Sociology 1 (chapters 7)

Social Mobility: Structural

refers to changes in the social status of large numbers of people due to structural changes in society

Poverty: The "Culture of Poverty"

refers to learned attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead poor people to accept their fate rather than attempt to improve their situation

Poverty: Relative Deprivation

relational measure of poverty based on the standards of living - People are considered poor if their standard of living is less than that of other members of society

Poverty: Invisibility of Poverty

residential segregation, political disenfranchisement, and the use of law enforcement to control the homeless can make poverty invisible to many Americans

Which social class category is comprised of people who live in poverty conditions and typically earn $15,000 or less per year?

underclass

Most individuals from which social class category generally depend on income from salaried work but often are financially stable?

upper-middle class

Social Mobility: Closed Systems

very little opportunity to move from one class to another

What does Max Weber consider the ultimate basis of class divisions?

wealth, power, and prestige are related, and it is possible to convert one into another

Identify the example of the homework gap.

when schools shifted online rapidly during the pandemic, many students had no way to access online lessons

Theories of Social Class: Postmodernism and Cultural Capital

According to Bourdieu, social-class status is passed down because each generation acquires cultural capital (skills, knowledge, etc.), which helps people gain advantages in society ---> This cultural capital either helps or hinders people as they become adults

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #7

Apartheid is best described as which of the following types of social systems? a. slavery b. modern-day slavery c. caste d. social class C. caste

Systems of Stratification: Examples of Caste Systems

Apartheid: term for the system of segregation of racial and ethnic groups that was legal in South Africa between 1948 and 1991

Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances

Belonging to a certain social class has profound consequences for individuals in all areas of life, including family, health, education, work and income, and criminal justice

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #1

Every society has some form of stratification. a. true b. false A. True

The U.S. Social Class Ladder

- % of Population : Typical household income : typical occupation : typical education UPPER CLASS - 1% : $2 M : investors, heirs, executives, media/sports personalities : some prestigious university degree UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS - 14% : $150,000 : Professionals and managers : College and university degrees, some graduate degrees MIDDLE CLASS - 30% : $70,000 : Semi-professionals, lower-level managers, white collar and highly skilled blue collar jobs : Two- and four-year college degrees WORKING (LOWER- MIDDLE) CLASS - 30% : $40,000 : Semiskilled labor. service, manual, and clerical jobs : High school degrees WORKING POOR - 13% : $25,000 : Low and unskilled workers, lower-paid manual and service jobs, seasonal work : Some high school UNDERCLASS - 12% : $15,000 : Seldom employed or unemployed, part-time labor, many rely on public or private assistance : Some high school

Examples of Caste Systems

-Nelson Mandela because the first president of South Africa after apartheid was abolished in 1991 -Law professor and civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander argues that there is what is similar to a caste system in the criminal justice system of the United States

Sociologist Sara Goldrick-Rab and her colleagues at the Wisconsin HOPE Center have conducted the largest-ever studies of the experiences of college students with food and housing insecurity. Identify the groups that faced higher levels of food and housing insecurity.

Higher Levels - LGBTQ students, compared to heterosexual students - community college students, compared to university students - women, compared to men Lower Levels - heterosexual students, compared to LGBTQ students - university students, compared to community college students - men, compared to women

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #2

The tendency of social classes to remain relatively stable as social class status is passed down from one generation to the next is called a. cultural capital b. social prestige c. social reproduction d. class consciousness C. social reproduction

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #8

The term __________ refers to a system of stratification based on access to resources such as wealth, property, power, and prestige. a. slavery b. modern-day slavery c. caste d. social class D. Social Class

Inequality and the Ideology of the American Dream

"The American Dream" - ideology that anyone can achieve material success if he or she works hard enough ◦ explains and justifies economic inequality in our social system ◦ has been criticized for legitimizing stratification by implying that everyone has the same opportunity to get ahead

The Upper Class

- Consists of the wealthiest people in a class system - Possesses most of the wealth of the country - Makes up 1 percent of the U.S. population

Working (lower-middle) Class

- Includes blue collar, or service industry, workers - Members less likely to have college degrees - Makes up about 30 percent of the U.S. population

Upper-Middle Class

- Includes professionals and managers - Makes up about 14 percent of the U.S. population

Middle Class

- Includes white collar workers - Has a broad range of incomes - Makes up about 30 percent of the U.S. population

Underclass

- Members likely to be employed only part time or unemployed - Makes up about 12 percent of the U.S. population

Working Poor

- Members likely work manual and service jobs and seasonal employment - Makes up about 13 percent of the U.S. population

creative class

- Richard Florida, often comprised of individuals in the upper-middle class, - includes architects, writers, scientists, artists, professors, and engineers.

Precarious labor

- Workers in the lower-middle and lower class often find themselves engaged in this, - is work that is uncertain, unpredictable, or unprotected, such as contract labor, temporary work, and part-time work

Underemployment

- includes individuals whose work doesn't make full use of their skills - is working in a job that doesn't pay enough to support a person's needs, is seasonal or temporary, or doesn't make full use of the worker's skills.

bourgeoisie

-control the assets used for production -

Proletariat

-earn money by selling their labor power

Identify the slogans that illustrate the American Dream ideology

American Dream Ideology - Anyone can go from rags to riches if they work hard enough - Living the good life: yacht, vacation, money! Not the American Dream Ideology - Government should ensure a livable minimum wage. - A life of chosen poverty can be rich in meaning and service.

Identify the characteristics of a geographic area that is associated with high levels of social mobility.

Associated with High Social Mobility - less residential segregation - greater family stability - better schools - greater social capital - less income inequality - Not Associated with High Social Mobility - greater wealth - large-scale events

Intersectionality Theory and Stratification

Contemporary feminist theory Intersectionality Theory - Our location within these stratification systems affect our lives in profound ways and structure our opportunities. - E.g., Most CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations are white males - E.g., People of color are much more likely to live in poverty than white people - Queer men of color are more likely to be HIV-positive than white queer men

When people living in poverty are less likely to vote or participate in political life, they are victims of political __________.

Disenfranchisement 8is the removal of the rights of citizenship through economic, political, or legal means.

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #6

Disenfranchisement refers to a. the removal of the rights of citizenship b. geographic segregation c. absolute deprivation d. relative deprivation A. the removal of the rights of citizenship

Identify each item as an example of either income or wealth.

Income - royalty checks for writing a novel - Social Security checks Wealth - wealth - stocks and bonds - money in a 401(k) account

Identify each scenario as more related to K-12 education, or to college.

K-12 Education - Annika is a strong student, but her school has limited funds due to property values in the surrounding area. College Education - Rob needs to find housing and food over a three-week winter break. - Louis isn't familiar with the term "office hours," so he doesn't seek support when his grades are low.

Theories of Social Class: Conflict Theory

Karl Marx believed that there were two main social classes in capitalist societies - Capitalists (or the bourgeoisie) owned the means of production - Workers (or the proletariat) sold their labor for wages Marx believed that the classes would remain divided and social inequality would grow

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #4

Max Weber argued that there were several important components of social class. Which of the following is NOT one of the components? a. prestige b. power c. wealth d. morals D. morals

Theories of Social Class: Weberian Theory

Max Weber offered a similar model that also included cultural factors He argued that class status was made of three components. - Wealth (or privilege) is a measure of net worth that includes income, property, and other assets - Power is the ability to impose one's will on others - Prestige is the social honor people are given because of their membership in well-regarded social groups

Intersectionality Theory

Posits that stratification systems intersect to create intersecting systems of oppression (and privilege) Inequality produced and shaped simultaneously by race, class, gender, sexuality, and immigration Our identity and lived experience are intersectional

Identify each example as indicating either relative or absolute deprivation.

Relative Deprivation - A lower-middle class family owns a house at the edge of a county where many rich people live. They have many highly educated neighbors nearby and cannot afford to shop at the multitude of upper-middle class stores in the area. - A low-income student earns a scholarship to a highly prestigious university. Her peers wear expensive clothes to class and drive nice cars. She wears clothes she bought at the thrift store and has to ride the bus to go anywhere. Absolute Deprivation - An underclass family lives paycheck to paycheck and often runs out of money near the end of the week and must seek additional assistance from food banks and churches. - A homeless man sets up on a street corner every day to scrape together whatever he can but often goes hungry and cannot find a place to stay when the local homeless shelter is at capacity.

Systems of Stratification: Slavery

Slavery- the most extreme form of social stratification and is based on the legal ownership of people

Societies stratify people according to different criteria

Social class Race/ethnicity Gender sexuality

What term describes the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy?

Social stratification

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #5

Sociologists apply the terms wealth and income interchangeably a. true b. false B. False

Match the major systems of social stratification to the description that most closely describes it.

Status within the hierarchy is inherited and cannot be changed = caste In this system, groups of people are distinguished by access to resources such as wealth, property, power, and prestige = social class Under this system, people can be bought and sold like any other commodity = slavery

Theories of Social Class: Structural Functionalism

Structural functionalism suggests that the system of stratification that has emerged is functional to society in many ways - Certain roles are more important for the functioning of society and these roles may be more difficult to fill, so more incentive is needed - Greater rewards are necessary for work that requires more training or skill

Theories of Social Class: Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionists: examine the way in which we use status differences to categorize ourselves and others As Erving Goffman pointed out, our clothing, speech, gestures, possessions, friends, activities, and so on provide information about our socioeconomic status

Social Class and Inequality-Concept Quiz Question #3

We call entrenched attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead the poor to accept their fate a. the culture of poverty b. the just-world hypothesis c. disenfranchisement d. social welfare A. the culture of poverty

Intersectionality

a concept that identifies how different categories of inequality (e.g., class, race, and gender) intersect

wealth

a measure of net worth that includes income, property, and other assets

status inconsistency

a situation in which an individual holds differing and contradictory levels of status in terms of wealth, power, prestige, or other elements of socioeconomic status

Systems of Stratification: Social Class

a system of stratification based on access to resources such as wealth, property, power, and prestige also referred to as socioeconomic status (SES) -measured: by income, wealth, education, and occupational status

structural functionalism

approach suggests that social inequality is a necessary part of society

conflict theory

approach suggests that the poor and rich have different interests and may find themselves at odds as they attempt to secure and protect these interests

symbolic interactionism

approach suggests that we develop everyday class consciousness as a way to distinguish the status of others

Systems of Stratification: Caste

caste system: a form of social stratification in which status is determined by one's family history and background and cannot be changed

A social scientist argues that inner-city families cannot escape a cycle of poverty because they see the lack of opportunities around them, decide that the world of the middle class is permanently closed to them, and do not try to maintain steady employment or send their children to college. What concept does this example highlight?

culture of poverty theory

Poverty

in the U.S. the federal poverty line (an absolute measure of annual income) is frequently used to determine who should be categorized as poor The poverty threshold for a family of four in 2019 was $25,750 Most people living in poverty are not unemployed. MOST ARE EMPLOYED. This fact is evident in the term "working poor."

Poverty: Absolute Deprivation

inability to meet minimal standards for food, shelter, clothing, or health care

Social inequality

is the unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society.

Social Mobility: Open Systems

many opportunities to move from one class to another

Social Mobility: Vertical social mobility

movement between social classes and, depending on the direction, is often called either upward mobility or downward mobility

Social Mobility: Intergenerational Mobility

movement between social classes that occurs from one generation to the next

Social Mobility: Intragenerational Mobility

movement between social classes that occurs over the course of an individual's lifetime

Social Mobility

movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchical system of social classes

Social Mobility: Horizontal social mobility

occupational movement of individuals or groups within a social class

What term describes the unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society?

social inequality

Theories of Social Class: Postmodernism and Social Reproduction

tendency for social-class status to be passed down from one generation to the next Pierre Bourdieu attempted to explain social reproduction

Social stratification

the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy Every society has some form of stratification

prestige

the social honor people are given because of their membership in well-regarded social groups