When/where

• In-class: Friday, Feb 21 starting at 1:05pm
• You have until the end of class (2:25), but the exam is designed for about 60 minutes
• You will be given the exam and your group's reference sheet
• Answer on the exam
• You may not use any other notes or any electronic devices

Format

• 10 multiple choice questions worth 2 points each
• 3 short-answer questions worth 10 points each
  4 options, choose 3
• 50 points total

Multiple choice

• University requires randomization of question and option order

Short answer

• You will be given four questions, you should choose three to answer
  If you answer all four, only the first three will be marked
• Each question will have multiple parts
• 3 to 6 sentences should be enough to answer each part

Unequal distribution of resources

• Some people have more than others
• Predictable patterns of inequality

Types of resources

• Money
• But also: power, opportunity, geographic mobility, social capital, legal protections, …

Ubiquitous

• Empirically, high levels of inequality are present in virtually every human society

Measures

• Absolute measures: poverty defined against universal 'baseline'
• Relative measure: poverty defined relative to what is 'normal' in a society

Gini index (or Gini coefficient)

• Common measure of inequality
• Ranges from 0–100 (or 0.0–1.0)
  From absolute equality to absolute inequality
• Relative, not absolute
  Could have a population with low inequality but widespread poverty, or a population with high inequality and no poverty

Patterns of inequality

• Wealth is not a random lottery
• Predictable structure to who has more and who has less

Inheritance of opportunity

• Empirically, income and wealth are largely predicted by family
• Wealthy people are much more likely to come from wealthy families than poor families, and vice versa

Mobility refers to these patterns

• ‘Stickiness’ of who is where in the unequal income distribution
• How hard is it to move up or down in a society’s income distribution?

Stratification

• Term to describe patterns of inequality
• Geological metaphor
  Differences appear categorical
  Vertical dimension

Stratification and Mobility

• People are born into particular strata
• How easy is it to get to a different stratum?
• Direction matters
  Upward mobility versus downward mobility

Structural barriers
(external)

• Material
  Family wealth, area of residence, …
• Institutional
  Access to schools and clubs, social relationships, …

Socialized barriers
(internalized)

• Socialized traits
  Habits, language, skills, aesthetic, …
• Internalized expectations
  Access to schools and clubs, social relationships, …

Barriers to socioeconomic mobility

• Think of two or three ways that class mobility is hindered in Montreal/Quebec/Canada
  (consider different types of barriers and how they affect different types of people)
• Pair up with one of your classmates and discuss your examples
• We will discuss some of the examples as a class

Previously:

• Discussed social class from a micro-sociological perspective
• Interactionist lens on class boundaries
• Michelle Lamont

Today:

• Broader perspective
• Social class from a macro-sociological perspective

Karl Marx

• A person's class is based on their relation to the means of economic production
• Bourgeoisie,
  petite bourgeoisie,
  proletariat,
  lumpenproletariat

Max weber

• A person's class is based on the interplay of three components
• Wealth,
  prestige, &
  power

Pierre Bourdieu

• There are three interchangeable forms of class
• Economic: money, income, wealth
• Social: relationships, social circles
• Cultural: knowledge of art, cuisine, taste

Institutionalization of class

• Class can become formally institutionalized and codified
  E.g. Feudal Japan and Europe, India under British colonial rule
• Modern ethos: class boundaries should be permeable
• Class is still institutionalized through norms, barriers to mobility, etc.

Hierarchy alignment

• Social hierarchies tend to "line up"
• Whenever a social division has a power dimension, it will likely align with class
  Canadian MPs over 85% white and over 70% men
  Over 90% of Fortune-500 CEOs are white men
• Barriers to mobility become tied to categories
  Relation to ethnicity, gender, race, etc. complicates strictly economic interpretation of class