Social stratification- is systematic inequalities among groups of people 1. Wealth and income (social class)
2. Racial inequality
3. Gender inequality.
Equality/inequality
-Ontological equality
-Equality of opportunity
-Equality of condition
-Equality of outcome
Why inequality exists?
Inequality in wealth and access to resources is generated by three processes: 1.) Unequal division of labor and/or low mobility across occupations. 2.) Surplus or abundance of resources 3.) The desire to accumulate wealth and assets
Types of social mobility: mobility refers to movement between different position within a system of social stratification 1. Horizontal 2. Vertical 3. Structural 4. Exchange
Why the class structure is changing
-Massive growth in inequality between the rich and the poor.
Called the “Great U-Turn”
-Shrinking of the working class, with some growth in middle class and working poor.
-Growth of poverty and the “underclass”
-Rate of poverty is increasing twice as fast as population growth

Why income inequality is increasing -Largely due to the increasing concentration of wealth at the very top of the income distribution. consequences of income inequality
-High levels of income inequality reduces social cohesion, overall health, overall wealth, and education

-Increases crime, debt, and political polarization

Social construction of race
-Instead, social scientists argue that “race” is socially constructed.
Racial categories and the meaning of race vary over time and geographically.
Racial status is differentially connected to systems of social inequality.
The meaning and inequalities connected with race are constantly defined and contested.

Race- Externally imposed, involuntary, hierarchal, exclusive, unequal vs. ethnicity- Cultural/National, voluntary, self-defined, fluid, non-hierarchal