Social class

• Social class


  A group of people who share similar economic situations
• Occupation is often a central part of how people see themselves and how others define them
• The importance of social class is the fact that it can be objectively linked to an individual's life chances
• Life chances


  The chances of attaining those things defined as desirable and of avoiding those endings defined as undesirable
• The concept of social class is not easy to define as it is a wide-ranging term that has a number of related dimensions
• The three most significant dimensions of social class

  • Economic - measured by wealth, income and occupation
  • Political - measured by status and power
  • Cultural - measured by attitudes, beliefs and values. Also cultural choices (TV, music, leisure)
• Habitus


  The cultural framework or set of ideas that each social class possesses- Bourdieu
• Individuals operate according to the social class habitus they have earned during socialisation, this habitus influence their knowledge, language, manners, attitudes, values and cultural taste
• The cultural framework contains ideas about what counts as good and bad taste
• Cultural capital


  Possession of the habitus of the dominant class
• Groups that make up the upper class


  • Aristocracy: Traditional upper class consisting of royalty and the old rich
  • Entrepreneurial rich: Owners of industry and commerce, corporate elite e.g. Richard Branson
  • Self-made: Stars of entertainment, media and sport e.g. David Beckham
• Upper class


  • Small class, much owners of society's wealth
  • Economic: Very high income, good jobs, disposable income, inherited
  • Political: High status, titles
  • Cultural: High culture, private school, separate lives from working and middle class
• Primary socialisation of the upper class


  1. Through children's homes, etiquette, accent, employment of staff, taste for high culture, leisure

  2. These provide cultural capital and develop an appreciation of high culture

  3. Close kinship (intermarriage), close family networks established through intermarriage, elite social network

  4. Looking out for themselves to maintain their advantage over the rest of us, attempt 'social closure' - try to marry off children to generate economic families
• Secondary socialisation of the upper class


  1. Based around prestigious boarding schools

  2. Elite social network, looking out for themselves to maintain their advantage, contacts are established among their peers, forming the 'old boys' network
• The upper class promotes class identity by immersing children into a culture of privilege, this creates a sense of social superiority
• The nouveau riche who have acquired their wealth in their own lifetimes may attempt to achieve acceptance by the traditional upper class by copying their lifestyle, but often find acceptance difficult as the 'old money' tend to regard them as culturally inferior
• Middle class


  • Large class, in professional and non-manual work
  • Economic: Good income, some disposable income
  • Political: Wants high status but upper class takes over, politically active
  • Cultural: Public education, tries to be involved in high culture
• Middle class education 


  Commitment to education- importance of career success
• Middle class- Belief in the importance of individualism


  Recognition of the importance of individual effort, personal ambition and self-help for success in life
• Middle class- Concern for deferred gratification and future orientation


  Putting off today's pleasures for future gains, planning for the future
• middle class- Respect for high culture


  A way the middle class helps to secure and maintain its identity. Lawler suggests that taste becomes a symbol of identity. Taste is one way the middle class helps secure and maintain their identity
• The middle class demonises and stereotypes the working class as 'chavs'
• Key values shared by the middle class


  • Social aspiration - the need to communicate social position to others through e.g. conspicuous consumption
  • Social anxiety - a concern about what other people think
  • Conservatism - the suburban lifestyle is essentially traditional and conservative
  • Social comparability - the middle classes fear social groups above and below them and constantly compare themselves to them, fear the working class might take their jobs in the future
• Working class


  • Traditionally made up of manual workers and unskilled workers
  • Economic: No disposable income, small wages, debt
  • Political: No status and power, less opportunities
  • Cultural: Mass culture
• The traditional working class has declined rapidly as industries have closed down, associated with the north of England
• Until the late 20th century, people's identities and interests were part of the type of work they did and work-based communities they lived in
• The working class had a strong sense of their social class position
• Proletarian traditionalism


  Lockwood- A value system subscribed to by many workers, especially in industrial areas, involving a strong sense of loyalty to each other because of shared work experiences
• The working class's class solidarity was expressed through a strong commitment to trade unions and the Labour Party ‘us vs them’
• Willis found that Hard manual work was central to men's sense of masculinity in the working class
• Characteristics of the traditional working class


  • Immediate gratification - enjoying pleasures today rather than putting them off
  • Present orientation - focus on here and now
  • Sense of fatalism - an acceptance of the situation they are in, no encouragement
• Bernstein- Working class and middle class families are socialised into different language patterns (restricted and elaborated codes) which links to cultural capital, education
• Working class children are more likely to do vocational courses, while upper class children are taught leadership skills through the hidden curriculum
• Bowles and Gintis say through the hidden curriculum middle class children are taught leadership skills. Becker says Teachers treat working class and middle class children differently based on their already held assumptions, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Mass media stereotypes are often given to the working class e.g. 'chav' stigma
• Peer groups lead to the development of pro-school and anti-school subcultures in the working class
• Racism and peer pressure on working class Afro-Caribbean males lead to a 'hyper masculine' identity
• Lash and Urry claim that There has been a 'de-centering of class identity' due to the decline of traditional industrial sectors and the growth of the service sector and more diverse workforce
• Goldthorpe and Lockwood developed the term 'embourgeoisement' meaning that the wealthier end of the working class is becoming middle class, this is the new working class
• The underclass


  • Consists of individuals who are long-term unemployed and single parents as well as drug addicts and criminals
  • Murray argues Culture and identity revolves around anti-authority, anti-education and welfare dependent