This document defines social stratification as the division of society into hierarchical social classes. It identifies characteristics such as status, wealth, and prestige as social desirables that determine social mobility and stratification. Social mobility refers to the ability of individuals to change their social class, either upwardly or downwardly, within systems of stratification like class, caste, estate, or slavery. Inequality in areas like capital, ethnicity, and disability status can have consequences like disparities in life chances and outcomes. Responses to inequality range from allowing it to continue to socialist or reformist approaches that redistribute resources to address injustice.
6. SocialSocial
DesirablesDesirables
6-6
Refers to factors that are
somewhat accepted o desired
in a certain society.
Power – capacity to influence
others
Wealth – accumulated
economic capital
Prestige – capacity to influence
others
11. 6-11
SocialSocial
MobilityMobility
refers to the ability of people in
a society to change their social
class.
HORIZONTAL
A person who is a factory worker may get a new job in
another factory that pays more. He/she would still be
considered working class, but they might be able to afford a
nicer house or to take a more costly vacation with the
money earned from the new job.
12. 6-12
SocialSocial
MobilityMobility
• May cause family problems.
• Moving, travelling.
• May result in financial burdens.
• May also create false expectations.
• May lead to disappointments.
• Stress and psychological conditions.
• Higher incidences of suicide, depression,
psychosis.
Children from poorer families typically do not do as well in school as more affluent children, are more likely to drop out before completing high school, and are less likely to go on to higher education
Such effects of poverty are largely responsible for the perpetuation of class inequalities from one generation to the next
For a variety of reasons, including better nutrition, access to better health care, and less hazardous working conditions, those who are situated higher in the economic hierarchy are typically healthier than the poor
On average, the poor do not live as long as those who are better off
Similarly, when dealing with the criminal justice system, those with greater access to and control over economic resources tend to fare better; the poor are consequently overrepresented in jails
Life-chances are a function of position in the class structure: Those higher up in the economic hierarchy enjoy a better quality of life
For society, increasing inequality may mean more unrest among the poor; but there is more opposition today from better-organized middle class than from the poor
Reactions to, and recommendations about, inequality reflect personal values and political orientation
A large part of the problem lies in the fact that any serious effort to redistribute the wealth and income from the well-off to the poor would probably be opposed by the former