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- ranking of individuals and groups in any given society

- basic component of social organization


- may be viewed as:
1) Social structure differentiation of statuses and social
roles into ranked orders or
institutionalized inequality
2) Social process splitting up of society into social categories
that develop into social groups cooperating,
competing,conflicting
3) Social problem involves bitter feelings of discontent and
strong demands for equality or
social justice
Four classes Acc. To Marx

Capitalist or Bourgeoisie owns and controls


the means of production

Petite Bourgeoisie owns small businesses


including professionals

Proletariat wage workers

Lumpen Proletariat a group of people living in


poverty
Major determinant of social class
Land based economy (past experience)

Caste hereditary
Class individual achievements
Historical Context of the Theory
Communism

Sociology as a discipline has her roots grounded


on the major principles of communism. As a
major sociological framework, conflict theory
seeks to explain the dynamic nature of human
relations heavily saturated with opposing
interests and the perpetual threat of violence.
Marxist arguments elucidate basic sociological
concepts such as stratification, power,
inequality, and alienation.
Communism is the doctrine that seeks to
liberate the proletariat from all forms of
human misery and oppression. The
proletariat is that class in society which
lives entirely from the sale of its labor and
does not draw profit from any kind of
capital; whose weal and woe, whose life
and death, whose sole existence depends
on the demand for labor
-- hence, on the changing state of
business, on the vagaries of unbridled
competition. The proletariat, or the class of
proletarians, is, in a word, the working
class of the 19th century
(http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM.).
There are inherent imbalances and
oppressions that cause much of humanity
to suffer, and humanitys inability tolerate
further desolation seeks to create a perfect
society and an essential part of having an
unflawed society would be having an ideal
government.
Human history suggests that we have
always strived to find different types of
governments that would work more
efficiently according to the demands of the
greater mass. Needless to say
communism is not often perceived to as
the perfect form of government.
In, The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx is
reacting to the quest for an ideal society
by describing his vision of a perfectly
balanced society, a communist society.
Simply put, a communist society is one
where all property is held in common. No
one person has more than the other, but
rather everyone shares in the fruits of their
labors.
Marx is writing of this society because, he
believes it to be the best form of society
possible. He believes that communism
creates the correct balance between the
needs of the individual, and the needs of
society(http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/ae4/lmy53.shtml).
Marxs main thesis is the re-organization
of the society, he sees that the majority of
societies exist in sub-human conditions
and that there is a disproportionate
abundance of property and power used
and abused by the bourgeoisie. All the
necessary elements are present for the
bourgeoisie to exploit the lesser class, all
they have in their possession is their
commoditized labor.
Here Marx is speaking of how the
bourgeoisie controlled society takes every
aspect of society and puts them in terms
of an exchange value. They reduce all that
is noble and admirable about humanity to
monetary matters, all in the name of
capitalism. Again, All that is solid melts
into air, all that is holy is profaned, and
man is at last compelled to face with sober
senses, his real conditions of life, and his
relations with his kind.
The bourgeois creates a system in which
anything and everything is measured by its
strict cash worth. Now that the roles of the
bourgeoisie and proletariat have been
established, it is possible to reconsider the
communist ideal.
Clearly, Marx believes that it is wrong for
the majority of society, the proletariat, to
suffer so. He believes that individuals
should be equal, not divided into two
distinct worlds.
Marx and communism desires to correct
society so that all individuals could benefit
without a particular class being desolately
alienated from the sources of production
and services.
Capitalism

Three key components:


markets (determining price and wages), private
ownership of the means of production (including
labor power), and, thus, wage labor.

Communism (or socialism), is generally defined as


the absence of the same three components
(Resnick and Wolff, 1996:119).
In capitalists states wherein the political-
economic system is primarily based on
private ownership and profit, creativities
and full expression human potentials are
virtually eliminated, the individuals living in
this kind of social condition strives simply
to survive by selling their labor.
1) Attributions
play a very vital role in stratification
- assigns people different attributes as a result of differences
2) Stereotype
- develop because people generalize their observations into
patterns that define a whole category
- may be harmful because they may lead to unfair treatment
of people
3) Self-fulfilling Prophecies
- result of assigning a stereotype to a person
- As a consequence of our perceptions and attendant actions, the
person may begin to act as we expect him/her to act.
4) Social Comparisons
- People need to compare themselves w/others in order to
establish in themselves what kind of people they are.
5) A fair world
- beliefs about justice or the fair distribution of rewards
6) Just-world hypothesis
- People like to believe that there is justice, that people get what
they deserve. Leads people to engage to blaming the victim
1) Wealth and Income
Wealth value of everything a person or group owns.
- it is often inherited
2) Inequalities of power
Personal Power ability to control ones own life
Social Power control or influence the action of others
Power is exercised at both:
1) An Interpersonal level
2) A Societal level
3) Inequalities of Prestige
- Social recognition that a person or group receives from others
- provides people w/ a sense of worth and respect
Prestige may be:
1) occupational ranking ( persons position in society)
2) consumptive ( ownership of luxurious houses, cars,
restaurants, stores )
1) Subjective method
- Researchers ask a random sample of the population to
name the class they belong to.
2) Reputational method
- Old timers are asked to identify the social classes that
exist in the community and to place each resident in
one or another category
3) Objective method
- Divide people into social classes according to their
income, occupation, education, and type of residence

Functionalist Theory (Kingsley David & Wilbert Moore)


1) Stratification serves an important function in society.
2) Stratification arises from societal need for integration.
3) Tasks and rewards are equitably allocated.
Conflict Theory (Karl Marx)
1) Stratification is unnecessary and unjust in the society.
2) Stratification arises from group conquest, competition & conflict.
3) Tasks and rewards are inequitably allocated.
* Also known as class system
* Positions are awarded on the basis of merit
* Rank is tied to individual achievements
* Family origins, creed, color, race, sex and other
characteristics do not matter.
* Provides people w/ an equal chance to succeed.

* Also known as caste system


* Rigid form of social stratification based on ascribed
characteristics such as skin color or heredity.
* Status is determined at birth and people are locked into
their parents social position.

* This system is a closed system of stratification in which


a persons social position is based on ownership of
land, birth, or military strength.
1) People who have made it.
elite group of wealthy members
- old rich, celebrity rich, anonymous rich
2) People who are doing very well.
- corporation officers and professional people
3) People who have achieved the middle-class dream.
- enjoy the good life, but they lack many of the luxuries of those
in higher levels.
4) People who have comfortable life.
- People who live a comfortable existence in the less fashionable
suburbans.
5) People who are just getting by.
6) People who are having a difficult time.
- Unemployed but usually manage to scrape by
- Many single-parent families
7) People who are poor.
- underclass
- people who squat on slum areas and live below subsistence level
1) The upper class.
- Have a high prestige and lifestyle that excludes those
from other classes, have great wealth
2) The upper-middle class.
- Below the top in an organizational hierarchy but still
command a reasonably high income
- have a college education,own property,& money savings
- successful business and professional people
3) The lower-middle class.
- High school or vocational education graduates with modest
incomes
- lesser professionals (clerical &sales workers, laborers)
4) The working class.
- People who keep the countrys machinery going.
- Many of them have not finished high school.
- factory & blue-collar workers
5) The lower class.
- People at the bottom of the economic ladder
- unemployed or underemployed
-Often have no way of improving their lot in life
Movement within a stratification system that changes the
individuals or groups status in society
Amount of Mobility depends on two things:
1) Rules governing how people gain or keep their
positions may make mobility difficult or easy.
2) Structural changes in society

1) Power
Ability to attain goals, control events, and maintain
influence over others
Usually attributed to people who have wealth and position
2) Prestige
Approval and respect received from other members of
society
Two kinds of prestige:
1) Esteem appreciation and respect a person wins in
his/her daily interpersonal relationships
2) Honor associated with specific statuses in society
3) Wealth total economic assets of the individual
4) Poverty condition in which people do not have enough money
1) Upward mobility
also called vertical mobility
movement of individuals/group from lower to
higher status
Factors affecting upward mobility
a. Policy & practice of immigration
b. Differential fertility of the social classes
c. Presence/absence of individual competition
d. Availability of opportunities to prepare ones self for
competitive process
e. Patterns of equality & inequality in a society
2) Compensation for Downward mobility
a. Cushioned by traditional conservatism of middle class
b. Modified by the fact that he needs to have little
contact w/his former associates of higher status
c. Can help sooth the ego
d. There is no significant status visibility
e. Belief that ones children may regain the social status
that one has himself lost
3) Horizontal Mobility change in status w/no corresponding
change in social class
- changing ones occupation, marrying
Movement of people from one geographical spot to another
Known to sociologists as physical mobility

Voluntary Migration voluntary movement of people from


one geographical area to another
- free movement
Forced Migration expulsion of unwanted people
- herding of people into reservation areas
- transportation of enslaved individuals

1) Economic Factor refers to the desire of people to seek


better living or for greener pasture
2) Political reason to escape from political oppression & racial
discrimination
- to seek political asylum in other countries
3) Religious liberty to enjoy religious liberty in response to
religious persecutions in their country
4) Educational opportunities to avail educational opportunities in
prevailing in other areas
5) Natural Calamities occurrence of various calamities may lead
people to migrate
A shifting from role to role
May be analyzed in three levels:
1) Every person enacts multiple roles, even while he
remains a total, integrated personality.
2) There is normal successive assumption of new roles.
3) Occupational mobility causes shifting of roles

1) Hard Work
2) Social structure
3) Societal values and norms
4) Level of Education
5) Marriage
6) Luck
Higher social status is the result of personal achievement.
Competence of an individual is tested in the social
groupings in which the individual participates

Those who receive higher education may use it as a


stepping stone to higher social status
Those who teach achieve their social status within the
educational groupings
The individual educator may aspire to a higher academic
rank, to a higher position within the educational grouping

Success in life is always attached to upward social


mobility.
Values of activity, success, and quantity are extremely
important from the point of view of social mobility.

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