Stratification & Mobility

Answer : All societies have some system of social stratification. They are generally categorized as open and closed. A closed society is one in which an individual’s role and function can theoretically never be changed, as in the traditional Hindu caste system.

In an open society, on the other hand, individuals have the opportunity to move up to a higher social class or down to a lower class. Sorokin believed that there is no society which is completely ....

Answer : Social stratification refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. Marx believed that in all stratified societies there are two major social groups: a ruling class and a subject class.

Furthermore he states that the principle difference between these groups is the ownership and control of the means of production, which causes a conflict of interest between the two classes. Weber did not disagree with this viewpoint but saw ....

Answer : Democracy as an ideology prescribes and permits the pursuance of multiple interests by individuals, who accordingly associate in interest groups that cut across ethnic identities.

India still struggles with religious extremism, discrimination, and caste-based violence. The forces generated by democratic politics prevent the state from choosing a single cultural identity, even majoritarian, as the basis of nationhood. Identity politics in India began its journey with certain groups building political support by appealing to voters’ language, caste, ....

Answer : The issue of traffic problem in urban India is not only because of increase of vehicle population in Indian roads it is also has social dimension from human actions and behavior, which is the subject matter of sociologist, here to understand such social phenomena Merton’s concept of deviance can be applied in the study of traffic problem in India.

Deviance is behavior that some people in society find offensive and which, if discovered, excites or would ....

Answer : In regard to the analysis of power in society, Weber introduces a pluralistic notion. Although he agrees with Marx in crucial respects, he refines and extends Marx’s analytical scheme. For Marx, power is always rooted, even in only in the “last analysis,” in economic relations.

Those who own the means of production exercise political power either directly or indirectly. Weber agreed that quite often, especially in the modern capitalist world, economic power is the predominant form. ....

Answer : Latent functions ordinarily mean the actions or the outcomes of it which are neither intended nor recognized. To its contrast, Manifest functions, explains the actions or its outcomes, which are defined, expected, intended and recognized.

Corruption as many functions in society some are functional, non-functional and dysfunctional to persons involved in corrupt practices and public in the society. As Robert K. Merton uses manifest and latent function in his study of social reality that concept can ....

Answer : According to Marx, the exploitation of workers by capitalist and the resulting alienation from work result in the denial of worker’s humanity. Our specie’s humanity is realized through meaningful work and the alienating nature of work under capitalism robs workers of their inherent potential for human growth and development.

The exploitation of workers arises because capitalist owns the means of production (technology, capital investments and raw materials) and treat labour as if it were just another ....

Answer : Indian society is pluralistic from religious point of view. Here, we have the followers of all the great religious systems. Hindus constitute the bulk of the population and they inhabit in all parts of the country. Muslims constitute the largest religious minority. But the adjustment between the Hindus and Muslims has been a failure several times, resulting in violent communal riots.

Colonialism is a product of British administration, to rule the country they applied the policy ....

Answer : Though patriarchy is the most pervasive ideology and nearly universal but not the universal phenomenon. Patriarchy refers to a system of unequal power relations between man and women. Because of this, gender based stratification develops and woman are deprived of equal opportunities and equal status with respect to man. When this gender based inequality extends into the division of labor then it leads to sexual division of labor. Sexual division of labor and patriarchy are ....

Answer : Open system of stratification is the one in which norms and values of a given society encourage mobility across the social structure. Here, individual talent, ability, and hard work get preference over ascribed characteristics. Class based stratification present in European society is an example of open system.

A closed system is one where norms and values of a given society discourage mobility across the social structure. Here, ascribed characteristics get preference over individual talent, ability, and ....

Answer : People being socially excluded are those people who have been excluded by the society. They are forced directly to get themselves excluded or the society creates certain conditions for their exclusion. People excluding themselves are those who exclude themselves from the society purposely and voluntarily. As they have certain characteristics which are different than the average member of society they retain those characteristics and maintain their exclusivity.

Various examples of people being socially excluded are dalits ....

Answer : Karl Marx viewed society from a conflict perspective and highlighted the negative impacts of it. But, the Weber’s conception of stratification was positive and acceptable than the Marx’s conception of stratification.

Various parameters on which we can discuss their analysis are:

• Basis: For Marx the most important basis of inequality is economic inequality. But, for Weber it was multidimensional and it consisted of economic basis, power and status as other dimensions of stratification.
• Structure: For Marx, the structure ....

Answer : Class system is a traditional form of social hierarchy which is the most popular base of stratification in modern society and can be seen in most of the countries of the world. Meaning of social stratification is division of society into systematic hierarchy so that society can be well conducted. In traditional Indian society, base of stratification has been caste which provided the ascribed status based on hereditary.

Class is an achieved status which means a ....

Answer : Since ancient time, India has been stratified society based on caste system. Caste system arranges different castes in hierarchy on the basis of purity and pollution. Top most castes in the hierarchy have high status. And caste at lower level faces so many disabilities. Caste puts hard social rules on their members to restrict the social mobility between different castes so that hierarchic structure must be maintained. For this caste among its members has formed ....

Answer : Social movement literally means movement in status of individual or group from one status to another. In other words it is the change in the position of people in hierarchical order of Society. It is dynamic in nature and involves multidimensionality. In an open class system where achievement is the most important ingredient, mobility is high. Whereas in close social system, where the determinant of status is ascription, the degree of social mobility is lower. ....

Answer : Looking at the present hierarchical social order and the emerging stratification system, one wonders if it still makes sense to talk about open and closed stratification systems as two distinct kind. Though a purely open stratification system or a purely closed one are only ideal types and have never really existed, in the present scenario, the boundaries between the two have blurred to a much greater extent. An open society is the one, where there ....

Answer : August Comte, a French philosopher and father of sociology, proposed method of positivism in the field of social research. It is a method which emphasized on gathering of empirical data. This new methodology also rejected philosophical and speculation approach on gathering data. By 1930s the method of positivism come to flourish in USA and other countries. The method of positivism also emphasized on application of natural sciences methodology in which direct observation of behaviours of ....

Answer : Functional theorists view society as a system that is a set of interconnected parts which together form a whole. According to functional theorists social institutions such as the family, religion, social stratification are part of social systems. Functionalists often compare between society and organism such as the human body. They argued that an understanding of any organ in the body, such as the heart, lungs involves an understanding of its relationship to other organs and ....

Answer : Mead being anti-positivist gave importance to individual (self) and his actions in contrast to group and social structure.

G.H. Mead made a distinction between the actions of animals which are static, continuous and stereotype from that of man’s action that is reflexive, accommodative adjustment depending on time, people and space. Reflexive action of man ensures that man understands the demand of the situation and acts accordingly with the application of mind.

Mind stores ideas, inferences coming ....

Answer : Social mobility may be defined as an act of moving from one social class to another. It is found in both open and closed systems but with different natures and in different forms. An open class society is one in which mobility is high whereas a closed society is one in which there is very little mobility. Social mobility as a concept is used in the sociological investigation of inequality; it refers to the movement ....

Answer : A role conflict occurs when one of a person’s roles conflict with one or more of the other roles the person plays at the same time.

Since each person plays many roles, serious role conflicts will arise now and then. The conflict is internal and personal for it is the individual who must act out the parts, or repair from doing so. But the conflict is also social, because the conflicting demands come from a social ....

Answer : According to Pitrirn Sorokin, 'Social Mobility' is the movement of people from one social stratum to another either upward or downward. He has distinguished between horizontal and vertical social mobility. The horizontal social mobility is not a positional change, but it is shift from one type of assignment to the other of the same nature and characteristics. For example an agricultural worker is employed in the industry as worker. On the other hand the vertical ....

Answer : There are two views about the caste and class structure: One is that caste and class are different, secondly both are interlinked to each other. For instance, Majumdar points out that caste is a closed system whereas class is open system. But on the other, many sociologists such as Yogendra Singh, Andre Beittle and others supported the second view. But one thing is very clear that class represents occupational and economic basis of stratification but ....

Answer : Conflict perspective provide a radical alternative to functional views of the nature of social stratification. They regard stratification as a divisive rather than an integrative structure. They see it as a mechanism whereby some exploit others rather than a means of furthering collective goals. They focus on social strata rather than social inequality in general. Karl Marx is the foremost architect of the conflict approach to the study of society and history.

According to Marx, ....

Answer : It is through socialization that the individual learns social behaviour in one hand and at the same time learns how to maintain social order with the help of social control. Therefore, it can be said that socialisation and social control go together to maintain social order of any type of society. In this context, there are various agency that play a greater role to socialize the people and to control on the behaviour of individual ....

Answer : Social system and pattern variables: The concept of social system is very related to the concept of social structure as the former is functional aspect of the latter. In other words, social system functions through the social structure. The word social system signifies patterned relationships among the constituent parts of social system which is based on functional relations and which makes these parts active and bind them into unity. A social system is thus, an ....

Answer : The term social inequality simply refers to the existence of socially created inequalities. Social stratification is a particular form of social inequality. It refers to the presence of social group which are ranked one above the other, usually in terms of the amount of power, prestige and wealth their members possess. Those who belong to a particular group or stratum will have some awareness of common interests and a common identity. They will share a ....

Answer : Melvin Tumin presented his theory of social stratification as a critique against the famous functionalist thinkers Davis and Moore. Davis and Moore have tended to assume that the most highly rewarded positions are indeed the most important. However, many occupations which afford little prestige or economic reward can be seen as vital to society. Thus, Tumin argues that some labour force of unskilled workmen is as important and as indispensable to the factory as some ....

Answer : The term ‘sex’ is biologically determined while the term ‘gender’ and its role specification are socially, culturally, traditionally and to some extent religiously constructed. The patriarchal norms dominate society and therefore most women experience “gender oppression” to a greater or lower degree. While reviewing the United Nation’s statistics envisages that (i) Women perform 67 percent of the world working hours (ii) They earn 10 percent of the world’s income (iii) Women are two thirds of ....

Answer : The term “social mobility” refers to the movement of the position, status, prestige and especially profession or occupation of a person. Social mobility may be categorised into upward and downward, vertical and horizontal and intragenerational and inter-generational. Whenever the key position of a person is further elevated, it is known as upward and vertical social mobility. It is a positional change. In the horizontal social mobility, the nature of job or assignment is changed, ....

Answer : Sorokin in “Social and Cultural Dynamics” attempts to explain course of history with the help of culture and recurring changes in it. Human Society, according to him, is travelling on a cyclical course of two extremes of cultural types- Ideational and Sensate. When ideational elements of culture becomes dominant in a society in course of history, society then starts moving towards sensate culture. As Marx explained history and society in terms of material development, Sorokin ....

Answer : Inter-generational mobility is a type of social mobility. Social mobility refers to movement of individuals or groups between different positions in the hierarchy of social stratification within society. For example, a manual labourer becoming head of village panchayat is an example of social mobility. Here the status of the person rises in the hierarchy from that of a manual labourer to that of a head of the village panchayat.

Inter-generational mobility is a specific type ....

Answer : P.A. Sorokin, in his book "Social Mobility" (1927), had defined it as the movement of people from one social stratum to the another either upward and downward. He has distinguished between horizontal and vertical social mobility. The horizontal social mobility is not a positional change, but it is the shift from one type of assignment to the other of the same nature and characteristics. For example, an agricultural worker is employed in the industry as ....

Answer : Most of the sociologists have assumed that the main basis of social stratification is the unequal distribution of power, prestige and rewards. In a stratified society there are social, economic and political differentiations. For example, in India, the society is mainly stratified on the caste ground. The status and position of Brahamin is considered higher than the other vama and caste. The Shudra is the lowest Varna and has low status in the society. At ....

Answer : The characteristic features of caste are endogamy, hierarhy, purity and pollution, rules of marriage etc. It is a social group. The different castes have varied status and position in the society. All the Brahamins have higher social status than the Rajanya, Vaish a and Shundra. Their job and duty are also different from each other. Similarly in the class system there is the hierarchy of the higher, lower, middle etc. The higher class enjoys high ....

Answer : The vertical social mobility refers to change in the position of an individual or group along with social hierarchy whereas the horizontal social mobility refers to change in occupational position or role of an individual or group without involving any change in its position to social hierachy. If an industrial worker or child of an industrial worker becomes a wealthy businessman or lawyer he undergoes quite a radical change in the position in stratification ....

Answer : The functionalist theory of stratification has been chiefly propounded by Talcott Parsons, Kingsley Davis and Moore, MelvinTumin etc. The basic assumption of this theory is that the various parts of the society are integrated and functional for the coordination and maintenance of the whole social system. Functionalists maintain that certain degree of order and stability are essential for the operation of social system. They therefore consider how stratification system helps to maintain order and stability ....

Answer : horizontal social mobilityvertical social mobilityintra generational ....

Answer : The social inequality chiefly refers to the unequal distribution of power, prestige, status etc. in the society. There are different social and ethnic groups in the society around the world among which one may trace the unequal distribution of social rewards and positions. All the men are of equal qualities, according to biologist, it is the society which has made them unequal in rewards. In America, there is the Black and White conflict, and in ....

Answer : Both, the social class and social status is closely related to each other. According to Max Weber the market situation determine the class of an individual which, in turn, determine the social status of the individual in the society. He has distinguished class into several types such as the propertied upper class, propertyless white collar workers, petty bourgeoisie and manual working class. The higher social status is enjoyed by the propertied upper class. Then the ....