Social Inequality

Little, W. (2016). Introduction to Sociology: 2nd Canadian Edition.

Social Inequality

Social Inequality is the social distribution of power. People play different roles in society because of their different social powers. We can see unfair social resource distribution among different layers of society. Equal distribution in society means unequal resource distribution won’t harm any personal life. Inequality doesn’t always happen on a personal level. It also gets set on a social level in a systematic way. We can easily see that rich people don’t build their houses in poor people’s neighbourhoods. Here, the main factor is money to make the differentiation. The social class system was developed based on people’s property. There will be two kinds of classes over here: owner and labour.

Social Inequality and Mobility in Canada

Social class systems are generated within the same group of people. These groups can be formed for different reasons like occupation, education, wealth, etc. The standard of living is a common element used to check class status. Canada is known for its standard of living. But there are people who don’t have enough money to have a standard place to live. In Canada, only 10% of the population has a very high standard of housing. And they had most of the country's resources and wealth. There is a misunderstanding that in Canada, most people are middle earners. Fewer are rich and poor people. However, in the middle-income group, a lot of people struggle with their expenses to afford a quality house and buy good food. Social mobility occurs when people change their social status according to their earnings. Like in Canada, we have both Upward mobility (When someone’s earnings increase) and Downward Mobility (When earnings decrease).

Global Stratification and Inequality

Global Stratification and Inequality is a crucial area of study, focusing on power and resource distribution worldwide. The 19th century saw a significant shift in living standards due to industrialization in Europe, which improved the lives of many in Europe and America. However, this also led to a global inequality in power and resource distribution, with non-industrialized areas experiencing a worsening of conditions for the poor. 

Theoretical Perspectives on Social Inequality

Here, the writer gave us an example of a basketball game. We can see different teams playing basketball, and not all are getting the same payment. This unequal distribution can be studied from a Social Perspective. There are 3 kinds of Social Perspectives. Like, functionalism, critical sociology, and interpretive sociology. In Functionalism, we discuss how different parts of society work. In Critical Sociology, we check how resources are not equally distributed. In Interpretive Sociology, we discuss how individuals’ everyday work in society. People mostly interact with those whose race, wealth, religion, or food matches them. This is called symbolic interaction. Here, the cultural assets determine how the language or food will be used by the future group. Cultural capital is like an investment. 

Source: Little , W. (2016). Introduction to Sociology: 2nd Canadian Edition. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology2ndedition/licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.