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Social and cultural influences on personal identity
Social and cultural influences on personal identity
Social and cultural influences on personal identity
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The field of sociology is intimately tied to the debate between structure and agency. To what extent are actor’s actions are determined by institutional or social pressures and how much autonomy do actors actually have in navigating these limitations in making decisions? The life course perspective introduces the aspect of time, arguing that the “interdependence” (Heinz et al., 2009, p. 16) of institutions and individuals have to be considered in the context of historical conditions, both past and present. Such a perspective would allow for a greater appreciation of the complexity and connectedness of factors involved in understanding life trajectories on top of structural relationships of causality. This essay will make use of Lareau’s ethnographic
Annette Lareau opens her book with two chapters to give the reader an idea of what the examples she gives will detail. One of the chapters introduces the different parenting styles she researches, while the other breaks down the social structure and daily life. She then separates the book into three parts: the organization of daily life, language use, and families and institutions. For such families, “sustaining children’s natural growth is viewed as an accomplishment” (Lareau 34).
Kennedy, M., Zusman, M.E., Schacht, C., Knox, D. (2003). The dancer’s gift: Sociology in life. USA: McGraw-Hill’s Custom publishing.
In the works “Sociology as a Passion to Understand”, written by Berger, and “The Sociological Imagination”, written by Mills, sociology encourages us to examine how our personal lives connect with the larger world. While Berger and Mills both support that the sociologist must fully commit to their work, they have differing opinions concerning why the sociologist behaves the way that they do. The sociological perspective introduced by Berger is supported by Mills’ foundation of the sociological imagination. For sociology to satisfy both the ordinary citizen and the sociologist it requires not only an in-depth inquiry of society and social relations, but a broader view of how society and social relations influence and reflect individuals.
‘Society makes and remakes people, but society is also made and remade by the multiple connections and disconnections between people, and between people, places and things’ (Havard, 2014, p.67).
In Essentials of Cultural Anthropology, the book defines ethnography as “a written account of how a single human population lives” (Bailey & Peoples, 2014, p. 8). It seems to be such a simple definition to the multiple levels needed to make a successful ethnography as shown by Douglas Raybeck in Mad Dogs, Englishmen, and the Errant Anthropologist. These multiple levels of ethnographic methods include problems that often arise, the assimilation into a culture, and the many different ways of perceiving culture. This method of study is particularly unique to the social sciences because of the extensive amount of assimilation one does in order to interpret a society's culture. There is the need for a year-long period--occasionally even longer--
The academic essay, “The Social Foundations of Human Experience”, by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann written in 1966 is an interesting take on the socialization of human beings. It provides a myriad of information and ideas promoting readers to think about how socialization, as well as social structures effect both society and individual beings. The authors argue that human beings experience life based on the socialization process and their innate abilities to interact with each other. Society operates in a distinct way, based on human activity and human interaction. Through examining our course content and reading the essay I have found that the Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann
Habitus is the ongoing collection of experiences informing future action in a person. It is both the internal principle informing their practices, as well as the lens through which they ‘make sense’ of external social structure. Most importantly, it is enduring, but not static or permanent (Wacquant 2005). Habitus bridges static notions such as ‘class’, as individuals exposed to like stimuli and conditioning will share a like habitus, but may be dissimilar in terms of socio-economic status, to give one
Social structure has shaped the characteristics and the aspirations of Melvin Affandy, an Indonesian studying in University of Washington. Sometimes people fail to see that the identity of a person is subjected to his/her societal background. This is the result of people not having a quality of mind (sociological imagination) which disconnects their understanding of the tight relationship between social structure and what the person has become. Hence, I am going to analyse my subject from his societal background. By doing an interview, I extracted a statement describing how he perceives himself. These statements, if analysed, indicates how the social structure around Melvin has impacted him this way. In this paper, I am going to discuss about
Social constructs can be a debilitating influence upon an individual’s life. The propaganda the construct spews through positioning the individual in a hierarchal system is sometimes met with opposition and other times taken as fact. When met with opposition, the construct can motivate one to aspire to become more than the construct would permit. And, on the occasions that the construct is believed it is used as confirmation of a self-denigrating idea. The negative affect is that it creates permanence where a potentially temporary condition exists. James Kelman's story, posits that although social constructs are created to keep a group in place, it is the belief in the construct that perpetuates the cycle of oppression, propagates the lie and brings it to reality.
Giddens theorizes that structure and agency are a duality that cannot exist apart from one another. Human practices create both their consciousness and society. Because individuals make up society’s activities and structural conditions, they can choose to change it. Giddens calls this relationship between knowledge and practices the double hermeneutic. The daily routines and practices of individuals interacting with each other is what shape society. The actors have power over their actions, but the consequences are often unpredictable, allowing for change. Structure is defined by the rules and resources of society but without the human factor it cannot exist (Sociological Theory | Chapter 15 Chapter Summary, 2004). In contrast, he argues that “an actor ceases to be an agent if he or she loses the power to make a difference” (Ritzer, 2011, p 523).
Briefly discuss how progress through stages can be facilitated or inhibited by social structures, institutions, policies, and practices with special attention to consciousness raising and expanding readings in last part of semester.
Throughout history, our society’s socialization, or lifelong social experiences, has been debated upon quite vigorously. It is quite evident that we all obtain certain characteristics and abilities through heredity factors, but many still argue that this is not the only explanation for how our lives are determined. The argument of nature versus nurture is still being discussed by many, although both have been seen to have an impact on our life experiences.
history, was intrinsically linked to the current situation of both the individual and the society in which they exist. Mills directly stated that “no social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history and of their intersections within a society has completed its intellectual journey” (p. 6). According to Mills, not overcoming the hurdles presented by such an intersection severely limited the features of the social reality that has been examined, and therefore severely impaired the efficacy of programs designed to raise up the social structure as a whole. An individual concerned with preserving the legitimacy and efficacy of their work in improving the existing social structure must therefore ask 3 questions according to Mills’ framework. These questions are elaborated upon within the following
Sociology has come a long way since it first began, with new discoveries and a better understanding of how society functions as a whole. Scientists are able to see how the behaviours of each individual helps us to further our knowledge about its origins and development. However, there are still a number of aspects of sociology that are up for debate. One of these topics is the primacy of structure and agency in influencing in human behaviour. Structure is defined as the designed arrangements which impacts or limits the decisions and opportunities available. Agency is referred as the capability of individuals to act by themselves and make their own choices free of influence (Duffy and Mandell, 2011: 357). The debate between structure and agency can be looked at as an issue of socialization against self-rule in determining if people work as a free agent or if they work in a manner that is managed by social structure.
The first being the emancipation of women where the entry of women into the labor force, it means that more women can delay marriage, and this can also be seen through the rise of the average age marriage of Asian women (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division, 2000), and women can support themselves, terminate a marriage if it does not work out, or even buy their own properties. Finding a marriage partner is no longer economically necessary for women everywhere these days. Another factor mentioned was the communication revolution, where living alone does not mean the end of communication, or leads to a solitary experience. In fact the solitary life is seen as a respite from the hyperconnectedness as some of the interviewees mentioned. The advent of the Internet and other communication technologies, have allowed people all around the world to stay connected, and have changed how we interact with each other (Hans, 2004). The third factor mentioned in the book is urbanization, where the cities provide an enclave of similar minded people who share similar interests, gather together to live together alone. It offers the singleton a form of support system, which helps to perpetuate this trend of living alone. The fourth factor being longevity where people are living longer lives, and with women outliving men most of the time. He mentions that it is not uncommon for people to spend the last part of their lives living alone. This point is especially salient in the Asian context, where there has been a marked trend in the increase of elderly living alone (Jamieson & Simpson, 2013). Klinenberg contends that until recently, the focus of policies and mindset was always on family and community. However he argues that people’s lifestyles have significantly changed