Important Terminology

 

Class – relative social rank in terms of income, wealth, education, status and/or power.

 

Classism – differential treatment based on social class or perceived social class. Classism is the systematic assignment of worth based on social class; policies and practices set up to benefit more class-privileged people at the expense of the less class-privileged people, resulting in drastic income and wealth inequality and causing basic human needs to go unmet; the rationale and the culture which perpetuates these systems and this unequal valuing.

 

Class Privilege – Tangible or intangible unearned advantages of higher-class status, such as personal contacts with employers, good childhood health care, inherited money, speaking with the same dialect/accent as people with institutional power.

 

Class Ally – A person from the more privileged classes whose attitudes and behaviors are anti-classist, who is committed to increasing his or her own understanding of this issue related to classism, and is actively working towards eliminating classism on many levels.

 

Individual Classism – This term refers to classism on a personal or individual level, either in behavior or attitudes, either conscious and intentional, or unconscious and unintentional.

 

Institutional Classism – This term refers to the ways in which intentional and unintentional classism is manifest in the various institutions of our society.

 

Retrieved from www.classism.org

 

 

 

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Social Stratification - This term refers to an institutionalized system of social inequality.

 

* In geology, strata refers to the distinct horizontal layers found in rock formations.  This is one way to visualize social class structure - people make up the layers of society and resources are unevenly distributed throughout the layers. 

 

Through social stratification, people are assigned to socioeconomic strata based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power.

 

Retrieved from OpenStax

 

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Socioeconomic Status (SES) - often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as the social standing or class of an individual or group.

 

• When viewed through a social class lens, privilege, power, and control are emphasized.  There are distinct inequities in access to and distribution of resources.

• SES is relevant to all realms of behavioral and social science, including research, practice, education and advocacy.

 

Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/factsheet-education.aspx