Social Stratification and Inequality

Functionalism

A school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

Upper class

A social class broadly composed of the more affluent members of society, especially those who have inherited wealth, own businesses, or hold large numbers of stocks (shares).

middle class

A social class made up of skilled workers, professionals, business people, and wealthy farmers

The continent with the greatest number of impoverished nations in the world is ________.

Africa

Life changes

Any noticeable alterations in one's living circumstances that require readjustment.

Consequences of Poverty

Lower life expectancy and worse health. Social issues - poor housing, crime, mental health. Poor sanitation. Low levels of education/training. Weak economic growth. Low living standards.

Gross National Income (GNI

The value of the output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, including money that leaves and enters the country

Which statement illustrates low status consistency?

a college dropout launches an online company that earns millions in its first year

Global stratification

a comparison of the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries as a whole

intergenerational mobility

a difference in social class between different generations of a family

intragenerational mobility

a difference in social class between different members of the same generation

Which person best illustrates opportunities for upward social mobility in the United States?

a first generation college student

Chattel slavery

a form of slavery in which one person owns another ("chattel" means "property")

Class

a group that shares a common social status based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation class system:

Structural mobility occurs when

a large group moves up or down the class ladder due to societal changes

Downward mobility

a lowering of one's social class

Symbolic Interactionism

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions

The Estate System

a politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility

Lower class

a social class composed of those who work part time or not at all and whose household income is typically low

Structural mobility

a societal change that enables a whole group of people to move up or down the class ladder

Subjective poverty

a state of poverty composed of many dimensions, subjectively present when one's actual income does not meet one's expectations

Social stratification

a system of ranking individuals and groups within societies

Second world

a term from the Cold War era (1945-1991) that describes nations with moderate economies and standards of living which were aligned with communist state power during that period

First world

a term from the Cold War era (1945-1991) that is used to describe industrialized capitalist nations

Third world

a term from the Cold War era (1945-1991) that refers to poor, unindustrialized countries that were often not aligned with either capitalist or communist state power during that period

Fourth world

a term that describes stigmatized minority groups who have no voice or representation on the world stage

Conflict theory

a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources

Modernization theory

a theory that low-income countries can improve their global economic standing by industrialization of infrastructure and a shift in cultural attitudes towards work

Dependency theory

a theory which states that global inequity is due to the exploitation of peripheral and semi-peripheral nations by core nations

The poverty line defines the income needed for a basic standard of living and is determined by ________.

by tripling the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet and adjusting for other factors such as size of the family, composition and ages

Semi-peripheral nations

in-between nations, not powerful enough to dictate policy but acting as a major source of raw materials and an expanding middle class marketplace

The standard of living is based on

income, employment, class, poverty rates, and housing affordability

Dimitrius was born into a poverty-level household, as were his own parents, but he worked hard in school, earned a prestigious degree, and obtained a high-paying job. He eventually acquired an upper-class social status. What type of social mobility has occurred?

inter generational mobility

Global inequality

is concentrating resources in certain nations and is significantly affecting the opportunities of individuals in poorer and less powerful countries

Social inequality

is the state of unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities

One flaw in modernization theory is the unwillingness to recognize ________.

it's inherent ethnocentric, specifically Eurocentric, bias

Max Weber used the term ________ to describe the degree to which one is likely to advance in the social class structure as that possibility might be affected by the social class one is born into as well as geography, family ancestry, race, ethnicity, age, and gender.

life changes

In the United States, most people define themselves as ________.

middle class

According to ________ undeveloped and low income countries are in their situation because they have not industrialized, but could do so if they chose to.

modernization theory

If a sociologist says that nations evolve toward more advanced technology and more complex industry as their citizens learn cultural values that celebrate hard work and success, she is using ________ theory to study the global economy.

modernization theory

Peripheral nations

nations on the fringes of the global economy, dominated by core nations, with very little industrialization

Which of these systems allows for the most social mobility?

open

Open systems

organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment

What factor makes caste systems closed?

people cannot change their social standings

Blake is a young adult from an impoverished area with an associate's degree. He has no savings and struggles to find work and hold down a steady job. His family recently accused him for being lazy and unmotivated and faulted him for not climbing out of poverty. In this example, Blake's family would likely say that

poverty is a personal failing

Which graphic concept best illustrates the concept of social stratification?

pyramid

Social stratification is a system that

ranks society members into categories

Endogamy

refers to the practice of marrying within one's own caste category

Mike, an American college student, rents a studio apartment. He cannot afford a television and lives on cheap groceries like dried beans and ramen noodles. Since he does not have a steady job, he does not own a car. Mike is living in________.

relative

The Davis-Moore thesis states that the unequal distribution of rewards in social stratification

serves a purpose in society

The basic premise of the structural-functionalists who agree with the Davis-Moore thesis is that the unequal distribution of rewards

serves a purpose in society

Upper middle class

social class consisting of mostly highly educated professionals and managers who have considerable financial stability; they constitute about 14 percent of the U.S. population

Global social inequality is difficult to measure because

social inequality is relative and difficult to compare across cultures

The Caste System

social standing based on social factors and individual accomplishments

The way that a society sorts people into rankings based on measures of factors such as wealth, income, race, education, gender, power, etc., is called

social stratifaction

Class system

social stratification based on both birth and individual achievement

According to Karl Marx

stratification creates class conlfict

One common explanation for poverty is that it arises from personal failure due to one's character, motivation, and education, while another explanation is ________ , which is to say that poverty arises due to factors such as the type and availability of jobs in the market, which exist independently of any one individual's actions or priorities.

structural inequality

Faith is a college graduate with a full-time job and two children. She has enough money for basic necessities and can pay her rent each month, but she feels that, with her education and experience, her income should be enough for her family to live in better circumstances than they do. Faith is experiencing________.

subjective

Closed systems

systems that can sustain themselves without interacting with their environments

One flaw in dependency theory is the unwillingness to recognize ________.

that previously low-income nation such as china have successfully developed their economies and can no longer be classified as dependent on core nations

Social mobility

the ability to change positions within a social stratification system

Conspicuous consumption

the act of buying and using products to make a statement about social standing

Debt bondage

the act of people pledging themselves as servants in exchange for money for passage, and are subsequently paid too little to regain their freedom

Debt accumulation

the buildup of external debt, wherein countries borrow money from other nations to fund their expansion or growth goals

A sociologist working from a Marxist perspective would likely attribute the causes of the 2008 global recession to

the class standing and power of the owners of the means of production

Status consitency

the consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual's rank across social categories like income, education, and occupation

Davis-Moore thesis

the functional analysis claiming that social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of society

Feminization of poverty

the high and rising percentage of women who bear the burden of poverty across the globe

GINI coefficient

the income of a nation calculated based on goods and services produced, plus income earned by citizens and corporations headquartered in that country

Standard of living

the level of wealth available to acquire material goods and comforts to maintain a particular socioeconomic lifestyle

Deindustrialization

the loss of industrial production, usually to peripheral and semi-peripheral nations where the costs are lower

The GNI PP figure represents:

the mean annual income of a country's citizen

Poverty line

the minimum level of income deemed adequate to maintain a decent standard of living

According to the Davis-Moore thesis,

the more society values a particular profession, the more the people in that profession will make

Capital flight

the movement (flight) of capital from one nation to another, via jobs and resources

Relative poverty

the state of poverty where one is unable to live the lifestyle of the average person in their country

Absolute poverty

the state where one is barely able, or unable, to afford basic necessities

gross national income (GNI) per capita

the sum of a country's gross domestic product plus all net income received from overseas, divided by the mid-year population

Wealth

the value of money and assets a person has, perhaps due to inheritance

While social stratification examines inequalities among people, global stratification examines

unequal wealth, economic stability, status and power of countries across the world

________ means an improvement in social class, like a "rags-to-riches" story while ________ refers to a decrease in social class as when problems arise that reduce income or prestige.

upwards mobility and downward mobility

Calculating the ________ is one way to analyze a country's standard of living.

GDP

While myriad variables affect women's poverty, research specializing in this issue identifies three causes

The expansion in the number of female-headed households The persistence and consequences of intra-household inequalities and biases against women The implementation of neoliberal economic policies (with limited governmental intervention) around the world

The Lower Middle Class or Working Class

These jobs are often hands-on and might include physically demanding occupations such as factory work, machine maintenance, or construction.

What factor makes class systems open?

They allow for movement between the classes.

Maya is a twelve-year-old girl living in Thailand. She is homeless, and often does not know where she will sleep or when she will eat. We might say that Maya lives in ________ poverty.

absolute

Which statement represents stratification from the perspective of symbolic interactionism?

after work, Pat, a janitor, feels more comfortable eating in a truck stop than a French restaurant

Which of the following scenarios is an example of intragenerational mobility?

an executive belongs to a different class than her parents

Meritocracy

an ideal system in which demonstrated personal effort and ability—or merit—determines social standing

Upward mobility

an increase—or upward shift—in social class

Underground economy

an unregulated economy of labor and goods that operates outside of governance, regulatory systems, or human protections

In the past, the United States manufactured clothes. Many clothing corporations have shut down their U.S. factories and relocated to China. This is an example of ________.

capital flight

Slavery in the pre-Civil War U.S. South most closely resembled________.

chattel slavery

Some of the world's poorest areas are located in Africa and Asia, and this severe regional poverty can be partially attributed to ________ , an imposed set of policies that arbitrarily redrew land boundaries without paying adequate attention to ethnic differences, and that often extracted natural resources for the benefit of distant imperial states.

colonialism

According to ________, social stratification is bad because it doesn't benefit the entire society, but just the people at the top.

conflict theory

In Immanuel Wallerstein's terms, France might be classified as which kind of nation?

core

Dependency theorists explain global inequality and global stratification by focusing on the way that

core nations exploit peripheral nations

Mollie Orshansky officially defined the poverty line in the U.S. based on the ________.

cost of a healthy diet

In a U.S. town, a mining company owns all the stores and most of the houses. It sells goods to the workers at inflated prices, offers house rentals for twice what a mortgage would be, and makes sure to always pay the workers less than needed to cover food and rent. Once the workers are in debt, they have no choice but to continue working for the company, since their skills will not transfer to a new position. This situation most closely resembles ________.

debt slavery

Unlike Davis and Moore, Melvin Tumin believed that because of social stratification, some qualified people were ________ higher-level job positions.

denied the opportunity to obtain

If a sociologist points out that core nations dominate the global economy, in part by creating global interest rates and international tariffs that will inevitably favor high-income nations over low-income nations, he is a ________ .

dependency theorist

When Karl Marx said workers experience alienation, he meant that workers

do not feel connected to their work

Core nation

dominant capitalist countries

Based on meritocracy, a physician's assistant would

earn a pay raise for doing excellent work

It was time for Oli to marry. He had finished school and was starting a job. His parents chose a bride for him whose parents had the same amount of wealth and belonged to the same class as they did. Oli and his bride will have a(n) ________ marriage.

endogamus

Poverty can become ________, meaning that the consequences of poverty perpetuate further causes in an ongoing cycle.

entrenched

Conflict theorists view capitalists as those who

get rich while workers stay poor

Sariah's parents are both professionals, and she lives in a upper-class neighborhood in Tanzania. Within Tanzania, they are well-off. But compared to similar professionals working in England, Sariah's family would be considered poor. This is an example of

global stratification

________ compares the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries across the world, and highlights worldwide patterns of social inequality.

global stratification

Average middle class

have less prestige, do white-collar work, and most attend college

Michael went to college in order to get a degree and a good job that would support his love of boating. Because Michael was born into an upper-middle class family in a good area, a sociologist might say that Michael has ________.

high life chances