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Sociology > ch.8 stratification and social mobility in the US > Flashcards

ch.8 stratification and social mobility in the US Flashcards

1
Q

What is social inequality?

A

A situation where members of society have different amounts of wealth, prestige and/or power

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2
Q

What is stratification?

A

A structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal power and economic rewards in a society

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3
Q

Examples of stratification?

A
  • Income

- Wealth

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4
Q

What is income?

A

Salaries and wages

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5
Q

What is wealth?

A

An inclusive term encompassing all a persons material assets

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6
Q

What are the 4 systems of stratification?

A

1- Slavery
2- Castes
3- Estates
4- Social classes

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7
Q

What are the systems of stratification useful for?

A

As ideal types useful for purposes of analysis

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8
Q

What is ascribed status?

A

A social position assigned to person by society without regard for the persons unique talents or characteristics

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9
Q

What is achieved status?

A

A social position that a person attains largely through his or her own effort

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10
Q

What is slavery?

A

Individuals owned by other people, who treat them as property

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11
Q

Slavery is the most extreme form of?

A

Of social inequality

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12
Q

Slavery is usually which type of status?

A

Usually an ascribed status, people would inherit slave status

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13
Q

Universal declaration of human rights prohibits?

A

Slavery in all forms

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14
Q

What are castes?

A

Hereditary ranks usually religiously dictated and tend to be fixed and immobile

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15
Q

Castes are generally associated with?

A

Generally associated with Hinduism in India

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16
Q

How many castes (varnas) are there in India? What is the fifth caste? What do the members of the fifth caste call themselves?

A

Four major castes, the fifth caste is known as the untouchables, they call themselves Dalits (the repressed)

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17
Q

Urbanization in India contributes to?

A

To blurring of boundaries

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18
Q

What are estates (Feudalism during middle ages)?

A

Peasants worked land leased to them in exchange for military protection and other services from the nobles (serfdom)

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19
Q

How did nobles get their titles and properties?

A

They inherited them

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20
Q

What did peasants inherit?

A

They inherited they subservient positions

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21
Q

The emergence of classes of priests along with merchants and artisans began what?

A

Began a class system of stratification

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22
Q

What is a class system?

A

A social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility

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23
Q

Class system is also characterized by what?

A

By unequal distribution of power and wealth

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24
Q

What is social mobility?

A

Where individuals can move from one stratum of society to another

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25
Q

Rossides uses 5 class model to describe U.S. class system

A 
1- Upper class
2- Upper-middle class
3- Lower-middle class
4- Working class
5- Lower class
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26
Q

Who are the upper classes?

A
  • Very wealthy, associate in clubs and social circles
  • Received little academic attention
  • Residential separation
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27
Q

Who are the lower class?

A
  • Lack wealth and income are politically weak
  • Consists of blacks, Hispanics, single mother with dependent children
  • Receive academic and other attention from (social activists, policy makers, reporters)
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28
Q

The middle class consists of

A

The upper middle class and the lower middle class

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29
Q

Who are the upper-middle class?

A
  • Doctors, lawyers, architects

- Participate in politics and take leadership positions in voluntary associations

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30
Q

Who are the lower-middle class?

A
  • Less affluent professionals

- Teachers, clerical workers, owners of small businesses

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31
Q

What is the belief in meritocracy?

A

Where not all middle class members hold a university degree they share the goal of sending their children there

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32
Q

Who are the working class?

A
  • People who hold regular manual or blue-collar jobs
  • May have higher incomes than people in lower-middle class
  • Shrinking in size
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33
Q

What are the factors contributing to shrinking size of middle class?

A
  • Disappearing opportunities for those with little education
  • Global competition and advances in technology
  • Growing dependence on temporary workforce
  • Rise of new growth industries and nonunion workplaces
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34
Q

What are the sociological perspectives on stratification?

A

Sociologists debate stratification and social inequality and reach varying conclusions

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35
Q

No theorist stressed significance of class for society stronger than

A

Karl Marx

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36
Q

What was Karl Marx’s view of class differentiation?

A

That social relations depend on who controls the primary mode of production

37
Q

What is capitalism?

A

Means of production held largely in private hands and main incentive for economic activity is accumulation of profits

38
Q

What is bourgeoisie?

A

Capitalist class, owns the means of production

39
Q

What is proletariat?

A

Working class

40
Q

Exploitation of proletariat will result in?

A

It will result in the destruction of the capitalist class

41
Q

What is class consciousness?

A

Subjective awareness of common vested interests and the need for collective political action to bring about change

42
Q

What is false consciousness?

A

Attitude held by members of class that does not accurately reflect their objective position

43
Q

What is Max Weber’s view of stratification?

A

No single characteristic totally defines a persons position within the stratification system (class, status group, power)

44
Q

What is a class?

A

A group of people who have similar level of wealth and income

45
Q

What is a status group?

A

People who have the same prestige or lifestyle

46
Q

What is power?

A

Ability to exercise ones will over others

47
Q

What is the interactionist view?

A

Interactionists are interested in importance of social class in shaping a persons lifestyle

48
Q

What is Veblen?

A

Its the top of the social hierarchy typically convert part of their wealth into conspicuous

49
Q

What is consumption?

A

Purchase goods not to survive but to flaunt their superior wealth and social standing

50
Q

Is stratification universal?

A

All societies maintain some form of social inequality among their members

51
Q

Is stratification universal according to the functionalist view?

A

Social inequality necessary so people will be motivated to fill functionally important positions

52
Q

What did Davis and Moore suggest?

A

That society must distribute its members to a variety of social positions rewards are based on importance of a position and relative scarcity of qualified personnel

53
Q

Is stratification universal according to the conflict view?

A

Human beings are prone to conflict over scarce resources such as wealth, status and power

54
Q

Marx did not believe?

A

He did not believe that stratification was inevitable but saw inequality and oppression as inherent as capitalism

55
Q

Stratification is a major source of?

A

A major source of societal tension

56
Q

Stratification leads to?

A

Leads to instability and social change

57
Q

What is dominant ideology?

A

A set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests

58
Q

Dominant ideology has limited?

A

Limited social reforms to prevent revolts

59
Q

Is stratification universal according to Lenskis viewpoint?

A

As a society advance technologically it becomes capable of producing surplus of goods

60
Q

Emergence of surplus resources expands possibilities for?

A

Expands possibilities for inequality

61
Q

Allocation of surplus goods and services reinforces?

A

Reinforces social inequality

62
Q

Measuring social class

A
  • Objective method

- Multiple measures

63
Q

What is the objective method?

A

Where class is viewed as a statistical category. Individuals are assigned to social classes on the basis of their level of education, occupation, income, place of residence… it is the researcher rather than the individual who identifies the class position of the person

64
Q

What are the multiple measures?

A

Income, value of homes, assets, neighborhoods

65
Q

What is the socioeconomic status (SES)?

A

A measure of social class based on multiple measures income, education, and occupation

66
Q

What is prestige?

A

It refers to the respect that an occupational position holds in a society

67
Q

What is esteem?

A

Reputation of the individual within an occupation

68
Q

How is income distributed in many societies?

A

Its distributed unevenly mean>median

69
Q

How is income in the US distributed?

A

There’s a modest redistribution of income

70
Q

In the US income increased for?

A

Increased for all segments population, but biggest winners have been affluent

71
Q

What is wealth?

A

Its an inclusive term which includes a persons (company’s, family’s) all material assets lands, stocks, other types of property

72
Q

Wealth in the US is much more unevenly distributed than?

A

Much more unevenly distributed than income

73
Q

What are the two types of poverty?

A

1-Relative poverty

2-Absolute poverty

74
Q

What is absolute poverty?

A

Minimum level of subsistence that no family should live below

75
Q

What is relative poverty?

A

A floating standard by which people at the bottom of a society are judged as being disadvantaged in comparison to the notion as a whole (below a certain percentage of national median income)

76
Q

What is the feminization of poverty?

A

An increasing proportion of poor in the US after W.W.II have been women which became a world wide trend

77
Q

Who are the poor?

A

Under-class

78
Q

Who are the under-class?

A

Long-term poor who lack training and skills, limited education, poor employment prospects

79
Q

The poor are not a?

A

They are not a static social class which means their composition changes constantly, families and individuals near the poverty line may move upward or downward

80
Q

Why does poverty exist in wealthy nations according to Herbert Gans?

A

Poverty and the poor satisfy positive functions for many non-poor groups

81
Q

How does poverty and the poor satisfy functions for many non-poor groups?

A
  • Society’s dirty work is performed at a low cost
  • Creates jobs that serve the poor both legal and illegal
  • Identification and punishment of poor as deviants upholds the legitimacy of conventional social norms and values
  • Guarantees higher status for the rich
  • Absorb costs of social change
82
Q

What is social mobility?

A

A movement of individuals or groups from one person in a society’s stratification system to another

83
Q

What are open systems of stratification?

A

Position of each individual influenced by the persons achieved status

84
Q

What are closed systems of stratification?

A

Allows little or no possibility of moving up

85
Q

What are the types of social mobility?

A
  • Horizontal mobility
  • Vertical mobility
  • Intergenerational mobility
  • Intragenerational mobility
86
Q

What is horizontal mobility?

A

Movement within same range of prestige

87
Q

What is vertical mobility?

A

Movement from one position to another of a different rank

88
Q

What is intergenerational mobility?

A

Changes in children’s position relative to their parents

89
Q

What is intragenerational mobility?

A

Social position changes within persons adult life

Sociology (6 decks)

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