Gurinder K. Fnu
Soc&101
The Culture Of Poverty and the theory of Functionalism
Background: In 1959 a sociologist, Oscar Lewis investigated poverty and its trends amongst society. Lewis came up with a theory commonly known as the ‘Cycle of Poverty’. The cycle of poverty is the term used to refer to the phenomenon in which poor families become trapped in poverty for generations. This is because they have no access to long-term education and no long-term financial guarantees. The cycle of poverty suggests young children who are born into poverty will remain in poverty because they lack the ability to go to school and receive no education, their families are not financially stable (no clean clothing, a poor diet, lack of hygiene, etc.). The ability for them to break out of this cycle is limited, and in some cases simply not possible.
The structural-functionalist approach to stratification asks the question: what function or purpose does stratification serve? The theory's answer is that all parts of society, even poverty, contribute in some way or another to the larger system's stability.
Structural-functionalists maintain that stratification and inequality are inevitable and beneficial to society: the layering is useful because it ensures that the best people are at the top of the hierarchy and those who are less worthy are at the bottom. Those at the top are given power and rewards because of high abilities, and the high rewards exist to provide incentive for qualified people to do the most important work in high status occupations. According to this logic, inequality ensures that the most functionally important jobs are filled by the best qualified people.
Moreover, the conflict-theory approach offers a critique of structural-functionalism. First, the critique asserts that it is difficult to determine the functional importance of any job, as a system of