Social stratification

Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit.[1][2][3]

In modern Western societies, social stratification is defined in terms of three social classes: an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into an upper-stratum, a middle-stratum, and a lower stratum.[4] Moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship, clan, tribe, or caste, or all four.

The categorization of people by social stratum occurs most clearly in complex state-based, polycentric, or feudal societies, the latter being based upon socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and classes of peasants. Whether social stratification first appeared in hunter-gatherer, tribal, and band societies or whether it began with agriculture and large-scale means of social exchange remains a matter of debate in the social sciences.[5] Determining the structures of social stratification arises from inequalities of status among persons, therefore, the degree of social inequality determines a person's social stratum. Generally, the greater the social complexity of a society, the more social stratification exists, by way of social differentiation.[6]

Stratification can yield various consequences. For instance, the stratification of neighborhoods based on spatial and racial factors can influence disparate access to mortgage credit.[7]

  1. ^ "What Is Social Stratification?". Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  2. ^ "6.S: Social Stratification (Summary)". 13 December 2016. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  3. ^ "What Is Social Stratification, and Why Does It Matter?". Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  4. ^ Saunders, Peter (1990). Social Class and Stratification. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-04125-6.
  5. ^ Toye, David L. (May 2004). "The Emergence of Complex Societies: A Comparative Approach". World History Connected. 11 (2). Archived from the original on 2014-06-27. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
  6. ^ Grusky, David B. (2011). "Theories of Stratification and Inequality". In Ritzer, George and J. Michael Ryan (ed.). The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 622–624. doi:10.1002/9781405165518. ISBN 978-1405124331. Archived from the original on 1 September 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. ^ Loya, Jose (2023). "Differential Access in Mortgage Credit: The Role of Neighborhood Spatial and Racial Stratification". Rural Sociology. 88 (2): 546–577. doi:10.1111/ruso.12485. S2CID 257658592. Archived from the original on 2023-04-16. Retrieved 2023-04-16.