Social Stratification: Process and Structure
Inequality as structure and process
Stratification is the ranked, patterned distribution of resources, power, and prestige. This domain asks both how inequality is structured (class, caste, status) and how it is reproduced (mobility, socialization, discrimination).
Concepts to master
- Systems of stratification: slavery, caste (ascribed, closed), class (achieved, open, with mobility).
- Class models: Marx (bourgeoisie/proletariat, relation to means of production) vs. Weber (class, status, party-three dimensions).
- Socioeconomic status (SES): income, education, occupation combined.
- Social mobility: vertical (up/down) vs. horizontal (lateral); intergenerational vs. intragenerational.
- Poverty: absolute (below a fixed threshold) vs. relative (below prevailing standards); the culture of poverty thesis is contested.
- Race, ethnicity, gender, and age as axes of stratification; intersectionality shows overlapping disadvantages.
- Structural explanations: discrimination, residential segregation, and unequal schooling reproduce advantage across generations.
Traps to watch
- Confusing caste with class-caste is ascribed and closed; class permits mobility.
- Mixing up Weber's dimensions-class is economic, status is prestige, party is power.
- Absolute vs. relative poverty-check whether a fixed line or a comparison is described.
- Treating poverty as purely individual-structural items demand structural answers.
Rule of thumb
Ask whether the example involves movement (mobility) or reproduction (structure)-then match the concept.
Worked example
A child raised in a low-income household attains a professional degree and higher earnings than their parents. This is intergenerational upward vertical mobility-movement between generations, and upward in rank.