University of Technology,

Jamaica

Research Methodologies

A discussion of the statement “Society is an arena for inequality that generates conflict and

change” in relation to our own society.

Name: Roneil Napier

Group: B. Eng 3E (Art.)

ID No.: 9712441

Date: February 10, 2010

 Acknowledgement

I wish to extend my profound gratitude to the following people for their wonderful

support in my writing of this article:

My debt goes deep to my girlfriend, Latoyce Dawes, for her patience when I was

preoccupied with this assignment and for helping me to gather the necessary information. I

would also like to thank my mother, Laverne Napier, for her assistance in the organization and

putting together of this article.

 One of the lines of a renowned song that Peter Tosh (1974), famous Jamaican song writer

and singer penned was ‘there can be no peace without justice; what we need is equal rights and

justice.’ More than thirty years since that song was written, the people in the Jamaican society

are still crying out for justice. One might be led to believe that as the general standard of living

improves in time, inequality would slowly become less evident. However, although things are

improving with time, evidence of inequality is still prominent in our Jamaican society. The

people that are failing to realize that there is still inequality are the fortunate ones. They rise well

above the poverty line, and usually live relatively economically sound lives. They are the people

who are supplied with our society's benefits. Those that are in pursuit of social change, and

constantly bring attention to issues of equal rights and privileges, are often the people who do not

have them. They are the ones who suffer daily from different levels of inequality.

According to conflict theorists, “Society is an arena for inequality that generates conflict

and change.” This statement suggests that cultural systems do not address human needs equally,

thus allowing some people to dominate others. It emphasizes struggle over limited resources,

power, and prestige as permanent aspects of societies and a major source of social change. Karl

Marx (1818-83), a renowned theorist, studied social conflict for a great portion of his life with an

attempt not only to understand society, but also to reduce the social inequality in it. A conflict

analysis of our own Jamaican society reveals characteristics of social inequity in many different

forms, with the prominent areas being Education, Class, Gender, and Race.

Education is defined as, ‘the acquisition of knowledge and the learning of skills.’ It is, as

we know, one of the most effective avenues for ensuring employment and an increase in income,

which adds up to higher status or social class. Our own educational system, however, shows how

schooling carries class inequality from one generation to the next. For example, secondary
schools differentiate between students by making decisions about what exams to enter them for,

and what streams to place them in. But conflict analysis argues that streaming often has less to

do with talent than with social background, so that more affluent students are placed in higher

streams while poor children end up in the lower streams. These procedures do not uphold the

‘ideal of equal access to educational opportunities for those of equal ability’ (A. Cicourel and J.

Kitsuse), and can adversely influence the options open to students and the extent of their

progress. In this way, young people from privileged families get the best schooling, which leads

them to college and, later, to high-income careers. The children of poor families, by contrast, are

not prepared for college and, like their parents before them, typically get stuck in low-paying

jobs. In both cases, the social standing of one generation is passed on to the next, with schools

justifying the practice in terms of individual merit (Bowles & Gintis, 1976; Oakes, 1982, 1985).

A student’s progress can also be affected in other ways apart from teachers determining

what classes they are placed in and what courses they are given to do. Two related theories, the

‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ and the ‘labeling theory’, suggest that a student’s behavior can be

directly influenced by the way the teacher reacts to them. The labeling theory suggests the

attachment of stereotypes to students. The theory of the self fulfilling prophecy argues that

predictions made by teachers about future success or failure of students will tend to come true for

the reason that the prediction was made. The teacher defines the student in a particular way, such

as ‘bright’ or ‘dunce’. Based on this definition, the teacher makes predictions about the behavior

of the student, for example, he or she will get high or low grades. As a direct result of the

definition of the students, the teacher’s interaction with the students will be influenced and is

manifested where, for example, higher quality work will be expected and greater encouragement

given to the ‘bright’ student. The student’s self-concept will tend to be shaped by the teacher’s
definition and thus, he or she will tend to see themselves as ‘bright’ or ‘dunce’ and act

accordingly. Their actions will, in part, be a reflection of what the teacher expects from them.

Since prehistory, our society has perceived hierarchy among its members. There exists a

universal social classification of people by wealth, power or prestige; by ability, education, or

occupation; even by where they live. According to Marx, ‘society is constructed from classes. In

all societies, except the simplest, there are two major classes. It is people’s relationship to the

means of production that determines which class they belong to. The most powerful class is that

which owns the means of production, (land, labour, factories) and the least powerful is that

which has to sell its labour to make a living.’ The sociologist Max Weber also argued that,

‘social class was a function of differential wealth, political power, and status.’ Class is the main

organizing principle of modern capitalist societies, the mechanism by which power, privilege and

inequality are distributed and institutionalized. Here in Jamaica, the realities of social class have

changed over time. The term "social class" originally referred to groups of people holding similar

roles in the economic processes of production and exchange, such as landowner or tenant,

employer or employee. Such positions correspond to different levels of status, prestige, and

access to political power. Social class eventually took on a more generic meaning and came to

refer to all aspects of a person's rank in the social hierarchy.

Some have argued that class is a less important divider than factors such as gender,

education, and ethnicity, but it can be strongly argued that all these factors, along with wealth,

are the components that make up social class. They determine to a large extent people's class

position and are themselves heavily influenced by class, thus profoundly influencing life chances

and expectations. Class may be about self-identity and egotism, but it is primarily about

inequality: the unjustifiable distribution of opportunity, wealth, and power.

 For a minority of individuals, there is a mythology of equal opportunity in Jamaica and

class mobility. The reality is that social class limits the life chances of most people in our

society. Class is cyclical and therefore ‘keeps people in their place’, that is, people in the top

stratum (upper class) will remain there, with the same being true for people in the bottom stratum

(lower class). Though true mobility is possible, it is rare, and can be downward as well as

upward. The realities of class mobility in Jamaica are that movement occurs laterally or up and

down within the same strata, not between classes, and the disadvantaged groups remain

disadvantaged. The extremes of class are moving further and further apart. The growth of a self-

perpetuating underclass, namely the poor, unemployed, chronically ill, aged pensioners and

single parents (mostly women), further contributes to social division and powerlessness.

Superficially, class within our society is about how you speak, where you live and how much

wealth you have displayed at any given time.

Gender in our society is one of the universal dimensions on which status differences are

based. It is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and

women are to follow. In many ways, our way of life places men in positions of power over

women. According to Friedrich Engels (1902, orig. 1884), capitalism makes male domination

even stronger. Capitalism creates more wealth, which gives greater power to men as income

earners and owners of property. In the home, men are usually considered the "head of

household", while society assigns women the task of maintaining the home to free men to work

in factories and other places of employment. Our expanding capitalist economy depends on

turning people, especially women, into consumers who seek personal fulfillment through buying

and using products. Even in the entertainment sector, men hold most positions of power and

women are transformed into their sexual and economic properties. As Alan Wolfe observed in
"The Gender Question" (The New Republic, June 6:27-34), "of all the ways that one group has

systematically mistreated another, none is more deeply rooted than the way men have

subordinated women. All other discriminations pale by contrast." There is a continued projection

of negative and degrading images of women in media communications - electronic, print, visual

and audio in our society. Print and electronic media most often do not provide a balanced picture

of women's diverse lives and contributions to society in our changing world. In addition, violent

and degrading or pornographic media products, for example, the popular Passa Passa dances sold

as DVD videos, are also negatively affecting Jamaican women and their participation in the

wider Caribbean society.

Though more women in our society have moved into the workforce over the last few

decades, and have moved into a broader and more highly skilled range of occupations, they are

still concentrated in those occupations traditionally dominated by women, for example, nursing

and teaching. Despite their heavy representation, only a small percentage of managers and

administrators are women, despite the fact that educational statistics have shown that the

Jamaican woman is more educated than her male counterpart. Jamaica has a highly segregated

labour force, which has remained relatively unchanged over the last few years. Segregation by

job type and managerial level has implications for women in terms of earnings, employment

opportunities and for their access to positions of authority and decision making. The real issue of

gender equality is not one of outcomes because many women choose to take on the role of

mother or home-maker. The issue is opportunities: a woman who has the ability to enter any

occupation and is prepared to undertake the requisite training should have the absolute right to

do so. Her gender should not be a factor limiting her opportunities.

 Racial and ethnic relations are seen nearly all over the world as a prime moving force

behind social conflict as well as change. Though racial discrimination is now less common in our

society, race, more loosely defined as colour, is closely linked to social position, and jointly

presents the major issues of status that constitute a Jamaican sense of hierarchy. The existence of

different races and cultures within our society is thought to contribute to economic inequality. It

is commonly considered that white and light coloured people have numerous social advantages

over black people, including on average, better jobs and thus higher incomes. Studies have

shown that even in Education, lighter coloured children of the middle class have used

educational reforms to further secure their advantage over black children of the same ‘class’.

The prominence of the whites and Chinese in strategic and very visible sectors of

Jamaica’s urban economy, clearly contributes to the degree of conflict orientation towards them

on the part of the lower stratum of society. The highest perceptions of conflict with racial groups

occur in the lower class which is the most materially dispossessed layer of society. This suggests

a clear link between race privilege, material dispossession and racial resentment. Insights of race

conflicts are rooted in unequal distribution of material affluence between the racial groups.
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