Transcript Stratification - Cobb Learning

Unit 3: Social Inequality
Chapter 9: Social Stratification
A guide through the American Status System
Structures of Inequality
 Inequality exists all around us.
 Maybe your mother loves your sister more
than you, or your brother received a larger
allowance than you did.
– This kind of inequality is personal.
 Sociologists study a particular kind of
inequality called stratification.
Stratification
 Is an institutionalized pattern of inequality
in which social statuses are ranked on the
basis of their access to scarce resources.
– Division of society into categories, ranks, or
classes.
 Two conditions must be present
Two conditions for Stratification
 1.) The inequality is
institutionalized, in
other words, backed
up by long-standing
social norms about
what ought to be.
 2.) The inequality is
based on occupancy of
a position in the social
structure, or a status
(such as : oldest son,
blue-collar worker,
female, Hispanic,
disabled, or over age
65), rather than on
personal attributes.
Scarce Resources that cause
stratification among individuals.
 Material Wealth ($, land, cars, boats, houses,
clothes, electronics)
 Prestige (status)
 Power
– When inequality in one of these dimensions is
supported by widely accepted and long-standing social
norms and when it is based on status occupancy, then
we can call it stratification.
Stratification
 Stratification is present in every society that we
know.
– All societies have norms specifying that some
categories of people ought to get more wealth, power,
or prestige than others.
 Closed system – movement b/t status levels is
impossible
 Open system – movement b/t strata is possible
 Sociologists recognize 2 types of stratification
systems in today’s societies:
– Caste and class systems
Caste System
 Scarce resources and social rewards are
distributed on the basis of ascribed statuses.
 Child’s status determined by parents
 Exogamy forbidden
– Marriage outside one’s own social category
 Endogamy practiced
– Marriage within one’s own social category
Caste System
 Brahmans
– Priests, scholars
 Kshatriyas
– Rulers, nobles, soldiers
 Vaisyas
– Merchants, bankers,
business people
 Sudras
– Laborers, artisans
 Harijans
– Outcastes, limited to
the most undesirable
tasks
Caste System, cont.
 Once very common in South Asia.
 Developed more than 3,000 years ago
 Harijans, aka: Dalits
– Unclean, given undesirable tasks
– Other castes avoid them
 Indian constitution, 1950, outlawed
discrimination to this caste level
– Declared all Indians, are equal
– Created gov’t jobs and spots in school for these
people
• Easier to do in city, hard in rural life
Class: % of pop & annual income
 Upper
 Lower Middle
 1-3%
 30-40%
 >$100,000 (median
 >$50,000
~$225,000)
 Upper Middle
 ~10%
 >$100,000
 Working
 30-40%
 >$35,000
 Lower
 20-25%
 <$20,000
Class systems: Upper class(es)
 Tiny, rich and powerful; old and new money
 Aristocracy (upper upper)--Ascribed, Enormous wealth
(inherited) Richest 400 people--$328 billion.
– WASP.
– Know each other, socialize, same schools, corporate control,
intermarry.
• What do we call that?
– Women--volunteer work.
– Social Register vs. Who's Who.
 New (lower upper)-- more money, less prestige--Depend
on earnings.
– The American Dream.
 Both: significant impact on national and international
affairs.
Middle Class:
Upper Middle
Lower Middle
 Professionals and
 Similar values as U.
Business managers.
 High Incomes
 Politically active,
Leadership in
Voluntary
Associations.
 Career advancement,
Children and
Mobility.
Middle.
 Lower income and
prestige.
 Emphasize: proper
behavior, decency,
hard work.
 Make opportunities
for children.
Working Class
 Ongoing decline.
 Blue collar, manual
labor (more money
but identify with,
share values and
attitudes with, the
"labor movement.")
 Security, Pride, keep
place--looking over
their shoulder to see
who's catching up.
Lower Class
 Minorities.
 Single (female
headed) parents.
 Lack power,
alienated.
 Ascribed.
 About 3/4 are poor
~15% of population
(40 mil.) 1994,
 Poverty line$23,550: Family of
four (2013)
Different types of Poverty
 Situational
– A lack of resources due to a particular event
 Generational
– At least two years
 Financial
– Having money to purchase goods and services
 Emotional
– Being able to choose and control emotional
responses, particularly to negative situations,
without engaging in self-destructive behavior.
Different types of poverty, cont.
 Mental
– Having the mental abilities and acquired skills (reading, writing,
computing, thinking) to deal with daily life
 Spiritual
– Believing in a divine purpose and guidance
 Physical
– Having physical heath and mobility
 Support systems
– Having friends, family, and backup resources available to access in
times of need.
 Relationship/Role Models
– Having frequent access to adults who are appropriate, who are
nurturing to the child, and who do not engage in self-destructive
behavior
 Knowledge of Hidden Rules
– Knowing the unspoken cues and habits of a group
Karl Marx and class
 Conflict theorist
 Bourgeoisie
– Owners of means of production in capitalist
society
– Reap all the benefits
 Proletariat
– Those who sell labor in exchange for wages
– Do all the work
Max Weber – 3 dimensions of class
 Property/Wealth
– Assets (value of what one owns) + income (money
earned through salaries, investment returns, or capital
gains).
– Richest 1% of population has 1/3rd USA’s wealth
 Prestige (page 209)
– Respect, honor, recognition, and courtesy and
individual receives from other members of society.
• Common factors: income, occupation, education, family
background, area of residence, possessions, club membership.
 Power
– Ability to control behavior or others with or without
their consent
SES – Socioeconomic status
 Rating that combines social factors (see
below) with the economic factor of income
– Educational level
– Occupational prestige
– Place of residence
 Combined factors are used to determine an
individual’s relative position in the
stratification system.
Let’s see how much you know about
the classes!
 Take questionnaire on each level
 Review all classes on our chart
 Start Titanic!
– 21:30, Scene 5
Explaining stratification:
The Functionalist Theory
 Stratification is a necessary feature of social
structure.
 All roles must be performed
 Those that are more important and require more
skill are rewarded with more money/prestige
– Rewards need to be varied or roles would not be filled
and society would not function smoothly
 Explains why people are willing to spend years
training to become a doctor or a lawyer
 But….
– Not everyone has equal access to education
– Some rewards do not reflect that role’s social value
• Professional athletes
Explaining Stratification:
Conflict Theory
 Cause for social inequality is the
competition over scarce resources.
 Stratification comes from class exploitation
– Bourgeoisie controls proletariat
 Explains why the children of the wealthy go
to the best colleges.
 Weaknesses:
– Different skills require different jobs
– Not everyone is suited for every position in
social structure
Explaining stratification:
Efforts at Synthesis – combining
 Gerhard Lenski
 Says the functionalist theory applies best to
small societies
 The conflict theory applies best to more
complex societies
Section 2:
The American Class System
 Open or closed
system?
 6 class system:
– Check your chart
 3 basic techniques to
rank people according
to social class:
– Reputational,
subjective, and
objective methods
 Reputational
– People in communities
rank other community
members based on
what they know of
their lifestyle
– Only used in small
communities where
everyone knows
everything about
everybody
Basic techniques to rank people
Subjective Method
 Individuals determine
their own social rank
 Most people say
middle
– We don’t like to put
ourselves in the other
two
Objective Method
 Sociologists define
social class by income,
occupation, and
education.
6 Social Classes in the US
 We already went over these… let’s review:
 Upper Class:
– Divided into two, which are?
– What & of pop?
– Old $ looks down on new $ for their
conspicuous consumption (buying goods for
their status they bring rather than usefulness)
• Can you think of anything like that?
Conspicuous Consumption
- Thorstein Veblen
More review of various classes
 2. Upper middle class
– Who are these people usually?
 3. Lower middle class
– Does their work involve manual labor?
– Do owners of small businesses fit here?
 4. The working class
– Does their work involve manual labor?
– What color collar jobs?
More review:
 5. The working poor
– Are they out of work or do they have the lowest paying
jobs?
– What kind of education do many of these people have?
– Are they politically involved?
 6. The underclass
– Are they technically unemployed?
– What kind of poverty are they in?
– Where do they get money?
– * about 50% of these kids make it to another class
Social mobility
 The movement b/t or within social classes
or strata
 3 kinds:
– Horizontal
• Movement within a class or strata; small promotion
– Vertical
• Movement b/t classes or strata; up or down
– Intergenerational
• Status differences b/t generations in the same family
Structural causes of upward mobility
 Advances in technology
– Jobs available can change
– This can cause mobility both ways, how?
 Changes in merchandising patterns
– Due to increases with insurance, real-estate, etc.
• More white collar workers in our labor force (73%)
 Increases in the population’s general level of
education
– Today, 9% of people 25 and older have not completed
high school
– 26% of people ages 25 and older have graduated from
college
Structural causes of
downward mobility
 Changes in the economy – primary cause
– Technology - Example from last slide
– Can affect intergenerational mobility
• Ever heard of college grads having a hard time
finding a job?
Section 3: Poverty
 More than 31 Americans (11% of pop) live
below the poverty level
– More are unable to meet their daily needs, but
make too much money to qualify for gov’t asst.
 Poverty – a standard of living that is below
the minimum level considered adequate by
society; it is relative.
– What is considered poverty to some may not be
to others.
2008 Poverty Guidelines
Size of Family
Unit
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Poverty
Guidelines
$10,400
$14,000
$17,600
$22,200
$24,800
$28,400
$32,000
$35,600
125%
$13,000
17,500
$22,000
$26,500
$31,000
$35,500
$40,000
$44,500
Defining poverty in the USA
 Poverty level – minimum
annual income needed by
a family to survive
– See handout!
– Calculate cost of providing
an adequate diet, based on
US Dept of Agriculture’s
minimum nutritional
standards
• Multiply by three b/c
research has indicated that
poor people spend 1/3 of
their income on food
 Each year it is adjusted for
cost of living
American Poverty
 There are several characteristics that affect
poverty:
 Age
– Children under age 18 make up 25% of pop, but are
35% of people in poverty
– Level of poverty in African American and Hispanic
kids is three times as high compared to white kids
 Sex
– 57% of poor are women
– ½ of poverty households are headed by women
• Again, households headed by African American and Hispanic
women 34% are poor; it is 20% for white women households
 Race and Ethnicity
– See above
Effects of Poverty
 Fewer life chances
– Likelihood that individuals have
of sharing in the opportunities
and benefits of society.
– Ex: health, length of life,
housing, education
 Heart disease, diabetes, cancer,
pneumonia – higher among
those in poverty.
 Have shorter life expectancies
– # of years a person can expect to
live
– Poor children are 60% more
likely to die in their first year of
life than kids not born into
poverty
Effect of poverty, continued:
 Why do those in poverty have shorter life
expectancies?
– Inadequate nutrition
– Less access to medical care
 How does lack of money hinder the above?
 Educational life is limited
– School funding is based in part on local
property taxes, thus schools in low-income
areas are inadequately funded b/c of low tax
revenues.
• Think of Cobb and our SPLOST
 Divorce rates higher
among low-income
families
 Poor Americans are
more likely to be
arrested, convicted,
and sent to prison
 People in poverty are
more likely to
commit crimes
investigated by police
– Violent, burglary, auto
theft, drugs, etc.
– Usually rob those in
or near their
community
Patterns of Behavior
Draw the chart!
Government responses to poverty
 1964 – LBJ declares a war on poverty
– Since, the fed gov’t is active in helping the poor
 Social Security & Medicare for the elderly
Gov’t involvement
 Transfer payments
– Take money through taxes and funnel it to groups who
need the assistance.
– SSI – Supplemental Security Income
• $ to folks over 65
• Blind or disabled adult and children
– TANF – Temp Assistance for Needy Families
• Cash payments to poor families with children
 Subsidies
– Transfer goods and substances rather than cash
• Ex: food stamps