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INEQUALITY,.
AGE,.
RACE,.
SEX,.
CLASS
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Wealth,
Power, and Prestige differ
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Introduction
to the Module (Hub)
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Documents
Included in this Inequality
Module
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We
idealize equality ––
yet it is likely impossible
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| We have placed a high
value on social equality. |
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It is so high that our ideal view
of our culture is different from our real culture; we believe there is
more equality than there is. |
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| That difference between
our real and ideal culture is illustrated by our habit of calling persons
by their familiar, personal or nick names, rather than formal name and
title. |
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Instructors who invite students to
call them by their first names are engaging in a form of hypocrisy, hiding
the reality that instructors have higher power than students. |
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Of course whoever points out the emperor
has no clothes will not win any popularity competitions; we like our myths
and fictions. Similarly we think racism is bad, and therefore find
it hard to recognize that racism is practised widely in our society.
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| When we talk about inequality
we see three elements, power, wealth and prestige. |
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These belong respectively to the
dimensions of economic, political and aesthetic values. |
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| Marx saw class as determined
by relations of production. |
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He saw that those who worked for
a living versus those who owned the factories in which they worked, formed
the most important two classes. |
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Weber, then Durkheim, contradicted Marx,
and pointed out that the three elements, wealth, power, prestige had several
factors as well as production.
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| The sociological concern
with inequality began in the industrial revolution, and our concepts of
class and stratification arise from that. |
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Inequality, however, has been around
since the agricultural revolution, and we can recognize differences based
on the three biological characteristics of physical appearance, age and
sex. |
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| This module therefore
provides lecture notes about race, age and gender. |
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Unlike the community training
modules, this one does not have different documents for different purposes
and readers. |
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All here are aimed at the beginner in
the study of sociology.
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2009.10.07