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62 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Stratification
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Inequalities within human structures and societies
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Three Aspects of Stratification
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Class, Status and Power
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Systems of Stratification
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Systems that group people into social categories based heavily on achieved and ascribed social status
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Class
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Social group of people who occupy a similar economic position in society
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Social Classes
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Upper 5%
Middle 40-45% Working 33% Lower 20% |
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Plato
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Every culture considers some type of inequality "fair"
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Marx
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Capitalist societies keep wealth and power for a few
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Spencer
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Socieites are survival of the fittest
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Davis-Moore
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Social Stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of a society. the greater the importance of a position, the more rewards a society attaches to it. Its a kind of incentive.
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Marx
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Capitalism systemically breeds inequality and the majority should organize to overthrow capitalism.
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Bourgeoisie
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Those with Production capabilities (Capitalists)
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Proletariet
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Working Class
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Kuznets Curve
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Argues that inequality increases during early industrialization and eventually stabilizes at low levels.
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Old Income Terminaology
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High Income- Richest 40
Middle Income- Somewhat poorer nations with economic development typical for the world as a whole |
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Low Income Countries
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Remaining Sixty with lowest productivity and extensive poverty
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high Income Charicteristics
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First to develop in Industrial Revolution + Over half the world's Income
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Middle Income Countries
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Limited Industrialization, $2500 to $10,000. Rural and agricultural Based Economies.
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Low Income Countries
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60 Nations, Half of world's poor, short life expectancy.
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Global Power Relationships
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Colonialism- The Process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations
Neocolonialism- A New form of global power relationship that does not involve direct control but rather economic exploitation by multinational corporations |
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Multinational Corporations
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Huge Businesses that operate in many countries
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Poverty Threshold
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Three times the income needed to purchase a nutritionally adequete diet. Adjusted for family size.
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Steps towards Public Policy
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Known Hazard, Probabliity of Injury/Death, Significant loss/harm, alternatives, benefits outweigh costs of regulation, failure of industry to self regulate, Politics - R&B years = No Regulations
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Homelessnes
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No Definite count
1/3 are mentally ill 1/3 are single males 1/3 are families displaed by structural changes Families with Children have highest growth Single Black Males make up majority of homeless |
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Economic Homeless
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Can't find affordable housing,
Services needed: affordable, suitable housing |
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Situational Homeless
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Economic Problems plus life conflicts.
Dangerous/Traumatic situations: Battering spouse, abusive parents, etc. Long Histories of abuse, depression and dysfunctional lifestyle. |
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Chronic Homeless
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Individuals involved with drugs, alcohol and mental dysfunction.
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Weber on Stratification
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Class Divisions come not only from lack of control of productions but economic differences like skills and education.
Considers status and consideration of race and gender. |
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Davis and Moore On Stratification
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Claimed stratification had beneficial consequences for society. Claimed that inequalities in status or money were incentives to attract intelligent, qualified people into important roles.
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Erik Olin Wright
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Believes in three main areas of control for economic resources in modern capitalist production whoch allow us to identify the major classes that exist:
Control over money/investments Control over physical means of production Control over labor power |
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Women and Poverty
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Women's labor unrecognized, undervalued and underpaid.
70% of worlds population of those livign near poverty line are women. |
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Slavery
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Chattel Slavery- One owns another
Child- Common form of bondage Debt bondage- Employers hold workers to pay for their debts Serville forms of marriage- Married agaisnt their will or forced into prostitution |
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Dependency Theory
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Model of economic Development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor societies by rich ones.
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Wallerstein's Capitalist World Economy
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Today's world economy is rooted in colonization that began 500 years ago:
Rich countries at the core, being fueled by raw materials from around the world Lower income at the Periphery, providing cheap labor and a market for industrial products Middle income have closer ties to core This model attempts to explain modern world inequality. A major point in this perspective is that the world economy, a global system, is beyond the control of traditional nations, and is dominated by capitalism. The rich nations are at the core of this world economy. This system perpetuates poverty in the rest of the world by creating and maintaining the dependency of these nations. This dependency is caused primarily by three factors: 1. Narrow, export-oriented economies focussed on raw materials. 2. Lack of industrial capacity which means manufactured goods must be purchased. 3. Excessive foreign debt. |
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Wallterstein's Theories
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The world economy benefits rich societies by generating profits and harming the rest of the workld by perpetuating poverty and creating dependence of poor countries by rich countries.
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Gender Stratification
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Unequal distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women
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Glass Ceiling
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Pay increases for men will often not result in the same pay increases for women.
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Feminization of poverty
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More women caught in cycles of poverty as a result of more women in the labor force coupled with lower wages provided for them.
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Structural Functional analysis
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Gender functions to organize social life
complementary roles for familiy in order to carry out various tasks |
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Social Conflict Analysis (Engle)
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Friedrich Engle: Capitalism Intensifies male domination
Friedrich Engels saw technology leading to a productive surplus and a class system to dispose of the surplus wealth. With agricultural surplus, gender inequality was created as monogamous marriage and progeny were necessary to maintain control of private property and women built their lives around husbands and children. Engels contended that capitalism intensified this male domination. |
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Ferguson Chapter 23
Tumin's Counter argument |
Davis and Brooks argue that stratification is a functional necessity and society sets rewards accordingly. Tumin argues that it is not neccesary by sayng higher positions are filled with people from the elite of society and are retaken by the people from the same elite class
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Ferguson Chapter 24
What is class? |
More than income, behavioral guidelines and rich mans mentality. Class is institutionalized because of schooling/clubs and culture.
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Ferguson Chapter 25
Hidden Cost of Being Black |
Strong correlation between race and class.
Blacks lack the "step up" that wealthy whites have (inheritance, a leftover house, parents can afford education) |
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Ferguson Chapter 35
Power Elite |
Political, Military and Corporate
Mostly filled by upper class |
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Ferguson Chapter 41
Marx Communist Manifesto |
Proletariat- Working Class
Beageoisie- Capitalists, owned means of production Working Class exploited, alienated from products they made |
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Chapter 4?
Mcdonalds: Marxist view vs. Durkheim |
Marx, and individual is alienated from a product
Durkheim= Very clear rules help a social system function well. However, super micromanagement hurts the system. |
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Chapter 44
Protestant Work Ethic |
Weber looked at the effects of protestant work ethic on the country
Protestants believed working really hard brought them closer to God or made them validate their spot in heaven (predestination). Basis for the attitude expressed in the American Capitalist economy. Significant because it connected morals to work ethic |
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Gender
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Nature vs. Nurture- Sociobio's believe anatomy determines gender. Sex theorists believes society dictates gender.
Structure- No basis, mostly on structure Interactionist- When one is labled male or female, they assume the behavioral norms of that position |
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Gender Social Structure
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Gender is used to justify the basis of power imbalance
"women paid less" |
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New Racism
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Racism is now more underground and not as blatant as before.
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Lareau
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Class is a better factor for affirmative action
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Capitalism breeds ___
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inequality
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Inequality is linked to __
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social problems and has a strong correlation to mental illness
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Talcott Parsons
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Talcott Parsons theorized that gender plays a part in integrating society by providing men and women with a set of complementary roles (instrumental and expressive) which they learn through the socialization process. The primary societal responsibility of women, in this view, is child-rearing. Thus, they are socialized to display expressive qualities. Men are responsible for achievement in the labour force and therefore are socialized to exhibit instrumental traits.
Criticisms of this approach include the lack of recognition that many women have traditionally worked outside the home, the neglect of the personal strains associated with such a family orientation and the fact that what is reinforced is simply male domination. |
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Housework: Women's "Second Shift"
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Despite women's rapid entry into the labour force they continue to do most of the shopping, cooking and cleaning, amounting to what sociologists call a "second shift", a shift which introduces considerable stress to their lives. Global Map 13-3 (p.320) outlines the proportions of housework performed by women globally.
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Meritocracy
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Meritocracy, a system of social stratification based on personal merit, would, theoretically, be a very productive system. Melvin Tumin argues that functional importance of tasks is difficult to measure. Other structures block equal access to jobs and social conflict is promoted by stratification. The Controversy and Debate box (pp. 246-47) suggests that the market forces which reward athletes, entertainers and chief executive officers of large corporations are obviously not operating according to the principles of functional importance.
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Karl Marx: Class and Conflict
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Marx's view of social stratification is based on his observations of industrialization in Europe during the second half of the 19th century. He saw a class division between the capitalists (owners of the means of production) and the workers (proletariat). This resulted in separation and inevitable conflict. As influential as Marx's thinking has been for sociological understanding of social stratification, it does overlook its motivating value. The insight provided by the Davis-Moore thesis perhaps explains, in part, the low productivity characteristic of former socialist economies. Supporters of Marx still contend, however, that people are not inherently selfish and could be motivated to perform social roles for more intrinsic rewards.
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Max Weber: Class, Status, and Power
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Max Weber viewed Marx's ideas of social class as being too simplistic. Weber theorized that there were three dimensions of social inequality: class, status, and power.
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Scapegoat Theory
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Scapegoat theory suggests that frustration leads to prejudice especially on the part of people who themselves are disadvantaged. A scapegoat is a person or category of people unfairly blamed for the troubles of others.
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Authoritarian Personality Theory
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The authoritarian personality notion, first suggested by T. W. Adorno, holds that extreme prejudice is a personality trait linked to persons who conform rigidly to cultural norms and values. Such people typically have little education and were raised by cold and demanding parents.
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Cultural Theory
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This view suggests that some prejudice is embedded in cultural values. Emory Bogardus developed the concept of social distance to measure the attitudes of Americans toward different racial and ethnic groups. His findings conclude that prejudice is operative throughout American society.
Although Canadians may be more tolerant than Americans toward racial and ethnic minorities, there is still evidence of a Eurocentric bias. |
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Conflict Theory
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This approach argues that prejudice results from social conflict among categories of people. Prejudice is used as an ideology to legitimate the oppression of certain groups or categories of people. A different argument is also presented in this context which focuses on the climate of race consciousness being created by minorities themselves as a political strategy to gain power and privilege.
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Habitus
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In Bourdieu's work, habitus can be defined as a system of durable and transposable[3] "dispositions” (lasting, acquired schemes of perception, thought and action). The individual agent develops these dispositions in response to the determining structures (such as class, family, and education) and external conditions (field)s they encounter. They are therefore neither wholly voluntary nor wholly involuntary.
The habitus provides the practical skills and dispositions necessary to navigate within different fields (such as sports, professional life, art) and guides the choices of the individual without ever being strictly reducible to prescribed, formal rules.[4] At the same time, the habitus is constantly remade by these navigations and choices (including the success or failure of previous actions). Describing neither complete determination by social factors nor individual autonomy, the habitus mediates between “objective” structures of social relations and the individual “subjective” behavior of actors. In this way Bourdieu theorizes the inculcation of objective social structures into the subjective, mental experience of agents. Translation: Intrinsic mental and social states are heavily influenced by outside factors |