Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit. In modern Western societies, social stratification is typically defined in terms of three social classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into the upper-stratum, the middle-stratum, and the lower stratum. Moreover, a social stratum can be formed upon the bases of kinship, clan, tribe, or caste, or all four. The categorization of people by social stratum occurs most clearly in complex state-based, polycentric, or feudal societies, the latter being based upon socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and classes of peasants. Whether social stratification first appeared in hunter-gatherer, tribal, and band societies or whether it began with agriculture and large-scale means of social exchange remains a matter of debate in the social sciences. Determining the structures of social stratification arises from inequalities of status among persons, therefore, the degree of social inequality determines a person's social stratum. Generally, the greater the social complexity of a society, the more social stratification exists, by way of social differentiation. Stratification can yield various consequences. For instance, the stratification of neighborhoods based on spatial and racial factors can influence disparate access to mortgage credit. “Social stratification” is a concept used in the social sciences to describe the relative social position of persons in a given social group, category, geographical region or other social unit. It derives from the Latin strātum (plural '; parallel, horizontal layers) referring to a given society's categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, social status, occupation and power.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (6)
HUM-275: Evolutionary psychology
La psychologie évolutionniste est une discipline située au carrefour de la biologie, de la psychologie, de l'anthropologie, des sciences sociales et naturelles qui examine les traits psychologiques et
HUM-471: Economic growth and sustainability I
This course examines growth from various angles: economic growth, growth in the use of resources, need for growth, limits to growth, sustainable growth, and, if time permits, population growth and gro
CS-234: Technologies for democratic society
This course will offer students a broad but hands-on introduction to technologies of human self-organization.
Show more
Related lectures (37)
Anonymity and Accountability
Explores the significance of anonymity in avoiding judgment based on personal characteristics and the need to balance it with accountability.
Courtyard House: Siheyuan
Explores the historical Courtyard House in ancient Beijing, its layout, significance, and social organization models.
Analyzing and Presenting Qualitative Data
Explores transcribing and analyzing interview data for sociological research purposes.
Show more
Related publications (51)

Цена автономии^ Университет, «украинский вопрос», (не)академическая память в долгом двадцатом веке [The Price of Autonomy: University, the "Ukrainian question," (un)academic memory In the long twentieth century]

Alexander Dmitriev

The subject of the book is the specificity of social, national-cultural and historical self-consciousness of the "educated class" of the former Russian Empire and the former Soviet Union. The phenomenon of "intelligentsia" is considered in the spirit of V ...
Peter Lang Verlag2024

Appropriate Communal Open Spaces: Principle 6

Yves Pedrazzini, Lesslie Astrid Herrera Quiroz

Principle 6 stresses that an appropriate proportion, number, organization and equitable distribution of Communal Open Spaces are essential for the sustainability of any settlement on the long-term, and should consider cultural, social and environmental asp ...
EPFL LASUR and GTH UNCHR2022

Turning crowds into communities: The collectives of online citizen science

Jérôme Baudry

Over the past two decades, a number of digital platforms have been developed with the aim of engaging citizens in scientific research projects. The success of these platforms depends in no small part on their ability to attract and retain participants, tur ...
2021
Show more
Related concepts (70)
Ascribed status
Ascribed status is a term used in sociology that refers to the social status of a person that is assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily later in life. The status is a position that is neither earned by the person nor chosen for them. Rather, the ascribed status is assigned based on social and cultural expectations, norms, and standards. These positions are occupied regardless of efforts or desire. These rigid social designators remain fixed throughout an individual's life and are inseparable from the positive or negative stereotypes that are linked with one's ascribed statuses.
Underclass
The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. The general idea that a class system includes a population under the working class has a long tradition in the social sciences (for example, lumpenproletariat). However, the specific term, underclass, was popularized during the last half of the 20th century, first by social scientists of American poverty, and then by American journalists.
Marxism
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, no single, definitive Marxist theory exists.
Show more

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.