Social Stratification, Mobility and Change

Social Stratification

• Hierarchical ranking based on unequal distribution of wealth, power, status, education, occupation, and resources.

Common Criteria for Ranking

• Authority & political/economic/military power; ownership of land & capital; income & lifestyle; occupation & achievements; education; kinship, ethnicity, religion, gender/sexual identity; association membership; altruism/spirituality.

Core Characteristics

• Social, not individual; transmitted across generations; universal; perceived as acceptable/“natural” by advantaged groups.

Social Classes (six basic layers)

• Upper: inherited wealth, highest influence.
• Upper-middle: professionals, senior officials, successful entrepreneurs.
• Middle: tertiary trained, less influential/rewarded.
• Lower-middle: lower management, clerical, multiple income earners.
• Working: skilled/semi-skilled trades.
• Lower: unskilled, oversupply of labour, limited upward prospects.

Key Attributes Creating Stratification

Wealth

• Cash, property, investments; shapes access to elite opportunities.

Power

• Capacity to influence others; held by organisational leaders.

Prestige (Status)

• Social respect/esteem; often linked to occupation; may diverge from wealth & power.

Effects on Health & Life Expectancy

• Higher classes: better conditions, preventive care \rightarrow longer life.
• Lower classes: hazardous jobs, poor housing, limited care \rightarrow higher disease/mortality.
• Chronic illness can lower status; violence risk higher in lower class.

Social Mobility

• Movement between classes: vertical (up/down) or horizontal (same level).
• Inter-generational: child’s class differs from parents’.
• Intra-generational: individual changes class during lifetime.
• Open systems: allow movement via achievement; closed systems: restrict by birth.

Factors Encouraging Upward Mobility

• Industrialisation, compulsory/superior education, smaller families.

Consequences of Mobility

• Adjustment stress, changed peer networks, relocation costs.
• Downward movement linked to psychological distress, higher suicide risk.

Social Change

• Alteration in societal structure or community organisation.
• Driven by economic growth, technology, demographic shifts.

General Traits of Social Change

• Occurs everywhere.
• Often unplanned/unintended.
• Generates controversy.
• Varies in significance.

Dimensions of Modernity (Peter Berger)

• Decline of small traditional communities.
• Expansion of personal choice \rightarrow individualism.
• Growing diversity of beliefs & lifestyles.
• Future orientation & heightened time awareness.

Social Movements

• Large, enduring groups seeking societal influence via mass action.

Four Types

• Resistance: oppose existing changes.
• Reform: modify specific aspects.
• Revolutionary: replace entire system.
• Expressive: focus on self-change & member wellbeing.

Requirements for Effective Movements

• Clear shared grievance &