SOCIAL SRATIFICATION

Is defined as the systematic ranking of people based on scale of social worth.

Criterion to categorize people:

Hair color and texture, eye color, physical attractiveness, weight, height, occupation, age, grades
in school, test scores, social status.

Two Major Kinds of Criteria to Categorize People

1. Ascribed Characteristics 2. Achieved Characteristics

Principles of Social Stratification

Macionis (2003), social stratification is a matter of four basic principles.

1. Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.

 Stratification is institutionalized.
2. Social stratification persists over generations.
 Individuals inherit the social positon of their parents (ascribed status).
 It is closed wherein it is difficult or impossible for individuals to move up the hierarchy.
3. Social stratification is universal but variable.
 The dimension’s hat makes people unequal and how unequal it is varying from one society
to another.
 Among the Bushmen of Africa’s Kalahari Desert, there are few inequalities beyond age,
family position, and gender.
4. Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs.
 For example, the caste system in India is grounded on the Hindu rules of proper and
expected behavior or dharma.

Dimensions of Stratification

 Stratification exists in societies because social rewards are limited and unequally
distributed throughout the population.

Three important social rewards are: economic, political, and social rewards.

1. Economic Dimension
 It concerns money and the things it can buy (Farley, 1990).
 The position of individuals or groups in the social ladder often depends on how much
economic resources such as wealth and income, they possess.

WEALTH – refers to the total value of everything that a person or family owns, minus any debts
owed (Farley, 1990).

INCOME – is the amount of money a person receives in a particular time period.

 CLASS – refers to a person’s location in a society’s economic system, resulting in differences in
the nature in work, income, and wealth (Appelbaum and Chambliss, 1995).

 One’s class determines one’s lifestyle and life chances.

2. Political Dimension

POWER – the ability to control the behavior of others, even against their will.

 People with more wealth tend to be more powerful.

 KARL MARX – argued that those who own and control capital have the power in a society.
 Elected officials have more power than any ordinary government employees.
 Fame can also be a source of power.
 People in top executives’ positions in the mass media are powerful, even they themselves
do not have great wealth.

3. Social Prestige Dimension

PRESTIGE – is the esteem, or respect that society grants for behavior or qualities.
It is different from wealth and power.
 Wealth and power are objective entities. In other words, an individual can have power
and wealth regardless of what other people think of her or him.
 But prestige is subjective, depending on how the individual is perceived by others.

Systems of Social Stratification

1. Closed system – in which people are ranked on the basis of traits over which they have no control.

2. Open system – in which people are ranked on the basis of merit, talent, ability, or past performance.

Systems of Stratification Characteristics

1. The rigidity of the system, or how difficult it is for the people to change their social category.

2. The relative importance of ascribed and achieved characteristics in determining people’s life chances.

3. The extent to which there are restrictions on social interaction between people in different categories.

Four Systems of Stratification

1. Caste system

 In which people are ranked on the basis of: physical or cultural traits and ascribed traits.
 They will remain in their caste throughout their lives.
 Members of the lower castes are restricted from having social interactions with members
of the higher castes.
 Example of Caste System

a. The caste system in India is based on religion.

 Five categories: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Harijans (or Untouchables).
 Hindus believed that a ritually ‘’pure’’ person of higher caste will be ‘’polluted’’ by contact with
lower caste.

b. The caste system in South Africa, the system of apartheid (apartness)

 It is an example of racial caste system.

 There are four racial castes: European (white), Africa (black), colored (mixed European and African
ancestry), and Asian.
 Education, occupation, political rights, and residence of a person determined by her or his
grouping.

2. Slavery

 It is one of the most persistent forms of stratification.

 It is an economic form of inequality in which some people are legally the property of others.
 Common in places like Egypt, Rome, Athens, and United States.

3. Estate or Feudal System

 Status is determined by land ownership, and power of certain groups is based on their noble
births.
 In medieval period Europe the highest ‘’estate’’ in society was occupied by the aristocracy,
followed by the clergy, and the last reserved for commoners: serfs, peasants, artisans, and
merchants.

4. Class System

 In which people’s position is achieved and changeable.

 It is a characteristic of contemporary, industrialized societies.
 SOCIAL CLASS – refers to any groups of people who share a similar economic position in society
based in their wealth and income.
 Social stratification is based on merit or meritocracy.

Explanations of Social Stratification

1. FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE

 According to them, the ability of the society to provide its needs depends on all social positions
being filled.
 Most qualified people fill the most important positions.

2. CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

 Stratification exists because there are people who are willing to exploit others.
  For Karl Marx, all of history has been a class struggle between powerful and the powerless, the
exploiters and the exploited.

Social Mobility

 It is the ability to move between social classes.

a. Horizontal Mobility involves changing from one occupation to another within the same social classes.

b. Vertical Mobility is the upward ( earning college degree, landing a higher paying job, or marrying
someone who is rich) or downward ( dropping out of school, losing a job, or divorce) movement in the
occupational status or social class.

Intergenerational mobility changes take place over a generation.

Intragenerational mobility change in social class occurs within one’s lifetime.

Structural Social mobility changes in social class caused by societal structures.