soiciology
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Social Inequality
Soci 1125, Week 9th
Quiz II : November 9th
Quiz II includes 30 questions from ch7-ch 12- ch17-ch18 and worth 12% of your final grade
You need to log into moodle and then find Quiz II in Week ten
You can take the quiz any time between 12 Am To 11.59 Pm ( the entire November 9th Day according to Vancouver time zone)
If you do not take your quiz during this timeline, you will get Zero. And this fact is not negotiable.
You have two chances to complete the Quiz. Your highest Grade will be recorded as your Quiz grade.
Quiz entails 30 ( multiple choices and true /false ) questions and you have 35 Minutes to finish it.
What Is Social Inequality?
Social inequality occurs when a person’s attributes such as gender, minority status, and class affect their access to socially valued resources.
Inequality occurs when a system ranks people in a hierarchical fashion based on subjective assessments of people’s worth, which are reinforced and legitimized by the dominant ideology.
Social stratification
Social stratification refers a society’s hierarchical ranking of people into social classes. social stratification varies in how it expresses itself, E.g., by wealth, blood, prostitutes, occupation all blend of them!
Social class refers to a group of individuals who share a position in a social hierarchy. Social class is based on ascribed and achieved status.
Social status refers to a person’s position within the class structure.
Closed and Open Social Systems
Social systems rank people in two ways
Closed systems and open systems
Closed system based on ascribed status
Very little room for social mobility
Caste systems determine what people can wear, what jobs they can perform, and who they can marry
Open system based on achieved status
Result of one’s own merit within the class structure
Income, occupational prestige, and education
Membership hereditary e.g., India and Japan
Factors Affecting Social Inequality in Canada
Colonization – Impacted virtually all areas of Indigenous Peoples’ lives and has limited opportunity
Geographic Location – Different provinces have different poverty rates
Gender and Family Structure – Feminization of poverty recognizes the universality of women’s wage discrimination
Work Status – Having a job is certainly key to not living in poverty
Visible Minority Status – Wage gap between Whites/non-whites and racial discrimination in labour markets and hiring practices
Education – School offers some protection against poverty
Disability – People with severe disabilities more likely to be living in poverty
Class question
In your group discussion, think about these picture and try to give sociological description of what each picture portrays. Which of them represent your ideal society? Why?
Break
Reviewing Theoretical Approaches to Inequality (1 of 2)
Table 7.2 Theories of Social Stratification
| Theory | Origin of Inequality | Is Inequality Justified? | Leading Theorists |
| Functionalism | Social position is determined by personal skills and abilities. | Yes, society needs to redistribute limited resources to those who can benefit society the most. | Émile Durkheim Talcott Parsons Kingsley Davis Wilbert Moore |
| Conflict | As wealth is accumulated in fewer and fewer hands, elites solidify their control of resources at the exclusion of the poor. | No, social wealth is accumulated by the elite, who continue to exploit the lower classes for personal gain; the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. | Karl Marx Max Weber Ralf Dahrendorf |
Reviewing Theoretical Approaches to Inequality (2 of 2)
Table 7.2 [Continued]
| Theory | Origin of Inequality | Is Inequality Justified? | Leading Theorists |
| Symbolic Interactionism | The origin of inequality is less important than how existing class positions influence everyday human interaction. | Depends on the individual; one person may view inequality as fair and justified while another will view it as the result of inheritance. | Thorstein Veblen |
| Feminist | The subordinate position of women is due to patriarchy and learned worldview resulting from one’s social class. | No, inequality is the result of capitalism and Western ideology that promotes colonial expansion and domination. | Pat & Hugh Armstrong Nancy Fraser Sandra Harding |
Question?
Why is being a financial advisor (looking after other people’s money) considered more prestigious than being a daycare provider (looking after other people’s children)?
Karl Marx on Class
It is outcome of the institution of private property, dividing those who own or control productive property from those who do not and survive on the basis of their labour.
A person’s social class determined by their relation to to the means of production (i.e., ownership/non-ownership).
Class system always creates social inequality. And Class conflict is inevitable
Max Weber on class
Weber sees the class as as the “life chances” or opportunities to acquire rewards one shares in common with others by virtue of one’s possession of property, goods, or opportunities for income (1969).
Thus, in Weber view, Owning property/capital or not owning property/capital is still the basic variable that defines a person’s class situation or life chances. However, class is defined with respect to markets rather than the process of production .
Class stratification is not just determined by a group’s economic position but by the prestige of the group’s occupation, education level, consumption, and lifestyle. In determining class stratification social status is as important as class.
In the Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) described the activity of conspicuous consumption as the tendency of people to buy things as a display of status rather than out of need.
Carrying pricey but eco-friendly water bottles, or electric car could indicate a person’s social standing. A $17,000 car provides transportation as easily as a $100,000 vehicle, but the luxury car makes a social statement that the less-expensive car can’t live up to.
Question
Think about Veblen concept of conspicuous consumption in our nowadays life. How did widespread use of social media affects conspicuous consumption among different class in society?
Weber Vs Marx on class stratification
Weberiam Class classification based on status distinctions does capture something about the subjective experience of class and the shared lifestyle and consumption patterns of class that Marx’s categories often do not. It gives us more nuance description of the class stratification
However, Weber’s analysis is descriptive rather than analytical. It can provide a useful description of differences between the levels or “strata” in a social hierarchy or stratification
Global Inequality
Global inequality involves the concentration of resources in certain nations, significantly affecting the opportunities of individuals in poorer and less powerful countries
Richest 10% of the global population earns 50% of the world’s wealth
| Country | Infant Mortality Rate | Life Expectancy |
| Canada | 4.9 deaths per 1,000 live births | 81 years |
| Mexico | 17.2 deaths per 1,000 live births | 76 years |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 78.4 deaths per 1,000 live births | 55 years |
Walt Rustow :Modernization theory
societies moved through natural and linear stages of development as they progressed toward becoming developed societies:
traditional society (agrarian based with low productivity);
pre-take off society (state formation and shift to industrial production, expansion of markets, and generation of surplus);
take-off (rapid self-sustained economic growth and reinvestment of capital in the economy);
maturity (a modern industrialized economy, highly capitalized and technologically advanced);
the age of high mass-consumption (shift from basic goods to “durable” goods (TVs, cars, refrigerators, etc.), and luxury goods, general prosperity, egalitarianism).
Immanuel Wallerstein: World Systems Approach
Core nations
peripheral nations
Semi-peripheral nations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79gCqjl6ihQ
Global inequality and Covid19 Vaccine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KhPdlubF8s
