Social Straification - Abstracts

Social Inequality and the Sociology of Life Style: Material and Cultural Aspects of Social Stratification. (Focus on Economic Sociology).

“THAT’S NOT FAIR!”: A SIMULATION EXERCISE IN SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY

The American Sociological Association - Abstracts -Volume 32, Number 2, April 2004
Abstract: Social stratification may be one of the most difficult topics covered in sociology classes. This article describes an interactive learning exercise, using a modified version of the game Monopoly, intended to stress the structural nature of social inequality and to stimulate student reflection and class discussion on social stratification in the United States. The primary focus of this exercise is to help students experience different levels of social stratification and to challenge the idea that individual talents or aspirations are enough to overcome structural barriers to upward class mobility. Student reactions to the experience suggest that it is an effective tool for demonstrating the structural nature of social inequality in the United States and for stimulating discussion on social inequality and related topics. This exercise has worked well in introductory sociology, social problems, and social inequality classes.- lemoyne.edu/ts/32tsabstracts2.html#coghlan

MARK GRANOVETTER
''Toward a Sociological Theory of Income Differences'' - In this paper, Granovetter expresses his dissatisfaction with the current theories of income difference - status attainment and human capital - as well as the new structuralist approaches. Instead, he prefers a combination of these tow paradigms and adds a component that tries to explain the matching process. His theory, then, has three factors: (a) characteristics of the job and employer (new structuralist approach); (b) characteristics of the individual who occupies the job (neoclassical theory and status attainment and human capital); and how a and b get linked together -- what he calls the (c) matching process. This paper is important for several reasons. Not only does it summarize the major theories on wage attainment, it also provides critiques. In addition we get the added bonus of Granovetter's theory of embeddedness (which is the matching process he is talking about). src.uchicago.edu/ssr1/PRELIMS/Strat/stmisc2.html

Social Inequality and the Sociology of Life Style: Material and Cultural Aspects of Social Stratification. (Focus on Economic Sociology). - Author/s: Dieter Bogenhold - ABSTRACT. The rising importance of dimensions such as age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, political attitudes, and multiple choices to organize the notion of "life course" has made the older class concept appear obsolete to the research sociologist. My thesis is that the current expanding discussions of life styles are not necessarily a substitute but a valuable supplement to social stratification theory. Life style research can contribute to the question of the relevance of the class concept. The result of my investigation shows that life style research, when connected to the writings of Thorstein Veblen, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber, can enrich research in the social sciences. findarticles.com/cf_0/m0254/4_60/80802019/p1/article.jhtml?term=sociology

Contemporary Japanese society is often regarded as an enigma in the West because of its miraculous economic growth and the unparalleled stability of its socio-political structure. Yet until now, there have been very few works available in English which are concerned with stratification and class perceptions in contemporary Japan. This study is both empirical and theoretical, with the sociological perspective serving as the underlying framework. A succinct historical overview is provided for those unfamiliar with modern Japanese history. - columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/071030/0710304676.HTM

A 1979 Carnegie study ("Small Futures: Children, Inequality, and the Limits of Liberal Reform", Richard de Lone principal investigator) found that a child's future to be largely determined by social status, not brains.
trinity.edu/mkearl/strat.html

ISA Research Committee 28. Social Stratification and Social Mobility -   This page holds links to abstracts of papers presented in previous conferences.  - soc.duke.edu/~rc28/conferences/conferences.html

Social Stratification and the Differentiation of Life Styles, Social Perceptions and Attitudes in Switzerland. Dr. Markus Lamprecht - During the post-war era, processes of de-structuration and individualization have rendered the structure of inequality more complex and led to the disintegration of traditional classes and "milieus". The emergence of "new" inequalities and the dynamization of existing structures have brought about ambivalent interests and a growing intertwinement of different lines of conflict.  access.ch/lssfb/montreal.html

[PDF] THE IMPACT OF HONORIFIC STRATIFICATION ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE ELIDED SUBJECT IN KOREAN Ladislav D ROZDÍK Institute of Oriental and African Studies ... elis.sk/aas/full/aas196c.pdf

Social Inequality and the Sociology of Life Style: Material and Cultural Aspects of Social Stratification. (Focus on Economic Sociology).
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
Bogenhold, Dieter
ABSTRACT. The rising importance of dimensions such as age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, political attitudes, and multiple choices to organize the notion of "life course" has made the older class concept appear obsolete to the research sociologist. My thesis is that the current expanding discussions of life styles are not necessarily a substitute but a valuable supplement to social stratification theory. Life style research can contribute to the question of the relevance of the class concept. The result of my investigation shows that life style research, when connected to the writings of Thorstein Veblen, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber, can enrich research in the social sciences.

I - Introduction
MANY PEOPLE HAVE ARGUED that the semantics of class has lost its earlier attractiveness. The rising importance of dimensions such as age, gender, nationality, race, political attitudes, and the multitude of choices in organizing one's life course has rendered the debate about the concept of class obsolete. Some argue that the semantics of class no longer seems appropriate for analyzing and interpreting society. This perception is closely connected to the emergence of entirely new topics such as individualization and the plurality of life styles. My main thesis is that the currently expanding discussion on life style is not necessarily a substitute but an important supplement to the tradition of social stratification research. What people "are" and what people "do" can no longer be conceptualized by a simple one-to-one-fit. The concept of life style can provide a link between social rank and social practice. The logic of how people organize their leisure time and how they spend their income is not a simple mirror of income level but must be regarded as being embedded in social behavior.

II - Social Stratification
THE DEBATE ABOUT THE RELEVANCE of the concept of class is unresolved at the end of the 20th century. The past 100 years have witnessed the establishment of a capitalist society that has, on balance, revealed a strong bond between creativity and
destructiveness. This bond is a source of innovation and prosperity (Bogenhold 1995). Average living standards within the population continuously improved during the 20th century. Economic growth triumphed while average weekly working hours were reduced. One question about class concerned the social distribution of economic wealth among different population segments. The visibly increasing rise in disposable time that people won during this historical process and the rise in income that allowed them to develop new patterns of personal consumption and leisure activities, patterns of behavior that had already been revealed with a strange ambivalence by Riesman and colleagues (1950) during the middle of this century, are worth noting.
From a historical perspective, we see production and consumption constantly changing (Becher 1980). This is reflected in a rapidly changing succession of topics in the history of economic and social thought (Stihler 1998). Whereas Max Weber attributed the success of the industrial revolution to the Protestant ethic, our contemporary understanding of
that success is different. Economy and society are increasingly dependent on the levels of effective consumer demand. A constant rise in the production of goods must find a market outlet (Camphell 1987; Mason 1998). If ascetism served as a foundation for the development of a capitalist economic system in Max Weber's world, then the connection between production and demand, that is the cycle of production, sale, and consumption, has in our understanding become the foundation for the modern economic society: no production without demand and vice versa.

III - The Analysis of Life Styles
CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSION of the pluralization of life styles reflects the fact that the level of vertical differentiation in terms of financial resources has little to do with the level of cultural expression as a form of individual life practice. Ulrich Beck's (1986) book Risk Society holds the view that the evidence within life practice for bonding in a specific class constellation has disappeared. His opinion is that biographies are becoming even more "open." Societies that are becoming increasingly complex multiply the possible life courses of individuals and thus, due to institutional handicaps and handicaps in life-history, result in "kits for possible biographic combinations" (Beck 1986:217).
It is of utmost importance that the question of choice of life styles is connected to the diversification and individualization of life situation: The more distinct autonomy becomes in reference to the use of time and money, the more open-ended the question becomes in which concrete practice this use materializes. Benjamin Zablocki and Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1976) clearly pointed this out more than two decades ago. This is the perfect link to the discussion of life styles, which presently seems to be held with growing enthusiasm.

IV - Distribution and Status
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN material "possession" and its appropriate use in terms of a concrete cultural use of material resources was a topic in the sociological contemplations of the classic authors whose pioneering works do not always seem to
gather the necessary attention today. The insights propounded by Georg Simmel, Max Weber, or even Thorstein Veblen, whose ideas developed in completely different contexts in styles of life, have not been systematically pursued and have been revived in
connection with Bourdieu's socio-cultural studies.
While Veblen pointed out the "conspicuous consumption" of the upper classes in his Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Simmel was generally more interested in the outlines of the modern style of life in a time when society was not only experiencing cultural
change but was also going through turbulent economic changes as well. For example, in Simmel's The Philosophy of Money (1978), he examined in detail this modern "style of life," which complicates human relationships. Complications are seen in the ever increasing detachment in social circles and the replacement of traditional rhythms in social life by more complex forms as well as in an increase in the tempo in which society was changing. These distinctions in every day culture can be seen in Simmel (1978) as a growing "multiplicity" of cultural styles that are forever changing. This led to Simmel's following definition of life styles:
Indeed, the mere existence of style is in itself one of the most significant instances of distancing. Style, as the manifestation of our inner feelings, indicates that these feelings no longer immediately gush out but take on a disguise the moment they are revealed. Style, as the general form of the particular, is a veil that imposes a barrier and a distance in relation to the recipient of the expression of these feelings. (1978:473)

V - Life Style Research
MANY FEATURES OF LIFE STYLE research still seem rather indefinite. The semantic delimitation of life styles compared with other categories such as mentalities, mileus or sub-cultures does not seem to exist. A greater part of the discussions on life styles is due to the discomfort with vertical stratification models. Since the forms of possession in vertical class situations are not inevitably transposed into the presumed corresponding sociological practice forms, the need for innovatative sociological tools for theoretical and empirical surveys on the organization and articulation of life has now arisen. However, the latter forms will not necessarily become empty and obsolete due to the former; both can complement each other wisely.
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