Understanding social inequalities Flashcards
What is meant by social stratification?
Many societies are ordered into unequal layers/ strata of wealth, status, power and privilege according to socially recognised differences, with the most wealthy/powerful/privileged at the top and the poorest/least powerful/non-privileged at the bottom
What are social classes?
Groups of people who share a similar economic position in terms of occupation, income and ownership of wealth- likely to also have similar levels of education, status and power
Why do sociologists want to address class differences?
To identify reasons why inequalities come about
Why do advertisers want to operationalise and measure the concept of social class?
Advertisers want to target particular social groups in order to maximise sales
Why do governments want to operationalise and measure the concept of social class?
Governments need to formulate social policies in order to address inequalities and future trends
How do governments and sociologists tend to approach social class?
As an objective reality that results in observable patterns of behaviour and inequality in areas such as health, life expectancy, education etc
How do advertisers approach social class?
They are more interested in how people subjectively interpret their class position because this may effect their consumption patterns and their leisure pursuits
What is the single most objective measurable factor that corresponds to social class?
Occupation (it’s something that the majority of the population have in common)
What aspects of life do sociologists say are governed by occupation?
- level of education
- newspapers they read
- income
- standard of living
- type of house they live in
- life expectancy
How can manual jobs effect a person’s social identity?
The people in particular manual jobs may profess pride in being working class while people in professional and managerial roles may share a similar middle class outlook- doesn’t discuss those too wealthy to work or the long-term unemployed
What does NS-SEC stand for and who constructed it?
The National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification by Goldthorpe and Savage
What categories did they use to group social groups?
- employment relations (employers, self-employed, employed)
- market conditions (salaries, promotion prospects, pensions, job security, control over hours worked etc)
What were the 8 social classes identified by the NS-SEC?
- higher managerial and professional
- lower managerial and professional
- intermediate
- small employers/ own account workers
- lower supervisory, craft and related
- semi-routine
- routine
- long-term unemployed and never worked
What is the difference between the NS-SEC scale and previous measures?
It acknowledges the long-term unemployed, acknowledges feminist arguments about the patriarchal nature of previous occupational classifications (some only looked at male jobs)
Who talks about the ‘precariat’ and what is meant by it?
Standing says the precariat is a new socio-economic group and says members of this group occupy low skilled/paid jobs which are often insecure (e.g. 0 hour contracts)
What pay does Standing say the precariat do not receive?
Holiday pay and sick pay (have no pension rights too)
What sort of work does Standing say the precariat do?
Menial work that often involves unsociable hours for little reward because it is preferable to claiming benefits
What did Savage find when carrying out his in depth unstructured interviews around class?
-only a minority of his interviewees has the confidence to express their class position in an articulate way
- some preferred not to identify with a class as they saw themselves as individuals not part of a wider social grouping
- majority identified with their class in a muted way and not with any enthusiastic commitment
What did Marshall find when looking at class?
53% of their sample identified themselves as ‘working class’ despite the fact that most of them were in white collar jobs
Who is not included in the NS-SEC classification?
Those who do not have to work because they have inherited or live off unearned wealth (members of the upper class)
What is a critique of the NS-SEC regarding the categories?
They are said to be too wide in scope- principles and teachers are in the same category despite the large differences in pay, status, authority etc
How can income be defined?
The flow of money to a person or household over a period of time
When was the gap between the rich and the poor the widest in the UK?
From 1979-1997
How unequal is the UK in terms of income distribution?
It is the fifth most unequal leading economy according to the OECD
How much more do the richest 10% in the UK earn compared to the poorest 10%?
Almost 10x
How much more do FTSE 100 CEOs earn than the average full time employee?
183x more (£27,000 compared to just under £5m)
