10A. Social Inequality

Question 1

What is Social Inequality?

Answer 1

–unequal distribution of resources/opportunities or treatment of individuals within a society based on various demographic categories.

Question 2

Society is separated into what 3 economic classes?

Answer 2

Upper class $$$
Middle class $$
Lower/working class $

Question 3

What can we do about Social Inequality?

Answer 3

We can have a variety of gov’t schemes to allow financial support or social support, such as Food Stamps, for individuals facing considerable hardship.

–we can try and identify and remove barriers to healthcare and education for people facing these hardships.

–we can carry out further research into these vulnerable populations, to help understand their needs and try and figure out suitable interventions.

Question 4

Describe Spatial Inequality/Mismatch.

Answer 4

unequal access to resources and variable quality of life due to the geographical distribution of a population and its resources

Question 5

Explain Residential Segregation.

Answer 5

where we live affects our life chances (our politics, healthcare, availability to educational resources)

–poor neighborhoods (bad schools, high crime rate, poor healthcare, cheap housing) vs rich neighborhoods (good schools, low crime rate, good healthcare, expensive housing). Relocation is difficult both ways (poor people can’t afford to relocate, rich people don’t want to relocate), so segregation occurs.

–we can use the index of dissimilarity to measure. 100 - 0 (100 being perfect distribution and 0 being total segregation)

Question 6

Why is Racial Segregation?

Answer 6

B/c communities that are segregated are politically weak. Their political interests do not overlap w/ the political interests of other communities. As a result, they become politically vulnerable.

–they don’t necessarily have the votes or political influence to keep their own schools, establishments, community centers open, compared to other communities who are much more politically integrated.

–communities that are isolated might have their language changed.

Question 7

Explain concentration.

Answer 7

form of segregation

–there’s a clustering of the diff. groups in a vicinity.

Question 8

Explain Centralization.

Answer 8

form of segregation

–segregation and concentration occurred right in the center of a geographic area or metropolitan area.

–segregation + cost strain in a central area

Question 9

Environmental Justice

Answer 9

the equal treatment of all people regardless of race, gender, or other social grouping with regard to prevention and relief from environmental and health hazards.

–is not happening at the moment.

Question 10

Social Class

Answer 10

a system of stratification that groups members of society according to similarities in social standing

Question 11

What is Socioeconomic status (SES)?

Answer 11

the economic and social position of a person in terms of income

Question 12

Class consciousness

Answer 12

awareness of your class and the interests of your class as a whole.

–Karl Marx argued that the lower class must first come to understand itself as a class and come together to overcome this oppression and exploitation.

Question 13

What is False Consciousness?

Answer 13

awareness of yourself and your interests only.

–failure by the lower/working class to recognize poverty as the product of an oppressive class system.

–middle or upper class feeds a lot of info and controls processes in society to the lower class and gives them hope that some of them might become middle or upper class themselves.

–makes it much more difficult for the lower class to unite and see the true levels of exploitation and oppression.

Question 14

Explain cultural capital.

Answer 14

the set of non-monetary social factors that contribute to social mobility.

ex. dress, accent, manners, education, cultural knowledge, and intellectual pursuits, skills

Question 15

Explain Social Capital.

Answer 15

–an individual’s social networks and connections that may confer economic and/or personal benefits.

Question 16

Explain Economic Capital.

Answer 16

–money and property.

Question 17

What is Social Reproduction?

Answer 17

–transmission of social inequalities from one generation to the next.

–we are reproducing the social inequality across generations.

Question 18

Explain the concept of Power.

Answer 18

control over other people

–According to Max Weber, power allows individuals or groups to exert their will even when they are opposed by others.

Question 19

Explain Privilege.

Answer 19

–perks

–a person with this has advantages of power and opportunity over those who lack privilege

Question 20

What is Prestige?

Answer 20

–reputation, how much respect people have of you

–the relative value assigned to something within a particular society

Question 21

Explain the idea of intersectionality.

Answer 21

–the point in which multiple areas of discrimination overlap w/ one another.

–asks us to consider the different levels of discrimination.

–this intersection of different categories of discrimination can really put an individual at a disadvantage in the society.

ex. a black woman that is Buddhist. (Women might be discriminated against, as well as being black, and buddhist in a particular area)

Question 22

Describe the socioeconomic gradient in health.

Answer 22

–the notion that socioeconomic status can influence health.

–inequalities in healthcare exists. The lower socioeconomic class has worse health than the upper class.

Question 23

Global inequalities

Answer 23

–developed vs underdeveloped nations. These inequalities are reinforced by unfair trade practices in globalization.

Question 24

Describe the Maternal Mortality Rate.

Answer 24

–the rate at which mothers die around childbirth.

–great marker for how effective, and how good the healthcare systems in the world are.

Question 25

Social mobility

Answer 25

–moving up/down in the socioeconomic ladder

Question 26

Upward mobility

Answer 26

–moving up the class system; achieved through education, marriage, career, or financial success

Question 27

Downward mobility

Answer 27

–moving lower within the class system; can result from unemployment, underemployment, reduced household income due to divorce, lack of education, or health issues

Question 28

Intragenerational Mobility

Answer 28

–the person can either move horizontally to an equal position within the same social status (horizontal mobility) or b/w the social classes (vertical mobility.)

–affects the person in his lifetime.

–considering social mobility changes in a person’s own life time.

Ex. young person with limited means invents a new technology and becomes wealthy (achieving “the American dream”), so he or she rises to a new social class

Question 29

Intergenerational Mobility

Answer 29

–changes from parent to kid.

–not only looking at individual, but also the parents of the individual.

–considering social mobility changes across generations

Question 30

Vertical mobility

Answer 30

–moving up and down the socioeconomic ladder.

Question 31

Horizontal mobility

Answer 31

–changing jobs within your own socioeconomic class.

–not going up in terms of social positioning and not going down.

Question 32

Explain what is Meritocracy.

Answer 32

–a society in which advancement is based solely on the abilities and achievements of the individual

–advancing the socioeconomic ladder based on merit and achievement.

–highly idealized and not operated anywhere in the world.

–EXTREME social mobility based on individual’s most recent level of performance and achievement.

–greatest degree of upward and downward social mobility

Question 33

Explain the Caste System.

Answer 33

–type of social construct.

–very, very, little social mobility b/c your role in life is determined almost entirely by your background, essentially to what position you’re born, and to who you are married to.

–provides a large amount of social stability, b/c the social structures often do not change.

–people remain in the same social situation and social network their whole lives.

Question 34

Explain what a class system is.

Answer 34

–tends to operate in many countries today.

–Upper Class, Middle Class, and Lower Class

–allows for a degree of social mobility.

–a combo of a person’s background and their ability. It recognizes someone’s ability in terms of allowing them to go up or even down the ladder.

–less social stability compared to caste system.

Question 35

What is Relative Poverty?

Answer 35

–being poor compared to most people around you.

–describes social inequality in which people are relatively poor compared to other members of the society in which they live; has profound affects on lifestyle and livelihood

Question 36

What is Absolute Poverty?

Answer 36

–describes a lack of essential resources such as food, shelter, clothing, and hygiene

–can be life-threatening

–has an absolute value associated w/ it, an absolute level at which if you go beneath it, survival is threatened.

–applies no matter where you are.

–as country gets richer, less people live in absolute poverty.

–stays the same, as opposed to relative poverty.

Question 37

Explain Social Exclusion.

Answer 37

–excluding/blocking off someone or a group of people from society’s opportunities, rights and resources that other groups have access to.

Question 38

Explain Segregation.

Answer 38

–a way of separating out groups of people and giving them access to a separate set of resources within the same society.

–sometimes described as being separate but equal. (rarely true)

–may be maintained by laws and public institutions

–often meant to be racial.

Question 39

What is Social Isolation?

Answer 39

–when a community may actually separate itself out from the mainstream and do so on a voluntary basis.

Question 40

Describe what is health disparity.

Answer 40

–differences in health and healthcare that occur between groups of people

Question 41

Explain the idea of a Food Desert.

Answer 41

–areas w/ lots of fast food chains, and little supermarkets for healthier foods.

–increasing health disparity for lower class by contributing to bad diet and bad health.

Question 42

What are Health/healthcare Disparities in Class:

Answer 42

–lower classes have poorer health in general.

–more food deserts

Question 43

Health/healthcare Disparities in Gender:

Answer 43

-women live longer, but suffer more non-life-threatening illnesses (arthritis, fibromyalgia, depression). Also, they require reproductive services, but access to these services are reduced b/c of politics and local laws.

–men die younger, from accidents and serious illnesses (heart disease, cancer, COPD, diabetes). Men are also less likely to seek help and are less compliant.

Question 44

Describe the culture of poverty.

Answer 44

–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 socio-economic position.

Question 45

Explain Social Disorganization Theory.

Answer 45

–states that the conditions of a neighborhood shapes the likelihood that a person in that environment will become involved in street crimes.

Question 46

Explain the Social Disorganization Model.

Answer 46

–links crime rates to the environmental influences of a neighborhood.

–Environmental factors include things such as poverty levels, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential mobility of an area.

–Learning criminal behavior by observing other people and witnessing the rewards or consequences that their behavior receives is not considered neighborhood, environment, or ecological factors.