Essay on Causes of Social Differentiation – Everywhere individuals and societies differ. In no society people are absolutely equal in all respects. Differentiation is the keynote of human society. Society rests on the principle of difference.
Differences are inherent in the very nature of the society. In all societies there is social differentiation of the population by age, sex, occupation and personal characteristics. There are the major factors of social differentiation.
Men and women, teenagers and adults, children and old men, masters and servants, managers and attendants, rulers and ruled, teachers and the taught, rich and the poor, literate and the illiterate, engineers and doctors, teachers and advocates, shopkeepers and hotel-owners are not always adjudged as equal.
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There are no equalitarian societies in the world. Societies are marked by differentiation. Societies may only differ in the degree of differentiation and nature of stratification.
Differences in Different Fields:
Some type of differentiation or specialisation of Rolfe is found in practically every society. It is clearly related to the rise and operation of social classes. In the economic order, differentiation is found in the different roles of entrepreneur, manager, and skilled and unskilled labourers.
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It is evident in the professions’, in the political order as witnessed in the varying roles of public administrators, legislators, and judges; in education as between teachers and administrators; and in religion, as in the distinct roles of prophet, seer and priest. In reality, some form of specialisation of the role is found in every association of men.
Causes of Differentiation:
Talcott Parsons mentions three causal factors of social differentiation – (i) possession, (ii) qualities, and (iii) performance. These three are, however, interrelated.
Possession refers to mainly material possessions, such as money, wealth, property, and all the other valuable, utilitarian material objects. People do not have equal access to these possessions. The unequal distribution of these material possessions has contributed to inequality and differentiation.
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Qualities refer to the intrinsic capacities or abilities of people to undertake or to do a task. These qualities are also not equally distributed. For example, physical strength, intelligence, ‘beauty’, courage, loyalty to a cause, moral courage, industriousness, selflessness, sacrifice and other internal qualities are not equally distributed. People are ranked differently depending upon the degree of possession of these qualities.
Performance refers to the execution of a task in a given time under a given situation. Performances are always judged first according to their products or results. Secondly, they are judged according to the manner and style of the performing. Performances are always subject to regulatory norms. When the norms are violated, performances are often disvalued, regardless of their results.
Possessions, qualities and performances are closely related. Material possessions like wealth may help a man to develop his qualities which may better his performance. Similarly qualities may help a man to make possessions or to acquire material possessions.
We should note that a person’s qualities, possessions and performances are usually judged in relation to his age and with references to a particular social role. Not only persons but also groups are ranked according to the merit of their imputed qualities and performances.
The term ‘prestige’ is used to refer to the approval, respect, admiration, or deference a person or group is able to command by virtue of his or its imputed qualities or performances. The term ‘ranking’ is generally used to refer to the degree of prestige.
The term ‘stratification’ denotes the process or condition in which layers [strata] of persons or groups are ranked differently. Any one stratum contains many persons or groups of roughly the same rank. Standards of evaluation vary from one social system to another and from one situation to another within the same social system.