Sociology - Lecture 9

social stratification, social class and the economy

what is social differentiation?

how different social statuses develop in any group, organization, or society

 All groups and societies have different statuses that make up a system

• Remember a status is a socially defined position in a group based on ascribed or achieved characteristics

• Status differences are organized into a hierarchical system.

What is social stratification?

...is a relatively fixed, bierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth.

• ...is a system of structured social inequality in
  ALL societies (can be based on one or many statuses).

What’d are the three categories of stratification systems?

1. Estate

2. Caste

3. Class

What is estate?

is a system in which a small elite group (owners of property and power) has total control over resources.

What is caste?

is a system where status is assigned based on ascribed status (given at birth).

What is class?

is a system based on ascribed and achieved statuses.

What is social class?

is the social structural position groups hold relative to the economic, social, political, and cultural resources of society.

What is social class influenced by in the United States?

In the United States, social stratification based on social class is influenced by occupation, income, education, race, gender, region of residence, ethnicity, national origin, and age.

A overview of social class

Class determines people's access to resources and puts them in different positions of privilege, advantage, vulnerability, marginalization, and disadvantage.

Additionally over view on social classes

• Status is partially an achieved status, with some potential for movement from one class to another.

• In the U.S. class system, the class a person is born into (ascribed status) has major consequences for that person's life.

• Class is a structural phenomenon- it cannot be directly observed. (Objects can become symbols of status.)

• Indicators of class: income, education, occupation, and place of residence.

What is status attainment?

how people end up in any given stratified position. (class origins, educational level, & occupation)

What is socioeconomic status derived from?

• income, occupational prestige, and education

• cumulative advantage & disadvantage

What is class consciousness?

Is the perception of:

• the existence of a class structure

• your shared identification with a given class

• your shared interests with others in your class

Gall poll research (2019)

this study reinforces the idea that we all think we’re middle class

• 89% of Americans considered themselves either middle or working class (even though many were technically upper or lower class).

Booking institute (2018)

• found that Americans often overestimate their financial security and consider themselves middle class even when their income falls outside of traditional middle-class definitions.

• Middle class is seen as the norm for Americans and related to lifestyle not income.

• Again reinforcing the idea

Do the people in the u.s. have social mobility (aka can move up the ladder to better life etc.)?

• Upward social mobility has declined in the last 50 years

• Class structure is increasingly being driven by inequality because the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow.

• Children are less likely to earn more than their parents as adults if they are BIPOC or grow up in the South.

• Attending college can help with income mobility, but family background still matters.

What is income?

is the amount of money brought into a household from various sources (wages, investment income, dividends, etc.) during a given period.

What is wealth?

• is the monetary value of everything you own.

• is a person's net worth.

• is accumulated and passed down to younger generations.

• is more unequally distributed than income,

Overview of the economy

• The economy is the social system involved in the production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services.

• The original & longest running concern of sociology: Marx, Weber, Durkheim

What is capitalism?

is an economic system based on the principles of:

• market competition

• private property

• the pursuit of profit

What is Desindustrializacion?

the transition from a goods-producing economy to a service-based economy.

What is deindustrialization cause by?

Caused by a combination of new technologies, globalization, a decline of manufacturing jobs, and an increase in a service economy.

Is the decline of manufacturing jobs have an impact?

Yes, they have a profound effect on the life chances (opportunities to improve your life situation) of people in different social classes.

• Working class once employed in manufacturing jobs are now in lower-wage jobs (such as fast food, if they work at all.

What are the 5 factors of deindustrialization?

1. Rise of automation and robotization

2. Globalization & competition from low-wage workers in less developed countries.

3. Closing and/or moving American factories elsewhere in the world

4. Rise of consumer society, increasing demand for goods.

5. Rise of the service sector (people provide services-education, healthcare, retail & hospitality, public safety, government services etc.) for one another rather than producing goods).

   1. Many in the working class once employed in manufacturing jobs are now in lower-wage jobs.

What are the results of emerging deindustrialization?

• Increase in short-term unemployment

• Large-scale displacement of workers from middle-class, middle-income jobs to those that offer a far lower wage

• Gains/ advantages for those in upper-income occupations and employed by multinational corporations.

What are some factors to the growing income inequality?

1. Loss of high-paying industrial jobs

2. Decline of labor unions.

3. Technological advances (highest paid jobs in high tech/high skill areas)

4. Tax cuts/ shifts in tax policies to favor long-term capital gains, taxed at half the rate of ordinary income.

Look at the growing income inequality

(class divisions chart on page 21)

What does the functionalist theory say?

Functionalist: work and the economy are a functional necessity for society.

• When society changes too rapidly, work institutions generate social disorganization.

What does conflict theory say?

Conflict theorists view the transformations taking place in the workplace as the result of inherent tensions in the social systems.

What does symbolic interactions say?

Symbolic interaction theorists analyze what work means to people and how interactions in the workplace form social bonds. (Example: How new workers learn their roles)