UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY & POLITICS

Fourth Quarter Reviewer

Mr. Jan Erven Ganacias

❖ Definition
a. Non-Conformity to social norms
b. A behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.
c. Socially constructed
d. Can only be understood within its social context (i.e. Don’t define the acts of Rizal to the standards
of the present.)
e. Varies from group to group and overtime
f. Some acts are deviant at one time and place and not at others
g. An individual’s status or group may be defined as a deviance
h. Note: Immorality does not equate to deviance.

❖ Misconceptions
a. Some acts are inherently deviant (based on context)
b. Those who deviate are socially identified and recognized.
c. Deviants purposely and knowingly break the law.
d. Deviance occurs because there is dishonest, selfish element to human nature.

❖ Explaining Deviance
a. Functionalist Perspective
i. Deviance is a common part of human existence with positive & negative consequences for
social stability
ii. Deviance helps to define the limits of proper behavior
1. Drug Addiction is a deviance.
a. Poverty is the result of the problem not the cause.
b. Social stereotypes in judging situations
iii. Emile Durkheim’s “anomie”
1. Loss of direction felt in society when social control of individual behavior has become
ineffective
2. State of normlessness that typically occurs during a period of profound social change
and disorder, such as time of economic collapse
3. Punishments established within a culture help to define acceptable behavior and thus
contribute to stability
iv. Robert Merton
1. Deviation results from non-acceptance of cultural goals or legitimate means
Merton’s Strain Theory
Cultural/Societal Goals
Institutional Means Examples
Goal: To gain economic success
Conformism Accept Accept Students who study hard.
Innovation Reject Accept Students who copy hard.
Rejected the goal but not a
nuisance to society.
A beggar not getting angry for
Ritualism Accept Reject not being given money.
Doesn’t care about the grade.
Fatalists – put their fates in
God’s hands
Terrorists
Retreatism Reject Reject Doesn’t want to pass but
bothers classmates.
Communists, Bill Gates –
Rebellion Reject + Alternative Reject + Alternative earned economic success
without earning a degree
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 b. Symbolic Interaction Theory
i. Differential Association/Cultural Transmission Theory
1. Proponent: Edwin Sutherland
2. Holds that deviance results from exposure to attitude favorable to criminal acts
ii. Labeling Theory
1. Proponent: Howard S. Becker
2. Deviance results from the response of others
3. For Becker, “deviant behavior is behavior that people so label”
iii. Self-Esteem Theory
1. People choose deviance or conformity depending on which will do the most to
enhance their self-esteem
iv. Control/Social Disorganization Theory
1. Proponent: Travis Hirschi
2. Deviance arises from particular social arrangements, specifically, the inability of
society to control adequately the activities of its members
3. Weak of social ties & Absence of social control = deviance
v. Rational Choice
1. Based on the idea that when individuals make decisions, they calculate the costs and
benefits to themselves.
2. Cost > Benefit
3. i.e. Du30’s big punishment against drug users.
vi. Primary Deviance – occasional breaking of norms that are not a part of a person’s lifestyle or
self-concept
vii. Secondary Deviance – deviance in which an individual’s life and identity are organized
through breaking the norms
viii. i.e. Prostitution is caused by poverty therefore we should remove the social stratification.
c. Conflict Perspective
i. Laws and punishments as reflecting the interests of the powerful
ii. Deviation results from social inequality
iii. Criminal law does not represent a consistent application of social values, but instead reflects
competing values and interests.
iv. Do not follow the law because they see the flaw. Laws that do no reflect the interest of
everybody but only protect the powerful.

❖ Definition: Refers to the techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
❖ Types
a. Informal – carried out casually by ordinary people through such means as laughter, smiles and
ridicule (i.e. stories about ghosts, cockroaches, religion, baduy)
b. Formal – carried out by authorized agents such as police officers, judges, school administrators,
and employers
❖ Levels
a. Conformity – going along with peers (individuals of our own status, who have no special right to
direct our behavior)
b. Obedience – compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure
❖ Function: For deviance not to flourish
a. May result in: social problem or social change
b. Crime is a deviance. Remove the criminal law then there are no criminals.

❖ Social interaction  Social relationship  Social structure

❖ Definition:
a. Ways in which people respond to one another
b. i.e. face to face or over the telephone, or on the computer
c. Reaction – without a process / mechanical action toward a stimulus
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 d. Interaction – with a process / responding
e. Mechanical act of passing the pamasahe at a jeep is NOT a social interaction
f. Shapes the way we view the world around us
❖ Types
a. Cooperation – individuals and groups combine their efforts to reach a goal, work together to attain
the goal
b. Competition – each tries to achieve that goal before the other, work individually to attain the goal
c. Conflict – main purpose is the opponent
d. Coercion
e. Exchange
f. Conformity
❖ How do we respond to someone’s behavior?
a. Distinctive characteristics among people is that “human beings interpret or define each other’s
actions instead of merely reacting to each other’s actions” (Blumer)
b. Our response to someone’s behavior is based on the meaning we attach to his or her actions.
i. We cannot please everybody.
c. Reality is shaped by our perceptions, evaluations, and definitions.
i. The more social interactions, the more reality we see.
ii. Don’t judge others because their reality is different from ours.
d. Social reality is literally constructed from our social interactions. (Berger & Luckmann)

❖ Definition: refers to the way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships
❖ Structure is permanent and fixed. When everyone gets out, someone can just replace you.
❖ Elements:
a. Social Status – refers to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group of
society
i. Ascribed – assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or
characteristics (i.e. teenager, SC, daughter)
ii. Achieved – attained through one’s own effort
1. Naturalization for citizenship
b. Social Roles – set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status
i. Expected to perform the roles that is expected of a position or else you will be deviant
ii. Designs where you fit in society
iii. Each role has a boundary and he must perform the duties only within his role.
iv. If you occupy a status, you perform a role attached to that position.
v. i.e. Couples are composed of two roles and one bond. It is a permanent structure even if you
are not inhibiting it. You could be outside it but still it is there.
vi. i.e. Student’s Role: pay tuition fee, abide by the rules, etc.
vii. There are different status groups which have different signs and symbols that signify their
group (Max Weber)
viii. Types
1. Ascribed status – assigned according to things outside your control, born with (age,
gender, etc.)
a. Female, 20 yrs old, Daughter, Latina, Sister
2. Achieved status – role you achieve through own efforts
a. Occupation, college graduate, basketball player, wife, mother, etc.
b. Classmate, dormitory resident, employee, friend, student
c. One earned
3. Master status – one rank that determined your social identity
a. Can change throughout life
b. More important
c. Full-time mom, police officer, grandparent, Thomasian student, fangirl
4. Status symbols – material signs that inform others of a person’s specific status
a. Wearing a wedding ring proclaims that a person is married
5. Status holiday – living a lifestyle of a status group different from own status group
a. i.e. Starbucks group
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 ix. Reciprocal roles – define interaction with others
1. Cant be fulfilled alone
2. Doctor patent
3. Athlete coach
x. Role expectations – socially determined expected behaviors
xi. Role performance – actual role behavior that doesn’t
xii. Consequences
1. Role conflict – occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social
positions
a. Simultaneous entering of available social positions
b. What role to prioritize?
2. Role strain – difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting
demands and expectations
a. Expectation from a student:
i. Teacher: practice academic honesty
ii. Student: collaborative effort
3. Role exit (Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh, 1988) – process of disengagement from a
role that is central to one’s self identity in order to establish a new role and identity
a. Miley Cyrus’ exit from being Hannah Montana.
b. Stages
i. Doubt – unhappiness, burnout, frustrations
ii. Search for alternatives – leave of absence, temporary separation
iii. Action Stage / Departure – leave job, end marriage
iv. Creation of New Identity
c. Social Groups – any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact
with one another on a regular basis (Collections of people)
i. IMPT: interactions take place within a group influenced by their norms & sanctions
ii. Aggregate – no 2 & 3 – any number of people i.e. commute, mall, concert, elevator
iii. Group – has all 3
1. Primary – small with intimate, face to face association and cooperation (i.e. Family,
college sorority, close friends)
a. Freedom to deviate from social expectations
2. Secondary group – formal, impersonal with little social intimacy or mutual
understandings (workplace, class)
a. Size – Small, Big
b. Relationship – Personal, Impersonal
c. Intimacy – intimate, little intimacy
d. Level of formality – Informal, formal
e. Formal organization – group designed for a special purpose and structured
for maximum efficiency
i. Colleges, corporations, hospitals
f. Bureaucracy – component of formal organization that
i. Characteristics
1. Division of labor – produces efficiency in a large-scale
corporation
a. Produces trained incapacity (expert only in the field)
b. Produces a narrow perspective
2. Hierarchy of authority – clarifies who is in command
a. Deprives voice in decision-making
b. Permits concealment of mistake
3. Written rules and regulation – expectations from workers
a. Stifle initiative and imagination
b. Lead to goal displacement
4. Impersonality – if you commit a mistake, you are subjected
to consequences
a. Contributed to feelings and alienation
b. Discourages loyalty to company

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 5. Employment based on technical qualifications –
discourages favoritism and reduces petty rivalries
a. Discourages ambition to improve oneself elsewhere
b. Fosters Peter’s principle
3. In-group – (we feelings) any groups or categories to which people feel they belong,
exclusive group demanding intense loyalty (clique)
4. Out-group – (they feelings) any groups or categories to which people feel they do
not belong; group targeted by in-group for opposition, antagonism, or competition
5. Reference group – any group that individuals use as standards for evaluation their
own behavior
a. If one wants to be a part of a group, he will act, behave like them as his
reference group.
6. Coalition – a temporary or permanent alliance geared towards a common goal (i.e.
political party)
iv. Social collectivity – has no 3 – short lived / temporary interaction
1. Team – group
2. Fans – social collectivity
v. Social Category – has no 3
d. Social Networks – series of social relationships that links directly a person to others, and through
them indirectly to still more people
i. Networking: involvement in social network
ii. Valuable skill when job-hunting
e. Virtual world – with advances in technology, people cam maintain social networks electronically
f. Social Institution – group
i. Organized pattern of belief and behavior centered on basic social needs
ii. Family, religion, education, economy, government, health care system, mass media, sports,
military
iii. We are social animals – social by nature – thus we need relationships & interaction.
iv. Institutionalization – created, organized, shared

❖ Proponent: George Ritzer

❖ Product of Rationality
a. Weber - bureaucracy  iron cage (no way out)
i. Things we have created using our rationality has enslaved us.
ii. i.e. We like the person posting, not the post itself.
b. Ritzer - McDonalds is used to understand society.  irrationality of rationality
i. No longer moving to bureaucracy but towards McDonaldization wherein the 5 dimensions of
rationality are present in almost all societies.

❖ Dehumanization
a. Loss of:
i. Flair of design and creation in cooking
1. Cooking is a way of art and a way of relating with nature (do not overstock)
2. You don’t need to think to cook in fast-foods. (i.e. flipping burger, timer, etc.)
3. Dehumanizing because we don’t think.
ii. Comfort of relationship in serving
1. Profit-oriented  quantity over quality
iii. Variety available in choice
b. Schools – there are different realities in Manila than in the province thus standardized tests are
irrational.

❖ Dimension of Rationality

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❖ Definition
a. A social unit usually consisting of one or two parents and their children
b. Can be defined as a set of people related by blood, marriage or some agreed-upon relationship, or
adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society
(Schaefer, 2011)
c. Household – group of individuals living under one roof and under one head (Merriam-Webster)

❖ Types
a. Affiliation
i. Family of Orientation – parents & siblings
ii. Family of Pro-Creation – spouse & children

b. Composition:
i. Nuclear – married couple + unmarried children living together
ii. Extended – relatives live in the same home as parents & children

c. Kinship patterns (state of being related to others & significance in terms of property, inheritance,
and emotional ties)
i. Patrilineal – father’s relatives are significant in terms of
ii. Matrilineal – mother’s relatives are significant
iii. Bilateral – both sides are equally important

d. Residence (where do we live)

i. Patrilocal – married couple lives with the husband’s parents
ii. Matrilocal – married couple lives with the bride’s parents
iii. Neolocal – married couple establishes a separate residence from both parents
iv. Avuncolocal – married couple lives near the groom’s maternal uncle
v. Bilocal – stay in both relatives house (not financially stable for marriage but has kids)

e. Authority patterns (who rules)

i. Patriarchal – males dominate in decision-making
1. Economic factor – person who makes money makes decisions
2. Skills – in terms of household chores, saving money
ii. Matriarchal – women have greater authority than men
iii. Egalitarian – spouses are regarded as equal (wives may hold authority in some areas,
husband in others)

❖ Marriage
a. Definition
i. A socially sanctioned sexual and economic union between men and women
(Howard and Hattis, 1992)
ii. State of being united to another person as a usually contractual relationship according to law
or custom
b. Disadvantage: No expiration date.
c. Advantage: Conjugal ownership of everything.
d. Forms
i. Monogamy – one woman & one man are married only to each other
1. Serial monogamy – individual can have several spouses in his/her lifetime but only
one spouse at a time
ii. Polygamy – individual can have multiple husbands and wives simultaneously
1. Polygyny – man has many wives at the same time
2. Polyandry – women has many husbands at the same time
a. Economic union: For brothers to no longer divide their inheritance & property.
3. Filipino-Catholics can be accused of:
a. Bigamy – commit polygamy
b. Adultery – extramarital affairs (sexual intercourse with someone who is not
your spouse)
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 c. Concubinage – having a concubine (mistress)
4. Filipino-Muslims are allowed up to 4 wives.
e. Courtship and Mate Selection
i. Universal stage preparatory to marriage
1. Western culture: Courtship  Engagement  Marriage
ii. Influence by norms and values of larger society no matter the location (Williams, 2011)
iii. Marriage is free but the wedding is expensive.
iv. Aspects of Mate Selection
1. Endogamy
a. Specifies the groups within a spouse must be found and prohibits marriage
with others
b. i.e. In the US, many people are expected to marry within their racial, ethnic,
or religious group, and are strongly discouraged or even prohibited from
marrying outside the group.
c. i.e. Sinocentrism of the Chinese
d. Intended to reinforce the cohesiveness of the group by suggesting to the
young that they should marry someone “of their own kind”
2. Exogamy
a. Requires mate selection outside certain groups, usually own family or certain
kinfolk
b. Incest taboo (cannot marry our siblings and our first cousins) – prohibits
sexual relationships between culturally specified relatives is common to all
virtually relatives
v. Theories on Mate Selection
1. Homogamy - “Like marries like”
a. Conscious or unconscious tendency to select a mate with personal’s
characteristics similar to one’s own
2. Heterogamy - “Opposites attract”
a. Tendency to select a mate different from one’s own
f. Legal Separation
i. Responsibility and rights are still shared
ii. Difference in residence
g. Annulment
i. Invalidates marriage contract
ii. Needs solid evidence and grounds for separation
iii. Repercussions
1. Expensive
2. Hassle (court schedules and gathering of evidence)
3. Defendant has more negative consequences than the plaintiff.
iv. PH: Only 95% of annulment cases are passed by the court
h. Divorce
i. Causes
1. Globalization and modernization
2. Women work  dual-income families
ii. Signature of two people separating the husband and wife  agreement

❖ Perspectives
a. Functionalist – family is a contributor to social stability (Ogburn & Tibbits)
i. Reproduction – save species
ii. Protection
iii. Socialization – who you are today is because of your family
iv. Regulation of sexual behavior – femininity or masculinity is because of our family
1. Gender is a social construct.
v. Affection and companionship
vi. Provision of social status – we are respected because of our family

b. Conflict
i. Family is a reflection of the inequality in wealth and power found in society
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 ii. Transmission of poverty or wealth across generations
c. Interactionist (Micro)
i. Focuses on family and intimate relationship
ii. i.e. Parents should be actively involved in child-rearing and seeing them naked from a young
age so they don’t feel unfamiliarity or malice when seeing their child in a certain age.
iii. i.e. When fathers are more involved with their children, the children have fewer behavior
problems, get along with others, and are more responsible. (Mosley & Thomson)
d. Feminist – family as perpetuator of gender roles

❖ Patterns and Trends

a. Adoption – a process that allows for the transfer of the legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges of
parenthood to a new legal parent or parents (Cole 1985 in Schaefer, 2011)
b. Dual-Income Families – family consisting of a wage-earning husband and a wife
c. Single-Parent Families – unwed or only one parent is present to care for the children
d. Stepfamilies – result of high rising divorce and remarriage
e. Cohabitation – living together without marrying (marriage is cheap, weddings are expensive)
f. Remaining Single
g. Marriage without children
h. Lesbian & Gay relationships

❖ Filipino Families
a. Usually have close family ties (take care of each other until we grow old)
b. Due to globalization, Filipinos start to send their parents to homes for the aged.

❖ Definition: Unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things (Durkheim, 1893)
a. Society is the source of religion because of the sacred and the profane
b. Sacred – encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and even fear
c. Profane – includes the ordinary and commonplace

❖ Sociological Perspective on Religion

a. Micro-level
i. Defines the spiritual world and gives meaning to the divine
ii. Provides an explanation for events that seem difficult to understand (to explain the
unexplainable)
iii. Provides consolation in times of fear and tension (see light in times of darkness)
b. Macro-level
i. Functionalism
1. Integrating society (societal glue  unites people)
a. Brings out the goodness in us
2. Providing social support
3. Promoting social change
4. Serves as standards of morality (i.e. Do not do unto others what you don’t what
others do unto you.)
ii. Conflict
1. Means of social control (i.e. instill fear)
2. Opium of society (Marx)  distorts reality
a. Communist countries don’t have religion (i.e. Russia, China, etc.)
b. Designed by Capitalists to blind the poor

❖ Components / Elements
a. Belief – statement to which members of a particular religion adhere
b. Ritual – practice required or expected of members of a faith
c. Experience – feeling or a perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality or of being
overcome with religious emotion

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❖ Classification
a. Monotheism – belief in one God
b. Polytheism – belief in many gods

❖ Form
a. Theism – supreme God, all powerful and all knowing
b. Animism – we are part of the supreme one; respect all creation because we all have spirit (i.e.
Shinto)

❖ World Major Religions

a. Buddhism
b. Hinduism
c. Abrahamic
i. Christianity – Isaac / Jesus is the messiah
ii. Islam – Messiah will come and save humanity (Torah)
iii. Judaism – oldest monotheistic religion, Isaac
1. Do not believe God is the messiah, but a prophet

❖ Religious Organizations
a. Ecclesia – includes most or all members of society and is recognized most or all members of
society and is recognized as the national or official religion (i.e. Protestant, Roman Catholic,
b. Denomination – large, religion that us not officially linked to the state or government (i.e. Iglesia,
Aglipay)
c. Sects – relatively small religious groups that has broken away from some religious organization go
renew what it considers the original vision of faith. It is often short-lived as some when become less
antagonistic to society resemble denominations. (i.e. Protestant, Aglipay, PBMA)
d. Cult (New Religious Movement) – generally small, secretive religious group that represents either a
new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith (i.e. Roman Catholic during the Byzantine
Empire, Rizalist)
i. Not be confused with occult (magic)

❖ Definition: Responsible for implementing and achieving society’s goals

❖ Types (Elman Service, 1962)

a. Band
i. Least complex
ii. Typically consists of 20-50 individuals who are usually related to one another by virtue of
kinship
iii. Chiefly based on foraging (hunting & gathering)
iv. Decision-making is often made by the entire group
v. Leadership is informal
vi. Egalitarian in social composition
vii. No poverty because everything is being shared.

b. Tribe
i. Consists of segmentary lineages (several lineages of bands)
ii. Marked by loyalty per family cluster or segment
iii. Less mobile than bands
iv. Most tribes are either horticultural or pastoral
v. Leaders are chosen based on individuals who are believed to possess special skills or
aptitudes that relate to the economic activity
vi. Economic system uses redistribution of commodities through the process of tribute
vii. No poverty because everything is shared

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 c. Chiefdoms
i. Consist of few local communities who subscribe to the power and rule of a leader who have
absolute power on them
ii. Tied with horticulture & pastoralism (similar to the tribe)
iii. Same economic process of redistribution through tribute collection

d. State
i. community of people more or less numerous in number
ii. Occupying permanent territory
iii. having a government of their own in which they render obedience
iv. Free from external control  sovereignty
v. ** Filipino citizen is by paper
vi. 3 Inherent Powers
1. Police power
a. “to serve and protect”
b. Since police is a government agency where our will is being exercised, we
are above the police.
c. Control violators of the agreement
2. Taxation: Legal stealing of government (Conflict Perspective)
3. Eminent Domain: Government has the power to take private property for public use.

e. Nation
i. Large group or collective of people
ii. Common characteristics attributed to them (i.e. language, tradition, mores, habits, ethnicity)
iii. ** Filipino national is by heart (practiced through words, actions, etc.) You could become a
citizen of a different country but you’re still a Filipino nation.

PHILIPPINE HISTORY
• Tribe – Ati tribe
• Chiefdom – Division of Panay into three barangays between Datu Sumakwel and others
• NOT A STATE:
o Official Colonization – arrival of Miguel Legazpi in 1565 (up to 1898)
o Cry of Balintawak
o June 12, 1898 – Aguinaldo declared Philippine Independence  no sovereignty
o Entrance of Americans
o Commonwealth  no sovereignty
• State (by paper not in application): July 4, Manuel Roxas  American declared us independence
• Filipino Nation – went through a process (combination of Insulares, Mestizo, Indio – Ilustrado & Mass)

❖ Politics
a. Theory, art and practice of government
b. Who gets what, when, and how (Lasswell, 1936)

❖ Government – an agency to which the will of the people is being exercised

a. Monarchy – headed by a single member of a royal member (i.e. king, queen, hereditary ruler)
b. Oligarchy – few individuals rule / law of the few (i.e. People’s Republic of China – run by elites)
c. Dictatorship – one person has nearly total power to make and enforce laws
d. Totalitarianism – virtually complete government control and surveillance over all aspects of
society’s social and political life (i.e. North Korea)
e. Democracy – government of, by and for the people
i. Etymology: demos meaning “the populace, common people” and kratia meaning “rule” (Gk.)
f. Can be:
i. Parliamentary – Executive + Legislative (Prime Minister) | Judicial
1. Prime Minister is the head of government
2. King/Queen/Emperor is the head of state
ii. Presidential – Executive (President)  Head of state and head of government
❖ Power
a. Definition:
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 i. Lies at the heart of politics
ii. Ability to exercise one’s will over others (Weber)
b. Social Contract
i. Evolved from state of nature (survival of the fittest)
ii. An agreement to maintain peace and order
iii. One ruler to maintain the contract:
1. Choose between us  democracy
2. Child of ruler  monarchy
iv. Components of being a person: life, liberty and property
v. Waive some rights to the contract for the contract to be responsible for them
vi. There are others that are not protected by the contract thus they no longer cooperate with
the government. (i.e. As Kadamay and members of the contract, they have the right to
demand something from the government. Their share was passed on to others)
vii. Every social relationship has a power equation (subordinate & master).

c. Sources (Weber):
i. Force – actual or threatened use of coercion to impose one’s will on others
ii. Influence – the exercise of power through a process of persuasion
iii. Authority – institutionalized power that is recognized by the people whom it is exercised
1. Traditional – conferred by custom and accepted practice
2. Rational-Legal – made legitimate by law
3. Charismatic – made legitimate by a leader’s exceptional personal or emotional
appeal to his or her followers

❖ Philippine Government - Jeep Analogy

a. Concept:
i. Unsafe, no seatbelt, passengers are blown off from side to side because of the force
ii. From WWII: machinery (surplus products from foreign countries) + body (Filipino)
b. Driver = President
i. Currently, the government is being controlled by the elites of the country.
ii. The driver earns money. But, instead of using his income for maintenance, he pockets it
instead.
iii. What’s the use of paying tax if it is not being used for social structures?
c. Passengers = Filipinos: dictate the goal but in reality, cannot work towards this common objective
d. Mga nakasabit: Supposedly, jeeps follow a “first come first serve” rule in seating but in reality,
comfortable seats are already reserved for people with authority
e. Passengers who do not pay but have the capacity to do so: Apathetic members of society who do
not take note of the significance their payment will be to reach the common goal.
f. Passengers who do not have the capacity to pay: Members of the society that are not given an
opportunity to earn by the government.
g. Barrier: External factors like people or institutions (i.e. World Bank, IMF, US, WTO, China) put
barriers on the road that made us turn in the other direction. It makes us question whether we should
continue our journey towards the goal or not.

❖ Definition:
a. The social institution through with the goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed.
b. Converts resources into products (goods and services)  scarcity
c. Makes use of means of production  1ST ERROR (urbanization of agricultural lands)
i. C-apital
ii. E-ntrepreneur
iii. L-and
iv. L-abor
d. Allocation & distribution in order to sustain the needs of people  2ND ERROR
i. Money is not a need but a means/medium to attain the need.
ii. Money can measure the distance of your relationship between a particular thing.

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❖ 5 Questions to Answer Scarcity
a. What to produce
b. How to produce
c. How much to produce
i. Can result to surplus (-producer) / shortage (-consumer)
ii. Law of Supply – if price goes up, supply goes up
iii. Law of Demand – if price goes up, demand goes down
iv. Equilibrium point
d. To/for whom to produce
e. At what price to produce
f. Capitalism – private institutions answer these questions (i.e. loombands)
g. Comman economy – government answers these questions
h. Poverty is a result of a failed economic system

❖ Capitalism / Market Economy

a. Means of production are held largely in private hands
b. Main incentive for economic activity is the accumulation of profits.
c. Adam Smith – Capitalism will only work if government is hands-off  Laissez-faire / Let alone

❖ Socialism / Command Economy

a. Means of production and distribution in a society are collectively rather than privately owned
b. Basic objective: meet people’s needs rather than to maximize profits.
c. Government is in total control of everything.

❖ Communism
a. Ideal type
b. All property is communally owned
c. No social distinctions are made on the basis of people’s ability to produce.

❖ Informal economy – transfers of money, goods, and services take place but are not reported to the
government.

❖ Nonmarket Institutions (goods & services ≠ cash)

a. Reciprocity
i. An exchange of goods or labor between individuals in a community.
ii. i.e. Direct barter or simultaneous exchange of goods
iii. i.e. Gift exchange where the return for goods given or labor rendered is delayed.
b. Transfer
i. A redistribution of income that is not matched by actual exchange of goods and services.
ii. i.e. Donation or financial assistance from a direct relative
iii. i.e. Farm subsidies given to farmers by government.
c. Redistribution
i. Combination of the features of transfer and reciprocity
ii. Involves:
1. Collection of goods from members
2. Pooling of these goods
3. Redistribution among the same members.

❖ Organization – refers to a formally constituted entity, composed of individuals performing a set of

functions for the achievement of a certain mandate, obligation, or task. (i.e. bank, corporation,
development agency)

❖ Institution – refers to a structured domain of norms, rules, and practices that gives a sense of order to a
specific set of relationships

❖ Market and Economic Organizations

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 a. Include the corporate environmental users.
b. i.e. Banks
c. i.e. Corporations – refers to a broad category of non-state organizations representing a company or
group of people that engages in a lawful activity in relation to a public function, such as the provision
of a good or service to the larger society.
d. Classification: Profit and Non-profit (cooperatives, trade or labor union)

❖ Civil Society Organizations (Academic and Science-Based Organizations, Mass Media, Religious
Organizations, Nongovernmental Organizations, People’s Organizations)

❖ Global Organizations (World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank)

❖ Development Agencies and Transnational Advocacy Groups (United States Agency for International
Development, Japan International Cooperation Agency)

❖ Definition:
a. The social institution that formally socializes members of our society
b. Education is the transfer of knowledge after applying the concepts into real situations.

❖ Forms
a. Formal
b. Non-formal
c. Informal

❖ Functions:
a. Functionalist’s view
i. Transmitting culture
ii. Promoting social and political integration (i.e. democracy, voting, election, etc.)
iii. Maintaining social control
iv. Serving as an agent of change (i.e. Bill Gates’ Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook)
v. Meeting society’s need for talented and expert personnel (i.e. teach future generations)

❖ Conflict perspective
a. Educational system socializes students, through “hidden curriculum”, into values dictated by the
powerful, that schools stifle individualism and creativity in the name of maintaining order.
i. Misconception: School  Diploma  Job
ii. Hidden Curriculum: School  Diploma  Help the rich people
iii. Creativity is being replaced by memorization
iv. Purpose of English Language
1. Understand manuals of products
2. Propagate culture through media (i.e. movies, news, etc.)
b. “Credentialism” reinforces social inequality.
i. Atomizes students and minimizes their capabilities
ii. Competition, not collaboration
c. Schools sort pupils according to their social class background. Although educational system helps
certain poor children to move into the middle-classs professional professions, it denies most
disadvantaged children the same educational opportunities afforded to children of the affluent.
i. Problems when entering the school
1. Rich – education
2. Poor – education & adjusting to culture (i.e. not allowed to speak in vernacular)

❖ Education used to be a privilege. But situations pushed the system to accommodate the poor.

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❖ Health as Human Right
a. The right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes access to
all medical services, sanitation, adequate food, decent housing, healthy working conditions, and a
clean environment. It entitles every individual to the following:
b. The human right to health guarantees a system of health protection for all.
c. Everyone has he right to the health care they need and to living conditions that enable them to be
healthy, such as adequate food, housing, and a healthy environment.
d. Health care must be provided as a public good for all, financed publicly and equitably.

❖ Definition:
a. A structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and
power in society.
b. ranking of people or individuals based on economic wealth or class, status or prestige, and power

❖ Concepts
a. Income – refers to salaries or wages
b. Wealth – an inclusive term encompassing all a person’s material assets, including land, stocks, and
other types of property
c. Class – a group of people who have a similar level of wealth and income or a group of people who
belong to the same economic ranking
d. Status – estimation of prestige and/or honor
e. Status group – people who have the same prestige or lifestyle, independent of their class position
f. Prestige – the respect and admiration that an occupation holds in a society
g. Power – the ability to exercise one’s will over the others

❖ Types
a. Slavery
i. A system of enforced servitude in which some people are owned by the other people
ii. The most extreme form of legalized social inequality
b. Castes
i. A hereditary ranks that are usually religiously dictated, and that tend to be fixed or immobile
ii. Closed stratification system with no social mobility
iii. Present in the medieval period
c. Estates
i. AKA Feudalism (existed during Middle Ages)
ii. A system of stratification under which peasants were required to work land leased to them by
nobles in exchange for military protection and other services.
d. Class system – a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved
characteristics can influence social mobility.

❖ Perspectives on Stratification
a. Karl Marx
i. Differences in access to the means of production created, social, economic, and political
inequality, as well as two distinct classes, owners and laborers
ii. Social relations during any period of history depend on who controls the primary mode of
economic production, such as land or factories.
b. Max Weber
i. No single characteristic totally defines a person’s position within the stratification system
ii. Identified three components of stratification: class, status, and power
c. Functionalists – stratification is necessary to motivate people to fill society’s important positions

❖ View on the purpose of social stratification

a. Functionalists – facilitates filling of social positions

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 i. There are positions that are difficult to occupy. Thus there has to be a social reward in order
to motivate people to attain high positions and for others to do the dirty works.
ii. People who earn status, power, and respect have worked hard to attain so and deserve to
be rewarded as they also have more and heavier responsibility than those lower.
iii. But it doesn’t follow that even though they have more and heavier responsibility, they have
higher income, power, etc. Garbage collectors, even though they have the heaviest task in
society, have the lowest status.
iv. i.e. Caste System is functionalist as it is anchored in the Vedas. Class is a result of good or
bad karma. Do duty very well in order to accumulate good karma.
b. Conflict – facilitates exploitation
c. Interactionists – influences people’s lifestyle

❖ Communism
a. One cannot be a burden
b. If you don’t work, you are unfair to the people who are working.
c. Work for your own need

❖ Basic Dimensions

Class Variables Power Variables

(Economic)
Income, Wealth,
Occupation, Education,
Family Stability
Affluence: economic
security and power, control
Households in
over material and human
the upper
investment, income from
social class
work but mostly from
property
Households in
Destitution: worthlessness
the lower
on economic markets
social class
Prestige Variables
(Political-Legal)
Occupational Prestige,
Political participation, Political
Respect in Community,
attitudes, Legislation and
Consumption, Participation
governmental benefits,
in Group Life, Evaluations of
Distribution of Justice
race, religion, ethnicity
More integrated
Power to determine public
personalities, more
policy and its implementation
consistent attitudes, greater
by the state, thus giving
psychic fulfillment due to
control over the nature and
deference, valued
distribution of social values
associations, consumption
Unintegrated personalities,
Political powerlessness, lack
inconsistent attitudes, sense
of legal resources or rights,
of isolation and despair,
socially induced apathy
sleazy social interaction

❖ Stratification and Life Chances

a. Life chances
i. Opportunities to provide themselves (people) with material goods, positive living conditions,
and favorable life experiences (Gerth & Mills, 1958)
ii. Refer to opportunities, depending on achieved and ascribed status in society.
iii. Reflected in measures such as housing, education, and health.
b. Occupying a higher position in society improves your life chances and brings greater access to
social rewards.
c. In times of danger, the affluent and powerful have a better chance of surviving than people of
ordinary means.
d. Class position also affects people’s vulnerability to natural disasters
e. Wealth, status, and power may not ensure
happiness, but they certainly provide additional
ways of coping with problems and disappointments

❖ Champagne Glass Model of Poverty

a. 83% resources, 1.9% resources
b. 20% enjoy that 83% resources

❖ Global Setting (United Nations Developmant

Programme 2007 (in Ballantine and Roberts, 2011)
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 a. Survival is a daily struggle for the 40% of the world’s population that lives on 5% of global income.
i. Living – enjoying life
ii. Surviving – maintaining life
b. Of the 2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion live in poverty.
i. Poverty line / threshold: determines whether a family is poor or non-poor (8377 in the PH)
1. Quantitative definition of poverty
ii. Qualitative (based from quality of life, food, shelter, sending to school): if one is not
sustained, then the family is poor
c. Nearly 400 million children have no access to safe water (1 in 5 in the world), and 1.4 million children
die each year due to lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
d. 270 million children have no access to health services (1 in 7), and 2.2 million die because they are
not immunized.
e. Today, as you are reading these facts, more than 25,000 children died

❖ Rich and poor in the Philippines

a. GDP per Capita: $2828 (2014) according to wikipedia
b. Poorest
i. Income/day of worker non-agricultural (NCR) - Php481
ii. Scavenger - unknown
iii. Not enough to live a decent life

❖ Definition: Movement of individuals or groups from one position in a society’s stratification system to
another.

❖ Degree of social mobility

a. Open system – position of each individual is influenced by his or her achieved status
i. You can move up the class system.
b. Closed system – allows little or no possibility of individual social mobility (i.e. slavery & caste)
i. If you are born a sudra, you maintain a sudra.

❖ Types of Social Mobility

a. Horizontal – the movement of an individual from one social position to another of the same rank
i. Same social position, same income.
ii. Same class, different position.
b. Vertical – the movement of an individual from one social position to another of a different rank
i. Upward: Pacquiao moving frm poor to middle class.
ii. Downward: From rich to poor.
c. Intergenerational – changes in social position of children relative to their parents
i. Parent: rich
ii. Child: poor
d. Intragenerational – changes in social position within a person’s adult life
i. Pacquiao’s youth: poor  Pacquiao’s adulthood: rich

❖ Factors Affecting an Individual’s Mobility

a. Micro-level
i. one’s family background (i.e. broken family)
ii. socialization (i.e. trained to become disciplined)
iii. personal characteristics (i.e. skills and talents)
iv. access to education
b. Macro-level
i. the occupational structure and economic status of a country
ii. population changes
iii. the numbers of people vying for similar positions
iv. discrimination based on gender and ethnicity
v. the global economic situation

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