Module 6

income quintile share

the share of total income earned by each fifth of the population ranked by income

human capital

sum of skills and knowledge someone possesses; so the investment in education and training. better educated workers are more productive because they invest more time to acquiring such skills

social capital

people’s networks and connections; knowing the right people with strong links to them helps finding opportunities

cultural capital

people’s social skills; their ability to impress others, using tasteful language and images to persuade and influence

feminization of poverty

women are more likely to have lower income than men, with this gap between men and women growing

individual level explanations

focuses on the attributes of people, asking how they differ from people who do not have the attribute

feudalism

legal arrangement in preindustrial europe that bound peasants to the land and obliged them to give their landlords a set part of the harvest, while landlords were required to protect peasants from marauders and open their storehouses to feed the peasants if crops failed

class consciousness

awareness of membership in a class

class

marx described it as designation determined by a persons relationship to the means of production, while weber said its determined by a person’s market situation

bourgeoisie

owning the means of production, who derive income from profits while avoiding physical labour

proletariat

the working class who do physical labour and are in a position to earn wages

petite bourgeoisie

small-scale capitalists who own means of production but barely employ workers, so they do the work themselves

relational concept

different classes reflect oppositional relationships to the means of production — associated with marx

distributional concept

graduations in class are associated with an individual’s value in the marketplace

status groups

groups that differ from one another in terms of prestige or social honour they enjoy, as well as their life style

parties

organizations that strive to impose their will on others

power

the ability of someone to get their own way even if they face resistance from others

functional theory of stratification

some jobs are more important than others, requiring people to take sacrifices to train for them. inequality is required to motivate people to undergo these sacrifices

intragenerational mobility

social mobility that occurs within a single generation

intergenerational mobility

social mobility that occurs between generations

socioeconomic status

index combining data, income, education, and occupational prestige in a single index of a person’s position in the socioeconomic hierarchy

equality of opportunity

focuses on the chances of participation

equality of condition

focuses on the chances of succeeding