Social stratification and social co-ordination

Samenvatting

Social Stratification and Social Co-ordination. In this article, stratification and co-ordination are identified as basic dimensions of sociological analysis which can serve to order and, to some extent, to synthesize various competing theoretical traditions. On the horizontal dimension of coordination, social configurations range from highly coordinated through anomically co-ordinated to antagonistically co-ordinated configurations. On the vertical dimension of stratification, configurations can be ranked according to the degree of inequality of power chances. Besides degrees of stratification and co-ordination, three types of stratification and co-ordination are distinguished: cultural stratification and co-ordination in which the predominant mode of exercising influence is persuasion and appeal to common culture, exchange co-ordination and stratification in which the predominant mode of exercising influence is the application of negative sanctions and coercive co-ordination and stratification in which the predominant mode of exercising influence is the application of negative sanctions. With the help of this conceptual framework, competing theories of social order and social stratification are reformulated in such a manner that systematic comparisons between them become possible.