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Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Absent father: A father who, as a result of divorce or for other reasons, has little or no contact with his children.

Absolute poverty: Poverty as defined in terms of the minimum requirements necessary to sustain a healthy existence.

Achieved status: Social status based on an individual’s effort, rather than traits assigned by biological factors. Examples of achieved status include ‘veteran’, ‘graduate’ or ‘doctor’.

Actor-network theory (ANT): A theoretical approach to human and non-human relations that insists on the active involvement of non-human things as well as human beings. ANT has been influential in the sociology of organizations.

Affective individualism: The belief in romantic attachment as a basis for contracting marriage ties.

Age-grade: The system found in small traditional cultures according to which people belonging to a similar age group are categorized together and hold similar rights and obligations.

Ageing: The combination of biological, psychological and social processes that affect people as they grow older.

Ageism: Discrimination or prejudice against a person on the grounds of age.

Agencies of socialization: Groups or social contexts within which processes of socialization take place. The family, peer groups, schools, the media and the workplace are all arenas in which cultural learning occurs.

Agrarian societies: Societies whose means of subsistence is based on agricultural production (crop-growing).

Alienation: The sense that our own abilities, as human beings, are taken over by other entities. The term was originally used by Feuerbach to refer to the projection of human powers onto gods. Subsequently, Karl Marx employed the term to refer to the loss of control on the part of workers over labour tasks, the products of their labour, other workers and the separation of workers from their essential ‘species being’. In later sociology, alienation has been seen as involving feelings of powerlessness and, as such, has been used in a social-psychological way.

Al-Qaeda: ‘The base’ – a network of terrorist activists across the world, whose stated ideology is ‘radical Islamist’, seeking to install a new Islamic Caliphate and remove foreign influence from Muslim countries. Founded in Afghanistan in 1988/9, the network’s most well-known figure is Osama bin Laden. Alternative medicine Sometimes referred to as complementary medicine, this approach to the treatment and prevention of disease encompasses a wide range of healing techniques which lie outside, or overlap with, orthodox medical practices. Alternative or complementary medicine embodies a holistic approach to health, addressing both physical and psychological elements of an individual’s well-being.

Animism: The belief that events in the world are mobilized by the activities of spirits.

Anomie: A lack of social norms. The concept was used by Durkheim to describe feelings of aimlessness and despair provoked by the rapid social change in the modern world which results in social norms losing their hold.

Apartheid: The official system of racial segregation established in South Africa in 1948 and practised until 1994.

Applied social research: Research which aims not just to understand a social problem, but also to make a contribution to solving it. Much criminological research, for example, is applied research, aiming to reduce levels of crime. Applied social research is a feature of all social science disciplines and often demands the involvement of multi-disciplinary teams.

Ascribed status: Social status based on biological factors, such as race, sex or age.

Assimilation: The acceptance of a minority group by a majority population, in which the group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture.

Asylum-seeker: A person who has applied for refuge in a foreign country because of fear of religious or political persecution in his or her country of origin.

Atavism: In criminology, the nineteenth-century argument that criminals displayed traits held over from the history of human evolution, which accounted for their criminality.

Authoritarian states: Political systems in which the needs and interests of the state take priority over those of average citizens, and popular participation in political affairs is severely limited or denied.

Authority: Following Max Weber, many sociologists have argued that authority is the legitimate power which one person or a group holds over another. The element of legitimacy is vital to this understanding of authority and is the main means by which authority is distinguished from the more general concept of power. Power can be exerted by the use of force or violence. Authority, by contrast, depends on the acceptance by subordinates of the right of those above them to give them orders or directives.

Automation: Production processes monitored and controlled by machines with only minimal supervision from people.

B

Back region: An area away from ‘front region’ performances, characterized by Erving Goffman, where individuals are able to relax and behave in an informal way. Bias Generally a preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment. In statistical sampling or testing, an error caused by systematically favouring some outcomes over others.

Bilateral: ‘On both sides’ – used to describe political negotiations between two parties.

Binuclear families: A family structure in which a child has parents living in two different homes after separating, both of whom are involved in the child’s upbringing.

Biodiversity: The diversity of species of life forms on planet Earth.

Biographical research: Research that takes individual lives or life histories as its main focus of interest. Biographical methods involve oral histories, life stories, autobiographies, biographies and more. Biographical research tries to find out how people make sense of their lives and relationships with others.

Biomedical model: The set of principles underpinning Western medical systems and practices. The biomedical model of health defines diseases objectively, in accordance with the presence of recognized symptoms, and believes that the healthy body can be restored through scientifically based medical treatment. The human body is likened to a machine that can be returned to working order with the proper repairs.

Bisexual: An orientation of sexual activities or feelings towards other people of either sex.

Black feminism: A strand of feminist thought which highlights the multiple disadvantages of gender, class and race that shape the experiences of non-white women. Black feminists reject the idea of a single unified gender oppression that is experienced evenly by all women, and argue that early feminist analysis reflected the specific concerns of white, middle-class women.

Bureaucracy: An organization of a hierarchical sort, which takes the form of a pyramid of authority. The term ‘bureaucracy’ was popularized by Max Weber. According to Weber, bureaucracy is the most efficient type of large-scale human organization. As organizations grow in size, Weber argued, they inevitably tend to become more and more bureaucratized.

C

Capital punishment: The state-sanctioned execution of a person who has been convicted of a crime that is punishable by death. Capital punishment is commonly known as the ‘death penalty’.

Capitalism: A system of economic enterprise based on market exchange. ‘Capital’ refers to any asset, including money, property and machines, which can be used to produce commodities for sale or invested in a market with the hope of achieving a profit. Nearly all industrial societies today are capitalist in orientation – their economic systems are based on free enterprise and on economic competition.

Capitalists: Those who own companies, land or stocks and shares, using these to generate economic returns.

Caste: A form of stratification in which an individual’s social position is fixed at birth and cannot be changed. There is virtually no intermarriage between the members of different caste groups.

Causal relationship: A relationship in which one state of affairs (the effect) is brought about by another (the cause).

Causation: The causal influence of one factor on another. Causal factors in sociology include the reasons individuals give for what they do, as well as external influences on their behaviour.

Childhood: The early period of a person’s life, usually divided into stages (such as infant, child, youth) leading towards adulthood. Definitions of childhood differ across time and place, which means that childhood is, in some measure, always socially constructed.

Church: A large body of people belonging to an established religious organization. Churches normally have a formal structure, with a hierarchy of religious officials, and the term is also used for the building where their religious ceremonials are held.

Citizen: A member of a political community, having both rights and duties associated with that membership.

Civil inattention: The process whereby individuals who are in the same physical setting of interaction demonstrate to one another that they are aware of each other’s presence, without being either threatening or over-friendly.

Civil partnership: A legally sanctioned relationship between two people of the same sex. It gives same-sex couples legal recognition for their relationship and some or all of the rights of married couples.

Civil society: The realm of activity which lies between the state and the market, including the family, schools, community associations and non-economic institutions. ‘Civil society’, or civic culture, is essential to vibrant democratic societies.

Class: Although it is one of the most frequently used concepts in sociology, there is no clear agreement about how the notion should best be defined. For Marx, a class was a group of people standing in a common relationship to the means of production. Weber also saw class as an economic category, but stressed its interaction with social status and the affinities of ‘party’. In recent times, some social scientists have used occupation extensively as an indicator of social class, others have stressed ownership of property and other wealth; still others are looking to lifestyle choices.

Clock time: Time as measured by the clock – that is, assessed in terms of hours, minutes and seconds. Before the invention of clocks, time reckoning was based on events in the natural world, such as the rising and setting of the sun.

Cognition: Human thought processes involving perception, reasoning, and remembering.

Cohabitation: Two people living together in a sexual relationship of some permanence, without being married to each other.

Cohort: A group of people sharing some common experiences within a certain period of time, usually used in relation to ‘birth cohorts’ – people born in the same years or few years.

Cold War: The situation of conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, together with their allies, which existed from the late 1940s until 1990. It was a ‘cold’ war because the two sides never actually engaged in military confrontation with each other.

Collective behaviour: Activities of people and social groups that normally emerge spontaneously (such as crowds, riots and so on) rather than arising from processes of socialization leading to conformity to social rules and norms.

Collective consumption: A concept used by Manuel Castells to refer to processes of consumption of common goods promoted by the city, such as transport services and leisure amenities.

Collective effervescence: The sense of heightened energy created in collective gatherings and rituals, used by Durkheim to explain the religious experience as essentially social.

Colonialism: The process whereby Western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories.

Communication: The transmission of information from one individual or group to another. Communication is the necessary basis of all social interaction. In face-to-face contexts, communication is carried on by the use of language, but also by many bodily cues which individuals interpret in understanding what others say and do. With the development of writing and of electronic media such as radio, television or computer transmission systems, communication becomes, to varying degrees, detached from immediate contexts of face-to-face social relationships.

Communism: A set of political ideas associated with Karl Marx, as developed particularly by Lenin, and institutionalized in China and, until 1990, in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Comparative questions: Questions concerned with the drawing of comparisons between one context in a society and another, or contrasting examples from different societies, for the purposes of sociological theory or research.

Comparative research: Research that compares one set of findings on one society with the same type of findings on other societies.

Complicit masculinity: A term associated with R. W. Connell’s writings on the gender hierarchy in society. Complicit masculinity is embodied by the many men in society who do not themselves live up to the ideal of hegemonic masculinity, yet benefit from its dominant position in the patriarchal order.

Compulsion of proximity: The need felt by individuals to interact with others in face-to-face settings.

Concrete operational stage: A stage of cognitive development, as formulated by Piaget, in which the child’s thinking is based primarily on physical perception of the world. In this phase, the child is not yet capable of dealing with abstract concepts or hypothetical situations.

Conflict theories: A sociological perspective that focuses on the tensions, divisions and competing interests present in human societies. Conflict theorists believe that the scarcity and value of resources in society produces conflict as groups struggle to gain access to and control those resources. Many conflict theorists have been strongly influenced by the writings of Marx.

Confluent love: Active and contingent love, as opposed to the ‘forever’ qualities of romantic love.

Consumer society: A type of society which promotes the consumption of mass-produced products. Consumer societies also generate an ideology of consumerism, which assumes that ever increasing mass consumption is beneficial.

Control theory: A theory which sees crime as the outcome of an imbalance between impulses towards criminal activity and controls which deter it. Control theorists hold that criminals are rational beings who will act to maximize their own reward unless they are rendered unable to do so through either social or physical controls.

Controls: A statistical or experimental means of holding some variables constant in order to examine the causal influence of others.

Conurbation: A clustering of towns or cities into an unbroken urban environment.

Convenience sample: The arbitrary selection of respondents for a study, based on simple opportunity rather than a rigorous quest for representativeness. Used in much applied social research with practical applications.

Conversation analysis: The empirical study of conversations, employing techniques drawn from ethnomethodology. Conversation analysis examines details of naturally occurring conversations to reveal the organizational principles of talk and its role in the production and reproduction of social order.

Core countries: According to world-systems theory, the most advanced industrial countries, which take the lion’s share of profits in the world economic system.

Corporate crime: Offences committed by large corporations in society. Examples of corporate crime include pollution, false advertising and violations of health and safety regulations.

Corporate culture: A branch of management theory that seeks to increase productivity and competitiveness through the creation of a unique organizational culture involving all members of a firm. A dynamic corporate culture – involving company events, rituals and traditions – is thought to enhance employee loyalty and promote group solidarity.

Corporation: A type of organization that is a legal entity in its own right and has both rights and responsibilities. Business corporations are created by groups of shareholders who own the corporation and organize its effective management to generate dividends for shareholders

Correlation: A regular relationship between two dimensions or variables, often expressed in statistical terms. Correlations may be positive or negative. A positive correlation between two variables exists where a high rank on one variable is regularly associated with a high rank on the other. A negative correlation exists where a high rank on one variable is regularly associated with a low rank on the other.

Correlation: coefficient A measure of the degree of correlation between two variables.

Cosmopolitanism: In sociology, a term describing a theoretical approach that moves beyond nation-state based thinking towards analysing the human world as a single community.

Created environment: Those aspects of the physical world deriving from the application of technology. Cities are created environments, featuring constructions established by human beings to serve their needs – including roads, railways, factories, offices, private homes and other buildings.

Crime: Any action that contravenes the laws established by a political authority. Although we may tend to think of ‘criminals’ as a distinct subsection of the population, there are few people who have not broken the law in one way or another during the course of their lives. While laws are formulated by state authorities, it is by no means unknown for those authorities to engage in criminal behaviour in certain contexts.

Criminology: The study of forms of behaviour that are sanctioned by criminal law.

Crisis of masculinity: The argument that traditional forms of masculinity are being undermined by a combination of contemporary influences, provoking a critical phase in which men are unsure of themselves and their role in society.

Critical management studies: Critical, usually neo-Marxist, studies of existing management studies approaches. Critical management studies draws from the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, but is also influenced by the poststructuralist approach of Michel Foucault and others.

Critical realism: An approach to science which insists on the existence of an objective external reality which is amenable to investigation (contrast with social constructionism). Critical realists see the task of science as bringing to light the underlying causes of observable events, which are not usually directly observable.

Crude birth rate: A statistical measure representing the number of births within a given population per year, normally calculated in terms of the number of births per 1,000 members. Although the crude birth rate is a useful index, it is only a general measure, because it does not specify numbers of births in relation to age distribution.

Crude death rate: A statistical measure representing the number of deaths that occur annually in a given population per year, normally calculated as the ratio of deaths per 1,000 members. Crude death rates give a general indication of the mortality levels of a community or society, but are limited in their usefulness because they do not take into account the age distribution.

Cult: A fragmentary religious grouping, to which individuals are loosely affiliated, but which lacks any permanent structure. Cults quite often form round an inspirational leader.

Cultural capital: Types of knowledge, skills and education which confer advantages on those who acquire them. Cultural capital can be embodied (in forms of speech or bodily comportment), objectified (in cultural products such as works of art) or institutionalized (in educational qualifications).

Cultural pluralism: The coexistence of several subcultures within a given society on equal terms.

Cultural reproduction: The transmission of cultural values and norms from generation to generation. Cultural reproduction refers to the mechanisms by which continuity of cultural experience is sustained across time. The processes of schooling in modern societies are among the main mechanisms of cultural reproduction, and operate in profound ways through the hidden curriculum – aspects of behaviour learnt by individuals in an informal way while at school.

Culture of poverty: The thesis, popularized by Oscar Lewis, that poverty is not a result of individual inadequacies, but the outcome of a larger social and cultural atmosphere into which successive generations of children are socialized. The ‘culture of poverty’ refers to the values, beliefs, lifestyles, habits and traditions that are common among people living under conditions of material deprivation.

Culture: The values, ceremonies and ways of life characteristic of a given group. Like the concept of society, the notion of culture is very widely used in sociology, as well as in the other social sciences (particularly anthropology). Culture is one of the most distinctive properties of human social association.

Cybercrime: Criminal activities by means of electronic networks, or involving the use of new information technologies. Electronic money laundering, personal identity theft, electronic vandalism and monitoring of electronic correspondence are all emergent forms of cybercrime.

Cyberspace: Electronic networks of interaction between individuals at different computer terminals, linking people at a level – in a dimension – that has no regard for territorial boundaries or physical presence.

D

Debureaucratization: Decline in the predominance of Weberian-style bureaucracies as the typical organizational form within modern society.

Decommodification: In the context of welfare provision, the degree to which welfare services are free of the market. In a predominantly decommodified system, welfare services such as education and healthcare are provided to all and are not linked to market processes. In a commodified system, welfare services are treated as commodities to be sold on the market like other goods and services.

Deforestation: The destruction of forested land, often by commercial logging.

Degree of dispersal: The range or distribution of a set of figures.

Deinstitutionalization: The process by which individuals cared for in state facilities are returned to their families or to community-based residences.

Democracy: A political system providing for the participation of citizens in political decision-making, often by the election of representatives to governing bodies.

Demographic transition: An interpretation of population change, which holds that a stable ratio of births to deaths is achieved once a certain level of economic prosperity has been reached. According to this notion, in pre-industrial societies there is a rough balance between births and deaths, because population increase is kept in check by a lack of available food, and by disease or war. In modern societies, by contrast, population equilibrium is achieved because families are moved by economic incentives to limit the number of children.

Demography: The study of the characteristics of human populations, including their size, composition and dynamics.

Denomination: A religious sect which has lost its revivalist dynamism, and has become an institutionalized body, commanding the adherence of significant numbers of people.

Dependency culture: A term popularized by Charles Murray to describe individuals who rely on state welfare provision rather than entering the labour market. The dependency culture is seen as the outcome of the ‘nanny state’, which undermines individual ambition and people’s capacity for self-help.

Dependency ratio: The ratio of people of dependent ages (children and the elderly) to people of economically active ages.

Dependency theory: Theory of economic development derived from Marxism arguing that the poverty of low-income countries stems directly from their exploitation by wealthy countries and the transnational corporations that are based in wealthy countries.

Dependent variable: A variable, or factor, causally influenced by another (the independent variable).

Desertification: Instances of intense land degradation resulting in desert-like conditions over large areas.

Deskilling: The process through which the skills of workers are downgraded or, over time, eliminated, and taken over by machines and/or managers.

Developmental questions: Questions posed by sociologists when looking at the origins and path of development of social institutions from the past to the present.

Deviance: Modes of action which do not conform to the norms or values held by most of the members of a group or society. What is regarded as ‘deviant’ is as widely variable as the norms and values that distinguish different cultures and subcultures from one another. Many forms of behaviour which are highly esteemed in one context, or by one group, are regarded negatively by others.

Deviancy amplification: The unintended consequences that can result when, by labelling a behaviour as deviant, an agency of control actually provokes more of the same behaviour. For example, the reactions of police, the media and the public to perceived acts of deviance can ‘amplify’ the deviance itself, creating a ‘spiral of deviancy’.

Deviant subculture: A subculture whose members have values which differ substantially from those of the majority in a society.

Diaspora: The dispersal of an ethnic population from an original homeland into foreign areas, often in a forced manner or under traumatic circumstances.

Disability studies: A field of enquiry that investigates the position of disabled people in societies, including the experiences, history and campaigns of disabled people and their organizations.

Discourse analysis: A general term covering several approaches to the study of language whether this is spoken or written. Most sociological versions of discourse analysis aim to understand language use within specific social and historical contexts.

Discourses: The frameworks of thinking in a particular area of social life. For instance, the discourse of criminality means how people in a given society think and talk about crime.

Discrimination Activities: that deny to the members of a particular group resources or rewards which can be obtained by others. Discrimination has to be distinguished from prejudice, although the two are usually quite closely associated. It can be the case that individuals who are prejudiced against others do not engage in discriminatory practices against them; conversely, people may act in a discriminatory fashion even though they are not prejudiced against those subject to such discrimination.

Disengagement theory: A functionalist theory of ageing that holds that it is functional for society to remove people from their traditional roles when they become elderly, thereby freeing up those roles for others.

Displacement: The transferring of ideas or emotions from their true source to another object.

Division of labour: The division of a production system into specialized work tasks or occupations, creating economic interdependence. All societies have at least a rudimentary division of labour, especially between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women. With the development of industrialism, however, the division of labour became vastly more complex than in any prior type of production system. In the modern world, it is now global in scope.

Documentary research: The study of written texts including personal diaries, government policies, fictional works and mass media output.

Doubling time: The time it takes for a particular level of population to double.

Dramaturgical analysis: An approach to the study of social interaction based on the use of metaphors derived from the theatre.

Dysfunction: Features of social life that challenge or create tensions in a social system.

E

Eco-efficiency: The development of technologies that generate economic growth, but which do so at minimal cost to the environment.

Ecological citizenship: A relatively recent extension of citizenship to include the rights and responsibilities of people towards the natural environment or ‘nature’.

Ecological modernization: Economic growth and development that incorporate positive policies to protect the environment. Supporters of ecological modernization argue that industrial development and ecological protection are not incompatible.

Economic capital: In Pierre Bourdieu’s work, resources such as money and property that form part of a system of material exchange. The ownership of economic capital brings significant advantages in itself and can also be exchanged for other forms of capital.

Economic interdependence: The outcome of specialization and the division of labour, when self-sufficiency is superseded and individuals depend on others to produce many or most of the goods they need to sustain their lives.

Economy: The system of production and exchange which provides for the material needs of individuals living in a given society. Economic institutions are of key importance in all social orders. What goes on in the economy usually influences many other aspects of social life. Modern economies differ very substantially from traditional ones, because the majority of the population is no longer engaged in agricultural production.

Education: A social institution which promotes and enables the transmission of knowledge and skills across generations.

Egocentric: According to Piaget, the characteristic quality of a child during the early years of her life. Egocentric thinking involves understanding objects and events in the environment solely in terms of the child’s own position.

Elaborated code: A form of speech involving the deliberate and constructed use of words to designate precise meanings, and adaptable to various cultural settings.

Embodiment: In sociology, the notion that self-experience and identity are bounded by individual bodies, which express and partly shape self-identities.

Embourgeoisement thesis: The process by which bourgeois aspirations, and a bourgeois standard and style of life, becomes institutionalized in the working class. Marxists have argued that this phenomenon undermines working-class consciousness and frustrates working-class attempts to create social change.

Emigration: The movement of people out of one country in order to settle in another.

Emotional intelligence: The ability of individuals to use their emotions to develop qualities such as empathy, self-control, enthusiasm and persistence.

Emphasized femininity: A term associated with R. W. Connell’s writings on the gender hierarchy in society. Emphasized femininity forms an important complement to hegemonic masculinity, because it is oriented to accommodating the interests and needs of men. Many representations of women in the media and advertising embody emphasized femininity.

Empirical investigation: Factual inquiry carried out in any given area of sociological study.

Encounter

Endogamy: The forbidding of marriage or sexual relations outside one’s social group.

Endogenous: In sociology, things which develop or originate within the society being studied rather than being introduced from outside (exogenous).

Entrepreneur: Someone who starts or owns a business venture and takes personal responsibility for the risks involved and the potential rewards gained.

Environment: The non-human, natural world within which human societies exist. In its broadest sense, the environment is the planet Earth.

Environmental issues: All of those issues in society which involve both social relations and non-human, natural phenomena. Environmental issues can be seen as hybrids of society and nature.

Environmental justice: The notion that all people have the right to a healthy and sustainable environment. Environmental justice campaigns have focused on removing the disproportionate risk of environmental pollution being borne by poor communities.

Epidemiology: The study of the distribution and incidence of disease and illness within the population.

Estate: A form of stratification involving inequalities between groups of individuals established by law.

Ethical religions: Religions which depend on the ethical appeal of a ‘great teacher’ (like Buddha or Confucius), rather than on a belief in supernatural beings.

Ethnic cleansing: The creation of ethnically homogeneous territories through the mass expulsion of other ethnic populations.

Ethnicity: Cultural values and norms which distinguish the members of a given group from others. An ethnic group is one whose members share a distinct awareness of a common cultural identity, separating them from other groups around them. In virtually all societies ethnic differences are associated with variations in power and material wealth. Where ethnic differences are also regarded as racial, such divisions are sometimes especially pronounced.

Ethnie: A term used by Anthony Smith to describe a group that shares ideas of common ancestry, a common cultural identity and a link with a specific homeland.

Ethnocentric: Understanding the ideas or practices of another culture in terms of those of one’s own culture. Ethnocentric judgements fail to recognize the true qualities of other cultures. An ethnocentric individual is someone who is unable, or unwilling, to look at other cultures in their own terms.

Ethnography: The study of people at first-hand using participant observation or interviewing.

Ethnomethodology: The study of how people make sense of what others say and do in the course of day-to-day social interaction. Ethnomethodology is concerned with the ‘ethnomethods’ by means of which human beings sustain meaningful interchanges with one another.

Eugenics: Attempts to improve the fitness of the human race through selective reproduction methods.

Evangelicalism: A form of Protestantism characterized by a belief in spiritual rebirth (being ‘born again’).

Experiment: A research method in which a hypothesis can be tested in a controlled and systematic way, either in an artificial situation constructed by the researcher, or in naturally occurring settings.

Exploitation: A social or institutional relationship in which one party benefits at the expense of the other through an imbalance in power.

Extended family: A family group consisting of close relatives extending beyond a couple and their children living either within the same household or in a close and continuous relationship with one another.

External risk: Dangers that spring from the natural world and are unrelated to the actions of humans. Examples of external risk include droughts, earthquakes, famines and storms.