Posted: May 13th, 2021

Week 4 Homework help – Discussion: Social Mobility

Week 4 Homework help – Discussion: Social Mobility
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Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

Textbook: Chapter 7, 8
Lesson
Minimum of 1 outside scholarly source (in addition to the textbook/lesson)
Initial Post Instructions
Think of a person you know (either yourself, someone you know, or even a famous person with, perhaps a “rags to riches” story) who has experienced significant upward or downward mobility over the past three or four generations.

For the initial post, respond to one of the following options, and label the beginning of your post indicating Option 1 and Option 2:

Option 1: Briefly describe the person (and be sure to respect confidentiality of others and, as always, remember to be respectful of potentially sensitive information, and remember there is no guarantee of privacy). Describe the person’s significant upward or downward mobility over the past three or four generations. How do you think the person’s values and behavior might differ had the person experienced the opposite pattern of mobility?
Option 2: Briefly describe the person (and be sure to respect confidentiality of others and, as always, remember to be respectful of potentially sensitive information, and remember there is no guarantee of privacy). Describe the person’s significant upward or downward mobility over the past three or four generations. How might experiences have been different had the person’s family been of a different ethnic or racial origin?
Writing Requirements

Minimum of 2 posts (1 initial & 1 follow-up)
APA format for in-text citations and list of references
Include citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional outside scholarly source to support your response.
THE BOOK IS Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials
Diana Kendall 11 Edition
CHAPTER REVIEW Chapter 7
Use these questions and answers to check how well you’ve achieved the learning objectives set out at the beginning of this chapter.
LO1 What is social stratification, and how do the three major systems of stratification compare?
Social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of large social groups based on their control over basic resources. People are treated differently based on where they are positioned within the social hierarchies of class, race, gender, and age. Stratification systems include slavery, caste, and class. Slavery, an extreme form of stratification in which people are owned or controlled by others, is a closed system. The caste system is also a closed one in which people’s status is determined at birth based on their parents’ position in society. The class system, which exists in the United States, is a type of stratification based on ownership of resources and on the type of work that people do.
LO2 How did Karl Marx view social class and stratification?
Marx viewed social class as a key determinant of social inequality and social change. For Marx, class position and the extent of our income and wealth are determined by our work situation, or our relationship to the means of production. Marx stated that capitalistic societies consist of two classes—the capitalists and the workers—and class relationships involve inequality and exploitation.
LO3 What is Max Weber’s multidimensional approach to social stratification?
Weber emphasized that no single factor (such as economic divisions between capitalists and workers) was sufficient for defining the location of categories of people within the class structure. Weber developed a multidimensional concept of stratification that focuses on the interplay of wealth, prestige, and power.
LO4 What are the key characteristics of social classes in the United States?
No broad consensus exists about how to characterize the class structure in this country. Sociologists have developed two models of the class structure: One is based on a Weberian approach, the other on a Marxian approach. In the Weberian-based approach, social classes are based on three elements: (1) education, (2) occupation of family head, and (3) family income. This approach to class structure consists of the upper class, the upper-middle class, the middle class, the working class, the working poor, and the underclass. Contemporary Marxian models examine class in terms of people’s relationship to others in the production process.
LO5 What is the difference between income inequality and wealth inequality?
Income is the economic gain derived from wages, salaries, income transfers (governmental aid), and ownership of property. In 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay the wealthiest 20 percent of U.S. households received more than half (51.2 percent) of the total income “pie,” while the poorest 20 percent of households received slightly more than 3 percent of all income. Wealth includes property such as buildings, land, farms, houses, factories, and cars, as well as other assets such as bank accounts, corporate stocks, bonds, and insurance policies. Wealth is even more unevenly distributed than income.
LO6 What are three important consequences of inequality in the United States?
The stratification of society into different social groups results in wide discrepancies in income and wealth and in variable access to available goods and services. People with high income or wealth have greater opportunity to control their own lives. They can afford better housing, more education, and a wider range of medical services. People with less income have fewer life chances and must spend their limited resources to acquire basic necessities.
LO7 What are the characteristics of the U.S. poor based on age, gender, and race/ethnicity?
Age, gender, and race tend to be factors in poverty. Children have a greater risk of being poor than do the elderly, and women have a higher rate of poverty than do men. Although whites account for approximately two-thirds of those below the poverty line, people of color account for a disproportionate share of the impoverished in the United States.
LO8 How do functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives on social inequality compare?
Functionalist perspectives view classes as broad groupings of people who share similar levels of privilege on the basis of their roles in the occupational structure. According to the Davis–Moore thesis, stratification exists in all societies, and some inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the ongoing functioning of society. The positions that are most important within society and that require the most talent and training must be highly rewarded. Conflict perspectives on class are based on the assumption that social stratification is created and maintained by one group (typically the capitalist class) in order to enhance and protect its own economic interests. Conflict theorists measure class according to people’s relationships with others in the production process. Unlike functionalist and conflict perspectives that focus on macrolevel inequalities in societies, symbolic interactionist views focus on microlevel inequalities such as how class location may positively or negatively influence one’s identity and everyday social interactions. Symbolic interactionists use terms such as social cohesion and deference to explain how class binds some individuals together while categorically separating out others.

CHAPTER REVIEW Chapter 8
Use these questions and answers to check how well you’ve achieved the learning objectives set out at the beginning of this chapter.
LO1 What is global stratification, and how does it contribute to economic inequality?
Global stratification refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige on a global basis, which results in people having vastly different lifestyles and life chances both within and among the nations of the world. Today, the income gap between the richest and the poorest segments of the world population continues to widen, and within some nations the poorest one-fifth of the population has an income that is only a slight fraction of the overall average per capita income for that country.
LO2 What is the levels of development approach for studying global inequality?
One of the primary problems encountered by social scientists studying global stratification and social and economic inequality is what terminology should be used to refer to the distribution of resources in various nations. Most definitions of inequality are based on comparisons of levels of income or economic development, whereby countries are identified in terms of the “three worlds” or upon their levels of economic development. Terminology based on levels of development includes concepts such as developed nations, developing nations, less-developed nations, and underdevelopment.
LO3 How does the World Bank classify nations into four economic categories, and why do organizations such as this have problems measuring wealth and poverty on a global basis?
The World Bank classifies nations into four economic categories and establishes the upper and lower limits for the gross national income (GNI) in each category. Low-income economies had a GNI per capita of less than $1,045 in 2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service, lower-middle-income economies had a GNI per capita between $1,046 and $4,125, upper-middle-income economies had a GNI per capita between $4,126 and $12,735, and high-income economies had a GNI per capita of $12,736 or more (World Bank, 2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service). Defining poverty is more than just personal and household income; it also involves social judgments made by researchers. Absolute poverty is a condition in which people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life. It is measured by comparing personal or household income or expenses with the cost of buying a given quantity of goods and services. Relative poverty exists when people may be able to afford basic necessities but are still unable to maintain an average standard of living. This is measured by comparing one person’s income with the incomes of others.
LO4 What is the relationship between global poverty and key human development issues such as life expectancy, health, education, and literacy?
Income disparities are not the only factor that defines poverty and its effect on people. The United Nations’ Human Development Index measures the level of development in a country through indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality rate, proportion of underweight children under age five, and adult literacy rate for low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries. People who live in countries in the highest-human-development categories are, on average, better educated, will live longer, and will earn more. The adult literacy rate in the low-income countries is significantly lower than that of high-income countries, and for women the rate is even lower.
LO5 What is modernization theory, and what are the four stages of economic development identified by Walt Rostow?
Modernization theory is a perspective that links global inequality to different levels of economic development and suggests that low-income economies can move to middle- and high-income economies by achieving self-sustained economic growth. Walt Rostow suggested that all countries go through four stages of economic development, with identical content, regardless of when these nations started the process of industrialization. The stages of economic development are as follows: the traditional stage, in which very little social change takes place and people do not think much about changing their current circumstances. The second stage is the take-off stage—a period of economic growth accompanied by a growing belief in individualism, competition, and achievement. In the third stage the country moves toward technological maturity. In the fourth and final stage the country reaches the phase of high mass consumption and a correspondingly high standard of living.
LO6 What is dependency theory, and why is this theory often applied to newly industrializing countries?
Dependency theory states that global poverty can at least partially be attributed to the fact that the low-income countries have been exploited by the high-income countries. Whereas modernization theory focuses on how societies can reduce inequality through industrialization and economic development, dependency theorists see the greed of the rich countries as a source of increasing impoverishment of the poorer nations and their people.
LO7 What is world systems theory, and what are the three major types of nations set forth in this theory?
According to world systems theory, the capitalist world economy is a global system divided into a hierarchy of three major types of nations: Core nations are dominant capitalist centers characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization, semiperipheral nations are more developed than peripheral nations but less developed than core nations, and peripheral nations are those countries that are dependent on core nations for capital, have little or no industrialization (other than what may be brought in by core nations), and have uneven patterns of urbanization.
LO8 What is the new international division of labor theory, and how might it be useful in the twenty-first century?
The new international division of labor theory is based on the assumption that commodity production is split into fragments that can be assigned to whichever part of the world can provide the most profitable combination of capital and labor. This division of labor has changed the pattern of geographic specialization between countries, whereby high-income countries have become dependent on low-income countries for labor. The low-income countries provide transnational corporations with a situation in which they can pay lower wages and taxes and face fewer regulations regarding workplace conditions and environmental protection.

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