Sociology 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Meritocracy, Socioeconomic Status, Petite Bourgeoisie

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 1020
• Professor: Kim Luton

Document Summary

Social straiicaion refers to persistent paterns of social inequality. Some social hierarchies are based on ascribed statuses, such as gender, race, and age, which are typically assigned to an individual at birth. Other social hierarchies are based on achieved statuses, which index how well an individual has performed in some role. A society in which considerable social mobility between statuses is possible is said to have an open straiicaion system. Social theorists have proposed a variety of explanaions of the origins and efects of social straiicaion systems. In his class-based theory of social straiicaion, karl marx emphasized the exploitaion of the working class by the owners of the means of producion and the potenial for class conlict to generate social change. Max weber also put considerable emphasis on the power that hierarchies of presige and poliical power and inluenial as well.