Vermette - Sociology 101 - Chapter 8: Stratification, Class and Inequity

Introduction to Sociology
Ninth Edition
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier,
Richard P. Appelbaum, & Deborah Carr
Chapter 8Stratification, Class, and
Inequality

Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company
Stratification, Class, and Inequality
• Which income group lost the greatest
percentage of its wealth during the
Great Recession of 2008?
– (a) the upper class
– (b) the middle class
– (c) the lower class
2

Learning Objectives
• Basic Concepts
– Learn about social stratification and the importance of social
background in an individual’s chances for material success
• Theories of Stratification in Modern Societies
– Know the most influential theories of stratification—including
those of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Erik Olin Wright
3

Learning Objectives
• Research on Social Stratification Today
– Know the class differences in U.S. society, what influences them
and how they are defined and determined
– Recognize the ways in which the gap between rich and poor
has grown larger
– Learn the processes by which people become marginalized in
a society and the forms this marginalization takes
• Unanswered Questions
– Learn about competing explanations for why poverty exists
and means for combating it
– Understand your own social mobility chances
– Learn how changes in the American economy since the 1970s
have led to growing inequalities
4

Basic Concepts
• Social Stratification
– How individuals and social groups are
divided in society and the inequalities of
wealth and power that result
• Structured Inequalities
– Social inequalities that result from
patterns in the social structure
5

Basic Concepts
• Slavery
– A form of social stratification in which
some people are literally owned by
others as their property
– Total subjection of individual to the
interests of their owners
6

Basic Concepts
• Caste systems
– A social system in which one’s social
status is given for life
– Social life is segregated
– Intimate relationships are restricted to
members of one’s own caste
7

Basic Concepts
8

Basic Concepts
• Class
– A large group of people who hold
similar material prosperity and power
• Life chances
– A person’s opportunities for achieving
economic prosperity
9

Basic Concepts
• Income
– Payment, usually derived from wages,
salaries, or investments
– Unequal distribution of income among
class groups
10

Basic Concepts
11

Basic Concepts
• Wealth
– The assets that an individual owns, such
as cash, savings, and checking accounts
and investments in stocks, bonds, and
real estate
– Unequal distribution across class groups
– Racial divisions persist
12

Basic Concepts
13

Basic Concepts
• Education
– College education predicts occupation,
income, and wealth later in life
– Racial differences persist
• Occupation
– Affected by education
– Affects income and wealth
14

Basic Concepts
15

Basic Concepts
• Class and Lifestyle
– Economic capital
– Cultural capital
16

Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Karl Marx
– Class is based on relationship to the
means of production
• How production of material goods is carried
on in a society, including technology and
social relations between producers
17

• Karl Marx
– Capitalists
• People who own companies, land, or stocks
and use them to generate economic returns
– Working class
• People who sell their labor to capitalists and
generate surplus value
18
Societies

• Max Weber
– Besides relationships to the means of
production, class divisions depend on
skills, credentials, and social status
– Pariah groups prevented from
opportunities
• Groups who suffer from negative status
discrimination
19
Societies

• Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
– Stratification is functional
– Important positions in society require
special skills and offer greater rewards
– Most qualified people fill the most
important roles and receive the greatest
benefit
20
Societies

• Erik Olin Wright
– Class divisions based on:
• Control over investments or monetary
capital
• Control over the physical means of
production
• Control over labor power
– Contradictory class locations
21
Societies

• Annette Laureau
– Different parenting styles on the basis of
social class position
– Concerted cultivation vs. natural growth
22
Societies

Research on Social Stratification
Today
• The upper class in the United States
– Broadly composed of the more affluent
members of society, especially those
who have inherited wealth, own
businesses, and hold large numbers of
stocks (shares)
23

• The middle class in the United States
– Composed broadly of those working in
white-collar and lower managerial
occupations
– Occupational prestige, income, and
wealth split middle class into upper
middle and lower middle classes
24
Today

• The working class in the United States
– Broadly composed of people working in
blue-collar or manual labor occupations
25
Today

• The lower class in the United States
– Composed of people who work part-
time or not at all and whose annual
household income is typically below
$20,000
26
Today

• The “under class” in the United States
– Individuals situated at the bottom of the
class system, often composed of people
in the highest-poverty neighborhoods of
the inner city
– “New urban poor”
27
Today

• Social mobility
– Intergenerational mobility
– Intragenerational mobility
– Structural mobility
– Exchange mobility
28
Today

• Upward mobility
– Higher education
29
Today

• Absolute poverty
– The minimal requirements necessary to
sustain a healthy existence
• Relative poverty
– Poverty defined according to the living
standards of the majority in any given
society
30
Today

• Measuring poverty
– The poverty line
• An official government measure that defines
those living in poverty in the United States
• In 2011, $22,350 annually was the poverty
income for a family of four
31
Today

Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company 32
Today

• Working poor
– People who work, but whose earnings
are not enough to lift them above the
poverty line
33
Today

• Working poor
– In 2011, minimum wage was $7.25/hour
for full-time annual income of $14,500
– Only 5 percent of low-income families
that work full-time, full-year qualify for
welfare
34
Today

Today

• The feminization of poverty
– An increase in the proportion of the poor
who are female
– Growing numbers of women who are
single mothers, divorced, or separated
• Children in poverty
– Related to economic conditions and
government spending
36
Today

Today

• Elderly in poverty
– Low overall poverty rate (9 percent)
– Large variation based on race and
gender
38
Today

• Homeless
– People who have no place to sleep and
either stay in free shelters or sleep in
public places not meant for habitation
– Young single men of working age
– Families (often single women) with
children
39
Today

Unanswered Questions
• Is Inequality Declining or Increasing
in the United States?
– Kuznets Curve
40

41

• Why are Poverty Rates Rising in the
United States?
– Culture of poverty
• Poor are socialized to learn values, beliefs,
and lifestyles that are incompatible with
upward mobility in the class system
– Dependency culture
• Culture of individuals who rely on
government welfare subsidies rather than
working for pay
42

• Why are Poverty Rates Rising in the
United States?
– Social structure
• Inequities are built into the system that affect
opportunities available to people
depending on their gender, race, ethnicity,
education, or social class
43

• What Can Be Done to Combat
Poverty?
– Welfare systems
• Provide basic benefits like food, housing,
and medical care to the poor
• Critics argue that welfare recipients become
dependent on a system that is supposed to
make them independent
44

• What Can Be Done to Combat
Poverty?
– Welfare reform
• Time limits
• Work-training programs
45

46

• How Will These Economic Patterns
Affect Your Life?
– Decreasing effect of education on
mobility chances
– Increasing income inequality
– Global economic competition
47

Concept Quiz
Ownership of wealth, occupation, income,
and education are the four main bases of
which kind of stratification system?
(a) caste
(b) class
(c) meritocratic
(d) slavery
48

Concept Quiz
According to your text, approximately what
percentage of the country’s total net worth
was held by the bottom 60 percent of
Americans in 2007?
(a) 23 percent
(b) 60 percent
(c) 2 percent
(d) 11 percent
49

Concept Quiz
Rosie, a woman from a working-class family, won a huge
lottery jackpot. She decided to apply for membership at an
exclusive country club but felt unwelcome there after ordering
the “wrong” wine at a prospective member dinner and
receiving stares when she smoked a cigarette outside. What
does her experience demonstrate about class?
(a)Occupational status can impact one’s class standing even more
than one’s wealth or income.
(b) One must obtain cultural capital at a very young age in order to be
able to circulate smoothly among those in the top class brackets.
(c) Class is not only determined and expressed economically but also
through lifestyle choices and personal tastes.
50

Concept Quiz
According to the logic of Davis and Moore’s
functionalist theory of stratification, which of
the following occupations must be
functionally most important to society?
(a) corporate lawyer
(b) sewage-treatment plant mechanic
(c) sixth-grade teacher
(d) police officer
51

Concept Quiz
What is one implication of Bourdieu’s theory
of cultural capital?
(a) Social mobility is less about how hard you work
and more about the kinds of tools you work with.
(b) Growing up rich ultimately creates cultural
disadvantages in adulthood.
(c) The hardest-working members of society will
usually wind up highly successful.
(d) Working-class parents do not place high value
on their children’s education.
52

Concept Quiz
What is meant by the feminization of
poverty?
(a) the emasculating effect poverty has on men,
whose masculinity must be proven by the ability to
provide for one’s family
(b) the fact that poor women who cannot afford the
clothing and beauty regimens of rich women must
behave in ultra-feminine ways to compensate
(c) an increase in the proportion of the poor who are
female
53

Discussion Question:Thinking
Sociologically
If you were doing your own study of status
differences in your community, how would you
measure people’s social class? Explain why you
would take the particular measurement approach
you’ve chosen. What would be its value(s) and
shorcomings(s) compared with those of alternative
measurement procedures?
54

Using occupation and occupational change as your
mobility criteria, view the social mobility within
your family and explain why you think people in
your family have moved up, moved down, or
remained at the same status level. Apply these
terms: vertical and horizontal mobility, upward and
downward mobility, intragenerational and
intergenerational mobility.
55
Discussion Question:Thinking
Sociologically

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint
presentation for Chapter 8

Vermette - Sociology 101 - Chapter 8: Stratification, Class and Inequity

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Vermette - Sociology 101 - Chapter 8: Stratification, Class and Inequity