“Assess the view that society discriminates people more than it brings people together”

“Assess the view that society discriminates people more than it brings people together”

Functionalists disagree with the this claim that society discriminates people more than it brings people together due to the consensus approach that all agencies should work together positively, which they believe to be right. Also they value the fact that all of our society share the same norms and values, therefore society will not discriminate against each other but in fact work together. Society works with one another for organic analogy in being that society works together positively like the human organs. This is what functionalists believe.

However, we know that not everyone works together and agrees with the same things positively in society, as we do not all share the same norms and values. This is highlighted by crime rates showing society in a negative light. Furthermore this conflict approach that society does not work together positively is shown by the dark side of the family. For example domestic violence. It could also be said that Functionalists wear ‘rose tinted glasses’ meaning that they only see the good side of society.

Feminists agree with the claim that society discriminates people more than it brings people together because of Patriarchy, which is a male dominated society that discriminates against women. Feminists as the conflict theory agree that society does that in any way work together because of male dominance in our society. Socialisation teaches us that women are inferior in society.

Feminists as a conflict approach disagree with the functionalists claim that society does not discriminate people more than it brings people together. But on the other hand radical feminists have been criticised because they state that all men are violent and this is therefore considered a gross generalisation. Also we do now have laws in place with suggest that our society is working together. For example the 1975 sex discrimination act and the 1970 equal pay act. Therefore this supports the fact that we can indeed work as a consensus approach and do so now more.

This conflict view is supported in part by Marxists that society does discriminate people more than it brings people together. Although feminists and Marxists agree with this claim, they both concentrate on different things. One being that feminists concentrate on gender and Marxists concentrate on social class. Marxists believe in the fact that society is divided by social class which is if you are rich and own your own business you are Bourgeoisie and if you are poor and work in order to live you are Proletariat. However Marxists do not agree with this and Karl Marx believes this a wrong generalisation. But on the other hand it could be said that this view can be criticised because not all rich people that receive private education or have money do well in life. Also, many working class people actually highly achieve in life and are very successful so this is a wrong generalisation of all ‘working class people’ and all ‘rich people’. Furthermore it is extremely hard to define people into a rich and poor group; this is an unfair judgment on society as a whole.

In conclusion although there are some arguments to suggest that society does not discriminates people more than it brings people together there are more arguments to suggest that society does discriminate people more than it brings people together. Although functionalists believe that we live in a consensus society where we all work together positively we know this is not the case In some ways because of such high crime rates for example.