Student Resources - Chapter 7
Internet Activity 7.1
In order to get a feel for the significance of social stratification and differentiation in contemporary Britain, the following ‘Focus on…’ websites of the Office for National Statistics provide sources of contemporary information on inequalities. As you go through these sites, make notes on some of the major differences you come across, and reach some conclusions on the significance of social stratification in contemporary Britain.
This activity may be divided between groups, with each group exploring one aspect of inequality, presenting their findings to the rest of the group, and producing a summary sheet which may be distributed to other members of the class, combining to provide notes giving an overall profile of contemporary Britain.
www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/socialinequalities/ - this describes the different experiences of social groups in the UK today in six key areas: education, work, income, living standards, health, and participation. It looks at the 'advantaged' as well as the 'disadvantaged' and explores the relative differences between them.
www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/gender/ - describes differences around gender.
www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/ethnicity/ - describes differences around ethnicity.
www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/olderpeople/ - describes some age-related differences
Multiple Choice Quiz 7
Click here to access the Multiple Choice Quiz for this Chapter.
Matching Exercise 7
Click here to access the Matching Exercise for this Chapter.
Worksheets
Click here to download the Worksheet on Stratification and Differentiation.
Internet links - 7 Stratification and Differentiation
- www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp - the Office for National Statistics, a useful starting point for data on stratification and differentiation. The following sub-sites are useful too:
- www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/socialinequalities/ - evidence on social class
- www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/gender/ - evidence on gender
- www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/ethnicity/ - evidence on ethnicity
- www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/olderpeople/ - evidence on age
- www.jrf.org.uk - the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which aims to provide evidence, solutions and ideas that will help overcome the causes of poverty and disadvantage.
- www.statistics.gov.uk/socialtrends - access to current and past editions of Social Trends, an established reference source that draws together social and economic data from a wide range of UK government departments and other organizations; it paints a broad picture of UK society today, and how it has been changing.
- www.dcsf.gov.uk - the site of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, for information on different levels of educational achievement by class, gender and ethnicity.
- www.poverty.org.uk/ - the Poverty Site, covering all kinds of information about poverty in the UK.
- www.equalityhumanrights.com/ - the Equality and Human Rights Commission, where it is possible to access a range of material relating to inequalities in contemporary Britain (click on ‘research’ and then ‘resources’).
- www.un.org - the United Nations, for information on global inequalities
- www.trinity.edu/mkearl/strat.html - ‘Explorations in Social Inequality’, a site at Trinity University in Texas which contains a huge range of links to all aspects of stratification. Much of the data is American, but there is a lot of very useful information on sociological theories too.
- www.marxists.org/ - an online Marxist archive, containing huge amounts of information about Marxism and Marxists.
