- 01/12/2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
What parallels exists in the ideologies used to maintain different racial and gender categories as separate status groups? What is your position on Durkheim’s prediction that the use of race and gender for positioning individuals in occupations will be eliminated someday?
One of the earliest explanations of inequality due to gender or race was proposed by Emile Durkheim. In the paper “On the division of social labor” (1893) Durkheim concluded that in all societies, some activities are considered more important than others. In a society highly valued the achievement of religious salvation, that was characteristic of Puritans in colonial times. Another company may consider the social value of material wealth. All the functions of society – law, religion, family, work, etc. can form a hierarchy according to how highly they are valued.
This view is expressed by Durkheim in his famous remark:
“When I realize my duty brother, husband or a citizen, then I perform the obligations prescribed by law and custom and which are external to me and my actions… Similarly, a believer from birth detects in the ready-made form of beliefs and practices of religious life and, if they existed before him. Therefore, they exist outside of it. The system of symbols that I use. aphid expression, monetary system, which I use for payment of debts, credit facilities, which I use in their commercial activities, procedures which I follow because of their profession – all these and similar things operate, regardless of my usage. In turn, if we turn to each member of society, then those comments are true for each of them”. (Durkheim, 1964)
I don’t agree with his position, because “society” – is a set of multiple identities? If we study a certain group, we see not a collective entity, but only a group of individuals interacting with each other in different ways.
8. Discuss the common threads in the arguments on inequality found in each of the classical theorists. On what do they agree of disagree?
In contemporary Western, especially American, sociology, social scientists hold several opposing views on inequality. At the heart of the functionalist theories is the idea that some activities the society considers it more important than others. Proponents of these theories, inequality is a means of ensuring public confidence in the fact that such activities, carried out the most qualified individuals.
Supporters of Conflictological theories suggest that inequality is due to more favorable position of those who control the social wealth. Their views are based on the theory of classes and social stratification, designed by Karl Marx. According to this theory, the economic system of any society creates two main classes, one of which operates or controls the other. (Berberoglu, 2005)
In the concept of stratification, Weber identifies three factors: wealth, prestige and power. These factors are often but not always interact. The theory of stratification based on the criteria Warner reputation of people within the community. According to this theory, belong to a particular social class is determined by the members of the community. (Berberoglu, 2005)
In the functional approach we can point out the theory of middle class (or the new middle) class ( Aron, Daniel Bell and others). Theories of the middle class were a reflection of the quantitative growth of the officials, intellectuals, managers, enhancing social protection and education of workers and several other groups, as well as the convergence of income, consumption and lifestyles of the general population. According to followers of the theory of the middle class, this process led to the elimination of traditional class distinctions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and the social formation of a new social groups, encompassing and unifying value pain majority of the population of industrialized countries – it’s the middle class is. This includes individuals who possessing family income, education, prestige role in life, lifestyle and identify themselves with this group of society.
According to exit polls, in Western countries for more than half the population (70-80%) identify themselves as middle class. Formation of the middle class society provides a high level of social homogeneity, smooths or even eliminate class conflicts, helps to reconcile the positions of parties, trade unions, etc. (Berberoglu, 2005)
Works cited
Delaney, T. “Classical Social Theory: Investigation and Application”. Prentice Hall, 2003
Durkheim, E. “On the Division of Labor in Society”. New York: Free Press, 1964
Macionis, John J.; Plummer, K. “Sociology. A Global Intruduction “(3rd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education, 2005.
Berberoglu, B. “An Introduction to Classical and Contemporary Social Theory: A Critical Perspective”. (3rd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005
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