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Functional Theories Of Inequality In Society

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Exam #2 Functional theories of social stratification offer and explanation as to how and why inequality is not only necessary, but it benefits society. Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore’s labor market theory intends to showcase how inequality is positively functional within a human society. Their theory is summarized through seven points that encompass what, and how society as a mechanism is able to function, as long as all positions or jobs remain occupied. With their theory they explain how inequality and social stratification remain prevalent factors in an industrial society. Although their theory offers an explanation on how hierarchical stratification has a place in society critiques soon followed. Critiques on their unsound logic have …show more content…
Those sacrifices are made by those that are undergoing the training rather than other individuals or society as a whole. Differing positions have their distinct period of trainings, they are not all the same; thus, the periods of sacrifices for the trainee are different. The fourth point deals with the fact that society must entice individuals to undergo the require training. Society lures individuals by establishing that once their training is over they will have disproportionate access to the scarce rewards society offers. Whether those rewards come in the form of monetary aspirations, or a prestige positions, they are to be attained after the training period has been completed (Kerbo …show more content…
Those scarce resource firstly make it so that the individual is comfortable within a society reviving adequate nourishment that enable them to perform their function within society; secondly they give way to recreational activities that bring amusement into the individuals life; and thirdly they get a boost in the prestige society has for them (Kerbo 2012).
The sixth point Davis and Moore make is how the differing access to scarce resources generates institutionalized social inequality, or social stratification within a society. Hierarchies are a consequent of the differential prestige and allocation of scarce resources that takes place in society. The access and individual has to the rewards society has result in inequality across society that stratifies positions and individuals within a society (Kerbo

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