Social stratification

What is social stratification? In simple terms social stratification “refers to a ranking of people or groups within a society.” (Kerbo 2006) But social stratification is not a simple subject it is a more complex idea then some may assume. Many individuals may assume that one is simply born into their social class. Although one is born into a social class, their birth doesn’t entirely determine the social class. When determining the social stratification of an individual there are characteristics of the individual that come into consideration: consumption capital or income, investment capital, skill capital, social capital or social ties, economic power, political power, and social power. Much of an individuals’ power is reflected by the capital that he or she may have. For example, someone may have a high level of skill capital but low social capital…

Social stratification in America, the hierarchical ranking that society assigns based off of rights and prerequisites of different positions, has caused economic inequality to sky rocket. By 2004, America’s top 1 percent of earners obtained 16 percent of the country’s total income, double their 8 percent share twenty years prior. By such a hefty economic boost for the nation’s top earners, it begs to question what the other 99 percent of earners should obtain, and how their net economic loss to…

As mentioned in our textbook, the social stratification of various societies means that, “they contain social groups such as families, classes, or ethnic groups that have unequal access to important advantages” (Ember 138). These advantages that stratified individuals have unequal access to include economic resources, power, and prestige, which can limit individuals from gaining and retaining wealth, individual control, and respect from others. Therefore, one of the specific consequences of…

some work overtime and others double up on jobs to attain a certain social class and a desirable income. The book states that there are different types of stratification: slavery, castes, estates, and social classes. Within the social classes of stratification, there are also other obstacles of achieving the preferred ranking: income, occupation, bureaucratic authority, educational attainment, social networks, and political connections. “Stratification shapes individual opportunity based on the…

Social stratification entails the ranking of society into groups or classes of people according to wealth, power, status and or prestige. This involves a great deal of bias as it may associate these attributes in alignment with a particular race or color. Though social stratification is viewed on a wide scale as being an agent of conflict in many societies it also provides a unified balance as ironically enough it serves as an equalizer. Social stratification is based on four major principles…

such as social class. If one is born poor, there is a higher chance that for the rest of their life that person will remain to be poor rather than moving up to a higher social class. Most of the people that are born poor, die poor and is not because they did not worked hard enough but because the resources that they had…

Education is supposed to be the best and job opportunities are endless. America would like people to believe that starting out as an underdog, barely making ends meet, that with hard work, the ability to move throughout the social ladder will bring people out on top. The class system of America is flawed and the lower class and under class, are those who live below the poverty line and need government assistance, and do not always have the same opportunities or quality of education and…

. In simple terms, social stratification is the classification system that a society creates in order to categorize the people living in it. Throughout history there have been different variations of this classification. Oftentimes, the differences that the stratification is defined by reflects the culture of the society it is in. For example, in a large, modern-day city the class lines are usually defined by money. The more money a person has, the higher up they are on the social ladder. As it…

the human race(Azquote).” Social stratification in places, such as Mexico and other South American countries it is clear that some places and people are wealthier than the majority who are not. Mexico’s history proves that social stratification remains persistent through generations. People of “mixed race” are considered more valuable than those who have common hispanic of latino characteristics. Mexico’s past has produced a racial hierarchy that consists of the superior and the inferior.…

According to Brym and Lie (2012), social capital consists of the networks and connections individuals have with others that are of value, as they enable individuals to have more opportunities depending on the amount of possessed diverse networks (p.121). This paper will provide an example of how I was able to use social capital to my advantage in terms of employment, and how this is example is connected to the concept of stratification and conflict theory. Then I will end off with explaining how…