incorporation
incorporationThe process whereby social groups, classes, and individuals are integrated into a larger social entity. This can be seen as being achieved either through the extension of rights and the subsequent exacting of obligations, as in citizenship communities, or through mechanisms such as social mobility, intermarriage, and urban desegregation. As with social closure, incorporation implies marginalized groups, elite-mass relations, and co-optation. The term has been widely employed in discussions about the allegedly revolutionary role of the proletariat, a historical mission which (it is claimed by some) has been frustrated by the incorporation of this class, via the mechanisms of the welfare state, political representation, home ownership, and more recently share ownership. See also corporate society.
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