SOCA01H3 Lecture Notes - Meritocracy, Class Conflict, Bourgeoisie
15 Dec 2012
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Document Summary
Social inequality: inequality in the distribution of societal values (wealth, power and prestige), caused by any ascribed or achieved characteristics. Includes gender, ethnic racial etc. inequality and socio-economic (class/status) inequality. Socio-economic inequality is a relatively stable pattern (hierarchy) of socially sanctioned, economic inequality. Inequality exists in all known societies, socio-economic inequality exists in nearly all known societies (hunting/gathering societies: gender and age inequality, but no economic inequality). Socio-economic inequality can be described and analyzed in two ways: distributional: the hierarchical arrangement of individuals based upon wealth, power and prestige. Socio-economic status (ses) - is an individual"s position in this hierarchy. Ses indicators: property, income, education, occupation, occupational prestige, political participation, political power, consumption patterns etc. Occupation is highly correlated with the other indicators of ses. Stratum is a category of people with similar amount of wealth, power and prestige. (layer of people in society with a similar ses.
