SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Regulated Market, Bourgeoisie
groupthink, norms of solidarity, conformity
▪
All around implicit such as norms, values, socialization
○
Obedience to authority
▪
Top down, Explicit
○
Social groups, networks, organizations shaping our actions
▫
Told they will participate in a psychology experiment, grouped with other volunteers who
are actually working with the experimenter
○
Told they will be asked to be able to see similarities / dissimilarities
○
Want to fit it
○
Notion of suspending own judgment, KNOWLEDGE happens, even trivial things
▪
Want to believe the group is better informed than they are --> convinced that maybe they
are wrong
○
Solomon Ash - conformity experiment
▫
Socialization / social interaction
▪
Sense of self, sense of belonging, identity
▪
Groups influence / shape
○
Gender
▪
Age
▪
Ethnicity
▪
People define selves by their groups
○
Groups are a key element of "THE SOCIAL"
○
Shaping actions and identities
▫
Recognition of the sanctity of human life is a prerequisite to moral action
○
Some societies do not have this notion of human rights, justification for violent suppression
of violent abuse of particular groups
○
Classes
▪
Nations
▪
Race
▪
Religions
▪
History of 20th century has seen calls of exclusion of whole categories from this obligation
○
Who do we have obligations for?
○
Most people do extend this obligation to members of family, children, etc.
○
Needs
▪
Welfare
▪
Ill health
▪
Within obligation of helping other people:
○
Good friends? --> mostly
▪
Not good friends / acquaintances? --> for some people, typically small
▪
Beyond acquaintances? Strangers? --> not really
▪
Is this obligation extended beyond family?
○
Obligations are typically towards people we regard as being in our group
○
Universe of obligation
▫
Canada is economically prosperous overall
○
Despite working longer and harder hours, incomes have not grown proportionally
▪
Income inequality has been increasing in Canada
○
Economic gain derived from wages, salaries, income transfers, ownership of property
▪
Income defined
○
Ownership
▪
Wealth defined
○
Income inequality in Canada
▫
Lecture 1.8: Class, Work and the Economy
November 2, 2016
12:06 PM
LECTURE Page 24
Ownership
▪
Property, buildings, land, farms, factories, houses, cars, as well as other assets (bank
accounts, corporate stocks, bonds, insurance policies)
▪
Top 10%: 100k+
○
Top 5%: 150k+
○
Top 1%: 250k+
○
Average Canadian income: 49k
○
Median Canadian income: 32k
○
Degree of natural talent
□
Degree of effort
□
Level of education
□
People's networks or connections
Social capital
□
Stock of learning and skills that increases chance of securing a superior
job
Cultural capital
□
Factors
▪
Explanations
○
Difficult to determine an actual degree of poverty in Canada because there is no
agree-upon definition
▪
If no more than 63% of gross income is spent on food, shelter, clothing
□
Low income cut-off
▪
Absolute: essentials
Relative: may define either narrowly (economic measures, e.g. income),
or broadly (community standards, e.g. housing stock, environmental
quality)
Whether definition should be absolute or relative
□
Whether poverty should be defined on basis of income or consumption
□
Debate
▪
Hard to compare country to country, don't calculate the same way
□
Politics can reshape distribution of income and system of equality in
various ways
Political consequences: ability to influence policy-makers --> determine
whether social policies are enacted or not based on levels and trends on
poverty
□
Inherited Attributes --> Dispositions, Intelligence, behaviour
abnormality
◊
Personal deficits
◊
Acquire attributes --> low self esteem, lack of achievement,
motivation
◊
Not a lot of connection, lacking
◊
Talent, effort, education count, allow people to do better/worse,
◊
Individual level explanations
What is the pattern
◊
Social organization of society, subsystems of society
◊
Cyclical booms / busts (periods of low unemployment, high
profits followed by high unemployment/low profits, lack of
good jobs)
Economy
◊
Minimum wage legislation
Social policy
◊
Structural explanations
Explaining
□
Definitions
▪
Income and Poverty
○
LECTURE Page 25
