ATS1365 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Audre Lorde, Economic Capital, Social Inequality
8 May 2018
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INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY: LECTURE 5
Social Stratification
Last Time
1. Organising society
a. Statuses and roles
b. Groups, organisations and institutions
2. The social consequences of organising society
Today
1. Social stratification
2. Class as a method of stratification
3. Social inequality, using Australia as an example
PAL Assignment Review Sessions
• Clayton: Monday April 9th, 1-2pm Menzies W204
• Tuesday April 10th, 12-1pm, Menzies H1
Social Stratification
• The ranking of members of a society in groups on the basis of their status
• This may be based on one, or a combination of:
• Occupation
• Power
• Economic resources
• Prestige
• Education
• It is structured inequality between groups
Determinants of Social Stratification
• Power
• The degree to which a person can control other people
• More power = more respect in society
• Contest: prime ministers and presidents used to be positions of
respect
• Economic Resources
• The more money/higher status you have, the more power you have
• The level of income from all resources is an important indicator of oes
place in society
• Prestige
• The degree of respect or importance accorded to an individual by members
of society
• Occupation
• Some jobs are more honourable than others
• Eg. doctors, engineers, businesspeople and lawyers hold a higher
position than a car mechanic or manual worker
• Higher-prestige occupations generally receive the higher incomes
• Education
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Education also determines social position
Class as a Method of Stratification
Social Class
• A homogenous group of people in a society based on many of these determinants of
social stratification
• Our class system allows for social mobility – movement between classes
• Vertical Mobility – moving up or down the social hierarchy
• Horizontal mobility – changing roles but staying in the same place in the
hierarchy
• Intergenerational mobility – change between generations (ie. I occupy a
different position to my parents)
• Intragenerational Mobility – change within generations (ie. My position
changes in my lifetime)
• Social Mobility – the ability to move up or down in the social structure
• Closed societies have a low degree of social mobility. In such a system, your
position is ascribed, that is, given to you when you are born and is
unchangeable (eg. caste systems in Hindu societies or South African
apartheid)
• Open societies – where social mobility is possible. In open societies, your
position is achieved – it is the result of personal qualities, abilities and
decisions
• Social Mobility in Australia is higher than in countries like the US or UK, but you are
still very likely to end up in the same position as your parents, or one very close to it
(Argy, 2006)
• Mobility happens through:
• Individual effort
• Technological change
• Change in merchandising patterns
• Increase in populations general educational level
The Class System in Australia
• A study by ANU in 2015 found that there are five observable classes in Australian
society:
• An established affluent class (14%)
• An emergent affluent class (11%)
• A mobile middle class (25%)
• An established middle class (25%)
• An established working class (25%)
• Class affects people throughout their life, sometimes in very unexpected ways
Karl Marx on Class
• Karl Marx 1818-1883
• Philosopher, economist and sociologist; responsible for theories of Marxism,
communism, socialism amongst others
• Under capitalism, the two main classes are the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the
proletariat (the working class)
• Their independent relationship is based on economic exploitation
• Wealth will polarise in the hands of fewer and larger capitalists
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Eventually, according to Marx, the workers will recognise their collective interests,
rise up and overthrow this system
• Karl Marx was very interested in class relations in capitalist societies
• Class as deteied solel oes elatio to the means of production
• Proletariat and bourgeoisie
• Group membership utterly determined by life chances
• Class explains two things
• The structure of inequality in society, and
• The process by which that inequality would be overcome
• Production is fundamental for societies to survive
• When people produce a surplus (more than they need to survive), classes and
class-based inequalities become possible
• Because people produce things together, the relationships between people
involved in production define classes
• In capitalist societies, a group of people own the means of production (equipment,
property) used to produce things, and another group are the employees who work
for the owners of the means of production
• In Marxist terms, the owners of the means of production are the capitalists
(bourgeoisie) and those who sell their labour are the working class
(proletariat)
• Means of production: the raw material, tools, equipment, property, and labour used
to produce goods in a particular economic system
• Exploitation: a term is often used generally to mean the misuse of power by one
group over another. Marx used the term specifically to refer to the appropriation of
surplus value or profits by capitalists
• Class consciousness: a subjective perception of a group of people that they belong
to a similar social class
• For Marx, the key element for a proletarian revolution was the development of class
consciousness among workers by their recognition of common interests
• The uprising of workers against capitalists would come through a social utopia called
the communist revolution
• Intermediate stage – called socialism – puts power back in the hands of everyday
people and redistributes income wealth more equitably
Max Weber on Class
• Max Weber, 1864 – 1920
• Weber distinguished four classes:
• The propertied class
• The intelligentsia (administrative and managerial classes)
• The petit bourgeoisie
• The working class
• But Weber was more interested in groups and organisations than classes
• Ma Wee oed eod Mas to-class system – saw 4 classes instead
• Middle two are traditional middle classes
• Notion of social class differs from that of Marx
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
