Final answer:
Social stratification refers to a socioeconomic system that categorizes individuals into hierarchies based on factors like wealth and power, influencing intergenerational mobility and perpetuating social inequalities.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept you're referring to is social stratification. This term describes a socioeconomic system that sorts individuals into different levels based on various factors such as wealth, power, prestige, race, education, and more. Within this system, certain groups may have privileged access to resources, leading to resource inequities from one generation to the next.
Social stratification results in a hierarchy within societies, where those who accumulate wealth and status form higher social classes, while others remain lower on the social scale. This can lead to intergenerational mobility, where individuals from different generations of the same family may belong to different social classes. Conversely, stratification can result in a perpetuation of inequalities when wealth and privilege are inherited, reducing social mobility for those lower in the hierarchy.
In essence, social stratification is linked to the distribution of material and symbolic resources, affecting individuals' life opportunities and potentially perpetuating systemic inequalities across generations.