Lecture 5: Social Inequality

The market basket measure

Measures an individuals income in relationship to a specific group of services

• Specific to Canada

• Depends on what province you live

List 7 factors affecting social inequality in Canada

1. Colonization

2. Geographic location

3. Gender and family structure: single parents, women

4. Work status: layoffs

5. Visible minority

6. Education

7. Disability

Explain why definitions of poverty have political consequences on the public?

Individual explanation for poverty

People have less because of personal deficits (impairment)

• Not enough of an explanation for poverty throughout the country

• Supports the idea of meritocracy

• The evidence supporting this is very small

Structural explanation for poverty

Social organization of society or subsystems that contribute to poverty

List 4 factors of Structural explanations of poverty

1. Economy

2. Social policy: minimum wage

3. Tax collection and tax allocation

4. Ideological perspectives:

Social Stratification

Different social groups are put in a hierarchy based on how much resources they have

• Feature of a society

List the 4 basic principles of social stratification

1. Trait of society NOT individual differences

2. Carries from generation to generation

3. Universal but variable

4. Also includes beliefs

Why is studying social stratification so important? (4)

1. Reveals the structure or shape of inequality

2. Explains the movement of people between layers

3. How and why these dimensions of inequality vary over time and place

4. The micro level of everyday interactions that reinforce social hierarchies

Social mobility

Movement up and down the stratification system (increase/decrease of wealth and status)

When a social stratification is _______ that means there is little to no mobility

Closed

When a social stratification is _______ that means there is a lot of mobility

Open

Meritocracy

Social stratification based on personal merit

What are the 4 things students of stratification study?

1. The structure or shape of inequality

2. The movement of people between layers

3. How and why these dimensions of inequality vary over time and place

4. The micro level; everyday interactions that reinforce or subvert social hierarchies

Social mobility

Dynamics of system of inequality particularly to movement up and down stratification