Currently, people within our society are mainly divided by the groups they identify with or with how they are identified by others. These identities are defined by our social location. Social location includes our gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and religion (Hutchison, 2011). In this paper, I will take a close look at my social location and attempt to describe how it affects my way of living and my professional life.
Social location is the social background that makes up a person. Social location entails our lived experiences, race, gender, social class and everything that people perceive us as. Our social location manifests how we perceive people, circumstances, education, and more. Growing up in a rural neighborhood, I learned responsibility at an early age. Being raised by my mother and grandmother, who are very strong-willed women, instilled in me self-respect, determination, and endurance. I learned how valuable being independent is and how to manage obligations at the age of 15 when I obtained my first job with a worker’s permit. Throughout my teaching and discipline, my parents couldn’t stress enough how prominent it is to attain a higher education
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.
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.
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.
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
Currently, people within our society are predominantly divided by the groups they identify with or with how they are identified by others. These identities are defined by our social location. Social location includes our gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and religion (Hutchison, 2011). In this paper, I will take a close look at my social location and attempt to describe how it affects my way of living and my professional life.
The intersection of dominant ideologies of race, class, and gender are important in shaping my social location and experiences. By exercising my sociological imagination (Mills, 1959), I will argue how my social location as an Asian American woman with a working class background has worked separately and together to influence how I behave, how others treat and view me, and how I understand the world. The sociological imagination has allowed me to understand my own “biography”, or life experiences by understanding the “history”, or larger social structures in which I grew up in (Mills, 1959). First, I will describe my family’s demographic characteristics in relation to California and the United States to put my analysis into context. I
Education has been one of the ways I have been able to add competititive advantage in my personal life. Although there are other components critical to my personal success. These include: determination, willingness to learn, and dedication. Having a great job that reaps monetary rewards is great, however, there are other factors necessary to be successful. These include my value as a human being, what do I do for others, how I am with my family, who I am as a fiancé and
I was ten years old at the time and my family and I were struggling financially day to day. The best option for us was for me to start working to help ends meet, so
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
As far as I can remember I had to learn how to be independent at a young age. My family wasn't
When I was younger, both my mother and father would do their best to explain the importance of education for a better future, and at a very young age I did my very best to understand. In high school there was a certain eminence to having a job and I was able to enjoy that towards the end of high school; however it quickly changed as I entered the ranks of adulthood. Working at a family restaurant was an interesting experience for me, but it did not compare to what it was like working as a CAPS youth leader it taught me to be independent and valuable lessons I will be able to use throughout life.
When I begin to think about social location I instantly think about where I’m from, and where I was raised. Social location means much more than that. It is your race, age, sex, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and so much more. Social location varies from person to person and everyone plays their own role in their social location lifestyle.