Social Inequality Still Relevant Today

Social inequality has been a prevalent part of society throughout history. While the force behind social inequality may have changed, inequalities have persisted. Through the gradual changes within the way society thinks, the history of inequality has been able to further change and accept some factors of social inequality, such as education, ethnic and cultural. Although there has been an evolution of thought about how society functions, there is still evident inequalities widespread throughout today’s society such as education, race and ethnicity. Social inequality refers to the way in which individuals or groups are positioned within regards to access to a variety of social ‘goods’ such as work and education, other forms of inequality relate

Inequality is still a prominent, relevant and perhaps controversial topic in today’s society, and although the main forces behind inequality may have changed, there is still a question around what shapes equality and how inequality operates.

Karl Marx’s theory of class, more often known as the conflict theory, described inequality as being structural. Ownership of wealth and the control of material possessions creates a society that is separated and made up into two groups or classes, ’the haves’ and ‘the have-nots’. The haves being the more powerful, and dominant groups that tends to use their authority in order to retain power and control or exploit groups for their own gain. The groups that are exploited the ‘the have not's’ are considered to be the lower class and therefore have less power (Wright et. al,1977, Van Kriken et. al, 2017). Throughout history, Karl Marx’s theory has been used to explain conflicting classes within society. If we apply Karl Marx’s theory of class to modern day societies, we can still see the inequality of class systems as a

Although Weber did not agree with parts of Marx’s theory, he was greatly influenced by Marx’s work, modernising and recreating the theory of inequality (Bendix, 1974, Van Kriken et, al, 2017). Marx saw inequality based on wealth and control of material possessions whereas Max Weber saw it in three dimensions; class, status and party which created and influenced inequality with society. Weber explained that class related to the inequality of work and economic value, status related to inequalities by judging each other, and party related to politics in the broadest sense. Weber’s main difference from Marx was how status was formed. Weber states that status is not only a personal matter is it something that is dependent on group affiliation. Weber’s multidimensional theory of inequality is still relevant is explaining certain aspects of social inequality in society today, Although Weber did not agree with parts of Marx’s theory, it is believed that he was greatly influenced by Marx’s work, modernising and recreating the theory of inequality. Status created a tendency to judge and critique people by their affiliation with certain social groups. In Australian society, this type of inequality can be seen in how ethnic and cultural group are perceived within society and those perceptions can create