Everything about Social Position totally explained
Social position is the position of an
individual in a given
society and
culture. A given position (for example, the occupation of
priest) may belong to many individuals. Social position influences
social status. One can have several social positions, but only one social status.
Social positions an individual may hold fall into the categories of
occupation (medical doctor, academic lecturer),
profession (member of associations and organisations),
family (parent, sibling, etc.),
hobby (member of various clubs and organisations), among others. An individual is likely to create a personal
hierarchy of such positions, where one will be a central position while the rest are perhiperal positions.
Social positions are
visible if they require an individual to wear a
uniform or some other kind of identifying mark. Often individual clothes or other attributes will advertise what social position one has at the moment. Non-visible social positions are called
hidden. A position that's deemed the most important to given individual is called
central, others are
peripheral. If a
sequence of positions is required to obtain a given position, it can be defined as a
career, and change of position in this context is a
promotion or
demotion. Some social positions may make it easier for a given person to obtain others; in other cases, some positions may be restricted based to individuals meeting specific criteria.
Social position together with
social role determines individual's place in the
social environment and
social organisation. A group of social positions will create a
social class and a
social circle.
A
social conflict caused by interference between social positions is called a position conflict.
Identifying Social Position in Social Hierarchy
Kristina Lindemann
The Impact of Objective Characteristics on Subjective Social Position
The sociological term for
social position is a way of identifying a person’s position within the
social hierarchy in a society. The definition of
social position can vary dependent upon which society is defined. According to Kristina Lindemann the way to define social position in Western Country’s society is to first, identify their objective characteristics of social positions in society. These objective characteristics become the basis for an individual’s opinion of their subjective social position.
Furthermore, the culture and society that a person lives and grows in, heavily impacts an individual’s subjective social position
status. “An individual’s subjective social position status depends not only on the objective characteristics but also on how people experience society, the way they perceive their position in comparison with others, and what they imagine their position would be in the future.”
Lindemann cliams that peoples objective characteristics are the things that that'll base their opinion of their subjective social position on. Lindemann divides Objective characteristics into two groups, ascribed and achieved characteristics. Ascribed characteristics are things like age, gender, and ethnicity. Achieved characteristics are things like the education level attained, occupation, or being a parent. People are born with ascribed characteristics. People earn achieved characteristics. These together will ultimately identify the social position of an individual within the context of the individual’s society.
Studies have indicated a significant relevance of these characteristics to an individual’s subjective social position. These characteristics impact people’s opinions of themselves and where they identify with their social position in societies
social hierarchy.
The reference group theory mentioned by Lindemann in her essay states that people see the world as an enlarged version of their
reference group. People base their social position upon the people around them. Typically people’s family, friends, and co-workers are usually very similar, and in general, most people see themselves as average and unexceptional.
The status maximizing theory also mentioned by Lindemann reflects the present objective situation of the person but also their prospects for future societal attainment. Most students will identify with this social position.
Age, is considered to be the most impactful characteristic on people when identifying with their
social position. Lindemann’s study compared an
Estonian society with
Western Cultural societies. She found that being older increases the probability of identifying with the higher class in Western Countries. Superior age often means better economical situation and higher contentment with life. On the other hand young adults are one of the most vulnerable groups in modern welfare states. Young adults tend to have higher rates of unemployment and lower wages than the general public. The main reason for this is simply the lack of good education credentials.
Gender and ethnicity, are also considerable characteristics in identifying social position. In general, the class identification of men and women isn't significantly different in western countries.
Ethnicity impacts social position differently from
country to country. More importantly the influence of ethnicity is closely related to the extent
ethnic minorities are accepted by the overall society.
Occupation, is an achieved characteristic used to identify social positions in society.
Occupation is directly related to the level of education and income a person earns. The effect of income on class identification in particular has increased during the last decades in Western countries. The increased influence of income on the subjective social position can be explained by the rise of consumer society values. In a consumer society a person’s social position is defined through things that he or she consumes.
In her studies Lindemann found that people with diverse statuses on the labor market offer significantly different estimations regarding their social position. As expected, managers and professionals identify with the middle or higher stratums, while unskilled workers relate with the lower stratums in social hierarchy. People with vocational education or basic education or less often don't have a high estimation of their social position. Social position is also heavily influenced by the status of an individual on the labor market. For example a retired person in comparison has the lowest self estimation of social position, probably influenced by age. Being a retired person in society isn't caused by low income as is often presumed. Being a retired person means that the person feels that he or she's lower in the social hierarchy.
Lois A. Vitt
In an article written by Lois A. Vitt she proclaims that class refers to a stratification system that divides a society into a hierarchy of social positions. Not only class is also a particular social position within a class stratification system: lower class, working class, middle class, upper class, or other such class designations. This is a method of social ranking that involves money, power, culture, taste, identity, access, and exclusion. “Class conscious” people perceive class distinctions and typically feel the impact of class in powerful ways.
All class research approaches, whether designed to probe for conflicting class interests, to measure social mobility, or to test for variances, are descended from overarching theoretical class frameworks. They are rooted in the writings of Marx, followed by refinements and rebuttals in the works of Weber and numerous other social thinkers across many disciplines. “Class sorts out positions in society along a many-runged ladder of economic success and social prestige.
Ironically, the operation of class in the US is becoming more apparent as globalization serves to illuminate increasingly unequal distribution of income, wealth, and personal power at home.
The MATISS research group. (Maria Fenicia Vescio, George Davey Smith, Simona Giampaoli)
Socio-Economic-Position Overall and Cause-Specific Mortality in an Italian Rural Population
This study found interesting conclusions related to social position in an Italian rural population. The research group found that correlations between the socio-economic-position overall and cause-specific mortality. They concluded that in the lower social group positions these people shared a more adverse risk factors profile and are at a higher risk of death.
A more adverse risk factors profile among lower classes defined in middle age, explains only part of the social inequalities in mortality. It has been suggested that health outcomes may be related to adult socio-economic position, childhood socio-economic position or both. These studies were conducted in Northern Europe (Scandinavia). For more information refer to the referenced article.
Erika Hayes James
Race-Related Differences in Promotions and Support: Underlying Effects of Human and Social Capital
One of the ways to change your social position is to increase human capital. The human capital theory suggest that people having more job-relevant resources, such as education and training, should receive more organizational rewards for example promotions than people with fewer of these resources. Human capital alone can affect social position to a certain extent. An individual has to have social skills and build social networks to help promote their social position.
Another way to affectively increase your chance of obtaining or sustaining social position is by increasing your
social capital. The social capital theory posits that certain qualities in workplace relationships are beneficial for receiving organizational rewards, and employees whose relationships are not characterized by these qualities are at a disadvantage. .
In other words, people who have social relationships with upper management might get to know about a promotion possibility before someone lacking in the social capital infrastructure that relays that sort of information.
Erika James finds through studies and analysis that in general blacks have been promoted at a slower pace than whites. This workplace discrimination occurred most likely because of unequal human/social capital between the two races. Clearly this isn't a justification for the actions to occur. The issue of race still exists as a statistically proven factor in American job markets.
Paul S. Adler
For an individual to hold a social position thoroughly and knowledgeably they must be trusted in the
market and reflect it in their behavior. Paul S. Adler says that a review of trends in
employment relations, interdivisional relations, and interfirm relations finds evidence suggesting that the effect of growing knowledge-intensity may indeed be a trend toward greater reliance on trust. He believes the form of trust that's most effective in this context is a distinctively modern kind-- “reflective trust.” -- as opposed to traditionalistic, “blind” trust.
The values at work in modern trust are those of the scientific community: “universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized skepticism” (Merton 1973,p.270) Modern trust is inclusive and open. The author attentively concludes that the efficacy of trust for knowledge management and the likelihood of its growth over time are maximized if: (a) trust is balanced by hierarchical rules to ensure stability and equity, (b) trust is balanced by market competition to ensure flexibility and opportunity, and (c) trust is modern and reflective rather than traditionalistic and blind. There is an element of trust necessary within society and for identifying with a particular social position. Especially relevant to particular community positions where your actions weight heavily on your social position.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a
social position can be identified objectively and subjectively. The objective characteristics shape an individuals opinion of their subjective social position. Characteristics like age were found to have the biggest impact on people’s opinion of their subjective social position. A particular society’s social positions are also defined by the "
class" system inherent to the
culture of that
society. People who are conscious of the “class” systems are called “class conscious”. It has also been found that the socio-economic-position of people can greatly affect their mortality rate. The next topic of race unfortunately still plays a role in the social success of an individual in the workplace. When comparing whites to blacks it was found that the whites had faster promotion rates as well as better overall job satisfaction. Lastly, the element of trust does and should be upheld by people. Trust helps to build reputable social positions in the community.
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