ABSTRACT
Emotional stratification ultimately is generated by the reserves of accumulated negative and positive emotions that are built up over people's lifetimes in encounters within corporate units and from their treatment as members of categoric units. When emotional arousal has been consistently positive in encounters within corporate units across differentiated institutional domains individuals will typically have positive views of themselves and others, a sense of efficacy, and confidence in their actions. This chapter talks about the basic structure of social reality from a sociological perspective. Relations among corporate units within and between institutional domains are not only integrated by culture but also by structural connections. Classes are the outcome of the distribution of generalized symbolic media by corporate units within institutional domains. The chapter lists and describes briefly the range of structural mechanisms of integration: segmentation; differentiation; structural interdependencies generated by exchange, structural embedding, structural overlap, and structural mobility; domination; and segregation.
