SOC102H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Social Inequality
Document Summary
Chapter 1 theories of social inequality: an introduction. Familiar features are the most difficult to comprehend. Obvious social questions may not have obvious or simple answers. Penetrate superficial observation of everyday life and find the fundamental social processes hidden beneath. Provoke protracted and perplexing arguments over whether it is good or bad, natural or contrived, permanent or transitory in social setting. Definition: any differences among people (or the socially defined positions they occupy) that are consequential for the lives they lead, most particularly for the rights or opportunities they exercise and the rewards or privileges they enjoy. Complications on determining main bases for inequality in society. Central bases individual differences in natural abilities, motivation, willingness to work hard: differential treatment people are accorded because of socially defined characteristics race, age, gender. Great discrepancy in the importance attached to criteria across different places and historical periods: religion: significant in middle east, but not so much in canada.
