Bases for Stratification

1
Bases for Stratification

• Economic wealth, property
• Political power
• Social social prestige, e.g. respect, deference
• Karl Marx only economy matters, e.g. owner of
  property vs non-owner
• Max Weber should add power and social prestige
  in the study of social stratification
• Social class is not the only term for social
  stratification. Stratification has other
  dimensions such as gender, age, race/ethnicity,
  religion

2
Update Marx

• Eric Wright emphasize the relation of production
• Capitalist
• Petty bourgeoisie
• Managerial position
• Workers
• Contradictory class location

3
Updating Weber

• Gilbert and Kahl (1993/1997) a six class model
  considering the overall social economic
  positions, termed as
• Socioeconomic Status (SES), indicated by
  occupation, education and income measures.
• The quintile system five equal-sized income
  groups

4
Culture of Poverty Poor people are seen to have
distinctive values, aspirations, and
psychological characteristics that restrict their
abilities and foster behavioral deficiencies
which keep families poor from generation to
generation.

• Criticism
• Studies found that most families are not poor
  for a long enough time to create a culture of
  poverty.
• The poor have the same value and norms as other
  groups.
• Most poor move out of poverty in their lifetime,
  only 2 born poor, stay poor.
• Living in poverty itself creates a set of
  behavior norms and values as a rational response
  to social inequality. e.g. violence, children,
  school dropout, family structure

5
Conclusion the argument of the culture of
poverty tends to blame the victim. The system and
social structural factors do limit peoples life
chance and human potential, inhibit human
potential, demoralize, and create different
lifestyles.

• Structure Analysis
• For example Structure of the family and poverty
• number of wage earners in households
• Demographic factors sex ratio, availability of
  marriageable men.
• Social experiences of different groups
• lack of opportunity

6
Social Structural factors (continued)

• Transformation in the economy deindustrialization
  ,
• suburbanization
• unemployment, low-paying service jobs, the
  decaying inner city, distressed neighborhood,
• class, race, ethnic and gender inequalities.
• feminization of poverty
• the working poor

7
The consequence of feminization of poverty

• Higher Infant Mortality Rate the best indicator
  of a populations health and a nations
  development level.
• Number of death below age 1
• --------------------------------------------
  1,000 12
• Total number of live birth in 2000
• Compared with other industrial countries in the
  world, America has the highest infant mortality
  rate.

8
The Consequences of Social Class Inequality

• Life chance the probability to get what people
  what in life.
• Measures infant mortality
• life expectancy
• education/occupation/employment
• health
• crime
• the vicious cycle / the self-fulfilling prophecy.

9
Myths Concerning Poor Families

• Family dissolution?
• Fact relatively few Mexican families headed by
  women
• decreasing employment opportunities
• Lucrative welfare benefits?
• Fact incidence of female-headed households
  does not correlate with the corresponding state
  variations in benefit levels. Only 14 millions
  out of 40 receive welfare and (2/3 are children)
  AFDC account only 1 of federal budget, less than
  3 of state budget.
• Homeless are urban, non-white, unemployed?
• Fact increasing families with children, caused
  by economic crisis, illness, or joblessness

10
Multi-dimensional Stratificatione

• ideologies on property social class
• gender gender roles
• age ageism
• race racism
• ethnicity
  ethnocentrism
• Point Stratification has various
  dimensions.
• Social class is just one of them.
• International stratification nations are ranked

11
Upgrade Max Weber property, power, prestige

• Upgrade Max Weber look at overall position of
  people by examining education, occupation and
  income to determine peoples socioecnomic status
  (SES)
• Quintile system divide people into 5 equal sized
  groups based on income only

12
Next Steps

• income and wealth distribution across the
  quintiles
• Inequality ratio, comparison, changes
• wealth distribution
• points The inequality level remains constant
  throughout the century.
• During the post-industrial period,
  inequality level goes up
• America has the highest inequality ratio
  among all industrialized nation.
• The Consequence of inequality
• 1. Life chance differ
• 2. Vicious cycle self-fulfilling prophecy
• 3. poverty

13
Social Classes In America

• Marx based on the ownership of the means of
  production bourgeoisie vs proletariat
• Update Marx by Eric Wright
• He added two more classes based on the
  relation of production
• 1. capitalist (have ownership, have power)
• 2. petty bouregeosie (have property, no power)
• 3. managers (have no ownership, have power)
• 4. workers (have neither)
• contradictory class location 2 and 3

14
Measure
measures of social inequality

• Life Chance the probability for people to get
  that they valued in life.
• Life chance can be measured by infant mortality
  rate
• life expectancy
• school drop-out
• unemployment
• crime
• health

15
Poverty in America

• meaning of poverty relative poverty
• absolute poverty
• Official poverty line low-cost food plan
• Who are poor majority are white
• Race minority overrepresented (Hispanic, Black,
  Native American double that of white.)
• Age 17-20 children under 18 yrs old live in
  poverty
• Sex the most important indicator of poverty
  today in America feminization of poverty

16
The Consequence of poverty

• Infant Mortality Rate the best indicator of
  societys economic development and populations
  well-being.
• IMR of death before age 1 / of live birth
  1,000
• America has the highest IMR compared with all
  other industrial countries.
• The social health index of children lower
• Education performance intergenerational backward
  progress
• Suicide trippled, homocide rate trippled,
  trippled abused children, obeicity increased,
  poverty rate high

17
Why

• Why people become poor
• culture of poverty? (Poor people have different
  values, lifestyles than others).
• Criticism against the theory 1. The Poor are not
  found to have different values.
• 2. Most poor move out of poverty in a short time.
  
• 3. Living in poverty create different lifestyles
  for the poor, to rationally respond to societys
  inequality.
• 4. In conclusion the culture of poverty theory
  tends to blame the victim.

18
Sociologists focus on social structural features
of society

• Social structural argument
• 1. deindustrialization of economy
• 2. Increase in low-wage service jobs
• 3. suburbanization
• 4. Unemployment
• 5. Teenage pregnancy
• 6 Divorce
• 7. Inequality in terms of gender,
• race, and ethnicity

19
Class
Class Awareness in America

• Class consciousness / false consciousness
• Why Americans lack class consciousness?
• 1. No inherited aristocracy
• 2. Economic progress in the past two
• centuries after achieving independence.
• 3. Race, ethnicity and other social
• characteristics cut across class lines.
• 4. Ideology supports the stratification
  system
• promise of equality, equality of
  opportunity,
• psychological reductionism.