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Sociology 441: Stratification
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Causal explanations
As sociologists, we are interested not only in describing stratification,
we would like to know why stratification exists in the way it does.
For example, not just whether poverty has been increasing or decreasing
but why has poverty been increasing?
Or, not just whether racial inequality is especially bad in Baltimore,
but why is racial inequality worse in Baltimore than in, say, Seattle?
Causal questions are the heart of sociological thinking so we need to learn
how to frame our questions and tentative answers into clear causal statements,
usually of the form "X causes Y".
Some examples are:
- De-industrialization has caused more inequality between rich and
poor.
- Family economic need has caused more women to work.
- White racism causes racial inequality.
- Attending better quality schools cause more individual
success later in life.
Causal relationships are relationships between two factors.
They imply:
The more of X, then the more of Y.
(Or if the causal relationship is negative: "The more of X, then the
less of Y.) Causal relationships always imply comparisons
across people, groups, societies, or some other social unit. For example,
the first causal example above about de-industrialization implies that:
- Countries with less industrialization should have more
inequality than countries that are less industrialized. OR
- U.S. cities with higher manufacturing employment should have
lower inequality than cities with less manufacturing. OR:
- In U.S. history, years in which industrialization was high
were years in which inequality was low.
The point is there is always some comparison so that higher and lower on the
cause is associated with higher or lower on the consequence.
If we are comparing individual people than usually we are looking
at a micro-level causal relationship.
If we are comparing societies (or years in the history of a society),
then we are usually looking
at a macro-level causal relationship.
| Last updated March 15, 2000 |
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