Conflict

• Class location is determined by property ownership and control and authority.

• Inequality results from powerful individuals and groups who use ideas to promote their position to the detriment of others.

• Core US. values and norms support inequality.

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The conflict perspective differs radically from the functionalist perspective on inequality.

See the next slide for details of conflict perspective material not covered in your text.

Additionally, while Marx analyzed class in terms of relationship to the means of production, in a Post Industrial society it may make more sense to analyze class from a conflict perspective in relationship to the means of consumption. George Ritzer undertakes an analysis of post modern consumer culture in his 1999 book Enchanting a Disenchanted World.

The means of consumption can be divided into two arenas: the access to and control over knowledge and information and its production and distribution AND the actual means of consumption as detailed by Ritzer- the shopping malls and online retail outlets of American capitalism. In the case of the former, the capitalists class of old still holds sway. In the case of the second, American consumers themselves are stratified according to their access to the ability to shop. The means of consumption (based on Ritzer’s analysis) dominate our lives. As the consumer becomes jaded by increasing levels of shopping as entertainment, corporations must re-conceptualize advertising and the production of the shopping experience in order to draw in more consumers.