Understanding Social Identity and Stratification
The Social Dimension
Personal identity allows us to recognize ourselves as individuals, while social identity allows us to share certain values with other persons. The protagonist of social identity are the characteristics we ascribe to groups. Several characteristics define a group:
- Interaction: Mutual members have regular relations within their internal structure.
- Awareness: Awareness of the group leads them to differentiate themselves from others.
- Shared Goals and Values: Existence of goals, values, and shared activities.
- Stability: Stability and relative duration, whether short or long.
- Social Identification: Recognition by others.
Among the quasi-groups, we can distinguish:
- Social Categories: A set of individuals with one or more common characteristics.
- Clusters or Aggregates: A set of people physically close, but without mutual communication or interaction.
Social groups have various classifications. Charles Cooley highlights:
- Primary Groups: The most important in the socialization process, with a small number of members. The report fails to give a formalized organization; affectivity plays a role. They establish an atmosphere of spontaneity and freedom, often having a prolonged duration.
- Secondary Groups: Composed of a high number of people, formal organization prevails, with rational, direct, and indirect relationships among its components. Relationships tend to be impersonal and anonymous.
Along with social groups and quasi-groups, there are organizations. Their features are:
- Impersonal relations between members.
- Pursuit of certain goals or objectives.
- High complexity and great variety.
- Designed according to a previous plan.
- Large number of components.
- Significant presence in today’s society.
Social Stratification
To date, all societies throughout history have presented or have some form of inequality between their members. This inequality is called social stratification. The most important stratification systems so far have been:
- Slavery: The most extreme form of inequality, where individuals are the property of others.
- Caste System: Characteristic of India. Based on the purity of the upper castes, it is imposed by the religious idea of reincarnation and closure among them.
- Estate System: Made up of a number of layers with different obligations and rights, sometimes influenced by law and sometimes by religious beliefs.
- Social Class: Large-scale groups of people who share common economic resources. Not based on law.
Understanding Social Class
The concept of social class has been one of the most used in the field of Sociology. It is a social category, a group of people classified together because they have similar characteristics such as culture, customs, and hobbies. A distinction is made between:
- Objective Social Class: Measured by objective indicators such as income level and property.
- Subjective Social Class: Based on class consciousness, a certain vision about the type of social mobility to which one belongs.
Social Mobility
Social mobility is defined as the movements of individuals and groups across the various socio-economic positions of different types within a society. There are two types:
- Vertical Mobility
- Horizontal Mobility
And two ways to study it: intergenerational or intragenerational.