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44 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Social Stratification
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inequalities among individuals and groups within human societies. 3 key aspects: class, status and power
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Systems of stratification
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1. people who share common characteristics w/o necessarily interacting with each other. (wealthy vs. poor, men vs. women)
2. People's life experiences and opportunities depend heavily on how their social category is ranked. 3. The ranks of different social categories tend to change very slowly over time. |
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caste societies
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different social levels are closed so that all individuals must remain at the social level of their birth throughout life.
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Endogamy:
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Puirty of a caste is maintained through endogamy, marriage within one's social group as required by custom/law.
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Life chances
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Weber: Best way to understand class. Life chances: the opportunities you have for achieving economic prosperity.
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Four Class Systems
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1. Fluid: no formal restrictions: religion or legal.
2. Achieved: not assigned at birth. 3. economically based: economic differences b/w groups or individuals. 4. large scale and impersonal: inequalities expressed in personal relationships of duty or obligation, higher and lower caste individuals. |
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Kuznets curve
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formula showing that inequality increased during the early stages of capitalist development then declines, and eventually stabilizes at a relatively low level.
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Income
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wages and salaries earned from paid occupations plus earned money from investments.
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Wealth
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all assets individuals own: cash, savings and checking accounts, investments.
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Status
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prestige that goes along with one's social positions.
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Upper class
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very wealthiest Americans. 5% of Americans. 145,099
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Middle class
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diverse group,people who earn stable and sometimes substantial incomes at white collar jobs.
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Upper middle class
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relatively high income professionals, midlevel corporate managers, own/manage small businesses and retail shops. 83,500- 154,498`
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Lower middle class
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trained office workers, teachers, nurses, skilled services. 33,314-83,499.
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Working Class
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20% of American households. blue collar jobs. 17970-33300
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Lower class
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includes those who work part time or not at all 17,000
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Underclass
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beneath the class system in that they lack access to the world of work and mainstream patterns of behavior. African Americans.
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Social Mobility
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movement of individuals and groups b/w different class positions as a result of changes in occupation, wealth or income.
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2 ways of studying social mobility
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Intra-generational mobility: how far they move up or down the socialeconomic scale in their working lives.
Inter-generational mobility: mobility across generations. |
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Exchange mobility
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exchange of positions, more talented people in each generation moving up while less talented moving down.
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Structural mobility
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upward mobility made possible by an expansion of better paid occupations at the expense of more poorly paid ones.
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Industrialism hypothesis
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societies become more open to movement b/w classes as they become more technologically advanced.
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Ascription
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societies become more industrial, workers jobs become based on achievement rather then ascription: placement in particular social status based on characteristics such as family of origin, race and gender.
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Education and social stratification
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Increase demand for and wages paid to educated workers.
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Class location
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Individuals class location is evaluated in terms of economics and employment as well as cultural factors such as lifestyle and consumption patterns.--> which is influenced by wealth income.
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wealth gap
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between rich and poor, and white and black
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Vertical mobility
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Blau and Duncan: movement along the socioeconomic scale, between occupational position quite close to one another.
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Short-range downward mobility
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moves from one job to another that are similar routine jobs. Psychological problems or anxieties.
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Absolute poverty
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can't get enough to eat, possibly die, undernourished.
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Relative poverty
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a measure of inequality, being poor compared with the standards of living of the majority.
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Poverty Line
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US, income equal to 3x the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet.
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Working poor
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people who work but whose earning are not high enough to lift them above the poverty line
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feminization of poverty
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increase of the poor who are female. Single mothers, not well educated or qualified for higher paying jobs. Not able to raise themselves out of poverty.
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Culture of poverty
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Lewis; poverty is not a result of individual inadequacies. poor children are socialized from an early age to see little point in aspiring to something more.
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dependency culture
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Murray: poor people who rely on the government welfare provision rather then entering the labor market. Subculture that undermines personal ambition and the capacity of self-help
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Welfare dependency
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people who become dependent on the very programs that are meant to allow an independent and meaningful life.
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Social exclusion
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new sources of inequality- ways in which individuals may become cit off from involvement in the wider society.
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Processes
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Mechanisms of exclusion: poor may be denied opportunities for self-betterment that most people in society receive.
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Social exclusion at the top
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wealthy exclude themselves from the rest of society- gated communities, private health care.
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Homeless
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Growing homeless. elderly or alcoholic men, now young single men and families.
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Marx production and class
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means of production: how individuals gain a livelihood.
2 classed: those who own production and those who work for them. Workers produce more then owners give back. Surplus value: source of profit, which capitalist put to their own use. |
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Pariah groups
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Weber: subject to discrimination that prevents them from taking advantage of opportunities open to others.
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Contradictory class locations
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Able to control some aspects of production but are denied control over others. White collar in b/w blue collar and capitalist.
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Social closure
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groups try to maintain exclusive control over resources by limiting access to them.
Usurption: attempts by the less priviledged to acquire resources previously monopolized by others. ex: Blacks struggle to become apart of the union. |