On Genetic Variation and Social Inequality

Diewald M. Zur Bedeutung genetischer Variation für die soziologische Ungleichheitsforschung. Zeitschrift für Soziologie. 2010;39(1):4-21.This article argues for giving genetic variation stronger consideration in sociological analyses of social inequality. Because there is life-long genome-environment interaction and covariance, neglecting genetic influences in the investigation of how social inequality is produced will necessarily lead to biased causal inferences. This general argument is discussed in regard to several fields of social inequality research. Most importantly social forms of inheritance need to be disentangled from genetic forms in order to comprehensively understand the role of families and households and to differentiate between merit and the effects of social closure in the generation of social inequalities. Other topics which are discussed in this paper are the capability approach with its emphasis on agency and preferences, and the generation of cumulative advantages over the life course. Acknowledging the role of genetics need not lead to a questioning of sociological theory and methodology. Behavioral genetics for its part increasingly emphasizes the role of social conditions for genetic expression