SOC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Erik Olin Wright, Social Stratification, Labour Power
Document Summary
Learn about social stratification and the importance of social background in an individual"s chances for material success. Know the most influential theories of stratification including those of karl marx, max. Know the class difference in us society, what influences them and how they are defined and determined. Recognize the ways in which the gap between rich and poor has grown larger. Learn the processes by which people become marginalized in a society and the forms this marginalization takes. Learn about competing explanations for why poverty exists, and means for combating it. Learn how changes in the american economy since the 1970s have led to growing inequalities. Social stratification: the structuring of inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. While all societies involve some forms of stratification, only with the development of state-based systems did wide differences in wealth and power arise.