| A | B |
|---|
| Bourgeoisie | Owners of the means of production in a capitalist society. Marx's "haves". |
| Caste System | System in which scarce resources and rewards are distributed on the basis of ASCRIBED status. |
| Class System | System in which scarce resources and rewards are distributed on the basis of ACHIEVED status. |
| Endogamy | Marriage within one's own social category. |
| Exogamy | Marriage outside one's own social category. |
| Horizontal Mobility | Type of social mobility where the individual moves from one position to another within the same social class. |
| Intergenerational Mobility | Form of vertical mobility in which status differs between generations in the same family. |
| Life Chances | Likelihood of individuals sharing in the opportunities and benefits of society. |
| Life Expectancy | Average number of years a person born in a particular year can be expected to live. |
| Objective Method | Technique used to rank individuals according to social class in which sociologists define social class in terms of factors such as income, occupation and education. |
| Poverty | Standard of living that is below the minimum level considered decent and reasonable by society. |
| Poverty Level | Minimum annual income needed by a family to survive. |
| Power | The ability to control the behavior of others, with or without their consent. |
| Prestige | Respect, honor, recognition or courtesy an individual receives from other members of society. |
| Proletariat | Workers in a capitalist society who sell their labor in exchange for wages. Marx's "have-nots". |
| Reputational Method | Technique used to rank individuals according to social class. This is done by asking individuals in the community to rank other community members based on what they know of their characteristics and life style. |
| Social Class | Grouping of people with similar levels of wealth, power and prestige. |
| Social Inequality | Unequal sharing of social rewards and resources. |
| Social Mobility | Movement between or within social classes or strata |
| Social Stratification | Ranking of individuals or categories of people on the basis of unequal access to scarce resources and social rewards. |
| Socioeconomic Status (SES) | Rating that combines social factors such as education, occupational prestige and place of residence with economic factors of income in order to determine a person's relative position in the stratification system |
| Subjective Method | Technique used to rank individuals according to social class in which the individuals themselves are asked to determine their own social rank. |
| Transfer Payments | Principle way in which the government attempts to reduce social inequality by redistributing money among the various segments of society. |
| Vertical Mobility | Movement between social classes or strata in which the individual moves from once social class level to another. |
| Wealth | Most obvious dimension of social stratification because it is made up of the value of everything the person owns and money earned through salaries and wages. |
