intro to soc inequality and stratification

Stratification, Inequality and Achievement

“Nobody cares more about free enterprise and competition and about the best man winning than the

man who inherited his father’s store or farm.”

USF Intro to SociologyFall 2010

Prof. Zavestoski

Friday, October 8, 2010

Concepts to cover...stratification

legitimating rationales

caste, estate, class systems of stratification

Marx’s conception of class

bourgeoisie, proletariat

Weber’s conception of class

life style vs life chances


• power vs authority

• status & prestige

• socioeconomic status

• social mobility

• horizontal and vertical

• inter- and intragenerational

• open systems vs closed systems

• exogamy and endogamy


Stratification:What and How

• Social stratification is the system, and the outcome of the system, that evaluates and rewards people on the basis of arbitrary characteristics with scarce, desired goods; thus resulting in social strata, or layers, of society where people in lower ranking groups receive less of the desired goods than people in the higher ranking groups


Stratification:What and How

• Stratification systems are:

• Persistent (they last over long periods of time)

• Resistant to change

• Upheld by legitimating rationales (i.e., reasons for accepting social stratification as fair and just)


Stratification: Marx vs. Weber

• Marx:

• Capitalists/Owners of Production (Bourgeoisie); and

• Laborers (Proletariat)

• Weber:

• Money, power (e.g., authority) and status (e.g., prestige) shape class position

• Lifestyle and life chances are functions of class position


Mobility: Or Moving through the Strata

• There is no mobility in closed stratification systems;

• Open systems may have:

• Horizontal mobility: between two positions in the same class

• Vertical mobility: Up and down between classes

• Intergenerational: One generation exceeds the position of the previous

• Intragenerational: Within lifetime mobility


Inequality and Achievement

• effects of parents’ social class

• income and wealth

• Matthew effect

• cultural explanations of inequality

• structural explanations of inequality

• tracking, in schools

• Pygmalion effect (self-fulfilling prophecy)


Income and Wealth

• People tend not to surpass their parents’ class standing because income (earnings from employment and investment), and especially wealth (money and all other assets), do not accumulate as easily for the poor as for the rich

• Wealth begets wealth: having money opens up new opportunities for making more money (The Matthew Effect)


Cultural Explanations of Poverty

• Poverty begets poverty: Living in poverty is like having one’s own culture (different beliefs, values, norms, etc.); having been socialized into this culture, the poor lack the necessary skills to become successful


Structural Explanations of Poverty

• Lack of opportunities (e.g., jobs, affordable housing, quality healthcare, decent education) hold poor people back; and, in fact,

• The culture of poverty does not keep people from being successful, but rather is the outgrowth of blocked opportunities


Structure or Culture?• Consider the story of a student who came

from an inner city school and got letters of interest from basketball coaches wanting him to attend summer camps. Not being able to afford the camps, the student never received a scholarship to play basketball. Is this an example of the culture of poverty or a structural explanation?

(from McIntyre, 2002. Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology, Boston: McGraw Hill.)


The power of labels…• Tracking and the Pygmalion Effect

• Is being poor deviant?

The power of theories…What are the policy implications of:

the culture of poverty perspective?

the structural perspective?


intro to soc inequality and stratification

Documents

social stratication

wealth people

class vertical mobility

culture of poverty perspective

parents class

poor people

wealth money

functions of class position