4 - Social class is 'dead'

• Postmodernists focus on concepts of 'identity' and 'difference'. They argue the increasing diversity and plurality led to the break-up of collective social identity; especially class identity. Group categories such as class, ethnicity and gender no longer exist in homogeneous form.
• Pahl (1989)


  Class is no longer a useful tool to analyse.
• Pakulski and Waters (1996)


  Class is more or less 'dead'. New divisions of gender, ethnicity and lifestyle are more important than class, in British society.
• Waters (1995)


  Social class is in terminal decline as a source of identity and consumption is now central in terms of how we organise our daily lives.
• Best


  'We are all cast into the roles of consumers' by increasing affluence and standards of living. We have led individuals to be faced with a variety of consumer choices about their lifestyles, rather than being forced into particular forms of cultural behaviour by forces beyond their social control like class.
• Evaluation:

  • Savage (2000) - Class remains massively important. People are more individualised but they will still belong to a class which will affect their life chances.
  • Feminists would argue women face inequality from institutions that are dominated by the patriarchy.
  • Marxists would argue inequality stems from differences in social classes and their power via mode of production.