Diane Hernandez

Sociology 1
November 30, 2014
Defining Stratifications
Social Stratification
Social stratification is a ranking of groups of people that is based on several factors like
economic standing, power, education and race within a society. Social class connects to social
stratification because it is one of the factors that is involved with social stratification. Being in a type of
social class in our society (i.e. upper, upper-middle, middle, working, and low class) also determines a
persons (or a group of peoples) ranking within our society. The four different systems of stratification
are slavery, caste, estate and class. Slavery is one of the harshest forms of stratification. This involves
people to be used as someone elses property and to do whatever the owner wants. An example of
slavery would be when people use immigrants (ex: a woman) as a sex slave and take advantage of them
by using their bodies as a form of making money. Castes are another type of rankings but different
because it is influenced by religion and doesnt change. An example of caste would be like the country in
India who used to practice it. They had different levels of castes, the highest being Brahman (priests)
and the lowest being Dalit (known as untouchables, not even having a place within the system). Estate is
another type of stratification that developed during the medieval Europe era. This is when noble people
owned land and use the land as a means to make money but allowing peasants to live in it but also
worked in those lands. An example would be people (the nobles) who owned land where higher in rank
and had more authority than those who had to pay and work to live there (the peasants). But through
time it changed and evolved into a class system. Class is a social stratification that is based on a persons
economic position in which they could move about in different levels of social classes. There are many
factors determining class, who you know, what you know, how much money you make, also whether or
not your born into a higher social class through your family. An example would be a doctor being
classified as upper-middle class because of his occupation, how much he earns, and his education.
Estate and class are two types of stratification that seem to be an open system, because there is a better
chance of social mobility. Slavery and Castes are more of a closed system because there is little to no
chance of a person to move up in social rankings. I think all four systems could reflect ascribed status,
because in every one of those systems a person could be born into that, not always a great situation but
it could happen. As for achieved status, I think that would involve estate and class. Although estate
doesnt really exists as much but if a person works hard they could one day own their own piece of land;
and in class if a person works hard as well, they could have a higher occupation position and earn more
money.
Means of Production
The means of production is the foundation of what makes the products, i.e. lands, factories,
tools and machines. Who owns the means of production is the people who own land, factories and
machinery. Those people have more power and would be known as the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class.
Their relationship to the means of production is that the bourgeoisie own the means. They are always in
competition against other capitalists. But that competition also affects the proletariats, by reducing
production costs. The proletariat are the working class, they are people who work in factories and on
the land; they dont really have much power. The proletariats relationship to the means of production is

that they are affected by it, they get paid cheap labor, and this causes conflict and pressure on the
laborers because they are also competing against other unskilled workers on a global scale. Class
consciousness was when the proletariat came to an awareness that they wanted to bring attention
through using political action in order to create social change. Dominant ideology is a set of beliefs that
were used in order to help maintain giving powers to social, economic and political interests. False
consciousness was an attitude that was used by members of a class and it falsely reflected their
positions.
Weber's Definitions of Class, Status Group & Party
In the term class, Weber uses it as a form of talking about a group of people that all have a
similar level of economic resources. Weber determines someones class he uses two factors: material
resources and skill knowledge. Weber takes into consideration other factors like savings and stocks
when talking about class position. Status group refers more to the social aspect. This deals more with
the people of a same level of social standing and social groups. A doctor would be seen as having higher
status as opposed to an immigrant, the dominant group would see them in a low status position. Party is
a group that focuses on organizing in order to achieve a goal. Usually this is referred to political parties,
but could also be used by people or a group that want to accomplish a goal, like a movement for a
cause. Webers views of social class differs than Marxs views because in Webers, there is much more to
social class. In Webers views, there are more factors that lead to determine what social class a person
fits into. In contrast, Marxs views seems to be simpler, but not broad enough. His views were basically
that there was two classes, the bourgeoisies, and the proletariat. Marxs views were that the
bourgeoisie was the people who controlled the means of production. Marx took more into
consideration that the capitalist group had more ownership than those of the proletariat, who lacked
ownership. But he didnt focus on other factors like status groups and parties like Weber did. Weber
focused on other things like how important skillful knowledge would be because that would be
beneficial to our class positions.
Cultural Capital
Cultural capital is linked to class differences because each class difference has a different
cultural capital. Because cultural capital is our tastes, knowledge, languages, and our ways of thinking;
someone who has a higher class status has different tastes than those of a lower status. Someone in a
higher class who has more of an education, might have interest in classical music. But someone in a
middle or low class that doesnt have much or any education, or the social group they are associated
with might have a taste for rap music and reality television. Cultural capital is linked to power
differences because someone who has a higher cultural capital has more power, or the ability to hold
more power over others who have lower cultural capital. Someone who has a higher class standing may
know others who can help them get a job because they come from the same social class standing as
opposed to someone who is seen as lower class and tries to apply for that same job but lacks the
cultural sophistication. Material resources involves our own economic resources that we own, like
money and land. Social resources involves our social positions within a group and the people we know
that could help benefit and improve our own social resources. Cultural resources is the kind of tastes
we express interest in, our languages and the way we look at the world. The way cultural capital is
expressed in attire, housing, vacations, food and sport is that someone who has higher cultural capital is
seen as a person who dresses well, lets say a nice suit, made from a designer brand made of a better
quality of fabrics. They own nice homes in nice areas and their houses would be well maintained on the
inside and on the outside as well. When those people go on vacation, they would take lavish vacations

to other countries or elite beaches exclusively for a higher class. They would also eat expensive food and
dine and posh restaurants. Their interests in sports would also be different, they would participate or
watch golf or other cultural sports like badminton. Now as for someone who lacks cultural capital they
would dress more causal in jeans and a t-shirt, probably from an unknown brand made of cheaper
fabrics like nylon. They would live in an apartment, or own a home in a bad neighborhood. Their
vacations would be short, and probably somewhere not too far away. Or if they could afford a decent
vacation, they probably go into debt for that vacation. As with food and sport, they wouldnt eat at
fancy expensive restaurants, and watch more unsophisticated sports like wrestling or football. Prestige
involves the respect and proudness that a job holds in our society. Esteem is when a person has earned
a reputation (could be a good or a bad one) in a job. Socioeconomic status is a form of measuring class
used by researchers. Factors that determine help SES include income, education and jobs. Absolute
poverty deals with the lowest level of poverty that no family should be live with. If someone is in
absolute poverty they cannot afford to survive in their situation. Relative poverty is when there are poor
people who can afford some type of living but judged through society it still seems that their lifestyle is
seen as poor because they cant afford things that a society would feel is important but not so important
for the individual themselves.