Sociology A Brief Introduction

Canadian 6th Edition Schaefer

Solution Manual

Full download at link:

Solution Manual: https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-

manual-for-sociology-a-brief-introduction-canadian-6th-
edition-by-schaefer-and-haaland-1259465586-
9781259465581/

Test Bank: https://testbankpack.com/p/test-bank-for-

sociology-a-brief-introduction-canadian-6th-edition-by-
schaefer-and-haaland-1259465586-9781259465581/

6 STRATIFICATION IN CANADA

Contents:
• Learning Objectives
• Using Text Boxes to stimulate • Topics for students research
discussion • Additional Audiovisual suggestions
• Video suggestions • Additional Readings
• Classroom activities • Exploring Your Beliefs about Equality
• Key points from the text in Society Exercise
• Additional lecture ideas • Thinking About Movies
• Classroom discussion topics
6-1
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Learning Objectives:

6.1 What is stratification?

6.2 How are stratification and social class related?
6.3 Does social mobility exist?

Using Text Boxes to stimulate discussion:

Sociology in the Global Community: Slavery in the Twenty-First Century. Around the world, at least 27
million people were still enslaved at the beginning of the twenty-first century. And yet the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which is supposedly binding on all members of the United Nations, holds that “No
one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”
(Masland 1992:30, 32). Apply the Theory: 1) According to conflict theorists, why are many bonded labourers
around the world in the position of slaves? 2) What explanations might some feminist sociologists have for the
varying incidence rates of forced sex work from one country to another?

Sociology in the Global Community: Poverty and Global Inequality. In September 2000 world leaders came
together at the United Nations headquarters and adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. This global
partnership committed to reducing extreme poverty and set out eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
with a deadline of 2015. They reached many of their goals. In September 2015, leaders again met at the United
Nations headquarters and adopted an agenda that outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; also
known as the Global Goals) to be met by 2030. The SDGs build on the MDGs and are universal: They apply to
all countries and all people. They move beyond the MDGs and include issues such as climate change, sustainable
consumption, innovation, and the importance of peace and justice for all. Apply the Theory: 1) Have you ever
been involved in a fundraising or awareness-raising campaign in your community or university to fight poverty
in Africa? 2) Do you think that Canada is doing enough in its efforts to close the gap between the rich and the
poor countries of the world?

Social Policy and Stratification – Rethinking Social Assistance in North America and Europe. The 2015
federal election in Canada witnessed heated debate about a number of issues, including welfare. Welfare
programs are costly, and there is widespread concern (however unfounded) that welfare payments discourage
recipients from seeking jobs. In an effort to curb government spending, Stephen Harper’s Conservative
government implemented changes to Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in 2012, making it more difficult for
Canadians to access and retain EI benefits. For example, unemployed individuals were required to look for a job
every day they received benefits, show proof of their job search, and were expected to travel long distances from
home in search of employment. During the election campaign, Justin Trudeau promised sweeping changes to EI,
changes that would reverse some of the 2012 changes and that would make it easier for some unemployed
Canadians to collect benefits. Many sociologists tend to view the debate over welfare throughout industrialized
nations from a conflict perspective: the “haves” in positions of policy making listen to the interests of other
“haves,” while the cries of the “have-nots” are drowned out. From a conflict perspective, the backlash against
welfare recipients reflects deep fears and hostility toward the county’s poor and dispossessed. Those who take a
conflict perspective also urge policy makers and the general public to look closely at corporate welfare, the tax
breaks, direct payments, and grants that the government makes to corporations, rather than to focus on the
relatively small allowances being given to mothers on social assistance and their children. Apply the Theory: 1)
What might be the focus of some feminist sociologists as they study the changes in welfare reform in Canada
and elsewhere? 2) How might a functionalist interpret the Liberal government’s plan for welfare reform? 3)
Have you or has anyone you know applied for social assistance? If so, what caused you or them to do so?

6-1
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Video suggestions:

• No Logo (42 min., 2003, Media Education Foundation). This film would work well with the opening
vignette on Nike, as Naomi Klein explores the world of corporate branding, and the effects this has on the
global economy. It can be used in sections. Using hundreds of media examples, No Logo shows how the
commercial takeover of public space, destruction of consumer choice, and replacement of real jobs with
temporary work (the dynamics of corporate globalization) impact everyone, everywhere. It also draws
attention to the democratic resistance arising globally to challenge the hegemony of brands.

• No Place Called Home (57 min., 2004, National Film Board of Canada). Director Craig Chivers follows the
day-to-day struggles encountered by Kay Rice, her partner Karl and six children, whose goal is to break the
generational cycle of poverty. The film has almost no stereotypical portrayals of poverty, and it shows how
difficult it is for a family without income to keep a roof over their heads.

• Life and Debt (86 min., 2005, Tuff Gong Pictures Production) Jamaica became an independent country
from Great Britain in 1962. It is the land of sea, sand and sun, but it is also a prime example of the
complexities of economic globalization on the world's developing countries. The film effectively portrays
the relationship between Jamaican poverty and the practices of international lending agencies while driving
home the devastating consequences of globalization.
The Pursuit Of Happiness ( Director: Gabriele Muccino, 2006) Chris Gardner (Will Smith), recently separated
from his wife and entrusted with his son's care, has landed an internship at a stockbrokerage firm. The only
problem is that it is unpaid, and Chris is broke. Despite his limited life chances, Chris resolves to break into the
relatively high-prestige stockbroker's world even as he struggles to provide for his son. From a sociological
perspective, The Pursuit of Happiness is both realistic and unrealistic. The movie offers a compassionate, true-
to-life portrait of the underclass, showing how Chris works tirelessly to acquire the resources many of us take for
granted, including food and housing. Yet there is no explicit mention of the effect of race. The relative ease with
which Chris is accepted in the overwhelmingly White brokerage ignores the rigidity of the social class system
toward members of minority groups.

• Women’s Bank of Bangladesh (47 min., 1997, MovieTron/Wildshot Pictures). This film is good for
showing an interactionist, micro approach to stratification. More than 100 million people live below poverty
level in Bangladesh - many of them women. The film focuses on the work of the Grameen Bank and the
phenomenon of “micro-financing” – which are very small loan made mostly to women only. The film shows
how a very small amount of money, sometimes as little as $20, can help women in Bangladesh and their
families begin to prosper.

Classroom activities:

Exploring Your Beliefs about Equality in Society. At the very back of this IM chapter is a class
exercise, ready for copying, asking students to distribute money among a number of occupations and people. It
works well in groups of four or five people. One of the keys to good participation is to have each group hand in a
sheet giving their division of income among all the people on the list. It works well if each group reports to the
class how and why they came up with the division that they did. You are likely to find that students fight hard to
replicate the existing structure of inequality – they are often quite startled to find that while they are learning to
think critically about society, and they think in principle that poverty is a “bad” thing – in this exercise they
usually allocate income based on taken for granted societal prestige rankings, much like the one on page 172
(although this is an American prestige scale). If you have a class with many international students, sometimes
6-2
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
you will get a different distribution of resources. It is very important to tell the students that people on the list get
ONLY the money that they allot to them. Otherwise, they tend to think that special needs people will get welfare
or some form of government assistance. This exercise is adapted from one by Judy Aulette, in Kathleen
McKinney, Frank Beck and Barbara Heyl, Sociology Through Active Learning. (2000) Thousand Oaks: Pine
Forge Press.

Key points from the text:

Stratification and Social Inequality: The term social inequality describes a condition in which members
of a society have different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power. Some degree of social inequality characterizes
every society. When a system of social inequality is based on a hierarchy of groups, sociologists refer to it as
stratification: a structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and
power in a society. The term income refers to salaries and wages. By contrast, wealth encompasses all of a
person’s material assets, including land, stocks, and other types of property.

Systems of Stratification: The most extreme form of legalized social inequality is slavery; enslaved
individuals are owned by other people. Castes are hereditary systems of rank, usually religiously dictated, that
tend to be fixed and immobile. A class system is a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which
achieved characteristics can influence social mobility. In contrast to slavery and caste systems, the boundaries
between classes are imprecisely defined, and people can move from on strum, or level, of society to another.
Even so, class systems maintain stable stratification hierarchies and patterns of class divisions, and they, too, are
marked by unequal distribution of wealth and power.

Statistics reflecting personal wealth or net worth (assets minus debts) demonstrate an enormous gap between the
richest 20 percent and the poorest 20 percent of Canadian families. According to a 2015 Statistics Canada report,
the average net worth of the richest 20 percent of Canadians increased by an average of 80 percent between 1999
and 2012 while the poorest fifth of Canadians experienced a 38 percent gain during the same time period
(Sturgeon 2015). What is most distressing about this disparity is that the poorest 20 percent control 0.1 percent
of the total wealth of Canadian families, while the richest 20 percent control 69 percent of the total wealth.

The Functionalist View of Stratification: In the view of Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, society
must distribute its members among a variety of social positions. Davis and Moore argue that stratification is
universal and that social inequality is necessary so that people will be motivated to fill functionally important
positions. But, critics say, unequal rewards are not the only means of encouraging people to fill critical positions
and occupations. Even if stratification is inevitable, the functionalist explanation for differential rewards does not
explain the wide disparity between the rich and poor.

Conflict View of Stratification: Karl Marx’s View: In Marx’s view, social relations during any period
of history depend on who controls the primary mode of economic production, such as land or factories. Using
this type of analysis, Marx examined social relations within capitalism – an economic system in which the
means of production are largely in private hands and the main incentive for economic activity is the
accumulation of profits. Marx focused on the two classes that began to emerge as the estate system declined, the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, owns the means of production, such as
factories and machinery, while the proletariat is the working class. According to Marx, exploitation of the
proletariat will inevitably lead to the destruction of the capitalist system. But first, the working class must
develop class consciousness – a subjective awareness of common vested interests and the need for collective
political action to bring about social change. Workers must overcome what Marx termed false consciousness, or
an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect its objective position.

Conflict View of Stratification: Ralf Dahrendorf’s View: Contemporary conflict theorists believe that
human beings are prone to conflict over such scarce resources as wealth, status, and power. However, where
6-3
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Marx focused primarily on class conflict, more recent theorists have extended this analysis to include conflicts
based on gender, race, age, and other dimensions. British sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf modified Marx’s analysis
of capitalist society to apply to modern capitalist societies.

Conflict View of Stratification:Max Weber’s View: Unlike Karl Marx, Max Weber insisted that no
single characteristic (such as class) totally defines a person’s position within the stratification system. He
identified three analytically distinct components of stratification: class, status, and power. Class refers to people
who have a similar level of wealth and income. Status group refers to people who rank the same in prestige or
lifestyle, while power is the ability to exercise will over others. A person’s position in a stratification system
reflects some combination of his or her class, status, and power. At the same time, these three dimensions of
stratification may operate somewhat independently in determining a person’s position.

Feminist Views of Stratification: While diverse, feminist theories believe that gender inequality is
pervasive and women are the subordinated and dominated sex. Feminist thinkers, however, differ greatly in their
views on the root causes of gender inequality; on how gender inequality manifests itself in homes, workplaces,
and political arenas; and on how to address this inequality.

Interactionist Views of Stratification: Interactionist thinkers are micro in their orientation, focusing on
the “person-to-person” ways in which stratification is maintained, perhaps in the forms of interpersonal and non-
verbal communication. Goffman theorized on the activity of deference, a symbolic act that conveys appreciation
from one person to another.

Anti-Colonial Views: Anti-colonial views of stratification reject the notion that social inequality can be
reduced to one element, such as class. Class reductionism – attributing all forms of oppression and inequality to
class, while ignoring or minimizing factors such as race, colonialism, gender, and sexuality – is rejected by ant-
colonial thinkers. Aboriginal people of Canada, for example, continue to experience powerlessness and poverty
as a result of the legacy of colonialism.

Lenski’s View of Stratification: Gerhard Lenski, Jr., described how economic systems change as their
level of technology becomes more complex, beginning with hunting and gathering and culminating eventually
with industrial society. As a society advances in technology, it becomes capable of producing a considerable
surplus of goods. The emergence of surplus resources greatly expands the possibilities for inequality in status,
influence, and power and allows a well-defined, rigid class system to develop.

Measuring Social Class: The objective method of measuring social class views class largely as a statistical
category. Researchers assign individuals to social classes on the basis of criteria such as occupation, education,
income, and residence. The term prestige refers to the respect and admiration that an occupation holds in a
society. Esteem refers to the reputation that a specific person has earned within an occupation.

Poverty: Approximately one out of every six children in this country lives below the low-income cutoff
established by the federal government. The 2004 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada reported
that just over one million children are living in low-income households and that one-third of all Canadian
children have experienced poverty for at least one year since 1996. Although Canada’s federal government does
not have an official poverty line, it does have what is called an LICO (Low Income Cutoff ), which is calculated
for families of different sizes, and for individuals, living in different communities of varying size, from rural to
urban. If a family spends more than 20 percent more than the average family does on the essentials (e.g. food,
shelter, and clothing), it falls below the LICO. Canada’s poverty rate, although higher than those in Norway,
Finland, and Sweden, is significantly lower than that of the United States. Absolute poverty refers to a
minimum level of subsistence that no family should be expected to live below. Relative poverty is a floating
standard of deprivation by which people at the bottom of a society, whatever their lifestyles, are judged to be
disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole. The working poor refers to the many poor adults who
6-4
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
work full-year, full-time outside the home. A working poor individual is one who works a minimum number of
hours a year and whose family income falls below the LICO. The underclass is a term used to describe the long-
term poor who lack training and skills. In Canada, this class is often associated with such factors as race,
ethnicity, age, disability, and geographic region.

An increasing proportion of the low-income people in Canada are women, many of whom are single parents.
Approximately 46 percent of Canadians with low incomes in 2000 were in lone-parent families that had at least
one child under age 18; the vast majority of these families were headed by women. Canadian women’s wages
remain unequal to those of Canadian men, and many women in Canadian workplaces still hold jobs in female-
dominated job ghettos. This alarming reality, known as the feminization of poverty, is evident not just in Canada
but also around the world.

Life Chances: Max Weber saw class as closely related to people’s life chances – that is, their opportunities to
provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions, and favourable life experiences. Life chances
are reflected in such measures as housing, education, and health. In times of danger, the affluent and powerful
have a better chance of surviving than people of ordinary means. People in low-income families are more likely
to be affected by crime, and negatively evaluated by the criminal justice system. Yet another aspect of social
inequality has emerged – the digital divide. People who are poor, who have less education, who are members of
minority groups, or who live in rural communities are not getting connected to the Internet.

Open versus Closed Stratification Systems: The term social mobility refers to movement of
individuals or groups from one position of a society’s stratification system to another. An open system implies
that the position of each individual is influenced by the person’s achieved status. At the other extreme of social
mobility is the closed system, which allows little or no possibility of moving up.

Types of Social Mobility: Horizontal mobility is moving to another position of the same rank. Vertical
mobility is movement from one social position, upwards or downwards, to another of a different rank.
Occupational mobility such as intergenerational mobility involves changes in the social position of children
relative to their parents. Intragenerational mobility involves changes in social position within a person’s adult
life.

Social Mobility in Canada: In Canada, there is limited upward mobility in the middle ranges of the
Canadian occupational hierarchy, the richest and poorest individuals tend to reproduce the income level of their
fathers. In Canada, achievement is not simply based on hard work and merit; ascribed characteristics, such as
race, gender, and ethnicity are significant in their influence on a person’s chances for both intergenerational and
intragenerational occupational mobility.

Additional lecture ideas:

1: Class and Power in Canada

Leo Panitch is one of Canada’s leading social critics, focusing on the shifting role of organized labour in the
power hierarchy of this country. Panitch sees the Canadian class structure as unique at all levels, presenting a
model of class formation and organization that is in contrast to both the traditional American and European
forms.
Rather than being a homogeneous group with shared history and common economic and political interests,
both the elite and the working class of Canada are comprised of distinct subgroups. For example, unlike the
American industrial class the members of which came to be the dominant economic force in U.S. social
development, the monied elite in Canada derived from three wealth-creating sectors. In the beginning, it was
the individuals and groups associated with the resource industries—initially the fur trade—that accumulated vast

6-5
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
fortunes. These barons of fur and wood and minerals were followed by the industrialists who brought Canada
into the machine age in the early decades of the twentieth century. Overlapping these two within the capitalist
class were the financiers. Men of wealth who established the Big Five of Canadian financial institutions: the
Bank of Montreal, the Royal Bank, the Toronto Dominion, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and the
Bank of Nova Scotia.
Canada’s working class reflected this same diversity of origins and priorities. Unlike other jurisdictions
where the emergence of the industrial workplace saw a decline in the numbers and importance of the rural
population, in Canada, farmers and wage earners evolved simultaneously to form the proletariat. The result was
that the working class found itself embroiled, in Panitch’s words, in “…a cacophony of interlocking but distinct
struggles in the economy, polity, and culture
What this has meant for both the elite and the working class in Canada is that their interests have remained
less than cohesive. See “Class and power in Canada.” Leo Panitch. Monthly Review April 1985 v36 p1 (13)

2: Comparison of Perspectives on Stratification

QUESTION FUNCTIONALIST CONFLICT VIEW LENSKI’S VIEW

VIEW
Is stratification Yes
universal?
Is stratification Some level of
necessary? stratification is necessary
to ensure that key social
positions are filled. But
slavery and caste systems
are unnecessary.
What is the basis for Societal-held values.
stratification?
Will there be changes The degree of
over time in a society’s stratification may change
level of stratification? gradually.
Yes
Stratification is not
necessary. In fact, it is a
major source of societal
tension and conflict.
Ruling-class values
The degree of
stratification must be
reduced so that society
will become more
equitable.
Yes
Although stratification
has been present in all
societies, its nature and
extent vary enormously
depending on level of
economic development.
Both-ruling class and
societal-held values.
There will be
evolutionary changes in
the degree of
stratification.

3: Measuring Social Class: Subjective and Reputational Methods

In addition to the objective method of measuring social class, sociologists use two other techniques: the
subjective method and the reputational method.
The subjective method of measuring social class permits individuals to locate themselves within a system of
social ranking. Class is viewed as a social rather than a statistical category. The subjective method assumes that
people can identify their membership in a social class just as they would their race, gender or age--other types of
social differentiation. In a sense, this method measures the class consciousness discussed by Karl Marx.
Although it is easy to use, the subjective method has several shortcomings. In defining their own social
class, people may reveal their aspirations rather than their actual positions; that is, they may respond with a type
of false consciousness. For example, many people say they are “middle-class” when in fact their earnings and
savings are too low for this classification. In addition, there is a general tendency for Canadians to call
themselves “middle-class” or “working-class,” perhaps reflecting the importance of equality as a value in our
society, and to avoid identifying with the elitist upper class or the disadvantaged lower class. National surveys
show that an overwhelming majority of Americans define themselves as middle- or working-class. Thus, the
subjective method may convey a false impression that there is little class differentiation in Canada.
With the reputational method of measuring social class, class membership depends on the evaluation of selected
observers. That is, you will be considered a member of a given social class if others see you that way. Like the
subjective method, the reputational method views class as a social category. Sociologists using the reputational
6-6
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
method call on a group of “judges,” who are familiar with a community and all its members, to rate the positions
of various individual within the stratification system. W. Lloyd Warner determined a person’s social class by
asking others how the person ranked within the community. See Toby Young, “Humbler Hacks,” Spectator,
March 31, 2001 v286 i9008 p62 and Warner and Paul S. Lunt. The Status System of a Modern Community. New
Haven, CT.: Yale University Press, 1942.

4: Understanding Income and Wealth Inequality: A Classroom Exercise

Generally we all recognize that there are very wealthy people and there are very poor people, but how does
this recognition translate into everyday life and everyday decision-making? The following exercise seems to help
us appreciate the level of inequality in our society.
Split the class into small groups of five to seven students each and ask them to arrive at a common answer to
the question: “How much would you and a date or any couple spend on a nice date?” Usually someone will ask
“How ‘nice’?” and the instructor may respond to this query with something like “a nice date means an event for
which you have done some planning, not just spur-of-the-moment but not a once-a-year occasion like a formal
dance involving new clothes.” Dividing the class seems to work effectively with even a hundred students. Expect
to see figures in the $50 to $100 range.
With the groups reporting back I sum the responses to get a class average and use this in exploring the levels
of income inequality in Canada. Since the 1941 census, research on income distribution in Canada has
consistently reported that the top quintile of Canadians wage earners takes home 40% of the total income, and
the bottom quintile takes home 4% of the total. This is familiar as the ‘4/40 Rule’. You can use the class
average for the cost of a date to demonstrate the disparity of income in Canada. You begin by multiplying the
class average by 5 to represent the total available to the five income quintiles in Canada. If the class average is
$60, then there would be $300 available for distribution. Using the 4/40 distribution, means that those in the top
quintile would have $120 each ($60 X 40%) for their date, and those in the bottom quintile would have $12 for
their date. I then ask half the student groups to consider themselves to be part of the top quintile and the other
half to represent the bottom twenty percent. Both groups are asked to describe what would their date be like.
The contrasts are immediate: some are going out to dinner and a movie with refreshments afterward while others
will rent a video and pop popcorn.
We can take this exercise one step further by asking the members of the two groups to imagine living for a
week on the amount they’ve been allocated. Rather than having to endure the trivial ‘hardship’ of the date, the
bottom quintile group will now be confronting the realities of trying to survive on a fraction of the income that
those in the top group enjoy. Use the exercise to explore the specifics of the kinds of discrepancies that would
result between the standards of living of the two groups, After, ask the students to talk about perceptions of their
own and the other group.

Sources for data: The Daily, Family Income. Tuesday, November 6, 2001. Cat. No. 75-202-XPE The Daily
Wealth Inequality, Friday, February 22, 2002. Cat. No. 11F0019MIE.

5: College as a Neutralizing Influence in Canadian Society. A study released by Statistics

Canada in late 2001 concludes that while family income status can have a significant effect on the probability
that someone will attend university, it has little if any impact on their chances of going to a college or CEGEP.
By contrast, someone whose family income put them in the top group was 2.5 times more likely to have attended
university than someone from a family in the lowest income category.

Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily. Participation in Postsecondary Education and Family Income.

6: Is There a “Culture of Poverty?”

Anthropologist Oscar Lewis, in several publications based on research conducted among Mexicans and
Puerto Ricans, identified what he called the “culture of poverty.” Lewis believes that poverty has a strong effect
on family life and leaves a negative mark that upward mobility may not erase. In other words, the implication of
Lewis’s “culture of poverty” is that the poor will continue to exhibit their deviant lifestyle—“living for today,”
6-7
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
not planning for the future, having no enduring commitment to marriage, lacking a work ethic, and so forth—
even when they move out of the slums. Lewis stresses the inevitability of living out the culture of poverty
regardless of later events. See Oscar Lewis. Five Families. New York: Basic Books, 1959. Lewis. La Vida. New
York: Random House, 1965; Lewis, “The Culture of Poverty,” Scientific American, 215(October 1966): 1925.
This argument has been widely employed to justify antipoverty programs designed to bring “middle-class
virtues” to the children of the poor. It is also used to discourage giving poor people control over programs aimed
at assisting them.
To say that Lewis and similar thinkers have touched off a controversy is an understatement. Critics argue
that Lewis sought out exotic, pathological behaviour. He ignored behaviour indicating that even among the poor,
most people live fairly conventionally and strive to achieve goals similar to those of the middle class. For
example, other researchers have found that low-income households go further than middle-class households in
choosing less-expensive items and waste even less. William Ryan contends that lack of money is the cause of
poor people’s problems and of any discrepancies in behaviour—not inherent disabilities or aftereffects of child-
rearing practices. It is unfair, according to Ryan, to blame the poor for their lack of money, low educational
levels, poor health, and low-paying jobs. See Ryan. Blaming the Victim (rev. ed.). New York: Random House,
1976.
Ask your students to consider whether Lewis’ conclusions are applicable to Canada. Have them try to think
of examples that might qualify as indicators that the poor in this country live within a class culture that reflects
their poverty of both condition and opportunity. Then, have them attempt to do the same thing by considering
the wealthy members of Canadian society. Do they have a culture that is distinct to their socioeconomic group?

7: Political Coalitions and the Poor in Developing Countries

Bringing about reforms that are intended to reduce poverty is not necessarily a matter of simply pitting the
poor against the nonpoor. Although many economic policies benefit the rich at the expense of the poor, certain
approaches, according to the World Bank, can draw support from coalitions that cut across the poor-nonpoor
divide.
An example of a poor-nonpoor coalition can be found in food pricing policies. In many African and Latin
American countries, the agricultural sector has long suffered from policies that favour industry and cities. For
example, food prices are frequently kept low, which benefits the urban poor, industrial workers, and business
owners; but this policy functions at the expense of the entire rural sector, including the poor.
In Argentina, Chile, and Peru, the success of tax reforms and other reforms designed to benefit the poor has
generally turned on the stance of white-collar workers, professionals, bureaucrats, and small- and medium-size
business interests. Redistributive policies have been more likely to succeed when these sectors share in transfers
directed primarily to the poor. The same is no doubt true in many other countries. The Maharashtra Employment
Guarantee Scheme in India transfers income from the urban nonpoor to the rural poor, but it nevertheless enjoys
wide political support because the urban nonpoor see the reduction of migration to Bombay as a benefit, and
landowners may look favourably on the scheme because it helps to stabilize the rural labour force and because it
creates infrastructure in the countryside. See World Development Report 1990. Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press, 1990, p. 52.

8: Self-Sufficiency Project
The Self-Sufficiency Project is a social experiment established in New Brunswick and British Columbia as a
mechanism to evaluate the value of offering income supplements to assist long-term welfare recipients in
returning to the fulltime workforce. The project provided an earnings supplement to randomly selected single
parents who had had left income assistance after being on it for more than 12 months and who were employed at
least 30 hours per week. This was the Program Group. A control group, comprised of individuals who did not
have access to the supplement, was used for comparison. Members of the Program Group were eligible to
receive a supplement which brought their incomes up to a provincial maximum--$30 000 in New Brunswick and
$37 000 in British Columbia. This supplement was reduced by forty cents for every additional dollar earned.
The impact of the project is analyzed in a study done by the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation
entitled The Self-Sufficiency Project After 54 Months.

6-8
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
 The results of the research indicate that the project’s impact has been substantial both in the short and long
term. In the short term, the group eligible for the supplement made a dramatic leap in fulltime employment. In
just over a year, the Program Group had a fulltime employment rate almost 15% higher than those in the Control
Group. The advantage persisted over the five years of the study, with the Program Group less likely to be
dependent on income assistance. Incomes in the program group also outperformed those in the Control Group.
By the second year, the average benefit was over $1 200, despite the fact that only 30% of those eligible, took
advantage of the income supplement opportunity.

In the long term, the most encouraging benefits from participation in the program were found outside of the
immediate economic impact, in effects on families and children. Children of Program Group members were
reported to be doing better in school than the children of the Control Group. Preschoolers also demonstrated
gain, scoring higher on standardized math tests. Four and a half year after the project began, children of
participants were still achieving better grades on average.

The study also concluded that, beyond the significant benefits to families and individuals, there was a
measurable fiscal return for government. At the end of five years, members of the Program Group had cost the
public purse over $2 500 less than those in the Control Group. See “The Self-Sufficiency Project After 54
Months.” Learning What Works: Evidence for SRDC’s Social Experiments and Research. Ottawa. Spring
2002.

9: Young Women and Homelessness in Canada

Homelessness, as a social issue, struggles to public empathy for two reasons. First, the stereotype of
harboured by the average Canadian, is a reflection of her or his personal observation that homeless people are
male, middle age or older, and frighteningly dirty to the point of being a threat to the health of others. While the
perception of the predominance of maleness, age and lack of personal hygiene may be archtypical, the face of
homeless Canadians has changed, particularly during the last decade. The second reason that the plight of the
homeless seems to elicit scant public attention—outside of complaints about loitering or panhandling—is that
the mobility and extreme marginalization that characterize this population makes gathering information about it
a challenging task.
In a study sponsored by the Status of Women, Canada’s Policy Research Fund, gender and age-specific data
was collected from eight cities about demographic patterns and the needs of young women, aged 12 –24. The
report, On Her Own: Young Women and Homelessness in Canada., points to the phenomenon of extended
adolescence as a key factor in explaining the increased presence of young women on living on the streets of
Canada’s largest cities. Stating “The transition to adulthood has become a more prolonged and complex process
for young women, with fewer employment opportunities.” the authors suggest that young women are more
dependant now than in the past, on family support. This may be attributed to the post modern requirement for
more academic credentials which results in youth remaining in the family home and relying on family support
longer than their predecessors have historically. This expectation perhaps explains the paucity of resources
available to young women who, being unfortunate enough to come from a dysfunctional or abusive home
environment has been forced to find their own way. The study found that both Montreal and Vancouver had few
services targeting young women, resulting in a vulnerability to recruitment to the sex trade. This phenomenon
appears to be particularly “pervasive, organized, and violent in Vancouver”, the report concludes. Exacerbating
the obstacles confronting young women on the streets is the eligibility gap between the age at which they are
disqualified for child welfare services and that at which they can apply for adult support programs.
As might be predicted, the composition of the female street youth population is not reflective of the larger
community. Those who have been under the care of social services at some time in their lives, and lesbian, and
First Nations youth are over represented among the homeless. To these groups, the children of recent immigrants
or refugees are a significant part of the street youth numbers in Toronto.
See Novac, Sylvia Serge, Luba Eberle, Margaret and Brown, Joyce. March 2002. On Her Own: Young
Women and Homelessness in Canada. Ottawa. Research Directorate, Status of Women Canada.

6-9
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Class discussion topics:

1 Stimulating Classroom Discussions about Street Youth: There is a category of street kids called
Curb Youth. The label is applied by homeless youth to those who play at being part of their population. The
Curb kids usually come from middle to upper middle class homes in the suburbs. They live at home, often
attending school and/or working. These wannabes gravitate to the inner city streets on the weekends or when
school closes for the summer, and live a deprived existence until they get too hungry or frightened or, Sunday
night comes along. Ask your students if they know of someone who does this. You may be surprised at the
pervasiveness of the practice. Stimulate a discussion by exploring possible rationalizations for this behaviour.

2 Inequality in Taking Quizzes: For a technique that dramatizes barriers to desire and ability, see Laura
Workman Ells, “So Inequality Is Fair? Demonstrating Structured Inequality in the Classroom,” Teaching
Sociology, 15(January 1987): 73–75.

3 Using Card Games to Explain Stratification: See Mark Abrahamson, “Stratification, Mobility, and
Playing Cards Metaphor,” Teaching Sociology, 22(April 1994): 183–188.

4 Stratification and Inequality: This activity was developed by James W. Thompson at Tennessee
Wesleyan College as a means of stimulating social class divisions in a post secondary classroom. See Technique
No. 63 in Reed Geersten (ed.). Eighty-One Techniques for Teaching Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC:
ASA Projects on Teaching Undergraduate Sociology, 1982.

5 Income Levels: Obtain current data from Statistics Canada on the following: median family income and the
cost of living for an urban family of four. If possible, compare these with the median income of the parents of all
the students in your class.

6 Introducing Social Class: The use of family (ethnic) names to show social class is useful. See Robert
Thompson, “Introducing Social Class: An Update on a Teaching Technique,” Teaching Sociology, 15(January
1987): 76–79.

7 Parental Education and Post Secondary Attendance: Studies indicate that children whose
parent(s) have a degree are significantly more likely to attend university. Do an informal demographic profile
of the education profile of your students, and discuss the correlation.

8 Cost of Living: Edward F. Vacha provides an exercise in having students estimate just how much it costs to
live. See the description on pp. 272–277 in Teodora O. Amoloza and James Sikora (eds.). Introductory Sociology
Resource Manual (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, 1996.

9 Estimating the Poverty Level for a Single Parent Family: Have your students estimate the amount
of income a single parent with one child would need to be above the poverty line in your community. Have the
Consumer Price Index figures for your community, and the welfare rates from your province handy to stimulate
a comparative discussion.

10 Poverty and Wealth: William C. Martin at Rice University developed a clever demonstration:
simultaneously showing two films, one about life in a Chicago tenement and the other about life in a middle-
class suburb of St. Louis. See Technique No. 67 in Reed Geersten (ed.). Eighty-One Techniques for Teaching
Sociological Concepts. Washington, DC: ASA Projects on Teaching Undergraduate Sociology, 1982.

6-10
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
11 Social Stratification: An Active Learning Technique: This is an active, collaborative, field-based
learning experience for teaching basic social stratification concepts. See Lucy McCammon, "Introducing Social
Stratification and Inequality: An Active Learning Technique. Teaching Sociology, 27(January 1999): 44–54.

12 Homeless Women: For a series of first-person accounts by homeless women that will provoke thought
and discussion, see Elliot Liebow. Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women. New York: Penguin,
1993.

13 Life Chances Simulation: See Margaret A. Miller, “Life Chances Exercises,” Teaching Sociology, 20
(October 1992); 316–320.

14 Baby Formula and Developing Countries: Perhaps one of the more emotional debates relating to the
issue of neocolonialism has been the introduction of formula feeding in the developing countries. Does this
represent modernization, or is it draining the income of impoverished Third World families? See Carolyn E.
Campbell, “Nestlé and Breast versus Bottle Feeding: Mainstream and Marxist Perspectives,” International
Journal of Health Services, 14(4)(1984): 547–567.

15 Anti-Globalism: Solidarity Village is a self-described community of resistance whose purpose is to

challenge the mainstream agenda for globalization, through protest. Discuss the anti-globalization protests that
have taken place in Seattle and in 2002 in Calgary/Kananaskis, and try to develop an explanation for the change
in tactics of the dissenters.

16 Using Humour: David S. Adams has produced a monograph that includes funny examples that could be
incorporated in lectures associated with this chapter. See Adams, “Status and Stratification,” in Using Humor in
Teaching Sociology: A Handbook. Washington, DC: ASA Teaching Resources Center, 1982. See also Joseph E.
Faulkner, "Social Stratification." in Sociology through Humor. New York: West, 1987.

Topics for student research:

1. Class Gap: See Yalnizan, A 1998 The Growing Cap: A Report of the Growing Gap Between the Rich
and the Poor in Canada. Toronto. Centre for Social Justice.
2. Elite Influence in Canadian Society: See Ornstein, Michael D. Politics and Ideology in Canada: elite
and public opinion in the transformation of a welfare state. 1999. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University
Press.
3. Working Class: James Rinehart explores the alienation and exploitation of the working class in Canada.
See Rinehart, James W., The tyranny of work: alienation and the labour process 3 rd ed. Toronto: Harcourt
Brace, 1995. For an explanation of the useful term ethclass, see Milton M. Gordon. Assimilation in
American Life: The Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins. New York: Oxford University Press,
1964.
4. Illustrating Stratification: Some excellent graphic materials have been developed to illustrate social
stratification. Contact Social Graphics Company, 1120 Riverside Ave., Baltimore, MD 21230.
5. Lorenz Curve: The Lorenz curve is a means of depicting income or wealth inequality, often used by
economists. Proposed by a statistician, M. O. Lorenz, the graph and the formula on which the curve is
based compare and analyze inequalities between different nations. Consult any basic economics textbook
for references and pictorial representations, such as Paul A. Samuelson and William D. Nordhaus.
Economics (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992.
6. Divorce and Social Mobility: Does family disruption during childhood affect men’s odds of moving up
or down the social ladder? See Timothy J. Biblary and Adrian E. Raftery, “The Effects of Family
Disruption on Social Mobility,” American Sociological Review, 58(February 1993): 97–109.
6-11
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
 7. Wealth Inequality: See Morissette, R. (René), 1959-The evolution of wealth inequality in Canada, 1984-
1999. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, [2002]
8. Human Capital: Courchene, Thomas J., 1940-A state of minds: toward a human capital future for
Canadians Montreal: IRPP, c2001.
9. Low-Wage Workers: An examination of the scope of the problems associated with inadequate minimum
wage policies. See Schenk, Christopher. November 2001. From Poverty Wages to a Living Wage.
Toronto Ontario Federation of Labour
10. Rating Crimes: Occupations have prestige, but what about crimes? See Francis T. Cullen and Bruce G.
Link, “Crime as an Occupation,” Criminology, 18(November 1980): 399–410. See also Mark Warr,
“What Is the Perceived Seriousness of Crimes?” Criminology, 27(November 1989).
11. Rent: Typically, rent is not considered in models of social inequality. For consideration of this important
factor, see Aage B. Sorenson, “The Structural Basis of Social Inequality,” American Journal of Sociology,
101(March 1996): 1333–1365.
12. Role of Class: Terry R. Kandal, “Gender, Race and Ethnicity: Let’s Not Forget Class,” Race, Gender and
Class. 4(1)(1996): 143–165.

Additional Audiovisual materials:

Animal Farm (1954, colour, 72m). “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” is the
theme of George Orwell’s famous fable. The story deals with the revolt of Farmer Jones’s domesticated
animals. After they have seized power, they are taken over by the pigs, which are the shrewdest of the
group.
Caste at Birth (1991, 52m). Few Westerners realize the grave situation of India’s “untouchables.” There are 150
million of them who live a segregated life. They cannot own land or get an education and are condemned to
the most menial jobs, such as sweeping streets, cleaning toilets, or butchering animals. In the villages they
are subject to abuse and sometimes even killed for minor slights to the landowners.
Mortgaged Generations: Women, Children and the Housing Crisis (1995, colour, 22m). This program explores
how homelessness, especially among women and children, affects not just the quality of life, but also the
values and attitudes of future generations.
Poor Us: An Animated History of Poverty (2013, YouTube, 58:05m). A documentary on the social history of
world poverty.
Relationship between Class Inequality and Health (2011, YouTube, 10:29m). This PBS video explores the
complex relationship between social inequality and negative social factors including health, violence, drug
problems, mental illness and child well-being.
The Actual Distribution of Wealth in the United States ( 2012, YouTube, 6;24). Based on a 2011 study by Dan
Ariely and Michael Norton, Americans are questioned about how wealth in their country is distributed.

Additional Readings

Fleras, Augie . 2011. Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic, and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada,
7th ed. Don Mills, ON: Prentice-Hall. An examination of the paradoxes and contradictions of Canadian
society as they relate to diversity and difference.
Galabuzi, Grace-Edward. 2006. Canada’s Economic Apartheid. Toronto: CSPI/WP. This book draws attention
to the growing racialization of the gap between rich and poor in Canada, and also challenges some of the
myths about the economic performances of Canada’s racialized minorities.

6-12
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Glasser, Irene. Homelessness in global perspective New York: G.K. Hall; Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada;
New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, c1994.
Grabb, Edward G. 2006. Theories of Social Inequality. 5th ed. Toronto: Harcourt. This book provides a
comprehensive overview and analysis of both classical and contemporary theories of social inequality.
Grabb, Edward and Neil Guppy, eds. 2008. Social Inequality in Canada, 5th ed. Don Mills, ON: Prentice Hall. A
collection of 31 readings, focusing on Canada, that address all the major aspects or dimensions of social
inequality.

Harman, Lesley D. When a Hostel Becomes a Home. Toronto: Garamond Press, 1989.
Lamont, Michélem, and Marcel Fournier. Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of
Inequality. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1991. An archaeologist draws on primary sources to examine
racial, gender, and class-based inequality both among and within Native American, African-American, and
European people living on the North American continent.
McGuire, Randall M., and Robert Paynter (eds.). The Archaeology of Inequality. Oxford, England: Basil
Blackwell, 1991
Piven, Frances Fox, and Richard A. Cloward. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. New York:
Pantheon, 1993. A critical look at how the welfare policies of the United States fail to seriously address the
problems of the poor, but merely keep the underclass and others quiet.
Raphel, Dennis. Poverty in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life (2nd ed.). Toronto: CPSI, 2011.
This book examines poverty in Canada from an interdisciplinary perspective with focus on the health,
community and societal implications.
__________________.Tackling Health Inequalities: Lessons from International Experiences (ed.).
Toronto:CSPI, 2012. A useful text for a comparative study of health systems focusing on the experiences of
seven wealthy countries, including Canada.
Sidel, Ruth. Keeping Women and Children Last. New York: Penguin, 1996. A sociologist provides a provocative
analysis of statistical trends concerning women and children living in poverty in the United States, as well as
an indictment of political maneuvering by politicians.
Turner, Joanne C. and Francis J. Turner. Canadian Social Welfare ( 6th ed.).Toronto: Pearson Education Canada.

Food Banks Canada. Hunger Count 2012: A Comprehensive Report on Hunger and Food Bank Use in Canada,
and Recommendations for Change. Toronto. Food Banks Canada, 2012.

6-13
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
 Exploring Your Beliefs about Equality in Society

THE TASK: On the next page, you will find a list of occupations, as well as some people
that may fall “outside” the occupational ranking. Your job is to determine what you think
would be appropriate income levels for each of the people listed – the total for all the
occupations and people on the list cannot exceed $500,000. The only money that people will
get is the money you allocate to them – there is no “welfare,” no other source of income.

When the exercise is finished, each group must be able to tell the class the following
things:
1) What is their rationale for allocating resources as they did.
2) Each group must hand in a written list of the decisions they have made, signed by each
group member.
Your task, as a group, is to determine how much income a person in each of the following
occupations or social positions should receive. You will want to consider what is fair as you
distribute your limited resources. You have $500,000 to distribute among the
occupations/social positions listed below. There are no government subsidies or “extra”
money – what you allot to people is all they will get.

Note: You are free to come up with your own system of distributing income, and I’d like to
hear what you come up with! However, there are several different “models” you can use
based on the theoretical perspectives we have been studying:
▪ The functionalist model distributes income based on merit, the functional necessity
of the position, and the ease with which the position can be filled.
▪ The critical conflict model (Marx) distributes income based on the motto: “from each
according to their ability, to each according to their need.”
▪ Another version of conflict theory (Weber) says that income is partly according to the
prestige, the power, and the market position of the occupation/person.

6-14
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Make sure each group member can articulate the rules your group used for distributing the
pool of money to these members of a society. Feel FREE to think outside the box!! This is a
hypothetical world – you could change “the rules” if you want to.

1. _________________________ Musician

2. _________________________ Computer technician

3. _________________________ Funeral director

4. _________________________ Garbage Collector

5. _________________________ Supreme court judge

6. _________________________ Police officer

7. _________________________ Farmer

8. _________________________ Librarian

9. _________________________ Medical doctor

10. _________________________ Paraplegic, requires 24/7 care

11. _________________________ Child care worker

12. _________________________ Truck driver

13. _________________________ Special needs person – able to do simple, limited work

with supervision
14. _________________________ High school teacher

15. _________________________ Janitor

16. _________________________ “Stay at home” parent of 4 children

Group signatures (print name also!):

6-15
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited
Thinking About Movies____________________________________

Titanic ( James Cameron, 1997)

This fictionalized version of the famous ocean liner offers a glimpse of the British social structure in the early
twentieth century. The cruise ship is partitioned along class lines—divisions become clear when Jack Dawson
(Leonardo DiCaprio), a third class steerage passenger, falls in love with the wealthy socialite Rose Bukater
(Kate Winslet). When the ship sinks, many wealthy passengers are rescued as poorer passengers drown.
This film illustrates Weber’s concept of life chances. Notice how the ship’s closed stratification system
inhibits Jack’s upward mobility. Watch for the scenes in which Jack and Rose take turns in each other’s social
worlds.

For Your Consideration

1. How do Jack and Rose’s life chances differ? Relate their unequal social positions to social stratification
in Canada today.

2. What are some of the constraints of social mobility shown in the film?

The Fighter
Two working-class brothers strive for upward mobility in the world of professional boxing.

Pursuit of Happiness
A homeless man struggles to make a life for his son.

6-16
© 2016 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited