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HIERARCHY

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012

Hierarchy is the structuring of social statuses and roles within an organization or society ranked according to differentiations of power, authority, wealth, income, etc.

Related terms of 'hierarchy' are ranking or stratification.

We analyse the occupational structure of friendship and present empirical results that show that there is one dimension of this structure that can be plausibly interpreted as reflecting a hierarchy of status. This status hierarchy is gender-neutral, and displays clear continuities with that depicted for the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries in historical and earlier sociological research. We further show that the correlation between social status and both income and education is only rather modest. As regards status and class, we find that while some classes show a rather high degree of status homogeneity, in other classes status stratification is quite extensive. - 'Is There a Status Order in Contemporary British Society? Evidence from the Occupational Structure of Friendship', Working Paper Number 2002-03, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, October, Chan, Tak Wing and Goldthorpe, John (2002) <sociology.ox.ac.uk/swps/2002-03.html>.

WELFARE, HIERARCHY AND THE `NEW RIGHT': THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL POLICY CHANGES IN BRITAIN, 1979-1989 - Peter Taylor-Gooby 
International Sociology, Vol. 4, No. 4, (1989) © 1989 International Sociological Association
The policy statements of the British Conservative government are heavily influenced by `new right' ideology. However, progress towards the declared goals of spending constraint, the expansion of the private sector, a high degree of selectivity in state provision and tax reduction has been slow. Changes in policy are better understood in terms of a redirection rather than a rolling back of the state; a greater emphasis in welfare intervention on the sustenance of the existing pattern of class inequalities and family dependency, and the nourishing of forces which will press for further shifts in this direction. The impact of policy change fits an old right programme of dependency, obligation and hierarchy better than a `new right' ideology of market individualism. ... obligation and hierarchy better than a `new right' ideology of market individualism.

Class Identities and the Identity of Class 
Wendy Bottero, University of Southamptonw.bottero@soton.ac.uk 
Sociology, Vol. 38, No. 5, 985-1003 (2004) © 2004 BSA Publications Ltd.
In rejecting both arguments of the ‘death of class’, and the increasingly minimalist positions of class traditionalists, a newer generation of class theorists have transformed the scope and analytical framework of class analysis: inflating ‘class’ to include social and cultural formations, reconfiguring the causal model that has underpinned class analysis, and abandoning the notion of distinct class identities or groups, focusing instead on individualized hierarchical differentiation. There are problems with transforming ‘class’ in this fashion, although the difficulty lies not in the departures from traditional class theory, but rather in what is retained. The uneasy relationship between older and newer aspects of ‘class’ within renewed class theory means the wider implications of inequality considered as individualized hierarchy (rather than as ‘class’) have not been fully explored.The debate on class identities (an important example of this new form of class analysis) illustrates these difficulties, and shows that issues of hierarchy extend well beyond issues of ‘class’. - soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/38/5/985

The Enduring Place of Hierarchy in World Politics: Tracing the Social Logics of Hierarchy and Political Change - John M. Hobson, Univ. of Sheffield, J. C. Sharman, Univ. of Sydney, Australia - European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 11, No. 1, 63-98 (2005) © 2005 European Consortium for Political Research, SAGE Publications
Conventional wisdom maintains that since 1648 the international system has comprised states-as-like units endowed with Westphalian sovereignty under anarchy. And while radical globalization theorists certainly dispute the centrality of the state in modern world politics, nevertheless most assume that the state retains its sovereignty under globalization. In contrast we argue that hierarchical sub-systems (and hence unlike units) have been common since 1648, and that the international system continues to be characterized by hierarchical (as well as anarchic) relations. The article goes on to reveal the existence of these multiple hierarchic formations and uncovers the differing social logics connected with identity-formation processes that govern their reproduction. Successive religious, racial, socialist and democratic social logics not only constitute their reproduction, but the emergence of new norms, social ideas and identities have to an important extent accounted for the rise and decay of successive hierarchies. - ejt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1/63

Hierarchy, Alienation, Commitment, and Organizational Effectiveness 
William M. Evan, The Wharton School, Department of Sociology and Management, University of Pennsylvania, Human Relations, Vol. 30, No. 1, 77-94 (1977) © 1977 The Tavistock Institute
Four dimensions of organizational hierarchy are identified: inequality of skills and knowledge, inequality of rewards, inequality of authority, and inequality of information distribution. Instead of the prevailing and largely untested hypothesis that hierarchical structure is positively related to organizational effectiveness, an alternative hypothesis is formulated, viz., that it is negatively related. This hypothesis is linked to a causal model interrelating hierarchical structure with work alienation, organizational commitment, and organizational effectiveness. Some evidence for the alternative hypothesis is examined. The four-dimensional concept is then used to assess the burgeoning literature on industrial democracy. The phenomenon of "shop-floor democracy" is conceptualized as involving a process of destratification with respect to allfour dimensions of hierarchy. In view of environmental pressuresfor the rationalization of organizations as well as the secular trend in this direction, a destratification-rationalization hypothesis is formulated: As the positive slope of the relationship between these two clusters of variables increases, organizational effectiveness increases and work alienation decreases. To test this hypothesis an experimental approach, whether in the laboratory or in the field, is essential. - hum.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/1/77

Varieties of Hierarchies and Markets: an Introduction 
GARY G. HAMILTON, (Department of Sociology, University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195
ROBERT C. FEENSTRA, Department of Economics, University of California Davis, CA, USA) 
Abstract: The paper presents both a theoretical and an empirical argument that the concept of hierarchy needs to be reconceptualized. In our theoretical discussion we develop a synthesis between Coase's and Williamson's conception of a market/hierarchy dichotomy and Weber's distinction between economic power and authority. We hold that the authoritative aspects of bierarchies, especially within networks of firms, have independent effects on the formation of market economies. We empirically demonstrate the relevance of this reconceptualization in an analysis of the economics of South Korea and Taiwan. With these cases, we show that two different types of authoritative interfirm networks, one vertically and the other horizontally arranged, substantially shape the performance of these economies. - icc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/4/1/51

Ryon Lancaster. “Constructing Careers: The Creation of Hierarchy in the Catholic Church.”

Gender Hierarchy Among Gujarati Immigrants: Linking Immigration Policy and Cultural Norms. - Nandini Narain Assar - DISSERTATION ABSTRACT
Immigration policy and tradition dovetail in their impact on the social organization of immigrant communities, linking the material and non-material aspects of gender. I focus on Asian Indian Patels, who dominate the budget motel business in the U.S. Most Patels enter the U.S under family reunification rules in a chain migration. These rules do not recognize families as labor, therefore a majority of documented immigrants are exempt from labor certification. Traditions define Patel women as housewives. The nature of motel work allows women to contribute their labor full-time and still remain housewives: they are not recognized as workers. Community financing and family labor, both escapes from the market economy, allow for the economic success of Patels. When families take on subsequent links in the chain migration, they must meet the costs of migration for new immigrants, and maintain traditional gender hierarchy. When they are the last link in the chain, there is a challenge to this hierarchy. In the second generation, when they remain in the motel business, Patels maintain traditional gender hierarchy. When either partner is linked to the labor market, there is a challenge to traditional gender hierarchy. - scholar.lib.vt.edu 

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