Social Inequality & Social Stratification Week 5: Online Social Inequality v. Stratification Inequality = Unequal rewards Stratification = Groups created by or groupings that create unequal rewards Social Inequality Unequal sharing of scarce resources and social rewards How are rewards distributed? Caste system: (closed system, movement impossible) Scarce resources and social networks are distributed on the basis of ascribed statuses Class system: (open system, movement possible?) Rewards are determined on the basis of achieved statuses Social Class A social class is a group of people who share a similar economic position in society based on their wealth and income. Therefore, social class is essentially an economic stratification system. Social Class (Max Weber) What determines social class? Wealth: income, property, assets Power: The ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition by others (Ex: political parties) Prestige: The respect person or status position is shown by others (Ex: doctors) Social Mobility Social mobility refers to the movement within the social structure, from one social position to another (changing social statuses). Types of mobility: Horizontal Vertical Social Mobility Horizontal mobility: A change in occupational position or role without a change of position in the social hierarchy Vertical mobility: Movement from one status to another Movement within the social hierarchy A change within the lifetime of an individual to a higher or lower status than the person had to begin with Horizontal examples: When a rural laborer comes to the city and becomes an industrial worker or a manager takes a position in another company there are no significant changes in their position in the hierarchy. Those are the examples of horizontal mobility. Vertical examples: But if an industrial worker becomes a businessman or lawyer he has radically changed his position in the stratification system. 7 Social Stratification R. W. Murray defines social stratification as: “… arrangement of any social group or society into hierarchy of positions that are unequal with regard to power, property, social evaluation, and psychic gratification.” The division of society into classes, categories, or ranks. Division in society, leads to social inequality. Social Stratification Groups created by or groupings that create unequal rewards. Most common divisions: Class Race Ethnicity Gender Sexuality We will spend the next few weeks discussing these stratification systems “Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families.” (Lareau) Ethnography of middle class and working class white and black families with 10-year-olds Class differences in the home impacting children’s life chances (parenting styles and child’s future opportunity) Class matters, in terms of social class Middle class families: Concerted cultivation Working class families Accomplishmen.

1. Social Inequality &
Social Stratification
Week 5: Online
Social Inequality v. Stratification
Inequality = Unequal rewards
Stratification = Groups created by or groupings that create
unequal rewards
Social Inequality
Unequal sharing of scarce resources and social rewards
How are rewards distributed?
Caste system: (closed system, movement impossible)
Scarce resources and social networks are distributed on the
basis of ascribed statuses
Class system: (open system, movement possible?)
Rewards are determined on the basis of achieved statuses
Social Class
A social class is a group of people who share a similar
economic position in society based on their wealth and income.
Therefore, social class is essentially an economic stratification
system.

2. Social Class (Max Weber)
What determines social class?
Wealth: income, property, assets
Power: The ability of people or groups to achieve their goals
despite opposition by others (Ex: political parties)
Prestige: The respect person or status position is shown by
others (Ex: doctors)
Social Mobility
Social mobility refers to the movement within the social
structure, from one social position to another (changing social
statuses).
Types of mobility:
Horizontal
Vertical
Social Mobility
Horizontal mobility: A change in occupational position or role
without a change of position in the social hierarchy
Vertical mobility:
Movement from one status to another
Movement within the social hierarchy
A change within the lifetime of an individual to a higher or
lower status than the person had to begin with

3. Horizontal examples: When a rural laborer comes to the city and
becomes an industrial worker or a manager takes a position in
another company there are no significant changes in their
position in the hierarchy. Those are the examples of horizontal
mobility.
Vertical examples: But if an industrial worker becomes a
businessman or lawyer he has radically changed his position in
the stratification system.
7
Social Stratification
R. W. Murray defines social stratification as:
“… arrangement of any social group or society into hierarchy of
positions that are unequal with regard to power, property, social
evaluation, and psychic gratification.”
The division of society into classes, categories, or ranks.
Division in society, leads to social inequality.
Social Stratification
Groups created by or groupings that create unequal rewards.
Most common divisions:
Class
Race
Ethnicity
Gender
Sexuality
We will spend the next few weeks discussing these stratification
systems

4. “Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black
Families and White Families.” (Lareau)
Ethnography of middle class and working class white and black
families with 10-year-olds
Class differences in the home impacting children’s life chances
(parenting styles and child’s future opportunity)
Class matters, in terms of social class
Middle class families:
Concerted cultivation
Working class families
Accomplishment of natural growth
Who receives more advantages in life?
Social Inequality & Stratification: Intergenerational Mobility
Week 5: Online
Social Inequality & Stratification
Review
Social Inequality = Unequal rewards; Unequal sharing of scarce
resources and social rewards
Stratification = Groups created by or groupings that create
unequal rewards
Social Class System: Rewards are determined on the basis of
achieved statuses; A social class is a group of people who share
a similar economic position in society based on their wealth and
income

5. “A Tale of Two Schools”
PBS
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjiQup4DW2g
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rTg7fuE9f8
Pay attention to uneven resources
This documentary will show up on the exam!
Discussion
What resources were unevenly redistributed?
Could you identify any structural implications of inequality?
Overall reactions?
Social Mobility
Review
Social mobility refers to the movement within the social
structure, from one social position to another (changing social
statuses).
Types of mobility:
Horizontal
Vertical

6. Intergenerational Mobility
Any change in the social position of family members that takes
place from one generation to the next
Intergenerational Mobility
Map of children who grow up in low- income families across
areas of the U.S.
Lighter colors represent areas where children from low-income
families are more likely to move up in the income distribution
(Chetty, Hendren, Kline, & Saez 2014)
Intergenerational Mobility
(Chetty, Hendren, Kline, & Saez 2014)

7. Intergenerational Mobility
“The Equality of Opportinity Project” Chetty, Hendren, Kline,
& Saez 2014) Academic Economists
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/business/in-climbing-
income-ladder-location-matters.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
“Where you grow up matters…There is tremendous variation
across the U.S. in the extent to which kids can rise out of
poverty.” -Hendron
I recommend that you open and view this article.
Intergenerational Mobility
NY Times Article:
“Atlanta, one of the metropolitan areas where it is most difficult
for lower-income households to rise into the middle class”
“Factors that seem to drive people’s chances of rising beyond
the station of their birth, including education, family structure
and the economic layout of metropolitan areas.”
Least intergenerational mobility: Southeast and industrial
Midwest
Highest: Northeast, Great Plains, and West
Intergenerational Mobility
NY Times Article:
Variation not just based on some areas having higher average

8. incomes
Intergenerational mobility majorly differ in areas where average
income (Atlanta and Seattle)
“Geography mattered much less for well-off children than for
middle-class and poor children.”
“Regions with larger black populations had lower upward-
mobility rates. But the researchers’ analysis suggested that this
was not primarily because of their race. Both white and black
residents of Atlanta have low upward mobility, for instance.”
Intergenerational Mobility
Four broad factors that impacted intergenerational mobility
Areas with these factors tended to be higher in intergenerational
mobility:
Size and dispersion of the local middle class
Two-parent households
Better elementary and high schools
More civic engagement (social capital)
upward mobility tended to be higher in metropolitan areas
where poor families were more dispersed among mixed-income
neighborhoods
4. membership in religious and community groups
12
Intergenerational Mobility
Compared to other nations: Less children in the U.S. escape
childhood poverty than several other rich countries (Canada,
Australia, France, Germany, and Japan)

9. Relocation: “… children who moved at a young age from a low-
mobility area to a high-mobility area did almost as well as those
who spent their entire childhoods in a higher-mobility area. But
children who moved as teenagers did less well.”
Other influential factors that limit mobility opportunities:
concentrated poverty, extensive traffic, and a weak public-
transit system
Little change: “…affluent children often remain so: one of
every three 30-year-olds who grew up in the top 1 percent of the
income distribution was already making at least $100,000 in
family income. Among adults who grew up in the bottom half of
the income distribution, only one out of 25 had family income
of at least $100,000 by age 30.”