Questions
- Compare and contrast on the ideas of Class Stratification as described by Weber and Marx. 20
- ‘As injustice and violence are endemic in a coloured person’s life, contestation and confrontation are synchronous in their response to the same.’ Comment in context of “Black Lives matter” and race as a dimension of Social Stratification. 20
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Model Solutions
Q1. Compare and contrast on the ideas of Class Stratification as described by Weber and Marx. 20
Model Framework
Introduction:
- Definition of Class
Main Body:
- Differences:
Marx ( Conflictist ) | Weber ( Interpretivist ) |
Definition of Class Class as purely based on unequal ownership of forces of production | Definition of Class Class as based on unequal ownership of Economic, political and social status |
Number of classes - Two; Haves and Have nots | Number of classes - 4 types |
Class homogenisation will take place | Class homogenisation not possible, Instead decomposition will take place |
Class Polarisation | Middle class will swell due to skills and mobility |
Class struggle will take place and the solution lies in Revolution thereby leading to Communism - Egalitarian structure - Death of class | Class inequality will prevail. Instead of revolution, structural differences can cause the peaceful coexistence in class structure. |
Similarities (ALONG WITH EXAMPLES ):
- Inevitable class structure in the society will be present.
- Structural inequality will be present between the classes.
Conclusion:
- Despite such Differences, both the revolutionary thinkers brought to the front unequal class structure and propounded respective solutions for it based on their respective approaches.
Q2. ‘As injustice and violence are endemic in a coloured person’s life, contestation and confrontation are synchronous in their response to the same.’ Comment in context of “Black Lives matter” and race as a dimension of Social Stratification. 20
Model Structure
Introduction:
- Define race as a dimension of stratification
Main Body:
- Race - one of the major social stratification systems in world
- Race & stereotypes
- Racial profiling -
- Racial discrimination & violence
- Eg. Ku Klux clan groups in USA
- All these led to persistent injustice for colored, migrants etc.
- Response via Merton typology - passive resistance to militant retaliation.
- Innovator - Ideological contestation via Films, articles; Cricketers wearing black-flags supporting the Black lives matter.
- Ritualist - Accepting the inequality and perpetuate it inadvertently
- Retreatism - Taking to drugs, fatalistic
- Rebellion -Official confrontation. Protests. May led to violence.
Black lives matter movement
- Elaborate black lives matter movement
- Race as a dimension of Social Stratification
- Race is a group of people, who are perceived by a given society as biologically or culturally different from the others
- Sociologists view race as merely an ideological construct based on physical differences
- It was also used as a tool of domination, discrimination and spreading inequality in the form of racial stratification.
- Joseph Arthur de Gobineu classified three distinct racial groups: White (Caucasian), Black (Negroid), and Yellow (Mongolian). He also attached the notion of superiority and inferiority with these races.
- Rudyard Kipling: White man’s burden theory
- Adolf Hitler- supremacy of Aryans
- Ethnocentrism: tendency to evaluate others' culture in terms of their own culture. It creates notions of in-groups and out-groups. Eg. Ghettos
- Conflict perspective: O C Cox - racial stratification is a product of the capitalist system in which ruling class used slavery, colonisation and racism as tools for exploiting labour
- New racism
Conclusion:
- George Floyd incidence as a current example