Social stratification

It is the societys categorization of people into socio-economic groups/strata based on a number of

factors.in modern western societies social stratification is divided into three social classes: the upper
class, the middle class, and the lower class. In turn each class can be subdivided into various strata.
Social stratification occurs in all societies be it tribal, feudal or industrial. This occurs because of social
inequality which means the greater the inequality the more the society may be stratified and the harder
it would be for individuals to move between the strata i.e. difficulty in social mobility.

Karl Marx on Social Stratification

According to him ones social class depends on the persons relationship to means of production. Every
class is divided into the owner i.e. the bourgeoisie who owns the mean of production and those who sell
their labor to the owner i.e. the proletariat. Marx also hints at the fact that the ruling class seems to own
the working class as they only have their labor to offer to the more powerful in order to survive. These
relationships at the end determine the ideas and philosophy of society. The ruling class or aristocracy
use their control over institutions i.e. the superstructures to legitimize their power and promote false
consciousness in order to persuade subject class that they are not being exploited. Due to these false
consciousness humans became increasingly alienated from there true selves and interests because they
work for other people and did not control or own the products they produced. The workers are also paid
less than the value of what they produce despite huge profits.

A counter argument to Marxist theory is that of structural functionalism which states that social
inequality places a vital role in the smooth functioning of the society. The Davis and Moore hypothesis
argues that a position doesnt bring power and prestige because of its high income but because it is
important and the available personnel scarce.

Karl Marx on social order

According to him power came primarily from economic ownership. The bourgeoisie therefore influence
all the aspects of society form politics to religion. He believed that social order is maintained not
through cooperation as Comte said but instead through conflict. The owner and non-owner
relationships are always characterized by conflict because they are based on domination of one group
on another. Another way the ruling class maintains order is through the deployment of superstructures
which are institutions they control such as education, religion and law through which they legitimize
there power using a mixture of persuasion and force. These superstructures are also a tool for informal
social control where the ruling class incorporate desired behavioural patterns into individuals of society.
Education for example for example doesnt only teach knowledge but also teach values such as
competition, a key value in capitalist societies. Most people are locked in a capitalist society because
they need to earn a living and also because of a range of ideas that support the status quo which are
spread through the media, another superstructure. Therefore Marxists think that socialization is a type
of ideological manipulation.
Criticism

The communist regimes of the 20th century did not eradicate poverty or inequality but instead tended to
be restrictive to individual liberty. Marxism exaggerates the importance of economic factors and thats
why is accused of economic determinism. Marxist pay little to no attention on other factors of society
such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality and age.

Structural Functionalism

Functionalism often describes society as a system of interconnected parts which function in unison with
each other. Society like a human body has certain needs or functional prerequisites that have to be met
in order for it to function properly. Social institutions exist to meet those needs. Functionalism focuses
on the social structures that shape our society and study how it contributes. Some functionalists accept
that there may be parts of society that may be dysfunctional, however generally little attention is paid.
There are two types of social functions manifest and latent. Manifest functions are obvious and
intended consequence of a particular structure, while latent functions are unintended or unrecognized.
For example the manifest function of schools is to provide education, however the latent function can
be socializing students.

Talcott Parsons see all societies as having a value consensus i.e. a general agreement on desired goals
and what is desirable and what is not. It doesnt matter what these values are, though members of
society would strictly be judged and ranked in accordance with it. Parsons believe that stratification is an
inevitable phenomena and all societies do make value judgments. He sees authority as necessary
because certain skills such as planning, organizing and leading require specific individuals. Stratification
for him unites people because it derives from shared values developed through social consensus. There
are four basic functional prerequisites according to him which are adaptation, goal attainment,
integration and pattern maintenance i.e. maintenance of values largely achieved through education,
religion and family life. Parsons saw change in terms of shift in values. For example before individual
status was based on ascription however now status is based on achievement and individuals are judged
according to universalistic standards set in place by society.

Davis and Moore on the other hand argue that social stratification is based on social necessity. One such
necessity is role allocation i.e. ensuring that roles are filled and performed effectively and
conscientiously by properly trained people. To ensure this a reward system is needed which rewards
individuals in accordance to their job importance. Those filling the most crucial jobs are highly rewarded
and form the higher stratum of society. The reward system according to them motivates people to
prosper. Thus inequality serves to social stability.

According to Emilie Durkheim societies needed collective consciousness i.e. shared morality in order to
function successfully. He believed that people are constrained by social facts i.e. ways of behaving.
These facts consist of moral codes that make up an individuals consciousness. Emilie Durkheim believes
that societies could be disrupted by anomie and egoism which stem from complex division of labor
Criticisms

However their argument is criticized by Melvin Tumin because according to him many low paid and
unskilled jobs are as important for the proper functionality of society. Another criticism is that
stratification demotivates individuals at the bottom instead because it doesnt produce equal
opportunity to all individuals. Stratification instead of uniting people increases hostility and encourage
suspicion and distrust. However structural functionalism is not effective in explaining change as it sees
society as fundamentally functional and stable. For example a structuralist functional perspective may
see poverty although harmful, as functional for society as it ensures that there would always be people
for work.

Structural functionalism focuses on how large structures fit together like gears and cogs helping society
to run smoothly. Conflict theory looks at how society defines and copes with sources of inequality and
conflict.

Symbolic interactionism

It is a micro theory focusing on how individuals create society i.e. how society is a product of individual
action and thought.

George Herbert Mead

Mead is seen as the founder of symbolic interactionism. He believes that human behaviour is social
because they interact in terms of symbols which are assigned certain shared meanings. For example the
symbol chair implies an object that you can sit on. Humans dont have instincts and thus need mutually
agreed symbols in order to survive and interact. Mead also believes that in order to understand the
behavior of others it is necessary to take the role of the other. Individuals all have a self- image of
themselves i.e. what sort of person they are. This largely reflects how other people react to them. By
imaging how others perceive us we build up a self-concept. For Mead society has a culture and a
plurality of social roles. These demand and imply certain behaviours form individuals. For example the
roles of a husband and wife. However according to him these roles are flexible and can change as certain
individuals may give them a slightly different degree of meaning.

Other interactionists such as Herbert Bulmer have developed on Meads approach. Bulmer emphasizes
that people do not react to external stimuli automatically but instead interpret it accordingly and then
react. He conveyed that the symbolic meanings were not rigid but flexible .

Criticism

Interactionists fail to explain where the norms which partly shape our behaviour comes from. They also
underestimate the degree to which human behavior is constrained. The role of structural factors such as
unequal distribution of power and inequality is also neglected.
Social Action Perspective Max Weber

Some social action and interpretivist perspectives deny the existence of a clear social structures which
guides our behaviour. Instead they take an intermediary approach between symbolic interactionism and
functionalism.

Max Weber

He combines the consideration of social structure with social action. Social action for him was
meaningful and intentional behaviour which takes into account the existence of others. He believed that
to explain social action one needs understanding understanding of what action means to people and
the motive behind it. Weber accepts the existence of institutions such as bureaucracies like in
functionalism, however he believes that it consists of individuals carrying out social actions. Weber saw
modern societies as being increasingly governed by rational social action while the pre modern societies
were governed by traditional social action i.e. people behaved in certain ways because their ancestors
had done so. Due to this there was far more capacity of innovation however to some extent
bureaucracies with strict rules muffled individual creativity. Weber was neither a materialist nor an
idealist but instead thought that both factors played a huge role in explaining human history.

Ritzer supports Webers perspective that capitalist societies drive towards bureaucratic organization and
rationalization in pursuit of profit. He calls it the Mcdonaldization based on contemporary and extreme
form of bureaucratization in which food is turned into a standard product. Giddens advocates
structuration theory where structure and action are two sides of the same coin. Structures make social
action possible but social action creates structures. Societal structures and institutions are reproduced
through peoples actions but if the actions change so do the structures. this is also an intermediary
perspective.

Criticism

He was criticized for being a Methodological Individualist i.e. someone who ignores the effect of the
social structures on individuals by Lee and Newby. Postmodernist deny the idea that modern society is
being increasingly characterized by rationalization.

Modernity and Post Modernity

Modern theories such as those of Durkheim, Marx and Weber argue that the objective truth about
society can be discovered. While Postmodernism argues against the idea of objective truth. Sociologists
think that there has been a transition from modernity to post modernity. Some disagree however.

The transition from pre modern to modern societies is associated with the advent of industrialization.
The start of modernity however was marked by the Enlightenment in which people rejected the idea
that thinking should be limited in any shape or form by religious beliefs. Weber saw the change to
modernity as triumph of scientific rationality over superstition, tradition and religious faith. Antony
Giddens believes that societies have entered the era of high modernity where societies are based upon
the characteristic of reflexivity in which people reflect upon the world and all aspects of their lives,
thinking about how to change it in the future to improve things. Giddens advocates structuration theory
where structure and action are two sides of the same coin. Structures make social action possible but
social action creates structures. Societal structures and institutions are reproduced through peoples
actions but if the actions change so do the structures.

Meanwhile Post-modernist believe that the grand theories cannot discover the truth as human society
cannot be perfected. Originally it developed in architecture where post-modernist rejected the use of
mainstream materials such as concrete.

post modernism is seen as having a number of consequences in contemporary society. According to

Pakulski and Waters class differences disappear as image becomes more important in determining
status. People also no longer have to act their age but can act however they want. Crook believes that
postmodern culture allows individuals to choose their own lifestyle options, for example through the
consumption of preferred goods thus be more individualistic. For example Baudrillard argues that
Marxist are wrong to see societies as based on production of material goods instead its based on the
production and sales of signs, images and icons. The image of a pop star is what sells rather than the
content itself.

Criticism

Philo and Miller believes that growth of consumerism and fragmentation of styles doesnt represent the
development of a new type of society. It can lead to political apathy because it denies the existence of
objective reality. It emphasizes on images but fails to challenge the distorted ones especially in media.
Post modernism also fails to register the growing inequality and the rise of corporations and also the
influence of free market forces on social life. Philosophers such as Noam Chomsky argues that post
modernism adds nothing to analytic and empirical knowledge.

Feminism

It is a conflict theory which sees a conflict of interest between male and female. They believe that most
of the society is heavily patriarchal. Feminists such as Abbott accuse mainstream sociology of having a
masculine preference. For example more studies have been conducted on men while matters
concerning women have been neglected.

Radical feminists have an extreme position where they believe that women are exploited by men as
they are the ruling class while women are the subject class. Gender inequality is explained in many ways.
Some believe it to be due to biological reasons while radical feminists believe more due to culture and
male violence. Firestone argues that sexual class system is the most fundamental form of stratification.
The biological family results in a woman having to burden things such as pregnancy, childbirth etc which
leads to them becoming dependent on men due to power psychology. Ortner sees female oppression as
being cultural. For Millet several factors play a role in maintaining female oppression such as biology,
ideological factors and socialization in family life. Myth and religion are also powerful tools of gender
inequality as the some of the biggest religions are quite patriarchal. Also a mixture of psychology and
physical abuse forces women to internalize patriarchal ideology and underpin male power.

Marxist and Socialist feminists sees capitalist systems as a source of feminine oppression. They have put
forward a number of reasons why gender inequality exists. Cootz and Henderson provide a materialist
explanation where the men became dominant due to the practice of patrilocality whereby the wife went
to the husbands family and thus the men gained control of the womens labor and the wealth she
produced. Marxist and Socialist feminists also explain how this inequality is maintained. Engels argued
that men retained power through access to work. He believed that the inequalities would reduce once
the women also became employed. Benston sees women as a reserve army of labor in a capitalist
society where male authority is maintained by keeping the wages low. Hartman believes that men
maintain their authority over women by denying them access to good paying jobs, and so they end up
depending on their husbands.

Liberal feminists associate gender inequality to sexism, discrimination, sex-role stereotyping and
socialization. Liberal feminists believe that substantial progress has to be made and in order to do so,
realistic and practical goals have to be met. Therefore liberal feminists believe in practicality. Walter
argues that there is a long way for feminists to go. For example women still tend to suffer from low
wages, burden of child bearing and rearing without childcare, domestic labor, poverty and physical and
sexual violence. Whelehan sees contemporary media to be a threat to feminism where women are
sexualized on male desire and pleasure. She believes that marketers are increasingly using Retro
Sexism to sell products. These are modern attitudes and behaviors that mimic sexist aspects in a an
ironic way. She also talks about the idea of singletons in media which depicts the ageing women getting
too old to have children. This plays upon womens fears of being without a man. Pop culture also creates the
myth of liberation for women through girl power which disguises the existence clear of oppression and
discrimination.

Black feminists see themselves as neglected by the white feminists because of their ignorance towards
racial differences between women.

Postmodernist feminism reject the idea that being a feminist means sharing a single common goal but
instead celebrates the difference between women such as lesbians and heterosexuals and their goals.
Postmodernist feminists reject the idea of progress and a single path to female liberation. Instead they
believe that female position can be improved by deconstructing male thinking. By allowing the voices of
different women to heard, the idea of women as inferior beings can be broken down. Walby accepts that
there are differences between groups of women but many still suffer from the effects of patriarchy which
to a degree gives women a shared goal and interest. Furthermore postmodernist feminist ignore areas
such as male use of violence to maintain power and gender inequalities at work.

Feminism have made substantial contribution to sociology and understanding of society. For example
feminism have highlighted the problem of male stream sociology, drawn attention to topics such as
housework and childbirth and help increase opportunities for women and raise consciousness of gender
inequality.

Criticism of feminism

Critiques believe that feminists exaggerate the idea of patriarchal society. They believe unlike liberal
feminists, that gender equality has been achieved. it is also argued that feminists are attempting to seek
higher status than men and are united on the basis of misandry despite having rights numerous rights
which include right of abortion, custody and child support etc.
Contemporary Theories

Death of Class

Postmodernist Pakulski and Waters believe that in contemporary society class is losing significance and
becoming more irrelevant. This is because lifestyle and identity are becoming more and more popular
sources of stratification. Sense of belonging to a particular class is fast disappearing. By the end of the
20th century stratification became based on cultural differences more than economic differences. For
example now some people with low paid jobs have higher status than higher paying jobs. Postmodernists
promote that stratification systems are becoming more and more fragmented and fluid. This explained
through a number reasons which are the increase in importance of educational qualifications, declining
importance of private property, a wider distribution of wealth, globalization and growth of new politics
based around non-class issues. Bradley criticizes that Pulaski and Waters disregard the importance of
economic class differences as you make lifestyle choices according to your economic potential.

Beck believes that society has moved on from being economically determined or driven. For example in
simple modernity conflict is primarily about distribution of wealth. In reflexive modernity technology
increases production and reduces material need making class division less important. However New
risks and challenges have emerged from such advance such as obesity, and infertility. These risks are
more personal and individual and thats why society has drifted away from class conflict. beck is criticized
for disregarding empirical research which shows that class still majorly shapes identity.

Hardening of Class

Westgard supports the Marxist/Webrian position that a persons position is determined by their economic
potential. He further adds by arguing that the inequality is increasing primarily due to government policies
and rise of transnational corporations. He accepts that lifestyle and consumption have increasingly
become related to identity however this he believes is due to economic stratification.