Lauren Hedrick October 8th 2013 Social Class Social Class The study of inequality and stratification No consensus differs across contexts Basic structure hierarchical groups of people Class identification and class ideologies Similarities in class dimensions Evaluating approaches to social class Empirical validity Explains social stratification Classical Approaches o Capitalists vs Proletarians Weber Identified three economic components o Class economic standing Composed of two things Marx Social stratification consisted of single economic dimension Wealth What people own at a particular point in time Income Amount of new money people receive within a given time interval o Status prestige Social respect admiration and recognition Not tangible Titles awards and honors can be attached to prestige Example CEO military awards Olympic athletes o Party power Ability of individuals and groups to realize their will in human affairs with or without resistance The tie between coercion and influence Modern Approaches Multidimensionalism Post Modernism o Inequality beyond economic socioeconomic and cultural dimensions o Is division of labor the primary mechanism of class formation o Class ideologies and class organization Multidimensionalism and Inequality Asset Group 1 Economic 2 Power 3 Cultural Examples of Types Wealth Income Ownership Political Power Workplace Authority Household Authority Knowledge Digital Culture Good Manners Advantaged Billionaire Professional Capitalist Prime Minister Manager Head of Household Intelligentsia Silicon Valley Resident Aristocracy Disadvantaged Bankrupt Worker Laborer Worker employed Disenfranchised Person Subordinate Worker Child Uneducated Residents of other places Commoner Lauren Hedrick October 8th 2013 4 Social 5 Honorific 6 Civil 7 Human Social Clubs Workplace Associations Informal Networks Occupational Religious Merit Based Right to Work Due Process Franchise On the job General Schooling Vocational Training Physical Disease Mental Health Country Club Member Union Member Washington A List Judge Saint Nobel Prize Winner Citizen Citizen Citizen Experienced Worker College Graduate Law School Graduate Person With Long Life Healthy Person Healthy Person Nonmember Nonmember Social Unknown Garbage Collector Excommunicate Non winner Illegal Immigrant Suspected Terrorist Felon Inexperienced Worker High School Dropout Unskilled Worker A Premature Death Person With AIDS Asthma Depressed Or Alienated 8 Physical ex health Morality Identifying Social Class Approaches to identifying social class Social Class at Extremes Social Class At The Top o Objective method views social class as a statistical category o Featherman and Hauser 1978 The most common based ion division of labor and four categories Example Occupation prestige People are asked which occupations they believe are the most prestigious Highly correlated with income Highly correlated with level of schooling o Self Placement People identify social class to which they think they belong in society Many Americans confused about where they stand in hierarchy Least used because people don t know where they really stand o The power elite Mills 1956 Economy political and military orders Mills believed that the different categories used to define social class always come together o The corporate community and the federal government policy o The reproduction of the upper class Elite schools Because education plays such an important role in social class sending children to elite schools pushes them ahead into a higher class at a younger age Private social clubs People differentiate themselves by becoming members of such exclusive clubs Movement of social classes at the top is very rigid It is difficult to get to the top People make sure that once they are at the top they will not fall down because of elite schools and social clubs Lauren Hedrick October 8th 2013 Poverty in the United States o In 2011 official poverty rate was 15 1 o Census Bureau defines threshold of poverty in the United States as minimum amount a family needs to purchase nutritionally adequate diet assuming they use on third of their income for food In 2010 the poverty threshold for a family of four was 22 050 In 2010 the number of people living in poverty reached an all time high 46 2 million people Due to the growth in population Due to the recession of the economy Underclass Core of inner city poor trapped in a persistent cycle of joblessness and dependent on welfare o Constitutes a minority of the poor o People who grow up in the underclass usually do not know anything other than what they were raised around Explanations of poverty o Cultural of poverty thesis The poor in class stratified capitalist societies lack effective participation and integration within larger society o Situational Two thirds of people in the United States between ages of 20 and 65 have been on Welfare at one point in their lives whether because of the loss of a job or loss of a home o Structuralist view Jobless poor The working poor Major issue of poverty in the United States it is virtually impossible to make ends meet by only working one minimum wage job and people do not have the time to work the hours they would need to make ends meet on minimum wage jobs Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich 1998 A woman traveled around to different states in the United States and obtained lower class jobs and tried to make ends meet and she found that by only working one underclass job it is virtually impossible to make ends meet Common Personal Experience The higher the poverty level the more we all have to pay in taxes Social Problems Moral Problems Is it fair in our society for some people to be making millions and others to be living on the streets o Poverty affects us all