Abstract
Social stratification is one of the important subfields in Sociology, a discipline that is concerned with inequalities and structures of power relations. It examines the division of people into layers or strata based on socio-economic factors. The layering of rocks is an intrinsic feature of the geological world, and sociologists posited that the layering of people is an inevitable feature of the social world. In the middle of the twentieth century, sociologists in the United States took on the mantle of sociological research and consciously decided to move the intellectual centre from European society to American society. It was also the period of rebuilding the economy with capitalist enterprises and strengthening democracy. The Social Darwinian and Durkheimian model of the idea of the survival of the fittest led to seeing inequality not in Marxist terms of exploitation but in structural functionalist terms of seeing differences in people and hierarchies in society as inevitable.
In this chapter, we will examine the emergence of the field of social stratification and talk about forms of stratification such as class, race and gender. We will be drawing on examples from different parts of the world but the major focus will be the United States as that is where stratification and social mobility studies thrived. This chapter will be a window to the subject of social stratification in society. The study of social stratification takes for granted that the principle of inequality is inevitable and a normal aspect of society. Girls, racial minorities and the poor are socialised to believe that they will have access to fewer resources than the dominant and the powerful gender, classes and races.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Acker, J. (2006). Class questions: Feminist answers. Rowman and Littlefield.
Bashi, V., & Mcdaniel, A. (1997). A theory of immigration and racial stratification. Journal of Black Studies, 27(5), 668–682.
Beller, E., & Hout, M. (2006). Intergenerational social mobility: The United States in comparative perspective. The Future of Children, 16(2), 19–36.
Blau, P. M., & Duncan, O. D. (1967). The American occupational structure. Wiley.
Bottomore, T. (1955). Classes in modern society. Ampersand Publishing.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook for theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood.
Crenshaw, K. (2017). On intersectionality: Essential readings. New Press.
Cullen, J., & Novick, S. M. (1979). The Davis-Moore theory of stratification: A further examination and extension. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 1424–1437.
Custers, P. (1997). Capital accumulation and women’s labour in Asian Economies. Vistaar.
Dahrendorf, R. (1959). Class and class conflict in industrial society. Stanford University Press.
Davis, K., & Moore, W. E. (1970 [1945]). Some principles of stratification. American Sociological Review, 10(2), 242–249.
Giddens, A. (1991). Introduction to sociology. Norton Books.
Gopal, M. (2012). Caste, sexuality and labour: The troubled connection. Current Sociology, 60(2), 222–238.
Grenfell, M. J. (2008). Pierre Bourdieu: Key concepts. Routledge.
Gupta, D. (1991). Social stratification. Oxford University Press.
Hayes, B. C., & Miller, R. L. (1993). The silenced voice: Female social mobility patterns with particular reference to the British Isles. The British Journal of Sociology, 44(4), 653–672.
Hill Collins, P. (1997). Defining black feminist thought. In L. Nicholson (Ed.), The second wave: A reader in feminist theory (pp. 241–260). Routledge.
Jencks, C., et al. (1972). Inequality: A reassessment of the effects of family and School in America. Basic Books.
Jodhka, S. S., & Prakash, A. (2016). The Indian middle class. Oxford University Press.
Kerbo, H. R. (2009). Social stratification and inequality. McGraw-Hill.
Lewis, O. (1959). Five families: Mexican case studies in the culture of poverty. Basic Books.
Massey, D. S. (2004). The new geography of inequality in Urban America. In C. Michael Henry (Ed.), Race, poverty, and domestic policy. Yale University Press.
Menon, N. (2012). Seeing like a feminist. Zubaan and Penguin Books.
Mies, M. (1982). Lace makers of Narsapur: Indian housewives produce for the world market. Zed Books.
Mills, C. W. (1956). The power elite. Oxford University Press.
Moynihan, D. P. (Ed.). (1969). On understanding poverty: Perspectives from the social sciences. Basic Books.
Parsons, T. (1959). The social structure of the family. In R. N. Anshen (Ed.), The family: Its functions and Destiny. Harper and Row.
Patel, R. (2010). Working the night shift: Women in India’s call centre industry. Stanford University Press.
Pateman, C. (1988). The sexual contract. Stanford University Press.
Rueschemeyer, D. (1982). On Durkheim’s explanation of division of labor. American Journal of Sociology, 88(3), 579–589.
Ryan, W. (1971). Blaming the victim. Pantheon Books.
Schultz, J. (2005). Reading the catsuit: Serena Williams and the production of blackness at the 2002 U.S. Open. Journal of Sport & Social Issues 29, 338–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723505276230
Stolzman, J., & Gamberg, H. (1973). Marxist class analysis versus stratification analysis as general approaches to social inequality. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 18, 105–125.
Tumin, M. M. (1953). Some principles of stratification: A critical analysis. American Sociological Review, 18, 387–397.
Vohra, P. (2006). Q2P A documentary film.
Weber, M. (1946). From Max Weber (Trans. and Ed. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills). Free Press.
Wilson, W. J. (1980). The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing American institutions. University of Chicago Press.
Wright, E. O. (1978). Class, crisis and the state. New Left Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Rayaprol, A. (2023). Social Stratification. In: Jodhka, S.S., Rehbein, B. (eds) Global Handbook of Inequality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97417-6_105-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97417-6_105-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97417-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97417-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences