Exploitation and the Sociological Perspective

Paper Summary:

The paper begins by giving a scenario in which the owner of a corporation exploits illegal migrant workers by forcing them to work on American holidays. The paper discusses how this exemplifies six social terms: social marginality, social mobility, culture, social stratification, discrimination, and exploitation. The paper then describes how forcing of the workers to work on American holidays primarily represents an example of exploitation. The author explains how the manager's actions represent dynamics of the three social paradigms that define the sociological perspective; structure-functionalism, Marxism, and symbolic interactionism.

From the Paper:

"Closely related to the concept of exploitation in the example are five other social problems of social marginality, social mobility, culture, social stratification, and discrimination that Macionis identifies. Within the example of Mr. Smith, we can see how each of Macionis' identified problems apply to provide an added perspective on the dynamics of society. Social marginality also contributes to the problem here, because it allows certain ethnic groups to be disregarded or forgotten as far as rights entitlement due to inferior status within society."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "8 FEATURES OF QUANTITATIVE-POSITIVISTIC SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS." 2007: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~mbdurieu/8featuresOfBB.htm
• Macionis, John. Sociology. Prentice Hall; 10th edition (February 13, 2004)
• "Paradigms in Sociology." 2007: http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/soc202phil.html
• "Social Constructionist Epidemiology." 2007: http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/warmotha/psychclasses/307/epistemology.html
• Wainwright, David. "Can Sociological Research Be Qualitative, Critical and Valid?." The Qualitative Report, Volume 3, Number 2, July, 1997: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR3-2/wain.html

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