Sociological Approach To Social Inequality Essay

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Individual examination in the basic course: Sociology

Present at least two different sociological approaches to social inequality and discuss these approaches with reference to a concrete problem area of contemporary relevance.
This essay presents social inequality as seen from both a Marxist and Bourdieuian approach and their different terms used in the discussion of social inequality. This is then exemplified with the education system in Australia and how students from non-traditional backgrounds are subjects of an unequal social balance set up by structural normative standards and expectations which they cannot live up to. Both approaches agree with the inequality being produced, but have a different view on the underlying background and …show more content…

He also talks about class struggles and that the “contention between groups in the space of lifestyles is a hidden, yet fundamental, dimension of class struggles” (Wacquant in Stones, 2008 p. 272). He explains this hidden perspective to class struggles through one of his key terms; symbolic violence. This relates to Marx idea of false consciousness, but where Marx talks about capitalistic ideologies being persuaded into the working class, Bourdieu does sees the errors in the general systems, through “subtle impositions of systems” (Wacquant in Stones, 2008 p. 264). Therefore Bourdieu’s approach is broader because it sees a potential for social inequality in any type of human agency within fields affected by external …show more content…

The reason for this is the ideas of different capitals and factors than just the economic. Even though a Marxist approach would say that the other capitals are just effects of economic factors and capitalistic ways of thinking the Bourdieuian view brings more depth to the discussion of social inequality. The non-traditional students might not be a part of the working class; for example economic well-fit international students might still be targets of social inequality as a clash between the field of education as an effect of their linguistic and cultural

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