阐释SelectionsAReflectiononThreeInsightfulSelectionsFromTheMeaningofSociology:ARea

论文导读：race,gender,socialclass,etc.ThispaperwillexploretheinsightfulmeaningsofthreeselectionromthebookTheMeaningofSociology:aReader,includingselection12,“Society,SocialControl,andtheIndividual”,selection43,“FamilyLifeandEconomicSuccess”andselection29,“The
Abstract：In The Meaning of Sociology: a Read源于：大学生论文查重www.7ctime.com
er, the three selections, including selection 12, “Society, Social Control, and the Individual”, selection 43, “Family Life and Economic Success” and selection 29, “The Working Wife as an Urbanized Peasant”, provide much food for thought. Learning and employing the insightful ideas conveyed in these selections can help us be clearer about how social control ensure social order and conformity, how family background shape children’s future and how gender inequality deprives women of opportunities and embitter their life.
Key words：social control; family influences; gender inequality
1672-1578（2013)01-0005-03
Sociology provides many perspectives on the social world in which we live. It explores areas concerned with family, culture, social organization, institutions, power, race, gender, social class, etc. This paper will explore the insightful meanings of three selections from the book The Meaning of Sociology: a Reader, including selection 12, “Society, Social Control, and the Individual”, selection 43, “Family Life and Economic Success” and selection 29, “The Working Wife as an Urbanized Peasant”. My personal experiences and life encounters as well as some concepts and ideas will be discussed and analyzed in order to provide a clearer understanding of social control, family influences and gender inequality.
Social control is essential for the existence of the human society. According to Peter Berger, “No society can exist without social control. Even a all group of people meeting but occasionally will he to develop their mechanis of control if the group is not to dissolve in a very short time”(Charon and Vigilant 2009: 61). In Selection 12, he points out three m论文导读：yworshipthecommongodandcontributetheirbelieftosomesacredobjects,suchasacross.Asaresult,similarityandconsensusholdthesocietytogether.Unlikeculture,socialcontroldependsonrewardsandpunishmenttoachieveorder.Thosewhosubmittosocialcontrolenhancetheirsocialac
eans of social control: physical violence, economic pressure and persuasion, ridicule, gossip and opprobrium. He also argues that there are four coercive systems that exert pressures on us. Not only should we be confronted with political system and system of morality, custom and manners, but also we he to bear pressures from our occupations, social involvements as well as our family and personal friends. Social control, similar to Durkheim’s regulation theory, can result in conformity and submission to the rules of a society or social group. It means a lot to prevent chaos or anomie (normlessness).
Social control makes social order possible. Of course, other elements such as structure and culture, socialization, working institutions, loyalty also contribute to social order (Charon and Vigilant 2009: 123-135). For example, Durkeim believes that culture plays a significant role in societies of “mechanical solidarity”. Members of such societies, with “collective conscience”, share common beliefs, values and morals so that they he a close bond with each other. They worship the common god and contribute their belief to some sacred objects, such as a cross. As a result, similarity and consensus hold the society together. Unlike culture, social control depends on rewards and punishment to achieve order. Those who submit to social control enhance their social acceptability, earn approval, get promoted, or are highly praised. But it involves the internalization of social rules expressed through norms, values and ideas. You must internalize the proper language, table manners, dressing style, common opinions, etc to get those rewards or to oid punishment. We abide by laws for fear of court and police. We learn to behe differently in varied situations: We can’t behe in t论文导读：).Keistersuggeststhathighlyachievedparents,healthyfamilystructure,allfamilysizeandappropriatefamilyculturecanleadtomoreinheritanceandbettereducation,whichcontribute上一页123456下一页
he same manner at a place where an international conference is in process and where a family party is going on; also we can’t talk in the same way with our clasates and professors. Nonconformists will either receive severe sanctions such as fines and imprisonment or suffer unemployment, loss of prestige, critici, contempt, even discrimination and exclusion. Two of my colleagues were fired last year. One seldom took our university rules seriously, arriving at classes at least 5 minutes late, never showing up at faculty meetings and canceling classes without asking for permission. The other turned a deaf ear to the rule that no faculty is allowed to start his or her own business. He opened a law firm and, as a result, became too busy to focus on teaching. His poor teaching qualities aroused so much anger in his students that they eventually refused to take any of his classes.Family, as an important primary group, is the most persistent factor in children’s life, exerting a long-lasting influence on children’s growth. In selection 43, Lisa A. Keister emphasizes the strong connection between family life and the future economic success of children. She argues that family background, which “refers to all aspects of the childhood family, including parents’ educations and occupational attainment, family income and finances, family size and structure, religion and other cultural factors, and parent’s marital status”, “can be among the most critical determinants of success in life, including upward social and economic mobility” (Charon and Vigilant 2009: 294). Keister suggests that highly achieved parents, healthy family structure, all family size and appropriate family culture can lead to more inheritance and better education, which contribute论文导读：ortraining.Thosewhoseparentshehighereducationalandoccupationalachievementsareinmoreadvantageoussituationbecausenotonlytheirparents’succesulexperiencescansetgoodexampleorthechildrenbuttheirparentsarecapableofworkingoutgoalsthatcanbestbenefittheirchil
significantly to children’s future wealth.
What Keister said is globally true: “Children whose parents are succesul are much more likely to he high levels of education, earn high incomes, and be succesul in their jobs” (Charon and Vigilant 2009: 294). Children with such family background usually can not only inherit wealth directly from their parents but also receive more financial support for high quality education, which is “a critical component of the wealth accumulation process” (Charon and Vigilant 2009: 295). That’s one of the reasons why the poor remain poor and the rich keep being richer. In some remote areas of China, family poverty deprives lots of children of access to college education even high school education although they are the same talented. Some of them even give up the opportunity to study in the most prestigious university because their parents, usually peasants, are unable to afford the tuition. As a result, these children later become migrant workers and get very low-paid jobs. Since they can’t achieve upward mobility, their offsprings experience the same fate. Therefore, the sad story repeats itself. In addition, family fulfills the function of socialization apart from the functions of reproduction, maintenance and placement. Since infancy, parents start socializing their children by teaching or training. Those whose parents he higher educational and occupational achievements are in more advantageous situation because not only their parents’ succesul experiences can set good examples for the children but their parents are capable of working out goals that can best benefit their children’s future. Keister’s assertion of family structure works as well. According to Keister, parental divorce and separation both decrease children’s finan论文导读：ancethanbeforebecauseontheonehand,onlyoneparentisailable,ontheother,theailableparenthastoworkharderthanevertodealwiththefinancialburden.What’sworse,intoday’sChina,itisstilldifficultforChinesechildrentofaceandaccepttherealityofparents’divorce.
cial resources and reduce their “school performance, educational attainment, occupational mobility and health” (Charon and Vigilant 2009: 295). Many of dropouts and those with deviant behiors in my university come from disrupted families. Divorce and separation he much negative effect on their life. They receive less care, attention and guidance than before because on the one hand, only one parent is ailable, on the other, the ailable parent has to work harder than ever to deal with the financial burden. What’s worse, in today’s China, it is still difficult for Chinese children to face and accept the reality of parents’ divorce. To the children from a broken family, it is humiliating and means the end of the world. To the children from intact family, children with divorced parents are deviant, not just because they are rebellious and cynical after their parents’ divorce but because the fact that they come from a broken family is deviant. Consequently, they feel disappointed with life and gradually hold a give-up attitude toward education and take no interest in future. Those students in my university are usually among the few who fail to find any job after graduation. Last but not least, it is also true that family size “is likely to decrease adult wealth and reduce chances of upward wealth mobility” (Charon and Vigilant 2009: 296). The more siblings in the family, the less inheritance and the aller proportion of financial resources ailable for education. Although China’s one-child policy has some side effects, it promises a brighter future for children in terms of wealth accumulation. The only children who were born after 1980s can enjoy the whole inheritance of family wealth. Moreover, they receive more assistance in buying a car or a home later in life. T论文导读：.摘自：论文查重站www.7ctime.com摘自：写毕业论文经典网站www.7ctime.com上一页123456
o improve their child’s intellectual development and educational achievements, parents in China today almost spare no effort and money to ensure their child’s access to singing or dance classes, painting classes, foreign language classes, high-tech learning tools, a variety of trels, etc. All these are almost impossible for us who were born in the 1970s. With family size of 2-6 siblings, which means much less financial resources for each child, few of us dare to imagine going to singing classes to develop our interests or treling abroad to broaden our mind. That is also why I ge up the chance to go to a very prestigious university because my parents wanted to se the money for my sister’s education, who would go to 摘自：毕业论文怎么写www.7ctime.com
college next year. One of my best friends, whose family has 6 siblings, had to compete with her sisters and brothers to go to college, because their family could only support 4 of them. Therefore, family size does affect educational opportunities and adult economic achievements.摘自：论文查重站www.7ctime.com
摘自：写毕业论文经典网站www.7ctime.com