Sociology A2 Cards - Social Inequality & Difference

Economic Inequality - 

• Youth = earn less, less stored, Old = low income (retire), 33% of single pensioners in poverty
• Differences - worst if = Single female, Bangladeshi & Pakistani women - Ginn & Arber

Inequality in Workplace -

• MORI survey = 1/5 workers discriminated due to age
• Arber & Ginn - Eldery help economy with unpaid work (charities/family)

Inequalities in Health -

• Breast cancer screening only for 50-70 = who's valuable

Inequality in the Media -

• Hockney & James - Infantilised, stereotypes, lose status,Care homes encourage dependancy
• CCCS - Youth use subcultures, Cohen - folk devils & moral panics
• Carrigan & Szmigin - Adverts ignore elderly/stereotype negatively

• Social science = open system where causal mechanisms underlie regularities
• Cant observe mechanisms easily & change alot
• Explain social patterns by identifying causal mechanisms, even if disagree on why
• Use whatever methods neccessary for reliable quantative data & qualitative data with depth on subjective viewpoints
• Research cannot be value free

Bryman - Use mixed methods because...

• Trianguation - More confidence in findings
• Qualitative facilitates quantative - Generate hypotheses then test
• Quantative facilitates qualitative - Identify sample then research
• Filling in the gaps - One method fills in for other
• Stable & changing features - Quan=stable, qual=changing
• Problem of generalisability - Need quan for generalisability
• Solving a puzzle - Explains unexpected results

Older Chinese people in policies - Excluded socially by local & wider community

Barriers -

• Language - rely on link members

Methods -

• Pilot study - Make sure questions suitable & gain trust
• Questionaires - High reliability
• Focus groups - High validity

Respondent Validation - High validity

Role allocation - Based on skills/experience (youth = less income) = Meritocracy

Disengagement - Elderly leaving roles for youth to pick up (nuclear roles)

Parsons - Age differences essential, need workforce to be mobile (youth), youth = rebel for independance

Elderly = Less status, isolated

Modood - Difference & diversity of ethnic groups, focus on identity, globaslisation of culture = hybrid identities

Racial disadvantage impossible as ethnic identity not fixed 

Modood - Policy Studies Insitute (PSI) - Difference between EMs more important than black/white divide, not all economically disadvantaged anymore

Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity & Disadvantage -

• Interviews - Carribean, South Asian, Chinese & white (survey)
• Health = socio-economic, not bio/culture
• Racism an issue
• Culturally-mixed lifestyles
• 1/2 Carribean children have a white parent

Owen & Green - Indians & Chinese = economic progress, more in m/c

Black people part of exploited w/c class

Racism & racial inequality encouraged by ruling class -

• Legitimisation - racism justifys low pay & poor working conditions, benefit from cheap labour
• Divide & rule - If unite then stronger against bad conditions/pay, Castles & Kosack - use black workforce as 'reserve army of labour'
• Scapegoating - Distracts from capitalism

• Miles - 'racialised class fraction', never full social inclusion 

• Institutional Racism 

Case study

Interviews - too long to replicate, observations, ethnographic

Ehtnicity, youth, masculinity

Used a gatekeeper

Very involved - bias/ethics low OR verstehen

W/c, Bengali, Muslims

SAYO (Stoneleigh Asian Youth Organisation)

She doesn't think their a gang - moral panic created by media

Systematic random sampling - geographically

Every 3 months from property list

Survey - closed questions, limited choice = quantative data

Interviews later

EMs VS white = narrow employment, lower average income, more unemployed

Host-immigration model - Patterson -

• Importance of culture
• UK = consensus values, disturbed by strangers (immigrants) with different values
• Understandable fear - 'cultural strangeness', Eventually harmony, fully assimilate

Problems of immigration -

• Modood = language issues
• Cultural choices - Dahya = 1st gen Pakistanis chose to live near simliar in inner-city - protect culture
• Cultural traditions explain economic rates, purdah (women secluded) = low women rates economically
• Ethnic diversity in education/workplace, success rates = cultural traditions, entrepreneurial or not, etc

Roberts - Cultural explanations explain economic rates - Asians = entreprenurial traditions, African-Carribeans = anti-entreprenurial attitude

Status Inequality -

• Status & power in hands of majority ethnic group - hard to compete for jobs, housing, etc
• W/c EMs face racism from white w/c = status inequality & class inequality
• M/c Asians may face status inequality from white w/c & m/c

Organisation of the job market -

• Barron & Norris - Dual labour market theory - black people in secondary sector, cant get into primary due to racism from employers, weak political framework 

Underclass -

• Rex & Tomlinson - Ems suffer class & status inequality - lead to poverty
• Black underclass - marginalised, alienated & frustated = riots

Reserve army of labour = Youth & elderly, not permanent, weak position, poorly paid

Youth not equals = Cant recieve full benefits till 25

Scapegoats = Older people said to drain resources

Bourgeoisie use youth & elderly to blame for economic problems - Older need economic support & pensions

Gannon - Women suffer worse in old age VS old men

Menopause = a 'disease' by medics, promotes patriarchy (lowers sex drive not proven)

Shows inferior status

Ignores real causes of inequality - economic/political oppresion - worse in old age 

Ageism towards women is linked to patriarchy

Value free ( no bias) = Comte, Durkheim, Marx - objectivity

Weber = Topic chosen is values - 'value revelance', once study = can be value free, don't make value judgements in research

• Functionalists - Accused of having conservative political views
• Marx - Influenced by political views/morals - proletarian revolution
• Weber - More value-free, own personal values maybe influenced work

Decide if qual/quan, chose questions - hpothesis, Interpret results = bias,

Interpretivists -

• Critical of quan - impose own values, direct observation only valid way, notes values = validity low
• Understand viewpoint of subjects isnt objectivity alone - oppresive structures discovered = own prejudices
• Gouldner - Be open on biases - shows any influences on research

Postmods - Lyotard = No objectivity, none superior, knowledge = a viewpoint/values of group

Methods - Overt participant observation - field notes, 32 open ended recorded interviews

Sample - Men, Ethnic diversity, 16-69 yrs old

Findings -

Builders dont themselves as w/c, acknowledged limited choices, little economic/educational capital to rely on, not class concious

Physical capital important - money/status

Use hierachial language to differentiate, jobs mostly one ethnic group (painter, carpeter, etc)

Used class hierachy to gain power over those below them eg unemployed/immigrants, compete for limited resources

Builders don't see managers as oppressive/exploitative

Most wanted to move up class system (class mobility)

Functionalist - Structuralist - Consensus Theory

Biological differences

Socialisation aids innate traits

Seperate gender roles help society

Women = Expressive roles (caring) - domesticity

Men = Instrumental roles (competitive) - paid employment

Pay gap -

• Is justififed due to women being less motivated & suited to jobs, men have greater orientation to paid work
• Women take career breaks/work part time for family , men don't

Weberian Theory

Dual Labour Market Theory - 

• Primary Sector - Secure, well paid, promotion opps
• Secondary Sector - Unstable, poorly paid, no promotion        HARD TO MOVE UP!

More women in Secondary Sector because...

Women's Unsuitability - Employers hold stereotypes

Disrupted Career Development - Take breaks for family, lose high job 

Weak Legal & Political Framework Supporting Women - Equal Pay Act & Sex Discrimination Act are ineffective

Random Sampling -

• Equal chance - No bias, Relies on chance - Could be unrepresentative = use larger sample

Stratified Random Sampling -

• Divide sampling frame (list of potentials - more representative, need gatekeeper) into categories (age/etc), select randomly, Easier/better, smaller sample needed, Unpractical

Quota Sampling -

• Control variables, know number/characteristics, Good if know overall porportion of different groups (stats), not random, lying = validity, minority groups = low numbers

Snowball Sampling -

• Unrepresentative, sometimes gatekeeper, good if rare/widely spread/would know similiar

Purposeful Sampling -

• Sample fit purpose, like quota, less rigiourious

Factors (class, gender, ethnicity, age) dont stand in isolation

Interact together

Affect life chances & identity - eg Skeggs - female & w/c, JFR - Chinese ethnicity & old age

Some perspectives prioritise one factor more than others, Marx = class, etc

Postmod = Can't generalise as too different

Use in conclusions/evaluations

Hockney & James - Childhood & old age = social constructs, both = share dependancy, could be more independant if allowed to

Not all marginalised/excluded/made dependant will accept this status 

3 forms of resistance -

• Alternative sources of power - wealth/patriarchy 
• Deny being subordinate, pretend in a higher status
• Get power from disadvantaged group, symbolic resitance

Parkin -

• Social Closure - Explains why elderly excluded from some areas of social life - promotion/jobs,
• Exclusion Strategy - Used by groups to protect & maintain privilege - 16s cant vote
• Usurpation Strategy - Steal others privileges - campaign to allow 65+ to work, not retire

Pilcher - Boundaries between stages blurring - new tech, etc mean alternative life courses, deinstitutionalised & destandardised - more choice

Featherstone & Hepworth - m/c most postmodern approach to age - deconstructed life course

• Dress similiar, Dissapearance of childhood - media, good pensions = still consumerism lifestyle, body maintance = slower physical decline, Babby boomers try to keep youthful lifestyles as they age, see age as how feel not years, ageing seen as positive

Overall = Help community (voluntary work), keep some economic, social, symbolic capital = not powerless, not same for other classes/bad health

Blaikie - Elderly use consumer culture so given higher status - attitudes/stereotypes weakening, Professionals expect elderly to be independant, healthy, sexual, etc at start of retirement

Detailed examination of a single example of something

Eg - Insitution, community, social group, person, event, etc

Not representative

Cant generalise

Produce typologies

Generate theoritical statements (Becker)

Generate new hypotheses to be tested

Heath & McMahon -

Ethnic penalty = all sources of disadvantage that mean EMs do worse than whites

Cabinet Office Report = All Ems suffer it

Even if similiar, an unexplained gap in work & pay

Racial discrimination or unidentified factors

Structuralism - Conflict

• Inequality inevitable in capitalism
• Bourgeoisie exploit proletariat for labour
• Keep surplus value
• Hard to be class concious - Due to false-class conciousness - Super-structure conrtolled by rulling class, promote dominant ideology
• Believes its a meritocracy
• Reality - unequal oppurtunities, w/c less education/occupational oppurtunites than u/c & m/c

• See culture as important
• Bourdieu - cultural capital helps m/c
• Gramsci - Use media & education to promote meritocracy to workers - Hegemony
• Marcuse - Hypnotic power of the mass media

Kincaid - Underclass (female, poor, ethnic minority, youth/old) created/used by bourgeoisie for...

• Reserve army of labour - keep capitalism, warning of not working hard
• Divide and rule - w/c see themeseves as seperate to underclass, racism/sexism distracts from capitalism
• Scapegoats - distracts from capitalism

Polarisation-

• W/c less powerful, de-skilled, can't resist oppression
• Top class richer, more powerful & exclusive
• Sutton Trust, Elite Theory - rich use good schools/unis, social network = top jobs, keep power gen by gen
• Wilkinson & Pickett - More social alienation, more alcoholism, etc when high inequality
• Savage - Collective confidence of the w/c undermined, cultural shift, manual labour lost status
• Westergaard - Class identification weakened - Class in itself = Share position, don't see it / Class for itself = Act as cohesive group and see common aims, class concious.
• Braverman - White collar workers de-skilled become proletariat, 'proletarianisation' due to computerisation, deliberate to cut costs

• Social action theory / Class, status & party - Sources of power, effect life chances
• Class (Market position) - Souce & amount of income, occupational skills, education
• Status - Honour/prestige of social groups, share values, use status symbols for membership, social evaluation based on consumption styles (how spend, not make money),can get more from class, use strategies to improve life chances/material resources
• Party - Excercise of power by policial parties, trade unions, pressure groups, etc, use to get wealth (but wealth doesn't always mean power), more in politics than production

4 social classes -

• Manual workers (w/c)
• Petty-bourgeoisie
• White colllar workers (m/c)
• Privilleged through education/property

Dual labour market theory - Barron & Norris -

• Primary Sector - Secure, well paid jobs, promotion                            (HARD TO MOVE UP!)
• Secondary Sector - Insecure, bad pay, no promotion, more females

• Quantative data
• Longitudinal
• Representative sample
• Survey
• Interviews as well
• High response rate (70%)

• Covert participant Observation
• Qualiative data
• Journalist, not sociologist
• Poverty study, living on minium wage

Crime -

• Islington Crime Survey -
• Hall et al - Scapegoated by media, labelling & moral panics (black men muggings)
• Cicourel - Stop & search poor youths, self-fufilling prophecy
• Snider - State don't pass laws that disadvantage corporations, m/c rarely as contolled/policed as w/c
• Conklin - Corporate crime & white collar crime ignored, advantages m/c = disadvantages w/c
• Hood - Judges help similiar, male, m/c, white, middle aged = w/c disadvantaged

Education - Gilles - m/c mothers have time/cultural capital to advantage children in education, better educational achievement, compared to w/c 

Health - Life expectancy gap = 7.4 years (professionals vs unskilled manual males)

Employment - Elite Theory - Sutton Trust - social network at Uni = elite jobs, unlike w/c

Identity/Relationships - Hey - w/c girls controlled by peers, sexual behaviour, m/c = free as higher status & power

• Quantatitive data (numerical)
• Durkheim - Social facts, sucide rates
• External to each individual, constrain their behavoiur
• Objectivity, reliability
• Popper - Controlled experiments, variables

• Qualitative data (written)
• Detail, rich
• Meanings and motives
• Social action - Interactionalism
• Weber - Verstehen
• Validity, Subjectivity, Rapport

• Social classes = Fragmented, more differences
• Growth of m/c = Split into different groups, too divese to be one group (values)
• M/c - ONS classes 1 & 2 = professionals - grown
• Roberts - 3 main values - Service relationship, strong sense of career, believe in meritocracy

• Self employed & small employers = Individualism (work for self, not state)

• Routine white collar workers position? = Roberts - No shared lifestyle, as most female in cross-class households, better off than w/c females

• W/c = ONS 5/6/7, shrunk from 75% to 43% (1901-2000)
• Traditional w/c - Young & Wilmott - Men work, class concious, close community
• New w/c - Goldthorpe & Lockwood - Both work, divided, privatisation of family
• Embourgeoisiement - w/c get m/c lifestyles
• Hutton (Neo-Weberian) - Working pop = 40% privelleged (secure, well paid), 30% insecure/marginalised (part time work), 30% disadvantaged (unemployed) = bad as stressful

Structuralist - Consensus Theory

• Stratification is positive, benefits society
• Certain amount of inequality needed
• Society is a meritocracy

Davis & Moore -

• Stratification ineviatble - Role allocation (people suit role)
• Need motivation - better pay/status for best jobs
• Best jobs = Usually unique, other positions depend on them (Functional importance), scarcity of personnel (few poeple can do it/long training time)

Masculine Model of interviewing (reliablility) vs Feminist approach (ethics) -

Oakley - Interviewed women on becoming mothers -

• Collaborative & Reciprocal - both ask questions 
• Non-hierachial - no power
• Non-exploitative - give something back
• Subjective - understand them better

• Feminism
• Working class women
• Observations, interviews
• Gender & class still significant in womens lives (unlike Postmods)

Crime -

• Bowling - SRS = EMs no more no more criminal, higher crime rates/prosecution rates/prison pop = social construction
• MacPherson Report - police = insitutional racism
• 35% of black people believe they will get worse police treatment

Media -

• Sewell - black, inner city boys = socialised by rappers itno consumerism, violence 
• Hall et al - Moral panic on black males mugging

Work -

• Brown & Gay - same apps, white = 2X interview offers than black/Asian names
• African-Carribean graduate 2X unemployed, African 7X VS white
• EM men over-represented in service sector, Distribution = 70% Bangladeshi

• Heath & McMahon - Ethnic Penalty for all Ems

• Modood - Economic differences between groups more important than black/white divide

Wadsworth -

• Labour market = Bangladeshi/Pakistani do bad, Chinese/Indian do well, African-Carribean men bad, women good
• Born in Britain = do better in labour market VS abraod (still worse than white)
• Indians almost as good as whites in job rates, job status, earnings but still low income
• Black Carribeans Vs white = more children in poverty, more lone parents paid jobs, more women work full time & earn more
• Worst poverty = Bangladeshi/Pakistani, Cantle Report on Asian riots, language issues/racism/poverty

Due to -

• Male unemployment - loss of traditional industy jobs
• In tradtional w/c areas
• Lack of identity/role
• Redundant male - marginalised
• Feminisation of workplace
• Disadvantage - Paternity leave, Fathers for Justice, Crime (policing, sentencing), Peers (Jackson, Sewell) etc

Labour Maket -

• Goodman & Shepard - Compare across smiliar jobs, other factors, still 10% gap
• Marginalised in workplace - Long hours culture, no childcare, breadwinner idea
• Female poverty hidden - use household, Women earn on average 50% of mens over lifetime
• Vertical Segregation, under-represented in senior jobs, glass ceiling, Desi et al - declining

Family Life -

• Gershuny, etc - unequal division of labour in home, Childcare - men starting, Burghes - men see role as identity
• Methodological issues, Leonard - women underestimates childcare time, men overestimate,

Demographic Factors -

• More lone parent families, mostly women, more likely to be poor, 30% in poverty

Unfair Shares -

• Pahl - dont share money fairly, Gannon - double disdadvantage as old/poor/women

• Giddens - Late modernity (no one grand narrative right for everyone), too different to apply old theories to
• Embrace change & diversity
• Lyotard - Deconstruction of groups (differences, not similiarities), all individuals, no one objective truth
• Bauman - Society divided by inequalities, based on consumption (not job/production), poor deviant as can't buy as much, consumption = key to identity

• Pakulski & Waters - Class distracts from more important areas like identity, race & gender, class gone, society based on status now - cultural symbols, consumer lifestyles, values, ascribed status, identity linked to consumption
• Individualisation - Class collectivism weakened
• Beck & Beck-Gernsheim - Individualisation & Detraditionalisation - Old ideas pf gender, class, religion don't work, see themeselves as individuals, not class 
• Consumption - Rise of consumer culture, identity based on how spemd, not earn money, consumer lifestyles not same as class anyway , more choice 
• Furlong & Cartmel - Past = Railway journey metaphor for how youths lives shaped by class, hard to switch / Now = Car, more choice, make individual decisions
• Savage et al - Weak Class Identities - 178 people in Manchester, few thought classless society, most aware of strong class influence, didnt indentify themselves as any class = class important in lives, but class identities weak, UK society not class-conscious

Feminisation of the workforce -

• Economically active women increase, even with young children
• Horizontal segregation decreased, Crompton - decline in traditonal male maual jobs
• Vertical Segregation declining - representation in managerial/professional jobs
• Pay gap closing, Desai et al - 1/5 women earn more than partner, was 1/14 in 1970

Progress of girls in education -

• Girls overtaken boys in exams & grades, maths/science gap lowest, seen as crisis for boys, ignore class & ethnic differences

Reduction in family inequalities -

• Young & Wilmott - More symmetrical families, Gershuny - Men household taks, Burghes - Espicially in fathering

Political & Social Progress -

• Equal Pay Act & Sex Discrimination Acts of 1975, Contraception, only pay gap when kids

Employment -

• Elite theory - Sutton Trust - Use good schools/unis, social networking = get elite jobs

Education -

• 80% of top class go to University

Health -

• Unskilled manual workers 2X likely to die before men in professional classes

Crime -

• Hood - Judges help similiar, most male, m/c, white & middle-aged

Identity & Relationships -

• Hey - w/c girls controlled by peers, sexual behaviour, unlike m/c girls - free as higher social status and power 

Feminism - Structuralist - Conflict Theory

Seek equal rights with men, judged on merit, not sex

Remove all soical, economic & political obstacles

Success in Legislation = Equal Pay Act & Sex Discrimination Act, maternity/paternity leave

Gender inequality still persists - prejudice, discrimination in workplace

Occupational segregation (genders do different jobs) after educational success

Sommervile - New policies for working parents, hours & cultures of jobs dont fit with family life, many jobs rely on idea of male breadwinner

Marxism Feminism - Structuralist - Conflict Theory

• Capitalism bad for men & women, exploited creates inequalities
• Against capitalism & patriarchy
• Look at sex & class factor
• Competitive system so men try to control women
• Male workers exclude women from jobs & husbands expolit unpaid housework

Skeggs - Ignore class in womens lives, promote own interests

Delamont - Class differences between women alter life chances - more powerful than similiarities

Marx - Reserve Army of Labour - Mostly women, cultural & economic reasons - married women 'secondary workers' after childcare/home 'Familist',

Freedman - Leave employment if demand drops to look after home/children

Radical Feminism - Strucuturalist - Conflict Theory

Kate Millet - Fundamental conflict is men VS women = patriarchy 

• Women a seperate class to men,
• Women have shared interests - all exploited by men
• Men use colllective power to seize rewards/privileges, physical & sexual violence against women
• Control over cultural attitudes - make patriarchy seem natural

Seperatism - genders should live seperately

Delphy & Leonard - Family = oppresion, should be abolished, women do unfair share of unpaid domestic labour, exploited

Walby & Allen - 1/5 women domestic violence, 1/20 serious sexual assault 

Dworkin - Patriarchy = sexual exploitation - ***********, 'all heterosexual sex is like ****' wouldnt consent if they knew how exploited they were

Walby - Three interacting systems - Patriarchy, racism & capitalism 

Major emphasise on patriarchy = feminism, six interacting stuctures -

• Domestic life
• Employment
• State Policies
• Men violence against women
• Sexuality
• Cultural insititutions (educ, media, etc)

Can take account of class & race variations & how changes over time

Less patriarchial = Improvements in womens education & employment opps

Changed in form, used to be private (household), now public (employment/state/culture)

• Importance of language & symbols - media
• Women still need protection from more subtle forms of oppresion - media
• Differences between women as significant as men VS women
• No stereotypes/gender roles, can chose own identity

Nataha Walter - 'Living Doll' - Rise of internet ****, cosmetic surgery, hypersexualisation of women = more objectified, judeged on looks = not taken seriously = need feminism more now!

Coward - 'sacred cows of feminism' - 

• Feminists shouldn't say female oppresion isn't as bad as before,
• Still areas of injustice (pay gap) but rejects overall patriarchial system, with men always disadvantaged and men advantaged
• 1990's - Men = high umemployment, feminisation of economy, girls caught up in educational success = male crisis possible
• Can't say womens problems more important/pressing than mens
• Social changes - new gender landscape, both genders suffer

Rejection of all feminst values / just new direction of feminism

Hakim - Preference Theory - Choice not constraint -

• Freedom to chose own lives due to changes in legislation, employment, etc
• Gender differences in orientation to work - Just decide childcare over career
• Some women (highly education) have 'work orientation', favour symmetrical roles in household
• 1/2 - 2/3 of women hold traditional views, accept some sexual divisions of labour, less commited to work - chose to give up work for family 'home orientated'
• Part time work - traditional views, think male primary breadwinner but do chores as well (adaptive orientation), women secondary earners but mainly at home
• Feminists create myths that lack of childcare prevent women from working, but chose own life = explains lower incomes
• Sexual capital - Both (mostly women) should use it to advance in life, embrace all advantages (Obama)