Question # 1
Symbolic interactionism analyzes the subjective meanings that human beings impose on objects, events and behaviors. Symbolic interactionist perspective asserts that the society is socially constructed through interpretation, and sometimes the interpretation is not necessarily what is objectively true.
In explaining deviance, symbolic interactionism examines the situations created by individuals involved in deviant behavior using three perspectives: differential association, conflict and labeling (Carter & Fuller, 2015). Differential association focuses on how individuals who associate with certain groups learn to give an “excess of definition” of deviation, increasing their chances of engaging in deviant behaviors. Alternatively, according to the conflict theory, there are two control systems, and they tend to work against each other making people to deviate. Lastly, according to the labeling theory, labels given to people affect their perception of self and others, such that their behavior will either be in conformity or deviance to the labels.
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Question #2
According to the conflict perspective, the social stratification in society is harmful. Social stratification benefits the rich at the expense of the poor by creating a system of winners and losers. Those in the lowest social class do not have equal chances with the rich.
The unfair social stratification is just like the criminal justice system. The criminal system is unjust because it is responsible for locking up the poor and the minorities. The population of the poor and the minorities is disproportionately high in the prison, not because the rich do not do any crime, but because the poor lack money to defend themselves. The high number of minorities in prison is used to reinforce the negative stereotypes already held by the majority of the society.
Question # 3
Marx and Weber have different views on what determines social class. Marx has a more simplistic definition of social class, with the rich and the poor as the only two components of the social class. On the other hand, Weber argued that social class has three dimensions: class, status and party. Weber had more classifications of the social class because he believed in the existence of the middle class, unlike Marx, who suggested that there are the rich and poor only. Weber also believed that economic power does not necessarily guarantee political power (Lowith, 2002).
Weber further suggested that the social class has four categories: propertied upper class, propertyless intelligentsia, the petty bourgeoisie, and the manual working class. The propertied upper class has economic power, political influence and social status. The next class is the property-less intelligentsia, who are the professionals in high social status, some of them have political influence.
Question # 4
Global stratification is the process of maintaining “social classes” on a global level. There are developed and developing nations, and developing nations are using neocolonialism, multinational corporations and technology to control the weaker nations.
Neocolonialism is the use of international markets to control the activities of the less developed nations. For instance, the U.S. can offer financial assistance to a developing nation, and in exchange the nation has to implement policies as per the wishes of the U.S. Multinationals are also used to spread the agenda of the developed nations, multinationals have a lot of resources such that they can easily influence policy creation in developing nations. Lastly, the global nature of technology enables the developed nations to spread their ideas across the world.
References
Carter, M. J., & Fuller, C. (2015). Symbolic interactionism. Sociopedia. isa , 1-17.
Lowith, K. (2002). Max Weber and Karl Marx . Routledge.
