THEORY OF STRATIFICATION – WEBER’S TRINITARIAN VIEW (KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER)

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  • Max Weber saw stratification as multidimensional.
  • Society stratified on the basis of economics, status and power.
  • People can rank high on one or two of these dimensions of stratification and low on the other.


TRINITARIAN VIEW

  • Class, status and power have not only a great deal of effect within their individual areas but also a great deal of influence over the other areas.
  • Wealth: includes property such as buildings, lands, farms, houses, factories and as well as other assets – Economic Situation
  • Prestige: the respect with which a person or status position is regarded by others – Status Situation
  • Party: the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others – Parties



WEBER ON CLASS

  • According to him, Class is merely a group of people in the same economic or market situation.
  • Weber used the term ‘life chances’ which refers to the rewards and advantages afforded by market capacity to differentiate different classes.
  • Those who share similar life chances share similar class.
  • Apart from class, there are other forms of stratification – status and party.
  • Class needs to be understood in the framework of the individual’s position in the context of the market of exchange.



WHAT ARE STATUS GROUPS?

  • Status is determined by positive or negative social estimation of honour.
  • It is an effective claim to social esteem.
  • Income, family background, education, etc are identified as markers of status.


CONCEPT OF PARTY

  • Classes exist in the economic order and status groups in the social order, but parties can be found in the political order.
  • They are structures struggling for domination.
  • The people who constitutes a party are those who have a goal towards which they strike collectively and in a plant manner.


CRITICISM

  • Contemporary sociologists have also debated the political conse­quences of the new system of social stratification ushered in by industrialism and information technology.  4
  • Gerhard Lenski (Power and Privilege, 1966) maintains that “the appearance of mature indus­trial societies marks the first significant reversal in the age-old evolutionary trend toward ever increasing inequality”.
  • Beck and Baudrillard gave the concept of individualized inequalities, a concept in stark contrast to limited framework provided by Weber.