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Chapter Eight
Social Stratification and
Class
Outline
Income and Wealth Differences in Canada
Distribution of Income and Wealth
Classical Perspectives on Social Class
Sociological Models of the Class Structure in
Canada
Consequences of Inequality
Poverty in Canada
Sociological Explanations of Social Inequality
Sociological Class in the Future
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Income and Wealth Differences in
Canada
Income: “the economic gain derived from
wages, salaries, income transfers
(government aid), and ownership of
property”
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Income Inequality
Technique of dividing Canadians into quintiles:
meaning categories of 20% according to income
(see Figure 8.1)
From figures in 2001, the upper quintile, upper
20%, received 40% of all the income
The lowest quintile, 5%
Pattern: average income of the three lowest
quintiles has decreased while the upper two
have increased
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Income Inequality
See Map 8.1
Family income is highest in Ontario, NWT,
Alberta, and the Yukon
Lowest in the Atlantic provinces and
Nunavut
36% of all visible minorities are in the low
income group as compared to 20% of the
population
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Wealth Inequality
Wealth: “the accumulated assets in the form of
various types of valued goods, including
property, such as buildings, land farms, houses
factories, and cars, as well as other assets such
as bank accounts, corporate stocks, bonds, and
insurance policies.”
In 1999, 484,000 households had a net worth of
$1 million. They make up 4% of all households,
this group holds 31% of all the household wealth
in Canada
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Wealth Inequality
The dollar value of the wealth controlled
by this small number (inheritors from
several past generations) is $46 billion, 21
billion being owned by Kenneth Thompson
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Classical Perspectives
Karl Marx: Relation to Means of
Production
Max Weber: Wealth, Prestige, and Power
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Karl Marx: Relation to Means of
Production
Two classes in the modern world:


Capitalist (bourgeoisie) consists of those
who own the means of production
Working (proletariat): those who must sell
their labour to the owners in order to earn
enough to survive
Other terms:


Material interests: Capitalists tend to hold
onto their land and capital
Exploitation: the bourgeoisie take from the
proletariat what is due them for their own
profit
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Karl Marx
Alienation: the feeling of powerlessness
and estrangement from other people and
from oneself
Superstructure: the bourgeoisie maintain
position on top of the class structure
termed the “superstructure”
Class struggle: consists in the struggle
between the two classes
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Max Weber: Wealth, Prestige and
Power
Theme: That no one factor (such as
Marx’s economic division) defines class.
Many factors such as culture as well as
access to important societal resources
such as economic, social, and political
power contribute.
Terms:
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Max Weber
Terms:



Wealth: total monetary resource a person has
Prestige: the respect with which a person or status
position is regarded by others
Power: the ability of people or groups to achieve their
goals despite opposition from others
From Weber’s insight, current sociologists use the term
socioeconomic status (SES): used to refer to a
combined measure that attempts to classify individuals,
families, or households in terms of factors such as
income, occupation, and education to determine class
position
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Sociological Models of Class
Structure in Canada
A Weberian Model of Class Structure
A Marxian Model of Class Structure
A New Class Society?
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The Weberian Model
From Weber, one’s class position is based
upon:
1. education
2. the occupation of the family head
3. family income
Using these criteria, the class structure in
Canada is divided into: the upper class,
the middle class, the working class, and
the underclass
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The Weberian Model
The Upper Class





Highest level of wealth
About 3% of Canadians
Types: old money (wealth from generations
past) and new money (wealth from current or
recent success)
Example: The Thomson Family has a net
worth of $15 billion
Other terms: “corporate elite”, the Canadian
establishment
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The Weberian Model
The Middle Class


Porter: Canada is predominantly a middle class
society
Process: the upper class are getting richer, the lower
classes poorer, and a subsequent erosion of the
middle class
Subtypes:

Upper-middle: highly educated professionals who
are physicians, lawyers, stockbrokers, and the like;
children are encouraged to get an education beyond
high school
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The Weberian Model
Subtypes of the Middle Class:


Lower Middle Class: Entry: via post
secondary education which provide skills
necessary to live in this class system
Issues that threaten this class:
1. escalating housing costs
2. occupational insecurity
3. blocked upward mobility
4. cost of living squeeze
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The Weberian Model
The Working Class


About 30% of Canadians
Kinds: retail sales, routine mechanized
jobs, trade work
Subtypes:


Blue collar: industrial and trade workers
Pink collar: low paying, non-manual,
semiskilled jobs held, mostly, by women
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The Weberian Model
The Working Poor

About 20% of Canadians
Elements:



Live just above the poverty level
Unskilled work, seasonal jobs. Low paying
factory and service jobs
Research by Ehrenreich found that living
on these wages one cannot cover the
costs of living
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The Weberian Model
The Underclass



Very poor, seldom employed, caught in
long-term deprivation that results from low
levels of education and income and high
rates of unemployment
Some because of divorce, discrimination,
age, or disability
Likely to “pass it on” to their children
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The Marxian Model
Wright’s Insights
The maintenance of the original Marxian
model with some qualifications
Types:




The Capitalist Class
The Managerial Class
The Small-Business Class
The Working Class
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The Marxian Model
The Capitalist Class
Elements:




This class holds most of the wealth and power in
society through ownership of capital—banks,
corporations, factories, mines, news and
entertainment
Source of income: profits, interest, and very high
salaries
Make the major decisions
Example: Bill Gates has a net worth of $53 billion (he
came from a middle class background)
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The Marxian Model
The Managerial Class
Elements:



Do not own the capital but have substantial
control over the means of production
They are upper level managers, supervisors,
and professionals
They hold a contradictory position: they do not
own the means of production but they do
decide how the business operation is to be
run
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The Marxian Model
The Small-Business Class
Elements:



Small in nature
May employ a limited number of workers
Kinds: restaurants, convenience stores, trade
businesses, and the like
The Working Class


White collar and pink collar
Make few decisions over their work
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The Marxian Model
The New Class
Elements: transnational corporations, high
technology
 Class membership based upon: income,
investment capital, credentialed skills
Types:

Privileged Class: the super-class (1% to
2%); similar to the term corporate elite;
managers (13%- 15%) and professionals
(4%-5%)

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The Marxian Model
The New Class
Types:
New Working Class:

called the “comfort class” consisting of
nurses, teachers, civil servants, and skilled
workers such as trades persons

Special Term: Classism: the belief that
persons in the upper or privileged class are
superior to those in the lower or working
class, particularly in regard to values,
behaviour, and lifestyles
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Consequences of Inequality
Health
More wealth, more
health
Less wealth, less
health
Examples: life
expectancies,
diabetes, heart
diseases, earlier
deaths
Health
50,000 children
experience hunger
Lack of food leads to
negative school
outcomes
High increase in food
banks
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Consequences of Inequality
Education
Educational
opportunities and life
chances are directly
linked
Issue: does
education increase
one’s chances of
social mobility
(functionalist theory)
or does it only
reproduce the class
rank you are currently
in? (conflict theory)
Problem: children of
wealthy parents go to
the best schools;
those who are poor
attend worse schools
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Consequences of Inequality
Crime and the Lack of
Safety
Crime of the uppermiddle class and
upper-class is mostly
motivated by greed
Crime of the lower
classes motivated by
fear, anger and
frustration
Crime here is not
from random actions
but because of social
inequalities
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Poverty in Canada
Official poverty line: based on what is
considered to be the minimum amount of money
required for living at a subsistence level
Low-income cutoff: the income level at which a
family may be in “strained circumstances”
because it spends considerably more on the
basic necessities of life (food, shelter, and
clothing) than the average family
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Poverty in Canada
Absolute poverty: exists when people do
not have the means to secure the most
basic necessities of life
Relative poverty: exists when people may
be able to afford basic necessities but still
are unable to maintain an average
standard of living
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Poverty in Canada
How much money does a typical poor family
consisting of two adults and two children, and
living in an urban area, have at its disposal?
In 1997, the low-income cutoff number was
$28,100. The average two-parent family with two
kids was below this line by an amount equal to
$10,050. This means that people tend to be
poorer than what the statistics say.
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Poverty in Canada
After calculating the costs of food, shelter,
and clothing:


There is only a fraction left for personal care,
household needs, furniture, telephone,
transportation, school supplies, health care
There is no money for entertainment,
recreation, reading material, insurance, or
donations
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Who are the Poor?
Age:
Gender:
Race
Children
(18% of
all)
66% of the
poor are
women
-Ethnicity
More
poor
children
today
Mostly
single
parents
Why?
Many
Aboriginals
below the
poverty line
High unemployment
Disabilitie
s
About
50% are
working
50% have
incomes <
than
$10,000
Low
incomes
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Poverty in Canada
An extension of Gender:
Poverty is frequently linked to women
Special terms: “feminization of poverty”:
the trend in which women are
disproportionately represented among
individuals living in poverty
Event driven poverty: as a result of
marital separation, divorce or widowhood
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Child Poverty Rates From Campaign 2000
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Economic and Structural Causes of
Poverty
Economic: because over 50% of the poor are
the working poor, it means that wages are much
lower than the average cost of living
This has increased over time
Structural:



International competition
Automation
Closure of many factories (deindustrialization of North
America)
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Economic and Structural Causes of
Poverty
Structural:


Emergence of what is termed Job Deskilling:
a reduction in the proficiency needed to
perform a specific job that leads to a
corresponding reduction in the wages for that
job
Shift from manufacturing to service
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Sociological Explanations of Social
Inequality
Functionalist
Conflict
Feminist
Evolutionary
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Functionalist
Davis (1945) claimed that social inequality was
not only universal but necessary. Termed the
Davis-Moore Thesis based on a Meritocracy
1. all societies have important tasks that must be
accomplished
2. some positions are more important than others
3. The most important positions must be filled by the
most qualified people
4. these positions which require talent must be highly
awarded
5. those most highly rewarded should be functionally
unique and on which other positions rely for expertise,
direction, or financing
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Conflict
Thesis:
These scholars do not believe that social
inequality serves as a motivating force for
people
A stratified system is supported by
Canadian ideology, laws, the valorization
of wealth and power, and discrimination
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Conflict
Surplus value: the value produced, or the
profit created, when the cost of labour is
less than the cost of goods or services that
are produced by the labourers…this value
goes to the capitalists and not to the
labourer. Thus more income to the
capitalist and less to the worker
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Feminist Perspectives
Double Repression
Being a woman and
class inequality
Men are more
advantaged in power,
status, and
possibilities of selfactualization
Link to the family
Women are more
likely to both work
and care for the home
and child
care…Double-shift
concept
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The Future
Prediction that social inequality will
increase. Why?




The dollar buys less and less
Workers incomes go down while managers go
up
The rich are getting richer
Tax laws benefit the wealthy more than the
middle and low
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The Future
Will poverty increase or decrease?
Increase. Why?



Growth of single-parent families
Internationalization of the economy means
local controls are less and less common
(consider the soft wood lumber dispute and
Mad Cow Disease scare )
No real change in child poverty
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Questions
1. Explain Richard Florida’s theory of class
division.
2. Explain the difference between Wright’s and
Weber’s models of class.
3. Draw a diagram of Perrucci and Wysong’s New
Class society. Where would a principal, a
nurse, an entrepreneur and a pianist be placed
on this model?
4. Explain which class model fits society as you
see it; support your argument with evidence.
5. Which sociological perspective - in your opinion
- best explains social inequality?
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References
Florida, Richard The Rise of the Creative
Class Basic Books, New York, 2002.
Florida, Richard America's Looming
Creativity Crisis Harvard Business Review
2004
http://www.eit.ntnu.no/Dokumenter%20fra
%20koferansen/Creativity%20Class.pdf
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