Answer to Question #258148 in Sociology for Mamikie

Question

Critically discuss whether the conflict or functional theoretical perspective on health and illness is better suited for understanding the south African context In the discussion compare and contrast from the two perspective and use examples from south Africa during the current covid-19 pandemic to support the argument NB: can it please be in an essay form

Answer 1

Conflict perspective on health and illness is better suited for understanding the South African context. This is because theorists using the conflict perspective suggest that issues with the healthcare system, as with most other social problems, are rooted in capitalist society. According to conflict theorists, capitalism and the pursuit of profit lead to the commodification of health therefore the changing of something not generally thought of as an abstract object into something that can be bought and sold in a marketplace in order to create profit for someone somewhere.

Given that sociology is an inter-discipline of social science, which studies and analyses the concept of society and the human behavior. Accordingly, functionalism and conflict theory are two fundamental approaches used in sociology. These two different approaches analyze how the concept of society is created and how it works. The main difference between functionalism and conflict theory is that the functionalism states that each aspect of a society serves a function and is necessary for the survival of that society while the conflict theory states that a society is in perpetual class conflict due to the limitation and the unequal distribution of resources.