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

advantaged2. Equality for all no matter who you are3. 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

Open/closed systems of

stratification

Slavery system

Caste system

Class system

Degree of social inequalities

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 generations3. Social stratification is universal but variable4. Social stratification involves not just

inequalities but believes (ideologies)5. Social stratification engenders shared

identities

Forms of social divisions

• 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

Why? Or why not a Marxist revolution?

We are still on time, we can still

revolutionize our social reality

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/bcpid988092871?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