Social stratification and cohesion in urban and rural areas on the example of the city of Tarnow and Tarnow Poviat

Abstract

This article presents the results of research carried out on a group of 500 students from the 3rd class of junior secondary school from the city of Tarnow and Tarnow poviat. An important element of the study was to diagnose the environments in terms of the status of families and the correlations between parents’ education, their social and occupational status and household spending. The concepts connected with social structure, equal opportunities and the students’ educational paths were presented in the theoretical part. The impact of social and family factors on the differentiation of students’ educational choices were pointed out in the third chapter, referring to the conclusions presented by other authors. The fourth chapter contains a detailed diagnosis of urban and rural social environments. The position of social environments studied in the context of parents’ education, their social and professional position as well as financial situation of households, confirmed the preservation of the “inferiority – superiority” system in any area of research between the village and the city. The last chapter of the article presents the connections between the family characteristics in the context of restoring the status consistency in the diagnosed environments. All these considerations that are subject of the article are accompanied by appropriate conclusions.