Postmodern theories of inequality Flashcards
What do post-modernists reject?
Post-modernists reject marxism and functionalism preferring to use the barbarian thinking to explain inequality
What do post-modernist believe about inequality?
Post-modernists reject approaches like Marxism as they are critical of meta narratives (ideas that aim to explain everything). They argue that postmodern society is fragmented and inequality has individual meaning. Post-modernists describe the conditions that create a fragmented and divided society where conditions conspire to create poverty and unemployment despite believing that inequality does not exist except in peoples minds
Leotard
Social class inequality, gender and other social categories are things from the modern period and from traditional theory he claims these terms are not meaningful because no groups or societies share common values or norms as Durkheim and functionalists believe. He goes on to suggest that society is diffused and fragmented and uses the term post-modernism to describe the state of contemporary society because it describes the changes that have took place since capitalism. Discusses the way that a consumer society and the choice of material goods advertised in the media making individuals feel unequal because they lack things that others appear to have (consumerism)
Characteristics of postmodern society
They claim the following of social change:
It is inevitable
It is usually unplanned
It causes people fear and concern
Some social change is more significant than other change
To understand post modern society it is necessary to identify the impact of dramatic social change and to describe the nature of contemporary society
Beck and Giddens
Both referred to the term risk society suggesting that people no longer feel safe in their face of an economic environmental and social change post-modernists argue that social change has created postmodern society
Baudrillard
Society is fragmented people do not share ideas and values and so do not subscribe to group identity and group norms selfishness is not a problem
Pakulski
Class no longer exists so we are governed by status difference not class difference. This reflects the influence of Weber on post-modernism.
Reasons for inequality
. Decline in manufacturing industry and resulting unemployment have caused poverty, illness and stress.
. Loss of occupation as an identity status means that men in particular no longer have a sense of what it is to be masculine
. Increase in low, skilled service sector work have resulted in the feminisation of labour and changes in gender relationships.
. Globalisation means that manufacturing has moved to less economically developed areas but goods are relatively cheap in the west. waters sayssays people are encouraged by advertising to consume fast fashion and product products.
Social exclusion
In policy terms governments have been moving away from the traditional accounts of incoming air quality and applying postmodern ideas of social exclusion and fragmented society. People are said to be socially excluded not whether they are poor but when they lack a sense of engagement with society and suffer from multiple deprivation such as poor education, high crime rights, family breakdown and discrimination. It is their personal characteristics that make them unemployable.
Assessment of post-modernism
. A difficulty with this theory is that it offers no direct explanation for inequality denying it exists.
. Statistical evidence shows that divisions between the wealthy and poor are wider than they have been for many years indeed and appeared to be growing
. Social exclusion provides governments with a convenient way of glossing go for stats which show that incoming air quality is growing at very large numbers of certain group groups.
. Post-modernist arguments can be used to justify inequality and poverty so they may be encouraged by governments that prefer to view the problem as an individual rather than social.
. Some identities are not lifestyle choices and cannot be changed E.G gender age and racial backgrounds affect opportunities but are not lifestyle all choices.
