Social Characteristics And Culture In Australia: A Sociological Study

Australian Social Characteristics

Question:

Discuss the sociological concepts and re-interpret them from the context of your experience to your new, imagined social circumstance?

Sociology is the scientific study that determines the social behavior of the individual in a society. The social characteristics thus derived from the sociology are the basic requirements that the individual must fulfill in order to become a part of the society (Macionis, 2010). Depending on the social characteristics, the individuals frame their behavior. The social characteristic of an individual depends upon the social background of the individual. Some of the general social characteristics are namely age, gender, income level, level of education, racial status and nationality, religion status  (Cuba,  2002).

I am a male native citizen of Australia; my social identity has been structured as per the cultural norms, and societal values existing in Australia. Culture is the values and the norms that shape the identity of an individual. The cultural history of the individual forms the base of the character like youth culture is characterized by young population and hip hop culture is characterized by modern populations (McAreavey, 2012). Being a native of Australia I grew up in the Western culture. Australia, which was previously inhabited by immigrated population of different caste and religions, adopts a pluralistic society norm to enable easy livelihood of the natives as well as immigrants in Australia.  The western and the mixed culture of Australia have also given me the opportunity to engage myself into different sporting activities and taste different cuisines and delicacies .

In Asian cultures, it is regarded as a male courtesy to pay the bill when a female in a public food court accompanies a male. However, the equality act prevailing in Australia taught me to consider equal shares in every issue from females as well. The education system of Australia shows that the individual should get the right to take decisions about their further educational facilities. Hence, my family gave me the opportunity to make my choice of career and education. However, the democracy prevailing within the Australian society has made the teenagers disrespectful to the seniors although they are seniors by age. I was taught to address every person by their first names irrespective of their age (Boyd and Tsiolkas, 2012).

There is no official religion in Australia and since I am a native Australian by religion hence I did not face any barrier in relation to religious adoption. Christian based population characterizes around two thirds of the total Australian population. However, the rest of the 36% of the population comprises of fast growing Islamic migrants. The free culture of Australia has helped me to keep a friendly attitude and informal tone in the conversation.  The values and the societal norms in Australia prohibit the males from making high degree of physical contact at the time of meeting of greeting the opposite gender (Boyd and Tsiolkas, 2012). The Australian men are not comfortable in displaying a strong affection for their male friends. Hence, I am not comfortable in public display of emotions in case of greeting my male friends. Although I am comfortable in showing friendly gestures and affections towards my female friends and partners, however I am not very comfortable with the same gender. Since the health departments of Australia provides the guidelines prohibiting acts of smoking in bars, pubs, apartments, university campuses and also in apartments hence I along with majority of the population restrain from smoking (Andrews et al., 2012). Even if a visitor in my apartment decides to smoke, I request them to smoke outside my apartments, as I am equipped with the practice.

Western Culture of Australia

Cancelling of invitation appointments is considered an act of rudeness in Australian culture. The culture states that the individual can deny the invitation at the time when the invitation is made however once the individual accepts the invitation the possibility of cancelling the appointment will make the individual a defaulter (Anson et al. 2000).

Education is one of the important factors that build the personality of an individual. Australian education system provides facilities like private schooling, online education and education to the aged population. Hence being an Australian I have highly benefited from the presence of large number of technical universities and diverse graduate programs. I had a huge choice in matter of educational institutions and was able to avail business education for future professional help.

The modern Australian society adopts the concept of ethnocentrism. This adoption has taught me to pat due respect to all religions, customs and behavior of the persons of other religions. I have been taught to judge the other ethnic groups and religion groups based solely on the values and standards of my own culture (Macionis, 2010).

In this part of the essay, I have imagined myself in a different set of social circumstances. I have imagined myself as a female born in an Islamic family in some other country. Further, I have imagined that I had migrated to Australia in my teenage years in order to pursue higher studies. Keeping the changed social characteristics in mind I have tried to analyze the changes in culture and values which I would have experienced while my stay in Australia.

Living as a female in Australia would have resulted in both advantages and disadvantages for me. The Australian society is very open to the career success of the women unlike the Asian and the Islamic cultures (McAreavey, 2012). The CEO of the majority of the companies designs their targets in a flexible manner so that it is equally easier and achievable for both male and female employees.  Around 50% of the workforce consists of female workers because the Australian culture is not restrictive towards female employment. Moreover, The Australian culture allows the women to make gestures, show affections and be frank ad informal with both male as well as female partners. This would have helped me to make more friends and give me an opportunity to live an exciting and happy life. However, the male centric culture prevailing in Australia has increased the level of female poverty in Australia. Since majority of the female counterparts in a relation are working in Australia hence the males in the relationship financially abuse them and control their economic resources.

Racial component of an individual also plays an important role in shaping the character of the individual in a particular society (Schaefer, 2010).  The categorizing in the races is done based on characteristics like skin color, facial features, and hair texture and body shape. Australian government used raccialization in the early years to restrict the migration of the students.  The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 also known as the white Policy restricted the entry of the Asians in Australia. However gradually the Australian government realized that the labor market of Australia requires British intervention so the white policy was amended however, the non-European migration is still restricted in Australia (Boyd and Tsiolkas, 2012). As a migrant from a different country, I would have also faced problems with the migration issues of Australia. Initially Australia encouraged international students to migrate from all over the world in order to increase the quality of the labor market. However, with the overflow of the migration, the quality of education of the students was hampered and the educational institutions in Australia lost their reputation. Hence as a migrant, I would have to clear the impaction examination levels in order to get access to Australian citizenship.

Moreover, the free culture of Australia did not prohibit the males from performing acts like wife desertion. The widowhood and concept of single mothers are very common for the women in Australia. However, the absence of any social safety policies and absence of any social worker group in Australia has forced majority of the widows and single mothers to opt for professions like pub keeping and bar tenders. Especially in cases of migrated students who are not able to secure good educational facilities in Australia opt for these jobs in order to meet their expenses.

Although Australian society teaches the native citizens to adopt ethnocentrism however there is a negative attitude which I would have encountered being an individual from Islamic background. The adoption of ethnocentrism is not completely seen in the Australian society and hence there is a still religious bar for the individuals in the society (Andrews et al., 2012).  The prevalence of informal use of language in Australia would have made me uncomfortable, as the Australians generally tend to use slang language, humor and irony in their informal conversation with each other. Being from an Islamic society it would have made it difficult for me to adjust to the informal delivery of language.

Unlike a citizen of Australia, I would not get the medical advantage and reduction o medical expenses. The free dating and causal relationship acceptance culture of Australia would have made it difficult for me to maintain my native family culture. There is also another advantage where the Australians prefer doing their own work. The Australian households generally do not employ servants. The women in Australia undertake dual tasks of performing domestic as well as professional activities. Hence, this would have taught me to be independent and developed a sense of self-sufficiency (Macionis, 2010).

Reference list

Andrews, S., Johnson, B., Carter, D., Holmes, D., Holmes, D., Haralambos, M. and Carl, J. (2012). Modern Australian society. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia.

Anson, Chris M. and Schwegler, R. A. (2000) The Longman Handbook for Writers. 2nd ed. New York: Longman

Boyd, R. and Tsiolkas, C. (2012). The Australian ugliness. Melbourne, Vic.: Text Publishing.

Cuba. L. (2002)  A Short Guide to Writing about Social Science. 4th ed. New York: Longman

Macionis, J. (2010). Sociology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

McAreavey, R. (2012). Demographic change in Australia’s rural landscapes: implications for society and the environment. Australian Planner, 49(4), pp.376-377.

Schaefer, R. (2010). Sociology. New York: McGraw-Hill.