Chapter 7 Social Inequalities

Question 1

What is social inequality?

Answer 1

The long-term existence of significant differences in access to goods and services among social groups.

Question 2

Kimberle Williams Cremshaw and Patricia Hill Collins

Answer 2

Studied intersectionality-interactions of different social locations “matrix of domination”.

Question 3

Class Consciousness

Answer 3

Awareness of what is in the best interest of one’s class (owner class always possesses this)

Question 4

False Consciousness

Answer 4

Working class-belief that something is in it’s best interest when it is actually not.

Question 5

Marx’s ideas of social inequality

Answer 5

Class is relational, reflects relationship to “means of production”.

Question 6

Max Weber’s 3 elements of social inequality

Answer 6

Wealth, prestige, and power.

Question 7

Class Reductionism

Answer 7

Occurs when a sociologist attributes all forms of oppression to class, downplays race, gender, age etc.

Question 8

Strata

Answer 8

Units of analysis in stratified sampling (sample is drawn from each stratum/level of population)

Question 9

Herbert Brown Ames

Answer 9

Engaged in Canadas first comprehensive urban sociological study promoting construction of affordable housing for working class Montreal.

Question 10

Colin McKay

Answer 10

Was a working class intellectual.

Question 11

Liberal Ideology

Answer 11

Views the individual as more or less an independent player on the sociological scene. Great deal of social mobility, blames individual for lack of success. Minimizes criticism of social inequality.

Question 12

Antonio Gramsci

Answer 12

Critiqued dominant ideology. Co-founder and leader of Italian Communist Party, opposed Benito Mussolini. Developed “hegemony”

Question 13

Hegemony

Answer 13

Non-coercive methods of maintaining power. Inequality exists not because of problems in the system but because some people are willing to work harder than others. Dominance over.

Question 14

Living wage

Answer 14

Represents a target above the existing minimum wage which is considered too low for the working poor to live on.

Question 15

Structural Functionalist Approach

Answer 15

Davis and Moore- Social inequalities are beneficial for the functioning of society. Egalitarian societies offer little incentive for people to try their best.

Question 16

Which provinces had the highest and lowerst individual incomes in 2015?

Answer 16

Alberta and New Brunswick

Question 17

Bombardier problem

Answer 17

3.72 million dollar loan-financial distress and government funding, yet CEO pay was increased and workers were laid off.

Question 18

Absolute Poverty

Answer 18

Developing countries, no access to basic needs. Poverty that eventually leads to death.

Question 19

Relative Poverty

Answer 19

Poverty in relation to rest of population.

Question 20

Measures of Poverty

Answer 20

Absolute-basket of goods, how much on average would they cost, dollar amount needed to aquire.
Relative-Average family spending on 3 essential items vs average poor families spending-leftover cash is seen as disposable income.

Question 21

What makes poverty more likely?

Answer 21

Age (children and the elderly), racialized people, feminized people (lone parents included). Povery affects 3 million Canadians and 20% are children.

Question 22

What are the percentages of minimum wage earners?

Answer 22

Young (33% 15-19 years), Limited education (30%), Employed part time (56%), Permanent positions (72%), Female (57.5%).

Question 23

Homelessness Trends

Answer 23

Per capita homeless rate is higher in Calgary than Toronto. Higher trends in the summer.

Question 24

Intragenerational Mobility

Answer 24

Look at single generation and their social mobility.

Question 25

Intergenerational Mobility

Answer 25

Compare multiple generations (compared to my parents, how am I doing?)

Question 26

Structural Mobility

Answer 26

Increase of minimum wage by government lifts people into different social classes, out of their individual control.

Question 27

Horizontal Mobility

Answer 27

People who are born wealthy/poor tend to stay that way-thus a horizontal mobility (changing position with class).

Question 28

Vertical Mobility

Answer 28

Middle class, tend to move up or down on the social mobility scale.