Key term
OCR A-Level Sociology H580
Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity
Topic overviewCulture, norms, values and cultural relativismSubculture, high culture and popular cultureGlobal and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridityPrimary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer groupMedia, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisationLifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debateSocial control, sanctions and formal agencies of controlInformal agencies and theories of social controlThe concept of identity, ethnicity and nationalityGender, class and sexual identityAge, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities
Families and RelationshipsComponent 01
Topic overviewFamily types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitationDemographic change, family diversity and newer family typesNuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New RightMarxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debateConjugal roles and the domestic division of labourPower, the dark side of the family and theories of partner rolesThe child-centred family, views of childhood and its extensionParent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views
Youth SubculturesComponent 01
Topic overviewFunctionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth cultureHebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subculturesClass, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflictDelinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subculturesGangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offendingFunctionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth devianceLabelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance
MediaComponent 01
Topic overviewRepresentations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gazeRepresentations of gender, social class and young peopleRepresentations of older people and theories of media representationDirect and indirect media effects modelsActive audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics
Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities
Topic overviewPositivism, quantitative data and interpretivismVerstehen, qualitative data and validityReliability, representativeness, generalisability and theoryResearch topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary dataOperationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validationLongitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policySampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sampleAccess, gatekeepers and research ethicsQuestionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observationUnstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism
Understanding Social Inequalities
Globalisation and the Digital Social World
Crime and DevianceComponent 03
Topic overviewDefining crime and deviance, social control and relativitySocial construction of crime and police recorded crimeThe Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studiesCrime patterns by social class, gender and ageCrime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crimeGlocal organised crime and green crimeFunctionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crimeMarxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crimeRight realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patternsLeft-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justiceSituational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice
EducationComponent 03
Topic overviewFunctionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of educationSocial democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational educationClass and ethnic patterns in educational attainmentGender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionalityInside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racismMaterial and cultural deprivation and cultural capitalExplaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievementTypes of school and education policy since 1988Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy
Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03
Topic overviewDefining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominationsSects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalismMeasuring religiosity and believing without belongingFunctionalist and Marxist views of the role of religionNeo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religionReligion, social change and whether religion is positive or negativeClass and gender patterns in religiosityWomen's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patternsAge cohorts, global religious trends and resurgenceDefining secularisation and evidence of religious declinePro- and anti-secularisation theoriesReligion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns
Globalisation and the Digital Social World
- 4 subtopics
- 12 things to know
- Component 03
What Globalisation and the Digital Social World covers
Globalisation and the Digital Social World is examined on component 03 of OCR Sociology, Debates in contemporary society. 56 recall questions across 4 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
Component 03
Debates in contemporary society, Section A, compulsory.
Check the OCR specification ↗The 4 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergenceRecall questions on globalisation and Harvey's time-space compression, the hyperglobalist, sceptic and transformationalist positions of Ohmae, Hirst and Thompson and Held and McGrew, the digital revolution, McLuhan's global village and its criticisms, Castells's networked global society, and media convergence with Jenkins.Open →
- Social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communicationRecall questions on social media, Rheingold's virtual communities and doubts about them, digital social networks, social capital and Putnam's bonding and bridging capital, whether digital communication builds or erodes it, and Marxist, feminist, cyberfeminist and postmodern views of digital communication, including Fuchs on digital labour.Open →
- Digital identities, the digital divide and social classRecall questions on how digital communication shapes identity, Goffman applied to online profiles, Turkle on identity on screen, postmodern pick-and-mix, hybrid and global identities, negative effects on identity, the digital divide and its global dimension, van Dijk on persistent digital inequality, and social class online.Open →
- Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communicationRecall questions on feminist views of digital communication and gender inequality, positive effects for gender identity, age and Prensky's account of digital inclusion, young people's socialisation, relationships and Rainie and Wellman's networked individualism, cultural homogenisation, glocalisation, cultural defence and conflict, and the positive and negative impacts of digital communication.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Why do postmodernists say digital media produce pick-and-mix identities?
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How has digital communication changed young people's socialisation?
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What is meant by glocalisation, and how does it undermine the homogenisation thesis?
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Outline the hyperglobalist position.
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What is the transformationalist view of globalisation?
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Explain how developments in digital communication may increase a person's social capital.
Who and when
Why do some sociologists argue that digital communication erodes social capital?
Evaluation
Give two criticisms of McLuhan's global village.
Key term
On what do feminists disagree when they assess digital communication?
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Give three negative effects digital communication is said to have on identity.
Key term
What is cultural defence in the context of globalisation?
Take Globalisation and the Digital Social World further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Define globalisation.
Model answer
Globalisation is the process by which societies, economies and cultures become increasingly interconnected and interdependent; Giddens describes it as an intensification of worldwide social relations in which distant events shape local life and local actions have distant effects.
- 2
What do sociologists mean when they say globalisation involves time-space compression?
Model answer
Harvey's term describes how transport and communication technologies shrink the felt distance between places, while Giddens' related idea of time-space distanciation stresses that social relations are now stretched across space so people can interact without sharing a location.
- 3
Why is globalisation such a difficult concept to define?
Model answer
Sociologists disagree over whether it is primarily economic, political or cultural, over whether it is genuinely new or simply a continuation of centuries of empire and trade, and over whether it describes a real process at all or an ideology used to justify free-market policy.
- 4
Outline the hyperglobalist position.
Model answer
Hyperglobalists such as Ohmae argue globalisation is real, rapid and irreversible, creating a borderless world in which nation states lose economic sovereignty to global markets and transnational corporations.
- 5
How do sceptics such as Hirst and Thompson challenge the idea of globalisation?
Model answer
They argue the world economy is internationalised rather than truly globalised, because trade and investment remain concentrated within a few rich regional blocs and national governments still regulate their economies.
- 6
What is the transformationalist view of globalisation?
Model answer
Transformationalists such as Held and McGrew accept that globalisation is genuinely reshaping states, economies and identities, but insist its direction is uncertain, uneven and reversible rather than a one-way march towards a single global society.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Globalisation and the Digital Social World revision questions
- What does Globalisation and the Digital Social World cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?
- 4 subtopics: globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence, social media, social capital and theoretical views of digital communication, digital identities, the digital divide and social class and gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Globalisation and the Digital Social World organised?
- By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Globalisation and the Digital Social World, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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