segregation. The enforced physical separation of members of different social categories from one another.
sexism. Anything that has as a consequence the enactment or perpetuation of privilege based on gender.
significant other. In social relationships, a particular individual whose expectations, judgments, and behavior affect our behavior, experience, and perception of ourselves.
situational status. A social status occupied only through participation in a particular situation (such as being an airline passenger) and no longer occupied once that participation ends.
social category. The collection of all people who occupy a particular social status (e.g, ‘college students’ or ‘white people’).
social class. In general, distinctions and divisions resulting from the unequal distribution of resources and rewards, such as wealth or power, in a social system. A Marxist approach focuses on how relationships among capitalists, workers, and the means of production produce inequality. More mainstream approaches focus on people’s ability to satisfy wants and needs, especially through income and the use of prestige and power.
social construction of reality. The social process of interaction using language and other symbols through which people’s perceptions of what is considered to be real are constructed and shared.
social identity. The sum total of who we think we are in relation to other people and social systems.
socialization. The process through which people are prepared to perform roles that go with particular social statuses and otherwise participate in a social system.
social status. A position that people may occupy in a social system that locates them in relation to the occupants of other statuses (e.g., parent-child).
social structure. The patterns of relationships and distributions that characterize the organization of a social system. Relationships connect various elements of a system (such as social statuses) to one another and to the system itself. Distributions include valued resources and rewards, such as power and income, and the distribution of people among social statuses. Structure can also refer to relationships and distributions among systems.
social system. An interconnected collection of social structural relationships, ecological arrangements, cultural symbols, ideas, objects, and population dynamics and conditions that combine to form a whole. Complex systems comprise smaller systems that are related to one another and the larger system through cultural, structural, ecological, and population arrangements and dynamics.
society. A social system defined by a particular territory, within which a population shares a common culture and way of life under conditions of relative autonomy, independence, and self-sufficiency. It is also the largest such system for which members of the population identify themselves as members.
sociology. The systematic study of social life and behavior, especially in relation to social systems, how they work, how they change, their complex relation to people’s lives, and the consequences that result.
state. The social institution that is granted a monopoly over the legitimate use of force.
status. See social status.
stereotype. A rigid, oversimplified belief that is attached to all members of a particular group or social category.
stigma. Personal characteristics (such as physical appearance) that are in themselves regarded by others as violations of a norm and therefore a form of deviance.
symbol. Objects, characteristics of objects (e.g., color), gestures, or words that represent more than themselves in a particular culture.
system. See social system.
time structure. In a social system, the ways in which social relationships are defined, conditioned, and regulated by time.
transgender. A transgender person is someone whose internal experience of gender does not match the sex assigned at birth.
value. An idea about relative worth, goodness, or desirability used to make choices among different alternatives. In a patriarchy, for example, maleness is culturally valued above femaleness, and being in control is valued above not being in control.
worldview. The collection of interconnected beliefs, values, attitudes, images, stories, and memories out of which a sense of reality is constructed and maintained in a social system and in the minds of individuals who participate in it.
ALLAN G. JOHNSON is a nationally recognized sociologist, nonfiction author, novelist, and public speaker best known for his work on issues of privilege and oppression, especially in relation to gender and race. He is the author of numerous books, including The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy (Temple) and Privilege, Power, and Difference. His work has been translated into several languages and excerpted in numerous anthologies. Visit him online at www.agjohnson.us and follow his blog at www.agjohnson.wordpress.com.
* This is a good place to point out that just as words in general can have more than one meaning, the same is sometimes true of sociological terms. ‘Status’ is also the word that German sociologist Max Weber uses to refer to the relative amount of prestige that people have in social systems, as in describing an occupation as ‘high status.’
* LGBT is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Some activists expand it to include ‘queer’ (LGBTQ), a general term that refers to those who, in various ways, reject, test, or otherwise transgress the boundaries of what is culturally regarded as normal with respect to gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation and expression. Some regard it as an umbrella term for the other four components of LGBT. ‘Queer,’ of course, is also routinely used as an insult directed at LGBT people.
* A ‘worldview’ is the collection of interconnected beliefs, values, attitudes, images, stories, and memories out of which a sense of reality is constructed and maintained in a social system and the minds of individuals who participate in it. It includes everything from the assumption that gravity will hold us down to a belief in God.
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