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Relations between Status and Power Structures: Toward a General Theory *
Author(s) -
KIMBERLY JAMES C.,
ZUCKER LYNNE G.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1973.tb00712.x
Subject(s) - epistemology , sociology , power (physics) , power structure , stratification (seeds) , range (aeronautics) , social structure , social psychology , psychology , law , political science , philosophy , politics , physics , anthropology , engineering , seed dormancy , germination , botany , quantum mechanics , dormancy , ethnography , biology , aerospace engineering
Contemporary work on the development of status and power structures is reviewed. It is shown that theorists have conceptualized the relationship between these structures in opposite ways. Some have held that the structures tend toward alignment. Specifically, they have held that persons tend to be equally high or low in both structures. Others have held that the structures tend toward non‐alignment. Specifically, they have held that the range of persons statuses tends to be greater than the range of their power. An attempt is made to reconcile the different theories underlying these two conceptions by postulating that one conception is correct under certain conditions and that the other is correct under other conditions. The conditions specified involve an important but somewhat neglected aspect of the overall stratification structure, what is called the secondary stratification structure, and the importance persons assign to this structure.