Sociology › Section K · Race and ethnicity › Topic K.2
Theoretical perspectives on race and ethnicity
Why do racial and ethnic inequalities last, and how do racial categories come to mean anything at all? Each sociological perspective answers differently, and newer approaches such as intersectionality show what the older lenses can miss.
In this topic
- Lenses for a hard question
- Functionalism: functions and dysfunctions
- Conflict theory: competition and advantage
- Symbolic interactionism: meaning and group position
- Racial formation
- Intersectionality
- Critical race theory
- The culture of prejudice
- Worked example: three lenses on a divided city
- Worked example: a case that needed intersectionality
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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