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Social Stratification

Social Stratification. What is social stratification ?. Social Stratification is the ranking of people or groups according to their unequal access to scarce resources Scarce is an insufficient amount to satisfy the need or demand. What is social stratification ?.

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Social Stratification

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  1. Social Stratification

  2. What is social stratification? • Social Stratification is the ranking of people or groups according to their unequal access to scarce resources • Scarce is an insufficient amount to satisfy the need or demand

  3. What is social stratification? • Listen to Dr. Seuss’s story, The Sneetches and answer the following questions: • In Sneetchland, what resource is scarce? • Because of this scarce resource, how are Sneetches divided? • Because of this scarce resource, how are Sneetches treated? • How do those Sneetches, without this resource attempt to move up in society? • How do those Sneetches, with this resource attempt to regain their status? • What is the eventual outcome of the Sneetches choices?

  4. What is social stratification? • Social stratification is the creation of layers of people who possess unequal share of resources • The most important resources are: • Income • Wealth • Power • Prestige

  5. Each of the layers in a stratification system is a social class. Social Stratification Social Class is segment of society whose members hold similar amounts of resources and share values, norms and an identifiable lifestyle.

  6. Monday, January 5, Warm-Up • Record the following question and definition and hand in at the end of class (with question answered) • Does the United States have an open-class systemor a caste system? Explain your reasoning. • Open-class system – a system in which social class is based on merit and individual effort; movement is allowed between classes • Caste system– a stratification structure that doe not allowed for social mobility

  7. Each of the layers in a stratification system is a social class. Social Stratification Social Class is segment of society whose members hold similar amounts of resources and share values, norms and an identifiable lifestyle.

  8. Upper Class (1%) American Class Structure Upper Middle Class (14%) • Upper Class – investors, heirs, chief executive officers; annual income over $4 million dollars • Upper Middle Class – upper-level managers, professionals, owners of medium-sized businesses; annual income $150,000-4 million dollars

  9. American Class Structure • Middle Class – lower-level managers, semiprofessionals, craftspeople, foremen, non-retail salespeople, clerical; annual income $45,000-$150,000 • Working Class – low-skill manual, clerical, retail sales workers; annual income $30,000-45,000 MIDDLE CLASS (30%) WORKING CLASS (30%)

  10. American Class Structure • Working Poor – lowest-paid manual, retail, and service workers, people employed in low-skill jobs with the lowest pay who do not earn enough to rise out of poverty; annual income $20,000-30,000 • Underclass – unemployed people, people in part-time menial jobs, people receiving public assistance; people typically unemployed who came from families that have been poor for generations Working Poor (13%) Underclass (12%)

  11. Class Consciousness– identification with the goals and interests of a social class • Watch the excerpt from the film Titanic, and identify the differences between the upper and lower class? • Do people become class conscious? • What impact does class consciousness have on their success?

  12. Social Mobility – the movement of individuals or groups between social classes • Horizontal mobility – a change in occupation within the same social class • Vertical mobility – a change upward or downward in occupational status or social class • Is social mobility possible? If so, what is more likely horizontal mobility or vertical mobility? Why?

  13. Social Stratification

  14. Is social mobility possible for those living in absolute poverty? • Relative Poverty: a measure of poverty based on economic disparity between those at the bottom of a society and the rest of society • Absolute poverty: the absence of enough money to secure life’s necessities

  15. Answer the following: • How would a functionalist view inequality? • How would a conflict theorist view inequality?

  16. Functional and Conflict Theories of Stratification

  17. Answer the following: • How would a functionalist view class structure? • How would a conflict theorist view class structure?

  18. Functional and Conflict Theories of Stratification

  19. Answer the following: • How would a functionalist view life chances? • How would a conflict theorist view life chances?

  20. Functional and Conflict Theories of Stratification

  21. “Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists” Alexander Hamilton What does he mean by this? Is he right? Why or Why not? Do pg. 268 #2

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