Critical Analysis Paper: Framing welfare recipients: the relationship between culture and structure - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Some people are against the cultural explanations of social issues as they claim that its explanation in some way shifts the blame to the victims as the main cause of the social issues. It considers the issues as the attitudes of different families and towards work or sometimes patterns of behavior. The structural explanation regards the social issues as to result from structural factors such as class systems and microeconomic policies, economic structure, gender discrimination as well as ethical discrimination. These different structural factors contribute differently to the each social issue. Hay regards the welfare reforms as to have ignored the cultural, political and economic systems that are responsible for the increasing number of children and women languishing in poverty in the modern days. She also states that the reform treat issues of low wages, poor working conditions, raising children, race and gender as private issues (Hays 36). She regards the culture of the systems in the society that results in most of the social issues in most communities especially affecting women and children. The structure of such system is in such a way that it fevers those who have the rich while discriminates the poor and unfortunate. Wilson is his book regards the structure of the United States to be in such a way that instead of helping the victims of social issues such as race and poverty it puts the blame on them. The system has come up with a framework which integrates the existing structural forces like discrimination, segregation and racial in relation to cultural forces and economic changes. He goes further to say that; it is the structural influences that expose the varying cultural influence in the environment in which the victims live in. Through the arguments put forward by both Hey and Wilson, the paper takes the position assumed by the two authors. The structural system of most societies are in such a way that they discriminate the less fortune members in the society faced with social issues like racial discrimination, poverty and segregation. The structural set up also influences the role played by culture in addressing social issues. The structural influence affects the role played by culture as the way structure framework blames the victims of the social issues that remains to be the culture of that society thus becomes normal. Though several welfares have come up in these societies to try to address these issues, some fail in their role as they neglect the important issues to be addressed like the poor working conditions, poverty among women and children, low wages and gender issues. Cultural Frames of Welfare Recipients Cultural frames such as cultural repertoires, cultural capital, symbolic boundaries and institutions have significantly shaped the welfare as well as its recipients. This is strongly associated with the cultural traits that are inherent like the Asian children work ethics and the meaning of marriage to black women. The racial disparities are in a way such that they their stereotypes are related to culture. The way individuals perceive their environment determines how they will react to the welfare and the people around them. The culture of individuals determines how they will interpret the welfares as being beneficial or bad to them. The different cultural frames that expose certain aspects while at the same time hiding others mostly filter the perception of individuals in the way the ...Download file to see next pagesRead More