Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
ChangHwan Kim
KU
Week 1
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
1 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Jefferson’s use of the phrase in the Declaration of Independence.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
2 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
“All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first
are the rich and well-borne, the other the mass of people... The people are
turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right... Give,
therefore, to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government.
They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive
any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good
government.”
Alexander Hamilton (1780)
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
3 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
“We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty
knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because
she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of
God but also in our own.”
Barak Obama (2013)
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
4 / 27
Intro
Stratification
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Sciences
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Week 1
5 / 27
Intro
Stratification
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Sciences
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Week 1
6 / 27
Intro
Stratification
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Sciences
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Week 1
7 / 27
Intro
Stratification
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Sciences
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Week 1
8 / 27
Intro
Stratification
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Sciences
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Week 1
9 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Social Stratification
Definition: Ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates
unequal rewards and/or life chances in society.
Principles of stratification
1
2
3
4
Social stratification is a characteristic of society – not just due to
individual differences.
Social stratification persists over generations. But most societies allow
some sort of social mobility or changes in people’s position in a system
of social stratification.
Social stratification is universal but variable (it changes).
Social stratification involves both inequality and beliefs.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
10 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Social Stratification as Patterned Social Inequality
Social Stratification is patterned social inequality. It is also the
unequal distribution of societal resources. Saying that inequality is
patterned indicates that the differences occur:
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on a wide-scale basis
with regularity
and along lines of certain specific, identifiable characteristics (race,
class, gender, occupation, education etc)
Patterned: if we know whether a person or group possesses or does
not possess certain traits, then we will be able to predict with
reasonable accuracy how this person or group is likely to fare in the
social hierarchy.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
11 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Bases of Stratification
Stratification is usually based on three major premises:
Power: the ability to impose ones will on others
Prestige: the respect given by others
Property: forms of income / wealth
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
12 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
The Origin of Social Class Analysis
The study of social class has its origin in Western Philosophy.
Philosophers during this period realized that wealth, power, and
prestige were not equally distributed in society.
They understood that this unequal distribution of resources reflected
a social hierarchy composed of families with different class interests
based on the amount of wealth, power, and prestige that they
controlled.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
13 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Social Sciences vs. Natural Sciences
1
Experimentation and “the scientific method” (causality)
2
Complexity of human behavior (e..g, omitted variables)
3
“Free will” (human behavior is often unpredictable)
4
Social sciences usually have much lower predictive power than do
natural sciences
5
Empirical tests between competing theories are typically highly
imperfect in social sciences.
6
Social sciences are therefore characterized by a variety of different
broad theoretical approaches that vary in terms of their assumptions
about the nature of social science, society, and human behavior.
7
These broad theoretical approaches that share common basic
assumptions are sometimes called paradigms.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
14 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Subjectivist Objectivist Continuum
Analyzing the differences between social scientific theories and
approaches versus natural science theories:
Subjectivist – Objectivist Continuum.
Natural science is more objectivist than is social science.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
15 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Davis and Moore thesis
Functionalism
Social stratification: “Social inequality is...an unconsciously evolved
device by which societies ensure that the most important positions are
conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons”
Assumptions: Duties of various positions...
1
2
3
4
not equally pleasant to perform
require various degrees of talent & ability to perform
vary in their functional importance to society
Assumptions: society must have:
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F
some rewards that act as inducements to fill the positions and ensure
the duties are performed
way of distributing these rewards among various positions
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
16 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Davis and Moore thesis (continued)
3 Types of rewards:
1
2
3
Economic incentives: sustenance & comfort (e.g., money)
Esthetic incentives: humor and diversion (e.g., video games)
Symbolic incentives: self-respect and ego (e.g., bow to your professor!)
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
17 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Davis and Moore thesis (continued)
Two Determinants of Positional Rank (Reward):
1
Functional importance:
1
2
2
functional uniqueness: no other position can perform its duties (e.g.
Prime Minister)
Dependence: degree to which other positions are dependent on it
(entire country; elected & appointed government positions)
Scarcity of Personnel; Talent; Training:
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2
3
the scarcity in the supply of personnel for a functionally important
position,
the availability of talent to fill that positions
the difficulty of the training for the positions
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
18 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Davis and Moore thesis (continued)
Summary: the rewards of a position depend on:
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2
its functional importance
scarcity of personnel: talent availability and training difficulty
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
19 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
The Problem of Functionalism
In functionalism, “the consequences of some behavior or social
arrangement are essential elements of the causes of that behavior.”
For example, “Birds have hollow bones because hollow bones
facilitate flight.”
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The consequence of hollow bones is flight.
This consequence caused the birds have hollow bones.
This is a problem of reverse causation.
Functionalism generally entails social evolution, the system changing
as more “functional” aspects survive and thrive.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
20 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Melvin Tumin (1953)
“Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis”
Conflict theories: another paradigm
Many sociologists doubt whether the full extent and patterns of
inequality as it currently exists in American society can be fully
understood as deriving solely or even primarily from the functionalist
process described by Davis and Moore
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
21 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Tumin’s Critiques
According to Davis and Moore, we can judge that some positions
more important based on the idea of “survival value.” But how to
make judgments of greater or lesser functionality? (e.g., Can we
survive without garbage collectors?)
Existing inequality may influence our perceptions about which jobs
are functionally important
How well does a society know what talent exists? Stratified societies
present obstacles to discovery of talent.
According to Davis and Moore, training requires sacrifice. But
sometimes, “sacrifice” is a rationalization of privileged treatment.
(e.g., To send kids to private schools, parents should “sacrifice” their
finances.)
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
22 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Tumin’s Critiques (continued)
Scarce and desired goods are not the only possible rewards for
“sacrifice” and work. (e.g., joy in work; social duty; respect).
Difference in prestige does not have to lead to stratification. For
example, differences in prestige between the old and the young does
not lead to stratification.
Inequalities in pay probably go well beyond compensating persons for
training and may at least partly derive from occupational or class
power
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
23 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Tumin’s Critiques (continued)
Inequality in pay may have negative consequences such as envy,
distrust, hostility, reduced social cooperation, lower productivity, and
negative self-concepts; these may generate hatred and ultimately
various forms of social conflict between the social classes or other
hierarchical social groups
With an extreme level of inequality, the lower classes may become
alienated and feel disenfranchised from society which may increase
social problems of various sorts (e.g., crime, drug dependency, riots,
revolutions)
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
24 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Tumin’s Critiques (continued)
There are dysfunctions of stratification
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Limits discovery of talent
Limits the expansion of productive resources (b/c of 1)
Elites have power to establish ideology that rationalizes the status quo
(i.e., no progress)
Distributes “favorable self-image” unequally within a society (b/c low
self-esteem brings in low productivity).
Encourages hostility, suspicion, and distrust among the different strata
Reduces feelings of membership within society through positions on the
prestige ladder (lead to destruction).
Reduces loyalty
Reduces motivation to participate
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
25 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Two Paradigms about the Nature of Inequality
Functionalist view
status quo
social order
consensus
social integration
solidarity
need satisfaction
actuality
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Conflict view
radical change
structural change
modes of domination
contradiction
emancipation
deprivation
potentiality
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
26 / 27
Intro
Stratification
Sciences
Davis and Moore
Tumin
Read Textbook chapters 1 and 9, and Reader chapters 5, 6, and 7.
ChangHwan Kim (KU)
Wealth, Power, and Inequality
Week 1
27 / 27