ISS Exam 2 Flashcards
Conflict Theory on Classes
We have created the system that causes inequality
Inequality is not inevitable
Functionalist Theory on Classes
Inequality is inevitable
Symbolic Interactionist Theory on Classes
The ways that we experience and make meaning out of things
How we interact with the social world around us
How we make sense of inequality
The Power Elite
A group of people who, because of their positions, live outside the ordinary environment that most people live in
Usually individuals who hold positions of power
A subset of the upper class who have both power and wealth
Philanthropy (role in wealthy families)
Obligations to family traditions, efforts to reify a family’s social position, self-interest, etc.
Affluenza
Ones inability to understand the consequences of their actions based on their social class/status and economic privilege
Business Cycles
Fluctuations in economic activity over long periods of time expansions and downturns loop
Contribute to changes in levels of inequality over time
Unions
Unions help to provide workers with a sense of fairness/equality in the workplace
Established certain worker’s rights pay gap, race/ethnicity/gender equality
Collective bargaining allowed workers to “bargain” with management in order to gain rights
Erik Olin Wright –> Middle Class being exploited/exploiters
Middle class may be exploited through property ownership but may be the exploiters through their control over organizational assets and owners of monopolized skills
Role of Children in Families
Children helped with work
No child labor laws allowed for child labor to take place
Larger families were normal as children could help get work done faster
Cult of Domesticity
Middle class was adopted through the cult of domesticity
Created the ideology of the role of women in society –> home was the “proper environment”
Absolute Poverty
The inability to sustain oneself
Relative Poverty
Compares people based on the distribution of resources
Poor = those who fall below the average income threshold
Poverty is different from place to place
Official Poverty
Poverty computed by the USCB
A measure of relative poverty
Subjective Measures
An individual’s perception of their financial and material position within society
Hardship Indicators
Life circumstances and experiences
Financial perceptions to consideration of human wellbeing
Social Exclusion
Social-structural determinants of poverty
Enacts social change
Culture of poverty
Poverty is experienced across generations wherein families create a subculture that does not embrace middle class values
People are causing their own poverty
Cycle of Poverty
Takes into account other factors that cause poverty
Education, job availability, cost of living, etc.
Types of Welfare Programs
New Deal
War on Poverty
Aid to Families with Dependent Children
The Working Poor
Have gainful employment, but their wages are so low that they are ranked in the bottom of the income/wealth distribution
Spatial Mismatch Theory
Poverty is distributed unevenly across regions
Official poverty rates are outdated and only tell part of the story
Intergenerational Mobility
The movement/mobility between generations
Things that change/stay the same between generations
Open Stratification
facilitates and encourages social mobility
people move up/down based on their effort and accomplishments
Closed Stratification
mobility is rare and formal laws/social norms aim to prevent it
Class Stratification
People are not formally prevented from moving up/down, but they are not guaranteed to retain their position
Estate Stratification
A small, upper nobility class controls the majority of resources and the peasants depend on the upper class for survival
Caste Stratification
Social position is fixed strictly by hereditary social group one inherits their position and remains there for life
Slavery Stratification
The most extreme from of closed stratification where slaves are captured, and sold as property in order to do forced labor
Status Attainment Theory
The process by which individuals attain positions in the system of social stratification in a society
Bernstein’s Codes
Elaborative and Restrictive
Family Impact on Education
An individual’s family is their primary source/institution for socialization
“Family Culture” can positively or negatively impact children
