Course: Intro to Sociology

Prof: Jannick Demanet

Date: November 22, 2022

Lecture VII: Stratification

Defining Stratification: a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy

Universals of Stratification
- Societal Characteristic: Stratification is something built into society. People are not
stratified, societies are stratified. It is a societal feature. You cannot blame people for
being at the top or at the bottom because it is not their fault or in their control.
- Reproduction and Mobility: people can change in stratification; if you are born lower
class, you can work your way up by getting an education and then a good job.
o In a closed system, people are most likely to take the position of their parents
i.e., parents were lower class, so children are now also born into lower class.
o In an open system just because your parents are lower class doesn’t mean
you’re gonna stay there and vice versa. Just because you were born into
wealth or a family of lawyers, doesn’t mean that you’ll be successful.
- Universal but Variable: Every society is stratified; there are no examples of completely
equal societies. It is possible though to increase or diminish inequality
- Discourse/Legitimation: legitimation is always necessary in terms of inequality; people
must know why they get less than others; it’s a given not “elite” crap.
- Identity and culture: people know about their position on the social ladder & it gives
them a common identity. The position one takes leads to group/class consciousness.

Intersectionality
- Intersectionality is a perspective taken from the macro level; zoom out
- We look at the different hierarchies, ways people are categorized & they can overlap
- In intersectionality there are categories in which people can be hierarchally ranked i.e.,
class order, gender order, racial/ethnic formation, age stratification and generational
order, sexual order and the disability and health order.
- Everyone has their hierarchical place in these categories but failing to recognize one’s
position in one category and not the other may lead to status inconsistency.

I. Systems of Stratification
Slavery
- a system in which some people are believed to be private property; those at the
bottom of the ladder are considered the “goods” of those at the top of the ladder
- It’s something that goes on openly and at the center of society. It is so centralized that
it is even legally regulated, who can be appropriated, how much they cost, etc.
- Slavery has different forms across different societies; some societies treated slaves
poorly, others not so much. I.e., the comparison between Egyptian & Roman slaves
- The most closed system: people who were born slaves, died as slaves and their
children were slaves. There was usually no class mobility, it was very rigid.
- Classic slavery from the past is now abolished. Slaves now are no longer “owned” but
controlled. Modern forms of slavery revolve around control; modern slaves are
 stripped away from freedom, passports. For instance: forced labor, debt bondage,
sexual exploitation, prostitution, arranged forced marriages, etc.

The Estate System

- Found in medieval Europe; system found in feudalism
- You do something and get something in return; there is a mutual obligation
- To further explain, if you are below the social hierarchy you work, you provide services.
If you are above, you provide land.
- A system of rights and obligations; people at the top have more rights
- System of loyalties for protection from king or lords/land for protection and so on
- Fief – something that you get/borrow; get land to work on and you must give it back
- Also, a closed system in which mobility is not very plausible or possible

The Caste System

- A system that is ran purely on ascribed status – you are born into a class; you stay
there your whole life, and you can only do the things people in your class do; closed
- Ascribed Status: The position you are born in affects your occupation later in life
- Endogamous; people in this system marry those in their own caste; no diversity
- Segregation: this avoids people from different castes from falling in love with each
other and to avoids the realization of the profound inequality in the given society
- Because of these strong features that are reproduced down through generations, there
is a legitimation/belief system that is also backed up by religion
- Caste and quasi-caste: some countries are now considered caste-like. The US for
example – there are different minorities that resemble a caste i.e., African Americans
- Cast-like minorities is a term we use for some ethnic minorities. Those that migrated
involuntarily for instance for labor

The Class System

- Originated with the industrial revolution
- A system that is run on acquired and achieved status (wealth, power and prestige)
- Open system, mobility between the classes is possible. There are blurred boundaries
between classes unlike castes
- There are also universal legal rights for the first time in stratification; these stand for
every human being regardless of class i.e., the universal declaration of human rights
- The legitimation is linked to acquired status; where you end up is a product of what
you have done. People’s positions are legitimated by their own efforts

Persistence and Reproduction

- These things are continual and they happen over and over again because of ideology
- When people share a certain identity, set of beliefs its then hard to get rid of it
- Habitualisation – it becomes something that we are used to and that we want
- Disempowerment – it’s not possible to change something if you have no power. Those
in lower classes are sometimes stuck because they are unable to cause the change they
want. It’s easier to change society if you’re at the top of the ladder
- Coercion and violence – if none of the previous methods work, to keep the system in
place, the military can and will use coercion and violence
 II. Classical Theories
Functionalism (Davis & Moore)
- Stratification is necessary to motivate people to aspire and put effort into mastering
the most complex jobs that are most vital for society
- According to them, occupations can be ranked according to difficulty
o In a society we need specialization. Because of that some people take up
more responsibility. The jobs that are complex and require more
specialization, responsibility take time, energy, and money. These are the
most important jobs for society – they have higher functional importance.
o Because of this these jobs receive higher rewards to act as an incentive and
make sure that there is a sieve that filters out and selects the best
- There is a meritocratic belief, only the best, those who have earned it will get there
Critiques
- This can only function in an open system, never a closed one
- Importance is subjective, who decides which job is important and which is not
- Meritocracy in the real world is very different than the ideal type given by this theory
- This theory ignores conflict & revolution and the difference in stratification systems

Marxism
- For Karl Marx, people’s positions are only determined by whether they have the means
of production or not; it is about their position in the economic system
- What is described above (ownership of means of production) makes Marx’s society
subject to an economic determination of “class”
- There are two classes: owners (capitalists) and laborers (proletariat)
- The laborers are exploited by owners and eventually they will revolt
- Marx says that we need to have a socialist revolution to ensure that people are equal
Critiques
- Marx severs the link between performance and rewards. But critics say that if you
sever that link, people won’t put too much effort into work – there’s no reward.
- Marx says that people are not motivated by rewards, but they are inherently social and
they will do their job because it’s the right thing to do for the greater good
- Capitalism is no the same anymore, there has been fragmentation of the capitalist
class. There are now managers that oversee the firm for those that own it. Those who
own don’t really know what’s going on in the firm because they have managers.
- Apart from that, we have shifted from blue collar jobs to white collar jobs. We aren’t
trained for factory jobs, we are trained for service, the tertiary sector of the industry.
We are not in an industrial but a postindustrial society because we work with people
- Labor unions have risen

Weber
- First multidimensional determination of someone’s class
- Agrees with Marx that economic position is important, but it is not a dichotomous
thing; there is a continuum from lower positions in the occupational ladder to higher
- A lot of positions in between the two extremes and that is what Weber calls class
 - Class: entails economic position and occupation. People who occupy the same
occupation belong to the same class group and that determines your life chances
- Status: the reflection of a person in the eyes of someone else; esteemed highly or
lowly. People who enjoy the same prestige share a status group
- Power: politics - people differ in the amount of power they have other others. A party
is composed of a group of people who share the same power and particular interest.
People in a party come from different occupations, different levels of prestige but they
fight for the same interest. This is the first time we see this
- Differences Across Societies: in agrarian societies if you can make others believe that
you are most important, you will get to the top – status. In Industrial societies class is
most important. In Bureaucracies power is more important than anything

Bourdieu
- Leading French sociologist from the end of the 20th century
- Symbolic Dominance: Cultural capital, when you can control symbols/what people find
important in society, you can reproduce your own culture on the rest of society
- Habitus: The embodied structure that lives inside of us that ensures that we make the
decisions compliant to our own structural position
- Social Reproduction: further develops the Weberian idea that there are different and
dimensions to what you can mobilize to improve your position: Economic capital (the
money), symbolic capital (recognition of other people you know) social capital
(knowing people that become assets. Like money: something you have in your purse
that you can use to improve), cultural capital (your knowledge about how things work,
rules, norms etc.)

III. Global Stratification

Global Inequality
- A list of things contributes to global inequality: technology, population growth, cultural
patterns, social stratification, gender inequality and global power relationships

Modernization Theory
- A theory for economic and social development that describes global inequality in terms
of differing levels of technological developments among societies
- Theorists highlight the fact that the entire world was poor not too long ago and that
was normal. Because of the normality of poverty, wealth demands an explanation
- According to this theory, we have global stratification because some countries are
further along in these stages (down below) of growth compared to other countries.

Rostow’s Stages of Modernization

1. Traditional Stage
- Typical for agrarian societies; they are limited in scientific knowledge
- In this stage people are heavily influenced and reliant on old ways of doing things
- Culture, tradition, and the past are highly regarded – strong emphasis on stability
- It is typical for countries to remain in this stage for long periods of time

2. Take Off stage

 - This happens when a society begins to shake off the past traditions and norms
- People being to use their talents and imagination which triggers economic growth
- A market emerges - people no longer produce for themselves but trade for profit too
- Culture changes & there is a growing spirit of individualism, achievement orientation
- Usually because of self-development reasons, traditional family ties, long-standing
norms and values are broken
- Economic development triggered by the external demand for export of raw goods
- The entire economy is focused on the same goal – export (typically cash crops)
- Because of this, society changes as well, it gives people a sense of national identity

3. Drive to Maturity
- Focus shifts from abroad (exports) to local, and inward shift. The economy changes
from producing cash crops (goods to export) to consumption goods (internal).
- The heavy industry from the take off stage leads to a light industry – producing clothes,
appliances, day to day necessities and this improves the standard of living
- Coincides with higher rate of investment in social infrastructure: hospitals & schools
- Typically, a long phase with the economy gradually changing from export oriented to
internally oriented
- People begin to become more aware of the damage the industrial era is causing
- Women begin to gain momentum in changes towards equality with men

4. High Mass Consumption

- Characterized by a high level of economic security where few struggle for survival
- Basic needs are met (food, clothing, housing) and luxury goods (cars, tv, appliances)
become available to the masses
- Politically welfare regimes begin

Neoliberal Theory
- A capitalist approach, with a drive for profit & survival of the fittest mentality
- Society/the market is open to everyone; those with the best ideas win the most
- By reason of competition, those who are not successful in their economic
developments (whether it be people, societies, or countries) lag and need aid

Dependency Theory (Frank)

- Focuses on how poor countries have been wronged by richer nations
- Frank argues that the only reason that the developed countries are developed because
of the exploitation and underdevelopment of underdeveloped countries.

World Systems Theory (Wallerstein)

- From the dependency theory, arguing that there is a capitalist world economy where
all nations are actors, and the class theory is applied. The capitalists are ‘core’ nations,
the proletariat are the semi-periphery and ‘periphery’. The periphery provides cheap
labor and raw materials to the core who then produces high profit consumption goods
for the periphery. The semi-periphery are countries that both provide cheap labor and
raw materials but also high profit consumption goods.