RS1000 Class

1
RS1000 Class 8

• Topics of Discussion
• Economic Base and Culture (Case Studies)
• McDowell County, WV
• Functionalist Theory
• Conflict Theory
• Culture

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Natural Resource Based Economies (Extraction of
Resources) NOtes

• Farming
• Mining
• Fishing
• Logging

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Percentage Distribution of American Workers in
Mining (Notes)
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Mertons Concepts
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The Functionalist Perspective-McDowell County

• Examples of Manifest Functions
• Mines were developed to serve the energy needs of
  a growing population and urbanizing
• Mechanization makes mining more efficient and is
  more functional for meeting the needs of the
  society as a whole

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The Functionalist Perspective-McDowell County

• Example of Latent Functions
• Provided better jobs for Blacks who were
  suffering oppression in the deep south. Provided
  jobs for immigrants seeking a better life
• Generated a strong sense of local cultural
  identity and belonging among local residents
• Example of Manifest Dysfunctions
• Population is in decline
• Infrastructure breakdown
• Structure of opportunities not adequate to
  support the community residents

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The Functionalist Perspective-McDowell County

• Examples of Latent Dysfunctions
• Dependency created by the companies providing
  company towns in the past make it difficult for
  the people to mobilize to help themselves as the
  company stops investing in the community
• Problems in families

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Functionalist Perspective

• Defends Existing social arrangements justifies
  the way things are
• For instance, what would a functionalist
  perspective maintain about slavery?
• Assume all parts of a society serve a function.
  Not all parts may serve a function when first
  introduced so a biological analogy falls apart.
• Difficulty accounting for instability.

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The Conflict Perspective
Conflict Inevitable and Most Important Agent for
Social Change
Key Ideas of Conflict Perspective
Dominant and Subordinate Groups Compete for
Valued and Scarce Resources
Dominant Groups Create a Facade of Legitimacy
to Justify Their Actions
Ideologies Are Generated Espousing the
Fundamental Ideas of the Dominant Groups
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The Conflict Perspective

• 1. Who is controlling the use and access to
  resources? Who benefits?
• The owners of the means of production or
  property/Bourgeoisie
• 2. Who is being exploited?
• The laborers/Proletariat
• 3. What are the social structures that legitimate
  the exploitive relationships?
• The way production is organized
• Private property

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The Conflict Perspective

• Exaggerates tension and divisions in society

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Culture

• Functionalists focus on the dominant cultural
  values that integrate society and produce social
  order.
• Conflict theorists focus on culture as a product
  of the powerful in any given society used to
  encourage those they oppress to accept their lot
  in life.
• Symbolic Interactionists focus on culture as a
  dynamic changing set of meanings that people
  believe and remake in interaction with each
  other.

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Culture

• T-Shirt
• What important cultural process does this
  represent?

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Cultural Diffusion

• Cultural Diffusion-People borrow ideas,
  materials, products and other inventions from
  other societies. The process by which an idea, an
  invention, or some other cultural item is
  borrowed from a foreign source.
• People borrow ideas, materials, products, and
  other inventions from other societies.