Chapter 3
The Duality of Social Life:
Order and Conflict
In Conflict and Order:
Understanding Society, 11th edition
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Social Systems: Order and Conflict
• Sociologists have a mental image (model)
of how society is structured, how it
changes and what holds it together.
• The two prevailing models of order and
conflict provide contradictory images of
society.
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Social Systems: Order and Conflict
• The Order Model
– Is sometimes called Functionalism
– Attributes to societies the attributes of
cohesion, cooperation, reciprocity, stability
and persistence
– Manifest consequences—intended
– Latent consequences—unintended
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Social Systems: Order and Conflict
• The Conflict Model
– The view of society that posits conflict as a
normal feature of social life, influencing the
distribution of power and the direction and
magnitude of social change
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The Duality of Social Life
• Sport from the Order Perspective
– Preserves the existing social order by
symbolizing the American way of life
– Supports the status quo by promoting the
unity of society’s members through patriotism
– Socializes youths into proper channels
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The Duality of Social Life
• Sport from the Conflict Perspective
– Sport is organized to exploit athletes and
meet the goals of the powerful
– Sport inhibits the potential for revolution by
society’s have-nots.
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Social Problems from the Order
and Conflict Perspectives
• Social Problems are societally induced
conditions that harm any segment of the
population or acts or conditions that violate
the norm and values of society
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Synthesis of the Order
and Conflict Models
• Assumptions of a synthesis approach:
– The processes of stability and change are
properties of all societies.
– Societies are organized, but the process of
organization generates conflict.
– Society is a social system.
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Synthesis of the Order
and Conflict Models (continued)
– Societies are held together by complementary
interests, by consensus on cultural values,
and also by coercion.
– Social change is a ubiquitous phenomenon in
all societies. It may be gradual or abrupt,
reforming or revolutionary.
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Division and Violence
• The divisive forces bringing about
segmentation in U.S. society
– Size
– Social Class
– Race
– Ethnicity
– Sexual Orientation
– Religion
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Violence and the Myth
of Peaceful Progress
• The myth of peaceful progress
– The incorrect belief that through throughout
U.S. history disadvantaged groups have
gained their share of power, prosperity, and
respectability without violence
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Violence and the Myth
of Peaceful Progress
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Revolutionary colonists
Native Americans
Exploited Farmers
Slaveholders
WASP Supremacists
Ethnic Minorities
Labor Disputants
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The Integrative Forces in Society
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Functional Integration
Consensus on Societal Values
The Social Order
Group Membership
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The Integrative Forces in Society
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International Competition and Conflict
The Mass Media
Planned Integration
False Consciousness
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