SOC 106 Chapter 7 - Stratification

Whereas inequality is the result of abundance, how does the relationship between the bourgeoisie and proletariat suggest that abundance is the result of inequality?

Without the bourgeoise class, the proletariat would have no abundance.

Equality of Opportunity

The idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone

Equality of Condition

The idea that everyone should have an equal starting point

Elite Mass Dichotomy System

A system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society

Middle Class

A term commonly used to describe those individuals with non manual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line; highly debated and expansive category

Upper Class

A term for the economic elite

Structural Functionalism

A theory in which society's main parts - institutions, norms, traditions, and so on - mesh to produce a stable, working whole that evolves over time.

Dialectic

A two-directional relationship, following a pattern in which an original statement or thesis is countered with an antithesis, leading to a conclusion that unites the strengths of the original position and the counterarguments

Class System

An economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility

Socioeconomic Status

An individual's position in a stratified social order

Social Equality

A condition in which no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist

Caste System

A religion-based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility

Bourgeois Society

A society of commerce in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive

Meritocracy

A society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement

Status Hierarchy System

A system of stratification based on social prestige

Stratification

The hierarchical organization of a society into groups with differing levels of power, social prestige, or status and economic resources

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class

Estate System

A politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility

Income

Money received by a person for work, from transfers, or from returns on investments

Wealth

A family's or individual's net worth

Dialectic Materialism

A notion of history that privileges conflict over economic, material resources as the central struggle and driver of change in society

Status-Attainment Model

Approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more desirable occupations

How does class-based affirmative action continue to help some racial minority students? What does this tell you about the status of various categories of stratification in America?

By addressing historical disadvantages and promoting diversity in education.

Exchange Mobility

Mobility resulting from the swapping of jobs

Structural Mobility

Mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economStatus-Attainment Model

What is structural mobility, and how does this concept describe the decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States since the late 1970s?

Mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy. This concept describes the decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States since the early 1970s because as less manufacturing jobs are available people will have to shift to other forms of work.

How does the number of doctors with last names from particular ethnic groups demonstrate the lasting influence of history on intergenerational mobility?

Showing the deep roots that are created within these particular groups.

Conflict Theory

The idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general

Equality of Outcome

The idea that each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the "game"

Contradictory Class Locations

The idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two "pure" classes

What is "equality of condition," and why did Thomas Malthus argue against striving for this form of equality?

The idea that the starting point should be equal for everyone. Malthus fought against this idea because he believed in a "survival of the fittest economy" in which those who were able to achieve success were the ones that deserved it.

Social Mobility

The movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society

Free Rider Problem

The notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight

Proletariat

The working class