AFFECTIVE ACTION (Weber)

Emotional and impulsive action that is an end in itself.

ALIENATION (Marx)

The domination of humans by their own products; material, political and ideological. The separation of humans from their humanity; the interference with the production of authentic culture; the fragmentation of social bonds and community. Any process which reduces people to their animal nature.

ALTRUISTIC SUICIDE (Durkheim)

Self-destructive behavior that results from the individual completely subordinating himself/herself to the group; for example, Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II.

ANOMIE (Durkheim)

State of social disorganization brought on by the lack of, or insufficiency of,social and moral rules regulating activity between persons and groups

ANOMIC SUICIDE (Durkheim)

Self-destructive behavior that results from a condition in which society fails to provide effective limits and rules for living, so that the loss of meaning is widespread in people's lives

AUTHORITY (Weber)

Power that is institutionalized and seen as legitimate by the members of a collectivity.

BOURGEOISIE (Marx)

The class of merchants, bankers, and businessmen, those that own the means of production.

BUREAUCRACY (Weber)

Large hierarchical organization in which decision-making is based on formal rules and policies and position is based on training and expertise.

CAPITALISM

A system in which ownership of the means of production is privately owned, in which the pursuit of profit is the driving force, and in which value is determined by the market (supply and demand)

CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY (Weber)

An individual's ability to exercise domination on the basis of personal and superhuman or supernatural qualities.

CLASS (Marx)

A group of people who have in common a specific relation in the means of production. Also called a class in itself.

CLASS CONFLICT

Process in which classes defined by their relationship to the means of production become aware of their common interests and begin to organize to pursue those interests in opposition to other social classes.

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS (Marx)

The sense of common identification of members of a class.

CLASS FOR ITSELF (Marx)

A class that has developed class consciousness and begun to organize itself to promote its own interests

CLASS POSITION (Weber)

A position in a system of economic stratification and property ownership that helps determine the "life chances" of individuals.

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS (Durkheim)

An emergent characteristic of a group of society arising from and supporting a unified mental and emotional response to events of the world. (translation of conscience collective)

COMMODITY (Marx)

Something with exchange value and use value--that is, something produced to be bought and sold; something whose value is determined by supply and demand

CONFLICT THEORY

Theories that share the assumption that society involves competition for scarce resources in which the victory of some is at the cost of the defeat of others; conflict may be based on social class (Marx) but also religion, ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, etc.

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION (Veblen)

Luxurious and wasteful lifestyle choices whose purpose is to demonstrate the superiority of the upper classes and their freedom from economic restraint.

CORE STATES (Wallerstein)

The affluent capitalist countries--the United States, Western Europe, Japan--in which the large corporations that dominate the capitalist world system are headquartered.

CULTURAL CAPITAL (BOURDIEU)

Ways of communicating, acting, and knowing that are passed from one generation to the next and that provide one of the key resources for success in school and work.

DEDUCTION

Logical process involving a claim to knowledge based on a series of propositions derived from a basic set of axioms or assumptions.

DETERMINISM

Metaphysical position that relates every event to preexisting events and that denies the possibility of human choice and free will.

DIALECTIC (Marx)

The process of development of internal conflict leading to the emergence of a new level or more advanced form of reality; originally drawn from Hegel who applied it to the progress of ideas (thesis, antithesis, synthesis).

DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT (Marx)

The period immediately following a socialist revolution when the proletariat consolidate and maintain their hold on power by force.

DEDUCTIVE THEORY

Theory that precedes a particular piece of research, that is derived logically from prior theory.For example, much of the research in social movements begins with resource mobilization theory.

DOMINATION (Martineau)

The enforced submission of one's will to another. Domination prevents someone from acting as a free moral agent, which in Martineau's sociology is the ultimate good. In her studies of the United States, she pays particular attention to the domination of slaves and the domination of women, which she views as parallel processes

DOMINATION (Weber)

The probability that an order will be obeyed.

ECONOMIC BASE(Marx)

Also called the mode of production. Includes the productive forces (technology, raw materials, labor power) and the relations of production (property relations).

EGOISTIC SUICIDE (Durkheim)

Self-destructive behavior occurring when the social part of an individual's nature is insufficiently developed.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Eighteenth-century intellectual movement that stressed the applicability of reason and science to the improvement of society and humankind in general.

ENTREPRENEUR (Schumpeter)

Someone who risks his/her own resources in trying to get a business started

EXTERNALIZATION (Marx)

The process by which humans create external institutional arrangements to which they must then adapt.

FEUDALISM

Political system that prevailed in Europe from the ninth to the fifteenth century and that gave powerful noblemen who controlled vast estates the right to govern those required to live on land controlled by them.

FORMAL RATIONALITY (Weber)

Occurs when means are instrumentally effective for given ends and when the rules that determine social action are abstract, formal, and generalizable.

FUNCTION

Contribution made by a particular social arrangement or institution to the maintenance of the group or society as a whole

GAME STAGE (Mead)

Period of self-development that follows the play stage. Involves the development of the ability to take the role of the generalized other and to take part in group activity.

GENERALIZED OTHER (Mead)

The overall attitude and general reactions of a group, community, or society.

GESTURE (Mead)

Vocalized sound or body movement that one creature uses to instigate or stimulate the actions of another creature such that an act involving the mutual influence of both parties occurs.

GRAND THEORY (Merton)

Theory that attempts to create a single all-encompassing system that can explain every aspect of social life--for example, the theory of Marx or Parsons.

HEGEMONY

"The term hegemony refers to a situation in which a provisional alliance of certain social groups can exert 'total social authority' over other subordinate groups, not simply by coercion or by the direct imposition of ruling ideas, but by 'winning and shaping consent so that the power of the dominant classes appears both legimiate and natural."' (Hall 1977)

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM (Marx)

An epistemology that explains social change and human consciousness in terms of underlying changes in the mode of production.

HISTORICAL METHOD (Comte)

This term refers not to a historical analysis per se but to the comparisons of societies at different levels of development.

HULL HOUSE

The settlement house established by Jane Addams in an immigrant neighborhood of Chicago in the early 1890s that became arguably a center of "women's sociology"

I (Mead)

Creative and imaginative phase of the self, which notes present circumstances and environmental contexts and suggests possibly novel and surprising new actions. The self as "knower."

IN-GROUP AND OUT-GROUP

“A differentiation arises between ourselves, the we-group, or in-group, and everybody else, or the others-groups, out-groups. The insiders in a we-group are in a relation of peace, order, law, government, and industry, to each other? Ethnocentrism is the technical name for this view of things in which one’s own group is the centre of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with preference to it? Each group nourishes its own pride and vanity, boasts itself superior, exalts its own divinities, and looks with contempt on
outsiders.” (Sumner 1906)

IDEAL TYPE (Weber)

Methodological approach developed by Dilthey. Involves the development of the usual, typical, or most complete features of a phenomenon in order to facilitate comparison and analysis. Weber stressed that ideal types were "one-sided" and "partial" descriptions of reality.

IDEAL SPEECH SITUATION (HABERMAS)

Contention that open and honest communication is possible only in a situation where people are at roughly the same level; master and servant or slave and owner cannot communicate honestly.

IDEOLOGY (Marx)

The attempt to organize conceptions of authority and shared social commitments in order to deal with social, economic, and political problems. The justification of a political order.

INDUCTIVE THEORY

Theory that is created as a result of research rather than preceding the research, as with deductive theory.

INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Society in which economic growth comes first and foremost from manufacturing and its associated technologies; the kind of society ushered in by the industrial revolution in England in the late 18th century.

INSTITUTION (Durkheim)

A pattern of interaction among humans that is regularized and seen as meaningful (and that meets a basic social need); for example, families; political

INTERNALIZATION (Marx)

The process by which humans learn the rules that define the institutional arrangements of a society.

LAISSEZ-FAIRE ECONOMICS (Smith)

Economics given a free hand by political authorities.

LANGUAGE (Mead)

All the symbolic means that humans have at their disposal to communicate with one another.

LATENT FUNCTION

The contribution a particular social arrangement makes to some community or group that is not the obvious, intended contribution; for example, Kingsley Davis argues that a latent function of prostititution is to support conventional family life by providing an alternative social outlet for male sexuality.

LAW OF THREE STAGES (Comte)

Society as a whole and each particular science develops through three mentalistically conceived stages: the theocratic stage, the metaphysical stage, and the positive stage.

LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY (Weber)

Authority that is accepted as right and proper according to certain cultural prescriptions.

LIFE WORLD (Habermas)

The realm of informal associations and friendships, which Habermas sees as increasingly opposed by the (economic and political) system in late capitalism.

LOOKING-GLASS SELF (Cooley)

My imagination of how others see me, my imagination of how others feel about me, and my own emotional reaction to the above

LUMPENPROLETARIAT (Marx)

Class of people without steady employment--for example, petty criminals and the permanently unemployed.

MANIFEST FUNCTION

The apparent, intended purpose of a particular social pattern or social arrangement. For example, the manifest function of prostition is making money by the sale of sexual services.

MACRO THEORY

Theory that deals with large-scale social phenomena, including formal organizations, communities, whole societies, or even multiple societies.

ME (Mead)

The judgmental and "known" aspect or phase of the self; the social self; similar to Cooley's looking glass self

MEANING (Mead)

A process of internal reflection using significant symbols.

MEANS OF PRODUCTION (Marx)

A subcategory of productive forces--for example, the tools and machines associated with production.

MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY (Durkheim)

Form of social organization in simple societies in which social cohesion is based on likeness of persons in terms of their conceptualization of reality and orientation toward the collective whole.

MICRO THEORY

Theory that deals with small groups and face-to-face relationships.

MIDDLE RANGE THEORY (Merton)

Theory that are more than just empirical generalizations but at the same time less than an effort to create some all-ecompassing system; theories that explain some limited range of social phenomena; Merton's examples include role conflict, reference groups, or social mobility.

MODERNISM

A term going back to the 18th century "Enlightenment" that refers to the belief in progress through reason and science, including social science

MODE OF PRODUCTION (Marx)

Productive forces plus the relations of production.

MORALS AND MANNERS(Martineau)

Morals are what we would now call norms and manners are patterns of behavior and association; in other words, she is interested in the relationship between values and behavior.

MOTIVE (Mead)

The interpretation that is made of social action in order to make it meaningful.

OBJECTIFICATION (Marx)

The process by which institutions that are humanly produced come to be seen as part of a fixed, external environment.

ORGANIC SOLIDARITY (Durkheim)

Form of social organization in more complex societies in which social cohesion is based on occupational specialization and functional differentiation of social parts.

PATRIMONIAL ADMINISTRATION (Weber)

Organization in which position depends on kinship and personal loyalty justified by tradition; compared with bureaucracy, this form of organization lacks clear lines of authority and there is no clear separation between the individual and the organization in terms of position and property.

PAUPERIZATION (Marx)

The tendency in capitalist society for the proletariat to become poorer, even as the overall economic system becomes more productive.

PECUNIARY EMULATION (Veblen)

The way in which the lower and middle classes in a capitalist society tend to copy the lifestyles of the rich and famous, to try to enhance their prestige.

PETITE BOURGEOISIE (Marx)

Class of small business people--for example, shop owners.

PERIPHERAL AREAS (Wallerstein)

The world's poorer societies that provide cheap natural resources and labor and to some extent markets to the core states in the capitalist world system.

PLAY STAGE (Mead)

The period of self-development in which individuals learn to take into account the role of a single other at a time.

POSITIVISM (Comte)

The term referred to: the scientific analysis of phenomena.

POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY (BELL)

Society is organized around knowledge for the purpose of social control and the directing of innovation and change

POSTMODERNISM

Perspective more common in the Humanities than the Social Sciences emphasizing that science and reason and progress are relative to social location; that is, they depend on class/race/gender/sexuality/nationality and the like; postermodernism tends to be pessimistic where modernism is optimistic.

POWER (Weber)

The probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance.

POWER ELITE (Mills)

Those in positions of command in three key institutions--the large corporations, the big military, and the executive branch of the federal government.

PRIMARY GROUP (Cooley)

The group that is most influential in shaping my self, originally typically the family

PRODUCTIVE FORCES (Marx)

These enable humans to act on the material world in order to transform it. They comprise (1) labor power, (2) the means of production, and (3) the raw materials of production.

PROFANE (Durkheim)

The realm of the nonsacred. That which is used or acted on in an everyday, utilitarian manner.

PROLETARIAT (Marx)

Also termed the working class. The class of workers who earn their living by exchanging their labor power for a wage. Today, about 80-90 percent of the work force.

PROLETARIANIZATION (Marx)

The process by which more and more people in capitalist society become part of the proletariat.

PROTESTANT ETHIC (Weber)

An ascetic orientation that encourages hard work, thrift, and righteous forms of godliness.

RATIONALIZATION (Weber)

A scientific, means-ends orientation to life drives out sacred meanings; in organization, rationalization means bureaucracy; in industry, technology.

RATIONAL-LEGAL AUTHORITY (Weber)

Authority legitimated through a strict observance of the rules of office; associated with bureaucratic organization.

RATIONALLY PURPOSEFUL ACTION (Weber)

Social action that is instrumentally oriented. Occurs when the ends of action are seen as means to higher, taken-for-granted ends.

REDUCTIONISM

The belief that phenomena can and should be described and explained in terms of more elementary units of analysis.

REPRESSIVE LAW (Durkheim)

Laws involving punishment or destruction of violator of social rules.

RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION (Marx)

Property relations. Relations among individuals with respect to their ownership of productive forces.

RESTITUTIVE LAW (Durkheim)

Laws involving obligation of the violator of social rules to reestablish situation as it was before violation occurred, in order to compensate victim of violation.

REIFICATION

The process by which institutions that were humanly produced are experienced involuntarily as objects to which humans must adapt.

RELIGION OF HUMANITY (Comte)

Unifying the "spiritual" belief that Comte believed would develop in the positive stage of society. Involves the worship of humanity as a single "great being."

RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION (Marx)

Property relations. Relations among individuals with respect to their ownership of productive forces.

ROUTINIZATION OF CHARISMA (Weber)

The transformation of charismatic authority into traditional authority or, more usually in the modern world, rational-legal authority.

SACRED (Durkheim)

The defining characteristic of religion. Emanates in society, is collectively held in awe, and is forbidden in everyday use.

SECONDARY ADJUSTMENTS(Goffman)

The ways in which people resist organizational definitions of how they should behave and who they should be.

SELF (Mead)

In Mead's usage, a process that arises when action is blocked and that involves taking the role of the other, imagining, planning, and selecting action. The self allows the individual to be both subject and object of his or her own actions. Two aspects or alternating phases of self are the I and me.

SIGNIFICANT SYMBOL (Mead)

A gesture produced by an individual who takes the role of another and is able to reflect on the significance and outcome of having made this gesture.

SOCIAL ACTION (Weber)

Action by individuals that is generally seen as meaningful and that takes the actions and responses of others into account.

SOCIAL CAPITAL (Bourdieu)

The network of relationships and connections (who you know) that is another important resource for getting ahead in contemporary societies.

SOCIAL COHESION (Durkheim)

The forces that bind together the members of a particular society, community, or group.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY

Building a world of shared symbol and interpretation through our relationships with others within a particular community, organization, or subculture.

SOCIAL DYNAMICS (Comte)

Relationships or the study of relationships of elements of society across time and in terms of change, evolution, or progress.

SOCIAL FACTS (Durkheim)

Attributes, characteristics, or properties of social reality that cannot be reduced to the characteristics of individuals; often expressed in terms of rates or proportions. e.g., the suicide rate; social facts are the domain of sociology.

SOCIAL MOVEMENT

Group of people organizing themselves to pursue or resist change, using methods that are at least partly outside the norms of their society; for example, the civil rights movement or the feminist movement.

SOCIAL PATHOLOGIES (Durkheim)

Deviations from what is typical, normal, or usual for a particular societal type.

SOCIAL STATICS (Comte)

Relationships or the study of relationships of elements of society at one point in time. Emphasis is on the functional and systematic relationships that maintain stability... for example, family, religion.

SOCIALISM (Schumpeter)

An institutional pattern in which control over the means of production and over production itself is vested with a central authority, in which the economic affairs of the society belong to the public and not the private sphere.

SOCIOLOGICAL CANON

In any academic discipline, the canon is the standard that determines which are the important works, theories, and theorists; who is "in" and who is "out."

SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION (Mills)

Ability to understand private troubles in terms of broader social issues, to relate biography and history, to see the ways in which both our opportunities and our problems are often the product of larger social forces.

SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM (Weber)

An orientation that stresses careful planning and investment so that capital will return the maximum profit.

STANDPOINT THEORY (Dorothy Smith)

Analyzing the powers and processes that maintain social inequality from the perspective of someone who is an object of that inequality (Cooper and Wells-Barnett are precursors of Smith in emphasizing the importance of taking account of power differentials in this way.)

STATUS (Weber)

The evaluations made of an individual in terms of positive or negative esteem or honor.

STATUS GROUP (Weber)

A group that share a lifestyle and the prestige associated with that lifestyle; a culturally defined group that shares a certain "honor" (or dishonor) in a given society...examples would be religious and ethnic groups.

SUPERSTRUCTURE (Marx)

Those elements of society and consciousness that are derivative of the economic base and therefore cannot be understood or analyzed except in relation to that economic base; includes education system, religion, philosophy, political system, criminal justice system, family system.

SURPLUS VALUE (Marx)

Value created for the boss by workers during the working day after they have produced enough for sale on the market to cover their own wages and the constant capital costs associated with them being able to work.

TALENTED TENTH (DuBois)

The elite portion of the African-American race (or presumably any race), whom DuBois saw as having a special obligation to provide leadership in the upward mobility of the race as a whole.

TAKING THE ROLE OF THE OTHER (Mead)

The ability to mentally project oneself into a position where one can imagine how another or others will react to one's behavior. The other can be either a particular or a generalized other.

TOTAL INSTITUTIONS (Goffman)

Organizations like prisons, large mental hospitals, or military basic training, in which all aspects of life are lived in a group, according to a common schedule, with a minimum of privacy and independence; typically have the purpose of changing people in fundamental ways.

TRADITIONAL ACTION (Weber)

Occurs when the ends and means of social action are fixed by custom and tradition. Action is so habitual that it is taken for granted.

TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY (Weber)

Authority legitimated through individuals' acquiescence in a system of political rule that has become habitual or customary.

TRAINED INCAPACITY (Veblen)

An inability to change or adapt that comes from the very success of an individual, organization, or institution in some previous endeavor; getting very good at something gets in the way of learning something new.

VALUE FREE SOCIOLOGY (Weber)

Not that the social scientist has no values, or that his/her choice of research subjects is not affected by values, but that s/he makes a conscientious effort to face and acknowledge even those research results that are most opposed to his/her hopes and values.

VALUE-RATIONAL ACTION (Weber)

Occurs when individuals use effective means to achieve goals that are set by their values.

VERSTEHEN (Weber)

German term that means "understanding" in the sense of understanding the meaning of social action; understanding people's motives is a key part of understanding their actions.