Transcript Social Class Worldview Model: Scaffolding the

SOCIAL MOBILITY, PRIVILEGE
AND SOCIAL CLASS
Week Eleven
Sociology 1301: Introduction to Sociology
Definitions:
Privilege
unearned access to resources (social power)
only readily available to some people as
a result of their advantaged social group
membership
Definitions:
Oppression
the fusion of institutional and systemic
discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and
social prejudice in a complex web of
relationships and structures that shape
most aspects of life in our society
Definitions:
Social Class
A largely self-perpetuating category
marked by persistent and pervasive
inequalities of income, wealth, status, and
social power. Class is also a whole lot
more – specifically, class is also culture,
including:
Ideas, Behavior, Attitudes, Values, & Language
Capital
Economic Capital
 Social Capital
 Cultural Capital
 Human Capital
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Group Discussion Questions
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When you were growing up, what was your family’s source(s) of income?
Describe your home(s) and neighborhood(s) growing up. (Own vs. rent,
amount of space inside and between houses or apartments, safety, state
of repair, etc.)
How does the education you are getting now compare with the education
of others in your family in this generation, and in the previous two
generations?
How was your family’s leisure time spent when you were growing up?
What do you appreciate or what have you gained from your class
background experience? What has been hard for you from your class
background?
What impact does your class background have on your current attitudes,
behaviors, and feelings? (about money, work, relationships with people
from the same class/from a different class, your sense of self, expectations
about life, your politics, etc.)
The Social Class Worldview Model
Ability to maintain or increase capital and
therefore maintain or increase social class
Social Class
Worldview
Accrue & Nurture
Capital
Social
Cultural
Economic
Human
Referent
Group of
Origin
Referent
Group of
Aspiration
Consciousness,
Attitudes, &
Saliency
Property
Relationships
Referent
Peer/Cohort
Group
Behaviors
Lifestyle
Impacts of
Classism
Upward
Lateral
Downward
Inability to maintain or even a decrease in capital and
therefore decrease or maintenance of social class
Internalized Classism
Privilege
Oppression
3 Main Parts
Accrual & Nurture of Capital
Gaining/maintaining class
 Social Class Worldview
The way one’s class is played out/their
awareness of class
 Classism
How, systemically and individually, we
reinforce class
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The Social Class Worldview Model
Ability to maintain or increase capital and
therefore maintain or increase social class
Social Class
Worldview
Accrue & Nurture
Capital
Social
Cultural
Economic
Human
Referent
Group of
Origin
Referent
Group of
Aspiration
Consciousness,
Attitudes, &
Saliency
Property
Relationships
Referent
Peer/Cohort
Group
Behaviors
Lifestyle
Impacts of
Classism
Upward
Lateral
Downward
Inability to maintain or even a decrease in capital and
therefore decrease or maintenance of social class
Internalized Classism
Privilege
Oppression
Assumptions of the SCWM
Social class operates at an individual and
subjective level in people’s lives.
 An individual’s perceptions shape their
reality.
 Individuals work towards congruency in
their worldview.
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The Social Class Worldview Model
Ability to maintain or increase capital and
therefore maintain or increase social class
Social Class
Worldview
Accrue & Nurture
Capital
Social
Cultural
Economic
Human
Referent
Group of
Origin
Referent
Group of
Aspiration
Consciousness,
Attitudes, &
Saliency
Property
Relationships
Referent
Peer/Cohort
Group
Behaviors
Lifestyle
Impacts of
Classism
Upward
Lateral
Downward
Inability to maintain or even a decrease in capital and
therefore decrease or maintenance of social class
Internalized Classism
Privilege
Oppression
Poverty
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A condition of deprivation due to economic
circumstances that is severe enough that the
individual in this condition cannot live with dignity
in his or her society.
Culture of Poverty
Perverse Incentives
Absolute Poverty vs. Relative Poverty
Figure 10.3 International Comparison of Poverty
Rates among Wealthy Countries
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Why Is the United States So Different?
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The United States has a much broader range of
inequality (our rich are much richer than our poor)
than any other developed nation in the world, as
well as higher poverty rates (a larger percentage
of the population is below the poverty line).
Social Mobility
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Social Mobility
 Horizontal Social Mobility:
 Vertical Social Mobility:
Ascending/Upward
Descending/Downward
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Structural Mobility
Marx & Capitalism
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Capitalism: economic system in which property
and goods are owned privately; investments are
determined by private decisions; and prices,
production, and the distribution of goods are
determined primarily by competition in a free
market.
Bourgeois vs. Proletariat
Marx & Capitalism
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Socialism: economic system in which most or all the
needs of the population are provided for through
nonmarket methods of distribution.
Communism: a political ideology of a classless
society, in which the means of production are
shared through state ownership and in which
rewards are not tied to productivity but need.
Marx & Capitalism
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Alienation: a condition in which people are
dominated by forces of their own creation that then
confront them as alien powers; according to Marx,
the basic state of being in a capitalist society.
 Alienation
from Product
 Alienation from the Process of Production
 Alienation from People
 Alienation from Ourselves
Weber & Capitalism
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Spirit of Capitalism: you work hard, but you
cannot enjoy the fruits of your labor, instead you
must reinvest to increase your capital.
Protestant Ethic: predestination of salvation means
looking for signs of God's favor through success,
self-discipline, and asceticism (the ability to deny
pleasure).
Weber & Capitalism
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Calvinist Beliefs:
Calling
Predestination
Resulting in “Iron Cage”
Figure 14.3 Annual Vacation Days and Holidays
Worldwide
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 14.4 Champagne-Glass Distribution
You May Ask Yourself, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Education
Education: the process through which
academic, social, and cultural ideas and
tools are developed.
 Two Main Functions:
Educate (Functional Illiteracy &
Innumeracy)
Socialize (Hidden Curriculum)
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Challenges with Education
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Some Problems with Education:
Tracking
Credentialism
Works Cited
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Adams, M., Bell, L.A., Griffin, P. (Eds.) (2007). Teaching for diversity and social justice (2nd Ed.).
NY: Routledge.
Bell (2007). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In Adams, M., Bell, L.A. Griffin,
P. (Eds.) (2007). Teaching for diversity and social justice (2nd Ed.). NY: Routledge, pp. 1-14.
Hardiman, Bailey, & Griffin (2007). Conceptual foundations for social justice education. In
Adams, M., Bell, L.A. Griffin, P. (Eds.) (2007). Teaching for diversity and social justice (2nd Ed.).
NY: Routledge, pp. 35-66).
Leondar-Wright, B. & Yeskel, F. (2007). Classism curriculum design. In Adams, M., Bell, L.A.
Griffin, P. (Eds.) (2007). Teaching for diversity and social justice (2nd Ed.). NY: Routledge, pp.
309-333).
Liu, W.M., Soleck, G., Hopps, J., Dunston, K., & Pickett Jr, T. (2004). A new framework to
understand social class in counseling: The social class worldview model and modern classism
theory. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 32, 95-122.
Adams, M. A., Blumenfeld, W. J., Castaneda, R., Hackman, H. W., Peters, M., & Zuniga, X.
(Eds.). (2000). Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on racism, anti-Semitism,
sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism. New York: Routledge.
Kimmel, M. & Ferber, A. (Eds.). (2003). Privilege: A Reader. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.