英语专业-社会学英文论文“社会分化”.doc

Student Name: *** Student NO.： Professor: Diane Date: 2013-5-1 Social Stratification -- explanation of Chinese social phenomenons on the basis of class theory Abstract: Class exists in every society and is closely related to every individual; What is the defination of class? Is the social stratification only consist of class? How to use the concept of class to explain the current social phenomenons such as showing off wealth, disguisting as rich people to cheat money, and etc.? Social stratification exists in every society. We can sense it in our daily life and no one can escape from it. It is not uncommon to hear the media broadcast the proliferation of the middle-class in China. And people also label themselves as middle-class or upper middle class. It seems that every one is struggling to find a way to climb up the class ladder, for Chinese people all have a craze to get as much education as they can in order to get a well-paid, rather than suitable job. Nowadays wealth is more commonly regarded as the sole sign of success than any other ages. People firmly believe that wealth is the fundation and ensurance for them to have voice and gain respect in the society. Is that reasonable for them to think so? Or will their effort enable them to climb up the class ladder? To answer these questions, first we have to define class. Class is a large-scale grouping of people who shar common economic resources, which strongly influence the tyle of lifestyle they are able to lead. Ownership of wealth and occupation are the chief bases of class differences. The characteristics of class can be listed as following: first, class systems are fluid, which means the boundaries between classes are never clear-cut; second, class positions are in some part achieved, which indicates that through hard work movement upward in the class structure is possible; third, class is economically based, showing that classes depend on inequalities in the possession of material between groups of indivi