Social Stratification (CH12) Flashcards
How is socioeconomic status determined?
By achieved and ascribed status
Derives from clearly identifiable characteristics, such as age, gender, and skin color.
Ascribed Status
Is aquired via direct, individual efforts. In other words, this status is voluntary.
Achieved Status
Refers to the amount of positive regard society has for a given person or idea.
Prestige
Proposes that the proletariat could overthrow the bourgeoisie, as well as the entire capitalist economy by developing class consciousness.
Marxist Theory
Refers to the organization of the working class around shared goals and recognition of a need for collective political action.
Class Consciousness
Refers to a lack of social norms, or the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and society.
Anomie
Inequality in opportunity.
Privilege
Refers to peer group and kinship contacts, which are quantitatively small but qualitatively powerful.
Strong Ties
Refer to social connections that are personally superficial, such as associates, but that are large in number and provide connections to a wide range of other individuals.
Weak Ties
Changes in social status happen within a person’s lifetime.
Intragenerational Changes
Changes are from parents to children.
Intergenerational Changes
Based on intellectual talent and achievement, and is a means for a person to advance up the social ladder.
Meritocracy
When a system is ruled by the upper classes.
Plutocracy
Based on the concept of “holes” in the structure of society rather than poverty due to the actions of the individual.
Structural Poverty