902.1
Bothering Pays for Sociologists
Segmentary societies bear inequality. All of them. Urbanized even more. Cities have proven to be inequality carved in concrete and stone.
The more abundance of material culture, the more inequality. Chiefs in tribes have to bother.
They remain chiefs only if they impress bothering and solving conflicts. Bothering glues even the smallest tribe.
Todays large scale social units call themselves 'modern' to claim their qualitative difference to chiefdoms and the like. Here, nobody even considers an end of inequality, it is purely unthinkable as necessarily linked with the total dismissal of the material abundance (which could and should be achieved, plans have been made).
More, bothering has become a specialized task, a branch, a profession.
Clerics (clergy men and women), pedagogics, social workers, journalists – and sociologists compete here. People who have worked in the five groups can tell. So does the author.
Empirical long-term analysis of inequality studies provide evidence that the inequality index in the researched areas and regions remain more or less the same. Meanwhile, research about the economical situation of the inequality-authors shows that more than a decent living has been possible due to the inequality studies.
Bothering thus provides access to the elites and enables a stable and good living for those who bother.
This is why we bother about inequality – sometimes. Have a happy conference!