Lesson 2: Inequality

Question 1

Inequality in general

Answer 1

• Explore how inequality has come about in human societies (its development)
• To discuss the sociological factors that lead to social inequalities in different forms of human societies
• To critically reflect on economic inequalities in industrial and post-industrial societies

John J. Macionis & Ken Plummer (2012). Chapter 8, Inequality, Social Divisions, and Social Stratification in Sociology: a Global Introduction

Question 2

Inequality in human society

Answer 2

Social hierarchies and inequalities are certainly not new
- Present in every stage and all forms of social organisation adopted in human history to date (different forms)
Inequalities and hierarchies: common feature of human and primate groups

Question 3

Psychological aspect to why Inequality is beneficial in society

Answer 3

we tend to live in groups with hierarchical structure

• Good for survival
• Enhance cooperation, cohesion and productivity (survival of human species in different times)
• We are better off living in groups (there are costs too)
• Hierarchies provide order and allow efficient decision-making- status benefits / individual merits
• BUT (negative) lead to stratification and inequalities within the group

2) our position in the social hierarchy matters
- We care about our ranking in the social scale: social status
- Those at the top have large benefits (economically better off)and make signals to the rest of the group to show their position

• They have more power and better access to resources
• Biological (outcome) advantages: survival and reproductive success
• Inequalities impact on health and psych well being: life expectancy is highly unequal and highly correlates with class and racial inequalities/ what country you are from: so there is a biological outcome of inequalities
• Link between status and neuroendocrine system
• Bottom positions: higher levels of stress, health problems, and maladaptive responses
• Social status can effect one’s self esteem as well

Question 4

Regression Line

Answer 4

Essentially: Index of health and social problems (y-axis) v income equality (x axis)
Countries which are the most unequal tend to also have the worst social problems.

CASE STUDY:
Japan/Sweden has low income inequality hence has better index of social and health problems: like having a higher life expectancy, less teenage births and better literacy and mathematical skills, whereas USA/Portugal has a higher disparity in income inequality and tends to have worse social and health problems

Question 5

where is it prevalent

Hierarchies: Inequality in Human Society

Answer 5

Companies: having a hierarchy
Also prevalent in: families, teams and kindergarten: perhaps gender roles being incorporated to create a hierarchy from a young age

Question 6

Macro Level social inequality

Answer 6

• Inequality & social hierarchies present in all human societies
• Societies differ regarding:
  i) Levels of inequality between groups in the hierarchy
  ii) Levels of social mobility
  iii) Factors that determine the hierarchy and its persistence

Question 7

Hunter Gatherer inequalities in society

Answer 7

• Poor Technology
• Exchange economy: no economic surplus
• Subsistence and egalitarian societies
• (no hierarchical organisation of political power) Stateless societies: egalitarian ethos
• Limited resources: conflict amongst groups
• Social hierarchy: chiefs (wars and rituals) (simpler social hierarchy/ age was already an inequality)
• Age and (more contested) gender determine social position

Gender???

some hunter gatherer groups didn’t really have an equivalent of gender based social hierarchy/ more of a current day patriarchal society thing

Question 8

Agrarian societies (feudal society)/ Inequalities:

Answer 8

• They believed that inequality was built in for a reason eg: KINGS served their place high up in the hierarchy due to being called upon by the “divine will”- decided by Gods
• Highly stratified society
• Centrality of land for economic and social life
• More advanced technology: economic surplus
• Accumulated by those at the top
• Importance of religion in determining positions in social hierarchy and access to land- kings all the way to peasants
• Very stable societies with little or no social mobility at all
• Opposite to Hunter gatherer society
• Born into your social position
• Brahmin/ Warrior example in the Southern Eastern world : EG: India’s caste system
  
  • check morales year 13 notes on inequality… weber???

Question 9

Industrial Societies Inequality

Answer 9

New labour class and a class at the top as well/ Industrialisation and Urbanisation
More complex human societies
More technological advanced: large economic surpluses & high levels of specialisation
Social classes: determined by distribution of money, prestige and power- PEOPLE DON’T DIE IN THE SAME SOCIAL CLASS THEY WERE BORN INTO: more mobility than feudal class
More mobility than in feudal societies: social rank influenced but not determined by birth
- Large economic inequalities and there is poverty despite economic surplus ///similar to regression line perhaps???

Racial and gender inequalities (colonial and patriarchal societies)

Question 10

issues growing

Post-Industrial Society

Answer 10

Larger/growing economic inequalities (Piketty, 2014)
Dismantling of redistributive politics and welfare state (neoliberalism)
More precarious/insecure labour market (‘flexibilization’) / MORE FLEXIBLE WORKER
Deindustrialisation, expansion of ‘service’ economy (decline of ‘traditional’ working-class)

Growing urban-rural divides: EG: LONDON (life expectancy v better in some places than others in London )
- income has become more polarised too

Starting to make amends to inequality eg: women moving into the world of work but then negative side being the gender pay gap BUT bringing light to this

Question 11

case study : Wealth

Economic Inequality

Answer 11

Unequal distribution of economic resources
Income
Flow of resources (annual, monthly, weekly)
Labour income
- Wages and salaries
Capital income
- Interests and dividends (from savings, financial investments)
- Rents (from property)

CASE STUDY:
HOUSING MARKET HARDER TO ACCESS IF YOU DONT HAVE MUCH WEALTH- it’ll be harder to be better off and that stems from you not having that in the first place and cost of living crisis doesn’t help either

Wealth
Stock of resources
Financial wealth
- Savings and bank accounts
- Shares and bonds
- Pension funds
Housing wealth

Question 12

Income and Wealth’s importance

Answer 12

Why these concepts matter?

They help us measure the unequal distribution of economic resources (within national societies)

Other economic measures (e.g. GDP) give you a measure of aggregate economic value, but not its unequal distribution between groups and individuals

Adkins et al. (2019)
Asset-based inequalities (wealth) increasingly relevant in societies with low-growth wages and high inflation (and more insecure labour markets)

Family assets as central to generational inequalities- have assets from before which helps them not to fall down from generational wealth which is like a safety net

Who can afford to buy a ‘good’ first house in an expansive housing market?

WEALTH: EG: if you lose your job/ get fired and have no wealth resources you have nothing to fall back on BUT if you’ve got wealth that produces an income no real need for your job to come back

Question 13

Social stratification/inequalities and functionalist perspective

Answer 13

• Inequality is needed for operating societies: incentives and division of labour
  - Jobs differ in complexity, effort required and functionality: hierarchy of occupations: e.g., vice-Chancellor vs lecturer / want to rewards people for the complex of their profession
  - That justifies a structure of unequal rewards: pay and prestige
  - Differences required to provide incentives: social benefit and more productive societies

Question 14

Meritocracy

Answer 14

• Foundation of a meritocratic society: stratification based on merit (latin meritum= ‘that which one deserves’)
• Inequality to encourage effort and development of talents!!Many challenges:
  i) Functionality and contribution of occupations?
  ii) Level of inequality in the reward structure?
  iii) Can we measure merit at the individual level? And how do you justify large discrepancies in income?

Question 15

CASE STUDY: RECENT EXAMPLES OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

Answer 15

From ‘low skill’ to ‘essential’ workers
Pandemic led to labour shortages in sectors like hospitality, agriculture, food production (among others)
Low-status and low-paid work, but less important?
- Begs the question “How do you define merit and rank jobs and sectors/ can you have a hierarchy or should you have a larger criterion of ranking”?

Also, lower-paid, lower-status and less secure jobs tend to be in ‘feminised and ‘racialised’ sectors (e.g. care work), is this meritocratic?
Women and minority ethnic-racial groups generally overrepresented in lower-status, lower-paid positions and sectors

Question 16

Marxist explanation of Inequalities

Answer 16

Opposite vision: inequality is the result of social conflict and unequal access to means of production: capitalists vs proletariat
Binary world: capitalists exploit the working-class (class struggle)
Inequality is not beneficial for all
Oppression and inequalities would lead to revolution and the overthrow of capitalism
Many challenges: capitalism is still alive. Well-being of average worker has steadily increased (alongside inequality)

Question 17

Ideology:

Answer 17

People are convinced that this is the best type of society
People don’t believe in dominant ideology
Ideology: system of beliefs and ideas that justify and legitimise inequalities
e.g., feudal system: religion
modern society: meritocracy (hard work & talent)
Positions in the social hierarchy are just and based on merit
Implications: meritocratic society
Top positions: deserved and consequence of talent/efforts
Bottom positions: personal failure

UNIVERSITIES play into this: eg: they have higher proportion of upper class and white background individuals hence bringing more of an inequality into society

Question 18

Subjugation, coersion and violence:

Answer 18

Subjugation, coercion and violence
A more materialist view of exclusion
The poor lack the resources and capacity to challenge the system and its injustices: persistence of inequalities
Media dominated by ruling class
They are less likely to participate and engage in democratic processes (e.g. lower socio-economic groups less likely to vote)

Question 19

Habitualisation

Answer 19

Habitualisation (via Bourdieu):
- Social institutions reward the habitus and culture of the upper-middle classes
- Central role of education system:
- Cultural reproduction: the privileged already ‘know’ the things rewarded by schools and universities (e.g. complex language, critical thinking, numeracy)
- Social reproduction: the system advantages the upper middle classes