Hello -
I was web-browsing and came across your message about "status." Without having time to read through all responses, I felt I'd send you this quick message to relate a sociological definition for the term. (I have taught the subject at a community college level, while still proceeding through graduate studies at a major university.)
Status, for sociologists, properly refers merely to one's position in some social arrangement, which could either be a very clear-cut position (as in a bureaucracy) or a less clear-cut position that neverthele... (read more)
Thanks for posting this. It's always interesting to see how what seem like obvious concepts actually have histories and are disputed.
Education, income, and occupation strikes me as a classification that's destructively over-simplified. How does it handle power and respect relationships which are outside the mainstream? I'm thinking of children, street gangs, and terrorist groups. I don't think it can even generate an adequate description of families. I'm going to file it under "prime example of drunk and lamp post fallacy".
You might be interested in this description of how status is handled in the SCA-- it argues that having a system of three types of honor (for service, research, and heavy fighting) contribute greatly to the success of the organization.
Hello - I was web-browsing and came across your message about "status." Without having time to read through all responses, I felt I'd send you this quick message to relate a sociological definition for the term. (I have taught the subject at a community college level, while still proceeding through graduate studies at a major university.)
Status, for sociologists, properly refers merely to one's position in some social arrangement, which could either be a very clear-cut position (as in a bureaucracy) or a less clear-cut position that neverthele... (read more)