Instructions
What is Packback Questions?
Packback Questions is a Question-Based Discussion platform where you can ask the BIG
questions about what you’re learning, and what you still want to know. Our company exists to
wake up the fearless, relentless curiosity in every student…because we believe that great
innovation are always born out of great questions.
Questions to post in Packback Questions
Ask Open-Ended Questions that’s can’t simply be Googled:
Make it Open-Ended: Ask questions that have many possible answers. Try asking questions
that do not have a single accepted “right” answer. Try asking questions that prompt your
classmates to think about how what is being learned in class could be applied to solve real-world
problems.
Make it specific: The more specific your question is, the better the responses will be. If you ask
“How should a company market themselves?”, you’ll receive very general answers.
Instead, try presenting a specific scenario like, “Imagine you run a 20-person family-run pizza
shop in a suburb of Detroit that is just starting to introduce delivery. What are some unique
marketing tactics that this company could use to make the launch of their delivery service
successful?”
Make connections: To really take it to the next level, try asking questions that make connections
between two (or more) of your classes. The possibilities are endless, just think big, open your
mind, and be fearless. This is called Combinatorial Thinking, and this type of thought
process has been cited as one of the biggest drivers of innovation; taking the knowledge from
one industry, and applying it to another industry in unexpected, revolutionary ways.
The best way to check if your question belongs on Packback is to ask yourself, “Would I be
intrigued to read an answer to this question, even it if it wasn’t for class?”
You can also ask the following:
Thoughtful “Extra Help” questions that show work
Stuck on a concept from class? Post a thoughtful “extra help” question and show your work up
to where you got stuck. Packback is not a place to just ask for an answer, it’s a place to get an
explanation about WHY that is the answer.
Asking for responses to an article, video, or passage
Share an interesting related source, along with why you found it interesting, and ask an OpenEnded follow-up question about it! Sharing interesting related resources is one of the best ways
to inspire your classmates’ curiosity.
How to write a response on Packback Questions
Write the kind of response you’d like to read:
Treat each answer on Packback as a mini-essay
Your response should have a perspective or thesis of what you believe, called the “Response
Summary”. In the main body of your answer, support that thesis with examples and real data
points that help make your case and add context. Adding formatting and paragraph breaks helps
with legibility, and also can help you think about how to structure your response in a logical
way. You can and should share your opinion, even if it is at odds with current accepted views,
but always make sure to support your opinion with facts.
Expand on your idea until it is a fully explained
Write a minimum of 1 paragraph; short answers are usually no more valuable than a quick
Google search. Even if the question you’re responding to could lend itself to a short answer, try
to push yourself to create an answer that adds new value to our collective knowledge. Your
response will inspire your classmates’ curiosity.
Add videos, images and sources to add context (and make it interesting!)
Our Rich Text Editor allows the embedding of images, animated gifs and videos right into your
post. If you can, always include at least one video, image or source with your answer that helps
to explain your perspective, make your response more interesting, and provide an additional
resource for extra exploration if your response sparks someone’s curiosity. Including sources and
media also increases the likelihood that your answer will be read and Featured!
What NOT to post in Packback
If you see a question or answer that violates the Community Guidelines, please click the red
“Flag” button so our moderators can remove it, to keep your community healthy!
Questions that are phrased as a statement, not a question
Example: “I thought that what we learned in class today was interesting.”
How to do it better: Make sure your question is a real question, and that it ends in a question
mark
Questions that are Closed-Ended (only 1 “right” answer)
Example: “Is the sky blue?”
How to do it better: Ask open-ended questions that many possible answers that create NEW
insight or NEW value for the community.
Try asking open-ended questions like “On another planet with a different atmospheric
composition, what color might the sky be and why?”
Questions or Answers that contain profanity or offensive language
Example: …If you wouldn’t say to your teacher’s face, please don’t post it in Packback!
How to do it better: Use professional, approachable language. Use empathy to build
connections.
Questions that are “class-specific”, rather than concept focused
Example: “What is on the test?” or “Is class cancelled today?”
How to do it better: Ask questions that would be relevant to anyone studying the same subject,
even if they’re not in your class.
Questions or Answers that have no relation to the subject of the class
Example: Posting a question about movies in a geology class
How to do it better: Always connect your question back to the subject in some way, no matter
how unique or diverse your idea is.
For example, you can still post about a movie in your Geology class if it adds relevant value to
the discussion (like a question asking for examples scientifically inaccurate geologic information
in popular movies).
Duplicates of other questions or answers already posted
Example: Knowingly posting a question or answer again that has already been posted before in
your community.
How to do it better: Think about the questions you are curious about; there are infinite possible
questions, so there shouldn’t be a reason to repeat! And be sure to read your community so you
know what else has been posted.
Questions or Answers that are intended for cheating
Example: Asking for an answer to a direct homework question, study guide question or test
question without showing work.
How to do it better: If you’re confused on a topic from class, you can absolutely use Packback
as a way to get more explanation. Instead of asking the question from the homework or study
guide…ask the question that best summarizes exactly what you are confused about.
How to ask an Open-Ended Question:
Open-ended questions don’t necessarily have a single correct answer. They are those questions
that make you consider a number of possibilities, and make you capable of creating answers
instead of just reciting them. Packback moderators remove closed-ended questions because they
distract from the true vision we see come to life when students begin to ask outstanding, thoughtprovoking questions.
If you think your question or answer might not lead to a deep discussion, here are some
helpful tips:
Avoid definition questions or “what’s the difference between ___ and ___ blank?”. That is
simply memorization, not critical thinking!
Think one step beyond the question. Always try to continue the conversation by asking a followup question, giving an opinion, or sharing a great resource.
Focus on the “how” and “why” of what you’re learning in class, and not the “what.” “What” is a
great foundation for understanding, but we all learn the most when we start asking “why.”
When you think of a closed-ended question…don’t forget that any closed-ended question can be
reworded and reworked to become an awesome open-ended question.
Here is an example of how to take a closed-ended question and make it open-ended:
Closed-Ended = Are GMO’s good or bad?
Why: This question is closed-ended because someone could answer it with a one word answer,
“Good” or “Bad”. It doesn’t ask for any more depth and doesn’t push the answerer to explain
their thought process.
Open-Ended = What do you think the most interesting applications of genetically modified
crops are? What are some potential risks?
Why: This question is open-ended because it asks for examples of interesting applications, and
asks the user to detail what risks might be. It cannot be answered with a single word.
The Packback Community Mindset
Be Kind: Be mindful of your communication and the impact of your words.
Be Curious: When ideas or questions pop into your mind, share them with the community!
Be Fearless: Do not be afraid to look like you care. Don’t be afraid to look silly. Think big…you
have nothing to lose.
Be Creative: Combine! Create! Add Constraints! Get a little crazy! Read this post by James
Altucher about how to become an idea machine.
Be Open: When your classmates share an opposing view, be open! There is value to be found in
every interaction.
Stratification, Class, and Inequality Chapter 8
Introduction to Sociology
Ninth Edition
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier,
Richard P. Appelbaum, & Deborah Carr
Stratification, Class, and Inequality
• Which income group lost the greatest
percentage of its wealth during the
Great Recession of 2008?
– (a) the upper class
– (b) the middle class
– (c) the lower class
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Learning Objectives
• Basic Concepts
– Learn about social stratification and the importance of social
background in an individual’s chances for material success
• Theories of Stratification in Modern Societies
– Know the most influential theories of stratification—including
those of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Erik Olin Wright
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Learning Objectives
• Research on Social Stratification Today
– Know the class differences in U.S. society, what influences them
and how they are defined and determined
– Recognize the ways in which the gap between rich and poor
has grown larger
– Learn the processes by which people become marginalized in
a society and the forms this marginalization takes
• Unanswered Questions
– Learn about competing explanations for why poverty exists and
means for combating it
– Understand your own social mobility chances
– Learn how changes in the American economy since the 1970s
have led to growing inequalities
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Basic Concepts
• Social Stratification
– How individuals and social groups are
divided in society and the inequalities of
wealth and power that result
• Structured Inequalities
– Social inequalities that result from
patterns in the social structure
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Basic Concepts
• Slavery
– A form of social stratification in which
some people are literally owned by
others as their property
– Total subjection of individual to the
interests of their owners
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Basic Concepts
• Caste systems
– A social system in which one’s social
status is given for life
– Social life is segregated
– Intimate relationships are restricted to
members of one’s own caste
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Basic Concepts
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Basic Concepts
• Class
– A large group of people who hold
similar material prosperity and power
• Life chances
– A person’s opportunities for achieving
economic prosperity
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Basic Concepts
• Income
– Payment, usually derived from wages,
salaries, or investments
– Unequal distribution of income among
class groups
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0
Basic Concepts
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Basic Concepts
• Wealth
– The assets that an individual owns, such
as cash, savings, and checking accounts
and investments in stocks, bonds, and
real estate
– Unequal distribution across class groups
– Racial divisions persist
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Basic Concepts
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Basic Concepts
• Education
– College education predicts occupation,
income, and wealth later in life
– Racial differences persist
• Occupation
– Affected by education
– Affects income and wealth
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Basic Concepts
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Basic Concepts
• Class and Lifestyle
– Economic capital
– Cultural capital
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Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Karl Marx
– Class is based on relationship to the
means of production
• How production of material goods is carried
on in a society, including technology and
social relations between producers
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Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Karl Marx
– Capitalists
• People who own companies, land, or stocks
and use them to generate economic returns
– Working class
• People who sell their labor to capitalists and
generate surplus value
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Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Max Weber
– Besides relationships to the means of
production, class divisions depend on
skills, credentials, and social status
– Pariah groups prevented from
opportunities
• Groups who suffer from negative status
discrimination
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Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
– Stratification is functional
– Important positions in society require
special skills and offer greater rewards
– Most qualified people fill the most
important roles and receive the greatest
benefit
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Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Erik Olin Wright
– Class divisions based on:
• Control over investments or monetary
capital
• Control over the physical means of
production
• Control over labor power
– Contradictory class locations
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Theories of Stratification in Modern
Societies
• Annette Laureau
– Different parenting styles on the basis of
social class position
– Concerted cultivation vs. natural growth
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• The upper class in the United States
– Broadly composed of the more affluent
members of society, especially those
who have inherited wealth, own
businesses, and hold large numbers of
stocks (shares)
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• The middle class in the United States
– Composed broadly of those working in
white-collar and lower managerial
occupations
– Occupational prestige, income, and
wealth split middle class into upper
middle and lower middle classes
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• The working class in the United States
– Broadly composed of people working in
blue-collar or manual labor occupations
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• The lower class in the United States
– Composed of people who work parttime or not at all and whose annual
household income is typically below
$20,000
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• The “under class” in the United States
– Individuals situated at the bottom of the
class system, often composed of people
in the highest-poverty neighborhoods of
the inner city
– “New urban poor”
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Social mobility
– Intergenerational mobility
– Intragenerational mobility
– Structural mobility
– Exchange mobility
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Upward mobility
– Higher education
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Absolute poverty
– The minimal requirements necessary to
sustain a healthy existence
• Relative poverty
– Poverty defined according to the living
standards of the majority in any given
society
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Measuring poverty
– The poverty line
• An official government measure that defines
those living in poverty in the United States
• In 2011, $22,350 annually was the poverty
income for a family of four
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Research on Social Stratification Today
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Working poor
– People who work, but whose earnings
are not enough to lift them above the
poverty line
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Working poor
– In 2011, minimum wage was $7.25/hour
for full-time annual income of $14,500
– Only 5 percent of low-income families
that work full-time, full-year qualify for
welfare
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Research on Social Stratification Today
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• The feminization of poverty
– An increase in the proportion of the poor
who are female
– Growing numbers of women who are
single mothers, divorced, or separated
• Children in poverty
– Related to economic conditions and
government spending
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Research on Social Stratification Today
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Elderly in poverty
– Low overall poverty rate (9 percent)
– Large variation based on race and
gender
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Research on Social Stratification Today
• Homeless
– People who have no place to sleep and
either stay in free shelters or sleep in
public places not meant for habitation
– Young single men of working age
– Families (often single women) with
children
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Unanswered Questions
• Is Inequality Declining or Increasing
in the United States?
– Kuznets Curve
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Unanswered Questions
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Unanswered Questions
• Why are Poverty Rates Rising in the
United States?
– Culture of poverty
• Poor are socialized to learn values, beliefs,
and lifestyles that are incompatible with
upward mobility in the class system
– Dependency culture
• Culture of individuals who rely on
government welfare subsidies rather than
working for pay
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Unanswered Questions
• Why are Poverty Rates Rising in the
United States?
– Social structure
• Inequities are built into the system that affect
opportunities available to people depending
on their gender, race, ethnicity, education, or
social class
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Unanswered Questions
• What Can Be Done to Combat
Poverty?
– Welfare systems
• Provide basic benefits like food, housing,
and medical care to the poor
• Critics argue that welfare recipients become
dependent on a system that is supposed to
make them independent
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Unanswered Questions
• What Can Be Done to Combat
Poverty?
– Welfare reform
• Time limits
• Work-training programs
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Unanswered Questions
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Unanswered Questions
• How Will These Economic Patterns
Affect Your Life?
– Decreasing effect of education on
mobility chances
– Increasing income inequality
– Global economic competition
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Concept Quiz
Ownership of wealth, occupation, income,
and education are the four main bases of
which kind of stratification system?
(a) caste
(b) class
(c) meritocratic
(d) slavery
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Concept Quiz
According to your text, approximately what
percentage of the country’s total net worth
was held by the bottom 60 percent of
Americans in 2007?
(a) 23 percent
(b) 60 percent
(c) 2 percent
(d) 11 percent
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Concept Quiz
Rosie, a woman from a working-class family, won a huge lottery
jackpot. She decided to apply for membership at an exclusive
country club but felt unwelcome there after ordering the
“wrong” wine at a prospective member dinner and receiving
stares when she smoked a cigarette outside. What does her
experience demonstrate about class?
(a)Occupational status can impact one’s class standing even more than
one’s wealth or income.
(b) One must obtain cultural capital at a very young age in order to be
able to circulate smoothly among those in the top class brackets.
(c) Class is not only determined and expressed economically but also
through lifestyle choices and personal tastes.
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Concept Quiz
According to the logic of Davis and Moore’s
functionalist theory of stratification, which of
the following occupations must be
functionally most important to society?
(a) corporate lawyer
(b) sewage-treatment plant mechanic
(c) sixth-grade teacher
(d) police officer
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Concept Quiz
What is one implication of Bourdieu’s theory
of cultural capital?
(a) Social mobility is less about how hard you work
and more about the kinds of tools you work with.
(b) Growing up rich ultimately creates cultural
disadvantages in adulthood.
(c) The hardest-working members of society will
usually wind up highly successful.
(d) Working-class parents do not place high value on
their children’s education.
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Concept Quiz
What is meant by the feminization of poverty?
(a) the emasculating effect poverty has on men,
whose masculinity must be proven by the ability to
provide for one’s family
(b) the fact that poor women who cannot afford the
clothing and beauty regimens of rich women must
behave in ultra-feminine ways to compensate
(c) an increase in the proportion of the poor who are
female
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Discussion Question: Thinking
Sociologically
If you were doing your own study of status
differences in your community, how would you
measure people’s social class? Explain why you
would take the particular measurement approach
you’ve chosen. What would be its value(s) and
shorcomings(s) compared with those of alternative
measurement procedures?
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Discussion Question: Thinking
Sociologically
Using occupation and occupational change as your
mobility criteria, view the social mobility within
your family and explain why you think people in
your family have moved up, moved down, or
remained at the same status level. Apply these
terms: vertical and horizontal mobility, upward and
downward mobility, intragenerational and
intergenerational mobility.
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This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint
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