Social Stratification

• Differentiation

  • method of relating people in terms of certain social characteristics and then classifying them into social categories based on their characteristics.
• Differentiation

  • does not involve ranking social categories.
• Social Stratification

  • layering of social categories into higher and lower position of prestige or respect.
• Ariola (2012)

  • Social stratification refers to "institutionalized inequality" of individual or "social injustice" due to social categories.
• Brinkerhoff & White (1988)

  • Social stratification is an institutionalized pattern of inequality in which social categories are ranked on the basis of their access to scarce resources.
• Cole (2019)

  • is the way people are ranked and ordered in society.
• Social Classes

  1. Upper class
  2. Middle class
  3. Lower class
• Status

  • the individual’s position in the social structure.
• Status

  • the higher or lower positions that come about through social stratification.
• Status

  • do not relate to the individuals themselves but rather to the social category or position into which they have been placed.
• Kinds of Status

  1. Ascribed status
  2. Achieved status
• Ascribed Status

  • assigned or given by the society or group on the basis of some fixed category, without regard to a person’s abilities or performance. You did nothing to earn these statuses and you have no control over these characteristics.
  • examples: sex, family background, race, and ethnic heritage.
• Achieved Status

  • earned by the individual. Normally, an individual exerts effort and struggles to establish the status he or she wants.
  • examples: winning on singing competition, getting a job after graduation, getting promoted to a higher position.
• Prestige

  • refers to the evaluation of status. You have it according to your status.
  • examples: being a senior high school student, being a SSG of your school.
• Esteem

  • refers to the assessment of our role behavior.
  • example: when a student studies well, he/she gets an outstanding rating.
• Social Class

  • referred to as a number of people who are group collectively because they have similar professional/occupational statuses, amount of prestige or lifestyle.
• Karl Marx

  • said that the organization of a society is determined by economic forces.
  • it was the Industrial Revolution that divided society into two social classes:

  1. Proletariat (the working class)
  2. Bourgeoisie (the capitalist class)
• Max Weber

  • differentiated them into three: wealth, power, and prestige. Individual’s social standing can be measured, all at once, based on their relative access to these three.
• Power

  • refers to the ability to influence other people. It is getting what they want despite the unwillingness of others to give in to their desires.
• Prestige

  • refers to the person’s position in the society.
• Prestige

  • refers to having a certain status that enables someone to have resources or opportunities.
• Wealth

  • refers to the amount of resources that a person has.
• Ariola (2012)

  • one may be viewed as belonging to the upper social strata or lower social strata depending on the following dimensions:

  1. Sources of Income
  2. Occupation
  3. Education
  4. Types of house dwellings
  5. Location of residence
  6. Kinship or Family
• Social Mobility System

  • an individual’s ability to move from one place to another along the stratified positions of the society.
• Types of Society

  1. Open society
  2. Closed society
• In an open society, stratification is based on social classes, where people’s social position or status are determined by economic wealth and income.
• An open system facilitates social mobility based on personal efforts and individual achievements.
• Education plays a vital role in social mobility. It allows people in lower strata of society to move upward in the social order.
• Closed society is when people remain in the social class rank of their parents.
• Closed society is when changes or shifts in social positions or social mobility are limited; and in some societies even prohibited.
• In a closed society, prevailing cultural norms, laid down through laws (both secular and religious), prohibits a person from moving upward on the social ladder.
• The caste system is an example of a closed society.
• Newman (2012)

  • in a caste system, people are born into their social classes (inherited from their parents) and remain there for the rest of their lives.
• Newman (2012)

  • Closed society is very difficult to shift from one social position to another as laws, both legal and religious, prohibit any movement between the clearly established boundaries of the caste.
• Types of Social Mobility

  1. Horizontal mobility
  2. Vertical mobility
• People may change their social class position either of two ways:

  1. They can move from one position to another position within their social class.
  2. They can move into another class.
• Horizontal Mobility

  • is the movement of a person within a social class level.
• Horizontal Mobility

  • the person is moving horizontally.
• Vertical Mobility

  • is the movement of the person between social class levels.
• Vertical Mobility

  • the movement maybe upward or downward.