PowerPoint Presentation
prepared by
Terri Petkau, Mohawk College
CHAPTER SIX
Social Stratification
Harvey Krahn
INTRODUCTION
• Will examine:
 Types of stratification systems
 Explanations of social stratification
 Occupations, social class, and inequality in
Canada
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
 Occupational mobility in Canada
 Distribution of wealth in Canada
 Material inequality and the poor in Canada*
6-3
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
• Social stratification:
 Refers to persistent patterns of social
inequality in a society
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 Is perpetuated by the way wealth, power,
and prestige are distributed and passed
on from one generation to the next
 Exists in all societies*
6-4
FEATURES OF SOCIAL
HIERARCHIES
• Status: Rank or position in a social
hierarchy
• Statuses may be:
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i. Ascribed (assigned at birth), or
ii. Achieved (earned by performance)*
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TYPES OF STRATIFICATION
SYSTEMS
1. Open stratification system:
 Stratification system in which merit rather than
inheritance (ascribed characteristics) determines
social rank
 Allows for social change
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• Is reflected in a meritocracy:
 Positions are achieved, not ascribed
 Characterized by equal opportunity and high
social mobility (movement up or down a social
hierarchy)*
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TYPES OF STRATIFICATION
SYSTEMS
2.

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
Closed stratification system
Stratification system in which inheritance rather
than merit determines social rank
Little social change possible
•


Reflected in a caste system:
Positions are ascribed, not achieved
Characterized by little social mobility
•
Although Canada is in principal a meritocracy,
ascribed statuses still play an important role*
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CLASS AND CLASS
STRUCTURE
• Class: Position in an economic hierarchy
occupied by individuals or families with similar
access to, or control over, material resources
(e.g., working class, professional class)
• Class structure: Relatively permanent economic
hierarchy comprising different social classes
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• Socioeconomic status: Person’s general status
within an economic hierarchy, based on income,
education, and occupation*
6-8
EXPLANATIONS OF
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
• Several theories or explanations of social
stratification
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• Accounts offered by Marx, Weber, Davis
and Moore, Lenski, Wright, and Parkin
 Understandings are mediated by time and
place in which social theories developed*
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MARX ON
STRATIFICATION
•
Writings focus particularly on 19th century
European world rapidly being changed by
industrial capitalism
 Industrial Revolution: Tremendous increase in
level of economic production and degree of
inequality
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•
Key concepts in Marx’s theory:
 Mode of production: Overall system of economic
activity (e.g., slavery, capitalism)…*
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MARX ON
STRATIFICATION
•
Mode of production comprises:
i.
Means of production: Technology,
capital investments, raw materials
used in production
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ii. Social relations of production:
Relationships between main classes
involved in production*
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MARX: SOCIAL CLASSES
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•
Two major classes within industrial capitalism:
i.
The bourgeoisie: Owners of the means of
production
ii.
The proletariat: Workers who exchange their
labour for a wages
•

Secondary class:
The petite bourgeoisie: Independent owners/
producers (e.g., farmers) and small business
owners*
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MARX: EXPLOITATION
• Exploitation of wage labourers was
result of surplus value:
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When proceeds from sale of goods
produced by wage-labourers far
exceed cost of wages, raw materials,
etc.
Surplus value then turned into profits
for owners (i.e., capitalists)*
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MARX: CLASS CONFLICT
• Class conflict: Conflict between major classes
within a mode of production
 Is driving force behind social change
 Eventually leads to evolution of new mode of
production
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• Envisioned capitalism being replaced with
socialist mode of production (i.e., no private
property with its attendant exploitation and
inequality)*
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MARX: CLASS
CONSCIOUSNESS AND
REVOLUTION
• Theorized workers would develop classconsciousness:
 Recognition by members of a class of their shared
interest in opposition to members of another class
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 Would lead to revolutionary upheaval and
eventually classes society based on collective
ownership of means of production (e.g.,
communism)*
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RESPONSES TO MARX
•
Criticized for predictions not finding support in:
i.
Later capitalist societies, which were
characterized by absence of widespread class
conflict, growth of the middle class, and relative
decline in material inequality in 20th century
Example: Western Europe and North America

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ii.

Later socialist systems of government, which
were characterized by persistent inequality, and
new hierarchy that controls political and
bureaucratic apparatus
Example: Russia*
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WEBER ON
STRATIFICATION
•
Focused on determinants of power: Ability to
impose one’s wishes on others
•
i.
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Structural basis of power:
Class (power derived from position in economic
hierarchy)
ii. Status (power derived from culturally and socially
defined position that person occupies in a group)
iii. Party (political power)
•
Power depends on one’s location in these three
structures*
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WEBER: SOCIAL CLASS
AND LIFE CHANCES
• Gave primary emphasis in social stratification to
economic underpinnings
• Claimed there was larger variety of class
positions than found in Marx’s theory
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• Emphasized life chances:
 Opportunities (or lack thereof) for higher standard
of living and a better quality of life that are
available to members of a given class*
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DAVIS AND MOORE:
FUNCTIONAL THEORY OF
STRATIFICATION
• Inequality exists in all societies  Must be
necessary
• All societies have occupational roles that need to be
filled, with some roles requiring more training than
others (e.g., the more important roles)
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• Greater rewards (e.g., money, prestige) necessary
to encourage people to undertake extended training
and fill these important roles
• Social inequality is therefore necessary and
inevitable*
6-19
CRITICISMS OF DAVIS
AND MOORE
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• Theory does not account for the following:
 Huge income and wealth inequalities
 Gender differences in income even if same type
of work undertaken
 Inherited wealth
 Arbitrariness of denoting most important roles
(e.g., movie stars, nurses, daycare workers)
• Criticized as justification for large inequalities*
6-20
LENSKI: TECHNOLOGY AND
STRATIFICATION SYSTEMS
• Society’s technological base largely determines
degree of inequality within it
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• Owners of means of production need to rely on
well-educated managerial and technical workers
 Reliance gives rise to workers’ demands for
greater portion of the growing wealth in industrial
society
 Employers give in to demands because they
cannot produce wealth without these workers
• Envisioned movement towards more equal
distribution of wealth*
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WRIGHT’S NEO-MARXIST
THEORY OF CLASS
• Recognized that as industrial capitalism
matured, the middle class had grown and
become more diverse
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• Emphasized “contradictory class
locations”:
 An occupational grouping with divided
loyalties
• Also identified three classes of owners
and nine classes of wage labourers*
6-22
ERIC OLIN WRIGHT’S TYPOLOGY OF CLASS
LOCATION IN CAPITALIST SOCIETY
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6-23
WRIGHT’S NEO-MARXIST
THEORY OF CLASS
• Argued exploitation of one class by
another can occur through:
 Control of property or means of production
(as Marx insisted)
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 Ownership of skill or credential assets,
and
 Control of high positions within
organizations*
6-24
PARKIN’S NEOWEBERIAN APPROACH
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•

Developed Weber’s concept of social closure:
Methods used by more powerful groups to
maintain their unequal access to status and
resources, and to exclude others from such
access
•
i.
Two types of closure strategies:
Exclusion: Organized effort of the privileged, more
powerful groups to maintain their advantaged
position (e.g., lawyers, members of trade unions)
Usurpation: Effort of excluded groups to gain
advantages and power at expense of more
powerful groups (e.g., women)*
ii.
6-25
OCCUPATIONS, SOCIAL CLASS,
AND INEQUALITY IN CANADA
• Most prominent occupational shift over 20th century
was decline in agricultural occupations
• Also decline (albeit less) in other natural resourcebased occupations (e.g., forestry, fishing, mining)
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• Increase in white-collar occupations (e.g.,
managerial, professional, clerical [office jobs], sales,
and service categories)
 Have come to greatly outnumber blue-collar
occupations (e.g., manufacturing, construction,
transportation, and resource-based operations)*
6-26
OCCUPATIONS, SOCIAL
CLASS, AND INEQUALITY
IN CANADA
• Increase in proportion of occupations requiring
higher education
• Rise in average incomes (until early 1980s)
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• Occupational shifts suggest:
 Greater class diversity, not polarization of classes
 Rising standard of living for Canadian workers,
not increasing poverty and exploitation*
6-27
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OCCUPATIONAL
DISTRIBUTION
OF LABOUR
FORCE
PARTICIPANTS,*
CANADA, 1911,
1951, 2006
6-28
OCCUPATIONS, SOCIAL
CLASS, AND INEQUALITY IN
CANADA
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• Gender-based labour market stratification has
continued:
 Since middle of last century, proportion of women in
labour force has risen
 But mostly in low-paid, low status “pink-collar”
sector (clerical, sales, and service occupations)
•



Large class of paid workers differentiated by:
Decision-making authority
Income status
Occupational power*
6-29
OCCUPATIONS, SOCIAL
CLASS, AND INEQUALITY IN
CANADA
• Dramatic decrease in proportion of self-employed
Canadians over past century
• Increase in unemployment
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• Part-time and temporary work more common
• Income growth has stopped
• Increase in income and wealth inequality*
6-30
OCCUPATIONAL
MOBILITY AND STATUS
ATTAINMENT
• Occupational mobility: Moving up and down
occupational and income ladders
• Intragenerational occupational mobility: Mobility
within an individual’s lifetime
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• Intergenerational occupational mobility: Process
of reaching occupation location higher or lower
than location held by parents
• Occupational status attainment: Main determinant
of status of a person’s current job is status of first
job (dependent on educational attainment)*
6-31
OCCUPATIONAL
MOBILITY IN CANADA
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•
Globally, one of highest rates of upward mobility
•
More upward than downward intergenerational
mobility
•
Relatively open stratification system (especially
during 1970s and 1980s)
•
Yet intergenerational transfer of advantage
persists*
6-32
THE DISTRIBUTION OF
WEALTH IN CANADA
• Limited number of people continue to own or
control very large portion of wealth
• Concentration of ownership and wealth inequality
continue to increase:
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 Wealthiest 10% of families holds almost half of all
wealth in Canada
 CEO’s multimillion dollar compensation packages
versus 11% of Canadian families with no net
worth*
6-33
INCOME DISTRIBUTION: HIGHPAYING AND LOW-PAYING
OCCUPATIONS
• Upper middle class: Those with well-paid managerial
and professional occupations (e.g., lawyers, dentists)
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• Lower working class: Retail workers and those
employed in service occupations (e.g., childcare and
home support services)
• Gender differences hidden in occupational earning
patterns:
 Females earn less than males in all occupations but
earnings ratio varies considerably by occupation*
6-34
AVERAGE EARNINGS IN SIX OCCUPATIONS
MOST COMMONLY HELD BY 15- TO 24-YEAROLDS WITH A UNIVERSITY DEGREE/
DIPLOMA AND WORKING FULL-TIME, FULL
YEAR BY SEX, CANADA, 2006
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6-35
INCOME INEQUALITY
• Since mid-20th century, little change in distribution
of total income across households
• But increase in income inequality
 Decline in share of total income received by the
three middle quintiles
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• Immigrants significantly overrepresented among
Canada’s working poor despite higher education
and training
• Since 1990, average family income increased by
1%, versus 40% increase in average family debt*
6-36
THE POOR: DEFINING AND
MEASURING POVERTY
• Various ways of defining poverty:
 Absolute poverty: Those with so little income that
survival is difficult
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 Relative poverty: Those with significantly less
income than others in their society
• Canada’s low-income cut-off (LICO) or poverty
line:
 Those who spend more than 55% of gross
income on basic necessities*
6-37
WHO ARE THE POOR?
• Proportion of poor Canadians in 2001: 14.4%
• Only minority unemployed or out of labour force
• Working poor (those employed in low wage jobs)
make up large proportion of the poor
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• Aboriginal Canadians among poorest citizens
• Poverty rate for single-parent families and seniors
(aged 65+) living alone: Both 42% in 2001
• Poverty not a static status: Sizable number move in
and out of poverty each year*
6-38
INCIDENCE OF LOW INCOME
FOR SELECTED FAMILY UNIT
TYPES, CANADA, 1980, 1990,
2004
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6-39
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR
THE POOR
• Misconception that level of social assistance
provides disincentive to work
• Ontario social assistance provides:
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 Income of only 34% of poverty line for single
employable adults
 Income of only 56% of poverty line for single
parents
 Income of only 59% of poverty line for those with
disabilities*
6-40
TOTAL WELFARE INCOME ($), AS
PERCENTAGE OF (PRETAX) POVERTY
LINE AND OF MEDIAN INCOME
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6-41
MATERIAL INEQUALITY IN
CANADA: A SUMMARY
• Level of material inequality is relatively low compared
with many other countries and with a century ago
Copyright © 2011 by Nelson Education Ltd
•







But have witnessed increases in:
Corporate concentration
Wealth inequality
Income inequality
Number of working poor
Unemployment rates (long-term trend)
Part-time and temporary employment
Inequality in earnings (re: polarization in hours
worked)*
6-42
MATERIAL INEQUALITY IN
CANADA: A SUMMARY
• Reduction in employment opportunities
• More competitive economic environment (due to
globalization)
• Routine layoffs and downsizing
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• Replacement of full-time permanent jobs with parttime and temporary positions
• Weakened labour movement
• Decrease in state efforts to reduce material
inequalities*
6-43
CONSEQUENCES OF
MATERIAL INEQUALITY
• Position in class structure has effect on belief
systems, behaviours, voting patterns, lifestyles,
and, most importantly, life chances (e.g., health,
longevity, educational attainment, criminality)
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• Increasing inequality may mean more social
unrest among the poor
 But more opposition today from better-organized,
better-funded middle class*
6-44
RESPONDING TO
INEQUALITY
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•
Two views:
1.
Inequality is inevitable and need not be addressed
(tends to be espoused by the well-off)
2.
Inequality is unjust and needs to be addressed
(tends to be espoused by the poor):
i.
Socialist response: Overthrow capitalism
ii.
Reformist response: Government redistribution of
wealth to the poor (e.g., through pensions,
minimum-wage legislation, unemployment
insurance, etc.)*
6-45
RESPONDING TO
INEQUALITY: CANADA’S
RESPONSE?
• Canada’s “liberal” welfare policies espouse faith in
power of free market to produce wealth and
improve condition of poor (despite little evidence
of success)
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 Priority today given to deficit-reducing initiatives
rather than reduction of material inequality
• Responding to inequality effectively will require
willingness on part of many to accept less so that
others can have more**
6-46