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Inequality is widespread in society. People are constantly divideddue to differences in class, race, ethnicity and culture among otherfactors. As a result, it is important to understand the culturaldifference, social organization and social change in groups, whichresult in systems of inequality.
Culture refers to the fundamental system of beliefs, processes,values and artifacts, which groups of individuals develop in order tocomprehend as well as interact with their environments. Culture iscan be learned as well as shared with individuals living in thesimilar social environment for long. However, cultural differencesare apparent between people of different societies. Based on theunderstanding of culture, it becomes possible to understand howcultural difference results in systems of inequality. Some personaltrait and attitudes are believed to result in differences inopportunities available to people of different cultures (Charles 47).For instance, when people of a specific culture separate themselvesfrom society and begin to live as a community, they are likely tolock themselves out of opportunities available to people fromdifferent cultures. In the process, the culture becomes marginalizedin access to opportunities available to other cultures.
Social organization regards to the system of relationships within agroup and the way they interconnect. The system of relationshipsassists members of a specific group to remain connected to each otherto uphold a feeling of community in the group. An illustration ofsocial organization is the family. Many people come from families,which results in the formation of relationships among members of thesame family. Hence, families are able to remain connected as one andmaintain a sense of unity. Such social organization results insystems of inequality in many ways. The parents act as the highestorder of any social organization comprising of a family. Supposingthat parents come from a lower level status in society, they have ahigher possibility to be ill-equipped in training their children onskills that are required to attain a higher level status in society(Charles 47). As such, the inequalities experienced by parents aretransferred to their children. Social organization can also happen inform of residential segregation. For instance, people who live inghettos may be socially organized as ghetto dwellers. The ghettodwellers might develop an opposition to people from other societies.Such opposition restricts their ability to surpass inequalities intheir ghettos as compared to maybe people in middle-class societies.
Social change refers to the way value systems, social arrangements orbehaviors are altered with time. Changes in society cannot beavoided, bearing in mind the many factors that promote social changesuch as globalization. These changes bring with them systems ofinequality in society. For instance, when value systems change,issues like equality in the distribution of resources becomeimpossible to achieve. As people compete for the resources availableto other people, they take aware what belongs to others. Changes insocial arrangements are illustrated in the different social classesin society. People are now differentiated in regards to their socialstatus in society, the rich, middle class and the poor. The rich havemore opportunities to resources as compared to the poor. Socialchanges that have happened over time in society have resulted in areplacement of social actors. The new social actors reorder the waysof life, in the process leading to inequalities.
Work Cited
Charles, Maria. Culture and Inequality: Identity, Ideology, andDifference in “Postascriptive Society.” ANNALS, 619(2008): 41-58.