Social Stratification is defined as "a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions." More simply put, stratification is the a persons place in their society based on their parents or current economic or respect based situation. This often forms in the ways of class, caste or slavery. In these systems, people are stratified into specific positions which they have very little to no social mobility. Social mobility is the ability to move upwards from their position is society that they were born in.
As far of systems of stratification goes, the class system is the most lenient on social mobility. Within in the class system, people are often started in a specific class based on their parents economic condition (upper-class, middle-class, lower-class etc.). Although they start in the class given to them by their parents, throughout their life time they have the ability to switch classes by bettering their socio-economic condition. One example of this occurred in a movie I recently watched. In this movie an average middle-class male grew up in a small town. In this town he was labeled as a middle class citizen and was treated accordingly. After graduating high school, he moved out of his small home town to New York city. In a big city like New York, the capability for social mobility is much greater than a small town. In New York, he got a good, high paying job as a art director. This was a much higher position that he would have been capable in his small home town. In New York, he was able to branch out of his middle class and improve his and his children's socio-economic position. Although when he returned home to his small town, the people there still treated him as if he was in his previous class. When I heard this story, it made me think of how tight a grip stratification hold on our society. Stratification determines the way a person is treated by his fellow citizens. Stratification determines how much your government will tax you and help you will be provided with in return.
Although the class system applies to much of the world, it doesn't apply everywhere. The caste system is another system of stratification that determines a person place in society at birth. At the bottom of this post, I will post a video on stratification occurring in Nepal. In this video it shows people born in the the caste of untouchables. The untouchables are the poorest group in the caste system. They have little chance of ever leaving their caste, facing a life a child prostitution, poor diet and most likely short life.
Although social mobility is very hard, the main causes of social mobility is money and education. The two are often tied hand in hand. For one to receive education, they must have money, and to receive money, they must have an education. It creates a system to where the poor are almost stuck in the class or caste that they were born into. With little money to pay for education, they will likely not get a great education and be stuck with a poor job that makes little money. Their kids will then be born into the poor class with little chance of social mobility too. For the rich classes or caste, they already have the money for a good education from their parents. Thus they will get a good education and be set in the right money making direction by their parents. With a proper education, they will be able to get a high paying job and continue to keep their family in the upper socio-economic class.
The idea of stratification is a major part of modern day society. It majorly determines the course of ones life and it is very hard to break. Your stratified class determines majorly where you will go in life, what you will be able to do and how you will be treated by society. I believe that the systems of stratification need to be easier to break, allowing easier social mobility and better life opportunities for everyone. With a greater social mobility, there will come a greater equality. It should allow for better treatment amongst the different races and genders.
Embedding was disabled on the video I wanted to share so here is the link if anyone wishes to watch it.
http://youtu.be/ZCGb23TCrFk
References:
Many. "Social Stratification." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2011. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stratification>.
AFP, , Dir. Caste system traps Nepal's 'hereditary prostitutes'. AFP, Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCGb23TCrFk>.
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