I,Video clip from SEIU,Stronger
Together,Invisible No More
II,Explaining Social
Stratification
A,Functionalist
explanations
B,Conflict theory
explanations
Image from http://lcurve.org/index.html
Invisible No More,Quality Home
Care
? Why are home health care workers
paid so poorly?
? Why do many health care workers
lack health coverage for themselves
and their families?
? Is this right? Is this good for society?
? What will it take to change this
situation?
Functionalist Theory of Stratification
? Positions in society vary in their functional
importance
? Functionally-important positions require
advanced training,skill,or special talents
? Society needs to motivate people to to through
that training and/or to develop skill and talent
? The way society does this is by attaching the
highest rewards to the functionally most
important positions
? Social stratification is therefore functional for
society
Any problems with this argument?
? how to define functional importance?
? does acquisition of training or skill have to be unpleasant
and costly?
? might the scarcity of talents be artificially created through
social means?
? Might not social stratification prevent the acquisition and
recognition of talent?
? Even if the theory shows why some level of stratification is
necessary,it doesn’t in any way explain the level of
inequality that actually exists
? Are there ways in which social stratification is
dysfunctional?
Stark’s Response,Replaceability
? a way of defining functional importance
independently of rewards
? avoids problem of tautology
? those who are least replaceable command
the highest rewards
? those who are most replaceable receive the
lowest rewards
? But does this have anything to do with
function any more?
Conflict Explanation of Social Stratification
Deals with two other problems with the
functionalist theory of stratification,
? why inequality in most societies is
much greater than it has to be to
motivate people (and why it varies
between societies)
? how replaceability can be manipulated,
how scarcity can be socially produced
The Politics of Replaceability,
Two Strategies
? professionalization
? unionization
Video clip,Janitors for Justice,
Victory!
Conflict Theories of Stratification,
Inequality is about power
? How can the fact that the ratio of CEO
pay to average worker pay rose from
30:1 to 475:1 in twenty years in the U.S,
(and not most other places)?
Conflict Theories of Stratification,
The Importance of (Counter) Power
? In all industrialized societies,
stratification is reduced by
government intervention
? But is reduced much less in the
United States than elsewhere
The United States
has the highest
child poverty rate
of any
industrialized
country,
Child Poverty in Rich
Nations (UNICEF,June
2000)
Government
spending
makes the
difference
elsewhere
In democratic
countries,
government
spending
reflects the
balance of
class power
Conflict Theories of Stratification
show us..,
? Decreasing replaceability is one
strategy for reducing inequality,Its
focus is on affecting labor markets,
? Using political power to get
governments to redistribute income is
the dominant strategy in most countries,
The focus here is on using government
to offset the inequality produced by
markets,