SOCI 210: Sociological perspectives

Multiculturalism & identity

  1. Administrative
  2. Canadian multiculturalism
  3. Ethnicity, race, identity, & the state
  4. Theoretical tradition 2:
    symbolic interactionism

Administrative

First synthesis essay

  • Topics will be distributed by email early next week
  • Essays due Feb 12

Canadian multicultural policy

Justin Trudeau wearing a Chinese style shirt, with hands pressed palms together in a Buddhist temple. A line of people are making the same hand gesture to him.

Canadian multicultural policy

1963

Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, recommends official federal policy of bilingualism and biculturalism

1971

Pierre Trudeau announces policies of bilingualism and multiculturalism

1982

Multiculturalism enshrined in Charter of Rights and Freedoms

1988

Canadian Multiculturalism Act

Canadian multicultural policy

Motivations

  • Divisions between French- and British-descended Canadians
  • Increases in non-European immigration
  • Formal response to existing cultural divisions

Key points

  • Stated desire to maintain the cultural heritage of all groups in Canada’s multicultural population
  • Equity between visible minorities and those of French and British ancestry
  • “Unity in diversity”

Canadian multicultural policy

A photograph of an ornate tile mosaic.

The ideal of the multicultural mosaic
(the stated goals)

  • ‘Each’ ethnic group keeps its unique heritage and culture
  • Intended to contribute to unified national identity
  • No explicit hierarchy
  • Intended to promote mutual understanding and tolerance

Canadian multicultural policy

Salad bowl

A photo from above of a salad with many distinct clusters of ingredients.

vs

Melting pot

Animation of an arm descenting into a vat of molten metal. Just before it submerges completely, the hand moves to gives a thumbs-up gesture.

Canadian multicultural policy

Implementation

  • Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
    “This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.”
  • Broad array of policies, laws, and agencies provide legal protection and direct support for culturally and linguistically defined groups

Contrasting models

  • Segregation
  • Interculturalism (Québec)
  • Melting pot
  • Self-governed nations
  • Special representation

Policy ⬌ identity

  • Policies shape perception and experience of cultural identity
Several people in a parade, wearing Japanese style costumes and white cat masks. They appear to doing a coreographed dance.

Ethnicity, race, identity,
& the state

Image from a census form, asking about respondents ancestry, indigeneity, and ethnicity

Ethnicity

Ethnicity

  • Identification with a certain cultural, linguistic, religious, or national heritage
  • Focus on inheritance of culture, traditions, history, and beliefs

Ethnicity versus race

  • Tightly connected—distinction is fuzzy at best
  • Race frequently defined socially in terms of physical characteristics (despite problems with that definition)
  • Race tends to be defined externally (at least initially) while ethnicity tends to be defined internally
  • Racial boundaries often sharper, more difficult to cross: race is treated as essential

Discussion: Mahtani (2002)

  1. What was Mahtani's research question?
    • What was not known that Mahtani wanted to know
    • What 'holes' in the literature was Mahtani trying to fill?
  2. What methods did Mahtani use?
    • Which of of the categories we discussed in class best describes the methods? (survey, experiment, field research, secondary data analysis)
    • What data was used for the analysis and how was it collected?
    • Was the analysis qualitative or quantitative?
  1. Were Mahntani's methods appropriate and sufficient to answer her research question?

Identity

photo of a 'global cuisine' aisle at a grocery store
  • What is the role of one's ancestry in defining their ethnic identity?
  • How is ethnicity shaped by everyday interactions with others?
  • What influence does the state (government, laws, policy, state institutions) have over ethnic identity?

Symbolic interac-tionism

Photo of two people in the woods. The person on the right is whispering into the person on the left's ear. The person on the left is looking at the camera and covering their mouth in a feigned expression of scandalous surprise.

Three theoretical traditions

Throughout the semester, we will be be using three broad theoretical lenses to make sense of social phenomena:

1. Structural functionalism

Today

2. Symbolic interactionism

3. Conflict theory

Symbolic interactionism

A large square labeled 'Society'. The interior of the square is broken up into several irregularly shaped regions. The entire square has a large X drawn over it.

Symbolic interactionism

Micro-level explanation of society

Focus on symbolic meaning

  • Explains institutions, behavior, social structure through the meanings people ascribe to objects in the social world

Focus on interaction

  • Interactions (rather than classes, roles, or institutions) are basic building block
  • Examines behavior—social psychology
Photograph of King Charles of England tapping a kneeling man in a suit on the shoulder with a ceremonial sword. Four people stand in the background watching. (knighting ceremony)

Symbolic interactionism

Some major themes from symbolic interactionism:

A photo of a person taking a selfie. Their phone is the only thing in focus, and it is covering their face.

Interaction as basis of self
(George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley)

  • Social world based on mental images of one another and our interactions
  • Interaction involves imagining viewpoint of other person
  • “Looking-glass self”
  • Concept of self is same process, internalized
Movie clip of Spider-Man (Tom Holland) removing his mask

Multiple selves
(George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman)

  • Self is built through interactions with others
  • Therefore: different conceptions of who we are depending on the social situation we are in

Symbolic interactionism

Some major themes from symbolic interactionism:

Photograph of several protesters with arms raised confonting a line of police wearing riot gear

Negotiation of social order
(Herbert Blumer, Erving Goffman)

  • Institutions, norms, hierarchies, structures are negotiated through interactions
  • Roles are created and recreated in situational contexts
    Mutual work of defining the situation
  • Regularity of social roles from repeated interaction and expectations
Photo of a man looking over his shoulder at a woman in a red dress while the woman he is walking with lookes at him with disguest and surprise

Small-scale-structure
(Georg Simmel)

  • Small-scale structures of groups (as small as three) have large-scale consequences
  • Interactions are not in a vacuum
  • (More on this when we talk about relational sociology and network theory later in the term)

Image credit

Justin Trudeau wearing a Chinese style shirt, with hands pressed palms together in a Buddhist temple. A line of people are making the same hand gesture to him.

Photo source unknown (via @ZOO_CROO)

A photograph of an ornate tile mosaic.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A photo from above of a salad with many distinct clusters of ingredients.

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Animation of an arm descenting into a vat of molten metal. Just before it submerges completely, the hand moves to gives a thumbs-up gesture.

Clip from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), via tenor

Several people in a parade, wearing Japanese style costumes and white cat masks. They appear to doing a coreographed dance.

Photo via flickr user maiaibing2000

photo of a 'global cuisine' aisle at a grocery store

Photo by Shutterstock via Epicurious

Photo of two people in the woods. The person on the right is whispering into the person on the left's ear. The person on the left is looking at the camera and covering their mouth in a feigned expression of scandalous surprise.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Photograph of King Charles of England tapping a kneeling man in a suit on the shoulder with a ceremonial sword. Four people stand in the background watching. (knighting ceremony)

Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA, via X

A photo of a person taking a selfie. Their phone is the only thing in focus, and it is covering their face.

Photo by Cristina Zaragoza on Unsplash

Movie clip of Spider-Man (Tom Holland) removing his mask

Clip from Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), via tumblr

Photograph of several protesters with arms raised confonting a line of police wearing riot gear

Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune/AP via CNN

Photo of a man looking over his shoulder at a woman in a red dress while the woman he is walking with lookes at him with disguest and surprise

Photo via imgflip

Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism: commissioned by PM Lester B Pearson in response to quiet revolution

First, let's talk about what ethnicity means and how it is theoretically distinct from race

Symbolic interactionism takes a very different approach from both structural functionalism and conflict theory. Symbolic interactionists look at that big picture of society divided up into large, well defined groups and ask where those groups came from, where the divisions originate Micro-level — focus on individual interactions

Sir Pascal Soriot, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca being knighted by King Charles in 2022