Unit 8. Structures of Inequalities
nadia dresscher
Objectives unit 8
1. Explain the multidimensional concepts of
social stratification and social inequalities
2. Explain how social stratification is sustained
by certain ideologies
3. The classical theories perspective on social
stratification
4. Relate the experience of inequalities from a
development perspective: enhancing
capabilities
An experiment in wealth distribution, or in what
we consider “just”, “fair” and “equal”…
This experiment is inspired
by John Rawl’s theory of justice
1. This is an experiment in the exploration of the
following concepts: wealth, equality, fairness and
justice
2. (veil of ignorance/original position) You wake up one
day and you don’t have any information about
particular characteristics of yourself: you don’t know
your ethnicity, social status, gender and, crucially,
your whole concept of what is The good dissolves.
(This forces participants to select principles
impartially and rationally)
3. Now you have to select principles that will determine
the basic structure of the society you will live in.
You can choose between 2 choices:
(this is the simplified and modified version of the
experiment)
3 kind of societies where social and economic
inequalities are to be arranged in the following
form
1. The greatest benefit goes to the least
advantaged
2. Equality for all no matter who you are
3. Wealth attached to offices and positions
open to all under conditions of fair equality
of opportunity.
Your choice
• What would you choose and most important
why?
• This experiment shows us how values and
believes about what you understand as
“justice” and “equality” influences the way
wealth and opportunities are being
distributed in society
Social stratification, social divisions,
process of inequality
What is social stratification
• A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a
hierarchy
• The degree of social closure and mobility that is allowed in
the society. Closed systems allow little change in social
position, while open systems permit some mobility
Slavery system
Caste system
Class system
Open/closed
systems of
stratification
5 principles organizing social stratification
1. Social stratification is a characteristic of
society, not simply a reflection of individual
differences
2. Social stratification persists over generations
3. Social stratification is universal but variable
4. Social stratification involves not just
inequalities but believes (ideologies)
5. Social stratification engenders shared
identities
Forms of social divisions
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Social and economic divisions
Gender and sexuality
Ethnic and racialised divisions
Age divisions
Health and disablement
Language/dialect and nationalities
Processes at work that sustain social
stratifications
• Social exclusion and marginalization (groups are being
expelled of participation in society)
• Exploitation (the transfer of results of the labour of one
social group to benefit another, dehumanizing labour
conditions, e.g. forced prostitutions, or jobs where you
work long hours without breaks/vacation days, they
threaten you that you will lose your job, if you don’t follow
instructions)
• Powerlessness (people lack authority, status, power, sense
of self,)
• Cultural imperialism (e.g. the experience of colonization)
• Violence
Intersectionality of inequalities
• The ways in which different forms of
inequality and division interact with each
other!
• E.g. social class and gender, gender and
ethnicity, social class and education etc.
e.g. food, environment and social economic inequalities
• Watch trailer Food Inc.
e.g. not getting a job because of discrimination
3 experiences of inequality in the 21st century:
1. The truly wealthy
and high status
groupings
(a few million or so in
the world of six and half
billion), their incomes
are larger that the top
GDP of the smaller
countries) these are
closed networks.
( not transparent for
sociologists)
2. “The bottom
billions”
(1/5 or 1/6 of the total
population that lives on
incomes that amount to
less than 1 US dollar a day)
Low on social indicators:
health, literacy, political
engagement, access to
communications, wealth)
(development studies,
cultural anthropologists)
3. “us”
The majority
Major social divisions
continue to exist in
daily life. Intersected
social inequalities
(sociologists study
this group most of
the time)
Living on a minimum wage
Let’s play spent!
• http://www.playspent.org/
Ideologies for the explanation of social
inequalities
• Meritocracy: stratification as functional
• Marxist and neo- marxist ideas on
stratification
• Stratification and technology in global
perspective
Meritocracy
Term coined by Micheal Young
Meritocracy:
stratification as functional (SF theory)
• A system of social stratification based on personal
merit. Talents and effort
• Davis and Moore thesis (1945)
• A pure system class would be meritocracy,
rewarding everyone based on ability and effort.
Such a society would have extensive social
mobility, blurring social categories as individuals
move up and down in the social system
depending on their performance
• Are opportunities equal? Is meritocracy a fair
system?
21st century new social inequalities
Some protesters of #ows
We are still on time,
we can still
revolutionize our
social reality
Why? Or why not a Marxist
revolution?
If Marx was alive now,
these are the con’s and pro’s he would hear:
There will be no Marxist revolution
because:
neo-marxists: A revolution is still possible
because:
1. The fragmentation of the capitalist class 1. Wealth remains highly concentrated
and inequalities have increased
2. White-collar work and rising standard
of living
2. The global system of capitalism
(the next video are going to watch will
illustrate this notion)
3. More extensive worker organisation
(union labours, the right to organize and
fight for rights)
3. Work remains degrading and
dehumanizing
4. More extensive legal protections
4. Labour activity had been weakened
5. The law still favours the rich
Global expansion of capitalism
• Watch trailer: Manufactured landscapes
Other theories…
• Weber identified 3 distinct dimensions of
social inequality:
– Economic class
– Social status/prestige
– Power
• Taken together these 3 dimensions form a
complex hierarchy of socio-economic standing
Other theories…
• Lensky explained that historically
technological advances have been associated
with more pronounced social stratification. A
limited reversal of this trend occurs in
advanced industrial societies, as represented
by the Kuznets curve
Human Development perspective
HD video 2010
• http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bc
pid988092871?bctid=659474810001
Human development
• Human development is the expansion of
people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and
creative lives: to advance other goals they
have reason to value; and to engage actively in
shaping development equitability and
sustainability on a shared planet. People are
both the beneficiaries and drivers of human
development, as individuals and in groups.
Extract from documentary
• “The Examined life” (29:17 - 37:11)
• Martha Nussbaum speaks about capabilities,
the social contract and Rawl’s theory of Justice
Human development- 3 components
1. Well-being: expanding people’s real
freedoms, so that people can flourish
2. Empowerment and agency: enabling people
and groups to act, to drive valuable
outcomes
3. Justice: expanding equity, sustaining
outcomes over time and respecting human
rights and other goals of society
Paradigm shift: what is development?
• Move from GDP to Human Development Index
New discourses…
• Human development
• Human rights
• Participative culture, new forms for the
expression of agency.
– E.g.Digital activism