Define globalisation.

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.

What do sociologists mean when they say globalisation involves time-space compression?

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.

Why is globalisation such a difficult concept to define?

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.

How do sceptics such as Hirst and Thompson challenge the idea of globalisation?

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.

OCR A-Level Sociology H580

Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Topic overview Culture, norms, values and cultural relativism Subculture, high culture and popular culture Global and consumer culture, cultural diversity and hybridity Primary and secondary socialisation, the family and peer group Media, religion, education and the workplace as agencies of socialisation Lifelong socialisation and the nature/nurture debate Social control, sanctions and formal agencies of control Informal agencies and theories of social control The concept of identity, ethnicity and nationality Gender, class and sexual identity Age, disability, hybrid and intersecting identities

Families and RelationshipsComponent 01

Topic overview Family types and trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation Demographic change, family diversity and newer family types Nuclear family ideology, functionalism and the New Right Marxist, feminist and postmodern views and the diversity debate Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour Power, the dark side of the family and theories of partner roles The child-centred family, views of childhood and its extension Parent-child power, grandparents in an ageing population and feminist views

Youth SubculturesComponent 01

Topic overview Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance

MediaComponent 01

Topic overview Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze Representations of gender, social class and young people Representations of older people and theories of media representation Direct and indirect media effects models Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics

Research Methods and Researching Social Inequalities

Topic overview Positivism, quantitative data and interpretivism Verstehen, qualitative data and validity Reliability, representativeness, generalisability and theory Research topics, aims, hypotheses and primary and secondary data Operationalisation, pilot studies and respondent validation Longitudinal studies, interpreting data and social policy Sampling frames, sampling techniques and choosing a sample Access, gatekeepers and research ethics Questionnaires, structured interviews, statistics, content analysis and observation Unstructured interviews, ethnography and methodological pluralism

Understanding Social Inequalities

Topic overview Stratification, class, poverty, mobility and gender inequality Ethnicity, age, work and health inequalities Functionalist and Marxist explanations of inequality Weberian, feminist and New Right explanations of inequality

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Topic overview 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 Gender, age, relationships and cultural impacts of digital communication

Crime and DevianceComponent 03

Topic overview Defining crime and deviance, social control and relativity Social construction of crime and police recorded crime The Crime Survey, victim surveys and self-report studies Crime patterns by social class, gender and age Crime patterns by ethnicity, crime trends and global organised crime Glocal organised crime and green crime Functionalist, strain and subcultural theories of crime Marxist, interactionist and left realist theories of crime Right realism, New Right, feminism and explaining ethnic and age patterns Left-wing crime reduction, social crime prevention and restorative justice Situational crime prevention, zero tolerance and punitive justice

EducationComponent 03

Topic overview Functionalist, Marxist and liberal views of the role of education Social democratic, New Right and feminist views and vocational education Class and ethnic patterns in educational attainment Gender patterns, global educational inequality and intersectionality Inside-school factors: labelling, setting, triage and institutional racism Material and cultural deprivation and cultural capital Explaining gender and ethnic differences and theoretical views of achievement Types of school and education policy since 1988 Ideology, marketisation and equality of opportunity in education policy

Religion, Belief and FaithComponent 03

Topic overview Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism Measuring religiosity and believing without belonging Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religion Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative Class and gender patterns in religiosity Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence Defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline Pro- and anti-secularisation theories Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns

Globalisation and the Digital Social World

Globalisation, the digital revolution and media convergence

3 things to know
Component 03

Overview

Recall 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.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Outline the hyperglobalist position.

Key term

What is the transformationalist view of globalisation?

Evaluation

Give two criticisms of McLuhan's global village.

Questions from this subtopic

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.

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Introducing Socialisation, Culture and Identity

Families and Relationships

Youth Subcultures

Media

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Murdock identified sexual, , economic and educational functions.

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AVictims may fear reprisal, or feel shame or economic dependence.

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CMany incidents are never reported or recorded.

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Sex refers to the biological category of male or female.

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