Social Stratification Stratification: Ascription, Achievement & Inequality This week we will take a look at stratification and inequality in society – and the extent to which it is feasible for the effective movement between different social groups to take place.
Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
… and Social Mobility KEY ISSUES COVERED IN THIS LECTURE: • • •
WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF STRATIFICATION? WHAT ARE THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF MOBILITY? IS SOCIETY NOW MERITOCRATIC?
SOCIAL SOCIAL
Firstly, we need to establish exactly what we mean by ‘social mobility’: Pre-modern societies [i.e. FEUDAL and CASTE societies] were CLOSED; A person's position was largely based on ascribed characteristics (such as family origin, gender or ethnic group) these characteristics were awarded from birth and were socially unchangeable. These ascribed characteristics are still socially significant in modern societies, but modern Britain now tends to place a greater emphasis on achievement, (i.e. what people can do for themselves in order to improve their life chances). Thus we can describe Britain to some extent as a MERITOCRACY (the meritocratic ‘ideal’ is where a position in the hierarchy is determined or achieved through individual merit. In theory – in modern Britain, a person’s social background is of no real importance; as a result of meritocracy everybody should be competing for jobs under the same fair conditions. However as we know, there are marked differences associated with social class, inequality, gender, and people of different minority ethnic groups.
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Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
Not everybody starts with an equal footing. Some have a head start in the race for social prizes. However, having said this, in post war Britain the opportunities for social mobility have improved for a number of reasons: •
Occupational changes: the changing occupational structure has created more room at the top. With computerisation and automation, there is less demand for manual labour and greater demand for non-manual skills and a better-educated workforce.
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Industrial changes: there has been a shift away from the older ‘smokestack’ industries such as foundries to new ‘sunrise’ industries (computers). These new industries have a higher proportion of non manual jobs. In addition there has been a shift away from manufacturing industries.
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Ladders: in the past ambitious people might have relied upon marriage to the boss’s daughter, connections, working one’s way up from the shop floor, or sheer luck. These ladders are still available but education is becoming increasingly recognised as the most important step to a good career. Middle-class people still tend to be more successful in gaining educational qualifications, but the emphasis on credentials and qualifications is arguably more meritocratic than a system where people are appointed simply because of their class origins.
The study of Social Mobility is important for a number of reasons: 1.
It matters to people to get on in life
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Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
2. We can see changes in the class system 3. The more socially mobile a society is may show it to be more open and fairer 4. Mobility affects the way social classes or groups are formed, their size and shape; and the extent to which people are subjected to social inequalities SOCIAL MOBILITY then, occurs whenever people move across social class boundaries, or from one occupational level to another. The mobility can be down-wards as well as upwards. Sociologists have identified two main types of social mobility: •
Intragenerational Mobility: refers to the social mobility within a single generation. It is measured by comparing the occupational status of an individual at two or more points in time. Thus is a person begins her or his working life as an unskilled manual worker and ten years later is employed as an accountant, she or she is socially mobile in terms of intergenerational mobility.
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Intergenerational : refers to the social mobility between generations. It is measured by comparing occupational status of sons with that of fathers (and only rarely the occupational status of fathers or mothers with that of their daughters) Thus, if the son of an unskilled worker becomes an accountant, he is socially mobile in terms of intergenerational mobility.
Exercise One [in groups]
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Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
Go through the following list, writing down whether each hypothetical situation is an example of: • Upward mobility; or • Downward mobility; or • No change; or • Intergenerational; or • Intragenerational.
a. A nurse who decides to become a labourer on a building site. b. A daughter of a miner who becomes a bank manager c. A teacher who decides to retrain as a social worker d. A doctor’s son who becomes a taxi driver e. An immigrant from a poor farming background in Africa who gets a job in Britain as a farm labourer. f. The daughter of a skilled manual worker who becomes a routine clerical worker. g. A postal worker who becomes a traffic warden h. A pilot whose son becomes a police constable. i. The owner of a small shops whose daughter becomes an assistant manager in a large supermarket. j. A sales assistant in a shop who becomes a priest.
Exercise Two [individually] Create a list of your immediate family [grand-parents, parents, siblings etc.] and write down their current (or what would have been) socio-
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Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
economic position – using the NS-SEC classification [listed below]. Code each person to a category, and then decide: • Whether there is evidence of downward or upward inter and intra generational social mobility • Has there been much movement across large social distances or has most been short range?
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Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
The National Statistics Socio-economic Classifications (NS-SEC). [This is the new occupational scale to replace the Registrar General's scale] 1. Higher managerial and professional occupations 1.1 Employers and managers in larger organisations (e.g. company directors, senior company managers, senior civil servants, senior officers in police and armed forces.) 1.2 Higher professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, clergy, teachers and social workers.) 2. Lower Managerial and professional occupations (e.g. nurses and midwives, journalists, actors, musicians, prison officers, lower ranks of police and armed forces.) 3. Intermediate occupations (e.g. clerks, secretaries, driving instructors, telephone fitters.) 4. Small Employers and own account workers (e.g. publicans, farmers, taxi drivers, window cleaners, painters and decorators.) 5. Lower supervisory, craft and related occupations (e.g. printers, plumbers, television engineers, train drivers, butchers.) 6. Semi-routine occupations (e.g. shop assistants, hairdressers, bus drivers, cooks.) 7. Routine occupations (e.g. couriers, labourers, waiters and refuse collectors.) 8. Plus an eighth category to cover those who have never had paid work and the long term unemployed.
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Stratification: Caste, Class, Inequality & Mobility
Problems with Measurement of ‘social/economic classification’ 1. Occupation is used as an indicator of social class and researchers use different criteria for ranking occupations. Many researchers classify occupations in terms of prestige associated with them. Others place more emphasis on economic rewards attached to them. As a result, occupational classifications differ and the results of various studies are not strictly comparable. 2. A further problem arises from the fact that it is not possible to identify many/all members of a social group, on the basis of their occupations. Occupation does not necessarily say anything about the extent of their investments in private industry, land ownership, savings, inheritance. 3. Furthermore, many studies of social mobility have not included data on women’s mobility and patterns of female mobility tend to be rather different to men’s. This is largely because women tend to be concentrated in particular parts of the occupational structure.
Social Stratification – questions to consider • Explain the difference between intra & inter-generational mobility
• Is there evidence of a ‘social class’ culture in modern Britain (i.e. working-class, middle-class and upper-class)? Does social class still exist?
• To what extent do you think that Britain is now a meritocratic society (are people now pretty much ‘equal’?)
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