SOC100H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Cultural Capital, Social Stratification, Social Capital
Chapter 6: Global Stratification
- Social Stratification: the way society is organized in layers of strata.
Patterns of Social Inequality
- wealth is what you own; it is your assets minus your liabilities (houses, cars, appliances, furniture, and savings)
- In terms of wealth, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer
- income is the amount of money earned in a given period
- workers today are more productive than they were 60 years ago, meaning that the average worker is more skilled
and is using more sophisticated technology to produce more goods and services per hour of work
- the distribution of income in Canada has become more unequal the past 60 years; all quintiles earn a smaller
share of the total national income, while the top quintile has earned more (income gaps have been widening)
Explanations of Income Inequality
- some individuals earn higher salaries because of their natural talent (acting, sports, music, etc.); genetic gifts set
them apart from other individuals
- on the other end of the spectrum, some people suffer the genetic misfortune of conditions (such as Down
syndrome, schizophrenia, or autism) that prevent them from earning big salaries
- sociologists believe that for a vast majority of people, genes play only a minor role in determining income
- effort is required, regardless of those with natural talents; practice and years of dedication to the basics of a
profession are common to all who enjoy success (although effort alone doesn’t result in high income)
- raw talent needs to be sharpened, such as in training, coaching, or schooling
- if physical capital is investment in industrial plants and equipment, then human capital is investment in education
and training
- just as productivity increases by upgrading manufacturing plants and introducing new technology, productivity
gains can also result from investment in the skills and abilities of people
- better-educated workers are more skills and more productive in jobs requiring advanced skills because they have
made investments in acquiring the skills and knowledge essential to the economy
- part of the reason that people with the same amount of human capital may receive different economic rewards is
that they possess different amounts of social capital
- Social capital refers to people’s networks or connections; individuals are more likely to succeed if they have strong
bonds of trust, cooperation, mutual respect, and obligation with well-positioned individuals or families
- Knowing the right people and having strong links to them helps find opportunities and taking advantage of them
- Cultural capital comprises the set of social skills people have: their ability to impress others, to use tasteful
language and images effectively to influence and persuade people
- Cultural capital in general speaks about cultural signals (attitudes preferences formal knowledge behaviours goals
and credentials) used for social and cultural inclusion and exclusion.
- Although the notion of social capital stresses your networks and connections with others, the idea of cultural
capital emphasizes your impression management skills, your ability to influence others; in different ways, both
concepts emphasize being part of the right “social club”
- What the concepts of social and cultural capital also have in common is the idea that families higher in the social
hierarchy enjoy more capital of all times
Poverty
- Homelessness is one manifestation of poverty
- Poverty lacks an agreed on definition. Analysts disagree whether poverty should be defined in absolute or relative
terms and whether it should be based on income or consumption.
- An absolute definition of poverty focuses on essentials, suggesting that poor families have inadequate resources
to acquire life’s necessities (food, clothing, and shelter). Agreement on “essentials” depends on values and
judgements
- A relative poverty line had certain drawbacks. Two issues are central: relative to what, and how relative? Whether
poverty ought to be defined narrowly in terms of economic measures (such as income) or more broadly with
respect to community standards (such as safe working conditions, environmental quality, type of housing, etc.)
- Should poverty be defined on the basis of income or consumption? Since “base essentials” is a core idea in
definitions of poverty, it makes sense to think and measure poverty as the cost of purchasing bare essentials
- Deprivation occurs when a family can’t acquire these essentials, but not necessarily when income is too low
- The definition of poverty is essential for people facing poverty because social policies are enacted (or not
enacted) based on levels and trends in poverty (definitions matter)
- Poverty definitions are also important for political reasons; a democratic society depends on the full participation
of all citizens – everyone has the right to vote, anyone can run for political office, and everyone’s voice should
influence political choices
- Canada does not have an official poverty line. Statistics Canada reports a low-income cut-off that marks “the
income level at which a family may be in straitened circumstances because it has to spend a greater proportion of
its income on necessities than the average family of similar size.
- This threshold is reported for seven different family sizes and for five different sizes of community because
“straitened circumstances” depend on the number of people in your family and where you live
MYTHS ABOUT POVERTY
1. People are poor because they don’t want to work. This ignores that many poor people can’t work because of a
disability or because they must take care of their young children because of inadequate child-care provisions. It
also ignores that many poor people work full-time, and many more work part time, but this isn’t a guarantee of
escaping poverty because minimum wage is so low. Low minimum wages help ensure widespread low income
and poverty
2. Most poor people are immigrants. Only recent immigrant experience poverty rates significantly higher than the
Canadian-born and recent immigrants are only a small fraction of all Canadian immigrants. Once they are
established, immigrants have lower poverty rates than do people born in Canada
3. Most poor people are trapped in poverty. More than 92% of [ep[;e with low income in a given year escape
poverty in less than two years, 80% escape in less than a year, and fewer than 8% for more than two years. Most
people try to move out of difficult financial circumstances and most succeed, at least for a time
EXPLAINING POVERTY
- INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL EXPLANATIONS
• Focus on attributes of people who are poor, asking how these people differ from people who aren’t poor.
• This type of explanation focuses on causes that lie “within the person”.
• according to this logic, someone is poor because of a personal attribute, such as low intelligence of
behavioural abnormality
• people with disabilities have a higher risk of living in poverty than others (however, not all people with
disabilities live in poverty, and the vast majority of people living in poverty don’t have disabilities)
• this reminds us that poverty Is, for the most part, not a consequence of individual attributes even though they
are important in some circumstances
30
SOC100H5 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
30 documents
Document Summary
Social stratification: the way society is organized in layers of strata. Wealth is what you own; it is your assets minus your liabilities (houses, cars, appliances, furniture, and savings) In terms of wealth, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer income is the amount of money earned in a given period. Explanations of income inequality some individuals earn higher salaries because of their natural talent (acting, sports, music, etc. Social capital (cid:396)efe(cid:396)s to people"s networks or connections; individuals are more likely to succeed if they have strong bonds of trust, cooperation, mutual respect, and obligation with well-positioned individuals or families. Knowing the right people and having strong links to them helps find opportunities and taking advantage of them. Cultural capital comprises the set of social skills people have: their ability to impress others, to use tasteful language and images effectively to influence and persuade people.
