Chapter 1: Sociology and the Study of Society 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM

Who coined the term Sociology?

o Auguste Comte, a French Philosopher, used the term sociology in
1838.

Sociology
o Sociology tries to make sense of the world that we live in which we
live is what makes it such an interesting discipline, although this
also makes it very challenging.
o Sociology offers a new way of looking at familiar matters.
o It forces us to re-examine ourselves, our strongly held beliefs and
values, and the social institutions we belong to.
o It critically examines our taken for granted assumptions about the
world that we live in.
o It systematically studies and analyzes the various elements that
constitute a societys structure and the relationships among these
elements.
o Sociology studies past patterns, to detect the current strains, and,
within limits, predict the future direction of social change.
o Sociology is particularly challenging since it forces us to re-examine
ourselves, our strongly held beliefs and values, and the social
institutions to which we belong.
o Tries to make sense of the very world in which we live is what
makes it such an interesting discipline, although this also makes it
very challenging.
o Is particularly challenging since it forces us to re-examine
ourselves, our strongly held beliefs and values, and the social
institutions to which we belong.

What do Sociologists do?
o Disentangle the complex relationships between individuals and their
social world.
o Sociologists are interested in collecting data, but they are also
interested in explaining their findings.
o Sociologists examine relations of power, particularly in the distal
sphere and link them to the life experiences of individuals.
o Sociologists not only explain the ordered patterns in society but
also analyze a social world that changes over time.
o Sociologists study patterned human behaviours and on the basis of
past patterns try to predict future behaviours. The predictions are
not about specific individuals but about social groups.
o Individuals create society, but society, in turn, creates them.
o Sociologists, therefore, have to disentangle the complex
relationships between individuals and their social world.
o Sociologists focus on general patterns, or regularities, in the
behavior
o E.g. Study of suicide. If suicide were based primarily on
individual motives, then it should be random that is,
showing no particular pattern in the population. Study
showed that men were more likely to end their own life than
women, single and divorced individuals more likely than
married people, city people more than country people
o Individuals create society, but society, in turn, creates them.
Sociologists, therefore, have to disentangle the complex
relationships between individuals and their social world.
o Sociologist have the difficult task of not only explaining the ordered
patterns in society but also analyzing a social world that changes
over time

SOCIETY
o A society consists of a group of people within a limited territory who
share a common set of behaviours, beliefs, values, material objects
(together referred to as culture), and social institutions that exist as
a coherent system (Naiman, 2008).
o Societies are organized structures with rules for behaviour that
people create in order to survive and carry out their daily activities
in an organized manner.
o Societies are structures that are consistent or ordered but are
simultaneously in flux and change.
o These structures can vary from the very simple to be the very
complex, and once they come into being, they can exist for very
long periods of time.
o One key goal of sociology, then, is to systematically study and
analyze the various elements that constitute a societys structure
and the relationships among these elements.
o If society is the term generally used to describe the structure of our
social world, then culture is the term to describe its contents.
o Sociocultural system - ther terms society, social structure, and
culture are often used interchangeably within social sciences so
some anthropologist use this word.

POWER
o Power is the ability of an individual or a group to carry out its will
even when opposed by others.
o Power is a result of the control individuals or groups have on
societys resources, including human resources.
o Although we feel its affects, it is hard to locate both what it is and
where it is.
o Types of Power Relations:
o Proximal relations of power: exist within personal
relationships. e.g. power that parents have over their
children.
We can speak of parent, child, teacher, or student as a
status, or position within the social structure; statuses
can be ranked in relation to each other
Those with higher statuses have more privileges and
power than lower-status individuals
o Distal relations of power: exist at a societal level. e.g. power
of legal system, governments.
o Power is the ability of an individual or a group to carry out
its will even when opposed by others, and although we all feel
its effects, it is hard to actually locate both what it is and
where it is.
o Power is largely a result of the control individuals or groups
have of a societys resources, including HR.
It exist within personal relationships which we might
term proximal relations of power and at a more
abstract level in society as a whole which we might
term distal relations of power
o We live in a society that teaches us to look inward to our own
individual failings or to nearby proximal relations of power
when we experience the negative consequences of distal
relations of power, rather than outward to the broader social
system
We apply for a job and fail, we are more likely to blame
ourselves than to link it to such abstract things as
government polices, discriminatory hiring practices, or
corporate globalization.
o Sociological imagination is the ability to go beyond the
personal issues we all experience and connect them to
broader social structures.
If one person is barely getting by, thats their problem;
if, as in Canada, millions are living in poverty, thats a
social issue.

Definitions
o Sociology is the systematic study of human society and the
behaviour of people in the society.
o Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
o It is the ability to see the intimate realities of our own lives in
the context of common social structures. It is the ability to go
beyond the personal issues we all experience and connect
them to broader social structures.

Dialectics
o Change is a result of internal stresses.
o Principles of dialectics:
o Everything is related
o Change is constant
o Change proceeds from quantitative to the qualitative
o Change is the result of the unity and struggle of opposites

Micro and Macro Sociology
o Macro-Sociology
o Focuses on the ways individual human behaviour is influenced
by broader society.
o Concentrates on analyzing social structures.
o When a sociologists engages in research and writing that
focuses primarily on the big picture of society and its
institutions, they are involved with macro-sociology.
o Macro-Sociologists: Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Robert Merton
and Karl Marx.
o Emile Durkheim published what has become a classic study of
suicide.
o If suicide were based primarily on individual motives, then it
should be random that is, showing no particular pattern in
the population
o Found patterns
i.e. men were more likely to end their own life than
women, single and divorced individuals more likely than
married people, city people more than country people.

Micro-Sociology
o Focuses primarily on the way individual behaviour and perceptions
influence society.
o Human agency is primary.
o When the focus is more on the plans, motivations, and actions of
the individual or a specific group, then we are looking at micro-
sociology.
o Micro level societies are families, church groups, schools and the
like.
o Micro-Sociologists: Erving Goffman was the pioneer of micro-
sociology

Sociological Theories
o In macro-sociology two perspectives are very influential:
o Order Theories: Focus on and support the current order of things.
Functionalism or structural functionalism (Auguste Comte, Herbert
Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons)
o Change Theories: Focus on how things have changed in the past
and ways they might change in the future. Also known as conflict
theories or critical theories (Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels).
o Structural-Functional Theory: Addresses the question of social
organization and how it is maintained. It is interested in why certain
structures exist in a society and especially what purpose, or
function do they serve.
o Society consists of a number of interdependent elements
o Every element performs some function
o Societies tend toward stability and equilibrium
o Societies tend toward consensus
o Consensus and stability are desirable in society (Farley,
2000:73)
o Conflict Theory: Addresses the points of stress and conflict in
society and the ways in which they contribute to social change.
Takes a critical look at the social patterns that are part of the social
routine.
o Assumption associated with conflict theory is that society is made
up of groups with competing self-interests. Often the competing
groups have unequal power. People compete for resources that are
in scarce supply. Generally, the resources that are in short supply
involve wealth and power.
o Conflict is built into society
o One group becomes dominant
o Consensus is artificial
o Conflict in society is desirable (Farley, 2000:74)

Structural Functional Theory
o the society works best if different types of the society work
coehevisly together.
o e.g engine
o All the parts of the society have to work together in order to
provide a stable society.
o How to maintain this form of stability?
o We need to assign different functions to different ppl


Conflict Theory
o There must be social change
o The interest between the lower class and higher class are always in
conflict
o One group becomes dominant not only because it has all the
resources but it also is the one who creates rules for the lower class
to follow.
o Conflict is desirable because thats the only way frustrated people
can let their anger out.
o
CHAPTER 3: Culture, Society, and History 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
What is Culture?
o Culture is the total way of life shared by members of a society
including both the material and non-material elements.
o The non-material elements of culture include the cognitive,
that is, the knowledge and beliefs of a people; the symbolic,
which include verbal and non-verbal forms of communication;
and the normative, or values, beliefs , and behavioural
expectations of a people.
o The material elements of a culture include all of a groups
material artifacts and products created by it members

o Culture is essentially the complete way of life shared by people,
including both the material and non-material elements.

Culture
o Subcultures
o Subcultures are groups that share in the overall culture of
society but also maintain a distinctive set of values, norms,
life-styles, and even language.
Example: subculture at one stage in its historysuch as
jazz, punk, hip hop and rave culturesmay represent
mainstream taste within a short period of time
o Countercultures
o Countercultures are groups having values, interests, beliefs,
and life-styles that are opposed to those of the larger culture.
Example: During the late 1960s, hippies became the
largest and most visible countercultural group in the
United States. LGBT of present times.

Elements of Culture
o Non-Material Elements
o Cognitive: knowledge and beliefs of people
What people believe, what knowledge is passed down
o Symbolic: verbal and non-verbal forms of communication
e.g wedding ring means something to people
o Normative: values, beliefs, and behavioural expectations of
people.
e.g Canadians are expected to be polite.
o Material Elements
o Material artifacts, products created by groups members
e.g church
Note: Both elements are interrelated.

Theoretical Perspective
o First Approach
o Culture is the underlying basis of interaction
o It accepts culture as a given and is more interested in how
culture shapes us than in how culture itself is shaped.
Example: Scholars taking this approach have
concentrated on illustrating how norms, values, and
language guide our behaviour.
o Second Approach
o Focuses on culture as a social product. Focuses on why
particular aspects of culture develop.
How did this culture come to be
Example: Scholars would be interested in why the
content of commercial television is so different from
content of public television.

Theoretical Perspectives On Culture
o First Approach
o Culture is the underlying basis of interaction.
o Is characteristic of structural-functional theory.
Structure is created to facilitate their own rules and
resources

o Second Approach
o Focuses on culture as a social product. Focuses on why
particular aspects of culture develop.
o Is characteristic of conflict theorists interested in the
determinants of culture
culture develops in order to facilitate those who have
resources

Cultural Perspective
o Whether structural functionalists or conflict theorists, sociologists
share some common orientations towards culture:
o Culture is Problem Solving: People share common problems (food,
shelter etc.) These problems are universal but the solutions highly
vary.
o Example: Trobriand Islands- matrilineal society-childrearing
may be assigned to mothers brother; U.S-to natural mother
& father; Israeli kibbutz-communal nurseries
o Functionalists argue that the solutions have evolved over
generations of trial and error, and they survive because they work
o Conflict theorists argue that these solutions work better for some
people than others. Elites manipulate culture.
o
o Culture is Relative: The solutions that each culture devises may be
startlingly different.
o Example: Wodaabe of Niger-Parents are not allowed to talk
directly to their two first born children, who will often be
cared for by their grandparents ( Beckwith 1983).
o Is it functional?: If it helps meet recurrent problems and maintain
society.
o Cultural Relativity requires that each cultural trait be evaluated in
the context of its own culture. No cultural practice is universally
good or bad; goodness and badness are relative, not absolute.
o you dont compare youre culture with other cultures. It is
biased because youll always think your is better.
o No culture is good or bad, it is relative towards the culture
o Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view the norms and values of our
own culture as standards against which to judge the practices of
other cultures.
o we think our culture is better than everyone elses. It more
functional than everyone elses
o It is good as long it creates social cohesion within your group.
It gives you rules and a mechanism to understand your own
group.
o It is bad when you start treating other people in a bad
manner because you think your culture and practices are
better than others. When it translates to discrimination to
others it is bad.
o Culture is a Social Product: Culture is a social, not a biological,
product.
o Some aspects of culture are deliberate. Example: designing of
homes, buying publishing empires to spread own version of
truth.
o It is socially construct, created by people.
o e.g In Canada house are generally have a triangle roof
because of snow whereas others have flat
o Other aspects of culture develop gradually out of social interaction.
Example: dress patterns and its language

Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is learned, rather than being simply the result of some
biological predictability
o Example New Guinea-Arapesh (non-aggressive, nurturing,
gender differences minimum), Mundugumor (both sexes
violent, competitive), Tchambuli (women dominant and
aggressive sex, traders, men engaged in art & ceremony)
2. Culture is rooted in symbols-physical, vocal, or gestural signs that
have arbitrary, socially learned meanings.
o e.g diamonds in a marriage means love
3. Culture is a system shared by all members of a society.
o It is the embodiment of a collective of individuals, past and
present , rather than simply the behavior of any one of them.
4. Elements of culture are generally integrated, i.e., the various
components fit into a coherent whole, even though there may be
contradictory elements within the whole.
o Cultural Universals: While each culture is unique, they all share
certain common elements. Example: rules of inheritance, myths,
legends, taboos, marriage etc.

What are the Elements of Canadian Culture
Emphasis on market place
Emphasis on profit
Emphasis on perpetual economic growth
Emphasis on competition, hard work, individual enterprise.
Emphasis on personal accumulation of wealth

Why do we create cultures and how do cultures arise?
Survival in order to meet needs
Humans create culture because they live together in social
groups to survive.
feeling of belongings
differentiate from other cultures
we need to live by rules, we like structure, we like stability and
these are created in order to facilitate
Example: Muslims or Jews generally would say that they dont eat
pork; Hindus dont eat beef because of religious reasons.
Anthropologist Marvin Harris (1989) was interested in linking the
origins of religious practices, not primarily to beliefs, but to issues
of environment and survival.
According to Harris, construction of certain food taboos can help
increase the likelihood of survival.
Shared eating patterns are both a way to bind people together and
distinguish them from others.
Understanding of material conditions is important to understand the
working of society.
According to Sanderson(1999), in the process of acquiring and
distributing their means of existence, humans as social animals
enter into certain social relations with each other, keeping in mind:
a) What nature provides (Ecology)
b) Characteristics of their own population (Demography)
c) Develop their tools and methods of survival (Technology)

Personal property doesnt give you power it only gives you status **
exam

Features of Foraging Societies
Small Groups (50-80 people)
Autonomous, Self Sufficient Unit
Relatively cooperative and egalitarian societies
Bands connected through ties of marriage to a broader network of
bands.
Wider network shared same general cultural patterns, common
language group
People could move from one band to another
Kinship a central organizing feature of foraging people
Kinship is the most universal and basic of all human
relationships and is based on ties of blood, marriage, or
adoption. There are two basic kinds of kinship ties: those
based on blood ties that trace descent and those based on
marriage, adoption, or other connections.
Exogamy-keeping gene pool open, also served the vital purpose of
maintaining kin links with neighbouring bands
Marriage partners had to be sought outside the local band
This helped minimize tensions between bands in possible
competition for resurources, allowed for movement of
individuals between bands, and increased the likelihood of
sharing and cooperation.
Foraging people relied on simple but effective technology to obtain
food, build their dwellings, and so on.
No private ownership of main productive forces, land & natural
resources
Minimal personal possessions
Because all possessions had to be carried to the next site
Division of labour that is, how various tasks in a society are
divided up - was simple on the basis of sex and age.
The gender division of labour that is, assigning different
tasks to men and women varied from society to society,
although big-game hunting was almost always a male
activity, and women were more often food collectors.
The gender division of labour did not seem to automatically
lead to male dominance. Men and women were essentially
equal in early foraging societies
Interdependence of both sexes for economic survival and group
solidarity
Status inequalities within genders were minimal
Warfare relatively low
Its not that foragers were naturally peaceable people, but
rather that, under conditions of economic scarcity, fighting
battles would have been highly risky for group survival.
No major inequalities in society. What existed was on the basis of
skills not heredity.
No special privileges
Decisions made through consensus
Modesty and humility essential behaviour expectations
Stinginess or arrogance considered offence
Dispute settled informally, through elders or by moving to other
bands.
Emphasize the notion of reciprocity as well as the notion of
redistribution (Polanyi 1957,68).
Example: Potlatch ceremony- redistribution of surplus and pushes
individuals to be more productive.

What Foraging Societies Tell Us
o Such societies tent to emphasize the notion of reciprocity as well as
the notion of redistribution
o Reciprocity means that each member of a society has duties
and obligations to all others.
o The notion of redistributions means that the community
transfer wealth to those who have less.
o The extreme inequalities of wealth and power have not been a part
of most societies down through the ages

Decline of Foraging Societies
Changes
Shift to farming and herding
Shift to domesticated plants and animals as major food
source
Humans gained an increasing measure of control over the
natural environment
Changes in human social organization
Increased specialization led to new technological innovations,
greater surplus, greater specialization, and so on, in never-
ending process.
Reasons
Population pressures
Decline in availability of wild foods
Cumulative development of new technologies
Climate change
Results
Further growth of human populations
Greater permanence of settlements
Possibility of stable economic surplus
Increased specialization of tasks
New technological innovations- Greater surplus- Greater
specialization



Social Inequality
Structured social inequality means both unequal allocation
of resources and unequal distribution of power.
According to Karl Marx, societies and cultures worked based on
their Modes of Production (material infrastructure).
The mode of production is a central concept in Marxism and is
defined as the way a society is organized to produce goods
and services. It consists of two major aspects: the forces of
production and the relations of production.
The forces of production include all of the elements that are
brought together in production from land, raw material, and
fuel to human skill and labor to machinery, tools, and
factories. The relations of production include relationships
among people and peoples relationships to the forces of
production through which decisions are made about what to
do with the results.
Marx emphasized a societys economy- organized production,
distribution, and exchange of good and services.
Forms of property : Personal possessions and Productive property
Productive property: gives one power
E.g a factory is productive property, part of means of
production
You gain control over others you can hire or fire them and
gain control over the productive process. You can expand the
factory or shut it down
Personnel possessions do not give power but can give status
Once Surplus comes to be produced, advances in technology and
expansion of division of labour enlarge inequalities between people.
Private property comes under control of some, who are removed
from production and enables them to accumulate wealth. Others
are forced to be producers.
Structured inequality, once in existence, becomes self perpetuating.
Social Class: Each of these groups, which have distinct relation to
the means of production, is referred to as a Social Class.
In societies where private appropriation (taking something for one's
own use) of surplus occurs, there are always at least two major
classes:
A relatively large subordinate class that produces the surplus
and a relatively small appropriating class that, through
ownership or control of the means of production, gets to keep
all or part of that surplus.
Modes of production: a sum total of a system. Feudalism and
captilaism is a mode of a productions
Means of production includes all the things that humans use to
produce what we need, including tools, natural resources, the land
on which production occurs, and the buildings where production
takes place
If you own the means of productions you a buguous
Chapter 4: Feudalism to Capitalism 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
Feudalism
o Was an agricultural system that grew out of the ruins of the old
slave societies
o An agricultural system in the 5
th
to 16
th
century
o This was a system of private ownership of the productive units,
there was an appropriating class of owners, the nobility and a
producing class of serfs, or peasants
o Also minor class such as artisans, soldiers
o Lands was a mean of production
o Commodity Production and the growth of Markets
o A market exists when people offer goods and services for sale
to others in a more or less systematic and organized way.
o An object that is produced specifically for exchange is referred
to as a commodity

Decline of Feudalism, Rise of Capitalism
o Capitalism developed out of the feudal system, beginning in
England and gradually spreading to parts of Europe. The decline of
feudalism is linked to many variables which fed on and reinforced
the others.
o Capitalism is not a natural and inevitable outcome of human
existence; rather it should be seen as the result of certain events
that occurred in the past few centuries in one small part of the
globe
o Capitalism is the socioeconomic formation or an economic system
in which all production is subordinated to the imperatives of the
market: accumulation, labour productivity, competition, and profit
maximization.
o New class relations: Rise of agrarian capitalism and growth of
capitalist markets.
o Slavery was the most extreme form in which extra-economic
coercion was used; feudal forms were somewhat more
moderate.
o The first major change to feudal class relations occurred in
England, where a variable rent system replaced fixed rent; in
others words as in todays world a landlord could
independently set the amount that the peasant had to pay in
rent to work the land
o Economic coercion (first time) played a role in production of
surplus
Coercion - the practice of persuading someone to do
something by using force or threats:
o As a result of the shift to a variable rent system, both feudal
lords & tenant farmers wanted improvements for increased
profits
o Urban centers grew increase in number of merchants and
crafts people.
o Merchants became class of owners (Bourgeoisie)
They realized that they could improve profits via greater
control over the productive process
Began to provide the raw materials and later the tools
to those who made the products for them.
o Capitalist enterprise thrives on competition- more expansion
for maximization of profits not just profits
You grow or you die
It is not simply the profits that the capitalist
seeks, but rather the maximization or profits.
o Capitalist owning class, could not survive without a class of
workers
Workers (Proletariat) made of displaced or dispossessed
peasants, artisans, crafts people who could survive only
by selling labor power for wages.
o Accumulation of Capital
o Capital used by Feudal lords to maintain entourage of
servants, lived in opulence, catholic church viewed usury as
sin.
o Capital came from the expansion of trade as well as from new
technologies and increased rates of productivity.
o Source of capital: Expansion of trade, some nobles turned
their wealth into capital and colonial expansion.
o European powers expanded around the globe in competition
for valuable resources, new markets and a cheap labour force
o In England, new wealth retained by powerful monarchy and
England became the center for industrial production.
o In England, much of the wealth was used o develop a
capitalist market, while in most of continental Europe, the
new wealth was retained by a powerful monarchy.
o Capitalists, saw potential in human beings as commodities
leading to modern slave trade.
o Capitalism had to wrest people from their land, alter
traditional ways of life, destroy social bonds and leave most
people economically destitute.
o You grow or you die
o Technological Development and Growth of Labour Force
o New technologies developed, including harnessing power, iron
mining, important to agriculture.
o 16th century: workers drawn to manufactory system , in
which all the operations involved in a specific type of
production took place in articular locations under the direction
of the owner
o dispossessed peasants who couldnt pay their rent were
driven into urban centers to find some means of survial
o Many lords, looking for new ways to increase their wealth,
began to enclose the public commons land that was
collectively farmed by all peasants - as well as the forests on
or around their estates,, and turned them into private grazing
land for their own sheep and cattle.
Feudal lords, to make profits, enclosed the common
lands (enclosure movement)
o As capitalism developed, workers needed to be disciplined to
help increase productivity and profits
Workers under the control of employers.
Shift from small scale to wage work
Low wages required all families to work for survival.
o Industrial Revolution occurred not simply because of the new
technologies, but because there was a group of individuals
with enough capital to purchase them, as well as an available
labour force to work at them
o Political Transformations and Rise of Nation States
o A nation is not simply a political entity; it also embodies the
notion of a group of people living within a geographical
boundary
o who share a common language, culture, and history
o Concept of nation state grew in market economy.
o As market economies began to grow and the traditional feudal
relations began to decline, two groups began to expand their
power:
monarch (political power) and the growing capitalist
class(economic power)
the former began to gain political power as that of the
feudal lords began to weaken, while the capitalist
gained economic power through their expanding wealth.
o Both powers depended on each other for expansion
The monarchs realized that their political power could
be expanded via the wealth of the rapidly expanding
capitalist class.
o The capitalists benefited from a powerful soverign at the head
of a united kingdom, or nation
A nation is not simply a political entity; it also embodies
the notion of a group of people living within a
geographical boundary who share a common language,
culture and history
The growth of nation-states in Europe gave momentum
to the further expansion of trade and commerce, and
colonialism was largely fuelled by competition for power
between heads of European states
Nation-states developed concurrently with
capitalist economic relations.
o By late 18th century capitalist consolidated its power further
and absolutist monarchies were replaced by republic or
constitutional monarchy.
o Religious and Philosophical Transformations
o John Locke(1632-1704), British Philosopher: Individuals have
inherent rights such as right to life, liberty and property,
independent of the laws of any particular society;
Lockes views on individual rights as well as on
democratic forms of government, appealing to
bourgeois class.
o Max Weber (1864-1920), German Sociologist: felt that the
origins of capitalism were closely linked to a new form of
Christianity that spread across northern Europe starting
around the fifteenth century.
o Protestant churches attached moral value to rational pursuit
of economic gain.
o Capitalism has always been a world system to some extent, and
Canada from the outset was economically and politically tied to a
European power

What the Transition to Capitalism Teaches Us
o We can see se that change proceeds from the quantitative to the
qualitative; that is, change within feudal societies occurred in
numerous small ways until, finally, the sum total of many gradual
changes led to the radical transformation of whole societies
o Market is the center feature of a capitalism economy
o Market is controlled by the capitalism
o The short term goal of a capitalism is maximization of profit
o The long term goal of a capitalism is to sustain the capital system
as a whole.
o In order to maximize profits, you must go global.
o You gotta grow, or you die
o If you are an owner of a system, and you decide to pay your
employees more. Your employees might think you are great but
you are not growing. Other companies will take over.
o The coercion in feudailism was not economic whereas capitalism
was economic
o Feadalism says you are not going to get protection.. whereas
captilism says you are out of a job
o Alienation
o Who gave the concept of sociological imagination .. Mills
o if you were to use your sociological imagination, what you predict
for capitalism?
o E.g we have become under one organization
o The transition from feudalism to capitalism teaches us that even the
most rigid of socioeconomic formations can eventually decay and
disappear. A clue that a social system is on the decline is the
increasing inability of the dominant class to maintain its political
and moral authority.


Perspectives
o Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish Political Economist
o Free markets, while appearing to be chaotic and
unpredictable, was actually guided by an invisible hand that
made it work for the benefit of all.
o The wealth and collective well-being of society was invariably
produced in the marketplace as individuals pursued their own
self-interest.
o Karl Marx
o The capitalist marketplace primarily benefited the owners of
the largest productive units.
o Workers received a small share of what they produced, and
small business owners struggled hard to survive in the
competitive marketplace.
o
Capitalism in Canada
o Canada seen as a source of raw material and market for goods
produced.
o Control of French until 1760, followed by England
o 1867, mainly agricultural, by early 20th century 7th in industrial
output.
o Immigration for labour power.
o
o Halifax, center for industrial production until 1867.

Capitalism Explained
o Capitalism is , at its core, an economic system in which all
production is subordinated to the needs of those who own the
productive units.
o Capitalism is an extremely complex and ever-changing system;
second, unlike slave or feudal systems, the class structure of
capitalism is very hard to see
o Capitalism is a mode of production with private appropriation of
surplus
o Two classes
o Appropriating class or owning class
This class owns or controls the principal means of
production, distribution, or exchange of goods and
services
Also referred to as capital
o The producing class or working class
They must work for a wage because they own no
significant means of production
Also referred to as labour
o Between these two major classes is another class, reffered to as the
petite bourgeoisie.
o This class is made up of small business owners, independent
farmers, craftspeople, and self-employed professionals
those who have a small amount of capital and may or may
not employ a few workers, but who survive largely through
their own labour
o Capitalism is mode of production with private ownership of the
means of production. In capitalist societies, as compared to earlier
class formations, all production is subordinated to the imperatives
of the market, and all things become potential commodities.

Features of Capitalism
o A true capitalist no longer interested in the simple buying and
selling of commodities, capitalists are concerned with
investements or what is also referred to as the circulation of
capital
It enters the market with the sole purpose of coming back as
an increased amount, which is realized as profits
o Capitalists are primarily concerned with the rate of profit that is,
the amount of return they get on their initial investment.
o Because of the competitiveness within capitalist markets, the owner
of the businesses cannot just sit around waiting for commodities to
be produced sold in the marketplace, and later converted to profits.
o They try to speed up the cycle by borrowing money from
financial institutions or by selling shares in their companies to
quickly raise new capital.
o Short-term goal of a capitalist not simply profits but maximization
of profits
o Seek to maximize profits not because of personal greed but
because of the competitive nature of capitalist economies.
o Long-term goal: maintenance of the capitalist system
o Key producer of wealth is the worker
o Make your money for work for you
o The Hidden Source of Capitalist Profits
o Labour Power the sum total of a workers physical and
mental capacities that go into a particular work task is a
commodity that this purchased
o Surplus Value: Private appropriation of surplus (as in other
class formation) but differs because the process is indirect.
Surplus value source could be knowledge or services.
o Centrality of labour for production
The centrality of labour for the production of profit
comes into high relief when workers go on strike
o The cost of purchasing labour power is always far less than
the new value that the worker produces. From the Marxist
perspective, this is the ultimate go source of profits for the
capitalist and of wealth for society as a whole. This source of
wealth becomes totally obscured in a capitalist societies.
o The Rise of Monopoly Capitalism
o Change from free enterprise to monopolization (this control is
referred to as Oligopoly)
Free enterprise occurs when no single buyer or seller
can affect the price of a commodity by withdrawing
their purchasing power or their product from the
marketplace
Monopolization does not mean that only one company
controls an industry.
o Oligopoly is when a small number of companies control a
sector, then the free market effectively ceases to exist.
o The process of monopolization is part of a more generalized
process referred to as the concentration and
centralization of capital.
Concentration refers to the fact that capital comes to be
in fewer and fewer hands as a result of monopolization.
Centralization means that capital is centred in a few
core geographic areas both within countries and on a
global scale.
Within this loose structure, some regions and nation-
states can be considered to be the core, while others
are in the periphery.
The core is made up of a small number of regions
and nation-states that appropriate the majority of
the worlds wealth.
The periphery is made up of the least
economically developed countries or regions.
o The Crisis of Overproduction
o Anarchy of production and crisis of overproduction
This occurred because almost all production is directed
to the profit maximization of each individual enterprise,
and it is not coordinated (anarchy of production)
Capitalist production leads to crisis of overproduction
Too many commodities are produced than can be
profitably sold and too much capital has been
invested in industry, in the attempt to claim a
share of the available profits
The crisis of overproduction is one of the main
factors that gives rise to the economic cycles that
occur within capitalist systems.
o The drive for ever-increasing profits creates a glut
(abundance of something) of goods and glut of workers, we
also see creation of glut of capital.
o The anarchy of production in capitalist societies leads
inevitably to the crisis of overproduction, which produces a
glut of goods, workers, and capital itself.

o The Financialization of the Economy
o The shift in all developed capitalist economies from
production to finance, which has progressed since the 1970s,
has been termed financialization of economy
Financialization sees capitalists shift their interests from
investing in the real economy that part which
produces actual goods and services to what is termed
the paper economy.
Because these kinds of investments bring quicker
returns, more and more investors shift to financial
products
Growth of paper economy (speculators thrive on
instability)
o Shift to a financialized economy matter because corporations
involved in the real economy have traditionally sought
economic stability, which allowed them to plan production for
profit over extended periods of time.
o Finialization, in contrast, thrives on instability.
o The goal is to invest capital for the short term and extract
maximum profit through slight changes in the stock market,
commodity values, currency prices, or interest rates.
o The greater the instability of the financial markets the greater
the opportunity to extract profits.
o Securitization involved financial institutions taking many
forms of debt for example mortagages, student loans, and
credit card debt and repackaging them as a security that
could be purchased by financial entities willing to take the
risk.
o Development of private equity and hedge funds leading to
buying and selling not as producers but only for profit
o Financialization has become a major aspect of developed
capitalist economies. One of the many consequences of this
development is growing economic instability
o Social production versus private ownership
o Because our society focus on individuals, it is often forgotten
that the production of wealth in capitalism is ultimately a
social activity: it is produced by large groups of people
working together in a highly complex division of labour.
o Surplus is still privately appropriated
o Thus, the product of social production is not placed at the
disposal of all, but rather is appropriated by a small class of
owners.
o Self-expansion the primary concern
In expanding, capital must search the globe for places
to make ever-higher profits at an ever-faster pace.
In the process, whether such self-expansion destroys
human lives or the environment can never be the
primary concern.
o There has been a growing contradiction between the
increasingly social nature of production and the increasingly
private appropriation. Of the fruits of such production. Those
who own and control the productive process is capitalism
have a particular set of interests that may not match the
needs of goals of the rest of us.
o In pre-capitalist societies, the surplus was extracted through
various forms of political , legal, and military coercion. In
capitalism, the coercion takes on a mainly economic form.
o The insatiable drive for profits on the part of the capitalist is a
necessary condition of the capitalist system itself. Because of the
competitive, the goal of every capitalist must be not simply profits,
but the maximization of profits
o Capitalism is a very flexible and adaptable system and can take
many different forms.

Todays Capitalism
o Imperialism/colonialism- Laissez-faire capitalism to welfare state to
globalization- neoliberalism.
o The period of the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth
century is often reffered to as the stage of laissez-faire
capitalism, when free enterprise still dominated, there were
many small or medium-sized productive units, and there was
only moderate state intervention to control the worst
excesses of capital.
o Welfare state: Governments played an increasing role in economic
affairs, while the public sector and social safety net expanded.
o This form of capitalism is commonly reffered to as the welfare
state because governments developed policies that enhanced
the welfare of most citizens rather than just the dominant
class.
Welfare states diminished after 1970s
Extremely large corporate units had developed, and the
competition was intense as they sought to increase
their rate of profit.
o Neoliberalist policies strengthened free market, minimal role of
governments, social values determined by market, individual a
core unit of society.
o The welfare state gradually diminished in all capitalist
societies and was replaced by a set of policies collectively
reffered to as neoliberalism.
o Capitalism as a Global System
Development of Transnational corporations
Capitalism has, to some extent, always been a global
system, looking beyond national borders for new
sources of profit. In the last fifty years, transnational
corporations have expanded in size and grown more
powerful
Power with those who control economic sphere, sphere
ofideas and political sphere
In all capitalist societies, the owners of the largest
productive units hold enormous amounts of power
relative to the rest of us, and with the growing
concentration of capital , this power is falling into fewer
and fewer hands.
The power of those who own or control the means of
production can be linked to power in the sphere of ideas
also refered to as ideological sphere
In capitalist societies, the power of those who own or
control the means of production can also be linked to
power in two other societal spheres: the sphere of ideas
and the political sphere.
o
Chapter 5: Social Class 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
Some Terms
o Social Class: Class refers to a persons relationship to the means
of production.
o False consciousness is a lack of awareness of ones real position
in the class structure.
o Class consciousness occurs when people are aware of their
relationship to the means of production and recognize their true
class identity.
o Class conflict: The ongoing tension between the appropriating and
producing class.
o What is being taking away from the appropriating is called a
surplus.
o Its a conflict between be the producing class and the class
that is being taking away.
o Labour Union: Is a group of workers who join together to bargain
with an employer or group of employers with regard to wages,
benefits and working conditions.
o Lumpenproletariat: Is an underclass that consists of the long-
term unemployed, or those engaged in illegal activities, who are
completely outside of production. They are different from students,
housewives, and the retired, who are outside of production. For
Marx, these were individuals on the margins of every capitalist
economy who have been used by the ruling class to oppose the
working class.
o (Major Classes in Capitalist Societies: Capitalists,, Workers, Petite
Bourgeoisie and Lumpenproletariat)
o Socioeconomic Status (SES): Differences between people linked
either to income or to some combination of income, occupation, and
education. When we talk about upper, middle, and lower class, we
are referring to SES.
o Class often confused with socioeconomic status. The latter is
a position in the hierarchy of inequality based on a
combination of income, occupation, and education.
Socioeconomic status is connected to, but distinct from, the
traditional concept of class

Max Weber-Class, Status, Power
o Weber developed a more complex system of analysis.
o Weber proposed three independent dimensions on which people are
ranked in a system.
o Class: SES or individual life chances
o Status: social honor/prestige, expressed in life-style.
o Power: political influence i.e., the ability to get others to act
against their wishes, the ability to overcome resistance.
o Power/Political Party leads to political influence. It will make you
do things even if you dont agree with it
o It is not suffient just to look at class but also class and power

Class, Status, Power
o Status
o The level of social prestige (Weber). As compared to class,
status is a descriptive category.
o We have many statuses concurrently.
o Status can be Ascribed e.g., sex, race.
o Status can be Acquired e.g., education, occupation.
o Status positions can be ranked in relation to each other by
their privileges and obligations.
o Ascribed are assigned to you, you cant change them
o Acquired you obtain these statuses
o Class
o Socioeconomic status or individual life-chances (Weber)
o Prior to capitalism, Class relations were highly visible.
o Class categories were defined by law and supported by
religious beliefs and traditions.
o Everyone knew their place and the place of others through
symbols such as official titles and dress styles.
o Concept of class helps us understand both the dynamics of
power and some of the tensions that lead to social change.
o At the feudal times you can notice who was in which class by
the way you dress
o Three major classes in capitalist societies
The capitalist
Workers
Petite bourgeoisie
o Although we tend to notice status differences rather than
class differences, class is a central tool for understanding
society and our place in it

Why does working class that is big in numbers unable to attain
power?
o Ongoing stresses and strains between groups within class
o Real differences within the working class
o Forced competition between workers created by capitalism
o Divide-and-rule tactics utilized by capital

Marxism vs. Weber
o Marxist class analysis sees inequality as tied to a struggle between
opposing interests, while Webers sees no struggles between layers,
just differences

o John Porters (1965):
o In line with class analysis concentrates on the power held by
a relatively small, socially homogeneous group of individuals
who sit on the boards of directors of major corporations.
o Also like stratification theorists, argues that the objective
criteria of class are income, occupation, property ownership
and education.
o While weber agreed with Marx that class was tied to ownership or
control of property, he felt that social inequality was
multidimensional and not sufficiently explained by property
relationships alone.
o Weber, there were three dimensions of inequality.
o Class socioeconomic status or individual life chances
o Status the level of social prestige
o Party/Power- the degree of political influence

Structure of Classes
o The class structure in Canada is made up of the two dominant
classes, the owning class and the working class, plus two smaller
classes, the petite bourgeoisie and the lumpenproletariat
o Class categories are relational
o A class exists only insofar as another corresponding class
exists.
o Classes are structurally in conflict
o This conflict occurs because of the relationship of power
wherever private appropriation of surplus exist.
o The more surplus that goes into one class, the less that goes
to the other, the more one class has its needs met, the less
the other class has its needs met.
o Classes are not monolithic
o There are segments within particular classes ( sometimes
referred to as class fractions or class strata), and tensions can
develop between the carious sectors within a class.
E.g white male workers oppose equity programs that
would assist women or racialized workers, fearing loss
of their own jobs.
o Classes change over time
o Class can expand or contract in size, or their internal
composition can change
o Class is linked to the allocation of power as well as the allocation of
material resources within a society
o Ownership or control of the means of production in any
society gives one enormous control over ones own life and
the lives of others, because productive activity is so central to
human existence.
o Classes must be seen in a global context
o Class has both an objective (linked to MOP) and a subjective
component (class consciousness)
o Ones class membership is determined by real attributes
that is, whether one survives through ownership
(bourgeoisie), through work (working class), or through a
combination of the two (petite bourgeouisie).

Class Consciousness
refers to the understanding one has has of ones place in the class
structure and of the shared interests one has with others in the
same place
o Class has both an objective and subjective component. The
subjective component is class consciousness.
o Indicators of degree of class consciousness:
o Organizations formed to protect its own class interest.
o Actual positions taken by these groups, as well as by individuals
belonging to the capitalist class.

The Owning Class
o Pursue a variety of occupations: manufacturing, the stock market,
or media
o Many inherit their way to the top
o Most have had at least middle-class parents with business
experience, who sent their children to excellent schools.
o Gain power to affect the lives of millions by controlling media
resources, contributing money to political campaigns, or deciding to
open or close manufacturing plants.
o According to Dye (1983), they believe in equality of opportunity
rather than absolute equality.
o Conflict theory would suggest, they are interested in maintaining a
system that has been good to them.
o Their economic wealth and power allows them to exert pressure in
the political sphere
o Corporate rule is often used to describe the power of the major
corporations, it must always be remembered that there is a small
number of powerful individuals who are actually in control.


The Working Class
o Tradition Marxist view is that the working class is made up of all
those who survive by earning a wage.
o The Working Class (vs. middle-class)
o Includes those who work in blue-collar industries.
o Work in chemical, automobile, and other manufacturing plants
o Sometimes receive excellent wages and benefits, but it is this class
that suffers 10-15% unemployment during economic recessions and
slumps.
o According to David Halle (1984), what makes working-class distinct
from middle class:
o education
o job and economic prospects
o leisure
o gender differences.

Class Consciousness
o Class has both an objective and a subjective component
o Indicator of the degree of class consciousness of a particular class is
the organization it forms to protect its own class.
o Owning class has a fairly high degree of class consciousness.
o Is the organizations it forms to protect its own class interests.
o Purpose:
Strengthen the voice of business on issues of national
importance;
Promote common interests of Canadian big business;
Achieving a consensus within the corporate sector on
major policy issues, influencing various levels of
government, and swaying public opinion;
Formulate economic policies;
Affect public opinion with the goal of advancing the
interests of the TNCs.

Marxism
o Classes in Capitalist Societies: Haves (bourgeoise), Have-nots
(proletariat), Petite Bourgeoisie and Lumpenproletariat.
o In Marks view, class is determined entirely by ones relationship to
the means of production.
o The key factor is not income or occupation but whether individuals
control their own tools and their own work.
o If false consciousness was replaced by class consciousness-Marx
believed- an awareness of true class identity would develop-he
believed a revolutionary movement to eliminate class differences is
than likely to occur.

New Middle Class
o What is often termed the middle class is not a class at all; rather, it
is a group of people with improved life chances and lifestyles
distinct from traditional blue-collar workers
o Erik Olin Wright (1980): A distinct category new middle class
o Consists of certain occupational categories, such as managers
and supervisors, small employers, and semi- autonomous
employees who had some control over their work.
o Share characteristics of more than one class.
o Clement and Myles (1994)
o Consists of those who exercise control over the labour power
of others but do not have real economic ownership of the
means of production and, as a result, must still sell their
labour power, skills, or knowledge for a wage
o Whats wrong with defining New middle class as a class category?
o Separating out of groups of workers on the basis of what are
essentially status differences diverts attention from class
relationships and structures of power.
o Also draws attention to distinctions between groups of
workers and away from their shared relationship to capital.
o More analytically precise to describe the new middle class as a
distinct fraction within a single class (example: university
professors, formerly privileged workers).

Social Stratification
o Strata are layers, and term social stratification leads us to conceive
of inequalities in social positions, ostatuses, as ranked from top to
bottom.
o Social stratification refers to the structure of social inequality in
each society-the manner in which scarce resources and social
rewards are distributed among different social categories
o An individuals position in a system of stratification affects life
chances
o Note: American sociologist commonly use the term when
referring to social inequality
o Opposing Side: Marxist approach sees class as being determined by
a persons relation to production, that is, either through the selling
of labour power or ownership of capital assist
o Marxists ask whether a person makes their living through
work or through ownerhship.
o In contrast to stratification theories, this determination remains
constant over time and place.

Theories of Stratification
o There has been a split in sociology between stratification theorists,
who put an emphasis in sociology between stratification theorists,
who put an emphasis on inequality of ownership of productive
system.
o Structural-Functional Theory
o Davis and Moore (1945)
Each society has essential tasks (functional
prerequisites) that must be performed if it is to survive.
The tasks associated with shelter, food, and
reproduction are some of the most obvious examples.
We may need to offer high rewards as an incentive to
make sure that people are willing to perform these
tasks.
o The size of the reward must be proportional to three factors:
* The importance of the task
* The pleasantness of the task
* The scarcity of the talent and ability necessary to
perform the task.
o Supply-and-demand argument views inequality as a rational
response to a social problem (consensus theory-societal
agreement about the importance of social positions and the
need to pay to have them filled)
o Critique: Structural-Functional Theory
o High demand (scarcity) can be artificially created by limiting
access to good jobs.
o Social-class background, sex, and race or ethnicity probably
have more to do with who gets highly rewarded statuses than
do those with scarce talents and ability.
o Many highly rewarded statuses (e.g. rock stars, professional
athletes) are hardly necessary to the maintenance of society.
o Conflict Perspective
o Marxist Theory:
Inequality is an outcome of private property, where the
goods of society are owned by some and not by others.
Stratification is neither necessary nor justifiable, but
Marx saw it as inevitable (because of division of labour).
Inequality does not benefit society; it benefits only the
rich.
o Modern Conflict Theory:
In modern economy, control and ownership of modes of
production may be independent.
Powerful can oppress those who work for them by
claiming the profits from their labour.
o Critique: Conflict Perspective
o Critics, question the conclusion that inequality is necessarily
undesirable and unfair.
* First, people are unequal (some are more talented,
hard working)
* Second, coordination and authority are functional
Opposes Marxist analysis. It attempts to frame universal perspective.
o Two transformations from traditional Marxist (class-based)
orientations:
o a) Shift away from materialist analysis (real, material
conditions of peoples lives) to analyses that focused on
subjective, individual feelings and ideas.
b) Shift away from class analysis to the study of status
variables, oppression, and personal identity.
Chapter 7 The Social Construction of Ideas and
Knowledge 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
Ideology a body of assumptions, ideas, and values combine into a
coherent world view.
o We acquire this package of beliefs and values through the process
of socialization.
o These are connected and integrated ideas, beliefs and values
o Some of the ideas are accepted because they fit within our already
existing ideological framework, they are rejected if they are out of
place.
o Every ideology has as its underpinning an acceptance that their
groups beliefs and behaviors are morally grounded and superior to
others beliefs and behaviors.
o Once in place, they seem so objective and obvious that it is hard to
dislodge them.
o Ideas do not develop in a vaccum; rather, they arise out of
particular conditions at specific moments in history. The body of
assumptions, ideas, and values that come together into a coherent
world-view is refered to as an ideology
o Why do we come to believe ideas:
o Everyone believes them
o They come from some authority figure we believe to be
truthful, such as parent, teacher, religious leader, or some
expert in the media.
o They provide an easy explanation for the realities of our lives.
o If, like the small fish, those at the bottom of the social order feel
that the world is unjust, why do they continue to put up with it?
o Marx and Engels provide insight into this question by
explaining that those with economic power in any society also
have power over its idea
o The ideas of the ruling class are in every era the ruling ideas;
i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society is at
the same time its ruling intellectual force.
o We start seeing this as inevitable or even desirable, thus supporting
current social arrangements
o Humans are not robots that passively accept received knowledge;
as the contradictions within society become more and more
evident, the demand for change increases and one or more
counter-ideologies develops.
o At least some of the small fish will eventually notice that,
indeed, there is no justice in the world
o
Liberalism: We verus Me Revisted
o In class-based societies, it is inevitable that certain ideas will come
to predominate over others.
o That is because the rulling class has a real interest in
promoting and defending those ideas that best protect its
interests and maintain the status quo.
o Given its economic power, this class also has the capacity to
do so
o The control that the ruling class has over a societys belief system is
often referred to as a ideological hegemony.
o Those who have economic power in a society are able to
dominate the ideological sphere as well. This dominance is
referred to as ideological hegemony
o While force or the threat of it can be used to maintain the social
order, class relations are more often sustained in the sphere of
culture, or our everyday life.
o The ability of those with power to control the transmission of ideas
means that the entire way we see the world what we feel is just
natural or common sense is in fact socially constructed.
o Liberalism must be seen as the dominant ideology in all capitalist
societies. A world view that gives prominence to the me over the
we society.
o Is the dominant ideology within capitalism. The liberal
tradition sees the model for all things as the marketplace.
o Liberalism and the Market
o Market: a number sellers free to compete and buyers free to
choose between these competing units.
o In the real world, few of us can actually take advantage of our
freedoms because of structured inequality continues to exist
in capitalist societies.
Although all of us have equality of opportunity, without
equality of condition many of our rights and freedoms
are absolutely meaningless.
E.g theoretically we can all own car; reality we can own
a car only if we have the financial capacity to do so.
o Rights and freedoms are not abstact; they exist within
particular socioeconomic formations, and they can change
over time.
o Liberalism promotes the notions of freedom and individual
rights, a social advance from earlier socioeconomic
formations.
Such rights and freedoms are selective, framed as they
are within the already existing class relations or
capitalism. The rights we have won can be taken away
under certain conditions.
o Liberalism and Ideas
o Competing ideas are seen as the equivalent of goods
competing in a marketplace, with individuals having the
freedom to choose from the marketplace of ideas.
o Just as liberals believe that a free market will produce the
best goods, they also believe that a market of ideas will
lead to the most rational and useful ideas.
However, our freedom of choice with regard to ideas is
largely illusory because not all ideas presented equally
or fairly.
o Whether it is the choice of shampoo, sociological theories,
movies, or politicians, capitalism requires that we believe that
we have true freedom of choice. But in all developed capitalist
societies the choices we are offered are actually very narrow.
E.g at any large grocery store one can find a countless
array of breakfast cereals on the shelves.
o One of the main themes of liberalism is equality, conceived of as
equality of opportunity. However, without equality of condition,
equality of opportunity is limited
o Within the liberal framework, ideas are seen as goods competing in
the marketplace. But ideas, like goods, are not equally represented
in the marketplace. Thus there is the appearance of choice, when in
reality there is little variation in the ideas most of us read or hear.

Ideology, Culture, and Socialization
o Power of Ideology: In the process of becoming human, we
internalize the existing structures of power as well. This power of
ideology allows the dominant class to maintain its rule.
o Main Agents of Socialization in Capitalist Societies:
o Mass media and
o education system
o Is Criticism of these agencies misguided (role of mass media
and education)
o Much of the criticism is directed at these institutions
o Educated System
o expectation is that it will give true equality of opportunity by
negating differences. However, when we fail to get jobs or we
see inequality, we put the blame on our schools, which in
capitalist society is a result of anarchy of production
o Mass Media
o Often blamed for promoting values detrimental to society,
example-violence, they may be a part of the problem but not
in themselves the problem.

The education system and mass media are two of the major agents of
socialization that transmit the dominant ideology.

Mass Media
o Social scientist have noted that, given the sheer amount of time we
all spend in the contact with various forms of mass communication
in our society, we are all affected by them in a major way.
o The creation of new technologies allowed for the widespread
dissemination of information, ideas, and values: new forms of
communication, such as radio, television, and computers reached a
mass, or a large number, of unconnected individuals
o C. Wright Mills: The media not only give us information; they guide
our very experience. Our standards of credulity, our standard of
reality, tend to be set by these media rather than by our own
fragmentary experience
o Order Theories: See social instituitions such as mass media as a
harmless means of mainting social order and control, in the interest
of society as a whole.
o Change Theories: View mass media as playing a key role in the
maintenance of class and status inequalities
o Early assumptions: the growth of the mass media would
beneficial to ordinary people, as it would expand their traditionally
narrow world-views by giving them increased access to knowledge
and a wider variety of perspectives
o Later Perspective: mass media is a primary means of transmitting
the dominant ideology and that they play a key role in the
legitimation of capitalist society
o Current perspective.
o The main function of the mass media is propaganda, or the
promotion of the interests of those with economic and
political power
o The assumption that the mass media in capitalist societies are
controlled by a small and integrated elite.
o Ownership and Control of the Media
o Porter concluded that the mass media were controlled by a
small group of men who shared certain common
characteristics.
o Porter and Wallace confirmed that media ownership was
indeed highly concentrated in Canada
o Canada has one of the most concentrated media markets in
the world. It is a global phenomenon that is linked to a
process known as convergence.
o Convergence refers to the merging of the technology and
content of the telecommunications, entertainment, publishing,
and broadcasting industries.
o This enormous concentration of capital leads to obvious
concerns about the true degree of choice that we actually
have over media content as well as the freedom of individuals
and groups to have their voice heard.
o Advertisers also exert much influence on media content, since
advertising is the medias primary source of funding.
o While there may be variations in the opinions of specific
journalists or TV news commentators, the overarching
orientation of newspapers, television, radio, and mainstream
magazines is in support of the status quo.
o The main goal of the private media, like any other industry, is
to maximize profits.
Since their main source of profits is advertising
revenue, the news and entertainment that accompany
advertising serve as the means of getting people to
read the ads or watch the commercials
Advertising does not simply try to sell us the product; it
also tries to sell us a way of life. Convinces us that
material possession makes us happy.
o The media promotes primarily self-improvement
E.g makeovers
They teach us that were not good enough
o In recent years there has been tremendous concentration of
ownership of the mass media in Canada and around the
globe. Media content is largely controlled by those with
economic power

Media and the Role of Advertising
o What do you see around you in educational institutions,
Sports, Non-profit sector?
o Advertising by Corporations.
Everywhere we look , we are being told that our entire
culture is brought to us by major corporations.
Reality that is lost is that much of the wealth in the
hands of the corporate sector has been privately
appropriated from those who produced it.
Children are learning this corporate controlled culture at
an earlier age. Even rebellion is commoditized in
capitalist societies. Example: hip-hop movement.
Companies target young people to instill loyalty at an
early age
Media today promotes self-improvement, underlying
message being that our problems are rooted not in
broader society but in ourselves.

The Myth of Objectivity
o As humans, we all process information through our own pre-
existing ideas or biases.
o The media, controlled by human beings, are no more neutral or
unbiased than any other any other source or information.
o Because media biases so often match our own and because these
biases are so widespread and constant, we rarely notice them.
o Despite supposed diversity, the media have consistently favored
management over labour, private enterprise over public ownership,
males over females, officialdom over protesters, traditional politics
over dissent, and so on.
o E.g newspapers have business sections but not labour
sections.
o Both sexes continue to be portrayed by media in stereotypical
ways
o E.g racial minorities are stereotyped
o While most of us strongly oppose censorship, it is hard to oppose
what you cannot see. With so few companies controlling the entire
media and telecommunications industries, our choices become
diminished
o Our ability to critically assess media content is limited by the fact
that we often lack the background information to adequately
understand the issues.
o E.g our ability to fully understand the current debate about
environmental pollution requires that we understand both the
corporate agenda and the particular economic framework in
which it is taking place
o The overall thrust of the mass media is in support of current social
arrangements. Despite a variety of orientations, there is almost
universal support for the private-enterprise and the dominant
ideology, liberalism

The Role of the Government
o The government of Canada has always intervened more directly in
the mass communications industry than has the United States
government.
o Such direct state involvement was seen as part of the nation-
building process in this country.
o CBC was created in 1936 to help unite the country and provide
alternative to American radio
o The CRTC has the power to issue, renew, or revoke, broadcasting
licenses, as well as to set out conditions for Canadian broadcasting
as a whole.
o Its role, in the main, has been to protect and encourage the
development of Canadian culture in both French and English.
o In reality, the CRTC has frequently turned out to be little
more than a body that legitimates current arrangements,
rather than an entity that has any real power over the media
or their owners.
o It has not challenged growing convergence of media
ownership in Canada.
o The government has been retreating from its protectionist role, as it
has increasingly endorsed greater private-sector control of the
media while gradually eroding support for public broadcasting.
o E.g. massive cuts on CBC, National Film Board and Telefilm
Canada
o The direct intervention of the state into areas of culture has always
been widely accepted in Canada as a means of protecting Canadian
media. However, this intervention is now declining; as a result, U.S.
media domination will likely increase

The Education System
o The growth of mass compulsory education in the late nineteenth
century must be connected to the development of capitalism.
o The rapid advances in technology led to two important
consequences.
o More educated and skilled workforce was required.
o Increased productivity meant expanding profits could be
produced by fewer workers.
o A public education system developed to fit into these changing
conditions
o Were seen to keep children busy since they were not needed
in factories.
o New schools taught basic literacy and numeracy skills
required by employers; and discipline, industriousness,
docility, politeness, punctuality, and obedience to authority-
that would make good workers; teach young people the
values and norms of dominant culture.
o By mid 19th century universal tax-supported elementary
education was advocated, accessible to all children
o Since the late nineteenth century, there has been a gradual
increase in the years of formal attendance at school. While an
elementary school education was considered sufficient,
students are now being told that postsecondary education is
the minimum requirement to get a reasonably well-paid job.
o To some extent such a trend reflects the increasing complexity of
technology, but it is also the result of the growing tendency toward
credentialism.
o As the number of applicants expand, paper credentials are
increasingly used as a means of limiting access into certain
job categories, even if the particular credentials are of
questionable utility in job performance.
o Credentialism is primarily a means of justifying structured
inequality, by linking social inequality to the individuals
ability to attain a particular level of education.
o A growing problem is that of over qualification
o More likely to occur if you are an immigrant to Canada
o Educational attainment is not random, but rather linked to a
number of variables.
o E.g. studies have repeatedly shown that levels of educational
aspiration and attainment (achieving a goal) are strongly
correlated with the socioeconomic status of ones parents
and, to a lesser extent, race and ethnicity.

Education in the Twenty-First Century
o Both the order theories and the change theories agree that schools
perform two major functions: they socialize children and they help
sort individuals for the labour market. However, the various change
theories argue that these functions help sustain existing class
relations
o Order Theories, Structural functionalism:
o According to Talcott Parsons, school performs two
essential functions for the maintencance of an orderly and
stable society
It socializes children, not only by teaching them a body
of skills and knowledge, but also by transmitting the
values and attitudes considered acceptable within
society
It sorts individuals through a grading system, preparing
them for a differentiated labour market
o For functionalists, the school system is seen as neutral with
both the individual and the society benefiting in equal
measure from the system of public education
Society gets the various jobs filled by the most qualified
personnel, while individuals get to achieve personal
growth and development
o Structural functionalism can be linked to liberal ideology, with
public education seen as the tool that gives everyone a
chance to compete in the capitalist marketplace and succeed
both occupationally and personally.
o Change Theories
o The various change theories agree with the order theories
that socialization and sorting are the two key functions of
education; however, in contrast to the order theories they
recognize that societies have an unequal allocation of power,
wealth, and prestige.
o The education system is a social institution that, in the main,
helps sustain existing class relations.
o According to Bowles and Gintis (1976) and others:
Schools reproduce the social relations required for
capitalist productions
Employers require workers, and workers of a specific
type.
At more of a general level, the ruling class
requires relative social stability and ideological
acceptance of capitalist class relations
Given the power of this class, it should not be
surprising that it pressures governments to
ensure that schools meet its needs.
o According to Barlow and Robertson (1994): North
American corporations have three goals:
to secure the ideological allegiance of young people to a
free-market world-view on issues of the environment,
corporate rights and the role of government
To gain market access to the hearts and minds of young
consumers and lucrative contracts in the education
industry.
Transform schools into training centers producing a
workforce suited to the needs of transnational
corporations
o As globalization advances, the corporate sector has had an
increased desire to be directly linked to education institutions. Big
business has also gained a foothold in the college and university
sector.
o Current debates over education and the mass media must be
understood as democratic struggles, in that they address the
question of who should control various social institutions in Canada.
3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
In their explanations of human

The text argues sociology in its broadest sense can be described as
The systematic study of human society and the behaviour of people in
the society.

The expected patterns of behaviors society are referred as
The norms

Unlike the physical sciences, in the social sciences
There are usually a number of theorist competing
Generally speaking, order theories
Support current social arrangements
Sociological theories that focus on the ways individual hum
Macro sociologist
Among foraging people, the division of

The term socialization refers to

harvin harris thought the origins of various food prohibitions were
primarily linked to
The ecology where people live
In most foraging societies
Sharing
Most anthropologists agree that in early foraging societies, warfare was
Relatively low
The transition form foraging to farming was most likely set in motion by
All of the above
In ancient societies, women were largely excluded form warfare,
primaritly because of their
Reproductive capacity
Marxists define groups with a distinct relation to the means of production
as
Social class
Marx referred to the owning class in capitalism as
The bougeious
The workers filing to the early modern factories largely cam from the
ranks of :

For the European monarchs, the primary value of the north American
continent was to
Secure their own glory and profits

Capitalism is characterized by the subordination of production to the
imperatives of
The market

Which of the following terms do Marxist use to describe the wealth
acquired by capitalists via unpaid labour of workers
Surplus value
When the state plays a prominent role in economic affairs and the public
sector expands, this is referred to as a
Welfare state

Which of the following did weber recognize as a dimension of social
inequality.
All above

Which of the following did john porter perceive as an objective criterion of
social class
All above

When asked what social class they are in , most Canadians are in
Middle class

Class consciousness is

Those at the top in terms of wealth and power are
Both owning and ruling class

Which of the following categories of employees do not belong to the
working class?
All above

That the class consciousness of the working class is low is reflected in its
members
All above

The dominant ideology of capitalism is
Liberalism

The control that the ruling class has over social beliefs is known as
ideological
Hegemony

Which of the following is one of the main themes of liberalism
Equality

Which of these authors argued that the media are controlled by a
dominant or elite class
All above

Which of the following biases is less common in the mass media?
Favoring public enterprise over and private ownership

In recent years, the Canadian government

In the view of Talcott parsons which of the following functions of the
schools are essential to the maintenance of an orderly and stable society?
All above
[2/17/2014, 3:25:55 PM] Michael.Moncada13: The text argues that
sociology in its broadest sense can be described as:

Systamic society

The text argues that there are two types of power:

Proximal and "missed the second part"

Which of the following is NOT one of the four dialectical principles in the
text? :

change proceeds from qualitative to quantitative

According to the text, societies are:

simutaneoulsly ordering and changing

According to the text, the various change theories in the social science
are rooted in the analysis of:

Karl Marx

Which term did sociology c wright mills use to describe the ability to go
beyond personal issues and concoct them to broader social structures:

Sociological imagination

Which of the following ca be defined as a culture universal:

funerals

In marxist terms, a society with specific mode of production is reffered to
as a:

Socioeconomic

The period when the domestication of plants and animals began is also
known as:

Neolithic Revolution

The best known of the giveaway ceremony, practiced by northwest coast
aboriginal peoples, is known as the: potlatch

Which of the following innovations is associated with agrarian societies:
all of the above

Accoriding to the marxists, which relationships in any society are most
important in understanding power:

From the early sixteenth century onward, European conlonism was driven
by the search of:

all of the above

The decline of feudalism was associated with the increasing power of the:

monarchy and capitalists

One of the first philosophers to emphasize the inherent rights of
individuals rights that were independent of any particular societies laws
was:

John Locke

Who first developed the notion that capitalism was guided by an invisible
hand:

Adam Smith

Marxists argues than in capitalism, surplus value is created in the sphere
of:

Production

The paper economy has to do with producing, buying and selling of:

Financial assets

The importance of the socioeconomic status was particularly noted by:

Max Weber

The so called middle class expanded in canada immediately after world
war 2 because:

All of the above

Corporations are often spoken as:

legal fictions

In marxist theory what do all working class people have in common:

they all work for wages

According to irk olin wight, which of the following fall in the category of
the new middle class:

All of the above

We acquire our ideological package of beliefs and values primarily
through the process of:

socialization

In capitalism, freedom in general is equated with freedom in choice in:

the marketplace

Liberalism is a world view that generally gives prominence in any society
to:

"me" over "we"

Which of the following institutions had a virtual monopoly over the
dessemation of knowledge in agrarian societies:

religious organizations

The medias primary source of funding is:

advertising

Which of these categories of people is likely to be underrepresented in the
media:

All of the above

In the early days of industrialization, which of the following groups
worked because of economic necessity:

men, women and children

To which of the following ideologies are structural functionalist views on
education closely related:

liberalism
Chapter 8 The Role of the State 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM

State:
State:
is an organized political structure that carries out tasks required by more
complex societies as their population and geographic size increase, as
warfare and trade expand, and as social inequalities become more
extreme
It is a major means of social control
The term state is used interchangeably with the term government, the
government is only one aspect of the state
State structures arose with the growth of surplus and the consequent
development of classes and exploitation


In Foraging societies:
Political power tended to be loosely organized, with a pattern of shifting
leadership
Leaders used personal influence to encourage others to undertake
activities, but there was no structural means of coercing anyone into
following directions.

Agrarian societies
As agrarian societies with large surpluses and social classes developed,
more formalized state structure arose
Role of family was reduced as state became more powerful
Along with growth of the state apparatus, an ideology developed that
supported and legitimized such a structure.
o Most ppl came to see their state structure as inevitable and eternal
Owning class controlled the state
o E.g emperor could accumulate wealth directly via various forms of
tribute or taxation

Capitalist Societies
Owning class is separated from the state.
The economic sphere is privatized it comes under full and direct
control of the dominant class
The social activities formerly carried out directly by the owning class
that is, military, administrative, and legal functions become transferred
to the state, which is in the public sphere
The separation of the private and public spheres in capitalist societies is
only partial
o The capital class gets to privately own and have control over most
economic actitvity
This gives this class enormous power over the productive process
because it has the capacity to organize and intensify production for its
own immediate interests.
The negative consequences of its activities pollution, poverty,
unemployment, and so on are usually dealt with by government
In capitalist societies, the economic and political spheres come to be
separated. The appropriating class gains enormous control over the
productive process, while the state is assigned the social, or public,
activities formerly carried out directly by the owning class

Canadian State
Three levels of government
1. Federal: example CBC radio, tax (federal & provincial), education
(federal & provincial), health (federal & provincial).
2. Provincial (10 provincial and 3 territorial)
a. e.g drivers license
3. Various municipal, or local, governments across the country
a. Garabage, water
All levels of government in Canada, regardless of political affiliation, have
provided a large degree of financial support directly or indirectly to
major corporations

Dominant State Analyses
Pluralist Approach
o Fits with Order Theorists The world is just and fits with already
accepted notions of how societies work
o In the pluralist analysis, society consists of a variety of groups and
associations with highly diverse and often conflicting interests.
o No single group totally dominates political structures.
o A key function of the state, from this perspective, is mediation
between the many different interest groups workers, students,
people with disabilities, First Nations, big businesses, small
business, women, to name but a few trying to get their needs
met within a given society.
o By balancing out the various interest groups, the state supposedly
helps guarantee that order is maintained, while ensuring that the
overall best interests of society as a whole are met.
o Summary of key functions of state
o Mediation between various interest groups
o Maintain order
o Overall best interest of society
o Recognize the greater power of big business relative to other
interest groups but do not see this as a problem because of its
important role in the economy.
o The state is a body that acts on behalf of society as a whole.
o Because it does not emphasize the element of social control, the
pluralist approach usually speaks of government rather than the
state.
o Pluralism sees the key function of the state as one of mediation,
while class analysis sees the state carrying out the accumulation,
coercion, and legitimation functions on behalf of the dominant class
Class Approach
o Fits with change theorists
o Doesnt support the commonly held view of the social world.
o See the Canadian state as essentially neutral, the class approach
sees the state as an institution that acts primarily in the interests of
the dominant class.
o State carries three functions on behalf of dominant class
o The state carries out three interconnected functions on behalf
of the dominant class, although the relative importance of
each may vary in different socioeconomic formation and even
at different historical moments within a specific society
1. Accumulation Function: the state must try to create
or maintain the conditions for profitable capital
accumulation
2. Legitimization function: the state must try to
maintain social harmony, mostly by legitimating the
current class structure and the right of the ruling class
to rule
3. Coercion function: the state, when necessary, must
use force to repress subordinate individuals or classes
on behalf of dominant class.
o State is made up of a number of institutions
1. Repressive agencies: which include the army and police,
the judiciary, and the penal system
2. Government: which includes the various adminstative
bodies, suchas legistures, parliaments and council, civil
service
3. Government-owned bodies: education system, the
health-care system, the postal service, and such publicly
owned services as the CBC
o The Canadian state is linked to the capitalist owning class and, in
the process, refutes the pluralist notion of a neutral state
apparatus.

Democracy and Capitalism
o Democracy means rule by the people
o The argument that the various levels of the state act primarily in
the interests of the appropriating class does not mean that is the
only group whose interests are being met.
o State act on behalf of the ruling class in general, but this does not
mean that every individual activity of ever level of state at every
moment necessarily benefits the dominant class
o Individuals who are part of the state apparatuses are not under the
total control of the ruling class.
o Capitalist owning class has two goals:
o Short term: maximize profits
o Long term: maintain the system that allows it to privately
appropriate surplus value.
o If the states only helped the owning class maximize its profits, the
long-term stability of the entire capitalist system might be put at
risk
o Thus every state in capitalist societies must, to some degree,
balance competing forces.
o One way of increasing stability has been the acceptance of
democratic political forms
o Capitalism furthered the democratic process
o Capitalist Societies and Economic Sphere:
In capitalist societies, democracy has a very specific
meaning, limited to the political sphere rather than to
the economic one.
Since economic property is privately owned, it
remains outside the framework of democratic principals
Most of us accept, for example, that in capitalist
societies only company owners should have the right to
decide whether a particular company should be able to
close down, increase production, fire its workers, or
move to another locale.
o Capitalist Societies and Public/Political Sphere
Democracy pertains mainly to the electoral process
whereby, at regular intervals, individuals get to select
those who will represent them in some parliamentary-
style body for a fixed period of time.
Hence countries with massive poverty, extremes
of rich and poor, and mass powerlessness are
nonetheless called democratic simply because
they hold elections from time to time.
Democracy is never connected to socioeconomic
conditions.
Countries with massive poverty, extremes of rich and
poor, and mass powerlessness are nonetheless called
democratic simply because they hold elections from
time to time.
Fewer people in Canada are voting in elections
1 in 4 Canadians
Unlike in pre-capitalist societies, few members of the
ruling class in Canada actually hold government
positions.
o While capitalist societies, in general, have been more democratic
than pre-capitalist societies, capitalist democracy is, at best, a
limited form that must always be understood within the specific
class relations of power.
o Capitalist economies require active intervention from the state.
o How does the ruling class rule?
o By financially backing those candidates during elections that
support their goals.
o Lobbying groups (campaigns)
Not only directly influence the decisions of
governments, they also play an extremely important
role in influencing public opinion
o Paid lobbying groups
Whose job it is to get the ear of the government on
behalf of those who hire them.
o Those who have more powerful positions in the economy are
always taken into consideration by the state simply because
of such power
o A key goal of the Canadian sate is to advance the economy is, by
definition, a capitalist one.
o True democracy is always limited by the economic power of
the ruling class.
o Capital owns the productive units; capital owns the jobs.
o Businesses can threaten to move to other cities, provinces, or
countries if their needs are not met.
o Representative democracy in capitalist societies by no means
guarantees accountability from political leadership; nor does it
guarantee that political parties, once elected, will adhere to their
own party policies.
o Indeed, it is becoming increasingly common for politicians to
run on a specific platform and then either ignore or actually
contradict their promises after they are elected.
o Many Canadians have become cynical about politicians and the
electoral process, and as already noted, many citizens particularly
the more powerless do not even bother to vote.
o Why does the owning class choose not to rule?
o The upper class in commercial societies highly diverse and
segmented.
o Democratic forms, in which political parties compete within a
narrow framework of electoral representation, allowing
differing sectors of the dominant class to compete with each
other with little risk of destabilizing the entire system.
o Democracy allows working people to feel a commitment to
the very system that structurally disempowers them.
Thus the tensions both within and between classes are
reduced within the framework of representative
democracy
o The owning class likes stability, and parliamentary or
representative democracies seem to work best at providing
such stability.

Functions of State
Accumulation
o It is often presumed that the state plays little or no role in capitalist
economic matters
o Governments in every society are actively involved in their
economies.
o The market economy of capitalism actually requires such
involvement.
o Legal structures are put in place that permit private accumulation of
wealth
o The state is the regulator of capitalism.
o It sets the rules regarding economic activities, and in the long
run those rules always favor capital.
o Because capitalist economies are unplanned and therefore
subject to instability and crises, most people even those in
the ruling class count on the state to limit its worst
excesses, particularly those that might lead to major
economic downturns.
o The Tax System.
o In theory, the state both collects and distributes moneys for
the benefits of all Canadians, various levels of the state in
Canada have consistently favored corporations and the
wealthiest Canadians.
o Progressive Taxation: occurs when citizens are taxed on
the basis of their ability to pay. The more or income one has,
the more progressive taxation system, the more wealth or
income one has, the more taxes one pays.
o Regressive Taxation: there is no connection between the
amount of wealth or income one has and the tax one pays
o Canadas taxation system is only mildly progressive,
moving towards regressive forms of taxation
o While supposedly taxing people and corporations in
proportion their incomes, there are so many allowable
deductions and tax credits that the degree to which income
tax can be described as truly progressive is limited.
o Many Canadians are investing in countries with secrecy laws
and may not be paying any taxes on the profits from such
investments.
o Low taxes for corporations
o Corporations are allowed to defer a large chunk of their taxes
without interest
The reality is that when taxes are deferred, they are
deferred forever.
o Regressive Tax System
o Sales tax, property tax are generally regressive
o The federal and provincial levels of government have
increasing cut back on their transfer payments to
municipalities, while at the same time downloading more
functions onto them.
o An increasingly popular way governments to raise funds is via
what can collectively be referred to as hidden taxes
E.g public transportation fares, entrance fees, to public
museums and galleries, tuition fees, licenses fees, and
toll roads.
Since this forms of taxation appears as an optional fee
for a service, it might be argued that one need not pay
for the service if one so chooses.
Regressive theyre unrelated to the users ability to
pay.
Hidden taxes are actually double tax: having already
paid taxes to support various government services,
individuals are asked to pay again when they use a
particular services.
o Lower-income earnerers are hardest hit by such schemes,
and many end up excluded from some of these services.
o Gambling: regressive way for governments to raise funds
o Lottery: it is voluntary, but directs people to personal rather
than collective solution to structural problems.
o No taxes on inheritance or wealth transfer.
o In recent years, there has been a dramatic shift by all levels
of government in Canada to more regressive forms of
taxation.
o Recipients of Benefits
o The real warefare recipients in Canada are major corporations
E.g 1982- 2006 : 18.4 billion government assistant
given to corporations, 39% repayable, less than 20%
paid back.
o In all capitalist societies, the state provides major financial
support to its corporations
o Corporate welfare is given because theoretically these
corporations create jobs but many corporations receive
substantial sums even when they are losing money or
reducing jobs.
If the true aim of governments were about job creation,
they would be pouring money into the public sector,
where labour-intensive fields such as health care,
education, or social services
o The main role of governments in relation to the economy is to
provide a favourable fiscal and monetary climate for capital to
secure and increase its profits
This includes the government providing grants, loans,
subsides, tax breaks, and so on..
Governments provide state ownership and state
construction of railroads, harbours, canals,
powergenerating plans, airports, and highways when
the costs or risks for capital are too high to undertake
themselves.
Less obvious are the ways that governments create
capitalist labour markets via control of land policy and
immigration policy, and the way government absorb the
social cost of capitalist production, via such activities as
environmental clean-up, welfare services, and health
care.
o Budget allocated to these expensives has been dropping in
Canada.

o Military Industrial Complex (Dwight D. Eisenhower)HOW
o The interests of the top military to obtain the latest
technology and equipment and the interests of the
corporate sector to maximize profits were merged.
o Policies formulated for both budget allocation for military
spending and political decisions with regard to military
activities.
o State is the direct purchaser of military-related goods and
services from private corporations
o The state was not a neutral body: it consistently favored
capital
o Production for military use is big business, with global military
spending estimated to have been 1.6 trillion in 2010.
o It is also highly monopolized sector of business, with very few
controlling the entire industry.
One of the largest of these, U.S.- based United
Technologies, owns Pratt & Whitney, the second largest
recipient of government funding between 1982-2009
o Military hardware is manufactured only after contracts have
been secured.
o There are no unsold products and no wastage occurs
o At the urging of military leaders, governments are often
convinced to buy the latest technology, whether or not it is
needed.
o Such technology, of course, rapidly becomes obsolete and
must constantly be replaced.
o Because such industries being immediate commercial
benefits, governments often become promoters of trade in
military goods with other countries
o The Canadian government supports the military-industrial
complex more substantially than many people realize
o Canadian Government
o The Canadian government is tied to the global military-
industrial complex in a number of ways.
1. It sets government policy about participating in global
conflicts, such as the war in Afghanistan, which increase
our country;s need for more military machinery,
2. it purchases products produced by the major
corporations for military use
3. the government gives loans and grants to producers of
military hardware and technology
4. money from the Canadian Pension Plan is now used for
military purposes
o Concerns
o While the benefits of such policies to the owners of companies
producing goods for military use are obvious, the costs to the
rest of us are less evident
Moral concern that a substantial portion of our
manufacturing base produces weapons of destruction
that are increasingly being used in military conflicts
around the world
Governments, having spent large amounts on military
expenditures, must continually look for uses to justify
such expenses.
Such production is actually more capital-intensive than
labour intensive, which means that relatively few jobs
are created for each dollar invested.
Because it is either largely produced for export or
stockpiled by the Canadian government, military
hardware does not generate much of a spin-off effect to
other Canadian industries.
Thus excessive military spending does not benefit the
average Canadian
o Coercion:
o In theory the police exist to benefit every Canadian, the
reality is that their primary role has always been to serve and
protect those with wealth and power.
o All advanced capitalist societies accept at least in theory
the notion of the rule of law
A formally determined set of rules or principals that
applies to all within its jurisdiction.
o In theory, then, the coercive component of the state is
neutral and unconnected to class relationships.
Whether rich or poor, unemployed or employed all
are supposedly equal under the law
The state ultimately decides what is legal and what is a
crime; determines, via the judiciary, who is innocent
and who is guilty; and hands out the punishment for
those found guilty
Agents of the state write the laws, it should not be
surprising that most laws in society will protect the
interests of those in power
In all class societies, the majority of laws are linked to
rights of property.
In theory, the forms of property in law are not
necessarily distinguished; that is, economic property
and property for personal use are generally treated in
the same way. In practice, however, those who own
and control economic property are treated distinctively.
Although in theory everyone is treated equally before
the law, it is primarily those with money and influence
who can get the best lawyers and present the strongest
case
o All capitalist states have a coercion function. No ruling class
could retain its power without the ability to resort to the
coercive component of the state when necessary.
o Although all Canadians are, in theory, equal before the law,
corporations are not held responsible for criminal activities in
the same way as individuals are. Moreover, those with money
and influence are advantaged within the criminal justice
system
o There has been a recent increase in the criminalization of
dissent in Canada
o Fascism
o Fascism is essentially capitalism in its most repressive,
undemocratic, and militaristic form.
o Although the personal lives of ordinary citizens are strictly
controlled and there is an obsession with crime and
punishment, large corporations are able to operate in relative
freedom and gain increasing control over the economy.
Put simply, fascist societities are capitalist economies
within a police state.
o As an ideology, fascism emphasizes a strong leader and a
strong state, while opposing human rights , democracy,
pacifism, & collectivism
o Repression of dissent increases
o It is often embedded with a notion of racial or ethnic
superiority and is linked to some form of intense nationalism;
it promotes fear particularly of the other in the general
population
o Capitalists has forged alliances with fascist and other right-
wing movements
Italy 1920 with Germany
o Charles Higham uncovered evidence that it was not simply
German capital that supported Hitler, but capital from major
American corporations as well like GM, GE, Fordthrough
WWII
o Capitalism in its most repressive, undemocratic, and
militaristic form is referred to as fascism. Any capitalist
society can shift to a fascist form under certain conditions.

Chapter 9: Neoliberalism and Globalization3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
Although the state is a class-based social institution, all levels of
government in Canada have provided many rights and benefits to
ordinary Canadians.
The Erosion of Commons
o There are still a great many areas of life remained in the public
domains
o Commons: these areas have traditionally been considered out
of bounds for private ownership or trade because they have
been accepted as collective property, existing for everyone to
share as they have for millennia.
o e.g todays commons include: public spaces, shared language
and culture, informal community support systems, air we
breathe, water we drink, the oceans
o As capitalist advanced some components of the commons
transferred to private ownership.
o Even though capitalism promotes the concept of private property,
many elements of society remained in the public domain until
recently. The public domain is often referred to as the commons.

The Growth of the Welfare State
o Welfare state: a form of capitalism in which governments played an
increasing role in economic affairs, the public sector and social
safety net expanded, and there was general economic prosperity for
large numbers of working people.
o Second half of the twentieth century, commons was expanding and
that government were taking the interests of their citizens more
seriously.
o It was a time of relative economic stability and improved living
conditions for many in the developed capitalist world.
o For these reasons the period between approximately 1945
and 1973 is sometimes referred to as the golden age of
capitalism even though it was far from golden for
everybody.
o Commons expanded
o The transnational corporation appeared on the scene and grew in
size and dominance
o the most powerful of the TNCs were based in the untied
states, although Germany and Japan became key players as
well.
o Economic globalization led to cultural globalization
o During this period, what is commonly referred to as the welfare
state expanded rapidly, with the Canadian government taking a
greater role as a provider and protector of citizen well-being and
security.
o Provide such benefits in a welfare state, the surplus value
produced by workers is transferred to the state in the form of
taxes and then given back to workers, not in the form of
money, but through provision of social necessities such as
healthcare, education, unemployment insurance, old-age
pensions, and so on.
o The state provides these services to us collectively rather
than us having to purchase them in the private marketplace
o The advantages for citizens are twofold.
1. The state can generally provide services at a lower cost
because of both its large size and its lack of profit
motive.
2. A universal system maximizes fairness.
o The welfare state grew after World War II, as the capitalist owning
class and the organized sector of the working class achieved an
accord that was mediated by the state
o Why the capitalist owning class would suddenly have agreed
to having a larger share of government funds transferred
back to the workers, rather than continuing to resist any
expansion of the welfare state as they did in the early
twentieth century.
o There were a number of serious problems that capitalists
faced following WWII.
o one serious concern was the expansion and consolidation of
the socialist world.
The capitalist owning class had to prove that its
system was better of the two, and expanding the
welfare state was one means of legitimating capitalist
rule.
o Workers in the capitalist world were putting pressure on
governments to help them
Many had just fought in defense of their country and
now though their country owed them something in
return
o Citizens had high expectations of their governments
o Employers, needed these individuals relatively de-
politicized and eager to work to fill the jobs in a rapidly
expanding postwar economy.
o State intervention was necessary to protect capital form its
own excesses
o To control inevitable crisis of overproduction
o To reduce the instability created by capitalist business cycles.
o The Accord
o Capital agreed
The capitalist owning class and organized sector of the
working class reached what has been termed an
accord
Accord was an agreement that the state would act as a
mediator in the struggle between capital and labour.
Corporate leaders agreed to recognize greater rights for
workers and citizens and to accept the labour
movements demands for higher wage, collective
bargaining rights, and an increase in social benefits.
o The labour movement agreed:
Agreed to accept the control of employers over
production and investment, to confine class struggle
primarily to collective bargaining in the workplace, and
to isolate or expel radicals from their midst.
They also agreed to work toward social reforms within
capitalist political and economic structures instead of
struggling for any type of more radical alteration of the
capitalist system.
o Results
o Organized labor saw this accord as a great victory.
o Union membership in Canada rose after WWII
o Fringe benefits including pensions, paid holidays, shorter
workweeks, sick pay, and disability benefits become more
common for workers
o The low unemployment rates through 1950s and 1960s also
gave workers more power because of their ability to negotiate
improved wages and working conditions with their employers.
o At the same time that the state took a greater role in regulating
workers, it also increasingly regulated capital.
o The notion of state regulation, known as Keynesianism, after
British economist John Maynard Keynes, led to greater state
intervention in the economy.
o He and other economist argued that increased state
intervention in capitalist economies was necessary to protect
them from their own excesses, to control for the inevitable
crisis of overproduction, and to reduce the instability created
by capitalist business cycles.
Neoliberalism and the Decline of the Welfare State
o Unfortunately, greater government intervention in the economy
could not permanently eliminate the contradictions of capitalist
economies.
o The so-called golden age came to a rapid end as capitalism
entered a permanent state of economic crisis.
o The accord between corporate employers and organized labour
collapsed
o Most capitalist governments shifted away from Keynesian policies to
a new set of economic and political policies that were more
favorable to the needs of major corporations.
o The combination of increasing rates of unemployment,
stagnating wages, and growing global competition weakened
the ability of workers to respond the power of capital.
o This new set of polices is referred to as neoliberalism.
o Neoliberalism is the rejection of the Keynesian welfare state
and its replacement with free-market doctrines and practices.
o Neoliberalism saw governments role as minimal, the market as the
central determinant of social values, and the individual as the core
unit of society.
o For the average Canadian, this has meant a rapid decline in social
benefits.
o As the government supports have declined, particularly for the
economically disadvantaged, there has been a widening gap
between the rich and poor
o The decline of social reform began in the 1970s as capitalism
entered a permanent state of economic crisis, and the accord
between capital and labour began to collapse
o Structural adjustment policies: these policies were implemented
by the World Bank and the International Fund
o Their purpose in theory to help poorer nations advance their
economies and to create a single global market has in
reality been to increase the private accumulation of capital on
a global scale.
o General elements of neoliberalism that are specific to Canada
o Our economy and military have increasingly become tied to
those of the united states and its interests, while our
sovereignty in all spheres has declined.
o The relationship between the provinces and the federal state
has changed.
o More independence has been given to the provinces, allowing
them to advance their own neoliberal agendas, while a few
key federal powers specifically those that enhance corporate
interests have been strengthened
o By the 1980s, most capitalist governments around the world began
to shift to polices more sympathetic to the needs of the corporate
sector. The package of changes is commonly referred to as
neoliberalism
o Elements of Neoliberalism
o Free trade: is really about the free movement of the capital.
Any legislation that gives protection to specific countries or
individuals is weakened or eliminated.
o Privatization: involves selling off various aspects of the
commons to the corporate sector as it seeks new sources for
investment
o Deregulation: rules and regulations that were created to
protect citizens or limit the rights of corporations are either
eroded or cancelled
o Decline in government benefits: government funding to many
social programs is cut drastically.
o Shift from government support to charities: help for the poor
and sick as well as support for education and the arts are
increasingly via voluntary, tax-deductible gifts rather the via
government supports
o Tax reforms: changes to taxation are instituted that primarily
benefit the rich and large corporations. Gov. increasingly turn
to regressive form of taxation while cutting income tax, the
more progressive form of taxation
o Attack on labour: legislation protecting workers and the
workplace for example, union rights, minimum wages,
employment standards, and worker health and safety is
weakened or removed entirely.
o Decline in democracy and civil rights: sweeping new
legislation is created that gives vastly expanded powers to the
repressive state apparatus, while legislation that protects the
individual form arbitrary measures on the part of the state is
weakened.
o Decrease in the size and scope of the state: the size of the
sector declines (other than police and prison system
o Role of global institutions
o Military: the untied states became the dominant force in the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed in 1949 as
the international agency to coordinate military operations of
the North American and European powers.
o Political: the United Nations was created as an umbrella
organization to help coordinate the activities of nation-states.
o Economic: World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
(1944) created to help stabilize and integrate world
economies, to develop programs that would allow for greater
capital investment in the less-developed countries, and to
create an international monetary system that would improve
global capital flow.
o The United States has become the leading force
economically, politically, and militarily in an increasingly
integrated global capitalist economy. There is now some
question of how long this dominance will continue.
o
o World Trade Organization: The WTO was established in 1995 as
an international body that would effectively set the rules for global
trade and investment.
o Over 150 countries are members
o Is the highest judicial and legislative body, with the powers of
an international state.
o Its agenda is very clear to open the entire world to the
TNCs so that they can maximize profits, without constraints
from laws or procedures of nation-states that might put limits
on corporate goals.
o The real decision-making power lies primarily with the United
States, the European Union, and Japan
o Not only is WTO closely linked to a number of big business
coalitions, but also in many cases the WTO rules have actually
been written directly by global corporations themselves.
o In order to allow a single world economy of competing corporations
to function properly, a number of global agencies and institutions
were created in the last half of the twentieth century.
o There is an increasingly tension between the global dominance of
the United States, with its propensity to act unilaterally in its own
interests, and the need for countries to work together to advance
the development of an integrated global economy.
o United States as a Global Police Officer
o Four key imperatives (rules) of U.S. foreign policy
1. Opening the world to transnational corporations (TNC),
particularly U.S. based ones;
2. Justifying and increasingly the size of government
military spending necessary to sustain the profitability
of defense contractors;
3. Preventing the rise of any society that might serve as a
model for economic independence by wanting to opt out
of the global capitalist economy; and
4. Preventing the rise of any other government that might
challenge U.S. economic, political, or military global
dominance.
o The U.S. military has increasingly played the role of global
police officer in order to ensure the creation of global
capitalist economy dominated by its own corporate sector.
o From the mid-1970s on, Canadians were bombarded with a number
of myths meant to convince them to accept fewer social benefits
from all levels of government.
o The nature and role of nation-states has been changing with the
advance of a globally integrated capitalist economy, but social
scientists are still debating where these changes are headed
Neoliberalism and Globalization
o Negative Consequences of Neoliberalism
o Growth of security state
o Increased militarism
o Global economic instability
o Negative Consequences of Globalization:
o Expanded push-pull conditions
As capitalism expands globally it creates push-pull
conditions that lead naturally to the migration of
populations. Sometimes this movement is within a
country, as people who can no longer survive by
agricultural labour are pushed into cities, where they
hope to find work in expanding industries
o Migration is forced upon people against their will
Slave trade
Today, millions of people are refugees or internally
displaced persons who have had to leave their homes
as a result of civil wars or natural disasters
o Climate change
Is alson having negative effects on food production in a
number of regions, forcing people to migrate elsewhere.
o Human trafficking
Many of the worlds poor become victims of human
trafficking and effectively become slaves against their
will.
o Humanitarian crisis
One component of falied states is the massive
movement of people, which creates major humanitarian
crises.
o Rising unemployement rates
While employers may benefit from the large influx of
immigrants and temporary workers willing to take any
job for relatively low pay, working people may have
mixed feelings about the next wave of the newcomers
to their country
o Rising crime rates
o Decline in traditional values
o The fear of some people that their ancient traditions and
religious beliefs are disappearing often gives rise to radical
religious or nationalist movements.
o Growth of tensions that put groups of people against one
another.
o Although there has been an increasing integration of people around
the world, there has concurrently been an increase in tensions
between groups of people, both within countries and between
countries.
Chapter 10: Inequality of Wealth and Income3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
The work of Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) demonstrates that a variety of
health and social problems including mental illness, life expectancy and
infant mortality, obesity, childrens educational performance, homicides,
and levels of trust can all be linked to the degrees of inequality.

Social Inequality
o The term used to talk about social inequality is Social Class
o Order Theorist: Social inequality is inevitable two approaches:
1. Biological determinist argument
2. Functionalist approach
o Change Theorist: more important question is how inequalities
become structured in particular ways at certain times in history
o Link inequalities of wealth and income to the economic
structure and class relationships.
o They accept that there will always be differences of ability
among people
o Emphasize the linkage of various forms of modern social
inequality to the capitalist economic system, as well as to the
structures and beliefs that arise within that system
o Look at the ways in which the recent expansion of
globalization and neoliberalism has increased the divide
between the haves and have-nots, both in Canada and
around the world.
o Because we live in a society that puts so much emphasis on the
individual we usually connect social inequalities to individual
characteristics rather than to structural arrangements

Global Inequality
o Biological determinist
o Underdevelopment of some nations is a proof that certain
groups are biologically inferior
o Liberal Argument
o Global inequality is a result of some inherent disadvantage
that keeps certain countries from fairly competing.
e.g overpopulation, corruption, low levels of techonolgy
o if given help in these areas, they will develop and become
wealthy
o Change theorist:
o Problems noted by liberals are the result, not the cause, of
underdevelopment.
e.g. capitalism grew because of European expansion.

Liberalism and Inequality
o the essence of liberalism is fairness, in the particular sense of equal
ability to compete.
o Life itself is seen as a marketplace in which all individuals get to
compete for places in the status hierarchy.
o There are always winners and losers in a race
o Thus within liberal ideology, structured inequality is acceptable as
long as the race for positions in society appears to be reasonably
fair one.
o Liberalism, the dominant ideology of capitalism, stresses fairness
and equality of opportunity but actually masks structural inequality
o Change theorists
o Argue that the race of life under the conditions of capitalism
can never truly be fair.
o Focus on equality of opportunity
o For these theorists, true equality of opportunity is not
possible in a capitalist societies because a small number of
individuals those with great wealth and power effectively
control the competition between individuals, just as they
control the competition economic units.
o As a result, the race of life is set up in such a way as to
prevent most people from winning
o For change theorists, liberalism actually masks structural
inequality because it gives the impression that everyone gets
a reasonably fair chance to run the race.
o With this assumption, any failure to achieve wealth, prestige,
or power appears be the fault of the individual.
o Thus liberalism like capitalism itself is full of
contradictions
On one hand, it draws us toward such admirable goals
as equality, democracy, and individual human rights
and freedoms:
On the other hand, liberalism helps mask the structural
basis that sets limits on these very aspirations.

Symbolic Markers of Social Inequality
o Status Symbols: the external markers of ones status become
particularly important.
o They refer not only to ones housing and manner of dress, but
also to speech, mannerisms, hobbies, food preferences,
favourite alcoholic beverages, and so on.
o Such markers are socially created and can change over time and
place
o According to Veblen, markers:
o Argued that wealth comes to be reflected in something far
more complex than simply social position, something far more
complex than simply social position, something we generally
label style or taste
o Demonstrating to others ones place in the status hierarchy
required, according to Veblen, both leisure and the
consumption of goods.
o Alain de Botton (2004)
o Examined status anxiety over several thousand years
o Botton was particularly interested in the high degree of such
anxiety in todays society.
o Botton feels that humans need affirmation from others, and in
todays society wealth and material objects are the things
that are valued.
o Recall that the underlying basis for structured inequality is
more than style.
o Unequal allocation of our societys resources is the result of
the private appropriation of surplus value
o Dominant world view of capitalism directs attention to
individual differences rather than structural basis of inequality
o Humans have always symbolically represented differences between
groups or individuals. In capitalist societies, mass advertising
convinces us to buy products that serve as symbols of high status.
Inequality: The Growing Gap
o Two ways of measuring social inequality:
o Measure differences in income, that is, the money that is
acquired through wages, salaries, or various forms of
government assistance.
o Study differences in wealth, which comprises all assets
including real estate holdings and money in bank accounts,
stocks, bonds, and so on-minus debts.
o Social inequality in Canada
o 1997-2007: Top ten CEOs in Canada saw salary increase by
444%
o 1976-2009: The earning gap between the lowest 20% and
top 20% of earners grew from $92,300 to $177,500.
o By end of 2009: 3.8% of Canadian households controlled
$1.78 trillion of financial wealth or 67% of the total.
o Everybody except the richest 10% of families have seen their
work time in paid workforce increase.
o Younger workers are consistently on lower earning track than
older, more experienced workers (men divide occurred at age
40 years; for women at 30 years.

Explaining Social Inequality
A society where advancement is based on individual ability or
achievement is commonly referred to as meritocracy.
Functionalist theories argue that unequal allocation of societal rewards is
both universal and necessary in all societies. Change theorists, on the
other hand, argue that structured inequality unfairly advantages those at
the top, while the majority do not benefit from such arrangements. From
the class perspective a true meritocracy cannot exist in capitalist societies
Order Theories
o Order theories generally see capitalist societies as meritocracies.
o One of the predominant order theories is that of functionalism.
o Functionalism, a theory framework that has been discussed in
several chapters in this book, tries to explain how certain
components of a society serve particular functions
o It starts with the assumption that there are no sharp cleavages,
such as classes, within a society, but rather there are simply
differences of ranking or privilege.
o With regard to inequality, functionalists argue that since social
stratification is so prevalent in various types of society, it must
serve an essential social function
Daves- moore looked at the divison of labour to explain inequality
o They argued that the unequal allocation of societal regards, both
material and social, is both universal and functionally necessary in
all societies, since there has to be some motication to get
individuals in a society to fill the most important and difficult
occupations
o the unequal rewards of the occupational structure ensure that all
jobs that functionally necessary for society are filled
o e.g medical doctor should be paid more than a hospital
orderly because it is more specialized and important
Critique: jobs termed as womans work such as childcare worker,
nurse, and social worker have consistently been undervalued and
underpaid, even though many require a high level of training and all are,
without a doubt, functionally important.
Class theories
o In contrast to the functionalist argument, class analysis argues that
a true meritocracy is not possible within current social
arrangements.
o This approach stresses the privileges held by those at the top of the
social hierarchy, who are able to obtain the best education for their
children in addition to making the important social connections that
help them get the right jobs.
o These individuals also have easier acces to money- through
inheritance, family trusts, or loans that help them get a head
start.
o From this point of view, ones structural position is as much a
determinant of success as, if not more than, any inherent
capabilities one might have.
o In current capitalist societies, everyone does not have equal
opportunity to achieve wealth and power. Certain status groups are
consistently disadvantaged e.g. poor, immigrants, Aboriginal
people, women, disabled, people of color.

Social Mobility in Canada
Social mobility is the movement of people from one social position to
another.
Two forms of mobility
o Intragenerational mobility: the status change that occurs within an
individuals lifetime
o Intergenerational mobility: changes between the occupational
status of parent and child
Factors that affect mobility
o People with some wealth and privilege are able to pass on their
advantages to their offspring
o Ascribed statuses such as gender, race, ethnicity, and national
origin also affect the degree of occupational mobility.
o Occupational mobility: the very top and the very bottom of the
status hierarchy remain relatively closed, and most occupational
mobility is mainly small movements in the middle.
Movement from one social position to another is referred to as social
mobility. While some upward mobility is possible in Canada, most mobility
is occupational, relatively modest, and occurs within the mass middle

Education and Meritocracy
Liberalism:
o Our education system will help to overcome ascribed status barriers
and be the key to social mobility.
o Certainly the data do show that a university education is correlated
with higher wealth and income on average, regardless of ones
ascribed status.
Critique:
o Blacks earned lower wages than other racialized groups, even with
post secondary education.
o Canadian education system favors already privileged and screens
disadvantaged (Forcese, 1986).
o Formal education is a cause of persisting and increasing
stratification.
Order and change theories agree that a key function of the education
system is sorting, as it channels young people into the different jobs
required by society.
Order theories
o Generally see the process as a relatively straightforward one in
which everyone competes within an educational structure that
provides equality of opportunity.
o Public education is primary agent of social equalization.
o Inequality of outcome is linked to individual differences.
Change theories
o The school system as generally reproducing inequalities that
already exist
o Inequality of outcome is primarily the result of inequality of
condition (e.g. wealth, power).
o Many students particularly radicalized individuals and htose from
lower socioeconomic backgrounds are streamed into lower-level
programs.
o Inequalities maintained through streaming lower socioeconomic
backgrounds into lower level programs; exclusionary curricula,
texts and interaction.
o Exclusionary curricula, texts, and teacher-student interactions, as
well as the overall culture of the school system, alienate many
young people.
o Marginalization can create feelings of self-doubt and shame, which
can interfere with both learning and motivation
One study from the United States, for example, found that students from
lower-income families entering kindergarten already had significantly
lower cognitive skills than their more advantaged counterparts
Schools can do only so much to eliminate existing inequality of condition
It would be unfair and inaccurate to attribute total failure to public
education with regard to providing the key to social mobility.
Governments have massively reduced funding to education, while
corporations have been gaining a more direct foothold in the education
system.
o Dramatic changes to education seem to be leading increasingly to a
two-tiered system one for privileged and one for everyone else.
Although education is assumed to be the primary agent of social
equalization, in reality it more or less sustains the already-existing
inequalities of socioeconomic status, race, and gender. In todays
economic climate, it is likely that such inequalities will increase.

Poverty in Canada
Absolute poverty: only those who are not getting their most basic daily
need met that is, who are not able to acquire a minimum of nutrition,
basic shelter, and adequate clothing would be defined as poor.
Relative poverty: is seen as a form of social exclusion. Those whose
incomes are far less than the average in their locale are deemed to be
poor, even if they are above the barest subsistence level.
Much greater number of Canadians live in poverty
Statistics Canadas three measures:
o Low-income cut-offs (LICOs): below which people are said to
live in straitened circumstances. It is a compromise between the
absolute and relative poverty, determines a threshold below which
families spend a disproportionate share of their income on food,
clothing, and shelter.
o Low-income measure: Draws a line at half the median income in
Canada. Not used by social services or academics , this mainly
statistical definition allows comparisons with other countries that
often use this measure to express their rates of low income.
o Absolute market basket approach: A shopping basket of basic
life necessities has been developed, and those with incomes
prohibiting them from acquiring necessities identified belong to low
income group.
There is no single definition of poverty in Canada, although Statistics
Canada creates low-income cut-offs (LICOs); individuals and families
below these cut-offs are said to be in straitened circumstances. Social
assistance is provided mainly by the provinces, and cut-off lines are fairly
arbitrary.
Structural realities that cause poverty:
o existence of unemployment
o lack of affordable childcare
o increase in precarious employment
o inadequate minimum wages
o cuts to unemployment insurance
o wage discrimination
o declining rates of unionization
o decline of well paid public sector jobs
o blaming the victim ideology (William Ryan, 1971)
o poor bashing
o the poor blame themselves for their condition.
The ideology referred to as blaming the victim directs our attention to
the poor and their particular environments as the cause of poverty. In
reality poverty is the inevitable result of the economic arrangements
within capitalist societies.
Poverty in Canada
o In Canada, there is no official definition of poverty
o Statistics Canadas Low income cut-offs (LICO) figures are often
used to gauge poverty
o The Rick and the Rest of Us: The Changing Face of Canadas
Growing Gap. Presents the following list of findings
(Yalnizyan 2007):
o The income gap is at a 30-year high
o There is greater polarization; the rich are getting richer
o The bottom half are shut out of economic gains
o People are working longer to maintain their earnings.
Who are the poor?
o Visible minorities
o Children and youth
o Aboriginals
o People with disabilities
Feminization of Poverty: Women in all categories are at greater risk for
poverty than men, but it is particularly serious in lone-parent families
headed by women.
Child Poverty in Canada
o Although in 1989 the House of Commons (Canadian gov.) passed a
resolution to end child poverty by 2000, more than 18.4% were still
living in poverty that year, up slightly from 1990.
o According to Statistic Canada (2006)
o In 1989, 11.9% (792,000) of children lived in poverty, now
9.5% (637,000).
o 1 in 4 children in First nations communities in Canada lives in
poverty,
o 49% of aboriginal children under 6, live in poverty.
o 40% of low-income children in Canada live in families where
at least one parent works full-time year round.
Poverty is not equally distributed across all groups in Canada. Racialized
groups (most notably recent immigrants), Indigenous people, and people
with disabilities have much higher rates of poverty than the national
average. Poverty rates are also higher than average among female-
headed lone- parent families with dependent children.
Why the Growing Gap Affects All of Us
o Poverty Costs us a lot of money
o The costs of poverty come in two forms:
o Lost output: is connected to the fact that the poor represent,
in economic terms, unutilized or underutilized resourses. Not
only are many of them not producing goods and services, but
also with low incomes they are unable to purchase a variety
of goods and services.
o Diverted output: means that poverty adds cost to the
economy that would not be required if poverty did not exist.
These costs include additional demands on the health-care
system; substantial costs for government to administer a
wide variety of public welfare and assistance programs; large
amounts of voluntary labour to assist the poor that could be
put to more productive use; increased expenditures to portect
individuals and property, as well as additional demands on
the entire criminal justice system; and additional costs to the
education system in its attempts to deal with children living in
poverty.
o The growing gap between the rich and poor also leads to a
decline of social solidarity, an essential component of civil
society.
Criminal Justice System and The Poor
o CJS serves many positive functions for those with wealth and power
within the system
1. Our attention is directed away from failures of our social
system and our inequitable distribution of wealth to the poor,
who we fear may kidnap our children, break into ones houses,
and so on.
2. It convinces the middle strata that the poor are deserving of
their condition and that they are not just like us
3. It demobilizes the poor as a potential political force
4. It brings down unemployment rates, as those in prison are not
counted as part of the unemployed.
o Exploiting cheap labour leads to privatization of prisons (prison-
industrial complex)
Measures to Address Poverty (Cleveland and Krashinsky, 2003)
o Enabling parents to earn money that contributes to the familys
economic well-being. In turn, those families are more financially
secure and able to provide for their childrens educational needs.
o Providing women with permanent attachment to employment that
may protect them in the event of divorce or widowhood.
o Providing children with nutritional needs as well as other
educational needs.
o Providing children with strong role models of working parents
o Achieving greater productivity in the Canadian workforce with the
entry and retention of skilled female labour force members.
It is possible for governments to reduce the degree of social inequality in
Canada.
Inequality also exists on a global scale. Like inequality within nation-
states, global inequality must be understood within particular class
relations

Chapter 11: Race and Ethnicity 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM
Key terms:
Ethnocentrism: Ethnocentrism means to view and judge the world with
ones own ethnic group as a reference point.
o Social groups and cultures end to evaluate themselves and their
way of favorably in relation to others.
Ethnic Chauvinism: Hostility directed toward people on the basis of
their membership in a particular ethnic group, e.g., Greek, Irish.
Anti-Semitism: Hostility directed specifically at those who are of Jewish
origin.
Islamophobia: Hostility directed at Muslims and their religion, Islam.
Prejudice: Is an attitude of dislike or hostility toward individuals on the
basis of their membership in particular groups.
Racialization: Racialization refers to the process by which a particular
group of people are singled out for unequal treatment due to real
imaginary physical traits or characteristics.
Racism: Racism is an ideology of superiority of one racial or ethnic group
over another group. If hostility is directed toward people with particular
characteristics, e.g., skin color, eye shape.
o Ideological Racism: Racism is an ideology of superiority of one
racial or ethnic group over another group.
o Institutional Racism: Institutional racism is manifested in the
norms, regulations, and customs of an institution based on the
ideology of racial superiority.
o Discrimination: Refers to the denial of equal treatment or
opportunities to individuals on the basis of their membership in a
particular social groups.
Prejudice is an attitude of dislike or hostility toward individuals on the
basis of their membership in particular groups.
o Discrimination refers to the denial of equal treatment or
opportunities to these same social groups
o Prejudice is the holding of biased beliefs towards individuals on the
basis of their membership in particular groups. Discrimination is the
denial of equal treatment or opportunities to these same social
groups. Discrimination generally has more serious consequences for
the victim than does prejudice.

What is Racism?
Race can be defined as a category of people who share certain common
physical traits deemed to socially significant.
Racialized groups highlights the social process by which certain groups of
people are singled out for unequal treatment on the basis of real or
imagined physical traits.
Race, then, should be distinguished from ethnicity.
Ethnic groups are distinguished by socially selected cultural traits, rather
than physical ones.
o E.g. religion, language, ideology, ancestry, or historical symbols
Ethnic groups are distinguished by socially selected cultural traits, rather
than physical ones.
Difference between ethnicity and race: is that individuals of the same
race may be considered of a separate ethnicity based on a national or
linguistic identity.
o Example: members of the racial category white may have
different ethnicities such as Polish, Hungarian, or Greek.
From a strictly genetic standpoint, there is no such thing as race. The
concept of race, therefore, reflects a social rather than a physiological
reality
Racism, while connected to other forms of social intolerance such as
ethnic chauvinism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia must be seen as
distinct from them.

The roots of Racism
Racism as we know it began to develop after 1492, as the Europeans
powers began their global expansion and competition. Racism grew and
flourished within the economic conditions of colonialism and slavery.
White Mans Burden
o The beginnings of racism can be traced to the expansion of
European economies- first under a mercantilist and later an
industrial capitalist system.
o This early globalization by the imperial capitalist powers, dominated
by Britain, was primarily into countries where people had skin
colours different from those of Europeans.
o Imperialism could then be morally justified by arguing that those
affected were somehow inferior and that the Europeans were
actually there to help them
o In the name of civilizing the heathen, racialized groups around
the globe were robbed of their resources and their cultures and
forced to work in the mines, fields, and forests to create wealth for
rich Europeans.
o Populations were decimated by a combination of mass murder,
disease, and maltreatment
In the mid 18
th
century, an additional notion began to appear: racial
minorities, primarily Blacks, were no longer seen as simply culturally or
socially inferior to Europeans; they gradually came to also be considered
biologically inferior
o The British and Europeans certainly believed that darker-skinned
peoples were uncivilized and distinctly inferior to themselves.
Prior to the eighteenth century, it was rare for European-Americans to
refer to themselves as White.
As the concept grew of Blacks as biological inferiors, the concept of
Whiteness, with its natural superiority, grew as well.
In the classic divide-and-rule fashion, the slave-owning class
encouraged White workers to identify with their White masters, rather
then their Black fellow workers.
o By giving certain privileges and the perception of a shared
Whiteness to poor British and European labourers, they could
minimize the class identification of these people with Black slaves,
and thus lower the risk of a successful rebellion.
Later 19
th
century just at the time that the formal institution of slavery
was coming to an end, the belief in the natural inferiority of Blacks was
now reinforced by the pseudo-science of the biological determinists.
At the same time that slavery was disappearing, biological determinist
arguments about racial inferiority became increasingly popular. Racism
reached its full development by the end of the nineteenth century.
Scientific Categorization of people into Races was a result of two
developments:
1. Expansion of capitalism
2. Growth of science
Race is a social construction that refers to a category of
characteristics possessed by individuals and groups.
o Race has been delineated based on physical characteristics. Groups
have often been discriminated against, based on their supposedly
inferior characteristics.
o Today, society classifies people into different races primarily based
on skin color.

Types of Racism
Overt Racism: Name calling
Covert Racism: Covert racism may also be unconscious and
unintentional. Individuals may not see themselves as racist but may act
in ways that contradict their personal beliefs.
Systematic/Institutional Racism: It becomes part of institutional
power. Racism can become ingrained in the everyday practices and
structures of an organization.

A History of Racism in Canada
Indigenous Peoples
o The first British and French colonist made contact with Indigenour
people primarily to exploit their labour power in the fur trade.
o Despite the evidence of the destructive effects of alcohol on these
societies, company traders commonly bartered alcohol for furs.
o Aboriginal peoples traditionally lived by hunting and fishing, and
were constantly on the move in search of food and raw materials.
o The influence of colonialism changed the structure of First Nations
families to that of a patriarchal, nuclear form.
o Disease also ravaged the early First Nations peoples. Illnesses such
as measles, smallpox, and flus were previously unknown to
Aboriginal peoples and thousands died as a result.
o After the War of 1812, the colonizers of Canada planned to
assimilate First Nations people
o In 1857, a law was passed called Act to Encourage the Gradual
Civilization of Indian Tribes. This Act defined an Indian as one who
had surrendered land.
o he 1876 Indian Act defined who was an Indian (Indian women
and their children lost their status if she married a non-Indian). The
Indian Act was sweeping legislation that controlled every aspect of
the lives of Indigenous people.
o Under the terms of the original act, status Indians were
prohibited from owning land, from voting, and from
purchasing or consuming alcohol and they were forcibly
segregated on reserves.
o In addition, the Indian Act provided the legal framework for
land treaties so that land could be appropriated from the
Aboriginal peoples.
o Although the reserves were generally in areas long occupied
by various bands, they were much smaller than previous First
Nations territory, were often poorly suited form farming or
other economic activity, and could not be disposed of without
permission from the federal government.
o Traditional First Nations governments were eventually replaced by
band councils that little real power or influence.
o 1884, Amendment to the act, prohibited Indians from
engaging in certain cultural activities, such as the potlatch
and sun dance.
o The goal of the legislation was to encourage assimilation
through contact with White civilization-through such
institutions as missionary-run residential schools-while
concurrently dissolving First Nations culture and political
structures.
o Since colonialism, there has always been the idea that
Aboriginal families need to be assimilated through contact
with White Civilization through missionary run residential
schools.
o 160,000 children were forcibly removed from their families and
communities. They received inferior education, physical, sexual and
emotional abuse in these residential schools.
o Between 1960s-1980s, approximately 30,000 Aboriginal
children were adopted or fostered out to White Canadian
families. This period was known as the sixties scoop.
o Through residential schooling, families were separated and this
resulted in a loss of language and culture.. The schools having
forbidden all things Indian.
o In thousands of cases, children died and never returned home.
o There have been over 20 changes to the Indian Act. In 1985 (Bill C-
31), ended the discrimination against women, allowed status
reinstatement and allowed bands to define membership rules.
o The last federally operated residential school closed in 1990.
o Median income of Aboriginal people in 2006, 30% lower than rest of
the Canadians ($27,097).
o In 2009, average employment rate for Aboriginal people-57%,
compared with 61.8% for non-Aboriginal people.
o Larger proportion of First Nations people live in over-crowded
homes than do non-aboriginal people (11 versus 3 percent).
o Aboriginal people are two times more likely than non-Aboriginal
people to experience violent victimization, such as assault, sexual
assault or robbery (Statistics Canada, 2011d).
o High rates of poverty, unemployment, and poor housing, ill health,
lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant mortality and youth
suicide.
o Canada has a long history of state-supported racism, particularly
against First Nations people
First Nations Struggle Continues
Issues
o Lack of structural power
o Institutional racism
o Devaluation of culture
o Limited opportunities for economic development
o Legacy of residential schooling and widespread racial
o Stereotypes
o Difficulty settling of land claims
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recommended that
First Nations should be allowed to establish their own criminal
justice system.
Kelowna Accord:
o Starting in 2004, many indigenous organizations and provincial,
territorial and federal governments reached Kelowna accord,
agreeing to provide $5.1 billion in funding over 10 years for
education, health, housing, and economic opportunities.
o 2006, Conservative Party won elections and cancelled the Kelowna
accord was cancelled.
Black in Canada
o 17th Century: The first Black slaves were brought to Canada by
the French.
o 1776 and 1785: Black population of Canada increased as runaway
slaves from U.S found their way north on the Underground
Railroad.
o 1860: the Anti-Slavery Society estimated there were 60,000 Blacks
in Canada.
o Restricted in their ownership of property as well as their ability to
educate their children.
o Both Ontario and Nova Scotia legislated racially separate schools.
Segregate schools continued in Nova Scotia until 1960s.
o Racism was both pervasive and public and could be seen in schools,
government, the media, judiciary, workplace, and elsewhere in
society.
o 2006 census: Blacks constituted third-largest visible minority group
in Canada, with majority centered
o Blacks experience lower employment rates and employment income
and higher unemployment rates regardless of educational level.
o More likely than other visible minorities to feel discriminated against
or treated unfairly because of their ethnicity, culture, race, skin
colour, language, accent, or religion.
Chinese Canadians
o 1858: First Chinese gold-miners arrive in British Columbia from
San Francisco.
o As many as 14, 000 Chinese men were brought to this country in
the late nineteenth to build the Canadian Pacific Railway.
o Work was dangerous, the living conditions apalling, and the wages
pathetic
o Men were not allowed to bring their families, nor allowed to
establish relations with White women.
o 1872: The British Columbia Qualifications of Voters Act denies the
Chinese and First Nations peoples the right to vote
o 1885: Chinese immigration Act was passed (places head tax on all
Chinese immigrants).
o 1886: A head tax of $50 was imposed on each person of Chinese
origin entering Canada.
o 1904: Head tax on Chinese immigrants was raised to $500. That
was equivalent to a full-time wage for One Year.
o 1923: Chinese Immigration Act ( Chinese Exclusion Act) passed,
which virtually ended Chinese immigration. They could not serve in
public offices, could not vote and were barred from higher paying
professions.
o 1962: Chinese could apply as independent immigrants
o 2006: Formal apology was issued by the government to the
Chinese for the injustice of the Head Tax.
Japanese Canadians
o 1877-1928 : First Japanese settlers in Canada arrived in B.C.
o Encountered economic exploitation and job restriction and
were not allowed to vote.
o Until the late 1940s: Were denied the right to vote.
o In 1928: Canada and Japan revised the gentlemen's
agreement-restrict Japanese immigration to Canada to 150.
o In early 1942: More than 22,000 Japanese, forced out of their
homes, interned in camps and their properties sold a fraction
of its value.
o On September 22, 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
provided $21,000 for each of the approximately 18,000
survivors that were directly affected.
South Asian Canadians.
o 1904-1907: 5000 Sikh male immigrants emigrated to B.C.
o Lumber mills and logging camps.
o East Indians had to have at least $200 to enter B.C.
o 1908 Continuous Passage Act: East Indians would have to
come to Canada via direct passage from India.
o In 1909, the B.C. government removed the rights of
Indians to vote.
o Hindu Invasion
o East Indian Canadians faced discrimination.
o Until the 1920s, wives of East Indian men not allowed to
enter Canada.
o In 1947, East Indians given the right to vote.
o In 1952 a new Immigration Act removed all restrictions for
South Asians.
This brief overview of Canadian history suggests that racism involves
more than simply the personal biases of individuals.
Rather we began to see is a pattern of institutional racism.
o Whole social institutions such as education, the judiciary, the
media, and so on are embedded with racist ideologies and help
sustain them
Biological Determinist Approach:
o Through this argument racist individuals are able to justify their
ideologies based on what they feel is scientific evidence of
inferiority.
o For example: Individuals possessing certain physical
characteristics can be regarded as members of a biologically
inferior group. Social characteristics are then ascribed to the
biological characteristics.
o Used to justify unequal treatment of women, the poor, immigrants
and racial minorities.

Liberalism: Focusing on Culture.
Liberalism sees the cause of racial inequality as rooted in values,
attitudes, and cultural differences. In contrast, class analysis focuses on
the material basis for such ideas, that is, the way they are rooted in our
societys economic and political structures.
Liberalism is one of the many order theories that try to explain why racial
inequality exists
The central variables of social analysis from the perspective of liberalism
are values, attitudes, and cultural differences.
The liberal perspective does not ignore structural inequities; rather
argues that structural inequities are a result of cultural problems.
Cultural Approach: Refers to the idea that certain racial groups are
perceived to have a deficit or inferior culture. Individuals holding these
racist views may justify their beliefs based on stereotypes about the
cultural attributes about a group.
In the period that followed World War II, most North American sociologist
saw social intolerance as a temporary phenomenon that would disappear
as various groups assimilated over time into the broader culture
Assimilationism: starts with the assumption that industrial societies
which tend to promote individual freedom and initiative- will naturally
discourage discrimination. Since modern societies promote equality,
persistence of racism must be a result of certain groups clinging to
traditional values, attitudes, and beliefs.
The primary argument used by the government to restrict the number of
immigrants from China, India, and Japan was their inability to
assimilate
The Culture of Poverty Approach (Oscar Lewis, 1966)
o Living in poverty creates a culture filled with a number of
characteristics
o low level of social organization
o hostility towards representatives of the broader society
o Feelings of despair, dependence, and inferiority
o This culture of poverty, keeps certain groups from attaining
economic success.
In Canada, such arguments have been used to explain the condition of
Indigenous people.
o One author, for example, believed that a century of life on the
reserves, with its forced idleness and isolation, helped create a
culture of poverty that left Native people ill-prepared to adapt to
urban living.
Critique
o One of the main problems with such arguments is that they confuse
cause with effect: the values and cultural orientations are seen to
be the source of problems, rather than result of it. Example: high
rates of poverty and unemployment among indigenous people have
led to poor work ethic.
o The assimilationist and culture-of-poverty theorists end up blaming
the victims for their own oppression
o Theories that focus on the victims of social problems draw attention
away from the structural bases of such problems.
o Liberal theories see racism as a cultural problem
o The solution to these problems, then, is seen as being some
alteration of the victims attitudes or behavior, rather than any
necessary change in the social structure.

The Class Perspective: The Structural Basis of Racism
Unlike the liberal perspective, which focuses on the cultural roots of social
intolerance, the Marxist or class perspective looks at the material basis
for such behavior and beliefs. Focuses first and foremost on structures of
power
From a Marxist perspective, racism continues because the dominant class
in capitalism benefits from its existence.
Extra Profits from Discrimination
o From the Marxist perspective, the capitalist owning class benefits
from racial inequality in a number of ways
o Underpayment of racialized groups major source of profits for
those who employ them.
o Underpayment of one sector of the labour market serves to
keep all wages down.
o Members of these groups constitute important part of reserve
army of unemployed.
o Whites earn more than racialized minorities. Galabuzi, 2006:
Canada has a system of economic apartheid, a term used to define
the institutionalized system of racism in South Africa from the
1960s to the early 1990s
The Ideology of Racism
o Racism provides more than short-term economic benefits for
capital.
o Racism and other forms of ethnic hostility serves to separate
workers by divide-and-rule pattern, thus less likely to unite in a
struggle to oppose those in power.
o The more that various racial and ethnic groups are pitted against
each other, the less likely it is that they will be able to unite in a
common struggle to oppose those with power.
o To say that capital benefits in general from racism is not to
deny that individual capitalists or companies may work
toward eroding racism.
o Not all workers will oppose racism. E.g., In bad economic
times, group hostility increases because of competition for
scarce opportunities.
There are many reasons hiring more qualified
workers, hiring workers that reflect the diversity of their
customers, or simply personal values why individual
employers may work against discrimination in the
workplace
o Competition for resources in the face of government cutbacks
and declining wages can set the stage for increased social
intolerance.
Example: In 2010, Macleans: Canadian Universities
were becoming Too Asian
While there have certainly been some advances in the struggle against
racism, there is substantial evidence to indicate that racism remains
pervasive in Canada social institutions. The anti-racist policies of the
government are very weak
The struggle for self-government and for the settlement of long-standing
land claims remains central for First Nations people.
There is some evidence that Canadians have become more tolerant of
racial and ethnic minorities. On the other hand, the capitalist structure
has limited economic and social advances for racialized groups

Exam Review. 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM



1. In agrarian societies the dominant class controlled the state:
o Directly

2. The term state and the term government are not exactly the same
because
o Only a and c

3. From the pluralist point of view, what degree of autonomy of action does
the state have
o high

4. Which of the following theoretical frameworks is the most compatible with
the pluralistic
o Order theory

5. From the class analysis point of view, the Canadian State is:
o Partially autonomous (self-governing)

6. Which of the following state institutions belongs to the category of
repressive agencies (repressive: inhibiting or restraining the freedom of a
person or group of people)
o Judiciary

7. The class theory of the state ultimately:
o questions the democratic character of Canadian society

8. The framework of representative democracy helps
o All of the above

9. Status indians in Canada were first able to vote in federal elections in
o 1960.

10. Which of the following did the Europeans inflict on the native people of
Canada
o All of above

11. In terms of social and political turmoil, capitalists are likely to opt for
o Anti democratic leadership

12. Which of the following could be considered a hidden tax:
o all of the above

13. Which of the following is not a normal way for governments in Canada
to collect moneys
o All of the above

14. Which corporation was the major recipient of government financial
assistance between 1982 and 2002:
o Pratt and Whitney

15. Which of the following is affected by ones socio-economic status
o All of the above

16. Without dissent, a democratic society is likely to
o become a police state

17. Fascism has historically been associated with
o All of the above

18. Overall, it can be said that Canadas system of taxation has been
o mildly progressive

19. The golden age of capitalism coincided with a rapid expansion of the
o The welfare state

20. The main goal of the accord reached between the capitalists and
organized workers after world war 2 was that:
o the state would mediate the struggle between labour and capital

21. The economist whose work had a major influence on capitalist
economies immediately after world war 11 was
o Jon Maynard Keynes

22. The welfare state was most developed in:
o Scandinavia

23. The accord between capital and labour first began
o 1970s

24. Which of the following is not a key policy component of neoliberalism:
o downsizing the repressive state of

25. public private partnerships
o B. allow corporations

26. One of the biggest myths promoted to advance the neoliberal agenda
was that:
o C. Canadian government for spending to much on social benefits

27. What we now refer to as the process of globalization is highly termed.
o .

28. Which of the following is involved in imposing structural adjustment
programs around the world
o all of the above

29. Change theorists argue that the race of life in capitalist societies
o is never truly fair

30. Which of the following is a status symbol:
o all of the above

31. Which of following terms was coined by Thorsten Veblen to denote the
lifestyle of the wealthy
o only b and c

32. Between 1976 and 2004, the gap between rich and poor in Canada:
o increased in both economic recession and economic growth

33. Recent research reveals that a particular group has seen a decline in
their income. Which group?
o Immigrants

34. Order theories focus primarily on inequality in
o earned income

35. Davis and Moores theory of social stratification argued that
o Social inequality was functional to societies

36. The status changed between the occupational status of parent and
child is known as
o intergenerational mobility

37. Statuses such as gender race ethnicity and national origin are referred
to as
o

38. According to the change theorists, inequality of outcome is primarily
the result of:
o inequality of condition

39. When people earn far less than the average in the general population
o Relative poverty

40. Individuals are most likely to escape poverty by having
o two income earners in the family

41. Blaming the victim as an ideology
o Directs our attention away from structural causes

42. William Ryan says that the ideology of blaming the victim ultimately
makes us see the poor as:
o the different ones

43. Change theories of global inequality tend to see the problem as caused
by
o The global capitalist system

44. Statistics Canada measurers poverty by using
o all of the above

45. Which of the following terms is used to refer to the process by which a
particular group of people are singled out for unequal treatment due to real
or imaginary physical traits
o Racialization

46. A favourable evaluation of ones own group and culture in relation to
others is refereed to as
o Ethnocentrism

47. The term anti-Semitism is used in reference to the
o D

48. Hostility towards Muslims is commonly referred to as:
o Islamophobia

49. Denial of equal treatment or opportunities to members of social
groups
o discrimination

50. .
o Indigenous people

51. The Indian Act of 1976 prohibited status Indians from:
o All of the above.

52. Which of the following did the Europeans inflict on the native people of
Canada:
o all of the above

53. At the end of the nineteenth century, the head tax was imposed by the
federal government on
o Chinese immigrants

54. The primary argument used by the government to restrict the number
of immigrants from China, India and Japan was
o The inability to assimilate

55. The continuous passage act of 1908 made immigration virtually
impossible for:
o India

56. Systemic racism is all referred to as
o Institutional racism

57. In bad economic times, racism and ethnocentrism are likely to
o increase

58. Starting in 2004 the agreement between the government and
aboriginal representatives that was cancelled in 2006
o Kelowna accord

59. Oscar Lewis maintained that living in poverty creates
o a culture of poverty

60. Which of the following has been used to justify gender inequality
o Gender difference

61. Parsons argue that roles women and men play in traditional families
were a result of biology, what were those roles?
o instrumental for men and expressive for women

62. Talcott parsons typically inherited families . Raising children at home
o a small minority of families in Canada

63. Many writers today speak of waves of feminism
o Three

64. Second wave feminism must be understood in the context of what
happened at what time which was that
o only and b

65. According to liberal feminists the main source of gender inequality
o process of socialization

66. George Murdocks study of over 200 societies revealed that
o all of the above

67. Socialist feminism focuses primarily on the intersection of
o Class and gender

68. a generalized hatred of women
o Msynogy

69. Fredrich Engels thought that the monogamous patriarchal family had
its own origin:
o growth of private property

70. Which of following can be connected to the historical decline in
womans status
o all of the above

71. The economic system of capitalism
o advance gender inequality

72. Women were well suited for industrial work under the early capitalism
because they were
o only a and b

73. Which of the following provinces have instituted an accessible and
affordable child care system
o Qubec

74. Who first coined the termed
o Adrienne Rich

75. Which of the following was NOT one of the suggestions in the text for
improving the lives of both women and men
o introducing a wide range of tax cuts
Chapter 12: Gender Issues 3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM

3/30/2014 6:02:00 PM