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| Sociology Terms –IR
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| Internal colonialism |
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Internal colonialism corresponds to a structure of social relations based on domination and exploitation among culturally heterogeneous groups. If it has a specific difference with respect to other relations based on superordination, it inheres in the cultural heterogeneity which the conquests of some peoples by others historically produces. It is such conquests which permit us to talk not only about cultural differences (which exist between urban and rural populations and between social classes) but also about differences between civilizations.
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| Law of small numbers |
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Judgmental bias which occurs when it is assumed that the characteristics of a sample population can be estimated from a small number of observations or data points.
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| Marxism |
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Marxism is a body of social, political, and economic thought derived from the writings of Karl MARX and his collaborator, Friedrich ENGELS. Various schools of Marxism have emerged since Marx's death in 1883. Many of these remain influential today . At the centre of Marx's work is his analysis of CAPITALISM: how it arose, how it works (for whom it works better and for whom worse), and where it is likely to lead. Concentrating on the social and economic relations in which people earn their livings, Marx saw behind capitalism's legal facade a struggle of two main classes: the BOURGEOISIE, who own the productive resources, and the workers, or PROLETARIAT, who must work for wages in order to survive. Marx's study of capitalism was grounded in a philosophy that was both dialectical and materialist. With dialectics, the changes and interactions that anything undergoes are brought into focus and emphasised, and special attention is devoted to whatever patterns emerge. This method enabled Marx, when examining a particular problem within capitalism, to keep in view both the broader interactions that made up the whole and the past and future development of present phenomena. In this way, capitalism as it unfolded as a system in history becomes the main object of his study. The uneasy tension between the historical forces promoting change and the systemic ones promoting equilibrium were captured in the idea of "contradiction," understood as a progressive pulling apart of what is functionally united.
Unlike Hegel's dialectic, which moved in a world of pure ideas, Marx's dialectic was materialist. Marx was primarily concerned with capitalism as lived rather than as thought about, but people's lives also involve consciousness. Marx's materialism puts ideas back into the heads of living people and treats both as parts of a world that is forever being remade through human activities, particularly in production. In this dialectical process, ideas also affect the social conditions and behaviour that more generally shape them.
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| Mass society |
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Mass society is a society characterized by a certain uniformity of material life. It is typical of urban centres and is a phenomenon that emerged during industrialization or the industrial revolution. Despite differences of environment, training, or situation, the men of a mass society have the same pre-occupations, the same interest in technical matters, the same beliefs and prejudices. MASS SOCIETY is the description of modern, industrial society as a mass of undifferentiated and alienated individuals.
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| Relative deprivation |
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Relative deprivation occurs when individuals recognize that they have less than another – blacks versus whites, women versus men, etc. People make a comparison between what they have and what others have. (e.g., a child who receives a $5 weekly allowance will be satisfied. However if his/her sibling gets an increase to $10/week, then relative deprivation will ensue.). Relative deprivation is distinct from absolute deprivation.
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