The importance of stratification is that those at the top of the hierarchy have greater access to scarce resources than those at the bottom. Sociologists
Sociology
Sociology is the study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder, and change.
What is social stratification, and why does it matter?
Social stratification causes social disparity and many problems as it is an unjust system with monopoly of power and wealth in a particular group. It affects life chances, lifestyles and prestige. It creates emotional stress and depression for the people belonging to lower social stratum as they have unequal access to wealth, power and prestige.
What factors influence social stratification?
Social stratification appears as the natural consequence of processes occurring in society. Factors contributing to social stratification are skill, age, physical nature, sex, originality of society membership, and wealth. For illustration, a person who has a strong built is able to protect a weaker person and a wise and capable person will be naturally appointed leader within society.
Who benefits from social stratification?
Social stratification in a society is the arrangement of people into groups having uneven access to chances and rewards based on authority, social status, and income. Those in the upper class enjoy authority, wealth, and prestige while working class citizens endure suffering and numerous penalties that other groups lack.
Why are the six factors of social change so important?
- Innovation – I know, I know, it’s an over-used term. ...
- Cost savings – One of the easiest places for a company to start engaging in sustainability is to use it as a way to cut costs. ...
- Brand differentiation – In the past, brand differentiation was one of the primary reasons companies embraced CSR. ...
Why does functionalist theory say that stratification exists?
In line with this view, functionalist theorists in sociology assume that stratification exists because it also serves important functions for society. This explanation was developed more than 60 years ago by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore (Davis & Moore, 1945) in the form of several logical assumptions that imply stratification is both necessary and inevitable. When applied to American society, their assumptions would be as follows:
What is stratification in sociology?
Stratification results from lack of opportunity and from discrimination and prejudice against the poor, women, and people of color. It is neither necessary nor inevitable. Symbolic interactionism. Stratification affects people’s beliefs, lifestyles, daily interaction, and conceptions of themselves.
What are the ideologies of class society?
Ideological beliefs in class societies are more subtle and complex but nonetheless influential. One of the most important beliefs in the United States is the American Dream, epitomized by the story of Abraham Lincoln. According to this belief, people born into poverty can lift themselves up by the bootstraps and become successful if they work hard enough. By implication, if people remain poor, they are not trying hard enough or have other personal deficiencies keeping them in poverty. This ideology prompts many Americans to take a blaming-the-victim approach (see Chapter 1 “Sociology and the Sociological Perspective”) by blaming poverty on laziness and other problems in the poor rather than on discrimination and the lack of opportunity in society. To the extent that people accept such ideological beliefs, they are less likely to criticize the existing system of stratification. Marx did not foresee the extent to which these beliefs would impede the development of class consciousness in the United States.
How does society induce people to do the important, highly skilled jobs?
To induce the people with the skills and knowledge to do the important, highly skilled jobs, society must promise them higher incomes or other rewards. If this is true, some people automatically end up higher in society’s ranking system than others, and stratification is thus necessary and inevitable. To illustrate this, say we have a society where shining shoes and doing brain surgery both give us incomes of $150,000 per year. (This example is very hypothetical, but please keep reading.) If you decide to shine shoes, you can begin making this money at age 16, but if you decide to become a brain surgeon, you will not start making this same amount until about age 35, as you first must go to college and medical school and then acquire several more years of medical training. While you have spent 19 additional years beyond age 16 getting this education and training and taking out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, you could have spent these 19 years shining shoes and making $150,000 a year, or $2.85 million overall. Which job would you choose?
What does functionalist view mean?
Third, the functionalist view also implies that people move up the economic ladder based on their abilities, skills, knowledge, and, more generally, their merit. If this is true, another implication is that if they do not move up the ladder, they lack the necessary merit.
What is functional theory?
Functional theory argues that the promise of very high incomes is necessary to induce talented people to pursue important careers such as surgery. If physicians and shoe shiners made the same high income, would enough people decide to become physicians?
How do former leaders take advantage of their position at the top of society?
The former take advantage of their position at the top of society to stay at the top , even if it means oppressing those at the bottom. At a minimum, they can heavily influence the law, the media, and other institutions in a way that maintains society’s class structure.
Why understand stratification and inequality?
Every society, both past and present, has a system of layering (or stratifying) people within that society. In most societies, there are a few at the top and many at the bottom.
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Simplify the Work
Under the system of social stratification, the ability of a person is determined. For example, through the caste system, a particular caste gets special abilities and tasks which it has to fulfill. Similarly, under the class system, a particular class has a special ability and style of work which it has to fulfill.
Determine the Attitudes
A special importance of social stratification is the determination of human attitudes. According to the caste, class or status-group a person belongs to, his attitudes are developed and determined. From this point of view, social stratification makes individuals aware of their attitudes and motivates them to develop themselves.
Helpful in Maintaining Social Order
One of the importance of socialization is that it helps in maintaining order in the society. Through this, the society is divided into different classes on the basis of birth and ability and the behavior and manner of the people of each class should be fixed.
Helpful in Social Integration
The system of social stratification divides the groups into different classes. The functions of each class of persons are fixed. A person is dependent on another in relation to other tasks by completing his tasks. Because the needs of a person cannot be fulfilled by me alone. This leads to mutual interdependence between individuals and groups.
Helpful in Social Progress
Social stratification helps in progress. Whether the basis of the system is birth (caste system) or merit (class system), both inspire a person to act in their own way according to social belief. Within the caste-system, the matter of caste-religion is said.
Helpful in Fulfilment of Needs
People have many needs. No one person can fulfill all his needs on his own. Through the system of social stratification, the functions of individuals are divided. Every person is helpful in fulfilling the needs of the people by performing his certain work efficiently.
Determination of Status
A special significance of social stratification is that through this individuals get their proper place in the society, which is called their status. The ability, ability and work efficiency of every person in the society is not the same.
Why is social stratification important?
Social Stratification acts as a source of integration of the people of all social classes: Pearson rightly points out that Social stratification is functional because it serves to integrate various groups of the society. Members of each class recognize the roles and necessity of members of other classes. 12.
What is the function of social stratification?
The main function of social stratification is to make the people of upper strata to work hard and to live up to their positions and status. Pearson argues that American society values the achievements and efficiency of individual and puts emphasis on hard work and productive activity within the economy.
What is functionalist classification?
Moreover, it is not a classification of individuals based on their attributes but an established system of classifying groups. Functionalists are primarily concerned with the function of social stratification and its contribution to the maintenance and well being of the society. 1. Matches ability with higher positions: ...
How does less rigid stratification help?
Less rigid stratification always helps in improving the status of people by providing opportunities for entry into higher classes. It influences all classes of people to realize their collective importance in society and at same time encourages them to work for securing entries into higher and higher classes.
Why is competition a functional necessity?
Competition is a functional necessity of society because a society without competition cannot progress. Absence of competition always makes people lethargic and stagnant. The element of competition puts life among them and makes them work hard for achieving higher and higher statuses.
Why do some groups get elite status?
To some extent there is in existence the process of circulation of elites. This encourages the emergence of social competition.
Why are different social positions better?
Different social positions offer different opportunities and emolument. Those positions which are higher also offer better conditions and positions. People always try to get higher position in society. In the absence of stratification, individuals cannot be expected to get motivated for occupying certain positions.
What is the function of stratification?
According to Davis Moore, a major function of the stratification is to match the most able people with the most important position in the society.
Why is social stratification functional?
Pearson rightly points out that Social stratification is functional because it serves to integrate various groups of the society. Members of each class recognize the roles and necessity of members of other classes. 12.
How does less rigid stratification help?
Less rigid stratification always helps in improving the status of people by providing opportunities for entry into higher classes. It influences all classes of people to realize their collective importance in society and at same time encourages them to work for securing entries into higher and higher classes.
What is the function of functionalists?
Functionalists are primarily concerned with the function of social stratification and its contribution to the maintenance and well being of the society.
Why do some groups get elite status?
To some extent there is in existence the process of circulation of elites. This encourages the emergence of social competition.
Why are different social positions better?
Different social positions offer different opportunities and emolument. Those positions which are higher also offer better conditions and positions. People always try to get higher position in society. In the absence of stratification, individuals cannot be expected to get motivated for occupying certain positions.
Why would it be unjustified to introduce equality among these statuses?
It would be unjustified to introduce equality among these statuses because a person with more ability or intelligence has to be given higher status to an individual who has a lesser ability. 7.
Why is poverty measured?
As two experts on international poverty note, “It is easy to ignore the poor if they are statistically invisible” (Haughton & Khandker, 2009, p. 3). Second, valid measures of poverty reveal which regions of the world are poorest and which people in a given nation are poorest in terms of household characteristics (e.g., households headed by a single woman), location (e.g., region of country or urban vs. rural), and other factors. This type of knowledge enables antipoverty programs and strategies to be focused on the locations and people in those locations who are most in need of help. Third, valid measures of poverty enable officials and policymakers to know how well efforts to help the poor are working, as a poverty measure after some intervention can be compared to the poverty measure before the intervention.
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.
Why is vulnerability to poverty important?
Determining vulnerability to poverty is important because it enables antipoverty strategies to be aimed at those most at risk for sliding into poverty, with the hope of preventing them from doing so.
What would the world's median income be if it was one nation?
If the world were one nation, its median annual income (at which half of the world’s population is below this income and half is above it) would be only $1,700 (data from 2000). The richest fifth of the world’s population would have three-fourths of the world’s entire income, while the poorest fifth of the world’s population would have only 1.5% of the world’s income, and the poorest two-fifths would have only 5.0% of the world’s income (Dikhanov, 2005). As Figure 9.1 “Global Income Distribution (Percentage of World Income Held by Each Fifth of World Population)” illustrates, this distribution of income resembles a champagne glass.
How much money would you get playing Monopoly?
stratification, again helps illustrate global stratification. Recall that if five people play Monopoly, each person would start out with $1,500. If each player represented one-fifth of the world’s population, and we divided the $7,500 according to the global distribution of income, then the richest player would begin with $5,558 of the $7,500 distributed to the five players combined. The next richest player would have $1,095. The third player would start with $473, while the next would have $263. The fifth and poorest player would begin with only $113. Figure 9.2 “Distribution of Starting Cash if Monopoly Resembled the Global Distribution of Income” depicts this huge disparity in money at the beginning of the game. Who would win? Who would be first to lose?
How many indicators are there for health?
one health/education indicator plus three standard of living indicators.
