Social conflict

To conclude, this sampling of the literature of risk perception, the comments of Covello, 1981 may be summarized. Surveys have been of small specialized groups - generally not representative of the population as a whole. There has been little attempt to analyze the effects of ethnicity, religion, sex, region age, occupation and other variables that may affect risk perception. People respond to surveys with the first thing that comes to mind and tend to stick to this answer. They provide an answer to any question asked even when they have no opinion, do not understand the question or have inconsistent beliefs. Surveys are influenced by the order of questions, speed of response, whether a verbal or numerical respon.se is required and by how the answer is posed. Few Studies have examined the relationships between perceptions of technological hazards and behavior which seems to be influenced by several factors such as positive identification with a leader, efficacy of social and action, physical proximity to arenas of social conflict. 

In situations of social conflict, amphetamine increases the frequeney of escape and defensive responses to threats and attacks by a stimulus animal in mice, rats, cats, rhesus monkeys, and squirrel monkeys in a dose-dependent manner (Hoffmeister and Wuttke 1969 Crowley et al. 1974 Miczek and O Donnell 1978 Miczek 1979 Schlemmer and Davis 1981 Haber et al. 1981). Even in the absence of a distinctive behavioral stimulus from an opponent, amphetamine induces escape and defensive responses in mice. Krsiak considered these unprovoked defensive and escape responses as signs of timidity (Krsiak 1975 Krsiak 1979 Poschlova et al. 1977). 

Meerlo, P., de Bruin, E. A., Strijkstra, A. M. Daan, S. (2001). A social conflict increases EEG slow-wave activity during subsequent sleep. Physiol. Behav. 73, 331-5. 

If the 19th century was a time of deep-rooted social conflicts, it was also... 

Vaske, J.J., Donnelly, MP.L., Wittmann, K. and Laidlaw, S. (1995) Interpersonal versus social conflict. Leisure Sciences 17, 205-222. 

Research in an Area of Social Conflict Volume Editors Fiechter, A., Sautter, C. Vol. 107, 2007... 

Prolactin secretion increases following exposure of animals to a variety of stressful situations such as novel environments, swimming, ether, restraint, social conflict, etc. 

Potential for mobilisation The broad social impact. Will the risk generate social conflict or outrage, etc. ... 

This includes the social mobilization potential, i.e. how likely is it that the risk consequences generate social conflicts and psychological reactions by individuals or groups ... 

Potential for social conflict and mobilisation (degree of political or public pressure on risk regulatory agencies). 

People who abuse drugs, whether legal or illegal, usually find tliemselvcs in social trouble on all levels. The alcoholic lather who can t provide for his family and antagonizes his friends and coworkers is a classic example. The heroin addict who steals from a friend to buy his next fix is another. In fact, it is rare to find a drug abuser who does not provoke some degree of social conflict. 

What is most remarkable about both traditions is, once again, how widely they were believed by educated elites who were otherwise poles apart politically. "Taylorism and technocracy were the watchwords of a three-pronged idealism the elimination of economic and social crisis, the expansion of productivity through science, and the reenchantment of technology. The vision of society in which social conflict was eliminated in favor of technological and scientific imperatives could embrace liberal, socialist, authoritarian, and even communist and fascist solutions. Productivism, in short, was politically promiscuous. ... 

In 6.3 I turn to the class struggle - from latent conflict through overt confrontation to coalition formation. The study of class alliances is perhaps Marx s most suggestive contribution to the theory of social conflict -anticipating Simmel and Caplow, 1 return to the political aspects of coalition formation in chapter 7. 

It is not clear what to make of these texts. They may reflect a mere terminological hesitation, ora more substantial doubt about the centrality of economically defined classes in pre-capitalist societies. In favour of the second reading is the opposition between "nobleman" and "commoner", and the emphasis on the "social position" as a main determinant of behaviour. Two facts, however, appear well established. For one thing, social conflict in pre-capitalist societies poses a serious problem for the Marxist theory of class. For another, Marx himself was inconsistent in what he said about classes in these societies. It is not implausible to seek the explanation of the latter fact in the former. 

Now it might be claimed that the construction is devoid of interest for the same reason that made Marx reject the other stratification schemes, namely that such quantitative relations cannot explain social conflict or collective action. Discrete and stable collective actors cannot emerge out of a continuous stratification scheme. I return to this contention below. Here I want only to observe that the first (incomplete) comparative relation of exploitation is not necessarily more suitable in this respect. The issue of comparison vs. interaction is more central than that of discreteness vs. continuity. Conflicts tend to arise out of interaction, not out of mere comparison. Interacting with a common enemy galvanizes solidarity more than merely comparing oneself with other, more favourably placed, agents. 

One is the map of classes, as defined in 6.1. The other is the map of collective actors that form part of social conflicts. Broadly speaking, Marx s central intuition seems to have been that these two maps converged towards one another. This view can be summed up in two propositions. (i) Objectively defined classes tend to acquire ciass consciousness, or else to disappear, (ii) Non-class collective actors become increasingly marginal over time. 

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