Chapter 7: Social Stratification Flashcards
Social stratification
The division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige
Ideology
Beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements
Social class
According to Weber: A large group of people who rank close to one another in property,power and prestige.
According to Marx: one of two groups: capability’s who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor
Class system
A form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions
Social mobility
Movement up or down the social class ladder
Most industrialized nations
Capitalistic, posses 31% of the earths land. Live better and longer lives
16% population
Industrialized
Have much lower incomes and standards of living, have more access to electricity, indoor plumbing, telephones, and food
16% population
Least industrialized nations
Have no running water, indoor plumbing, access to teachers or doctors
68% population
Colonialism
The process by which one nation takes over another nation
World system theory
Economic and political connections that tie the world countries together
Culture of poverty
The assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people. These factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and these characteristics get passed down to their children
Meritocracy
A form of social stratification in which all positions are awardees on the basis of merit
Conflict theory
Society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scare
resources
Means of production
The tools, factories, land, and investment capability used to produce wealth
Class consciousness
Awareness of a common identity based on ones position in the means of production
Property
Comes in forms such as building, land, animals, cars, stocks, jewelry.
Power
The ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others
Prestige
Respect or regard
Inter generational mobility
The change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next
Structural mobility
Movement up and down the social class ladder that is sure more to changes in the structure of the society than to the actions of the individual
Exchange mobility
About the same number of people that move up the social class ladder, move down the ladder
