Social Stratification Notes

Social Stratification: Introduction

• Social stratification and class are often overlooked in American society, despite significant disparities in wealth and privilege.
• The existence of vast differences in material wealth highlights social inequality in the United States.

Aspects of Social Stratification

• Social class is a category of people sharing similar socioeconomic positions, identified by economic opportunities, jobs, lifestyles, and attitudes.
• Social cohesion or social integration reflects solidarity and connectedness among social groups.
• Social stratification studies who gets what and why, related to socioeconomic status (SES) dependent on ascribed or achieved status, leading to status hierarchies.
• Ascribed status: Involuntary characteristics like age, gender, and skin color.
• Achieved status: Acquired through direct individual efforts, such as educational attainment (highest degree obtained).
• Caste and estate systems stratify by ascribed SES, while class systems stratify by achieved SES.
• The U.S. shifted to a class-based system after breaking from British rule.

Class Status and Power

• Three major classes: upper, middle, and lower, varying by location.
  • Upper class: Great wealth, recognized reputations, influence on political and economic systems.
  • Middle class: Divided into upper-middle (successful business/professionals), middle-middle (unable to achieve upper-middle lifestyle), and lower-middle (skilled/semi-skilled workers with few luxuries).
  • Lower class: Poorer end of economic spectrum with reduced sociopolitical power.
• Socioeconomic gradient in health: Proportional improvement in healthcare as SES increases.
• Prestige: Positive regard for a person or idea; certain occupations (e.g., physicians), institutions, awards considered prestigious.
• Power: Ability to affect others' behavior through rewards/punishments, based on unequal distribution of valued resources.
• Power dynamics maintain order, organize economic systems, conduct warfare, and can lead to exploitation.
• Unequal power distribution creates worldwide social inequalities (haves vs. have-nots).
• Marxist theory (conflict theory): Proletariat (have-nots) could overthrow the bourgeoisie (haves) by developing class consciousness.
• Class consciousness: Organization of working class around shared goals and collective political action.
• False consciousness: Misperception of one's actual position within society, hindering class consciousness.
• Anomie: Lack of widely accepted social norms, breakdown of social bonds, accelerating social inequality.
• Strain theory: Anomic conditions (excessive individualism, social inequality, isolation) lead to deviance, eroding social solidarity.
• Social trust: Important for civil society, from social norms of reciprocity and social networks.
• Decline in social capital: Urbanization, self-orientation, and materialism have diminished associational ties.

Social Capital

• Social capital: Investments people make in society for economic or collective rewards, leading to higher social integration: Movement of a new or minority population into a larger culture while maintaining their ethnic identities
• Social networks: Main form of social capital, creating situational (socioeconomic advantage) and positional (based on network centrality) inequality.
• Inequality in networks reinforces privilege (inequality in opportunity), and low social capital increases social inequality.
• Cultural capital: Benefits from knowledge, abilities, and skills.
• Strong ties: Peer group and kinship contacts (quantitatively small, qualitatively powerful).
• Weak ties: Superficial social connections (large in number), providing connections to a wide range of individuals.
• Disadvantaged groups lacking weak ties face difficulty accessing/contributing to social capital.

Intersections with Race, Gender, and Age

• Social inequality higher among disadvantaged groups: racial/ethnic minorities, female-headed families, and the elderly.
• Intersectionality: Compounding disadvantage in individuals belonging to multiple underserved groups.

Patterns of Social Mobility

• Class system allows movement between classes (social/structural mobility) through economic and occupational structures.
• The American Dream: Encourages ambition through dedication and hard work.
• Intragenerational mobility: Changes in social status within a person's lifetime.
• Intergenerational mobility: Changes in social status from parents to children.
• Opportunities for social mobility may be diminishing due to widening gap between upper class and middle/lower classes.
• Meritocracy: Social structure where intellectual talent and achievement facilitate advancement.
• Rising social inequality may reduce opportunities for advancement based on merit.
• Plutocracy: Rule by the upper classes, potentially replacing meritocracy.
• Upward mobility: Positive change in social status to a higher position.
• Downward mobility: Negative change in social status to a lower position.
• Social mobility correlates with education; athletes, musicians, entrepreneurs exemplify upward mobility.
• Horizontal mobility: Change in occupation/lifestyle within same social class.

Poverty

• Poverty: Low socioeconomic status and lack of financial resources, can be intergenerational.
• Social reproduction: Social inequality, especially poverty, passed on from one generation to the next.
• Structural poverty: Poverty due to societal structure rather than individual actions.
• Absolute poverty: Lack of basic life necessities (shelter, food, clothing, water).
• Relative poverty: Poor in comparison to the larger population.
• Official poverty line: Government's calculation of minimum income for basic necessities, not contextualized geographically.
• Poverty as powerlessness: Sociological/psychological condition of hopelessness, indifference, and distrust, leading to dependence.
• Social exclusion: Poor individuals feel segregated and isolated from society, creating obstacles to self-help.

Spatial Inequality

• Spatial inequality: Influence of one's location on distribution of valuable resources.
• Space reinforces or amplifies existing inequalities, leading to population segregation and ghettos/slums.
• Social relationships between agents (capitalists, laborers, government) result in spatially varied social structures/unequal regional development.
• Poorer neighborhoods have less political/social influence, leading to undesirable buildings being placed there.
  • Residential segregation: Urban, suburban, or rural residence affects interaction and advancement.
  • Urban environments offer more opportunities due to cultural diversity and anonymity.
  • Affluent neighborhoods have more homeowners, professionals, college graduates, higher quality schools.
  • Low-income neighborhoods have greater poverty, unemployment, lower quality schools, higher crime rates.
  • Suburbanization: Migration of middle classes to suburbs due to cleaner, less crowded environment, lower crime rates, better schools.
  • Urban decay: Deterioration of a previously functional city area.
  • Urban renewal: Reclaiming/renovating city land, often fueled by gentrification.

Environmental Justice

• Poor living conditions and dangerous environmental conditions increase illness/disease.
• Poor minority groups reside closer to sites of environmental pollution due to cheaper housing.
• Hazardous waste and toxic waste dumps located in low-income areas with high concentrations of racial/ethnic minorities.
• Inadequate housing, heating, sanitation, and toxin exposure contribute to medical problems.
• Illnesses like influenza, pneumonia, substance use disorder, tuberculosis, and whooping cough are more common in poor conditions.

Global Inequalities

• World system theory: Categorizes countries and emphasizes inequalities in the division of labor globally.
• Core nations: Focus on higher skills and higher paying productions.
• Peripheral nations: Exploited for their lower skilled productions.
• Semi-peripheral nations: Midway between core and peripheral.
• Much of the world (especially semi-peripheral and peripheral nations) lives on less than $1.25$ per day.
• Globalization: Massive restructuring of industry and trade patterns impacts local communities, limiting access to power and resources.
• Social inequalities increased worldwide as local communities become subject to the global market.
• Globalization's impact: International communication, and global immigration led to inequalities in space, food, water, energy, housing, and education.
• Global inequality exacerbated by large population spike, straining world's resources.
• Limited access to healthcare leads to malnutrition, parasitic/infectious diseases, and higher morbidity/mortality. The relationship between social stratification, social capital and power. One of the main problems with the official poverty line is geographical location. Many poor and minority groups tend to reside closer to sites of environmental population, environmental pollution because these areas are associated with cheaper housing markets. It is no surprise that in adequate housing and toxin exposure can contribute to acute medical problems. The world system theory categorizes countries and emphasizes the inequalities of the division of labor at the global level.