Assignment 4 OL Xu PDF

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SOC 100 Online: Principles of SociologyAssignment #For each of the following questions, use examples from each of the readings and/or videos whenever possible to support your answers. Whenever you are asked to give an example, you need to provide your own example; examples discussed in the book will...

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SOC 100 Online: Principles of Sociology Assignment #4 For each of the following questions, use examples from each of the readings and/or videos whenever possible to support your answers. Whenever you are asked to give an example, you need to provide your own example; examples discussed in the book will not be accepted.

1. (a) Why does stratification exist? Discuss how each of the three theoretical perspectives – functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism – would answer this question. (b) Which of these theories do you think best explains why stratification exists? Why do you believe that this theory is most accurate? Answers should be approximately 2-3 paragraphs (5 points) Social stratification exists because, whether we like it or not, there is an inequality of wealth that is distributed among different classes. A functionalist would explain that social stratification serves a purpose of rewarding those that put in the work to get qualified for a certain job with more money. There have to be incentives for people to get an education and to work harder so that they will earn more money. A conflict theorist is very concerned with the issues creating these separations and inequalities between classes. Since they are working to eliminate barriers to move classes, they think that stratification is an agent keeping inequalities the way they are. It is literally causing the conflicts they are trying to diminish. With symbolic interactionism, stratification is used to explain why people interact with the people that they do. People in lower classes tend to only interact with people of the same income level as them on a day to day business. I think that the symbolic interactionism theory is the best way to explain how stratification occurs, but in reality, it only continues to exist because of the functionalism theory. This is the whole reason that I am going to college to get an education — I am a first-generation college student so I am trying to pull myself out of the current class that I am in so that I can be rewarded for doing more skilled work. It is the principle of how to make more money and how to separate yourself from everyone else in the world.

2. (a) What is social mobility? (b) What are the different types of social mobility? Define each of these types. (c) Provide an example of each type of social mobility. Answers should be approximately 1-2 paragraphs (5 points) Social mobility is the process of moving from one social class/status to another. Some of the types of social mobility are upward, downward, intergenerational, intragenerational (members of a family belonging to different classes), structural (entire groups of people moving up). Upward mobility is an upward shift in class; an example of this would be getting a promotion and becoming the CEO of a company. Downward mobility is the opposite; it is going down because of something such as bankruptcy and losing your place in the higher class. Intergenerational mobility is moving up a class higher than your previous parents/generations. This would be my situation because my parents did not attend college so they are lower, but I

will most likely be in a higher class than them, and hopefully my children will be higher than me. Intragenerational is when different members of the same family belong to different classes. This would be like my sister deciding she does not want to go to college and working manual labor for the rest of her life while I become one of the top executives of my company. Structural mobility encompasses a whole group of people that move up or down in society; this could happen if minimum wage was raised and everyone working those jobs were able to improve their standard of living. 3. Compare and contrast modernization theory and dependency theory. What does each theory suggest about why certain countries are wealthy and why certain countries are poor? Answers should be approximately 1-2 paragraphs (5 points) The modernization theory states that countries have such low income because they have not industrialized and have not had enough motivation to improve their current conditions. On the other hand, the dependency theory states that countries are not stable because they have become reliant on core countries that are well established. They rely on them to stimulate the economy instead of being stable enough to handle everything on their own. The modernization theory suggests that every country has the resources they need to be successful, but some just aren’t doing a good enough job of utilizing them as the stronger countries. The dependency theory states that the poorer countries relying on the core ones are so deep into a cycle of dependence that it is virtually impossible for them to break that cycle and become sustainable on their own. The Following Question is from Reading 11 in Sociology in Action (Long: U.S. Inequality Keeps Getting Uglier) 4. How has income changed for the very wealthy in the U.S.? How has income changed for the bottom 50% of Americans? What are some factors that have contributed to the increase in income inequality in the U.S.? Answers should be approximately a few sentences (5 points) Income for the wealthy has increased drastically; they went from taking only 10% of all US income to taking more than 20% today. For the bottom 50% of Americans, average income has not changed the last 30 years. Some factors are that, after the fall in 2009, the wealthy were much more able to recover financially than the bottom 50%. Wages have also stayed extremely low and people are still living paycheck to paycheck even 10 years after the market plummeted.

The following Question is from Reading 21 in Sociology in Action (Hjelmgaard: Study: 8 People Have Same Wealth as World’s Poorest Half)

5. What role does globalization play in understanding the increase in global income inequality? What are some potential consequences of rising global inequality? Who benefits and who is disadvantaged by this trend? Answers should be approximately a few sentences (5 points) Globalization has increased the global income inequality because the richest men in the world are grouped together, and the poorest of the poor are in their own group. Some consequences we could be seeing are that the wealthy people at the very top joining forces and trying to get leading government positions to where they can control the wealth even more. They already have so much power and could do a lot of damage if this were to happen. The wealthy obviously benefit and the bottom 50% pay the price....