Most of us are accustomed to thinking of global stratification
Social stratification
Social stratification is a society's categorization of people into socioeconomic strata, based upon their occupation and income, wealth and social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit.
What is global stratification in economics?
Accordingly, global stratification refers to the distribution of wealth, power, prestige, resources, and influence among the world's nations. In terms of the economy, global stratification refers to the distribution of wealth among the world’s nations.
What are some historical examples of social stratification?
Historical examples of social stratification include slavery, caste systems and apartheid. What are some of the typologies associated with global stratification? What is the advantage of ranking nations into groups based on their wealth?
What is the most important variable in global stratification?
This typology has the advantage of emphasizing the most important variable in global stratification: how much wealth a nation has. At the risk of being somewhat simplistic, the other important differences among the world’s nations all stem from their degree of wealth or poverty.
Are there different levels of stratification in the US?
Dependent upon where a person resides in the USA, there are different levels of stratification, according to the Pew Research Center. An Example of US Social Stratification Although there is disagreement among sociologists regarding classes, it is not impossible to create a generalized example of US social stratification.
What are the factors of global stratification?
The view that global stratification results from a failure of poor nations to have the beliefs, values, and practices necessary for industrialization and rapid economic growth. The view that global stratification results from colonialization and exploitation of the poorest nations by the richest ones.
What is the importance of global stratification?
Global stratification compares the wealth, economic stability, status, and power of countries as a whole. By comparing income and productivity between nations, researchers can better identify global inequalities.
What are examples of stratification systems?
Stratification systems include class systems and caste systems, as well as meritocracy.
What are the two main explanations for global stratification?
One type of explanation takes an individual approach by in effect blaming the people in the poorest nations for their own poverty, while a second explanation takes a structural approach in blaming the plight of poor nations on their treatment by the richest ones.
What is a global stratification?
While stratification in the United States refers to the unequal distribution of resources among individuals, global stratification refers to this unequal distribution among nations. There are two dimensions to this stratification: gaps between nations and gaps within nations.
What is global stratification in simple words?
Global stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, prestige, resources, and influence among the world's nations. Put more simply, there is an extreme difference between the richest and poorest nations.
What are 3 main stratification systems in human history?
In today's world, three main systems of stratification remain: slavery, a caste system, and a class system.
What are the 4 systems of stratification?
Systems of stratification vary in their degree of vertical social mobility. Some societies are more open in this regard, while some are more closed. The major systems of stratification are slavery, estate systems, caste systems, and class systems.
What is an example of an open stratification system?
Open Stratification System For example, the super-rich in America will have an income in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. If you're one of these people, then you're probably a top-level executive, a celebrity, or an heir to your family's fortune.
What are the three worlds of global stratification?
Sociologists employ three broad categories to denote global stratification: most industrialized nations, industrializing nations, and least industrialized nations.
How is global stratification different from social?
How is global stratification different from social stratification? Global stratification examines a myriad of different types of prejudice and inequality, while social stratification covers the social class and standing of individuals.
Which theory best explains global stratification?
Dependency Theory. The structural explanation for global stratification is called dependency theory.
What is global stratification?
Global stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, prestige, resources, and influence among the world’s nations. Put more simply, there is an extreme difference between the richest and poorest nations. A few nations, such as the United States, are very, very wealthy, while many more nations are very, very poor.
What classification system did the United Nations use?
Over the decades, scholars and international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank have used various classification systems, or typologies . One of the first typologies came into use after World War II and classified nations as falling into the First World, Second World, and Third World.
What is the game of monopoly used for?
The game of Monopoly, used in Chapter 8 “Social Stratification” to illustrate U.S. stratification, again helps illustrate global stratification. Recall that if five people play Monopoly, each person would start out with $1,500.
When did the global economic crisis begin?
As the global economic crisis that began in 2007 illustrates, when the economies of just a few wealthy nations suffer, the economies of other nations and indeed of the entire world can suffer.
Which countries are the most industrialized?
The wealthy nations are the most industrialized nations, and they consist primarily of the nations of North America and Western Europe; Australia, Japan, and New Zealand; and certain other nations in the Middle East and Asia ( e.g., Japan and Singapore).
Is the world stratified?
Classifying Global Stratification. As these figures make clear, the world is indeed stratified. To understand global stratification, it is helpful to classify nations into three or four categories based on their degree of wealth or poverty, their level of industrialization and economic development, and related factors.
What are the most popular stratification categories?
Therefore, the most popular global stratification categories today are high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Let's look at the characteristics of each of these. First, high-income countries are the richest nations with the highest overall standards of living.
What is social stratification?
Social stratification is a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy, and we've talked about it in depth in other lessons. In this lesson, we'll focus not on how classes of people are stratified but how entire nations are stratified in relation to each other. Global stratification is social stratification on a global scale.
Why do sociologists categorize countries based on gross domestic product?
For this reason (among others), sociologists now categorize countries based on gross domestic product, which is an indicator of a country's wealth and standard of living. As with social classes found on a smaller scale, money is the biggest determinant of status when it comes to global stratification.
What percentage of the world's wealth is held by middle income countries?
They include approximately 25% of the nations in the world, yet they hold most of the world's wealth. The largest proportion of the world's nations - about 42% - falls into the middle-income category. Middle-income countries have average income and a standard of living about average for the world as a whole.
What are the three categories of nations?
For a long time, Americans have used three categories to stratify nations: first-, second-, and third-world. However, these 'world' categories were socially constructed during the Cold War. The First World included the U.S. and other capitalist nations.
What are the rich nations?
Rich nations are generally those who were the first to industrialize. They are capital-intensive and utilize advanced technology. High-income countries include approximately 25% of the nations in the world, yet they hold most of the world's wealth. Three examples are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
Why is the 3 world model less useful today?
Although the three-world model was useful during the Cold War, it is less useful today as it does not accurately reflect the uneven distribution of resources and power among nations. For one thing, it lumps together over 100 nations as the Third World.
What is global stratification?
Global stratification speaks to the presence of hierarchy among groups and individuals worldwide, due to the unequal distribution of various resources and benefits.
How does global stratification affect the world?
First, it has a significant influence on the opportunities that people have in their lives. Receiving a proper education, growing up in healthy conditions, or having access to other social benefits are not available to every citizen of every nation.
Why do nations at the bottom of the hierarchy stay there?
The modernization theory contends that nations at the bottom levels of the hierarchy stay there because they stick to traditional economic systems and governments. Another argument blames colonialism because of its domination of previously sovereign nations. Global stratification has various effects on the world’s population.
Why do people in different countries experience different conditions?
An individual’s social and economic level varies according to his or her occupation, education, wealth, income, and family status. Because of global stratification, people in different nations experience different conditions.
Global Stratification
While stratification in the United States refers to the unequal distribution of resources among individuals, global stratification refers to this unequal distribution among nations. There are two dimensions to this stratification: gaps between nations and gaps within nations.
Global Classification
A major concern when discussing global inequality is how to avoid an ethnocentric bias implying that less-developed nations want to be like those who’ve attained post-industrial global power.
Summary
Stratification refers to the gaps in resources both between nations and within nations. While economic equality is of great concern, so is social equality, like the discrimination stemming from race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and/or sexual orientation.
Section Quiz
A sociologist who focuses on the way that multinational corporations headquartered in core nations exploit the local workers in their peripheral nation factories is using a _________ perspective to understand the global economy.
Short Answer
Consider the matter of rock-bottom prices at Walmart. What would a functionalist think of Walmart's model of squeezing vendors to get the absolute lowest prices so it can pass them along to core nation consumers?
Further Research
To learn more about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, look here: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/UN_development_goals
What is global stratification?
Global Stratification#N#Talk about colonialism and neocolonialism; who does it effect and how?#N#Colonialism was the old method that was adopted by the developed world to take over resources from the weaker nations in the world. The colonial powers took control over the area or the country where governments were weak and then ruled those places, extracting resources from them, as well as subjugating the population of that country to their foreign laws and regulations.#N#Neo-colonialism, on the other hand refers to the use of globalization, capitalism and international pressure to control another country's actions, as is apparent with U.S. actions today.#N#Neo-colonialism affects not only the weak states, but also the strong states, as can be seen through the global recession today. Capitalism is a fast spreading ideology, and as weaker nations too have adopted this strategy, stronger nations have felt the surge. This is because weaker nations are…
How did globalization change from capitalism to hypercapitalism?
Globalization: From Capitalism to Hypercapitalism—a Decoupling between People and Societies#N#Globalization is the transition from capitalism to hypercapitalism—the movement from economic order predicated on a division of labor in which the means of production are controlled by the owners of companies and laborers are paid according to an agreed upon sum to an order in which labor is outsourced and offshored to the lowest bidder, which results in a hypercapitalism that ends up cannibalizing itself, as can be seen in places like France today where the “yellow vests” are lashing out at the Macron government for failing to support the laborer. Capitalism was always dependent upon Old World virtues and order—on the gentleman’s agreement that one nation would not seek to lord it over another; yet, as the Old World virtues and order eroded under the advancing drum of Progress, Industrialization and Technology, capitalism morphed into hypercapitalism—a ravenous need to…
What is capitalist economy?
The capitalistic economy system favors a handful of wealthy private entities that control rest of the economy. These corporate actors utilize the resources and labor in their favor to create a monopoly of their own. The profits are multiplied by these corporations and the government acts responsible for ensuring taxes payments and in return the masses are provided social justice. In the first quarter of 20th century when industrial revolution was taking place, capitalism seemed like a great idea as formulation of unions and governments helped the under privileged.#N#Originally the idea of capitalistic economy was supposed to keep check and balances on the supply and demand functions. The scenario should have been in the best interest of the society as corporations were compelled to share profits with the overall society. But after orld ar 2 as the industrialization period…
What is social stratification?
Social stratification is a termed used to describe the separation of classes of people within a particular society. Stratification can be based on multiple factors. Common Differentiators in Social Stratification Defining social stratification in the USA is difficult. Sociologists disagree on the number of US social classes ...
What are the differences between social stratification and social stratification?
The most common differences used in social stratification are wealth, income, race, religion, occupation, education and power, according to the University of Minnesota. Within each society there is a ranking or hierarchy of classes.
What is the next layer of poverty?
In the United States, the federal poverty level creates an objective measure of stratification. The next layer above the working poor is the middle class, often college educated but earning under $200,000 per year, as defined by the Pew Research Center.
What are the factors that contribute to social stratification?
Other factors also contribute to social stratification in the United States, such as access to equal opportunity. Race and religion can also factor into this stratification, as can minority access to education, as related by the University of Minnesota. Blacks born into poverty in the USA are more likely to remain there.
What is the next class layer?
The next class layer is the working poor. This strata is working (often two jobs), but lacks the education or skill set to earn a living wage. They may have assets such as a car or home, and they live just above the federal poverty level, as reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What is the lower class in the US?
In the United States, the lower class consists of the poor (those that live below the federal poverty level, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics). A 2012 Brookings Institute report identified that up to 5 percent of Americans live on less than $2.00 per day. The next class layer is the working poor.
