Chapter 10 Notes PDF

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Chapter 10 Life Chances -The positions we occupy in society shape our outcomes -Life Chances- the concept that our likelihood for success is shaped by our access to valued material, social, and cultural resources -Systems of Stratification -Stratification- structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society -Strata- refers to a layer of stratification -All societies are stratified, but it can take different from -slavery -caste -estate -class -Slavery- a system of enforced servitude in which some people re owned by others as property -Caste- system where boundaries between strata are clear, relations between them are regulated, and social status is ascribed -Estate System- power divided between the church, the nobility, and the commoners -Class System- social ranking based primarily on economic position -Social Classes -five class model used to describe US Class system -Upper Class -Upper Middle Class -Middle Class -Working Class -Lower Class -Social Mobility- movement of individuals or gourds within or between a society’s strata -open versus closed stratification systems -open system- a system of stratification that does allow for social mobility between strata -closed system- a system of stratification that does not allow for social mobility between strata -Types of Social mobility -Horizontal Mobility- movement from one social position to another of the same rank -Vertical Mobility- movement from one social position to another of a different rank -Intergenerational Mobility- changes in social position of children relative to their parents -Intragenerational Mobility- changes in social position within a person’s adult life

Social Class in the United States -Stratification in the United States is based primarily on social class -It is affected by material, social, and cultural resources -Income and Wealth -Income- wages and salaries measured over some period, such as per hour or per year -Wealth- total of a person’s material assets, including savings, land, sticks, and other types of property, minus his or her debts at a single point in time -Income -Income inequality is a basic characteristic of a class system -In the US, the top 5% earns a significantly greater percent of total income than the bottom 40% combined -Incomes have increased across the board since 1970 -However, income inequality in the US has increased steadily since 1970 as well -Wealth -Distributed more evenly then income -The top 1% owns over 35% of all wealth -This is more than the bottom 90% combined -Poverty -In 2013, over 45.3 million people in the US (14.5% of the population) was living in poverty -Defining Poverty -Absolute Poverty- minimum level of subsistence that no family should be expected to live below -common measure is federal government’s poverty line -Relative Poverty- floating standard of deprivation by which people at the bottom of a society are judged as being disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole -Critics charge the federal poverty line does a bad job -Who are the poor? -US stereotypes about poverty are flawed -Likelihood of poverty shaped age, race, ethnicity, family type, other factors -Many poor Americans working -Increasing proportion of poor are women -In 2013, 43% of poor lived in big cities within metropolitan areas -Overall composition of poor changes continually -US assistance for poor relatively low -“Interlocking deficits of poverty" hold poor black -The American Dream -Most adults in the US believe it is possible to get ahead through skill and hard work -this reflects the centuries-long history of viewing the United States as a meritocracy a society where one’s social status is earned

-An aristocracy is a society where privilege and elite status is inherited -Growing concern about social mobility -Mobility does occur, but most do no move very far -Likelihood of ending up in the same position as parents has been rising since 1980 -Higher education important to mobility, but those with the lowest incomes have the worst access -Increased levels of neighborhood, educational, social network segregation are increasing the class divide -Belief in meritocracy leads those who are well-off to discount the help they received from others Sociological Perspectives on Stratification -Marx and Material Resources -Social relations depend on who controls the primary mode of production -Two main classes in a capitalist society -Bourgeoisie- Capitalist class; comprising owners of the means of production -Proletariat- Working class; those who lack ownership of the means of production -By its very nature, capitalism drives down wages and working conditions -Capitalism also encourages innovation -Class Consciousness- awareness by members of a class of their common interests and the need for collective political action to bring about change -Marx believed consciousness among the proletariat would lead it to reject capitalism -Dominant Ideology- set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps maintain status quo -False Consciousness- attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position -Weber and Social Resources -Weber believed that both material and social resources are important to social class -Class- group of people who have similar level of wealth and income -Status Group- people who have the same perceived level of prestige -Prestige- the respect and admiration that a particular status holds in society -Socioeconomic Status (SES)- measure of social class position based on education, occupation, and income -Party- capacity to organize to accomplish some particular goal -Bourdieu and Cultural Resources -Cultural Capital- our tastes, knowledge, language, and ways of thinking that we exchange in interaction with others

-Because culture is hierarchically valued, it is a form of power -People in different classes possess different types of cultural capital -It can be used as a form of exclusion -Cultural Capital is passed down the same way as material capital -Material, Social, and Cultural Resources -Material resources are economic resources we won or control -Social resources are prestige based on the position we occupy and social network connection -Cultural resources are our tastes, language, and way of looking at the world -It is relatively easy to continue on the same social paths -Changing social status is akin to changing identities -A successful change in status requires that others acknowledge and accept it...