TyroCity: Sociology BA LLB

Detail theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.“
His most famous works are Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men (AKA The Second Discourse) & The Social Contract.
Believed that humans are born inherently good. He coined the term “Nobel Savage”.
However, once the idea of private property was introduced mankind experienced a “fall from grace”.
Individuals with many possessions saw that it would be in their best interest to create a government to protect their possessions.
How can we be free and live together? Or, put another way, how can we live together without succumbing to the force and coercion of others?
We can do so, Rousseau maintains, by submitting our individual wills to the collective or general will, created through agreement with other free and equal persons.
All men are made by nature to be equals, therefore no one has a natural right to govern others, and therefore the only justified authority is the authority that is generated out of agreements or covenants.
Rousseau advocates the strictest form of Direct Democracy.

Urbanization

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

‘Urbanization concerns the movement of population from agricultural to industrial work and from rural to urban places of residence. People are attracted to the city by visions of a better life or they feel compelled to leave rural places because they are disadvantaged there’.
– By Rajendra Kumar Sharma

‘Urbanization refers to the process of growth in the proportion of population living in urban areas. Historically, the concept of urbanization has been related to specialization, industrialization and consequent economic development. Although the form of this relationship has remained contested, there is a general consensus among scholars that a fundamental characteristic of urbanization is the structural shift in employment from agriculture to non-agriculture pursuits.’
– Dr. Pitamber Sharma

Features of urbanization

Growth in non agriculture based population
Growth in city based population
Weakening of traditional cultures
Higher economic class based consciousness compared to rural areas
Higher politically conscious population
A center of conflict between tradition and modernity(in most rural places there is a dominance of traditionalists)
Westernization, Modernization and urbanization are interconnected and mostly urban areas starts westernization. Then move towards modernization and later de westernizes itself.

Urbanization in Nepal

Urban Population: The urban population (population residing in 58 municipalities) constitutes 17 % (4,523,820) of the total population. Based on the recorded urban population, Kathmandu Metropolitan City is the most crowded city with the population of 24.3 percent (Population–1,003,285) of the total urban population. Dhulikhel Municipality has the least proportion (0.31%) of the total urban population. Population Density in Kathmandu Metropolitan City has found about 20,289 per square km

Total Population by urban-rural residence and urban population as a percent of rural population. Nepal, 1952/54 – 2001

	1952/54	1961	1971	1981	1991	2001	(2011)
Urban Population	238,275	336,222	461,938	956,721	1,695,719	3,227,879
Urban Population as Percent of Nepal Population	3.0	3.7	4.2	6.8	10.1	16.2	17%

Urban life & experience

Emotional-psychological responses

You take for granted encounters with strangers
You become tolerant of difference
You accept impersonal forms of social coordination (e.g. walk-signals, laws, regulations)
You accept a wide range of specialized authorities (police, doctors, EMS, bouncers, librarians, etc.)
Your extended family probably takes a back seat to a wide range of non-family social ties
You think of yourself in terms of “what you do” which means a specialized job or profession

Physical-biological impacts

You live longer than hunter-gatherers and early farmers
You are protected from wild animals, many bugs, and some (but not all!) natural hazards & therefore
Your food supplies are more secure, leading to less malnutrition but also a struggle against obesity
Your health suffers in “special” urban ways
- Noise pollution can affect your tension levels, sleep patterns, concentration, etc.
- Air pollution affects your eyes, lungs & brain
- Urban jobs can cause you to physically atrophy
- Urban routines (colonization of night for leisure) can affect your sleep cycles
- Your reproductive choices are greatly multiplied, which leads to better health over many generations
You internalize particular ways of moving (e.g. driving a car, a bike, a motorcycle, walking a certain way …)

Your impact on the city

Environmental degradation
Pollution in “ordinary ways” such as
- Human wastes
- Solid waste
- Driving
- maintaining a lawn
- Using mass transit or driving
- Pollution in “deviant ways”
- Graffiti & vandalism

Emile Durkheim:

In urban areas there is organic solidarity
There is Anomie (normlessness)

Georg Simmel:

Apathy, privacy

Louis Wirth

In urban areas there is
Aloof
Selfishness and self centeredness
Social segregation by class
Lack of social support except for impersonal (and less adequate) forms of support
Vulnerable to neurosis, chemical abuse, and other forms of deviance

Dilemmas

In either case, the city raises difficult moral and ethical issues
- What can be done?
- How much can be done?
- What is the best means of addressing “urban pathologies”?
- What are urban pathologies and what are lifestyle choices?
- Homelessness
- Drug addiction
- Prostitution
- Homosexuality

Genie

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

If you ever take a Psychology class or get into a conversation about feral children, Genie’s name will probably come up. For 13 years she was locked inside a room and strapped to her potty chair, other times she was bound in a sleeping bag and put inside a crib. Her father, the one behind the abuse, would hit her with a stick if she ever spoke and he would bark and growl at her to keep her quiet. He also forbade his other children and even his wife from speaking. Because of this, Genie had a very small vocabulary, consisting of about 20 words. The phrases she did know included “stop it” and “no more.” She was discovered in 1970 and today she is considered to be one of the worst cases of social isolation known. She was often thought to be autistic until doctors found out she was really 13 and was a victim of abuse.

She was taken to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she was treated for years. After some treatment, she was able to answer questions in one-word answers and she learned how to dress herself. However, she still held onto her learned behavior, including a “bunny walk” where she held her hands up in front of her as if they were paws. She also scratched and even clawed at things. Though she was moved around a lot, she found home with her therapist David Rigler for 4 years, who worked with her daily. He and his family taught Genie sign language as well as ways to express herself without speaking; drawing was a method. Genie then went to live with her mother, and then abusive foster parents, which then caused her to become mute again and afraid to speak. Today she is living somewhere in Southern California.

Bello of Nigeria

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Bello, sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Chimp Boy by the media, was found in 1996. No one is exactly sure of his age but many estimated that he was about 2 years old when he was discovered. He was found in the Nigerian forest and is both physically and mentally disabled, possibly the explanation for his abandonment at six months of age (a very common practice within the Fulani tribe). At such a young age, Bello of course could not fend for himself but somehow chimpanzees that lived within the forest took him in and raised him. He took on many chimpanzee behaviors, walking like them and displaying many of their animalistic behaviors.

When he was found in the Falgore forest, no one really mentioned the discovery. It wasn’t until about 2002 when popular news media found out and quickly learned that he was living in Tudun Maliki Torrey, a home for displaced children in Kano, South Africa. It was reported that he often disturbed other children within the home, throwing objects as well as jumping and leaping around at night. Six years later he was much calmer, though he still continued to display behaviors of a chimpanzee. Bello never did learn to speak despite the constant human interaction he had within the home, and in 2005 he died of undetermined causes.

Vanya Yudin

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

One of the more recent cases of a feral child is Vanya Yudin (referred to by news agencies as ‘the Russian Bird Boy’). It is said that when he was found by Russian caseworkers in 2008, he was 7 years old and unable to speak. He did nothing but chirp and flap his arms as if he had wings, and exhibited a lot of the behavior that you would expect from a bird. He was kept in a two-room apartment with bird cages filled with dozens of birds that were owned by his mother. Galina Volskaya, one of the social workers taking part in the case stated that even though the boy lived with his mother, she never spoke to him and she simply treated him like another one of her pets. When Volskaya attempted to talk to the boy, he didn’t speak, just chirped.

While he was never abused physically, the boy was still treated with similar methods to others on the list due to the lack of human interaction. He was put into an asylum where he received treatment to allow him to become more human-like. After, he was sent to a center for psychological care to further his journey to becoming more socially aware and accepted.

Meaning of Sociology

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Sociology is the youngest of the social science. Its major concern is society, and hence to is popularly known as the “Science of Society”.

Etymological, the term sociological is the combination of two words. One Latine words- ‘Societus’ and other Greek words-logos’, in which ‘Societus’ means society and logos’ means study or Science. In this way etymological meaning of Sociology is the Study of the Society or Science of the Society.

Definition

Different Scholars have defined Sociology in different ways. Though the content of definition is the same, definitions very from person to person.

“Sociology is a science of Society.” –L.F Ward
“Sociology is about Social relationship, the net of relationship, we call Society”-MacIver and Page
“Sociology is the Study of human interaction and interrelation, their conditions and consequence”-M.Ginsberg
“Sociology is the scientific study of the structure of social life”-Young and Mack

Sociology is the study of human behavior in groups.
Sociology is the study of social action.
Sociology is the study of social groups or social system
Sociology is the study of forms of social relationship.

Sociologist tries to find out the evolution of society while studying Society. Similarly, to find out and discover nature and interdependence of Social structure, development of social institution, their functions, customs, value of mobilizing of social relation, human made groups and history of community, family, caste, government, economic, group, religious group etc and phenomena of social change are the functions of sociologists.

Oxana Malaya

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

In 1991, Oxana Malaya, who lives in Ukraine, was found and considered to be a feral child. At the time she was found, she was only 8 years old and is said to have lived amongst dogs since she was 3 years old. She was kept in a kennel in the backyard of her home. Because of this she picked up common behaviors that dogs exhibit: barking, growling, and even protecting the pack, so to speak. She even walked on four legs as a dog does and sniffed out her food before she ate it. When authorities came to rescue Oxana, the other dogs growled and attempted to attack them while Oxana barked and growled as well. Because of her lack of human interaction, Oxana had no vocabulary except the words “yes” and “no.”

She was of course put through intensive therapy to attempt to help her to learn necessary social and verbal skills. She was able to learn how to speak, though therapists say she has deep issues with attempting to communicate and express herself emotionally. Today she lives at the Baraboy Clinic in Odessa and spends a lot of her time tending to the cows at the hospital’s farm, though she has expressed that she really feels best when she is around dogs.

Traian Caldarar

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Another recent case of a feral child, Traian Caldarar (found in 2002) is often referred to as ‘the Romanian Dog Boy’ or ‘Mowgli,’ after the main character in the Jungle book. He had lived apart from his family for 3 years since the age of 4. When he was found at the age of 7 he was said to be the size of an average 3 year old due to a lack of proper nutrition. His mother was a victim of domestic violence who left her husband. It is believed that Traian also ran away from the home sometime afterwards. Traian lived in the wild and when he was found in 2002 in Brasov, Rom?nia. He found shelter in a cardboard box covered with a sheet. Traian had a severe case of rickets, poor circulation, and infected wounds. Because of his age, those who discovered Traian believed that stray dogs helped to keep him alive.

Traian was only found because a car belonging to a shepherd named Manolescu Ioan broke down and he had to walk through pastures, during which he spotted the boy. When he was found, the body of a dog was found nearby and many assume that he was eating the dog as a way to stay alive. Once he was taken into care, he would sleep under his bed instead of on it and would often want to eat. When he didn’t have food he became very irritable and often slept right after meals.

In 2007, it was reported that Traian was doing well under the care of his grandfather and in grade 3 at school. When asked about his school, he said “I like it here, coloring, play and learn to write and read. We have toys, cars, teddy bears, and the food is very good,” (translasted from Romanian newsite

Effects of the social contract

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Hobbes: People will live in peace but without rights except for the right to self-defense
Locke: The three natural rights which exist in the State of Nature will be easier to enforce by the government. Those who have given express consent will be bound by the contract; those who have given tacit consent can opt out and leave.
Rousseau: Life will be fair for all if we employ the general will and set aside our personal interests.
Kant: The people will be fairly represented by the Sovereign without actually having to participate.
Rawls: We will have decided on a system that is fair for everyone, using the “Veil of Ignorance.”

Westernization

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

‘Cultural homogenization, Americanization, westernization, the global village even modernity itself are all variants of myth-a cultural narrative to use the terms of this study-whereby the West imagines its own being and becoming and that of the rest of the world.’ - BOOK Suitably Modern: Making Middle-class Culture in a New Consumer Society

By Mark Liechty

Historically Western civilization is European civilization. In the modern era, Western civilization is Euroamerican or North Atlantic civilization. Europe, America and the North Atlantic can be found on a map; the West cannot. The name “the West” has also given rise to the concept of Westernization and has promoted a misleading conflation of westernization and modernization: it is easier to conceive of Japan “Westernizing” than “Euroamericanizing”. European-American civilization is however, universally referred to as Western civilization and that term despite its serious disabilities will be used here…In the earlier phases of change, Westernization thus promotes modernization. In the later phases modernization promotes de-Westernization and the resurgence of indigenous culture…’-Samuel Phillips Huntington (BOOK: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order)

Features or characteristics of Westernization

Anglicization
- Prominence and dominance of English language
- Though the term is westernization but the linguistice dominance is that of English
- Language of study, entertainment
Rationalization
- Westernization is based on rationalization
- Modernization and westernization are both based on rationalization.
Individualism
- Individuals are given more importance than the family or group.
Weakening of religious values
- Westernization means weakening of religious values
- Dominance of scientific and rational.
Weakening of family ties
- The westernization means people have less attachment with their family
Nuclear family
Flexibility in marriage
- Seriousness of marriage will be in decline.
Relaxation in sexuality
- Sex is no longer viewed as evil, impure or dangerous.
- Sexual relationship outside marriage is seen as natural
Prominence of western education
- Westernization means use of western education in non western societies.
Dominance of western perspective of the world
- History and philosophy of the west gets prioritized
Dominance of western art and culture
Deification of the west

Westernization in Nepal

Westernization in Nepal began before 1950s but it was only after 1950 that when Nepal was finally opened to foreign tourists that westernization began in Nepal with more force.
The western tourists who came to Nepal began westernization in their own small way.
In 1970s Nepal and India’s Goa became the center outside California for Hippie youths of America who were spiritual, rebellious, anti-government, and anti-war.
- Kathmandu was popular for marijuana and hashish which was not illegal till then.
- Hippies came in large number in Kathmandu and settled in Jhose which till this date is called freak street.
- Hippie did not directly bring westernization but they showed Nepali youths that western culture was different.
- Youths were attracted to them.
The culture of sending the children of upper and middle class to westernized schools in India (Darjeeling, Kalingpong, Dehra Dun) also started after 1950s.
In 1990 Nepal overthrew autocracy and accepted the multiparty democracy.
The multi-party democratic system uplifted all the restrictions on foreign literatures, and medias.
The foreign medias and influx of large number of foreigners to Nepal started westernization in Nepal among youths.
The upper and middle class began to send their children to expensive westernized private school within Nepal.
The post 2000 Nepal saw the explosion of internet and internet related subculture (facebook, chat etc).

Detail theory of John Locke

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Wrote Two Treatises on Government.
The first treatise is concerned almost exclusively with refuting the argument of Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, that political authority was derived from religious authority, also known by the description of the Divine Right of Kings.
The second treatise contains Locke’s own constructive view of the aims and justification for civil government.
Believed that people entered into society to protect their “life, liberty, and property”.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, admired Locke.
The government’s main job is to protect the citizen’s property.
If they government is not providing you with protection for your property you have the right to revolt.
Justified the American Revolution

Introduction to Cases of growth of Self and Social Heritage

Sociology BA LLB — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

A feral child is a human child who has lived away from human contact from a very young age, and has little or no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language. Feral children are confined by humans (often parents), brought up by animals, or live in the wild in isolation. There have been over one hundred reported cases of feral children, and this is a selection of ten of them.