status quo

Examples of status quo in the following topics:

• Religion and Social Control

  • Marx viewed religion as a tool of social control used by the bourgeoisie to keep the proletariat content with an unequal status quo.
  • From a Marxist perspective, these expectations become part of religion's ability to control society and maintain the status quo.
  • According to Marx, in a capitalist society, religion plays a critical role in maintaining an unequal status quo, in which certain groups of people have radically more resources and power than other groups of people.
  • He believed that it was a tool of social control used to maintain an unequal status quo, and that it should be abolished.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • Conflict theory is particularly interested in the various aspects of master status in social position—the primary identifying characteristic of an individual seen in terms of race or ethnicity, sex or gender, age, religion, ability or disability, and socio-economic status.
  • When we are analyzing any element of society from this perspective, we need to look at the structures of wealth, power and status, and the ways in which those structures maintain social, economic, political and coercive power of one group at the expense of others.
  • According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo.
  • Because inheritance, education and social capital are transmitted through the family structure, wealthy families are able to keep their privileged social position for their members, while individuals from poor families are denied similar status.
  • According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo.

• Marx and the "Opiate of the Masses"

  • Karl Marx argues that religion works to calm uncertainty over our role in the universe and in society, and to maintain the status quo.
  • With 'the social-conflict approach,' Karl Marx argues that religion plays a significant role in maintaining the status quo.

• Staking the Desk: Unequal Funding

  • But unequal school funding may afford students from poorer families fewer opportunities, reinforcing the status quo.
  • This ends up reinforcing the existing status hierarchy by keeping the affluent wealthy, and the poor unable to attend college.

• Marx's View of Class Differentiation

  • A temporary status quo could be achieved by employing various methods of social control—consciously or unconsciously—by the bourgeoisie in various aspects of social life.

• The Law as an Instrument of Oppression

  • The term may be applied either in reference to a particular event or act, or to a larger status quo.

• Savage Inequalities

  • Kozol argues that property taxes are an unjust funding basis for schools, one that fails to challenge the status quo of racial-based inequality.

• Structural-Functionalism

  • Thus, in structural-functionalist thought, individuals are not significant in and of themselves but only in terms of their social status: their position in patterns of social relations.
  • Another criticism often leveled at structural-functionalist theory is that it supports the status quo.
  • According to some opponents, structural-functionalism paints conflict and challenge to the status quo as harmful to society, and therefore tends to be the prominent view among conservative thinkers.

• Theories of Gender Differences

  • Much current research, especially after the women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s, criticizes this approach for supporting the status quo and condoning the oppression of women.
  • In contrast to the status quo supporting structural functionalist approach, social conflict theory argues that gender is best understood in terms of power relationships.

• Social Class

  • While hereditary characteristics, such as being born into a wealthy family, continue to influence the ease with which one establishes adult social standing, the model that emphasizes class and achieved status maintains the status quo in capitalistic societies, particularly the United States.
  • As such, sociologists pay particular attention to socioeconomic status, as it signifies an equation of power and wealth that denotes a particular form of inequality.
  • Late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century German social theorist Max Weber proposed that socioeconomic status was configured by a combination of power, property, and prestige.