Inequality and Social Change (BS2 CH10)

Question 1

spatial inequality

Answer 1

Sociologists recognize that the privilege and oppression that an individual experiences are not only intimately tied to the social categories and classes to which that individual belongs, but are also reflected in the actual geography of where the individual lives.

All places are not created equal: members of lower classes or disempowered social groups will often be forced live and work in dangerous and unhealthy environments.

Question 2

Residential segregation

Answer 2

Residential segregation refers to the physical separation of homes of members of different social groups. Such segregation can be based upon race, class, ethnicity, religion, or other social distinctions.

Members of certain groups find that specific neighborhoods, districts, or sections of a city or town are the only areas in which they can live because of laws, customs, traditions, or costs.

In segregated neighborhoods, individuals’ resources tend to be limited to the resources of only their immediate neighborhood.

Individuals must therefore rely on only the schools, hospitals, stores, housing, and public services in their immediate vicinity; these resources may be of lesser quality than those available in other areas and to other groups.

Physical distance becomes a barrier to benefits and opportunities as well as to social equality and diversity.

Question 3

Neighborhood violence

Answer 3

Neighborhood violence refers to the concentration of violent crime/activity in a particular area or neighborhood.

Violent neighborhoods are most likely to be in areas where large portions of the population are underserved and disadvantaged.

This exposure to violence has long-term negative effects on individuals; people who live in violent neighborhoods are at a disadvantage throughout their lives compared to counterparts in safer areas.

Individuals in segregated neighborhoods may lack adequate access to hospitals and adequate protection by the police and fire departments, leaving them and their property at greater risk.

These individuals tend to suffer greater losses as the result of emergencies and find that the costs of recovery are greater, too.

When people are the victims of assault, robbery, rape, domestic abuse, and other forms of violence, or when they live under the debilitating threat of such violence, they are often limited in their ability to benefit from schooling, to find and keep jobs, and to raise families.

Question 4

Environmental Justice

Answer 4

Environmental justice is the fair and equal treatment of all individuals and groups in the enactment and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations.

The harms of pollution are not distributed equally but tend to be concentrated in certain areas, representing another form of inequality and injustice.

Environmentally just policies seek to ensure that all areas are given equal treatment and protection from various environmental hazards.

Question 5

Health disparities

Answer 5

Health disparities refer to differences between groups in the incidence of disease and health outcomes.

Question 6

Healthcare disparities

Answer 6

Healthcare disparities refer to differences between groups in access to health services and the quality of health care that is available.

Both health and health care disparities are present for various disadvantaged or disempowered groups in society.

Members of different races, genders, and classes experience different availability of health resources, and therefore have different health outcomes.

Question 7

Gender differences in morbidity

Answer 7

Gender differences in morbidity refer to the fact members of different genders may experience different rates of health states or health outcomes.

• Example: A study in Toronto showed that women given coronary artery bypass surgery experienced higher rates of heart failure than men.

Question 8

Social movements

Answer 8

Social movements are a form of collective action in which groups of individuals or organizations systematically come together in order to effect, reinforce, or prevent social change.

Social movements are, almost by definition, motivated by collective discontent: large numbers of people must feel that their values, desires, needs, and/or beliefs are being challenged in some fashion.

A number of theories have arisen to explain how social movements arise.

Question 9

Relative deprivation theory 1

Answer 9

Relative deprivation theory says that social movements occur when individuals observe others who have some relative social, cultural, political, or material advantage.

Under this theory, individuals who experience this relative deprivation believe that they should also be entitled to the same advantages that they see others enjoying and so therefore organize to bring about the changes necessary to acquire the same advantages.

The deprivation must only be relative to others in society and not some absolute scale of deprivation or poverty.

Question 10

relative deprivation theory 2

Answer 10

There are a number of problems with relative deprivation theory:

Many members of a social movement may not themselves be deprived (white members of the civil rights movement, for example).

In any pluralistic society, some members will have greater access to certain material and nonmaterial resources; therefore, there will be frequent and widespread relative deprivation.

However, not all sources of relative deprivation result in a social movement.

Relative deprivation theory does not supply an explanation for why some sources of deprivation may spawn a social movement while others do not.

Question 11

Resource mobilization theory

Answer 11

Resource mobilization theory attempts to enhance relative deprivation theory by arguing that social movements result not just because of the presence of collective discontent but also because of the relative ability of certain individuals to acquire and use the necessary resources to generate collective action.

The concept of “resource” here is used to refer to both the material (money, property, etc.) and the nonmaterial (knowledge, political power, etc.) resources that would be necessary to create an effective social movement.

Social movements are typically organized around the type of change that they seek to effect.

Question 12

Expressive movements

Answer 12

Expressive movements seek to change the values and behaviors of individuals and so are typically organized around individual or small-group intervention.

Question 13

Social reform movements

Answer 13

Social reform movements aim to remedy some specific perceived deficiency in social structure or institutions and so will typically try to create change via available political avenues (legislative, judicial, or executive).

• Examples of social reform movements include the U.S. women’s suffrage and civil rights movements.

Question 14

Revolutionary movements

Answer 14

Revolutionary movements question the validity and functionality of the existing system and advocate radical change, typically seeking the total overthrow and replacement of the existing social order. Such movements therefore often resort to violent revolution.

• Examples are the French Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy, and the Chinese Communist Revolution, which can be said to represent the culmination of decades of struggle against foreign colonialism, an inequitable feudal system, and centuries of dynastic rule in China.

Question 15

utopian movements

Answer 15

Some movements (and many revolutionary movements) can be classified as utopian movements, projecting the development of a “perfect” society free of inequality, want, bigotry, classism, corruption, etc.

• The Hare Krishna movement and many communist and socialist movements might be classified as utopian.

Question 16

Regressive movements

Answer 16

Regressive movements see social change as threatening to the social fabric and try to protect or return to some earlier set of social structures and institutions.

Regressive movements can also be termed “reactionary” or “revivalist” movements. Such movements typically arise in reaction to reform movements driving social change.

Regressive or reactionary movements thus often seek to revive a real or imagined past state of affairs and tend to emphasize the importance of tradition and institutions.

• During the American Revolution, British Loyalists (“Tories”) would have been considered reactionaries.

Question 17

Social movements generally rely on two broad types of tactics to accomplish their goals: confrontation and cultural politics:

Answer 17

Confrontation is when participants in a social movement deliberately defy prevailing social norms or practices to call attention to their cause and to try to effect change (for example, flag burning to protest the Vietnam War).

Cultural politics refers to the process by which members of a social movement try to sway the organization and values of large and powerful social institutions and thereby alter the social structures that they help perpetuate and support (for example, lobbying Fortune 500 companies to alter their policies on health care coverage for domestic partners).

Question 18

urbanization

Answer 18

Urbanization is the increasing migration of individuals from rural to urban areas, causing the growth in urban development and a decline in rural populations.

For millennia, human society was organized around subsistence agriculture: individuals relied on their own agricultural production to provide for themselves and their families.

With the advent of the industrial revolution and the increasing division of labor in society, individuals no longer relied on their own agricultural production to provide food.

This allowed for a greater concentration of people in urban areas.

Question 19

Suburbanization

Answer 19

Suburbanization refers to the process by which the flow of people from rural to urban areas reverses and individuals begin to leave urban centers for surrounding areas.

As certain groups leave cities for surrounding areas, this emigration can result in the neglect of the urban environment, which is known as urban decline.

In the U.S., because many of the people leaving urban areas for the suburbs were white, this trend was called white flight.

Question 20

Gentrification

Answer 20

Gentrification is the process by which previously neglected areas of cities can be given increasing investment and attention by wealthier residents.

This process has benefits for gentrifying neighborhoods because it can incite economic development, encourage job growth, and reduce crime.

Gentrification is problematic because as a neighborhood undergoes the process of renewal, poorer residents are displaced by the wealthier immigrants to the area.

Question 21

Globalization

Answer 21

Globalization refers to the increasing interdependence and integration resulting from the worldwide, international flow of products, services, wealth, culture, and people.

Advances in transportation and communication, particularly air travel and telecommunication, have rapidly increased the flow of information, ideas, and individuals across political, geographic, and cultural boundaries.

Question 22

Globalization 2

Answer 22

Globalization has both its advocates and its detractors.

• Proponents of globalization argue for its positive impacts on the economies of developing countries and increasing economic and political freedom.
• Detractors argue that globalization allows wealthier countries to take advantage of poorer ones by outsourcing less desirable or even dangerous activities.
• Additionally, detractors see globalization as a threat to global multiculturalism as hegemonic Western corporate interests exploit less wealthy nations and less powerful societies for economic gain.

Globalization may contribute to social changes that can, in some cases, foment terrorism or civil unrest.

Question 23

world-system theory

Answer 23

The world-systems theory, (or the world-systems approach), closely associated with the theorist Immanuel Wallerstein, posits a “world economy” system operating through market forces, as opposed to a defined political system or center.

In the world-systems theory, multiple regions or political entities (individual countries, typically) depend on one another for goods and services, while some of those entities vie for supremacy.

Question 24

World-system theory 2

Answer 24

The world-systems theory names three main types of political entities according to their centrality to the world economic system:

Core countries are wealthy, developed nations such as the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and most Western European states.

Periphery countries are capital-poor, resource-rich, underdeveloped countries, which include many African, Eastern European, Asian, and Central/South American states.

Semi-periphery countries, including India, China, Brazil, Iran, and Mexico, typically feature a mixture of activities and qualities ascribed to core and periphery states.

Periphery countries tend to be economically dependent upon core countries.

Question 25

Core countries

Answer 25

Core countries are wealthy, developed nations such as the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and most Western European states.

Periphery countries tend to be economically dependent upon core countries.

Question 26

Peripherty countries

Answer 26

Periphery countries are capital-poor, resource-rich, underdeveloped countries, which include many African, Eastern European, Asian, and Central/South American states.

Periphery countries tend to be economically dependent upon core countries.

Question 27

Semi-periphery

Answer 27

Semi-periphery countries, including India, China, Brazil, Iran, and Mexico, typically feature a mixture of activities and qualities ascribed to core and periphery states.

Periphery countries tend to be economically dependent upon core countries.