Socioeconomic Status And Class Based Societies

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.

The concept of social class has been around for ages and is still a part of today’s society. Social class is not only based on the individual’s wealth but also on their social standing such as; monarchs, priests, nobles, merchants, and peasant class. The peasant class was practically ignored, which means that the higher classes would only pay attention to each other. This can be the case in society today, there are some people who feel that their career makes them higher than a janitor. Even though humans have been around for centuries, social class is still a big issue.

The axis of inequality that will be focused throughout this paper is the social class. Social class is defined as a group of individuals who are categorized according to class (i.e. poor, middle, and upper) due to their income, wealth, power, and occupation. Social class is socially constructed by the way we view how much income and wealth a person possess (Ore, 20011a, 10). In reality it is much more than that. According to the text, poverty is not only the shortage of income, but it is the rejection of opportunities and choices that leads a person to a standard way of living (Ore, 2011a, 10). Stereotyping also contributes to it being socially constructed. These stereotypes influence us by defining who is who based on their principles in each class category. This can cause some to feel worthless.

2.) Social classes can be explained as a group of individuals who have a similar position in the economy based on their economic success. Not only are social classes important to social theories, but since the classes are made up of a group of individuals who share a similar economic status, they have been used greatly in the studies of social mobility and for the census.

In modern the modern day United states, Americans face a problem that drastically affects the way we have to live life. Our healthcare system has become drastically irregular and unequal in the current system. After thorough analyzation of the provided CTSIP tables one can clearly see the gap between economic and social classes that exists in the current structure and can place the said data into both a functionalist and marxist perspective.

Social classes play a vital role in dynamic of families. The definition of social class is ambiguous and has no clearly outlined definition. However it is believed to be a combination of different aspects such as one’s life chances or resources, one’s status group, or those who share similar lifestyles and one’s education level make up an individuals social class. Therefore, in an ideal set up there would 4 social cases the upper, middle, working, and poor classes (Judge 2015) and these are the 4 that I will be using to distinguish the difference in how parents raise their children across social classes. One main influence that causes a polarization of social classes are parents economic resources and education level, thus influencing the jobs parents have and the availability they may have to invest in their child’s life. However the key characteristics that influence the ways parent raise their children are how they organize their child’s daily life, the use of language around their children, and through social interactions (Lareau 202). However the two main approaches across social class parents take in raising their child are natural growth and concerted cultivation.

Sociologists propose that the similar correlation between major health disparities and indicators of socio-economic status can be explained by the concept of class. Class is a social concept created by describing the unequal distribution of wealth, power and resources. The concept proposes that it is a hierarchal system that classifies people into lower, middle and upper class, however these terms can be used interchangeably with others such as working and elite classes. The disparities in health, mentioned above, and indicators of class include measures such as mortality, morbidity and disability rates.

Marxists sociologists, such as Althusser, Bowles and Gintis and Willis argue that education operates in the interests of the ruling class and maintains capitalism. However, other sociologists oppose this by arguing that this is false and education is meritocratic.

Socioeconomic status is often determined as a combination of education, income and occupation. Depending on the social class an individual is in, it affects the power,privileges, and care they are receiving. When looking at lower class, it shows a greater percentage rate of problems that rise in that category. One seemingly growing issue that is seen more in the lower class than any other social class is how many individuals are affected by the HIV/AIDS virus due to unstable living conditions. Though there are many cases of people that have contracted the virus in the other following classes, there is a disproportionately higher rate in the lower class.

Evidence of social classes within societies can be seen throughout many different cultures and countries. The social classes can be broken up into four categories, the Upper or Elite class constituting approximately 1% of the population, the Middle class which accounts for around 60% of the population dependent on the definition, the Working class which consists of approximately 30% of the population since the growth of the Middle class in recent decades and the Under or Lower class accounting for the remaining 8% of the population (Carl et.al.,2012, p.41-45). Question 2 was specifically designed to see the percentages of participants in different classes, allowing them to be compared to these statistics. Within the existence of these social divides the prevalence of class advantage and disadvantage can be seen in factors of life such as employment, housing and access to foods.

Studies have routinely found that socioeconomic status is one of the most important factors in determining whether or someone is going to vote in elections. Traditionally, the higher someone’s socioeconomic status the more likely they are to vote in elections. It is often thought that this it is due to the fact that the higher one’s socioeconomic status the more they have at state in elections. However, it would seem that during elections with higher than normal levels of participation this tends to be less true. Therefore, the question that is trying to be answered here is if higher levels of voter participation cause the socioeconomic bias to decrease, when compared to years where the voter turnout is less?

Playground pedagogy provided me with an education that my parents and teachers couldn’t provide. In casual conversation, likely while playing hot lava monster, a freckle faced little girl told me about her parents’ experience in college. I was stunned. I knew people went to college but I thought it was a highly exclusive club. It was in that moment that I was confronted with both my social class and what would become my first-generation college student status. In retrospect, I do not believe there was any one defining moment that led to my research interests within sociology of Higher Education, Social Class, Stratification & Social Mobility, and Inequality & Marginality. Rather, it was a series of moments that made me question not only my

Social class system has survived in the UK due to its flexibility, it has never been swept away (James, 2009). The most common classification of the social hierarchy is the division between upper, middle, and lower classes. In the UK, there are some different social grade classifications. The National Readership Survey (NRS) and the National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) provided two similar classifications based on occupation. In 2013, a survey of social class in UK was published, results of which showed seven new classes: Elite, Established middle class, Technical middle class, New affluent workers, Traditional working class, Emergent service sector, Precariat (Savage et al., 2013). There are many determiners which can be used to judge which class people belong to. In this essay, wealth and education are discussed.

There is often times a rift seen in any type of system, two groups at minimum will emerge and try to gain power. It has been seen the most in government with the two political parties of the Democrats and the Republicans. This is evident in other systems because of the increased need in humans to gain and take whatever power that they might be able to. Not far off from government, this is seen in the economy, but it isn’t a longterm, straightforward battle. The two forces fighting against another are the social classes of the rich and the poor. This isn’t a battle for power on the side of the poor, but for equality and stability, while control is what the rich have, and what they intend to keep a hold of. There is a gap that between the rich and the poor, that recently has rapidly increased. In the question of the gap there is a growing concern that the separation can cause an economic depression if it is to keep up like it has been. The battle between the classes of the rich and the poor has extended itself by many years due to the differences in wages, unemployment, and inflation in the economy.

The social classes are based on numerical measures of income and wealth. However, other social factors such as level of education and individual social status are considered. Due to differentiation of incomes, wealth and social status, a society is stratified at a continuous rate with no clear class boundaries. As a result, individuals of one class may have different wealth accumulation or occupations (Beeghley, 2004). In addition, individuals having similar occupation positions may also have different lifestyles and end up forming a social class.