want your chapter paper posted?

Here's Nikkole's chapter paper on Goffman. Send yours for (possible) posting to both dreamwalker936@gmail.com & mtabor@calstatela.edu bring hard copy to class.

I've been having a problem with the terminology of Bergers sacred Canopy or its just I don't understand it enough to find it interesting. So I have been looking for a dumb down explanation of it but have yet been able to find one. I was wondering if by chance anybody could give me tips on the theory. thank you

Let's have CHAPTER discussions pertinent to TODAY

• CREDIT CARTOON: the credit crisis in 10 min CLICK to Part I . . CLICK to Part II Is this data for "conflict theory" or for "consensus theory" - symbolic interactionism? "rational choice!?" or exchange theory?
• Here's the guy who went wild on TV at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ... Now watch another guy trying to stay calm about "all that" and the yelling watch the White House response ... Bottom line: contract law should be sacred Is that exchange theory? Conflict or "interest" theory? SI? What would Erving Goffman say about that? Did Santelli puncture a "sacred canopy?" Did he do a Garfinkelian "breaching"?
• Me-I-We-Change box - does your thinker fit in? Remember AGIL - AIGL
• Did Pres Obama's speech support symbolic interactionism? Did he do some? Was it about exchange? Rational choice? Intersectionality?
• all jump in with insights, questions, observations, video, music, diagrams-even judgements and assessments - of the value, distraction, or essence of this style of thought. Those w chapter "responsibility" view YouTubes on S.I. , Exchange Theory, Rational Choice Theory - bring the BEST.

intersectionality

Good on DreamWalker to post on intersectionality, below. Watch this MLK video. On our intersectionality discussions: they must be constant, they will make some uncomfortable as did MLKs peaceful resistance events, but--to follow Dr. King--we can discuss with the great power of love. ... more video resources on sex, race, class.

More on Genderization of Race... and then some.

I wanted to further explain the genderization of race from what I've learned from my Sociology of Marriage and Relationships and Sociology of Asian Americans courses.

[I decided I needed to learn about my heritage since I knew absolutely nothing about Asians other than what my family had, nearly all my friends are Mexican, Black, White or some mix of these three; my "black" friend is actually half white and sternly states that she is white].

Let's start off with a few bases:
-There was were historical contexts that were brought up to make the point. For example slave owners would make African female slaves do all the hard manual labor but would never allow white females to do any hard labor in order to "show" that they were better. Since both men and women labored in the fields, there was not separation in gender like the white slave owners, thus in comparison culturally, there was a masculinization of the female gender in the context of Black Americans. There were other factors mentioned like the stereotype of single mothers and "strong, loud, women" in the Black community. This stereotype was probably formed from this historical context.
-Another historical account from the Asian perspective, other than the more widely known railroad working men, Asian women were being bought and transported from China with promises of a great life only to find that they've been sold into sexual slavery because they were in "high demand" due to the idea they were the "ultimate" in femininity. Again, there are echoes of this past in today's society with the stereotype that Asians are quiet and subservient. Here, instead of a masculinization of females there's a hyper-feminization of females.

With these historical contexts set, I bring up the case mentioned in class about the Asian woman shooting the Black girl. There is a huge play of gender roles here but hidden in color. If it were between a man and a woman, who would have the more severe punishment?

As for the issue of gay men in the context of race, the issues of feminization of race or masculinization I should rephrase the question, "Is it more ok to be gay if you're Asian, Black, Caucasian, or Latino?" through the eyes of stereotypes, of course. [Keep in mind you may not see it the same way because of your background in higher education]
Here, the feminization of Asians, males are faced with the stereotypes of nerds, being super smart, quiet, and unable to lead... All these "submissive" female qualities are linked to being gay, but at the same time there is "no such thing as a lesbian Asian" and thus this invisibility to a subgroup.
Whereas, it's the other way around when it comes to Blacks, my professor posed the question in a stereotypical context, "Have you ever heard of a gay black man?" another inivisble subgroup.

Along with this there is the stereotyping of penis size? The larger the penis the more masculine one is, right?

Anyone notice how all of these stereotypes of masculinity and femininity fall along the color lines as well?

She also mentioned white privilege as well and how she uses it not only to get away with speeding on the freeway, but to try and break stereotypes and advance other people of color, sexual orientations, etc.

My thoughts were a bit mixed up when I was asking, "Is it more ok to be White and Gay or Asian and Gay?" What I really wanted to point out there [having maybe 5 thoughts linked to that statement] was with White privilege, being gay in the White community is more "accepted" than it would be in any others. With white privilege, my professor was stating, comes the ideology that if you're White you can do or be anything you want without stereotypes that limit like, "I'm Asian so I'm a bad driver." This is what is termed internalized racism, where any particular race will incorporate the stereotypical characteristics of that race and use it to justify their own actions.

Anywho, with the issue of white privilege, the prevelance of this paradigm makes for another invisible group, the low-income and under priveleged white. Which also brings to mind also, low income Asians ["because Asians are rich too"] also an invisible group, both of these at least in the context of stereotypes. What didn't conclude in class tonight, or with the realization, that this is more of an issue of class rather than issues of race. We have the upper class, which is predominantly rich, white, heterosexual men controlling us all like puppets by making us fight amongst ourselves so that we would never turn our attention towards them. Again, if you walk the walk, talk the talk, look the look, and act rich then you must be rich. We can't say it's just race and white privilege, we have to look at things from a multidimensional perspective to see what else is going on.

One lens isn't good enough for me, give me all the glasses and lenses of the world for me to look through, including my own! I get bored with just one way of looking at things. :-p

For those with an interest in Spirituality

Seems like most of the class is interested in some aspects of spirituality. You may enjoy this..

Latent functions - the twist of social paradox

• The manifest function of the law is to prevent transgression; the latent function of the law is to create transgressors.
• The manifest function of marriage is to form lasting unions of mid-level* support among adults and children; the latent function of marriage is to break those unions. The break comes from the insistence upon fidelity and mutual support, two ideals which are not always honored.
• The manifest function of social stratification is to parcel people into jobs that need to be done to maintain a group; the latent function of social stratification is to maintain class differences in distribution of social capital and thereby weaken the supply of the right individuals for jobs. Opportunity structures are family-filtered and strangle supply routes for individuals to positions.
• The manifest function of religion is to stop and calm people and unite them in peace with the force that is bigger than all of us and keeps the cosmic ecology intact; the latent function of religion is to divide people in groups that "think" they are better or that the other is worse. To be a group - to unite with some - is to divide from others. Think gangs.
• The manifest function of a democracy is to concentrate the will of the people into a small number of vessels (legislators) so that they can publically exchange ideas and make decisions; the latent function of a democracy is to control the masses of people through control of the legislators by the few so that their will rather than that of the people is done. When representatives become targets, some will fall.
• The manifest function of a formal organization with a reporting structure is to pursue its goal (e.g., manufacture something, make profit); the latent function of an organization with a reporting structure, particularly a large organization with a heavily bureaucratized authority structure, is to create entropy and to permit or disguise waste and corruption.
• The latent function of rationality is irrationality. think Pi.
• The latent function of overpopulation (population density) is population reduction through chaos and breakdown. (natural disasters, mass layoffs, divorce)
• The latent function of "the news" is to create fiction.
• The manifest function of distinguishing between manifest and latent functions is to clarify; the latent function of the distinction is to blur and blend social institutions into the complex and magical fabric of social life.

*mid-level: the "family" unit exists between the individual and the collective.

Lyotard

I found these two quotes by Leotard to be very interesting:
"Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be vaporised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange."
"One can decide that the principal role of knowledge is as an indispensable element in the functioning of society, and act in accordance with that decision, only if one has already decided that society is a giant machine."

Talk about doing gender...

I also heard that the Bisu do not necessarily have to be homosexual in order to be Bisu, they just have male and female qualities in balance. I'm assuming Bisu can be either male or female, just embodying male and female traits.

Movie choices

Check out this list compiled by the Writing Class. http://writingsoc.blogspot.com/2009/01/combined-movie-list.html Our class could have a lively discussion around the sociology in a movie.
2-12: I moved this up, by date - let's find a movie to view next week.
Only 17 people out of 47 voted, so I am using my executive priviledge to pick the movie. I had to time them to see what fit into our time slot. I, too, voted for Strangelove, so you could say it only got 3 student votes. It might leave some high and dry ... and I really like the descriptions of the Spike Lee movie ... Ghandi is far too long ... Debaters is great, but all in Writing just saw it and wrote about it ... so ... Spike Lee it is. We should all be able to relate. ~ Edited 2/18 8:30 am

Freedom

Have you ever sat down and thought about having freedom? whether it is at home, at work, at school, on the street or even just the illusion of what it means to be free? It did not occur to me that i have so much freedom in this country than what my parents had in their country when they were growing up until we had the discussion in class on Thursday. i can honestly say that i take allot of the things that America offers its people for granted. i have freedom of speech, religion, thought, sexual preference, education, so on so forth. I'm sure other countries have their own "freedom" rights, but America seems to cover all the ones that directly matter to a citizen. sure there are flaws in our constitution and some of the things do not make sense to us, because it was written so long ago, but it touches on allot of things other countries do not even consider to be a right for a citizen. the bill of rights amends all the rights i listed above plus many others. I'm lucky to live in this country and be able to express all the things that matter to me freely.

Midterm quiz instructions

You have 3 pages (~ 1.5 pages each question). It is due, typed, Thursday class time.
Scantron part the following week.
Do a good job being a Sociologist. There are no "correct" answers - but there will be more or less creative, insightful, helpful, organized, and responsible papers. Use the thinkers and thoughts that we have discussed to illuminate your thinking and to create your "case". Each question has options for answers: You pick the letter (A B C, etc.) you choose to defend as the best answer - and also rank the others. Explain your ranking, too. It's up to you as to how you divide up the 1.5 pages you get per question - whether more space to the top choice answer or more space to the lesser ranked answers. All the answers are correct. Your job is to make your answers come to life as young Sociologists.

Mid term: Qs & instructions

questions http://theory414.blogspot.com/2009/01/quiz.html
how-to http://theory414.blogspot.com/2009/02/midterm-quiz-instructions.html
Mon 3:30 - 4:10 in KH Lecture Hall 1: to launch the Sociology on-line journal - a place for you to publish your writing.

Questions: pick 2 out of 6

1. What is the central question of Sociology?
A. What is society? If so, what is it?
B. What holds society together: conflict or consensus?
C. Sociology asks: How can we classify and divide people up for understanding? What does classificatory division do? What is the latent function of rationality?
D. Sociology is an assortment of intersectional questions such as: all the categories that people tell you that you are in: black, white, brown, man, woman, rich, poor, immigrant, gay, straight - all these identities you have been given and you accept. Patricia Collins chapter might help you on "intersections." C.Wright Mills first used the word 'intersection' in The Sociological Imagination
E. How do we fix things? I.e., what goes wrong and/or what do we want?

2. A century - a time, an era, an administration - has a mission (Goal) and a manner (Latent Pattern Maintenance). What is ours? What is our mission, our way of carrying out that mission?
A. It is a time of change - and we don't know what is happening.
B. A moment in history when we will re-establish the meaning of being human, which is what America is.
C. Our time is about the growth and perpetuation of consumer society and our failure to understand our place in history: we buy in to our own oppression. What we do supports our oppressors. Education is the route out.
D. People just come together and work it all out.
E. Technology and rationality vie with magic: ways of thinking, ways of being are constrained because they exist "against" some other way. Culture and cultural awareness is heightened. Anything goes.

3. The power elite
A. Assumes a power outside me
B. Is correct - but so what
C. Was coined by C. Wright Mills, a popular Sociologist of the mid 20th Century
D. Consists of Military, Economic, and Politically blurred puppets, personalities, and veiled powerful phenomena
E. Are forces far greater than Sociologists see, such as population growth, number, energy systems, gender transformations, free will, creativity, order, desire, and God.

4. What thinkers go best with what quotes on www.sorenkerk.com home page (like a "match 'em" type question)
A.
B.
C.

5. Married to the soul of Gaia, Saved by the symmetry of heaven. Re-read the piece on "Romanticism" here: http://www.stuartwildeblog.com/perceptions/2009/1/30/romanticism.html
A. This line "Married to the soul of Gaia, Saved by the symmetry of heaven" is an example of Romanticism - Marx might call it an opiate for us, the masses - plus Classicism, which all the early Sociologists were inadvertantly expressing with their desire to find a unified theory
B. This 'poem' helps to express the distinction between macro and micro sociology
C. The difference between Macro and Micro Sociology rests in large part on Mead's understanding of the "I" and "Me" in the emergent self. (option provided by "eve")
D. You may make up your own option, as "eve" did in C above.

6. As Sociologists, is it our goal to learn for the sake of enlightenment and provoking thoughts in the minds of those who will change the world or are we changing the world simply by understanding and embracing it?
A. Understading is the mirror of change-Mead would argue it's both understanding and change, because as reflexive beings by changing ourselves we are slowly changing society-the world, melding new me-Is, balancing play and game.
B. This is the argument of the Marco versus the Micro Sociological theorists.
C. Marx would say it is foolish to understand and embrace a world that does not fufill our needs, therefore the only objective is change! And change will be quick, bold, and possibly violent, for controllers naturally go towards more control, not less.
D. Sociologists' goals of enlightenment or change can never be fufilled because sociologists' theories are tainted by our own glasses. (this excellent question #6 provided by "eve")

Reflecting on todays class..........

I've been able to travel to a couple third world countries in my life, I wasn't able to fullyappreciate the experience due to personal reasons and I would like to someday go back so I can really appreciate it, but was able to realize that we are verrrrry blessed to live in America. I think the ideals our country was built on are beautiful, we've done pretty shitty at times in our history in reaching these ideals, but all the same the ideals are beautiful. What makes the way this country is built, great is that we have the right to speak our minds, instigate change, rebel, revolt, protest, which in a lot of countries they don't have. I also think as Americans we are spoiled. We are whining about not being able to pay our credit card bills (which does suck) while there are children in other countries who are starving, living in war, and according to Ty in class, getting their heads bashed in by rocks. We have it pretty lucky!!! I know I'm kind of an idealist, but I like to think everything in life happens for a reason even if we don't know the what the reason is at the time. I think maybe our country is going through this economic crisis (I say going through because I believe our country will get through this) because as a country we need a change in conciousness, so we realize what's reallllly important.

Database: Track Bailout $$$$

I found this thing on LA Times that's tracking the bailout money: http://www.latimes.com/la-fi-tarp-database,0,6602720.htmlstory

Midterm quiz type

no one commented on the idea of having a creative take-home mid term rather than a Scantron type midterm. http://theory414.blogspot.com/2009/01/quiz.html These would be answered creatively with written responses.