Trenton Social Structure

The foundation and make-up of social structures are critical components of the variables examined in this report. The outcomes of interest include educational attainment, median household income, and poverty status, all of which are closely related to social structures and the hierarchal organization of status and roles. The educational attainment that an individual acquires is extremely important in affecting his or her status and role in the institutional arrangement of society. Level of education is a major factor in determining future employment, thus affecting household income and eventually poverty status. Instead of focusing on a symbolic interactionist approach to the micro-level and individual cultural causes of these structural outcomes, …show more content…
This macro-level observational criterion is critical for an in-depth research study of the variables involved in particular outcomes within a conflict theorist analysis. For this study, the primary county of focus in this research is Trenton City, Mercer County, New Jersey, in comparison with Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, the greater New Jersey area, and the United States as a whole. The main interest in this county is the seemingly paradoxical nature of its social structure in comparison to the socioeconomic outcomes being examined. Trenton is the capital of New Jersey—at one point the capital of the United States—yet the city has some of the highest statistics for low educational attainment, percent living in poverty, and low income. As the epicenter of New Jersey—including the New Jersey State House, and multiple other political and economic structures—Trenton should maintain a higher education, higher income, and lower poverty number. This fact is perplexing; how the state’s hub for growth and betterment of society—at multiple levels—is simultaneously a city of poverty and low …show more content…
An individual’s socioeconomic status can be determined by such pertinent factors such as educational attainment and household income, thus having a causal effect on health through poverty status. Unfortunately, because of greater social determinants—outside of individual control—over time, the achieved status of high education and wealth in Trenton has seemingly become an ascribed status wherein these adverse factors are difficult to surmount. Low social status in this social structure has become accepted as the norm. Factors such as these inexplicably link socioeconomic status and health having possibly detrimental effects on one’s status and role in the greater social institution. The main underlying social determinant of these reports that has been causing devastating effects on health and living can be traced back to the 1800s and early-1900s when Trenton became an industrialized hub. Trenton became an industrial powerhouse because of the construction of numerous canals and railroads, “allowing raw materials for production to be brought from the West, as well as the transportation of finished goods to large markets in NY and PA… [in addition to] an influx of European immigrant workers [causing] industrial expansion” (Wojdyla). The slogan read: “The World Takes, Trenton Makes”. As an industrial center, Trenton needed an abundance of labor workers who could operate the machinery and facilitate production. As a

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