UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION SYSTEM

Open or Class-based – permit relatively more

SOCIETY AND POLITICS mobility wherein people can theoretically
easily move up or down the social ladder
through hard work, etc., even if they are born
poor or not so rich.
CHAPTER VI
< UPPER CLASS – elite in the society
RANKING GROUPS WITHIN SOCIETY
<MIDDLE CLASS: upper-middle – highly
System of Social Stratification - refers to a system in educated business and professional with high
which people in a society are ranked income
hierarchically through metrics considered as
“social desirables” such as power, wealth and lower-middle – lower/modest income
prestige.
<LOWER CLASS – poverty, homelessness
POWER – typically measured through one’s influence and unemployment
and clout in the political process or through
upper-lower – working class
one’s ability to maximize one’s networks to
pursue more power or wealth. lower-lower – unemployed, no source of
income
WEALTH – is usually measured in terms of ownership
of land/real estate and accumulation of money, *Intergenerational Poverty
precious metals, and even luxurious items and
Some poor families are unable to lift
company stocks or shares.
themselves out of poverty even after decades
PRESTIGE – one’s ability to gain respect or of hard work because of structural obstacles
recognition in society. Also understood as to social mobility.
being related to fame or popularity.
Closed or Caste-based – ascribe people’s
SOCIAL MOBILITY - The ability to rise in rank or social status at birth and offer almost no
improve one’s social status by gaining power, chance or possibility of allowing any upward
wealth, and prestige. (Earn wealth to move up mobility.
in the social ladder)
1. Vertical Mobility
 Upward Mobility – if one is able to
upgrade his/her social status or rise in
rank.
 Downward Mobility – those whose
social status was downgraded because
of unfortunate instances such as
unemployment or bankruptcy or
illness.
2. Horizontal Mobility
 Happens when one’s slight change in
THEORIES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
situation doesn’t affect his/her social
standing. Structural-Functionalist Theory
 E.g.: When one employee transfers  Claim that stratification and inequality
from one company to another, with are necessary to compel people to
almost the same rank or salary work harder as higher status and more
privileges are granted to those who are
high up in the social ladder.
  Stratification and inequality can Forms of capital (idk kung kasali)
motivate those at the bottom of the
1. Economic Capital – immediately and
social pyramid to strive more toward
directly convertible into money and
achieving higher status.
may be institutionalized in the forms
 Critics: Inequalities are oppressive to of property rights
those who are in lower ranks and
2. Cultural Capital – refers to the skills,
unjustly favored those in higher ranks
knowledge, values, tastes, and
Poverty reduction can only happen if the gap behaviors that are considered desirable
between the rich and the poor is bridged. and/or necessary to succeed in life. It
has three forms: embodied,
Social Conflict Perspective
objectified, and institutionalized.
 Consider stratification as harmful to
3. Social Capital –Refers to social
society because it almost always leads
networks and contacts that can create
to stiff competition, and eventually,
opportunities for advancement and
conflict between the rich and the poor,
success
between the haves and have-nots,
between those who have power and 4. Political Capital – resources or skills
those who are powerless. one can use to gain political power or
help others gain it. Holding and
 Greatly influenced by Karl Marx’s
retaining political entails using up
idea on exploitation and class conflict.
economic capital.
 A classless society, where greed and
5. Symbolic Capital -resources that one
exploitation don’t exist, and where
possesses which is a function of
surplus wealth is redistributed for the
honor, prestige or recognition.
common good is possible.
GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
 Critics: Without stratification, people
may not have enough drive to work  Conditional Cash Transfer
hard. Program locally known as 4Ps, is
a government program that provides
A classless society is a utopian dream that is
conditional cash grants to the poorest
not achievable.
of the poor in the Philippine
Social Inequality
 Agrarian Reform in the Philippines
• It is the difference in the distribution seeks to solve the centuries-old
of social desirables such as wealth, problem of landlessness in rural areas.
power, and prestige. the government addressed key national
goals: the promotion of equity and
• It also refers to the unequal social justice, food security and
opportunities of individuals based poverty alleviation in the countryside.
on their social class or status.
 SK Reform Act of 2015 has the
• Key to the concept is the notion of provisions that prohibits political
social differentiation. dynasty. It prohibits any person to
• When a social category like class, run in any Sangguniang Kabataan
occupation, gender, or race puts Office either elected or appointed if it
people in a position in which they can has a relative up to second degree in
claim a greater share of resources or the barangay level to governorship.
services, then it becomes a basis of  The Universal Access to Quality
inequalities. Tertiary Education Act is a law that
institutionalizes free tuition and
exemption from other fees in state
universities and colleges (SUCs), local
 universities and colleges (LUCs) in House Bill No. 4982 An Act Prohibiting
the Philippines. The law also foresees Discrimination on the Basis of SOGIE
subsidies also for private higher
Denial of their right to:
education institutions.
 Access public services
GENDER INEQUALITY - Observed when
one gender is not treated equally as those of  Use establishments and services (housing)
other genders.
 Apply for a professional license
SEXISM - Gender-based and sex-based bias
and discrimination.  Differential treatment of an employee

 Gender-based division of  Admission or expulsion from an

labor educational institution

 Lack of access to education  Refusal or revocation of accreditation to

any organization due to an individual’s
 Paid less than men in work SOGIE
 Underrepresented in political ETHNIC MINORITIES
activities
 Racial or ethnic inequality is an
LGBT outcome of hierarchical social
distinctions between racial and ethnic
 LGBT community has always been
groupings within a society. It is
treated indifferently and
normally established based on
discriminatively because they do not
person’s characteristics such as skin
fall within a biologically defined
color, other physical features, cultural
gender group.
background, or place of origin.
 Transgender and gender-variant
 In many societies, race has become a
persons have been defined as socially
socially constructed category capable
unproductive and disruptive.
of restricting or enabling social status.
Magna Carta for Women - Is a
LUMAD - a Bisayan term for native or
comprehensive woman rights law that seeks to
indigenous. Among the 17 million indigenous
eliminate discrimination through the
people in the Philippines, Lumad are
recognition, protection, fulfillment and
considered as among the poorest of minority
promotion of the rights of Filipino women
groups, little access to social services such as
especially those who belong in the
education and health care and they have been
marginalized sectors of the society.
caught in the middle of a five-decade old
 Increase the number of women in insurgency, logging Mindanao’s rich
government position resources including gold, copper, and nickel.
 Non-discrimination in employment RACISM - A phenomenon whereby access to
resources and rights is discriminatorily
 Provision for equal access and
distributed across racial lines.
elimination of discrimination in
education, scholarships, and training. White privilege - a concept developed by
social scientist Peggy McIntosh to denote the
 Non-discriminatory and non-
numerous ways in which white people benefit
derogatory portrayal of women in
from racial inequality. Under this
media and film
phenomenon, the Black, the Asians, and the
indigenous subsequently comprise the ethnic
minorities.
OTHER MINORITIES stuck in poverty while others began to
substantially lessen it.
A sociological minority is not necessarily a
statistical minority – it may include any group  The world’s wealthiest countries have
that is less privilege or subnormal in relation to just 13% of the world’s population but
a dominant group in terms of wealth, power, 45% of its purchasing power; the
social status, education, or employment. poorest nations have 42% of the
world’s population and 9% of its
People With Disabilities
purchasing power. (Growing Gap,
Persons with physical, sensory, or mental 2015).
impairments that can make performing an
DEPENDENCY THEORY
everyday task more difficult. Include people
with autism, the Deaf community, the <Assert that industrialized countries exploit
handicapped, and those with chronic poor countries through economic and political
disabilities. neocolonialism which perpetuate the latter’s
pre-industrial or semi-industrial status.
 RA 9422 Act Amending RA 7277
Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, TOP IMPORTS
and For Other Purposes’ Granting
 Electronic products, mineral fuels,
Additional Privileges and Incentives
transport equipment, industrial
and Prohibition on Verbal, Non-verbal
machinery and equipment, telco
Ridicule and Vilification Against
equipment
Persons with Disability
TOP EXPORT
 Anti-Bullying Law directed all
elementary and secondary schools to  Semiconductors, woodcrafts and
adopt policies to address the existence furniture, mineral products, wiring sets
of bullying in their respective used in vehicles, articles of apparel,
institutions metal components, coconut oil
AGEISM - Age discrimination is the unjust <Developed nations investments in developing
treatment of persons as regards allocation of countries earns profits which the former
resources or privileges or in terms of typically repatriate
recruitment, pay and promotions because of
their age. <Developed countries control multilateral
financial institutions
 Adultism – discrimination against
children and persons under the legal <Technology transfers on a massive scale
adult age. The opposite is the seldom happens
discrimination against the elderly and <The bulk price of the developing countries
the retired, especially those already main exports is lower than the bulk price of
disadvantaged by income inequality. their typical imports from developed countries.
GLOBAL INEQUALITY <The migration of workers and professionals
 Inequality between or among countries from developing countries to developed
which is largely determined by countries depletes the former’s human
economic differences. resources

 Though economic inequality refers to <The education system of developing

inequality among persons and groups countries is aligned with the needs of
within a society, it can also refer to developed/capital-rich countries
inequality among countries. Ideally, there must be equality under
 Historically, the economies of the international laws and that all states, no
world have developed unevenly that matter how rich and powerful, must be bound
some countries or regions were left by international laws and its obligations.
CHAPTER VII:  Contacts used to be direct or face-to-
face such as exchange of visits, arrival
RESPONDING TO CULTURAL, of conquerors.
SOCIAL,AND POLITICAL
3. Acculturation and Assimilation
CHANGE
Acculturation –A procedure whereby a
Social Change - Refers to modification of minority population maintains its unique
mechanisms, means, methods, or systems culture while absorbing and adapting to certain
within the social structure, characterized by elements of the majority culture.
alterations in social relationships, social order,
social symbols, social organization, value Assimilation - Becoming part of something
systems or rules of behavior. bigger or integration into larger group. It
implies a fading or loss of one’s own culture
Cultural Change - Modifications in the as an individual or a minority group gives
cultural elements of a society. (alterations to a more value to the culture of the majority.
society's cultural components.)
4. Social Contradictions and Tensions
Political Change- Modifications to society's
governmental structure and procedures, INTER-ETHNIC CONFLICTS - An armed
including those pertaining to the legislative, conflict between ethnic groups. It contrasts
executive, administrative, judicial, and itself with civil war using weapon on one hand
constitutional branches. and regular warfare on the other.

SOURCES OF SOCIAL, CULTURAL,  Sometimes referred to as race war

AND POLITICAL CHANGE
Methods of conflict resolution:
1. Innovation - The act or process of
 Boundary alteration
inventing or introducing something new and a
new invention or way of doing something.  Population transfer
 TECHNOLOGY is the knowledge  Acculturation
and tools people use to manipulate,
operate, and develop their  Accommodation
environment(design, manage, alter)  Assimilation
for functional goals.
Class Struggle- The fight or battle for power
 INVENTION is using existing between social classes.
(something new)knowledge to
produce something that has not <The relationship between these two social
previously existed. It generates classes is based on inequality. The capitalists
materials, objects, ideas, and even own the means of production while the
social patterns such as of behavior. proletariats provide the labor force.

 DISCOVERY uncovering new uses Armed Conflict

for existing elements. Usually occurs  The armed conflict between two or
when people focus on existing more governments or states is called
components of the world. war.
2. Diffusion - Simply the spread of cultural  War can bring the greatest amount of
features. It is the dissemination of tools, change in the least amount of time.
objects, practices, ideas, beliefs, or other
features from one culture to another. Terrorism

 For diffusion to take place, it is  Politically-oriented violence or threat

necessary to have contact between two of violence. usage of power for the
cultures. purpose of forcing others to submit, or
agree to terrorist demands.
PROTEST - A demonstration of dissent or
disapproval especially in a formal way. (a
show of disagreement or disapproval,
particularly when done formally.)
 Boycott is the refusal of a group to
deal or associate with another group,
an individual, an organization, or a
nation.
 Civil Disobedience is the refusal to
obey civil laws or decrees which
normally takes the form of passive
resistance.
 Rebellion is an armed hostility, (A
population under the authority of an
established government may rebel
against it using armed force.
 Revolution is a rebellion that is
successful in overthrowing a
government. It refers to forcible,
pervasive, and often violent change of
a social or political order by a large
segment of a country’s population.
 Coup d’etat is sudden seizure of state
power by a small faction or element of
the government.
GENDER ISSUES
LGBT Community
 Legalization of same sex
marriage
 The right of gay couples to
adopt children
 Right to participate in the
election especially as a party
list
Feminist Movement
 Right to fair wages
 To hold public office
 Have equal rights within
marriage
 Access to reproductive health
 Maternity leave