SOSC 103D Social Inequality in HK

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SOSC 103DSocial Inequality in HK

• Lecture 22
• Subjective side of social inequality

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Objective side of inequality

• Easily measurable
• 1. Inequality in distribution (material
  resources)
• E.g. income differences among occupations
  conditions of poverty
• 2. Inequality in opportunities (life chances)
• E.g. different opportunities for upward mobility
  different experiences in school and at home

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Subjective side of inequality

• Peoples perception of the (objective)
  inequality
• Personal determinants of distributional order
• Value on social equality
• Perception of the trend and seriousness of social
  inequality
• Perception of the reasons for and the
  consequences of inequality

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Distributional orderings

• Justification of the distributive system
• Occupation determines
• social status (respectfulness and power)
• ones income (material resources)
• Based on what criteria that you and I use to
  assess the status/ value of an occupation
• What is the subjective hierarchical order of
  occupations

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• Considering factors
• Professional training/ academic qualification
• Contribution to society/
• serving the public
• Salary
• Prospect of the job

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Findings on peoples formulation of
distributional orderings

• A. Peoples subjective hierarchical order matches
  with their belief system
• Professionalism and education are most important
  for gaining high social status
• B. The subjective hierarchy of occupation matches
  with the objective hierarchy
• The legitimacy of current distributive system

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Attitudes towards equality

• Expectation on the role of Government
• The degree of acceptance of inequality
• It affects the support and consensus of
  implementation of social policies

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Attitudes towards social equalities
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Subjective side of inequality (cont)

• To identify the potential group differences in
  attitudes towards inequality
• An important way to detect the unstable elements
  in our society
• Who/ which groups are having the strongest sense
  of inequality
• Who/ which groups are having a sense of injustice