Identifications Of Medicalization: A Case Study Of Sociology

Sociology Final
Identifications:
1. Medicalization: Medicalization is defined as “the process by which problems or issues not traditionally seen as medical, come to be framed as such.” (pg.416). Medicalization includes various examples in which we are presented with on a daily basis. Take obesity for example, it is commonly labeled onto people who are overweight. In May of 2013, it officially became categorized as a disease all over the world by the American Medical Association. This so called “disease” can be said that it runs within the family so therefore it is in one’s genes to be obese. Obesity can be treated by changing eating habits and exercising more often so that one can get healthy.
2. Tracking: Tracking is how students are placed/categorized
into certain classes because of particular tests they have taken or what they plan to do in the future. As discussed in lecture on May 29, 2018, tracking is supposed to create a better learning environment. An example of this can be the Placement and Advisory exam which is given before beginning college. As defined on the official UCR website, the analytical writing and placement exam (English Exam) is used to “place first year students into the appropriate composition course”. The Mathematics advisory exam has the same purpose, “place first year students into an appropriate mathematics course”. These classes are set up so that you don’t have someone who is knowledgeable in that English/math while others don’t know anything.
Short Answers:
1.
Mumford defines the city as “a theater of social action”, (taken from Architectural record, 1937).” Mumford overlooks the physical parts of a city and rather sees it as a “social institution” where social networks can be built. He directly says that “the city creates the theater and is the theater” (Mumford,1937). The city creates “drama” while a suburb lacks it. Mumford states that” Without the social drama that comes into existence through the focusing and intensification of group activity there is not a single function performed in the city that could not be performed.” This is where the physical comes into play. The physical organization can make the drama drop or increase. Everything found within the city; politics, art, education, and commerce only adds to the drama and gives it a better plot, so to say. He then goes on to exemplify how the environments role in this so called theater is that it is a properly designed stage and makes the performances of the actors on it better. All of this is taken into consideration when one is determining factors such as the layout of the city and the things that comprise this- size, area and density. The social aspect creates various opportunities. Louis Wirth believed that there was something distinct about residing in a city that changes the way people interact and behave with one another. In particular living in a city causes something to our way of life and even our personalities. According to Wirth a city was distinguish
by the population size but since he believed that there were more factors to be considered when defining a city, he argued that density, and social heterogeneity (various ethnic and racial clusters that compose a place) were the other components needed. He defined it as a “relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals” Wirth 2001[1938]: 98.
Wirth and Mumford had their differences and similarities, but mainly differences. Louis Wirth tried to avoid labeling a city under urbanism as a way of life as much as possible while Lewis Mumford is the one who influenced “New Urbanism”. Mumford also defines the city in a much more artistic way (people and neighborhood are the “drama” and city is the “theater”) than Wirth does. A similarity that both Wirth and Mumford posses is that a city had limited space. In addition to this, they also agreed on the fact that social relations consisted of groups such as neighborhoods, families, and associations.
I personally think that Mumford’s argument on the definition of a city is far more convincing than Wirth.
To start off with, what caught my eye about Mumford’s argument was that he used a more artistic approach. Both of his structures; primary and secondary structures are dependent on each other. The primary being the neighborhoods and families and the secondary is composed of the politics, schools, arts...etc.. He believed that the residents are the ones who keep the secondary structures going. I fully agree with this. For example, without the people we might not have school teachers or art classes. These activities which are fostered by the people are what make the city so different from a suburb which might not have all
these.
2. Max Weber distinguished legitimate authority into 3 different types; rational-legal, traditional, and charismatic. Traditional authority “rests on appeals to the past or traditions” (Conley 578) but Weber noted that it is influenced “by virtue of age-old rules and power”. It is common in the west and thought of as a patriarchy and we don’t usually question it because it has always been done in a certain way. It is given its legitimacy by the custom. For example, I have noticed that my sister has picked up a lot of the parenting skills my parents had. The older I get aswell, the more I notice my sister and I becoming and doing things my mom does, yet we don’t question it. Charismatic authority as defined in the book “You May Ask Yourself” by Dalton Conley “rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader” (Conley 577). Charismatic leaders are the ones we worship. The charisma can either be good or bad. We give them their legitimacy because we believe in their ability to reveal social life to us. We do what they tell us to do because we want to appease them. For example, Jesus was a charismatic leader, people want something to follow and believe and after all if you are a Christian believer, you believe that he created man and earth. An example of negative charismatic authority can be Hitler.
The last type of authority is legal-rational authority which is “based on legal, impersonal rules” (Conley 579). This type of authority can be thought more in terms of contemporary society today. They are our elected leaders, we put them where they are, and their status as elected leaders allows them to rule us. When we elect them, we anchor their legitimacy. The President of the United States possess this type of authority as we elect him. This type of authority is central to the rational society. In comparison to charismatic authority, traditional authority doesn’t have “problems of succession” (Conley 579). I feel like charismatic authority and legal rational authority go hand in hand. When we look to elect we look for a charismatic leader that will make our government better.
3. Merton’s Strain Theory tends to be a functional theory. There are different groups of people he classifies people that encompass deviant or non-deviant behavior. Deviance depends on two criteria: whether we accept the means and goals of societies or not. Conformists accept the means that it takes to achieve the goals. For example, earning money is a cultural accepted goal within America and many other parts of the world. This is done by getting a proper education and a job. We accept the means (going to school and getting a job) to obtain the goal (getting money). Another ideal type that Merton discusses is the ritualist, “a person who rejects socially defined goals but not the means” (Conley 205). In comparison to the conformist, money isnt really their biggest want/need, but they are willing to work hard and get an education and work really hard. They accept the means but reject the goals. This group of people are considered deviant, even though they are not breaking the law, they are still not fully conforming to means and goals. An example of this can be teachers- they work the career they choose because they felt a strong calling to the work. The money isnt the reason they chose this job. The goal of making money isn’t what they internalized, theyre deviant because they’re going against society. In comparison to the ritualist who accepts the means but rejects the goal, this person does the complete opposite, they accept the goal but reject the means (getting an education and working hard). Instead this person starts working around the system. This is where the deviant behavior may border criminal and sometimes turns into criminal behavior. For example, a drug dealer has accepted that he wants the goal of having money but might not have gone to school or worked for money as others do. Another example of this would be a bank robber. I believe that I am a conformist. I believe this because I have set my goals of wanting to be a lawyer I am trying to achieve the goal I have set by working hard and I am going to start studying for the bar so that I can get the highest score I am capable of.
4. The first type of social movement is alterative social movement. This type of social movement “seeks the most limited societal change and often target a narrow group of people” (Conley 705). This type of social movement is usually only worried about one issue at hand. It aims to change a small group’s behavior. For example, people who text and drive. This type of social movement is the least threatening. An example of this movement would be the It Can Wait movement which was started by AT&T mobile company. This movement targets those who text and drive. This movements main motto is that “No text is worth a life, #itcanwait” (AT&T). The next type of social movement is the reformative social movement which “advocates for limited social change across the entire society” (Conley 707). This type of doesn’t try to destroy the system, instead they just try to