Sociology

In 1886, Charles Booth conducted one of the first systematic, statistical surveys of poverty across London. He defined eight categories of people on the basis of their type and level of earnings, which he called social classes. Below a relative poverty line of 21s, per week, there were three categories: those living in ‘ordinary poverty’, ‘chronic want’, and ‘loafers’ or the ‘underclass’. Put together, these three groups represented 30.7% of the London population who were living in poverty. 737-739

The mass media have a significant role in representing and shaping people’s attitudes towards ‘immoral’ behaviour. The term ‘moral panic’ was introduced by Cohen (1972) to describe the way in which the media distort and exaggerate events, creating the idea that some groups or forms of behaviour are more problematic than they really are. Cohen gave the example of the mods and rockers of the 1960s, whom he said were represented as ‘folk devils’, generating social reactions of hostility. 384

Religions of ethnic protest emerge from multi-ethnic societies when an ethnic minority organizes to protest against its exclusion from participation in the wider society. An example of this is the Nation of Islam, which arose from the civil rights movement in the USA when many black people felt excluded from the ‘ethnic melting pot’ of the mid twentieth century. It involves a radical programme of black consciousness-raising, led initially by Malcolm X and more recently by Louis Farrakhan. 433-434

As an example of his methodological concept the ‘ideal type’, Weber defined the key features of bureaucracy, which is an important form of organization. These features included specialist expertise, proven by qualifications and training; a hierarchy of officials; impersonal, general rules; discipline (both self-imposed and externally imposed); regular salaries for employees, and security of employment for bureaucrats, through full time, permanent posts. 538-539

In order to explore the effects of culture and upbringing upon gender identity, Margaret Mead conducted an anthropological study of three different societies in New Guinea. Both the Arapesh and the Mundugamor people showed little gender differentiation in character: in the former case, men and women were gentle, caring and passive, while in the latter society, both genders were assertive and sexually aggressive. The Tchambuli society revealed more gender differences, but these were the reverse of the pattern found in Western societies. Mead said that this showed how gender identity was not biologically universal but rather socially shaped. 138-139

Feminist Standpoint theory developed as part of the ‘second wave’ of feminism in the 1970s and 80s. It is based on the idea that knowledge is gendered: men and women hold different views of the social world by virtue of their different experiences. Furthermore, these theorists argued that sociology had so far been ‘malestream’ in focusing on the positions of men, and that this balance needed to be redressed by doing more research on women’s lives. 61-62

As cities grew in size and became more functionally specialized, services became more centrally organized and centrally located, with residential areas concentrated in the suburbs. The ecological approach, pioneered in the Chicago School of the 1920s, focused on the ways in which specific social groups inhabited different areas of the city, as an urban environment. 503-505

The welfare state was introduced to Britain in 1948 following the publication of the Beveridge Report, which had identified serious social problems of poverty, unemployment, poor housing and so on. The welfare state was based on three key principles: full employment, universal welfare (through the introduction of National Insurance), and free health care and education for all. 593

In contemporary Western societies, it may be argued that some of the traditional gender divisions between men and women are becoming blurred. One example of this is the concept of the ‘new man’, discussed by Frank Mort. This was a feminized male identity, defined and promoted by the mass media in the 1980s. The new man was sensitive, emotional, non-aggressive, and concerned with his appearance. Tim Edwards suggests that this was also related to the rise of the male fashion industry at the time. 183

Although many feminist theorists have criticized the representation of women in the mass media, these representations are changing and the messages conveyed are not simply patriarchal. Soap operas have often been associated with female viewers, but in Pilcher’s terms, this can be empowering as well as constraining. She said that soap operas give women pleasure as they can identify with strong, independent female characters, although they are often depicted in ‘domestic’ roles. 377-378