The responsibilities of the sociologist against reality of social inequality
British sociologist John H. Goldthorpe, I make a series of contributions in the concepts of income, status and social class, within its most relevant analysis is to link intergenerational mobility and educational achievement among others, with the possibilities of class training capable of capable ofarticulate collective interests and behaviors, and not only as mere statistical categories. To account for the Goldthorpe class training considers demographic identity and cultural identity. The first is the degree to which people share positions over time, while the second would be linked to the degree of association they present around their lifestyles, customs and values among others.
Precisely within the study perspective, it is demonstrated as the people who are in a better social position, can maintain their rent in the long term, that is, it is less dependent on the variations in the salary and you have constant opportunities of labor promotion;While people with a less favorable social position have less opportunities and more dependent on salary conditions. Therefore, income stability depends on both social positions and income level.
In contrast, economist, consider education as a determining factor to obtain a better level of income and social position, that is, if the individual invests more time and money in education, he will be able to obtain more likely to socially ascend and reduce inequalities;According to this planned panorama, it would be very easy for people to ascend socially;On the contrary, people with a fairly high educational level obtained more than or equal income from their parents.
However, after carrying out a series of empirical studies, I am evidencea better social position.
The maintenance of inequalities is even stronger in mobility to high professionals. The only class that increased in cohorts 13 (61-65) and 12 (56-60) The probabilities that their children would go to high professionals was that of high professionals. The workers and agrarian classes did not increase them, and the rest of the middle classes even decreased them.
In addition to the study of classes and rent, Goldthorpe, I analyze the status, such as that social position that the individual occupies within their social relationships, and where such important factors as race and gender prevail. And it is that precisely economist tends to directly relate rent versus status and although there is a moderate relationship, sociologists see status as a form of social stratification, since it changes according to each social group to each culture;In other words, a person can have high income, but a low social assessment.
It should be noted that by focusing the study of inequality only to income, according to the approach of economists and that leave aside the contributions of sociology;It results in the implementation of policies that increase social inequality in the middle and low classes that do not have the same opportunities, with descending social mobility, with a high unemployment rate and overwhelming precariousness among the youngest youngest .Even other researchers such as José Martínez, the current socioeconomic situation is undoubtedly a scenario to "update" and put social problems that were latent, but that had disappeared from many of the analysis.
Hence, inequality has negative effects not only for the least favored, but affects the entire society as a whole;In this sense, citizens’ participation in social, political and economic life may be guaranteed alike;In this sense, the need to adopt an interdisciplinary vision arises that also analyzes the level of income and schooling, factors such as gender, belonging to an ethnic group, the life cycle and the territory among others among others. Becoming a topic of interest for democratic societies, giving way, to discussions from all areas that seek to improve people’s quality of life.
In fact, it can be seen that income inequality affects the health of less favored classes;generating mental health problems, levels of violence and addictions and even with less life expectancy;The countries in which the income gap between poor and rich is lower, people are healthier and more happy. While countries with greater inequality people are affected by stress, caused by income differences, this adding to distrust and anxiety of status of people who are in better social conditions;Bringing to demonstrate that social welfare is not related to the income level of a country and its population, in addition to affecting the entire social structure of the country and not only a few aspects.
In short, the article demonstrates the relevance of the contributions of sociology and the importance of the participation of sociologists in the formulation and implementation of social policies;In contrast to the erroneous premises of looking at social inequality versus income, underestimating other aspects and leaving a one -dimensional look at the concepts of income and stratification, which leads to formulating public policies that increase the problem of poverty, misery, social inequality, further deepening the crisis that is reflected in all countries. It is clear in this article the important role that sociology plays in the formulation and implementation of public policies, according to the realities of the context of existing mobility patterns and seeks to claim that multidimensional vision of sociology, in the face of the position of economistsand its limited vision against the concepts of income, social classes and status.
Bibliographic references
- Carabaña j. 1999. Two studies on intergenerational mobility. Madrid
- Goldthorpe J. H. 2012. Back to class and status: why a sociological perspective of social inequality should be claimed. Reis 137, January-March.
- Martínez, J. S. (2012) "Difference and inequality", in Martínez, J.S. Social structure and inequality in Spain, Madrid
- SESBER, Camilo 2008 .Social policy. ECLAC
- Wilkinson, R (2012) ”As inequality harms societies
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