Social strat

• Define social stratification

  - It describes the way society is structured in a hierarchy of strata that are unequally ranks one above the other

  - involves the unequal distribution of social and economic resources between social groups, these include inequalities in wealth, income, status and power
• Define social inequality

  The uneven distribution of resources and opportunity such as money, power, education and life chances
• Define wealth

  Ownership of assets; property and savings
• Define status

  Social standing or prestige of an individual
• Define power


  Ability of individual or a group to get what they want, despite opposition from others
• What is the main form of stratification in modern Britain?

  - Social class is seen as the main form of stratification; its based economic factors such as occupation and income

  - This form of stratification is open, so status can be achieved and social mobility is possible

  - In class based societies gender, ethnicity and age are also sources of inequality
• Define ascribed status

  Social positions that are fixed at birth and unchanging overtime, includes hierarchy title linked to family background
• Define achieved status

  Social positions that are earned on the basis on the basis of talents or merit
• What other forms of stratification are there?: Feudalism


  - Operated in medieval Europe

  - There was four layers; estates

  - All subjects swore allegiance to the king, whose authority was seen as 'God given'

  - The king rewarded nobles w land and in turn the nobles gave land to the knights

  - here, ones position in society was ascribed

  
• What other forms of stratification are there?: The Caste System

  - Found in traditional India

  - People are born into a particular caste and social position is ascribed at birth

  - Its a closed system so social mobility is rare

  - each case was linked w occupation

  - The caste system is linked to the Hindu religion; they deserve their positions based on their behaviour in their previous life

  - inequality in groups was justified as stemming from religious belief
• What other forms of stratification are there?: Apartheid


  - was operating in south Africa from 1948-1994 and was based on government policy of racial segregation → ethnicity was used as the basis for stratification

  - access to health, education, housing and employment was segregated based on their skin colour

  - here, ones position in society was ascribed at birth.

  - Back people were denied of citizen rights and white people had access to more education and employment opportunities

  - Little to no social mobility
• How do functionalists explain social stratification?

  -Davis and Moore (1945)were american sociologists who argued that all societies are stratified and they all have social inequality.

  - They argue that all societies need some way of placing individuals into different social position or roles

  - Some of these roles are functionally more important than others. These roles are difficult to fill and require those w exceptional talent, skill and ability.
• How do functionalist sociologists view inequality?


  - Its created when society ensures that the most important positions are filled by the most talented, trained and qualified individuals.

  - All societies must treat people differently in terms of their status → therefore all societies have some inequality built into them, most people accept this as fair
• What are some criticisms of the functionalist view of stratification?

  - A groups pay and status may be linked to how much power they have rather than their functional importance of their role

  - Rather than seeing stratification as functional, Marxists view it as a means by which a privileged minority exploit others. Neither inequality nor stratification is inevitable

  - Marxists and feminists see stratification as a system where some groups in society an at the expense of others
• How do Marxists explain social class?

  -Karl Marxwas critical of the capitalist society

  - By keeping wages low and prices high the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat in order to make as much personal profit as possible

  - The proletariat don't own any property and so are forced to sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in order to survive.

  - The workers experience alienation under capitalism bc they lack control over production and the products of their labour

  - Due to their economic power the bourgeoisie also hold political power, which they use to further their own interests

  - The bourgeoisie position was justified by ruling class ideology, which lead to a false class consciousness
• what are some criticisms of the Marxist approach to social class?

  - feminists argue that Marxists focus on class at the expense of gender divisions in society, while others argue that they neglect ethnicity

  - a social revolution has not occurred in Britain, partially as a result of increased standard of living and the development of the welfare state
• How does Weber view social class?


  - Max Weber accepted that social class was about economic factors

  - He argued that a class is a group of people who have similar access to life chances and he identified 4 main classes:

  - property owners (UC)

  - Professionals (MC)

  - the petty bourgeoisie

  - the manual workers

  - Weber believed the deciding factor w regard to placing someone in a class was their market situation; some were more skilled and therefore they were able to achieve a higher salary

  - By putting these skilled and unskilled workers in the same group oversimplified the complexities of socio-economic class

  - But he didn't share the Marxist idea that society was broadly divided between the capitalist class and working class
• How is social class measured?: The Registrar General's classification?

  - it was the official gov. class scale between 1911-1998

  - it distinguishes between manual occupations (including jobs that use physical effort, can be skilled, semi skilled or unskilled, seen as WC) and non-manual occupations (retire no physical effort, seen as MC)

  - notes 5 social classes

  Decided on by fathers postion
• What are the problems with the Registrar General's classification?

  - classifications based on occupations cant accommodate unemployed people. In practice, unemployed people were placed based on their most recent occupation → unrepresentative

  - occupational class scales tell us nothing about ones wealth or property. It wasn't clear where the wealthy upper class or lottery millionaires should be placed

  - In the 1970s, when more married women went into paid employment, the practice of assessing class position of a family based on the mans occupation was challenged
• How is social class measured?: The National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC)

  - has replaced the Registrar General's classification

  - it's also based on occupation, but it's covers the whole adult population inc. unemployed people

  - the NS-SEC groups together occupations that have similar:

  - reward from pay (inc. benefits)

  - employment status

  - levels of authority and control

  - has 8 classes include the whole population including students, occupations not stated and jobs not classified
• What are life chances?

  - the opportunity an individual has in life

  - Peoples chances of achieving positive or negative outcomes, such as being ill, wealthy or poor, as they progress through life. - These outcomes relate to many aspects of life including health, life expectancy, education , housing and working conditions.
• What factors affect our life chances?: social class, religion and sexuality


  Social Class

  - upper class have a higher income → better educational attainment → more job opportunities

  Religion

  - Discrimination and hate may be a result of cultural practices such as clothing and religious holidays

  Sexuality

  - discrimination in the workplace and in public

  - mental health problems

  - May become under confident
• What factors affect our life chances?: Gender and ethnicity

  Gender

  - females and transgender are discriminated against the gender pay gap, maternity and transphobia

  - men tend to dominate managerial roles

  - men and women have different standard and expectations

  Ethnicity

  - ethnic minority's experience discrimination

  - labelling in schools leads to lower attainment

  - tends to get rejected from jobs and from lower class
• The Marmot review (2010)


  - research that linked life chances to socio-economic position and income

  - those in higher socio-economic positions have better life chances, more opportunities and better health

  - e.g people w university degrees enjoy better health and live longer than those without

  - The Marmot review argued that health inequalities are a result of avoidable inequalities in society
• What is social mobility?

  - refers to one's moving upwards on society strata/class

  - Measure of how open society is
• What does high rates of up or down mobility suggest?

  - status is achieved not a ascribed → meritocratic society

  - individuals are awarded on the basis of personal qualities rather than inherited wealth (Crompton 2008)
• What does intra-generational social mobility mean?

  The movement of an individual between social classes over their lifetime as a result of for example promotion
• What does inter-generational sociability mean?


  The movement between the generations of the family and occurs when a child enters a different social class from their parents
• State some routes to mobility

  - educational achievements

  - marriage

  - windfalls such as inheritance or winning the lottery

  - changes in the occupational structure e.g. growth in white colour work and reduction in manual work may result in more chances of upward mobility and fewer chances of downward
• What are some problems in measuring social mobility?

  -some studies of inter-generational mobility only focus on males → tell us nothing about women's mobility experiences

  - Studies to ask participants about their past employments are likely to be based on unreliable data

  - they only record movement at two points in time → not representative
• What is absolute poverty


  When people do not have enough money or resources to maintain a basic quality of life
• What is relative poverty?

  people are relatively poor compared to other members of society e.g not affording a phone
• What is the embourgeoisement thesis?

  Idea working class are adopting middle class values like individualism and focus on work
• What is the welfare state?


  When the government assumes major responsibility for people's well-being in areas such as health and education
• What types of authority does Weber identify?

  Legal Rational, Charismatic and Traditional
• What is a democracy?

  Rule by the people
• What is a pressure group?

  a group that tries to influence public policy in the interest of a particular cause.
• What is pluralism?


  the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous pressure groups who are all able to access similar amounts of power