Social Movements
Social Movements vs Social Movement Organization.
SMO is a formal organization.
Social Movement: large numbers of people who organize either to promote or resist social change.
Social Movement Organizations: formal group that actively works to further the goals of a social movement
Rumors and why people believe them.
Rumors: unverified information about some topic of interest.
3 main factors of why people believe rumors: deal with a subject that is important to an individual, replace ambiguity with some form of certainty, are attributed to a credible source.
Compare and contrast: patriarchy, matriarchy, egalitarian.
Patriarchy: authority is vested in males
Matriarchy: authority is vested in females
Egalitarian: divided
Three basic theories with definitions.
Functionalism, Conflict, Symbolic Interactionism
Federal Poverty Line
The official measure of poverty. Three times the cost of food. For a family of 4 it is $32,150 yearly (2025).
Declining Privilege Theory.
Focuses on those who have enjoyed relatively good circumstances in life and have experienced a decline in their status and power.
Fad vs Fashion
Fad: temporary pattern of behavior that catches people's attention
Fashion: an enduring version
Family of Orientation vs Family of Procreation.
Orientation - family you grow up with
Procreation - family you will create some day
Panic vs Moral Panic.
Panic: condition of being so fearful that one cannot function normally and may even flee (ex. Beverly Hills Supper Club fire).
Moral Panic: a fear gripping people that some evil threatens the wellbeing of society. Ex. MoMo
Four Systems of Social Stratification.
Slavery, Caste, Estate, Class
Proactive vs Reactive Social Movements. Example of each.
Proactive social movements: promote social change because a current condition of society is intolerable. ex. Climate Change.
Reactive social movements: resist changing conditions in society that they perceive as threatening. ex. KKK.
Urban Legend with an example.
Urban legends are stories with an ironic twist that sound realistic but are false.
“modern morality stories”
Discuss homogamy and propinquity.
Homogamy: the tendency of people with similar characteristics to marry one another. Often occurs largely because of propinquity (spatial nearness).
Define "norm" and provide three examples.
Norms are expectations on how we should behave. Normal, expected, standard.
Raising hand during class, walk on right hand side, wave.
Describe Gilbert and Kahl's social class ladder.
(6) Capitalist, upper middle, lower middle, working, working poor, underclass
Four variables were used when creating the model - education, power, property, prestige
Alternative vs Redemptive Social Movements.
Main difference: Alternative seeks to alter and aspect of individuals, while redemptive seeks to change the entire individual.
Alterative social movements: seek to alter only particular aspects of people. Example: Woman’s Christian Temperance Union 1900s (goal to stop alcohol consumption)
Redemptive social movements: seek to change people totally. Example: a religious social movement such as fundamental Christianity that stresses conversion
Blumer's five steps to an acting crowd.
A background of social unrest exists
An exciting event occurs
People engage in milling
A common object of attention emerges
Common impulses occur, Collective excitement
End result is an acting crowd.
Cohabitation vs Marriage.
Cohabitation: live together
Marriage: legalized recognition of a union
Main difference is commitment - cohabitation, simply move out. Marriage requires a judge to end it.
The work of Marx Summarized.
class conflict, proletariat, bourgeois, means of production, class consciousness, revolution
Working Class vs Middle Class Childrearing.
Middle - "tender house plant" - more likely to reason
Lower - "wild flowers" - more likely to use physical punishment
Five stages of a social movement.
1. initial unrest and agitation
2. resource mobilization
3. organization
4. institutionalization
5. decline and death
Five types of participants in a crowd (Turner and Killian)
the ego-involved: high personal stakes
the concerned: some personal interest
the insecure: little concern but like the crowd
the curious
the exploiters: do not care but use it for their own purpose
Six essential functions of the family.
1. Economic Production
2. Socialization of Children
3. Care of Sick and Aged
4. Recreation
5. Sexual Control
6. Reproduction
Max vs Weber on Social Stratification
Marx - relationship to the means of production.
Weber - the three p's - power, property, prestige
Mosca on Stratification.
Leadership can only exist if there is inequality.
No society is equal because leaders emerge and humans are self-serving.