Final Key Terms

Purposes of formal education

•Incorporating new members into society

•Sorting people into various occupations

•Increasing economic development

Hidden curriculum

the unstated standards of behavior or teachers’ expectations

Human Capital

the stock of knowledge, skill and habits which they can use to do productive labor later in life

credentialism

“refers to the requirement of certain specific degrees or certificates before you can be considered for a particular job.”

Soft skills

also enhance job prospects: knowing how to dress, act and present oneself at work, and being able to work well with other people

human capital theory

argues that education provides knowledge and skills that employers reward because it makes workers more productive; soft skills may also play a role

allocation theory

sees education as channeling people into positions and institutions that offer different opportunities; the role of the school system is to sort people out so that employers can assess who is likely to be successful

educational homogamy

individuals are more likely to marry others with similar education levels

Effects of social class on education

-affects where we go to school and what happens to us once there

-Lower class students encounter less-prepared teachers, are exposed to less-valuable curricula, are taught less, and are expected to do less work in classroom and home

-Social class is related to the neighborhoods where people live, and neighborhoods are related to the funding available to schools, and funding is related to school quality

-Children from higher SES parents are better equipped to perform better in school

gender and racial differences in education

-“Racial differences in educational achievement can be explained by historical and current systems of racial inequality, including neighborhoods, families, schools, and peers which become important for older children.”

-In spite of desegregation efforts more than 40 percent of blacks and Latinos in 2010 were attending hyper-segregated schools where minority students comprised more than 90 percent of the student body. And more than half of these hyper-segregated schools have poverty rates above 90 percent.

-Affluent and middle class white families have often chosen to move away from urban school districts to suburban districts that are perceived as having better schools

-“In poorer nations, especially those with large portions of the population working in rural agriculture, or countries with large Muslim populations, girls are considerably less likely than boys to obtain even an elementary school education.”

demography/demographer

-social scientists who study populations and population trends

-research helps us understand why population growth is not as much of a problem as Malthus anticipated; it also helps us understand other challenges faced by societies today, such as the aging of the U.S. population

Census

a count of everyone (or everything) residing in a particular location; a national census attempts to count all persons living in a country at a particular time; they are very costly

Reasons to study population

1. analysis helps estimate future social trends helpful for planning (e.g., how many schools, etc.)

2)important for determining political boundaries (e.g, each district in House of Representatives has approximately 600,000 people)

3. trends can have a huge effect on national and regional economies (e.g., labor demand, consumption, healthcare costs)

population trends

1. Racial and ethnic composition

2. Marriage and the family (marriage and divorce rates, single-parent families, etc.)

3. Employment issues (changes in working-age population may affect employment and wages)

4. Life expectancy

Fertility

the birthrate is typically measured by the number of live births per woman of childbearing years

mortality

the death rate

migration

the movement into and out of a region or country

demographic transitions (1st, 2nd)

1st: the transition in a country or region from a period of high fertility and high mortality to a period of low fertility and low mortality

total fertility rate

defined by the number of children an average woman has in her lifetime

Replacement fertility

(the number of children per woman necessary to replace the population; about 2.1 children per woman)

age pyramids

plot the size of the population in each age group for men and women; lower age groups are at the bottom

population momentum

Occurs because the cohort of women of childbearing age may still be large or growing even though the fertility rate declined.

Influences on fertility

1) Declines in infant mortality can cause fertility decline (couples need to have fewer children if more of them survive) [but then why do countries with low mortality still differ in their levels of fertility, like the U.S. and Japan?]

2)Economic development causes the fertility decline (see Figure 21.5). But why? The education of women is particularly important. Development may also lead parents to have higher aspirations for children.

epidemiology

the study of health-related events in populations, their characteristics, their causes, and their consequences.”

Epidemiological transition

refers to the transition of a population from health conditions primarily involving infectious disease… to health conditions primarily involving chronic disease…”

“Baby boom”

refers to the period following World War II from 1946 to 1964, during which the U.S. experienced a temporary spike in fertility

cohort

refers to persons born during the same time period

life expectancy

is defined as the average number of years a population at some age can expect to live”

Markets

places where buyers and sellers exchange goods and services

social factors that affect markets

-establish the trust necessary to carry out economic exchanges.

-important for spreading information related to markets

-person’s chances of getting a job are influenced by who they know; interestingly someone’s first-degree connections are less important than second-degree connections (friends of friends) for securing a job

-Hiring does not simply involve an employer choosing from among the best candidates; referrals and recommendations are key

social network/social ties

composed of ties between people: family/kinship ties, friends, colleagues, classmates, etc. Need these to establish the trust necessary to carry out economic exchanges.

power as it relates to markets

-people’s biases affect their behavior in the market

-Employers look at characteristics such as the age, gender, race and ethnicity of a job candidate not just merit

-ex. firms can often get better deals on the same product

-Governments set many of the rules for markets, and they are essential for their proper functioning.

organizations

“a group engaged in a specific activity that has an identifiable purpose or goal and that has an enduring form of association that is independent of the people involved in it at any one moment”

bureaucracy

where rules are written down and defined roles are clear

Can provide strength and stability, but it can also create new problems

organizational isomorphism

refers to the process whereby organizations in the same field tend to become increasingly similar to each other over time (DiMaggio and Powell 1983).”

deskilling of the labor process

in which jobs are made simpler and workers become interchangeable. This way workers don’t have the upper hand

features of good jobs

•Autonomy: How much does this job allow me to control my activities versus being constantly told what to do?

•Status: Do people admire and respect me because I do this job?

•Trust: How much does my employer trust me?

•Level of skill and importance of credentials needed: Am I using my skill set?

•Job security: How likely will I be able to stay employed?

government job regulation

Some of the things that unions do can be done by government regulations (work hours, overtime pay, when workers can be fired, etc.)

The U.S. has comparatively weak government regulations regarding workers’ rights (there are minimum wage laws, rules about overtime pay, rules about fair treatment of workers in hiring and firing) \n

Inequality

the unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities

social stratification

examines inequalities among individuals and groups (how they are separated into “strata”). It is the systematic study of inequality

income

refers to the receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period (a year, month, week, day); it includes income from wages, investments, transfers from government (e.g., Social Security), transfers from relatives, etc.

Wealth

is the net value of the assets (minus debts) owned by the individual or family; the most common wealth asset is real estate. Wealth differences are usually much larger than income differences (figure 10.2)

Consumption

how much individuals or families actually consume in a given time period, can also be used to measure inequality

features of a social class

1. Have conflicting economic interests with other classes

2)Share similar life chances

3)Have similar attitudes

4)Have the potential to engage in collective action

Four reasons for increase in income inequality

1. technology,

2. the decline of manufacturing,

3. globalization,

4. government policies

Social mobility

refers to the socioeconomic movement across generations: to what extent do parents and their children have similar social and economic positions?

factors that affect social mobility

•Labor markets: when good jobs are expanding there will be more mobility

•Government policies, especially with regards to education and labor market regulation, can create opportunities for mobility: Governments decide whether disadvantaged children should receive compensatory assistance (e.g., Head Start), and whether schools in poor areas are as good as ones in wealthy areas

Poverty

Established by the government, it is the minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities. Anyone below this threshold is considered to be in poverty.

Economic restructuring

Changes in the way the economy, firms, and employment relations are organized.

Population growth

The annual average rate of change of population size, for a given country, territory, or geographic area, during a specified period.

megacity

A city with a population over 10 million

megaregion

A geographically continuous urban area containing at least two very large cities and their surrounding towns, which are connected through economic and transportation infrastructure

Suburb

Traditionally, a residential enclave within commuting distance of a city

redlining

The determination by governments and banks that neighborhoods with high percentages of racial minorities were ineligible for mortgage loans. Has been illegal since the 1970s

Suburban sprawl

The continuing geographic spread of sparse residential areas

edge cities

A concentrated area of business, shopping, and entertainment just outside of the historical urban centers of commerce. They differ from classic suburbs in having a considerable amount of land devoted to economic activities, not just residences.

model of urban ecology

An approach to the study of cities, social change, and urban life introduced into sociology by the Chicago School to explain how different social groups within cities compete over scarce resources. This competition was thought to promote efficiency and social equilibrium, as distinct sectors of the population adapted to their local environments.

Ernest Burgess

concentric zone” model of urban community structure. He saw cities as a series of rings spreading out from the center of the city, which he identified as the central business district (CBD), or “The Loop” in their map of Chicago.

City as a “growth machine”

A coalition of business interests and city boosters who work together with local governments to attract residents and economic investment to a particular area.

Gentrification

The process that occurs when neighborhoods undergo a process of change where new investment, new people, and new establishments move into and alter the character of the neighborhood.

Community

A group of individuals who interact with and often support each other on the basis of a shared aspect of personal identity. Communities of people often live in close proximity, but the term can apply to communities linked in other ways.

social ties

The various types of connections individuals make with other people.

Social capital

The resources available to a particular individual through his or her connections to others.

urban renewal

The attempt to improve impoverished areas by tearing down existing structures and even whole neighborhoods. In the mid-twentieth century, at the height of the movement, many working-class neighborhoods across America were destroyed, in many cases benefiting real estate developers and business interests who moved in and redeveloped the areas.

Great migration

The move of African Americans from the rural south to the industrial north in the first half of the twentieth century

1968 fair housing act

prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status.

segmented assimilation

The various pathways by which immigrant groups become part of the larger social fabric; instead of the pattern where the children of immigrants are economically upwardly mobile and their ethnic difference dissipates with future generations, new forms of assimilation include economic instability and continuing traditional ethnic practices.

ethnic enclaves

A place where people of a particular ethnicity live in high concentration.

Global city

A city that contains a disproportionate amount of global business activity, particularly when connected by international finance, trade, culture, and communication to other cities around the world. Because it acts as a node at the center of global economic activity, they are places in which trade and investment are facilitated.

Coercive isomorphism

Organizations are pressured to comply with certain legal requirements

Normative isomorphism

organizations respond to pressures exerted over its legitimacy