SOCI 210: Sociological perspectives

Agenda

  1. Administrative
  2. Discussing fatness
  3. Political participation

Administrative

Reminder: worksheet deadlines

  • 11:59pm deadline is strict
  • Peer evalutation tool cannot allow late submissions
  • Submit your worksheets first to FeedbackFruits

Reminder: worksheet word limits

  • 500 word limit is strict
  • The best (and highest scoring) answers are usually much shorter than this

Discussing fatness

March 12 reading

  • Coming Out as Fat: Rethinking Stigma
    (Saguy and Ward 2011)
  • Being fat is extremely stigmatized
  • Anti-fat stigma is often considered acceptable in ways that, e.g., anti-queer stigma is not
    (e.g. media, government, science, …)

Discussing fatness

  • Being fat is not an indicator of poor health
  • Medicalized terms like 'obese' and normative words like 'overweight' should be avoided, as should euphamisms that try to avoid saying the word fat
  • Trauma surrounding bodies is common — be sensitive in your Perusall comments and group discussions
  • Because of the sensitivity of these issues, I will be moderating the Persuall comments more closely than usual

Political participation

Photo of protesters surrounding and on top of a large backhoe, most of their fists raised above their heads. A large banner hangs from the arm of the backhoe reading 'If you build it we will come' and 'Tar sands' with a red cross through it. A second banner is held by protesters on the ground, reading 'tar sands wreck our lands'.

Political participation

A line of people with their backs to the camera on a sidewalk. In the foreground, a diamond-shaped sign reads 'Vote Here' in four languages.

Many types of political participation

  • Voting
  • Direct participation
    E.g. running for office
  • Collective pressure
    E.g. committees and interest groups
  • Direct action
    E.g. strikes, occupations, marches,
    sabotage, service, …
  • Money
    E.g. campaigns, influence, bribery, …

Social categories matter

  • Associations between social identity and political ideals mean turnout influence outcomes
  • Non-participation widespread
  • Non-participation results from preferences and institutional barriers
    In US, most likely voters are wealthy, older, educated, employed, and white

Democratic will

Politics and social identity

  • Political ideals tend to correlate with social categories
  • Gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, religion, …

E.g.: Democrat vs Republicans (US, 2016)

  • Republicans disproportionately:
    white, men, straight, protestant / evangelical Christian, upper-middle class
  • Democrats disproportionately:
    non-white, women, LGBTQIA+, agnostic/atheist or Jewish, lower class
  • Black Americans ~20x more likely Democrat than Republican
Donald Trump in front of the US White House. His back is to the camera and hi arms are stretched wide. He is facing a crowd of a few dozen prominent Republicans who are exclusively white men.

Democratic will

Disenfranchisement

  • Commonly, certain groups are excluded from voting, either formally or informally.
  • Historically: race, gender, …
  • Currently: age, citizenship, imprisonment, location, …
  • Suffrage: the legal right to vote

Informal means often limit electoral participation among certain groups

  • Literacy tests exploit correlation between education and political positions
  • Voter ID laws exploit correlation between socio-economic factors, race, and political positions
  • Polling place accessibility laws exploit correlation between ability/geography and political positions
  • Also applies to non-electoral participation
Torn, yellowed print showing a woman leaving the house to vote on election day while her distraught husband is left behind to tend to the children and house by himself. A plate has been broken, both children are crying and even the cat is in a panic. Hanging in a frame on the wall in the background: Votes for Women and written on a ballot in the bottom right hand corner: Hen Party: 'For President -- Mrs. Henry Peck -- Vice President -- Mrs. Wm. Nagg -- For Governor -- Mrs. Thos Katt.' Caption at the bottom says 'Election Day!'

Political participation

A line graph titled "Voter turnout in Canada (percent)" shows voter turnout in federal elections and referendums in Canada between 1960 and 2012. The x-axis displays the year, and the y-axis displays voter turnout as a percentage. The graph shows a general downward trend in voter turnout over the period, from a high of about 79% in 1961 to a low of about 59% in 2008 in 2015.

Political participation

A bar chart titled "Voter turnout as percentage of population, Canadian federal general election, 2019". The vertical axis ranges from 0 to 100 percent. Age gorup 18-24 has the lowest turnout of about 43%. The voting turnout increases with each age group until 65-74 with a turnout of about 75%.

Theories of political participation

Rational choice theory

  • Political economy
  • Voter decisions based on expected costs and benefits
  • Rational choice predicts extremely low voter turnout

Theories of socialization

  • Democratic participation is learned
  • Necessary to know the norms and procedures of political engagement
    Knowledge of government processes
    Engagement with politicians
    Sources of news
    Understanding of formal and informal voting practices

Structural barriers

  • Structural constraints can explain most patterns of voter turnout
  • Time
    Employment, family structure, access to transit
  • Geography
    Location of polls, rural versus urban setting, neighborhood
  • Language
    Ballots and instructions, get-out-the-vote initiatives

Alienation

  • Lack of trust in political institutions
  • Legitimacy of state in question
  • Voting as implicit endorsement of system of governance
    Non-participation as voice
  • Voter suppression
    Misinformation, unequal resources, districting patterns, voter intimidation
  • Structural barriers ➝ alienation

Image credit

Photo of protesters surrounding and on top of a large backhoe, most of their fists raised above their heads. A large banner hangs from the arm of the backhoe reading 'If you build it we will come' and 'Tar sands' with a red cross through it. A second banner is held by protesters on the ground, reading 'tar sands wreck our lands'.

Image via sub.media

A line of people with their backs to the camera on a sidewalk. In the foreground, a diamond-shaped sign reads 'Vote Here' in four languages.

Photo: April Sikorski via Wikimedua

Donald Trump in front of the US White House. His back is to the camera and hi arms are stretched wide. He is facing a crowd of a few dozen prominent Republicans who are exclusively white men.

Photo: Politico via Getty

Torn, yellowed print showing a woman leaving the house to vote on election day while her distraught husband is left behind to tend to the children and house by himself. A plate has been broken, both children are crying and even the cat is in a panic. Hanging in a frame on the wall in the background: Votes for Women and written on a ballot in the bottom right hand corner: Hen Party: 'For President -- Mrs. Henry Peck -- Vice President -- Mrs. Wm. Nagg -- For Governor -- Mrs. Thos Katt.' Caption at the bottom says 'Election Day!'

Poster: E.W. Gustin via Library of Congress

Canada would look very different if, say, only women or only Francophones were permitted to vote

2021: 62.6%