The Background Of The Social Stratification Sociology Essay

The telescope Of The Social soci commensurate stratification Sociology EssayAll societies place their members correspond to superiority, lower status and equality. The vertical scale of evaluation, this categorization of sight in layers is c either last(predicate)ed kind companionable stratification. Social stratification is a natural and controlled division according to race, religion, mixer and sparing status. In sociology, mixer stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of social framees, castes and strata at bottom a parliamentary procedure.Anthony Giddens has delimitate social stratification as the existence of organized inequalities among groups in society, in price of their approaching to material or emblematic rewards.According to Peter Saunders, in modern Western societies, stratification depends on social and economic septes consisting of three main layers Upper class, marrow class and Lower class. Every class is further divided into smaller cla sses according to occupation.1.1 BACKGROUNDThe notion of stratification came into existence in 1940s. Social stratification is the basic cause of inequalities. The basis for social stratification atomic number 18 earnings, privileges, ethnicity, disability, education, access to benefits, sex, caste, wealth, religion, power, age, gender, occupation, race, region, language, party and politics. stratification is a trait of society and not salutary individual differences. Indeed it is the outcome of the social arrangement and it has a neat impact on every wholeness. Stratification is universal, but tremendously diversenessable in machinate. Stratification persists everywhere generations. It is still prevailing in our society. Four beginning(a) harmonic forms of stratification ar class, caste, estate and slavery. Stratification is common land in the wight kingdom on the basis of power and gender and well-nigh form of stratification has most likely always existed among human s. With the progress of food and another(prenominal)(a) surpluses resulting from hi-tech advances in agriculture and manufacturing, most sight began to mount up to a greater extent wealth than others. in that respect could be many other things influencing social stratification. For the larger part of history, the on hand stratification arrangement was regarded as an undeniable feature of society and the implicit purpose of commentators was to clarify or rationalize that arrangement in terms of religious doctrines.1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF cordial social stratificationSocial stratification is social, universal, diverse in structure, very old and consequential. It is a trait of society, not merely a reflection of individual differences. Those at the top of the ladder the higher class has to a greater extent advantages in livelihood than those at the bottom of the ladder the lower class. The upper classes wealthy individual more opportunities to thrive in life chances include suc h things as conditions of work, healthiness and accommodation. People at the top of the ladder may choose the study that they live in which allow tend to assume slight crime, discontinue schools and better living than those in the lower class. Social stratification moves from generation to generation. Each human being born into the world is involuntarily allocated to social strata. Their place is usually their pargonnts place at that time. We are born with vigour so consequently we inherit what our parents have. Children are influenced by their family members. Every family within the social order and within each social stratum has diametrical ambitions, determinations and goals to be successful in life. A child will accomplish sack outledge of these through the accomplishments of his own parents. still though social stratification is universal, it is also variable which means that all distinct countries have different forms of stratification but its characteristics vary in every coun seek. In the coupled Kingdom it is very much a class formation, whereas in some Asian countries the stratification is on the basis of the religion. Social stratification involves diversity and beliefs. Everybody within society has to cogitate that stratification is fair otherwise at that place is going to be unrest in the society.Social Stratification feces be seen in all places around us from our schools to government agencies to even off our homes. It is a definite part of our social frame that represents the variation of opportunities that we engender and observe in our everyday lives. The idea of pecking order emerged in the seventeenth and 18th century by sociologist Hobbes and Locke and it was through these sociologists that people realized that discrepancy existed in the society.On one hand, inequalities base on individual qualities (charisma, economic or social skills, etc.) do not add up to stratification, since they arent defined by membership in a particular category. So, if in a hunting band the best hunter or the spiritualist/ perspicacious is held in high regard and has privileged access to some resources, this isnt social stratification.Symbolic Interactionists reveal that symbols help to describe the meaning of all social actions, and a persons self is developed socially through social interaction. Legitimating thoughts, express symbolically in the form of language give reasons for inequality, for strata, for the ways people are positioned in the strata and for changes in the stratification system. These sustaining ideas also strongly pull wires how people assess themselves within the system, influencing them to agree to their position in the structure as good and right.1.3 MAJOR FORMS OF STRATIFICATIONPrimal collectivism characterized by an elevated level of sharing and negligible social inequality, Slavery involving grand social inequality and the ownership of some persons by others, Caste in which a person is pe rmanently assigned to a status based on his or her parents status, Estate in which peasants are required by law to work on land owned by the horrible class in exchange for food and protection from outside attacks.There are different forms of social stratification that are present in our societies i.e. Class society In this society persons status is ascribed to them by the accomplishments they have achieved. In the United States, the social stratification that divides the most is the class system, whereas in areas of Africa not only are there class differences to divide people but women are in a class by themselves. The class system is defined by the possessions of wealth or material possessions (Henslin, 2010, p.189). Even though we like to think of ourselves as a very innovative nation, we still look down on people that are down the stairs us in class. 1.4 REASONS OF EXISTENCE OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONNatural predictability suggests that discrimination exists because of natural differences in peoples abilities and is a just system. Structural - accountabilityalists states that stratification is right-hand to society because it enhances strength and induces members of the society to endeavor. competitiveness suggests that stratification occurs through difference of opinion amid different classes, with the upper classes using greater power to take a bigger section of the social resources. Evolutionary states that people will share sufficient resources to guarantee the survival of the group until an excess exists at which confidential information power determines how the surplus is distributed. Symbolic Interactionists calls attention to the significance of symbolic displays of wealth and power that influence ones definition of self and the importance of ideas in shaping social situations.Inequality may originate from natural differences in peoples abilities. Structural-functionalists believe that societies have a tendency to be stable and are held as on e through agreement. Stratification provides an important function to society by aiding this process because it lessens conflict and provides structure. Conflict theorists believe that society tends towards conflict and change and that stratification system compel the lower classes to benefit the upper classes.1.5 ORIGINS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONIn early societies, people shared a common societal position. As societies evolved and became more intricate, they began to elevatesome members. To understand stratification, we mustiness first understand its origins.Though there is a lot that we dont know about origins of stratification, it is apparent that it is a fairly recent development, as undetermined through study of grave goods, and historical record of state blowup and conquest of more democratic societies. Once they come up, stratified systems bung to expand at expense of egalitarian systems, but this cannot explain origins of first stratified systems i.e. cases of pristine st ate formation. It is not simply survival mode, since some foragers are less democratic than many agricultural and most pastoralist societiesAttempts to authorize cultural advancement of social stratification in ecological terms by and large rely on one or another(prenominal) oftwo basic approaches1. Stratification = solution to an ecological problem2. Stratification = system by which one class extracts resources from anotherThese two approaches practically termedfunctionalandconflicttheories, respectively. Functional theories focus on benefits to all parties in contrast, Conflict theories argue that elites benefit at expense of commoners.2. LITERATURE reassessment OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONThe book by Macionis, J and Plummer, K., 2007, called Sociology A orbiculate Introduction defines Social stratification as a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy and that one group has access to a disproportionate amount of money, power and prestige and stratificati on can be used as a lens of the eye to focus on social inequality.The books by Haralmbos, M., Holborn, M. and Heald, R., 2008, called Sociology themes and perspectivesdefines, social stratification to the front man of distinct social groups which are bedded one above the other in terms of factors such as prestige and wealth.The five societal pyramids explain how societies work.This pyramid arrangement focused on how people were ranked by their financial positions, their power and their prestige. The way society effort with social division depends upon wealth and power, not on hereditary position. The open system based on personal accomplishment, where people have control over position between upper and lower class in society can lead to discrimination amongst each other. The stratification systems focused on other social divisions such asGender stratification hea indeed stratificationAge stratificationHealth and disabilityIn the nineteenth and 20th century the structural function al paradigm argued that stratification systems are functional for society. The Davis-Moore Thesis argues that industrialized societies for the most part are fecund under a system of meritocracy. Under this kind of inequality, the stratification system rewards good performers with high salaries and punishes poor performers with fewer salaries. Davis-Moore argued that several jobs have to to wear more than others they are important jobs, so their high salary will magnetize the most excellent performers. These top performers will be more inventive and this is functional for society. Functionalists also argue that stratification promotes in-group harmony.Marx and Weber, who were Conflict theorists, allege that the finest way to study social stratification was by using Conflict theory. On the whole, the main aim was to scrutinize and elucidate social inequality in society. Marx thought that there were two classes in the social order, owners and the workers. He wanted the workforce to become aware of this theory to ultimately stimulate down the owners.Weber, in contrast, considered more about Marx theory and thought that there must be another class involved which is the middle class. Middle class inhabitants are ones with skills required for jobs but do not have ownership this set them at a distance from blue-collars, because they had skills for certain jobs which gave them a sense of power.Mills and Domhoff thought that there are little coordinate groups of people who stay out of political affairs so they are not estranged. This gives them a key to power in society. Social Stratification allows people who have proficient varying competence and riches to function in ways that are appropriate for them.This is a functionalist perspective back up by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore. They started by pointing out that no society is classless or unstratified.4. CONCLUSION/SUGGESTIONSFrom the above mentioned things we can conclude that the basic factor that causes so cial stratification is poverty. Steps should be taken for its eradication which will shape change in the society.In order to blow out social stratification, we should try to eradicate things that are causing it including unequal education, facilities, opportunities, wealth, poverty etc. if all the citizens of every country will get everything in equal step and quality, only then change will happen. This is the basic right of every citizen and it should be given to them. More fortunate people should help the less fortunate ones. They should try to be empathetic towards poor only then they can help them. They should be motivated and interested in property everybody equal and everyone should try, on individual level, to see the needy around them. new(prenominal) than this the only best solution to solve this vicious circle is to concord a Sharia law on national scale, which stipulates that each person should set aside 2.5% of the income each person earns monthly to help eradicate poverty and the money gathered can be used to secure things needed for those who are in need as capital, like secure machines or seeds etc.Theres no way for the government to be able to reduce or let alone eradicate poverty as long as it tightly clings on to capitalism and those 99% Americans are the living proofs, who say capitalism cant eradicate poverty.