6 Social Stratification and Its Transformation
Another topic of the debate on relations between experts and the phenomenon of cultural narcissism constitutes a transformation of social stratification. The social stratification may be defined as the hierarchy of social classes with higher or fewer opportunities for access to some socially appreciated good, for example, wealth, power, prestige, education, and health (Sztompka 2002, 336– 338, 354–355). It is assumed here that people have unequal access to various goods because of the membership in different groups and the necessity to deal with different positions. Besides, the convergence or differences between stratification hierarchies may occur and, therefore, the high or low position of the individual or group on one of the leaders of stratification or inequality may correspond or not too similar positions in other status hierarchies. For example, the convergence may be illustrated by the situation when possession of high earnings involves great prestige of the profession and access to specialized medical services. More often, for most members of society, however, comes to the discrepancy. It is also noted that the upper classes through acts of symbolic violence, cope better with converting one resource to another and maintaining a high position in different hierarchies (Bourdieu, Wacquant 2001, 104). Transition from the production of material goods (objects) to the intangible assets (ideas, services, images, and symbols), which is taking place in the “late modernity” is the extension of the scope of institutional reflexivity and therefore the expert systems that contribute to the development of the cultural phenomenon of narcissism. It can be stated that a technological breakthrough underlying this transformation alters the scales of stratification (cf. Sztompka 2002, 348–349). Nowadays, there are more sophisticated ideologies than the previously analyzed concepts of technocracy and meritocracy that are associated with the experts’ roles and that are justifying the distribution of socially desirable goods. 39
