SOC 202 - Units 9-12

SOC 202 Introduction to Sociology with Thomas Shriver at NC State University (Fall 2024) (Incomplete)

Stratification

System of structured social inequality

Social Class

The social structural position groups hold relative to the economic, social, political, and cultural resources of society

Caste System

In which people are born into their social class

Life Chances

refer to the opportunities people have in common by virtue of simply belonging to a class

Measuring Socioeconomic Status

Income, Education, Occupational Prestige

Status (In)consistency

The consistence – or lack thereof – of an individual’s rank across social categories such as income, education and occupation

Income Trends

growth is greatest for those at the top, flat or declining for others

Cultural Explanations of Poverty

Lack of work ethic, irresponsibility, Cultural values passed between generations

Structural Causes of Poverty

Restructuring of economy, Globalization and job loss/displacement, Unfair earnings of women

Meritocracy

Systems in which one’s status based on merit or accomplishments and not on other social characteristics

Intergenerational Mobility

different generations of a family belong to different social classes

Intragenerational Mobility

refers to difference in social class between different members of the same generation

% of families headed by women are poor

one-third

% of children living in poverty (globally)

22%

number of children globally living in poverty

>16 million

Means of Production

everything that goes into producing wealth except human labor

False Consciousness

sense that workers believed that the capitalists had their interests in mind.

Max Weber

Emphasized connections between economic, social and political dimensions of stratification

Functionalist View of Inequality

Inequality serves an important function to motivate people to fill the different positions in society that are needed for the survival of society

Davis-Moore Hypothesis

Rewards attached to certain positions ensure that people will make the sacrifices needed to acquire the training for functionally important positions

Gross National Income Per Capita

total output of goods and services / size of population

Capital Flight

describes situation where jobs and infrastructure move from one country to another

Relative Poverty

inability to meet society’s average standard of living

Absolute Poverty

condition where household income is below the level of meeting even basic living standards

Amount of people globally living in absolute poverty

88 million

Number of people living on less than $2.50 a day

~3 Billion

Modernization

Refers to a process of economic, social and cultural change that facilitates the transition from preindustrial to industrial societies​

Modernization Model

Emphasizes a universal but uneven process of modernization and economic growth.

World System

a network of unequal economic and political relationships between developed and less developed countries

Dependency/ World-System Theory

focuses on a worldwide system of political and economic inequality

Core Countries

strong military, strong economy

Periphery Countries

valuable natural resources, but impoverished, corrupted, exploitation

Semi-Periphery Countries

middle income, based on exploitation

Permanent Dependency

caused by debt, export dependency, and multinational corporations

Biological determinism

Explanations that attribute social phenomena to physical characteristics. Ex: men are more aggressive because of testosterone

Agents of Gender Socialization

Family, schools, mass media, textbooks, peers

“Glass Ceiling”

women moving up in the career, but there is still a limit to where they can reach.

“The Second Shift”

women when they come home from work, and then have to take care of the house when they are at home

Assimilation

refers to the absorption into the dominant mainstream culture

Segregation

the physical and social separation of different categories of people ~ often on the basis of race.

Cultural Pluralism

Argues that minority groups should retain their distinct cultural identities, but only within a framework that ensure their overall equality.

Expulsion

refers to a subordinate group being forced by a dominant group to leave a certain area or country.

Genocide

refers to the deliberate annihilation of a targeted group

Prejudice

a preconceived belief about an individual or group that is not subject to change on the basis of new evidence.

Discrimination

refers to the unequal treatment of individuals on the basis of their membership in a group

Redlining

a discriminatory practice that involves denying financial services to people based on their race or ethnicity

Intersectionality

idea that members of any given minority are affected by the nature of their position in other systems or other forms of inequality

Immanuel Wallerstein

associated with World-Systems Theory

Karl Marx

you are either a worker or an owner. No such thing as occupational prestige

Max Weber

offered a multidimensional view of stratification

Davis-Moore Thesis

functional necessity of stratification