The Process of Social Stratification - Essay Example

ESSAY ON SOCIOLOGY by The of the The of the School The and where it is located The Date “Human societies are not only differentiated structures, they are also dynamic systems in which differentiated activities and roles are valued in different degrees” (Barber B., 1957, 1). Society is a set of people, interacting within their interests and mutual activities. Human activity - is a fundamental principle, which predetermines the relationships arising in the society. However, public relationships are not limited with different activities and comprise the material and spiritual needs of the people as well as their values. Another important principle is the principle of collectivity. A person is essentially a social creature, whose life is closely connected with cooperation and interaction with other people. Therefore, the society can be understood not only as a set of joint activities, but as a set of completely different forms of associations descended from them: primary and social groups, community organizations, and so forth. Every sphere of public life exists as a complex entity. Its elements represent the idea of the society as a whole. A person enters into the public life by means of collective communication and functions in it as a member of several groups (labor, union, sports and so forth) simultaneously. Diverse connections arising between social groups, nations and within them in the process of economic, social, political and cultural life and work are called public relations. The aim of this work is to view the process of social stratification and to describe the conditions, which influence its formation and development. Social stratification is one of the basic concepts of sociology, which indicates the system of features and criteria of public separation. “Essentially we mean by social stratification the arrangement of any social group or society into a hierarchy of positions that are unequal with regard to power, property, social evaluation and/ or physical gratification” (Tumin, M., 1967, 12). The term "stratification" came to the sociology from Geology. Initially its meaning concerned the location of layers of the earth. Later people began to apply this meaning to the description of different public layers. Social stratification is the division of the people into the levels according to their positions in the society. The division of the society is based upon the inequality of social distances between them. The separation takes place according to the ideas of prosperity, power, education and so forth. “In analyzing the function of stratification, functionalists see it as the mechanism through which society encourages men to seek to achieve the diverse positions necessary in a complex social system” (Curtis, J., 1979, 43). A particular distance between the public positions of people forms a hierarchy of social levels. The access to these levels is regulated by the establishment of the boundaries, which separate them from each other. These boundaries are often called “social filters”. For example, the division of certain levels is held in terms of income, power, and the nature of work. Consequently, the social level in the society is estimated by the public prestige. The simplest model of stratification is a dichotomous one, which divides the society into two main groups: the elite and the masses. In the earliest archaic social systems, the process of structuring of the society into clans took place simultaneously with the establishment of social inequality between and within them. As a result, there were "dedicated" people (those who were involved into the certain social practices: priests, elders, chiefs) and the laity. The process of stratification transformed even inside these narrow societies. It predetermined the appearance of caste, estates, classes and so forth. Modern views on the current social division models are quite complex. They are multi-layered, multidimensional and support the emergence of different stratification models, such as quotas, grades, facilities, privileges, preferences and so forth. The most important dynamic characteristic of the society is social mobility. Along with the “social filters”, establishing barriers to the public movements, there are also the so-called "social elevators", which accelerate this process significantly. For example, during the crises, the development takes places with the help of the revolution, war, and conquest, in stable society – by means of family, marriage, education, property, and so forth). The degree of freedom of social movements is determined by the type of the society, which can be open or closed. W. Lloyd Warner suggested his own system of social stratification, dividing the society into the six main layers: 1) Rich aristocrats. This level include the millionaires in the first generation. 2) Highly educated intellectuals (doctors, lawyers). 3) Business people (owners of the capital). 4) "White-collar" workers (clerks, secretaries, cashiers, ordinary physicians, school teachers and so forth). 5) Skilled workers or "blue-collars" (electricians, plumbers, welders, turners, drivers and so forth). 6) The homeless, beggars, criminals and the unemployed. This classification is considered as the clearest explanation of social stratification and its levels. The Difference Between the Historical Forms of Social Stratification. Historical forms of social stratification differ according to the degree of austerity of filters on its floors. The most frequent of them are: Castes - groups of people in the public hierarchy, in which the social lifts are off completely and people do not have any opportunity to make a career. Estates - groups of people, in which the strict "filters" limit the social mobility of its members and slow the motions of the “social lifts”. Layers - groups of people in the public hierarchy, in which the social "filters" do not create artificial barriers for those who want to make a career. The only condition for this is the presence of the applicants talent and financial resources. Slavery is the first historical system of stratification. It was widespread in China, Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Greece in ancient times and exists in many countries up to the present time. Slavery is a social, economic and legal form of enslavement of people. Slavery is a complete deprivation of human rights and borders and represents the extreme degree of inequality. “Class relationship in any society become clear only through the analysis of the whole socio-economic structure” (Kahl, J., 1968, 35) Professional Stratification. The indicators of the professional stratification are: The importance of the profession for the survival and functioning of the group; The level of intelligence, necessary for the successful implementation of the professional activity. “The class subcultures are such that secondary jobs can be filled by labor drown from the lower class, or by working and middle class youth” (Piore, M., 1972, 31).The socially significant professions are those ones, which deal with the organization and control of different professional groups. For example, incorrect behavior of the soldier or dishonesty of the employee will not have a material impact on the others, but the general negative status of the group to which they belong to, significantly affects the entire army or a company. The mental work, which includes the successful organization and control of a particular institution, requires a higher level of intelligence, than the physical one. Consequently, such work is better paid. However, there are some exceptions. The content of inner professional stratification is widely used in terms of its classification for different levels. The representatives of each professional level are divided into three groups, in turn, each group is divided into the various sub-groups: - Entrepreneurs or owners. Economically independent in their work, which predetermines the organization and control of their "business" and employees; - Employees of the highest category: directors, managers, senior engineers, members of the board or directors of corporations, and so forth. They are not the "owners" of the business, but they sell the products of the work and get money for it. These categories of professionals play an important role in the holding of business. Their professional function is not the physical but the intellectual labor. - Salaried workers. They are high-ranking officials who also sell the labor of the owners, but cheaper. Being mostly manual workers, they are dependent from the buyer of the work. Inner professional layers may have different names, but they exist in all societies. The industrial mass society retains many features of the archaic one. The specific forms of social stratification are varied and numerous. According to the evolution theory of stratification, the complexity and development of culture create such situation, in which no one can possess all aspects of social activities that lead to the division of labor. Some professions are more important and require extensive training and applicable fees, others - less important and easily replaceable. The concept of stratification does not postulate the social equality, on the contrary, it represents inequality as a natural state of society, so the levels differ not only in their criteria, but are placed in a rigid system of submission to some other layers. There is also the idea of ​​social contradictions that neutralized opportunities for the social mobility. It means that talented people can move from lower to higher layers, while less active people who occupy seats on the higher level of the society due to the social status of their parents, may quickly fail and appear on the lower level of the social structure. “Social inequalities are diverse and intricate, especially in the highly complex societies of today and even in those where all people are considered equal before the law” (Heller, S., 1969, 105). Concluding the article about modern social stratification, one can see that the notion of social class and mobility concretize the general idea of ​​the structure of the society and helps to refine the analysis of public processes within the specific economic and socio-political formations. That is why the study of stratification is one of the most important areas of social anthropology. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, there are three main objectives of these studies: 1) Establishing the extent of domination of class and status systems and claiming the methods of social action. 2) Analysis of class and status structures and factors of their formation. 3) Reviewing the opportunities and income of social stratification and the ways in which different groups support class or status boundaries. In other words, it raises the question of social inhibition and examines the strategies, through which some groups maintain their privileges, while others struggle to gain access to them. Social stratification is perhaps one of the main topics of sociology, which helps to understand the methods and techniques of the public division into classes and determines their main characteristics. It is also associated with the need to motivate people for more effective execution of their role in the society. Nowadays, various social institutions thoroughly research the question of public division, as it is an essential condition for the proper functioning and development of any society. References Barber, Bernard, 1957. Social Stratification, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. Curtis, James E., 1979. Social stratification Canada. Second edition, Ontario: Prentice-Hall of Canada, Ltd., Scarborough. Heller, Selia S., 1969. Structured Social Inequality. A reader in comparative social stratification, London: The Macmillan Company. Kahl, Joseph A., 1968. Comparative perspectives on stratification, Boston: Little Brown and Company (INC.) Piore, Michael Joseph, 1972. Notes for a theory of labor market stratification, Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tumin, Melvin M., 1967. Social Stratification. The forms and functions of inequality, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs. Read More