Middle East Technical University

Sociology Department
SOC – 109 Week – 11
SOC 109

Chapter XI

Stratification and Social Class

10 December 2024

Instructor

Dr. Besim Can ZIRH

Text Book: Anthony Giddens, Sociology (6th Edition) – 2009.

SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class
Opening Scene

Gulam Noon was born in India in 1936. His family

owned a sweet shop in Bombay: 'Royal Sweets'.
He established Noon Products in 1987 in London.

Motivation: “All the pre-packaged Indian ready meals available

from the supermarkets were insipid and frankly unacceptable.”
In 2005: now more than 100 different Noon dishes, produced
in three plants, operated by 1,100 employees. Between
250,000 and 300,000 meals are made every day.
In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 he
was placed in 888th position with an Left: Vice-Chancellor Nigel Thrift.
estimated fortune of £65 million. Centre: Sir Gulam Noon,.
Right: Nigel Sykes, Warwick Business School.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

“Yargılanmadım. Sorguya alındım. Polis

tabii. Gözaltı... Ama çok kısa bir süre. Belki
bir gün. O zaman anladım yani. Ya
susacaksın. Ya şiddete karışacaksın. Ya da
geçip gideceksin. Üçünden bir tanesi...
2018 İşte biz geçip gitmeyi seçtik. Sene 1994...”

Hamdi Ulukaya
born in Erzincan in 1972,
studied political sciences at Ankara
University during the early 1990s,
left for political reasons, to the US in 1994
established his first cheese
business in 2002 in New York,
Chobani, the best-selling yogurt
brand in the U.S., has given Ulukaya
a net worth of $1.1 billion,
according to the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index (2012).
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Sociological Questions
What do you think about Noon and Ulukaya?

What social factors will How does the

influence your globalization of the
economic position in economy affect your
society? life chances?

Are your chances any Why do economic

different if you are a inequalities exist in
woman? contemporary societies?

The study of inequalities in society is one of the most important areas of

sociology, because our material resources determine a great deal about our lives.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Systems of Stratification

Sociologists use the concept of social stratification to describe inequalities

that exist between individuals and groups within human societies.

assets or property (economic), but also gender, age, religious

Which strata are affiliation or military rank (cultural, social and symbolic capitals).
you from?

Individuals and groups enjoy

differential (unequal) access to
rewards based on their position
within the stratification scheme.

It is useful to think of stratification as rather like the

geological layering of rock in the earth's surface.

Societies can be seen as consisting of 'strata' in a hierarchy: the more

favoured at the top and the less privileged nearer the bottom.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Systems of Stratification

All socially stratified systems

share three basic characteristics:
1 The rankings apply to social
categories of people who share a
common characteristic without
necessarily interacting or
identifying with one another.

2 People's life experiences and opportunities depend

heavily on how their social category is ranked.

3 The ranks of different social categories tend

to change very slowly over time.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class
Systems of Stratification

Stratified societies have changed

throughout human history.
In the earliest human societies, which were
based on hunting and gathering, there was
very little social stratification - mainly
King of Gourma & his wives (Burkina Faso - 1910) because there was very little by way of
wealth or other resources to be divided up.
Historically, four basic systems of stratification can be
distinguished: slavery, caste, estates and class. Upper-Class

Today, industrial and post- Upper-Middle Class

industrial societies are extremely
complex; their stratification is Middle Class
more likely to resemble a teardrop.
Lower Class
Sir Tasker Watkins, the Deputy Chief
Justice of England (the UK - 1940s)
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

1 Slavery
Slavery is an extreme form of inequality, in which
certain people are owned as property by others.
The legal conditions of slave-ownership have
varied considerably among different societies.
Ancient Greece
Slavery is simply not economically efficient.
Their position was more akin to that of
Today, slavery is illegal in every country of servants, were literate and could work as
the world, but it still exists in some places. government administrators

From enslaved brick-makers in Pakistan to sex

slaves in Thailand and domestic slaves in relatively
wealthy countries like the UK and France.

07.12.2009
Colonial America

Sometimes slaves were deprived of almost

11.09.2011 all rights by law
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

2 Caste

A caste system is a social system in which one's social position is

given for a lifetime, are therefore believed to be unchangeable.
Everyone's social status is based on personal
characteristics, parental religion or parental caste.
Caste societies can be seen as a special type of class
society, in which class position is ascribed at birth.
Jews were frequently treated as a separate caste,
forced to live in restricted neighborhoods
In caste systems, intimate contact with members of other
castes is strongly discouraged: strongly endogamic.

VIDEO

24.01.2012
 SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

3 Estate

Estates were part of European feudalism, but also

existed in many other traditional civilizations.

In Europe, the highest The clergy formed Those in what came

estate was composed another estate, having to be called the 'third
of the aristocracy and lower status but estate' were the
gentry. possessing various commoner
distinctive privileges.

A certain degree of intermarriage and

mobility was tolerated between the estates.

Estates were closely bound up with the

manorial community, they formed a local,
rather than a national, system of stratification.
 SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

3 Class

Class systems differ in many respects from slavery, castes or estates.

We can define a class as a large-scale grouping of people who share common economic
resources, which strongly influence the type of lifestyle they are able to lead.

1 Class systems are fluid. Unlike the other types of strata,

classes are not established by legal or religious provisions.
2 Class positions are in some part achieved. An
individual's class is not simply given at birth.
3 Class is economically based. Classes depend on
economic differences between groups of individuals

4 Class systems are large-scale and impersonal, and operate

mainly through large -scale, impersonal associations.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Theorizing Class: Will caste give way to class?

There is some evidence that globalization may hasten the end

of legally sanctioned caste systems throughout the world.
Modern industrial production requires that people move about
freely, work at whatever jobs they are suited or able to do, and
change jobs frequently according to economic conditions.
The rigid restrictions found in caste systems
interfere with this necessary freedom.

Wage slavery or starvation? That’s

not a choice. It’s a TREAT!

Migration, global awareness of the notion rights,

social and interactions beyond national borders.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class
Theorizing Class: Karl Marx's theory of class conflict
Industrialization transformed societies, arguably, for the better.
BUT it also led to protests and revolutionary movements
Why have workers protested even
as societies became more wealthy?
Industrial capitalism was founded in an
exploitative system of class relations that led to
the oppression of the majority of working people.
For Marx, a social class is a group of people
who stand in a common relationship to
the means of production.
The relationship between classes is an exploitative one
The proletarius, a citizen of the lowest class.
Proleteriat: A class of people who sell their labor and who
do not own the means of production in a capitalist society.

Precaria: a. Dangerously lacking in security or stability. b. Subject to chance or

unknown conditions. c. based on uncertain, unwarranted, or unproved premises.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Theorizing Class: Karl Marx's theory of class conflict

In feudal societies, exploitation often took the form of the direct
transfer of produce from the peasantry to the aristocracy.
Production

Estate LAND Third Estate

In modern capitalist societies, the source of exploitation

is less obvious and based on surplus value.
Profit
Production Wage

Market Capital Means of Production Labour

Money Labour
Surplus Value
The Capital earns more than how much is invested.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Max Weber: class, status and Party

Weber's approach to stratification was built on the analysis

developed by Marx, but he modified and elaborated on it.
Like Marx, Weber regarded society as characterized by conflicts over power and
resources. Yet where Marx saw polarized class relations and economic issues at the heart
of all social conflict, Weber developed a more complex, multidimensional view of society.
Three overlapping elements (Class, Status, Party) of stratification
produce an enormous number of possible positions within
society, rather than the more rigid bipolar model proposed.
Weber argued that an individual's market position
strongly influences his or her overall life chances.

According to Weber, class divisions derive not

only from control or lack of control of the means
of production, but from economic differences
that have nothing directly to do with property.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Max Weber: class, status and Party

Marx What determines your STATUS? Weber

is determined by the class division based can change independently of class

on control of the means of production. divisions and multidimensional.
Purely economic. Social and cultural aspects: life-styles.
FOR INSTANCE Genteel Poverty.

Ah Güzel İstanbul (1966), Haşmet İbriktaroğlu

Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English

playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. (1888).
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Max Weber: class, status and Party

Weber also argues that party formation is an

important aspect of power, and can influence
stratification independently of class and status.
Party defines a group of individuals who
work together because they have
common backgrounds, aims or interests.
Parties may appeal to concerns cutting
across class differences; for example,
parties may be based on religious
affiliation or nationalist ideals. Wealth
Prestige

Power
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Erik Olin Wright's theory of class

Erik Olin Wright has developed an influential theory of class which
combines aspects of both Marx's and Weber's approaches.

There are three dimensions of control over economic

resources in modern capitalist production

control over investments or money capital.

control over the physical means of production.
control over labor power.

White-
Collar
Working Capitalist
Class able to influence some Class

have control over none have control over all

contradictory class location

SOC - 109 Milliyet Stratification and Social Class

Erik Olin Wright's theory of class

YES
White-collar and professional employees have to
contract their labor power to employers in order to
make a living in the same way as manual workers do.

BUT
At the same time they have a greater
degree of control over the work setting
than most people in blue-collar jobs.

The relationship to The possession of skills

authority. or expertise.

contradictory class location

SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Sociological Importance Measuring class

The relationship between class position and other dimensions of social

life, such as voting patterns, educational attainment and physical health.
BUT

How to measure class which has no clear-cut borders?

Operationalization: transforming abstract concepts into measurable variables.

For instance, to map the class structure of society.

What do you think?

Made in Chelsea
What kinds of things can be indicators of class?
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Most class schemes are based on the occupational structure.

Measuring class
Descriptive Schemes: reflect the shape of the occupational and class
structure in society without addressing the relations between social classes.
Explanatory Schemes: are more theoretically informed
and concern the relations between classes in society .

BUT There are difficult to apply to the economically inactive groups.

Class schemes based on occupational distinctions are also unable to
reflect the importance of property-ownership and wealth to social class.
rapid economic transformations occurring in industrial societies
Moreover have made the measurement of class even more problematic.

New categories of occupations are emerging and mobility and

change that are provoked by such social transformations.

What was the Question ?

SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

Goldthorpe's Class Scheme

Qs What is the connection between the jobs we do -

our occupations - and our social class position?
Is class simply the same thing as occupation?
Operationalization

The Goldthorpe class scheme was designed not as a hierarchy but as a

representation of the 'relational' nature of the contemporary class structure.

Explanation
Two main factors, market situation and work situation, determine the class position.

The market situation concerns The work situation focuses on

the level of pay job security and questions of control, power and
prospects for advancement. authority within the occupation.
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class
Goldthorpe's class Scheme

Goldthorpe's comparative research encompassed a project on social mobility known as

the CASMIN project (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Societies).
I Professional, administrative and managerial employees higher grade.
II Professional, administrative and managerial
employees, lower grade; technicians, higher grade.
IIIa Routine non-manual employees, higher grade.
IV Small employers and self-employed workers.
V Supervisors of manual workers; technicians, lower grade.
VI Skilled manual workers.
IIIb Routine non-manual workers, lower grade.
VII Semi- and unskilled manual workers.

Service Class Intermediate Class Working Class

SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

The Death of Class

Jan Pakulski and Malcolm Waters argue that class is no

longer the key to understanding contemporary societies.

What does the death of class mean?

AND WHY
status conventionalism: Inequalities are the result of differences
in status (prestige) and in the lifestyle and consumption patterns.

an increase in consumer power, an 'ascriptively disprivileged

underclass' - is their inability to engage in 'status consumption.'

property-ownership is now less restricted.

The processes of globalization: a new international division of labor.

1996
 Distribution of wealth
SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class

The embourgeoisement thesis Some further issues

The process through which more people become The growing middle-class.
«bourgeois» or middle class which means many blue-
collar workers earning middle-class wages would adopt BUT
middle-class values, outlooks and lifestyles as well. Gender-Class

Underclass.
Dangerous Class.

Embourgeoisement by Terry Castle (2011)

SOC - 109 Stratification and Social Class
Mobiliti(es)
We have to consider not only the differences
between economic positions or occupations, but also
what happens to the individuals who occupy them.

The term social mobility refers to the

movement of individuals and groups
between different soda-economic positions.

Upwardly
Vertical mobility means movement up or Generational (Time) Dimension
down the socia-economic scale.
Those who gain in property, income or status are said

Vertical Mobility
to be upwardly mobile while those who move in the
opposite direction are downwardly mobile.

In modern societies there is also a great deal of lateral mobility, which refers
to geographical movement between neighborhoods, towns or regions.
Vertical and lateral mobility are often combined.

Lateral Mobility Downwardly

 stratification Middle East Technical University embourgeoisement
Sociology Department
SOC – 109 Week – 11
Class
SOC 109
work situation
Slavery Caste access
Chapter XI

Estate Stratification and Social Class dangerous Under-

Social strata mobility

Middle-
class
gender inequalities
Vertical
market situation
Marginaliation
upwardly conflict
genteel poverty surplus value blue-collar

downwardly
White-collar
lateral
intra 10 December 2024 The death of class?
generational
inter Geographical Instructor Thank you for your attention…

class status party Dr. Besim Can ZIRH proletariat

Text Book: Anthony Giddens, Sociology (6th Edition) – 2009. Social ranking
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