CC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Gunnar Myrdal, Oscar Lewis, Class Stratification
Document Summary
Social stratification: unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige. Social class: people who have similar wealth, values, attitudes, and lifestyles. Reduced poverty among the elderly: access to healthcare, pensions and social security. 16 percent of children live in poverty (2004) Effects: baron occupational strain solved by crime, boland hopelessness increases violence, substance use, sexual behaviour and accidental injury. Lower class: problems of housing, lack of healthcare, family breakups, underemployment, high levels of dropping out, teenage pregnancy. Oscar lewis (1966): the culture of poverty: apathy, cynicism, mistrust of social institutions, cause/effect of poverty, transmitted from generation to generation, self defeating. Characteristics of disorganization: transient population (high turnover, mixed use neighbourhood (e. g. , residential and commercial side by side, lack of essential services, high unemployment, single parent families, dependence on social assistance, substandard housing. Social institutions: have broken down, lack of authority to control behaviour. Little sense of community: lack communication, can"t pursue common goals.
