Chapter 11: Stratification by Social Class
Measuring social class
Objective method: class viewed as statistical category based on
occupation, income, etc.
Prestige: respect and admiration that an occupation holds
Esteem: reputation a specific person has earned within an occupation
Gender and Occupational Prestige
Neglect occupations and incomes of women as determinants of
social rank
Should be classified on their occupational status, rather than
spouse
Multiple measures
Use statistical method and computer technology
Wealth and income
Canada much more evenly devided
Poverty
Low income cut off: poverty line in Canada
Market basket measure: more than subsistence needs by
calculating the amounts needed by various households to live a life
comparable to the standards of its community
Absolute poverty: Minimum level of subsistence below which no
family should be expected to live
Relative poverty: Standard of deprivation by which people at the
bottom of society live
Social Safety net: initiatives designed to alleviate the harshest
conditions associated with being at the bottom of the income scale
Underclass: blame the victims for their own plight, while ignoring
other factors that push people into poverty
Explaining poverty
Presence of poor people, dirty work at low cost
Poverty provides occupations that serve the poor
Identification and punishment of the poor as deviants upholds
legitimacy of conventional social norms and mainstream values
regarding hard work, thrift and honestly
Guarantees higher status of the more affluent
Poor absorb costs of social change, satisfy positive functions for
non-poor groups
Life chances
Opportunities to provide themselves and material goods, positive
living conditions and favorable life experiences
In times of danger the powerful have better chance surviving
than ordinary people
Digital Distance: the poor cannot connect to the Internet Social mobility: the movement of individuals/ groups from on
position in a society’s stratification system to another
Open System: position of each individual is influenced by his or her
achieve status
Closed System: little or no possibility of individual social mobility
Types of Social Mobility
Horizontal mobility: move from one social position to another of the
same rank
Vertical mobility: movement of an individual from one social position
to another of a different rank (can be downwards)
Intergenerational Mobility: Change in the social position of kids
relative to their parents
Intragenerational Mobility: Change in social position with a poisons
adult life
Social Mobility in Canada
Occupational Mobility; both Inter/Intragenerational Mobility
Impact of Education
Impact of Gender
Racial and Ethnic Inequality
Racial Group: group set apart because of physical differences
Ethnic Group: group set apart because of national origin on
distinctive cultural patterns
Minority Groups: subordinate group whose members have
significantly less control or power over their own lives than other
members of a dominant of majority group have over theirs
1. Experience unequal treatment
2. Members of minority share physical or cultural characteristics
3. Membership in a minority is not voluntary
4. Minority group members have a strong sense of group solidarity
5. Minority marry from same group
Social construction of race
Culture can play a role in race
Race is a social construction
Stereotypes: unreliable generalizations about all members of a group
that do not recognize individual differences within a group
Ethnicity
Subjectively assigned by one group to another, si
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