Anthony Giddens • Sociology 6th edition

Student Resources

Chapter 11 — Stratification and Class

1. ‘A social system in which social position is fixed for a lifetime’. What type of social stratification does this describe?
   a) slavery
   b) social class
   c) caste
   d) estates
2. Which one of the following does not apply to social class systems?
   a) class systems are relatively fluid
   b) class position is entirely subjective
   c) class is economically based
   d) class positions are, in part, achieved
3. ‘A social class is a group of people who stand in a common relationship to the means of production’. Whose perspective does this definition describe?
   a) Max Weber
   b) Erik Olin-Wright
   c) John Goldthorpe
   d) Karl Marx
4. Which of the following social groups do occupational class schemes not have difficulty accommodating?
   a) students
   b) manual working class
   c) the unemployed
   d) retired people
5. According to the 2007 Helsinki Survey, what percentage of wealth does the bottom 50% of the global population own?
   a) 25%
   b) 10%
   c) 1%
   d) 5%
6. The concept of an ‘underclass’ emerged in the USA. What is the alternative and broader European conception describing processes of disadvantage?
   a) social discrimination
   b) pauperization
   c) ghettoization
   d) social exclusion
7. Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical perspective makes use of the concept of ‘capital’. Which of the following is not part of his scheme?
   a) political capital
   b) economic capital
   c) social capital
   d) cultural capital
8. What term is used to describe the movement of individuals up or down the social scale during the course of their working lives?
   a) vertical mobility
   b) lateral mobility
   c) intragenerational mobility
   d) intergenerational mobility
9. In Britain in 2006, which of these positions were filled with 99% men and just 1% women?
   a) FTSE100 Cheif Executive Officer
   b) High Court Judge
   c) University Professor
   d) House of Commons MP
10. Which of these statements does not reflect the ‘conventional position in class analysis’?
    a) class inequalities govern gender stratification
    b) women's pay is often essential to the family's economic position
    c) women's paid work is not as significant as that of men
    d) women should be seen as being the same class as their husbands/partners
11. In 2003 the proportion of marketable wealth in the UK owned by the wealthiest 5% was:
    a) 40%
    b) 10%
    c) 5%
    d) 75%
12. A system of stratification where positions are partly achieved and mobility is common is one based on:
    a) slavery
    b) caste
    c) class
    d) status
13. Which of the following is NOT a feature of all socially stratified systems?
    a) people share characteristics without necessarily identifying with each other
    b) people's life-chances and experiences depend heavily on their social ranking
    c) the ranks of different social categories tend to change very slowly over time
    d) stratification occurs because of inequalities in assets or property
14. The practice of legally enforced marriage within caste is called:
    a) endogamy
    b) endogeny
    c) exegesis
    d) exclusion
15. According to Wright, some class locations are 'contradictory' because:
    a) their holders do not believe in the notion of class
    b) they share features of the positions above and below them
    c) there is disagreement about how to interpret them
    d) they are impossible for sociologists to measure and classify
16. In the Goldthorpe schema, managers, professionals and top administrators are in:
    a) the service class
    b) the servant class
    c) the segmented class
    d) the status class
17. Which of the following does John Scott identify as belonging to the middle class?
    a) senior executives
    b) industrial entrepreneurs
    c) finance capitalists
    d) none of the above
18. The process of turning the class concept into something measurable is called:
    a) operational research
    b) modus operandum
    c) operationalization
    d) operant conditioning
19. The idea that classes vary according to their possession of cultural capital is associated with:
    a) Max Weber
    b) John Goldthorpe
    c) Karl Marx
    d) Pierre Bourdieu
20. The Kuznets hypothesis states that as economic development proceeds, inequality:
    a) first decreases, then increases before remaining high
    b) first increases, then decreases, before remaining low
    c) first increases, then flattens out, before rising again
    d) first increases, then decreases, then increases, then decreases
21. The Essex Mobility Study found that the proportion of higher white-collar workers originating from blue-collar backgrounds was:
    a) a quarter
    b) a half
    c) a third
    d) a fifth
22. According to Saunders, Britain can be described as a meritocracy because:
    a) it has higher average skill levels than comparable countries
    b) social advancement is dependent on ability and effort
    c) poorer children must show more merit to reach the same class destinations
    d) there are an increasing number of service class occupations

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