Chapter 6

A RECOGNIZED SOCIAL POSITION THAT AN INDIVIDUAL OCCUPIESA RECOGNIZED SOCIAL POSITION THAT AN INDIVIDUAL OCCUPIES

• STATUS SETSTATUS SET– ALL THE STATUSES ALL THE STATUSES

HELD AT ONE TIMEHELD AT ONE TIME• DANCE PARTNERDANCE PARTNER• BOSSBOSS• FRIENDFRIEND• HARLEY CLUB HARLEY CLUB

MEMBERMEMBER• SPORTS PARTICIPANTSPORTS PARTICIPANT• BUSINESSMANBUSINESSMAN

•TYPE OF STATUS

–ASCRIBED: INVOLUNTARY POSITIONS

–ACHIEVED: VOLUNTARY POSITIONS

•OFTEN THE TWO TYPES WORK TOGETHER, WHAT WE ARE ASCRIBED OFTEN HELPS US ACHIEVE OTHER STATUSES

Ascribed and Achieved• Ascribed• Race• Sex• Age• Ethnicity• Physical

Characteristics• Caste

• Achieved• Occupation• Education• Social class

Status Set

Master Status• A status that has special importance

for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life.

• Profession, job, family name, title, disability, applied stigma (felon)

......THE BEHAVIOR EXPECTED OF SOMEONE WHO FILLS A PARTICULAR THE BEHAVIOR EXPECTED OF SOMEONE WHO FILLS A PARTICULAR STATUSSTATUS

• ROLE SETROLE SET– A NUMBER OF A NUMBER OF

ROLES ROLES ATTACHED TO A ATTACHED TO A SINGLE STATUSSINGLE STATUS• DISCIPLINARIANDISCIPLINARIAN• SPORTS SPORTS

AUTHORITYAUTHORITY• DIETITIANDIETITIAN• BUSINESSWOMABUSINESSWOMA

NN• CAREGIVERCAREGIVER• DR. MOMDR. MOM• KITCHEN QUEENKITCHEN QUEEN• PRETTY MOMPRETTY MOM

ROLES DEMAND A ROLES DEMAND A PERSON’S TIME AND PERSON’S TIME AND ENERGYENERGY • ROLE CONFLICTROLE CONFLICT

– INVOLVES TWO OR MORE STATUSESINVOLVES TWO OR MORE STATUSES• EXAMPLEEXAMPLE: CONFLICT BETWEEN ROLE : CONFLICT BETWEEN ROLE

EXPECTATIONS OF A POLICE OFFICER EXPECTATIONS OF A POLICE OFFICER WHO CATCHES HER OWN SON USING WHO CATCHES HER OWN SON USING DRUGS AT HOME – MOTHER AND COP DRUGS AT HOME – MOTHER AND COP

•ROLE STRAINROLE STRAIN– INVOLVESINVOLVES A SINGLE STATUSA SINGLE STATUS

• EXAMPLEEXAMPLE: MANAGER WHO TRIES TO : MANAGER WHO TRIES TO BALANCE CONCERN FOR WORKERS BALANCE CONCERN FOR WORKERS WITH TASK REQUIREMENTS – OFFICE WITH TASK REQUIREMENTS – OFFICE MANAGERMANAGER

Social Construction of Reality

• People shape reality through social interaction

• Tomas Theorem- “situations that are defined as real are real in their consequences”

• Ethnomethodology- the study of the way people make sense of their world

• People build reality from the surrounding culture. Why?

Dramaturgical AnalysisThe “Presentation of Self”

• Presentation of self- impression management

• Performances

• Nonverbal communications

• Gender and performances

• idealization

The social construction of feelings

• Biological components• Cultural components- personal space

• Language and value

• Humor- contrasting the conventional to the unconventional

• Functions of humorrelease of potentially disruptive sentiments

relieve tension in uncomfortable situations

humor and power; “put-down jokes”

Chapter 10Social Class and Socioeconomic

Stratification

Caste and Class

Socioeconomic status and Class in the U.S.

Socioeconomic Mobility

Sociological analysis of stratification and Class

Functionalist

Conflict

Integration – Distributive Systems Theory

Symbolic Interactionist

The Great Social Transformation and Social Class

• Traditional hunting and gathering societies had little stratification

• Horticultural and agrarian societies have highly developed systems in which a small elite dominates the masses of peasant laborers. Although there is stratification, there is virtually no socioeconomic mobility.

• With industrialization, the rigidity of class lessens, and there is social mobility, especially within the large middle class, and from the lower into the middle classes.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• IT IS A TRAIT OF SOCIETY– DOES NOT REFLECT INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES,

BUT SOCIETY’S STRUCTURE

• IT PERSISTS OVER GENERATIONS– SOCIAL MOBILITY HAPPENS SLOWLY

• IT IS UNIVERSAL– WHILE UNIVERSAL, IT VARIES IN TYPE

• IT INVOLVES INEQUALITY IN BELIEF SYSTEM– IDEOLOGIES JUSTIFY EXISTENCE OF

STRATIFICATION

A SYSTEM BY WHICH A SOCIETY RANKS CATEGORIESOF PEOPLE IN A SOCIAL HIERARCHY.

What is Social Class?

• Social class - a large group of people who rank closely to one another in wealth, power, and prestige.

• These elements separate people into different lifestyles.

• Social class provides people with different chances, and different ways of viewing the world.

Components of Social Class

• Wealth - consists of property and income.

• Wealth and income are not the same.

• Some have wealth but little income.

• Americans as a whole are worth about $25 trillion.

• The top 20% of the population receives almost half of all income in the U.S.

• The bottom 20% receives only 4.2% of the nation’s income.– The richest 20% have

grown richer, and the bottom 20% have grown poorer.

Components of Social Class

• Power - the ability to carry out your will despite resistance.

• The power elite - those who make the big decisions in U.S. society.

• Power lies in the hands of the few.

• Prestige - respect or regard

• Class ranking is persistent across cultures and time.

• People display prestige through status symbols.

Status

• Status - our social ranking.• Ordinarily, a person has a similar rank in all

three dimensions of social class: wealth, power, and prestige = status consistency.

• Status inconsistency - when a person has a mixture of high and low ranks.– Individuals with status inconsistency are likely to

confront one frustrating situation after another.– Snoop Dogg; Jerry Seinfeld; Gangsters; ???

Caste and Class

• A Caste system consists of a fixed arrangement of strata from the most to the least privileged, with a person’s position determined unalterably at birth. Mobility between castes is rare.

• Traditional caste systems still exist, as in India, however social forces are at work to weaken the rigidity of this system

• A caste system may be based upon many ethnic and cultural factors; ethnicity, nationality, religion, skin color, heredity, and in many ways, gender.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION BASEDSOCIAL STRATIFICATION BASED ON ON ASCRIPTIONASCRIPTION

• BIRTH DETERMINES SOCIAL POSITION IN FOUR DISTINCT WAYS– OCCUPATIONS– ENDOGAMY IS PRACTICED– SOCIAL LIFE IS RESTRICTED– BELIEF SYSTEMS ARE OFTEN TIED TO

RELIGIOUS DOGMA

• LACK OF MOBILITY “I am Dalit”

Caste and Class

• In a Class system social standing is determined by factors over which people can exert some control, and mobility does take place. Typically classes are divided in to the upper class, middle class, and lower class.

• Marx felt that a person’s position in the economic system dictated class. Weber added party (political power) and status (social prestige) as factors.

                                      This portion of the site was created to aid in the dismantling of the oppressive political and social category to which Black people are

subject. This caste system, to which power and privilege are organized, is an outgrowth of colonialism and slavery. The system known as

'racism' in America, was created to justify the oppression and exploitation of American citizens of African descent.

Caste and Class

• Currently social scientists use several social dimensions related to those identified by Marx and Weber:

• Education – education can provide esteem, a pathway to wealth, and a prestigious occupation. Historically these benefits have not been shared equally, demonstrating the operation of power exercised for the benefit of those who wield it

• Occupational Prestige - some occupations are valued by a society more than others

• Wealth – assets and income

Consequences of Social Class

• In family life, the capitalists place emphasis on family tradition. – Divorce is most common among the lower social

classes.• Education increases as one moves up the social

class ladder.• In religion, certain classes tend to cluster in different

denominations. • In politics, the rich tend to vote Republican while the

poor tend to vote Democratic.• WHY?

Caste and Class

• Class in America• Upper class – the elite with great wealth who own the

“means of production”, or who otherwise dominate the economic system

• Lower upper class – recently ascended to the upper class, but do not have the established pedigree; nouveau riche

• Middle class – professionals with high paying jobs in respected occupations (upper-middle class), and the skilled who work in moderately compensated occupations, and who own few assets (lower-middle class).

THE AMERICAN CLASS SYSTEM OF STRATIFICATION

BASED ON INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT, NOT ASCRIPTION

Caste and Class

• Class in America• Lower class – working class (what does this mean today?)

who do not earn enough to accumulate wealth, but who may be able to purchase a home and vehicle etc… The lower-lower class is made up of those who are not educated (college and sometimes high school) and live in the less desirable parts of the community because of low costs of rent. They typically do not own a home. The lowest of the poor live at subsistence level or below, are chronically unemployed, and are sometimes homeless.

Caste and Class

• Class, Race, and Gender interact in order to produce a person’s place in society, and their self identity. Race and gender represent ascribed status and carry with them cultural stereotypes and values which individuals and groups must confront and challenge; “intersection theory” page 342. Though an ascribed status is difficult to change, the social meanings of a status can be modified or changed through social action. In capitalistic democracies class status is somewhat fluid and subject to modification by the individual.

Socioeconomic Mobility

• Social Mobility - Movement of individuals or groups within a stratification structure

• Intra-generational mobility – movement within a career of an individual

• Inter-generational mobility – mobility of groups from one generation to another

• Horizontal mobility – a change from one occupation to another at the same general status level

• Vertical mobility – upward or downward movement of occupational or social class

Socioeconomic Mobility

• Determinants of mobility– Steepness of the socioeconomic pyramid – only very few

positions at the top; how many people can be President?

– Starting position on the socioeconomic ladder – some persons start closer to the top than others; it is easier to become President if you are already elected to higher office

– Structural mobility – the movement of entire categories of people due to changes in society itself; correctional officers have moved up the occupational status ladder from security guards to professionals in terms of both income and prestige. Why?

THE DAVIS-MOORE PERSPECTIVE

• THESIS– STRATIFICATION HAS BENEFICIAL CONSEQUENCES (IT’S

FUNCTIONAL) FOR THE OPERATION OF THE U.S..

• KEY POINTS– MEMBERS OF SOCIETY HAVE NEEDS

– SOME STATUSES IN SOCIETY ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHERS WHEN IT COMES TO SEEING TO NEEDS

– TO ATTRACT THE BEST QUALIFIED AND TO GIVE OF THEIR TIME, EFFORT, AND ENERGIES, REWARDS MUST BE SUFFICIENT IN NATURE (INCOME, PRESTIGE, POWER)

– KEY CONCEPT

– MERITOCRACY AND GETTING WHAT YOU “DESERVE”

– DOES EVERYONE IN AMERICA GET WHAT THEY DESERVE?

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

• ONE’S PLIGHT IN LIFE IS TIED TO A PERSON’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION– A PERSON EITHER CONTROLS

MONEY AND EQUIPMENT, OR WORKS FOR THOSE WHO DO

• THROUGH INHERITENCE LAWS, SOCIAL CLASSES THEN REPRODUCE THEMSELVES OVER GENERATIONS

• EVENTUALLY, YEARS OF CLASS OPPRESSION WOULD LEAD TO CAPITALISM’S DEMISE– SOCIALISM REPLACES CAPTIALISM

KARL MARX BELIEVED THAT CAPITALIST SYSTEMS OFSTRATIFICATION WOULD ALWAYS BENEFIT A FEW AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MANY

Ideological Support for Inequality

• There exists in the beliefs of people explanations which justify or legitimize a particular societal structure. There will always be, in the minds of those who are privileged in a society, the desire to justify their good fortune as being a result of personal qualities such as hard work.* The social scientist, however, looks for structural reasons for the patterns of the distribution of wealth, for admission to and graduation from the best universities, and the securing of the best jobs.

* “self-serving bias”

Ideological Support for Inequality

• Marx argued that the class(es) in power impose their ideology on the entire society, and that false consciousness occurs when people without power accept an ideology that is contrary to the interests of that people as a class.

• Marx further suggested that this false consciousness will exist until the exploited class develops a sense of class consciousness, at which time the people will unite in the pursuit of their collective interests and challenge the power classes.

• The history of racial minorities!!!!!!!!

Sociological Analysis of Stratification and Class

• Functionalist Perspective– The lower class provides a pool of inexpensive laborers that help

keep prices down– The poor buffer the lower-middle class from economic changes– People have different skills and knowledge and will always seek

different opportunities

• Conflict Perspective– Stratification and class are the results of the inequality in the

distribution of the wealth, which is sustained by the exertion of power

• Symbolic Interactionist Perspective– People are socialized to accept inequality– People in the subordinate classes often adopt the value systems of

those in power and see themselves as unworthy; Marx?

Relative versus Absolute Poverty

• Relative Poverty: An uneven distribution of wealth where some people lack resources that are taken for granted by others

• Absolute Poverty:A situation in which the lack of resources is life-threatening

Relative versus Absolute Poverty

• Poverty and Women:

In poor countries men own 90% of the land.

70% of the world’s 1 billion people living near absolute poverty are women

Slavery

• Chattel slavery– one owns another• Child slavery- children used to beg,

steal, or work• Debt bondage- workers are not paid

enough to pay for their expenses• Servile forms of marriage- women are

sold off into marriage or prostitution

Global Power Relationships

• Colonialism – the process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations

• Neocolonialism – a new form of power relationship that involves economic exploitation by multinational corporations

Global Stratification

• Modernization Theory – explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences between nations stages of modernization p. 318

• Dependency Theory – explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by powerful onessee matrix on page 326

Wallerstein’s Capitalist World Economy

• Rich nations = core• Low-income = periphery• Middle-income = semi-periphery

resources are funneled into rich nations through colonialism, which uses cheap labor to mine or harvest raw materials; both the low and middle-income countries become markets for products.

3 Factors include 1. narrow export markets; 2. lack of industrialization capacity; and, 3. foreign debt