Class and Stratification

1. Class and Stratification • What is Stratification? • Stratification in Historical Perspective • Stratification in Modern Western Societies • Poverty and Inequality • Social Mobility

2. What is Stratification? • Stratification is the system of structured inequalities among different groups of people • Structured => stratification persists across generations • Inequality => differential access to scarce resources • Wealth • Income • Power • Prestige • Different groups => access to scarce resources varies systematically by class, gender, age, race and ethnicity

3. Stratification by Class, Gender, Age, Race and Ethnicity: • Is concerned with the ways in which inequalities are distributed within societies • Answers the question • Who gets what and why?

4. Stratification by Class Asks: • How equal are modern societies? • How much of a chance does someone have of reaching the top of the economic ladder? • Why is there persistent poverty in affluent societies?

5. How Equal are Modern Societies? • This research addresses such issues as: • Class structure • Distribution of wealth • Distribution of income • Equality of opportunity

6. Chance of reaching top of economic ladder? • This research addresses such issues as: • Social mobility • Does a society have a closed or open stratification system?

7. Why is there persistent poverty in affluent societies? • This research addresses such issues as: • Poverty • Homelessness • Unemployment

8. Stratification in Historical Context • Stratification is found everywhere • Four basic systems of stratification • Slavery • Caste • Estate • Class

9. Compared to other systems, class systems (at least in principle) are: • Fluid • Based on achievement • Economically-based

10. Stratification in Modern Western Societies • Class is basis of stratification • Chief bases of class differences are ownership of wealth and occupation

11. Industrialization and the Labor Force • Increase in occupational specialization • Changes in proportions of labor force in different sectors of the economy • Changes in proportions of labor force in different types of occupations • Increased employment of women outside the home

12. Classifying Occupations by Industry Sector • Primary sector • Part of the economy that generates raw materials directly from the environment • Secondary sector • Part of the economy that transforms raw materials into manufactured goods • Tertiary sector • Part of the economy that generates services rather than goods

13. Classifying Occupations by Occupational Type • Agricultural/farm occupations • Blue-collar occupations • Prestige? • Link with class structure? • White-collar occupations • Prestige? • Link with class structure?

14. Increased Employment of Women Outside the Home • % of women in labor force • 1901 • 1998 • % of labor force who are women • 1901 • 1998

15. Class Structure of Canada • Upper class • Upper-uppers • Lower-uppers • Middle class • Working class • Lower class • Poor • Working poor

16. Distribution of Wealth • Canada • United States

17. Policy Implications • Success of government programs to transfer and redistribute income? • Canada • United States

18. Poverty and Inequality • Relative poverty • What is it? • Absolute poverty • What is it? • How used in policy debates?

19. Who is at Risk of being Poor in Canada? • Children • Women • Certain visible minorities • People living in rural areas

20. Debate Over Poverty • Focus • Competing positions • Poor are largely responsible for their own poverty • Poverty is caused unequal distribution of resources in society • Link with debate over causes of homelessness

21. Social Mobility • Movement of individuals and groups between strata in the class hierarchy • Vertical mobility = movement up or down the class hierarchy • Upward mobility • Downward mobility • Link with lateral mobility

22. Sociologists study social mobility by: • Looking at individuals' own careers and seeing how far they move up or down the socioeconomic scale in the course of their own working lives • Intragenerational mobility • Exploring where children are on the socioeconomic scale compared to their parents or grandparents • Intergenerational mobility

23. Most general concern: • Do individuals born into the lower strata of society have opportunities to move up? • Why?

24. Sociologists explore social mobility by studying occupational shifts • Within an individual's career or between generations • Occupational composition of the labor force affects intragenerational mobility and intergenerational mobility • Why?

25. Changes in the proportions of white-collar and blue-collar occupations • Suggest that over time Canada has become less unequal • Suggest that opportunities for social mobility are increasing • Why? • But aggregate patterns may be misleading

26. Research outside Canada • Shows that much of white-collar growth has occurred in lower positions • Sales clerks, typists, file clerks • Similar to working class occupations in terms of income, work activities and power • Sociologists talk about a "new working class" • Low-paid, semi-skilled, white-collar workers • Did this happen in Canada?

27. Comparative research on Western societies has found: • Children gain or lose chances of success because of family background • Most vertical mobility is between occupations that are quite close to one another • Downward mobility is less common than upward mobility but is still widespread • Levels of social mobility are low compared to ideals of equality of opportunity

28. Education is key to upward mobility • Many jobs require high school completion as a minimum condition • Since 1990 number of jobs requiring a university degree or post-secondary diploma increased by 1.3 million

29. Compared to Canadians with less education, university graduates: • Hold a higher proportion of upper white-collar jobs • Are less likely to be unemployed • Are less likely to remain unemployed if lose job • Are more likely to earn higher salaries

30. In Canada: • Is there equal opportunity for all Canadians to acquire education (assuming they have the ability and motivation to do so)? • Do decisions about funding higher education affect equality of access?

31. Theorizing Stratification by Class • Structural-functional paradigm • Social inequality plays an important role in the operation of society • Davis-Moore hypothesis • Social conflict paradigm • Stratification benefits some people at the expense of others • Marx's critique of capitalism