This document includes all the keywords as mentioned by in the book "Sociology - A global introduction" by John J Macionis and Ken Plummer, edition 5. They are organized alphabetically, just like in the back of the book.
A
Absolute poverty = a lack of resources that is life threatening (often measured as a per capita
income equivalent to less than one/one and a half international dollars a day)
Achieved status = a social position that someone assumes voluntarily and that reflects
personal ability and effort
Acid rain = precipitation that is made acidic by air pollution and destroys plant and animal life
Action perspective = a micro-theory that focuses on how actors assemble social meanings
Activity theory = a high level of activity enhances personal satisfaction in old age
Actors = people who construct social meanings
Afrocentrism = the dominance of African cultural patterns
Ageism = prejudice and discrimination against the elderly
Age-sex pyramid = a graphical representation of the age and sex of a population
Age stratification = the unequal distribution of wealth, power and privileges among people at
different stages in the life course
Agriculture = the technology of large-scale farming using, initially, ploughs harnessed to
animals and later, more powerful sources of energy
Alienation = the experience of isolation resulting from powerlessness
Animism = the belief that elements of the natural world are conscious life forms that affect
humanity
Anomie = lack of norms
Anticipatory socialisation = social learning directed towards gaining a desired position
Anti-racism = institutions, practices and theories which work to reduce the levels of racism in
society
Ascribed status = a social position that someone receives at birth or assumes involuntarily
later in life
Assimilation = the process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture
Authoritarianism = a political system that denies popular participation in government
Authority = power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive
B
Behaviourism = specific behavior patterns are not instinctive but learned
Beliefs = specific statements that people hold to be true
Big Science = a particularly strong sense of expertise and its cominance, one that is usually
strongly backed by money, supported by governments and given a lot of symbolic prestige
Bilateral descent = a system tracing kinship through both men and women
1
, Biography = a person’s unique history of thinking, feeling and acting
Blue-collar (or manual) occupations = lower-prestige work involving mostly manual labor
Body projects = the process of becoming and transforming a biological entity through social
action
Bureaucracy = and organisational model rationally designed to perform complex tasks
efficiently
Bureaucratic inertia = the tendency of bureaucratic organisations to perpetuate themselves
Bureaucratic ritualism = a preoccupation with rules and regulations to the point of thwarting an
organization’s goals
C
Capabilities = opportunities for human functioning
Capitalism = diverse economic systems which stress private ownership, profit, free markets
and competition
Caste system = a system of social stratification based on inherited status or ascription
Cause and effect = a relationship in which change in one variable (the independent variable)
causes a change in another (the dependent variable)
Census = a count of everyone who lives in the country
Charisma = extraordinary personal qualities that can turn an audience into followers
Charismatic authority = power legitimized through extraordinary personal abilities that inspire
devotion and obedience
Church = a type of religious organisation well integrated into the larger society
Civilisations = broadest, most comprehensive cultural entities
Civil religion = a quasi-religious loyalty binding individuals in a basically secular civil society
Class conflict = antagonism between entire classes over the distribution of wealth and power in
society
Class consciousness = Marx’s term for the recognition by workers of their unity as a social
class in opposition to capitalists and capitalism itself
Class society = a hierarchical, usually capitalist, society with pronounced social stratification
and inequality based on economic exploitation
Class system = a system of social stratification based on individual achievement
Code = rule - governed system of signs
Cohabitation = the sharing of a household by an unmarried couple
Cohort = a category of people with a common characteristic,usually their age
Collective behavior = activity involving a large number of people, often spontaneous, and
typically in violation of established norms
Collectivity = a large number of people whose minimal interaction occurs in the absence of
well-defined and conventional norms
Colonialism = the process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and
economic control of other countries
Commodification = aspects of life are turned into things - commodities for sale
Communism = an economic and political system in which all members of a society are socially
equal
2
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