Social Stratification

What is Social Stratification?

Caste and Class Systems
Stratification
Marx
Weber
Stratification and Technology: A Global
Perspective

What is Social Stratification?

For tens of thousands of years, humans lived in
small hunting and gathering societies. These
bands of people show little signs of inequality. As
societies became more complex, major changes
came about, these changes elevated certain
categories of the population by giving them more
power, money, and prestige.
Social Stratification- a system by which a society
ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.

 1. Social stratification is a trait of society, not

simply a reflection of individual differences.
Children born into wealthy families are more
likely than children born in poverty to experience
good healthy, achieve academically, succeed in
lifes work and live a long life.
2. Social stratification persists over generations.
To see stratification as a trait of society rather than
one of individuals, we need to only look at how
inequality persists along generations. In all
societies, parents pass their social position on to
their children.
Social Mobility- change in ones position in the
social hierarchy.

 3. Social stratification is universal but variable.

In some societies, inequality is mostly a matter of
prestige; in others, wealth or power is the key
dimension of difference. More importantly some
societies display more inequality than others.
4. Social stratification involves not just inequality
but beliefs.
Any system of inequality gives some people more
than others and the society also defines the
arrangements as fair.

Caste and Class Systems

A Caste System- is a social system based on
ascription, or birth.
A pure caste system is closed because birth alone
determines ones destiny, with little or no
opportunity for social mobility based on effort.

 First, traditional caste groups have specific

occupations, so generations of a family perform
the same type of work.
Second, maintaining a rigid social hierarchy
depends on people marrying within their own
categories; mixed marriages would blur the
ranking of children.
Endogamy- marriage between people of the same
social category.
Third, caste norms guide people to stay in the
company of their own kind.
Fourth, caste systems rest on powerful cultural
beliefs.

 Caste systems exist in agrarian societies because

life long routines of agriculture depend on a rigid
sense of duty and discipline.

The Class System

Class System- social stratification based on both
birth and individual achievement.
The class system categorizes people according to
their color, sex, or social background comes to be
seen as wrong in industrial and post-industrial
societies, and all people gain political rights and
roughly equal standing before the law.
Meritocracy- social stratification based on
personal merit.
People in industrial societies develop a broad
range of capabilities, stratification is based on
merit, which is the job one does and how well
one does it.

 Why do industrial and postindustrial societies

keep caste-like qualities?
Because a pure meritocracy diminishes the
importance of families and other social groupings.
Economic performance is not everything after all.
Would we want to evaluate our family members
solely on their jobs? Probably not. Therefore,
class systems in high-income nations move toward
meritocracy to promote productivity and
efficiency but retain caste elements to maintain
order and social cohesion.
Status consistency- the degree of consistency in a
persons social standing across various dimensions
of social inequality.

The Functions of Social Stratification

The structural-functional paradigm- social
inequality plays a vital part in the operation of
society.
Davis-Moore thesis- Social stratification has
beneficial consequences of the operation of a
society.

 According to the Davis-Moore thesis, the greater

the functional importance of a position, the more
rewards a society attaches to it. This strategy
promotes productivity and efficiency because
rewarding important work with income, prestige,
power, and leisure encourages people to do these
jobs and to work better longer and harder.
Unequal rewards benefit some individuals, then,
and a system of unequal rewards benefits society
as a whole.

Stratification and Conflict

Social-Conflict analysis argues that rather than
benefiting society as a whole, social stratification
provides some people with advantages over others.
This analysis draws heavily on the ideas of Karl
Marx, with contributions from Max Weber.
Marx defined classes in terms of their relationship to
the means of production.
Capitalist class owns the means of production.
Working class sells their labor for wages

 Marx explained that through the family,

opportunity and wealth are passed down from
generation to generation.
Moreover, the legal system defends private
property and inheritance. Finally, elite children
mix at exclusive schools, forging social ties that
will benefit them throughout their lives.
Capitalist society reproduces the class structure in
each new generation.
Marx saw great inequality in wealth and power
arising from capitalism, which, he argued, made
class conflict inevitable. In time, he believed,
oppression and misery would drive the working
majority to organize and ultimately overthrow
capitalism.

Why No Marxist Revolution?

1. The fragmentation of the capitalist class.
Day-to-day operations of large corporations are now in the
hands of a managerial class, whose members may or may
not be major stockholders.
2. A higher standard of living.
A century ago most workers were in factories or on farms
performing blue-collar occupations, lower-prestige work
that involves mostly manual labor.
Today, most workers hold white-collar occupations,
higher-prestige work that involves mostly mental activity.
Most of todays white-collar workers do not think of
themselves as an industrial proletariat.

 3. More worker organizations.

Workers today have organizational clout that they
lacked a century ago. Worker management
disputes are settled without threatening the
capitalist system.
4. More extensive legal protections.
During the twentieth century, the government
passed laws to make the workplace safer and
developed programs such as unemployment
insurance, disability protection and Social
Security.

Max Weber: Class, Status, and Power

Weber saw Marxs two-class model simplistic.
Instead, he thought social stratification involves
three distinct dimensions of inequality.
The first dimension is economic inequality---the
issue so vital to Marxwhich Weber called class
position. Weber did not think of classes as
crude categories but as a continuum ranging from
high to low. Webers second dimension of social
stratification is status, or social prestige, and the
third is power.

Class Distinction and Property

The term class refers to any group of people that is
found in the same class situation.
A plurality of people meets competitively in
marketplace specific life chances
The wealthy who own property will have more life
chances;
Property vs lack of property basic categories of
all class situations;
The factor that creates class is unambiguously
economic interests (Tumin, 1970: 30)

Economic Order
The way in which economic goods and
services are distributed and used;
Economic order merely decides who gets
what resources
Social and economic orders react to each
other

Class Situation
1.A number of people have in common a specific
causal component of their life chances;
2. This component is represented exclusively by
economic interests in the possession of goods and
opportunities for income;
3. This component is represented under the
conditions of commodity or labor markets.
The kind of chance in the market is decisive
moment for the individuals fate. Class situation
is, in this sense, ultimately market situation

Life chances
Life chances: Opportunities to provide material
goods, positive living conditions, and favorable
life experience;

Wealth is the monetary value of everything

one owns, minus debt.
It is calculated by adding all financial assets and
subtracting all debts.

Income is the amount of money brought into a

household from various sources during a given
period.

Communal Action
Communal action refers to that action which
is oriented to the feeling of the actors that
they belong together (Tumin, 1970: 30)
Communal actions that directly determine the
class situation of the worker and the
entrepreneur are:
The labor market
The commodities market
The capitalistic enterprise (Tumin, 1970: 31)

Status Honor
Status situation refers to every typical component
of the life fate of men that is determined by a
specific, positive or negative, social estimation of
honor (Tumin, 1970: 32) .
Property not always recognized as a status
qualification
A specific style of life is expected from all in the
circle
Encourages strict submission to the dominant
fashion of that society
Families can appropriate status honor
First Families of Virginia

Social Honor
Often, quest for power is conditioned by the social
honor;
Not all power, however, entails social honor;
Naked economic power not necessarily basis of
social honor;
Social honor or prestige may even be the basis of
political or economic power;
The way in which social honor is distributed in a
community between typical groups is called social
order;

Economic Conditions and Status

Stratification
The market knows nothing of honor
Status order is threatened when naked
economic power (even w/extra-status stigma)
could bring an individual up the honor level
of high status group
When market is stable, stratification by status
is favored
Technological change and economic
transformation threatens status stratification

Social Differentiation
The process by which different statuses
develop in any group, organization, or
society.
In a sports organization, players, owners, managers,
fans, cheerleaders, and sponsors all have a different
status within the organization.

Social Differentiation
In a sports organization:
Owners control the resources of the teams.
Players earn high salaries, yet do not control
the team resources.
Sponsors provide the resources.
Fans provide revenue.

Parties
Classes belong in the economic sphere
Status groups belong in the social order sphere
(distribution of honor)
Parties belong in the sphere of power
Struggle for acquisition of social control

Always involves association

Sociological structure of parties differs according
To whether community is stratified by status or class
To the structure of domination

 Webers view of social stratification in industrial

societies as a multidimensional ranking rather than
a hierarchy of clearly defined classes.
Socioeconomic status (SES)-a composite ranking
based on various dimensions of social inequality.
Social stratification according to Weber is variable
and complex.

Inequalities in History:
Weber points out that each of his three dimensions
of social inequality stands out at different points in
the evolution of human societies. Agrarian
societies emphasize status or social prestige,
typically in the form of honor.

Hunting and Gathering Societies

With simple technology, hunters and gathers
produce only what is necessary for day-to-day
living. Some people may produce more than
others, but the groups survival depends on all
sharing what they have. Thus, no categories of
people emerge as better off than others.

Horticultural, Pastoral, and Agrarian

Societies
As technology advances create a surplus, social
inequality increases. In horticultural and pastoral
societies, a small elite controls most of the surplus.
Large-scale agriculture is more productive still,
and marked inequalityas great as any time in
human historymeans that various categories of
people lead strikingly different lives. Agrarian
nobility typically exercises godlike power over the
masses.

Industrial Societies
Industrialization turns the tide, lessening
inequality. Prompted by the need to develop
individual talents, meritocracy takes hold and
erodes the power of traditional elites.
The specialized work performed in industrial
societies demands schooling for all, sharply
reducing illiteracy. A literate population, in turn,
presses for a greater voice in political decision
making, further diminishing social inequality and
lessening mens domination over women.

Meritocracy
A concept that refers to social stratification
based on personal merit
Includes knowledge, abilities, and effort
Why do modern, industrial societies keep some
elements of caste such as letting wealth pass
from generation to generation rather than
becoming complete meritocracies?

Stratification and Interaction

Micro-level analysis of social stratification
Social standing affects everyday interaction
People with different social standing keep their
distance from one another
Conspicuous consumption
Buying and using products with an eye to the
statement they make about social position

Occupational Prestige
Generates income and is an important source of
prestige
High prestige given to occupations that require
extensive training and generate high income
Less prestigious work pays less and requires
less ability and schooling

Ideology: the Power Behind

Stratification
Ideology
Cultural beliefs that justify particular social
arrangements, including patterns of inequality

Every culture considers some type of

inequality fair
Ideology changes with a societys economy
and technology