ISS 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Social Stratification, Social Mobility, Meritocracy
29 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ISS210 - Lecture 8 & 9: Power and Sociology - Chapter 5
The importance of social class
Sociology: studies social lives of people, groups, and societies.
● Emphasizes groups or categories (race, class, gender, nationality, age, geographic
location)
Social stratification: process of classifying individuals on a superiority – inferiority scale
● income vs. wealth
○ income: amount of money that you bring in from a job
○ wealth: net value of the things that you own
■ can be negative: debt. You own your debt.
● class
○ a category/ranking in the stratification system
■ middle class, lower class, upper class
Different stratification systems
● open: you can move between the different classes
● closed: you a’t oe etee the differet lasses
1) caste system: system where people are born into their social standing and will
remain there for their whole lives
2) class system: based on both social factors and individual achievement
3) meritocracy: a system where personal effort (merit) determines social
standing
Three methods of operationalizing social class:
● subjective identification: asking a group (surveying) what social class they are a part of.
● reputational prestige: asking people how prestigious particular jobs are
● objective classification: measuring things like income, occupation, and education
Social mobility: the ability to change positions in a social stratification system
● can go either upward or downward
● intergenerational v intragenerational
○ inter: between generations (me vs. my parents)
○ intra: in the same generation (how I change over my lifetime)
● structural mobility: when a big societal change enables a whole group of people to move
up or down the ladder
Theoretical perspectives on stratification
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Iss210 - lecture 8 & 9: power and sociology - chapter 5. Sociology: studies social lives of people, groups, and societies. Emphasizes groups or categories (race, class, gender, nationality, age, geographic location) Social stratification: process of classifying individuals on a superiority inferiority scale income vs. wealth income: amount of money that you bring in from a job. Wealth: net value of the things that you own. Open: you can move between the different classes. Subjective identification: asking a group (surveying) what social class they are a part of. Reputational prestige: asking people how prestigious particular jobs are. Objective classification: measuring things like income, occupation, and education. Social mobility: the ability to change positions in a social stratification system. Can go either upward or downward intergenerational v intragenerational inter: between generations (me vs. my parents) intra: in the same generation (how i change over my lifetime)
