Upward Mobility Through Sports Stanley Eitzen's article "Upward Mobility Through Sports" is an analysis of the ability of individuals to raise themselves upward through the social stratification that currently exists in America. Sports are often seen by those on the lower end of the social strata as a means of rising up and becoming economically successful. However, Eitzen points out that the chances of rising socially and economically through a career in professional sports is not likely. This article fits in with the readings from our textbook as they discuss the existence of social stratification and the effects on an individual of their position within that society.

Chapter 7 in our textbook opens with Murray Milner's theories on high school social structure as a means to begin a discussion on social stratification; or the inequalities among individuals and groups within society. This leads to a listing of the three characteristics that all social stratification systems share. Firstly all social rankings apply to categories of...

Secondly people's lives are dependent upon how their social category is ranked, and thirdly, social ranks tend to change very slowly. Different ranks of social strata can include forms such as slavery, caste systems, or more common in the West, class. Class as a means of ranking can differ from slavery or caste systems because class systems are fluid, positions within the class are partly earned, class is equated with economic resources, and class systems are not based on individuals but impersonal groups. It is suggested in the readings that class divisions, particularly in Western nations, are beginning to weaken. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of the most influential theories of social stratification, theories put forward by Karl Marx and Max Weber. Marx's theory of social stratification is based on economics and more specifically in relation to the means of production in an industrialized society; and divides society between either industrialists or the workers.…