Explain the static and dynamic nature of social stratification
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Answer:
Social differentiation is so closely connected with the division of labor that they could almost be treated as synonymous. The wide development of the division of labor under modern industrialism (mostly in capitalist, but also in socialist or communist form) caused a similarly wide expansion of differentiation in society. Along with this expansion, social and economic interdependence has increased enormously: each individual in society is dependent on so many others for its existence.
Social differentiation itself has to be examined from various angles, the most important of which are discussed below.
Class and social stratification are unthinkable without a connection to the division of labor. They are relevant as a pre-condition, as well as a result of, the division of labor. With regard to class, most social scientists would agree that the number of classes needed to describe societal structure in complex societies has to be extended beyond the two basic ones (bourgeoisie and wage-labor) Marx had in mind. Often the concept is replaced altogether by stratification. Nevertheless, ownership of productive property is important as a pre-condition for the right to organize labor or otherwise being organized. The gains from economic activity shape wealth distribution. As a result of the differentiated division of labor, the inequality of the wealth distribution has grown in most countries over time. At the global level, a similar trend of growing disparity can be observed in the distribution of wealth between rich industrialized countries and poorer developing countries as a result of international division of labor in practice.
As a major element in differentiation, gender remains a cause for inequality. Even though patriarchy has lost ground and equal opportunity rights are enforced in most modern societies, the effects of a gendered division of labor still are to be found in practically all societies. These often include lower income, confinement to lower skilled jobs, reduced access to leading functions, broader employment in precarious jobs and in part time, and so on. This can be explained by the fact that the household continues to be the basic social unit around which people conduct their lives (Pahl 1984), and that an unequal distribution of tasks in household work between women and men obviously continues to be practiced more or less throughout the world (e.g., Hakim 1996).
Finally, social integration and cohesion become much more important with the growth in inequality that follows the extension of the division of labor. Cooperation (as a passive medium) and coordination (as an active medium) are necessary to counterbalance the diverging forces and to secure social integration at least at a minimum level. Social integration on the societal level can be based above all on two institutions: trust, motivation, values on the one hand and power on the other (which is based on legitimacy in modern states). The strategy in most highly developed countries is to secure both by providing a minimum of social security and administering some form of social regulation to the market economy. A socially responsible division of labor thus may be seen as the guiding vision for modern countries.