Social Class

• Middle Class: Their jobs require a professional qualification and they are often in positions that managers others
• Working Class: bottom of the social hierarchy - their jobs are usually in manual labour or require few to no qualifications.
• Upper Class: top of the social hierarchy - they own land and property, these people don't necessarily have jobs
• What is a habitus?

  A person's habits, skills and attitudes
• Name 4 sociologists that argue class remains significant in the family:?

  1. Ingram (working-class identity is inseparable from working-class locality)
  2. Bourdieu (Cultural capital)
  3. Raey (middle-class mothers have more time and money to care for their children's education)
  4. Carter and Coleman (working-class girls more likely to become pregnant)
• Which sociologist claimed that working-class identities were inseparable from working-class localities?

  Ingram
• What does Ingram's argument, that working-class identities are inseparable from working-class localities, mean?

  Working-class people have a strong connection to their neighbourhoods
• Which sociologist said that working-class neighbourhoods were a key part of a working-class person's habitus?

  Ingram
• Which sociologist argued that class was still a significant identity due to the fact parents passed down cultural capital to their children?


  Pierre Bourdieu
• Which sociologist talks about the effects of cultural capital on a person's identity?

  Pierre Bourdieu
• Which sociologist claimed middle-class children did better in school because their mothers had the time and money to influence their children's education?

  Raey
• Raey said that middle-class children did better in school because of what?

  Their mothers have time and money for their children's education
• Carter and Coleman found that working-class girls are 10 times more likely to become pregnant. Why?

  The social norm of teen pregnancy has been passed down
• Which sociologists claimed that working-class girls were 10x more likely to have teen pregnancies due to working-class social norms being passed down?

  Carter and Coleman
• Name 2 sociologists that argue class identities are still significant within the media:

  1. Jones (the media causes self-fulfilling prophecy)
  2. Skeggs (the working class is ritually humiliated by the media)
• Who argued that the media represents different social groups differently leading to self self-fulfilling prophecy?


  Jones
• Shameless is a show that represents the working class as violent, criminal and stupid. Jones argues this type of media leads to working-class people self-fulfilling their "prophecy" / sterotypes

  
• Why did Skeggs argue that social classes were still significant:

  Because the media ritually humiliates working-class people
• Skeggs argued that shows like "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" mocked the working class. Resulting in more classism.

  
• Name a sociologist who argues class identities remain significant and distinct in workplace environments:

  Savage (link between doctors and middle-class people)
• Savage argues that the majority of doctors have been raised in middle-class environments leading to more middle class areas having better health care services
• Name 4 sociologists who talk about how there are still class differences within education:?

  1. Power et Al (more middle-class people at top unis)
  2. Bourdieu (middle-class people fit into university lifestyle / culture more)
  3. Willis (working class people look forward to leaving school)
  4. Harris (working-class boys are not encouraged to get qualifications)
• Which sociologist stated that middle-class children were more likely to get into the top universities?

  Power et Al
• Power et Al found that more middle-class children went to the top universities because of what?

  Private schools encouraged and helped their students to get into better universities more
• Power et al's research about middle-class children getting more help and encouragement to get into top universities proves that it was more about social class than a person's ability
• Which sociologist found that working-class children did not fit into university lifestyle/ culture?

  Bourdieu
• What were the reasons middle-class students found it easier to fit into the university lifestyle than working-class students according to Bourdieu?


  Due to cultural capital, language and habitus
• Which sociologist discovered that working-class boys looked forward to leaving school and having manual labourer jobs?

  Willis
• Willis found that working-class boys were fatalistic towards schools
• Harris found that working-class boys were less likely to go to university because of what?


  Teachers often discredited working-class boys about achieving qualifications. Saying things like it's too hard for working-class people. Leading to the working class having fatalistic views towards education
• Which sociologist found working-class boys were often discredited and discouraged to gain qualifications?

  Harris
• Which two sociologists suggested that peer groups help keep social identities significant and distinct?

  1. Mac an Ghail (social class gives peer groups an identity)
  2. Archer (symbolic capital and social suicide)
• Which sociologist said that social class provides peer groups with a sense of identity?

  Mac An Ghail
• Chavs are working-class peer groups and are an example of Mac an Ghail's argument; social classes provide peer groups with a sense of identity

  
• Peers will not provide people with “Symbolic Capital” if a person did not conform to their social classes style which is “social suicide”. Who said this?

  Archer
• What is an example of social suicide and symbolic capital?

  Working class boys wearing Nike
• What is symbolic capital?

  The idea that wearing certain symbols will grant people popularity and recognition. eg Middle class people wearing Jack Willis
• Name the 3 post-modernist sociologists that argue class no longer impacts identity at all:?

  1. Pakulski and Waters (death of class and class fragmentation)
  2. Clarke and Saunders (consumer culture / pick n mix)
  3. Giddens (reflexivity)
• Name the sociologists which claim that there has been a "death of class":

  Pakulski & Waters
• What does the phrase Pakulski & Waters use "death of class" mean?

  Class identities have fragmented