Lecture note - Stratification Class and inequality 1

Understanding Stratification
Systems of Stratification

Ascribed Status: 
A social position assigned to a person without regard for that person’s unique characteristics or talents.
Achieved Status: 
A social position attained by a person largely through his or her own effort. 

Systems of Stratification
Ascribed Status: 
A social position assigned to a person without regard for that person’s unique characteristics or talents.
Achieved Status: 
A social position attained by a person largely through his or her own effort. 

Perspectives on Stratification
Karl Marx on Class Differentiation
Class differentiation is the crucial determinant of social, economic, and political inequality.
Class struggle as the result of the conflict between owners and workers.
Exploitation of the working class, or proletariat, will lead to the destruction of capitalist society. 

Max Weber’s View
Weber insisted that class does not totally define a person’s position with the stratification system
According to Weber, each of us has not 
one, but three ranks in society:
- Class
- Status
- Power 

Understanding Stratification
Systems of Stratification
Poverty
Approximately one out of every nine people in the United States lives below the poverty line.
Is measured by purchasing power
Sociologists distinguish different types of poverty:
Absolute poverty

Relative poverty