Untitled Flashcards Set

Social Inequality

Differences among people or social positions that significantly affect their rights, opportunities, rewards, and privileges, structured through recurring social interactions.

Bases of Social Inequality

Factors contributing to inequality, including individual differences, socially defined characteristics, historical and geographical variation, and theoretical disagreements.

Class

Social groupings that differ mainly in their command of economic or material resources like money, wealth, or property.

Power

The capacity to influence, lead, dominate, or impact the life and actions of others in society.

State

The governing authority that can entrench or reduce inequalities through laws and policies.

Marxist Theory

Focuses on class inequality, emphasizing economic exploitation through ownership of the means of production.

Feminist Theory

Stresses gender as a critical basis for understanding and analyzing social inequality.

Hegemony

Ideological domination where the ruling class manipulates culture to make the status quo seem natural.

Normalizing Power

Induces individuals to adopt societal norms and desires as their own, often internalized through constant surveillance.

Panopticon

An architectural model for disciplinary power where individuals internalize self-discipline due to constant visibility.

Gini Coefficient

A measure of inequality within a distribution, ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality).

Surplus Labour

The amount of labor produced beyond what is necessary to maintain the workforce, leading to profit in capitalist systems.

Beta (β)

The ratio between wealth (or capital) and annual income, indicating the distribution of wealth.

Inequality Measurement

Methods used to assess inequality using metrics such as income composition, wealth concentration, and distribution comparisons.

Accumulation by Dispossession

A process where neoliberal policies result in the transfer of wealth from the public to private hands, often through privatization.

Neoliberalism

An economic and political model emphasizing free markets, individual responsibility, deregulation, and reduced government influence.

Intersectionality

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, affecting overlapping systems of discrimination.

Class Mobilization

The movement of individuals between different social classes, often dictated by meritocratic principles.

Collective Bargaining

Negotiation of wages and working conditions between employers and a group of employees, typically via unions.

Cultural Hegemony

The dominance of one cultural group over others, establishing its norms and values as the norm.

Disciplinary Power

Power that maintains social order through surveillance and regulation in various institutions.

Counter-hegemony

Ideological challenges against the dominant culture, advocating for alternative worldviews.

Economic Structure

The organization of an economy including systems of production, labor, and resource distribution.