Contemporary Sociology: Setting Up the Culture vs. Structure

Debate: Culture Agenda

Objective:1. To understand the core

elements of modern sociological research.

2. To understand the current debate over culture and structure in modern sociology.

3. To understand culture and its effect on individual and social behavior.

Schedule: 1. Intro to modern sociology2. Culture and Culture Activity

Homework:1.

Research Paper Research Question and Hypothesis Due Thurs 11/8

Two Perspectives in Modern Sociology

• Modern day sociologists tend to be divided over what they see as the primary “shaper” of human behavior:– Culture– Structure– (The interaction between

the two)?• Within each of the subfields we

study we will see different sociologists adopting either a cultural or structural perspective to study issues like race, class, gender, etc.

Culture• Generally speaking we

might define culture as:– A set of shared attitudes,

values, goals, and practices that characterize a group.

• Culture is reflected in:– Ways of Thinking– Ways of Acting– Material Objects

“American Culture”

• Is there an American Culture?

• What are its characteristics?– Ways of Thinking– Ways of Acting– Material Objects

• How does American Idol reflect American Culture?

Culture as Habitus• In contemporary sociology, culture takes on a slightly more

nuanced definition.• Sociologists speak of culture as habitus

– Term coined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the 1970s.• Habitus refers to the idea of culture as it exists in us and as

shaped by our membership in certain groups (for example race and class).

• Habitus refers to a set of tastes, dispositions, and attitudes that we each hold as a result of our status positions.– For example, members of the intellectual elite often prefer the

ballet while members of the middle class prefer to attend sporting events.

– These taste differences that vary by class are examples of habitus.

Culture as Determinant of Human Behavior

• Sociologists who see culture as the primary determinant of human behavior thus argue that our tastes, attitudes, preferences derived from our membership in certain

groups are what motivate our behavior.

Understanding The Effect of Culture on

Behavior Through an Examination of Baby

Names

Culture Activity

• Part One:– Share with the person sitting next to

you the story of how you got your first name. Why did your parents name you what they did?

Culture Activity

• Part Two– Go to the website:

• http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames• Under the “Popularity of a Name” Section

enter your name, sex, and “25” in the “number of years box”

• Make a rough graph of the results (perhaps graph the 5 years before you were born through the 5 years after you were born).

Understanding Culture with Baby Names

• What do your findings about your name reveal about the effects of culture of behavior?

• What might your name suggest about the power of habitus?– How might status positions (race, class) influence name preferences.

Understanding Culture with Baby Names

• Stanley Lieberson in A Matter of Taste (2000) suggests that parents balance the desire to have a unique name for their child with the desire to not have a name that is wildly divergent from the rest of children in their culture (American culture, racial cultures, class cultures).

• However, parents want their child to be recognized as special or as a unique human being, so they also don’t want to name their child something too generic or too common.

• What emerges from this naming process is a trend: Many names go in and out of fashion; trending up in popularity and then back down depending on shifts in culture:– Ex: Edward, Jacob, and Bella from Twighlight

The “Special Case” of African American Names

• Salon article• How might the the

uniqueness of African American naming, ironically not be unique at all, but rather represent an action done to signal membership in (and conformity to) a culture?

• Again, culture may shape behaviors even in situations where names are 100% unique…