Anthony Giddens • Sociology 5th Edition

Student Resources

Glossary

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S

Sacred
That which inspires attitudes of awe or reverence among believers in a given set of religious ideas.
Sampling
Studying a proportion of individuals or cases from a larger population as representative of that population as a whole.
Sanction
A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behaviour.
Scapegoating
Blaming an individual or group for wrongs that were not of their doing.
Science
In the sense of physical science, the systematic study of the physical world. Science – and sociology as a scientific endeavour – involves the disciplined marshalling of empirical data, combined with the construction of theoretical approaches and theories which illuminate or explain those data. Scientific activity combines the creation of bold new modes of thought with the careful testing of hypotheses and ideas. One major feature which helps distinguish science from other types of idea system (such as that involved in religion) is the assumption that all scientific ideas are open to mutual criticism and revision by members of the scientific community.Second World The industrialized, formerly communist societies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
Secondary deviance
An idea associated with the American criminologist Edwin Lemert. Primary deviance refers to an initial act which contravenes a norm or law – for instance, stealing an item from a shop. Secondary deviance is where a label becomes attached to the individual who carried out the act, as where the person stealing from the shop is labelled a ‘shoplifter’.
Sect
A religious movement which breaks away from orthodoxy.
Secularization
A process of decline in the influence of religion. Although modern societies have become increasingly secular, tracing the extent of secularization is a complex matter. Secularization can refer to levels of involvement with religious organizations (such as rates of church attendance), the social and material influence wielded by religious organizations, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs.
Self-consciousness
Awareness of one’s distinct social identity, as a person separate from others. Human beings are not born with self-consciousness but acquire an awareness of self as a result of early socialization. The learning of language is of vital importance to the processes by which the child learns to become a self-conscious being.
Self-identity
The ongoing process of selfdevelopment and definition of our personal identity through which we formulate a unique sense of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us.
Semi-peripheral countries
Countries that supply sources of labour and raw materials to the core industrial countries and the world economy but are not themselves fully industrialized.
Sensorimotor stage
According to Piaget, a stage of human cognitive development in which the child’s awareness of its environment is dominated by perception and touch.
Service class
A term adopted by John H. Goldthorpe to describe those whose employment is based on a code of service rather than a labour contract, and whose work therefore involves a high degree of trust and autonomy. In Goldthorpe’s account, the service class (which he categorizes as Class I) refers to professional, senior administrative, and senior managerial employees. (Members of the service class are not those employed in the service industries.)
Sex
The anatomical differences which separate men from women. Sociologists often contrast sex with gender. Sex refers to the physical characteristics of the body; gender concerns socially learned forms of behaviour. Sex and gender divisions are not the same. A transvestite, for example, is someone who is physically a man but sometimes assumes the gender of a woman.
Sex tourism
The term used to describe international travel oriented on prostitution. It is most highly developed in the countries of the Far East, where groups of men from abroad travel for the opportunity to engage in inexpensive sexual liaisons with women and young children.
Sexual harassment
Unwanted sexual advances, remarks or behaviour by one person towards another, persisted in even though it is made clear that the other person is resistant.
Sexual orientation
The direction of one’s sexual or romantic attraction.
Sexuality
A broad term which refers to the sexual characteristics, and sexual behaviour, of human beings.
Shaman
An individual believed to have special magical powers; a sorcerer or witch doctor.
Shared understandings
The common assumptions which people hold and which allow them to interact in a systematic way with one another.
Sick role
A term, associated with the American functionalist Talcott Parsons, to describe the patterns of behaviour which a sick person adopts in order to minimize the disruptive impact of his or her illness on others.
Simulacra
In the world of hyperreality evoked by the French author Jean Baudrillard, simulacra are copies of items for which there is no original. For example, a ‘mock Tudor’ house looks nothing like original Tudor buildings.
Slavery
A form of social stratification in which some individuals are literally owned by others as their property.
Social age
The norms, values, and roles that are culturally associated with a particular chronological age.
Social capital
The social knowledge and connections that enable people to accomplish their goals and extend their influence.
Social change
Alteration in the basic structures of a social group or society. Social change is an ever-present phenomenon in social life, but has become especially intense in the modern era. The origins of modern sociology can be traced to attempts to understand the dramatic changes shattering the traditional world and promoting new forms of social order.
Social constraint
A term referring to the fact that the groups and societies of which we are a part exert a conditioning influence on our behaviour. Social constraint was regarded by Durkheim as one of the distinctive properties of ‘social facts’.
Social constructionism
The theory that social reality is a creation of the interaction of individuals and groups.
Social exclusion
The outcome of multiple deprivations which prevent individuals or groups from participating fully in the economic, social and political life of the society in which they are located.
Social facts
According to Emile Durkheim, the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals. Durkheim believed that social facts could be studied scientifically.
Social gerontology
The study of ageing and the elderly.
Social group
Collection of individuals who interact in systematic ways with one another. Groups may range from very small associations to large-scale organizations or societies. Whatever their size, it is a defining feature of a group that its members have an awareness of a common identity. Most of our lives are spent in group contact; in modern societies, most people belong to groups of many different types.
Social interaction
Any form of social encounter between individuals. Most of our lives are made up of social interaction of one type or another. Social interaction refers to both formal and informal situations in which people meet one another. An illustration of a formal situation of social interaction is a schoolclassroom; an example of informal interaction is two people meeting in the street or at a party.
Social mobility
Movement of individuals or groups between different socio-economic positions. Vertical mobility refers to movement up or down a hierarchy in a stratification system. Lateral mobility is physical movement of individuals or groups from one region to another. When analysing vertical mobility, sociologists distinguish between how far people are mobile in the course of their career, and how far the position they reach differs from that of their parents.
Social model of disability
A theory that locates the cause of disability within society, rather than the individual. It is not individual limitations that cause disability but the barriers that society places in the way of full participation for disabled people.
Social movement
A large grouping of people who have become involved in seeking to accomplish, or to block, a process of social change. Social movements normally exist in relations of conflict with organizations whose objectives and outlook they frequently oppose. However, movements which successfully challenge for power, once they become institutionalized, can develop into organizations.
Social position
The social identity an individual has in a given group or society. Social positions may be general in nature (those associated with gender roles) or may be more specific (occupational positions).
Social role
The expected behaviour of an individual occupying a particular social position. The idea of social role originally comes from the theatre, referring to the parts which actors play in a stage production. In every society individuals play a number of different social roles, according to the varying contexts of their activities.
Social self
The basis of self-consciousness in human individuals, according to the theory of G. H. Mead. The social self is the identity conferred upon an individual by the reactions of others. A person achieves self-consciousness by becoming aware of this social identity.
Social stratification
The existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. While all societies involve some forms of stratification, only with the development of state-based systems do wide differences in wealth and power arise. The most distinctive form of stratification in modern societies involves class divisions.
Social structure
Patterns of interaction between individuals or groups. Social life does not happen in a random fashion. Most of our activities are structured: they are organized in a regular and repetitive way. Although the comparison can be misleading, it is handy to think of the social structure of a society as rather like the girders which underpin a building and hold it together.
Socialist feminism
The beliefs that women are treated as second-class citizens in patriarchal capitalist societies and that both the ownership of the means of production and women’s social experience need to be transformed because the roots of women’s oppression lie in the total economic system of capitalism. Socialist feminists have criticized some socialists’ gender-blind understanding of class.
Socialization
The social processes through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values, and achieve a distinct sense of self. Although socialization processes are particularly significant in infancy and childhood, they continue to some degree throughout life. No human individuals are immune from the reactions of others around them, which influence and modify their behaviour at all phases of the life cycle.
Socialization of nature
The process by which we control phenomena regarded as ‘natural’, such as reproduction.
Society
The concept of society is one of the most important of all sociological notions. A society is a system of structured social relationships connecting people together according to a shared culture. Some societies, like those of hunters and gatherers, are very small, numbering no more than a few dozen people. Others are very large, involving many millions – modern Chinese society, for instance, has a population of more than a billion individuals.
Sociological imagination
The application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. The sociological imagination involves one in ‘thinking oneself away’ from the familiar routines of day-to-day life.
Sociology of the body
The branch of sociology that focuses on how our bodies are affected by social influences. Health and illness, for instance, are determined by social and cultural influences.
Sociology of deviance
The branch of sociology concerned with the study of deviant behaviour and with understanding why some behaviour is identified as deviant.
Sociology
The study of human groups and societies, giving particular emphasis to the analysis of the industrialized world. Sociology is one of a group of social sciences, which also includes anthropology, economics, political science and human geography. The divisions between the various social sciences are not clear-cut, and all share a certain range of common interests, concepts and methods.
Soil degradation
The process by which the quality of the earth is worsened and its valuable natural elements are stripped away through over-use, drought or inadequate fertilization.
Solidarity
For Durkheim, the internal forces of social cohesion. More generally, a term often used by the left to describe the political consciousness of an emerging class struggling against oppression – e.g. working-class solidarity.
Source
A publication, passage from a publication, or other information that is referred to.
Sovereignty
The title to supreme power of a monarch, leader or government over an area with a clear-cut border.
Standard deviation
A way of calculating the spread of a group of figures.
State
A political apparatus (government institutions, plus civil service officials) ruling over a given territory, with an authority backed by law and the ability to use force. Not all societies are characterized by the existence of a state. Hunting and gathering cultures, and smaller agrarian societies, lack state institutions. The emergence of the state marks a distinctive transition in human history, because the centralization of political power involved in state forma-tion introduces new dynamics into processes of social change.
State-centred theory
Development theories that argue that appropriate government policies do not interfere with economic development, but rather can play a key role in bringing it about.
Status
The social honour or prestige accorded to a person or a particular group by other members of a society. Status groups normally involve distinct styles of life – patterns of behaviour which the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or negative. ‘Pariah’ status groups are regarded with disdain, or treated as outcasts, by the majority of the population.
Status set
An individual’s group of social statuses.
Stereotype
A fixed and inflexible characterization of a group of people.
Stigma
Any physical or social characteristic believed to be demeaning.
Structuration
The two-way process by which we shape our social world through our individual actions and are ourselves reshaped by society.
Subculture
Any segment of the population which is distinguishable from the wider society by its cultural pattern.
Suburbanization
The development of suburbia, areas of low-rise housing outside inner cities.
Surplus value
In Marxist theory, the value of an individual’s labour power which is ‘left over’ when an employer has repaid the cost involved in hiring a worker.
Surveillance society
A society in which individuals are regularly watched and their activities documented. The spread of video cameras on motorways, in streets and shopping centres is one aspect of the expansion of surveillance.
Surveillance
The supervising of the activities of some individuals or groups by others in order to ensure compliant behaviour.
Survey
A method of sociological research usually involving the administration of questionnaires to a population being studied, and the statistical analysis of their replies to find patterns or regularities.
Sustainable development
The notion that economic growth should proceed only in so far as natural resources are recycled rather than depleted, biodiversity is maintained, and clean air, water and land are protected.
Sweatshop
A derogatory term for a factory or shop in which employees work long hours for low pay under poor conditions.
Symbol
One item used to stand for or represent another – as in the case of a flag which symbolizes a nation.
Symbolic interactionism
A theoretical approach in sociology developed by Mead, which places strong emphasis on the role of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction.

T

Taliban
A fundamentalist Islamic militia; by 1996 the Taliban controlled Afghanistan and set up an Islamic government that enforced a strict Muslim code of behaviour. They were overthrown by an American- led international coalition in 2001 after being linked to groups responsible for the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Talk
The carrying on of conversations or verbal exchanges in the course of dayto- day social life. Increasingly this has been seen as a subject for scrutiny by sociologists, particularly ethnomethodologists.
Target hardening
Crime deterrence techniques that aim to make it more difficult for crime to take place through direct interventions into potential crime situations. Steering locks in cars, for example, are required in some areas in order to reduce the attractiveness of car theft.
Taylorism
A set of ideas, also referred to as ‘scientific management’, developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor, according to which productivity could be immensely increased by breaking down industrial tasks into a series of simple operations that could be precisely timed and optimally coordinated.
Technology
The application of knowledge to production from the material world. Technology involves the creation of material instruments (such as machines) used in human interaction with nature.
Telecommunications
The communication of information, sounds or images at a distance through a technological medium.
Thatcherism
The doctrines associated with the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. These doctrines emphasize the importance of economic enterprise coupled to a cutback in the reach of the state, while maintaining a core role for strong national government.
Theism
A belief in a god or gods.
Theoretical questions
Questions posed by the sociologist when seeking to explain a particular range of observed events. The asking of theoretical questions is crucial to allowing us to generalize about the nature of social life.
Theory
An attempt to identify general properties that explain regularly observed events. Theories form an essential element of all sociological works. While theories tend to be linked to broader theoretical approaches, they are also strongly influenced by the research results they help generate.
Theory of broken windows
The idea that there is a connection between the appearance of disorder, such as a broken window or vandalism, and actual crime.
Third age
The years in later life when people are free from both parenting responsibilities and the labour market. In contemporary societies, the third age is longer than ever before, allowing older people to live active and independent lives.
Third way politics
A political philosophy, pioneered by New Labour and favoured by other centrist democratic leaders, that is committed to preserving the values of socialism while endorsing market policies for generating wealth and dispelling economic inequality.
Third World
The less developed societies, in which industrial production is either virtually non-existent or only developed to a limited degree. The majority of the world’s population live in Third World countries.
Total institutions
A term popularized by Erving Goffman to refer to facilities such as asylums, prisons and monasteries that impose on their residents a forcibly regulated system of existence in complete isolation from the outside world.
Totemism
A system of religious belief which attributes divine properties to a particular type of animal or plant.
Transnational corporations
Business corporations located in two or more countries. Even when TNCs have a clearnational base, they are oriented to global markets and global profits.
Triangulation
The use of multiple research methods as a way of producing more reliable empirical data than is available from any single method.

U

Underclass
A class of individuals situated right at the bottom of the class system, often composed of people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Unemployment
Rates of unemployment measure the proportion of people who are ‘economically active’ and available for work but cannot get a paid job. A person who is ‘out of work’ is not necessarily unemployed in the sense of having nothing to do. Housewives, for instance, don’t receive any pay, but they usually work very hard.
Unfocused interaction
Interaction occurring among people present in the same setting but where they are not engaged in direct face-to-face communication.
Universal benefits
Welfare benefits that are available equally to all citizens, regardless of level of income or economic status. Access to the National Health Service in Britain is an example of a universal benefit, as all Britons have the right to use it on an ongoing basis for regular healthcare.
Upper class
A social class broadly composed of the more affluent members of society, especially those who have inherited wealth, own large businesses or hold large numbers of stocks and shares.
Urban ecology
An approach to the study of urban life based on an analogy with the adjustment of plants and organisms to the physical environment. According to ecological theorists, the various neighbourhoods and zones within cities are formed as a result of natural processes of adjustment on the part of urban populations as they compete for resources.
Urban recycling
The refurbishing of deteriorating neighbourhoods by encouraging the renewal of old buildings and the construction of new ones on previously developed land, rather than extending out to fresh sites.
Urban renewal
Reviving deteriorating neighbourhoods by such processes as recycling land and existing buildings, improving the urban environment, managing local areas better and with the participation of local citizens, and using public funds both to regenerate the area and to attract further private investment.
Urbanism
A term used by Louis Wirth to denote distinctive characteristics of urban social life, such as its impersonality.
Urbanization
The development of towns and cities.

V

Values
Ideas held by human individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good or bad. Differing values represent key aspects of variations in human culture. What individuals value is strongly influenced by the specific culture in which they happen to live.
Variable
A dimension along which an object, individual or group may be categorized, such as income or height, allowing specific comparisons with others or over time.
Vertical mobility
Movement up or down a hierarchy of positions in a social stratification system.
Victimization studies
Surveys aimed at revealing the proportion of the population that has been victimized by crime during a certain period. Victim surveys attempt to compensate for the ‘dark figure of unreported crime’ by focusing directly on people’s actual experience of crime.

W

Welfare capitalism
Practice in which large corporations protect their employees from the vicissitudes of the market.
Welfare dependency
A situation where people on welfare, such as those receiving unemployment benefit, treat this as a ‘way of life’ rather than attempting to secure a paid job.
Welfare state
A political system that provides a wide range of welfare benefits for citizens.
White-collar crime
Criminal activities carried out by those in white-collar or professional jobs.
Work
The activity by which human beings produce from the natural world and so ensure their survival. Work should not be thought of exclusively as paid employment. In traditional cultures, there was only a rudimentary monetary system, and very few people worked for money payments. In modern societies, there remain many types of work, including housework, which do not involve direct payment of wages or salary.
Working class
A social class broadly composed of people involved in blue-collar or manual occupations.
World-accommodating movement
A religious movement that emphasizes the importance of inner religious life and spiritual purity over worldly concerns.
World-affirming movement
A religious movement that seeks to enhance followers’ ability to succeed in the outside world by helping them to unlock their human potential.
World-rejecting movement
A religious movement that is exclusive in nature, highly critical of the outside world, and demanding of its members.
World-systems theory
Pioneered by Immanuel Wallerstein, this theory emphasizes the interconnections among countries based on the expansion of a capitalist world economy. This economy is made up of core countries, semi-peripheral countries and peripheral countries.

Z

Zero tolerance policing
An approach to crime prevention and control that emphasizes the ongoing process of maintaining order as the key to reducing serious crime. In targeting petty crime and minor disturbances, zero tolerance policing reflects the principles underlying the theory of broken windows.