Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Status and Credentials

"Status may be based on one or more of three things: a distinct lifestyle, formal education, or differences in hereditary or occupational prestige", (Allan, 2008). What I want to focus on is education as a social status. Having a higher education can help you move up in your status. You would earn more money and begin spending and maintaining the lifestyle of living and keeping a higher social status. Also having a higher education gives me credentials and I am able to get a job and move up based on what I know rather than who I know. But if I never received a higher education and right out of high school I was able to get a job somewhere and through my hard work and determination I was able to rise to the ranks of CEO, would I still be seen as having the same type of credentials as someone who received their PhD and has a job in a university teaching and doing research?

1 comment:

  1. You might not have the same 'credentials' since you would not have the letters after your name, but you might have even more status if you were a famous CEO. Do you think that business people have more status than university teachers? Does it depend on what sort of business they run?

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