SYG1000 Final Exam Review This document consists of notes that are based off of in class PowerPoints and subsequent lectures There is quite a bit of material for this exam so I recommend reading through this as many times as you can in order to be completely prepared This should serve as a great tool for those looking to get a complete and detailed guideline to everything covered during class time Best of luck on the exam and I sincerely hope these help Tuesday 7 12 11 Social Stratification Social Stratification Systematic social inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships Society is broken up into strata layers and people in different levels have access to different opportunities People at the top have power and prestige Your position in the social hierarchy can pass from generation to generation Views of Inequality Rousseau social inequality human kind is inherently good The emergence of private property led to social ills Private property helps us acquire wealth leads to competition aggression and a social hierarchy resulting in equality Physical natural inequality Social political inequality the result of unequal distribution of privileged resources Malthus thinks inequality is the result of a surplus When people become more efficient they become better able to save up needed resources Human populations would grow if they went unchecked Inequality arises as a check to slow population growth Hegel dialectal relationship between servant and master Master is dependent on the servant to perform menial tasks Types of Equality Ontological equality religious idea that everyone is created equal Equality of opportunity everyone has an opportunity to go to school everyone starts out at the same level What happens after that is up to you Equality of condition assumes there is a level playing field and there are the same rules and that everyone has the same chance for success but rules of the game need to be altered to account for existing inequalities affirmative action Equality of outcome each player should end up with the same amount regardless of how they acted or the rules the only insensitive to get something is altruistic Forms of Stratification Estate system there is a political bases for stratification laws rights and duties distribute power unequally very little social mobility Caste system stratification is not necessarily politically regulated but rather religion No social mobility Class system based on income wealth and economic factors Little more social mobility Status hierarchy system prestige and status are relative the way we define status is dependent on the individual society Elite mass dichotomy system when a small amount of people hold the majority of the power The decisions they make effect a far larger population than the one they make up o Meritocracy the cream rises to the top the best people rise to the top because they re the best people to be there 1 Stratification in the U S Socioeconomic status occupation level of prestige Classify groups individuals activities households wealth education prestige The upper class those who receive greater return on investments rather than wages 1 Middle class individuals with non manual non service sector jobs that pays significantly more than the poverty line Poor federal definitions on what it means to be poor o Absolute poverty you have nothing no food or shelter o Relative poverty you may have some of the things you need but not up to the middle class living standard Income v Wealth Wednesday July 13 2011 Florida s minimum wage 7 31 Social Mobility Social mobility movement between positions within a system of social stratification Closed vs Open System o Closed system caste system o Open class system Intragenerational mobility the social mobility that occurs within your life o Horizontal movement from one position to another within the same social level changing jobs without altering occupation status or moving between social groups having the same social status o Vertical the degree to which an individual s or group s status is able to change in terms of position in the social hierarchy due to movement from one social level to a higher or lower one do to changing jobs or marrying up or down accountant at Enron loses job and becomes destitute Intergenerational mobility movement occurs from one generation to the next when a child moves from a social class different than their parents Structural mobility a type of forced vertical mobility that results from a change in the distribution of statuses within a society Views on Inequality Functionalist perspective inequality is a necessary part of life that exists to maintain the social order Conflict theory against inequality thinks it creates inter group conflict Look at the way the poor and rich have different interests and how that creates conflict Symbolic interactionism inequality is part of our presentation of self What is the compassion gap Society wants to help the poor but policy doesn t reflect it Households in catastrophic poverty has increased every year since 1999 Monday 7 18 11 Race and Ethnicity 2 Race and Ethnicity Race a socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people Ethnicity a socially defined category based on common language religion nationality history or other cultural factor Race Externally exposed Involuntary Hierarchal Physical difference Exclusive Unequal Ethnicity Voluntary Self defined Nonhierarchal Fluid and multiple Cultural Balanced Types of Ethnicity Symbolic ethnicity choice might not be salient at times Situational ethnicity illustrates how ethnic and racial identification is socially constructed How people choose to assert or not assert a salient aspect of their identity or heritage in a particular situation What is a minority Members of a social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society s dominant group but not necessarily fewer in numbers than the dominant group Racism a system of domination operating in social processes and social institutions can also operate in the individual consciousness Can refer to explicit beliefs in racial supremacy Often embedded in the social structure and operations of society Institutional Jim Crow laws differential access to the goods and opportunities of society by race Normative Comes engrained in society Can be
View Full Document
Unlocking...