Class & Inequality

Question 1

What is a caste?

Answer 1

Stratification based on ascription or birth.

Question 2

What is a closed stratification system?

Answer 2

The only way to move is to die and be born into a different class.

Question 3

What is social mobility?

Answer 3

Ability to move status within a hierarchy. Example would be going up and down the socio-economic scale.

Question 4

What is meritocracy?

Answer 4

A system based on achievement.

Question 5

What are the four working classes?

Answer 5

The upper class (inherit enormous wealth, entrepreneurs), the middle class (professionals/service people), the working class (less skilled blue collar jobs), the lower class (temporary, low prestige jobs).

Question 6

What are some components of the upper class?

Answer 6

Top executives and government officials, enormous wealth, 5% of the population.

Question 7

What are components of the middle class?

Answer 7

Professionals and service people, 40-45% of pop, managers, clerks, skilled blue collar.

Question 8

What are components of the working class?

Answer 8

Less skilled blue collar, 33% of pop, jobs require discipline and offer few benefits.

Question 9

What are some components of the lower class?

Answer 9

20% of the pop, low prestige jobs, slightly better off than unemployed, live in poorer neighborhoods and in rural areas.

Question 10

Class is a key concept of what?

Answer 10

Marxism.

Question 11

What are Marx’s intellectual interests?

Answer 11

Political economy, materialism, production.

Question 12

What are some components of class in relation to marxism?

Answer 12

The owning class/labour class must enter in a social relation in order to produce goods. Exploitation between workers and owners. Social class determined by relation. Two-class system. Industrial age (bourgeoisie, proletariat).

Question 13

What are the means of production in relation to means of production?

Answer 13

Create wealth, transform raw materials into goods, non-human input used in production, except capital (money that makes money), except labour power (slaves, employees, etc.).

Question 14

What are the components of class in relation to productive resource?

Answer 14

Each class owns means of production and labour power. Working class owns labour power, while bourgeoisie owns means of production and capital.

Question 15

What are components of the capitalists in Orthodox Marxism?

Answer 15

They maximize profits, laborers maximize wages and benefits, unequal access to productive resources. Each class has some power over production. What workers produce is worth more than their labour.

Question 16

What is the social structural functionalist analysis of social class?

Answer 16

Society operates on the basis of consensus. Little attention given to power issues and exploitation. Inequalities are functional for society. There is complex division of labour.

Question 17

What are components of the David Moore thesis in relation to class?

Answer 17

Social class inequalities are universal, functional for social system, upward social mobility is incentive, valued positions reflect talent and skills, inequality is institutionalized because it reflects differential access to rewards.

Question 18

What are components of symbolic interactionism in relation to class?

Answer 18

Veblen’s theory of leisure class (1899), leisure class is upper class, use conspicuous consumption as status markers, status symbols indicate a social status, symbolic embodiment of social inequality.

Question 19

What are components of class in relation to Max Weber?

Answer 19

For Weber, social class is a combination of the class situations created by property, income and immaterial resources, such as education. Status groups compete with one another for resources. They practice social closure and seizure to obtain protected limited resources.

Question 20

What is Weber’s definition of class?

Answer 20

Based on the distribution of resources (material or non-material).

Question 21

What are the four main social classes according to Weberianism?

Answer 21

Working class, petite bourgeoisie, property-less educated personnel, privileged class (own property or special education).

Question 22

What is a status group?

Answer 22

Individuals who share a common status situation.

Question 23

What are parties?

Answer 23

Voluntary associations that organize for the collective pursuit of interests.

Question 24

What is a key difference with Marx and Weberianism?

Answer 24

The analysis is not only economical, it involves social position and the distribution of immaterial resources, such as education, recognition, prestige, political, etc.

Question 25

What is social closure?

Answer 25

To restrict access to resources and opportunities to a limited circle of eligible individuals or groups.

Question 26

What does social closure involve?

Answer 26

Monopolization of specific, usually economic opportunities. Social classes are defined by closure.

Question 27

In what analysis is social class considered a source of major inequality?

Answer 27

The Weberian Analysis

Question 28

What is stratification?

Answer 28

Conveys the idea that humans are ranked in strata (categories, statuses), in an unequal hierarchy.

Question 29

Explain some components of intersectionality of class and gender?

Answer 29

Industrial age gender division of domestic labour, excluded women as participants in the social class structure. Women socioeconomic status derived from their husbands/fathers.

Question 30

Explain components of social class distribution in Canada.

Answer 30

It is not random. Class stratification is correlated to a certain race structure. Certain ethnic and racial groups are more likely to be found in certain classes. Radicalized immigrants face the greatest challenge.

Question 31

What is the Marxist Analysis of Race and Ethnicity?

Answer 31

Race and ethnicity mask social relations between classes. They contribute to maintain class boundaries. Racism is a relation of production. Minority groups are more exploited. Surplus of jobs.