Sociology

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(No Transcript)
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Sociology
the core7e
Michael Hughes Carolyn J. Kroehler
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chapter 6

• Social Stratification

• Social Stratification
• Patterns of Social Stratification
• The American Class System
• Social Mobility
• Explanations of Social Stratification

Chapter Outline
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Social Stratification

• Social Stratification is the ranking or grading
  of individuals and groups into hierarchical
  layers. It represents structured inequality of
  access to rewards privileges and resources.

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Patterns of Social Stratification

• Open and Closed Systems
• Open system
• Allows people to change their status with
  relative ease
• Status typically achieved
• Closed system
• Very difficult to change status
• Status typically ascribed
• Example Hindu caste system

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Patterns of Social Stratification

• Dimensions of Stratification
• Weber identified 3 components
• Class (economic standing)
• Wealth vs. income
• Status (prestige)
• Social respect admiration recognition
• Presentation and avoidance rituals
• Conspicuous leisure and consumption

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Patterns of Social Stratification

• Dimensions of Stratification (continued)
• Party (power)
• Power is the ability of individuals and groups to
  realize their will in human affairs even if it
  involves the resistance of others
• Face-to-face interaction
• Access to critical resources and dependency

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The American Class System

• In U.S. all created equal
• 2001 Top 5 of families received 22.4 of income
• 2003 Top 20 of households own more than 80 of
  wealth
• White households far wealthier than
  African-American and Hispanic households
• Top 1 of households worth more than bottom 90

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The American Class System
The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer
Share of Income Received by Households in the
United States 1950-2001 Source U.S. Census
Bureau Current Population Survey Annual
Demographic Supplements 2003.
Figure 6.1
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The American Class System
The Concentration of Wealth in the United States
2001 (Percent Share of Total Net Worth by
Quintiles of Net Worth) Source Data from 2001
Survey of Consumer Finances Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System.
Figure 6.2a
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The American Class System
The Concentration of Wealth in the United States
2001 (Median Net Worth of Families by
Ethnicity) Source Data from 2001 Survey of
Consumer Finances Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System.
Figure 6.2b
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The American Class System
Distribution of Households by Income
2001 Source U.S. Census Bureau 2003.
Figure 6.3
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The American Class System

• Identifying Social Class
• Is social class stratified or continuous
• Four approaches to determining class
• Objective method use of a multidimensional
  numerical (statistical) measure
• Self-placement individuals appraise their own
  class according to questioners categories
• Reputational method individuals appraise
  others class according to questioners categories

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The American Class System

• Identifying Social Class (continued)
• Four approaches to determining class
• Combined method Coleman and Rainwater
• People who have really made it
• People who are doing really well
• People who have achieved the middle-class dream
• People who have a comfortable life
• People who are just getting by
• People who are having a difficult time
• People who are poor

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The American Class System

• The Significance of Social Classes
• Social class determines life chances
• Raw cognitive ability
• Health
• Education
• Life expectancy
• Food choices
• Sexual behavior

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The American Class System

• Poverty in the United States
• Minimum income in England in 1795 the cost of a
  gallon loaf of bread multiplied by three plus
  an allowance for each dependent
• Minimum income in U.S. today the minimum amount
  a family needs to purchase a nutritionally
  adequate diet assuming they use one-third of
  their income for food

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The American Class System
People in Poverty in the United States
1959-2002 Source Proctor and Delaker 2003 U.S.
Census Bureau March Current Population Survey
http//www.census.gov/hhes/income/histinc/h17.html
.
Figure 6.4
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The American Class System

• Poverty in the United States
• 62 of nations poor live in large cities
• Concentrations in Appalachia Mississippi delta
  Mexican-border Texas
• Single/divorced parents and children
• Women at significantly higher risk than men
• 16.7 of American children lived in poverty in
  2002

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The American Class System

• Poverty in the United States
• Poverty rates vary greatly by race
• Lowest rates
• Non-Hispanic whites (8) and Asian Americans
  (10.0 to 10.3)
• Highest rates
• Hispanics (21.8) and African Americans (23.9 to
  24.1)

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The American Class System

• Poverty in the United States
• While poverty rate is lower for whites 15.6
  million non-Hispanic whites lived in poverty in
  2002 compared to 8.6 million African Americans
  and the same number of Hispanics.
• 20 of widowed and 24 of divorced older women
  are impoverished.

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The American Class System

• Poverty in the United States
• Underclass core of inner-city poor trapped in a
  persistent cycle of joblessness and dependence on
  welfare or criminal earnings
• Explanations include
• Culture of poverty (self-perpetuating patterns)
• Situational (poverty as a flowing pool)
• Structural feature (the poor are fodder for needs
  of capitalist economy)

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The American Class System

• Poverty in the United States
• Poverty Programs
• Largely private
• Roosevelts New Deal (1930s)
• Social Security reduced poverty in elderly
• Aid to Families with Dependent Children
• U.S. is only industrialized country with
• No guaranteed income for families in poverty
• No national health program

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The American Class System
The immediate problem for poverty research is to
explain why so many working-class Americans do
not earn enough to sustain even a minimalist
standard of living in this extraordinarily
prosperous economy.
Historian Alice OConner
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Social Mobility

• Forms include
• Vertical and Horizontal
• Intergenerational and Intragenerational
• Status attainment
• Socioeconomic life cycle (Blau and Duncan 1972)
• High school student study (William Sewell
  1970/75)
• Education has greatest influence
• Other factors race gender dual labor market

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The American Dream

• The American Dream is the belief that an average
  person through hard work and perseverance can
  achieve as much as he or she wishes.

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The American Dream
Median Income of Households by Race/Ethnicity In
Constant 2001 Dollars 1972-2001 Source U.S.
Census Bureau 2003.
Figure 6.5
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Explanations of Social Stratification

• Functionalist
• Stratification exists because it is beneficial to
  society
• Filling all statuses requires motivating
  individuals with (a) desire to fill and (b)
  desire to perform Davis and Moore 1945
• Highest statuses are held by the most
  talented/qualified and are functionally the most
  necessary
• Many exceptions (dysfunctionality)

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Explanations of Social Stratification

• Conflict theory
• Stratification exists because it benefits
  individuals and groups who have the power to
  dominate and exploit others
• Capitalists extract a workers surplus value
• False and class consciousness
• Wright capitalists managers workers petite
  bourgeoisie
• Conflicts not restricted to economics

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Explanations of Social Stratification

• Synthesis
• Lenski / Kerbo (1966 / 2000)
• Stratification evolves to reduce conflict over
  scarce resources
• As technology advances the resulting surplus of
  goods and services is distributed based on power