INEQUALITY, CLASS AND

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Social inequality is characterized by the existence of

unequal opportunities and rewards for different

social positions or statuses within a group or society.

Social inequalities are differences in income,

resources, power and status within and between

societies.

SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Social Inequality can be studied as a social problem

encompassing three dimensions

1. Structural Conditions - include things that can be

objectively measured and that contribute to social

inequality. (Power, Wealth, Occupations or Educational

Attainment)

2. Ideological Supports - include things that support the social

inequality present in a society. (Laws, Public Policies)

3. Social Reforms - Sociologists study how these social

reforms help shape or change social inequality that exists

in a society, as well as their origins, impact, and long -term

affects. (Organized Resistance, Protest Groups, Social

Movements)

SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Inequality of Conditions

Refers to the unequal distribution of income,

wealth and material goods.

Ex: Housing

Inequality of Opportunities

Refers to the unequal distribution of life

chances across individuals.

Ex: Education, Health Status

TWO MAIN WAYS TO MEASURE

INEQUALITY

Functionalist theory

Believe that inequality is inevitable and desirable and

plays an important function in society.

Important positions in society require more training

and thus should receive more rewards.

Social inequality and social stratification, according

to this view, lead to a meritocracy based on ability.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY

According to Davis & Moore , “Social inequality is an

unconsciously evolved device by which societies

insure that the most important positions are

conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons.”

Conflict theory

View inequality as resulting from groups with power

dominating less powerful groups.

They believe that social inequality prevents and

hinders societal progress as those in power repress

the powerless people in order to maintain the status

quo.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY

SOCIAL CLASS

Social class refers to the social structural

hierarchical positions groups hold relative to the

economic, social, political, and cultural resources of

society.

Refers to a group of people with similar levels of

wealth, influence, and status.

It shapes the access that different groups have to

the resources of society and it shapes many

interactions that people have with each other.

SOCIAL CLASS

Class is almost universal phenomenon. It occurs in

all the modern complex societies of the world. Each

social class has its own status in the society. Status

is associated with prestige.

It includes mode of dress, kind of living the means of

recreation and cultural products one is able to enjoy,

the relationship between parent and children.

SOCIAL CLASS

Upper Class - is a largely self-sustaining group of the

wealthiest people in a class system.

Middle Class - consists primarily of "white collar"

workers with a broad range of incomes.

Lower Class - consists of people who are poor and

typically have lower levels of literacy than other

classes.

DIVISION OF SOCIAL CLASS

Class as Subjective location - it revolves around life

styles, in others around occupations, and in still

others around income levels.

Class as objective position within distributions - class

is defined in terms of material standards of living,

usually indexed by income or, possibly, wealth.

Class as the relational explanation of economic life

chance - Class, in this usage, is contrasted to the

many other determinants of a person’s life chances.

Ex: geographical location, race or gender, or genetic

endowments.

VARIETIES OF CLASS CONCEPT

Karl Marx

based on his conflict theory on the idea that modern

society has only two classes of people: the

bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of

production while the proletariat are the workers.

According to Marx, the bourgeoisie in capitalist

societies exploit workers. The owners pay them

enough to afford food and a place to live, and the

workers, who do not realize they are being exploited,

have a false consciousness, or a mistaken sense,

that they are well off.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASS

Max Weber

Weber argued that owning property, such as factories

or equipment, is only part of what determines a

person’s social class.

Social class for Weber included power and prestige,

in addition to property or wealth. People who run

corporations without owning them still benefit from

increased production and greater profits.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASS

Prestige and Property

Weber argued that property can bring prestige, since

people tend to hold rich people in high regard.

Prestige can also come from other sources, such as

athletic or intellectual ability.

Power and Wealth

Weber believed that social class is also a result of

power, which is merely the ability of an individual to

get his or her way, despite opposition.

Wealthy people tend to be more powerful than poor

people, and power can come from an individual’s

prestige.

Davis and Moore: The Functionalist

Perspective

Sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore

believed that stratification serves an important

function in society.

Davis and Moore believed that an unequal

distribution of society’s rewards is necessary to

encourage people to take on the more complicated

and important work that required many years of

training.

They believed that the rewards attached to a

particular job reflect its importance to society.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASS

Melvin Tumin

Took issue with Davis and Moore’s theory. He

disagreed with their assumption that the relative

importance of a particular job can always be

measured by how much money or prestige is given to

the people who performed those jobs.

Tumin found that gender and the income of an

individual’s family were more important predictors

than ability or what type of work an individual would

do.

THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASS

Social structure is the organized pattern of social

relationships and social institutions that together

compose society.

Social structures are not immediately visible to the

untrained observer, however they are present and

affect all dimensions of human experience in society.

In every society there is a structural system, the

society wishes to preserve it and is not interested in

changing that unless there are sound reasons for the

same.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Radcliffe – Brown defines social structure as “an

arrangement of persons in institutionally controlled

and defined relationships such as the relationship of

king and subject, or that of husband and wife”.

1. Social Interaction - is the process by which

people act toward or respond to other people

and is the foundation for all relationships

and groups in society.

2. Status and Role – it is socially defined

position in society characterized by certain

expectations, rights, and duties.

Ascribed status - social position based on attributes

over which the individual has little or no control, such

as race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL

STRUCTURE

Achieved status - social position that a person

assumes as a result of personal choice, merit, or

direct effort.

Role - A set of behavioral expectations

associated with a given status learned in the

socialization.

3. Social Groups - consists of two or more

people who interact frequently and share a

common identity and a feeling of

interdependence.

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL

STRUCTURE

Émile Durkheim

argued that parts of society are interdependent and

that this interdependency imposes structure on the

behavior of institutions and their members.

In other words, Durkheim believed that individual

human behavior is shaped by external forces.