SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Irish Verone Mendoza Polidario
4th year Social Studies Major

Meaning & Nature
• Social Stratification refers to the ranking of individuals
and groups in any given society.
• Tends to be transmitted from one generation to
another.
• Hierarchical arrangement and establishment of social
categories that may evolve into social groups as well as
of statuses and their corresponding roles.
• Separating people or objects into categories

Social Structure
• Differentiation of statuses and social roles into
ranked orders.
• “Institutionalized Inequality”
Social Process
• Splitting up of society into social categories that
develop into social groups cooperating,
competing, conflicting- for the status quo or
social change
Social Problem
• Involves bitter feelings of discontent and of
strong demands for equality or social justice.

Basic Concepts of Inequality
• The situation in which the economic goods in
a society are distributed unevenly among
different groups or categories of people.

Macro Concept of Social Stratification
ATTRIBUTIONS
• It assigns to people
different attributes as a
result of differences. People
are treated differently due
to their presumed ethnic
characteristics.
STEREOTYPE
• One assumes that persons
who falls into a particular
category on the basis of
certain characteristics also
have many characteristics
that we assume to belong
to that category

SELF-FULFILLING
PROPHESIS
• Once we categorize people
through assigning a
stereotype, our perception
of their behaviour is being
filtered through that
stereotype. As a
consequence, the person
may begin to act as we
expect him or het to act.
SOCIAL COMPARISONS
• People need to compare
themselves with others in
order to establish for
themselves what kind of
people they are.

A FAIR WORLD
• People are more concerned
about establishing equity
(just division of rewards)
than equality (equal division
of rewards)
JUST WORLD
HYPOTHESIS
• People like to believe that
there is justice, that people
get what they deserve.

• Social psychological research indicates
that people make attributions about
themselves and others, compare
themselves with others, form
judgement about who is better and
who is better and develop beliefs that
justify inequalities.

Social differentiation has been made distinct from social
stratification.
Differentiation refers to how things or people can be
distinguished from one another. People may be
differentiated on the basis of the colors of their skin, colors
of hair, and the like.
Stratification refers to the ranking of things or people. In
closed stratification, people cannot change their rankings,
In open stratification, people can change their ranking.

DIMENSIONS OF STRATIFICATION
These are categories that separate people or objects

Wealth and Income
• What people own and
inherit is called wealth.
It consists of the value
of everything a person
or group owns.
• Income refers to how
much people get. It is
the amount of money
one person or group
receives

Inequalities of power
• Sociologists define
power as the ability to
control one’s life
(personal power) and to
control or influence the
action of others.

Inequalities of prestige
• Social recognition that a
person or group
receives from others.
• Esteem, respect or
approval that is granted
by an individual or a
collectivity for
performance or
qualities they consider
above the average.
• Societies differ in what
attributes they attach
prestige to:
– Religion, holiness, zeal
– Occupational ranking
– Consumption patterns
– Leisure activities
– Membership in
organizations

Methods of Determining Class Division
• Subjective Method. Personal ascription of the
class one belongs to.
• Reputational Method. Old-timers identify the
social classes that exist in the community and
to place each resident in one or another
category.
• Objective Method. Division according to
income, occupation, education and type of
residence.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL
STRATIFICATION

Conflict Theory (Karl Marx)
1. Stratification is the result of the struggle among
people for scarce rewards and it persists in
society because the “haves” are determined
(exploiters) and equipped to preserve their
advantage by dominating and exploiting the
“have nots” (exploited).
2. Class conflict over material privilege and power;
those who own the means of production
(capitalists or bourgeoisie) and those who sell
their labor (worker or proletariat)

3. Viewed the: nation or state as an instrument
of oppression; religion as a method of
diverting and controlling the masses; the
family as a devise of keeping wealth and
education in the hands of the few
4. People’s lives are centered on how they deal
with the material world. The key issue is how
wealth is distributed among the people

5. Four ways in which wealth can be distributed
– To each according to need. Basic economic needs of
all of the people are satisfied.
– To each according to want. Wealth is distributed
according to what people desire and request.
– To each according to what is earned.
– To each according to what can be taken- by using
whatever means. Everyone ruthlessly attempts to
acquire much wealth as possible without regard for
the hardship that might be brought on others.

Conflict Theory (Max Weber)
1. People are motivated by self interest.
2. Group conflict is a basic ingredient of society
3. Those who do not have property can defend
their interests less well than those who have
property
4. Economic institutions are of fundamental
importance in shaping the rest of society

Conflict Theory (Max Weber)
5. Those in power promote ideas and values
that help them maintain their dominance
6. Only when exploitation becomes extremely
obvious will the powerless their dominance.

Functionalist Theory (Kingley Davis and
Wilbert Moore)
• If all the positions that have to be filled in a
society were equally important and everyone
were equally capable of doing their jobs, there
would be no need of stratification. But this is
not the case. Some tasks are clearly more
necessary than others, and some require a
great deal more talent and training.
• Social inequality is viewed as both necessary
and constructive.

Similarities of Stratification Theories (
Theodore D. Kemper)
• Both theories acknowledge that the evaluation of
the contributions of jobs to society also
determines unequal rewards.
• The Marxist theory leans heavily on the
significance of power in the distribution of
resources; while the functionalist emphasize the
necessity of assigning some position or work
higher status than others.
• Both theories recognize that social power plays a
part in determining the unequal distribution of
rewards.

Comparison of Stratification Theories
Functionalist View
1. Stratification is universal,
necessary and inevitable
2. Social organization (the
social system) shapes the
stratification system
Conflict Theory
1. Stratification may be
universal without being
necessary and inevitable
2. The stratification system
shapes social
organizations (social
system)

Functionalist View
3. Stratification arises from
the societal need for
integration, coordination
and cohesion
4. Stratification facilitates
the optimal functioning of
society and the individual
Conflict Theory
3. Stratification arises from
group conquest,
competition, and conflict
4. Stratification impeded the
optimal functioning of
society and the individual

Functionalist View
5. Stratification is an
expression of commonly
shared social values
6. Power is usually
legitimately distributed in
society
Conflict Theory
5. Stratification is an
expression of the values
of powerful groups
6. Power is usually
illegitimately distributed
in society

Functionalist View
7. Tasks and rewards are
equitably allocated.
8. The economic dimensions
is subordinate to other
dimensions of society
Conflict Theory
7. Tasks and rewards are
inequitably allocated.
8. The economic dimension
is paramount in society

Functionalist View
9. Stratification systems
generally change through
evolutionary processes
Conflict Theory
9. Stratification systems
often change through
revolutionary process.

TYPES OF
STRATIFICATION
SYSTEM

Open System (Class System)
• Positions are awarded on the basis of merit,
and rank is tied to individual achievements.
• Status is said to be achieved depending on
what the individual accomplishes and what he
can do by his own efforts.
• It provides people with an equal chance to
succeed.

Open System (Class System)
• It consists of a category of people who share
similar opportunities, similar economic and
vocational positions, similar lifestyles, and
similar attitudes and behaviour.
• Class boundaries are maintained by limitations
on social interaction, intermarriage, and
mobility into that class.

Closed System (Caste System)
• Status is ascribed and determined at birth and
people are locked into their parent’s social
position.
• Ascribed characteristics determine social
position, and individuals opportunities are
limited accordingly.
• Caste lines are clearly defined and legal and
religious sanctions are applied to those who
attempt to cross them

Closed System (Caste System)
• It is a rigid system. People are born into and
spend their entire lives within a caste with
little chance of leaving it.
• Contact between castes is minimal and is
governed by a set of rules or laws.
• Access to valued resources is extremely
unequal

Estate System
• A person’s social position is based on
ownership of land, birth or military strength.
• An estate is a segment of a society that has
legally established rights and duties.

Social Stratification in Various
Countries
1. People who have
made it
2. People who are doing
very well
3. People who have
achieved the middle
class dream
4. People who have
comfortable life
5. People who are just
getting by
6. People who are
having a difficult time
7. People who are poor

Typical of Class System (Fichter)
• Upper Class have great wealth, often going back
for many generations; are recognized by
reputation and lifestyle; have an influence on the
society’s basic economic and political structures.
• Upper- Middle Class is made up of successful
business and professional people and their
families; Have a college education, own property
and have money savings; live comfortably in
exclusive areas

• Lower- Middle Class shares many characteristics
with the upper middle class but they have not
been able to achieve the same lifestyle because
of economic or educational shortcomings; usually
high school or vocational education graduates
with modest incomes; less professionals, clerical,
and sales workers
• Working Class is made up of factory works and
other blue-collar workers

• Lower Class are people at the bottom of the
economic ladder. They have little in the way of
education or occupational skills and are
consequently either unemployed or
underemployed.

SOCIAL MOBILITY
• The movement of an individual or
group within a stratification that
changes the individual’s or group’s
status in society
• The degree of mobility depends on (1)
rules governing how people gain or
keep their positions; and (2) structural
changes in society.

Power
• It is the ability to attain
goals, control events
and maintain influence
over others- even in the
face of oppositions
• People empowerment is
a movement aimed at
liberating the poor
people from their
poverty, and the
powerless people from
their situation.

Prestige
• It consists of approval
and respect an
individual or group
receives from other
members of society
1. Esteem consists of the
appreciation and
respect a person wins
in his or her daily
interpersonal
relationships.
2. Honor that is
associated with
specific statuses in
society

Wealth
• The total economic
assets of the individual
or a family are known
as a wealth.
• Poverty is a condition in
which people do not
have enough money to
maintain a standard of
living that includes the
basic necessity of life.

Upward/ Vertical Mobility
• Movement of individuals or groups from lower
to higher status in social stratification system
(or vice versa)
• Operate intragenerationally- social change
during the lifetime of one individual; or
intergenerationally- changes in the social level
of a family through two or more generations.

Factors affecting upward mobility
• The policy and practice of immigration into a
total society and into a local community
• Differential fertility of social classes
• Presence or absence of individual competition
as a value in the culture
• Availability of opportunities to prepare one’s
self for the competitive process.
• Pattern of equality and inequality in a society
(religion, sex, ethnic plurality and the like)

Compensation for Downward Mobility
• Disappointments and frustrations are
cushioned by the traditional conservatism of
middle class
• Have little contact with his former associates
of higher status
• Rationalization of the mobility
• There is no significant status visibility
• Consolation that children may regain social
status that one has himself lost

Horizontal Mobility
• May come about because of changing one’s
occupation, marrying into a certain family and
others.
• Movement involves a change in status with no
corresponding change in social class

Geographical Migration/ Physical
Mobility
• Movement from one geographical spot to
another
• Includes forced relocation of large groups of
people, eviction, and dispossession of unwanted
people, voluntary permanent migration from one
country to another, or from one region to
another within the same country, as well as local
residential changes.
• Fluidity exemplified by people commuting from
home to office or factory, making business trips
and taking vacations.

Types of Geographical Migration
• Voluntary Migration refers to the voluntary
movement of people from one geographical
area to another
• Forced migration includes expulsion of
unwanted people, the herding people into
reservation areas and concentration camps,
the transportation of enslaved individuals and
groups

Reasons for Voluntary Migration
• Economic factor. This refers to the desire of
people to seek better food supplies, workers
looking for better living.
• Political reason. Some people move to escape
from political oppression and racial
discrimination; or political asylum to other
countries
• Religious liberty. Some people move to enjoy
religious liberty in response to existing religious
persecutions in their country

Reasons for Voluntary Migration
• Educational opportunities. Some avail
themselves of educational opportunities
prevailing in other areas due to the presence
of colleges and university in other areas.
• Natural or man-made calamities (floods,
denudation, volcanic eruption, earthquake)

Effects of Migration
• Diffusion of culture means contact and
communication between people who had
been culturally and geographically isolated.
• Biological mixture
• Urbanization of the culture. Urban ways of
thinking and acting, urban social relations and
structures and increasing secondary
associations.

Role Mobility
• It is the shifting from role to role
• Every person enacts multiples roles, even
while he remains a total, integrated
personality. His participation in different
groups and in different situations call for
enactment of various roles.
• There is normal successive assumption of new
roles.
• Occupational mobility causes shifting of roles.

Factors Affecting Social Mobility
• Hard work.
• Social structure.
• Societal values and
norms.
• Level of education.
• Marriage
• Luck

Mobility and Social Personality
• Higher status is the result of personal
achievement.
• There as many channels of social mobility as
they are social roles the person enacts.
• Striving for higher status is often accompanied
by certain strains and frustrations
• Downward social mobility carries it own costs
and personal costs.

Education and Social Mobility
• The amount of education a person has
constitute one of the most important criteria
of social status.
• Those who receive higher education may use
it as a stepping stone to a higher social status

Social Mobility and Success
• Success in life is always attached to upward
social mobility.
• The values of activity, success and quantity are
extremely improtant from the point of view of
social mobility.
• Upward mobility means for any individual that
he enjoys higher status than he previously
had, and this is in itself valued as an
achievement.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

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