• Stratum: horizontal layer lying upon another
• Strata (plural)

2. What keeps people different?

Caste systems

Feudal systems

Social Class systems

Questions for all three systems of stratification:

Class can be defined in terms of:

1. Spending power (e.g. income)

2. Power (assets, political influence...)

3. Culture (manners, education, networks...)

Question: What happens if an upper class person makes and investments and loses her source of income?

4. Cultural Capital

a) Term

• Pride and nobility
• ability to forfeit immediate gratification
• ethics

b) Study of Ivan Szelenyi: Socialist Entrepreneurs

Class was central in the Conflict Approach of Karl Marx (1818-1883)

(Petty) Petite Bourgeoisie

Similar to today's Middle Class: small manufacturer, shopkeeper, peasant. (Fight against the Bourgeoisie to stay middle class: Not revolutionary, but conservative and reactionary)

Let’s transfer this idea to Lubbock

Question: What happened to the individual small shop owners in Lubbock?

Define Proletarians

Conflict is rooted in the economic sphere where the bourgeoisie own the means of production.

This is a worldwide phenomenon.

Different classes have different interests.

Why, according to Marx, is capitalism doomed to decline?

1. Dependency of the capitalist

2. Epidemic of overproduction (p.234)

"Modern bourgeois society... , that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spell (p.233)".

Question: who knows the literate reference Marx is referring to?

Goethe’s Zauberlehrling: the apprentice of the sorcerer calls the powers of the netherworld.

3. Class consciousness

One's the proletarians understand the problem and are able to organize themselves, it comes to the ultimate worldwide showdown.

Compare theoretical perspectives concerning the determination of class membership

Remember: Class can be seen in terms of:

1. Spending power (e.g. income): Typical layperson view: lots of money

2. Ownership Power (assets, political influence...): Marx

3. A) Culture (manners, education, networks...): Weber

Weber: Ownership and Status (skills credentials, qualifications...). Status is defined by culture.

We might look at status as an additional determinant of class or we can see status as a separate system of stratification.

=> for Marx status, and in this sense culture, is irrelevant: "The bourgeoisie as stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up with relevant awe (p.231)."

3.B) Szelenyi: Culture

Example: In 1960 a chief executive earned on the average 40 times more than a factory worker.

In 1991 she earned 93 times more.

Wealth: assets, stock, ownership

Example: The upper class makes up 0.5% of the population.

In 1962 they had 26% of the wealth

Today about 40%

What does that mean?

Today ere is more inequality.

Income can be achieved by assets instead of labor

If a CEO gets $400,000 salary, and an upper class member receives $400,000 revenues from investments, who has more influence and power?

Social mobility is the ability for children to end up in another social class than their parents. This is often measured in net income or on social prestige scales of profession.

1. The American Society is not Highly Mobile

A recent report demonstrated that social mobility in the U.S. is lower than in Europe.

Traditionally the absence of wars on North American soil, and the stable political climate in the U.S. made social change unlikely.

Examples: The elimination of the intelligencia in Poland, the killing of political leaders in revolutionary Russia, the execution of the political elite in NAZI Germany. Being bombed out in W.W.II.

Correlation of wealth and political power in the U.S.

If a class has two sources of power, both sources support each other. This results in a higher stability of power for the upper class in the U.S.

2. The Myth is Instrumental

The emphasis put on the myth that the American society is highly mobile, that a dishwasher might be the millionaire of tomorrow, is probably instrumental.

This myth is welcome by the upper class since it serves as a motivator for the lower classes.

Since members of the lower classes see themselves as future millionaires, they do not want to rob privileges of the higher income class. In this way the middle class does oppose highly progressive tax rate for persons with higher income.