Overview of Social Inequality

Social Inequality - Overview of Social Inequality: Social inequality refers to the idea that the resources within a society are unevenly distributed Minority groups (racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic) typically experience higher levels of inequality in areas such as education, healthcare, and poverty Glass ceiling effect is when women in particular (can be applied to minorities) where they are poorly represented in higher positions and/or powerful positions in organizations/institutions Social inequality can lead to social exclusion, segregated neighborhoods, political disempowerment, and in particular civil unrest/criminal acts The government can help address these inequality issues through programs that allow for better access to education/healthcare and to allow them develop better ways of reintegration into society Upward & Downward Mobility, Meritocracy: Different classes come from a variety of different things based on salary, power, etc. Horizontal mobility is when you move horizontally across your same social class (i.e. going from being a doctor at one place to a doctor at another) Vertical movement refers to upward or downward social movement (i.e. a fast food worker moving to a CEO position) Caste system says that your class is predetermined at birth and there is very little social mobility if any at all (limited to the social group to where you are born) → leads to class stability Class system is most prominent in most countries today and allows for social mobility throughout one’s life, but has less social stability Meritocracy is a concept that people achieve their social position based on solely on their ability and achievements (basically no social stability but extreme levels of social mobility Intergenerational & Intragenerational Mobility Social Mobility: Intragenerational mobility is something that affect an individual during their own lifetime (i.e. becoming a CEO when you were a janitor at first) Intergenerational mobility considers the parents and the individual (i.e. the parents being janitors and the child becoming a CEO) Absolute & Relative Poverty: Absolute poverty is an absolute that if you go below, your own survival is threatened (applies no matter where you are) → primarily focuses on developing countries Relative poverty is typically regarded to as less than 60% of the median income (linked to a country’s income) → does not have to do with survival Social Reproduction: Social reproduction shows that rich people will typically have rich kids, and poor people will typically have poor kids and that this stays relatively stable over time (reproducing social inequality across generations) Social Exclusion (Segregation & Social Isolation): Networking allows for connections that help individuals in life Social exclusion means that certain people are derailed from participating in society and sending them to the fringes of society (denied access to many resources) → can be a result of poverty, ill health, discrimination, and even lack of education (people - - often feel many of these forces at once) Segregation is a way of separating out a group of people and giving them access to a separate set of resources within society (“separate but equal” is fucking bullshit) Can be maintained by laws, informal processes, and even hidden discrimination Social isolation occurs when a community separates themselves out from the mainstream voluntarily based on their own religious, cultural, or other factors (i.e. the amish) Environmental Justice: Typically, poorer areas with more racial minorities have much less environmental benefits than the wealthier areas (parks, green spaces, etc.) Poorer areas are exposed to more environmental risks such as pollution, sound, waste, etc. Environmental justice means a fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across society Residential Segregation: Residential segregation means that groups of people (race, income, etc.) spread out into different neighborhoods Where we live is actually pretty important because it affects our access to resources, such as education, healthcare, etc. Concentration is a form of segregation where there is “clustering” of the groups (i.e. everyone being in one corner of the city) Centralization is a form of segregation and clustering, but in a central area Index of Dissimilarity is a way to actually measure residential segregation (0 = perfect distribution/complete integration and 100 = total segregation) Spatial mismatch suggests that opportunities for low income people in segregated areas may be present, but they may simply be far away (making it physically harder to access) Global Inequality: Global inequality refers to the idea of inequality between countries (i.e. Americans having access to clean water but ⅓ of Africans not having access to clean water) Intersectionality: When someone faces multiple forms of discrimination (i.e. being a black, muslim woman) is known as intersectionality (refers to the overlap) Class Consciousness: Means of production are facilities or resource that produce goods (rich people own it and hire labor, which are people who don’t own any of the means of production) Class consciousness is when the working/lower class realize that they have solidarity with one another against the owners and are in a class struggle to overcome this exploitation (taking over and redistributing the means of production) False consciousness occurs when workers are unable to see their oppression and/or exploitation by the upper class (upper class promotes this by giving them hope that maybe some of them will eventually move up) This is part of the Marxist Theory Extra Notes: Structural inequality occurs when educational institutions have biases which provide advantages for some members and marginalize/produces disadvantages for others Social disorganization theory states that conditions of a neighborhood shapes the likelihood that a person in that environment will become involved in street crimes Culture of Poverty Theory believes the behaviour of the poor to be an established and internalised cultural pattern, implying that if the circumstances which produced poverty were to disappear, the culture of poverty might well continue