Exam 11: Class and Inequality

In the United States, an individual's life chances are:

Karl Marx examined social inequality by distinguishing between which two distinct classes of people?

The income gaps between the highest earners and the lowest earners in the United States have:

Which of the following is a type of status that is established and changeable during a person's lifetime?

According to Max Weber, the reputation, influence, and deference bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups are called:

Working-class people who lacked land to grow their own food, tools to make their own products, and capital to build workshops and therefore had to sell their labor were considered which of the following classes of people, according to Karl Marx?

Despite overall increased levels of income and wealth in the United States during the past four decades, poverty continues to be a societal issue. According to your textbook, what are two key theories that developed in the social sciences to identify the roots of poverty in the United States? How do these two theories differ and what elements might they share in common? What is meant by poverty as pathology versus poverty as a structural economic problem? Which theory do you find most convincing for identifying the root causes of poverty in the United States, and why? Do you think additional theories are needed to more fully address the underlying causes of poverty in the country and globally? What do you think is the appropriate role of the government in addressing the roots of poverty? What do you think is the appropriate role of the individual in overcoming poverty? Do you think poverty can be eradicated in the future? Why or why not?

A famous redistribution ceremony that is commonly practiced among Native American groups such as the Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest is called:

Karl Marx argued that the proletariat were unable to develop a political awareness of their class position because:

Which of the following is a type of society that is based on the sharing of resources to ensure group success with a relative absence of hierarchy and violence within or among groups?

As a ritual ceremony, the potlatch serves to establish social status not by wealth and power but by the prestige earned via a person's capacity for which of the following?

Which of the following statements is true?

Which of the following members of a ranked society do not accumulate great wealth, despite their high prestige?

Stratification and inequality became:

In addition to the role of the media and voluntary isolation among portions of the population, which of the following also contributes to the invisibility of class and inequality in the United States?

Karl Marx, Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu, and Leith Mullings are four theorists who have examined class as a system of stratification in societies. Which of the four theorists' approaches do you find most convincing? Describe the theorist's general approach to examining class and discuss how this particular approach differs from the approaches used by the other theorists. What makes this approach more convincing in your opinion? Do you think this approach is still an effective tool in examining class in societies today? Given the increasingly global nature of societal interconnections, do you believe this approach will continue to be useful in examining class systems in future societies? Why or why not? Do you think additional approaches will be needed to more fully examine class systems in the future? Why or why not?

Social patterns entrenched in hierarchy and stratification have emerged:

Which of the following consists of wages earned from work, plus dividends and interest on investments along with rents and royalties?

Which of the following is another key to the social reproduction of class and was defined by Bourdieu as the knowledge, habits, and tastes learned from parents and family that people use to gain access to scarce and valuable resources in society?

Pierre Bourdieu argued that in addition to a family's economic circumstances, two additional key factors affect an individual's social mobility within society. What are these two additional key factors and how do they differ from each other? What are some examples that best illustrate these two key factors? How can these two factors limit one's social mobility? How can these two factors improve one's social mobility? How do you think these two factors affect your own social mobility in society? Are there individuals in societies who are not affected in any way by either of these factors? Please provide at least one example to support your argument.