Dr. John Lamberton, Clinical Sociologist

PUTTING SOCIOLOGY TO WORK

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

INEQUALITY & WEALTH

Proprietary Lecture Notes
 

INEQUALITY

Read the following two articles by clicking on these links:

The Costs of Inequality

The Criminal Justice System & Social Exclusion

Please learn the following terms in red:

(1) INCOME is the economic gain derived from wages, salaries, income transfers (governmental aid), and ownership of property.

(2) WEALTH is the value of all of a person’s or family’s economic assets, including income, personal property, and income-producing property.

(3) LIFE CHANCES refer to the extent to which individuals have access to important societal resources such as food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care.

(4) The OFFICIAL POVERTY LINE is based on what the federal government considers to be the minimum amount of money required for living at a subsistence level.

(5) SOCIAL MOBILITY - Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society.

  • Intergenerational Mobility – Social movement experienced by family members from one generation to the next.

  • Intragenerational Mobility – Social movement within one’s lifetime.

Understanding Social Mobility

Upward & Downward Mobility – Khan Academy

(6) Mobility Blockers

  • Indentured servants

  • Slavery is an extreme form of stratification in which some people are owned or controlled by others for the purpose of economic or sexual exploitation.

  • A caste system is a system of social inequality in which people’s status is permanently determined at birth based on their parents’ ascribed characteristics.

(7) The class system is a type of stratification based on the ownership and control of resources and on the type of work that people do.

(8) Max Weber

o   Weber emphasized that no single factor was sufficient for defining the location of categories of people within the class structure.

o   Weber developed a multidimensional approach to social stratification that reflects the interplay among wealth, prestige, and power.

o   Socioeconomic status (SES) to refer to a combined measure that attempts to classify individuals, families, or households in terms of factors such as income, occupation, and education to determine class location

(9) Contemporary Sociological Models of the U.S. Class Structure

Max Weber's model of social class is based on (1) education, (2) occupation, and (3) income.

o   The Upper (Capitalist) Class = 1%

o   The Upper-Middle Class = 14%

o   The Middle Class = 30%

o   The Working Class = 30%

o   The Working Poor = 20%

o   The Underclass = 5%

(10) Erving Goffman – Presentation of Self

(11) WEALTH INEQUALITY - WEALTH INEQUALITY

HOW TO BECOME RICH

SOCIAL EXCLUSION reduces the access to valuable relationships and resources as people are pushed, pulled away and relegated to the fringes of society.  This can lead to ill-health and crime.  Minorities as a group are often easy targets for social exclusion.

   Social Exclusion and Bullying

   Social exclusion (segregation and social isolation)

   RICH VS POOR MINDSET

 

 

 

Health Inequality