Social Stratification Of Social Class

The upper-upper class are those who come from old money, which is inherited from previous generations.This class compose less than 1% of the population, but possess a great deal of power, and influence society. The upper-lowers are those who come from “new money.” Most of these people a famous stars and are sometimes referred to as the “working rich” because they work for the money they earn. Although the upper-lowers may possess more money than the upper-uppers, they often find it difficult to be apart of the upper 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.

Society is set up into a hierarchical triangle that essentially determines social class. A social class is any person or group of people with the same educational, social or economical status. Social class can be broken down into many different categories such as race, age, gender, economic status, educational status and many more. Social class can be measured in many different ways such as financial status, family values, appearance, and demeanor. In America there are six main economical social classes which are the: Very poor, Poor, Working class, Middle class, Upper middle class, and the ruling class.

Economic stratification is the different rankings in social class are separated in different economic ways. These differences can vary from clothing, cars, perfumes, cigarette brands, etc. There are many ways you can tell what a person stratification is just by the way they look or the things they have. Usually these ranking go from lower class to middle class then the upper class. Each of these classes have very different ways of living and what they do to maintain a certain status.

There are four categories of class in contemporary American society: upper, middle, working and lower. Of these four categories of classes, two are subdivide. These two are: upper class and the middle class.

class, or the Outer Party, are trying to become part of the higher class. While the poor, or

In chapter 5, the author mentioned about how factors of race and gender help to frame elections, which these two important factor are the particularly stratification systems in modern America. According to the article, the author uses the quote as a demonstration, “Nicholas Winter notes that “race and gender are two particularly important stratification systems in contemporary America. Both define appropriate relationships among individuals and between individuals and groups, and both play important roles in structuring society, culture, and politics both today and throughout American (and human) history.” This is the case in both our understanding of the position of African Americans within society and our understanding of the position of

The working class earns about $19,000 to $45,000 per year. The lower-class is divided into working poor who’re earning $9000 to $18,000 per year and the underclass who’re under $9000 per year. The upper class has vast accumulated wealth and significant control over corporations and political institutions, and their privilege is usually inherited. The corporate elite consists of high-salaried stockholders, such as corporate CEOs, who did not necessarily inherit privilege but have achieved high status through their careers. The upper-middle class consists of highly educated salaried professionals whose occupations are held in high esteem, such as lawyers, engineers, and professors, the middle class, which is the largest social class, is generally thought to include people in mid-level managerial positions

In order to better understand social class and the structure of inequality, a couple key terms will be identified. Social Stratification is the division of society into groups arranged in the social hierarchy. (Ferris & Stein. pg,182.) Social class is a system of stratification based on access to such resources as wealth, property, power, and prestige.

Monopoly, a game that almost every child grows up playing and during the game, one kid usually ends up yelling, “That’s not fair!” We all grow up thinking that it is ‘just a game’ but little did I realize until playing it 15 years later that the concept behind this game relates to our rules in society. Before starting this experiment, my social stratification was chosen for me and specific rules came along with it. I was placed in middle class, I was forbidden to buy any utilities or transportation, which I did not agree with, and although I had better privileges than the working and lower class, the upper class obtained all of the power.

Stratification and the division of people into social classes is a fundamental part of American society. Stratification is a concept that is universal; it is found in every country, every nation of the world. It is a system in which large groups of people, not individuals, are divided into different layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige. Stratification applies not only to the different nations of the world as a whole, but to the different groups of people within those nations as well. Each of these groups is stratified into its own class; the group of people ranked most closely to them in property,

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.

Social stratification can be simply defined by stating that it is a system in which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy (Macionis, page 224). The concept of social stratification is based on four central principles, which are social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, it carries over from one generation to the next, while it is universal, it is also variable, and social stratification involves not only inequality but beliefs as well (Macionis, pages 224-225). The first principle, that social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, basically says that children born into wealthy families are more likely to be of good health, do well in school, succeed in a career, and live a long life (Macionis, pages 224-225). An example of this first principle can be seen in the what happened to the Titanic. The first-class passengers survived not because they were better swimmers than the second- and third-class passengers, but because of their privileged position (Macionis, page 224-225). The second principle states that the concept of social stratification is one that carries over from one generation to the next (Macionis, page 225). This concept is essentially stating that the social standing of a person is partially determined by their parents. Most people’s social standing remains constant throughout their lives (Macionis, page 225). While social stratification is

This paper will be discussing “Some Principles of Stratification” by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, “Classes in Capitalism and Pre- Capitalism” by Karl Marx, and “Who Rules America?” by G. William Domhoff. Davis and Moore examine stratification, social class, and positional rank and their effects on individuals and society. Marx examines inequality in society, the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed or the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and methods of production and their effects on society. Domhoff examines the roles of corporate communities and the upper class and how they impact America.

Social stratification defines any structure of inequality that persists in a society across generations. Social strata are groups of people — who belong to the same social class or have the same social level. Social strata are organised in a vertical hierarchy. In the early societies people shared a common social standing. In the hunting and gathering societies there was little stratification: men hunted for meat while women gathered edible plants. The general welfare of the society depended on the mutual sharing of goods between all members and no group emerged as better off than the others.