Essay on Social Structure – A number of sciences deal with the phenomenon of ‘structure’ in their own way mainly to discover the characteristics of “structure” of their interest. For example, atomic physics deals with the structure of atoms, chemistry with the structure of molecules, crystallography and colloidal chemistry with the structure of crystals and colloids, and anatomy and physiology with the Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins Essay on Social Structure. Words10 Pages. This essay will begin by describing the three spheres that tie society together. The main institution of society is the family or household which is broken up into thousands of units. Secondly, it will discuss the economic institution and its ties to the family. The use of labour power and how that effects the power struggle with the capitalist marketplace will also be Social structure is usually treated together with the idea of social change, that correspond with the forces that change the social structure and the organization of blogger.comurationStructuration Theory is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based in the analysis of both structure and agents, without giving primacy to blogger.comted Reading Time: 5 mins
In sociology, social structure Free Essay Sample
This essay will begin by describing the three spheres that tie society together. The main institution of society is the family or household which is broken up into thousands of units. Secondly, social structure essay, it will discuss the economic institution and its ties to the family, social structure essay.
The use of labour power and how that effects the social structure essay struggle with the capitalist marketplace will also be discussed. Lastly, social structure essay political institution of government will be shown along with its relationships to the family and the families ability to create reform and social structure essay regulation. One of the main institutions in society in the household social structure essay family. It is here that almost all the consumption in society takes place.
It is also here that almost all the labour power in society originates. The make-up of the family is not as "cut and dry" as it once was. The nuclear family is dead and what has replaced it has put all old theories about the family to the test. One major change has been the rise of the dual-earner family. One is that the development of gender inequality social structure essay the family is a result of the changing economy.
This being the extra accumulation of property in private households. The second issue is that capitalism social structure essay the only form of economy we are familiar with pushes for the working of every family member to create a strong economy.
Lastly, the evolution of the family dispersed from economic development and instead become a more social issue. Wilson, Because the position of women in the family has been so altered from past history, projections made, even forty years ago, are increasingly wrong.
Though, even with the changing structure of the family the economic labour power has not significantly increased. The housewife was the counter-part to the husbands role of breadwinner. It was the wife who cleaned the husbands clothes, prepared his food and provided emotional support, without which social structure essay could not fulfill his role as breadwinner. Burggraf, With the evolution of the labour market and capitalist economy with the ever increasing consumption of the family unit the homemaker was called to enter the workforce.
This percentage has gotten exponentially bigger with time. Purdy, social structure essay, Another facet of the economic family unit is reproduction. The goal of the family unit is to produce children, which in turn expands the labour force, which creates a larger economic social structure essay. In Canadian families the emphasis is on quality not quantity and because of this there are gaps in the unskilled labour force.
It is only through immigration that the capitalist economy has been able to keep up with the demand for cheap unskilled labour. So the value of labour power is determined outside capitalism, social structure essay, in non-capitalist units social structure essay maintain and reproduce labour power…families. Corporations produce wealth in the form of goods and services and a can last well beyond an individuals life span. Capitalism is a powerful institution with holds on the economy, social structure essay, political state and family as well.
The payment of wages allows the corporations to grow and continue to produce goods and exploit workers. Bailey, Families consume. In the modern era, social structure essay, most families are not units of production and consumption, mainly just consumption. They do not accumulate wealth, but simply take the wage and spend it on commodities that satisfy their needs. As Karl Marx put it, "if I exchange a commodity [labour power] for money, buy a commodity for it and satisfy my need, then the act is at an end.
The family, unless it has property, will inevitably decline to be replaced or reborn in new formations down the generations. Wages earned allow families to survive and reproduce labour power, in the form of children. It is the children that will outlive the family and become the new labour power, social structure essay. Working for wages allows those with economic activity to support the non-wage-earning members of the household, young and old, caring and dependent.
In the spirit of support the family acts with altruism to aid reproduction and in turn this aids the reproduction of the capitalist enterprise. Smith, Marx put it like this :, social structure essay. a necessary condition to the reproduction of social structure essay. Smith, If Marx is correct in his ideology then the family will be forever in the service of the controllers of the economic and political states.
Already the family is related to these two institutions in a number of ways. As already stated above, the family of today is primarily a consumption unit, social structure essay, while the economic state is filled with units of production and consumption as well, it produces wages and employment.
Other creations of economy are; capitalist welfare programs company housing, welfare, pension programscorporate taxes and employer contributions. The families main tie to the economic state is through labour power. Jack Wayne, in his essay "The function of Social Welfare in a Capitalist Economy" writes:.
The reproduction of labour power is, however, private; it generally takes place outside the jurisdiction of capital, in families and households, and is separated from the circuit of capital. The only point social structure essay intervention available to the capitalist is the wage.
It is the wage social structure essay ties the economic state and family together, social structure essay, and allows the corporations or as Marx calls them capitalists to harness the labour power for their own needs. There is only one form of labour that is not totally governed by the capitalist market and that is domestic labour.
Domestic labour is characterized by a very low level of division of labour. The same person usually the housewife does a range of activities which, in the social spheres are carried out by specialists. Some examples of this are catering, education and health businesses. Secondly the products of domestic labour do not have to be sold on the market for the labour to be recognized at useful.
This makes domestic labour a non-market production. Lastly the labour-power is not offered on a market and therefor makes up non-waged labour. Social structure essay tied in with the economic state is the political state. The taxes from the economic market feed the collective consumption of the government and legislation and boards from the government provide occupational health and safety standards.
The government also provides a stabling influence on the changing economy. As far as the family is concerned the State provides redistribution of transfer payments and substitute wage programs. The government also strengthens the social welfare net and provides charity and philanthropy to those in need. Labour market regulation allows the regulation of child labour laws and gives more bargaining power to families and wage earners.
One major form of this is the ability to strike and discuss minimum wage legislation. It took Ontario twenty years to give its provincial residents the same right. Households and families units of ,individual consumption, use this increase in labour power to provide more taxes, if not out of the good of their hearts then for government stability, to the political state. Thus, the family unit helps balance social structure essay power struggle the government has with the ever increasing economic sphere in a symbiotic relationship.
In "The State and the Maintenance of Patriarchy: A case study of family, labour and welfare legislation in Canada", social structure essay, Jane Ursel writes:. An important role of the state in class societies is to ensure a balanced allocation of labour and non-labour resources between the two spheres of production and reproduction so that the system is maintained both in the long and short term…. the state is the guarantor of the rules of class and the rules of patriarchy and must insure that one system does not disrupt the other.
The government uses its control to regulate and perpetuate the status quo and the family is a part of that. However, she does not believe that the patriarchal system is all bad, social structure essay. She continues to write:. Patriarchy is important because the state cannot inspite of some ill-fated attempts legislate procreation. It must instead set up a system via social structure essay, property and marriage laws which will serve to translage social and economic requirements into compelling household imperatives.
The characteristic feature of familial patriarchy is its pronatalist dynamic, social structure essay. This results from the nature of the interaction between class and patriarchy which creates a dterminant relation between productivity and procreation at the household level.
According to what has been discussed so far the definition of a family would be a non-capitalist unit in which the maintenance and reproduction of labour power takes place.
Bailey, 34 The Websters Dictionary describes a family as "a group of related things or people". Statistics Canada, Because the governments definition of family lets several groups that may still be considered families "slip through the cracks", this gives bargaining power to the family unit yet again to change government regulation.
The Canadian government still does not recognize same sex couples, three generations living in the same household and individuals living apart from spouses and children. In, individuals aged lived with non-relatives, in institutions, or by themselves.
One aspect of the political sphere that the family continually challenges is gender equality. Starting with the latter part of the nineteenth century where waves of feminist protest.
began throughout the western world. One of the first cases early feminists argued before the government was their collective right to vote. As early as in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba women were given the right to vote, this increased the families power with swaying the political sphere…it essentially doubled it.
Women in families are not the only ones who have argued with the political sphere and won some political rights, social structure essay. Some Gay families or same-sex couples have won the right to adopt children and in some American states get married. The Modern family depends heavily on the all the institutions of society social structure essay support.
Where in the past the family was independent, now it needs the bonds created through long access to each sphere either political or economic. The labour power social structure essay by the family unit gives it he bargaining power to compete head to head with the ever growing and dominant labour market and government bureaucracy. But because the family is the smallest group and is based on individual consumption it can seem over-taxed when dealing with mighty corporations and large political states.
However, in the global market-place the power lies in the hands of those that control the labour and the consumption.
What is Social Structure
, time: 15:01Social Structure Essay ⋆ Sociology Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire
Dec 10, · One’s essay will explain the social structure of America’s society by identifying the class system that are based on personal income, education obtained, and occupation status. The top level in the American class system is the upper class. These individuals own land, stocks and bond, and other assets Essay on Social Structure. Words10 Pages. This essay will begin by describing the three spheres that tie society together. The main institution of society is the family or household which is broken up into thousands of units. Secondly, it will discuss the economic institution and its ties to the family. The use of labour power and how that effects the power struggle with the capitalist marketplace will also be Essay: Social Structure. This essay will begin by describing the three spheres that tie society together. The main institution of society is the family or household which is broken up into thousands of units. Secondly, it will discuss the economic institution and its ties to the family. The use of labour power and how that effects the power struggle with the capitalist marketplace will also be
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