Krieken, R. et al. 2014, p. 205 defines class as referring to a “social group, defined in terms of its economic position in a hierarchy of inequality and with material interests that differentiate it from other classes.” This essay will set out to explain how sociology helps to understand class, and how the theories of Marx and Weber have influenced the basis for most modern sociological theories of class. Social class is a concept that has been argued about for hundreds of years. According to the Business Dictionary social class can be defined as “a status hierarchy in which individuals and groups are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige acquired mainly through economic success and accumulation of wealth. Social class may also refer to any particular level in such a hierarchy.” Sociologists have given a threefold classification of classes which consists of upper class, middle class and working class.
(0.5 points) By commodity 6. What is a country’s GDP? (0.5 points) gross domestic product Lesson 2 (3.0 points) 1. What is a market economy? (0.5 points) economic system that is regulated by the interactions between producers and consumers.
Lesson 2 (3.0 points) 1. What is a market economy? (0.5 points) An economic system that is regulated by the interactions between producers and consumers in the market. 2. Name at least two features of capitalism.
There are racial/ethnic, sex/gender, age, religious, and disabled minorities as well as economic and educational minorities. Furthermore, minority group status may and often does encompass more than one category. Minorities are defined by the dominant group in society and are contrasted to the dominant group in both subtle and obvious ways. A dominant group is positively privileged (Weber) unstigmatized (Rosenblum and Travis)1 and generally favored by the institutions of society (Marger)2 particularly the social, economic, political, and educational systems. Classical Sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), recognizes several interlinked relational patterns that lead to stratification; whereas Marxists reduce all inequality to economics (the differences in access to and use of wealth—all of one’s financial assets—between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat), Weber expands stratification into three related yet distinct components: Class, Status, and Party.
To better understand the size of a household for AJ Davis’s credit customers we used a table of descriptive statistics, frequency table, and a bar chart. Descriptive Statistics: Size Variable Mean SE Mean StDev Variance Minimum Q1 Median Q3 Size 3.420 0.246 1.739 3.024 1.000 2.000 3.000 5.000 N for Variable Maximum Mode Mode Size 7.000 2 15 Tally for Discrete Variables: Size Size Count CumCnt 1 5 5 2 15 20 3 8 28 4 9 37 5 5 42 6 5 47 7 3 50 N= 50 This information tells us that the mean, or average, household size of the credit customer is 3.42. The median, or middle, household size is 3. There is a standard deviation of 1.739. As can be seen in the bar chart and the frequency table, the mode, or most frequent occurring household size, is 2 with 15 out of the 50 households being this size.
The two main class stratification systems are the Hindu caste system and that social class system. Class can be measured in a number of ways and using the Registrar General Scale is the most common way used to organise society into different classes. Some people aren’t able to move between classes because of what is known as ‘hidden barriers’ which prevents them to be socially mobile. These social groups/classes usually share common interests and identities that separate them from other social groups in society, and in the 21st century we see that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Social closure means an individual is unable to move up or down the social ladder.
Compare/Contrast Class and race are important demarcation factors in America in determining educational and job opportunities, as well as income level. In his essay “Class In America”, Gregory Mantsios outlines the widely held beliefs about class in the United States. In more recent times The New York times released a series of articles “Shadowy Lines that divide” by Jenny Scott That talks about class in modern society. Both articles analyze the gap between the poor class and the upper class, but both have different opinios on In “Class In America” Mantsios talks about how American people hardly talk about class, or they don’t like too. “If someone were to ask a person to describe himself or herself, he or she would most likely not mention his or her class, such as upper class or lower class” (Mantsios, Class In America, 308) He or she would be more likely to tell their race, geographic location, or industry.
I feel that the American middle class could be striving more to better there life’s then what they are. Some people that have the opportunities and a ton of resources such as scholarships, student loans, or welfare programs aren’t using the efficiently. The idea of getting welfare is great but most likely when a middle class citizen gets on it they never get off it. I believe that some of the welfare programs could do drug testing in order to really see who is using the money to actually better themselves and not just go buy drugs, live off the system,
I think that there should be four classes. Upper; the very wealthy, middle; the “well to do”, the working; comfortable in life and lower class; lack of education and poverty. I think it’s less confusing. Working class is such a large category. In the Dispossessed by William Deresiewicz, he argues that a lot of Americans go by three social classes, the upper, the middle and the poor but he asks what about the in-between people, the workers that are not middle and not poor so I think we need to have that fourth class so if we are going to have classes in this society then people won’t be confused and put people where they
In American society, the white Americans used the basis of race to arrange people into various levels of classes. “Race was a useful mechanism for determining who should have access to wealth, privilege, respect, loyalty, and power, and who should not” . Each class represented the ranks, status, and wealth of an individual in society. Obviously, the white race sat on top, receiving the highest amount of privileges such as voting rights and affluence while the rest were below receiving less than what the white race receives such as poor education, low-paid jobs, and poor living conditions. During the colonial periods, colonies, such as America, “structured hierarchical societies in which Europeans stood at the top and the conquered and enslaved peoples had various positions below”.