Although social stratification persists in the US, differentially influencing the well-being of ethnically defined groups, ethnicity concepts and their implications for health disparities remain ...under-examined. Ethnicity is a complex social construct that influences personal identity and group social relations. Ethnic identity, ethnic classification systems, the groupings that compose each system and the implications of assignment to one or another ethnic category are place-, time- and context-specific. In the US, racial stratification uniquely shapes expressions of and understandings about ethnicity. Ethnicity is typically invoked via the term, ‘race/ethnicity’; however, it is unclear whether this heralds a shift away from racialization or merely extends flawed racial taxonomies to populations whose cultural and phenotypic diversity challenge traditional racial classification. We propose that ethnicity be conceptualized as a two-dimensional, context-specific, social construct with an attributional dimension that describes group characteristics (e.g., culture, nativity) and a relational dimension that indexes a group’s location within a social hierarchy (e.g., minority vs. majority status). This new conceptualization extends prior definitions in ways that facilitate research on ethnicization, social stratification and health inequities. While federal ethnic and racial categories are useful for administrative purposes such as monitoring the inclusion of minorities in research, and traditional ethnicity concepts (e.g., culture) are useful for developing culturally appropriate interventions, our relational dimension of ethnicity is useful for studying the relationships between societal factors and health inequities. We offer this new conceptualization of ethnicity and outline next steps for employing socially meaningful measures of ethnicity in empirical research. As ethnicity is both increasingly complex and increasingly central to social life, improving its conceptualization and measurement is crucial for advancing research on ethnic health inequities.
This study examined the interactive effect of ethnicity and e-government use on trust in government and of ethnicity and trust in government on e-government use by means of social inequality ...approaches outlined in Internet sociology studies. The data for the study was obtained from the 2017 Israel Social Survey. It was found that Arabs from small localities with varying levels of trust in government are less likely to use e-government than Israeli Jews with the same levels of trust. Yet they are more likely than Israeli Jews to have some degree of trust in government. Arabs from large localities differ from Israeli Jews in terms of e-government use only when they have some degree of trust in government. However, they do not differ from Israeli Jews regarding the trust itself. The results provide support for the social stratification approach and a justification for treating disadvantaged minorities according to the size of their residential localities.
Occupational sorting, the process of individuals actively selecting into and being selected for different occupations, has significant implications for social stratification and inequality. The ...psychometric view of occupational differentials in ability emphasizes the importance of intelligence for occupational sorting, as it acts as a necessary condition to enter and remain in certain professions due to their high cognitive demand. The resulting cognitive stratification of the occupational hierarchy leads to strong associations between occupational mean IQ and sociological measures of occupational status and pay. Past research has been criticized for lack of representativeness and small sample sizes. In this study, we both confirm the psychometric view in a large representative sample and extend it to a set of nine non-cognitive traits. We show that the psychometric view holds (on a weaker level) for multiple non-cognitive traits, and using small-area estimation, we provide precise mean estimates and rankings of intelligence and non-cognitive traits for 360 occupations, including rare professions. Keywords: Social Stratification, Occupation, Non-Cognitive Traits.
•The importance of intelligence for occupational sorting was studied and compared to personality and non-cognitive traits.•Estimates of cognition and non-cognitive traits for 360 occupations were constructed using small area estimation.•The central role of intelligence for occupational stratification, was confirmed.•Similar, but weaker effect were found for non-cognitive traits.
This article advances the concept of racialized legal status (RLS) as an overlooked dimension of social stratification with implications for racial/ethnic health disparities. We define RLS as a ...social position based on an ostensibly race-neutral legal classification that disproportionately impacts racial/ethnic minorities. To illustrate the implications of RLS for health and health disparities in the United States, we spotlight existing research on two cases: criminal status and immigration status. We offer a conceptual framework that outlines how RLS shapes disparities through (1) primary effects on those who hold a legal status and (2) spillover effects on racial/ethnic in-group members, regardless of these individuals' own legal status. Primary effects of RLS operate by marking an individual for material and symbolic exclusion. Spillover effects result from the vicarious experiences of those with social proximity to marked individuals, as well as the discredited meanings that RLS constructs around racial/ethnic group members. We conclude by suggesting multiple avenues for future research that considers RLS as a mechanism of social inequality with fundamental effects on health.
•Racialized legal status (RLS) is a social position with fundamental health effects.•RLS stems from neutral laws exerting disparate impact on racial/ethnic minorities.•Reviews impact of two RLSs—criminal and immigration statuses—on health disparities.•Identifies individual- and group-level pathways through which RLS impacts health.•Suggests future research on how RLS shapes racial/ethnic health disparities.
Objective: Both social stratification (e.g., social rank) as well as economic resources (e.g., income) are thought to contribute to socioeconomic health disparities. It has been proposed that ...subjective socioeconomic status (an individual's perception of his or her hierarchical rank) provides increased predictive utility for physical health over and above more traditional, well-researched socioeconomic constructs such as education, occupation, and income. Method: PsycINFO and PubMed databases were systematically searched for studies examining the association of subjective socioeconomic status (SES) and physical health adjusting for at least 1 measure of objective SES. The final sample included 31 studies and 99 unique effects. Meta-analyses were performed to: (a) estimate the overlap among subjective and objective indicators of SES and (b) estimate the cumulative association of subjective SES with physical health adjusting for objective SES. Potential moderators such as race and type of health indicator assessed (global self-reports vs. more specific and biologically based indicators) were also examined. Results: Across samples, subjective SES shows moderate overlap with objective indicators of SES, but associations are much stronger in Whites than Blacks. Subjective SES evidenced a unique cumulative association with physical health in adults, above and beyond traditional objective indicators of SES (Z = .07, SE = .01, p < .05). This association was stronger for self-rated health than for biologically based and symptom-specific measures of health. Almost all available data were cross-sectional and do not allow for strong causal inference. Conclusions: Subjective SES may provide unique information relevant to understanding disparities in health, especially self-rated health.
Education correlates strongly with most important social and economic outcomes such as economic success, health, family stability, and social connections. Theories of stratification and selection ...created doubts about whether education actually caused good things to happen. Because schools and colleges select who continues and who does not, it was easy to imagine that education added little of substance. Evidence now tips the balance away from bias and selection and in favor of substance. Investments in education pay off for individuals in many ways. The size of the direct effect of education varies among individuals and demographic groups. Education affects individuals and groups who are less likely to pursue a college education more than traditional college students. A smaller literature on social returns to education indicates that communities, states, and nations also benefit from increased education of their populations; some estimates imply that the social returns exceed the private returns.
HIERARCHIES OF CATEGORICAL DISADVANTAGE MAROTO, MICHELLE; PETTINICCHIO, DAVID; PATTERSON, ANDREW C.
Gender & society,
02/2019, Letnik:
33, Številka:
1
Book Review, Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Intersectional feminist scholars emphasize how overlapping systems of oppression structure gender inequality, but in focusing on the gendered, classed, and racialized bases of stratification, many ...often overlook disability as an important social category in determining economic outcomes. This is a significant omission given that disability severely limits opportunities and contributes to cumulative disadvantage. We draw from feminist disability and intersectional theories to account for how disability intersects with gender, race, and education to produce economic insecurity. The findings from our analyses of 2015 American Community Survey data provide strong empirical support for hierarchies of disadvantage, where women and racial minority groups with disabilities and less education experience the highest poverty levels, report the lowest total income, and have a greater reliance on sources outside the labor market for economic security. By taking disability into account, our study demonstrates how these multiple characteristics lead to overlapping oppressions that become embedded and reproduced within the larger social structure.
People in diverse societies often discuss and debate strategies for achieving egalitarian goals, such as achieving equality in their societies. A tacit assumption in these discussions is that all ...parties must agree on what equality means in order to pursue and achieve it. In this paper, I use the United States as a context to examine whether that assumption is reasonable, given the effects of macro-level structure and culture on individual psychologies. Specifically, I discuss how patterns of social stratification seep into the mind and affect how different groups of people perceive and make meaning of the world around them, including their understanding of concepts like equality. Further, I discuss what those processes mean for differential motivation to pursue egalitarian goals among sub-groups of people within shared, yet segregated, societies. Finally, I end with some considerations about pathways to achieve equality even when people disagree about what that actually means.
The international literature shows that demand for redistribution is influenced by subjective factors like perceptions of inequality and individuals' perceived social status. However, few have ...assessed these subjective dynamics in the developing South, especially in Africa. This study aims to assess the subjective interlinkages between subjective social status, inequality perceptions and demand for redistribution in South Africa, the country with the highest level of inequality in the world. Using ISSP data and an ordered probit model, we show that subjective social status is a negative and significant determinant of demand for redistribution in South Africa. This means that South Africans who position themselves on the lower rungs of society demand higher redistribution and vice versa. Furthermore, perceptions of inequality are significant in driving demand for redistribution in South Africa, as this study finds that inequality tolerance negatively influences demand for redistribution and perceptions of actual inequality positively influence demand for redistribution. This means that South Africans who perceive higher levels of inequality tend to demand more redistribution, while South Africans who tolerate more inequality tend to demand less redistribution. Surprisingly, inequality tolerance is relatively high among the unemployed, Africans, and females. Many of these individuals are part of the most vulnerable in society and would actually benefit from more redistribution. Overall, the results show that, in South Africa, subjective factors like subjective social status and attitudes towards inequality significantly influence demand for redistribution.
Les nomenclatures professionnelles comptent parmi les principaux outils d’objectivation de la structure d’une société et sont parfois mobilisées pour appréhender les inégalités en son sein. L’enjeu ...de cet article est de proposer une série d’instruments visant à apprécier leur capacité à rendre compte de l’inégale distribution des ressources entre groupes sociaux. Pour cela, nous nous focalisons sur l’étude de trois nomenclatures : la PCS-2003 (Professions et Catégories Socioprofessionnelles) ainsi que la grille en classes d’emploi de l’INSEE, et la classification européenne ESeG. Après avoir rappelé leurs principes et objectifs, nous présentons les méthodes par lesquelles s’opère habituellement l’évaluation de la qualité des nomenclatures professionnelles et montrons qu’elles ne visent pas à saisir leur pouvoir d’objectivation de la stratification sociale. En nous basant sur les instruments traditionnels d’analyse des inégalités que sont les fractiles, nous proposons alors deux séries d’outils destinés à mesurer l’efficacité des classifications professionnelles à refléter la pente, la forme et l’étendue des inégalités qui traversent une population. Munis de ces outils et des données de l’enquête Emploi 2017, nous montrons qu’au niveau agrégé des nomenclatures étudiées, c’est la grille en 4 classes d’emploi qui parvient le mieux à restituer l’inégale distribution des revenus et des diplômes entre groupes de populations tandis qu’au niveau détaillé, c’est plutôt la PCS. Nous terminons en avançant quelques propositions de recomposition de certaines catégories de la PCS et de la grille en classes d’emploi afin d’améliorer leur efficacité stratificationniste au niveau détaillé.
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