The Functional Theory of Stratification

Some Neglected Considerations

Bibliographic Data

ID5250883
AuthorsDennis H Wrong (corresponding author)
Year1959
Volume24
Issue6
Pages772
Publication date1959-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2088564
OpenAlexW2025405362
LanguageEN
Citations received31

The functional theory of stratification advanced by Davis and Moore attempts to explain the universality and the necessity of inequality in with a complex division of labor, a task that is independent of efforts to explain the division of labor itself or the intergenerational perpetuation of inequalities along family lines. The theory is so general, however, that it excludes none of the Utopian models of classless societies proposed by Western thinkers and, its critics to the contrary notwithstanding, says nothing whatsoever about the range of inequality and the determinants of the range in concrete societies. The theory appears to understate the degree to which positions are inherited by failing to view in long-range historical perspective. In common with the arguments of its critics, it also ignores the possible disruptive consequences of mobility and equality of opportunity, a theme notably neglected by American sociologists

Stratification (seeds · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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