Explaining inequality and global stratification
Why does inequality exist, and why are some countries so much richer than others?
Functionalist view
The Davis-Moore thesis argues that stratification is functional: important jobs that need rare skills must offer high rewards to attract talented people. Critics respond that many vital jobs, like care work, are poorly paid, and that inherited advantage, not talent, explains much inequality.
Conflict and interactionist views
Conflict theorists, following Marx, argue that inequality benefits those who own the means of production and is maintained by power, not merit. Interactionists study how class shows up in daily life, through clothing, speech, and consumption. Conspicuous consumption, a term from Thorstein Veblen, describes buying luxury goods to display status.
Global inequality
Countries are often grouped as high-, middle-, and low-income. Modernisation theory says poorer countries can develop by adopting industrial technology and values. Dependency theory argues that colonialism and global trade keep poorer countries supplying cheap resources and labour to wealthy ones. World-systems theory divides the world into core, semi-periphery, and periphery nations.
Flashcard
Unequal rewards attract talent to important jobs
Check your understanding
A theorist argues that poor countries remain poor because wealthy nations extract their resources and cheap labour. This is: