Social Stratification

The division of society into categories, ranks, classes based on their unequal access to scarce resources

• social inequality

• social stratification

• social classes

• social mobility

A change in status or class during one's individual life

• intergenerational mobility

• intragenerational mobility

• social mobility

• vertical mobility

A segment of society whose members have similar levels of wealth, power, and prestige (scarce resources)

• social inequality

• caste system

• open class system

• social classes

The social status a person is assigned at birth or assumed involuntary later in life. It is a position that is neither earned nor chosen but assigned.

• achieved status

• open class system

• ascribed status

• caste system

A change in status or class from one generation to the next.

• intergenerational mobility

• vertical mobility

• horizontal mobility

• intragenerational mobility

The unequal sharing of scarce resources and social rewards

• socioeconomic status

• social inequality

• social classes

• social stratification

A rating that combines social factors such as level of education, occupational prestige, and place of residence with the economic factor of income in order to determine an individual's relative position in a stratification.

• social stratifications

• social inequality

• socioeconomic status

• social classes

Made up of one's assess, the value of everything the person owns.

• economic dimension

• wealth

• income

• prestige

System of social stratification in which resources and social rewards are distributed on the basis of ascribed status and does not allow for social mobility.

• achieved status

• ascribed status

• open class system

• caste system

The movement of individuals between or within social classes.

• social mobility

• social classes

• social inequality

• social stratification