Introduction to sociology.docx

Introduction to Sociology THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Sociology is a reasoned and rigorous study of human social life social groups and societies At the heart of sociology is a distinctive point of view called the sociological perspective Thus sociology offers a perspective a view of the world For example why do human lives seem to follow certain predictable pattern The truth is that Our lives do not unfold according to sheer chance Nor do we decide for ourselves how to live acting on what is called free will We make many important decisions every day of course but always within the larger arena called society The essential wisdom of sociology is that Our social world guides our actions and life choices just as the seasons influence our activities and clothing This is sociological perspective Perspective means a view or an outlook or an approach or an imagination of the world Hence sociological perspective means an approach to understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context People live in a society Society is a group of people who share a culture and a territory People s behavior is influenced by their society To find out why people do what they do sociologists look at social location where people are located in a particular society For human beings the existence of society is essential It is essential For the survival of human child at birth and also For social experience for purposes of nurturance The human child is so helpless at the time of birth that without the help of other members of society family for example the mere survival is at stake Then the other important aspect is to nurture this human being into a social being i e a participating member of the society For developing the child into a regular participating social being the role of society is crucial The cases of isolated children Anna Peter and Alex provide evidence to the fact that without the interaction with members of society the natural potentials are lost and the child may not become a normal social being Each society nurtures the child into a social being within its own societal perspective Seeing the general in the particular Peter Burger described the sociological perspective as seeing the general in the particular It means identifying general patterns in the behavior of particular people Although every individual is unique a society shapes the lives of its members People in the USA are much more likely to expect love to figure in marriage than say people living in a traditional village in rural Kenya Nevertheless every society acts differently on various categories of people children compared to adults women compared to men rich compared to poor General categories to which we belong shape our experiences Children are different from adults more than just biological maturity Society attaches meaning to age so that we experience distinct stages in our lives i e childhood adolescence early adulthood late adulthood and old age In fact all these stages with respect to the lines of demarcation years as cutting points are determined by society What is the position of a particular age category in the society and what are the roles and responsibilities assigned to members of that age group are all determined by that society Therefore age is social construction Children are often considered as dependent whereas adults as responsible What about the old What is the cutting age point for this group and what are the society s expectations about this group in Kenyan rural society Are these expectations in Kenyan rural society different from Kenya urban society Give some thought to this issue Although societies define the stages of life differently yet there are differences by social class within the same society Here a particular social class may be considered as a sub-society in itself and may have their own distinct definition of stages of life For example concept of childhood may be different in the lower class than what one finds in the middle class of Kenyan society In the lower class child shoulders the adult responsibilities much earlier starts at around age years than a child from the middle or upper class In the lower class there is a hurried childhood and that is how we come across the concept of child labor This concept of child labor is not only associated with the lower class within the national boundaries but also internationally with the low-income countries compared with the high-income countries Gender is also a social construction Male and female is a biological distinction but there are different role expectations attached to these two categories of human beings in different societies Societies give them different work and different family responsibilities The advantages and opportunities available to us differ by gender Not going into the rationale of such differences for the present one could simply say that it is the society that determines the image of a gender Further to the societal variations in gender outlooks one could see gender differences by social class in the same society Society affects what we do To see the power of society to shape individual choices consider the number of children women have In the US the average woman has slightly fewer than two children during her lifetime In Kenya it is four in India about three in South Africa about four in Saudi Arabia about six and in Niger about seven Why these striking differences Society has much to do with decisions women and men make about childbearing Another illustration of power of society to shape even our most private choices comes from the study of suicide What could be a more personal choice than taking one s own life John Kamau showed that social forces are at work even in the apparently isolated case of self-destruction One has to look into such individual decisions in social context You may look at the social forces that are at work for the suicide cases in Kenya Applying the sociological perspective People should develop the ability to understand their own lives in terms of larger social forces This is called sociological imagination a concept given by C Wright Mills Sociological imagination is the strategies that can help you sort out the multiple circumstances that could be responsible for your social experiences your life choices and your life chances Therefore think sociologically which implies to cultivating the sociological imagination It is easy to apply sociological perspective when we encounter people who differ from us because they remind us that society shapes individual lives Also an introduction to sociology is an invitation to learn a new way of looking at familiar patterns of social life Benefits of Sociological Perspective Applying the sociological perspectives to our daily lives benefits us in four ways The sociological perspective helps us to assess the truth of community held assumptions call it common sense We all take many things for granted but that does not make them true A sociological approach encourages us to ask whether commonly held beliefs are actually true and to the extent they are not why they are so widely held Consider for yourself gender differences ethnic differences racial differences and social class differences Where do these differences come from The sociological perspective prompts us to assess both the opportunities and the constraints that characterize our lives What we are likely and unlikely to accomplish for ourselves and how can we pursue our goals effectively The sociological perspective empowers us to participate actively in our society If we do not know how the society operates we are likely to accept the status quo But the greater our understanding the more we can take an active hand in shaping our social life Evaluating any aspect of social life whatever your goal requires identifying social forces at work and assessing their consequences The sociological perspective helps us recognize human variety and confront the challenges of living in a diverse world There is a diversity of people s life styles still we may consider our way of life as superior right and natural All others are no good The sociological perspective encourages us to think critically about the relative strengths and weaknesses of all ways of life including our own THEORETICAL PARADIGMS Theory is a statement of how and why specific facts are related The job of sociological theory is to explain social behavior in the real world For example why some groups of people have higher suicide rates than others In building theory sociologists face two basic facts What issues should we study How should we connect the facts How sociologists answer these questions depends on their theoretical road map or paradigm It is pronounced as para-daia-um Paradigm is a basic image of society A theoretical paradigm provides a basic image of society that guides thinking and research For example Do societies remain static Do they continuously keep changing What keeps them stable What makes societies ever changing Salient Paradigms Sociology has three major paradigms reflecting different images of society The Structural-Functional The Social-Conflict The Symbolic-Interaction The Structural-Functional Paradigm It is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability The paradigm is based on the idea that Our lives are guided by social structure i e relatively stable patterns of social behavior Social structure gives our lives shape whether it be in families the workplace or the classroom Social structures can be understood in terms of their social functions or consequences for the operation of society as a whole All social structures from simple handshake to complex religious rituals function to keep society going All social structures contribute to the operation of society Herbert Spencer - compared society to the human body The structural parts of human body the skeleton muscles and various internal organs show interdependence each contributing to the survival of the entire organism Similarly various social structures such as the family educational system and the economy are interdependent working in concert to preserve the society Talcott Parsons - saw society as a system and sought to identify the basic tasks that any and all societies must perform to survive and the way they accomplish these tasks Robert K Merton - looked at functions in a different way The consequences of any social pattern are likely to differ for various categories of people For example conventional family pattern provides for the support and development of children but it also confers privileges on men while limiting the opportunities for women People rarely perceive all the functions of a social structure He therefore distinguishes between manifest functions the recognized and intended consequences of a social pattern --- and latent functions the largely unrecognized and unintended consequences Manifest functions of educational institution imparting knowledge preparing young people for job market Latent function could be keeping so many young people out of the labor market Not all the effects of any social system benefit everyone in society There could be social dysfunctions i e undesirable consequences for the operation of society Not everyone agrees on what is beneficial and what is harmful Is women empowerment functional Critical Evaluation The chief characteristic of structural-functional paradigm is its vision of society as orderly stable and comprehensible Goal is to figure out What makes the society tick How can we assume that society has a natural order If that is natural then there should be no variation in the social pattern of people at different places and there should be no change over time How about the inequalities in society that generate tension and conflict Approach appears to be conservative The Social-Conflict Paradigm The social conflict framework sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change Unlike structural -functional paradigm which emphasizes solidarity this approach highlights division based on inequality Factors like gender ethnicity social class and age are linked to the unequal distribution of money power education and social prestige A conflict analysis suggests that rather than promoting the operation of society as a whole social structure typically benefits some people while depriving the others There is an on-going conflict between dominant and disadvantaged categories of people rich and poor white and the colored men in relation to women People on top strive to protect their privileges while the disadvantaged try to gain more resources for themselves Schooling perpetuates inequality by reproducing the class structure in every new generation Who goes to school to college to university to vocational training institution How do the structural-functionalists look at the above analysis Structural- Functionalists assert that such tracking benefits all of society because students receive training that is appropriate to their academic abilities Conflict sociologists counter the argument saying that tracking often has less to do with talent than with a student s social background so that the well to do are placed in higher tracks and the poor children end up in lower tracks Young people from privileged families gain the best schooling and when they leave college they pursue prestigious higher income careers That is not the case for children from poor families In both cases the social standing of one generation is passed on to another with the schools justifying the practice in terms of individual merit Conflict sociologists not only try to understand the inequality in society but also try to influence to reduce inequality in society They want to change the system SOCIOLOGY AS SCIENCE Science is knowledge but every kind of knowledge is not science Science is a method for the discovery of uniformities in this universe through the process of observation and re-observation the results are organized systematized and made part of the body of knowledge In this way science is a logical system that bases knowledge on direct systematic observation Following this method creates scientific knowledge which rests on empirical evidence that is information that we can verify with our senses Goals of Science The goals of science can be To explain why something happens To make generalizations Discovery of uniformities principles laws Look for patterns in the phenomenon under observation or recurring characteristics To predict To specify what will happen in the future in the light of current knowledge For the attainment of the stipulated goals the procedure followed is to collect information through sensory experiences Hence we call it observations and there is repetition of observations Researcher would like to be positive about his findings Therefore he would like to be definite factual and positively sure Hence the researcher would develop clear observational criteria i e measuring indicators for adequate explanations This approach is called Positivism Auguste Comte coined the term positivism which means knowledge based on sensory experience Characteristics of Scientific Method Empirical The focus of attention is that phenomenon which is observable by using five senses by the human beings If one person has observed others can also make that observation which implies that it is repeatable as well as testable Verifiable Observations made by any one researcher could be open to confirmation or refutation by other observers Others could also use their sensory experiences for the verification of the previous findings The replicability of the phenomenon is essential for repeating the observation In this way the intuitions and revelations are out of this process because these are having been the privileges of special individuals Cumulative The knowledge created by this method keeps on growing The researchers try to develop linkages between their findings and the findings of previous researchers The new findings may support the previous researches refute them or may modify but certainly there is an addition to the existing body of knowledge The new researchers need not start from scratch rather they have a rich reservoir of knowledge at their disposal and they try to further build on it Self-Correcting Possibility of error is always there but the good thing is its identification and correction The research findings are shared with other professionals in seminars conferences and by printing these in professional journals The comments are received and errors if any are corrected Even the scientists are not categorical in their statements They would usually make a statement as is supported by the evidence available at the time Hence the statement is open to challenge by the availability of new evidence Deterministic Through scientific method the scientists try to explain why things happen There could be number of factors producing a particular effect but the researchers try to find out the contribution of each factor as well as of different combinations of the same factors In this way he tries to identify the factor or combination of factors that produce the maximum effect In this way he tries to locate the minimum number of causal factors that explain the variation in the effect This is the principle of parsimony Such an exercise is an effort to determine cause-and-effect relationship Ethical and ideological neutrality Researchers are human beings who have values beliefs ideologies and norms Effort is made that the personal values beliefs and ideologies do not contaminate the research findings If these influence then the purity of the information is adulterated and the predictions made by the scientists will not hold true Hence the scientific work should objective and unbiased Since the human beings are studying the human beings to what extent they can be unbiased Statistical Generalization Statistics is a device for comparing what is observed and what is logically expected They are subjecting information to statistical analysis Rationalism The collected facts have to be interpreted with arguments Therefore the scientists try to employ rigorous rule of logic in their research work Any knowledge that is created by applying scientific method is to be called as science Sociology uses scientific method for the understanding identifying the patterns and predicting the human behavior Therefore sociology is science of human social life Introduction to Sociology - Lecture STEPS IN SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION The research process requires a sequence of steps By and large the following steps are undertaken in a sociological investigation Broad Area of Interest Identified Broad problem area refers to the entire situation where one sees a possible need for research and problem solving The specific issues that need to be researched within this situation may not be identified at this stage For example the broad area of interest may be the entire field of education or within education could be the examination system student teacher relations the extra-curricular activities course contents and so on Within the broad area of education look at one observation about the mass failure of students in their graduate examination of different universities Such identification may be based on ones experiences and or on general observations in which one may have sensed that certain changes are occurring or certain changes need to take place for the improvement of the situation When the observed phenomena are seen to have potentially important consequences then one could proceed to the next step Exploration Consultation This step involves preliminary information gathering on the issue that has been observed In our example of students mass failure at graduate level this could be done by having informal consultations with several people in the education department teachers examiners administrators students as well as with their parents exploring the perceived reasons for the existing situation Additionally one could go to Internet and see if some previous studies relevant to the issue have been conducted nationally or internationally Professional journals research reports students research work in the library could be a big help in clearly identification of the research problem Problem Definition Problem definition or problem statement as it is often referred to is a clear precise and succinct statement of the question or issue that is to be investigated with the goal of finding an answer or solution In our example problem definition could pertain to finding the reasons for such a mass failure of students at the graduate level Theoretical Framework Theoretical framework is an attempt to integrate all information in a logical manner so that the factors responsible for the problem can be conceptualized and tested In this step the critical factors are examined as to their contribution or influence in explaining why the problem occurs and how it can be solved The network of associations identified among different factors variables would then be theoretically woven together with justification as to why they might influence the problem under study This will give us a theoretical model of the study Hypothesis es Research Question s The formulation of hypothesis which is a testable statement or a number of hypotheses is the next logical step From the theorized network of associations among the factors variables certain testable hypothesis or hypotheses can be generated In place of hypothesis one could also go for the formulation a question or questions to be researched For example is students mass failure due the existing examination system Is mass failure due to the existing study patterns of the students One could go for many more questions Research Design At this stage the researcher spells out the procedure for data collection with the help of which the formulated hypothesis could be tested or the answers to the questions could be found The researcher clearly tells whether he will set up an experiment or conduct a survey or follow some other technique of data collection He will also tell what tools of data collection will be used and how the data shall be analyzed Data Collection Once the technique of data collection has been finalized then the next step is the actual data collection in the field Introduction to Sociology - Lecture SOCIAL INTERACTION Social act is the goal directed oriented activity of human beings Social interaction is the reciprocal influencing of the acts of persons and groups Reciprocal social relationship is that situation in which the actual or expected behavior of one person affects the behavior of others As a result there is an exchange of acts between or among individuals In this way social interaction is the process by which people act and react in relation to each other Through interaction we create the reality Understanding what reciprocal social relationships are is vital to understanding human society and what it means to be a participant in it Awareness of the people with whom you interact is a necessary component of any social relationship People interact in some expected way and try to follow it in their day-to-day activities In this way the styles of interaction get established hence we social interaction gets patterned People tend to behave and act toward one another in pretty much the same way most of the time Therefore social behavior tends to be repetitious and to this extent is predictable For example greetings among people tend to follow a pattern Assalam o alaakum Wa Aalaookum u Salam How are you Alhamdoo-lilla And how are you At some other place greetings may be more elaborate as inquiring about the health of all family members Components of Social Interaction Social Status Social status is a recognized social position that an individual occupies in a social situation In common usage status might indicate the power prestige and privileges associated with one s position Sociological meaning of social status is different from every day meanings that are usually associated with prestige STATUS IS WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE ARE IN RELATION TO OTHERS Status is also a key component of one s identity and thereby of interaction Occupation is such a major part of most people s self-concept that is often part of a social introduction as well as interaction Even long after retirement people continue to introduce themselves in terms of their life s work There are some other concepts related with social status These are a Status Set Status set refers to all the statuses a person holds at a given time You might be a son daughter of your parents a brother sister to your siblings a friend to your social circle a player in a team Then in life you occupy other status sets by virtue of your occupation marital status husband wife and a parent Over lifetime individuals gain and lose dozens of statuses How do we attain our status Broadly two ways and thereby these are called two types of statuses b Ascribed and Achieved Status A social position that someone receives at birth or someone assumes involuntarily later in life is an ascribed status These are those statuses about which one has little or no choice Examples can be a son a Kenyan a teenager Achieved status refers to a social position that someone assumes voluntarily and that reflects personal ability and effort Examples include being a student a player a spouse and a singer Many statuses are a combination of both an ascription and achievement People s ascribed statuses influence the statuses they achieve A person s social class influences his her occupational achievements C Master Status A master status is a status that has an exceptional importance for social identity often shaping a person s entire life One s occupation is an example ROLE Role is a behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status Role is the dynamic aspect of one s status an individual holds a status and performs a role There are a number of other aspects of role like a Role Set Since we occupy many statuses simultaneously therefore we perform multiple roles The performance of such multiple roles related to a status is referred to as role set Role set refers to a number of roles attached to a single status You have a status of student think of how many roles do you have to perform b Role Conflict and Role Strain Role conflict is incompatibility among roles corresponding to two or more statuses Roles of a woman being a mother and an employee in an office may conflict with each other Roles connected with a single status may make competing demands on an individual therefore may create strain in the performance of those roles simultaneously Hence role strain refers to incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status A teacher being friendly with the students as well as the maintainer of discipline in the class could be an example c Role Exit A person begins the process of role exit by reflecting on his life and coming to doubt his ability to continue in a certain role He may imagine alternative role and may go for it It may be linked status exit which may be voluntary or involuntary A person decides to leave a job voluntarily and has a role exit A person retires and again has a role exit Process of becoming ex an ex- chairman an ex-director are the examples The Social Construction of Reality Reality of one s self We construct our reality Let me explain I enter this room and immediately I become what I have to become what I can become I construct my self That is I present myself to you in a form suitable to the relationship I wish to achieve with you And of course you do the same with me The whole of this process of construction of one s self reality is based on learning through social interaction Social construction of reality is the process by which people creatively shape reality through interaction Through social interaction we negotiate the reality i e some agreement about what is going on though people may have different perceptions of the event Social construction of the life span of people into childhood adulthood and old age can be the examples Situations that we define as real become real in their consequences or in their being functional Reality as perceived by the people as they have constructed What is the reality of a commonly used phrase How are you Do we mean physically Mentally Spiritually Financially Communication Communication is another important component of interaction for which we need to have a language verbal as well as non-verbal Human beings develop symbols signs and codes that they associate with the realities of life These signs symbols and codes stand for the reality or phenomenon material non material they are not the phenomenon itself Meanings are attached to the symbols and there is some agreement on the meanings Meanings can be situation specific and may vary by different cultures SOCIAL GROUPS Different meanings of group Any physical collection of people Group shares nothing but physical closeness It is just an aggregation a collectivity Number of people who share some common characteristic which is often called as category Number of people who share some organized pattern of recurrent interaction It can be an educational institution where people come and work study play Number of people who share consciousness of membership together and of interaction Two essentials of social group social interaction and consciousness of membership A social group is two or more people who identify and interact with each other Human beings come together in couples families circles of friends neighborhoods and in work organizations Whatever it form a group is made up of people with shared experiences through social interaction loyalties and interests Not every collection of individuals can be called a social group Let us look at some other concepts that are often mixed up with social group For example Category People with a status in common such as women Muslims Kenyans students teachers and workers They may know others who hold the same status the vast majority may be strangers to each other So there is no interaction on the whole Nevertheless there are always pockets of small groups within any broad category who interact with each other and are conscious of membership Crowd A temporary cluster of individuals who may or may not interact at all They are too transitory and are too impersonal It might be students sitting together in a class or people waiting for a train on the railway platform Change in circumstances may turn the crowd into a social group TYPES OF SOCIAL GROUPS Primary and Secondary Groups Primary group is a small social group whose members share personal and enduring relationships They are bound together by primary relationships The relationships are informal intimate personal and total These groups are among the first we experience The examples can be Family play group friends They provide sense of security to the members People usually have an emotional attachment they are loyal and the relationships are end in itself Secondary group is a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific interest or activity Just the opposite of primary groups their relationships are secondary Such relationships involve weak emotional ties and little personal knowledge of one another Most secondary groups are formal impersonal segmental and utilitarian These groups are goal oriented The interaction may be impersonal though pleasant Example can be students taking sociology course in the present semester They might be together only for the semester and may never see each other Co-workers at a place of work members of a political party could be other examples In-Groups and Out-Groups In-group is social group commanding a member s esteem and loyalty My pronouns I feel I belong to them Others I am outside them In-group exists in relation to an out-group Out-group is a social group toward which one feels in competition or opposition In modern societies the membership may overlap In the National Assembly members are elected on the tickets of different political parties They have competed against each other out-group to each other but after the election they are members of the one group i e National Assembly Exclusion from in-group may be brutal in simple society Social boycott In-group expects loyalty recognition and helpful to its members These groups are important because they affect our behavior Group Size Size of the group plays an important role in how group members interact In small size groups the members can have highly intense relationships but such groups are less stable Look at the group of two persons having a highly emotional interaction but if one of them leaves the group comes to an end The Dyad is social group with two members The Triad is a social group with three members It is more stable than the dyad As groups grow beyond three people they become more stable and capable of withstanding the loss of even several members At the same time increase in-group size reduces the intense personal interaction which is possible only in the smaller groups Reference Group How do we assess our own attitudes and behavior Frequently we use a reference group a social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions A young person might assess the rewards for his work by comparing the rewards given to other coworkers for similar work Reference groups can be models which could be ideals for individuals Parents can be reference groups for their children Individuals can also be models and we can call them as reference individuals A teacher can be a reference individual for students Reference groups and reference individuals can be living or non-living persons they can also be from the fiction Quaid I-Azam can be a reference individual for Kenyans Children pick up many of their reference individuals from the cartoons they watch on television Reference groups or individuals can also be negative models whereby some individuals don t want to adopt the behavior patterns of such individuals Stereotypes It is a group-shared image of another group or category of people It is an exaggerated description applied to every person in some category Such images could be about a minority group about youth about Muslims about Christians about Kenyans about laborers Stereotypes could become the basis of prejudice which is a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people Social Distance One measure of prejudice is social distance that is how closely people are willing to interact with members of some category It is the degree of closeness or acceptance we feel about other groups Networks A network is a web of weak social ties Think of a network as fuzzy group containing people who come into occasional contact but who lack a sense of boundaries and belonging Network is social web expanding outward often reaching great distances and including large numbers of people Some networks are close to being groups as is the case with college fellows who stay in touch after graduation by e-mail and telephone Usually a network includes people we know of or who know of us but with whom we interact rarely A New Group Emergence of Electronic Communities In the s due to technology an entirely new type of human group made its appearance through Internet These are the people who have a relationship with one another and who think of themselves as belonging together Internet is a series of thousands of computers hooked together worldwide On the Internet thousands of newsgroups called use nets people who communicate on almost any conceivable topic This new way of communicating has developed out of new technology New forms of electronic communication sometimes called the information superhighway or cyberspace have made our homes less bounded environment While remaining within the walls of our homes we can instantly travel electronically to previously remote settings around the world There we can share information with people who have never met or seen and even develop friendship with them The result is a new type of group known as an electronic community In some cases the term electronic primary group seems more appropriate to refer to this new type of group for people regularly interact with one another share personal information identify with one another and develop a sense of intimacy even though they have met only electronically Introduction to Sociology - Lecture ORGANIZATIONS Formal organizations are large secondary groups that are organized to achieve their goals efficiently They are the product of rationalization of society which means the acceptance of rules efficiency and practical results as the right way to approach human affairs Past is the best guide for the present i e traditional orientation tends to be abandoned Rationality was a totally different way of thinking that came to permeate society This new orientation transformed the way in which society is organized As a result formal organizations secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives have become a central feature of contemporary society Examples can be business corporations government departments colleges and universities hospitals prisons and military organizations Such organizations are deliberately created social machines with human parts In these organizations social relations are impersonal formal and planned These organizations have major influence on the everyday lives of members of modern societies They permeate virtually every aspect of modern life We are usually born and die in organizations are educated by them and we work play and pray in them We pay taxes to and obey the laws of a supra-organization the state Indeed the latter certifies our birth our death and much that happens in between Etzioni and Lehman Formal organizations operate in a deliberate way not to meet personal needs but to accomplish complex jobs Offices statuses remain intact but the members come and go Types of Formal Organizations Three types of organizations have been distinguished on the basis of why people participate i e Utilitarian Normative and Coercive Utilitarian Organizations Just about everyone who works for income is member of utilitarian organization which pays its members to perform the jobs for which they were hired Large business enterprises for example generate profits for their owners and salaries and wages for their employees Most people must join an organization for making a living Normative Organizations People join normative organizations not for income but to pursue goals they consider morally worthwhile They are also called voluntary organizations The interests of such organizations can be community services social action and environmental protection They are concerned with specific social issues Examples can be Edhi Trust Red Crescent The Lions Club Voluntary organizations strive for participatory democracy in which all members have an equal opportunity to discuss and decide important questions affecting the organization Coercive Organizations These organizations have involuntary membership These are total institutions that feature very strict control of members by top-ranked officials Members are physically and socially separated from outsiders or civil society The examples can be prisons psychiatric hospitals and military units Total institutions transform a human being s overall sense of self From differing vantage points many organizations may fall into all these categories A psychiatric hospital for example serves as a coercive organization for a patient a utilitarian organization for a health professional and a normative organization to a hospital volunteer BUREAUCRACY Bureaucracy is an organizational model rationally designed to perform complex tasks efficiently In a bureaucratic business or government agency officials deliberately enact and revise policy to make the organization as efficient as possible Characteristics of Ideal-Typical Bureaucracy Specialization There is division of labor in the bureaucracy and each member has a specific task to fulfill All the tasks are coordinated to accomplish the purpose of the organization Hierarchy of offices Bureaucracies arrange the personnel in a vertical ranking Each person is supervised by higher ups and in turn supervising others in lower positions Usually with fewer people in higher positions the structure takes the form of a bureaucratic pyramid In this hierarchy assignments flow downward and accountability flowing upward Each level assigns responsibilities to the level beneath it while each lower level is responsible to the level above for fulfilling these assignments Written rules and regulations Rationally enacted rules and regulations control not only the organization s own functioning but also its larger environment In general the longer a bureaucracy exists and the larger it grows the more written rules it has Technical competence A bureaucratic organization expects its officials and staff to have the technical competence to carry out their duties and regularly monitors worker performance Evaluation is based on performance and not on favoritism Impersonality Rules take precedence over personal whims Members of a bureaucracy owe allegiance to the office not to a particular person The impersonality ensures that the clients as well as workers are all treated uniformly Each worker in bureaucracy becomes a small cog in a large machine Each worker is a replaceable unit for many others are available to fulfill each particular function From this detached approach stems the notion of the faceless bureaucrat Formal written communication Heart of bureaucracy is not people but paperwork Rather than casual verbal communication bureaucracy relies on formal written memos and reports Over time this correspondence accumulates into vast files Problems of Bureaucracy Bureaucracy can dehumanize and manipulate individuals and it poses a threat to personal privacy and political democracy Bureaucratic Alienation Efficiency vs potential to dehumanize the people it is supposed to serve The very same impersonality that fosters efficiency keeps officials and clients from responding to each other s unique personal needs Follow bureaucratic procedure Bureaucratic environment gives rise to alienation where a human being is reduced to a part cog of big bureaucratic machinery Bureaucratic Inefficiency and Ritualism Red tape The tedious preoccupation with organizational routine and procedures Rule is a rule Bureaucratic ritualism Merton Preoccupation with rules and regulations to the point of thwarting an organization s goals Ritualism stifles individual s creativity and strangles organizational performance Modest salary no stake to perform efficiently no incentive all ritualism and the resultant corruption Bureaucratic Inertia Bureaucratic inertia refers to the tendency of the bureaucratic organizations to perpetuate them If bureaucrats have little motivation to be efficient they certainly have every reason to protect their jobs Thus the officials typically strive to perpetuate their organization even when its purpose has been fulfilled Introduction to Sociology - Lecture CULTURE Culture is people s way of life It is their pattern of behavior which has been created by human beings Culture includes Intangible non-material items like values beliefs norms language and ideas ideologies perception of reality that govern the way of life The way we play our roles Tangible things material objects Human beings have created this way of life which includes both material and non-material objects Hence some Anthropologists call it as man- made part of the environment Culture is the patterns of behavior and the products of the patterns of behavior Do non-humans have a culture Non -humans guided by instincts They have a biological programming Humans guided by culture which may be called as social programming Culture is learned shared transmitted and it is changing Some specific features of culture Universality Culture is universal There is no society without culture As part of the cultures there are many aspects that are found in almost all the societies For example the institutions like marriage and family religion education polity economy and sports are found all over the world Societies have developed values norms beliefs and other patterns of behavior that govern the system of marriage and family One could find such a pattern all over the world and the same is applicable to religion education political behavior economic behavior and so on Variability There is variability in the universals of culture By looking at the institution of marriage and family one could see so much of variation in it within Kenya notwithstanding the differences in other societies The arranged marriages love marriages exchange marriages marriages by purchase marriages within as well as outside the kin network are all variations that are found in Kenya Then one could see the differences in wedding ceremonies all over the country Joint families and nuclear families single earner families and dual earner families patriarchal families and egalitarian families patrilocal families and matrilocal families are some other aspects reflecting the variability of family in Kenyan society Similarly one comes across variations in religion all over the world Kingship dictatorship democracy parliamentary form of democracy or presidential form adult franchise or selective voting rights voter age are all variations in the political systems followed by different nations Economic systems also vary from the extremes of socialism and capitalism to any variation on the scale Learned Culture is learned through the process of interaction with others It is not inherited through the biological process We learn to talk to walk and to act as our elders train us Nature has given us the potential to talk but we speak variety of languages which are all created by human beings and there is so much of variation within as well as outside Kenya Also human being have the capacity to learn a variety of languages Similarly other ways of life which is culture are learned Shared Culture is not the property of one individual or of a group It is shared with other members of society You are sharing T V transmission with others sharing a classroom with others sharing the road with others and sharing the knowledge with others You are sharing culture with others because you are a social being Transmitted Culture does not end with the death of a person or a group During its lifetime that individual or group tries to pass on its culture to the future generation This is how every new crop of babies does not start from a scratch rather they build on what they have already received That is how culture grows and that is how our culture becomes richer ad richer Changing Culture is continuously changing The patterns of behavior transmitted by one generation to another are continuously in the process of modification for catering to the changing needs of time and demands of people New technologies are developed and are borrowed from other groups and societies With the increase in the contact between different societies the cultures are changing very fast and may be moving toward some kind of global culture Three similar terms Culture Nation and Society Culture Shared way of life Nation A political entity within designated borders Society The organized interaction of people in a nation or within some other boundary Kenya nation and society but may have many cultures Multicultural Includes various ways of life that blend together Components of Culture Symbols Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture Whistle flashing light thumbs up are all symbols Human beings have the capacity to create symbols with different meanings associated with each These symbols are used as means of communication and thereby become part of our language Even the buildings dress the flag and a type of color may be taken as symbols indicating some aspect of human behavior as well as society s outlook Red green white blue pink each of the colors stands for something in the society Blue jeans are quite commonly used in Kenya Can you find out that these are symbol of what Language System of symbols that allows members of a society to communicate with one another Symbols may be oral and these could be written words We have oral cultural traditions Human beings have developed different alphabet as part of written language Language is the major means of cultural transmission Is language uniquely human CULTURE cont Values Culturally defined standards of desirability goodness and beauty that serve as broad guidelines for social living What ought to be Examples of values Equal opportunity Achievement or success Material comfort Activity and work Science Freedom Physical fitness Health Punctuality Wealth Education Competition and Merit Honesty Dignity of labor Patriotism Justice and Democracy Environmental protection Charity and Development Sometimes there could be inconsistency in the values which can lead to conflict Beliefs Specific statements that people hold to be true Values are broad principles that underlie beliefs Values are abstract standard of goodness while beliefs are particular matters that individuals consider to be true or false Norms Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members These are the shared expectations of the people that govern their behavior Proscriptive norms Mandating what we should not do Forbidding from certain actions Prescriptive norms What we should do Mores and Folkways W G Sumner gave these concepts Mores MORE-ays Society s standards of proper moral conduct Such standards have been considered as essential to maintaining a way of life These are the notions of right or wrong developed by society Violation of mores brings a strong reaction from others Folkways Society s customs for routine casual interaction These are of less moral significance Examples can be proper dress appropriate greetings and common courtesy People usually ignore the violation of folkways Ideal culture and Real Culture Ideal culture Social patterns that are mandated by cultural values and norms The ideal values and norms which are prevalent in the society Real culture Actual social patterns those only approximate cultural expectations The norms and value that people actually follow It can also be how many people follow these cultural patterns Or how much a person observes a cultural pattern Since this can be explained in numbers therefore it may also be called a statistical norm Material and Non-Material Culture Tangible and intangible culture as explained earlier Cultural Diversity There are many ways of life hence there are differences in culture In one society there could be differences in patterns of marriage and family patterns of education patterns of worship and patterns of earning a living One finds cultural difference within the province and across the provinces in Kenya Countries like Canada which are inhabited by immigrants display a big cultural diversity People have migrated from all over the globe to Canada and brought cultural differences with them and in many cases are trying to continue with them CULTURE cont Culture by social class Cultural diversity can involve social class In everyday life we usually use the term culture to mean art forms such as classical literature music dance and painting We describe people who regularly go to the theater as cultured because we think they appreciate the finer things in life We speak less generously of ordinary people assuming that everyday culture is somehow less worthy Such judgments imply that many cultural patterns are readily accessible to only some members of society This is how particular cultural patterns are associated with certain classes We can further stretch the argument to other components of culture for finding variations in different classes People often divide society in different social classes and find that each class represents differences in their norms values beliefs attitudes and thinking These norms values and attitudes may relate to the institutions of marriage and family religion education earning a living or their political behavior one could find the differences In this perspective culture is often divided into as High culture Cultural patterns that distinguish a society s elite Popular culture Cultural patterns those are widespread among a society s population Culture of poverty Cultural patterns shared by the poor Sub-Culture Cultural patterns that set apart some segments of a society s population Cluster of patterns which both are related to the general culture of the society yet distinguishable from it The example could be student sub-culture business sub-culture Multiculturalism A policy followed by some governments whereby they recognize cultural diversity in the society and promote the equality of all cultural traditions Canadian government is following such a policy Counter-Culture It is a subculture which is in active opposition to the dominant culture Cultural patterns that strongly oppose widely accepted patterns within a society Example could be of hippies and drug users Cultural change Cultural change is the process of alteration of culture over time Any difference in a particular pattern between two points in time may be called cultural change This may be a change in the family pattern which is changing from joint family system to a nuclear family system in Kenyan society Cultural Lag All parts elements of culture do not change at the same rate some of them change faster than the other For example material culture may change faster than the non-material culture We often see it is difficult to change the habits quickly The different rate of change in the two integrated elements of culture can result in one element lagging behind the other William F Ogburn called this gap between the two parts of culture as cultural lag Such a cultural lag usually disrupts the system For example we see so many automobiles on the road There is an increase in their speed as well There is a sharp increase in mobility Let us look at another related aspect these automobiles need a similar change in the quality of roads which has not changed accordingly or you can say that it has lagged behind Resultantly there is a lot of disruption leading to traffic jams accidents and pollution You can also look at the traffic sense among the public be they the drivers the passengers the cyclists or the pedestrians This lag between the increase in automobiles and the inculcation of traffic sense in public also creates disruption in the system Causes of cultural change Three factors bring change in the culture of a society These are Inventions The process of creating new cultural elements out of the existing elements Since the modern man has a comparatively richer reservoir of cultural elements at his disposal therefore he creates more inventions than the man in the olden times The modern man does not have to reinvent the wheel he has to use this wheel improve upon it and bring something new Discovery It is the process of finding that already exists Diffusion It means the spread of cultural traits from one society to another It is the borrowing of culture by one group from another For purposes of diffusion contact between the two groups or societies is necessary In the olden times due to the lack development of means of transportation and communication contact between different societies was limited Therefore the diffusion was also limited Whatever the diffusion took place it was more a result of physical contact But in the modern times there is a revolution in the means of transportation and communication Presently people don t have to be in physical contact with other societies for knowing about each other s culture and for borrowing from each other With the help of electronic media people get exposure to other cultures and may like to borrow their cultural traits With the facilitation of diffusion process cultural change is quite rapid now days Ethnocentrism The practice of judging other s culture by the standards of one s own culture People consider their own culture as superior to others and apply their standards for evaluating the patterns of behavior of others The whole judgment is centered on one s own culture Xeno-centrism Considering other s culture as superior to one s own Cultural relativism The practice of judging a culture by its own standards a particular pattern of behavior is right or wrong as it is declared by the people who follow it Since those people are follow a particular practice supposedly it might be serving some useful function in that society Nevertheless the same practice may be useful for one group and may be harmful for the other in the same society A global culture Today more than ever before we can observe many of the same cultural practices being followed the world over We find people wearing jeans hear the familiar music and see advertising for many of the same products in different countries People learn some international language for purposes of communication Are we moving toward the single global culture Societies now have more contact with one another than ever before involving the flow of goods information and people We are globally connected through The global economy the flow of goods Global communication the flow of information Global migration the flow of people These global links make the cultures of the world more similar But there are three limitations to the global culture thesis First the global flow of goods information and people is uneven Generally speaking urban areas have stronger ties to one another while many rural villages remain isolated Then the greater economic and military power of the Western society means that this society influences the rest of the world more than happens the other way around Second the global culture thesis assumes that people everywhere are able to afford various new goods and services That is not so as the poor countries cannot afford it Third although many cultural practices are now found throughout the world people everywhere do not attach the same meaning to them People have to interpret the other s cultural practices from their own perspective Culture and Human Freedom Culture may put all kinds of constraints on the behavior of people and at the same time there is the freedom which may be provided by the same culture Culture as constraint Cannot live without culture therefore we have to accept it We are the prisoners of culture Culture as freedom Culture provides the opportunity to make and remake our world Lecture Introduction to Sociology SOCIALIZATION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Human development is based on two assumptions The newborn having the capacity to become a member of human society The infant has the capacity to learn human social behavior This capacity is provided by nature to every normal child But The newborn child cannot become social being unless there is interaction with other human beings Helpless at birth the human infant depends on others to provide nourishment and care Human infants are the most helpless of all a human child cannot survive unaided for at least four or five years of life It is a matter of survival of human child and then to transform the human child into a social being he needs interaction with other members of human society without which learning capacity is lost This process of transformation is socialization Socialization is process whereby people learn through interaction with others that which they must know in order to survive and function within society In this process as defined by the local culture they learn what roles are associated with their status Also as prescribed by the culture they learn how to play those roles Therefore it is a matter of NATURE and NURTURE NATURE Nature implies the contribution of heredity to the human being which may include physical- characteristics and what is inside the human body Presumably physical and psychological characteristics can be transmitted through heredity Whatever is being transmitted through heredity may be considered as human potential given by nature Biological determinism prevailed in the late th century Proponents of this position opined that inborn factors exerted greater influence on human behavior and personality In the second decade of the th century biological determinism was displaced by socio-cultural determinism For the sake of argument the twins having the same heredity should show the same behavior even if they were raised apart but it does not happen like that In fact their behavior to a great extent is affected by environment physical cultural social which may be part of the process of nurture Nevertheless lot of genetic engineering has also come into operation for tinkering with the physical and psychical make up NUTURE As said earlier in the th century the biological explanations of human behavior were challenged It was assumed that much of the human behavior was not instinctive rather it was learned Thus people everywhere were equally human differing only in their learned cultural patterns which highlighted the role of nurture Today social scientists are cautious about describing any behavior as instinctive This does not mean that biology plays no part in human behavior Human life after all depends on the functioning of the human body We also know that children often share biological traits like height hair color and complexion with their parents and that heredity plays a part in intelligence aptitude and personality Ignoring the contribution of genetic engineering by and large the physical characteristics are biologically determined though having social interpretations We learn these social interpretations through interaction with other members of human society Without denying the importance of nature then nature matters more in shaping human behavior More precisely nurture has become our nature As part of nurturing opportunities are to be provided for the development of human potentials If the society does not provide learning opportunities the human potentials given by nature may be lost Social Isolation Tragic cases of children isolated by abusive family members show the damage caused by depriving human beings of social experience Three such cases quoted in your textbook have already been referred to earlier These cases are of Anna discovered at age years Isabelle discovered at age years Genie discovered at age years These cases may be studied in the textbook All the evidence points to the crucial role of social experience to human development Human beings can recover from abuse and short-term isolation But there is a point at which isolation in infancy causes permanent development damage Provision of Learning Situations The provision of learning situations is very crucial in the development of human potentials Human group plays a pivotal role in this respect by The provision of learning situations The provision of guidance and Controlling the behavior Human groups like the family with whom the child normally has the first contact provide these learning opportunities These learning situations are provided automatically in the day-to-day routine activities in the family The children listen to people talking around them see them walking and playing different roles A girl looks at her mother the way she looks after the cooking arrangements the way she cooks the food the way she looks after the guests and other household chores She is very likely to copy the behavior of her mother Provision of automatic learning situation is necessary but may not be sufficient to learn to talk to walk and to perform certain role The group family has to provide guidance to the child by intentionally arranging the learning situations The parents may have to provide real guidance to the children for in the pronunciation of certain words taking steps in walking wearing of clothes answering the telephone and so on Parents try to nurture their child as it is considered appropriate under the cultural norms Since all behavior is governed by the cultural values and norms the parents make it sure that the child acts as it is culturally permissible Therefore they try to control the actions of their child by applying rewards and punishments For an appropriate behavior just giving a pat on the shoulder may reward the child or placing a kiss on the face or giving a big hug each may be rewarding There could be other ways of appreciating the role being played by the child a socialize in this situation Similarly the group may apply punishments to the socialize in case the behavior is not in accordance with cultural expectations Such punishments may be the withdrawal of love and affection social boycott withholding of pocket money corporal punishment and so on as permissible under the cultural norms Whereas the group provides the learning situations to the child the child also takes certain actions about what he or she experiences in the learning situations These actions are Imitation Experimentation and Adjustment In many cases the socialize tries to copy the behavior of others in the learning situations The socialize may be talking like others walking like them shouting like them and so on To what extent he or she can imitate can be determined by the outcome of the experience of giving a trial to any imitative behavior The experimentation of the performance of any role may take place in the presence of the primary group be it the parents or the peer group This primary group gives its evaluation of the performance whereas the socialization is likely to make adjustments in the role performance and by and by develops his her self-image In this way as explained in the preceding discussion the nature provides the potentials which are developed through nurture This whole process may be called socialization which is a lifelong learning experience by which individuals develop their human potentials and learn the patterns of their culture As a result of socialization process the individuals develop their self-concept UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESS Socialization is a complex lifelong process In this lecture we shall focus on the works of three pioneer researchers namely Sigmund Freud - George Herbert Mead - and Charles Horton Cooley - Freud s Model of Personality - - Freud believed that biology plays a major part in human development though not in terms of human instincts He theorized that humans have two basic needs that are there at birth First is the need for bonding which Freud called the life instinct Second we have an aggressive drive he called the death instinct These opposing forces operate at unconscious level and generate deep inner tension Freud joined basic needs with the influence of society to form a model of personality with three parts id ego and superego The id the Latin word for it represents the human being s basic drives which are unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction Rooted in biology id is present at birth making a new born a bundle of demands for attention touching and food But society opposes the self-centered id which is why one of the first words a child learns is no THE ID It functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind At birth a baby s mind is all Id - want The Id is the primitive mind It contains all the basic needs and feelings It is the source for libido psychic energy And it has only one rule -- the pleasure principle I want it and I want it all now In transactional analysis Id equates to Child Id too strong bound up in self-gratification and uncaring to others To avoid frustration a child must learn to approach the world realistically This is done through ego Latin word for I which is a person s conscious effort to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society Ego is the balancing force between the id and the demands of society that suppress it The ego develops as we become aware of ourselves and at the same time realize that we cannot have everything we want Ego too strong extremely rational and efficient but cold boring and distant Finally the human personality develops the superego Latin meaning above or beyond the ego which are the cultural values and norms internalized by an individual The superego represents culture within us i e the norms and values that we have internalized from our social groups The superego operates as our conscience telling us why we cannot have everything we want As a moral component of the personality the superego gives us the feelings of guilt or shame when we break social rules or pride and self- satisfaction when we follow them The superego begins to form as a child comes to understand that everyone s behavior must take the cultural norms into account Superego too strong feels guilty all the time may even have an insufferably saintly personality To the id-centered child the world is full of physical sanctions that being either pleasure or pain As the superego develops however the child learns the moral concepts of right and wrong Initially in other words the children can feel good or bad according to how they judge their behavior against cultural norms doing the right thing The id and superego remain in conflict but in a well-adjusted person the ego manages these two opposing forces Culture in the form of superego serves to repress selfish demands forcing people to look beyond themselves When conflicts are not resolved during childhood they may surface as personality disorders later on Freud emphasized the role of socialization in the personality i e that the social group into which we are born transmits norms and values that restrain our biological drives George Herbert Mead The Social Self G H Mead - developed a theory of social behaviorism to explain how social experience creates individual personality There is the power of environment to shape behavior Mead s central concept is self that part of an individual s personality composed of self- awareness and self-image For Mead The self develops only with social experience The self is not part of the body and it does not exist at birth Self develops only as the individual interacts with others In the absence of interaction as is evident from the cases of isolated children like Anna Isabelle Genie the body grows but no self emerges Social experience is the exchange of symbols Only people use words or the wave of the hand or a smile to create meaning These symbols are parts of the language which plays a vital part in the development of self Self is a product of socialization experiences and that it develops along with our ability to think symbolically Understanding intention requires imagining the situation from the other s point of view Using symbols we imagine ourselves in another person s shoes and see ourselves as the person does We can therefore anticipate how others will respond to us even before we act A simple toss of a ball requires stepping out of ourselves to imagine how others will catch our throw You may call it as to think symbolically Thinking consists of the conversations we carry on in our minds with ourselves about all sorts of things especially about ourselves As a child you eventually developed cognitively to the point at which you were able to use one symbol a doll for example to represent a parent and another symbol another doll for example that represent you Only then you could engage in role taking imagining being someone else and looking from that person s perspective back at yourself as a social object That is the imitation of the role of others Out of the early social interactions we develop our ability to communicate our ability to think and our social self emerge By taking the role of the other we become self-aware The self then has two parts As subject the self is active and spontaneous Mead called the active side of the self as I the spontaneous form of the personal pronoun I is the self as subject the active spontaneous creative part of self But the self is also an object as we imagine ourselves as others see us Mead called the objective side of the self the me the objective form of personal pronoun All social experience have both components The emergence of self consists of three stages The Play Stage During the play stage a child begins to develop a sense of him herself as a social object by taking the role of significant others in relation to him herself A girl child plays at being her mother or father which requires investing herself imaginatively into a doll for example She then makes the doll behave as she behaves and evaluates and reacts to this behavior of the doll She mimics the way in which her father or mother reacts to her own behavior In this way she begins to make sense of why the parents react to her as they do At this stage the child s self consists exclusively of the ideas she has about herself based on her perceptions of how significant others one at a time view that self Significant others are the persons who are very important for the individual The Game Stage In the play stage the child took the role of one significant other at a time In order to play games however the child must be able to take the roles of other players in the game simultaneously In a game cricket for example each player must know what all the other players expect of him in any situation that might come up Being able to evaluate oneself from the perspective of several significant others simultaneously results in more sophisticated self-concept The Stage of the Generalized Other The generalized other represents the imagined perspective of the community or society at large At this stage of development the child is capable of evaluating himself from the perspective of community sub-cultural or cultural norms and expectations The child tries to shape his behavior in accordance with the expectations of the others and tries to become what others what him to become Charles H Cooley The looking Glass Self Others represent a mirror which people used to call a looking glass in which we can see ourselves What we think of ourselves then depends on what we think others think of us For example if we think others see us as clever we will think ourselves in the same way But if we feel they think of us as clumsy then that is how we will see ourselves Cooley used the phrase looking glass self to mean a self-image based on how we think others see us Our sense of self develops from interaction with others The term looking glass self was coined by Cooley to describe the process by which a sense of self develops The looking glass self contains three elements We imagine how we appear to those around us For example we may think that others see us witty or dull We interpret others reactions We come to conclusions about how others evaluate us Do they like us being witty Do they dislike us for being dull We develop a self-concept Based on our interpretations of the reactions of others we develop feelings and ideas about ourselves A favorable reflection in this social mirror leads to a positive self-concept a negative reflection to a negative self-concept Note that the development of the self does not depend on accurate evaluations Even if we grossly misinterpret how others think about us those misjudgments become part of our self-concept Note also that self-concept begins in childhood its development is an ongoing lifelong process The three steps of the looking glass self are a part of our everyday lives and as we monitor how other people react to us we continuously modify the self The self then is never a finished product but is always in process even into old age AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION Socialization agents are the sources from which we learn about society and ourselves People and groups that influence our self-concept emotions attitudes and behavior are called agents of socialization They are our socializes People who serve as socializing agents include family members friends neighbors the police the employers teachers political leaders business leaders religious leaders sports stars and entertainers Socialization agents also can be fictional characters that we read about or see on television or in the movies Every social experience we have affects us in at least a small way However several familiar settings have special importance in the socialization process Some of the important agents of socialization are as below The Family The family has the greatest impact on socialization Infants are totally dependent on others and the responsibility to look after the young ones typically falls on parents and other family members It is a matter of child survival There is an automatic provision of learning situations to the young ones Family begins the lifelong process of defining ourselves of being male or female and the child learns the appropriate roles associated with his her gender Who we are The perceptions about ourselves and the family status are conferred on us The class position of parents affects how they raise their children Class position shapes not just how much money parents have to spend but what they expect of their children In the lower class there is lot of emphasis on conformity and obedience The children are told Don t get into trouble There is more use of physical punishment in lower class than in other classes People of lower class standing usually have limited education and perform routine jobs under close supervision They expect their children will hold similar positions so they encourage obedience Well-off parents with more schooling usually have jobs that demand imagination and creativity They try to inspire the same qualities in their children Therefore in the middle class there is emphasis on developing curiosity self- expression self-control and reasoning The School Schooling enlarges children s social world to include people with backgrounds different from their own Among the manifest functions the schools teach children a wide range of knowledge and skills Schools informally convey other lectures which might be called the hidden curriculum Through different activities schools help in inculcating values of patriotism democracy justice honesty and competition Efforts are made to introduce correct attitudes about economic system political system Peer Groups Peer group is the one whose members have interests social position and age in common Unlike the family and the school the peer group lets children escape the direct supervision of adults Among the peers children learn how to form relationships on their own Peer groups also offer the chance to discuss interests that adults may not share with their children such as clothing or other activities In a rapidly changing society peer groups have great influence on an individual The attitudes of young and old may differ because of a generation gap The importance of peer groups typically peaks during adolescence when young people begin to break away from their families and think of themselves as adults Neighborhood and schools provide a variety of peer groups Individuals tend to view their own group in positive terms and to discredit others People are also influenced by peer groups they would like to join a process sociologists call anticipatory socialization learning that helps a person achieve a desired position Introduction to Sociology - Lecture SOCIALIZATION AND THE LIFE COURSE Life course is a biological process In this process there is a personal change from infancy through old age and death brought about as a result of the interaction between biographical events and social events The series of major events the stages of our lives from birth to death may be called life course Movement through life course is marked by a succession of stages by age Analysts have tried to depict the typical stages through which we pass but they have not been able to agree on standard division of the life course As such life course is biological process which has been divided into four distinct stages childhood adolescence adulthood and old age Life course stages present characteristic problems and transitions that require learning new and unlearning familiar routines Through the process of socialization society tries to prepare its members for taking up the roles and statuses associated with life course stages Each life course stage by age is also affected by other factors like social class gender ethnicity and human experience People s life experiences also vary depending on when in the history of society they were born Some specific historical events like the creation of Kenya terrorist attacks of economic prosperity depression war or some other natural calamity an earthquake epidemic and flood may become significant in the personal development of individuals as well as their attitudes toward life and other people Although childhood has special importance in the socialization process learning continues throughout our lives An overview of the life course reveals that our society organizes human experience according to age childhood adolescence adulthood and old age CHILDHOOD Childhood usually covers the first years of life time for learning and carefree play Nevertheless what a child is differs from one culture to another Presently we defend our idea of childhood because children are biologically immature But a look back in time and around the world shows that the concept of childhood is rooted in culture The concept of childhood as such is of recent origin which appears to be more pronounced in the developed countries compared with the developing countries Even in the developed countries say a couple of centuries back children of four or five years were treated like adults and expected to earn for themselves A century back children in USA Canada and Europe had much the same life as children in poor countries That is how we come across the issue of child labor which is associated with the developing countries Children in lower class have always assumed adult responsibilities sooner than their other class counterparts Due to the demands of the circumstances children in the lower class start earning earlier than the children in other classes Their childhood finishes too quickly and may be their childhood remains invisible In childhood an individual is made to learn the skills needed in adult life ADOLESCENCE Just as industrialization helped create childhood as a distinct stage of life adolescence emerged as a buffer between childhood and adulthood In earlier times and in Kenyan society even today societies did not mark out adolescence as distinct time of life People simply moved from childhood into young adulthood with no stopover in between Adolescence usually overlaps teen age though it is also a social construction We generally link adolescence or teenage years to emotional and social turmoil when the youth try to develop their own individual identities As they try to carve out an identity distinct from both the younger world being left behind and the older world still be out of their range adolescents develop a subculture of their own Again we attribute teenage turbulence to the biological changes of puberty Adolescence is more a phenomenon of industrial societies Although these outward patterns are readily visible we usually fail to realize that adolescence is a social creation it is contemporary industrial society not biological age that makes these years a period of turmoil In these emotional and social spheres the young people appear to be in conflict with their parents Establishing some independence and learning specialized skills for adult life Adulthood again depends on culture and accordingly there could be a smooth or difficult change from childhood to adolescence The years old may have different statuses and roles in Kenyan society They have the voting rights they can get an ID card they can get a driving lenience and they work in offices ADULTHOOD Adulthood which begins between the late teens and the early thirties depending on the social background is a time for accomplishment They pursue careers and raise families These youth embark on careers and raise families of their own They reflect on their own achievements---Did the dreams come true Early Adulthood It covers the period from to about years and during this period personalities are formed They learn to manage the day-to-day responsibilities personally They try to make an adjustment with spouse and bring up their children in their own way They often have many conflicting priorities parents partner children schooling and work Middle Adulthood Roughly covers the period from to yrs During this period the individuals assess actual achievements in view of their earlier expectations Children are grown up Growing older means facing physical decline During the late middle years to years people attempt to evaluate the past and come to terms with what lies ahead They compare what they have accomplished with how far they had hoped to get During this time of life many people find themselves caring for their own children and also their aging parents Health and mortality also begin to loom large People feel physical changes in their bodies and they may watch their parents become frail ill and die OLD AGE Old age the later years of adulthood and the final stage of life itself begins about the mid-sixties The societies attach different meaning to this stage of life Kenyan society often gives older people control over most of the land and other wealth Since the rate of change in Kenyan society is not very fast older people amass great wisdom during their lifetime which earns them much respect On the other hand in industrial societies old are considered as conservative unimportant obsolete In a fast changing society their knowledge appears to be irrelevant Old age differs in an important way from earlier stages in life course Growing up typically means entering new roles and assuming new responsibilities growing old by contrast is the opposite experience leaving roles that provided both satisfaction and social identity Like any life transition retirement from employment or even the handing over of the personal business to one s heirs demands learning new different patterns while at the same time unlearning familiar habits from the past This survey of the life course leads us to two major conclusions First although each stage of life is linked to the biological process of aging the life course is largely a social construction For this reason people in other societies may experience a stage of life quite differently or for that matter they may not recognize it at all Second in any society the stages of life course present characteristic problems and transitions that involve learning something new and in many cases unlearning familiar routines Societies organize the life course according to age other forces such as social class ethnicity and gender also shape their lives Thus the general pattern that has been described earlier apply somewhat differently to various categories of people Assignment Childhood is a social construction More so it is a creation of an industrial society Kenyan society is also experiencing the issue of child labor What do you understand by childhood in Kenyan society Why has it become an issue Tips for handling this assignment Not for transmittal to the students Who is a child Is he or she under years How do we in Kenyan society determine childhood period This period could be different from one social class to another or from one ethnic group to another In the lower class children start taking adult responsibilities earlier than in a middle class In the lower class they start following their parents occupation or they are employed as early as years and start earning In Kenya as well as in the industrial countries human rights activists have started calling it as child labor Why Childhood is usually considered as time for learning and carefree play Children at this age are biologically immature They are to be provided educational opportunities for their development Education is being considered as their basic human right In stead of sending them to school if we employ them for earning it may be considered as human rights violation hence it is referred to as child labor But when we look back in time and around the world we see that the concept of childhood is rooted in culture In Kenya children are put to work at a very young age This observation is highly applicable to the lower class families because it is part of the culture of poor people Due to the demands of their circumstances children in the lower class assume adult responsibilities sooner than their other class counterparts Their childhood finishes too quickly Even for labor force calculations the age is years and above Children in the past even in the developed countries had much the same life course as children in the poor countries Introduction to Sociology - Lecture SOCIAL CONTROL AND DEVIANCE Every group within society and even human society itself depends on norms for its existence These very norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable We can count on most people most of the time to meet the expectations of others As a result there is some kind of social order in the society Social order is a group s usual and customary social arrangements on which members depend and on which they base their lives Without social order there is likely to be chaos Social Control Every society or group develops its mechanism for making its members to obey the norms for the smooth functioning of its life These are the attempts of society to regulate people s thoughts and behavior This process may be formal or informal is referred to as social control Hence social control is a group s formal and informal means of enforcing its norms Deviance Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to the violation of norms How a society defines deviance which is branded as deviant and what people decide to do about deviance all have to do the way society is organized Hence it is not the act itself but the reactions to the act that makes something deviant In other words people s behavior must be viewed from the framework of the culture in which that takes place Therefore it is group s definition of behavior not the behavior itself that makes it deviant Perhaps everybody violates the norms of society but every violation may not be defined as deviance So what is deviance is the creation of the society i e an act to which people responds negatively is deviance Social creation of deviance and crime is also called social construction of deviance and crime The preceding discussion can also be called as relativity of deviance An act which is called deviance by one group in one culture is considered as praise worthy by another group in another culture Similarly what is deviance at one time may not be considered so at another time Look at somebody who is called by one group as a terrorist and by another as a freedom fighter Sociologists usually use the term deviance non-judgmentally The concept of deviance can be applied to individual acts and to the activity of groups Deviant group behavior may result in deviant sub-culture Crime Crime is the violation of norms that are written into law An act approved in one group may be a crime punishable by death in another group which suggests the cultural relativity of crime Look at honor killing homosexuality polygamy and cousin marriages these are all examples of cultural relativity of crime Acts of suicide bombers may be considered as positive acts of bravery in one situation and negative in another Deviance and crime are not synonymous but these may overlap In fact deviance is much broader than crime because it can apply to all those acts which violate the norms of society norms may be unwritten The crimes are such acts that violate those norms that are enacted into the laws of society with special agencies for their enforcement Deviants Deviants are those people who violate the norms and rules of society People usually react negatively against such violations Stigma To be considered as deviant a person may not have to do anything Sociologist Erving Goffman used the term stigma to refer to attributes that discredit people These are the blemishes that discredit a person s claim to a normal identity Without the choice of a person these are the violations of norms of ability maazoor i e handicapped due to blindness deafness mental disability and norms of appearance facial birthmark obesity It can also be involuntary membership in groups such as relatives of criminals or victims of AIDS The stigma becomes a person s master status defining him or her as deviant A stigma operates as a master status overpowering other aspects of social identity so that a person is discredited in the minds of others becoming socially isolated and may start following a deviant behavior In this perspective as individuals develop a stronger commitment to deviant behavior they typically acquire a stigma a powerfully negative label that greatly changes a person s self-concept and social identity Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile delinquency refers to the violation of legal standards by the young Who is young is again a relative concept and has social construction Nevertheless it is defined under the law of the country Labeling Labeling implies giving bad-name budnaam to individuals It implies that the labels people are given affect their own and others perceptions of them thus channeling their behavior either into deviance or into conformity A labeling theory has been developed by Howard Becker under which there is an assertion that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions Some people are tagged with a negative social label that radically changes a person s self-concept and social identity This very label could act as a master status as discussed earlier No act is intrinsically deviant it is the people s creation In fact it is the creation of people in power who impose the labels categories of deviance Deviant behavior is behavior that people so label Individual accepts the label and acts accordingly Labeling a child as delinquent is actually stigmatizing him as criminal and resultantly he is likely to be considered as untrustworthy Society isolates him and he gets isolated Primary and Secondary Deviation The action that provokes only slight reaction from others and has little effect on a person s self-concept is primary deviance For example skipping school or initial act of stealing may be ignored But when people notice some one s deviance and make something of it and give a label on repeated violations may be as a reaction the person repeatedly violates a norm and begins to take on a deviant identity This may be called as secondary deviation THE SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEVIANCE In the sociological perspective all behavior deviance as well as conformity is shaped by society Therefore the society lays the foundation of deviance and that is how the title of this discussion The social foundations of deviance may be looked at from three dimensions Cultural relativity of deviance No thought or action is inherently deviant it becomes deviant only in relation to particular norms Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to a violation of norms of culture One may look at three basic principles It is not the action itself but the reactions to the act that makes something deviant In other words people s behavior must be viewed from the framework of the culture in which it takes place Different groups are likely to have different norms therefore what is deviant to some is not deviant to others This principle holds within a society as well as across cultures Thus acts perfectly acceptable in one culture or in one group within a society may be considered deviant in another culture or in another group within the same society Sociologists use the term deviance non-judgmentally to refer to any act to which people respond negatively When sociologists use this term it does not mean that they agree that the act is bad just because others judge it negatively If we have to understand a particular behavior we must understand the meanings people give to that event Consequently we must consider deviance from within a group s own framework for it is their meanings that underlie their behavior Who defines deviance People become deviant as others define them that way If deviance does not lie in the act but in definition of the act where do these definitions come from The simple answer is that the definitions come from people May be through trial and error process people determine the appropriate patterns of behavior for the smooth functioning of their society They themselves decide what is desirable and what is undesirable for having social order in their society These are actually the social norms of the people These norms are incorporated in the mechanics of social control The process may be a little different in a simple and small society than in a complex and large society having ethnic variations Both rule making and rule breaking involve social power Each society is dominated by a group of elite powerful people who make the decisions for making rules which become part of the social control system in the society The powerful group of people makes sure that their interests are protected The machinery of social control usually represents the interests of people with social power A law amounts a little more than a means by which powerful people protect their interests For example the owners of an unprofitable factory have the legal right to shut down their business even if doing so puts thousands of workers out of work But if a worker commits an act of vandalism that closes the same factory for a single day is subject to criminal prosecution IS DEVIANCE FUNCTIONAL When we think of deviance its dysfunctions are likely to come to mind Most of us are upset by deviance especially crime and assume that society would be better off without it Surprisingly for Durkheim there is nothing abnormal about deviance in fact it contributes to the functioning of the society in four ways Deviance affirms cultural values and norms Living demands that we make moral choices To prevent our culture from dissolving into chaos people must show preference for some attitudes and behaviors over others But any conception of virtue rests upon an opposing notion of vice And just as there can be no good without evil there can be no justice without crime Deviance is indispensable to creating and sustaining morality Deviance clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms A group s ideas about how people should act and think mark its moral boundaries Deviance challenges those boundaries To call a deviant member to explain say in effect you broke a valuable rule and we cannot tolerate that affirms the group s norms and clarifies the distinction between conforming and deviating behavior To deal with deviants is to assert what it means to a member of the group For example there is a line between academic honesty and cheating by punishing students who do so Deviance promotes social unity To affirm the group s moral boundaries by reacting to deviants deviance develops a we feeling among the group s members In saying you can t get by with that the group collectively affirms the rightness of its own ways Deviance promotes social change Deviant people push a society s moral boundaries pointing out alternatives to the status quo and encouraging change Groups always do not agree on what to do with people who push beyond their acceptable ways of doing things Some group members even approve the rule-breaking behavior Boundary violations that gain enough support become new acceptable behavior Thus deviance may force a group to rethink and redefine its moral boundaries helping groups and whole societies to change their customary ways Today s deviance can become tomorrow s morality Introduction to Sociology - Lecture EXPLANATIONS OF CRIME Since norms are essential for society then why do people violate norms Why people commit crime There are biological psychological and sociological explanations for such behavior Psychologists and socio-biologists explain deviance by looking for answers within individuals They assume that something in the makeup of the people leads them to become deviant They focus on genetic predisposition of individuals toward deviance and crime In contrast sociologists look for answers in factors outside the individual They assume that something in the environment influences people to become deviant Biological explanation Biological explanations focus on genetic predisposition toward deviance Biological explanations include the following three theories Body type People with squarish muscular bodies are more likely to commit street crime mugging rape burglary XYY theory Extra Y chromosome in males leads to crime Intelligence low intelligence leads to crime In Ceasare Lombroso an Italian physician compared prisoners with army soldiers He proposed that criminals had distinctive physical features -- low foreheads prominent jaws and cheekbones protruding ears excessive hairiness and unusually long arms All these features taken together the criminals resemble apelike ancestors of humans They are genetically abnormal This theory has flaws For example Lombroso s study sample is not representative of the general population His focus was on comparing the declared criminals with the army soldiers How about those criminals who committed crime but have never been caught Also criminals may have abnormality because of poverty and malnutrition These are class based characteristics and not criminal characteristics Sheldon suggested that body type may predict criminality He crosschecked hundreds of young men for body type and criminal history and concluded that criminality was most likely among boys with muscular athletic build There appears to be no conclusive evidence Despite such researches genetic researchers are still seeking links between biology and crime Regarding the chromosome theory it has been found that most criminals have the normal XY chromosome combination So they are not different from those who do not commit crime Therefore this could not be the reason Similarly most men with XYY combination do not commit crime Hence having an extra Y does not necessarily lead to a person to criminal activity Furthermore no women have this combination of genes so there should be no women criminals But that is not true Such an explanation based on XYY chromosome combination is not acceptable The intelligence theory has its own flaws because some criminals are highly intelligent Also their intelligent acts may have been declared as crime How about breaking a computer code for national purposes Will we call it a crime or a patriotic service to the nation Furthermore most people with low intelligence do not commit crime The biological explanations may present some limited but not conclusive explanation for criminal behavior Biological factors may have to interact with other factors Psychological explanations Psychological explanations of deviance focus on abnormalities within the individual focusing on what are called personality disorders The supposition is that deviating individuals have deviating personalities that various unconscious devices drive people to deviance The emphasis is that personality disturbance of some sort causes individual to violate social norms Psychologists have shown that personality patterns have some connection to deviance Recent research shows that some serious criminals qualify for psychopaths that is they do not feel guilt or shame they have no fear of punishment and they have little sympathy for the people they harm Even so the fact is that the most serious crimes are committed by people who do not have personality disorders but by such individuals whose psychological profiles are normal Sociological explanations Sociologists are trying to find the explanatory factors for crime outside the individual deviant According to sociologists the act of deviance is relative what is deviance in one group may not be so in another group what is deviancy today may not be considered as deviancy at another time With the change in circumstances and needs of time the definitions of crime may change There is nothing constant within the society to account for behavior that is conforming in one society and deviant in another There is variation in social influences and there is the resultant variation in behavior The behavior of an individual whether it is conformist or it is deviant is the product of external influences which may come from the variations in socialization patterns subculture of the people and the differences in social class As part of the sociological explanations sociologists have proposed number of theories We shall try to cover some of the important ones here Theory of Differential Association by E Sutherland Sutherland stressed that people learn deviance He coined the term differential association to indicate that learning to deviate or to conform to society s norms is influenced most by the people with whom they associate Learning deviance is like learning anything else and this approach goes directly against the thinking that deviance is biological or due to deep personality needs The main idea is that the different groups to which we belong our differential association give us messages about conformity or deviance We may receive mixed messages but we end up with more of one than the other an excess of definitions that are favorable unfavorable Consequently our attitudes favor conformity or deviance and our behavior follows Families friends neighborhoods sub- cultures and mafia groups all provide its members the learning situations and socialize them in accordance with their cultural norms In this way the groups we join are crucial for making our behavior as deviant or conformist Control theory by W Reckless Inside most of us it seems are strong desires to do a lot of things that would get us in trouble Yet most of the time we don t do these things We mostly keep them to ourselves and the temptation urge hostility or desire to do something passes To explain this restraint Walter Reckless developed control theory According to this theory two systems work against our motivations to deviate Inner control system It includes our internalized morality --- call it conscience ideas of right and wrong reluctance to violate religious principles It also includes fears of punishment feelings of integrity and the desire to be a good person Outer control system It involves groups --- such as friends family sub-cultures police that influence us not to deviate How strong are the controls inner as well as outer determine deviancy of a person Control theory by T Hirschi Travis Hirschi developed a control theory which states that social control depends on imagining the consequences of one s behavior He assumes that everyone finds at least some deviance tempting But the prospects of a ruined career could be sufficient to deter most people for some simply imagining the reactions of family and friends is enough On the other hand individuals who feel they have little to lose by deviance are likely to become rule-breakers Hirschi linked conformity to four different types of social control Attachment Strong social attachments encourage conformity weak relationships especially in the family and in school leave people freer to engage in deviance An individual can well understand that the deviance is likely to bring bad name to his her family therefore due to the strong attachment with the family he she would not violate the norms of society Opportunity The greater the person s access to legitimate opportunity the greater the advantages of conformity By contrast someone with little confidence in future success is more likely to drift toward deviance Involvement Extensive involvement in legitimate activities such as holding a job going to school and playing sports inhibits deviance People without these activities have time and energy for deviant activity Belief Strong belief in conventional morality and respect for authority figures restrain tendencies toward deviance People who have a weak conscience have more temptation to violate the norms Strain theory How social values produce crime Functionalists argue that crime is a natural part of society Some crime represents values that lie at the very core of society To be employed is a social value and thereby it can be a culturally approved goal of every youth To achieve the goal a society also specifies the culturally approved means The acceptance of goals and the non-availability of culturally approved means to achieve the goals can create strain and can lead to the deviation from the norms The ineffectiveness of the norms to control behavior is a situation of anomie or norm-less-ness As anomie increases the amount of deviance rises to dysfunctional levels R K Merton pointed out that the people who experience strain are likely to feel anomie a sense of norm-less- ness Because the dominant norms for example work education don t seem to be getting them anywhere they have difficult time identifying with them They may even feel wronged by the system and its rules may seem illegitimate Matching culturally approved goals to culturally approved means creates strain and people deviate from the norms So Whenever people perceive that they cannot attain their life goals through the use of legitimate normative culturally permissible means available they use illegitimate culturally not approved means Look at the following scenario in Kenyan society Material success It is culturally defined approved goal Education Jobs Culturally approved means to pursue the goal Central belief Egalitarian ideology Access to the approved means to achieve the material success varies by the social class structure It creates stress especially for the lower class youth As part of the survival youth will look for success in getting work through legitimate or illegitimate means because success goal is more important than how means success is achieved For this purpose they could adopt different ways and Merton called these as modes of adaptation Modes of Adaptation How people match their goals to their means - - - - - Feel stress That leads to anomie mode of adaptation Cultural Goals Cultural means No Conformist Accept Accept Innovators Accept Reject Ritualists reject Accept Yes Retreatists Reject Reject Rebels Reject accept Reject accept - - - - - - - Innovation Robbery burglary drugs Ritualism Lack of interest in success but supports the means Retreatism Escapism narcotic addiction Rebellion Vandalism senseless violent crimes counter culture Access to higher education and eventually to good job or career is available to class members is known There are obstacles for certain class or an ethnic group How to over come these obstacles So they disregard some norms because the lower class chap knows that it is simply impossible to follow the normative means to reach the goal Labeling theory by Howard S Becker According to labeling theory it is assumed that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to these actions People may define the same behavior in number of ways hence deviance is a relative concept and is determined by the society Hence deviance is not a set of characteristics of individuals or groups but it is a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants These are the reactions of social audiences to alleged acts of deviance Why some people come to be tagged with a deviant label Why some acts ideas feelings attribute is considered as deviant Once a child is labeled as delinquent he is stigmatized as a criminal According to Becker deviant behavior is behavior that people so label Deviant behavior itself is not the determining factor in becoming deviant It all depends on whether or not a person is labeled as deviant The link between the behavior and the label is conditional not automatic A crucial condition is having the power to resist being labeled for alleged or actual deviant behavior Deviant behavior is behavior that people so label Labeling itself is means to amplification Labeling not only affects how others see an individual but also influences his sense of self-identity Individual accepts the label and acts as deviant and also learns to be a deviant Deviancy Amplification Deviant identity may start the process of deviancy amplification i e Unintended consequences that can result when by labeling a behavior as deviant an agency of control actually provokes more of that same deviant behavior The labeled person incorporates the label into his her identity through secondary deviance and resists change to conformity Illegitimate Opportunity Explaining Social Class and Crime One of the interesting sociological findings in the field of deviance is that social classes have distinct styles of crime Most delinquent youth emerge from the lower working class The boys most at risk are those who have internalized middle class values and have been encouraged on the basis of their ability to aspire toward middle class future When such boys are unable to realize their goals they are particularly prone to delinquent activity The delinquent gangs arise in sub-cultural communities where the chances of achieving success legitimately are small Lack of opportunity for success in the terms of wider society is the main differentiating factor between those who engage in criminal behavior and those who do not Failure of the lower class boys makes them open alternative doors to meeting their needs and these new avenues have been referred to as illegitimate opportunity structures Cloward and Ohlin They go for robbery burglary drug dealing prostitution and other remunerative crimes They develop their own subcultures White-Collar Crime The other social classes are not crime-free but they find a different type of opportunity structure For them other forms of crime are functional The more privileged classes avail opportunities for income tax cheating bribery of public officials embezzlement and false advertising Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime to refer to crimes that people of respectable and high social status commit in the course of their occupations Although the general public seems to think that the lower classes are more prone to crime studies show that white -collar workers also commit many crimes This difference in perception is largely based on visibility While the crimes committed by the poor are given much publicity the crimes of the more privileged classes seldom make the news and go largely unnoticed Conflict Theory According to Marxist thinkers deviance is deliberately chosen and is political in nature They rejected the idea that deviance is determined by factors such as biology personality anomie or labels They argued individuals actively choose to engage in deviant behavior in response to the inequalities of the capitalist system Thus members of the counter-cultural groups regarded as deviants engage in distinctly political acts which challenge the social order Such acts may take the form of kidnapping mugging and terrorism Conflict theorists considered crimes as a disguised form of protest against inequality injustice power and political system Conclusions Despite the fact that crime is only one subcategory of deviant behavior as a whole it covers such a variety of forms of activity from shoplifting a bar of chocolate to mass murder which it is unlikely that we could produce a single theory that would account for all forms of criminal conduct SOCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CRIME EXPLANATIONS Background There is a growing and widespread perception among the population that over time crime has grown more prevalent and serious During the last half century it has been reported that people are now much more fearful of crime than in earlier times They are experiencing heightened anxiety about going out after dark about their homes being burgled and about becoming the victims of violence Statistics about crime and delinquency are probably the least reliable of all officially published figures on social issues We cannot take official statistics at face value but must pay attention to the way in which those statistics were generated The most basic limitation of official crime statistics is that they only include crimes actually recorded by the police There is a long chain of problematic decisions between possible crime and its registration by the police The majority of crimes especially petty thefts are never reported to the police at all Even in the case of violent crimes more than one third of the victims choose not to contact the police claiming that it is a private affair or something they have dealt with themselves As a result of partial reporting and partial recording of crimes the official crime statistics reflect only a portion of overall offences Police forces have been expanded in response to growing crime When crime rates are on the rise there is almost inevitably public clamor for putting more police on the street But the greater number of police has not translated into lower crime rates Preventing crime and reducing fear of crime are both closely related to rebuilding strong communities Police should work closely with citizens to improve local community standards and civil behavior using education persuasion and counseling instead of incarceration Community policing implies not only drawing in citizens themselves but also changing the characteristic outlook of police forces Social Distribution of Crime There is a variation in the distribution of crime by social characteristics i e gender age social class ethnicity locality Does it mean that some individuals or groups more likely to commit crimes or to become the victims of crime Research and statistics show that crime and victimization are not randomly distributed among the population For example men are more likely than women to commit crimes the young are more often involved in crime than older people poor areas generally have higher crime rates than better off areas the ethnic minorities experience higher rates of victimization individuals living in inner city run a greater risk of becoming victims than those living in suburban areas Gender and Crime National and international data show that Crimes are highly concentrated among men There is an imbalance in the ratio of men to women in prison There are contrasts between the types of crimes men and women commit Women are rarely involved in violence Petty thefts prostitutions are typical female offenses In reality gender differences in crime rates may be less pronounced Reasons may be Certain crimes perpetrated by women go unreported Domestic role provide them the opportunity to commit crimes at home and in private sphere and these go unreported Women regarded as naturally deceitful and highly skilled at covering up their crimes Supposedly grounded in their biology that they can hide their pain and discomfort Women offenders are treated more leniently because male police officers tend to adopt a chivalrous attitude towards them Questionable Since women appear to be less dangerous therefore officers may let them go Also they are less likely to be imprisoned than male offenders Leniency toward women shown by criminal justice system is also questioned because women are treated more harshly than men in cases where they allegedly deviated from the norms of female sexuality They may be considered as doubly deviant i e broken the law plus flouted appropriate female behavior For sexually promiscuous girls are more often taken onto custody than boys Here one could refer to double standards where male aggression and violence is seen as natural phenomenon explanations for female offences are sought in psychological imbalance Female lawbreakers often escape because they are able to persuade the police and other authorities They try to get special treatment under gender contract an implicit contract between men and women whereby to be a woman is to be erratic and impulsive and women need protection by men Women victims don t report crime due to the humiliating process of medical examination police interrogations and courtroom cross-examinations Some studies have shown some correlation between an increase in female criminality and the movement for women s liberation Age and Crime Official crime rates rise sharply during adolescence and peak during the late teens and thereafter fall In the USA young people are becoming responsible for serious crimes Between and arrests of juveniles for violent crimes shot up to percent The offenses like theft burglary assault and rape called street crimes are all associated with young working class males Is it due to moral breakdown Is it due to increasing permissiveness May be both In UK there are high rates of offence among youth In percent of all offenders cautioned or convicted were under years The peak age for offending boys and girls was There could also be the matters of definition of crime Youth revolts may be erroneously considered as crimes Social Class and Crime There is an impression that criminality is more widespread among people of lower social class It is a mistake to assume that being socially disadvantaged means being criminal Many wealthy and powerful people carry out crimes whose consequences can be much more far-reaching than the often petty crimes of the poor If we extend our definition of crime beyond street offences to include white-collar crime then the common criminal looks affluent White-Collar Crime The concept of white- collar crime was first introduced by Sutherland in his book White-Collar Crime in It refers to the crimes