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
system of stratification where everyone is equal? where?
egalitarianism
Soviet union
following the russian revolution in _____
1917
Soviet union were stratified in 4 groups
Government officials/Apparatchiks
Intelligentsia
Industrial workers
Rural Peasantry
is concerned with the unequal distribution of political power, reward and inequalities in access to political offices.
is best understood as the extent to which such inequalities are encapsulated in, or influenced by, political structures and processes
Political stratification
Two Approaches to the Study of Stratification
- Conflict Theory
- Functionalist Theory
who defined the conflict theory
karl marx
two major social groupsaccording to karl marx
a ruling class and a subject class
The ____ obtains power by controlling the means of production while they are using the _____ for their own benefits; they are being oppressed and exploited.
ruling class
subject class
Theory According to Karl Marx in all stratified societies there are two major social groups: a ruling class and a subject class. The ruling class obtains power by controlling the means of production while they are using the subject class for their own benefits; they are being oppressed and exploited.
Conflict Theory
Marx believes that Western society developed through four main epochs.
A. Primitive Communism
B. Ancient society
C. Feudal society
D. Capitalist society
a classless society
Primitive Communism
master and slaves
Ancient society
lords and serfs
Feudal society
capitalist wage laborers
Capitalist society
As a political economist, _____ believes that social classes emerged because of a market economy where individuals compete to gain something; therefore, a person’s class status is based on his market situation.
Weber
Whore are the functionalist theorist
Talcott Parsons
Kingsley Davis
Moore
According to _____, order, stability, and cooperation are based on the agreed values of the people in society concerning what is good and useful.
Talcott Parsons
According to _____ and _____, stratification exists in every known human society.
Kingsley Davis
Moore
believe that inequality is inevitable and desirable and plays an important function in society. Important positions in society require more training and thus should receive more rewards. Social inequality and social stratification, according to this view, lead to a meritocracy based on ability.
All the social system shares a certain function which is a requirement for the survival and operation of the system. Davis and Moore argue that all societies need some mechanism to survive, and that mechanism is the social stratification system, which attaches unequal rewards and privileges to the position in society. Stratification is the tool that ensures that the most essential part of the society to function is fulfilled by the most qualified individual.
Functionalist Theory
measures the value of all the assets of worth owned by a person, community, company, or country.
determined by taking the total market value of all physical and intangible assets owned, then subtracting all debts.
Wealth
two kinds of property
Consumption Property
Productive Property
for personal use (clothes, cars, family homes)
Consumption Property
makes money; it is capital and includes factories, farms, stocks, and shares
Productive Property
who defined power?
Croteau and Hoynes (2013)
is a fundamental and sociological concept that affects every level of society and influences our daily lives in countless ways.
is frequently defined as the ability to influence the behavior of others with or without resistance
Power
Power comes from Anglo-Norman French poeir, from an alteration of Latin posse which means
to be able
types of power
Economic power
Political power
Cultural power
In any group in society, power determines who will receive important resources and how it will be used. In the family, the person who controls the spending has the power to decide what food to eat and clothes to buy. Purchasing power is a significant component of
ECONOMIC POWER
Some people set the conditions that others are expected to live with. Congress passes laws and establishes regulations that that will organize the people in the society. Those with power set rules and those who are powerless are expected to follow the rules.
POLITICAL POWER
Influencing people the ideas they follow and perspectives are one way to exercise _____
CULTURAL POWER
is a special advantage or benefit that not everyone enjoys.
Widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something on the basis of a perception of their achievements or quality. Respect and admiration gave to someone or something, usually because of a reputation for high quality, success, or social influence.
PRESTIGE
SYSTEM OF STRATIFICATION
Slavery
Estate System
Caste System
Class System
the condition of being legally owned by someone else, or the system in which some people are owned by others. The activity of legally owning other people who are forced to work for or obey you.
slavery
Time where Africans were taken away from their homeland
1525-1866
How many african were taken away
12.5 million
2 million would not survive
The most horrendous voyage of slave is when
1783
Name of the slave ship in 1783
Zhong
How many are enslave in zhong
442
Who is the captain in the ship Zhong
Captain Luke Collingwood
What happened in zhong
Since death by drowning is covered by the insurance 130 enslave was thrown onboard
International slave trade was outlawed
1807
Slavery abolished in England
1833
Slavery abolished in US
1865
or FEUDALISM emerge during the Middle Ages, it requires peasants to work on the land (fief) leased to them by the nobles in exchange for military protection against the other lords.
Estate System
is a class structure that is determined by birth. Loosely, it means that in some societies, if your parents are poor, you’re going to be poor, too. The _____ is prominent in Indian society.
Caste System
Caste system of India
Brahmins
Kshatriyas
Vaishyas
Sudras
Pariah
Priest in indian caste system
Brahmins
warriors and rulers in indian caste system
Kshatriyas
Skilled traiders merchants in indian caste system
Vaishyas
unskilled workers in indian caste system
Sudras
outcastes, untouchables in indian caste system
Pariah
is a social rank based on economic position who’s achieved characteristics can influence social mobility, it is different from other social stratification because in the _____, you can from one stratum or social rank to another.
Class System
3 levels in class system
Upper
middle
working
is defined as the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.
Social Inequality
There are various ways to recognize and maintain the differences.
Amalgamation
Assimilation
Segregation
Genocide
a minority and majority group blended or mixed together to form a new group.
Amalgamation
members of minority group adopt the culture of the majority group
Assimilation
keeping a distinct social group physically and socially separate and unequal
Segregation
a systematic killing of a group of people based on their race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion
genocide
Types of inequalities
- human capital, social capital, symbolic capital
- GENDER INEQUALITY
- RACIAL INEQUALITY
- ETHNIC MINORITIES
- INEQUALITIES AMONG PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
-GLOBAL INEQUALITIES
There are inequalities to access _____ due to stratification.
human capital, social capital, symbolic capital
comprises all our knowledge, abilities, talents, skills, intelligence, training, judgment, and experience. It also includes our wisdom, individually, and collectively.
Human capital
refers to the resources available to people and entities because of their networks. The assets we possess by virtue of the social relations that we develop and maintain, and the shared values which arise from those networks, make up
Social capital
refers to a degree of accumulated prestige, celebrity or honor. In Distinction (1984), Bourdieu refers to _____ as: “the acquisition of a reputation for competence and an image of respectability and honorability…” (1984, p. 291)
Symbolic Capital
refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.
gender inequality
is a disparity in opportunity and treatment that occurs as a result of someone’s race.
racial inequality
is defined as shared cultural heritage, often deriving from common ancestry and homeland.
Ethnicity
is a category of people widely perceived as sharing socially significant physical characteristics such as skin color.
Race
Five Categories of Race
- American Indian or Alaska Native
- Asian
- Black or African American
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
- White
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America
American Indian or Alaska Native
a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent.
Asian
a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
Black or African American
a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
White
is a collection of people who differ in race or color or in national, religious, or cultural origin from the dominant group — often the majority population — of the country in which they live.
ethnic minority
Ethnic minority is part of
minority groups.
types of groups
Minority Group and majority Group
a group of people who suffer disadvantages and have less power because of physical or cultural characteristics.
Minority Group
people who enjoy privileges and have more access to power because of identifiable physical or cultural characteristics.
Majority Group
are those suffering from restriction of different abilities, as a result of a mental, physical or sensory impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.
Disabled Persons
(1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more psychological, physiological or anatomical function of an individual or activities of such individual; (2) a record of such an impairment; or (3) being regarded as having such an impairment.
Disability
refers to a disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an impairment or a disability, that limits or prevents the functions or activity, that is considered normal given the age and sex of the individual.
Handicap
In the Philippines, there is a law that protects the person with disabilities
RA 7277 – An Act Providing for the Rehabilitation, Self-Development and Self-Reliance of Disabled Person and their Integration Into the Mainstream of Society and for Other Purposes.
is driven by social changes both of the inequality within countries and the inequality between countries.
“Inequality carries high economic, social and moral costs. The unequal distribution of income and access to key services like education and health can undermine economic growth and social cohesion, inflate health care costs and drive up crime.”
GLOBAL INEQUALITIES
is the change, shift, and movement of individual or group in social position. It could be a change in wealth, social status, health status, literacy rate, education, or other variables among groups such as classes, ethnic groups, or countries.
Social Mobility
If such mobility involves a change in position, especially in occupation, but no change in social class, it is called
“horizontal mobility.”
If, however, the move involves a change in social class, it is called
“vertical mobility” and involves either “upward mobility” or “downward mobility.”
Mobility may be considered in different senses such as:
- A change in an occupation that involves a consequent change in status.
- A promotion within the same occupational group
- The accumulation of seniority within a given occupation
- From one generation to another, as from father to son.
Sociologists identify types of social mobility as:
Vertical Mobility
Horizontal Mobility
Inter-Generational Social Mobility
Intra-Generational Social Mobility
Structural Mobility
is a movement up or down the social strata. This refers to a change in the occupational, political, or religious status of a person that causes a change in their societal position. An individual moves from one social stratum to another.
maybe ascending or descending
Vertical Mobility
s the change of status without a corresponding shift within the social hierarchy. This occurs when a person changes their occupation but their overall social standing remains unchanged. For example, if a doctor goes from practicing medicine to teaching in a medical school, the occupation’s changed but their prestige and social standing likely remain the same.
Horizontal Mobility
is the change in the status of family members from one generation to the next.
happens when the social position changes from one generation to another. The change can be upward or downward. For example, a father worked in a factory while his son received an education that allowed him to become a lawyer or a doctor.
Inter-Generational Social Mobility
is the advancement of one’s social level during the course of one’s lifetime. It is a change in social status which occurs within a person’s adult career. For example, an individual starts their career as a clerk and through their life moves on to a senior position such as a director. One sibling may also achieve a higher position in society than their brother or sister.
Intra-Generational Social Mobility
is a kind of vertical mobility. It may be viewed as a vertical movement of a specific group, class or occupation relative to others in the stratification system
Structural Mobility
Effects of social mobility
Enjoying a better living standard
Replacing obsolete custom
Freedom
Expansion of ideas
