| bourgeoisie | One of Marx’s opposed classes; owners of the means of production (factories, mines, large farms, and other sources of subsistence).
|
 |
|
|
| capital | Wealth or resources invested in business, with the intent of producing a profit.
|
|
|
|
| capitalist world economy | The single world system, which emerged in the 16th century, committed to production for sale, with the object of maximizing profits rather than supplying domestic needs.
|
|
|
|
| caste system | Closed, hereditary system of stratification, often dictated by religion; hierarchical social status is ascribed at birth, so that people are locked into their parents’ social position.
|
|
|
|
| core | Dominant structural position in the world system; consists of the strongest and most powerful states with advanced systems of production.
|
|
|
|
| imperialism | A policy of extending the rule of a nation or empire over foreign nations or of taking and holding foreign colonies.
|
|
|
|
| income | Earnings from wages and salaries.
|
|
|
|
| indigenous peoples | The original inhabitants of particular territories; often descendants of tribespeople who live on as culturally distinct colonized peoples, many of whom aspire to autonomy.
|
|
|
|
| Industrial Revolution | The historic transformation (in Europe, after 1750) of “traditional” into “modern” societies through industrialization of the economy.
|
|
|
|
| open class system | Stratification system that facilitates social mobility, with individual achievement and personal merit determining social rank.
|
|
|
|
| periphery | Weakest structural position in the world system.
|
|
|
|
| semiperiphery | Structural position in the world system intermediate between core and periphery.
|
|
|
|
| slavery | The most extreme, coercive, abusive, and inhumane form of legalized inequality; people are treated as property.
|
|
|
|
| vertical mobility | Upward or downward change in a person’s social status.
|
|
|
|
| working class | Or proletariat; those who must sell their labor to survive; the antithesis of the bourgeoisie in Marx’s class analysis.
|