Status group

The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) formulated a three-component theory of stratification that defines a status group (also status class and status estate) as a group of people who, within a society, can be differentiated on the basis of non-economic qualities such as honour, prestige, ethnicity, race and religion. (Weber used the German terms Stand (status group) and Stände (status groups).) The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) formulated a three-component theory of stratification that defines a status group (also status class and status estate) as a group of people who, within a society, can be differentiated on the basis of non-economic qualities such as honour, prestige, ethnicity, race and religion. (Weber used the German terms Stand (status group) and Stände (status groups).) Since Weber's day, sociologists have intensively studied the matter of “status incongruence” - both in post-industrial societies, and in other countries.