Social Sciences
Social Class Inequality
Social class inequality refers to the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges among different social classes within a society. It encompasses disparities in income, education, healthcare, and access to power and influence. This inequality can perpetuate social stratification and impact individuals' life chances and social mobility.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
10 Key excerpts on "Social Class Inequality"
eBook - PDF- Medani P. Bhandari, Shvindina Hanna(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- River Publishers(Publisher)
1 Chapter 1 Social Inequality as a Global Challenge: Scenario, Impacts, and Consequences Medani P. Bhandari, PhD 1 1. Introduction “ Inequality—the state of not being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities—is a concept very much at the heart of social justice theories. However, it is prone to confusion in public debate as it tends to mean different things to different people. Some distinctions are com-mon though. Many authors distinguish “economic inequality”, mostly meaning “income inequality”, “monetary inequality” or, more broadly, inequality in “living conditions”. Others further distinguish a rights-based, legalistic approach to inequality—inequality of rights and asso-ciated obligations (e.g. when people are not equal before the law, or when people have unequal political power )” (United Nation 2018:1). Inequality is one of the major human to human divisive factor since the evolutionary history of human development and civilizations. Inequalities present in every sphere of social, political, and economical structure of com-munity, national and international level throughout social, economic, reli-gious, and political histories. The strata created by inequalities are grounded 1 Professor of Sustainability, Akamai University, Hilo, Hawaii, USA; Prof. of Innovation and Finance, Sumy State University, Ukraine. [email protected] 2 Social Inequality as a Global Challenge on innumerable factors—such as social, cultural, political, geographical, or due to environmental (anthropogenic or natural) catastrophe. Inequality can be seen as a communicable global disease. Inequalities can be understood in many forms, however, mostly known, and discussed forms are economic, social, political, cultural, and religious inequalities. As Stewart (2010) notes: “Economic inequalities include access to and ownership of financial, human, natural resource-based and social assets. They also include inequalities in income levels and employment opportunities.
eBook - PDFSocial Mobility and Education in Britain
Research, Politics and Policy
- Erzsébet Bukodi, John H. Goldthorpe(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
In this book we will, as sociologists, be concerned primarily with social class mobility: that is, with mobility between different class positions. The main aims of this chapter are therefore to set out the rationale for this approach and the advantages that we believe stem from it, and further to indicate how we conceptualise social class and how this conceptual understanding is made operational in the main body of research that we will subsequently discuss. 13 Where one is dealing with social mobility between positions that are more or less advantaged, or, in other words, unequal, it is important to recognise that social inequality can be expressed in two different forms: what may be called attributional inequality and relational inequality. Attributional inequality arises simply insofar as individuals have, as an attribute, more or less of something that is socially valued. Inequality in income or in wealth would be prime examples. Relational inequal- ity, in contrast, arises where the positions of a more or less advantaged kind that individuals hold derive from certain social relations in which they are involved. Class inequality, as we would understand it, is relational. More specifically, we take class positions as deriving from the social relations in which individuals are involved in labour markets and workplaces: that is, from what we will refer to as their employ- ment relations. While individuals’ class positions are in this way asso- ciated with their income levels, they are also associated, via differences in their employment relations, with various other aspects of their incomes: in particular, as we will show in some detail, with income security or insecurity, with short-term income stability or instability and with longer-term income prospects. We might add here that another form of relational inequality that we treat as distinct from, and only imperfectly correlated with, class is that of social status.
eBook - PDFSociology
The Essentials
- Margaret Andersen, Margaret Andersen, Howard Taylor(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
This belief is so much a part of American culture that, when people fail, they tend to be blamed for their lack of success or individual achievement. Thus, many think the poor are lazy and do not value work. At the same time, the rich are admired for their supposed initiative, drive, and motivation. Neither is an accurate portrayal. There are many hardworking individuals who are poor, but they seldom get credit for their effort. At the same time, many of the richest people have inherited their wealth or have had access to resources (such as the best schools or access to elite networks) that others can barely imagine. Observing and analyzing class inequality is fundamental to sociological study. What features of society cause different groups to have different opportunities? Why is there such an unequal allocation of society’s resources? Sociologists respect individual achievements but have found that the greatest cause for disparities in material success is the organization of society. Instead of understanding inequality as the result of individual effort, sociologists study the social structural origins of inequality. Social Differentiation and Social Stratification All social groups and societies exhibit social differentiation. Status, as we have seen earlier, is a socially defined position in a group or society. Different statuses develop in any group, organization, or society. Think of a sports organization. The players, the owners, the managers, the fans, the cheerleaders, and the sponsors all have a different status within the organization. Together, they constitute a whole social system, one that is marked by social differentiation. Status differences can become organized into a hierarchical social system. Social stratification is a relatively fixed, hierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth. Social stratification is a system of structured social inequality.
eBook - PDFPolitical Economy and Sociolinguistics
Neoliberalism, Inequality and Social Class
- David Block(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
Meanwhile, critical sociologists focusing on the matter, particularly those of a Marxist persuasion (e.g. Wright, 1978), were far less benign in their assess-ment of the origins of effects of inequality. Throughout all this work, there was something of a common view that inequality may be viewed from two general perspectives – the distributive and the relational. As André Béteille (1969) notes, the former ‘refers to the ways in which different factors such as income, wealth, occupation, education, power, skill, etc., are distributed in the population’, while the latter ‘refers to the ways in which individuals differenti-ated by these criteria are related to each other within a system of groups and categories’ (Béteille, 1969: 13). Both views entail numerous sub-perspectives, which have been brought to the fore in more recent work on the topic. In a fairly recent textbook on inequality, Lisa Keister and Darby Southgate (2012) suggest there are four key dimensions of stratification in modern soci-eties. First, there is economic or financial stratification, which is mainly about differences in income earned by individuals during their lifetimes. Second, there is wealth as a divider, where wealth refers primarily to property, pos-sessions, savings and investments. Prestige , the third dividing factor, is about differences among individuals in terms of their relative status, esteem and perceived value. The fourth and final dimension is power , which captures how the few in society can force the many to bend to their will, not least because of their considerably greater income, wealth and prestige. To a great extent, this model follows Max Weber’s ([1922] 1968) classic three-part distinction between class , status and party , even if the authors do not seem to have a strong notion of production processes and labour relations, which Weber subsumed with wealth and income under the heading of class.
eBook - PDF- Stewart R. Clegg(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
These are distributive inequalities of a predomin-antly politial character which, as Rainer Lepsius (1977) has argued, may be considered as being the basis of a new form of classes, the welfare classes. A second new area of social inequality arises from the differentiation between occupational work and housework which to a certain extent coincides with a sexual division of labour. With the growing impact of the women's liberation movement the sociology of social inequality, too, has begun to recognize the importance of this problem. Finally, I recall Habermas' mixed and checkered group of shadow workers, blacklegs, subsistance producers, new self-em-ployed on the one hand, the unemployed on the other, some of whom have begun to search for an alternative economic, social and personal identity outside the official world of work. 140 Reinhard Kreckel (2) Attempts at including these fields into inequality research are hampered by a second problematic presupposition of the classical approach: traditionally social inequality was understood and described as vertical inequality. That is, the metaphorical notion of a stratified society is taken for granted as linguistic, and thus conceptual, frame of reference for the analysis of social inequality. Against this, I want to posit that the conceptual equation of social and verti-cal inequality was only justified as long as there were good reasons to assume that the main conflicts concerning distributive inequality and its legitimacy are derived from the vertical structure of society. As soon as additional, non-vertical disparities gain importance, which is now the case, the metaphor of verticality itself turns into a hindrance to the further advancement of knowledge. This is even more strongly so if the restrictive model of stratified society is main-tained, which both Marxist and non-Marxist sociologists are inclined to do, as Ossowski (1963) showed.
eBook - PDFSociology
The Essentials
- Margaret L. Andersen; Howard F. Taylor, Margaret Andersen, Howard Taylor(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 170 CHAPTER 8 Social Differentiation and Social Stratification All social groups and societies exhibit social differentia-tion. Status , as we have seen earlier, is a socially defined position in a group or society. Different statuses develop in any group, organization, or society. Think of a sports organization. The players, the owners, the managers, the fans, the cheerleaders, and the sponsors all have a different status within the organization. Together, they constitute a whole social system, one that is marked by social differentiation. Two scenarios, one society. The difference is the mark of a society built upon class inequality. The signs are all around you. Think about the clothing you wear. Are some labels worth more than others? Do others in your group see the same marks of distinction and status in clothing labels? Do some people you know never seem to wear the “right” labels? Whether it is clothing, bathrooms, schools, homes, or access to health care, the effect of class inequality is enormous, giving privileges and resources to some and leaving others struggling to get by. Great inequality divides society. Nevertheless, most people think that equal opportunity exists for all in the United States. The tendency is to blame individuals for their own failure or attribute success to individual achievement. Many think the poor are lazy and do not value work. At the same time, the rich are admired for their supposed initiative, drive, and motivation.
eBook - PDFInequality
A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender
- Lisa A. Keister, Darby E. Southgate(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
This book provides the tools to evaluate the explanations that sociologists have offered for inequality and related patterns. It also is designed to direct students in developing their own explanation of inequality. These skills allow students to (1) better understand published research in this book and findings reported in the news and other sources; (2) formulate opinions and attitudes about social issues; and (3) effect change. The remaining chapters in this book explore current understanding of inequality by focus- ing on specific themes in the inequality literature. Chapter 2 presents important ideas that sociologists have proposed for understanding inequality. Chapter 3 describes strategies used to design, conduct, and evaluate social science research, which increasingly relies on quantitative data to adjudicate claims. Chapter 4 explores the structure of inequality and introduces ideas related to social class. The remaining chapters apply these basic concepts to issues such as how specific social classes differ; the degree to which people can change class; and the role of education, gender, race/ethnicity, culture, and country of origin in shaping these processes. SUMMARY (i) There is significant social inequality in the United States. There are more millionaires and billionaires now than at any other time in history, but the gap between rich and poor also has grown considerably in recent years. (ii) The United States is not unique in being unequal; all societies have some degree of inequality. Compared with many developed countries, however, inequality in the United States is severe. 22 1 Inequality and Opportunities (iii) Research on inequality aims to describe the sources and features of inequality, study the causes of inequality, and identify and evaluate solutions to related problems.
eBook - PDFSeeing Sociology
An Introduction
- Joan Ferrante(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. WHY INEQUALITY? 253 Depending on the setting, social structures empower and privilege some catego-ries of people while disempowering other categories. We can gain some insights by asking these questions: ● ● Can you think of times that you have felt penalized by one or more categories to which you belong or have been assigned? ● ● Can you think of times you felt empowered by one or more of those categories? ● ● Have you ever resisted being labeled as belonging to a category? ● ● Have you ever taken pride in a category to which you belong or felt superior to someone in another category? ● ● How are each of the various categories represented in the media? Do those repre-sentations make you proud or defensive? What Do Sociologists See? Sociologists see an advertisement that is clearly in a setting with a Chinese population, as evidenced by the lan-guage under the prod-uct name. Yet the model in the advertisement represents an ideal of beauty that is associ-ated with another racial category. This adver-tisement privileges the category “white” as the ideal of beauty marginalizing those in other racial category, in this case Asian. Critical Thinking Use the concept of intersectionality to write about the ascribed characteristics by which others know/perceive you. Key Terms intersectionality penalties privilege social inequalities NkU Sociology, Boni Li Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
- Ron Iphofen, Fiona Poland(Authors)
- 1998(Publication Date)
- Red Globe Press(Publisher)
add to the list other resources which you consider valuable. Remember the resources list in Chapter 2. How are such resources variously allocated to groups in terms of gender, class, age or ethnicity? Understanding inequality is particularly vital to explaining the uneven distribution of health resources. Differences in valued priorities play a part in decisions about allocating scarce health resources and in rewarding different kinds of health care work. For example, the structure of health occupations frequently reflects gender inequality. Patterns of wealth, status and power are reflected in the delivery of health services. As a consequence people differ in their access to healthy lifestyles, the resources to maintain health and the control of health-related services. Measuring social inequality To understand how a system of social stratification works we have to investigate its objective and its subjective features: how the system looks from both the point of view of an independent outside observer as well as from insiders' views and experiences of their place within the system. Objective features may not necessarily be more accurate, but they are easier to measure. Thus, in order to demonstrate that some social groups are less advantaged than others, sociologists will use occupation and income as indicators of differences in access to valued resources between social groups. Such information is relatively easy to obtain and offers a fair degree of accuracy. Ordinarily, we use the 111 Equal and Unequal Opportunities way in which people speak as a subjective criterion of their position in a social hierarchy. This is harder to measure precisely, but subjective experiences of the 'goodness' or 'badness', 'rightness' or 'wrongness', of inequality may be central to how far people support an unequal system, transmit it or enforce it in daily life.
eBook - PDF- Diana Kendall(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
According to Weber, the access that people have to important societal resources (such as economic, Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Classical Perspectives on Social Class ■ 195 social, and political power) is crucial in determining their life chances. To highlight the importance of life chances for categories of people, Weber developed a multidimensional approach to social stratification that reflects the interplay among wealth, prestige, and power. In his analysis of these dimensions of class structure, Weber viewed the concept of “class” as an ideal type (one that can be used to compare and contrast various societies) rather than as a specific social category of “real” people (Bourdieu, 1984). Wealth is the value of all of a person’s or family’s eco- nomic assets, including income, personal property, and income-producing property. Weber placed categories of people who have a similar level of wealth and income in the same class. For example, he identified a privileged commer- cial class of entrepreneurs—wealthy bankers, ship owners, professionals, and merchants who possess similar financial resources. He also described a class of rentiers—wealthy individuals who live off their investments and do not have to work. According to Weber, entrepreneurs and rentiers have much in common. Both are able to purchase expen- sive consumer goods, control other people’s opportunities to acquire wealth and property, and monopolize costly sta- tus privileges (such as education) that provide contacts and skills for their children.
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
