SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Introduction
Social stratification is one of the outcomes of the continuous occurring of social
processes. Every society is segmented into different hierarchies. In virtually societies,
some people are regarded as more important than others (worthier of respect than others),
either within the society as a whole or in a certain situation.

Definition

Social stratification is the segmentation of society into different hierarchical arrangement

or strata. It refers to the differences and inequalities in the socioeconomic life of people in
a given society. It represents the ranking of individuals or social positions and statuses in
the social structure.

The Importance of Studying Social Stratification

 To investigate the class membership of individuals in society with the aim of

Knowing what type of life individuals in a given social group or stratum live.
 To explore the bases for the assignment of individuals into various hierarchies of the
social structure
 To understand kind of interaction and relationship exist between individuals located
into different strata
 To investigate the relationship between individuals or groups belonging to the same

Forms of Social Stratification

Social class

Social class can be defined as a category or level of people found in similar positions in the
social hierarchy. The criteria or the bases for dividing people in a given society into different
social classes may include wealth, occupation, education, sex, family background,
religion, income, among others.

The societies in modern world have been divided usually into three;

 Low class (labouring class): composed of those engaged in manual-labour occupation

or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts.
 Middle class: consists of the working class, usually salaried workers who do not own
the means of production and people who have a third of their income left for
 discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. The wider
characterization includes everyone but the poorest 20% and the wealthiest 20%.
 Upper class: usually are the wealthiest members of the society, and hold the greatest
political power

Each of these three classes is usually divided in to upper stratum, middle stratum and lower
stratum. Social class is often characterized as an open and flexible system. Thus, we have
societies which can be characterized as open system, as opposed to societies having closed
system. This form of social class is common in industrialized, modern, heterogeneous and
literate societies.

Caste

Another well-known form of social stratification is the caste system. A caste system is a class
structure that is determined by birth, religious and other strongly rooted traditional belief
that cannot be changed or are very difficult to change. This is the form of social stratification
whereby classification of people into different strata is made on the basis of usually religious
and other very strong conventions/ traditions that are difficult to change. Some of the features
of caste system include:

 It is a very rigid and closed system.

 People belonging to the same stratum practice endogamy.
 Intermarriage between strata is not permitted
 There are occupational differences between strata; i.e., each stratum is usually
assigned a particular type of occupation.
 Food sharing, social drinking, friendships, etc., are permitted only within a stratum,
not between strata

A good example of caste is the Hindu caste system of India. This has existed for some 3000
years and was only officially nullified in 1947. Hindu caste system divides the society into
five major strata. These are Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Sudras and Haryans.

Reading Assignment

 Write a short note describing the Hindu caste system

 Which caste system existed in Nigeria? Write a short note on it
 Write briefly on the social classification based on education, religion
Relationship between Social Class and health status

 Social stratification is directly related to the issue of inequality, power imbalance etc,
and these directly or indirectly influence the life chances of individuals in the social
strata. Health status of individuals is among one of these life chances which can be
significantly affected by one’s location in the stratification system
 The different stratification systems on the basis of age, sex, gender, ethnicity, religion,
occupation, etc, directly or indirectly promote unequal chances of living standards
 The key concepts in the relation between health and social stratification are the
concepts of vulnerability, risk and hazard. Vulnerability is a sociological concept
which refers to the “characteristics of individuals and social groups [along the lines of
gender, age, ethnicity, occupation etc;] that determine their capacity to protect
themselves, withstand and recover from disasters, including health hazards based on
their access to material and non-material resources”

SOCIAL MOBILITY

Every society has different strata in it. The different individuals and groups who occupy a
certain social position may not remain in that position permanently. Some may move
from one position to another, from higher social class position to lower social class
position, and vice versa. Social mobility implies a set of changes in opportunities,
incomes, lifestyles, personal relationships, social status and ultimately class membership.

Definition

It is a process by which individuals or groups move from one status to another; or from
one social class or stratum to another.

Types of Social Mobility

 Vertical social mobility

 Horizontal social mobility
 Intra-generational social mobility
 Inter-generational social mobility

Vertical Social Mobility: Vertical social mobility is a type of social mobility that
individuals experience when they move from their social status to other higher or lower
social status.
 Horizontal Social Mobility: Horizontal social mobility is also called lateral social
mobility. It is movement within a social class or a social position where the individual
slightly improves and/or declines in his social position within his/ her class level. Unlike
vertical social mobility, it doesn't involve drastic changes

Inter-generational Social Mobility

This type of social mobility involves the movement up or down, between the social class
of one or two generations of a family, or a social group. In this mobility, our focus of
attention is a social group, like the family. Here we look at change in the status position
of the family over two or more generations, i.e., the social position of the grandfather, the
father and the son.

For example, if a child whose father was an upper class person as a result of his wealth
becomes only a labourer in his own time, then he has experienced a downward
intergenerational social mobility

Intra-generational mobility

This concerns individual changes in social positions during one's lifetime. In other words,
through achievement or other means one can move up from being a poor primary school
teacher to a high court judge. Unlike the inter-generational social mobility, our focus here
is on a specific individual or group. Here, we observe change in the social position of an
individual or a group over the life cycle of the individual himself or the group either
upward or in some cases downward.

Avenues of Social Mobility

The avenues of social mobility are the doors through which a person moves upward in the
social hierarchy. The major avenue to social mobility in most modern societies is

 Access to appropriate modern education.

 Change of profession/ occupation
 Geographical mobility

There are also some sudden or short cut avenues to social mobility. These include Windfall
gains in terms of

 Inheritance
 Gambling
  Theft
 Financial corruption
 Winning a lottery game

The opportunities for upward social mobility are great in modern societies which have open
systems. In such societies, there is freedom of vertical social mobility, and any member of a
society may move up or down the social hierarchy. There are no legal and/or traditional
restrictions that are put on social mobility on either direction. What count a lot are personal
merits, competitions and efforts for achievement. On the other hand, in societies with closed
system vertical, especially upward, is very difficult. In such societies, individuals born to a
certain social position remain within that category for their lifetime.

Barriers to Upward Social Mobility

These are factors that make it difficult to individual families or groups to move from one
status position to another. Such barriers may include various social, psychological, cultural,
economic, political and other related factors. Such as

 Lack of opportunity, motivation, commitment, interest, or positive attitude, etc.

 one's own physical condition
 Lack of access to an appropriate modern education;
 Inequality in the distribution of inherited wealth
 One's colour or ethnic origin
 Religion

Assignment

Write concisely on population dynamics

SOCIAL CHANGE

Social change can also be defined as the alteration, rearrangement or total replacement of
phenomena, activities, values or processes through time in a society in a succession of events.
The alteration or rearrangement may involve simple or complex changes in the structure,
form or shape of the social phenomena. Sometimes it may mean the complete wiping out of
the phenomenon and their total replacement by new forms.

Some of the basic characteristics of social change are the following

 Social change occurs all the time. Its process may be imperceptible and can be
cumulative
 There is no society that is static and unchanging
 Change occurs both at micro-level and macro-level.
 The influence of change in one area can have an impact on other related areas. That is,
social change is contagious, like infectious diseases.
 Social change has a rate; it can be rapid or slow