social class

• Bourdieu


  The dominant class have the power to shape which attributes are valued and are in a position to acquire and pass on the capital to their children.
• Three types of capital

  • cultural capital- the knowledge, attitude, skills a person has to give them a higher status in society.
  • Economic capital-economic recourses
  • Social capital- relationships, network of influences and support
• Mackintosh and Moonie


  key feature of the upper class is their invisibility

  e.g. Children often attend boarding schools
• what is social closure


  their education and daily lives are separated from and invisible to the rest of society
• Fox

  • middle class is a very diverse group and is actually made up of the upper middle, middle middle and lower middle classes. ​​
  • people who say they are ‘middle-class’ all share a common identity because of its diversity.​
• Public sector professionals?


  teachers and nurses
• private sector professionals?


  lawyers and bankers
• Skengs


  working women are humiliated by their identity( teachers, doctors) so look to change their dress to be more respectable.
• Pakulski and waters


  you are defined by what u buy NOT what you do

  shift from production to consumption
• Offe


  in todays society, fewer individuals have experience to full time work - the experience that shapes culture of social class

  the days where people have one job for life is over so people can shape their identities
• Marshall


  60% of the sample- thought of themselves of belonging to a social class

  90%- could tell which class if prompted

  75%- agreed that you are born into class its hard to move up the ladder
• Murray


  Over-generous benefit systems encourage some people to develop a CULTURE OF DEPENDENCY in which they do not take responsibility for their actions as they will be looked after by the state.