In a response of 750-1,000 words, please address the following prompts. Cite four to six relevant scholarly sources to support your responses: Refer to the global issue chosen last week of: Discrimination based on age, gender, ethnicity, or access to technology.
SOC-510: Global Current Events – Class Analysis Worksheet
In a response of 750-1,000 words, please address the following prompts. Cite four to six relevant scholarly sources to support your responses:
1. Investigate a global current event that relates to your chosen global social problem and that can be sociologically analyzed through the lens of class as a source of stratification. Summarize the event. Address the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the event. Include a Web link to your source. (250-300 words)
1. Provide an analysis of the prevalence of the global sociological problem associated with the global current event and how they intersect with class. What factors have been cited as causes of the global social problem and how has the country responded to the problem? Is the global current event a response to or a result of the global social problem? Explain and support your answer. (250-300 words)
2. Assess what other factors, if any, contribute to the inequality of the global social problem within the context of the global current event. (100-200 words)
3. Determine what strategies could be implemented to alleviate the global sociological problem within the context of the global current event. (150-200 words)
References:
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SOC-510: Global Social Problems and Sociological Theory Worksheet
Global social problems you may choose include: child labor; violence against women; terrorism, gender wage gap; equal access to education; hate crime; human rights; access to healthcare, and discrimination based on age, gender, ethnicity, or access to technology. If you wish to investigate an alternate global social problem, you must receive prior approval from your instructor.
Please note that the global social problem you choose for this assignment will be the same global social problem that you will be working with for subsequent assignments in this course. It is strongly suggested that you preview all the assignments in this course before making your choice of a global social problem.
In response to 1,100-1,500 words, please address the following prompts:
1. Describe the chosen global social problem (50-75 words):
The chosen global social problem is discrimination based on gender, race, access to technology, ethnicity, and age. Discrimination is act is an act of deliberately making a distinction, the fact that one is based on a group, category or class, which they are thought to belong. Therefore, people are often discriminated against due to age, race, criminal record, caste, family status, disability, height, gender identity, and even technological access.
2. Explanation of sociological theory (dependency theory, Marx’s conflict theory, modernization theory), and how that theory would explain the global social problem. (250-300 words):
Conflict theory is often social psychology and sociological perspective. It emphasizes on the materialist history interpretation and the dialectical analysis method. The conflict theory often draws attention to the power differentials, which includes the class conflict. Karl Marx is often viewed as the social conflict theory (Marxism and class conflict, n.d.). He suggests that the social structure has a relation of is connected to its major classes. The struggle between the classes leads to a state of change within the structure. Marx states that a class is defined through property ownership (Marxism and class conflict, n.d.). Consequently, the ownership gives the person the power to prevent others from the property and even use it as personal property.
Hence, in society, there are different classes of people. Marx states that the rarer the bourgeoisie, the individuals who own production machinery, and even factory buildings, hence they get a constant flow of income and profit. The second type of class is the landowners, whose major income is the rent. The Proletariat is the third type of class, and they are those kinds of individuals who own their labor and even sell it for a wage. Therefore, due to the difference in the people’s social backgrounds such as classes, it often leads to forms of discrimination due to unequal distribution of resources.
For instance, the division between the classes in society leads to deterioration of the exploited worker. Hence the social structure collapses. Consequently, various forms of discrimination arise, such as discrimination based on gender, race, access to technology, ethnicity, and age (Lahey, & Oxley, 2018). Moreover, women may be discriminated against by the men because they may typically have more resources in society than women. African Americans have, in most cases, been discriminated, because they are mostly from the middle and lower social of people, as compared to white Americans are mostly from the upper social classes. In the case of unequal access to technology, the lower social classes do not have enough resources to have access to technological devices, because most lower-class individuals do not afford them.
3. Three nations where this social problem exists:
Discrimination exists in the USA, South Korea, and France.
4. How does the problem contribute to inequality in the USA?
The most prevalent form of discrimination in the United States is discrimination based on ethnicity and other forms such as gender, age, and access to technology. The economy of the U.S. was built on the exploitation and occupational segregation of people of color, with the legacies of slavery, New Deal, and Jim Crow. The limited funding and scope of anti-discrimination agencies are the most significant contributors to inequality in the U.S. These disparities exist in wages, benefits, jobs, and almost every other measure of well-being. This person will then lack the access to basic facilities such as healthcare because their low wages and jobs may enable them to pay for these resources (Oliver, 2008).
Besides, the marginalized communities are affected disproportionately by digital rights violations. They are being denied access to critical technological resources, targeted for online harassment, and subjected to surveillance. This discrimination occurs even from the initial stages of designing technologies, where there is a lack of diversity since it is male and white-dominated, which has caused inequality among women and people of color the use and access to technology. Moreover, discrimination based on age has promoted inequality in the employment sector, such that individuals above 50 may not easily get jobs. There also other inequalities resulting from discrimination such as child poverty, homelessness among black populations, gender pay gaps in government and workplaces, racial gaps in education, health insurance, and incarceration of blacks.
5. How does the problem contribute to inequality in South Korea?
Discrimination based on gender, race, access to technology, ethnicity, and age leads to inequality in South Korea. There are many pieces of evidence of discriminatory experiences in South Korea, which typically harm people’s social welfare (Kim, Chung, Subramanian, & Williams, 2012). For instance, among the men and women, age is the main source of discriminatory experience. In a research, it was also found that gender was another cause, which led to discrimination among the women; approximately 80% of women reported that they experienced discrimination at their places of work, higher education and even at home (Kim, Chung, Subramanian, & Williams, 2012). According to the recent information from the United Nations social welfare reports, there are events of discrimination based on the ethnicity of race in South Korea (United Nations, n.d.). It leads to inequality among the people in South Korea.
There is also gender-biased sex selection in the sector of technology. For example, more men are given a chance to pursue technical careers more than women are. Such discrimination, based on access to technology, age, ethnicity, race, and gender, leads to inequality among individuals due to unequal access to resources (Kim, Chung, Subramanian, & Williams, 2012). Therefore, most victims of discrimination undergo depression, which harms their health in the process. For example, discrimination based on gender among South Korean women leads to unequal aces to resources.
6. How does the problem contribute to inequality in France?
Although France has recorded a decrease in income inequality and poverty, there still exist some disparities, especially to the individuals who are discriminated against. In spite of the various legislations and measures against racism and for equal rights regardless of gender, sexual orientation, and religion, life in France is not always equal nor completely fraternal. The French government, according to its national mottos, has since 1978 banned the collection and storage of ethnic or race-related data such as failure to include the information on race during the census. This has made the condition of inequality worse in that the lack of data has rendered minorities invisible and has hampered the measures to support ethnic, linguistic, and racial minority groups directly (Frickey, Murdoch, & Primon, 2005).
The French minorities are experiencing inequalities in almost every part of their lives. For instance, Roma, an ethnic minority, who is a frequent target of racist discourse and discrimination in this country, have difficulties in having access to basic rights such as taking part in France’s political life and basic education for children due to the prevailing prejudices and their typically nomadic lifestyle. Besides, Young French men and those of African descent are according to statistics less likely to get a job than their counterparts with similar levels of education (Racism and discrimination in France, 2019). Therefore, discrimination in France promotes inequality since the discriminated minorities are not recognized and thus have poor access to even the necessary resources, including the limited exercise of their human rights.
7. Identify and discuss any current global strategies being implemented that attempt to address the social problem and analyze their effectiveness.
One of the modern global strategies that are being implemented to help in addressing the different forms of discrimination based on gender, race, access to technology, ethnicity, and age, is the use of evidence-based strategy (Social service interventions, n.d.). Evidence-based practices tend to focus more on solutions to the problem. Hence, it is reliable (An evidence-based strategy for problem-solving, n.d.). For example, a study that is undertaken in a population of people who have experienced discrimination helps to identify the reasons or the causative agents of discrimination, with the help of the social determinants within the area (Hutchison, 2010). Consequently, the study finding will help to present the major issues leading to discrimination hence helps to address such issues to prevent further inequalities in the future.
It is important to note that evidence-based practices rely on peer-reviewed studies, which are proven to work, and applies to the general population. Evidenced-based practice is a general problem-solving strategy, hence applies to all the people in the world (An evidence-based strategy for problem-solving, n.d.). The evidenced-based strategy offered detailed processes and are relies on models, which offer practices with efficient instructive measures. Consequently, it helps in identifying and addressing the issues of discrimination in the world, hence prevent or reduce the event of the social issue to improve the social welfare of the people.
References
20 facts about U.S. inequality that everyone should know. (n.d.). Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality.
https://inequality.stanford.edu/publications/20-facts-about-us-inequality-everyone-should-know
An evidence-based strategy for problem-solving. (n.d.). ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245332888_An_Evidence-Based_Strategy_for_Problem_Solving
Frickey, A., Murdoch, J., & Primon, J. L. (2005). From higher education to employment: Inequalities among ethnic backgrounds in France. European Education, 37(4), 61-74.
Hutchison, E. D. (2010). Social justice and social work: Oxford bibliographies online research guide. Oxford University Press.
Kim, S. S., Chung, Y., Subramanian, S. V., & Williams, D. R. (2012). Measuring discrimination in South Korea: underestimating the prevalence of discriminatory experiences among female and less educated workers?. PloS one, 7(3).
Lahey, J. N., & Oxley, D. R. (2018). Discrimination at the intersection of age, race, and gender: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment (No. w25357). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Marxism and class conflict. (n.d.). The University of Hawaii System | ten campuses across the Hawaiian Islands.
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/CIP.CHAP5.HTM
Oliver, M. N. (2008). Racial health inequalities in the USA: The role of social class. Public health, 122(12), 1440.
Racism and discrimination in France. (2019, March 7). A community for expatriates & global minds | InterNations.
https://www.internations.org/go/moving-to-france/living/racism-and-discrimination-in-france
Social service interventions | Violence in families: Assessing prevention and treatment programs | The National Academies Press. (n.d.). The National Academies Press.
https://www.nap.edu/read/5285/chapter/6#94
United Nations (n.d.). Welcome to the United Nations.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/01/World-Social-Report-2020-FullReport
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