Flashcards
Chapter 8
Cards in this deck (33)
- 1Social StratificationThe structuring of inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards. While all societies involve some forms of stratification, only with the development of state-based systems did wide differences in wealth and power arise. The most distinctive form of stratification in modern societies is class divisions.
- 2Structured InequalitiesSocial inequalities that result from patterns in the social structure.
- 3SlaveryA form of social stratification in which some people are literally owned by others as their property.
- 4CasteA social system in which ones social status is held for life
- 5Class SystemsA system of social hierarchy that allows individuals movement between classes. The four chief bases of class are ownership of wealth, occupation, income, and education.
- 6ClassAlthough it is one of the most frequently used concepts in sociology, there is no clear agreement about how the notion should be defined. Most sociologists use the term to refer to socioeconomic variations between groups of individuals that create variations in their material prosperity and power.
- 7IncomeMoney received from paid wages and salaries or earned from investments
- 8WealthMoney and material possessions held by an individual or group
- 9Means of ProductionThe means whereby the production of material goods is carried on in a society, including not just technology but the social relations between producers
- 10CapitalistsPeople who own companies, land, or stocks (shares) and use these to generate economic returns.
- 11Surplus ValueThe value of a workers labor power, in Marxist theory, left over when an employer has repaid the cost of hiring the worker.
- 12StatusThe social honor or prestige a particular group is accorded by other members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life-patterns of behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or negative. Pariah status groups are regarded with disdain or treated as outcasts by the majority of the population
- 13Pariah GroupsGroups who suffer from negative status discrimination-they are looked down on by most other members of society. The jews, for example, have been a pariah group throughout much of European history
- 14Contradictory Class LocationsPositions in the class structure, particularly routine white-collar and lower managerial jobs, that share characteristics with the class positions both above and below them.
- 15Upper ClassA social class broadly composed of the more affluent members of society especially those who have inherited wealth, own businesses, or hold large number of stocks (shares)
- 16Middle ClassA social class composed broadly of those working in white-collar and lower managerial occupations
- 17Working ClassA social class broadly composed of people working in blue-collar, or manual, occupations.
- 18Lower ClassA social class comprised of those who work part time or not at all and whose household income is typically lower than 17,000 a year
- 19underclassA class of individuals situated at the bottom of the class system, normally composed of people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
- 20Social MobilityMovement of individuals of groups between different social positions
- 21Intergenerational MobilityMovement up or down a social stratification hierarchy from one generation to another
- 22Intragenerational MobilityMovement up or down a social stratification hierarchy within the course of a personal career
- 23Exchange mobilityThe exchange of positions on the socioeconomic scale such that talented people move up the economic hierarchy while the less talented moved down
- 24Structural MobilityMobility resulting from changes in the number and kinds of jobs available in a society
- 25Absolute PovertyThe minimal requirements necessary to sustain a healthy existence
- 26Relative PovertyPoverty defined according to the living standards of the majority in any given situation
- 27Poverty LineAn official government measure to define those living in poverty in the United States
- 28Working PoorPeople who work but whose earnings are not enough to lift them above the poverty line
- 29Feminization of PovertyAn increase in the proportion of the poor who are female
- 30HomelessPeople who have no place to sleep and either stay in free shelters or sleep in public places not meant for habitations
- 31Kuznets CurseA formal showing that inequality increases during the early stages of capitalist development then declines, and eventually stabilizes at a relatively low level, advanced by the economist Simon Kuznets
- 32Culture of PovertyThe thesis popularized by Oscar Lewis that poverty is not a result of individual inadequacies but instead the outcome of a larger social and cultural atmosphere into which successive generations of children are socialized. The culture of poverty refers to the values, beliefs, lifestyles, habits, and traditions that are common among people living under conditions of material deprivation.
- 33Dependency CultureA term popularized by Charles Murray to describe individuals who rely on state welfare provisions rather than entering the labor market. The dependency culture is seen as the outcome of the "paternalistic" welfare state that undermines individual ambition and peoples capacity for self-help.
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- Flashcards on Chapter 8, created by nwalsh5 on 02/04/2015.
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