Stratification

1. Stratification • Stratification is a central theme in sociological research • The concept of stratification indicates that a social system (e.g. society, organizations such as a large manufacturing plant) is composed of positions and people who have different levels of status • The stratification of society is inevitable! • Marx’s concept of class is a starting point for thinking about stratification, although Weber argued that a sole focus on class was misleading...

2. Property Prestige Material possessions and/or opportunity for income Influence based on personal factors or individual accomplishment Power The ability to get one’s way despite the resistance of others Weber and Stratification

3. Functionalist Theoryof Stratification • Davis/Moore Theory • Positions differ in society to the extent that they are functionally important • It is harder to fill the most important positions since they typically require a good deal of education and training • Hence, higher rewards go to the most important positions in society

4. Social Mobility • Social mobility has to do with how people gain or lose status • Social mobility is an important aspect of contemporary Western societies • In some societies, like caste societies (e.g. India), there is virtually no mobility while capitalist democracies are systems that enable mobility

5. Position gained on the basis of merit or achievement Achieved Status Ascribed Status Position based on who you are not what you can do (traits such as family background, race, sex, etc.) Status and Social Mobility

6. Structural Mobility 1960 1990 All 25 retain high status High-Status Positions High-Status Positions 25 50 25 move to high status 50 retain low status Low-Status Positions Low-Status Positions 75 50 100 Jobs 100 Jobs

7. Exchange Mobility 1960 1990 Only 10 retain high status High-Status Positions High-Status Positions 25 25 15 move to high status 15 fall to low status Low-Status Positions Low-Status Positions 60 retain low status 75 75 100 Jobs 100 Jobs

8. Conflict Theorists Ask:What about Power? • Who gets to decide which positions are functionally more important? • Who has the opportunity to seek advanced education and training necessary in order to obtain positions deemed functionally important? • Conflict theorists of stratification disagree with functionalist interpretations (e.g. Tumin), arguing that social stratification systems function to provide the elite with the political power necessary to procure acceptance and dominance of an ideology which rationalizes the status quo

9. What about Power? • Merton makes a key distinction between manifest and latent functions • Manifest functions are simple & often obvious • Doctors get paid more because they are more important to society • Latent functions are deeper & more obscured • Poverty helps to guarantee the status of those who are not poor (Gans catalogs a number of such latent functions) • Functional theorists focus on Manifest Functions—what serves society the best

10. What about Power? • Dr. Pangloss and Durkheim tend to ignore the role of power in defining societal norms and how elites in society work to maintain norms and define deviance to keep their position in society • The existence of poverty, as discussed in Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequality, is not articulated by Durkheim’s concept of organic solidarity • Impoverished and homeless people have no voice in politics or in defining societal norms—they are defined as deviant

11. Conflict View of Stratification • Contrary to some functionalist theories of stratification (e.g. Davis & Moore), conflict theories emphasize the role of power and exploitation • Critique studies of mobility for overplaying the American dream--“you can advance if you work hard enough” • Focus attention on structural barriers to mobility

12. Conflict Critique of Mobility • Conflict theorists view the idea of social mobility with skepticism, emphasizing how stratification systems are marked by barriers to mobility • lack of access to education/top schools • lack of social skills necessary for advancement • lack of social connections to get good jobs • For conflict theorists, mobility counterintuitively provides an opportunity to challenge the system: • e.g. Based on theories such as status inconsistency, social mobility of minorities and people in low status groups can facilitate social change through social movements and other forms of political action

13. Status Inconsistency • People whose status is inconsistent, or higher on one dimension than on another, will be more frustrated and dissatisfied than people with consistent statuses (Lenski) • Status inconsistency will lead people to blame “the system” as opposed to themselves • e.g. In the 1960s, Gary Marx found that wealthy, famous or highly educated African Americans (bankers & physicians) would be more militant about changing racial conditions than African Americans with consistently low statuses (janitors, housekeepers)

14. Conflict Approach to Stratification • Instead of studying mobility, conflict theorists tend to highlight how barriers to mobility exist based on race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference, etc. • discrimination in hiring • glass ceiling

15. Conflict Approach to Stratification • Conflict theorists have also emphasized that lower-level workers need to unionize to avoid more excessive forms of exploitation • More explicitly at the organizational level, conflict theorists emphasize the role of organizations in forcing downward mobility • closing of plants • national chains (WalMart) devastating local community businesses • emergence of low-wage, low-skill service sector jobs (McDonalds, telemarketing)

16. Functional vs. Conflict • So which theory provides the best approach to the study of stratification? • They both provide valuable insights • Functional theory provides a view of how different occupational positions exist based on the needs of society • Conflict theory highlights that this leads to inequalities that are often insidious, intolerable, and worth fighting about