Ecological Evolutionary Theory - Stratification Sociology - Lecture Slides, Slides of Sociology

Download Ecological Evolutionary Theory - Stratification Sociology - Lecture Slides and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Ecological-Evolutionary Theory Who gets what and why? docsity.com Part I Overview docsity.com Ecological-evolutionary development TECHNOLOGICAL LEVEL High [ca oO Industrial socictics a 2 oY a gq 48 z 2 : oa Maritime Agrarian societies = a = Herding, | i‘ 3 societies > " = — Horticultural fe) Fishing 4 societies = societies = j l? = Hunting & gathering societies Low Semiarid, arid, Cultivable land Cuiltivable land Marine and desert unsuited to suited to plow environments environments plow cultivation cultivation TYPE OF ENVIRONMENT docsity.com The main independent variable: Technology • What are the advantages and disadvantages of focusing on technology? • As a theoretical construct, what does technology explain and/or predict? • Might there be a more powerful predictor of first-order societal differences? docsity.com The “constants”: What are they? • Social nature • Self-interested nature • Unequal ability • Reliance on habit and custom (which can vary) • Scarcity of rewards • Human societies are imperfect systems • Which, if any, of these are problematic? docsity.com Part II Macro Level: Historical Trends docsity.com Accurate “predictions” • Growth in average size of societies • Reduction in number of societies • Similarity of surviving societies • Increasing population • Increasing division of labor (w/in and between countries) • Etc. docsity.com From technology to inequality • How does technology lead to inequality? • How does innovation fuel further innovation? • What do these processes imply about the importance of initial resource endowments? docsity.com Laws of distribution (i.e. stratification) • Sharing occurs to the extent that it benefits those who control the surplus • Power determines the distribution of nearly all the remaining surplus • Simple societies distribute based on need • Societies with a surplus distribute based on power docsity.com Power • What is it? • What are the sources of power? • If power is a predictive concept, how can we measure it? • What is the relationship between coercion and consensus? • How does power “flow both ways”? docsity.com The concept of class • What is Lenski’s definition of class? • Is this more or less useful/realistic than other definitions? • How would one operationalize economic class in this theory? docsity.com Part IV Conclusion: Situating the Theory docsity.com The theoretical ecology • Into what niche does this theory fit? What kind of theory is this? • To which theories is Lenski responding? • Who are his main competitors? docsity.com Ecological-evolutionary theory and functionalism • Will someone please pretend to be a functionalist for this discussion? • Briefly, what are functionalism’s central tenets for stratification? • What are the similarities? Differences? docsity.com