Global Stratification Learning Objectives LO 9 1

Global Stratification Learning Objectives • LO 9. 1 Describe the division of the world into high-, middle-, and low-income countries. • LO 9. 2 Discuss patterns and explanations of poverty around the world. • LO 9. 3 Apply sociological theories to the topic of global inequality. • LO 9. 4 Evaluate trends in global inequality.

The Power of Society In a world of unequal economic development, how does a child's country of birth affect the chances of survival?

“Although poverty is a reality in the United States and other nations, the greatest social inequality is not within nations but between them. ”

Global Stratification: An Overview LO 9. 1 Describe the division of the world into high-, middle-, and low-income countries.

Changing Terminology Old terminology • First world: Industrial rich countries • Second world: Less industrial socialist countries • Third world: Non-industrial poor countries Problems with old terminology • After the Cold War, the second world no longer existed. • The third world is too economically diverse to be meaningful.

Changing Terminology New terminology • High-income: Nations with the highest standard of living • Middle-income: Somewhat poorer nations with economic development typical for the world • Low-income: Nations with lowest productivity and extensive poverty Advantages • Focuses on economic development rather than political structure (capitalist or socialist) • Provides better picture of the relative economic development of various countries • Well-off people in rich countries live “worlds apart” from poorest in low-income countries.

High-Income Countries First to develop during industrial revolution two centuries ago. Industrial technology and Economic expansion Enjoy 64% of the world's income Control of financial markets which means control of other countries

Middle-Income Countries About 48% live in rural areas and About 52% of the engage in agricultural population lives in or activities -- a general near urban areas and lack of access to have industrial jobs. schools, medical care, and safe water.

Low-Income Countries Chronic Hunger, disease, and unsafe Mostly poor, Agrarian, with Very short life housing rural some industry expectancy shape the economies lives of the world's poorest people.

The Severity of Poverty in poor countries is more severe than it is in rich countries. • Norway had the highest “quality of life” rating, followed by Australia and Canada. • The United States ranked 6 th. • Niger had the lowest. LO 9. 2 Discuss patterns and explanations of poverty around the world.

The Severity of Poverty Relative poverty • Lack of resources that others take for granted • This sort of poverty exists in every society, rich or poor. Absolute poverty • A life-threatening lack of resources • One-third or more of the people in lowincome countries experience poverty at this level.

Extent of Poverty Is poverty lifethreatening? • In some African and Asian countries, half of annual deaths are children under age of 10. • Every 10 minutes, 100 people die of hunger, about 25, 000 people a day. • 1. 4 billion people suffer from chronic hunger in the world.

Alexander Malkhov in Sudan https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=3 et. Be 5 ej_Is

Life Expectancy Men Women Rank Country Life expectancy 1 Iceland 81. 2 1 Japan 87 2 Switzerland 80. 7 2 Spain 85. 1 3 Australia 80. 5 3 Switzerland 85. 1 4 Israel 80. 2 4 Singapore 85. 1 5 Singapore 80. 2 5 Italy 85 6 New Zealand 80. 2 6 France 84. 9 7 Italy 80. 2 7 Australia 84. 6 8 Japan 80 8 Republic of Korea 84. 6 9 Sweden 80 9 Luxembour g 84. 1 10 Luxembour g 79. 7 10 Portugal 84

• 1 Monaco 89. 57 • 2 Macau 84. 48 • 3 Japan • 4 Singapore 84. 38 • 5 San Marino 83. 18 • 6 Hong Kong 84. 46

Poverty and Children • 100 million children in poor countries are forced to work the streets (e. g. , beg, steal, sell sex). • Tens of millions of children are orphaned or have left their families and live on the streets. • Many girls, with little or no access to medical assistance, become pregnant. Tens of millions of children fend for themselves every day on the streets of poor cities where many fall victim to disease, drug abuse, and violence.

• About half of all street children are found in Latin American cities. • In Darfur (Sudan), impoverished children are forced to join armed groups, provide physical labor without pay, and work as sex slaves.

Women, Slavery, and Poverty Women 70% of the world's 1 billion people living near absolute poverty are women. In all societies, a woman's work is unrecognized, undervalued, and underpaid. Sweatshop workers are mostly women.

Women, Slavery, and Poverty • Women – Most women in poor countries receive little or no reproductive health care. – World's poorest women typically give birth without help from trained health care personnel.

• Limited access to birth control keeps women at home with their children, keeps the birth rate high, and limits the economic production of the country

Women, Slavery, and Poverty Five types of slavery (Anti-Slavery International) • Chattel slavery: One person owns another • Child slavery: A more common form of bondage • Debt bondage: Employers hold workers to pay debts • Servile forms of marriage: Women married against their will or forced into prostitution • Human trafficking: Third largest source of profit to organized crime

Slavery • About 3% of humanity-live in conditions that amount to slavery • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=tfp 2 O 9 AD w. Gk

Human slavery continues to exist in the twenty-first century.

https: //secure. enditmovement. com/learn

Human Trafficking • From one place to another • For the purpose of performing forced labor Movement of men, women, and children People lured to a new country with promise of a job • Forced to become prostitutes or farm laborers • Adopted and forced to work in sweatshops

Correlates of Global Poverty: What Is…? Technology • About onefourth of the people in lowincome countries use human or animal power to farm land. Population growth • Population for poor countries in Africa doubles every 25 years.

Correlates of Global Poverty: What Is…? Cultural patterns Social stratification • People resist innovations; accept slavery as a way of life. • Low-income countries distribute wealth very unequally.

Correlates of Global Poverty: What Is…? Gender inequality Global power relationships • Raising living standards means improving women's standing. • Historically, wealth flowed from poor societies to rich nations through colonialism.

Correlates of Global Poverty: What Is…? Colonialism Neocolonialism • Process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations • “New” form of global power relationships that involves not direct political control but economic exploitation by multinational corporations

Modernization Theory Modernization theory • Model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences between nations LO 9. 3 Apply sociological theories to the topic of global inequality.

Modernization Theory Historical perspective • Centuries ago, the entire world was poor. • Exploration, trade, and the industrial revolution transformed Western Europe and North America. • Absolute poverty declined and standard of living jumped in some areas of world.

Modernization Theory • Protestant Reformation reshaped traditional Christian beliefs. Weber: Cultural perspective • Wealth became a personal virtue. • Individualism replaced the traditional emphasis on family and community.

• Not every society wanted to adopt new technology. • Tradition seen as greatest barrier to economic development.

Rostow's Stages of Modernization • Traditional stage • Changing traditional views • Take-off stage • Use of talents and imaginations Rostow • Drive to technological maturity • Diversified economy takes over. • High mass consumption • Mass production stimulates consumption.

Four Roles of Rich Nations in Global Economic Development Controlling population • Exporting birth control and educating people on its importance Providing foreign aid Increasing food production • Using money for equipment necessary for change • Using of new hybrid seeds, modern irrigation methods, the use of chemicals and pesticides Introducing industrial technology • Sharing machinery and information to facilitate shifts in economies

Evaluation Modernization simply has not happened in many poor countries. • Theory fails to recognize how rich nations benefit from the status quo of poor nations. • Theory fails to recognize that international relations affect all nations. • Ethnocentric approach holds up the richest nations as the standard to judge other societies. • Blames global poverty on the poor societies.

Dependency Theory Historical perspective LO 9. 4 Evaluate trends in global inequality. • People living in poor countries were better off in the past than they are now. • Economic position of rich and poor are linked.

Dependency Theory • Economic positions of rich and poor nations of the world are linked and cannot be understood apart from each other. • Some nations became rich only because others became poor. These women staged a protest in Athens, Greece; they are wearing white masks to symbolize the “faceless” workers who make much of what we wear. Is any of the clothing you wear made in sweatshop factories?

• Modernization theory claims that corporations that build factories in low-income between nations thereby helping people by providing them with jobs and higher wages than they had before; • Dependency theory views these factories as “sweatshops” that exploit workers In response to the Olympic Games selling sports clothing produced by sweatshops,

Dependency Theory Importance of colonialism • Europeans colonized much west, south and east. • African slave trade is the most brutal form of human exploitation. • Neocolonialism is the “essence” of the modern capitalistic world economy.

Wallerstein's Capitalist World Economy Today's world economy is rooted in the colonization that began 500 years ago. LO 9. 4 Evaluate trends in global inequality. • Rich countries: Form the core of the world economy and are enriched by raw materials from around the world. • Low-income countries: Are the periphery by providing inexpensive labor and a market for industrial products. • Middle-income countries: Form the semiperiphery, having a closer tie to the core

Wallerstein's Ideas • Narrow, export-oriented economies: • Poor countries produce only a few crops for export to rich countries. Wallerstein • Lack of industrial capacity: • Poor countries sell raw materials to rich countries, then buy finished products at high prices. • Foreign debt: • Poor countries owe rich countries $1 trillion dollars, including hundreds of billions to the United States. • World economy benefits rich nations by generating profits and harms rest of world by perpetuating poverty and dependency.

Wallerstein Evaluation • Wrongly treats wealth as zero-sum game. • Wrongly blames rich nations for global poverty. • Wrongly presents a simplistic by citing capitalism as the single factor. • Offers inaccurate claim that global trade always benefits rich nations. • Provides more protest than policy.

Figure 9. 5 (p. 269) The World’s Increasing Economic Inequality The gap between the richest and poorest people in the world is twice as big as it was a century ago. Source: International Monetary Fund (2000). Society: The Basics, 10 th Edition by John Macionis Copyright 2009 by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.