Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Sociology 100: Tutorial Notes (Tutorial 3 (Class Inequality (Marxist view…

- - - - one of sociology's roles is as a critique: sociologists critically analyse social processes (who controls whom, who benefits, who is deprived and how the system of society works.) Another of its roles is as an extension of empathy: trying to understand others, to have curiosity, and respect other cultures and communities. Finally, one can view sociology as a tool for emancipation: as a way to move social boundaries, discuss alternatives to the existing system and dominant ideology, to have a clear position in relation to social injustices.
- - - - The term 'sociological imagination' was first coined by C. Wright Mills, and is the critical reflection of social life (Critical reflection on the historical, structural and cultural factors in society). C. Wright Mills - "Sociology has the capacity to range from the most impersonal to the most intimate features of the human self - and to see the relations between the two; what we often see as a private trouble in our life (e.g. Unemployment or addictions) should be seen as a public issue, so as a thing that should be debated and researched (seeing general in particular: looking at the overall patterns that contribute to an individual issue"
    - - The French Revolution and Enlightenment: (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)
        
        Pre-modern, traditional society in Europe (The ancien regime in France) was based on the religious-monarchical social disposition (superstition, assertion & dogma) without social mobility - if you were born in a family of serfs you were a serf for the rest of your life
        
        The Enlightenment, a philosophical, cultural and social movement in the 18th and 19th centuries and onward led to increasing secularisation, critique of the ancien regime, the celebration of progress, reason, and knowledge, and the rule of law and social contracts.
        
        The Enlightenment gave voice to a dissatisfied citizenry and as a result revolutionary transformation on the basis of the legal system occurred. In this process, legal order that originated from the monarch as a god representative was transformed into a system which is based on social contracts (the idea of human rights; the sovereignty of every person: born free and equal in rights, and the freedom of speech and press.) This led to the end of aristocratic rule and feudalism in the late 18th C and all of the 19th C.
      - The Industrial Revolution
        
        During the Industrial revolution machines were introduced into the production process to take the place of hand tools, which enabled more efficient production and huge profits. This was the process of industrialisation which led to an increase in specialization and the division of labour, as well as very harsh working conditions in factories (instability and no protection). A wide gap then opened up between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'; the emergence of two classes had taken place; capitalists, who own the means of production, and the working class who sell their labour in exchange for currency or commodities,
      - Role of Revolutions
        
        Modern societies are the result of two revolutions: The political revolution catalyzed by the french revolution in 1789, and the industrial revolution which occurred approximately from 1770-1840 which led to the transition from hand production methods to machines.
        
        Both of these revolutions were heavily rooted in the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment (16th C on) spurred by the renaissance in the 16tth century.
    - - Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
        
        One of the characteristics of modernity was that traditional social relations of kinship, family and village were being supplanted by relatively fleeting and contractual relations. In Gemeinschaft small groups of people interacted with each other over many years and many seperate spheres of life: work, leisure, church, family, etc. In the urban, industrial Gesellschaft society very large numbers of people interact with each other over very narrow and specific tasks.
      - Characteristics
        
        While not all characteristics are required for a society to be modern, they are a good indication of whether one qualifies. Characteristics of modernisation include urbanisation and rapid urban growth, capitalist industrialisation, an extensive division of labour, the dominance of bureaucratic forms of organisation, the rule of individualism and cosmopolitanism, secularity, democracy and active citizenship (where people act as reflexive subjects), significant progress in science, medicine and communication, and the global extension of trade networks (which inherently exploits workers and materials and is inseparably tied with imperialism, colonialism and racism.).
  - - - Sociologists see power not as a thing in itself but manifested through it's effects. We trace the operation of unequal power between rich and poor in class relations, between racial majorities and minorities, colonial and metropolitan subjects, men and women and between different sexual identities and practices (CAGES). Power is at work through socially structured and culturally defined patterns of stratification.
        
        Two aspects of social life where power inequalities are still strongly marked throughout the world are national legal systems and the global distribution of poverty. Although we live in the so-called liberal democracy that based on the rule of law, there is still a lot of inequality within the system (unequal treatment of women, homosexuals, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and poor people).
        
        Ergo: the system creates unequal power relationships. poor people around the world report common effects of being poor and powerless: hunger, shame and humiliation, psychological issues, material deprevations of living without access to education, healthcare, clean water, transport etc.
    - - Weber defines power as 'the chance of a man or a number of men to realise their own will even against the resistance of others' and domination as 'the probability that a command with a given specific content will be obeyed by a given group of persons'
    - - The Paradox of Authority
        
        'who has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence in modern societies?'
      - Michael Foucault and Panopticisism
        
        Panopticism is a technology of power, it is part of a transformation in social control from public punishment of the body to private punishment of the mind and soul. We are constantly under surveillance, and most importantly, we are policing ourselves as a result (a disciplinary society run on self policing is a result of this surveillance, surveillance leads to self-censorship to avoid negative perceptions).
        
        The idea of discipline indicates the existance of a whole complex of techniques of power that do not rely on force and coercion; new forms of control emerged within the modern institutions such as hospitals, prisons, factories, schools, etc. It is also important to notice that Foucalt connected power with knowledge (the authority of medical doctors, psychiatrists and so on.)
      - There are three forms of legitimate power, or domination, identified by sociology; Traditional, Charismatic and Legal-rational power. Traditional power is claimed on the grounds that one should obey someone because that is what people have always done. Charismatic power is claimed on the grounds that one should obey someone because they promise to transform our lives. Legal-rational is claimed on the grounds that one should obey someone because they are your lawfully appointed superior.
- - - - Race
        
        What is it?
        
        Race refers to a collective. It defines group membership in opposition to various 'others' based on perceived physical differences. It is socially constructed and operates through symbolic representations of people based on physical and cultural characteristics. These symbolic representations are then hierarchically ranked in society.
        
        Why is it important?
        
        Race defines group membership in opposition to various 'others'; these groups are ranked hierarchically within society; "It is in this process, which can take place through institutional, cultural, economic or social structures, and which influences access to resources, patterns of marginalization and exclusion, and determines power structures, that race become racism" - being sociological, p.159. Race also provides a set of ideas through which we interpret our world, our moral imperatives, and what is and isn't appropriate behaviour, among other things. This moral dimension provides the roots for the emotional identification with cultural practices and beliefs that are seem as right and correct.
      - Ethnicity
        
        What is it?
        
        Ethnicity is a concept referring to a shared culture and way of life, especially as reflected in language, folkways, religious and other institutional structures, material culture such as clothing and food, and cultural products such as music, literature and art.
        
        Why is it important?
        
        Ethnicity is sociologically important because it is often a major source of social cohesion and social conflict. Nationalism, for example, often has a strong ethnic base as does the oppression of minorities.
    - - Race is socially constructed. It is an idea and not a scientific fact (biological assumptions of racial origins have been discredited in scientific though). In the 19th century racism was based on biological features, now it is based on culture. The idea of race has important social economic and political consequences. Racial stereotypes and racial profiling (criminalisation of marginalised social groups and indigenous peoples around the world) are still strongly present. Colour-blind racism or 'racism without racists' is an attempt to sweep racial tensions under the rug without acknowledging or doing anything to combat systemic racism.
  - - - Goffman's view of roles and identities; he talks about our dramaturgical approach (playing roles; backstage and onstage) and the idea that we perform social scripts of what society defines as appropriate behaviour.
        
        Postmodern Self: The postmodern self is a reflexive project (we have to work on ourselves to be accepted, unique, something special, etc. Consumption and advertisers are focusing on this: they impose social obligation to 'be yourself', to enjoy, and this can cause anxiety, disappointment and conformity); postmodern self is fluid, fragmented and constantly in reconstruction which is seen as the saturated self. This approach dictates that we are born with no sense of the self. Self arises through interaction with others.
  - - - Social Stratification : social stratification is the social process through which rewards and resources such as wealth, power, and prestige are distributed systematically and unequally based on social processes through which people are sorted into social categories such as class, gender and race (CAGES). Forms or systems of stratification are slavery, caste, estates and social class. Unequal societies have more social problems on average.
    - - According to Goran Therborn there are (at least) three fundamentally different kinds of inequality, and all of them are destructive of human lives and of human societies
        
        Existential Inequality: Existential inequality means denial of (equal) recognition and respect, and is a potent generator of humiliations for people of colour and all other stigmatized minority groups. It is important to note here that existential inequality does not only take the form of blatant discrimination; it also operates effectively through more subtle status heirarchies
        
        Material Inequality: Inequality of resources. We can distinguish two aspects here. The first is inequality of access ('inequality of opportunity') - to education, career tracks and social contacts, to what is called 'social capital'. The second is inequality of rewards (inequality of outcome), This is the most frequently used measure of inequality - the distribution of income, sometimes also of wealth.
        
        Vital Inequality: Inequality of health and death. Health and longevity are distributed with visible social patterns, for example children in poor countries and poor classes die more often before the age of one, and between the age of one and five, than children in rich countries. Working class people die more often before retirement age than middle and upper class people, and if they survive they have shorter lives in retirement. Vital inequality, which we can measure relatively easily through life expectancy and survival rates, is literally destroying millions of human lives in the world every year.
    - - Marx's perspective on social stratification is based on class analysis. 'The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles...Oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight.' - Marx and Engels (2008, p.33)
      - Ina Marxist evaluation of stratification, the Capitalists or bourgeoisie are those who own the means of production, while the working class or proletariat are those who have to sell their labor in order to survive. Marx's methodology of using production relations to understand human history and society is known as Historical Materialism and is based on understanding the division of labour in a modern society.
      - Class
        
        The Petite bourgeoisie or small capitalists (traditional middle-class): people who own small businesses; some means of production but not enough to allow them to rely solely on paid labor of workers (they might not even have enough money to higher them, possibly have to work)
        
        Workers or the working class (proliterate): those who have to sell their labour in order to survive (most people in NZ, as in the rest of the world, are workers); we work and we receive wages and salaries; we might have a good salary, or we might be underpaid (because the capitalist system is based on exploitation we are always underpaid, it only depends to what degree.
        
        Capitalist class or Bourgeoisie (the elite, upper class): Those who own and control the means of production (big businesses, technology, raw materials, services and commodities, etc.); capitalists own the output of labor that is made by workers.
    - - Social class is a social division resulting from the unequal distribution of rewards and resources such as wealth, power and prestige. The most simple definition of class is people sharing a relationship to the means of production (Marx, 1874)
        
        For Marx and Engels, class is an essentially antagonistic concept. It defines not only lines of difference, but also lines of struggle; we talk about relationships to the means of production: having or not having capital power, so we don't talk about income classes.)
        
        Development of class in it's modern social sense, with relatively fixed names for particular classes (upper class, middle class, working class and so on), belongs essentially to the period between 1770 and 1840, which is the period of the Industrial Revolution and its decisive reorganization of society
    - - The Weberian view on social stratification dictates that stratification emerges from 3 social constructs: class, status and party. Class groups have similar economic interests, material wealth and opportunities for income; status refers tot he honor of prestige (class relationships are not static); and party or power refers to the ability of someone to influence others, often against their will.
        
        These factors influence an individual's life chances, and through social mobility individuals can change their class position through changes in their status and power. Weber talks about bureaucratization which is the result of modernization: it decreases chances of social groups in the bottom tiers of society from moving up: it cements social stratification.
- - - - Marx says that he invisible and immaterial things that work produces are profits, classes and aspirations. Paid work produces all the commodities (in the form of goods and services) in society and is the source for all profits and capitalist accumulation; the origin of all capital is profit. Work is also the place where two classes of capitalism are forged: the burgeoisie (capitalists) and proletariat (workers). Work is the place where aspirations are generated; production/work is where all the possible things that people might find useful are given physical form (as commodities). The founding fathers of sociology focused on paid work, which is problematic because it neglects the value of voluntary and unpaid work done in society, a large portion of which is contributed by women.