Chapter 7 8 Definitions Chapter 8 1 Social stratification the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property power and prestige applies to both nations and to people within a nation society or other group 2 Social class according to Weber a large group of people who rank close to one another in property wealth power and prestige according to Marx one of two groups capitalists who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor 3 Property material possessions such as animals bank accounts bonds buildings businesses cars furniture land and stocks 4 Wealth the total value of everything someone owns minus the debts 5 Income money received usually from a job business or assets 6 Power the ability to carry out your will even over the resistance of others 7 Power elite C Wright Mills term for the top people in U S corporations military and politics who make the nation s major decisions 8 Prestige respect or regard 9 Status consistent ranking high or low on all three dimensions of social class 10 Status inconsistency ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others also called status discrepancy 11 Status the position that someone occupies in a social group 12 Contradictory class locations Erik Wright s term for a position in the class structure that generates contradictory interests 13 Underclass a group of people for whom poverty persists year after year and across generations 14 Intergenerational mobility the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next 15 Poverty line the official measure of poverty calculated to include incomes that are less than three times a low cost food budget 16 Structural mobility movement up or down the social class ladder that is due to changes in the structure of society not to individual efforts 17 Upward social mobility up or down the social class ladder 18 Downward social mobility movement down the social class ladder 19 Exchange mobility about the same numbers of people moving up and down the social class ladder such that on balance the social class system shows little change 20 Feminization of poverty refers to most U S poor families being headed by women 21 Horatio Alger myth the belief that due to limit less possibilities anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough 22 Culture of poverty the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other Americans and that these factors are largely responsible for their continued long term poverty Chapter 7 Definitions 1 Social stratification the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property power and prestige applies to both nations and to people within a nation society or other group 2 Slavery a form of social stratification in which some people own other people 3 Social mobility movement up or down the social class ladder 4 World system theory economic and political connections that tie the world s countries together 5 Means of production the tools factories land and investment capital used to produce 6 Meritocracy a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis wealth of merit 7 Multinational corporations companies that operate across national boundaries also called transitional corporations 8 Neocolonialism the economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations 9 Class consciousness Marx s term for awareness of a common identity based on one s position in the means of production 10 Colonialism the process by which one nation takes over another nation usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources 11 Culture of poverty the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children 12 False class consciousness Marx s term to refer to workers identifying with the interests of capitalists 13 Divine right of kings the idea that the king s authority comes directly from God in an interesting gender bender also applies to queens 14 Globalization of capitalism capitalism investing to make profits within a rational system becoming the globe s dominant economic system 15 Endogamy the practice of marrying within one s own group 16 Caste system a form of social stratification in which people s statuses are determined by 17 Class system a form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or birth and lifelong material items