Soc 1125-Ch.7 social and economic inequality

SES

social economic statsus

social stratification

-deals with the nature and orgins of social inequality

-all societies have unequal uneven distribution of wealth, power, and prestige

-fedual order of landowners and peasants to industrial captialism with its classes and factory owners

Marx

-class struggle

-industrialization and urbanization

-societies change when work become conscious of selves as class

Max Webber

-focus on more different allocation of resources

-class is differential life chances

-status is hierachies of prestige or social honor and differential lifestyles

Poverty

-poverty is lacking resosurces for an adequate standard of living

absolute poverty: lack of resources that is life threatening

-food, clean water, housing

relative poverty: people lack resoucres that others take for granted

Global stratification

first world: high income, industrial countries

second world: socialist countries

no longer exists

third world: non-industrializes, low income countries

consquences of poverty

-health problems

-education problems

-family and parenting

-housing and homelessness

-intergenerational poverty

-war and social conflict

structural functionalism

-poverty and economic inequality serve postive functions for society

-unequal reward system ensures that a person who performs a particular role is most qualified

-low paid, poor workers are willing to do dirty, dangerous, diffculty work that others refuse to do

symbolic interactionism

-focus on meanings, labels and defintions affect and are affected by

-perons who are labeled as poor, particulary those recieving public assistance or welfare are often stigmized as lazy, irresponsible, and lacking in motivation ability and morals

-wealthy persons are viewed as capable, hard working, motivated and deserve wealth

-defintions of wealthy and poverty vary across societies and across time

-the poor develop norms, values, and beliefs and self concept that contribute to their plight (culture of poverty)

culture of poverty

beheaviors, values, and attitudes exhibitied by the chronically poor transmitted from one generation to the next

conflict theory

-economic inequality results from bourgoesise and exploiting the proletrasit

-in this system of economic inequality, profit is surplus value, and its benefit

-coorporate welfare laws and policies that benefit coorporetations and the wealthy may do not bourgeoise pay the tax

culture of poverty is charctersized by

-female centered households

-present gratifaction

-lack of particpation in social insuitions

-feelings of marginality

-dependency

-powerlessness

-inferiority

antipoverty programs

-goverment public assistance and welfare programs in Canada

-family allownace and child tax benefits

-educational assistance

-maternal and paternal benefits

-child support enforcement

-minimum wage increase

-equal pay for woman

-CERB

economy

the social insitution that organized the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services

goods and services

Goods: commodities ranging from necessities

services: valued activities that benefit others

captialism

the economic system in which natural resources and the means of producing goods and services are privately owned

global economy

an interconnected network of economic activity that transcend natural borders

features of captialist economics

1. private ownerships of property

   -wealth producing property

2. pursuit of personal profit

   -individual pursuit of self interest

3. free competion and consumer sovergeingity

   -free market system with no goverment interfence

   -invisble hand of supply and demand

   -consumer dicates value

   -producers comepete amongst each other

socialism

an economic system in which natural resources and means of producing goods and services are collectively owned

collective ownership of property

-to reduce incidence of economic elities, limations of right to the private property

-lessen economic inequality and create classless society

Goverement control of economy

-centrally controlled economy

-focus on geninue needs of consumers

corporate mulinationals

-the practice of corportations to have their home base in one country and branches in other countries

-allows business to avoid import traiffs and costs associated with transporting goods provides acess to raw materials cheap foregions labour avoidance of goverment regulations

Industrial revolution

-1750 in England

-new forms of energy, factory work, mass production, specialization, wage labor

-involved the transformation of peasants into wage earning factory workers

second industrial revolution

-mass production technology, the spread of white collar work to staff burenacurencies and growing division of labou

scientfic management

-Fredrick Taylor

-ensures workers operate in mechanical ways

-more precise timing of productive activates

-shift work and electricity meant little disction between night and day

continous production

task management record of keeping fiance and labor

post industrial

shift from industrial ecconmy dominated by manfacturing jobs to econommy dominated by service oriented infromation intensive jobs

work sectors in economy

primary sector:

generates raw material directly from natural enviroment

-agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, forestry

-pre industiral societies

secondary sector:

-that transforms raw materials into manfactured goods

-transforming wood into furniture

tertiary sector:

-generates services rather than goods

-charcterstic of post industrial economics

work in post industrial economy

-decline in agricultural work, labor unions, professions, the underground ecconomy, dual labor market

social inequality

long term existence of significant differences in acess to material goods and opporunties among social groups

means of production

the resources needed to produce goods

ivmpenproletariat

small time criminals, beggers, and unemployed

corporate (organic) identity

shared sense of purpose among members of each class

class consciousness

awareness of what is in the best interest of one’s class

false consicousness

a belief that something is in the best interest when it is not

dominat captialist class

those who own or control larger scale production

middle class

small business people, educated professions, technical or adminstriative personal, and various salired employess or wage earners possessing some certifiable crediatials, training, or skills

working class

lack resources or capacties apart from their own labor power

stratum

is a group to which people belong depending on their level of income, education, or another social variable

strata

used as untis of analysis in stratification sampling, a research method in which equal samples are drawn fromeach stratum of the population instead of drawing one larger at random from the whole population

quintile

a segment or stratum representing each of the five equal group into which the population is divided

ideology

is a set of beliefs about society and the people in it, usually forming the basis of a particular ecconomic or poltical theory

dominant ideology

a set of beliefs by generally supportive of society’s dominat culture and or class

-reflecting class consciousness of the ruling captialist class and used to defend or justify status quo

trickle down theory

if weatlhy are given the freedom to generaste more wealth, others in society will benefit, new jobs are created, more money will be spent on consumer goods, and a part of generated wealth will eventually find its way into the hands of members of lower and middle class

Nonliberal ideology

a belief in great social mobiltiy the ability of individuals to move from one class or stratum to another

-people are sucessful because they have earned sucess not benefited from social privillages like race, gender, ethnicity, or class

Blaming the victim

assigning individuals responsiblity for events or circumstances that have broaden social causes like quality of a person’s upbringing and education, lack or resources and social connections that help a person secure well paying jobs

Hegemony

to mean non-coercieve methods of maintaining power

food banks

-central warehouse or clearing house, registered as a non-profit organization for the purpose of collecting, stroing, and distrubuting food , free of charge, directly or through front line agencies

food insecurity: indequate or unreliable acess to food in terms of amount,variety, quality, and general desiriblity

Living wage

represents a target above existing wage which is too low for working poor to live on

Caste

-caste system of India

-Caster rankings by ritual purity

-Brahmins (priests)

Prestige

-degree of respect, their socially valued possessions, and master statsus

-form of social power

-ability of individuals or groups achieving their goals

patriarchy

a social system in which men hold poltical, cultural and social power

-men are poltical leaders

-media is dominated by male views