Social Stratification

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Social Stratification
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Social Status

• Everyday meaning Prestige
• Sociological meaning Position a person occupies
• Status Set All the statuses or positions a
  person occupies

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Social Status

• Ascribed Status Involuntary position
• Achieved Status Voluntary position you earn or
  accomplish
• Status provides guidelines for how we are to act
  and feel

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Social Status

• Status symbols Signs that identify a status,
  allow others to recognize status
• Master Statuses Cuts across other statuses one
  holds, such as age, gender

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Roles

• Behaviors, obligations, privileges attached to a
  status
• Role exit

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Cultural Roles

• Age roles
• Occupational roles
• Friendship roles
• Gender roles

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Social Stratification

• Division of society into layers (strata)
• Occupants of different social strata have unequal
  access to social opportunities and rewards

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Social Class

• Group of individuals who occupy similar social
  statuses
• Includes educational level, occupation, political
  influence, economic position

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Structure of Stratification

• Closed system
• Position in social hierarchy is ascribed

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Structure of Stratification

• Closed system
• Position in social hierarchy is ascribed

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Structure of Stratification

• Closed system
• Position in social hierarchy is ascribed

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Structure of Stratification

• Open system
• Position in social hierarchy is achieved
• Social mobility is possible

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Structure of Stratification

• Functionalist perspective
• Complex societies depend on individuals occupying
  a variety of positions
• Societies develop systems of unequal rewards
• Meritocracy
• Position in social hierarchy is determined by
  individual merit
• Based on equality of opportunity, not equality of
  outcome

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Social Mobility

• Movement up or down socioeconomic ladder
• Upward Mobility
• Better off than ones parents
• Better off than one used to be in a lifetime
• Downward Mobility
• Worse off than ones parents
• Worse off than one once was

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Social Mobility

• Movement up or down socioeconomic ladder
• Structural Mobility
• Structural changes in society push and pull
  people into higher and lower social levels

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The American Class System
Capitalist Class
Upper Middle Class
Middle Class
Working Class
Working Poor
Underclass
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Distribution of Wealth and Income

• Income
• Money people earn from wages/salaries, interest,
  investments, etc.
• Wealth
• Things people own assets (stocks, real estate,
  savings bonds, cars, consumer goods)

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Distribution of Wealth and Income
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Distribution of Wealth and Income
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Deindustrialization

• Shift from economy based on manufacturing to an
  economy based on information and service
• Globalization
• Technology

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Poverty in America

• 1995 Over 36 million Americans (almost 14 of
  our population) officially poor
• Poverty line Governmental estimate of minimum
  budget for families of different sizes
• 2003 18,400 for a family of 4

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Poverty in America

• Who are the poor?
• For most, poverty is a temporary condition
• Non-Latino whites 48
• Single moms living alone 37
• Majority of poor live in suburbs, small towns,
  and rural areas (58)
• Proportion of children who are poor has climbed
  (now about 20)

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The Ghetto Poor

• Ghetto originally used to describe an urban
  neighborhood of a minority segregated from rest
  of the city
• Now commonly used to describe poor,
  deteriorating, inner-city neighborhoods

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Explaining Ghetto Poverty

• Underclass explanation
• Acute, chronic poverty
• Culture of poverty No work ethic, no family
  values, no respect for law and order

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Explaining Ghetto Poverty

• William Julius Wilson
• Ghetto poverty a result of the combination of
• Joblessness due to deindustrialization
• Social isolation

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Explaining Ghetto Poverty

• Christopher Jencks
• Questions the existence of special category of
  poor as ghetto poor
• Assuming these problems are linked together
  perpetuates stereotypes
• This excuses inaction

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The Impact of Poverty

• Poor women less likely to seek prenatal care
• More health problems
• Hit harder with increased prices of consumer
  goods
• More likely to be arrested for committing crime
  more likely to be victims of crime

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Global Stratification

• Most industrialized nations
• Industrializing nations
• Least industrialized nations

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Theories of Global Stratification

• Colonialism
• Industrial nations use technology, military power
  to exploit labor, resources of weaker nations

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Theories of Global Stratification

• Dependency Theory
• Poverty in poor nations the result of
  exploitation by wealthy nations
• Related to colonialismColonies were encouraged
  to develop one or two prime exports

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Theories of Global Stratification

• World System Theory
• World economic system must be seen as a unit
• Core countries
• Semiperipheral countries
• Peripheral countries