352.
Ryan, George. 2003. “The death penalty: Arbitrary and capricious.” http://www.salon.com/2003/01/14/ryan_4/
Rymer, Russ, 1994. Genie: A Scientific Tragedy. New York: HarperCollins.
REFERENCESR-24
Sadker, Myra; and Sadker, David. 1995. Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls. New York: Scribner.
Sampson, Robert J.; and Wilson, William Julius. 2005. “Toward a theory of race, crime and urban inequality.” In Shaun L. Gabbidon and Helen Taylor Greene, eds., Race, Crime and Justice: A Reader. New York: Routledge.
Sapir, Edward. 1949. Selected Writings in Language, Culture, and Personality. David G. Mandelbaum, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sassen, Saskia. 1991. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schegloff, Emanuel. 1986. “The routine as achievement.” Human Studies, vol. 9, nos. 2–3: 111–151.
______. 1999. “What next? Language and social interaction study at the century’s turn.” Research on Language and Social Interaction, vol. 32, nos.1–2: 141–148.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schein, Edgar H. 1997. Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.
______. 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership, 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey- Bass.
Schell, Orville. 2002. “Gross national happiness.” Red Herring, January 15. http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bhutan/gnh.html
Scheyvens, Regina. 2000. “Promoting women’s empowerment through involvement in ecotourism: Experiences from the Third World.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 8, no. 3: 232–249.
Schiller, Herbert I. 1976. Communication and Cultural Domination. White Plains, NY: International Arts and Sciences Press.
______. 1992. Mass Communications and American Empire, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
______. 1995. “The global information highway: Project for an ungov- ernable world.” In J. Brook and I. A. Boal, eds., Resisting the Vir- tual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information. San Francisco: City Lights Books.
______. 1996. Information Inequality. New York: Routledge. ______; Schlenker, Jennifer A.; Caron, Sandra L.; and Halteman, Wil-
liam A. 1998. “A feminist analysis of Seventeen magazine: Content analysis from 1945 to 1995.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, vol. 38, no. 1–2: 135.
Schlegel, H. 2014. “The future of money.” The Institute of Cus- tomer Experience, September 8. http://www.slideshare.net /UXTrendspotting/reputation-currencies
Schlosser, Eric. 2002. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All- American Meal. New York: Perennial.
______. 1980. The Environment: From Surplus to Scarcity. New York: Oxford University Press.
______; and Gould, Kenneth Alan. 1994. Environment and Society: The Enduring Conflict. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Schofield, Jack. 2004. “Social network software; software to help you network.” Computer Weekly, March 16, p. 32.
Schor, Juliet B. 1999. The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need. New York: HarperCollins.
______; Fitzmaurice, Connor; Carfagna; Lindsey B.; and Attwood- Charles, Will. 2016. “Corrigendum to ‘Paradoxes of openness and distinction in the sharing economy.’” [Poetics, vol. 54 (February): 66–81] Poetics, vol. 56 (June): 98.
Schutz, Alfred P. 1962. “The stranger: An essay in social psychology.” In A. Brodersen, ed., Collected Papers II: Studies in Social Theory. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.
Schwimmer, B. 2001. “Figure 43. Hawaiian kin terms (actual usage).” http://www.umanitoba.ca /faculties /arts /anthropology/tutor/ image_list/43.html
Scott, Laura S. 2009. Two Is Enough: A Couple’s Guide to Living Child- less by Choice. Berkeley: Seal Press.
Scott, Robert E.; and Kimball, Will. 2014. “China trade, outsourcing and jobs.” Economic Policy Institute, December 11. http://www .epi.org/publication/ china- trade- outsourcing- and- jobs/
Searing, Linda. 2010. “Study: Dying at home may be less traumatic for patients as well as caregivers.” Washington Post, September 27. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010 /09/27/AR2010092705374.html
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1990. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press.
______. 1993. Tendencies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ______. 2014. “Writing the history of homophobia.” In Jason Potts and
Daniel Stout, eds., Theory Aside. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/theory-aside
Seekings, Jeremy; and Nattras, Nicoli. 2005. Class, Race and Inequal- ity in South Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Segal, Lynne. 1990. Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Seidman, Steven. 2003. The Social Construction of Sexuality. New York: Norton.
Seltzer, Judith A.; Schaeffer, Nora Cate; and Charng, Hong- Wen. 1989. “Family ties after divorce: The relationship between visiting and paying child support.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 51, no. 4: 1013–1031.
Selyukh, Selini. 2016. “Big media companies and their many brands —in one chart.” NPR. October 28. http://www.npr.org/sections /alltechconsidered/2016/10/28/499495517/ big- media- companies – and- their- many- brands- in- one- chart
Semega, J. L. Fontenot, K. R., and Kollar, M. A. 2017. “Income and Pov- erty in the United States: 2016.” U.S. Census Bureau. https://www .census.gov/content /dam /Census /library/publications /2017 /demo/P60-259.pdf
Sennett, Richard. 1977. The Fall of Public Man. New York: Norton. Severin, W. J.; and Tankard, J. W. 1997. Communication Theories:
Origins, Methods, and Uses in the Mass Media, 4th ed. New York: Longman.
Sexton, Lori; Jenness, Valerie; and Sumner, Jennifer. 2009. “Where the margins meet: A demographic assessment of transgender inmates in men’s prisons.” Ucicorrections/seweb/uci.edu
Shah, Anup. 2007. “Media conglomerates, mergers, concentration of ownership.” Global Issues, April 29. http://www.glo balissues .org/article/159/media-conglomerates-mergers- concentration- of – ownership
Shanahan, M. J.; Bauldry, S.; and Freeman, J. 2010. “Beyond Mendel’s ghost.” Contexts, vol. 9: 34–39.
Sharp, Shane. 2010. “How does prayer help manage emotions?” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 73: 417–437.
Sherman, Alec. 2012. “SNAP (food stamps) and earned income tax credit had big antipoverty impact in 2011.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. September 12. http://www.offthechartsblog.org / snap- food- stamps- and- earned- income- tax- credit- had- big – antipoverty- impact- in- 2011
Shiach, Morag. 1999. Feminism and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shin, R.; Daly, B.; and Vera, E. 2007. “The relationships of peer norms, ethnic identity, and peer support to school rngagement in urban youth.” Professional School Counseling, vol. 10: 379–388.
Shover, Neal; and Wright, John Paul. 2001. Crimes of Privilege: Read- ings in White- Collar Crime. New York: Oxford University Press.
Simmel, Georg. 1950. The Sociology of George Simmel. Kurt Wolff, ed. New York: Free Press.
Singh, S.; and Durso, L. E. 2017. “Widespread discrimination continues to shape LGBT people’s lives in both subtle and
REFERENCES R-25
significant ways.” Center for American Progress, May 2. https://www .americanprogress.org /issues/lgbt /news/2017/05/02/429529 / widespread- discrimination- continues- shape- lgbt- peoples – lives- subtle- significant- ways/
Skarzynska, Krystyna. 2004. “Politicians in television: The big five in impression formation.” Journal of Political Marketing, vol. 3, no. 2: 31–45.
Skenazy, Lenore. 2008. “Why I let my 9- year- old ride the subway alone.” New York Sun, April 1. http://www.nysun.com/news / why- i- let- my- 9- year- old- ride- subway- alone
______. 2009. Free Range Kids. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Slack, Kristin; et al. 2006. “Family economic well- being following the
1996 welfare reform: Trend data from five non- experimental panel studies.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 29, no. 6: 698–720.
Smelser, Neil. 1985. “Evaluating the model of structural differentia- tion in relation to educational change in the nineteenth century.” In Jeffrey C. Alexander, ed., Neofunctionalism. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Smith, A. 2016a. “Gig work, online selling and home sharing.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/17/gig – work- online- selling- and- home- sharing/
______. 2016b. “Shared, collaborative and on demand: The new dig- ital economy.” Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet .org/2016/05/19/ the- new- digital- economy/
Smith, Dorothy. 1999. “Schooling for inequality.” Signs: Journal for Women in Culture and Society, vol. 5, no. 4: 1147–1151.
Smith, G. A.; and Cooperman, A. 2016. “The factors driving the rise of religious ‘nones’ in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, Septem- ber 14. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/14/the – factors- driving- the- growth- of- religious- nones- in- the- u- s/
Smith, Herbert L. 1990. “Specification problems in experimental and nonexperimental social research.” Sociological Methodology, vol. 20: 59–91.
Smith, Kara. 2005. “Gender talk: A case study in prenatal socializa- tion.” Women and Languages, March 22.
Smith, Marc; and Kollock, Peter. 1998. Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
Smith, S. G.; Chen, J.; Basile, K. C.; Gilbert, L. K.; Merrick, M. T.; Patel, N.; Walling, M.; and Jain, A. 2017. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010–2012 State Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sociological Initiatives Foundation. 2010. “Chicago mothers receive Chall Award.” February 18. http://www.sifoundation .org/2010/02/ chicago- mothers- recieve- chall- award/# more- 35
Solnit, Rebecca. 200. “Men explain things to me: Facts didn’t get in their way.” TomDispatch. April 13. http://www.tomdispatch.com /post/174918.
Sonner, Scott. 2002. “Burning Man gives fodder for questing sociolo- gists.” Associated Press, August 28. http://www.religionnewsblog .com/641-Scientists_find_Burning_Man_a_research_bonanza.html
Southern Poverty Law Center. 2016. “ Anti- government movement.” https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology /antigovernment
Spanakis, Elias K.; and Golden, Sherita H. 2013. “Race/ethnic differ- ence in diabetes and diabetic complications.” Current Diabetes Report. December, vol. 13, no. 6: 814–823. https://www.ncbi.nlm .nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3830901/
Sparks, Sarah D. 2013. “Poor children are now a majority in 17 states’ public schools.” Education Week, October. http://www.edweek .org/ew/articles/2013/10/23/09poverty.h33.html
______; and Adams, Caralee J. 2013. “High school poverty levels tied to college- going.” Education Week. October. http://www.edweek .org/ew/articles/2013/10/23/09college.h33.html
Spencer, Keith. 2017. “The gig economy goes to class.” Salon. June 3. http://www.salon.com /2017/06/03/the-gig-economy-goes-to -class/
Spencer, S. J.; Steele, C. M.; and Quinn, D. M. 1999. “Stereotype threat and women’s math performance.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 35: 4–28.
Springer, Kristen W.; and Mouzon, Dawne. 2011. “Masculinity and health care seeking among older men: Implications for men in different social classes.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol. 52, no. 2: 212–227.
Srinivas, Lakshmi. 1998. “Active viewing: An ethnography of the Indian film audience.” Visual Anthropology, vol. 11, no. 4: 323–353.
______. 1998. “Gay and lesbian families: Queer like us.” In Mary Ann Mason, Arlene Skolnick, and Stephen D. Sugarman, eds., All Our Families: New Policies for a New Century. New York: Oxford Uni- versity Press.
Stacey, J. 1998. Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late- Twentieth- Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Stack, Carol. 1974. All Our Kin. New York: Harper & Row. Stannard, David E. 1993. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the
New World. New York: Oxford University Press. Stanton, M. E. 1995. “Patterns of kinship and residence.”
In B. Ingoldsby and S. Smith, eds., Families in Multicultural Per- spective. New York: Guilford Press.
Stapleton, Christine. 2002. “Donated blood sold off overseas after 9/11.” Atlanta Journal- Constitution, September 8, p. 19A.
Stark, L. 2016. “Recognizing the role of emotional labor in the on- demand economy,” Harvard Business Review, August 26. https:// hbr.org /2016/08/ recognizing- the- role- of- emotional- labor- in – the- on- demand- economy
Stearns, Peter N. 2004. Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Chil- drearing in America. New York: New York University Press.
Steele, Claude M. 1997. “A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance.” American Psychologist, vol. 52, no. 6: 613–629.
______. 2010. Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. New York: W. W. Norton.
Stein, Jill. 1997. “Rock musician careers: The culture of the long- term professional.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.
Stein, Joel. 2016. “How trolls are ruining the Internet.” Time, August 18. http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/
Steiner, I. D. 1972. Group Process and Productivity. New York: Aca- demic Press.
Steinmetz, Katy. 2014. “Clickbait, normcore, mansplain: Runners- up for Oxford’s word of the year.” Time, November 18. http:// time.com/3590980/clickbait-normcore-mansplain-oxford-word – runners- up/
Stepler, R. 2016. “World’s centenarian population projected to grow eightfold by 2050.” Pew Research Center, April 21. http://www .pewresearch.org / fact- tank /2016/04/21/ worlds- centenarian – population- projected-to-grow-eightfold-by-2050/
______. 2017. “Number of U.S. adults cohabiting with a partner continues to rise, especially among those 50 and older.” Pew Research Center, April 6. http://www.pewresearch.org/ fact – t a n k /2 0 17/0 4 /0 6 / n u mb e r – o f- u – s – a d u l t s – c o h a b i t i n g -w i t h – a- partner- continues- to- rise- especially- among- those- 50- and – older
Stimson, Ida H. 1967. “Patterns of socialization into professions: The case of student nurses.” Sociological Inquiry, vol. 37: 47–54.
Stroebaek, Pernille S. 2013. “Let’s have a cup of coffee! Coffee and coping communities at work.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 36, no. 4: 381–397.
REFERENCESR-26
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 2016. “Sexual orientation and estimates of adult substance use and mental health: Results from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.” https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files / NSDUH- SexualOrientation- 2015/ NSDUH- SexualOrientation -2015/ NSDUH- SexualOrientation- 2015.htm
Sudnow, David. 1972. “Temporal parameters of interpersonal obser- vation.” In D. Sudnow, ed., Studies in Social Interaction. New York: Free Press.
Sue, D. W. 2010. Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Sue, Valerie M.; and Ritter, Lois A. 2007. Conducting Online Surveys. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sumner, William Graham. 1906. Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals. Bos- ton: Ginn and Co.
Sutherland, Edwin. 1939. Principles of Criminology, 3rd ed. Philadelphia: J. B. Lipincott.
______; Cressey, Donald R.; and Luckenbill, David F. 1992. Principles of Criminology, 11th ed. Dix Hills, NY: General Hall.
Syrluga, Susan; and Siddiqui, Faiz. 2016. “N.C. man told police he went to D.C. pizzeria with assault rifle to ‘ self- investigate’ election- related conspiracy theory.” Washington Post, December 4.
Tassi, Paul. 2014. “‘World of Warcraft’ still a $1B powerhouse even as subscription MMOs decline.” Forbes, July 19. http://www.forbes .com/sites/insertcoin/2014/07/19/ world-of-warcraft-still-a-1b – powerhouse- even- as- subscription- mmos- decline/
Telles, Edward. 2004. Race in Another America: The Significance of Color in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Theodorou, A. E. 2015. “Americans are in the middle of the pack glob- ally when it comes to importance of religion.” Pew Research Center, December 23. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/23 / americans- are- in- the- middle- of- the- pack- globally- when – it- comes- to- importance- of- religion
Thomas, William I; and Thomas, Dorothy. 1928. The Child in Amer- ica: Behavior Problems and Programs. New York: Knopf.
Thompson, John B. 2012. “The media and politics.” In The Wiley- Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology. Chichester, West Sus- sex, UK: Wiley- Blackwell.
Thoreau, Henry David. 1854/1993. Walden; or, a Life in the Woods. Ticknor and Fields (1854); Everyman’s Library (1993).
Thorne, Barrie. 1992. “Feminism and the family: Two decades of thought.” In Barrie Thorne and Marilyn Yalom, eds., Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions. Boston: Northeastern Uni- versity Press.
______. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Thornton, Stephen J. 2003. “Silence on gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum.” Social Education, vol. 67, no. 4: 226.
Thun, Michael. 2013. “50-year trends in smoking- related mortality in the United States.” New England Journal of Medicine. January 24.
Thye, Shane R.; and Lawler, Edward J., eds. 2002. Advances in Group Processes: Group Cohesion, Trust and Solidarity, vol. 19. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science.
Tomlinson, John. 1991. Cultural Imperialism. Baltimore: John Hop- kins University Press.
Travers, J.; and Milgram, S. 1969. “An experimental study of the small world problem.” Sociometry, vol. 32, no. 4: 425–443.
Tremayne, M. 2014. “Anatomy of protest in the digital era: A network analysis of Twitter and Occupy Wall Street.” Social Movement Studies, vol. 13, no. 1: 110–126.
Trexler, R. C. 2002. “Making the American berdache: Choice or con- straint.” Journal of Social History, vol. 35: 613–636.
Truman, J. L.; and Morgan, R. E. 2014. “Nonfatal domestic violence, 2003–2012.” U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://www.bjs .gov/content/pub/pdf/ndv0312.pdf
Truman J, Morgan R. 2014. “Special report. Nonfatal domestic vio- lence, 2003–2012.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. www.bjs.gov /index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4984
Tsugawa, Yusuke; Jena, Anupam B.; Figueroa, Jose F.; Orav, E. John; Blumenthal, Daniel M.; and Jha, Ashish K. 2016. “Physician gender and outcomes of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries in the U.S.” JAMA Internal Medicine, December 19. doi: 10.1001/ jamainternmed.2016.7875
Tugend, A. 2014. “It’s clearly defined, but telecommuting is fast on the rise.” New York Times, March 7. http://www.nytimes.com /2014/03/08/ your- money/ when- working- in-your-pajamas -is-more-productive.html?_r=0
Turkle, Sherry. 1997. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Inter- net. New York: Touchstone Books.
______. 2005. The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. Cam- bridge, MA: MIT Press.
______. 2011. Alone Together. New York: Basic Books. ______. 2015. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital
Age. New York: Penguin Press. Turner, J. C.; and Reynolds, K. J. 2010. “The story of social identity.”
In T. Postmes and N. Branscombe, Rediscovering Social Identity: Core Sources. New York: Psychology Press.
Turner, Ralph. 1972. “Deviance avowal as neutralization of commit- ment.” Social Problems, vol. 19, no. 3: 308–321.
______. 1976. “The real self: From institution to impulse.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 81: 989–1016.
______. 1978. “The role and the person.” American Journal of Sociol- ogy, vol. 84, no. 1: 1–3.
______; and Killian, Lewis M. 1987. Collective Behavior, 3rd ed. Engle- wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Twine, France Winddance. 2011a. Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market. Florence, KY: Routledge.
______. 2011b. A White Side of Black Britain: Interracial Intimacy and Racial Literacy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Uggen, C.; and Manza, J. 2002. “Democratic contraction? Political con- sequences of felon disenfranchisement in the United States.” Amer- ican Sociological Review, vol. 67, no. 6: 777–803. http://www.jstor.org /stable/3088970
Uggen, Christopher; Shannon, Sarah; and Manza, Jeff. 2012. “ State- level estimates of felon disenfranchisement in the United States, 2010.” The Sentencing Project, July. http://sentencingproject .org /doc /publications /fd_State_Level_Estimates_of_Felon _Disen_2010.pdf
UNAIDS. 2017. “UNAIDS data 2017.” http://www.unaids.org/sites /default/files/media_asset/20170720_Data_book_2017_en.pdf
UNICEF. 2010. “Humanitarian Action Report 2010: Eastern and Southern Africa, feature story for Burundi.” http://www.unicef .org/har2010/index_burundi_feature.html
United Nations. 2000. “Ending violence against women and girls.” State of the World Population 2000. https://www.unfpa.org/sites /default/files/ pub- pdf/swp2000_eng.pdf
______. 2014a. “The human right to water and sanitation.” May. http:// www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml
______. 2014b. “Transboundary waters.” http://www.un.org /waterforlifedecade/transboundary_waters.shtml
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 2014. “World Investment Report 2014: Annex Tables.” http://unctad.org /en/pages/DIAE/World%20Investment%20Report/AnnexTables .aspx
REFERENCES R-27
______. 2017. “World Investment Report 2017: Annex Tables.” http:// unctad.org /en /Pages/DIAE/World%20Investment%20Report /Annex-Tables.aspx
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). 2016. “The world’s cities in 2016.” http://www.un.org/en /development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization /the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf
______. 2017. World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision. New York: United Nations.
United Nations High Commission on Refugees. 2016. “Syria conflict at 5 years: The biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time demands a huge surge in solidarity.” March 15. http://www.unhcr .org/afr/news/press/2016/3/56e6e3249/ syria- conflict- 5-years – biggest- refugee- displacement- crisis- time- demands.html
United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosys- tems and Human Well- Being: the Biodiversity Synthesis Report. New York: United Nations Environment Program.
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Develop- ment. 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
UN Water. 2013a. “Facts and Figures.” http://www.unwater.org /water-cooperation-2013/water cooperation/ facts- and- figures/en/
______. 2013b. “Statistics: Graphs & Maps.” www.unwater.org/statistics _urb.html
______. 2013c. “World Water Day 2013: International Year of Water Cooperation.” http://www.unwater.org/ water- cooperation-2013 /water-cooperation/facts-and figures/en/
Urry, John. 1990. The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage. ______. 1992. “The tourist gaze and the ‘environment.’” Theory, Cul-
ture & Society, vol. 9, no. 3: 1–26. ______. 2002. The Tourist Gaze, 2nd ed. London: Sage. Urstadt, Bryant; and Frier, Sarah. 2016. “Welcome to Zucker-
world: Facebook’s really big plans for virtual reality.” Bloomberg Businessweek. July 27. https://www.bloomberg.com/features /2016- facebook- virtual- reality/
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. 2016. “Activities of U.S. multina- tional enterprises in the United States and abroad.” https://www .bea.gov/scb/pdf/2016/12%20December/1216_activities_of_us _multinational_enterprises.pdf
U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1982. “Prisoners 1925-81.” https:// www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p2581.pdf
______. 2014. “Prisoners in 2012.” https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub /pdf/p12tar9112.pdf
______. 2015a. “Drug offenders in federal prison: Estimates of charac- teristics based on linked data.” https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub /pdf/dofp12.pdf
______. 2015b. “Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department.” https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases /attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf
______. 2016. “Prisoners in 2015.” December. https://www.bjs.gov /content/pub/pdf/p15.pdf
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2012a. “Employment outlook: 2010–2020 industry employment and output projections to 2020.” https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/01/art4full.pdf
______. 2012b. “Unemployment rates for states.” https://www.bls.gov /web/laus/laumstrk.htm
______. 2015a. “Economic news release: Table A- 14. Unemployed persons by industry and class of worker, not seasonally adjusted.” March 2. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t14.htm
______. 2015b. “Industries at a glance.” https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs /iag_index_naics.htm
______. 2016a. “American Time Use Survey: Charts by Topic: Leisure and sports activities.” https://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/leisure.htm
______. 2016b. “Volunteering in the United States, 2015.” https:// www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm.
______. 2017a. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES3000000001?data _tool=XGtable
______. 2017b. “All employees, thousands, leisure and hospitality, seasonally adjusted: Leisure and hospitality.” https://data.bls.gov /timeseries/CES7000000001
______. 2017c. “Average hours per day spent in selected activities by age, 2016 annual averages.” https://www.bls.gov/charts/american – time- use/ activity- by- age.htm
______. 2017d. “Characteristics of minimum wage workers: 2017.” https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2016/home .htm
______. 2017e. “Consumer expenditures in 2016.” https://www.bls .gov/opub/reports/consumer-expenditures/2016/pdf/home.pdf
______. 2017f. “Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11 .htm
______. 2017g. “Employment projections: Unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment, 2016.” https://www.bls.gov /emp/ep_chart_001.htm
______. 2017h. “Household data annual averages: 37. Median weekly earnings of full- time wage and salary workers by selected charac- teristics.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat37.pdf
______. 2017i. “Labor force statistics from the Current Population Sur- vey: Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and His- panic or Latino ethnicity.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.pdf
______. 2017j. “Labor statistics from the Current Population Survey: Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and His- panic or Latino ethnicity.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm
______. 2017k. “Major work stoppages in 2016.” https://www.bls.gov /news.release/wkstp.nr0.htm
______. 2017l. “A profile of the working poor: 2015,” BLS Reports, April. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/working-poor/2015/ home.htm
______. 2017m. “Unemployed persons by marital status, race, age, and sex.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat24.pdf
______. 2017n. “Union members— 2016.” https://www.bls.gov/news .release/union2.htm.
______. 2017o. “Women in the labor force: A databook.” BLS Reports. https://www.bls.gov/opub /reports /womens-databook /2016 /home.htm.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2005. “Interim projections: Ranking of census 2000 and projected 2030 state population and change: 2000 to 2030.” April. https://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2005 /stateproj7.xls
______. 2012. “Shopping centers— number and gross leasable area: 1990–2010.” https://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012 /tables/12s1061.pdf
______. 2013. “Percent population residing in urban areas by county: 2010.” https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps /thematic/2010ua/UA2010_Urban_Pop_Map.pdf
______. 2015a. “Fertility of women in the United States: 2014.” https:// www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2014.html
______. 2015b. “New Census Bureau report analyzes U.S. population projections.” March 3, 2015. https://www.census.gov/newsroom / press- releases/2015/cb15-tps16.html
______. 2015c. “Projections of the size and composition of the U.S. pop- ulation: 2014 to 2060.” https://www.census.gov/content/dam /Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf
______. 2015d. “State and county quick facts: California.” http:// quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html
______. 2015e. “State and county quick facts: Clark County, NV.” http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/32/32003.html
______. 2016a. “Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2015.” https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications /2016/demo/p60-257.pdf
REFERENCESR-28
______. 2016b. “Historical marital status tables: Table MS- 1. Marital status of the population 15 years old and over, by sex, race and Hispanic origin: 1950 to present.” https://www.census.gov/data /tables/ time- series/demo/families/marital.html
______. 2016c. “National population by charac ter istics tables: 2010–2015.” https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2015/demo /popest/ nation- detail.html
______. 2017a. “America’s families and living arrangements: 2016.” h tt p s : //www.c e n s u s. g ov/d a t a /t a b l e s /2 0 1 6 /d e m o /f a m i l i e s / cps- 2016.html
______. 2017b. “America’s families and living arrangements: 2016, Table A1. Marital status of people 15 years and over, by age, sex, and personal earnings: 2016.” https://www.census.gov/data /tables/2016/demo/families/ cps- 2016.html
______. 2017c. “Educational attainment in the United States: 2016.” https://www.census.gov/data /tables /2016/demo /education -attainment/ cps- detailed- tables.html
______. 2017d. “Facts for features: Older Americans month: May 2017.” https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017 /cb17-ff08.html
______. 2017e. “Historical families tables: Table FM- 2.” https://www .census.gov/data /tables / time- series /demo/families /families .html
______. 2017f. “Historical households tables: Table HH- 1: House- holds, by type: 1940 to present.” https://www.census.gov/data /tables/ time- series/demo/families/households.html
______. 2017g. “Historical living arrangements of adults: Table AD- 3.” https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families /adults.html
______. 2017h. “Historical living arrangements of adults: Table UC- 1.” https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families /adults.html
______. 2017i. “Historical marital status tables: Table MS- 2.” https:// www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/marital .html
______. 2017j. “National population by characteristics tables: 2010–2016.” Annual estimates of the resident population by sex, race, and Hispanic origin for the United States, states, and counties: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016. https://www.census.gov/data/tables /2016/demo/popest/ nation- detail.html
______. 2017k. “ PINC- 03. Educational attainment— people 25 years old and over, by total money earnings in in 2016, age, race, His panic origin, and sex.” https://www.census.gov/data/tables/ time – series/demo/ income-poverty/cps-pinc/pinc-03.html
______. 2017l. “Quick facts: California: Population estimates, July 2016.” https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/CA
______. 2017m. “Quick facts: Population estimates.” https://www .census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/00
______. 2017n. “State population totals tables: 2010–2016,” Table 2: Cumulative Estimates of Resident Population Change for the United States: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016. https://www.census .gov/data/tables/2016/demo/popest/ state- total.html
______. 2017o. “The South is home to 10 of the 15 fastest- growing large cities.” https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017 /cb17-81- population- estimates- subcounty.html
______. 2017p. “Voting and registration in the elec tion of Novem- ber 2016.” Table 10. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time -series/demo/ voting- and- registration/p20-580.html
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2012. “Characteristics and influential factors of food deserts.” https://www.ers.usda.gov /webdocs/publications/45014/30940_err140.pdf ?v=41156
______. 2015. “Food security in the U.S.: Key statistics and graphs.” https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics /food-nutrition-assistance / food- security- in- the- us/ key- statistics- graphics/
U.S. Department of Commerce. 2012. “Summary estimates for multi- national companies: Employment, sales, and capital expenditures for 2010.” htpps://www.bea.gov/news releases/international /mnc/mncnewsrelease.htm
______. 2016a. “Fast facts: United States travel and tourism industry: 2015.” http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/outreachpages/download_data _table/Fast_Facts_2015.pdf
______. 2016b. “National Population by Characteristics Tables: 2010–2015.” https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2015/demo /popest/ nation- detail.html
U.S. Department of Defense. 2014. Report to the President of the United States on Sexual Assault Prevention and Response. http:// www.sapr.mil /public/docs/reports/FY14_POTUS/FY14_DoD _Report_to_POTUS_Full_Report.pdf
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Sta- tistics. 2013. “Number and percentage distribution of all chil- dren ages 5–17 who were homeschooled and homeschooling rate, by selected characteristics: 2011–12.” http://nces.ed.gov /pubs2013/2013028/tables/table_07.asp
______. 2016a. “Digest of Education Statistics, Table 104.91: Num- ber and percentage distribution of spring 2002 high school sophomores, by highest level of education completed, and soci- oeconomic status and selected student characteristics while in high school.” https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables /dt16_104.91.asp
______. 2016b. “Digest of Education Statistics, Table 302.30: Percent- age of recent high school completers enrolled in 2-year and 4-year colleges, by income level: 1975 through 2015.” https://nces.ed.gov /programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_302.30.asp?current=yes
______. 2016c. “Official cohort default rates for schools.” Federal Stu- dent Aid, September 28. https://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP /defaultmanagement/cdr.html
______. 2017a. “The condition of education: 2016.” https://nces .ed.gov/programs/coe/
______. 2017b “Digest of Education Statistics: Degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: Selected years, 1869–70 through 2026–27.” https://nces.ed.gov /programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_318.10.asp?current=yes
______. 2017c. “Digest of Education Statistics, Table 303.10: Total fall enrollment in degree- granting postsecondary institutions.” https://nces.ed.gov/programs /digest /d16/tables /dt16_303.10 .asp?current=yes
______. 2017d. “Digest of Education Statistics: Table 325.92, Degrees in economics, history, political science and government, and soci- ology conferred by postsecondary institutions, by level of degree: Selected years, 1949–50 through 2014–15.” https://nces.ed.gov /programs/digest/current_tables.asp
______. 2017e. “Homeschooling in the United States: 2012.” https:// nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016096rev.pdf
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2016. “The AFCARS report: Preliminary FY 2015 estimates as of June 2016 (23).” https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default /files/cb/afcarsreport23 .pdf
______. 2017. “Child maltreatment 2015.” http://www.acf.hhs.gov /programs /cb/ research- data- technology/ statistics- research / child- maltreatment.
U.S. Department of Labor. 2012. “Extensive violations of federal, state laws found among garment contractors at Los Angeles Gar- ment District location.” http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press /whd/WHD20122378.htm
U.S. Department of State. 2017. “Trafficking in Persons Report 2017.” https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/271339.pdf
U.S. Elections Project. 2017. “Voter turnout demographics.” http:// www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics
REFERENCES R-29
U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2013a. “Countries overview.” http://www.eia.gov/countries/index.cfm?topL=conFjsdlkjfk
______. 2013b. “World energy use to rise by 56 percent, driven by growth in the developing world.” http://www.eia.gov/pressroom /releases/press395.cfm
______. 2015. “Primary energy consumption by source.” http://www .eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_7.pdf
______. 2017a. “International energy outlook 2017.” https://www.eia .gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/0484(2017).pdf
______. 2017b. “U.S. energy facts explained.” https://www.eia.gov/ energyexplained/?page=us_energy_home
U.S. Geological Survey. 2014. “How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?” https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch .html
U.S. Government Printing Office. 2011. “Budget of the U.S. govern- ment.” http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2011-BUD/pdf /BUDGET-2011-BUD.pdf
Useem, E. L. 1990. “You’re good but you’re not good enough: Track- ing students out of advanced mathematics.” American Educator, vol. 14, no. 3, 24–46.
Usher, Alexandra; and Kober, Nancy. 2011. “Keeping informed about school vouchers: A review of major developments and research.” Center on Education Policy, July. http://www .cep-dc.org /displayDocument.cfm?DocumentID=369#sthash .WDWRI2p8.dpuf
Valente, T. W. 2015. “Social networks and health behavior.” In B. Rimer, K. Glanz, and V. Vishwanath, eds., Health Behavior: Theory, Research & Practice, 6th ed. New York: Wiley.
Vance, J. D. 2016. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. New York: Harper Collins.
Van Cleve, Thomas Curtis. 1972. The Emperor Frederick of Hohen- staufen, Immutator Mundi. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
van den Berghe, P. L. 1979. Human Family Systems: An Evolutionary View. New York: Elsevier/ North- Holland.
Vandivere, Sharon; Malm, Karen; and Radel, Laura. 2009. “Adoption USA: A chartbook based on the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
Vaughan, Diane. 1996. The Challenger Launch Decisions: Risky Tech- nology, Culture and Deviance at NASA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vedantam, Shankar. 2010. “Why do Americans claim to be more religious than they are?” Slate, December 22. www.slate.com /id/2278923
Velkoff, Victoria; and Lawson, Valerie. 1998. “Caregiving.” Gender and Aging, December: 1–7.
Ventola, C. Lee. 2011. “ Direct- to- consumer pharmaceutical adver- tising: therapeutic or toxic.” Pharmacy & Therapeutics, vol. 36, no. 10, October. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles /PMC3278148/
Verma, Tarshi. 2017. “What are the surrogacy laws in India? Here is everything you need to know.” The Indian Express. March 16. h t t p : //i n d i a n e x p r e s s . c o m /a r t i c l e /r e s e a r c h / k a r a n – j o h a r – surrogate- children- yash- roohi- what- are- the- surrogacy- in – laws- in- india- here- is- everything-you-need-to-know-4555077/
Vilsack, Tom. 2016. “Rural America has already begun to rebound.” New York Times, September 19. https://www.nytimes.com/ roomfordebate/2016/09/19/ prosperity- is- up- but- not- for- rural- america/ rural- america-has-already-begun-to-rebound
Vincent, Danny. 2011. “China used prisoners in lucrative Internet gaming work.” The Guardian, May 25. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam
Vivarelli, Nick. 2017. “British TV rules Monte Carlo TV fest, with double wins for ‘Victoria,’ ‘Fleabag.’” Variety, June 20. http://vari ety.com /2017/tv/news/ victoria- fleabag- score- multiple- prizes – at-monte-carlo-tv-fest-1202472767/
Waber, B. et al. 2010. “Productivity through coffee breaks: Changing social networks by changing break structure.” Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology. January.
Wade, Lisa. 2017. American Hookup. New York: W. W. Norton. ______. 2017. “The modern marriage trap— and what to do about it.”
Money Magazine. January 10. http://time.com/money/4630251 / the- modern- marriage- trap- and- what- to- do- about- it/
Waldron, T.; Roberts, B.; and Reamer, A. 2004. “Working hard, falling short: America’s working families and the pursuit of economic security.” A national report by the Working Poor Families Project. Baltimore: Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Walker, Samuel. 1997. Popular Justice: A History of American Crimi- nal Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
Walker, Tracey. 2014. “AARP study finds sharp rise in price of brand name prescription drugs.” Managed Healthcare Executive, November 21. http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2015/04 /24/WNL.0000000000001608.full.pdf+html
Walsh, Declan. 2013. “Girl shot by Pakistani Taliban is discharged from hospital.” New York Times, January 4. http://www.nytimes . c o m / 2 0 1 3 / 0 1 / 0 5 /w o r l d /a s i a / m a l a l a – y o u s a f z a i – s h o t – b y – pakistani- taliban- is- discharged- from- hospital.html
Waters, Emily. 2016. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV- affected intimate partner violence in 2015.” National Coa- lition of Anti- Violence Programs. http://www.avp.org/storage /documents/2015_ncavp_ lgbtqipvreport.pdf
Waters, Mary. 1990. Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wattel, Harold. 1958. “Levittown: A suburban community.” In William M. Dobriner, ed., The Suburban Community. New York: Putnam.
Watts, Duncan. 2003. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. New York: Norton.
Wearing, Stephen; and Wearing, Michael. 1999. “Decommodify- ing ecotourism: Rethinking global– local interactions with host communities.” Loisir et Société/Society and Leisure, vol. 22, no. 1: 39–70.
Weber, Max. 1930 (orig. 1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. Talcott Parsons. New York: Scribner’s.
______. 1946 (orig. 1925). “Science as a vocation.” In Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, ed. and trans., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
______. 1962 (orig. 1913). Basic Concepts of Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.
______. 1968 (orig. 1921). Economy and Society. Ed. and trans. Guen- ther Roth and Claus Wittich. New York: Bedminster Press.
Weinberg, Adam; Bellows, Story; and Ekster, Dara. 2002. “Sustaining ecotourism: Insights and implications from two successful case studies.” Society and Natural Resources, vol. 15, no. 4: 371–380.
Weinstein, Deena. 1991. Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology. New York: Macmillan/Lexington.
______. 2000. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. New York: DaCapo.
Weinstein, Harvey. 2003. “Controversial ruling on pledge reaffirmed.” Los Angeles Times, Metro Desk, March 1, 1:1.
Wellman, Barry. 2004. “Connecting community: On- and off- line.” Contexts, vol. 3, no. 4: 22–28.
Werner, Carrie A. 2011. “The older population: 2010.” U.S. Census Briefs. https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-09 .pdf
REFERENCESR-30
Wessel, David. 2011. “Big U.S. firms shift hiring abroad.” Wall Street Journal, April 19. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052 748704821704576270783611823972
Weston, Kath. 1991. Families We Choose. New York: Columbia Uni- versity Press.
Whalen, J.; Zimmerman, D.; and Whalen, M. 1988. “When words fail: A single case analysis.” Social Problems, vol. 35, no. 4: 335–362.
Wharton, Amy S.; and Blair- Loy, Mary. 2002. “Employees’ use of work– family policies and the workplace social context.” Social Forces, vol. 80, no. 3: 813–845.
Whitacre, Paula Tarnapol; Tsai, Peggy; and Mulligan, Janet. 2009. The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
White, Glen. 1989. “Groupthink reconsidered.” Academy of Manage- ment Review, vol. 14: 40–56.
Whorf, Benjamin. 1956. Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. John B. Carroll, ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Whyte, W. H. 1956. The Organization Man. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Wicks- Lim, Jeannette; and Thompson, Jeffrey. 2010. “Combining minimum wage and earned income tax credit policies to guaran- tee a decent living standard to all U.S. workers.” Political Economy Research Institute. October 18. http://www.peri.umass.edu/236 /hash/9b8a787cfa16226190e4f96e582348cd/publication/428
Wilkinson, Richard G. 2005. The Impact of Inequality. New York: New Press.
Williams, Christine L. 1995. Still a Man’s World: Men Who Do Wom- en’s Work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Williams, Patricia J. 1991. The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
______. 1997. “Of race and risk.” The Nation, December 29: 10. Williams, Robin. 1965. American Society: A Sociological Interpreta-
tion, 2nd ed. New York: Knopf. Wilson, Edward O. 1975/2000. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis.
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ______. 1978. On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press. Wilson, Reid. 2014. “Watch the U.S. transition from a manufacturing
economy to a service economy, in one gif.” Washington Post. Sep- tember 3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp /2014/09/03/ watch- the- u- s- transition- from- a- manufacturing – e c o n o m y – t o – a – s e r v i c e – e c o n o m y – i n – o n e – g i f / ? u t m _ t e r m =.5a7fb11a6e40
Wilson, William Julius. 1980. The Declining Significance of Race. Chi- cago: University of Chicago Press.
______. 1996. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Knopf.
______. 2009. More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. New York: Norton.
Wing Sue, Derald. 2010. Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
______; Capodilupo, C.; Torino, G.; Bucceri, J.; Holder, A.; Nadal, K.; and Esquilin, M. 2007. “Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice.” American Psychologist, vol. 62, no. 4: 271–286.
Wirth, Louis. 1938. “Urbanism as a way of life.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 44: 3–24.
Wise, Tim. 2011. White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press.
______. 2012. Dear White America: A Letter to a New Minority. San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.
Wiseman, Rosalind. 2002. Queen Bees and Wannabes. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Wisenberg Brin, Dinah. 2013. “Telecommuting likely to grow despite high- profile defections.” Society for Human Resource Manage- ment. July 24. http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/technology /articles/pages/ telecommuting- likely- to- grow- bans.aspx
Wolf, Rosalie S. 2000. “The nature and scope of elder abuse.” Genera- tions, vol. 24 (summer): 6–12.
______. 2004. “Changes in household wealth in the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S.” Working paper no. 407. Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.
Wolfinger, Nicholas H. 1999. “Trends in the intergenerational trans- mission of divorce.” Demography, vol. 36, no. 3: 415–420.
______. 2000. “Beyond the intergenerational transmission of divorce: Do people replicate the patterns of marital instability they grew up with?” Journal of Family Issues, vol. 21: 1061–1086.
______. 2003. “Parental divorce and offspring marriage: Early or late?” Social Forces, vol. 82, no. 1: 337–353.
______. 2017. “New research on the intergenerational transmis- sion of divorce.” Family Studies Blog. January 24. https:// ifstudies.org / blog /new-research-on-the-intergenerational – transmission- of- divorce
Wolfson, Andrew. 2005. “A hoax most cruel.” Courier- Journal. Lou- isville, KY. October 9. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS01/510090392
Wong, Julia Carrie. 2016. “Asian Americans decry ‘white- washed’ Great Wall film starring Matt Damon.” The Guard- ian. July 29. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/29 / the- great- wall- china- film- matt- damon- whitewashed
Wood, Lisa J.; Giles- Corti, Billie; Bulsara, Max K.; and Bosch, Darcy. 2007. “More than a furry companion: The ripple effect of compan- ion animals on neighborhood interactions and sense of commu- nity.” Society and Animals, vol. 15: 43–56.
Wood, Megan Epler. 2002. Ecotourism: Principles, Practices and Pol- icies for Sustainability. Burlington, VT: International Ecotourism Society.
World Bank. 2015. “CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita).” http:// data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC
______. 2017a. “Percent of employment in agriculture, U.S.” h t t p : //d a t a .w o r l d b a n k . o r g / i n d i c a t o r / S L . A G R . E M P L . Z S ?locations=US
______. 2017b. “World development indicators: Gross domestic product 2016.” http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download /GDP.pdf
World Health Organization (WHO). 1946. “Constitution of the World Health Organization.” July 26. http://www.who.int/governance /eb/constitution/en/
______. 2016. “Life expectancy at birth (years), 2000–2015: Life expectancy data by country.” http://gamapserver.who.int/gho /interactive_charts/mbd/life_expectancy/atlas.html
______. 2017. “The top 10 causes of death.” http://www.who.int /mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index1.html
Wortham, J. 2015. “The eerie realism of Mr. Robot.” August 31. https://www.nytimes.com /2015/08/31/magazine /the-eerie – realism- of- mr- robot.html?_r=0
Wray, M.; Miller, M.; Gurvey, J.; Carroll, J.; and Kawachi, I. 2008. “Leaving Las Vegas: Exposure to Las Vegas and risk of suicide.” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 67, no. 11: 1882–1888.
Wray, Matt. 2011. “Review of On the Edge of Utopia: Perfor- mance & Ritual at Burning Man, by Rachel Bowditch.” Modern Drama, vol. 54: 564–567.
Wright, Erik Olin. 1997. Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
______; Costello, Cynthia; Hachen, David; and Spragues, Joey. 1982. “The American class structure.” American Sociological Review, vol. 47, no. 6: 709–726.
REFERENCES R-31
Xu, J. Q.; Murphy, S. L.; Kochanek, K. D.; and Bastian, B. A. 2016. “Deaths: Final data for 2013.” National Vital Statistics Report, vol. 64, no. 2. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf
Yeung, King- To; and Martin, John Levi. 2003. “The looking glass self: An empirical test and elaboration.” Social Forces, vol. 81, no. 3: 843–879.
Yin, Sandra. 2003. “The art of staying at home.” American Demo- graphics, vol. 25, no. 9 (November 1).
Young, Alison; and Nichols, Mark. 2016. “Beyond Flint.” USA Today. March 11. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/11 / nearly- 2000- water- systems- fail- lead- tests/81220466/
Yuan, Jada. 2007. “The White- Castle ceiling.” New York Magazine, March 4.
Zellner, William W. 1995. Countercultures: A Sociological Analysis. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Zerubavel, Eviatar. 2003. Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Zheng, Yangpeng. 2012. “Economic downturn benefits China’s service outsourcing.” China Daily. September 25. http://www .chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-09/25/content_15782738.htm
Zimbardo, Philip G. 1971. “The power and pathology of imprison- ment.” Congressional Record. (Serial No. 15, October 25). Hearings
before Subcommittee No. 3, of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 92nd Congress, First Session on Cor- rections, Part II, Prisons, Prison Reform and Prisoner’s Rights: California. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Zinn, Howard. 1995. A People’s History of America. New York: HarperCollins.
Zirakzadeh, C. 1997. Social Movements in Politics: A Comparative Study. London: Longman.
Zirin, D. 2017. “Here’s why the US women’s national hockey team is going on strike.” The Nation, March 16. https://www.thenation. com/article/ heres- why- the-us-womens-national-hockey-team – is- going- on- strike/
Zraick, Karen. 2016. “In death, Qandeel Baloch, Pakistani social media star, is celebrated as a feminist hero.” New York Times, July 19. htt p : //www. ny t i m e s.c o m /2 0 1 6 /07/2 0 /wo r l d /a s i a /q a n d e e l -baloch- pakistan- murder- social- media.html?_r=0
Zukin, S. 1987. “Gentrification: Culture and capital in the urban core.” American Review of Sociology, vol. 13: 139–147.
______. 1989. Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
______. 2004. Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture. London: Routledge.
Zurcher, Louis. 1977. The Mutable Self. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Zweigenhaft, R. L.; and Domhoff, G. W. 2014. The New CEOs: Women,
African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
C- 1
Credits
About the Authors Page v top: Courtesy Kerry Ferris, bottom: Courtesy Jill Stein.
Part 1 Page 4 left: Pepper Schwartz, center: Victor Rios, right: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. CC- BY 4.0.
Chapter 1 Page 11: James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 13 top: Jeff Kravitz/Film- Magic/Getty Images, bottom: Fritz Goro/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; p. 15: Joe Raedle/Getty Images: p. 16 left: McPHOTOs/ageFotostock, right: Demitrius Balevski/AP Photo; p. 18 left: Bettmann/Corbis via Getty Images; top right: Hulton- Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images, bottom right: Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)(print)/London Library, St. James's Square, London, UK/Bridgeman Images; p. 19: Bettmann/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 20: American Sociological Association; p. 21 top: American Sociological Asso- ciation, bottom: Bettmann/Corbis; p. 23: Trip/Alamy; p. 24: Librado Romero/ The New York Times/Redux; p. 25: Hulton Archive/Getty Images; p. 26 left: Bettmann/Corbis, center: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy Stock Photo, right: Kris Connor/Getty Images; p. 28: The Granger Collection, NY; p. 29 left: Savitar, 1922. [Volume 28]. Courtesy of University Archives, University of Missouri at Columbia, top and bottom right: Library of Congress; p. 30: From the University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania; p. 32: webpics/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 33 left: Steve Pyke/Getty Images, center: Bettmann/Corbis via Getty Images, right: Steve Pyke/Getty Images; p. 37: Alex Segre/Alamy.
Chapter 2 Page 41: Roel Burgler/Hollandse Hoogte/Redux; p. 43: Bandura, Ross and Ross, from "Social Learning of Aggression through Imitation of Film- Mediated Aggressive Models," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 66 (1963), 3–11; p. 44: John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; p. 46: Dale Atkins/AP Photo; p. 48: Leila Cutler/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 51: Antonio Perez/ Chicago Tribune/MCT/Newscom; p. 55: Mick Stevens The New Yorker Collec- tion/The Cartoon Bank: p. 56 left and right: Michael Dunning/Getty Images; p. 58: Christin Gilbert/agefotostock; p. 61: Whitney Bush; p. 62: Bettmann/ Corbis via Getty Images; p. 63: Universal Images Group (Lake County Discov- ery Museum)/Alamy; p. 64: Corbis via Getty Images; p. 66 left: John Dominis/ The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images, right: Christin Gilbert/agefotostock; p. 67: Roel Burgler/Hollandse Hoogte/Redux.
Part 2 Pages 70 and 71: Courtesy Verta Taylor and Leila Rupp.
Chapter 3 Page 76: Laura Doss/Corbis; p. 78: Carl & Ann Purcell/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 79: top left: William West/AFP/Getty Images, top center: Elaine Thompson/ AP Photo, top right: Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images, bottom left: AarStudio/
Getty Images, bottom right: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images; p. 80: Para- mount Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection; p. 82: Ted S. Warren/ AP Photo; p. 83 left: Alex Brandon/AP Photo, right: AP Photo/News Herald, Heather Leiphart; p. 84 top: Richard Ellis, bottom: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; p. 86: © Androniki Christodoulou; p. 87: Bobby Bank/ GC Images/Getty Images; p. 88 left: AP Photo/Eric Gay, right: AP Photo/ Marcio Jose Sanchez; p. 89: Alex Segre/Alamy; p. 90: Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO/ Newscom; p. 91: Ali Haider/epa european pressphoto agency b.v./Alamy; p. 92: Joshua Roberts/Reuters/Newscom; p. 94 left: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images, right: Alex Segre/Alamy; p. 95: NBC/Photofest.
Chapter 4 Page 101: Carol and Mike Werner/Science Source; p. 102: © Walt Disney Pic- tures/Courtesy: Everett Collection; p. 103: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY. © 2009 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Law- rence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; p. 105: Blend Images/Alamy; p. 107: Jerod Harris/Getty Images for GUESS; p. 110: 20th Century Fox/Photofest; p. 111: WENN Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 113 left: Randy Stotler/AP Photo, right: Yun Jai- hyoung/AP Photo; p. 114: Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images; p. 116: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh; p. 117 top: Ross Setford/NZPA/AP Photo, center: Alan Chin, bottom: Madison J. Gray/AP Photo; p. 118: Christian Beutler/ Keystone/Redux; p. 119: Hello Lovely/Blend Images/Getty Images; p. 120 left: Hello Lovely/Blend Images/Getty Images, right: 20th Century Fox/Photofest; p. 121: HBO Productions/REX/Shutterstock.
Chapter 5 Page 126: Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP Photo; p. 128: Sipa USA via AP Photo; p. 129 left: Bettmann/Corbis, right: redsnapper/Alamy; p. 133: David Paul Morris/ Bloomberg via Getty Images; p. 136 top: Jan Greune/ LOOK- foto/Getty Images, bottom: Steve Skjold/Alamy; p. 139: Babar Shah/Pakistan Press International Photo/Newscom; p. 140 top: From the film Obedience, © 1965 by Stanley Mil- gram and distributed by Alexander Street Press, bottom: Philip G. Zimbardo, Inc.; p. 142: Yorick Jansens/ZUMA Press/Newscom; p. 144: Jon Hrusa/EPA/ Newscom; p. 145: © 2006 Scott Adams, Inc. Dist. by Andrews McMeel Syndica- tion. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved; p. 146: Peter Noyce PLB/ Alamy Stock Photo; p. 147: BLM Photo/Alamy; p. 148: Steve Skjold/Alamy; p. 149: Jan Greune/ LOOK- foto/Getty Images.
Chapter 6 Page 153: Sebastien Micke/Paris Match/Contour by Getty Images; p. 154 left: dpa picture alliance/Alamy Stock Photo, center: Thomas Cockrem/Alamy Stock Photo, right: (ca. 1899) [Woman wearing corset, brushing her hair, half- length portrait, standing, facing front], ca. 1899. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/90710046/; p. 157: Warner Bros/DC Comics/REX/Shutterstock; p. 159: Tom Gannam/AP Photo; p. 160: Sony Pictures TV/Splash News/Newscom; p. 162: Gilles Mingasson/Liai- son/Getty Images; p. 167: HBO/Photofest; p. 168: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection; p. 169 top: Beth Dubber/Netflix/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock, bot- tom: Bevel Gears/Universal TV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock; p. 171: Knut Egil Wang/INSTITUTE; p. 174 left: dpa picture alliance/Alamy Stock Photo, right: Warner Bros/DC Comics/REX/Shutterstock; p. 175: HBO/Photofest.
C- 2
Chapter 7 Page 179: all photos © Ovie Carter; p. 183: all photos ©1994 Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com Material World; p. 185: Florian Kopp/imageBRO- KER/Newscom; p. 186: Mario Tama/Getty Images; p. 190 left: Gilles Min- gasson/Getty Images, right: Tim Graham/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 193: E! Entertainment Television/Photofest; p. 194: BUILT Images/Alamy; p. 197: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images; p. 201: Joe Raedle/Getty Images; p. 204: Michael Stravato/The New York Times/Redux Pictures; p. 205: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/Newscom; p. 208: Mario Tama/Getty Images; p. 209: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Newscom; p. 211: Anthony Hatley/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 214 left: Anthony Hatley/Alamy Stock Photo, right: BUILT Images/ Alamy; p. 215: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/Newscom.
Chapter 8 Page 219 left: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images, right: Barcroft Media; p. 220: Library of Congress; p. 221 left: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, right: Paul Warner/Getty Images; p. 225: AP Photo/David Goldman; p. 226: Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images; p. 227: Moviestore/ REX/Shutterstock; p. 228 top: Jasin Boland/Paramount/ Courtesy Everett Col- lection, bottom: Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman- Review/AP Photo; p. 229 top: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images, bottom: Erik Pendzich/REX/ Shutterstock; p. 231: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Women's Foundation; p. 233: David Bornfriend/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock; p. 234: Francis Miller/ The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images; p. 235: Moviestore/REX/Shutter- stock; p. 239: Jason Henry/The New York Times/Redux; p. 242 left: Poppy Pro- ductions/AF Archive/Alamy Stock Photo, right: ABC/Photofest; p. 244 left: Ziv Koren/Polaris, right: Spencer Platt/Getty Images; p. 245: Rodi Said/Reuters/ Newscom; p. 246: MLB Photos via Getty Images; p. 248 left: Library of Con- gress, right: Paul Warner/Getty Images; p. 249: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock.
Chapter 9 Page 255 left: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images, right: © Adam Ferguson; p. 259: Brennan Linsley/AP Photo; p. 261 left: Amazon Studios/Photofest, right: Photo by Neil Jacobs/CBS via Getty Image; p. 265: Courtesy Everett Col- lection; p. 269: AP Photo/Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency; p. 273: Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage; p. 274: Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG/Zuma Press/Newscom; p. 275: Don Smith/MCT/Newscom; p. 276: © Jean- Pierre Laffont; p. 278: Joe Raedle/Getty Images; p. 280 left: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images, right: Brennan Linsley/AP Photo; p. 281: AP Photo/Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency.
Chapter 10 Page 284 left: Tannen Maury/Polaris Images, right: Steve Kagan/Getty Images; p. 290 left: Kyodo News/AP Photo, center: Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images, right: Rob Keeris/AFP/Getty Images; p. 292: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images; p. 293: John Roca/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images; p. 295 Table 10.2: “Top 10 Spenders on Lobbying, 1998–2017,” From the Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets.org. Reprinted with permission; p. 296 left: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, right: Laperruque/Alamy Stock Photo, bottom: Vincent Laforet/epa/ Corbis via Getty Images; p. 297: Jennifer Mack/Alamy Live News/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 299 left: Home Box Office/Album/Newscom, right: TBS/Courtesy Everett Collection; p. 300: Ron Morgan via CartoonStock; p. 301: Mario Tama/Getty Images; p. 303: The Granger Collection, NY; p. 304 left: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images, right: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images; p. 307: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Newscom; p. 309: Don Ryan/ AP Photo; p. 311: Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images; p. 314 left: Leif Skoogfors/Corbis via Getty Images, right: J.L. Atlan/Corbis Sygma via Getty Images; p. 316: Leon Neal/Getty Images; p. 317 top: Nina Berman/NOOR/ Redux, bottom (Figure 10.2): “Second Largest Religious Tradition in Each State, 2010,” from the 2010 U.S. Religion Census, sponsored by the Associa- tion of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Reprinted with permission;
p. 321: AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki; p. 322 left: The Granger Collection, NY, right: Jennifer Mack/Alamy Live News/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 323: Ocean/Corbis.
Chapter 11 Page 328: Corbis via Getty Images; p. 329: Granger Collection, NY; p. 332 left: Photo by FOX via Getty Images, right: 3 Arts Entertainment/Judge- mental Films Inc/REX/Shutterstock; p. 335: Max Whittaker/Prime for The Washington Post via Getty Images; p. 337: David Bacon/The Image Works; p. 338: Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 340: AP Photo; p. 341: The Granger Collection, NY; p. 342: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images; p. 345: Ge Jin, copyright 2008; p. 346: Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images; p. 348 left: Adam Berry/Getty Images, right: Mamunur Rashid/ Alamy; p. 351: Shailesh Raval/The India Today Group/Getty Images; p. 353 top: Koen van Weel/AFP/Getty Images; p. 353 bottom: Bureau of Land Management/ Jonathan Moor/Handout via Reuters/Newscom; p. 354: Hero Images/Corbis; p. 355: Gordon Chibroski/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images; p. 356 Figure 11.1: “Paid Vacation and Paid Holidays, OECD Nations, in Working Days,” from "No Vacation Nation Revisited" by Rebecca Ray, Milla Sanes, and John Schmitt, 2013. Courtesy of the Center for Economic and Pol- icy Research; p. 358 left: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images, right: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Newscom; p. 359: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Chapter 12 Page 364: © P. D. Eastman. Random House Books for Young Readers; 1 edi- tion (June 12, 1960); p. 365: CBS- TV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock; p. 367: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Yeezy Season 4; p. 369: Photo by Kobal/REX/ Shutterstock; p. 370: Peter "Hopper" Stone/ABC via Getty Images; p. 372: Gilles Mingasson/ABC Family via Getty Images; p. 374 left: Karl Merton Ferron/Bal- timore Sun/MCT via Getty Images, right: Pixland/Corbis; p. 376: Ariel Skelley/ Getty Images; p. 377: Essdras M Suarez/The Boston Globe via Getty Images; p. 378: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images; p. 379: Photo by TMZ.com/Splash News/Corbis. SI Cover: Sports Illustrated/Getty Images; p. 381 left: © Focus Features/courtesy Everett, right: Ifc Productions/Detour Filmproduction/ REX/Shutterstock; p. 382: Michael Appleton/The New York Times/Redux; p. 384 left: Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/MCT via Getty Images, right: Ariel Skelley/Getty Images; p. 385: © Focus Features/courtesy Everett.
Chapter 13 Page 390: Advertising Archives; p. 391: Robert Landau/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 392: Gil Friesen Productions/Tremolo Productions/REX/ Shutterstock; p. 396: Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo; p. 399 top: Alex Wong/ Getty Images, bottom: Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images; p. 401: Nick David/Getty Images; p. 402: Photo by John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images; p. 403: New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images; p. 404: Frank Micelotta/ PictureGroup/Sipa USA/Newscom; p. 405: Everett Collection; p. 406: Roland Schlager/epa european pressphoto agency b.v./Alamy; p. 407: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images; p. 408: Andalou Agency/Getty Images; p. 409 left: Katie Yu/© The CW/Courtesy: Everett Collection, right: Robert Voets/Showtime/ Courtesy Everett Collection; p. 411: Kristin Callahan/REX/Shutterstock; p. 412: Nicholson, Frank S., Artist, and Sponsor United States National Park Service. Wild life The national parks preserve all life. [Nyc: nyc art project, works projects administration, between 1936 and 1940] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/92522682/; p. 414 left: Robert Landau/Corbis via Getty Images, right: Photo by John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images; p. 415: Tim Boyle/Getty Images.
Chapter 14 Page 419 left: Bartek Wrzesniowski/Alamy, right: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images; p. 420: Frederick J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images; p. 421: Riccardo Venturi/Con- trasto/Redux; p. 422: Republished with permission © 2013 SourceMedia Group, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; p. 424: Jodi Cobb/ NatGeoCreative; p. 425: Bettmann/
CREDITS
C- 3CREDITS
Corbis via Getty Images: p. 426: Florian Plaucher/AFP/Getty Images; p. 428: Xinhua/Daniel Castelo Branco/Agencia o Dia/ AGENCIA ESTADO/eyevine/ Redux; p. 429: Andrew Spear/Redux; p. 431: Jb Reed/Bloomberg via Getty Images; p. 432: Carlos Javier Ortiz/Redux; p. 433: Erik S. Lesser/The New York Times/Redux; p. 435: Manny Crisostomo/ Sacramento Bee/ZUMAPRESS. com/Alamy; p. 436: AGStockUSA/Alamy; p. 437 left: Photo by Kurt Iswarien- kio/ABC Studios via Getty Images, right: Liane Hentscher/ABC via Getty Images; p. 439: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images; p. 440: AJP/Hop Américain/Science Source; p. 441: Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo; p. 442 left: Riccardo Venturi/Contrasto/Redux, right: Erik S. Lesser/The New York Times/Redux: p. 443: Harry Cabluck/AP Photo.
Chapter 15 Page 447 left: Gavin Hellier/robertharding/Alamy, right: Lindsay Hebberd/ Danita Delimont/Alamy; p. 453: AP Photo/Raymond Simpson; p. 459: Emily Berl/Redux; p. 460: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images; p. 461: © Columbia/Tristar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection; p. 463: Photo by NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images; p. 464: Springfield News- Leader, Chris- tina Dicken/AP Photo; p. 466 left: Eric De Castro/Reuters/Newscom, right:
NASA/Getty Images; p. 467 left: Julio Etchart/Alamy, right: Rickey Rogers/ Reuters; p. 468: Todd McInturf/The Detroit News via AP; p. 469 left: Moham- med Seeneen/AP Photo, right: AP Photo/David J. Phillip; p. 470: Dinodia/age fotostock/Alamy; p. 473: Library of Congress; p. 474: Go Takayama/AFP/Getty Images; p. 476: Lukas Jackson/Reuters/Newscom; p. 478 left: Andrew Licht- enstein/Corbis via Getty Images, right: Julio Etchart/Alamy; p. 479: Dinodia/ age fotostock/Alamy.
Chapter 16 Page 484 top: Guerilla/Alamy Stock Photo, bottom: Hero Images Inc./Corbis; p. 485: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; p. 486 left: Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department, right: Andrew Burton/Getty Images; p. 487: Chuck Hode/© Fox/courtesy Everett Collection; p. 488: Ben Margot/AP Photo; p. 490: Andrew Burton/Getty Images; p. 491: Melissa Bender; p. 493: Cornelius Poppe, Scanpix/AP Photo; p. 494: Image courtesy of adbusters.org; p. 497: Dan Callister/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 501: David White/ Alamy; p. 502: Skip Bolen/CBS via Getty Images; p. 504 left: Andrew Burton/ Getty Images, right: Chuck Hode/© Fox/courtesy Everett Collection; p. 505: Melissa Bender.
I-1
Index
A AAPAC (Arab American PAC), 294 abalone divers, 488 Abdulla family, 182, 183 Abilify, 430 abortion, 428 absolute deprivation, 201 absolute monarchs, 290 Abu Ghraib prison case, 141 access, 45 Access Hollywood, 32 achieved status, 115 action research, 50–51, 60 active audiences, 403–404 activism, 490 acute diseases, 420, 421 Adams, Ansel, 412 Adbusters, 494 Addams, Jane, 9, 29–30 addiction, 423, 427 adjunct instructors, 355 adoption, 363, 372 Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,
The (TV show), 265 advertising, American Dream and,
212–213 advocacy groups, 293–294 affirmative action, 229 Affordable Care Act (ACA), 82, 197,
237–238, 333, 438–439 Afghanistan, 91, 92, 254–255, 290, 493 AFL- CIO, 341 Africa
Ebola in, 425–426 HIV/AIDS in, 426, 452 rain forests in, 467 water grabs in, 470 see also specific regions and countries
African Americans crimes committed by, 168 and criminal justice, 187–188,
240–241
education level of, 238 family status of, 236–237 health inequalities for, 429 health insurance for, 237 high school graduation rate, 238,
303 interracial dating/marriage, 235,
368 life expectancy of, 237, 429 as minority group, 223 passing by, 162, 233–234 perceptions of inner- city teens, 160 poverty rate for, 202, 240 segregation of, 60–61, 206–207,
244 stereotypes of, 160 stigma and, 162 Tuskegee Syphilis Study, 64 voting rights for, 291, 492–493 work and income of, 238, 240
age and crime, 167–168 agency, 119 agenda- setting theory, 403–404 agents of socialization
for adults, 113–114 defined, 109 family, 109–110 mass media, 111–112 peers, 110–111 schools, 110
aggregates, 125 aging and the sandwich generation,
377, 378 aging in the family, 378 “agribusiness” system, 335 Agricultural Revolution, 327–328, 483 agricultural work, 335 agriculture, community supported,
459 AIDS. see HIV/AIDS Airbnb, 77, 353, 498 air pollution, 468, 469, 475–476
Air Pollution Control Act of 1955, 473 Alabood, Ahmad, 245 al- Amoudi, Mohammed, 470 Alaska, 458 Albukaie, Asmaa, 245 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 137, 163,
164 Alcoholics Anonymous (“Big Book”),
164 alcoholism, 164, 423, 427 Alexa (Amazon), 482 Alexander, Jeffrey, 21 Alexander, Leo, 64 Alexander, Michelle, 168, 187–188 alienation
in capitalist societies, 329–330 in cities, 462–463, 465 Marx on, 22, 26, 329–330
All Our Kin (Stack), 366 Almaguer, Tomas, 232 Aloha (film), 228 Alone Together (Turkle), 119 al- Qaeda, 316 alternative medicine, 439–440 Alt- Right, 88, 226 altruism, 463, 465 Amazon, 141, 397, 482, 502 American Border Patrol, 490 American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), 30 American College Health Association
(ACHA), 422 American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, 433 American College Promise program,
312 American Community Survey (ACS),
67 American Dream, 156, 189, 209–213,
458 American Federation of Labor (AFL),
341
Note: Material in figures or tables is indicated by italic page numbers.
INDEXI-2
B Babbie, Earl, 60 Baby Boom generation
aging, 378 childhood memories, 400 family and, 377 mixed- race relationships and, 235 social mobility and, 200
bacha posh, 254–255 Bachelet, Michelle, 274 Bachelor, The (TV show), 8 backstage, 107 Baldwin, Alec, 411 Ball, Lucille, 365 Baloch, Qandeel, 139 Baltimore, Maryland, riot in, 486 BAMPAC (Black America Political
Action Committee), 294 “banana time,” 342 Bandura, Albert, 43 Bangladesh, 348 banishment, 153 Bank of America, 239 Barkley, Charles, 407 Barry, Dave, 38, 40 Bartók, Béla, 401 basic research, 60 Batan, Clarence, 23 bathrooms and gender, 72, 74, 88, 260 Baudrillard, Jean, 33, 298 Bearman, Peter, 35 Beatles, 34, 392 Beats Electronics, 397 Beck, Glenn, 297 Becker, Howard, 9, 158, 163 Bee, Samantha, 298, 299 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 401 beginner’s mind, 10, 11, 498 behavior
collective behavior, 485–489 crowd, 485–487 deviant behavior, 153 expressions of, 106–107 genetics and, 100–101 in impression management,
107–109 mass behavior, 487–489 norms for, 81–83
belief(s) about death, 117 religious, 313 shared, 81 values as, 81
asexuality, 256 Ashanti (Ghana), 117 Asia. see individual regions and
countries Asia, monarchies in, 290 Asian Americans
education level of, 238 health insurance for, 237 high school graduation rate, 238,
303 interracial dating/marriage, 368 as minority group, 223 in nail salons, 275 stereotype promise, 160–161 work and income, 240, 268
Asperger’s syndrome, 424 assembly lines, 336 assimilation, 244, 246 assisted reproductive technologies,
382 Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC), 435 Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners, 163 Asylums (Goffman), 433 Athens, 456 athletes, as role models, 407 athleticism, elite, consumption of, 415 Athletic Passions, 367 AT&T, 394, 398 attention- deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), 423 audiences and media, 402–405 Audubon Society, 473 Aum Shinrikyo, 316 Australia, wildfires in, 485 authoritarianism, 289–290 authority
authoritarianism, 289–290 charismatic authority, 143 conformity to, 138–140 defined, 143, 289 as leadership quality, 143 legal- rational authority, 143 traditional authority, 143
autism spectrum disorders (ASD), 424
autoethnography, 45, 62, 108–109 autonomy, 339 avian influenza, 427 Avishai, Orit, 314 Azalea, Iggy, 227 Azeem, Waseem, 139
American Horror Story (TV show), 169 American Medical Association (AMA),
431, 432–433 American political system, 291–292 American Psychiatric Association, 424 American Sociological Association
(ASA), 65 America Online (AOL), 394 America’s Best Idea (TV show), 413 Amish, 153 Anderson, Elijah, 160 Anderson, Stephen W., 99 Andreotta, Glenn, 173 Angelic Organics Learning Center
(AOLC), 459 Angie’s List, 344 anime, 86, 91 anomie, 19, 26, 127, 129, 199, 364, 410 Anonymous (cyber activists), 87, 490 anorexia, 15, 260 Anthem, 344 Anthony, Susan B., 276 anthropocentric, 471 anti- Americanism, 93 anti- Malthusians, 455 anti- miscegenation laws, 234, 367 antiracist allies, 229–230 antiretroviral drugs, 426 anti- sodomy laws, 157 anti- stalking laws, celebrities and, 411 antithesis, 24 antitrust legislation, 396 Anxious Parents: A History of Modern
Childrearing in America (Stearns), 54
Anzaldúa, Gloria, 232 apartheid, 185–186, 187 Apple, 146, 346, 397, 482 applied research, 60 applied sociology, 30 Arab Spring, 245 Are You My Mother? (Eastman), 364 Aristotle, 137 Armenian genocide, 243, 244 Armstrong, Lance, 142 Army of God, 316 Arnaz, Desi, 365 Arrison, Sonia, 453 “Art of the Motorcycle, The,” 399–400 Aryan Brotherhood, 225 Asch, Solomon, 137, 138 Asch experiment, 137–138, 140–141 ascribed status, 115
INDEX I-3
bullying, 158–159, 260, 263, 269 Bündchen, Gisele, 197 Bundy, Ammon and Ryan, 87 bureaucracy(-ies), 25, 26, 144–147, 302,
339 see also secondary groups
Burger, Jerry, 141 Burkhalter, Byron, 235 Burning Man festival, 147 Burns, Ken, 413 Bush, Billy, 32 Bush, George W., 292, 319 Bush, Whitney, 61 Bustad, Leo, 114 Butler, Judith, 24, 266 “Buy Nothing Day,” 494–495 BuyNothingProject, 495 bystander effect, 463
C Cabin Pressure: African American
Pilots, Flight Attendants and Emotional Labor (Evans), 118
Cahill, Spencer, 351–352 California
anti- stalking laws in, 411 cities in, 457, 458 End of Life Option Act, 441 as “ majority- minority” state, 223 measles epidemic in, 420 race relations in, 223, 229, 232 racial groups in, 223 three strikes law, 170
California Community College system, 312
Calley, William, 173 Call of Duty (video game), 260 Canadian Multiculturalism Act, 246 Capella University, 310 Capelli, Peter, 307 capitalism, 22, 265, 332–333, 335 capital punishment, 172 cardiovascular disease, 429, 431 Carnegie Corporation of New York, 309 Carpenters & Joiners Union, 294 Carson, Rachel, 473 Case, Anne, 237 “cash register honesty,” 163 caste system, 185–188, 200 categories, defined, 125 Caterpillar, 350 Catholic Church, 313, 454 Catton, William, 454, 471
body types, 419 Boise, Idaho, 245 Bold and the Beautiful, The, 501 Bolivia, 470 Bollywood films, 386, 388 Bonacich, Edna, 231 Bonilla- Silva, Eduardo, 227 Bono, Sonny, 297 boomerang kids, 377 Bordo, Susan, 15 Boston Marathon bombings, 92, 295,
296 “BosWash” megalopolis, 457 Bourdieu, Pierre, 193 bourgeoisie, 22 Bowerman, Bill, 415 Bowling Alone: The Collapse and
Revival of American Community (Putnam), 127, 129
boyd, danah, 119 Boyhood (film), 381 Boyle, Danny, 388 Bradley, Bill, 297 Brady, Tom, 197, 407 brain injuries, 99 Branch Davidian siege (Waco, Texas),
87 branding as body decoration, 154 branding as punishment, 154, 155, 161 branding of products, 349 Brazil, 186–187, 428, 457 break time and work productivity, 342 Breitbart News, 300 bridging devices, dogs as, 464 Brigham Young University, 82 Brin, Sergey, 146 British Empire, 91, 244 British Virgin Islands, 452 Brooklyn Nine- Nine (TV show), 332 Brown, Jerry, 144 Brown, Michael, 167, 224, 225, 301 Brown, Violet, 453 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas, 60 Brubaker, Rogers, 228 Brundtland Report, 477 Bruno family, 377 Bryson, Bill, 412 Buddhism, 313, 315, 316 bulimia, 15, 260 Bullard, Robert, 476 Bullock, Sandra, 370, 410–411
Bellah, Robert, 408 Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class
Structure in American Life, The (Herrnstein and Murray), 100
Bellow, Saul, 26–27 Benz, Tyler, 158 berdaches (or “ two- spirit” people),
254, 255 Berger, Peter, 12 Bethlem Royal Hospital (London), 423 Between the World and Me (Coates),
218, 225 Beyoncé, 144, 197, 400, 404, 405 Bezos, Jeff, 141 Bhutan, 180, 182, 183, 500–501 bias, 46, 47, 60 Bieber, Justin, 85 Big Bang Theory, The (TV show), 55,
112, 501 big data, 59 bigender, 256 Biggest Loser, The (TV show), 160 Big Sick, The (film), 235 Biko, Steve, 186 Billions (TV show), 112, 169 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 309 binary gender classifications, 255–256 biodiversity, 467 bioethics, 440–441 Bioshock (video game), 260 biosphere, 471 birth, medicalization of, 423 birth rates, for teenage mothers, 237 bisexuality, 256 Bizet, Georges, 401 Black Album ( Jay- Z), 34 Black Friday, 494 Black Friday Death Count, 494 Black- ish (TV show), 241 Black Lives Matter (BLM), 87, 224,
230–231, 295, 301, 490 BlackPeopleMeet, 197 Black Rock Desert, Nevada, 147 Blau, Melinda, 126 blended families, 370–371, 372 blogs, 396, 409 blue collar workers, 190, 198–199 Blumer, Herbert, 28, 29, 30 body language, 79, 80 body modification, 154 “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”
(Miner), 75–76
INDEXI-4
Clean Air Act of 1963, 469 Cleveland Indians, 227 climate change, 426–427, 469, 471, 472 climate justice, 475–477 Clinton, Bill, 64, 143, 203–204, 295 Clinton, Hillary, 136, 144, 295, 300, 491 closed- ended questions, 49 closed system, 200 clothing
fashions, 487–488 in global commodity chain, 349–350 sweatshops and, 348
cloud computing, 480 Clouds over Sidra (film), 128 CNN, 300, 393, 500, 501 Coates, Ta- Nehisi, 218, 225 Coca- Cola, 346 cocaine possession, race/ethnicity and,
240, 241 Cochabamba Water War (Bolivia), 470 Code Black (TV show), 437 code of ethics, 63, 65 coercive power, 143 coffee breaks, 342 cohabitation, 369 Cohen, Cathy, 279 Cohen, Philip, 366 cohesion
group cohesion, 135–136 social cohesion, 20, 23, 83, 407
Colbert, Stephen, 298 Colbert Report, The (TV show), 298 Colburn, Lawrence, 173 Coleman, James, 60–61 Coleman, John, 209 collective bargaining, 341 collective behavior
contagion theory, 485 crowd behavior, 485–487 emergent norm theory, 485 mass behavior, 487–489 social movements, 489–496
collective conscience (consciousness), 20
collective effervescence, 20 collective resistance, 339, 340–341,
343 collectors, 408–409 College Board, 310 college students
health issues for, 421–423 individual values vs. university
culture, 82
Childs, Becky, 194 child support, 373 Chile, 290 China
centenarians in, 453 ecological footprint in, 477 kinship terms, 364 megalopolises in, 457 outsourcing to, 350
ChiPitts metro areas, 457 Chipotle, 490 Chodorow, Nancy, 104 Christakis, Nicholas, 58, 127 Christianity, 313, 315, 317 Christian Mingle, 367 Christmas, 321 chromosomes, 253 chronic diseases, 420 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints (LDS, or Mormons), 314 Cialis, 430 Cicourel, Aaron, 193 Cisco Systems, 350 cisgender, 256 cisgenderism, 263 cities, 456–465
alienation in, 462–463, 465 altruism in, 463, 465 living in, 462–465 of tomorrow, 460–461, 462 urbanization, 336, 451, 456, 458–461 world’s largest, 479
Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee, 294
city street vendors, 178–179 civic engagement, 129, 320 civil disobedience, 173 civil inattention, 464 Civilization and Its Discontents
(Freud), 104 Civil Rights Act, Title IX of (1972), 258,
281 Civil Rights Act of 1964, 29, 302 civil rights movement
DuBois as forerunner in, 29 launching of, 173 media and, 295 and relative deprivation theory, 492 social change and, 483
civil society, 410 civil unions, 278 class consciousness, 24 classical sociology, 19, 34–35
causality, 57 causation, 42–43 CBS, 260–261, 396, 397 celebrities
gossip outlets, 31–32 in politics, 297 relations with fans, 410–411
celebrity gossip, 31–32 centenarians, 453 Center for Economic and Policy
Research, 356 Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), 267, 420, 426
Central African Republic, 451, 452 Central America, rain forests in, 467 centrality, 127 Challenger space shuttle, 136 Champion, Robert, 124 Chand, Dutee, 252 change, dialectical model of, 24
see also cultural change; social change
Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, 488
charismatic authority, 143 Charleston, South Carolina, church
rampage (2015), 92 Charlottesville, Virginia, 92, 226, 490 charter schools, 308 chatbots, 482 Chavez, Cesar, 492 Chevron, 346 Chicago Bulls, 393 Chicago heat wave (1995), 284–285 Chicago School, the, 28–30, 50, 104,
462, 471 child abuse, 381, 383 childfree living, 371 child labor reforms, 329, 341 children
adoption of, 363, 372 in defining families, 363 and divorce, 371, 373 family experiences of, 376, 378 feral, 100–102 gender roles learned by, 259–260 peer influence on, 260 psychosexual stages of development
for, 103–104 schools and socialization of,
259–260 social class and number of, 196
INDEX I-5
conscious mind, 103 “consequential strangers,” 126 conservation era, 473 constitutional monarchs, 290 constraints, bureaucratic, 146–147 constructionists, 256 consumerism, 211–212 consuming elite athleticism, 415 consumption, 390 Contador, Alberto, 142 contagion, in social networks, 127 contagion theory, 485 content analysis, 55 Conti, Joseph, 126–127 contingent workforce, 353–355 contraception
Catholic Church and, 454 university culture and, 82
contract company workers, 354 control group, 56 conversation analysis, 30–31 Cook, Tim, 343 Cooley, Charles Horton, 28, 104–105,
125, 159 cooling the mark out, 108 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 43 copresence, 116 Corinthian Colleges, 311 corporal punishment, 153, 155 corporate America’s conscience,
343–344 corporate social responsibility (CSR),
343–344 “corporate welfare,” 333 corporations
conscience of, 343–344 employee theft in, 163 outsourcing by, 199, 350–351 transnational corporations,
346–348 and treadmill of production, 471 and union activity, 343
correlation, 42–43 cosmopolites, 462 Costco, 205 Couchsurfing.com, 77 Council of Conservative Citizens, 490 countercultures, 87 courtship, Internet and, 197, 367 covert research, 46, 63 Cox, LaVerne, 261 crack cocaine, 240, 241 craft unions, 341
concentration (in business), 396–397 Condé Nast, 334 confidentiality, 63 conflict, based on race/ethnicity
assimilation, 244, 246 genocide, 243, 244 internal colonialism and
segregation, 244 pluralism, 246 population transfer, 243–244
conflict theory about, 21–25 addiction in, 427 advantages and critiques of, 25 approach to culture and religion, 93 college admissions and, 34 deviance and, 156–157, 161, 165 in education study, 305 environmental movement in, 496 family in, 363, 365, 366 founder and key contributions to,
21–22 fraternities in, 143 gender inequality and, 265, 266 groups in, 143 medicine and health in, 427 natural environment in, 465 offshoots of, 24–25 original principles of, 22–24 outsourcing and, 351 political power and, 292–293, 295 poverty and, 207 power elite, 292–293 race and ethnicity in, 231–232, 236 recreation and leisure in, 408 religion and, 93, 313–314 social change in, 496 social class and, 191 social inequality in, 21, 22, 156–157 social institutions in, 295 structural functionalism vs., 25 work and the economy and, 351
conformity, 137 conformity experiments
Asch experiment, 137–138, 140–141 Milgram experiment, 138–140, 141 Milgram revisited, 140–141 Stanford Prison Experiment, 140
conglomeration, 394 Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO), 341 Conley, Dalton, 35, 206, 376 connection, in social networks, 127
percent high school grads enrolled, by income, 198
religiosity, 320 spring break norm violations, 83 worth of college degrees,
306–307 Collins, Claudia C., 446 Collins, Patricia Hill, 232 Collins, Randall, 306 colonialism, 244 color- blind racism, 226–227 Combs, Sean “Diddy,” 348 Comcast, 394, 396, 397 Comic Con, 409 “coming out,” 263–264 commodification, 391–393 Common Core State Standards,
307–308 communication
in impression management, 107–109
in symbolic culture, 79–81 communications technology
in Industrial Revolution, 329 and Information Revolution,
330–331 communism, 21, 22, 333 Communist Manifesto, The (Marx), 329 communitarianism, 408 communities of practice, 194 community colleges, 311–312 community(-ies)
at Burning Man festival, 147 in cities, 462, 463, 466 defined, 463 and hangouts, 409–412 interpretive communities, 404–405 and leisure activities, 407–408 online, 235 virtual, 129, 408–409, 499
Community Organizing and Family Issues Group (COFI), 50–51
community supported agriculture (CSA), 459
Compact, 495 comparative historical research, 54–55 comparative mealtime, 374–375 Compassion and Choices, 441 complementary medicine, 439–440 complementary or alternative
medicine (CAM), 439–440 compliance, 137 Comte, Auguste, 18, 20, 23, 62
INDEXI-6
Daraprim, 431 Darfur, 243 Dark Knight, The (film), 156, 157 Dark Knight Rises, The (film), 402 dark web, 92 Darley, John, 463 Darwin, Charles, 18, 454 Das Kapital (Marx), 22 Data Workshops
analyzing everyday life AA members’ personal stories,
164 activist groups and social change,
494–495 clothing in global commodity
chain, 349–350 comparative mealtime, 374–375 displaying ethnicity, 222 doing nothing, 11 everyday class consciousness,
195 hangouts, 411–412 impression management,
108–109 measures of religiosity, 318–319 second shift, 271–272 seeing culture in a subculture,
84–85 student attitudes on
environmentalism, 472–473 student health issues, 421–423 Twenty Statements Test,
134–135 watching people talk, 47–48
analyzing mass media and popular culture
advertising and the American Dream, 212–213
blockbusters and the movie business, 394–395
celebrity gossip, 31–32 cities of tomorrow, 460–461 culture in popular magazines and
web sites, 89 family troubles in film, 380–381 gender and rules of beauty,
261–262 how the image shapes the need,
89 media usage patterns, 53–54 medicine on television, 437–438 minorities and racial reality on
TV, 241–243
American, in perspective, 91, 93 change in, 90–91 components of, 78–85 countercultures, 87 culture wars, 74, 87–88, 399 defined, 75 deviance across, 153–155 dominant, 85 ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism, 76–77 ideal vs. real, 88 material culture, 78–79 media consumption and, 399–402 multiculturalism, 85 norms, 81–83 sanctions, 83 studying, 75 subcultures, 70, 84–85, 85–87 symbolic culture, 79–81 tourism and, 412 university culture, 82 values, 81
culture industries, 24 culture of poverty, 204, 206 culture shock, 12, 76 culture wars, 74, 87–88, 399 Cunningham, Michael, 163 Cuomo, Andrew, 196 Cuomo, Mario, 196 curative medicine, 421 curfews, 167 curling, 406 custodial parents, 267 custody, 373 cyberattacks, 482 cyberbullying, 158–159, 263 cybercrime, 166 cycle of violence, 379–380 Cymbalta, 430
D Daily Show with Trevor Noah,
The (TV show), 298 Daily Stormer (website), 92, 490 Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)
protests, 476 Daly, Mary, 306 Damon, Matt, 228 Dancing at Armageddon (Mitchell), 46 Dancing with the Stars, 60 Danger Mouse, 34 Daniels, Deborah, 126 Daniels family, 126
“creative class,” 199 Credential Society, The (Collins), 306 credit card debt, 13, 211–212 cricket, 406 crime
categories of, 166 in cities, 167 defined, 165 demographics of, 167–170 deterrence and punishment,
170–172 imprisonment for, 171, 172 intersectionality and, 168–169 and social class, 167, 199–200 study of, 165–172 Uniform Crime Report (UCR),
166 criminal justice
as caste system, 187–188 and gender, 273, 275 incarceration rate (1925–2015), 172 pretext searches, 218 and race/ethnicity, 187–188,
240–241 racial profiling and, 160, 216, 240,
301 and socioeconomic status, 199–200
criminal justice system, 170–172, 187–188
criminology, 166 crisis medicine, 421 CRISPR gene- editing technology, 498 Critical Mass, 489 critical race theory, 24, 232 critical theory, 24 “crossing over,” 122 Crow, Sheryl, 370 crowd behavior, 485–487 crowdfunding, 494 crowds, 125, 485–487 Cullors, Patrisse, 231 cults, 113, 313 cultural appropriation, 227–228 cultural assimilation, 246 cultural capital, 193 cultural change, 90–91 cultural competence, 434–435 cultural diffusion, 90–91, 498 cultural imperialism, 91, 228, 502 cultural lag, 441, 498 cultural leveling, 90–91, 502 cultural relativism, 76–77 culture, 72–95
INDEX I-7
Digital Age, 90, 330–331, 502 digital divide, 208, 502 Digital Revolution, 330–331 Dilbert, 145 Di Nonno, Madeline, 263 direct ties, 126 direct- to- consumer (DTC) drug
marketing, 430–431 discrimination
based on sexual orientation, 262–264, 271
gender discrimination, 263, 276, 281, 436
individual discrimination, 224–225 institutional discrimination, 225 against mixed- race couples, 234,
368 racial, in labor market, 240 in sports, 246
diseases acute diseases, 420, 421 cardiovascular disease, 429, 431 chronic diseases, 420, 421 and climate change, 426–427 sexually transmitted, 127 social milieu and, 420 spread of, 419 see also illness
disembodied identity, 234–236 disenchantment, 26 disenfranchised, defined, 291 disenfranchisement, 187–188,
207–208, 291–292 Disney, 91, 102, 394, 395, 396, 397, 501 distance learning, 312 District of Columbia, 278, 291, 303, 443 diversity programs, 239 Division of Labor in Society, The
(Durkheim), 19 divorce, 267, 371, 373 Dlisted, 31 Dobbin, Frank, 239 doctor– patient relations, 433–436 doctor shortage, 432–433 dogs, 114, 464 doing nothing, 11 Dole, Elizabeth, 276 Dolezal, Rachel, 228 domestic abuse, 378–381, 383 Domhoff, G. William, 293 dominant culture, 85 Don Giovanni (Mozart), 401 Donora, Pennsylvania, 473
deterrence, 170 DeVault, Marjorie, 373 deviance, 150–175
across cultures, 153–155 background factors, 165 body modification, 154 changing definitions of, 162 conflict theory and, 156–157, 161,
165 crime, 165–172 cyberbullying, 158–159, 263 defining, 153 differential association theory and,
157–158, 161 emotional attraction of, 165 functionalism and, 155–156, 161, 165 in- group orientation and, 162 labeling theory and, 158–161, 165 Merton’s typology of, 156 outsiders, 163–164 passing, 162 peer pressure and, 158 plagiarism, 161 positive deviance, 172–173 primary deviance, 160 secondary deviance, 160 social control theory and, 155, 161 stigma of, 161–164 structural strain theory and,
156–157, 161 studying, 165 symbolic interactionism and,
157–161 tertiary deviance, 160 theories of, 155–161
deviance avowal, 162–164 DeVos, Betsy, 308 DeVry University, 310, 311 Dewey, John, 28–29 diabetes, 431 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM), 424 dialectical model, 24 Diana, Princess, 500 DiAngelo, Robin, 229 Diaz, Dan, 441 Dickens, David R., 446 dictatorships, 289–290 Didi, Ibrahim, 469 diets, 487 differential association theory,
157–158, 161 diffusion of responsibility, 463
norm breaking on television, 169–170
satirical news shows, 298–299 social networking and online
groups, 130–131 television as agent of
socialization, 112 “unplug ” experiment, 498–499 work and workers as seen on TV,
331–332 dating, interracial, 234–235 Davis, Angela Y., 237 Davis, Georgiann, 254 Davis, Kingsley, 192 DDT, 473–474 death penalty, 172, 200 death(s)
beliefs about, 117 causes of, in United States, 421 death with dignity laws, 441 end- of- life care, 441 medicalization of, 423 mortality rates, 451
“deaths of despair,” 237 Deaton, Angus, 237 deception, in research projects, 63 deconstruction, 33 deep integration, 345–346 definition of the situation, 106–107, 108 degree rationing, 432–433 de Man, Henri, 342 democracy, 290–291, 393 demographers, 451 demographic free fall, 455 demographic transition, 455, 456 demography, 451–454 Dempsey, Patrick, 211 dengue fever, 427 denominations, 313 dental procedures, 419 Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), 206 dependent variables, 56, 57 depression and gender, 267 deprivation amplification, 432 deregulation, 396 Derrida, Jacques, 33 Descartes, René, 102 designated drivers, 83 Designated Survivor (TV show), 27 “designer” children, 382, 498 design strategy, 61 Desmond, Matthew, 4–5, 352, 460
INDEXI-8
Common Core State Standards, 307–308
conflict theory study of, 305 crisis in, 307 defined, 302 doctor education and training,
432–433, 435 for- profit colleges, 310–311 functions of, 21 and gender, 268–269, 304 hidden curriculum in, 110, 304–305 history of, 302–303 inequality and, 303–304 micro- and macrosociology of,
312–313 minimum wage and, 359 No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 308 “ one- on- one” education model, 353 online education, 128, 312 poverty as barrier to, 307 present and future of, 306–312 and race/ethnicity, 238 and reproduction of society,
303–305 school- to- prison pipeline, 238 and socioeconomic status, 197–198 structural functionalist study of,
306 symbolic interactionist study of,
305 U.S. high school graduation rates,
238, 303 worth of college degrees, 306–307 see also schools
ego, 103 eHarmony, 367 Ehrenriech, Barbara, 336–337 Ehrlich, Ann, 454 Ehrlich, Paul, 454 Eichmann, Adolf, 138 801 Cabaret, 70–71 Eighteenth Amendment, 496 Eisenhower, David, 196 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 288 Eisenstein, Zillah, 265 elder abuse, 381, 383 “electronic aggression,” 158–159 Elementary Forms of Religious Life,
The (Durkheim), 19 Ellen (TV show), 260 Ellis, Carolyn, 63 El Salvador, 314 embodied identity, 234–236
eBay, 77, 409 Ebola, 425–426, 456 echo chambers, 300 Eckford, Elizabeth, 62 ecojustice, 475–477 ecological disasters, 473 ecological footprint, 477 economic system(s)
capitalism, 332–333, 335 slavery as, 185 socialism, 333, 335
Economy and Society (Weber), 25 economy and work, 324–359
Agricultural Revolution, 327–328, 483
agricultural work, 335 corporate America’s conscience,
343–344 different ways of working, 351–355,
356 economic systems, 332–335 and globalization, 344–351 Industrial Revolution, 328–330 industrial work, 335–336 Information Revolution, 330–331 international trade, 345–346 in Las Vegas, 446–447 occupational family tree, 324, 326,
327 outsourcing, 199, 350–351 political economy of the United
States, 333, 335 postindustrial knowledge work,
330–331, 337–339 postindustrial service work,
330–331, 336–337 in pre- colonial North America,
327–328 ranking world’s economies, 347 resistance strategies for coping,
339–343 supersectors of U.S. economy, 330 sweatshop labor, 344, 348–350 transnational corporations,
346–348 see also work and the workplace
ecotourism, 413 edge cities, 458 Edin, Kathryn, 45–46, 47, 204, 237, 370 education, 302–313
charter schools, 308 classic studies of, 305–306 college costs, 310
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), 273 “doping ” in sports, 142, 158 dot- com boom, 200 double- barreled questions, 49 double- consciousness, 233 Doubt (TV show), 261 doulas, 382, 433 downsizing, 199 doxxing, 159 Dr. Dre, 397 Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret (Rupp
and Taylor), 70–71, 165 dramaturgy, 30, 106–109 Drew, Lori, 158 drinking habits, 83 “driving while black,” 216, 218 Drudge, Matt, 297 dual enrollment, 310–311 dual nature of the self (Mead), 105–106 DuBois, William Edward Burghardt
(W.E.B.), 24, 29, 30, 226, 233, 249
Dude, You’re a Fag (Pascoe), 260 Duggan, Lisa, 279 Duggan, Megan, 268 Dumping in Dixie (Bullard), 476 Duneier, Mitchell, 178–179 Dunlap, Riley, 471 Dunwoody, Ann E., 273 Duraiappah, Anantha, 468 Durkheim, Émile
about, 18, 19–20, 23 anomie, 26, 127, 129, 364, 410 on community and social cohesion,
407 on deviance, 155, 172 functionalist theory, 19–20, 81 on suicide, 19, 364–365
dyads, 131, 132 dysfunction, 20 dystopia, 461
E early college high schools, 309–311 earned income tax credit (EITC), 202 earth, objects orbiting, 466, 471 Earth Day, 474–475 Eastern European Americans, 321 Eastern Nazarene College
(Massachusetts), 82 Eastman, P. D., 363 Eastwood, Clint, 297 eating disorders, 15, 111, 260
INDEX I-9
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Desmond), 4, 460
evolution, 18, 454 existing sources, 54–55 exogamy, 367 exotic dancers, 353 experimental group, 56 experiments, 56–57 expressions given, 106 expressions given off, 107 expressions of behavior, 106–107 expressive leadership, 144 expressive role, 264–265 expressive tasks, 272, 373 extended family, 363 extinctions, 467, 472 extrinsic religiosity, 315 exurbs, 458 ExxonMobil, 346 Exxon Valdez oil spill, 474
F Facebook
collectors and hobbyists, 409 experiment on users, 132–133 group ties on, 128, 129 Indivisible Guide on, 491 mobile media and, 398 online radicalization, 92 politics and, 300 privacy and online interaction, 119 profile pictures on, 98 publicly traded stock, 191 relationship data from, 58, 59, 129 usage statistics, 130, 132 virtual reality, 128
Facetime, 117, 119 face time, in defense of, 359 Fadiman, Anne, 434 fads, 487 Fair Labor Association, 349 Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, 240 fake news, 298, 300, 393 false consciousness, 23, 209 Family Farm (video game), 260 Family Guy (TV show), 169, 405 family(-ies)
as agent of socialization, 109–110 aging in, 378 conflict theory and, 363, 365, 366 defining, 360, 362, 363 divorce, 371, 373
Eskimos, 80 ESPN (Entertainment and Sports
Programming Network), 393, 501
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (Malthus), 454
essentialists, 255 ethics
bioethics, 440–441 in Nuremberg Code, 64 in research, 63–65
Ethiopia, 154, 470 ethnic cleansing, 243 ethnicity
defined, 220 ethnic options, 221–222 intergroup conflict or cooperation,
243–246 and life chances, 236–243 situational ethnicity, 221 structural functionalism and,
230–231 symbolic ethnicity, 221 see also individual ethnic groups
ethnic villagers, 462 ethnocentrism, 75–77 ethnography
advantages and disadvantages, 47
autoethnography, 45, 62, 108–109 covert research, 46, 63 ethics and, 46, 63 industrial ethnography, 60 overt research, 46 overview, 31, 45–47 see also participant observation
ethnomethodology, 30 Etsy, 409 Etzioni, Amitai, 408 Eugene, Oregon, running culture in,
415 eugenics, 440 Eurocentric, 23 Europe
HIV/AIDS in, 426 monarchies in, 290 see also specific regions and
countries evangelical Christians, 317 Evans, Louwanda, 118 Everquest, 344 everyday actors, 9 everyday class consciousness, 194–195
embodied status, 115 Emergency Economic Stabilization
Act of 2008, 333 emergent norm theory, 485 emigration, 452 emojis, 79–80 emotions
cross- cultural responses to grief, 116, 117
and personality, 116 role- taking emotions, 116 social construction of, 116
emotion work (emotional labor), 116, 118
Empire (TV show), 112, 487 empirical methods, 20 employee theft, 163 Employment Non- Discrimination Act
(ENDA), 271 encoding/decoding model, 404 end- of- life care, 441 endogamy, 367 energy consumption, 466–467 Energy Transfer Partners, 476 E! News, 31 Engels, Friedrich, 22, 265 Enlightenment, 33, 302–303 Enron, 199, 200 Entertainment Software Rating Board,
398 entertainment spending, 291 Entertainment Tonight, 31 entitlements, 203, 333, 335 environment, 465–477
defined, 465–466 environmental problems, 466–471 environmental sociology, 471–477 of Las Vegas, 446–447 pollution, 468–469, 471 resource depletion, 466–467 studying, 472–473 water crisis, 470
environmental justice, 475–477 environmental movement, 473–475,
496 Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), 468, 474, 477 environmental racism, 475, 476 environmental sociology, 471–477 epidemic, 426 epidemiology, 425–427 epilepsy, 434 Eros, 104
INDEXI-10
food insecurity, 456 food production, global population and,
454 food stamps. see Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program Ford, Henry, 336 Ford Foundation, 309 Fordham University, 82 Forever 21, 348 for- profit colleges, 310–311 foster parents, 372 Fosters, The (TV show), 372 Foucault, Michel, 33 Foursquare, 410 Fourteenth Amendment, 278, 367 Fowler, James, 127 FOX, 501 Fox News, 300 Fox Searchlight, 334 fracking (hydraulic fracturing), 467 Francis (pope), 314 Franken, Al, 297 Frankfurt School, 24 Frederick II, emperor of Germany, 101 Free Application for Federal Student
Aid (FAFSA), 302 FreeCycle, 495 freedom of the press, 295, 393 freegans, 212, 495 freelancers, 352–353 Freeman, Oree, 274 Freeman, Walter, 425 free- range kids, return of, 400–401 Free- Range Kids (Skenazy), 400–401 free riders, 489 free trade, 345 French Revolution, 290 Freud, Sigmund, 103–104 Freyre, Gilberto, 186 Friedan, Betty, 276 Friedenbach, Jennifer, 208 Friedman, Milton, 432 Friends (TV show), 91 Fritzl, Elizabeth, 102 front, 107 frontstage, 107 Froome, Chris, 141 Fukushima nuclear disaster, 474, 501 Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TV
show), 298, 299 functionalism. see structural
functionalism fundamentalism, 315–317
feminist theory, 24, 266, 363–364, 366 feminization of poverty, 270, 271 feral children, 100–102 Ferguson, Missouri, 167, 225, 301 Fernandez, Ferdinand, 288 Ferris, Kerry
effect of historical context and experience, 9
feminist perspective on marriage, 366
Lebanese ancestry, 221 living room, 194 occupational family tree, 324, 326,
327 personal front, 107 society as buffer against nature, 465 on TV fan clubs, 408
fertility rate, 451 feudal system, 191 fictive kin, 364 Fidelity Financial, 146 field notes, 45, 46, 47–48 Fields, James Alex, Jr., 92, 490 FIFA World Cup, 501 Fifteenth Amendment, 291, 493 Fifth Element, The, 462 “Fight for $15” campaign, 205 Fiji, 111 Final Exit, 441 Fine, Gary, 31, 41 Fingerman, Karen, 126 Finley, Ron, 459 First Amendment, 288, 295, 393 First Principles (Spencer), 18 first wave (women’s movement), 276 Fischer, Claude, 129, 462 Fischer, Lisa, 392 Fish, Stanley, 404–405 Fishman, Pam, 14–15 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 211 527 groups, 293–294 flight attendants, emotion work by, 116,
118 Flint, Michigan, water crisis, 416, 418,
430, 468, 475 Florida, 157, 292, 457 Florida A&M University band bus, 122,
124 focus group, 48, 49 folkways, 81 Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
430 food deserts, 430–432
family(-ies) (continued!) doing the work of, 373–376 extended family, 363 feminist theory and, 363–364, 366 gender and, 267 gender role socialization in, 109,
257, 259 and honor killings, 138–139 households by type, 2016, 368–369 instrumental and expressive roles
in, 264–265 interracial, 241 life chances and, 195–197, 236–237 life course and, 376–378 nuclear family, 363, 365 postmodern, 383 as primary group, 125, 126 queer theory and, 363–364, 366 race/ethnicity and, 236–237 socioeconomic status and, 195–196 sociological perspectives on,
363–366 structural functionalism and, 363,
364–365, 366 trends in, 385 trouble in, 378–383 two- career, 48–50
family planning, 453 Farmersonly.com, 367 fashion, 487–488 Fast Food, Fast Talk (Leidner), 146, 340 Favreau, Jon, 491 FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Branch Davidian siege (Waco Texas), 87
data breach, 482 hate crime statistics, 168 J. Edgar Hoover and, 29 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
occupation and, 87 Uniform Crime Report (UCR), 166
Feagin, Joe, 226 Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), 396, 398, 399 Feder- Alford, Elaine, 433 federal poverty line, 201–202 Federal Reserve Board, 333 feeling rules, 116 Feinstein, Dianne, 476 felon disenfranchisement, 187–188,
291–292 Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan), 276 feminism, 276–277, 489
INDEX I-11
sociological theories of, 264–266 work and income, 268–273, 304
gender- neutral bathrooms, 74, 260 gender- nonconforming, 256, 265 gender roles, of parents, 109 gender role socialization
defined, 257 in families, 109, 257, 259 by media, 260–262 in peer groups, 260 research on, 56 in schools, 258, 259–260
General Accounting Office (GAO), 348 General Electric, 346, 350, 394 generalized other (Mead’s other), 29,
105 genetics
genetic testing, 382, 440 Human Genome Project, 100, 440 nature vs. nurture debate, 99,
100–101 of race, 100, 219–220 sociobiology, 100–101
genetic screening, 382, 440 genocide, 243, 244 Genovese, Catherine “Kitty,” 463, 465 gentrification, 460 Gen Xers, mixed- race relationships
and, 235 geocentric view of the universe, 43 Georgia, 244 Gergen, Kenneth, 119 Germany, energy consumption in, 467 gerrymandering, 493 gestures, 79, 80 Get Out (film), 249 Ghana, 215 Ghost in the Shell (film), 228 Gibson, William, 86 gig economy, 352–353 GLAAD, 264 Gladwell, Malcolm, 392 “glass ceiling ” effect, 16 “glass escalator” effect, 16 Glenn, John, 297 global cities, 457 global commodity chains, 349–350 globalization, 26, 86, 344–351, 500 global perspective
Bhutan Gross National Happiness, 500–501
cross- cultural responses to grief, 117
female athletes, 252, 268–269, 281 gender role socialization, 56, 109,
257–262 health and, 267–268, 428, 429–430 intersectionality and, 241, 267, 275,
277 intersectionality in interracial
families, 241 and language, 264 life chances and, 266–275 and men’s movements, 277 minimum wage and, 359 overview, 254–256 and power, 16 restroom restriction laws and, 74, 88 and rules of beauty, 261–262 sports and, 252, 268–269, 281 third- gender individuals, 254–255 and women’s movements, 276–277 see also sexual orientation
gender binary, 255 gender differences
child custody/visitation, 373 conversational strategies, 14–15 crime rates, 168 criminal justice, 273, 275 doctor– patient relations, 435 in family labor, 375 heart attack symptoms, 62 income, 268–269, 270–271, 304 job networking, 127 leadership styles, 144 life expectancy, 237, 267, 429, 452 mathematical ability, 100–101 motor vehicle accidents, 41 remarriage patterns, 371 roles played on television, 55 talking, 12–13 Zika virus, 428
gender discrimination, 263, 276, 281, 436
gender expression, 256 genderfluid, 254, 256 gender harassment, 273 gender identity, 74, 104, 256, 265 gender inequality
conflict theory and, 265, 266 functionalism and, 264–265, 266 health, 429–430 in higher education, 304 and honor killings, 138–139 interactionism and, 265–266 origins and persistence, 262–263
funeral directors, 351–352 Fussell, Paul, 194 future issues
action research, 50–51 American vs. Scandinavian prisons,
171 autism spectrum disorders, 424 free- range kids, 400–401 genetics and sociology, 100–101 gig economy, 352–353 group ties in a virtual world, 128 human trafficking, 274 sociological imagination, 15 systemic racism, 230–231 trends in baby making, 382 utopia or doomsday, 497 why we can’t afford the rich, 210–211 worth of college degrees, 306–307
G Gallup, 59 gambling, 447 Game of Thrones (TV show), 91, 401 game stage (Mead), 105 Gandhi, Indira, 316 Gans, Herbert, 21, 401, 458, 462 Gap, Inc., 205, 344, 346, 348, 349 garbage, 471 Garber, Marjorie, 25 Gardasil, 443 Garfield, Andrew, 411 Garfinkel, Harold, 30, 265 Garner, Eric, 224, 301 Garner, Jennifer, 144 Garza, Alicia, 231 Gates, Bill, 191, 307 Gateway Community College, 310 Gateway High School, 310 Gawker, 31, 410 gay and lesbian rights movement,
24–25 gay black men, passing by, 232,
233–234 gay(s)
drag queens, 70–71 percentage in population, 256 see also LGBTQ; sexual orientation
Geertz, Clifford, 45, 47 gender
constructionist approach to, 256 essentialist approach to, 74,
255–256 family status and, 267
INDEXI-12
teamwork, 141–142 triads, 131, 132 virtual, 128, 129
groupthink, 136 Guadalupe Dunes, California, oil spill,
474 Gubrium, Jay, 365 Guggenheim Museum, 399–400 Guillain- Barre syndrome, 428 Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil spill, 474
H hacker subculture, 87 hacking, 87, 482 hacktivists, 490 Hadid, Bella, 487 Hague, The, 290 Haiti, 477 Halden Prison (Norway), 171 Hall, Stuart, 233, 404 Halle, David, 401–402 Halo (video game), 260 Hamas, 316 Hamilton (Miranda), 401, 402 hangouts, 409–412 Hannity, Sean, 297 Hardin, Garrett, 454, 488 Harold and Kumar (film series), 27 Harris- Perry, Melissa, 297 hashtag activism, 491 hate crimes, 168, 241, 275, 279 Hawaii, 223, 291, 364 Hawley, Amos, 471 Hawthorne effect, 62 Hayes, Chris, 297 Hays, Sharon, 35 hazing, 122, 124 Head Start, 51, 202–203 health
in cultural context, 419 defined, 420 and gender, 267–268, 428, 429–430 inequalities in, 427–432 intersections of class, race, and
gender, 427, 429–430 issues in, 438–441 and race/ethnicity, 237–238, 429 and socioeconomic status, 196–197 sociology of, 419–420 see also illness
health care (medicine) approaches to, 421 cultural competence in, 434–435
Grand Canyon National Park, 473 Grande, Ariana, 316 Grandi, Filippo, 245 Granovetter, Mark, 127 grassroots environmentalism, 475 Gray, Freddie, 224, 486–487 Great Britain, 290, 406 Great Depression, 15, 201, 202, 331 Great Lakes Megalopolis (ChiPitts),
457 Great Recession (2007–2009)
personal vs. public issues in, 15, 204 role of banks and corporations, 157 unemployment during, 15, 331
Great Society program, 202 Great Wall, The (film), 228 Greenberg, Leah, 491 greenhouse effect, 469 greenhouse gases, 469 Green Party, 475 Greenpeace, 474, 484 Greenwich Village, New York, 178–179 Grey Album (Danger Mouse), 34 Grey’s Anatomy (TV show), 91 Gridiron PAC, 294 grief, cross- cultural responses to, 116,
117 gross domestic product (GDP), 346 Gross National Happiness (Bhutan),
500–501 grounded theory, 46 group cohesion, 135–136 group dynamics, 131–136 group(s), 122–149
and anomie, 127, 129 bureaucracies, 25, 26, 144–147 conformity experiments, 137–141 defined, 125 dyads, 131, 132 effect of group size, 131–132 group cohesion, 135–136 group dynamics, 131–136 honor killings, 138–139 in- and out- groups, 132–133 intergroup conflict or cooperation,
based on race/ethnicity, 243–246
leadership qualities, 142–144 primary groups, 125–126 reference groups, 133 secondary groups, 125, 126 social influence in, 136–141 social networks, 58, 126–127
global perspective (continued!) Eurocentrism in sociological theory,
23 HIV and AIDS, 426 honor killings, 138–139 kinship, 364 Nuremberg Code and research
ethics, 64 otaku culture and the globalization
of niche interests, 86 religion, violence, and terrorism,
316 soccer, 406 systems of stratification, 186–187 third- gender individuals, 254–255 water crisis, 470 World of Warcraft and “gold
farming ” in China, 344–345 global village, 499–502 global warming, 469 God, relationship with, 320 Go Daddy, 92 Goffman, Alice, 63, 65 Goffman, Erving
civil inattention, 464 cooling the mark out, 108 dramaturgy, 30, 61, 106–109, 115 everyday class consciousness, 194 hospitalized mental patients, 433 impression management, 107, 108,
109, 115 in- group orientation, 162 passing, 162 stigma, 161–162 symbolic interactionism, 30
“gold farming,” 344–345 Goldman Sachs, 343 Goldstein, Baruch, 316 Gonzaga University (Washington), 82 Good Doctor, The (TV show), 437 Good Samaritan laws, 465 Goodwin, Alfred, 288 Google, 128, 146, 338, 398 Goop, 440 Gore, Al, 292, 398, 474 Gore, Tipper, 398 Gottdiener, Mark, 446, 447 government
criminal justice system, 170–172 defined, 289 groupthink in, 136 power and authority of, 289–290 see also specific types
INDEX I-13
Hurricane Katrina, 295, 296 Hussein, King of Jordan, 143 Hussein, Saddam, 136 hypergamy, 197 hypertext markup language (HTML), 90 hypodermic needle theory, 402–403 hypogamy, 197 hypothesis, 42
I I Am Cait (TV show), 261 I Am Jazz (TV show), 261 Ibrahimovic, Zlatan, 406 Iceland, 180, 182, 183 id, 103 Idaho, 157 IDEA charter high school, 308 ideal culture, 88 identification, 137 identity
construction of, 233 embodied and disembodied,
234–236 gender, 74, 104, 256, 265 LGBTQ, 277 racial, 235–236 social identity theory, 142 stigma and deviant identity, 161–164
ideology, 23 idioculture, 412 Iger, Robert, 396 IKEA, 205 Illinois, 170, 172, 454 illness
epidemiology of, 425–427 medicalization of, 423–425 medical treatment approaches, 421 mental illness, 423, 425 sick role, 436 spread of disease, 419 types of illnesses, 420–421 see also diseases; health
I Love Lucy (TV show), 365 immigration, 452 imperialism, 91 impression management, 107–109 “impulsive self,” 135 incapacitation, 170 incarceration rate (1925–2015), 172 incest, 381 income
and college enrollment, 198 comparison between countries, 215
Hitchcock, Alfred, 400–401 Hitler, Adolf, 143, 243 HIV/AIDS, 201, 426, 456 Hmong, 434, 435 Hobbes, Thomas, 488 hobbyists, 408–409 Hochschild, Arlie, 48–50, 116, 118,
271–272, 375–376 Hodgson, Kian, 219 Hodgson, Kylee, 219 Hodgson, Remi, 219 Hoffman, Matt, 127 Holocaust, 138, 243, 244 Holstein, Jim, 365 home births, 423, 433 homelessness, 208–209 Homeless Outreach Population
Estimate (HOPE), 208 homeschooling, 308–309 homogamy, 196–197, 367 homophily, on Facebook, 58 homophobia, 263 homosexuality, defined, 256
see also sexual orientation Homosexuals, The (TV show), 260 honor killings, 138–139 hooks, bell, 24, 232, 266, 404 hookups, 258 hooliganism, 406, 485 Hoover, J. Edgar, 29 Hopi language, 79 Horder, Remi, 219 horizontal integration, 394, 396, 397 horizontal social mobility, 200 “hot seat,” 122 households by type, 2016, 368–369 House of Cards (TV show), 169 Howard, Philip, 117 How I Met Your Mother (TV show), 27 Howl’s Moving Castle (film), 91 Huffington, Arianna, 297 HuffPostShow, 298 Hull House, 30 Hulu, 112, 397, 502 human exceptionalism, 471 Human Genome Project (HGP), 100,
440 human nature, 99 Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 264 human trafficking, 185, 274 Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow), 26 hunger, 201, 456, 470 Hunt, Darnell, 242
and extended life spans, 453 institutional contexts, 433 issues in, 438–441 medicalization of illness, 423–425 sick role, 436 as social institution, 432–438 on television, 437–438 treatment approaches, 421
Hearst, William Randolph, 152 Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy
of Disaster in Chicago (Klinenberg), 284–285
Heaven’s Gate, 313 Heckman, James, 307 hegemony, 85 “helicopter parents,” 55, 400 heliocentrism, 43 Hell’s Kitchen (TV show), 8 helping professions, 484 hemp, 150, 152 Henson, Taraji P., 487 herd immunity, 420 Herrnstein, Richard, 100 Herzog (Bellow), 26 heterogamy, 196 heteronormativity, 257, 259, 260, 276,
364 heterosexism, 263 heterosexuality, defined, 256 hidden curriculum, 110, 304–305 high culture, 400–401 hijras, 254, 255 Hill, Judith, 392 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family
and Culture in Crisis (Vance), 220
Hinduism, 185, 316 hip- hop, 33–34, 400, 401 Hirosue, Ryoko, 184 Hirschi, Travis, 155 Hispanic/Latino Americans
and criminal justice, 240 education level of, 238 family status of, 237 health inequalities for, 429 health insurance for, 237 high school graduation rate, 238,
303 and interracial dating/marriage, 368 life expectancy of, 237, 429 as minority group, 223 poverty rate for, 202, 240 work and income of, 238, 240, 268
INDEXI-14
net neutrality, 396, 398–399 news content from, 300 online education, 128, 312 and otaku culture, 86 racial identity on, 235–236 social change and, 498 and social problems, 498 virtual communities, 129, 408–409,
499 Internet and American Life Project,
129 Internet of Things (IoT), 480, 482, 498 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), 398 internships, 193, 334 Interpretation of Dreams, The (Freud),
103 interpretive communities, 404–405 interpretive strategies and
communities, 404–405 intersectionality
and crime, 168–169 in critical race theory, 232 defined, 188 and gender, 241, 267, 275, 277 of health, class, race, and gender,
427, 429–430 in interracial families, 241 and social class, 188
intervening variables, 43 interviews, 41, 43, 48–50 intimate partner violence (IPV),
379–380 Into the Wild (Krakauer), 450 intragenerational mobility, 200–201 intrinsic religiosity, 315 Introduction to Positive Philosophy
(Comte), 18 Inuits, 80 invisibility of poverty, 206–209 in vitro fertilization, 382, 440, 498 Iovine, Jimmy, 397 Iran, 91, 93, 186, 187 Iraq, 91, 316 Iraq War, 301 Irish, mourning by, 117 Irish Americans, 221 Irish Republican Army (IRA), 316 iron cage of bureaucratic rules, 25, 146 Islam, 315, 317
see also Muslims Islamic Revolution, 187 Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh), 92, 245,
316
Information Revolution, 330–331, 483, 503
information work, 337 informed consent, 48, 49, 63 InfoWars, 300 in- group orientation, 162 in- groups, 132–133 Initiative on Technology and the Self
(MIT), 119 innovators (in structural strain
theory), 156 Insecure (TV show), 241, 369 Instacart, 352 Instagram, 98, 119, 130, 132, 396, 409 institutional discrimination, 225 institutional review boards (IRBs), 65 instrumental leadership, 144 instrumental role, 264–265 instrumental tasks, 272, 373 integrative medicine, 439 interaction
in cities, 462, 464 in defining situations, 108–109 face- to- face, 359 online interaction, 116–117, 119 see also group(s); symbolic
interactionism “Interaction: The Work Women Do”
(Fishman), 14 intergenerational mobility, 200 internal colonialism, 244 internalization, 137 internalized racism, 224 internal migration, 452 Internal Revenue Service, 355 International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF), 250, 252 International Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners, 341 International Monetary Fund (IMF),
345 International Olympic Committee, 207 international trade, 345–346 Internet
courtship and romance over, 197, 367
dark web, 92 and decline in public life, 391 digital divide, 208 disembodied identity and, 234–236 global diffusion of, 500, 501 hashtag activism, 491 in Information Age, 337
income (continued!) and education, 197, 198, 304,
306–307 and gender, 268–269, 270–271, 304 household income, by income group,
1979–2010, 199 and obesity, 215 and race/ethnicity, 240, 268 and socioeconomic status, 188–190,
198–199 independent contractors, 354–355 Independent (or Third) Sector, 355, 356 independent variables, 56, 57 India
caste system in, 185, 200 fictive kin, 364 film industry in, 388 megalopolises in, 457 outsourcing to, 350 slavery in, 185 smog and air pollution, 475–476 surrogacy in, 350, 351
Indiegogo, 494 indirect ties, 126 individual discrimination, 224–225 individual resistance, 339–340 “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for
Resisting the Trump Agenda,” 491
Indonesia, 215, 457, 501 Industrial Revolution
overview, 328–330 population growth concerns during,
454 social change during, 22, 90, 129,
328–330, 456, 483, 498 industrial unions, 341 industrial work, 335–336 inequality(-ies)
and the American Dream, 209–213 and deaths in Chicago heat wave,
285 and education, 303–304 in health and health care, 427–432 in service work, 337 and socialism, 333 see also gender inequality; social
inequality infant mortality, 328, 451 influential power, 143 influenza, 427 Information Age, 90, 111, 119, 337–338,
389
INDEX I-15
Kickstarter, 494 Kids Are All Right, The (film), 381 Kim Jong II, 290 Kim Jong Un, 290 kin, 363, 364 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 26, 314, 496 King, Rodney, 224 Kinsey, Alfred, 256–257 Kinsey scale of sexuality, 257 Kitsuse, John, 160 Klinenberg, Eric, 129, 284–285 Knight, Christopher, 100 knowledge work, 330–331, 337–339 knowledge workers, 326, 330, 331, 336,
337, 338, 340 Knowles, Beyoncé, 144, 197, 400, 404,
405 Koch brothers, 294 Kohl’s, 348 Kollock, Peter, 117 Koresh, David, 313 Kozol, Jonathan, 305 Krakauer, Jon, 450 Kuenkaew family, 182, 183 Kuhn, Manfred, 134 Kuhn, Thomas, 43 Ku Klux Klan (KKK), 225 Kunis, Mila, 411 Kuralt, Charles, 70 Kuwait, 180, 182, 183 Kyoto Protocol, 477
L labeling theory, 158–161, 165 labor unions. see union(s) Lacy, Karyn R., 188 Lady Gaga, 85, 91, 188 Lake Mead, 447 La La Land (film), 388 Landis, Floyd, 142 language
and gender, 264 Mead on, 29, 105 and sense of self, 105 in symbolic culture, 80–81
LaRock family, 377 LaRossa, Ralph, 109 Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
(TV show), 298, 299 Las Vegas, 83, 418, 446–447 Las Vegas (Gottdiener, Collins, and
Dickens), 446 Latané, Bibb, 463
Jin, Ge, 344 jobs, gendered, 270 Johansson, Scarlett, 228 John Paul II (pope), 314 Johnson, Lyndon B., 202 Johnson & Johnson, 430 Jolie, Angelina, 196–197 Jones, Nikki, 169 Jones, Quincy, 219 Jones, Rashida, 219, 220 Jones, Steve, 117 Jordan, Michael, 154, 407 Jordan, talking about kin in, 364 Judaism. see Jews and Judaism Juergensmeyer, Mark, 316 July, Miranda, 491 Jungle Book, The (film), 101, 102 Justice for Janitors, 492 just- world hypothesis, 206
K Kaepernick, Colin, 88 kaizen, 146 Kalev, Alexandra, 239 Kang, Miliann, 275 KangaDo, 353 Kapital, Das (Marx), 22 Karakaian, Annie, 244 Kardashian, Khloe, 8 Kardashian, Kim, 8, 89 Kardashian, Kourtney, 8 Kardashian, Robert, 192 Kardashian family’s wealth and
prestige, 192, 193 karma, 185 Karnes, David, 463, 465 Katz, Jack, 165 Kaufman, Jason, 58 Keeping Up with the Kardashians (TV
show), 8 Kefalas, Maria, 45–46, 47, 370 Keller, Helen, 483 Kelly, Megyn, 297 Kendi, Ibram, 231 Kennedy, John F., 202, 297, 319, 321 Kennedy, Kerry, 196 Kennedy, Robert, 196 Kennedy family, 143 Kenya, 427 Key West, FL, 70–71 Khaldun, Ibn, 23 Khoisan Bushmen (southern Africa),
184
Isla Vista, California, riot in, 486 Israel, 138, 244 Italian Americans, 221 It’s Complicated ( boyd), 119 ITT Technical Institute, 311 Ivy, Andrew, 64
J J. C. Penney, 348 Jackson, Jesse, 476 Jackson, Michael, 31, 228, 229, 500 Jackson, Paris, 228, 229 Jacobson, Leonore, 305 jai alai, 406 James, LeBron, 407 James, William, 28–29 Jane the Virgin (TV show), 241 Jankowitz, Pauline, 285 Janus, Irving, 136 Japan
anime, 86, 91 centenarians in, 453 fast- food meals in, 90 Fukushima nuclear disaster, 474,
501 life expectancy in, 452 megalopolises, 457 “Metabo Law” in, 90 monarchy, 290 mortality rates, 451 otaku culture in, 86 population trends in, 455 social stratification, 184 Tokyo subway attack, 316
Jay- Z, 34, 197, 348, 400 J Date, 197 Jefferson, Thomas, 150 Jenkins, Henry, 404 Jenkins, Malcolm, 154 Jenner, Caitlyn, 228, 261 Jenner, Kendall, 487 Jennings, Jazz, 261 Jesus Christ, 143 Jews and Judaism
ethnicity, 220 fundamentalism, 317 Hitler’s genocide, 243, 244 and religious violence, 316 sexism and, 313, 314 stigma and, 162 in the United States, 315 see also Holocaust
Jimeno, Will, 463, 465
INDEXI-16
LinkedIn, 130, 132, 482 Lipton, Peggy, 219 literature review, 41 Little Rock, AR, 62 “living room scale,” 194 “living wage,” 205, 492 lobbying, top spenders, 294 lobotomy, 425 Lohan, Lindsay, 165 longevity, 452, 453 looking- glass self, 104–105, 106, 159 Love Canal, 474 Loving, Mildred, 234 Loving, Richard, 234 Loving v. Virginia, 234, 235, 367 lower- middle (working) class, 190,
198–199 Lubet, Steven, 65 Lucas, George, 396 Lucasfilm, 394, 396 Luitweiler, Bob, 77 LulzSec, 490 Luther, Martin, 496 L Word, The (TV show), 261 Lyft, 77, 498 Lyme disease, 427
M Machung, Anne, 375–376 MacKinnon, Catharine, 24, 266 macrosociological theory
conflict theory, 21–25 structural functionalism, 19–21 Weberian theory, 25–27
macrosociology about, 15–16 defined, 14, 15 of education, 312–313 of politics, 302
Madama Butterfly (Puccini), 401 Maddow, Rachel, 297 Mad Men (TV show), 487 Madoff, Bernie, 199, 200 Madonna, 404, 411 Mafia Wives (TV show), 169 magazines, seeing culture in, 89 magic bullet theory, 402–403 Maher, Bill, 297 mainstream environmentalism,
474–475 “ majority- minority” states, 223 Major League Baseball, 294 malaria, 427
Levitra, 430 Levittown, 458 Levittowners, The (Gans), 458 Lewinsky, Monica, 334 Lewis, Jacqueline, 353 Lewis, Oscar, 204, 206 LGBTQ
criminal justice and, 275 defined, 257 education level and, 268–269 family status and, 267 hate crimes and, 275, 279 health insurance and, 268 job discrimination and, 271 and language, 264 life expectancy and, 267–268 in the media, 260–261 in schools, 259, 269
LGBTQ community, 264, 278–279 LGBTQ identity, 277 LGBTQ movements, 277–279, 483 LGBTQ partners, domestic abuse and,
379 Li, Jui- Chung Allen, 373 liberation theology, 314 Liberia, 290 Liberty University (Virginia), 82 life chances
education and, 197–198 family and, 195–197, 236–237 gender and, 266–275 health and, 196–197 race/ethnicity and, 236–243 socioeconomic status and, 195–200
life expectancy African Americans, 237, 429 demography and, 451–452 gender differences, 237, 267, 429, 452 global life expectancy, 2015, 452 Hispanic/Latino Americans, 237,
429 LGBTQ, 267–268 men, 237, 267, 429 social class and, 197, 427, 429 in United States, 197, 237, 378, 452 women, 237, 267, 429, 443
life history, 49 life span, 452, 453 lifestyle enclaves, 408 “Like a Virgin” (Madonna), 404 Likert scale, 51, 421, 472 linguistic “gestures,” 79, 80 linguistic relativity, principle of, 80
latent functions, 20–21 Latin America, 364 Latinos. See Hispanic/Latino
Americans Lawrence, Massachusetts (1912),
textile strike, 341 Lawrence v. Texas, 157 Lawry, Jo, 392 laws, 81 Lay, Kenneth, 199, 200 leadership qualities, 142–144 leadership styles, 144 leading questions, 49 lead in municipal water systems, 468 lead poisoning, 416, 418 League, The, 197 Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to
Lead (Sandberg), 144 Lebanese Americans, 221 Le Bon, Gustave, 485 Ledger, Heath, 156, 157 Led Zeppelin, 401 Lee, Jennifer, 160, 238 Lee, Lia, 434, 435 Lee, Sandra, 196 legal- rational authority, 143 Legionnaire’s disease, 418 Lehman Brothers, 343 Leidner, Robin, 146, 340 leisure
collectors and hobbyists, 408–409 commodification of, 391–393 and community, 407–408 defined, 389 and fan- celebrity relations, 410–411 hangouts, 409–412 organization of, 391 and relationships, 405–413 role model relationships in, 407 study of, 389 time for, on average day, 391, 415 time spent on leisure activities, 390 travel and tourism, 412–413 trends in, 390–393 and work, 389–390
Lemonade, 404, 405 Lennon, John, 410 Leno, Jay, 211 Lerner, Melvin, 206 lesbian(s), percentage in population,
256 Levin, Ezra, 491 Levi Strauss, 344, 349
INDEX I-17
Matza, David, 60, 165, 167, 173 Mauss, Armand, 495–496 Maynard, Brittany, 441 Mayo, Elton, 62 McCandless, Chris, 448, 450 McCarthy, Joseph, 29, 288 McCune, Jeffrey, 233 McDonaldization, 26, 145–146, 490 McDonald’s, 90, 205, 340 McGrane, Bernard, 10, 11, 35, 498 McIntosh, Peggy, 226 McLoughlin, John, 463, 465 McLuhan, Marshall, 499–500, 502 McVeigh, Timothy, 87 Mead, George Herbert, 28–29,
105–106 Mean Girls (film), 80, 81 meanings
in conversation analysis, 30–31 and interpretative strategies,
404–405 Mead on, 29 in symbolic interactionism, 29, 30
means of production, 22 measles, 420 mechanical solidarity, 19 media
as agent of socialization, 111–112 campaigns and elections and,
295–297 and commodification of leisure,
391–393 concentration of power in, 396–397 conglomeration of, 394 and cultural imperialism, 91, 502 and decline in public life, 389–390 and democracy, 393 diffusion of content from Western
culture, 91 effects on audiences, 402–405 gender role socialization by,
260–262 global diffusion of, 500–502 groupthink in, 136 in the Information Age, 90, 111 mergers, 394, 396, 398 mobile media, 397–398 new media, 397 and political process, 295–300 as political watchdog, 295–296 regulation of content, 398–399 self- regulation and censorship in,
398
dialectical model of change, 24 effect of historical context and
experience, 9 false consciousness, 23, 209 on industrialization, 329–330 photograph, 21 praxis, 25 on social class, 191 survey use, 51 technological innovation and, 336
Marxism, 21 see also conflict theory
mash- ups, 34 mass behavior, 487–489 massively multiplayer online role-
playing games (MMORPGs), 129, 260, 344–345
mass media and popular culture advertising and the American
Dream, 212–213 blockbuster hits and the business of
movies, 394–395 celebrity gossip, 31–32 cities of tomorrow, 460–461, 462 culture in popular magazines and
web sites, 89 culture wars and, 88 family troubles in film, 380–381 gender and rules of beauty, 261–262 in the Information Age, 90, 111 media usage patterns, 53–54 medicine on television, 437–438 minorities and racial reality on TV,
241–243 norm breaking on television,
169–170 reality television, 8 satirical news shows, 298–299 television as agent of socialization,
111–112 “unplug ” experiment, 498–499 work and workers as seen on TV,
331–332 mass society theory, 492 Master of None (TV show), 241 master- planned communities, 446 master status, 115, 163, 224, 233 material culture, 78–79, 90 Material World: A Global Family
Portrait (Menzel), 182 mate selection, 196–197, 367–368 mathematical ability, genetic
differences in, 100–101
Malek, Rami, 87 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
occupation by ranchers, 87 Mali, 180, 182, 183 Mallinson, Christine, 194 malnutrition, 201 Malthus, Thomas, 454, 455 Malthusian theorem, 454 Malthusian trap, 454 Managed Heart, The (Hochschild), 118 Manchester, England, terrorist attack,
316 Mandela, Nelson, 144, 186, 223 manga, 86 manicures, 275 manifest destiny, 232 manifest functions, 20–21 Manifesto of the Communist Party
(Marx), 22 Manila Bay, 466 “mansplaining,” 12–13 Maoris (New Zealand), 117 Mar- a- Lago, 293 March, Women’s, 491 Marchand, Robert, 378 Mardi Gras, 83 marijuana, 152, 153, 172 Marijuana Tax Act, 152 market research, 60, 61 marriage
age of, 196 defined, 363 and divorce, 371, 373 and extended life spans, 453 interracial, 234–235, 367–368 labor force participation and, 270 National Marriage Project, 51, 52 same- sex marriage, 267, 278–279,
295, 368, 373 and social class, 195–196 socioeconomic status and mate
selection, 196–197 top reasons for marrying, 367
“Marriage Crunch, The,” 55 marriage equality, 278 Married at First Sight (TV show), 4 Martin, Trayvon, 230, 301, 490 Martineau, Harriet, 18 Marvel, 394, 396 Marx, Karl
communism and, 21, 22 conflict theory, 21–22, 23–24, 25,
191, 329–330
INDEXI-18
monogamy, 368 monopoly, 396 monotheistic religions, 314 Montgomery bus boycott, 173 Moon, Sun Myung, 113 “Moonies,” 113 Moonlight (film), 232 Moore, Wilbert, 192 Moore’s Law, 330 moral development, 99 moral holiday, 83 moral reasoning, 99 mores, 81–82 Morgan Stanley, 343 Mormons, 244, 314 mortality rates, 237, 451 mortuary science students, 351–352 Mose, Tamara, 48, 49 Moseley, Winston, 463 motherhood
cultural definitions of, 364 single mothers, 45–46, 47, 267,
369–370 Supermoms, 375–376 surrogate mothers, 350, 351
motherhood penalty in the workplace, 57, 269
Mothers of East Los Angeles, 207 Mother Teresa, 190, 191 Motion Picture Association of America
(MPAA), 398 Motor- Voter Act of 2000, 292 Mott, Lucretia, 276 movie ratings system, 398 movies. see media; specific movies Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 401 Mr. Robot (TV show), 87 MTV, 13, 91, 500, 501 MTV Video Music Awards, 13 Muir, John, 473 Mulberry Street, New York City, 220 Mullinder, Louise Brown, 382 multiculturalism, 85, 226, 246 Multiethnic Placement Act of 1995,
372 multiracial individuals, 223 Muncie, Indiana, 63 Murphy, Daniel, 115–116 Murphy, Tori, 115 Murray, Charles, 100 music
content warnings for, 398 of dominant culture, 85
of education, 312–313 microsociological theory, 27–31 of politics, 302
Microsoft, 92, 128, 191, 330, 350, 354 MidAmerica Bank, 207 middle class, 189, 199, 329 Middle East, 316 Middle Eastern people, race/ethnicity
of, 221, 244 “Middletown” studies, 63 midrange theory, 34–35 migration, 452 Milgram, Stanley, 59, 138, 139, 140 Milgram experiment, 138–140, 141 military
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in, 273 resocialization in, 113 sexual assault in, 273 women in, 273
militia movement, 87 Millennial generation, 211, 235, 315 Miller, Laura, 273 Million Dollar Listing (TV show), 8 Million Pound March, 162 Mills, C. Wright, 13–14, 15, 23, 210, 292 Miloševič, Slobodan, 243 Minaj, Nicki, 400 mind, self, and society (theory),
105–106 Miner, Horace, 75–76 Ming Dynasty, 290 minimal effects theories, 403–404 minimum wage, 201–202, 205, 359, 492 minimum wage workers, 201, 202, 205 Minnesota, 291 minority group(s)
food deserts for, 431 overview, 223–224 see also ethnicity; race
Miranda, Lin- Manuel, 401, 402 miscegenation, 234 misogyny, 263 Mitchell, Richard, 46 Miyazaki, Hayao, 91 mobile media, 397–398 modern environmental movement,
473–474 Modern Family (TV show), 55, 112, 370 modernism, 33 modernity, 502 Modi, Kalpen (Kal Penn), 26, 27 Mom (TV show), 55, 169 monarchy, 290
media (continued!) structure of media industries,
394–398 see also mass media and popular
culture; television Medicaid, 202–203, 333 Medical College Admissions Test
(MCAT), 435 medicalization, 423–425 medical marijuana, 152 medical technology, 440–441 Medicare, 333, 435, 438 Medicast, 353 medicine. see health care (medicine) Meetup app, 410 Meetup.com, 391 megacities, 457 megalopolises, 457, 479 Meier, Megan, 158, 159 Meier, Tina, 159 men
heart problems in, 429 life expectancy, 237, 267, 429
men’s liberation, 277 men’s rights movement, 277 mental illness, 423, 425, 433 Menzel, Peter, 182 mergers, 394, 396, 398 meritocracy, 210 Merrill Lynch, 343 Merton, Robert
in- group/ out- group dynamics, 132–133
manifest and latent functions, 20 midrange theory, 34–35 photograph, 21 self- fulfilling prophecy, 160, 167, 168 structural strain theory, 155–156 typology of deviance, 156
Messerschmidt, James, 168 Messi, Lionel, 406 “Metabo Law” in Japan, 90 metropolises, 457 Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA),
457 Mexican Americans, 221 Mexico, 346, 453, 457 Meyrowitz, Josh, 108, 117 Michigan, 157, 493 microaggressions, 227, 264 microcephaly, 428 microsociology
about, 14–15, 16
INDEX I-19
Occupy Movement in, 59, 301 population of, 458 September 11 in, 295, 296, 300, 316,
463, 465, 501 Stonewall riots, 277 urban density, 458
New York Knicks, 393 New York Public Library, 16 niche interests, globalization of, 86 Nickel and Dimed (Ehrenreich), 336,
337 Nielsen Company, 61 Niger, 451 Nike, 344, 346, 348, 349, 407, 415 NIMBY (“not in my back yard”), 475 Nineteenth Amendment, 489, 492 Nixon, Julie, 196 Nixon, Richard, 297, 438 Noah, Trevor, 298 No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 308 nongender, 256, 265 nonmaterial culture, 79–81 nonplayer characters (NPCs), 344 nonprofit organizations, 355 nonrenewable resources, 466 norm(s)
breaching, on television, 95, 169–170
and deviance, 153 emergent norm theory, 485 group vs. individual, 138–139 honor killings and, 138–139 overview, 81–83
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 345, 346
North Dakota, 454 North Korea, 290 Norwegian Correctional Service, 171 NOW PAC (National Organization for
Women PAC), 294 nuclear family, 363, 365, 377, 378 nuclear weapons, 93 Nuestro Mundo Community School,
308 Nuremberg Code, 64 nurture, nature vs., 99, 100–101
O Obama, Barack
American College Promise program, 312
on discrimination against transgender persons, 279
cultural appropriation and, 227 genocide, 232, 243 as minority group, 223 population transfer, 243–244 pre- colonial societies of, 327–328 voting rights of, 291
Native American Youth and Family Center, 310
Natoma family, 182, 183 natural resources
as commons, 488 consumption of, 466–468 depletion of, 466–467 nonrenewable resources, 466 renewable resources, 466 transboundary resources, 470 waste and pollution, 468–469, 471 water resources, 468, 470
natural selection, 454 nature vs. nurture debate, 99, 100–101 Nazi war criminals, 64 NBC, 394 NBC Universal, 334 NCIS (TV show), 112, 501, 502 Neatso, 352 negative questions, 52 negative sanctions, 83 neglect, 381 Nelson, Gaylord, 474 neo- functionalism (new
functionalism), 19, 21 neo- Malthusians, 454 neo- Marxism, 24 neo- Nazis, 92, 225 Netflix, 112, 397, 502 net migration, 452 net neutrality, 396, 398–399 New Deal, 202, 205 Newdow, Michael, 288 new ecological paradigm, 471 New England Patriots, 407 New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in
the Age of Colorblindess, The (Alexander), 168, 187–188
new media, 397 New Mexico, 223, 303 “News and Guts” (website), 297 Newsweek magazine, 55 New York City
Genovese murder in, 463, 465 homelessness in, 207–208 “living wage” protests in, 492 Lower East Side, early 1900s, 220
hip- hop, 33–34, 400, 401 popular and high cultures in,
400–401 rap, 400, 401
musicians, professional, 392 Muslims, 313, 314, 316 My Lai, South Vietnam, 173
N “Nacerima,” 75–76 Nader, Ralph, 475 NAFTA (North American Free Trade
Agreement), 345, 346 Naked and Afraid (TV show), 8 Namgay family, 182, 183 Nanjiani, Kumail, 235 National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 29, 30, 228, 292
National Association of Colleges and Employers, 334
National Association of the Deaf (NAD), 162
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), 162
National Basketball Association (NBA), 393
National Commission on Excellence in Education, 307
National Education Association, 294 National Endowment for the Arts, 390 National Football League, 294 National Human Trafficking Hotline,
185 National Human Trafficking Resource
Center, 274 National Law Center on Homelessness
and Poverty, 208 National Marriage Project, 51, 52 National Organization for Women
(NOW), 276 National Parks, 412, 413, 473 National Park Service, 339, 340, 413, 473 National School Climate Survey, 269 National Survey of Sexual Health and
Behavior, 256 Nation at Risk, A, 307 Native Americans
assimilation of, 246 banishment as punishment, 153 berdaches, 254, 255 college dropout rate, 310
INDEXI-20
participant observation, 41, 43, 45, 47–48
see also ethnography particular or significant other (Mead’s
theory), 105 Partnership for a Healthier America,
431–432 Parton, Dolly, 408 Pascoe, C. J., 260 passing, 162, 228, 232, 233–234, 266 passive audiences, media and, 402, 403 Passover, 321 “pastiche personality,” 119 Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act of 2010 (ACA), 82, 197, 237–238, 333, 438–439
patriarchy, 262–263, 264–265, 270, 365
patriotism, protest and, 300–302 “pattern maintenance” (Parsons),
365 Pawn Stars (TV show), 8 PayPal, 307, 344 Pecking Order, The (Conley), 376 Peele, Jordan, 249 peer groups, gender role socialization
in, 260 peer pressure
adolescent risky behavior and, 111 in Asch experiment, 137–138 deviance and, 158 groupthink and, 136 see also social influence
peers as agent of socialization, 110–111 as reference groups, 133
peer to peer economy, 77 Pence, Mike, 343 Penn, Kal (Kalpen Modi), 26, 27 People magazine, 31 People’s History of the United States, A
(Zinn), 231 perception
and Asch’s conformity experiment, 137–138
and language’s effects on, 80–81 PerezHilton, 31, 410 Perry, Katy, 227 personal front, 107 personality
emotions and, 116 “pastiche personality” of
postmodern individuals, 119
On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters (Desmond), 4
On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City (Alice Goffman), 65
open- ended questions, 49 open persons, 464 open system, 200 operational definition, 42 Operation Enduring Freedom, 91 Operation Iraqi Freedom, 91 opinion leaders, 297 Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), 210 Oracle, 350 Orange Is the New Black (TV show),
112, 168, 169, 261 Oregon, Death with Dignity Law in, 441 organic solidarity, 19 Orlando massacre (2016), 92 orthodontic procedures, 419 otaku culture, 86 othering, 75 OurTime.com, 367 out- groups, 132–133 outsiders, 163–164 outsourcing, 199, 350–351 overt research, 46
P Padaung neck- stretching, 154 Page, Larry, 146 Pai, Agit, 398 Pakistan, 93, 138, 139, 254, 348, 494 Palestinians, 244, 316 palliative care, 421 Palmer, Janay, 32 Paltrow, Gwyneth, 440 pandemic, 426 Pandora, 85 pangender, 256 paparazzi, 411 paradigms, 16, 43 paradigm shift, 10, 43 parenting, free- range, 400–401 Parents, Families, and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), 162
Parents’ Music Resource Center, 398 Paris Agreement, 344 Park, Robert, 28, 471 Parks, Rosa, 173 Parsons, Talcott, 20, 21, 264, 265, 436
Obama, Barack (continued!) Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and, 273 election in 2008, 87, 224, 291 inauguration, 339, 340 presidential race in 2012, 291, 294 Race to the Top, 308 rumors of Muslim faith, 321
Obama, Michelle Robinson, 26, 27, 431
ObamaCare. see Affordable Care Act Obergefell v. Hodges, 267, 278 obesity
deviance and, 160, 162 food deserts and, 431 income and, 215 stigmatized identity, 162 treatment, 423
objectivity, 62 obscene material, 398 occupational family tree, 324, 326, 327 occupations
by gender, 268, 270 prestige of, 192–193 of racial/ethnic groups, 238, 240
Occupy (Occupy Wall Street) movement, 59, 206, 301
Oculus Rift, 128 Odom, Lamar, 411 offshoring, 350 Ogburn, William, 498 OkCupid, 133 Oklahoma, 319, 321 Oklahoma City bombing (1995), 87 Oldenburg, Ray, 409–410 oligarchy, 211 Oliver, John, 298, 299 Olsen, Ashley, 348 Olsen, Mary- Kate, 348 Omi, Michael, 233 “On Being Sane in Insane Places”
(Rosenhan), 159, 433 on- call workers, 354 on- demand app- based services,
352–353 “ one- on- one” education model, 353 On Human Nature (Wilson), 100 Onion News Network (website), 298 online education, 128, 312 online gaming, 260 Online Learning Consortium, 312 online radicalization, 92 online surveys, 52 ONTD (Oh No They Didn’t), 31
INDEX I-21
invisibility of, 206–209 and participation in social
movements, 492 social welfare and welfare reform,
202–204 structural functionalism and, 207 symbolic interactionism and, 207 in the United States, 201–202, 203,
206 power
authoritarianism, 289–290 class dominance theory of, 292–293 coercive power, 143 conflict theory and, 292–293, 295 defined, 289 and deviance, 165 and gender, 16 influential power, 143 as leadership quality, 143 pluralist theory of, 293–294 in service work, 336–337 structural functionalism and, 295 symbolic interactionism and, 295
power elite, 210, 292–293 practical knowledge, scientific
knowledge vs., 9 pragmatism, 28 praxis, 25, 60 precarious labor, 199 prejudice, 224–225, 262–264 preparatory stage (Mead), 105 prescription drugs, 430–431 prescriptions, 137 Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,
The (Goffman), 106 prestige, 192–193 Preston, Samuel, 451 pretext traffic stops and searches,
218 Pretty Woman (film), 197 preventive medicine, 421 primary deviance, 160 primary groups, 125–126 primary sex characteristics, 253 principle of linguistic relativity, 80 Principles of Sociology, The (Spencer),
19 Prison Pet Partnership Program, 114 prisons
American vs. Scandinavian prisons, 171
dogs trained in, 114 LGBTQ inmates in, 275
polyamory, 368 polyandry, 368 polygamy, 368 polygyny, 368 polysemy, 404, 405 Ponyo (film), 91 PopSugar, 31, 410 popular culture, 400–401
see also mass media and popular culture
population, 451–456 in cities, 456–457 demography, 451–454 of Earth, 451 theories of population change,
454–456 and urbanization, 451, 456, 458–461 world population growth, 455
Population Institute, 456 Population Reference Bureau, 456 population transfer, 243–244, 245 Portland Community College, 310 positive deviance, 172–173 positive sanctions, 83 positivism, 18 Postindustrial Age, 330–331 postindustrial work
knowledge work, 330–331, 337–339 service work, 330–331, 336–337
postmodern families, 383 postmodernism
approach to society, 33–34 college admissions and, 34 critical theory and, 24 in everyday life, 34 on reality, 33, 62 social class and, 193 on technology and interaction, 119
postmodernity, 503 postmodern theory, 33–34 poverty, 201–209
after divorce, 373 as barrier to education, 307 in cities, 462 conflict theory and, 207 “culture of poverty” and its critics,
204, 206 for custodial parents, 267 federal poverty line, 201–202 feminization of, 270, 271 functionalism’s explanations of, 21 Gans on functions of, 21 and gender, 270–271
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (1996), 203
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), 489–490
Peterson, Drew, 138, 139 Peterson, John, 459 Peterson, Stacy, 138 Peterson, William, 455 Pew Research Center, 129, 306, 352,
353 Pfeffer, Carla, 376 piercings, 153, 154 Piketty, Thomas, 206 pilfering, 163 pilot study, 52 Pinker, Steven, 100–101 Pinochet, Augusto, 290 Pinterest, 130, 409 Pitt, Brad, 196, 411 “Pizzagate” shooting, 300 plagiarism, 161 plague, 427 plasma donations, 204 Playdate: Parents, Children and the
New Expectations of Play, The (Mose), 48
play stage (Mead), 105 Pledge of Allegiance, 286, 288, 289 pluralism, 246, 293–294 pluralistic ignorance, 463 pluralist model, 293–294 podcasts, 396 “polite racism,” 187 political action committees (PACs),
293, 294, 474 political disenfranchisement, 187–188,
207–208 politics, 289–302
American political system, 291–292
campaigns and elections, 295–297 defined, 289 media and political process,
295–300 micro- and macrosociology of, 302 patriotism and protest, 300–302 political systems and government,
289–291 rulers of the United States, 292–294
Pollner, Melvin, 164 pollution, 468–469, 471
INDEXI-22
“racial democracy,” 186 Racial Fault Lines: The Historical
Origins of White Supremacy in California (Almaguer), 232
Racial Formation in the United States (Omi and Winant), 233
racial identity, 228, 233, 235, 246 racial profiling, 160, 216, 218, 240, 301 racism
antiracist allies and, 229–230 color- blind racism, 226–227 cultural appropriation and, 227–228 defined, 224 environmental, 475 forms of, 224–230 institutional racism, 24, 230 internalized racism, 224 microaggressions and, 227 and objectivity in research, 62 prejudice and discrimination,
224–225 reverse racism, 229 systemic racism, 230–231 white nationalism, 92, 225–226 white privilege and, 24, 226–227
RadarOnline, 31 Radway, Janice, 405 Rae, Issa, 369 rain forest depletion, 467 Ramadan, 313, 321 Ramon, Ana- Christina, 242 rap, 400, 401 rape, 258, 273, 275 rape culture, 258 rapport, 45 Rather, Dan, 297 rationalization, 25, 26, 145 reactivity, 62–63 Reagan, Ronald, 26, 143, 297, 474 real culture, 88 Real Dirt on Farmer John, The
(documentary), 459 real estate foreclosures, in Las Vegas,
446 reality television, 8 Real World, The (TV show), 8 rebels, 156 Reclaiming Conversation (Turkle), 119 Recording Industry Association of
America, 398 recreation, 389 red, meaning in different cultures, 95 “redlining,” 207
Q Qatar, 451, 452 qualitative research, 41 quantitative research, 41, 52 quasi- experimental methods, 56–57 Queen Bees and Wannabes (Wiseman),
81 Queer as Folk (TV show), 261 Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (TV
show), 261 “queering the binary,” 257 queer theory, 24–25, 257, 363–364, 366 questions in interviews, 48–49 questions in surveys, 51–52 Quinn, Pauline (Kathy), 114 Quinn, Zoe, 263 Quinney, Richard, 156 Qur’an, 313, 317
R race
apartheid, 185–186, 187 conflict theory and, 231–232, 236 and crime, 168 critical race theory and, 24, 232 and death penalty, 200 and deaths in Chicago heat wave,
285 defining, 219–220, 233 intergroup conflict or cooperation,
243–246 interracial romance, dating, and
marriage, 234–235, 367–368 intersection with health, class, and
gender, 429 and life chances, 236–243 multiracial individuals, 223 social construction of, 220–221,
233, 247 and social stratification in Brazil,
186–187 structural functionalism and,
230–231, 236 symbolic interactionism and,
232–236 theoretical approaches to, 230–236
race consciousness, 227 race relations
biases in research on, 60–61 concerns about, 224 since Obama’s election, 224
Race to the Top, 308 racial assimilation, 246
prisons (continued!) privately run ( for- profit) prisons,
172 racial and ethnic populations, 240 rehabilitation in, 170, 171 resocialization in, 114 school- to- prison pipeline, 238 U.S. prison population, 175
privilege, 226–227 probability sampling, 52 Producers, The (musical), 401 productivity, teamwork and, 141–142 profane, 20, 313 pro- feminist men’s movement, 277 professional socialization, 351–353 progressive movements, 490, 491 Prohibition, 496 proletariat, 22 Promises I Can Keep (Edin and
Kefalas), 45 property crime, 166 propinquity, 367 proscriptions, 137 Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism, The (Weber), 25 protests
collective behavior at, 486–487 drag as, 71 Occupy Movement, 59, 206, 301 and patriotism, 300–302 social media’s role in, 59
psychoanalysis, 106 psychoanalytic theory, 103–104, 106 psychosexual stages of development,
103–104 Public Facilities Privacy and Security
Act, North Carolina, 74 public goods dilemma, 489 public housing, 206 public life, decline in, 390–391 public sociology, 232 Puccini, Giacomo, 401 Puerto Rico, 428, 458 punishment
across cultures, 153–155 corporal, 153, 155 for crimes, 166, 170–172
Putnam, Robert, 127, 129, 409 Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher
Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development (Rosenthal and Jacobson), 305
INDEX I-23
retirement, 378, 453 retreatists, 156 retribution, 170 Retrospect of Western Travel
(Martineau), 18 reverse racism, 229 Rhetoric (Aristotle), 137 Rice, Condoleeza, 144 Rice, Ray, 32, 379 Rift (video game), 260 “ right- to- work” laws, 343 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 207–208 Rios, Victor, 4–5, 170, 238 riots, 486–487 ritualists (in structural strain theory),
156 ritual(s), 313 Ritzer, George, 26, 37, 145–146 Riverdale (TV show), 169 Rizal, José, 23 Robinson, Jackie, 246 Rock, Chris, 216 Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (film),
388 Rodger, Elliott, 165 Rodgers, Aaron, 440 Rojek, Chris, 389–390 role conflict, 115, 116 role exit, 116 role models, 407 roles, 115–116 role strain, 115–116 role- taking emotions, 116 Roma (“Gypsies”), 117 romance
cultural influences on, 367 Internet and, 197, 367 interracial, 234–235
Romanovs, 290 Rome, 456 Romero, Óscar, 314 Romney, Mitt, 294 Ronaldo, Cristiano, 406 Roof, Dylann, 92, 490 Room (film), 101 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 202 Roots and Wings program, 459 Roper, 59 Rosenbaum, Emily, 429 Rosenfeld, Dana, 277 Rosenhan, David, 158–159, 433 Rosenthal, Robert, 305 Ross Schools of Medicine, 310
as source of solidarity, 19–20 structural functionalism and, 93,
313 symbolic interactionism and, 93,
314 terrorism and religious violence,
316 theoretical approaches to, 313–314 unchurched spirituality, 317–318 in the United States, 315, 317
religiosity, 315, 318–319, 320 Religious Freedom Restoration Act,
343–344 religious violence, 316 remarriage, 370, 371 renewable resources, 466 replicability, 46, 47, 57 representativeness, 46, 47, 50 representative sample, 52 rescission, 438 research, 38–67
action research, 50–51, 60 applied research, 60 basic research, 60 choosing methods for, 43–45 covert research, 46, 63 ethics of, 63–65 ethnography, overview, 45–47 experimental methods, 56–57 interviews, 41, 43 nonacademic uses of, 59–60 objectivity in, 62 overt research, 46 overview of methods, 41–45, 67 qualitative research, 61 quantitative research, 41, 52 reactivity in, 62–63 scientific method, 41–43, 47 surveys, 43–44, 48, 50–54 using existing sources, 54–55 values in, 60–61
residential segregation, 206–207 resistance strategies, 339–343 resocialization, 113–114 resource mobilization theory, 493–494 resources
as commons, 488 depletion of, 466–467 mobilizing, 493–494 see also natural resources
respondents, 48 response rate, 52 restroom restriction laws, 74, 88
Reefer Madness (film), 152 reference groups, 133 reflexivity, 46 refugees, 128, 245, 452 region (social setting), 107 regressive movements, 490 rehabilitation, 170 Reich, Robert, 491 reinforcement theory, 403 relationships
breakups, 371, 373 cyberbullying, 158–159 direct- to- consumer (DTC) drug
marketing, 430–431 doctor– patient relationships,
433–436 dog training by prisoners, 114 effect of group size on, 131–132 fan- celebrity relations, 410–411 with God, 320 individual values vs. university
culture, 82 interracial dating and marriage,
234–235 leisure and, 405–413 in primary and secondary groups,
125–126 rape culture and campus social life,
258 social networking sites, 58, 59,
132–133 socioeconomic status and mate
selection, 196–197 sports role models, 407 talking by men vs. women in,
14–15 trends in, 368–371 urban encounters with strangers,
464 value of break time, 342
relative deprivation, 201 relative deprivation theory, 492–493 reliability, 52, 53 religion(s), 313–321
conflict theory and, 93, 313–314 cults, 313 defined, 313 denominations, 313 fundamentalism, 315–317 Marx on, 23 and religiosity, 315, 318–319, 320 sects, 313 and secular society, 319–321
INDEXI-24
self- concept, 105, 134–135 theories of, 102–109
self- concept, 105, 134–135 self- driving cars, 482 self- fulfilling prophecy, 160 “selfies,” 98, 107, 216 self- reports. see surveys Semenya, Caster, 250, 252–253 Seneca Falls convention, 276 Senegal, 419 Sennett, Richard, 390 “separate but equal” doctrine, 60 separation of church and state, 288,
317, 319 September 11, 2001, 295, 296, 300, 316,
463, 465, 501 Sereika, Charles, 463, 465 Servas International, 77 service dogs, training of, 114 Service Employees International
Union, 341 service work, 146, 330–331, 336–337 Seventeen magazine, 260 sex
characteristics, 253 overview, 253–254 see also gender
sex- determination testing, for female athletes, 252
sexism about, 263 and feminism, 276–277 and objectivity in research, 62 in religion, 313–314
sex- segregated bathrooms, 72, 74, 88 sex slavery, 185, 274 Sexual Assault Prevention and
Response Office (DOD), 273 sexual assaults and campus social life,
258 sexual assaults in the military, 273 sexual harassment, 178, 273 sexual health, social networks and, 127 sexual identity, 256 sexuality
and anti- sodomy laws, 157 categories of, 24–25 defined, 256 Kinsey scale of, 257 see also sexual identity; sexual
orientation sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),
127
Schiavo, Terry, 155 Schindler, Mary, 155 Schindler, Robert, 155 Schlosser, Eric, 90 Schooling in Capitalist America
(Bowles and Gintis), 304–305 schools
as agent of socialization, 110 charter, 308 early college high schools, 309–311 gender role socialization in, 258,
259–260 LGBTQ students in, 259, 269 Pledge of Allegiance in, 288, 289 see also education
school- to- prison pipeline, 238 school vouchers, 308, 319 Schwartz, Pepper, 4–5 Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 297 “Science as a Vocation” (Weber), 60 scientific knowledge, practical
knowledge vs., 9 scientific method, 41–43, 47 Scotch- Irish ( Scots- Irish), 220 Scott, Laura, 371 Seagrams, 394 sea level rise, 469, 497 secondary deviance, 160 secondary groups, 125, 126
see also bureaucracy(-ies) secondary sex characteristics, 253 Second Shift, The (Hochschild), 48–49 second shift (household labor), 48–49,
267, 271–272, 375–376 second wave (women’s movement),
276–277 sects, 313 secular society, 319–321 Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), 396 Seductions of Crime, The (Katz), 165 segregation, 60–61, 206–207, 244 Seize the Day (Bellow), 26 Selena, 410 self
defined, 102 dramaturgy, 30, 61, 106–109 impression management, 107–109 looking- glass self, 104–105, 106, 159 mind, self, and society, 105–106 presentation of, in age of social
media, 121 psychoanalytic theory, 103–104, 106
Roth v. United States, 398 Rowling, J. K., 404 Roy, Donald, 342 Rudder, Christian, 132–133 rules, norms as, 81 “runaway shops,” 343 Rupp, Leila, 70, 71, 165 rural, defined, 456, 458 rural rebound, 490–492 Russia, energy consumption in, 467 Russian Revolution, 290 Rwanda, 243 Ryan, George, 170, 172
S Sabrina (film), 197 sacred, 20, 313 Saldana, Theresa, 410 Salesforce. com, 343 Salk, Jonas, 483 Sam, Michael, 261 same- sex couples and family labor, 376 same- sex marriage, 267, 278–279, 295,
368, 373 sample, 48 sampling techniques, 52 Sampson, Robert, 167 Samsung, 398 San Bernardino mass shooting (2015),
92 sanctions, 83 Sandberg, Sheryl, 144 Sanders, Bernie, 300, 476 sandwich generation, 377, 378 Santa Barbara, California, 78–79, 474,
488 Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith
Questionnaire, 318 Sapir, Edward, 80 Sapir- Whorf hypothesis, 80 Sarkar, Benoy, 23 Sarkeesian, Anita, 260, 263 saturated self, 119 Saturday Night Live, 88, 298 Saudi Arabia, 470 Savage Inequalities (Kozol), 305 Savio, Kathleen, 138 Sayer, Andrew, 210 Scandinavia, prisons in, 171 Schaeffer, Rebecca, 410 Schagrin, Judith, 372 Schein, Edgar, 60 Schiavo, Michael, 155
INDEX I-25
inequality and the American Dream, 209–213
intersectionality, 188 invisibility of poverty, 206–209 and leisure activities, 389, 390 and life chances, 195–200 life expectancy and, 197, 427, 429 middle class, 189, 199 postmodernism and, 193 poverty, 201–209 and power elites, 210, 292–293 social mobility, 188, 193, 200–201,
210–211 social welfare and social reform,
202–204 structural functionalism and,
192–193 symbolic interactionism and,
193–195 theories of, 191–195 underclass, 190 in the United States, 188–191 upper class, 188–189, 199 upper- middle class, 189, 199 U.S. social class ladder, 189 Weberian theory and, 191–192 working ( lower- middle) class, 190,
198–199 working poor, 190, 201 see also social inequality; social
stratification; socioeconomic status
social cohesion, 20, 23, 83, 155, 407 social construction
defined, 108 of emotions, 116 of gender, 256, 273, 275 of health and illness, 419–420 of identity, 233 of masculinity, 273 of race, 220–221, 233, 247 of self, 108, 119
social control, 83, 153, 156–157, 163, 170 social control theory, 155, 161 social Darwinism, 18–19 social demography, 54 social dilemma(s), 488–489 social identity theory, 142 social inequality
conflict theory and, 21, 22, 156–157 defined, 21, 184 and deviance, 156 functionalism’s explanations of, 21
slavery and Agricultural Revolution, 328,
335 defined, 184 human trafficking as, 185, 274 religious organizations and
abolition of, 314 social stratification by, 184–185, 200
Slow Food movement, 490 Slumdog Millionaire (film), 388 Small, Albion, 28 smart growth, 458 smartphones, 9, 208, 352, 397–398,
410 smart technology, 482 Smelser, Neil, 21 Smith, Kara, 257 Smith, Marc, 117 smoking, 267 Snapchat, 59, 130, 398 Snyder, Rick, 418 soap operas, 401, 408, 501 soccer, 406 social analysts, 9 social atomization, 462 social change, 480–505
and changes in families, 363 changing social attitudes in United
States, 505 collective behavior, 485–489 crowd behavior, 485–487 defined, 483 dialectical model of, 24 helping professions, agents of, 484 Las Vegas’ influence on, 447 mass behavior, 487–489 in postmodern world, 502–503 promoting and resisting, 489–492 social media’s role in, 90, 490, 491,
493, 494 social movements, 489–496 and technology, 90, 496–503
social class, 180–213 conflict theory and, 191 and crime, 167, 199–200 “culture of poverty” theory, 204, 206 defined, 188 digital divide, 208 education and, 197–198 everyday class consciousness,
194–195 family and, 195–197 health and, 196–197, 427, 429
sexually transmitted infection (STI), 82
sexual orientation bullying and, 263, 269 criminal justice and, 275 discrimination based on, 262–264,
271 homophobia, 263 overview, 256–257
sexual violence against women, rape culture and campus social life, 258
Shaefer, H. Luke, 204 Shakespeare, William, 400 shallow integration, 345–346 sharing economy, 77 Shatner, William, 408 shoplifting, 165 shopping, recreational, 391–392 shopping malls, changes in, 391, 392 shunning (meidung), 153 sick role, 436 Sidewalk (Duneier and Carter), 178 sidewalk vendors, 178–179 Sierra Club, 473, 474 Sierra Leone, 426 signs and symbols, 79–80 Sikhs, 229, 316 Silent Spring (Carson), 473, 474 Silicon Valley, 263, 338, 458 Silicon Valley (TV show), 332 Simmel, Georg, 58, 59, 462 Simon, Julian, 455 simple random sample, 52 simplicity movement, 212 Simpsons, The (TV show), 110, 169, 405 Sims, The (video game), 260 simulacrum, 298 Singapore, 451 single motherhood, 45–46, 47, 267,
369–370 single parenting, 237, 369–370 “singles,” in cities, 462 Sinhalese, 316 Siri (Apple), 482 situational ethnicity, 221 Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected
Age (Watts), 126 “six degrees of separation,” 59, 126 Skeen family, 182, 183 Skenazy, Lenore, 400–401 Skilling Jeffrey, 199, 200 Skype, 117
INDEXI-26
education and, 197–198 family relationships and, 195–196 health and, 196–197 income and, 188–190, 198–199 life chances and, 195–200 mate selection and, 196–197 “ties” or contacts in job network,
127 see also social class
sociological imagination, 12, 13–14, 15 sociological perspective, 5, 10–14 sociology
Barry on, 40 classical sociology, 19, 34–35 defined, 9 environmental, 471–477 family tree, 16–19 jobs in, 26 key works in, 37 levels of analysis, 14–16 overview, 9–10 personal vs. public issues in, 15 roots of, 16–19 social sciences and, 10 value- free, 60 see also macrosociology;
microsociology “soft money,” 293 solidarity, 19 Solidarność, 314 Sony, 128, 334, 482 Soothe and Zeel, 353 Soros, George, 294 “soundbites,” 297 South Africa, 144, 185–187, 223 South America, 467 South Asian cultures
honor killings in, 138–139 slavery in, 185
Southeast Asia, rain forests in, 467 Southern Poverty Law Center, 87,
241 “sovereign citizens,” 87 spanking, 155 Spaulding, Tom, 459 special interest groups, 293–294 Speechless (TV show), 112 Spencer, Herbert, 18–19, 20 “spin doctors,” 297 Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,
The (Fadiman), 434 Spirited Away (film), 91 spirituality, unchurched, 317–318
and social change, 90, 490, 491, 493, 494
usage statistics, 130 see also individual sites
social memory, 81 social mobility, 188, 193, 200–201,
210–211 social movement(s), 489–496
defined, 489 progressive movements, 490, 491 regressive movements, 490 stages in, 495–496 theories of, 492 see also specific movements
social network analysis (SNA), 57–59 social networking sites
interaction via, 58, 119, 121, 130–131 privacy and, 119, 121 relationship data from, 58, 59 usage statistics, 130 use by for- profit businesses,
132–133 see also individual sites
social networks, 58, 126–127 social reasoning, 99 social reproduction, 193 social revolutions, 290, 483 social sciences, 10 Social Security, 202–203, 335, 354, 378 social stratification
around the world, 186–187 basic principles, 184 by caste, 185–188 defined, 184 and poverty, 206–209 by slavery, 184–185, 200 see also social class; social
inequality social ties, 126 social welfare and welfare reform,
202–204 social work, 30 society
education’s reproduction of, 303–305
secular society, 319–321 Society in America (Martineau), 18 sociobiology, 100–101, 256 Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
(Wilson), 100 socioeconomic status (SES)
criminal justice and, 199–200 defined, 188
social inequality (continued!) in Greenwich Village, New York,
178–179 in health and health care, 427–432 see also social class; social
stratification social influence
in groups, 136–141 nature vs. nurture debate, 99,
100–101 see also peer pressure
social institutions defined, 289 theoretical approaches to, 295 see also individual social institutions
socialism, 333, 335 social isolation, 100–102 socialization
of adults, 113–114 agents of, 109–114
for adults, 113–114 family, 109–110 mass media, 111–112 peers, 110–111 schools, 110
and emotions, 116 gender role, 56, 109, 257–262 goals of, 99–100 norms internalized through, 83 process of, 99–102 professional socialization, 351–353 roles and role conflicts, 115–116 statuses, 115
social justice affirmative action and, 229 Black Lives Matter and, 224 critical race theory and, 232 environmentalism and, 475, 477 religion and, 314, 320 sentencing for crack cocaine and,
240 wealth gap and, 210
social learning, 257, 259 social loafing, 141 social media
collectors and hobbyists, 408–409 Islamic State use of, 316 and Occupy Movement, 59 online radicalization, 92 and otaku culture, 86 and politics, 295, 300 presentation of self in age of, 121 profile pictures on, 98
INDEX I-27
student health issues, 421–423 student loan debt, 212, 310–311 Study of Sociology, The (Spencer), 19 subculture(s)
as deviant groups, 163 of Key West, 70 overview, 85–87
subjectivity, 62 suburbanization, 446, 447, 458 suburban sprawl, 458, 465 Sudan, 421 Sudnow, David, 193 suffrage movement, 276, 492–493 suicide
Durkheim’s view of, 19, 364–365 in Las Vegas, 418 LGBTQ youth and, 267, 269 medically assisted suicide, 441
Suicide (Durkheim), 19 Summers, Larry, 100 Sumner, William Graham, 60 Suomenlinna Island prison (Helsinki),
171 superego, 103 Supermoms, 375–376 Super PACs, 294 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), 198, 202, 203, 335
Suri (Ethiopia), 154 surrogate baby boom, 350, 351 Survey Monkey, 52 surveys, 43–44, 48, 50–54 survivalist groups, 46 “survival of the fittest,” 18 sustainability, 477 sustainable development, 477 Sutherland, Edwin, 157, 167 Swaziland, 201 sweatshops, 344, 348–350 Sweden, 186, 187, 290, 333 Swift, Taylor, 12 Switched at Birth (TV show), 112 symbolic culture, 79–81 symbolic ethnicity, 221 symbolic interactionism
about, 28–31 addiction in, 427 advantages and critiques of, 31, 232 approach to culture and religion in,
93 college admissions and, 34 deviance and, 157–161
Stone, Emma, 228, 411 Stone, Oliver, 465 Stonewall riots (New York City),
277 Straight Edge, 489 stratification
around the world, 186–187 by caste, 185–188 by slavery, 184–185, 200 by social class, 188, 332 and social mobility, 200–201,
210–211 of workforce, 328, 329
Streetwise (Anderson), 160 “Strength of Weak Ties, The”
(Granovetter), 127 strikes, 341, 343 structural functionalism
addiction in, 427 advantages and critiques of, 21 approach to culture and religion, 93 college admissions and, 34 conflict theory vs., 25 defined, 19 deviance and, 155–156, 161, 165 in education study, 306 environmental movement in, 496 in everyday life, 34, 93 family in, 363, 364–365, 366 founder and key contributions of,
19–20 fraternities in, 143 gender inequality and, 264–265, 266 groups in, 143 medicine and health in, 427 natural environment in, 465 offshoots of, 20–21 original principles, 20 outsourcing and, 351 poverty and, 207 race and ethnicity in, 230–231, 236 recreation and leisure in, 408 religion and, 93, 313 shared values and, 81 social change in, 496 social class and, 192–193 social institutions and, 295 structural strain theory, 155–156,
161 work and the economy and, 351
structural mobility, 201 structural strain theory, 155–156, 161 structure(s), 20
sports breaking “color barrier” in, 246 commercialization of, 391 “doping ” in, 142, 158 fan- celebrity relations, 407, 410–411 gender and, 252, 268–269, 281 gender discrimination in, 281 role model relationships in, 407 soccer, 406 violence in, 406 see also individual teams
Spotify, 85 spousal abuse, 379–380 spring break, 83 SPSS (Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences), 52 spurious correlation, 43 Sri Lanka, 316 Stack, Carol, 366 Stamped from the Beginning: The
Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Kendi), 231
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, 476, 484
Stanford Prison Experiment, 140 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 276 Star Trek, 197, 404, 405, 408 Star Wars, 394, 396 status and socialization, 115 status inconsistency, 190–191 Stearns, Peter, 54–55 Steele, Claude, 160, 238 Stein, Jill, 9, 164, 194, 488 Steiner, Ivan, 141 stepfamilies, 370 stepparents, 370 Stepping Up for Racial Justice (SURJ),
230 stereotype promise, 160–161, 238 stereotype threat, 160, 238 stereotyping
based on status, 115 defined, 115 gender, 259, 260 in the media, 260 of racial/ethnic groups, 234 sexual, 263
Stewart, Jon, 298 stigma
defined, 161 depression and, 267 and deviance, 161–164 for female athletes, 252
INDEXI-28
Tenga, 128 Terror in the Mind of God
(Juergensmeyer), 316 terrorism
online radicalization, 92 Orlando massacre (2016), 92 religion and, 316 San Bernardino mass shooting
(2015), 92 September 11, 2001 attacks, 295,
296, 300, 316, 463, 465, 501 tertiary deviance, 160 testosterone, 99 Texas
anti- sodomy laws in, 157 cities in, 457 as “ majority- minority” state, 223
Texas Christian University, 82 textual poaching, 404, 405 Thailand, 180, 182, 183, 274, 290 Thanatos, 104 theory(-ies)
defined, 16 macrosociological, 19–27 microsociological, 27–31 new approaches, 33–35 of the self, 102–109 see also specific theories and topics
Theron, Charlize, 370 thesis, 24 thick description, 45, 47 Thiel, Peter, 307 Thiel Fellowship, 307 third- gender individuals, 254–255 third places, 409–412 Third Sector, 355, 356 third wave (women’s movement), 277 13 Reasons Why (TV show), 169 Thomas, W. I., 28, 106, 160 Thomas theorem, 106, 160 Thompson, Hugh, 173 Thoreau, Henry David, 473 Thoroddsen family, 182, 183 Three Mile Island nuclear accident,
474 Tibet, 368 Timberlake, Justin, 411 Time Warner, 394, 396, 397 Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (1972),
258, 281 TMZ, 31–32, 410 Tometi, Opal, 231 Torres, Lisa, 127
Tea Party movement, 88 technological change
culture change and, 90 postindustrial knowledge work,
330–331, 337–339 social problems created by, 498 for sustainability, 477
technological determinism, 498 technology
digital age, 90, 330–331, 502 digital divide, 208 Digital Revolution, 330–331 in the global village, 499–502 and Information Revolution,
330–331 Internet of Things, 480, 482, 498 and leisure, 389, 391 medical technology, 440–441 and social change, 90, 496–503 virtual reality, 128 see also specific technologies
Teen Mom (TV show), 8, 160, 169 Teen Vogue magazine, 260 teeth and health, 419 telecommuting, 337–338, 339 Telegram, 92 television
as agent of socialization, 111–112 breaching age norms on, 95 culture wars on, 88 gays and lesbians represented on,
260–261 global diffusion of, 500–501 in Information Age, 90, 111 leisure trends and, 390–391 LGBTQ persons on, 260–261 medicine on, 437–438 norm breaking on, 169–170 political debates on, 297 portrayal of work and workers,
331–332 ratings system for, 398 reality shows on, 8 satirical news shows, 298–299 soap operas on, 401, 408 “unplug ” experiment, 498–499 violence on, 42, 43 see also media; specific shows
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), 198, 202, 335
temporary workers, 354 Ten Commandments, 319, 321
symbolic interactionism (continued!) differential association theory,
157–158, 161 education study, 305 environmental movement in, 496 in everyday life, 34, 93 family in, 363, 365–366 founder and key contributions in,
28–30, 105 fraternities in, 143 gender inequality and, 265–266 groups in, 143 labeling theory, 158–161, 165 medicine and health in, 427 natural environment in, 465 offshoots of, 30–31 original principles of, 30 outsourcing and, 351 political power and, 295 poverty and, 207 race and ethnicity in, 232–236 recreation and leisure in, 408 religion and, 93, 314 social change in, 496 social class and, 193–195 social institutions and, 295 work and the economy and, 351
synergy, 394 synthesis, 24 Syria, 245, 316, 452 Syrian civil war and refugee crisis, 245 systemic racism, 230–231
T taboo(s), 82–83 Taft- Hartley Act of 1947, 343 Tajima, Nabi, 453 Takei, George, 343, 491 Taliban, 290, 493–494 talking, gender difference in, 12–13 Tambor, Jeffrey, 261 Tamil Tigers, 316 Target, 205 target population, 48 Tarzan of the Apes (Burroughs), 101 taste cultures, 401–402 taste publics, 401–402 Taylor, Charles, 290 Taylor, Verta, 70, 71, 165 teachers
and gender role socialization, 259 role of, 110
teamwork, 141–142
INDEX I-29
unemployment during Great Recession, 15, 331
unemployment insurance, 202 Unicode Standard, 79 Unification Church, 113 Uniform Crime Report (UCR), 166 union(s)
collective resistance and, 339, 340–341, 343
decline in membership, 341 defined, 341 Industrial Revolution and, 498 in Las Vegas, 447 right to work laws and, 343
Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), 230
United Nations, 274, 346, 467, 470, 477 United States
American culture, in perspective, 91, 93
and the American Dream, 156, 189, 209–213
capitalism in, 333, 335 causes of death in, 421 centenarians in, 453 changing social attitudes, 505 contemporary slavery in, 185 corporal punishment in, 153, 155 countercultures in, 87 crime in, 1992–2015, 166 cultural variations, 85 diffusion of media content from, 91 ecological footprint, 477 educational crisis, 307 energy consumption, 467 ethnicity (see ethnicity) federal poverty line, 201–202 federal spending, 2015, 203 fertility rate, 451 health care reform, 237–238,
438–439 homelessness in, 207–208 and human trafficking, 274 hunger and food insecurity in,
455–456 immigrant assimilation, 244, 246 Internet use in, 208 life expectancy in, 197, 237, 378, 452 material possessions of families in,
180, 182, 183 measuring crime in, 166 as a meritocracy, 210 mortality rates in, 451
vulgar remarks, 32 wealth, 210, 211 withdrawal from Paris Agreement,
344 Trump, Donald, Jr., 201 Trump, Ivanka, 201, 348 Trumpism, 88 Truth, Sojourner, 492 tuberculosis, 421 Tudors of England, 290 Turing Pharmaceuticals, 431 Turkle, Sherry, 119, 129 Turner, Brock, 258 Turner, Ralph, 115, 134, 135, 141, 163 Tuskegee Syphilis Study, 64 20 Feet from Stardom (film), 392 21st Century Fox, 396, 397 24 (TV show), 27 Twenty Statements Test (TST),
134–135 Twine, France Winddance, 241, 351 Twitter
alternative voices on, 396 Black Friday, 494 Chris Rock and, 216 Donald Trump and, 393 Indivisible Guide on, 491 online radicalization, 92 politics and, 300 privacy and, 119 profile pictures on, 98 relationship data from, 58, 59 “rogue” accounts of career federal
employees, 339–340 usage statistics, 130, 132
Two Broke Girls (TV show), 55, 112 $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in
America (Edin and Shaefer), 204
two- step flow model, 404 Typographical Union, 341
U Uber, 77, 352, 353 Uganda, 428 Ultima Online, 344 Unbearable Weight (Bordo), 15 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (TV
show), 169 unchurched spirituality, 317–318 unconscious mind, 103 underclass, 190 undocumented workers, 354
total institutions, 113–114 totalitarianism, 290 Tour de France, 142, 501 tourism, 412–413 Toyota, 146, 346 Toys ‘R’ Us, 494 tracking, 303 traditional authority, 143 tragedy of the commons, 488–489 Trail of Tears, 244 transgender, 228 transgender families, 376 transgender individuals, 228, 265 transgender rights movement
bathrooms and gender, 72, 74, 88, 260
culture war over, 88 transnational corporations (TNCs),
346–348 Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), 346 Transparent (TV show), 112, 169, 261 transphobia, 263 transracial individuals, 228 travel and tourism, 412–413 treadmill of production, 471 TrekDating, 197 triads, 131, 132 trigender, 256 “trolls,” 158, 159 Trump, Donald
anti- immigrant ideas, 226, 241 climate change and, 471 election, 136, 224, 294, 295, 298,
301, 491 fake news and, 393 gender- neutral restrooms and, 74,
260, 279 health care reform and, 237–238,
333, 439 inauguration, 339, 340 Mar- a- Lago, 293 media and, 295–296, 300 net neutrality and, 398 New England Patriots and, 88 photograph, 201 resistance from career federal
employees, 339–340 social media and, 300 and social mobility, 201 “style over substance” during
campaign, 297–298 and traditional media outlets, 393 and Twitter, 393
INDEXI-30
Viagra, 430 video games, 86, 129, 260, 263,
344–345, 398 Vietnam War, 173, 295, 300 violence
celebrities and, 410–411 and crime, 166, 169 cycle of, 379–380 domestic, 265, 378–381, 378–383 in media, 398 online violence, 159, 263 rape, 258, 273, 275 religious, 316 in sports, 406 by sports fans, 406 on television, 42, 43
violent crime, 166 Virginia, 234 virtual communities, 129, 408–409,
499 virtual reality (VR), 128 visitation, 373 Voice, The (TV show), 8 voluntary simplicity movement,
490 volunteerism, 355, 356 voter identification laws, 157, 292 voting and voter turnout, in the United
States, 291–292, 323 voting rights, 276, 291, 489, 492–493 Voting Rights Act of 1965, 291, 493
W W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 309 Wade, Lisa, 371 wakes, 117 Walden (Thoreau), 473 Walesa, Lech, 314 Walk Free Foundation, 185 Walk in the Woods, A (Bryson), 412 Walmart, 90–91, 190, 205, 344, 346,
348, 350, 354, 494 Walt Disney Co., 91, 102, 394, 395, 396,
397, 501 Walt Disney World, 396 Walton, Sam, 190–191 “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast,
403 Washington, George, 150 Washington Redskins, 227 Washio, 352 water, global crisis, 470 Watergate, 295
Upward Bound, 203 urban, defined, 456 urban density, 458 urban farming, 459 urbanites, 462 urbanization, 336, 451, 456, 458–461 Urban Outfitters, 348 urban renewal, 460 UrbanSpoon, 410 urban sprawl, 458, 465 Urban Villagers, The (Gans), 462 U.S. Census Bureau, 54, 55, 59, 208,
223, 363, 451 U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 163 U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), 430 U.S. Department of Labor, 334, 354 U.S. Forest Service, 352, 353 uses and gratifications paradigm, 403 Us magazine, 31 utopia, 461
V vacation and paid holidays, 356–357 vaccinations, 420, 424 validity, 46, 47 Valter, Ehud, 244 value- free sociology, 60 values
in action research, 60 Christian, 313, 319 individual values vs. university
culture, 82 in research, 60–61 shared, 25, 81, 136, 155, 192 in symbolic culture, 81
Vanatinai (New Guinea), 262–263 Vance, J. D., 220 Van Halen, 401 variables
defined, 42 dependent variables, 56, 57 independent variables, 56, 57 intervening variables, 43 operational definition of, 42
vector organisms, 427 Ventura, Jesse, 297 Verizon, 394, 398, 482 Vermont, 454 verstehen, 27, 28 vertical integration, 200–201, 397 vertical social mobility, 200–201 Viacom, Inc., 396, 397
United States (continued!) multiracialism in, 223 multiracial marriages in, 234–235 net migration in, 452 political economy of, 333, 335 political system of, 291–292 (see
also politics) population by race in 2060, 249 population trends in, 452, 454, 455 poverty in, 201–202, 203, 206 prestige of occupations in, 192–193 prison population in, 175 race in (see race) racial and ethnic populations, 223,
240 religion in, 315, 317 rulers of, 292–294 segregation in, 60–61, 206–207, 244 soccer in, 406 social class ladder, 189 social mobility in, 188, 193, 200,
210–211 subcultures in, 70, 85–87 sweatshops in, 348 travel and tourism industries in,
412–413 urbanization in, 457, 458 urban population by county, 457 voting in, 291–292 waste production in, 471 in World Trade Organization
disputes, 126 United States Medical Licensing Exam
(USMLE), 432 United States Medical School (USMD)
physicians, 432–433 Unite the Right rally, 92, 490 Universal, 394 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, 185 university culture, 82 University of California, 223, 486 University of Chicago, 28–30 University of Phoenix, 310, 311 Unmarried Equality, 369 unmarried life, 368–369 unobtrusive measures, 54 unschooling, 309 Un- TV and the 10 MPH Car, The
(McGrane), 11 UpCounsel, 353 upper class, 188–189, 199 upper- middle class, 189, 199
INDEX I-31
rape culture and campus social life, 258
social networks of, 127 as surrogate mothers, 350, 351 voting rights for, 276, 290, 489, 493 see also gender
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 30
Women’s March on Washington (2017), 301
women’s movement, 266, 276–277, 483 “Women Suffer Too” (Mary M.), 164 Woodley, Shailene, 476 Woods, Tiger, 407 Woodstock, 43–44 Woodstock 1999, 44 Woodward, Charlotte, 276 work and the economy
conflict theory and, 351 structural functionalism and, 351 symbolic interactionism and, 351 vacation and paid holidays, 356–357
work and the workplace adoption social workers, 372 agricultural work, 335 cultural competence in health
professions, 434–435 different ways of working, 351–355,
356 digital divide, 208 diversity programs, 239 emotion work in, 116, 118 employee theft, 163 family labor, 48–49, 267, 271–272,
373–376 famous sociology majors, 26–27 for- profit colleges, 310–311 and gender, 16, 269–270 helping professions and social
change, 484 industrial ethnography, 60 industrial work, 335–336 internships/experiential learning,
193, 334 and leisure, 389–390 minimum wage or living wage, 205,
492 musicians, professional, 392 number of women in, 269–270 postindustrial knowledge work,
330–331, 337–339 postindustrial service work,
330–331, 336–337
and Agricultural Revolution, 328 and criminal justice, 240–241 education level of, 238 family status of, 236–237 health insurance for, 237 health status of, 236–237 high school graduation rate, 238,
303 and interracial dating/marriage, 368 life expectancy of, 237, 429 mortality rates, 237 in United States, 223 work and income level of, 238,
240 white supremacist groups, 225–226,
490 white supremacist ideology, 232 Whorf, Benjamin Lee, 80 Why We Can’t Afford the Rich (Sayer),
210 Wicca, 314 WikiLeaks, 490 Wilco, 343 wildland firefighters, 352–353 Will & Grace (TV show), 260 Williams, Christine, 16 Williams, Patricia, 236 Williams, Pharrell, 400 Wilson, Darren, 167 Wilson, Edward O., 100 Wilson, William Julius, 167, 231 Wimmer, Andreas, 58 Winant, Howard, 233 Winfrey, Oprah, 209–210, 211, 404 Wire, The, 167 Wirth, Louis, 462 Wiseman, Rosalind, 81 Wolfinger, Nicholas, 371, 373 women
Addams on, 30 and body image, 111 on corporate boards of directors,
281 dog training by prisoners, 114 domestic abuse and, 379 family labor done by, 375–376 heart problems in, 62, 429 intimate partner violence (IPV),
379 life expectancy of, 237, 267, 429, 443 in military, 273 murdered in honor killings, 138–139 online gaming and, 260
water pollution, 468 water resources, 468, 470 Waters, Mary, 222 Watts, Duncan, 126 wealth
defined, 191 and life expectancy, 197, 427 and social class, 184, 191 of special interest groups, 294 why we can’t afford the rich,
210–211 wealth gap, 210 Weber, Max
on bureaucracies, 25–26, 144, 145, 146, 339
on power, 289 on Protestant values and capitalism,
313 on social class, 191–192 theories of, 23, 25–27, 28, 191–192 types of authority, 143 value- free sociology, 60
Weberian theory, 25–27, 28, 37, 191–192
“We Experiment on Human Beings!” (Rudder), 133
welfare reform, 203–204 Welfare Reform Act, 203 Welles, Orson, 403 Wellman, Barry, 117 Wells, H.G., 403 West, Kanye, 12, 400 West, Rebecca, 276 Western culture
and cultural imperialism, 91, 228, 502
and cultural leveling, 90–91, 502 diffusion of, 90–91 and honor killings, 138–139
West Nile virus, 427 West Virginia, 454 Westworld (TV show), 401 What Is Family (Holstein and
Gubrium), 365 WhatsApp, 92 White Album (Beatles), 34 white collar crime, 167 white collar criminals, 199–200 white collar workers, 189 white flight, 458, 460 white nationalism, 92, 225–226 white privilege, 24, 226–227 whites
INDEXI-32
Yom Kippur, 313, 321 Yosemite National Park, 473 Young and the Restless, The (TV show),
401 Yousafzai, Malala, 493, 494 YouTube, 58, 92, 396, 404, 409
Z Zara, 487–488 Zero Population Growth, 456 Zerubavel, Evistar, 81 Zhou, Min, 160, 238 Zika virus, 428, 456 Zimbabwe, 215 Zimbardo, Philip, 140 Zimmerman, George, 301, 490 Zinn, Howard, 231 Zogby, 59 Zuccotti Park, occupation of, 301 Zuckerberg, Mark, 128, 188, 191, 307 Zurcher, Louis, 134, 135
World Trade Center, 296, 316, 463 World Trade Center (film), 465 World Trade Organization (WTO),
126–127, 345, 346 Wray, Matt, 147, 418 Wrecking Crew, The (film), 392 Wright, Erik Olin, 191
X X- PPAC (Extraterrestrial Phenomena
PAC), 294
Y Yahoo, 338, 394, 398, 482 Yale University, 4 Yanagita, Kunio, 23 Yang, Foua, 435 yellow fever, 427 Yellowstone National Park,
473 yoga, 439, 440, 502
work and the workplace (continued!) resistance strategies for coping,
339–343 responding to bureaucratic
constraints, 146–147 and socioeconomic status, 198–199 teamwork for Tour de France, 142 televisions’ portrayal of, 331–332 “ties” or contacts in job network,
127, 149 value of break time, 342 see also economy and work
Worker Rights Consortium, 349 working ( lower- middle) class, 190,
198–199, 329 working poor, 190, 201 World Health Organization (WHO),
420, 426 World of Warcraft (video game), 260,
344, 345 World Overpopulation Awareness, 456
- THE REAL WORLD, 6E
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
- ABOUT THE AUTHORS
- CONTENTS
- PREFACE��������������
- CHANGES IN THE SIXTH EDITION�����������������������������������
- PART I: Thinking Sociologically and Doing Sociology����������������������������������������������������������
- CHAPTER 1: Sociology and the Real World����������������������������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Practical vs. Scientific Knowledge�����������������������������������������
- What Is Sociology?
- The Sociological Perspective�����������������������������������
- Beginner’s Mind����������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Doing Nothing������������������������������������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: It’s Official: Men Talk More Than Women����������������������������������������������������������������
- Culture Shock��������������������
- The Sociological Imagination�����������������������������������
- Levels of Analysis: Micro- and Macrosociology����������������������������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: C. Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination����������������������������������������������������������������������
- Sociology’s Family Tree������������������������������
- Sociology’s Roots������������������������
- Macrosociological Theory�������������������������������
- Structural Functionalism�������������������������������
- Conflict Theory����������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Eurocentrism and Sociological Theory���������������������������������������������������������������
- Weberian Theory����������������������
- ON THE JOB: Famous Sociology Majors������������������������������������������
- Microsociological Theory�������������������������������
- Symbolic Interactionism������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Theories of Celebrity Gossip
- New Theoretical Approaches���������������������������������
- Postmodern Theory������������������������
- Midrange Theory����������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 2: Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- An Overview of Research Methods��������������������������������������
- The Scientific Approach������������������������������
- Which Method to Use?
- Ethnography/Participant Observation������������������������������������������
- Advantages and Disadvantages�����������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Watching People Talk�������������������������������������������������������������������
- Interviews�����������������
- Advantages and Disadvantages�����������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Action Research�������������������������������������
- Surveys��������������
- Advantages and Disadvantages�����������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Media Usage Patterns
- Existing Sources�����������������������
- Advantages and Disadvantages�����������������������������������
- Experimental Methods���������������������������
- Advantages and Disadvantages�����������������������������������
- Social Network Analyis�����������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Social Networking Sites as Sources of Data�������������������������������������������������������������������
- Advantages and Disadvantages�����������������������������������
- Issues in Sociological Research��������������������������������������
- Nonacademic Uses of Research Methods�������������������������������������������
- Values, Objectivity, and Reactivity������������������������������������������
- ON THE JOB: Sociology, Market Research, and Design Strategy
- Research Ethics����������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: The Nuremberg Code and Research Ethics�����������������������������������������������������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- PART II: Framing Social Life�����������������������������������
- CHAPTER 3: Culture�������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- What Is Culture?
- How Has Culture Been Studied?
- Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism��������������������������������������������
- ON THE JOB: The Sharing Economy and Unlikely Cultural Ambassadors
- Components of Culture����������������������������
- Material Culture�����������������������
- Symbolic Culture�����������������������
- Values, Norms, and Sanctions�����������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Individual Values vs. University Culture�����������������������������������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Seeing Culture in a Subculture
- Variations in Culture����������������������������
- Dominant Culture�����������������������
- Subcultures and Countercultures��������������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Otaku Culture and the Globalization of Niche Interests
- Culture Wars�������������������
- Ideal vs. Real Culture�����������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: How the Image Shapes the Need
- Cultural Change����������������������
- Technological Change���������������������������
- Cultural Diffusion and Cultural Leveling�����������������������������������������������
- Cultural Imperialism���������������������������
- American Culture in Perspective��������������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Online Radicalization�������������������������������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 4: Socialization, Interaction, and the Self
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- What Is Human Nature?
- The Nature vs. Nurture Debate������������������������������������
- The Process of Socialization�����������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Genetics and Sociology��������������������������������������������
- Social Isolation�����������������������
- Theories of the Self���������������������������
- Psychoanalytic Theory: Sigmund Freud
- The Looking-Glass Self: Charles Cooley
- Mind, Self, and Society: George Herbert Mead
- Dramaturgy: Erving Goffman���������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Impression Management in Action
- Agents of Socialization������������������������������
- The Family�����������������
- Schools��������������
- Peers������������
- The Media����������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: TV as an Agent of Socialization
- Adult Socialization��������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Sister Pauline Quinn and Training Dogs in Prison
- Statuses and Roles�������������������������
- Multiple Roles and Role Conflict���������������������������������������
- Emotions and Personality�������������������������������
- The Social Construction of Emotions������������������������������������������
- Interacting Online�������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Cross-Cultural Responses to Grief
- ON THE JOB: The Wages of Emotion Work
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 5: Separate and Together: Life in Groups
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- What Is a Group?
- Primary and Secondary Groups�����������������������������������
- Social Networks����������������������
- Separate from Groups: Anomie or Virtual Membership?
- IN THE FUTURE: What Happens to Group Ties in a Virtual World?
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: “Who’s in Your Feed?"
- Group Dynamics���������������������
- Dyads, Triads, and More������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Social Networking: You’re Not the Customer—You’re the Product
- In-Groups and Out-Groups
- Reference Groups
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: The Twenty Statements Test: Who Am I?
- Group Cohesion���������������������
- Social Influence (Peer Pressure)
- Experiments in Conformity��������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Group vs. Individual Norms: Honor Killings���������������������������������������������������������������������
- Working Together: Teams and Leadership���������������������������������������������
- Teamwork���������������
- ON THE JOB: Teamwork and the Tour de France��������������������������������������������������
- Power, Authority, and Style����������������������������������
- Bureaucracy������������������
- The McDonaldization of Society�������������������������������������
- Responding to Bureaucratic Constraints���������������������������������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 6: Deviance��������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Defining Deviance������������������������
- Deviance across Cultures�������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Body Modification
- Theories of Deviance���������������������������
- Functionalism��������������������
- Conflict Theory
- Symbolic Interactionism
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Cyberbullying, Trolls, and Online Deviance
- The Stigma of Deviance�����������������������������
- Managing Deviant Identities����������������������������������
- ON THE JOB: Is “Cash Register Honesty” Good Enough?
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: AA’s Pioneer Women�����������������������������������������������������������������
- Studying Deviance������������������������
- The Emotional Attraction of Deviance�������������������������������������������
- The Study of Crime�������������������������
- Crime and Demographics�����������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Norm Breaking on Television
- The Criminal Justice System����������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: American vs. Scandinavian Prisons�������������������������������������������������������
- Reconsidering Deviance?
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- PART III: Understanding Inequality
- CHAPTER 7: Social Class: The Structure of Inequality
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Social Stratification and Social Inequality��������������������������������������������������
- Systems of Stratification��������������������������������
- Slavery��������������
- Caste������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Systems of Stratification around the World
- Social Class�������������������
- Social Classes in the United States������������������������������������������
- The Upper Class����������������������
- The Upper-Middle Class
- The Middle Class�����������������������
- The Working (Lower-Middle) Class
- The Working Poor and Underclass��������������������������������������
- Problematic Categories�����������������������������
- Theories of Social Class�������������������������������
- Conflict Theory����������������������
- Weberian Theory����������������������
- Structural Functionalism�������������������������������
- Postmodernism��������������������
- Symbolic Interactionism������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Everyday Class Consciousness
- Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances��������������������������������������������
- Family�������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Socioeconomic Status and Mate Selection
- Health�������������
- Education����������������
- Work and Income����������������������
- Criminal Justice�����������������������
- Social Mobility����������������������
- Poverty��������������
- Social Welfare and Welfare Reform����������������������������������������
- The “Culture of Poverty” and Its Critics�����������������������������������������������
- ON THE JOB: Get a Job! Minimum Wage or Living Wage?
- The Invisibility of Poverty����������������������������������
- Inequality and the Ideology of the American Dream��������������������������������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Why We Can’t Afford the Rich��������������������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Advertising and the American Dream
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 8: Race and Ethnicity as Lived Experience
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Defining Race and Ethnicity����������������������������������
- “Ethnic Options”: Symbolic and Situational Ethnicity�����������������������������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Displaying Ethnicity�������������������������������������������������������������������
- The U.S. Population by Race����������������������������������
- What Is a Minority?
- Racism in Its Many Forms�������������������������������
- Prejudice and Discrimination�����������������������������������
- White Nationalism������������������������
- White Privilege and Color-Blind Racism
- Microagressions����������������������
- Cultural Appropriation�����������������������������
- Reverse Racism���������������������
- Antiracist Allies������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Whose Lives Matter?
- Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Race���������������������������������������������������
- Structural Functionalism�������������������������������
- Conflict Theory����������������������
- Symbolic Interactionism������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: From the Lovings to Kimye: Interracial Dating and Marriage
- Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances����������������������������������������
- Family�������������
- Health�������������
- Education����������������
- Work and Income
- ON THE JOB: Diversity Programs: Do They Work?
- Criminal Justice�����������������������
- Intersectionality������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Does TV Reflect the Realities of Race?
- Intergroup Relations: Conflict or Cooperation
- Genocide���������������
- Population Transfer��������������������������
- Internal Colonialism and Segregation
- Assimilation�������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: “The Biggest Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis of Our Time"
- Pluralism����������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 9: Constructing Gender and Sexuality
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Sex and Gender���������������������
- Sex����������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Different Societies, Different Genders
- Gender�������������
- Sexuality and Sexual Orientation���������������������������������������
- “Queering the Binary"
- Socialization: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality������������������������������������������������
- Families���������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Rape Culture and Campus Social Life������������������������������������������������������������
- Schools��������������
- Peers������������
- The Media����������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: The Fashion Police: Gender and the Rules of Beauty
- Prejudice and Discrimination�����������������������������������
- Gendered Language and Microaggressions���������������������������������������������
- Sociological Theories of Gender Inequality�������������������������������������������������
- Functionalism��������������������
- Conflict Theory
- Interactionism���������������������
- Feminist Theory����������������������
- Gender, Sexuality, and Life Chances������������������������������������������
- Families���������������
- Health�������������
- Education����������������
- ON THE JOB: Female Athletes and the Battle for Equal Pay���������������������������������������������������������������
- Work and Income����������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: The Second Shift: Gender Norms and Household Labor
- Criminal Justice�����������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Human Trafficking���������������������������������������
- Intersectionality������������������������
- Social Movements�����������������������
- Women’s Movements������������������������
- Men’s Movements����������������������
- LGBTQ Movements����������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- PART IV: Social Institutions and the Micro-Macro Link
- CHAPTER 10: Social Institutions: Politics, Education, and Religion
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- What Is Politics?
- Political Systems: Government������������������������������������
- The American Political System������������������������������������
- Who Rules America?
- The Media and the Political Process������������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Satirical News Shows
- Patriotism and Protest�����������������������������
- Politics: The Micro-Macro Link
- What Is Education?
- A Brief History of Modern Education������������������������������������������
- Education and the Reproduction of Society������������������������������������������������
- Classic Studies of Education�����������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: A College Degree: What’s It Worth?
- The Present and Future of Education������������������������������������������
- ON THE JOB: For-Profit Colleges: At What Cost?
- Education: The Micro-Macro Link
- What Is Religion?
- Theoretical Approaches to Religion�����������������������������������������
- Religion in America��������������������������
- Religious Trends�����������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Thou Shalt Not Kill: Religion, Violence, and Terrorism
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Measures of Religiosity
- A Secular Society?
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Can a Relationship with God Improve Your GPA?
- Religion: The Micro-Macro Link
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 11: The Economy and Work���������������������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Historical and Economic Changes��������������������������������������
- The Agricultural Revolution����������������������������������
- The Industrial Revolution��������������������������������
- The Information Revolution���������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: The World of Work and Workers as Seen on TV
- World Economic Systems�����������������������������
- Capitalism�����������������
- Socialism����������������
- The U.S. Economy�����������������������
- ON THE JOB: Internships: Free Menial Labor or a Leg Up?
- The Nature of Work�������������������������
- Agricultural Work������������������������
- Industrial Work����������������������
- Postindustrial Work��������������������������
- Resistance Strategies: How Workers Cope����������������������������������������������
- Individual Resistance: Handling Bureaucracy��������������������������������������������������
- Collective Resistance: Unions������������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: The Value of Break Time������������������������������������������������
- The Conscience of Corporate America������������������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: World of Warcraft and “Gold Farming” in China
- The Economics of Globalization�������������������������������������
- International Trade��������������������������
- Transnational Corporations���������������������������������
- Global Sweatshop Labor�����������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Are Your Clothes Part of the Global Commodity Chain?
- Outsourcing������������������
- Different Ways of Working��������������������������������
- Professional Socialization in Unusual Fields���������������������������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Will Your Job Be “Uber-ized”?
- The Contingent Workforce
- The Third Sector and Volunteerism����������������������������������������
- Time for a Vacation?
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 12: Life at Home: Families and Relationships
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- What Is the Family?
- Sociological Perspectives on Families��������������������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Talking about Kin��������������������������������������������
- Structural Functionalism�������������������������������
- Conflict Theory����������������������
- Symbolic Interactionism������������������������������
- Feminist and Queer Theory
- Mate Selection���������������������
- Relationship Trends��������������������������
- Unmarried Life���������������������
- Single and Solo Parenting��������������������������������
- Blended Families�����������������������
- Childfree Living�����������������������
- Breaking Up������������������
- ON THE JOB: When Building Families Is Part of Your Job�������������������������������������������������������������
- Custody, Visitation, and Child Support���������������������������������������������
- The Work of Family�������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Comparative Mealtime
- Gender, Sexuality, and Family Labor������������������������������������������
- Family and the Life Course���������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: From Boomerang Kids to the Sandwich Generation
- Aging in the Family��������������������������
- Trouble in Families��������������������������
- Intimate Partner Violence��������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Family Troubles in Film
- Child and Elder Abuse����������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Trends in Baby Making: Back to the Future?
- Postmodern Families: The New Normal������������������������������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 13: Leisure and Media������������������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- A Sociology of Leisure�����������������������������
- What Is Leisure?
- Trends in Leisure������������������������
- ON THE JOB: Professional Musicians: Playing Is Work����������������������������������������������������������
- The Study of Media�������������������������
- The Media and Democracy������������������������������
- The Structure of Media Industries����������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Blockbuster Hits and the Business of Movies
- The Regulation of Media Content��������������������������������������
- Culture and Consumption of Media���������������������������������������
- High, Low, and Popular Culture�������������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: The Return of Free-Range Kids?
- Media Effects and Audiences����������������������������������
- Theories of Media Effects��������������������������������
- Active Audiences: Minimal Effects Theories�������������������������������������������������
- Interpretive Strategies and Communities����������������������������������������������
- Leisure and Relationships��������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: The Other Football���������������������������������������������
- Leisure and Community����������������������������
- Collectors and Hobbyists�������������������������������
- Hangouts: The Third Place��������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Fan–Celebrity Relations
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Now Go Hang Out��������������������������������������������������������������
- Travel and Tourism�������������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 14: Health and Illness�������������������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- The Sociology of Medicine, Health, and Illness�����������������������������������������������������
- Defining Health and Illness����������������������������������
- Types of Illnesses�������������������������
- Approaches to Medical Treatment��������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Student Health Issues Survey
- The Process of Medicalization������������������������������������
- The Social Construction of Mental Illness������������������������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Solving the Mystery of Autism���������������������������������������������������
- Epidemiology and Disease Patterns����������������������������������������
- Social Inequality, Health, and Illness���������������������������������������������
- Intersections of Class�����������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Zika Virus: Women and Children Last��������������������������������������������������������������
- Intersections of Race����������������������������
- Intersections of Gender������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Better Living through Chemistry��������������������������������������������������������
- Inequality and the Problem of Food Deserts�������������������������������������������������
- Medicine as a Social Institution���������������������������������������
- Institutional Contexts�����������������������������
- Doctor–Patient Relations
- ON THE JOB: Cultural Competence in Health Professions������������������������������������������������������������
- The Sick Role��������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Medicine on Television
- Issues in Medicine and Health Care�����������������������������������������
- Health Care Reform in the United States����������������������������������������������
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine���������������������������������������������
- Medical Ethics���������������������
- End of Life������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- PART V: Envisioning the Future and Creating Social Change
- CHAPTER 15: Populations, Cities, and the Environment
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- Population�����������������
- Demography�����������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Living to 150�����������������������������������
- Theories of Population Change������������������������������������
- Cities�������������
- Trends in Urbanization�����������������������������
- ON THE JOB: Agriculture: From the Country to the City������������������������������������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: Imagining the Cities of Tomorrow
- Living in the City�������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Encounters with Strangers��������������������������������������������������
- The Environment����������������������
- Environmental Problems�����������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Water, Water Everywhere but Not a Drop to Drink
- Environmental Sociology������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Student Attitudes on Environmentalism
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- CHAPTER 16: Social Change��������������������������������
- How to Read This Chapter�������������������������������
- What Is Social Change?
- ON THE JOB: Helping Professions: Agents of Social Change���������������������������������������������������������������
- Collective Behavior��������������������������
- Crowds�������������
- Mass Behavior��������������������
- Social Movements�����������������������
- Promoting and Resisting Change�������������������������������������
- IN RELATIONSHIPS: Hashtag Activism: #Resist with #Indivisible��������������������������������������������������������������������
- Theories of Social Movements�����������������������������������
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Everyday Life: Activist Groups Get Organized
- Stages in a Social Movement����������������������������������
- Technology and Social Change�����������������������������������
- IN THE FUTURE: Utopia—or Doomsday?
- DATA WORKSHOP: Analyzing Media and Pop Culture: The “Unplug” Experiment
- Technology in the Global Village���������������������������������������
- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: Bhutan and Gross National Happiness��������������������������������������������������������������
- Living in a Postmodern World�����������������������������������
- Closing Comments�����������������������
- GLOSSARY
- REFERENCES
- CREDITS
- INDEX
-
- 2018-08-14T03:40:06+0000
- Preflight Ticket Signature
,
Research Methods
Value Committed v. Value Free Sociology
- Value Committed Sociology seeks to link academic work to a vision of a better world. It has a long history in sociology and is especially visible in the work of Jane Addams, WEB DuBois, and C. Wright Mills.
- Value Free Sociology sought to conduct completely unbiased research with no commitment to one’s topic. Classical theorists such as August Comte and Emile Durkheim promoted value free sociology.
Scientific Method
- What makes something scientific?
- Repeated observations
- Systematic
- Unbiased/objective
Types of Bias
- Personal bias
- Statistical bias
- Research design bias
Cause & Effect v. Correlations
- What is meant by Cause & Effect?
- Instead – Correlations
- Positive and Negative Correlations
VARIABLES
- To understand correlations need to understand variables
- DV – dependent variable (explain)
- IV – independent variable (influence)
CORRELATIONS
- Positive – both variables go in the same direction (as IV goes up, DV goes up; as IV goes down DV goes down)
- Negative – both variables go in the opposite direction (as IV goes up, DV goes down; as IV goes down, DV goes up)
EXAMPLES
- DV – murder
- IV – alcoholism
- Positive correlation
- DV – fertility rate
- IV – education
- Negative correlation
Types of Research
- Univariate – One DV and one IV – can make correlations
- Multivariate – multiple variables – can make cause & effect conclusions
Types of Studies
- Cross-Sectional Studies – involves measurements taken at a single point in time
- Longitudinal Studies – involves a series of measurements taking over a period of time
Who Do We Study?
- Population vs. Sample
- Population – unit of study, largest group from which a sample is taken
- Sample – subset of a population, smaller group taken from a population
Want Our Samples to Be
Random and Representative
- Randomization
– all subjects in the population have an equal chance of being selected to the sample
- Representation
– sample reflects the population proportionately
Types of Data
- Incidence – measure of new cases
- Prevalence – measure at one time or over time; how widespread something is
Research Process
7 step research process
1. Define variables – dependent variable, independent variable, establish correlation
Write your hypothesis
Conduct a literature review
Select a research design
Collect the data
Analyze the data
7. Make conclusions – generalizations, inferences
Formula to Write an Hypothesis
- IV is more likely to DV than opposite of IV.
Homework
- Write 10 hypotheses, state the DV and IV of each, and what you think the correlation is for each, as well.
- DV1 = cancer
- IV1 = smoking
- H1 = Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. (+ correlation)
- DV2 =
- IV2-=
- H2=…
Generalizations vs. Inferences
- Generalization – statement of a relationship between two variables, applies to sample studies
- Inference – applies to population from which sample is drawn
Generalizations to Inferences
How can we do this?
- Because Sample Drawn from Population
- Randomization
- Representation
- High powered statistics
5 Major Research Designs
- Observation
- Experiment
- Survey
- Case Study
- Content Analysis
Observation
- Process of investigation where the researcher observes behavior
- Participant observation
- Non-participant observation
- Hawthorne effect
Hawthorne Effect
- When subjects know they are being studied they change their behavior.
- Stems from studies conducted by G.E. at The Hawthorne Works Co., Cicero, IL, 1924-1927.
- The purpose was to find the optimum level of lighting for productivity.
Classic Observation Studies
- Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin, 1961
Black Like Me
- The title of the book is taken from the last line of the Langston Hughes (1902-1967) poem "Dream Variations":
- Rest at pale evening…
- A tall slim tree…
- Night coming tenderly
- Black like me.
Black Like Me Methodology
- The book describes Griffin's (a white native of Mansfield, TX) six-week experience traveling throughout the racially segregated states of LA, MS, AL, and GA, passing as a Black man.
- At the time, race relations were particularly strained in the U.S.
- Griffin's aim was to explain the difficulties facing Blacks in certain areas.
- To expedite this, under the care of a doctor, Griffin artificially darkened his skin to pass as a black man.
Black Like Me Study Results
- Griffin discovers that when African Americans are mistreated or deprived of rights they in turn do bad things in order to manage their lives or to ease off the pain which they receive from their abuses.
- Because their acts are considered bad, those who inflict the pain on them only hate them more.
- This contributes to segregation and racism, even today.
Tearoom Trade Study (1970)
- Laud Humphreys (1930-1988)
- Ph.D. candidate, Washington U., St. Louis
- Pioneering and fearless sociologist, an Episcopal priest, and a civil rights, and antiwar activist.
Tearoom Trade Study Methodology
- Laud Humphreys, a sociology graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, published "Tearoom Trade", a study of homosexual encounters in men's rooms (called "tearooms") at public parks.
- To gather data for his doctoral dissertation on restroom sex, Humphreys pretended to be gay, and assumed the role of a lookout for the police.
- He copied the license-plate numbers of participants in order to obtain their names and addresses.
- Then he waited a year, disguised his appearance, and interviewed about 50 of the tearoom regulars at their homes (sometimes in the presence of their wives and children), on the pretext of administering a social health survey.
Results & Ethical Concerns
- Because Humphreys was able to confirm that over 50% of his subjects were outwardly heterosexual men with unsuspecting wives at home, a primary thesis of Tearoom Trade is the incongruence between the private self and the social self.
- Humphreys' study has been criticized by sociologists on ethical grounds in that he observed acts of homosexuality, did not get his subjects’ consent, tracked down names and addresses through license plate numbers and interviewed the men in their homes in disguise and under false pretenses.
- http://web.missouri.edu/~bondesonw/Laud.html
Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men
- Elliot Liebow (1925-1994)
- Wrote Tally’s Corner (1967) as his Ph.d. Dissertation, Catholic U.
- Ethnography – field research
- 1 ½ year study of a group of
disaffected Black males,
who routinely frequented
a street corner in
Washington, D.C.
Tally’s Corner Methodology
- From 1962-1963, Elliot Liebow lived among a group of Black men in a blighted inner-city neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
- What he recorded, opened America's eyes to the circumstances faced by Black men in our society.
A Few Blocks from the White House…
More About Tally’s Corner
- Liebow found the men created an alternative world in which they reconstructed and retold their setbacks and humiliations as proud rebellions or potently funny stories.
- "Tally" was a former boxer and menial laborer, who had gotten a job in construction and worked about eight months a year. He had three children by his wife, and five children with five other women.
- Liebow spent almost two years with Tally and his crowd, men in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, who were drifting through wrecked marriages and chaotic relationships, only intermittently employed, scrambling to make ends meet, struggling with drugs and alcohol.
Tally’s Corner Results Continued
- Tally and his friends weren't merely victims of character and self-created culture. Their weaknesses and self-destructive behavior had been fostered by punishing social structures.
1993
Experiment
- Process of investigation where the researcher manipulates the IV and compares two groups
- What two groups?
- Experimental v. Control
Examples of Experiments
- DV – Children’s violent behavior
- IV – ?
- DV – Domestic Violence on Super Bowl Sunday
- IV – ?
The Stanford Prison Experiment
- Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D. (1933- )
- Psychologist, Stanford U.
- The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Milgram Experiment
- Stanley Milgram, Ph.D. (1933-1984)
- Social Psychologist,Yale, Harvard, CUNY
- Obedience to Authority (1962-1963)
“Obedience to Authority”
- The famous “Obedience to Authority" experiment, conducted by Dr. Stanley Milgram, tested how far subjects would go when ordered by an "authority.“
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk
Milgram Experiment Results
Survey
- What is a survey?
- Set of questions
Types of Surveys
- Interviews
- Questionnaires
Interviews
- In-person, face to face questioning
Questionnaires
- Invented by Sir Francis Galton (promoter of Eugenics), a questionnaire is a series of written questions.
- Questionnaires are cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as interviews, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data.
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
- Half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian Anthropologist, Eugenicist, Explorer, Geographer, Inventor, Meteroloist, Geneticist, and Statistician.
- He was a pioneer in Eugenics, coining the term itself and the phrase “Nature versus Nurture".
Galton
- He devised a method for classifying fingerprints for forensic science.
Galton
Galton
- He also initiated meteorology and devised the first weather map.
Back to Surveys:
Types of Questions
- Closed-ended questions and…
- Open-ended questions
Problem Questions
- Loaded/leading questions
– “You don’t believe in abortion, do you?”
- Double barreled questions
– Two questions in one – “Do you drink alcohol and do you smoke marijuana?”
- Double negative questions
– “I didn’t do nothing.”
What Do We Do Surveys On?
- Behavior, Especially Sexual Behavior
- Attitudes/Opinions
- Interests
- Voting
- Demographic Variables – re: income, occupation, education, religion, etc., etc.
How Can We Administer Surveys?
- Three most popular methods:
- Telephone
- Online
Survey Organizations
Case Study
- Set of questions, usually open-ended
- Usually investigates phenomenon within its real-life context
- Family, psychiatric, and
criminal research often
use case studies
Example of a Case Study
- Aileen Wournos, first female predatory serial killer
- http://www.newcriminologist.com/article.asp?cid=114&nid=11
Aileen Wournos Video
Content Analysis
- Analyzing already recorded material
- Primary sources
- Secondary sources
- Compilation data (U.S. Census, U.C.R.)
U.S. Census Bureau
Uniform Crime Reports
Example of Theory Making
- Emile Durkheim, Le Suicide (1897)
Durkheim’s Hypothesis
- DV – Suicide
- IV?
- IV- Social Integration
(sense of belonging)
- Hypothesis?
- People who feel lowly integrated into a group are more likely to commit suicide than those that don’t feel lowly integrated into a group.
Types of Suicide
- Egoistic
- Altruistic
- Anomic
- Fatalistic
Egoistic Suicide
- Low degree of social integration
- Examples?
Altruistic Suicide
- High degree of social integration
- You would do anything for a group
- Terrorists, etc.
Acceptable Altruism
- Some groups, professions, occupations expect altruistic behavior
- Families/parents, military, police, etc.
Anomic Suicide
- Confused sense of belonging
- Feeling of normlessness
- Examples?
- Newly arrived immigrants, people who move/relocate, children who attend a new school, etc., and…
Lottery Winners!!
- Yes, lottery winners have a higher suicide rate!! Why?
- Can’t take your family/friends with you
- Don’t know norms, values, behavior of another social class
Fatalistic Suicide
- Opposite of Anomic
- Too much social regulation (norms)
- Examples?
- Prisoners, military, some schools, families, etc., teens often feel they live
with too many rules
- No hope of change, oppressive
Durkheim’s Results
- Suicide rates are higher for those widowed, single and divorced than married.
Durkheim’s Results
- Suicide rates are higher for people without children than with children.
Durkheim’s Results
- Suicide rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics.
Current Suicide Statistics
