Conflict Perspective
•According
to this perspective, groups in
society are engaged in a continuous
power struggle for control of scarce
resources
•Conflict may take the form of politics,
litigation, negotiation or family discussion
about financial matters
Conflict Perspective
•Advocates
of the conflict perspective
view social life as a continuous struggle
among competing social groups
•Key
influences: Simmel, Weber, Marx
Conflict Perspective
•Marx
focused on the exploitation of the
working class by the capitalist class
•Weber saw the significance of economic
conditions in producing inequality, but added
power and prestige as other sources of
inequality
•Power – the ability of a person within a social
relationship to carry out his or her own will
despite resistance from others
•Prestige – a positive or negative social estimation
of honour
Conflict Perspective
•Other
theorists, such as Dahrendorf
(1959), simply see conflict as part of
everyday life
•People in positions of authority benefit
from the conformity of others; those who
are forced to conform feel resentment and
demonstrate resistance
•eg.
children vs. their parents
Conflict Perspective
•Mills
(1916-1962) maintained that
sociologists should get involved in social
change
•He did not believe that sociologists could
be “value free”; he encouraged others to
address the major resource and power
inequalities in society
•He believed that the most important
decisions are made mostly behind the
scenes by the power elite
Conflict Perspective
•The
power elite – a small clique
composed of the top corporate, political
and military officials
Conflict Perspective
Applying Conflict Perspectives to Suicide
(p. 25-26)
•How
do social theorists link social class pressures to suicide
among North American teenagers?
•What
are the known risk factors associated with suicide among
Canadian youth? For those people who commit (or attempt to
commit) suicide and who do not fit these descriptions, what
others factors do you think might play a role?
•Why
are suicide rates so high among minority groups, particularly
among Aboriginals? How does the conflict framework
(perspective) differ from other research?
•What
are some of the benefits of the conflict perspective? What
are some of the criticisms of the conflict perspective?
Conflict Perspective - Why does prostitution
continue to exist in Canadian society?






Society can only be understood by examining the
way power is managed in it.
Society’s normal state is not one of harmony but
one of struggle for power.
Prostitution is a classic example of people with
power using it to exploit people without power.
In general, women have less power and money.
Some women, due to lack of money, are forced to
become prostitutes against their will.
Men with money are therefore able to exploit and
degrade women for their own sexual gratification.
Conflict Perspective - Why does prostitution
continue to exist in Canadian society?




Ironically, the law has historically punished the prostitutes.
(The laws that make prostitution illegal are created by
powerful dominant group members who seek to maintain
cultural dominance by criminalizing sexual conduct that they
consider immoral or in bad taste.)
Their clients have not been considered guilty of a crime.
The powerless are objects for the law to punish, while the
powerful are ignored.
Conflict theorists suggest that criminalizing prostitution
uniquely affects poor women, especially poor women of
colour, who are overrepresented among street prostitutes.