Unit5Assign/DiscSCPP

Social Change and Public Policy Vocabulary

Building a Social Change and Public Policy Vocabulary Rudolph Ryser 2017

Every specialized field of study or practice usually requires a particular vocabulary. This is true in large measure since scholars from different perspectives have over time contributed to the language used to describe, explain and communicate ideas, concepts and applications in the field. This proves to be equally true of Social Change and of Public Policy. This document offers some of the most common vocabulary for both areas of study and sometimes the points at which these two fields converge. This is not an exhaustive list, but you may find the lists below helpful as you navigate the literature and undertake your own study of Social Change and Public Policy.

Social Change Vocabulary Social Change Vocabulary Description

Class System, Open A social system in which the position of each individual in the social order (stratus) is influenced by his or her achieved status

Power The ability to exercise one's will or influence over others

Pre-Generalized Learning Period According to the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, a time when children may overhear parents make bigoted or prejudiced statements, but they may have not yet learned to separate people by culture, social or ethnic group.

Prejudice A negative attitude toward an entire category of people, such as a racial or ethnic minority

Prestige The respect and admiration that an occupation holds in a society

Proletariat Social Philosopher Karl Marx's term for the working class in a capitalist society

Racism The belief that one race is supreme and all others are innately inferior

Self-fulfilling Prophecy The tendency of people to respond to and act on the basis of stereotypes, leading to

Social Change and Public Policy Vocabulary

Social Change Vocabulary Description validation of false definitions

Social Class A term used by Sociologist Max Weber to refer to a group of people who have a similar level of wealth and income

Social Stratification The ranking of individuals in a hierarchy system according to a distribution of economic resources, social statuses, and power

Stereotypes Unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the group

Stratification The existence of structured inequalities in life chances between groups in society

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective looks at individual and group meaning- making, focusing on human action instead of large-scale social structures

Total Rejection Stage According to the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, the stage when children can use physical clues to sort people into groups

Upward Mobility Movement from one social level (stratus) to a higher one

Wealth An inclusive term encompassing all of a person's material assets, including land and other types of property

Public Policy Vocabulary Vocabulary Description

Accountable responsible for your actions and decisions Conservation ”to keep safe” Constituent a person that lives in a district that elects a

government official, supports or benefits from a non-profit organization, or a beneficiary or supporter of a for-profit organization.

Contribution “money; supposed to be donated without something being promised in return; dishonest contributions may be considered bribes”

Social Change and Public Policy Vocabulary

Vocabulary Description economic development efforts to bring non-profit or for-profit

enterprise, production, distribution of goods and jobs to an area.

Forum a place where public issues can be discussed

Global economy ”worldwide economic and social markets; interconnected for-profits, non-profits and trade around the world”

Interest group organizations created to press for rules, practices and/or laws as policies their members favor

Lobby to contact decision-makers and convince them to advocate or vote a particular way

Media all forms of communication including printed, electronic, and interpersonal

News media report current events and other news to facilitate an informed public

Public agenda topics that are at the top of the public’s concerns and have the attention of governmental, non-profit organization and/or for-profit organization decision- makers

Public health ”well-being of the population; especially medical issues”

Public opinion Views, sentiments of large numbers of people on a particular issue

Public policy r u l e s , r e g u l a t i o n s , p r a c t i c e s , p r o c e d u r e s t h a t g o v e r n conflict within and organization or society; they organize organizations or society to carry on conflict with other societies; they distribute a great variety of s y m b o l i c r e w a r d s and m a t e r i a l s e r v i c e s to members of the society; and they e x t r a c t m o n e y from society, most often in the form of taxes. Thus public policies may regulate behavior, organize bureaucracies, distribute benefits, or extract taxes.

Social Change and Public Policy Vocabulary