Stratification

1. Stratification (or how you can do better than your parents did)

2. Stratification • Systems of stratification • Sociological perspectives on stratification • Is stratification universal? • Stratification by social class? • Social mobility • The global divide

3. Systems of Stratification • Social inequality: condition in which members of society have different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power • Stratification: structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society • Income: salaries and wages • Wealth: encompasses all of a person’s material assets • Inequality is heavily linked to achieved and ascribed status

4. Systems of Stratification • Slavery: individuals owned by other people who treat them as property • Castes: hereditary ranks usually religiously dictated and tend to be fixed and immobile • Estate system (feudalism): required peasants to work land leased to them in exchange for military protection and other services • Class system: social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility • Upper class • Upper-middle class • Lower-middle class • Working class • Lower class

5. Karl Marx and Class Differentiation • Social relations depend on who controls the primary mode of production • Capitalism: means of production held largely in private hands and main incentive for economic activity is accumulation of profits • Bourgeoisie: capitalist class; owns the means of production • Proletariat: working class

6. Karl Marx and Class Differentiation • Class consciousness: subjective awareness of common vested interests and the need for collective political action to bring about change • False consciousness: attitude held by members of class that does not accurately reflect their objective position • Most Americans when asked will say they belong in the middle class

7. Max Weber and Stratification • No single dimestion totally defines a society’s stratification system • Class: group of people who have similar level of wealth and income • Status group: people who have the same prestige or lifestyle • Power: ability to exercise one’s will over others

8. Interactionist Perspective • Interactionists interested in importance of social class in shaping person’s lifestyle • Thorsten Veblen: those at top of social hierarchy typically convert part of wealth into conspicuous consumptionor leisure • Stratification also influences peer groups an individual is exposed to • Argot

9. Is Stratification Universal? • Functionalist view: social inequality necessary so people will be motivated to fill functionally important positions • Does not explain extreme inequality • Conflict view: human beings are prone to conflict over scarce resources as wealth, status, and power • Stratification major source of societal tension • Leads to instability and social change • Lenski’s view: as a society advances technologically, it becomes capable of producing surplus of goods, thus expands the possibilities for inequality in status, influence, and power

10. Measuring Social Class • Objective Method • Class largely viewed as a statistical category • Education • Occupation • Income • Place of residence • Prestige: respect and admiration an occupation holds in society • Esteem: reputation specific person has earned within an occupation

11. Measuring Social Class • Multiple Measures • Statistical methods and computer technology have multiplied that factors used to define class under the objective method • Socioeconomic status (SES) • Income • Education • Occupation • Wealth is unevenly distributed in the US, even more than income

12. Distribution of Wealth in the US

13. Poverty • Absolute poverty: Minimum level of subsistence that no family should live below • Poverty line • Relative poverty: Floating standard by which people at the bottom of a society are judged as being disadvantaged in comparison to the nation as a whole

14. Poverty • Who are the poor? • Feminization of poverty: trend since World War II of women constituting increasing proportion of poor people of U.S. • About half of all women in the United States who are living in poverty are “in transition” • Drastic changes to the poverty numbers since 2008

15. Who are the poor in the US

16. Explaining Poverty • Herbert Gans (1995) argues that various segments of society benefit from the existence of the poor through social, economic, and political functions • Society’s dirty work such as dirty, dangerous, or dirty jobs are performed • Poverty creates jobs professions that service the poor • Punishment of the poor as deviants uphold the legitimacy of conventional social norms and mainstream values regarding hard work, thrift, and honesty • Existence of poor people guarantees the higher status of the affluent • Because of lack of political power, the poor often absorb the costs of social change

17. Social Mobility • Socialmobility: movement or individuals or groups from one position in a society’s stratification system to another • Life chances: Opportunities people have to provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experiences • Housing, education, and health • Open system: implies the position of each individual is influenced by his achieved status • Encourages competition among members of a society • Closed system: allows little or no possibility of moving up • Slavery, caste, and estate systems

18. Types of Social Mobility • Horizontal mobility: movement within same range of prestige • Vertical mobility: movement from one position to another of a different rank • Intergenerational mobility: social position changes of children relative to their parents • Intragenerational mobility: social position changes within person’s adult life • Mobility is influenced by race, class, gender, and education

19. The Global Divide • Divides in global wealth emerged as result of Industrial Revolution and rising agricultural productivity • Sharp divides between industrial and developing nations • Legacy of colonialism • Colonialism: foreign power maintains political, social, economic, and cultural domination for an extended period • Neocolonialism: continued dependence on more industrialized nations for managerial and technical expertise by former colonies

20. Wallerstein’s World-Systems Analysis • Unequal economic and political relationships in which certain industrialized nations and their global corporations dominate core of the world’s economic system • Dependency theory: even as developing countries make economic advances, they remain weak and subservient to core nations and corporations • Globalization: worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and exchange of ideas

21. Multinational Corporations • Multinational corporations: commercial organizations headquartered in one country but doing business throughout the world • Revenues of many multinational business are equivalent to the total value of goods and services exchanged in entire nations • Functionalist view: multinational corporations help developing nations of the world • Conflict view: Multinational corporations exploit local workers to maximize profits

22. Modernization • Modernization: process through which developing nations move from traditional or less developed institutions to those characteristic of more developed society • Modernization theory: functionalist view that modernization and development will gradually improve lives of people in developing nations