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Social Stratification/Social Inequality

What Is Social Stratification?


Social stratification is defined as a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. There are four fundamental principles of stratification:

Social stratification is a characteristic of society, not simply a function of individual differences. Social stratification persists over generations.

However, most societies allow some social mobility or changes in peoples position in a social hierarchy. Social mobility may be upward, downward, or horizontal.

Social stratification is universal but variable. Social stratification involves not just inequality but also beliefs and lifestyle. Social stratification is Social Inequality.

Caste and Class Systems.


A caste system amounts to social stratification based on ascription.

Illustrations: India and South Africa. Caste systems shape people lea lives in four crucial ways:

Caste largely determines occupation. Caste systems generally mandate endogamy. Powerful cultural beliefs underlie caste systems. Caste systems limit outgroup social contacts.

In a class system, social stratification is based on individual achievement.

Industrial societies support meritocracy, a system in which social position is based entirely on personal merit. In class systems, status consistency, the degree of consistency of a persons social standing across various dimensions of social inequality, is lower than in caste systems. The United Kingdom is a mix of meritocracy and caste in a class system. During the feudal era, British society was divided into three estates:

The first estate were the hereditary nobility. The second estate were the clergy.

Classless Societies?

An illustration: The former Soviet Union.

Although the former Soviet Union claimed to be classless, in reality important inequalities endured. The second Soviet revolution. Social mobility is relatively common in the Soviet Union, especially structural social mobility, a shift in the social position of large numbers of people due more to changes in society itself than to individual efforts.

Stratification persists because it is backed up by an ideology, cultural beliefs that directly or indirectly justify social stratification.

The Functions of Social Stratification

The Davis-Moore thesis is the assertion that social stratification is a universal pattern because it has beneficial consequences for the operation of a society. These criticisms have been raised regarding Davis-Moore:

It is difficult to specify the functional importance of a given occupation; some are clearly over- or under-rewarded. Davis-Moore ignores how social stratification can prevent the development of individual talents. The theory also ignores how social inequality may promote conflict and revolution.

Stratification and Conflict


Karl Marx: Class and conflict

Marx saw classes as defined by peoples relationship to the means of production.

Capitalists (or the bourgeoisie) are people who own factories and other productive businesses. The proletariat are people who sell their productive labor for wages. Marxs theory has been enormously influential. His work has been criticized for failing to recognize that a system of unequal rewards may be necessary to motivate people to perform their social roles effectively.

Critical evaluation.

These reasons are suggested for the failure of Western capitalism to experience a Marxist revolution:

The capitalist class has fragmented and grown in size, giving more people a stake in the system. The proletariat has also changed.

Blue-collar occupations, lower-prestige work involving mostly manual labor, have declined. White-collar occupations, higher-prestige work involving mostly mental activity, have expanded. Workers are better organized than they were in Marxs day, and their unions have been able to fight for reform. The government has extended various legal protections to workers.

The proletariat has also changed.

Supporters of Marxist thought respond:


Wealth remains highly concentrated. White-collar jobs offer no more income, security, or satisfaction than blue-collar jobs did a century ago. Class conflict continues between workers and management. The laws still favor the rich.

Max Weber identified three distinct dimensions of stratification: Class, status, and power.

Supporters of Marxist thought respond:

Following Weber, many sociologists use the term socioeconomic status, a composite ranking based on various dimensions of social inequality. Inequality in history: Webers view. Critical evaluation. Webers views have been widely accepted in the United States although hard economic times may lead to a renewed emphasis on the importance of economic classes.

Stratification and Technology: A Global Survey


Structured inequality is minimal in hunting and gathering cultures. A small elite controls most of the resources in horticultural and pastoral societies. Industrialization initially increases inequality, but over time social inequality declines somewhat. Global Map: Income Disparity in Global Perspective.

Inequality In the Philippines Social Classes in the Philippines The Difference Class Makes
Health Values and attitudes Family patterns

Social Mobility
Types of social mobility

Upward and downward. Intragenerational social mobility is a change in social position occurring during a persons lifetime; intergenerational social mobility is upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents. Four general conclusions:

Myth versus reality.

Social mobility, at least among men, has been fairly high. The long-term trend in social mobility has been upward. Within a single generation, social mobility is usually incremental, not dramatic. The short-term trend has been stagnation, with some income polarization.

Mobility varies by income level. Mobility also varies by race, ethnicity, and gender.

Poverty in the Philippines


Relative poverty refers to the deprivation of some people in relation to those who have more. Absolute poverty is a deprivation of resources that is life-threatening. The extent of Philippine poverty. Objective and Subjective Ratings. Who are the poor?

Age Race and ethnicity Gender and family patterns

The feminization of poverty is the trend by which women represent an increasing proportion of the poor.

Urban and rural poverty.

Explaining poverty

One view: The poor are primarily responsible for their own poverty.

The culture of poverty. Most of the evidence suggests that society rather than the individual is primarily responsible for poverty. The working poor.

Another view: Society is primarily responsible for poverty.

Homelessness. Class and welfare, politics and values.

Other forms of social inequality by gender and race, for example.

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