Category: Social Stratification Theories and Related Concepts

Income groups, the rich and the poor, and the ruling class and subjects are achievement-based divisions in a society. The occupants of these status categories can move in or out of these through their efforts, or they could be pushed in or out by others. It is of course the case that children born in these…

Differentiation on the Basis of Ascription Earlier, in our discussion of the concept of group, it was said that a group is defined by its membership. Non-members are those who do not belong to the group, and they may, or may not, want to become members. In the case of societies, which are also a…

Functionalists generally look at the prevailing structures and explain their existence and continuity in terms of the functions they perform for society. Implicit in such an approach is the assumption that functions provide the raison d‘etre, while non-functional items become vestiges—this is how biologists view organic systems. Of course, Merton introduced new elements which helped to demonstrate…

A relative junior to Marx was another German sociologist, Max Weber, regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. He closely examined Marx’s work and presented a counter theory. He questioned the Marxist assumption that it is the economy that lays the foundations for the superstructures of society. His work on the Protestant Ethic and…

There are two major theoretical orientations to social stratification. The one advanced by Karl Marx had a powerful and worldwide impact on sociological reasoning. It is called the ‘historical’ approach, and has significant ideological overtones. Other scholars have either offered critiques to this approach or proposed an alternative sociological approach in functional terms. The key contestant…

The concept of stratification is borrowed from the natural sciences. In the study of the history of Earth, geologists have found the concept of stratification quite useful. Going into the deeper recesses of the earth, geologists discovered that the present surface of the earth represents the latest layer and that as we go deeper, we…

Sociologists and social anthropologists studying social structures are generally impressed by the fact that social inequality is a universal feature. Even those who talk of equality in ideological terms acknowledge the existing inequalities and forcefully advocate the desirability of an egalitarian society. Such a society is their dream, not an existential reality. In all societies—simple…