DOCSLIB.ORG

(Functionalist) Max Weber (1864-1920) (Marxist) Fiona Devine

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
(Functionalist) Max Weber (1864-1920) (Marxist) Fiona Devine Social Stratification: Social inequality: Refers to Describes the way society is the unev en distribution of structured in a hierarchy, resources such as money & shaped like a pyramid. power, life chances or Social class is seen as the main source of Ascribed status: social position is fixed Each layer is smaller but opportunities related to stratification in Britain. Based on at birth and unchanged over time. more powerful than the one education, employment and economic factors such as occupations below it. health. and income. Social mobility is deemed to Achieved status: social position is be possible. earned on merit e.g. education, Karl Marx and social class (1818-1883) promotion. • The bourgeoise (the ruling class)- owned the means of Other forms of social stratification: production. • Feudalism: ascribed, little to no • The proletariat (working class) forced to sell their labour. chance of mov ing to the next strata. Experience alienation and lack of control. • The caste system in India: ascribed, Distribution of wealth and income • The bourgeoise exploit the proletariat. closed and little mov ement Wealth refers to assets such as houses, land, art, jewellery. • Ruling-class ideology and false class consciousness. • Apartheid: ascribed, little social Income refers to wages, benefits etc. Wealth is usually mobility distributed more unevenly than income. Born into Life chances: The culture of poverty: poverty Peoples chances of achiev ing positive or People from the poorest section of society Deprived Become Embourgeoisement thesis negativ e outcomes as they progress are socialised within the subculture of childhood parents of affected by Working-class families are deprived through life. These are not distributed pov erty. As a result they are unable to break material, children. The becoming middle-class. cultural or equally between groups. Affected by free from pov erty. cycle financial Their norms and v alues are factors such as: religion, social class, The cycle of deprivation: continues deprivation changing as their gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability The policy to remov e poverty involves The cycle of deprivation standards of liv ing and employing social workers and using local income improv es. Social mobility: mov ing between social authority provision to help break children out Affluence has led to of the cycle of depriv ation. classes. Less likely to priv atised lifestyles Material deprivation: perform well Intra-generational social mobility- As adults they centred on the home and Having insufficient money to be able to at school and mov ement of their lifetime e.g. live in poverty gain family- based on promotion. afford goods and serv ices. As a result people qualifications consumerism. may not hav e a balance diet. Poverty may Future Inter-generational social mobility- opportunities mov ement between generations of a lead to ill health during childhood and are limited- low- inadequate housing. paid, unskilled family e.g. when a child enters a different work or social from their parents. unemployment Davis & Moore (1945) Max Weber (1864-1920) Peter Townsend Fiona Devine (1992) Charles Murray (1996) (Functionalist) (Marxist) (1979) Social stratification was a Classes are formed in market Dev ine tested Lockwood’s idea Society had a growing Identified three ways of defining ‘univ ersal necessity’ for ev ery places, such as the labour that ‘privatized instrumentalism’ underclass. Government policies pov erty: The state’s standard of society. The system must match market. One class hire, the other would become typical amongst hav e encouraged the members pov erty on which official statistics the most able people with the sells their labour. A class is a the working class. This term refers of this underclass to become are based, The relativ e income functionally most important group of people with similar life to social relationships centred on dependent on benefits. standard of poverty based on positions in society. These high chances- being successful. the home with work only to an Traditional values such as identifying those households rewards would encourage Weber stressed the importance end, when affluent workers honesty, family life and hard whose income falls below the ambitious people to compete of status (prestige) and power in joined with their workmates. Paid work were being undermined by av erage for similar households. for them, with the most talented determining life chances and work is a means to a the members of the underclass, Relativ e deprivation, when achiev ing success. shaping patterns of stratification comfortable lifestyle rather than to be replaced by an alternative families are unable to e.g. members of aristocracy may hav ing job satisfaction. v alue system that tolerated participate in activities and have hav e no savings, but have a title crime and v arious forms of anti- the liv ing conditions that are that giv es them status. social behaviour. widely available in society Gender & Poverty: • Women have longer life expectancy so more female pensioners liv ing alone. Sex & Gender Age Absolute Poverty: Income is • Women more likely to head lone-parent families. Sex: Male or female (biology) Chronological, biological or a insufficient to hav e the Usually have a low income. Gender: masculine or feminine. social category. When does minimum to surv ive. No • Gender pay gap Gender & power: ‘youth’ begin and end? access to the basic • Women are more likely to be in part-time income than Feminists see gender inequality as Childhood & Power necessities in life e.g. shelter, men. the most important source of Families are agency of social food, clean water, heating & div ision in society. Society is mainly control so they are expected to clothes. Ethnicity & Poverty: controlled by men who have authorise discipline of their • Lower income families Poverty Relative Poverty: Cannot considerable power within politics children. Parents exercise power • Generally disadvantaged in employment, pay and afford the general standard and the workplace. when they try to influence their quality of job. The crisis of masculinity: child’s behaviour against their will. of liv ing of most people in Men are currently experiencing this Young People & Power their society. Income is much Child Poverty: More likely to live in poverty if: because of the underachievement Authority from teachers ov er less than the av erage for that • Household has four or more children. of boys in school, the decline of students based on their status in society. • Where the head of the house is a lone parent or from paid work in manufacturing, the school setting. Some students an ethnic minority women’s increased participation in do not conform to this authority • With no paid workers. paid employment. however. See Paul Willis. Inequalities: Inequalities: • Gender dominated • Ageism- age discrimination. Poverty Power occupations e.g. fire-fighting, Younger or older people tend nursery worker. to be v ictim of this. Focus on the positiv e functions of • Glass ceiling for women- • Negativ e stereotyping pov erty for some groups e.g. knowing you could liv e in pov erty means people inv isible barriers for promotion. • Older people liv ing in pov erty. Gov ernment and politics serv es a will undertake undesirable jobs, creates • Gender pay gap. purpose to regulate main stream norms jobs for groups who deal with the poor. • Women’s triple shift. and v alues. • Childcare provision- barrier The poor also reinforce mainstream prev enting women from Functionalists norms and provide examples of returning to work. dev iance such as lazy and dishonest. The welfare state: (a system in which the Pov erty is the result from class-based state takes responsibility for protecting the Weber- power is based on coercion or Ethnicity inequalities. It is inev itable that some health and welfare of it’s citizens and for authority. The main sources of authority A social group that share an people will be poor in a capitalist meeting their social needs.) are traditional, rational legal and identity based on their cultural society. Pov erty serves the interests of • The National Health Service (NHS): charismatic authority. traditions, religion or language the bourgeoise who can hire and fire Funded by central government from Marxists argue the bourgeoise use their Ethnicity & Power: Marxists people e.g. if they demanded higher national taxation. Provided GPs, power to exploit the proletariat. They Under-represented in political wages, the bourgeoise could threaten hospitals, opticians and dentists. hav e economic and political power. power/decision makers. Also to higher from the unemployed. under-represented in teaching, Welfare Benefits: armed forces, police officers, • National Insurance Benefits: If you have paid into the system (National Insurance Women face the greatest risk of particularly at high lev els of the pov erty than men, lone-mothers and Patriarchy- the system of our social organisation. Although 40% of Contributions) you are entitled to the older women liv ing alone in structures and practices are male highest positions in the NHS are Jobseekers Allowance and the state particular. The gender pay gap and dominated and they use this power to from ethnic minority groups retirement pension. • Income Support and Child Tax Credit Feminists the inequality of the div ision of caring oppress and exploit women. Inequalities: responsibilities contribute to this. • Unemployment • Local Benefits could include free school • Discrimination in the labour meals, educational subsidies, housing benefits. Focus on indiv iduals behaviour rather market than structural causes of pov erty. Stress The gov ernment does not meet it’s • Minority groups have become the importance of traditional v alues peoples needs, and they believe their an underclass (see Charles and self-reliance. Welfare dependency should be minimal gov ernment Murray) and the underclass are key ideas in this interv ention from the welfare state. • Racism is built into the workings RightNew approach. of capitalism..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Indigenous Capitalist Class, Social Stratification and Life Chances in the Contemporary Nigeria Society
    Public Policy and Administration Research www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5731(Paper) ISSN 2225-0972(Online) Vol.4, No.7, 2014 Indigenous Capitalist Class, Social Stratification and Life Chances in the Contemporary Nigeria Society Oladele A. Adeleke 1* , Rasak Bamidele 2, Rasaq Omokeji, Ganiyu 3 1.Department of Sociology, Olabisi OnabanjoUniversity, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State E-mail: [email protected] 2.Department of Sociology and Psychology,Fountain University Osogbo, Osun State E-mail:[email protected] 3.Department of Sociology, Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The life styles associated with people in the same class categories include, among other things, particularly orientations to manners, speech, clothing styles, education and especially, ‘Success’. There is a tendency for people with similar styles to participate together in both formal and informal groups, to marry one another, and to choose activities that reflect their similar value orientations. Social stratification draws attention to the unequal positions occupied by individuals in society. Social inequality is found in all societies. Therefore, this paper is to examine social stratification, life chances in relation to indigenous capitalist class in Nigeria. This study will be guided by the Weberian perspective of social stratification. Keywords: Social Stratification, Indigenous Capitalist Class, Life Chances, Social Inequality and Social Mobility Introduction In every human society, there are inequalities even in the smallest culture, where variations in wealth or property virtually none existent, there are inequalities between individuals, men and women, the young and the old. A person may have a higher status than others because of particular prowess at hunting for instance or because he/she is believed to have special access to ancestral spirits.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond an Underclass: an Essay on Up-Front Politics
    The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 20 Issue 1 March Article 3 March 1993 Beyond An Underclass: An Essay on Up-Front Politics Paula L. Dressel Georgia State University Jeff Porterfield Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons, and the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Dressel, Paula L. and Porterfield, Jeff (1993) "Beyond An Underclass: An Essay on Up-Front Politics," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 20 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol20/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you by the Western Michigan University School of Social Work. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Beyond An Underclass: An Essay on Up-Front Politics PAULA L. DRESSEL & JEFF PORTERFIELD Georgia State University Department of Sociology Debate about underclass conceptualization has once again forced sociol- ogists to acknowledge the political context and implications of our work. This article extends the criticalexamination of underclass conceptualiza- tion to relatively undeveloped but politically important areas of concern. Initially we discuss the political economic context of conceptual contro- versies surrounding poverty. With a preference for structural analysis, we call for the return of class to economically marginalized people and suggest how that goal might be enhanced by a focus on relations of distribution as well as production. Valuing subjects' vantage points, we recommend how sociologists' work can return agency and diversity to economically marginalized people. Finally, acknowledging the agency of sociologists, we call for greater attention to the implications of our class positions for how we, too, make history, either by intention or default.
    [Show full text]
  • The Inheritance of Race Revisited
    The Inheritance of Race Revisited: Childhood Wealth and Income and Black–White Disadvantages in Adult Life Chances David Brady,a Ryan Finnigan,b Ulrich Kohler,c Joscha Legewied a) University of California, Riverside; b) University of California, Davis; c) University of Potsdam; d) Harvard University Abstract: Vast racial inequalities continue to prevail across the United States and are closely linked to economic resources. One particularly prominent argument contends that childhood wealth accounts for black–white (BW) disadvantages in life chances. This article analyzes how much childhood wealth and childhood income mediate BW disadvantages in adult life chances with Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Cross-National Equivalent File data on children from the 1980s and 1990s who were 30+ years old in 2015. Compared with previous research, we exploit longer panel data, more comprehensively assess adult life chances with 18 outcomes, and measure income and wealth more rigorously. We find large BW disadvantages in most outcomes. Childhood wealth and income mediate a substantial share of most BW disadvantages, although there are several significant BW disadvantages even after adjusting for childhood wealth and income. The evidence mostly contradicts the prominent claim that childhood wealth is more important than childhood income. Indeed, the analyses mostly show that childhood income explains more of BW disadvantages and has larger standardized coefficients than childhood wealth. We also show how limitations in prior wealth research explain why our conclusions differ. Replication with the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a variety of robustness checks support these conclusions. Keywords: racial inequality; wealth; income; intergenerational mobility; stratification; inequality Citation: Brady, David, Ryan AST racial inequalities continue to prevail across the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • X CONTRIBUTIONS to the THEORY of REFERENCE GROUP BEHAVIOR*
    x CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF REFERENCE GROUP BEHAVIOR* T IS CHAPTER PROCEEDS on the assumption that there;s two-way traffic between social theory and empirical research. Systematic em­ pirical materials help advance social theory by imposing the task and by affording the opportunity for interpretation along lines often unpre­ meditated, and social theory, in turn, defines the scope and enlarges the predictive value of empirical findings by indicating the conditions under which they hold. The systematic data of The American Soldier,! in all their numerous variety, provide a useful occasion for examining the interplay of social theory and applied social research. More particularly, we attempt to identify and to order the fairly numerous researches in The American Soldier which, by implication or by explicit statement, bear upon the theory of reference group behavior. (The empirical realities which this term denotes will presently be con­ sidered in some detail. It should be said here, however, that although the term "reference group" is not employed in these volumes, any more than it has yet found full acceptance 'in the vocabulary of sociology as distinct from social psychology, reference group concepts play an im­ portant part in the interpretative apparatus utilized by the Research Branch of the Information and Education Division of the War Depart­ ment.) At two points, we deal briefly with related subjects which are not, however, part and parcel of reference group theory. We review the statistical indices of group attributes and social structure as variously adopted in these researches, and attempt to indicate, though very briefly and programmatically, the specific value of systematically incorporating such indices in further research.
    [Show full text]
  • A Contextual Definition of the Underclass by Martha Van Haitsma
    A contextual definition of the underclass by Martha Van Haitsma Spatial concentration of poverty in and of itself need not constitute a problem distinct from general poverty. The neighborhoods in which people live do alter the mix of Martha Van Haitsma is a graduate student in the Department opportunities and difficulties they face, but not everyone in of Sociology at the University of Chicago. This article is the an area of concentrated poverty belongs to the same socio- revised and edited section of a paper presented at the 1989 economic class. Spatial concentration cannot be ignored, Midwest Sociological Association Meetings in St. Louis, however, as it constitutes part of the mechanism that links Missouri, April 5-10, 1989. nonnormative3 patterns of income generation and family formation to chronic poverty. When an area is largely popu- lated by chronically poor persons, the opportunities for climbing out of poverty are dimini~hed.~Residents of such Assessing whether or not an underclass exists, how it came areas have weak links to job networks, and therefore find to be, and what policies are likely to affect it all turn on how alternate means of generating income. Higher rates of infor- the term "underclass" is defined. The underclass has been mal and illegal means of accruing income, as well as welfare variously defined by any or all of four characteristics: use, strengthen networks of information tied to these ave- chronic poverty; nonnormative behavior with respect to nues rather than to formal work. With few visible career income generation and family formation; spatial concentra- prospects and few "marriageable" (i.e., stably empl~yed)~ tion of such poverty and/or behavior; and intergenerational men, young women are more likely to opt for single mother- transmission of such poverty and/or behavior.? The manner hood as a route to adulthood.
    [Show full text]
  • Racial Categorization in the 2010 Census
    U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS RACIAL CATEGORIZATION IN THE 2010 CENSUS BRIEFING REPORT U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS Washington, DC 20425 Official Business Penalty for Private Use $300 MARCH 2009 Visit us on the Web: www.usccr.gov U.S. Commission on Civil Rights The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency established by Congress in 1957. It is directed to: • Investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices. • Study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice. • Appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice. • Serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin. • Submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress. • Issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws. Members of the Commission Gerald A. Reynolds, Chairman Abigail Thernstrom, Vice Chair Todd Gaziano Gail Heriot Peter N. Kirsanow Arlan D. Melendez Ashley L. Taylor, Jr. Michael Yaki Martin Dannenfelser, Staff Director U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 624 Ninth Street, NW Washington, DC 20425 (202) 376-8128 (202) 376-8116 TTY www.usccr.gov This report is available on disk in ASCII Text and Microsoft Word 2003 for persons with visual impairments.
    [Show full text]
  • Max Weber, "Class, Status, and Party" (Electronic Version [ Abridged by DJR)
    Max Weber, "Class, Status, and Party" (Electronic version [http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~jimi/363/webercsp.pdf] abridged by DJR) 1: ECONOMICALLY DETERMINED POWER AND THE SOCIAL ORDER Law exists when there is a probability that an order will be upheld by a specific staff of men who will use physical or psychical compulsion with the intention of obtaining conformity with the order, or of inflicting sanctions for infringement of it. The structure of every legal order directly influences the distribution of power, economic or otherwise…. This is true of all legal orders and not only that of the state. In general, we understand by, "power" the chance of a man or of a number of men to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action. "Economically conditioned" power is not, of course, identical with "power" as such. On the contrary, the emergence of economic power may be the consequence of power existing on other grounds. Man does not strive for power only in order to enrich himself economically. Power, including economic power, may be valued "for its own sake." Very frequently the striving for power is also conditioned by the social "honor" it entails. Not all power, however, entails social honor: The typical American Boss, as well as the typical big speculator, deliberately relinquishes social honor. Quite generally, "mere economic" power, and especially "naked" money power, is by no means a recognized basis of social honor. Nor is power the only basis of social honor. Indeed, social honor, or prestige, may even be the basis of political or economic power, and very frequently has been.
    [Show full text]
  • IQ and Poverty: Testing the Bell Curve on a Novel Data Set
    IQ and Poverty: Testing the Bell Curve on a Novel Data Set The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Eid, Daib Tony. 2018. IQ and Poverty: Testing the Bell Curve on a Novel Data Set. Student paper, EC970, Department of Economics, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:36853967 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA IQ and Poverty: Testing the Bell Curve on a Novel Data Set Dody Eid∗ April 30, 2018 Abstract In their controversial work The Bell Curve, Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein hypoth- esize that intelligence plays a signicant role in determining later life outcomes. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Herrnstein and Murray specically claim that Youth IQ is more important than Parental Socioeconomic Status in aecting future odds of living in poverty. We explore their hypothesis using the same statistical deci- sions but on a new data set: the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Our ndings mirror those of Herrnstein and Murray; IQ has a larger eect than socioeconomic status on the likelihood of being in poverty, though the overall eect of both is diminished. We nd that increasing Youth IQ by one standard deviation is expected to decrease the odds of ending up in poverty by 35 percentage points, compared to the 13 percentage point decrease from similarly increasing Parental Socioeconomic Status.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Inequality
    SOCIAL INEQUALITY AQA GCSE SOCIOLOGY UNIT 2 MAY 2013 Created by Lydia Hiraide The BRIT School AQA GCSE 2013 DEFINING SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND STRATIFICATION DEFINING SOCIAL INEQUALITY Social inequality refers to the unequal distribution of: • Resources such as power, wealth and income • Opportunities (related, for example, to health, education and employment) Social class, gender, ethnicity and age are all sources of inequality in modern British society. DEFINING SOCIAL STRATIFICATION Social stratification refers to the way society is structured into a hierarchy of strata that are unequally ranked. A social hierarchy is shaped like a pyramid with each stratum more powerful than the one below it. The most privileged group forms the top layer and vice versa. Stratification involves inequalities between groups in the distribution of socioeconomic resources such as wealth, income, status and power. These inequalities persist or continue over time. In Britain, gender, class, ethnicity and age are the main criteria by which people tend to be stratified. Social Class Slavery What is stratification Economic factors Some individuals claim that they have the based on? such as occupation right to own and sell other people, to treat and income them as property and to deny their human rights Is status achieved or Achieved Status was ascribed in the southern states ascribed? of the US for the people who were born into slavery Is social mobility Yes For many slaves in the southern states of possible? the US, social mobility was unlikely unless, for example, they escaped to safety or until slavery was abolished (emancipation) which was unlikely even then DIFFERENT FORMS OF STRATIFICATION The cast system in traditional India, slavery in the southern states of the US in the 19 th century, Apartheid in South Africa and the social system in modern Britain are all types of stratification.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes and References
    Notes and References Preface 1. First edition, 1949; second edition, 1957; revised and enlarged edition, 1968 (New York; The Free Press). Translated into: French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Polish, Hungarian, Serbo­ Croatian, Chinese and German (in part). 2. Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language (Cleveland, 1959: The World Publishing Company), p. 1678. 3. Dated 15 May 1970 (mimeographed). Chapter 1 1. Merton, STSS, p. 70. 2. Merton, 1975a, p. 335. 3. This strategy is 'unorthodox' only in the social sciences. After all, probably 95 per cent of all the scientific work in the world is published in the form of articles; much less so, of course, in the humanities and with the social sciences somewhere in between the natural sciences and the humanities. 4. Bell, 1980, p. 13. 5. Merton, On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript, a Vicennial Edition (New York, 1985: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). First published in 1965. 6. Merton, Sociology of Science; An Episodic Memoir (Carbondale, 1979: Southern Illinois University Press). 7. First edition: 1938. 8. Bierstedt, 1981, p. 486. 9. Ibid., pp. 495 and 487-8. 10. Loomis and Loomis, 1961, p. 246. 11. The term is introduced by C. W. Mills, 1959. 12. Stinchcombe, 1975, pp. 26-27. See also Boudon, 1977: 'there is more systematic and general theory in Merton's work than he himself has ever confessed' (p. 1356). 13. Bierstedt, 1981, p. 488. 14. Lazarsfeld, 1975, p. 61. 15. Stinchcombe, 1975, p. 30. 16. He certainly shares Toulmin's conviction that 'a scientist who fails to criticize and change his concepts, where the collective goals of his discipline require it, offends against the "duties" of his scientific "station", as much as a somnolent night-watchman or an insubordinate soldier' (as quoted in Merton, 1984b, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Racism, Sociology of Matthew Clair, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Jeffrey S Denis, Mcmaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
    Racism, Sociology of Matthew Clair, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Jeffrey S Denis, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This article is a revision of the previous edition article by P.L. Van Den Berghe, volume 19, pp. 12720–12723, Ó 2001, Elsevier Ltd. Abstract The sociology of racism is the study of the relationship between racism, racial discrimination, and racial inequality. While past scholarship emphasized overtly racist attitudes and policies, contemporary sociology considers racism as individual- and group-level processes and structures that are implicated in the reproduction of racial inequality in diffuse and often subtle ways. Although some social scientists decry this conceptual broadening, most agree that a multivalent approach to the study of racism is at once socially important and analytically useful for understanding the persistence of racial inequality in a purportedly ‘postracial’ society. At root, racism is “an ideology of racial domination” (Wilson, They applied the term to plants, animals, and humans as 1999: p. 14) in which the presumed biological or cultural a taxonomic subclassification within a species. As such, race superiority of one or more racial groups is used to justify or became understood as a biological, or natural, categorization prescribe the inferior treatment or social position(s) of other system of the human species. As Western colonialism and racial groups. Through the process of racialization (see Section slavery expanded, the concept was used to justify and prescribe Racism as a Social Process), perceived patterns of physical exploitation, domination, and violence against peoples racial- difference – such as skin color or eye shape – are used to ized as nonwhite.
    [Show full text]
  • Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty
    The Fabian Society The Fabian Society is Britain’s leading left of centre think tank and political society, committed to creating the political ideas and policy debates which can shape the future of progressive politics. With over 300 Fabian MPs, MEPs, Peers, MSPs and AMs, the Society plays an unparalleled role in linking the ability to influence policy debates at the highest level with vigorous grassroots debate among our growing membership of over 7000 people, 70 local branches meeting regularly throughout Britain and a vibrant Young Fabian section organising its own activities. Fabian publications, events and ideas therefore reach and influence a wider audience than those of any comparable think tank. The Society is unique among think tanks in being a thriving, democratically-constituted membership organisation, affiliated to the Labour Party but organisationally and editorially independent. For over 120 years Fabians have been central to every important renewal and revision of left of centre thinking. The Fabian commitment to open and participatory debate is as important today as ever before as we explore the ideas, politics and policies which will define the next generation of progressive politics in Britain, Europe and around the world. Find out more at www.fabian-society.org.uk Fabian Society 11 Dartmouth Street London SW1H 9BN www.fabian-society.org.uk Fabian ideas Series editor: Jonathan Heawood First published June 2005 ISBN 0 7163 0616 6 ISSN 1746-1146 This pamphlet, like all publications of the Fabian Society, represents not the collective views of the Society but only the views of the author. The responsibility of the Society is limited to approving its publications as worthy of consideration within the Labour movement.
    [Show full text]