Social Stratification, Class and Inequality
Social Stratification, Class and Inequality tests whether you can describe structured inequality, measure it, and explain its reproduction. The exam rewards precise use of Irish data and concepts rather than moralising.
Core rules and concepts
- Stratification: ranked social layers based on class, status and power. Social class is commonly measured by occupation, education and income.
- Income versus wealth: income is a flow; wealth is a stock (property, savings, shares). Wealth inequality is typically far greater than income inequality.
- Poverty: absolute (below a fixed subsistence line) versus relative (below the median income of a society). Ireland's official consistent poverty measure combines at-risk-of-poverty (below 60% of median income) with enforced deprivation of at least two of eleven basic items.
- Gini coefficient: 0 = perfect equality, 1 = perfect inequality; Ireland typically sits around 0.29–0.30 in SILC data, near the EU average.
- Social mobility: movement between classes; meritocracy is the claim that rewards track ability and effort.
- Structural explanations: education, housing, health, labour markets and tax/transfer policy.
Worked example
Two households both earn €30,000, but one owns a home outright. Income measures alone miss the wealth gap. Use SILC deprivation indicators, housing costs and access to services. That is why analysts distinguish income poverty from material deprivation and why the consistent poverty measure is more revealing than headline income.
Traps
- Using income and wealth interchangeably.
- Confusing absolute with relative poverty.
- Explaining inequality only through individual choices.
- Quoting a Gini figure without saying which dataset or year.