Chapter 8 Flashcards
Meritocracy:
a system in which one’s status is based on merit or accomplishments
Class consciousness:
the awareness that a class structure exists in the feeling of shared identification with others in one’s class with whom one perceives common life chances.
Conspicuous consumption:
the ostentatious display of goods to mark one’s social status
Educational attainment:
the total years of formal education
Life chances
: the opportunities that people have in common by virtue of belonging to a particular class
Class systems:
the organized pattern of social class in society
Status:
an established position in a social structure that carries with it a degree of prestige
Median income:
the midpoint of all household incomes
False consciousness:
the thought resulting from subordinate classes internalizing the view of the dominant class
Economic restructuring:
contemporary transformations in the basic structure of work that are permanently altering workplace, including the changing composition of the workplace, deindustrialization, use and enhanced technology, and the development of a global economy.
Income:
the amount of money brought into a household from various sources during a given year.
Social stratification:
relatively fixed hierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth; a system of structured social inequality
Status attainment:
the process by which people end up in a given position in the stratification
Caste system:
a system of stratification (characterized by low social mobility) which one’s place in the stratification system is determined by birth.
Social mobility:
a person’s movement over time from one class to another.
Urban underclass:
a group of people, largely minority and people, who live at the absolute bottom of the socioeconomic ladder in urban areas.
Occupational prestige:
the subjective evaluation people give to jobs is better or worse than others.
Feminization of poverty:
process whereby a growing proportion of the poor are women and children.
Culture of poverty:
the argument that poverty is a way of life and, like other cultures, is passed on from generation to generation
Estate system:
a system of stratification in which the ownership of property and the exercise of power is monopolized by an elite or noble class that has total control over societal resources.
Prestige:
the value with which different groups of people are judged.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF):
Federal program by which grants are given to states to fund welfare.
Socioeconomic Status (SES):
A measure of class standing, typically indicated by income, occupational prestige, andeducational attainment.
Ideology:
A belief system that tries to explain and justify the status quo.
Poverty line:
The figure established by the government to indicate the amount of money needed to support the basic needs of a household.
Concentrated Poverty:
Refers to geographic areas where large percentages of people are poor.
Social differentiation:
The process by which different statuses in any group, organization, or society develop.
Wealth:
The monetary value of everything one actually owns.
Net worth:
The value of one’s financial assets minus debt.
Class system:
The organized pattern of social class in society.
