Transcript Conflict theory of stratification

Chapter 9
Concepts and Theories of
Stratification
Key Terms

Means of production
Everything, except human labor, that is used
to produce wealth.

Bourgeoisie
Marx’s name for the class made up of those
who own the means of production; the
employer or owner class.

Proletariat
The name that Marx applied to the class
made up of those who do not own the means
of production; the employee or working class.

Lumpenproletariat
Literally, the “ragamuffin proletariat”; the
people on the very bottom of society, whom
Marx labeled “social scum.”

Class consciousness
The concept Marx used to identify the
awareness of members of a class of their
class interests and enemies.

False consciousness
A term that Marx applied to members of one
class who think they have common interests
with members of another class.

Property
The term many sociologists use to identify
what Weber called class. Property includes all
economic resources and opportunities owned
or controlled by an individual or a group.

Prestige
Social honor or respect; synonymous with
Weber’s term status.

Power
The ability to get one’s way despite the
opposition of others.

Status inconsistency
A condition in which a person holds a higher
position (or status) on one dimension of
stratification than on another. For example,
an uneducated millionaire displays status
inconsistency.

Status inconsistency theories
Theories built on the proposition that persons
who experience status inconsistency will be
frustrated and will therefore support political
movements aimed at changing the
stratification system.

Structural mobility
Mobility that occurs because of changes in
the relative distribution of upper and lower
statuses in a society.

Exchange mobility
Mobility that occurs because some people
fall, thereby making room for others to rise in
the stratification system.

Cultural capital
Assets based on knowledge, style, speech,
tastes, and the like, which can be used to
“purchase” privileges and power.

Utopian
One who tries to design a perfect society.

Anarchists
Followers of a political philosophy that
regards the state as inevitably repressive and
unjust and who therefore propose to destroy
the state and live without laws or government.

Functionalist theory of stratification
A theory that holds that inequality is built into
the roles of any society because some roles
are more important and harder to fill, and to
ensure that the most qualified people will
seek to fill the most important positions, it is
necessary to reward these positions more
highly than others.

Replaceability
A measure of the functional importance of a
role based on the extent to which other roles
can substitute for or take on the duties of that
particular role. For example, a doctor can
easily substitute for an orderly, but the
reverse is not so.

Evolutionary theory of stratification
A theory that holds that because culture
accumulates in human societies, eventually it
happens that no one can master the whole of
a group’s culture. At that point cultural
specialization, or a division of labor, occurs.
Since some specialties will be more valued
than others, inequality, or stratification, will
exist.

Conflict theory of stratification
A theory that holds that individuals and
groups will always exploit their positions in an
effort to gain a larger share of the rewards in
a society, and therefore societies will often be
much more stratified than functionalism can
explain. Put another way, this theory holds
that the stratification system of any society is
the result of conflicts and compromises
between contending groups.

Exploitation
All profit in an exchange in excess of the
minimum amount needed to cause an
exchange to occur.

Professions
Occupational organizations that can prevent
their functions from being performed by those
not certified as adequately trained and
qualified in an extensive body of knowledge
and technique.

Unions
Occupational organizations that can prevent
their functions from being performed by
others on the basis of contractual rights.