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Social Stratification

  • Why are you at college?

    • Get a good job?
    • Get ahead?
    • If so, then you sound like you are already concerned with inequality, fairness, and social mobility.

  • Social Stratification

    • How a society is sorted into groups (a.k.a. strata).  
    • Each layer of a stratification system has different 
    • access to resources 
    • and opportunities
    • Stratification refers to the hierarchical organization of a society into groups with differing levels of power, social prestige, or status and economic resources. 
    • Social stratification is UNIVERSAL
    • The degree of stratification differs across societies
    • Davis-Moore Thesis
    • the greater the functional importance of a social role, the greater must be the reward
    • The theory posits that social stratification represents the inherently unequal value of different work.

  • Forms of Equality

    • Equality of opportunity
    • Inequality is acceptable so long as everyone has the same opportunities for advancement and is judged by the same standards.
    • Equality of condition 
    • Idea that everyone should have an equal starting point from which to pursue his or her goals
    • Equality of outcome
    • Everyone in a society should end up with the same “rewards,” regardless of starting point, opportunities, or contributions. [e.g. Communism]

  • 3 Views of Stratification

    • Rousseau argued that private property creates social inequality, and that this inequality ultimately leads to social conflict.
    • Malthus viewed inequality favorably, but only as a means for controlling population growth.
    • more equal distribution of resources would increase the world’s population to unsustainable levels and ultimately bring about mass starvation
    • Hegel viewed history in terms of a master–slave dialectic, a relationship of mutual dependency
    • eventually lead to equality for all (or very nearly all).

  • Components of Stratification Systems

    • How do you enter strata?
    • How do you move between strata?

  • Caste Systems

    • born into strata
    • no mobility
    • often religious based system

  • Class Systems

    • Born into strata
    • Some mobility
    • Classes are groups of people who share similar characteristics and social locations.

  • Marx’s Two Class System

    • Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat
    • Exploitation leads to revolution 

  • Weber’s Multi-Class System

    • Weber believed that a class of people was defined by the similar life chances they held.
    • Life chances can be thought of as the chances that you will be able to reach your goals in society. 

  • Status Hierarchy System

    • Another way that Weber argued we could identify social classes was to look at the social status a person held.
    • To approximate social status Weberian Sociologists study the social honor and prestige we give to certain occupations. 

  • Meritocracy

    • Meritocracy: a system that rewards and punishes based on your merit, talent, and achievement.
    • Vilfredo Pareto argued that 20% of the population was more talented, smarter, and more able to assume positions of power.

  • C Wright Mills - The Power Elite

    • The Power Elite focused on controlling just 3 institutions:
    • Economic Order: With just a few mega-corporations controlling almost the entire economy.
    • Political Order: With only a few parties who are remarkably similar on almost every issue, controls the legal justice system allowing the powerful to define their behaviors as legal and others behaviors as illegal.
    • Military Order: The largest and most expensive feature of government and one that has a monopoly on violence and death.

  • Why is Inequality Rising So Much?

    • Changes in Politics
    • De-unionization
    • Supply-Side Economics (a.k.a. trickle down economics)
    • Distrust in government
    • Changes in Economy
    • Deindustrialization
    • Automation of labor
    • Changes in Society
    • Credentialization
    • Divorce/Remarriage
    • Feminization of poverty

  • Hegemony

    •  political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states
    • leadership or dominance of one group over another.
    • Eg: hegemony is the student government leadership in a school.

  • Returning to Meritocracy

    • What is wrong with the our understanding that: “You get what you deserve and you deserve what you get”

  • Poverty

    • Structural Causes of Poverty
    • Joblessness: 
      • in 2010 48 million people aged 18 to 64 were unable to find work for even one week.
    • Access to education: 
      • the poor are disproportionately likely to go to poorly funded schools 
    • The lower classes bear the brunt of almost every aspect contributing to growing inequality.
    • Consequences of Being Poor
    • Payday loan industry charges 400% interest.
      • Cost borrowers $3.4 billion dollars a year.
      • There are as many pay day loan outlets as there are McDonalds and Burger Kings combined! (Rivlin 2010).
    • Hospitals routinely charge more to patients without healthcare.
    • Check cashing can cost up to 10%.
    • WIC-only grocery stores charge 10-20% more for food items.
    • Food Deserts
      • Many low income communities have no access to grocery stores or places that sell fresh produce, meats, or dairy. 
    • Welfare Benefits to the Poor
    • In 1996 congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA).
      • Limited welfare cash assistance to 5 years total in your lifetime
      • in GA it's 4 years, in some states it's as low as 2 years.
      • Mandated welfare recipients find work within 2 years.
      • Cut federal assistance programs by $54.5 billion.
    • People may still be eligible for food stamps, housing assistance, and programs like W.I.C., but very few people receive cash from the government because they are poor.
    • Upside Down Welfare System
    • Of all the money spent by the government on people, the majority goes to the non-poor.
      • Public education 
      • Social Security
      • Medicare 
    • When Asked if Using a Government Program
    • 60% of those receiving the home mortgage tax deduction said no.
    • 53% of those receiving subsidized student loans said no.
    • 51.7% of those receiving a child and dependent care tax credit said no.

  • Cultural Capital

    • “The general cultural background, knowledge, skills, dispositions inherited from one generation from to the next”
    • Habitus is really the physical embodiment of cultural capital– such that we have the goals, tastes, ideas, and thoughts of people who are in our same social class

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