Wk9: Inequality, class and the global economy Flashcards
1
Q
Social Stratification
A
relates to the ranking of people and the rewards
they receive based on objective criteria, often including wealth, power and/or prestige
2
Q
An economic system, or economy
A
is the social system that helps a
society organise what it produces, distributes and consumes.
* Every society across the world stratifies its members within an
economy.
In Australia, we tend to divide groups by their access to income
and/or wealth.
3
Q
Income
A
refers to the money received through work or investments
4
Q
Wealth
A
refers to all your material possessions, including income minus your liabilities
5
Q
social wage
A
which is the state’s redistribution of
income and wealth to citizens through the taxation system (e.g., Centrelink benefits).
6
Q
The 4 Major Systems of
Social Stratification
A
Slavery
Caste System
Estate
Class
7
Q
Slavery
A
“ownership” of other people.
Initially, slavery was based on debt,
punishment, or defeat in battle rather than
race. It could be temporary and permanent
and was not necessarily passed on to one’s
children
8
Q
Caste System
A
status is determined by birth
and is lifelong
9
Q
Estate
A
the feudal European system which
consisted of nobility, clergy and peasants
(serfs)
10
Q
Class:
A
Industrialisation encouraged
groupings based primarily on wealth and
income. Class is a basic social division in
capitalist societies.
11
Q
Gini coefficient
A
A widely used index of inequality.
0 = perfect equality
1 = complete inequality
12
Q
power and prestige
A
Another way to measure social stratification is by
power and prestige
13
Q
Power
A
is the ability to carry out our will and
impose it on others
14
Q
Delegated power
A
means given or assigned power.
15
Q
Power elite
A
is a small group of people who hold
immense power
16
Q
Prestige
A
refers to the level of esteem associated
with our status and social standing
17
Q
Upper Middle Class
A
a social class that consists of high-income members of society who are well-educated but don’t belong to the elite super-wealthy class
18
Q
Lower Middle Class:
A
a social class comprising
those with a moderate income
19
Q
Middle class in AU
A
The middle class may account for 60% of
Australian population, depending on how it
is defined.
* Most Australians think they are middle class
and live in a fairly egalitarian society.
20
Q
The groups that comprise the middle class have
in common:
A
- Individualism
- Relative affluence
- Control over knowledge
- Status
- Respectability and cultural influence
- The middle class serve as a benchmark for
others through the demonstration of hard-work
and self-responsibility. If the benchmark is not
reached, then the false message is sent that the
individual is to blame.
21
Q
Working class:
A
a social class generally made up of
people with high school certificates and lower levels of education
22
Q
Underclass:
A
a social class living in disadvantaged
neighborhoods that are characterised by four
components:
* 1) a lack of individuals in high-status occupations
* 2) male unemployment
* 3) family disruption
* 4) poverty
23
Q
Absolute poverty:
A
An absence of the
material resources required to meet
an individual’s or family’s basic
needs
24
Q
Relative poverty:
A
Where living
standards and lifestyles are below
those deemed acceptable within the
nation (e.g., quality of education and
medical services
25
Marginal poverty:
When there is a
lack of stable employment
26
Transitional poverty:
Temporary
state of poverty (e.g., tutors
dependent on trimester work)
27
Who is at Risk of
Poverty?
* The unemployed
* Sole parents
* Public housing tenants
* Children in sole parent households
* Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people
Employment will not stave off
poverty with people relying on
wages falling beneath the poverty
line.
28
Social exclusion can be divided into
three domains:
1. Lack of social interaction (being
unable to go out once a fortnight)
2. Domestic deprivation (going without
food)
3. Extreme consumption hardship
29
Social mobility:
The ability to change social classes. To
be able to move upwards is considered the great
Australian dream
30
Horizontal mobility:
Staying within the same class but
changing occupation
31
Vertical mobility:
Moving between classes. There is
both upward and downward mobility
32
Intragenerational mobility:
We move between classes
within our own generation
33
Intergenerational mobility:
Movement across
generations between classes
34
Structural mobility:
Where an entire geographical area
might move in class (e.g., mining towns)
35
Exchange mobility
Equilibrium in class – for x number of
the population that go up in class, x number will go down
36
Conflict Theory
the competition for
resources isn't limited to
economic assets like income or
wealth. It also encompasses
resources like social networks,
educational access, healthcare,
and job opportunities. The list of
contested resources is endless.
Social inequality is rooted in a
system that is most likely to
reward you based on where you
start – not solely based on the
abilities you have
37
Marxist Conflict Theory
The way money and jobs work in a society shapes everything else, from our politics
to our culture.
* Marx believed that if you want to understand why a society's culture or politics is
the way it is, you should first look at its economic system.
* Inequality is seen as the result of a society with more wealth than what is
needed for survival.
* Different classes have different interests that arise from unequal distribution
of economic resources. This is the foundation for exploitation and
domination.
* Revolution and resolution between classes drives social change
* Our free will is constrained by economic arrangements.
* We enter relations determined by the arrangements of society
* It is the economy that shapes society – political, law, culture, beliefs,
ideas, consciousness.
* The economy doesn't just shape our material conditions but influences
our beliefs, values, and perceptions. The economic base of society plays
a pivotal role in determining the dominant ideas and ideologies, which in
turn shape individual consciousness.
The capitalist system contains contradictions that inevitably lead to evolution:
1. The bourgeoisie (upper class AKA ruling class) depend on the proletariat yet
maximise profit by paying as little as possible while the proletariat want
more.
2. To have profit there must be a market, but if the proletariat cannot afford to
purchase then the economy goes into a depression
38
MARX CT: Mode of production:
How a society produces its wealth, including the means of production (e.g., technological knowledge and relationships between groups of
people (bosses and employees).
39
MARX CT superstructure
Marx argued that infrastructure (the economic basis of society) defines the
superstructure (non-economic aspects, e.g., politics and culture)
40
MARX CT: Dialectical materialism:
Change through revolution that is required due to the advantaged who do not wish to relinquish neither power nor wealth
41
MARX CT: historical materialism
Same as Dialectical materialism due to an emphasis on pre-existing
conditions shaping the future
42
MARX CT: Economic depression
a long period of severe economic downturn, where businesses close, people lose jobs, and the economy struggles to grow
43
MARX CT: Socialism
Marx believed a revolution would occur where power and control are seized
from the upper class.
He believed that socialism would replace capitalism and communism would
eventually replace socialism
Socialism: an economic and political system where the community or the state owns and controls the main means of production, rather than individual
capitalists, with the goal of achieving equality and fairness in society
44
MARX CT: Communism
a political and economic system where all property is publicly owned, and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and
needs.
45
Marxist Conflict Theory: Criticisms
* It is deterministic and overemphasises the role of material conditions
determining all aspects of society (e.g., culture)
* Social change is progressing towards the ultimate goal of communism,
i.e., its explanation is teleological in that the thinking focuses upon goals
and purposes. We do not know what the future holds.
* There is a reliance on the idea of social evolution leading to guidance in
how to act. This is scientism, where we believe that scientific knowledge
can provide values and guide what should be.
* A difficulty in accounting for the significance of the middle class in
contemporary society because Marx underplayed the significance of
knowledge and intellectual skills alongside property.
* Marx believed that socialism and communism would come after
industrialisation, yet it has come before in China and Russia.
* An underestimation of the capacity for capitalism to accommodate for
conflict.
46
teleological
relating to or involving the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.
47
scientism
where we believe that scientific knowledge
can provide values and guide what should be
48
Weber’s
Multidimensional Theory
There are three sources of power
* Class: Economic factors such as wealth and income
* Status: Social honour
* Party: Political organisation and influence (formal
and informal)
* Class and status can be independent in their influence on social inequality.
* Power within any of the three may contribute to
power in another
* Classes are grouped by people's possession of skills or goods that reap a similar reward in the marketplace (e.g., social workers, occupational therapists etc).
* Status groups tend to share a common lifestyle and form communities.
* Status groups utilise social closure – the restriction of access to resources and
opportunities to its members.
49
Functionalism
* Functionalists believe that systems find equilibrium or balance, so social stratification must be the result of functional balance.
* Meritocracy argument: to attract the most capable people to fill its important positions, society must offer them great rewards .
* Intelligence, drive and personal choice influence a person’s social class.
* All people are different, so it makes sense that differences in social class exist.
* Difference is due to merit.
* Cooperation is made possible through the establishment of an order that
members of society are socialised into accepting as normal.
* In a modern society we are socially cohesive because we are different yet need
each other (the doctor needs the cleaner and the cleaner needs the doctor).
* We are tolerant and cooperative as this ensures our needs are met. Thus,
society is maintained.
* Hierarchy is necessary and inevitable in a complex society held together
by interdependence.
* When there is no transparency or meritocracy (e.g., there is corruption),
then there will be social conflict.
* It is through credentials, that we can provide objective measures of
talent and knowledge that justify the unequal distribution of resources.
50
Symbolic Interactionism
* Symbolic interactionists are interested in how people perceive poverty and wealth. They seek to understand if people actually have a sense of social class.
* Social class and our understanding of it are relative to our own personal belief system.
* Status symbols are important in terms of establishing a class identity.
* Status doesn’t necessarily equate with material wealth and, as such, need not be equated with economic class.
51
Nolan (1960s)
suggested an additional
measure of political position to account for
libertarians
52
Statists
Top-Left: (communitarian):
Government control of
economic and personal matters.
53
Liberals
Bottom-left: Government intervention or
controls on economy (e.g. regulations) but
more personal freedoms (e.g,
relationships & guns)
54
Conservatives
Top-right: Free market (i.e. economic freedom)
but government intervention in
personal matters(e.g. drug laws)
55
Libertarians
Bottom-right: Both economic and
personal freedom. Opposed to all
government intervention
56
How Social Stratification is
Maintained Globally
Neo-colonialism, Trans-National Corporations
(TNCs), Economic rationalism and/or
neo-liberalism:
57
Neo-colonialism:
the political rule of the least-industrialised
countries by the most-
industrialised
58
Trans-National Corporations
(TNCs):
the presence of TNC’s in
disadvantaged countries
59
Economic rationalism and/or
neo-liberalism:
the belief of free
markets as the arenas which
best enable individual autonomy
and produce efficient economic
outcomes
60
Trans-National Corporations
(TNC’s)
*Are involved in economic activities in at least two or more nations
*Seek to profit from establishing the best
combination of labour skills, wage rates, government subsidies, taxation regimes, market opportunities and political conditions that exist in and between nation-states
*Benefit from economies of scale: Increasing
production to save in cost. Spread out its fixed costs over those items, where they buy materials in bulk for cheaper, and improve its production process
*Utilise geographical flexibility, shifting resources
between locations on a regular basis to take
advantage of price differentials and changing
conditions
* Take advantage of intra-corporate trade
* Seek to provide the greatest economic returns
to shareholders
* Are powerful within particular nations, as well
as at the global level
* The transnational capitalist class dominates
and controls consumerism, media, political
parties and cultural ideological practices.
61
5 Main Features of Globalisation
1. Be global in distance, penetrating most nations and parts of nations.
2. Be globally inclusive in inputs wherein components must be combined from throughout
the world, not simply arise in one country and be exported to another.
3. Require interdependency in that global interactions will ensure that changes in one part of
the world will impact directly upon others.
4. Have stability and regularity in relations over space and time—there needs to be some
permanency in the structures of global interaction.
5. Show evidence of a global consciousness – an emerging awareness of the globe as ‘one
world’ shared by all peoples.
62
Global Culture:
Where symbols and spatial referents
are known, and shared, by
citizens throughout the world.
Symbols can be readily
created, easily transported
and eagerly consumed
63
Global Economy:
The global economy is one where
production, finance and trade
—facilitated by the latest in
World Wide Web and other
information technologies—is
organised at a global level
64
Creolisation:
the blending of ideas, symbols,
meanings, and tangible elements like food,
clothing, and music from different societies.
It refers to how diverse cultural influences
merge in unique and unexpected ways,
leading to new creations, such as jazz or new
languages
65
Cosmopolitanism:
the belief that everyone is
morally connected, regardless of race,
ethnicity, gender, or religion. It's often seen
as the idea of being a "world citizen," where
one's identity isn't strictly tied to a specific
nation
66
Globo-Enthusiasts
consider that an integrated world will
be one that is both more prosperous and more
peaceful. As they embrace globalisation, nations can be liberated from undemocratic
political regimes.
Globalisation can also improve the lives of their citizens through increased income-
earning potential.
67
Globo-Sceptics
view globalisation as socially divisive.
They consider that globalisation
has polarising economic and
social effects and weakens
democratic systems. Jobs are
exported to low-paid workers in
the developing world. The rise of
elites and the concentration of
wealth and power in the hands of
those people/groups are viewed
as arising from deregulation and
economic rationalism
68
International Monetary Foundation
was established to correct balance-of-payments
difficulties and so maintain global financial
stability
69
World Bank
established as primary institution
for economic development
70
World Trade Organisation
has a main objective to promote global trade by administering trade agreements, settling trade disputes, reviewing national trade policies, and establishing ways of removing barriers to trade
71
a model of infinite growth
Capitalism provides more opportunities for individuals on the basis that there is not a limited amount of wealth but rather, a model of infinite growth
72
Gold standard:
A monetary system where a nation’s
currency or wealth is directly linked to the amount of gold that it could be traded for.
* In the 1930s the gold standard was partly abandoned then completely eradicated in the 1970’s. This meant that money was no longer representative of any value other than money itself. Countries or banks could print
as much money as they wanted.
73
Financialisation
refers to the growing
importance of finance-related activities,
such as motives, markets, players, and
institutions, in shaping both local and
global economies
Financialisation helped to create the
global financial crisis. Yet, ironically,
they were subsequently financially
assisted by governments (i.e. the
public), to the tune of trillions of dollars
in order to keep trading—indicating the
central importance of finance capital in
today’s global economy.
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