SOCI101 Lecture 6

Dear Students,

We meet after a long delay, these two weeks have been a process of transition for me. This is why we have not met as usual. But the transition is becoming the new normal, and I am able to work everything into a schedule. So we will not have any delays in the future.

We continue our discussion on how social order is possible. We analyze how people create social systems with the understanding that coercion and injustice are possible, even when we do think that society is fair and just.

Different systems of stratification exist in different cultures and societies. As we saw in the film “The eye of the storm” any attribute could be used to create a system of stratification in which people are ranked into different social locations in which certain people are considered higher or lower than others.

An important aspect of stratification in this society is that of social class. Please read chapter ten of your textbook for today’s lesson. I was a little surprised when reading some of your posts a while ago that some of you thought social class did not exist in America. Since there is some contention about its existence let us attempt to capture this in some form of definition. Is social class based solely on wealth and income? What do you think? Is it an economic ranking? If so, would you consider a multi-millionaire drug dealer upper class? What else is social class based on? Is it based on particular social etiquette and patterns of behavior? Is it based on the networks you are embedded in?

Let us take an example- Michael and Mortimer are born on the same day and are therefore subject to the same larger historical events. Let’s us say that they also have similar abilities and talents. Michael is born to parents who belong to the top one percent of America’s wealthy, old money. His parents are boarding school and Ivy League educated, his grandparents sit on boards on large corporations and also have vibrant political connections. Mortimer’s parents are middle class people who are the first generation out of the working class. They live on their monthly paychecks which provides for necessities and quite a few luxuries.

Michael’s parents are able to send him to the same private boarding schools that they went to, and move him from there to the Ivy League. These private boarding schools not only provide an enviable education but also provide the place in which strong networks are built. These boarding schools also become recruiting grounds for Ivy League universities. Mortimer, on the other hand does not have this easy route, even though he has the same abilities.

From a functionalist perspective social class is based on a division of labor according to one’s ability. However, we see that this is not the case. We see that those of an established, upper class have access to resources such as wealth, education, social and political networks that keeps the wealth flowing within these links. In the social sciences we call this the reproduction of wealth.

Functionalism will also point to social mobility to claim that those at the bottom can rise up, and that there is ample opportunity to rise up. Even as conflict theorists admit that there is upward mobility, they

point out that this system of social class rests ultimately on the unequal distribution of resources. They demonstrate that those who are higher in the stratification ladder control the distribution because they are the ones who set the rules. The textbook gives us the example of the US congress. The average per capita net worth of the ten wealthiest members is about 210 million.

One of the important theorists of the inequity of social class is Karl Marx. Karl Marx focuses our attention to two group of people, the capitalists ( or the bourgeoisie) who own the means of production such as land, wealth, factories and the workers who sell their labor to the capitalists. The workers are exploited by the capitalists, but the workers do not revolt because they have come to accept the belief system of the capitalists and allow themselves to be exploited. According to Marx, this is a state of FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS. False consciousness takes root because it is the capitalist class who influence important social institutions.

Max Weber, another important theorist brings in the social aspect of class. Weber says that social class is more than a struggle between the rich and the poor. Prestige plays an important part of social class. Prestige can come from education, family background and other factors.

The textbook has many examples of how the upper class of society is able to buffer itself against death and disaster. One of the examples the book points us to is that the people who died in when the Titanic sank were disproportionately from the third class.

Other systems of stratification have been slavery, the caste system, the estate system of lords and fiefs. Be very careful before you assume any system of stratification is completely closed to mobility. These systems have changed and opened because the people who have been oppressed have mounted rebellions and revolutions against these systems, sometimes at the price of their lives.

For the discussion board I would like you to think of how social class plays into your life. Please feel free to make up an example if you do not wish to draw from your own life.