Social Learning Theory and the Youth Gang Epidemic
Tutorials/exercises - 2 pages - Sociology & social sciences
The existence of youth gangs is evident in large and small cities throughout America, and more often than not, delinquency and crime are associated with those gangs. Robert L. Akers and Robert L. Burgess developed the widely-accepted social learning theory in the 1960s, and that theory can be...
The rising Level of Xenophobia: Being a Black African Foreigner in South Africa
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Despite the transition from a very authoritarian regime to a young democracy, post- Apartheid South Africa has not yet managed to get rid of the racist burden that undermines South African political life. Racism is still deeply entrenched within the South African mentality and constitutes a real...
Why does Peter Berger say that "the secret of winning is insincerity?"
Essay - 3 pages - Sociology & social sciences
An oversimplified opposition in sociology is the contraction between two schools of thought. First, there are those who believe that society is a ‘gigantic Alcatraz' that dictates every action of individual actors. Secondly, it can be said that others believe in individual action....
Racial fears in the Edwardian Era
Essay - 8 pages - Sociology & social sciences
To use the title of George Bernard Shaw's play, in order to improve a so-called race, human beings should get rid of those who endanger the proper development of human species from "man" to "superman". Proponents of this theory forgot, however, that human beings and animals have an inherent...
Life History of A Chinese Working Woman
Essay - 4 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Ida Pruitt is an anthropologist at Stanford University who spent two years interviewing Lao T'ai-t'ai about her life in China (1967-1938). Lao T'ai came to Ida Pruitt's room for breakfast every morning, and although Lao T'ai did not eat, she would smoke cigarettes for hours while talking to...
Sociological accounts of social movements
Essay - 4 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Contemporary sociological accounts of social movements are mainly influenced by the ‘new American paradigm' (crossley) arguing that social actors are rational calculators. According to these sociologists, emotions associated with irrationality are opposed to knowledge linked with...
Power and Independence of Hmong Women in Laos and America
Essay - 5 pages - Sociology & social sciences
The Hmong are an ethnic group indigenous to the Southeast Asian peninsula. They typically live in the mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. They are rice farmers who are well known for their embroidery and the color of their dress, which gives its name to the different Hmong clans....
The Nature of Man "early Modern" anthropological suppositions and their role in the construction of the State
Essay - 5 pages - Sociology & social sciences
The opposition between the Ancients and the Moderns is often criticized. If there is anything like this, one may find it in the opposition of natural rights. In classical natural right, the nature is an essence to be realized; it is an aim, not a presuppose of society. On the contrary, in early...
School Achievement and Social Backgrounds of Families
Essay - 4 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Sociology of education has remained one of the main fields of sociology, since the 19th century. Subject to various controversies, many famous authors, like Durkheim or Bourdieu, have developed theories to show the function of a school within society and the link that could exist between the...
The Australian aboriginal culture
Essay - 9 pages - Sociology & social sciences
The Aborigines are native Australians, the first population of the country. They have been living there for more than 40,000 years and are one of the oldest populations in the world. Several archeological studies have been carried out, but they have not been able to find a concrete explanation to...
The tragedy of the "stolen generation"
Essay - 4 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were stolen or kidnapped from their families by policemen or other agents and were raised in white institutions. Most of them were around 5 years old or even less. A judicial process was rarely considered for such instances. The aboriginal...
Violence against women in Japan
Presentation - 14 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Recent facts - 2,201 cases of women molested on trains were reported in Tokyo last year , 304 cases of indecent assault, more serious than molestation, More than half of the cases occurred between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., 2/3 of female public servants had suffered a form of sexual harassment by 2001,...
On the way to a successful integration on a US Campus as a French student
Essay - 23 pages - Sociology & social sciences
What makes 600,000 young people from all over the world come to study in the United States? Is it the reputation of the US degrees? The efficient teaching methods? Life on campus? Studying in the United States is a dream for a large number of students in the world. A lot of movies and serials...
Ethnicisation and urban stigmatisation in contemporary France: the case of "les jeunes de banlieue"
Dissertation - 15 pages - Sociology & social sciences
In France, the concept of ethnicity, contrary to its Anglo-Saxon definition and use in anthropology for example, is philosophically, historically and politically connoted. Indeed, its use has its roots in the colonial history of France. Since the 1980s and the increasing social problems in the...
Sampling methods
Essay - 10 pages - Sociology & social sciences
As time and resources available are limited, we cannot interview all members of a population. Therefore, researchers use sampling to obtain the information they need. They select a limited number of people (a sample) to represent the characteristics of a whole population. There are different...
Book review: "Les Ethnies ont une histoire"
Book review - 7 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Les Ethnies ont une histoire, is a book which was written after a conference internationally organized in 1986 by the African research center. During this meeting, there were many African researchers along with the Europeans who assisted them. The main topic at the conference was "the historical...
Politeness and Interaction
Essay - 2 pages - Sociology & social sciences
When discussing social relationships, we must also refer to social distance and closeness, and the factors that influence them. External factors involve "the relative status of the participants based on social values, tied to factors such as age or power" (Yule 59). Speakers, who see themselves...
The rise of feminism
Essay - 5 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Organized efforts by women to achieve greater rights occurred in two major waves. The first wave began around the mid-19th century, when women in the United States and elsewhere campaigned to gain suffrage-that is, the right to vote. This wave lasted until the 1920s, when several countries...
Feminism in France and in the United States of America: A comparison
Essay - 14 pages - Sociology & social sciences
This comparative study arouses already some stakes to this first word. How do we define feminism in a strict way that is stripped of any subjectivity? To define this controversial word appears not only useful but also a necessary starting point to this essay. According to Le Petit Robert,...
Carnival - Interpretation of Bakhtin
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
The “Carnival Season” is a holiday period during the two weeks before the traditional Christian fast of Lent. The word has a Latin origin and literally means "to remove the meat" or "stop eating meat". But carnival and the “carnivalesque” are not limited to this period of the...
Patriarchal ideology, gender and media
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
In a study carried out in the mid-70s, B. Miles (1975: pg.un) found that the proportion of men and women in situation comedies was nearly similar. However, the author points out that ‘the gender roles and the humor could still be traditional and sexist'. Thus, what we need to study in order...
Notion of the subject - Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - publié le 28/12/2006
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
"A subject position is a hard place, we cannot read it ourselves; we are given over to others even as we make inevitable public attempts to read our subject position" (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak). Discussion of the complexities of Spivak's notion of the subject in the context of race and/...
Notion of the subject - Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
“A subject position is a hard place, we cannot read it ourselves; we are given over to others even as we make inevitable public attempts to read our subject position” (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak). Discussion of the complexities of Spivak's notion of the subject in the context of race...
Class and inequality in Australia
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
If Horne described Australian society by its “climate so professedly egalitarian” and its “Fair go, mate”, McGregor points out that “it is impossible to live in Australia without coming to realize that the different social classes […] experience crucial differences...
Class and inequality in Australia - publié le 14/12/2006
Essay - 6 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Since the middle of the nineteenth century and the gold rushes, the principle of equality has become fundamental in Australia as far as each person, including prisoners were considered to be equal by gold he found. It is common place to hear that Australia is an egalitarian and classless society...
Media Ownership, Political Economy And Media Content
Essay - 5 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Mass media has undoubtedly become the primary medium used to distribute information. The functioning of the mass media is complex and the influence it bares on shaping the audience's opinions and attitudes is colossal. This characteristic makes it a great source of power too. This ensemble of...
Media Ownership, Political Economy And Media Content - publié le 14/12/2006
Essay - 5 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Mass media has undoubtedly become the main medium used to distribute information among the population. The functioning of the mass media is complex and the influence it bares on shaping the audience's opinions and attitudes colossal, making its control a great source of power. This ensemble of...
Is there a meaningful way in which we can talk about global citizenship in the contemporary context?
Essay - 10 pages - Sociology & social sciences
In his famous address at the Sorbonne in Paris, Albert Einstein laid ironically the stress on the very limits of the concept of “global citizenship”. Indeed, even though the process of globalisation of trade, science or more generally speaking “culture” have unquestionably...
A survey among exchange students living in Belgium
Essay - 13 pages - Sociology & social sciences
We have decided to conduct a survey of the exchange Exchange Student living in Belgium” to analyze their living habits. We have decided to focus first on the reaction of foreign students living in Belgium. We have also decided to question other students that had been a part of a foreign...
How canadians see multiculturalism
Essay - 24 pages - Sociology & social sciences
Canada is described as a multicultural society whereby different ethnic groups live together and try to respect their different cultural background. Canadian ethnic mosaic includes, in addition to the founding French and British groups, a large number of German, Chinese, Black, Dutch, Italian and...
