The Powerful and The Powerless
Week 10: Winter Abernathy - 1 February 2022 [8:35pm]
In sociology there is a perspective called the conflict perspective. This perspective pertains to power struggles in society. Of the sociological perspectives, I tend to lean towards the conflict perspective and it’s view on society. The conflict theory is a very macro concept, which means that it deals with large-scale and generally long-term aspects of society. Again, the conflict theory states that society is built up of power dynamics and power struggles. To bring this down to a more micro portion of the conflict theory, specifically the concept of “deviance” in a society.
Deviance in a society, as defined by the conflict theory, is when those who are powerless in society, hence disconnected from society, act out of the box drawn by the powerful in said society. Therefore, deviance is just a power struggle. This resonated with me and so did a quote in a similar vein, the quote goes “no one enters violence for the first time by committing it” - Danielle Sered.
This again demonstrates the divide between powerless and powerful. In the labeling theory, the powerless are shown to be punished differently purely because of their perceived “deviance.” This includes people of color, people below the poverty line, minorities in every sense. This is, as an example, the stark nature of how white-collar criminals are treated by the justice system in contrast to their “lower class” counterparts. In both the conflict theory and the labeling theory, people are pushed into deviance, they state that deviance is not human-led conduct, rather societally enforced. Deviance creates communities outside of those within the slim box built in society. People consistently shown that life is not safe or comfortable will begin to seek that safety and comfort elsewhere, where they can find it and many times that ends up being in close knit groups formed through a joint outcast status.
Image: http://mskosinski.weebly.com/ch-8-deviance-and-social-control.html
Hey Winter! Your blog post on conflict perspective was very informative. While I’m not too familiar with sociology and conflict perspectives, the concept is undeniably fascinating. The power struggles we see between employees and employers are key examples of this. Employers want to maximize labor while giving their employees the least pay possible, while employees want the most pay with the least amount of labor involved. With the insertion of control, the balance between both employers and employees sway, giving one power over the other. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Winter! Learning about sociological perspectives is always interesting due to how applicable some of those are to many of our lives. Deviance also seems like quite the interesting topic when you put it the way you did and is also sad because no one likes to be the powerless ones in a society. The way you have framed this deviance reminds me of how the dictators we learned about in AP Euro used differences among people to divide minorities to the point where they had no power. Your observations of how self-sustaining this deviance is also reminds me of the vicious cycles we learned about in Euro and how these cycles once started will probably lead to increasing gaps between the powerful and powerless.
ReplyDeleteWinter, what an interesting blog to read. Sociology is a subject I have never really learned about; the only background knowledge I have is it is the study of society. So, reading this post opened my eyes to view society in a different manner. The word deviance has become a word of shame in society. Being called one makes you an outlier and highlighted as not conforming to the “norms” of society. The powerful—famous, rich, celebrities—have their sway in society. They are able to control the narrative and spread what they deem is necessary while the powerless—poor and minorities—are under the thumb of the powerful abiding by their rules of society and their norms. Reading this post has definitely perked up my interest in exploring sociology.
ReplyDeleteHi Winter, thanks for sharing about the conflict perspective, I found it quite interesting. It is an unfamiliar concept to me, and it helped by giving examples of this happening in the world around us. The image that you included was also very powerful because it so effectively conveys the feeling of being deviated from the rest of society. It's like no matter where you turn everyone else is different from you and has more power than you.
ReplyDeleteHey Winter, your perspective on conflict theory is truly an interesting take. The view that those in a deviated status in society tends to bond together really seems very true once applied to examples in our modern society today. Take for example places like Chinatown, where the excluded Chinese immigrants that came to the United States during the Gold Rush came together and formed an "ethnic enclave." These ethnic enclaves are not limited to just Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, however, they are found throughout the world. Thus your conflict theory truly does make sense, although I have never thought of society in such way.
ReplyDeleteHey Winter, I never heard of the conflict perspective, but after reading about it, it made me more aware of how big the gap is among different statuses in society and how it relates to what is accessible to the people. This sort of reminds me of the criminal justice system where the punishment would differ drastically if a crime was committed by the wealthy compared to if it was committed by minorities or people from the lower class. Those with more societal influence and power are able to avoid more punishment. Because of this biased system, it only further widens the gap between the working class and higher class. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Winter! This was a really interesting topic to learn about. Deviance seems like a very interesting phenomenon, and it makes me think about how much of our behavior can be explained by the way our society is structured, rather than the way we are naturally inclined to behave. Our system is definitely very skewed toward the powerful, and the gap between them and the powerless only continues to grow. The powerful largely control the way we think about those who have less power, and this only makes it worse, continuing to emulate their perception as you mentioned it. This gap, fundamentally instilled in our society, widens when both the powerful and the powerless reinforce the way they think they should be.
ReplyDeleteHi Winter! I have never heard about conflict theory and labeling theory prior to reading your blog. I think you did an amazing job of explaining these two theories and breaking things down in simple terms that I can understand. I feel like the concept of labeling theory kind of sounds like stereotypes where people assume something about someone based on their physical traits without actually getting to know them. I related to your blog, as I definitely feel more comfortable in a small and close-knit group rather than a very big one. Overall, I think the conflict perspective is super interesting and caused me to be more knowledgeable on sociology. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Winter, from reading your blog, I can see how strikes or rebels are formed. The cause is the formation of deviants who are mistreated and pushed aside because of their powerless state. Especially in America, there are very few extremely wealthy people and a majority of people who are in the lower class. For this reason, I somewhat feel that if we had a communist society where everyone was equal in wealth and resources, society wouldn’t be as bad as it is now, in a sense that decreasing the wealth gap will decrease crime rates as well.
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