Summary of the sheets and all the articles used in the course: The Social Structure of Western Societies, during the master Sociology at the Tilburg University. I passed this course with a 8.8 with these summaries.
Summary
The Social Structure of Western Societies
Social structure = A patterned social relationship between individuals
Examples: Social class, Family and Ethnicity
Features of a social structure:
- Socially embodied (actions and beliefs of individuals)
- Coercive (normative system) (dwang/geen keus/geen invloed vanaf geboorte)
- Assignment of statuses and roles (position system)
- Distributive consequences (social outcomes)
- Leads both to stability and change
Social institutions = Organization of patterned social relationships.
Examples:
- Economic: to produce and distribute goods (markets)
- Legal: to enforce norms (law)
- Political: for collective decision making and protection (democracy)
- Educational: to train children into the way of life of society (schools)
- Religious: to provide meaning (church)
Trend 1
Modernization = Transformation process from traditional (agrarian) to modern (industrial) or
post-modern (service) society
- Technological changes: production process
- Economic changes: more wealth
- Political changes: democracy
- Spatial (social) changes: urbanization
- Cultural changes: modern values
Trend 2
Globalization = A set of processes of social change, among which deterritorialization
Human activities and relationships
- Extension across the world
- Intensification
- Increasing velocity/speed
- Interconnectedness
- Reflexivity
,Sociological imagination (Mills, 1959) = Importance of seeing the connections between
social structure and individual experience and agency.
Micro-macro perspective (Coleman, 2002) = To determine macro outcomes we need to
look at the effect of macro effects on micro effects and how these determine macro outcomes.
Social institutions = Social institutions affect both our individual behavior and our individual
position in a social structure (which in turn affects individual behavior). Social institutions
also mediate the effect that individual’s position in social structure has on individual’s
behavior.
, Stratification and Social Class
Social inequality is a fundamental feature of society, individuals are different.
Social stratification = composition of population in ‘layers’ or strata.
- Stand = status, honor, lifestyle
- Class = means of production, economic criterion, class consciousness and class
struggle
Social mobility = moving upward or downward the so-called social ladder.
Two main objectives of social historical research:
- Reconstructing the social stratification of past societies.
(Adel,soldaten/craftsman,boeren)
- Measuring social mobility in the past: the extent to which people climb or descend on
the social ladder.
Social stratification
- In the Middle ages and early modern period
Fixed and closed system of standen (estates, orders, castes).
- During the industrialization and (post-)French Revolution
A more modern and dynamic class system (Economic growth, increasing
technological knowledge and division of work: new social groups)
Two main indicators:
- Occupational titles
e.g. Vital Registration System = ‘Burgerlijke Stand’
- Tax data
e.g. Taxation on income and property
Problems using historical data
- Limited availability and quality (Before 1811; many destroyed)
- Sources not constructed to answer contemporary questions
- Data is incomplete and difficult to interpret
- Stratification is not clear (What is high, what is low…? Who’s in, who’s out?)
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper tomdenissen. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €6,44. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
