Knowra Social stratification Social stratification Social stratification is the patterned ranking of people and groups into unequal social layers. It shapes access to wealth, power, status, and life chances.
Social class : A grouping of people by shared economic position, resources, or relationship to production. Class organizes stratification around economic position and access to resources.
Social inequality : Unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, rights, or rewards among people and groups. Stratification is the patterned, hierarchical organization of social inequality.
Social class system : A stratification system in which economic position is central and movement between classes is possible. Its comparatively open boundaries contrast with more rigid hereditary systems.
Karl Marx : A nineteenth-century philosopher and political economist who analyzed capitalism through class conflict. Marx made ownership and conflict between classes central to explaining stratification.
Educational inequality : Unequal access to educational resources, opportunities, and outcomes among individuals or groups. Family resources and school structures can carry social advantage into educational attainment.
Social status : A person's socially recognized standing or rank within a group or society. Status supplies a dimension of rank not reducible to wealth.
Power (social and political) : The capacity to influence decisions, control resources, or shape others' actions and opportunities. Power can establish and enforce a group's place in a hierarchy.
Estate system : A hierarchical social order in which legally defined estates hold unequal rights and obligations. Estates show stratification enforced through formal legal ranks.
Max Weber : A German sociologist who analyzed social action, authority, bureaucracy, and multidimensional inequality. Weber distinguished economic class from status and political power.
Health inequality : Differences in health outcomes and access to care associated with social position or group membership. Stratified access to income, housing, and care produces patterned health differences.
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