what is social class

• Social class


  Used by sociologists to describe the form of social stratification found in modern industrial societies.
• What do members of a social class share?

  A similar economic position Similar levels of income & wealth Similar occupations & levels of education
• Social class linked to attitudes & class


  Working-class & middle-class people have different attitudes to the importance of education & different tastes in leisure activities & consumer goods
• Marx - The ruling class & the subject class


  Argued that capitalist societies such as Britain were divided into two social classes: the ruling class (bourgeoisie), who owed the means of production & the subject class (proletariat) who were employed by the ruling class to produce goods & services.
• Manual & non-manual workers

  Some sociologists argue that a middle class exists between the wealthy upper class at the top of society & the working class at the bottom. Middle class traditionally seen as non-manual workers who depended on educational qualifications & mental skills in order to earn higher incomes than the working class or manual workers.
• Goldthorpe - Hope-Goldthorpe classification


  Developed the Hope-Goldthorpe scale in order to undertake research into social mobility.Distinguished three main classes, which could be further sub-divided into seven occupational classes
• Goldthorpe's occupational classes


  Service class -> 1. Higher professionals, 2. Lower professionals.Intermediate class -> 3. Routine non-manual workers, 4. Small proprietors, 5. Lower-grade technicians.Working class -> 6. Skilled manual workers, 7. Semi-skilled & unskilled manual workers.
• The Underclass - Murray 


  Argued that a new social class, the underclass has emerged below the working class. This consists of the poorest members of society, eg. the unemployed, lone-parent families & chronically sick & disabled people who cannot work. These groups are largely dependent on state benefits.
• The National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC)


  A survey that classifies people by social class in official statistics
• Occupational


  A useful guide to social class because many sociologists see the class structure of modern industries as based on the occupational structure, the ranking of occupations in terms of income, status & power.
• A person's occupation


  Tell us roughly what their income is, it also gives a good indication of what level of educational qualification they have & what kind of lifestyle they have outside work.
• Limitations of occupational classes

  Some people have no occupation but may be very wealthy or else their occupation is a poor guide to their social position
• Occupational classifications


  Based on commonly agreed criteria for classifying people
• Marshall et al - Subjective social class


  Found that many people in their research saw themselves as 'working-class', despite the fact that they were in non-manual/white-collar jobs that many would describe as middle class.
• Savage et all - Subjective social class

  Found that a significant proportion of their respondents were reluctant to identify themselves with a social class at all & concluded that in general the notion of class identity was 'relatively muted'