Social Class and Stratification Flashcards
Define Social Stratification
The ranking of people and the rewards they receive based on objective criteria, often including wealth, power and/or prestige.
Define Social Class
Structural inequalities between different people:
- Outcome of modernity
- (arguably) more mobile or fluid compared with other stratification systems
- Impersonal: inequalities are in relation to structures or systems
- Durability to those inequalities, e.g. differences according to race, gender, economic status, occupation
- Location in the strata largely beyond individual choice or agency
- Categories continue to exist even when individuals move out of them
Define Social Mobility
Movement up or down the hierarchy of inequality.
Some contemporary theories of social mobility emphasise achievement while others emphasize inheritance (of both privilege and disadvantage)
‘The Fair Go’ Narrative
Define Structural mobility
Macro-level: occupational structure of a nation changes, for example, agriculture -> manufacturing -> service economy
Define Circulation mobility
Micro-level: explain the movement of individuals who have a group identity in society between different social strata. For example, the social mobility of a person from a working-class background, to a semi-middle class social status
What are Marx’s beliefs, mode of production and ideology?
Assumed a progressive development trajectory of societies.
Positivist belief that the laws of this development can be discovered.
Theorised progress as the outcome of conflict and struggle between classes.
Mode of production: economic basis of society (i.e. means of production, technological knowledge and social relationships)
Ideology: superstructure (i.e. all non-economic aspects of society, such as politics and culture)
Class is defined by one’s relationship to the means of production:
‘Haves’ (i.e. capitalists = bourgeoisie) and ‘have nots’ (i.e. workers = proletariat)
What is are the changes which are predicted to occur with Marxism?
Historical/dialectical materialism:
False consciousness -> problem of surplus value (i.e. profit) and exploitation
Class consciousness -> collective organisation and opposition to the ruling class
Class struggle and revolution -> socialism -> communism (i.e. classless society)
What are some criticisms of Marx’s theory of capitalism?
History does not progress in a linear fashion towards an ‘endpoint’
Economic determinism
Industrial societies did not polarise – middle class gained in significance
Workers organised/improved their conditions, no revolution
State interventions to address imbalances in welfare states and redistribution
Where Marxism was adapted, new ruling elites emerged
Resilience of capitalism (Absorbing conflict)
What were Weber’s beliefs?
Assumed social hierarchy and division as a result of multiple dimensions.
Believed power is the underlying source of all inequality.
Theorised social class as emergent from the market.
Class: economic factors such as wealth, income but also occupation -> objective/horizontal structure of power
Status: social honour (i.e. ancestry, family, lifestyle) subjective meaning/vertical structure of power
Party: political organisation and influence collective pursuit of interests
Life chances = combined outcome of economic resources and status Property ownership, skills and credentials matter -> more scope for social mobility.
What were Durkheim’s beliefs?
Assumed human beings as intrinsically anti-social.
Positivist belief in social development as result of specialisation and differentiation.
Theorized what keeps societies together (‘social solidarity’).
Organic solidarity: modern societies with high levels of social diversity
Meritocracy: equality of opportunity hierarchy necessary and inevitable
Dysfunctional inequality: Social conflict arises when hierarchies are not transparent or not seen as based on merit
Socialisation into a moral order of mutual dependence as the key to social cohesion.
What were Durkheim’s functions of inequality?
Stratification directs individuals into social positions that reflect their talents, abilities and credentials (i.e. meritocratic)
Hierarchy of rewards incentivises individuals to invest in their skills (i.e. specialisation and occupational differentiation)
What are criticisms of Durkheim’s functions of inequality?
Neglects role of inherited privileges
Ignores non-economic rewards for responsibility (i.e. autonomy)
Does not account for how social positions become valued
What were Bourdieu’s beliefs (Neoclassical)?
Assumed distinctions within upper, middle and lower classes. Believed that class is articulated in cultural tastes and lifestyles. Theorised four types of capital.
Economic capital: material resources (i.e. wealth, income, property)
Cultural capital: cultural knowledge, educational credentials
Social capital: social connections, networks, patronage
Symbolic capital: symbolic legitimation, respect, reputation
Class is an objective position in social space (‘the field’) determined by economic, symbolic, cultural and social capital.
What are criticisms of Bourdieu’s functions of inequality?
Cultural tastes and preferences shape every aspect social relationships and thus locate us in a social order.
Habitus: a set of dispositions that social agents calculate in response to a set of objective conditions (a ‘feel for the game’).
Symbolic violence: when a social agent uses symbolic capital to curtail the actions of another social agent with less symbolic capital.
What are criticisms of Bourdieu’s functions of distinction?
Empirical work casts doubt on the close relationship of economic position and taste practices
Political beliefs likewise structured along social bases but not reducible to class.
