PHYS 2001 Chapter : Ch01
Chapter 7: Social stratification
“The gods must be crazy”- film
Stratification, inequality and its universality
❖ Stratification is the structure of inequality
➢ Structural characteristics
❖ Inequality is most important aspect of sociology
❖ Inequality of stratification exists in every society (even in socialist/communist
societies)
❖ Lenski’s historical view: H/G, Horticultural, Agrarian, Industrialized, and post-
industrial
➢ Lenski talks about history of inequality
➢ Human society developed with hunter/gathering society → horticultural
(bow)→agrarian (plow)→ industrialized (steam engine) → post-industrial
(computers)
➢ Inequality skyrocketed between horticultural and agrarian societies
➢ H/G- nobody stays in one place, not much surplus, constantly moving around
▪ Without something extra, there is little inequality
▪ They share everything
➢ Horticultural- stayed in one place. Not doing much better than H/G society in
terms of surplus
➢ Agrarian- Agriculture, domesticated animals, iron
▪ Could now make tools with iron, surplus of food
▪ Iron + domesticated animals= lots of crops
• But, not everyone has land, animals, crops
You work for me, I’ll be your boss
➢ Beginning of inequality
▪ Some families became so rich/huge, they even created a
nation/state
• Most times, nation called by family name
• Some families became so rich they started to hire
people to work for them (soldier) and they created an
empire
➢ Technology, division of labor, surplus, stratification
▪ Post industrial: now we have information and service
• Division of labor among ourselves
➢ Mechanical solidarity: H/G, Horticulture, Agrarian (all slaves/farmers- not
much variety of jobs)
➢ Organic solidarity: Industrialized, post-industrial- we all specialize in
something, lots of variety in jobs
❖ “Origins of Family, Private Property and States”
➢ “Surplus volume” started in Agrarian culture
➢ Immediate family and extended family became more clear as well
▪ In H/G, everyone moved around together there was no need to specify
family members
➢ Private property
▪ Domesticated animal, land
▪ Idea of family comes up
▪ Something valuable, something we can’t replace
• Coke bottle in “The Gods Must be Crazy”
Peace was disrupted because everyone was fighting for possession
of the bottle
➢ States
▪ Created by family
Class, status and power by Weber
❖ Class, status, and power create inequality
❖ What’s the social class? Classification scheme, wealth/power and life chances
➢ Upper class, middle class, lower class (working class)
➢ We all share what social class is all about
▪ A group of people with about equal wealth and power, and about equal
life chances
➢ Social class: A category of people who have approximately the same amount
of power and wealth and the same life chances to acquire wealth
Social class and socio-economic status (income, education, occupation)
❖ Socio-economic status (SES)
➢ Defined by three things
➢ Use these three things to evaluate how successful someone is
▪ Income
• Relatively easy to measure
How much money they make
▪ Education
• How many years of education they have
▪ Occupation
• Have to give people a score
❖ Occupational prestige scores: Subjective nature
➢ Each type of occupation has a certain score (these scores below are from
1989)
▪ Physician: 86 (highest score)
▪ Lawyer: 75
▪ Child care workers: 29
▪ Maids and housemen: 20
➢ No sociologist has done this since 1989 because we know its not going ot
change that much in 26 years
▪ Consistent across time and society
➢ Pretty much the same in every society
➢ Not subjective
-Consistency across time and society, blue/white collar jobs
❖ How much income do we make?
Theories of stratification
10/22/15
Social mobility: Closed/open systems of strat: Caste, Apartheid, slavery vs. class
❖ Down/upward, intra-/intergenerational, structural mobility
➢ How we move up or down (in terms of economic position)
➢ Social mobility: Change in one’s socio-economic status either within or across
generation
▪ Intergenerational mobility: mobility across generations
• It may go up, it may go down
▪ Intra-generational mobility: within your lifetime
➢ Open system mobility: you can move up, you can move down
➢ Closed-system mobility: your social status is set. Specifically, you cant move
up
▪ Caste- a system in India
• Born into a specific social class with a certain occupation. You have to
work there.
Born a brick-layer, you have to be a brick-layer. Born to beggar
parents, you have to be a beggar
• People are trying to get rid of Caste system in India, but it is still
common in rural areas
▪ Apartheid- South African Republic, before they got integrated (before
Mandela ~1980)
• Black people vs. White people.
20% white (top, all white), 80% black (bottom, all black)
No social mobility
This was before Mandela, now it is a more integrated and open
system
▪ Slavery in US
• Black people born into slavery, they couldn’t move up
▪ US used to be most open country in the world but now social mobility is
going down
• Rich kids are must likely to make themselves rich while poor kids are
most likely to stay poor
Status attainment model: Physical, human, social, cultural capital
Causal (direct/indirect effects) and probabilistic model
Motivation and
ability
Educational
attainment
Occupation and income
Family background
Encouragement by other people
