Unit 2 NCSU SOC 202

Stratification

The structured inequality in society

Social Class

Based on ones economic, political, and social resources.

Caste System

The most known social class structure were one is born into their social class.

Life Classes

Opportunities and available resources people have in common by belonging to a certain class

Relevant to social class/factors

Income, gender, most importantly occupation

Income

a way to measure socioeconomic status. Median income is midpoint of all household incomes. Majority of it goes to highest class.

Occupational Prestige

a way to measure socioeconomic status. Values others assign to people and groups. The subjective evaluation people give to different jobs.

Education

a way to measure socioeconomic status. The attainment of this is a correlation between social class

Status Consistency 

The conscience (or lack there-of) an individuals rank across social categories such as income, education, and occupation

Upper Class

1-5% of population: owns most corporate and personal wealth, often by inheritance.

Upper Middle Class

15-20% of population: High income and social prestige, well educated professionals, business executives

Middle Class

40-45% of population: wide range; more than just an economic position (such as in politics) society often identifies themselves with the class.

Lower Middle/Working Class

20-25% of the population: Workers in skilled trades and lower income bureaucratic workers.

Lower Class

Displaced and poor-working poor-work at least 27 hours a week and still are below poverty line.

Wealth

Monetary value of everything you own from financial assets to cars.

Net worth

=wealth-debt

Cultural explanations

Value of work, short term focus, passed down

Structural causes of inequality/poverty

Loss of manufacturing jobs, boom and bust, globalization, displacement, earnings of women.

Meritocracy

System in which ones status is based on merits and accomplishments rather than other characteristics.

Social Mobility

Movement over time from one class to another.

Intergenerational Mobility

Different generations of family belonging to different social classes.

Intragenerational Mobility

Refers to the difference of social class in family members in the same generation.

Structual Factors

Factors that determine a class change: technological advancements, shifts in the job market and industries (like deindustrialization or the rise of digital economies), changing educational opportunities, government policies (such as unemployment benefits), economic inequality, and broader societal events like the COVID-19 pandemic

Individual Factors

Factors that determine a class change: characteristics and circumstances, such as education, skills, social networks, health, and individual traits

Defining The Poverty Line

Income, # of people in the household, percent of income spent on food that is nutritionally adequate, By persons in the household, 1-15k, 2-20k, etc.

Feminization

25% of families are headed by a single _. Make less than men. Becoming increasingly popular.

Children In Poverty

16% of all children, greater than 11 million. Higher in some states such as Mississippi at 27%

Marx Analysis

Society through the lens of class struggle, economic power, and social inequality, with the goal of exposing how the means of production and material conditions shape social, political, and cultural phenomena.

Bourgeois 

The capitalist class that owns the means of production, such as factories and land,

Proletariat

Workers or working-class people.

Psychological Component

Class consciousness, could overthrow those in the Bourgeois if they all came together but they suffer from false consciousness.

False Consciousness

A way of thinking that prevents a person from perceiving the true nature of their social or economic situation.

Maintaining Stratification

Dominant groups protecting their privileged position through structural mechanisms like discrimination, segregation, and control over information and resources.

Webers 3D

Debates Marx. Social stratification is not just economic issues-but class, status, and party.

Inequality Serves To

Motivate citizens to fulfill required positions for survival in society by the rewards attached. Such as the job of a surgeon with the pay benefit.

Inequality Results From

System domination and exploitation between classes.

Weber’s 3 components

Class, status, and party

Class

Webers 3D economic dimension

Status

Webers 3D-Prestige ex:celebrity 

Party

Webers 3D-political dimension.

Davis Moore Hypothesis

Functional necessity by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, most difficult jobs require highest compensation.

Outdated Characterization

First, second, and third world.

Gross net income per capita

total output of goods and services/size of population

Global Poverty

Low income countries, highest population, grows 3x faster.

Consequences of Global Poverty

Low healthcare, education, gender inequality. High population, infant death rate, growth.

Relative Poverty

Inability to meet society’s average standard of living.

Absolute Poverty

Condition where household income is below level of meeting basic living standards, <$1.25 a day.

Modernization Model

dominant groups protecting their privileged position through structural mechanisms like discrimination, segregation, and control over information and resources

Dependency 

explains how global economic inequality is created and maintained through exploitative relationships between developed (core) and developing (periphery) countries

World Systems

This theory explains global inequality by showing how core nations (wealthy, dominant) benefit from cheap labor and resources from peripheral nations (poor, dependent), leading to unequal development and exploitative relationships between them