Khan academy unit 15

Upward and downward mobility 

  • Our society is broken down into the lower, middle and upper class 

  • Based on income 


  • Can an individual move around to different social positions (there are three ways that this can happen)

  1. You can move horizontally - you move around within the same social class 

  2. Vertical movement - you can move up or down within the social classes 

  • You can either move up or down with vertical movement 


  • Some societies have the caste system in place 

  • There is very limited space for social mobility in this position 

  • This is because there is you social position in life is largely due to the family or ethnic background that you are born into 

  • A lot of social stability 


  • Class system 

  • Upper, middle and lower class

  • Allows for social mobility 

  • Based on what you are born into and looks and an individual's ability to move and change 


  • Meritocracy 

  • People achieve their social standing based solely on their achievements 

  • There is extreme social mobility 

  • People can constantly move up and down based on their achievements 

  • There is little social stability 


Intergenerational and intragenerational

  • Think about and individual who can either move up or down in a system 

  • Whether this individual moves up or down it is affecting this individual in his lifetime this is called intragenerational 


  • Intergenerational mobility you look at the family and parents and grandparents of the individual 

  • Let's say his parents were grocery store workers and now he is the ceo of a company their intergenerational social mobility went up


  • If he got demoted but was still in the company them the intergenerational mobility would still be higher but his intragenerational mobility would decrease 


Absolute and relative poverty 

  • There are two ways that we can think about poverty 

  • It can be on a scale 

  1. Is the poverty so bad that it is a threat to their survival

  • What are the basic things that a human needs to survive 

  1. Or is the poverty just preventing them from being properly included in society 


  • Absolute poverty is there that when it is crossed then there is a threat to survival 

  • This absolute poverty line has an absolute value that is associated with it ( ex. Absolute poverty is 12 dollars a day)

  • This absolute poverty line does not take into account the different environments and situations that people are in that can affect the basic things that they need to live ( if they live in the arctic then they will need more supplies)


  • If a society becomes more wealthy then we can see that there will be a decrease in the absolute poverty 

  • More people will live above the absolute poverty line 


  • Relative poverty - when someone makes less than the median income of the area (ex. The median income of the  U.S) 

  • The amount of people living in relative poverty would increase if the median income increases 

  • Talks about people who income levels that are so low that they aren’t able to properly interact in society ( they can’t get a good education or have adequate meals - may have to get food from dollar tree instead of the grocery store)


Social reproduction 

  • Social inequality between rich and poor families 

  • Those who have rich parents tend to end up rich and those who had poor parents tend to end up poor 

  • Poor stay poor and rich stay rich 


  • Rich families stay rich because they have a lot of financial capital 

  • They can invest money in things 

  • They can use money to make social connections 

  • They can have cultural capital ( kids are able to travel abroad and are able to have many different cultural experiences) 

    • Can learn about a culture by traveling to many different countries 

  • They have a better education


  • The poor 

  • Can’t travel often 

  • Can’t afford good education 

  • Educational systems don’t value the cultural and social capital of the poor ( they aren’t going to teach about the graffiti but they are going to talk about different countries and art)


Social exclusion (segregation and social isolation) 

  • When people do not match up to the ideal model of human in society (straight white man) hey are moved away from the core of society (they are moved away from resources) 

  • Being a woman

  • Being poor 

  • Being a minority 

  • Being sick 


  • Can these are things that pull people away from the “core” of society 

  • These factors can be connected and it can lead to people doing things like committing crimes 


  • Segregation - you know what this is 

  • Two different groups of individuals that live in the same society but with services, rules, regulations, resources, treatment, opportunities 


  • Social isolation - a community separates themselves from the mainstream society 

  • Ex. the amish 


Environmental Justice 

  • There should be a fair distribution of the environmental benefits of society 

  • Poor parts of society have less environmental benefits that those who live in wealthier parts of society 

  • They have things such as more parks 

  • Bike paths and green spaces 


  • What the poor end of society gets is a lot of environmental burden (the bronx)

  • Waste facilities 

  • Factories 

  • Transportation facilities 

  • This can lead then to have things such as asthma 


Residential segregation 

  • Groups of people living in different neighborhood 

  • Where we live is very important to the resources and opportunities that we have access to 

  • Think of long island and how some areas that are predominantly white have more resources ( massapequa - has many turf fields and a nice school while uniondale has metal detectors and bathrooms that look like they were made for little kids) 

  • Concentration is a type of segregation - clustering is a type of segregation 

  • Concentration is on the edge 

  • White people are concentrated in many parts of long island 

  • black/ people of color live in the area near queens 


  • Centralization - segregation + clustering in a central area 

  • This would be in the center of the society 


  • How can we measure residential segregation

  • 100 : perfect distribution 

  • 0: complete segregation 


  • Why is it important 

  • Political isolation 

  • linguistic isolation- people in different areas may speak different languages 

  • Lower access to quality education and health

  • Spatial mismatch - opportunities for low income people who are in segregated communities may be present but they may be far away which makes it harder for them to access 


Global inequality 

  • There is a global inequality in wealth which leads to an inequality in things like life expectancy and resources 

  • Many countries in African have a very poor medical system while countries like canada and Japan provide good free healthcare to their people 


  • Maternal mortality - what percentage of mothers die during childbirth 

  • How good is the healthcare system 

  • In Northern Europe and America their is a relatively low rate of mothers who die during childbirth while is countries where they have less money it is more likely that they are going to die during childbirth 


Prejudice and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, power, social class and prestige

  • People are judged based on these characteristics


Health and healthcare disparities in the U.S 

  • Not everyone has the same SES (socioeconomic status) and they don't get the same quality of healthcare depending on what there status is 


Intersectionality 

  • someone can face multiple forms of discrimination (ex. If someone is gay, black and a women)

  • They will be discriminated against for being gay black and a woman



Class consciousness and false consciousness

  • Means of production- facilities where we produce goods 

  • Being conscious of the different class distinctions 

  • Karl marx theory- workers who are apart of the working class don’t realize that they are being used and oppressed by the boss 

  • They can tho get class consciousness: they have solidarity with one another and must struggle and overcome their situation 

  • They need to takeover the means of production (they need to be incharge) 


  • False consciousness (apart of karl marx theory): workers are unable to see that they are being oppressed

  • Many owners try and promote false consciousness so that they workers do not revolt against them 

Terms 

Social disorganization - the residential location of a person plays an important role in determining whether they are likely or not to engage in illegal activity 


Alienation of labor - a part of Karl marx claim : people are working as like an animal would and doesn’t really get the chance to see the product of their own labor 


symbolic interactionism - shared language amongst humans to create common symbols and meanings (ex. /srs)


Social constructivism - the view of learning comes from social interactions 


Structuralist- looks at the relationships between basic structures and the relationships that they have 


Micro Sociological - people daily societal interactions


Functionalism- the mind is a functional tool that allows us to adapt to our environment 


Social satisfaction theory- societies organization of people into different groups like social classes 


The superstructure - the culture, ideology, norms and identities that people inhabit 


bourgeoisie - the middle class 


The culture of poverty - the belief that poor people develop a unique value structure to deal with their lack of success in society because they are resigned to their lower socioeconomic position