Ch 8 Social Class in the United States – Key terms

contradictory class locations: Erik Wright's term for a position in the class structure that generates contradictory interests (p.194)

culture of poverty: the assumption that values and behaviors of the p\>or make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics on to their children (p.20S)

downward social mobility: movement down the social class ladder (p.200)

exchange mobility: about the same numbers of people moving up and down the social class ladder, such that, on balance, the social class system shows little change (p.200)

(the) feminization of poverty: a trend in U.S. poverty whereby most poor families are headed by women (p.20S)

Horatio Alger myth: the belief that due to limitless possibilities, anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough (p.20?)

intergenerational mobility: the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next (p.200)

poverty line: the official measure of poverty; calculated to include those whose incomes are less than three times a low-cost food budget (p.20 1)

power: the ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others (p.189)

power elite: C. Wright Mills' term for the top people in U.S. corporations, military, and politics who make the nation's major decisions (p.189)

prestige: respect or regard (p.190)

social class: according to Weber, a large number of people who rank close to one another in wealth, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists, who own the means of production, or workers, who sell their labor (p.186)

status: social ranking; the position that someone occupies in society or a social group (p.192)

status consistency: people ranking high or low on all three dimensions of social class (p.192)

status inconsistency: ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others (p.192)

structural mobility: movement up or down the social class ladder that is due to changes in the structure of society, not to individual efforts (p.200)

underclass: a group of people for whom poverty persists year after year and across generations (p.197)

upward social mobility: movement up the social class ladder (p.200)

wealth: property and income (p.186)