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IAH mid term
terms
51
Sociology
Undergraduate 2
02/25/2010

Additional Sociology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
70-30 Rule
Definition

Corporations must keep brand consistency, but can vary their brand message up to 30% to adapt to local markets.

E: mcds in germany serves beer

Term
Accomodation
Definition

When an individual or group adopts another group’s values in the interests of social harmony, even if these values are not in the best interest of that individual or group


Term
Acculturation
Definition
The adaptation of an individual or group because of contact with another culture
Term
Agenticity
Definition

the tendency to believe the world is controlled by powerful forces with deliberate intentions

E: ones who start conspiracies. Kennedy assisnation

Term
American exceptionalism
Definition
An idea stemming back to the colonial period that America is a model for the world and has a divine destiny to lead.
Term
Americanization
Definition
Americanization belongs to the broader category of processes of social change through which a more powerful group or collectivity comes to exercise control over less powerful/subordinate groups or collectivities as we find most markedly in the relationships between colonized people and their colonizers.”” America is perceived to be in a position to exercise this power because of its size, resources, economic strength, military force, political assets and attractive cultural forms.
Term
Aspirational
Definition

The wish to ascend to a higher social class. Luxury brands that represent a higher social class are often described as aspirational.

E: every rap song

Term
Belonging
Definition
Membership in a group with a strong emotional connection based on affinity, loyalty, etc.
Term
Brand consistency
Definition
The company effort to control and maintain a single meaning for a brand, across all markets.
Term
Brand hijacking
Definition
a situation in which a group of consumers give meaning to a brand for which it was not originally intended.
Term
Brand saga or brand story
Definition
1) the story a company tells about its brand, and 2) the stories people not associated with the company tell about the brand.
Term
Civic nationalism
Definition
The belief in a common citizenship in a specified territory and a common allegiance to the institutions governing that territory. Associated with a set of values (ie. democracy, freedom) believed to define that citizenship.
Term
Confirmation bias
Definition
The tendency to seek information to prove what we already believe
Term
Consumerism
Definition
The theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically beneficial and results in the happiness of consumers. It also refers to the movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers.
Term
Culture
Definition

The way of life of a group, including customs, beliefs, and value.

The accumulated habits, attitudes, and beliefs of a group of people that define for them their general behavior and way of life; the total set of learned activities of a people.

Term
Cultural homogenization
Definition
The belief that as a result of the globalization of culture, cultural differences are minimized and similarities across cultures are emphasized and reinforced. Consequently, eventually only one cultural form in the world will exist.
Term
Cultural hybridization
Definition
Cultures consist of forms and elements adapted from other cultures.  New cultures arise out of the melding of such things as languages, customs, technologies, and creative forms such as music.
Term
Cultural Imperialism
Definition
A controversial theory that the spread of cultural forms, from hip-hop to Hollywood blockbusters, has been driven by the commercial and political interests of Western powers, such as the United States. The fear is that the spread of these forms threatens local cultures and identities.
Term
Culture Jamming
Definition
The parody of a company’s advertisements, slogans, or logos in order to offer criticism of that company.
Term
DeAmericanization
Definition
Indicates the process by which a society, sector, or group of people sheds American influences and becomes relatively autonomous vis-à-vis US projection of power.
Term
Exceptionalism
Definition
The theory that a nation is distinct from and superior to other nations. Used to describe the historic belief that America is separate and unique, and a moral guide for other nations.
Term
Free Trade
Definition
A trade policy, agreed upon by national governments and economic trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization.  This policy allows economic goods to be bought and sold across borders without taxation or other government interference.
Term
Globalization
Definition
The worldwide integration of humanity and the compression of both the temporal and spatial dimensions of planet-wide human interaction. It consists of corporate globalization (globalization from above) and democratic globalization (globalization from below). It is a set of processes leading to the integration of economic, cultural, political, and social systems across geographical boundaries. Globalization can also be thought of in Arjun Appaduri’s terms of mediascape, technoscape, ethnoscape, ideoscape and financescape.
Term
Glocalization
Definition
The relationship between global market forces and local adaptations
Term
Hegemony
Definition
 In international relations, hegemony means the dominance or leadership of one nation or group over another. However, hegemony has a more subtle meaning in cultural studies. The Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, developed this concept as a refinement of Marxist notions of ideology, demonstrating the cultural aspects of social control. Social control, according to Gramsci, is achieved not so much by overt coercion as by gaining the people’s consent to that control. Cultural hegemony is thus achieved by influence and persuasion that disguises power.
Term
High tech work
Definition
Skilled work with digital, computer technologies.
Term
Hindsight bias
Definition
The tendency to read the past according to our beliefs in the present
Term
Imagined community
Definition
Benedict Anderson for the ideal of the nation: a community formed through an ideal of political connection. The inhabitants are loyal to each other but don’t know each other.
Term
Integration-Fragmegration process
Definition
The idea that the process of globalization not only breaks down barriers between markets and cultures, creating a more open global environment, but also creates specialized local collectives.
Term
Knowledge economy
Definition

an economy that has switched from manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and construction to knowledge work.

E: India

Term
Knowledge work
Definition
Work based on the exchange of information and symbols, such as money, rather than hand labor.
Term
Maquiladora
Definition
A factory, often owned by a U. S. company, located in Mexico near the U. S./Mexico border.
Term
Manifest destiny
Definition
The idea, shaped in the 19th C,  that the United States has a divine right and obligation to extend its power into other territories.
Term
Mestizo
Definition
a person of mixed blood; a person of mixed Spanish and Amerindian blood.
Term
Motif
Definition
Repetition of a symbol, image, or text to build up meaning in a creative work
Term
Nation
Definition
A group of people organized politically.  This can refer to a group under a single government, but has a broader meaning as in “Hispanic nation.”
Term
Nation Branding
Definition
Formal or informal publicity campaigns to enhance the global image of a country as a site for investment and tourism
Term
Outsourcing
Definition
Subcontracting a manufacturing or design process to a third party.  Often a U. S. company outsources these processes to a company outside the U.S.
Term
Paranoid Style
Definition

Richard Hofstadter’s term for a form of inflated political speech based in fear and suspicion of imaginary conspiracies.

E; politics

Term
Patternicity
Definition
finding meaningful patterns in random noisse, related to conspiracy theory
Term
Popular Culture
Definition
Contrary to high culture such as the opera, historic art, classical music, traditional theater or literature, popular culture consists of mass-produced and mass-consumed cultural artifacts (ie. T-Shirts) and forms (ie. television programs). What was once high culture can eventually become a part of popular culture or vice versa.
Term
Public Culture
Definition
A dominant set of values, ideas, and practices that circulate in public discourse. Social groups may speak in the language of these values, ideas, and practices to gain a voice in a society.
Term
Rust Belt
Definition
A term introduced in the 1980s to describe a region of the country devoted to manufacturing. That is now deserted
Term
Social Location
Definition
The identities we have based on our individual values and beliefs, community roles and expectations, and larger roles we fulfill based on our race, gender, ethnicity, age, nationality, etc.
Term
Sociopolitical
Definition
The intersections between social structures and politics, a combination of social and political factors
Term
Soft Power
Definition
When a nation uses means other than force (military intervention, economic sanctions) to persuade other groups to adopt its values and goals. Such means may include public diplomacy and cultural exports.
Term
Sovereignty
Definition
Having independent authority over one’s territory or person.  Not ruled by another.
Term
Symbol
Definition
a word, phrase, image, or the like having a complex of associated meanings and perceived as having inherent value separable from that which is symbolized, as being part of that which is symbolized, and as performing its normal function of standing for or representing that which is symbolized: usually conceived as deriving its meaning chiefly from the structure in which it appears, and generally distinguished from a sign.
Term
Shadism
Definition
Discriminatory stereotypes based on color.
Term
Wal-martization
Definition
A critical perspective on Wal-mart’s business model: Wal-mart seeks to maximize profits through large anonymous stores with low-priced goods and non-unionized, low-paid workers. Wal-mart has often been accused of driving local stores out of business. Wal-mart is also known for pressuring its suppliers to provide low-cost wholesale goods, thus creating less than ideal conditions in factories, most of them overseas in places like China.
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