Prompts:
Chapter 9 – Social Stratification in the United States
Track the social stratification of your family tree. Compare the social standing between you, your parents, and your grandparents. What social traits were handed down by your forebears? Are there any exogamous marriages in your history? Does your family exhibit status consistencies or inconsistencies? What changes do you think will occur for the next generation of your family?
What class traits define your peer group? For example, what speech patterns or clothing trends do you and your friends share? What cultural elements, such as taste in music or hobbies, define your peer group? Lastly, how do you see this set of class traits as different from other classes either above or below yours?
First, define social stratification, and explain it using any two theoretical perspectives with examples for each perspective. Next, describe any one model of global stratification and critique it by discussing the merits and flaws of the model.
Chapter 10 – Global Inequality
1. Pretend you are a sociologist studying global inequality by observing a child labor force manufacturing clothes for Disney, Walmart, Children’s Place, H & M, or JC Penny in Bangladesh or sweatshops of Apple in China in pursuit of excessive profits. How would you find this information? What would you focus on and discuss why is the information important?
2. Discuss the terminology used by any two models that stratify world nations. What are the merits and flaws of the models of global stratification? Quote specific examples to support your discussion.
3. Why are gender inequalities a global concern? Discuss gender inequalities with supporting evidence and using important topics such as the global feminization of poverty.
4. Explain the concepts of subjective, absolute, and relative poverty. Does it make sense that poverty is in the eye of the beholder? When you see a homeless person, is your reaction different if he/she is seemingly content versus begging? Why?
