Page 11 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3

Social status relates to how you are viewed
by others and the level of respect they give Identity
you. Like a lot of things related to culture,
the problem we have is that status isn’t
something we can detect with our senses: Identity is related to social status in the
it has no physical substance, yet we sense that if you think about your response
recognise it when we encounter someone to the question “Who are you?”, it’s likely
who has it. you would reference a range of social
characteristics that “define who you are”
This apparent contradiction - how do we both for yourself and, equally importantly,
recognise something when it can’t be seen? for others. These might include:
- is resolved by the development of status
symbols, such as a mobile phone: objects Family: for example, name and general
that symbolise (or represent) someone’s background.
social status. Age: such as whether you are young or old.
Nationality: British, American…
The existence of status symbols tells us Gender: male, female, non-binary…
something about the nature and Sexuality: heterosexual, LGBT+
organisation of both society and culture: for
something to symbolise status it must mean In other words, when you start to think
it’s linked into a structure of meaning. about “who you are” it’s probable you’ll
think about your identity - at least in
That is, to understand the significance of explicitly social terms. That is, in terms of
status symbols we have to be able to key how the culture to which you belong
into a set of organised cultural meanings expresses these things.
that tell us what something means. This is
important, as you might expect, because it For the moment it’s enough to conclude on
demonstrates the existence of cultural a couple of points:
organisation.
Firstly, to describe (or identify) ourselves
That is, societies and cultures are organised we draw on a range of sources of identity
in ways that can be studied and explored by (class, age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality,
sociologists. disability…).

Secondly, in order to define ourselves as
individuals we draw upon a wide range of
cultural ideas and beliefs - something that
illustrates the central importance of culture
in our lives.

11