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.
Another quick assessment is to determine if the person is a blue-collar worker, an individual who engages in manual labor, a pink-collar worker, an individual who works in female-dominated jobs with low pay, or a white-collar worker, an individual employed in a salaried professional, managerial, or administrative position such as lawyers, accountants, consultants, and analysts. Examples of pink-collar workers include maids, servers, retail workers, hairdressers, receptionists, and florists. In general, blue and pink-collar workers earn less than white-collar workers.
Wealth, the total of all personal assets, including property, investments, and income, was one criterion to determine social class. Weber argued that one does not have to be ultra-rich to be a member of the upper social class and obtain social status, as the other two criteria contribute significantly to the process. Power, the ability to exert control over others and achieve goals with or without the support of society, can garner social status as well. Politicians and clergy members may not be wealthy, but they can wield a tremendous amount of power in the community, which, in turn, confers social status. The third interrelated component is prestige, the level of esteem and respect afforded to an individual often associated with one’s occupation or membership in a group or organization. Periodically, national polls are administered in the U.S. to determine which occupation has the highest occupational prestige. Table 8.1.1 provides the top 10 occupations with the highest occupational prestige, a consensus of the value of a job or profession
social inequality, a system that unequally rewards individuals based on characteristics such as sex, income, age, race, and ethnicity (HP), exist in the U.S. and around the world?
For example, there are open systems, social systems that encourage and allow for social mobility, and closed systems, social systems that do not allow for social mobility, concerning social stratification. Many closed systems existed for thousands of years and did not significantly change until the last century.
The first social system of stratification is a slavery system, a closed stratified system in which slaves and owners exist. Slavery, a practice in which people are bought, sold, and traded as property, has existed throughout history in many societies worldwide.
The second social system of inequality is the caste system, a closed stratification system in which people are designated to a particular social position based on their parents’ social status.
The third social system of inequality existed in the Middle Ages and is known as the estate system, a closed stratified system in which wealthy landowners and peasants exist (500–1500 C.E.).
The class system, an open stratified system that allows social mobility, evolved from the social conditions that existed as the estate system ended.
One way the class system is similar to the three closed systems is that even today, 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.
he underpinnings of the U.S. class system are based on the idea that anyone can achieve success regardless of sex, race, and economics, an idea that is referred to as the 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
Individuals at the lower end of the lower-income class are categorized as experiencing absolute poverty, a threshold in which an individual does not have enough resources to meet their basic survival needs (HP). Another measure of poverty is relative poverty, a subjective level at which an individual or family experiences a deprived lifestyle. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\’
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.
Immanuel Wallerstein’s (1930–2019) theory reflects the conflict theory approach, as he introduces the concept of a world-system, any historical social system of interdependent parts that form a bonded structure and operate according to distinct rules (Wallerstein 1974).
Social stratification often fosters the unequal distribution of benefits, opportunities, and rewards based on one’s class position within society. Social stratification is at the core of inequality:
- Class inequality
- Race inequality
- Gender inequality
- Educational inequality
Known as the 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.
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
The concept of 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.
Vertical mobility, movement up or down the system of stratification
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, such as a history teacher leaving one school district to teach the same subject in another district.
An example of 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. Using our history teacher analogy, intergenerational mobility, an individual’s change in social status that results from mobility on a generational level
This is referred to as structural mobility, changes in the social position of a group that result from shifts in the larger society (HP). feminization of poverty, the disproportionate number of women among the world’s poor.
global inequality, the stratification that exists between people living in different nations.