Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Chapter 3 The Duality of Social Life: Order and Conflict This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program. In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 11th edition

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Social Systems: Order and Conflict Sociologists have a mental image (model) of how society is structured, how it changes and what holds it together. The two prevailing models of order and conflict provide contradictory images of society.

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Social Systems: Order and Conflict The Order Model –Is sometimes called Functionalism –Attributes to societies the attributes of cohesion, cooperation, reciprocity, stability and persistence –Manifest consequences—intended –Latent consequences—unintended

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Social Systems: Order and Conflict The Conflict Model –The view of society that posits conflict as a normal feature of social life, influencing the distribution of power and the direction and magnitude of social change

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007

The Duality of Social Life Sport from the Order Perspective –Preserves the existing social order by symbolizing the American way of life –Supports the status quo by promoting the unity of society’s members through patriotism –Socializes youths into proper channels

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 The Duality of Social Life Sport from the Conflict Perspective –Sport is organized to exploit athletes and meet the goals of the powerful –Sport inhibits the potential for revolution by society’s have-nots.

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Social Problems from the Order and Conflict Perspectives Social Problems are societally induced conditions that harm any segment of the population or acts or conditions that violate the norm and values of society

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Synthesis of the Order and Conflict Models Assumptions of a synthesis approach: –The processes of stability and change are properties of all societies. –Societies are organized, but the process of organization generates conflict. –Society is a social system.

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Synthesis of the Order and Conflict Models (continued) –Societies are held together by complementary interests, by consensus on cultural values, and also by coercion. –Social change is a ubiquitous phenomenon in all societies. It may be gradual or abrupt, reforming or revolutionary.

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Division and Violence The divisive forces bringing about segmentation in U.S. society –Size –Social Class –Race –Ethnicity –Sexual Orientation –Religion

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Violence and the Myth of Peaceful Progress The myth of peaceful progress –The incorrect belief that through throughout U.S. history disadvantaged groups have gained their share of power, prosperity, and respectability without violence

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 Violence and the Myth of Peaceful Progress Revolutionary colonists Native Americans Exploited Farmers Slaveholders WASP Supremacists Ethnic Minorities Labor Disputants

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 The Integrative Forces in Society Functional Integration Consensus on Societal Values The Social Order Group Membership

Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007 The Integrative Forces in Society International Competition and Conflict The Mass Media Planned Integration False Consciousness