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
A socioeconomic condition in which people do not have enough money or resources to maintain a quality of living that includes basic life necessities such as shelter, food, clothing and water.
Absolute Poverty
One is poor in comparison to the larger population in which they live.
Relative Poverty
The overall greater concentration of poor individuals in urban centers help to explain the migration pattern of the middle classes to suburban communities.
Suburbanization
A previously functional portion of a city deteriorates and becomes decrepit over time.
Urban Decay
City land is reclaimed and renovated for public or private use.
Urban Renewal
When upper and middle class populations begin to purchase and renovate neighborhoods in deteriorated areas, displacing the low-SES (socioeconomic status) population.
Gentrification
Categorizes countries and emphasizes the inequalities of the division of labor at the global level.
World System Theory
Focus on higher skills, and higher paying productions, while exploiting peripheral nations.
Core Nations
Focus in on lower skilled productions.
Peripheral Nations
Midway between the two, these nations work toward becoming core nations, while having many characteristics of peripheral nations.
Semi-Peripheral Nations
