ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD P.APPELBAUM ● DEBORAH CARR Fourth Edition Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality.

ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD P.APPELBAUM ● DEBORAH CARRFourth Edition

Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality

© 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.

Homeless to Harvard

2


Social stratification

• Social stratification is structured inequality between groups.

• This inequality may be based on economics, gender, race, religion, age, or another factor.

• Three key aspects:

Class, status, and power—from Max Weber

• What is at stake is power.3


Characteristics of stratification systems

Three primary characteristics:

•Systems of inequality are organized around groups with a shared characteristic.

•The social location of a group is significant in terms of the life chances of members.

•Rankings of groups change only very slowly.

4


Three basic models

• Slavery—ownership of certain people

• Caste—status for life

• Class—positions based on economics

5


Class systems

• In modern societies, class systems dominate.

• While class systems do allow for social mobility, opportunities are not evenly distributed across social groups.

• Class has a significant impact on many aspects of life, including education, occupation, place of residence, marriage partner, and more.

6


• Two important debates today:

1. Will caste systems develop into class systems as we observe global structural change?

2. Is inequality declining in class systems as a result of expanded social programs, e.g., education?

7

Questions about class systems

Figure 7.1 The Kuznets Curve



How do stratification systems look today?

• In modern, industrialized societies, there is little overt support for rigid systems of inequality.

• Remaining caste systems appear to be transitioning into class systems.

• From the time of World War II to the 1970s, class boundaries appeared to soften, but they have been hardening since the 1970s.

9


Marx and class conflict

• Karl Marx was very interested in class relations in capitalist societies.

• Class was determined solely by one’s relation to the means of production.– Proletariat and bourgeoisie– Group membership utterly determined life

chances.

• Ultimately, the proletariat would overthrow the bourgeoisie, ending the reign of capitalism.

10


Weber: Class and status

• For Max Weber, position in a stratification system was not based on economics alone: social status was also significant.

• Weber’s multidimensional approach is attractive to those who believe that social prestige and power can be independent of economics.

11


Functionalist approaches

• Functionalist theorists attempt to understand what role inequality plays in keeping society at equilibrium.

• Davis and Moore (1945) argued that stratification benefited society by ensuring that the most important roles would be filled by the most talented and worthy people.

12


What is social class?

• Social class is some mixture of:– Wealth– Income– Education

– Occupation

13


Race and wealth

• Though race is not an actual component of class, there is a clear intersection.

• Research shows that nonwhites generally have less wealth and education than other social groups.

• Nonwhites are also much more likely to experience discrimination when buying homes.

14


Median net worth of American familiesbased on various social factors

Source: U.S. Federal Reserve Board 2009.

15

Social Inequality in the U.S.


SOURCE: U.S. Federal Reserve Board 2011.


Nonwhite or Hispanic

White, non-Hispanic

Renter

Owner

EDUCATIONNo high school

High school

Some college

College degree

AGE

0

35

45

55

65

75

RACE OR ETHNICITY

HOME OWNERSHIP

$300,000

$225,000

$150,000

$75,000

$0

Median net worth of American families based on various social factors


SOURCE: U.S. Federal Reserve Board 2011.


Median net worth by percentile

0% 25% 50% 75% 90%

PERCENTILE OF NET WORTH

$2m

$1m

$0

100%


Income distribution

Figure 7.2 Distribution of Income in the United States, 1967–2010

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census 2010b.


The recession

• The increase in subprime lending to minority communities led to disproportionate rates of default and foreclosure among those same groups, beginning in 2006.

• Following this, the real estate bubble burst, and recession set in.


Higher education

• College graduates earn approximately $20,000 more per year, $650,000 more over a 40-year work life, than nongrads.

• There is also stratification within college graduates: Degrees emphasizing numerical competency

higher incomes

• Finishing high school is still critical


Occupational prestige

Occupation Rank (1 = most prestigious; 16 = least

prestigious)

Accountant _________________________________

Cab driver _________________________________

Carpenter _________________________________

Classical musician _________________________________

Electrical engineer _________________________________

Garbage collector _________________________________

Journalist _________________________________

Physician _________________________________

Police officer _________________________________

Real estate agent _________________________________

Registered nurse _________________________________

Secretary _________________________________

Shoe shiner _________________________________

Social worker _________________________________

Sociologist _________________________________

Waiter or waitress _________________________________

21


The rankings

1. Physician

2. Electrical engineer

3. Sociologist

4. Accountant

5. Registered nurse

6. Classical musician

7. Police officer

8. Journalist

9. Social worker

10. Secretary

11. Real estate agent

12. Carpenter

13. Cab driver

14. Waiter or waitress

15. Garbage collector

16. Shoe shiner

22


The American middle class

• The United States understands itself as a middle-class society.

• This fits with strongly held ideologies, including classlessness, meritocracy, and the work ethic.

• Middle-class ideologies tend to promote the reproduction of inequality.

23


The American Superrich

• 1940s: 13,000 people worth > $1 million

• 2008: 6.7 million millionaire households, 371 billionaires

• 2013: 5.22 million millionaires

24


Social mobility

• Social mobility is the movement of people up or down the stratification system.

• Class systems allow for more movement than slave or caste systems.

• Even so, it remains quite difficult to achieve upward, intergenerational social mobility.

25


Rising income inequality

26


Poverty

• Despite the wealth of resources and opportunities in the United States, poverty remains a significant social problem.

• Sociologists discuss two general types of poverty: absolute poverty and relative poverty.

27


Poverty in the United States

• A full 14.3% of the population in 2009 was in poverty (44 million people); this is the highest rate among the major industrialized nations and the highest here since 1994.

• 25% of these people are working.• 19 million are living in extreme poverty

—near starvation levels.

28


Measuring poverty

• Poverty is calculated using a formula from the 1960s, whereby the poverty line is based on an income three times the cost of monthly groceries.

• 2013: $22,350 for a family of 4

29


Why are the poor poor?

• Poverty is not simply the result of not working hard.

• Explanations for poverty are diverse.• What we know is that low earnings (often

based on a low minimum wage) make it very hard to “get ahead.”

• Also, the poor have less educational attainment, less health insurance, and, more broadly, diminished life chances.

30


Gender and poverty

• Sociologists often discuss what is called the feminization of poverty.

• Because of social changes, including divorce and the increasing normalization of single parenting, there are more female-headed households today than throughout modern U.S. history.

• Of these families, 29.3% were poor in 2009, compared to only 5.8% of married households.

31


Children in poverty

• In 2009:– 15 million children lived in poor

families– 43% lived in “economically insecure”

families

These numbers are higher for nonwhite children

32


The elderly and poverty

• Health care is the single biggest problem for the elderly when it comes to economics.

• Why?

33


Explanations for poverty

• Sociologists have many empirical explanations for poverty, but by and large they all fall under one of two themes:

– Blaming the victim (culture-of-poverty arguments)

– Blaming the system (social exclusion, structural arguments)

34


Poverty and social problems

• Social welfare systems

• Homelessness

• Lack of basic medical care

• Educational segregation

• People turn to nonconventional means to make money.

35

W. W. Norton & CompanyIndependent and Employee-Owned

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint Presentation for

For more learning resources, please visit our online StudySpace at: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/soc/essentials-of-sociology7/


Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality

© 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.37

Clicker Questions

1. What is social stratification?

a. the existence of structured inequalities among individuals

and groups in a society

b. a system in which success is based on who you know

c. a system based on the simple fact that some people are lucky and others are unlucky

d. a condition that results when people’s social mobility is hindered, such as in caste or slavery systems


Clicker Questions

2. If someone is poor when compared with the standard of living for most people, he or she experiences

a. absolute poverty.

b. relative poverty.

c. downward mobility.

d. structural mobility.


Clicker Questions

3. What is the basis of Karl Marx’s theory of class?

a. Class is a by-product of the Industrial Revolution.

b. Modern societies are divided into those who own the means of production and those who sell their labor.

c. People with power will always use it to protect their material interests.

d. Class is a transitory system of stratification between feudal estates and the classlessness of communist society.


Clicker Questions

4. What term describes the movement of individuals or groups among different social positions?

a. social mobility

b. social exclusion

c. social structure

d. vertical advancement


Clicker Questions

5. What did Max Weber add to Karl Marx’s theory of class?

a. Weber argued that income was more important than property in determining class standing in modern society.

b. Weber argued that marketable skills were as important as property in determining class standing and that status was as important as class as a dimension of stratification in modern society.

c. Weber argued that society was much too complex for anything remotely resembling Marx’s historical materialism (his theory of history).

d. Weber understood the enduring significance of the middle class.


Clicker Questions

6. Which of the following systems of stratification permit the least amount of mobility?

a. caste

b. class

c. slavery

d. clan


Clicker Questions

7. Since the early 1970s, inequality in the United States has

a. increased.

b. decreased.

c. remained approximately the same.

d. become more difficult to measure.

ANTHONY GIDDENS ● MITCHELL DUNEIER ● RICHARD P.APPELBAUM ● DEBORAH CARR Fourth Edition Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality.

Documents

class systems

social class

inequality slide

class relations

class boundaries

rigid systems of inequality

social groups

social status