Social Theories

1. Theories are invented to explain problems. Mathematical, biological and social… Social Theories …applied to current problems in the social world.

2. Some general concepts and terminology for social theories: • Agency - power to make change: e.g, “she felt she had no agency until she spoke up in the union meeting for the first time.” • Collaboration - working together e.g class collaboration - leaders of the working and ruling classes compromising to find a solution. • Representation - who is speaking on behalf of society. E.g., often a demand for rights groups is for “representation” meaning in parliament/ he institutions of power. • Access - e.g being able to access instruments of power - political party leadership, high positions in the work place, getting your story told in the media. • Individual struggle - extraordinary individuals making a stand (e.g the early Martin Luther King. • Collective struggle - uniting with others to fight for a common goal. (E.g. Martin Luther King began to call on Black people to unite on ethnic and class lines to fight against the white ruling class of America. He was then assassinated.)

3. Conflict theory • The belief that social inequality leads to conflict. Oppressed people will stand up to oppressors to force change. • Change includes • -reforms (slow and gradual) • -more radical types (instant and en masse) eg REVOLUTION.

4. Applying conflict theory • Change doesn’t happen because of CONFLICT THEORY. Change happens because of CONFLICT. THEORY explains the conflict and puts in in a historical context. • Theory helps us understand past present and future societal behaviour.

5. Examples of application: • Gender inequality: women organise for their rights. Elite women protested in the 1800s for the vote. working class and coloured women protested in the 60s for abortion, divorce and workers rights. • Racial Inequality: Slave revolts. 1950s- civil rights in America, anti-apartheid in South Africa… • Sexual Inequality: gay Rights movement in 1960s. Stonewall Riots. Sydney’s first Gay Mardi gras. Today’s protests for same-sex-marriage • Colonialism: indigenous struggles for land rights: Aborigines, Native Americans, Palestinians and many more

6. Gender inequality: Feminism; Simone de Beauvoir • Racial Inequality: Black Power, Marxism; Malcolm X • Sexual Inequality: Queer Theory; Judith Butler • Colonialism: Post-colonial studies: Franz Fanon, Edward Said

7. Conflict Theory and War • Marxists and other proponents of conflict theory argue that war happens because the ruling class plunder one another’s pools of wealth. (Imperialism.) • Marx wrote that the ruling class are a “Band of warring brothers” meaning they work together to exploit workers over all over the world but they go to war with each other because competition for wealth-accumulation is central to the way capitalism works. • Marxists (eg socialists/communists) argue that war only benefits the rulers (bourgeoisie) and never the workers (proletariat) who have to fight and be killed. The Russian Marxists, the Bolsheviks, called on Russians to boycott the war and “turn the imperialist war into a class war.” In other words, reject Nationalism and see the bosses as the enemies rather than see their fellow proletarians (workers) in Germany as the enemy.

8. 1800s Cartoon of Imperialism Would the picture be different today?

9. Gender inequality • What are the inequalities faced by women? How have these changed or continued over time?

10. Terminology/concepts • Time, gender, structural inequality, patriarchy, socio-economic status/class, bourgeois, proletarian, solidarity, subordination

11. Conflict Theory (Marxism) and women • Marxists see women’s subordination as necessary for the functioning of capitalism. Women are reduced to baby-makers and domestic servants to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie. (the rich) the state doesn’t need to pay anyone to house, clothe, bathe and feed the working class coz women do it for free! Coz they’re so “lovely”! • Society is divided along lines of class. Male and female workers must unite against the exploitation of the ruling class (the bosses.) Marxists (conflict theorists) believe that men do not necessarily benefit from women's subordination. The system oppresses both sexes. Bourgeois women benefit from sexism because rich women can exploit poor women. • The struggle is about class. • Conflict theorists argue that class conflict is the essential drive to all social change. The working class or those without economic superiority would have to push against the capitalist ways and revolt to cause change. Important text: Marx and Engel's The Family, Private Property and the State

12. Feminism • Feminists see inequality as the result of the patriarchy – innate dominance in men. • feminism is a social theory for the battle for equality in political, economical and social rights for woman. • Feminism is an outcry against sexual inequality and oppression and exploitation in a male-ruling society. Over time this movement has branched off into more specific feminist and political perspectives. • The struggle is about gender. The “sisterhood” etc.

13. “Though she was a tiger lady, our hero didn’t have to fire a shot to floor her. After one look at his “Mr.. Leggs slacks”, she was ready to have him walk all over her. That noble styling sure soothes the savage beast….” Marxism links all oppressions -racism, sexism etc as pillars of class society (Capitalism)

14. There are some “Marxist feminists” Who put gender first but see the link with class oppression. There are also anti-Marxist feminists who think all women should stand together no matter what class they belong to. What do you think? How does CLASS RELATE TO GENDER? What about race? Sexuality? Disability?

15. On class and gender… Can a billionaire woman who makes her fortune in diamond mining in Sierra Leone really say she’s fighting for all women? What about the women victims of blood-diamond wars? Or who have to work for rubbish wages in the mine? According to the Marxists, the rich woman’s class position demands that she continue her support of exploitation - whether the victims are male or female. Baiada workers vs CEOs

16. WAR AND WOMEN Marxist feminists urge women to have solidarity with workers and the poor. Bourgeoisie feminists/anti-Marxist Feminists believe the West can end women's oppression through force and occupation. So they tend to support the “war on terror” and the banning of the burqa (as in France.)

17. Evolutionary Theories Concepts / terminology - survival of the fittest • Natural selection • Adaptation • Evolution • Westernisation • Eurocentic….. Ethnocentric • Biological determinism

18. Evolutionary Theory + Crime • According to Evolutionary theory, more civilized and developed societies have more order and therefore should experience lower rates of crime. Compared to societies that aren’t as developed they actually have higher rates of crime and incidence. • The contradiction is that studies of indigenous/hunter-gatherer societies show much lower likelihoods of crime compared with modern, Western civilizations.

19. Evolutionary Theory + workplace safety According to evolutionary theorists, industrialism gave rise to the welfare state and bosses that would ensure the survival of their workers - for developments sake if not humanity’s! And yet today, work place accidents cause more deaths in Australia than car accidents. So its more dangerous to go to work that drive a car! Shouldn’t the natural order of things have ironed that out by now???? Where to now for this society is we are traveling on a “unilinear” path of civilization and improvement? (Thanks Rachel!)

21. “A Darwinian Theory of Beauty” • Charles Darwin’s biological theory of evolution (organisms changing in order to adapt to environmental needs) can be related to Beauty. Traditional and mainstream notions of beauty are Eurocentric. Why? Discuss plastic surgery…

22. The article discusses the idea of how beauty in art, music or beautiful things are not just simply ‘in the eye of the beholder’ but rather within our human nature with ‘deep evolutionary origins’.  The affect of cultural conditioning can be seen as the reassurance of our perception/value of beauty in connections to our human nature. It is also recognized that the wealthier culture are usually more desirable in perception • http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2010/nov/22/1 [accessed:01/12/10]

23. Poverty (Thanks Cassie and others!) Evolutionary theory suggests the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptations to the burdens of poverty. Poverty, it would seem, is a natural feature of civilization.

24. Concepts / terminology • Ecology • Sustainability • Population target • Surplus • Food production • Inequality • Capitalism

25. Malthus Thomas Malthus, who wrote his essay on “The Principle of Population” in 1798, thought the world was getting overpopulated then, when world population was less than 1 billion people. Malthus argued that it is “a law of nature that population growth is faster than growth in food production”. Therefore any increase in the living standards of the poor would lead to them having more children, causing an imbalance between food production and population which would lead to famine and disease, thus removing these surplus mouths and restoring equilibrium.He argued that inequality was natural and good (along with smallpox and slavery) while speaking out against soup kitchens and early marriages. Heard any echoes of Malthus today? Dick Smith’s population Puzzle anyone?

26. Echoes of Malthus in the “ **** off we’re full” …scourge. (Sorry I don’t know what else to call it!)

27. Malthusian theory today… Blaming poor non-whites • “In light of the possible destruction of the planet, there is a noxious argument that puts the blame for climate change not on the US, or Britain, or on big polluters like Shell or BHP Billiton, but on overpopulation. Not the overpopulation of just anyone, but of poor non-whites - particularly from Africa, India, and China. Figures such as Sir David Attenborough, Sir Bill Gates and other rich white men are some of the major proponents arguing for and funding programs to limit population growth in the third world to solve climate change. Lovelock and Attenborough in particular are key members of the British based Optimum Population Trust which argues that carbon emissions in the West can be offset by sending condoms to Africa.The well-respected National Geographic magazine, in its Collectors Edition: State of the Earth 2010, opens with an A3 photo of Asian faces with the headline, “Crowding our Planet”. This is followed on the next page by a photo of a boat carrying “undocumented African immigrants… Socialist Alternative magazine,Michael Kandelaars 05 Feb 2010”

28. Excuse me for letting my slides get a bit texty….

29. Review: • 1. What was Malthus’s argument in 1798? • 2. Why was he against soup kitchens? • 3. How do these ideas relate to Darwin’s theory of evolution ? • 4. In what context is Malthusianism arising t Should there be a group that has close to nothing, a group that is less superior to us? Will poverty naturally disappear as our societies further evolve?

30. The horror of world poverty… About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, the problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish them. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families. It is particularly shocking as there is actually enough food produced in the world for every person to be obese! Poverty is a feature of all modern societies and cultures. Evolutionary theory suggests that the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptations to the burdens of poverty…

31. Evolutionary theory and poverty So Evolutionary theory basically says societies move from simple (crap) societies to complex ( superior – e.g. Western/ civilized developed) societies. So shouldn’t Western/modern societies like that here in Australia have stopped the incidence of poverty? Or do we apply Malthus’s theory and say that starvation, man-made and natural disasters are just nature’s way of keeping the population size low?

32. Q. How would evolutionary theory apply to gender inequality? The persecution of gay people? The Aids epidemic in Africa? The suffering of the third world which is predominantly brown-skinned? “Fear of a Brown Planet” Ameer Rahman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLTinB_4lko

33. Racism Darwin didn’t mean for his biological theory to be applied to human societies. Infact he was against slavery when most intellectuals were for it. Darwin ’s theory was used by Nazi’s during WWII to support and justify Eugenics and the study and classification of races into a hierarchical order due to supposed intelligence.

34. “So what did the Evolutionist say to the Marxist?” • Marxists talk about the “common sense” view of society which is in fact merely an acceptance of capitalist values. One example is the common acceptance that we live in a “meritocracy” • How does the notion of a meritocracy relate to the evolutionary view? • Critics of Marxism say that today there is more social mobility. Public education aims to allow equal access to all children to become successful. We are all “equal before the law”… etc. So is there no longer a need for “conflict” or radical change? • Critics also say that class is too different today than it was in Marx’s day (industrial rev) Society has “evolved.” so the theory is no longer relevant.

35. Today the privileged use evolutionary theory as a justification of class inequality. They call the modern class system (Capitalism) a “meritocracy” - meaning those that get ahead do so because they’ve earned it. An echo of “survival of the fittest.” • Perhaps today class structure is less rigid than several hundred years ago. There is more social mobility. Public education aims to allow equal access to all children to become successful. We are all “equal before the law”… etc. • We are taught that privileged people can become underprivileged through bad decisions (e.g. sub prime mortgage crisis) and vice versa (the classic poor migrant moves to the Big Apple, works hard and strikes it rich…heard that one before!!!!) • It is however the case that the majority of people do not break from the class they were born into (e.g., working class or ruling class.) Statistics show a widening gap between rich and poor in OECD countries over the last 30 years.

36. Review: • 1. What are “eugenics” • 2. How did Darwin’s theory get applied to slavery? And how was it used by Nazis? • 3. Why do (socially literate) people now talk about “ethnicity” rather than “race”?

37. Parson’s Functionalist Theory

38. Functionalism: a model for society. • Functionalist theory: theory used to analyse functionalist society. • (Marxists call our society “capitalist” and want to change it to be more “socialist.” Feminists call our society “patriarchal” and also want it to be changed. Functionalists do not see the need for radical or dramatic change. As in the evolutionist view, Society will take care of itself.)

39. Functionalist Theory Gradual/incremental change Reform Equilibrium Institutions Differentiation/ specialization

40. Case study: Hurricane katrina

41. Functionalist Theory • Like evolutionary theory, society changes according to need. But change is based on equilibrium. When there are two opposing forces, the middle ground will win and gentle change will take place. • This equilibrium is facilitated through institutions of society - the courts, the parliament, trade union negotiation and academia. • Little acknowledgment of collective struggle or the reasons behind change (e.g. structural inequality) Now some examples….

42. What would Conflict Theorists say about “equilibrium”? • Feminist response to sexual harassment in the workplace? • Post-colonialist response to Israeli settlement expansion into the West Bank? • Queer Theorist’s response to homophobic violence? • Marxist response to police breaking a picket?

43. Ghetto-isation of poor · Ghetto - areas of society where the majority of the under class live. ·    poor facilities, no access to health services, poor sanitation, low supplies of vital resources ·   high crime rates ·   cyclical. Inter-generational poverty. ·Hurricane Katrina – poorfamilies forced to “loot” and “steal” to survive. Criminalization of poverty - heavy-handling of crimes only the poor would bother committing. How does our “common sense” functionalist society deal with poverty and crime? “checks and balances” - nothing can go wrong because there are checks in place…

46. Functionalist theorists argue society will offer new means of coping with disaster: • Welfare, soup kitchens, women’s refuges, docs, extra police, extra security, special reporters to look into the problem, human rights lawyers, the high court… public education campaigns… scholarships for a few poor kids… sponsor a starving child organizations… “next year’s election”… perhaps a “Wikileak” when a nasty truth has been buried just a little bit too long…

48. Functionalism Failed New Orleans! So if there is a problem in society, there will always be at least one part of society (institution or group) that will act on the problem and maintain balance. In response to the disaster, the national army corps came to aid the relief. Their efforts however were not enough for the reconstruction and many people in New Orleans still live on ramshackle accommodation. There was a levy system put into place to ensure the safety of the city in New Orleans . But President Bush at the time, refused to fund it properly, and instead poured money into the war in Iraq . So although there are “checks and balances” built into the system sometimes they are not sufficient.

49. Review • 1. What “functions” should have saved/rehabilitated New Orleans? • 2. Consider public education. Account for your own experience of public education. Explore the reasons behind changes and continuity in this experience, using each of the three theories. • 3. Choose any issue/problem in the world today and make an argument for the superiority of one of the theories. (The one you think is best!)