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Socio-economic status includes. Concept and types of social statuses

The competitive market is a mechanism effective use limited resources, the distribution of which between economic entities is an exogenous (external) parameter for the market, initially specified according to various parameters (income level, savings, etc.).

In other words, in the market there is an initial inequality in the distribution of income, which in the process of its functioning can increase or smooth out.

The neoclassical concept of distributive market justice is most fully outlined in the works of the American neoclassicist D. B. Clark (“Philosophy of Wealth,” “Distribution of Wealth”), in which he argues that the distribution of social income is regulated by “natural law.” Representatives of each social group have income in accordance with the “principle of fairness”. The essence of this law is that in a competitive market, the price of a factor of production (labor, capital, organizational skills) corresponds to its marginal productivity, therefore, a market pricing system not deformed by government intervention ensures an exclusively competitive distribution of income, focused only on market fairness (efficiency).

This approach was challenged by neo-Keysian teachings, which emphasized the non-competitive nature of markets and the role of social factors(such as power, political decisions, inequality of abilities and opportunities) in the distribution of income.

Thus, if the category of market justice is based on the criterion of efficiency, then the category of social justice is based on ethical criteria and principles accepted in society. Socially fair distribution is usually understood as compliance of the system of distribution relations that has developed in society at a given historical stage with the interests, needs, ethical norms and rules of members of society. Each of the individuals prefers his position (welfare) to any other and does not seek to change it through the redistribution of income (redistribution is possible only with the mutual consent of individuals).

The majority opinion about social justice is transformed into value judgments of economists, legislative bodies, voters, on the basis of which it is possible to build various functions social well-being, reflecting the well-being of society as the well-being of its constituent individuals. The optimal distribution of resources will be one that will be recognized by society as not only effective, but also socially fair. The lower the degree of inequality in society, the higher the social welfare, which serves as one of the justifications for the need for state intervention in the redistribution of income and achieving a certain level of distributive justice.

Depending on the chosen model of state development (neoliberal or socio-market), the achieved level of economic development, the development of the democratic institution of civil society, ethical norms and rules accepted in society, the degree of social tension and other socio-economic factors, the state chooses a social optimum that does not is something frozen, given once and for all. It is constantly changing under the influence of the above factors.

This process of “groping” for the balance between fairness and efficiency is especially characteristic of unstable, unstable transitional economic systems, which in a short historical period of time very quickly go from egalitarian (equalizing) distribution to its extremely uneven forms.

In Russia this transition period was marked by a sharp stratification of the population by economic status.

Status (from Latin status - state, position) is a position, position in any hierarchy, structure, system. Socioeconomic status is the status of an individual, determined by a combination of various social and economic indicators: income, social origin, education, professional prestige.

Over the past 10-15 years in Russian society The level of education of the adult population, which was high for many years, has decreased slightly. According to the 1994 microcensus, only 24 out of 1,000 people aged 15 to 50 years did not have primary education, and 31.7% of people over 20 years old had higher or secondary education. special education. Most of them were engaged in intellectual, managerial work and had almost equal social status: the relative position of an individual or group, determined social characteristics (economic situation, profession, qualifications, education, etc.). In addition, almost the entire population, especially in cities, lives in the same apartment buildings, go to the same stores, use public transport and have not lost the sense of “equality” that they inherited from the Soviet period.

However, the determining factor of differentiation is increasingly the level of income and ownership of property. The level of economic status of an individual, social or demographic group of the population, determined by income and property, constitutes their economic status.

The economic status of an individual, a family or community, or a country as a whole varies. Considering changes in economic status separate groups population over time, we can talk about the dynamics of economic stratification, or economic stratification, of society. The term “stratification”, which came from the dictionary natural sciences, retained its double meaning. On the one hand, this is a process that continuously occurs in society. On the other hand, this is at the same time the result of a process of changing the economic status of various individuals, groups and strata.

The process of economic stratification of society is not over, it continues. An analysis of the sources of income and their ratio indicates that the share of income from property and entrepreneurial activity. They are mainly received by the richest stratum of the population and residents major cities. At the same time, as the share of income from property increases, the share of wages decreases, and these payments are received by the bulk of the population.

The reasons for the differences in the economic status of population groups were:

source of income and their level;

distribution of workers by economic sectors;

region of residence;

position held.

The main "hot spot" social development the fact of inequality in the distribution of wealth, property, rights and control over capital becomes a fact. As a consequence of this inequality, there is stratification of the population according to the level of material security with polarization of income.

Sorokin identifies two types of fluctuations (deviations from the norm, fluctuations) in the economic status of society.

The first type is fluctuation of economic status as a whole:

a) increased economic well-being;

b) decrease in economic well-being.

The second type is a fluctuation in the height and profile of economic stratification within society:

a) the rise of the economic pyramid;

b) flattening of the economic pyramid.

Let's consider the first type of fluctuation. An analysis of the well-being of various societies and groups within them shows that:

The welfare and income of different societies varies significantly from one country, one group to another. This applies not only to territories, but also to various families, groups, social strata;

The average level of well-being and income in the same society are not constant, they change over time.

There is hardly a family whose income and level of material well-being would remain unchanged for many years and over the life of several generations. Material “rises” and “falls” are sometimes sharp and significant, sometimes small and gradual.

Speaking about fluctuations in the economic status of the second type, it is necessary to pay attention to whether the height and profile of economic stratification from group to group and within one group are constant or variable over time; if they change, then how periodically and regularly; whether there is a constant direction of these changes and what it is, if there is one.

Scientists have long been interested in these questions, and they have proposed various hypotheses on this matter. Thus, the essence of the hypothesis of V. Pareto (1848 - 1923) was the assertion that the profile of economic stratification or the particular distribution of income in society is something constant. The hypothesis of K. Marx (1818 - 1883) consisted in the statement that in European countries a process of deepening economic differentiation is taking place.

Life has shown that although there is no strict tendency either to a decrease or to an increase in economic inequality, the hypothesis of fluctuations in the height and profile of economic stratification is valid, stratification increases to some degree of saturation, points excessive stress. For different societies, this point is different and depends on their size, environment, the nature of distribution relations, human material, the level of needs, national historical development, culture, etc. As soon as a society approaches its point of overstrain, social tension is created, which ends in revolution or timely reform.

In the early 90s. XX century in Russia there has been a radical ideological, socio-political reorientation in the understanding of justice and expediency in the movement towards social equality, from social homogeneity to the promotion of social differentiation with a focus on the values ​​of entrepreneurship.

There was deep economic stratification, massive impoverishment of the population, and destruction of social infrastructure. The real guarantees of social protection of the population have weakened due to the fact that the main, lowest link of social protection - the enterprise - has dropped out of the system. Social protection population in the absence of sufficient economic resources was concentrated in the hands of the state.

Thus, it can be stated that the reasons for the depth of economic stratification during the transition period lie in the destruction of the previously established ratio in wages and redistribution of property.

The stratification of society was facilitated by the privatization of housing, when 20% of people standing in line for municipal housing lost all hope of receiving it. Property inequality has arisen. In 1992, when state savings of the main part of the population were devalued, “dealers” left state control and began to earn exorbitant profits. Wealth was formed (and continues to form) against the background of the total impoverishment of the bulk of the population. Economic stratification was facilitated by the introduction of a single tax rate on individuals- 13%, whereas the previously progressive tax scale to some extent redistributed income towards low-paid workers.

Segments of the population who now need social support, in the future they will require special programs social rehabilitation, restoring them vitality, because about 10 years of living at the subsistence (physiological) minimum will not pass for the country without negative consequences.

The reason for economic stratification is income inequality. The main indicator of poverty is the average per capita income, if it is below the subsistence level and below the average income in the region. The significance of this indicator for social work is extremely important, because it is a criterion for determining standards in the system of targeted socio-economic support for the poor.

This system assumes:

conducting a systematic analysis of families and their distribution by average per capita income, taking into account the socio-economic potential of the family;

identifying those in need of targeted assistance not by population categories (pensioners, disabled people, children, etc.), but by the main criterion - average per capita income and its proportionality with the subsistence level budget in the region;

creating conditions in the regions to prevent poverty.

The concept of economic status is closely related to the concept of social mobility. Social mobility is the totality of social movements of people in society, i.e. changes in their status. There are two main types of mobility: vertical and horizontal.

Vertical social mobility is associated with the movement of an individual or group in the system social hierarchy, including a change in social status. Horizontal social mobility - with the movement of an individual or group in the social structure without changing social status. Changes in economic status tend to promote upward mobility for an individual or group.

Socio-economic status in social work seen as the most important criterion targeted approach to supporting the population and improving their well-being.

The government has developed a strategy for the socio-economic development of Russia for the period until 2010. Its goal is to consistently increase the standard of living of the population based on the self-determination of each citizen and reduce social inequality, however, the key factor hindering the qualitative renewal of the country and its economy remains the polarization of Russian society. The main layers and groups of the population differ in value orientations, lifestyles, styles and norms of behavior. Often the reason for this is income polarization and different levels of well-being. Wealthy social groups are opposed to the bulk of the population.

Poverty and need have become a reproducible, sustainable reality for millions of people who find themselves in extreme conditions: not only for the unemployed, refugees, citizens with many children, disabled people, incapacitated pensioners and others, but also for those who previously provided for themselves and their families - for the economically active population. Their lack of income and poverty was formed due to the fact that the cost of labor has fallen so much that for the majority of working people, the payment for their labor no longer covers even the minimum means of maintaining a family.

The definition of those who belong to the category of poor is ambiguous and depends on the chosen method of assessing poverty, of which there are several in world practice:

statistical, when 10 - 20% groups of the population with the lowest total per capita income, or part of these groups, are considered as poor;

normative (according to nutrition standards and other standards of the minimum consumer set), otherwise - the minimum consumer basket;

the deprivation method, which calculates the underconsumption of essential goods and products;

stratification, when the poor include people who are objectively limited in their ability to self-sufficiency: the elderly, disabled people, children without parents, or social orphans;

heuristic, or subjective, focusing on assessments of public opinion or assessments of the respondents themselves regarding the sufficiency or insufficiency of their standard of living;

economic, defining the category of the poor by the resource capabilities of the state aimed at maintaining their material security.

Most often, when calculating the poverty level, a more convenient and tangible indicator of the absolute poverty line is taken as a basis, which, for more accurate estimates, is included in more complex and detailed poverty indices that take into account the degree of inequality in society, the distribution of income among the poor, their share in the total population, the income gap of the poor (the amount of income that needs to be filled by the poor to bring them above the absolute poverty line). The most famous and widespread poverty index is the A. Sen index:

Sen = DE G + DP(1 - G),

where Sen is the poverty index; DE is the share of the poor as the ratio of the number of people below the poverty line to the total population; DP - expenditure deficit as the sum of expenditure deficits (% of GDP - gross domestic product), which must be provided to the poor in order for them to reach the poverty line; G - Gini index as a measure of the degree of inequality in society.

The poverty level combines several indicators and is to some extent subjective, depending on how the state defines the poverty line.

Depending on policy decisions, the poverty line can be moved up or down arbitrarily, thereby changing the idea of ​​the number of poor people.

The subsistence minimum, calculated on the basis of the cost of the minimum, physiological consumer basket, on the basis of which the absolute poverty line is established, makes it possible to underestimate the number of poor people and, accordingly, reduce government spending to combat poverty. This definition of the poverty line was carried out in Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of March 2, 1992 No. 210 “On the system of minimum consumer budgets of the population of the Russian Federation.” For the period of overcoming the crisis state of the economy, the Government of the Russian Federation was instructed to determine the level (budget) of the subsistence (physiological) minimum, differentiated by the main social groups and characterizing the minimum acceptable limits of consumption of the most important material goods and services.

The peculiarity of the present time is that the majority of the poor in Russia are families with children, usually with working parents (many work in more than one place, but at the same time, many of them do not receive the money they earn on time).

Poverty is not homogeneous. There are its most severe conditions. There are groups balancing on the upper limit of poverty, from which the minimum material security budget (MSB) begins. The latter, according to the accepted methodology, is approximately twice the subsistence level and indicates not extreme, physiological, but social poverty, within which more than 60% of Russians now live. According to materials from a sample survey of household budgets and the macroeconomic indicator of per capita cash income, as of January 1, 2010, the population with cash incomes below the subsistence level amounted to 18.5 million people.

The social contract consolidates society, business and the state on the basis of the principle of “welfare for the majority.” In relation to society, the state takes on real responsibility for creating conditions for improving living standards, providing the necessary social guarantees, rights, freedoms and security of citizens, receiving in return legitimacy and public support. The success of achieving the goal is to ensure prosperity for the majority of the population and the formation of a massive middle class.

The measures taken include balancing low wages and low consumer prices, especially for food, goods for children, medicines, and the availability of sociocultural and other services. Therefore, the “Strategy for the Socio-Economic Development of Russia for the Period until 2010”, adopted in 2001, proposes that one of the conditions is “bringing the state’s social obligations in line with its material capabilities.” Extremely stringent requirements are set for economic growth in the next decade of no less than 5 - 6% on average per year. This will make it possible to bring the population below the poverty line to a decent standard of living and increase the socio-economic potential of the family as the main economic unit of society. A strategy is currently being developed socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2020. QUESTIONS AND TASKS 1.

What is “material well-being” and how is it characterized? 2.

Name the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the well-being of the population and disclose them. 3.

Reveal the essence of socio-economic consequences and indicators of differentiation of income of the population. 4.

Describe the socioeconomic status of social work clients. 5.

What determines the growing importance of the economic function of the family in a market economy? 6.

Why is real income a general indicator of living standards? 7.

Reveal the essence and significance of the socio-economic potential of the family. 8.

Indicate the factors influencing the dynamics of the material condition of the population. 9.

What is socio-economic status and why is it a criterion for a targeted approach in social work?

Social status - the position of an individual or social group in social system.

Status rank- the position of the individual in the social hierarchy of statuses, on the basis of which the status worldview is formed.

Status set- a set of several status positions that an individual simultaneously occupies.

Ideas about social status

The concept of “social status” was first used in science by an English philosopher and lawyer of the 19th century. G. Main. In sociology, the concept of status (from the Latin status - position, condition) is used in different meanings. The dominant idea is of social status as the position of an individual or a social group in a social system, which is characterized by certain distinctive features (rights, responsibilities, functions). Sometimes social status denotes a set of such distinctive features. In ordinary speech, the concept of status is used as a synonym for prestige.

In modern scientific and educational literature defined as: o the position of an individual in the social system, associated with certain rights, responsibilities and role expectations;

  • subject's position in the system interpersonal relationships,
  • defining his rights, duties and privileges;
  • the position of the individual in the system of interpersonal relations, due to his psychological influence on group members;
  • the relative position of the individual in society, determined by his functions, responsibilities and rights;
  • the position of a person in the structure of a group or society, associated with certain rights and responsibilities;
  • an indicator of the position occupied by an individual in society;
  • the relative position of an individual or social group in a social system, determined by a number of characteristics characteristic of a given system;
  • the position occupied by an individual or a social group in society or a separate subsystem of society, determined by characteristics specific to a particular society - economic, national, age, etc.;
  • the place of an individual or group in the social system in accordance with their characteristics - natural, professional, ethnic, etc.;
  • a structural element of the social organization of society, which appears to the individual as a position in the system of social relations;
  • the relative position of an individual or group, determined by social (economic status, profession, qualifications, education, etc.) and natural characteristics (gender, age, etc.);
  • a set of rights and responsibilities of an individual or social group associated with their performance of a certain social role;
  • prestige characterizing the positions of an individual or social groups in a hierarchical system.

Each person in society performs certain social functions: students study, workers produce material goods, managers manage, journalists report on events taking place in the country and the world. To perform social functions The individual is assigned certain responsibilities in accordance with his social status. The higher a person’s status, the more responsibilities he has, the more stringent the requirements of society or a social group for his status responsibilities, the more negative consequences from their violation.

Status set is a set of status positions that each individual occupies simultaneously. In this set, the following statuses are usually distinguished: ascriptive (assigned), achieved, mixed, main.

The social status of an individual was relatively stable due to the class or caste structure of society and was secured by the institutions of religion or law. In modern societies, individuals' status positions are more fluid. However, in any society there are ascriptive (assigned) and achieved social statuses.

Assigned status- this is a social status received “automatically” by its bearer due to factors beyond his control - by law, birth, gender or age, race and nationality, consanguinity system, socio-economic status of parents, etc. For example, you cannot get married, participate in elections, or obtain a driver's license before reaching the required age. Ascribed statuses are of interest to sociology only if they are the basis for social inequality, i.e. influence social differentiation and social structure of society.

Achieved status - it is a social status acquired by its bearer through his own efforts and merits. Level of education professional achievements, career, title, position, socially successful marriage - all this affects the social status of the individual in society.

There is a direct connection between ascribed and achieved social statuses. Achieved statuses are acquired mainly through competition, but some achieved statuses are largely determined by ascriptive ones. Thus, the opportunity to obtain a prestigious education, which in modern society is a necessary prerequisite for high social status, is directly related to the advantages of family origin. On the contrary, the presence of a high achieved status largely compensates for the low ascriptive status of an individual due to the fact that no society can ignore the real social successes and achievements of individuals.

Mixed social statuses have signs of being ascribed and achieved, but achieved not at the request of a person, but due to a combination of circumstances, for example, as a result of job loss, natural disasters or political upheavals.

Main social status The individual is determined primarily by his position in society and his way of life.

manner of behavior. When it comes to stranger, we first ask: “What does this person do? How does he make a living? The answer to this question says a lot about a person, therefore in modern society the main status of an individual is, as a rule, professional or official.

Personal status manifests itself at the level of a small group, for example, a family, a work team, or a circle of close friends. In a small group, the individual functions directly and his status is determined by personal qualities and character traits.

Group status characterizes an individual as a member of a large social group as, for example, a representative of a nation, religion or profession.

Concept and types of social status

The substantive difference between them boils down to the fact that they perform a role, but have a status. In other words, a role presupposes the possibility of a qualitative assessment of how well an individual meets role requirements. Social status - This is the position of a person in the structure of a group or society, which determines certain rights and obligations. Speaking about status, we abstract from any qualitative assessment of the person who occupies it and his behavior. We can say that status is a formal-structural social characteristic subject.

Like roles, there can be many statuses and, in general, any status presupposes a corresponding role and vice versa.

Main status - the key of the entire set of social statuses of an individual, primarily determining his social position and significance in society. For example, the main status of a child is age; in traditional societies, the main status of a woman is gender; in modern society, as a rule, the main status becomes professional or official. In any case, the main status appears as decisive factor image and standard of living, dictates behavior.

Social status can be:

  • prescribed- received from birth or due to factors independent of its bearer - gender or age, race, socio-economic status of parents. For example, according to the law, you cannot obtain a driver's license, get married, participate in elections or receive a pension before reaching the required age;
  • achievable- acquired in society thanks to the efforts and merits of the individual. A person’s status in society is affected by the level of education, professional achievements, career, and a socially successful marriage. No society can ignore the real successes of an individual, therefore the existence of an achieved status carries the opportunity to significantly compensate for the low ascribed status of the individual;
  • private- manifests itself at the level of a small group in which the individual functions directly (family, labor collective, circle of close friends), it is determined by his personal qualities and character traits;
  • group- characterizes an individual as a member of a large social group - a representative of a class, nation, profession, a bearer of certain sexual and age signs etc.

Based on sociological surveys, it has been established that the majority of Russians are currently more satisfied with their position in society than dissatisfied. This is a very significant positive trend recent years, since satisfaction with one’s position in society is not only an essential prerequisite for social stability, but also a very important condition for people to feel comfortable in their socio-psychological state as a whole. Among those who rate their place in society as “good,” almost 85% believe that their lives are going well. This figure depends little on age: even in the group over 55 years old, about 70% share this opinion. Among those who are dissatisfied with their social status, the picture turned out to be the opposite - almost half of them (with 6.8% of the population as a whole) believe that their life is going badly.

Status hierarchy

The French sociologist R. Boudon considers social status as having two dimensions:

  • horizontal, which the system forms social contacts and mutual exchanges, both real and simply possible, that develop between the bearer of status and other individuals located at the same level of the social ladder;
  • vertical, which is formed by contacts and exchanges that arise between the bearer of status and individuals located at higher and lower levels.

Based on this idea, Boudon defines social status as a set of equal and hierarchical relationships maintained by an individual with other members of society.

Status hierarchy is characteristic of any organization. Indeed, without responsibility, organization is impossible; It is precisely due to the fact that all members of the group know the status of each that the links of the organization interact. However, the formal structure of an organization does not always coincide with its informal structure. Such a gap between hierarchies in many organizations does not require sociometric research, but is visible to a simple observer, since the establishment of a status hierarchy is the answer not only to the question “Who is the most important here?”, but also to the question “Who is the most authoritative, the most competent, the most popular among employees? Real status is largely determined by personal qualities, qualifications, charm, etc.

Many modern sociologists pay attention to the functional dissonance that arises due to the discrepancy between hierarchical and functional statuses. Such a discrepancy may arise due to individual compromises, when management orders acquire the character of a “stream of consciousness,” providing subordinates with a “zone of free action.” The result can be generally positive and manifest itself in increased flexibility of the organization's response, or negative, expressed in functional chaos and confusion.

Status confusion acts as a criterion for social disorganization and, possibly, as one of the reasons for deviant behavior. The connection between violations of the status hierarchy and the state of anomie was considered by E. Durkheim and suggested that discord in the status hierarchy in industrial society takes two forms.

Firstly, the expectations of the individual in connection with his position in society and the counter expectations of other members of society directed towards the individual become largely uncertain. If in a traditional society everyone knew what to expect and what awaited them, and in accordance with this was well aware of their rights and responsibilities, then in an industrial society, due to the growing division of labor and the instability of labor relations, the individual is increasingly faced with situations that he did not foresee and for which I am not prepared. For example, if in the Middle Ages studying at a university automatically meant a sharp and irreversible increase in social status, now no one is surprised by the abundance of unemployed university graduates willing to take any job.

Secondly, status instability affects the structure of social rewards and the level of individual satisfaction with one’s life.

To understand what determines the status hierarchy in traditional - pre-industrial - societies, you should turn to modern societies East (except caste). Here you can find three important element, influencing the social status of the individual - gender, age and belonging to a certain “class”, which assign to each member of society his rigid status. At the same time, the transition to another level of the status hierarchy is extremely difficult due to a number of legal and symbolic restrictions. But even in traditionalist-oriented societies, the spirit of entrepreneurship and enrichment, the personal favor of the ruler influence the distribution of statuses, although the legitimation of status occurs through reference to the traditions of ancestors, which in itself reflects the weight of the ascribing elements of status (the antiquity of the clan, the personal valor of the ancestors, etc. ).

In modern Western society, the status hierarchy can be viewed from the standpoint of either meritocratic ideology as fair and inevitable recognition of personal merit, talents and abilities, or holistic sociologism as a result strictly determined by social processes. But both theories offer a very simplified understanding of the nature of status, and there remain aspects that cannot be explained in the context of either of them. For example, if status is entirely determined by personal qualities and merits, then how can we explain the presence of formal and informal status hierarchies in almost any organization?

Within an organization, such duality refers to the discrepancy between competence and power, observed in various forms and on various levels, when decisions are made not by competent and impartial experts, but by “capitalists” who are guided by the logic of personal gain, or “soulless technocrats.” Also inexplicable is the discrepancy professional qualifications and material and status rewards. Inconsistencies in this area are often denied or suppressed in the name of the meritocratic ideal of “merit status.” For example, in modern Russian society, the situation of low material remuneration and, as a consequence, low prestige and status of highly educated and highly intelligent people has become typical: “The profession of physicist in the USSR in the 1960s. enjoyed high prestige, while accountants enjoyed low prestige. IN modern Russia they switched places. In this case, prestige is strongly associated with the economic status of these types of occupations.”

Because systems are more complex and subject to faster evolution, the mechanism for assigning status remains uncertain. Firstly, the list of criteria involved in determining status is very extensive. Secondly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to reduce the totality of various status attributes belonging to each individual to a single symbol, as in traditional societies, where it was enough to say “this is the son of such and such” for the person’s social status, his material level, circle of acquaintances and friends. In traditional societies, personality and status were very closely linked. These days, personality and status tend to diverge. Personal identity is no longer given: she herself builds it with her own efforts throughout her life. Therefore, our perception of ourselves as individuals is split into many aspects in which our social status is manifested. Personal identity is felt not so much through a connection with a fixed status, but through a sense of self-worth and uniqueness.

Socio-economic differences - These are the ones psychological characteristics of a person, which are determined by his socio-economic status.

Socio-economic status is certain integrative criteria that divide society into strata.

Main components of socio-economic status:

  • 1. level of education
  • 2. occupation (availability and complexity of work)
  • 3. income level (area of ​​residence, quality household, income)

In the USA there are 5 main social-economic levels:

  • 1. bottom, or disadvantaged, class 18% of the total population
  • 2. lower middle (blue collar), working class, 48%
  • 3. middle level (white collar), office workers, 21%
  • 4. above average - businessmen and independent professionals, 10%
  • 5. high level - owners of large properties, companies 3%.

The relationship between socioeconomic status and intelligence level.

In 1989, Fr. Scientists Capron and Dime studied a group of 38 children adopted in infancy. At the same time, half of the children were born into more educated high-status families, and the other half into families with lower socio-economic status. Moreover, half of the adoptive parents had a high status, and half had a low status.

Within the framework of sociological knowledge, the study of the position of the individual in society, that is, the social position of the individual, which is defined by the concept of “social status of the individual,” is of great importance.

Social status (from the Latin status - position, condition) of an individual is the position of a person in society, which he occupies in accordance with his age, gender, origin, profession, marital status.

In sociology, the following types of social statuses of an individual are distinguished. Statuses determined by the position of an individual in a group:

  • - social status - the position of a person in society, which he occupies as a representative of a large social group in relations with other groups;
  • - personal status - the position of an individual in a small group, depending on how its members evaluate him in accordance with his personal qualities.

Statuses determined by time frames and influence on the life of the individual as a whole:

  • -- basic status determines the main thing in a person’s life;
  • -- minor status affects the details of a person's behavior.

Statuses acquired or not acquired as a result of free choice:

Prescribed status is a social position that is pre-prescribed to an individual by society, regardless of the individual’s merits;

  • - mixed status has the features of prescribed and achieved statuses;
  • -- the achieved status is acquired as a result of free choice, personal efforts and is under the control of a person.

Any person occupies several positions, as he participates in many groups and organizations, and accordingly he is characterized by a status set.

When characterizing any social status, the following components are distinguished. Components of social status:

1) Status rights and obligations - determine what the bearer of a given status can do and what he must do.

2) Status range - the established framework within which the status rights and responsibilities of an individual are exercised.

  • 3) Status symbols - external insignia that make it possible to distinguish between bearers of different statuses (military personnel wear a uniform, each estate and class has its own style of clothing and its own attributes).
  • 4) Status image (image) - a set of ideas about how an individual should look and behave in accordance with his status.
  • 5) Status identification - determining the degree of compliance of an individual with his status.

An individual not only has a certain social status, he is constantly evaluated by other people, groups and the society in which he lives. This is expressed in the concepts of “prestige” and “authority”.

Prestige is society's assessment of the importance of certain positions occupied by individuals.

Authority is the degree of recognition by society of personal and business qualities individuals. The prestige of a particular status is formed under the influence of two factors: the real usefulness of the social functions that a person performs and the value system characteristic of a given society.

Some traits that influence a person’s social status are objective in nature, that is, they do not depend on his desires (nationality, gender, origin, etc.). But the main thing that determines the social status, social position, authority and prestige of an individual is education, qualifications and other personal and socially significant qualities. The significance of social statuses is expressed in the fact that they determine the content and nature of social relations; act as structural elements of the social organization of society, ensuring social connections between subjects public relations. Society not only forms social statuses, but also creates mechanisms for their reproduction, regulating the distribution of individuals into certain social positions. The relationship between different statuses in the social structure is an essential characteristic of society, its social and political organization

Analysis of various concepts of stratification shows that the number of fundamental characteristics of a social group (stratum) varies among different authors. However, almost all of them share the opinion that these characteristics must include such parameters as income, power, education and prestige.

Russian sociologist A.I. Kravchenko proposes to place income, power, education and prestige on the coordinate axis vertically and next to each other on the basis that the main property of stratification, in his opinion, is the inequality of distances between statuses.

Income as economic status is the amount of cash receipts of an individual or family for a certain period of time (month, year). Income is the amount of money received in the form of salaries, pensions, benefits, fees, etc. As a rule, income is spent on maintaining life, but if it is very high, it accumulates and turns into wealth.

Wealth – this is accumulated income, i.e. amount of cash or materialized money. Materialized money exists in the form of movable (car, yacht, securities, etc.) and immovable (house, works of art, etc.) property. Wealth is usually inherited. Its difference from income is that both working and non-working people can receive an inheritance, but only working people can receive income. Pensioners and the unemployed also have income, but the poor do not. The rich may or may not work, since they are owners and have wealth. The main asset of the upper class lies not in income, since the share of wages is small, but in accumulated property. For the middle and lower classes, the main source of existence is income, since the first may have wealth, but it is insignificant, and the second has no wealth at all.

Wealth and income are distributed unevenly and mean economic inequality. Sociologists interpret economic inequality as an indicator of unequal opportunities among different groups in the population. Someone who has more money eats better, lives in a more comfortable home, prefers a personal car to public transport, can afford expensive vacations, etc. In addition to obvious economic advantages, the rich have hidden privileges. They live longer, and the poor live shorter, even if they have all the benefits of medicine, their children are less educated, even if they go to the same public schools as children from wealthy families, etc.

Power – this is the ability to impose your will or decisions on other people regardless of their desire; it is measured by the number of people who are affected by the decision you make. Decisions of the President of the Republic of Belarus apply to 9.8 million people, and decisions of an individual entrepreneur - to no more than three employees.

In a complex society, power is protected by laws and tradition, surrounded by privileges and wide access to social benefits, and allows decisions that are vital for society to be made, including laws that are beneficial, as a rule, to the upper class. People with power (political, economic or religious) constitute the elite of society, which determines the domestic and foreign policy of the state, directing it in a direction beneficial to themselves, which other classes are deprived of.

Education measured by the number of years of education in a public or private school, university, etc. If, for example, a professor has more than 20 years of formal education behind him (full high school– 11 years, university – 5 years, graduate school – 3 years, doctoral studies – 3 years), then a low-skilled worker can have no more than eleven. The weak point of the “education” criterion is that, while indicating the number of years in educational institutions, this criterion does not take into account the quality of people’s education. For example, in Germany there are different types of universities: classical and new, applied in nature, providing vocational education, i.e. former Hochschule. It can be assumed that the quality of education of a university graduate. Goethe, a leading educational institution in Germany, is superior to the quality of education of a graduate of a peripheral applied university. The difference is manifested in the nature of the education received, whether it is theoretical or applied in nature.

If the first three scales of stratification - income, power and education - have completely objective units of measurement: dollars, people, years, then prestige is a subjective indicator.

Prestige - this is the respect that a particular profession, position, or occupation enjoys in public opinion.

There is no doubt that the profession of a banker is more prestigious than that of a plumber or janitor, and the position of president of a commercial company is more prestigious than that of a salesperson. All professions, occupations and positions existing in society are ranked from top to bottom in accordance with their rating. Although professional prestige is often determined intuitively, approximately, in some countries, particularly in the United States, sociologists measure it using special methods. Since 1947, the US National Opinion Research Center has been surveying ordinary Americans to determine the social prestige of various professions. Professions are assessed on a five-point scale: excellent, good, average, slightly worse than average, and the worst. By calculating the average for each profession, sociologists obtained a public assessment of the prestige of each type of work in points. Arranging them in hierarchical order from the most respected to the least prestigious, they received a rating, or scale of professional prestige. In table 1 shows an abbreviated version of this scale.

The place and role, structure and functions, size and stability, rights and responsibilities, position in society or the socio-economic status of the family changed. However, it is in the family that the basic needs of the individual and his interests are formed.  

Some researchers prefer to use an indicator of family socioeconomic status, which usually contains variables such as the educational level of one or both parents and professional status (most often, the father).  

The socio-economic status of the family as a criterion for the development of society. Household concept. Family to household ratio. Types of households by territorial-regional, demographic, income, property and other characteristics. Economic roles of the family in a market economy: housekeeping, family business, formation of human capital, ensuring the necessary level of consumer demand, strengthening the investment capabilities of the family.  

Poverty in the republic manifests itself depending on the composition, gender, age, socio-economic status of family members, and place of residence. Poverty rates, based on total resources (monetary and in-kind), are lower in rural than in urban areas (30% and 39%, respectively). Women are more vulnerable to poverty than men.  

The proposed article is structured as follows. We begin with a brief review of work on the division of labor between spouses. Next, we present a systematization of theoretical approaches to this problem, economic and sociological. And then we turn to the analysis of quantitative empirical data. We will consider the principles of distribution of workload between spouses in a modern urban family and identify the key factors that determine differences in the distribution of this load. Among such factors, we consider the socio-demographic type of families, their financial situation, as well as the age, education and professional status of the spouses. This will allow us to judge how strong the elements of labor discrimination against women are in family relationships.  

Finally, the technostructure was never homogeneous, as some researchers believed. Its leadership represented “power in itself.” The upper layers of managers used the company's technostructure and economic growth to primarily satisfy their own ambitions to strengthen power and social status. These goals practically coincided with what the owners of the family capital wanted to achieve by increasing profits. The managerial aristocracy formed a layer in Europe and Japan that was much more closed to the outside world compared to the American one, and the influence of wealthy families continued after the Second World War. Family capital nominated its representatives, who, having graduated from prestigious educational institutions, occupied leadership positions at large enterprises.  

The more ossified and closed a given society is, the more likely that the reference group of an individual is his social interaction group. Thus, in pre-capitalist societies, a class social structure dominated, in which most people were born into a certain class (a group with a social status established by laws) and remained in it all their lives, passing on their class status by inheritance. In such a society, for a peasant to compare himself with the court aristocracy and imitate it was the height of absurdity. Capitalist or state socialist (e.g. Soviet) societies are open to social mobility. This means that someone born into a peasant family has a chance of breaking through to the very top of the political, administrative or economic hierarchy. In such a society, it is quite reasonable for an individual to be at the bottom, but imitating those at the very top. In such a society, rapprochement with the reference group is potentially real. The "American Dream" as America's most important myth states that every American can become a president or a millionaire. American mythology is full of examples indicating the reality of this dream. Soviet mythology also contains many examples of heroes who rose from “simple workers and peasants” to the highest positions in the state. In post-Soviet society, the bulk richest people Countries just yesterday were on the same floor as most of us.  

Finally, S haefer, summarizing the results of previous studies, emphasized that "interest and involvement in children's education turned out to be significantly more important than the quality of schools, even after statistically controlling for the socio-economic status of the family."  

Persons living in territories with preferential socio-economic status Participants of the Second World War, disabled people of the Great Patriotic War and members of their families  

On the other hand, Mateju and Pechard, in a study of family influence on education, showed that for the Netherlands, “the educational success of children is largely determined by the socio-economic status of their parents, although the direct and independent effect of their financial resources is minimal.”  

Scheme 1 reflects the multidimensionality of a person performing the functions of an employee and, in this capacity, acting as the subject of personnel management. A person, being united, participates in production activity as its multifaceted subject and economic - a producer and consumer of goods and a biological - carrier of a certain bodily structure and physical health and social - a member of a certain family-related group (a member of a large or childless family, the owner of a certain circle of relatives, etc.), demographic (man or woman, young or elderly worker, etc.), stratification (bearer of a certain social, including professional, status and rank), class (employee or owner) , ethnic (representative of a certain nation or ethnic group), etc. and political - citizen of the state, voter, member of a political party, trade union, other interest groups and legal - holder of certain rights and obligations and cultural - bearer of a certain mentality, value system, social norms and traditions and morals  

To what extent is this hypothesis confirmed by empirical research data? Indeed, a woman’s status in the socio-professional hierarchy significantly influences the degree and form of her involvement in domestic work. The higher a woman’s professional status, the less she is included in the household economy in the form of direct labor participation, which is compensated by an increase in indirect participation through a monetary contribution to the family budget. However, the husband’s participation in household labor reveals a clearly expressed inertia in the form of a weak dependence on the wife’s workload in social production, as well as on her professional status. The stability of the husband's participation in housework is due to a complex of reasons that go beyond economic factors. The consequence of such stability is the constancy of the absolute value of the husband’s workload in the household, which, however, does not contradict the increase in his share participation due to the reduction in time spent on housekeeping on the part of the working wife. Is this conclusion also true for Russia? To what extent are the status advantages of spouses realized in the distribution of total family labor? Is it true that the relatively high status of the husband leads to increased inequality in household labor in his favor, while a similar situation with the wife in best case scenario leads to equalization of household workload, but does not cause reverse discrimination. Subsequent empirical analysis will help us answer this question.  

Some economists, who explain the place of a worker in the social hierarchy of income by his social origin, use indicators of family income and level of education as measures of the latter]