Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:25:13.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inequality and the division of labor: the Davis-Moore theory reexamined

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Dennis H. Wrong
Dennis H. Wrong
Affiliation:
New York University(New York).
Get access

Abstract

Social inequality has long been subject to theoretical dispute with moral and political overtones. The most recent debate was over the argument of American sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore that unequal rewards were ‘functionally’ necessary to maintain a complex division of labour. Their theory has gained new credibility as a market model of occupational selection assuming competition among self-interested individuals. Its abstractness and limited scope need recognition, but it remains a valuable starting point for the consideration of inequality.

Kingsley Davis et Wilbert Moore avaient soutenu que l'inégalité sociaie est nécessaire au fonctionnement d'une division complexe du travail. Très critiquée, et surement trop peu spécifiée, cette hypothèse mérite pourtant d'être reprise à une époque où la compétition sur les marchés du travail est fortement affectée par les calculs stratégiques individuels.

Lange Zeit hatte die Diskussion urn das Thema der «Sozialen Ungleichheit» einen moralischen und politischen Unterton. Die gegenwärtige Debatre setzt sich mit der These der amerikanischen Soziologen Kingsley Davis und Wilbert Moore auseinander, fur die Ungleichheiten im Rahmen einer komplexen Arbeitsteilung zwingend sind. Ihr Marktwirtschaftsmodell gewinnt in der heutigen Zeit an Bedeutung, da der Arbeitsmarkt die Individuen verstärkt in Wettbewerb zu einander setzt.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , November 1999 , pp. 233 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberle, D.F., Cohen, A.K., Davis, A.K., Levy, M.J., Sutton, F.Y., 1950, The Functional Prerequisites of a Society, Ethics, 60: 100–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, Bernard, 1957, Social Stratification (New York: Harcourt, Brace).Google Scholar
Bendix, Reinhard, Lipset, S.M. (eds), 1953, Class, Status, and Power: Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Berger, Peter L., 1986, The Capitalist Revolution (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
Blake, Judith and Davis, Kingsley, 1964, Norms, Values, and Sanctions, Handbook of Modern Sociology, edited by Faris, R.E.L. (Chicago: Rand McNally), 456–466.Google Scholar
Buckley, Walter, 1958, Social Stratification and the Functional Theory of Social Differentiation, American Sociological Review, 23: 369–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, T.S. and Lipset, S.M., 1991, Are Social Classes Dying? International Sociology, 6: 397–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Randall, 1975, Conflict Sociology (New York: Academic Press).Google Scholar
Connor, Walter D., 1979, Socialism, Politics, and Equality (New York: Columbia University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahrendorf, Ralf, 1959, Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).Google Scholar
Dahrendorf, Ralf, 1968, Essays in The Theory of Society (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).Google Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, 1942, A Conceptual Analysis of Stratification, American Sociological Review, 7:309–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, 1949, Human Society (New York: Macmillan).Google Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, 1951, The Population of India and Pakistan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, 1953, Reply, American Sociological Review, 18:394–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, 1959, The Myth of Functional Analysis as a Special Method in Sociology and Anthropology, American Sociological Review. 24: 757–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, 1967, Population Policy: Will Current Programs Succeed? Science, 11 10: 730–739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Kingsley, Moore, Wilbert E., 1945, Some Principles of Stratification, American Sociological Review, 10: 242–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgerton, Robert B., 1992, Sick Societies. Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Gershenkron, Alexander, 1962, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Gerth, H.H. and Mills, C. Wright (eds), 1946, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Gerth, H.H., 1953, Character and Social Structure (New York: Harcourt, Brace).Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony, 1977, Studies in Social and Political Theory (London: Hutchinson).Google Scholar
Gitlin, Todd, 1995, The Twilight of Common Dreams (New York: Metropolitan Books).Google Scholar
Goode, William J., 1997, Remembering Kingsley Davis (1908–1997), Footnotes, 25: 4–8.Google Scholar
Gouldner, Alvin W., 1970, The Coming Crisis of American Sociology (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
Heller, Celia S. (ed.), 1987, Structured Social Inequality: A Reader in Comparative Social Sratification, Second Edition (New York: Macmillan).Google Scholar
Hout, M., Brooks, C., and Manza, J., 1993, The Persistence of Classes in Post-Industrial Societies, International Sociology, 8: 259–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingston, Paul W., 1994, Are There Classes In The United States? Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 13: 3–41.Google Scholar
Lane, David, 1971, The End of Inequality? Stratification under State Socialism (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books).Google Scholar
Marshall, Gordon, 1997, Repositioning Class: Social Inequality in Industrial Societies (London: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich [1848] n. d., Manifesto of the Communist Party (New York: International Publishers).Google Scholar
Merton, Robert K., [1949] 1957, Social Theory and Social Structure (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Merton, Robert K., [1968] 1996, On Social Structure and Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Moore, Wilbert E., 1950, Review of Merton's Social Theory and Social Structure, Public Opinion Quarterly, 14: 354–357.Google Scholar
Moore, Wilbert E., 1963, But Some Are More Equal Than Others, American Sociological Review, 28: 13–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ossowski, Stanislas, 1963, Class Structure in the Social Consciousness (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Pakulski, Jan and Waters, Malcolm, 1996, The Death of Class (London: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Parkin, Frank, 1971, Class, Inequality, and Political Order (London: MacGibbon and Kee).Google Scholar
Parkin, Frank, 1979, Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique (New York: Columbia University Press).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1940, An Analytical Approach to the Theory of Social Stratification, American Journal of Sociology, 45:841–862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, 1949 and 1954, Essays in Sociological Theory. Revised Edition (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, Bales, Robert F., and Shils, Edward A., 1953, Working Papers in Theory of Action (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott, and Smelser, Neil J., 1956, Economy and Society (New York: The Free Press).Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, [1755] 1984, A Discourse on Inequality (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books).Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph, [1923] 1951, Imperialism and Social Classes (New York: Meridian Books).Google Scholar
Scott, John Finley, 1997, Remembering Kingsley Davis (1908–1997), Footnotes, 25: 4.Google Scholar
Tumin, Melvin M., 1953, Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis, American Sociological Review, 18: 397–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumin, Melvin M., 1955, Rewards and Task-Orientations, American Sociological Review, 20: 419–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumin, Melvin M., 1963, On Inequality, American Sociological Review, 20: 19–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumin, Melvin M., 1967, Social Stratification: The Forms and Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Turner, Bryan S., 1986, Equality (London: Tavistock Publications).Google Scholar
Turner, Jonathan H., 1984, Societal Stratification: A Theoretical Analysis (New York: Columbia University Press).Google Scholar
Turner, Jonathan, Maryanski, Alexandra, 1979, Functionalism (Menlo Park, CA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company).Google Scholar
Warner, W. Lloyd, Meeker, Marchia, and Eells, Kenneth, [1949] 1960, Social Class in America (New York: Harper & Brothers).Google Scholar
Wesolowski, Wlodziemierz, 1987, Some Notes on the Functional Theory of Stratification, Structured Social Inequality: A Reader in Comparative Social Stratification. Second Edition, ed. Heller, Celia S., 430–438.Google Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., 1959, The Functional Theory of Stratification: Some Neglected Considerations, American Sociological Review, 24: 772–782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., 1964, Social Inequality Without Social Stratification, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 1: 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., 1976, Skeptical Sociology (New York: Columbia University Press). Reissued 1999 as The Oversocialized Conception of Man (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers).Google Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., [1994] 1995a, The Problem of Order: What Unites and Divides Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., [1979] 1995b, Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses (New Brunswick N.J.: Transaction Publishers).Google Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., 1997, Cultural Relativism as Ideology, Critical Review, 10: 291–300. Reprinted in 1998, The Modern Condition: Essays at Century's End (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 87–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrong, Dennis H., 1998, Reflections on the Death of Socialism: Changing Perceptions of the State/Society Line,Paper presented at the 10th annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics,Vienna, Austria,July 14, 1998. Forthcoming in Theory and Society.Google Scholar
Young, Michael, 1959, The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870–2033 (New York: Random House).Google Scholar
Zelizer, Gerald L., 1997, And Now for a Few Words…, The New York Times Op-Ed, 05 27: A17.Google Scholar