Social polarization is the segregation within a
society
A society is a Social group, group of individuals involved in persistent Social relation, social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same Politics, political authority an ...
that emerges when factors such as
income inequality
There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of w ...
, real-estate fluctuations and economic displacement result in the differentiation of social groups from high-income to low-income. It is a state and/or a tendency denoting the growth of groups at the extremities of the social hierarchy and the parallel shrinking of groups around its middle.
An early body of research on social polarization was conducted by R.E. Pahl on the
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is deriv ...
, in which he provided a comparison between a
pre-capitalist society
Pre-industrial society refers to social attributes and forums of political and cultural organization that were prevalent before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which occurred from 1750 to 1850. ''Pre-industrial'' refers to a time before ...
and
capitalist society.
More recently, a number of research projects have been increasingly addressing the issues of social polarization within the developed economies. When social polarization occurs in addition to
economic restructuring
Economic restructuring is used to indicate changes in the constituent parts of an economy in a very general sense. In the western world, it is usually used to refer to the phenomenon of urban areas shifting from a manufacturing to a service sector ...
, particularly in cities, economic inequality along social class and racial lines is exacerbated.
Such separation can be best observed in the urban environment, "where
ommunitiesof extreme wealth and social power are interspersed with places of deprivation, exclusion, and decline."
In addition to how spatial compositions are managed in cities, the technologies used in regards to social relations can also contribute to social polarization
(see ).
Increased spatial segregation of socioeconomic groups correlates strongly with social polarization as well as
social exclusion
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
and societal fragmentation.
Creative class
Aspects of this concept can also be associated with the phenomena of the
creative class and how these members have created their own dominant status within society.
Globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
and its associated ”
creative destruction
Creative destruction (German: ''schöpferische Zerstörung'') is a concept in economics which since the 1950s is the most readily identified with the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter who derived it from the work of Karl Marx and pop ...
" has contributed to great prosperity and growth for elites in many cities. Conversely, the process of creative destruction is intrinsically spatially uneven, so some urban neighborhoods “at the receiving end” of globalization are harmed by it.
Urban poverty
Several theoretical models can be strung together to explain the basics that create social polarization, and the subsequent deprivation that occurs when there is extreme societal deprivation between those of high-wealth and low-wealth. They are:
* a
Culture of Poverty
* a
Cycle of Poverty
*
Government Failure
Government failure, in the context of public economics, is an economic inefficiency caused by a government intervention, if the inefficiency would not exist in a true free market. The costs of the government intervention are greater than the ben ...
—particularly when public policy institutions divided into departments (education, housing, etc.) are ineffective when it comes to dealing with the interdisciplinary problems of the poor
* an Inequitable Distribution of Resources/Opportunities
*
Class Conflict
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
, and
* the concept of an "
Underclass
The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class.
The general idea that a class system includes a population ''under'' the working class has ...
".
When these phenomena are combined in urban areas, it can fuel social polarization. Urban decay is a visual manifestation of social polarization, while riots, civil commotion and general social disintegration can be symptomatic of this concept as well.
However, it can also lead to an
informal economy in many urban areas.
Role of media
Digital media, and particularly
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...
, could potentially play a role in encouraging social polarization.
This is because social media sites like
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...
can help cluster friends and acquaintances into
homophilous circles, and social news sites like
Digg
Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launche ...
can facilitate a consumption of news that is biased by its user’s choices. In the extreme, a lack of “a common public sphere” could lead to isolated, polarized groups which could even be hostile towards one another. For example, during the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...
uprisings, it was observed that social media furthered the social stratification already present in several Arab states.
Likewise,
traditional media coverage may inadvertently foster social polarization in social networks—particularly,
online social networks
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...
—by causing people to alter their social ties. Simulation models and social media data show that people tend to lose social ties to friends of the opposite political ideology when news coverage differs greatly between news sources of opposite political lean, i.e., a polarized
information ecosystem. This can occur even if people do not know their friends' political leanings, as people are reacting to the behavior of friends in relation to the news: your friends' behavior can seem out of sync if they are tuned into different news outlets than you and are thus consuming very different news coverage. Thus, polarized news coverage may cause people to unknowingly sort their social networks along political lines, thereby fostering social polarization.
However,
cyberbalkanization, the phenomenon where media
audiences fragment into "enclaves" where they only consume content they concur with—and thus theoretically promoting social polarization—may not have as much influence as believed. Utilizing Nielsen television and Internet audience data,
James G. Webster found that ideological segmentation among media users was unlikely, as “even consumers of obscure niche media devoted most of their attention to more broadly appealing fare.”
Yet Webster does admit that his research does not measure the particular nature of the subject matter consumed, or how strongly it affected the media viewers’ perceptions of society.
Polarization observed in a particular social media site need not necessarily be a result of events and discussions that happen on that platform. Observed trends of polarization in online social media may therefore emerge from activities of users in other online platforms or offline activities. As an instance from a 2019 study, messages propagating anti-climate change beliefs on Twitter were collectively found to carry no credibility.
Hence it is highly unlikely that such messages which are not credible can increase polarization of climate change opinions on Twitter.
See also
*
Balkanization
Balkanization is the fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states, which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. It is usually caused by differences of ethnicity, culture, and religion and some other factor ...
*
Corporate social responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...
(CSR)
*
Creating Shared Value (CSV)
*
Culture war
A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal value ...
*
Economic democracy
*
Pakistanism
Pakistanism or Pakistanization is a neologism that refers to the continual division of any society along religious lines.
In Europe, Alija Izetbegović, the first President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, began to embrace the "Pakistan ...
*
Protracted social conflict
Protracted social conflict is a technical term that generally refers to conflicts described by other researchers as ''protracted'' or ''intractable:'' complex, severe, commonly enduring, and often violent. The term was presented in a theory devel ...
*
Political polarization
Political polarization (spelled ''polarisation'' in British English) is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes.
Most discussions of polarization in political science consider polarization in the c ...
*
Sectarian violence
*
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
Social enterprises ca ...
*
Social exclusion
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
Notes
{{reflist
Social inequality
Social constructionism
Sociological terminology
Sectarianism