Functional and Conflict Theories of Educational Stratification Author(S): Randall Collins Source: American Sociological Review, Vol

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Functional and Conflict Theories of Educational Stratification Author(S): Randall Collins Source: American Sociological Review, Vol Functional and Conflict Theories of Educational Stratification Author(s): Randall Collins Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 36, No. 6 (Dec., 1971), pp. 1002-1019 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2093761 Accessed: 02/06/2009 08:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=asa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Sociological Review. http://www.jstor.org 1002 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW status." AmericanSociological Review 20 cation."American Journal of Sociology 69 (June) :317-325. (September):185-193. Labovitz,Sanford Schnore,Leo F. and David W. Varley 1970 "The assignmentof numbersto rank order 1955 "Some concomitantsof metropolitansize." categories."The AmericanSociological Re- American Sociological Review 20 (Au- view 35 (June):515-524. gust) :408-414. Lane, Angela Schulze,Robert 0. 1968 "Occupational mobility in six cities." 1958 "The role of economic dominantsin com- American Sociological Review 33 (Octo- munity power structure."American Socio- ber):740-749. logicalReview 23 (February):3-9. Lasswell,Thomas E. Trow, Donald B. 1959 "Social class and size of community." 1967 "Status equilibrationin the laboratory." American Journal of Sociology 64 PacificSociological Review 10:75-80. (March):505-508. Veldman,Donald J. Pfautz, Harold W. and Otis Dudley Duncan 1967 Fortran Programmingfor the Behavioral 1950 "A critical evaluation of Warner's work Sciences. New York: Holt, Rinehart and in community stratification." American Winston. SociologicalReview 15 (April):205-215. Vidich,Arthur J. and Joseph Bensman Reiss,Albert J. 1958 Small Town in Mass Society. New York: 1959 "The sociological study of communities." Doubleday. Rural Sociology24 (June): 118-130. Warner,W. Lloyd, Wilfred C. Bailey, et al. Schnore,Leo F. 1949 Democracy in Jonesville. New York: 1963 "Some correlatesof urban size: A replica- Harper. FUNCTIONAL AND CONFLICT THEORIES OF EDUCATIONAL STRATIFICATION * RANDALLCOLLINS Universityof California,San Diego American Sociological Review 1971, Vol. 36 (December):1002-1019 Two theoriesare consideredin accountingfor the increasedschooling requiredfor employ- ment in advancedindustrial society: (a) a technical-functiontheory, stating that educational requirementsreflect the demandsfor greaterskills on the job due to technologicalchange; and (b) a conflict theory, stating that employment requirementsreflect the efforts of competing status groups to monopolize or dominate jobs by imposing their cultural standardson the selectionprocess. A review of the evidenceindicates that the conflict theory is more strongly supported. The main dynamic of rising educational requirementsin the United States has been primarilythe expansionof mobility opportunitiesthrough the school system, rather than autonomouschanges in the structure of employment.It is argued that the effort to build a comprehensivetheory of stratificationis best advanced by viewing those effects of technologicalchange on educational requirementsthat are substantiated within the basic context of a conflict theory of stratification. EDUCATION has becomehighly important social mobility. This paper attempts to as- in occupational attainment in modern sess the adequacy of two theories in account- America, and thus occupies a central ing for available evidence on the link be- place in the analysis of stratification and of tween education and stratification: a func- tional theory concerning trends in technical * I am indebted to Joseph Ben-David, Bennett skill requirementsin industrial societies; and Berger, Reinhard Bendix, Margaret S. Gordon, a conflict theory derived from the approach Joseph R. Gusfield, Stanford M. Lyman, Martin Weber, stating the determinants of A. Trow, and Harold L. Wilensky for advice and of Max comment; and to MargaretS. Gordon for making various outcomes in the struggles among available data collected by the Institute of Indus- status groups. It will be argued that the trial Relations of the University of California at evidence best supports the conflict theory, Berkeley, under grants from the U. S. Office of although technical requirements have im- Education and U. S. Departmentof Labor. Their endorsement of the views expressed here is not portant effects in particular contexts. It will implied. be further argued that the construction of a EDUCATIONALSTRATIFICATION 1003 general theory of the determinants of strati- tainment after the completion of education fication in its varying forms is best advanced (Blau and Duncan, 1967:163-205; Eckland, by incorporating elements of the functional 1965; Sewell et al., 1969; Duncan and analysis of technical requirementsof specific Hodge, 1963; Lipset and Bendix, 1959:189- jobs at appropriate points within the con- 192). There are differences in occupational flict model. The conclusion offers an inter- attainment independent of social origins be- pretation of historical change in education tween the graduates of more prominent and and stratification in industrial America, and less prominent secondary schools, colleges, suggests where further evidence is required graduate schools, and law schools (Smigel, for more precise tests and for further de- 1964:39, 73-74, 117; Havemann and West, velopment of a comprehensive explanatory 1952:179-181; Ladinsky, 1967; Hargens theory. and Hagstrom, 1967). Educational requirementsfor employment The Importance of Education have become increasingly widespread, not A number of studies have shown that the only in elite occupations but also at the number of years of education is a strong de- bottom of the occupational hierarchy (see terminant of occupational achievement in Table 1). In a 1967 survey of the San America with social origins constant. They Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose areas also show that social origins affect educa- (Collins, 1969), 17%oof the employers sur- tional attainment, and also occupational at- veyed requiredat least a high school diploma Table 1. Percent of Employers Requiring Various Minimum Educational Levels -of__Employees ,by Occupational Level. National Survey, 1937-38 Un- Semi- Cleri- Mana- Profes- skilled skilled Skilled cal gerial sional Less than high school 99% 97% 89% 33% 32% 9% High school diploma 1 3 11 63 S4 16 Some college 1 2 23 College degree 3 12 52 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% San Francisco Bay Area, 1967 Less than high school 83% 76% 62% 29% 27% 10% High School diploma 16 24 28 68 14 4 Vocational training beyond high school 1 1 10 2 2 4 Some college 2 12 7 College degree 41 70 Graduate degree 3 5 100% 100% 100% 101% 99% 100% (244) (237) (245) (306) (288) (240) Sources: H.M. Bell,-Matching Youth and Jobs (Washington: American Council on Education, p. 264, as analyzed in Lawrence Thomas, The Occu- pational Structure and Education (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1956) P. and Randall Collins, "Education and Employment," unpublished 346uPA.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 1969, Table III-1. Bell does not report the number of employers in the sample, but it was apparently large. 1004 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICALREVIEW for employmentin even unskilledpositions; 1 of technological change. Two processes are a national survey (Bell, 1940) in 1937-1938 involved: (a) the proportion of jobs requir- found a comparable figure of 1%. At the ing low skill decreases and the proportion same time, educational requirements appear requiring high skill increases; and (b) the to have become more specialized, with 38% same jobs are upgradedin skill requirements. of the organizationsin the 1967 survey which (2) Formal education provides the training, required college degrees of managers pre- either in specific skills or in general capaci- ferring business administrationtraining, and ties, necessary for the more highly skilled an additional 15%o preferring engineering jobs. (3) Therefore, educational require- training; such requirements appear to have ments for employment constantly rise, and been virtually unknown in the 1920s (Pier- increasingly larger proportions of the popu- son, 1959:34-54). At the same time, the lation are requiredto spend longer and longer proportions of the American population at- periods in school. tending schools through the completion of The technical-function theory of educa- high school and advanced levels have risen tion may be seen as a particular application sharply during the last century (Table 2).
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