Functionalism

Question 1

What does Emile Durkheim argue about class?

Answer 1

Class stratification existed because it was functional or beneficial to social order. Sees modern societies as characterised by a specialised occupational division of labour where people have different jobs, skills and abilities

Question 2

Why does durkheim believe that people are happy to take their place within the division of labour

Answer 2

They believe in its moral worth e.g there is common agreement about how society and its institutions should be organised.

Question 3

What does Durkheim mean by value consensus

Answer 3

Members of society accept that stratification and therefore inequality are good for society

Question 4

What did Durkheim conclude

Answer 4

He saw the stratification system as a moral classification system embodying and reflecting common values and beliefs