Theories of Social Differentiation and Social Change

Overview: Basic Issues in Theories of Social Differentiation and Social

Change

Lecture

• Theory and empirical research• Conceptual framework for studying differentiation and

inequality• Examples of differentiation and inequality• Basic concepts in studying social change

Theory and Empirical Research, I

• Robert K. Merton (1910-2003):- The Bearing of Sociological Theory on Empirical Research- The Bearing of Empirical Research on Sociological TheoryTheory -> Empirical Research:- Epistemological basis (how do we approach reality?)- Orientations toward social facts (what is important to

study?)- Analysis of sociological concepts (how to conceptualize

them?)- Theory itself (set of hypotheses)- Derivations and codification (how the theory is testable and

modifiable?)

Theory and Empirical Research, II

Empirical Research -> Sociological Theory:- The serendipity pattern (the unanticipated, anomalous and

strategic datum exerts a pressure for initiating theory)- The recasting of theory (new data exerts pressure for the

elaboration of a conceptual scheme)- The re-focusing the theoretical interest (new methods exerts

pressure for the new foci of theoretical interest)- The clarification of concepts (empirical research exerts

pressure for clear concepts)

Concepts, I: Differentiation

• Differentiation is the general process of distinguishing among people according to their personal attributes (qualities) and their social roles (and tasks). Attributes: sex, body size, physical strength, etc.

Social roles: family roles, occupations, etc.• Differentiation does not imply that differences in personal

attributes and/or social roles are rank on a hierarchy.

Concepts, I: Differentiation

• Minimal condition for Differentiation: X ≠ Y

Differentiation of human beings and social differentiation. Human differentiation or human variability refers to the fact

that there is a range of possible values for each of the numerous physical, mental characteristics of human beings.

Social differentiation = socially recognizable characteristics

Social differentiation

• Social differentiation refers to such characteristics of individuals which are recognized by a given society as important for role playing and social interaction. Thus, this is a very broad term that could refer to nominal, ordinal, and metric variables.

Inequality

Generally, and in mathematics specifically, an inequality is a statement about the relative size or order of two objects, or about whether they are the same or not.

• The notation a < b means that a is less than b.

• The notation a > b means that a is greater than b.

• The notation a ≠ b means that a is not equal to b, but does not say that one is greater than the other or even that they can be compared in size.

Notation

In contrast to strict inequalities, there are two types of inequality statements that are not strict:

• The notation a ≤ b means that a is less than or equal to b (or, equivalently, not greater than b)

• The notation a ≥ b means that a is greater than or equal to b (or, equivalently, not smaller than b)

Notation

An additional notation (dealing with magnitude):

• The notation a ≪ b means that a is much less than b.

• The notation a ≫ b means that a is much greater than b.

Social stratification

• Social stratification refers to the hierarchically organized structures of social inequality that exist in any society.

Stratification position

Strata refer to people who occupy a similar social position in the society.

A social position is determined by:

• (1) what people know (education)

• (2) what people do (occupation)

• (3) what people have (income).

In modern society, an unequal distribution of education, occupational rank, and income is at the core of social stratification.

Stratification studies

• WHO • GETS WHAT• WHY• AND WITH WHAT CONCEQUENCES?

Social class

• Social class in a very controversial notion. • Changing meaning of the concept of social class through

time

Modern definitions of class

• Modern definitions refer to the processes of control:

WHO CONTROLS WHOMWHYAND WITH WHAT CONCEQUENCES?

Basic criteria

• Basic criteria of class:

- Control on capital market (ownership of the means of production, e.g., employers, self-employed)

- Control over the processes on the labor market:

- over work of others (e.g. managerial and supervisory positions)

- over skills needed on the market (e.g., professionals)

- Control over processes on the consumer market (exclusion, e.g. marginalized segments of a society)

Social classes defined

• Social classes are defined on the basis of economic power, which in turn is related to the prevailing pattern of political and ideological domination within a particular society. Classes are distinguished on the basis of certain relations, rather than attributes.

• Basic class relationships result in the political and cultural identities of classes. When the properties of emergent groups are taken into account class categories constitute social groups.

Formal properties of the definition of social class • (1) social class is a generic concept utilized in studying the

dynamics of the societal system;• (2) social class implies relational rather than distributional

aspects of social structure; • (3) classes are considered as not merely aggregates of

individuals but real social groups;• (4) the meanings attached to the term social class vary and

refer to different types of societal structuration;• (5) various types of structuration appear in substantive

discussions of economic classes, political classes, and cultural classes.

Controversy over class Issues:• (1) the most important criteria in distinguishing classes;• (2) the number of class divisions that exist;• (3) the extent to which individuals must recognize these

divisions;• (4) whether or not class divisions even exist._____________________________________Jan Pakulski and Malcom Waters, The Death of Class, 1996.

Level of measurement

The level of measurement of a variable refers to the nature of information contained within numbers assigned to units of observation.

Stanley Smith Stevens. On the theory of scales of measurement (1946).

Levels of measurement:• nominal (also categorical or discrete) • ordinal (also rank-order)• metric: interval (also distance) or ratio (also zero-

reference)

Measurement and Differentiation

a ≠ b a < b, a > b

a ≤ b, a ≥ b

a ≪ b, a ≫ b

Nominal Yes No No

Ordinal Yes Yes No

Metric Yes Yes Yes

Area Living languages Number of speakers

Count Percent Count Percent Mean Median

Africa 2,110 30.5 726,453,403 12.2 344,291 25,200

Americas 993 14.4 50,496,321 0.8 50,852 2,300

Asia 2,322 33.6 3,622,771,264 60.8 1,560,194 11,100

Europe 234 3.4 1,553,360,941 26.1 6,638,295 201,500

Pacific 1,250 18.1 6,429,788 0.1 5,144 980

Totals 6,909 100.0 5,959,511,717 100.0 862,572 7,560

Table 1. Distribution of languages by area of origin From: Ethnologue, 16th Edition, M. Paul Lewis, Editor.

Copyright © 2009, SIL International. All rights reserved.

Population range Living languages Number of speakers

Count Percent Cumulative Count Percent Cumulative100,000,000 and more 8 0.1 0.1% 2,308,548,848 38.7 38.7

10,000,000 to 99,999,999 77 1.1 1.2% 2,346,900,757 39.4 78.1

1,000,000 to 9,999,999 304 4.4 5.6% 951,916,458 16.0 94.1

100,000 to 999,999 895 13.0 18.6% 283,116,716 4.8 98.8

10,000 to 99,999 1,824 26.4 45.0% 60,780,797 1.1 99.9

1,000 and less 3,801 55.0 100.0 8,248,141 0.1 100.0Totals 6,909 100.0 5,959,511,717 100.0

Table 2. Distribution of languages by number of first-language speakersFrom: Ethnologue, 16th Edition, M. Paul Lewis, Editor.

Copyright © 2009, SIL International. All rights reserved.

Rank Language Primary Country TotalCountries

Speakers(millions)

1 Chinese [zho] China 31 1,213

2 Spanish [spa] Spain 44 329

3 English [eng] United Kingdom 112 328

4 Arabic [ara] Saudi Arabia 57 221

5 Hindi [hin] India 20 182

6 Bengali [ben] Bangladesh 10 181

7 Portuguese [por] Portugal 37 178

8 Russian [rus] Russia 33 144

9 Japanese [jpn] Japan 25 122

10 German, Standard [deu] Germany 43 90.3

Table 3. Rank order of languagesFrom: Ethnologue, 16th Edition, M. Paul Lewis, Editor.Copyright © 2009, SIL International. All rights reserved.

473 of the languages listed in the Ethnologue are classified as nearly extinct. They are classified in this way when "only a few elderly speakers are still living." The entries below give just the known population information. Click on "More information" to see the full entry for the language.

Africa (46 total) The Americas (182 total)

Asia (84 total) Europe (9 total)

The Pacific (152 total)

Index of language diversity for countries:

The computation of the diversity index is based on the population of each language as a proportion of the total population. The index cannot fully account for the vitality of languages.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity refers to groups of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, consisting of a common language, a common culture (often including a shared religion) and a tradition of common ancestry (corresponding to a history of endogamy).

Levinson, David (1998), Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook, Greenwood Publishing Group

1,640 ethnic groups

Ethnic differentiation

• World Ethnic Groupshttp://siakhenn.tripod.com/ethnic.html

• This entry provides an ordered listing of ethnic groups starting with the largest and normally includes the percent of total population.

• Afghanistan: Pashtun 38%, Tajik 25%, Hazara 19%, minor ethnic groups (Aimaks, Turkmen, Baloch, and others) 12%, Uzbek 6%

• Austria: German 98%, Croatian, Slovene, other (includes Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Roma)

• Congo, Democratic Republic of: over 200 African ethnic groups of which the majority are Bantu; the four largest tribes - Mongo, Luba, Kongo (all Bantu), and the Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic) make up about 45% of the population

• Poland: Polish 97.6%, German 1.3%, Ukrainian 0.6%, Byelorussian 0.5% (1990 est.)

Measures

The most important measure based on a comparison with the standard distribution is Gini index (coefficient).

The Gini indext is a statistical measure of inequalit

developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912.

It is based on the Lorenz curve. (Max Lorenz, American

economist, 1905).

Gini index

• The Gini coefficient is a measure of dispersion most prominently used as a measure of inequality. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1:

• A low Gini coefficient = more equal distribution,• A high Gini coefficient= more unequal distribution.• 0 = perfect equality (everyone having exactly the same

income) • 1 corresponds to perfect inequality (where one person has

all the income, while everyone else has zero income).

Gini index

The Gini coefficient requires that no one have a negative value of the distributed good.

Although this measure can be applied to various goods, it is convenient for explain it for income. People could have from 0 income to some large some like billion of dollars.

As a mathematical measure of inequality, the Gini coefficient carries no moral judgment about whether a particular level of (in)equality is good or bad.

Gini Index

Gini index

Properties of Gini Index

The Gini coefficient satisfies four important principles:

• Anonymity: it does not matter who the high and low earners are.

• Scale independence: it does not consider the size of the economy.

• Population independence: it does not matter how large the population is.

• Transfer principle: if income is transferred from a rich person to a poor person the resulting distribution is more equal.

Social system - change

System and change(1) Elements (e.g. the number and variety of human individuals

and their actions) – change in composition(2) Interelations among elements (e.g. dependencies) - change in structure(3) Functions of elements (e.g. occupational roles) – change of

function(4) Boundery (e.g. criteria of inclusion) – changes in it (5) Subsystems (e.g. subdivisions) – change in the relations of

subsystems(6) Environment (geo-political location) – changes in it.