Sociology 1027A/B Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Malcolm Gladwell, Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Meritocracy
1 Feb 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Achievement is determined by how hard you work, how smart you are, etc. Meritocracy = basic rule behind a modern democratic society, issue of social justice, equality. 2: functional inequality necessary for a society to function. Very persistent forms of inequality that affects social groups selectively. Sociological key concept: functionalism: definition, an approach that explains social phenomena in terms of their integrative relationships and contributions to the maintenance of society. Implicit to such thinking is the notion that a social institution within a society has a function in fulfilling some or all of the needs of another part of the social organism. Thus, in a manner analogous to examining the human body, the form of one part can be explained by its functional relationship to other parts. Certain elements of a social structure need to function in a certain way (example: if you are illiterate, you cannot function in society)
