A status shift is the transition from one social status to another one. Some statuses are mutually exclusive, like military or civilian, laicos or religious, noble or commoner. Other statuses are not mutually exclusive, but contextual. One of the identities might be used in certain settings, while the other is used in different settings where the other status is unfavorable, undesirable, or unnecessary.
Stephen Colbert used the phrase in a taped interview with Harvard students in December 2006, briefly elaborating that all jokes contain status shifts . Stephen Colbert is a satirical television pundit who plays the character of a conservative, whose views contradict the actor's.
This is called situational negotiation of social identity; when ethnic identity is flexible and situational, it can become an achieved status. Shifting ethnic affiliations is when an ethnic group may move through levels of culture as they negotiate their identities. Ascribed status is associated with a position in the social–political hierarchy in many societies. Minority groups with inferior power and less secure access to resources are subordinate to majority groups. Ethnic groups help create races; in turn, discrimination against such a group is called racism.
Famous quotes containing the words status and/or shift:
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
—A.J. (Arthur James)
“Ghosts, we hope, may be always with us—that is, never too far out of the reach of fancy. On the whole, it would seem they adapt themselves well, perhaps better than we do, to changing world conditions—they enlarge their domain, shift their hold on our nerves, and, dispossessed of one habitat, set up house in another. The universal battiness of our century looks like providing them with a propitious climate ...”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)