Social Inequality

Social Inequality

In every society, some people have more of the valued resources — money, property, education, health, and power — than others. These resources are not just material. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu identified three forms of capital that make up social resources:

• Economic capital: material assets and income.
• Cultural capital: educational qualifications, knowledge, and social status.
• Social capital: networks of contacts, relationships, and social associations.

These three forms of capital often overlap and can be converted into one another. For example, a person from a well-off family (economic capital) can afford expensive higher education, thereby acquiring cultural capital. Someone with influential relatives or friends (social capital) may get access to good advice, recommendations, or information that helps them land a well-paid job.

Patterns of unequal access to these social resources are what we call social inequality.

Some social inequality does reflect innate differences between individuals — varying abilities, talents, or effort. A person may be exceptionally intelligent or may have worked very hard to achieve wealth and status. However, by and large, social inequality is not the outcome of natural differences between people. It is produced by the society in which they live.

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Social Stratification

Sociologists use the term social stratification to refer to a system by which categories of people in a society are ranked in a hierarchy. This hierarchy shapes people's identity and experiences, their relations with others, and their access to resources and opportunities.

Three key principles help explain social stratification:

1. Social stratification is a characteristic of society, not simply a function of individual differences.

It is a society-wide system that unequally distributes social resources among categories of people. In the most technologically primitive societies — hunting and gathering societies, for instance — little was produced, so only rudimentary social stratification could exist. In more technologically advanced societies where people produce a surplus over and above their basic needs, social resources are unequally distributed to various social categories regardless of people's innate individual abilities.

2. Social stratification persists over generations.

It is closely linked to the family and to the inheritance of social resources from one generation to the next. A person's social position is ascribed — children assume the social positions of their parents. Within the caste system, birth dictates occupational opportunities. This ascribed aspect of social inequality is reinforced by the practice of endogamy — marriage is usually restricted to members of the same caste, ruling out the potential for blurring caste lines through inter-caste marriage.

3. Social stratification is supported by patterns of belief, or ideology.

No system of social stratification is likely to persist over generations unless it is widely viewed as being either fair or inevitable. The caste system, for example, is justified in terms of the opposition of purity and pollution, with Brahmins designated as the most superior and Dalits as the most inferior by virtue of their birth and occupation.

Not everyone, though, thinks of a system of inequality as legitimate. Typically, people with the greatest social privileges express the strongest support for systems of stratification such as caste and race. Those who have experienced the exploitation and humiliation of being at the bottom of the hierarchy are most likely to challenge it.

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Social Exclusion and Discrimination

Often we discuss social exclusion and discrimination as though they pertain only to differential economic resources. This is only partially true. People often face discrimination and exclusion because of their gender, religion, ethnicity, language, caste, and disability.

• A woman from a privileged background may face sexual harassment in public places.
• A middle-class professional from a minority religious or ethnic group may find it difficult to get accommodation in a middle-class colony, even in a metropolitan city.

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Prejudice

People often harbour prejudices about other social groups. Each of us grows up as a member of a community from which we acquire ideas not just about our own community, caste, class, or gender, but also about others. Often these ideas reflect prejudices.

Prejudice refers to pre-conceived opinions or attitudes held by members of one group towards another. The word literally means 'pre-judgement' — an opinion formed in advance of any familiarity with the subject, before considering any available evidence. A prejudiced person's preconceived views are often based on hearsay rather than direct evidence, and are resistant to change even in the face of new information.

Prejudice may be either positive or negative. Although the word is generally used for negative pre-judgements, it can also apply to favourable pre-judgement. For example, a person may be prejudiced in favour of members of their own caste or group and — without any evidence — believe them to be superior to members of other castes or groups.

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Stereotypes

Prejudices are often grounded in stereotypes — fixed and inflexible characterisations of a group of people. Stereotypes are often applied to ethnic and racial groups and to women.

In a country such as India, which was colonised for a long time, many of these stereotypes are partly colonial creations. Some communities were characterised as 'martial races', some others as effeminate or cowardly, yet others as untrustworthy. In both English and Indian fictional writings, we often encounter an entire group of people classified as 'lazy' or 'cunning'. …