The Sociology of Social Stratification Flashcards
What is social stratification?
Society’s structure into a hierarchy of unequal strata
What is social inequality?
Uneven distribution of resources and opportunities
What are the main criteria for social stratification in the UK?
- Social class
- Age
- Gender
- Ethnicity
What are the two types of status?
- Achieved: earned on the basis of merit
- Ascribed: fixed at birth
What are an open and closed system?
- Open: social mobility is possible
- Closes: social mobility is unlikely
Give 3 examples of closed social stratification
- Slavery: one group claims the right to own another (seen in ancient Egypt)
- Caste: people are born into a particular strata (seen in India/ Hinduism)
- Feudalism: Kings, Lords, Knights and then peasant (seen in Medieval Europe)
What is Davis and Moore’s theory (functionalism)?
- Stratification is important in order for society to function properly: most talented work hard and get paid accordingly, those who lack talents do less paid jobs
- This inequality is functional because it is fair
What are the criticisms of Davis and Moore’s theory
- Marxist and feminist: social stratification enables the upper class to gain at the expense of others
- Many jobs are important but have less pay or low status
- Gender pay gap inequality
What is alienation?
Workers feel cut off from their work because they have no control over production or products of their labour
What is the Ruling-class ideology?
Dominant ideas in society that serve the interests of the bourgeois
What is false class consciousness?
Lower classes don’t realise they are being exploited
What four classes did Marx identify?
- Bourgeoisie: own means to production
- Petty bourgeoisie: own small businesses
- Proletariat: labour to bourgeoisie
- Lumpenproletariat: Criminals etc
What is Marx’s view on social class?
- Two main classes want more money (class struggle), proletariat are exploited
- Bourgeoisie’s position is justified by ruling-class ideology which leads to false class consciousness among the proletariat
- Over time, the proletariat become bigger & poorer which can lead to rebellion and a communist society
What are life chances?
Individual’s chances of achieving positive or negative outcomes in life
What is meant by market situation?
People’s skills in relation to labour market
What is aristocracy ?
Class of privileged people who have titles such as Duke or Lady
What is Weber’s view on social class?
- Class is a group of people with similar life chances
- There are 4 main social classes: property owners, professionals, petty bourgeoisie and working class
- Different classes have different market situations
- Class is based on the distribution of wealth, status and power
- Status groups are identified by the prestige attached to their lifestyle
What is the main form of stratification in the UK?
Socio-economic class: based on economic factors
What are the 3 main social classes in Britain?
- Upper
- Middle
- Lower
What are other sources of inequality in class based societies?
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Age
Why are life chances distributed unequally?
Because of factors such as class, gender and ethnicity
What inequalities shape life chances?
Wealth, income and power/status
What is the feminist view on inequalities based on gender?
- Anti-discrimination legislation (Sex discrimination act, 1975) has addressed some aspects of gender inequality but there’s still division:
- Gender pay gap
- Glass Ceiling
- This is because of triple shift, bad childcare provision and patriarchy
Sociological views on inequalities based on ethnicity?
- Even with laws like Race Relations Act 1976, there is little change
- Unemployment rates are higher among Asian & Black Caribbean heritage
- Because of racism
- Marxists: racism is built into capitalism
Sociological views on inequalities based on age?
- Age is socially constructed and expectations surrounding age vary
- Child labour was the norm in the 1800s
- Even with Equality Act 2010, young and old people are vulnerable to ageism and stereotyping
- unemployment rates are highest for 16-24
Sociological view on inequalities based on disability, sexuality, religion and beliefs
- Even with Equality Act 2019, people’s life chances can be influenced by disability, sexuality and religion
- Some groups experience hate crime that is motivated by hostility or prejudice
What does the embourgeoisement thesis mean?
- Working-class families are becoming middle class in their normal and values as their incomes and standards of living improve
What is affluence?
Having a lot of money and material possessions
What did the Affluent Worker Study (1960s) by Goldthorpe et al. suggest?
- Interviewed affluent workers and their wives from 3 companies about their attitudes to: work, lifestyle, aspirations and political views
- Rejected the embourgeoisement thesis
- instead, said there was a new working class who thought:
- Payed work = better living standards
- Support Labour for individual gain
- Not motivated by idea of solidarity
- instead, said there was a new working class who thought:
What did Fiona Devine (1992) Affluent Workers’ Study show?
- Explored how far working-class people’s lifestyles were privatised in the 1980s
- Rejected Goldthorpe’s ideas
- Her sample didn’t show purely home-centred WC families
- Interviewees weren’t purely motivated by desire to improve living standards
- Their aspirations and political views weren’t solely individualism
What does social mobility mean?
Ability to move up or down a society’s strata
What does inter-generational social mobility mean?
Movement between the generations
What is the social mobility trend in the UK?
Fell down towards the end of the 20th century due to the decline of manual jobs and growth of professional jobs
What are the problems faced when measuring social mobility?
- Deciding which point in a person’s career to measure mobility
- Some studies reveal nothing about women’s mobility
- Some participants may not remember their employment histories
What does wealth mean?
Ownership of assets
What does income mean?
Flow of resources that individuals and households receive over a specific period of time
What is absolute poverty
Income is insufficient to obtain minimum needed to survive
What is relative poverty?
Income is well below average, so they are poor compared to others in society
What does social exclusion mean?
Being excluded from participation in society’s social, economic, political and cultural life
What is subjective poverty
Based on whether people see themselves as living in poverty
What does environmental poverty mean?
Measures deprivation in terms of conditions
What are low incomes?
Below 60% of the median income of the population after housing costs
What is Townsend’s view on poverty in the UK
- Developed a deprivation index (of 12 items) to measure relative deprivation
- Found that almost 23% of the UK population are in poverty
- Higher than state standard (6.1%)
- Higher than relative income standard of poverty (9%)
What are the criticisms of Townsend’s deprivation index?
- Some items in the index and how they were selected
- Index is inadequate = questionable statistics
Why are ethnic minorities at risk of poverty?
Disadvantages in terms on unemployment, pay and the quality of their job due to racism and discrimination
Why are women more at risk of poverty than men?
Women have longer life expectancies, more likely to lead lone-parent families, gender pay gap and more likely to work part time
Why are children at risk of poverty?
- if they have more than 4 siblings or live with a lone parent from an ethnic minority. Can have an impact on the child’s life chances
What is the cycle of deprivation?
Deprivation and poverty are passed on from parents to children
Criticisms of the Cycle of deprivation?
Fails to explain why some groups fall into poverty in the first place
What was Murray’s (1984) explanation of poverty in the late 1960s (in the USA) (New Right) (functionalism)
- Focused on the impact of introducing welfare benefits
- Argued that welfare reforms increased poverty:
- Increase in unmarried young mothers
- Unemployed have no interest in finding jobs
- Associated the underclass with the poor African-Americans and Hispanic people, they increased crime rates
What did Murray (1996) say about the underclass in the UK? (New right)
- Underclass is growing rapidly
- Increase in crime rates
- Increase in illegitimate births
- Increase in drop-outs from the labour force among WC men
- Says: Welfare reforms = crime, single parents and unemployment
What are criticisms of Murray? (New right)
- Way to blame the poor for their misfortune
- Suggests the underclass have different attitudes
What is the functionalist view on poverty?
Poverty has always, and will always, be present in society. They believe society offers equal opportunities to everyone, so when people end up in poverty it is a result of their individual failures (victim-blaming).
2 groups of poor people (functionalism);
- The deserving poor: People who fell into poverty due to issues outside their control, such as natural disaster.
- The undeserving poor: People who, to an extent, have chosen their lifestyles and do little to change their financial situations. They live on benefits and refuse to work out of laziness (the ‘underclass’)
What is the Marxist view on poverty?
Argues that poverty is caused by the exploitation of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
What is the the feminist perspective on poverty?
Feminists think that poverty will exist until there is complete gender inequality and until patriarchy is abolished.
They argue there is women are segregated from the public sphere, economic sphere, and workplace which leads to more poverty for women.
Weber’s view on power and authority
- 3 types of authority:
- Traditional: obedience based on culture
- Rational: obedience based on rules
- Charismatic: obedience based on personal qualities
- Power can be obtained by authority (consent) or by coercion (forcefully)
What is the Marxist perspective on power?
- Linked to social class relationships
- Bourgeoisie’s power is based on ownership
- Use their power to exploit the proletariat
- Political power comes from economic power so the bourgeoisie also hold political power
What is the feminist perspective on power?
- Gender inequality is main source of division
- Society is patriarchal
- Men get more politically, in work and family
- Society is patriarchal
- Women are under-represented among holders of political power, decision makers and within the top levels of the judiciary in Britain
What is Walby’s view on patriarchy? (Radical feminist)
- Paid work: gender pay gap
- Household: men benefit from women’s work at home
- Culture: being sexually attractive men
- Sexuality: different sexual expectations
- Male violence: gain power over women
- State: little effort to improve women’s position in public sphere
What are everyday power relationships?
- People enter power relationships when they try to control other people
- Power relationships operate when there are inequalities in power between individuals and groups
What is democracy?
government by people through votes. Their power is based on rational, legal authority
What is a dictatorship?
All power belongs to one person. Propaganda and censorship of the media is used
What is a representative democracy?
Citizens elect representatives who make political decisions on their behalf
What does first-past-the-post mean?
Voters cast votes -> most candidates belong to a politic party -> most votes become member of parliament
How is government in UK selected?
- MP’s elected by PM
- The military and police are independent of the government
What is the pluralist view?
- Everyone is free to join or start a pressure group
- shows democracy at work
- Pressure groups inform the public about different topics
- Governments have to listen to pressure groups between elections, this spreads power
What is a protective interest group?
Looks after the interest of their members
What is a promotional interest group?
Looks after common cause
What is a conflict group?
Some groups are more powerful than others (more money, members and connection)
