Functionalism Social Inequality

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Functionalists take the position that the patterns of behavior that characterize a society exist because they are functional for that society. Social inequality is universal, so inequality must help societies survive. (Henslin, 2016, p.204) Conflict theory provides a third perspective on social life. Functionalists view society as a harmonious whole with its parts working together, where conflict theorists stress that society is composed of groups that compete with one another for scarce resources. (Henslin, 2016, p.18) Social stratification refers to the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige. It does not refer to individuals; it is a way of ranking large groups of people into

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