¶ … new ways of thinking about and conceiving the world. I have particularly appreciated the multidisciplinary approach, as all course readings have in some ways synthesized sociology, ethnography, anthropology, and psychology. We have learned to view the world through structuralist-functionalist approaches, as with many of the readings in the text Seeing and Thinking Sociologically, which refers to the "architecture of everyday life." The architecture of everyday life incudes blueprints of language/linguistics and related issues like semantics.
Moreover, social status and hierarchy is also constructed and has an architecture of its own. As Hutson describes in "The Power of the Hoodie-Wearing CEO," outward symbols of social status such as dress or clothing markers, cars, or visible signs of wealth are not the only means by which a person can convey and communicate social status and power. Mark Zuckerberg became famous for wearing a casual outfit to almost all of his presentations: a simple hoodie and comfortable sneakers. Zuckerberg is not dependent on external markers to display his significant social and cultural capital, let alone his financial capital. I found it fascinating to consider the many men and women who choose to either flaunt their wealth or conceal...
Concealing wealth via subversive dress like Zuckerberg's is often far more powerful a statement than ostentatious displays of wealth, like wearing couture. In most societies, it would be considered socially deviant to show up to an important board meeting or a massive public presentation wearing a hoodie and sneakers. Yet a powerful person like Zuckerberg can do so, and doing so conveys an extra dimension of social status. As Hutson puts it, "deliberate nonconformity shows that you can handle some ridicule because you've got social capital to burn."
Equally as fascinating as Hutson's analysis of social status and the symbols that convey status is Deutscher's article for The New York Times Magazine, "Does your language shape how you think?" Language is a fundamental building block of the "architecture of everyday life." The way we think about the world depends on what language we do our thinking in, which is why learning new languages forces us to "think" in that new language. When we consider the ways our thinking are constrained by language, we become empowered and more compassionate about different worldviews and perspectives. For example, many languages are gendered but English is not. In English, we can have an entire conversation referring to a…
