1. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION, INEQUALITY, AND POVERTY
SSF 1044 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY

2. Social stratification
Social stratification = structured inequalities between individuals and groups within human societies
Not just in terms of ownership of property, but also
Gender
Age
Religious affiliation
Military rank……etc.
Individuals/groups enjoy unequal access to important advantages (economic resources, power, prestige…) based on their position within the stratification scheme

3. Theories of Class & Stratification
Karl Marx
Max Weber

4. Karl Marx’s Theory
Class = a group of people who stand in a common relationship to the means of production (by which they gain a livelihood)
Pre-industrial societies – 2 main classes
Those who own land (aristocrat)
Those actively engaged in producing from it (serfs, slaves, free peasants)
Modern industrial societies – 2 main classes
Capitalists
Working class
Relationship between classes is an exploitative one

5. Max Weber’s Theory
Took Marx’s approach, but Weber further modified and elaborated it.
Stratification is not just a matter of class, but is shaped by two further aspects: status and party
Class divisions derive not only from control or lack of control over means of production, but from differences which have nothing to do with property.
How do status and party influence
stratification independently of class?

6. 3 types of societies SOME SOCIAL GROUPS HAVE GREATER ACCESS TO:
Type of society
Economic resources
Power
Prestige
Egalitarian No
Rank
Yes
Class/Caste
From Ember & Ember (1992: Table 11-1)

7. Egalitarian societies
Egalitarian does not mean that everybody in such societies is the same
Differential prestige do exist!
There will always be differences in age and gender and in abilities / traits (skills, power, creativity, attractiveness, intelligence)
Egalitarian = within a given society, “there are as many positions of prestige in any given age-sex grade as there are persons capable of filling them” (Morton H. Fried, 1967)
There is equal access to prestige position for everyone.

8. Rank societies
Social groups have unequal access to prestige or status, but not significantly unequal access to economic resources or power.
Unequal access to prestige is often reflected in the position of chief
Position of chief is at least partially hereditary  only some members of a specified group in the society can succeed

9. Class societies Caste system
A caste is a ranked group
Often associated with a certain occupation
Membership is determined at birth
Marriage is restricted to members of own class
No class mobility – a closed class!
Open class society – it is possible, through effort, to move from one class to another

10. How did stratification emerge
How did stratification emerge? (Clue: Think of reasons why we (society) would need stratification?)

11. Characteristics of Stratification Systems
Social stratification describes the structured ranking of individuals and groups and their grading into horizontal layers or strata.
Social stratification depends upon, but is not the same thing as, social differentiation – the process by which a society becomes increasingly specialized over time.
Where people can change their status with relative ease, sociologists refer to the arrangement as an open system.
Where people can not change their status with relative ease, sociologists refer to the arrangement as a closed system.

12. Characteristics of Stratification Systems
Social stratification is a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
There are four basic principles of stratification:
Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a function of individual differences.
Social stratification persists over generations.
However, most societies allow some social mobility or changes in people’s position in a system of social stratification.
Social mobility may be upward, downward, or horizontal.
Social stratification is universal but variable.
Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs.

13. Stratification and Inequality
Social inequality: condition in which members of society have different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power
Stratification: structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society
Four major stratification systems: slavery, caste, estate, and class

14. Caste Systems
A caste system is social stratification based on ascription or birth.
Caste systems are typical of agrarian societies because the lifelong routines of agriculture depend on a rigid sense of duty and discipline
Caste systems shape people’s lives in four crucial ways:
Caste largely determines occupation.
Caste systems generally mandate endogamy.
Caste systems limit outgroup social contacts.
Powerful cultural beliefs underlie caste systems.

15. Characteristics of A Caste System
Caste systems shape people’s lives in four crucial ways:
Caste largely determines occupation.
Illustrations: India and South Africa.
systems generally mandate endogamy.
Caste systems limit outgroup social contacts.
Powerful cultural beliefs underlie caste systems. Caste systems are typical of agrarian societies because the lifelong routines of agriculture depend on a rigid sense of duty and discipline.

16. Caste in Japan Feudal Japan was divided into several castes: Nobility.
Samurai or warriors.
Commoners.
The burakumin or outcasts
Japan today consists of “upper,” “upper-middle,” “lower-middle,” and “lower” classes, and people move between classes over time. But they may still size up one’s social standing through the lens of caste.

17. Characteristics of Class Systems
In a class system, social stratification is based on both birth and individual achievement.
Industrial societies move towards meritocracy, social stratification based on personal merit.
In a class system, social stratification is based on both birth and individual achievement.
In class systems, status consistency, the degree of consistency of a person’s social standing across various dimensions of social inequality, is lower than in caste systems

18. The Soviet System The former Soviet Union.
Although the former Soviet Union claimed to be classless, the jobs people held actually fell into four unequal categories:
apparatchiks or high government officials.
Soviet intelligentsia.
manual workers.
rural peasantry
The second Russian Revolution.
Gorbachev introduced perestroika, and in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed.
Social mobility is relatively common in the Soviet Union, especially structural social mobility, a shift in the social position of large numbers of people due more to changes in society itself than to individual efforts.

19. Chinese Stratification
Sweeping political and economic changes are taking place in the People’s Republic of China.
A new class system is emerging with a mix of the old political hierarchy and a new business hierarchy.

20. The Persistence of Stratification
Stratification persists across generations because it is backed up by an ideology, a set of cultural beliefs that justify social stratification and inequality .
Plato explained that every culture considers some type of inequality “fair.”
Marx understood this fact, although he was far more critical of inequality than Plato.

21. Characteristics of Estate Systems
Estate stratification systems were agrarian and peasants were required to work land leased to them by nobles in exchange for military protection and other services.
During the feudal era, British society was divided into three estates:
The first estate was the hereditary nobility.
The second estate was the clergy.
The third estate was the commoners.
The United Kingdom today is a class society, but it retains important elements of its former caste system

22. The American Class System
Inequality follows relatively consistent and stable patterns that persist through time.
Typically, stratified groups in the United States are referred to as the upper class, the upper middle class, the lower middle class, the working class and and the lower class.
Income inequality is high in the United States; it is increasing; and it is at its highest level in 50 years.
In 2001, the top 20 percent of the population received half of the income and inequality in wealth is even greater.

23. The American Class System
Social class largely determines people’s life chances and style of life.
Children and the elderly account for nearly half of all Americans living in poverty.
Three theories predominate regarding poverty:
The culture of poverty theory,
poverty as situational
poverty as a structural feature of capitalist societies

24. The American Class System
Three primary methods are employed by sociologists in identifying social classes:
the objective method,
the self-placement method,
the reputational method.

25. Functional Analysis of Stratification
The Davis-Moore thesis is the assertion that social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operations of a society.
It is difficult to specify the functional importance of a given occupation; some are clearly over- or under-rewarded.
Davis-Moore ignores how social stratification can prevent the development of individual talents.
The theory also ignores how social inequality may promote conflict and revolution.

26. Conflict Analysis of Stratification
Marx saw classes as defined by people’s relationship to the means of production.
Capitalists (or the bourgeoisie) are people who own factories and other productive businesses.
The proletarians sell their productive labor to the capitalists.
Big Bucks: Are the Rich Worth What They Earn? Equating income with social worth is risky business.
Critiques
Marxism is revolutionary and highly controversial.
Marxism fails to recognize that a system of unequal rewards may be necessary to motivate people to perform their social roles effectively.
The revolutionary developments Marx considered inevitable within capitalist societies have failed to happen.

27. The Failure of the conflict model of Stratification
The capitalist class has fragmented and grown in size, giving more people a stake in the system.
A higher standard of living has emerged.
Blue-collar occupations, lower-prestige work involving mostly manual labor, have declined.
White-collar occupations, higher-prestige work involving mostly mental activity, have expanded.
Workers are better organized than they were in Marx’s day, and their unions have been able to fight for reform.
The government has extended various legal protections to workers

28. Defense of Conflict theory of Stratification
Wealth remains highly concentrated.
White-collar jobs offer no more income, security, or satisfaction than blue-collar jobs did a century ago.
Class conflict continues between workers and management.
The laws still protect the private property of the rich

29. Sociological Study of Stratification Systems
Sociologists typically take a multidimensional view of stratification, identifying three components:
economic standing (wealth and income)
prestige
Power
power

30. Sociological Study of Stratification Systems
Questions Sociologists Ask about Stratification
What type of system is it
How much social mobility is there
How much inequality is there and what is the basis for inequality
Why is there stratification
The founders of Sociology had several set of answers

31. Sociological Study of Stratification Systems
Many sociologists use the term socioeconomic status, a composite ranking based on various dimensions of social inequality (Income, Occupation, Power)
Inequality in history: Weber’s view. Weber noted that each of his three dimensions of social inequality stands out at different points in the evolution of human societies.
Although social class boundaries may have blurred, all industrial nations still show striking patterns of social inequality.
Income inequality has increased in recent years. Because of this trend, some think Marx’s view of the rich versus the poor is correct.

32. Why Stratification ?
Explanations of social stratification involve value judgments.
The Bell Curve Debate: Are Rich People Really Smarter?:
A series of claims made in The Bell Curve (Murray, Charles and Hernstein, Richard J., Free Press, 1994) that Race and class are related to intelligence.
Historical patterns of ideology. Ideology changes as a society’s economy and technology change.
Is Getting Rich "The Survival of the Fittest"?
Spencer’s view that people get more or less what they deserve in life remains part of our individualistic culture.
Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic

33. Social Mobility
The process of moving from one stratification level to another
takes a number of forms:
vertical
horizontal
intergenerational
intragenerational.
Intragenerational social mobility is a change in social position occurring during a person’s lifetime; intergenerational social mobility is upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents.

34. Social Mobility
When sociologists speak of social mobility, they usually mean intergenerational occupational mobility.
More Americans are upwardly mobile than downwardly mobile across generations.
Sociologists study the course of an individual’s occupational status over the life cycle by looking at the socioeconomic life cycle.
The processes of status attainment are different for women and blacks than for white males.
Critics of status attainment research contend that it has a functionalist bias and that the dual labor market operates to sort people into core or periphery sector jobs.
There is ongoing controversy about whether the American middle class is “shrinking” and whether the American Dream is history

35. Social Mobility Social Classes in the United States.
The upper class. Historically, though less so today, the upper class has been composed of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.
The upper-upper class includes less than 1 percent of the U.S. population.
The lower-upper class are the “working rich”; earnings rather than inherited wealth are the primary source of their income.
Color of Money: Being Rich in Black and White. The number of affluent African Americans has increased markedly in recent years, but well-to-do blacks differ from their white counterparts in significant ways.

36. Religion. Social Mobility
Historically, people of English ancestry have enjoyed the most wealth and wielded the greatest power in the United States.
Throughout our history, upward mobility has sometimes meant converting to a higher-ranking religion

37. Social Mobility Education
Impact of formal schooling is even greater than that of family background
Important means of intergenerational mobility
Critical factor in development of cultural capital

38. Social Mobility Occupational Mobility Income and Wealth
Common among males
Most mobility is minor
Income and Wealth
Mobility occurs, but most do not move very far
Likelihood of ending up in same position as one’s parents has been rising since 1980

39. Social Mobility Race and Ethnicity Gender
Class system more rigid for African Americans than for other racial groups
Typical Hispanic has less than 10 percent of the wealth that a White person has
Gender
Traditional mobility studies have ignored gender
Women especially likely to be trapped in poverty

40. The Shrinking Middle Class
Contributing factors:
Disappearing opportunities for those with little education
Global competition and rapid advances in technology
Growing dependence on temporary workforce
Rise of new-growth industries and nonunion workplaces

41. What Difference Does Class Make
Family and gender.
Most lower-class families are somewhat larger than middle-class families.
Working-class parents encourage conventional norms and respect to authorities
whereas parents of higher social standing transmit a different “cultural capital” to their children, stressing individuality and imagination.

42. Digital divide is recent aspect of social inequality
Life Chances
Max Weber saw class as being closely related to people’s life chances: their opportunities to provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experiences
In times of danger, affluent and powerful have a better chance of surviving than people of ordinary means
Digital divide is recent aspect of social inequality

43. Defining Poverty
Absolute poverty: minimum level of subsistence that no family should be expected to live below
Common measure is federal government’s poverty line
Relative poverty: floating standard of deprivation by which people at the bottom of a society are judged as being disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole

44. Who Are the Poor? Our stereotypes about poverty are flawed
Likelihood of being in poverty is shaped by factors such as age, race, ethnicity, and family type
Feminization of poverty is a worldwide phenomenon
Underclass: long-term poor who lack training and skills

45. Who Are the Poor?
Myth versus reality.
Four general conclusions about social mobility in the United States:
Social mobility over the course of the last century has been fairly high.
The long-term trend in social mobility has been upward.
Within a single generation, social mobility is usually small.
Social mobility since the 1970s has been uneven.
Mobility varies by income level.
Mobility varies by race, ethnicity and gender.

46. Who Are the Poor? CEOs Get Richer: The Great Mansions Return
The "American Dream:" Still a reality?
For many workers, earnings have stalled.
Multiple job-holding is up.
More jobs offer little income.
Young people are remaining at home.
CEOs Get Richer: The Great Mansions Return
The Global Economy and U.S. class structure. Much of the industrial production that gave U.S. workers high-paying jobs a generation ago has moved overseas. In their place, the economy now offers “service work,” which often pays far less.

47. Who Are the Poor?
Age.
2001, 16.3 percent of people under the age of eighteen (11.7 million children) were poor.
Race and ethnicity. African Americans are about three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be poor.
Gender and family patterns.
The feminization of poverty is the trend by which women represent an increasing proportion of the poor.
Urban and rural poverty. The greatest concentration of poverty is found in central cities.

48. Explaining poverty
One view: The poor are mostly responsible for their own poverty.
The poor become trapped in a culture of poverty, a lower-class subculture that can destroy people’s ambition.
Another view: Society is primarily responsible for poverty.
Most of the evidence suggests that society rather than the
William Julius Wilson points out that while people continue to talk about welfare reform, neither major political party has said anything about the lack of work in central cities.

49. Explaining poverty
Weighing the evidence. The reasons that people do not work seem consistent with the “blame society” position.
The working poor. Three percent of full-time workers earn so little that they remain poor.

50. Explaining poverty Homelessness. Personality traits. Societal factors.
Counting the homeless. As many as 1.5 million people are homeless at some time during the course of a year.
Causes of homelessness:
Personality traits.
Societal factors.
Welfare reform has slashed the number of people receiving welfare, but it has done far less to reduce poverty.

51. Power and politics

52. Power and the Political Order
the ability to achieve ends despite resistance
Illegitimate power
Society does not approve of the way that power is applied
This type of power is called coercion
Legitimate power
Society approves of the way that power is applied
This type of power is called authority

53. Types of Authority Traditional Legal-rational Charismatic
Authority is legitimized by the historical beliefs and practices of a society
Kings rule according to tradition
Legal-rational
Authority is derived from rules and laws
Rules are written in constitutions or charters
Charismatic
Authority is derived from an individual’s exceptional personal qualities
Qualities include personal magnetism or wisdom
SSF1044

54. Exercising Power Ideal types State Government
An abstract description that reveals the essential features
Types of authority are ideals
State
The highest political authority within a territory
Government
The people who are directing the state
SSF1044

55. Types of States Authoritarian Totalitarian Democratic
People are excluded from governing process
Opposition not usually permitted
Government is not interested in daily life of the people
Totalitarian
Government has unlimited power
Tolerates no opposition
Close control over activities of citizens
Democratic
Allows citizen input in governing
Permits elections and dismissing of leaders
SSF1044

56. Nations and States State Nation Nation-state
The highest political authority in an area
Nation
A group that lives within a territory and shares a common history, culture and identity
Nation-state
The supreme political authority within a territory that incorporates a nation
A combination of nation and state
SSF1044

57. War: An institutionalized violent conflict between nations or tribes
Total war
An instrument of foreign policy
Every resource must be devoted to victory
Marx
Seeds in capitalism: never ending need for resources
Institutional theory
Cooperative relations between institutions
Military industrial complex dominates foreign policy
United Nations can confer legitimacy

58. Terrorists can use any methods
Terrorism: A non-institutionalized use of threat, intimidation, and violence to reach a political objective.
Terrorists can use any methods
No institutionalized support or authority
Intent is to spread fear, discontent, and panic
Selected targets: special category of people
Random targets: anyone at any time
Eventually, people insist government must agree to terrorist demands
Exchange for ending violence

59. Human Rights
Broadly defined rights people are entitled by virtue their humanity
Includes freedom and equality
Amnesty International
Voluntary organization publicly monitors violations
No effective international organization can prevent human rights violations
SSF1044

60. Political Parties Parties can influence government appointments
A political organization meant to legitimately influence the government
A two-party system in the U.S. keeps third parties ineffective
Parties can influence government appointments
Parties form coalitions for united stands
Parties are focus for conflict
Party platform defines ideology, goals, and differences from opposing party

61. Special Interest Groups
Lobbyists
A person employed by a corporation, union, or other organization
Intent is to influence congressional votes on certain bills
Interest group
An organization formed to sway political decisions
PAC
Political Action Committees raise money for special interest groups
SSF1044

62. Voting: The opportunity to elect government officials
Voter participation
Many do not vote in U.S.
High rates of voting in Europe
Voting and social groups
Poor and minorities less likely to vote
Gender differences reflect differing concerns
Voter registration
Requirements may discourage participation

63. Power Elite Small group controls the U.S. Social elites
Economy, Government, Military
Social elites
Know each other
Share a similar world view
Work cooperatively to achieve a political agenda
SSF1044

64. Pluralist Model Power is diffused throughout society
Multiple centers of power
Business associations, Unions, Schools
Ethnic groups
Veto groups
Power centers that are able to block actions of other groups
Multinational corporations, professional organizations
SSF1044

65. Politics and Functionalism
Maintaining order
A major social function
State must assume this responsibility
Interact with other states
Treaties and alliances must be accomplished through a central authority
Direct the system
state must be responsible for regulating important institutions and procedures
SSF1044

66. Conflict and the Political Order
Conflict is an inherent part of the political order
Various groups must compete for limited resources
Struggle for outcomes depend on wealth and power
Democracy does not prevent power from being centralized in hands of few
Tools of democracy don’t always work
SSF1044

67. Symbolic Interaction Political socialization Agents
Formal and informal learning that creates a political self identity
Agents
Families create initial political attitudes
Media creates powerful images and information
SSF1044

68. Who Has Power?
The one-dimensional view
Power is observable when one party prevails in a conflict
Breaking the “rules of the game” may occur
Power held by power elite; refuted by Dahl’s pluralism thesis
SSF1044
Definitions:
Power: Capacity to bring out some outcome to effect changes or to prevent them from occurring.
Collective power: Power to achieve shared goals.
Positive power: Power that servers the interests of others.

69. Who Has Power? Power to decide what gets decided
The two-dimensional view
Power to decide what gets decided
Agenda setting, manipulating, and control occurs
Grievances of excluded or marginal groups can be denied
Subordinate groups may not try to challenge
SSF1044
Definitions:
Agenda setting: Act of consciously or unconsciously averting the challenge of potential issues.

70. Who Has Power? Power always involves behavior
The three-dimensional view
Power always involves behavior
Power can be caused without exercising it
Powerful people often attract others
Power by persuasion can be used to maintain the status quo
SSF1044
Invisible power includes understanding
Ways in which workings of power can be hidden from those subject to it
Anticipation by powerless of how powerful react to noncompliance
Preservation and protection of status quo
investment of powerless in interests of powerful

71. Agenda Setting Why is agenda setting in politics important?
Mass media influences politicians and policymakers
Subordinate individuals may desire change but feel it is useful to try-leading to inactivity
SSF1044

72. When Is Power Least Visible?
Invisible power reflects
Ability of a power holder to keep challenges from arising in the first place
Capacity of a power holder to convince subordinate groups that it is in their best interests to support the status quo
SSF1044
Invisible power includes understanding
Ways in which workings of power can be hidden from those subject to it
Anticipation by powerless of how powerful react to noncompliance
Preservation and protection of status quo
investment of powerless in interests of powerful

73. What Is the “State”? State
Includes all formal political institutions and legal system of any society
Alters balance of power among individuals, groups, and within society through policies and programs
Enforces contracts to help make a market economy work
SSF1044

74. How Do States Regulate the Economy?
Laws and policies to prevent large corporations from driving smaller competitors out of business
Insider trading
False advertising
Unsafe working environments
Blocking of compensation for innocent third parties when corporate actions cause harm
SSF1044
Laws and policies to prevent large corporations from driving smaller competitors out of business
Laws preventing insider trading
Laws and regulations of prevent false advertising
Laws and regulations related to minimal safety standards
Laws and regulations that make companies or individuals compensate innocent third parties when their actions cause harm

75. True or False?
Policy will always favor the powerful! Always? Some of the time? Examples Please.
SSF1044
True-most of the time
States and the distribution of power
Bundle confidence theory (Block)
State has powerful incentive to support big business interests that create jobs and produce economic growth
Relative political power of different groups
Corporate executives and wealthy have disproportionate resources to influence political life.
When the poor are well organized into social movements, they can sometimes exert influence over the direction of policy. If there is one thing that both the 1930s and 1960s had in common, it is that in both eras large social movements of poor people (mostly unions and the unemployed in the 1930s, and the civil rights movement in the 1960s) changed the context of political power.

76. Thoughts and Questions for Future Investigations
Thinking about power and politics in three dimensions creates a different way of thinking about political life
Application of the sociological imagination can be a useful tool in the study of power
Study of power should be considered a central task for all sociology
Power can be analyzed in terms of three dimensions and how they reinforce on another
Analysis is always the precursor to effective change

77. THANK YOU!!!