SOCL 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Angelina Jolie, Erving Goffman, Natural Disaster
6 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Erving Goffman
● Social interactions are like theatrical performances
○ Front stage → Props, signs, facade, what happens in public
○ Backstage → Informal talk, relaxed, what’s actually going on
Key Tenets of Interactionism
● Norms that govern social life are constructed through face to face interaction
● We are always on stage, enacting scripts
● Performances create sense of self as individuals and the social order as a whole
Why do we Need Theory?
● We need models of the social order that help us pose vital questions
○ What types of society exist?
○ How is social order maintained and does it break down at times?
○ What major structural changes are happening in our societies and why?
● Understanding causes of social change
● Applying different perspectives
Causes of Infant Mortality
● Multiple causation
● Diagrams that categorize causes based on their directness
Genetic Testing as a Public Health Issue
● Angelina Jolie scared of breast cancer
● What can health organizations do to make this more available
Inequalities in Utilization of Genetic Services
● Fundamental causes
Applying Different Perspectives
Superstorm Sandy
● Social Constructionist Lens
○ Uncover narratives that people have constructed about the Jersey Shore
○ Consider how those narratives shape response to the storm
● The shore in Popular Culture
○ Recreation for wealthy people
○ Family vacation destination
○ Bruce Springsteen
○ Bon Jovi
○ Not super nice anymore
● Socially Organized Denial
○ 65% residents thought that Sandy was related to climate change
○ 49% thought climate change would cause another natural disaster
○ 29% see no connection between climate change and Sandy
● Social Constructionism
○ Tension between widespread and widely accepted knowledge that dense
development along the shore…
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Document Summary
Front stage props, signs, facade, what happens in public. Backstage informal talk, relaxed, what"s actually going on. Norms that govern social life are constructed through face to face interaction. We are always on stage, enacting scripts. Performances create sense of self as individuals and the social order as a whole. We need models of the social order that help us pose vital questions. Diagrams that categorize causes based on their directness. What can health organizations do to make this more available. Uncover narratives that people have constructed about the jersey shore. Consider how those narratives shape response to the storm. 65% residents thought that sandy was related to climate change. 49% thought climate change would cause another natural disaster. 29% see no connection between climate change and sandy. Tension between widespread and widely accepted knowledge that dense development along the shore . Rebuild houston"s been a thing for ages. Tourism a huge part of nj economy.
