Social Stratification

Social stratification studies structured social inequality — how societies rank people into classes, status groups, and strata, and how advantage and disadvantage are transmitted.

Scope

It covers class and status, income and wealth inequality, social mobility and attainment, and the intersection of class with race, gender, and other divisions.

Core questions

• How and why are societies stratified?
• What determines people's positions in the hierarchy?
• How much social mobility is there?
• How is inequality reproduced across generations?
• How do class, race, and gender intersect?

Key concepts

• Class
• Status
• Social mobility
• Status attainment
• Income and wealth inequality
• Reproduction of advantage
• Intersectionality

Key theories

Functionalist theory of stratification

Davis and Moore argued stratification is functionally necessary to motivate the filling of important roles — a much-criticized claim.

Status attainment

Blau and Duncan modelled how family origins and education shape occupational attainment, founding mobility research.

Class analysis

Wright developed a neo-Marxist analysis of class locations and exploitation.

History

The functionalist account of stratification (Davis-Moore) was challenged by conflict and Marxian class analysis (Wright) and complemented by the quantitative status-attainment and mobility tradition (Blau-Duncan), now central to the study of rising economic inequality.

Debates

Is inequality functional or exploitative?

Functionalist justifications of stratification contend with conflict theories stressing power and exploitation.

Key figures

• Kingsley Davis
• Wilbert Moore
• Peter Blau
• Otis Dudley Duncan
• Erik Olin Wright

Seminal works

• davis-moore-1945
• blau-duncan-1967
• wright-1985

Frequently asked questions

What is social mobility?

Movement of individuals or groups between positions in the social hierarchy, across a lifetime (intragenerational) or between generations (intergenerational).