SOC Exam #2

What is stratification?

refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals or groups within a society based on various factors such as wealth, power, education, or social status. It highlights the inequalities that exist among different segments of the population

Characteristics of stratification

include social class, status consistency, and life chances; social class, gender, ethnicity, and age

Opened and closed systems of stratification

Open: allow social mobility (e.g. the US social class system)

Closed: do not allow social mobility (e.g. caste, feudalism, slavery)

Ascribed status

statuses given at birth (e.g. race, gender, family class)

Achieved status

statuses that are earned or acquired (e.g. education, occupation, parenthood)

Master status

Primary identifying status that overshadows others in society’s perception; dominant status that defines an individual in society (e.g. disability)

Rousseau theory on stratification

argued human nature is good, but society and private property create economic inequality, which is bad

• Private property leads to the accumulation of power and stratification

• Believed that natural inequalities (talent, ability) would persist, but social inequalities can be changed by altering the social system

Ferguson and Miller theory on stratification

thought that economic inequality is necessary for human progress, as it motivates innovation and advancement

Mathus theory on stratification

claimed that inequality is essential for population control because resource scarcity would cause suffering if everyone were equal; he opposed aid to the poor for this reason

Davis-Moore Thesis

Functionalist perspective of stratification and the need for economic inequality in a functioning society

• Argument: Economic stratification is necessary to ensure the most qualified people fill society’s most important positions

• Critiques: Students question whether pay/prestige truly reflect societal importance and if opportunities are equally distributed

Gans - Positive Functions of Poverty

Poverty creates jobs in sectors like law enforcement, legal, and prison systems

Poor populations are used as political scapegoats to justify existing class positions

Gans perpective on poverty and society

This thinker suggests that poverty exists partly because certain groups benefit from it

• Employers profit by paying low wages to poor workers, maintaining their own wealth

What is social class?

A division of society based on social and economic status

What does economic inequality in the U.S. look like today?

• Most Americans experience little mobility––about 86% remain in their birth class

• About 5% to 7% of children born in the bottom 5th income distribution make it to the top 5th

Ways of measuring economic mobility

• Vertical vs. horizontal → movement up/down or within the same class

• Intergenerational mobility → mobility across generations

• Intragenerational mobility → mobility in a lifetime

• Relative mobility → group comparisons

• Structural mobility → changes from major events

What does economic mobility look like in the US?

Little mobility; most stay in the same general class status 

Why is economic mobility challenging in the US?

• Mobility has been stagnating since the 1970’s

  • More horizontal movement than vertical

• Barriers include racial divisions, historical practices (e.g. redlining), high college costs, stagnant wages, rising cost of living, lack of universal healthcare, and geographic segregation

Impact of geography/Impact of inherited wealth on sustaining social class positioning

Limited mobility; increased stratification

Cumulative advantage/disadvantage

Benefits or disadvantages build up over lifetimes and generations, reinforcing class positions

What is race?

a social construct, created and defined by society, tied to physical traits deemed important; place and time specific

What is radicalization?

The process by which society assigns significance to racial categories and defines groups

Individual racism

Personal biases and actions between individuals

• The use of racial slurs or similar hate speech against an individual or a group of people

Institutional racism

Discriminatory policies and practices within major institutions (education, law, government)

• Healthcare → Doctors are more likely to favor white patients over Black patients and stereotype Black patients as “difficult” or more likely to be medically non-compliant

• The Criminal Justice System → Police officers are more likely to stop or detain BIPOC civilians, particularly Black men, than white ones

Systemic/structural racism

Society’s organization reproduces racial inequalities, beyond individual or institutional acts

• Police brutality creates higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression amongst Black and Latinx communities

Fallacies of racism

individualistic, legalistic, tokenistic, ahistorical

Individualistic fallacy of racism

Assumes racism exists only at the individual level and ignores institutional and systemic racism

Legalistic fallacy of racism

Claims that ending racist laws eliminates racism in society

Tokenistic fallacy

Uses the success of individuals from marginalized groups to argue that racism no longer exists (e.g. the election of Barack Obama)

Ahistorical fallacy

Argues that the impact of past racial injustices is irrelevant today and should not be discussed

Why is homeownership so important to understanding the racial wealth gap?

[Blank] is critical to understanding the racial wealth gap because it is a primary vehicle for wealth accumulation and intergenerational transfers - perpetuated in time

• Impacts: Disparities in access and equity, perpetuation of the wealth gap

What is redlining?

Discriminatory practice of denying financial services, like mortgages, to residents of certain neighborhoods based on their race or ethnicity

• Communities in red = too risky for mortgage insurance and loans (black communities)

• Communities in green = safe for investment (white communities)

What were security maps? How were they drawn? Who drew them?

• Created by the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s to assess mortgage lending risk 

  • Documented which neighborhoods were considered safe for investment and which were “hazardous” → redlining

• Drawn using a color system 

  • Grade A (Green) = best areas (predominantly white)

  • Grade B (Blue)

  • Grade C (Yellow)

  • Grade D (Red) - “Hazardous” areas (predominantly black)

• The defining characteristic that impacted the neighborhood’s rating was

What were racial/residential covenants?

Legal clauses in property deeds that prohibited people of certain races, ethnicities, or religions from buying or occupying a property

What was blockbusting?

Realtors buying homes from people for white preservation

• Perpetuation of white supremacy

The long-term effects of federal housing policy and redlining

Systems of power and privilege that advantage white families - subsidizing the generation of wealth

What is sex?

Defined by physical/biological characteristics (chromosomes, anatomy, hormones)

What is gender?

Fundamental axis of social organization, shaping identities, roles, and interactions

Meade’s study of culture and gender

Meade studied other cultures in Papua New Guinea and saw that they recognized more than two genders or have distinct roles (e.g. Hindras in India)

• Her study demonstrated that masculinity and femininity are not universal or biologically determined

What are middle sex categories? Links to colonization and laws?

• Hijrah (Indian continent) - ambiguous sex (3rd intersex category)

• Nadleehi (Navajo culture) - a mixture of both female and masculine

  • European colonialism reinforced gender binary → culturally/legally recognized social categories (e.g. male/female), connection to power in that who defines the standard

  • Colonialism imposed binary gender norms on societies with fluid gender categories, erasing or criminalizing other arrangements

Western conceptions of gender and consequences

• Male/female  = oppositional concepts / mutually exclusive concepts 

• Far-reaching negative consequences, including widespread discrimination and marginalization of non-binary individuals

• Perpetuation of rigid gender roles and stereotypes

• Consequences: Discrimination, mental and physical health issues, reinforcement of stereotypes and inequality

Gender advertisements / “feminine and masculine touch” (Goffman)

• Gendered ads shape societal views on femininity, masculinity and reinforce stereotypes

• Social media platforms blur the line between organic content and advertising, influencing gender norms through promoted lifestyles

What are examples of gender stratification?

• Gender pay gap

  • Women, on average, earn less money than men for the same or similar work

• Occupational segregation

  • Men and women are often concentrated in different types of jobs

What are examples of patriarchy?

• Male-dominated leadership 

  • Men occupy the vast majority of top positions in government, corporations, the military, etc

• Gender pay gap

What is an example of androcentrism?

The practice of playing men or masculine perspectives, experiences, and values at the center of society

• Generic male terms

  • “Mankind”, “Salesman”, “Fireman”

Sex role theory

• Sex/gender roles = part of a functional system

• Complementary systems are required to meet certain societal needs

  • Family structure / family roles

    • Heterosexual nuclear family = bedrock of functional society

    • Men = “instrumental qualities”

    • Women = “expressive qualities”

Goffman’s perspective on gender

• This thinker viewed gender as a social construct communicated through “gender display”––a performance of learned, culturally recognized roles

  • He used a dramaturgical approach to explain how individuals manage impressions in social interaction and analyzed specific “gender codes” in media, especially advertising

• Gender as performance: Gender is not a fixed identity but a performance we learn and enact based on social conventions and expectations

What does “Doing Gender” mean? (West and Zimmerman)

Gender is not a stable trait but a routine, socially constructed practice that is actively performed in everyday interactions

Gender as structure

Views gender as a social system that shapes opportunities, expectations, and inequalities through institutions, social interactions, and individual identities

Gender panic

Periods of social change - reactions to disruptions in biology-based gender ideology - reinforce “naturalness” of gender binary and reinforce/normalize heterosexuality

• Ex: Book banning and anti-drag show laws

What is deviance?

nonconformity to widely held norms, ranging from minor to serious behaviors

What are sanctions?

Negative response to deviance, consequences

Becker’s perspective on deviance

Not the act itself, but the reaction to the act by others that makes something deviant

• Deviance is a social construct (based norms/values), but it’s also an interactional concept

Absolutist/objectivist perspective on deviance

viewed deviance as biologically or pathologically determined

Functionalist perspective on deviance

argue that some deviance is necessary to clarify norms and reinforce social solidarity

Pathological view on deviance

deviance justified long-term incarceration or medical interventions based on presumed internal defects

Durkheim’s study of suicide

Durkheim shifted focus to social causes, using empirical data to show connections between social integration and suicide

What is anomie?

Individuals feeling less connected with cultural norms/society; solidarity

Types of suicide

egoistic, anomic, fatalistic, altruistic

Egoistic suicide

Results from social isolation and weak social ties 

Anomic suicide

Caused by normlessness and lack of guidance after major life changes (e.g. death of a family member/friend)

Fatalistic suicide

Arises from overregulation, discrimination, and oppression

Altruistic suicide

Occurs when individuals are hyper-integrated and act selfishly for the group (e.g. martyr, cult)

Labeling theory of deviance

• Symbolic interactionist framing

• When you label a person/group as deviant, that can influence their life outcomes

  • Connection to master status

  • Self-fulfilling prophecy, internalization of label

Differential theory of deviance

• Symbolic interactionist framing

• Deviant behavior is learned through associations with others who support or engage in such behavior

Control theory of deviance

Behavior is regulated by inner (personal values, conscience) and outer (influence from others) control systems

Strain theory of deviance

Socialization into cultural goals (e.g. the American Dream) creates strain when institutional means to achieve them are blocked

• Four responses to strain:

1. Conformists: Accept both goals and means

2. Ritualists: Reject goals, accept means)

3. Innovators: Accept goals, reject means––use illegitimate means)

4. Retreatists: Reject both

Illegitimate opportunity structure of deviance

Suggests that people may choose deviance if legitimate routes to goals seem blocked or unviable based on their social context

• Engaging in crime may seem like the best available option for some, depending on their opportunities and social location