Stratification- Theories Flashcards
(24 cards)
What is the difference between an open and closed system?
open system- where individuals achieve their positions, and there is the opportunity for social mobility, where people can move between strata, e.g class system
closed system- where social position is ascribed at birth, nothing can alter it and there is no chance of social mobility, e.g closed system
What is Durkeim’s Functionalist theory of stratification? (Consensus theory- a consensus holds society together)
Durkheim: thought class conflict would disappear as industrialisation became established
- societies like human bodies could exist and thrive only if their various constituent elements worked in harmony
- did not mean he naively dismissed the existence of conflict in society, although stated ‘it is neither necessary or even possible for social life to be without conflicts’, but did mean that class conflict was for him an ‘abnormal’ state of affairs associated with the early stages of industrialisation and the difficult transition that had to be negotiated from traditional to modern society
-understood this movement from one type of social solidarity- ‘mechanical solidarity’ too another called ‘organic solidarity’ - traditional societies were held together by a strong religious based conscience collective (value consensus)
-as societies grew in both size/complexity, the power of religion waned
-society in modern society would instead be produced through people’s recognition of their mutual dependence on each other as the division of labour grew to be ever more specialised
-took for granted that different occupations would be differently rewarded, but considered that this would not undermine social solidarity so long as ‘social inequalities exactly express natural inequalities’- different abilities - requires development of development of opportunity
-risk of class conflict would also be lessened, believed by development of occupational associations, alongside the state, would help to regulate conflicts of interests between employers and workers, e.g though laws of contract
What is Parsons Functionalist theory of stratification?
- argued ‘class conflict is endemic in our modern industrial type of society’ and identified half- a dozen reasons for this, among them:
- competition for occupational prestige produces winners- tend to be arrogant; losers- display a ‘sour-grapes’ attitude.
-organisation of the divivision of labour requires discipline and authority- these do to exist on a grand scale without generating some resistance (people don’t like being told what to do) - a ‘general tendency for the powerful to exploit the weak’
-class conflict was no more than an unfortunate and relatively insignificant by-product of social stratification, rather than an inevitable and central feature of capitalism
-saw stratification as a ranking system based on moral evaluation- based on respect, prestige, social approval/disproval, inequalities in possessions and power were seen as secondary to this status ranking and deriving from it
-strat is both inevitable and functional as people would because it helped ‘In the stabilisation of social systems’
What is Davi’s and Moores functionalist theory of stratification?
- all societies have to ensure that their functionally most important positions are filled with the most talented people
-therefore need to offer such people high rewards in the form of income and status in order to motivate them to make the necessary sacrifices- higher qualifications
-argue that class societies are meritocracies- educational qualifications function is to allocate all individuals to an occupational role that suits their abilities, therefore peoples class positions is a fair reflection of their talents.
-most people agree that start is necessary because they accept the meritocratic principles on which society is based - strat encourages all members of society to work to the best of their ability, ensures that the ‘functional prerequisite’ (pre condition of an efficiently functioning society) of effective role allocation and performance is satisfied
What are the evaluation points for the Functionalist views on stratification?
- some functionally important roles- nurses- are not generally highly rewarded; nor are the people who occupy high-status positions necessarily the most talented, opportunity hoarding by higher strata prevents downward mobility for kids, functionalst ignore the fact that class societies are not necessarily meritocratic
+ can provide a comprehensive understanding of how different institutions and structures work together to maintain social order
What is the Marxist theory of stratification?- conflict theory
-the heart of class conflict is the system of producing goods and services- ‘mode of production’, made of two things:
Causes of conflict:
-the forces of production- the resources needed to produce goods, such as capital, raw material and machinery
- the social relations of production- the ways in which people are organised to make things;in other words, the ways in which roles and responsibilities are allocated among those involved in production
-together they both represent the economic base of society and all the other social institutions- family,education,state- the ‘superstructure’
-in the superstructure are ‘ideologies’ - belief systems that served to justify the existing social arrangements in the interests of the dominant class, e.g, the belief that people are naturally competitive and always wish to outdo others, rather than cooperative, suggests that attempts to promote greater equality are bound to fail as they go against nature
- capitalism’s relentless pursuit of profit means that wages are kept as low as possible and the bourgeoise pockets the difference between what they pay their workers and the value of the goods produced by workers, once other production costs are covered
- this ‘surplus value’, forms the basis of their great wealth, workers became alienated by this process and are united by a shared exploitative class experiences - common class experience means that the WC is objectively a ‘class-in-itself’
- class polarisation would become so extreme that even the most short-sighted members of the proletariat would see that the time for change had come - communist revolution
- then, radical social change was inevitable as the WC was transformed from a class-in-itself’ into a revolutionary class-for itself, with false class consciousness replaced by class consciousness
What are the evaluation points for the Marxist theory of stratification?
- accused of being an economic ‘determinist’- thought that the nature of all the social institutions in the capitalist society was determined by the economic base
-Marx’s prediction that the WC would become ‘class conscious’ because they would experience extreme misery and poverty, and therefore seek to transform the capitalist systemm, has not occurred. Neo Marxists would argue that people have been bought ooff by the false promises of consumerism
what is the Neo- Marxist theory of stratification?- Wright
-deals with the problem posed for Marx’s prediction of class polarisation by the growth of the middle class
, 2 problems with simplistic Marxist view that there are only two classes:
- doesn’t make sense to suggest that the CEO of a FTSE 100 company and their lowest paid employee are in the same class
-this view offers no way to understand divisions in class consciousness and class action that exist among those ‘work for a living’- just because someone doesn’t own a business and technically works for a living’, e.g ceo, it doesn’t mean they are socially/economically in the same class as, e.g, cleaner
- uses class locations to describe the positions of those who are not capitalists nor workers
- they are torn between loyalty between the owners of their employing business + their colleagues
How he distinguishes class locations:
- relationship to authority within production, possession of skills/expertise, levels of owners
What is the Frankfurt school ?- Neo- Marxist
-focuses on tackling the second Neo- Marxist strand of thought- dealing with the fact the WC revolution never happened
-Marcuse- capitalism has been very successful in bedazzling the WC with ‘false needs’ to buy the latest consumer goods
-Friedman- lifestyle of the rich + famous is now the modern opium of the masses, esp TV
- promotion of mass consumerism led to itergration of WC into capitalism
- reject notion that there would be a revolution, instead believe we would move away from old class wages/ work hours
-instead focus on quality-of-life + possession of cultural capital rather than economic
-interested in the media/ propaganda influencing peoples attitudes preventing revolutionary action by WC
- media is toxic influence - turned culture into industry, e.g music into commodities that can be bought/sold like products, revolves around superficial entertainment
- undermines peoples ability to think about social conditions
What are the evaluation points of the Neo- Marxist theory of stratification
- how can we objectively distinguish the differences between false needs and true needs
-deeply pessimistic and patronising- talks down on WC assumes they have no knowledge of this
+ attempt to explain + give e.g for the non- existence of the revolution
What did Coghlan and Huggins find about monopoly ?
- used this exercise to teach their students about social stratification
-found in every instance was the richest player won out and on occasion the lower class player could rise up an income level, but more often than not lost the game
-students discovered that class mobility is harder than they think
What are the evaluation points for rights typology?
+ points out the complexities of the class system beyond Marx’s 2 class system
- more than just economic basis can be used to determine class locations
What is the Weberian theory of Stratification?
- rejected Marx’s view on the inevitability of class conflict, which is not possible in his view but not inevitable, feature of capitalist societies + emphasis on the economic dimension as the fundamental determinant of inequality
-saw ‘class’ and ‘status’ as 2 separate. But related sources of power that have overlapping effects on peoples life chances, e.g status differences connected with gender can cut across class divisions - recognised ‘party’ as a further dimension - political influence/power an individual might exercise through membership of pressure groups. Etc- did not see class as most important
-also saw classes as economic categories organised around property ownership, but argued that the concept should include ‘occupational skill’ as it creates differences in life chances among groups that did not own the means of production (MC + WC)
-defined social classes as clusters of occupations with similar life-chances and patterns of social mobility, identified 4 distinct social classes:
- those privileged through property/ education
- the petite bourgeoise (self employed managers)
- white- collar workers and technicians (lower MC)
- manual workers (WC)
-inequalities are characterised by conflict over power and resources
-sceptical about the possibility of the WC becoming class conscious as differences in status would undermine any common cause - classes were too internally differentiated, undermined any potential for group identity and common action
- a person can have wealth but little status/ vice versa, e.g lottery winner/ church minister
- suggested that it is vey rare that high-status groups allow wealth alone to be sufficient grounds for entry into their status group- groups may exclude wealthy individuals as they lack the ‘right’ culture, schooling, etc. -social closure (practices usher by dominant groups to hold on the basis of some kind of arbitrary criteria, e.g gender)
-some may be accepted as having high status by the wealthy, despite being relatively poor
What are the evaluation point of Weber’s theory of Stratification?
+ avoids the problem of economic determinism
- does not explain those who have inherited positions / wealth - excludes unemployed/house wives
What did the 4 waves of feminism all focus on?
1st wave- focused on legal issues-votes, women struggled for custody over children, no rights for child until 1839
2nd- aimed to increase equality for women, addressed domestic issues, Dress codes, employment
3rd- intersectionality
4th- justice for women, workplace/sexual harassment,
What is the radical feminist theory of stratification?
- see as most ‘anti-men’- not necessarily true
- Firestone- biology is the basis for women’s inequality
- due to the differences in make and female cycles, women are at times dependent on others (pregnancy)
- men then develop physical and psychological power and can control and dominate
- equality can occur when this physical dominance
- until babies can be born outside the womb, inequality between sexes will remain
Delphy- men exploit women within the family - blame the exploitation of women on men, women arme dominated by men through violence or the threat of it through rape, DV, pornography, etc
Solution- advocate for separatism in the form of lesbianism as a choice to iterate themselves from male oppression- remains controversial
What are the evaluation points for radical feminsim?
- focuses too much on the negative experiences of women, failing to recognise that some women can have happy marriages, for e.g
- ignores other forms of inequality, class, race
What is the Marxist theory of stratification?
- see capitalism and patriarchy as mutually interdependent systems of exploitation
- Benson, women benefit capitalism in 2 ways:
-reproduce the next generation of workers
-provide free domestic labour which functions to make male workers more effective - capitalism exploits both males and females but women more likely to have kids and work part time, likely to be low paid and often part-time- form a reserve army of cheap labour, e.g WW1/2, exploitation will when capitalism is replaced by communism
What is the socialist theory of stratification?
- women are unable to be free due to their financial dependence on males
- women are subjects to the male rulers in capitalism due o an uneven unbalance in wealth
- unlike radicals, believe class plays a role
- unlike liberals, do not believe ginger equality is possible under the capitalist systems, but want to work with men
- although men may ‘be the problem’, the class. Dimension is more important
- Engles- suggested, in the past people lived in promiscuous hordes where sexual relationships were not fixed and property passes from mother to child
- as men became more determine to pass their property onto their own offspring, they began to demand fidelity from their womenfolk, thus leading to monogamous marriage and the empower of men over women
- see family a an important part in the maintenance of capitalism-e.g healthcare checks -like Marxists
What are the evaluation points of the Marxist and Socialist theory of stratification?
-liberal feminists argues that Marxist feminism relies on a revolution, this is utopian and unrealistic
-radical feminist argue too much emphasis on capitalism as being the ultimate source of stratification
What is the liberal feminist theory of stratification?
- focus on achieving legal and political rights to those of men
- society holds false belief that women are by nature, less intellectually and physical capable than men; thus it lends to discriminate against women
- about giving women the freedom to exercise their personal choices, no gov or state should impede their progress, support emancipation of men
- men are subjects to rigid gender stereotypes, subject to masked masculinity whereby they are under pressure to suppress their emotions- one of reasons why suicide for men is the biggest killer
- Oakley- gender role socialisation within the family- most important factor that contributes to reinforcing gender role expectations, rules inequalities experience by people
- slutwaks-
What are the evaluation points for liberal feminists?
-some argue its too optimistic
- Hakims vertical/horizontal segregation
What is the postmodernist feminists theory of stratification?
- refers to a modern tendency to reject forms of thinking which have become limited by their traditional ways of viewing the world
- rejects the fixed ideas of radicals and socialists and sees the position of women as a complex problem with many competing explanations and therefore solutions
- referred to as third wave, includes intersections
-lorber classifies PMF as a type of ‘gender rebellion feminism’ as for PM, the problem is the very notion of gender itself and progress for women and requires a rebellion against the tyranny of gender categories
What are the evaluation points of postmodernist feminists?
-un doubtfully, other sources of inequality besides class have forced themselves on the attention of society, through social movements in the second half the 20th century connected with race., gender, sexuality, as a equal ‘class politics’ apparatus to have declined and ‘identity politics’ increased.
