Learning Guide #9 - Social and Political Stratification Flashcards
describes the way in which different groups of people are placed within society.
Stratification
refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power.
Social stratification
The status of people is often determined by how society is stratified - the basis of which can include;
- Wealth and income - This is the most common basis of stratification
- Social class
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Political status
- Religion (e.g. the caste system in India)
The stratification of society is also based upon either an
open or closed system
Status is achieved through merit, and effort. This is sometimes known as a meritocracy. An example of which is the UK is a relatively open society, although disadvantaged groups within society face a glass ceiling.
open
Status is ascribed, rather than achieved. Ascribed status can be based upon several factors, such as family background (e.g. the feudal system consists of landowners and serfs). Political factors may also play a role (e.g. societies organized on the basis of communism), as an ethnicity (e.g. the former apartheid regime in South Africa) and religion.
closed
Types of stratification
Social stratification
Political stratification
refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. It is when individuals and groups are ranked in more or less permanent status in society.
refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power.
Social stratification
Social stratification is based on four major principles:
- Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.
- Social stratification persists over generations.
- Social stratification is universal (it happens everywhere) but variable (it takes different forms across different societies).
- Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well (inequality is rooted in a society’s philosophy).
changes position within the social hierarchy
Social mobility
Changing positions without changing your standing in the social hierarchy
pag nag move ng trabaho pero same lang ng suweldo or prestige
Horizontal mobility
When a large number of people move around the hierarchy because of larger societal changes
maramihan
Structural social mobility
What makes social stratification work
Beliefs
The archetypal closed system is a
caste system
4 division of traditional caste system in india
Brahman
Kshatriya
Vaishya
Sudra
Marriage within own caste category
Endogamy
Caste system in europe
Nobility
Clergy
Commoners
South African system called _____ legally enforced separation between black and white people
Denied black people citizenship, ability to own land
Apartheid
They combine ascribed status and personal achievement in a way that allows for some social mobility
class system
Class system are
open
caste
close
System which social mobility is based on personal merit
Meritocracy
A situation where a person’s social position has both positive and negatve influences on their social status
status inconsistency
there are three things about socioeconomic status
income
education
occupational prestige