conflict perspective of aging

Examples of conflict perspective of aging in the following topics:

• Intergenerational Conflict

  • Intergenerational conflict plays a key role in the conflict perspective of aging.
  • The conflict perspective of aging is a strand of general sociological conflict theory, which is the theory that sees conflict as a normal aspect of social life rather than as an abnormal occurrence.
  • The conflict perspective of aging thus emphasizes competition between generations.
  • According to the conflict perspective of aging, generations are competing over jobs.
  • The conflict perspective of aging is not solely about resource acquisition.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • The conflict perspective views the family as a vehicle to maintain patriarchy (gender inequality) and social inequality in society.
  • The Conflict perspective refers to the inequalities that exist in all societies globally.
  • Conflict theory is particularly interested in the various aspects of master status in social position—the primary identifying characteristic of an individual seen in terms of race or ethnicity, sex or gender, age, religion, ability or disability, and socio-economic status.
  • When we are analyzing any element of society from this perspective, we need to look at the structures of wealth, power and status, and the ways in which those structures maintain social, economic, political and coercive power of one group at the expense of others.
  • Conflict theorists have also seen the family as a social arrangement benefiting men more than women, allowing men to maintain a position of power.

• Constructive Team Conflict

  • Recognizing the benefits of conflict and using them as part of the team's process can enhance team performance.
  • It can also foster better decisions because it makes team members consider the perspectives of others and even helps them see things in new and innovative ways.
  • Teams can lower the emotional intensity of any conflict be establishing clear guidelines for how to express disagreements and challenge colleagues.
  • One helpful norm is to focus on the task-related element of a conflict rather than criticizing the traits of particular individuals.
  • Another is to emphasize common goals and shared commitments, which can keep conflict in perspective and prevent it from overwhelming the team's efforts.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • The conflict perspective, or conflict theory, derives from the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed society is a dynamic entity constantly undergoing change driven by class conflict.
  • According to the conflict perspective, society is made up of individuals competing for limited resources (e.g., money, leisure, sexual partners, etc.).
  • Sociologists who work from the conflict perspective study the distribution of resources, power, and inequality.
  • According to the conflict perspective, society is constantly in conflict over resources, and that conflict drives social change.
  • Conflict theory, therefore, gives sociologists a framework for explaining social change, thereby addressing one of the problems with the functionalist perspective.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • The classical conflict perspective pioneered by Karl Marx saw all forms of inequality subsumed under class conflict.
  • Other early conflict theorists saw racial and ethnic conflict as more central.
  • Since the social, political, and cultural upheavals of the 1960s, there has been a wellspring of conflict theory-inspired analyses of race and ethnicity, many of which eventually developed into an overlapping focus on the intersectional nature of various forms of conflict and oppression.
  • This theory will be further discussed under the feminist perspective of gender stratification in the chapter, "Understanding Gender Stratification and Inequality".
  • Explain race and ethnicity from the perspective of different conflict theorists

• Conflict

  • Social conflict is the struggle for agency or power within a society to gain control of scarce resources.
  • War is the quintessential example of conflict.
  • This perspective argues that the pursuit of interests is what motivates conflict.
  • The three tenets of conflict theory are as follows:
  • According to the principles of conflict theory, all cooperation is only for the purpose of acquiring individual or group resources.

• Conflict Theory

  • Conflict theory was developed in part to illustrate the limitations of structural-functionalism.
  • A heuristic device to help you think about society from a conflict perspective is to ask, "Who benefits from this element of society?
  • Not surprisingly, the primary limitation of the social-conflict perspective is that it overlooks the stability of societies.
  • Many of the broader elements of societies remain remarkably stable over time, indicating the structural-functional perspective has a great deal of merit.As noted above, sociological theory is often complementary.
  • This is particularly true of structural-functionalism and social-conflict theories.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • In the context of gender, conflict theory argues that gender is best understood as men attempting to maintain power and privilege to the detriment of women.
  • In most cultures, men have historically held most of the world's resources.
  • Friedrich Engels, a German sociologist, studied family structure and gender roles from a Marxist perspective.
  • This was due to women's dependence on men for the attainment of wages.
  • Contemporary conflict theorists suggest that when women become wage earners, they gain power in the family structure and create more democratic arrangements in the home, although they may still carry the majority of the domestic burden.

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • According to the functionalist perspective, race and ethnicity are two of the various parts of a cohesive society.
  • Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions.
  • As noted sociologist Michael Omi observes, "The structural-functionalist framework generally stressed the unifying role of culture, and particularly American values, in regulating and resolving conflicts.
  • Given this emphasis on equilibrium and harmony, the functionalist perspective easily allows for specific macro-analyses of more contentious power imbalances, such as race-related issues.
  • During the turbulent 1960s, functionalism was often called "consensus theory," criticized for being unable to account for social change or structural contradictions and conflict, including inequalities related to race, gender, class, and other social factors that are a source of oppression and conflict.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • Conflict theory argues that the economic and political structures of a society create social divisions, inequalities, and conflicts.
  • Conflict theories are perspectives in social science that emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that critique the broad socio-political system, or that otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism.
  • While many of these perspectives hold parallels, conflict theory does not refer to a unified school of thought, and should not be confused with, for instance, peace and conflict studies.
  • Wright Mills has been called the founder of modern conflict theory.
  • Conflict theory is most commonly associated with Marxism, but as a reaction to functionalism and the positivist method, it may also be associated with a number of other perspectives, including critical theory, feminist theory, postmodern theory, post-structural theory, postcolonial theory, queer theory, world systems theory, and race-conflict theory.