Lu, a famous contemporary sociologist, pointed out in his book Contemporary Social Mobility that in modern society, education is the dynamic mechanism of social mobility. In all industrialized or industrializing countries, the best answer to the question' Who is in the forefront' is those who are educated. " [1] From a sociological point of view, social stratification is the driving force of social mobility, while education plays the role of an engine. According to Marxist viewpoint, education mainly has the following functions: socialization, social control, screening and distribution, assimilation, social innovation and change. Although it has also promoted social change in some aspects, from the above functions, the main function of the education system is to maintain the status quo, which is more manifested as a conservative social force [2]. Bourdieu, a French sociologist, pointed out in his book Social Theory that education is the mechanism of class reproduction. In the book Reproduction of Education, Culture and Society, Bourdieu convincingly explained to people that behind many positive functions such as imparting knowledge, educational institutions are also a way to produce and legalize social inequality and an important mechanism for class reproduction in modern society. [3] Because it is through this educational institution that differences in family background and even familiarity with the same language and lifestyle translate into differences in school test scores. In this way, education will constantly copy the existing class structure of society. Bourdieu's theory of class reproduction emphasizes the role of education in maintaining and replicating the class structure, but there are also many studies showing that education plays an active role in social mobility [4]. Many studies show that acquired education is one of the main factors leading to the change of social status of social members.
Education is a screening device of society, through which all classes can change the flow of classes. Education has two influences on social stratification. On the positive side, education provides impetus for social mobility and social synergy stratification; On the negative side, the education system has caused the unbalanced distribution of education among members of the original social hierarchy. In other words, different levels of education culturally divide social members into different levels and directly belong to different classes. On the other hand, in China's gradual social reform, different social classes have different cultural, social and economic capitals, which affects the differences in education quality between them and their descendants in areas, schools, levels, specifications and majors, and further affects the fairness of receiving education.
In this paper, questionnaires and random interviews are used. The respondents are set to be between 20 and 50 years old and have a fixed income, including probation and internship. I study different education levels and social status as two variables. In the study of the definition of social stratum, the theory of sociological predecessors is adopted. Marx Weber identified three key factors of social stratification: wealth, power and prestige. Wealth can be understood as economic status, power as political status and prestige as social status, which constitute the "trinity" theory of dividing social classes [5]. To a great extent, occupation is the most important determinant to divide social classes and strata. [6] Therefore, in the questionnaire, the respondents' cognition of occupation is the main criterion for dividing classes. In the design of another variable, education includes five levels, namely junior high school and below, secondary vocational education, ordinary high school, higher vocational education and undergraduate education. In the process of analysis, all the data come from the questionnaire survey, and the conclusion is drawn after collection and sorting.
It can be seen from the data that people with bachelor degree or above are in the mainstream position in this survey, and all the respondents have a good political outlook, and their income is concentrated in the range of 1500-3000, which is at a medium level in the national income. Among them, the income of undergraduate and above is widely distributed. High-income respondents (more than 3,000) are all higher education or above, among which there are more high-income people with bachelor degree or above. 17 people are or have had the experience of receiving vocational skills training or further study. Among them, those who have received vocational skills learning at school are less involved, and those with bachelor degree or above are more involved. They said that most of the reasons for participating in "re-learning" are the needs of the work itself and the evaluation of professional titles. Respondents with incomes in the range of 1500-5000 have more access to books and other mass media than those with lower incomes. In addition, in people's cognitive ranking of occupations, the top five are scientists, civil servants, company managers, lawyers and university professors. In addition, most people think that education has an influence on their social status, and most of them think that education has a great influence on the determination of their social status.
At present, social members with primary school education or above are the mainstream of social work. Most of them have a bachelor's degree or above, or have three years of study experience in secondary and higher vocational schools. However, different educational levels can be regarded as China's diplomas in social cognition, and their proportions in social classes are different. As can be seen from the survey, in the research, we can boldly infer the following conclusions: In modern society, the chances of upward mobility through education are far greater than those through occupation. The higher their education, the higher their income. They have more opportunities to contact the mass media and get knowledge and information from it. They are also more willing to exchange their wealth for more knowledge to enrich and enrich their knowledge structure and exchange for higher social status. This has formed the two-way influence of education directly exporting knowledge to social members. First of all, the higher the education level, the higher the social class. On the contrary, the higher the social class, the more capital they have to improve their knowledge, ability and quality. With the deepening of China's education reform and the continuous improvement of national quality, education not only keeps the primitive state of social strata, but also makes people with different education levels flow into different strata, thus forming a cycle and promoting social development. However, the unbalanced development of all classes may affect the development of national economy and even social stability. Therefore, we should not only see the close relationship between education and social stratification, but also put forward the basic quality requirements for education in the system, eliminate the bad factors that easily lead to the imbalance of educational development ecosystem, and make the differentiation of social structure more reasonable and tend to benign development. Only in this way can education, social class and social mobility provide positive impetus.
The similarities and differences of social stratification between the Northern Song Dynasty and the British Industrial Revolution were the same at first. Due to the development of commodity economy, the scale of the city has expanded, and the citizen class has also expanded. That is to say, apart from the aristocratic class and the peasant class, they have more economic strength than the peasant class, but they lack political power compared with an expanded class like the aristocratic class. This is the same point.
The following are the differences.
As far as the Northern Song Dynasty is concerned, the feudal order in China has been established for more than 1000 years, so it is difficult to break through the feudal order. The appearance of Neo-Confucianism further aggravated the ideological imprisonment and consolidated the feudal rule. The economic basis of feudal rule is small-scale peasant economy, which is exclusive, which determines that it does not allow the development of capital economy. However, the rulers still implement the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business, which makes citizens and businessmen more embarrassed. Therefore, it was not until the middle and late Ming Dynasty that capitalism sprouted in China. Therefore, it is still a primitive feudal economy, with insignificant class changes, far less than the peasant class in quantity, far less than the aristocratic class and even less than the peasant class in status. Therefore, it did not trigger a major change in society.
As far as Britain is concerned, the Renaissance has begun, and the mind has been greatly liberated. The religious reform and the Enlightenment that followed will greatly attack the feudal forces. As far as Britain itself is concerned, there is a tradition of parliament, through which citizens can express their opinions and demands. Commercial trade in Britain is very developed, instead of emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce. As we know, Britain established its maritime hegemony in the middle of18th century, so it has a global market. From the germination of capitalism to capitalist economy, Britain has developed smoothly all the way. Therefore, citizens or businessmen and even new noble have become the bourgeoisie, which is powerful. So as to promote the bourgeois revolution, British social change and modernization.
Generally speaking, they have the same opportunities, but due to the differences in social background, economic foundation, political foundation and historical habits, social stratification is very different.
What is the root of social stratification? The root of social stratification lies in social division of labor and private ownership.
Social stratification, as an inherent phenomenon and process in society, is essentially an unequal distribution of social resources in society, which will inevitably play a certain role in politics, economy, culture and other aspects of society. There have been two views on the social function of social stratification in theory, namely, function theory and conflict theory. In reality, social stratification has dual functions: on the one hand, social stratification will play an incentive role and maintain social vitality; On the other hand, it will cause certain competition and conflicts and affect social stability.
Keywords: social stratification; Formal social gathering
First, the meaning of social stratification
Social stratification, as an inherent social phenomenon and process, is an institutionalized social inequality. It is a phenomenon and process that social members present different levels and hierarchical order because of their different abilities and opportunities to obtain social resources in social life, and its essence is the unequal distribution of social resources in society. There are four main characteristics of social stratification: First, social members at all levels have roughly the same status in social life, showing certain similarities in economic relations, political inclination, income level, education level and social prestige. Second, there is a hierarchical relationship between different levels in the vertical direction. Social groups formed only on the basis of certain similarities are not necessarily hierarchical, but also classified, for example, based on gender, nationality, skin color and so on. Only when a certain division forms an orderly and unequal relationship among social groups can it belong to the category of stratification. Third, institutionalized social inequality. Social stratification is "an institutionalized and persistent social inequality system based on laws or rules and structures." When the specific distribution of social interests and the resulting social inequality system are fixed and recognized by the mainstream culture of society, this inequality is institutionalized. The institutionalization of social inequality provides a mechanism for social stratification. The fourth is the unity of phenomenon and process. On the one hand, social stratification exists objectively as a social phenomenon. From a static point of view, any society has the phenomenon of social stratification, and it is relatively stable for a period of time. On the other hand, social stratification is a process. In this process, the existing social inequality factors are constantly denied and overcome, but new inequalities will emerge one after another. No social class is rigid, and the state of social stratification is always in constant change.
Second, the social role of social stratification
(A) the theoretical explanation of social stratification
Social stratification is an extremely important social phenomenon in social life. Social stratification itself directly reflects social inequality, which will inevitably have a certain effect on social politics, economy, culture and other aspects. As far as the social function of social stratification is concerned, because researchers pay different attention to social problems, the starting point and goal of research are different, and their theoretical views are also different. But to sum up, there have always been two views on the social function of social stratification, namely, function theory and conflict theory.
Functionalism holds that social stratification exists in all societies for a long time and is necessary for society, so it is reasonable. American sociologist Parsons, a representative figure of functionalism, believes that social stratification is not produced by the individual wishes of social members, but by the needs of society, and as an unequal system, it maintains the normal operation and development of society. The "Davis-Moore Theory" put forward by functional sociologists Davis and Moore also systematically expresses the positive role of social stratification: social stratification can motivate people to work harder and be better qualified for certain social roles through the unequal distribution of social rewards. Davis and Moore believe that in a society, the importance of various social posts is not the same, and important social posts must be held by high-quality and trained people to ensure the normal operation and efficient development of society.
Functionalism's theoretical explanation of social stratification and its positive role have aroused widespread interest and concern in sociology, but there are also some different voices pointing out the serious defects of this analysis. Social stratification seriously limits the opportunities of those non-privileged classes, and people are unequal before opportunities; Society should give appropriate incentives to all work. If garbage removal workers can't finish their work due to lack of incentives, garbage disposal will also become a serious social problem. In this case, social stratification is not conducive to social stability. In fact, the basic view of functionalism itself is flawed. "The existence of any kind of system in a long time and in a large space cannot lead to the logical conclusion that the existence of this system is reasonable and inevitable." It is precisely by grasping the defects of functionalism that the conflict theorists have launched a theoretical confrontation with it.
Conflict theory holds that social stratification is the main source of human inequality and will lead to social conflicts, which is not only worthless, but also unreasonable. Dahrendorf, a British sociologist, is a representative of conflict theory. He believes that social stratification will lead to exploitation and oppression between people with different social resources, which will lead to social conflicts. However, he believes that the important social resources are not the ownership of the means of production, but political power, and the groups with these powers can deprive the powerless through power, thus obtaining more returns in social distribution. So in dahrendorf's eyes, social stratification is divided by power.
(B) the realistic analysis of the role of social stratification
Functional theory and conflict theory analyze the social function of social stratification from two different angles. They have their own opinions on this issue, but their theoretical explanation is reasonable, which reflects the dual role of social stratification to some extent.
First of all, from the perspective of competition in the process of social stratification, social stratification encourages people to participate in competition, but it is difficult to achieve fair competition. People at different social levels will get different benefits, so society will inevitably form a competitive mechanism to encourage people to work hard to get a better social status, and the whole society will form a powerful dynamic mechanism to promote the continuous development of society. On the other hand, the opportunity to participate in this competition is not equal for everyone. In real life, people of different classes often have different competitive advantages, and it is difficult to achieve real fair competition, which only refers to competition through legal means. Social stratification also makes some people who cannot seek their own interests through legal means turn to illegal means and become one of the important sources of social crimes.
Secondly, judging from the social inequality caused by social stratification, this inequality not only promotes social development, but also makes exploitation and oppression possible. Social stratification makes people in different positions get different returns because of their different contributions to society. Therefore, when social material wealth cannot meet the needs of all members, it can ensure that a group of capable people devote all their energy to social creative activities, thus promoting social development.
It can be seen that social stratification has dual functions: on the one hand, social stratification will play an incentive role and maintain social vitality. Therefore, a certain degree of unequal distribution egalitarianism can better mobilize people's labor enthusiasm. Before China's reform and opening up, the egalitarian pot of rice made most people lose their enthusiasm and initiative in labor, but after the reform and opening up, the policy of "letting some people get rich first" revived the society. On the other hand, there are some competitions and conflicts around "getting rich first" and "getting rich later" in real life, which will affect social stability and restrict social development to a certain extent. It can be seen that social stratification and social inequality will also bring adverse effects on individual and social development. Under the situation that the existing social stratification can't be completely eliminated, how to keep the differences between social groups at different levels within an acceptable limit has become the central problem that policy research must solve.
After China's reform and opening up, the structural changes of social stratification? Not detailed, as far as I know:
Before opening up: workers, peasants and intellectuals, this is relatively simple.
After opening; Workers are divided into: public servants (including leaders of administrative organs) and workers; Farmers are divided into: farmers and migrant workers; Intellectuals are still intellectuals, but their status has improved and the boundaries are not obvious; There are also businessmen, a large part of whom are laid-off workers.
In fact, no matter before or after the reform and opening up, social stratification is government, agriculture, learning, industry and commerce, but their definitions and status are different.
The relationship between education and social stratification, just want to know this knowledge! :clgs。 /Article_Print.asp？ ArticleID=408
What is the difference between social differentiation and social stratification in sociology? Thank you for the postgraduate entrance examination! Social stratification is the division of social meaning attribute, social differentiation and self-consciousness differentiation.
Social stratification refers to the stratification or differences between social members and social groups due to different social resources, especially the institutionalized social difference system based on laws and regulations.
Sociologists find that there is inequality in society, and people, groups and groups are also divided into several levels like stratigraphic structure, so they use geological concepts to analyze social structure and form a sociological category of "social stratification"
Social differentiation is not only the differentiation of wealth and power distribution, but also the differentiation of people's self-awareness. It makes everyone start to take sides and look at the society from the perspective of taking sides, thus making people psychologically unacceptable to the existence of the whole society. In people's minds, society has been divided into the rich and the poor. This is a huge difference in society. Invisible boundaries divide the consensus of members of society. People gradually decide their attitudes and express their views based on the positions of rich and poor and high and low.
There is an urgent need to understand the social stratification in Britain!