SA 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Social Stratification, Lumpenproletariat, False Consciousness

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 150
• Professor: Hilal Ozcetin

Document Summary

Social inequality the long-term existence of significant differences in access to goods and services among social groups (class, ethnicity, gender) Social stratification a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. 4 basic principles of stratification: a trait of society, persists over generations, universal but variable. Birth determines social positions in 4 ways: occupation, marriage within caste, social life is restricted to own kind , belief systems are often tied to religion. Social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement. Karl marx described class in regards to the means of production: bourgeoisie: owners of production, proletariat: workers. Karl marx also identified other sub-classes in his work: petty bourgeoisie: small business owners, lumpenproletariat: small-time criminals, beggars, unemployed. False consciousness: the idea that something is in one"s best interest when it is not: marx believed that workers ad false consciousness, e. g. Corporate tax cuts: believed to generate more jobs, but not what happens in reality.