Dimensions of Human Behavior: Person and Environment

1. Dimensions of Human Behavior: Person and Environment Chapter 9 Social Institutions and Social Structure

2. KEY POINTS ADDRESSED • Social Inequality by the Numbers • Social Institutions and Structure Defined • Global and National Trends • Family/Kinship • Religion • Education • Government/Politics • Economy • Social Welfare • Health Care • Mass Media • Theories of Social Inequality • Marx versus Weber • Functionalism versus Conflict • Human Agency versus Structural Determinism Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

3. Social Inequality by the Numbers GLOBALLY • Average incomes in the world’s richest regions was three times greater than that of incomes in the poorest regions 200 years ago, nine times greater 100 years ago, and 20 times greater in 1998 • Societies with high levels of inequality: • make smaller investments in public education and other social supports. • have higher levels of violence, less trust and more hostility • lower levels of involvement in community life Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

4. Social Inequality by the Numbers (cont) NATIONALLY • The United States is the highest-income country in the world but the most unequal society in the advanced industrial world. • From 1970 to 2001, the gross domestic product grew by 158% and the nation’s social health declined by 38% • All but one of the 19 advanced industrialized countries have longer life expectancy • U.S. has the highest childhood mortality rate of the 19 countries • 13 have higher rates of secondary education (UNICEF, 2006). • 6 countries with least inequality have considerably have higher rates of secondary education Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

5. Social Inequality by the Numbers GLOBALLY • Average incomes in the world’s richest regions was three times greater than that of incomes in the poorest regions 200 years ago, nine times greater 100 years ago, and 20 times greater in 1998 • Societies with high levels of inequality: • make smaller investments in public education and other social supports. • have higher levels of violence, less trust and more hostility • lower levels of involvement in community life Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

6. A Slow Climb Forward • In the 1940s, the median income of black families was about 50% of the median income of white families, and in 2005, the median income of black families was 61% of non-Hispanic white families • Between 1959 and 2005, the percentage of the population 65 years and older living in poverty decreased from about 35% to about 10% • The proportion of the population under 18 years living in poverty showed a smaller decrease in this same period, from about 27% to about 18% • Since 1974, the poverty rate for persons under 18 has been higher than for the group 65 and over Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

7. Social Institutions “Patterned ways of solving the problems and meeting the requirements of a particular society” • Social institutions organize rights and duties into statuses and roles and identify the expected behaviors for the roles • Social Institutions organize social relations in a particular sector of social life Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

8. Major Social Institutions and Specific Requirements of Social Life Addressed Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

9. Social Structure • Another term for society • A set of interrelated social institutions developed by human beings to impose constraints on human interaction for the purpose of the survival and well-being of the collectivity Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

10. Globalization The “process through which people’s lives all around the world become increasingly interconnected - economically, politically, environmentally, and culturally” Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

11. Consider: The formal definitions of social institution and social structure and globalization • Use your own words to explain what these concepts mean to someone who is not familiar with sociological terms. • Use the Meza family’s situation to illustrate the concepts. • Explain why the conflict perspective is helpful in understanding the various implications of different types of social institutions and social structure. Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

12. Trends in Family and Kinship GLOBALLY • Modified extended family • Mass migration • Feminization of wage labor NATIONALLY • Unmarried cohabitation, delayed marriage, declining fertility, high divorce, increased life expectancy • Greater valuing of autonomy and self-direction, as opposed to obedience and conformity, in children • Equalization of power between men and women • Impact on Social Inequality: • Global gender wage gap • Increased economic opportunities for some • Ongoing backlash and political fear campaigns Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

13. Trends in Religion GLOBALLY • More diverse • Violent contests occur within and between religious traditions NATIONALLY • Christianity dominant within the United States • Intense culture wars between the traditionalists and the modernists Impact on Social Inequality Conflict centering on the definition of family, role of women, the beginning and end of life, same sex relationships, prayer in school, and creation Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

14. Trends in Government and Politics GLOBALLY • Neocolonialism • Collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of the European Union • Upward flow of power from nation states to worldwide organizations NATIONALLY • Downward movement of power to the states, devolution, new federalism • Outsourcing through privatization, contracting out, deregulation Impact on Social Inequality: Inequality has grown around the world, but nowhere at the same high rate as in the United States Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

15. Trends in the Economy GLOBALLY • Development of transnational corporations • Corporate desire for bigger profits that come from cheap raw materials and cheap labor • Consumer desire for cheap and novel products • Wage labor bifurcatation NATIONALLY • Increase in contingent, peripheral workforce • Corporate downsizing • Work intensification • Limited protection by organized labor Impact on Social Inequality: Rich nations have been getting richer; a few nations have made impressive gains; most poor nations have made few gains; and the poorest nations have lost ground Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

16. Trends in Education GLOBALLY • Reduced funding for educational levels in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, and a widening gap in average years of education between rich and poor countries NATIONALLY • Reduced public resources for education in low-income areas coupled with increased ability of upper-income families to supplement from private resources • Escalating cost of college education • Shortage of teachers trained to teach English language learners Impact on Social Inequality: The education institution is becoming a prime force in perpetuating, if not exacerbating, economic inequalities Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

17. Trends in Social Welfare GLOBALLY • Aging population • Labor market insecurities make families more dependent • World Bank and IMF required poor countries to reduce social spending in the face of rising numbers of orphans of the AIDS pandemic • Increasing evidence of the importance of the early years NATIONALLY • Diminishing sense of public responsibility and an increasing emphasis on individual responsibility • Less generous public support to families than other countries • Provision of social welfare services in “public-private partnerships” • Greater attention to social control than to social reform Impact on Social Inequality: Increase in child poverty rates but not older adult poverty rates in the 1990s Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

18. Trends in Health Care GLOBALLY • Global inequalities in child and adult mortality are large and growing • Infectious and parasitic diseases are rampant in poor countries NATIONALLY • The only affluent country with no universal health plan • Rapid growth in therapeutic medicine • An increased emphasis on culture • Cost containment through “consumer-driven health care” • Provider-based cost containment (managed care) • Bioscience knowledge and bioscientific technology more sophisticated and beyond the reach of understanding of non-scientists Impact on Social Inequality: Socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and poverty seen as the driving force behind growing health disparities Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

19. Trends in Mass Media GLOBALLY • Worldwide immediate access to different cultures and different markets • Widespread access to multiple forms of mass communication • Media companies targeting a global market to sell product NATIONALLY • Growth in media outlets and media products • More time and money spent on media products • Integration of media functions • Concentration of ownership • Impact on Social Inequality: • Stereotypical media presentations of minority groups • Control of cultural meanings to benefit elites and silence dissident views • Unequal access to Internet serves to perpetuate social class standing Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

20. Thinking about Theory • In the conservative thesis, inequality is the natural, divine order, and no efforts should be made to alter it. • In the radical antithesis, equality is the natural, divine order; inequality is based on abuse of privilege and should be minimized. Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

21. Marx Class differences based on exploitation and domination by the owners of production and alienation among the workers Social class as a central variable in human behavior and a central force in human history Class consciousness—the awareness of one’s social class and hostility toward other classes – motivates peopleto transform society Weber Class division based on “life chances” in the marketplace Life chances reflect the distribution of power within a community, including economic power, social prestige, and legal power Life chances fall on a continuum Great variability found along the continuum reflects the multiple sources of power Classical Theories Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

22. Functional Theories Structural inequality and social classes necessary for society Unequal rewards for different types of work Guarantee that the most talented persons will work hard and produce technological innovation to benefit the whole society Poverty caused by traditional attitudes and the failure to modernize Conflict Theories Emphasize the role of power, domination, and coercion in the maintenance of inequality Persons with superior wealth and income also hold superior social and political power Persons with superior wealth use their power to protect their privileged positions Contemporary Theories Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures

23. Consider: • What is structuration theory and why is it a preferred framework for social work practice? • What is neoliberalism and why is it the dominant economic philosophy today? • How does the World Systems perspective differ from neoliberalism? Chapter 9: Social Institutions and Structures