Transcript Class and Stratification

Class and Stratification
• What is Stratification?
• Stratification in Historical Perspective
• Stratification in Modern Western Societies
• Poverty and Inequality
• Social Mobility
What is Stratification?
• Stratification is the system of structured
inequalities among different groups of people
• Structured => stratification persists across generations
• Inequality => differential access to scarce resources
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Wealth
Income
Power
Prestige
• Different groups => access to scarce resources varies
systematically by class, gender, age, race and ethnicity
Stratification by Class, Gender, Age,
Race and Ethnicity:
• Is concerned with the ways in which
inequalities are distributed within societies
• Answers the question
• Who gets what and why?
Stratification by Class Asks:
• How equal are modern societies?
• How much of a chance does someone have
of reaching the top of the economic ladder?
• Why is there persistent poverty in affluent
societies?
How Equal are Modern Societies?
• This research addresses such issues as:
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Class structure
Distribution of wealth
Distribution of income
Equality of opportunity
Chance of reaching top of economic
ladder?
• This research addresses such issues as:
• Social mobility
• Does a society have a closed or open
stratification system?
Why is there persistent poverty in
affluent societies?
• This research addresses such issues as:
• Poverty
• Homelessness
• Unemployment
Stratification in Historical Context
• Stratification is found everywhere
• Four basic systems of stratification
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Slavery
Caste
Estate
Class
Compared to other systems, class
systems (at least in principle) are:
• Fluid
• Based on achievement
• Economically-based
Stratification in Modern Western
Societies
• Class is basis of stratification
• Chief bases of class differences are
ownership of wealth and occupation
Industrialization and the Labor
Force
• Increase in occupational specialization
• Changes in proportions of labor force in
different sectors of the economy
• Changes in proportions of labor force in
different types of occupations
• Increased employment of women outside
the home
Classifying Occupations by Industry
Sector
• Primary sector
• Part of the economy that generates raw
materials directly from the environment
• Secondary sector
• Part of the economy that transforms raw
materials into manufactured goods
• Tertiary sector
• Part of the economy that generates services
rather than goods
Classifying Occupations by
Occupational Type
• Agricultural/farm occupations
• Blue-collar occupations
• Prestige?
• Link with class structure?
• White-collar occupations
• Prestige?
• Link with class structure?
Increased Employment of Women
Outside the Home
• % of women in labor force
• 1901
• 1998
• % of labor force who are women
• 1901
• 1998
Class Structure of Canada
• Upper class
• Upper-uppers
• Lower-uppers
• Middle class
• Working class
• Lower class
• Poor
• Working poor
Distribution of Wealth
• Canada
• United States
Policy Implications
• Success of government programs to
transfer and redistribute income?
• Canada
• United States
Poverty and Inequality
• Relative poverty
• What is it?
• Absolute poverty
• What is it?
• How used in policy debates?
Who is at Risk of being Poor in
Canada?
• Children
• Women
• Certain visible minorities
• People living in rural areas
Debate Over Poverty
• Focus
• Competing positions
• Poor are largely responsible for their own
poverty
• Poverty is caused unequal distribution of
resources in society
• Link with debate over causes of
homelessness
Social Mobility
• Movement of individuals and groups
between strata in the class hierarchy
• Vertical mobility = movement up or down
the class hierarchy
• Upward mobility
• Downward mobility
• Link with lateral mobility
Sociologists study social mobility by:
• Looking at individuals' own careers and
seeing how far they move up or down the
socioeconomic scale in the course of their
own working lives
• Intragenerational mobility
• Exploring where children are on the
socioeconomic scale compared to their
parents or grandparents
• Intergenerational mobility
Most general concern:
• Do individuals born into the lower strata of
society have opportunities to move up?
• Why?
Sociologists explore social mobility
by studying occupational shifts
• Within an individual's career or between
generations
• Occupational composition of the labor force
affects intragenerational mobility and
intergenerational mobility
• Why?
Changes in the proportions of white-
collar and blue-collar occupations
• Suggest that over time Canada has become
less unequal
• Suggest that opportunities for social mobility
are increasing
• Why?
• But aggregate patterns may be misleading
Research outside Canada
• Shows that much of white-collar growth has
occurred in lower positions
• Sales clerks, typists, file clerks
• Similar to working class occupations in terms of
income, work activities and power
• Sociologists talk about a "new working
class"
• Low-paid, semi-skilled, white-collar workers
• Did this happen in Canada?
Comparative research on Western
societies has found:
• Children gain or lose chances of success
because of family background
• Most vertical mobility is between
occupations that are quite close to one
another
• Downward mobility is less common than
upward mobility but is still widespread
• Levels of social mobility are low compared
to ideals of equality of opportunity
Education is key to upward mobility
• Many jobs require high school completion
as a minimum condition
• Since 1990 number of jobs requiring a
university degree or post-secondary
diploma increased by 1.3 million
Compared to Canadians with less
education, university graduates:
• Hold a higher proportion of upper whitecollar jobs
• Are less likely to be unemployed
• Are less likely to remain unemployed if lose
job
• Are more likely to earn higher salaries
In Canada:
• Is there equal opportunity for all Canadians
to acquire education (assuming they have
the ability and motivation to do so)?
• Do decisions about funding higher
education affect equality of access?
Theorizing Stratification by Class
• Structural-functional paradigm
• Social inequality plays an important role in the
operation of society
• Davis-Moore hypothesis
• Social conflict paradigm
• Stratification benefits some people at the
expense of others
• Marx's critique of capitalism