Class

• Bourdieu


  Cultural capital: knowledge, attitudes, skills, education and advantages that a person has which gives them a higher status in society. Economic capital: economic resources. Social capital: resources based on group membership
• Leavis


  Studied the upper class and found they have social closure and exclusivity. Found there are two groups, the traditional upper class (aristocracy) and the super-rich (business men)
• Savage


  There is a split in the middle class, between higher middle class in the private sector, middle middle and lower middle class in the public sector
• Wynne


  Residents of Heathtown (middle class) had more economic, social and cultural capital than those living in Cheadle (with blue collar jobs)
• Makintosh and Mooney


  A key feature of the upper class is social closure, meaning their education, leisure times, and daily lives are separated from the rest of the population.
• Hutton


  The decline in trade union memberships and manufacturing sector, and the dispersal of working class communities, has eroded working class identity
• Skeggs


  Studied working class women and found that they felt humiliated by the ways others dismissed them because they were working class. They therefore, made more of an effort to show they were respectable
• Murray


  Over-generous benefits encourage people to develop a culture where they don't take responsibilities for their own actions and are dependent on the state - underclass
• Pakulski and Waters


  There has been a shift from production to consumption in the definition of identities - we are defined by what we buy not what we do
• Offe


  In today's fewer and fewer individuals share a common, unifying experience of full-time work. This used to shape social class, now we shape our own identities regardless of social class
• Lyon


  The postmodern world is a consumer society. Individuals pick and mix different styles which are a mixture of class clothing. E.g. football is enjoyed by many in the UK regardless of class