When Social Stratification Kills
November 23rd, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Social Deviance, Social Inequalities, Social Interaction, Social Stratification, Structural Violence
Teenage Boy Savagely Murdered In India for Writing Love Letter to Girl From Lower Caste « JONATHAN TURLEY via kwout
All stratification systems have more or less formal ways of "keeping people in their place." The more rigid the stratification system, such as the caste system, the more formal the sanctions will be for those who cross class / caste boundaries, as in the cases discussed by Jonathan Turley. And these sanctions are bi-directional. They may be directed at the person from the upper class or from the lower class. The point is to maintain the boundaries between the social categories intact and non-porous. On the more informal side of the spectrum, the sanctions may not be direct or physical but symbolic through consumption practices or interactive signs that someone is not following the class rules.
All in all, these are various forms of structural violence involving a fairly thorough degree of both formal and informal surveillance against potentially deviant behavior (crossing class / caste lines).
Posted in Social Deviance, Social Inequalities, Social Interaction, Social Stratification, Sociology, Structural Violence, Surveillance Society, Symbolic Violence | 1 Comment »
November 25th, 2008 at 7:05 am
In pressing against stratification, wouldn’t it also help to recognize and address the costs and risks of de-stratification? Structures are reinforced because their absence poses or appears to pose risks. When venturing outside one’s native culture, there are imo genuine and imagined risks. The genuine are risks of unfamiliar cultural signals and rules being imposed on individuals and some that may disfavor them as outsiders, as well as the absence of supports and protections of their native culture. Intercultural literacy, awareness, ethics, and sensible precautions can address these kinds of risks — yet these are not often taught by families, schools, cultures. Bogus risks such as racism and unmerited demonizing, and selecting conferring of priviledge to cultural insiders can be debunked. Some testimony and examples to advantages of destratification would imo widen the appeal and strenthen the arguments you make (and which I appreciate greatly).
One puzzle for me is why is it that in general, racism is viewed as unacceptable, but priviledging one’s culture above others is accepted and viewed as normal or even recommended?