SOCI 1010 Lecture Notes - Thorstein Veblen, Ascribed Status, Social Stratification
Document Summary
Class and status are embedded into our daily routines. We make assumptions about others on the basis of their relative class and standing. Connected to class are assumptions of levels of power. Today, the power associated with social class is much more indirect and subtle. The canadian corporate elite are obscured by their corporate connections. Power relations are often muddied by interconnections with other patterns of inequality. Social factors such as gender, race and ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, and immigrant status play important mediating roles. Social stratification is one of the foundational concerns in sociology. It refers to the hierarchical arrangement of individuals based upon wealth, power, and prestige. The term, social stratification, stresses the layering of groups of people based upon their privilege and social class. According to most sociologists, there are two basic types of status: ascribed and achieved. An ascribed status is assigned at birth and includes race, gender, disability, and age.