Upload
leah-reid
View
253
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
SO1506
Stratification & Social Inequality
Lecture Outline
• What is Social Stratification?
• Dimensions of Stratification
• Systems of Stratification• The ‘Founding Fathers’ & Social Stratification
What is Social Stratification?
• The arrangement of individuals into hierarchical strata within society
• Persistent over time
• Universal but variable in form
• Supported by cultural belief
• Boundaries & Social Closure
• Stratification & Social Inequality
Dimensions of Stratification
• Race & Ethnicity
• Gender
• Age
• Social Class
Dimensions of Stratification
• Race & Ethnicity
• Origins of ‘Race’
• The ‘Race Logic’
• Segregation: South Africa &The USA
Dimensions of Stratification
• Gender Inequality
• Patriarchy
• Emancipation
Dimensions of Stratification
• Age Discrimination:
‘Over the Hill’ or the rise of ‘Grey Power’?
• Other: Sexuality, Disability
• Social Class
Forms of Stratification: Slavery
• Slavery: The Engine of Empires?
• Slavery in the 15th-19th Century: Colonial Empires
• The European/New World Slave Trade
Systems of Stratification: The Estate System (Feudalism)
Serfdom: Feudal Obligation in the Middle Ages
The Black Death & ‘The Statute of Labourers’
The French Revolution
Contemporary Slavery
• Disposable People (Bales,1999)
• People Trafficking
• Gangmasters
Systems of Stratification: Caste
Caste: Inherited ascribed social status
India, Reincarnation and Social Status
Marriage & Caste
USA and Caste?
Systems of Stratification: Social Class (UK)
The Upper Classes
The Middle Classes
The Working Classes & ‘Underclass’
(Runciman, 1990)
10%
35%
55%
Modern Societies
‘Non-ascribed’ disparities in income, health, education, housing, wealth, power, status and prestige.
Karl Marx 1818-1883
• "The (written) history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.“ (Marx, 1848)
• The Bourgeoisie (Capital) and the Proletariat (Labour)
Max Weber 1864-1920
• Social Inequality• Economic Class• Social Status• Prestige• Power
Emile Durkheim 1858-1917
Stratification is the outcome of individuals position within the division of labour, with position and rewards distributed according to ability and scarcity of skills and aptitudes.
Lecture 2
• Class, Inequality & The Market Society
• The UK (& USA)
Lecture Outline
• Social Inequality in the UK (& USA)
• The Persistence of Stratification
• Legitimation & Ideology
• Culture & The Reproduction of Inequality
• Towards A ‘Classless Society’?
Social Class Inequalities
• Nominally ‘Open’ Stratification System
• Inequalities of:
• Income
• Wealth
• Power
• Prestige
Social Inequality: The 19th & Early 20th Century
• UK: ‘Two Nations’ (Disraeli, 1845)
• USA: ‘How the Other Half Lives’ (Riis,1890)
Social Inequality: The 19th & Early 20th Century
• Citizenship T.H. Marshall (1950): Civil, Political & Social Rights
• Trade Unions • Chartism
• The Early Welfare State
Social Inequality: Mid 20th Century
The 1929 ‘Crash’
The ‘Great’ Depression
1930’s
WWII 1939 - 1945
Social Inequality: Mid 20th Century
• The ‘Post War Settlement’ & ‘The New Deal’
• ‘You’ve Never Had It So Good’ (Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister, 1951)
Social Inequality: 1970’s - Present
• Early 1970’s Economic Crises (Oil & Stagflation)
• The End of the Settlement: Thatcherism & Reaganomics
• The Marketization of Society
Contemporary Social Inequality
Distribution of Wealth, UK 2002
Top 1%
2nd to 5th percentile
6th to 10th percentile
11th to 25th percentile
26th to 50th percentile
Everyone else
Social Mobility• Argument: ‘The Gap’ (between rich and poor) doesn’t matter if no
one’s starving and there is high social mobility.• BUT:
• Absolute Poverty & Relative Deprivation (how does this affect people?)
• Social Mobility: The extent to which individuals can rise and fall within a society.
• Open societies: High Mobility• Closed societies: Low Mobility
• Most mobile ‘developed’ nations: Scandinavian countries & Canada
• Least mobile: UK, USA (OECD)
The Persistence of Social Inequality
• Ideology
• Legitimation
• Institutionalization
• Socialization
Ideology?
• Religion
• The ‘Horatio Alger’ Story• The ‘Bell Curve’(The better off are ‘naturally’
smarter) • The ‘Culture of Poverty Thesis’
• The Davis/ Moore Thesis: Stratification as normal and functional (Meritocracy)
Pierre Bourdieu: Beyond the Economic
• ‘Habitus’ & The Reproduction of Social Class
• Economic Capital
• Cultural Capital
• Social Capital
A Classless Society?
• Reduced ‘Visibility’ of Working Class:
• Industry to Services
• Collapse of W/Class Community
• Embourgeoisment
• The Introduction of Gender/Ethnicity as complicating factor
• The ‘Underclass’
A Classless Society?
• Spatial Polarisation
• Community, The Lifestyle Enclave & The Gated Society: Ghettoization and
Gentrification