social class

Question 1

what is social classs?

Answer 1

• social class is the term used by sociologists to describe the form of social stratification found in modern industrial societies
• sociologists do not agree on what we mean by social class or on how people should be classified
• however it is generally agreed that members of a social class share a similar economic position
• for example similar levels of income and wealth as well as similar occupations and levels of education
• these economic inequalities can be linked to inequalities of status and power
• some sociologists also link social class to differences in attitudes and culture
• for example working class and middle class people have different attitudes to the importance of education and different tastes in leisure activities and consumer goods

Question 2

what is the ruling class and the subject class?

Answer 2

-in the 19th century Marx argued that capitalist societies such as Britain were essentially divided into two social classes: the ruling class or the bourgeoisie who owned the means of production such as factories and other businesses and the subject class or the proletariat, who were employed by the ruling class to produce goods and services

Question 3

What is the middle class?

Answer 3

• some sociologists have argued that a middle class exist between the wealthy upper class at the top of society and the working class at the bottom
• the middle class were traditionally seen as non manual workers who depended on educational qualifications and mental skills in order to earn higher incomes than the working class or manual workers who depend on physical strength and skills

Question 4

what is the hope gold classification (1980)?

Answer 4

-Goldthorpe developed the hope goldthorpe scale in order to undertake research into social mobility
-Goldthorpe discovered three main classes which could be divided into seven occupational classes:
service class 1. higher professionals, managers of large companies etc. 2. lower professionals, supervisors, administrators, small business managers intermediate class
3. routine non-manual workers
4. self employed artisans, small proprietors
5. low grade technicians and supervisors of manual work
`working class
6. skilled manual workers
7. semi skilled and unskilled manual workers

Question 5

what did Murray (1989) say about the underclass?

Answer 5

• Murray has argued that a new social class, the underclass, has emerged below the working class
• this consists of the poorest members of society, such as the unemployed, lone parent families and chronically sick and disabled -people who cannot work
• unlike the working class, who have paid jobs, these groups are largely dependent on state benefits

Question 6

what are the national statistics socio-economic classification?

Answer 6

• the national statistics socio-economic classification scale is used to classify people by social class in official statistics such as the census and government surveys
• class 1 = 10.3% 0f working population 2011
• class 2 = 20.8% 0f working population 2011
• class 3 = 12.7% 0f working population 2011
• class 4 = 9.4% 0f working population 2011
• class 5 = 6.9% 0f working population 2011
• class 6 = 14.1% 0f working population 2011
• class 7 = 11.1% 0f working population 2011
• class 8 = 5.6% 0f working population 2011

Question 7

what is occupation and social class?

Answer 7

• many sociological approaches to class base their classifications on occupations
• occupation is a useful guide to social class because many sociologists would see the class structure of modern industrial societies as based on the occupational structure, the ranking of occupations in term of income, status and power
• a persons occupation not only tells us roughly what their income is, it also gives a good indication of what level of educational qualifications they have, what kind of housing they live in and possible what kind of lifestyle they have outside work
• these are all factors that many sociologists would link to social class

Question 8

what are the problems with measuring occupational classes?

Answer 8

• occupational classes however have their limitations
• some people have no occupation but may be very wealthy or else their occupation is a poor guide to their social position
• occupational classes can also contain very diverse occupations

Question 9

what are subjective social classes?

Answer 9

• occupational classifications are objective definitions of class - in other words based on commonly agreed criteria with subjective definitions of class
• these do not always coincide with subjective definitions of class
• these are based on the social class to which people see themselves as belonging

Question 10

what did Marshall et al (1988) say about subjective social class?

Answer 10

-Marshall found that many people in their research themselves as working class despite the fact that they were in non-manual or white collar jobs that many sociologists would describe as middle class

Question 11

what did Savage et al (2001) say about subjective social class?

Answer 11

-Savage however found that a significant proportion of their respondents were reluctant to identify themselves with a social class at all and included that in general the notion of class identity was relatively muted

Question 12

The great british class survey?

Answer 12

• The Elite is the greatest privileged group in the UK which is distinguished from the other six classes by its wealth. It scores the highest level in each of the three capitals
• Established middle class This group is the largest and most gregarious and scores second highest in terms of cultural capital. The next class group is a new one, the
• Technical middle class. Its members are a small group strongly identifiable as prospering but with low levels of social and cultural capital. Identifying features of this group are that they are socially isolated and culturally apathetic Then there are what are referred to as
• New affluent workers, which describes a young class group with medium levels of economic capital and which is socially and culturally active
• The Traditional working class still exists and is identified as scoring low on all forms of capital though not being totally deprived. Because this group of people has the oldest average age of 66, members of this class have reasonably high house values. new, youngish urban class is the
• Emergent service workers. Members of this class are relatively poorly off but they do have a high level of social and cultural capital.
• Precariat, or precarious proletariat. These people make up the poorest class, suffering the most from deprivation and with low scores for social and cultural capital.