Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 56

Look at the following list of social units. Identify which level each group is most likely to belong to: (1) micro, (2) meso, or (3) macro. Why did you answer as you did? The previous definitions should help you make your decisions. Again, some are “on the line” because this is a continuum from micro to macro, and some units could legitimately be placed in more than one group. Which ones are especially on the line?

______ Your nuclear family

______ The United Nations

______ A local chapter of the Lions Club or the Rotary Club

______ Your high school baseball team

______ India

______ NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

______ The First Baptist Church in Muncie, Indiana

______ The World Bank

______ A family reunion

______ Amazon.com, Inc. (international)

______ The Department of Education for the Commonwealth of Kentucky

______ The show choir in your local high school

______ African Canadians

______ The Dineh (Navajo) people

______ Canada

______ The Republican Party in the United States

______ The World Court

______ A fraternity at your college

______ The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

______ The Ministry of Education for Spain

______ The Roman Catholic Church (with its headquarters at the Vatican in Rome)

______ Australia

______ The Chi Omega national sorority

______ Boy Scout Troop #187 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

______ Al-Qaeda (an international alliance of terrorist organizations)

______ The provincial government for the Canadian province of Ontario

______ The United States of America

We all participate in meso-level social units that are smaller than the nation but that can be huge. For example, thousands or even millions of individuals join organizations such as the NRA, MoveOn.org, or the environmental group 350.org. Those involved participate in marches and dialogues online and contribute money to these organizations. People living thousands of miles from one another united financially and in spirit to support candidates in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and 2018 midterm elections. We share connections with the members of these organizations, and our lives are interconnected, even if we never meet face to face.

The macro level is even more removed from the individual, but its impact can change our lives. For example, decisions by lawmakers in Washington, D.C., can seem distant, but decisions by Congress and the president may determine whether your own family has health care coverage (and of what quality) and whether the United States will lead or stymie global efforts to address climate change. These government leaders will also determine whether interest rates on federal student loans for U.S. students go up.

The social world model presented in each chapter illustrates the interplay of micro-, meso-, and macro-level forces related to that chapter’s sociological content. Figure 1.3 shows how this micro-to-macro model should be seen as a continuum.

▼ Figure 1.3 The Micro-to-Macro Continuum