Equity+and+Difference-+Libby

Equity and Difference: ** Craig Mcgregor ** : Class provides a basic structure in society. Class determines who gets what in society. Class sects boundaries concerning wealth, education, access to high culture, values and material possessions. ** Marx: **  Felt that whoever owned property and wealth were of a higher class and status, he advocated an uprising of proletariats against the bourgeois to ensure greater equality. ** Weber: **(1968) defined class according to someone’s market capacity. Market capacity referred to ownership of property and economic resources as well as the skills and expertise that might be used to help enhance a person’s life chances. Weber also noted 2 other dimensions of social differentiation, these were **status**- //differentiation drawn on social rather than economic criteria//, and **interest groups or parties**- //typically associated with the excercise of power within the government and political process.// ** Examining social class/and economic status in relation to Aboriginal Australians **** ( real world analysis) ** **// The cycle of poverty: //** The cycle of poverty whereby disadvantage in one area affects the lifestyle of the person in other cyclically, can be applied to the lifestyle of Aboriginal Australians and reflect the relationship between social class and authority, as well as the influence of existing inequalities and the possible future of Aboriginals socio-economic status. Disadvantage of Aboriginal Australians: ** HEALTH INEQUALITY ** : Unequal distribution of illnesses and conditions. Inequity: unjust impact of social, economic and cultural factors such as income, education and availability of transport and **access** to health services.  ·   Aborigines experience a much higher mortality rate at all compared to non-indigenous Australians ** EDUCATION/EMPLOYMENT ** : Education has always been regarded as a tool for social mobility. Educational expectations vary across social classes, with middle cross values espousing higher expectations of educational goals in their children than do lower classes. Aboriginal culture basis its education around an oral tradition, how well do school systems incorporate Aboriginal values in their teaching. Is inequity present by not attending to this need?  ·   Under half of the people living within Aboriginal communities had a school up to yr10 within 10km of their homes.  ·   Unemployment rates for Aborigines is 5-10 times higher than non-indigenous Australians. ** STANDARD OF LIVING ** : Refers to the lack of resources required to be able to participate in the lifestyle and consumption patterns enjoyed by Australians.  ·   Only 14.0 percent of the states employed Aborigines were described as ‘managers or distributors’,’professionals’ or ‘para-professionals’, without access to higher paying jobs, Aboriginal Australians cannot achieve a higher standard of living. ** EMPLOYMENT STATUS ** :  ·    Of males in the labour force, 41.5 % of Aborgines were unemployed, compared with 9.7 % of other males in nsw. ** ECONOMIC STATUS ** : The low levels of education and high rates of unemployment result in substantially lower economic status for Aborigines. The prospects for future improvements in economic status are limited by the extent to which current Aborginal income is derived form social security resources, a much higher proportion of Aboriginals gain their income from such sources. ** HOUSING ** : In 1999 81% of indigenous people living in discrete communities lived in remote area communities. Many indigenous people live together in DWELLINGS compared to non-indigenous australians. On average there were 5.8 indigenous people living in each dwelling compared to 2.9 non-indigenous people living in each of their dwellings. ** ETHNIC/IDENTITY ** : Social class to ethnicity and or identity it is important to say that social class relations are often based on groupings of people who share some important markers of identity. Ethnicity is defined in the syllabus as percieved common origns that people share, a specific ancestry and culture that marks them as different to others. The aboriginal leader NOEL PEARSON pointed out that without mention of what has been lost, culturally, socially and economically, the Aborginal identity or ethnicity was not really being recognised as Aborgines percieved it. Aborigines continue to feel the refusal to acknowledge the special title, lack of self determination in indentity definition in policy making as the main bases of lack of true ethnic identity as a group. Power and Authority need to be given to Aborgines to paint thier own identity. ** HUMAN RIGHTS/ PREJUDICE ** : Perceptions of groups by other groups within society, influences on individuals perceptions of others. How members of groups see themselves and how attitudes of group members towards other groups influence behaviour, all are related to the concept of prejudice. PREJUDICE: A pre-conceived opinion or bias against or in favour of a person or thing characterised by stereotypical views. CATEGORISING: The normal mental processing involves putting incoming information into gorups ** STEREOTYPING: ** involves assigning certain characteristics to the information in each group or gategory. ** EVALUATING ** : Making a judgement based on those stereotypes or characteristics ** BEHAVIOUR ** : using the judgements to direct behaviour towards groups. ** CONSTRUCTING ** : racial categories or systems, asisgning characteristics to racial categories ** ALLOCATING ** : all individuals to a particular racial group ** ASSUMING ** : that everyone in that racial group exhibits the same traits as everyone in that group. If racism is sa social construct, then Australia certainly has constructed a strong structure, which has caused many groups, Aborigines in particular great social inequalities. The institutionalisation of racism helps to demonstrate how racism can be socially constructed. ** POWER/AUTHORITY ** : In studying the Aboriginal experience power would be something the Anglo-celtics have historically exerted over the indigenous people while authority was also demonstrated by the anglo-celtics and desired by the Aborigines. Power was exerted by both the commonwealth and state governments over the Aborigines. Only recently has there been some local government handing over of power to indigenous people. This group of people had to wait until 1967 to even be given any authority to participate in the democracy, which had power over them. This global network gives Aborigines more power and authority than they possess nationally. **// Describe the general topic area //** : This reading examines the nature of inequity in Australia regarding Aborginal Australians in comparison to non-indigenous Australians, applying fundamental societal concepts in the examination of the Aboriginal experience within Australia. **//What argument is being made regarding inequality//**//:// This reading takes the premise that Aborginal experience serious disadadvantage and inequity, it maps out the progression of this disadvantage using the concept of the cycle of poverty, whereby disadvantage in one sector inlfuences disadvantage in all other sects. It examines the notion of institutionalised racism, whereby Aborginal peoples are at a distinct disadvantage politically and thus socially and economoically. **// Evidence for this argument //**// : // See yellow highlighted scetions above. // Usefullness of article: // This article is useful to a society and culture student because it examines social concepts, and the structure of a society, as well as equality and differences whilst providing real life and statistical examples. **// Criticism of article //**// : // Whilst citing the notion of the ‘poverty cycle’,. The article doesnt really give a history of **how** this inequity was created, at the beginning of the British- Aborginal relationship.
 * Social class/socio-economic status: DEFINITIONS- **