Hey, Nacirema!
The symbols, language, beliefs, values, norms, rituals, and artifacts that make up a society.
Culture
Any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people, and that is generally recognized as a condition/behavior that needs to be addressed.
Social Problem
The ability to appreciate the structural basis for individual problems
What is The Sociological Imagination?
The family, peer groups, and schools are all examples of the type of institution we learn our culture through.
Agents of Socialization
What American ritual did we read a parody about?
Dental Hygiene (/brushing your teeth)
The standards and expectations for behaving in a given culture; both formal (mores, laws) and informal (folkways, customs).
What are norms?
The first step of a social condition becoming a social problem --
A social entity (the news media, a politician, a social change group) begins to call attention to a condition or behavior it perceives as undesirable/in need of remedy by trying to influence public perception/"awareness"
Emergence + Claims Making
This theory emphasizes the importance of social institutions for social stability.
What is functionalism?
This belief system privileges the individual over the group, espousing a worldview where autonomy, independence, and self-reliance are highly valued and thought to be natural.
What is individualism?
The specific way that capitalists make money--- the difference between the value workers add and the amount of wages they are paid (unpaid labor).
Profit
Established procedures and ceremonies that mark transition the life course, like graduation.
What are rituals?
The second step of a social condition becoming a social problem--
Successful social entity tries to persuade (local, state, federal) government that their social problem is empirically grounded, and in need of policy/spending.
Legitimacy
This theory believes society is unequal and that far-reaching social change is needed.
What is conflict theory?
This type of freedom begins with the assumption that human action is inherently social, and real freedom requires more than the removal of barriers.
What is positive (freedom)?
A group that shares the central values and beliefs of the larger culture but still retains certain values, beliefs, and norms that make it distinct from the larger culture.
Subculture
The tangible objects that constitute a society's material culture.
Artifacts
The third step in a social condition becoming a social problem --
Social change groups criticize government action as too limited in goals or scope, pressing demands anew and reasserting claims.
Renewed Claims Making
This theory emphasizes the social meanings and understanding that individuals derive from their social interactions.
What is symbolic interactionism?
The tendency to judge another culture by the standards of our own and to the belief that our own culture is indeed superior to another culture.
Ethnocentrism
A group whose values and beliefs directly oppose those of the larger culture and even reject it.
Counter-Culture
Spoken or written agreement on what words mean.
Language
The fourth step in a social condition becoming a social problem --
Although they may continue to press claims, groups often are lead to develop their own, non-governmental strategies for addressing the social probem.
Development of Alternative Strategies
Places like the military, where people are 're-socialized' and face strict rules of behavior.
The economic system that sociologists see as corresponding historically with the belief system we call individualism.
What is capitalism?
The belief that we should not judge any culture as superior or inferior to another culture. In this view, all cultures have their benefits and disadvantages, and we should not automatically assume that our own culture is better and “their” culture is worse
Cultural Relativism