According to Bernard, Snipes and Gerould (2010), Robert K. Merton adopted Emile Durkheim’s anomie theory, which Durkheim defined as the breakdown of social norms or rules, as a result of rapid social changes. In other words, anomie refers to a breakdown in the ability of society to regulate the natural appetites of individuals (Bernard et. al., 2010). Merton, however, argued that many of the appetites of individuals are not natural, instead, they are a product of American society. As stated by Bernard et. al. (2010), the culture of any society defines certain goals that it deems worth striving for. In American society, that goal is to acquire wealth. As implied by the concept of the American Dream, American society encourages individuals to pursue wealth through the idea of meritocracy, and egalitarian, or the notion that all people have an equal chance to achieve wealth (p. 155), thus, anyone can become successful with hard work, and determination. …show more content…
In American society, middle-class values are identified as the institutionalized means that should be used to achieve wealth (Bernard et. al., 2010). Middle-class values emphasize honesty, education and deferred gratification (p. 155). Central to strain theory is the idea that society puts great pressure on individuals to achieve wealth, but fails to equally provide legitimate opportunities of obtaining wealth or success. As noted by the authors, legitimate opportunities were relatively concentrated in the higher classes and relatively absent in the lower classes (Bernard et. al., 2010). When a person fails to achieve wealth or success, or if he or she is poor, that person may be regarded as lazy. Thus meritocracy functions as safeguard, shielding society from assuming responsibility for social problems and blocked opportunities facing the lower
Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
The media portrays the upper class as something to strive for. Obtaining wealth and material possessions will bring you a happy life. The only way to get ahead is to emulate the rich and powerful and to live vicariously through them (Kendall 316). The media’s emphasis on the upper class takes away from people living life for themselves. Instead, they are persuaded to obtain a lifestyle that is realistically out of their means. Kendall states, “Largely through marketing and advertising, television promoted the myth of the classless society, offering on one hand the images of the American dream fulfilled wherein any and everyone can become rich and on the other suggesting that the lived experience of this lack of class hierarchy was expressed by our equal right to purchase anything we could afford”. Exaggerated views of the rich and successful in America are largely portrayed via television. Which gives a false idea of what happiness, wealth and material possessions can bring (Kendall 317). The poor and homeless are at the bottom of the class structure and are often overlooked, ignored and only portrayed as deserving of sympathy. They are stereotyped to be people who have problems such as drugs or alcohol (Kendall 318). Kendall goes on to explain that the middle class is considered the “working class” and are
“Confronting Inequality” by Paul Krugman opens our eyes to the fact that, in America, we are becoming more and more unequal based on our standing in society. Our standing in society is directly related to the amount of money that we make and what class our parents were in while we were growing up. However, being judged based on parents’ status is not justifiable. America is full of injustice when it comes to the social structure of it’s’ citizens. The majority of America used to belong to the middle class, now there is less middle class and a widening gap between the high class and the low class of people.
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power (Conley ). In the United States, we use social classes as our social stratification system. Going back to the idea of equality of condition, starting in different social classes is not fair. The underclass doesn’t get a fair chance to move up in social class. An article written by Alana Semuels called Poor at 20, Poor for Life was published in the Atlantic. Semuels considered how social mobility has gone down in recent years. In her article, she states “It’s not an exaggeration: It really is getting harder to move up in America. Those who make very little money in their first jobs will probably still be making very little decades later, and those who start off making middle-class wages have similarly limited paths.” Proving the point that social mobility has become a pipe dream. Overall, social classes provide an invisible barrier that stop people from being able to move social
...at the American culture places economic success at the pinnacle of social desirability, without listing legitimate ways for attaining the desired goal (Merton 672-682). Today, the American Dream no longer reflects the dream Adams had, but instead, the idea that one can only call themselves truly successful if they have become rich, regardless of the way they got there. The American Dream does not guarantee happiness, but rather the pursuit of it, but with the media strongly persuading people that money guarantees happiness, people are encouraged to do whatever it takes, even it means disregarding their morals, so that they achieve ‘success.’ The inability to achieve this goal often leads people to destructive, and ultimately life-threatening criminal behavior as their feelings of anxiety and frustration over this vision of the “American Dream” get the best of them.
Robert K. Merton established the stain theory from Emile Durkheim anomie theory. Merton felt as though the individuals in society wanted to become successful yet there was an obstacle that prevented them to reach that goal that society feels that people should obtain. He also felt that success was the driving force in society. However, many find it impossible to gain success. Nonetheless the prevention that leads the procurement of the goal in which leads a person to feel a sense of burden into finding other ways to purse that goal that society upholds an individual to have. This results in the variance of the societal goals and the proper means to accomplish it being anomie. In spite of that, society...
Weber, Wright and Tilley each contribute various theories to that can be applied to inequality and stratification within the contemporary United States. Reaching back to Weber’s work on class, status and parties, it is clear that this class is still a relevant concept even today. Weber views the class stratification system as a segmented structure, broken down into the simple components of class, status and party which in turn relate to power within a capitalist society. He defined “class situation” in relation to the following conditions (1) "have in common a specific causal component of their life chances in so far as (2) this component is represented exclusively by economic interests in the possession of goods and opportunities for income,
Durkheim would agree that postmodern America is more anomic than modern American. Social change might generate anomie either in the whole society or only some parts of an individual?s life (Coser), for example cohabitating households and divorced couples. In addition, the realization of human desires depends upon the resources at hand; the poor are limited to necessities of life (Coser), like Flint, Michigan?s water crisis. Anomie is most popular in lower class and absolute poverty. Modernism was the belief that all systems were working toward a goal (Coser) and postmodernism was the response to modernism for better systems and structures
Divisions within the social stratum is a characteristic of societies in various cultures and has been present throughout history. During the middle ages, the medieval feudal system prevailed, characterized by kings and queens reigning over the peasantry. Similarly, in today’s society, corporate feudalism, otherwise known as Capitalism, consists of wealthy elites dominating over the working poor. Class divisions became most evident during America’s Gilded Age and Progressive era, a period in time in which the rich became richer via exploitation of the fruits of labor that the poor persistently toiled to earn. As a result, many Americans grew compelled to ask the question on everyone’s mind: what do the rich owe the poor? According to wealthy
Robert K. Merton is a widely respected sociologist who has offered much insight in the field of criminology. In efforts to understand why the U.S has disproportionate levels of crime in comparison to similar countries Merton retouched Emile Durkheim’s form of Anomie theory (Lecture, 2016). Merton’s theory is grounded in the belief that the norms of society and their culturally defined goals (for example: The American Dream) place great pressure (or Strain) on individuals to either conform with the socially accepted behavior to attain those goals, or in its place become a player in a nonstandard subculture in attempts to achieve the same underlying goals of society (Cullen, Ch.13). With this, Merton’s Anomie theory was a macro-level approach
The “American Dream” consists of all U.S citizens having the opportunity to obtain success and prosperity through hard work and determination, but, in a capitalistic economy such as the United States the “American Dream” is merely impossible. Low wages are masked as starting points, taught to eventually pay off in the form of small raises or promotions. Competition to obtain unequally shared resources, is used to define an individual’s extent of initiative. In reality, these are all concepts used by the wealthy to deter the poor working class from obtaining upward mobility. Middle class America, the key factor in helping the wealthy stay wealthy, have adapted to these beliefs and concepts, created to keep them far behind. Conflict theorist
Featherstone, R., & Deflem, M. (2003). Anomie and strain: Context and consequences of Merton’s two theories. Sociological Inquiry, 73(4), 471-489.