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Understanding Status as a Social Resource

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Handbook of Social Resource Theory

Part of the book series: Critical Issues in Social Justice ((CISJ))

Abstract

Status has been the focus of a large number of studies in sociology and social psychology. However, less attention has been devoted to systematic conceptual analyses of status. In this chapter, Kevin Binning and Yuen Huo apply social resource theory to gain insight into the meaning and uses of social status in everyday social experience. The authors present a taxonomy in which status is theorized to vary along the particularism and concreteness dimensions. Thus, status can be highly symbolic (e.g., politeness) or relatively concrete (e.g., military or societal ranking or position). It can also be held and distributed in universalistic fashion, without regard to personal or idiosyncratic features, or in a highly particular, targeted, and specific fashion. Combining the two dimensions, four distinct types of status are developed to understand status in a variety of manifestations: status as a symbolic recognition of human dignity, status as respect and social deference, status as a concrete ranking system in a group or organization, and status as a broad, societal hierarchy. This chapter illustrates the possibility of distinguishing resource subtypes along the same two dimensions that are used to distinguish among Foa’s six “major” resource classes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Kevin R. Binning

  2. Department of Psychology, UCLA, 4625 Franz Hall, 951563, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1563, USA

    Yuen J. Huo

Authors
  1. Kevin R. Binning
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  2. Yuen J. Huo
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Correspondence to Kevin R. Binning .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Social Justice Research, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen, Skövde, 541 42, Sweden

    Kjell Törnblom

  2. Center for Social Justice Research, University of Skövde, Högskolevägen, Skövde, 541 42, Sweden

    Ali Kazemi

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Binning, K.R., Huo, Y.J. (2012). Understanding Status as a Social Resource. In: Törnblom, K., Kazemi, A. (eds) Handbook of Social Resource Theory. Critical Issues in Social Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4175-5_8

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