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The material and the symbolic in theorizing social stratification: issues of gender, ethnicity and class
Author(s) -
Anthias Floya
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1080/00071310120071106
Subject(s) - social stratification , social class , life chances , ethnic group , sociology , stratification (seeds) , deference , inequality , honour , social inequality , gender studies , social psychology , social science , psychology , political science , mathematics , law , anthropology , seed dormancy , botany , germination , mathematical analysis , dormancy , biology
Within most approaches to stratification gender and ethnicity are seen to pertain primarily to the symbolic or cultural realms, whilst class is regarded as pertaining to material inequality. This constructs gender and ethnic positioning as entailing honour, deference, worth, value and differential treatment (sometimes expressed through the notion of ‘status’), but the social relations around these are themselves not seen as constitutive of social stratification. In this paper I will rethink social stratification away from the polarity between the material and the symbolic, and argue that material inequality, as a set of outcomes relating to life conditions, life chances and solidary processes, is informed by claims and struggles over resources of different types, undertaken in terms of gender, ethnicity/race and class. This formulation allows us to include these categorial formations, alongside class, as important elements of social stratification i.e. as determining the allocation of socially valued resources and social places/locations.