Petite bourgeoisie

The classified social system in America has oppressed people, based on economic standing, into certain boxes that are filled with limited expectations. The lower the class in society, the lower the expectations and the expected intelligence are. The social system has dictated many people for generations, on how they are supposed to act, until the people within that class do not expect anything more from themselves, and tend not to aspire past their class. “White trash” or a “hillbilly” is a…

As I reviewed literature already done by scholars, I came across a scholarly pair by the names of Jennifer Castro and Bart Landry as well as a handful of other authors who had formerly touched on different pieces of my research question. In 2005, Castro and Landry wrote an article by the name of Race, Gender, and Class Variation in the Effect of Neighborhood Violence on Adolescent Use of Violence. In this article, the scholarly pair examined how Neighborhood Violence led to the Adolescents use…

In the United States, the population is divided into six major social classes, which are influenced by many variables (Hurst, 15). The six social classes include: capitalist class, upper middle class, middle class, working class, working poor, and underclass (Hurst, 16). Class consciousness is a concept in which a person must have a shared sense of belongingness and understanding in a certain social class, and I feel that I would relate most to the middle class growing up. Because I am a broke…

In this reaction paper, I will be responding, summarizing, and criticizing three particular readings from the second unit of this specific sociology course. The following readings, in which I will be reacting to, include “Invisible Inequality”, “Family, Race, and Poverty”, and “Why won’t African-Americans get (and stay) married? Why should they?” In the reading, “Invisible Inequality” the author compared middle, working and “poor” government assisted social classes. The author indicated the…

In “The Working Class Majority” by Michael Zewig, Zewig writes of a rather non-standard approach to our class system. He writes of class from a relational perspective, thus meaning that he analyzes the relationships that classes have amongst each other. It truly is a rather interesting way of looking at our class system. Near the top of our class system we have the capitalist class. The capitalist class is made up of owners of businesses. According to Zewig, it doesn’t really matter if you are…

We are divided. As much as we strive to become one, there are puzzle pieces that will always come together to remind us that we are not. The gap between the upper-income brackets and the middle-income brackets are as far apart as ever. The Pew Research report shows us, “In 2013, the median wealth of the nation’s upper-income families ($639,400) was nearly seven times the median wealth of middle-income families ($96,500), the widest wealth gap seen in 30 years when the Federal Reserve began…

Taking Advantage Over the Classes If a higher education leads to a higher class, why are the majority of college students from the upper class? Education is the true pathway to social class mobility, yet many working class people do not get these opportunities. Without an opportunity for upward social class mobility through education, many working class people remain in the working class. On the other hand, the upper class is afforded more upward opportunities to continue the pathway to…

Inequality hinders the quality of life for everyone affected by it. This lower quality of life can have lasting and devastating effects. Victor Tan Chen’s article, All Hollowed Out, highlights one instance of the destructive effects of inequality. The article discusses how inequality has led to a decrease in life expectancy for white members of the working class. The book Hollowed Out, written by David Madland, discusses many ways in which inequality has hampered the social environment in…

The world we live in has been greatly influenced and shaped by the media that has been created and put into the world. Throughout this class we have learned many media theories that have greatly affected the society we live in whether it be direct or indirect. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and a socialist who developed the Marxist Theory. The Marxist Theory states that the dominant structuring agent in a society should be the well being of it’s members.…

This essay will show how there is a globalization of classes and where the majority of the earth’s populations sits within the three classes. These three classes are Upper class which is reserved for people with wealth and ownership of companies of large wealth. Then there is the middle class which would be the people with wealth but are not the owners of a company. This middle class are seen to be the class that seeks higher education to improve their status within society. The last class is…