Views of this Big Blue Ball

Sociology helps us begin to see that the world is a little bigger than our own perspective.

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

Map of Globalization of Starbucks and McDonalds

This graphic gives us a picture of the globalization of both Starbucks and McDonalds.  McDonaldization is the rationalization of our economy and really our society (Ritzer, p. 372).  Rationalization has several components: efficiency, predictability, calculability, substitution of non-human for human technology, and control over uncertainty (Ritzer, p. 372).  Starbucks is often joked about as being on every corner in NYC.  There are an awful lot of them.  McDonalds is the same way but even more spread out throughout the world. These are examples of predictability (Ritzer, p. 373).  We as consumers like to know that when we buy this coffee or this burger it is consistent and will be made the same way it is made in another Starbucks or McDonalds.

 This graphic also shows the globalization of a cup of Starbucks coffee and the fact that as many as 19 countries contributed to the making of one cup of coffee.  The graphic mentions that some of the poorest countries are connected to the wealthiest through this globalization.  There are some components of globalization that are good.  As long as a fair wage is paid, it is good to bring business to some of the poorer countries in our world, however, the job shift in our country has been more to technological jobs.  Some of the production workers here have to adjust or they no longer have job prospects.  This has not been a smooth transition for many.  Our economy has transitioned to a global economy.  This makes it more difficult for small businesses to compete with global entities like McDonalds or Starbucks.

 Resources:

Ritzer, G. (1983). The mcdonaldization of society. Journal of American Culture, 6(1), 100-107.

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

A Successful Sociologist Makes the Familiar Strange

In this Paradox Animation, Dalton Conley defines the sociological imagination and explains how to think like a sociologist.

My advice for doing well in Sociology 201 is to get organized.  This semester I printed my syllabus and put it in a small binder. This was very helpful for managing dates and keeping on top of what was coming due next.  I would highlight assignments as I completed them.  This helped me to not miss anything or let an assignment or quiz slide through the cracks.

My other suggestion is to do your reading and watch the lecture videos.  If you do these things, then you should do fine on the quizzes.  The quizzes are open book so sometimes putting tabs on key pages for easy access was helpful.

This class is challenging in the amount of work that is assigned but if you stay on top of things and not procrastinate, especially with projects such as the social norms project, you should be able to manage.  Just be prepared to work.

One thing I found to be very helpful was the discussion boards for advice.  The librarian and Dr. Jacobson are usually pretty quick to answer questions that are posted.  The librarian was great for advice on APA format.

Also, I rented the textbook from Amazon and never needed to use the online registration code.  If you have an opportunity to purchase this used or rent it, you should be fine if you don’t have a code.

Enjoy sociology!  It really is an interesting class and helps you see that the world is a little bigger than your own perspective.

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

Sociology is relevant to my life as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, nurse, teacher, and friend.  I wear many different hats. It is important to understand how our choices and actions may affect others.  It is also important to understand the background of people we interact with and how that has shaped and influenced them.

As a nurse, I need to keep in mind that when we meet people that have traumatic upbringings, they will relate to others in the context of their trauma.  It affects their socialization and they may not respond to cultural norms in the ways you would expect them to. It is also helpful as a professional to understand culture has an impact on how people relate to one another. Being culturally literate is an expectation of nurses. Sociology can tell us about other cultures and prevent us from being offensive unintentionally. It helps me meet my patient’s needs in other areas of life, not just medical.

As a parent reading research based on parenting models and how different approaches affects children is very helpful.  I am a homeschooling mom so understanding long term outcomes and potential weaknesses helps me prepare my children for their future role in their community. Sociology has looked at this deviant way of educating children and can help me meet their educational, social, and physical needs by helping me make wise informed decisions about their education.

Nursing school has had a lot of focus on cultural literacy and I see a lot of overlap between nursing, psychology, and sociology.  

Resources:

Brown fedora hat [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-fedora-hat-in-selective-focus-photography-35185/

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

How Americans Encounter, Recall and Act Upon Digital News

A unique study of Americans’ online news habits over the course of a week provides a detailed window into how Americans learn about current events in the digital age.

In this survey based research study by Pew Research Center, the researchers were looking at the way people get their news online (Mitchell, Gottfried, Shearer, & Lu, 2017).  Two times a day respondents were asked if they had read from an online news source within two hours.  If so, they were asked to complete a survey about the experience. This was a quantitative study because the researchers took the results of the surveys and were able to generate numerical statistics about the results (Conley, 2017, p. 47).

The study showed that most of the respondents in the 13,086 online news experiences use social media and direct visits to news organizations’ websites (Mitchell, et al., 2017). These two sources were about equally represented.   The study also showed that the majority of respondents have one source they like to use for news.

The study also looked at whether or not people took action after reading an online news article. Action would include sharing it with others though discussion, posting, or texting.  The study found that news articles shared from friends had the greatest likelihood of action being taken (Mitchell, et al., 2017).

Other interesting trends mentioned were that people use different venues for different types of news. Also, younger and older respondents all used news links but older respondents were more likely to know the source of their news (Mitchell, et al., 2017).

This study is important to sociologists because our world is becoming more and more digital.  It is important to understand where people get their information and what they do with it.  This is especially relevant for news organizations.

References:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: Norton.

Mitchell, A., Gottfried, J., Shearer, E., & Lu, K. (2017). How americans encounter, recall and act upon digital news. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/2017/02/09/how-americans-encounter-recall-and-act-upon-digital-news/#

[thehairiestfeminist]

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Mass media has so much control of how we “see” the world around us.  It is often clear that our media is a business and they need to “sell” to earn money.  The media will take us on a roller coaster ride.  For example, sexism in Hollywood has been around for a very long time.  The “casting couch”. Is a concept that has been known.  Somehow, we as a culture accepted this.  For some reason, the public uproar about sexism in Hollywood is happening now.  My personal theory is that media drives it. It is a hot button now and sells news for them.  It is getting a lot of coverage.

The image above spoke to me because of the hegemony of media (Conley, 2017 p. 95).  White people have the power in our country and of our media. You can see where coverage of certain mass shootings is done differently.  For instance, when the Las Vegas shooting occurred recently you didn’t hear him described as a terrorist yet it was a huge mass shooting.

The power of the media is scary to me.  I try to be informed but it is difficult to find reliable sources if you can’t get information first hand.  Social media and the internet have given us tons of information but knowledge is still a struggle.  You have to be vigilent and search carefully for reliable unbiased information.

 References:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: Norton.

[thaddeus-maximus]

I honestly have no idea how anyone learns to socialize in public (or private) schools.

You mash a thousand kids together

Segregate them by age and class

Consume 70% of their time

End up creating heirarchies and messiness of bullying and junk

And somehow think that by doing this, students will learn how to socialize when:

People AREN’T densely populated

People AREN’T segregated by age and class

People DON’T have all of their time tied up and instead have freedom

People AREN’T put into strict hierarchies, DON’T have repetetive bullying, and HAVE class mobility

Seriously, how would you expect that to happen? How is that an accurate simulation of the real world?

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

I don’t feel quite as strongly as this post may come across but as a homeschooling family the one comment and question we hear the most is the question of socialization.  I’ve always felt as I watch my children interact with the wide variety of people in their social sphere that their social experience is perhaps more authentic than the forced experience in public/private school. If socialization is the process that people learn social norms of their culture, then I would think that experiencing multiple aspects of that culture on a daily basis would be a good model for socialization (Conley, 2017, p. 119).  I’m not judging other people for making choices different than ours.  I don’t think homeschooling is for everyone but I do believe that my homeschooled children are getting a quality “socializing” experience.  They interact with children of all ages through the different co-ops we are a part of. They interact with multiple different social groups through, sports, scouts, homeschool groups, and church. They are comfortable talking to adults and young children.  They are not consumed with looking and acting the same as everyone else, which at least for me, was a pressure I felt and rebelled from when I was in public school.  They feel freer to be the individuals they are and are accepted by the other homeschoolers they interact with.  My children have received many complements for how well-spoken they are and how impressed people are with their ability to speak with adults.

Again, my post here is not to criticize or attack the socialization methods through schools, but to suggest that just because homeschoolers are socialized differently, it isn’t necessarily less valuable or successful.

References:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: Norton.

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester | Read Aloud Books for Children

Title: Tacky the Penguin Author & Illustrator: Helen Lester / Lynn Munsinger ___________________________________________________ ► Buy the book here: http://...

My children and I have always loved the book, Tacky the Penguin (1990).  Tacky is a penguin that doesn’t follow the social norms of his culture. He is a social deviant (Conley, 2017, p. 191).  The book lists him as an odd bird (1990).  He always has unique ways of behaving.  He sings differently, marches differently, dresses differently, dives differently, and talks differently.  In the beginning, Tacky is not accepted by his peers.  They are bothered by him.  Later in the book, his individualism and difference adds to their lives and he actually saves them.  They learn to appreciate him.

I find this book so sweet because it is a fun lesson that shows children that we don’t have to all look alike to be valuable.  We can be different and not follow the expectations of the social collective but still be acceptable.  This is such an important lesson for our children today.  As a country, we have been so divided but quietly divided. More recently after national elections our division has become louder and more out in the open.  In some ways, I am happy for this.  If it is out in the open it can be dealt with.

Deviance can be minor, like Tacky, or more serious such as criminal activity (Conley, 2017, p. 191). Some of the lifestyles in our culture that have previously been considered deviant but are becoming more normative is LGBQT, interracial relationships, and women working and holding professional positions.  The message in Tacky the Penguin is important for us all to accept one another for who we are when the deviance is just a lifestyle choice.  Of course when deviance causes harm to others, then it is time to take a stand and protect one another.

References:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: Norton.

Lester, H. (1990). Tacky the penguin. Boston: HMH Books for Young Readers.

[thesociologicalcinema]

“We live in a world where trained cops can panic and act on impulse but untrained civilians must remain calm with a gun in their face”

Photo credit: Does anyone know who took this picture, where it was taken, or when it was taken?

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

This picture struck me. Black Lives Matter is a social movement that started four years ago after Treyvon Martin was killed and then the Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.  Their website states their purpose as, “Black Lives Matter began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism. Our intention from the very beginning was to connect Black people from all over the world who have a shared desire for justice to act together in their communities. The impetus for that commitment was, and still is, the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state (What We Believe, 2017).”

 A lot of white people are uncomfortable with the Black Lives Matter movement.  Some of the more conservative media networks tend to show BLM in a violent light. Stating that the organization encourages rioting, violence, and anti-police.  I spent some time on their website.  They are calling blacks to come together and to oppose state sanctioned violence on blacks but I did not read anything on their site calling for action against the police or property.  It appears that the organization is working to use the media and legislation to try to improve the situation for blacks in the United States.  Their site also listed these accomplishments, “Organizers who call this network home have ousted anti-Black politicians, won critical legislation to benefit Black lives, and changed the terms of the debate on Blackness around the world. Through movement and relationship building, we have also helped catalyze other movements and shifted culture with an eye toward the dangerous impacts of anti-Blackness (What We Believe, 2017).”  There is also an entire section on their site about healing justice and the importance of healing in the black community so that traumas from history and today do not continue to be part of black culture (Healing Justice, 2017).

 Black Lives Matter is a social movement that has been birthed in recent years and continues to be organized and moving forward in making a change in the lives of black people.

 References:

Black Lives Matter. (2017). Healing justice. Retrieved from https://blacklivesmatter.com/healing-justice/

Black Lives Matter. (2017). What we believe [Position statement]. Retrieved from https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/what-we-believe/

[womenandfoodsecurityblog]

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Malala Yousafzai was a young girl in Pakistan when the Taliban took over and banned girls from getting an education (Yousafzai, 2014).  I read this book earlier in 2017 and was struck by Malala’s courage, bravery, and desire to learn.  She would give speeches and interviews denouncing the ban on education for girls. The other think that struck me about Malala’s story was her father’s encouragement in her education.  In a culture where women are not as “valuable” as men, he embraced his daughter and loved her and taught her without reserve.

 Here in the United States, women are often objectified and held back but we must recognize that there are women in the world around us that are abused, attacked, and uneducated simply because they are women.  Malala’s quote here reminds us to speak for these women.  We can’t forget them.  

 There is an organization I like to support called Trades of Hope.  Their website is: https://www.tradesofhope.com/our-story.html .  They empower women all over the world to start their own artisan businesses. They teach women rescued from slavery, trafficking, poverty, abuse, and more how to create a product that can be sold. They ask the women what they want to be paid for this item and then contract with them to purchase so many of them. They then sell these products to women in the United States.  This is when globalization is a good thing!  I have purchased earrings, a bag, and a journal from them.  I love the fact that a woman looking to improve her situation made them.  I love these items.  Another organization I have made purchases from is Women At Risk, International. Their website is https://warinternational.org .  It is a similar organization to Trades of Hope.

 We are women of privilege and must not forget our sisters who struggle.

 Reference:

Yousofzai, M. & Lamb, C. (2014). I am malala: The girl who stood up for education and was shot by the taliban. London: Orion Publishing Co.

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

Blessed are the Poor - Gospel in Life

This sermon was preached by Timothy J. Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on Apr 5, 1998. Series: The Church - How to Believe Despite Christians. Scripture: Luke 6:20-26

I found this podcast to be very inspiring and motivating on where we as individuals are part of the solution for helping the poor.  The idea behind this sermon is that the church is commanded and clearly responsible for ministering to the poor. It is their duty no matter where they are and what social class they are a part of.  

 Another concept the pastor mentions is the fact that there is no equality of opportunity in our world (Conley, 2017, p. 245). He is calling the church of Jesus followers, Christians to be an agent of care.  This is the idea of using a social institution to combat a social class inequality (Conley, 2017, p. 15).

 He also points out that poverty can be the route to future trouble.  He points out the fact that most of the time, we’ve done nothing to deserve our “class”.  Most of us are born into it.  It’s possible to work your way up but it is very difficult.  The poor are people that don’t have anything that is valued.  That is demoralizing.  Because of this they can be taken advantage of.  This perpetuates the problem.  The pastor says that the Bible says to give mercy in these situations but this is not what happens.  If the church would give until the needs are met then we would fix the problem of poverty.

 He also describes some of the institutional classism that occurs.  He says, “the world is broken.”  He says Jesus was passionate about ministering to the poor. His followers must be too.  He shares a verse that says to lend a hand until their need is gone.  If the church lived that way, can you imagine how this social issue would be fixed?  I love how he addresses the fact that we are not to look down on the poor and be their “savior.”  We’re their partner.  They are our brothers.

 Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York, NY: Norton.

[kny111]

Persistent Racism in Housing Is a Tax on Blackness

In 1934, Homer Hoyt wrote a dissertation—“One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago: The Relationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise of Its Lan ...

Working with Hoyt at the FHA, the HOLC would map cities and divide neighborhoods into various risk categories that were based on his ethnic hierarchy and coded accordingly. A “green” neighborhood was white, affluent, Anglo-Saxon, and appropriately Protestant. A “blue” one had less desirable whites—Jews, Irish, and Italians—but was stable and upwardly mobile. A “yellow” one had undesirable, often working-class whites, and a “red” one was predominantly black or Mexican, regardless of wealth or class. And in these “redlined” areas, loans were either expensive or nonexistent, forcing families to rely on speculators and private sales by unscrupulous homeowners.

For whites, there was some flexibility. Journalist Antero Pietila gives a short biography of Hoyt in Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City. As he notes, “Hoyt allowed that many whites on the lower rungs could become less objectionable once they ‘conform to the American standard of living.’ ” By contrast, blacks and Mexicans had no chance of overcoming ‘the opinion or prejudice’ of the real estate market, even though such bigotry ‘may have no reasonable basis.’ That was just the way real estate operated, he wrote. ”If the entrance of a colored family into a white neighborhood causes a general exodus of white people, such dislikes are reflected in property values.” (Emphasis added.)

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

ConThis article describes a very explicit practice of ranking desirability of neighborhoods based on the races of the people who lived in them.  Black and Hispanic neighborhoods were ranked as the least desirable and white neighborhoods were the most desirable.  This ranking system was enacted to help financial institutions determine if certain properties were a good risk when it came to giving a mortgage. This is institutional racism (Conley, 2017, p. 363-364).  The system set up to protect banks and the funds used discriminates against non-white homeowners.  These homeowners either cannot get a reasonable loan to purchase a home or, the labeling of undesirable diminishes the property value and non-white homeowners do not receive the same return on their investment.  This was the system used in 1935.

 You would hope that things have improved.  This article describes how these prejudices towards black neighborhoods still exist. The concept of good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods are often tied to race.  The article describes a Brooklyn landlord that freely admits he doesn’t like black people as tenants because they bring the neighborhood down and then white people don’t want to pay as much in rent.

 It is such a frustrating thought that whites already have privilege in so many areas and that even if a black person is able to purchase a nice home, they are discriminated against by either not being shown available properties or not being wanted in certain neighborhoods.  The financial cost of this institutional racism is described as a tax on blackness.

Conley, D. (2017) You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York, NY: Norton.

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

My name is Angie.  Nursing is my second career.  I am in my 3rd of 8 semesters for my clinical education.  My previous career was an elementary school teacher.  I taught 2nd and 3rd grade back then.  I now homeschool my 4 sons during the day and go to nursing school in the evening.  I also teach high school chemistry to a group of homeschoolers.  In my free time, ahem, I enjoy reading and crochet.  My husband and I love hiking and enjoying the outdoors.  The above picture was from our 19th anniversary trip we took to Watkins Glen, NY.  This picture was taken on the way home at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.

This blog is about sociology.  It is my final project for Sociology 201.  Although this class is a lot of work, I find that it is useful in my planned career of nursing.  I hope that some of the ideas I collect and share on this blog will help others and learn more about seeing the world from others’ perspectives.  

[uvm-si-mba]

[viewofthebigblueball-blog]

The quote above resonated with me when considering what sociology is.  Sociology is taking a look at what seems normal and really considering why it is normal and if it would be normal in other contexts.  I think sociology is valuable because it gets us outside of ourselves and our own perspectives.

Trying to see others from their perspectives is like Max Weber’s Verstehen where he suggests we can’t understand others without approaching their behaviors from their perspectives (Conley, 2017, p. 26). When we broaden our perspectives and come to be less threatened by others and their differences, I feel we are able to have relationships and interact with people of many different backgrounds.

I think of the unrest and division facing our country right now.  The peaceful protesting by athletes in the NFL have been such a polarizing experience.  Why is this?  Why are some so up in arms and threatened by the reality that these athletes are presenting and representing?  W.E.B. Du Bois gave us some insights to the different experiences people of African American heritage face.  He described double consciousness as the way African Americans have two selfs that they present.  One would be their real, natural self and the other is the one that must be conscious and aware of how they’re being perceived at all times.  Being sure not to appear to be stealing or up to other mischief (Conley, 2017, p. 30).  If we could use Verstehen to help us communicate and understand each others’ experiences and perspectives, then we could move forward in healing and restoration.  This is why sociology is important to me.

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Reference:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.