The Stranger Theory Sociologist Georg Simmel - 1552 Words

In this essay, I will be explaining a social concept called the stranger theory, which is a concept and idea, that sociologist Georg Simmel came up with. I will be describing what it means in my own words, based off research that I have done as well as using the information that we gathered and talked about in our sociological theory class. I will be using a personal story as well as an example of Muslim Americans, to better explain what the stranger concept is. Then I will be talking about a case study group such as American Muslims, where I will go into greater detail to better explain the stranger theory and how frequently this population experiences this concept on a daily basis. Lastly, I will analyze an academic source which refers†¦show more content†¦An example where I felt like a stranger was the first two years of High school. I was a three-sport athlete that always hung around athletes. When we would hang out away from our sport, it was awful for me. I just could not connect with them, which made me feel like an outsider, and a stranger. I longed for the special bond they had. But I had a different and odd personality that did not mesh in with the people that I constantly were surrounded by, and was not really accepted because of it. The more I tried to put on an image to fit in the worse it got for myself. It was hard for me to accept the fact that they were never going to accept me for whom I was, and it is not like I could just make a different me. The more I stuck around and tried to fit in, the more I’d get laughed at, mocked, etc. I never really felt accepted because of this, and I saw myself as â€Å"different.† This was a personal example of what it felt like in my life to be a â€Å"stranger.† An example that we talked about in class was with Muslim Americans. We watched a film which gave us a perfect visual and explained why this group was one of the best examples of the stranger theory that we could come up with. There are many Muslim Americans that are here in the United States, but feel unwelcomed, because of their many other American peers and how they perceive Muslim Americans. The sourceShow MoreRelatedThe Metropolis And Mental Life By Georg Simmel Essay1369 Words   |  6 PagesMetropolis Mental life’ by Georg Simmel and the key arguments of this primary text. It will start off with a key biography of himself and the influences which he had then will go onto explaining the contribution this key author makes to social theory. Georg Simmel was born in Berlin (Germany) in 1858 and died in 1918. He delivered and then published one of his most famous pieces of work ‘The Metropolis Mental Life’ in 1903 in New York. Habermas (1996) described Simmel ‘as a critic of culture isRead MoreDifferences Between Du Bois And Marx1365 Words   |  6 PagesRacial Veil theory holds similarities to the work of Georg Simmel. Simmel coined The Stranger theory in his 1908 essay of the same name. 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Accessed: 31/03/2015 20:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstorRead MoreMetropolis And Mental Life By Georg Simmel2554 Words   |  11 PagesThroughout the course of the semester we have studied the works of various sociologists. Each sociologist that we studied, have had varying ideas of what culture in society is. However, we examined each article with a central theme in mind being â€Å"culture is about meaning-making†. Though meaning making has a general definition that will be discussed later, each writer addressed it differently. The contribution each of these writers has had to our course has been very important when looking at theRead MoreFrom Extravagant Movie Theatres to Lowly Bomba Houses: Investigating the Degeneration of City Spaces Along Claro M. 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Marx in his dependency theory saw that the political-territorial boundaries remain intact and will disappear under a future proletarian supremacy. This is seen because, immediately after his death on 14th of March 1883, his ideas began to invoke a major influence on workers revoltsRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pages. Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of workRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. 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Alcohol and Alcoholism Essay - 682 Words

Alcohol and Alcoholism Alcohol is a drug, but unlike the other drugs, marijuana, cocaine, heroine, and probably all the others for some reason this is socially accepted and is legal. Alcohol is bad for you and does have long term affects associated with it. Such as the long addiction to it, effects on the body, and the social interaction effects. Alcohol, and alcoholism is common in America, but drinking is more common around kids. Social drinking a term kids and drinkers have come accustom to, social drinking is defined by one standard drink per hour, and no more than 3 per day, but some people just socialize around people that drink as heavily as they do and confuse that for social drinking. Addiction to alcohol†¦show more content†¦The alcohol consumption effects all these and have an overall personality change when signs of alcoholism begin. Alcohol overall has a detrimental effect over the body and the mind. I do believe alcohol is a drug and like other drugs which are not legalized in the U.S. it is still really bad for you. Also from alcohol a big risk is in evolved with drunk driving, and getting alcohol poisoning. Both of these possible consequences are a big factor when someone drinks irresponsibly, Drunk driving accidents, and deaths happen to much to not notice and to know that drinking is a big cause of deaths in the year. Alcohol poisoning has a greater chance of killing you because the effects are the usual drunken depressant effects but it slowly gets worse as you slip into coma, and if not taken care of die. Social drinking and effects one can have on someone?s personality is usually a drastic change. 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Because alcohol addiction can be a slow progressive disease many people don’t see it in the same light as drug addiction. An addiction to drugs is seen as being a more deadly and dangerous issue then that of alcohol because a drug addiction

Values and Interest Free Essays

Step 1: Values, Interests and Skills Review the following information related to the importance of Career Self-Assessment. http://www. job-hunt. We will write a custom essay sample on Values and Interest or any similar topic only for you Order Now org/career-change/self-assessment. shtml Write one paragraph reflecting on your values. I value life and life itself and the lives of my family and the people who are close to me. I also value religion and the guidance that it portrays. I value my education and professional career because it has helped to make me what I am today. I work because I not only have to, but because I want the experience and the knowledge that I will gain from a life of work. I want to be able to use this knowledge to not only help myself and my family, but to also help and teach others, and to also make a different so that I can leave and everlasting impression on whoever I may come in contact with. I also value the ability to speak and to speak freely. I value my ability to be self motivated in whatever task that I may be given. Write one paragraph reflecting on your interests. I am interested in having a career in the heath care administrative field, may it be information, quality control, managed care, finance, marketing etc. This has always been a passion of mine to work in this type of environment because I feel as though these are the areas in health care that are really being overlooked and neglected, and I really want to make a different in organizing and using my knowledge and skills to improve upon these various areas. I enjoy working with people and I don’t have a problem working alone. I love to work in environments that are outgoing and organized and process the ability to grow and be exposed to different things. Write one paragraph reflecting on your favorite skills. My favorite skills are the ability to analyze and research along with effective communication. I also apply information creatively to specific problems or tasks that I may be faced with or assigned to along with sort data and objects, compile and rank information, identify alternative courses of action, set realistic goals and follow through with a plan or decision, manage time effectively, predict future trends and patterns, and accommodate multiple demands for commitment of time, energy and lastly set priorities. Step 2: Personality Assessment Review the information at http://www. myersbriggs. org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/ Include each of the four letters of your code below. Use one line for each letter. After reviewing the meaning of each letter, include your interpretation of this information and what this means to you. (Your response should be a minimum of two sentences. ) I I prefer to keep to myself and not let matters or issues in the outside world effect how I live my life. NI love to interpret reason and analyze things. I tend to use these skills when I am learning something new and researching TI am a thinker. I prefer to think about things logically before I go ahead and make any major decisions on anything. P or JI use both perceiving and judging because I like to make decisions but I am also open to new ideas. Step 3: Reflection Now that you have completed a reflection of your values, personality, skills and interests write one to two paragraphs indicating how this information ties to your career. Be sure to consider all four elements you reflected upon. The purpose of this assessment was to reflect on finding out who you as a person, what are your interest, values and the skills that you possess. All of these are factors that will be needed in order to build a successful personal and professional life. The assessment also helps you to figure out your likes and dislikes that you may have regarding various activities. The personality assessment also helps you to find out what type of person you are, and this may also consider what type of people you or what type environment you may work best in. Such as being in tuned with yourself or the outside world, being a thinker or follower, a self starter or person who likes to told what to do. The purpose of the self assessment tool is that people who share similar interests will also enjoy the same type of work and how important different values are to you. Examples of these values, which play an important role in one’s job satisfaction, include autonomy, prestige, security, interpersonal relations, helping others, flexible work schedule, outdoor work, leisure time, and high salary. In addition to determining what you’re good at, the skills assessment also helps you figure out what you enjoy doing. The skills you use in your career should combine both characteristics. You can use the results of the skills assessment to make some changes by acquiring the skills you need for a particular career. How to cite Values and Interest, Papers

Individualism and Family Values free essay sample

This essay will examine the historical evolution of notions of ‘family values’ and ‘individualism’, using historical criticism and semiotic analysis; it will demonstrate how these terms have historically been very fluid and tied to the socio-cultural concerns of their day. Focus will be on establishing a historiography of the key terms, from the late Elizabethan to the modern era. Particular attention will be paid to the Victorian era, wherein, this essay will argue, the true archetype for the modern ‘nuclear family’ was established. This essay will look at key works of art throughout the stated timeframe, works reflective of the era’s common sentiment, in order to establish socio-cultural patterns. The aim of the essay will be to show that the anti-collectivist, increasingly nuclear, and specifically consumer-based nature of modern ‘individualism’ is inimical to traditional conceptions of family values. when considering individualism and its effect on traditional family values, it is important to clarify the understanding of the terms. In terms of Individualism and for the sake of analytical focus this paper shall stick to a relatively modern conception of the word: ‘individualism connotes a dynamic capitalist economic rationality—utilitarian, competitive, and profit-maximising—inimical to the supposed torpor of feudal and tribal mentality alike’ (Meer, 1). On a more fundamental level it could be said that individualism is the opposite of collectivism; it refers to the endeavour, the interests, and, to some degree, the gratifications, of a single person rather than a group of people. The concept of traditional family values is rather more complex. Even within the confines of the United Kingdom, one family’s notion of ‘tradition’ may vary greatly from another’s. After all, the U. K. is a heterogeneous society, comprised of many religious, cultural, and ethnic groups; which is to say the U. K. is the composite of many traditions. Nevertheless, for the sake of simplicity, this paer will adopt a working definition, one which roughly approximates a conventional majority of U. K. society. With slight modification, according to the critic Collins’(2011, 47) the description of a traditional Western family will serve the purpose. Traditional families, then, encompass: ‘heterosexual, racially homogenous couples who produce their own biological children’ (here, we may append nominal Christian religious affinity). Such families have ‘a specific authority structure, namely, a father-head earning an adequate family wage, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and children’. Moreover, the traditional family, states Hill Collins, has overtones of being a ‘private haven from a public world’ (2011, 47). The obvious temptation in this instance is to dismiss individualism outright as contradictory to traditional family values. On the surface, the family seems after all to be a microcosm of collectivism, the very antitheses of individualism; and, undoubtedly, in large part this evaluation holds true. However, this explanation is somewhat monolithic and irons over some of the more problematic subtleties of the case; indeed, individualism presupposes a kind hermetic insulation that would not be possible in the familial context, and vice versa. The reality is that the two concepts are not so hermetic, and are in fact bound to overlap. Consider that for the majority of history the family unit was very much a strategic entity, a way of forging advantageous marital and blood ties. This particular tradition, as one critic has noted, is a longstanding staple of ‘Eurasian family patterns’ (Lal 2006, 178). Considering that, until very recently, males have monopolised authority within the family unit, it is not too difficult to perceive in the tactical manoeuvres of allied kinship, a distinctly individualistic bent. At every level, notes one critic, ‘families looked to dynastic marriage strategies to find greater wealth and power’ (James, 39). In which formulation, we may safely presume, the will of the father was paramount. The altogether calculated manner of pre-modern wedlock is vividly captured in much literature of the time. Vivid examples include Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, wherein the mutual love of the eponymous protagonists is superseded by a blood feud between their respective families; or in Taming of the Shrew, where the prudent father, Baptista Minola, using his children like bartering chips, cannily withholds permission for his much coveted daughter Bianca to marry, before her shrewish sister Katherina is also wed. There is something decidedly ‘unlovely’, then, about the bulk of history concerning traditional ‘love’. As daughters were exchanged like chess pieces, in a paternal power play, certain other influences ensured a level of valour to these otherwise unromantic unions. ‘Traditional’ values concerning ‘the sanctity of marriage’ were ‘preserved through the fierce guilt culture based on sin promoted by the medieval church’ (Lal, 178). Much of this ‘guilt culture’ survived into the modern day, because Christianity has survived; consequently the Christian tradition of monogamous and (ostensibly) lifelong matrimony is still very much a part of ‘modern family values’, even if the religious fervour underpinning it is less ardent and literalistic than before. The necessarily religious tenor of marriage and thus ‘the traditional family’ obtains not only to a physical collectivism, but a spiritual one also. Christianity, as one critic has it, ‘sets the values of universal providence and love against the prideful individualism of the sinner’ (Meer, 47). That said, there is nothing innately selfless about wishing exclusively to possess another person. Contrarily, it is a rather selfish, individualistic act, as is monogamy in general; to pursue such a line of enquiry, however, would be to stray from ‘traditional’ thought and moral stricture and that is a transgression bearing harsh penalties. In which regard, the unhappy fates of two Daniel Defoe (anti) heroines, the eponyms of Moll Flanders (1721) and Roxana (1724), come to mind: their deliberate transgression of sexual and marital mores provoked public censure. The bedrock of normative matrimony was not easily broken. As the narrator of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) famously averred, as the nineteenth century commenced, it was yet ‘a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife’ (1995, 3). Its is clear that Individualism, does not square with preindustrial ‘family tradition’, which was largely opportunistic, strategic, and paternally calculated. Moral standards are of course wedded to their social contexts; and, as the Victorian era progressed, the ‘traditional’ accordingly fell in line with consensus of the day. This accommodated a ‘Romantic individualism’, which was in part a reaction to Classical and Enlightenment stoicism which ‘set universal reason above the merely personal passions’ (Meer, 47). This ‘individualism’ vaunted subjectivism, imagination, and emotion; it was a kind of self-reflexive solipsism, as opposed to the more modern conception of a strictly self-serving egotism. Thus, for the Romantics, the concept of individual ‘Genius’ held great sway; the lone exalted mind in dominion over its environs. Consider Caspar David Friedrich’s painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818), with the sober and solitary watcher stood regally atop a rather wild and craggy rock-face. Also Wuthering Heights (1846), a book possessing ‘a desiring individualism so violent and transgressive that it crosses the material world into the spiritual realm’ (Shires 2001, 66). This was not in itself inimical to traditional family values; although, it did precipitate a more emotionally involved approach to coupling and romantic love in general. This intellectual sea-change came concurrently with an important societal one: marriage partners, at this time came, to be ‘freely chosen, based on romantic love rather than economics or parental concerns, and the marriage relationship changed from being relatively unemotional and functional to warm and compassionate’ (Popenoe, 2009, 92). The old tradition, of strategic alliance, was supplanted by a new one, marriage for love. This new romantic and Romantic tradition, of truly ‘loving union’, was the precursor for modern traditional family values, as the industrial revolution was for modern mechanised society. As the former shaped family tradition, the latter set the stage for what would become the modern ‘individual’, as it is known today. As J. W. Childers (2001,80) observes, ‘the doctrine of individualism seemed to emerge as the soul of industrial culture . The Victorian era, was ‘shaped by the growing power of the bourgeoisie’ (Plunkett, 170); this rising middle-class and their growing wealth, came to vie for influence with the aristocratic classes, as economic power looked to overtake hereditary privilege in terms of societal ‘clout’. Increasing meritocracy gave individual endeavour new credos. The growing force of Capitalism stressed the importance of private property and individual wealth, in leading to a better society. This contention persists today. For example, in a modern economics text book: ‘Wealth leads to individualism, and poverty leads to collectivism’ (De Mooij 2010, 135). Growing urbanisation led, also, to increasingly insulated family units, the origin of the so-called ‘nuclear family’. As all this capital-driven individualism transmuted avarice from vice to virtue, the deleterious effects on ‘traditional family values’ were unavoidable; this is largely because society overall was changing in ways that would render the ‘traditional’ somewhat obsolete. The days of alchemy were in their last throes, to be finally supplanted by chemistry; as was astrology to fall to astronomy; Creation to evolution, and so on. In the face of so much fundamental transformation, the old traditions were inevitably at risk. The emergent industrial world also meant that, like today, family relations began to be deeply influenced by workplace relations (Kirkpatrick Johnson 2005, 352). Nevertheless, in the U. K. Queen Victoria, ‘was a pillar of family values’ (Plunkett, 170). The monarch utilised modern technology such as; photography, to promulgate a specific representation of herself and her family as ‘ordinary’, ‘traditional’ people. This created a potent paradigm of the traditional family to which others could aspire. Thus was deliberately ‘constructed’ as an ideal of tradition. Whether this ideal tallied with reality is not as important as the idea itself; for this symbolic gesture, toward a contrived ‘English family tradition’, anticipates modern day mass-produced ideological media. As late as the eighties, Mitchell (2010, p47) states that Margaret Thatcher explicitly urged a return to ‘Victorian values’. One hopes Thatcher did not literally wish to revive the bigoted, disenfranchised, pseudo-scientific, repressed, racist, and colonialist ideals on which Victorian values hinged; it is the spurious, idealised paradigm of morally upright, industrious ‘Great’ Britons upon which she presumably gazes back, through rose-tinted imaginings of British history (Mitchell 2010, 47). The precedent set by Victoria is that which prevails today, wherein a national myth is propagated at the expense of true rendition. Thus modern society on the one hand vaunts high ‘individualism’, material possession, and personal wealth as the cultural apotheosis, while, on the other, adverting the rectitude of traditional family values. Thus, in Britain, ‘the family is revered and the popular media are dominated by debates about the falling standard of British parenting’ (Storry 2002, 126). An inherent aradox underlies the above: the materialistic consumerism revered by late capitalism implicitly endorses a self-centred individualism that cannot rightly co-exists with the collectivist leanings of ‘traditional family’, as either a pre-modern blood alliance, or a modern love-based family unit. Modern society insistently thrusts a materialistic, individualistic, consumer ideal in people’s faces and then complains that people are not upholding the traditional family values which that ideal refutes. Moreover, modern pervasive media, the dominance of the screen, and ubiquity of the internet, mean that individuals have more means of remaining isolated than ever before, more ways to be ‘individualistic’. Even still, the myth prevails; research suggests young men in the U. K. hold ‘firmly onto romantic notions of traditional family values and the male breadwinning role, even though many can now speak the language of equal opportunities and women’s rights’ (Arnot 2002, 193). The problem is how to reconcile these traditional notions with the un-traditional realities of modern society. The answer is simply to evade reconciliation, by means of obfuscation. The raging greed and individualism unleashed by Thatcher’s deregulatory policies had very little to do with the mythic Victorian virtues she espoused. The true product of her policy was more American Psycho’s (1991) Patrick Bateman, than the improbably virtuous Nell Trent from Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). Although ‘tradition’ is tethered to its epoch and moves accordingly, there are undeniably strains of consistent precept identifiable in traditional family values; sanctity of marriage, heterosexual coupling, productive, patriarchal, child-producing units, and the like. Modern society, wherein marriage is ever less ‘sanctified’ and sex for reproduction hardly the norm, is surely at variance with ‘traditional family values’ (not that this is necessarily a bad thing). The truth is that modern capitalist society is geared against the caring collective endeavour that traditional family values entail. The trend, Vern L. Bengtson and Ariela Lowenstein observe, is to ‘roll back the state’ and ‘thereby release resources for individualism and free enterprise’ (106). The removal of state provisions for the under-privileged, the increasing privatisation of education, the obsessive materialism of the modern U. K. is not compatible with traditional family values. Nevertheless, it is doubtless that the true, individualistic tenor of modern society will continue to be glossed over with the mythical and idealistic family paradigm, of what daily appears an increasingly spurious ‘tradition’.