Chapter 7 Social Stratification 10 23 08 10 28 2008 Stratification Inequality and its Universality Stratification most important aspect of Sociology Have to have a group of people Pattern of distribution o Example Newspaper Article o Her story American Dream Is a story like this possible Does it happen to everybody o May May not happen to everyone o Was less likely to achieve but she did o Based on probability o Some people are more likely to attain than others Inequality the unequal distribution of scarce goods or resources Stratification Equality are pretty much interchangeable when you are among individuals or groups Used in everyday life More general term that stratification talking about a group Universality every society has inequality Nature of human society Goal of society Equality 1 Lenski s Historical View Grandiose scheme of society how human society developed 1 Hunting Gathering Society o Technology minimum o Division of labor minimum o No surplus o Little surplus you cannot have inequality o Hunting is not a good business o Had to move around 2 Horticultural o Not much difference o Difference did not have to move around 3 Agricultural o Most unequal society o Learned how to use iron ore plow o High surplus o First time we have division of labor o Owners of land animals o Sharecroppers o Work for these people Slaves 2 4 Industrialized o Development of technology machinery and power tools o More division of labor Farmers Factory workers Construction workers o Surplus didn t increase much from Agrarian o Equality was not as bad 5 Post Industrial o Technology computers Origins of Family Private Property States Title means a lot Family is based on Communism You share everything equally Private Property was not available Derived from a coke bottle States Some people became owners of huge lands hired people Origin of estate Class Status Parties to Define Power by Max Weber Power is coming from these 3 things 3 1 Class 3 Parties 2 Status prestige social position o Sometimes political parties Group which makes decision on society When you belong to a party you have more power Hard to become a Communist party member Some people have all one or combination What s the Social Class Classification Scheme Life Chances Social Class a category of people who have approximately the same amount of power wealth and the same life chances to acquire wealth Some people have more less life chances o More rich family LSU o Less dropped out of high school poor family not know anybody important Upper Class Upper Middle Middle Lower Middle Lower Class Upper Class Upper Middle Lower Middle Working Class Working Poor Lower Class Socio Economic Status Income Education Occupation Socio Economic Status instead of Social Class More common in Sociology now 4 More concrete Based on 3 Things 1 Money 2 Education 3 Jobs How can we put them in order Occupational Prestige Scores Subjective Nature List of numbers decided by American public 1989 Pick people from all around US told to put in order Consistency Across Time Society Blue White Collar Jobs What About Gender White collar higher status Theories of Stratification 1 Functionalism Reward for tough jobs Good pay is based on 2 factors Demand Importance o NFL high o Garbage collector high o Soccer player low Supply Replaceability 5 o Supply is low Less replaceable Difficult to play NFL football low Garbage collector high Soccer player low Need inequality or nobody wants to do the tough jobs Dysfunctions Limit productivity Animosity No social change o Some people are born with disadvantages o Its not fair negative feelings factor in society o People with power may try to hold on to their power and try to prevent social change Power elite political power economic power 2 Conflict theory Idea is in contrast with functionalism Legitimation give authority to some people to control society o Politics leaders rich people on top In order for proletarians to get power they have to unite and have power as a class collective class consciousness have to become aware they are being exploited common interest o Middle class does not realize they are not in the ruling class false consciousness They fail to get united and they go down 6 Ideology a set of ideas about what society is like how it functions whether its good or bad and how it should be changed o i e if you work hard you are going to be successful your fault if you are poor didn t make it not always true luck is a factor o dangerous it controls you helps people in the ruling class Neo Marxism extension of Carl Marx s idea property authority and skill are added Owners of means of production Bourgeoisie o Bourgeoisie owns sufficient capital to hire workers and not o Small employers owns sufficient capital to hire workers but work 52 621 must work 24 828 o Petty bourgeoisie owns sufficient capital to work for self but not to hire workers 14 496 Non owners wage laborer proletarian organization Expert managers Semi Un credentialed asset authority credentialed managers 0 organization Expert Un credentialed asset authority supervisor credentialed supervisor organization Expert non Semi Proletarians asset authority managers credentialed managers Semi supervisors workers organization 0 skill credential skill credential skill credential assets assets assets Inequality is US 7 US medium 50 family income 06 48 023 Louisiana medium family income 06 37 472 o Quintile earnings Rich people richer poor people getting poorer Distribution of wealth comparison to other countries Gini coefficient All other developed countries are more equal than US Poverty in US Poverty line All Below 12 1 8 Children below 17 18 Single mother below over 30 Overall poverty rate hasn t changed much since 70s hourly wage stopped increasing men used to work In order to make up deficit both parents need to work where as only Classification of poverty line size of family unity and how many children US census bureau 3x as much as Basic food o food cost 1 3 poverty rate is LA is higher than US children in LA Elderly rate is very low o Difference is elderly people can vote 8 Decreasing wages and feminization of poverty poverty is becoming a thing of single mothers Only have one source of income no matter how hard they work Working Poor work full time and still below poverty line Social Mobility class mobility Open system of stratification ability to move up down in class Closed system of stratification inability to change class Caste vs Apartheid Slavery vs