SOC 1101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Sexual Fetishism, Erving Goffman, Insider Trading

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1101
• Professor: Liam Kilmurray

Document Summary

Deviance is all about norms and normativity - deviance is simply something that is. Deviance is a behaviour/belief/condition/that strays/differ from the norm. Deviant does not necessarily mean wrong or illegal (tattoos), perverted (sexual fetishes), or abnormal (belief in ghosts) Deviance is a relative category that changes with time, place, and culture. E. g. homosexuality was once viewed in canada as a type of "deviant" behaviour. Definitions of deviance often reflect social power: religious bans on paganism, or. Deviance is about social control and continuity, executed through norms of belief, behaviour, etc. Challenging norms of belief and behaviour, etc. If there was no deviance in society then society would not change. If there was no norms of behaviour in society then it would be impossible to have a stable and functioning society. There is seldom total agreement within a culture about what is deviant. Contested deviance is known as conflict deviance.