he New Right Claim Clinic is a classroom activity designed to help students move beyond simply describing New Right arguments and begin testing them sociologically. It works particularly well for Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology: Understanding Social Inequalities, because it encourages students to identify assumptions, consider missing structural factors and use evidence to evaluate claims about family, gender and ethnicity.

New Right explanations are useful for classroom debate because they often make clear, confident claims about social problems. They may argue that traditional family structures provide stability, that welfare can create dependency, or that inequality can be explained through culture, behaviour, personal responsibility or human capital. These claims are accessible for students, but they also need careful evaluation.

This activity turns that evaluation process into a “claim clinic”. Students are given a New Right claim and asked to diagnose what it assumes, what it leaves out and what evidence would be needed to test it.

The sociology behind the activity

New Right perspectives often focus on individual responsibility, family structure, culture, work ethic, welfare dependency and social order. For example, a New Right view might suggest that family breakdown contributes to poverty, that traditional gender roles can support social stability, or that some ethnic inequalities reflect cultural values rather than discrimination.

These ideas are useful for students because they offer a clear contrast with structural approaches. Feminists may argue that gender inequality is caused by patriarchy, unpaid care and discrimination. Marxists may argue that poverty and inequality are rooted in capitalism, low wages and unequal ownership. Weberians may point to market situation, credentials, status and social closure. Ethnicity researchers may stress racism, institutional discrimination and ethnic penalties in the labour market.

The activity helps students see that sociological evaluation is not just about saying a theory is “wrong”. Instead, students ask:

What does the claim explain well?
What assumptions does it make?
What evidence would support it?
What structural factors are missing?
Which alternative perspective gives a stronger explanation?

How the activity works

Students work in small groups. Each group receives a New Right claim linked to family, gender or ethnicity. They first identify the main idea in the claim. They then look for hidden assumptions, such as the idea that people have equal choices, that family structure is mainly a matter of individual responsibility, or that cultural values explain unequal outcomes.

Next, students add missing structural factors. These might include poverty, discrimination, housing, labour market inequality, unpaid care, racism, class background, education or access to social networks. Finally, they decide what evidence could be used to test the claim and produce a short verdict.

The process is deliberately simple:

1. Read the claim.
2. Identify the New Right idea.
3. Spot assumptions.
4. Add missing structural factors.
5. Test the claim using evidence.
6. Share a balanced verdict.

Example claims students might examine

A claim about family might suggest that poverty is mainly caused by family breakdown. Students could identify the New Right assumption that stable two-parent families reduce social problems. They could then evaluate this by considering low wages, housing costs, childcare costs and regional unemployment.

A claim about gender might argue that women’s employment patterns reflect personal preference. Students could link this to human capital or preference-based explanations, then challenge it using evidence on the gender pay gap, unpaid care, occupational segregation and the motherhood penalty.

A claim about ethnicity might suggest that educational or employment differences are mainly caused by cultural values. Students could evaluate this by considering ethnic penalties, racism in recruitment, housing disadvantage, school processes and social closure.

Skills developed

This activity supports all three major assessment objectives.

For AO1, students identify and explain New Right concepts such as individual responsibility, welfare dependency, family values, culture, human capital and meritocracy.

For AO2, students apply these ideas to concrete examples of inequality in family life, gender and ethnicity.

For AO3, students evaluate the claims by identifying assumptions, missing evidence and alternative structural explanations.

The strongest part of the activity is that it trains students to evaluate precisely. Rather than writing vague criticisms, they learn to ask what the theory assumes and what it ignores.

Why this activity works well in class

The New Right Claim Clinic works because it gives students a clear structure for evaluation. Many students can explain a theory, but struggle to challenge it in a developed way. This activity gives them a repeatable method: identify the claim, diagnose the assumption, add missing structure and reach a judgement.

It is also useful because it avoids one-sided responses. Students may find New Right claims easy to criticise, but the activity asks them to consider what the claim might explain before evaluating its limits. This helps build balanced exam answers.

The activity also encourages students to use evidence rather than opinion. Instead of saying “I disagree”, students must ask what data, studies or examples would be needed to test the claim. This is particularly valuable for OCR responses, where students need to combine knowledge, application and evaluation.

Suggested follow-up question

A useful written task after the activity would be:

Evaluate the usefulness of New Right explanations of social inequality.

Students could use one claim from the activity and compare it with a feminist, Marxist, Weberian or structural explanation.

A strong answer should recognise that New Right approaches can be useful for raising questions about culture, family structure and individual responsibility, but they are limited if they ignore poverty, discrimination, patriarchy, racism and unequal life chances.

Download the classroom resource

The full New Right Claim Clinic resource pack is available as a downloadable classroom activity. It includes claim cards, assumption prompts, evidence-testing grids, structural factor prompts and a verdict sheet to help students produce balanced evaluation.