INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY:
LECTURE NOTES
By Prof. Mauri Yambo
TOPIC 4: SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION, STRATIFICATION AND
CLASS
- Introduction:
Conceptualizing Social Differentiation
- Patterns and Sources of Social Differentiation
- Evolutionary Universals
- Social Stratification
- The Nature of Social Class and the African
Experience
- Conclusion.
4.1. Introduction:
Conceptualizing Social Differentiation
Differentiation and evolution are conceptual twins in many
conversations about growth, structure and change, over time. Since Darwin, the
two processes have been acknowledged as conjoined features or happenings, in
the course of time, of all biological organisms. In turn, both social structure
and societal change have been treated by influential sociologists (as we see in
the next paragraph) as analogous to those observed in biology; hence the widely
used phrase: organismic analogy. In
this analogy, differentiation is an all-encompassing process: it pertains to and
features in all forms of structuration.
But not everyone is in agreement with this perceived correspondence or analogy
of differentiation and evolution in long-term social change, on the one hand,
and biological change, on the other.
For example, Steward (1976: 11-15), focusing on cultural evolution, points out that:
