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Before talking about football hooliganism, it first must be clear how this phenomenon is defined. What is football hooliganism? In the literature many definitions are given, but actually none of them really covers the whole problem, we believe. The main reason for that is that hooliganism is something that has expanded all over the world which makes it is a very complicated problem actually. Between the countries, and even within countries and clubs, there are many differences. For example: some hooligan groups are very well organised, others not; one group is more violent than the other; some violence is directly related to sport, other not, etc. So you can say that hooliganism is many-sited and worldwide, what makes it a very complex problem. Eric Dunning stated that there actually is no precise definition of football hooliganism: “it lacks legal definition, precise demarcation of membership and is used to cover a variety of actions which take place in more or less directly football-related contexts” (Spaaij, 2005). We take this as our starting point in this paper, showing that the problem is very complicated and very hard to attack.

To Guilianotti there are two important ‘types’ of football violence. Some violent behaviour can be called spontaneous, other violence is more organized. The first type, the spontaneous violence can be caused by a ‘wrong’ decision of the referee for example or even by a wrong “word” of someone. These are situations that couldn’t be foreseen and it can lead to total chaos. It is very dangerous and it requires a fast reaction of the police. The latter type, the organised violence, may even be more dangerous and larger of size. ‘The battlefield’ in Beverwijk Holland is a good example of this type of violence. Two hooligan groups (Ajax and Feyenoord hooligans) met each other at an open field and fought with each other. The rest is history; one man died. Even today this event has a great impact. But this is only one example, and so many other examples can be mentioned here to illustrate the problem of well-organised hooligan fights against other groups and the police. Even innocent people, like father and son, are not safe anymore in those situations. Through the years many things had changed and organisation of violent behaviour actually became easier due to the internet and mobile telephones for example. Another point is that the stadium is not the anonymous place anymore as it used to be in the past. The security had become a lot better, so it became harder to riot in the stadium itself. Rioters now find other, more anonymous places where they can still go on with their illegal activities. This makes it of course harder to control for the police. The preceding examples were just given to illustrate how difficult the phenomenon hooliganism is and how many problems it entails.

The above distinction by Guilianotti (spontaneous vs. organised) is a very general one and it does not cover the whole problem according to us. Spaaij makes several efforts to give a more precise definition of football hooliganism. By trying to conceptualize the phenomenon he had to deal with several problems. Below, some of most the relevant problems are briefly described to show how difficult it is to define hooliganism.

1. In the past hooligans mainly fought against other hooligans. Actually, nowadays there are a lot of examples where hooligans attacked the police or other innocent people, like ‘normal fans’. This is very dangerous of course because now nobody is safe anymore.

2. Where the violence used to be in and around the stadiums, now it more and more spread to all kind of other places like housparties, open fields and other locations that are not related to the sport. This shift in violence is probably due to the better security in and around the stadiums. So it really becomes a wider and more incontrollable problem. Like the first problem this is a very important point in this paper.

3. Football hooliganism not always means violence in the way of really attacking other people or demolishes all kinds of stuff. For al lot of so-called hooligans, group feeling is most important and violence is not a priority. To them it is all more symbolic opposition.

4. Like Guilianotti stated already, not all the incidents are well-planned. Actually there are a lot of situations where the violence was not planned at all. Like said before one single event can lead to a big riot. This is dangerous of course because of the ‘surprise element’ and it becomes harder to counter by the police. Many people, like the police, think that hooligan groups are always very well-organised, but this is definitely not always the case. The rate of organisation differs from country to country and even within countries and clubs there are many differences. Some groups have a real hierarchical (criminal) organisation, like in the army, while other groups just fight with almost no organisation at all. This is another point what makes it so difficult to define hooliganism.

Although, there is no precise definition of football hooliganism; almost everybody acknowledge the problem of the violence that seems to go hand in hand with this specific group of football ‘fans’. The last thirty years it really became a sociological problem en many efforts had been made to attack this so-called ‘English decease’. A lot of different prevention strategies led to a decrease of violent behaviour in and around the stadiums in many countries all over the world. But despite all the efforts that are made, hooliganism remains a disturbing problem (Spaaij, 2001). The next chapter describes some good working prevention strategies to counteract hooliganism.

How to prevent football hooliganism?

As mentioned in the introduction, football hooliganism is a very old phenomenon. “Even in the 1870s, when the game got its modern form in England, there was violent behaviour of spectators” (Dunning, 1986). But the last thirty, forty years the problems did become bigger and bigger and the phenomenon became a real societal problem. Something had to change and the authorities did a lot to prevent the violence that comes with hooliganism. But what is a good strategy to prevent this complex problem?

First, it must be clear that there is not a single strategy to fight hooliganism. In the previous chapter it was stated that there are a lot of differences between groups in every country and city. Every group has its own characteristics which entails different problems. So one has to look at the specific problems causes by an group and the

Spaaij gives some good working strategies

It is also important that there is an international and national exchange of prevention strategies. Good-working strategies in one city or nation could then be implemented in another city or nation for example. So, successful prevention of football hooliganism requires cooperation between a variety of institutions and agents, and also between football clubs and fan clubs. Their commitment is very important and the task is to continue the development to make even better strategies for the future .

Over the years many successful strategies are developed to prevent football violence. Like is said before these strategies came from all over the world thanks to the great effort of many relevant authorities. Now some four forms of prevention are discussed briefly. First, the police forces are discussed. There has been a change in policing football matches. It used to be very aggressive just responding to the problems as they arise. That’s why the police got a bad name, especially in Southern and Eastern Europe and in Latin America (Frosdick, Holford and Sidney, 1999). They used too much violence according to a lot of people and this had a counterproductive effect. So something had to change. The last ten years the policing changed into more proactive and intelligence-led, especially in Britain, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. This so called proactive and intelligence-led policing is advanced and appears to be very successful in these countries. Special police officers for example are closely monitoring the activities of hooligan groups. So the police forces are now trying really hard to prevent violence, whereas the old way of policing actually was just a reaction to the violence. Nevertheless, significant variations exist in the investments made in intelligence-led policing in different countries and in different localities (Spaaij, 2005). Second, fan projects as a prevention strategy. An important aim of a fan club is to improve the relationship between the hooligans and the club. However, it is difficult to determine the preventative effects of fan clubs. Evidence suggests that certain projects have improved the relationship between hooligans, clubs, youth workers and the police, and have prevented young fans from identifying with football hooliganism (Bieleman, De Jong, Naayer and Nijboer, 2004). But there are also hooligan groups who don’t want to be in a fan club. They want to distinguish themselves from regular fans and they will go on with their hooligan activities. Third, the football club itself has a major role in preventing hooliganism. For a very long time clubs where trying to please the hooligans, by giving them free tickets and an own territory within the stadium for example, because they were afraid of reprisals. All this favours only led to expansion of the group and that couldn’t have been the intention of the clubs (Spaaij and Vinas, 1996). So clubs have to make a statement, they have to take action, just like FC Barcelona did with their zero-tolerance policy for example.

Fourth, and finally, real football fans are important in the prevention of hooliganism. With their supporters’ organizations they can achieve a lot of good for the sport. They are against racism and violence and they cooperate with many institutes. Many of these supporters’ organizations contribute to conferences, debates or educational programmes promoting the positive social functions of sport. This is a very good thing, especially for young fans, because they are learning that violence is a bad thing and that this is not good for the sport.

References:

Dunning, Eric, Murphy, Patrick & Williams, John: “Spectator Violence at Football Matches: Towards a Sociological Eplanation”, 1986

Dunning, Eric: “Towards a sociological understanding of football hooliganism as a world phenomenon”, 2000

Giulianotti, Richard: “A different kind of carnival”, 2001

Spaaij, Ramon: “The prevention of football hooliganism: a transnational perspective”, 2005

Introduction

There is a long history of research into the effect of socioeconomic factors and deprivation on health. The spatial dimension where people live – is a major determinant of health inequalities, for example in terms of marked variations in life expectancy

( Mitchell et al 2005). One socioeconomic variable, the type of housing that people can afford to live in, is obviously related to income. Hence housing is thought to be one of the determinants of a person’s overall health and wellbeing in terms of both physical and psychological.

Fuel poverty can be defined as an individual being not capable of affording those resources to keep them in warm condition. Boardman (1991) defined fuel poverty as the inability of a household to acquire energy sources such as heating by using 1o percent of their household income. While the department of energy and climate change approach the same description of fuel poverty as a household to be in fuel poverty in case it needs to spend more than 10 percent of its income on fuel or on heating for sufficient warm ( 21 degrees for the main living area, and 18 degrees for other in use rooms). The living standard and people’s health can be damage while living in cold and damp houses. There is the possibility that elderly, children and people with a long term illness and disability are more susceptible to fuel poverty. The department of energy and climate change classifies fuel poverty into three main categories. (Department of energy and climate change, Addressing Fuel Poverty).

Poor condition of the energy efficiency in home

High energy prices and its affordability.

Low income status of the people

Dr. Noel DL Olsen (2001) described that “few people choose to live in cold damp homes that they cannot afford to heat well enough to protect their health. Yet for millions of British households this is the reality of poor quality housing, inefficient heating systems and inadequate building standards stretching back over generations.”

Aims:

The aim of the study is to understand and mapping of housing and heath determinants and their relationship in fueling poverty in Salford area of Greater Manchester.

Objectives:

To understand basic factors of housing and health inequalities

To understand how various housing and health inequalities fueling poverty

To understand the relationship of various factors using statistical analysis

Literature Review

The literature review will described the basic description of health and housing inequalities. The condition of housing includes a collection of characters that are integral to the status and well being of a family. Housing on the other hand must be in a state of safe and well-mannered conditions to represent a family life.

One of the most famous and influential sources here is John Snow’s study of clusters of cholera which were found to be caused by contaminated public water facilities in London (Hempel, 2007). This study will be important both in terms of its part in the then emerging field of public health, but also more recently as an illustration of the potential for GIS and spatial analysis techniques in that field. Other early works on the state of the emerging discipline of public health focused on the newly-industrializing slum communities of nineteenth century England. Manchester, the first industrial city, was a good example of this and accounts of the conditions there at that time have acquired totemic status. For example, Engels’ ‘Conditions of the working class in England’, (1987, originally published in 1844) formed part of the primary research which he and his colleague Marx used in their globally-influential economic and political analyses. One hundred and thirty years later, Roberts’ ‘Classic slum’ (1971) provided a first-hand account of someone growing up in Salford, the deprived area immediately to the North West of inner city Manchester, particularly the social and related health problems of its housing stock. However, although the relation between poor health and poor housing seems obvious because of the basic human need for shelter, Thomson et al (2001) comment in a systematic review of published literature of “despite, or perhaps because of this intuitive relation, good research evidence is lacking on the health gains that result from investment in housing”. Furthermore, Thomson et al (2001) described that “there is also a lack of comparative information on the costs and effects of specific housing improvements, such as central heating or major refurbishment. It is this type of evidence that is likely to be most valuable to policy makers and housing providers. Large scale studies that investigate the wider social context of housing improvements and their comparative effectiveness and cost effectiveness are now required.”

Fuel Poverty

Palmer et al. (2008) explained that “single-person households in England are much more likely to be in fuel poverty than couples or larger families, their risk being twice as high as the next highest household type, lone parents (in 2005, 15% compared with 7%). This applies to working-age singles as well pensioner singles. Because of their relatively high risk, two-thirds of the households in fuel poverty in 2005 in England were single-person households even though only a quarter of all households were single-person households.”

Housing, Health and Adequate heating

Boardman (1991) first described that fuel poverty are due to the causes of inability of adequate energy usage for adequate heating but on the same time Shortt and Rugkasa (2005) in their research explained that there is the complex relationship between other factors associated with the household such as income, adequate heating and how to use efficient use of the energy, in which case the failure occur when defining the fuel poverty. There has been an effect on person mental health due to poor and inadequate heating system. Poor housing and inadequate heating system lead to damp which causes most of the common health issues. The personal well being, mental health and physical health has been affected by damp conditions of a place. Such type of mental health effect on a person life has been suggested by Lowry (1991) describing that “the psychological consequences of having scrape mould off your walls everyday are obvious”.

A relationship between ill health and poor housing

It has been described by (Byrne et al., 1986) that impressive developments in housing sector were accompanied by the developments in health such as at younger age measured of the mortality or children growth and development and also by the declination in the occurrence of diseases associated with overcrowded houses and insanitary conditions. While Burridge and Ormandy (1993) described that there has been the revision of such relationship with in recent years. There is the declaration that due to the construction of as specific type of housing accommodation especially flatted, with no consideration to health criteria, without the needs of the prospective residents has had effects on health. Beside this ill health has been described as a physical manifesto which includes social and psychological effects. One of the local housing authority motivations and a aspiration for the improvement of working class health with the help of providing them with better housing, has resulted in recent decades new slums and health risks associated with it.

Boardman (1991) said that “people give priority to adequate heating, if they have sufficient income and therefore fuel poverty is a clear indicator of poverty. Whilst the concern is not necessarily true, it is reasonable to assume that most of those in poverty are restricted to the amount of fuel that they can purchase and thus are suffering from fuel poverty”. Health and well being of older people is crucial in terms of adequate warmth in their homes, mainly to avoid winter deaths among them (Wilkinson, et al, 2001). Where as Bates et al, (2001) illustrated that for inadequate heating the central heating is not only the just the suggestion but it is in association with the deprivation. From the above reports there is the indication that there is a significant relationship between poor health and other poor housing factors such as dampness, moulds and poor heating or no heating provisions.

Research Methodology:

There are many research methods from which to choose for a typical research methodology. In the research methodology there is the following general discussion on the conducting of the research and some understanding of type basic concept of the qualitative and quantitative methods. There are many research methods from which to choose from. Research methods are the technique of investigation used to conduct a study. They include the use of questionnaires, interviews, participant observation or field work with the community being studied together with the interpretation of official statistics and historical documents and other techniques not so widely used. Generally there are three main methodologies.

Qualitative methods

Van Maanen (1983) defines qualitative methods as “an array of interpretative technique which seek to describe, decode, and translate and other wise come to term with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in the natural world.”

Quantitative Methods

Easterby-smith et al (1995) described four main ways of gathering of quantitative data:

Interviews

Questionnaires

Tests/Measure

Observation

While they stress that the differences between quantitative and qualitative techniques is not always clear. Quantitative methodologies have an emphasis on the importance of basing research upon protocol and technique.

In this piece of research the author will rely on quantitative methodology in the form of secondary data through various sources of database. These databases will include census data to perform the analysis and find out the results.

The case study area: Salford, Greater Manchester

Manchester’s ‘twin city’, Salford, adjoins it across the River Irwell and shares much of its history. The wider Greater Manchester region is made up of ten metropolitan local authorities:

Bolton

Bury

Manchester (City of)

Oldham

Rochdale

Salford (City of)

Stockport

Tameside

Trafford

Wigan

The metropolitan authority known as the ‘City of Salford’ comprises 20 wards and has a population of 216,000. In this study GIS application will be used along with spatial analysis and statistical techniques to investigate the reality of fuel poverty in this area. This issue is important in policy terms because it seems likely to be a major problem for public health – and hence for the economy – because of the increasing proportion of elderly people in the population. Fuel poverty is worst among the oldest members of society, particularly those in deprived areas such as Salford. Areas like some parts of Salford also have a higher than average concentration of elderly people because younger people tend to leave the area to seek employment and training opportunities elsewhere.

Data and methods

The data on socio-economic conditions in Salford will be gathered along with the maps of the area using a variety of resources. Specifically, data on health, housing, family configuration and other conditions in Salford’s wards were obtained from the 2001 Census via NOMIS. Maps were obtained from Ordnance Survey and other sources.

Census data

In the census, ‘health’ will be chiefly covered by two questions. Firstly, responses confirm whether a person considers themselves to be in (a) ‘good health’, (b) ‘fairly good’ health or (c) not in good health. Secondly, data will be the available on whether respondents suffer from ‘limiting long-term conditions’. Some other variables will be envisaged may affect people’s health in this region. These were: whether housing accommodation provided, or did not provide, central heating; whether people lived as part of a couple or lived alone; and whether people were economically active or inactive (i.e were/were not in work, education or training).

Pollution data

Data on local pollution will be downloaded from the UK Air Quality website (UK NATIONAL AIR QUALITY ARCHIVE,). This will demonstrate the relationship between health and pollution. Pollutants included Nox, No2 and PM10.

Maps

These will be obtained from EDINA Ordnance Survey for both the Greater Manchester area as a whole and Salford’s constituent wards.

Statistical analysis of the results

The data will be analyzed using SPSS software, then using regression statistics to determine whether there is significance. The data will be modeled the extent to which health is affected by variables such as central heating, being economically active, living in a couple and so on. Map reports can be used to address the out come from the analysis of the geographical data.

Regression analysis:

In the following section there will be an analysis of results through regression analysis by using multiple variables. In SPSS a simple method “Analyze…. Regression…. Linearaˆ¦..” in each case will be followed. There will be the selection of different criterion (dependent) and the predictor (independent) variables and will used the multiple regression model four times. Multiple regression analysis (MRA) is a useful method for generating mathematical models where there are several (more than two) variables involved.

Multiple Regression analysis: the multivariate regression will be used for at least four times to analyze the relationship between various variable of housing and health inequalities. People in good health and unstanderised predicted variables. The multiple regressions will use run of people in good health as a dependent variable and various other in dependent factors as in a variable entered table.

Abuse can be defined as “to treat wrongfully or harmfully”. There are different categories of abuse that have been recognized and within our case study there appears to be two distinct forms of abuse, domestic abuse and child abuse. These can be sub divided into terms of physical abuse, emotional /psychological abuse, and non-organic failure to thrive. Physical abuse is the intentional inflicting of physical injury or harm or deliberately not preventing harm occurring.

The minimum physical signs seen in our study to both Mrs Black and James are bruising with suspect excuses for their appearance. Emotional abuse is the continual failure to meet basic emotional needs. Emotional development is stunted and well- being impaired. The emotional signs in our case study can be seen in James by his actions of being withdrawn and non-communicative. The behavioural sign to abuse taking place to James is his aggressive behaviour.

The short term effects of physical abuse to James are bruising and pain. In the long term recurring injuries can result in secondary illness and complications, permanent scarring and disfigurement. His emotional effects in the short term are a fear of adults or others, withdrawal, poor relationship with his peers. The long term emotional effects for James could be low self esteem, depression, inability to form relationships.

Abuse can arise for many reasons and there are a number of theoretical perspectives which may be useful in clarifying why the abuse has taken place. The Feminist perspective believes that gender and family roles gives approval to a culture of abuse. Consider the historical and stereotypical ideas of the family, with men, women and children having definite roles. With men having power and control in the perspective of abuse. In James case he lives in a reconstituted family with the father figure being dominant and a heavy drinker. From a psychological perspective, alcohol misuse can bring mental health problems which may increase aggression in the person and so James is more at risk from abuse by his step father. The family dysfunction theory suggests that the family is not functioning due to family dynamics. The dysfunctioning family attempts to find alternative ways of coping. The relationship between the mother and James, involves a dependency of James on his mother. With other problems in James mothers life, this leads to increasing stress and the inability of his mother to cope and manage the situation within the relationship. The attachment theory state that significant separations of a child from the carer in the early years can have an effect on their emotional development and can lead to psychological and social difficulties in later life. With the loss of both his father and his sisters` father with whom he was close, may have contributed to his deterioration of his behaviour

If a client begins to make a disclosure of abuse it is important to ensure privacy and confidentiality. It is necessary to show that listening skills are employed and that I remain calm and receptive. I must listen without interruption and make it clear that I am taking their disclosure seriously. I must only ask questions of clarification if I am unclear as to what the vulnerable adult is saying. It is important that I acknowledge their courage in coming forward and tell them that they are not responsible for the abuse. I must let it be known to them what I will do to help them and where possible get their consent to inform my line manager. I must speak to my client in comfortable and quiet surroundings. I would ask my client to sit down where I shall use SOLER techniques, which is on- verbal to aid in communication. Using the SOLER theory I would use the five basic components used in communication. I would sit squarely on at the table turned towards one another. I would adopt an open posture. I would lean forward slightly to convey to him that I am interested and committed to actively listen to him. I would sit so that we have regular but varied eye contact and that my client could see my facial expressions and gestures to aid in communication. I would maintain a relaxed manner. This would also let him know that I am involved in the situation. This adhered to our organizations policy on Confidentiality and the Data Protection Act of 1998 allowing my client to voice his concerns without worry and protected his privacy. I would inform him that they are not responsible for the abuse. I must let it be known to him what I will do to help him and where possible get his consent to inform my line manager. It is important that I make an immediate record of what the vulnerable adult has said, using only their own words. This should be recorded in the Incident Book, clearly, accurately and legibly, and then reported to the Line Manager who is responsible for any further action.

As we do not supply a care service, we are not required to register with the Care Commission, but we ensure all our policies and procedures meet their standards. As all clients under these standards are legally allowed an individualized care plan, we instead have an activity plan. The policy and procedures on abuse of our organisation are underpinned by the National Care Standards which were set up under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. This Act came about to regulate the care and social work force and set out the principals of good care practice. The Care Commission was set up under this Act to register, regulate and inspect all care services listed in the Act. It also established The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). (ref1)The SSSC has aims and objectives to protect the service users, raise standards, strengthen and support workforce professionalism. An example of the code of practice of the SSSC is to look after service users and carers by protecting their rights and promoting their interests, by establishing and maintaining trust and users confidence , by promoting their independence, while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm, respecting their rights and ensuring that their behaviour does not cause harm to themselves or others. The policy for protecting vulnerable people within our organisation is achieved through the careful selection, screening, training and supervision of staff and volunteers. Under The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 a code of good practice for vulnerable adults within our organisation has been developed which expects staff or volunteers suspecting or have had abuse disclosed must immediately report the concerns to their line manager and write up an incident report. The line manager will discuss the concerns with the person reporting the abuse; she will clarify the concerns and obtain all known relevant information. This will then be forwarded to the appropriate local Social Work Department stating that it concerns vulnerable adult protection. In the absence of a line manager the concerns should be reported directly to the local Social work department and then inform the line manager as soon as possible. The social work department after investigation may have to inform the police to investigate further.(ref2) The principal function of Registered Social Workers is the safety and support of the wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults. They should encourage the wellbeing of communities complying with the Scottish Social Services Council’s Code of Practice for Social Service Workers. (ref3) The social work department will work with the police to carry out joint enquires if necessary and organise case reviews and protection conferences. The police will keep safe from harm the individual who has been subjected to abuse and may call for a medical examination. They will examine and collect evidence, interview suspects, identify offenders and arrange cases for prosecution. The GP or hospital Doctor maybe involved giving medical evidence of abuse and treating the individual.

Under our code of good practice in preventing abuse it is important that I avoid unobserved situations of one -to-one contact with a vulnerable adult. I must never invite a vulnerable adult to my home; I must never offer to take a vulnerable adult alone in my own vehicle, if it is necessary to do things of a `personal nature` e.g. toileting , I must have the consent and knowledge of the carers and my line manager, before doing any of the above. I must not engage or allow any sexually provocative games involving or observed by vulnerable adults. I must never make or allow suggestive remarks or discrimatory comments to be made to a vulnerable adult. I must not engage in or tolerate bullying, or inappropriate physical behaviour. I must respect all vulnerable adults regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability or sexual identity. I must avoid “favouritism” and singling out “troublemakers”. I must never trivialise abuse and never let allegations of abuse go unreported, including any made against myself. The policy and procedures of our organisation adhere to the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Act (Scotland) 2007 by ensuring as a way of vetting and barring every volunteer and employee has undergone a Disclosure which shows any convictions. If any convictions suggest that abuse of our clients is a possibility then they would not be allowed to volunteer or be employed.

Sources of support for workers in the field of preventing abuse can be provided by statutory, voluntary, and private or independent organisations. Statutory services have a distinct concern laid down by legislation e.g. social services and NHS. The voluntary sector is run on a non profit making basis and have arisen through a recognised need and reflect society`s feelings. E.g. Advocacy, Mencap. Private organisations make a profit but I am not aware of any private local organisation that supports vulnerable adults suffering abuse. Support can consist of Casework, by working on a one to one basis, by counselling again one to one, and by group work bringing people together with shared issues to resolve problems together.

(Ref4) Cultural values play a part in defining what is considered abusive conduct. What we in the UK consider abuse may not be considered abuse in another culture. For example, domestic abuse has only recently become abhorrent in the UK. As up until the 1970s/80s, domestic abuse was considered a marital problem and to be accepted, but today we have little tolerance for domestic abuse. But, today, ethnic minority women still run the risk of long periods of abuse and find it difficult to report. Families expect women to put up with it, as ethnic women are considered their husbands property. ‘Honour killings` are not unknown amongst ethnic minorities using religious text as justification. (Ref5)Female circumcision is another culturally accepted form of abuse, still practised in 28 countries in Africa. It is seen to control female sexuality and sex outside marriage. This is done to girl’s age range from 4 to 12. It usually takes place in un- hygienic conditions with potentially fatal consequences. Forced marriages are also a problem, by taking the potential bride out of the country against her wishes and forcing her to marry a suitor specially selected by the parents.

Sometimes, workers may have trouble accepting the motives of people who are involved in abuse. There may be the need to ask why and how can they have abused? Where they just bad or mad? Perhaps the workers values and beliefs make working with an abuser distasteful. However, a professional approach to working with an abuser must be taken. For those who work with abusers there is a need to understand why people abuse.

(Ref6)Abusive behaviour can sometimes be the result of mental health problems, empathy deficit, brain damage or being abused themselves. By becoming the abuser they believe they are taking control, some even believe that they are not doing anything wrong and cannot stop themselves. When working with individuals who have abused it is important to be aware that they may go on to abuse again and as well as trying to treat the underlying cause for abuse their is a need to protect the community from the abuser. So, the use of risk assessments are important to keep safe when working with an abuser.

( Ref7) In Conclusion it is important to be able to understand the probable risks and take appropriate action to reduce them. Effective communication and personal skills are useful to understand and reduce potential conflicts. Reflection on my own values and how they may affect my practice, awareness and understanding of the abusers cultural values and background is required. This is to ensure awareness and intervention is employed when required. When dealing with abuse, it is important to listen, understand, report and keep the abused safe and if dealing with the abuser to keep myself safe.

References.
SSSC. (2009). Codes of Practice. Available: http://www.sssc.uk.com/Last accessed 09/02/2010.
Stephen Smellie. (2005). Role of the Social Worker: Protection of Title. Available: http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/response/swrole2.html. Last accessed 09/02/2010
Elizabeth Bingham +. (2009). Protection including safeguarding and management of risk.. In: HNC in Social Care. Edinburgh: Heinemann. 229.
Mary Barnish. (2004). Domestic Violence: A Literature Review. Available: http://www.domestic-violence-and-abuse.co.uk/information/Cultural-Differences-in-the-UK.php. Last accessed 13/02/2010.
Frances A. Althaus . (1997). Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights? Available: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2313097.html. Last accessed 13/02/2010.
Kathryn Patricelli. (2005). Why do people abuse?. Available: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8482. Last accessed 13/02/2010.
Elizabeth Bingham +. (2009). Issues involved in protection from abuse. In: HNC in Social Care. Edinburgh: Heinemann. 217.

In the following essay I will be describing post modernism and analysing the impact it has had on class and inequality.

Modern means something up to date and a break away from the past. Modernity is a historical term which refers to the era that follows the ‘Middle Ages’ or feudalism. Modernity was the emergence of a modern industrial civilisation and manufactured society in the 1950s and 1960s. It was non-feudal. This industrial and political revolution changed society’s outlook on the world. Individuals were separated into classes.

Modernization “This term is often used to refer to the stages of social development which are based upon industrialization. Modernization is a diverse unity of socio-economic changes generated by scientific and technological discoveries and innovations…” (Sarup 1993)

In sociology modernism refers to the period dominated by theories that claimed there were patterns to social behaviour and these could be investigated and understood i.e. Functionalism and Marxism.

The key influence of post modernity is individualism. A contemporary society is characterised by endless choices; identity can be constantly up dated or altered according to current wants or needs through the cultural commodities we consume. This increasing diversity has led to fragmentation of collective social identity especially social class. Also society can develop uncertainty leading to the break down of franchises and social structures.

Postmodernism rejects the stratification theories and focuses upon identity and difference. Previous terms of identity such as class and ethnicity become extinct. Subjective individual identity is now more important than objective collective identity.

According to postmodernists class is not as important as it was and not the chief source of identity. They argue that identity is now derived from leisure and consumption and not from work or production.

Best (1995) argues that through post modernity we are all cast in the role of consumers. He believes that post modern stratification is about life style choices, fragmented association and the seduction into consumer spending through advertising and control change. This theory is very similar to the Marxist theory in which it is believed that media superstructure controls and dominates image and consumer spending.

Pakulski and Waters published a book “The Death of Class” in 1996 which announces the end of social classes in today’s post-modern societies. The authors mention that social class is a historical phenomenon that appears in the 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century, factors such as the state and political parties changed the nature of class relations, resulting in class losing its validity. They define the decline in the importance of class as “status convention” and they use this term to indicate that although social inequalities are still present the differences in life style and status are the more important factor.

They also conclude that contemporary societies are still stratified and this stratification is achieved through cultural consumption not class position and the “division of labour”. Pakulski and Waters agree with the theory that we now live in an individual society where people no longer see themselves in social terms and say that “consumption is now central” and example of this is how we spend money and organise our everyday lives.

Sociologist Ray Pahl questioned whether class is still a useful concept in attempting to understand contemporary societies.

Rosemary Crompton criticises Pakulski and Waters. She agreed that traditional definitions of class have neglected cultural factors such as gender but states that Pakulski and Waters definition is unhelpful and confuses class and status.

John Scott and Lydia Morris also argue for a need to make distinctions between the class and positions of individuals: there location in a division of labour.

In conclusion there are still significant differences between social classes in terms of educational attainment, leisure pursuits and health. Modern social theories such as Feminism and Marxism can still offer insight as to why social inequalities exist.

Because today’s society is changing so rapidly and is so diverse there is no possible way of measuring it.

Qualitative approaches to measuring class such as mobility studies and inequalities of wealth indicate that class is not dead; it is more complex. Simply because aspects of class are now more dominant it does not mean that they do not exist. Social mobility is the degree to which an individual’s family or group’s social status can change throughout the course of their life through a system of social hierarchy or stratification. Subsequently, it is also the degree to which an individual’s or group’s descendants move up and down the class system. The individual or family can move up or down the social classes based on achievements or factors beyond their control.

Inequality, whether racial, ethnic, economic, political or social is a great concern everywhere in the world. This is because research has shown that inequality can lead to poverty and creation of social classes within a society. This theory was expounded by Karl Max in his “Communist Manifesto” in which he argued that the owners of the means of production, “capitalists,” exploit the poor or “proletariats” and accumulate wealth often leading to a class society.

This paper summarizes the findings of a 2007 study, titled “Ethnic Inequality in Canada: Economic and Health Dimensions, which was done by Ellen M. Gee, Karen M.Kobayashi and Steven G. Prus, and is available in the Canadian Journal of sociology. Other works will also be reviewed to secure a satisfactory understanding of the subject.

Introduction

Immigration into Canada totally changed the racial diversity of the Canadian population. In their study, Gee et al. (2007) noted that since the beginning of European immigration and settlements, the Canadian society has been ordered based on racial and ethnic dimensions. Ethnicity has occupied a central position in Canadian’s rising inequality (p.3). John Porter first studied this subject in 1965 and found that entry into the Canadian elite class was racially ranked and determined by income, “ethnic prestige,” and occupations. His findings found that, British-Canadians topped the group, French-Canadians took second position, and other European-Canadians were third while Blacks and Aboriginals-“visible minorities” occupied the bottom strata.

Despite rapid changes in policy, regarding ethnic and racial discrimination and Canada’s economic progress, aspects of ethnic inequality exist in Canada. Gee et al. (2007) examined ethnic inequalities in Canada now (their time of study being 2007). I summarize their findings on four key issues, namely; Economic Inequalities (income and occupations), Employment and home ownership, Health Inequality and the aspect of perceptions on discrimination and prejudice.

Economic Inequalities

Empirical examples show that, substantial and convincing studies have been done on ethnically or racially based economic inequalities in Canada. Well-studied areas on this subject include income disparities and inequality in occupations. Gee et al. (2007) summarized the various studies done on this subject. (Reitz and Banerjee 2007) concluded that visible minorities in Canada have higher poverty rates and lower comparable incomes than ethnic Canadians of European origin.

Gee et al. (2007) noted that recent studies on ethnic/racial orientations of income inequalities show that, household incomes of Aboriginals and visible minorities are usually low than those of Canadians with a European Origin. This is despite the fact that such studies have been conducted by different researchers at different times and applying different racial classifications and control variables. They further noted that racial disparities in the household incomes of European-Canadians have nearly minimized. Additionally, they also found indications showing that Canadians of southern European origin earn lower incomes than Canadians of British origin, while Canadians of French Origin earned much far better (p.14).

On occupations, (Nakhaie 1997 as quoted in Gee et al. 2007: 16) found that British-Canadians continue leading the class of Canadian elites, despite the fact that Canadians of other origins have made efforts to join the elite class over the years. Gee et al. (2007) also noted that the correlation between ethnicity/racism and occupation could be studied in two different ways. One way is by establishing whether certain ethnic groups are concentrated in specific occupations (based on division of labor). The other alternative is evaluating the position of “racial groups” in the Hierarchy or strata of “prestigious occupations” (p.17). Applying the first dimension, and using the male gender, studies showed that Aboriginals dominate the construction and building industries representing more than double of the Canadian male populations. They are extremely underrepresented in administrative and management occupations. Their women counterparts are represented in service jobs. They therefore concluded that, the Canadian labor force is more gendered than ethnically based. In terms of prestige of occupations, Jewish, British and Chinese Canadians top the hierarchy. Blacks, Greeks, Aboriginals and Portuguese Canadians occupy the lower strata in that order. In the case of the female gender, the picture does not change. In this case, ethnicity and racism outweighs gender (p.17).

Employment and Home Ownership

Li 2000 as quoted in Reitz and Banerjee (2007: 6) noted that the main economic problem that ethnic minority immigrants face in Canada is securing sufficient employment. This is associated with amicable reasons like, the “entry effect”-related to immigration problems and adjusting to the new environment (urban settlement), academic qualifications and racism. Ethnic minority immigrants experience more impediments than immigrants of European-origin (Reitz and Banerjee 2007: 6)

Gee et al. (2007) asserted that findings show that in terms of home ownership, the picture is no different. It reflects the same strata as it is observed in household income levels and occupations. Osberg (2008: 33) noted that, despite the fact that much literature has ignored the role of interest rates, wealth distribution, and household incomes of the wealthy and focused on earning trends, Canada now has much information on economic and other social inequalities and broad conclusions are apparent. He concludes that data shows an increase in economic inequality in Canada today.

Health Inequalities

Better health care is one of the basic needs that all human beings aspire to get any ware in the world. Low household incomes are frequently linked with poor health. Despite intensified research and studies on health inequality in Canada, little attention has been directed at ethno-cultural disparities on health.

Gee et al (2007) looked at both “heath care access” and “health status.” However much of the literature that they examined did not show a direct correlation between ethnicity and health status. In some instances data showed that, some recent immigrants, irregardless of race or ethnic group had better health than their Canadian-born counterparts. This “healthy immigrant effect” was however associated with the health requirements in the Canadian immigration act that locked out immigrants with chronic health conditions. Their studies concluded that Canadians whose mother tongue is non-English or non-French are economically disadvantaged. Recent “visible immigrants are typically disadvantaged. Their analysis also found significant disparities in “health status” and “utilization” depending on country of immigrant and language. The health status of recent Immigrants declines as their years of stay in Canada increase. This is because they hardly report for medical checkups, due to the fear discrimination, prejudice, and low household incomes.

Perceptions of Discrimination and Prejudice: A Barrier to Social Cohesion

Ethnic and racial inequality might be less decisive if it is because of circumstances amicable to the “visible minority,” such as status of new immigrants, language differences, or academic and technical training not compliant with Canadian requirements. In other words, inequality would not be a threat to social cohesion if it were viewed as legitimate. The feeling of discrimination, prejudice and racism is another issue all together (Reitz and Banerjee 2007: 8). A 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, which sought to get views of individual experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination, showed that 35.9% of all the respondents “consisting visible minorities” reported cases of discrimination and prejudice compared with 10.6% of all Whites who responded to the Survey, of the visible minorities, blacks recorded the highest rate at 49.6%. (p. 8:9). The Visible minorities also reported incidences of perceived discrimination of their ethnic group.

Despite improving economic status of immigrants as they cope up with Canadian environment and society an ethnic divide in perceptions of racial discrimination is eminent among immigrants with longer stay and experience in Canada. (p.9), this is even persistence among children. Cases of non-recognition of immigrant qualifications also abound, despite in some cases being equivalent to those of native Canadians. Failure to recognize foreign qualifications and experience are some of the barriers that “visible minorities” come across as they seek employment.

Racial discrimination is viewed with skepticism in Canada, but the mutual covenant is that it exists and cannot be ignored. It is true that one of the effects of racial discrimination of minorities is its impact on the social cohesion of the Canadian society. Social cohesion generally means the capacity of a society to formulate, implement and adhere to policies that guide it. Lack of it may lead to conflicts and civil disorders as it happened in France and the United Kingdom. Other effects may be failure of a group to participate in making decisions and sometimes withdrawing its support for certain decisions or societal policies.

Integrating “ethnic minorities” is an important issue in Canada. Social integration and social cohesion are mutually exclusive and cannot be separated. Proper social integration of minority ethnic groups in Canada is a sine qua non for a peaceful and prosperous society that is viewed by its occupants as a means to the achievement of their needs. This will strengthen the Canadian society; raise the spirit of inclusiveness, civic and voluntary participation in activities concerning human life.

Conclusion

Inequality is a social evil; no society is a friend to it. The above revelations reveal that forms of inequality based on ethnic considerations exist in Canada irregardless of how minute they are. This is a big concern to racial minorities. It is not only a challenge to the racial group that experience it, but also to the completely Canadian society in terms of forging a peaceful and an all inclusive society acceptable to all.

The process of socially integrating ethnic minorities into Canadian society is often slower than that of European immigrants. This is often associated with their feeling of exclusion and perceived discrimination. Of emphasis is that economic integration should match social integration, none should supersede the other.

Existing Canadian policies and legal structures are laudable against racial discrimination and economic inequality. This is possibly due to international conventions and pressure to eliminate global racism and ethnicity, but it is not clear whether they are sufficient in addressing the issues that affect minority ethnic groups in Canada. However, may consent is that ethnic prejudice and discrimination is a social construction that can only be changed by the subconscious minds of individuals-the way we think and see others. We should all join hands and fight ethnic inequality. We should judge others by their competence and content of their minds rather than the pigmentation of their skin.

“There shall be no solution to this race problem until, you yourselves, strike the blow for liberty”-Marcus Garvey

Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone (Putnam 2000) cites an obscure rural educator, Lyda J Hanifan, as the first use of the term “social capital” in an 1916 essay about the development of schools as community centres. Putnam’s genealogy has become the canonical one, cited in much of the subsequent literature, but in a recent article, conceptual historian James Farr has shown the limitations of Putnam’s research (Farr 2004). Farr demonstrates that the term “social capital” was in much wider use in the period, importantly by John Dewey who was a leader in the movement of which Hanifan was a part. Farr surmises that Hanifan drew the term from Dewey’s work. As well, he traces other uses of the term, including by Marx, and another contemporary sense of the term in relation to collective ownership of property, and the collective profit from labour. Farr’s exploration of the history of the concept adds significantly to our understanding of social capital, as it shows that the conjunction of social benefit and economic language was more widespread earlier than attributed by other theorists, as well as placing Dewey’s critical pragmatism into the family tree of the concept.

The inspiring theorist of these movements was John Dewey, who was himself extensively involved in some of them. Dewey himself used the term (see quote p 10) and his conceptual framework and language drew upon and developed the idea of work together creating common bonds (of sympathy and cooperation) which were a resource for people in communities. Farr draws out three important points about Dewey’s use of social capital: firstly, that criticism must be balanced with construction, second, the importance of sympathy, third, the combination of “social” and “capital” for rhetorical effect. Dewey focussed on the relationship of school and society, and the potential contribution of education to enable rather than fetter social capital. Balancing criticism and construction is at the heart of critical pragmatism – (p10) crisis gives rise to critical reflection which creates ideas to guide action to address the crisis. Sympathy “entailed the ordinary sense of feeling concern or compassion for others, especially those denied or deprived life’s essentials, including social capital”, but also the capacity of imagination that allows people to relate to and appreciate commonalities with others in different circumstances ( p11).

In schools – “aˆ¦.each individual gets an opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social group in which he was born, and come into contact with a broader environment.” (Democracy and Education, 1916, p20) (See also JS Mill) – Prefigures discussion of Bonding and Bridging social capital.

Farr shows Dewey’s use of economic terminology as a “terminological strategy” of critical pragmatism (12), citing other examples like that of “unused talent” as “wasted capital”.

The Dewey/ Hanifan use of “social capital” is very close to Putnam’s, idealising as it does particular forms of social interaction and community life, the interaction between institutions (of education and of governance) with citizens both individually and collectively, and the potential re-shaping of these institutions to meet collective needs.

I will skim over the “middle period” of social capital’s development. Between the 1920s and 1980s the term was used by assorted sociologists and others – notably Glen Loury and Jane Jacobs(Jacobs 1964). None of these writers had a particular interest in education. Another important development in the period however was the development and increased currency of the term “human capital”. Gary Becker is credited with developing the theory of expenditures on education, training, health etc as investments in human capital, with a logic of returns similar to that of physical capital. (Becker 1964). This was an important precursor to the work of Coleman in particular.

2. Coleman and Bourdieu

The two major strands of thought on social capital were developed in the late 1980s, by sociologists of education Pierre Bourdieu and James Coleman. Bourdieu’s most detailed discussion of social capital appeared in his 1986 essay “The Forms of Capital” which was translated by Richard Nice and published in an English language anthology (Bourdieu 1986).Coleman’s article, “Social capital in the creation of human capital”, was published three years later in the American Journal of Sociology (Coleman 1989). Although they co-organised a conference in 1989 in Chicago and co-edited its proceedings (Bourdieu and Coleman 1991), the development of the two conceptions has happened independently and without reference to the work of the other. Indeed, a striking aspect of the literature is how comprehensively the two strands have ignored each other, particularly to the neglect of Bourdieu (Fine 2001; Field 2003). The result of this is that the Coleman tradition constitutes the largest part of the social capital literature since the 1990s, largely because of Coleman’s influence on Robert Putnam but also because of the continuing influence of Coleman’s original studies, as discussed below. Although Field (Field 2003) categorises Putnam’s work as a third strand to that of Bourdieu and Coleman, I would argue that Putnam follows on directly from Coleman in his concerns with neighbourhood influences and voluntary associations, as well as his conflation of the sources and benefits of social capital.

Definitions

Bourdieu’s and Coleman’s definitions of social capital are similar in that they both emphasise the functional value of social relations as resources available to agents. In Bourdieu’s words:

“Social capital is the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition – or in other words – to membership in a group – which provides each of its members with the backing of the collectivity-owned capital, a “credential” which entitles them to credit, in the various senses of the word.” (Bourdieu 1986)

Similarly, Coleman defines social capital as connections – “social capital inheres in the structure of relations between and among actors” (p98) – and its use value:

Social capital is defined by its function. It is not a single entity but a variety of different entities, with two elements in common: they all consist of some aspect of social structures, and they facilitate certain actions of actors – whether personal or corporate actors – within the structure. (p 98). (Coleman 1989)

Later iterations (for example Woolcock, OECD, Foley and Edwards) have sharpened these definitions, distinguishing more clearly networks and the norms which create reciprocity as the two elements of social capital. Portes has emphasised the need to separate membership of a network or group as the source of social capital and the benefits which may be gained from this membership (Portes 1998). Going one step further, Foley and Edwards offer the formula “Social capital is best conceived as access (networks) plus resources.” ((Foley and Edwards 1999) p 166). Putnam argues for the inclusion of trust – social capital as networks, norms and trust. (Putnam 2000), but Woolcock prefers an even sharper definition, defining trust as a product rather than a constitutent part of social capital (Woolcock 1998).

Fungibility

Both Coleman and Bourdieu have an instrumentalist view of social capital as a resource, inherent in social relationships, which can be used by individuals and institutional agents to various ends. Both see social capital as interacting with and transactable for other forms of capital, although this Bourdieu elaborates the dynamics of this interaction in far more detail.

Coleman is particularly concerned with the interaction between social capital and human capital, although he acknowledges that these transactions may be limited: “like physical capital and human capital, social capital is not completely fungible but may be specific to certain activities. A given form of social capital that is valuable in facilitating certain actions may be useless or even harmful for others.” (p 98). Coleman shows that social capital is not just a property of the elite, and to some degree compensate for the lack of other forms of capital.

Coleman uses the framework of rational action, although “without the assumption of atomistic elements stripped of social relationships” (Coleman 1989). His view of social capital emphasises the importance of network closure (ie that your friends know your other friends, and in particular that you are friends with parents of your children’s schoolmates). Coleman identifies three key aspects of social capital: obligations and expectations (which depend on the trustworthiness of the social environment), the information-flow capability of the social structure, and the presence of norms accompanied by sanctions. The classic example he offers is that of diamond traders in New York, where a dense network enables the operation of collective norms and effective sanctions so that the market operates with a high degree of trust. Thus the context of relationships creates incentives and sanctions which guide individual rational behaviour.

In contrast to Bourdieu’s interest in class groupings, Coleman is concerned primarily with the family and neighbourhood. For Coleman it is the presence of effective norms and sanctions within the immediate family that is most important for educational attainment. He emphasises the role of mothers in particular in fostering this environment. Coleman argues for a differentiation between “primordial” – “social organization that has its origins in the relationships established by childbirth” (p 1) – and “constructed” social structures – those which are constructed for either a single purpose or a narrow range of purposes” (p 3) (Bourdieu and Coleman 1991). Unsurprisingly, Coleman’s work has been subject to feminist critiques (eg Morrow) arguing that his view of the family is highly patriarchal. Other critics have questioned Coleman’s valorisation at close (bonding) ties rather than weak (bridging) ties (Portes, Stanton-Salazar).

In Bourdieu’s schema, social capital interacts with economic and cultural capital. In fact, social capital is a less important aspect of Bourdieu’s theory of social structure than cultural capital. In Bourdieu’s terms, actors compete for capital within “fields” of activity. Complex societies are composed of a number of fields, each with their own specific logic (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Although some fields may have dominance (eg the economic field in capitalist economies) (p 109) and the State has a role in regulating the operation of all fields, they are never entirely reducible to one dynamic (p 97). These fields are configurations of relationships in which positions are defined by the distribution of capital in different forms across the actors (individual or institutional) in a field (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Some actors have more capital and so are dominant over those with less; others may have equal but different compositions of capital at their disposal which puts them in a different relationship to other actors and the field itself. The actor’s position is historically determined: that stock of capital has been accumulated or reduced over time through exchanges which are shaped by the existing relationships and by the “rules of the game” – the relative value of different forms of capital and the ability to convert capital from one type to another.

Differences: agency, boundaries

The key differences between Bourdieu’s and Coleman’s conception of social capital stem largely from their philosophical stances. Bourdieu emphasises access to institutional resources; Coleman emphasises norms (Dika and Singh 2002). As outlined above, Bourdieu conceptualises social capital as operating in a social field which is hierarchically structured. Like other forms of capital, social capital is held disproportionately by elites. The tendency is for the existing power relations to reproduce themselves; there is little sense in Bourdieu that the existing structure can be challenged (Jenkins 1992)

An interesting difference between the two is the extent to which development of social capital is a deliberate strategy (Baron, Field et al. 2001). Coleman sees social capital as a by product “a largely unintentional process” (Baron, Field et al. 2001)p 7), as individuals are primarily concerned with advancing their own interests. He gives the example of a mother returning to work, and as a result relinquishing her active role in school activities. Even though the action is rational in relation to her own and her family’s interests, it causes a net loss of social capital for the other families associated with the school.

Bourdieu sees “an endless effort at institution” – “the network of relationships is the product of investment strategies, individual or collective, consciously or unconsciously aimed at establishing or reproducing social relationships that are directly usable in the short or long term”. (Bourdieu 1986) 249. Bourdieu emphasises the non-conscious aspects of the transmission of cultural capital – that children in cultural capital-rich environments tend to absorb the advantages unknowingly. He sees the education system as about the transmission of cultural capital – examinations etc are “collective magic” making cultural capital visible and validated. He argues that the education system increases in importance when social hierarchies based on descent are challenged.

Bourdieu is highly critical of rational action theory (RAT), the tradition of which Coleman is a part, although Jenkins argues that some of the accusations Bourdieu makes can be turned back on him (Jenkins 1992). Bourdieu argues that RAT substitutes an arbitrary rationality/ interest for a culturally/ historically located one. In so doing, RAT substitutes its analytical model for reality and locates the dynamic of social life in “pure” individual and conscious decision-making rather than in the individual and collective histories that generate social reality. This prevents a theoretical apprehension of relations between individuals and between individuals and their environment. (Jenkins 1992) However, Jenkins argues that in totally rejecting RAT Bourdieu creates a problem for his theory, because he denies that conscious decision-making does have a role – people do form plans and try to implement them. (Jenkins 1992)

Jenkins is somewhat unfair – Bourdieu’s theory of interest is more sophisticated than that.

Similarly, Bourdieu is suspicious of coherent groupings, emphasising how groups gate-keep and exclude, whatever the internal benefits to those on the inside.

This is key difference between the two – Coleman wants more social capital; Bourdieu questions what sort and for whom.

3. How “social capital” has been taken up in the educational literature

Baron, Field and Schuller offer a three-way typology of how social capital has been used in the literature: analysis, prescription, and heuristic (Baron, Field et al. 2001). I will use this framework to analyse the recent literature on social capital and education, drawing in particular on Dika and Singh’s excellent survey of journal articles on education and social capital in the period 1990 to 2001 (Dika and Singh 2002).

Analysis

A large amount of the social capital and education literature has been devoted to largely re-running Coleman’s studies (Dika and Singh). There has been particular interest in different migrant populations in the USA. Like Coleman’s original work, these studies have used large US datasets not originally designed to capture social capital aspects. The indicators used by Coleman are: (within family) parents’ presence, number of siblings, mother’s expectation for child’s education and (outside family) number of moves (proxy for intergenerational closure). Coleman’s work on the differential performance of students in Catholic and other religious schools has also been replicated (Coleman 1989; Coleman 1990). As recently as two months ago the Catholic Education Office in Victoria has published similar work on the relative effectiveness of Catholic schools (Sheehan 2004).

In contrast to Coleman’s focus on “bonding” social capital, Stanton-Salazar and Dornbusch studied educational attainment and social capital considering students’ own social networks and their “bridging” access to information-related support including personal advice about academic decisions, future educational and occupational plans and access to legal, health and employment services (Stanton-Salazar and Dornbusch 1995). They found a more complex picture, in which bilingualism and associated cultural capital was a key factor in students’ access to sources of information and to institutional resources (p132) Grades were positively related to three different informational network variables: number of school-based weak ties, number of non-kin weak ties, and proportion of non-Mexican origin members. Dika and Singh point to the work of Stanton-Salazar and Dornbusch as an example of how Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction and the interplay between cultural and social capital can be used to illuminate institutional aspects of social capital formation (Dika and Singh 2002).

Prescription

Social capital is a concept of great interest to policymakers – even being described as the “missing link” (Grootaert and Van Bastelaer 2002) – and it has been enthusiastically embraced by organisations like the World Bank and the OECD. The use of social capital in policy development, particularly by the World Bank has been trenchantly criticised (Fine 2001; Harriss 2002). Some like Field have warned that social capital can only act as means to leverage existing resources, not create new ones (Field 2003). Despite this, Harriss argues that social capital theory has led to a programmatic emphasis on local development and “self-help”:

“even though this sometimes looks rather like expecting the most disadvantaged people to pull themselves up by their own boot straps, in a way which is remarkably convenient for those who wish to implement large-scale public expenditure cuts.” (Harriss 2002).

There has not been a similar strenous reaction against the policy prescriptions of the OECD in social capital and education. There is a substantial OECD literature on social capital and human capital, notably from the Quebec symposium of 2000 (Helliwell 2001). This literature is stimulated by the idea that education is one of the few intervention points for the creation of social capital (Schuller 2001). This tradition follows very much in the footsteps of Dewey and Hanifan, advocating education as a central aspect of social renewal. School as an intervention point – but risk of overburdening schools (Pamela Munn p 181).

Heuristic

Social capital has been seized on as a way of reinstating different forms of education into the debate, in particular continuing, adult, informal and vocational education (Winch 2000; Balatti and Falk 2001; Kearns 2004). For example, in a review of Christopher Winch’s book on vocational education and social capital, Richard Barrett writes that Winch achieves his aim of making vocational education a subject to be “given its deserved seriousness by philosophers of education” through his arguments about the civic aspects of vocational preparation (Barrett 2004). Schuller et al’s synthesis of their longitudinal research on the benefits of learning includes both “taught” and “non-taught” learning (Schuller 2004).

There have been fewer studies of the institutional implications of social capital. Barry Golding’s work on networks in ACE is an exception (Golding?), as is Persell & Wenglinsky’s study of the civic engagement of students at different types of colleges (reference). Barry Golding has examined the value of using network mapping in adult education and learning community settings to conceptualise discontinuities in relationships between communities and organisations in a particular region (Golding?). Persell and Weglinsky found that type of institution attended had an impact on civic engagement, with students attending for-profits less likely to vote or participate in political processes than community college students.

4. Directions for further investigation

Taking the definition of social capital as networks and norms, clearly education has a role in the creation of both. The relationships formed at school and through other forms of education are important for immediate social support and for linking to institutional resources. At the same time, the educational process forms ideology, habits, behaviours and models of cooperation and conflict.

I would suggest a number of directions for further investigation of the relationship between education and social capital.

Further exploration of Dewey’s work and its relationship to social capital, in particular Bourdieu. There is an interesting link between Bourdieu and Dewey. (Perhaps also tracking back to Durkheim).

Extension to other sectors of education. Bourdieu has written extensively on universities eg (Bourdieu and Collier 1988), but this work is begging to be updated in light the perceived “crisis” in the higher education field.

More scope for Bourdieuvian analysis using field theory- perhaps taking the lead from media studies in considering the boundaries between fields and meta-capital.

Questioning of the dark side of social capital in education – focus away from the “problems” of lack of social capital to the problems associated with too much of it in the wrong hands. Related to this, the idea of sympathy – mutual understanding (taking up Farr’s suggestion)

More investigation of institutional properties which help/hinder social capital.

My interest: extending bourdieu’s work by looking at the interplay of cultural capital and social capital in the field of higher education, and the potential for HE to create links and openings to other fields – “bridging” rather than “bonding” social capital.

This is where we return to the current day Lyda Hanifans seeking to remake education to serve social ends.

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Gender equality is also known as gender equity, gender egalitarianism, or sexual equality. It is the goal of the equality of the genders. Gender equality is defined by the world bodies as related to human rights, especially women’s rights and economic development. UNICEF defines gender equality as “leveling the playing field for girls and women by ensuring that all children have equal opportunity to develop their talents.” (UNICEF, 2006) While according to the United Nations Population Fund, gender equality is defined as a human right. (http://www.unfpa.org/gender/) Thus, promoting gender equality is viewed as an encouragement to greater economic growth. According to a survey carried out during this investigative study, many people nowadays do understand what gender equality is regardless of their own gender. This is shown in the bar chart below.

Figure 1: Question asked: Do you understand what gender equality is?

Definition of Gender Inequality

Gender inequality refers to the obvious or hidden difference between genders. Gender inequality occurs when men, women, boys and/or girls have limited or no access to services and resources, live in fear of violence, and/or are unable to control their own destinies due to perceived gender differences and discrimination between and amongst males and females. It is also one of the effects of cultural beliefs as well as societal biasness. The world of business particularly in the workplace is a common ground to gender inequality. There are indeed so many issues concerning inequality between co-workers especially women existing in the workplace. (www.genderqualityinbusiness.com/women-and-their-workplace.php, 2010)

Differences between the roles of males and females

In a research carried out regarding the differences between the roles of males and females has shown that girls do have advantages in verbal capabilities (grammar, spelling and writing) while on the other hand, boys appear to be more advanced in their visual-spatial abilities than girls. No sex differences in math concepts have been supported (Bannon, 2004). This appears to affect their career choices as there is a bigger portion of men in jobs such as police-officers, doctors, and more women in nurturing type vocations such as nurses as well as teachers. There are plentiful theories on why sex differences exist but most can be categorized in supporting either a nature or nurture theory. Those who support biological factors claim that people behave as what their biological nature is. On the other hand, those that support the nurture methodology believe that social-environmental factors as influencing behaviour and argue that biological sex does not really affect how people behave.

2.0 Causes of Gender Equality
2.1 Education System in the Country

Many years ago, girls did not have the chance to have education. As years pass by, the situation has improved slightly. However, most girls still stopped attending school after elementary school. Usually around age ten, a girl would be taken out of school to begin work at her mother’s side while her brothers often continued in school- even going on to college. Take the Americans as an example. Only a century ago, most American women were raised to expect a life geared towards managing a home and family, where a higher education would be useless. Many people of the time argued that it must even be detrimental in encouraging women to abandon hearth and home. (Mass, 1998)

2.2 Sex Discrimination

There are several ways in which gender discrimination takes place in the workplace. First of all, there is the Direct Discrimination. Many people, particularly women, at some stage in their working lives, receive unwelcome sexual attention from colleagues. Sexual harassment covers a whole range of issues, from rude remarks to leering and unwanted physical contact. (TheSite.org, 2009) Direct discrimination also includes acts like difference in salary based on gender although both are doing the same job, or promoting someone because they are single instead of an equally qualified person. Secondly, there is indirect discrimination. For instance, people who are indirectly discriminated against include examples where a certain set of rules or laws are made which indirectly imply that people of a certain gender cannot qualify those laws or rules. Next, there is harassment as work. This type of discrimination is perhaps the worst of the lot since it not only discriminates but causes emotional as well as psychological trauma for the employee who is discriminated against. Sexual or verbal harassment or inferior treatment owing to gender is included under this category. Lastly, there is victimization. This is an unfair or biased treatment based on the employee’s gender translates into victimization at work. This is also a form of employee discrimination based on gender. (Uttara Manohar, 2009)

2.3 Culture Background

Until today, the cycle of gender inequality in the world goes round and round and is never broken. This is mainly due to the culture background of the people in the society nowadays. Women and girls make up 70% percent of the billion people in the world who live in poverty. In much of the world, women are either not allowed to work at all, leaving them at the mercy of husbands or male relatives, or are unable to secure anything other than low-paying jobs. Parents would not allow their daughters to be educated. Their primary concern about their daughters would be to find them a husband. And when they get married, they are expected to manage their home and family. In this case, women will definitely miss out many opportunities for them in the society. (Mass, 2000)

Status of Women in the Workplace Today
Gender Discrimination

Throughout ages women have faced gruesome atrocities. As years pass by, women exploitation has changed from visible to invisible. However, the brutality and extent is unchanged. In the past, women were forbidden from pursuing education. Until today, the condition is still the same as it is in the past as educated women are now being exploited at home and at their workplaces. In rural areas of a country, physical exploitation of women has it’s own standing while in urban areas, women not only face mental torture, but even sometimes to the extend of physical torment. Although modern educated women are now more independent than before, at the same time, their responsibilities have increased. Apart from providing income, a woman has to be responsible in supporting the family too. During marriage, a woman’s family background and possession still play a major role for getting hold of a good agreement. Hence, it is said that women nowadays have become the scapegoats to new kinds of exploitation. It is certainly undeniable that education does alert us of our rights but at the same time, we have to accept that social conditioning makes us believe the unacceptable customs of the society to be our responsibilities. (Diptygharat, 2009)

Wage Gap

According to a study by the Commission on the Status of Women, which is created by John F. Kennedy and is chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, issued a report that showed ever since 1963, women faced discrimination in the workplace in many areas, including unequal pay. Employers did not pay men and women equally for comparable work. For example, white women earned 73.4% of what white men earned in 2001; in the same year, black women earned 84.8% of what black men earned. (Source: US Census Bureau) This is shown in the bar chart below.

Figure 2

Glass-ceiling Effect

The term ‘glass ceiling’ refers to gender discrimination that limits a woman at a lower statues and thus, makes them struggling to survive in the ruthless society today. It is the accepted authority that is usually practiced by a conventional society that causes a woman to be weaker not only physically but mentally as well. Sexism and gender discrimination are concepts that are then classified into glass ceiling. It is a barrier for gender minority groups, specifically working women to further progress and improve themselves. Feminism is the new idea of glass ceiling. It uses the hierarchical distribution of work based on conventional differences between males and females. (Satwase, 2010) According to a survey that is conducted in 1992, even though women today account for nearly half the workforce, they hold only between 3 and 5 percent of the senior management-level positions, and only compose 0.5 percent of the boards of directors of the top US corporations. However, ever since year 1992 till 2009, the number of top female executives in the US largest one thousand companies only increased by 4.5 percent, but female vice presidents rose 9 percent, which shows that women are slowly moving up the ranks. Still, according to the researchers, “If women continue to move into top business ranks at the current rate, the numbers of male and female senior managers will not be equal until the year 2470.” (Mass, 2009)

Year 1992

Year 2009

Figure 3: Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau

Ways to Achieve Gender Equality
Education
4.11 Sex Education

Sex education, which is also regarded as sexuality education or sex and relationships education, is the process of obtaining information and forming positive way and thinking and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, and also intimate relationships. Everyone should be taught about sex since young. Sex education is also about developing everyone’s skills, not only for young people, so that they are able to make informed choices about their behaviour, feel confident and competent in making the right decisions for themselves. Through this, they will be able to learn to respect the opposite gender. It is widely accepted that young people have a right to sex education. Sex education aims to educate the teens especially the boys to respect and understand the girls, as well as to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behaviour. Young people can be exposed to a wide range of attitudes and beliefs in relation to sex and sexuality. Effective sex education includes work on attitudes and beliefs, coupled with skills development that enables a positive mindset to be instilled in the young people. In short, sex education is said to be able to allow gender equality in the society today to be achieved. (Avert.org) Therefore, it ought to be implemented in our country, Malaysia’s education syllabus.

4.1.2 Moral Education

Gender equality through moral education is best to be started at home. In order to bring the issue of gender inequality to an end, moral education about equity should be started at their own homes. If it works at home, then inequality in the workplace and anywhere in society will definitely be able to be prevented. Gender inequality always starts with insensitivity. No one should regard themselves to be better than the others in terms of gender, unless the person is uneducated. Therefore, moral education and cultural consciousness is one of the vital key to promoting gender equality and ending gender inequality in the workplace especially among women. (genderequalityinbusiness.com, 2009)

4.2 Providing Equal Employment Opportunities

Equal employment opportunities means making sure all workplaces are free from all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment. In the past, many women were actually greatly affected by the disadvantages in employment. They were more likely to be seen as unemployed or working in lower paid jobs. In fact, women should be given equal opportunities as men, as what is obtained from the survey carried out. In the survey, 29 out of 30 participants stated that women ought to be given equal opportunities as men as they claimed that gender differences will not necessary affect one’s work performance. (Refer to Figure 4 and 5) Hence, in order to achieve gender equality in the workplace, fair practices and behaviour are the two most important factors. In this case, the recruitment, selection and promotion practices must be open, competitive as well as based on merit. Merit assessed by clearly defined, job-related criteria, not by considering one’s gender ensures that the best applicant is selected for the job. When this is achieved, women will then be able to work in a fair environment that is free from unlawful discrimination and harassment.

Figure 4: Question asked: Should women be given equal opportunities as men?

Figure 5: Question asked: Do you agree that men are definitely more outstanding than women?

Successful Females in the World Today

In the world today, it is tremendously obvious that women have come a long way as successful professionals. Life in the workplace has been widely broadened that the increase in number of women has made their existence felt in most of the industries and professions. Throughout the years, many women have stood up proudly in the society, showing everyone that the female working squad has expanded with exponential strength, and thus have their dire significance in the professional world. In short, this shows that men are not necessarily more outstanding than women. This can be further proven from the survey carried out during this investigative study in which out of 30 participants, 23 responded that they do not agree that men are definitely more outstanding than women. Apart from that, most of them agree with the statement in which stated that women do play in important role in the society nowadays.

This is now an example of one of the most successful females in today’s world.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey, who symbolizes the American dream, is commonly known as a woman with a heart of gold, she was the one who rose from poverty to become the first African-American woman billionaire. She speaks to the world through television, movies, books, and radio. She is even called “the most influential woman in the world” by CNN and Time. The role she has been playing is so dominant that she is able to influence almost every woman around the world through book recommendations, philanthropic activities, human rights awareness, and political activity. However, her career’s journey has not been without controversy. For instance, she did receive criticism for not asking tough questions of guests she seems to like personally. Despite all the criticisms she received, however, it is undeniable that Oprah is one of the most influential women in the world.

6.0 Conclusion

According to various researches and surveys, the overwhelming finding was that achieving gender equality in the workplace today is definitely not impossible. Based on the survey distributed out, many actually agreed that males are not necessarily more outstanding than females. Besides, it is also shown in the survey that females should be given the same opportunities as what are given to males, particularly in the workplace where women should be paid the same as men for doing comparable jobs. Apart from that, as years pass by, it is shown in the report that the number of females that are, and are entering the workforce is increasing rapidly. Although some of them may face workplace discrimination, evidence actually shows that the middle and upper-class women are prospering exponentially. Based on all these evidences, the possible result of this Investigative Study would be, it is certainly possible for gender equality in the workplace to be achieved so long as the differences between males and females can be accepted.

(2615 words)

Consensus is a concept of society in which the absence of conflict is seen as the equilibrium state of society based on a general or widespread agreement among all members of a particular society. The consensus ideology proposes that society consists of social institutions which are all dependent of each other and are vital for maintaining social order. The consensus theory highlights harmony, integration and stability. Functionalists argue that the main institutional groupings play a tremendous role in determining the culture of society. These, as example include economic, politics, family and kinship, as well as media. Economic growth plays a role as well because it affects the way certain societies think and how they run their everyday lives.

The functionalist perspective is rooted in the work of Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and gives the view of society as an organism in which each part functions in a certain way to ensure the stability of the whole. Though society is something which exists on its own it has a structure of parts that maintains it. The parts are institutions like the family or the church, which are “useful” or “functional” in some way, but if the institution was no longer functional it would disappear and be replaced like a passing fashion. People involved in these institutions may not be aware of their function, but because the institution exists certain effects follow. Institutions are long lasting so therefore functional.

The foundations of functionalism explain how social inequality is necessary to motivate the more talented members of society to train to fulfil the demands of social positions which are functionally more important than others. They list the rank order of positions as religion, government, wealth and technical knowledge and point out that only a limited number of people have the talents which can be turned into the skills needed for these positions. This takes training which means social and financial sacrifices are made, so in order to encourage people to undergo this training, and to endure the demands of the future position itself, they are given certain privileges. This may include access to scarce resources such as property, power and prestige. This access to scarce resources produces stratification but also inequality in the amount of resources allocated to different people. This inequality is both functional and inevitable.

Functionalist theories state that education meets the needs of the industrial society as well as the cultural society and has the important role of socialising the individual to fit into, and continue, the social system. Individuals are born into a society that already has an identity of its own and education has the function of passing on shared values and skills.

Where functionalism uses consensus, shared norms and values and concepts such as order, harmony, cohesion and integration, Marxism takes a different view.

Marx argues that that economic inequality is at the heart of all societies. Conflict is a disagreement or clash between opposing ideas, principles, or people-this can be a covert or overt conflict. The conflict perspective is based on many conflict approaches. In spite of their inconsequential differences, they all have a model of society as a whole and they collectively share the view of the structural approach. Additionally, all perspectives, in some form or another, share the notion that sociological groups have different interests. As a result, they propose that conflicts are always probable since that when different groups advocate their own individual interests, it tends to cause disagreement and in certain situations, resentment. Arguably, the two most prestigious standpoints within the approach are the Marxist and feminist conflict theories. A major difference between functionalism and the conflict perspective is that the conflict approach accentuates the existence of competing groups whilst functionalism views groups as being fully cooperative.

Conflict theorists emphasise conflict and contradiction whereas consensus theorists maintain that society’s institutions work within functional unity. The conflict paradigm (particular Marxists), conversely, holds that society has an infrastructure and a superstructure that work independently. The ideology considers value as being the mechanisms for keeping society together. Conflict theorists reject the assertion and claim that values are imposed by the powerful groups in society. Conflict theory, proposes that conflict, struggle and change are more prevailing within society. Marxism sees human history as a class struggle, with oppressor and oppressed wrestling for control. The dominant class controls and owns the means of production or wealth generation, and the working class in therefore controlled by them.

Welfare is a result of the strength of working-class resistance to exploitation, a concession the dominant class must make to maintain social order. Programmes such as welfare and pensions help to legitimise the capitalist system with the working class. Welfare then becomes another vehicle for power and control by the dominant class. Its purpose is to placate rather than empower the poor, and seeks to reduce the individual to a state of dependency on those in power. According to Marxist theory, society has unfolded in a series of ever-progressing and better structures, as defined by their economic development and modes of production, from the primitive communal to slave-based to feudal to capitalist. The final stage was communism. This was predicted to be the best possible means of governance and structure of society, one that would erase inequalities and allow individuals to achieve their full potential and value within their community.

Marxism viewed the individual as part of a collective organism, society. Inequalities in society resulted from distinction in classes, not particular individual decisions or behaviours. Conflict was between these classes, and rooted in struggle for power.

Marxism assumes the individual can and will contribute to the greater community as much as they are able, and will be motivated by the common good. When society has evolved or elevated itself to this place, inequalities will be dealt with appropriately The problem with broad application of Marxist theory is that individuals do take advantage.

As Wes Sharrock 1977 puts it: The conflict view is founded upon the assumption that society may provide extraordinarily good lives for some usually only possible because the great majority are oppressed and degraded. Difference of interest are therefore as important to society as agreements upon riles and values, and most societies are so organised that they not only provide greater benefits for some than for others

Social conflict differs from consensus because it is interested in the way unenequal distribution of advantage in a society structures behaviour and is interested in the conflict inherent in such a society.

The Marxist perspective concentrates on the differences between groups and concepts such as control, conflict, power, domination and exploitation. This is the theory based on the work of Karl Marx (1818-1833) Marx felt that social class was the main form of inequality and saw only two significant social classes. He maintained that it was capitalist industrialisation that led to this “two class” society, the bourgeoisie who owned the means of production (e.g. factories) and the proletariat who became the wage labourers (working in the factories).

“What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” (Marx and Engels. 1848)

Is social stratification socially constructed.

Throughout the ages there has always been evidence in stratification and how it is socially moulded into almost everything. It can be seen In families, the workforce, in politics and international from one country to another, male against female, ages from young to the old and from the rich to the poor. It is even seen in the animal kingdom and it appears to be a natural instinctive survival mechanism but one that is unfair. It seems to happen when one or more people having a belief in something which in turn over powers the next therefore creating a layer with a low medium and high for example the class system of the poor and the bourgeoisie It depends on the individuals definition of social stratification however one may understand it as a form of hierarchy which is displayed almost in everything and everywhere we are only free when we are first born from then on in we belong to a class starting within the family union through to a much bigger ranking within local to international society.

FOUR SECTIONS : RACE GENDER SEX AND AGE

There are two reports which have been commissioned by the government to try and find some evidence of variations in health and illness. These are The Black Report (1980) chaired by Sir Douglas Black and The Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health by Sir Donald Acheson (1998).

Firstly, in The Black Report inequalities in human health take a number of distinctive forms. Most attention is given to differences in health as measured over the years between the social (or more strictly occupational) classes. When comparing rates of mortality among men and women in each of the 5 classes. Taking the 2 extremes as a point of comparison it can be seen that for both men and women the risk of death before retirement is two-and-a-half times as great in class 5 (unskilled manua1 workers and their wives), as it is in class 1 (professional men and their wives).

One of the most distinctive features of human health in the advanced societies is the gap in life expectancy between men and women. This phenomenon carries important implications for all spheres of social policy but especially health, since old age is a time when demand for health care is at its greatest and the dominant pattern of premature male mortality has added the exacerbating problem of isolation to the situation of elderly women who frequently survive their partners by many years. The imbalance in the ratio of males to females in old age is the cumulative product of health inequalities between the sexes during the whole lifetime. These inequalities are found in every occupational class demonstrating that gender and class exert highly significant and different influences on the quality and duration of life in modern society.

Rates of age-specific mortality vary considerably between the regions which make up the United Kingdom. Using mortality as an indicator of health the healthiest part of Britain appears to be the southern belt (below a line drawn across the country from the Wash to the Bristol Channel). This part of the country has not always exhibited the low rates of mortality that are found there today. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the South East of England recorded comparatively high rates of death, while other regions like Wales and the far North had a rather healthier profile. The fluctuation in the distribution of mortality over the years suggests that social (including industrial and occupational) as much as “natural” factors must be at work in creating the pattern of regional health inequalities.

One of the most important dimensions of inequality in contemporary Britain is race. Immigrants to this country from the so-called new Commonwealth, whose ethnic identity is clearly visible in the colour of their skin, are known to experience greater difficulty in finding work and adequate housing (Smith, 1976). Given, for example, these social and economic disabilities it is to be expected that they might also record rather high than average rates of mortality and morbidity.

Class differences in mortality are a constant feature of the entire human lifetime. They are found at birth, during the first year of life, in childhood, adolescence and in adult life. In general they are more marked the start of life and in early adulthood. Average life expectancy provides a useful summary of the cumulative impact of these advantages and disadvantages throughout life. A child born to professional parents, if he or she is not socially mobile, can expect to spend over 5 years more as a living person than a child born to an unskilled manual household.

At birth and during the first month of life the risk of death in class 5 is double the risk in class 1. When the fortunes of babies born to skilled manual fathers are compared with those who enter the world as the offspring of professional workers the risk of mortality is one and half times as great. From the end of the first month to the end of the first year, class differentials in infant mortality reach a peak of disadvantage.

For the death of every one male infant in class 1, we can expect almost 4 deaths in class 5.

In adult life, class differences in mortality are found for many different causes. As in childhood the rate of accidental death and infectious disease forms a steep gradient especially among men; moreover an extraordinary variety of causes of deaths such as cancer, heart and respiratory disease also differentiate between the classes.

The duration of the human lifetime is one of the best means of approximating the lifelong pattern of health of individuals and whole populations. As we have seen, the risk of premature death in Britain today is systematically related to socioeconomic variables. This association is not new or unusual. Death rates have always been relatively high among the underprivileged and materially deprived sections of communities. Why this should continue to be so in an era characterised by new patterns of disease, increased purchasing power, and state provision of free medical care is more perplexing. In infancy and childhood where the class gradients are steep, the major causes of death are in many ways directly linked to poverty and to environmental risk. In adulthood the relationship between health and class becomes more complex and in old age social and economic deprivation becomes a common experience.

Both Cartwright and O’Brien (1976) and Buchan and Richardson (1973) have studied GP consultations in depth. Both investigations showed that middle class patients tended to have longer consultations than did working class ones. More problems were discussed at consultations with middle class patients than with working class ones. Cartwright and O’Brien also found that middle class patients were, in a sense, able to make better use of the consultation time, as measured by the number of items of information communicated and the number of questions asked. Moreover even though working class patients tended to have been with the same practice for longer, the doctors seemed to have more knowledge of the personal and domestic circumstances of their middle class patients. In an earlier study Cartwright had found that middle class patients were more likely to be visited by their GP when in hospital than were working class patients (Cartwright, 1964). For cultural reasons then, and also because there is a tendency for the ‘better’ doctors to work in middle class areas, the suggestion is that middle class patients receive a better service when they do present themselves than do working class patients.

In the case of family planning and maternity services substantial evidence shows that those social groups in greatest need make least use of services and (in the case of antenatal care) are least likely to come early to the notice of the service. Cartwright (1970) found clear class gradients in the proportion of mothers having an antenatal examination, attending a family planning clinic, and discussing birth control with their GP. Unintended pregnancies were more common among working class women. Bone (1973) also found that women from the non-manua1 classes make more use of family planning services than those from the manual classes. This was true both for married and for unmarried women. Similar differences have been found in presentation for post-natal examination (Douglas and Rowntree, 1949) and (by Gordon, 1951) immunisation, ante-natal and post natal supervision and uptake of vitamin foods. The National Child Development Study (1958 birth cohort) found substantial differences in immunisation rates in children aged 7, as well as in attendance at the dentist. Among women, it has been found that those in classes 4 and 5 are much less likely to be screened for cervical cancers even though mortality from this condition is much higher in these classes than in the non-manual classes.

In the Acheson report, the findings were much the same as The Black Report. The Acheson Report has also shown that health was improving but more for the higher than lower social classes. Premature mortality, that is death before age 65, is higher among people who are unskilled. If all men in this age group had the same death rates as those in classes I and II, it is estimated that there would have been over 17,000 fewer deaths each year from 1991 to 1993. Deaths from accidents and suicide occur at relatively young ages and each contribute nearly as much to overall years of working life lost as coronary heart disease. Death rates from all three causes are higher among those in the lower social classes, and markedly so among those in class V (Office for National Statistics and Blane & Drever 1998).

In adulthood, being overweight is a measure of possible ill health, with obesity a risk factor for many chronic diseases. There is a marked social class gradient in obesity which is greater among women than among men. (Colhoun and Prescott-Clarke, 1996), (Prescott-Clarke and Primatesta 1997), (Prescott-Clarke and Primatesta 1998). In 1996, 25 per cent of women in class V were classified as obese compared to 14 per cent of women in class I.

Another indicator of poor health is raised blood pressure. There is a clear social class differential among women, with those in higher classes being less likely than those in the manual classes to have hypertension. In 1996, 17 per cent of women in class I and 24 per cent in class V had hypertension. There was no such difference for men where the comparable proportions were 20 per cent and 21 per cent respectively (Prescott-Clarke and Primatesta 1997).

Across different ethnic groups, there are very different rates of unemployment. Those from minority ethnic groups have higher rates than the white population. Black men have particularly high unemployment rates as do Pakistani and Bangladeshi women (Office for National Statistics 1998).

Between 1982 and 1992, there was a steep increase in the number of households accepted by Local Authorities as homeless. Since then, there has been a decrease of about a quarter. Of the 166,000 households classified as homeless in 1997, over 103,000 were accepted by local authorities to be unintentionally homeless and in priority need. Over half of households accepted by local authorities as homeless had dependent children and a further tenth had a pregnant household member (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions 1997 and 1998).

There is a clear social class gradient for both men and women in the proportion who smoke. In 1996, this ranged from 12 per cent of professional men to 41 per cent of men in unskilled manual occupations and from 11 per cent to 36 per cent for women (Office for National Statistics 1998). In spite of the major class differences in dependence on alcohol in men (Meltzer et al 1995), there are very small differences in the reported quantities consumed. This is not the case among women where higher consumption is related to higher social class (Office for National Statistics 1998).

People in lower socioeconomic groups tend to eat less fruit and vegetables, and less food which is rich in dietary fibre. As a consequence, they have lower intakes of anti-oxidant and other vitamins, and some minerals, than those in higher socioeconomic groups (Colhoun and Prescott-Clarke 1996), (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1996), (Department of Health 1989), (Gregory et al 1990), (Gregory et al 1995).

One aspect of dietary behaviour that affects the health of infants is the incidence of breastfeeding. Six weeks after birth, almost three quarters of babies in class I households are still breastfed. This declines with class to less than one quarter of babies in class V. The differences between classes in rates of breastfeeding at six weeks has narrowed slightly between 1985 and 1995 (Foster et al 1997).

Class inequalities in health have been accounted for in a number of different ways. The report of the DHSS Inequalities in Health Working Group ‘The Black Report’ lists four types of explanation. These are inequality as an artefact, inequality as natural selection, inequality as material deprivation and inequality as cultural deprivation.

The artefact explanation argues that inequalities in health are not real but artificial. They are an effect produced in the attempt to measure something which is more complicated than the tools of measurement can appreciate. It is argued that changes in the occupational structure are likely to combine with age to confound any attempt to measure inequality in mortality even at one point in time. It is suggested that the age structure of social class 5 is likely to be biased towards older workers because younger recruits to the labour force will have entered better paid, more skilled occupations, that have expanded since the war. Since the mortality risk increases with the age, this effect is likely to enlarge the rate of social class 5 as a whole. If so, the observed gradient is really caused by the skewed age structure of the unskilled manual class rather than by the poorer health of its members.

The most persuasive attempt to explain health inequalities as the outcome of a process natural selection, has been put forward by the statistician, Jon Stern. He argues that those people with better health move up the social class ladder and those with poorer health move down the social class ladder (Stern 1983). Stern defines health as a fixed or genetic property of individuals largely independent of their immediate social and economic environment. His argument rests on the assumption that health itself increases the probability of social mobility and that the class structure permits movement up and down. This means that no matter how deprived the social background, a genetic potentiality for good health will enable a person to overcome material disadvantage and climb out of poverty.

Material deprivation means a shortage of the material resources on which healthy human existence depends. This means that health is directly affected by the material circumstances in which people live. In less developed societies (poor housing) its effects may appear in very high death rates from diseases primarily caused by malnutrition and exposure. People in poverty may not be able to afford or access healthy foods to stay healthy or they may become ill more often because of poorly heated homes.

Health inequality as cultural deprivation means that the poor have a self destructive culture which leads them to become ill because of the lifestyles and personal habits in which they engage, for example, smoking, alcohol, poor diet and lack of exercise, but these poor health behaviours are also a strategy to cope with the persistent material deprivation they experience.

The psycho social explanation suggests that long term chronic stresses are unevenly distributed in society, basically in line with class position (structural inequalities). The impact of stresses depends on how individuals view them, subjectively, and deal with them. This, in turn, depends on the buffering resources we have in terms of personality, social background, location in the social structure, education, financial resources, and the supportiveness of the social environment.

The social environment and the social location can generate self efficacy which is a feeling of personal control, mastery over one’s life, instrumentalism (opposite concept to fatalism, powerlessness, learned helplessness). Self efficacy is the extent to which individuals see themselves in control of the forces which have a significant influence on their lives.

Self efficacy is linked to self esteem, self concept, social support and individuals coping style. In other words, the psycho-social approach forges a link between class position and vulnerability to social stresses.

Wilkinson et al (1990) discuss a social cohesion approach and argue that social and power inequalities (i.e. authoritarian hierarchies and non democratic social organisations, and potential status inequalities such as gender and ethnicity) will affect the quality of social relationships. Where inequalities produce anger, frustration, fear insecurity and negative emotion, social relations will suffer.

Better health is linked to better social relations, through trust, more security, more social support, more self esteem, self respect, a sense of belonging and less financial and material disadvantage. Thus democratic and participatory styles of social organisation – from the family to political organisations – have a health enhancing effect.

A life course theory regards health as reflecting the patterns of social, psychological and biological advantages and disadvantages experienced by the individual over time. A life course theory of health inequality regards these patterns as being profoundly affected by the position of individuals and families in social and economic structures and hierarchies of status. However, these links themselves depend on the political and cultural environment, which means that there is a need for a life course political economy of health, which examines the ways in which economic and social policies influence the accumulation of material and psycho social risk. The ways in which advantages and disadvantages combine over the life course influence both how long each individual may spend in good health, and also what form of illness they may acquire.

In conclusion, there are many inequalities in health and all the findings from The Black Report in 1980 are still around today, which was shown in The Acheson Report.

The table below shows the standardised mortality rates (SMRs) for ten equal-sized geographical areas in terms of population (or deciles). SMRs which are greater than 100 indicate higher chances of mortality, all relative to the national average. The table demonstrates a continuing polarisation in mortality rates. People living in the best areas have an improving life expectancy, whilst those in the worst areas face a decline, to such an extent that by 1998, those in the worst areas were twice as likely to die by the age of 65 as those in the best areasgraph showing Standardised mortality ratios for deaths under 65 in Britain by deciles of population, 1950-1998

graph showing Health inequalities in infant mortality (by social class for sole registrations)

During the nineteenth century the founding fathers of Sociology such as Marx, Comte and Durkheim, wanted to accomplish their political objectives by using scientific methods. They wanted people to be convinced of the validity of their views and felt that the best way to achieve this would be to go about this in the most effective way by means of natural science and research methods. Sociologists thus tried to explain how the social system worked. One of the main areas within a social system is education. All children between the ages of five and Sixteen are obliged to attend school, and during term time school children spend over half their waking hours in the classroom. Education in Britain is free and is provided by the welfare state, it is also compulsory, parents who do not send their child to school are breaking the law. According to sociologists in order to have a fully functioning society the members would ideally have to be educated to carry out their role within that society, or society may ‘fall apart’. This essay will include a brief look at the history of education and how it has developed into the system we now have today. This essay will also look at two sociological theories on education; Functionalist and Marxist,. Within each of these theories this essay will also highlight three main perspectives; social class, gender and ethnicity.

The 1944 Education Act was a significant piece of social and welfare legislation, it required Local Education Authorities to provide state-funded education for pupils, up to the age of 15, that incorporated, to quote, “instruction and training as may be desirable in view of their different ages, abilities and aptitudes”. The act was devised by Conservative MP Rab Butler (1902-1982), from this came the introduction of the tripartite system which comprised of; Grammar schools for the more academic pupil, Secondary Modern schools for a more practical, non-academic style of education and Technical schools for specialist practical education. Pupils had to take an examination called the 11-Plus and the result of this indicated which type of school the child would be allocated to. Secondary education now became free for all and the school-leaving age rose to 15. The tripartite system could be seen as a way of dividing classes, as it was usually the children from more affluent families that passed the 11-plus examination. (Bell, 2004; MOC; Murray, 2009).

In 1965 comprehensive schooling was recommended by the Labour Government in document called the Circular 10/65. The new comprehensive system suited children of all abilities in contrast to the tripartite system. The school leaving age was raised to 16 in 1973. The comprehensive system aimed to eradicate the class divide from the British education system. (Bell, 2004; MOC; Murray, 2009).

The 1988 Education Act saw the introduction to the National Curriculum. All education in state funded school was to be made the same and made sure that all school children received the same level of education. Compulsory subjects were introduced which included maths, English, science and religious education. The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) was introduced to replace O-levels and the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE). This was another way of trying to make state education classless. (Bell, 2004; MOC; Murray, 2009).

Over the years theories of education have been in and out of fashion this was mostly due to which political party was in power at the time and the state of the economy as the two are very much linked. During the 1950aa‚¬a„?s Functionalism was the dominant force within sociology. During the war the education system had been neglected and was seen as been in a pretty poor state. By the 1970s, structural tensions, inflation, economic stagnation and unemployment, meant that Marxism and other critical theories like Feminism and anti-authoritarian Liberals became far more influential. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

The education system was undemocratic, unequal and unfair. Marxists like Raymond Boudon argued that positional theory determined educational success or failure, he is well-known for his studies into of the role of education on social mobility. It was your position in the class structure that gave you an advantage, or a disadvantage, in the competitive world of education. However for Pierre Bourdieu, the working class lacked what he referred to as cultural capital; without which they were doomed to failure. Cultural capital included the valuable cultural experiences of foreign travel, museums, theatre and the possession of a sophisticated register and middle class norms and values. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

The functionalist perspective was the dominant theoretical approach in the sociology of education until the 1960’s. When considering education functionalists usually ask questions such as; What are the functions of education? What part does it play in maintaining society? What are the relationships between education and other elements of our social system?

A typical functionalist response to such questions sees education as transmitting society’s norms and values, for example a child that learns to respect the rules at school he will learn to respect society’s rules as an adult. Functionalists believe that various parts of society work together for the mutual benefit of society as a whole so therefore education and the economy go hand in hand and school is preparation for the world of work. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope, 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

Emile Durkheim was one of the founding fathers of sociology and provided the basic framework for functionalist view of education. He believed that for society to operate efficiently individuals must develop a sense of belonging to something wider than their immediate situation. The education system plays an important part of this process. In particular, the teaching of history enables children to see the link between themselves and the wider society. Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who further developed Durkheim’s ideas. He argued that in modern industrial societies education performs an important socialising function. Education helps to ensure the continuity of norms and values through transmitting the culture of society to new generations. Parsons saw the school as a bridge between the family and the wider society. Within the family the child’s status is fixed at birth but in wider society new status is achieved through work, friendships and relationships. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

Parson’s also saw that schools prepared children for their roles in adult society through the selection process. Students are assessed and sorted in terms of their abilities and this helps to allocate them to appropriate occupations. Students are also allocated certain occupations in relation to what sex they are, typically girls would be seen as going into more stereotypically ‘feminine’ roles such as secretaries, hairdressers, beauticians, nurses /care givers or homemakers; whereas boys would be seen as going into more stereotypically ‘masculine’ roles such as doctors, builders, mechanics, plumbers or firemen. Boys are also seen as being more scientific than girls. However many of these roles are now being integrated by both sexes. Conversely the roles of being care-givers and homemakers are still seen as being innate in females. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

The Marxist perspective on education differs from that of the functionalist. In Marx’s words the ruling class ‘rule also as thinkers, as producers of ideas’. These ideas justify their position, conceal their true source of their power and disguise their exploitation of the subject class. A French Marxist philosopher called Louis Althusser argued that no class can hold power for long simply by the use of force. The use of ideas provide a much more useful means of control. He also argued that the education system in modern times has taken over the role of the church as the main agency for ideological control. In the past people accepted their status in life and saw it as being God’s will. Nowadays however people tend to accept their status and role within society from the way in which they have been educated. The upper and middle classes are primed to become the ruling class and the owners of industry, the lower classes are primed to become the workforce. They are taught to accept their future exploitation. Althusser argues that ideology in capitalist society is fundamental to social control. He sees the educational process as essentially ideological. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

For Bowles and Gintis, the education system propagated a hidden curriculum where the working classes learnt to know their place, to obey rules and were also socialised to accept that inequality was natural and inevitable. They also claim that education legitimates social inequality by broadcasting the myth that it offers everyone an equal chance. It follows that people who achieve high qualifications deserve their success. So in other words education is seen as a reward system, those who work hard and gain a good education will have access to the top jobs. Bowles and Gintis stated that ‘Education reproduces inequality by justifying privilege and attributing poverty to personal failure.’ (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

Both Marxists and functionalists have been criticised for seeing people as being nothing more than creatures of the social system, thus Bowles and Gintis see teachers as the agents of capital the students as its victims and their situations being shaped by factors which are out of their control. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

In modern day Britain there is a general consensus of opinion that education should be based on equal opportunities. Everyone should have an equal right to develop their abilities to the full regardless of their age, class, ethnicity or gender. However there is clear evidence that in educational terms those who have certain social characteristics are more likely to achieve better results than others, so this shows that there is a distinct relationship between social class and educational attainment. Throughout the twentieth century there is evidence to show that the higher an individual’s social class, the more likely they are to have a greater number and higher level of educational qualifications. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

Gender has always been an issue in education. Should both sexes take the same subjects? Do both sexes have the same abilities and aptitude? The introduction of the 1944 Education Act was concerned with enabling free and equal education for all. However there is still a worry that discrimination against girls still takes place throughout the educational system. To feminists this is a reflection of the patriarchal nature of modern industrial society. The school curriculum has become increasingly similar for boys and girls. However, where choice is available, there is still a tendency for girls to choose some subjects and boy’s others. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

There is no concrete evidence within the education system to prove whether a student’s ethnicity has any effect on their examination results. Statistics on school leavers and their examination results are a snapshot at one point in time. Individuals may want to ‘catch up’ on their education once leaving school by attending local colleges. There is evidence to show that ethnic minorities are likely to do this. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

“The Swann Report (1985), officially called ‘Education for All’, was a government report advocating a multicultural education system for all schools, regardless of institutions, location, age-range or ethnicity for staff/pupils. The report provided clear data on ethnicity and educational attainment, discovering that racism had a causal effect on the educational experiences of black children in the UK.”

(Griffiths and Hope, 2000).

The statistics shown in the Swann Report were drawn from local authorities with a high ethnic concentration. So therefore it could be said that they weren’t a true depiction of ethnic educational attainment throughout the whole of the country. However due to mass immigration into this country in the last five years some children who come from different ethnic backgrounds are at a disadvantage due to cultural language barriers. (Browne, K, 2005; Griffiths & Hope , 2000; Haralambus & Holburn, 2008)

This essay included a brief look at the history of education and how it has developed into the system we now have today. It also looked at two sociological theories on education; Functionalist and Marxist. The feminist perspective was touched upon when relating education to gender. Within each of these theories essay highlighted three main perspectives; social class, gender and ethnicity. To conclude there are still many barriers to gaining a good education for some of the children in this country due to their class, social stratification, gender or ethnicity. The rich are more likely to get better grades and job opportunities. However some children / young adults may cross the divide and become better educated and move to a high class as an educated adult.

Social disorganization is described as the lack of ability of the community members to unite their values or to solve problems that they experience together and as a community. In the past couple of decades, the themes of social disorganization theory have been more clearly explained and improved upon by Sampson and Groves in year 1989. Sampson and Groves traced social disorganization to conditions that were common and widespread to the urban areas that were the only places the newly arriving poor could afford to live in, in particular, a high rate of turnover in the population which caused residential instability and a wide mix of people from different cultural backgrounds (ethnic diversity). Sampson and Groves’ analyses about the delinquency rates to these places allowed them to derive key facts about the community where crime and delinquency are linked together where when one goes up the other goes up, and when one goes down the other goes down. Their work remains useful today as a guide for efforts to address crime and delinquency at the community level.

Current versions of social disorganization theory assume that strong networks of social relationships prevent crime and delinquency this was pointed out by Sampson and Groves in 1989. When most community or neighborhood members are familiar with each other and are on good terms with one another, a large portion of the adult population has the potential to influence the children and teenagers in their neighborhoods. The bigger the network of acquaintances or contacts, the bigger the community’s ability to monitor itself and perform informal surveillance (because residents are able to tell each other apart from outsiders), for supervision (because people who know each other are willing to get involved and interfered when children and juveniles behave unacceptably), and for shaping children’s values and interests. According to the Sampson and Groves, the community’s characteristics such as poverty and ethnic diversity lead to higher delinquency rates because they interfere with community members’ abilities to work together, for the good of the community.

Just like in urban areas, systems of relationships are related to crime and delinquency in small towns and rural communities. The only feature of the theory that is related to urban areas is the explanation of why social disorganization happens in some geographic locations and not in others.

Rural sociologists concerned with the negative effects of quick population growth provide some evidence that the processes of social disorganization apply in rural settings. Groves and Sampson, for example, argued that the “boomtown” phenomenon brings high rates of crime and other unacceptable behaviors but does not produce alienation or mental health difficulties. Also Sampson and Groves explained these negative effects by the same method as social disorganization theory which states that rapid growth greatly reduces the proportion of people who know one another, which in turn interferes with surveillance and socialization of the young this was originally states by Freudenberg in 1986.

Sampson and Groves theory specified that several variables-residential instability, ethnic diversity, family disruption, economic status, population size or density, and proximity to urban areas-play a huge role in a community’s capacity to develop and maintain strong systems of social relationships.

Based on their research in urban settings, Sampson and Groves expected that rates of juvenile violence in rural communities would increase as rates of residential instability increased. When the population of an area is constantly changing, the residents have fewer opportunities to develop strong, personal ties to one another and to participate in community organizations. This assumption has been central to research on social disorganization since its beginning. Massive population change is the main variable when looking at this theory. They highlighted four important points in their research;

Ethnic diversity: According to social Sampson and Groves, it could be expected that, as in urban areas, rates of juvenile violence would be higher in rural communities with greater ethnic diversity. Ethnic diversity interferes with communication among adults. Effective communication is less likely in the face of ethnic diversity because differences in customs and a lack of shared experiences may breed fear and mistrust. It is important to distinguish this hypothesis about heterogeneity from simple ethnic differences. In other words, this hypothesis sees crime as arising from relations between ethnic groups, not from some groups being more crime-prone than others.

Family disruption: Research in urban areas has found that delinquency rates are higher in communities with greater levels of family disruption, and they expected that this also would be true in rural areas. Sampson and Groves argued that unshared parenting strains parents’ resources of time, money, and energy, which interferes with their ability to supervise their children and communicate with other adults in the neighborhood. Furthermore, the smaller the number of parents in a community relative to the number of children, the more limited the amount of adult supervision will be for all the children.

Economic status: Although rates of juvenile violence are higher in urban areas with lower economic status, it was not clear that this relationship should apply in rural settings. The role of economic status in their theory is based on patterns of growth in urban areas. In many major urban areas, growth leads to the physical, economic, and social decline of the residential areas closest to the central business district. These areas then become most readily available to the poor and to groups who migrate to the area. As a result, areas with the lowest average socioeconomic status will also have the greatest residential instability and ethnic diversity, which in turn will create social disorganization. Therefore, many studies have found that urban neighborhoods with high rates of poverty also have greater rates of delinquency.

The processes that link poverty with population turnover are specific to urban settings. In nonmetropolitan settings, poor populations may be stable and ethnically consistent.

Population density: Population density is rather different from the other community factors for two reasons. First, evidence of a relationship between population density and urban crime and delinquency is inconsistent. Second, the meaning of density becomes quite different for nonurban communities, where, in the least dense areas, one must travel several miles to have significant contact with people outside of one’s immediate family. The original reason for the urban perspective was that high population density creates problems by producing anonymity that interferes with accountability to neighbors. In the least dense rural areas, it may be social isolation, instead, that limits social support to monitor children and respond to problem behavior. Sampson and Groves suggested that density might be more important in terms of opportunities for offending than in terms of social disorganization. The comparative isolation of living in a sparsely populated area may reduce opportunities for offending because of greater distance from targets and from potential companions in crime. Victimization rates are lowest in communities with the smallest populations, but only for populations of 25,000 or less. In larger communities, the rates were essentially unrelated to population size.

Proximity to urban areas: This final community variable, which moves away from the themes of current social disorganization theory, considers an issue specific to rural settings and to the linkages among communities. As Sampson and Groves have argued, it is important to look beyond the internal dynamics of communities and consider ways in which rates of delinquency might be influenced by relationships between neighboring communities. Various rural and suburban communities have very different relationships with urban communities, and this is an important theme of research on rural settings. Sampson and Groves suggested that “less delinquent groups of youths are being socialized into more sophisticated types of criminal behavior by youths in adjoining areas”. Because average crime rates are higher in communities with larger populations, this phenomenon would produce higher rates of delinquency in rural communities that are adjacent to metropolitan areas. Previous research has not addressed this topic, however, so it is not clear whether such diffusion actually occurs and, if it does, whether it is strong enough to produce higher rates of juvenile violence in counties adjacent to urban areas.

Summary of Sampson and Groves

Sampson and Groves’s theory revolved around the characteristics of communities with high crime rates. They explained that economically deprived, large sizes, multiunit housing apartments (where a lot of people move in and out) and a high rate of divorce and single parents reduces direct control over the neighborhood and reduces the supervision of young people.

Lack of supervision of young people causes a lack of socialization of children against crime; they don’t do well in school and don’t have the connections to secure a good job, since they don’t have close ties with their neighbors.

Because people don’t know their neighbors they are less likely to interfere with neighborhood problems such as crime or monitoring people’s behaviors.

Most residents have no attachment to their neighborhood and as soon as they have enough money they will leave to somewhere better, this reduces the amount of investments they make in their area and how much the care about their surroundings.

Robert Sampson

Growing up in the small, industrial city of Utica, NY, in the 1960s, Sampson witnessed firsthand the changing patterns within his city. Once a bustling city, his hometown was hit with hard times as industries left and almost half of the town’s population went with them. ”I witnessed those changes growing up and was fascinated-why are some communities declining and people leaving, and why are others thriving?” he asks. From a young age, Sampson was a keen observer of community and city life. The self-described ”upstate New York kid” did not stray far from home for college or graduate school, choosing to attend the State University of New York (SUNY).

As an undergraduate at SUNY-Buffalo, Sampson discovered the tools of psychology and sociology. He graduated in 1977 with a degree in sociology. In the late 1970s, Sampson entered graduate school at SUNY-Albany, where he refined his focus on the study of society. There he worked with some of the most influential sociologists of the time, including Peter Blau and Travis Hirschi.

Hirschi, who later became Sampson’s dissertation advisor, had written what Sampson describes as probably the most cited and influential study of crime in the 20th century, called Causes of Delinquency, which helped launch Sampson’s research on crime. ”It was a very exciting time, very intense. I became interested in the study of crime from a social-ecological perspective,”

Sampson says. During graduate school, he also was introduced to a group of sociologists that have influenced his entire career. ”I was taken by the classical work that was done in what’s known as the Chicago School of Urban Sociology,” Sampson recalls. The group used the rapidly growing population of Chicago in the early 1900s as a sort of ”sociology laboratory” in which to study how social structures and the urban environment influenced human social behavior, particularly crime and delinquency. ”They were studying the massive changes that were occurring based on the waves of immigration coming from Europe,”

Sampson migrated to the home of his ”intellectual mentors” in Chicago, first to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 to take his first faculty position in the sociology department, and in 1991 to the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL), where he became involved in a massive effort to study community-level social processes in urban neighborhoods. In 1994, Sampson became the scientific director of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods; he is now the head of the Sociology department at Harvard University.