accounting |
The process by which people offer accounts in
order to make sense of the world. (ethnomethodology)
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accounting practices |
The ways in which one person offers an account
and another person accepts or rejects that account.
(ethnomethodology)
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accounts |
The ways in which actors explain (describe,
criticize, and idealize) specific situations.
(ethnomethodology)
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act |
The basic concept in Mead's theory, involving
an impulse, perception of stimuli, taking action involving the
object perceived, and using the object to satisfy the initial
impulse. (Mead; Symbolic Interactionism)
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action |
Things that people do that are the result of
conscious processes.
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actor-networks theory |
An approach to studying social phenomena that
focuses on the meaning-shaping relations between entities and
discounts any essential or intrinsic characteristics of the
entities.
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adaptation |
One of Parsons's four functional imperatives. A
system must adjust to its environment and adjust the
environment to its needs. More specifically, a system must
cope with external situational dangers and contingencies.
(Parsons; Structural Functionalism)
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affectivity-affective
neutrality |
The pattern variable involving the issue of how
much emotion (or affect) to invest in a social phenomenon.
(Parsons; Structural Functionalism)
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affectual action |
Nonrational action that is the result of
emotion. (Weber)
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agents |
Actors who have the ability to make a
difference in the social world; what occurs would not have
occurred in that way were it not for the fact that the actor
intervened and took the action in question.
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alienation |
The breakdown of the natural interconnection
between the following: people and their productive activities,
the products they produce, the fellow workers with whom they
produce those things, and with what they are potentially
capable of becoming. (Marx)
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analytical Marxism |
An attempt to focus on the questions posed by
Marx--such as class, exploitation and historical
materialism--but using conventional sociological methods, such
as empirical studies, that focus on functions and rational
actors. (Neo-Marxian)
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anomie |
For Durkheim, the social condition where
individuals lack sufficient moral restraint so that they do
not know what is expected of them. For Merton, a situation in
which there is a serious disconnection between social
structure and culture; between structurally created abilities
of people to act in accord with cultural norms and goals and
the norms and goals themselves. (Durkheim, structural
functionalism)
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appearance |
The way the actor looks to the audience;
especially those items that indicate the performer's social
status. (Goffman)
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archaeology of knowledge |
The analysis of those rules that explain the
conditions of possibility for all that can be said in a given
discourse at any given time. (Foucault)
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asceticism |
A religious or other belief system in which
followers deny themselves worldly pleasures. Weber divides
asceticism into two types: otherworldly, which focuses on the
rejection of the secular world, and innerwordly, which focuses
on inner purity and allows members to engage in the secular
world. (Weber)
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ascription-achievement |
The pattern variable where the issue is whether
we judge a social phenomenon by with what it is endowed or by
what it achieves. (Parsons; Structural
Functionalism)
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association |
The relationships or interactions among people.
(Simmel)
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autopoietic systems |
Systems that produce their own basic elements,
establish their own boundaries and structures, are
self-referential, and are closed. (Systems Theory)
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back stage |
That area where facts or informal actions
suppressed in the front stage are allowed. A back stage is
usually adjacent to the front stage, but access to it is
controlled. Performers can reliably expect no members of their
front audience to appear in the back. (Goffman)
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base |
That part of society which conditions, if not
determines, the nature of everything else in society. For
Marx, this was the economy. (Marx)
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because motives |
Retrospective glances backward, after an action
has occurred, at the factors (e.g., personal background,
individual psyche, environment) that caused individuals to
behave as they did. (Schutz)
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behavior |
Things that people do that require little or no
thought. (Weber, Exchange Theory)
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behavioral organism |
One of Parsons's action systems, responsible
for handling the adaptation function by adjusting to and
transforming the external world.
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behaviorism |
The study, largely associated with psychology,
of behavior. Behaviorism ignores consciousness and focuses on
conditioning to explain individual actions.
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bifurcated consciousness |
A type of consciousness characteristic of women
that reflects the fact that, for them, everyday life is
divided into two realities: the reality of their actual,
lived, reflected-on experience and the reality of social
typifications. (Feminism)
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breaching experiments |
Experiments in which background social rules
are violated in order to shed light on the methods by which
people construct social reality. (ethnomethodology)
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bureaucracy |
A modern type of organization in which the
behavior of officers is rule-bound; each office has a
specified sphere of competence and has obligations to perform
specific functions, the authority to carry them out, and the
means of compulsion to get the job done; the offices are
organized into a hierarchical system; technical training is
needed for each office; those things needed to do the job
belong to the office and not the officer; the position is part
of the organization and cannot be appropriated by an officer;
and much of what goes on in the bureaucracy (acts, decisions,
rules) is in writing. (Weber)
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business |
A pecuniary approach to economic processes in
which the dominant interests are acquisition, money, and
profitability, rather than production and the interests of the
larger community. (Veblen)
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calculability |
The emphasis on quantity, often to the
detriment of quality. (Ritzer)
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capitalism |
An economic system composed mainly of
capitalists and the proletariat, in which one class
(capitalists) exploits the other (proletariat).
(Marx)
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capitalist patriarchy |
A term that indicates that the oppression of
women is traceable to a combination of capitalism and
patriarchy. (Feminism)
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capitalists |
Those who own the means of production under
capitalism and are therefore in a position to exploit workers.
(Marx)
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carceral archipelago |
An image of society that results from the idea
that discipline is swarming through society. This means that
the process affects some parts of society and not others, or
it may affect some parts at one time and other parts at
another time. Thus, it creates a patchwork of centers of
discipline amidst a world in which other settings are less
affected or unaffected by the spread of the disciplinary
society. (Foucault)
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charismatic authority |
Authority legitimated by the followers' belief
in the exceptional sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character
of the charismatic leader. The leader need not actually have
such qualities. (Weber)
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civilizing process |
The long-term change in the West in manners as
they relate to daily behavior. Everyday behaviors that were at
one time acceptable have, over time, become increasingly
unacceptable. We are more likely to observe the everyday
behaviors of others, to be sensitive to them, to understand
them better and, perhaps most importantly, to find an
increasing number of them embarrassing. What we once found
quite acceptable now embarrasses us enormously. As a result,
what was once quite open is now hidden from view.
(Elias)
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class consciousness |
The ability of a class, in particular the
proletariat, to overcome false consciousness and attain an
accurate understanding of the capitalist system.
(Marx)
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code |
A way of distinguishing elements of a system
from elements that do not belong to the system; the basic
language of a functional system. (Systems Theory)
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collective conscience |
The totality of beliefs and feelings common to
the average member of a society that forms a system with its
own properties. (Durkheim)
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collective representation |
The collective concepts and images through
which society reflects on itself. For Durkheim, these
representations also constitute a social force that motivates
or constrains us. (Durkheim)
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colonization of the
lifeworld |
As the system and its structures grow
increasingly differentiated, complex, and self-sufficient,
their power grows and with it their ability to direct and
control what transpires in the lifeworld. (Habermas)
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communism |
The social system that permits, for the first
time, the expression of full human potential. It would involve
collective decision making that would allow the needs of the
many to be taken into account. (Marx)
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compounded societies |
Societies that are formed by the combination of
heterogeneous and semi-autonomous units. This is in
distinction to simple societies, which are relatively
homogenous and constituted by one society-wide unit. There can
be different degrees of compounding (doubly, trebly) where
compounded societies are further compounded.
(Spencer)
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conflict group |
A group that actually engages in group
conflict. (Dahrendorf)
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conspicuous consumption |
The consumption of a variety of goods, not for
subsistence but for the attainment of higher status of those
who consume them, thereby creating the basis for invidious
distinctions between people. (Veblen)
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conspicuous leisure |
The nonproductive use of time as a way of
creating an invidious distinction between people and elevating
the social status of those able to use their time in this way.
(Veblen)
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constructivist
perspective |
The view that schemes of perception, thought,
and interactions create structures. (Bourdieu)
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consummation |
Final stage of the act involving the taking of
action that satisfies the original impulse. (Mead; Symbolic
Interactionism)
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contingency |
The idea that social structures, events or
people could be different than they are and that at the heart
of even the most enduring institution there is an element of
chance and accident. (Systems Theory)
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core |
The geographical area that dominates the
capitalist world-economy and exploits the rest of the system.
(Neo-Marxian)
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cost |
Rewards lost in adopting a specific action and,
as a result, in forgoing alternative lines of action.
(Exchange Theory)
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critical theory |
In general, this refers to a theory of society
developed with the intent to fundamentally change society. In
particular, critical theory is often used to refer to the
group of scholars associated with the Frankfurt school.
(Neo-Marxian)
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cultural capital |
The various kinds of legitimate knowledge
possessed by an actor where that knowledge can "bear interest"
in the same way that monetary capital does.
(Bourdieu)
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cultural feminism |
A feminist theory of difference that extols the
positive aspects of women. (Feminism)
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cultural system |
The Parsonsian action system that performs the
latency function by providing actors with the norms and values
that motivate them for action.
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culture industry |
To the critical theorists, industries such a
movies and radio that serve to make culture a more important
factor in society than the economy.
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definition of the
situation |
The idea that if people define situations as
real, then those definitions are real in their consequences.
(Chicago School)
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dependence |
The potential cost that an actor will be
willing to tolerate within a relationship. (Exchange
Theory)
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dependency chains |
The chain of relationships involving those
people a person is dependent on as well as those peoples'
dependency on the person. (Elias)
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dialectic |
For Marx, this meant concrete contradictions in
society that can only be resolved through social change.
(Marx)
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dialectical approach |
A way of studying society that focuses on
contradictions and reciprocal relations between actors and
structures. (Marx)
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differentiation |
An increase in complexity within the system
created by the system copying within itself the difference
between it and the environment. (Systems Theory)
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disciplinary society |
A society in which control over people is
pervasive. (Foucault)
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discreditable stigma |
A potentially discrediting characteristic of a
person that is not known by audience members.
(Goffman)
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discursive consciousness |
The ability to describe our actions in words.
(Giddens; Agency-Structure)
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distanciation |
The tendency for various components of the
modern social world to grow quite distant in space and time.
(Giddens; Theories of Modernity)
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division of labor |
The form that work takes in modern society in
which different individuals perform different specialized
tasks instead of having everyone do essentially the same sort
of task. (Durkheim)
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double consciousness |
The feelings of those who perceive themselves
to be both outside and inside a society, especially where the
feeling of being outside is forced on African Americans by a
white majority. (Du Bois)
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double contingency |
The element of chance and accident that is at
the heart of every social interaction due to the fact that in
order to understand the interaction, the speaker must make
risky assumptions about the listener, while the listener must
make risky assumptions about the speaker. (Systems
Theory)
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double hermeneutic |
The social scientist's understanding of the
social world may have an impact on the understandings of the
actors being studied, with the result that social researchers
can alter the world they are studying and thus lead to
distorted findings and conclusions. (Giddens;
Agency-Structure)
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dramaturgy |
A view of social life as a series of dramatic
performances akin to those that take place in the theater.
(Goffman)
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dromology |
The study of social phenomena with a focus upon
speed. (Virilio)
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dualism |
The idea that structure (and culture) and
agency can be distinguished for analytic purposes, although
they are intertwined in social life.
(Agency-Structure)
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duality |
All social action involves structure, and all
structure involves social action. Agency and structure are
inextricably interwoven in ongoing human activity or practice.
(Agency-Structure)
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dyad |
A two-person group. (Simmel)
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dynamic density |
The number of people and their frequency of
interaction. An increase in dynamic density leads to the
transformation from mechanical to organic solidarity.
(Durkheim)
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dysfunction |
Observable consequences that have an adverse
effect on the ability of a particular system to adapt or
adjust. (Merton)
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economic determinism |
The idea that the economy determines all
sectors of society. Usually used as a criticism of orthodox
Marxist approaches. (Marx; Neo-Marxian)
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economy |
To Parsons, the subsystem of society that
performs the function of adapting to the
environment.
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endocolonization |
Technology being used to colonize the human
body. (Virilio)
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Enlightenment |
A mainly philosophical and humanistic movement
beginning in 17th century England and flowering in
18th century France and Scotland. Enlightenment
thinkers rejected religious dogma and attempted to model human
thought and society on scientific thinking. The Enlightenment
led to sociology both in the Enlightenment's belief that
scientific principles could be applied to the study of society
and also in the conservative reaction to the Enlightenment
that stressed the value of norms and traditions. (Sociological
Theory: Early Years)
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ethnomethodology |
The study of members of society in the everyday
situations in which they find themselves with a focus on the
ways in which they use extraordinary methods to produce
ordinary social reality. (ethnomethodology)
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evolutionary theory |
A theory of society that sees social change as
predictable and progressive. It should be noted that Spencer's
evolutionary theory predates Darwin's use of the word and does
not incorporate biology's idea that evolution is based on
random variation. (Spencer)
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examination |
A way of observing subordinates and assessing
what they are doing and have done. It is employed in a given
setting by those in authority who make normalizing judgments
about what is and is not an adequate score.
(Foucault)
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exchange network |
A web of social relationships involving a
number of either individual or collective actors and in which
the various actors, who have a variety of valued resources,
exchange opportunities and relations with one another. A
number of these exchange relations exist and interrelate with
one another to form a single network structure.
(Emerson)
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feminist theory |
A generalized, wide-ranging system of ideas
about social life and human experience developed from a
woman-centered perspective. (Feminism)
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fetishism of commodities |
The tendency in capitalism for commodities to
take on an independent, almost mystical external reality.
(Marx)
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fiduciary system |
To Parsons, the subsystem of society that
handles the pattern maintenance and latency function by
transmitting culture (norms and values) to actors and seeing
to it that it is internalized by them. (Parsons)
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field |
A network of relations among the objective
positions in a social situation. (Bourdieu)
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fieldwork |
A methodology used by symbolic interactionists
and other sociologists that involves venturing into the field
(the day-to-day social world) to observe and collect relevant
data.
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figurations |
Social processes involving the interweaving of
people who are seen as open and interdependent. Power is
central to social figurations; they are constantly in flux.
Figurations emerge and develop, but in largely unseen and
unplanned ways. (Elias)
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Fordism |
The ideas, principles, and systems spawned by
Henry Ford in the early 20th century and embodied
in the creation of the automobile assembly line and the
resulting mass production of automobiles. The success of
Ford's innovations led many other industries to adapt the
assembly line to their production needs and to the mass
production of their products.
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formal rationality |
A type of rationality in which the general form
of rationality--such as efficiency, calculability and
predictability--become the ultimate goal, replacing any
substantive goal that the rationality was originally intended
to achieve. Weber believed that this form of rationality is
distinctive to the modern West. (Weber)
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forms |
Patterns imposed on the bewildering array of
events, actions, and interactions in the social world, both by
people in their everyday lives and by social theorists.
(Simmel)
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Frankfurt school |
The group of neo-Marxists that formed around
the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. They
rejected Marx's economic determinism, criticized Stalinism,
integrated Freud's theories and focused on culture.
(Neo-Marxian)
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front stage |
That part of a dramaturgical performance that
generally functions in rather fixed and general ways to define
the situation for those who observe the performance.
(Goffman)
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functional
differentiation |
The most complex form of differentiation and
the form that dominates modern society. Every function within
a system is ascribed to a particular unit. (Systems
Theory)
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functions |
Consequences that help a particular system
adapt or adjust. (Structural Functionalism)
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game stage |
The second stage in the genesis of the self:
Instead of taking the role of discrete others, the child is
able to consider others' specific roles in terms of the
overall game. (Mead; Symbolic Interactionism)
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gender |
Socially constructed male and female roles,
relations, and identities. (Feminism)
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genealogy of power |
An analysis of the evolution of ideas that
focuses on contingency and domination. (Foucault)
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generalized other |
The viewpoint that individuals are able to
adopt in which they are able to see their self and their roles
in terms of the entire community. (Mead; Symbolic
Interactionism)
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genetic structuralism |
Bourdieu's approach, which involves the study
of objective structures that cannot be separated from mental
structures that, themselves, involve the internalization of
objective structures. (Agency-Structure)
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gestures |
Movements by one party (person or animal) that
serve as stimuli to another party. (Mead; Symbolic
Interactionism)
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globalization |
Processes that affect a multitude of nations
throughout the world, but which are independent of any
specific nation-state.
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glocalization |
The complex interplay of the global and the
local in any given setting.
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goal attainment |
The second of Parsons's functional imperatives,
involving the need for a system to define and achieve its
primary goals.
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governmentality |
The practices and techniques by which control
is exercised over people, primarily by inducing people to aim
for "self-improvement," which seems voluntary.
(Foucault)
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grand theory |
A vast, highly ambitious effort to tell the
story of a great stretch of human history.
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habitus |
The mental or cognitive structures, derived
from objective social structures, through which people deal
with the social world. (Bourdieu)
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hegemony |
A Marxist concept given its usually accepted
definition by Antonio Gramsci that focuses on cultural
leadership rather than the coercive effect of state
domination.
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hierarchical observation |
The ability of officials at or near the top of
an organization to oversee all that they control with a single
gaze. (Foucault)
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historical materialism |
The idea that the way in which people provide
for their material needs determines or, in general, conditions
the relations that people have with each other, their social
institutions and prevalent ideas. Furthermore, that the
material conditions change over time because of dynamics
immanent within them, and that history is a record of the
changes in the material conditions of a group's life and of
the correlative changes in social relations, institutions and
prevalent ideas. (Marx)
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hyperconsumption |
An extraordinary level of consumption
associated with the contemporary world. (Ritzer)
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hyperreal |
Entirely simulated and, as a result, more real
than real, more beautiful than beautiful, truer than true, and
so on. (Baudrillard)
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hysteresis |
The condition that results from having a
habitus that is not appropriate for the situation in which one
lives. (Bourdieu)
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I |
The immediate response of the self to others;
the incalculable, unpredictable, and creative aspect of the
self. (Mead; Symbolic Interactionism)
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ideal type |
A one-sided, exaggerated concept, usually an
exaggeration of the congruity of a given phenomenon, used to
analyze the social world in all its historical and
contemporary variation. The ideal type is a measuring rod to
be used in comparing various specific examples of a social
phenomenon either cross-culturally or over time.
(Weber)
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ideology |
An intricate web of beliefs about reality and
social life that is institutionalized as public knowledge and
disseminated throughout society so effectively that it becomes
taken-for-granted knowledge for all social groups. For Marx,
ideology always served the interests of the ruling class. For
Mannheim, ideology refers to those ideas that emerge from
specific sectors of the social world and are therefore
inherently limited, one-sided, and distorted. (Marx;
Mannheim)
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imperatively coordinated
associations |
Associations of people controlled by a
hierarchy of authority positions. (Dahrendorf)
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implosion |
The decline of boundaries and the collapse of
various things into each other; dedifferentiation as opposed
to differentiation. (Baudrillard)
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impression management |
The techniques actors use to maintain certain
impressions in the face of problems they are likely to
encounter. (Goffman)
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impulse |
First stage of the act in which the actor
reacts to some external stimulus and feels the need to do
something about it. (Mead; Symbolic Interactionism)
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individual culture |
The capacity of the individual to produce,
absorb, and control the elements of objective culture.
(Simmel)
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industrial societies |
Societies that are characterized by
decentralized control and individuality. Spencer sees an
evolutionary trend from militant to industrial societies.
(Spencer)
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industry |
The understanding and productive use, primarily
by the working classes, of a wide variety of mechanized
processes on a large scale. (Veblen)
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in-order-to motives |
The subjective reasons that actors undertake
actions. (Schutz)
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integration |
The third of Parsons's functional imperatives,
requiring that a system seek to regulate the interrelationship
of its component parts. Integration also involves the
management of the relationship among the other three
functional imperatives (AGL). (Parsons; Structural
Functionalism)
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interest group |
Group of people possessing not only common
interests but also a structure, a goal, and personnel.
Interest groups have the capacity to engage in group conflict.
(Dahrendorf)
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intersectionality theory |
The view that women experience oppression in
varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity.
(Feminism)
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intersubjectivity |
That characteristic of the everyday world that
depends on the consciousness of one actor visualizing what is
at the same time taking place in the consciousness of another.
(Schutz)
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irrationality of
rationality |
Various unreasonable things associated with
rationality (and McDonaldization), especially dehumanization,
in which employees are forced to work in dehumanizing jobs and
customers are forced to eat in dehumanizing settings and
circumstances. (Ritzer)
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juggernaut |
Giddens's metaphor for the modern world as a
massive force that moves forward inexorably, riding roughshod
over everything in its path. People steer the juggernaut, but
it always has the possibility of careening out of control.
(Theories of Modernity)
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labor theory of value |
Marx's theory that the value of a commodity
should come from the labor that creates it instead of being
determined by what can be obtained in an exchange.
(Marx)
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landscapes |
Appadurai's metaphor for the fluid, irregular
and variably shaped forces affecting globalization. (Theories
of Modernity)
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latency |
One aspect of Parsons's fourth functional
imperative, involving the need for a system to furnish,
maintain, and renew the motivation of individuals. (Structural
Functionalism)
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latent functions |
Unintended positive consequences.
(Merton)
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latent interests |
Unconscious interests that translate, for
Dahrendorf, into objective role expectations. (Conflict
Theory)
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law of three stages |
Comte's idea that all societies pass through
three successive stages: the theological, the metaphysical and
the positivist. (Comte)
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levels of functional
analysis |
Functional analysis can be performed on any
standardized repetitive social phenomenon, ranging from
society as a whole to organizations, institutions and groups.
(Merton)
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liberal feminism |
A feminist theory of inequality that argues
that women may claim equality with men on the basis of an
essential human capacity for reasoned moral agency, that
gender inequality is the result of a patriarchal and sexist
patterning of the division of labor, and that gender equality
can be produced by transforming the division of labor through
the repatterning of key institutions, such as law, work,
family, education, and media. (Feminism)
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lifeworld |
To Schutz, the commonsense world, the world of
everyday life, the mundane world; that world in which
intersubjectivity takes place. For Habermas it is the place
where communicative action generally occurs. (Schutz;
Neo-Marxian)
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looking-glass self |
The idea that we form our sense of ourselves by
using others, and their reactions to us, as mirrors to assess
who we are and how we are doing. (Cooley)
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macro |
Approaches in sociology that focus on larger,
enduring structures--such as institutions, culture and
systems--and tends to ignore individuals and their
interactions.
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manifest functions |
Positive consequences that are brought about
consciously and purposely. (Merton)
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manifest interests |
Latent interests of which people have become
conscious. (Dahrendorf)
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manipulation |
Third stage of the act, in which the object is
manipulated, once it has been perceived. (Mead; Symbolic
Interactionism)
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manner |
The way an actor conducts himself; it tells the
audience what sort of role the actor expects to play in the
situation. (Goffman)
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mass culture |
The culture that had been commodified and made
available to, and popular among, the masses. (Critical
Theory)
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material social facts |
Social facts that are not reducible to the
intention of any individual and that take a material form in
the external social world (e.g., architecture).
(Durkheim)
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McDonaldization |
The process by which the principles of the
fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more
sectors of American society, as well as the rest of the world.
Its five basic dimensions are efficiency, calculability,
predictability, control through the substitution of technology
for people, and, paradoxically, the irrationality of
rationality. (Ritzer)
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me |
The individual's adoption and perception of the
generalized other; the conformist aspect of the
self.
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means of production |
Those things that are needed for production to
take place, including tools, machinery, raw materials and
factories. (Marx)
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mechanical solidarity |
The type of social order that is encountered in
a primitive society. Durkheim believed that such a society is
held together by the fact that there is little division of
labor and, as a result, virtually everyone does essentially
the same things. (Durkheim)
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metatheory |
A systematic study of the underlying structure
of sociological theory. (Metatheory)
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methodological holists |
Those social scientists who focus on the
macro-level and view it as determining the individual
interactions.
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methodological
individualists |
Those social scientists who focus on individual
interactions and see the macro-level as only an accumulation
of such interactions.
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methodological
relationists |
Those social scientists who focus on the
relationship between macro- and micro-level
phenomena.
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micro |
Approaches in sociology that tend to stay at
the level of interactions between individuals and that tend to
ignore institutions, culture and systems.
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microphysics of power |
The idea that power exists at the micro-level
and involves both efforts to exercise it and efforts to
contest its exercise. (Foucault)
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middle-range theories |
Theories that seek a middle ground between
trying to explain the entirety of the social world and a very
minute portion of that world. (Structural
Functionalism)
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militant societies |
Societies that are characterized by highly
structured organizations for offensive and defensive warfare.
Spencer defines military in distinction to industrial
societies, although the two are often intermingled.
(Spencer)
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mind |
To Mead, the mind is constituted by the
conversations that people have with themselves using
language.
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mystification |
An effort by actors to confound their audience
by restricting the contact between themselves and the
audience, concealing the mundane things that go into their
performance. (Goffman)
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natural attitude |
The attitude we adopt in the lifeworld: We take
phenomena for granted, we don't reflect much on them, and we
don't doubt their reality or existence. (Schutz)
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need-dispositions |
To Parsons, drives that are shaped by the
social setting.
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neotribalism |
A postmodern development characterized by the
emergence of a wide array of communities that are refuges for
strangers seeking community, especially ethnic, religious, and
political community.
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net balance |
The relative weight of functions and
dysfunctions. (Merton)
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new means of consumption |
The set of consumption sites that came into
existence largely after 1950 in the United States and that
served to revolutionize consumption. (Ritzer)
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nonfunctions |
Consequences that are irrelevant to the system
under consideration. (Merton)
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nonmaterial social facts |
Social facts that are external and coercive,
but which do not take a material form; they are nonmaterial
(e.g., language, norms and values). (Durkheim)
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normalizing judgments |
The ability by those in power to decide what is
normal and what is abnormal on a variety of dimensions. Those
who are judged abnormal can be either punished or
rehabilitated, although the two terms tend to become
interchangeable. (Foucault)
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objectification |
The process through which we create external
objects out of our internal thoughts. Also referred to as
objectivation. (Marx)
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objective culture |
The objects that people produce--art, science,
philosophy, and so on--that become part of culture.
(Simmel)
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one-dimensional society |
To Herbert Marcuse, the breakdown in the
dialectical relationship between people and the larger
structures so that people are largely controlled by such
structures. Lost is the ability of people to create and to be
actively involved in those structures. Gradually, individual
freedom and creativity dwindle away into nothingness, and
people lose the capacity to think critically and negatively
about the structures that control and oppress them.
(Neo-Marxian)
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operant conditioning |
The learning process by which the consequences
of behavior serve to modify that behavior. (Exchange
Theory)
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opportunity costs |
The costs of forgoing the next-most-attractive
action when an actor chooses an action aimed at achieving a
given end. (Rational Choice)
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organic solidarity |
The type of social order that is encountered in
a modern society. Durkheim believed that such societies are
held together by the substantial division of labor in modern
society, because people need the contributions of an
increasing number of people in order to function and even to
survive. (Durkheim)
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outside |
Neither frontstage nor backstage; literally
outside the realm of the performance where one does not expect
to meet a particular audience. (Goffman)
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outsider within, the |
The frequent experience of group members when
they move from the home group into the larger
society.
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panopticon |
A structure that allows someone in power (e.g.,
a prison officer) the possibility of complete observation of a
group of people (e.g., prisoners).
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paradigm |
A fundamental image of a science's subject
matter used to distinguish one scientific community from
another or to distinguish different historical periods of a
single scientific discipline. (Metatheory)
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patriarchy |
A system in which gender differences are
essential to the subjugation of women. It is pervasive in its
social organization, and durable over time and space.
(Feminism)
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pattern maintenance |
The second aspect of Parsons's fourth
functional imperative, involving the need to furnish,
maintain, and renew the cultural patterns that create and
sustain individual motivation. (Structural
Functionalism)
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pattern variables |
In Parsons' theory, five dichotomous choices
that actors must make in every situation. (Structural
Functionalism)
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perception |
Second stage of the act, in which the actor
consciously searches for and reacts to stimuli that relate to
the impulse and the ways of dealing with it. (Mead; Symbolic
Interactionism)
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periphery |
Those areas of the capitalist world-economy
that provide raw materials to the core and are heavily
exploited by it. (Neo-Marxian)
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personal front |
Those items of expressive equipment that the
audience identifies with the performers and expects them to
carry with them into the setting. (Goffman)
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personality |
To Parsons, the individual actor's organized
system of orientation to, and motivation for, action.
(Structural Functionalism)
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personality system |
The Parsonsian action system responsible for
performing the goal-attainment function by defining system
goals and mobilizing resources to attain them. (Structural
Functionalism)
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phantasmagoria |
The fantastic immaterial effects produced by
physical structures, such as arcades, as well as the newer
means of consumption. (Neo-Marxian)
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phenomenology |
A school of philosophy concerned with the study
of the mind. (Schutz)
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play stage |
The first stage in the genesis of the self, in
which the child plays at being someone else. (Mead; Symbolic
Interactionism)
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polity |
To Parsons, the subsystem of society that
performs the function of goal attainment by pursuing societal
objectives and mobilizing actors and resources to that end.
(Structural Functionalism)
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positivism |
The term is used in widely various ways in
sociology. For Comte, it mainly meant a search for society's
invariant laws, although he also often associated the term
with political progress and order. (Comte)
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post-Fordism |
In contrast to Fordism, a system for the
production of heterogeneous, even customized, products that
requires more flexible technologies and more flexible and
skilled workers, and that leads to greater heterogeneity of
consumption. (Theories of Modernity)
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postindustrial society |
A society characterized by the provision of
services rather than goods; professional and technical work
rather than blue-collar, manual work; theoretical knowledge
rather than practical know-how; the creation and monitoring of
new technologies; and new intellectual technologies to handle
such assessment and control. (Theories of Modernity)
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postmodern sociology |
A type of sociology that sees a qualitative
change in society from the modern period, although the precise
nature of the change differs.
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poststructuralist |
A theorist, like Bourdieu, who has been
influenced by a structuralist perspective but who has moved
beyond it to synthesize it with other theoretical ideas and
perspectives.
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power |
To Emerson, the potential cost that one actor
can induce another to accept. (Exchange Theory)
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practical consciousness |
Involves actions that the actors take for
granted, without being able to express in words what they are
doing. (Theories of Modernity)
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practical rationality |
On a day-to-day basis, we deal with whatever
difficulties exist and find the most expedient way of
attaining our goal of getting from one point to another.
(Weber)
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practice |
To Bourdieu, actions that are the outcome of
the dialectical relationship between structure and agency.
Practices are not objectively determined, nor are they the
product of free will. (Agency-Structure)
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praxis |
Practical action that is always intertwined
with a theory of society and aimed at revolutionary change.
(Marx)
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primary group |
An intimate face-to-face group that plays a
crucial role in linking the individual to the larger society.
Of special importance are the primary groups of the young,
mainly the family and friendship groups. (Cooley)
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profit |
The greater number of rewards gained over costs
incurred in social exchange.
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proletariat |
Those who, because they do not own means of
production, must sell their labor time to the capitalists in
order to gain access to those means. (Marx)
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Protestant ethic |
Generally, a belief that work is its own
reward. Weber argues that this ethic developed primarily out
of the Calvinists' belief in predestination. The Calvinists
could not know whether they were going to heaven or hell or
directly affect their fate. However, it was possible for them
to discern "signs" that they were either saved or damned, and
one of the major signs of salvation was success in business.
(Weber)
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psychoanalytic feminism |
An effort to explain patriarchy through the use
of reformulated theories of Freud and his successors in
psychoanalytic theory. (Feminism)
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quasi group |
A number of individuals who occupy positions
that have the same role interests. (Conflict Theory)
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radical feminism |
A theory that holds that women are everywhere
oppressed by violence or the threat of violence, and that
argues for the necessity of fundamental social change.
(Feminism)
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rationalization |
The historical trend of increasing rationality
in any given domain. (Weber)
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rational-legal authority |
A type of authority in which the legitimacy of
leaders is derived from the fact that there are a series of
codified rules and regulations, and leaders hold their
positions as a result of those rules. (Weber)
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recipes |
Standardized ways of handling various
situations. (Schutz)
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reflexive sociology |
The use by sociologists of their own
theoretical and empirical tools to better understand their own
discipline. (Bourdieu)
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reflexivity |
This includes self-consciousness, but also all
of those aspects of modern life that are monitored. (Theories
of Modernity)
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reify |
The process of coming to believe that humanly
created social forms are natural, universal, and absolute
things. (Marx)
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relations of production |
Those relations that people form with each
other in order to fulfill their material needs. Marx believed
that different forces of productions lead to different
relations of production. (Marx)
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relations of ruling |
The complex, nonmonolithic but intricately
connected social activities that attempt to control human
social production. (Feminism)
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repressive law |
Characteristic of mechanical solidarity, this
is a form of law in which offenders are likely to be severely
punished for any action that is seen by the tightly integrated
community as an offense against the powerful collective
conscience. (Durkheim)
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reserve army of the
unemployed |
Those people that must be kept unemployed in
capitalism so that those who have jobs can always be
threatened with replacement. (Marx)
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restitutive law |
Characteristic of organic solidarity and its
weakened collective conscience. In this form of law, offenders
are likely simply to be asked to comply with the law or to
repay (make restitution to) those who have been harmed by
their actions. (Durkheim)
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role |
What an actor does in a status, seen in the
context of its functional significance for the larger system.
(Structural Functionalism)
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role distance |
The degree to which individuals separate
themselves from the roles they are in. (Goffman)
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routinization of charisma |
Efforts by disciples to recast the
extraordinary and revolutionary characteristics of the
charismatic leader so that they are better able to handle
mundane matters. This is also done in order to prepare for the
day when the charismatic leader passes from the scene and to
allow the disciples to remain in power. (Weber)
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secrecy |
As defined by Simmel, the condition in which
one person has the intention of hiding something, while the
other is seeking to reveal what is being hidden.
(Simmel)
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segmentary
differentiation |
The division of parts of the system on the
basis of the need to fulfill identical functions over and
over. (Systems Theory)
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self |
To Goffman, a sense of who one is that is a
dramatic effect emerging from the immediate dramaturgical
scene that is being presented.
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self |
The ability to take oneself as an object.
(Mead; Symbolic Interactionism)
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self-collectivity |
The pattern variable involving the choice
between pursuing our own self-interests or those shared with
the collectivity. (Parsons; Structural
Functionalism)
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semiperiphery |
A residual category in the capitalist
world-economy that encompasses a set of regions somewhere
between the exploiting and the exploited.
(Neo-Marxian)
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setting |
The physical scene that ordinarily must be
there if the actors are to engage in a dramaturgical
performance. (Goffman)
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significant gestures |
Symbolic gestures that require thought before a
response is made; only humans are capable of this. (Mead;
Symbolic Interactionism)
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significant symbols |
Symbols that arouse in the person expressing
them the same kind of response (it need not be identical) as
they are designed to elicit from those to whom they are
addressed. (Mead; Symbolic Interactionism)
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simulations |
Fakes; to Baudrillard, the contemporary world
is becoming increasingly dominated by the inauthentic.
(Baudrillard)
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social currents |
Social facts that are not yet crystallized into
social organizations. (Durkheim)
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social dynamics |
A sociological approach that sees society as
constantly changing and subject to an evolutionary process.
(Comte)
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social facts |
To Durkheim, social facts are the subject
matter of sociology. They are to be treated as things that are
external to, and coercive over, individuals, and they are to
be studied empirically. (Durkheim)
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socialism |
A political and economic system that is based
on cooperation and in which decisions about production and
distribution are made collectively. The idea of socialism
predates Marx, but socialists before Marx focused less on
class conflict and more on descriptions of the ideal society.
(Sociological Theory: Early Years)
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socialist feminism |
An effort to develop a unified theory that
focuses on the role of capitalism and patriarchy in creating a
large-scale structure that oppresses women.
(Feminism)
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social statics |
A sociological approach that neglects all
issues of time and describes an ideal harmony between the
parts of society. (Comte)
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social stratification |
A structure involving a hierarchy of positions
that has the function of leading those people with the needed
skills and abilities to do what is necessary to move into the
high-ranking positions that are most important to society's
functioning and survival. (Structural Functionalism)
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social system |
The Parsonsian action system responsible for
coping with the integration function by controlling its
component parts; a number of human actors who interact with
one another in a situation with a physical or environmental
context. (Structural Functionalism)
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social systems |
To Giddens, reproduced social practices, or
relations between actors or collectivities, that are
reproduced, becoming regular social practices.
(Agency-Structure)
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societal functionalism |
A variety of structural functionalism that
focuses on the large-scale social structures and institutions
of society, their interrelationships, and their constraining
effects on actors. (Structural Functionalism)
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society |
To Parsons, a relatively self-sufficient
collectivity. (Structural Functionalism)
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sociological theory |
A set of interrelated ideas that allow for the
systematization of knowledge of the social world, the
explanation of that world, predictions about the future,
and/or the envisioning of alternative social
arrangements.
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sociology of knowledge |
The study, description and theoretical analysis
of the ways in which social relations influence thought.
(Mannheim)
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species being |
The potential and powers that make us uniquely
human and that distinguish us from other species. For Marx,
our species being is historical and social. (Marx)
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specificity-diffuseness |
The pattern variable in which the issue is
whether to orient oneself to part or all of a social
phenomenon. (Parsons; Structural Functionalism)
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spirit of capitalism |
In the West, unlike any other area of the
world, people were motivated to be economically successful,
not by greed but by an ethical system that emphasized the
ceaseless pursuit of economic success. The spirit of
capitalism had a number of components, including the seeking
of profits rationally and systematically, frugality,
punctuality, fairness, and the earning of money as a
legitimate end in itself. (Weber)
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standpoint |
The perspective of embodied actors within
groups that are differentially located in social structure.
(Feminism)
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status |
A structural position within the social system.
(Structural Functionalism)
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stigma |
A gap between virtual and actual social
identity. (Goffman)
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stranger |
One of Simmel's social types defined by
distance: one who is neither too close nor too far.
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stratificatory
differentiation |
Vertical differentiation according to rank or
status in a system conceived as a hierarchy. (Systems
Theory)
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structural functionalism |
A sociological theory that focuses on the
structures of society and their functional significance
(positive or negative consequences) for other
structures.
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structuralism |
A theory that depends on the view that there
are hidden or underlying structures that determine what
transpires in the social world.
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structuration |
An approach developed by Giddens that assumes
that agents and structures are interrelated to such an extent
that at the moment that they produce action, people also
produce and reproduce the structures in which they exist.
(Agency-Structure)
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structure |
To Giddens, the structuring properties
(specifically, rules and resources) that give similar social
practices a systemic form. (Agency-Structure)
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structures |
Enduring, reproducible patterns of social
interaction and persistent social relationships.
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subsistence wage |
The wage paid by the capitalist to the
proletariat, which is just enough for the worker to survive
and to have a family and children so that when the worker
falters, he can be replaced by one of his children.
(Marx)
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substantive rationality |
The choice of the most expedient action is
guided by larger values rather than by daily experiences and
practical thinking. (Weber)
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superstructure |
To Marx, secondary social phenomena (e.g., the
state and culture) that are erected on an economic base that
serves to define them. (Marx)
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symbolic capital |
For Bourdieu, socially legitimated cultural and
social capital that is related to the amount of honor and
prestige possessed by an actor. (Agency-Structure)
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symbolic exchange |
A reversible process of giving and receiving; a
cyclical exchange of gifts and counter-gifts, associated with
non-capitalist societies. (Baudrillard)
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symbolic interaction |
The distinctive human ability to relate to one
another, not only through gestures but also through
significant symbols. (Symbolic Interactionism)
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symbolic violence |
A socially legitimate form of violence, in
which the agent against whom it is practiced is complicit in
its practice. It is practiced indirectly, largely through
cultural mechanisms. (Bourdieu)
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system |
To Habermas, the structures (such as the
family, the legal system, the state, and the economy) that are
anchored within the lifeworld, but which come to develop their
own distinctive characteristics and to grow increasingly
separated from the lifeworld. (Agency-Structure)
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team |
Any set of individuals who cooperate in staging
a single performance. (Goffman)
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technocratic thinking |
Concern with being efficient, with simply
finding the best means to an end without reflecting on either
the means or the end. (Neo-Marxian)
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teleology |
Goal seeking; usually used as a criticism of a
theory that assumes that societies have goals that are more
than the goals of the individuals making up the society.
(Structural Functionalism)
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theoretical rationality |
An effort to master reality cognitively through
the development of increasingly abstract concepts. The goal is
to attain a rational understanding of the world, rather than
to take rational action within it. (Weber)
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they-relations |
The realm of people's lives in which they
relate purely to types of people (or larger structures in
which such types exist), rather than directly experiencing
other humans. (Schutz)
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traditional action |
Action taken on the basis of the ways things
have been done habitually or customarily. (Weber)
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traditional authority |
Authority based on the belief by followers that
certain people (based on their family, tribe, or lineage) have
exercised sovereignty since time immemorial. The leaders
claim, and the followers believe in, the sanctity of age-old
rules and powers. (Weber)
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tragedy of culture |
The condition of modern society that stems from
the fact that, over time, objective culture grows
exponentially, while individual culture, and the ability to
produce it, grows only marginally. Our meager individual
capacities cannot keep pace with our cultural products. As a
result, we are doomed to having increasingly less
understanding of the world we have created and to being
increasingly controlled by that world. (Simmel)
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triad |
A three-person group. (Simmel)
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types |
Patterns imposed on a wide range of actors by
both laypeople and social scientists in order to combine a
number of them into a limited number of categories.
(Schutz)
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typifications |
A limited number of categories that we use to
try to pigeonhole people, at least initially and
provisionally. (Schutz)
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unanticipated (unintended)
consequences |
Unexpected positive, negative, and irrelevant
consequences.
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unit act |
The basic component of Parsons's action theory,
involving an actor, an end, a situation, and norms and values.
The actor chooses means to ends within a situation, and that
choice is shaped by conditions in the situation, as well as by
norms and values. (Parsons; Structural
Functionalism)
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universalism-particularism |
The pattern variable where the issue is whether
you judge a social phenomenon by general standards that apply
to all such phenomena or by more specific, emotional
standards. (Parsons; Structural Functionalism)
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utilities |
Actor's preferences, or values. (Rational
Choice)
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value-rational action |
Action that occurs when an actor's choice of
the best means to an end is chosen on the basis of the actor's
belief in some larger set of values. This may not be the
optimal choice, but it is rational from the point of view of
the value system in which the actor finds herself.
(Weber)
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veil |
Du Bois's metaphor for the translucent, porous
boundary separating the races in America. (Du Bois)
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verstehen |
A methodological technique involving an effort
to understand the thought processes of the actor, the actor's
meanings and motives, and how these factors led to the action
(or interaction) under study. (Weber)
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virtual social identity |
What a person ought to be. (Goffman)
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webbed accounts |
Accounts woven together by reporting all the
various actors' or standpoint groups' knowledge of an
experience and describing the situations, including the
dynamics of power out of which the actors or groups came to
create these versions. (Feminism)
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we-relations |
The realm of our daily lives in which we are
aware of others' presence, directly experience them on a
face-to-face basis, and experience one another
intersubjectively. (Schutz)
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world-system |
A broad economic entity with a division of
labor that is not circumscribed by political or cultural
boundaries. It is a social system, composed internally of a
variety of social structures and member groups, that is
largely self-contained, has a set of boundaries, and has a
definable life span.
(Neo-Marxian)
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