Chapter 7

Question 1

Organisational structure

Answer 1

Refers to the internal patterning in work organisations

Question 2

Occupational structure (how it’s used)

Answer 2

Is used by sociologists not to look at the shape of the occupations themselves, but to look at patterns of occupational activity at a societal level

Question 3

Occupational structure (definition)

Answer 3

The pattern in a society which is created by the distribution of the labour force across the range of existing types of work or occupation

Question 4

Class

Answer 4

An individual’s class position is a matter of the part which they play within the division of labour of a society and the implications which this has for their access to those experiences, goods and services which are scarce and valued in that society

Question 5

Status

Answer 5

That aspect of social inequality whereby different positions are awarded different degrees of prestige or honour

Question 6

Intersectionality

Answer 6

The way in which various categories of social difference - gender, ethnicity, class, nationality, sexuality etc - intersect with each other in processes of identity-shaping, always, within broader institutional patterns of power distribution, discrimination and inequality

Question 7

Habitus

Answer 7

Something which individuals ‘absorb’ from their upbringing and social context which becomes almost a ‘second nature’

Question 8

Precariat

Answer 8

A section of society which might or might not be regarded as a social class, who have little economic, social or psychological security or predictability in their working lives and their whole lives generally