Another Brick in the Wall
Pink Floyd (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvPpAPIIZyo
LYRICS: We don’t need no education. We don’t
need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in
the classroom. Teachers leave them kids alone.
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone! All in all
it’s just another brick in the wall. All in all
you’re just another brick in the wall.

Culture is the sum of socially
transmitted ideas, practices, and
material objects that people
create to overcome real-life
problems. Culture gives us
guidelines for how to act.


Ethnocentrism involves
judging another culture
exclusively by the standards of
one’s own.
Cultural relativism is the belief
that all elements of all cultures
should be respected as equally
valid.
Rationalization is the application of
the most efficient means to achieve
given goals and the often
unintended, negative consequences
of doing so.
 A bureaucracy is a large, impersonal
organization composed of many
clearly defined positions arranged in
a hierarchy. It has a permanent,
salaried staff of qualified experts and
written goals, rules and procedures.
Staff members strive to achieve goals
more efficiently.


Consumerism is a
lifestyle that involves
defining one’s self in
terms of the goods one
purchases.



By encouraging people to shop till they drop,
it increases consumer debt, which is at record
levels, and it forces people to work more than
they need to, adding to stress and
depression.
It encourages environmentally dangerous
levels of consumption.
It stifles dissent and draws attention from
pressing social issues.
GLAM
NEO-GRUNGE
Theoretical Traditions in Sociology
Tradition
Focus
Main Question
Fashion Interpretation
Functionalist
Values
How do the institutions of
society contribute to social
stability?
Fashion cycles help to preserve the
class system by allowing people of
different rank to evaluate and
distinguish themselves.
Conflict
Inequality
How do privileged groups
Fashion cycles exist so the fashion
maintain advantages and
industry can earn profits; fashion
subordinate groups seek to distracts consumers from social
increase theirs, often causing problems but the resulting
social change in the process? equilibrium is precarious.
Symbolic
interactionist
Meaning
Feminist
Patriarchy
How do individuals
Because fashions are meaningful,
communicate to make their fashion cycles allow people to
social settings meaningful? communicate their identity, which
is always in flux.
Which social structures and Fashion cycles often “imprison”
interaction processes
women and diminish them by
maintain male dominance turning them into sexual objects;
and female subordination? but they can also empower them.

What is deemed normal?
◦ For your age group?
 is
the process of learning culture
and becoming aware of yourself
as you interact with others.
0%
0%
D
is
a
gr
ee
gr
ee
B.
Agree
Disagree
A
A.
1.
2.
3.
The characteristics of members of each species
vary widely.
Species members with more adaptive
characteristics are more likely to survive until
reproduction.
Therefore, the species characteristics that
endure are those that increase the survival
chances of the species.
1. Identify a supposedly universal form of
human behaviour.
2. Make up a story about why this behaviour
increases survival chances.
3. Assert that the behaviour in question
cannot be changed.
Number of Sex Partners by
Respondent’s Sex, USA, 2002 (in %)
male
female
number of sex partners
0 or 1
more than 1
total
n
79
90
21
100
1,004
10
100
1,233
Number of Sex Partners by
Respondent’s Sex, USA, 2002,
Married People Only (in %)
male
female
number of sex partners
0 or 1
more than 1
total
n
95
99
5
100
499
1
100
534




Family
Schools
Peer groups
Media and technology

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)
HABITUS: a psychic structure composed of
a set of unconscious dispositions that include
patterns of thought, outlook, sensibilities,
and taste.


DEVELOPS OVER OUR LIVES AS A RESULT OF
OUR SOCIAL STATUS IN THE SOCIETY AND
THE ACCUMULATION OF SOCIAL
INTERACTIONS PARTICULAR TO THAT
STATUS.
STATUSES INCLUDE THOSE ASSOCIATED
WITH RACE, CLASS, ETHNICITY AND
GENDER


*Middle-Class: teens acquire a habitus
commensurate with their class position,
including the valuing of education, appreciation
for abstract thinking and cultural production
(like art), and an orientation to the world that
emphasizes power and control.
*Working-Class: teens acquire a habitus
including the value of practical work (e.g., the
trades), concrete thinking over abstraction, an
orientation to the world that emphasizes
“getting by”, without the expectation of
achieveing power.
How do we know what we know?
Historically: Religion
o Offered answers to most of life’s
questions (truth/false, right/wrong)
o Imbued every aspect of human social
life with meaning (birth, death, rites of
passage)
o Religious beliefs so common that
most societies had no word for
religion
25
Religion is ______?
You can also tweet your thoughts with #uoftsocrel on Twitter
26
Means different things – No consensus on definitions
Substantive definitions – Focus on what religion is
1)
2)
3)
4)
to be religious is to ‘believe’ in something
to be religious entails actions
to be religious involves emotions
religion is a social phenomenon
27
Functional definitions – Focus on what religion does
1) provides meaning and purpose to life
2) promotes social cohesion and a sense of belonging
3) provides social control
Many definitions attempt to combine both, such
as sociologist Emile Durkheim:
Religion as a system of beliefs, symbols, rituals,
based on some sacred or supernatural realm, that
guides human behavior, gives meaning to life, and
unites believers into a community
28
1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.5 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Chinese folk: 394 million
5. Buddhism: 376 million
6. Sikhism: 23 million
7. Juche: 19 million
8. Spiritism: 15 million
9. Judaism: 14 million
10.Falun Gong: 10 million
11.Baha'i: 7 million
12.Cao Dai: 5 million
13.Confucianism 5 million
14.New Age 5 million
15.Jainism: 4 million
16.Shinto: 4 million
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist:
1.1
billion
Source: Bibby, Reginald W. (2011a).
Beyond
the Gods & Back: Religion’s Rise
and Demise and Why it Matters. Lethbridge, AB: Project Canada Books, p.201.
Drawn from www.adherents.com 2010 and www.religion-facts.com 2010
Policemen and
soldiers in
Cameroon gather
around the vehicle
in which seven
members of a
French family were
riding before being
kidnapped near the
Nigerian border on
Feb. 19, 2013
30
PM establishes Office
of Religious
Freedom to
promote freedom
of religion around
the world
Stephen Harper looks
on as Dr. Andrew
Bennett, right,
shakes hands with
Muslim cleric Lai
Khan Malik in
Vaughan (Feb 20th)
31
Religious beliefs vary in content and
intensity
Religious practices vary in form and
frequency
Due to structure of society and our place in
it
Effect: religious impulse takes thousands
of forms
The task of the sociology of religion is to
account for these variations
32
Sociology: Systematic study of human
behavior in social context
Bibby: Science and religion are compatible
Religion – about faith
Science – limits itself to perceivable,
‘observable parts’ of religion
For example
1. Written texts
2. Patterns of behaviors
3. Individuals’ opinions about religious matters
33







How many and what kinds of people are involved in
religious groups?
Why does one religion predominate here, another
there?
Who believes in life after death and what do
individuals think will happen when they die?
The extent to which people have spiritual needs, and
what they mean by spirituality?
What is the impact the religious involvement has on
individuals and societies?
Are we becoming more or less religious?
Implications of this?
Under what circumstances does religion act as a
source of social stability and act as a force for social
change?
34
Wide array of research such as:
Religion and organizations (churches,
sects, cults, etc)
Religion and education (role in schools)
Religion and gender (religious leadership)
Religion and politics (religious terrorism)
Religion and law (Charter of Rights and
Freedom)
Religion and mass media (internet)
In the Sociology Department Prof. Bryant (religion and history) and Prof.
Schieman (religion and mental health)
35
Analyzes how individuals, social institutions,
and cultures construe God or the sacred
How these ideas penetrate public culture and
individual lives
Implications of those interpretations for
individual, institutional, and societal
processes
The sociological study of religion is as old as
the discipline of sociology itself
36



Religion’s origin is social
People living in a community come to share
common sentiments that form a collective
conscience - ‘God’ is the group experiencing
itself
Leads people to designate some objects as
sacred – or totems - (deserving of profound
respect) and others as profane – (objects of
the everyday world)
37
Christianity - Sacred
Cross held by
Pope Benedict
XVI, the head of
the Catholic
Church
38
islam - Sacred
Masjid alHaram “The
Sacred
Mosque”
built around
the Kaaba in
Mecca
39
judaism - Sacred
Menorah: a
symbol of
Judaism since
ancient times
and the
emblem of the
modern state
of Israel
40



Religious beliefs articulate the nature of the
sacred and its symbols
Religious rituals provide guidelines as to how
people should act in the presence of the
sacred
Religion creates and reinforces social
solidarity (contributes to social stability through establishment of moral standards,
and sense of belonging)
41
Overemphasizes religion’s role in
maintaining social cohesion
Downplays religion’s dysfunctions strongly held beliefs can generate
social conflict (i.e. Fundamentalism)
When religion does increase social
cohesion, it often reinforces social
inequality
42




Religion is a human creation
Religion is “the opium of the people”: it
soothes the disadvantaged by minimizing
the importance of “this world”
Religion encourages people to accept
existing social inequalities instead of
changing their oppressive conditions
Religion unites people under ‘false
consciousness’ according to which they
believe that have common interests with
members of the dominant class
43





Historically some religions teach that the
existing social arrangements of a society
represent what God desires
Many rulers have historically declared their
rule was legitimated by God
Conflict between religious groups (religious
wars)
Conflict within religious groups (splinter
group leaving an existing one)
Conflict between a religious group and the
larger society (conflict over religion in the
classroom)
44



Religion can promote change towards equality
(abolish slavery, civil rights movements)
Sense of community that some people find in
religion is a positive force
Some contemporary religious movements
challenge the rich and powerful by advocating
for income redistribution in society (i.e.
liberation theology originated in Latin
America)
45



Religion is oriented toward this world –
religious ideas and behaviour evident in
everyday conduct
Weber examined the possibility that
Protestant Reformation strongly influenced
moral tone of capitalism in Western world
through adoption of Protestant ethic
Weber argued that ideas – whether true or
false - represent a person’s definition of
reality and therefore have potential to
influence behaviour
46



Need to interpret action by understanding
actor’s motives (Verstehen)
Researchers should place themselves in roles
of those being studied
Comparative and historical studies of religion
and found that god-conceptions are strongly
related to economic, social, and political
conditions in which people live
47
Correlation between Protestant
ethic and the strength of
capitalist development is weaker
than Weber thought
 Weber’s followers have not
always applied the Protestant
ethic thesis as carefully as Weber
did

48
 Durkheim
– Religion and
Social Solidarity
 Marx – Religion and Social
Conflict
 Weber – Religion and Social
Change
49
Religion is a common human
response to the fact that we all
stand at the edge of an abyss. It
helps us cope with the terrifying fact
that we must die. It offers us
immortality, the promise of better
times to come, and the security of
benevolent spirits who look over us.
It provides meaning and purpose in
a world that might otherwise seem
cruel and senseless.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
creature, the heart of a heartless world,
just as it is the spirit of a spiritless
situation. It is the opium of the people.
The abolition of religion as the illusory
happiness of the people is required for
their real happiness. The demand to give
up the illusion about its condition is the
demand to give up a condition which
needs illusions.
- Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy
of Right
“…divine control involves the extent that
one believes that God exercises a
commanding authority over the course
and direction of his or her own life”
- Schieman, Pudrovska, and Milkie
2005
“The belief that there exists a superhuman,
supernatural intelligence who
deliberately designed and created the
universe and everything in it”
- Richard Dawkins 2007
 Individuals
in disadvantaged
socioeconomic conditions are
more likely to be religious in
order to compensate for their
plight and acquire otherwise
unattainable rewards
- Glock and Stark (1965)

Mega Churches
◦ Non for profit, (For profit Institutions)..
◦ http://www.lakewoodchurch.com/Pages/Home.asp
x
57





Understanding what we mean by ethnicity
and race.
The importance of historical context
Trends in global migration
Being “ethnic” (non-white) in the U.S.
How ethnicity and race affect everyone
58



Is the child of a biracial couple (black and
white) black or white? Mixed?
Is Judaism a religion or an ethnicity? Both?
Race and ethnicity are terms used every day
but rarely explored.
59
Ethnicity refers to the distinct cultural
norms and values of a social group.
Characteristics of ethnic groups include (to
varying degrees):


◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Shared history
Religion and culture
Kin or ancestry
Sense of shared destiny
Language
60



Recent research has shown that because of
intergroup marriage, for many whites living in
the United States, ethnicity has become a
choice.
For many, ethnicity is largely opted out of
altogether.
For nonwhites, opting out of ethnicity is not a
choice.
61




Race refers to an externally imposed
system of social categorization and
stratification.
No true biological races exist; rather,
human groups must be placed on a
continuum.
Typically, race refers to some set of
physical characteristics granted
importance by a society.
Race is socially constructed.
62



The actual imposition of some racial schema
on society is called racialization.
The process involves both formal and
informal inequities, including segregated
schools and businesses, along with
differentiated rights.
These inequalities shape the lives of all those
in the racialized society.
63


Racism is a form of prejudice and/or
discrimination based on physical
differences.
There are many layers of racism
◦ Individual consciousness and behavior
◦ Ideologies of supremacy
◦ Institutional racism
64





Prejudice
Discrimination
Stereotypes
Scapegoats
Minority groups
65



We must consider history when working to
understand racism today.
Modern racism goes back to the history of
European colonization of much of the world.
The colonizers had strongly ethnocentric
attitudes of racial supremacy.
66


Those ideologies led to a sometimes
paternalistic form of racism, linked to
developing scientific racism.
Long-standing cultural narratives of white
and black—good or purity and evil or
impurity—combined with scientific racism
helped to deepen and then perpetuate
racialization.
67





Assimilation
Melting pot
Multiculturalism
Segregation
Problems: both segregation and
aggressive assimilation have led to
ethnic conflict
68

Trends in global migration today:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

Acceleration
Diversification
Globalization
Feminization
Transnationalism
Global diasporas
69
Note: This map is not geographically representative of population distribution.
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census 2008b.
65.9%
WHITE
(NON-HISPANIC)
198,420,355 people
15.1%
HISPANIC
OR LATINO
45,432,158 people
12.1%
AFRICAN
AMERICAN
36,397,922 people
4.3%
ASIAN
13,000,306 people
1.6%
0.7%
0.1%
0.2%
TWO OR
MORE RACES
AMERICAN
INDIAN AND
ALASKA NATIVE
NATIVE HAWAIIAN
AND OTHER
PACIFIC ISLANDER
SOME OTHER
RACE
2,041,269 people
413,294 people
4,794,461 people
Essentials Of Sociology,
3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011
W.W. Norton & Company
737,938 people
70




From early colonization on, racialization has
been part of the story of the United States.
Africans were brought as slaves in huge
numbers: nearly 4 million by 1780.
Their responses to slavery varied from
rebellion to passivity to cultural development
to hostility.
With abolition, life for former slaves did not
change quickly or evenly.
71




1820–1920: over 30 million immigrants came
to the United States voluntarily, mostly from
Europe
Not all European groups were equally
welcomed, nor were Asian immigrants.
In 1924 the National Origins Act was passed,
restricting immigration.
In 1965 that law was rescinded and today’s
immigration patterns began.
72





Until the 1960s, African Americans had few
legal rights or protections.
1954: Brown v Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas
1950s: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.
1964: President Lyndon Johnson signs the
Civil Rights Act into law
There remains some question about the
success of the civil rights movement.
73


Latinos, or Hispanics, are not a single, unified
group aside from their shared language.
The three main groups in the United States all
have very different histories:
◦ Mexican Americans
◦ Puerto Ricans
◦ Cuban Americans
74


Today there are increasing numbers of
Central American immigrants.
Latinos now make up a larger percentage of
the population than African Americans, with
approximately 15 percent versus 12 percent
(as of 2008).
75


Like Latinos, Asians are not comprised of a
single group of people.
The largest groups in the United States
include Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos,
though there are sizeable populations of
other groups.
76



Asians have a history of extreme
discrimination in U.S. history.
Even so, as a group they have done very well
and are now often referred to as a “model
minority.”
Asians currently make up about 4 percent of
the U.S. population.
77


To say that a society is racialized is to say
that it has a racial system of stratification.
The United States is a racially stratified
society, and we can see this in many places:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Educational attainment
Income
Residence
Wealth
78
Figure 10.2A High School Graduation Rates
by Race and Ethnicity, 2008.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 10.2B High School Graduation Rates
by Race and Ethnicity, 2008.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 10.3 Median Household Income by Race, 1980– 2008.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

We can also see racial inequality in:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Political representation
Residential segregation
Criminal justice system
Health and wellness
82




Over time, white ethnics have integrated well.
Asian Americans have also done quite well
when looked at as a whole.
Cubans have done very well overall.
African Americans, Native Americans, and
Puerto Ricans have not fared as well.
83

There are a variety of factors that help
explain why some groups find more success
than others.
◦
◦
◦
◦
Voluntary immigration versus forced minority status
Type and degree of discrimination faced
Ability to blend into the “mainstream”
Affinity of group culture to U.S. culture and values
84
Chapter Opener
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Celebrating the Chinese New Year with performances and
decorations is not just a picturesque event every year.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Four schoolboys represent the “racial scale” in South
Africa—black, Indian, half- caste, and white.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Map 10.1 Colonization and Ethnicity
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
A young girl joins members of the Ku Klux Klan at
a demonstration against the Martin Luther King Day
holiday in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Map 10.2 Global Migratory Movements since 1973.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Jany Deng at the Arizona Lost Boys Center in Phoenix.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
This nineteenth century cartoon, Where the Blame Lies
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Globalization and Everyday Life
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Globalization and Everyday Life
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Martin Luther King, Jr. addresses a large crowd at a civil rights
March on Washington in 1963. Born in 1929, King was
a Baptist minister, civil rights leader,
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
In this 1942 photo, young Japanese Americans wait
for bag-gage inspection upon arrival at a World War II
Assembly Center in Turlock, California.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Barack Obama became the first African American
president of the United States in the historic election of 2008.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Los Angeles
on May 1, 2006, to demand basic rights for immigrants.
Essentials Of Sociology, 3rd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
 Prejudice is an attitude that people
employ to judge others on their
group’s real or imagined
characteristics.
 Discrimination is unfair treatment
of people due to their perceived group
membership.
 DNA is a chemical that contains the genetic
instructions for all living organisms. When people
have a child, the DNA of the mates combines and the
child inherits the parents’ DNA.
 DNA consists of 3 billion pairs of four types of
molecules. Different sequences of molecules result in
different characteristics (e.g., skin colour). 99.5% of
the DNA of all people is identical.
 The remaining 0.5% of DNA may differ between
any two people; these differences (known as Single
Nucleotide Polymorphisms, SNPs or “snips”) are the
focus of research in the field of comparative
genomics.
 Snips influence readily apparent physical
differences such as skin pigmentation and less
apparent physical differences such as the capacity to
absorb and utilize various chemicals. Identifying
snips of the latter type enables the production of
“designer” drugs that are best suited to groups with
unique genetic characteristics.
 Significantly, comparative genomics research
focuses on differences between socially distinct
groups, such as blacks and whites. Yet genetic
diversity is greatest among people of African origin,
and genetic variation within other racial groups may
be pharmacologically significant.
 There is no biological evidence that races differ in
ways that explain behavioural differences.
 Behavioural differences between racial groups are
not constant.
 Behavioural differences between racial groups
vary by social circumstance.
 RACE
& ETHNICITY ARE SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTS USED TO CREATE
AND MAINTAIN SYSTEMS OF
SOCIAL INEQUALITY
Genocide: group extermination
 Expulsion: forcible removal of group from a
territory
 Slavery: legal ownership of a group
 Segregation: spatial and institutional
separation of groups
 Pluralism: retention of identity and equal
access to basic social resources (Canada
today)
 Assimilation: cultural blending of majority
and minority groups (Canada today)

Rewards
Rewards expected
Intolerable gap
Rewards received
People feel relatively deprived when they experience an intolerable gap between the social
rewards they think they deserve and the social rewards they expect to receive. Social rewards
are widely valued goods, including money, education, security, prestige, etc. Accordingly,
people are most likely to rebel against authority when rising expectations (brought on by, say,
rapid economic growth and migration) are met by a sudden decline in social rewards (due to,
say, economic recession or war).
Time
Resource mobilization theory is based on
the idea that social movements can emerge
only when disadvantaged people can marshal
the means necessary to challenge authority.
Foremost among the resources they need to
challenge authority is the capacity to forge
strong social ties among themselves. Other
important resources that allow disadvantaged
people to challenge authority include jobs,
money, arms, and access to means of
spreading their ideas.
1700
Characteristics
of social
movements
Cause of change
Small,
local,
violen
t
1900
2000
Large,
Large,
national, international,
less
less violent
violent
Growth
of state
Globalization
A war is a violent, armed conflict between
politically distinct groups who fight to
protect or increase their control of territory.
 Wars may take place:
between countries (interstate war)
special type: colonial war, which
involves a colony engaging in armed
conflict with an imperial power to gain
independence
within countries (civil or societal war)

Percent
Note: Democracy
= rule by the
citizenry;
autocracy =
absolute rule by
a single person
or party;
intermediate =
some elements of
democracy (e.g,
regular elections)
and some of
autocracy (e.g.,
no institutional
checks on
presidential
power).
Income Category
The modern state increasingly
monopolized the means of coercion.
 As a result, regional, ethnic, and
religious wars declined, and interstate
warfare became the norm.
 While conflict became more deadly,
civilian life was pacified.

There have been fewer interstate wars
and more civil wars, guerilla wars,
massacres, terrorist attacks, and instances
of attempted ethnic cleansing and
genocide perpetrated by militias,
mercenaries, paramilitaries, suicide
bombers, and so on.
 Large-scale violence has increasingly been
visited on civilian rather than military
populations.




Decolonization and separatist movements roughly
doubled the number of weak, independent states
in the world.
The USA, the USSR, China and Cuba often
subsidized and sent arms to domestic opponents
of regimes that were aligned against them.
The expansion of international trade in contraband
provided separatist rebels with new means of
support.