Erica Bender ACADEMIC CONNECTIONS – UCSD – SUMMER 2014

 Course goals  Build critical media literacy  Introductory knowledge of core sociology concepts  See the link between the media and inequality/social change  3 ‘Realms’ (Class, Race, then Gender)  3-4 days each  First day will be intro to concepts  Last day will be informal presentations and conclusions  1 informal presentation for each realm

 Before we can “think like sociologists,” we first need to develop a sociological imagination  This means looking beyond individual people or individual behavior – instead of focusing on an individual, we focus on the social  For example, a parade…

 Class Social differentiation based largely on economic factors and factors that indicate economic standing.  Ways to think about class:  A gradational hierarchy – like a ladder, pyramid, or?  Different categories ▪ Elite – Professional/Managerial – Middle – Working – Lower/Poor – Very poor

 Do we have a classless society?  How do you know?  Does that matter to you?  How would we draw the class ‘ladder’ for the United States?  All equal  Wide in the middle  Wide at the top? At the bottom?

 How does someone’s class affect them?  Where does your class come from?  Can you change your class?  How bad is economic/class-based inequality in the United States?  Why doesn’t class ‘go away’?

 Key word: Life chances  Life chances = the objective opportunities that a person has in life to improve his or her quality of life  Your life chances refer to your ability to live the life you want  But a lot of things get in the way of life chances, because your life chances often depend on your access to resources (such as money, food, education, health care)  Class influences life chances because it is the primary factor that determines your access to resources

 Mostly, from your family  We are born into a family already firmly placed in a class position.  How does your family’s class position affect you as a child?  Neighborhood, school, social networks, knowledge/skills, behaviors  How does your family’s class position affect you as an adult?  Likelihood of obtaining higher education  Career  Income!

 Key word: Social (Class) Mobility  Social Class Mobility = the objective probability that you will be able to move up in social class  What kinds of things will you have to obtain to achieve higher social mobility for yourself?  What factors are beyond your control?

 Initial thoughts – With a partner, rank the following countries from highest to lowest in terms of inequality  Germany  Great Britain  Korea  United States  Japan  Isreal  The United States is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world.

 Remember the relationship between structure and culture?  Structures are reinforced by cultural beliefs and attitudes.  So if class inequality is a structure, what kinds of beliefs keep us from seeing class inequality?  Other factor: residential segregation