Table of Contents
Week 1: January 26, 30, February 2 ..................Sociology introduction, Sociological Theories
Week 2: February 13, 15, 16 ............................................................................................ Culture
Week 3: February 20, 22, 23...................................................................................... Human Age
Week 4: February 27, March 1, 2............................................................................ Development
Week 5: March 6, 8, 9............................................................................................... Life Journey
Week 6: March 13, 15, 16.............................................................................................. Deviance
Week 7: March 27, 29, 30........................................................ Social Stratification, Family Tree
Week 8: April 17, 19, 20.................................................................................. Social Institutions
Week 9: April 24, 26, 27.................................................................................................... Family
Week 10: May 1, 3, 4..................................................................................... Religion/Education
Worksheets
Quizzes
Videos
Power Point
Reflection
Week 2: February 13, 15, 16 ............................................................................................ Culture
Week 3: February 20, 22, 23...................................................................................... Human Age
Week 4: February 27, March 1, 2............................................................................ Development
Week 5: March 6, 8, 9............................................................................................... Life Journey
Week 6: March 13, 15, 16.............................................................................................. Deviance
Week 7: March 27, 29, 30........................................................ Social Stratification, Family Tree
Week 8: April 17, 19, 20.................................................................................. Social Institutions
Week 9: April 24, 26, 27.................................................................................................... Family
Week 10: May 1, 3, 4..................................................................................... Religion/Education
Worksheets
Quizzes
Videos
Power Point
Reflection
Week 1
January 26, 2017
People are like bricks and cement. It starts with two people, like Mary and Mark. They act as the bricks or the starting building blocks of a family. They are glued together (like cement holds bricks together) by something that has brought them together, like the classroom, work, etc. They then fall in love, get married, and have kids. The kids act as more building blocks. The kids then find other people, get married, have kids, and the population continues to grow. As more bricks are built up, a wall has been created, which represents a family or a society. We, as humans are the social structure. We are useless without socializing, because without it, no bonds are made.
119 words
January 30, 2017
Some people are puppets, others are puppeteers. Puppets are controlled, manipulated, and told what to do, while the puppeteers are the ones that are controlling, manipulating, and telling others what to do. Your whole life will contain the concept of the puppet and puppeteer. Sometimes you'll get to be leader, other times you'll follow.
People need to learn not to judge so quickly. Everyone has a story and it's important to open your eyes and see everything at different views. It's important to see the general in the particular, the strange in the familiar, see your personal life choices from the social context, and see the crisis in the marginality.
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110 words
February 2, 2017
3 major Sociological Theories/paradigms:
1.
Structural-functional paradigm (macro) image of
society
a.
Manifest function: the recognized and intended consequences of an social pattern
b.
Latent function: unrecognized and unintended
consequences
c.
Dysfunction: going against the norms of social behavior
2.
Social-conflict paradigm (macro)
a.
Based on social inequality (power/money,
resources, opportunities, privileges, etc.)
b.
Roles have been reversed
3.
Symbolic-interaction paradigm (micro)
a.
Ongoing process of social interaction
b.
Dramaturgical analysis: Erving Goffman's term for the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance
c. Social exchange theory: a process of negotiated exchanges between parties
c. Social exchange theory: a process of negotiated exchanges between parties
101 words
Week 2
February 13, 2017
Video: https://youtu.be/ZpmNbXqN5Mk
This video is all about the culture you would see in Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a small country in Europe, where their main languages are French, German, and Luxembourgish. This culture is similar to American culture, along with other areas in Europe, but it's also very different. I like Luxembourg because it is a very welcoming, safe, and peaceful country, and the people there are generally happy with their lives and their families. Food and music are both large parts of their culture as well. Family gatherings are always a big deal, and the whole family will come to talk and eat their bountiful food.
104 words
February 15, 2017
Culture is a very important part of life. Without it, people would not be able to survive, and with it, people create these standards of what is right or wrong to do. 5-10% of the world is tangible, things that one can touch. This is
material culture. 90-95% of the world is intangible, things that one can not
touch. This is a Non-material culture. Since most of what we do is from things we can actually see, it's important not to judge so quickly. Ethnocentrism is when humans judge another culture by the standards of their own culture. What is considered “normal” for one person or culture may be
considered weird or maybe even wrong for some other cultures, but either way, it's a way of life.
130 words
February 16, 2017
- Norms: rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
- Morals: a society’s standard of proper moral conduct
- Folkways: a society’s customs of routine casual interaction.
- Material objects: the tangible things created by members of society.
- High culture vs. popular culture: High culture is considered to be the former, cultural patters that distinguish a society’s elite. This would be things like ballets or musicals. Popular culture is the latter cultural patterns that are wide spread among a society’s population, making them a commonality throughout society. Things like McDonalds and pop/rock music would be part of this culture.
- Subculture: cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population
- Multiculturalism: an educational program recognizing past and present cultural diversity in U.S. society and promoting the equality of all cultural traditions.
- Counterculture: cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society
148 words
Week 3
February 22, 2017
Age
Each stage of a person's life is important and needs to be recognized. After the many stages of early human development, the stages don't just stop. Elderly people still go through different stages even in their old age, most of them just occurring through a natural process.
- Anticipatory socialization: learning that helps a person achieve a desired position
- Gerontology: the study of aging and the elderly
- Gerontocracy: a form of social organization in which the elderly have the most wealth, power, and prestige
- Cohort: a category of people with something in common, usually their age
- Resocialization: radically changing an inmate's personality by carefully controlling the environment
106 words
February 23, 2017
- Socialization: the lifelong social experience by which individuals develop human potential and learn patterns of their culture
- Personality: A person’s fairly consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting
- Self: George Herbert Mead’s term for a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self-awareness and self-image
- Looking Glass Self: Term for the image people have of themselves based on how they suppose others perceive them
- Peer group: A social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common
- Status: a recognized social position that an individual occupies. Roles act out status
- Status Set: all the statuses a person holds at a given time.
- Ascribed status: a social position that someone receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life (things you can’t choose)
- Achieved Status: a social position that someone assumes voluntary and that reflects personal ability and effort
- Master status: a status that has exceptional importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life.
- Social Status
- Race
- Physicality (ability/disability)
- Gender
- Nationality
- Achieved status examples:
- Students
- Employee of the month
178 words
Week 4
February 27, 2017
Queen and prime minister example:
The Queen of England is the queen mostly because of her ascribed status. She was born into a royal family, and she didn't really have any choice about being the queen or not. A prime minister, on the other hand, may have an ascribed status of being born into a wealthier family, but she still has an achieved status because she had to go to school and work hard to become a prime minister. She wasn't born to be the prime minister.
Charles Darwin: nature (biology/genetics)
John Watson: nurture (cultural/social experience)
Personality: A person’s fairly consistent patterns of
thinking, feeling, and acting.
Socialization Process
Sigmund Freud - Elements of personality:
- Id: represents the human being’s basic drives (devil)
- Ego: a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society
- Super-ego: the operation of culture within the individual (angel)
150 words
March 1, 2017
Agents of socialization: Family, schooling, peer groups, mass media
Jean Piaget: cognitive Development
Studied how people think and understand = biological
maturation + social experience
4 stages of cognitive development:
- Sensorimotor-Hiding something, taking it away, and having the child think it’s still there
- Pre-operational-having the same amount of liquid in a tall glass and short glass and saying the one with the tall glass has more. Unable to put yourself in other people’s shoes
- Concrete-operational- (7-11) knows the amount of liquid is the same. Can see the logic behind it
- Formal operational stages
Lawrence Kohlberg: Moral
Development (psychologist)
Moral development occurs in stages: Pre-conventional, conventional (know right and wrong), and
post-conventional (sacrifice yourself) stages
All his subjects were male
Carol Gilligan: (psychologist)
Moral development- brought gender into play
George Herbert Mead: (sociologist): the central concept is
the self
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: stages of facing death
152 words
March 2, 2017
Resocialization - total institutions
Total institution: a setting in which people are isolated
from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff
Resocialization: radically altering an inmate’s personality
through deliberate manipulation of the environment
Role: a behavior expected of someone who holds a particular
status
Role set: a number of roles attached to a single status (As
a father, you have to do many things to help out and take care of the child.)
Role conflict: the incompatibility among roles corresponding
to two or more statuses
Role strain: the incompatibility among roles corresponding
to single status
Role exit: to leave a status to make life simpler. (To stop
being governor because it’s too stressful)
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Week 5
March 6, 2017
My Life Journey Project
This is about ten significant events that have happened in my life so far. They consisted of learning the flute, going to Disney World with my high school band, becoming a big sister at age 17, graduating high school, buying a chinchilla, getting braces, going on large family vacations, meeting my best friend Laiken, getting my first dog Nutmeg, and participating in art shows throughout my high school career.
Learning to play the flute was a huge part of my socialization process, because that's where I met many of my friends, and I also got to go to a lot of fun events like hockey and basketball games for pep band, along with trips, parades and concerts. Graduating was significant for me, as I'm sure it is to many others as well, but it allowed me to understand who I really was rather than do things based on what others thought of me. This related to Mead's Theory of the Social Self. Lastly, in my concrete operational stage of life, I learned how to be more aware of my surroundings and started to understand how to react around dogs so I wasn't so scared of them anymore.
197 words
March 8, 2017
Billy The Kid - Wild West Outlaw (Crime
Documentary): https://youtu.be/CTcwLrCNRtA
I found a
documentary about the infamous Western outlaw: Billy The Kid. He was born into
a poor family, and since his biological father disappeared, another man acted
as Billy's father. Later, his mother died of lung cancer, so Billy left and was
orphaned at age 15. By the time he was 17, he had killed his first man and
supposedly killed 26 more people after that, before he died at age 21. Billy
didn’t have the greatest childhood, or grow up with a perfect family, and
living in the wild west often encourages deviant behavior in general, with all
the fighting, shooting, and drinking. I wouldn’t say that people are born good
or bad. Most of the time, if someone is raised to be deviant, then they will
continue to be deviant. I also find myself thinking about the biological
reasoning behind criminals and human’s deviant acts, because I’ve learned a lot
about the minds of criminals, and how they can often be different that the
average, non-deviant human. Overall though, I feel like people are not born
good or bad, they are just raised in a way that makes them be deviant and think
differently than someone that has grown up in a more positive way.
209 words
March 9, 2017
Social thinkers/philosophers’ perspective during
enlightenment or the age of reason:
- Thomas Hobbes: people are inherently selfish and in need of control-pessimistic
- Jean Rousseau: people are born inherently good and corrupted by the evils of society-optimistic
- John Locke: everything derives from experience and people are born tabula rasa (blank slate)-neither optimistic or pessimistic
I personally feel like it's different for every person; no one is exactly the same, so the way the person becomes good or evil would depend on the person. That being said, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke may all be right. Some people might just be born evil are selfish, others might be born good and turn evil because of society, and others might be born as neither good or evil, they just adapt to the way society treats them.
Biological context:
Genetics research seeks possible links between genetics and deviance
Deviance involves power
3 paradigm to analyze deviance
154 words
Week 6
March 13, 2017
Deviance
Deviant behavior is linked to social structure, how
realistic are social (personal) goals, how accessible are the legitimate means
of obtaining such goals, the gap between what “ought to be” and “what is”
leaves a person “strained”.
Belief in meritocracy, belief in an even playing field,
belief that the system works equally, belief that individuals will be rewarded
if they follow society’s lead.
Symbolic-interaction paradigm
Labeling theory: deviance lies in people’s reaction to a
person’s behavior, not in the behavior itself
Primary and secondary deviance:
Primary
deviance: provoked slight reaction from others and have little effect on a
person’s self-conceptSecondary deviance: respond to initial/primary deviance can set in motion by which an individual repeatedly violated a norm and begins to take on a deviant identity
Stigma: Secondary deviance marks the start of deviant career
by acquiring Stigma – a powerful negative label that greatly changes a person’s
self-concept and social identity
Retrospective labeling vs projective labeling
Retrospective
labeling: Re-interpreting someone’s past
Making “Johnny’s”
past behaviors more consistent with this present deviant activities
Social conflict paradigm:
Deviant and power
- The norm/laws reflect the interest of the rich and powerful
- The powerful have he resources to resist deviant labels
- The fairness and unfairness of laws themselves
Deviant and capitalism
- Capitalism is based on private control of property
- Capitalism depends on productive labor, people who cannot or will not work risk being labeled deviant
- Capitalism depends on respect for authority figures
246 words
March 15, 2017
Andy Williams Case Study
Andy Williams was a kid from Santana High School in Santee. He was always friendly, and smiling at people, until one day he couldn't stand hold back anymore. He was a child of divorced parents, he hardly ever saw his mother, and when his dad got a new job and he had to go to a new school, his life turned for the worst. He got into drugs, and his friends weren't much of friends at all. At first he was just considered a clown, but in reality, he was being bullied to end by his so called friends. On March 5, 2001, Andy shot and killed two kids from school, while injuring 13 others. This makes people wonder if people are born deviant, or if nurturing creates deviance. In this example, I feel that Andy was not born deviant, but because of his difficult adolescent years, he turned deviant.
150 words
March 16, 2017
Groups and Organizations
Social group: Two or more people who identify with and interact with one another
Primary group: a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships
Secondary group: a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity
Tradition: behavior, values, and beliefs passed from generation to generation
Rationalization of society: the historical change from tradition to rationality as the main type of human thought
The six key elements of the ideal bureaucratic organization:
- Specialization
- Hierarchy of positions
- Rules and regulations
- Technical competence
- Impersonality
- Formal, written communications
Oligarchy: What Robert Michels pointed out to be the link between bureaucracy and political oligarchy, the rule of the many by few.
114 words
Week 7
March 27, 2017
Social Stratification: neither rich nor poor people are responsible for creating social stratification, yet this system shapes the lives of us all.
Social stratification is a characteristic of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences. It also persists over generations.
Social mobility: vertical, horizontal and structural mobility. Social stratification is universal but variable. What is unequal and how unequal are varied from one type of society from another. Social stratification involves not just inequality but belief/ideology.
Social Class in the United States of America_ Social Stratification and Divisions (1957): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIm5AynAbx0
Social mobility: vertical, horizontal and structural mobility. Social stratification is universal but variable. What is unequal and how unequal are varied from one type of society from another. Social stratification involves not just inequality but belief/ideology.
Social Class in the United States of America_ Social Stratification and Divisions (1957): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIm5AynAbx0
This is an older video that describes social stratification through the lives of three different guys. One guy was born into the lower class, the second guy was born in the middle class, and the third guy was born in the upper class. They were all friends throughout high school, but once they graduated, they all had to go on different paths because of the social class.
165 words
March 29, 2017
The following image shows a genealogy project that I put together, where I learned a great deal about my family and where I came from. I am the fourth generation in the United States on my
father’s side, where my family came mostly from Germany then settled in Wisconsin. On my mother's side, I am the seventh generation, where my family came from England, Ireland, and Scotland, then settled in America.
Cultural Capital: parents pass down (visibly or invisibly) values and other social resources (+ or -) to their next generations affecting children’s social standing.
Life chances: max weber also added the concept of “life chances” to his definition of class (similar lifestyles, money, properties, etc.). Life chance is the opportunities that each individual has of fulfilling his or her potential in life. The higher the social-economic status (SES) the more access to scarce resources are the opportunities, and thus more positive are the life chances of the individual and vice versa.
161 words
March 30, 2017
Systems of social stratification
The Caste System: Social stratification based on ascription (by birth). People inherit their position and experience little mobility
The Class System: Social stratification based on birth and achievement. Depending on what family you can be born into a certain class, but as a person ages, they can work hard and change their class.
The Mixed System of the caste and class: such as the U.K., Japan etc.
Status Consistency: social standing across various dimensions of social inequality
Why does social stratification persist? Because it is supported by various institutions and the power of ideology defining certain kinds of inequality as both natural and just.
What is ideology? Cultural beliefs that serve to justify social stratification, including patterns of inequality
120 words
Week 8
April 17, 2017
Social institutions: analyze how institutions function across an entire society.
- Economy
- Family
- Government
- Healthcare
- Religion
- Education
Agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, information
revolution and postindustrial society
Primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors: the former is the
part of the economy that generates raw materials directly form the natural
environment; and the latter is to transform the raw materials into manufactured
goods.
Primary: farmer, fishers, mining
Secondary: construction worker, making cars
Tertiary: relator, teaching, nursing
Global economy: economic activity spanning many nations of
the world with little regard for national borders.
Economic systems: paths to justice
- Socialism
- Capitalism
- Welfare capitalism
- State capitalism
- Communism
100
April 19, 2017
Work in the postindustrial economy
The decline of agricultural work: 1900, 40% of the
population were farmers. One farmer grew food for 5 persons, today, declined to
2%. 1 farmer provides food to 75 persons
From factory work to service work
The Dal labor market: the primary (occupations provide
extensive benefits to workers) and secondary (very minimal benefits) labor
markets
Corporations: an organization with a legal existence
including rights and liabilities, apart from those of its members.
Economic concentration
Conglomerates and corporate linkages
Monopoly: domination of a
market by a single person
Oligopoly: domination of a market by a few producers
Oligopoly: domination of a market by a few producers
Corporations and global economy
Ideology: a consistent and integrated system of ideas,
values, and beliefs about who should get what, when, and how.
Conservatives: seek to limit the scope of society change or
keep status quo or keep the traditional values
Liberals: favor more sweeping change in society, claim
equality.
Radicals: support policies that go beyond mere reform-can be
ultra liberal or ultra conservative
166 words
April 20, 2017
Politics: the social institutions that distributes power, sets a society's goals, and makes decisions
Government: a formal organization that directs the political life of a society
Populist Party: populism identifies with the folks on the
bottom of the ladder- Want popular vote
- Direct democracy
- Banking reform
- Government ownership of railroads
- Graduated income tax
Democratic party:
- pro working class
- Anti assault gun
- Pro-choice
- Equal rights
- Pro-environmental protection
Republican party:
- Pro family/religion
- Pro-gun, pro-life
- Pro-war, pro-less regulation
- Pro-well-off
- Pro-death penalty
- Pro-small government
Green party:
- Grassroots democracy
- Gender equality
- Environmental protection
- Non-violence
- Social justice
Independent/Libertarian:
- Small government
- Strong civil liberty positions
111 words
Week 9
April 24, 2017
Liberals: belief in the value of strong government to
provide economic security and protection for civil rights, combined with a
belief in personal freedom from government intervention in social conduct.
Conservatives: belief in the value of free markets, limited
government, and individual self-reliance in economic affairs combined with a
belief in the value of tradition, law, and morality in social affairs
April 26, 2017
Economy, political systems, and family were big social institutions during this Homestead Strike. The people who worked there were fighting for their jobs to be able to support themselves, townships and the railroad. When the owner took over, political things started taking over. Most of these men had families as well that they needed to support.
Major roles during the strike were the workers and the owners of the homestead, along with the governor.
Economy and government played a role in the video because people needed the jobs so they would support themselves and their families, but when they wanted to close Homestead down, everyone got mad. The government was trying to take away something that was very important to them.
The underlying problems of the strike were that they wanted to close Homestead but the workers didn't like that. The owners had other ideas of what to do, and didn't care about the wellbeing of the workers
Hypothetical solutions to the problem could have been that they could have renewed whatever was expiring to keep the buildings so everyone keeps their jobs and everything stays the same.
April 26, 2017
Homestead Strike
Economy, political systems, and family were big social institutions during this Homestead Strike. The people who worked there were fighting for their jobs to be able to support themselves, townships and the railroad. When the owner took over, political things started taking over. Most of these men had families as well that they needed to support.
Major roles during the strike were the workers and the owners of the homestead, along with the governor.
Economy and government played a role in the video because people needed the jobs so they would support themselves and their families, but when they wanted to close Homestead down, everyone got mad. The government was trying to take away something that was very important to them.
The underlying problems of the strike were that they wanted to close Homestead but the workers didn't like that. The owners had other ideas of what to do, and didn't care about the wellbeing of the workers
Hypothetical solutions to the problem could have been that they could have renewed whatever was expiring to keep the buildings so everyone keeps their jobs and everything stays the same.
188 words
April 27, 2017
Family
Family: a social institution found in all societies that
found in all societies that unites people in cooperative groups to oversee
bearing
Kinship: a social bond between blood or marriage
Extended family: A family composed of parents and children as well as other kin
Nuclear family: composed of one or two parents and their
children
Divorce: happens when
romance subsides, increased individualism, less dependence on men, lots of anxiety
and stress of modern life
Socialization of member: creating well-integrated citizens
Regulation of sexual activity: maintenance of kinship order
and property rights
Social placement: a birth to married couples is preferred in
society
Acts as a support system: home is or can be a haven;
material and emotional support
Feeling of safety with in your family
Property and inheritance: laws permit families to pass on
their wealth
Patriarchy: familial structures can act in ways that hold
woman subject to control
Race and ethnicity: endogamous marriage helps reduce race
and ethnic assimilation
161 words
Week 10
May 1, 2017
Religion
Religion: a social institution involving beliefs and
practices based on a concept of the sacred
Western Religions - Deity-based:
- Christianity: the most widespread, 2 billion followers – 30% of the world’s people
- Islam: 1.2 billion followers – 20%
- Judaism: 15 million followers (mostly in Israel)
- Typically deity-based, with a clear focus on God
- Organization – the congregation – people worship in formal groups at a specific place in time.
Eastern Religion - Ethics-based:
- Hinduism: the oldest world religions. 800 million followers
- Buddhism: 350 million followers (all Asian)
- Confucianism/Daoism or Taoism: in China and Taiwan and some other countries
- Ethical codes
- Make a less clear-cut distinction between the sacred and secular
- Informally fused into culture
Common element: a higher moral force of purpose that
transcends the concerns of everyday life.
Social cohesion: similar values and norms unite people
Social control: the concept of using religion to promote;
conformity and set culture norms
Providing meaning a purpose: serve as a “safety cushion” for
humans. Prevent terror of death
Social conflict analysis
Highlights religion’s support social hierarchy. Karl Marx
pointed out that religion serves ruling elites by legitimizing the status quo
and diverting people’s attention from social inequality. eg: gender and
religion; politics and religion
206 words
May 3, 2017
Education
Schooling: formal instruction under the direction of
specially trained teachers.
Education: a special institution guiding a society’s
transmission of knowledge, such as basic facts, job skills, and also cultural
norms and its values to its members.
Structural-functional analysis of schooling:
- Socialization: the lifelong social experience by which individuals develop human potential and learn patterns of their culture
- Social integration: schooling helps forge a mass of people into a unified society.
- Cultural innovation: education creates as well as transmits culture
- Social placement: formal education helps young people assume culturally approved statues and perform roles that contribute to the ongoing life of society
- Latent functions of schooling: schools take some responsibility of child-caring; foster social conformity; build social networks
Social-conflict analysis: schooling and social inequality
- Social control: schooling acts as a means of social control, reinforce acceptance of the status quo
- Standardized test: reflect the dominant culture with the bias based on class, gender, and race, which put minorities at a disadvantage
- Inequality among schools: 86% of school-aged children attend public schools
- School tracking: to assign students to different types of educational/programs.
- Credentialism: evaluating a person on the basis of educational degree.
- Privilege and person merit: social-conflict analysis also suggests that attend college is the rite of passage for affluent men and women to transform social privilege into person merit
Problems in the schools: schools are supposed to equalize
opportunity, instill discipline, fire the individual imagination, but few
people think that our schools are doing an excellent job
252 words
May 4, 2017
Corrected chapter 12, 13, and 14 quiz on Social Institutions. This was all of the information put together from the previous days about economics, politics, family, religion, and health.
Worksheets
Culture and Society
Social and Global Stratification
Sociological Perspectives, Theories, and Methods
Deviance
Quizzes
Social Stratification, Social Class, and Global Stratification
Culture
Deviance
Chapter 1
Power Point
Videos
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-disney-and-pixar-are-misleading-your-kids-190252975.html
Disney and Pixar are very popular movie producers, so this video kind of talks about how movies depict inequality and social stratification. Although I don't necessarily agree with everything the video talks about, it's interesting to think about how differently movies depict social stratification compared to how the real world really is.
Population: https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth#t-127319
This Ted talk talks about population from the 1960's and how it has grown from then and into the future. In 1960, the industrialized world, who were very healthy, rich, and educated had 1 billion people. The developing world, who were poor and had a hard time just saving up to buy shoes, had 2 billion people. In the future, there is supposed to be an estimated 9 billion people, but it's important to raise the living standards of the poorest people so the future will be more stable.
Urbanization: http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-should-we-understand-about-urbanization-in-china
This video talks about how China and urbanization coexist. There are so many levels of urbanization in China, because it is so huge and there are so many different areas that would give a person different ideas. Because of this, it's important to understand all of those different levels. The woman in the video talked about how if you were to go to China, you can go to places like Beijing or other huge cities that are very modern, you're only getting one view of china's urbanization. It's important to go to other smaller cities to get the whole picture.
Environment: https://youtu.be/eRLJscAlk1M
This is one of those inspirational videos, but the information used in it is a very real and possible event that could happen. It talks about the future generations of the world, where if we continue going on the path we are with the environment, entire forests will be gone, the pollution will grow to an unmanageable rate, and ultimately the earth won't be alive anymore. But, if humans start doing something to help to environment, we can save the world.
Reflection
Taking these sixteen weeks of Sociology has taught me a lot about the world has a whole, while also learning a lot about why people do what they do. There were a lot of things, such a different theories that sociologists and psychologists have thought of that I have never thought about before, so it was really interesting to think in a new way. For example, are people born evil, born good, or born as a blank slate? Also, one of the most important things I have learned is that everything people do usually happens for a reason. A person wouldn't all of a sudden become deviant, there's always something going on behind the scenes that makes a person the way they are. Society is very influential, and it's one of those things that a person can't live without. Culture is also very influential and without it, the world would be very boring. I loved learning about the different cultures around the world, from the desert areas, to tropical areas, to even the arctic areas. It's amazing how people can adapt and be so different.
Economy and social class was a common topic in this class. People, society, the world, thrive off of money. It's the driving force for people to do what needs to be done, and people will do almost anything for it. People in poor countries such as Africa will do extremely hard labor, even if it means their life, if it allows them to have some sort of income to support their families. As I learned from my hot button topic of illegal migration, Mexicans cross the border to America specifically for jobs. Many environmental problems are all happening because of people doing work to get money, such as factory work, deforestation, mass fishing, and many more. The differences between the rich and the poor is also shocking to me. I never really realized how difficult it was to get higher up in the social structure. It has all made me think about what the world has really become.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class and found it very interesting. I learned more about myself, which I didn't thing was possible since I know myself more than anybody else ever will. I also enjoyed learning about why people do what they do. I learned so much, and I hope I will be able to remember a lot of this information as I grow older and live my life.
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