CH-17-18 Health and the Environment – Sociology in Modules : Chapter Notes

This Document Contains Chapters 17 to 18 CHAPTER 17 HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT CHAPTER SUMMARY The World Health Organization has defined health as a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” Social factors may contribute to the evaluations of how we perceive healthy or sick people. The functionalist perspective accents the reciprocal obligations of a person viewed as ill and those in charge of treatment. The sick role refers to societal expectations about the attitudes and behavior of a person viewed as being ill. Talcott Parsons outlined the functionalist view required of people considered “sick.” Physicians function as gatekeepers for the sick role. Critics of the functionalist view charge that patients’ judgments about their own health may be related to gender, age, social class, and ethnicity. Conflict theorists use the term medicalization of society to refer to the growing role of medicine as a major institution of social control. Viewed from a conflict perspective, there are glaring inequalities in healthcare delivery for various populations within the United States. In examining health, illness, and medicine as a social institution, interactionists generally focus on the microlevel study of the roles played by healthcare professionals and patients. They emphasize that the patient should not always be viewed as passive. Labeling theorists suggest that the designation of “healthy” or “ill” involves social definition of others. Specifically, healthcare professionals have the power to define certain people as “sick.” Such labels commonly reshape how others treat us and how we see ourselves. Social epidemiology is the study of the distribution of disease, impairment, and general health status across a population. Studies in the United States and other countries have consistently shown that people in the lower classes have higher rates of mortality and disability. The poor economic and environmental conditions of groups such as African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans are manifested in high morbidity and mortality rates. Research indicates that in comparison to men, women experience a higher prevalence of many illnesses. Older people in the United States use health services more often than younger people and their disproportionate use of the healthcare system is a critical factor in discussions about reforms in the healthcare system. Historically, healthcare in the U.S. was characterized by self-help, prevention, and a variety of approaches to practice and types of practitioners. With the growth of the American Medical Association, the medical model became standard. By the 1920s, doctors gained significant control of medical practice, financing, and policy while excluding other practitioners. Critics of the medical model assert that medical school emphasizes technical and clinical skill, dehumanizing doctor- patient relationships. Nurses are expected to remain subordinate. Gender appears to contribute to lower status of female physicians. Holistic medicine, in which the practitioner considers the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual characteristics of the patient, is an increasing challenge to the medical establishment. Methods include massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, visualization, and exercise. Approximately one-third of U.S. adults use some type of alternative therapy. However, most alternative therapies are not covered by health insurance. Government funding, especially via Medicare and Medicaid payments, has had a significant effect on the healthcare system. Human ecology is an area of study that is concerned with the interrelationships between people and their spatial setting and physical environment. Emphasis is placed on three relationships: a) the environment provides people the resources necessary for life, b) the environment serves as a waste repository, c) the environment “houses” our species. World systems analysis shows how a growing share of the human and natural resources of the developing countries is being redistributed to the core industrialized nations. This process only intensifies the destruction of natural resources in poorer regions of the world. From a conflict perspective, less affluent nations are being forced to exploit their mineral deposits, forests, and fisheries in order to meet their debt obligations. Environmental justice is a legal strategy based on claims that racial minorities are subjected disproportionately to environmental hazards, and that the poor and oppressed continue to bear the brunt of environmental pollution. Americans increasingly realize that development has led to serious environmental problems, but there is less willingness to implement solutions. World population growth and technological innovations (e.g., plastics, detergents, synthetics, pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers) are significant causes of pollution. More than 1 billion people on the planet are exposed to potentially health-damaging levels of air pollution. Throughout the United States, streams, rivers, and lakes have been polluted by the dumping of waste materials by both industries and local governments. Global warming refers to the significant rise of the earth’s temperature caused by the release of industrial gases like carbon dioxide. World systems analysis suggests that the challenge of global warming is tied to global inequality. Globalization allows multinational corporations to relocate to countries with less stringent environmental standards and allows the exploitation of resources of developing countries in the interests of short-term profit. The spread of industrialization leads to further pollution. There has been an increase in environmental refugees. However, globalization gives multinational corporations an incentive not to overuse or waste resources in order to avoid depletion. RESOURCE INTEGRATOR Focus Questions Resources 1. How do functionalists, conflict theorists, and interactionists view health and illness? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: health, sick role, brain drain, infant mortality rate Boxes: Taking Sociology to Work: Lola Adedokun, Independent Consultant, Healthcare Research IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: Professional Marginality (15-1); Bad Blood (15-3); Contagious Immigrants (15-4); Midwifery in America (15-9) Classroom Discussion Topics: Alternatives to Traditional Healthcare (15-1); Students’ Waste Disposal Habits (15-2) Student Research and Assignments: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Women in Healthcare; Healthcare and Race; Poverty and Healthcare Video Resources: Housing America; Leper: Life Beyond Stigma; Sicko; The Uninsured 2. What are the key socioeconomic factors influencing health? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: social epidemiology, incidence, prevalence, morbidity rate, mortality rate, curanderismo Boxes: Research Today: Healthcare, Retail Style IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: Native American Healthcare (15-2); Bad Blood (15-3); Contagious Immigrants (15-4); The Nun Study (15-5) Student Research and Assignments: Environment and Human Health; Healthcare and Race; Poverty and Healthcare; Social Impact of Chronic Illness Video Resources: AIDS at Issue; AIDS and Love; Sicko; The Uninsured REEL SOCIETY VIDEO Topic Index: Health and Epidemiology 3. How did the institution of medicine develop in the United States? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: holistic medicine IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: Native American Healthcare (15-2); Contagious Immigrants (15-4); Midwifery in America (15-9) Classroom Discussion Topics: Alternatives to Traditional Healthcare (15-1) Video Resources: The Uninsured 4. What are the sociological approaches to the study of the environment? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: human ecology, environmental justice IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: Human Ecology: Housing in Japan (15-6); Squatter Settlements (15-7); Environmental Racism in Albany (15-8) Classroom Discussion Topics: Environmental Justice (15-6) Student Research and Assignments: Healthcare and Race; Poverty and Healthcare Video Resources: Sicko; The Uninsured 5. What are the most important environmental issues in the world today? IN THE TEXT Social Policy and the Environment: Environmentalism IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Classroom Discussion Topics: Learning More about Environmental Problems (15-4); A New Species of Trouble (15-5); Environmental Justice (15-6) Student Research and Assignments: The Environment and Human Health Video Resources: Increase and Multiply; Livable Landscapes; Populations; Save Our Land, Save Our Towns; Too Many People, Too Little Space LECTURE OUTLINE I. Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness • Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity (1946 World Health Definition). A. Functionalist Approach • The sick role refers to societal expectations about the attitudes and behavior of a person viewed as being ill. • Parsons suggests sick people are exempted from everyday duties and do not suffer blame for their condition. They are obligated to get well. • Physicians function as gatekeepers for the sick role. • Critics of the functionalist view charge that patients’ judgments about their own health may be related to gender, age, social class, and ethnicity. Example: younger people ignoring serious warning signs. • Critics also suggest the sick role may be more applicable to people with short-term illnesses, and that various factors (e.g., employment) affect a person’s willingness to assume the sick role. B. Conflict Approach • Eliot Freidson contends medicine has an officially approved monopoly to define health and illness and to treat illness. 1. The Medicalization of Society • Medicalization of society: growing role of medicine as a major institution of social control. • Expanded domain of expertise in a wide range of issues, ruling out input from others and alternative views. • Places certain healthcare professionals outside the realm of acceptable medicine. Example: Chiropractors and midwives. 2. Inequities in Healthcare • Poor areas are underserved, as medical services are concentrated in areas where people are wealthy. • In the U.S. there are about 27 physicians per 10,000 population compared to fewer than one per 10,000 in African nations. • Brain drain refers to the immigration of skilled professional to industrialized nations such as the U.S. • Inequalities in healthcare have life-and-death consequences. Example: Infant mortality rates are higher in nations with less access to healthcare. C. Interactionist Approach • Microlevel analysis. Interactionists are interested in roles played by physicians and patients. • Patients are not passive; often they actively seek healthcare services. Or, they may play an active role by failing to follow doctor’s advice. Example: They may stop taking medicines, take incorrect dosages, or engage in other forms of noncompliance. D. Labeling Approach • Social definitions of healthy or ill results in attaching of labels and resulting consequences. Example: Runaway slaves defined as suffering from drapetomania. • We can view a variety of life experiences as illnesses or not. Example: Chronic fatigue syndrome is still subject to debate. • Labeling of homosexuality not as a lifestyle but as a mental disorder subject to treatment was dropped in 1974 from psychiatric manuals. II. Social Epidemiology and Health • Social epidemiology is the study of the distribution of disease, impairment, and general health status across a population. Initially, it concentrated on epidemics. • Incidence refers to the number of new cases of a specific disorder occurring within a given population during a stated period of time, usually a year. • Prevalence refers to the total number of cases of a specific disorder that exists at a given time. • Morbidity rates (incidence per 100,000) are influenced by social class, race, ethnicity, gender, and age. A. Social Class • The lower classes generally have higher rates of disability and mortality. • Crowded living conditions, substandard housing, financial strain, poor diet, higher stress, and inability to afford quality healthcare are major factors in health problems of less affluent. Example: Disparities in health insurance. • More danger in lower-class workplaces compared to middle/upper classes. • Conflict theorists suggest maximizing profits is more important to capitalists than worker safety. • Vicious cycle: low income leads to poor health, which hinders upward mobility. B. Race and Ethnicity • Blacks die from heart disease, pneumonia, diabetes, and cancer at higher rates than Whites. • Whites live longer than Blacks. Among those born in 1994, for example, a White female can anticipate living to 79.6 years of age, while a Black male can anticipate a life span of 64.9 years—the expected age of White females born in 1935. • Infant mortality is more than twice as high among Blacks compared to Whites. • National clinical studies conclude that racial and ethnic minorities are less likely than other groups to receive both standard healthcare and life-saving treatments for conditions such as HIV. • Blacks suffer the stress of racial prejudice, leading to hypertension, which is twice as common in Blacks as in Whites, and is a critical factor in Blacks’ high mortality rates from heart disease, kidney disease, and stroke. • Some Mexican Americans and other Latinos interpret illness according to traditional Latino folk medicine, curanderismo. While most Hispanics probably use folk healers infrequently, perhaps 20 percent rely on home remedies. C. Gender • Women experience higher prevalence of illnesses compared to men; however, they tend to live longer. • Women experience lower rates of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, and lower rates of employment in dangerous occupations. Some suggest these rates may explain about one-third of their greater longevity than men. • Some studies suggest differences in morbidity may be less pronounced than data suggest, because women are more likely than men to seek treatment, to be diagnosed, and thus to be included in data analyzed. • Conflict theorists note that women are especially vulnerable to the medicalization of society (e.g., birth and beauty treated in an increasingly medical context), and that they are often excluded from clinical studies. D. Age • Older people are troubled with conditions that affect quality of life and daily living. Examples: arthritis, visual and hearing impairments. • Alzheimer’s afflicts an estimated 5 million older people 65 or over (13 percent). • Older people disproportionately use the healthcare system compared to younger people. Those 75 and older are five times more likely to use health services and to be hospitalized than younger people (ages 15–24). • Healthcare for older Americans is a critical factor in all debate about healthcare costs and reforms. III. Healthcare in the United States A. A Historical View • Healthcare in the U.S. was characterized by self-help, prevention, a variety of approaches to practice, and types of practitioners. • American Medical Association, founded in 1848, set up standardized training and licensure, and conferred professional authority on those who complete their programs, excluding other practitioners. • Doctors gained significant control over the market for medical services and the various institutions that govern medical practice, financing, and policy. • By 1920, physicians controlled hospitals, division of labor of health personnel, and indirectly controlled related professions, such as nursing and pharmacy. B. Physicians, Nurses, and Patients • Physicians are the dominant professionals in healthcare in the U.S. • Medical school emphasizes technical and clinical skill, dehumanizing doctor- patient relationships. • Nurses are expected to remain subordinate. Example: doctor-nurse game. • Gender appears to contribute to lower status of female physicians. • Patients are getting healthcare messages from media, such as advertising and information from the Internet. Problems include inaccurate and incomplete information. C. Alternatives to Traditional Healthcare • One in three adults in U.S. use alternative healthcare methods. • Holistic medicine, in which the practitioner considers the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual characteristics, includes massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, visualization, and exercise. • Some medical doctors include alternative medicine in their practices but acceptance by the medical establishment has been slow. D. The Role of Government • First significant government funding was the Hill-Burton Act of 1946, subsidizing rural hospitals. The 1965 enactment of Medicare and Medicaid has had a huge effect on the healthcare system. IV. Sociological Perspectives on the Environment A. Human Ecology • Human ecology studies how the physical environment shapes people’s lives and how people influence the surrounding environment. Emphasis is placed on three relationships: a) the environment provides people the resources necessary for life, b) the environment serves as a waste repository, c) the environment “houses” our species. • Human ecology stresses that tradeoffs are inherent in every decision that alters the environment. B. Conflict View of the Environment • Less affluent nations are being forced to exploit their mineral deposits, forests, and fisheries in order to meet their debt obligations. To survive, they plow mountain slopes, burn forests, and overgraze. Example: Brazil and deforestation of Amazon rain forest. • Conflict theorists contend the focus on developing countries is ethnocentric, that “energy-hungry” industrialized nations are more to blame than poverty-stricken and “food-hungry” of the Third World. • Western industrialized nations account for only 12 percent of the world’s population, but they are responsible for 60 percent of worldwide consumption. C. Environmental Justice and Ecological Modernization • Legal strategy based on claims that racial minorities are subjected disproportionately to environmental hazards. Example: the Warren County struggle. • President Clinton issued executive order in 1994 ordering federal agencies to ensure that low-income and minority communities have access to information about their environment, and a chance to participate in shaping government policies. • Poor and oppressed continue to bear the brunt of environmental pollution. Example: Goshute Indians persuaded by federal government to accept more than 44,000 barrels of highly radioactive material; however, plan not yet implemented due to opposition. • Ecological modernization is the alignment of environmentally favorable practices with economic self-interest through constant adaptation and restructuring. • Ecological modernization can occur on both the macro and micro levels. On a macro level, adaptation and restructuring can mean reintegrating industrial waste back into the production process. On a micro level, it can mean reshaping individual lifestyles, including the consumption patterns described at the start of this chapter. V. Environmental Problems • Americans increasingly recognize that development has led to serious environmental problems, but there is less willingness to implement solutions. There is substantial disagreement about the priority that should be given to environmental concerns. • Basic causes of growing environmental problems: world population growth; technological innovations (e.g., plastics, detergents, synthetics, pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers). A. Air Pollution • Over 1 billion people worldwide are exposed to health-threatening levels of pollution. The problem is worst in developing countries. • Urban residents have come to accept smog as normal. • Auto emissions, electric power plants, and heavy industry account for most air pollution. B. Water Pollution • Industrial, agricultural, and residential waste has made many bodies of water unsafe for drinking, fishing, and swimming. • Example: every year about 17,000 Egyptian children die from diarrhea and dehydration after contact with the river’s polluted water. • Water is a highly contested commodity in many parts of the world. C. Global Warming • Global warming refers to the significant rise of the earth’s temperature caused by the release of industrial gases like carbon dioxide. • To date, 190 countries are party to the accord, but the United States has failed to ratify it. Opponents of the protocol argue that doing so would place the nation at a disadvantage in the global marketplace. • World systems analysis suggests that the challenge of global warming is tied to global inequality. D. The Impact of Globalization • Globalization can be both good and bad for the environment. • Negative: Polluting companies relocate to countries with less stringent standards. • Negative: Multinationals exploit resources of developing countries for short-term profit. • Negative: Industrialization accompanying globalization has increased pollution. Examples: Mexico and China. • Positive: Multinational companies have an incentive not to overuse or waste natural resources, because the result could be depletion. • Globalization has increased the number of environmental refugees from developing nations due to droughts, shortage of arable land, environmental degradation, and concomitant poverty, poor health, poor living conditions. VI. Social Policy and the Environment: Environmentalism A. The Issue • Widespread concern among Americans over preservation of the environment. B. The Setting • Activist subculture of the 1960s, increased information about environmental problems, and the growing popularity of outdoor activities fueled the environmental movement. • Current environmentalists are motivated by the belief that the environment is in peril and that strong government action is required. • Public reaction to environmental issues is mixed, with the economic downturn causing many Americans to prioritize economic growth over environmental preservation. • Environmental groups vary greatly in size, organizational structure, goals for change, and tactics used to effect change. C. Sociological Insights • From a conflict perspective, bias is inherent in nationwide organizations due to predominantly White, male, affluent membership. • Many major environmental organizations accept funding from oil and chemical companies, compromising their ability to make disinterested policy recommendations. • Resistance to the environmental movement has become an organized opposition movement. Example: “Wise-use.” • Some members of opposition groups oppose particular environmental preservation strategies rather than the overall goal of environmental protection. Example: Diverting corn for biofuel will exacerbate global hunger. D. Policy Initiatives • The current recession has reduced demand for fossil fuels. • Government economic stimulus packages include funds for “green collar” jobs. • Nations worldwide are increasingly viewing environmental problems as a global threat, putting more pressure on the U.S. and other G-8 nations to take action. KEY TERMS Brain drain The immigration to the United States and other industrialized nations of skilled workers, professionals, and technicians who are desperately needed in their home countries. Curanderismo Latino folk medicine, a form of holistic healthcare and healing. Ecological modernization The alignment of environmentally favorable practices with economic self-interest through constant adaptation and restructuring. Environmental justice A legal strategy based on claims that racial minorities are subjected disproportionately to environmental hazards. Environmental refugee A person who has been displaced by rising seas, destructive storms, expanding deserts, water shortages, or high levels of toxic pollutants. Health As defined by the World Health Organization, a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Holistic medicine Therapies in which the healthcare practitioner considers the person’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual characteristics. Human ecology An area of study concerned with the interrelationships between people and their environment. Incidence The number of new cases of a specific disorder occurring within a given population during a stated period. Infant mortality rate The number of deaths of infants under one year old per 1,000 live births in a given year. McDonaldization The process through which the principles of the fastfood restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society. Mental illness A disorder of the brain that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, and ability to interact with others. Morbidity rate The incidence of disease in a given population. Mortality rate The incidence of death in a given population. Prevalence The total number of cases of a specific disorder that exist at a given time. Sick role Societal expectations about the attitudes and behavior of a person viewed as being ill. Social epidemiology The study of the distribution of disease, impairment, and general health status across a population. ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS 15-1: Professional Marginality: Chiropractors The chiropractic vocation occupies a marginal position as a profession. Chiropractors use manipulation of body structures, primarily the spinal column, to bring about healing. Some combine such manipulations with nutritional guidance and even acupuncture. Although they view themselves as professionals, chiropractors are not highly regarded by the medical profession. In fact, the American Medical Association (AMA) has officially labeled chiropractors as impostors in the role of physicians. Some doctors go so far as to use the emotion-laden term quacks in describing chiropractors. Despite these charges, chiropractors resemble a profession in important respects; indeed, they resemble the medical profession. Chiropractors complete a four-year training program that culminates in the receipt of a doctor of chiropractic degree. Like graduates of medical schools, chiropractors belong to professional associations and publish specialized journals. Most establish private practices or work in small clinics. Interestingly, in contrast to the AMA’s position, certain physicians develop informal ties to chiropractors and refer patients to them. According to surveys of public opinion, chiropractic has lower status as an occupation than other medical specialties. Chiropractors do surpass subordinate medical personnel such as nurses and physical therapists in terms of both income and professional autonomy. Yet, chiropractors find it difficult to receive payment for their services through Medicare and other health insurance programs. In good part, this reflects the political power of the AMA and the continuing stigma it has attached to the work of chiropractors. Currently, chiropractors are moving in the direction of even greater professionalization. They have become stricter about qualifications for entry into this vocation and have worked to upgrade professional training in chiropractic. The American Chiropractic Association lists as one of its objectives legislation defining chiropractic “in modern terms and legalizing its practice.” In some states, chiropractors are officially termed “chiropractic physicians,” and they are increasingly identifying themselves with the medical profession. The attempt of chiropractors to win acceptance by physicians indicates that they have not fully moved from the status of an occupation to that of a profession. See George Ritzer. Working, Conflict and Change (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997, pp. 192–193; Denise S. Akey (ed.). Encyclopedia of Associations, vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981, p. 818; Walter I. Wardwell, “The Reduction of Strain in the Marginal Social Role,” American Journal of Sociology 61 (July 1955): 16–25. 15-2: Native-American Healthcare For Native Americans, “healthcare” is a misnomer, another broken promise in the array of unmet promises that the government has made. Native Americans are more likely to die before age 45 than are members of any other racial or ethnic group. Even more frustrating, in 1994 they tended to die of treatable diseases, like tuberculosis, at rates 700 percent higher than that for White Americans. This dramatic difference arises out of their poverty and also out of the lack of health services. There are only 96 doctors per 100,000 Native Americans, compared with 208 per 100,000 of the general population. Similarly, there are 251 nurses per 100,000 Native Americans, contrasted to 672 per 100,000 for the nation as a whole. In 1955, the responsibility for healthcare for Native Americans was transferred from the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to the Public Health Service (PHS); although the health of Native Americans as a group has improved markedly since the mid-1960s, serious problems remain. As is true of industrial development and education for Native Americans, advances in healthcare are hampered by the poverty and, for those who live there, geographic isolation of the reservations. Also, as in the educational and economic sectors, health policies in effect initiate a cultural war in which Native Americans must often reject their traditions in order to secure better medical treatment. With the pressure for Native Americans to assimilate into the dominant culture in all aspects of their lives, there has been little willingness to recognize their traditions of healing and treating illnesses. In the 1990s, there emerged a pluralistic effort to recognize alternative forms of medicine, including those practiced by Native Americans. In addition, healthcare workers on reservations have begun to accommodate traditional belief systems as they administer the White culture’s medicine. It is not merely that Native Americans collectively have more diseases and shorter average life spans than the rest of the population; the Native American population tends also to have a higher incidence of acute problems in such areas as mental health, nutrition, elder care, and alcoholism, which have been documented for generations but have only recently been addressed through innovative programs. Further improvement can be expected, but it will be some time before the gains make healthcare for Native Americans comparable to that for the general population. Sources: Natalie Angier, “U.S. Opens the Door Just a Crack to Alternative Forms of Medicine,” New York Times (January 10, 1993): 1, 13; Ron Coddington, “Native American Health Crisis,” USA Today (November 12, 1991): A1; Patricia Edmonds, “Tribes Fight Desperately with Determination,” USA Today (April 8, 1992): A8; Elaine Fox, “Crossing the Bridge: Adaptive Stages among Navajo Health Care Workers.” Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 20 (May 1992): 25–34; Indian Health Service. Trends in Indian Health 1995. Washington, DC: Indian Health Service, 1995; Linda Kanamine, “Amid Crushing Poverty, Glimmers of Hope,” USA Today (November 30, 1992): A7; Kanamine, “Tribal Leaders Now Feel They ‘Can Be Heard.’” USA Today (April 28, 1994): A1, A2; and Stephen J. Kunitz, “The History and Politics of U.S. Health Care Policy for American Indians and Alaskan Natives,” American Journal of Public Health 86 (October 1996): 1464–1473. 15-3: Bad Blood In late July of 1972, the Associated Press broke a story about a medical experiment that the federal government had been conducting for 40 years in Macon County, Alabama, in and around the county seat of Tuskegee. The government conducts experiments all the time, but the details of this one—the Tuskegee Study, as it came to be called—were shocking. It involved 399 Black men with syphilis who were left untreated while the course of the disease was observed. Syphilis is a very serious disease. If untreated, it causes skin lesions, tumors, liver damage, paralysis, blindness, deafness, and eventually death. All these complications were known to medical science when the Tuskegee Study began in 1932. Other aspects of this dreadful experiment are less clear. For example, there is contradictory evidence about whether the Black men were ever informed of what was being done to them. In any event, however, the men were poor and illiterate, and the “pay” they were offered for participating, about $100, must have seemed irresistible in 1932. As the experiment progressed and the skin lesions appeared, the men were told that they had “bad blood.” Occasionally, the men would come to the attention of medical personnel outside the study group. When that happened, representatives of the study would advise the subjects that they should not take any outside treatment or they would be dropped from the study and lose all their benefits. Treatment for other illnesses (such as antibiotics) would also be withheld if it might affect the course of the syphilis. Treatments for syphilis were developed after 1932, including penicillin, which became generally available in 1953. However, the subjects were given no opportunity to have their painful condition eased. This experiment was not a secret; in fact, it was reported from time to time in government and medical journals. The reaction to such reports was always strong, but the erroneous assumption was made that the men would be treated. The fact that all the men were Black says something about the racial considerations underlying the Tuskegee Study, although the government officials have repeatedly denied charges of racism. Why did the experiment continue year after year, even when it came under fire? Historian James H. Jones contends that the researchers soon realized that autopsies yielded far more reliable data than clinical observations. (See Jones. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. New York: Free Press, 1981.) Threatened with closure, the researchers and their supervisors would continue “a bit longer” to provide more subjects for autopsies. The result was the longest-known medical experiment involving untreated subjects. Given the ethical questions, one might ask what was really learned. Late in 1970, Dr. James B. Lucas, the assistant chief of the Venereal Disease Branch of the Public Health Service, declared, “Nothing learned will prevent, find, or cure a single case of infectious syphilis or bring us closer to our basic mission of controlling venereal disease in the United States” (Jones 1981: 202). Eventually, the survivors of the Tuskegee Study were treated. In 1973, a payment of $37,500 was authorized for each of them, in order to avoid lawsuits. Smaller payments went to the heirs of the subjects who had died. Two years later, the government extended treatment to members of the subjects’ families who had contracted syphilis. 15-4: Contagious Immigrants People who are devalued are also not viewed as healthy. Historian Alan Kraut has shown how epidemics and disease have been linked in the public mind with immigrants. The Irish in New York were wrongly blamed for the cholera epidemic of 1832, the Chinese in San Francisco were vilified for causing bubonic plague in 1900, and the Haitian “boat people” arriving in south Florida in the 1980s were stigmatized as AIDS carriers. One such example is what medical author Stephen S. Hall termed the “adenoid riots.” This little-known chapter in the history of civil unrest in New York City began to unfold toward the end of the school year in 1906. A group of well-intentioned physicians descended on P.S. 110 on the Lower East Side and, in a bloody but minor surgical procedure, snipped away the adenoids—growths of lymphoid tissue between the back of the nose and the throat—of a number of schoolchildren, acting with the consent of the mostly immigrant parents. The rationale for such surgery, Alan M. Kraut writes, was that swollen adenoids “often caused youngsters to breathe through their mouths, a practice that physicians of the day believed could lead to insufficient oxygen reaching the brain. Allowed to continue, mouth breathing might yield a feebleminded person.” So the surgeons snipped, and ill-founded rumors spread of bloodied and irreparably mutilated children. Within a week, outraged parents, first Eastern European Jews and then Italians, stormed neighboring schools, disrupting commencement ceremonies and requiring 75 police officers to disperse the caterwauling mobs, which were protesting a medical practice that, incidentally, holds no currency today. See Hall, “The Contagious Other,” New York Times Book Review (February 27, 1994): 12, 14; Kraut. Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace.” New York: Basic Books, 1994. (415) 15-5: The Nun Study At age 93, Sister Nicolette reads, crochets, and plays cards, and, until a recent fall, walked several miles a day. Her younger sibling, Sister Mary Ursula, is confined to a wheelchair and can barely lift her head or hands: She is a victim of Alzheimer disease. Both these real-life sisters had a similar family background, and both lived for most of their lives in the same Roman Catholic convent under the same conditions. Why is one so robust and the other so afflicted? This is one question that Dr. David Snowdon, a scientist at the University of Kentucky, hopes to answer from his long-term study of an order of nuns living in Mankato, Minnesota. Snowdon is particularly interested in detecting the causes of Alzheimer disease and in finding ways to delay or prevent its onset. He began studying the lives of the 678 nuns in 1986, when the sisters ranged in age from 75 to 103. As of 2001, 295 were alive, all over age 85; some were suffering from Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain, while others were entirely symptom- free. The order of nuns presents an ideal research group for an epidemiological study because the participants lead such similar lives. They eat the same meals, receive the same healthcare, do not smoke, drink very little alcohol, and have not experienced physical changes associated with pregnancy; most were teachers. These similarities allow the researchers to discount some factors that often contribute to illness, such as diet deficiency or smoking. It is also significant that the entire group is made up of aging women. In the past, most medical research of this type concentrated on middle-aged men, despite the fact that women constitute the great majority of the elderly population. Snowdon examines the nuns each year, taking blood samples and testing their cognitive ability to trace the course of their health. He has persuaded the nuns to donate their brains after they die, because a brain autopsy is the only sure way to diagnose Alzheimer disease. Although all this information was helpful to Snowdon, he had to rely on the nuns’ memories to establish facts of their background before they entered the order, and memories in the elderly can be unreliable, especially among those afflicted with brain disease. Then he ran across a treasure trove of data—archives documenting the births, parentage, and socioeconomic backgrounds of the nuns. These data helped to establish health risk factors for each nun earlier in life. Perhaps the most valuable research tools in the archives were autobiographies written by the applicants to the convent when they were in their twenties. From examining these writings and looking at the current health status of the nuns, Snowdon concluded that an active intellectual life, an ability to express oneself with complex ideas, and a positive outlook all correlate with healthy aging and a long life. Snowdon has found other factors associated with healthy aging, including a good diet and avoidance of stroke-causing behavior. He does not discount the value of spiritual and communal living. But he hopes other studies will back up his findings about the importance of early language ability and a positive emotional outlook. Sources Pam Belluck. 2001. “Nuns Offer Clues to Alzheimer’s and Aging,” New York Times, May 7, p. A1; Michael D. Lemonick and Alice Park Mankato. 2001. “The Nun Study,” Time 157 (May 14): 54–59, 62, 64; The Nun Study. 2005: The Nun Study: What’s New. Accessed May 25 (www.mcuky.edu/nunnet); David Snowdon. 2001. Aging with Grace. New York: Bantam. 15-6: Human Ecology: Housing in Japan In the text, the human ecological approach is illustrated on the macrolevel, as in urban spatial patterns. It can also be applied to the microlevel, that is, to social interaction along a block or residence hall corridor, or even within a dwelling. Obviously, whether siblings share bedrooms has explicit and subtle impact on socialization patterns. Therefore, it is of more than passing interest to note that the typical Japanese household shares much less space than its counterparts in Europe, and even a smaller proportion of the household size that is typical in North America. Large numbers of Japanese commute long distances. Even in more rural areas, their macro spatial patterns reflect housing that is cramped by U.S. standards. Government regulations and tax laws keep housing prices astronomical by encouraging inefficient use of land and discouraging an active market in property. The dwellings are half the size of housing in the United States and getting smaller. One social impact is that Japanese rarely entertain in their homes; they have no room for guests. They gather in restaurants and other public places for social occasions. The master bedroom of a mid-level Japanese manager is smaller than the hallway in most homes in the United States. Why the long commute? Why don’t Japanese businesses relocate in Japanese versions of “edge cities?” A major barrier is the tightly centralized control government bureaucrats maintain over the economy in Japan. Companies need licenses, approvals, and informal guidance to do just about anything. Therefore, they locate close to the various government ministries in central Tokyo. See James Sterngold, “Life in a Box: Japanese Question Fruits of Success,” New York Times (January 2, 1994): 1, 5. 15-7: Squatter Settlements Bariadas, favelas, bustees, kampungs, and bidonvilles: The terms vary depending on the nation and language, but the meaning is the same: “squatter settlements.” In squatter settlements, areas occupied by the very poor on the fringe of cities, housing is constructed by the settlers themselves from discarded material, including crates from loading docks and loose lumber from building projects. While the term squatter settlement is widely used, many observers prefer to use a less pejorative term, such as autonomous settlements. This type of settlement is typical of cities in the world’s developing nations. In such countries, new housing has not kept pace with the combined urban population growth resulting from births and migration from rural areas. Squatter settlements also swell when city dwellers are forced out of housing by astronomical jumps in rent. By definition, squatters living on vacant land are trespassers and can be legally evicted. However, given the large number of poor people who live in such settlements (by UN estimates, 40 or 50 percent of inhabitants of cities in many developing nations), governments generally look the other way. Obviously, squatters live in substandard housing, yet that is only one of the many problems they face. Residents do not receive most public services, since their presence cannot be legally recognized. Police and fire protection, paved streets, and sanitary sewers are virtually nonexistent. In some countries, squatters may have trouble voting or enrolling their children in public schools. Despite such conditions, squatter settlements are not always as bleak as they may appear from the outside. You can often find a well-developed social organization there, rather than a disorganized collection of people. A thriving “informal economy” typically develops: residents establish small, home-based businesses such as grocery stores, jewelry shops, and the like. Local churches, men’s clubs, and women’s clubs are often established in specific neighborhoods within the settlements. In addition, certain areas may form governing councils or membership associations. These governing bodies may face the usual problems of municipal governments, including charges of corruption and factional splits. Squatter settlements remind us that respected theoretical models of social science in the United States may not directly apply to other cultures. The various ecological models of urban growth, for example, would not explain a metropolitan expansion that locates the poorest people on the urban fringes. Furthermore, solutions that are logical in a highly industrialized nation may not be relevant in developing nations. Planners in developing nations, rather than focusing on large-scale solutions to urban problems, must think in terms of basic amenities, such as providing water or electric power to the ever-expanding squatter settlements. Sources: Manuel Castells. 1983. The City and the Grass Roots. Berkeley: University of California Press; Carl V. Patton, ed. 1988. Spontaneous Shelter: International Perspectives and Prospects. Philadelphia: Temple University Press; Larry Rohter. 2003. “Brazil to Let Squatters Own Homes,” New York Times, April 19, p. A7; Michael Wines. 2003. “Zimbabwe’s ‘Cleanup’ Takes a Vast Human Toll,” New York Times, June 11, pp. A1, A6; World Bank. 2003. World Development Report 2003: Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World. Washington, DC: World Bank; Kioe Sheng Yap. 1998. “Squatter Settlements.” Pp. 554–56 in The Encyclopedia of Housing, edited by Willem van Vliet. Thousand Oaks. CA: Sage. 15-8: Environmental Racism in Albany The fallen snow was black from the filth of a nearby incinerator, a facility that had been declared safe for 12 years; that is, until it affected the snow at the governor’s mansion in Albany, New York. Three weeks later, the facility was closed. For the last 12 years, officials have assured residents of a predominantly Black neighborhood in Albany’s inner city that a trash-burning incinerator was no health threat. But less than three weeks after the incinerator’s emissions blackened the snow at the nearby governor’s mansion, the incinerator was shut down. For Emily Grisom and others, the garbage-burning incinerator had been a long-standing irritant and an example of environmental racism. Grisom has lived on the same block as the state-owned incinerator since it began burning trash in 1981. In the summer, she has had to close her windows because of the stench of burning garbage. In addition, she says that on occasion, she and her neighbors have suffered from stuffed-up noses. Grisom says she knows at least 10 neighborhood children who suffer from asthma, and she links their problems to the incinerator. “. . . . [But] no one’s looking at that,” she says. “They have not bothered, because this area is 99-percent Black. They have never bothered. If it were a White community, five or 10 kids, they would say, ‘That’s outrageous.’” Until January 29, the day it closed, the plant burned approximately 350 tons of waste each day, sending arsenic, lead, mercury, and other pollutants into the air. It also provided steam to heat and cool the nearby offices of then-Governor Mario Cuomo and state legislators. Although state officials had said they were sure the incinerator, dubbed the ANSWERS plant, was not harming residents, they had concluded it was outdated. They said it would have been very costly to bring it up to the standards of newer plants. State officials had planned to close it in two years. But a malfunction at the plant on January 10 caused a shower of unburned oil particles to darken the snow-covered ground in downtown Albany, including the governor’s mansion. The incident hastened the incinerator’s shutdown date. A 1991 study by the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that most hazardous waste sites are in minority neighborhoods or in White, poor rural areas. “It’s a fairness issue. It’s unfair that these communities bear a disproportionate risk burden simply because of their race or economic background,” said Robert Knox, deputy director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Equity in Washington. See Los Angeles Times (March 6, 1994): A4. 15-9: Midwifery in America Historically, midwives played a major role in the health and life of women and their children. This was the case among Native American women as well as women who settled into the early colonies. The services of midwives were highly sought after. In fact, midwifery was highly respected as a medical “practice” and was the primary route through which babies were delivered or “caught” prior to the early 1900s. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, medicine and health care delivery became professionalized. Practitioners needed credentials and licensure. Thus, medical schools established programs in obstetrics. Women, however, were not admitted to these schools and were therefore disqualified and ineligible to perform the services of midwifery. Pregnancy, labor, and “delivery” became the province of doctors and the province of men. Most conflict and feminist theorists interpret this trend toward the professionalization of childbirth as an attempt to gain control over a practice soon to become quite lucrative (as well as an effort to gain control over women’s bodies). Even the language changed—midwives “caught” babies (empowering the mothers), while doctors “delivered” them (empowering the doctors). Students may wish to research the medicalization of childbirth and present a critical analysis of this trend, from a feminist point of view. Many other aspects of health have been medicalized as well, including depression/anxiety and rowdy behavior in children. See Catching Babies: The Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870–1920, by Charlotte Borst. 1995. Harvard University Press and Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, by Peggy Vincent. 2003. Scribner. CLASSROOM DISCUSSION TOPICS 15-1. Alternatives to Traditional Healthcare: Encourage students to share experiences they have had with alternatives to traditional healthcare. Some of them, for example, may have tried acupuncture, or may have grandparents who know home remedies for various ailments. Lead into a discussion of why the medical field tends to discourage alternatives to traditional healthcare, and ask students to analyze this issue from the conflict perspective. 15-2. Students’ Waste Disposal Habits: Teaching Sociology v. 34 no. 2 (April 2006) p. 150-5. Students bring in a day’s worth of their garbage/trash, collect, count, categorize it. This activity can serve as a springboard for discussion of waste, environmental degradation, pollution, as well as consumption habits among students in the U.S. The activity also illustrates the sociological imagination and gives students a real-life exposure to data collection. 15-3. Pollution and Technological Accidents: What is the potential tie between normal accidents and environmental pollution? 15-4. Learning More about Environmental Problems: Assign teams of students to do further research on the environmental problems discussed in the text, and present their findings to the class. This can lead to a discussion of how we, as a society, should respond to these problems. 15-5. A New Species of Trouble: Questions for stimulating a classroom discussion about Kai Erikson’s A New Species of Trouble can include these: After reading the excerpt from Erikson’s book, what common thread do you see running through these examples of floods, toxic poisoning, larceny, gasoline spills, and nuclear accidents? Are you familiar with other examples of the environment being negatively affected by overpopulation? Are you familiar with public and private efforts to avoid or eliminate disasters? How does consumerism relate to each of the disasters examined by Erikson? 15-6. Environmental Justice: Students can examine this interesting case of a movement for environmental justice. David Naguib Pellow. Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. 15-7. Using Humor: Joseph E. Faulkner has produced a monograph that includes funny examples that could be incorporated into lectures associated with Chapter 15. See chapter 14 in Faulkner, Sociology Through Humor. New York: West, 1987. This book is out of print, but used copies are readily available. TOPICS FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION 1. Ask students to identify why they would choose to limit the number of children they have, and discuss the relative merits of the Marxian and Malthusian views on population control. Answer: Have students discuss their reasons for limiting family size, considering factors like economic stability and environmental impact. Compare Marxian views, which often emphasize the role of class struggle and capitalist pressures, with Malthusian perspectives, which focus on the balance between population growth and resources. 2. Ask students to research recent public attention on obesity becoming an epidemic health risk in the United States, and discuss how a conflict theorist would likely explain the origins of such concerns. Answer: Research the growing public concern over obesity in the U.S. and discuss how a conflict theorist might interpret this issue. Analyze how socioeconomic factors and power dynamics contribute to the perception and management of obesity as an epidemic. 3. Ask students to analyze the use of steroids among professional athletes from both the conflict and interactionist perspectives. Answer: Examine the use of steroids in professional sports from the conflict perspective, which might emphasize issues of power and competition, and the interactionist perspective, which might focus on the social interactions and pressures influencing athletes' decisions. 4. Ask students to predict the reactions of society when learning of a famous movie celebrity, a military veteran, and a gay man, all of whom are diagnosed as HIV-positive, and then discuss the social factors affecting each designation from a labeling perspective. Answer: Predict societal reactions to the news of a famous movie celebrity, a military veteran, and a gay man all being diagnosed with HIV. Discuss how labeling theory applies to each case, considering how social identity and stigma affect public perception and treatment. 5. Ask students to list the top 5 social problems of our day. Have them read their lists aloud. Determine how many of them identified “health care” (or lack of health care coverage) as one of the most significant social problems. Ask them to defend their responses. If many of them listed “crime” as a top 5 problem, ask them why they believe this. Then, explain to them that crime rates in the U.S. have been declining since the early 1990s. Perhaps provide them with some data on health care coverage in the U.S. Answer: List and discuss the top five social problems as identified by students, focusing on the prevalence of "health care" and "crime" in their lists. Highlight that crime rates have been declining and present data on health care coverage to provide context for their perceptions and priorities. SERVICE LEARNING ACTIVITY Native Americans have always had great reverence for the environment, and rightfully so. Their very existence depended on managing the cycles of nature and protecting the planet. Today, documentary after documentary speaks about the destruction of the planet. Environmental concerns are getting more and more media attention. Our society’s health and rising healthcare costs, in many cases, are connected to various factors that exist in the environment. It is the proverbial “vicious cycle” of causation. What can be done to “help us save ourselves?” Here is a good service learning project: Assemble a team of students who are interested in environmental issues. Have the students promote an aggressive campus campaign to “Go Green”. Have students learn how to calculate carbon footprints and have them conduct the procedure across the campus. Contact the school’s newspaper and/or radio station for support. Also, contact local conservation groups that will probably be more than happy to assist. Students may also want to work as group volunteers to extend their efforts into local communities. CHAPTER 18 SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY CHAPTER SUMMARY Social movements are the most all-encompassing type of collective behaviors. Social movements refer to organized collective activities to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society. Social movements imply the existence of conflict, but we can also analyze their activities from a functionalist perspective, which views social movements as training grounds for leaders of the political establishment. Sociologists rely on two explanations, relative deprivation and resource mobilization, to understand why people mobilize. The term relative deprivation is defined as the conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities. It may be characterized as a scarcity rather than a lack of necessities. A relatively deprived person is dissatisfied because he or she feels downtrodden relative to some appropriate reference group. A group will not mobilize into a social movement unless there is a shared perception that its relative deprivation can be ended through collective action. Resource mobilization refers to the ways in which a social movement utilizes such resources as money, political influence, access to the media, and personnel. Leadership is a central factor in mobilization of the discontented into social movements. Karl Marx recognized the importance of recruitment when he called on workers to become aware of their oppressed status. Gender is an important element to understanding social movements. In a male-dominated society, women find it more and more difficult to assume leadership positions in social movement organizations although they are often involved in support positions. New social movements refer to organized collective activities that address values and social identities as well as improvements in the quality of life. Due to expanded technology, social activists can now reach a large number of people around the world almost instantaneously. New forms of social networking allow organizers of social movements to enlist others without face-to-face contact, often referred to as Computer-Mediated Communication. Functionalists view social movements as temporary diversions from the normal state of equilibrium. The dominant theme in society is stability. Social changes are adaptive mechanisms which allow society to continue to flow and function smoothly. Functionalists assume that social institutions would not continue to thrive unless they contributed something worthwhile to society. Conflict theorists, on the other hand, argue that social change often perpetuates a system of exploitation. However, social change is also essential because it can correct for social injustices and inequalities. There are several reasons why social change is sometimes resisted. Economic factors may serve as a barrier to advancement, particularly for those in the dominant class, such as those in upper management, politicians, or other members of the power elite. Local residents may feel a need to protect their investments (i.e., their homes) and thus, may resist change in their communities. Some are fearful that we have become too reliant on technologies and/or that modern technology is harmful to the quality of social life. As technology continues to advance, it will affect society in a number of ways. The internet is now widely available. However, the prevalence of quick, electronic transactions has raised concerns about the privacy of such transactions. From a sociological point of view, concerns over privacy and censorship can be considered illustrations of cultural lag. That is, technology has advanced far beyond society’s beliefs and norms. Technology has also provided society’s members with a number of medical options—unheard of just a few decades ago. Medical advances include reproductive technologies, stem cell research, and cloning to name a few; all of which have caused considerable controversy and personal dilemmas for many ethically. RESOURCE INTEGRATOR Focus Questions Resources 1. How have sociologists explained social change and social movements? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: evolutionary theory, social movements, relative deprivation, resource mobilization, false consciousness, new social movements IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: Why Do People Join Social Movements (16-1); Prostitutes’ Rights (16-2); Changes in the Family (16-3); Amish and Social Change (16-4); Futurists (16-5); Virtual Reality (16-6) Classroom Discussion Topics: Social Movement Speaker (16-1); Student Social Movements in Beijing 16-2) Student Research and Assignments: Herbert Spencer; Social Change Theory; Social Change—A Classic Look; Scientific Change Video Resources: Grass; The Idea Makers; Jonestown; The Men’s Movement; Social Change 2. What is meant by the globalization of social movements and how is globalization viewed by functionalists and conflict theorists? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: equilibrium model IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Classroom Discussion Topics: Social Movement Speaker (16-1); Student Social Movements in Beijing (16-2); Social Movement Organizations (16-3); Participation in Collective Behavior (16-4) Student Research and Assignments: Social Change Theory; Social Change—A Classic Look Video Resources: Morristown 3. What are the reasons for resistance to social change? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: vested interests, culture lag, technology, Luddites IN THE INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Additional Lecture Ideas: Prostitutes’ Rights (16-2); Changes in the Family (16-3); Amish and Social Change (16-4); Legalization of Marijuana (16-7) Classroom Discussion Topics: Social Movement Speaker (16-1) Student Research and Assignments: Social Change Theory; Social Change—A Classic Look; Gay Marriage Movement Video Resources: Ballad of Greenwich Village; Bill Moyers Journal; Empowerment and Social Justice; Grass; The Idea Makers; Let Freedom Ring; The Men’s Movement; My American Neighbor; 9 to 5 No Longer; Upstream Battle REEL SOCIETY VIDEO Topic Index: Social Movements 4. How will technology affect social life in the future? IN THE TEXT Key Terms: transnationals; computer-assisted communication Boxes: Research Today: The Internet’s Global Profile, Organizing for Controversy using Computer-assisted Communication Additional Lecture Ideas: Futurists (16-5); Virtual Reality (16-6) Student Research and Assignments: Surgery and Virtual Reality LECTURE OUTLINE Introduction I. Social Movements • Social movements refer to organized collective activities to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society. • Social movements imply the existence of conflict. Example: Contraceptives. A. Relative Deprivation • Relative deprivation is the conscious feeling of negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities. Relatively deprived people are dissatisfied because they feel downtrodden relative to some appropriate group. Example: Blue-collar workers who are surrounded by white-collar persons or images. • In order for a social movement to occur, people must feel they have a right to their goals and that they deserve better. • A group will not mobilize into a social movement unless there is a shared perception that it can end its relative deprivation. • Critics charge that people do not have to feel deprived to act. B. Resource Mobilization • Resource mobilization refers to the ways in which a social movement utilizes resources such as money, political influence, access to media, and workers. • As people become part of a social movement, norms develop to guide their behavior. Example: New words or special language. • Leadership is central to mobilization. • Karl Marx stressed the importance of recruitment to promote awareness of being oppressed. C. Gender and Social Movements • Gender bias causes the extent of women’s influence in social movements to be overlooked. • Sociopolitical systems tend to focus on male-dominated corridors of power. Example: Legislatures and corporate boardrooms. D. New Social Movements • Refers to organized collective activities that address values and social identities as well as improvements in the quality of life. • Educated, middle-class people are significantly represented in new social movements. Example: Women’s movements, and gay and lesbian rights. • The environmental social movement is one of many movements that have adopted a worldwide focus, exemplifying the global nature of new social movements. II. Communications and the Globalization of Collective Behavior • Impact of the latest technology on various forms of collective behavior is of interest to sociologists. Example: Electronic enhancement of established social movements, or computer-mediated communication (CMC) which have been used to mobilize people as in the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movements. A. Functionalist Theory • Functionalists view collective behaviors and/or social movements as temporary disruptions in the status quo rather than as significant alterations in social structure. B. Conflict Theory • Social movements are needed to correct social injustices and inequalities. III. Resistance to Social Change • Efforts to enact social change are likely to meet with resistance. Resistance may be due to economic or cultural factors (i.e., protection of one’s investments) and/or reluctance to use or fear of technology. IV. Social Policy and Globalism: Transnationals A. The Issue • Transnationals are immigrants who sustain multiple social relationships that link their societies of origin with their societies of settlement B. The Setting • As of 2012, 214 million people, or about 3 percent of the world’s population, were international migrants. That is more than double the number in 1970. The rest of the world’s population were “stayers”—that is, people who continued to live in the countries where they were born. • Globalization has changed the immigrant experience as well as the labor market. In generations past, immigrants read foreign language newspapers to keep in touch with events in their home countries. Today, the Internet gives them immediate access to their countries and kinfolk. In this global framework, immigrants are less likely than they were in the past to think of themselves as residents of just one country, hence the emergence of the concept of transnationals. C. Sociological Insights • Functionalists see the free flow of immigrants, even when it is legally restricted, as one way for economies to maximize their use of human labor. • Conflict theorists charge that globalization and international migration have increased the economic gulf between developed and developing nations. • Interactionists are interested in the day-to-day relationships transnationals have with the people around them, from those of their country of origin to those of the host country and fellow workers from other countries. These scholars are studying transnationals’ involvement in local ethnic organizations, to see whether their membership facilitates or retards their integration into the host society. D. Initiating Policy • As we saw in the case study of Dubai, immigrant laborers often face difficult living and working conditions. Some sending countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, have created national agencies to ensure the protection of their workers abroad. • Another unresolved transnational issue is voter eligibility. Not all nations allow dual citizenship; even those countries that do may not allow absent nationals to vote. • Finally, the controversial issue of illegal immigration has yet to be settled, perhaps because of culture lag. KEY TERMS Computer-mediated communication Communicative interaction through two or more networked devices, such as a computer or cell phone. The term applies to a variety of text-based or video interactions, including e-mails, chat rooms, and text messages, some of which may be supported by social media. Culture lag The period of maladjustment when the nonmaterial culture is still struggling to adapt to new material conditions. Equilibrium model A functionalist concept which posits that as changes occur in one part of society, adjustments must be made in other parts. Evolutionary theory The view that society is moving in a definite, progressive direction. False consciousness A term used by Karl Marx to describe an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position. Luddites A term used to describe 19th century craft workers in England who rebelled against new technology. New social movement An organized collective activity that addresses values and social identities, as well as improvements in the quality of life. Relative deprivation The conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities. Resource mobilization The ways in which a social movement utilizes such resources as money, political influence, access to the media, and personnel. Social change Significant alteration over time in behavior patterns and culture, including norms and values. Social movement An organized collective who undertake activities to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society. Technology Cultural information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and wants. Transnationals Immigrants who sustain multiple social relationships that link their societies or origin with their societies of settlement. Vested interests A term coined by Thorstein Veblen to refer to those people or groups who will suffer in the event of social change. ADDITIONAL LECTURE IDEAS 16-1: Why Do People Join Social Movements? There are numerous organized efforts in the United States to bring about or prevent social change. Why do people join some movements and not others? Are some factors more significant in explaining recruitment to one type of social movement as opposed to another? Sociologist James M. Jasper and Han D. Poulsen of New York University collected data at protests to learn more about why people join each of two different social movements—animal rights and anti-nuclear power. They sampled the people present at the protest at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in August 1984, people at a rally of about 1,000 people protesting experiments on monkeys at New York University in April 1988, and those at a rally of 100 people opposed to animal experimentation at the University of California, also in April 1988. Some of the surveys were completed at the protest; others were distributed and returned by mail later to the researchers. At each of the three protests about one-third of the demonstrators completed the questionnaire. The activities at the three protests were similar: speeches accompanied by chanting or picketing, followed by a small group of those present offering themselves for arrest by blocking roads or entrances. The duration of the events ranged from one to three hours. Based on the review of the literature, one would hypothesize that preexisting social networks are the most significant factor that leads new members to join together for a particular social cause. Beginning with Karl Marx, who outlined the necessary conditions for the proletariat to revolt, numerous social scientists have pointed out that the physical concentration or gathering of those with a common grievance is a prerequisite for social action. Thus, it is hypothesized that previous personal contact with someone in the movement is the most important factor in explaining a person’s involvement. Prior activism or the value of political activity helps to make this contact more likely and increase the tendency to affiliate with a social protest activity. Jasper and Poulsen asked the protesters to estimate the importance of personal networks in recruitment activities. They found that the relative importance of social networks differed between the two groups. Very Important Somewhat Important Not Important Anti-nuclear sample 51% 29% 19% Animal rights sample 31% 22% 47% The hypothesis appears to be confirmed with the demonstrators against nuclear power but less so with animal rights activists. This latter group seemed to be motivated more by “specific events” that had caused them to act and to come to the protests even without friends. Among those in the animal rights sample, 72 percent had found “things they read” to be “very important.” For example, one animal rights protester said, “I remember my first photos of cats being tortured in experiments; it was at a table on Fifth Avenue in 1987. I didn’t know anybody in the movement—in fact I thought they were a bunch of weirdos. But they were right about animal torture.” (p. 501) Although they sampled a third of the participants of each of three relatively large protests, the authors acknowledge that a single group of protestors cannot fully represent an entire movement. So they went beyond their questionnaires, conducted interviews with people active in the movement, and did content analysis of movement publications and leaflets. This all served to confirm that the network hypothesis held true for anti-nuclear power but not for animal rights activists, who seemed more affected by experiences or information they had come by personally. Both movements emphasize a human relationship with the environment and view technology as being out of control, but the anti-nuclear power mobilization effort depended more on personal networks. While the presence of nuclear power is obvious—there are the familiar cooling towers and the occasional story (fictional and nonfictional alike) of a nuclear “disaster”—the symbols are not nearly as familiar to people as animals are. Eighty percent of the animal protesters had pets, compared with 61 percent of all U.S. households. Comparisons to their animal friends were obvious, as one New Jersey activist recalls: “But I went by a table one day and saw these terrifying pictures. That’s what goes on inside our country’s best, most scientific labs? There was a tabby [cat] that looked just like mine, but instead of a skull it has some kind of electrodes planted in its head. I thought about that a little bit, right there on the street, and I brought home all their literature. I decided, that’s gotta stop.” (p. 506) What Jasper terms these “moral shocks” are what first recruit strangers into some types of social movements such as animal rights. He and Poulsen help us to better understand the many factors that are involved in social movement mobilization, which is a more complex process than one of friends recruiting friends. Sources: James M. Jasper. The Art of Moral Protest: Cultural Dimensions of Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997; M. Jasper and Jane Poulsen, “Recruiting Strangers and Friends: Moral Shocks and Social Networks in Animal Rights and Anti-Nuclear Protests,” Social Problems 42 (November 1995): 493–512; David A. Snow, Louis A. Zurcher, Jr., and Sheldon Ekland-Olson, “Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment,” American Sociological Review 45 (1980): 787–801. 16-2: Prostitutes’ Rights In the view of its supporters, prostitution is a service industry, and prostitutes are professional sex workers. However, prostitution is illegal in most of the United States and around the world. Prostitutes are often arrested, though their clients generally are not. Given the common stigma attached to prostitution, it is no easy task to work for the rights of prostitutes. COYOTE (an acronym for “Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics”) was the first and remains the best-known of the prostitutes’ rights organizations in the United States. Established in 1973, COYOTE has grown into a national organization based in San Francisco, with branches and affiliates in at least 12 major cities in the United States and ties to similar organizations overseas. COYOTE and its allies advocate the repeal of all existing laws against prostitution, the reconstitution of prostitution as a credible service organization, and the legal protection of prostitutes as legitimate service workers. Activists in COYOTE view prostitution as a victimless crime and therefore favor full decriminalization of such consensual sexual activity. They flatly oppose legalization of prostitution, whether in the form of registration and licensing, special taxes, compulsory health examinations, or “red light districts.” COYOTE believes that any such regulations will inevitably perpetuate the stigma attached to prostitution while unfairly regulating what women do with their bodies. Sociologist Valerie Jenness suggests that COYOTE has had many successes. Among these are (1) holding conferences and leading demonstrations to raise public awareness concerning the rights of prostitutes, (2) persuading public defenders to assist women charged with prostitution, (3) pressuring government agencies to establish free health clinics for prostitutes, (4) building coalitions in support of prostitutes’ rights with certain feminist organizations, and (5) serving as a crucial link between sex workers and public health agencies as the AIDS crisis has intensified. By contrast, sociologist Ronald Weitzer points to the failures of the prostitutes’ rights movement. In his view, COYOTE and other activist groups have failed to shift public opinion (which remains hostile to prostitutes’ rights), there have been few significant legislative concessions, and movement leaders are rarely consulted by policymakers. Weitzer contends that the movement’s resource-mobilization efforts have been largely unsuccessful: The limited resources of activist organizations have not been supplemented by meaningful alliances with other social movements or more established interest groups. Nevertheless, Weitzer acknowledges that the prostitutes’ rights movement has enhanced the self-images of activists, while assisting individual prostitutes, attracting media attention, and winning certain legal battles. It is not easy to assess the success or failure of a social movement; indeed, sociologists do not agree about the criteria that should be utilized. In one study, sociologist William Gamson traced the activities of a representative sample of 53 social movements that emerged in the United States between 1800 and 1945. Gamson measured the relative success or failure of these movements by examining whether or not they gained new advantages and gained acceptance from their antagonists. He found that 31 of the social movements studied (58 percent) gained either new advantages or acceptance, while another 20 movements (38 percent) gained both. Judged against Gamson’s criteria, the prostitutes’ rights movement would thus far appear to be a movement (like 4 percent of those studies) that has not genuinely gained either new advantages or acceptance. Nevertheless, despite formal norms against prostitution and negative public opinion, the prostitutes’ rights movement has not disappeared, and it continues to work for what it sees as social justice. Sources: William A. Gamson. The Strategy of Social Protest (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1990; Valerie Jenness, “Can COYOTE Guard the Chicken Coop?” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, Cincinnati, 1991; Jenness, “In Search of Legitimacy: Prostitutes’ Rights Organizations and Contemporary Feminism.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Spokane, WA, 1992; Jenness. Making It Work: The Prostitutes’ Rights Movement in Perspective. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1993; Ronald Weitzer, “Prostitutes’ Rights in the United States: The Failure of a Movement,” Sociological Quarterly 32 (1)(1993): 23–41. 16-3: Changes in the Family: A Functionalist View In 1934 sociologist William F. Ogburn prepared a report for a Presidential Research Committee on Social Trends that dealt with the effects of social change on the functions of the family. Ogburn argued that the family has been altered by the process of differentiation identified by Parsons as an inevitable aspect of social change. Specifically, Ogburn discussed these functions of the family: 1. In colonial times, the family carried out its economic function entirely within the household. But in the twentieth century, while some Americans still bake their own bread or sew their own clothing, very few make their own soap or furniture, and family members no longer have to rely only on each other for economic security. 2. The family’s protective function has been turned over to outside agencies such as hospitals, mental health clinics, and insurance companies. 3. The family once played a major role in religious life. For example, it commonly read the Bible and sang hymns at home. Today, churches, synagogues, and other formal institutions of religion have assumed this function. 4. Similarly, whereas education once took place at the family fireside, it is now the responsibility of professionals working in schools and colleges. 5. Even the family’s recreational function has been transferred to outside groups such as youth organizations, athletic clubs, and community-sponsored recreation halls. The adaptive upgrading noted by Parsons is evident as the family’s responsibilities are shifted to religious schools, daycare centers, and even video arcades. 6. Ogburn identified a sixth function of the family, the conferring status, which has also been diluted in the twentieth century. In the past, membership in a particular family largely defined one’s status in a community and significantly influenced whom one would marry, where one would live, and what occupation one would pursue. Currently, because of geographical and social mobility, the family plays a much smaller role in determining one’s status and future within society. 7. Ogburn pointed to the status of the “family defunctionalization”—the loss of functions of the family unit—as a factor contributing to marital unhappiness and divorce. But he stressed that the family retains responsibility for the function of providing affection. It offers warm, intimate interactions that contribute to individual satisfaction and societal stability. By giving companionship and emotional support to its members, the family reduces social isolation and serves the interests of the larger society. See Ogburn and Clark Tibbits, “The Family and Its Functions.” In Recent Trends in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1934, pp. 661–778. 16-4 Amish and Social Change The Amish, numbering 100,000 people in the United States, are usually seen as resistant to social change. Traditionally, the Amish have taken great pains to stay apart from the world at large, not through self-segregation, but by rejecting many elements of twentieth-century life (from radio and air conditioning to movies and jewelry). Nevertheless, the Amish must plan for and control change. Jerry Savells conducted observation research among eight Amish communities during the 1980s. He interviewed not only Amish people but also non-Amish who had regular contact with the Amish as merchants, mail carriers, delivery personnel, and the like. Although isolated, the Amish do not live in a social vacuum. Indeed, they are surrounded by cultural, economic, and political changes and regularly interact with farmers, business leaders, and real estate dealers. Reviewing Savell’s research, we can identify the following areas in which the Amish accommodate social change but maintain the basic character, norms, and values of their distinctive subculture. • Employment. While the Amish seek to be self-supporting within their self-contained farmsteads, this is not always possible. Males sometimes commute to nearby towns or cities to accept employment. Occupations selected (e.g., carpentry or agriculture-related) are not hostile to Amish culture, and transportation is provided by non-Amish drivers. • Redefining boundaries. How should a subculture deal with innovations from the outside world when it is anxious to preserve its own character? How should it draw boundaries regarding what is acceptable? Some Amish people use cosmetics, but only creams; make-up would be considered too “worldly.” Dairy farmers in the Amish community must use diesel power to supply their barns (not their houses) with electricity to meet government standards for proper refrigeration of milk that will be sold commercially. A few have taken this accommodation a bit further: They use generators or bottled gas to operate household appliances (but will not run electrical lines to their dwellings). Because of the hard soil in one area of Oklahoma, some Amish farmers began using tractors. As a result, other members of the Amish community left the area in protest. • Politics. While Amish read and subscribe to newspapers and news magazines, they remain politically uninvolved. (In one election that Savells studied, less than 15 percent of adult males voted.) The Amish believe that, as part of a church, they must remain completely separate from government. The Amish do not view change or technology as inherently evil. But they do see elements of technology, such as the radio or the automobile, as sources of temptation (especially for the young) that can lead to conflict and social disharmony. Nevertheless, the Amish realize that they must make compromises and, in some instances, work within the dominant culture of the United States. As one Amish man remarked, “You cannot put a ship in the middle of the ocean and expect the deck to always stay dry” (Savells, 1990:16). Sources: Jerry Savells, “Social Change among the Amish in Eight Communities,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 13 (July 1990): 12–16; William M. Kephart and William Zellner. Extraordinary Groups: The Sociology of Unconventional Life-Styles (5th ed.). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994; “Some Amish to Use Tractors; Those Opposed May Leave Town,” New York Times (April 16, 1995): 20. 16-5: Futurists Futurists are people engaged in an organized study of the future. Futurist Herman Kahn once noted succinctly that in order to understand the future, “we find out what’s really happening and then we try to analyze what that means.” Social predictions can be made, in part, by assessing the social impact of technological and scientific changes. For example, in 1783, passengers traveled by stagecoach at six miles per hour. In 1883, they traveled on steam-powered railway trains at 60 miles per hour. Today, more than 20 million people travel routinely by plane at 600 miles per hour. Physicist and futurist Gerald O’Neill has estimated that in another 100 years, the typical passenger speed will be 6,000 miles per hour. We know that past advances in travel have facilitated cultural diffusion, immigration, political interdependence, and the rise of multinational corporations. It seems clear that further dramatic advances in transportation technology will reshape social relations and alter the major institutions of society. O’Neill believes that the five major sources of change in the twenty-first century will be computers, automation, energy, communications, and space colonies. The present generations of Americans have already been adjusting to rapid changes in the first four of these areas. Social change, whether brought about by technological advances or social movements, is a part of our present and will continue (if not accelerate) in the years ahead. Annually The Futurist publishes trends and forecasts for the United States or the entire world. See Gerald K. O’Neill. 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. See also Merrill Sheils, “The Cracked Crystal Ball,” Newsweek 94 (November 19, 1979): 133–135. An interesting example of applied futurism is to consider what an emerging culture in a moon colony might be like. Futurists suggest that a large lunar base may be established “in the not-too-distant future.” Once such space colonies may be established, a new type of human culture will inevitably develop. Management psychologist Philip Harris argues that we cannot simply impose one of earth’s cultures in space. The particular demands of life on the moon, for example, will contribute to new lifestyles, new values, and even new religions. In initially adapting to their new environment, settlers on a lunar colony will experience the disorientation, confusion, and anxiety characteristic of culture shock. On the most obvious level, lunar dwellers will face the awesome (and perhaps unsettling) sight of the earth—visible from their new home and yet far, far away. Another severe adjustment will involve day and night; the moon has 14 earth days of light followed by 14 earth days of darkness. The first settlers may find it difficult to cope with “nights” that last for weeks. Indeed, Harris speculates that some will respond with manic behavior similar to that exhibited by Swedes after the annual long periods of darkness in the Scandinavian nation. What of interpersonal relationships on the lunar colony? At first, these relationships are likely to focus around work responsibilities and professional positions, especially since most early settlers will be scientists, technicians, and communications experts. Over time, however, the colonists will have to decide whether to maintain the traditional norms of their native cultures regarding sexuality, family, and the like, or to turn to alternatives. If the lunar residents feel isolated from their homelands on earth, all relationships with other colonists may take on an unusual intensity. Moreover, given the likely importance of robotics on space colonies, human-machine interactions will become more significant than they have ever been on earth. Philip Harris predicts that the settlers may form emotional attachments to their robot helpers, especially as they become more humanlike. Finally, religion may well undergo changes on a lunar base. If the community has members from all over the earth, there are likely to be Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and adherents to other faiths thrown together in a demanding situation in which cooperative norms are essential. This may lead to a respectful religious pluralism, to evangelical efforts to convert settlers to one’s faith, or to the emergence of a new religion—a “cosmic consciousness” that draws on all the current religions on earth and integrates them into a belief system focused on the universe rather than on a single planet. No one knows, of course, what directions life on a space colony may take. But futurists and planners must consider these questions now, drawing on the expertise of sociologists, psychologists, and other social scientists, so that some of the difficulties of space culture can be addressed before they arise. See Philip R. Harris, “Living on the Moon: Will Humans Develop an Unearthly Culture?” The Futurist 19 (April 1985): 30–33, 35. 16-6 Virtual Reality Imagine putting on a helmet and stepping into a suit, complete with gloves and shoes. You are cut off from the real environment around you; through technology, sensations are transmitted to your body so that you feel as if you are swimming in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef or imitating a conversation with Mohammed or Jesus. Virtual reality is an interactive technology that creates an illusion of being immersed in an artificial world or being present in a remote location in the physical world (Rucker et al., 1992:25). Currently, virtual reality is utilized primarily as a form of entertainment. However, a 1992 murder trial used computer simulations to “show” the jury how the defendant allegedly committed the murder. Some observers expect that employers will someday use virtual reality to screen job applicants. Counselors, police officers, and teachers, among others, could be placed in virtual reality to test how well they perform in simulated work situations (Becard, 1993). We are only at the beginning of the possibilities and ethical dilemmas posed by virtual reality. This technological advance could be used to allow a person to indulge norm-defying or even criminal fantasies. Indeed, by the 1990s, computer software was available that allowed users to engage in activities that ridicule or trivialize women and minority groups. See André Bacard, “Technology and Society,” The Humanist 53 (March–April 1993): 42–43; Ruby Rucker, R.V. Sirius, and Queen Ma. Mondo 2000. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992. 16-7 Legalization of Marijuana NORML's mission (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) is to move public opinion sufficiently to achieve the repeal of marijuana prohibition so that the responsible use of cannabis by adults is no longer subject to penalty. The organization endorses the recreational, medical, and industrial use of hemp. According to the organization, marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Our public policies should reflect this reality, not deny it. Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet, "The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. ... It would be reasonable to judge cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol or tobacco." See Why Marijuana Should Be Legal by Ed Rosenthal, Steve Kubby, and S. Newhart. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. (2003) and Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics, by Rudolph J. Gerber. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing (2004). CLASSROOM DISCUSSION TOPICS 16-1. Social Movement Speaker: Invite a spokesperson for a local chapter of a national social movement, such as an officer of the National Organization for Women (NOW), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP), or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Have the representative describe the social history of the movement. 16-2. Student Social Movements in Beijing: Studies of student social movements focus on U.S. college campuses, but students are at the core of social movement participants globally. See Dingxin Zhao, “Ecologies of Social Movements: Student Mobilization during the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement in Beijing,” American Journal of Sociology 103 (May 1998): 93–99. 16-3. Social Movement Organizations: See Technique No. 2 in Edward L. Kain and Robin Neas (eds.). Innovative Techniques for Teaching Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, 1993. 16-4. Participation in Collective Behavior: Ask students to discuss situations in which they found themselves participating in one of the major forms of collective behavior listed in the text. How did they interpret their actions at the time? How do they interpret them now? TOPICS FOR STUDENT RESEARCH AND CLASSROOM DISCUSSION 1. Ask students to locate evidence of collective activities that are either encouraging or discouraging efforts by United States to halt terrorism, and discuss the approaches used in developing social movements. Answer: Collective Activities: Students should find examples of collective actions, such as rallies or online campaigns, that support or oppose U.S. counterterrorism measures. Discuss how these movements use different strategies, like advocacy or protest, to influence policy. 2. Ask students to research the Internet for websites that are intended to mobilize individuals regarding certain behaviors or activities, and discuss the connection between technology and collective behavior. Answer: Technology and Mobilization: Research websites and social media platforms that mobilize people for specific causes or behaviors. Discuss how technology facilitates collective behavior by increasing communication and organizing capabilities. 3. Ask students to identify any organizational or corporate sponsored media information that is designed to dissuade the viewer from the traditional view on a particular issue, and discuss society resistance to social movements. Answer: Corporate Media: Identify media campaigns funded by organizations or corporations that challenge traditional views on issues. Discuss how these campaigns reflect resistance to social movements and influence public opinion. 4. Ask students to search for evidence of social groups developing an emergent norm regarding the 2003 Iraq war, and discuss the emergent norm perspective. Answer: Emergent Norms: Find evidence of how social groups formed new norms or perspectives regarding the 2003 Iraq war. Discuss the emergent norm perspective, which explains how new norms develop during collective behavior. 5. Ask students to research how rumors of bioterrorism might create massive social movements, and discuss Neil Smelser’s elements of the value-added model that leads to collective behavior. Answer: Bioterrorism Rumors: Research how rumors about bioterrorism could trigger large-scale social movements. Discuss Neil Smelser’s value-added model, focusing on how conditions like structural strain and precipitating factors contribute to collective behavior. SERVICE LEARNING ACTIVITY Technology, especially the Internet, allows us to travel the world without leaving home. Globally, we can learn about pending social change and then examine the results after it arrives. We are living in a very unique period in the history of the world. While the pro’s and con’s of the Internet are constantly being debated, the use of this technology to become more aware of what is happening around the world is certainly a plus. As a service learning project for your campus, conduct the following exercise: Assemble a research team of students. Have them contact organizations such as the Brookings Institute and catalog the major global changes that are predicted to occur in the next few years. Have students contact local citizens or students on campus from the countries in question and get their opinions. Have them get information from professors around the campus about what organizations the students should contact or consult. In an effort to add more depth to campus publications, this information will be submitted as an article for publication. It could also be submitted to the local community newspaper. Students may also become a part of international student organizations on campus. This is often a valuable outlet for discussing social change and the global community. Instructor Manual for Sociology in Modules Richard T. Schaefer 9780078026812, 9780071318419