Blue CollarWhite Collar

1
Blue Collar/White Collar

• Blue collar
• A blue-collar worker is a member of the working
  class who performs manual labor and earns an
  hourly wage.
• Blue-collar work may be skilled or unskilled
• May involve manufacturing, mining, building and
  construction trades, law enforcement, mechanical
  work, maintenance, technical installations.
• Think blue coveralls
• White collar
• Refers to a salaried professional or a person
  whose job is clerical
• Think white dress shirts

2
Yesterday

• Primary Groups
• Primary relationships
• Secondary Groups
• Secondary relationships
• Social Aggregate
• A gathering of people into a cluster or a crowd
  that do not form a true social group.
• Social Category
• stereotype

3
Other Groups

• Reference groups
• Groups we use
• to evaluate ourselves
• acquire attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms
• Teachers, Family, classmates, social
  organizations, actors, musicians, pro football
  teams
• Can consider a group to be a reference group
  without being part of it (aspire to be a member)
• Do not have to be positive

4
In or Out

• In-group exclusive group that demands extreme
  loyalty
• Norms compel members to exclude others
• Out -group a group that the in-group is opposed
  to. In-group feels antagonism and competition
  from them.
• We vs. They
• In-group competes with out-group

5
Formation

• Both groups can form at
• Schools
• Athletic teams
• Cheer squads
• Racially divided neighborhoods
• Countries at war
• What are the in- and out- groups here at MC?

6
Boundaries

• In groups have to have a way of defining who is
  in and who is out
• Boundaries symbols, actions, or actual place
• Examples
• Maintaining boundaries requires intense loyalty
  and commitment from the group members
• Could cause clashes with outsiders
• Gangs

7
Social Networks

• Social network a
• All of a persons social relationships
• The web of social relationships that join a
  person to other people and groups
• Ties us to 100s of people in our community and
  even around the world
• Increased ease, speed, and frequency of social
  contract can promote a sense of membership in a
  particular network

8
Social Networks

• Social networks include groups, but it is not a
  group itself
• Lacks boundaries
• No close or continuous relationships
• Temporary sense of belonging
• Include primary and secondary groups
• Strong and weak ties
• Provide sense of belonging and purpose, give
  support, can help enter labor market

9
Questions

• 1. Provide your own example (not one from me or
  the book) for each of the following
• Out-group
• In-group
• Social aggregate
• Social category
• Reference group
• 2. How are social networks different than social
  aggregates?

10
Journal 9

• Is online social networking socially enhancing
  or socially isolating?
• Use terms from this section (reference groups,
  in-groups, out-groups, and social networks) and
  what you learned about mass media.
• For/good/enhance OR against/bad/isolate
• 3 examples
• 2-4 paragraphs

11

• Social Depression, Loneliness, and Depression
• "...man cannot live without attachment to some
  object which transcends and survives him...he is
  too little...we have no other object than
  ourselves we cannot avoid the thought that our
  efforts will finally end in nothingness, since we
  ourselves disappear" (Durkheim 210). - Emile
  Durkheim
• One of sociologist Emile Durkheim's most famous
  works is "Suicide" in which he describes his four
  theories of suicide egoistic, altruistic,
  anomic, and fatalistic suicide.
• Durkheim's theory of egoistic suicide, as
  described in the quote above, explains the cause
  of depression due to social isolation and
  loneliness.  This theory says that too little
  integration with society or a community leads to
  suicide.  There are no goals set outside the
  self, and people feel that life is meaningless
  there is nothing greater than themselves to live
  for. 
• For example, Durkheim compared widowed people
  with children and widowed people without
  children.  He found that widowed people with
  children are more protected against suicide than
  their counterparts because they have something
  greater than themselves to live for, their
  children. 
• When you have something youre obligated to
  outside yourself (i.e. a network of friends or
  family), youre more protected from depression
  and suicide.  Social integration provides goals
  and meanings for people to live for.  For someone
  who is depressed, there is little to no meaning
  left in life.  Everyday activities, such as
  eating and exercising seem meaningless.  They are
  constantly mourning on their own dead inner
  selves.
• Social Isolation, loneliness, and depression are
  all interrelated.