social inequality Flashcards
Marxism
Class: Capitalism, Bourgeoisie, Proletariat membership determined life chances. Class polarisation and no social mobility.
Kincaid - low wages for everyone means more profit for bourgeoisie.
Ethnicity:
Castle and Kosack - ethnic minorities act as a scape-goat for problems caused by capitalism.
Hall - racism diverts attention from capitalist exploitation.
Byrne - reserve army of labour
Age:
Byrne - students in reserve army of labour. Insecure workers less likely to protest.
Vincent - retirement age benefits capitalism as it creates space for younger people EV more beneficial to have no retirement age as there will be more workers competing for jobs so lower wages.
Bourdieu
Higher classes have more economic and social capital therefore have more cultural capital, significant effect on life chances.
Functionalism
Society based on meritocracy, hard work + ability = reward
Class: believe in social mobility which happens through meritocracy. Class system reinforces value consensus.
Davis and Moore - role allocation and motivation
Gender:
Parsons - Expressive instrumental roles, separate gender roles are beneficial to capitalism.
Ethnicity:
Banton - take jobs, dominant group don’t want.
Patterson - racism reduced through assimilation to host norms and values
Age:
Parsons - each group has key roles vital for smooth running society EV over estimates conformity.
Cummings and Henry - disengagement theory EV which has negative effects on the elderly.
Weber
Class: based on social class, status situation and party situation, all impact your life choices. Higher classes operate social closure put emphasis on status symbols.
Gender:
Baron and Norris - dual labour market theory. Women limited to secondary sector.
Ethnicity: lower market situation. Racism and discrimination leads to lower status situation.
Baron and Norris - dual labour market theory. Ethnic minorities are secondary sector due to racism and discrimination.
Rex and Tomlinson - EM’s experience both market and status inequality. More likely to face poverty, led to black under class which is marginalise, frustrated and stuck in poverty.
Post-modernism
Class: is much less an influence on our identity in today’s society. Identities are now based around consumption rather than production
Age:
Blaikie - age inequality is less important due to the development of consumer culture. Old people are consumers with spending power. EV there are poor older people who are not consumers who face poverty, dependency and isolation
Class and Work
Roberts - upper middle class negotiate salaries and receive bonuses and benefits. Working class are just told how much they earn.
Brown - semi and unskilled manual workers are 4 times more likely to be unemployed.
Ermisch - parents in high earning occupations have kids in high earning occupations or marry from the same background.
Blanden - UK has one of the lowest levels of social mobility.
Whittaker - living wage has been declining for many years, especially in working class jobs.
Baron and Norris - lower class secondary labour market, upper class primary sector.
Byrne - reserve army of labour
Class and Education
Bourdieu - economic cultural and social capital, inherited and affects achievement. Lower classes suffer inequality in education as a result. Fish out of water.
Keddie - middle class children top sets and working class children in bottom sets.
Feinstein - middle class place more emphasis on education than working class. Middle class achieve more due to this.
Furlong and Cashmore - working class kids found at new universities than elite universities, less likely to secure job on leaving.
Reay - working class students apply to universities near home as they cant afford living costs - linked to economic capital.
Ons - 39% of children from poorest quarter achieve 5 or more GCSEs above C compared to 73% of the wealthy quarter.
Class and Crime
Reiner - working class bias in prison population. Prior to imprisonment, 74% were unemployed or employed in lowest occupations.
Merton - working class more likely to turn to crime due to over emphasis on value of wealth and inability to achieve this by legitimate means.
Cicourel - working class youths more likely to be arrested as they gain more attention from police. Middle class youths can negotiate themselves out of trouble.
Gordon - CJS working class punishment more than middle class to benefit capitalism. Large sections of the working class in prison neutralises opposition to capitalism and hides the worst effects from view.
Cohen - working class targeted by CJS due to media creating moral panics therefore police must be seen to be tackling issues.
Ethnicity and Work
Amin - EMs more likely to work in sections of the economy with greater risk of low pay involving bad work, longer hours, less training and less occupational benefits.
Weber - EMs have a lower market situation as they work in low paid jobs. Racism and discrimination means they have a low status situation.
Castle and Kosack - reserve army of labour. White workers are encouraged to see EMs as a threat to their jobs. Used as a scapegoat.
Baron and Morris - employers restrict EMs to secondary labour market due to racist beliefs that they are unsuitable for primary sector work.
Heath and McHahon - ethnic penalty describes disadvantage compared white workers.
Reiner - institutional racism in police force. Structure and system creates racist practices in subcultures. Canteen culture based on racism and suspicion has been created therefore EM police officers often isolated and suffer bullying.
Office of National Statistics - the highest unemployment rate for 14-64 yr olds is other blacks (17%) and Afro Caribbean (15%).
Joseph Rowntree Foundation - EMs earn up to 10% less than whites with Black African and Pakistani earning up to 20% less.
Ethnicity and Crime
Home Office - black people are 5 times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts.
BCS - found that adults from mixed black and Asian groups are most likely to be victims of personal crimes.
Awan - increasing crime stats showed a 70% increase in Islamophobia, hate crimes in London. Twitter, more than 75% of tweets showed a strong Islamic feeling used to collectively label Muslims.
Reiner - institutional racism in police force. Structure and system creates racist practices in subcultures. Canteen culture based on racism and suspicion has been created therefore EM police officers often isolated and suffer bullying. EMs are targeted which leads to higher arrest rates.
Bowling and Phillips -higher levels of crime amongst black people as a result of police labelling. More black people are stopped by police thus more crime is found.
MacPherson Report - conducted after the murder of Stephen Lawrence, found police were institutionally racist; practices, procedures and cultures tend to exclude or disadvantage EMs.
Hall - police and media focus on the problem of black mugging (70’s) in order to distract people from the real issues of capitalism.
Ethnicity and Media
Awen - digital media is used to assault EMs. Twitter, more than 75% of tweets showed a strong Islamic feeling used to collectively label Muslims (Muslim pigs).
Whitaker - 4 persistent labels of Muslims in media ‘intolerant’, ‘misogynistic’, ‘violent’, ‘strange or different’.
Van Dijk - black people tend to be portrayed as criminal in the media especially by the tabloids. More recently as members of organised gangs that push drugs and violently offend.
Reach Report -violence in the black community is a result of medias failure to portray the image of black men positively. It has negative impact on their identity and leads to further labelling.
Hall - police and media focus on the problem of black mugging (70’s) in order to distract people from the real issues of capitalism.
Gender and Work
Baron and Norris - dual labour market theory. Women are confined to secondary labour sector due to cultural myths about their unsuitability for primary sector work.
Hartnett - supports Baron and Norris. Some employers believe women are less dependable, male workers don’t like working for them, less need for pay rises as they are dependant on their husbands. Will stop working to have children so they are not worth investing in.
Stanko - sexual harassment is common at work. Men use it to intimidate women who try to enter traditionally male work.
Benardes - UK, most female careers are interrupted by child birth, only a minority return to their pre-baby jobs. Most experience downward social mobility into low paid part-time jobs with few rights.
Feminsta - 30,000 women are sacked each year for being pregnant despite the fact it is illegal. 44,000 women lose out on promotions and pay rises due to pregnancy.
Savage - social mobility in 2000’s found men were 40% more likely than women to climb the career ladder.
Mahony - growing number of jobs in service sector, desk jobs involving care of others. These jobs are not associated with hegemonic masculinity. Macho jobs now require high level of social skill and sensitivity.
Adkins - women are expected to use their sexuality in jobs especially bar work thus reinforcing gender stereo types.
Mac an Ghail - decline in traditional masculine jobs undermines traditional breadwinner roles, left men feeling vulnerable and leading to a crisis of masculinity.
Benatar - second sexism, men have the least desirable and dangerous jobs compared to women.
Health and Safety Data - more than 95% of people killed in the workplace every year are men.
Gender and Crime
Heidenshon - women are controlled by patriarchal society therefore have less opportunities to commit crime.
Stanko - sexual harassment is used to intimidate women in work, which is the victimisation of women, which is illegal.
Farrington - judges treat unmarried women, without ties or stable relationships, more harshly because they have deviated from the norms of traditional femininity; they have broken both the law and the norms, and are thus doubly deviant.
Messerschmidt - hegemonic masculinity is based on power and success (financially and over women) thus they commit greater levels of crime in an attempt to achieve power and overcome the crisis of masculinity.
Flood-page - argues that women are actually treated more leniently by the CJS. Self report studies show they actually commit more crime than OCS suggests linked to chivalry thesis.
Pollack - chivalry thesis. CJS let women off and give men harsher sentences as they are seen as the caring and emotional gender. Additionally, he argues that women are better at concealing their crime as they are able to conceal menstruation.
BCS - males account for 7/10 homicides and are most likely to be assaulted by a stranger.
Gender and Education
Frosh - Its difficult for boys to be academically successful and popular. Boys who identify as academic get homophobic abuse and labelled as gay. Those who act anti-school are seen as more masculine.
Department of Education - since 2008 white working class boys are the largest under achieving group in education. Ofsted say this is due to anti-school sub cultures.
Mac an Ghail - Crisis of masculinity leads to boys adopting an aggressive ‘ladish’ identity and reject school work.
Francis - boys monopolise space and get more attention from teachers in school. Girls are more likely to get away with chatting. Which may impact achievement.
Stanworth - Teachers found it more difficult remembering girls names and quiet girls are allowed to blend into the background in classes. Boys are 4 times more likely to join in class discussions. Twice as likely to ask for help and twice as likely to be asked questions.
Age and Work
Biggs - Found that sit-coms tend to portray old people as enfeebled, vague and forgetful. Which impacts how they are viewed in the workplace and often given less skilled and less important roles.
Ray - Younger people are more likely to obtain employment against an older applicant despite the fact that younger people are no better at their jobs.
Vincent - highlights ageism in the workplace. impacts young people as they are often not given promotions whilst older people are more likely to achieve top positions.
Willis - unemployment rates are highest amongst 16-24 yr olds, this prevents young people from taking on adult roles. They are unable to plan for the future and take on family roles, as a result they become bored and demoralised.
Byrne - retired and young unemployed are used as a reserve army of labour and are therefore disposable.
Vincent - retirement age has been introduced to benefit capitalism, it allows unemployment rates to be minimalist and benefits financial companies. It encourages the ‘grey pound’ as the retired are targeted consumers eg retirement villages, holidays and mobility technology.
Department of work and pensions - minimum wage leads to inequality in terms of income eg min wage for 16 yr olds is £4ph whilst £6.50 for those over 21. Also this leads to a further segregation as companies may choose younger workers as cheap labour.
Bradley - middle age has a higher status than youth or old age. Middle age people are running the country and hold the power at work.
