The results of an ethnohistorical study of Lethbridge, Alberta led to my
questioning current presumptions in the Canadian social inequality literature
that social class, income, educational attainment, gender and ethnicity are
principal factors in shaping social inequality in Canada. The ethnographic
evidence suggests that membership criteria associated with locally-defined,
historically-evolved groups mark who has political influence (a specific form
of social power), and where the ensuing social inequalities lie in Lethbridge.
A theoretical framework describing how historical circumstances lead to
the redefinition of which socially-defined characteristics become local status
markers is presented as the underlying theoretical orientation of this thesis.
The framework does not preclude the possibility that social groups other than
those studied in this thesis use social class, occupation, income, education,
gender and ethnicity as status characteristics or group membership criteria.
The framework is my attempt to clarify the often-unclear relationship among
social inequality concepts.
A mail-out social survey (N=238) was used to empirically test the
hypothesis that Lethbridge group membership is a better predictor than social
class, income, educational attainment, gender and/or ethnicity of who has
political influence in Lethbridge community decision-making. Data was
analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), bivariate correlation, and
multiple regression. Mixed levels of support were found for the Lethbridge
group hypotheses, with the "fits in" and "local trade/business people"
receiving considerable support; North/South/West sider, and religious
affiliation receiving some support; and Old-timers receiving no support. In
contrast, the only social inequality hypothesis to receive more than minimal
support was level of education.
It is concluded that status characteristics are more fluid, local and
historically negotiated than assumed in the social inequality literature.
Suggested directions for future theoretical and empirical work include
refinement of the relationships among social inequality variables and further
empirical tests of the theoretical framework proposed here.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10662 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Marlor, Chantelle Patricia |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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