CH 7 Social Inequalities (TERMS)

Question 1

Social Inequality

Answer 1

Refers to any differences among individuals that have consequential effects for the rights and opportunities that they exercise and for the privileges and rewards they enjoy

Question 2

Social Differentiation

Answer 2

The attributes—roles, identities, statuses—that are used to differentiate and divide people

Question 3

Social Stratification

Answer 3

An institutionalized system of inequality that allocated individuals and groups according to various hierarchies of differing status, power, or prestige

Question 4

Open system

Answer 4

(achieved status) A system of stratification in which an individual’s ranking within a certain hierarchy is based on achievement, so there are opportunities for upward or downward mobility, where people or families can change their position

Question 5

Achieved Status

Answer 5

Based primarily on earned accomplishments

Question 6

Closed system

Answer 6

(ascribed status) A system of stratification in which there is little opportunity or no chance to advance you position, as ascribed statuses greatly determine life chances

Question 7

Ascribed Status

Answer 7

Usually assigned to an individual at birth and is connected to characteristics such as ethno-racial background, gender, disability/ability, and other factors that are not chosen or earned

Question 8

Social Class

Answer 8

One’s economic position, measured by occupation and education

Question 9

Status Group

Answer 9

Groups that derive power from prestige or social honour

Question 10

Power

Answer 10

The ability to get others to do what you want them to do, despite resistance

Question 11

Status Inconsistency

Answer 11

A mismatch between one’s position in one hierarchy versus another (e.g., People with doctoral degrees who work as taxi drivers)

Question 12

Status Consistency

Answer 12

The relationship between a person’s ranking and a set of social hierarchies

Question 13

Standard Employment Relationship (SER)

Answer 13

Full-time, permanent job, that is done on the employer’s premises, with workplace protections and worker benefits

Question 14

Workplace Casualization

Answer 14

A process of employing people either on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis for an undefined task or specified job without issuing a permanent contract

Question 15

Precarity

Answer 15

Workers whose jobs are temporary or casual

Question 16

Precarious Employment

Answer 16

Work that is uncertain, low-paying, impermanent, and limited in entitlements and social benefits

Question 17

Precarity Penalty

Answer 17

Accumulated setbacks from continued engagement in non-standardized work

Question 18

Income Inequality

Answer 18

The extent to which income is distributed unevenly in a country

Question 19

Gini Coefficient

Answer 19

The most common measure of income inequality, with 0 representing total equality and 1 representing total inequality

Question 20

Wealthy Inequality

Answer 20

Looks at the distribution of the value of assets, minus the debts of individuals and families

Question 21

Poverty

Answer 21

A multifaceted phenomenon that refers to a condition of being extremely poor

Question 22

Absolute Poverty

Answer 22

When household income is below a level that makes it extremely difficult for the individual or family to meet the basic needs of life

Question 23

Extreme Poverty

Answer 23

When a person lacks access to all or many of the goods needed for living

Question 24

Relative Poverty

Answer 24

Defines poverty in relation to the economic status of other members of a society

Question 25

Social Mobility

Answer 25

The movement up or down the system of stratification over time

Question 26

Vertical Mobility

Answer 26

Movement up or down a certain hierarchy

Question 27

Horizontal Mobility

Answer 27

A change in position within the same rank

Question 28

Intergenerational Mobility

Answer 28

Difference between parents’ position and their children’s

Question 29

Intragenerational Mobility

Answer 29

Upward or downward movement within a lifetime

Question 30

Structural Mobility

Answer 30

Movement up or down the ladder because of changes in the structure of society

Question 31

Modernization Theory

Answer 31

Poor countries are dysfunctional because they lack Western economic values

Question 32

Dependency Theory

Answer 32

Western European countries created exploitative conditions that have enabled them to colonize poorer regions of the world and accumulate great wealth at the expense of the colonized

Question 33

World Systems Theory

Answer 33

A world division of labour between **Core**, **Periphery**, and **Semi-periphery**

Question 34

Core countries (1,2)

Answer 34

- Industrialized, Capitalistic countries Rich countries that are the global centres of innovation, industry, and money (e.g., United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany) - Command the most power, which allows them to fully extract the land’s valuable resources, pay the lowest price for raw materials, and exploit the cheap labour of the **peripheral** countries

Question 35

Peripheral countries (1,1)

Answer 35

Former colonies and the poorest countries in the world, which are the sources of raw materials and cheap labour for the **core** and **semi-peripheral** nations - Unequal status sinks peripheral countries into poverty and makes them completely dependent on core countries for investment

Question 36

Semi-peripheral countries

Answer 36

Former colonies that share features of both the **core** and **peripheral** countries. More prosperous than the **periphery**, they act as intermediaries or buffer zones in the political, economic, and social activities between the richest and poorest countries

Question 37

Bottom Billion (1,1)

Answer 37

Countries living in fourteenth-century conditions in the twenty-first century—where situations of civil unrest, high mortality rates, lower life expectancy prevail - The people living in the world's poorest countries

Question 38

Race to the Bottom

Answer 38

A competitive situation in which a poor country tries to undercut its competitors’ prices, by compromising and damaging its own standards and values

Question 39

The Global North and South

Answer 39

The difference in living standards between the **Global North** (North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea) and **South** (Africa, Latin America)

Question 40

The Global Digital Divide

Answer 40

The gap in access to technological resources between the developed and developing countries of the world