Economic Stratification

Examples of Economic Stratification in the following topics:

• Explaining Poverty: The Sociological Debate

  • Sociologists take two opposing approaches to explaining economic stratification: structural-functionalism and conflict theory.
  • Two classic sociological approaches to poverty and social stratification are structural-functionalism and conflict theory.
  • The structural-functionalist approach to stratification asks the question: what function or purpose does stratification serve?
  • In contrast to structural-functionalists, conflict theorists argue that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society.
  • Meanwhile, structural-functionalists rebut that people do not always act solely out of economic self-interest.

• Introduction

  • Stratification refers to the hierarchical arrangement of people in a society.
  • This chapter focuses on economic stratification; meaning how people are differentiated based upon their wealth (and/or power).
  • Sociology has a long history of studying stratification and teaching about various kinds of inequality, including economic inequality, racial/ethnic inequality, gender inequality, and other types of inequality.
  • The chapter then turns to dominant theories on stratification, and explores class, race, and gender inequality in more detail.
  • Cape Verde is geographically and economically isolated from the rest of the world.

• Stratification

  • Sociologists speak of stratification in terms of socioeconomic status (SES).
  • Material resources are not distributed equally to people of all economic statuses .
  • Macro-level analysis of stratification considers the role of international economic systems in shaping individuals' resources and opportunities.
  • Modernists believe economic growth is the key to reducing poverty in poor countries.
  • Second, dependency theory blames colonialism and neocolonialism (continuing economic dependence on former colonial countries) for global stratification.

• Global Stratification and Inequality

  • Classic sociologist Max Weber analyzed three dimensions of stratification: class, status, and party.
  • Modern sociologists, however, generally speak of stratification in terms of socioeconomic status (SES).
  • Material resources are not distributed equally to people of all economic statuses.
  • Stratification is generally analyzed from three different perspectives: micro, meso, and macro.
  • Macro-level analyses of stratification can include global analyses of how positions in the international economic system shape access to resources and opportunities.

• Weber's View of Stratification

  • Weber examined how many members of the aristocracy lacked economic wealth, yet had strong political power.
  • Class is a person's economic position in a society, based on birth and individual achievement.
  • Weber differs from Marx in that he did not see this as the supreme factor in stratification.
  • Poets or saints, for example, can possess immense influence on society, often with little economic worth.
  • Using Weber's theory of stratification, members of the U.S.

• The Conflict Perspective: Class Conflict and Scarce Resources

  • Conflict theory of stratification holds that inequality is harmful to society because it creates a fixed system of winners and losers.
  • Conflict theorists argue that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society.
  • According to conflict theory, social stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.
  • According to conflict theory, capitalism, an economic system based on free-market competition, particularly benefits the rich by assuming that the "trickle down" mechanism is the best way to spread the benefits of wealth across society.
  • Functionalists criticize this approach by arguing that people do not always act largely out of economic self-interest.

• The Feminist Perspective

  • Feminist theory analyzes gender stratification through the intersection of gender, race, and class.
  • In sociology, social stratification occurs when differences lead to greater status, power, or privilege for some groups over others.
  • Members of society are socially stratified on many levels, including socio-economic status, race, class, ethnicity, religion, ability status, and gender.
  • Gender stratification occurs when gender differences give men greater privilege and power over women, transgender, and gender-non-conforming people.
  • Conflict theory posits that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society, with inequality perpetuated because it benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.

• Power and Inequality

  • In sociology, social stratification is a concept involving the classification of persons into groups based on shared socioeconomic conditions; it is a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions.
  • Theories of social stratification are based on four basic principles:
  • Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences.
  • In Marxist theory, the capitalist mode of production consists of two main economic parts: the substructure and the superstructure.
  • Social stratification has been shown to cause many social problems.

• Dominant Perspectives

  • Stratification and inequalities are inevitable and beneficial to society.
  • The layers (stratification) are the inevitable sorting of unequal people.
  • There are several obvious problems with this approach to stratification.
  • Stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.
  • Functionalists criticize this approach by arguing that people do not always act largely out of economic self-interest.

• Marx's View of Class Differentiation

  • In the Marxist perspective, social stratification is created by unequal property relations, or unequal access to the means of production.
  • In Marxist theory, the capitalist mode of production consists of two main economic parts: the substructure and the Superstructure.
  • Eventually, however, Marx believed the capitalist economic order would erode, through its own internal conflict; this would lead to revolutionary consciousness and the development of egalitarian communist society.
  • The means of production would be shared by all members of society, and social stratification would be abolished.
  • " Marxism is associated with a view of stratification that pits the owners of means of production against the laborers.