Social Stratification & Mobility Essay

Lastly, horizontal mobility occurs when an individual takes another job that keeps him in the same social class.

But from textbook data and me and my family experiences I consider social mobility process is still in force today. How much opportunity is there is the factors that determine people’s occupational location and, hence their income, prestige and ultimately their life chances. Therefore, the only things we can control that can determine our future is our work ethic. Some societies tend to assign people’s position at birth by ascription, others who believe in their ability, knows that they can earn a live hood from their jobs, which they obtain based on a combination of hard work, and ability. According to the book “The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States.” (Beeghley, Leonard. 2008) Sociologists assess this degree of opportunity by Social mobility. Which refers to Intragenerational mobility and Intergenerational

John Ranere Jr., VIP of Sugar House Casino, is one of few who experienced an upward social mobility. Individual efforts are the reason people move up the class ladder; and their faults the reason they move down (Henslin 227). John Ranere senior had died before his son was born in an automobile accident. Mrs. John Ranere had already had a daughter and was pregnant with her son. By looking, over time, at the incomes individuals earned relative to their parents’ income, statistics have shown they were able to measure “intergenerational mobility,” broadly speaking, the extent to which people are able to escape their upbringings (Cassidy). John Ranere Jr. didn’t finish high school, or attempt to go to college. He started working for casinos at a young age initially

People consider that social stratification in the United States contains social classes such as upper class, middle class, and lower class. People who are categorizing in upper class not only have power and control over their own lives but also their social status gives them

Social inequality is a problematic phenomenon that occurs all around the world and affects both the developed and developing nations. It is defined as “the unequal distribution of social, political and economic resources within a social collective” (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 205). Inequality is closely connected with social stratification, a system of social hierarchy that positions individuals and groups into categories according to social variables such as class or ethnicity (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 485). This stratification has a significant impact on the opportunity that an individual may have to move up the hierarchy of inequality (Gill 2017a).

Social Stratification can be explained as members of a society being placed into a hierarchy where they are

Meritocracy refers to “a social system as a whole in which individuals get ahead and earn rewards … to their individual efforts and abilities” (McNamee and Miller, 2004, p.2) so it looks past an individual’s wealth, class and background. Social mobility basically means the ability to moving up the ladder, there is a small chance for those who come from a working class background to getting further up in society’s ladder (Walkup, 2011). However, in most cases people generally remain within their same social class which they have been born into (Roberts, 2001). Social mobility is all about the extent to which your ability to ascend is predetermined, not by hard work and intelligence but by your parent's wealth, background and

Social Stratification is a term used by sociologists to describe inequalities that exist between society and us as individuals and can also be described as a hierarchy with the less privileged people at the bottom and the more favoured people at the top. (Giddens, 2006)

The 21-st century is characterized by the continuous economic downfall. The relationship between race, class and gender should be evaluated to identify the life chances of people to improve their relative position in our socially stratified world. The increased rates of unemployment, homelessness and poverty show that our society requires implementing a transformative approach to reduce social stratification. The term social stratification is applied to identify and asses different forms of inequality that exist in the US society. Patricia H Collins suggests, “while a piece of the oppressor may be planted deep within each of us, we each have the choice of accepting that piece or challenging it as part of the 'true focus of revolutionary change'” (p. 680). Inequality has become a universal feature of our society; therefore, it exists everywhere and concerns race, class, and gender as the key categories of society.

Individuals within a society are grouped into certain rankings that is based on their wealth, income, race and education known as the social stratification. Sociologist use this to determine the social standings of individuals within a society. Social stratification can also appear in much smaller groups. These groups such as the work place, schools, and businesses can “take the form of a distribution of power and authority down the ranks”. (Cole, 2017) The Caste system is also another form of stratification that one does not get a choice in. They are born into it and regardless of their talents will hold positions that are given to them their whole life. Social mobility is the ability for individuals to move about their social standings.

In other words, it is change in individual’s social status. It can be achieved through Intergenerational mobility (social movement experienced by family members from one generation to the next) or Intragenerational mobility (social movement of individuals within their own lifetime). The open system society encourages the mobility and one’s social position is assigned based on merit and achievements. The American culture is the example of this type of society to some extent. The American Dream reflects the equality of opportunity regardless the conditions into which one born and equal chance to achieve success. Many sports and TV stars are the example of horizontal mobility and rise to fame in spite of their origin and social status. Open system society is also characterized by level of “life chances” are the extent to which individuals have access to important societal resources such as food, clothing, shelter, education and health

World is composed of social stratification, a system which people are divided into layers based on their property, power and prestige. This stratification labels people and causes them to think accordingly within their own stratification. It can be expressed in four major groups as follows: slavery, caste system, estate, and class. Though it can be described in slavery, caste system, and estate, these are all old forms of social stratification that are not used commonly in the present. Therefore, my paper will be focusing on the description of the class system.

The idea of social inequality dates back since the time of our founding fathers. The mistreatment and unlawful equality and opportunity that these foreigners received became embedded into our history—this endless list includes, just to name a few, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and most notably the African Americans (Blacks), who became slaves to the American people. Here in the United States, the current social class system is known as the class system, where families are distributed and placed into three different existing class—the upper class (wealthy), middle class (working), and lower class (poor). Since then, improvisations have been worked on into the class system, establishing now roughly six social classes: upper class, new money, middle class, working class, working poor, and poverty level. Social stratification is a widely common topic of debate because there have since been many arguments and debates on this controversial situation of social inequality and how it relates to social class and social mobility. According to Economist Robert Reich, he states that "The probability that a poor child in America will become a poor adult is higher now than it was 30 years ago..." (Reich, par. 5), meaning the given amount of equality, opportunity, and support that these struggle families obtain have gone mainly unnoticed by the government that it has gotten worst. The constant uproar of social inequality and injustice that these middle and lower working class families stem

“Social mobility is Upward or downward movement within a stratification system. Liberal theory claims that capitalist societies are open-class and therefore one can expect a high degree of social mobility. According to liberal theory this movement within a stratification system should result from a person's achievements and should not be

Even without being consciously aware of it, the use of some sort of scale when interacting with others is quintessential. This is because it represents a basic need of defining the self through the means of the others; knowing one’s place in society, as well as the positions of fellow individuals, ensures an orderly functioning of said system. For the sake of this essay, the definition of social stratification as a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power (Pearce, 2015), will be used.