Social integration, disintegration and social stratification

Abstract

Abstract The aim of our paper is to present the difference and the relationship between social integration/ disintegration and social stratification. First, we summarize the major challenges to the study of social stratification and the responses given by scholars in the past few decades. Then, we contextualize these developments with a critical overview of the Hungarian social stratification literature. After defining social integration and disintegration and their relationship with social stratification, we identify the two main goals of our research project: (i) the identification and description of social groups and strata based on novel aspects compared to the old stratification paradigm, (ii) the description of integrative/disintegrative mechanisms explaining differences among these groups. Keywords: social integration, disintegration, social stratification