8.5 Resources and References
Key Terms
absolute poverty: A severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.
achieved status: A status received through individual effort or merits (e.g., occupation, educational level, moral character, etc.).
ascribed status: A status received by virtue of being born into a category or group (e.g., hereditary position, gender, race, etc.).
avoidance rituals: Ritualized practices by which people keep both a physical and social distance from status superiors.
blue-collar: Relating to manual work or workers.
bourgeoisie: In capitalism, the owning class who live from the proceeds of owning or controlling capital.
caste system: A system in which people are born into a social standing that they will retain their entire lives.
class: A group who shares a common social status based on their economic position or relationship to the means of production.
class system: A stratification system based on class structure and individual achievement.
conspicuous consumption: Buying and using products to make a statement about social standing.
cultural capital: Cultural assets in the form of knowledge, education, and taste that can be transferred intergenerationally.
Davis-Moore thesis: An argument that social inequality provides positive functional incentives in the occupational system.
downward mobility: A lowering of one’s social class.
endogamous marriages: Unions of people within the same social category.
equality of conditions: A situation in which everyone in a society has a similar level of wealth, status, and power.
equality of opportunity: A situation in which everyone in a society has an equal chance to pursue economic or social rewards.
exchange theory: A sociological paradigm that models human interaction on the basis of calculated social exchanges of resources governed by a norm of reciprocity.
exogamous marriages: Unions of people from different social categories.
Gini Index: A measure of income inequality in which zero is absolute equality and one is absolute inequality.
Great Gatsby curve: the correlation between greater social inequality in a society and lower intergenerational mobility.
income: The money a person earns from work or investments.
intergenerational mobility: A difference in income level between different generations of a family.
intragenerational mobility: A difference in income level between different members of the same generation.
intersectionality: The compounding effects of multiple determinants of social inequality.
living wage: The income needed to meet a family’s basic needs and enable them to participate in community life.
lumpenproletariat: In capitalism, the underclass of chronically unemployed or irregularly employed who are in and out of the workforce.
means of production: Productive property, including the things like tools, technologies, resources, land, workplaces, etc. used to produce the goods and services needed for survival.
meritocracy: An ideal system in which individual achievements determine social standing.
neo-liberalism: A set of policies in which the state reduces its role in providing public services, regulating industry, redistributing wealth, and protecting the commons while advocating the use of free market mechanisms to regulate society.
petite bourgeoisie: In capitalism, the class of small owners like shopkeepers, farmers, and contractors who own some property and perhaps employ a few workers but rely on their own labour to survive.
power: How many people a person must take orders from versus how many people a person can give orders to or influence with their decisions.
presentation rituals: Ritualized practices by which individuals attest to the esteem they hold for others.
proletariat: The class of people defined by selling their labour for a wage or salary.
proletarianization: The process in which work conditions increasingly resemble those of the traditional, blue-collar working class.
relative poverty: Living without the minimum amount of income or resources needed to be able to participate in the ordinary living patterns, customs, and activities of a society.
social differentiation: The division of people into categories based on socially significant characteristics, identities, and roles.
social inequality: The unequal distribution of valued resources, rewards, and positions in a society.
social mobility: The ability to change positions within a social stratification system.
social stratification: An institutionalized system of social inequality.
socio-economic status (SES): A group’s social position in a hierarchy based on income, education, and prestige of occupation.
standard of living: A level of material goods and comforts required to maintain a particular socio-economic lifestyle.
status: The degree of honour or prestige one has in the eyes of others.
status consistency: The consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across different social categories like income, education, and occupation.
structural mobility: When societal changes increase or decrease the relative income of an entire group or category of people vis-a-vis other groups.
upward mobility: An increase in one’s social class.
wealth: The value of a person’s assets.
white-collar: Relating to “mental,” administrative or services work, particularly in an office or other professional environment
Quiz Questions
Social inequality is based on:
- Social differentiation
- Social stratification
- Unequal distribution of valued resources, rewards and social positions
- All of the above
Based on meritocracy, a physician’s assistant would .
- Receive the same pay as all the other physician’s assistants.
- Be encouraged to earn a higher degree to seek a better position.
- Most likely marry a professional at the same level.
- Earn a pay raise for doing excellent work.
Which of the following scenarios is an example of intergenerational mobility?
- A janitor belongs to the same social class as their grandmother.
- An executive belongs to a different class than their parents.
- An editor in 2021 earns less than an editor did in 1981.
- A lawyer belongs to a different class than their sister.
The difference between relative and absolute poverty is .
- A living wage vs. minimum wage.
- The ability to participate in society vs. the ability to survive.
- Half the median family income vs. the income level below which a family would devote at least 20 percentage points more of their income to food, clothing, and shelter.
- All of the above.
Future Research
8.1 Systems of Stratification
The New York Times investigated social stratification in their series of articles called “Class Matters.” The online accompaniment to the series includes an interactive graphic called “How Class Works,” which tallies four factors — occupation, education, income, and wealth — and places an individual within a certain class and percentile. What class describes you? Test your class rank on the New York Times interactive site.
8.2 Social Inequality
Mark Ackbar made a documentary about social class and the rise of the corporation: The Corporation. The filmmakers interviewed corporate insiders and critics. They argue that the modern corporation functions like a ‘psychopathic personality’ – displaying acts that are wholly driven by self-interest. Not only does this model victimizes individuals and broader society (e.g., the environment), it can lead to the corporations own destruction. The accompanying website is full of information, resource guides, and study guides to the film.: http://thecorporation.com/.
References
8.0 Introduction to Social Inequality
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8.1 Systems of Social Stratification
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8.2 Social Inequality
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8.3 Social Classes in Canada
Abercrombie, N., & Urry, J. (1983). Capital, labour and the middle classes. George Allen & Unwin.
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Davis, K., & Moore, W. E. (1945). Some principles of stratification. American Sociological Review, 10(2), 242–249. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2085643
Dolan, K. (2021, April 6). Forbes’ 35th annual world’s billionaires list: Facts and Figures 2021. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2021/04/06/forbes-35th-annual-worlds-billionaires-list-facts-and-figures-2021/?sh=2834c9db5e58
Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face to face behaviour. Pantheon Books.
Homans, G. (1961). Social behaviour: Its elementary forms. Harcourt Brace.
Lawson, M., Parvez Butt, A., Harvey, R., Sarosi, D., Coffey, C., Piaget, K. & Thekkudan, J. (2020). Time to care:Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. Oxfam
International. https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/time-care
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Tumin, M. (1953). Some principles of stratification: A critical analysis. American Sociological Review, 18(4), 387–394. https://doi.org/10.2307/2087551
Veblen, T. (1994). The theory of the leisure class. Dover. (Original work published 1899.)
Yalnizyan, A. (2007, March). The rich and the rest of us: The changing face of Canada’s growing gap [PDF]. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/2007/The_Rich_and_the_Rest_of_Us.pdf
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8.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Social Inequality
Abercrombie, N., & Urry, J. (1983). Capital, labour and the middle classes. George Allen & Unwin.
Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., and G. Zucman (Eds.). (2018). World inequality report 2018. Belknap Press. World Wealth and Income Database. https://wid.world/document/world-inequality-report-2018-english/
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Routledge.
CCPA. (2020, Sept 16). Canada’s top billionaires are $37 billion richer since start of the pandemic, CCPA report finds. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Ottawa. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/billionaires-wealth-pandemic
Collins, R. (2008). Violence: A micro-sociological theory. Princeton University Press. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/10.1515/9781400831753
Davis, K., & Moore, W. E. (1945). Some principles of stratification. American Sociological Review, 10(2), 242–249. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2085643
Dolan, K. (2021, April 6). Forbes’ 35th annual world’s billionaires list: Facts and Figures 2021. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2021/04/06/forbes-35th-annual-worlds-billionaires-list-facts-and-figures-2021/?sh=2834c9db5e58
Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face to face behaviour. Pantheon Books.
Homans, G. (1961). Social behaviour: Its elementary forms. Harcourt Brace.
Lawson, M., Parvez Butt, A., Harvey, R., Sarosi, D., Coffey, C., Piaget, K. & Thekkudan, J. (2020). Time to care:Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. Oxfam
International. https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/time-care
Marx, K. (1848). Manifesto of the Communist Party. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
Osberg, L. (2021). From Keynesian consensus to neo-liberalism to the Green New Deal: 75 years of income inequality in Canada [PDF]. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2021/03/75%20Years%20of%20Income%20Inequality%20in%20Canada.pdf
Shaienks, D., & Gluszynski, T. (2007). Participation in postsecondary education. Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Research Papers. Statistics Canada. http://www.pisa.gc.ca/eng/participation.shtml
Tumin, M. (1953). Some principles of stratification: A critical analysis. American Sociological Review, 18(4), 387–394. https://doi.org/10.2307/2087551
Veblen, T. (1994). The theory of the leisure class. Dover. (Original work published 1899.)
Yalnizyan, A. (2007, March). The rich and the rest of us: The changing face of Canada’s growing gap [PDF]. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/2007/The_Rich_and_the_Rest_of_Us.pdf
Yalnizyan, A. (2010, December). The rise of Canada’s richest 1%. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives [PDF]. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2010/12/Richest%201%20Percent.pdf
