Download Chapter 5 and 6: Stratification, Inequality by Social Class, Race and Ethnicity - Prof. An and more Study notes Introduction to Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 5 STRATIFICATION IN THE US AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY Understanding Stratification Stratification by Social Class Social Mobility The Global Divide Social inequality: condition in which members of a society enjoy different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power. Stratification: entire groups of people that perpetuate unequal economic rewards and power. Income: salaries and wages. Wealth: material assets such as land, stocks, and other property. Ascribed status: a social position “assigned” to a person by society without regard for that person’s unique talents or characteristics. Achieved status: a social position attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts. Slavery: most extreme form of legalized social inequality for individuals or groups. Castes: hereditary systems of rank, usually religiously dictated, that tend to be fixed and immobile. Estate system or Feudalism: required peasants to work land leased to them by nobles in exchange for military protection and other services. Class system: a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility. Max Weber’s View of Stratification: Weber used the term class to refer to a group of people who have similar level of wealth and income. He used the term status group to refer to people who have the same prestige or lifestyle. Power: the ability to exercise one’s will over others. THORSTEIN VEBLEN noted that those at the top of the social hierarchy typically convert part of their wealth into conspicuous consumption purchasing more automobiles than they can reasonably use and building houses with more rooms than they can possibly occupy. Objective method: researchers assign individuals to social classes on the basis of criteria such as occupation, education, income, and place of residence. The key to the objective method is that the researcher, rather than the person being classified, identifies an individual’s class position. Prestige: the respect and admiration that an occupation holds in a society. Esteem: the reputation that a specific person has earned within an occupation. Socioeconomic status (SES): a measure of social class that is based on income, education, and occupation. Absolute poverty: a minimum level of subsistence that no family should be expected to live below. Relative poverty: a floating standard of deprivation by which people at the bottom of a society, whatever their lifestyles, are judged to be disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole. Feminization of poverty: women have constituted an increasing proportion of the poor people of the U.S. Many of them are divorced or never-married mothers. In 1959 female householders accounted for 28.3% of the nation’s poor; by 2007 that figure had risen to 53%. Life chances: the opportunities people have to provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experiences. Social mobility: the movement of individuals or groups from one position in a society’s stratification system to another. Closed system: allows little or no possibility of moving up. The slavery, caste, and estate systems of stratifications are examples of closed systems. In such societies, social placement is based on ascribed statues that cannot be changed, such as race or family background. Horizontal mobility: an airline pilot who becomes a police officer moves from one social position to another of the same rank. Each occupation has the same prestige ranking: 60 on a scale ranging from a low of 0 to a high of 100.
