Chapter 7 Stratification PDF

CHAPTER 7 Stratification Paradox Inequality is the result of abundance. https://nerd.wwnorton.com/nerd/275596 /r/goto/cfi/126!/4 Chapter 7 Outline How Is America Stratified Today? Views of Inequality Standards of Equality Forms of Stratification Social Repro...

CHAPTER 7 Stratification Paradox Inequality is the result of abundance. https://nerd.wwnorton.com/nerd/275596 /r/goto/cfi/126!/4 Chapter 7 Outline How Is America Stratified Today? Views of Inequality Standards of Equality Forms of Stratification Social Reproduction versus Social Mobility Global Inequality How Is America Stratified Today? Understand the different characteristics of lay class groupings in U.S. society. Socioeconomic Status Socioeconomic status: an individual’s position in a stratified social order. Stratification: the hierarchical organization of a society into groups with differing levels of power, social prestige, or status and economic resources. Socioeconomic categories are the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the poor. Income: money received by a person for work, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or government assistance), or from returns on investments. Wealth: a family’s or individual’s net worth (i.e., total assets minus total debts). The Upper Class Upper class: a term for the economic elite. One defining characteristic is their source of income, most of which comes from returns on investments rather than wages. Historically, the upper class was distinguished by not having to work. They were the aristocracy, the wealthy, the elite, the landowners. You could only join this group by birth, or occasionally, marriage. Today, the upper class also includes those who “struck it rich,” through work, entrepreneurship, or other means. The Middle and Working Classes Middle class: a term commonly used to describe those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line. In U.S., 90% identify as middle class. Socioeconomic categories are blurry, especially when separating the middle class from the working class. Historically, prior to WWII: The middle class was composed of white-collar workers (office workers). The working class was composed of manual workers (those who work using their hands or bodies). The Poor In 2023, the poverty line for a family of four was $30,000. The focus on day-to-day survival keeps the poor clearly planted in the present. Policy-makers often distinguish between “the working poor” (by which they mean those who deserve assistance) and the “nonworking poor” (those who can work but don’t and therefore have a weaker moral claim on assistance). Views of Inequality Describe social equality based on evolving historical contexts. Rousseau: Humans Good, Property Bad In the 18th century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that private property creates social inequality, which ultimately leads to social conflict. Social equality: a condition in which no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist. Scottish Enlightenment: Inequality is Good Adam Ferguson and John Millar agreed with Rousseau that private property creates inequality, but they also argued that inequality is good because it means that some people are getting ahead and creating assets (a form of wealth that can be stored for the future). Thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment saw inequality as good, or at least necessary. From that point of view, what are some scenarios in which inequality may be seen as positive? Malthus: Man Is Destined to Starve Thomas Malthus viewed inequality favorably, but only as a means for controlling population growth. He thought a more equal distribution of resources would increase the world’s population to unsustainable levels and ultimately bring about mass starvation and conflict. Hegel: Things Are Getting Better Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel viewed history in terms of a master–slave dialectic. Dialectic: a two-directional relationship, following a pattern 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. Hegel argued that notions of inequality are constantly evolving in a larger historical arc. He saw this as a trajectory that would eventually lead to equality for everyone (or very nearly everyone). Marx and Weber: Modern Theories of Inequality Marx’s theory of history, dialectic materialism, posited that social change emerged from groups’ struggle for the control of economic resources. Dialectic materialism: a notion of history that privileges conflict over economic, material resources as the central struggle and driver of change in society. Weber challenged Marx’s argument about the causes of inequality, saying that ideas (such as religion) play a big role in determining who gets what. Structural Functionalism: Modern Theories of Inequality Structural functionalism: a theory in which society’s many parts—institutions, norms, traditions, and so on—mesh to produce a stable, working whole that evolved over time. Structural functionalism stemmed from Émile Durkheim’s idea of organic solidarity. According to this theory, inequality is functional (i.e., plays an important role) in society because it helps allocate the best people to the most important roles- Davis and Moore. Conflict Theory: Modern Theories of Inequality Conflict theory: the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general. Conflict theory is rooted in Marxism and views the social world through the lens of group conflict over resources. Stability is maintained through domination and power, not consensus. Standards of Equality Analyze opportunity, condition, and outcome in determining social equality and inequality. Equality of Opportunity 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. ? Eg., Anti discrimination laws Equality of Opportunity in Bourgeois Society Equality of opportunity is the standard model for what equality means in a bourgeois society. Bourgeois society: a society of commerce (modern capitalist society, for example) in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive. Jim Crow laws?—anti-Black statutes that relegated second-class status through educational, economic, and political exclusion—did not reflect a bourgeois notion of fairness or equality of opportunity Equality of Condition Equality of condition: the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point ? Affirmative action Equality of Outcome Equality of outcome: the idea that each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the “game.” Under equality of outcome, nobody earns more power, prestige, and wealth by working harder; the only incentive is altruistic. 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. Forms of Stratification Identify real-world examples of social hierarchy types. Ideal Types of Stratification 1. Estate system 2. Caste system 3. Class system 4. Status hierarchy system 5. Elite-mass dichotomy system Estate System Estate system: a politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility. In such a system, laws distribute rights and duties, separating individuals and distributing power unequally. This was primarily found in feudal Europe from the medieval era to the 18th century, and in the American South before the Civil War. Caste System Caste system: a (religion-based) system of stratification characterized by no social mobility. Caste societies are stratified based on hereditary notions of purity. An example of the caste system is found in India, where the varna system rooted in Hinduism was reinforced by British colonialism and prevails to this day despite its constitutional abolition almost 70 years ago. Stratification in Traditional and Modern Societies Caste societies A system in which social positions are closed, so that all individuals remain at the social level of their birth throughout life Class societies A system in which social mobility allows an individual to change their socioeconomic position See eye-opening short video to get a glimpse of caste society in India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD3HrIRPVhw 26 Class System Class system: an economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility. Among sociologists, there is no consensus about the precise definition of class, but unlike other systems, a class system implies an economic basis for the fundamental divisions in society. Class System: Proletariat vs. Bourgeoisie Karl Marx argued that society was divided strictly into two classes—the proletariat, or working class, who sells its labor to the bourgeoisie, or capitalist class. To expand upon the two-class model, Erik Olin Wright developed the concept of contradictory class locations, the idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two “pure” classes. Class is relational – exploitative Class System: Max Weber Max Weber’s concept of class is that of a group based on the common life chances or opportunities available to it in the marketplace. In other words, what distinguishes members of a class is that they have similar value in the commercial marketplace in terms of selling their own property and labor. Class is not relational, but hierarchical/ gradated Status Hierarchy System Status hierarchy system: a system of stratification based on social prestige. This prestige can be linked to different things, such as occupation, lifestyle, or membership in certain organizations, but sociologists have most often studied occupational status. The Relative Social Prestige of Selected U.S. Occupations Table 7. 1 Occupation Prestige score Blue-collar occupation White collar occupation Surgeon 88.1 X Neurologist 87.9 X Aerospace engineer and operations technician 84.1 X Biochemist 83.9 X Aerospace engineer 83.8 X Neuropsychologist 82.8 X Physicist 82.7 X Nuclear medicine physician 82.7 X Pediatrician 81.8 X Nuclear engineer 81.5 X Obstetrician/gynecologist 81.4 X Medical scientist 81.2 X Judge/magistrate 80.9 X Administrative services manager 54.3 X Electrician 54.2 X Physical therapist assistant 54.2 X Property, real state, and/or community association manager 54.1 X Human resources manager 54.1 X Compensation, benefits, and/or job analysts specialist 54.0 X Education administrator 53.9 X Manager of personal service workers 53.7 X Wind turbine service technician 53.7 X Precious metal worker 53.7 X Septic tank servicer 23.0 X Food service attendant 23.0 X Housekeeping cleaner 22.7 X Food preparation worker 22.6 X Dry-cleaning worker 22.2 X Door-to-door sales worker 22.2 X Food server 22.0 X Street vendor 22.0 X Meat-packer 21.6 X Building cleaning worker 21.3 X Fast-food cook 20.5 X Locker room attendant 20 X Parking lot attendant 19.5 X Telemarketer 15.0 X Dishwasher 14.5 X Elite–Mass Dichotomy System Elite–mass dichotomy system: a system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society. Vilfredo Pareto thought that the masses were better off in such a system because he believed in a meritocracy where the most skilled and talented people would reach the governing elite. Meritocracy: a society where status and mobility are based on individual ability and achievement. Criticism of the Elite–Mass Dichotomy System C. Wright Mills argues the elite–mass dichotomy is neither natural nor beneficial for society. He argues there are three major institutional forces in modern American society where the power of decision making has become centralized: economic institutions, the political order, and the military order. For Mills, the elite are simply those who have most of what there is to possess —money, power, and prestige—as a direct result of their positions in society’s great institutions. Discussion Which system of stratification do you think is most applicable to the U.S. today? Is there more than one system that seems relevant? Why? Social Reproduction versus Social Mobility Design sociological studies that investigate the reproduction of social stratification Social Mobility Social mobility: the movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society. Horizontal social mobility means a group or individual transitioning from one social status to another situated more or less on the same rung of the ladder. Vertical social mobility refers to the rise or fall of an individual (or group) from one social stratum to another. Vertical mobility has two directions: upward/ascending and downward/descending. It also has two forms: individual or group. Structural and Exchange Mobility Structural mobility: mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy (e.g., the expansion of high-tech jobs in the past 20 years). Exchange mobility: mobility resulting from the swapping of jobs. Status-Attainment Model 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. Research shows that parental education and net worth, not occupation or income, best predict children’s educational and other outcomes. Global Inequality Describe the effects of European colonialism and modern globalization on international inequality. Trends in Global Inequality If we take a broad view of history, global income inequality has increased dramatically in the last few centuries. Tremendous global inequalities have emerged through the combination of colonialism and unequal development. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita, 2023 Review & Discuss