Evaluate a primary sociology research (journal article) using one model of practical sociology - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Marshall’s essay ‘citizen and social class outlines the development of British citizenship through the chronological sets of rights; civil, political and social (Marshall 1992). This process brought about economic welfare and security. In his model Marshall asserts that “equality of status is important than equality of income” (Marshall 1992, 33). This implies that the status gives an individual social worth regardless of how much someone earns. At this point, Morris questions the status of Marshall Model in Soyal’s article on how to conceptualize and measure change, and to speculate a little about the relationship between the normative and the empirical in this process. A hypothesis in the works of Marshall states that ‘there is a kind of basic human equality associated with the concept of full membership of a community’ (Marshall 1992) which is not consistent with the inequalities of social class. In his essay, Marshall aimed at testing how far the hypothesis held true in Britain at his own time when he wrote the essay. The preservation of economic inequalities has been made more difficult by the enrichment of the status of citizenship. This was seen as modern drive towards social equality as the latest phase in the evolution of citizenship. He also observed that there was a stratified status system creeping into the citizenship and that has resulted into conflict within our social system. From those statements from marshal, Morris feels that the essay is not clear as to whether the system whether it is the ideal or what the conclusion should be. Rights as governance Granting of rights creates an opportunity for surveillance or control. The works of Lockwood enlightens is helpful in addressing these possibilities and sets a framework for a nascent sociology of rights (Lockwood 1996) institutional unity of citizenship, market and bureaucracy is central to the delivery of social cohesion. Lockwood proposes that ‘the ethos and practice of citizenship is at least as class relations to structure group interests and thereby fields of conflict and discontent’ (Lockwood 1996,536), this is a reverse of Marshall’s model. According to Lockwood, is so because citizenship remains an ideal whose actualization is less always less than complete. The inequalities of citizenship are argued to be caused by two elements; the presence or absence of a right and the possession of moral or material resources – the latter exerts a positive or negative effect on the actual enjoyment of a right. The article by Lockwood seems to be concerned not only with inequalities generated by the functioning of citizenship but also concerned with migrant rights. It can therefore inform analysis both of the way citizenship can be stratified by the disciplinary and control measures with accompany welfare claims and the way migrants can be stratified by their purpose of entry and by the rights accordingly granted or denied to different categories. ….the answer to the question as to what rights do is that they stratify, discipline and divide often with the reference to national interests. Morris points out the relationship between the two axes in Lockwood’s schema answers her question about the role and treatment of ‘ideal’ conceptions of rights and citizens in sociological analysis. The ...Download file to see next pagesRead More