SO1506

Stratification & Social Inequality

Lecture Outline

• What is Social Stratification?

• Dimensions of Stratification

• Systems of Stratification• The ‘Founding Fathers’ & Social Stratification

What is Social Stratification?

• The arrangement of individuals into hierarchical strata within society

• Persistent over time

• Universal but variable in form

• Supported by cultural belief

• Boundaries & Social Closure

• Stratification & Social Inequality

Dimensions of Stratification

• Race & Ethnicity

• Gender

• Age

• Social Class

Dimensions of Stratification

• Race & Ethnicity

• Origins of ‘Race’

• The ‘Race Logic’

• Segregation: South Africa &The USA

Dimensions of Stratification

• Gender Inequality

• Patriarchy

• Emancipation

Dimensions of Stratification

• Age Discrimination:

‘Over the Hill’ or the rise of ‘Grey Power’?

• Other: Sexuality, Disability

• Social Class

Forms of Stratification: Slavery

• Slavery: The Engine of Empires?

• Slavery in the 15th-19th Century: Colonial Empires

• The European/New World Slave Trade

Systems of Stratification: The Estate System (Feudalism)

Serfdom: Feudal Obligation in the Middle Ages

The Black Death & ‘The Statute of Labourers’

The French Revolution

Contemporary Slavery

• Disposable People (Bales,1999)

• People Trafficking

• Gangmasters

Systems of Stratification: Caste

Caste: Inherited ascribed social status

India, Reincarnation and Social Status

Marriage & Caste

USA and Caste?

Systems of Stratification: Social Class (UK)

The Upper Classes

The Middle Classes

The Working Classes & ‘Underclass’

(Runciman, 1990)

10%

35%

55%

Modern Societies

‘Non-ascribed’ disparities in income, health, education, housing, wealth, power, status and prestige.

Karl Marx 1818-1883

• "The (written) history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.“ (Marx, 1848)

• The Bourgeoisie (Capital) and the Proletariat (Labour)

Max Weber 1864-1920

• Social Inequality• Economic Class• Social Status• Prestige• Power

Emile Durkheim 1858-1917

Stratification is the outcome of individuals position within the division of labour, with position and rewards distributed according to ability and scarcity of skills and aptitudes.

Lecture 2

• Class, Inequality & The Market Society

• The UK (& USA)

Lecture Outline

• Social Inequality in the UK (& USA)

• The Persistence of Stratification

• Legitimation & Ideology

• Culture & The Reproduction of Inequality

• Towards A ‘Classless Society’?

Social Class Inequalities

• Nominally ‘Open’ Stratification System

• Inequalities of:

• Income

• Wealth

• Power

• Prestige

Social Inequality: The 19th & Early 20th Century

• UK: ‘Two Nations’ (Disraeli, 1845)

• USA: ‘How the Other Half Lives’ (Riis,1890)

Social Inequality: The 19th & Early 20th Century

• Citizenship T.H. Marshall (1950): Civil, Political & Social Rights

• Trade Unions • Chartism

• The Early Welfare State

Social Inequality: Mid 20th Century

The 1929 ‘Crash’

The ‘Great’ Depression

1930’s

WWII 1939 - 1945

Social Inequality: Mid 20th Century

• The ‘Post War Settlement’ & ‘The New Deal’

• ‘You’ve Never Had It So Good’ (Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister, 1951)

Social Inequality: 1970’s - Present

• Early 1970’s Economic Crises (Oil & Stagflation)

• The End of the Settlement: Thatcherism & Reaganomics

• The Marketization of Society

Contemporary Social Inequality

Distribution of Wealth, UK 2002

Top 1%

2nd to 5th percentile

6th to 10th percentile

11th to 25th percentile

26th to 50th percentile

Everyone else

Social Mobility• Argument: ‘The Gap’ (between rich and poor) doesn’t matter if no

one’s starving and there is high social mobility.• BUT:

• Absolute Poverty & Relative Deprivation (how does this affect people?)

• Social Mobility: The extent to which individuals can rise and fall within a society.

• Open societies: High Mobility• Closed societies: Low Mobility

• Most mobile ‘developed’ nations: Scandinavian countries & Canada

• Least mobile: UK, USA (OECD)

The Persistence of Social Inequality

• Ideology

• Legitimation

• Institutionalization

• Socialization

Ideology?

• Religion

• The ‘Horatio Alger’ Story• The ‘Bell Curve’(The better off are ‘naturally’

smarter) • The ‘Culture of Poverty Thesis’

• The Davis/ Moore Thesis: Stratification as normal and functional (Meritocracy)

Pierre Bourdieu: Beyond the Economic

• ‘Habitus’ & The Reproduction of Social Class

• Economic Capital

• Cultural Capital

• Social Capital

A Classless Society?

• Reduced ‘Visibility’ of Working Class:

• Industry to Services

• Collapse of W/Class Community

• Embourgeoisment

• The Introduction of Gender/Ethnicity as complicating factor

• The ‘Underclass’

A Classless Society?

• Spatial Polarisation

• Community, The Lifestyle Enclave & The Gated Society: Ghettoization and

Gentrification