1 Foundations of Social Stratification
Learn how social stratification organizes inequality, how class, status, and power shape social position, and how researchers measure mobility and unequal outcomes.
Stratification and inequality
is the patterned ranking of people and groups in a society, accompanied by unequal access to resources, opportunities, and social rewards. Sociologists examine durable patterns linked to social categories and institutions, not only differences between individuals.
refers to the uneven distribution of valued resources, opportunities, benefits, and burdens. Stratification describes how such inequalities are organized into a hierarchy. Unequal access can involve education, health, secure work, social respect, and influence, as well as money and assets.
, , and
Max Weber emphasized that stratification has several related but distinct dimensions. concerns economic position and life chances, shaped by factors such as , , education, and occupation. People in similar positions may have comparable access to jobs, housing, and other resources.
concerns social honor, prestige, or esteem. It can be associated with an occupation, family background, education, religion, or other social identities, and high does not always mean high .
is the capacity to carry out one’s will or influence decisions, including when others disagree. It can come from control of resources, authority, organizations, or political connections.
These dimensions often overlap but are not identical. A teacher may have substantial education and community respect but earn less than a business owner with greater and influence. When a person’s rank differs across dimensions, the pattern is called .
Social position and mobility
summarizes a person’s or household’s position, commonly using , , education, and occupation. These measures capture different things, so researchers should state which indicators they use rather than treating SES as a single self-evident trait.
Social positions may be partly , meaning assigned at birth or otherwise not chosen, and partly , meaning connected to actions or accomplishments. In a system, people can move between positions, but opportunities for movement are not necessarily equal.
is movement within a stratification system. It may be upward or downward, and it can be considered in different ways:
occurs within a person’s lifetime.
compares parents’ and children’s positions.
occurs when broad economic changes move whole groups.
Indicators of inequality
No single measure captures every dimension of stratification. Researchers select indicators based on the question being asked.
and distributions show how money and assets are divided among people or households. Researchers may compare groups such as the bottom and top fifths of a distribution. is money received over a period of time, while is the value of assets such as savings, investments, and property minus debts. can provide security and be passed across generations, so it may shape life chances even when two households have similar incomes.
The summarizes inequality in a distribution, often . It ranges from , representing complete equality, to , representing complete inequality; some sources report the same scale from to . It is useful for comparisons, but it does not show exactly where in the distribution inequality occurs or identify its causes.
The plots cumulative population shares against the cumulative shares of they receive. The summarizes the gap between this curve and a line representing perfect equality.
Education, occupation, and health indicators capture dimensions of advantage that alone may miss. Mobility measures examine how strongly positions are linked across generations or over a lifetime.
Interpreting measures
Measures require careful interpretation. Household can differ from individual , and is not the same as . The measures inequality in one distribution; it does not measure or .
Comparisons also depend on how data are collected and which populations are included. Since different indicators capture different dimensions, a fuller account of stratification uses multiple measures rather than relying on a single statistic.