Sociological Glossary

Glossary

• School Effectiveness

  School effectiveness research examines the extent to which different schools impact student outcomes, often linked to teacher quality, leadership, and resources.

• Scouting and Social Capital

  Scouting and other structured youth activities contribute to social capital by fostering teamwork, leadership, and civic engagement.

• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

  A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a belief or expectation influences behaviour in a way that causes the belief to become true.

• Social Capital

  Social capital refers to the networks, relationships, and social connections that provide individuals and groups with access to resources, support, and opportunities.

• Social Closure

  Social closure is the process by which dominant groups restrict access to resources and opportunities to maintain their status and privilege.

• Social Cohesion

  Social cohesion refers to the bonds that hold a society together, which can be based on shared values, institutions, and interactions.

• Social Construction of Reality

  Coined by Berger and Luckmann, this theory suggests that reality is created through social interaction and shared meanings.

• Social Constructionism

  Social constructionism is the perspective that social reality is created and maintained through language, interactions, and shared understandings.

• Social Death

  Social death refers to the marginalisation of individuals or groups to the extent that they are excluded from social participation or recognition.

• Social Decay

  Social decay describes the erosion of social cohesion, community engagement, and civic trust over time.

• Social Fact

  Émile Durkheim’s concept of social facts refers to external social forces that influence individual behaviour, such as laws, customs, and norms.

• Social Mirroring

  Social mirroring describes the process by which individuals construct their identity based on how others perceive and react to them.

• Social Mobility

  Social mobility refers to the movement of individuals or groups between different social positions, often measured in terms of occupation, income, or education.

• Social Mobility through Higher Education

  Social mobility through higher education examines the extent to which university education enables upward socio-economic movement, often questioned due to class reproduction.

• Social Reproduction

  Social reproduction refers to the ways in which social structures, including class hierarchies, are maintained across generations through education, culture, and family life.

• Social Reproduction in Higher Education

  Social reproduction in HE describes how universities perpetuate class structures by privileging certain forms of knowledge, behaviour, and access to elite networks.

• Stigma

  Goffman’s concept of stigma refers to a social mark of disgrace that affects an individual’s identity and social interactions.

• Structural Functionalism

  A theoretical perspective that views society as a complex system where different parts function together to maintain stability.

• Structural Inequality

  Structural inequality refers to systemic disparities in wealth, education, and power that are embedded in social institutions and perpetuate disadvantage.

• Structure-Agency Debate

  The structure-agency debate concerns the extent to which human behaviour is shaped by social structures versus individual free will.

• Student Loan System

  The UK student loan system funds tuition and maintenance costs, with repayments contingent on graduate earnings, leading to debates about debt and affordability.

• Student Retention

  Student retention refers to the rate at which students continue their studies rather than dropping out, often linked to social background and institutional support.

• Student Satisfaction Surveys

  Student satisfaction surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS), measure students' perceptions of their university experience and inform league tables.

• Surplus Labour

  Surplus labour is the additional work performed by workers beyond what is necessary to sustain their own livelihood, generating profit for capitalists.

• Surplus Value

  A Marxist concept, surplus value refers to the difference between the value produced by workers and the wages they receive, which is extracted as profit by capitalists.