Social Stratification

LEARNING COMPETENCIES
The learners:
1. Examine stratification from the
functionalist and conflict perspectives.
2. Identify characteristics of the systems
of stratification.
3. Suggest ways to address global
inequalities.
What is social stratification?

• Work in pairs and provide a

definition.
Stratification describes the way in
which different groups of people are
placed within society.
The status of people is often determined by how society is
stratified - the basis of which can include;

 Wealth and income - This is the most common basis of

stratification
 Social class
 Ethnicity
 Gender
 Political status
 Religion (e.g. the caste system in India)
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IS DISTINGUISHED
AS THREE SOCIAL CLASSES:
1. The upper class
- consist of the elite families who are
the most prolific and successful in their
respective areas. These are the groups of
people who are stock holders, investors, and
who live in an exclusive neighbourhood.
They own many houses; mingle with the
same class, and value heritage most over
wealth.
 Name people that are belong
to the upper class.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IS DISTINGUISHED
AS THREE SOCIAL CLASSES:
2. The middle class
- these are mostly professional people
like lawyers, doctors, managers, owner of
small businesses, executives, etc. They live in
spacious houses, situated in best suburbs.
Their income can afford them a comfortable
lifestyle. They value education most since
education to them is the most important
measure of social status.
 Name people that are belong
to the middle class.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IS DISTINGUISHED
AS THREE SOCIAL CLASSES:
3. The lower class
- These are the office and clerical
workers, skilled and unskilled, craftsman,
farm employees, underemployed and
indigent families. They live in smaller
houses. They are short of revenue,
education or trainings, acquaintances and
communication. They depend on their pay
check.
 Name people that are belong
to the lower class.
 ACTIVITY: VENN DIAGRAM
Compare the three social classes in social
stratification using the Venn Diagram.

Lower Class Middle Class Upper Class

 STATUS
 The individual’s position in the
social structure is called status.

 The higher or lower positions

that come about through social
stratification are called statuses.
 ASCRIBED AND
ACHIEVED STATUSES
Statuses are not the same. We get statuses in
different ways.
 ASCRIBED STATUSES
 Which are assigned or given by the
society or group on the basis of some
fixed category, without regard to a
person’s abilities or performance.
 Examples: sex, family background,
race, and ethnic heritage
 ASCRIBED STATUSES
 You did nothing to earn these
statuses; you have no control
over these characteristics and
had no opportunity or chance to
choose your family, your sex,
and your race.
 ACHIEVED STATUSES
 Are earned by the individual.

 Examples: You become an

actress singer because you won
the search/contest “Starstruck”.
 ACHIEVED STATUSES
 Examples: You land a good job after
graduation because the quality of your
performance satisfies your employer.

 With achieved statuses, you establish

which statuses you want. Frequently
you struggle and exert effort with
others to get hold of them.
PRESTIGE
AND
ESTEEM
 PRESTIGE
 Refers to the evaluation of status.
You have prestige according to
your status.
 Example: Being a senior student,
you have the prestige of a senior
student at your school.
 PRESTIGE
 The prestige is not applied
directly to you as a person, but
rather to the social category to
which you are in, the senior high.
 Your high or low class standing
during your junior year doesn’t
matter. You still have the prestige
of being a senior.
 PRESTIGE
 Another example is being president of
the Supreme Student Government of
your school. You have the prestige of a
president whether or not you perform
and carry out well the duties and
responsibilities of a president of SSG.
The assessment is on your status as a
president, not on your individual
personality or capability.
 ESTEEM
 Refers to the assessment of our
role behaviour. The measure of
esteem we have depends on how
well we carry out our role.
Example: If you perform well, get
an outstanding rating, and
awarded an academic scholarship
to college, you get high esteem.
 PRESTIGE & ESTEEM
 Prestige is based on your status, and
Esteem is based on your role behaviour.
 For instance, if you passed the 11 th
grade, you still have the prestige of
being a senior. But you do not have high
esteem.
On the other hand, you can have high
esteem without having high prestige.
 PRESTIGE & ESTEEM
 Example: The job of the school janitor does
not carry a high status or a high prestige in
our society. Nevertheless, a particular janitor
may have very high esteem. That person may
always keep the classroom, the corridors and
the whole school neat and clean, and could
all the time be ready and willing to help
others. School administrators, teachers, and
students may think or have a high regard for
the janitor.
I. List down statuses that are achieved
and statuses that are ascribed in our
society.
ACHIEVED STATUSES ASCRIBED STATUSES
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5.
6. 6.
7. 7.
8. 8.
9. 9.
10. 10.
II. What is the relationship between a
particular achieved and relationship
between particular ascribed statuses?
Give examples.
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
CAUSE OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Karl Marx (1818-1883), said that

the organization of a society is
determined by economic forces.
According to Karl Marx it was the
Industrial Revolution that divided
society into two social classes.
 CAUSE OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

A social class is generally referred

to as a number of people who are
grouped collectively because they
have similar profe-
ssional/occupational statuses,
amount of prestige, or lifestyle.
 CAUSE OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Marx believed that the Industrial
Revolution formed a capitalist class of rich
people who owned the factories, and
other forms of production or industry.
And from there on, groups of workers
were produced to work for them and
become dependent on the capitalist for
the wages they would receive.
SOCIAL MOBILITY SYSTEM/STRUCTURE

 The act of moving from one social

status to another is called social
mobility.
SOCIAL MOBILITY SYSTEM/STRUCTURE

 Open class system means that

individuals can change their social
class position in the society.
 Closed class system if mostly all
people remain in the social class rank
of their parents.
 TYPES OF SOCIAL MOBILITY
• People may change their social class
position either of two ways.
1. They can move from one position to
another position within their social
class.
2. They can move into another class.
HORIZONTAL MOBILITY
AND
VERTICAL MOBILITY
 HORIZONTAL MOBILITY
 Horizontal mobility is the movement of a
person within a social class level.

 For example: if a person leaves the job of a

Principal to become an Education Supervisor,
that person remains in the same social class.
The two jobs have the same occupational status,
require the same amount of trainings, receive
same salary, and have the same amount of
prestige. The person has been moved
horizontally.
 VERTICAL MOBILITY
 Vertical mobility is the
movement of the person between
social class levels. The movement
may be upward or downward. In
other words the person may
either rise or fall in the social class
structure.
 VERTICAL MOBILITY
Let’s assume that the Principal did not
apply for Education Supervisor position.
Instead he used his share (money) from a
family business and started to operate his
own preschool. And after years his school
offered complete elementary education
and after a few years more he offered again
a complete secondary education and even
put up branches in many places.
 VERTICAL MOBILITY
The owner or proprietor then hired
additional teachers to teach subjects in
the elementary level and in the
secondary level. The position of the
owner would probably be considered as
belonging to the upper middle class
especially so if the social behaviour of the
proprietor was acceptable to the upper
middle class people.
 SOCIAL INEQUALITY
 The existence of uneven opportunities and
rewards for a diverse social positions or
statuses within a group or society is
referred to as social inequality.
 Example: Uneven distribution of rights and
privileges, social power, transportation,
adequate housing, access to public goods
and services such as education.
 GENDER INEQUALITY
 Sex and gender-based prejudice and
discrimination, called sexism, are major
contributing factors to social inequality.
 The emphasis on gender inequality is born out of
the deepening division in the roles assigned to
men and women, particularly in the economic,
political and educational spheres.
 Women are underrepresented in political
activities and decision making processes in almost
every part of the world.
RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY
 Racial or ethnic inequality is the
consequence of hierarchical social
distinctions between racial and ethnic
categories within a society and are often
recognized based on characteristics such
as skin color and other physical
characteristics or an individual’s place of
origin or culture.
 MINORITIES IN THE SOCIAL
STRUCTURE
 Members that have more power than other
people in a society are called the dominant
members.
• Dominant members set the standards and
establish the values and norms of the society.
• By controlling powers, the dominant members
enjoy certain privileges such as better
housing, better schools, and higher incomes.
 MINORITIES IN THE SOCIAL
STRUCTURE
• Other people, who are barred from
some degree of power, prestige, or
wealth, are called minorities and are
usually denied equal treatment by the
dominant members of the society. At
the end they belong to the lower
position within the society.
 DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE

• Minorities are being deprived of

equal treatment and are kept in a
lower status by the dominant
members of the society and the
resistance of equality is called
discrimination.
 DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE

• Prejudice is defined as a negative

attitude toward the members of a
particular group.
• It is a preconceived idea or
“prejudgment” of others that allows us
to brand/label them in various
pessimistic ways.
 STEREOTYPING
• Prejudice involves stereotyping; which refers
to our propensity to picture all member of a
particular category as having the same
qualities.
• If we have encountered negative attitudes
with a member of a particular social category,
then we overgeneralize by judging that
everyone else in the category is just like that
person.
 ETHNOCENTRISM
• The belief that our own nation, race, or group is
the best is called ethnocentrism.
• The consequence is we suppose that other
groups or societies are inferior to our own.
• We also believe that we all belong to social or
cultural groups and have a tendency to believe
that “we” are better than “they”.
• Thus the tendency is to set ourselves apart as the
better one, and this usually leads to prejudice.
 SCAPEGOATING
• This is a situation when people encounter
problems that they do not know how to
solve. Often, they feel frustrated. From time
to time this frustration can lead to
aggression. When it happens, people usually
look for a way to expose that aggression.
Several times they establish a scapegoat to
blame for their problems.
 RACISM
• It is the thinking that one’s own
race is superior and has the right to
control or direct others. It helps
maintain the myth that other people
are inferior because of certain
differences.
 ETHNIC MINORITIES
• When people dwell in a society that does
not share their cultural heritage, they are
labelled an ethnic minority.
• Ethnic minorities then, are people whose
cultural background differs from that of the
dominant members of a society.
• Similar to other minorities, ethnic
minorities also experience discrimination.
END
 Structure of inequality
The power of the elite within society is based upon:

Income

Wealth

A network of social connections

The power of the elite within society is based
upon;
Income
Wealth
A network of social connections – sometimes
known as the ‘old boys network’
Work in pairs and find the connection between
these words/phrases.

• poverty – least powerful – few opportunities

• neither rich nor poor – people – middle-class
• In contrast the least powerful within society have
few opportunities to escape from poverty. There
are different explanations for this. For example
the New Right sociologist Charles Murray argued
that the poorest members of society had become
too reliant upon welfare benefits. This had led to
a gradual loss in the ability of the poor to adopt
values that would take them out of poverty; such
as self-reliance and personal initiative. Most
people within society are neither rich nor poor.
They form part of the middle-class –which is the
most numerical social class within society.
Factors that determine
life chances
Social class

Gender

 Ethnicity,

Schooling
 Work in pairs and find the connection between these words/phrases.

Life chances exist

• glass ceiling
• work
• discrimination
REVISION
 Life chances exist
• For example ethnic minorities often face a
glass ceiling at work due to discrimination
upon racial grounds; which can be either overt
(or obvious), or covert (in other words,
hidden). Women also face the same problem.
 “underclass”

• term associated with the work of John Rex

and Robert Moore. Members of the
underclass form norms and values that often
differ to the rest of society. They are caught in
a poverty trap (or cycle) from which they find
very difficult to escape from. This is despite
changes to the welfare and benefits system
designed to get welfare claimants into work.
 Social stratification
(sociology)
• classification of persons into groups based on
shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational
set of inequalities with economic, social, political
and ideological dimensions.
• It is a system by which society ranks categories of
people in a hierarchy .

(hierarchy/`haɪə.rɑ:ki/)
 Four basic principles
• Social stratification is based on four basic
principles:
1. Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply
a reflection of individual differences;
2. Social stratification carries over from generation
to generation;
3. Social stratification is universal but variable;
4. Social stratification involves not just inequality
but beliefs as well.
 Organization of Modern Western
societies
• In modern Western societies, stratification is
broadly organized into three main layers:
upper class,
middle class
lower class

Each of these classes can be further subdivided into smaller

classes e.g occupational
 Karl Marx
• The philosopher, social scientist, historian and
revolutionary, Karl Marx, is without a doubt
the most influential socialist thinker to emerge
in the Nineteenth Century. Although he was
largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime,
his social, economic and political ideas gained
rapid acceptance in the socialist movement
after his death in 1883.
• He said: "The worker becomes all the poorer
the more wealth he produces, the more his
production increases in power and range. The
worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity
the more commodities he creates…"
Karl Marx
Compare these two quotes:

• ‘Teach a man how to fish and he eats for a

lifetime‘

• "Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a

man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful
business opportunity."
 Our resident language expert, Professor David Crystal, explains how Marx's influence
spread...

• This is a quotation about a quotation. In several cultures there are proverbs which
continue, after 'teach a man how to fish', with something like 'and he eats for a
lifetime'. Marx knows this, and he assumes we know it too. So he sets out to turn our
expectations upside down.
• The two part structure sets up the expectation: 'sell a man...' vs 'teach a man...'. And
because there is a contrast, we expect the two parts to be balanced. We expect the
bouncy rhythm of the first two clauses to be matched by a similarly bouncy rhythm in
the next two.
• But we don't get it. A clause of five syllables ('he eats for a day') is followed by one of
fourteen syllables: 'you ruin a wonderful business opportunity'. The extra weight of this
clause hammers the point home.
• It's a nice joke - but it's more than just a joke. The cliched business jargon adds an ironic
note to the whole utterance.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/movingwords/quotefeature/marx.shtml
• The capitalist mode of production consists of
two main economic parts:
the Substructure
the Superstructure.
• Classes -> people's relationship to the means
of productions in two basic ways:
 they own productive property
 labour for others
• The base comprehends the
 relations of production —
employer-employee work conditions,
 the technical division of labour , and property
relations — into which people enter to
produce the necessities and amenities of life
 Capitalism System
• the ruling classes own the means of
production, which essentially includes the
working class itself as they only have their
own labour power(´wage labour´) to offer in
order to survive.
• These relations fundamentally determine the
ideas and philosophies of a society,
constituting the superstructure.
 Max Weber
• Arguably the foremost social theorist of the twentieth century, Max Weber is also
known as a principal architect of modern social science along with Karl Marx and
Emil Durkheim. Weber's wide-ranging contributions gave critical impetus to the
birth of new academic disciplines such as sociology and public administration as
well as to the significant reorientation in law, economics, political science, and
religious studies.
• His methodological writings were instrumental in establishing the self-identity of
modern social science as a distinct field of inquiry; he is still claimed as the source
of inspiration by empirical positivists and their hermeneutic detractors alike. More
substantively, Weber's two most celebrated contributions were the “rationalization
thesis,” a grand meta-historical analysis of the dominance of the west in modern
times, and the “Protestant Ethic thesis,” a non-Marxist genealogy of modern
capitalism. Together, these two theses helped launch his reputation as one of the
founding theorists of modernity. In addition, his avid interest and participation in
politics led to a unique strand of political realism comparable to that of Machiavelli
and Hobbes. As such, Max Weber's influence was far-reaching across the vast array
of disciplinary, methodological, ideological and philosophical reflections that are
still our own and increasingly more so.
• Max Weber was strongly influenced by Marx's
ideas, but rejected the possibility of effective
communism, arguing that it would require an
even greater level of detrimental social
control and bureaucratization than capitalist
society.
• Weber criticized the dialectical presumption
of proletariat revolt, believing it to be unlikely.
Instead, he developed the three-component
theory of stratification and the concept of life
chances. Weber supposed there were more
class divisions than Marx suggested.
• He emphasized the difference between class,
status, and power, and treated these as
separate but related sources of power, each
with different effects on social action.
Four main classes (Working at half a century later than
Marx, Weber claimed there to be in fact four main classes )

• the upper class,

• the white collar workers,
• The petite bourgeoisie,
• and the manual working class.
 few general concepts
(work in pairs and analyse what each concept is about and after that share your information with your classmates )

• Power
• Domination
• Communal & Societal Action
 Power
• POWER -> ability of an actor (or actors) to realize his
or her will in a social action, even against the will of
other actors. Power relates to the ability to command
resources in a particular domain.
• Economic power, then, is the ability to control
material resources: to direct production, to
monopolize accumulation, to dictate consumption.
• Societal power includes economic power, social
power, legal or political power, and so forth. Although
the control of these domains of resources usually go
together, they represent different mechanisms of
power, and are conceptually distinct.
 Domination
• Domination is the exercise of authority .
• Possession of power in a sphere results in
dominance. Weber articulated three ideal
types of domination: charisma, tradition and
rational-legal.
 Communal & Societal Action
• A communal action is oriented on the basis of a
shared belief of affiliation. In other words, actors
believe that they somehow belong together in
some way. Their action stems from, and is co-
ordinated by this sentiment. In contrast, societal
action is oriented to a rational adjustment of
interests. The motivation is not a sense of shared
purpose, but rather, a recognition of shared
interests.

societal/sə´saɪətəl/
Work in groups and summarise the key concepts and
share your findings with the rest of the class .

• Class
• Status
• Party
 Class
• three aspects of class:
(i) a specific causal component of actors life
chances
(ii) which rests exclusively on economic
interests and wealth,
(iii) is represented under conditions of labour
and commodity markets.
• The possession of property defines the main
class difference, according to Weber
 Status
• status groups normally are communities
(class groups do not constitute communities,
according to Weber)
• Status is defined as the likelihood that life
chances are determined by social honour, or,
prestige. Status groups are linked by a
common style of life, and the attendant social
restrictions.
 Party
• Class and status interests interact in the realm
of the legal order, the arena of politics.
Political power is, obviously, often based on
class and status interests. Parties are the
organizations of power.