intro to soc: Chapter 10- social stratification PDF

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lecture notes for introduction to sociology for chapter 10 on social stratification. notes were taken in the 2019/2020 academic calendar year...

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Chapter 10 10-- social stratificatio stratification n Tuesday, November 19, 2019

10:59 AM

What is social stratification • A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy • All societies rank people so that some have far greater opportunities and reso others • Some people within society have more power, wealth, and prestige than othe Principles of social stratification • Stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differenc • It carries over from generation to generation ○ Social mobility is a change in position within a social hierarchy • Social stratification is universal but variable ○ What is unequal, and how unequal it is, varies from one society to anoth • It involves not just inequality but beliefs as well ○ The explanation of why people should be unequal differs from society to always exists Caste and class system • The caste system is a social stratification based upon ascription or birth • Closed system allow for little change or mobility in social position based upon • Open systems permit much more social mobility • The caste system is close and the class system is more open • The caste system in India has 4 major castes and each level has hundreds of su ○ Families in each caste perform one kind of work ○ People marry other of the same ranking ○ Caste guides everyday life by keeping people in the company of "their ow ○ Systems rest on strong cultural beliefs • The class system is social stratification based on both birth and individual achi • Meritocracy social stratification based on personal merit • Status consistency consistency of a persons social standing across various dim inequality (wealth, power, and prestige) • A caste system has limited social mobility and high status consistency United Kingdom Et t t f it (l d ) l d

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• Estate systems of aristocracy (land owners), clergy, and commoners • Primogeniture: all property to the oldest son to prevent landholdings from bei • The industrial revolution brought wealth to commoners and placed more emp meritocracy • Today the UK has a class system, but caste elements from England's aristocrat evident Japan • Aristocratic Japan: emperor, shoguns (military leaders and nobles, samurai (wa commoners and burakumin (outcastes) • As Japan opened up to the larger world, the traditional caste system weakene • Today there is a class system. But people still look at each other through the so caste Former Soviet Union • The Russian revolution was guided by the ideas of Karl Marx, who observed th ownership of productive property is the basis of social classes • Soviet officials boated having created the first modern classless society • Soviet people actually were stratified into four unequal categories • Perestroika: Gorbachev's restructuring attempted to generate economic grow the inefficient centralized control of the economy • In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed and was remade as the modern Russian fed • Today the gap between the rich and the poor has grown • Structural social mobility: a shift in the social position of large numbers of peo changes in society itself than to individual efforts China • After the communist revolution in 1949, Mao Zedong declared all types of wor important so that social classes no longer existed • However, a hierarchy was created with the political elite at the top • 1978, Mao died and the state gradually loosened its hold on the economy • Today, a mix of the former political elite and a new business elite run the coun • Economic inequality has increased Ideology: supporting stratification • Ideology: the cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, includ • Plato: every culture considers some type of inequality to be fair • Marx: ideas as well as resources are controlled by a society's elite • Spencer: applied Darwin to society, the "fittest" people rise to wealth and pow "failures" sink to poverty

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failures sink to poverty The functions of social stratification • Social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of society (D thesis) • The greater the importance or talent required of a position, the more rewards attaches to it • Egalitarian societies offer little incentive for people to try their best Critical review • Do rewards reflect the importance of your activity/talents/skills to society? • How is that importance measured? • High rewards to doctors could occur by limiting the amount of doctors (who b this?) • The privileged can prevent development of the gifted poor • Inequality creates conflict • A system of unequal rewards is necessary to place talented people in the righ motivate them to work hard • Separating reward from performance brings low productivity • No revolution occurred in advanced capitalist societies • Industrial and post-industrial societies still show enduring patterns of social in • While some people still favour Weber's multidimensional hierarchy, Marx's ri be closer to the truth Stratification and social conflict • Benefits some, disadvantages others • Karl Marx: class conflict ○ Capitalist society reproduces class structure in each new generation ○ He predicted oppression and misery would eventually drive the working come together to overthrow capitalism Why no Marxist revolution? • The fragmentation of the capitalist class due to stockholding • A higher standard of living for workers ○ A century ago, most workers were blue-collar, lower prestige manual lab ○ Now most are white-collar, higher-prestige jobs that involve mental activ • More worker organizations, like unions • Greater legal protection, safety standards, unemployment insurance, disability Is Marxism still valid? • Wealth is highly concentrated

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Wealth is highly concentrated White-collar work offers little to workers Progress requires struggle The law still favours the rich ○ Most analysts agree that socialism failed to meet the needs of the peopl ○ But, socialism's failings do not excuse flaws in capitalism (mainly inequal Max Weber: class, status, and power • Argued that stratification is multidimensional and not based on a single factor • Three factors influence social stratification: ○ Economic inequality ○ Status and social prestige ○ Power • Socioeconomic status: composite ranking based on various dimensions of soci (SES) • Dimensions differ by type of society ○ Status in agrarian societies ○ Financial inequality within industrial societies ○ Power with large government and bureaucracies Stratification in everyday life • People socialize primarily with people of the same social standing • People with different social standing keep their distance from one another • The way we dress, the car we drive, even the food we eat, say something abou • Conspicuous consumption: using products because of the statements they ma social position Social stratification and technology • Hunter and gatherer societies ○ Little inequality • Horticulture, pastoral, and agrarian societies ○ More inequality as surplus begins leading to striking inequality • Industrial societies ○ Standard of living of poor majority is raised through increasing education labour and a lessening of men's domination over women The Kuznets Curve • In human history, technological advances first increase but then moderate soc stratification • Social inequality around the world generally supports the Kuznets curve

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• Social inequality around the world generally supports the Kuznets curve • Income inequality reflects not just technological development but also politic economic priorities • The emergence of post-industrial society has brought an upturn in economic i

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