1. Inequality & Stratification
Sociology 1301: Introduction to Sociology

2. Inequality & Stratification
Plato: Every culture considers some type of inequality just.
Social Inequality: uneven access to resources.
Stratification: structured social inequality
Four Principles:
Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences
Social Stratification carries over from generation to generation
Social stratification is universal but variable - found everywhere yet what is unequal and how unequal it is varies from one society to another
Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well

3. Equality 5 Types of Equality Social Equality Ontological Equality
Equality of Opportunity
Equality of Condition
Equality of Outcome

4. Types of Social Stratification
Estate System (politically based)
Caste System (religion based)
Class System (family & economic based)
Status Hierarchy System (prestige based)
Elite-Mass Dichotomy System (governing elite)
Meritocracy (personal merit)

5. Capital Economic Capital (money) Social Capital (relationships)
Cultural Capital (knowledge)
Human Capital (personal qualities)

6. Conflict Theory
This is the macro level theory that inequality exists as a result of political struggles among different groups in a particular society.

7. Privilege & Oppression
Privilege: unearned access to resources (social power) only readily available to some people as a result of their advantaged social group membership.
Oppression: the grouping of discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shape most aspects of life in our society.

8. American Social Compact
Every society and culture posses a Social Compact, which is a combination of implicit and explicit sets of obligations of members of that society toward one another.
The American Social Compact – has been slowly falling apart
Provision #1: As companies in the private sector do better, workers should as well.
Provision #2: Social Insurance through which Americans pooled their resources against the risk that any one of us - through illness or bad luck - might become impoverished.
Provision #3: Promotion of good education.
Why & how has the American Social Compact fallen apart?

9. Theories of Inequality
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Inequality is bad
Adam Ferguson & John Millar: Inequality is good
Davis-Moore: Social stratification is beneficial
Thomas Robert Malthus: Inequality is necessary to survival
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Inequality brings us together and will ultimately go away

10. Social Mobility
Social Mobility: A change in position within the social hierarchy
Status Consistency: The degree of uniformity in a person’s social standing across various dimensions of social inequality
Systems of Social Mobility:
Closed Systems: little change in social position
Ex: Caste System
Open Systems: Permit much more social mobility
Ex: Meritocracy

11. Social Justice vs. Diversity
Diversity: the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness.
Social Justice: the process of examining the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society and the goal of equality.
What does this have to do with Sociology?

12. Works Cited
Conley, D. (2008). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Henslin, J. M. (2008). Sociology: A down-to-earth approach (9th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Macionis, J. J. (2010). SOC100: Sociology: custom edition (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Massey, G. (Ed.) (2006). Readings for sociology (5th Ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.