The criterion for the allocation of social strata. Social stratification: concept, criteria and types

Inequality – feature any society, when some individuals, groups or layers have great opportunities, or resources (financial, power, etc.) than others.

To describe the system of inequality in sociology, the concept is used "social stratification" . The very word "stratification" borrowed from geology, where "stratum" means geological formation. This concept quite accurately conveys the content of social differentiation, when social groups line up in social space in a hierarchically organized, vertically sequential row according to some measuring criterion.

In Western sociology, there are several concepts of stratification. West German sociologist R. Dahrendorf suggested that social stratification should be based on political concept "authority" , which, in his opinion, most accurately characterizes the relations of power and the struggle between social groups for power. Based on this approach R. Dahrendorf represented the structure of society, consisting of managers and managed. He, in turn, divided the former into managing owners and managing non-owners, or bureaucratic managers. The second he also divided into two subgroups: the highest, or labor aristocracy, and the lowest - low-skilled workers. Between these two main groups he placed the so-called "new middle class" .

American sociologist L. Warner identified as defining signs of stratification four parameters :

The prestige of the profession;

Education;

Ethnicity.

Thus he determined six main classes :

top-top class included rich people. But the main criterion for their selection was "noble origin";

AT lower upper class also included people of high income, but they did not come from aristocratic families. Many of them had only recently become rich, boasted of it, and sought to flaunt their luxurious clothes, jewelry, and fancy cars;

upper middle class consisted of highly educated people engaged in intellectual work, and business people, lawyers, capital owners;

lower middle class represented mainly by clerks and other "white-collar workers" (secretaries, bank tellers, clerks);

upper class lower class made up of "blue collar" - factory workers and other manual laborers;

Finally, underclass included the poorest and most outcast members of society.

Another American sociologist B. Barber stratified on six indicators :

Prestige, profession, power and might;

Income level;

The level of education;

The degree of religiosity;

The position of relatives;

Ethnicity.

French sociologist A. Touraine believed that all these criteria were already outdated, and proposed to define groups on access to information. The dominant position, in his opinion, is occupied by those people who have access to most information.

P. Sorokin singled out three criteria stratification:

Income level (rich and poor);

Political status (those with and without power);

Professional roles (teachers, engineers, doctors, etc.).

T. Parsons supplemented these signs with new ones criteria :

quality characteristics inherent in people from birth (nationality, gender, family ties);

role characteristics (position, level of knowledge; professional training, etc.);

"characteristics of possession" (possession of property, material and spiritual values, privileges, etc.).

In modern post-industrial society, it is customary to single out four main stratification variables :

Income level;

Attitude to power;

The prestige of the profession;

The level of education.

Income- the amount of cash receipts of an individual or family for a certain period of time (month, year). Income is the amount of money received in the form of wages, pensions, allowances, alimony, fees, deductions from profits. Income is measured in rubles or dollars that an individual receives (individual income) or family (family income). Incomes are most often spent on maintaining life, but if they are very high, they accumulate and turn into wealth.

Wealth- accumulated income, that is, the amount of cash or embodied money. In the second case, they are called movable (car, yacht, securities, etc.) and immovable (house, works of art, treasures) property. Usually wealth is inherited , which can be received by both working and non-working heirs, and only working ones can receive income. The main wealth of the upper class is not income, but accumulated property. The salary share is small. For the middle and lower classes, the main source of subsistence is income, since in the first case, if there is wealth, it is insignificant, and in the second it is not at all. Wealth allows you not to work, and its absence forces you to work for the sake of wages.

Wealth and income are unevenly distributed and signify economic inequality. Sociologists interpret it as an indicator that different groups of the population have unequal life chances. They buy different quantities and different qualities of food, clothing, housing, etc. But in addition to the obvious economic advantages, the wealthy have hidden privileges. The poor have shorter lives (even if they enjoy all the benefits of medicine), less educated children (even if they go to the same public schools), and so on.

Education measured by the number of years of study in a public or private school or university.

Power measured by the number of people affected by the decision. The essence of power is the ability to impose one's will against the will of others. AT complex society power is institutionalized , that is, protected by laws and tradition, surrounded by privileges and wide access to social benefits, allows you to make decisions that are vital for society, including laws that, as a rule, are beneficial to the upper class. In all societies, people who hold some form of power—political, economic, or religious—make up an institutionalized elite. . It defines the internal foreign policy states, directing it in a direction that is beneficial to itself, which other classes are deprived of.

Three scales of stratification - income, education and power - have completely objective units of measurement: dollars, years, people. Prestige stands outside this series, since it is a subjective indicator. Prestige - respect, which in public opinion is enjoyed by this or that profession, position, occupation.

The generalization of these criteria makes it possible to represent the process of social stratification as a multifaceted stratification of people and groups in society on the grounds of owning (or not owning) property, power, certain levels of education and training, ethnic characteristics, gender and age characteristics, sociocultural criteria, political positions, social statuses. and roles.

Can be distinguished nine types of historical stratification systems , which can be used to describe any social organism, namely:

Physico-genetic,

slaveholding,

caste,

estate,

Etacratic

Socio-professional,

class,

cultural and symbolic,

Cultural and normative.

All nine types of stratification systems are nothing more than "ideal types". Any real society is their complex mixture, combination. In reality, stratification types are intertwined and complement each other.

basis of the first type physical-genetic stratification system – lies the differentiation of social groups according to "natural", socio-demographic characteristics. Here, the attitude towards a person or group is determined by gender, age and the presence of certain physical qualities - strength, beauty, dexterity. Accordingly, the weaker, those with physical disabilities are considered defective and occupy a humbled social position. Inequality is affirmed in this case by the existence of the threat of physical violence or its actual use, and then fixed in customs and rituals. This "natural" stratification system dominated the primitive community, but continues to be reproduced to this day. It is especially strong in communities struggling for physical survival or expansion of their living space.

The second stratification system - slaveholding – also based on direct violence. But inequality here is determined not by physical, but by military-legal coercion. Social groups differ in the presence or absence of civil rights and property rights. Certain social groups have been completely deprived of these rights and, moreover, along with things, have been turned into an object of private property. Moreover, this position is most often inherited and thus fixed in generations. Examples of slaveholding systems are quite diverse. This includes ancient slavery, where the number of slaves sometimes exceeded the number of free citizens, and servility in Russia during the Russkaya Pravda, and plantation slavery in the south of the North American United States until civil war 1861-1865 is, finally, the work of prisoners of war and deportees on German private farms during the Second World War.

The third type of stratification system - caste . It is based on ethnic differences, which, in turn, are reinforced by the religious order and religious rituals. Each caste is a closed, as far as possible, endogamous group, which is assigned a strictly defined place in the social hierarchy. This place appears as a result of the isolation of the functions of each caste in the system of division of labor. There is a clear list of occupations that members of a particular caste can engage in: priestly, military, agricultural. Since the position in the caste system is inherited, the possibilities of social mobility are extremely limited here. And the stronger caste is expressed, the more closed this society turns out to be. India is rightfully considered a classic example of a society with a dominance of the caste system (this system was legally abolished here only in 1950). There were 4 main castes in India : Brahmins (priests) kshatriyas (warriors) vaishyas (merchants) sudras (workers and peasants) and about 5 thousand minor castes and podcast . The untouchables, who were not part of the castes and occupied the lowest social position, stood out in particular. Today, although in a smoother form, the caste system is reproduced not only in India, but, for example, in the clan system of the Central Asian states.

The fourth type is represented estate stratification system . In this system, groups differ in legal rights, which, in turn, are strictly related to their duties and are directly dependent on these duties. Moreover, the latter imply obligations to the state, enshrined in law. Some classes are obliged to carry out military or bureaucratic service, others - "tax" in the form of taxes or labor duties. Examples of developed estate systems are feudal Western European societies or feudal Russia. So, class division is, first of all, a legal, and not an ethnic-religious or economic division. It is also important that belonging to a class is inherited, contributing to the relative closeness of this system.

Some similarity with the estate system is observed in representing the fifth type of etacratic system (from French and Greek - "state power"). In it, differentiation between groups occurs, first of all, according to their position in the power-state hierarchies (political, military, economic), according to the possibilities of mobilizing and distributing resources, as well as according to the privileges that these groups are able to derive from their positions of power. Degree material well-being, the style of life of social groups, as well as the prestige they feel, are here connected with the formal ranks that these groups occupy in the respective power hierarchies. All other differences - demographic and religious-ethnic, economic and cultural - play a secondary role. The scale and nature of differentiation (volumes of power) in the etacratic system are under the control of the state bureaucracy. At the same time, hierarchies can be fixed formally legally - through bureaucratic tables of ranks, military regulations, assigning categories to state institutions - or they can remain outside the sphere of state legislation (a good example is the system of the Soviet party nomenklatura, the principles of which are not spelled out in any laws) . The formal freedom of members of society (with the exception of dependence on the state), the absence of automatic inheritance of positions of power also distinguish etacratic system from the class system. Etacratic system is found with greater strength the more authoritarian character the government takes.

In line with socio-professional stratification system groups are divided according to the content and conditions of their work. They play a special role qualification requirements required for a particular professional role - the possession of relevant experience, skills and abilities. Approval and maintenance of hierarchical orders in this system is carried out with the help of certificates (diplomas, grades, licenses, patents), fixing the level of qualification and ability to perform certain types of activities. The validity of qualification certificates is supported by the power of the state or some other sufficiently powerful corporation (professional workshop). Moreover, these certificates are most often not inherited, although there are exceptions in history. The socio-professional division is one of the basic stratification systems, various examples of which can be found in any society with any developed division of labor. This is a system of craft workshops in a medieval city and a rank grid in modern state industry, a system of certificates and diplomas of education received, a system of scientific degrees and titles that open the way to more prestigious jobs.

The seventh type is represented by the most popular class system . The class approach is often opposed to the stratification one. But class division is only a particular case of social stratification. In the socio-economic interpretation, classes represent social groups of politically and politically free legal relation citizens. The differences between these groups lie in the nature and extent of ownership of the means of production and the product produced, as well as in the level of income received and personal material well-being. Unlike many previous types, belonging to classes - bourgeois, proletarians, independent farmers, etc. - not regulated the highest authorities, is not established by law and is not inherited (property and capital are transferred, but not the status itself). In its purest form, the class system does not contain any internal formal partitions at all (economic prosperity automatically transfers you to a higher group).

Another stratification system can be conditionally called cultural and symbolic . Differentiation arises here from differences in access to socially significant information, unequal opportunities to filter and interpret this information, and the ability to be a bearer of sacred knowledge (mystical or scientific). In ancient times, this role was assigned to priests, magicians and shamans, in the Middle Ages - to church ministers, interpreters of sacred texts, who make up the bulk of the literate population, in modern times - to scientists, technocrats and party ideologists. Claims for communion with divine forces, for the possession of truth, for the expression of the state interest have existed always and everywhere. And a higher position in this regard is occupied by those who have the best opportunities to manipulate the consciousness and actions of other members of society, who can prove their rights to true understanding better than others, who own the best symbolic capital.

Finally, the last, ninth type of stratification system should be called cultural and normative . Here, differentiation is built on differences in respect and prestige that arise from a comparison of the way of life and the norms of behavior followed by this person or group. relationship with the physical and mental labor, consumer tastes and habits, manners of communication and etiquette, a special language (professional terminology, local dialect, criminal jargon) - all this forms the basis of social division. Moreover, there is not only a distinction between “us” and “them”, but also a ranking of groups (“noble - ignoble”, “decent - dishonorable”, “elite - ordinary people - bottom”).

The concept of stratification (from Latin stratum - layer, layer) denotes the stratification of society, differences in the social status of its members. social stratification- this is a system of social inequality, consisting of hierarchically arranged social strata (strata). All people belonging to a particular stratum occupy approximately the same position and have common status characteristics.

Stratification criteria

Various sociologists explain the causes of social inequality and, consequently, social stratification in different ways. Thus, according to the Marxist school of sociology, inequality is based on property relations, the nature, degree and form of ownership of the means of production. According to the functionalists (K. Davis, W. Moore), the distribution of individuals according to social strata depends on the importance of their professional activity and the contribution they make through their work to the achievement of society's goals. Proponents of the exchange theory (J. Homans) believe that inequality in society arises due to the unequal exchange of the results of human activity.

A number of classic sociologists considered the problem of stratification more broadly. For example, M. Weber, in addition to economic (attitude to property and income level), proposed in addition such criteria as social prestige (inherited and acquired status) and belonging to certain political circles, hence power, authority and influence.

One of the creators of the theory of stratification, P. Sorokin, identified three types of stratification structures:

§ economic (according to the criteria of income and wealth);

§ political (according to the criteria of influence and power);

§ professional (according to the criteria of mastery, professional skills, successful performance of social roles).

The founder of structural functionalism T. Parsons proposed three groups of differentiating features:

§ qualitative characteristics of people that they possess from birth (ethnicity, family ties, gender and age characteristics, personal qualities and abilities);

§ role characteristics determined by a set of roles performed by an individual in society (education, position, different kinds professional and labor activity);

§ characteristics due to the possession of material and spiritual values ​​(wealth, property, privileges, the ability to influence and manage other people, etc.).

In modern sociology, it is customary to distinguish the following main criteria for social stratification:

§ income - the amount of cash receipts for a certain period (month, year);

§ wealth - accumulated income, i.e. the amount of cash or embodied money (in the second case, they act as movable or real estate);

§ power - the ability and ability to exercise one's will, to exert a decisive influence on the activities of other people with the help of various means(authority, rights, violence, etc.). Power is measured by the number of people it extends to;

§ education - a set of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired in the learning process. The level of education is measured by the number of years of education;

§ prestige - a public assessment of the attractiveness, significance of a particular profession, position, a certain type of occupation.

Despite the variety of different models of social stratification currently existing in sociology, most scientists distinguish three main classes: the highest, the middle and the lowest. At the same time, the share of the upper class in industrialized societies is approximately 5-7%; middle - 60-80% and lower - 13-35%.

In a number of cases, sociologists make a certain division within each class. Thus, the American sociologist W.L. Warner (1898-1970), in his famous study of Yankee City, identified six classes:

§ upper-upper class (representatives of influential and wealthy dynasties with significant resources of power, wealth and prestige);

§ lower-upper class (“new rich” - bankers, politicians who do not have a noble origin and did not have time to create powerful role-playing clans);

§ upper-middle class (successful businessmen, lawyers, entrepreneurs, scientists, managers, doctors, engineers, journalists, cultural and art figures);

§ lower-middle class (employees - engineers, clerks, secretaries, employees and other categories, which are commonly called "white collars");

§ upper-lower class (workers engaged mainly in physical labor);

§ lower-lower class (beggars, unemployed, homeless, foreign workers, declassed elements).

There are other schemes of social stratification. But they all boil down to the following: non-basic classes arise by adding strata and layers that are inside one of the main classes - rich, wealthy and poor.

Thus, social stratification is based on natural and social inequality between people, which manifests itself in their social life and has a hierarchical character. It is sustainably supported and regulated by various social institutions, constantly reproduced and modified, which is an important condition for the functioning and development of any society.

Marxist tradition in class analysis

concept Class used in various scientific disciplines to refer to any set consisting of elements, each of which has at least one property common to all. The term social classification(from lat. classis- rank, class, and facio- I do) means a single system of large groups of people located in a hierarchical row, which together form society as a whole.

The concept of "social class" was introduced into the scientific vocabulary in early XIX centuries, French historians Thierry and Guizot, investing in it, mainly political meaning, showing the opposition of the interests of various social groups and the inevitability of their collision. Somewhat later, a number of English economists, including Riccardo and Smith, made the first attempts to reveal the "anatomy" of classes, i.e. their internal structure.

Despite the fact that social class is one of the central concepts in sociology, scientists still do not have a single point of view regarding the content of this concept. For the first time we find a detailed picture of class society in the works of K. Marx. Most of Marx's works are connected with the theme of stratification and, above all, with the concept of social class, although, oddly enough, he did not give a systematic analysis of this concept.

We can say that Marx's social classes are economically determined and genetically conflicting groups. The basis of division into groups is the presence or absence of property. The feudal lord and the serf in a feudal society, the bourgeois and the proletarian in a capitalist society are antagonistic classes that inevitably appear in any society that has a complex hierarchical structure based on inequality. Marx also allowed the existence of small social groups in society that could influence class conflicts. In studying the nature of social classes, Marx made the following assumptions:

1. Every society produces a surplus of food, shelter, clothing and other resources. Class differences arise when one of the population groups appropriates resources that are not immediately consumed and are not currently needed. These resources are considered private property.

2. Classes are determined on the basis of the fact of ownership or non-ownership of the produced property.

3. Class relations presuppose the exploitation of one class by another, i.e. one class appropriates the results of the labor of another class, exploits and suppresses it. This kind of relationship is constantly reproduced class conflict, which is the basis of social changes taking place in society.

4. There are objective (for example, possession of resources) and subjective attributes of class (a sense of class belonging).

Despite the revision, from the point of view of modern society, of many provisions of the class theory of K. Marx, some of his ideas remain relevant in relation to currently existing social structures. This primarily applies to situations of interclass conflicts, clashes, and class struggle to change the conditions for the distribution of resources. In this regard, Marx's doctrine of class struggle currently has a large number of followers among sociologists and political scientists in many countries of the world.

The most influential alternative Marxist theory of social class is the work of Max Weber. Weber, in principle, recognized the correctness of the division of the population into classes on the basis of the presence or absence of ownership of capital and the means of production. However, he considered such a division too rough and simplistic. Weber believed that social stratification has three different measures of inequality.

The first - economic inequality, which Weber called the position of the class. The second indicator is status, or social prestige, and the third - power.

Class is interpreted by Weber as a group of people with the same life opportunities. Weber considers the relationship to power ( political parties) and prestige as one of the most important features social class. Each of these dimensions is a separate aspect of social gradation. However, for the most part, these three dimensions are interconnected; they feed and support each other, but still may not be the same.

Thus, individual prostitutes and criminals have great economic opportunities, but do not have prestige and power. The teaching staff of universities and the clergy enjoy high prestige, but in terms of wealth and power they are usually evaluated relatively low. Some officials may wield considerable power and at the same time receive little wages and no prestige.

Thus, Weber for the first time lays the basis for the class division of the system of stratification that exists in a given society.

In modern Western sociology, Marxism is opposed by the theory of social stratification.

Classification or stratification? Representatives of the theory of stratification argue that the concept of class is not applicable to the modern post-industrial society. This is due to the uncertainty of the concept of “private property”: in view of the wide corporatization, as well as the exclusion of the main shareholders from the sphere of production management and their replacement by hired managers, property relations turned out to be blurred and lost their certainty. Therefore, the concept of "class" should be replaced by the concept of "stratum" or the concept of a social group, and the theory of social class structure of society should be replaced by theories of social stratification. However, classification and stratification are not mutually exclusive approaches. The concept of "class", convenient and appropriate for the macro approach, will be clearly insufficient when we try to consider the structure of interest to us in more detail. In a deep and comprehensive study of the structure of society, the mere economic dimension offered by the Marxist class approach is clearly not enough. Stratification dimension- this is a fairly fine grading of layers within the class, allowing for a deeper detailed analysis of the social structure.

Most researchers believe that social stratification- a hierarchically organized structure of social (status) inequality that exists in a certain society, in a certain historical period of time. The hierarchically organized structure of social inequality can be imagined as a division of the whole society into strata. Layered, multi-level society in this case can be compared with the geological layers of the soil. In modern sociology, there are four main criteria of social inequality:

ü Income It is measured in rubles or dollars that an individual or family receives during a certain period of time, say, one month or a year.

ü Education measured by the number of years of education in a public or private school or university.

ü Power is measured by the number of people who are affected by the decision you make (power is the ability to impose your will or decisions on other people, regardless of their desire).

ü Prestige- respect for the status that has developed in public opinion.

The criteria of social stratification listed above are the most universal for all modern societies. However, the social position of a person in society is also influenced by some other criteria that determine, first of all, his " starting opportunities. These include:

ü social background. The family brings the individual into social system, determining in many respects his education, profession and income. Poor parents reproduce potentially poor children, which is determined by their health, education, qualifications. Children from poor families are 3 times more likely to die due to negligence, from diseases, accidents and violence in the first years of life than children from rich families.

ü gender. Today in Russia there is an intensive process of feminization of poverty. Despite the fact that men and women live in families belonging to different social levels, the income, status of women and the prestige of their professions are usually lower than those of men.

ü Race and ethnicity. Thus, in the US, white people receive a better education and have a higher professional status than African Americans. Ethnicity also affects social position.

ü Religion. In American society, members of the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, as well as Jews, occupy the highest social positions. Lutherans and Baptists occupy a lower position.

Pitirim Sorokin made a significant contribution to the study of status inequality. To determine the totality of all social statuses of society, he introduced the concept social space.

In his work " social mobility» 1927 P. Sorokin, first of all, emphasized the impossibility of combining or even comparing such concepts as "geometric space" and "social space". According to him, a person of the lower class can physically come into contact with a noble person, but this circumstance will in no way reduce the economic, prestige or power differences existing between them, i.e. will not reduce the existing social distance. Thus, two people between whom there are significant property, family, official or other social differences cannot be in the same social space, even if they are embracing.

According to Sorokin, social space is three-dimensional. It is described by three coordinate axes - economic status, political status, professional status. Thus, the social position (general or integral status) of each individual who is integral part given social space, is described using three coordinates ( x, y, z). Note that this system coordinates describes exclusively the social, and not the personal statuses of the individual.

The situation when an individual, having a high status on one of the coordinate axes, at the same time has a low status level on the other axis, is called status incompatibility.

For example, individuals with high level those with an acquired education that provides high social status along the occupational dimension of stratification may occupy a poorly paid position and therefore have a low economic status. Most sociologists rightly believe that the presence of status incompatibility contributes to the growth of resentment among such people, and they will support radical social change aimed at changing the stratification. And vice versa in the case of the “new Russians” who aspire to get into politics: they are clearly aware that the high economic level they have achieved is unreliable without being compatible with an equally high political status. The same way a poor person who has received a fairly high political status of a deputy State Duma inevitably begins to use the acquired position for the corresponding "pulling up" of his economic status.

Ticket 9. Social stratification: criteria and types

social stratification – it is a system of social inequality, consisting of hierarchically arranged social strata (strata). Under stratum is understood as a set of people united by common status features.

One of creators of the theory of stratification P. Sorokin identified three types of stratification structures:

economic(according to the criteria of income and wealth);

political(according to the criteria of influence and power);

professional(according to the criteria of mastery, professional skills, successful performance of social roles).

In modern sociology, it is customary to distinguish the following main social stratification criteria:

income - the amount of cash receipts for a certain period (month, year);

wealth - accumulated income, i.e. the amount of cash or embodied money (in the second case, they act in the form of movable or immovable property);

power - the ability and ability to exercise one's will, to exert a decisive influence on the activities of other people through various means (authority, law, violence, etc.). Power is measured by the number of people it extends to;

education - a set of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired in the learning process. The level of education is measured by the number of years of education;

prestige- public assessment of the attractiveness, significance of a particular profession, position, a certain type of occupation.

Despite the variety of different models of social stratification currently existing in sociology, most scientists distinguish three main classes: high, middle and low.

In sociology, there are four main types of stratification: slavery, castes, estates and classes.

Slavery- an economic, social and legal form of enslavement of people, bordering on complete lack of rights and an extreme degree of inequality.

Castoy called a social group, membership in which a person owes solely to his birth. Each person falls into the appropriate caste, depending on what his behavior was in a previous life: if it was bad, then after the next birth he should fall into a lower caste, and vice versa.

estate- a social group that has fixed custom or legal law, inherited rights and obligations.

The estate system, which includes several strata, is characterized by a hierarchy, expressed in the inequality of position and privileges. Europe was a classic example of a class organization, where at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. society was divided into upper classes (nobility and clergy) and an unprivileged third estate (artisans, merchants, peasants).

In the X-XIII centuries. There were three main estates: the clergy, the nobility and the peasantry.

The rights and obligations of each estate were determined by legal law and consecrated by religious doctrine. Membership in the estate was determined by inheritance.

Classes are social groups of politically and legally free citizens. The differences between these groups lie in the nature and extent of ownership of the means of production and the product produced, as well as in the level of income received and personal material well-being.

Thus, the American sociologist W.L. Warner(1898-1970) identified six classes in his famous Yankee City study:

top-top class(representatives of influential and wealthy dynasties with significant resources of power, wealth and prestige);

lower-higher class(“new rich” - bankers, politicians who do not have a noble origin and did not have time to create powerful role-playing clans);

upper-middle class(successful businessmen, lawyers, entrepreneurs, scientists, managers, doctors, engineers, journalists, cultural and art figures);

lower-middle class(employees - engineers, clerks, secretaries, employees and other categories, which are commonly called "white collars");

upper-lower class(workers engaged mainly in physical labor);

lower-lower class(poor, unemployed, homeless, foreign workers, declassed elements).

The concept of " stratification» ( stratification) in Latin means "layer" or "layer". Thus, stratification should clarify the vertical sequence of the position of social strata, as well as layers in society. Sociologists agree that the basis of stratification is the social inequality of people. However, the way inequality is organized can be different. Currently, sociologists are making repeated attempts to expand the number of criteria. For example, by including the level of education. So, society reproduces and also organizes inequality, taking into account several reasons:

1. level of income and wealth.
2. The level of political power.
3. The level of social prestige and so on.

These types of hierarchies are important for society, as they are able to regulate social ties, as well as direct personal aspirations. Consider a vertical cut of the stratification bases. Researchers face a problem - division on the scale of social hierarchy. In other words, how many social strata need to be distinguished. Of course, one can distinguish a huge number of segments of the population with different levels welfare. Stratification structure became similar to a socio-professional structure. She split into:

1. Administrators are the highest class of professionals.
2. Mid-level professionals.
3. Commercial class.
4. petty bourgeoisie.
5. skilled and unskilled workers.

And this is not the whole list of social strata of society. When developing a general idea of ​​the social hierarchy of society, it is enough to single out three levels - the highest, the middle, and the lowest. The entire population can be divided into these stratifications, taking into account values ​​and norms. For example, in Western society, the degree of freedom is determined not only by legal and political acts, but also by the size of the budget, which should provide wide access to education. Therefore, in order to be in a prestigious status group, one must take into account the criteria that provide a high income and material independence. To reach the top of the social hierarchy in the totalitarian society of the Soviet period, it was only necessary to participate in political decisions, as well as to get closer to the power structures.

How can you determine specific gravity each stratum? First of all, the measurement technique depends on statistical methods that allow us to determine the income hierarchy of the population. It cannot be measured mathematically. After all, here you need to study all the rules that have developed in this society. You can use other methods for determining the social profile of society. It is necessary to emphasize the main thing - it is impossible to say with accuracy what social stratification is, if we take into account only statistical data or be based only on data. sociological survey. Need to use A complex approach. First of all, social inequality is the first reason for the hierarchical structure. Every society should strive for inequality. Initially, the society had its own laws in order to maintain the social hierarchy. So, a child in the family of a slave should be a slave, in the family of a serf - a serf, and in the family of a nobleman - a representative of the upper class.

The system of social institutions consisted of the army, the court, the church. They constantly monitored the observance of the rules of the hierarchical structure of society. For example, in India, a hierarchical system was established in the form of castes. Such a hierarchical system was maintained only by force: either with the help of weapons or with the help of religion. AT modern society the hierarchical system is devoid of such cruelty. After all, all citizens have the same rights. Moreover, they are able to occupy different positions in the social space.

Thus, the profile of the vertical slice of society has never been constant. Karl Marx assumed that the configuration of the vertical section of society would change due to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. But Sorokin rejected Marx's thesis and believed that top part the social pyramid rises above the rest. The stability of society is related to the profile of social stratification. The main thing is that the process of stratification should be carried out not at the expense of natural disasters, but through state policy. Stability is maintained in the social hierarchy due to a powerful middle class. Although recently the number of the poorest layers has been increasing. But even this does not prevent the development of the middle class. For example, E. Giddens described the middle class in Great Britain. He noted not only its multiplicity, but also its heterogeneity. Giddens identified the "old middle class", which includes small business owners as well as small business owners. In addition to this class, he singled out the "lower middle class", which includes teachers, employees and doctors. The middle class demonstrates the way of life to the lower stratum with some effort. Thus, the discontent of the lower strata is neutralized when they realize that it is possible to achieve a better position in society. During economic crises, the erosion of the middle class leads to serious upheavals. For example, in Russia, the main part of the people became impoverished in the conditions of price liberalization. And this led to the destruction of the social balance in society.

At the end of the article, we can summarize - the vertical section of society is mobile. After all, its main layers can not only decrease, but also increase. First of all, this is due to the structural restructuring of the economy, with recessions in production and with the nature political regime. Note that the stratification profile can never be extended indefinitely. After all, a special mechanism is being worked out for the redistribution of the national wealth of power, which is presented in the form of spontaneous actions of the masses. To avoid this, you need to regulate this process. The main thing is to take care of the middle stratum of society. In this case, the stability of society will be ensured!

Different sociologists explain the causes of social inequality and, consequently, social stratification in different ways. Yes, according to Marxist school of sociology, inequality is based on property relations, the nature, degree and form of ownership of the means of production. According to the functionalists (K. Davis, W. Moore), the distribution of individuals according to social strata depends on the importance of their professional activities and contribution which they contribute by their labor to the achievement of the goals of society. Supporters exchange theories(J. Homans) believe that inequality in society arises due to unequal exchange of results of human activity.

A number of classic sociologists considered the problem of stratification more broadly. For example, M. Weber, in addition to economic (attitude to property and level of income), proposed in addition such criteria as social prestige(inherited and acquired status) and belonging to certain political circles, hence - power, authority and influence.

One of creatorstheories of stratification P. Sorokin identified three types of stratification structures:

economic(according to the criteria of income and wealth);

political(according to the criteria of influence and power);

professional(according to the criteria of mastery, professional skills, successful performance of social roles).

Founder structural functionalism T. Parsons proposed three groups of differentiating features:

qualitative characteristics of people that they possess from birth (ethnicity, family ties, gender and age characteristics, personal qualities and abilities);

role characteristics determined by a set of roles performed by an individual in society (education, position, various types of professional and labor activity);

characteristics due to the possession of material and spiritual values ​​(wealth, property, privileges, the ability to influence and manage other people, etc.).

In modern sociology, it is customary to distinguish the following main social stratification criteria:

income - the amount of cash receipts for a certain period (month, year);

wealth - accumulated income, i.e. the amount of cash or embodied money (in the second case, they act in the form of movable or immovable property);

power - the ability and ability to exercise one's will, to exert a decisive influence on the activities of other people through various means (authority, law, violence, etc.). Power is measured by the number of people it extends to;

education - a set of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired in the learning process. The level of education is measured by the number of years of education;

prestige- public assessment of the attractiveness, significance of a particular profession, position, a certain type of occupation.

Despite the variety of different models of social stratification currently existing in sociology, most scientists distinguish three main classes: high, middle and low. At the same time, the share of the upper class in industrialized societies is approximately 5-7%; middle - 60-80% and lower - 13-35%.

In a number of cases, sociologists make a certain division within each class. Thus, the American sociologist W.L. Warner(1898-1970) identified six classes in his famous Yankee City study:

top-top class(representatives of influential and wealthy dynasties with significant resources of power, wealth and prestige);

lower-higher class(“new rich” - bankers, politicians who do not have a noble origin and did not have time to create powerful role-playing clans);

upper-middle class(successful businessmen, lawyers, entrepreneurs, scientists, managers, doctors, engineers, journalists, cultural and art figures);

lower-middle class(employees - engineers, clerks, secretaries, employees and other categories, which are commonly called "white collars");

upper-lower class(workers engaged mainly in physical labor);

lower-lower class(poor, unemployed, homeless, foreign workers, declassed elements).

There are other schemes of social stratification. But they all boil down to the following: non-basic classes arise by adding strata and layers that are inside one of the main classes - rich, wealthy and poor.

Thus, social stratification is based on natural and social inequality between people, which manifests itself in their social life and has a hierarchical character. It is sustainably supported and regulated by various social institutions, constantly reproduced and modified, which is an important condition for the functioning and development of any society.

social stratification (og lat. stratum - layer + facere - to do) is called the differentiation of people in society depending on access to power, profession, income and some other socially significant features. The concept of "stratification" was proposed by a sociologist Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin(1889-1968), who borrowed it from the natural sciences, where it refers in particular to the distribution of geological strata.

Rice. 1. The main types of social stratification (differentiation)

The distribution of social groups and people by strata (layers) makes it possible to single out relatively stable elements of the structure of society (Fig. 1) in terms of access to power (politics), professional functions performed and income received (economy). Three main types of stratification are presented in history - castes, estates and classes (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Main historical types of social stratification

castes(from Portuguese casta - clan, generation, origin) - closed social groups connected by a common origin and legal status. Caste membership is determined solely by birth, and marriages between members of different castes are forbidden. The most famous is the caste system of India (Table 1), originally based on the division of the population into four varnas (in Sanskrit this word means “kind, genus, color”). According to legend, varnas were formed from different parts of the body of the primordial man, who was sacrificed.

Table 1. Caste system in ancient India

Estates - social groups whose rights and obligations, enshrined in law and tradition, are inherited. Below are the main estates characteristic of Europe in the 18th-19th centuries:

the nobility is a privileged estate from among the large landowners and the veteran officials. An indicator of nobility is usually a title: prince, duke, count, marquis, viscount, baron, etc.;

clergy - ministers of worship and the church, with the exception of priests. In Orthodoxy, black clergy (monastic) and white (non-monastic) are distinguished;

merchant class - the trading class, which included the owners of private enterprises;

the peasantry - the class of farmers engaged in agricultural labor as the main profession;

philistinism - the urban class, consisting of artisans, small merchants and lower employees.

In some countries, a military estate was distinguished (for example, chivalry). In the Russian Empire, the Cossacks were sometimes referred to as a special estate. Unlike the caste system, marriages between members of different classes are permissible. It is possible (although difficult) to move from one class to another (for example, the purchase of the nobility by a merchant).

Classes(from lat. classis - category) - large groups of people, differing in their attitude to property. The German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883), who proposed a historical classification of classes, pointed out that an important criterion for distinguishing classes is the position of their members - oppressed or oppressed:

in a slave-owning society, such were slaves and slave-owners;

in feudal society - feudal lords and dependent peasants;

in a capitalist society - capitalists (bourgeoisie) and workers (proletariat);

there will be no classes in a communist society.

In modern sociology one often speaks of classes in the very general sense- as about sets of people with similar life chances, mediated by income, prestige and power:

upper class: divided into upper upper class (rich people from "old families") and lower upper class (recently rich people);

middle class: divided into upper middle (professionals) and

lower middle (skilled workers and employees); The lower class is divided into an upper lower class (unskilled workers) and a lower lower class (lumpen and marginals).

The lower underclass are the population groups that, by virtue of different reasons do not fit into the structure of society. In fact, their representatives are excluded from the social class structure, so they are also called declassed elements.

The declassed elements include lumpen - vagabonds, beggars, beggars, as well as outcasts - those who have lost their social characteristics and have not acquired in return new system norms and values, such as former factory workers who lost their jobs due to the economic crisis, or peasants driven off the land during industrialization.

Strata - groups of people with similar characteristics in a social space. This is the most universal and broadest concept, which makes it possible to single out any fractional elements in the structure of society according to a set of various socially significant criteria. For example, such strata as elite specialists, professional entrepreneurs, government officials, office workers, skilled workers, unskilled workers, etc. are distinguished. Classes, estates and castes can be considered varieties of strata.

Social stratification reflects the presence inequalities in society. It shows that strata exist in different conditions and people have different opportunities to meet their needs. Inequality is the source of stratification in society. Thus, inequality reflects differences in the access of representatives of each layer to social benefits, and stratification is a sociological characteristic of the structure of society as a set of layers.