Social Stratification

Social Stratification

A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy

Basic Principles of Social Stratification

A trait of society, not just individual differences
Persists over generations
Is universal, but variable regarding amount and type of inequality
Involves inequality and beliefs of fairness

Caste

Stratification based on ascription or birth

Class

Based on birth and individual achievement

Social mobility

A change in position within the social hierarchy

Meritocracy

Stratification based on personal merit

Status consistency

The degree of uniformity in a person’s social standing across various dimensions of social inequality

Classless societies

A society in which no one is born into a social class.
The former Soviet Union claimed to be one, but the party members had great advantages

Ideology

Cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, including patterns of inequality

Davis-Moore thesis

Social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of a society
The greater the importance or talent required of a position, the more rewards a society attaches to it
Egalitarian societies offer little incentive for people to try their best

Class Conflict

Marx was concerned with poverty amid riches

Capitalists

Own and operate businesses

Proletarians

Sell labour for wages

Alienation

The experience of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness
It should lead to the overthrow of capitalists and introduction of socialist system, serving needs of all

Fragmentation of the capitalist class

Many stockholders therefore much direct stake in the capitalist system

Blue-collar

Lower-prestige jobs, mostly manual labour

White-collar

Higher-prestige jobs, mostly mental activity

Stratification(Weber)

is a multidimensional ranking: economic classes, status (prestige), and power

Socioeconomic status (S E S)

Composite ranking based on several dimensions of social inequality

Conspicuous consumption

buying and using products because of the “statement” they make about social position

Symbolic-Interaction Theory: Stratification in Everyday Life

People interact primarily with others of about the same social standing as people tend to live with others like themselves

Hunters and gatherers

Little inequality

Horticultural and Agricultural

More inequality as surplus begins

Industrial

More inequality with more specialization
Though with increasing education inequality diminishes and a lessening of men’s domination of women

Kuznets’ curve

More pronounced stratification comes with technological advances

Income

Earnings from work or investments

Wealth

Total value of assets minus debts

Top 20%

received 41.4 percent of all income

Bottom 20%

receive 6.7 percent of all income

Occupational prestige

Doctors versus waiters

The upper class

Inherit enormous wealth or “new rich” entrepreneurs
5 % of the population
Top executives or senior government officials

The middle class

Professionals to service people
40-45% of the population
Upper-middles are professionals
Average-middles are middle managers, clerks, and skilled blue-collar workers

The working class

Less skilled blue-collar jobs
33% of the population
Jobs require discipline, but not imagination
Jobs offer few benefits

The lower class

Temporary, low prestige jobs
20% of the population
Slightly better off than unemployed
Live in poorer neighbourhoods and in rural areas

Health

Richer live longer and are healthier

Values and Attitudes

New rich engage in conspicuous consumption, use material objects as status symbols, more tolerant of behaviours like homosexuality, but also more fiscally conservative

Family and Gender

Richer promote development of “cultural capital” in children and have more egalitarian relationships

Upward Mobility

With college degree or higher-paying job

Downward Mobility

Drop out of school, losing a job, or divorce

Intragenerational mobility

Change in social position during one person’s lifetime

Intergenerational mobility

Upward or downward movement that takes place across generations within a family

Myth vs. Reality

Mobility over past century has been fairly high
Intragenerational mobility is small, not dramatic
Long-term trend has been upward
Social mobility since the 1970s has been uneven
Short-term trend has been downward

Feminization of poverty

The trend of women making up an increasing proportion of the poor
Female lone-parents

Two Views

Poor are responsible: They cannot or will not take advantage of opportunities

Culture of poverty

Resignation leads to self-perpetuating cycle of poverty

Neoli​beralism

Political ideology that proposes to transfer government control and regulation into the hands of private actors

Society is responsible

Loss of jobs in inner cities eliminates opportunity

746,000 Canadians (3.1 percent)

are working poor

The Working Poor

Main income recipient worked 910 or more hours while remaining low-income based on the L I C O

Sociological evidence points toward society, not individual character traits

as the primary source of poverty because more and more available jobs offer only low wages

Female heads of families, Indigenous people, visible minorities, urban/rural isolated persons

people who face special barriers and limited opportunities

Homelessness

Estimates suggest 150 000 to 200 000 people use _________ services or sleep on the streets

Poverty Reasons

Lost jobs
Escaping domestic violence
Drug use
Mental illness

The Trend Toward Increasing Inequality

Rising level of income inequality