Social Stratification 〽️ Flashcards
What are the three types of social stratification?
Feudalism
Caste system
Apartheid
What is feudalism?
Labels where given - seen as good given ascribed status social mobility was unthinkable.
Eg pedants at bottom , king at top
What is the caste system?
Ascribed status in traditional India eg Dalits - untouchables- social outcasts Hindi’s believe that they will be reborn into a higher status if they have been good in their life
What is apartheid?
Segregation of black and white eg South Africa effect access to healthcare education Black people denied citizen rights little social mobility
What is a ascribed status?
Status stated at birth- isn’t changes
What is achieved status ?
Status that can be improved due to the merit or personal talent eg promotions at work
What is social hierarchy ?
Less people rich and in power
More not
What is wealth?
How much you own eg assets
What are the three things that effect inequality within society?
Wealth
Income
Power
What is power?
The ability of getting what you want when you want despite opposition from others
What is social mobility
The ability of individuals to improve and gain a higher social class
What are the % of Classes
40% is middle
50% is working
10% is upper
What do Marxists approach social class as?
Key division of society
What did David and Moore view social stratification as?
Vital for society as it fills the criteria needed
How did David and Moore argue that social stratification was vital?
Inequality lead to a divison of Class
This lead to people lacking opportunities for higher jobs
So they can fill in the low jobs that help society function like a bin man
Why does David and Moore argue that high levels jobs have high pay?
They give a high status and social scale and the high salary makes sure that the right people are attracted eg. Educated
Ensures that these places a filled by the most talented individuals in society
How does David and Moore argue that society will always have inequality?
All societies treat people differently due to they social status leading to all societies having a degree of inequality embedded in to it
But this is functional as people view this a fair
What are the criticisms of Davis and Moore?
Some vital jobs have the lowers pay - bin man
Pay may be linked to power rather than income
What are the 2 main social classes Marxists identified
Proletariats and bourgeoisie
What were the two main classes that Marxists identified determined by ? Why?
Economical factors - ownership and non- ownership of the means of production
Bourgeoisie had ownership of wealth and property That gets passes on to future generations whereas proletariats were forced to sell their labour in order to earn and survive
What did the proletariats experience within the capitalist society?
Alienation as they lacked control over the means of production and products of their labour
What are the other classes that Karl Marx found ?
Petty bourgeoisie- owners of small businesses
Lumpenproletariats - social drop outs and criminals
What issue did Marxist view led to class conflict and struggle?
Bourgeoisies wanting more profits whereas proletariats want higher pay
Lead to bourgeoisie exploiting proletariats
What did Marxists highlight?
Link between social class and power
Power lead to political power that the bourgeoisie use for their own interests - lead to RULING CLASS IDEOLOGY - values of having a free market to disguise 🥸 exploitation and repression of proletariats - lead to false class consciousness
Lead to proletariats not being aware of exploitation
What do Marxists believe the bourgeoisie to shrink in size may lead to ?
Them getting more powerful and richer
Increase competition leading to petty bourgeoisies to fall under proletariats
Lead to proletariats getting bigger and poorer
What did Marxist argue about the increase of proletariats and them getting poorer lead to?
Them gaining a social conscious of their exploitation and rebelling leading to a revolution and radical change , removing the social class system and reinforcing communism
What are the criticisms of Marxist views on social class?
Social revolution has not occurred yet
Increase of middle class shows social mobility of society - not so ridged
Feminists argue that it forgets about gender inequality and also ethnicity
What did Weber argue about how classes where formed ? What did he say arose from here?
Under marketplaces like a labour market
One class hired labour and another sold their labour
Different kinds of life chances or rewards
What did Weber argue a class had?
Similar people with similar access to life chances like education
What are the 4 main classes Weber found ?
- Property owners
- The professionals
- Petty bourgeoisie-shop owners
- The working class
What did Weber see classes based as? What did he say this shapes ?
Distribution of economic resources such a wealth but also status and power of political influence in determining life chances and shaping patterns of stratification
How does Weber view class and status ?
Two separate aspects of stratification
Status amy differ from class or economic positions- religious leaders may have a high status but not a high net worth
What is the registrar Generals Registration? What do they intel?
A classing system that distinguishes manual jobs from non manual jobs and how it determine your class
Top would be professional occupations like a surgeon 👩🏿⚕️ and bottom would be unskilled occupants like cleaners 🧼
What are the problems with the Registrar Generals classification?
- Unemployed goes no where or retried
- Tell us nothing about wealth and property
- Farmer?- how big is the farm? Could hide use difference in wealth - no specific
What do the national statistics socio-economical classification group together people who have very similar ..?
Rewards form work and fringe benefits
Employment status - self or full time
Level of authority/control
What are the positives of NS-SEC ?
Covers whole population as students do under unclassified
Top higher professional occupants
Lowest - never worked and long time employment
What are life chances ?
Peoples chance of achieving a positive or negative outcome throughout their lifetime
How are life chances and opportunities distributed? What are they shaped by ?
Not equally between groups eg. Higher class has more opportunities than a lower class
Shaped by inequality through wealth income status and power
What are the 7 factors that life chances may be effected by?
Ethnicity
Gender
Disability
Sexuality
Class
Age
Religion and beliefs
What are inequalities of social classes in relation to ?
Poverty
Education outcomes
Morbidity- how ill someone can get
Wealth
Income
Life expectancy at birth
What is the Embougeosiement thesis? What has the affluence lead to ?
🚾 families becoming more MC in norms and values as their living standards and incomes improved
Their affluence had lead to them adopting a privatised lifestyle centred with the family within the home with aspirations based on consumerism rather than solidarity within the community which has disappeared
What kind of interview did Goldthrope use for his Affluent workers research and Embougeosiment?
Structured in a prosperous town called Luton - found lots of affluent manual workers and interviewed them from 3 diff companies and talked to their wives about their attitudes to work political views lifestyles and aspirations
What was Goldthorpe’s and his workers findings ?
Embougeosiment thesis is rejected - was not shown but affluent workers may be forming a ‘new’ working class of MC values o being home centred but had instrumental collectivism- joined trade unions but only for their own interest rather than all (solidarity)
Eg. Wanted to improve all pay rather than benefits for everyone
What did Goldthorpe’s definition of intramentalism mean?
To view things as a means to a end rather than a mean in itself eg.
Getting a good job means having a good house meaning having a comfortable lifestyle rather than just job satisfaction
What did Devine find out about the affluent workers social mobility?
Agreed with Goldthorpe that families where geographically mobile but little evidence that it was motivated to improve living standards
Devine thinks they moved to escape unemployment to find affordable housing
Not purely instrumental 🎼
What was Devines thought on affluent workers moving ?
Families had moved to join kin to get familiar with job opportunities and housing
They did not have a purely privatised life
What was Devine’s idea of political values amongst affluent workers?
Social and political values where not individualistic
There was evidence of solidarity
What is social mobility?
A person moving up a social strata
What can high rates of up-ward and down-ward mobility tell us ?
That social status is achieved rather than ascribed - so it’s provides meritocracy to improve lifestyles
Individuals are rewarded based on personal qualities rather than inheritance and wealth
What are the three different social mobilities?
Inter-generational mobility- movement up or down measured between layers of the family
Intra-generational mobility- change in social class of an individual over their course of life due to an occupational change vice versa
Vertical - moving up or down a strata
What are the reasons of social mobility?
Education
Marriage
Windfalls of inheritance or lottery
Change in occupation
What are the Barriers of social mobility
Discrimination of
Ethnicity
Gender
Sexual orientation
Disability
What are some problems with measuring mobility?
Some inter- generational mobility may only focus on men and not women
Asking children what jobs their parents are may be inaccurate
What is class alignment? What is class dealignment?
Certain classes voting 🗳 different political groups eg. MC- conservative WC- labour
Class becoming less of a dividing factor leading to no clear division in political voting 🗳
Why has the 🚾 shrunk in size ?
A change in occupational structure - a decline in minding a laborious jobs
Class identify has become less important Over time
What does Saunder believe determines someone’s occupational hierarchy?
Ability and motivation rather than social class origin and so social factors such as
Parents
Types of school they attend
Gender
Overcrowdedness at home
What is sex?
Sex is your biological differences between men-XY and women - XX
What is gender ?
A social construct of different social practices - girls - pink - feminine
Boys - blue
How does feminists explain how gender is socially construct?
It’s shaped by primary and secondary socialisation family schools mass media girls ment to be caring and kind and boys independent and strong
How do feminists believe that society is still patriarchal?
Men have bigger shares of rewards like wealth
Men control most of society in paliment and workplace
What is the crisis of masculinity? 3)
Boys underachieving in school 🏫 unlike girls
Decline in paid work in the manufacturing industry
Increase in women participation in paid employment
Boys see their traditional masculine roles under threat and the increase of competition will lead to them being more likely to have lower jobs however women are in the same position
What laws have been put in place due to gender inequalities?
Equal pay act- women and men have to be paid the same
Sex discrimination act- women cannot be discriminated against
What are the divisions that feminists describe within the workplace based on gender?
Even though there are laws that protect women, there is still discrimination and men and women do not work together eg. Firefighters - men nurses- women
What is the glass ceiling ? Give an example .
Metaphor for the barrier that prevents someone from excelling eg . Women normally found at a lower position than man in jobs due to gender
What is the gender pay gap?
Women getting paid less than men - more women are part time and may not be seen as reliable so employers see them as unreliable and do not pay them unlike men who don’t have the double shift and excel and gets promotions
What are some explanations for gender inequality on the work place? 3)
Sexism
Triple shift- women need to do domestic labour child care and satisfy emotional needs - makes it had to do well at work
Child care - too expensive so chose to work part time
What is an ethnic group ?
Group of people who identify themselves with their culture religion or language
What is Assimilation?
USA 🇺🇸 believes that migrates should abandon their culture and replace it with the culture of the majority
What do sociologist view race as ?
A social construct created which may lead to prejudices ( different ethnic groups being treated differently due to their ethnicity)
What are the 3 ways the British government has tried to reduce inequality based on ethnicity?
Equality and anti-discrimination act - fair treatment of everyone no matter who they are
Recognition of institutional racism - diversity lessons to tackle discrimination
Opportunity polices
Why is inequality of ethnicity less significant today?
BAME are being more included with politics literature media and the arts in a positive light 💡
What did Li and colleagues find about employment opportunities?
Chinese and Indian had the same chances of being employed but Pakistani and black Caribbean had worse
What are the explanations of the ethnicity inequality at work ?
Discrimination in the labour market - discrimination free laws a are hard to enforce- life chances and opportunities of ethnicity groups are effected negatively
What did new right believe about inequality in the labour market ? How did he say it occurred?
New right believed that people of ethnic minorities were the underclass - Murray argues that the welfare system produces a group of young black and Mexican people that were not interested in finding work
What is the Marxist approach if an explanation of ethnic discrimination in the labour market?
Rasicm built in workplaces
Ethnic minority groups form a part of an reserve army only employed when there economic booms and fired when there are rescissions
The reservation army keeps costs down as they can be easily replaced if they demand more pay
What is chronological age ? What does it correspond to?
How long they have been alive for and how It corresponds to their rights eg over 18 can drink
What is biological age ?
How chronological age may effect the physical body - puberty and ageing - wrinkles
What is social age?
Your age in social terms having different expectations of being treated according to how old you are
How has childhoods changed over time ?
Olden times - children seen as smaller adults - children allowed to spend leisure time and work like an adult eg. Coal mines then pub
Now die to legal changes like the education act 1918 children have a different status from adults
Children are now active consumers of fashion, brands and tech
Childhood is now is seen as a separate part of the human life
Children more vulnerable
Vary between cultures
How has power differed in families over time ?
Use to enforce discipline and try to exercise child’s behaviour against their will but now it’s more democratic
What may the transition between childhood and adulthood look like?
Finishing main education
Moving away
Increased independence- job
Gaining more powerful status in society
What can youths identifying by what they are lead to ?
Youth subcultures- recognisable by clothes
What may effect the transition into childhood?
Being financially dependent on parents
Coming from privileged backgrounds
How is power exercised on young people. Everyday?
Schools - teachers
However authority is limited- outside of school can’t tell them to line up at bus stop ect
How do young people have more control in school?
Laws such as no physical contact
Having to take students opinions in mind with politics
What is ageism?
Being discriminated against due to your age
How may old people face ageism?
May not be employed- may think they cannot learn as quick
Try to get Botox
How may old people face poverty?
Low income pensions
How may young people be discriminated because of their age ?
Seen as intimidating in large groups
What is stratification ?
The unequal distribution of resources due to wealth and income
What are the 2 types of poverty?
Absolute
Relative
What is absolute poverty ?
Can’t afford basic necessities for survival like food
What is relative poverty ?
Income below average than others in society so may be unable to do things that relatives do eg. Go out for a meal 🥘
What can poverty involve ?
Social exclusion- people are excluded from everyday activities and customs 🛃
Excludes people from activities that most people take for granted eg. Christmas
Why is poverty adopted by the state important?
It determine how far the government believe that poverty exists and how polices deal with it
What is subjective poverty ?
Based judgment on how the person views themselves in poverty
What is environmental poverty ?
Based on measures of deprivation like overcrowdedness and air pollution inadequate housing
Who was Townsend?
Sociologist- aimed to discover how may people were actually in poverty
What research did Townsend use?
Questionairs
What data did Townsend find ?
That 26% of the population was in poverty not only 6% from the state
What 2 groups of people did Townsend believe would be the most likely to be in poverty ?
Lone parents - lack inadequate socialisations and main bread winner
Elderly manual workers - low pay low pension
What did Townsend develop to make his questionnaire?
Relative deprivation index
What is relative income poverty?
When your income is below average
What is state standard poverty ?
Poverty of a certain amount stated by government not really good because one you reach over that limit you don’t get Benefits but you still have more mouths to feed - more outflows - cannot afford to pay bills
What did Townsend put on his questionnaires?
How often do families have a Sunday 🐑 joint
What was wrong with Townsend using a Sunday joint to measure 📏 relative poverty ?
Could be vegetarian 🌱- can afford - inaccurate
What happens if the Townsend relative deprivation index is inadequate?
Leads to statistics 📊 based on if to be questioned
What ethnic groups are more likely to face poverty?
Black and Pakistani- may face discrimination in the workforce and have lower paid jobs - remember reservation army
Why are women more likely to face poverty than men?
Women more likely to be the parent in a lone parent family- only one income , children are expensive
Gender pay gap
More likely to be in part time job- child rearing
What is culture of poverty
The culture of the WC do little change to change the future
Poverty that a consequence of the persons actions
Describe the cycle of Deprivation
Children born into poverty and lack material and cultural deprivation
Leads to them doing bad in school CANT gain good qualifications
Opportunities for good jobs are limited - go to low paid job or unemployment
Now as adults they live in poverty
They have kids and the children are born in poverty and the cycle continues
Who is Murray ? What did he believe ?
New right - conservative and believes that the welfare system needs to be reformed as they are too open to WC
What was Murray’s explanation on polices ?
They created the underclass and encouraged people to be dependent on the states benefits
Eg increase in unmarried women has lead to a creation of hard core young lazy people uninterested to get jobs
Increase in crime as they are idle and lack responsibility
How did Murray describe the under class in the uk?
The underserving poor
What are the three measures of the underclass ?
Rice in illegitimate births - out side of marriage + single
Drop out of labour jobs
Rise in crime
What did Murray argue that the welfare reform encouraged and take away ?
The initiative to work and crime single parent hood and unemployment
What are the critics of New right? 3)
Victims to blame - for own misfortune
Rejects that Wc can have different attitudes
Underclass have become scapegoats of society’s problems
What has globalisation lead to?
Increase in inequality- reserve army
What did Weber argue why the groups of people exercise power?
Weber argued that groups exercise power over people to get what they want when they want despite any opposition
What did Webber argue power is based on 2)
Coercion or authority
What did Weber say coercion is?
Coercion is where there is a use of threat or physical violence against a group they feel like they have no choice but to obey - agains free wi 
What did Weber say authorities is ? Why is force unnecessary?
Authority is where a group of people obey an individual or group as it feels like the right thing to do
force is unnecessary as they consent to for authority to be exercised over them
What are the three authorities that Weber identified?
Charisma authority
Traditional authority
Rational legal authority
Why do people accept authority?
They view it as legitimate
What is traditional authority?
Authority based on tradition or custom 
What is Bureaucracy? 
an organisation with hierarchy with clear set of rules
What is rational legal authority?
Why do people agree ?
Authority based on a set of laws people accept this because they agree with the laws on which the power rests 
Why do people obey charismatic authority?
People obey because they look up to Their extraordinary personal qualities and they inspire them
How did the Marxist argue that the bourgeoisie hold political power?
Political power comes from economic power which they own
What do Feminist gender inequality is the most important source of?
Division of society
What do you feminists see the society as?
give an example
Patriarchal men dominate the work place And have the most power in politics Biggest share in Wealth and social status
Women are underrepresentative in political power and decision making 
What were the 6 structures that Walby identified as Patriarchal?
1 – Paid employment -women are paid less than men gender pay gap
- The household- men exploit women through their unpaid labour in the home
- Culture - Masculinity and femininity are differentiated within most cultures
- sexuality - DOUBKE STANDARD women if sexually actively - slag man- admired
- Male violence against women- women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence and the violence can be used to enforce power over them
- The state-
Biased upon patriarchal interest little support to improve women’s position in the public sphere 
Why is power exercised in relationships?
When they enter a relationship they try to influence or control the others behaviour
When do power relationships occur? examples?
When there is power inequality between individuals or groups - students and teachers
What is democracy?
Where power is evenly distributed and the governments authority is rational legal authority and there is no need for coercion 
What is the representative democracy?
When citizens elect politicians that present their political designs on their behalf
What do voters do in a constituency?
Cast a vote
What do the candidates in elections belong to?
Political parties
What happens with the candidate with the most votes?. What is this called?
Becomes an MP and sits in the House of Commons .First-past-the-post
What is PR? what is this used for ?
When seats are allocated you the amount amount of votes of each party
 Used to elect MEPs 
What is the state?
Various institutions that organise and regulate society
What is the role of the state’s institutions?
To make , Implement and enforce laws
What is the government? who is the Prime Minister?
Refers to the MPs Who are ministers which are selected by the prime minister
- Leader
What is a pluralist approach to the role of the state? what is the states role ?
They argue that pressure groups exist within society. Political power is shared within these groups
Meaning no single group that dominates the decision-making or gets their own way
The state’s role is to act as a neutral referee and regulate different interests to satisfy the needs of everybody
What do Marxist argue about the role of the state?
Those in the powerful positions tend to come from privilege Backgrounds
 The owners of the means of production means that they can protect their own interests as they have the power in the capitalist society to do so
What do Pluralists argue that Pressure groups are crucial for?
We are crucial for democracy
As they allow like-minded citizens to get together and push forward their view
What do protest movements organise?
Direct action to protect the environment
They get attention from the media to focus the Intentional companies that bill to pay tax in away or opportunities and interest can be presented and heard 
What do pressure groups provide?
Opportunities for citizens to participate in the political processes
What does the conflict view of the pluralistic society view society is based on?
Conflict of interest between different groups
