Lecture 5

Power, Inequality, and Conflict in Social Systems

Core Concept: This lecture explores the concepts of power, inequality, and conflict as central features of social systems, connecting back to the theoretical frameworks discussed earlier.

Key Bullet Points:

• Revisiting Conflict Theory.
• Understanding power as a structural feature of society.
• Examining inequality as a systemic outcome.

Revisiting Conflict Theory

Core Concept: Conflict theory, unlike functionalism, assumes that society is an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change.

Key Bullet Points:

• Focuses on the competition between groups for scarce resources (e.g., wealth, power, prestige).
• Assumes that social arrangements benefit some groups at the expense of others.
• Sees conflict as the engine of social change.

What is Power?

Core Concept: In sociology, power is not just about individual authority; it's a structural feature of social systems, defined as the ability to control access to resources.

Key Bullet Points:

• Power is unequally distributed in society.
• It is embedded in social institutions.
• It can be exercised through force, authority, or influence.

Concrete Example: A corporation's power to influence government policy through lobbying and campaign donations is a form of structural power.

Inequality as a Systemic Outcome

Core Concept: Social inequality is the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige in a society, and it is a product of social systems, not individual failings.

Key Bullet Points:

• It is a persistent feature of all known societies.
• It is created and maintained by social institutions.
• It is not the result of natural differences between people, but of the way society is organized.

Concrete Example: The significant and persistent wealth gap between different racial groups in the United States.

Class, Stratification, and Advantage

Core Concept: Social stratification is a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy, which explains the mechanism by which inequality is produced and reproduced.

Key Bullet Points:

• This hierarchy can be based on class, race, gender, or other factors.
• It affects people's life chances – their opportunities for education, health, and success.
• Those at the top of the hierarchy have a structural advantage over those at the bottom.

Concrete Example: A person born into a wealthy family has a structural advantage in life, with better access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities.

Deviance and Social Control

Core Concept: Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms, and formal social control refers to the use of official, state-sanctioned mechanisms to prevent or punish deviance.

Key Bullet Points:

• What is considered "deviant" varies across cultures and over time.
• From a conflict perspective, the laws and norms of a society often reflect the interests of the powerful.
• **Formal Social Control:** The legal system, police, prisons, etc.

Concrete Example: The laws regarding drug use have changed dramatically over time and vary significantly between societies, reflecting changing social norms and power dynamics.

White-Collar Crime and Recidivism

Core Concept: The concepts of white-collar crime and recidivism illustrate how power and inequality operate within the criminal justice system.

Key Bullet Points:

• **White-Collar Crime:** Nonviolent crime committed by professionals for financial gain. It is often treated less severely than street crime, despite causing more financial damage.
• **Recidivism:** The tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. High rates of recidivism suggest that the prison system may not be effective at rehabilitation.

Durkheim and Social Integration

Core Concept: Even a seemingly individual act like suicide can be explained by social forces, such as the degree of social integration. This provides a classic example of the sociological imagination at work.

Key Bullet Points:

• Emile Durkheim, a founder of sociology, found that suicide rates were higher among people with weaker social ties.
• **Social Integration:** The degree to which people are tied to their social group.
• This demonstrated that social forces can have a profound impact on our personal lives, even on our most private decisions.

Power, Inequality, and Data

Core Concept: Power and inequality must be accounted for in any data-driven social analysis, which sets the stage for a more ethical and responsible approach to data science.

Key Bullet Points:

• Data can be used to reveal and challenge social inequalities.
• But it can also be used to reinforce them if we are not careful.
• It is crucial to ask: Who is collecting the data? Who is being left out? Who benefits from this analysis?

Unit 1 Recap: A Systems Perspective

Core Concept: Over the past five lectures, we have developed a systems perspective on the social world.

Key Bullet Points:

• Sociology emerged to explain the patterns of a changing world.
• Sociological theory provides the frameworks for that explanation.
• Institutions, roles, and norms are the building blocks of social order.
• Sociology is an evidence-based and ethical discipline.
• Power and inequality are central features of all social systems.

End of Unit 1

Core Concept: You now have the foundational concepts to begin your journey as a social data scientist. The next stage of the course is to begin to apply these concepts to the process of asking good research questions.

Key Bullet Points:

• Next, we will begin to apply these concepts to the process of asking good research questions.