Social Inequality (SOCIOL 2463) Exam 1

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards for Social Inequality (SOCIOL 2463) Exam 1, covering structural functionalism, conflict theories, cultural and social capital, class stratification, and educational inequalities.

Sociology

The study of how societies are organized and how the organization of a society influences the behavior of people living in it.

Sociological Imagination

The ability to see and understand the interrelationship of personal troubles and experiences with larger social problems and changes.

Social Stratification

A system of hierarchical relationships in society that determine who gets what and why.

Conflict Theory

The theoretical perspective that inequality is not a part of the natural order and should be abolished or reduced, arguing that stratification serves the interests of powerful groups.

Karl Marx (and Engels)

Conflict theorists who emphasized class struggle and maintained that history has been shaped by economic relations.

Functionalism

The theoretical perspective that inequality is a part of the natural order, is necessary to serve the needs of society, and benefits all of society.

Emile Durkheim

A functionalist theorist who argued that society maintains order and used the division of labor to explain how societies function.

Davis and Moore Thesis

A functionalist perspective arguing that some societal positions are more important than others, talented people are limited for the most important jobs, training requires sacrifice, rewards motivate individuals to make sacrifices, and social stratification is functional, inevitable, and provides greater motivation.

Organism Analogy

A functionalist concept stating that different parts of society each have their own function to contribute to the whole.

Organic Solidarity

In functionalism, a type of social solidarity observed in complex societies that is less cohesive and relies on a division of labor necessary for societal functioning (e.g., HelloFresh).

Mechanical Solidarity

In functionalism, a type of social solidarity observed in simple societies that is highly cohesive.

External Inequality

In functionalism, inequality imposed by social circumstances at birth; dominant in pre-industrial societies.

Internal Inequality

In functionalism, inequality based on individual, natural talent; critical for industrial societies.

Proletariat

In Marx's theory of capitalism, the working class of workers who own only their own labor.

Bourgeoisie

In Marx's theory of capitalism, the middle class/owners who control the means of production.

Marx's Beliefs on Capitalism

Viewed capitalism as a necessary evil and temporary structure that narrows and polarizes class structure into two classes (workers and owners), homogenizes labor, causes worker exploitation and alienation, cultivates class consciousness, and will ultimately fail and be replaced by socialism.

Melvin Tumin

A conflict theorist who argued that stratification limits the productivity, talents, resources, creativity, motivation, loyalty, integration, and acceptance of society.

Class Consciousness

The state when workers become aware of their collective class position and realize how unfair it is, causing them to revolt.

Social Class

A type of grouping based on social and economic status that increases the complexity and precision of societal classification.

Objective Measures of Social Class

Measurable criteria of social class consisting of income (amount of money earned), wealth (amount of property owned), and occupation (jobs held).

Subjective Measure of Social Class

Status, or the perceived social standing or prestige of an individual.

Status

The level of standing or prestige an individual holds within a particular community.

Ascribed Status

A social status assigned at birth through luck or circumstance.

Achieved Status

A social status acquired after birth through talent, effort, or hard work.

Status Group

A collection of people who share characteristics that confer a particular level of prestige.

Max Weber

A conflict theorist who argued that social class is determined by an individual's life chances, focusing on three dimensions of power: class, status, and party.

Class (Weber)

Power derived from position in the economic realm.

Status (Weber)

Power derived from standing in the social realm.

Party (Weber)

Power exercised in the political or legal realm.

Social Closure

The process by which groups exclude outsiders in order to monopolize power and resources.

Occupational Status Determinants

Factors determining occupational standing, split into objective criteria (income, education requirements) and subjective criteria (prestige or status).

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

A continuous, non-categorical variable reflecting an individual's social and economic standing.

Gilbert's Model

A stratification model positing that dimensions of inequality are correlated (e.g., high education correlates with high income).

Social Reproduction

The overarching process through which society is recreated within or across generations.

Class Reproduction

The process in which individuals remain in the same social class as their birth or that of their parents.

Culture

Perceptions and behaviors that are produced, reproduced, and shared among people.

Cultural Capital

The cultural skills or 'know-how' an individual possesses that can yield advantages when activated.

Habitus

Internalized cultural messages and habits passed down from parents that become so deeply ingrained they feel natural.

Field

The social institutions or arenas in which social activities and struggles take place.

Three States of Cultural Capital

The three forms identified by Bourdieu: embodied, objectified, and institutionalized.

Embodied Cultural Capital

Dispositions connected to an individual's mind and body that require substantial personal investment and cannot be acquired second-hand (e.g., informal knowledge, taste/preferences, and self-presentation/style).

Objectified Cultural Capital

Material goods and possessions that carry cultural meaning and value.

Institutionalized Cultural Capital

Objectified cultural capital that carries formal institutional recognition or legitimacy (e.g., high school diplomas, college degrees, credentials, titles, criminal records).

Social Capital

The social networks, relationships, or connections that people draw upon to secure advantages.

Economic Capital

Monetary resources, cash, and tangible financial assets.

Convertibility of Forms of Capital

The capacity to transform one form of capital into another, such as converting economic capital into cultural capital or cultural capital into economic capital.

Annette Lareau

Author of 'Unequal Childhoods' who investigated class-based child-rearing practices and how Bourdieu's cultural capital theory operates in family life.

Concerted Cultivation

A middle-class child-rearing approach where parents actively cultivate and structure their children's talents and skills through organized leisure activities and deliberate language use.

Accomplishment of Natural Growth

A working-class child-rearing approach where parents provide basic necessities and allow children to develop naturally without arranging structured leisure activities.

Dimensions of Family Life (Lareau)

The four key areas examined in child rearing: organization of daily life, language use, social connections, and interventions with institutions.

Emerging Sense of Entitlement

A behavioral outcome seen in middle-class children raised via concerted cultivation, characterized by comfort when speaking to authority figures and interacting assertively with institutions.

Emerging Sense of Constraint

A behavioral outcome seen in working-class children raised via accomplishment of natural growth, characterized by complying with instructions, rarely questioning authority, and feeling distant from institutions.

Prudence Carter

A researcher who analyzed non-dominant cultural capital among Black and Latinx youth and examined how marginalized groups navigate their own communities versus mainstream institutions.

Mainstreamers (Carter)

Students who subscribe to dominant middle-class (white) culture and utilize dominant cultural capital.

Noncompliant Believers (Carter)

Students who resist middle-class (white) culture by using non-dominant cultural capital; they believe in education but do not adhere to dominant racialized expectations.

Straddlers (Carter)

Students who successfully maneuver across multiple class and racialized cultures using code-switching; identified as the most successful group.

Paul DiMaggio

A sociologist who argued that in modern societies, lower-status groups can acquire cultural capital through institutions outside the family, leading to upward social mobility.

Cultural Mobility

Movement within a culturally stratified system through the acquisition of cultural capital.

Wealth Inequality in the U.S.

A pattern where the distribution of accumulated wealth is substantially more unequal than the distribution of annual income.

Capitalist Class Income Source

The primary way the wealthiest sector of the U.S. population obtains its money: through returns on investments and assets.

Underclass

A controversial sociological term referring to individuals who are excluded from the formal economy and trapped in persistent poverty.

Wealth

The total value of accumulated property and assets that an individual owns.

Farm Labor

The economic sector that has experienced the greatest percentage decline in the labor force.

Human Capital Theory

The economic perspective suggesting that highly educated individuals earn higher incomes because their advanced skills make them more productive.

Tracking

The educational practice of sorting students into different instructional groups or classes based on perceived ability.

Savage Inequalities (Kozol)

Severe disparities in American public education that Jonathan Kozol attributes directly to unequal school funding across districts.

No Child Left Behind Act

Federal educational policy criticized for placing heavy emphasis on standardized testing without providing standardized funding.