SOC 507 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Inequality, Social Forces, Breaking Free

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 507
• Professor: Alireza Asgharzadeh

Document Summary

Lecture notes: there is an overlap but also significant difference, race/ethnicity can be used separately or together between race and ethnicity. Defining race: race: a social relational category that may be defined by socially selected physical characteristics. Social - socially constructed, social unit, not just individuals. Relational - in relation to something else. Defining ethnicity: ethnicity: defined more in terms of socially selected cultural characteristics. Language, religion, culture, area of residence, accent, spirituality. Race as a social construct: race is socially constructed because: Created by humans, rather than abstract social forces. Constructed relationally, against one another, rather than in isolation: the shifting definition of race: Defined in terms of environmental attributes, e. g. , environmental determinism (aristotle) Defined in terms of fixed bio-genetic attributes, e. g. , "biological determinism", "eugenics", "social. Believing that certain people face social inequality because of their biogenetic makeup and it cannot be changed) Defined in terms of physiological + cultural/linguistic attributes.