sociol

Sociological Theoretical perspectives: Functionalism, Conflict, and Interactionist perspective on Poverty. GEORGINA JACKSON ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

Sociologists view society in different ways. Some see the world basically as a stable and on-going entity. They are impressed with the endurance of the family, organized religion and other social institutions.
Sociologists look at the society in different theoretical perspectives such as functional, conflicts and interactional. The functionalist perspective emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Talcott parsons, a Harvard university sociologist refined functionalism with the work of Emile Durkheim who established functionalism perspective theory. Coming to the Conflict perspective, it deals with how society, institution may help to maintain the privileges of some people. The interactionist perspective looks at the society in micro level to get insight of the larger macro observation. In this paper, we are going to use functionalist, conflict and interactionist perspectives to evaluate poverty.
Functionalist perspective views the society as a system we used to have poverty to be able to have rich people. If there is no poverty, there cannot be rich people. Poverty is a state where by someone lacks materials or basic needs such as food, money, house and clothing. Poverty can serve as a job creation, when one does not have the basic needs and materials needed, one may be encouraged to go out there and get a job to enable him or her have the major necessity required. Government agencies like labour department are created to serve poor people. Without poverty and individuals living in poverty, those who serve them would otherwise be without employment. There are jobs which are considered basically for poor people like washing dishes, housekeeping, and washing cars. Without poverty, most of these jobs may not be accomplished. Poverty in the functionalist perspective makes the society stable and motivates people to do better for themselves.

Looking at conflict perspective of poverty, conflict sociologist analyse the society in Macro level. “The conflict perspective believes that social behaviour is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources including housing, money, access to services and political representation” (Schaefer 2009).
The conflict perspective was pioneered by Carl Max, WEB Dubois and Ida wells – Bennett. In the conflict perspective, the rich and the poor always have conflicts between each other. Poor people believe that they are being used by the rich. The rich people also have issues with the poor people because the rich believe that they are being used by paying services which are provided to the poor such as housing, food and other basic needs. Rich people believe that they are working hard to pay (taxes) for services that the poor receive. The rich believe that the poor people are poor because they are lazy people and refuse to work in other to benefit from the rich. On the other hand, the poor believe that they are being used by the rich as instruments to produce and serve the rich. The poor feel cheated, they believe because of their poverty, the rich use them anyhow they want. All these ideas portray the conflict perspective of poverty.
Finally, the interactionist perspective looks at the society in micro level to get insight of the macro observation. Interactionists see symbol as an especially important part of human communication. Interactionist perspective use symbols, non-verbal communication and face to face interaction between individuals. Interactionist view poverty by the kind of clothing one is wearing, the place of living and the environment.

In conclusion, poverty can be evaluated in different perspectives depending on individuals view or sociological theories.

References
Schaefer, R. T., Sociology: A brief introduction (2009) Mc Graw – Hill 9th edition.

References: Schaefer, R. T., Sociology: A brief introduction (2009) Mc Graw – Hill 9th edition.