Sociology

Items

• achieved status

  A social position attained through personal effort, skills, or accomplishments rather than assigned at birth. Examples: graduate, doctor, athlete (Thinking Sociologically Glossary; Luo, 2019).
• affirmative action

  Policies favoring groups historically subjected to discrimination, intended to counteract past exclusion and promote diversity and equal opportunity (Vue, Haslerig & Allen, 2017).
• alienation

  In Marxism, the process by which workers become estranged from their labor, products, fellow workers, and human potential under capitalism. More broadly, a problematic separation between a self and something that belongs to it (Thinking Sociologically Glossary; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
• anomie

  Refers to a social condition characterised by the breakdown of norms governing social interaction (The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 1984).
• anthropocene

  A proposed geological epoch in which human activity has become a dominant force shaping Earth systems and environmental change (Peša, 2022).
• ascribed status

  A social position assigned at birth or involuntarily, based on sex, race, ethnicity, or family background. Defined by Ralph Linton as "assigned to individuals without reference to their innate differences or abilities" (Foladare, 1968; Thinking Sociologically Glossary).
• assimilation

  The process by which a minority group takes on the characteristics of the dominant culture. Originally theorized by Park & Burgess (1921) as one-way, now understood as multidimensional (Sociology in Everyday Life Glossary; Powers, 2013).
• authoritarianism

  A political system with concentrated power in a leader or elite, limited freedoms, and suppression of opposition (Henslin, 1996).
• axiology

  Derived from the Greek words “axios” (value) and “logos” (study), is the philosophical exploration of value. It encompasses the examination of what is valuable and why, exploring the nature of values, their hierarchy, and their relationship with individuals, societies, and cultures. Axiology encompasses both ethics (the study of moral values) and aesthetics (the study of beauty and taste) (Oxford Review, 2026).
• belief

  A conviction that certain things are true or real, often shared within a group; part of a culture's ideological system (Neubeck & Glasberg, 1997).
• black consciousness

  A movement/ideology that emphasizes black identity, self-reliance and liberation from systems of racial oppression (Biko, 2004).
• bourgeoise

  Is used in sociology as an equivalent to the capitalist class, those who own means of production (The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 1984). The profit driven owners of the means of production (Ferrante, et al., 2016.
• bureaucracy

  A hierarchical power arrangement based on fixed areas of expertise and written rules (Hudson & Sullivan, 2021)
• capitalism

  An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, wage labor, and pursuit of profit in a competitive market (Thinking Sociologically Glossary).
• capitalocene

  A concept linking environmental change to capitalist economic systems, emphasizing how capitalism drives resource extraction and ecological degradation (Peša, 2022).
• class consciousness

  The term has been loosely used by sociologists outside the Marxist tradition to include any feelings of self-awareness or common identity among members of a social class (The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 1984).
• climate change

  Refers to significant changes in global temperature, precipitation, wind patterns and other measures of climate that occur over several decades or longer (Ferrante, et al., 2016).
• collective action

  Refers to mobilization of a mass of people to change the general structure of society (The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 1984).
• collectivism

  Refers to a social, cultural or political principle that emphasises the importance of the group over the individual (The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 1984).
• colonialism

  The political, economic, and cultural domination of one country by another, involving exploitation of resources and peoples (Meghji, 2021).
• conflict perspective

  A sociological perspective viewing society as composed of groups competing for limited resources, where inequality and power struggles drive social change (OpenStax Introductory Sociology Glossary). Sociological approach that views society as a system marked by inequality, competition and conflict over limited resources.
• cultural capital

  Refers to knowledge, skills, education and cultural competencies that give social advantages.
• cultural relativism

  A foreign culture should not be judged by the standards of a home culture and a behaviour or a way of thinking must be examined in its cultural context.
• decolonization

  The process by which colonized peoples achieve independence; also the intellectual project of challenging Eurocentrism and recognizing Global South knowledge systems (Meghji, 2021).
• democracy

  A political system in which power is vested in the people, exercised through elected representatives, characterized by political equality and civil liberties (Henslin, 1996).