Theories on Social Inequality from a Functionalist,...

Social inequality is the issue pertaining to the lack of housing, health care, education, employment opportunities, and status. It is the dismissal of people from participation in what we, the members of society distinguish as being valuable, important, socially desirable, and personally worthwhile. There are many different perspectives on social inequality within our society; the three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist, Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist. The Functionalist theory believes that society functions so that each individual plays a specific role. Their perspective of social inequality is the belief that inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the smooth functioning of society.†¦show more content†¦215 chapter 8 Sociology In Our Times: The Essentials) this is to suggest that the different classes in society are in conflict because the more powerful groups maintain and control the distribution of resources, rewards, priv ileges and opportunities by exploiting the less powerful. They also believe that inequality is a result of profits being generated from the cost of labour being less than the cost of the goods and services being produced from that labour, also known as the surplus value. Conflict theorists do not believe that stratification is functional for society, or that it serves as a source of stability. Rather, they believe that stratification will lead to instability and social change. Symbolic-Interactionist focus more on the microlevel effects of inequality on peoples social interactions. Microlevel is a sociological research that focuses on small groups rather than large-scale social structures, opposed to the Functionalist and Conflict perspectives that primarily focus on the macrolevel which examines large-scale social structures. They believe that people act based on symbolic meanings they find within any situation, and thus interact with the symbols forming relationships around them a nd that our goals of interactions with one another are to create shared meaning. For example; we act towards other people based on the meaning that those other people have for us. TheirShow MoreRelatedSocial Institutions: Health Care Essay918 Words   |  4 PagesSocial Institutions: Health Care Heather Richardson SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology Dr. Christine Nortz Social Institutions: Health Care America has a highly developed health care system, which is available to all people. 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