Social Stratification Flashcards
Socioeconomic status (SES)
Social stratification is based on this. SES depends on ascribed status and achieved status
Ascribed status
Involuntary and derives from clearly identifiable characteristics, such as age, gender, and skin color
Achieved status
Acquired through direct, individual efforts
Social class
Category of people with shared socioeconomic characteristics. The three main social classes are upper, middle, and lower class. These groups also have similar lifestyles, job opportunities, attitudes, and behaviors.
Prestige
Respect and importance tied to specific occupations or associations
Power
Capacity to influence people through real or perceived rewards and punishments. It often depends on the unequal distribution of valued resources. Power differentials create social inequality.
Anomie
State of normlessness. Anomic conditions erode social solidarity, by means of excessive individualism, social inequality, and isolation
Social capital
Investment people make in their society in return for economic or collective rewards. Social networks, either situational or positional, are one of the most powerful forms of social capital and can be achieved through establishing strong and weak social ties
Meritocracy
Refers to a society in which advancement up the social ladder is based on intellectual talent and achievement
Social mobility
Allows one to acquire higher-level employment opportunities by achieving required credentials and experience. Social mobility can either occur in a positive upward direction or a negative downward direction depending on whether one is promoted or demoted in status
Poverty
Socioeconomic condition. In the United States, the poverty line is determined by government’s calculation of the minimum income requirement for families to acquire minimum necessities of life
Social reproduction
Passing on of social inequality, especially poverty, from one generation to the next
Absolute poverty
When people do not have enough resources to acquire basic life necessities, such as shelter, food, clothing, and water
Relative poverty
When one is poor in comparison to a larger population
Spatial inequality
Form of social stratification across territories and their populations, and can occur along residential, environmental, and global lines
Urban areas
Tend to have more diverse economic opportunities and more ability for social mobility than rural areas. Urban areas also tend to have more low-income racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods than rural areas
Formation of higher-income suburbs
Common occurrence, and is due in part to the limited mobility of lower-income groups in urban centers
Environmental justice
Uneven distribution of environmental hazards in communities. Lower-income neighborhoods may lack the social and political power to prevent the placement of environmental hazards in their neighborhoods
Globalization
Led to further inequalities in space, food, and water, energy, housing, and education as the production of goods shifts to cheaper and cheaper labor markets. This has led to significant economic hardship in industrializing nations
Incidence
Calculated as the number of new cases of a disease per population at risk in a given period of time
Prevalence
Calculated as the number of cases of a disease per population in a given period of time
Morbidity
Burden or degree of illness associated with a given illness
Mortality
Deaths caused by a given disease
Second sickness
Exacerbation of health outcomes caused by social injustice
