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Social Inequality. Overview of Social Inequality. The resources in a society are unevenly distributed.  Ex. Wealth in US, top 20% have 72% of the wealth of the country and bottom 20% only control 3%  Upper, middle, and lower class. Based on incomes.  As you go up the social ladder, have better access to education, healthcare, and housing. Groups of population disproportionality affected – ethnic/racial minorities have greater degrees of inequality as manifested by lower incomes, lower education, and reduced access to healthcare.  Those in poverty also face considerable barriers to obtaining the same healthcare, education, and other resources as others.  Gender does too. Females experience differences in pay (gender-pay gap), and the glass ceiling effect (poorly represented in higher position in companies). People may feel increasingly socially excluded, live in segregated neighbourhoods, and feel politically disempowered.  Can lead to civil unrest, and tempt people into criminal activities. Ways to help: government schemes (ex. Food stamps), improve access to education/healthcare, and figure out social interventions that allow integration to society. Upward and Downward Mobility. We have a number of ways to break down society into social layers, ex. Classes.  Lower class – manual work, labour, low-pay jobs.  Middle class – professionals, better paying jobs.  Upper class – very wealthy businessmen and family wealth. • Correlates to amount of income. When we think of social positions, can there be movement? Yes. Various ways.  Individual can move horizontally – move within the same class. • Ex. Accountant switches job to different accounting company.  Vertical movement – move up or down the social hierarchy. • Ex. Manager at restaurant becomes CEO of fast food restaurant. But if he gets demoted to serving food, fall downwards. Various types of social constructs that allow for social mobility.  Caste system – very little social mobility, because your role is determined entirely by background you’re born to and who you’re married to. A lot of social stability. • Ex. The Hindu caste system.  Class system – allows for degree of social mobility, combination of background and movement, often by education. Less stability.  Meritocracy – concept that people achieve social position solely based on ability and achievements. Highly idealized. Birth/parental background doesn’t matter. Extreme social mobility. Equal opportunity. Intergenerational and Intragenerational mobility, Social Mobility.  If change in social class happens in a person’s own lifetime – intragenerational mobility.  Intergenerational mobility – change in social class between generations • Ex. Parent is working class and son is working class. Absolute and Relative Poverty. 2 different ways of thinking about poverty – does it threaten survival of person, or does it exclude them from society?  Absolute poverty – An absolute level at which if you go below, survival is threatened. Minimum level of resources a human being needs to survive. This level no matter where you are. • Approx. $1-2 a day, talking about developing countries. • However, someone in Arctic needs a lot more than somewhere else. There’s variability absolute poverty does not consider. • The median level of income in a society can gradually rise as country gets richer. When it does, we find less people live in absolute poverty – decrease in poverty.  Relative Poverty – in developed countries, use a different marker – a % level below the median income of the country. Ex. In Us, instead of $1-2 a day, median income is above $80/day. • <60% of the median income. • If a country’s income rises up, absolute poverty line won’t change, median income level would. • Relative poverty is not about survival, its people whose incomes are so low in their own society they’re being excluded from society. Social Reproduction. Huge amount of social inequality between rich families and poor families. Large social inequality seems to replicate itself cross generations. Perpetuation of inequality through social institutions (such as education/economy), social mobility counters this.  Social reproduction – transmission of social inequality from one generation to the next. • Ex. People with rich parents end up wealthy themselves; poor families give birth to kids in poor neighborhoods, with less access to education and opportunities, and they grow up to be poor also.  They have financial capital, and can invest it to obtain social capital – building up reliable, useful social networks. (Connections).  Can also expose you to cultural capital – knowledge, education, and skills transmitted across generations. • Ex. If parents exposing you to trips abroad and learning foreign. languages. Or cultural items of social inequalities from one generation to the next. Doesn’t educational system allow poor people to gain capital too?  Our educational system doesn’t value cultures of low classes. It doesn’t value the culture and social networks of the poor population.  Education system can reinforce this social stratification. Social Exclusion. Being an integral member of society has lots of advantages – access to good social networks, housing, educational resources, and resources in community.  But certain individuals can be excluded to the peripheries of society, and are prevented from participating in society.  Reduced right and access to resources/opportunities. Some can drag people into the periphery of society.  The poverty magnet can drag people away from the core part of society, and experience a greater degree of social exclusion.  The ill-heath magnet can also drag people away, can’t participate in society.  Certain groups may face discrimination, based on their race/gender/sexual orientation/etc – the discrimination magnet.  Education, housing, employment all important factors. With lack of any of these they can be relegated to fringes. People in periphery often have many of these magnets combined, have tremendous forces pushing them away.  They may also have greater consequences like ill health and criminal activities. Segregation is a way of separating out groups of people and giving them access to a separate set of resources within the same society.  Idea “separate but equal”, which is rarely true in practice.  Segregated people often have worse resources.  Segregation is maintained by law/public institutions, or more informal processes like “hidden discrimination”.  Social isolation – when community voluntarily isolates itself from mainstream, based on their own religious/cultural/other beliefs. Environmental Justice. Where we live plays a huge role in environmental benefits and risks we’re exposed to.  Areas with high poverty and lots of racial minorities, often have few environmental benefits (green spaces, parks, recreation). • They also get a lot of environmental burden compared to wealthier parts. Includes waste facilities, manufacturing/factories, energy production, airports. • At risk because they often have few alternatives, little awareness of risks they face, and other pressing issues. • More health problems like asthma, obesity, etc. Wealthier population society has much higher benefits.  More politically and economically powerful, and able to demand beneficial facilities are placed close to them and burdening facilities far way.  Also better represented in environmental/lobbying groups. Big concept is environmental justice – looks at the fair distribution of the environmental benefits and burdens within society across all groups. Residential Segregation. Residential segregation – groups of people separate into different neighbourhoods.  Can mean race or income.  Where we live affects our life chances, because it affects our politics, healthcare, availability to education, etc. Other forms of segregation: 1) Concentration – there’s clustering of different groups. 2) Centralization – segregation + clustering in a central area.  Index of dissimilarity – 0 is total segregation, and 100 perfect distribution. Why is residential segregation important?  Political isolation - Communities segregated are politically weak because their political interests don’t overlap with other communities – become political vulnerable, don’t have the political influence to keep their own needs addressed.  Linguistic isolation - Communities who are isolated may develop own language, even in same city. May limit jobs. • Lower access to quality education/heath  Spatial mismatch – opportunities for low-income people in segregated communities may be present but farther away, and harder to access. Gap between where people live and where opportunities are.