5 Chapter 5: Social Stratification – What Determines Your Culture?
5 Chapter 5: Social Stratification – What Determines Your Culture?
Global Stratification
Chapter one talked about our ancestors going back tens of thousands of years. In the earliest stages of human life on Earth, assuming that most people would have been more or less equal wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. There were no fancy cars or even money to differentiate statuses (e.g., rich or poor). But as the social structure took shape (roughly 10,000 years ago), it began to be stratified. Social stratification refers to the ranking of people and the rewards they receive based on social factors. Society is organized into hierarchical layers or levels, with individuals or groups occupying different positions based on their social status, power, and wealth. This creates unequal access to resources, opportunities, and privileges, contributing to social and economic inequality. Social class, gender, race, ethnicity, and age affect social stratification. We will discuss some of these characteristics below and the others later in the book. However, it is essential to note that social stratification is a shaped feature of society, not simply a ranking of individual differences. Each method of stratification tends to endure from generation to generation. Stratification persists because ideology supports it. Ideology is cultural beliefs that justify various social arrangements, including inequality. All societies have systems by which they stratify or rank their members. But we can also see how the world is stratified globally, for example, between countries.
World Systems Theory
World systems theory suggests that the global capitalist system is organized into a hierarchical structure that determines the distribution of power, resources, and wealth worldwide. It was first proposed by the sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1970s. According to world systems theory, the global capitalist system comprises three types of countries: core, periphery, and semi-periphery. Core countries are the most economically advanced and industrialized countries, with high levels of technology and strong political and economic institutions. Periphery countries are the least financially developed, often characterized by low levels of technology, weak political institutions, and dependence on exports of raw materials. Semi-periphery countries are in-between these two categories, with some level of industrialization and political stability but still lacking in economic and political power relative to core countries.
World systems theory suggests that the global capitalist system is organized to benefit core countries at the expense of periphery countries. Core countries control the most valuable resources, technologies, and markets and use their economic and political power to extract resources and wealth from periphery countries, often through exploitation and unequal trade relationships. On the other hand, peripheral countries often depend on raw material exports. Th