Chapter 8: Stratification and Social Mobility in the United States Assignment Flashcards
Social inequality
which has been much in the headlines recently, describes a condition in which members of society have differing amounts of wealth, prestige, or power. Some degree of social inequality characterizes every society.
Stratification
- When a system of social inequality is based on a hierarchy of groups, sociologists refer to it as Stratification
- a structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society. These unequal rewards are evident not only in the distribution of wealth and income, but even in the distressing mortality rates of impoverished communities. Stratification involves the ways in which one generation passes on social inequalities to the next, producing groups of people arranged in rank order, from low to high.
Income
refers to salaries and wages, interest on savings, stock dividends, and rental income.
Wealth
is an inclusive term encompassing all a person’s material assets, including land, stocks, and other types of property.
Four general systems of stratification
slavery
castes
estates
social classes -as ideal types useful for purposes of analysis.
Ascribed status
is a social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics.
Achieved status
is a social position that a person attains largely through his or her own efforts.
Slavery
Today, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is binding on all members of the United Nations, prohibits slavery in all its forms. Yet more people are enslaved today than at any point in world history. In many developing countries, bonded laborers are imprisoned in virtual lifetime employment; in some countries, human beings are owned outright. But a form of slavery also exists in Europe and the United States, where guest workers and illegal immigrants have been forced to labor for years under terrible conditions, either to pay off debts or to avoid being turned over to immigration authorities.
Castes
are hereditary ranks that are usually religiously dictated and that tend to be fixed and immobile. Caste membership is an ascribed status (at birth, children automatically assume the same position as their parents). Each caste is quite sharply defined, and members are expected to marry within that caste.
generally associated with Hinduism in India and other countries
Estates
A third type of stratification system, called estates, was associated with feudal societies during the Middle Ages. The estate system, or feudalism, required peasants to work land leased to them by nobles in exchange for military protection and other services. The basis for the system was the nobles’ ownership of land, which was critical to their superior and privileged status. As in systems based on slavery and caste, inheritance of one’s position largely defined the estate system. The nobles inherited their titles and property; the peasants were born into a subservient position within an agrarian society.
Social Class
A class system is a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility. In contrast to slavery and caste systems, the boundaries between classes are imprecisely defined, and one can move from one stratum, or level, of society to another. Even so, class systems maintain stable stratification hierarchies and patterns of class division, and they, too, are marked by unequal distribution of wealth and power. Class standing, although it is achieved, is heavily dependent on family and ascribed factors, such as race and ethnicity.
Daniel Rossides (1997)
uses a five-class model to describe the class system of the United States: the upper class, the upper-middle class, the lower-middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Although the lines separating social classes in his model are not so sharp as the divisions between castes, members of the five classes differ significantly in ways other than just income level.
Middle class
30-35% of population
class consciousness
—a subjective awareness of common vested interests and the need for collective political action to bring about social change. Often, workers must overcome what Marx termed false consciousness, or an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position.
false consciousness
a worker with this may adopt an individualistic viewpoint toward capitalist exploitation (“I am being exploited by my boss”). In contrast, the class-conscious worker realizes that all workers are being exploited by the bourgeoisie and have a common stake in revolution.