Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics
Chapter I: Introduction to Culture, Society and Politics
SOCIALIZATION
• Socialization is a process where people learn
attitudes, beliefs, behavior and values that are
appropriate and are expected in their respective
community.
• It typically occurs through the observation of and
interaction with the people around us which
includes:
• People close to us (Family, friends and
those whom we encounter on a regular
basis)
• And everyone else who come across our
lives (doctor, strangers, celebrity etc.)
• But, socialization also helps us shape our self-image,
or how we view ourselves.
LOOKING GLASS THEORY
Charles Horton Cooley, (born Aug. 17, 1864, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, U.S.—died May 8, 1929, Ann Arbor) –
American sociologist who employed a sociopsychological
approach to the understanding of society.
Cooley, the son of Michigan Supreme Court judge Thomas
McIntyre Cooley, earned his Ph.D. at the University of
Michigan in 1894. He had started teaching at the university
in 1892, became a full professor of sociology in 1907, and
remained there until the end of his life.
THE LOOKING GLASS SELF
Cooley claims that our self image does not come from direct
contemplation of our characteristics but also FROM OUR
PERCEPTION ABOUT HOW OTHERS PERCEIVE US.
COOLEY’S THREE STEPS :
1st: We imagine how we appear on others.
2nd: We imagine how they evaluate us BASE ON OUR
OBSERVATION about their reaction to us.
3rd: We DEVELOP FEELING about ourselves based on our
observations about their impression about us.
CRITICAL ASPECT: COOLEY BELIEVE THAT WE ARE NOT ACTUALLY BEING
INFLUENCED BY THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS BUT BY WHAT WE IMAGINE
ABOUT THE OPINIONS OF OTHER ABOUT US.
ACCORDING TO THIS THEORY:
WE MIGHT DEVELOP OUR SELF IDENTITY BASE ON BOTH
CORRECT AND INCORRECT PERCEPTION ABOUT HOW
OTHERS PERCIEVE US.
“ I am not what I think I am, I am not what you think I am; I am what I
think you think I am” – Charles Horton Cooley
Knowing that our identity is shaped based on how we
imagine how others perceived us, meaning what we
imagine might be wrong or right.
What should we do then? We must validate other’s
perception whether it really correspond to what we imagine
their opinions are.
George Herbert Mead
• Mead is another American social theorist, who
believes that socialization is a process wherein the
individual form his/her identity.
• Sociologist and Philosopher
However, they differ on several things.
1st: Mead contends that at very young age, the child is
unaffected by any influences, instead the child sees himself
as the center of the universe. (Piaget’s egocentrism)
2nd: not everyone can influences us but, only those who are
dear to us or important to us.
Contrary to the former belief, that the societies are formed
as individual the individual self come together, Mead
claimed that it is actually the opposite: THE SELF EMERGES
IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIETY.
THE PROCESS
As we grow up, our beliefs about how others perceive us
starts to become important ( we are being conscious of
ourselves and others)
This process, like Cooley, happens in three stages.
1st: Preparatory stage: this is the stage where the child is
mimicking an action.
• They merely imitate without knowing the
meaning of what they are doing.
• They are not really aware of the action that
they are doing.
• Hence, it cannot be consider as interaction.
 • E.g. a boy mimicking someone who is
smoking outside their home.
• Teptep’s telephone drama.
2nd: as they get older they learn language, symbols and other
forms of communication.
• Also at this age, they become aware of the
importance of social relations.
• Hence, they pretend play/role taking, they
mentally assume other’s perspective.
• NOT ONLY IMITATING BUT RESPONDING
THROUGH THE ASSUMED
CHARACTERISTICS.
• They are putting themselves in the shoes of
somebody.
• E.g. Bahay-bahayan:
• 2nd: Play stage
• Also at this stage, the child begins to
consider others’ attitude and beliefs who
are CLOSES to them.
• ONLY THOSE WHO ARE CLOSES TO THEM.
3rd: the Game Stage: they begin to understand the beliefs
and attitudes of the GENERALIZED OTHERS- or the society as
a whole.
• We begin to understand the beliefs,
perspective and attitudes of others.
• They are now also aware of other people
not only those who are close to them.
• They begin to understand that people do
not just do things according to their
preference but by what the society broadly
expect of them.
• They also begin to realize that people can
take multiple roles
• (surprised to know that our teacher has
other roles other than being a teacher)
• As they begin to consider the “generalized
other” they start to be conscious about
what others think of them.
• They realized that other people
might have opinion about them as
they are to other people.
• The moment they realized that
others have opinion about them,
that knowledge had an effect on
them and it influence how they
behave and act in front of other
people.
• This is like Cooley’s imagination
about the perception of other
people about them.
• We imagine how we appear on
others and how others react on our
appearance.
• OUR IMAGINATION about others’
opinion about us shapes our
identity.
This understanding led to the development of the “I” and
“Me”
the “Me” is the social self.
“I” is the response to the “Me”
Me is how we believe the generalized others sees us.
The “Me” self behave in accordance to what the society
expect of him/her.
It is what we learn through interaction with others.
The “I” is the part of you that questions, interrogate and
expresses your uniqueness. The “I” is usually hidden from
the rest of the world.
Me is the social self and the I is the individual self, who is
conscious.
Though they are somewhat conflicting, Mead would say
that who we are is the balance of both the “I” and “Me”
We are not always influenced by others specially young
ones.
SUMMARY
Like Cooley, there are three stage in which an individual develop his or
her identity.
Preparatory Stage
Play Stage
Game Stage
Going through these processes would lead to the development of the “I”
self and the “Me” self. One must learn to balance both.
DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH
(Erving Goffman)
IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
Impression management is term that describes how the
individual MANAGES the potential impressions others form
of him or her.
Impression management is oriented to guarding against a
series of unexpected actions.
As part of impression management, people are careful
around those they want to impress.
They constantly look for something that may cause them
some form of embarrassment or that might project an
aspect which might damage the image they wish to depict.
FRONTSTAGE AND BACKSTAGE
Since people are constantly staging ourselves; meaning
because we are acting and reacting to different people,
there is no way for us to tell the who the true person is.
Acculturation - he process of social, psychological, and
cultural change that stems from blending between cultures.
The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in
both the original and newly adopted cultures.
Enculturation - the gradual acquisition of the characteristics
and norms of a culture or group by a person, another
culture, etc.
Ethnocentrism - is the act of judging another culture based
on preconceptions that are found in values and standards of
one's own culture.
Xenocentrism - is the preference for the products, styles, or
ideas of someone else's culture rather than of one's own.
Cultural Relativism - the idea that a person's beliefs, values,
and practices should be understood based on that person's
own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of
another.
Sociological Imagination
C. Wright Mills
C. WRIGHT MILLS WAS BORN ON AUGUST 28, 1916, IN
WACO TEXAS. HE EARNED HIS MASTER’S DEGREE IN
SOCIOLOGY IN 1939.
MAJOR WORKS :
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION (1959)
THE POWER ELITE (1956)
In sociology, in order to understand one’s self, one must
understand the relationship between his own self and the
society
The concept “Sociological Imagination” was created by
sociologist C. Wright Mills
“The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history
and biography and the relations between the two within
society. That is its task and its promise.”
The concept is to understand between the distinction of
personal troubles and public issue.
How personal troubles becomes public issue.
e.g. Job
if 1 person is unemployed that is a personal problem.
But if 15M out of 50M population is unemployed that is a
public issue.
PERSONAL TROUBLES
• Personal troubles: occur within the
character of the individual and within the
range of his immediate relations with
others.
• It has to do with those limited area of social
life of which he is directly aware.
• The resolutions of troubles lie within the
individual.
• A trouble is a private matter if values
cherished by an individual are felt by him to
be threatened.
PUBLIC ISSUE
Matters that transcend local environments of the individual.
• An issue, often involves a crisis in institutional
arrangement, and often too it involves
contradictions or antagonism.
• Solutions to the issue cannot be addressed by an
individual; it requires collective effort.
According to Mills there is an INTRICATE RELATIONSHIP
between a PERSON and the SOCIETY, whatever the person
does is not just because it is of their own personal
preferences.
But because it is determined by the society, even the way
we behave are for the most part influence
According to C. Wright Mills :
“SOCIETY, not peoples failings is the cause of poverty and
other social problems.”
“when a society becomes industrialized, a peasant becomes
a (factory) worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or becomes a
businessman. When classes rise or fall, a man is employed
or unemployed; when the rate of investments up or down,
man takes new heart or broke. When war happen, an
insurance salesman becomes a rocket launcher; a store clerk
a radar man; a wife lives alone; a child grows without a
father…”
“Neither the life of an individual nor history can be
understood without understanding both.”
According to John Macionis, the author of book Sociology,
based on his readings.
“men do not usually define the troubles they endure in
TERMS OF HISTORICAL CHANGE…they do not usually
impute to the BIG UPS AND DOWNS of the society in which
they live…ordinary men do not usually know what this
connection means…”
What they need… is a QUALITY OF MIND that will help
them to see what’s going on in the world.. What maybe
happening within themselves. It is this quality… that
maybe called sociological imagination.”
“The power of sociological perspective lies NOT JUST in
changing individual lives but TRANSFORMING SOCIETY.”
- John Macionis
I would say, the power of EDUCATION lies not just in
changing individual lives but transforming society.
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
Emile Durkheim - One of the leading proponent of this
theory.
Durkheim is one of the pioneers of sociology for he was the
first one to take society as a subject matter.
Durkheim was born on April 15, 1858 in France.
He came from a family line of Rabbi’s .
But he chose to be an academician. In fact he was an atheist.
Though early philosophers already talked about society, like
Plato, Socrates, Locke, Augustine and so on, their aim was
to create ideals for society: they propose ideas on how
society “SHOULD” work.
Whereas, SOCIOLOGISTS look at society as it ACTUALLY
OPERATES and then THEORIZED.
The Structural-Functionalism
The term was coined by Emile Durkheim, who believed that
society was a stable arrangement of parts that moved
together.
Paradigm is a framework for building theory that sees
society as a complex system that works together to
promote SOLIDARITY and STABILITY.
• DURKHEIM looks at society as a whole and gives less
attention to individual experiences.
• E.g. issue of racism and discrimination
• Durkheim would not look at the
psychological process of an
individual
• Instead, he would look at stuff like;
economic inequality, mass media,
migration and so on.
• (Sounds like C. Right Mills)
SOCIAL FACT
• Social facts: Durkheim argued that social fact is the
primary and the most important thing in studying in
society/sociology.
• Social facts are aspects of social life that shape the
behavior of individual.
• Social facts are separate from people, but impose
themselves on people.
Robert K. Merton (1910–2003), pointed out that social
processes often have many functions.
TYPES OF FUNCTIONS :
MANIFEST FUNCTION: functions which are intentional and
its consequences are also expected.
A manifest function of college education, for example,
includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career, and
finding a good job that utilizes that education.
LATENT FUNCTION: these are the offshoot of manifest ORGANIC SOLIDARITY
function. Meaning, there are consequences that are not
• Different jobs
intended.
• Different Gods
Latent functions of your college years include meeting new
people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even • Different values
finding a spouse or partner. Another latent function of
education is creating a hierarchy of employment based on • Different beliefs and tradition
the level of education attained. • there isn’t a lot of similarities here.
(Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful.) But what holds them together? Inter-dependence.
DYSFUNCTION - Social processes that have undesirable Even though we’re different, we rely on each other. We
consequences for the operation of society. cannot survive on our own. We cannot sustain our own
In education, examples of dysfunction include getting bad needs that’s why we need others and that’s what holds
grades, truancy, dropping out, not graduating, and not modern society.
finding suitable employment. Organic society is like human body with individual organs
each doing their own specialized task to keep the whole
system working.
What holds society together? SOLIDARITY.
Individualism
It is the COHESION, this is what holds society together.
Emphasis on the value and interest of an individual rather
It is the feeling that individual members have, that they are than wider society.
part of the whole.
Consumerism -the endless acquisition of things in order to
Durkheim propose two ways on how solidarity can work. gratify the self.
He named it MECHANIC SOLIDARITY and ORGANIC DIVISION OF LABOR
SOLIDARITY
In modern society, everyone has this highly specialized
MECHANIC SOLIDARITY roles. Specialization is powerful. How does division of labor
work? (industrial set up.)
• Primitive society/ pre-modern society
Consequences :
• same belief
• They become super efficient of their specialized
• Same in manner of dressing
task
• potato farmer • they cannot perform other task, they cannot do
things on their own.
In that set up, almost everyone does the same stuff as you
do, then you almost have same experiences. In succinct, organic
solidarity is based on
Of course there are some differences
SPECIALIZATION which
• role of women create INTER-
• some might be leaders but for the most part DEPENDENCE which is the
you are basically the same. basis of SOCIAL
COHESION in modern
People of these societies are bound together by
“COMMONALITIES, SIMILITUDES AND LIKENESS” (Pope society.
and Johnson 1983)

These similarities or commonalities was called by Durkheim,

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS.
ON MORALITY AND SANCTIONS
MECHANICAL SOCIETY GIVES HARSH “PUNISHMENTS” FOR
EACH MEMBERS WHO DEVIATE IN THEIR SOCIAL NORMS.
• SINCE THEY HAVE COMMON BELIEF SOCIAL
DISAPPROVAL IS GREATLY FELT AND THIS IS
EXPRESSED DRAMITICALLY AND HARSHLY.
• FOR THE MOST PART, SIMPLE SOCIETY
SANCTIONS ITS MEMBER IN PUBLIC, TO
REMIND EVERYONE THAT THEY MUST
UPHOLD THEIR VALUES.
• THEY GIVE GREATER VALUE ON THEIR TRADITIONS
THAN THE INDIVIDUALS.
• DURKHEIM CALLED IT RETRIBUTIVE LAW
ORGANIC/MODERN SOCIETY: EVERYONE BELIEVES IN
DIFFERENT THINGS, THERE ISN’T GREAT UNIFIED MORALITY,
SO YOU USUALLY DON’T GET THIS GREAT AND HUGE
MORAL OUTRAGE.
• BUT SINCE, EVERYONE OUGHT TO FOLLOW LAW,
THE FOCUS OF LAW IS IN CORRECTING MISTAKE.
• THIS IS CALLED RESTITUTIVE LAW.
SUICIDE - An act of taking one’s own life.
Durkheim tried to persuade his readers that incident of
suicide has correlation with other social facts.
Suicide-stability of economic positions
Suicide-married or being single
Suicide- religion
• In his research about suicide, Durkheim found out
that social cohesion (the strength of the social web)
• moral regulation(control) (internalization of moral
codes, norms, tradition and laws)
• may explain the increasing rate of suicide
FOUR TYPES OF SUICIDE
Egoistic Suicide: the rising rate of suicide is tended to the
gradual lowering of social cohesion.
Remember that in modern society, people value
individualism and that’s the only reason why society is still
working is because we need each other. (inter-dependence)
They have lower degree of sense of belongingness
(dissolution of integration).
Altruistic Suicide: this type of suicide happens in a society
that has very strong social cohesion.
An individual thinks highly of his/her group to the point of
forgetting one’s self.
Anomic suicide: this type of suicide is related to too LOW
DEGREE OF REGULATION
Anomie: normlessness
This type of suicide is committed during times of great
STRESS OF CHANGE.
When the normal course of life is drastically disrupted
E.g. economic crisis.
Sudden fame
Times of war
Fatalistic Suicide: people commit this suicide when their
lives are kept under tight regulation.
They often live their lives under extreme rules and high
expectations.
They feel like they’ve lost their sense of self.
CRITICAL THEORY
The critical perspective in sociology has its origins in social
activism, social justice movements, revolutionary
struggles, and radical critique. As Karl Marx put it, its focus
was the “ruthless critique of everything existing” (Marx
1843).
Critical Theory is an analysis that “emphases on POWER
RELATIONS and the understanding of society as
HISTORICAL—subject to change, STRUGGLE,
CONTRADICTION, INSTABILITY, SOCIAL MOVEMENT AND
RADICAL TRANSFORMATION…”
The tradition of critical sociology promotes practices of
LIBERATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE in order to achieve
UNIVERSAL SOCIAL JUSTICE.
“Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is
to CHANGE IT.” –Karl Marx(1845)
This is why it is misleading to call critical sociology “conflict
theory” as some introductory textbooks do. While conflict is
certainly central to the critical analyses of power and
domination, the focus of critical sociology is on developing
types of knowledge and political action that enable
emancipation from power relations (i.e., from the
conditions of conflict in society).
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
• Born in 1770 in Stuttgart, Hegel spent the years
1788–1793 as a student in nearby Tübingen,
studying first philosophy, and then theology, and
forming friendships with fellow students, the
future great romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin
(1770–1843) and Friedrich von Schelling (1775–
1854), who, like Hegel, would become one of the
major figures of the German philosophical scene in
the first half of the nineteenth century. These
friendships clearly had a major influence on
Hegel’s philosophical development, and for a while
the intellectual lives of the three were closely
intertwined.
Dialectical Process- is a discourse between two or more
people holding opposing view about a subject , but wishing
to established truth through reasoned arguments.
-The art of arriving at truth by the exchange of logical
arguments.
-It is a method of argument for resolving disagreements.
The Hegelian Dialectic Process
• The world is in constant change.
• How?
• Through constant struggle/contradiction of two
opposing IDEAS.
• Thesis: the status quo (current state)
• Anti-thesis: the opposing pole (reaction to the
thesis)
• Synthesis: is the result of the conflict between the
two.
• According to Hegel, we are who we are right now
because of the unending process of development of
ideas.
• What we are experiencing today is the result of this
process.
Ex.
• Writing tools:
• Stone as a tool for writing (thesis):
• but then stones are too bulky (anti-thesis),
let’s think of something else….
• How about charcoal(synthesis)?
– charcoal(thesis): on the contrary, charcoal is messy (anti-
thesis), let’s create a more handy tool… pencil it is.
(Synthesis)
And so on…
“Religion is the opium of the people”
-Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 – 1883) was a German economist
who was exiled to England.
He wrote Das Kapital, which explained how he thought
capitalism would fall, and also the Communist Manifesto,
which told the workers of the world to unite and fight the
factory owners.
Marx’s “Scientific Socialism” had some major points:
• Historical Materialism
• Class Struggle
• Inevitability of Socialism
• Classless Society
• Common ownership of all resources
• No private property
• Social equality
Marx’s Dialectical Materialism
Though he borrowed Hegel’s concept of dialectics Marx beg
to differ from his professor; Hegel believes that the driving
force of history is IDEA Marx believes that the driving force
of history is ECONOMY.
Who ever controls the mode production controls the
society.
Historical Materialism
Marx argued that economics is the driving force of history.
Karl Marx says…
“The ruling material force of society, is at the same time its
ruling intellectual force.”
Primitive Communism –
• Small tribes where people lived together
• Everything was shared amongst the people—food,
job, belongings, etc. No one “owned” the land they
lived in
• Only two types of social class (that are NOT
enslaving): hunter and gatherer
• Although, eventually, a group comes to
power which brings about feudalism
Feudalism
• A king/emperor/chief becomes the ruler of all the
people
• A class was created through the growth of
power in primitive communism
• Ideals (i.e. religion, justice, war) are now created by
the ruling class (i.e. monarch) so that the people
won’t rebel against him
• In a way, the people are told that God chose
the King to rule—the church helps the king
in this manner.
• “Religion is the opium of the masses.”
• Individuals (nobles) who help the king enslave the
poor are given titles, land, and riches, for them to
continue enslaving the poor.
• But, as trade develops, and some people
get richer, the society enters capitalism
Capitalism –
CAPITALISM IS AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM IN WHICH TRADE,
INDUSTRY AND THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION ARE LARGELY
OR ENTIRELY PRIVATELY OWNED AND OPERATED FOR
PROFIT.
• CENTRAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CAPITALISM:
• PRIVATE PROPERTY
• CAPITAL ACCUMULATION
• WAGE LABOR AND
• COMPETITIVE MARKETS
Pros and Cons :
• Cheaper good
• Many people can participate in economic activity.
Capitalists now replace the king in enslaving the poor and
the workers.
A civil government is now erected—in exchange of royal
decrees—so as to protect the private properties of
everyone in the society, but more importantly the
capitalists.
The working class is fed the ideal that, “If you work hard
enough, I’ll reward you with more money, which will make
your life easier.”
But all the while, the CAPITALIST, is really the only one
GETTING SUBSTANTIALLY richer without doing any work.
How will Capitalism fall?
• II. Alienation of Labor
• 4 TYPES OF ALIENATION:
• Workers are alienated from objects they produce.
They do not own what they produce.
• Workers are alienated from the process of
production. They are not working for their own
needs, but for the capitalist.
 • Workers are alienated from themselves. They are
not allowed to realize their potential performing the
same task over and over on a daily basis.
• Workers are alienated from their fellow workers.
They are either isolated or in direct competition
with their companions.
How Marx envision how Capitalism will kill itself :
• I. Capitalism as a historical stage
• Characteristics:
• Large-scale industries
• Capital = means of production
(artifactual)
• Capitalists: Bourgeois + Landlords
• Workers / Laborers are selling their
labor and were being exploited
Capitalism will fall because of its “contrudiction” :
Socialized method of production
(Laborers are equal with one another – they have the same
basic rights and benefits)
Vs.
Private Ownership
(All laborers participate in production but no one in them has
ownership)
• II. Alienation of Labor
• In a capitalistic society, the proletariat (working class /
laborer) is completely separated (he becomes an alien)
from the fruits of his labor, and he lives a restless,
miserable detached existence.
• Man does not own the means of production, his work is
not about self-realization, he works not to improve
himself but to make and increase the profit of the
capitalist → man becomes a commodity; an object
Marx’s Observation of the Characteristics of Capitalism
1. (Tendency) declining rate of profit
2. Increasing misery of the working class
3. Tendency for the ownership of capital to become
concentrated
4. Increasing severity of economic fluctuations
The downfall of Capitalism will give birth to a new
system…
SOCIALISM –
• In a socialist society, all historical rulers (kings, nobles,
churches, and capitalists) are stripped of power
• The laborers take control of the whole country’s production,
which is for everyone
• Because nothing is made for profit, the people benefit from
education and health (no uneducated and no unhealthy
through poverty)
• There is strong government regulation
Socialism is the dictatorship of the proletariat – they own the
means of production through the government.
COMMUNISM (MARXISM) –
• In a socialist society, all historical rulers (kings, nobles,
churches, and capitalists) are stripped of power
• The laborers take control of the whole country’s production,
which is for everyone
• Because nothing is made for profit, the people benefit from
education and health (no uneducated and no unhealthy
through poverty)
• There is strong government regulation
Socialism is the dictatorship of the proletariat – they own the
means of production through the government.
• The workers would learn to share everything equally – “from
each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
• In order for people to realize their human potential, they must
overthrow the validity of private property.
• The means of production should be shared equally through
public ownership.
• Under communism, people could realize their full potential.
• Marx wanted all people to realize their full human potential and
this could only occur once alienation, division of labor, private
property, and other obstacles were eliminated.
• A worldwide revolution would occur in which the workers
would overthrow the capitalists and create a classless society.
Since it is humans who created society and ultimately history, it only
follows that they can change it.
- Karl Marx