Social Issues

1
Social Issues

• Education, Science,
• and
• Technology

2
American Dream Technology

• What is the American Dream?
• What role does education play?
• Does everyone have the same American Dream?

3
Growth of Education and Technology

• Industrial Revolution leads to Industrialization
• productive process where fossil fuels and
  machines are used instead of human or animal
  muscle power to produce things (Sullivan
  2000506).

4
Growth of Education and Technology cont

• mechanization
• the use of tools and machinery instead of
  human and animal labor in the production of
  goods and services (Sullivan 2000508).

5
Growth of Education and Technology cont

• automation
• automatically controlled operation of machines
  by mechanical or electrical devices (Sullivan
  2000508).

6
Modernization, What Is It?

• -Grew out of industrialization
• -Is the economic, social, and cultural changes
  that occur when a preindustrial society makes the
  transition to an advanced industrial society
  (Sullivan 2000506).

7
Explaining Modernization

• Emile Durkheim
• -Mechanical Societies
• -primitive
• -little, if any division of labor
• -Organic Societies
• -modern
• -division of labor

8
Explaining Modernization cont

• Dynamic Density
• -Increased population in a given area
• -increased communication in and out of given
  area
• -changed created b/c of limited resources and
  dependence on others for survival

9
Explaining Modernization cont

• Mechanical Society
• -independent
• -self-sufficient individuals
• Organic Society
• -dependent
• -not self-sufficient individuals

10
More Terms

• Education
• -the systematic, formal process through which
  specialized teachers transmit skills, knowledge
  and values to students (Sullivan 2000506).

11
More Terms cont

• Science
• -the process of using systematic observation to
  gain knowledge about the physical and social
  worlds (Sullivan 2000506).

12
More Terms cont

• Technology
• -the knowledge, tools, and practices that use
  scientific or other organized knowledge to
  achieve some practical goal (Sullivan 2000507).

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Types of Science

• Applied Science
• -knowledge applied to something or used to solve
  a social problem
• Basic Science
• -knowledge accumulated for the sake of learning

14
Theoretical Perspectives

• Functionalism Education
• -Teaching
• -knowledge
• -specific skills
• -cultural values
• -Means to an end

15
Functionalism cont

• Education Dysfunction
• -What causes dysfunction?
• -Social Disorganization
• -poverty
• -discrimination of certain groups

16
Functionalism cont

• How do science technology fit in?
• -Cultural Lag
• -gap between social system changing and
  other parts and/or individuals adapting to the
  change
• -Can cause problems before problems become noticed

17
Example Adolescence

18
Conflict Theory

• Education not accessible to all groups of people
• Technology is affordable to some and not everyone

19
Symbolic Interaction

• How meanings are attached to people
• -labeling people b/c of background
• -Credentials
• -meaning attached to them by certain groups
  in society

20
Question

• Why is our educational system not functional?
• -Stratification
• -segregation
• -race/ethnicity

21
Question

• What secondary tertiary social problems arise
  from science technology as applied to our
  educational system?

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Problems of Science Technology

• Unemployment
• -new technologies need new skills
• -what happens to persons with old skills
  (displaced workers)?
• -surplus labor

23
Problems of Science Technology cont

• Alienation
• -estrangement of people from on another, or a
  situation, or a process encompasses
  sociological, philosophical, and psychological
  dimensions (Marshall 19949).

24
Karl Marx and 4 Types of Alienation

• Alienation from the act of working workers
  denied a voice in producing products

Because, I am the BOSS!!
Why dont we have a say in this?
25
Karl Marx and 4 Types of Alienation cont

• Alienation from products workers make b/c of
  divisions of labor

Can one person make these and take credit for
their making?
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Karl Marx and 4 Types of Alienation cont

• Alienation from other workers because of
  divisions of labor

27
Karl Marx and 4 Types of Alienation cont

• Alienation from human potential

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More Concerns/Issues

• Dependence on technology
• Privacy
• Genetic Engineering
• Legal Implications