Social Stratification and Mobility

Sociology, BSc, 24 th March, 2011

JNOS B. KOCSIS
PhD, Lecturer Budapest University of Technology and Economics Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Dept. of Sociology and Communication

Social Stratification
Text: Macionis, Sociology, pp. 248-273 Origins of social stratification: abilities, beliefs, ascription and indoctrination. Social stratification: a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. It is based on four principles: 1. Social stratification is a trait of the society, not simply a reflection of individual differences. 2. Social stratification carries over from generation to generation. Social mobility: a change in position within the social hierarchy. 3. Social stratification is universal but variable. It is a universal phenomenon but what is unequal and how unequal varies from society to society. 4. Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well. Caste and class systems: the former is a closed system, based on ascription or birth. More open systems are class systems. Soviet Union: an attempt to create a classless society. Modern class system: social stratification is based on both birth and individual achievement. Meritocracy: social stratification based on personal merit that includes a persons knowledge, abilities and efforts. Status consistency: the degree of uniformity in a persons social standing acorss various dimensions of social inequality. A major reason for the endurance of the social hierarchies is Ideology, the Power behind Stratification, the cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, including patterns of inequality. Plato states that every culture considers some type of inequality just. Origin of caste and feudal systems is that some people should fulfil extra duties that are specially rewarded. The functions of social stratification The Davis-Moore Thesis Social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of the society this is the reason why it exists in all known societies.
JNOS B. KOCSIS
PhD, Lecturer Budapest University of Technology and Economics Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences Dept. of Sociology and Communication

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Modern societies have hundreds of occupational positions of varying importance. Certain are easy and can be performed by almost anybody. Others are difficult and may require specific talents only scarce talents of people can perform them. Thus inequality in rewards is a mechanism putting the right people in the right position. It promotes productivity and efficiency because it rewards important work with income, prestige, power, and leisure; thus encouraging the people to do these jobs and to work better, longer and harder. Society has to compensate people who put huge efforts into studies for long years while they did not earn or earn only little. Poverty stimulates people of higher rank to perform better and harder to avoid falling into poverty. Stratification and Conflict Karl Marx Class by Marx is based on the relationship to the means of production. o Bourgeoisie: they own the means of production o Workers: they labour for others profit with others tools. Two, clearly differentiated categories whit antagonistic relationship. Why no Marxist revolution? o Fragmentation of the capitalist class o Higher standard of living o More powerful workers organisation (labour unions) o Greater legal protection Max Weber. More elaborated system of social stratification as multidimensional ranking Socioeconomic Status (SES): a composite ranking based on various dimensions of social inequality. Weber distinguished three such categories: o Class position: hierarchy along ownership, a continuum ranging from high to low. o Status linked to prestige. o Power. Stratification and Interaction Micro level approach that focuses on peoples everyday interaction. Peoples social standing affects their everyday interaction. People mostly intreract with people of relatively the same social standing, people tend to live with people like them. People with very different social standing commonly keep their distance from one another. People of the same social standing have similar habits and appearances thus clothing, eating, drinking, accent, leasure habits and so on represent their social standing. Thus such habits reflect the budget, the taste and other important characteristics of a person. Conspicuous consumption refers to buying and using products because of the statement they make about social position. Interaction and power: people accept more the power of those above their standing.

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Social Mobility
Text: Macionis, Sociology, pp. 283-287 Social stratification is the static view of the society. Dynamics is described in mobility. Forms of capital: material, cultural and social. Multidimensional view: more dimensions. Status inconsistency may serve as a means of changing social status. Stratification: fragmentation of society, milieu groups (e.g. along consumption). Upward and downward social mobility: the former is considered more usual. In the USA, 20 per cent of the people are downward mobile (but it is rather a minor loss in status in reality). The majority of the downward mobile are women coming back to work after maternity leave. Intragenerational and intergenerational mobility: a recent study on intergenerational mobility in the US shows that about 32 per cent of U.S. men have the same type of work as their fathers, 37 per cent are upwardly mobile and 32 per cent have been downwardly mobile. Among women, 27 per cent showed no change in relation to their fathers, 46 per cent were upwardly mobile and 27 per cent were downwardly mobile (2006). Circular and structural mobility: the former is the result of individual efforts (or failures), the latter results from the general change in the society. Perceptual downward mobility in a welfare society: one perceives no change in ones social status as losing grounds. Reasons are twofold: one always expects some sort of progress in society and one expects ones life to develop. Thus stability is seen as a downward movement. Social mobility: change in ones social status; vertical mobility: movement in social hierarchy. Horizontal mobility: change does not lead to change in ones social status. The above study shows that horizontal social mobility is very common; approximately 80 per cent of the children show at least some type of social mobility in relation to their fathers. Channels of mobility: marriage, military service, education, etc. Difference in those channels in terms of who and how may use them. Open and closed societies. Facts about mobility in modern western societies: Social mobility has been rather high in the last hundred or so years, compared to earlier periods. Social mobility is high in times of anomy that leads to social deviances. Within a single generation, social mobility is usually small. Long-term trend of mobility has usually been upward. Chances to mobility are uneven in terms of periods of history and of social classes.