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Social Stratification Sociology

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Social stratification is a part of every society and is composed of many dimensions. The different terrorists of sociology look at social stratification and poverty in different ways, some positively and some negatively. In the U.S. and worldwide, economic inequality is present and the ways of society allow poverty’s existence to continue. Social stratification is the hierarchal differences of individuals in society. The first dimension of social stratification is social class. This is categorized by one’s economic position or occupation and represents their wealth. Those who rank close to each other are considered to be in the same social class, and classes can be divided into the upper, middle, working, and lower class. The distribution …show more content…

Structural functionalism has the most controversial theory on the topic. They believe all societies are and will be stratified and this is needed for a society to function properly. It makes people motivated to do the dirty work of a society and ensures people work jobs only if they have the right skills. They argue that in order to motivate people to work jobs like lawyers and physicians, there needs to be greater rewards. Conflict/critical terrorists have a negative outlook on social stratification. They believe this system promotes inequality. They question structural/functionalists by asking if being a doctor is really worse than being a garbage collector because one of these positions is paid much more than the other. Additionally, conflict theorists believe prestige, rather than money, should be a great enough motivator to fill high-ranking positions. Inter/actionists study the micro-level aspects of social stratification and view it as a process of interaction between people of different positions. What matters the most is how people “do” their positions. How do elites show their power over the lower class and how do they respond? All theories have great insight on the issue and I believe each need to be considered if we are to make change in

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I quickly realized that many sociological studies are subjective, and different people will perceive a study in a different way. An example of this would be my reaction to the functionalist view on social stratification in Unit 7, which we discussed to be a view that supports the idea of social stratification. Initially, I felt this was wrong, because we should be striving for equality. After our discussions on the issue, I came to the realization that there are different ways to view this situation, as explained by the perspectives of functionalists, conflict theorists and interactionists.

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In the article, The Resegregation of Jefferson County, a wide variety of different sociological aspects are portrayed under the fight to separate the school, Gardendale, from the rest of the Jefferson County school system. Multiple different inequalities are discussed in different forms throughout this article specifically including income, institutional racism, and neo-racism. All of these forms of social stratification are still alive today. Social stratification is described as “inequalities among individuals and groups within human societies. (Giddens, Duneier, Applebaum, Carr, p. 194)”

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And how altercations between different classes, inevitably cause a power dynamic and one is perceived as the superior one, which can ultimately destroy

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In the realities Mantsios states of the United States for there social classes standings. American rarely discusses the different types of social classes there are and exist. Mantsios discuss the

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The three main Sociological Perspectives are Structural Functionalist, Social Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionist, all of which are quite different but also similar in many ways. The study of sociology began when humans began to wonder about human social relationships and institutions during the nineteenth-century revolutions. As sociology has grown in popularity, many different sociologists have developed diverse perspectives on human social relationships and institutions. Structural functionalists study the existence of humans in society as part of sociology and many other social sciences such as relationships, institutions, and roles that make up a society. The main point of structural functionalists is that society works together to build structures and institutions such as education, family, economy, religion, and health care for them to evolve towards increased differentiation, where institutions become increasingly specialized in the functions they perform.

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People in the middle class are worse off than the upper class dwellers. People in the middle class can still get nice things, it may not be as nice as the upper class people get. These people tend to be in a mid sized house and own a budget car. They need to work hard to get what they want. The lower class people do not usually have anything nice.

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In sociology, there are three theoretical perspectives; symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory. The major point of symbolic interactionism is to use symbols to help understand how we as a society view the world, and how we communicate with one another. In functional analysis, the major point is to look at society as a whole, constructed of various parts, or groups, that all have their own function. Lastly, conflict theory is the opposite of functional analysis. In this perspective, society is viewed as different groups, each competing for power, or dominance.

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Research shows that lower class citizens face more hardships to better their lives than those who are more stable. When living in the lower class, they must overcome obstacles, while trying to get help from the government, and face the opposition–the

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There is lower, middle, and upper class, but there are also subcategories that fill the gaps in between, like the impoverished and the top one percenters. “Class in America”, written by Gregory Mantsios, addresses the myths and realities about socioeconomic class in America and how they affect American lives. His article highlights the unequal divide that has persisted over the course of history and will continue to manifest in the future. To introduce the existence of this issue, Mantsios states that this country’s citizens “don’t like to talk about class...or class privileges, or class oppression, or the class nature of society” (Mantsios 378). This is the case in America today because people are neglecting to acknowledge the existence of these elusive

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social class can be hard to define. There is low status consistency which means have important jobs, but make moderate income. Social class can change during a person’s lifetime. It will either go up or down, but most of the time it stays the same. Social class can have effects on health, political attitudes, and prison rates.

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I believe social classes have defined our society in many ways. In America, they separate people into three different classes: the upper class, middle class, and the lower or working class. Based on wealth and various occupations, social classes determine the population’s status in society. Social classes today define individuals and influence their actions. Although people born in a certain class may choose to stay there, they also have the choice of leaving.

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By way of example, all three of the theoretical perspectives notably have idiosyncrasies about one another. As an illustration, structural functionalism is defined as Due to the fact that society consists of vital parts and systems they work in unison with each other to run smoothly. The people in the society contribute in myriad areas of interest in the process of structural functionalism. David Claerbaut states that these areas of interest, incorporate into society with: religion, economics, education, politics and family. On the other hand of living among each other actively working to create a seamless community we have the conflict theory.

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One main point of the structural functionalism theory is that the erection of a family directly impacts their likelihood of living in poverty. According to Macionis et al stated that the structural-functionalist perspective, poverty, and economic inequality serve several positive functions for society (Macionis et al 2015). Davis and Moore (1945) argued that because the various occupational roles in society require various levels of ability, expertise, and knowledge, an unequal economic reward system helps to assure that the person who performs a role is the most qualified.

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Theoretical Framework: Conflict Perspective: Conflict perspective focuses their attention on society as a whole. Conflict theorists see society as in a continuous sate of conflict between groups and classes. He struggle for power and income is a continuous process but one in which many categories of people appear as opponents-classes, races, nationalities and even the sexes. Society is held together through the power of dominant groups or classes. The shared values, which functionalist see as glue for holding society together, do no realty form rue consensus; instead this is an artificial consensus in which the dominant groups or classes impose their values and rules upon rest of the people.

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Social classes are a form of social stratification that refers to the existence of structured inequalities between individuals and groups in society. A social class is a group of people of comparable status, power and wealth which are usually classified as upper class, middle class, and lower class. For each class, there are some specific opportunities available that influence their social life. We can understand about the particularity of the chances through unequal distribution of these opportunities between individuals in social classes. In here belonging to a social class seems to be an obstacle for some individuals to obtain equal opportunity, unlike upper class people.

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