Page 259 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes 12.4 Summary

• Stratification is ranking of people in a society. Ranking is made on certain criteria. These
criteria include power, status and prestige. The Marxists look at stratification from the
perspective of mode of production. As a matter of fact social stratification in contemporary
sociology has become a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional field of study. It is qualified
by the adjective multi because the disciplines of sociology, rural sociology, social anthropology,
psychology, political science and economics also study stratification. Because of its multi-
disciplinary nature, its approaches to study are also different.
• The Weberian approach to stratification takes into consideration the concepts of wealth,
power and prestige. Wealth, for example, may be defined by occupational category and its
accompanying ability to produce income, or by inherited valuables such as real estate. Prestige
refers to honour and style of life; for example, how elegant one’s life-style is. Power refers to
the ability to control or dominate the course of events which make up social life. Thus
positions in a society are ranked in terms of the amount of those desirables that are attached
to them. Stratification, then, involves inequality because the higher the rank of a position, the
more desirable one can get by holding that position.
• A ranked social order is common in most societies. Another way of placing the people is
based on conceptions of difference. Dipankar Gupta writes : “If inequality is the key feature,
then, the stratificatory system can be characterized as hierarchical one. If difference is more
important, then, the various social orders face each other as horizontal and equal blocs. A
ranked hierarchy does not make that much sense here.” “Inequalities of income or rank
clearly belong to the hierarchical order of stratification.” On the contrary, for example,
linguistic differences cannot be placed in a hierarchical order. But, generally speaking,
differences between men and women are not seen as horizontal, rather they are perceived as
“ranked” vertically.
• Natural differences become “social” when they are seen as sociological categories. “Hierarchy”
is generally a static rank order, whereas “difference” implies “dynamics” in the static social
order. Social stratification includes both hierarchy and difference. Social mobility can occur
in a hierarchical society, like India, which is characterized by the rigidity of caste system.
Class-based societies are generally considered more prone to mobility. Open and closed
systems of social stratification are viewed in terms of avenues and possibilities for social
mobility.
• An open system of stratification is characterized by mobility of an aspiring individual.
Opposite to this, a closed system discourages mobility within its rank order. For upward
mobility, in both systems, efforts are made by people. In other words, the members who
wish to move up challenge the persisting system of social stratification and announce their
claims on new positions or those of who have held privileged status and honour in the
society.
• “In an open system of stratification it is possible to move up by simply obeying the internal
order or rank differentiation.”
• “In an open system of stratification a single variable must be the hierarchy, so that quantitative
differences in this variable can be measured in a rank order.” From zero to hundred, for
example, can be measured in a continuous way. Such a mobility or gradations do not result
into categorical distinctions within the stratification system. A variety of factors, such as
occupation, education, schooling, housing, source of income, may be there in a continuous
hierarchy, which are quantifiable and measurable.

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