Anthony Schreuders

Stratification Definitions
1. Social stratification is someones class. Someones wealth, power, or social
standing in the community can define this. Social stratification is regularly
separated in to upper, lower, and middle class. The upper class controls the
majority of the power in America, while the lower class is considered not as
important in politics. In modern capitalism it is said that if you work hard you can
work your way out of the low class, for America is the land of opportunity. The
four components that make us what class you fall in to is occupation, education,
income, and wealth. Someones occupation is what they do to bring in income and
that can affect ones class depending on the level of the job and their income.
Income is what you earn from the job. Education is the level of knowledge
someone has. Higher education doesnt define how intelligent an individual is;
however, many people view it this way making your class standing higher, with
higher education. Overall wealth can make a huge difference on your class
standing. If your overall income is small, but you inherited a large sum of money,
youd still be high class.
2. The means of production is having the ability to produce whatever item is being
produced. This is where class can play a huge role, such as with the bourgeoisie
and the proletariat. The proletariat was the working class and they did all the hard
work in the factories the bourgeoisie owned. Without the working class, the
bourgeoisie couldnt produce their products. They wouldnt have a means of
production, thus when the anti-thesis being the working class, stood up against the
thesis, being the bourgeoisie, it hurt their efficiency to produce. Class-

consciousness is knowing ones class and being able to establish an opinion or

belief on that rank in society. It is knowing ones class rank and interest.
Dominant ideology is what the rest of society views ones class and how they
function within the social environment with others. False beliefs that society
instills upon a certain class is false consciousness.
3. Weber defined class, social group, and party differently than Marx. Weber said
that all men try to achieve something throughout their life, but their goals are
different depending on their class while Marx said that your role in society was
decided for you. Marx was more of a pessimist in my opinion while Webers
optimism is more tied to modern society.
4. Cultural capital is social standings that are out ones reach. Education is an
example of this, for some people cannot afford higher education. Speech is also
brought about by a product of ones environment an is an example of cultural
capital. Cultural capital can be linked to power differences because if an
individual is born in to a rich family, that is out of their control; however, they
will still have wealth and power. This can relate to the resources of the world
because people who are born in to low class, have an unlikely chance of
becoming middle to high class, thus resources are consumed by the different
classes and it is often out of ones reach to consume certain items. Relating to
sports teams and other childhood activities and items, ones wealth as a child is
well out of ones control and their attire, sports teams, vacations, ect. are often
unobtainable because theyre born in to circumstances where they cant afford it.