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• what does social inequality refer to?

  the uneven distribution of resources e.g. money
• what does social stratification describe?

  the way society is structured in a hierarchy of layers that are unequally ranked above another.
• what marked inequalities are there between different social classes?

  - Life expectancy

  - Income

  - Employment

  - Educational achievement

  - Life chances
• what is a social group?

  a group of people sharing a similar economic position in terms of occupation,income and wealth
• FUNCTIONALIST: what do DAVIS AND MOORE (KEY THINKERS) say about social class?

  - All societies need some way of placing individuals into social positions.

  - Some positions are functionally more important than others

  - These functionally important roles are difficult to fill and require specialists skills

  - These positions must rank highly in the social scale in order to attract the right people to all of them

  - All societies must treat people differently so must have some inequality
• MARXIST: what does MARX (KEY THINKER) say about social class?

  - The Bourgeoisie control the means of production through ownership of property, businesses etc.

  - The proletariat have to sell their labour to the Bourgeoisie in order to survive and therefore experience alienation under capitalism because they lack control

  - The two main classes have different interests as the Bourgeoisie want high profits but the proletariat want higher wages so the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat which leads to a class struggle and conflict

  - The Bourgeoisie justify their position with a ruling class ideology as they control politics which disguises exploitation
• What does Weber say about social class?

  - All classes are formed in market places (labour market etc.)

  - A class is a group who have similar access to life chances

  - There are 4 main classes

  - Weber stressed the importance of non-economic factors as well e.g. status

  - Class and status are separate aspects of stratification

  - Status may differ from class position
• What is embourgeoisement?

  the idea that members of the old working class are becoming middle class
• What did DEVINE (KEY THINKER) discover when she revisited the affluent worker study?


  - Luton had gone through a recession

  - She asked the question : how far do working class lifestyles centre on the immediate family and the home

  - The move to Luton wasn't motivated solely to improve living standards

  - Families had not moved alone but had joined families and friends already there and they helped each other in finding jobs --> moving didn't necessarily lead to separation and to home-centred life styles

  - Their aspirations weren't solely individualistic and there was evidence of solidarity rather than individualism

  - she used intensive interviews
• what are some problems with the Registrar General's classification ?


  - Classification based on occupation cannot accommodate jobless people

  - occupational class scales tell us nothing about wealth and property, it was not clear where wealthy upper class and lottery winners should be placed

  -
• what are life chances?


  it refers to people's chances of having positive or negative outcomes over their life time in relation to, health, education,employment etc. Life chances are distributed unequally between groups
• how does social class affect life chances?


  - Class alignment is still prevalent

  - Marxism

  - Lower classes have a low life expectancy and more likely to live in poverty and infant mortality

  - Working class receive low pay and less training so have less opportunity for career advancement

  - less job security

  - BECKER --> working class are labelled
• What changes have taken place to improve the life chances of the lower classes?

  - education policies --> pupil premium

  - SAUNDERS --> social factors count for more than class in affecting life chances

  - Functionalism --> society = meritocratic

  - class dealignment

  - people no longer identify themselves as being part of a class
• How does gender impact life chances?

  - HOLMES --> society is patriarchal and men have considerable power within politics and the work place so have a considerable share of the available rewards

  - Women are under-represented among holders of political power and decision makers

  - CRISIS OF MASCULINITY -->boys are under achieving in school and women have increased employment

  - Socialisation is highly gendered and prepares us for stereotypical gender roles

  - DUSCOMBE AND MARSDEN --> triple shift
• What changes have been introduced to decrease the influence of gender on life chances?

  - the gender pay gap is closing and women are getting paid more

  - Legal changes

  - changing role of women in society--> more women are going into employment rather than conforming to stereotypes
• How does ethnicity influence life chances?

  - police label minorities (BECKER)

  - Nearly all minorities are less likely to be in paid employment

  - They have poor pay and working conditions

  - Minorities are more likely to be in the poorest fifth of the population and half of minority children live in low income households

  - Institutional racism ( the MET)

  - Employer bias
• What changes have been made to reduce the influence of ethnicity on life chances?

  - Equality and anti-discrimination legislation

  - Recognition of institutional racism

  - There is increased social mobility
• How does age influence life chances?

  - Young and old people are vulnerable to ageism

  - Negative stereotyping

  - Old people are more likely to unemployed and in poverty

  - Labelling --> BECKER
• What changes have been made to decrease the influence of age on life chances?

  - The Equality Act

  - The Employment equality regulations
• what is youth seen as?

  the period of transition between childhood and adult hood and involves: increasing independence, moving out, gaining power and status etc.
• what is wealth?

  it refers to the ownership of assets such as property, land and works of art etc.
• How is wealth distributed?

  It is distributed more unevenly than income and is the most important of element of household wealth is residential buildings.
• what does income refer to?


  the flow of resources which individuals and households receive over a specific period of time
• How is income distributed?


  it is linked to life chances, life expectancy and access to education.

  - Income is distributed unevenly between households
• what is social mobility?

  it refers to people's movement up and down between a society's strata
• What is intra-generational social mobility?

  refers to the movement of an individual between social classes over their life time
• What is intergenerational social mobility?


  upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents
• what are some routes to social mobility?


  - Educational achievement and credentials

  - Marriage

  - Windfalls e.g inheritance, lottery win etc

  - changes in the occupational structure
• what are some points about social mobility in Britain?


  - Children from working class backgrounds have less chance of moving into professional occupations

  - Social mobility is on the decline partly as a result of the occupational structure --> skilled manual jobs have declined and the growth in professional and manual jobs has slowed down

  - A candidate for a jobs suitability may be assessed in relation to their educational background so it is advantageous to people from middle-class backgrounds
• what are some problems with studying social mobility?


  - some studies on intergenerational mobility focuses only on males so they tell us nothing about the female experience

  - Studies ask participants for past employment details etc. are likely to be based on unreliable data

  - mobility studies record movement at two + points in time and researchers have to decide these and this can be problematic
• is Britain a meritocratic/classless society?


  class is still important but less relevant.

  - Class delaignment is occurring

  - the working class has shrunk and the middle class has grown

  - the experience of young people are increasingly similar regardless of class

  - the working class still have the worst life chances
• what is absolute poverty?when income is insufficient to obtain the minimum to survive
• what is relative poverty?


  when people cannot afford to meet the general standard of living of most other people in their society
• what is social exclusion?

  being shut out or excluded from participation in society's social,economic,political and cultural life.
• how is poverty measured?


  In the U.K poverty is measured in terms of low incomes, the threshold is fixed at 60% of the median income
• what is subjective poverty?


  based on whether a person sees themselves as living in poverty
• what is environmental poverty?


  measures deprivation in terms of conditions e.g. inadequate housing
• what is townsends deprivation index?


  measured relative deprivation and found that 23% of people in the U.K were living in poverty
• In what groups is the proportion of people in poverty high?

  - Ethnic minorities

  - Women

  - Children

  - Working class

  - The elderly
• why are Bangladeshi and Pakistani households more likely to experience poverty?

  - Racism and discrimination

  - A language barrier -->keeps them out of work

  - Disadvantaged in the welfare state