Stratifactory Differentiation
Stratificatory differentiation is a vertical differentiation according to rank or status in a system conceived as a hierarchy. Every rank fulfills a particular and distinct function in the system, for instance (and to return to the automobile analogy) the automoible manufacturing company president, the plant manager, trickling down to the assembly line worker. In Segmentary Differentiation inequality is an accidental variance and serves no essential function, however, inequality is systemic in the function of stratified systems. A stratified system is more concerned with the higher ranks (president, manager) than it is with the lower ranks (assembly worker) with regard to "influential communication." However, the ranks are dependent on each other and the social system will collapse unless all ranks realize their functions. This type of system tends to necessitate the lower ranks to initiate conflict in order to shift the influential communication to their level. (Ritzer 2007:97).
Read more about this topic: Differentiation (sociology)