Intro Sociology Chapter 7

___ percent of inmates on death row could not afford to hire a lawyer when they were tried

90

Less educated women have a_____ average number of births throughout their lifetime than more educated women.

higher

social reproduction

social class is passed down from one generation to the next and thus remains relatively stable (studied by BOURDIEU)

structural mobility

when large numbers of people move up or down the social ladder because of structural changes in society as a whole, particularly when the economy is affected by large-scale events

precarious labor

work that is uncertain, unpredictable, and unprotected, such as contract labor, temporary work, or part-time work

underclass

~12 percent of pop.; "truly disadvantaged"; live in poverty conditions; they may hold few steady jobs and depend on public benefits or charity to survive; inner cities/ substandard housing or homeless; $15,000 per year

upper-middle class

~14 percent of pop,; tends to be well educated (with college or postgraduate degrees) and highly skilled; members work primarily in executive, managerial, and professional jobs; $150,000 per year

everyday class consciousness

awareness of our own and others' social status

redlining

banks and mortgage lenders identify high-risk areas (usually low-income or minority neighborhoods) and either refuse mortgages to applicants from those neighborhoods or o er loans at prohibitively high rates

feudal system

consisted of a hierarchy of privileged nobles who were responsible for and served by a lower stratum of serfs (forced laborers)

horizontal social mobility (part of intragenerational)

the changing of jobs within a social class: a therapist who shifts careers so that he can teach college experiences horizontal mobility

apartheid

a legal separation of racial and ethnic groups that was enforced between 1948 and 1991 in South Africa

slavery

the most extreme system of social stratification, relegates people to the status of property, mainly for the purpose of providing labor for the slave owner

closed system

there is very little opportunity for social mobility among classes

homogamy

we choose romantic partners based on our similarities in background and group membership

just-world hypothesis

we have a strong need to believe that the world is orderly, predictable, and fair in order to achieve our goals in life

upper class

1 percent of US pop with total net worth greater than 99 percent of rest of country; self-sustaining- most members remain and it is hard for new members to gain access

amount of people estimated to be in modern slavery

35 million as of 2014 (using broad definition of slavery)

the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act

Bill Clinton - 1996

Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) - NEW DEAL

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great Depression era

basic indicators of absolute poverty

Hunger, malnutrition, and the inability to afford medications

social stratification of Sweden

Sweden is pretty homogenous and therefore experiences less stratification than normal. Its gov also supports its population heavily, providing high levels of access to health care, education, child and elderly care, unemployment benefits, and public facilities like libraries and parks and paying for this with taxes (so there are very high tax rates for the wealthy)

simplicity movement

This movement, a backlash against the traditional American Dream, encourages people to "downshift" by working less, earning less, and spending less in order to put their lifestyles in sync with their (nonmaterialistic) values

relative depravation

a comparative measure, whereby people are considered impoverished if their standard of living is lower than that of other members of society—for example, a retail clerk who works part-time for minimum wage might be considered among the working poor compared with a neurosurgeon whose salary places her comfortably in the upper-middle class

intersectionality

a concept that acknowledges that multiple dimensions of status and inequality intersect to shape who we are and how we live

social class/ socioeconomic status (SES)

a system of stratification practiced primarily in capitalist societies, ranks groups of people according to their wealth, property, power, and prestige/ SES keeps in mind the social aspect of the stratification

racismo cordial/ polite racism

a term used to describe the racially defined social hierarchy in Brazil. even though Brazil has many mixed races, they are still stratified in a way that may be less obvious with lighter skinned people receiving more benefits

structural and interactionist perspective on classes are ____.

complementary

caste system

based on heredity, whereby whole groups of people are born into a certain strata; may be differentiated along religious, economic, or political lines, as well as by skin color or other physical characteristics; considered a spiritual rather than material status (still results in real-world inequalities)

social stratification in Iran

based upon Islam; those who are nonreligious/ hold Western university degrees have lower status (or they did after Islamic Revolution at least)

symbolic interactionism view of stratification

believe all social structures-including systems of inequality-are constructed from the building blocks of everyday interaction; we make judgements about who a person is and what their social status is in "split-second judgements"; "Wealthy," "poor," and "middle class" are statuses that, rather than existing in and of themselves, are continuously being negotiated in interaction

wealth/ property (weberian theory)

can be inherited or earned

four basic principles of social stratification

characteristic of society rather than reflection of individual differences; social stratification persists over generations; all societies stratify their members but each uses a different criteria for ranking them; social stratification is maintained through beliefs that are widely shared by members of society

cultural capital

children inherit tastes, habits, and expectations from their parents, and this cultural capital either helps or hinders them as they become adults

dense population and anomie

have a greater effect on crime rates than poverty

digital divide

inequality in access to and use of digital technology

hypogamy

marrying down

heterogamy

marrying someone who is different from us

hypergamy

marrying up

absolute deprivation

measure whereby people are unable to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, and health care

social stratification

members of a given society are cat- egorized and divided into groups, which are then placed in a social hierarchy

intragenerational mobility

movement that occurs during the course of an individual's lifetime

intergenerational mobility

movement that occurs from one generation to the next, when a child eventually moves into a different social class from that of her parents

vertical social mobility (part of intragenerational)

movement up or down the social ladder, and thus is often called upward or downward mobility. If this same therapist marries a president of a large corporation, he might experience upward mobility.

social mobility

movement within the stratification system of a particular society, whether it's a small town, a state, or a nation

postmodernism view of stratification

people acquire cultural capital that can help them to succeed/ or fail; people tend to fall into the same SES as their parents because of this (ex: a parent who helps her children with homework and sets good study habits will prob encourage that child in furthering his/ her edu.)

Weberian theory view of stratification (WEBER)

people can accumulate wealth (income & property) in order to become upper-class (don't have to own means of productions to be upper-class); power (ability to impose one's will on another) should be considered when measuring someone's social class standing; prestige also affects social standing

Medicaid and Head Start

proposed by President John F. Kennedy and instituted by President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his Great Society program in 1964

open system

social mobility is possible

Conflict theory view of stratification (MARX)

the capitalists have all control/ advantage and the workers have none; believes that inequality of this type is sustained

Structural functionalism view of stratification

some roles are more desirable than others and may require greater talent or training. In addition, certain roles may be more critical than others to the functioning of society, as well as difficult to fill, so there must be a mechanism for attracting and securing the best individuals to those positions; general consensus about which positions are most important (ex: doctors are viewed as having highest prestige in US and require a lot of work/ determined ppl to take on that role); helps explain the existing system of social stratification and its persistence, but it still leaves us with questions about the structured inequalities that it continues to reproduce

status inconsistency

stark contrasts between the levels of the various statuses occupied; ex: Mother Teresa and Sam Walton (founder of Walmart)

residential segregation

the geographical isolation of the impov- erished from the rest of the city (or in the case of rural areas, from any neighbors at all)

POLITICAL DISENFRANCHISEMENT

the impoverished are less likely to vote or otherwise participate in political life

culture of poverty

the poor, because they were excluded from the mainstream, developed a way of life that was qualitatively di erent from that of middle-class groups that allowed them to cope with the dire circumstance of poverty

prestige (weberian theory)

the social honor granted to people because of their membership in certain groups; based on social identity and bestowed by others

power (weberian theory)

typically comes from occupying certain roles within organizations

social inequality

unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige

working poor

~13 percent of pop.; members are generally not well educated; most have not completed high school and experience lower levels of literacy than the other classes; typical occupations include unskilled, temporary, and seasonal jobs—including minimum- wage jobs, housekeeping, day labor, and migrant agricultural work; this group suf- fers from higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, with some members receiving social welfare subsidies; $25,000 per year

working/ lower-middle class

~30 percent of pop.; members typically have a high school education and generally work in manual labor, or blue collar, jobs, as well as in the service industry; $40,000 per year

middle class

~30 percent of pop.; primarily white collar workers, skilled laborers in technical and lower-management jobs, small entrepreneurs; Most members have a high school education and a two- or four-year college degree; $70,000 per year