Sample Essays - Sociology Essays
It's generally understood that ideology shapes how the social fabric of a society develops and functions and that it can influence decisions about policy, lifestyle, behavior, and decision making.
What is less understood - or more accurately, hotly debated in academic circles - is what this means and how it occurs.
One supposition suggests that it happens through discourse. In essence, this thought suggests that discourse is the expression of ideology and only though use and expressions does it become ideology [Price, 1993]. Whether one agrees with this depends on how he or she defines ideology. But then, as soon as a definition is chosen, the ideological affiliations of the one doing the choosing becomes apparent, thus biasing the answer in accordance with those ideologies, rendering it only one opinion among many. Whether one agrees also depends on how one perceives self and the emotional significance and importance [Stryker, 1980; cited Akbar, 2003] assigned to the groups that one feels part of, as well as where one fits into the larger society.
That said, though, Price is indeed correct. To begin to explain why Price is correct, we need first to look at the concept of ideology, which at its core appears to be a belief system among some members of a larger group as opposed to an entire society, although this too is debated as is how discourse is constructed and interpreted.
Teun van Dijk defined ideology as social representations shared by the members of social groups and distinguished it from cultural knowledge, which he defined as a pre-ideological belief system shared by all groups across a society necessary for communication to occur [20004]. In this sense then, ideologies are beliefs that members of a subset within a culture share. He also suggested that Using this definition, we can look at the belief in the right to free speech in the United States and the United Kingdom and the almost desperate belief in the autonomy of the individual in the US as pieces of cultural knowledge since they are embedded in words, stories, and in artifacts [D'Andrade, 1995, p. xiv] throughout the society and have persisted over time as common ground for all social representations of all (ideological) groups [van Dijk, 2004]. On the other hand, the belief that whites are superior to blacks, that Jesus is the son of God, or that one's actions should never harm others are ideologies since not all groups within a culture may share them and since these are more readily changeable than is knowledge, albeit that the change occurs slowly.
However, Billig, who viewed ideology more as something secured by habit and custom, took issue with Dijk's definition. He suggested that any definition of ideology must also indicate that under certain circumstances widespread social beliefs become so distorted that they are insufficient for understanding the social conditions which have produced such beliefs [1999]. Of course, here he is referring to the Gramsci's theory of hegemony that occurs when dominant groups or historic blocs' - bound as much by ideological ties as by shared economic interests - accept or believe that an ideology is commonsensical and thus look at it as cultural knowledge [1971] which of course indicates that they have forgotten what conditions led to the acceptance of those beliefs.
However, in doing so, they also then propagate values that reinforce their control over politics and the economy [Raphael, 2003] via access - as a dominant group - to the media and thus most inhabitants of the larger society. An example here could be the ideology of capitalism and the fact that those who ascribe to it as a belief shared by all who matter no longer understand or remember that at its foundation was a division of labor, a desire by the ruling class to keep its power, and a ploy to subscribe to man the right to own property, thus instilling competition [Hegel, 1821].
And it is this idea of hegemony that brings us to the role that discourse plays in socializing ideology. Looking at ideology, as Thompson explained, is in some part and in some way, to study language in the social world [. . . ] It is to study the ways in which the multifarious uses of language intersect with power, nourishing it, sustaining it, enacting it [1984, p. 2]
To demonstrate this we need only look at one small example. When Billig provided a brief review of his study of Philippino sugar barons, he wrote that his study necessitate[d] taking the views and ideas of these elites seriously and treating their values and norms with a kind of distanced respect rather than knee-jerk disdain [2000]. It is in that statement that the problem of defining ideology - and the perspective and ideological groundings of the definer - create problems. By implying that elites (capitalists) are to be treated with disdain he immediately situates his views into a rather Marxist ideology, which is also evidenced by his choice of words, such as barons, elite, and cultural materialism [Billig, 2000].
By using this rhetoric in his discourse, not only does he imply membership in a Marxist-leaning sub group, but also by using the exact same phraseology inherent in the ideology of that group, he helps to nourish and sustain that ideology. In doing so, he has fulfilled the three elements that Walford saw as essential for a belief to be an ideology: 1) it must be able to distort thinking and deprive it of objectivity; 2) it must effect some groups but not others; and 3) it must be able to make holders of an ideology sometimes at lease unaware of their condition [1977]. In this instance, Billig distorts thinking by applying a good versus evil concept onto the groups of laborer and baron which fulfills the first element, which also puts him into the category of serving to rationalize the vested interests of some group: [Berger, 1966, p. 54], an oft-cited criteria for an ideology.
In addition, Billig likely will not gain the confidence of the capitalists, thus not affecting them, which fulfills part two of Walford's list; and he seems somewhat unaware that his use of language is problematic, thus also meeting the third criteria and certainly fitting into can Dijk's idea that ideological discourse is generally organized by a general strategy of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation (derogation) [2004], which brings us back to the idea of hegemony.
If we look first at cultural knowledge as opposed to ideology, and return to the commonsense belief in free speech, we see in the United States at least a growing use of discourse using that phrase that argues against its importance and in fact suggests that although the right exists in the U.S. Constitution, the current time, the social situation, has changed so drastically that it is necessary to rethink the concept. This is how ideology begins: a dominant group takes a commonsense belief - a representation of shared knowledge - and begins to cut it apart by showing it in contrast and opposition to other shared beliefs.
For instance, consider the following, written by the American Civil Liberties Union: in attempts to squelch dissent, the government has attacked the patriotism of its critics, police have barricaded and jailed protesters, and the New York Stock Exchange has revoked the press credentials of the most widely watched television network in the Arab world. A chilling message has gone out across America: Dissent if you must, but proceed at your own risk [ACLU]. In this case Gramsci's historic bloc [1971], similar to Fairclough's dominant ideological discursive formation, is looking to 'naturalize' ideologies, ie. , to win acceptance for them as non-ideological 'common sense' [1985, p. 739], by appealing to other ideologies such as patriotism and market economies.
Looking at this phenomenon more closely will explain that indeed discourse is ideology and that ideology only comes to be through use and expression, but to do so we must start with two piece of American cultural knowledge: free speech is a good right and loyalty to country is important. Although it could be argued that these are ideologies in that some in the United States may not believe them, that would be incorrect. The beliefs were written into the country's Constitution, have become part, as Giddens said of ideologies [1979], of the social structure [with] traditions, institutions, moral codes, and established ways of doing things [cited Shuler, 2003], and thus have been held by a vast majority of its citizens for several hundred years - making them more of a common sense, commonly held belief system even if it did stem from ideology.
Then when the country waged war on Iraq, some of the American, acting upon their right to free speech, dissented. However, the historic bloc, the IDF, the U.S. government if you will - perhaps because so many citizens in other countries were also dissenting - wanted to quell the dissent and so began challenging existing orders of discourse [Fairclough, 1995, p. 95], one of the ways to build ideology. Thus, although the government had prided itself on allowing its citizens the right to free speech - and therefore dissent - it now saw that it become time to view that as an ideology rather than cultural knowledge but to do so would require much talking, a different way of viewing, and of then getting that message out to the public so that they would begin to reshape their ideas.
Thus, they would need to provide definitions, theoretical paradigms, and frameworks within which meanings are constructed so that their broad consensus on major issues at [this particular] juncture in history [Karim, 1993] would be mirrored by the populace.
Thus, when White House spokesman Ari Fleischer also warned Americans to 'watch what they say' and conservative commentators like Bill O'Reilly suggested prosecuting war protesters as 'enemies of the state,' and since hundreds have been arrested for exercising their constitutionally protected freedoms, and some have lost their jobs or been suspended from school [ACLU], the general public started to rethink and begin to believe. One reason this occurred so easily, as Stich [1983] noted was because our everyday (folk psychological) concept of belief attributes beliefs to others on the basis of presumed similarities to ourselves, rather than on the basis of strict identities [cited Pateman, 2005]. And certainly, believing one's self to be similar to the powerful ones in the country who were overtly espousing - loudly - the commonsense knowledge of loyalty and patriotism became an important thing to do - if even for self-preservation.
Another way to show the role that discourse plays in dissemination and adoption of ideology is to look at work in gender studies. Perhaps one of the most recognized works here is that of Carol Gilligan. In her attempt to demonstrate that a masculine belief system where power reigned was not the only ideology nor even one that suited women, she held numerous interviews with girls and women and then painstakingly transcribed and analyzed the texts as well as the body language used during the interviews. She found that the women's voices - when they were able to speak simply in a subgroup of women and view the importance of that membership as more important than being a member in the larger male-dominated world - drew attention to a more nurturing way of looking at the world, where interrelationships and dependence on others rather than hegemonic ideals became important [Brown et al, 1988; Gilligan, 1982].
And in this instance, this use of discourse as stories and analyzed stories and measured words became one of the foundations of the ideology of feminism. In turn, this led to a spread of feminist ideology even to the business world, where women became more cognizant of why the men always talked more and why the plays for power dominated as each speaker tries to grab a turn at talk and tries to locate themselves within a hierarchy [Mills, 1997]. It was because the dominant group had perpetuated its ideology of competition being best and leading to success and for women to achieve success within that sphere or situation, they needed to adapt to that form of speech [Mills, 1997].
Thus, although ideology may be a vague concept and might become easily confused with cultural knowledge or facts, it seems clear that ideology comes about through discourse - through a dissemination of ideas that are received and interpreted by those willing to believe because they want to be part of the dominant (read better) group.
Back to: Sample Essays
Bibliography
AKBAR, M. , and THOMPSON, VL. 2003. The understanding of race and the construction of African American identity, The Western Journal of Black Studies, 27, pp. 80 - 88.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION. Freedom under fire: dissent in post-9/11 America [online]. Available from: http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=12666&c=206 [Accessed on 15 April 2005].
BERGER, P. 1966. Invitation to Sociology. London: Pelican.
BILLIG, M. 1999. Commodity fetishism and repression: reflections on Marx, Freud and the psychology of consumer capitalist. Theory & Psychology, 9 (3) pp. 313-329.
BILLIG, M. 2000. Institutions and culture: neo-Weberian economic anthropology. Journal of Economic Issues, 34, pp. 771- 788.
BROWN, L. , ARGYRIS, D. , ATTANUCCi, J. ,BARDIGE, B, GILLIGAN, C. , JOHNSTON, K. , MILLER, B, OSBORNE, D, WARD, J. , WIGGINS, G, and WILCOX, D. 1988. A guide to reading narratives of conflict and choice for self and relational voice (Monograph no.1). Cambridge, MA: Project on the Psychology of Women and the Development of Girls, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
D'ANDRADE, R, 1995. The Development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
GILLIGAN, C. 1982. . In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
GRAMSCI, A. 1971. Prison notebooks. New York: International Publishers.
HEGEL, GWF. 1821. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Trans. H. B. Nisbet. Ed. A. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
KARIM, K. 1993. Constructions, deconstructions, and reconstructions: competing canadian discourses on ethnocultural terminology [online]. Canadian Journal of Communication, 18 (2). Available from: http://www.cjc-online.ca/viewarticle.php?id=167&layout=html [Accessed on 13 April 2005].
PATEMAN, T. 2005. The Theory of Ideology: Bringing the Mind Back In [online]. Available from:http://www.selectedworks.co.uk/theoryideology.html [Accessed on 11 April 2005].
RAPHAEL, C. 2003. Theory of Hegemony and Ideology [online]. Available from: http://www.dangerouscitizen.com/Articles/244.aspx [Accessed on 15 April 2005].
SHULER, S. 2003 Breaking through the glass ceiling without breaking a nail: women executives in Fortune Magazine's "Power 50" list. American Communication Journal [online], 6 (2). Available from: www.acjournal.org/holdings/ vol6/iss2/articles/shuler.htm [Accessed on 14 April 2005].
THOMAS, P. Ideology and the discourse of strategic management: a critical research framework [online]. Available from: http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/research/ejrot/Vol4_1/thomas.pdf [Accessed on 14 April 2005].
THOMPSON, MJ. 1984. Studies in the Theory of Ideology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
THOMPSON, MJ. 2004. Beyond the vote: the crisis of American liberalism [online]. Logos, 3 (4). Available from: http://www.logosjournal.com/thompson_election.htm [Accessed on April 15, 2005].
VAN DIJIK, T. 2004. Ideology and Discourse Analysis [online]. Ideology Symposium Oxford. Available from: http://www.discourse-in-society.org/Ideology%20and%20discourse%20analysis.htm [Accessed on: 14 April 005].
WALFORD, G. 1977. Ideology and the sociologist. From Project for Systematic Ideology [online]. Available from: http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:OanxmsrrHVYJ:www.gwiep.net/periodicals/iatsocio.htm+ideology+
sociologist&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 [Access on 14 April 2005].
WALSH, D. 1994. Reflections on the nature of modernity [online]. National Identity As An Issue of Knowledge and Morality. Edited by N.V. Chavchavadze, Ghia Nodia and Paul Peachey. Washington: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. Available from: http://www.crvp.org/book/Series04/IVA-7/chapter_iv.htm [Accessed on: 2 April 2005].
More Free Sociology Essays...
Get free sociology essays from our extensive online resource library. Hundreds of example essays available from all the major essay topics to help you with your research...
Please note: The above essay was written by a student and then submitted to us to display and help others. Thanks to all the students who have submitted work to us.
