What is class
A relationship between societal segments which determines people’s life chances. It is a hierarchical social grouping accordding to…this is arguable but it can be based on socioeconomic status, cultural captial etc.
Explain theories of Karl Marx
Drew on:
- Herbert Spencer who was a Darwinist believing there was a social hierachy to which white men were at the top
- Emile Durkheim a modernist who established the idea of social facts and social consciousness or unconsciousness
Class is determined by:
- One’s relationship with production and to the other class
- Separated into the bourgeoisie (capitalists who own the means of production) and prolateriat (the labours who have to sell their work for money)
- Viewed this relationship between the bourgeoisie and prolateriat as inherently exploitative (because of the surplus value/profits being produced)
Predictions:
- Alongside Engles, Marx predicted society would reach a stage where the two classes could no longer exist, their opposing interests become more apparent –> lead to workers becoming more aware of their unity, collective consciousness and become politically organised –> revolution in which a society without classes would emerge
Other important ideas:
- Economic arrangement produces social arrangement
Explain theories of Pierre Bourdieu
- Introduced social and cultural capital as influences in determining one’s class, that it was more than just economic
Established a social space: - Class structure consists of three dimensions (the kind of capital, the amount and the time)
- Emphasises lifestyle choices and how one uses their economic capital is a reflection of their social and cultural capital and thus a contributing formation to their class
- Introduced the notion of a habitus and doxa –> doxa is what the rules/norms of the social field are and the habitus is the way you choose to exist in them
- Habitus is an embodied sense of the world that each person internalises through their experiences and interactions
- Doxa are taken for granted norms and discourses that are considered by agents in the field to be true, natural and obvious
Explain theories of Erik Olin Wright
- Established the six divisions of class which show how class locations contribute to social and economic inequality: Bourgeoisie, petit bourgeoisie, expert managers, managers, experts, workers
- Believed like Marx that one’s relationship to the means of production determines your class status
- Linked class structure to outcomes like social and economic inequality, individual and collective attitudes and behaviours etc.
Explain theories of Max Weber
Class is determined by:
- the market, what the individual has in terms of skill and how they can bargain for rewards in the market
Introduced the concept of social class:
- a cluster of market situations with high levels of mobility within them
Introduced status groups:
- communities of people with a common lifestyle distinguished from others by a particular non-economic social characteristic
- founded on estimations of social honour and prestige
Marketplace:
- concept of supply and demand of which these market forces are a determinat of one’s class
- didn’t believe class’s would clash, opponent and unite but rather that classes would become more competititive due to the notion of supply and demand
- industrialised society was becoming more specialised, there were different skill sets that could be traded in the marketplace
Other important ideas:
- considered the importance and relevance of the middle class as this began to emerge more widely with the marketplace
- It was about social mobility and that through advances in the marketplace and trade one could reach their life chances
What is social capital and give examples
- Sum of resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalised relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition
- Networks that can advance one’s class mobility
- Its not about what you know but who you know
- Relationships can leverage material opportunities
- they act as powerful exclusionary forces, the notion of social closure
Examples include: friends, relationships
What is cultural capital and give examples
- the accumulation of knowledge, behaviors, and skills that a person can tap into to demonstrate one’s cultural competence
- refer to the symbols, ideas, tastes, and preferences that can be strategically used as resources in social action
- There are 3 forms of cultural capital: embodied (accent, mannerisms, movement), objectified (computer, car, phone) and instiutionalised (university degree, qualifications)
- Different cpaital has different value in different social fields
- Cultural norms belong to particular classes e.g. tennis v AFL
Explain the six divisions of class as classified by Wright
- Bourgeoisie –> own productive assests, can live on the income generated
- Petit bourgeoisie –> business owners, own productive assests, need to keep working to have enough money to live
- Expert managers –> managerial authority and occupational skill e.g. partner in a law firm
- Managers –> managerial authority but no specialised occupational skill e.g. CEO of a water company knowing nothing about water
- Experts –> specialised occupational skill but no managerial authority e.g. doctor or engineer
- Workers –> neither managerial authority or specialised occupational skill
Explain the 4 different types of class consciousness
- Class-in-itself –> class relations are present but the workers have accepted their state as the norm, haven’t formed a political consciousness about their exploitative relationship
- Class-for-itself –> in a state of class consciousness, they have become aware of their exploitation and become a political force that could lead to revolution
- Class consciousness –> awared of your shared position, aware of having opposite interests to the other class and that the relationship is inherently exploitatative and conflictual
- False consciousness –> workers believe by helping the capitalists they are helping themselves, that their best interest are served through the interests of the capitalists
Explain social fields
- Many different social fields – eg sitting in a lecture at university, going to the pub, attending the theatre, going to a football game
- there are different rules and norms for different fields e.g. the way you behave in a classroom situation is different to hanging out with friends is different to a job interview
- social fields are an organised, internally differentiated domain of practice or action in which unequally socially positioned agents compete
Key authors
- Max Weber
- Pierre Bourdieu
- Erik Olin Wright
- Karl Marx
- Felix Donovan: the burdens of class and choice on young people’s end-of-school transitions
- John Goldthorpe
