It’s a key tenant of several social conflict theories.
I’m no expert, but the way I understand it, many early sociologists focused on the systems and structures of society. They emphasized the order and structure of “civilized” societies, usually with a bias toward European societies.
Then people like Marx and Weber came along and proposed that these societies were not “civilized”, but rather oppressive. They pointed to class struggles and oligarchs. Other sociologists began to highlight the struggles of marginalized groups like women and people of color. They followed the money and power.
SO, as an example, we use a landlord and his tenant. We could describe the relationship as mutually beneficial. The tenant needed a roof over his head, the landlord provided one. The system functions as intended, benefiting both parties.
But we might look deeper and see that housing prices are inflated. The tenant can’t afford a house, but the landlord owns 20 properties. The tenant wants to own property, but he’s shut out. The system is still functioning as intended, but the intention is to make the rich person more money and keep the poor person oppressed.
Obviously, there’s no hard and fast rules. There’s no final answer.
It’s a key tenant of several social conflict theories.
I’m no expert, but the way I understand it, many early sociologists focused on the systems and structures of society. They emphasized the order and structure of “civilized” societies, usually with a bias toward European societies.
Then people like Marx and Weber came along and proposed that these societies were not “civilized”, but rather oppressive. They pointed to class struggles and oligarchs. Other sociologists began to highlight the struggles of marginalized groups like women and people of color. They followed the money and power.
SO, as an example, we use a landlord and his tenant. We could describe the relationship as mutually beneficial. The tenant needed a roof over his head, the landlord provided one. The system functions as intended, benefiting both parties. But we might look deeper and see that housing prices are inflated. The tenant can’t afford a house, but the landlord owns 20 properties. The tenant wants to own property, but he’s shut out. The system is still functioning as intended, but the intention is to make the rich person more money and keep the poor person oppressed.
Obviously, there’s no hard and fast rules. There’s no final answer.