Bourdieu, Pierre. “Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction.” Knowledge, Education, and Cultural Change, 2018, pp. 71–112., https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351018142-3.
Pierre Bourdieu coined the term in his 1973 paper titled Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction and argued that economic capital produces one’s cultural capital, which is a collection of skills and knowledges such as tastes, behavior, clothing, mannerisms, material belongings, credentials, etc. that one acquires through being part of a particular social class or identity group. By examining academic achievements of children in the French education system, he determined that sharing similar forms of cultural capital with others creates a sense of collective identity and group position and contributes to the reproduction of existing social classes. Certain forms of cultural capital are valued moreover others and can help or hinder one’s social mobility just as much as income or wealth. This is also a foundational sociological work that we believe is crucial for us to include in our educational series.
Cooley, Charles Horton. Social Organization; Human Nature and the Social Order. The Free Press, 1956.
Charles Horton Cooley introduced the term “looking glass self” to describe how individuals construct their concept of self. According to Cooley, individuals construct their sense of identity-based on their predictions of how they are perceived by others. This happens in three steps: an individual imagines how they appear to others in a social situation, then they imagine the others’ judgment of that appearance, and finally, the individual develops feelings about and responds to those perceived judgements. This is another fundamental theoretical work that we want to share with our audience, as TikTok is a platform for performance and reinforcing social belonging, where making a “good” impression is crucial for one’s success. This concept is highlighting the performative nature of TikToks and will hopefully be a relatable lesson for self-reflection for our viewers.
Durkheim, Emile. Suicide. New York Free Press, 1996.
Émile Durkheim published A Study in Sociology in 1897, which became the first methodological study of a social fact in the societal context. He used data from multiple European countries to highlight that suicide is a deeply social phenomenon, as there are considerable statistical differences in suicide rates among different social groups. He determined two major factors contributing to suicide rates: integration and regulation, where too much or too little of each can cause individuals to feel anomie and strain. This work is foundational to sociology as a science and fits well into our goal of making dense but crucial sociological works accessible on the Internet.
Gayle S. Rubin. Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality. 1984.
The charmed circle is maybe one of my favorite theories. Created by Gayle Rubin in her 1984 essay “Thinking Sex”, the sexuality charmed circle is a way of visualizing what forms of sexuality is privileged by society and what are stigmatized by society. What I want to highlight from this framework is the idea that even if you bring some groups of behaviors into the circle (like how homosexuality has moved over the last few decades), as long as we never deconstruct the circle itself, we continue to have a hierarchy which privileges some ways of being over others.
Hayes, Clare, et al. “‘Making Every Second Count’: Utilizing TikTok and Systems Thinking to Facilitate Scientific Public Engagement and Contextualization of Chemistry at Home.” Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 97, no. 10, Oct. 2020, pp. 3858–66. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00511.
In this article, the authors discuss the use of TikTok as tool to educate people about chemistry. Through an analysis of one TikTok account, “The Chemistry Collective,” they found that viewers strongly agreed they had learned something by watching the videos. They highlight the importance of breaking down concepts into simple language and using visuals, captions and voice over to help explain what is going on. They find that “TikTok can be used to effectively engage, educate, and enthuse the general public about chemistry. By using the creativity tools employed in TikTok, chemistry can be contextualized in a fun and engaging manner and demonstrated using everyday household items.” While we are not teaching chemistry, this conclusion supports our idea that TikTok can be an engaging way to teach about sociology or other subjects.
Jack, Anthony Abraham. Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students. Harvard University Press, 2019.
In his book, Anthony Jacks separates the college experiences of poor students (often of color) that attended elite preparatory high schools (the privileged poor) from the experiences of those who attended local public and often underfunded high schools (the doubly disadvantaged). He reveals that although some students come from a low socioeconomic class, their cultural capital acquired from private well-resourced high schools prepares them to navigate elite colleges and universities efficiently and effortlessly. According to Jack, the privileged poor have an easier time connecting with faculty, asking for help, accessing campus resources, and making social connections. This book provides a powerful example for understanding Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital that we discussed earlier and proves its relevance in the contemporary world. At the same time, it also makes a fundamental theoretical concept of cultural capital relatable and applicable for our audience.
Mills, C. Wright. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press, 1959.
In chapter 1 of this book, Mills puts forth the concept of the “sociological imagination” which is the ability to connect personal troubles and public issues. He argues that in order to understand the condition of individual people, we must be able to understand the limitations put upon them by society. For example, understanding how a person chooses to dress needs to be contextualized by the fashion of their time and place. As a foundational theory of sociology, we believe that this concept is important to include in our work and helps to inform our audience about what sociologists are trying to do.
Montag, Christian, et al. “On the Psychology of TikTok Use: A First Glimpse From Empirical Findings.” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 9, Mar. 2021, p. 641673. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.641673.
In this study, the authors answer three questions: why do people use TikTok, who uses TikTok, and how do people use TikTok. Like with all social media apps, many users do not create content and instead choose to engage with the content of others. We are more interested in understanding why someone may choose to interact with our videos or not. Most relevant to our work, they say that viewers use TikTok because it is highly immersive, gratifies a person’s needs for entertainment (use and gratification theory), and that it may allow users to “feel competence, autonomy, and being connected with others” (Self-Determination Theory). We can use this understanding to inform how we make videos. This supports our idea that videos should be as easy to understand as possible with minimal jargon in order to make viewers feel competent. We also have chosen to create multiple “meme” videos as a way to satisfy the desire for entertainment. The use of common sound trends in our videos also helps viewers feel more connected to our content because of the familiar format and audio.
Warikoo, Natasha K. Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities. University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Through in-depth interviews with many students at elite universities, Natasha Warikoo argues that white students understand the value of diversity in education but ignore the real implications of racial inequalities. She uncovers that an unintended consequence of white students recognizing the importance of affirmative action is the diversity bargain discourse, where the presence of ethnically underrepresented students is regarded as an educational benefit to white students that is not expected to interfere with white students’ entitlement to educational resources, such as scholarships and awards. Since the majority of our audience are young adults and teenagers, this work presents an engaging opportunity to reflect on their own educational experience and think of sociology as a relatable and applicable source of understanding of the world.
Weinstein, Yana, et al. Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide. Routledge, 2019.
In this book, the authors discuss various methods for teaching and presenting educational material. Based on educational psychology studies, the authors explain human cognitive processing and the importance of dual-coding (including both audio and visuals) presentation styles. This has helped us to consider how best to present sociology theories. However, we also balance this need for visuals with the aesthetic norms of TikTok in which content is more often a single person speaking to the “audience”.