sociology 101 exam 2

Social stratification

Social stratification

the division of nations as well as the layering of groups of people within a nation

• system divides group into layers due to their relative property, power, and prestige

• applies to nations, people in a nation, and society

• every society stratifies its members

Systems of Stratification

• slavery

  • a form of social stratification when people own each other

  • was caused based on debt, crime and war

  • in some places slavery was temporary, slavery was not inheritable, slaves were not powerless or poor

• caste

  • a form of social stratification in which birth determines peoples statuses which are life long

  • race as a caste

    • when slavery ended in US it was replaced by racial caste system

      • race is marked for everyone at birth

• class

  • social mobility

    • movement up class ladder

    • a class system allows the movement of social mobility

    • an individual can change their class by what they achieve

Marx vs Weber in what determines social class

• Marx

  • believed that social class depends on a single factor: peoples realationship to the means of production (the tools, factories, and and investment capital used to produce wealth)

  • recognized other groups (farmers and peasants, lumpenproletariat, and middle class) but did not consider these groups social classes because they lacked class consciousness (a shared identity based on their relationship to the means of production)

• Weber

  • believed social class has three components: property, power, and persige

    • Property (wealth): is significant in determining a persons standing in society (agreed with Marx) also believed ownership is not the only significant aspect of property

    • Power: the ability to control others even over their objections (agreed with MArx when said property is a major source of power) weber added that its not the only source

    • Prestige: derived from property and power; property can bring prestige and vice verse

Functionalism

• social darwinism

• Davis and Moore hypothesis and its critiques

  • Believed stratification of society is inevitable because:

    • 1. For society to function, its positions must be filled

    • 2.Some positions are more important than others

    • 3. The important positions must be filled by the more qualified people

    • 4. To motivate the more qualified people to fill these positions, they must offer greater rewards

  • Tumins critque to davis and moore

    • believed davis and moore did not attempt to justify social inequality

    • question why people know that the positions that offer higher rewards are more important

    • also said that if davis and moores stratification worked then society will be meritocracy (positions awarded based on merit)

    • also said that if social stratification was funcitional then it would benifit everyone but it doesnt

Conflict theoretical explanations of universal stratification

Mosca

• argued that every society will be stratified by power

• 3 ideas:

  • no society can exist unless its organized, requires leadership to coordinate peoples actions

  • leadership requires inequalities of power, people lead while others follow

  • human nature is self-centered, people in power will use their positions to seize greater rewards for themselves

Marx

• believed people who are in power are not in power because of superior traits

• predict workers will revolt

Lenski

• suggested surplus is key

• said functionalist are right when it comes to groups that dont accumulate a surplus ( these societies share their resources to those who take on important tasks)

• believed whenever groups gain power, it uses that power to extract what it can from groups beneath it

Social hegemony

consent of being dominated by other groups

Labor Surplus, unemployment

• functionalist interpretation

• conflict interpretation

Maintenance of stratification

• Ideology vs force

Stratification in the US, GReat Britiam and the former soviet union

• US

  • similar to GB

• GB

  • has a class system that can be divided in lower, middle and upper

  • population is evenly divided between middle and lower

  • makes class idstinctions based on material goods

  • education displays generational class system

• Soviet Union

  • basis of stratification was membership to communist party

  • socialism

  • captialism

Global Stratification

• most industerlized

  • examples: USa, Canada, GB, France, Germany, Swiss, Japan, etc.

• industerlizing

  • 20 percent of earths land and 16 percent of its people

  • people have lower incomes

  • ex: former soviet union

• least industerlized

  • 68% of worlds people and 49% of earths land

  • poverty

• Colonialism

  • the process in which one nation takes over another nation making a colony of it to exploit labor and natural recourses usually

  • purpose was to establish economic colonies

• World systems theory

  • a theory of how economic an political connections develop among nations

  • this theory led to 4 nations:

    • core nations: countries that were industrialized first (Britian, france, etc)

    • semiperiphery: Mediterranean countries depended on trade with core nations

    • fringe nations: eastern European countries which sold cash crops to core nations

    • external area: these nations were left of the development of capitalism

• dependency theory

• neocolonialism

  • the economic and political dominance of the least industerlized mations by the most industerlized nations

The culture of poverty and arguments against it

• the assumptions that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty and that parents perpetuate provery across generations by passing these characteristics to their children

The role of multinational corporations

• companies that operate across many national; boundaries to help maintain that global dominance of Most Industralized Nations

Social Class

• wealth

  • the total value of everything someone owns minus the debts

• power

  • the ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others

• prestige

  • respect or regard

• status inconsistency

  • ranking high or low on all three dimensions of social class

contradictory class locations

erik wrights term for a position in the class structure that generates contradictory interest

Six class model - Weber

• top of class has more property, power and prestige and vise versa; education is also a primary measure of class

Consequences of social class

• politics

  • upper class are most likely to vote republican

  • lower class are most likely to vote democrat

• religion

  • Episcopalians are most likely to attract middle and upper class while baptist attract the lower class

• health

  • higher social class= improved health

  • lower class experience with drugs and alcohol and life is hard on poor and have the worst mental health

• family life

  • upper class place emphasis on family tradition

  • lower class emphasises chilfres to follow rules and obeyt authority

Structal social mobility

• movement up or down a social ladder that is due more to changes in the structure of society than actions of individuals (social mobility)

• intergenerational mobility

  • the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next

• upward social mobility

  • movement up a social ladder

• downward social mobility

  • movement down a social ladder

Poverty

• Poverty line

  • the official measure of poverty; calculated to include incomes that are less than 3 times a low-cost food budget

• feminization of poverty

  • women only average 74% of what men earn

  • a condition of US poverty in which most poor families are headed by women

myths about poor and welfare

• the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if tried hard enough

Ethnicity vs race

• ethnicity

  • having distinctive cultural characteristics

• race

  • a group whose inherited physical characteristics distinguish it from other groups

minorities groups vs dominant groups

• minority

  • people who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination

• dominant

  • the group with the most power, high social status and greatest privileges

Racism

prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race

prejudice

an attitude or prejudging usually in a negative way

discrimination

• individual

  • an act of unfair treatment directed agianst an individual or a group, personal

• institutional

  • negative treatment of minority group that is built into a societys institutions; systemic discrimination

Theories of prejudice

• scapegoat

  • an individual or group unfairly blamed for someone else’s troubles

• authoritarian personality

  • adorns’s term for people who are prejudiced and raked high on scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect for authority, and submissiveness to superiors

• cognitive theory

• social learning theory

Functionalism

• three functions of discrimination

• ethnocentrism of subordinate group

conflict theory

• surplus labor

• split labor market

• group interests

• Marxist perspective

Symbolic interactionlism

• selective perception

• sterotypes and self fuffiling propecies

Global patterns of intergroups

• genocide

• population transfer

  • the forced transfer of a minority group

• internal colonialism

  • the policy of exploiting minority groups for economic gain

• segregation

  • the policy of keeping racial-ethnic groups apart

• assimilation

  • the process of being absorbed into the mainstream culture

• multi-culturalism

  • a policy that permits or encourages ethnic differences

Race and ethnicity in US

• White Europeans

  • white immigrants to the US whose cultures differ from WASP culture

• African Americans

  • rising expectation

    • the sense that better conditions are soon to follow, which, if unfiffiled, increases frustration

  • continued gains

    • 11% of AA in the US is in the HOR

  • current losses

    • only 3 AA sentors

  • race vs class

    • wilson debate

• Latinos

  • umbrella terms that lumps spanish speaking cultures together

  • largest ethnic group in US

• Asian Americans

  • financial success

• Native Americans

  • the invisble minority

  • casinos

Sex vs gender

• sex

  • biological charecristics that distinguish females and males

• gender

  • the behaviors ad attitudes that a society considers proper for its males and females

biology vs culture

• biology

  • nature

• culture

  • nurture

orgins of patriarcy

• men as a group dominatinf women as a group; authority is vested in males

• women became caretakers which made them “inferior”

feminism

• the philosophy that men and women should be politically, economically, and socially equal’ organized activities on behalf of this principlr

gender inequality

• education

  • more women attend college than men

• health care

  • doctors are less serious towards women than men

• workplace

  • pay gap

    • women getting less pay then men

  • glass ceiling

    • the mostly invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing to the top levels at work

  • glass escalators

Inequalities of aging

• social Contruction of aging

  • in US elders are forec to retire at 65, other cultures respect elders

• graying of America

  • life expectancy rate increaded in US; growing age population

• ageism

  • discrimination based on age

• functionalism vs conflict theory