Lecture 1: Social Stratification:
John Rawls- Theory of Justice:
- Primary goods:
- Wealth and income
- Rights and liberties
- Opportunities for advancement
- Self-respect
→ How should a society distribute their “primary goods” among its people?
- First principle: Equal basic liberties for all
- Second principle: social and economic inequalities can be tolerated if:
1. If they are attached to offices and positions open to all under fair
equality of opportunity → linked to a job that everyone has a fair
chance to achieve
2. To the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged member of society
(the difference principle) → benefit the least-advantaged members
of society
What is Social stratification?
- A system by which society categorizes people and ranks them in a hierarchy
- A means to distribute valuable resources → such as “primary resources”
- Social stratification shapes our lives and the life chances we get
- It is universal but it varies
- It persists from generation to generation→ e.g: generational wealth
Social Mobility:
- Changes in position within the social hierarchy
- Horizontal Mobility: changing positions without moving up in the social hierarchy
- Structural social mobility: large groups of people move in hierarchy because
structural conditions have changed → e.g: abolishment of slavery
,Beliefs:
- Cultural beliefs tell us how to categorize people and provide a moral base for
stratification
Spectrum of Stratification:
Cast System/Feudal estate:
,The American Dream:
Class system:
- The boundaries separating these categories can overlap, mix, or be ambiguous, making
it difficult to distinctly categorize or separate elements within those groups.
- Opportunity for social mobility from one category to the next
- Meritocracy: social mobility is based on personal merits and individual talent → The
concept of “Rags to Riches”
Modern UK:
- Limited cast system of mobility - legacy of the feudal estate
- House of Lords - dukes, earls and viscounts
- Class system
USSR:
- Party members and “Apartniks”
- The intelligentsia→ teachers, professors, writers, artists, and others who shaped culture
by critiquing it
- Industry workers
- Kolchoz→ a cooperative agricultural enterprise operated on state-owned land by
peasants from a number of households who belonged to the collective and who were
paid as salaried employees on the basis of quality and quantity of labor contributed.
Equality of Opportunity:
- People are all given an equal chance to ‘compete’
- Leveled playing field where the most important and rewarding jobs populated by the
most qualified people
- Removing factors such as race, gender, and privileged background from the path of
individuals
Equality of Outcome:
- Distribution of wealth
- Universal basic income
, Global Income Inequality:
- National income: the sum of all incomes received by individual residents in a given
country over a year
- National wealth: the sum of the value of all assets owned by individuals in a given
country
→ it is stock resulting from capital accumulation → e.g: income that has not been
consumed, savings
Global Income Inequality:
- In 2021 global income amounts to 86 trillion Euros/$122 trillion
- Global net wealth amounts to six times this value = 510 trillion Euros
- Global average income per adult in 2021: 16,700 Euros
- The average adult individual owns 72,900 Euros
John Rawls- Theory of Justice:
- Primary goods:
- Wealth and income
- Rights and liberties
- Opportunities for advancement
- Self-respect
→ How should a society distribute their “primary goods” among its people?
- First principle: Equal basic liberties for all
- Second principle: social and economic inequalities can be tolerated if:
1. If they are attached to offices and positions open to all under fair
equality of opportunity → linked to a job that everyone has a fair
chance to achieve
2. To the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged member of society
(the difference principle) → benefit the least-advantaged members
of society
What is Social stratification?
- A system by which society categorizes people and ranks them in a hierarchy
- A means to distribute valuable resources → such as “primary resources”
- Social stratification shapes our lives and the life chances we get
- It is universal but it varies
- It persists from generation to generation→ e.g: generational wealth
Social Mobility:
- Changes in position within the social hierarchy
- Horizontal Mobility: changing positions without moving up in the social hierarchy
- Structural social mobility: large groups of people move in hierarchy because
structural conditions have changed → e.g: abolishment of slavery
,Beliefs:
- Cultural beliefs tell us how to categorize people and provide a moral base for
stratification
Spectrum of Stratification:
Cast System/Feudal estate:
,The American Dream:
Class system:
- The boundaries separating these categories can overlap, mix, or be ambiguous, making
it difficult to distinctly categorize or separate elements within those groups.
- Opportunity for social mobility from one category to the next
- Meritocracy: social mobility is based on personal merits and individual talent → The
concept of “Rags to Riches”
Modern UK:
- Limited cast system of mobility - legacy of the feudal estate
- House of Lords - dukes, earls and viscounts
- Class system
USSR:
- Party members and “Apartniks”
- The intelligentsia→ teachers, professors, writers, artists, and others who shaped culture
by critiquing it
- Industry workers
- Kolchoz→ a cooperative agricultural enterprise operated on state-owned land by
peasants from a number of households who belonged to the collective and who were
paid as salaried employees on the basis of quality and quantity of labor contributed.
Equality of Opportunity:
- People are all given an equal chance to ‘compete’
- Leveled playing field where the most important and rewarding jobs populated by the
most qualified people
- Removing factors such as race, gender, and privileged background from the path of
individuals
Equality of Outcome:
- Distribution of wealth
- Universal basic income
, Global Income Inequality:
- National income: the sum of all incomes received by individual residents in a given
country over a year
- National wealth: the sum of the value of all assets owned by individuals in a given
country
→ it is stock resulting from capital accumulation → e.g: income that has not been
consumed, savings
Global Income Inequality:
- In 2021 global income amounts to 86 trillion Euros/$122 trillion
- Global net wealth amounts to six times this value = 510 trillion Euros
- Global average income per adult in 2021: 16,700 Euros
- The average adult individual owns 72,900 Euros
