structure, culture, and agency

agency: --what humans do to break free of, manipulate, change, or play with, the structural and cultural conditions they face

structural factors:

A) --"structure" as distributions of types of persons or classes

--key point: we can know something about a group's dynamic w/o knowing anything about the individuals comprising it

--(population) density

--age ratios

--sex ratios, i.e. male:female

--other kinds of population ratios, or distributions:

E.G. black:white,

ethnic albanian:ethnic serb,

palestinian:jew

--think of a ‘tipping game’

more on properties to look for in the depiction of social structures:

--ratio of elite:mass

--layering, or stratification, i.e.,

number of layers, or: distance between layers

--ascriptive vs achieved status

--degree of formal vs. informal

stratification

examples to think about:

1) birth order

2) age ratios and Social Security

3) job searches and qualifications

B) --"structure" as 'patterns of interactions': or: SOCIAL NETWORKS

i. the analysis of groups ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ from Stark/overheads

--again, the key point: we can know something about a group's dynamic w/o knowing anything about the individuals comprising it

Further ideas about networks:

--segmentary opposition (e.g. tribal structure, cheering for sports teams?)

--strong versus weak ties;

--bridge ties vs. reinforcement ties, or ‘internal’ ties

--the value of redundancy

--existence of structural holes

--e.g.: airline travel

--e.g.: fedex

--“small world networks”

--e.g.: "6 degrees of separation"

--“6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon”

--networks and IDENTITIES

--cosmopolitan vs provincial

--brokerage and social control; for example, Hakim
--tension (suburban gays) (Wayne Brekhus’ research )

--fringe actors (hangers-on, nicknames)

Cultural factors:

--culture:physiology = software:hardware, and maybe:

--culture:structure = software:hardware

--examples: play, eating, vendetta

--think of culture as being like recipes, blueprints, or plans

--a medium for interpreting, and responding to, our surroundings: a kind of "TOOLKIT"

--comprised of language, other tools, symbols, habits, practices, attitudes, roles, values, shared points of contention, etc.

--today less emphasis on values and habits, and more emphasis on symbols, toolkits, and cognition (mental organization of the world)

--Italian vs. Jewish experience

1) cultural values said to be different

2) no: achievement in occupational hierarchy back home was key for Jews

3) no: holding achievement constant, there is still a Jewish edgeà attributed to where their reference group was located, where they were mentally invested, lack of opportunity to go home