Understanding AQA Sociology: Social Stratification Explained

Social Stratification: An Introduction

Social stratification refers to the different ways society is layered and divided based on inequalities. These divisions fundamentally shape how we live our lives and the opportunities available to us.

Several forms of stratification exist in society. Social class is particularly important in modern society, with inequality based on both material factors (wages, income) and cultural aspects (language, lifestyle). While Functionalists believe social mobility between classes is possible, Marxists argue class structures create inequality and power imbalances.

Other significant forms of stratification include racial divides, where one racial group systematically controls another through law and denial of rights. Historical examples include apartheid in South Africa and segregation in 1950s America, typically reflecting white privilege.

Did you know? Modern slavery is still extremely active globally. Many victims are coerced into working in nail bars, farming, and through domestic and sex work to pay non-existent debts.

In its most extreme form, stratification appears as slavery, where individuals are denied rights and freedoms, essentially becoming the property of others. While often considered historical, modern forms continue worldwide today.

Assessment Overview

Your GCSE Sociology qualification consists of two equally weighted papers, each worth 50% of your final grade. Understanding what's assessed in each will help you focus your revision effectively.

Paper 1 covers the sociology of families and education, plus relevant social theory and methodology. You'll need to draw on your entire course knowledge to demonstrate deeper understanding of these topics. This 1 hour 45 minute exam is worth 100 marks and includes multiple choice questions followed by short and extended responses in two sections.

Paper 2 examines the sociology of crime and deviance and social stratification, along with relevant theory and methodology. Like Paper 1, it's a 1 hour 45 minute written exam worth 100 marks with the same format of multiple choice, short and extended response questions.

Remember: You're expected to apply knowledge from the entire course to both papers, showing connections between different topics.

For social stratification specifically, you'll need to understand several key areas including theories (Marxism, Functionalism, Feminism, New Right, Weber), social class, life chances, social mobility, the welfare state, politics, poverty, and globalisation.

Your assessment will measure three objectives: demonstrating knowledge (AO1), applying knowledge (AO2), and analysing and evaluating theories to construct arguments and draw conclusions (AO3).

Theories of Social Stratification

Different sociological perspectives view stratification in contrasting ways - understanding these theories is essential for your exam success.

Functionalists believe stratification is necessary in society. They argue a system based on unequal rewards helps society function properly by ensuring all roles are filled by those best suited to them. Davis & Moore believed such inequality is universal and essential for society to work effectively.

Marxists take a more critical view, arguing that society's structure is determined by economic organization. Marx identified two major classes: those who own the means of production (the capitalist class) and workers who sell their labour. Marxists believe the capitalist class exploits workers, and that limited social mobility is merely a mechanism capitalism uses to preserve itself.

Feminists focus on gender inequality, arguing patriarchal societies exploit women's labour. Women provide unpaid domestic work that serves the capitalist system and are segregated into low-paying occupations. They face dual burdens of paid employment and domestic labour, with working-class women often working long hours for little pay.

Exam tip: Remember to compare theories on specific issues like poverty, power relationships, and life chances for high marks!

All three perspectives offer different views on life chances, poverty as a social issue, power and authority, and power relationships. These contrasting theoretical explanations help explain why inequality exists and persists in modern society.

What is Social Stratification?

Social stratification refers to how society is layered, structured and divided based on inequalities or other separating factors. These divisions fundamentally shape how we experience life and the opportunities available to us.

Social class remains one of the most important forms of stratification in modern society. Inequality is based on both material aspects (wages, income) and cultural elements (language, way of life). Functionalists suggest it's possible to change your social class through social mobility, while Marxists believe class structures create inequality and power relationships. The "means of production" and "relations of production" shape social life according to Marxists.

Racial divides create another form of stratification where one racial or ethnic group controls another systematically through law and denial of rights. Historical examples include apartheid in South Africa and segregation in 1950s America, typically reflecting white privilege in social structures.

Think about this: While we often consider slavery a historical issue, modern slavery is extremely active throughout both developing and developed countries. Victims are often coerced into working in nail bars, farming, and domestic or sex work to pay "debts" that don't actually exist.

Society can be visualized as a pyramid with the upper class (smallest group) at the top, middle class in the center, and lower class (largest group) at the bottom, each with differing levels of wealth, power, and opportunity.

Functionalist View on Social Stratification

Functionalists believe social stratification is a "Universal Necessity" - all societies must have a system of stratification to function properly. This perspective was developed by Davis & Moore in their key text "Some Principles of Stratification."

According to functionalists, society needs certain things to happen: all roles must be filled, roles should be performed by those best able to do so, proper training must take place, and roles must be performed conscientiously (with moral duty). For this to work, unequal rewards and privileges are necessary. People with greater rewards represent more functionally important roles in society.

This system encourages people with equal skill or intelligence to compete with each other for important roles. A society that rewards those who work hard to achieve skills, education, and jobs is described as meritocratic - based on merit rather than birth privilege.

Critical thinking: Tumin criticized Davis & Moore by noting that workers are often as important as managers, elite groups try to preserve their advantages rather than allowing fair competition, education doesn't justify a lifetime of rewards, and the less privileged rarely fully accept their situation.

C.W. Mills argued that income inequality is needed in society, suggesting that incomes for those in important roles should be greater than the average worker - perhaps double. However, Mills never anticipated the enormous wage gaps we see today, where CEOs can earn over 400 times more than their average workers.

Marxism & Social Stratification

Karl Marx argued that social class was the most important factor in determining social inequality. As industrialization developed, Marx observed that some began to own the means of production (land, factories, machinery, tools, capital), creating two classes: the bourgeoisie (owners) and the proletariat (workers).

Marx believed the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat for wage labour to maximize profit. This exploitation, called the relations of production, means workers don't benefit from the profits they help create. Technology would replace workers, creating "polarisation of the classes" with growing conflict and widening differences in wealth and lifestyle.

The petty bourgeoisie (small business owners) would suffer what Marx called the "myth of social mobility." Despite trying to achieve upward mobility through small businesses, large corporate enterprises would eliminate competition, forcing them back into the proletariat class.

Key concept: Marx predicted that workers would feel alienated by capitalism - they wouldn't find happiness through consuming material goods and would feel treated as commodities themselves, living in fear of losing their jobs.

Marx claimed capitalism was unstable because of issues like recession and unemployment, which could create opportunities for the proletariat to revolt. However, critics argue Marx ignored gender and race in creating inequality, was too economically deterministic, failed to acknowledge capitalism's stability at times, and overlooked how attempted communist societies failed to eliminate inequality.

Weber & Social Stratification

Max Weber disagreed with Marx that capitalism entirely shaped people's lives. For Weber, class was more complex than Marx suggested - some workers enjoy more success depending on the "market situation." Weber identified multiple social classes with similar life experiences:

• The property-owning upper class
• The management middle class
• The petty bourgeoisie
• The manual working class

Unlike Marx, Weber didn't believe in extreme conflict between classes or that capitalism would collapse. He thought strikes might happen, but revolution wouldn't.

Weber's approach to understanding stratification focused on three dimensions: class, status, and party. For status, Weber noted that social classes compete for prestige based on lifestyle choices (houses, cars, clothes). Importantly, wealth doesn't always equal power - some gain power from other sources like political capital, gender, race, or religious position.

Remember this: Weber identified three types of authority: charismatic (based on extraordinary personal qualities), legal-rational (legitimacy through election), and traditional (obedience through custom).

Weber's concept of "party" went beyond political parties to include any group seeking to exercise power, like pressure groups. These can appeal across class lines through national identity, religious groups or single issues.

Critics argue that Weber downplayed wealth's role in determining power, ignored patriarchy, borrowed many ideas from Marx, and made no value judgments about capitalism unlike Marx's more critical stance.

Social Class

Social class remains a central focus for sociologists across different theoretical perspectives. In the UK, society is typically divided into three main classes, each with distinct characteristics and opportunities.

Upper Class: This elite part of society (or "establishment") includes company directors, aristocracy, politicians and top professionals. Though just 10% of the population, they own 45% of wealth and have incomes 24 times higher than the poorest 10%.

Middle Class: Comprising about 50% of society, the middle class typically works in "non-manual occupations." It's divided into upper-middle (with more power, disposable income and education) and lower-middle (typically office and shop workers).

Working Class: Traditionally defined by "manual" work (though this has declined over 50 years), the working class includes routine workers in repetitive jobs like fast food and call centers. They're less likely to be trade union members than in the past.

Exam tip: Be familiar with the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) which provides a more detailed breakdown of class positions in modern Britain.

Social mobility refers to movement between class positions. Vertical mobility means moving up or down the class system. Intergenerational mobility occurs when someone changes class compared to their parents, while intra-generational mobility happens within one's lifetime.

Functionalists see social mobility as evidence of meritocracy, while Marxists view it as largely an illusion. Some sociologists argue that downward social mobility has increased recently as well-paid industrial jobs have declined.

Social Stratification & the New Right

The New Right perspective on social stratification, developed by Charles Murray in his key text "The Underclass," focuses on the existence of a growing underclass in society. Murray claimed that increasing numbers were developing a culture lacking personal responsibility and becoming dependent on welfare.

Murray observed several concerning trends from the 1980s in Britain:

• Growing crime rates as members of the underclass lived off an illegal economy (benefit fraud, drug dealing, shoplifting)
• Rising numbers of single-parent families, which Murray claimed bred delinquency and "fecklessness"
• An increasing welfare burden on taxpayers
• A "nanny state" replacing individual responsibility

To address these problems, Murray advocated for welfare reform including sanctions and rewards to incentivize work.

Consider this: The New Right perspective remains highly controversial, with critics arguing it blames individuals for structural problems in society and demonizes the poor.

The "Affluent Worker" studies provide interesting insight into changing working-class lives. Goldthorpe and Lockwood initially suggested workers were becoming wealthier and developing "privatised instrumentalism" - spending more time at home, viewing work as just a means to earn money, and becoming more individualistic.

However, Devine's revisiting of this study challenged these findings. She found no evidence of such instrumentalism, noting that many workers didn't actively seek higher-paid jobs but were forced to by economic changes, still took collective action out of solidarity rather than self-interest, and remained critical of capitalism.

Life Chances: Health

Health chances refer to how good the health of different social groups will be and how this impacts their lives. Sociologists have found that the working class suffer greater health inequality and have lower life expectancy than more privileged groups.

The Black Report, a landmark study, discovered a significant "health divide" between rich and poor. It found that working-class people are more likely to suffer from poor health, with problems including low birth weight, cancer, visual problems, heart attacks, obesity and mental health issues.

Multiple factors cause these health inequalities:

• Material factors: Poor housing, pollution, dangerous working conditions, low income, and inadequate access to services
• Structural explanations: Geographical divides that concentrate disadvantage
• Cultural explanations: Lifestyle factors like smoking, alcohol consumption, poor diet, lack of exercise
• Natural selection: Though controversial, some argue health problems cause low social class rather than result from it

Real-world impact: The health divide remains extreme in modern Britain. Men in Glasgow's Carlton area have an average life expectancy of just 53, while Gypsy Roma men have life expectancies of approximately 50.

Recent research shows particular health inequalities affect specific groups. Disabled people face lower life expectancy, ethnic minorities often experience poorer health outcomes, and there's a clear regional health divide with the North of England suffering worse health outcomes than the South.

These health inequalities represent one of the most serious consequences of social stratification, with material circumstances directly impacting how long and how well people live.