We explain what social status is, how it is obtained and what social mobility is. In addition, we tell you what is the status quo.
What is status?
In a very general sense, someone's status refers to the position that person occupies within a community, either the society whole or a specific grouping. Thus, a person with status is a person well seen, admired or esteemed by the group, while a person without status is the opposite.
This term is equivalent to the Latin word status, from which it comes, which can be translated as "state" or "condition". For this reason, it is also used to refer to the condition of people within a value system, as occurs when we refer to "social status" (the place that someone occupies within society), "immigration status" ( the condition that someone has in front of the laws of a country) or the “civil status” (the legal condition that someone has in front of the state: married, single, among others).
The terms state, condition, situation, appreciation or assessment are synonymous with status.
Social status
Social status is the relative position a person occupies within her community. This can refer to socioeconomic class, artistic prestige, fame, political hierarchy or any other condition that is valued and respected by the group in question.
Thus, when we say that someone has a social status, we mean that they are very well connected and that they are appreciated, respected and/or admired within society, which generally translates into a good socioeconomic position.Therefore, when we talk about “people of status” or “people with status”, we tend to refer most of the time to high society.
Social status can be held in two different ways:
- Assigned social status. It is the one that is received from the ancestors, that is, that is received in inheritance, without one doing anything else to deserve it than being born in a certain context. This status is determined by conditions prior to the existence of the individual and in which he has no choice, such as his race, his social class or the story of your family.
- Acquired social status. It is one that is earned on its own merits, such as success economic and professional, intellectual or artistic recognition, or under certain conditions, heroism. The acquired status is granted by the whole of society, its institutions or by those who already, paradoxically, have a certain status of any kind. In this sense, status depends on the cultural and historical rules that determine society at that time.
In either case, social status can be objective or subjective, depending on whether it comes from the formal recognition of others (objective status), or if it is an impression that a person has about himself (subjective status). The latter can, in turn, be correct or false, depending on how much it coincides with the objective status.
However, social status can change, as people can change their position within the hierarchical strata of society: a phenomenon known as Social Mobility. Social mobility can be of two types:
- Upward social mobility. When the person "gains status", that is, moves up the pyramid of hierarchy social, and positively changes social class. In today's society, this usually implies increases in the money earned, successful ventures or great professional achievements.
- Downward social mobility. When the person "loses status", that is, descends in the pyramid of the social hierarchy, and negatively changes social class. In today's society, this often means drastic losses in capital own or the private property, or economic catastrophes, that is, impoverishment.
Status quo
The expression status quo, sometimes mistakenly written as “status quo” or “status quo”, comes from the Latin saying standstill, translatable as "in the state in which", and refers, in general, to the determined order of things at a precise moment, that is, to the way in which things work within society or a system, in a punctual moment.
For example, him status quo of one business can refer to its organization and hierarchy, while the status quo of a country usually refers to government or to the political system as a whole. Those who oppose status quo They are classified as revolutionaries and their aspiration is to overthrow the current order to impose a new one.
Status quo it is also used within a much larger expression, common in the field of international politics and the drafting of treaties between nations: “status quo ante bellum”, that is, “the state of things before the war”.
In this case, it should be understood that after wars, many borders and international provisions tend to change, be erased or lost in the conflict, as the armies exchange their domain over the territories; but when the fighting ends, the parties can agree to return everything to how it was before the war, which is known as a case of status quo ante bellum.