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Social Stratification Sociology

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Social stratification is a part of every society and is composed of many dimensions. The different terrorists of sociology look at social stratification and poverty in different ways, some positively and some negatively. In the U.S. and worldwide, economic inequality is present and the ways of society allow poverty’s existence to continue. Social stratification is the hierarchal differences of individuals in society. The first dimension of social stratification is social class. This is categorized by one’s economic position or occupation and represents their wealth. Those who rank close to each other are considered to be in the same social class, and classes can be divided into the upper, middle, working, and lower class. The distribution …show more content…

Structural functionalism has the most controversial theory on the topic. They believe all societies are and will be stratified and this is needed for a society to function properly. It makes people motivated to do the dirty work of a society and ensures people work jobs only if they have the right skills. They argue that in order to motivate people to work jobs like lawyers and physicians, there needs to be greater rewards. Conflict/critical terrorists have a negative outlook on social stratification. They believe this system promotes inequality. They question structural/functionalists by asking if being a doctor is really worse than being a garbage collector because one of these positions is paid much more than the other. Additionally, conflict theorists believe prestige, rather than money, should be a great enough motivator to fill high-ranking positions. Inter/actionists study the micro-level aspects of social stratification and view it as a process of interaction between people of different positions. What matters the most is how people “do” their positions. How do elites show their power over the lower class and how do they respond? All theories have great insight on the issue and I believe each need to be considered if we are to make change in

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