INTRODUCTION
The study of social inequalities is a mainstay of sociology. There
are many types of inequalities, such as power, wealth, poverty, income, social
class, education, occupation, gender, race and ethnicity, age, and even region
on a local and global level. Central to this field of study is the notion that
scarce and valued resources (such as education, property, power, and wealth)
are unevenly distributed among individuals and groups in society. Most
sociologists agree that there is a small and powerful corporate and political
elite in society, a larger but somewhat less powerful and wealthy professional
middle class, and a still larger working class consisting of clerical and
service workers, and skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled blue-collar
labourers. At the bottom are the poor and homeless, without a decent
standard of living by society’s standards and no influence or power. There is a
high incidence of poverty among the elderly and single women, as well as among
racial and ethnic minorities. These inequalities affect students in their daily
lives. The amount of debt carried by university students often depends on
their own socio-economic background and the ability of their parents to help
with their finances.
SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES ON CLASS, ETHNICITY AND GENDER
1. CONFLICT PERSPECTIVES
The classical conflict
perspective pioneered by Karl Marx saw all forms of inequality
subsumed under class conflict. For Marx, issues related to race and ethnicities
are secondary to class struggle.
Other early conflict theorists saw
racial and ethnic conflict as more
central. Sociologist
Ludwig Gumplowicz, in Grundriss der Soziologie (Outlines of Sociology,
1884), described how civilization
has been shaped by conflict between cultures
and ethnic groups,
theorizing that large complex human societies
evolved from war and conquest.
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.
Conflict theorists argue that
stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society.
According to conflict theory, social stratification benefits the rich and
powerful at the expense of the poor. Thus, it creates a system of winners and
losers that is maintained by those who are on the top. The people who are
losers do not get a fair chance to compete, and thus are stuck on the bottom.
For example, many wealthy families
pay low wages to nannies to care for their children, to gardeners to attend to
their rose gardens, and to maids to pick up their dirty socks. These low wage
workers do not make enough to move beyond a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle, and
have no means to move ahead. Therefore, conflict theorists believe that this
competitive system, together with the way the game is "fixed", ends
up creating and perpetuating stratification systems.
According to conflict theory, capitalism,
an economic system based on free-market competition, particularly benefits the
rich by assuming that the "trickle down" mechanism is the best way to
spread the benefits of wealth
across society. Governments that promote capitalism often establish corporate
welfare through direct subsidies, tax breaks,
and other support that benefit big businesses. They assume that the market will
allow these benefits to the rich to make their way to the poor through
competition. For example, the Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart, receives
enormous tax breaks. Whether the benefits of these tax breaks have made their way
down to ordinary people through better business practices
or better working conditions for Wal-Mart employees is questionable. Conflict
theorists would argue that they haven't, but rather have been used by the
Walton family to solidify the patterns of stratification that keep the family
rich.
Functionalists criticize this approach
by arguing that people do not always act largely out of economic self-interest.
For example, Chuck Feeney, the creator of Duty Free Shoppers, has given $4
billion to charities. Bill Gates has given 58% of his wealth to charity.
Functionalists also argue that conflict theorists underestimate people's
ability to move upward in society. They argue that if people really want to
succeed, they can do so through hard work.
2. FUNCTIONALISTS PERSPECTIVES
The
Functionalists sees social inequality as being necessary for
the survival of any society or for any small or large organization. It is
argued that without this inequality, division of labour would be difficult (not
everyone can be team captain). It is also argued that to attract people to both
the important and less important roles there must be variation in rewards that
motivates individuals to make the effort needed to gain the top positions.
Compare conflict perspective of social inequality.
3. INTERSECTIONALITY/ FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES
Intersectionality is a feminist sociological
theory first highlighted by leading critical theorist thinker
Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989). The theory proposes that different biological,
social, and cultural factors, such as gender, race, and class, do not operate
in isolation of one another. Rather, they are interrelated, forming a system of
oppression that consists of different forms of discrimination.
W. E. B. Du Bois theorized that the
intersectional paradigms of race, class, and nation might explain certain
aspects of Black political economy. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins writes
"Du Bois saw race, class, and nation not primarily as personal identity
categories but as social hierarchies
that shaped African American access to status,
poverty,
and power" (2000 Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics
of Empowerment, 42).
CLASS/SOCIAL
CLASS
Social class (or simply "class"), as in a class
society, is a set of concepts in the social
sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are
grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories,[1]
the most common being the upper, middle,
and lower classes.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CLASS IN POLITICS
Social class impacts one's level of political
participation and political influence.
Political participation refers to whether or not a person votes in elections,
donates to campaigns, or attends public forums where decisions are made, such
as town meetings or city council meetings, for example. Political influence
refers to the extent to which one's political participation achieves its
desired results. For example, if one attends a public forum, is their opinion
likely to be heard, or if they donate money, is a politician likely to support
their desired policy?
Wealthy, well-educated individuals are
more likely to vote and to donate money to politicians than lower class
individuals. This trend means that middle and upper class individuals have
greater political participation and greater political influence than those in
lower positions. Additionally, higher status people are more likely to hold
political positions than lower class people.
Those who vote as members of a social
class can be said to be participating in identity politics. Identity politics
is a phenomenon that arose first at the radical margins of liberal
democratic societies
in which human rights
are recognized, and the term is not usually used to refer to dissident
movements within single-party or authoritarian states.
Some groups
have combined identity politics and Marxist
social class analysis and class
consciousness. During the 1980s, the politics of identity became
very prominent and was linked with new social
movement activism.
ETHNICITY
An ethnic
group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral,
social, cultural or national experience. Unlike most other social groups,
ethnicity is primarily an inherited status. Membership of an ethnic group tends
to be defined by a shared cultural
heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland,
language and/or dialect,
symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.
ROLE OF
ETHNICITY IN POLITICS
There have been numerous efforts in defining what ethnicity is all
about. In Eghosa Osaghae’s view, ethnicity involves “the employment and or
mobilization of ethnic identity or difference to gain advantage in situations
of competition, conflict or cooperation.”
Similarly,
Okwudiba Nnoli argues that “ethnicity arises when relations between groups are
competitive rather than co-operative. It is characterized by cultural prejudice
and political discrimination.”
The foregoing definitions imply that ethnicity is neither natural
nor accidental, but it is the product of a conscious effort by social actors.
It is also evident that ethnicity is not only manifest in conflictive or
competitive relations, but also in the contexts of cooperation.
POLITICS
Politics is a pervasive human endeavour that prevails in all
spheres of life that is as old as human history. Given the nature and character
of politics, it has witness a plethora of definitions.
Politics has however been defined by Harold Lasswell as an
empirical science that studies the shaping and sharing of power about “who gets
what, when and how.” This implies that politics extend beyond the realm of
State affairs. It therefore bothers on whether power – the main object of
politics – is obtained as an end in itself to ensure binding decisions or as a
means to an end.
CAUSES OF
ETHNIC CONFLICTS
Seven
likely causes of ethnic conflicts in our communities as identified by Otite
(1990) are;
1) The struggle for land space and the resource
available.
2) Disputed jurisdiction of certain traditional
rulers and chiefs. Where a king of one ethnic or sub-ethnic group claims ruler
ship over people belonging to another ethnic group;
3) Creation of new local government councils and
the location of their headquarters;
4) Ethnic and individual or sectional competition
over access to scarce political and economic resources;
5) The micro and macro social structures in
Nigeria;
6) Population growth and expansionist tendencies to
sustain ethnic-bound occupations -a type of conflict popular amongst the users
of land resources ; and;
7) The perception or
disregard for cultural symbols and the “pollution” of cultural practices.
A major dominant and perhaps
powerful factor is poverty, which is a manifested in unemployment and deterioration of infrastructure. Both
unemployment and deterioration of infrastructure provide the bedrock for ethnic conflicts.
TYPES OF ETHNIC CRISIS /CONFLICTS IN KADUNA STATE
Most of the ethnic conflicts generally
referred to as ethnic conflicts in Kaduna are not really so. In fact, most of them have nothing to do with ethnicity as they did
not arise because the parties belong to different ethnic groups. Many
factors such as religion, demographic explosion and struggle for scarce
resources or state power could precipitate
these conflicts. But what makes them look like ethnic conflicts or lends
credence to the claims that they are
ethnic conflicts is the fact that the contestants belong to different ethnic or
sub-ethnic groups. (Adebayo
2006:91). The contestants do not attack each other because of their ethnic
backgrounds, but rather on mere personalized or personified issues. Such
issues and may not in any way have direct effect on the whole ethnic groups.
The conflict starts on individual rather than ethnic bases but usually when
such issues escalate, the close ethnic
member become fully involved (Adebayo 2006:91).
(i)
Intra Ethnic Conflict:- This is conflict within
the same ethnic or sub-ethnic group living within the same boundary or different boundaries.
Political, religious, economic issues and so on, could precipitate such conflict.
(ii)
Inter-Ethnic Conflict:- This may also occur between two different
ethnic groups living within the same geo-political
boundary or different boundaries. Various issues such as citing of local
government headquarters, religion,
and marginalization and so on could cause such conflict (Adebayo 2006:91).
(iii)
Ethnic-Religious Clashes:- Partly because of their tendency to spill
over from their initial theatres into other
localities, states, or even regions of the federation ethno religious clashes
have proven to be the most violent instances of inter-group crisis in Nigeria.
GENDER
Gender is the range of characteristics
pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity
and femininity.
Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex (i.e. the state of
being male, female or intersex), sex-based social
structures (including gender roles
and other social roles),
or gender identity. Sexologist John Money
introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in
1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer
to anything but grammatical categories.
EFFECTS OF GENDER
IN POLITICS
Women’s participation in politics and government, however, remains
limited. Although their parliamentary representation has steadily increased
over the past decade, gender parity in politics at all levels is still a long
way off. By July 2006, women accounted for just fewer than 17 per cent of
parliamentarians worldwide. Ten countries have no women parliamentarians at
all, and in more than 40 others, women account for less than 10 per cent of
legislators. At current annual rates of growth in the proportion of women
members of national parliaments – about 0.5 per cent worldwide – gender parity
in national legislatures will not be achieved until 2068.
The under-representation of women at the ministerial level and in
local government is even more marked than in national legislatures. As of
January 2005, women accounted for just over 14 per cent of government ministers
worldwide. Nineteen governments had no women ministers at all, and among those
governments that did include women, most had a token presence of around one to
three women ministers. As of March 2006, only three countries – Chile, Spain
and Sweden – had achieved gender parity in ministerial portfolios. At the local
level, women account for less than 1 in 10 of the world’s mayors.
There are, however, some encouraging trends in women’s
participation at the highest level of national politics. Sub-Saharan Africa has
its first woman president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, and Michelle
Bachelet was elected to the presidency of Chile in early 2006. Latvia became
the first former Soviet Republic to choose a female president as chief of state
in 1999. Finland, Ireland and the Philippines also currently have women
presidents. Women are heads of government in Bangladesh, Germany, Jamaica, New
Zealand, Mozambique, Netherlands Antilles and the Republic of Korea.
POLITICS IN KADUNA STATE
In many ways, the politics of Kaduna State
mirrors that of the country not only because the state is sharply divided along
religious lines but also because of its ethnic composition that engenders a
fierce competition for power between the geo-political sections. Even at that,
the significance of Kaduna goes beyond its locality, essentially because it
has, for decades, been the political headquarters of the North.
However, while the politics of the state has
always been fascinating, never in recent history have we had the kind of
situation that obtains today when some charlatans, who parade themselves as
political leaders, would be selling all manner of dubious stories. Even when
most people know that the forebears of some of these characters hail from
Niger, Chad, Cameroun etc, that fact has never been an issue against them. But
now, out of desperation, they want to divide the North with their half-digested
“historical tales” that are neither here nor there, in the bid to get at the
Vice President.
In what is no more than sheer political
chicanery (the use of
deception achieve one's purpose), a former elected
governor of Kaduna State has suddenly become an “alien” in the state he ruled
only until less than four years ago just because of the inordinate ambitions of
some politicians. That sort of politics should have no place in any decent
society and it says so much about the character of those behind the campaign of
calumny (the making of false and defamatory
statements about someone in order to damage their reputation; slander.) that they would rather hide behind
the anonymity of faceless groups to do their dirty work.
Ordinarily, it would not have mattered if the
essence of the madness is merely to profit from the electioneering season. But
the agenda of the politicians in question is more sinister than that: they are
bent on bringing others down in the bid to promote their own interests. And in
doing that, nothing seems sacred to them so long as the end justifies the
means.
REFERENCES
1. Sernau, Scott (2013). Social
Inequality in a Global Age (4th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN 978-1452205403.
2. Rugaber, Christopher S.; Boak, Josh
(January 27, 2014). "Wealth
gap: A guide to what it is, why it matters". AP News.
Retrieved January 27, 2014.
3. Walker, Dr. Charles. "New Dimensions
of Social Inequality". www.ceelbas.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
4. Deji, Olanike F. (2011). Gender and
Rural Development. London: LIT Verlag Münster. p. 93. ISBN 978-3643901033.
5. Adebayo,
A. (2006), “Ethnic Conflicts and Nigerian’s Democracy and Development
(1999-2004)” in Hassan S. et’al (eds )
Democracy and Development in Nigeria
(Vol. 3), Social Issues &
External Relations, Lagos . Concept Publication Limited.
6. Adebisi,
M.A. (2002) “Ethnic Relations and Politics
in Nigeria”, In Igum, U.A. and A.A
Mordi, (eds ) Contemporary Social Problems in Nigeria, Ijebu-ode:
Sebiotimo Publication.
7. Chabal C. (1992), “Power in Africa: An Essay in Political
Interpretation” New York. Saint Martin’s Press.
8. Source: Boundless. “Politics.” Boundless
Sociology. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 10 Feb. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/stratification-inequality-and-social-class-in-the-u-s-9/the-impacts-of-social-class-77/politics-460-4972/
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