Chapter 9

Global Stratification

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The basic concepts of sociology

1. Social groups 2. Sociological Imagination3. Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic

Interaction Theory4. scientific studies

Globalization

Global Society1. There are 192 countries in the world (The U.N. 2005). 2. There are ________ people in the world (The U.N. 2005). 6.8 billion 3. The country which has the largest population in the world is ______. The country

with the second largest population is _________. China (1.36 billion) India (1.1 billion)4. The population of Asia accounts for _____ % of the world population. Asia 60.5% Oceania 0.5% Europe 12.0% Africa 12.9% N. America 5.5% Latin America 8.6 %5. The most spoken language in the world is _________ 1st Chinese Mandarin 885 million 2nd Spanish --- 332 million6. English is an official language or predominantly spoken in ____countries in the

world. 46 (322 million)

Global Stratification7. About _______ % of people in the world live in so-called developed/rich countries.

More than half the world’s population (300 billion people) live in the poorest 45 countries. (World Bank 2004).

15% 8. 8 out of the top 10 richest persons in the worlds are citizens of ( ). (Forbes

2005) 9. _____ % of the world’s population lives in poverty at the consumption level below $1

per day. 28 %10. About______% of people in the world are so poor that they are unable to obtain

enough food to meet their nutritional needs today. 20%11. The average life expectancy of people in the U.S. is 77.3 years old and its child

malnutrition rate is 1 %. The average life expectancy of people in Afghanistan is ______ and its child malnutrition rate is ( )% (World Bank 2002).

43 , 49%12. Women perform about _____ % of all working hours in the world, receive about ____

% of the world’s income, and own about _____% of the world’s wealth (U.N. Commission on the Status of Women 2000).

67, 10%, 1%13. About _____ % of the world population have bachelor’s degree. 1%

Refugee Camp in

Mazar-i-Sharif Afghanistan

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Measuring National Stratification

• the Gross National Income (GNI) as a measure of a nation’s position on the global stratification ladder.

• GNI : a country’s wealth computed by the total output of goods and services produced by residents of a country each year + the income from nonresident sources, divided by the size of the population.

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National Power Structure

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FirstWorld Countries

SecondWorldCountries

ThirdWorld Countries

Semiperipheral countries

Core countries

Peripheral countries

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Who Uses the World’s Energy?

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Discussion Question

• What factors do you think explain the major inequality between countries?

– Is it strictly capitalism or do you think other conditions are also responsible?

• If so, what other conditions?

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Theories of Global Stratification

1. Modernization

2. Dependency Theory

3. World System Theory

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Modernization Theory

• economic development of countries as stemming from technological change.

• traditional societies to more complex and differentiated societies.

• attitudes and values that emphasize hard work, saving, efficiency, and enterprise. (ex. Japan after WWII)

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Dependency Theory

• This theory traces colonialism in Africa, Asia, and America.

• It was politically and economically wise for dominant European countries to keep the colonies undeveloped to avoid competition with the home country.

• Multinational corporations recognize no national boundaries, and help keep dependent nations poor.

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Control Over Dependent Countries

• price controls, tariffs

• especially the control of credit.

• sending troops

• imposing economic or political restrictions and sanctions on them

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World Systems Theory• The level of economic development is explained by

understanding each country’s place and role in the world economic system.

• This model divides the world into the three sectors:

–Core (1st world)

–Semiperipheral (2nd world)

–Peripheral (3rd world)

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Global Labor Market

• An international labor pool; i.e. workers to do different pieces in the production chain (an international division of labor) is drawing laborers from throughout the planet.

• Commodity chain

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NIKE• Headquarter: Beaverton, Oregon • Production: have never been produced in factories in the

United States. China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India and

Thailand. • the three main parts of the shoe: the top of the shoe, the

midsole (the part of the shoe that cushions and protects the foot) and the outsole.

• Class exercise

Exporting Companies

• When companies export jobs, people in the U.S. lose theirs.

– In 1973, more than 56,000 U.S. workers were employed in toy factories.

– Now, only 27,000 workers work in toy factories.

– The toys are being made abroad probably by some child of 11 years old, maybe even younger.

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Young kids making computer parts

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Child Labor

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Children balancing bricks on their heads, working with bricks at a brick factory in Fatullah. For each 1,000 bricks they carry, they earn the equivalent of 0.9 USD Dhaka, Bangladesh gmb-akash.com

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• 20 million slavery• servants or concubines in Sudan, as child "carpet slaves" in

India, or as cane-cutters in Haiti and southern Pakistan, young girls sold into prostitution in Thailand

• 200,000 children from Benin and Togo in West and Central Africa are sold each year into the domestic, agricultural, and sex industries of wealthier, neighboring countries such as Nigeria and Gabon.

• up to 90,000 blacks are owned by North African Arabs, and often sold as property in a thriving slave trade for as little as $15 per human being.

Child Labor

• BBC World News: Child Labor

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