Notes:
8.1.1
-social class, a category of people with similar status, culture, and wealth
-Whitworth’s friends’ parents were keenly aware of social status, an individual’s position, or rank within a social system.
-This question positions people within a social hierarchy commonly referred to as social stratification, a system in which categories of people are ranked in a hierarchy.
-During many social interactions, we look for clues that indicate socioeconomic status (SES), an individual’s social position based on education, occupation, income, and place of residence.
-income, money earned on a regular basis through work
-blue-collar worker, an individual who engages in manual labor
-pink-collar worker, an individual who works in female-dominated jobs with low pay
-white-collar worker, an individual employed in a salaried professional, managerial, or administrative position such as lawyers, accountants, consultants, and analysts.
-Wealth, the total of all personal assets, including property, investments, and income, was one criterion to determine social class.
-Power, the ability to exert control over others and achieve goals with or without the support of society, can garner social status as well.
-prestige, the level of esteem and respect afforded to an individual often associated with one’s occupation or membership in a group or organization.
-occupational prestige, a consensus of the value of a job or profession
8.2.1
– social inequality, a system that unequally rewards individuals based on characteristics such as sex, income, age, race, and ethnicity
-open systems, social systems that encourage and allow for social mobility
-closed systems, social systems that do not allow for social mobility, concerning social stratification.
-slavery system, a closed stratified system in which slaves and owners exist.
-caste system, a closed stratification system in which people are designated to a particular social position based on their parents’ social status.
-estate system, a closed stratified system in which wealthy landowners and peasants exist
-class system, an open stratified system that allows social mobility, evolved from the social conditions that existed as the estate system ended.
-ascribed status, a position in a social system that is assigned based on characteristics such as race, sex, or class, has a significant bearing on individuals’ abilities to climb the social ladder.
-Triple oppression, combined characteristics of being a woman, minority, and poor, is a term that describes the social limitations of women of color who are impoverished.
-achieved status, a position in a social system that is gained through merit.
-American dream, a commonly held belief in the U.S. suggesting that anyone can overcome obstacles and get ahead in life through hard work and determination
8.2.2
-The upper class, a category of people who maintain the highest status and resources in a society , is the only segment of society experiencing significant household income growth.
-The middle class, the category of people at the center of a social hierarchy, comprises most American households
-The lower class, the lowest category of people in a social hierarchy, struggles to meet their daily needs and often is in debt.
-The Federal Poverty Line (FPL), a governmental standard of measurement indicating the income level of when an individual or family is designated as poor, for a family of four in 2021, is $26,500.
-The working poor, individuals who spend more than 27 weeks per year in the paid labor force and live below the poverty line, often work full-time but are paid low wages and do not receive benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and vacations.
8.3.1
-The poverty rate, the percentage of people who are considered poor, was 13.7 percent in 2021, with Whites at 9.6 percent, Blacks at 18.1 percent, and Hispanics at 21.9 percent (Urban Institute 2021).
-social reproduction, the process of children remaining in the same social class through intergenerational transmission of various types of capital.
-absolute poverty, a threshold in which an individual does not have enough resources to meet their basic survival needs .
-relative poverty, a subjective level at which an individual or family experiences a deprived lifestyle.
8.3.2
-The modernization theory, a macro theory indicating the process by which nations progress through stages of development, provides an explanation for why some countries are poor and others are wealthy.
-The second explanation is the dependency theory, a macro theory indicating the stratified world economic system keeps peripheral nations dependent on core nations.
-world-system, any historical social system of interdependent parts that form a bonded structure and operate according to distinct rules.
8.3.3
-wealth gap, it refers to the uneven distribution of financial assets and resources in a society that results from the concentration of money in the hands of a small segment of the population.
-Functionalist Theory: Sociologists using the functionalist perspective consider how the system of stratification contributes to society’s stability.
-Conflict Theory: Considering stratification from a conflict perspective involves looking at the struggle over scarce resources between different groups in society and how the powerful use inequality to their advantage.
-Symbolic Interactionism: Symbolic interaction theorists examine an individual’s position in the system of stratification and how that position impacts their behavior and interaction with others.
8.4.1
-Sociologists refer to the change from poverty to wealth as social mobility, an individual’s or group’s movement up or down the system of stratification in society.
-life chances, the opportunities and resources a person has at their disposal to improve their quality of life.
-cultural capital, the information, knowledge, and ideas people use to support their social mobility, was first introduced by Pierre Bourdieu.
-Social capital, the social networks that people can use to enhance their societal position, may include things like business associations, clubs, sororities, fraternities, etc., all of which may be used to enhance their members’ social and or economic position.
-digital divide, the access to and ability to use technology like computers and the Internet.
8.4.2
-Vertical mobility, movement up or down the system of stratification, typically occurs due to a change in status that results in increased income from a job or improved social position due to marriage.
-Horizontal mobility, movement within a layer of the system of stratification, can be seen when an individual changes employment in a way that does not increase income or social position
– intragenerational mobility, an individual’s change in status during a lifetime, is when an individual starts as a history teacher, decides to move into administration, and eventually becomes the school district superintendent.
-intergenerational mobility, an individual’s change in social status that results from mobility on a generational level
-structural mobility, changes in the social position of a group that result from shifts in the larger society.
8.4.3
-feminization of poverty, the disproportionate number of women among the world’s poor.
8.5.1
-global inequality, the stratification that exists between people living in different nations.