As a young man, while living and working with various ethnicities, I learned that certain elements of social location cannot be altered and this can affect our reality. It has been my personal experience that the social location of a particular group of people may generate a very different set of values and beliefs for them to a group in a different social location. Thus, this principle can help us to better understand our worldview and its effects on the way we view and interpret other cultures.
Culture builds up and shapes how people view the world and the people in it. It determines how we judge and view the way others act, look, and even how they think. In the texts “Where worlds collide”, “An Indian Father’s Plea”, and “Two Kinds”, it is shown that a person’s views of others and the world are solely determined by their culture.
There are many factors that have contributed to my social location. The main ones that come to mind are my social class, my racial background, and my education. All around us are people who come from different areas of the world, or same areas of the world with very different demographics.
My social location a 43-year-old Latino man, born and raised in a Pentecostal family in Puerto Rico (United States of America Territory or kind of Colony). The first and oldest child of Puertorrican mother and immigrant catholic Mexican father. Even though I am the "second” of 6 children of my father and a younger sister from my mother side. In between of this complexity and my Christian leaders’ family, my opinion on family decisions is important, my advice in different matters and I am valued for the oldest I am. My social position as middle class defines my life as a Spanish-Latino educated and experienced in United States. Although as Puertorrican with a B.A. in Administration, I grew-up thinking as American but when I came to U.S.A in 2006 to live, here I realized Latino in
Geographical location: people can be very proud of the area that they live on or were born in. different places follow different customs, practices and beliefs.
Social location, or the status in life that people have because of their place in a society, have a huge impact on everyone. The impact that social location created could be neutral, but most of the time it will have a positive or negative impact on people. For example, an African American could be discriminated because of his ethnicity, or a patient will choose an older doctor when he needs a treatment. Different social location that we have will affect our decisions in everyday life, and most of the time it happened subconsciously, which means we don’t realize that the decisions we make are based on our social location. Like everyone else, I was affected by my own social location, both positively and negatively.
Additionally, my parent’s substantial economic and social capital was a great asset in my career path of finding a better education outside of my community. Professor Abrego explains that one’s social location shapes an individual’s identity and how one experiences how the world treats them (Abrego, Lecture 01/06/16). In my case, there were not as many resources that my social location offered, for this reason, my mother was determined to find another high school for me to attend, away from South Central. To emphasize, my local high school carried a bad reputation of teen pregnancy, gang violence, and lacked many resources, therefore, due to my mother’s strong social capital she managed to obtain a fake address in order for me to attend a better
After reading all fourth articles, I believe I have a stronger understanding of sociology. However, it is complex and I still have a lot to learn to fully grasp the significance of sociology. One thing I’ve never thought to analyze is social location which is seen in all four articles. Social location is an important concept in sociology because it gives you a better understanding of what category people belong to in society. What makes up a social location is obviously the location, race, religion, gender, and culture.
It is critically important in the field of social work to be able to self-assess to better understand one’s life experiences and its implications when working with clients. A famous philosopher of the name Laozi once said “knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment”. As a social work student, being able to identify how my life experiences may impact interactions with clients and enhancing my conscious use of self in practice is an essential tool that I can carry with me as I plan my career as a future social worker. Describe your Social Location The ability to reflect and describe my social location by utilizing the addressing model of identity intersectionality has been insightful because it has allowed me to better understand myself, but also the implications my social location has when working with clients.
Social location is the central ideal of a person. It is". . . is where all aspects of one's identity meet" (kirk & Okazawa, 15). It determines a person's social standing and self definition. It is a powerful tool in defining one's identity and without it, an identity would not be the same thing.
“You know back in Trinidad, we did tings(things) much differently,” articulates in her Trinidadian accident Grandma as my mother silently agrees at the round table located in our dining room. Growing up in different places such as Boston, Massachusetts; Brooklyn, New York; Pembroke Pines, Florida , and even Miramar, Florida , I never took the time out to realize that social location impacted my family by actually allowing us to change actual locations for self improvement. To begin, being a black Trinidadian female in the 80’s, my mother faced many challenges. Social location impacted my family by the different opportunities that were given to black females in Brooklyn or Boston. The demographics in those areas were predominantly Africans in
First, geography defines our daily activities with physical spaces hence developing personal knowledge and feelings. Such daily interactions provide a person with a sense of belonging, mediate change, and foster attachments with people found in the place. For instance, a child who grows in the United Sates experiences a place that values democracy, freedom of thought, as well as strict adherence to the rule of law. As such, an individual gains the knowledge about the dynamics of the nation; he develops an attachment with U.S and changing to align with the American culture. Likewise, culture follows distinct patterns with gender, language, and customs defining the culture of a place. Zhu, Qian, and Chen (2010) observe that culture determines how people interact with each other hence serving as an identification tool. Geographical location confines different people into the same region forcing a new form of language to develop. The new language helps carve out a new culture through shared beliefs and
As we know, different people from different country or region have different characteristics which depend on place they live, climate and what they eat. Since the culture difference appeared, each group of people’s perspective of value will not be the same, such as—achievements.
In any given culture, there is are sets of beliefs, or an imaginary world, that governs the way a culture thinks and acts. As a result of the imaginary world, a system of widely accepted social norms and laws are established and followed by all involved in the culture. However, I believe that although the imaginary world does influence the culture as a whole, the concept of free will, agency and individualism plays a part in how each person chooses to interpret the social norms and therefore live their life. Taking the example of the Himba culture, I will be exploring the different aspects of the imaginary world, individual interpretations of the imaginary world, and then looking at BYU imaginary world to prove that each culture, regardless of location, is influenced by an imaginary world as a whole but individuals can be influenced differently due to their relationships with others.
Countless cultures can be compared and contrasted by their prime values and beliefs. Individuals are influenced by how they communicate with each other and present themselves by their different backgrounds. The eastern and western cultures share many important and unique ways in which they communicate. “The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being like you. They are unique manifestations of the human spirit.” was once echoed by Wade Davis, who is a renowned author. To elaborate, we might all look different by the way we dress, present ourselves, communicate, and have different descendants, and those are not the things that make us who really are; but the factors that make us
A person staying in a particular place away from his hometown can have access to people from different regions of the country. There he or she meets people belonging to different social context and thus get assimilated in the new environment. In that process there is exchange of different cultural ideologies.