Blog #7- Question 1

It is always interesting to me to learn new terms when delving into a new topic. These sociological concepts helped me better understand elements of sociological studies and the analysis we had to do as well. To set the stage for these definitions that can be applied when analyzing public arts, I'd like to make clear that sociology is the study of the development and elements of human societies. One type of societal power is a bureaucracy, in which a large society is being run by anonymous people following fixed guidelines that lead that society's largest corporations; this puts these individuals at the top of the hierarchy of authority for that specific society and leads to a less personable connection between leaders and followers. Within these societies, socialization occurs everywhere; this is when members of the specific society are taught the rules and values of their society. People can see through interacting with others and watching others interact what is appropriate and acceptable for themselves and what is not. A common way to place expectations around a society's members is to fit them into social roles; people are included in common social roles such as student, parent, nurse, etc... and must act accordingly to fit into the social norms of that role within that society. These roles also have statuses where someone is ranked within their role; for example a student can be a freshman in college or a final semester graduate student and a nurse could be a family medical practice nurse or an infant intensive care nurse in the ER. Gender can effect societal roles especially with media influencing the norms of a society. If a parent is female, a societal norm from the 50's and 60's was that mother would stay at home and take care of the kids and household. Each societal member has its own prestigiousness and rank within the field or lifestyle. Outside of these lifestyle roles, societies break their members up into different classes, or general groups, based on commonalities; most frequently they are broken up into socioeconomic classes, which rank people based on similarities in education, income, and careers which directly affect their lifestyles. These groups and their differences can cause stereotypes, or generalized signs commonly related to a specific type of person concerning a part of who or how they are; for example, a racial stereotype in America for Jewish people is that they like cheap deals in their purchases and are always willing to bargain down set prices. This tends to define social norms surrounding members of a society but if class structure and regulations in a society break down, the members do not have norms to align with and are left without much moral guidance within their society; this is called an anomie and is uncommon in most present societies. While a society is using these social norms and other tell-tale elements to rank and group its members, marginalization can occur, in which members of a society thats values and beliefs differ from that society's norms are placed in a secondary, lower ranked, status. This lack of acceptance for personal differences often leads to alienation of this secondary group, in which individuals feel detached from their society and the other members within it. This can also be caused by the impersonal bureaucracies that form to lead a society and members feeling like they do not belong or aren't closely a part of their society. If all parts of a society (including all members and their placements within their society) are contributing to the stability and well-being of their society as a whole, it is considered functional; the functionality of a society's parts plays a large role in the success of the society as a whole.  Postmodernism defines a society that embraces their personal differences to the full extent and does not try to categorize their members, instead emphasizing their personal relationships and understandings with themselves. It is a term that denies all religious, scientific, or philosophical truth for all people and instead focuses on each individual's interpretation of their own world around them. 2 major influences to societies are mass media and mass communication. Mass communication uses mass media to get the same message to large numbers of different types of people. This mass communication can relay the different aspects of a society and help individuals learn how to behave within them. There are a variety of elements of societies that define their future success or failure and with the knowledge of these aspects, we can all better understand sociology and the world around us.