For HomeworkLady--ASAP: Need help with Study Questions, please!
Each answer for each question should be a paragraph. These are short answers. Try to keep the answers around 4-6 sentences. I need this done by 10AM (Eastern time) today. As always, I will give an additional bonus. Thanks.
1. Why does industrialization lead societies to expand their systems of schooling? In what ways has schooling in the United States been shaped by our economic, political, and cultural systems?
As countries industrialize, their workers become more specialized. In a pre-industrial country, most individuals work on the home or community level. However as societies urbanize, a larger percentage or people go tow work outside the home (both men and women). Many of these workers are low-skill laborers, but the development of the economy requires a certain number of specialists in areas such as engineering and finance. In order to guarantee a large enough number of highly qualified individuals, a large segment of the population must be educated. In the US, the school system encourages children to follow directions and defer to authority, which are also the requirements of workers in a mass-production economy. The US education system, like the political and cultural systems, is based in the Protestant work ethic; children who work hard and don’t cause trouble are rewarded.
2. Using the structural-functional approach, why is schooling important to the operation of society? From a social-conflict point of view, how does schooling reproduce social inequality in each generation?
In the structural-functional approach, society is first made up of a set of structures, such as schools, organizations and families. The functions in society are derived from these structures, and include concepts such as “mother”, “teacher”, and “employer”. Schooling is important because it applies a structure that is midway between the family structure (parent-child) and the employment structure (employer-employee). Children become indoctrinated into their functions in a structure other than the family. Social conflict theory says that competition for scarce resources between groups (based on race, class, ethnicity, gender, and religion) is the source of inequality in power. Because children in social groups of higher class (in all of the above factors) have more access to valued sources of education, the inequalities are preserved. Systems such as elite all-male schools, segregated school districts, and the Ivy League legacy system propagate these inequalities.
3. Why is health a social issue as much as a biological issue? Why are several ways in
which health and medicine are linked to social inequality?
Health is affected by many factors, including access to medical care, education, and cultural values. In the United States, where the ranks of the uninsured continue to rise year after year (estimated at 47 million in 2008), health care simply cannot be equitable. Because insurance is tied to one’s employer, access to health care rises with social class. Medicaid and SCHIP cover some but not all of the otherwise uninsured. Health care is also poorer for members of underprivileged minority groups. For example, African-Americans receive less health care and have poorer health outcomes on many measures including deaths from HIV and death from stroke. Lifestyle factors also affect health. Urban families are less likely than suburban or rural families to allow their children to play outdoors due to safety concerns. Thus urban children may get less exercise, watch more TV, and eat more junk food.
Johnson, T.D. (2008). Census Bureau: Number of U.S. Uninsured Rises to 47 Million Americans are Uninsured: Almost 5 Percent Increase Since 2005. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from
Center for Disease Control (2005). Health disparities experienced by black of African-Americans – United States. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from
4. In what special ways did the Industrial Revolution change the economy and the broader society of the United States? How is the Information Revolution changing our economy and broader society today?
During the Industrial Revolution, production moved from manual artisanship and craftsmanship to factory-based production. Goods were moved over great distances by train and ship rather than being consumed locally. Jobs were changed from small local producers to mass producers (factory workers, managers, owners) whose goods were consumed outside of the community where they lived. This broadened the reach of commerce and paved the way for modern corporations. The information revolution has allowed information, finance, business, and production to become truly global. Stores of information about consumer preferences, markets, and product lines have allowed the corporations of the past to develop into the huge megacorporations of today. In broader society, because these corporations aren’t rooted in any one spot, they have no responsibility towards the wellbeing of society as a whole, except for what is mandated by law.
5. Compare the pluralist, power-elite, and Marxist models of political power. What does each model lead you to conclude about politics in the United States?
Pluralism says that politics lies with a multitude of different groups. It is not the political elite who hold the power, but the many different factions and interest groups that make up the population. The power-elite model says that a very small group of people control most of the political process. This group is determined by political power, privilege, and money. The Marxist model says that it is the workers (proletariat) who are in control, because the labor force is the means of production. Without the workers, the economy would grind to a halt. None of these models is exactly accurate in the modern-day United States, but each has something to add. The power-elite model is alive and well, as seen in the influence of corporate interests and political dynasties such as the Bush family. Pluralism can be seen in the recent landslide election of Barack Obama to the presidency, where many different groups such as Democrats, Libertarians, union organizers, blacks, women, and even “Rednecks for Obama” came together to oust the Republicans. The least relevant today is Marxist; the workforce in the US holds less political power than in the past, particularly as low-skill jobs are being outsourced..
6. Point to a number of changes in the family since 1960. What factors are responsible for these changes?
Fewer people marry, fewer people have children. More people do not have partners. Extended families rarely live together. Extended families are separated by more distance. More women work, and many make more than their male partners. There are more single parents, divorced parents, and never-married couples, as well as unmarried and, recently, married, homosexual couples. Some of the factors leading to these changes include a liberalization of attitudes about “normal” family structures. The advent of the birth control pill increased the amount of premarital sex and cohabitation. Anti-discrimination legislation allowed more homosexual couples to disclose their orientation, and eventually, to marry. Increased economic opportunities for women were just one factor in the greater divorce rate: in the 60’s women were so dependent on men that they could not afford to divorce.
7. Explain Karl Marx's claim that religion tends to support the status quo. Develop a counterclaim, based on Max Weber's Analysis of Calvinism and the rise of capitalism.
Marx famously said that religion was the “opiate of the masses”. He thought that religion made people docile and accepting of their fates, and therefore more willing to accept an inherently unfair status quo. However, in some cases, religion can be the driving force for an increase in the economic base of the working class. According to Weber, Calvinism was the source of the Protestant work ethic, which meant that people concentrated on doing their jobs efficiently, effectively, and humbly, with no particular expectation of a rise in station, but with the goal of taking pride in a job well done. Application of this ethic necessarily led to a more productive society, and the lack of emphasis on consumption led to greater savings and reinvestment. In contract, Catholicism focused on concepts of elitism, which left some feeling that certain work was beneath their station. This belief was inherently less productive.