Social Hierarchies and Inequality

Lecture 11
 Social Inequality
Max Weber identified three basic criteria used
for measuring social inequality.
• Wealth – measured in income, property,
number of cows etc.
• Power – the ability to achieve one’s goals and
objectives even against the will of others.
• Prestige – the social esteem, respect or
admiration that a society confers on people.
 Social Inequality
• In egalitarian societies, such as bands or
acephalous societies, no groups have greater
access to power, wealth or prestige.
• In between egalitarian and unequal societies
you also have rank societies where there is
unequal access to prestige but not unequal
access to wealth or power
• In stratified societies there is a greater degree
of inequality in all three.
 Marx and Class
• For Marx, one's social class was defined by
one's relationship to 'ownership of the means
of production’, from which all other social
dynamics flowed. Others have emphasized the
means by which class distinctions are made or
how individuals or groups can move up or
down the social ladder; these are a particular
concern of sociologists.
 Groupings in Complex Societies

Upper Upper Lower Working Lower

Middle Middle
4% 12% 30% 45% 10%
Old wealth Professionals Teachers, Factory Migrants,
(Rocker- businessmen civil construction homeless,
fellers) servants, unemployed
Nouveau petty entre-
Riche (Gates) preneurs,
small
businesses
 Why Does Stratification Occur?
• Two major theories –
• Functionalist and Conflict theory
 Conflict Theory
• Conflict theory holds that social stratification
results from the constant struggle for scarce
goods and services in all stratified societies.
Inequalities exist because the elites use their
wealth, power, and prestige to control the system
of production and the apparatus of the state.
• Conflict theory is associated with Karl Marx and
his followers, who focus on the economic aspect
of social stratification.
 Functionalist Theory
• Functionalism holds that social stratification
generally benefits the whole society, by
rewarding people socially and economically
for working harder, taking risks, doing difficult
jobs, or spending more time in school or
occupational training. Medical doctors, for
example, whose work is essential to society,
are rewarded for their long years in school by
both high income and high prestige.
 Race and Ethnicity
• Those sharing similar physical traits are often
defined as belonging to the same race.
• Those sharing similar cultural traits are said to
belong to the same ethnic group.
 Race: Myths
• Race is exclusive and discreet
• Races are unequal, some better than others
• The outer physical characteristics of race are but
surface manifestations of inner realities such as
behavioural, intellectual, temperamental, moral and
other qualities
• All qualities of race are inherited genetically
• Differences and hierarchies between races are fixed
and unalterable and can never be bridged or
transcended
Facial Angle
 Ethnicity
• Whereas race refers to physical traits,
ethnicity refers to cultural traits that are
passed from generation to generation.
Ethnicity tends to emphasize matters of
language, dress, occupational specialization,
and religion, among other things
Hutu and Tutsi
Hutu and Tutsi
 Inter-Racial and Inter-Ethnic Relations
Simpson and Younger identified 6 major forms of inter racial and inter ethnic relations:
• Assimilation – a racial or ethnic minority is assimilated or absorbed into wider society. Native
Americans into wider American society. Asian and Pacific ethnic groups into Hawaiian society.
• Pluralism – With pluralism, two or more groups live in harmony with one another while
retaining their own racial or ethnic heritage, pride and identity.
• Legal Protection of Minorities – In societies where racial and ethnic groups are hostile
towards one another, the government may step in to legally protect the minority group(s). In
the United Kingdom the Race Relations Act makes it a criminal offence for anyone to
publically express any sentiments that might lead to racial or ethnic hostility.
• Population Transfer – One ‘solution’ to intergroup conflict is population transfer, which
involves the physical removal of a minority group to another location.
Long Term Subjugation – In some parts of the world, racial and ethnic minorities have been
politically, economically and socially repressed for indefinite periods of time. Apartheid was
an example of long term institutionalized repression of one ethnic and racial group by
another.
• Extermination – This involves the actual physical annihilation of a racial or ethnic group.