YMAY Chapter 7 - 9 Flashcards
social equality
(Rousseau) a condition in which no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on non-natural conventions exist
Rousseau’s two forms of inequality
physical (natural) - age, health, body strength, mind & social (political) - power and privilege given to others by ‘men’. being rich, honorable, powerful etc.
Three individuals that see income inequality as “necessary or maybe even good”
Millar, Ferguson, Malthus
How does income inequality exact social progress?
Private property is important here as it leads to improved social organization and efficiency. Owning property that is an asset for the future acts as incentive for individuals to work beyond the bare essentials of today and thereby improve society in the long run.
How does Malthus see inequality
He thinks it will prevent problems that would stem from overpopulation by limiting the number of people that can grow there families and societies.
dialectic
two-directional relationship, following a patter in which an original statement or thesis is countered with an antithesis leading to a conclusion that unites the strengths of the original position and the counterarguments
Master-Slave Dialectic
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Equality of Opportunity
the idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone.
Bourgeois society
society of commerce in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive.
Equality of Condition
everyone should have an equal starting point.
Equality of outcome
each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the “game”
Free rider problem
the notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight
Ideal types of social stratification
Estate, Caste, Class, Status Hierarchy, and (arguably) Elite-Mass Dichotomy
Estate System
politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility. Land ownership is essential for wielding any social power.
Caste System
religion based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility. hereditary notions of religious purity.
Class system
economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility.
Proletariat
the working class
Bourgeoisie
the capitalist class
Contradictory class locations
the idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two “pure” classes.
Status Hierarchy System
class system based on social prestige. your social status and position are most important for defining your social power.
Elite-mass dichotomy system
a system of stratification that has governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society. System also appears to incorporate a system of meritocracy.
Meritocracy
a society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement.
socioeconomic status
an individual’s position in a stratified social order
income
money for work, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or government assistance), or from returns on investments
wealth
family or individual’s net worth (total assets minus total debts)
upper class
term for the economic elite
middle class
commonly used to describe those individuals with non-manual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line - though this is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the U.S. - everybody thinks they are middle class.
social mobility
movement between different positions within a system of social stratification
horizontal social mobility
you can change status but still exist in a similar social standing
vertical social mobility
the ability to move up or down between social classes.
structural mobility
mobility that is inevitable due to changes in the economy.
exchange mobility
mobility in which, if we hold fixed the changing distribution of jobs, individuals trade jobs not one-to-one but in a way that ultimately balances out.
Status-attainment model
approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more desirable occupations.
Feminism
a consciousness raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief is that women and men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect.
Sex
biological differences - males , females
sexuality
desire, sexual preference, and sexual identity and behavior.
gender
a social position; the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories.
essentialism
a line of though that explains social phenomena in terms fo natural ones
biological determinism
a line of thought that explains social behavior in terms of who you are in the natural world
hegemonic masculinity
the condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisible.
gender roles
sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female
patriarchy
a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity.
structural functionalism
theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures(the family, the division of labor, or gender_ that exist to fulfill some set of necessary functions (reproduction of the species, production of goods, etc.).
sex role theory
Talcott Parson’s theory that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers, respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers.
