SYG2000 - Unit 3 Power, Inequality, and Stratification

first dimension of power

coercive force; one party exercises power over another (by using force, threats, coercion, or resources), legitimately or not, and this power reflects the difference in available resources

second dimension of power

agenda-setting; use hierarchical, organizational, or structural authority to control what gets debated, discussed, or acknowledged (and what does not to minimize opposition and potential disruption)

third dimension of power

ideology and discourse; ability to shape attitudes, beliefs, or desires; using ideology or discourse (language) to encourage people to work against their interests (preempting conflict); the powerful may pit less powerful groups against each other or sacrifice resources, making them belief this benefits them

e.g. carbon footprint promotional material from big gas companies

big gas companies made it seem that global warming/carbon footprint was a personal responsibility, even though they were the main contributors. this made these companies minimize their regulation of their carbon footprint and led to stifling of collective action against them.

the state

the agencies and offices (bureaucracy, legal system, military) that make up the governing institutions; describes the permanent governing institutions that stay the same even when power passes between hands

functions of the state

• provides social control and manages deviance

  • police, law-makers, courts

• regulates the economy

  • infrastructure (e.g. roads), labor market training, regulatory policies (i.e. fda, contracts, etc)

• welfare state policies and programs

  • social security, medicare/medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits

• responds to and manages crises

  • medical/fire emergency services, natural disaster response, military and police intervention

the state and power

exercises authority over the people and institutions; collection of resources via taxes; distribution of resources to the nation in the form of welfare

individual income

personal earnings from wages, investments, rent income, etc

progressive tax

takes a larger percent of income from high-earning groups than from low-earning groups

proportional (flat) tax

takes the same percent of income from all groups, regardless of income

regressive tax

takes a larger percent of income from low-earning groups than from high-earning groups

individual income tax

taxes paid based on personal income (take-home pay), including wages, salaries, investments, rental income, etc

consumption taxes

sales taxes and taxes applied at point-of-sale to the cost of goods and services

estate and capital gains taxes

taxes paid on gifts, inheritances, sale of an asset, etc

payroll taxes (FICA)

7.65% of one’s gross pay which only impacts the first $168,000 and is used for social security and medicare

inequality

uneven distribution of wealth, resources, status, and opportunities in a society

stratification

distribution of individuals into hierarchical groups (strata), with different resources and opportunities

stratification vs inequality

although they are similar, stratification emphasizes clustering of groups of people in an unequal hierarchy. that is, non-stratified refers to arbitrary distribution of inequality whereas if inequality is stratified, that means it is assigned by characteristics (like race), geography, by birth, etc

class stratification

division of classes based on economic status

median household income

$67,521 per year

poverty line

for a family of four, $26,000 per year

income class thresholds

lower class is 2/3 of median income, middle class is 2/3 to 2x median income, and upper class is 2x median income

wealth

net value of all assets owned by a person or family, including the value of their home and minus any debts

consumption

how much a person or family actually consumes on a monthly or yearly basis, which may or not be correlated with their income if they are able to borrow money

class

grouping of people who share similar economic situations and have conflicting interests with other economic positions, share similar life chances and opportunities, have similar attitudes/experiences (culture), and have the potential for collective action

socio-economic status (SES)

an individual’s relative access to resources, via their wealth/income

poverty line

established by the federal government as a figure thought sufficient enough to afford basic needs, adjusted for family size

absolute poverty

measure of the minimum requirements needed for people to afford basic necessities, based on an estimate of minimum living standards in the 1960s; approach used in U.S.

relative poverty

defines people as poor by comparing their incomes relative to others in society; that is, those with incomes less than 50% of the median income are deemed poor

feminization of poverty

overrepresentation of unmarried women, often mothers, in poverty

the working poor

people whose work fails to produce an income above the poverty line

deep poverty

when an household income is less than half of the poverty threshold (many are under the age of 25 and single mothers with their children)

individualist vs structuralist approach on poverty

there are always enough opportunities for people to get ahead but not everyone is willing to do so vs. opportunities and resource distribution vary depending on one’s access to them which gives some a better chance than others

contexts of class distribution

• state policies

  • taxation, welfare, job creation initiatives, minimum wage

• changes in technology

  • new technologies can displace existing jobs and create new jobs

  • college wage premium

• changes in labor structure

  • deindustrialization and decline in manufacturing jobs

• globalization

  • offshoring (operations moved overseas) & outsourcing (contracting elements of production to other organizations)

the middle class squeeze

middle-class incomes are expected to cover more while not matching in income gains; wages have stagnated and productivity has risen, while cost of living has increased and fewer welfare resources are available to compensate

inequality of opportunity

inequality shapes the opportunities available for children and young adults to maximize their potential

social mobility

movement of people from one socioeconomic position to another

intergenerational mobility

the extent to which parents and their children are of similar social and economic positions in adulthood; evaluated via association (r) between parent’s and children’s income, as measured by intergenerational income elasticity (IGE) where higher values between 0 and 1 indicate low mobility

mobility and education

education is the vehicle to upward social mobility and allows for a meritocracy

cultural capital

a person’s cultural knowledge that impacts the way they speak and interact with others, including language, etiquette, references, tastes, and dispositions and attitudes

class reproduction

class differences in culture and cultural capital reproduce class over generations. for example, the upper and lower class have different tastes and culture shapes how we respond to situations

concerted cultivation

parents actively organize and structure their children’s lives, allowing them to develop new skills and produce a greater sense of self-advocacy and entitlement to improve upward mobility; middle and upper class approach

accomplishment of natural growth

parents passively support their children’s interests and rely on institutions to satisfy their children’s needs, generating greater independence and executive functioning but provided with fewer skills that would help with upward mobility; lower class approach

constructivism

view that categories like race, ethnicity, or gender are social creations, and not rooted in our biology

essentialism

the view that certain groupings of people reflect biological characteristics, that is it is inherited through genetics

race

system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived physical similarities

ethnicity

system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived cultural similarities

racial formation theory

race and its categories are socially constructed; race is malleable, changing in response to conditions or other forces, but is also rigid as it’s deeply embedded into institutions

one-drop rule

historical belief in the U.S. that having even one ancestor of afro-caribbean descent made them black

blood quantum rule

historical belief in the U.S. that one’s native american categorization could be calculated by a fraction (indigenous ancestor/total ancestors)

racialization

process by which individuals or a group get defined as a racial category and as differing in someway, whether that’s socially, biologically, culturally, etc (e.g. blacks are inherently better at sports)

racism

the process by which systems, policies, actions, and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race

prejudice

negative attitudes and beliefs held about a group based on subjective or inaccurate information, leading to a prejudgment of individuals in this group

stereotype

simplified overgeneralization about a group that is often false and exaggerated

implicit bias

unconscious associations or assumptions about a group or category that inlfuences our judgement, interpretation, and behavior

discrimination

any behavior or practice that harms, excludes, or disadvantages individuals on the basis of group membership

de jure discrimination

explicit or by law (e.g. laws enforcing housing segregation and preferences in mortgage subsidies; company that actively refuses to hire black or latinx people)

de facto discrimination

implicit, unintended, informal (e.g. company only hiring ivy league grads where most grads are privileged and/or white; banks tracking families with less intergenerational wealth into subprime housing loans)

institutional racism

actions or policies of an organization/social institution exclude, disadvantage, or harm members of a particular group; multiple forms of discriminatory practices that are patterned and become widespread within an institution

systemic oppression

patterned prejudice and discrimination embedded in interlocking social systems, institutions, and organizations, which strengthen and reproduce inequality over time

cyclical process of oppression

prejudice (prejudicial attitudes or implicit biases can lead to unconscious or deliberate discriminatory behaviors), discrimination (if upheld by authorities, these behaviors can become policy and practices), institutional racism (these polices and practices negatively impact POC communities), systemic racism (this creates poverty, unemployment, incarceration, etc which then reinforces our prejudices), prejudice (further justification of discrimination with reinforcement of our prejudices)

model minority myth

assumption that features of asian culture (parenting, values, etc) have led to their success and thus is evidence that other racial minorities can succeed with better practices and attitudes and perserverance

disaggregating data

breaking down groups into meaningful subcategories (e.g. race broken down into nationality) for data interpretation; shows how the asian-american experience can differ based on immigration status and national origin, white-hispanic and non-white-hispanic experiences differ, and blacks whose ancestors migrated after slavery tend to fare better than those whose ancestors were slaves

idealist view of racism

psychological; focuses on stereotypes and racism as flawed thinking of bad people

structural view of racism

modern societies, like the U.S., are built on racial orders that categorize and place individuals into differing levels in a social hierarchy, which is maintained through institutions and social interactions

racial hierarchy/position

system of stratification based on the belief that some race groups are better than others, as reflected through a hierarchy

racial interests

positional interests of a racial group to enhance their benefits; whites benefit from their social position, therefore, their positional interest is maintain the structure and benefits, often by ignoring or justifying ill treatment of people; people of color don’t benefit from the system so they want to change the current structure by bringing to light the system’s unequal treatment

white privilege

due to the high hierarchical position, have unacknowledged benefits and resources (like an invisible knapsack) that is invisible to them as their access prevents them from seeing how others may not have those benefits/resources, which may reproduce racism (unwillingly)

color-blind racism

distancing strategy that seeks to remove racial difference by suggesting race doesn’t matter, focusing on idealized equality over current racial stratification issues, or arguing that individuals who see race are the real racists

distancing strategies

relocation: suggesting that racism is enacted somewhere else, in a different time, or by different people)

progress-framing: suggesting that we focus on how much things have improved rather than persisting racial issues

redirection: moving away from racism to the intention, goodwill, feelings, and attitudes of white people (e.g. i promise i’m a good person)

sex

assigned status based on physiological and/or reproductive traits deemed meaningful by society

gender identity

one’s view of their own gender given social constraints and pre-existing ideas regarding gender categories (or spectrum)

gender expression

outward representation of gender through performance, attire, speech, demeanor

sexual orientation

one’s romantic and sexual inclinations, and their self-conception of their romantic and sexual inclinations given social constraints

sexual dimorphism

observable physical and behavioral differences between males and females within a species

discipline

management and training of individuals, with institutions initially teaching self-regulation and self-control over the fear of being watched; i.e. in this context, convince and regulate individuals to be docile and self-regulate as well as act within the bounds of the gender they’re prescribed

gender socialization

girls and boys learn what it means to be a woman/man based on what society tell and teaches them about these roles, effectively impacting the way they behave and think

gender wage gap

persistent difference in the average amount men compared with that of women (men make $1 for every $0.82 women make, on average)

gender policing

imposing or enforcing normative gender expression on an individual perceived to not be adequately performing gender via appearance (e.g. telling a boy he can’t wear pink or must be rough and tough)

social reproduction

enforcement, maintenance, and transfer of social institutions, structures, and hierarchies through behavior across generations