CHAPTER 5 How much power do you think you have?

      According to our textbook, power is derived from a Latin word, potere, which means "to be able". Max Weber viewed power as the ability to bring about an intended outcome, even when opposed by others. When I read that definition I immidately thought of an employee being empowered by his or her boss or a professor assigning an assignment to the class and even though the students do not what to do it, they have to in order to pass the class.
       There are three strategies of empowerment, education, which is basically getting the right amount of education you need to get a job that gives you the money that you need and help you accomplish your own goals that you have set for yourselves. Organization involves bringing people together to identify common goals and work to achieve them. For example, if a big company comes to a neighborhood and wants to all the houses to break down so factories could be built, an organization, a group of people from the neighborhood will come together and organize a way to that change from happening. Networking involves reaching outside your immediate circle to find allies. I've never really sit down and thought of power in the ways that are mentioned in this book. I believe that each and everyone of us has an amount of power even if some of us don't recognize it.
        A small 5year old has power over their parents sometimes, when they're in a store and the kid sreams that he wants something. He doesn't stop yelling until his mom gives him what he wants and that's a sign of power. I believe the real power comes from money because people who has money gets more opportunities. Wealthy parents have the ability to send their children to better schools and then later on send their children to better colleges. It's simple, money equals power in my opinion.
       The Milgram expirment was a fine example of power. Micheal F got 12 people from the public came to what they thought was an memory test. They were introduced to someone else who they thought was another voluntare but he was actually an actor for the expirment. Each participant was given a role to play, a teacher which was the voluntare and a learner which was the actor. The teachers were given a list of word pairs which the learner had to memorize and each time the learner gets a multiple choice question wrong he received a voltage shock. With every wrong answer the shock is increased by one voltage shock. The generator went from 15-450 voltes. 9 out of 12 people went up to 450 voltes. I personally could not believe that, I thought people were more compassionate than that. Even though they heard sreams from the person they still went on because the professor who was in charge told them that the expirment requires them to to on. This shows the people subjects to higher authority and will do almost anything if a higher powered person tells them to.
          Our society has a lot of power over who we are and who we become. The Five Faces of Oppression explains how society acts as a puppet master of our lives. Exploitation is when a higher authority uses their power to exploit employees such as sweat shop workers. Marginalization is when a group is confined to a lower edge if society. Marx's theory socialism some "have" power while others "have not" refers to powerlessness. For example slaves felt powerless, they thought little of themselves. Culture imperialism is when a group that have power in society control how the people in that society interpret and communicate. This is a perfect example of society and the power it has over us. And lastly violence is a way to portray power over all types of people. It's purpose is to damage, humiliate and destroy a person.
            After I read this chapter I realized power is everywhere. We could either have power or be empowered. I just believe that it is up to us, we determine where we stand in society and how we are treated by others. This chapter really thought me a lot.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE CHAPTER 4

      Social structure refers to the recurring patterns of behavior that make social life possible. Understanding social structure helps us to see connections between these patterns and people's actions and beliefs. Making a connection to chapter three, culture is like the foundation of social structure. It is where people from all over the world share their different beliefs and actions with the world around us. A simple thing like going to your first day of class at your college can be referred to as social structure as shown in our text book. This is an example of our social norms where the first day of class can be the same as every other first days of classes that you have experienced in the past. When we enter a classroom we know exactly what to do and exactly what to expect for that day.
      We can see social structure at the micro level for example, we might look at the structure of interaction between two people or in a small group. Although it might be a small number of people, we can still see social structure, for example when you see someone its a norm to greet them with a greeting such as hi or hello. When you ready to leave you give them a kiss and say goodbye. The meso level of social structure is bigger than just two people or a small group, it is an organization. A school or a business would be a perfect example of  a meso  level of social structure. Another level would be macro, this is in the structure of work. Examples of this level could be based on the behaviors of families, the economy, government, education and religion which are interrelated.
      Social structure has changed from time to time through actions. There are three types of actions, traditional, affective and rational. Traditional action is motivated by custom, its related to what happened in the past will be the same in the future. This is information that is passed on from parents to children and than down from generation to generation. Affective action is guided by emotions and feelings. For example, when Obama gave his speech most of the people that were listening and who were on his side was crying because of feelings. The last one is rational action motivated actions of efficiency. In my own opinion this is an example of being a realist, setting goal that can be achieved. Laying down way of achieving theirs goals with structure and planing ahead.
      The way we live our lives has changed from the years that have past us by. One example is having a telephone and now it being called smart phones. When telephones came out it was only used by business people and now almost everyone has a touch screen phone even as young as a 5 year old can use one. Our society is heading for change and all we can do is keep up with it

CULTURE CHAPTER 3

          Culture is  the collection of values, beliefs, knowledge, norms, language, behaviors, and material objects shared by a people and socially transmitted from generation to generation. Culture is all around us these days. We live in the United States of America and every where we turn we see different culture all around us. This is a land of immigrants and day by day we have to learn to except others for who they are and what principals they live by. In our world today we need to respect each and everyone we come across our day to day lives. As we study sociology and see that the definition of a society is a group of people who live together in a specific territory and share a culture, we can certainly combine the two together and see how they go hand in hand.
          Material culture is the physical objects produced by people in a particular culture. This is why we see different people in different clothing and its all because they have a different insight on clothing only because of there culture. Some people who migrate from their countries would come to New York and build house which for them would appear normal but for others would be abnormal.  Nonmaterial culture is the ideas of the culture, including values and beliefs, accumulated knowledge about how to understand and navigate the world, and standards or "norms" about appropriate behavior. This is basically what ideas a particular culture believes in, the ideas that they pass on to future generations.
          I immigrated to this country when I was only ten years old and I had to start a whole new different life. I didn't know the norms of this society. I didn't know how to dress, how to speak properly, what was normal, what clothes to wear and what not to wear. All of these things I had to take into consideration even though I was only ten years old but I got through it. It took a while for me to get familiar with the norms of this culture but I got it. I had to learn about the ideology of this new culture that I was facing but at the end and ten years later I concerned it. I'm not going to lie and say it was a  piece of cake because it wasn't but as time passed and with help from my friends and family I got through it.
        In our world today we are exposed to so many different cultures around us. This gives us an opportunity to get to know little bits of the world everyday. We can meet so many people from different parts of the world just by taking the train to and from work. There are ups and down to this situation, where diversity can take place. Conflict can form itself because someone beliefs can be different from others and this can lead to social inequality among our day to day lives.