12: Social Stratification Flashcards
Ascribed status
Involuntary and derives from clearly identifiable characteristics such as age, gender, skin color
Achieved status
Acquired through direct, individual efforts
Social class
Category of people with shared socioeconomic characteristics
Three classes: upper, middle, lower class
Prestige
Respect and importance tied to specific occupations or associations
Power
Capacity to influence people through real or perceived rewards and punishments; often depends on unequal distribution of power
Anomie
State of normlessness; Anomic conditions erode social solidarity by means of excessive individualism, social inequality, and isolation
Social capital
Investment people make in their society in return for economic or collective rewards
- Social networks are one of the most powerful forms of social capital
Social mobility
Allows one to acquire higher level employment opportunities by achieving required credentials and experience
Poverty
Socioeconomic condition; poverty line in US is determined by government’s calculation of minimum income requirements for families to acquire the minimum necessities of life
Social reproduction
Passing on of social inequality, especially poverty, from one generation to the next
Absolute poverty
When people do not have enough resources to acquire basic life necessities, such as shelter, food, clothing, water
Relative poverty
When one is poor compared to a larger population
Social exclusion
Sense of powerlessness when individuals feel alienated from society
Spatial inequality
Form of social stratification across territories and their populations, and can occur along residential, environmental, and global lines
Environmental injustice
Refers to an uneven distribution of environmental hazards in communities; lower income neighborhoods more at risk
