Section A Social Inequality Theorists Flashcards
What did Gerth and Mills refer to the Western society’s life chances as?
Everything from chance to stay alive during the first year after birth to a chance to view the fine arts, the chance to remain healthy and grow tall, and if sick to get well again quickly, the chance to avoid becoming a juvenile delinquent and, very crucially, the chance to complete an intermediary or higher educational grade.
Where does Parsons believe stratification systems are derived from?
A value consensus, if values exist, then it follows that individuals will be evaluated and placed in some form of rank order. Those who perform successfully in terms of society’s values will be ranked highly and are likely to receive a variety of rewards.
What does Parsons believe the Western industrial society has a tendency of doing which enabled conflict?
There will be ‘certain tendencies to arrogance on the part of some winners and to resentment and to a “sour grapes” attitude on the part of some losers’. However, he believed that this conflict was in check by the common value system which justifies the unequal distribution of rewards.
What is power according to Parsons?
Power is legitimate authority in that members of society as a whole generally accept it as just a proper. It is accepted as those in positions of authority use their power to pursue collective goals that derive from society’s central values.
What do Davis and Moore argue all societies need?
All societies need some mechanism for ensuring effective role allocation and performance. This mechanism is social stratification, which is seen as a system which attaches unequal rewards and privileges to the different positions in society.
How did Davis and Moore overcome a difficulty in their theory?
A difficulty is showing clearly which positions are functionally the most important. They suggested that the importance of a position can be measured in two ways.
1. ‘The degree by which the position is functionally unique, there being no other positions which can perform the same function satisfactory’.
2. ‘The degree to which other positions are dependent on the one in question’.
How did Tumin question the adequacy of Davis and Moore’s measurement of the functional importance of positions?
David and Moore tended to assume that the most highly rewarded positions are the most important. Tumin therefore argued that ‘some labour force of unskilled workmen is as important and as indispensable to the factory as some labour force of engineers’.
Why does Tumin believe stratification can never perform the functions which Davis and Moore assigned to it?
He argued that those born in a lower strata can never have the same opportunities for realising their talents as those born in a higher strata.
Why does Tumin question the view that social stratification functions to integrate the social system?
Differential rewards can ‘encourage hostility, suspicion and distrust among the various segments of a society’. Stratification is divisive rather than an integrating force.
Why does Peter Saunders argue social stratification can be beneficial?
He points out that even critics such as Tumin have recognised that social stratification exists in society. He suggests that systems which reward different positions unequally can be beneficial as they motivate people to work harder.
What other way does Saunders believe a society can fill the important positions?
‘It is possible to imagine a society where all positions are rewarded equally in terms of material resources and formal status’. Although, some people would not be happy to do the jobs they were allocated and others would not put in the effort needed to do their jobs properly.
Does Saunders accept the functionalist claim of social stratification to be inevitable?
Saunders does not accept the functionalist claim, however, he certainly agrees that capitalist societies are more desirable despite the inequality as a result. This is because he argues socialist societies are more repressive than capitalist ones in making people perform their role.
What do Nozick and Saunders adopt?
They adopt a conception of equality based on legal equality and the idea of entitlement. As long as people have earned the resources or money they possess legally through their own work of ‘uncoerced exchanges with others’, then there should be no question of them being robbed of their possessions.
What can Saunders and Hayek both agree on?
Inequality is justified because it promoted economic growth, encouraging people to pursue their own self interest and promote the interests of society.
What is Marshall and Swift (1993) evaluation of Saunders?
They criticised Saunders’s argument in favour of both equality and opportunity and formal or legal, these principles often may coincide, but often they do not.
What is Marshall, Newby, Rose, Vogler’s (1988) study on social mobility?
This study found that patterns of social mobility were influenced by class even when educational attainment was taken into account. Working class backgrounds had less chance than those from higher class backgrounds of obtaining a position in the top classes even when they had the same level of educational qualifications.
Wilkinson and Pickett (2010)
In an influential book, The Spirit Level, it has relevance to functionalism because it puts forward the proposition that inequality can lead to ‘dysfunctional societies’. There research suggests that neoliberal policies lead to greater inequality is harmful, therefore lower levels of inequality are desirable.
What is Marx accused of within his theory of Marxism?
Marx is accused of being an economic ‘determinist’ or ‘reductionist’, in that he thought that the nature of all social institutions in capitalist society was determined by the economic base. Critics including some Neo Marxists, have challenged this claim, arguing that the superstructure is relatively autonomous. For example, they would deny that the state in advanced capitalist societies is bound to represent capitalist interests.
