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Chapter Eight: Social Class in the United States

Chapter Eight: Social Class in the United States. Chapter Overview. What is Social Class? Consequences of Social Class. Social Mobility Poverty. Americans’ consciousness of class Understanding Social Stratification Class position and influence

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Chapter Eight: Social Class in the United States

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  1. Chapter Eight: Social Class in the United States

  2. Chapter Overview • What is Social Class? • Consequences of Social Class • Social Mobility • Poverty

  3. Americans’ consciousness of class Understanding Social Stratification Class position and influence A form of inequality in which categories of people are systematically ranked in a hierarchy based on access to scarce but valued resources. Social Differentiation How people are set apart for differential treatment as a result of their statuses, roles, and other social characteristics. Sets the stage for social inequality People’s unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige. What is Social Class?

  4. What is Social Class? • Marx View on Social Class • Great disparity between owners and workers • Means of Production • Weber’s View on Social Class • Social class is not about ownership of the means of production. • Wide range of specialized skills the give people power, prestige, or property. • Today social class is defined along Weber’s Theory

  5. What is Social Class? • A large group of people who rank close to one another in: • Wealth • Power • Prestige • Determining Class Ranking • Influences people’s life chances or opportunities

  6. Components of Social Class WEALTH • Primary dimension of social class • The total value of everything someone owns. • Property • Income • Difference between Wealth & Income • Have much Wealth, but little income • Have much Income, but little wealth

  7. Components of Social Class Power • The ability of an individual or group to attain goals, control events, and maintain influence over others—even against the face of resistance. • Power elite • Top corporate, political, and military leaders who make the nation’s major decisions. • 1% families that own 33% of $31 trillion. • Class reproduction • Cultural capital • Social capital • Economic capital

  8. Components of Social Class Prestige • The approval and respect an individual receives from other members of society. • Occupational prestige • Jobs that have greater levels of prestige: • Generally pay more • Entail more abstract thought • Require more education • Have greater autonomy • Displaying prestige • Status Inconsistency • People who have a mixture of high and low rankings in the three components of social class (wealth, power, and prestige).

  9. Gilbert and Kahl Capitalist Class The Upper Middle Class The Lower Middle Class The Working Class The Working Poor The Underclass Sociological Model of Social Class

  10. Family Life Choice of Husband or Wife Divorce Education Religion Mental Health Physical Health Consequences of Social Class

  11. Intragenerational Mobility- changes in an individual’s social ranking over the course of his or her lifetime Intergenerational Mobility - a change that occurs between generations – can be either upward or downward Upward social mobility Downward social mobility Findings Factors that influence status attainment Types of Social Mobility

  12. Types of Social Mobility • Structural Mobility – a change in the social structure that causes a large number of people to move either up or down the social class ladder • 20th century: three factors were important to occupational advancement and the vast expansion of the middle class • Improved technology • Low birthrates among those at the top of the social hierarchy • Large-scale immigration

  13. Demographics of Poverty • Poverty line • Created in the 1960’s to determine who was poor • People who have to spend 1/3 of their income to buy food. • Unreliable: there is no real measurement to determine how many people in the US are poor. • By 2005, over 33 million Americans (12% of the population) had incomes below the poverty line • Because of the high turnover, the percentage of people who experience poverty each year is closer to 20% • The group least likely to live in poverty are the elderly • The biggest subgroup living in poverty in the U.S. are children • Feminization of Poverty– the association of poverty with women, especially single parent households headed by women

  14. Most of the Nation’s poor live in rural areas (in the south) • 42 % of the poor live in the inner cities

  15. Education • Only 3 out of 100 people who graduate college are poor. • More than 1 out of 5 H.S drop outs are poor • Applies to all racial/ethnic groups

  16. Culture of Poverty Lifestyles and Values of the poor make them different from those who are not poor. Most Poverty is Short-lived – people are constantly moving in and out of poverty Number of Poor Relatively Stable Dynamics of Poverty

  17. Why are People Poor? • Two competing points of view: • Social Structure – the components of the social structure play a strong contributing factor in the poverty rate • Characteristics of Individuals – people are poor because of their own attitudes • Sociologists tend to focus on components in the social structure to explain poverty

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