Social Stratification: Understanding Inequality in Society, Slides of Economic & Social History

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SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

MA FINAL

INTRODUCTION

• Titanic – the iconic ship that came to a very tragic end. It collided with an iceberg and sank on April 15 , 1912. The tragic incidence of Titanic reminds us a huge loss of more than 1 , 600 lives when it sank. Looking back at this terrible accident with a sociological eye, we note that some categories of passengers had much better chances of survival than others.
• Keeping in view that era’s traditional ideas about gender, women and children were allowed to board the lifeboats first, with the result that 80 % of the people who died were men.
• Class, too, was at work. More than 60 % of people holding first- class tickets were saved because they were on the upper decks, where warnings were sounded first and lifeboats were accessible. Only 36 % of the second-class passengers survived, and of the third-class passengers on the lower decks, only 24 % escaped drowning. The fate of the passengers on the Titanic dramatically illustrates how social inequality affects the way people live (Macionis, 2012 )

THE MEANING OF STRATIFICATION

• Society’s layers are made of people , and society’s resources are distributed unevenly throughout the layers.
• The people who have more resources represent the top layer of the social structure of stratification.
• Other groups of people, with progressively fewer and fewer resources, represent the lower layers of our society.
• Social stratification is the division of society into categories, ranks, or classes.
• These divisions lead to social inequality—the unequal sharing of resources and social rewards.
• Throughout history societies have used some system of classification such as kings and slaves, lords and serfs, rich and poor, landlords and labourers, upper and lower castes etc.

DEFINING SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• Social stratification is the hierarchical

arrangement of large social groups based

on their control over basic

resources(Feagin and Feagin, 2008 ).

• Social Stratification is a system by which

a society ranks categories of people in a

hierarchy (John J. Macionis, 2012 )

DETERMINANTS OF SOCIAL

STRATIFICATION

• Stratification is usually based on;
• Power: the ability to impose one’s will on others
• Prestige: the respect given by others
• Property: forms of wealth (economic resources)
• Wealth: the value of economic assets
• Occupation: High and low class professions
• Education: level and standard of education attained.
• Caste: Positions are ascribed, not achieved
• Class: Positions based on individual achievement

FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• According to the sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore (1945), inequality is not only unavoidable but also necessary for the smooth functioning of society. 1 .All societies have important tasks that must be accomplished and certain positions that must be filled.

2. Some positions are more important for the survival of society than others.
3. The most important positions must be filled by the most qualified people.
4. The positions that are the most important for society and that require talent, extensive training, or both must be the most highly rewarded. The Davis–Moore thesis assumes that social stratification results in meritocracy —a hierarchy in which all positions are rewarded based on people’s ability and credentials.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• The rankings apply to social categories of people who share a common characteristic without necessarily interacting or identifying with one another. For example, wealthy people spend their lives differently from the underprivileged. Not all the wealthy are known to each other even living in the same society.
• Individuals from a particular category can change their rank (lower to middle);
• The category continues to exist even if individuals move out of it and enter into another category.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• People's life experiences and (life chances) opportunities depend heavily on how their social category is ranked. There is a very clear difference between those who belong to upper- middle class and those from lower class who often work in factories or manual labor. It is difficult or impossible from lower class to achieve/ get what they want?
• Social stratification is universal but variable. It exists everywhere but in different ways, e.g; caste system in India differs from the stratification Opportunities to provide material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experience

CASTE SYSTEM

• A caste system is a system of social

inequality in which people’s status is

permanently determined at birth based on

their parents’ ascribed characteristics.

• Permanent and ascribed status

determined at birth.

• Close system where individuals live out

their lives in the rigid categories assigned

to them, without the possibility of change

for the better or worse.

CASTE SYSTEM

• Endogamy , people are allowed to

marry only within their own group.

• Limited Choice of Occupation
• Cultural beliefs and values sustain caste

systems. Hinduism reinforced the caste

system by teaching that people should

accept their fate in life and work hard as a

moral duty.

Class System

• Class is a group of people with similar level of wealth, influence and status.
• The class system is a type of stratification based on the ownership and control of resources and on the type of work people do.
• The status is achieved than ascribed. Though individuals born in wealthy families and influential families have better access to resources, and opportunities.
• It is an open system with increased social mobility. may The individuals become members of a class other than that of their parents

CLASS SYSTEM

• Class is Economic Group. A class is

group of people who have similar level of

wealth and income

• Feelings: Equality, Inferiority, Superiority
• Exogamy - the custom of marrying

outside a community, clan, or tribe.

compatibility is more important ( Neo-

local marriages)

UPPER CLASS

• These are elite families with great wealth who dominate the economic system of every society.
• There is a concept of ‘old money’ those with vast inherited wealth and ‘new money’ a group of people who recently have achieved success and wealth.
• They are few and far between in any society, and makes about 1 % of the whole population.
• They have their own norms which are distinct from the other groups.
• They enjoy all luxuries of life.
• The upper class of Pakistan has landlords, politicians, and business tycoons.

MIDDLE CLASS

• The members of the middle class earn their money by working (small business owners) or doing professional jobs( as managers, doctors, lawyers, professors, and teachers).
• Some of the individuals are highly educated professional people with high incomes, such as doctors, lawyers, while some may be less educated people with lower incomes, such as small business owners, and clerks.