Ordered into unequal layers or strata of wealth, status, power and privilege according to socially recognised differences so most wealthy, powerful and privileged at the top and poorest at the bottom
This is known as social stratification
Opportunity for members of the working class to experience upward social mobility is hindered by factors such as low income, lack of access to wealth, poverty and experience in education
What is Social Class?
Term used by sociologists found in modern industrial societies
Most sociologists do not agree on what we mean by social class or on how people should be classified
Generally agreed that members of a social class share a similar economic position
Similar occupation and levels of education
Economic inequalities of status and power
Link social class to differences in attitudes and culture such as working class and middle-class people have different attitudes to the importance of education and different tastes in leisure activities and consumer goods
Ruling Class and the Subject Class
19th century Karl Marx argued capitalist societies were divided into two social class:
- Ruling class – who owned the means of production
- Subject class – they were employed by the ruling class to produce the goods
Manual and Non-Manual Workers
While Marxists has influenced some sociologists, modern sociologists would argue that the class system is more complex
Some argue that middle class exists
Middle class were traditionally seen as non-manual workers who depended on educational qualifications and mental skills so they can earn high incomes than working class
Hope-Goldthorpe Classification
Sociologists argue there are divisions even within these broader social class
John Goldthorpe (1980) developed the Hope-Goldthorpe scale in order to undertake research into social mobility
He distinguished 3 main classes:
- Service class
- High professions
- Lower professionals
- Intermediate class
- Routine non-manual
- Small proprietors
- Lower grade techniques
- Working class
- Skilled manual workers
- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers
Underclass
Some writers such as Charles Murray (1989) argued that a new social class which has emerged below the working class
Consists of the poorest members of society such as unemployed
Unlike working class, who have paid jobs these groups largely dependent on state benefits
Measuring and Operationalising Social Class
Various groups have invested interests in operationalising and measuring the concept of social class in a consensus way for a number of reasons
- Sociologists want to address class differences in all areas of social life in order to identify reasons why inequalities come about
- Advertisers want to target particular social groups in order maximise sales
- Governments need to fortunate social policies in order to address inequalities and future trends
Each interests group has tended to operationalise the concept of social class in a different way
National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification
Used to clarify people by social class in official statistics such as the census and government surveys
Until 2000, the government used the register-generals classification of occupations to measure social class which involves that ranking of thousands of jobs into 6 groups
- High professional
- Lower professional
- White collar clerical workers
- Skilled
- Semi-skilled
- Unskilled blue-collar workers
Occupation and Social Class
Sociological approaches to class base heir classifications on occupations
It is useful guide to social class as many sociologists would see the class structure of modern industrial societies as based on the occupational structure etc…
A person’s occupation tells us, how much income, level of education, kind of housing, what lifestyle
All these factors link to social class according to sociologists
Occupational classes have limitations
Some people have no occupation but may be wealthy or else their occupation is a poor guide to their social position
Contain very diverse occupations
Class 1 includes both millionaire business people who would be classified as company directors and receive very modest salaries
Good indicator of social identity such as people in particular manual jobs may profess pride in being working class while people in professional and managerial jobs may share similar middle-class outlook
This approach to social class still leaves out those who do not work such as extremely rich who may live off inherited wealth, rents and stock dividends and long term unemployed
Objectives measures using occupation have enabled social class to be measured statistically as getting measures right has proved to be a problem
Various occupational scales that have been constructed have all been criticised for failing to present a true picture of the class structure
Subjective Social Class
Occupational classifications are objective definitions of class
Based on commonly agreed criteria for classifying people
These do not always coincide with subjective definitions of class
These are based on the social class to which people see themselves as belonging
Gordan Marshell et al (1988) found many people saw themselves as working class even though they were in non-manual work or white-collar jobs = middle class
Mike Savage (2001) they found a significant proportion of their respondents were reluctant to identify themselves with a social class and in general the notion of social class identity was relatively muted