SOCI 1002H Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Elite, Robert Pickton, Meritocracy

• School: Trent University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI 1002H
• Professor: G.Balfour

Document Summary

Explaining social order: it"s not just common sense. Ideology: integrated set of assumpions and values; a coherent world view: example: if you work hard you will make more money. Hegemony: the way in which ideology becomes the form of power that operates our world, ideological dominaion: interests of dominant class become public interest, ideology disseminated through persuasion and coercion. We accept ideas as natural or common sense. The idea of individualism is not an essenial quality to human life, it was developed over ime. Liberalism, me not we: freedom to compete, equality of individual opportunity, raionalism over trade. Science over faith: entrenches naturalized social inequality: winners and losers. In the western world we are more likely to be socialized in insituions and not from the family. We are governed by our values (beliefs); and act according to social norms (rules: example: popular culture shapes our values and polices our acions. Media is a key agent of socializaion: reproduces ideology.