Exam 7: Social Class: the Structure of Inequality

What is realistic about "Cinderella stories" like the film Pretty Woman?

Why are people more likely to marry individuals with social and cultural backgrounds very similar to their own?

Several members of the Indian government have argued that poverty in India should be calculated according to how many calories per day people consume, not in relation to their incomes. What sort of measure of poverty would this be?

If an individual takes adult education classes, attends lectures and concerts, or travels to Europe, what might he be trying to gain more of?

Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant, discovered late in her career that she had been paid considerably less than any of the other people in her position. Since she was the only female supervisor, she argued that this was simple discrimination, and, assuming she's right, it shows that her workplace was not:

What do sociologists mean when they say that the homeless population of the United States is often "invisible"?

The digital divide is the gap between those who understand how to program their own computer software and those who are simply the users of commercially produced software.

According to social psychologists, when people encounter a situation that seems to be unfair and they cannot or will not act to make things right, what do they tend to do?

The borders between class groups can be fuzzy, and it is useful to imagine them as being along a continuum rather than being sharply divided.

A society where social mobility is highly restricted by formal or informal rules, like those of a caste system, is called:

A reporter who covers the police beat at a newspaper changes careers. She becomes an editor of nonfiction books and is paid the same salary as she was at the newspaper. What has she experienced?

The idea that anyone, no matter where they start out, can, with hard work, succeed in whatever they set out to do is a belief system that explains and justifies America's class hierarchy.

When Karl Marx wrote about inequality, the feudal system (a closed social hierarchy) was dissolving and making way for a more open system. Why was Marx so worried about the new capitalist system that was emerging?

According to Chapter 7, what general predictions can sociologists make about a person's life prospects if all that is known is the person's social class?

The social theorist Anthony Giddens has argued that "social structures are both constituted by human agency, and yet at the same time are the very medium of this constitution." In other words, individual interactions produce social structures, but at the same time those social structures limit, constrain, and direct individual actions. This means that Giddens believes that:

Some sociologists suggest that extreme wealth should be thought of as a social problem, just like extreme poverty.

In House of Yes, a play by Wendy MacLeod, the character Marty brings his fiancée, Lesly, to meet his family. She comes from a different class, which leads to exchanges like this one between Lesly, Marty, and Marty's two siblings, Anthony and Jackie: Anthony: Would you like a glass of Liebfraumilch? Lesly: No thank you. I'll just have a glass of wine. Marty: That's the name of the wine. Lesly: Oh! [laughs] I don't speak French. Jackie: Who does? Anthony: You do. Jackie: Oh, that's right, I do. According to Pierre Bourdieu, Marty's siblings are unhappy with Lesly because she doesn't have enough:

What sort of social mobility often results from losing a job?

Pierre Bourdieu would argue that a child whose parent is a doctor is far more likely to become a doctor himself because of parental expectations.

Although they make very little money, priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, and clergy are often very prestigious members of their communities. Which social theorist first suggested that this is an important element of class status?