Contemporary Sociology: Social Class

Contemporary Sociology:

Social Class Agenda

Objective:1. To understand how social class is

defined.2. To understand and debate the

existence of social mobility in the United States.

3. To understand the concept of social reproduction.

4. To explore the shape and consequences of class inequality.

Schedule: 1. Lecture & Discussion2. Film: Nursery University

Homework:1. Social

Class Critical Thinking paper Due: Mon 3/19

2. Midterm Fri 3/30

Social Class• This week, we will work on

understanding some core ideas in the study of social class:– Defining Social Class– Understanding Social Mobility & Social Reproduction– Inequality– Poverty

• We will apply our understanding of these ideas through an examination of the documentary Nursery University

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Defining Social Class

What is Social Class?

• How do you define it?




• Social Class refers to a large group of individuals who share similar positions in four dimensions of economic life:

• A Different Kind of Class Rank:– http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nati

onal/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html

Occupation Education

Income Wealth

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html




• How correlated do you think these dimensions of class are?

• Correlation Between Education and Income:– http://www.nytimes.com/packages/ht

ml/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html




Social Class = Power & Prestige

Top Ten Wealthiest U.S. Senators (2008)

Rank Name Net Worth

Occupation Education

1 Herb Kohl (D-Wis) 214,570,011

Business Executive - Kohl’s Wisconsin; Harvard

2 Mark Warner (D-Va) 209,700,598

Telecommunications Executive; Venture Capitalist

GW; Harvard

3 John Kerry (D-Mass) 208,801,275

Lawyer; Professional Politician; Married Rich

Yale; BC

4 Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)

94,306,010 Heir to the Rockefeller fortune; College Administrator

Harvard

5 Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)

74,744,094 CEO Automatic Data Processing Columbia

6 Dianne Feinsten (D-CA) 72,380,637 Professional Politician; Married Rich

Stanford

7 James Risch - (R-ID) 53,325,524 Lawyer; Property Investments University of Idaho

8 Bob Corker (R-TN) 52,345,517 Real Estate Tycoon University of Tennessee

9 Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) 44,917,518 Heir to the Kennedy fortune; Professional Politician

Harvard; UVA

10 Olympia Snowe (R-ME) 28,542,526 Professional Politician; Married Rich

UMaine

What is Social Class?• To the extent that the higher one’s position in

occupational, educational, income, and wealth give people greater access

to power and prestige, we might modify our definition… • Social Class = A large group of individuals who share similar occupational, educational, income, and wealth positions and thus who share similar

amounts of power and prestige.





Social Mobility & Social Class Reproduction

Is There Social Mobility in the United States?

• How many people agree with the following statements:– America is the land of opportunity where

everyone who works hard can get ahead.– People from poor or working-class backgrounds have an average or better than average change of getting ahead in America.



Is There Social Mobility in the United States?

• America is the land of opportunity where everyone who works hard can get ahead– 70% of Americans agree

• People from poor or working-class backgrounds have an average or better than average change of getting ahead in America– 80-90% of Americans agree



Statistics on Social Class Mobility

• http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_03.html

• What trends do you notice?• How does this support or challenge

your prior thinking?




Social Class Reproduction

• These trends are evidence of a phenomenon sociologists call social class reproduction.

• What is social class reproduction?



For sociologists, the question is:

How do we explain why social

reproduction is occurring?

What are your thoughts?

(Think about both culture and structure)



Cultural Capital• What do we mean when we talk

about capital?• Habitus

– Each class has its own cultural background, knowledge, dispositions, and tastes that are transmitted through the family (Bourdieu 1984)

• Cultural capital – The habitus valued socially or

culturally (by society as a whole? By those in power?) that can be transformed into status, power, or economic capital

– Habitus as social/cultural currency”



Cultural Capital and Social Class Reproduction

• Argument: The cultural capital/habitus of the dominant group in society (holding the most power and wealth)

becomes the knowledge that is most valued in schools• To possess that cultural capital means one is considered educated or smart or talented (i.e., having merit)




• Mechanism:– While schools look like they are neutral in

evaluating students, but because the knowledge and dispositions they value correspond to the cultural capital of the dominant group, students from that class perform better in schools.

• Formal Curriculum• Hidden Curriculum• Null Curriculum

– Schools therefore legitimate social reproduction.

Formal Curriculum• The explicitly stated goals and objectives of education.• Political act, even if not stated as such.• What gets taught as “knowledge” is the cultural capital

held by the upper-class:– Jazz Band (Rock Band? Country Band?)– French (Scandal over Ebonics)– Assignments that Require the Use of Technology (Denies As to students who lack technology, regardless of intelligence) QuickTime™ and a

decompressorare needed to see this picture.

Hidden curriculum

• Unintended lessons taught in schools• Examples:

– How to behave in class– Rules of conduct– Classroom organization– Brown nosing– Being polite



Null curriculum• The curriculum that does not exist; Did not

make the cut• We teach things by excluding them from the

curriculum—by not teaching them.




Cultural Capital Good Academic Performance

High Educational Credentials

Economic Capital





• Check out these other statistics:– 74% of students

attending “most competitive” colleges come from families in the top quartile, 3% come from families in the bottom quartile

– The income gap in achievement is twice as large as the racial gap in achievement!

The Reproduction of Privilege

• NY Times Article

• Check out these statistics:– 74% of students attending “most

competitive” colleges come from families in the top quartile, 3% come from families in the bottom quartile

– The income gap in achievement is twice as large as the racial gap in achievement.

Inequality

How Much Social Class Inequality is there in the United States

• The richest 20% of Americans control what percentage of our nation’s wealth?



How Much Social Class Inequality is there in the United States

• The richest 20% of Americans control what percentage of our nation’s wealth?– Answer 84%– Though when surveyed, most Americans believe it

is 59%





Household Income and Wealth, by Household Quintiles

49

84.5

23

10.715

4.49

14

-0.7-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Income, 1999 Wealth, 1997

Percent of Income or Wealth

Richest fifth

Fourth fifth

Third fifth

Second fifth

Poorest fifth





1960Avg. Employee CEO

40x More

2000Avg. Employee CEO

431x More

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html



Consequences of Inequality

Social Class Influences Every Part of An Individual’s Life!

What food they eat, where they shop, clothes they wear, schools they attend, income they earn, how long (and quality of life)

they live, occupation.







Poverty

What is Poverty•Government definition of “poverty”

– Lack of minimum food and shelter necessary for maintaining life.

•Poverty Line – Government calculation of the amount of yearly income a

family needs to meet its minimum needs.– “Official Figure”– Family of Four: $22,050/year– Calculation:

• Poor people spend about 1/3 of their income on food• The government figures out a low cost food budget and multiples it

by 3• Those below the line are considered impoverished

•Poverty rate– Percentage of US residents whose income falls below the

poverty line





International Comparison of Poverty Rates among Wealthy Countries

Nursery University

Look For:“Definition” of Social Class

Social Mobility / Social Class ReproductionInequality

Documents

Contemporary Sociology: Social Class